The Last Faoii

by Tahani Nelson

  “Apparently, she’s been following this temporary encampment at odd intervals, and they’ve had to move more than once. But she always makes her way back to our original settlement. The buildings there are more permanent; they would make good landmarks for someone unfamiliar with the forest.” He chuckled at Kaiya’s surprised glance. “Yes, Kai, we had a home here, this close to your monastery. It wasn’t grand, but it was stable. And it was the only thing outside the Blackfeather Wilds that was ours.”

  “Until this Faoii came.” Kaiya frowned, thinking. “The original Faoii—the one you met with before—did she meet with you at the original encampment?”

  “Yes. It makes sense that her shield mate would continue to look for her there. As far as I know, it was the last place anyone saw her.” He looked down at his hands for a moment. “I am not happy about this, but her shield sister will be quite distraught when she learns that her search has been in vain.”

  Kaiya nodded grimly. “Hopefully it will be easier for her to take when she has another sister there to comfort her.”

  “I hope you’re right, Kai. I didn’t mean for any of this to make your life more difficult.”

  Kaiya let that hang in the air for a moment before broaching another question. “What were you and Faoii-Vonda negotiating before her disappearance?”

  Tendaji did not look at Kaiya, but his pacing increased. “We wanted to convince her to help spread the criukli poison through your ranks. That way, even if your people were conquered by Thinir, we could at least be certain that no one would join him. His army was already composed of Danhaid and Croeli. We did not want to face Faoii too.”

  “You were trying to sell her on suicide? You thought that that would make the Faoii trust you after generations of suspicion?” She paused at Tendaji’s sharp look and raised her hands. “Right, right. The poison is still better than the alternative.” She tried to force a smile. “How’d she react to that little tidbit?”

  “We honestly didn’t explain that part very well at the time. We cared more about keeping Thinir’s numbers low than anything else. We knew we weren’t going to march next to the Faoii into battle—we just wanted to decrease the chances of facing you there instead.” He shook his head. “It didn’t end up mattering. She refused, and we didn’t push her. This was before your monastery had fallen, and we didn’t want her bringing the entire Order down on us. So we cut our losses and let her go.”

  “And everyone thinks that I’m her replacement? That I’m going to spread the criukli poison across the rest of the nation?”

  “The men might think that that’s what you’re here for, but Amaenel knows better. He’s willing to give us the information we need if you talk to the Faoii that’s at our old encampment. That’s enough.”

  Kaiya sighed. “It’s worth a shot. I’ll leave tonight. Tell me how to get to there.”

  25

  There was the faintest hint of a trail leading to the old Croeli settlement. Kaiya walked along it with all the surety of a Faoii, but she never moved her hand for her short sword. Above her, the trees rustled with a constant breeze that did not quite make its way down to the forest floor. At least Tendaji would be able to traverse the branches without worrying about noise.

  Just after dawn, Kaiya sensed more than saw someone slide from the brush to step in front of her path. There was no denying that the newcomer was Faoii. Her stance was guarded and angry, her eyes fierce. While unkempt and ragged, her fiery red hair was tied into something resembling a braid adorned with dull iron rings. Even her blood-encrusted fantoii had lost its shine. The two women stood motionless, eyeing each other with cool indifference.

  It was the unnamed Faoii that broke the silence first, her voice ragged and shrill. Kaiya shuddered at the sound.

  “You? A Faoii? Here? No fantoii, but a sister. A sister here. Dark skin. Dark soul? Pale eyes. Like he that betrayed me. He that helped me. Kidnapper? Kidnapper in disguise? Or friend? Friend like shield sister. Sister. Sister. Sister here?” The girl looked around with eyes that were not quite focused, but Kaiya took a step closer anyway. Goddess, what’s happened to her?

  “Hail, Sister. I am Faoii-Kaiya of the Eternal Blade.” Kaiya tried to make her voice sound as unthreatening as possible. “And I am your friend. In the light of the Great Tapestry, I promise that I am not here to betray you.” Kaiya fisted her hands and bowed her head. The other girl flashed a smile of hope for a moment before her face twisted into a scowl.

  “They stole her! Stole her! Asked her to help, and when she refused, they came for her in the night. Stole her! We fought them. Fought back. Fought. They cut me down, picked her up, and left. Stole her! Stole her!” She gesticulated wildly with her fantoii. “The poison! It burned! Burned like fire! I should have died, and Illindria never heard my cries. But men did. Men! They heard me. I thought they were the kidnappers. But they healed. Healed! Drowned the poison out! Brought bells. Bronze bells. Quiet bells. Quiet whispers in my skull. Behind my face. A man with dark skin and pale eyes—horned and powerful god! Not kidnappers. Not betrayers. Taught me to jump. Jump jump. Jumping. Back and forth. Other side. This side. Other side. Always jumping.”

  Suddenly the fiery-haired Faoii sidestepped and was gone. Kaiya stiffened. The woman appeared again some strides to the left. “Always jumping. Healed me. Helped. Told me to return. Find her. Strike down the kidnappers. Kidnappers! Kill. Kill. Kill!”

  The wild woman’s voice faded for a moment, and she stared off at something that only she could see. When she spoke again, it was quiet.

  “He still whispers sometimes. Behind my eyes. Tells me what to do. But I don’t listen. Never listen.” She suddenly grinned, and her smile was wide and terrifying. “Have to fight my own battles. My own way. He fights wrong. Goddess wouldn’t like it. Makes him mad. Mad, mad, mad! And angry! Angry voices. Angry whispers. Helper. Helper, yes. But wrong! Have to fight him. Fight him. Fight him back. But when I do, he tears out the parts of my eyes. The parts of my ears. Takes them with him. Not much left. But it’s just me. Just me.” Her grin was happier now.

  “Faoii.” Kaiya spoke slowly, carefully. The other woman’s tirade had unsettled her deeply, but she pressed on. “Faoii, what is your name?” The woman’s fiery braid whipped back and forth when she shook her head.

  “No name. No name. Faoii-Thinir? Croeli-Julianne? Faoii. Croeli. It’s all the same now. All the same. Until I get her back. Only half without her. No name. No.” Suddenly the woman was crying, her eyes streaming as she clawed at them with dirty nails. “I feel her. Feel the chains, the darkness. I feel her, but I can’t find her. The silver cord is wrapped up. Twisted. Twisted! Lost! Stolen!” The woman’s screeches rose into the trees, and even the wind stilled at the sound.

  Kaiya tried again to calm the distraught Faoii, sifting through the anguished babbling as best she could. “Shh, Faoii-Julianne. It was Faoii-Julianne, once, before all of this, right?”

  The woman nodded, releasing a frantic sob. Kaiya tried again. “Shhh . . . It’s all right. We’ll look together. If she’s still here, we’ll find her. And then you both can come back with me. We’ll get you some help.”

  “Help? Help? What help? Where? Monastery’s gone! Gone! Burnt! Ashes! Who would cut the chains, mend the cracks? No. No no no no. Only Vonda can help me now. Only Vonda. Have to find her.” The woman looked like she would turn to run back into the trees, but Kaiya stopped her with a soothing motion.

  “We will, we will, I promise you. But Thinir has taken a lot from you. We must seek Illindria. She can heal you. She can stop the voices and put all of the parts back together.”

  “Illindria?” Faoii-Julianne lifted her eyes to Kaiya’s. “The Goddess! She speaks. Used to speak. Songs. Prayers. Pipes. Bells? No. Not bells. But music. Words. Speak, speak. Always speaking. Her voice was drowned out by the strong god. He hasn’t found Vonda for me. Hasn’t helped. Not helping. But the Goddess can find Vonda! The Goddess would know!” Suddenly Julianne flung herself to the side, Blin
king out of existence. She landed at Kaiya’s feet, grasping fervently. “You! You are the one that I have seen each time I have jumped. You are in Her world, in Her mind. She speaks of you. Would listen to you. Ask Her! Ask for Her to find Vonda! Ask! Ask! Please!” Kaiya smiled sadly and brought her hand up to lay it on the other woman’s shoulder.

  “Have faith. The Goddess provides.” Julianne’s eyes flooded anew, and Kaiya truly saw the broken Faoii for the first time. The world shifted, and images superimposed themselves on top of what Kaiya had already seen.

  A tattered, grimy blindfold hung limply from across Julianne’s eyes and dingy shackles hung from her bloody wrists. Julianne had evidently clawed her way free of whatever bindings Croeli-Thinir had placed upon her, but the damage was done. The sweet, youthful face was now cracked and blemished, jagged like the shards of a shattered mirror.

  As Kaiya watched, the broken mirror shifted, and there was the faintest hint of Thinir’s pale eyes peeking up from beneath the glass of the Faoii’s face. With a grimace, Julianne shoved him back. He faded, but another crack danced its way across Julianne’s cheekbone.

  Kaiya stared at the fallen Faoii with a heavy heart. She didn’t know whether even the Great Illindria could heal all the broken pieces of this woman’s soul. But even a broken mirror could still serve its purpose, and the Goddess was not known for throwing things away.

  As though reading Kaiya’s mind, Julianne looked up, and her eyes lit with a fire and devotion that burned its way through the broken glass of her marred face. Kaiya had to shut her eyes against the brightness she found there.

  A short time passed, but the light behind Kaiya’s closed eyelids never faded. Cautiously, Kaiya opened them again, but the fire had not diminished. She blinked a few times, trying to clear her vision. Julianne mimicked her with a confused expression that was decidedly not lit with the ethereal glow. Kai frowned. Whatever she was seeing, it was not coming from Julianne.

  There. A glow from the ground behind Julianne’s shackled visage. Bright, eerie, and red—a stark contrast to the whites and greens of the forest that lay in all directions. Kaiya moved toward the trees, toward a light that was there but not there. And as she stared, it moved, speeding away from her and into the foliage that surrounded the path. Without thinking, Kaiya followed it, only vaguely aware that the other woman trailed. Overhead, the leaves began to rustle with even more fervor as she crashed through them, following the beacon.

  Goddess, let this be Your sign and not a trap!

  Eventually they came to what could have been an outpost. The single-room building had not yet completely fallen to disuse, though someone had torn down the wooden door, scattering it across the clearing. Some sort of burrowing animal had dug long, deep furrows at its base. Kaiya cast a glance at Julianne’s cracked and muddy fingernails but said nothing. Instead, she circled the building, staring past it, through it.

  There. The beacon issued from the ground a dozen paces from the outpost. She walked toward it, and the earth seemed to open in a great chasm below her. At its base were a flame and a figure that Kaiya could not quite make out, flickering in the darkness of her mind’s eye.

  As she reached the beacon’s source, the superimposed images faded, and Kaiya was left staring at only the forest floor. Somewhere far away, the sounds of panpipes rose, then cut off abruptly. This sound, more than anything, shook Kaiya from her daze.

  “Here! Somewhere here!” Kaiya dropped to her knees, scrabbling at the ground with her bare hands. Julianne stared at her for a long moment before releasing a strangled yell and driving into the ground with her fantoii, using the blade like a shovel. Together, the two women clawed at the forest floor.

  Increasingly desperate minutes passed, and Kaiya’s heartbeat quickened. Something was wrong. She didn’t know exactly what had happened here, but something in her gut made her more terrified with every passing moment. Somewhere in the distance, the panpipes struggled to rise against the rushing in her ears.

  Kaiya’s fingers struck something hard beneath the earth. A wooden beam, thin enough for her to wrap her fingers around the edge. It spread out in front of her, beneath the dirt. She followed it, brushing the earth off with her fingers as she moved. The board ended after a few strides and gave way to a circular crevice that widened out on either side. Kaiya scraped dirt out from here too, moving faster and faster until she had completed the circuit. She rose slowly, her eyebrows drawn together.

  In front of her was a round slab of earth nearly nine handspans across, with a board crossing it lengthwise. A trapdoor.

  Kaiya wrapped her long fingers around the beam. “Help me pull it up!” she hissed at the other woman. Julianne bent over, her eyes wide and wild. “Pull!”

  They pulled. Earth heaved upward from the path of the circle as the women yanked. Dirt and pine needles rained into the gaping hole that opened beneath their feet.

  Throwing the round plank aside, Kaiya peered into the blackness, but she could see nothing. Her previous vision had faded, and she was left with only the dark reality before her. She straightened quickly, spinning around to scan the trees.

  “Tendaji!” Even before the echo had finished its reverberations, her brother had detached himself from the surrounding shadows and glided forward. Faoii-Julianne released a piercing battle cry at his approach and charged, but Kaiya batted her blade away and grabbed her by the shoulders without moving her eyes. “Tendaji, what is this?”

  The wrath in Tendaji’s face seemed genuine. “I don’t know.” His voice deepened into a sinister growl. “But I intend to find out.” He turned toward the hole just as another shadow broke free from the trees.

  This shadow approached slowly, its hands raised in a placating gesture. Tendaji’s eyes were fiercer than Kaiya had ever seen them when he recognized Torin. A deep growl rumbled in his chest.

  “Croeli-Tendaji,” Torin whispered. “Tendaji, we need her.”

  “What is down there?” Tendaji’s voice was unforgiving. Torin licked his lips and took another tentative step forward.

  “We couldn’t wait for you to find a willing Faoii. He’s grown too powerful. We weren’t sure you’d ever come back with another.”

  “What is down there?” The growl was closer to a roar now, and Kaiya could hear Tendaji’s fantoii scream even from within its sheath, but Torin continued as though he hadn’t heard anything at all.

  “She’s too weak now. She can’t do it on her own. And the other one wouldn’t drop her guard long enough for us to get to her. She can just Blink out again anyway. We need your replacement. They’ll all be his if we don’t. You know that.”

  “Torin, so help me . . .” Tendaji let the threat drop, and his hand snaked closer to his wailing blade. Torin’s eyes narrowed, but he did not move for his own weapon.

  “She’s willing now. It took some time, but she eventually realized that it was the only way. Slowing Thinir is our main priority. We all know this. And if you could look past your own blade-blasted pride for a minute, you’d realize it too.” Tendaji’s eyes narrowed, and he took a step forward. Torin moved to circle him. “Come on, Tendaji. Your family started this! You have the power to end it! She’ll understand too, with time. The pain fades when you realize that the greater good outweighs all else.” His voice softened a little. “Tendaji, you know this is the only way.”

  “No! This wasn’t an option. It was never an option!” Tendaji’s voice shattered the air around them, and his fantoii appeared in his hand, its tip pointed at Torin’s chest.

  Suddenly, a dozen more shapes dropped from the trees.

  “We need a replacement, Tendaji. One or both, we’ll make it work.” Torin’s face was forlorn as he slowly drew his criukli. “I’m sorry we couldn’t make you see.” Then there was only the soft rustle of leather as the shadows attacked.

  26

  Kaiya! Run!” Tendaji’s voice rang through the forest just as he swung his blade against the first Croeli foe that reached him. Kaiya spun, drawing her
short sword as she did.

  Two Croeli dropped in front of her, and she drove her blade deep into one’s shoulder before he’d even risen to his full height. The other snarled and lunged. Kaiya spun with an outstretched arm, trying to clip his helmetless head with her sword, but he ducked away, rolling to one side.

  Meanwhile, Faoii-Julianne jumped around the forest with disorienting speed. Again and again she appeared, then disappeared, then appeared once more, each time striking out against a different opponent. In the glimpses that Kaiya caught between her own battles, she realized with dismay that Julianne’s eyes grew wilder with each movement, until they seemed barely human. The effect of Thinir’s Blinking was taking a rapid toll.

  “Julianne! Be care—” Kaiya tried to warn the other girl, but a criukli clipped Kaiya’s shoulder, and she was drawn back to the fight. But Julianne still Blinked in and out of her peripheral vision.

  As the haggard, frantic minutes passed, the wild Faoii’s movements became more and more sporadic, less controlled. She jumped, seemingly at random, again and again, constantly landing closer and closer to her enemies. Her blood frenzy drove her wild as she screamed. The cry pierced the forest, and the surrounding Croeli paused, uncertain.