Part 25 (1/2)

'There have been rumours of Aeon,' the figure said, and Leki caught Bon beneath the arms as his knees weakened.

It was not quite his son. The body was there, and the shape, and Bon even recognised the casual, slightly arrogant stance that had always made him believe his son viewed all others around him as fools. But this was not only Venden, because there was something stretching away behind him. Veils of skin, veins, and streaks of something that did not belong in or on a person's body.

These fragments connected him to Aeon.

'There it is,' Leki whispered in Bon's ear, as if he could not see.

In the half-light, Aeon's true shape and size were ambiguous at best. It was huge a much larger than the shape they had seen in that clearing further to the east. Long, low, with heavy limbs that seemed to anchor it to the cavern floor, its body performing a gradual change into ice where it touched, it had blended itself with the frozen heart of the land.

'Rumours,' Venden said again. His mouth moved, but did not quite match the words. His eyes s.h.i.+fted left and right, alighting finally on Bon. They did not change. They did not smile.

'There have always been rumours of Aeon,' Bon said. 'I was one who believed.'

'Belief is immaterial,' Venden said. 'Faith is meaningless. Human things, and humans ...' He blinked, frowned, then continued. 'What matters is that magic cannot be allowed. Crex Wry must not rise.'

'Venden-' Bon began.

'I am Aeon.'

'Son,' Bon whispered. Leki leaned into him, her contact welcome, fresh.

'They will raise magic against me,' Venden said, 'as they did before. Before, they caught me by surprise. This time I will be more able to withstand it. But also, magic itself will be more ready.'

'Ready for what?' Bon said.

'To hold on, and not be put back down by their ... Engines. Ready to gain a foothold, so that Crex Wry can claw its way back. And if it does ...' Venden's face creased as if in sudden pain, and Aeon s.h.i.+vered.

'We'll do anything to stop you raising your Kolts again,' Leki said. Bon flinched at her aggression, but he could not help admiring her as well. In the face of this thing, she still spoke what she thought.

'More rumours of Aeon,' Venden said.

'Your death brought the Kolts,' Bon said, appealing for the whole truth. 'Didn't it? The magic destroyed you, and polluted the whole of Skythe, and created those things that wiped out everything they touched?'

'It can say whatever it wants,' Leki said.

'Rumours,' Venden said, and the smile in his voice was chilling. 'The truth matters little to those who can only lie.'

'And you can't?' Leki scoffed.

'Aeon has no need of lies.' Venden s.h.i.+mmered before them, seeming to blur as if the ground moved. Bon had felt nothing. His legs were firm. He blinked, and Venden was still again.

'You do lie,' Leki said. 'It's revenge you want, and-'

'Magic must not be touched,' Venden said, harsher. 'It is the dark soul of a fallen thing.'

'Like you?' Bon asked.

'Nothing like me,' Venden said. 'Crex Wry is ...' He raised his arms slowly, and veils of thin skin connected them to the sides of his body. 'I can show you.'

Bon stepped forward without hesitation.

'Bon, no!' Leki said.

He didn't answer, but walked across the frozen cavern floor to the simulacrum of his son. One more chance to touch, however strange the touch might be. One more chance to let Venden know that his father loved him.

'Bon!' Leki said again.

'Don't you want to know?' he asked without turning around. As he reached for Venden's right hand, he heard Leki's cautious footsteps behind him, and saw her reaching for Venden's other hand.

'Oh!' Leki gasped. Bon glanced sidelong at her a her eyes were wide, jaw slack, and she was looking past Venden at the ma.s.sive shape beyond. Her fingers were splayed around Venden's, the thin webbing enveloping his hand. Bon thought perhaps she might be reading his blood, and then- A lurch. Dislocation, confusion, and he is amongst a landscape in turmoil. Mountains shaking, valleys folding, rivers boiling, lakes erupting. The sky is on fire and the land flows, malleable and not yet set, and a figure stands solid within the upheaval. A terrible, powerful sentience oversees everything. It has intelligence of an order and type that Bon cannot understand. It has intentions beyond the scope of mere human ken. But he knows its ambition is not pure, and the sense of wrongness exuding from the vision sets his skin on fire. It is shattering and mind-blowing, like the worst nightmare that can never be explained, but which comes again and again. A personal horror, but one which Bon knows will be personal to everyone who touches it. He vomits, but has only a distant awareness of the acid tang spewing from his mouth. The image is everything a timeless, terrible, violent, merciless. The shape stands tall and strong. Its personality sets the world aflame.

The vision was s.n.a.t.c.hed back as quickly as it had been granted, and Bon fell to his knees before Venden. The stink of vomit, the chill of ice, he wiped his hand across his mouth and tried to catch his breath.

'By all the G.o.ds,' Leki whispered beside him, but she was using a curse that had no meaning.

'No,' Bon gasped. 'No, only one of them.'

'There stands Crex Wry,' Venden breathed. 'And magic is its lifeblood, its blackened soul. Take the message to leave magic where it belongs a down, in knots that must not be unpicked. Aeon will go its own way, in peace, as ever it did. It wanders the world, from the brightest day of creation to the darkest of end times. Quash rumours of Aeon. Speak the truth.'

'If we believe you-' Leki began, but Aeon spoke over her again.

'Aeon has no need of lies.' Venden's hand holding Bon's changed, skin and bone melding and deforming into something else, leaving an object resting in Bon's palm. It had no weight, and was faultless. 'A gift from Aeon's heart. This is all I can give, for now.' And suddenly Venden cried out and tugged Bon close to him, cheeks touching, his voice his own.

'Father, Crex Wry seeded the Fade to aid its own resurrection. It-' His voice was cut off, s.n.a.t.c.hed back with a deep groan, and replaced once again by that almost-Venden voice which was all Aeon. 'Now close your eyes.'

Bon's heart leaped. Confusion reigned, and he obeyed as Venden began to disintegrate. He heard the sound of something splas.h.i.+ng, and then Leki's gasp.

'Bon,' Leki said, nudging him. 'Look.' Bon looked, and when Leki squeezed his hand he squeezed back.

Venden was gone, subsumed once again. Only ten steps away from them, Aeon was moving. Its incredible bulk s.h.i.+fted with endless grace, flowing like smoke made solid, making no sound as it lifted from the floor of the frozen cavern and moved away from them. Bon was certain there was no tunnel before it, yet it disappeared into the ice wall, pulling itself through with slow, gentle movements from its strange limbs.

In its wake, it left a perfect tunnel leading upwards.

'Our way out,' Bon said.

'So we can deliver its message quicker?' Leki asked, doubt still staining her voice.

Bon held his hand out to show her what he had been given. The object was a smooth, round bone, imperfect in shape, yet not apparently removed from any other body part. There were no joints or knuckles, no broken connections, no way in. It was the size of his fist, and still warm.

'What is that?' Leki whispered.

'Perhaps something to help,' Bon said. 'Leki, you heard it. You saw. Didn't you feel how dreadful that was? Didn't it ... make your skin crawl?'

Leki was pale, eyes flitting left and right as if trying to find reality.

'If your people raise magic-'