There was a quality about the noise that Antyr immediately associated with Tarrian: the clatter of people suddenly obliged to jump aside and loud voices raised in an explosive mixture of alarm and anger. Even without looking he could see the wolf, and presumably his brother, barging through anything that was in the way in their haste to get somewhere. An excited bark and the crash of something falling over, followed by a string of oaths, confirmed his assessment.
‘I think they’re here,’ he said, levering himself up off the low couch wearily. Then another sound reached him that was quite new. A swooping and remarkably loud whistling. Curious now, he joined the others in craning to see what was happening. As he did so, he caught a fleeting glimpse of a brown, sinuous animal, flitting rapidly through the confusion. Involuntarily his feet came together protectively and preparatory to jumping on to the couch.
They must have flushed out a rat, he thought. And a big one, by the look of it.
A combination of relief and embarrassment swept over him. At least it wasn’t anything more serious they were up to, but then it was hardly the mark of a good guest to expose the more unsavoury inhabitants of his host’s dwelling, still less to engage in a frantic pursuit through it.
Abruptly the animal was in front of him. Before Antyr could stop it, one of his feet came up and rested on the couch. Only an apparent lack of concern by Usche and her friends kept the other one on the floor. And, indeed, the animal was not moving. It was sitting back on its haunches with its forelegs dangling. Slowly it tilted its head on one side as it looked at Antyr intently with bright, penetrating eyes.
It looked remarkably composed.
And whatever it was, it wasn’t a rat.
It must be a pet, Antyr realized in terror as Tarrian and Grayle arrived, cascading to a claw-skittering halt on the polished floor. A vision of a violent, bloody and very public skirmish resulting in the brutal destruction of someone’s dearest filled him. It was followed immediately by a clutch of the dire and humiliating consequences that must surely ensue for both him and the wolves if this happened. He was just about to call out to Tarrian and Grayle when the animal, still on its haunches, calmly looked over its shoulder at the panting pair.
‘This is him, isn’t it?’ it said, in a languid but quite clear voice.
Tarrian and Grayle were quite still now except for their lolling tongues and wagging tails. Antyr caught a hint of a reply from one of them and the animal returned to its scrutiny of him.
‘Hm. Gapes rather, doesn’t he?’
Through the bewilderment rapidly taking possession of him, Antyr became aware of Usche standing close beside him. Her hand on his arm, she had the protective aura of a guide particularly anxious to ensure that an inadvertent but important meeting should be carried off successfully. As casually as he could, he removed his errant foot from the couch.
‘This is Kristabel,’ Usche said quickly and with heavily forced geniality. ‘She’s a felci. I gather from what you were just saying that they’re not an animal you’re familiar with.’
‘Close your mouth.’ Tarrian’s voice hissed unexpectedly in Antyr’s mind. ‘You look ridiculous.’
Caught between Tarrian’s indignation, Usche’s anxiety, this strange creature’s inspection of him, and the incipient suspicion that he was perhaps being made the butt of some elaborate prank. Antyr smiled weakly and uttered a brief string of incomprehensible sounds before managing to say, ‘Hello, Kristabel.’
The Felci nodded with each word like an adult coaxing a carefully rehearsed greeting out of a child. ‘Very good. I didn’t quite catch the first part of that but the rest was fairly intelligible. He seems personable enough. Do you have much trouble with him?’
Tarrian carefully kept his reply from Antyr. but Kristabel gave a knowing nod. ‘I understand,’ she said.
‘Kristabel, behave yourself,’ Usche said through clenched teeth. ‘Antyr’s our guest.’
The felci gave her a long look, then dropped on to all fours. Following the wolves’ spectacular entrance, the group had become the focus of everyone in the room and a substantial crowd was now standing around them, awaiting developments. Usche sat down and motioned Antyr to do the same. As he did so the felci – to his considerable alarm – clambered on to his knee. After an elaborate and disconcerting adjustment of her position, she squatted on her haunches again and continued her study of him.
‘Antyr, eh? Strange names you creatures give yourselves. I thought maybe the pups had got it wrong, but there you are. I should have trusted them a little more, shouldn’t I?’ Kristabel’s voice was deeper and more resonant than might have been expected from such a comparatively small animal. It was also unusually powerful and, the creature being immediately in front of his face, indicated to Antyr that if he was indeed being made the butt of a joke it was an extremely well-made one. Was it, perhaps, someone giving him a benign demonstration of this Power that so dominated everything here? It seemed improbable; the creature, its mannerisms, its voice, were all very realistic. It did not help him, though, that he could clearly sense a faint suggestion of amusement behind the voice.
‘Kristabel!’ Usche hissed. ‘Stop that!’
As before, the felci ignored her and continued its study of Antyr. He found her bright-eyed, intelligent gaze disconcerting.
‘You are a strange one, aren’t you?’ she concluded eventually. Her tone was serious and intrigued and the faint touch of humour had gone. She curled her lip back and absently tapped one of her teeth with a forepaw. Antyr noticed that the teeth and the claw protruding from the paw both looked very powerful. Coupled with the musculature he could sense beneath the creature’s sleek fur he decided that this could be a frighteningly ferocious animal if need arose.
‘There are depths here. There’s something very old about you, young man. Very old. Well, well, how interesting.’ Humming tunelessly to herself she bent even closer, her eyes searching deep into his. Then they closed, the humming stopped, and she was sniffing at him, her nose twitching energetically.
Abruptly, she was conversational. ‘The pups tell me that you and they roam the dreamways. Tell me, how do you think you do that?’
‘Kristabel!’ Usche brought her determined face next to the felci’s. ‘I’m sure if Andawyr wants you to interrogate our guest, he’ll ask you.’
‘He’d be wise to, child,’ Kristabel replied. Antyr felt Usche stiffen at the word ‘child’. ‘He won’t make much of him if I’m not there, believe me.’ She gave a laugh that ended in a joyous whistle. ‘Poor Andy, he’s going to have real trouble finding this one in his calculations, I can tell you. I’ll make a point of speaking to him about it, otherwise he’s likely to be lost without trace.’
‘I’m sure he’ll be indebted.’
Kristabel looked at her, then clambered down from Antyr and on to Usche’s lap. She gave a low reproachful whistle and clicked her tongue. ‘Sarcasm really doesn’t become you, child.’
‘Don’t call me child,’ Usche muttered darkly. It was obviously not a new injunction, but even as she spoke it she was stroking the felci affectionately.
‘Sarcasmand such over-sensitivity. Not endearing traits in a young woman, Usche my dear. Don’t you agree, Dream Finder?’
Antyr found himself stammering again at being suddenly dragged into this private and very female exchange.
‘I think perhaps Usche is trying to be – is being – a good hostess. Helping me to adjust to the…’ He was about to say ‘strange’ but caught himself in time. ‘Unusual… things that are to be found in this place.’
Kristabel’s gaze returned to him. ‘Ah, a gallant. How refreshing.’ She looked round at the watching Cadwanwr significantly, before speaking to Antyr again. ‘You find me unusual?’ she asked.
In some desperation and aided by a prompt from Tarrian, Antyr opted for the truth.
‘Yes, to be honest, I do,’ he said. ‘I’ve never even heard of… felcis… before, still less seen or met one. In fact, I’ve never met an animal that could actually talk.’
‘Really?’ Kristabel said. ‘Well, your frankness does you credit, but I presume you mean you’ve never met anything other than human animals that talk your rather awkward and inadequate language.’ A paw indicated the still-watching group.
Antyr gave up. ‘I suppose so,’ he conceded.
Kristabel was reassuring. ‘Don’t fret, young man. I wouldn’t dream of reproaching you. You’re not alone, by any means. I’m afraid there’s many a dim creature out there that thinks its own kind are the totality of everything. And you, at least, can speak to the pups.’
Before Antyr could say anything, Kristabel had jumped down from Usche’s lap and was scratching vigorously. ‘Well, well. Must be off. Things to do. A delight to meet you, Antyr. Truly. We must talk. At length. You’re more interesting than you know. You could even be one of us. There’s a thought.’ Her voice became suddenly softer. ‘Dar-volci would have been so excited to see you. I wish he…’ She stopped and was silent for a moment. Then she was brisk again. ‘Still, he’ll be back when he’ll be back and fretting won’t make that any earlier, will it?’
To Antyr’s alarm, she stood on her hind legs immediately in front of Tarrian. His alarm, however, became surprise as the wolf lay down and rolled over submissively. Grayle did the same, flattening himself low and pushing his muzzle gently between the two of them.
‘And lovely to see you two again, pups,’ Kristabel said, tickling Tarrian’s stomach and making his back leg twitch. ‘You’ve grown into fine animals. And you’ve done well for yourselves finding this… Dream Finder – very well. I’ll tell everyone you’re back. And the Alphraan. They’ll be delighted. Splendid, splendid. We’ll sing soon.’ And she was gone, slipping between the legs of the crowd, whistling and laughing.
‘Pups?’ Antyr said to Tarrian and Grayle witheringly as the sound of Kristabel’s departing faded. ‘What was all that about?’
‘Later. It’s too complicated,’ Tarrian replied as he stood up and shook himself noisily. Antyr did not pursue the matter. He could feel something rising from the wolf that he had never known before. It carried too much of the animal’s deeper nature for him to be able to identify it, though it was unmistakably joyous in character. He knew that the two animals were sharing this with him deliberately and that they could say nothing more about what they were experiencing. He bent low and stroked both of them by way of acknowledgement.
‘Are you all right?’ It was Usche. As was invariably the case when he had touched near the wolves’ true self, the human voice sounded harsh and crude. For an instant he understood Kristabel’s remark about their language being both awkward and inadequate.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I was just talking to Tarrian and Grayle.’
Usche was brushing hairs from her robe. She stopped and looked first at him and then at the two wolves. ‘Well, I suppose if our felci surprised you by talking out loud, we’ll have to get used to your talking silently to your Companions,’ she said. ‘Although, I have to say, I think it’s the stranger of the two.’ Then she asked the question that Oslang had asked. ‘Could they speak to me like that?’
‘They could, but they won’t,’ Antyr said, anticipating Tarrian’s refusal. Usche’s brown eyes looked at him, disappointed.
‘I don’t know why they won’t,’ he felt obliged to add. ‘And it wouldn’t do any good for me to press them.’ Then, unable to prevent himself from explaining further, ‘I think they find our thoughts unsettling. There’s something about us – something they can’t reach, just as I can’t reach fully into them – something that frightens them.’ He shrugged. ‘It’s only a thought. It’s a subject I’ve learned to avoid over the years.’
‘I understand,’ Usche said, though Antyr could see that the topic would arise again sooner or later. Then she frowned and gave the wolves a sidelong look. ‘You said “thoughts”, didn’t you? They can’t pry into my thoughts, can they? Tell what I’m thinking?’
‘No,’ Antyr lied confidently, as he always did when this question was asked. All the Serenstad Dream Finders lied about it both routinely and with great conviction. It was the Guild of Dream Finders’ only true secret. No one knew why but there was a strong presumption that the practice had its origins in a violent past.
Usche looked relieved, if a little suspicious. However, she was prevented from pursuing the matter by the mounting curiosity of her watching colleagues. Everyone in the room was now gathered about them and each newcomer naturally gravitated towards them. They were beginning to ask questions of Antyr.
Usche stood up and raised her arms for silence uncertainly. Antyr saw why; it was obvious that several of those present were senior to her.
‘Can I ask you for a little patience, Brothers? We’ve all got so many questions to ask, but as you know, Antyr has only just arrived after a long journey and, as you also know, he had very little sleep last night. In courtesy we should let him relax and get used to our ways and this place before we start badgering him.’ Her speech ended rather lamely, but, together with a plaintive expression and some hand-wringing, it was enough to disperse most of the spectators. Slowly the hall became as it had been when Antyr first entered, though, from the glances that were continually thrown his way, he knew there was only one topic of conversation.
He tried to start a new one of his own, indicating the extensive view of the mountains and the plains.
‘Are these proper windows or are they mirror stones?’ he asked. ‘I haven’t seen anything so far that’s this big.’
‘They’re mirror stones,’ Usche replied casually. ‘All the windows are. The Cadwanen is completely isolated from the outside except for a few entrances, and they’re all well protected.’
Antyr found the contrast between the seeming openness of the bright hall and the dark claustrophobia of Usche’s statement disturbing.
‘Always the fortress, eh?’ he heard himself saying.
‘Always the fortress,’ Usche confirmed. She sensed his mood. ‘But at least we’re a fortress of light,’ she said. ‘Like Anderras Darion. We seek knowledge, we disseminate it. We illuminate.’ Suddenly she was excited. ‘Just look around you, Antyr. Every aspect of this place is such an achievement. I shouldn’t imagine you’ve seen a fraction of it yet, but have you met anything that made you feel you were buried deep inside the mountains, or that you were in anything other than an ordinary building, and a fine one at that?’ She answered for him, tapping her temple with her forefinger. ‘No, because the knowledge, the learning that animates everything here has brought even the sunlight and the air into the depths so that we can live like civilized people.’
‘You could say that was using your knowledge to deceive, to misrepresent where we really are,’ Antyr retorted, somewhat to his own surprise, rising to the hint of challenge in her voice.
Usche cocked her head back and a broad smile broke through her earnest expression. ‘What is the function of a window, Antyr?’ she said.
Antyr opened his mouth to reply, then closed it again. ‘To keep the weather out – let the light in – and perhaps the air – and to see what’s happening outside,’ he admitted after a moment’s thought.
‘Dear, dear, dear.’ It was Tarrian. ‘Walked into that one, didn’t you? Ask her if there are any children round here for you to argue with – someone more your own weight.’
‘Shut up,’ Antyr growled back, adding venomously, ‘Pup.’ It had no effect other than to make both Tarrian and Grayle chuckle.
Then Usche was standing up in some confusion, as were her friends. ‘We’re late,’ she was saying. ‘That’s Kristabel’s fault, keeping us all talking. She’s no idea what has to be done around here.’ She put her hand on Antyr’s arm. ‘I’m sorry about this, but we’ve got to go. I’ll see you later.’
Thus abandoned, Antyr found himself once more the focus of much of the attention in the hall. He was about to retreat with a view to continuing his trek when Yatsu and Jaldaric entered. They acknowledged warm greetings from many sources as they came towards him.
‘Is there anyone you don’t know here?’ he asked as Yatsu dropped down beside him.
‘Oh yes. There are always lots of new faces and lots of gossip in this place,’ Yatsu replied. He looked at Antyr and laughed. ‘You’ve the look of a week-old novice. Come on, own up. How badly did you get lost?’
‘I get enough abuse off these two without you adding to it,’ Antyr said, nudging Tarrian with his foot. ‘This is a very confusing place. And it doesn’t help that I can’t understand any of these symbols written up everywhere.’
He recounted the details of his day’s walking, concluding with his encounter with Kristabel.
‘You’re privileged,’ Jaldaric told him. ‘They’re delightful creatures, felcis, but they do have a habit of treating people as if we’re rather slow-witted pets.’ He looked around the hall. ‘And they regard this place as just an extension to their own system of tunnels and burrows – an extension they graciously allow us to use.’
‘And Kristabel’s very fussy about who she takes a shine to,’ Yatsu added.
‘I thought at first that someone was playing a joke on me.’
‘I can see that a felci would be a surprise to you, for all you’re used to talking to your wolves.’
‘How do they get in here? Usche told me there are only a few well-guarded entrances to the place.’
This amused the two men. ‘You’ve hit on one of the many mysteries that surround the felcis,’ Yatsu said. ‘And one of Andawyr’s greatest banes.’ He laughed. ‘He gets so frustrated. They just come and go as they please and no one’s ever found out how they do it. They seem to be immune to the Power in some way.
‘I imagine someone’s asked them?’ Antyr said, striking for the obvious.
‘Oh yes, many times,’ Yatsu said, still laughing. ‘But to no avail. All they ever say is we’re too young to understand.’
‘That’s odd, she said I was old – or part of me was.’
He had half expected more laughter from Yatsu at this but, instead, the Goraidin pursed his lips appreciatively. ‘Interesting. Felcis know a great many things that we don’t, for sure. I can’t hazard what she meant but it could well be significant. I’d mention it to Andawyr if I were you.’
‘She said she was going to do that anyway. She seemed very amused about it.’
‘They laugh a lot, felcis.’
Antyr was hesitant about his next remark. ‘I noticed that she had very powerful-looking claws and teeth. It occurred to me that she could be quite fierce. Are they dangerous?’
‘Very,’ Yatsu said simply. ‘But not gratuitously so. They’re not like people, they’re like most other animals. If you want to see how dangerous they are, you have to provoke them – and at some considerable length, I might add. But then you take the consequences.’ He drew a finger across his throat. ‘On the whole they prefer to cut you down with a caustic comment rather than anything else, but those claws can open you from top to bottom and those teeth can snap your thickest bones like twigs.’ As was often the case when he spoke on such matters, Yatsu’s matter-of-fact delivery added a vividness to what he was saying that many a storyteller would have envied. Antyr winced. ‘They’re mountain creatures,’ Yatsu went on. ‘Their claws are designed for burrowing through the rock, and designed very well. And they can eat rocks with those teeth, though I’ve a feeling they only do it to watch us cringe at the noise it makes.’
‘You seem very impressed by them.’
‘I am. As will you be when you get to know them a little better. And if Kristabel’s taken an interest in you, you probably will.’
‘It’s all very strange. Insofar as I ever thought about it, I don’t know what I imagined this place was going to be like. Probably something similar to one of our Serenstad Learning Houses. Dignified if rather decrepit buildings peopled by dignified if rather decrepit sages, droning on about the same things they’ve been droning on about for years. Certainly I didn’t expect this bizarre mixture of siege thinking and open inquiry. Nor this convoluted maze of passages and rooms peopled by the likes of Andawyr and Oslang and strange talking creatures who call me old and eat rocks.’
‘Well, I suppose if you put it like that, it is rather unusual. You’ll soon get used to it.’
Antyr suddenly felt light-hearted. ‘Yes, I think I will,’ he said. ‘In fact, I’m quite looking forward to it.’
Andawyr’s study presented a scene very different from the one Antyr had seen the previous night. There was tumbled confusion on some of the shelves, several drawers hung open with documents spilling from them, and the various tables were all littered with books and papers – as was the floor.
In the midst of the disorder was its architect.
Sitting sideways in a deep, well-upholstered chair, his legs thrown over one arm, Andawyr was massaging the remains of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. In his other hand was a piece of paper covered with symbols. From time to time he glanced at it.
Oslang was sitting at one of the tables, stiff and upright and staring blankly ahead. One finger was tapping out an indeterminate rhythm on the table.
The paper slithered from Andawyr’s hand to follow an oscillating pathway down to the floor where it gracefully settled on top of many others.
‘We’re going nowhere,’ he said, swinging his legs off the arm of the chair and standing up. He began pacing. The papers rattled about his feet like dead leaves. ‘Nowhere, nowhere, nowhere.’
‘You’re being impatient again,’ Oslang said. He gestured across the tables. ‘We’ve plenty of information, it’s only a matter of…’
‘There’s too much information,’ Andawyr interrupted irritably.
‘If you’ll allow me to finish,’ Oslang said sternly. ‘We’ve plenty of information, it’s only a matter of working through it methodically, painstakingly. Ordering it…’
‘We’ve been doing that all day, and we’re going nowhere!’ Andawyr insisted.
‘This is our first look. We can get the others to help shortly. I think there’s a pattern emerging.’
‘No, there isn’t. Not unless you count randomly increasing confusion as a pattern.’
As Oslang prepared to reply, the door opened and Kristabel entered. She gazed around the room for a moment and then looked at Andawyr.
‘It’s a great pity that your nobility of both intellect and soul doesn’t manifest itself more conspicuously in the more mundane matters of this world, Cadwanwr,’ she said with some distaste.
‘I can do without any of your mother-hen lectures today, thank you, Kristabel,’ Andawyr retorted. ‘What do you want? Can’t you see we’re busy?’
‘Ah. Charming as ever. And such a contrast to the gentleman I’ve just met. The new one the pups brought in – you know – the old one – the Dream Finder. Leapt to Usche’s defence as though she might actually need it. Such a happy instinct. Being with the pups has helped, I suppose, but I wonder how long it’ll be before he falls under your disorderly influence.’
‘Kristabel, what are you talking about?’
The felci jumped up on to the table and, humming to herself, began nosing through the papers.
‘Still going the long way round, eh? Ploughing your interminable furrow and marking the way with your arcane symbols.’
Catching a signal from Oslang, Andawyr made a noticeable effort not to respond to this taunt. He forced a conciliatory note into his voice.
‘Kristabel, we do have a problem that needs our immediate attention.’
The felci stopped her inspection and sat back on her haunches. ‘Yes, you do, don’t you? I heard all about it.’ She scratched her stomach. ‘I think you’re going to have more. I wish Dar was back. He has a surer touch than I do.’
‘What do you mean?’ Andawyr asked, concerned by the felci’s sudden and unusual seriousness.
‘I don’t know. The Song’s disturbed. All the ways feel cloudy and dangerous. It’s like a storm brewing. A bad one. Things are coming together that shouldn’t. Old things. Deep things.’ She flicked some of the papers to one side. ‘This won’t be enough, I fear. Another way will have to be found.’
She gave a low doleful whistle, then jumped down from the table. When she reached the doorway she stopped and turned.
‘You should take the Dream Finder to Anderras Darion, Andawyr. It’s a stronger place than this. Take him now. Don’t delay.’