Shadowborn

by Katie MacAlister

  “Well, whatever this place is called—and to answer your question, I think I would call it deep night, since it reminds me of that time when Bellias is hiding, and the night seems to consume everything—we’re finally here. What was it that you wished to do here?”

  Mayam looked startled. “I don’t…did I want to do something here?”

  “You must have, else we wouldn’t have come.” I jumped down off the rock and strode forward, climbing a narrow, barely visible track to a small hilltop. Below us, a dip in the landscape led to a small scooped-out area where a massive black block stood, ringed by twelve smaller stones. “This is a disturbingly bleak place. What did you say it was called?”

  Mayam moved to stand next to me, frowned, then gave me an odd look. “Didn’t you just ask me that?”

  “Ask you what?”

  “What I called this place?”

  I considered the landscape that surrounded us. It was uninspiring, and yet, it definitely felt as if we should be here. “I don’t think so. Did I?”

  She rubbed her temple, murmuring to herself, “I could have sworn you asked…oh, never mind.”

  “Shall we go down to that big block?” I pointed down to the depression ahead of us. “That must be what you wanted us to come here to see, yes?”

  “I suppose so,” Mayam said, her voice hesitant and unsure.

  We headed down the rocky path to the depression, the muted sound of waves reaching our ears. “Do you hear that? We must be very near the coast,” I said, pausing to sniff the air. There was no salty tang, just the smell of death, blackened, scorched death.

  “We’ve come a long way,” Mayam agreed, picking up a stone to examine it. “The stones here are pretty. Like glass.”

  “We have that. It seems like forever since we left…erm...” I gave up trying to remember the last place we’d been, and looked around. “This place is odd, don’t you think?”

  “Bleak,” Mayam said, nodding. A considering look crossed her face and she amended the statement. “No. Blighted. Wasn’t that what you called it?”

  “Blighted is a good description for it. What’s this region called?”

  Mayam gave me a look out of the corner of her eye, a smooth stone clutched in her hand. She opened her mouth to answer, but at that moment, there was a massive rush of wind, and a man shimmered into view.

  He had short, spiky black hair, and bristling eyebrows with piercing blue eyes. “Allegria! What are you doing here? Have you no sense, priestling? No common sense? Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter, I found you, and that’s what’s important. Ah, you have a Shadowborn with you. Blessings of Bellias, my good lady. I am Thorn of Kelos.”

  “I am Mayam, sir,” she said, making a deep curtsey.

  “Thorn?” I frowned as that familiar wriggle in my head made me annoyed again. “That’s an odd—” I stopped, a shadow flitting through my mind like a bird sweeping and wheeling in the air.

  The man stared, his eyebrows bristling in a way that made me want to giggle. But there was no humor in the eyes that watched me. I had an odd feeling that he was assessing me, and that I had been found lacking. “It’s an odd what?” he asked.

  “I…” I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to pin down the image that flickered just on the edge of my memory. I shook my head, giving up. “No, it’s gone. I thought for a moment I had it, but it flew off like a bird.”

  “Yes!” Thorn shouted, smiling and patting me awkwardly on the shoulder. “You remember? Thank the goddesses. I thought I was going to have to explain to Hallow why I was returning to him a wife who wouldn’t recognize him. You’ve been in the spirit realm for a long time, according to the spirits who’ve seen you, but clearly you haven’t suffered as other mortals have. Well, that’s all for the good.”

  “Hallow?” I asked, the name making a little curl of warmth burn in my belly. I liked the name. It sounded…pleasant.

  “Who’s Hallow?” Mayam asked.

  Thorn stared at me for a minute, then with an oath under his breath, started drawing symbols on the air. “I wish I had my staff now, the one I gave over to the Master, but I’m not so feeble that I can’t do this the hard way.”

  “He’s an odd man,” Mayam said softly in my ear, giving the stranger a worried look. “Think you he’s mad?”

  “No doubt,” I whispered back, and without a word, we both sidled past him, moving along a path that sloped downward, toward an indentation where a big black slab lay. “He’s probably harmless, but we’d best let him be. Besides, we came here for you to do something, and we should get that done. Er…what did you say this place was called?”

  “Me?” Mayam followed while I marched resolutely onward to the black slab.

  The man Thorn caught up to us a short while later, as Mayam and I were having a discussion about what we would call this area if it were up to us to name it. In each of his hands sat a glowing ball of blue-white light about the size of a large apple.

  “—think blight is a good name for it…” Mayam stopped speaking when Thorn stopped in front of us. “Oooh. Pretty.”

  “Very pretty,” I agreed, feeling that a few kind words toward the obviously confused man might urge him to move on. “Is that something for us?”

  “You could say that,” he said, and to my surprise, hurled the ball at my head. It hit me with the impact of…well, I couldn’t think of the word that I wanted, but I staggered backward, my arms cartwheeling wildly. “Kiriah’s ten tiny toenails, what was that?”

  I rubbed my temples, my head tingling, my vision blurred for a few moments. I heard Mayam call out in surprise, and spun around to help her, in case the madman attacked her, too.

  “No, not madman,” I said slowly as the tingling faded, and with it, the cloud inside my head lifted. “Thorn!” Joy filled me as I beheld the man before me, now standing with his arms crossed.

  “Ah,” he said, a smug look on his face when I dashed forward to give him a hug and kiss on his cheek. He patted me on the back, saying, “Just so, my dear, just so. Remind me to tell that annoying apprentice of mine that I can still perform the old magic, which is more than he can do.”

  “Old magic?” I rubbed my head again, feeling oddly lightened, as if I’d been wearing chains of solid lead that had suddenly been cast off. My spirit sang with unfettered joy until I glanced around. “Where’s Hallow?”

  “Allegria?” Mayam suddenly appeared at my side, also rubbing her head. She looked at Thorn, her gaze sharpening on him. “A spirit? What did he do to us? Who is he? Is he a friend of yours? Have you sought him to bespell me? I won’t have it! My lord Racin shall hear of this mistreatment!”

  “Alas, Hallow did not come with me,” Thorn said, his expression of self-satisfaction fading. It took me a few minutes to reconcile the image of him as a man with that of the wooden bird he inhabited when he was in the mortal world, but there was something about him, an air of mischievousness that was all too familiar. “There was…er…trouble at Kelos when he sent me to find you.”

  “Trouble?” I had my swords drawn, and whirled around just as if I expected to see whatever it was that threatened the man who was everything to me. “The thane? He attacked again?”

  “Where are we?” Mayam asked, spinning in a circle, scowling when she saw me resheathing my swords. “What are you doing with those? I thought I took them away from you! Give them to me at once. It is not fitting for a prisoner to be armed when the captor is not!”

  “Again?” Thorn asked, one hand ruffling his hair. “The thane attacked Kelos? The one who sleeps in the crypt beneath my tower? That thane?”

  “Yes, he…erm…” I gave a little cough and gazed into the distance. “He woke up some time ago.”

  “He’s never woken in all the centuries that I ruled Kelos,” Thorn said, puzzlement sliding into suspicion. “The only time I heard of him stirring was a tale my master to
ld of a thief who was foolish enough to break into the crypt with the thought of stealing the thane’s sword. And the Eidolon went back to sleep as soon as the man died. After twelve days. It really is remarkable how someone skilled at torture can keep a person alive despite all the various—” He waved his hand in a gesture I didn’t want to explore.

  “Yes, well, all of that aside,” I said, still not able to meet his eye. “The point is that if the thane has attacked again, then I must go at once to Hallow. He and Deo can’t handle the thane by themselves. How do we get out of here?”

  “I am not going anywhere,” Mayam said, crossing her arms. “And neither are you. You are my prisoner, given into my care by Lord Racin. I demand that you give me your weapons, and place yourself in my charge.”

  “Who is this Shadowborn woman?” Thorn asked, giving Mayam the same look of disbelief I was fairly certain covered my own face. “And why does she feel that making outrageous statements of that sort has any value, conversationallyspeaking?”

  “She’s Deo’s former…well, friend, I guess. We met her on Eris. Then she betrayed us.”

  “I simply realized that Lord Deo was being unreasonable with regards to Racin,” she said with an irritated sniff.

  “How do we get out of the spirit realm?” I asked Thorn. “And how fast can you get to Hallow once we’re out? He’s probably going mad worrying about me, and if he’s coping with the thane, that’s the last thing he should be doing.”

  “Coping with the thane?” Thorn asked, obviously confused.

  “Worrying.”

  “About that—” Thorn looked thoughtful. “Yes, I think we’re going to have to call in my apprentice to help with that. The irritating one, not the traitorous one.”

  I stiffened. “I realize that Hallow may not have been your choice for the position of Master of Kelos, but to refer to him as irritating is just unfair. He has tried very hard to accede to your demands, many and varied as they are, and he does a wonderful job keeping not only the spirits of Kelos happy—excluding the Eidolon, and that wasn’t his fault at all—but also organizing the arcanists.”

  “What are you talking about?” Thorn asked, a distracted expression on his face. “Of course I chose the lad to be Master. I knew the minute I saw him with Exodius that Hallow would be perfect for the position. Far more perfect than Exodius ever was, but don’t tell him that. Not until he does what we want.”

  “I don’t know who Exodius is, and to be honest, I don’t much care. I wish to be returned to my lord Racin,” Mayam said stiffly, sitting down on a large black rock that was oddly smooth and glossy.

  We both ignored her. “What do you want Exodius to do? Something for Hallow?” I asked Thorn.

  “No, something for me.” He frowned at nothing for a moment, then nodded, as if coming to a decision. “Yes, it has happened. The connection to Kelos feels different, which means Hallow…but that is neither here nor there. Come, priestling. We have tarried too long. I do not wish for the Askia to notice you here. They will want to know who you are, and why you are here, and both of those are questions you will not wish to answer. I will see you to the mortal plane, but then I must find Exodius.”

  “He’s that way,” I said, pointing over Thorn’s shoulder. “We met him…hmm. I don’t remember how long it’s been. We met him a few days ago, I think, in a town next to a river. It had a great hall perched at one end.”

  “Trust Exodius to claim the grandest residence he could find,” Thorn murmured, shooing me forward. “Yes, yes, I know the town of which you speak, and I will go there henceforth, but first we must get you out of here before the spell wears off, and you return to a state of insensibility. There is an exit down there, by the altar where the barrier between the two realms is the weakest.”

  “There’s an altar here?” I asked, moving forward down the path. “Who are the Askia that we need to be wary of them? I haven’t heard of such a people.”

  “I will not have you escaping!” Mayam called after us, and with a hrmph, leaped up and pushed her way past Thorn to march beside me. “Lord Racin would never forgive me should I let you slide through his fingers.”

  “You really are delusional if you believe I will let you hand me over to that monster again,” I told her in my most polite voice before turning my head to ask over my shoulder, “Thorn?”

  “Hmm?”

  “The Askia?”

  He blinked at me, his eyebrow tendrils waving gently in the breeze.

  “Who are they?” I prompted when it was clear he hadn’t been paying attention. “And just where are we? Does this place have a name, or is it just some desolate stretch of the coast?”

  He was silent for a moment, his expression unusually grave. “This is the Altar of Day and Night,” he finally answered.

  “And the Askia are the twelve maiden warriors who guard the All-Father.” Mayam gave a disgusted snort. “Really, your ignorance is almost breathtaking in its scope.”

  I opened my mouth to dispute the label of ignorance, but had to admit that in this instance, she was correct. “What are they doing here if they guard the All-Father? I thought the goddesses—”

  “And Nezu!” she interrupted.

  “Banished him,” I finished, rubbing the goosebumps on my arms.“The Altar of Day and Night. I assume the name refers to the twin goddesses? It’s a fitting name, regardless. This whole area is so…so…”

  “Desolate?” Thorn suggested, stopping next to the altar, and sketching a few symbols on the ground.

  “Bleak?” Mayam asked, and bent to pick up a small stone, which she examined with apparent interest.

  “Familiar,” I said, finally putting my fragmented thoughts together.

  Thorn shot me a questioning glance, but said nothing, just continued to draw symbols on the ground in the shape of a circle.

  It took another six minutes before Thorn managed to get an exit opened that led out to the mortal world—this was despite Mayam’s constant complaints and demands that we take her immediately to Nezu.

  “I will look first,” he warned, moving in front of me as I was about to pass through the opening he’d made in the fabric of being that separated the physical from the spirit realms. “In case the Askia have noticed you were here, and wish to make trouble.”

  “I have no fight with them,” I said softly, glancing over my shoulder. For some reason, my skin felt prickly, like someone had used a piece of silk to rub a glass rod, then passed it over my arm. “There is no reason they should wish to interfere with us.”

  “You are Fireborn,” Mayam said with a one-shoulder shrug. “They need no other reason to hate you.”

  “Why on earth would the fact that I’m Fireborn matter to them? I’ve never even heard of them, so why would they take umbrage with me?”

  Mayam’s lip curled with scorn, but she answered readily enough. I had a suspicion she liked the opportunity to flaunt her knowledge in front of me. “The Fireborn are children of the goddess Kiriah, who was in her turn a child of the Life-Mother. The All-Father believed the Life-Mother was behind her children’s first attempt to banish him, which failed because it was just the twin goddesses together. It wasn’t until Nezu joined them that they were able to succeed. The Askia haven’t forgotten that. It’s said they roam the coast, searching for men and women whom they can train up as soldiers to fight on behalf of the All-Father.”

  “They have an army, these Askia?” I’d never heard of any other people inhabiting Genora but the Starborn and the water talkers who lived on the northern coast. I wondered whether or not they would be helpful in the fight against Nezu.

  “Not here. Their warriors are sent to the Vinlands,” she said, naming the continent to the south of Genora. She grimaced and added, “My old master said once that he had been there to learn from the warriors—the Harii—but the people he found had broken with the Askia, and aligned themse
lves with the Life-Mother.”

  I shook my head, more than a little baffled that I had not heard of these people, wondering if Sandor knew of them and kept the knowledge from the priestesses, or if she, too, was ignorant of what went on in foreign lands. “It’s a shame they are so far away. If they are aligned with the twin goddesses, we might have used their help with Nezu. Or at the very least, Darius.”

  “Help with Nezu?” she repeated, suspicion sharpening her gaze. “What do you mean? Do you plot against Lord Racin? Do you—”

  Thorn reappeared, gesturing for us. “Come quickly. I saw an Ask, but she was alone, and appeared to be preoccupied watching a ship on the horizon. You should be able to avoid her if you are careful.”

  “I’m not afraid of a battle.” Mayam lifted her chin and pushed past me to slip through the barrier between realms.

  “Nor am I, but I do not seek them when they are not necessary.” I pulled up both swords and pushed my way through what felt like a dense, warm wad of wool before emerging back into the mortal world.

  Cold, salty air slapped me, causing my hair to whip around and immediately stick to the edges of my eyes and mouth, the cold sting of it making my eyes water and my nose run, but even so, I took a deep breath. My sense of relief at returning to normalcy was so great I wanted to sing.

  “Ugh. The weather was much nicer in the spirit world,” Mayam groused, rubbing her arms.

  I glanced around, curious to see what this area looked like in the real world, but to my surprise, it was the same. Mostly.The colors were sharper and deeper in hue, the air was both lighter and had more substance, and Kiriah overhead sent little ripples of warmth down my back. But other than those differences, we stood in a black landscape of twisted, dead ebony trees and glasslike rocks. “It may have been nicer, but I much prefer this world to any other. May the goddesses bless you for all your help, Thorn. I can’t—oh.”

  A wooden bird flitted around me; the handsome sparrow hawk design that Hallow had chosen for Thorn’s new physical body fitted him well.