Ширли Мерфи - The Castle Оf Hape. Caves Оf Fire Аnd Ice. The Joining Оf Тhe Stone

“ Telien!” She spun around, nearly fell. His voice was only a whisper, but real! She stared around expecting to see him, saw nothing but stone and emptiness. His voice was in her mind, only in her mind. She stood barely breathing, tears flooding down.

*

Ram had ridden hard to keep up with the fleeing wolves, for they seemed bent on reaching the mountains in one day’s run. The Pellian mount he had taken was nearly spent. He stopped at last beside a clump of small trees to rest the poor beast. Fawdref and Rhymannie alone remained with him, urging the rest of the pack away, for their very presence in the lowlands seemed a discomfort to them. As evening fell, he tended the horse, built a supper fire, then stood at the edge of the cliff staring out into the vast northern reaches, at the jagged peaks of the Ring of Fire standing black in the falling light. And suddenly he felt her there beside him. “Telien! Telien!” And yet the ledge was empty. Distraught, frantic, he shouted to her, oblivious to all else but the sense of Telien come so suddenly to him.

He shouted over and over into the falling night, but now she was gone again, he could sense nothing of her now, there was only emptiness. The thin moons hung dull in the ash-clouded sky, lonely and bleak.

From Time indecipherable he had sensed her there, standing in the same place he stood, Telien there beside him on the ledge, her presence so close. And then she was gone.

When he turned away at last in anguish, in rising fury at powers he could not control, he saw Anchorstar. Anchorstar, standing motionless beside the fire between Fawdref and Rhymannie, his white hair catching the firelight. Anchorstar come out of Time in this empty place, standing still as stone, his eyes seeking Ram’s, his face stern and drawn.

*

And in the north of Carriol, Skeelie remained alone by the river as the soldiers made camp. She tried again with an effort that left her exhausted to move into Time, to touch Telien. She went dizzy and sick with the effort, reached, felt Time like a river swirling away from her so no matter how she reached, came close to it, thought she had thrown herself into its current; it slipped aside and was gone; she could not touch Telien. She gave it up at last, defeated.

*

Ram went toward Anchorstar, stood facing him across the fire. The wolves had turned, moved around the fire toward Ram, but they watched Anchorstar without enmity, comfortably with him. Where had Anchorstar come from? Out of nowhere in this desolate place: out of Time unimaginable. Where had he traveled since he had battled beside Fawdref at the Castle of Hape, a few hours ago? How many years had he traveled? Had he come to speak to Ram of Telien? Did he know . . . ? Ram’s voice was hoarse with eagerness. “You have something to say, you . . .”

Anchorstar stopped him with lifted hand. His drawn face was cold. “Yes. She is there in Time, Ramad, yes. I know that she is there. But I have not seen her, nor touched her path through Time. She . . . Time is infinite, how could I expect . . .”

“But the starfires! You . . .”

“The starfires, yes. I have never been sure whether they are a help to me in trying to—to return to my own time, or whether—whether it is they that speed my headlong fall. I am loathe to cast them away. They were given me by someone trusted. He said they would help to guide me home. Telien—she carries one now, Ramad, in the pocket of her tunic.”

“Yes, you . . .”

“One I gave her because—I felt her need. Though perhaps . . . I knew, Ramad, that she would be sucked into Time. I thought that the starfire might bring her home again. And yet . . .”

“You are saying nothing! What power have those stones. How can I use them to follow her? You can show me! You . . .”

“I can do nothing. I am drawn and twisted through Time just as is Telien. I wish—I wish it were not so. I have tried. I have tried, and failed.”

Ram’s need rose to fury. “You cannot? Or you will not?” He drew around the fire to Anchorstar, stood facing him.

“You move in Time, Anchorstar. You will show me, or . . .” He had Anchorstar by the throat suddenly, forcing him back against boulders, his fist raised in a madness of desperation. “Show me, man! You can manipulate Time, move through Time!” Anchorstar did not resist him. The tall thin man did not struggle, but watched Ram with ever saddening expression. And even in his fury, Ram was ashamed to speak so to this man.

Anchorstar looked at him steadily. “You are as hotheaded a young warrior as they say you are. In my time they say . . .”

Ram drew back his fist. “You are wasting precious minutes!”

Anchorstar flared suddenly and swung, twisted Ram, held him in a grip like iron. “Back off your anger, Seer! And listen to me!”

Ram went limp in his hands, shocked at the man’s power, waiting for a moment to take him off-guard. But Anchorstar loosed him, and Ram stepped back and did not fight Anchorstar. The tall man looked at him squarely. “When you called out to her, did you not think—did you not sense her here? I think she was here on this cliff. I think when you called out that she was here with us, but in a different time, Ramad. You would only have to move in Time to . . .” He searched Ram’s eyes. “I cannot tell you how. You must use your own powers for that, Seer. I cannot tell in what time she stands here, but I feel that she is here. I sense her here as surely as I stand on this ledge.

“The starfires, then! They . . .”

Anchorstar drew the pouch from his tunic, opened it, and spilled three stones into Ram’s open hand. Ram clenched his fist around them, wanting, needing Telien; and the wolves moved suddenly, raised their heads, and Fawdref s voice broke shrill on the night—and Anchorstar was gone. The wolves were gone. The night was empty. No fire burned, the sky was vaster, the light of the full moons falling clear and unbroken by ash.

The few small trees were gone. In their place rose five huge trees, centuries old.

The loneliness was overwhelming. He whispered her name into emptiness, “Telien. Telien,” and prayed she would come to him and did not understand how he could expect that out of all time she could come to him; and then suddenly she was there clinging to him in desperation, pushing her face into the hollow of his neck, warm, so warm, her skin soft against him and smelling of honey.

He held her, sought every detail of her face, knew her mind and her fear and knew the terrible journey she had suffered, touched her and was unable to believe her presence, was terrified she would be gone again as Anchorstar had gone. “It was so long,” she whispered. “So—so empty, Ram. You can’t—you can’t think what it’s like. I . . . Hold me tighter. Hold me so I can’t go back. Don’t let me go, I can’t go back if you hold me, it can’t take me from you . . .”

But she was fading in his arms.

‘ Telien!”

He could not feel her in his arms, there was only emptiness, she was a cloud. She gripped him once with trembling fingers, was twisted away and fading, and was gone from his reaching arms.

The plateau was empty.

And when he turned away at long last, turned back to where a fire had once blazed, the full moons had taken a different position in the clear sky, and the great, ancient trees that had stood on the cliff were gone. Only a few saplings could be seen beginning to push above the tall, still grass.

*

Jerthon’s battalion rode into Carriol in silence at dusk of the following day. The Hape was defeated. BroogArl was defeated, his Seers dead, the castle burned. The streets of Carriol were crowded, should have been wild with victory. There should have been shouting, singing. But all was silence. Carriol’s men and women lined the streets in quiet attention as the battalion rode in. For in spite of victory, Ramad was gone from them.