Riwenne & the Bionic Witches

by Kristen S. Walker

  An image from the creation story flashed before my eyes: the twin goddesses standing side by side. Quilla was her sister’s opposite. Would her magic counter Chysa’s somehow?

  I stopped trying to break the ribbons of magic and pushed them aside to expose Chysa’s golden thread. I drew on the power from the moonstone and channeled it straight into Chysa’s. Where the two powers touched, both melted away into nothing.

  Without Chysa’s magic to hold them together, the other energies weakened at last. In a blinding flash of light, the magics broke apart.

  We were flung back across the floor, hitting the opposite wall of the sunken temple, but I felt the pain distantly as I watched. The shock wave probably saved us. The crystal prison cracked down the middle and shattered into a thousand shards, raining down like broken glass on the spot where we’d been standing.

  Quilla smiled and stepped out of her ancient jail, unmarked by the destruction. She bent forward and offered her hand to me.

  When I pushed up off the floor, my body protested every movement. There were fresh bruises and cuts all over from the violent explosion, on top of muscles already tired and sore from our long swim to the bottom of the ocean. But when I touched Quilla’s hand, I felt the incredible strength of her power flowing through me, healing every wound and ache as if they had never existed.

  “Thank you,” I breathed, staring up at her in reverence. She was even more beautiful and awe-inspiring up close. Of all the deities we’d met, she had the most impressive presence. I wanted nothing more to fall on my knees and get lost in reverence.

  Quilla smiled as if she could read my thoughts. “I am the one who owes my gratitude to you, my champion,” she said, and released my hand. The pressure of her touch lingered on my skin.

  I turned to see if my friends needed help, but my vision blurred for a moment, because it seemed like Quilla was in many places at once. I saw her bending over Kyra on my left to touch her ankle, which was twisted at a wrong angle. But she was also on my right, speaking with Amena. And just behind her, she was helping Janera. I blinked, and she was back in the center of the room. My friends stood around me, healed and smiling in a dazed way.

  Quilla’s gaze met mine, and I had to brace myself against the full force of her attention. “You have all succeeded in the mission given to you when you agreed to serve me and the other gods.” Her eyebrows drew down with concern. “However, this is only the first step to setting right the horrible damage my sister has wrought. We cannot rest until Chysa’s tyrannical rule of all the gods and mortals has ended. So we must ask you, our warriors, to help us continue the fight.”

  I only had to glance around at my friends to see the determination in their eyes. They saw my look and nodded back. I raised my right hand and clenched it into a fist. “We’ll do whatever it takes. What’s next?”

  Quilla smiled with satisfaction, and my heart filled with warmth at the knowledge that I’d pleased my goddess. “I knew I could count on all of you,” she said, spreading her hands in a blessing. “In the beginning of time, we placed our power into our creations so they could help sustain us. Now that I’m no longer cut off from the moon, I will regain some of my strength.”

  She touched the moonstone in my hand, and it shone brighter than ever. I had magic of my own again, even stronger than before.

  “But,” Quilla went on, “our greatest creation was humanity, and we rely on their prayers. Chysa has limited the worship of the other gods and banned even the mention of my name. Before I can challenge her, I must level the playing field, and for that I need your help to spread the word of me.”

  I didn’t want to disrespect the goddess by questioning her plan, but she seemed to sense I had a question. She looked straight at me and raised her eyebrows. I flinched, but the words spilled out anyway. “Um, I’m wondering why you can’t just appear to people now you’re free? You could tell them the truth about Chysa and show them you’re not evil. They say seeing is believing.”

  Quilla’s patient smile reminded me of my teachers trying to help me through school when I got things wrong for the hundredth time. “It would be too risky for me to do anything that draws Chysa’s attention, when I’m not strong enough to keep her from trapping me again.” She turned to Amena. “You summoned Deejanara, Qachmy’s daughter, before a crowd of people. How did that work out?”

  Amena stiffened up. “The government called it a hoax and most people refused to believe it.”

  “But some people believed,” I burst out. The others looked at me, so I bowed my head. “I mean, isn’t some progress better than nothing? And we could protect you from your sister.”

  Kyra elbowed me in the ribs. “There’s no way we could take on the sun goddess,” she hissed.

  “I admire your courage,” Quilla said with another smile of infinite patience. “When the time is right for me to make a public appearance, I will call on your help. But for now, we must prepare the way with caution. Find a more subtle way to encourage their belief without drawing too much attention from those in power.”

  Tika hopped up and down on my shoulder. “We’ll think of something. The rebellion has worked under a low profile for years.”

  Quilla raised her hands again. “Good. For now, I shall return you to the surface. You put a great strain on yourselves by coming here, so rest for today.”

  I wasn’t ready to leave. A million questions whirled around my mind, everything I’d thought about over the past few months since Tika had first spoken to me. But even as I opened my mouth, it was too late.

  The moon goddess waved her arms and a silvery bubble formed around us. Faster than an airship, it carried us out of the temple and up through the dark canyon. I reached for the goddess but she faded from sight.

  Janera pressed her hand against the side of the bubble, but couldn’t break the smooth surface. “We’re rising too fast! Won’t we get sick if the pressure changes quickly?”

  Tika ruffled her feathers. “Quilla will take care of us, don’t worry.”

  The bubble was large, but the curved floor still made for uneven footing. When I looked up to track our progress, I swayed and almost fell over.

  Kyra grabbed my hand and steadied me. My whole face heated, and when I glanced at her, I saw she was smiling at me. I clung to her hand the rest of the way up, keeping my face tipped back so I couldn’t see the others. I didn’t dare to think about how Amena or Vilqa would react if they saw us.

  All around us, the light was growing as we ascended from the depths of the sea, until it grew bright as daylight. The bubble broke through the surface and bobbed on a wave, then steadied on the surface. The top half slid back and released us.

  We gasped at the fresh air, although we hadn’t needed to hold our breaths or breathe underwater for some time. The air was fishy and tangy with salt, with a chill breeze, but untouched by magic. With the open sky above us, I felt a weight sliding off my chest. We’d survived the impossible journey to the bottom of the ocean.

  Something seemed different. I scanned the water, trying to think of what had changed. I raised my hand to shield my eyes and realized what was wrong—there wasn’t any sunlight. A blanket of gray clouds had rolled in along with the cold breeze. I was sure the sky had been clear at the start of the day. Without being able to see the sun, I couldn’t tell how long we’d been underwater.

  Kyra gave my hand a final squeeze and dropped it, stepping carefully to the edge of the half-bubble we floated in. “Look, there’s Deryt with the boat,” she said, pointing across the water. She cupped her hands around her mouth. “Hey! We’re over here!”

  Deryt rowed over and stared at the glowing half-bubble that was holding us up. “You made it back up a lot faster than Uqra expected. When did you learn this spell? And what happened to your clothes?”

  I looked down and saw that we were still wearing our priestess robes. “We found Quilla,” I said with a reverent sigh. “Her power is incredible. Oh, we have so much to tell you!”

&nb
sp; Amena looked around. “First, we should get out of these robes and off this thing before anyone sees us. We’re way too conspicuous.” She waved her hand, and her clothes changed back into the dull, unfashionable style we’d been wearing to “blend in” with the locals on the ground.

  I hesitated to give up the magical moment, but the others were swapping their clothes and climbing into the rowboat with Deryt. I had a fully powered crystal giving me plenty of divine magic. It was easy for me to transform the priestess robe into my cheap, factory-made peasant dress.

  Less easy was climbing from a half-sphere into a rowboat when both of them were rocking on the ocean. I was the last one to get out of the bubble, and I was afraid that it would tip over with my weight. It stayed upright, but a large wave hit just as I tried to step into the rowboat. Despite Deryt and Janera’s best attempts to support me, I toppled face-first into my friends.

  “Oof!” Kyra groaned as my shoulder crashed into her side. “Do you always have to be so clumsy?”

  “I’m sorry,” I mumbled, struggling to untangle myself from the others.

  Janera lifted me up and helped me into an empty seat. “It’s okay, we’ve all had a long day. Let’s get back to land and I can make a hot meal.”

  My stomach rumbled at the mention of food, and the others laughed, but it sounded good-natured. I relaxed a little and leaned back in the boat to get comfortable for the ride.

  “That’s convenient,” Amena said, whipping her head around. “The rest of the bubble thing disappeared when we got out.”

  I turned to my head but saw no trace of the vessel that had carried us to the surface. “Quilla must have known we didn’t need it anymore.” I looked at the sky again and saw those dark clouds spreading out in every direction. “When did the weather change?”

  “These clouds showed up within the past hour,” Uqra breathed. She’d settled back on Amena’s shoulder since Deryt was rowing. “There was no trace of them before that. I felt Sawycha and Sano’s power in the air, so I thought something might happen they didn’t want Chysa to see.”

  Quilla’s words about the gods gaining power from their own creations came back to me. “Do you mean if they block the sun, Chysa can’t see what’s going on down here?” I asked.

  Uqra shook her head. “It doesn’t stop her awareness, but it limits it. Such an obvious move might make her suspicious. What happened?”

  The five of us told Deryt and Uqra about our journey, with Tika piping up to correct us now and then. Deryt mostly grunted, until Janera insisted that she’d gotten all of her strength back thanks to the goddess’s power and took over the oars. Uqra listened quietly.

  “Now we just need to spread the word so people will worship Quilla and all the other gods again,” I capped off the story with a grin.

  Vilqa wagged their finger at me. “But she also said that you can’t just try the same thing you did last time. Did you summon Qachmy’s daughter in front of a whole crowd of people? I never heard anything about a goddess appearing in Lyndamon City.”

  Kyra folded her arms. “The government declared the whole thing a hoax and an act of terrorism.”

  Vilqa’s eyes widened. “Wait, you guys are terrorists? I think I’ve seen wanted posters with your faces. And that means…” They turned to Amena. “You’re that Amena? Like, the famous singer?”

  I burst out laughing. “Wait, you’ve been with us for how many days now and you never recognized her?” I guess in all the excitement, I hadn’t given Vilqa a complete introduction to the whole group. They didn’t know everything we’d been through.

  “Not anymore,” Amena said with a shake of her head. “Since I’m wanted for terrorism, I can’t perform now.”

  I could see the sadness on her face. Singing had been her real dream, not working for the rebellion. I wish there was a way she could have her normal life while she kept on fighting, but nothing was normal for any of us now.

  Then an idea struck me. I was so excited that I almost lurched to my feet, but the swaying boat knocked me back onto my seat when I started to move.

  “Whoa, calm down,” Janera warned, bracing the oars to steady us.

  “Sorry,” I said. I leaned forward and grabbed Amena’s hand. “What if you could sing again? Isn’t that a way to get the word out?”

  Amena raised one eyebrow at me. “Yeah, I’ve tried to use my songs to support the rebellion’s ideas. But if I show my face in public, I’ll get arrested.”

  I squeezed her hand. “We’ve used magic to disguise ourselves before. What if it was some kind of publicity stunt, like, come see the masked singer?”

  Deryt cleared his throat. “Won’t people recognize her voice, though? Even if she did all new songs, it wouldn’t take long for her fans to recognize who she really was. And if you don’t tell her fans who she is, no one has a reason to show up.”

  Amena tilted her head to one side, lost in thought. “It could be like an open secret. We won’t use my name, but there will be enough clues for people to figure it out.” She gave me a cautious smile. “There’s still a lot of details we’d have to work on, like finding a concert venue willing to host a known criminal. I might still have some contacts in the music industry willing to help me. It’s a wild idea—but we just might pull it off.”

  I squealed with delight. Seeing Amena in concert the first time had been a highlight of my life, and I couldn’t wait to watch her again. Especially if it made her happy and got us closer to completing our new mission. “So, we have a plan, then?”

  Amena’s smile widened. “We’ve got a plan!”

  19

  Songwriting

  It worried me that it could take a long time before Amena heard from anyone about planning a concert. She’d taken forever to get in touch with her rebel contacts last month. But she popped off a few messages from the airship and we got a reply the next morning.

  “Oh, honey, it’s so good to hear from you!” a falsetto man’s voice gushed, crackling over the radio. “Life has been positively dull since you dropped off the face of the world. So, you want to start a comeback tour? I love it!”

  Amena glanced around at the rest of us, crowded into the cockpit to listen. “Yes, Bymonten,” she said patiently. “But since there’s that warrant out for me, I wondered if we could arrange it somehow as an open secret. Like, I’d wear a disguise and we wouldn’t put my real name on anything. Make it so the authorities don’t show up to arrest me.”

  Bymonten blew a raspberry or some other rude noise that made the radio hiss. “Pssh, don’t worry about that. I can pull a few strings to get you out of the silly legal trouble. Now picture this.” His voice grew higher and faster, spitting out ideas almost too quick to follow. “This could be your redemption, giving back to the fans. We’ll stage it as some kind of low budget, open-air festival as an act of goodwill. We’ll insist you’re not guilty of any wrong-doing. The attack shook you at your last concert and went into hiding for your own safety while these false accusations were flying around.”

  I looked around at the others. Could this strange man make the charges against us go away?

  Amena shook her head at us as if expecting my question. “He’s only offering to get me off the hook, and I can’t ask for the rest of you,” she said, switching off the radio’s microphone. “You’d have to stay disguised for your own safety.” She turned the mic back on. “That’s so generous of you. Are you sure you can get rid of the warrant?”

  “Sweetie-doll, I know people who make a career of keeping famous people out of jail.” Bymonten giggled. “Besides, can you imagine a pop singer turning terrorist? Outrageous. I know there were rumors about the Rinari girl after she lost Star Search, but the authorities confirmed the attack in Olona was those rebels. And what reason would you have to attack anyone? You won that contest, and you’ve only gotten more famous since then!”

  We exchanged another look. Bymonten didn’t know the real Amena. I guess she’d kept her rebel identity a secret from everyone i
n her singing career.

  Amena turned pale, and she gripped the microphone tighter, but her voice sounded upbeat as she responded. “You’re right, it is outrageous. I was just so scared of getting in trouble. I didn’t know what to do.”

  “Why, you should have come to me sooner!” Bymonten squealed. He sounded more like a teenage girl than a grown man. “I told you when I became your manager, you could rely on me for a-ny-thing.” He drew out the word. “The sooner we get started on this new tour, the better. Where are you, anyway? The authorities told me something about a robbery by a group of lowlifes in some backwards village in the Northern Province, but I knew that couldn’t be you.”

  Amena looked around for help. She couldn’t tell him we were near Damondytti, the most recent site of “terrorist activity.”

  Deryt snatched the map from the table, scanned it, then shoved it toward Amena with his finger pointing to a spot.

  Amena checked the map and nodded. “No, I never left the Central Province. I’m staying with some friends outside of Ruraqie.”

  “That’s perfect!” Bymonten clapped his hands, which echoed through the speaker. “Okay, give me a day or two to tie up some loose ends here and I can meet you in Ruraqie so we can plan. Ta-ta for now!”

  Amena agreed to the meeting time and place, and the radio switched off. She breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “Well, things are already in motion. I should meet with him by myself, at least the first time. He doesn’t know any of you guys. I don’t want him inspecting the pictures on those wanted posters.”

  Kyra rubbed her ears. “Your manager sounds like a lot. Is everyone in the entertainment business so…” She waved her hand.

  Amena smiled. “Over-the-top? No, Bymonten is just special like that.”

  Deryt folded his arms. “And what’s the likelihood this meeting you’ve agreed to is a trap? Could he just be luring you somewhere so he can turn you into the authorities?”