by Chris Reher
Delann regarded her with great worry. “This is my fault. I never should have let you leave Phrar. But I’ll help you overcome this! The Goddess is so very concerned about you. You are one of Her favorites. She told me so Herself when She asked me to free you from…” He glanced at Galen and Chor in distaste. “These monsters. They won’t hurt you anymore. I would run them through myself if She had not forbidden it.” He held up his hands. “No, I won’t hear any more of it until you’ve been restored to your good senses. It’s still a few hours to morning. You can sleep in my tent. You’re like ice! You must be exhausted!”
But Aletha did not sleep and the dawn found her anxious and weary. Delann had provided her with clean clothing, food, hot water, and an animal to ride. But the twins had spent yet another cold night in chains, hungry and bleeding from re-opened wounds. She was kept away from them while the mercenaries broke their camp and when they at last moved out the twins walked in the middle of the column, bound to each other and surrounded by guards. Troubled, Aletha realized that they were moving toward the launch site where the La’il awaited them.
“You’ll soon be well again,” Delann said to her after the twentieth time she had turned in her saddle to catch a glimpse of Galen. The coast road, little more than a worn path through rocky terrain, rose steeply now and the march was becoming a chore for the men. “Those two have you completely turned around!”
“Delann, I am perfectly fine. There is nothing wrong with me and no one’s put any spell on me.” She noted with relief that Galen had captured a tendril of chi’ro from the launch site still some distance ahead and was using it to fortify himself and his twin. Once they were restored it would not take much of the riser’s power to break free of their bonds and escape their captors.
Delann smiled and shook his head. “All will be well, you’ll see.” He closed his eyes to recall his vision of the La’il. “You should see Her, Aletha! If you saw Her you would understand. I have never in my life seen anything so magnificent, so very powerful. I am going to build Her a new shrine when we return. I will spend the rest of my life waiting for Her to appear again!”
She studied him with narrowed eyes, concerned. In spite of his ecstasy, there was something worrisome here. Pale, tense, nearly trembling, Delann seemed not to have slept in days. His eyes twitched nervously, drawn into a squint as if he was plagued by a monstrous headache. “I think it’s you who’s bewitched, Delann. This isn’t like you at all!”
He laughed happily. “You can’t understand how I feel. I have looked into the face of the Goddess. She spoke to me. She gave me a quest! You are so privileged to have been singled out by Her. I am not a Descendant but perhaps, by returning you to Her, I will find favor with Her as well. She is so beautiful, Aletha! She glows, She radiates.” He held out his arm in a sweeping gesture. “She was floating in front of me, first close to me, then away, then close again. Her hair was like spun ice, but it flowed like silk. Her gown was like glass and everything shimmered. Her skin sparkled, too, like when the sun hits new snow. And Her voice! I felt Her voice inside my heart!”
If Aletha had not been very much worried by her friend’s peculiar rapture she would have rolled her eyes skyward. What had the La’il done to him? She could not remember a time when Delann had voiced any deep religious conviction; he was not often seen at the temple. But she knew how easily La’il bent Galen to her will, even while he was completely aware of her intentions. Breaking the gentle Delann to her yoke would have been done in a wink.
“If she is so concerned about me, why doesn’t she come after me herself?”
Delann shook his head. “The Gods always work through mortals, Aletha,” he lectured. “Perhaps this task is a test of my dedication! And truly,” he added with a note of wonder, “it was Her hand that delivered you to us. We’ve been looking for you for days and then you simply washed up on our shore.”
Aletha gave up. “Please, Delann,” she said. “I am worried about Galen and Chor. Your people have mistreated them.”
His dreamy smile faded. “Mistreated them? And have they not mistreated you?”
“No! That’s what I’ve been trying—”
He dismissed her protest with a wave of his hand. “The La’il showed me what they did to you. Awful things!” He shuddered. “You are still suffering. She will set everything right.”
“Fine! Until then I’ll just be out of my mind.” She swung her leg over the neck of her charger and slid from the saddle. Determined, she marched along the column to where the twins stumbled along. Some of the guards threw baffled glances to Delann, who simply shrugged.
“Let me pass.” She glared at the soldiers. “Give me that.” She snatched one of the men’s water container from his pack, daring him to stop her. When no one did, she fell into step beside Galen and Chor.
Galen smiled tiredly in greeting and took the offered waterskin. He drank deeply and then handed it to Chor. “Are you all right?”
“No worries, but you don’t look so good.” She examined a long scratch running from his temple to the edge of his jaw. There was blood on his twin’s face, too.
His gesture invited her to join her mind to his. When he spoke, his voice was pitched so low that none of those nearby heard him and even Aletha understood his words only by reading the mental images that accompanied them. “I’m a little tired of getting kicked around on this moon, but I’m all right,” he murmured. “I look worse than I feel. Chor has a cracked rib that is taking a while to mend but I’ll be fine in a while. Let’s hope we can do something with the conduit before the La’il does or I’ll have more than a rib to worry about.”
“I’m not going near that launch!” she whispered urgently. “If you show me what to do, I can try to take us away from here, like I did when I pulled you away from the emissary ship. I don’t know how I did that, but with your help I can get us out of here.”
He chuckled. “I know you have the power of a hundred adepts, but you almost broke my spines. I don’t think we should try tossing all three of us through the air until you’ve had a few more lessons, Goddess.”
“I’m some goddess,” she grumbled. “Maybe, instead of pulling splinters, you should have been showing me how to keep my head above water. I’m useless!” She kicked a rock out of her way. “Damn, I can’t believe she got Delann into such a state! He’s completely down the river for her.” She peered up at Galen. “Is she really so dazzling?”
“She is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” He glanced at her and smiled. “No, wait, she’s the second. The absolutely most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen is that snow vine in the forest near Alarit Dunn. The one you told me not to touch but I just had to, anyway, and it burst open and all those black maggots splattered all over us. We shall rename that flower La’il, since they are so alike.”
Aletha hid a giggle behind a fold of her cloak. One of the soldiers walking nearby glared at them until Galen offered him a sunny smile. The man spat and busied himself with watching his feet as they continued to trudge uphill.
“I have no idea how she got to Delann,” Galen said. “Maybe she linked to him through me, somehow. He’s not difficult to reach, for a non-adept.”
Aletha moved to walk between the twins and took Chor’s hand. To accommodate the chain binding the twins together, Galen fell back a step. “Ah, that feels good,” he said when he felt her healing touch, speaking for Chor who had some trouble catching his breath. “Don’t exhaust yourself.”
“That riser is more than I need,” she replied. She looked along the column of marching men to see Delann watching her anxiously from atop his mount. Everywhere she looked, weapons gleamed and suspicious eyes observed them for some deviant behavior. Tensed muscles were ready for action should the demons attempt an escape. “Can we not get away from this? You are well enough recovered. I know I can help you.”
He also studied the column of men, a far more disciplined cadre than the mob aboard the emissaries’ ship. Judging from the defer
ence with which they treated Delann, here were not only hired mercenaries but also a good number of his own men, battle-hardened sailors, perhaps pirates. There were too many of them, and too well armed, to attempt an escape. “That riser isn’t enough. We’ll be killed. Chor and I. We could get past these first dozen or so, maybe, but then what? I’m an easy target for those crossbows and not at all sure how interested Delann is in our survival, no matter what La’il wants.”
“I can help! You underestimate me.”
“On the contrary! But you don’t have the skills to just disable these people. Would you kill them? That’s not in you and I’m not putting it there.”
“So you’d risk everything just so I don’t get my hands dirty?” She pursed her lips and peered up at him with a critical eye. “What’s on your mind, Galen? You’re thinking something. Out with it.”
“Clever girl. There is another way. If we escape now nothing will have changed. She’ll just try again. She’ll send someone else after you. Eventually she will find a way to get to Chenoweth. I’ve never known the La’il to give up on anything.”
“Please tell me you’re not thinking of actually fighting her!”
Both Galen and Chor’s eyes fastened on Delann at the head of the column. Another decent person twisted into some other shape by the La’il. Another life ruined, as were those of the people she had pitted against Galen and her other adepts over the years. She had devastated one world and now sent her pawns to destroy another. She would never stop bending people to her will, no matter what the cost. “I can’t,” he said. “I’ve failed at that for years. Even spiked on chi’ro I can’t beat her and here I have practically none. You cannot fight her by yourself, either. You don’t know how. Imagine what would happen if you lost control to her. Her skill and power combined with your potential will give her anything she wants.”
“So then what do we do?”
“We appeal to the gods.”
She gave him such a look of astonishment that he had to laugh. “I’m serious. We will travel to Chenoweth. If Yobar is right and Chenoweth is not our enemy, then surely they will offer us sanctuary.”
“If they don’t kill us first, for being Descendants!”
“I don’t believe they would.”
“You are supposing too much! You don’t know anything at all about Chenoweth. For all you know, there isn’t even anyone up there to help us!”
“Have some faith, Aletha.”
She glared at him and punched his arm. “Don’t you mock me, Homeworlder!”
He sobered. “I’m sorry, really,” he said, not sounding particularly contrite. “Doesn’t matter who’s up there. It’s an escape for us. And once we’re there we will find a way to close the launch sites permanently. There must be a way to destroy them for good.”
“What about Thali?”
“It’s worthless to her. It’s just a way to get to Chenoweth. If we take Chenoweth away Thali won’t matter any longer. They’ll be left alone.” He looked over the train of sweating, cursing men who were far more at home riding the pitching deck of their ships than climbing a mountain at a forced pace. “Everyone here is far better off without us. She’s done enough damage.”
“And so you think we can just live out our lives in the Garden of the Gods?”
“Isn’t that what you wanted? Unfortunately, you will have to let her touch you to get there.”
Aletha missed her step and nearly lost her footing on the rough trail. “No! No way, Galen. I am not letting her into my head. Not now. You can’t ask this of me.”
“It’s the only way. You’ll have to learn how to open the seals and activate the launch. Something that complex can’t just be explained. She needs to show you what she knows. She will use Delann for that.”
“Del? Why?”
“Because he won’t try to come up with some scheme to stop her. She’s not sure about me anymore, about how far I can resist her. She’s expecting a knife in the back from me. She’ll start by showing you how to open the seal between here and the planet. That’s all we want from her. Once you understand how that’s done we have to break your link with her. When she’s out of your head we’ll open the seal to Chenoweth instead, go up there, and then seal it again before she can send anyone to stop us.” He saw her glance at the nearby soldiers. “No, not these people. They can’t touch us once we have control of the riser. But La’il might send other adepts up here, no matter how much chi’ro it’ll cost her.
“Do you really think I can get her out of my head so easily?”
“Not easily, no. But while you and Delann and she are concentrating on the seal, I’ll be able to soak up chi’ro without her noticing. Between you and me, we’ll be able to separate you two.”
“She’ll kill you. She’ll kill us all.”
“What difference does that make, if we don’t succeed?”
“And maybe the Chenowans will kill us the moment we do, thinking we’re La’il’s minions.”
He grinned. “I am La’il’s minion.”
Aletha was silent for a long while, confused and worried and torn between trusting him and the urge to convince him to try another way to escape. She chewed on her lower lip to keep it from trembling. “I’m so scared, Galen. I don’t know how to do the things you expect of me. I don’t know if I’m strong enough. I’m not ready for this and I don’t think I ever will be.” The corner of her mouth lifted in a weak smile. “I got my wish. It turns out I’m really not like her.”
“And I wish I’d never doubted that.”
She sighed. “I’m sorry about how things turned out. Yesterday, on the way up the mountain, when you kissed me, I just couldn’t stand it. No, don’t look at me like that! I meant I felt wrong, not you. I knew you were Chor then but everything felt just so damn right! Chor is quiet and moody and lifeless. Chor doesn’t kiss like that and I never wanted Chor to touch me like that. But there I was, wanting Chor. Chor isn’t Galen!” She looked from one twin to the other, pensive. “I don’t believe I can ever think of you two as one person, but that doesn’t matter now, does it?”
He shook his head in agreement, waiting for her to continue. But then a shout rose among the men ahead of them. The train of marching soldiers and their captives came to a slow halt and everyone craned their neck to discover the cause. The twins peered over the heads of the others to see who was blocking their way along the narrow trail.
“Emissaries,” Galen said, his lip curling in distaste.
She cowered between the twins while the newcomers marched wordlessly past the vanguard toward the three fugitives. Most of Delann’s men moved hastily out of the way as they passed, more in aversion than out of respect. The group stopped to face Aletha and the twins, as one glaring at them accusingly.
“Hello again,” Galen said to their leader. He studied the man’s exhausted and disheveled companions. Likely none of them had rested since he and his twin had disappeared into the night. Stained robes with torn hems, dusty boots and grimed faces along with crude walking sticks and the occasional makeshift bandage added up to rob them of their preeminence. “I thought you had gone fishing. Where is your army?”
Tsingao regarded him with such hatred that even some of the nearby soldiers exchanged uneasy glances. “You will not escape us again, Descendant.” He stepped around Galen to look at Aletha, keeping a measured distance between them. “And you, she-demon,” he said. “You’ve cost me years of my life, given in service to our Gods. None of the other Descendants that I delivered to them would satisfy them. Time after time I failed to capture you and time and time again I stood shamed before the Gods. You will pay for each of those times! You will bleed. You will beg for release before you are purged!”
Chor stepped forward, a wordless growl rising from his chest. Some of the soldiers raised their swords to him, forcing him to stop short of the chief emissary. Aletha huddled behind Galen, unable to look at the monster that had sprung from her nightmares to finally claim her.
D
elann had ridden down the path and now stood slightly above the group, politely waiting for a pause in the hateful conversation. “These people are in my charge,” he said to the leader of the emissaries once it was clear that Chor wasn’t about to break the man’s neck. “Please stand down.”
Tsingao turned to gape at Delann, taken aback by the heresy he was witnessing. While he had come to terms with the disturbing mutiny of his hired guard in the islands, the man who defied his authority now was no commoner. “These demons are magic users. Enemies of Chenoweth and therefore enemies of Thali. They escaped our custody only a few days ago. We have come to claim them and their witch. You dare order me to stand down?”
“I do.”
“These three are accused of murder, using magic, conspiracy, and escaping justice,” Tsingao continued. Unbelievably, he once again found himself at the center of a hostile army. “They must be purged and delivered to the Gods. I will take the woman with me now and you can deliver the other two demons to us upon your return to Phrar.”
“They are going nowhere but up there,” Delann said conversationally, pointing his riding crop uphill. “I have my orders.”
“Yala!” Aletha suddenly cried, looking past the emissary.
All of them turned to see the last of the straggling emissaries reach the column, a small girl of about ten among them. Seeing her friends, Yala raced downhill and threw herself into Aletha’s arms. Aletha stooped to embrace her before looking up at the twins in puzzlement.
“She was on the emissaries’ ship,” Galen said, relieved to see her unscathed and grudgingly grateful to the emissary for not having left the girl with whatever brutes had remained aboard their ship.
Aletha turned to the chief emissary. “If I hear you’ve harmed the girl I will turn you into a toad!”
Startled by her rancor, Tsingao took a step backward. Galen placed a cautionary hand onto her shoulder, grimly pleased that she had thrown off her paralyzing fear of the emissary. “Don’t tease him. He’s mean.”
Delann had watched the exchange in silence as if none of this truly affected him. “Come and ride up front with me, Yala,” he said at last.