“He always was hard of hearing,” the old man told Allegria. “I was forever repeating myself to him. Always had a mind of his own, too, and wouldn’t take advice. THE ALL-FATHER, BOY! I SAID HE WASN’T BANISHED.”
“You don’t have to yell. Despite what you believe, I can hear perfectly well,” Hallow told him. “I’m afraid I don’t understand what you’re saying, though. The All-Father is in the Altar of Day and Night, isn’t he?”
“Yes, yes, I just said that.” Exodius picked up his fat dog, saying to it, “I may not have made the wisest choice for my successor, Eagle.”
“Are you saying he…what, went there willingly?” Allegria asked, glancing briefly at Deo when Idril and Lord Israel approached the base of the altar stone, entreating him to come down, while the Askia gathered around him, all shaking their weapons at him. At the same time, Mist stormed around waving her hands and calling for the goddesses to witness what she had to put up with when dealing with mortals.
“Of course he did. You don’t think anyone has the power to defeat the All-Father, do you? Eagle, you are getting fat. I must cut back on your after-dinner treats.” Exodius set the dog down again, absently patting his pocket until he turned up part of a heel of bread, which he gave to it.
“But the story we heard says that the twin goddesses and Nezu banished the All-Father after the Eidolon angered him, and in retaliation he wanted to wipe Alba clean of all life.” Hallow spoke slowly, trying to poke through the lore to work out what didn’t fit. “If he wasn’t banished, does that mean he didn’t intend to destroy everything?”
“Of course not,” Exodius said with a sniff. “He was mourning the loss of the Life-Mother. Once he saw to the downfall of the Eidolon, and confined Nezu where he couldn’t cause any more trouble, he retreated to the Altar. That is why you must not summon him.”
“He confined Nezu?” Allegria asked, rubbing a hand over her forehead. Her glow was getting brighter now even as all around them night closed in. “Not the twin goddesses?”
“Not the goddesses. But Nezu couldn’t bear the shame, so he lied, and conscripted the abjurors to do his bidding when the goddesses hid their essences. What are those people shouting about?”
“Deo,” Hallow said, glancing over again to make sure the arguing hadn’t gone past the point of no return. “What essences do you mean?”
“The essences, boy, the essences!” Exodius’ eyebrows were made up of long white tufts that Hallow thought of as little tentacles. One of them waved at him now in aggravation. “When the goddesses joined the mortals, they had to leave their essences behind somewhere. Boy doesn’t think, that’s what it is,” he told Allegria. “He just opens his mouth and lets the words come out without first considering what he’s asking.”
Allegria shook her head and turned to Hallow, clearly too taken aback to put words to her confusion.
“I know how you feel,” he said, kissing the tip of her delightful nose. “But I think we’ve almost reached the heart of it. Exodius, we don’t understand when you say things like the goddesses joined the mortal world. Are they here? Now? On Alba? In physical form?”
“Of course they’re in physical form. How else could they learn what went so wrong with the Eidolon if they weren’t here to see what their children were up to? Nezu saw to that, of course. He whispered in their ears that what happened to the Eidolon could happen to the Starborn and Fireborn, and the goddesses couldn’t risk that. So they joined the mortals, leaving behind their essences, and that is why you must not summon the All-Father.”
“I think I have it,” Allegria said, taking his arm, her eyes narrowed in concentration. “The All-Father is the one who banished Nezu, which means that he can banish him again. Hallow, we have to summon him. Or rather, since I don’t know how we’d do that, we have to let Nezu summon him.”
“No, no, no!” Exodius’ hair joined the eyebrow tentacles as they waggled with irritation. “That is just the opposite of what I said! If you summon him, you will destroy us all!”
“Wait, you just said that he didn’t want to kill everyone—” she started to say, but Hallow interrupted her.
“The goddesses left their essences behind, out of reach of the mortal realm,” he said slowly, his eyes on Exodius. “Does that mean that the All-Father did the same?”
“Yes, of course! He imbued it into Alba, into us, giving Lord Israel over there the Grace of Alba. It lets you wield arcany, lets the priestess shape Kiriah’s light. It is imbued into us, into Alba itself, and if you summon the All-Father, it will return to him.”
“Leaving us stripped of everything,” Hallow said, feeling sick.
“It will mean the death of all mortal beings,” Exodius said in a softer voice, glancing around him suspiciously. “Only those out of the reach of the physical realm will exist.”
“That’s why Nezu made the agreement with the Eidolon,” Allegria said thoughtfully. “Because they would survive the summoning. Oh, Hallow, we have to stop him. We have to—”
A noise sounded behind Hallow, a metal sliding upon metal noise that made the hairs stand up on the back of his neck.
Allegria gasped in horror just as the low murmur of startled voices from Lord Israel’s company washed over them.
Hallow turned slowly, his hand on his sword hilt as the thane strode toward him, a stream of Eidolon emerging from a tear that led to the spirit world.
The thane smiled. “Come to witness the end of everything, have you? As you wish. Lord Nezu? We are ready. You may commence the summoning.”
Chapter 15
“It just figures he brought Nezu with him,” I told Hallow at the same time I swung around to face the onslaught. But for the second time, the Askia surprised me—they stopped arguing with Deo, and at the thane’s words, instantly ran toward him, their weapons drawn.
“Deo!” Hallow shouted, gesturing, but it was unnecessary, since Deo had seen Nezu come through the rift that led to the spirit domain.
Pandemonium broke out. Exodius, yelling to Hallow to make sure the All-Father was not summoned, disappeared, taking his dog with him. Hallow started drawing in arcany, which made the hairs on my arms stand on end as the air around us seemed to thicken. Deo snarled and leaped off the altar, heading for Nezu.
Lord Israel shouted orders to his men, who joined the Askia in their attack on the Eidolon, with Lord Israel stalking toward the thane himself.
“Hallow, the shards,” I swung my sword when one of the Eidolon got through the line of Askia, lunging toward us. “The moonstone shards. If we each take a piece, perhaps it will give us strength, or at least focus.”
“Blast Lyl to Bellias and back—I wish I had Thorn and the staff,” Hallow said, digging around in the small pouch that hung from his belt. Sounds of the battle between the Eidolon, Askia, and Lord Israel’s company filled the air, echoing back to us. He held the four pieces of moonstone in his hand for a second, looking curiously at them before meeting my eye. “No,” he said.
“No? No what?” I pointed to where Nezu was stalking toward Deo, somewhat hindered by the battle that raged between them. “He’s here. We don’t have time to dither over what to do with the pieces of the stone.”
“No, I don’t think we should divide them up. I think instead, we should recharge them.”
“Charge how?” I asked, slashing at another foolhardy spirit who was trying to lop off my head. This one was a bit more persistent, and it took my cutting off his spectral arms and Hallow punching several melon-sized holes in him before he lost his corporeal form. “By Bellias? It’s barely nightfall. The moon won’t rise for a few hours.”
“Deo’s boon,” he answered, rushing past me and calling out, “Deo! Your boon! Give me your boon!”
Deo, like Nezu, had been hacking and fighting his way through the mass of bodies. He paused to glance back, his face filled with disbelief. “Have you finally gone irre
vocably mad, Hallow? I need the boon to call on Bellias so that we can send the monstrosity back to his domain!”
“I don’t want to keep it, I just need it for a few minutes,” Hallow answered. I ran alongside him, summarily lopping off heads and arms, and beating back spirits when even more swarmed out of the rift.
As I did so, heat grew inside me, filling me with the joyful knowledge that once again, Kiriah was with me. I stopped briefly, staring at a spirit who lifted a massive sword, about to strike me down, and thrust my palm outward to send a burning stream of sunlight through the five nearest spirits. The looks of incredulity on their faces as their forms dispersed gave me much pleasure. “Blessed, blessed Kiriah,” I murmured, leaping in front of Hallow to blast the nearest spirits back to their realm. He shot me a startled look for a moment, then grinned.
“I could get used to having my own personal one-woman army. We must get to Deo’s side, my heart. I’d use arcany, but I’m pulling on that to control the chaos, and I hesitate to split my concentration.”
His runes had lit up red, sending a chill down my overheated flesh. Hallow had told me how he had lost control of the magic when Lyl attacked, and I knew he dreaded doing so again. “It’s far better you conserve your energy for charging the stone’s shards, assuming that can be done. I will keep the spirits from reaching you.”
“You are the best wife in all of Alba,” he said, swinging me up against his chest for a kiss that was as hot as Kiriah’s fire burning in my blood.
“Hallow!” Deo bellowed, his body half turned toward us, his usual scowl in place. “If you can stop engaging in carnal acts with your wife and attend to what is important, I’d be grateful.”
I pulled myself away from Hallow and his enticing mouth, and spread my hands wide, sending a wave of Kiriah’s heat flowing forth in an arc, melting the spirits in its way, and clearing a path to Deo. “There is nothing more important than Hallow kissing me, but since you are being so grumpy about it—”
“Grumpy!” Deo spun around to cleave in two one of the thane’s captains, who had come up behind him. “I am not grumpy! I have never been grumpy! I have been a bit distracted by the fact that my mortal enemy is even now working his way over to do goddess knows what sort of heinous act, but that, priestling, is not grumpy. Here.”
He pulled from inside his tunic a small, square, silk-covered object that I recognized from the year before, when I’d retrieved the boon for him.
I peered over Hallow’s shoulder while he unwrapped the silk, revealing a small wooden box. Inside it lay a crescent moon cast in silver, with glittering pale blue stones, and tiny chains from which hung a scattering of minute crystal stars. “It’s so pretty! Is it an amulet? There’s a chain. Can it be worn?”
“Not by a Fireborn,” Deo warned, pinning Hallow with a long look. “I wouldn’t trust this to anyone else. I want it back in the same condition so that I can use it to call Bellias.”
“Of course,” Hallow said, glancing around, obviously looking for a relatively quiet spot. He took my hand and pulled me after him, scrambling down the rocky incline to the center of the altar.
“Go ahead,” I told him, turning so that my back was to his. He laid both Deo’s boon and the shards of the moonstone onto the altar, his hands glowing blue-white. I felt oddly triumphant, filled to the brim with confidence, sure that nothing could go wrong. I almost danced with the joy of it all. I wanted to throw back my head and sing to the skies. The same odd sense of rushing power flowing from my fingertips built inside me, my voice deepening and taking on a slightly different timbre when I spoke. “Nothing can defeat us now. We will defeat the thane and drive him back to his crypt. We will send the Askia flying before us in fear. We will right the wrongs that Nezu has done, and when we have chained him—”
“Then what?”
My mind boggled for a second just as my body fought the sudden constriction on my throat. One moment, Nezu was ten yards away, the next he was on me, holding me by my throat, his face with its red, oiled skin thrust into mine. His eyes glittered with a dull red glow deep in their onyx depths. Noises registered in my ears, sounds of shouting and a deep voice that I recognized calling my name, but all of that faded into insignificance as I faced the monster. Fear that was both my own and foreign gripped me, my breath stopped in my throat.
“Then what?” Nezu yelled, shaking me as if I was one of Dexia’s rag dolls.
A blue-white explosion lit up the side of his face, but he shoved out a hand, sending a figure flying backward. Another explosion, this one a golden red, slammed into Nezu’s back, rocking us forward, but still his fingers bit into my neck, his gaze holding mine, filling me with dread. Behind him, a curtain of shimmering red chaos magic formed a barrier around us, separating us from Hallow and Deo.
Slowly, one of Nezu’s lips curled. “You do not speak, sister? I thought not. It was ever thus with you. Ah, I see by the fear dawning in your eyes that you did not know I recognized you. I will admit the stink of Bellias that is wrapped around you threw me off, but in the end, you gave yourself away.”
With a noise that was filled with disgust and loathing, he tossed me onto the altar. I lay gasping for breath, my brain trying to make sense of his words, of the whole nightmare scene. Sister? Nezu thought I was his sister? What madness had beset him? I pushed myself up from the rock even as I drew in painful, rasping gulps of air.
“You’re mad,” I managed to choke out at last. With one shaking hand, I massaged my throat, aware of Deo and Hallow nearby, but held back by Nezu’s power. The world seemed to shrink down to just us four. Nezu paced back and forth in front of the altar, scratching symbols into the glass stone, droning foreign words that I didn’t recognize. “I am not your sister. I am Kiriah’s priest, not Kiriah herself.”
“You are one and the same,” he spat out, causing me to reel back as he leaned over me, his long black hair slithering over my arms. “You hid well for all those centuries, but not well enough. I bided my time, knowing the day would come when you or the other would come to taunt me. And when I smelled the scent of her arcany all over you, I knew the time had come to do what the Eidolon failed to do. This time, Alba will be mine. It will be remade in my image.” Little flecks of spittle gathered in the corners of his mouth as he loomed over me, causing me to scramble backward. “It will be peopled by my spawn, and when the All-Father sees what I have wrought, he will be destroyed.”
I tried to make sense of it, unable to tear my gaze from his to catch Hallow’s eye. I shook my head, saying again, “I am not Kiriah.”
“The abjurors did their work too well,” he said with a low, grating laugh, then grabbed my wrist in a painful grip, and held up my hand. “The truth burns out of you, but this time, you will not triumph. You are alone, and soon, you will be destroyed in the unmaking.”
“Unmaking of…Alba?” I asked on a breath, my voice once again strange, holding a resonance that I felt to my toes. And for a moment, for the few seconds it takes the heart to beat, I was calm. “You think to unmake an entire world with a few spells and runes? The All-Father will not allow it. He will not allow himself to be summoned. He will not let you use him to destroy that which he gave his life for.”
“He has no choice,” Nezu said, releasing my hand to inscribe more runes into the rock, and with that, the fear and confusion was back inside me, driving me upright. I wanted to flee, to run to Hallow, to protect him and urge him away from there. I wanted to call down the light of Kiriah onto Nezu, sending him back to his place of exile. I looked beyond him, past the shimmering red wall of chaos that kept my love from me. Deo stood with his head bowed, his hands outstretched as he poured wave after wave of his Kiriah-touched chaos magic into the wall, while next to him, Hallow drew symbols over the broken pieces of crystal. He suddenly stood up straight, holding in his hand the shimmering moonstone, whole again.
“Everyone has a choice,” I said softly, my
eyes on Hallow.
He turned to Deo, handing him back the silver moon. Deo clutched it in both hands, his eyes lifted to the sky, his mouth working while beyond them both, black shadows danced in and out of the glow of the red wall of chaos. I could see Lord Israel’s men, and Quinn, and Idril fighting with the Eidolon. Everyone I cared about was here, counting on us to stop the horror who stood before me. I looked back at Hallow. He doubled over, the moonstone held in his hand, his runes turning black. I knew he was dangerously close to losing control, and with the moonstone as a focus for it, this time he would not survive the explosion of chaos magic. None of us would. My gaze settled on Nezu, and I smiled. “I am not Kiriah Sunbringer,” I said loudly, my voice carrying over the rush of power that flowed around me, over even the sounds of battle. “But if I was, I would die rather than see you destroy everything I made.”
Nezu glanced up from his runes just as I leaped off the altar, my hands thrust forward, slamming every morsel of light I had gathered into the wall of chaos. And then Hallow was there, his arms wide, his head thrown back, a beacon in the darkness, as light poured out of him, thick, red waves crashing forward, covering the altar. Deo shouted something, and then he, too, let his control slip, thrusting the amulet toward Nezu. The peculiar golden red chaos caught the monster and sent him reeling to the side. My gaze on Hallow, I sent up a prayer to Kiriah to save my love, the man who was everything to me. I poured her light onto him, bathing him in the golden fire, protecting him from the black corruption that had started to eat its way up his legs.
“Bellias Starsong, I call due your boon!” Deo bellowed, his voice echoing in my bones. “Grant me your power that I may banish Nezu to the Altar of Day and Night.”
A black shape flickered in and out of the broken trees, the fleeting shape of a bird catching the edges of my vision.
Thorn flashed over the top of Hallow, diving through the light I poured on him and disappearing into it. For a moment, the silhouette of a woman formed in the blackness beyond the burnt trees, her face in shadow, her voice as soft as the wind. “Only joined, Savior of the Fourth Age. What was put asunder, must again be joined.”
Shadowborn Page 23