He read the note, and then she added, [Start with Kasimir,] writing over his shoulder.
There was another flash of pearlescent lightning that lit the basin, and left afterimages on his vision; the thunder that followed was closer yet again.
Reunalis was dark everywhere. Its final night had come.
As if to accent his thoughts, warning horns began to sound, one after another after another, across the face of the city.
*
When Totelun arrived at the great forum, he found it packed to its iridescent shell ceiling with senators and bulging at the edges with the poor and destitute of the city. Everyone had gathered to hear the report and a scout at the centre was in full flow.
‘It’s huge,’ he said, ‘not the absolute biggest Celestial I’ve seen, but one of.’
Pearl stood just in front of her seat, Coral behind her. Opal was nowhere to be seen. Totelun was glad; he seriously didn’t need her negativity for this. He spotted Kasimir standing beside the scout, ever vigilant.
Totelun started to push his way forward, gently cutting through the damp crowd towards the raised dais.
‘And it’s not veering with the wind,’ the scout continued. ‘That’s the weirdest thing. It’s heading right for us. The other scouts and I only just stayed ahead of it. It sits at the eye of the storm, and seems to draw it along in its wake.’
‘How far out?’ said Pearl.
‘Maybe an hour at most, ma’am, before its directly overhead!’ The scout was trying to sound calm but was visibly panicked.
‘What if I told you,’ said Totelun loudly, gaining the front of the crowd and climbing onto the dais, ‘that the Celestial was here for me?’
‘For you?’ said Pearl, unfazed.
‘You know about thralls,’ he said, ‘humans with Medusi attached? Cassandra has one and the stories of your ancestors warn of them.’ He pointed at the waterfall outside beyond the gathered faces hungry for reassurance he couldn’t give them. ‘That Celestial is also attached to a person and its size means it is far more powerful than a little Medusi like Cassandra’s. The thrall is a human just like me or you, his name is Abrax. But he commands the storm that you can hear out there.’ As if to punctuate his words, there was a crescendo of thunder. He raised his voice over it. ‘Abrax will rip apart this city looking for me. He can fire lightning from his bare hands. When your ancestors warned Medusi would destroy the world, he’s the kind they were talking about.’
Pearl said, ‘Then we hand you over to it. To him.’
As if she were channelling Opal, Totelun thought.
‘If it were so easy, I would gladly do that. But Abrax is a vindictive bastard and he will not suffer to let you live. He will come down into the chasm and destroy Reunalis shell by shell, blasting and burning everything in sight. He will do it to make an example. He is part of a sect deliberately trying to fulfil the prophecies of your ancestors, helping Medusi to take over the world.’
Coral spoke this time. ‘Why is he looking for you?’
‘Because the leader of his sect, a powerful sorceress, believes in another prophecy. You know me as the man with the crystal heart. The one who will lead you back to the surface world. But she believes me to be the one who will rid the world of Medusi.’ It felt strange to say it aloud, especially to those that had fled this same fight. ‘When I found Reunalis, I was running. Running from him. Believe me when I say he could mean the end of your city.’
Totelun was glad it wasn’t Opal’s turn next. But Pearl’s response was not much better.
‘If he is as powerful as you say, then I have no choice,’ she said loudly, ‘but to order the evacuation of Reunalis and all it’s citizens. If we cannot hide, then you must lead us to safety.’
The hushed whispers that went through the forum were deafening. Evacuate, for the first time in a thousand years? It was unheard of, unbelievable. There was shouting, protests. Pearl raised her hands and tried to calm the crowd.
‘No,’ said Totelun, but he too was drowned out in the noise. ‘No!’ he tried again louder, ‘evacuation is not the answer. You’ll just create panic and chaos. And besides we have no time, didn’t you hear the scout? We have barely an hour. You don’t have anywhere to go, and what do we transport people on, Thunwings? You have no ships.’
The noise redoubled making it difficult to continue the debate.
‘Please don’t tell me,’ said Pearl, shouting over them, ‘you’ve come here to scare us but you don’t offer any alternative?’
Totelun held aloft the crystal one more time. He waited for the symbol to quiet the crowd. It only took a moment. ‘This is the heart of a Celestial, proof that I have slain one of these creatures myself. They can be killed. The thrall that leads it, he is a man like you or I, flesh and blood and bone. He can be killed. But I cannot do it alone.’ Totelun caught Kasimir’s eye, felt the older man’s hunger for battle and adventure like it was his own. It stoked his fire.
‘Do your people fight?’ he roared at Pearl. This time he raised his voice to stoke the crowd anew.
‘Our way is not violence,’ she replied.
Just torture and elaborate executions, he thought. He kept it to himself. ‘You have riders, armed with harpoons. How many?’
‘A few hundred,’ said Kasimir. ‘Pilots and spearmen both.’
‘Kasimir, be silent,’ snapped Pearl. ‘It is not your place to speak.’
‘Do not silence him,’ said Totelun. The crowd had hushed fully, watching them intently. ‘Do I need to remind you again who I am?’ Cassandra had said to use it. Totelun addressed the crowd. ‘The world your ancestors fled is still fighting against Medusi a thousand years later. Everyone is afraid, everyone fears them. You have been hidden away for too long, letting others fight a war for you, waiting to emerge after the victory is claimed.
‘Fight with me instead! Take your place in this war, and fight with me! Don’t leave it up to someone else. Defend your homes, come back to your children and families proud that you vanquished a foe. Don’t run with your tails between your legs.’ Totelun felt like he was telling himself even more than the Reunali. He clapped a hand on Kasimir’s shoulder. ‘I cannot fight him alone. I will be killed. But with enough of your warriors on Thunwings, with your help, maybe, just maybe, we can prevail.’
Pearl and Coral glanced at each other in a forum gone silent, but for the storm raging outside. Totelun could sense the shift in the mood had happened. He’d carried it.
‘It is time to leave Reunalis,’ he said finally, ‘and it starts tonight with your city’s pilots.’
Pearl dropped a simple nod, and everyone was moving.
*
When Kasimir had asked to meet him at the stables, Totelun had not been prepared for the scale of the space. Instead of a small chamber grown from the coral, this was an immense cavern dug into the cliff rock, stretching a few hundred feet across and another few hundred in depth. The ceiling was far above, allowing the Thunwings and their pilots to swoop into the wide cavemouth and land with ease on the polished floor. The lip of the cave dropped away into the sheer face of the cliff, perfect for fast launches.
Inside were hundreds of Thunwings and double that number of pilots and harpooners. The keening cries of the Thunwings, flushed with adrenaline and excited for the flight, was deafening, but welcome to Totelun. It reminded him of home, of the hunt.
Each creature had two riders fussing about it, strapping saddles to its back, arranging weapons and hanging spare metal shafts for their harpoon launchers. Totelun was heartened to see the tools of the tribal hunts he’d left behind were here also. Scouts were still flying into the cave, drenched from the waterfall, giving up to the minute news of the Celestial’s progress.
Kasimir found him, after he’d been wandering around, his mouth wide open for a few moments. ‘A full battlewing in preparation,’ he said, sounding like a proud mother bird with her flock. ‘Not a common sight. Not ever in my lifetime. My father told stories of a civil war in
his grandfather’s day, one side of the city against the other. The only time he’d seen a full contingent readying for battle.’ He pointed out different sections of the battlewing to Totelun, as they heard more thunder ricochet across the cave, setting off the Thunwings again. Totelun realised it was the storm that called to them and they responded; their very name came from the words thunder and wing. Whoever named them knew their nature better than he’d ever appreciated.
Totelun was ready to join them and Kasimir could see it.
‘I’ll take you to, Shenkhi, wasn’t it?’
Totelun nodded and followed.
Kasimir looked back as they walked. ‘You’ll have to get him saddled, he won’t accept it from anyone else. He’s still far too wild.’ He grinned then. ‘I still can’t believe you tamed him, huge buck like that. I’m actually jealous. I can’t really believe you’re alive.’
Totelun just shrugged. I’m right here.
‘By all rights, you should be dead.’
‘That wouldn’t make for much of a legend,’ said Totelun.
Kasimir laughed as they rounded a large group of Thunwings and their female pilots, one barking orders. He remembered the only other female pilot he’d known, Tharana, back on the Floating Islands. A beautiful warrior to his impressionable young eyes, she’d raced him to the crystal heart of the Celestial, but hadn’t been prepared to risk as much as Totelun. That’s where it all started, he thought. If I had just turned back like she did then, I’d still be home with my family, and none of this would have happened. Funny how sometimes just a simple decision could propel a life along a wildly different path. He thought of Cassandra and her visions then, grateful that she was safe back at the pod and he could concentrate on the battle without worrying about her.
Behind the pilots they came upon Shenkhi. He was snapping his rubbery face at a runner who was still trying to get him prepared for battle.
‘Give up, Jasnin,’ said Kasimir. ‘His pilot’s here.’ The runner was visibly relieved as she set down the saddle and ran off to help others. Kasimir turned to Totelun. ‘Now, you may think you’re hot shit here, the slayer with the crystal heart and all that, but you follow my lead.’
Totelun opened his mouth to speak.
‘I don’t want to hear any argument. You owe me, I helped you with the Matriarchs and your challenge. Do as I say up there, will you?’
Totelun sighed. ‘I have fought one of these things before, you realise?’
‘I know, and I’m happy to hear any ideas now, but when we are up there, defer to me. Else you’ll get us all tangled up going off on your own.’
Totelun thought for a moment. ‘The tentacles can sting and slap, knock pilots and Thunwing right out of the sky. We avoid those, get up high above if we can. It will have a dress of orbs around the edge of the body, those are its eyes.’ He didn’t need to tell Kasimir what to do there. ‘The carapace on top is strong, but not impervious. I landed and cut my way in when I killed the last one.’
Kasimir nodded. ‘And the thrall you mentioned?’
‘I don’t know. He will be in amongst the tentacles and he can fire lightning bolts from his palms. He is the biggest danger.’
‘You still have the crystal,’ said Kasimir, gesturing to his belt pouch. ‘Don’t you want to leave that here? It’s heavy.’
Totelun told him the truth. ‘Maybe I should. It acts like a beacon, telling him where I am, but if I leave it here he will just attack the city. At least this way I can draw him away, keep him concentrated on me and the battle.’
Kasimir seemed to accept each point and move on. He showed Totelun how to attach the saddle with silent efficiency, how to hang the weapons and harpoons, but they were interrupted only a few minutes later as Cassandra stepped up beside them. She offered Shenkhi some sugary feed she had found on her way over, which he accepted gladly, his leathery lips on her hand making her giggle silently.
‘I’ll give you a little space,’ said Kasimir, with a wink. ‘Better find you a harpooner.’
Despite the giggle, Totelun could see that Cassandra was upset. She handed him a pre-written page.
[Everything is unravelling,] it said. [Aurelia has been poisoned just as I foresaw. I couldn’t stop it, and I cannot speak to her, she is closed to me, somewhere between life and death, dreaming a terrible dream. Argentor has been lost to Noctiluca, the people fled. Naus is walking into mortal danger as I write this, and I can’t help either of them. I feel powerless. Pointless. What is the point of this power if I cannot help my friends? And you are about to go into battle with Abrax. I don’t know what to do…] The note ended here, splotched with tears.
Totelun understood all too well how it felt to worry about people he could not reach. [Chrys is with Aurelia. She is a skilled Healer, she once squeezed every last tiny Ephyrae from my stomach with her magic. She saved my life, and she will save your sister’s. I know it.]
Cassandra smiled weakly, sniffed loudly. Totelun marvelled that it was one of the first noises he ever heard her make. When he told her so she laughed silently, wiping her eyes.
[Have you seen something?] he wrote.
She nodded as she read, looking like she would cry again.
[About me?] he asked.
Cassandra looked directly at him. There was fear as well as sadness. Am I going to die out there? he thought. She took the leaf to write on. But Totelun suddenly snatched it from her hand.
[I don’t want to know,] he scrawled quickly.
Cassandra was confused. [You don’t want to know what to avoid?]
[No, I don’t. Your visions are warnings. They are not set in stone. I decide my own destiny, and I am not going out there just to die. The warning is heeded, okay, but I don’t need the details.] He then passed her another quick note of his own that he’d written earlier.
[I know how you feel about me,] he’d started with, then crossed it out and tried again. [I know I’m only a lowly hunter, and you are a Princess, but I love you, Cassandra. I have ever since I first saw you. I will come back to you.]
When she read it and looked up into his eyes, he reached out and pushed the goggles up off her head. For a moment she clenched her eyes shut, but after a few moments she opened them. The cave was dark despite the activity going on all around them, and she could see without them.
She understood. He didn’t need to say a word, nor write a thing.
Cassandra leant forward at the same moment Totelun did. Their lips met and it was everything to Totelun. His heart soared, like it was going back to the Islands already. That first soft touch became something harder, more forceful as he felt her arms embrace him, and he held her in turn. The wind and spray buffeted them from the cave mouth, but they hardly noticed.
The kiss only broke when they heard the horn shells being blown again. It was time.
Totelun put foot to stirrup and climbed up on Shenkhi’s back. He leaned down to wave Cassandra off but found her mounting up behind him.
[What are you doing?] he scrawled quickly.
[I’m coming with you. You need a harpooner, else you’ll be next to useless up there.]
[No, you have to stay here.]
[Have you learnt nothing on our journey together?] she wrote. [Do I need to remind you of your own words, ‘I will never think of you as a liability.’ If I wasn’t around last time, you’d be dead already.]
Totelun had no idea how to respond. She was right, and there was nothing for it.
Shenkhi responded to Totelun’s pull on the reins, and slid to the cave entrance. He didn’t stop, launching at speed from the slippery wet rocks. Next thing Totelun knew, they were plummeting down the cliff face and soaring into the dark skies.
Chapter Forty Four
Nausithorn
As Nausithorn crept into the palace under cover of darkness, he marvelled at the ease with which he’d evaded the guards, thralled or otherwise. The city had been just as quiet.
His timing was impeccable; just as the Temple of the Medousa had
been abandoned, it seemed Theris was too. The only souls he came across were the rebels who helped him infiltrate under the wall at his signal, and the scattering of thralled children keeping watch on street corners, like ominous silent beacons in the night.
Naus had been out of the loop for too long, he didn’t know what Noctiluca’s plans were, or what she had done to the populace. Had she gathered them in the centre at the palace, or sent them out to attack another city? Had she found out about Aurelia in Argentor and gone there at the head of an invading force? Would she even be here?
As he got closer, however, that doubt dissolved. He could feel her presence ahead, permeating through the walls from deep inside the ancient building. He still had trouble thinking of her in any other way than as Noctiluca. It was the reason he was here. He had to know. He had to look upon her face and know that Eleutheria still lived.
The vaulted foyer was empty save for a couple of androgynous thralled guards, silent and faceless. Their slowly pulsing Medusi hovered like two blue torches on either side of a new entrance that hadn’t been part of the palace on his previous visit.
Naus stepped up to them, his hood low over his face, pulling aside his cloak in case he needed to draw his blade quickly. But the guards held out their arms to show him the way. He was expected.
Somehow that was worse.
The entrance was not a door, but a long and deep stone staircase, newly cut into the earth. It strained his eyes to see, but he swore its deepest recesses glowed with a faint blue light.
Naus descended into darkness. This is it, he thought, my last chance to turn away. Go back to the city, find the road to Argentor and join Aurelia. It had been folly to come here, he knew. But he still had an undeniable compulsion to know. His thirst for knowledge would be his end.
He had been drawn here more inexorably than he had ever realised. Once he’d entered the palace, it had hit him like a drug in his blood, flowing into his brain; her spell, her influence. Though he knew it for what it was, which gave him some measure of control, it was still a mesmerising force that pulled him in towards the source.
Embrace of the Medusi (The Overlords Trilogy Book 2) Page 59