by Kelley Grant
He nodded.
“We have had in influx of visitors. We will stable your beasts tonight, but you are expected to care for them. The meal hall is that long hall behind the temple, and late meal is ready. You are expected to contribute to chores. Make yourselves welcome.”
“I wish to show them the temple before the meal is served,” Amon said casually, and Sari smiled.
“Of course. I will guide you there,” Sari said, gesturing for them to follow. “Your Northern friends will have to stay outside. They can rest on the benches or go find food if you like.”
The guards looked uncertainly at the Templar, and he waved them toward the benches by the side of the temple, where they could help if the Voices were attacked.
Two Obsidian Guards stood at attention in the doorway. Sari waved them aside.
“These people have been screened by Amon,” she told them. The Obsidian Guards nodded respectfully, and moved into the temple to make way for their party.
The temple was dim and smoky. Kadar could barely make out four statues set around an altar containing an orb of the One that glowed with candlelight from tall candelabra set on either side. Kadar looked down the hall. Two pilgrims knelt in the haze at the altar, wearing dark robes with hoods covering their hair. About a dozen other pilgrims sat cross-legged, meditating back by the walls of the temple. None of them looked up as the Voices walked in. They paused to let their eyes adjust.
“It’s so hazy. I can’t see anything,” the Crone complained with a cough.
“It’s partially the incense and candlelight, but mostly all the power contained here,” Amon said softly.
Feli lounged everywhere in the spaces that weren’t occupied by meditating humans.
The Voices’ feli rushed up to them, and the hairs on Kadar’s arms prickled. He looked over at the Crone, and her eyes were wild and rimmed with red.
“I feel it,” Ivanha said, her voice unnatural. “My powers call to me.”
Sari turned to them, looking alarmed. Amon touched her and she froze in place. Amon quickly geased the two Obsidian Guards. Voras’s guards quietly slipped through the doorway to flank the group.
“Quickly now, before anyone realizes what is going on,” Amon urged the deities. “I had not expected it to be this easy. Sari was a trusting idiot.”
The deities walked swiftly forward, intent on the statues, and Kadar followed. As they approached the altar, Kadar realized that the statues were really larger-than-life human forms: forms of the deities, frozen in time. The deities spread out, drawn to the statues that represented them.
“Hold,” Parasu’s flat voice stopped the others, who glared at him. “We must use caution. This could be a trap.”
“You use caution,” Aryn growled. “Nothing can stop us once our powers are regained. The fools have broken themselves on our army and left the door wide open for us.”
Voras surged forward, running for his statue, and the others ran as well.
“I see what you do, you will be first to regain your powers and will destroy our statues and trap us forever in this half life!” Ivanha screeched. “You will not keep my powers from me!”
The meditators looked up in alarm at her screech. Voras’s guards drew their weapons as the meditators scrambled to their feet. The meditating pilgrims at the altar turned, startled, as the deities rushed toward them. Kadar was shocked to realize that one was Master Anchee. Kadar thought all the Chosen had been killed by the sandstorm rebound. He stumbled and slowed down as the hood fell off the other.
It was Sulis. She was alive. She glared at the deities, and then her brown eyes found his. His world spun and pain flared in his head as she mouthed his name. He collapsed to his knees and fell to the floor.
Tori looked out of the Temple of the One into the hallway as people ran by the door. A strong voice ordered pilgrims visiting the Temple to stand aside.
“What’s happening?” she called, as men in red ran through the hallway.
“Forsaken are attacking the main gate,” a soldier called. “All fighters and healers are needed.”
Tori nodded in satisfaction, watching all the soldiers of Voras and healers of Aryn run through the hallways, rushing to the battle at the northern gate of the city.
She ducked into the Temple of the One. Every Counselor was gathered in the space, seated on meditation cushions while their feli reclined beside them. If she reached her senses out she could feel her kinsmen, the Descendants, who gathered in small groups in hostels around the city. Tori knew the fighters among the Descendants would be guarding the shielders as they focused on protecting the city.
“It is time,” Counselor Elida said. “Ready yourselves to begin blocking the deities. Quiet your minds and focus. Our greatest moment is at hand.”
A farspeaker reached to communicate with Tori, and she opened her mind.
The Voices have reached the Obsidian Temple, a Vrishni relayed. They are entering it right now.
“They have arrived,” Tori told the Counselors as Zara bumped her giant head against her ribs. “The weaving is about to begin. The deities will reach here to find the energy of their followers. We must block each attempt they make to draw energy to escape the trap.”
CHAPTER 22
Jonas watched as the other deities rushed their Voices’ bodies forward. He could feel the pull of the statue on Parasu. He could feel all the power the statues contained, waiting for them. Something didn’t feel right to Jonas, though. So many feli in the room confused his senses, but something was wrong. Parasu was firmly in control of Jonas’s body, so eager that Jonas could not regain control of his own mind. Jonas could feel how much his deity longed for his sundered powers, wanted to be reunited with them. Parasu’s statue was irresistible for him, drawing him as a moth to a flame.
Hold, Jonas screamed at him. Stop and assess! This could be a trap! It’s been too easy, way too easy!
Parasu heard him and slowed his pace. Jonas could sense how hard it was for the deity to not reach out and reclaim his powers, how much effort it took for Parasu to listen to him and slow down.
You are right. It draws me too much, Parasu said.
“Hold,” Parasu’s flat voice stopped the others’ rush. “We must use caution. This could be a trap.”
The other deities mocked Parasu, and then it was a race to see who could get to their statues first. Parasu urgently wanted to reach his statue, to stop the others from destroying his statue if they regained their powers before him. Jonas was barely aware of the pilgrims in the temple shouting as the deities approached. Then the tall sculptured form of Parasu was in front of him, within his grasp. Parasu scanned to see where the other deities were, and a woman standing behind Aryn’s statue caught Jonas’s attention.
He stopped and stared at Lasha, who looked dismayed to see him. Movement by the Altar of the One caught his eye. It was a man, but beside him was Sulis, who was supposed to be dead. Parasu recoiled, finally realizing that this was a trap and he was surrounded by the Chosen.
Parasu turned away, but a hand grabbed his shoulder. Jonas looked over, into Alannah’s eyes. He felt a moment of shocked recognition before she tripped him and shoved him into Parasu’s statue, his body hitting the rock hard.
“I’m sorry, Jonas,” Alannah said.
Parasu panicked as a whirlpool of energy opened in front of them, sucking Parasu out of Jonas’s body. Jonas grabbed for his deity and caught him before he could completely leave the body. His deity clawed his way back, but the statue was linked heavily to Parasu’s element of water and Jonas’s deity was drowning him, pulling him underwater. Jonas reached his energy out, trying to link to anything that could rescue him and his deity.
A warm, golden energy linked to his, and he tried to drag himself and Parasu from the sucking void.
“You have to let him go, Jonas!” Alannah’s voice said roughly.
She gasped as Parasu’s energy climbed over Jonas’s, trying to reach safety. “Remember who you are.”
“No, no,” Jonas heard a child’s voice say. Then Parasu was tossed into the void as something cut through his link to Parasu. Jonas was in his body with a wrench.
He looked up at the statue, now pulsing with Parasu’s energy. He reached with his senses to try to bring Parasu out.
“No, no,” the girl beside Alannah said. She was holding Kadar’s suncat, which stared at him with her piercing blue eyes. “You must not follow.”
A wall came between him and his deity. The way to Parasu was blocked. Jonas collapsed beside the statue, his mind battering at the shield.
Sulis watched Kadar crumple to the ground upon seeing her and gasped. Master Anchee grabbed her arm.
“Focus!” he said. “Here they come. Once all the deities are all trapped, we dance.”
It went almost as smoothly as planned. The deities were drawn more forcefully to their traps than Sulis believed they would be. Aryn, Ivanha, and Voras reached their statues at about the same time. They did not scream as Clay had—their Voices’ bodies simply collapsed, and their malevolent energy filled the void in the mandala. Only Jonas hesitated, seeing Lasha before his deity could become ensnared.
Sulis groaned as Alannah pushed Jonas into the statue and collapsed with him, linked. Sulis would not dance until she knew if Alannah could escape.
“That foolish girl,” Master Anchee said softly. “She will ruin everything.”
Sanuri ran over to Parasu, and Alannah came back with a gasp. She dragged Jonas away from Parasu’s pulsing statue, out of the mandala. Ava redrew the lines of energy that he and the other Voices had thinned and smeared.
The temple had come alive as the Kabandha warriors flooded in. Sari and the Obsidian Guards dropped their pretense of being frozen and quickly subdued Voras’s men, holding them captive. Sulis had a hard time focusing in the chaos. Bringing her mind to the dance seemed impossible.
“We must dance,” Master Anchee said, gasping as he stepped into the first segment of the mandala. Sulis understood why when she took her position as Sanuri climbed to the top of the Altar of the One, holding Amber. The space was filled with pulling, tearing energy that wanted to escape, wanted to hurt those who held it captive. The personalities of the deities reached out of the statues. The deities were trying to find the energy to escape the trap by sucking their acolytes dry. The soldiers Sari had captured collapsed as Voras drained their energy.
The deities raged when they were blocked from draining the acolytes in the Northern Temples, beating at the shields between them and the energy they needed to escape. The Descendants of the Prophet and the Counselors in the Northern Territory had blocked the deities from drawing that energy.
“Sulis, take heart,” Ashraf called to her as he slid a shield between her and the grasping energy of the deities. She looked to find him on his knees, taking the assault for her. Djinn paced the edge of the mandala, clearly wanting to come protect her. Ashraf sent her warm energy of love as Sari ran to give extra energy to him and Djinn settled beside him.
“Dance,” Anchee yelled, bringing her mind to the mandala. She stood still a moment, closed her eyes and breathed, finding her center in the middle of this raging storm. She looked inward at the energy around her and danced—starting in warrior pose and shifting her feet as she siphoned the energy through her middle chakra, taming it to throw to Anchee. She didn’t have time to see if he sent the energy to her grandmother. The dance was slower than she expected, every move like she was trying to move against a high wind that wanted her to hold still. The energy in the mandala changed when she danced the water energy of Parasu, which attempted to freeze her with cold and ice. She flung herself through Voras’s flaming energy, which tried to burn her. Ivanha rooted every step to the earth, taxing her flagging strength, every footstep heavy. Aryn succeeded in blowing Sulis off course—she lost her balance and stumbled, smudging an energy line.
Sulis could feel Aryn surging forward in triumph, but Ava was redrawing the line before Aryn could escape, as Sulis paused and gasped. Sulis could not say if Ava was beside her physically or energetically, but she gathered her courage and danced. Her legs burned and her breath wheezed in her lungs like she was climbing to the summit of a tall mountain. She did not know where she was in the mandala, only that it seemed endless. It would never end and she would die dancing. She gasped as her thigh cramped, but she made her body move smoothly in spite of the pain.
Anchee faltered. His energy, linked to hers, dimmed. She spun on her mandala and made the next pose a gentle yin energy pose she could hold longer. She paused. Her eyes closed, she felt for him. She could not spare energy, but someone bolstered his energy and he echoed her pose. They stood still amid the half-tamed energy, with the deities wailing and beating at their prisons, until he recovered. Then she danced again.
She despaired as her energy flagged and Ashraf could not give her more. She dug deeper and deeper into her own body, trying to keep her movements precise. Then she saw the brilliant space that was the end of the mandala, the completion of the great spell she and Anchee were laying on the deities. She tried not to rush, to complete each space and flow gently—but she was so tired. She pushed the last of her energy to Master Anchee and collapsed, prostrated beside the Altar of the One.
Sulis raised her head wearily. In practice, they had sent energy to Grandmother to keep her dancing, but Sulis had nothing left to give. Her grandmother whirled, spinning the energy and feeding it to Sanuri, who sat above Sulis, humming happily, her hands dancing as she wove a great tapestry of energy. There was so much energy to be spun and woven, and Sulis worried that the ritual could never be completed.
Sulis looked outside the mandala. Palou was focused on Grandmother with his hands raised, feeding energy to her with a feli pressed against his side. His hands were slightly translucent as he fed his life force to Grandmother.
He was so focused that he did not see the body of Voras’s guardsman beside him. He was so focused that he did not see it come to life and crawl forward, drawing a knife. Sulis cried a warning, but all that came out was a hoarse whisper. The guard plunged the knife in the back of Palou’s knee and Palou fell. The guard stabbed him again and again.
Grandmother howled, faltering as her beloved died. The energy began to rebound in on itself, upon all of the Chosen.
Kadar regained consciousness and watched his sister dance some invisible pattern in the stone. His brain saw her as a dancing corpse, as both dead and alive, and he dropped his head into his hands, ignoring the chaos around him. Onyeka knelt beside him.
“You were blocked,” she whispered. “It was your idea. Your sister is alive. If you break the block in your mind you will find your twin bond. Your grandmother is alive as well—look, she is dancing.”
Kadar looked up as his grandmother whirled past. She was spinning, moving counter-sunwise around the statues. Onlookers formed a loose ring around her path, stepping out of her way if she came close. Ashraf was on his knees, surrounded by people, and Lasha was on the other side of the circle with Ava and Dani by her side. The people around Kadar had their hands raised, shielding, and a man beside Kadar collapsed.
“The warriors of the One around us are helping shield against the deities, who are trying to escape by stealing unguarded energy. He gave too much energy to the shield,” Onyeka said. “Kadar, your sister is faltering. You must break through the block so you can feed her energy.”
Kadar reached for their twin bond, but it no longer existed. He pushed, but nothing came. He turned inward, as Alannah had taught him in order to mindspeak, and he felt something unnatural. A wall hiding something from him. He pounded on it. The mind shield shattered, and he could remember everything. He sighed in relief and once again looked for his twin bond. There was nothing. His link to her was gone.
“The block is gone,” he told Onyeka. “But so is my link to Sulis.”
Onyeka frowned, looking past him to Sulis, and opened her mouth. Her eyes widened.
“No,” Onyeka breathed and leapt forward.
Kadar watched as she skewered one of Voras’s soldiers, kicking his knife away as she pulled him off a man he’d stabbed. She turned the other man over, and Kadar realized it was Palou.
Kadar stood as Grandmother howled. Her spinning faltered and a crushing weight bore down on him. People around Kadar groaned, feeling it as well. Grandmother bared her teeth in a fierce grimace and spun again. She gave a fierce desert war cry and Kadar stepped forward, echoing the cry.
Grandmother reached for his energy, connecting to him through their family bond. He gave willingly, and she sucked the energy out of him. He reached out to other energy and found Onyeka by his side. Grandmother’s spinning picked up pace and settled into a rhythm as they fed her energy, gave her new life.
Kadar looked for his sister and found her kneeling by the Altar of the One. She was gazing up at Sanuri, who had Amber on her lap and was radiant with light. All the energy was being fed through Sanuri and she was ablaze with it. She giggled and sang loudly and tunelessly as her hands wove a complicated pattern in front of her, weaving a great tapestry Kadar could not see.
Grandmother circled one more time around the conflagration. She then paused, made a complicated series of mudras with her hands and arms, and collapsed. She stopped pulling energy from Kadar, and he toppled over, surprised by his sudden weakness. He propped himself on his elbow as Alannah stepped up to the altar.
Sulis could feel the braid of energy Sanuri had woven. It connected from the deities to the One. The girl had to keep reweaving it as the deities ripped at the fabric, pulling and tearing themselves away time after time. Sanuri had woven herself into the braid, was as much a part of the fabric as the One and the deities. Sulis was wondering how Sanuri would extricate herself when Alannah stepped up and slapped her hands on the orb. She spoke the first words of the final ritual.