by Victor Poole
"What happened to the sky angel?" Ajalia asked. She had fashioned two great wings, and she took the roots of the wings, and began to thrust the tendrils of blue into the lights around her shoulders and back. She bit back a gasp, when she thrust the blue sky light into her body; she ignored the sharp pain that the power brought, and wound the tendrils of blue all around her bones, and pulled them in tight spirals around her spine.
"She fell from the sky," Ocher said slowly. "The whole city was gathered together, and they saw her fall. She fell into the quarries," he said. "That is why we celebrate many of our feasts there, in the evenings. We do the offerings in the morning," Ocher said, "but one of the children of the Thief Lord is sent, bearing the offering, to the quarry in the afternoon, and the light of the sun consumes the offering. They say," he said, "that the spirit of the sky angel lingers there, and that she will come forth again, and teach the dead falcon to fly."
The rumbling below Ajalia, deep in the earth, looked to her now, as she worked over the gathered blue light from the sky, like two enormous vines of blackness. She thought that the whole earth was in a long stranglehold of black, like two great eels of pitch black, that whipped hard around the inside of the ground, and squeezed. The heads of the two snake-like creatures were turned now towards her; their bodies were larger than the whole dragon temple. Ajalia thought that she could see two pairs of angry red eyes, like the glowing of malignant coals, and she thought of the way Coren's marks had glowed, before they had exploded. She adjusted her grip on the knife and the dagger, and flexed the two great wings that spread out now above her, like flickering waves of light.
Ocher was staring at her.
"Is there blue around you now?" Ocher asked.
"You know the story magic?" Ajalia asked him. "The kind that children do?" Ocher nodded, his mouth turned in an anxious frown. "Do you know how to do story magic?" she asked him. Ocher nodded again. Ajalia looked at the bearded man, and she thought of the little boys that were upstairs. She wanted to tell Ocher to get the boys out of the temple, to take them somewhere far away, but then one of the black snake shapes darted up towards her, its mouth spread wide, and she drew her wings up, and pumped them down towards the earth.
With a shock of air, and a feeling of falling upwards, Ajalia, surrounded still by the net of blue light, and the thicker wall of the same blue, flew up into the air. The witches, who had been caught in the wall of blue, fell to the floor. Ajalia rose up twenty feet, and the jaws of the angry black twisting writhing snake of darkness snapped on where she had been. Ajalia felt as though her heart was exploding; she had no time to think, and she moved without knowing what she did. She saw the eyes of the evil eel, and she carved her blue wings back, and throttled straight down, her two blades outstretched. She flung down through the air like a falling blue comet, and first the blue wall, and then the net around her impacted on the side of the face of the great ugly beast.
Each barrier of mixed magic emitted a thunderous bang, and exploded against the great beast. Ajalia was sure that Ocher had heard these sounds, because he scrambled back, his face a shock of white terror. Ajalia had extended her arms forward; when the net of blue light exploded against the snake's face, she aimed her blades straight towards one of the glowing red eyes.
Ajalia passed straight through the head of the black snake, and came out, her blades shattering with bright white light, and passing with crackles of doom out of the opposite eye. When she was within the black serpent's head, Ajalia felt herself clustered round with great darkness; the black energy pressed in on every side of her, and it could not, she saw, get into her body. The blue wings she had formed sliced through the head of the snake in great sweeps, making whole pieces of the black snake fall, shattering, to the floor.
The pieces of the snake's head that had been cut away by the wings formed clear black stones, just like the others on the floor. The snake's head was sliced all into ribbons; Ajalia saw that the snake was beginning, from the inside, to implode. Her body, which had resisted the blackness in the snake, had been like when she had touched Coren. When Coren's body, touched by the ocean-blue mixed lights, had begun to vent darkness towards Ajalia's hands, her skin had flashed white, and then the brilliant white had snaked back into Coren's body. Now, when she had been right in the center of the black snake's head, her body had flamed white at the edges, as though she were a sun in human form, and the black of the snake had caught the white, and begun to expand, as though there were endless pieces of silver-white inside the darkness, crushed down into infinitely small particles, and Ajalia made these pieces of light expand to their natural size.
The dragon temple, she thought, was going to fall into pieces when the snake exploded. When she came out through the other side of the snake's head, she dove down to the floor, and ripped away the blue wings as soon as she had landed. Her shoulders ached, and tendrils of shimmering blue remained, hanging out of her back.
She sent her mind deep into the earth, but could find no sign of the second black snake. The dragon temple trembled around Ajalia. The snake's body was shaking like a vibrating line of night above the floor; most of the snake's body was deep in the earth, and Ajalia was sure that the city of Slavithe would be tumbled into pieces, if the movement was not stopped.
The blue wings were held in her hands, which were full of the hilts of her weapons; she dropped the two blades. The falcon's dagger, and her own knife, clanged against the white stone floor of the dragon temple; their blades and hilts were gleaming powerfully, like angry white stars.
Ajalia saw that the two glowing pillars she had imbued with mixed blue power were not going to fall. With the blue wings in her hands, she could sense the quivering of the earth, and the heavy power shaking from the body of the black beast.
She took one of the blue wings, and imagined it spreading thin, like a coating of fine ice, over the whole surface of the snake. She imagined the snake, all through the whole earth, being covered with the blue light, and in a moment, the vibrating ceased.
The explosive white light was still building within the body of the snake, and the dragon temple, which was nearest the snake, and which had its floor and foundation right around the evil black worm, had already been shattered within. Ajalia could feel the stones about to shift.
She took the second blue wing that she had torn from her back, and imagined it forming into threads of power. She pictured the blue threads spreading through every white stone surface in the building. She drew up a handful of colored cords from below the earth, and wound them up through the white stone floors and walls, anchoring the temple to the rocks beneath the earth. Ajalia thought, for the first time, that she could perceive the whole picture of Slavithe, and see the ground just below the earth. Cords of thick power radiated out through the mountains and underneath the city of Slavithe, ending suddenly just where the desert began.
A map, like a small model of the city, was just within Ajalia's heart. She saw that the city lay above a knot of power, and that the power radiated out from within the place where the quarries lay. Ajalia reached for the power from the quarries, and drew two handfuls of the sliver-blue light from there towards her. She added another coating of the magic all around the black snake, and all through the rocks and shimmering springs beneath Slavithe. She put rods of the silver-blue power through the dragon temple walls and ceilings, and she felt, with a soundless groan, the whole building settle firmly down. She knew that the temple would not fall down now. With surprise, she sensed within the walls of the Slavithe temple, and running through the whole city, an infrastructure of the silver-blue light. She thought of what Ocher had told her, about the sky angel falling into the quarry, and she thought that the magic she held now in her hands was that woman's power.
The thick black worm exploded, and white sparks, and flashes of powerful lightning boomed and roared, with a rushing like angry wind, through the casing of blue and blue-silver light that she had put all over the body of the hideous worm. The illuminati
on from the fiery inferno within the snake-shell cast gentle, incandescent light throughout the darkening hall.
The head and front part of the ugly worm had extended about fifteen feet above the white stone floor of the dragon temple. The two glowing eyes, which were the final pieces of the giant snake to remain visible, exploded, and when the red light hit the shell of blue and blue-silver light, a cascade of translucent black stones rattled, like an avalanche, to the floor.
Ajalia heard a whimper of fright. She walked through the temple hall towards the place where Ocher had hidden; she saw his face, and when Ocher saw her coming, he let out an unmanly shriek, and ran away.
"Ocher," Ajalia called out. Her voice sounded strange to herself; it was louder than it should have been, and it boomed through the hall. Ocher vanished in the shadows of the dragon temple. The two pillars that Ajalia had imbued with magic, now that they had been wound through with the silver-blue light from the quarry, began to fade, and the light was soon gone.
Ajalia looked down at her hands; her skin, she saw with surprise, had turned shimmering white, and her arms now resembled the white figure that Coren had conjured above his palm, and which he had called the sky angel. Ajalia looked down at her orange gown, and saw that it had become saturated all through with the magic she had taken and used in the conflict with the great snake.
Ajalia looked again in the earth for the second black worm, but she could not find it. She thought that the second black great eel must have retreated deep within the cracks in the very center of the earth; she did not think it would come at her, now that its counterpart had exploded. The translucent black stones were scattered in heaps over the floor; they lay, shining, and gleaming beautifully, in great drifts against the pillars and walls.
Darkness settled once more in the hall of the dragon temple. If it had not been for the gleam of moonlight reflecting against the many surfaces of the myriad clear stones, and for the gentle glow that came off of Ajalia's own bright skin, she could have thought that nothing at all had happened in the hall. She could not see the dead bodies of the priests and witches anymore.
"Is it over?" Vinna asked, her voice shaking. Ajalia turned in the darkness; she had forgotten about the witches, who had, the last time she had seen, been trapped hideously in the shimmering blue wall of light.
"How many of you are there?" Ajalia asked. She went through the hall to the place where she had cast aside her knife, and the falcon's dagger, using her own glowing skin as illumination. The many clear rocks reflected the light that shed out of her skin, and made the whole hall seem like it was full of faceted eyes where she walked.
"Just me and Vinna," a new voice said.
"Who are you?" Ajalia asked. She did not look around; she wanted to retrieve her knife, and the falcon's dagger, before she paid any attention to the witches.
"I'm Esther," the new voice said.
"Why didn't you die, like the others did?" Ajalia asked. She found her knife, and picked it up. Her bag hung still around her body; Ajalia was glad that her bag fitted so snuggly against her. She thought that she would have lost many of the bag's contents over the floor, when she had been flying up and down, if the bag had not folded tightly over the top. Ajalia slipped her knife back into its case on her back, and she sighed with relief. She hated being without her knife; the knife was like a friend to her. She thought of it as having a particular personality of its own, and she felt extremely kindly towards it. Ajalia pushed the clear stones around with her foot until she found the gleaming blade of the falcon's dagger; she picked up the curved dagger, and held it in her hand as she picked her way across the piles of stones towards the two witches.
Ajalia was able to see their faces when she drew close to them; her skin, which had begun now to fade, was yet casting a gentle glow of white light in a small radius around her. The blue stone that Ajalia had lit when the witches had first come in had been buried up in the translucent black stones; Ajalia could see a faint light where it lay beneath them.
"Why didn't you die?" Ajalia asked again. Esther, she saw, was the other woman with close-cropped hair. Esther glanced nervously at Vinna, and then licked her lips.
"We never did any magic," Esther said, "except for when we did anything as a group. We aren't allowed to," she added, her cheeks darkening with shame.
"Because you are not married?" Ajalia asked. Esther and Vinna looked at each other.
"The other witches didn't like our hair," Vinna said boldly. "They thought we should be punished."
"Can you do magic on your own?" Ajalia asked. "Haven't you ever done magic alone before?"
"No," Esther said at once. She turned to Vinna for support, but when Vinna said nothing, Esther continued. "They would have seen, and known," the shorn woman explained.
"We can tell, when the others have done magic," Vinna said to Ajalia, her tone haughty and annoyed. "We can smell it."
"Why can't witches see the colors?" Ajalia asked.
"I don't know what you mean by that," Vinna said.
"Be nice to her," Esther hissed to Vinna. "She might kill us, too."
"She won't kill us," Vinna said scornfully. Ajalia, who found that she was growing impatient, looked at the young woman, and she saw an echo of Beryl, and of Beryl's determined scowl. Ajalia saw, stretched out, like a premonition laid in the colors of Vinna's soul, what the mature woman would become when she was old. Ajalia looked at Vinna, and she tried to see any hope for Vinna choosing another way. Everywhere that Ajalia looked in the dark-haired servant-witch, she saw darkness ahead of her, and corruption, and the draining out of other people's spirits.
Without a word, and without giving any warning with her body, Ajalia drew her knife from behind her back, and thrust the blade straight into Vinna's heart.
Vinna's eyes widened in the fraction of a second that passed, between the raised gleam of the knife, and the moment when the sharp blade had passed through her skin and muscles to her heart. Vinna let out a dragging, ragged gasp, and then fell straight down to the ground.
Esther, whose eyes were fixed on the bloody blade that Ajalia jerked away from the dying woman, stood very still. Ajalia could feel the fear that roiled on the surface of Esther's body.
"Please don't kill me," Esther said in a small voice, and Ajalia looked at the witch, the knife held hard in her hand. The blood was spreading out from Vinna's body, and Ajalia stepped neatly back. She hated getting blood on her clothes, and the hall was already a mangled mess of bodies and blood. She knew that there was almost bound to be blood on her clothes, but she hoped to be able to salvage the beautiful orange gown that Calles had sewn. Esther was shaking, her breath coming in and out in steady gulps. Ajalia saw that Esther was keeping herself from crying, barely, and that her fists were clenched at her sides.
"How old are you?" Ajalia asked the witch.
"I'm twenty-four," Esther said. Ajalia's mouth made a small movement of interest. The same age as me, Ajalia thought, and she looked at the colored lights that swirled within Esther. "I was the youngest," Esther said hesitantly. "I haven't learned much. Vinna," she said, swallowing hard, "was next youngest to me. She was thirty years old."
"Why didn't you die?" Ajalia asked again. She still held the dripping knife in her hand; the colors in Esther's soul were clear and bright; Ajalia thought that the dark shadows that had pooled around the five witches, when they had hung suspended in the blue wall, had made Esther's heart brighter and newer than it had been.
"The others were more mature," Esther said, her voice still shaking. "They had done things that I haven't done."
"Killed people, you mean," Ajalia said. Esther's eyes widened.
"No," Esther whispered.
"They did," Ajalia told her, nodding at the place where the witches' bodies must lay in a huddled line.
"We didn't kill anyone," Esther said, her eyes anxious. "We had to fight away the priests. We were trying to restore the old ways."
"You were going to kill Coren," Ajalia poin
ted out.
"No!" Esther said again, her voice a little stronger. Ajalia looked inside the young woman, and tried to see where the lights would lead. Vinna had been composed, in her future, of deepening darkness, but Ajalia saw choices within Esther. Esther, Ajalia thought, would not necessarily become evil. "Coren has sold his soul to us," Esther said confidently. "It is fair game to make full use of a thrall."
"He was a little boy," Ajalia said, anger welling up in her heart. "He was not a thing."
Esther looked at Ajalia, her eyes wide.
"Please don't kill me," she said, and Ajalia wanted to feel sorry for her.
THE
AFTERMATH OF BATTLE
"Come with me," Ajalia said, and she stepped around the body of Vinna, and went towards the stairs at the very back of the hall. She heard Esther coming along behind her. Ajalia thought of how she was going to clean up the carnage in the hall; she suppressed a sigh, and tried to think of where she had seen graves around Slavithe. The old witch, Salla, had died in Eccsa's house, but Ajalia had left the arrangement of the funeral details to Eccsa. The old witch of the tenement had, Ajalia assumed, been carried off by the Thief Lord's men who had come, and when Ajalia had killed Lilleth, she had put the body into the garbage pit behind the dragon temple.
Ajalia thought, as she began to climb the stairs, that she had gotten beyond the use of the garbage pit now. Twenty bodies of dead priests, she told herself, and six witches. Thell, she remembered, had burned partially away, and Charm had been torn into pieces. Ajalia did not want to ask Esther where the people of Slavithe disposed of their dead bodies. She pictured herself commandeering a long line of carts, and winding through the wide white road towards the trail that led to the poison tree.
When she came to the second floor of the dragon temple, Ajalia called out for Daniel. The boy appeared almost at once, his eyes bright with excitement.