Her eyes filled with tears. “I just wanted us to be together again.”
I wanted to reach for her, but I couldn’t feel my arms. Everything was growing cold. There was so much I wanted to tell her, about what we’d learned and how I’d missed her and it didn’t matter what she’d done. I wanted her to know I forgave her. But when I moved my lips, the only sound that came out was a terrible wet rasp.
Then darkness closed over me.
I floated in the darkness but there were stars all around me, reassuring me with tiny points of light. The pain was gone. The stars felt warm and close, twinkling in many colors, and I smiled. At least I wouldn’t be lonely here.
The cool, pale light of the moon flooded my vision, washing out the stars. I turned my face up to see Quilla.
She looked the same as she had under the sea. Maybe her light was a little brighter.
I held my hands out to her in prayer. “I’ve done everything I can. I hope the others can carry on without me. Please guide them.”
Her silver brows furrowed. “Your mission is incomplete. I told you, we cannot rest until Chysa was defeated.”
I looked down. My body appeared whole and unscarred by my battles, but I knew it wasn’t the truth. The real me had a gap where my ribs should have met and very little blood left. “I can’t go on physically. Is there some way my spirit can serve you?” I laughed at the weird thought of my ghost hanging around and haunting my friends.
She placed her hand on my forehead and her touch burned. “You’ll go on as long as I tell you.”
The light grew brighter until I saw nothing but white.
29
Sacrifice
I opened my eyes with a gasp. My head spun and my vision swam in and out of focus, so I wasn’t sure where I was. Then I realized I was lying on the ground. I could see a roof made of sunstones and the gears of an enormous machine looming overhead. Nexita sat next to me, crying into her sleeve.
“It’s okay.” My voice sounded calmer than I expected. I sat up, my body moving easily, and put my hand on her shoulder. “Don’t cry.”
She saw me through her tears and gasped. “Riwenne!” She threw her good arm around me and squeezed me. “I thought I killed you!”
I hugged her back. “I guess I’m not allowed to die yet.”
She let go of me and touched my chest where she’d stabbed me. The wound was gone, leaving behind pale scar. Even the blood had disappeared. “It’s a miracle.”
I winced, and she jerked back, apologizing for hurting me. I shook my head. “It doesn’t hurt. You said miracle. I’ve been hearing that word a lot.” I could see the confusion on her face, so I patted her on the back. “I’ll tell you about it later.”
“That’s right, we’re running out of time.” Nexita looked around the cavern as if seeing it for the first time. “The capital is doomed. We have to get out. Can you stand? I know where my—where Rennu kept his private airship.”
I was sure I could stand and walk just fine, but I kept my arm around Nexita and let her help me up. I stopped and looked at the broken machine that had kept the city afloat for more than a century. “Are you sure we can’t fix that apparatus thing? The whole city—”
“Get away from her!”
I turned and saw Kyra running toward us, her bow out and an arrow nocked. I stepped in front of Nexita and threw my arms out to protect her. “No, wait! She’s not evil anymore.”
Kyra looked over my shoulder to check on my sister, then she dropped the bow and rushed forward. She threw her arms around my waist. “I was so worried!” she said, alternating between words with kisses. “You’re not hurt at all, Riri?”
“I’m fine,” I reassured her, kissing her back. I was just as relieved to see she was unharmed.
Janera, Amena, and Vilqa came around the corner and cheered when they saw me. Janera had a bandage around one arm and they all looked a little battered and bruised, but no signs of serious injuries.
I pulled myself out of Kyra’s arms and ran over to hug my other friends. “You guys!”
Janera squeezed me quick, then opened her arms for Nexita. “Are you back with us?”
Nexita smiled shyly. “I’m sorry for all the trouble I caused, but I’ll come back if you still want me.”
“Of course!” Janera crushed Nexita in a hug so hard that she lifted her off the ground. “We missed you a lot. Don’t tell him I said this, but Deryt is way more bossy as an engineer than you are.”
Vilqa was hanging back, and I realized they hadn’t met my sister yet. I drew them closer. “Nex, this is our newest member, Vilqa. They took over as Sawycha’s champion.” I put a light emphasis on the pronoun, hoping Nex would pick up on it.
Vilqa waved. “Hi, nice to meet you.”
“And Vil, this is Nexita, my sister, Linar’s champion.”
Nexita held up her hand. “I don’t know about that. I haven’t tried to ask Linar if he’ll take me back.”
“He will. Everything will go back to normal,” I said firmly. I broke off a piece of sunstone from the nearest crystal formation and handed it to her. “You can make a new godstone when you feel up to it.”
“What happened here?” Kyra asked, kneeling down by Rennu’s corpse. “I see the minister is dead, but what’s wrong with the city? We’re losing altitude. At this rate, we will crash.”
I’d been so euphoric with being alive and reunited with everyone that I’d almost forgotten about the whole impending doom thing. I gestured up at the wall of machinery. “This is the Synthetic Ethereal Apparatus. It keeps Lyndamon in the sky, but the minister broke it. We have to figure out a way to fix it. But why are you guys down here? I told you to evacuate everyone.”
“We ran out of ships,” Amena said. “We crammed in everyone we could, but it was only a fraction of the people in the city. So we came to find you.”
“All the more reason to fix this, then.” I rubbed my hands together and looked up at the machine. “I think we need to start with a new crystal for the heart.”
Nexita put her hand on my shoulder. “Wen, we can’t fix it. I don’t know much about this machine, but I know it took an enormous amount of power and months of work to get it started. The crystal alone required many sacrifices. All the priestesses in the city couldn’t restore it in time, and there’s only six of us.”
I looked over at Amena and Vilqa, who had been at the temple. “Could we get the priestesses to help us?”
Amena hung her head. “The priestesses were the first ones to escape. We couldn’t stop them.”
“And Deryt’s flying people to safety,” Janera added. “He said he would come back if he could.”
My heart gave a lurch when I realized my mother had escaped alive. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, but I’d deal with that later. “Then we’re on our own,” I said, squaring my shoulders. I picked up the radio bag from where it had fallen earlier and handed it back to Janera. “If Deryt or any of the other ships can come back, tell them to focus on rescuing more people. We’ll just have to do what we can.”
I took my moonstone out of the locket and held it before me in both hands, letting it fill with power. The moonlight grew brighter than the weak glow from the surrounding sunstones.
Kyra stood by my side and pulled out her own crystal. Her red magic mixed with my silver. Janera took my other side and added her purple godstone, joined by Amena’s purple and Vilqa’s blue.
Nexita closed her eyes and held up the sunstone I’d given her. “Linar!” she cried out, her voice quavering. “I’m sorry for abandoning my mission. Please accept my pledge of service again!”
Coppery orange light surrounded her. The ugly witch uniform she’d worn fell away, leaving her in her warrior’s armor once again. The useless bionic arm came loose and clattered to the ground. She stepped over it, into the last space to complete our circle. A rainbow of colors filled the center.
Janera grinned and held up her godstone higher. “I call on Omer!”
Amena
lifted hers. “Qachmy!”
“Sawycha!” Vilqa shouted.
Kyra winked at me. “Xiso!”
“Linar!” Nexita repeated.
I waited until last. “Quilla!”
I felt an enormous amount of power swelling and filling the entire cavern, more than we’d ever called on before. All I had to do was direct it in the right way. I stared up at the strange machinery, trying to figure out how it worked. There had to be something we could do.
I could save you and your friends, Quilla’s voice suggested in my mind.
I shook my head. No, it’s all of us or nothing. She couldn’t just take a few of us out of harms’ way, and I didn’t want to risk giving the goddess control of me again. I had no idea what she’d do.
Maybe fixing the machine was the wrong approach. I thought about everything I’d done before. Deryt and I had upgraded so many airships, strengthening their structures while keeping them light enough to fly. A city was way bigger and heavier, far from aerodynamic, but wasn’t it used to being in the sky? I just needed to convince the city that it wanted to stay.
I pictured energy flowing around us, filling the city. It was already stronger than any airship. The battle had damaged some defensive walls and buildings but the stone foundation was untouched. Vilqa’s storm clouds had brought rain to put out the fires and there was a lot left standing.
But gravity had hold of it now and didn’t want to let go. I didn’t know how far we were from the ground, but I could feel us picking up speed.
I tried to use our magic to lift the city up and my friends cried out. They fell to their knees under the strain. I backed off before I hurt them more.
I was beginning to see what Eberet had told us about being a vessel for power. The energy of the gods was greater than I could comprehend, but each of us could only channel so much at once. Our capacities had been growing larger as we’d practiced our magic, but I couldn’t force them to increase their limits all at once. Trying to draw on more power would injure them, maybe even kill them.
We needed more people. I sent enough magic to activate the radio on every channel, taking over the stations and loudspeakers across the city.
“Pray with me, people of Lyndamon!” I cried out, hoping they could hear me. “Pray to every god you can name. Ask them to save our city!”
And I felt them answer. They were frightened and confused, but everyone knew how to pray, and they fell back on the familiar in the time of crisis. Most of them could only offer a little power. It didn’t matter. There were tens of thousands of people in Lyndamon still and every one of them begged the gods for help.
Many of them called on Chysa, and I saw the sunstones around us glow brighter with renewed energy. But I was in control of the heart of the city so even that power answered to me. I sent it back to everything around us.
And yet it wasn’t enough. My friends collapsed and the light from their crystals went out, so I didn’t know if they were unconscious or dead. I had a brief thought about dragging them to the hidden airship Nexita had mentioned, but I wasn’t sure I could figure out how to fly. I couldn’t imagine abandoning these other people praying with me, either. I had to save everyone.
I could sense that the city was in free fall now, with nothing left to slow it down, so the end would come quickly. Maybe all I could do was brace for the impact and hope it would be enough to minimize the damage. The cavern we were in would collapse, but if I could reinforce the buildings, the innocent civilians could have a chance.
I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t have to see it happen.
Put aside your hubris and let me save you! Quilla demanded in my head. Let my sister’s foolish servants die, but don’t kill yourself with them. I won’t bring you back again.
No! I refused her again. I know you’re hurt because everyone betrayed you. But killing people solves nothing, even if they worship your sister. Chysa kills people. Be better than her.
Quilla’s voice softened. You’re right, I shouldn’t take my anger out on them. If you let me take control, I will help them.
Another voice echoed in my mind, one I hadn’t heard for a while. I will help too, Sawycha said soothingly.
I had to trust them. I gave up control of my body. Please, Quilla and Sawycha! Their combined powers surged through me in a cold rush. My arms were thrown out to the side.
The city rocked once, then stilled.
I thought I would be burned away, losing myself in the magic. Quilla or Sawycha would take over my body and I would cease to exist. This was my sacrifice, to create a miracle. As I felt myself letting go, I knew it was worth it.
But the power drained away, and I returned to myself.
I opened my eyes and gasped. The sunstones of the cavern had changed color, some silvery moonstones, others a deep ocean blue. I confirmed that we were no longer falling. The goddesses’ powers cradled us—and they hadn’t killed a single person in retribution.
My friends began to sat up and look around. I breathed a sigh of relief. “We did it, you guys.”
Kyra stared all around us. “What exactly did we do?”
I suspected what had happened, but I just grinned. “Let’s go see for ourselves.”
Nexita showed us an elevator leading out of the cavern. We rode it up and stepped out onto the top of a tower. The air was clean since the rains had stopped, although the clouds hung heavy in the sky and blocked out the sun. We were at the center of the city, but high enough to see over the walls, so we had a clear view of where we’d ended up.
Lyndamon was floating on the sea. We were in the middle of the bay with coastline curving around us, and in the distance, I could make out the skyline of the port town. Damondytti.
The ocean waves crashed against the outer walls, but the capital didn’t rock from side to side or show any signs of sinking below the water. Our magic held it steady.
I let out a cheer, and a moment later, my friends joined in. We whooped and shouted. Lyndamon was safe!
Then I realized we were standing on the tallest spire of Damon Temple. I braced myself for retaliation, but it was abandoned. Amena was right, all the priestesses had fled at the first sight of trouble and left their followers to die.
We radioed the rebel airships, and they came back, astonished to find the city still standing. The leaders, including Eberet, met us in the square in front of the temple. As if they’d been drawn there, an enormous crowd of people also showed up in the square and the surrounding streets, clapping and cheering.
“Our saviors!” they chanted. “Speech! Speech!”
I glanced at Amena, who was the celebrity, and Eberet, who was the head of this group of rebels. But everyone was looking at me.
I blushed and shook my head. “I can’t speak to all these people. They don’t know me, and I don’t know the first thing to say to them.”
Eberet put his hand on my shoulder. “You know, they call anyone who can perform miracles a saint, and all priestesses are supposed to speak for the gods. But do you know what they call a messenger who brings a new, better way of life?”
My blush deepened. “I don’t know if it’s a better way of life. I just didn’t want anyone else to die.”
Eberet swept his other hand out across the city. “But things will never be the same. The first floating city on the water, the first place where rebels might live freely—the first followers of Quilla in centuries.” He smiled. “This is the work of a prophet.”
A prophet! Only a few saints had such a lofty title. St. Jenatta, who had led her people to Arkia, and St. Ylnauta, who had founded the empire. I couldn’t compare myself to them.
“I’m not a prophet,” I insisted.
“That’s for history to decide.” Eberet pushed me toward the crowd.
It looked like I couldn’t get out of this without saying something. I felt awkward standing on the steps in front of the temple, like I was a priestess or someone higher than everyone else.
I walked forward, and the crowd p
arted before me. A circle opened up in the center of the square and I stepped into it.
I had no microphone or sound system to project my voice, so I touched the moonstone. A murmur went through the crowd at the sight.
“Um, I hope everyone can hear me,” I said, using magic to make my voice louder, and the crowd cheered in answer. A moment later they fell silent again, waiting.
Gods, this was worse than giving a presentation in front of the whole class at school. “I don’t want to tell anyone what to do,” I began, holding up my hands. “I won’t say who you should pray to or what you should believe.
“But there’s something you should know.” I turned and pointed back the temple. “The priestesses who used to serve there did not have your best interests at heart. They allowed the Ministry of Technological Research and Development to perform dangerous experiments on citizens. They sacrificed human lives to create stronger magical crystals. When the city was falling, they ran to save themselves and abandoned all of you to die.”
Anger stirred through the crowd, but also questions. They didn’t trust everything I was saying.
“I’ll let my friends show you the evidence that we have against the priestesses,” I said quickly. “But one more thing. Chysa encouraged the priestesses to do harm, but they decided for themselves. You should not let them come back here and run things again.”
A young man nearby looked at me with horror. “But if we don’t have any priestesses, then who will lead us?”
People started to call out suggestions. Some people said that I should lead, but I shook my head.
“I don’t want to be in charge.” I held up my hands. “But I don’t think we should rush into this, either. We need to take the time to discuss it and come up with a new form of government that’s fair for everyone, including people on the mainland. They should have a say—everyone should have an equal chance to speak their mind.” I gestured to the rebels. “And we should accept our new allies who helped to save us today. It’s my hope that we can get along, without more bloodshed.”
Riwenne & the Bionic Witches Page 25