Storm of the Dead - Lisa Smedman [114]
"I'm making progress," Q'arlynd snapped.
He stood, thinking. If he shifted position, to the opposite side of the vision-Eldrinn, he might be able to see the entire sign. He strode to that side of the door and summoned up the vision again. He peered intently through the obscuring blur of faerie fire as the vision-Eldrinn went through the same motions, walking up to the door, touching the staff to his forehead, and tracing his finger along the door.
Then the same thing happened, someone blocked the view. And yet Q'arlynd could see the soldier clearly, standing just behind Eldrinn. Had a third person been there when Eldrinn opened the door?
Whoever it had been, Q'arlynd couldn't make out details. The form was vague, indistinct. It was there, but somehow… not there.
Q'arlynd's jaw was clenched. Realizing that would betray his frustration, he pretended to stretch sore neck muscles. He didn't want the others thinking the door had defeated him. Calm down, he told himself, and try again.
He moved to the other side of the door and summoned up the vision again. Once again, someone blocked his view. Q'arlynd concentrated on this person, trying to bring him into focus. The staff fought him. It felt as if the diamond and his forehead were two lodestones, pushing each other apart.
Q'arlynd persevered, concentrating until sweat beaded on his temple.
At last he saw that the third person clearly. The person's back was to him, but Q'arlynd recognized him at once by his distinctive hairclip. It was Eldrinn blocking the view.
For a moment, Q'arlynd thought the real Eldrinn had stepped in front of him. Then he remembered that his eyes were closed. The duplicate Eldrinn was also holding the staff. The two Eldrinns were identical in every way, except that one held the staff to the side as he traced the sign on the door, while the other held the staff to his forehead, eyes closed. And no matter what Q'arlynd did, the second Eldrinn blocked his view.
Q'arlynd tried to force the second Eldrinn out of the vision, so that he could see how the first was opening the door, but the staff wouldn't let him. He drew the staff closer, until the diamond was a painful dent against his forehead, and gritted out through clenched teeth, "Show… me…"
The staff flew from Q'arlynd's fingers and clattered to the floor.
Q'arlynd swore, barely suppressing the urge to kick it.
"What's wrong?" Piri asked, backing away in alarm.
Alexa shrugged. "Maybe it doesn't want to show him the past."
"Maybe he's got it wrong," Baltak rumbled. "Maybe the staff doesn't show the past, but the future."
"It shows both," Eldrinn said. "I'm certain of-"
"Of course it does!" Q'arlynd cried. He threw back his head and laughed. That was it! That was why there had been a double Eldrinn in the vision, because the staff was showing Q'arlynd two pasts at the same time-pasts that were separated by mere moments. Eldrinn hadn't used the staff to reveal how the ancient Miyeritari had opened the door. The boy had looked into the future, instead. His own future. He'd watched himself open the door, then duplicated what was about to happen.
Q'arlynd reached out and gently punched Eldrinn on the shoulder. "Very clever. Very clever indeed."
The boy blinked, uncomprehending. "Huh?"
The other apprentices mirrored his blank stare.
Q'arlynd scooped up the staff. "All right," he told his students. "I'm going to try it again. As before, please maintain silence. And…" he tapped his temple, "keep your distance." He closed his eyes and touched his forehead to the diamond.
Show me the future, he silently commanded. Show me myself, a few moments from now, opening the door.
The moment he thought the words, the push-pull sensation came back. He tightened his grip on the staff, refusing to let it tear from his hands. Then the vision came, as commanded. Q'arlynd watched, barely breathing, as his hand lifted to trace a sign on the door. A different sign from the one the vision-Eldrinn had traced.
Then, just as the kiira-dominated Q'arlynd from the past had done, the Q'arlynd of the future deliberately