'That occurred to me already,' he said. 'But there's something I have to do first. Can you come with me?'
He led her, crouching, down the low tunnel, in the direction of the scream. It was very hot; and once more the steam thickened around them. He could hear a waterfall, of all things, growing louder as they went. He tried to explain, in whispers, what Arunis was seeking, and why they had to stop him. Klyst listened, anger flashing in her enormous eyes. It was Arunis who had brought evil to her country to begin with.
The tunnel curved. Suddenly a pale blue light glimmered ahead of them. Pazel put a finger to his lips, and set the torch carefully against the wall. They crept nearer. There was the waterfall: steaming, boiling, a lethal curtain of water capping the tunnel. And through it Pazel saw Arunis, distorted but unmistakable. Beside him lay a book that could only be the Polylex.
The sorcerer was in a large cave. It was lit by the same blue flame as the main temple chamber, but here the burning oil ran in rivulets across the floor. Arunis had placed the book on a flat, table-like rock, some ten feet from the waterfall. It lay open. He was studying a page.
As they watched, Arunis suddenly left the Polylex and ran to a spot across the cave, skipping over the little streams of fire. Pazel nearly gasped: there at the far side of the cave stood the glowing figure of a woman. She twisted and struggled, as though trying to free herself from invisible bonds. Arunis was circling her. He held a lump of charcoal, and was drawing an elaborate pattern of words and symbols on the floor.
'A cage,' said Klyst, with hatred in her voice. 'He is drawing a cage for Dhola. A cage of twisted ripestry — what an ugly, ugly, thing!'
'We're too late, aren't we?'
'No,' said Klyst. 'But almost. He hasn't finished the drawing; she can still break free. And he has to draw carefully. One little mistake and the cage will break.'
Arunis returned to the book, placed his finger on the open page. Then once more he left it on the rock, hurried back to the captured sibyl, and started to draw.
Pazel struck the wall with a fist. 'Pitfire! It's right there!' He put out his hand, cautiously, until a fingertip just grazed the waterfall, then jerked it back with a silent curse. The water was scalding.
'I'm going to have to find another entrance,' he said. 'The one he used. Somehow.'
'Leave him,' said Klyst. 'Leave with me. I can make you like you were in the Nelu Peren, when we met.'
Her voice was miserable with longing. Pazel took a deep breath, remembering what it felt like to breathe water, to hear her laughter echoing in the deeps. 'Listen, Klyst, I've never lied to you, do you hear? Not once.'
'You couldn't. You don't know how.'
'You only love me because your ripestry went wrong.'
She stared at him, bewildered. 'What do you mean? Bad ripestry goes wrong. Good ripestry goes right.'
'I'm not a murth!' he said desperately. 'And I don't know what to do about this.' He touched the shell, and she shivered as though he'd just caressed her.
'You know,' she said. 'Cut it out, destroy it. Then I'll be gone.'
'Is that what you want?'
But Klyst just looked at him. That was one question she would never answer. In the cave beyond the waterfall Arunis was again bent over the book. Pazel saw him from the corner of his eye; he could not turn his gaze from the murth-girl. His heart was hammering; she was smiling again, and her eyes seemed to have grown. Damn you, are you weaving another spell?
He forced himself to speak, forming each word with slow concentration. 'Arunis took a stone from the Red Wolf your people used to guard. An evil stone, made of the worst ripestry in the world. If he makes that sibyl tell him how to use it, he's going to become so powerful that no one will be able to stop him. He wants to kill all of us — Rin knows why — and when he's through with humans, you can bet he'll move on to murths.'
Before he had finished Klyst had put her head on his shoulder and started to cry — soft little Hoo's, as if she had already known what he would say, and hoped unreasonably that she was mistaken. He tried to raise her head, but she looked away.
'Go get your book,' she said.
Arunis at that moment was rushing back to the sibyl. And Klyst, releasing Pazel, jumped into the scalding waterfall and disappeared.
It was all Pazel could do not to scream. He lunged forward, reaching out with both hands as close as he dared. She was simply gone. And then a tingling of his palms told him that something had changed. The waterfall had cooled. The edges steamed hot as ever, but there was a band of tepid water directly ahead.
He touched it. She was there, she was standing disembodied in the water. He seemed to hear her voice, shouting Go go it hurts me! And then he plunged through her, and emerged into the cave.
Arunis' back was still turned; he was drawing feverishly. In three bounds Pazel crossed to the flat rock, leaping over the flames. He swept up the book and rushed back, dived again through the waterfall, and for a strange thrilling moment he felt Klyst's body surround him once more. Then he was back in the tunnel. The Polylex was sopping, ruined. He turned to look at the waterfall and spoke her name. But the water was scalding again, and the murth-girl was gone.
Arunis had never lain eyes on him. But as Pazel emerged from the tunnel the sorcerer began to howl. The cries grew quickly fainter, however: Arunis was searching in the wrong direction. Either he had overlooked the dark tunnel, or could not believe that anyone had passed through the waterfall alive.
'Tell him nothing,' Oggosk had commanded. 'Nothing with your voice, nothing with your eyes or your movements or your hands. Do you understand me, girl? Any slip could bring disaster. Let me match wits with Arunis, this time: you'll have your own chance, maybe, after I'm gone. Right now you have nothing to say to him that's not best said with a sword.'
Thasha had sensed the candour in Oggosk, the rare absence of ridicule. So she had held fast to the witch's order, despite the maddening vapours and the heat, and the hypnotic dance of the blue flames in the shattered floor. She was thinking of it still when the sorcerer burst in.
Arunis lifted the mace above his head. 'Where is it, hag?' he raged. 'Which of these bastards took it? Speak!'
Oggosk and Thasha stood flanking the doorway that led up to the temple exit. Beside them, looking rather feeble, stood Dr Chadfallow. He had crawled into the chamber minutes before, drenched and gasping. Peytr crouched a few yards away, silent and fearful.
The old woman leaned heavily on her stick, frowning, studying the mage's face. Then she glanced at Thasha and nodded. Thasha drew her sword.
Arunis descended the stone rings, snarling: 'Do you think I will hesitate to kill her, hag? Do you think me that afraid of Ramachni's spell?'
Still Oggosk said nothing. Thasha's hands were slick on the hilt of her sword. She felt terror surge in her heart — and buried it, as Hercol had taught her to do, under focused observation. The length of the mage's stride. The set of his shoulders. The bulge at the hip beneath his coat, in all likelihood a dagger.
'I knew before I landed that I would kill today,' said Arunis, still approaching.
Chadfallow gave a throaty cry: 'Pazel!'
Oggosk smacked him with her walking stick. Arunis laughed, but Thasha could tell that the laugh was forced. 'The book!' raged Arunis. 'Return it now!'
The witch placed a hand on Thasha's elbow. Arunis began to climb towards them. A look of desperation filled his eyes.
'The agony you risk by defying me exceeds the limits of language, Duchess,' he said. 'Did you not hear the sibyl? I am death's master, not its slave. I will live on when the very dust of this world disperses in the void. You prove yourself capable of some three-for-a-penny spell, the hiding or moving of a book, and you imagine this prepares you to challenge Arunis?'
Thasha risked a glance at the old woman. There was a gleam of satisfaction in the milk-blue eyes.
'Oh no,' said Oggosk. 'I imagine nothing of the kind. No, Arunis, you have nothing at all to fear from me.'
The sorcerer froze. His eyes shifted to Thasha, and narrowed suspiciously. Thasha felt a sudden prickling along her spine. He's examining me! She felt Oggosk's hand tighten in warning: Not a look, not a whisper. Unblinking, Thasha stared Arunis down. The prickling subsided. Arunis went pale.
'You,' he said.
