‘Yes. All the windows you see are mirror stones. Remind me to show you how they work before we leave. You’ll appreciate it, I’m sure.’
‘I’m sure I will,’ Antyr agreed. ‘Though I have to say that from what I’ve seen as we’ve walked around they’re very disorientating.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘They give views of the mountains and the valleys that are markedly at odds with the stairs we’ve climbed up and down.’
‘That’s because you’re not paying attention,’ Tarrian said impatiently, speaking to both of them before Andawyr could comment. ‘Why you don’t use your nose more, I don’t know. There’s a kitchen along here, for example.’ He and Grayle began padding off down the corridor.
‘Yes,’ Andawyr intervened quickly. ‘But I doubt the cooking Brothers would be pleased to have you wandering about them. If you’d like something to eat, there’s a more suitable place down here.’
‘That’s very kind of you,’ Tarrian replied affably. ‘I’m not particularly hungry myself. It’s for Antyr, you understand. His concentration wavers if he gets too hungry. But I’ll have a little something to be sociable, of course.’
Andawyr took them along a broad corridor into a communal dining hall. Plain wooden tables were flanked by plain wooden benches and at one end there was a large counter on which was arrayed a wide variety of food. There were several people in the room – some of them eating, some of them serving themselves from the counter. Tarrian and Grayle headed straight towards the counter, causing several startled diners in the process of returning to their tables to change direction abruptly.
‘Get back here, you two,’ Antyr hissed to them, adding out loud to Andawyr, ‘I do apologize. They’ve been too long in the mountains.’ The two wolves stopped but did not return, choosing instead to wait for him to reach them.
‘Don’t concern yourself too much,’ Andawyr said. ‘We have felcis in and out of the place all the time. It’s just that they’re not as big as these two.’
‘Felcis?’ Antyr queried.
‘You’ll find out soon enough,’ Andawyr replied. He indicated a nearby table and spoke authoritatively to the two wolves. ‘Would you like to wait over there while I get something for you?’
After a visit to the counter and a negotiation with a red-faced and flustered-looking individual, he returned with food for himself and Antyr and two large bones for the wolves. Rather to his surprise, the wolves sniffed them suspiciously before taking them.
As he sat down, a low bell-like tone reverberated through the room.
‘I’ve heard that several times,’ Antyr said. ‘What is it?’
‘It’s a warning,’ Andawyr replied. ‘Or, more correctly, that note is a confirmation that all’s well throughout the caves.’
Antyr’s brow furrowed. ‘A warning,’ he echoed. ‘What do you need to be warned about here?’
‘What did Yatsu and Jaldaric tell you about the Cadwanol and these caves?’ Andawyr asked.
‘That you were an Order of learned men established by Ethriss at the time of the First Coming of Sumeral with the intention of gathering knowledge so that He could be opposed in many different ways. They said the caves were full of strange devices, but they didn’t elaborate.’ He looked around. ‘And they certainly didn’t prepare me for anything I’ve seen today.’
Andawyr broke a piece of bread from a loaf and began nibbling at it idly. ‘Well, that’s all true enough, though pared thinly even for a Goraidin’s telling.’
Concerned that he might have inadvertently betrayed his friends, Antyr protested gently. ‘No, no. They told me a great deal, but I’m afraid I’ve not remembered as much of it as I should. The journey was demanding, to say the least. To be honest, I slept whenever I could. I’m no soldier, least of all like they are, and though they were patience itself I’d a great many simple practical things to learn as we went along if I wasn’t to be too much of a burden to them. Especially through the mountains. And I don’t think it helped that it was winter when we set out,’ he added ruefully.
‘It’s all right,’ Andawyr reassured him with a smile. ‘I wasn’t criticizing. Besides, the three of us have known one another long enough to be quite free in our exchanges of abuse.’ The smile became a quiet laugh. ‘But, answering your question. Do you see that?’ He pointed to a panel by the main doorway to the hall. On it was a symbol. As Antyr looked at it, the symbol gave him the impression that it was suffused with a slowly shifting glow, though if he stared hard at it he could see no actual change.
‘I’ve noticed several like that, though with different symbols on them,’ he said. ‘They’re very strange. I was intending to ask you about them.’
Andawyr became pensive. ‘They’re part of what I suppose you’d call the darker side of our life here. Yatsu and Jaldaric are quite right, this place is full of strange devices. In fact, it’s full of very dangerous devices.’ He leaned forward and his voice fell as if he did not want to be overheard. ‘When Ethriss founded the Order, it was a terrible time. The more I read and learn about it, the more I realize just how terrible it was. Sumeral held great sway then. His armies were powerful and fearsome. It seemed that nothing – nothing – could stand against His ultimate victory.’ He tapped the table with his forefinger for emphasis. ‘Part of the horror of it was that He had many honourable and very able people fighting for His cause; people deceived by His words, seduced by His promises or just terrified by the lies He spread about His enemies. And it was Ethriss’s greatest sorrow that in order to defeat Him, he’d no choice but to use His own weapons against Him. He had to teach his own followers how to make war and every cruel thing that that entails. It was a brutal loss of innocence.’ He twitched his hand irritably to stop himself from digressing. ‘It was a desperate matter that this place be kept secret. Had Sumeral learned about us then He’d have known the risk we posed and He’d have launched His entire might against us. But it was no slight thing, avoiding His eye; He’d many and different spies roaming the world. At first, Ethriss was able to shelter those who were working here, but he couldn’t do that for long as his very presence would eventually have drawn the enemy here. So very soon the first Brothers had to protect themselves. They did this by doing what we do yet – learning and practicing the skills with the Old Power that Ethriss had taught them.’ He sat back and glanced admiringly around the hall, almost as though he were looking at it for the first time. The jarring sound of Tarrian and Grayle massacring their bones rose into the silence. ‘And, I have to say, from a purely professional point of view, some of the work they did was staggering. Such minds, Antyr. Such minds. It’s difficult to comprehend. In many ways we knew so little. Some of the things we regard as elementary now – things we teach almost casually to our novices – were at the very limits of their knowledge then – brilliant insights. To discover them from nothing, as it were, betokens vision and intellect which humbles us all yet. Some of the discoveries they made actually turned everything that was then accepted completely upside down.’ He gave a guilty shrug. ‘I’m sorry, I’m wandering again, aren’t I? I’m apt to when I talk about the past. I’ve always had a keen sense of history and after what happened to us it’s keener than ever these days. Anyway, coming to your question again, the symbols that you see and the sounds you hear are part of a vast, intricate web of warning devices and traps developed from those that the first Brothers made to protect themselves. It’s altered, refined, adjusted, extended constantly, but at its heart it’s still what they made.’