by Nhys Glover
“So the Devourers have been working to bring about that prophesy. They have stepped in to help me rise to power. They even killed Trace once he no longer furthered their plan. They have been behind the scenes, just as the Goddess herself has been behind the scenes, pulling the strings to bring about this very situation we now face.” For a moment a soft smile of regret crossed Airsha’s pale face.
“I have spent too much time since that revelation yesterday contemplating the choices we have all made that have brought us here. Had I known, would I have chosen to escape the fate my father had laid out for me? To forestall the end of the world, would I have let him sacrifice me to the false gods so the Goddess was forced to find another? And, as selfish as this makes me, I would say no, I would not have let him have his way.
“Freedom is worth the risk. Staying under the Godling’s rule out of fear of what The Jayger might do was never the right path. Allowing children to be maimed, killed and denied their birthright to forestall his return could never be regarded as acceptable. Choosing to never know the love I have experienced with you four, out of fear for the future...” She drew in a deep bracing breath before going on. “Suffice it to say, if I knew back then what I now know, I would still do it all again. Because, whatever the final outcome, our path has always been the right one. The just one. The loving one.”
For a long time after Airsha’s speech, there was more silence. This time it was because we contemplated our own choices. Was she right? Was having the freedom the Goddess gave us worth the risk of losing everything?
I knew it was. When I mounted Spot that long ago day, ready to enter the battle, I risked everything for what the Goddess offered. Every person in the room had risked everything for the world we were creating now. For the freedom we had now.
“Why did she choose to end Trace and not Zem and me? We’ve become part of The Five, surely she didn’t want to help us?” I said into the silence.
“The Five was not known back then,” Shardra said so softly I had trouble hearing her from where she sat on the other side of the circle of cushions. “You two were essential to the plan to bring the Goddess to power. You had to stay in play.
“She moved to take that one out before he threatened the plan,” Shardra nodded in Laric’s direction. “But he was a slippery one. And the Godlings were never easy to lead. They were greedy. They saw the usefulness of that one and wanted to keep him in play. But even then we did not know what he would become. What any of you would become.”
“How did you find out about me being part of The Five?” Laric asked before anyone else could get in the next question.
“As their plan came closer to fruition, so the Goddess had to make her plans to defend her precious creatures. Her plan was not properly formed right up until the moment she branded The Five, but there were possibilities. We recognised your face when the Goddess was considering you. One face among many we did not recognise. So they sought you out. It was not easy. You have never been easy to plot. Like the Goddess’ consort. Many paths were yours. And you slipped from one to another so they could not find you. Until the brand was given and your fate was sealed.”
“And then you knew who the rest of us were?” Landor asked deferentially.
Shardra shook her head. “The faces of the rest of The Five were never clear, even after the brands were given. Not until we saw you rescue the blue-eyed one did we finally know. At least, we recognised Flame and her friend. You other two we had never seen before.
“She is not all-knowing. She... we... are limited by what we already know. It requires intention to draw up a possible or present event. If she does not know someone exists, how can she intentionally seek him out? Had she thought to follow the thread of Flames’ future she would have discovered her part in this much earlier than she did. But she had dismissed them both as irrelevant, once the war was won. A mistake. One of many.”
“So the Devourers aren’t infallible. We can use that,” Darkin muttered.
“No human is infallible. Not even The Chosen One, as you know from personal experience.” There was a small smile playing on Shardra’s lips now.
Suddenly her face went slack and she slumped to the floor with a loud thump. For several infinitely long moments we all just stared at her, unable to comprehend what had happened. Had she died? Had the hag finally sucked her dry? Was she having some kind of fit?
Landor was at her side in the next instant as time sped up again. He pressed his fingers to the side of her throat and relaxed visibly. There was life then.
He sat down on the carpeted floor and eased the limp figure onto his lap. Placing his hands on her chest, he began to heal her.
“Mayhap healing her might not be wise at this point. She might lose her access to this Soothsayer.” Moyna sounded conflicted. Did she speak for what was right or what was expedient? She went reluctantly with expedient.
“The bitch has almost drained her dry, she told us that much. If she dies now she will be of no use to us,” Darkin barked out in annoyance. I knew it was not the reason he condoned Landor’s intervention. He was simply talking in a language the Chancellor would understand.
As we watched, the marks on Shardra’s arms began to disappear, taking the dark circles under her eyes with them. But she didn’t wake up.
Landor removed his hands and shook his head. “This is not something I can heal. This is not physical. It is not in the realm of earth magic.
Chapter Eleven
SHARDRA
“My love, she calls you?” my comforter said as I lay in his arms. It felt like forever since I was with him. So much had happened. Did he know?
“I know. I see it in your mind. And I am happy for you. Be happy for yourself.”
“She will not let me go...” I said with a fatalistic knowing that left me saddened.
And while he tried to hold onto me, I was pulled from his arms.
Into the nightmare once more.
“How did they find them before we did?” demanded the harsh-faced priest who often acted as the spokesman for the blue-robed men.
I could feel her settling me in around her like a comfortable cloak. His words were the buzz of insects, irrelevant and annoying. She had been resting, awaiting the arrival of the flea girl and the nightmare boy, content in the knowledge they would soon outwit the Bitch Goddess once and for all. There would be no time for the Goddess to gather another five to do her bidding. And if she couldn’t, what need did they have to find the elemental ring?
Frowning a little at the intrusion, she settled the scrying pool in front of her. I looked into it for her, not knowing what I would see. When the mists cleared, |I inwardly cried out in distress. It was my worst fears realised.
I saw myself, so different to how I have always looked. It was as if I was someone completely different, someone almost pretty, lying there in the arms of the white man. He was trying to heal me with his glowing hands. As I watched, as we watched, the painful bites and scratches began to fade from my arms and legs. I couldn’t feel the healing, of course. That was happening to my body, and I was no longer in my body. I was connected to it only by the thinnest thread of silver.
The Hag was shocked, and I could feel her scrambling to access my memories. I fought to keep them from her. Before, her lack of interest in who I was had kept me safe. All she had wanted was my essence. It was the reason I had not left my cave when the invitation to join the Mages had come. If she inadvertently saw me when she was scrying, her interest in me would be piqued, and she might try to invade my mind.
Now it was happening. She had followed Flame and... Laric, was it? And found me. But she didn’t know how I came to be there or what I had to do with what was happening. And I would do everything in my power to keep my memories from her. I would not become an open book to her as she was to me.
“Where are they? How do we get to them now?” The priest’s insistent voice grated on her nerves.
The hag glanced up, even though she could not s
ee what was in front of her. My eyes only worked for her when she looked into the pool. But I could see what was around her. And I could always see her memories. Though I had long wished I could not.
“Do not bleat at me, priest. I have to consider what I have seen. This changes everything,” her throaty, aged voice intoned.
Gods, what was she planning? I dived into her mind while I still had the chance. I could tell she was about to break the connection. About to send me back. But I needed to know her plans before she did so. She had been unable to enter my mind, of that I was certain. Would she send the Devourers for me or would she just end me on the Nether Plane? My usefulness to her was finished, she had to know that.
But even as she considered this, she also considered the fact she had no new eyes as yet. She had been looking. As she had felt my energies depleting, she had started looking for a replacement. But so far she had none. What was worse, having me alive with the enemy or being without eyes?
What was my value to them? Why was I there?
Get her back! was the last coherent thought I could grasp before I flew along the fine silver thread back into my own body.
I woke feeling lighter and more energised than I ever had before. Looking up into the concerned face of the white man—Landor—I smiled my thanks.
His gentle smile in return warmed me. I was not immune to his physical appeal. He was beautiful in a wholly masculine way that would have stirred me had my heart not already been claimed by another. Not even this gentle appeal was sufficient to have me turning from my comforter. Because the connection I had with my comforter was more than physical. No... it had never been physical. It had always been far more significant than the body’s needs for affection and procreation. We were essential to each other in a way that was impossible to quantify.
“What did you see?” Landor asked me, helping me to sit up.
Everyone else looked just as they had in the vision. It felt odd to shift perspective as I had done. One minute, I was seeing the world through my own eyes; the next, from somewhere on the other side of the room. Now, I was again seeing it through my own eyes.
“I saw this...” I sent my hand out to indicate the room with all the people in it. “And now she knows you have me and... and she’s coming for me. And if she cannot get me she will kill me on the Nether Plane. She will not allow me to give her away. Give the plan away.”
“She will not get you here. I do not care how many priests she sends in after you, we will have more to protect you,” the Chancellor said, in a voice that brooked no dissent. She was a very frightening woman, austere and unyielding in her confidence. Had she been the only one I faced at this moment I would have been afraid, no matter that she spoke of protecting me.
“I need to tell you everything I know while I still can,” I said in answer, not wanting to argue against what I knew was a useless endeavour. They would come for me and they would likely take me. If they did not succeed, then I would die anyway. I was always going to die, no matter how my comforter fought the idea.
“We need someone who walks this Nether Plane as you do. Someone who can sever the link between you and the hag,” Airsha said slowly, speaking her thoughts aloud. “And we need someone who knows where the circle is to be found. Can I assume that, if this hag doesn’t know where it is, neither do you?”
I nodded. The hag had been looking for the ring, or elemental circle, for many suns. Since she was told of it by one of the priests repeating the ancient creation myth to her. That was when she was a child in the Temple of the Devourer. Her father had been one of the priests. He had taken many women from the nearby villages and impregnated them. Once they bore him the childlings he required they were disposed of. Killed. So they could not influence the offspring against their father.
The babes were then raised in groups by dedicated female followers. Many of the offspring had water magic, which was greatly prized. A few had other magic, like the hag, and their magic was twisted until it was only effective when it was used with water. The process had been ugly and painful. Many had not survived it. Many of the girls had not survived it. The males... they did better. Their bodies were stronger, even though their spirits were just as weak as a woman’s.
The hag had been exceptional from an early age and she was treated well, very well, in comparison to her peers. Of course, she had no peers. Not really. She was superior to them all. That was why The Jayger had selected her as his mate. For as long as she could remember she had known that to be the truth, though he had whispered to her in her mind that she must tell no one. Others would be jealous if they knew how important she was to him.
Their temple was hidden in the mountains well away from prying eyes, even those of the Cliffling groundlings. But there were enclaves spread out across the kinglunds so the priests could influence those communities, insinuating themselves into them as if they were priests of the false gods. The Devourers had always known the truth about the so called gods the Godling and his priests worshipped.
They knew there were only two true gods of this world. The Creator and the Destroyer.. And their primal energy was the way of all things. Beginning, Ending, Beginning. Create and Destroy. Without one there could not be the other. They were forever linked. And the Destroyer knew this, where the Creator did not. Or would not. So she sought to stop the Destroyer, the ever-changing and mutable water element, from doing what was necessary. The bitch thought herself superior to the Universal Laws. She sought to change the course of all things. Stars were born and stars died. Galaxies shifted and changed, expanded and shrunk, always altering because of the cycle of birth and death. Few knew the truth of this. But she and the Devourer priests did.
One upstart Goddess on one small planet could not change what was, what always would be. No matter what she did to hold back annihilation it would come, regardless. It had to.
Or that was what the hag had been taught. That was what the hag believed. And it made sense to me, when I considered nature. But in nature when death came it was not total annihilation. Seeds lived beneath the soil waiting their chance to grow. If The Jayger had his way, his jealous rage-filled way, there would be nothing left to start again. Nothing.
But the hag did not see that. She saw only her own position at the right hand of the most powerful and feared creature in their world. What cared she if all life was gone when she lived on? That was what all the petty priestly fools did not fully comprehend—when the world was engulfed in water, life-giving, life-taking water, they would cease to be, along with all the rest.
By the time she had reached her twentieth sun her vision was gone. Her seer’s gift had drained her physical body and her eyes had been the first to succumb. That was when she learned that unless she drew on another’s essence, hers would soon be used up. Air magic and water magic were not compatible. They destroyed each other when forced to blend. She had seen many other seers like her, less powerful ones, certainly, but seers nonetheless, become empty husks as the elements warred within them.
So the hag found another way. Dying was not in her plan. Not until the Devourer was freed. Not until she had a chance to claim her place beside him. She removed herself from the outside world and went inward to the Nether Plane. Here bodies were just meaningless lumps that anchored their essences to the Physical Plane, like an anchor keeps a boat from drifting away on the tide.
Here among the wonderful vital sparks of essence she found what she sought—those powerful in air magic. At first she simply sucked the vitality out of an essence as soon as she found it, revitalising herself on the Physical Plane. That was a short-lived and wasteful way to do things though, she discovered. The essences she required were rare and precious. To sap them in one greedy gulp meant she had to begin again with her search for more.
So she learned to take just enough to meld with the water magic, so her own essence remained untouched. Yes, the water eventually sucked the essence dry, as it did to all air mages, but she had time to search for a new supply
before it was needed.
When she found me she expected that I would last no longer than the others. A sun or two. Three if she was careful. But, with the Devourer’s freedom approaching and her body aging, she did not want to be careful. I was fifteen when she found me, and she made no effort to know who I was or where I was to be found. It didn’t matter to her. All she cared about was my vital spark and maintaining the bond she had placed on it. When she wanted to draw on me and use my eyes, she would pull my essence and my magic to her and suck out my power.
I had lasted five suns, almost twice as long as any of the others, and she had started to think that my vitality was unlimited. So she had made the mistake of not searching for a replacement until recently. Until I finally started to succumb.
And now that mistake was going to be her undoing. If she did not find someone who could replace me quickly she would be helpless. Because, though she had not wanted to admit it, her own essence had been slowly depleting. To hold the link, to siphon off the power an essence like me had, she had to use some of her own.
And now she was largely useless. If The Jayger were to discover the truth, he would reject her for her weakness. She would become, like so many others, no longer necessary to the plan. She would be thrown aside as they had.
“Have we an air mage that can walk the Nether Realms?” Airsha asked the Chancellor.
“I... I do not know for certain. It is not a useful gift. Not an acknowledged gift, if I am honest. How could we know for sure someone could do something like that? And what purpose would we have for them?” The austere woman huffed, as if personally offended by the idea. “As to the other. We have already been searching our ranks. I thought this one might be useful, and clearly she is. But not in the way we hoped.”