PART THE SIXTH

Chapter the First of Part the Sixth

In which the narrative recounts acts from the life of Tel Arman in Merithwell.

The boys looked at each other, trying to figure out what to say and who was going to say it. Tel Arman decided to take charge.

“Who are you, and how did you get here?” asked Tel Arman.

The girl flinched at Tel Arman’s question and he realized he had probably frightened her. The girl looked around the strange place uncertainly, trying to take in the faces that surrounded her.

“My name’s Deanna Pen Lear,” said the girl. “I don’t know how I got here; it just happened.”

“We’ll help you if you can,” Luke assured Deanna, “but we have a lot of problems of our own already. Can you tell us what happened just before you got here, no matter how improbable it sounds?”

“Well—I—I was looking for my friend,” said Deanna.

“Who’s your friend?” Mark asked eagerly.

“Uh—“

Deanna seemed unwilling to give the name.

“Is it Kyle?” Brendan prompted her.

Deanna’s face collapsed in fear.

“How did you know?”

“We recognize your livery, for one thing,” said Brendan. “You must be another student at his music school. So, where’s Kyle?”

“Do you know him, then?” asked Deanna.

“We sure do,” said Mark. “We’re his friends. We need him real bad. So where is he?”

“I—I wish I knew. He didn’t do what I told him to do. Or he didn’t do it quickly enough. When I found out he was in terrible trouble, I gave him a note, telling me to go to my room. I promised I wasn’t going to do anything improper—I was just going to help him. I think he was afraid to believe me. Maybe he thought I was setting him up. Anyway, he wasn’t in my room. So I ran to his room and he wasn’t there. I opened his closet in case he was hiding there and I ended up here. I’m afraid he’s been arrested by the peacekeepers.”

“What for?” asked Pir Min.

“For singing!”

“I knew it!” said Luke. “So is he in jail, or something?”

“He must be in a detention house.”

“Then we have to get him out,” said Polnar.

“How?”

That question brought all the boys up short. The girl looked at them with bewilderment.

“I don’t know,” said Pir Min in a small voice.

“But we have to get him out,” Mark insisted.

“Yes, I agree,” said Deanna. “We have to get him out. I couldn’t stand it if Kyle got his tongue cut out over this. I—I take you aren’t inheritors?”

“We come from different worlds,” said Luke, “and we don’t like anything we’ve heard about your world.”

“We’re all friends of Kyle,” Brendan added, “and we’ll do anything to help him.”

“You said you already have problems of your own,” said Deanna.

“We do,” said Mark, “but your problems are our problems.”

“Uh—do you mind telling me where I am?” asked Deanna. “I’ve answered your questions, taking you guys on faith, and that’s not easy when you come from Mastruum.”

“That is a harder question than you think,” said Tel Arman.

“He doesn’t mean to make fun of you,” said Luke when Deanna’s face fell with frustration. “It isn’t easy to explain. This place is called Merithwell. It’s a place in between seven worlds. Your world and Kyle’s is one of them.”

“It’s a singing place for boys,” Brendan continued. “When we first found it, it was dark with just a few music manuscripts and few sparkles of light and an old harp. It’s our singing that’s built this place up like the way it is now. Kyle’s done the best singing of all in doing that. If you look behind you, you’ll see that one of us got banged up real bad in his world. Another one of us is trapped by a sorcerer in his world. We need Kyle’s help to save these guys but now Kyle’s trapped, too.”

“Uh—If singing makes this place grow, I can see how Kyle made that happen,” said Deanna. “He’s the best treble I’ve ever heard—and he’s the nicest boy in the Institute—or he was—that’s why I thought he wasn’t really an inheritor. But—are girls allowed here at all?”

“Of course you’re allowed here,” said Sue. “They even let me come this time.”

“According to the prophecy that’s on the wall over there, this tower is meant to be raised up by boys’ singing,” Luke explained. “It might have to do with what our choirmaster says is the uniqueness of boys’ voices. Some other towers are rising up around here, so pretty soon we’ll have a lot more than our boys’ choir here.”

“Your choirmaster is right about the uniqueness of boys’ voices,” said Deanna. “There are lots of girls and women who are great singers, but they don’t sound like Kyle.”

“If we talk all day about Merithwell and about boys’ voices,” said Polnar, “Danzigger is going bleed to death.”

“And Dunsland will be tortured in the sorcerous shaft all the longer,” said Raissa.

“And Kyle might get his tongue cut out before we can get to him,” added Brendan.

“So, we have to work out a plan right away,” said Tel Arman, taking charge. “Mark, how did you get here when you were driven out of your world?”

“Simple. I ran straight into the wall at a place where the guards were spread out the most, hoping I wouldn’t break my nose over it. Thank the train rails’ flow, I ran straight through the wall and into Merithwell and I got the other boys to run in after me just before the wall closed on the guards.”

“It seems that Merithwell doesn’t like people who are going to hurt us,” mused Tel Arman with a sharp look at Malcoomb.

“That means you’ve got to be our friend, Deanna,” said Luke.

“Polnar, how did you get away when those guys were stoning you?” Tel Arman asked him.

“The—hill opened up and Passenell and I carried Danzigger through.”

“I escaped from Malcoomb in much the same way,” said Tel Arman. “I couldn’t stand being alone with nothing but the Empire to think about and I started thinking I’d rather be here instead of there and then the wall of my room opened up. So, if Kyle is in prison, why doesn’t a wall open up for him to get through? And how come Dunsland can’t just escape the thing the sorcerers put him in?” asked Tel Arman.

The boys looked at each other without coming up with an answer.

“Maybe it’s the magic,” said Polnar. “Dunsland is hopeless when it comes to doing magic. Except for when he’s in this place.”

“And he’s not here,” said Pir Min.

“I think I have an idea,” said Luke. “Mark, did you have any doubt about your right to come to Merithwell when the guards chased you?”

“Of course not.”

“Polnar?”

“I hoped Merithwell would open before we all got killed and it opened up,” Polnar replied.

“Maybe Merithwell doesn’t like Kyle and Dunsland any more” said Malcoomb.

“It does too,” Mark insisted.

“Malcoomb might be right—in a way,” said Luke. “We know Merithwell wants them, but Kyle and Dunsland might be having a hard time believing that right now.”

“Are you suggesting that Kyle’s frame of mind has something to do with why he can’t just escape from the detention house the way you boys did from your worlds?” asked Deanna.

“Something like that,” said Brendan. “No matter how well he sings, he seems to have a hard time believing in himself, being a disinherited son and all.”

“Tell me about it,” said Deanna.

“From what he told us about his choirmaster, he didn’t help, either,” said Pir Min.

“Tell me about that, too.”

“And so Kyle is probably having a hard time believing in himself right now,” Brendan suggested.

“Tell me about it again,” Deanna wailed. “I’m sure that the inquisitors and the peacekeepers are laying it on thick, telling Kyle how unworthy he was to sing as much as a note. Our whole system depends on the theory that the firstborn children are the most naturally talented and children born later are less naturally talented. They have to convince everybody, and especially Kyle, that the best singer I’ve ever heard is the most incompetent singer anybody ever heard.”

“So we have to go get Kyle,” said Polnar.

“Dunsland doesn’t believe in himself at all,” said Raissa, “except for when it comes to singing, and even then, he can’t do musical magic.”

“That means we have the same problem twice,” said Luke.

“How do we go get Kyle and Dunsland?” asked Pir Min.

“I think we should try believing in our right to bust in on where Kyle and Dunsland are trapped and then see if we can bust in on them and nab them,” Luke suggested.

“That’s what I say,” said Mark.

“We’ve got to sing a healing chant for Danzigger and stop the bleeding,” Polnar insisted.

“If you don’t get Kyle right away, he’ll get his tongue cut out!” cried Brendan.

“And the longer we keep Dunsland in that sorcerer’s thing, the more he gets tortured,” said Pir Min.

“What about Danzigger?” Polnar pleaded.

“What about Kyle?” Brendan asked.

“WAIT!” Tel Arman called out. “There are three things that have to be done immediately. It so happens that we have a lot of people here and so we should be able to divide our forces and do all three things at once.”

“How come your doing all the bossing?” asked Tormo.

Tel Arman clenched his fists in the face of conflicting impulses: one, to punch Tormo in the face, the other to collapse inside himself.

“Tel Arman knew what to do when we rescued Polnar and Passenell,” said Luke. “We should listen to him now.”

“I say we listen to Tel Arman,” Mark urged. “We don’t have time to fight about who’s going to tell us how to save everybody and we know Tel Arman’s good at this.”

When Tel Arman saw the faces of all the boys with only few very exceptions turn expectantly in his direction, he felt he was getting a lot more respect than he deserved after what he and the Empire had done. But he knew there wasn’t time to linger over regrets. He formed a set of plans quickly in his mind.

“Brendan, you’re a good one to go after Kyle. Who do you want to go with you?”

“I’d like to have Luke and Deanna if she’s willing.”

“Of course I’m willing,” said Deanna.

“I’ll hang back, but be ready to tackle Kyle’s captors if they cause any trouble, said Tel Arman. “Can you be ready to help me if I need you, Miles, Tormo?”

“”I’ll wrap them up for Christmas,” Miles bragged.

Tel Arman decided to ignore Tormo when Tormo ignored him.

“You guys from Dunsland’s world should go get him, since you’ll know what to do about the magic those guys have done,” said Tel Arman.

“I’m not going to get myself scrambled by that sorcerous shaft just for Dunsland,” Malcoomb protested.

“Dunsland brought you here when you were wrecked by some spell,” said Pir Min, “so you’d better get Dunsland now that he’s in trouble.”

“We can only build up Merithwell and keep it built up by sticking together,” said Mark. “If you don’t believe in Merithwell, Malcoomb, go back to your world and stay there!”

“I’m going after Dunsland if I get my brain fried for doing it,” said Raissa.

“I’m going,” said Morrass.

“I’m going, too,” said Forsikt.

“And I’m going,” said Gwendarin.

“You can play the harp here,” Raissa suggested to Gwendarin.

“I think another of you student magi should stay here in case something comes up, or we need to make a second break-in to get Dunsland,” Tel Arman suggested.

“Then I’ll stay,” said Forsikt.

“We might need a non-magical singer,” said Morrass, “if one of you will come with us, we’ll protect him from magic as best we can, but I admit it’s dangerous.”

“How about, you, Pir Min?” suggested Tel Arman.

Pir Min’s serious face brightened a bit when Tel Arman called on him.

“Of course, I’ll go,” said Pir Min.

“Okay, Raissa and Morrass and Pir Min will go after Dunsland. Forsikt will be our reserve, Gwendarin will play the harp and be a reserve, and Malcoomb can sulk in a corner like the selfish, cowardly spoiled brat that he is.”

“You’re sending away all the best singers,” Polnar protested. “Don’t you care about Danzigger?”

Tel Arman pursed his lips angrily.

“Unless my ear has been deceiving me,” said Tel Arman, “you and Mark Streeter are among the best singers in this bunch. A higher point: all of you boys here are ten thousand times better than all of the elite singing cadets the Empire ever had. If you have a job to do, don’t think it’s impossible, just do it.”

It gave Tel Arman a strange bit of satisfaction that at least one imperial maxim still made sense.

“What about me?” Sue Pafko asked.

The question brought Tel Arman up short. He didn’t mind if Sue sang with the boys but he didn’t know if she could sing at all. As far as he knew, she wasn’t trained in combat. She couldn’t do magic.

“Take Danzigger by the hand,” Raissa suggested to her, “I know how healing is your touch.”

Sue gratefully knelt down by Danzigger and took the stricken boy by the hand.

“Polnar, Mark, can you start us off on the healing chant?” asked Tel Arman, “or do we have to wake up Danzigger and ask him to teach it to us?”

Polnar and Mark looked at each other awkwardly. When Tel Arman prompted the boys with a fierce glare Polnar started the healing song and Mark strengthened it immediately. Between the two of them, they could sing the chant well enough for the other boys to start picking it up. Brendan, Luke and Deanna consulted among themselves briefly and then disappeared through an opening in the wall. Tel Arman and Miles positioned themselves on the edge as they saw the three rescuers approach a lone figure sitting on a bed. By the time the healing chant had been repeated one more time, Dunsland’s rescuers were gone. Malcoomb plopped himself down in a corner and buried his face in his arms.

The chanting was growing in force with each repetition, and Tel Arman thought he saw a bit of color return to Danzigger’s face when a cloud of darkness suddenly crushed the sparkling light on one of the walls like a giant fist closing over it. Several boys screamed and the chanting fell apart. Yellow and orange swirls emerged out of the dark cloud and a dragon twice the size of a grown man took shape in the midst of the boys. Riding the dragon was a man wearing a gray robe with flames flashing from his sleeves. He spoke in a voice that shook all of Merithwell and every syllable blacked out one more stone’s worth of Merithwell’s sparkling light.

“THIS FORTRESS HAS BEEN CREATED WITH MAGIC NOT IN ACCORD WITH THE LAWS AND REGULATIONS OF THE MASTER MAGI OF DRAKKENFLEISS. THEREFORE, THIS FORTRESS CONSTITUTES A MENACE TO ALL WORLDS. VACATE THIS FORTRESS IMMEDIATELY IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIVES. THE STUDENT MAGI OF THE DRAKKENFLEISS ACADEMY WHO HAVE PROVEN THEMSELVES TO BE TRAITORS WILL BE TREATED WITH THE REQUISITE SEVERITY. WE WILL DESTROY THIS FORTRESS ONE INSTANT LATER THAN IMMEDIATELY.”

Then the dragon and the Master Magus riding it disappeared.

Proceed to Chapter the Second of Part the Sixth

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