‘I am sorry,’ said Ustarte, ‘but it is vital. Please, Niallad.’ The young man stood very still. He took a deep breath, and Waylander saw that he was gathering his strength. Then Niallad nodded to Ustarte and closed his eyes.
‘Now I see,’ whispered Ustarte. ‘The boy is there. You see him. He is standing alongside the magicker.’
‘Yes, I remember. What point are you making?’
‘Think back. How did he seem to you?’
‘He was just standing there, watching.’
‘Watching the slaughter?’
‘I suppose so.’
‘His face shows no emotion. Not shock, not surprise, not horror?’
‘He is just a child,’ said Niallad. ‘He probably didn’t understand what was happening. He is a wonderful boy.’
Ustarte swung and looked across at Keeva and Emrin. ‘All of you are smitten by the boy. Even Matze Chai, as he faced torture, could think only good thoughts of Beric. This is not natural, Grey Man,’ she said. She returned her gaze to Niallad. ‘Think back now over all the times you have been with Beric. I need to see the events myself.’
‘It is not that often,’ said Niallad. ‘The first time was in the Grey Man’s palace. He and I went to the beach.’
‘What did you do there?’
‘I swam, Beric sat on the sand.’
‘He did not swim?’
Niallad smiled. ‘No, I teased him about it and threatened to carry him into the water. I reached down but he grabbed on to a rock and I could not lift him.’
‘I do not see a rock in your memory,’ said Ustarte.
‘There must have been. I almost tore my back trying to prise him away.’
Ustarte reached out and took Niallad by the arm. ‘Picture his face, as well as you can. Look at it closely. I need to see it! Every detail.’ She stood very still, and Waylander saw her jerk, as if stung. She backed away from Niallad, her eyes wide with fear. ‘He is not a child,’ she whispered. ‘He has become a meld-creature.’ Way-lander moved alongside her.
Tell me!’ he said.
‘Your suspicions were correct, Grey Man. Eldicar Manushan is the loachai. The one who appears as a child is Deresh Karany – the Ipsissimus.’
‘It cannot be,’ whispered Niallad. ‘You are wrong!’
‘No, Niallad. He is radiating a charm-spell. All who come close are deceived by it. It is fine protection. Who would suspect a golden-haired and beautiful child?’
Ustarte walked away, lost in fearful memories. She had crossed a gateway between worlds to escape Deresh Karany’s evil. And now he was here – and all her hopes of victory seemed suddenly frail, as insubstantial as woodsmoke.
She should have known he would come. She should have guessed it would be in a different form. Deresh Karany had become obsessed with the mysterious magic of the meld. He had realized through Ustarte that the possibilities went far beyond the mere physical. The correct balance could enhance the powers of the mind. Already virtually immortal, Deresh desired more. Conducting increasingly grisly experiments on his hapless captives, he sought the key that would unlock the secrets of the meld.
Ustarte had become his passion. She shuddered at the memory. He worked on her endlessly, seeking to find the source of her ability to change form. One day he had her strapped to a table. Sharp knives opened her flesh, and Deresh removed one of her kidneys, replacing it with a spell-charged organ taken from a failed meld. The pain had been indescribable and only Ustarte’s great strength had saved her from madness. As she lay in her cell recovering she felt the organ stir within her, like a living creature. Tendrils slid from it, probing along the muscles of her back and into her lungs. Ustarte had gone into a terrible spasm. Her life was being drawn from her, and in her panic she threw herself into the change. The creature within her was crushed, but one tiny tendril broke off and fled deep into Ustarte’s skull, nestling against the base of her brain. There it died. Poison seeped from its corpse, hot and burning. Tiger-Ustarte roared furiously, slashing her great paws against the walls of the cell, ripping out great chunks of plaster. Then, as she had with the first poison used on her, Ustarte absorbed it into her system, breaking it down, rendering it harmless. It could no longer kill her, but it did change her.