“I want a warded promise,” Gian said.
Kirana could not hide her own shock at the suggestion. She fairly reared back in her chair.
Gian leaned forward. “If you are so eager for peace,” she said, “a warded alliance should be a small thing to ask.”
“Wards can be removed.”
“Not without the other party knowing,” she said. “You and I will always know if the other has gone back on their word, or is preparing to.”
“A ward still doesn’t keep one of us from ordering the other killed,” Kirana said.
“There is a far better type of ward,” Gian said. “One you will greatly appreciate. Created by a tirajista and a sinajista. It ties our lives together. One to the other. If you die, I die, and vice versa. It ensures that neither party seeks to assassinate the other.”
“What if your heart gives out? Or you drown? I won’t be tethered to your bad fortune. No.”
Gian stood abruptly. “Then we are done.”
“What will you do without our alliance?”
“We will make a place for ourselves,” she said. “We need you far less than you imagine.”
“What do you have left?” Kirana said. “A thousand people? Many died in that fall.”
“Which is why I won’t risk more of them for a fool plan for which I have no guarantees.”
Kirana shifted her hands into her lap and squeezed her fists. She knew what Yisaoh would say to this. Peace required sacrifices.
“I agree, then,” Kirana said. “But I want the ward interrogated and understood and created in concert with my people.”
Gian sat back down. “That is agreeable.”
“How many can you send with us, to protect and to power each of these temples?”
“I will speak to my people. Your Sai Hofsha is still about. I can give her the message when we have decided. As you understand, the way we make decisions is communal, not tyrannical. It can take some time.”
“You have until Para rises,” Kirana said. “I’m sorry, I don’t rule the heavens.” Not yet, she thought, but there was a budding hope now, more than there had been in many months.
They discussed the temples and their engines for some time longer, and more urgent but boring issues, like where to house Gian’s people; she preferred to keep them in the ark, which meant repairs, and constructing aqueducts. The infrastructure question was always top of her mind, right after food. Sanitation was becoming an issue.
Kirana felt the knot in her gut ease after several hours, when Gian finally drank from her cold teacup and asked for wine.
This is going to work, Kirana thought. The realization was a warm balm that softened her tight, terrified gut.
29
Lilia had never seen Roh cry.
“Roh?” she said softly. “Rohinmey? It is you, isn’t it?”
He nodded, covering his face.
Lilia got up and sat next to him. “I’m so sorry, I–”
“Li.” Light. “Can I have a hug?” he said.
She wrapped her arms around him. He trembled against her, sobbing. Lilia pressed her face against his neck. She wanted to feel something, but was mostly shocked. He sobbed for a long time, so long she realized it was not at all about her, but something else, something deeper, something very broken.
“Hush,” Lilia said. “Hush now. We’re all right.”
“We’re not,” he said. “We’re not, that’s the problem.”
She pulled away and regarded him. His hair was longer, braided back against his head, the tails tucked under and out of the way. His skin was cracked and peeling, the lips chapped, and his knuckles were peppered in scars. His eyes, too, were very different. He seemed so much older. Maybe she did too.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
He touched her wrist. “I figured you would go to the Woodland,” he said. “Some Woodland Dhai helped us track various camps of outsiders. This was where they pointed us.”
“Ours was south of here,” Lilia said. “You would have missed me. Well, it’s a long story.”
“They know about that camp here,” he said. “I’d have found you. What I don’t understand is why the Tai Mora didn’t.”
“The Woodland Dhai don’t talk to Tai Mora,” Lilia said. “They seem to be better at spotting them than many of us. The Tai Mora are especially bad in their understanding of the Woodland. I think it makes them stand out.”
“How did you… Why are you here, then?”
“It’s a very long story.”
“Mine too.”
They sat in awkward silence. Lilia had no idea how to even begin.
Sola interrupted them. “How do you know each other?” she said.
“It was a very long time ago,” Lilia said. “I’m sorry, please help him.”
“It’s all right, I’m glad you’re better too. You were just a bit dehydrated. The bone tree wounds healed cleanly.”
Sola bent to tend to Roh’s ankle, weaving tendrils of Tira’s breath to mend him.
Lilia got up and went back to her cot. Her mind raced. What next? Where was Zezili? What to do with Roh? He was a parajista, he could help her. She just needed to convince these people, whoever was in charge…
Sola finished with Roh. He tested his ankle. Stood, put his weight on it. Lilia noticed his knees, then, how he had not fully bent them when he sat, and how he stepped gingerly now, more a hobble than a walk. What had the world done to all of them?
“Thank you,” Roh said. He lifted his head. “Lilia, I want you to meet someone. Kadaan. My good friend.”
Kadaan was a Saiduan name. Lilia had seen a few of them here, and met Maralah, the woman who insisted she wasn’t in charge but who all of the Saiduan and many of the Dhai listened to, nonetheless. Lilia had immediately noted how much they looked up to her.
“Roh, there’s something very important I need to do,” Lilia said. It came out in a rush. “You remember when Taigan came to the temple? He thought I was gifted, and… that’s a very long story. But listen, I think there’s a way to… Oh, it’s very complicated. Listen, I was in Tira’s Temple. The temple… keeper, something, a creature, told me that–”
“What?” Roh said. He stiffened.
“Tira’s Temple. There was this device… and… This fifth temple that the Tai Mora dredged up? It’s not far from here, and I think, I really think Roh, that we could have a chance to take hold of it ourselves. It will take a great deal of coordination, and we don’t have much time, but we have an element of surprise. She will never think–”
“Li, listen to what you’re saying.”
“No, you listen!” she nearly shouted. Stopped. Took a deep breath. “Roh, I’m not sure you understand, but there’s something very important that I’ve been working toward. You are a parajista. You can help. We can use the temples to destroy the Tai Mora once and–”
“Stop,” Roh said. “We need to back up a little. And take some time to talk. Really talk about this. You’re talking about breaking the world. About powering the temples to push the Tai Mora back? Not just stop other worlds from coming here?”
“How did you–”
“Come,” he said, holding out his hand. “Meet Kadaan, and we’ll talk more.”
She took his hand, but her heart was already betraying her, thumping loudly in her chest. She felt a tugging sensation to the west: Zezili. What was Zezili doing now?
Natanial and his people spent a day mucking through bodies, looking for a tall woman with a broken nose called Yisaoh. After a time, all the bodies looked the same to Natanial. He found himself drinking a little more wine at night, and another few slugs of it during the day.
“She isn’t here,” Otolyn said when he came over to her tent the evening of the second day. He collapsed next to her. Huffed out a long sigh.
“You stink,” she said.
“So do you.”
“Why don’t we just fuck off?” Otolyn said.
“Can’t,” he said. “It’s
a long story. You’re not bound, though. I know this isn’t what you hoped for.”
“Life isn’t want I hoped for,” Otolyn said. She brushed back an oily hank of hair from his face. “Poor bored thing, aren’t you?”
“Just disappointed.”
“Want to have sex?”
“Not really.”
“Wine?”
“Yes.”
She handed him her jug. He drank deeply. On the other side of the camp, near where Monshara’s larger tent was staked, a wink shimmered into existence.
“Mother’s calling,” Otolyn said.
“Let her come to me,” Natanial said. He drank more of the wine and set the mug between him and Otolyn. “What you think the sky will look like, when this is over?”
“About what it looks like now,” she said, “just one more star.”
“You’re so very Tordinian.”
“You’re so very properly Aaldian. You don’t even realize it.”
“Don’t I?”
“You were in love with that kid, weren’t you? That omajista you found.”
“Could we not?”
“Just saying, that’s bad. Bring some dumb kid into this.”
“Thank you. Very insightful. I see the error of my ways.”
“Can’t change them though, huh?”
“No.”
“Natanial!” Monshara’s voice. She waved at him from her tent.
“What if I pretend not to see her?” Natanial asked.
“Too late,” Otolyn said.
Natanial struggled to his feet and wended his way through the camp to Monshara’s side.
“We have another offensive,” Monshara said. “I put a ranger on the tail of the survivors from this one, to see where they went.”
“And?”
“Found another camp north of this one. They’re using hazing wards of some kind. Not even a hundred people there, but some are Saiduan. That’s concerning. Could have jistas. Sanisi. They aren’t fun.”
“No, they are not,” Natanial said. “When do we go?”
“Dawn. Come in and let’s sketch out the plan here with my line commanders.”
Natanial wanted to groan, but it came out a grunt. He went into the stuffy tent and stood with Monshara and her line commanders as they plotted out the terrain of the camp. It lay perched on a great cliff overlooking the sea, and had an easy escape route at the center: a winding tunnel that cut through the cliff and led down to the sea.
“We circle them with winks, here, here, and these, here,” Monshara said, marking out the areas with little brass circles. “Pour through here, overwhelm them. Sinajistas below, to catch any of the ones trying to escape through that sea cave. Be like sending dogs after rats. Easy enough.”
“You said sanisi,” Natanial said. “What about them?”
“The jistas will worry about them,” Monshara said. “We aren’t there for the sanisi. We’re there for Yisaoh.”
When she dismissed them all an hour later, Natanial went back to his tent, alone, and slept fitfully. Otolyn woke him, already grinning, the blistering ball of Tira’s green glow just over her shoulder.
“Let’s have some more fun,” Otolyn said.
Natanial splashed his face with water and helped his fighters break camp, then rode up to join Monshara and the other line commanders to the wink where Madah, one of Kirana’s generals, waited to give their final instructions.
“We’re ready for you,” Madah said, from the other side of the wink. She glanced behind her, to a rolling bank of greenery.
Natanial considered telling her his people weren’t ready for her, but supposed his choices were limited at this point. What if he told her no? He would be burned alive like that unfortunate man under the temple dome.
“I’m thinking this isn’t worth the money,” Otolyn said, riding up behind him, voice loud enough for Madah to hear. With her she carried saddlebags stuffed with goods rooted out from the charred remains of the warren below. Food had been the most valuable loot in the aftermath of the slaughter.
Madah glanced back at them, glared at Otolyn.
“Better food over there?” Otolyn called.
“Less talking, more moving!” Madah said. “I’ve got winks opening on the next field. Clear your area there immediately.”
Natanial called his forces together. “Circular assembly! Backs to the bonsa line!”
The great heaps of bodies they had collected and sorted through from the Dhai camp lay smoldering. The smell had been oddly appetizing, which he found grotesque, but hunger and lack of proper protein affected all of them. He had lost six soldiers in the two days they had spent at the camp, each one a blow to his esteem as a leader. In truth, he wanted to join them. Perhaps they were the smartest of all of them.
Natanial kicked awake a few of his hungover soldiers, and found two more were missing.
“Smarter than the rest of us,” Natanial muttered as Otolyn paced him up on her bear.
“Maybe if we wait long enough it’ll be over by the time we get there,” Otolyn said.
Natanial got back onto his mount. “Go run your line.”
“Yeah, yeah,” she said, and turned her bear around to go inspect her portion of the troops. Such as they were.
“We ready?” Monshara called from the front, fist raised.
Natanial nodded to Otolyn. She raised their flag.
Three winks opened ahead of them.
30
Lilia had not been prepared for Roh’s story of Saiduan, of the murder of Ora Dasai and the scholars, of his flight from the Tai Mora with his friend Luna and the Worldbreaker book, of his enslavement.
She found her stomach knotting as she sat over a bowl of cooling porridge with Roh and Kadaan at the center of camp. Kadaan was a tall Saiduan man ten years their senior who looked at Roh as if he were a precious star fallen from the sky.
“I can’t… I’m so sorry, Roh,” Lilia said.
“It’s in the past,” Roh said, but when he gazed past her she could not help but wonder who or what he saw there.
She leaned forward. “I’d like to talk about Caisau, though. It spoke to you, the way Tira’s Temple spoke to me?”
He nodded. “It said I’m the… Guide. That I could get into the temples, that I could bring the Key and the Worldbreaker, and… I don’t know, Li. I worked so hard to get here, thinking maybe we could do what the temples want, but… there’s a real chance for us to have a life outside of Dhai. We could travel with the Saiduan, we could–”
“It’s all right, puppy,” Kadaan said, and took Roh’s hand.
Lilia found Kadaan’s nickname for Roh very annoying. “It matches what Tira’s Temple told me,” she said. “Don’t you see? It’s all coming together! You and I, together again. And so close to the fifth temple. These people with you? You said one is an omajista? And you’re a parajista. All we need is a tirajista and a sinajista. I could operate the mechanism, I’m sure of it. I could figure it out. You’d be the Guide, we’d only need a Key, only–”
“That is still many missing pieces,” Kadaan said. “It’s a very desperate idea.”
“These are desperate times!” Lilia said.”
“The Saiduan are not part of this.”
“You already are part of it,” Lilia said. “You don’t get to decide. All you have to decide now is what you’re going to do.”
“I’m going to create a home,” Kadaan said.
“Well, you’re a coward.”
Kadaan raised his brows. A dark expression moved over his face, one that chilled Lilia to the bone. She had forgotten he was a sanisi.
He rose from the bench and said, “I’m going to help Maralah.”
“I’m sorry,” Roh said. “We’ll speak later?”
Kadaan nodded.
“You didn’t have to be rude, Li.” Roh poked at his porridge.
“Come on, Roh! We are two of the three; I know we are! And surely… I don’t know, we could do something with all these other
allies we have here. What about Maralah? What kind of a jista is she?”
“Sinajista,” he said.
“Look, then! We have a lot of what we need.” Lilia dumped out her porridge on the table.
“What are you–”
Lilia drew a rough circle and mapped out the chamber in Tira’s Temple from memory. “A parajista here. Kadaan. A sinajista. Maralah. Your omajista friend here. We’d just need a tirajista. Sola could do that, or Salifa! Oh, Salifa. I wonder… I bet I could get her to join us. She wanted to come, but Meyna and Yisaoh, and the Kai… The Kai is a terror. We could do this, Roh.”
Roh frowned at her gooey attempt at a plan. “You don’t have enough,” he said. “You need a plan to get into one of the temples. Step into my circle…”
“What was that?”
“It’s what the creature told me… step into my circle. There are two ways to get to the fifth temple, I think. Go directly there, and just… walk in, I think, or get back to the Assembly Chamber at the top of Oma’s Temple, and step through there.”
“It would be difficult to get a gate opened at the fifth temple,” Lilia said. “No one’s been inside it.”
“Oma’s Temple? Li, I just nearly died trying to get out of Oma’s Temple.”
“I don’t think we’re all here because of luck, or coincidence. I think Oma has drawn us here. I think we have everyone we need.”
“Oma is a brute.”
“It is. But if it’s asking us to come together here, maybe we’re here to–”
“Get revenge?” he said.
“No, I–”
“Because this whole time, what you sound like is someone who is really mad because she doesn’t have any other life after the Tai Mora are dead.”
“You don’t need to be mean.”
She saw Zezili approach from behind Roh. Her face was drawn. She scratched at something on her upper belly, just beneath her breasts.
“What is it?” Lilia asked.
Roh turned. “Oh no,” he said. “You know Zezili?”
“She… It’s a long story.”
“Fuck,” Zezili said, “the mouthy boy. Where did you pick him up?”
“We were in the temple together,” Lilia said.
“He’s trying to keep my husband from me. This whole camp is full of crazy fucking pacifists.” Zezili dropped onto the bench beside Lilia. Grimaced at the mess of porridge. “You Dhai have shitty table manners. What the fuck is this?”
The Worldbreaker Saga Omnibus Page 132