Part 3 (1/2)
”Or does being lost mean that you no longer remember who you were?” He went over and knelt before her. ”Malusha, tell me the truth. tell me the truth.”
”The Lady,” she said at last. ”The one who watches over the ways between our world and the worlds beyond. She's been gone too long. Where is she?” She fixed him with a penetrating stare. ”I think you may know.”
”The Lady?” said Oranir. ”You mean Azilis?”
”Elesstar, Azilis, Azilia... she has many names. But things are beginning to unravel without her. Can't you sense it? The balance between the worlds is s.h.i.+fting. The place you call the Rift is unstable. If she doesn't go back soon, the souls of the dead will start to return. How can they find peace if she isn't there to guide them?”
Rieuk let out a sigh. ”I tried,” he said. ”I tried to persuade her to go back. But she did this to me.” He ripped off his eye patch, revealing his damaged face to Malusha. She did not flinch, but merely put out her hand and gently stroked his cheek.
”I have no more answers for you; I'm only a foolish old woman who's outlived her time.”
Rieuk hung his head. He had placed so many of his hopes in Malusha's skills and all he had gained was more questions.
”So your journey isn't over yet!” She let out a chuckle. ”I'm sending you to see an old friend of mine. He's a shaman. He owes me a favor or two.”
”Chinua's the name.” The tea merchant bowed, smiling, to Rieuk and Oranir. ”It will be an honor to help a friend of Malusha's. Any friend of the Spirit Singer is a friend of mine.”
Malusha had sent them to the market in the city of Azhgorod. And there, amid the hectic bustle of shoppers and farmers, they had spotted the little shop selling tea at the far corner of the square. Reaching the stall was another matter, for pigs were rooting around in the cabbage leaves, formidable Azhkendi matrons were jostling to get to the best produce first, and the air was filled with the deafening cries of the stallholders proclaiming their wares. The customers waiting in line to purchase black, green, or jasmine tea at the open window of the Khitari tea merchant's shop were quite decorous by comparison.
”Meet me here when the market closes,” Chinua said, turning to serve an elderly lady, who was impatiently tapping her coin on the counter.
When they returned, Chinua led them into the back room of the little shop; it was dark and the air was fragrant with tea dust. They sat around a low table on rugs while Chinua poured them bowls of green tea. Nodding from time to time, he sipped his tea as Rieuk told him the bones of his story. When Rieuk had finished, Chinua was silent for a while, his broad face expressionless so that Rieuk could not tell what he was thinking.
”Are you prepared to travel to the roof of the world?” Chinua asked at last. ”This matter is far beyond my skills. But there's a place on the northern sh.o.r.es of Lake Taigal, in the mountains, where you may find the answers you're seeking. Have you ever heard of the Jade Springs?”
”The Jade Springs of Eternal Life? I thought they were just a legend.”
A slow smile spread across the shaman's face. ”Ah. But haven't you found yourselves that there is a grain of truth embedded in all the ancient legends? If you can discover the hidden path to the Jade Springs, the Guardian will surely enlighten you. But it's not a journey to be undertaken lightly. However”-and he leaned forward to refill their bowls- ”I'll be returning to Khitari to replenish our stocks in a couple of weeks. If you don't mind traveling on a cart, I'll be happy to take you as far as the steppes.”
Rieuk consulted Oranir with a look; Oranir glared stubbornly back at him.
”I've come this far with you; I'm not going to abandon you now.”
CHAPTER 4.
”The roof of the world, Chinua called it.” Oranir s.h.i.+vered as they stopped on the mountain path to gaze down at the blue-green waters of Lake Taigal far below.
”How can you still feel the cold after climbing all this way?” Rieuk was hot, and he leaned against a crooked larch trunk to catch his breath. ”Is it me, or is the air growing thinner?”
”Maybe it's too hard a journey for an old man like you.” Oranir let the little taunt slip with a straight face. ”Perhaps you should ask the Guardian to make you young again?”
”Show some respect for your elders!” Rieuk said, laughing. And Oranir turned to him with a smile. There was some quality to the clean, clear mountain air that lifted their spirits. In the many months since they left Enhirre, Oranir had slowly begun to open up. No longer the wary, unsmiling, intense young man Rieuk remembered from Ondhessar, he had even begun to reveal a dry, playful sense of humor.
Yet as they set out once more up the rocky path, Rieuk was aware that the encounter to come with the Guardian of the Jade Springs might change their relations.h.i.+p forever. He glanced at Oranir's straight back going steadily on ahead of him and realized that he didn't want that to happen. Would it be better to turn back and leave his questions unanswered?
From time to time they stopped, listening in vain for the sound of fast-flowing water. As the sun began to dip toward the west, Rieuk called on Ormas and sent the hawk to search while he and Oranir shared some of the dried fruit they had bought in the village far below.
”It has to be the right way,” Rieuk said, slowly chewing on a dried apricot, savoring the honeyed taste. ”Chinua said the path wound up toward the two horned peaks, opposite the island.”
” I've found it, Master.” I've found it, Master.”
Looking through Ormas's keen sight, Rieuk saw that the hawk had spotted a waterfall whose fast-spilling waters churned up a froth of white foam. Beyond the falls a natural archway had been hewn in the mountain, and as Ormas soared up over the rocks, a hidden pool was revealed. Its luminous waters were colored the delicate green of river jade and half-obscured by clouds of rising steam.
”The Jade Springs.” Rieuk stood up, infused with new energy at the sight of his goal. ”Ormas has found them.”
”It's getting dark,” protested Oranir as Rieuk started off again. ”If you miss your footing this high up, you'll-”
”Wait for me here, then,” Rieuk called back down the track. His first glimpse of the springs only made him eager to consult the Guardian as soon as possible. He heard Oranir curse viciously in Djihari and set out after him.
It was almost night by the time Rieuk and Oranir pa.s.sed beneath the rocky archway. The roar of the waterfall dwindled as they approached the springs and the steamy mist, tinged green by the glow emanating from the bubbling waters, enveloped them. Rieuk knelt and dipped in his hand. The springwater was hot, though not too hot to bear, and felt slightly effervescent against his skin.
”Rieuk!” Oranir was pointing into the heart of the steam where the waters issued from a gaping fissure in the mountain rock. Far out in the pool, Rieuk thought that he caught a glimmer of phosph.o.r.escence, livid as poison. A dark form could be seen moving toward them through the water. ”What is is that?” that?”
Rieuk swiftly withdrew his hand. He sensed a powerful presence. ”The Guardian?”
Breaking through the floating mist came a water serpent, its scales glittering jade and black, its head held high. Its emerald eyes fixed on them, it moved through the waters at astonis.h.i.+ng speed. As it drew nearer, they saw that a third eye had opened in its scaly forehead.
Rieuk stayed kneeling, mesmerized, but Oranir launched himself forward, placing himself between Rieuk and the serpent.
”Two magi?” The serpent spoke and its voice was that of a woman, soft and sensuous. ”I will only speak with one of you. Which shall it be?”
”Me.” Rieuk rose.
”No!” cried Oranir, holding him back. ”It could be a trap.”
The serpent turned its glittering eyes on Oranir. ”You must leave us alone,” she said, adding slyly, ”Don't worry. I don't intend to devour your master.”
”I'll be all right, Oranir.” Rieuk pressed his shoulder, speaking with a confidence that he did not feel. ”Wait for me beyond the waterfall.”
Oranir stood a moment, his eyes sullen, rebellious. Then he shook off Rieuk's hand and walked back toward the way they had come without a backward glance.
Rieuk turned to the Guardian. Where the jade-scaled serpent had been, he saw a slender woman, clothed only in her long green hair, which trailed over her naked body like strands of waterweed.
”Are-are you the Guardian of the Springs?” he stammered.
She rose out of the springs, the water dripping off her like a liquid veil. ”My name is Anagini,” she said. ”What is yours?”
”Rieuk. Rieuk Mordiern.” Mesmerized by her beauty, he stood staring as she glided toward him.
”Your eye.” She touched his face and he felt his skin tingle. ”Have you come to ask me to restore your eye?”
Rieuk had never imagined that such a thing was possible, believing himself to be disfigured for life. ”Could you do it?” Distracted, he began to imagine how wonderful it would be to be whole again, to present an unscarred face to the world, and, best gift of all, to see clearly once more.
”These are no ordinary healing springs. But the price for granting such a wish would cost you dear. There is always a price, Rieuk Mordiern.”
”And what is that price?” He had begun to hope again in spite of himself.