I remained still, one hand on the latch to the vault door and the other hanging in the air, half-reaching for my harpoon. Who was this man? What was he doing here? Kural had assured me the vault would be empty of watchmen, but perhaps I was a fool to trust Kural. He did not make the climb himself, after all. My heart sank into my belly as I thought of Bran’s fate, left alone on the forest floor with an untrustworthy caretaker.
Bran was a steppe horse—a gentle one, but trained for a warrior, nonetheless. I had to trust that he could look after himself.
“Who are you?” I asked the incongruous man in the vault.
He was old, though how old I could not tell; I had recently been in the company of a man who claimed through insinuation to have lived for hundreds of years, so I may have lost my sense of it. Even in the half-darkness of the vault, the rich colors of his clothing were as bright as the jewels that surrounded him. I assumed this was a man of status, but the tunics and cloaks of the watchmen were just as richly dyed.
“Surely you know who I am,” he replied. “I’m sure whoever sent you must have given you a name. Who was it? A sorcerer from the east? The cultists under the lower city? One of the priests?”
“I’m not here for you,” I said. “I’m here for the Sage’s Mirror. It’s but one treasure in this vast collection, yes? Let me leave with it, and you will not come to harm.”
His white brows drew together, creasing his forehead. “You’re not an assassin? You’re a common thief?”
“Hardly common,” I said.
He drew himself up. “Then let me introduce myself. I am Alaba son of Mermes, and I am the second mage-king of Rhakyan.” He raised a hand, and in it was a silver bell, polished so that I could see my astonished face stretched across it. “This bell will summon the guards. You’ve piqued my curiosity, so I will let you live long enough to explain yourself.”
I brought both my hands forward, spreading them out so he could see I was no threat to him. “Why are you in this vault?” I asked. Surely, a mage-king had more pressing tasks to attend to than counting the coins in this room.
He lifted the bell another inch. “You answer first,” he said.
I took a breath and let it out. Despite the climb, my journey here had been far too easy. I should have expected something like this to happen—rather, I should have expected a dozen men with spears waiting to throw me off the bridge to the forest floor far below. This was a welcome surprise. If I could keep my wits about me, I might survive. I might even make it out with the Mirror in hand, as I had been instructed.
Several mirrors stood around the vault. Most were as tall as I, or even larger, in heavy gilt frames. In them, I saw myself, and the man who stood before me, repeated again and again.
“My name is Eske, son of Ivor, of the Clan of the Bear,” I said. “I’ve wandered for a long time before coming here. I sought the services of a sorcerer, and he told me to seek the Sage’s Mirror in this land. He bade me give the name of Maponos the Ever-living to open the way.”
Another frown twisted the mage-king’s face. “That’s a name I thought long forgotten.”
I took a step away from the door. If there were watchmen waiting for the call of the bell, I needed the precious seconds a few feet of distance would gain me. “I gave that name to a man in the marketplace. He promised he would find me a way to the vaults of the upper kingdom, and here I am.” I chanced a second step, my eyes on the bell. “I was told that if I avoided the guards, this vault would be empty. I had no idea that I would find anyone here, much less someone of your esteem.”
My deference did nothing to soften the mage-king’s expression. He gazed at me like a stern statue, or a face carved into the rough bark of the tree upon which we stood. “Who was the man in the marketplace?”
I hesitated. Kural had led me this far, and I would still be in his care until I reached the lower city and departed for Gallia. I did not wish any harm to come to him.
“Give me a name, Eske son of Ivor,” the mage-king said, “or my guards will skewer you where you stand.”
“Kural, son of Irreni.” I could only hope that he would forgive me, should I leave this place alive, and that I would leave any danger behind when and if I returned to the ground. “I did not intend to linger in this land, and I did not ask the names of his companions. They gathered in a room without windows.”
The mage-king lowered his hand. The bell remained silent. “Then you are an assassin,” he said. “You were just unaware of it.”
“I told you, I’m here for one relic, and one relic alone,” I argued. “I climbed by a secret way so that I would not have to slay one innocent watchman. I do not wish to take any lives here, least of all yours.”
He placed his hands behind his back, standing straight and tall. All the folk of the upper and lower kingdoms were tall, I’d observed. They were well-fed and prosperous, from their rulers to the common folk in the marketplace. Their children did not go hungry. That they all wore gold, and even more treasure was kept here and in the tombs below, was a lesser sign of their prosperity.
“Come,” the mage-king said. “Sit at my feet. It has been an age since I taught a student. I will give you the knowledge you lack before you die.”
With my hands kept away from my harpoon and the rope slung across my back, I walked to the center of the room. “I’d rather stand,” I said.
“As you wish.” He sat down, then, in a high-backed chair flanked by two tall mirrors, placing his arms atop the heads of two carved lions. Their eyes, four tiny sapphires, winked at me in the light of the solitary lantern.
I went to stand beside the light. “If you give me the Sage’s Mirror, and you let me leave, I can tell Kural that you died by my hand. He won’t come here himself. It will be some time before he learns I lied to him.”
The mage-king raised a hand to silence me. “Do you know the significance of the name you carry like a weapon? Maponos the Ever-living?”
Surely, neither of the mirrors beside him were the one I sought. Deinaros would not have sent me alone to carry a relic several times the weight of a man down from the trees and across the forest floor. I glanced from side to side, taking in the expanse of shimmering gold. “The man who sent me here was a student of Maponos,” I said, “some time ago. I’m not certain how long. He speaks as though he studied under Maponos for hundreds of years, and then spent a hundred years or more under his own guidance.”
“Maponos lived for five hundred years before one of his students cut out his heart,” the mage-king said. He stroked the soft gray mass of his beard, and the rings on his fingers caught the light.
I did not know what to do with all this gold. Such riches were beyond even the strangest of my dreams. They could not buy me passage to the other world, nor could I use them to bargain with the gods. Let me find the mirror, and let me leave, I pleaded silently.
If the lord of this vault noticed I was scanning his treasures while he spoke, he made no indication. “There were five of them, once. One by one, the students of Maponos slew one another, and the artifacts they created under his tutelage were lost. I obtained the Mirror of Wisdom many years ago, when I was but a student, from a sea trader who was eager to be rid of it. It whispered to him at night, he said, and made him dream of vast pools of drowning souls.”
“I do not fear whispers in the night,” I said.
The look he gave me was one of utter disdain. “So, you’ve found one of the students of Maponos who still draws breath. What did he promise you in exchange for the recovery of this relic? Long life? Protection from the weapon that will pierce your heart in the end? A thief like you always fears death. Maponos himself had no shortage of them in his employ.”
“A thief I may be,” I admitted, “but I will die at my appointed time like any man. I did not ask the sorcerer for my life, but for the life of another. I’ll tell you no more.”
The sharp dark eyes of the mage-king regarded me for a quiet moment. I thought I could hear footsteps without—the guards’ boots, assembling to ambush me—but the door remained closed, and I remained alone with this strange man.
“A thief you are,” he said. “You’ve been made a fool, thief, by the student of Maponos and by Kural son of Irreni. As for myself, I haven’t decided what to do with you. I came here after long nights of stargazing, determining that I would meet an assassin here on this day.”
He lifted the bell again, and continued, “I expected Kural himself, or one of his followers. They have been seeking my death for two long years now.”
A dark spot in a box of golden jewelry caught my eye, but it was only an obsidian knife. Where was the mirror I sought? Deinaros the All-knowing, with all his claims of wisdom, could have better prepared me to recover it.
There. A tiny pool of blackness was set in a tarnished frame, no larger than an open hand. It reflected no light from the lantern on the floor or the glittering jewels around it. If I had any doubts, the sense of cold dread that overcame me as I looked at it drove them away.
Could I seize it and make an escape? I needed more time.
“Why wait here yourself?” I asked the mage-king. “Why not post guards inside the vault and without?”
His lips curved into a mocking smile. “I expected a better assassin!” he said. “One who planned his approach and only entered the vault after seeing who was inside!”
“I’m not an assassin,” I reminded him. “I am a thief.”
I leapt from my place beside the lantern and seized the tiny black mirror in one hand, readying my harpoon in the other.
The mage-king, surprised, sat still long enough for me to reach the door and throw it open. The clear, high note of the silver bell followed me onto the narrow platform. From behind the vault and across two different bridges leading to other trees, the guards approached at a run, their spears ready.
I tucked the mirror into a pouch at my belt.
The first thrown spear thudded into the platform at my feet.
I drove my harpoon into the nearest branch, took the rope tied to it in both hands, and leapt from the platform.
Back to Chapter XLVIII: To the Upper Kingdom
Forward to Chapter L: The Way Down
I have been so sick this week, BUT I do have a little bit of a backlog of chapters for you. Thanks for reading!
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