by Sarah Hawke
“At least you aren’t a peeping mystery stone,” I muttered. “The sad thing is…I bet someone somewhere has made a device like that. Or maybe you didn’t have creepers back in your day.”
I snorted and reached out to retrieve it, but the instant before my fingers touched the stone the engravings began glowing again.
“Ile istimae dagora vassen illen Mas’Kari .”
I froze in place as the disembodied female voice echoed throughout the hold. “What did you say?”
The stone remained silent. I stood there for several long seconds, wondering if my mind was playing tricks on me. I wasn’t drunk, I wasn’t tired…had I heard what I thought I’d heard?
“If you can understand me,” I whispered, “I really need you to repeat what you just said.”
“Ile istimae dagora vassen illen Mas’Kari . Maa ar’ istima .”
“Maskari ,” I whispered. “Well, I’ll be damned…”
The stone abruptly reopened and projected a new translucent image. The lone elven instructor was replaced by two different swordsmen, one male and one female. They fought back-to-back, their motions perfectly synchronized as if they were separate parts of a greater whole. When one stopped to unleash a gout of flame or stroke of lightning, the other assumed a defensive position. And when one lunged forward to strike with his or her sword, the other whirled around to flank their opponent.
The image repeated itself over and over, and the longer I watched the more everything made sense. The spells, the movements, even the fencing techniques…it didn’t seem possible. I barely knew how to properly cut beef with a knife, let alone swing a sword. Yet if there had been one lying nearby, I was reasonably confident that I could pick it up and mimic each and every one of these moves…
“Damn,” I said, turning away and wiping at my eyes. This thing was downright mesmerizing, perhaps literally. I couldn’t sense any enchantment magic, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. This stone was easily the most advanced example of Aetheric artifice I had ever seen. It made all the baubles and trinkets in Archmage Beloran’s mansion look like apprentice-level craftsmanship by comparison. Perhaps it could inject knowledge straight into my head. If so, the possibilities were endless.
“While you’re at it, you might as well teach me how to cook, too,” I said. “What do you think?”
The image repeated itself again, but the stone remained silent.
“Figures,” I murmured. “I suppose even Avetharri artifacts have their limits.”
“Mas’Kari .”
I winced. It almost sounded like the damn thing was scolding me. Maybe there was an ancient elven grandmother trapped inside. I could imagine her ghostly finger wagging at me.
“You want me to watch? Fine, I’ll watch.” I crossed my arms and let out a deep breath. “Just remember that we’re all counting on you to show us the secret to stopping the Inquisitrix. You’d better not disappoint us.”
I watched the image again and again until my eyes started to glaze over. Even the most graceful dance in the world couldn’t hold my attention forever. Sighing, I stood and reached out for the stone—
And then, for seemingly no reason at all, everything changed.
My eyes fluttered wildly, and when they refocused I was no longer sitting on top of a wooden crate in the cargo hold—I was standing on the beach of a horizon-spanning tropical island.
“What the hell?”
I twisted around, trying to discern whether I had fallen asleep or been sucked into another dreamscape. The sun felt warm enough on my skin, and when I leaned down and grabbed a handful of sand it strained through my fingers just like normal. Everything here felt as real as when Zalheer had shown me a vision in the frozen mountains. But who was responsible for this little jaunt?
“Kaseya?” I called out. Strangely enough I couldn’t sense her at all, not even when I touched my bond ring. My consciousness must have been drifting. Was this all coming from the Dal’Rethi stone? There didn’t seem to be any other obvious explanation…
Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to concentrate and catch my bearings. As gorgeous as this beach was, I didn’t see much of a point in aimlessly wandering around on illusory sand. Fortunately, I didn’t have to—once I stretched out with my senses, I felt an irresistible pull in the Aether, almost like I was being tugged along by an invisible leash.
I followed its call, and a few moments later I arrived at a wide cave mouth farther up on the shore. I could feel the power stirring inside, but my eyes were drawn to the bodies littering the entrance. Their features were shrouded in shadows, but the red leather armor and broken spears marked them as amazon warriors.
“Is this supposed to be the future?” I asked. As always, there was no response.
Gritting my teeth, I turned back to the mouth of the cave and stepped inside. This was exactly the same place Kaseya and I had seen not long ago. The luminescent rocks, the shimmering water, the buzz of energy prickling the tiny hairs on my neck…
The Fount of Velhari.
In the ancient past, this Fount had merely been one many nexus points of Aetheric power connecting the vast reaches of the Avetharri Empire before the Dragon War had burned it all down. But none of that explained why the stone had brought me here.
I continued walking through the narrow passages, and I made a concerted effort to commit as much of the terrain as possible to memory. It wasn’t easy; the glowing crystals looked almost identical to one another. But I pressed on regardless, and I eventually reached the cavern Kaseya had shown me before. The wide, spacious chamber resembled a crystalline forest, and the shallow pool of liquid on the ground was practically humming with power.
This time, however, I was not alone. I spotted two shadowy figures at the center of the chamber, both female. Their features were shrouded in shadow just like the bodies outside, but one of the women was shackled to the largest crystalline “tree” at the center of the pool. The other woman—a tall, sleek, armored figure—loomed nearby. Energy crackled in her palm.
“Ayrael,” I said.
The figure turned to look at me. I stepped forward, my hands clutched at my sides as I struggled to pierce the shadowy veil. But just before her features came into view, she unleashed a blast of energy at the crystals. The room shuddered, the ground quaked, and I glanced up just in time to see a jagged chunk of stone plummeting towards my head—
And then I was back on the ship standing in front of the Dal’Rethi crystal.
“Okay,” I whispered, glancing about to make certain I had returned to the real world. “What the hell was the point of that?”
“As the Betrayer falls, the Daughter rises. Her rage is the harbinger of ruin, and her wrath shall usher in a new age of despair.”
My eyes narrowed at the stone. The voice had been the same as before, and it had spoken in the same strange elven dialect. But this time, for seemingly no reason at all, I understood every word.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked.
The stone did not reply.
***
I was sitting in the chair at the end of the bed, my eyes fixated on the Dal’Rethi stone, when the girls finally stirred back into consciousness. Valuri moved first. After groaning like a long-dead mummy, she favored me with a weary, what-the-hell-are-you-doing look.
“There’s something unsettling about a sorcerer staring vacantly into a relic filled with ancient knowledge,” she murmured. “If you tell me that thing is whispering dark secrets into your mind, I will shoot you.”
“Do weird visions count as dark secrets?”
“Absolutely.” She pursed her lips. “I was just being sarcastic, but if you’re serious…well, you had better hand me my crossbow.”
She leaned up, and the movement jostled Kaseya enough that her eyes fluttered open as well. This was probably the first time on our whole trip that either of them had woken up without the other one licking their quim.
“The stone,” Kaseya murmured. “Is som
ething wrong?”
“Not exactly,” I said. “When I went to pick it up a few hours ago, I was sucked into another dreamscape.
She abruptly leaned up. “What did you see?”
“I was in the Fount of Velhari,” I said, taking a deep breath to try and collect my thoughts. “It was just like Zalheer showed us. The glowing crystals, the currents of energy…but this time, there were bodies everywhere.”
“Of course there were,” Valuri grumbled. “Why would you ever have a vision of something happy?”
“Did you recognize anyone?” Kaseya asked.
“No, but they were obviously your people. Amazons, moshalim …they had all been cut down.” I paused and swallowed. “And then I saw your sister standing in the shadows, her hands glowing with Aetheric power. Before I could reach her, she unleashed some kind of spell…and everything crumbled around me.”
Val flopped back onto her pillow. “Wonderful. So now even this bloody stone thinks we’re going to fail.”
“Portents aren’t always prophecy,” I said. “And prophecies aren’t always right. I think the stone was trying to warn me. It kept repeating Avetharri words I didn’t recognize, but then suddenly they all made sense. ‘As the Betrayer falls, the Daughter rises. Her rage is the harbinger of ruin, and her wrath shall usher in a new age of despair.’” I sighed and shook my head. “I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean.”
“It seems pretty clear to me,” Valuri said. “The amazons call Ayrael the Betrayer, and Kaseya here is the Daughter of Destiny. So congratulations, Red: apparently you’re going to kill your sister then go mad with power.”
I shot her a glare. “This is serious.”
“I know, I’m being serious. How else would you interpret it?”
I opened my mouth but didn’t respond. I didn’t have another interpretation. I just really wished that I did.
“You believe it was a warning rather than prophecy,” Kaseya whispered.
“It certainly felt that way, but what do I know?” I muttered. “I almost hurled the damn thing into the ocean right then and there.”
“We could always just turn around,” Val suggested. “There’s an old Vorsalosian saying I’ve always been rather fond of: ‘fuck fate. Fuck it right in the face.’”
I glared at her again. “That’s not a saying.”
“No, but I’ve adopted it as my personal slogan anyway,” she muttered. “Look, all I’m saying is that you shouldn’t worry so much about a glorified magic pebble. So-called prophets are wrong all the time, and the Avetharri couldn’t have been that smart.”
“What makes you say that?”
“They’re pretty much all dead, aren’t they? The only survivors live on as chattel in Varellon. I bet they didn’t see that coming.”
I rolled my eyes and rubbed my hand across the impressive stubble on my chin. “I’m not saying we should panic. I’m not saying we should do anything . But it seemed worth mentioning.”
“Her rage is the harbinger of ruin,” Kaseya echoed. “I have been growing angrier and angrier ever since we learned the truth about the Fount from Zalheer. I have spent many hours pondering how to confront the Matriarch.”
“Perhaps this is another reason to pick and choose our battles,” I said. “Or maybe it’s bullshit. Who knows?”
I wasn’t even certain that Kaseya had heard me. Her eyes flicked back and forth in thought, and I could feel her internal struggle through my bond-ring. I probably should have ended the conversation right then and there, but there was one last thing I needed to tell them…
“The voice in the crystal said something else,” I murmured. “Before it showed me the vision, it kept repeating a single word: Mas’Kari .”
“That’s…unsettling,” Valuri murmured.
“It kept showing me a projection of two people fighting—a man and woman, back to back. The implications are interesting, to say the least.”
Kaseya leaned up and frowned at the stone. “Did it demonstrate any techniques?”
“Some, but I was honestly more interested in the terminology.” I pursed my lips. “I’ve picked up a few of your words by now. Kari Vataya —Red Sisterhood.”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“So the Kari means ‘Red.’ But Maskari means ‘bond-mate.’”
“The terms are more complicated,” Kaseya said. “We call ourselves ‘Red Sisters’ to mainlanders because it is easier for them to understand. There is no literal translation.” She frowned and ran a hand back through her bed-tousled hair. “Perhaps ‘unified sisters’ is closer to the true meaning.”
“What about the Mas part?”
“It is not a word by itself.”
Valuri grunted. “Is there a point in this linguistics lesson?”
“Only that most modern languages and cultures are derived from Avetharri traditions, especially in this part of the world,” I said. “The elves were using the same term, but for them it meant something completely different. In the image, the man and woman were both sorcerers, and they were fighting together as one. It just seems like yet another thing that has been reinterpreted over the years.”
“We can add it to the list of ways to antagonize the Matriarch,” Valuri muttered.
Kaseya leaned against the headboard and swallowed. “Ever since we met Zalheer, I have been eager to return home. But now…” She glanced up at me, her eyes glossy with tears. “I fear what we will discover almost as much as I fear how we will be received.”
“Yeah,” I whispered, glancing back over my shoulder at the stone. “I know exactly what you mean.”
3
The three of us were wide awake on the main deck when we finally approached Nol Krovos. Several dozen warships encircled the island, suggesting that the amazons did indeed know about the encroaching Vorsalosian fleet. Unfortunately, those same ships didn’t seem particularly interested in allowing us to land. When the lead ship fired a volley of flaming arrows into the water next to us as a warning, I grew concerned that Ferroc might turn us around altogether. But the crew mostly kept their cool, and we all watched with bated breath as one of the other ships approached. The ballista mounted on their foredeck could have sunk our measly transport in a single shot, to say nothing of the moshalim they undoubtedly had aboard as well.
Captain Ferroc attempted to flag the other ship’s down and profess his benevolent intentions, but once we could actually see the amazon warriors aboard it was clear they had no interest in speaking with an outsider, even one who had made the trip before. Without Kaseya, we almost certainly would have found ourselves rotting at the bottom of the sea.
But with her, mercifully, the amazons were more than willing to talk. They were beyond ecstatic at the return of the “Daughter of Destiny, ” and she only had to speak with them for a few minutes before they happily agreed to escort us to the shore. I belatedly regretted that I hadn’t spent more time trying to learn their language. Hopefully Kaseya’s mastery of the regional trade language was the rule rather than the exception…
We boarded a dinghy after we reached shallow water and rowed the rest of the way to shore. A large, impressive envoy was waiting for us, including several dozen amazon warriors armed with gleaming bows, spears, and shields. None of the women looked anywhere near old enough to be the Matriarch, but one did look familiar.
“Hestiah!” Kaseya said when we drew close, her lips curling into a wide smile. “She stands with her new Maskari .”
“At least someone here owes us a favor,” I murmured. The man standing next to Hestiah was so tall and muscular I felt emasculated from a hundred yards away. He was showing more skin than the women—his moshalim robe was little more than a hardened leather war skirt and a matching baldric. For the first time in my life, I was incredibly overdressed.
“I’m going to love it here,” Valuri said, sliding up next to me in the dinghy. “How many of these amazons are bound already?”
“Only half are wearing collars,” Kaseya said.
“Yes.”
“Don’t encourage her,” I warned. “If the Fount really is responsible for making all of your people sorcerers, the latent energy hanging in the air is going to make her delirious.”
“I can already feel it.” Val closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “This place really is paradise.”
I sighed. “Just try not to violate any major cultural taboos until we’ve been here for at least a few hours, okay?”
“No promises.”
We eventually rowed up to the shore, and a few of the amazons rushed forward to help us drag the dinghy onto the rocks. I drew in a final deep breath, bracing myself for any of the thousand potential ways this could go horribly wrong. Life in Vorsalos had taught me the importance of always having an exit strategy, but fleeing simply wasn’t going to be an option here. We were locked onto this island; if everything fell apart, there was nowhere left for us to run.
At least you’ll die doing what you love: being chased around by heavily-armed, sexy women who can beat the living hell out of you.
“The Vaer Tal’Shira returns,” Hestiah said when we approached. Her accent was a bit thicker than Kaseya’s, but her words were perfectly understandable. “And with her Maskari , no less.”
“It’s nice to see you again,” I replied for lack of anything better to say.
She smiled and approached so close it took all of my willpower not to glance down at her impressive cleavage. “I owe you my life,” she said, placing her hands on either side of my head.
“It’s, uh, it’s really not a big deal,” I managed. She was considerably more attractive than I remembered from the boat, probably because she had been on the verge of death at the time. Her red hair was a shade or two lighter than Kaseya’s, and her light brown eyes stood out as remarkably unique compared to all the fair-haired, blue- and green-eyed women around her.