“What do the Varai do with their dead?” Kadaki said, staring at him with the unblinking gaze she used on things that had caught her discriminating interest.
“Put them on scaffolding on the cliffside for the dead in Vondh Rav, or in the trees outside their villages.” When everyone looked blankly at him, he added, “So the carrion birds and animals can eat their flesh.”
There was an outburst of revulsion from everyone but Novikke and Kadaki.
“That’s disgusting,” Vissarion said.
Aruna raised his eyebrows, amused. “Burying someone in the ground is disgusting,” he said matter-of-factly. “Are you hiding them? Or saving them for later? Like a squirrel burying nuts?”
“The former,” Novikke said.
“We don’t have time for burying anyone or building scaffolding,” Vissarion said. “The longer we stay here, the better chance there is of running into more night elves or worse.”
Everyone knew he was right. Thala picked at a chunk of hardtack, downcast. Aruna watched her. After a few moments of silence, he spoke up again.
“We leave them in the open because…” He paused, as if selecting words carefully. “Because then they can still be of use. Because it’s the last selfless act we can make for the world around us. It’s not an unkindness to let them be. It means that they’ll be a part of something bigger than themselves. The forest gives us our bodies, and when we die, we give them back.”
Novikke couldn’t tell what Thala thought of this, but the woman listened, then nodded slowly.
“We have to find the captain before we think about leaving,” Vissarion said. “There might be other survivors with him.”
Aruna looked up sharply. “No,” he said simply.
Vissarion frowned at him. “No?”
“I’m not taking him back,” he said casually, looking at his food again. “He can remain here and become a part of the forest, as well. It’ll probably be the most use he’s ever been to anyone.”
“There could be others with him,” Novikke reminded him.
“And?” He wasn’t looking at her.
Novikke’s eyebrows arched. She didn’t care much what happened to Theros, but she hadn’t thought about the people Theros had taken with him. They might not have had a choice in going with him.
“And if there are, they’re helpless here, so we should help them. Which I know is a fact you’re perfectly able to work out for yourself.”
Maybe he was in a poor mood after the discussion about burials, because he still argued. “They wanted to come here so badly even after I told them to leave so many times. At what point should they have to live with the consequences of their foolishness?”
Novikke frowned. Any one of the other soldiers could have been herself, if her life had played out a little differently. It could have been her that he was so carelessly abandoning.
“Aruna,” she said quietly, but she knew everyone was listening anyway. “They were under orders. Don’t be like this. This isn’t you.”
He gave a thin smile. “How would you know that? We hardly know each other.”
“I know enough,” she snapped, echoing his words from the previous night. “I know you’re not that cruel, right?”
He finally looked up at her, the corners of his lips tipped down. She saw a hint of shame on his face, but then he looked to the rest of them. “Haven’t I already agreed to do enough for you? After you shova me and nhahaz va khira?”
There was a confused pause. “What?” Novikke said.
He waved a hand. “And what have you iv saava kada? Shin aksadaven va vaira na.”
“What?” Vissarion said.
Aruna blinked up at him. “Khen?” When no one answered, he brought a hand to the cloth collar at his neck. He sighed, then pulled it off. Kadaki quickly held out a hand, and he tossed it to her.
“It’s broken?” Thala said, frowning.
“It ran out of magic,” Kadaki replied.
“Can you fix it?”
“I’m not an enchanter. Even if I was, it takes time, and there’s equipment—” She looked annoyed by the question, embarrassed by having one of her few incompetencies revealed.
“I speak Varai,” Neiryn interrupted. “I’d translate what he just said, but it was just more whining that’s not worth repeating.”
Novikke wished she’d known the enchantment would fail so soon. She’d taken it for granted.
“Correct procedure when the group gets separated is to find the captain and wait for further orders,” Vissarion said. He turned to Neiryn. “Tell him to take us to the ruins. He may have headed there. It’s as good a place to start searching as any.”
Neiryn looked more amused than insulted. “I’m not a member of your army. I’m not some underling to be ordered around.”
Vissarion grit his teeth. “Tell him please.”
“Do you really understand what Theros was trying to do here?” Novikke asked. “He’s playing with magic he doesn’t fully understand and may not be able to control. His decisions are questionable. Maybe you shouldn’t be so quick to seek out his orders.”
“I’ll follow the orders I’m given without being so arrogant as to think I know better than my superiors. That’s my job. It’s yours, too, even if you’ve forgotten.”
“Oh? Were you not just discussing mutiny with Thala the other day?”
His eyes narrowed. “I discussed no such thing, nor did I hear anyone speak of it, and if anyone asks, that’s what I’ll tell them.”
“That’s too bad,” Novikke said. “I hoped you might have been starting to think for yourself, for once.” She turned to Kadaki. “This is all more dangerous than they’re telling us, isn’t it? Whatever he’s trying to do—what are the chances of it backfiring?”
Kadaki frowned. “Low. As long as I’m there to supervise.” Before she could say anything else, the ground rocked under them.
Novikke thought at first that it was just her, that she was being hit with some illness that had put her balance off, but then all of them were wobbling, struggling to stay standing. The ground was shaking beneath their feet.
“What in the hells—” Thala sputtered, grabbing onto Kadaki for balance.
There was a massive rumbling, the sound a mountain might make if it collapsed in on itself. Tiny cracks formed in the ground. Strange black vapor rose out of the ground like steam from a kettle, clouding over her feet. She tried to back away from it, but more of it appeared where she walked. It was everywhere.
Aruna’s hand came down on her shoulder, pulling her toward him as if to protect her from it.
“What is that?” Novikke said before remembering that he wouldn’t understand. He looked up at her, bewildered.
The shaking of the ground lessened, then stopped. The rumbling grew more quiet, but it was still there in the distance, like the rushing of an underground river.
Neiryn snapped something at Aruna, which Aruna gave a short reply to.
“He says he doesn’t know,” Neiryn said.
“Another attack from the…whatever it was that made that darkness the other day?” Aleka said, looking petrified.
“Do you think it’s poisonous?” Thala said, examining the smoke.
Kadaki was frowning, her gaze on something past the trees. Novikke could see her working through something. She was afraid Kadaki was thinking the same thing she was. “Kadaki?” Novikke said. “What is it?”
The mage bit her lip and said nothing, but started through the woods toward the cliffside where Novikke and Aruna had spent the night. Novikke followed, stirring up the vapor at her feet as she went. She heard the others follow behind her.
As they broke through the trees at the top of the cliff, Novikke saw what Kadaki had been looking for.
Across the valley, the ruins were alight with explosions of magical light. Black fog poured from the obelisk at the center of the ruins, running across the stone and through the trees, swept away by an unnatural wind that circled the ruins. If the
forest itself could have expressed anger, Novikke thought it would look a lot like this.
She saw movement. There were people down there in the fog.
Aruna let out a string of words that could only have been expletives.
Novikke turned to Kadaki. “What is that?”
“Captain Theros made it to the ruins.” Kadaki gave a short, self-conscious glance in Aruna’s direction.
“He did this?” Thala asked. Another vibration went through the ground, challenging their footing, and she cursed.
“He must have tried to uncap the ruin’s magic on his own,” Kadaki said.
“He wouldn’t,” Thala said, aghast.
“He would,” Vissarion said disapprovingly, to Novikke’s surprise. Even his confidence in the man was wavering with this new development.
Novikke grabbed Kadaki’s arm. “Aruna told me—He told me that something like this could destroy the forest. That it could have ripple effects in lands across the entire continent. Is that true?”
She shifted, clearly feeling everyone’s eyes on her. “Yes.”
Novikke glared. “You knew something like this could happen, and you still went along with it?”
“It shouldn’t have been like this. If he’d done it the way I told him we should, if he’d let me have a chance to control it, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”
“Maybe?”
Kadaki opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. She spared a subtle glance at Neiryn, and looked away when she saw that even he wore his disapproval openly.
Novikke gazed down at the ruins. The vortex of wind and fog was growing stronger.
“We should get out of here,” Aleka said.
“No,” Kadaki said. “We have to go down there and stop it.”
“Can you do that?” Thala asked.
“Yes,” she said, the word inviting no argument. She looked toward where Aruna had been standing, and they all realized that he’d already started down the curve of land that went around the canyon toward the ruins. Kadaki broke into a run to follow him.
“What are you going to do?” Novikke called, running after her. The rest of them were close on her heels.
“Put a cap on the well,” she said. “I think he’s opened it and created a leak. There’s a huge amount of magic pouring out of the ruins. I can feel it.”
“So can I,” Novikke said, glancing around at the shreds of darkness and popping sparks that were now dancing in the air as they got closer to the ruins. Even she, a non-mage without an ounce of magical aptitude in her, could sense the prickling static of magic flowing over her skin.
They slowed when they came to a particularly thick cloud of darkness, then worked through it carefully. It smelled of burning tar and lightning and rain, and felt dry, like dust in the air. There was nothing natural about it. Was this what pure magic looked like?
The earth quaked as they neared the ruins. As the white stone loomed above them, the sky darkened. A storm of wind and dark clouds spiraled above them. The wind and the quaking of the earth and the screaming of magic energy roared in Novikke’s ears. As she stepped onto the first of the white stones, wild gales pulled at her and she struggled to stand straight.
Novikke held her hand in front of her eyes, trying to shield it from the swirling dust and debris in the air. Near the obelisk in the middle of the ruins stood Theros, facing away from them. At his feet was a flat, glowing object, through which the vapor was emanating. Fog rolled past, engulfing the entire space in a dark cloud.
“By the Five,” Thala said, barely audible over the roaring.
Aruna grabbed Kadaki’s arm, saying something. Hair whipped around his face, framing panicked features. Kadaki was already staggering toward Theros, with Neiryn close behind her. Aruna whirled to face the rest of them, his eyes stopping on each of them briefly. Novikke had never seen him so furious.
Without warning, he walked up to Vissarion and jerked the man’s sword from its sheath before he could react. When Vissarion leapt after him, grabbing for the sword, Aruna smoothly brought the blade down on his arm. It slid down Vissarion’s vambrace and landed at his wrist. Vissarion jumped back. Novikke saw blood spilling over his hand. Aleka ran to him, bending to check the extent of the wound.
Novikke gaped. “Aruna!” she shouted, reaching toward him, but he’d already turned to run toward Theros.
Gods, he meant to fight him.
Thala rushed through the wind after him, sword in her hand. Novikke ran behind her, drawing Zaiur’s sword without knowing yet what she meant to do with it.
Kadaki had pushed Theros aside and was staring at the object on the ground. As Novikke got closer, she saw that it was some kind of portal—a shimmering frame made of light, with black emptiness descending seemingly into the ground beneath it. Kadaki bent her knees, setting a solid stance against the wind flapping her cloak. She held her hands out and her lips moved slowly as she murmured a spell. Neiryn stood at her side, his jaw tense, looking down into the smoking portal. Novikke could not imagine what he saw inside of it.
Theros stood to the side, staring at the portal with dread. He could tell he’d done something wrong, then. At least he had some amount of sanity remaining, then. He looked up when he saw Aruna coming toward him, and his expression hardened. He deftly drew his sword. He would not be a novice swordsman. Novikke was filled with apprehension at the thought of Aruna dueling him.
But Thala got to Aruna first. She caught hold of his fluttering cloak and jerked him backwards. He whirled on her, teeth bared. His sword came up. He took a step forward to strike.
Novikke’s stomach dropped. She leapt between the two of them, sword up to block Aruna’s blade, her back to Thala to keep her from advancing on Aruna. Aruna stopped short, glaring at Novikke. She just shook her head at him, dismayed.
Just a few minutes ago, he’d been trying to comfort Thala about the state of the dead they’d left on the ridge. Whatever good will they’d nurtured in the past day had disappeared in an instant.
The ground vibrated again, and they all pitched sideways. Novikke felt Thala’s hand on her shoulder as they both tried to steady themselves. Kadaki’s slight frame was bent over the portal, her face scrunched up with effort or pain or both. Her arms had started to droop. Neiryn was holding onto her, and it looked like he was the only thing holding her upright.
Novikke caught movement out of the corner of her eye, and turned to see Theros behind Aruna. A shock went through her, and she felt herself moving toward them, starting to shout a warning, not quickly enough.
Aruna jerked forward suddenly, a look of blank surprise on his face. He looked down at the blade that had sprouted from his midsection like a hideous sapling from fleshy earth. Blood seeped from beneath the sword.
The world slowed down. Novikke’s vision darkened around the edges. Her heart pounded in her ears, blocking out all other sounds.
No.
No.
Theros jerked the sword out of him. Blood poured down Aruna’s front. He staggered. Dropped the sword in his hand. Fell to his knees at Novikke’s feet. Blood. So much blood.
Her hands were white-knuckled on the hilt of her sword. She raised it and roared as she thrust it toward Theros. He looked up in surprise and countered her attack with a sidestep and a returning blow. Novikke didn’t move to avoid it, like he’d thought she would. Like anyone with any sense of self-preservation would.
She altered the trajectory of her thrust and kept going, leaning straight into the point of his sword. His blade pierced her side as hers pierced his. They were killing blows.
There was a look of blank shock on his face that must have matched hers. The pain was immense.
And then the sword’s magic began to work. As the life drained out of him, it flowed into Novikke, sealing her wound as quickly as it had appeared.
He looked her in the eyes as she held her sword there, letting blood soak through his clothes. He tried to swipe at her again with his blade—his blade that was
still coated in Aruna’s blood—and Novikke thrust the sword deeper into him. It was only when the life was fading from his eyes that the cloud of rage in her mind thinned, and she realized the gravity of what she’d done.
And she didn’t regret it. Not the slightest bit.
She felt his weight growing heavier on the sword as his knees buckled. She pulled her sword from his body and let him fall. He fumbled for something in his pocket, his hands slowing as he did. His eyes closed as he pulled out a tiny bottle. A panacea. His hands stopped moving before he could uncork it. His limbs went limp.
Night Elves of Ardani: Book Two: Sacrifice Page 14