Lost Empires - Faces Of Deception Part 12

"Tarch?" echoed Rishi. That tailed devil is still alive?"

"I don't know," Atreus said, "but if he is, he might be buried under me. I stillhave the chain, and it was wrapped around his neck when the avalanche started."

"And you are not thinking you should let go?" Rishi asked, incredulous.

Atreus glanced up at Seema and said, "I'm willing, but the decision isn't mine. We all promised not to kill Tarch.""Tarch started the avalanche," said Yago. "I don't see why we have to dig himout"

"Because if we don't, it will cost Seema her magic . . .right?" Atreus glanced at the healer, hoping she would correct him.

Instead, she nodded and said, "We must do what we can for him, and not onlybecause failing to do so will harm my magic. It would injure all our souls."

"That particular peril I am most happy to brave," said Rishi. "Whereas no good at all can come of freeing an angry devil like Tarch."

"Had Tarch not pulled you from the river, you would be frozen or drowned. Youwould not be here to say such things," countered Seema. "It is not for you toturn the wheel of life."

"But I am not turning it," Rishi said, addressing his argument to Atreus. "Tarch did this to himself. We are only turning the wheel if we save him." Seema's counter was swift and confident "To let someone die when you can savehim is the same as killing him... and to kill is to turn the wheel.""What's so wrong with mat?" Yago demanded. "Seems to me wheels is made forturning.""We are not made to turn them. Not the wheel of life," said Seema. "It is not for us to kill"

Yago scowled. "Been killing all my life. Can't live without killing." He held up histhick fingers and began to tick them off, saying, "Ell to eat to earn my pay, and'specially to keep stuff from killing me."

Seema listened to the ogre's confession with an expression of horror, then turned to Atreus and said, "We have no time to argue; You promised not to kill, sothe only question is whether you are a man of his word."

"If I weren't, would I have said anything in the first place?"

Atreus did not understand Seema's reluctance to let Tarch die. To him, there was a big difference between taking the life of an innocent victim and killing in self-defense, but he held his word as sacred as Seema did life. He looked up at Yago and said, "A promise is a promise."

1 didn't promise to save him!" the ogre grumbled. Nevertheless, he let Atreusback down. "If this ain't the dumbest thing since Orna tried to milk a beehive!"Rishi exhaled in frustration, then took the cooking pot and began to scoop outthe edges of the pit "We are going to need a bigger hole."

"With plenty of room for a fight," added Yago.

White Atreus lay in the snow clinging to the chain, Yago and Rishi spent the nexttwo hours grumbling as they excavated a huge hole around him. Once the pitgrew large enough for the sun to shine into, he began to warm up. By the timethey had dug down to the end of the chain, he was feeling strong enough to fight.

As matters turned out, there was no need. They found nothing at the other endof the chain but more snow. Atreus took his turn with the cooking pot and dugdown another two feet to a solid crust of ice. After he had cleared a circle as wide as he was tall, Seema shook her head.

"It is hopeless to keep digging." She sounded disappointed, though hardly sorrowful. Tarch could be anywhere. Come out of there."

"Yes, it is time we gave up the search." Rishi did not bother to disguise hiseagerness. "After spending all this time buried beneath so many tons of snow,Tarch has certainly met his death by now."

"Nothing is ever certain, Rishi," said Atreus, tossing the cooking pot up. "Tarch strikes me as a tot harder to kill than you think.""All the more reason to leave him down there," said Yago, extending an armto Atreus.

After being pulled from the hole, Atreus was astonished to find how far he hadbeen swept Just a few hundred paces away stood the jumbled icefall leadingup to the Sisters of Serenity. The valley around him lay buried beneath untold acres of avalanche run out: mountainous piles of compacted snow, with slabs ofwind crust jutting up at all angles. The little glacier behind them had been sc.r.a.ped clean down to its shimmering silver surface, and its creva.s.ses were nowfilled with milky bands of sugar snow.

Seema pa.s.sed Atreus a bowl filled with one of her elixirs. She spoke a few wordsof magic, and the potion Began to steam."Drink it quickly. It will help renew your vigor."

Atreus quaffed the contents down and felt some of his strength return, but theeffect was hardly as noticeable as before. He washed the bowl out with snow andtried not to show his disappointment, but Seema was too perceptive to be fooled.

Tarch's loss has affected my magic?" she asked.

"A little, perhaps. But I do feel better."

Seema's face fell.

"I'm sorry," said Atreus. "I wasn't trying to kill him."

"It is not your fault," Seema rea.s.sured him She touched his arm, and Atreus's thoughts flashed to the warmth of her lips against his. "You were very brave to try to subdue such a dangerous foe and not resort to killing. It is my own anger that has caused my magic to grow weak. In truth, I am as happy as Rishi and Yago that we did not find the devil. This has stained my soul as darkly as a death."

Atreus glanced at the sun, then said, "We still have a few hours of light Perhaps if we found him*"

That is most unlikely," Seema interrupted, waving her hand at the surrounding acres of avalanche run out. There is no telling where Tarch is buried. We found you only by following the cord tied around your waist"

Atreus could not help feeling relieved. Tarch did not strike him as the type to repay a kind act with grat.i.tude, and the last thing he wanted was to try subduing the tailed devil again.

"Next time, well have to give a cord to Tarch," mocked Yago. The ogre rolled thebowl and cooking pot into the supply bundle, then slung it over his shoulder andturned toward the icefall. "No use worrying about it now. We got places to go, sights to see."

Seema frowned. "Atreus has been through a terrible experience," she said. "Heneeds food and rest" *I'll rest better up there." Atreus looked up toward the shadowy cliffs beneath theSisters of Serenity and said, "I couldn't possibly eat"

Now that he was so close to his goal, he could not bear the thought of stopping. His stomach was full of b.u.t.terflies, his head spinning in antic.i.p.ation. Whatever theyfound beneath the Sisters, it would not be what he expected. He had seen enoughalready to realize that Langdarma was not the verdant paradise he had imagined. Hefelt more confident than ever that they would find the Fountain of Infinite Grace. Sune had not sent him across half the world for nothing. He remembered that muchfrom his avalanche dream.

They spent the rest of the afternoon working their way around the looming Seracsand gaping creva.s.ses of the long icefall. Seema picked their route with extra care,at times using her dagger to chip footholds on steep or particularly slick sections. Unlike any of the glaciers they had crossed so far, this one seemed to be movingperceptibly. There was an almost constant trembling beneath their feet, and at timesthe creva.s.ses actually appeared to open and close before their eyes. Once, Yagowas nearly crushed when a serac crashed down between him and Rishi, andanother time they waited for one to topple over and fill a creva.s.se they were trying to cross.

By the time they crested the fall, the sun was sinking behind the three Sisters,streaking the sky with golden veins. Seema hurried across the shadowy snowtoward the edge of the glacier, leaving Atreus little opportunity to study the vale hehad come so far to visit From what he could see, the basin was filled with ice, as was every valley in the high Yehimals, and shaped like a ceramic bowl gone bad on the throwing wheel. On three sides, a dark semicircle of cliffs soared up to form theseparate peaks of the Sisters of Serenity. On the fourth side, the icefall they had justascended tumbled down into the great valley below. In that stark Yehimal way, thedale was as beautiful as any he had ever seen, but there was no sign of the Fountain ofInfinite Grace or of any water not already frozen.

They reached the gentle ridge of rocks that marked the edge of the glacier, andAtreus had no more time to ponder the vale. After several nights on the snow together, they no longer needed Seema's direction to perform their ch.o.r.es. While Yago set towork digging a snow cave, Rishi scurried along the mountainside, scouring the rockycrags for dwarf pines and snapping off dried stems to supplement their meagersupply of dried yak dung. Seema busied herself lighting the b.u.t.ter lamps andpreparing the food. Atreus retraced their steps, filling in their tracks. After dark, the wind would cover everything with a light dusting of snow and render their trail utterlyinvisible. Given the avalanche, he was no longer sure that such precautions werenecessary, but he took them anyway. Until he knew for certain what had happenedto Tarch, it would be safer to a.s.sume that the devil was still out there.

By the time Atreus returned to camp, the sun had vanished behind the Sistersand the sky had turned to purple velvet They ate a twilight dinner of lukewarm barley soup, then climbed into the snow cave and arranged themselves on the thin mattressof pine boughs. The little den was surprisingly warm. Despite Yago's thunderous snoring, the others quickly drifted into a slumber.

Atreus was too anxious to sleep. He spent the first part of the night wide awake,keeping the vent hole clear of blowing snow and worrying that Langdarma mightbe the myth everyone claimed. The second part he spent listening to the glaciers rumble, convincing himself he would find the valley in the morning, if he just looked carefully enough. Sune was every bit as fickle and flighty as Yagoclaimed, bat she was not cruel, nor given to abusing her faithful worshipers.Sometime before dawn, Atreus's racing mind finally yielded to his weariness, andhe drifted off into an unsettled sleep.

When morning finally came, he woke to find himself alone, the snow cave dimly illuminated by the pale blue rays spilling through the ventilation hole. Hepulled on his cloak and crawled out through the entrance tunnel, emerging into aworld of golden dawn. The sun was just peeking up from behind the glacier theyhad descended the previous day, painting the snow-blanketed heights of the Sisters of Serenity in brilliant hues of orange and yellow. Yago and the others stooda few paces away, peering over the icefall. Atreus joined them and found himselflooking down at a puff of blue mist hanging over the avalanche run out "That's a funny looking cloud," he said."We were just observing the same thing," said Rishi. "Strange how it hangs over the debris of yesterday's avalanche, is it not?""It is too cold for a ground fog," added Seema. "It can only have something todo with Tarch." Atreus recalled the tongue of flame the slave master had used on the barge."Could he be melting his way out of the avalanche?"

No one answered, and Atreus knew they were all thinking the same thing. Thebasin beneath the Sisters of Serenity was both small and a dead end. If Tarchcaught them there escape would be impossible.

Finally, Yago turned to Seema. "At least you don't have to feel guilty about him being dead," he half joked.Seema shook her head. "We do not know that he is alive," she said. "Who can say what happens to a devil's body when he dies? Perhaps it burns up.""Well?" Atreus asked Rishi. "You've traveled the slave road before." Rishi shrugged. "In my experience, the devils from beyond never die," he said heavily, "only those who cross them."

Atreus stared down at the avalanche run out, recalling how swiftly his utterhelplessness had been transformed into unconsciousness. He faced Seema andsaid, "Even if Tarch survived, he hasn't melted his way out yet There may still be time for you and Rishi to reach the other side of the valley."

"And you?" she asked.

Atreus looked back toward the barren cliffs beneath the Sisters, then shook his head. "I've come too far," he said. "if Tarch kills me, he kills me, but I'm not leaving."

"Then I will stay, too." Seema smiled, then added, "Do you think I am the kind ofgirl you can kiss and send away?"

Atreus felt the heat rise to his cheeks. He turned away before the blush couldfurther mottle his blotchy complexion, disguising the maneuver by drawing Sune's map from within his cloak and pretending to study features he already knewby heart According to the chart the little basin before him was a hangingmeadow at the upper end of Langdarma, surrounded on three sides by th.e.s.h.eer cliffs of the Sisters of Serenity. In the back of the basin, almost directlybeneath the peak of the middle Sister, was the ladder symbol, leading to a narrowswitchback trail that was the only route into the meadow from the surrounding mountains.

As far as Atreus could see, the only semblance between the map and the areabefore him were the sheer cliffs and the general shape of the basin. The meadow,of course, was buried under the small glacier that spilled down the icefall, and the main valley of Langdarma was supposed to start about where the avalancherun out lay. It occurred to Atreus that perhaps Langdarma had been scouredaway by glaciers hundreds of years before, but he quickly chased the thoughtfrom his mind. Surely, a G.o.ddess could not be guilty of such a terrible mistake.

Atreus pointed across the valley toward the base of the middle Sister. There,the glacier sloped up to a dark line that marked the chasm where the ice pulled away from the mountain. "That is where we need to go."

Seema arched her delicate eyebrows. The clef ting?" She s.n.a.t.c.hed the mapfrom Atreus's hands, studied it warily, and said, "What are we to do there?"Atreus shrugged. "I don't know." he said. "Look around... see what we find. None of this is what I expected."

Atreus's confusion seemed to relieve Seema. She returned his map, and they gathered their things and set off. Although the glacier was relatively flatacross most of the basin, they had to wind their way through a labyrinth of newlyopened creva.s.ses and listing boulders, all the while watching their back trail forTarch. The short journey seemed to take forever, and by the time they reached the head of the glacier, Atreus could no longer bear Seema's slow, deliberatepace. He slipped past Yago and Rishi and would have taken the lead himself hadSeema not increased her own pace and left him panting for breath. When theyfinally reached the clef ting, he collapsed gasping on the steep slope, his armsdraped over the brink of the chasm and his eyes staring down into its frigid depths.

He saw nothing but a rubble-choked fissure fifty feet deep, crammed withdrifting snow and jagged boulders fallen from the soaring cliffs above. He continued to stare, panting for breath, trying to see paradise in the debris below. Seema sat on the brink beside him and rested her hand on his shoulder. Atreus's heart grew as heavy as stone. The healer's touch was the only hint ofLangdarma to be found in this basin.

"I am sorry," she said.

Atreus felt himself starting to sink into despair, but shook his head against thefeeling and stood. "No," he said, "there is no need for sorrow. This is the place. I justhave to look harder."

He removed the map from his cloak and craned his neck to look up, trying locatehimself in relation to the summit of the middle Sister. It was a futile task, as it was impossible to see the top of any peak from so close to its bottom. Atreus did noticea band of dark granite that he recalled being almost directly below the pinnacle.He began to work his way along the brink of the clef ting, glancing back and forth between the map and the cliff face. Seema followed along, struggling to peer overhis shoulder and see what he was looking for.

Rishi and Yago clambered up the slope behind them and peered down into theclef ting. The ogre grunted derisively.

"You call that beautiful? Give me a good cave any day."

Atreus ignored him and stopped when he came to the dark granite a dozenpaces later. The clef ting here was narrow and drifted over, so it was impossible totell where the glacier ended and the chasm began. Atreus put his map away,then dropped to his hands and knees and began to dig away the wind-packed snow. An exhausting half-hour later, he finally located the edge of the glacier andstarted to tunnel down into the clef ting.

Yago kneeled beside him and began to rip jagged blocks of snow from the hole."What's the plan?" the ogre asked. To dig our way into Langdarma?""If we have to," answered Atreus. "There's supposed to be a trail somewhere winder here. If we can find it*"

A hole suddenly opened under Yago's hands. He bellowed and tumbled forward, flailing has arms in an effort to catch himself, but the drift collapsedbeneath his weight and fell into the clef ting, carrying the ogre along with it Atreus started to plummet after his friend but was saved when Rishi caught hold of his collar. For an instant, no one reacted, stunned by the reminder of just howquickly disaster could come in the Yehimals.

An angry voice bellowed out of the clef ting, "What are... you waiting for?" Yagosounded as though he were having trouble breathing. "If you think this is fun... think again!"

Atreus clawed his way back to the chasm brink and peered over the edge. Like the rest of the clef ting, this part was choked with boulders, many wedged atvarious heights down the fissure. Twenty-five feet below, the bottom lay biddenunder the heaped remnants of the collapsed snowdrift. It took a few moments tofind Yago's head protruding out of the snow in the shadow of a huge rock. Therest of the ogre remained completely buried. He was working his chin back and forth, trying to sc.r.a.pe himself out of the snow, but it would dearly be a long timebefore he could dig himself free.

"Are you hurt?" Seema called.

"Hurt? Of course not!" he said indignantly. The ogre began to chin the snowmore furiously. Like most proud Shield-breaker warriors, Yago considered pain a sign of weakness. "I'm just stock!"

"Stop whining, or well leave you there!" called Atreus, relieved.

"Whining?" Yago boomed. "Who's whining?"

"Who do you think?"

Atreus took a moment to pick a route, swung his legs over the brink of the chasm, and dropped eight feet down to the first snow-capped boulder. When hisboots slipped on the landing, he simply jumped to the next one, then bounceddown to a third and dropped into the soft snow a few paces from his friend's head.

"Whining!" growled Yago. "When I get out of here, I'll show you who's a whiner!"

"Yeah?" Atreus lifted his foot as though to kick snow in the ogre's face and said, "Not too bright to tell me now, is it?"Yago's purple eyes grew as large as saucers."You wouldn't!" "What do you think?" Atreus asked and brought his foot down, blanketing the ogre's head with snow.The ogre's orange cheeks darkened to fiery crimson. "That's a fine thing to do when you can't even pay my wages," he said.Atreus laughed, then kneeled beside the ogre, began to dig, and said, "That's what you get for scaring me half to death,"

"You think you're scared now . . ." Yago warned as he tried to hold a straightface but could not keep from grinning. "When I get out of here, I'm gonna..." He began to guffaw so hard that his head rocked back and forth. "I'm gonna knockyou . . . from one end of this gully to the other!"

"Be quiet down there!" cried Seema. "What is wrong with you? You'll bring the whole mountain down on your heads."

Atreus craned his neck around. Far above, he saw two little heads peering overthe icy side of the chasm, with nothing above but blue sky on one side andlooming granite on the other. Before he could answer, the ogre's arm camebursting up out of the snow and caught him square in the chest, sending him tumbling head over heels down the clef ting.

"By Vaprak's ears, it's a good day to be a Shield-breaker!" chortled Yago. He began to dig himself free. "Its a good day not to be dead!"

This drew another round of laughter from Atreus, who was so relieved to findhis friend uninjured that he could barely control himself. Yago joined in the mirth,and Rishi and Seema looked to one another in puzzlement "My goodness, the air down there must be bad," said Rishi. They have lost their wits!"

"Is that it?" called Seema. "Are you dizzy?"

Atreus could only shake his head and hold his ribs, trying to avoid laughing toohard and starting a rock-fall. Ogre humor could not be explained, especially to someone who would certainly see nothing funny in taking advantage of a helplessfriend. The mirth slowly faded as Yago dug himself out, and by the time hefinished, the hysterics were completely gone.

"Atreus, I don't see no signs of this trail of yours," Yago said, glancing alongthe clef ting in both directions. "Where's it supposed to be?"

Atreus led the way across a dozen snowy boulders to the dark band in the mountain's craggy face, then looked at his map. It was difficult to relate the symbols on the map to their location in the clef ting, but the ladder did seem tolie directly under the peak, which ought to be more or less straight up the darkband above them.

"I think it starts somewhere around here," he answered. Not bothering to show the map to the ogre, Atreus pointed down the chasm. "You look down there. I'llgo the other way."

Leaving Rishi and Seema on the glacier to watch for Tarch, Atreus and Yagobegan their search. It took Atreus a full hour to scramble over the rubble to thefar end of the clef ting. He found nothing but more boulders and deeper snowdrifts, sometimes so powdery that he practically had to swim. In places,where the wind had bridged the abyss with wind crust, the chasm became anarrow, winding tunnel, in other places it became more of a gully than a gorge,with gently sloping sides and a bed of jumbled boulders. Atreus saw no sign ofa ladder or trail, though he was acutely aware that it might lie buried under all the tons of snow and rubble under his feet By the time Atreus turned around, the frigid air in the bottom of the shadowedchasm had chilled him to the bone. He grew more and more convinced that theladder was not a literal one. After all, he had seen for himself that the valley on hismap contained only ice and snow. On the way back, he tried to look at everything in a new light He searched for patterns in the rock that resembled the trail on hismap, sang Sune's praises and offered her prayers as he went, and once heeven stopped to meditate in a rare ray of reflected sunshine.

When Atreus returned to the dark band, he was no closer to Langdarmathan before. Yago was in the bottom of a deep hole, surrounded by a low wall ofsnow and struggling to tear a man-sized boulder out of the ice. Seema was peering down from above, watching the ogre work and looking puzzled. Atreuskneeled at the edge of the excavation, his heart pounding with the faint hope thatYago had a good reason for his work.

"What's all this?" Atreus asked. Instead of answering, Yago gave a hearty grunt and finally tore the boulder from its icy moorings. He took a deep breath, then turned and pushed the stone up toward his friend. Atreus leaped aside and helped the ogre roll the heavy rocksafely away from the edge of the hole.

"Did you find something?" he asked.

The same as you I imagine," panted the ogre. "Ice and rock."

Atreus's stomach grew hollow.

"What's this hole for?"

"just getting a jump on things," said Yago. "You said*"

"I know what I said! Do you think we're going to dig the whole glacier out?"Atreus gestured at the looming wall of ice beside them and added, "In the nameof beauty ... I thought I knew how stupid ogres could be."Yago furrowed his jutting brow and turned back to his digging, this time pullinga dog-sized chunk of ice from the hole."Atreus, why are you yelling at your friend?" demanded Seema. "It is yourself you are angry with."Atreus scowled up at the healer, and the soft beauty of her eyes withered hisangry rebuke."Yago has risked much to help you," Seema said. "Do you not think he deserves an apology?"

So gentle and soothing was Seema's tone that Atreus saw at once how right shewas. The longer he searched for the elusive path to Langdarma, the more hefeared he would not find it. Perhaps his stubborn devotion had touched a cruelcorner of Sune's heart Perhaps she had answered his constant prayers notwith the gift he sought so earnestly, but by making him the b.u.t.t of the most vicious joke he had yet suffered.

Atreus whirled on Yago. "I've had enough of this," he said. "I'm getting out of here."

"Glad to be rid of you!" came the reply.

Yago went back to his hole, and Atreus stormed off down the clef ting. No doubt, the exchange was not the apology Seema had expected, but it was what pa.s.sedfor reconciliation among ogres.

This end of the chasm was much the same as the first, except that Yago had already broken trail and the going was faster than before. As Atreus moved, he tried to see his surroundings not so much in a literal sense, as an ogre might, but in the more symbolic manner Seema suggested. The journey to a distant land would be the physical expression of his desire for change, the high mountains the measure of the difficulty of the task, the snow and ice the purity of heart required to succeed.

And what of his companions? Rishi could only be greed and temptation, Seema the beauty he came to pursue, Tarch*cruel and indestructible*the lurking monster that would destroy the prize to possess it, and Yago, an ogre, was his savage past, the brutish aspect of himself he had to forsake in order to win his prize.

The sun finally rose high enough to peer over the brink of the clef ting, pouring its golden warmth down into the shadowed chasm. Atreus stopped, struck by theharmony of it all. Every element had its place, every part its meaning. The scheme was so neat and symmetrical that only Sune could have arranged it, orhis own mind, fabricating interpretations for what were really random events.

Atreus pulled the map from inside his cloak and studied it in light of his newfound insight It looked the same as before, but now he saw only namesstenciled into empty valleys, nothing to suggest the untold acres of ice he hadcrossed, nor the verdant paradises he had imagined. Seema was right Langdarmawas a myth, and myths existed only within the heart He tore the map into tinypieces, then looked up into the sky.

This is the best you can do, G.o.ddess?" He dropped the shredded map intothe snow. "You expect me to desert Yago to be beautiful inside?"

The sun vanished behind the looming mountain, once again plunging Atreus into the frozen shadows of the clef ting.