Birds weren’t known to have large brains, either, but I’d never say that in front of Tika.
“She’s farther down.” I looked below us, but our light didn’t penetrate all the way. “Keep going.”
I don’t know how long we swam into the darkness or how far we went. The pressure built around us, like the weight of the whole ocean was pushing down, and it made our movements slower. Tika’s magic shielded us, but I had to work hard for every breath. The fish disappeared until there was nothing but us and the endless black, with only the rocky walls of the trench rising on either side to close us in.
When I saw a faint silvery globe below us, I thought it was my imagination. But the others also murmured in surprise, so I knew they saw it too—we were all too tired to speak by then. I pushed myself to swim toward it.
The silver light grew until I saw it was a bubble of air on the bottom of the trench. I drifted down until I stood on the rock in front of it. I was afraid it might break or be sealed against us, but when I put my hand out in front of it, it slipped inside. I held my breath and stepped forward.
Water bubbled up out of my lips and sweet fresh air rushed into my lungs, reversing Tika’s magic with no effort. I looked down and saw ocean water dripping off of me, leaving my skin dry. My clothes had changed to a pure white robe like the one I’d worn as a novice priestess. The magic here was more powerful than any I’d ever felt before. No wonder, because I could see the source of the light in front of me. A gleaming temple of white marble, a simple building with tall columns.
The others followed me into the air bubble and gasped as the power changed them, too. They also had priestess robes and their hair hung loose, without a hint of salt water remaining. Each one had a locket around their necks to hold their god crystals, their lights gone out.
I felt a cool lump in my hand and looked down. The moonstone was in my grasp, although I had no memory of taking it out my pocket. It was glowing as bright as the temple before us. I lifted it up to the temple’s entrance and called, “Quilla! We are here to free you.”
The temple doors swung open without a sound.
I glanced at the others. “I guess that’s our invitation to go inside,” I said with a nervous laugh.
Kyra bowed her head. It took me a shocked moment to realize she was bowing to me, and the others did the same. “Please, after you,” she said formally. “You are Quilla’s chosen.”
I shivered at the sudden change in my friends’ behavior. I guess the holiness of this place would affect anyone. “Um, okay. Here goes nothing.” I squared my shoulders and walked to the door.
The inside of the temple was as simple as the outside. In the middle of the vaulted room, there was an enormous crystal. It shimmered between silver and gold, the light shining from it almost too bright to look at straight. I scanned the room but saw nothing else.
Only one thing to do, then. I gripped the moonstone in my left hand and reached out to touch the enormous crystal with my right.
The crystal’s light dimmed, and the surface cleared so I could see what lay in its heart. It was a beautiful woman—a goddess, her skin blue-black as midnight and her short hair silver as moonlight. A pale silk dress hung on her curved form, shining with tiny pearls. Her eyes fluttered open, sparkling like stars, and saw me. She smiled, her perfect lips curving up into dimpled cheeks.
“Riwenne,” she said, muffled by her crystal prison, but I recognized it as the voice that had echoed in my head and spoken through me. She reached out her hand and pressed it on the other side of the crystal against mine. “Thank you for coming.”
I heard my friends kneeling on the floor behind me, and I dipped my head with respect, but I didn’t want to break contact with the crystal in case I lost her again. “Quilla, it’s really you. What are you doing here? How do we get you out?”
“That’s a long story,” Quilla said. She gestured behind us. “You should sit, get comfortable. I’ll tell you everything.”
I glanced back and saw white cushioned chairs had appeared behind us. Janera pushed one up, letting me sit without removing my hand from the crystal, and I sank down. I could still feel my exhaustion, although it was distant. The power of this place would keep us going for now. We’d be hurting when all this was over.
Quilla lifted her hands. Darkness appeared in between her palms, projecting onto the surface of the crystal above our heads.
“In the beginning,” she said, her voice lilting like a song. “There was nothing and everything, all one in the void. Ibda was always there in the void, infinite and perfect, but alone.”
The darkness solidified to show a divine figure, neither male nor female—the non-binary deity Ibda, whose form was constantly shifting.
“Ibda separated the dark from the light, the first act of creation.” The image of Ibda spread their hands apart. In the left hand, Quilla’s dark form took shape, and in the right, Chysa shone with all her brilliance. “My sister and I were born from that act, and from the first, we were equals. She made the sun, and I made the moon. We helped Ibda as they created everything else—Chelynne, this world, and all the life that came to be here. The other gods were born in time and each had their roles to play, but in all things, Chysa and I were the ones who they all looked to lead them.”
As we watched, the creation of our world played out in the familiar story, with Quilla’s hand in leadership and Chysa’s. Countless gods made everything from people to mountains, animals to oceans. She focused on our continent, but I could catch glimpses of other lands around the globe, and each one looked very different. Then the gods taught people how to use their gifts: to grow maize and other crops, tame sheep and other animals, hunt in the jungle and fish in the seas, craft with stone and metal. Chysa and Quilla watched over it all.
I glanced from the projected images to Quilla still trapped behind the glass. There was a sadness in her eyes that felt all too familiar for me.
I raised my hand, hoping the goddess wouldn’t see my question as a rude interruption. She met my gaze and nodded. “Um,” I said, clearing my throat. “You and your sister seemed like you were close. What happened between you?”
Quilla tipped her head to one side. “It’s complicated. I didn’t realize at first that she was changing. As time went on, we agreed to take a more direct role in guiding humanity.” She gestured to the moving pictures, and I saw the gods grant magical powers to chosen humans—the first divine warriors. “We were supposed to maintain balance. Each tribe had their own land where they could prosper, separate but equal, and whenever there were obstacles, we helped each people to overcome them.”
Divine warriors, celebrated heroes and saints in our legends, performed their various miracles to make life better for their tribes. But then the globe turned, showing a cluster of islands to the west of our land. Volcanoes exploded, raining ash and fire on the helpless people living there.
“Sawycha came to us with a special request,” Quilla went on. “A tribe she watched over was in danger of being wiped out. She begged the other gods to find them a new home. Most of them turned her away, saying their lands were full, but Xiso offered her a solution. High in the mountains, no other tribes could live. But if she brought her people, he would give them a new animal to help them survive.”
Llamas appeared beside Xiso, without the graphic detail of their creation that we’d seen in Xiso’s temple. I leaned forward, watching with interest. This went deeper than I’d ever heard in any legend or history book.
The goddess continued her story. “Sawycha contacted a representative of the Ursan tribe to tell them about the new land. She showed them how to build bigger boats to cross the ocean and guided them to their new home. They named the land Arkia, from their ancient word for the East, and they became the first Arqans. For a time, they lived in the mountains and traded with the other tribes who lived nearby.”
The tribe built the first port at the Bay of St. Jenatta, where some of them stayed behind with the new sailing shi
ps and used them for trade on the water. More people moved up into the mountains, following the llama herds Xiso had promised them. Their old name sounded familiar, the Ursans. Was this the Old Ursan language the temples still used? So did our priestesses know about the islands our people had come from?
I raised my hand to ask, but Quilla had already moved on in her story.
“I don’t know who was the first one to covet more power,” Quilla said, looking down. “Maybe the Arqans prayed to Chysa for strength, or maybe my sister offered it to them. All I know is she gave them more and more technology, far beyond anything that any other tribe had. The crucial piece was the sunstones and the heat they generated, powering vast machines with steam. The Arqans used this to make weapons which allowed them to conquer their neighbors.”
My mouth dropped open as the moving pictures began to show scenes of war. This didn’t match up with anything I’d heard before. History books said the empire’s founding was peaceful, and they only used the military for protection against hostile forces like the rebels—at least until Rennu started attacking innocent civilians.
“Conquered?” Janera burst out, echoing my thoughts. “I thought St. Ylnauta just convinced all the tribes to unite because of her faith, or something.”
Quilla shook her head. “The priestesses of Chysa used force to bring most of the tribes under their control. Later on, some surrendered to the Arqan Empire out of fear, but there was a great deal of violence.”
Airships bombing cities. Soldiers wielding sunstones as weapons, setting fire to farms and forests. Helpless people suffering and dying. The Arqan flag waving over the conquered lands.
Quilla waved her hand, and the horrific images faded away from the crystal’s face. But they lingered in my mind. I turned away, sick to my stomach. I’d never imagined the temple I’d served had committed such atrocities.
Amena got to her feet. “This is the injustice we’re fighting against,” she said. “We have lost so much because of the empire’s rewritten history, but there’re whispers of what came before. We used to have many languages, many cultures. The Arqans forced us to speak their language and give up children to their schools so families couldn’t pass down their knowledge, promising it would make us all equal. But there is no equality when the Arqans look down on us from the flying cities while the rest of us do their dirty work. We may not remember everything about who we used to be, but we know we’re not the same.”
I looked around at my friends. Some of us had different skin colors, facial features, and body types, but I’d never thought about where those differences had come from. It seemed as random as the bright hair colors everyone was born with. Was it better to for everyone to have the same childhood, or had we lost something special with those old tribes?
Quilla nodded. “Many old traditions were lost, but yes, you are descended from many tribes.” She covered her face in her hands. “I’m sorry for all this. When I first realized what she was doing, I tried to speak with Chysa, but she turned against me. She gained the support of several other gods, promising they could share in the extra worship of her new empire, and together they all worked to trap me here.” She gestured to her crystal prison.
I swallowed hard. It was bad enough to know my so-called father and sister were terrible people who used their power to hurt others, but it seemed like my ancestors caused even more violence. No wonder Amena and Deryt treated everyone from the city with such disdain. Although we didn’t fight in that ancient war, we still had a better life because our ancestors had slaughtered theirs. There was blood on our hands.
Only one way to fix it. We had to release Quilla, but I’d already proven that channeling her power through me wasn’t enough. I had a sinking suspicion we might need the power of more gods.
I cleared my throat. “Quilla,” I said, “which gods helped Chysa trap you here?”
She turned her shimmering eyes to me. “Chysa was the final one to hide me here where no one else could find me.” She touched the inside of the crystal. “But Sawycha, Linar, Xiso, Qachmy, and Omar created this prison.”
Five gods who regretted their actions. Five gods who had chosen five champions to undo their mistake. We had always suspected it wasn’t a coincidence that the five gods of industry had spoken to us. But now, even with Vilqa taking my place as Sawycha’s chosen, one of those five champions was missing.
18
Teamwork
I turned to Tika. “Can we do this without Nexita?”
At the mention of my sister, Tika puffed out her feathers and hissed. “Why do we need that traitorous witch?”
I winced at her harsh tone, but I saved my protest. “I only meant that five gods made Quilla’s prison, so what if we need the powers of all five gods to break it? Nexita is still Linar’s champion, isn’t she?” I looked around at the others.
Kyra folded her arms. “Nexita abandoned her god when she betrayed us and took Chysa’s power instead. If it’s so important, then Linar should have sent us a replacement like Sawycha did.” She looked at Vilqa.
Tika sighed. “The trouble is we don’t have a reliable method of communicating with Linar if we don’t have his champion.”
Janera held up her hands. “Hey, let’s not get too heated. Maybe we can find another warrior. Riwenne’s good at that.” She flashed a quick smile to me.
Although she meant it kindly, my stomach flipped over. It was hard enough to accept a new member to our team with my old powers. I couldn’t bear the thought of looking for someone to replace my sister.
Amena jumped to her feet. “I don’t see why we can’t try right now with everything we’ve got.” She held up her crystal, which started to glow green. “What do we do, just blast it?”
“No!” Quilla threw up her hand. “If the crystal shatters, I might break with it. You must be careful.” She looked down at me. “Combine your powers to counter the magic of my prison.”
Something in her gaze sent a shiver down my spine. She didn’t just mean we had to pray together, like when we summoned gods before. Combining our powers must mean I had to take control of everyone else’s magic at once. Even if the others agreed to it, I didn’t know how I could hold on to so much power. I’d only borrowed magic from one person at a time.
Tika hopped onto my shoulder with authority. “Right, I’d better guide you in this.” She nodded at Amena. “Put those crystals back in their lockets, girls.” At a warning look from me, she added, “And Vilqa. You must join hands so you can give your magic to Riwenne.”
I braced myself for the inevitable fight to break out.
Amena shot me a look and turned away, but the hunch of her shoulders said everything. She still didn’t trust me.
Janera stood up and started pulling chairs away from the middle of the floor. “We’ll make a circle here.”
Vilqa came up beside me and put their hand over my right one, which was still pressed against Quilla’s prison. “Is it better to touch this while we do it? To focus the magic?”
Kyra sucked in her breath. “Guys, are we sure this is safe?” Her eyes met mine, but instead of anger, I caught a glimmer of worry. “I—I don’t want to push you too hard,” she whispered, dropping her gaze while her pale skin flushed with embarrassment.
I rushed over to Kyra, stopping myself short of touching her. I dropped to the floor in front of her so I could look up at her lowered face. “I don’t want to hurt you, either,” I said in a shaking voice. “I don’t want to hurt any of you. I promise I will be so very, very careful.” I looked over at Amena. “If you could give me a chance.”
Tika sighed. “I will supervise the whole thing with everyone’s safety in mind.”
Kyra reached down and took my hand. “If you promise.”
I squeezed her hand and nodded. I didn’t want to say the wrong thing.
Kyra stood up and led me back to the giant crystal. I placed my hands on the outside and Quilla pressed hers against mine from the inside. The goddess smiled down at us.
Vilqa and Janera joined us on either side and placed their hands over mine and Kyra’s. Without trying, I could already feel the power grow.
“You know what?” Amena said, her voice bright and cheerful. “I bet you can do this, Riwenne. You’re so stubborn that when you do something, you make it work, no matter how impossible it should be.”
She stepped up beside me as Janera slid over to give her some room. Amena smiled, and there was no mocking in her face, only genuine trust. “I believe in you,” she said.
I looked around at my friends and felt an overwhelming sense of their affection. We were a team again, working together, and they were willing to put their own powers into my hands. I grinned back. “I believe in you, too. All of you. We can do this!”
I looked straight on at the crystal prison and concentrated, drawing my friends’ magic into mine. Light grew where our hands were joined, a multicolored swirling of many powers combined. It was almost too bright for me to look at—but then I looked beyond it, into the crystalline structure around Quilla.
Now I could see the magics that bound the prison together. They were like ribbons woven into an intricate pattern—blue from Sawycha, purple from Omer, orange from Linar, and so on. I pushed our magics against them, but they were very strong, barely moving with the pressure. Each magic was perfectly matched, and with no one to counter Linar’s magic, that one link was strong enough to sustain the whole pattern.
“More,” I whispered, straining to draw a greater amount of magic from my friends. Power rushed into me in answer, filling me up so I thought I would burst. Now the light was too bright, burning into my eyes, but I couldn’t look away. All I needed was one weakness, some tiny flaw where I could slip into the pattern, and I would break it.
I thought about burning away the ribbons, overwhelming them. Then I found the extra golden thread running through their center. Chysa’s power was there too, the core strengthening the others’ magic, and it absorbed all the heat.
Riwenne & the Bionic Witches Page 14