The Book of the Burning
Forty Seven
“In those days will he be born of the Rootless Isle and of the Ayl, blood old and blood new that the old people and the new may be one. He will be scorned by his brethren in the east therefore flee to the West, only to descend below the earth. There shall the sword he possess sing as it did of old, and his reign shall be most glorious.”
- The Song of Arsennon
UNDER THE EARTH
FROM THE LIP of the scarcely lit cavern, Conn watched Ohean, bent low over the cards, on the sandy floor of the cave. He was completely veiled and now and again Hace watched the wizard’s hands move over the cards as he sorted and resorted them, laying them out in patterns, gathering up cards, cutting them, laying them out again. Across the cavern the other paths of the underground passes led into darkness.
Soren turned to Theone.
“I thought magic was flashier than this,” he gestured at Theone.
“Well, as we’ve seen,” she said, “sometimes it is.”
She touched the jewel at her neck and the crystal star glinted faintly.
When the labyrinth and the ground all around them began to collapse, they ran as long as possible, Conn clinging to Ohean’s staff as the only magic he had. Dust and stones fell about them, and they were just out of the labyrinth when the stone wall collapsed and, like a miracle, Yarrow and Soren were there. On the other end were a few men, those who had made it all the way down, ready to fight them for the Jewel, but Soren put an end to them, and then they were going through the blackness with a magelight borne in the palm of Yarrow’s hand. Higher and higher they had gone until the earth stopped shaking, until these paths seemed familiar again and they were nearer where they were now, where Yarrow had brought them a few days before.
Ohean rose from the sandy floor, and the thick veil fell away from him. He gathered it under one arm and came toward the rest of them, leaving the cards on the ground.
“We cannot cross the land, and we dare not re-enter the city,” Ohean told them. “This much I already suspected, but my reading has confirmed it.”
They went down the hall toward the light, Theone’s stone glowing deeper, the facets of the star showing a white and pink light. When they were coming here from the caves, Conn had born the Jewel, but when they had reached this place he turned to Theone and said, “It is yours. You have been searching for it all this time.”
Soren turned to the flabberghasted woman and said, “Conn is right, you know? This is the moment you’ve lived for.”
Theone look from Soren to the stone Conn held out and said, “Yes. Yes, it is the day I longed for.”
And when she put it on it began to twinkle, and by the time Ohean had arrived with Rendan and Ethan, her joy was complete and the stone was on fire.
“But that won’t work,” Rendan said.
Ohean looked at him.
“I am King now.”
“Phineas and your uncle say different.”
“I cannot go with you,” Rendan said. “I cannot flee like a dog into the Westlands when my uncle is taking my place here. And… my father’s funeral. I have to see my father’s funeral.”
Ohean nodded to this.
“We will think of something else.”
Conn saw Rendan open his mouth, but Ohean said nothing, merely folded his hands.
Just days ago, most of them had never seen Yarrow. She came through the door moments before Phineas had sent his men, commanding them to gather up their things. Theone could only describe the force of her voice as so powerful her muscles could not deny it. No one asked any questions, and then they were coming down the hall and they were back on the first floor of the Whitefoot Hotel and she stretched out her hand, the wall opened and they went into darkness.
“Long ago, when the Temple of Darkness was built, the Royan worked with the Dwarves during the time before Kavana’s Punishment and built these passes throughout the city. By these one can travel all through Tankrish Benath, that is the first name for Nava, even before it was called Ennsalisa. But beyond these paths are the Deep Passes. These are closed up by mighty spells, but I have the power to open them.”
Before anyone could ask the question she said, “I am Cylthenfay and I know the words of power. Phineas does not. Phineas may have heard of the Deep Passes, but he does not know them, nor could he enter if he did.”
Their travel had taken them far beneath the city, but that first evening, Cylthenfay had told them they were now somewhere between the hotel and the Temple, Conn had thought beneath the bazaar. And here they were now, in the large set of rooms that Ohean told them was a place where “often the wizards and loremasters of Royan had come to watch over the affairs of the South.”
Connleth Aragareth was climbing from a rock down to where Ohean sat rolling cigarettes. “But you didn’t want to go to the funeral, and it didn’t have much meaning for me.”
“I imagine it does for that boy, though,” Ohean said. “I understand. However, Queen Ermengild will probably be lying in state soon enough.”
“Ohean, you don’t know that,” Theone chided.
“Anyone who has seen the woman knows it,” Ohean told her. “And the cards do not spell it out. But they imply it.”
“She is my great-grandmother,” Theone reflected.
Ohean nodded. “And she doesn’t know you are alive. The only heir is Tealora and, as we’ve said, she is going to be Rendan’s new aunt any day.”
“That,” Anson said, “is a strange thing. Solahn and Chyr, one land.”
“Technically they wouldn’t be,” Theone noted, drawing on the sand under her feet with a long stick.
“Technically,” Ohean said, looking away, “has little to do with it.”
“I wish the others would get back,” Theone hugged the Jewel, the facets poking the inside of her hand. “Now that we’ve done the first thing I’m eager to get on with the last.
“You know, I’m not afraid anymore. I didn’t know how terrified I was until now. Until we came out of this. Now I feel strong as a lion. Or a tiger.”
“Will Theone be Queen?” Conn asked.
Theone blinked and Ohean said, “I hadn’t thought about that.”
“I don’t know that I wish to be a queen.”
“Queen is what you will be,” Ohean told her, “if you reach Chyr. When Ermengild dies. As she will. She is ready for it. I have seen her star and she has lived through more sorrow than most.”
“Theone is half Dauman,” Conn reflected.
Theone thought on this. “My father was a Hand. The Hands are Dauman. I… never thought of myself as much of anything.”
“But Dauman you are,” Ohean said. “Chyr is a land of many half somethings. It’s a mixed land now. Not like this one. You will be happy there.”
“Yarrow is your sister,” Theone said. “But not your sister?”
“Yes,” Ohean said.
“Will you explain?”
“You know most of what there is to be known. We came into this world during the time of Trouble. The same time the Fair Folk came. And those who remained will stay here until the appointed time, which is no time soon as I can see. I have always been the protector of Ossar, and Yarrow watched over the South.”
“And the rest?” Theone said.
Ohean shrugged and there was the smell of his cigarette, as he lit one.
“There is myself, though my memories of other lives returned to me only recently. And then Yarrow. The others I would not discuss right now. I would not discuss them till we are well from this place. The others do as they will. I do not know where they are. Truthfully, they seemed to have faded. Maybe, even, they went back into the East, across the sea. I do not know. Only four I know. Myself and Yarrow.”
“That is not three.” Conn noted.
“We are the two I will name.”
Ohean left it at that, and Conn murmured the names, “Aethlyn, Finlan… Finlan…”
“Master, that is Phineas, isn’t it?”
Ohean said, “It was. When he came here he found other powers. He forgot his old allegiances. You must understand, here we became men, and women. Across the sea we were something… other. That is why Phineas has the appearance of a Dauman and Yarrow and myself that of the south. Of old we looked more like each other than like other races. But this was so even with the children of Men when Mahonry brought them to this world. Of old we were all something quite different, and more like each other than not.”
“How much… is Phineas like a man?” Conn asked.
“You mean can he be killed?”
Conn did not nod immediately. But he did nod.
“We are all men now, Connleth,” Ohean said.
“Men, but something more. As Nar is a Bear and Banthra a Tiger, but they are also Vanyar, the Gods. Phineas, having forgotten himself is far more like a man than me.
“However,” Ohean said after a time, “I am not sure if he can be killed with Anson’s sword. We may have to use mine, the one you saw me take from the Blue Temple years ago.”
“And you?” Conn said.
“Can I be killed?”
Conn said nothing.
“I do not know,” the wizard said. “Because, as of yet, it has not happened.”
Now, after the wreck of the Temple, Ohean came to Rendan and said, “Prince, you have to tell me what you will to do, because I know what I need.”
Rendan was surprised by the enchanter’s candidness, but recovered quickly and said: “I have to see my father buried. That is the first thing. My mother’s family lives in Kenremer, and I must go to them. I needs raise an army. I need take back land.”
“And I cannot dissuade you.”
“No,” Rendan told him. Then, “No, Lord.
“Lord Ohean,” Rendan said, “is there a safe way that I could see the funeral?”
“There is a way,” Ohean said. “The safest way I know. We will have to disguise you. I can place an enchantment upon you, as can Yarrow. And after you leave, you can come back.”
“But I said I was going—”
Ohean held up a hand, “I have not finished, Prince.
“Once you have returned by the Northeast Pass you can travel beneath the earth for several days, I believe, before coming out onto the surface and making your way to Kenremer.”
“But we have to travel as well,” Theone said. “Dissenbark is still at the house with Arvad. And Mehta has to get back. And Soren and the others, we don’t know what they wish to do.”
Soren looked back at Skabelund, at Dahlan and his mother.
“I cannot speak for them,” he began, “but How could you think I would wish to be separated from you?”
“And I cannot go back to being the housekeeper of a farm,” Mehta said, shaking her head. “But you are right, Theone. We do have to get back to Turnthistle. At least to let Arvad and Dissenbark know what has happened.
“But you all,” Anson turned to the Zahem, “have a decision to make.”
“I was already part of this,” Austin said, “and there isn’t anything happening in Nava I want to see.”
“I have sent my wife to the Southlands,” Skabelund said.
He turned to Ohean, “Sir wizard, I do not understand your people or their ways. Magic is forbidden to us, but I can see there is goodness in you. However, I do understand war, and I think, if he would allow it, I will follow Prince Rendan.”
“If it is between Solahn and Chyr,” Allman said, “then I must choose Solahn, and I trust the Prophet will do the same.”
“I choose wonder,” Dahlan said. “I choose Chyr.”
His mother seemed unsurprised, but next Dahlan said, “Though all of my people have forsaken me, I trust you still hold me to be the One Prophet, and if this is so, then take my mother with you to Solahn and Sariah as well. As for me, I will adventure with these people, if they will have me.”
Aimee Kimball only nodded to this, believing that the best sign of respect she could pay her son was to obey him as the Last Prophet. Anson considered the boy and, nodding, said, “With a good will.”
“I once met the Princess Maud,” Dahlan said to Ethan, “and she spoke good council to me, told me what a danger the priests were. I would thank her again if I might. She thought to never see you again. I would be pleased to see the look on her face when she knows you are alive.”
“That settles that,” Ohean said. “It is not my will to wait in the dark several days, but several days it will take to escort some of us to Turnthistle. I do not see us all going. Who will remain here, waiting, and who will go with us? This road leads a day out of the city and from it we can find ourselves on the road to Turnthistle,” Ohean said.
“I cannot believe that Phineas isn’t watching for us,” said Theone.
“Nor can I,” Yarrow agreed. “Every moment we venture out of these Passes, and are not headed to Chyr is one where we take risks, but then life is risk, yes? Well, we will take a risk tomorrow, when we are rested. You,” she pointed to Soren, and then Mehta and Theone, “and you and you will head for Turnthistle while Ohean will find out more about the burial of the King and then, as quickly as possible, we will head back for Chyr with the Stone. This is our goal.”
In the end, all the original party save Austin and Conn chose to go on. Austin thought of hanging back, but Anson pointed out this was cowardice concerning Arvad again. The others would remain in the cavern or wind their way into town for the funeral and so, lighting his sword and heading east, once Ohean had nodded his head and said he was ready, Anson led the party back to Turnthistle Farm.