Session 6 - Tracks That Lead Nowhere

12 Sleepwind 850 (morning)

Interlude

Elvar Morren was seething with rage. Over the course of hundreds of years, a certain order had taken shape in “Gareza”, and now someone had begun to undermine it. Brazenly, almost demonstratively. Yesterday's incident involving Talik pointed directly to Lial Mahal as the culprit, except Elvar himself was his irrefutable alibi — Lial had been in his office and therefore could not have been in that waterworks chamber. And what did that mean? Anything at all! The Senior Overseer drummed his fingers on the desk. Perhaps someone wanted to frame Lial, and he had simply been lucky enough to have Elvar as a witness. Or Lial knew someone wanted to frame him and wanted to have an alibi. Or perhaps it was all part of Lial's own scheme. Or some other, utterly insane plan. It was also somewhat suspicious that Lial himself had asked for the meeting. There was nothing unusual about that; he had provided information in exchange for various privileges before. And one could not say that anything had been different this time, yet the feeling that he had simply been used would not leave the Senior Overseer. Moreover, Lial had not only failed to deny that he had plans for Talik; he had said so himself, supposedly wanting the boy to heal some old injury. That was the very “privilege” Lial had come for. Overall, interrogating Lial yielded nothing. Neither did interrogating Talik. The boy had identified Lial only by the scent of oils; he had not seen the man himself. Talik could not say with certainty that the voice he had heard was Lial's. A whisper was just a whisper. The guards had pointed to Lial as well. And made the same mistake — they had identified him only by scent. Further inspection showed that a large portion of the prisoners now reeked of that scent. Apparently, after the incident, someone had managed to splash aromatic oils onto other people's clothes. It was now many times harder to determine who had impersonated Lial yesterday. In any case, Talik or Lial, or perhaps both of them, were at the center of this sabotage, so Elvar Morren also ordered the guards to stop any attempts at contact between Talik and Lial or anyone in his circle.

Talik did not sleep at all that night. First there had been the conversation with Elvar Morren. And not in his office, but, for some reason, in the basement again. After the conversation, the boy was returned to his room, but he still could not fall asleep. Talik's head buzzed from trying to understand what had happened. The boy already knew that something had gone wrong, but he could not figure out what, because he had done as he was told. Not everything, because he had not had time, but he had done it. Lial had promised that Talik could see his mom if he did everything. And he had done everything, hadn't he? Or had he not done everything? What if something had been wrong, and now he would not be able to see his mom as promised? Talik had even managed to ask Elvar Morren about it as their conversation was ending, but instead of answering, the man waved his hand dismissively and ordered the guards to take Talik to his room. All these thoughts stayed with the boy until morning.

Morning brought another surprise. The guards who were supposed to take Talik to the mines unexpectedly passed the usual turn and led him farther on, to the upper tiers. At one point, the boy thought that all of this was somehow connected to his mom, but this time, for some reason, thoughts of her made him nervous.

Two guards stopped them at another gate. One of them checked something in the papers and said:

“Cleaning in Sector A-6. Left at the first intersection, all the way down the corridor, second-to-last door on the left. You'll sort it out there.”

They led Talik onward. The boy's mood worsened even more. He realized that they were not taking him to his mom after all, but to a new workplace. When the guards suddenly stopped after the intersection, he was even confused, because the end of the corridor and the indicated door were still far away. The next moment, a blow to the chest knocked all the air from his lungs. Gasping for air, Talik lost his balance and fell to his knees. The blows did not stop. The boy tried to cover himself, but a kick knocked him to the ground. Then they kicked him as he lay there. Trying to crawl away, the boy saw that the second guard who had been escorting him was calmly looking around instead of intervening. Finally, when the blows stopped, the guards grabbed him under the arms and dragged him into the nearest room. There they threw him into the middle of the room and toppled a couple of nearby shelving units onto him. Before leaving, one of the guards crouched beside Talik and said quietly:

“If you've got any brains, you'll say it was an accident.”

Talik lay curled up and cried. His entire body hurt from the blows so badly that it was difficult just to move. When he heard footsteps, he squeezed his eyes shut at first, afraid they were about to start beating him again. But it was Mirin. She slowly lifted the fallen shelving units, freeing Talik from beneath them. When the last shelving unit had been moved, the woman slowly approached the boy, crouched beside him, and said in a measured voice:

“Well, I don't see any open wounds, so it's not all that bad… But they really gave you a beating… Did those guards really decide to get even for yesterday?”

Talik did not know how to answer, so he simply tried to shrug. The simple movement sent a wave of pain through him. Mirin helped the boy sit up, then brought her face almost right up to his and hissed:

“Why does everything go wrong with you? This is already the second time you've ruined the plan, and it hasn't even been a day!”

The woman rose sharply and left the room. Talik saw her looking around. Suddenly, her expression changed. She waved to someone and called out in a voice completely unlike the one the boy had just heard:

“Hey! Our genius got pinned under something here. Help me drag him into the next room; there's water there. I'll clean this up before the guards blame us for this mess. I'll be quick — just move him, and I'll take care of him myself afterward.”

Her voice sounded gentle, like his mom's. Talik remembered how Mirin had spoken to him just before and shuddered. Some man entered the room, took Talik under the arms, and dragged him into the next room. Mirin returned almost as soon as the man left. Her voice was unkind again, and her gaze was angry:

“Listen up. Now you're going to climb through this grate and go down to the room where you demonstrated so nicely yesterday that you know how to follow instructions. I hope you haven't forgotten them yet?”

At first, Talik smiled when he heard the praise that he had done something well, but Mirin's angry voice made him doubt that it was really praise. Meanwhile, Mirin continued, her voice turning into a hiss:

“This would be much easier if you were in one piece. So get up, blow on yourself, or whatever it is you do, and climb in before someone else comes. I really hope you survive down there.”

Mirin approached the wall and lifted the grate, revealing a circular passage in the wall. With a heavy sigh, she continued in a calm voice:

“As you were told, this will hurt a little. So, if it weren't for those guards who got hurt yesterday because of your stunt, the trip would take you much less time.”

The woman suddenly fell silent. Her gaze shifted somewhere to the side, and she slowly added:

“And remember, this is your chance to meet your mother.”

Talik slowly stood and began blowing on his stomach and chest. He really did feel much better, but every step still sent a dull pain through his entire body. When the boy began clumsily climbing into the opening, Mirin, still holding the grate, hissed:

“Hurry up. I still need enough time to screw the grate back into place. And don't forget the order of the steps.”

At last, the boy managed to grab hold of something and climb into the opening. The grate clicked softly behind him, and the boy crawled into the depths of the pipe, muttering under his breath, “that one left, wait for the whistle, this one right.” Talik crawled fairly quickly. Sometimes he came to forks, but only one route was ever open, while the others were blocked by metal hatches. There was none of the pain Lial and Mirin had mentioned, either. So when the boy crawled out of the pipe into a room, he first thought that he had made another mistake somewhere, because they would not have kept talking about pain for no reason. But when Talik looked around, he realized that he was in a familiar room. The same one where the valves were. Looking around once more, Talik approached the first valve, turned it as far as it would go, and hid behind the machines. Everything just as the instructions had said. His heart pounded with anticipation of seeing his mom soon.

Time passed. Talik grew nervous, thinking that he had done something wrong again. The boy silently clenched his fists, as though that would help him understand whether everything was as it should be. At last, a whistle came from somewhere deep inside one of the machines. Talik flinched at the volume, jolted out of his stupor. With the rumble and whistling from the machines continuing to rise, the boy rushed to the second valve. After turning that one as far as it would go as well, the boy smiled. He had done everything. And he had done it right. And maybe his mom would come here right now. The whistle became unbearable, and the next instant, something hurled Talik hard against the wall. He tried to turn around to see what had struck him, but the floor suddenly vanished beneath his feet. The short fall ended in a raging current that swept Talik up, dragging him in an unknown direction. The cry that escaped his mouth took the last of his air. Water flooded his lungs. The world dimmed before his eyes.

Interlude 2

As soon as Talik had climbed fully into the opening, Mirin immediately closed it and quickly screwed back the bolts that held it. She had to act fast, since there was no telling how long the boy would take to complete his part of the plan. Talking to Talik had not been easy for her. On the one hand, there was anger because the stupid stunt had left the whole plan coming apart at the seams; on the other hand, she did not feel that she was telling the truth.

Once she had finished with the grate, Mirin tried to look carefree and headed toward the guards watching the entrance to this section.

“Guys, I'm all done here. I need to get to the mines now. Can you take me by the short route? You know how long it takes to get there the usual way.”

The woman smiled wearily. She knew these guards, and she knew they would not refuse such a small request. One of the guards smiled back and led her to the spiral stairs that went all the way down to the mines. The woman was in a hurry. While she was still near the guards, she listened for Talik's screams, but everything was quiet. It seemed the boy was doing well, which meant there really was very little time. Mirin descended to the level of the mines, greeted the guards at the next checkpoint, and headed toward the old mines. If Lial's information was accurate, Talik's actions would redirect the flow of water, which would wash away the soil and open a passage from the old mines to a system of caves that would lead them to the freedom they longed for. Mirin was keenly aware of how flimsy the plan was, but Lial had been very convincing. She tried not to think about what would happen to the boy afterward.