Escana (80 page)

'From this moment forth she will
report to me on a weekly basis, she will inform me of the progress of
her tuition and her general well-being. Should I find that either of
you had been neglectful in these areas or altered her thoughts in any
way there will be repercussions.'

She didn't need to ask what, the
man was a law unto himself and had the full might of the entire
civilised world behind him. It wasn't worth risking the conflict over
one life.

Seeing the understanding clear
upon both their faces, Veran swept his gaze over them meaningfully
and didn't wait for a response. 'You may return to your tasks, I will
be expecting reports from both of you soon.'

As soon as the Emperor departed,
El-Vador followed suit. He did not look at either of the women as he
left the room and gave no indication that Ella should follow.

This left Alissandra alone with
the girl once more, it was a risk she couldn't help but take.

Emperor Veran wanted them to be
honest with the girl. She could do that, oh yes, she could do that.

E
lla sat in
the room with this strange woman that she no longer knew and pondered
over how much of what had she had been told was falsehood.

'You see the Emperor as a kindly
man that has extricated you from a most perilous web of deceit
between two forces who should know better. I want you to know that if
this kindly façade was a reality he would not hold his
position of power for long. I speak to you now out of necessity as
Veran is a man prone to acting swiftly should things not turn out
immediately in his favour. Ask any question you wish and I shall
answer truthfully.'

There was a faint tremor of fear
in the woman's voice, one that Ella barely detected. She knew that
there was far more to the Emperor than her first impressions
suggested, Alissandra seemed compelled to supply the truth.

'It may seem childish to one such
as you, even stupid. I need to know, does he want me?'

The woman shrugged at her. 'Want
is a difficult word, I have known the man a great number of years and
have seen desire in his eyes. I saw nothing of that when he looked
upon you moments ago.'

Ella's heart sank, she should
have suspected as much for hoping that in his difference El-Vador
would forgo the ideals she had seen embodied in every human so far.

Except Jakob. Jakob had seemed
different too. The thought niggled at her, oddly out of place in this
white city of the sky.

'So his passion is not stirred
from a desire of me but of the act itself, I merely facilitated him.
It has cost me dearly in that now a second life must be harmed by his
malcontent.'

Alissandra raised a hand,
silencing her. 'You are not pregnant, that was a glamour placed upon
you to bind you closer to him. I do not think you are even Elven,
that itself is yet another glamour foisted upon you to keep your
subservience.'

Ella's head reeled, she placed a
hand upon her stomach and felt nothing there. There was no bump, the
illusion had been shattered by the words that had been spoken to her.
That she was not of the Elven race she could accept, it seemed a
ludicrous notion and one that would take a lifetime to prove true.
Was everything he had told her a lie?

'I have seen desire in his eyes
before because they once held such feelings for me, in a sense he
still does harbour them and I fear that he has used you as a result
of that.'

She looked back at the woman now,
stricken by the revelations. 'If you could see these glamours why did
you not inform me of them? Why have me suffer in my belief?'

Alissandra sighed. 'You are
unsettled by these revelations, imagine how they would have impacted
upon you had you not known me as you do now. You would have
immediately denied the possibility given El-Vador's distrust of me,
the glamours would then respond in kind by reinforcing themselves.'

Were she not seated she would
have staggered about the room, instead she clutched her head and
tried to make sense of everything she had been told.

'How much?' she asked, sickened
by the thought that this woman may know the answer. 'How much has he
lied to me?'

Alissandra greeted the question
with a sympathetic smile. 'I simply don't know, child. You are more
likely to pluck free the truth from the recesses of his mind than I,
know that he dare not lie to you any further now that the Emperor has
intervened for fear of reprisal. No doubt you have seen how loyal he
is to the man, that will be of paramount importance in his mind
rather than continuing the deceptions. Perhaps at a time when you are
more emotionally prepared you will return to his residence and he
will unveil the truth.'

Ella sighed, she wasn't ready for
such an encounter, her whole world had been shaken and right now she
needed the stability that Alissandra afforded her.

'I will stay here for the time
being and continue with my lessons.'

Alissandra smiled.

H
e stared out
at the clouds as they rushed by, they had picked up the pace
substantially in the last few hours of their journey.

Gooseman had fully shut his eyes,
whether the man was trusting him not to murder him or fully capable
of defending himself in this state Jakob didn't know. What did remain
was that same urge to grasp the man by the shoulders and fling him
from the boat. He tried to distract himself from it, recalling the
events that had taken place to bring him here and losing himself in
the background of coursing wind and endless sky. It was to no avail,
there was still the constant struggle against his impulses that he
knew he was beginning to lose. Soon they would take hold and no power
on this world would prevent him from attempting to end Gooseman's
life.

Desperate for a distraction of
any kind, he ended up turning back to his potential victim and asking
him the first thing that came to mind.

'Did you ever consider yourself
to be part of another world when you were suffering from the
affliction?'

The man opened his eyes at the
sound of Jakob's voice and the boat slowed considerably in response.

'Another world?'

'Yes.' He knew it sounded
preposterous but he was determined to get an answer, to distract him
from the urges if nothing else. 'It felt like I was a different
person in another place far away from here.'

The innkeeper mused over the
question. 'I cannot say I have heard of such a thing before, there
have been those who see through the eyes of others using a form of
displacement. That is usually with a willing participant within a few
feet of them though. This talk of witnessing another world through
someone else's eyes seems highly irregular.'

Jakob sighed. 'Then this isn't a
symptom of your affliction but something else entirely.'

Gooseman rubbed his chin, all
thought of the boat seemingly forgotten now that he had been posed
with this dilemma. 'How could you tell that the world you were part
of was not our own? Determining that you are not yourself would be
easy enough but the Empire is a vast place, could your visions not be
a part of it you have never seen before?'

'You don't understand, it wasn't
just different surroundings. I had thoughts that even now I can
barely comprehend, sights that I was completely unprepared for.'

'Perhaps you are feverish, are
there any physical symptoms to these visions that you perceive?'

Jakob clamped his head, trying to
recall the thoughts that had been slipping away from him since the
displacement. 'My head feels like it's being torn apart from the
inside with any attempt I make to recollect the thoughts. Each time
it happens it hurts worse than before, almost to the point of
blacking out. Then there is the voice.'

Gooseman's eyes lit up. 'The
voice? What voice?'

He felt a sudden reluctance to
tell the man, in spite of this he knew he needed to keep talking in
order to distract himself. 'There is a voice that comes with the
greatest of the pain, it greets me at odd times and tells me what I
should do.'

The boat had come to a
standstill. 'How long have you been able to do things that others
around you cannot? How old were you when your first power exhibited
itself?'

Jakob shrugged. 'When I was at
Harvester's Barn a few weeks ago the voice came to me, it told me to
use the power and I listened to it.'

'You mean your latent abilities
only manifested themselves in the last few weeks at the voice's
bidding?'

Jakob nodded, not knowing what to
make of the man's growing excitement.

'This... this is unheard of. Was
this voice a deep one of great resonance and command?'

He thought back then to the last
time it had spoken to him in the arena. 'No, it was fairly high,
though still masculine and faint as if whispered.'

Excitement gave way to confusion
on Gooseman's face, he had clearly been anticipating something else.

'What was it you thought the
voice was?' Jakob asked.

He shook his head. 'It matters
not, the important distinction in tone suggests that this is a voice
of unknown origin that is influencing your use of power. That bodes
ill for all concerned.'

'How so?'

The boat started moving again.
'Most rogue talents have been making use of their minimal skills for
some time before the Levanin academy discovers them, there are few
indeed that suddenly manifest any great power and even fewer in the
short spans of time that you have.'

'Does this mean that I am ill or
mad in addition to my affliction?'

'No, not necessarily. I have
never heard of another voice possessing a person and aiding them to
such an extent with their energies, my theory would be that something
has latched onto your talent and is attempting to nurture it for
their own designs. You would do well to avoid their suggestions.'

'Is there anything we can do to
determine who is communicating with me?'

'Not until we reach the academy.'

Jakob had been hearing negative
responses from the man one too many times. His fist swung up and he
managed to stall it through an act of will that made his teeth throb.
The movement was not lost on Gooseman.

'It is clear to me now that time
is a precious commodity with regards to our mutual well-being. I am
beginning to suspect that unless we somehow make the journey to
Levanin shorter you will not last.'

Jakob couldn't help but agree
with the man as he forced down the murder in his system by sitting
upon his twitching hands. 'Is there no possible way to speed things
up? What about that thing you used to get us here?'

'Sadly warp gates take a great
deal of time to construct, personal warp gates even more so. It would
be too late for us long before I could complete such a thing.'

So this was it then, he was going
to kill this man and then die of thirst alone on this boat unless he
hurled himself off the edge and into the clouds. His potential demise
had long been a lingering thought in his mind, of all the ways he
could have died he hadn't expected it to come like this.

'There is one possibility
remaining to us,' Gooseman said, scratching his chin.

Jakob was all ears, waiting
patiently for the man to finish musing over things and tell him.

'In theory we could combine our
efforts in powering the craft to its destination.'

'In theory?'

A wry smile crossed the
innkeeper's face. 'Yes, I can't recall it ever being attempted
before. The boat was not designed to be powered by more than one
person at a time, there's no telling how it would react to multiple
attempts to channel it.'

He thought it sounded reasonable
to try, if they were destined to die out here anyway without the
effort then there was no harm in attempting it.

'We will not be doing that, I
have another theory of my own in mind.'

Jakob sat silently, waiting for
the man to expand upon his ideas. They seemed to be churning about in
his head still as he took some time before finally elaborating.

'What we will be trying to
achieve is a form of contact transference, I want you to place your
hand upon my shoulder and submit yourself to whatever feeling that
gradually washes over you.'

He seemed to think about this for
a second. 'Except anger, or your murderous impulses obviously.'

Jakob didn't know what feeling to
expect but it seemed once again that he had little choice in the
matter. Perhaps this was another purposeful guidance that had brought
them together. Or perhaps it was the affliction he carried that had
been whispering of coincidences that in truth conveyed nothing.

'Are you ready to begin? We don't
know how much time is left given your state, I wouldn't be willing to
gamble on not moving without all haste.'

Jakob fought down his irrational
hatred of the man one final time and nodded in silent agreement.