And realized he had two soulstones.
By all that was good, Ishkyna had given him the key to helping Atiana…
But he had to hurry.
He struggled and was able to reach his hands and knees. One of the akhoz turned at his movement, a girl with shriveled skin along her flat chest and an eyeless face. She pulled her lips back and heaved out a breath that was half snort, half moan. The others turned now. All five were watching him, their arms and necks twitching as he reached his knees.
He could only assume that Atiana’s influence kept them at bay.
But what would happen when he freed her? If he freed her…
She stood on a weathered auctioneer’s stage not far away. It had wooden ramps going up either side and a set of raised steps where the auctioneer would call to the crowd. She was looking toward the Spar, but she didn’t look normal. Her whole body was crooked and tilted, as if she were one of the infirm, nursing pains in her back and hips and knees. And she was shivering-not the shiver of someone who was cold, but the shiver of one with a fever: inconsistent, and occasionally violent.
The sounds of distant battle from the far side of the Spar echoed over Vihrosh. Fire licked up into the sky from among the buildings near the bridge’s landing.
The akhoz turned and looked with hungry expressions. They crept away from Nikandr, leaving him unwatched.
Atiana sank to her knees.
And Nikandr was freed, at least enough to stand and run.
He loped toward the platform, making it to the first of the planks before two of the akhoz noticed and loped after him.
The two necklaces swung from his neck. He felt for Atiana’s more delicate chain and pulled it over his head. When he reached the top of the platform, the first of the akhoz grabbed at his ankle. He fell and slid along the well-worn planks.
“ Nyet!” he cried.
Atiana was only paces away.
He scrabbled, knowing he would never make it to his feet. Something heavy fell on him from behind. He felt searing pain as the akhoz bit the flesh of his shoulder. He swung his elbow and caught it across the temple, sending it momentarily sprawling.
The other akhoz had recovered and snatched his leg, sunk its blood-crusted talons into his flesh.
He cried out as he reached Atiana at last and used his hands to pull her toward him as he kicked the akhoz.
He swung her necklace up and over her head. The nearest akhoz snatched for it, but he was too quick. He pulled it down around her neck as the two akhoz fell upon him, shrieking and baring their teeth.
With Atiana’s concentration fixed wholly on Mileva, Ishkyna swoops in like an owl in the dead of the night, silent with talons bared.
Atiana feels a deep and sudden pain, deeper than she knew pain could go, but as soon as she tries to find Ishkyna, to take control, her sister vanishes.
Atiana returns her attention to Mileva, forcing her to stumble and nearly slip from the aether. Ishkyna returns just in time, but darts away when Atiana reacts. And so it goes, whenever Atiana bends her will on Mileva, Ishkyna returns and then dissipates like so much smoke upon the wind.
You are Ishkyna! Atiana rages, hoping that by invoking her name, her identity, she will once again become lost. You are my sister! Daughter of Radia, a Princess of Vostroma!
I was those things, but I am no longer.
And then, like a slow leak in the hull of a waterborne ship, Atiana realizes how fully Ishkyna has invaded her consciousness. It is nearly complete, but it isn’t like what Atiana did to Nikandr. Rather, it is a cleansing. Ishkyna is pulling back the curtains to allow the light in.
It is Sariya’s influence, however, that tilts the balance back. She has been weakened, but she also knows the end is near, and this gives her strength. She pushes, harder than she ever has before, and traps Ishkyna before she can escape.
Ishkyna rails against the bonds placed against her. Mileva tries to defend her, but with Sariya and Atiana working together, the tide is turning back.
But then Atiana feels something. Her body in Erahm… There is something near her, something so familiar she begins to weep.
Wet salty tears creep along her skin, and it is this one simple sensation that draws her attention to her soulstone- her soulstone. It makes her painfully aware of the connections she’d lost when she’d placed the chain around Ishkyna’s neck. It had been in the kasir only two days before.
Ishkyna and Mileva storm over her.
Do not listen, Sariya calls, defending her as well as she’s able. You are mine!
She wants to listen, to obey, but Nikandr is here… He is with her in Vihrosh. He was the one who put the necklace around her, though how he could have come by it she has no idea.
Mileva is thrown from the aether at last as Sariya assaults her.
Ishkyna, however, draws Atiana fully from her trance. She’s become a force of nature. Willingly or not, she has given up her mortal shell to roam through the currents of the dark like the goedrun in the unseen depths of the sea, and though she was no master before this transition, she is one now. She is at home. She embraces that which she once feared, and with seeming ease clears from Atiana’s mind the final remnants of Sariya’s control.
Sariya knows that this battle has been lost, and she flees, but Ishkyna is ready. She snares Sariya before she can fully retreat. As skilled as Ishkyna is, Atiana knows that she cannot do this alone. She joins her sister, and together they press Sariya. They bear down on her soul.
Sariya lashes out, but she cannot hope to hold them off. Soon, she has been taken, and Atiana shifts her attention to controlling her instead of the other way around. Unknowingly, Sariya has taught her well, and she uses these skills now to tighten her hold on Sariya’s mind.
On the platform in Vihrosh, she pushes herself up to her hands and knees.
Nikandr is next to her. Two akhoz are on top of him, biting, clawing, scratching.
“Stop,” she commands.
In an instant the akhoz obey. They crouch and bark and then whimper.
Beyond them, Sariya and Muqallad are walking toward the platform. Muqallad’s expression is one of confusion as he takes in the scene on the platform. “What’s happened?” He stares at Atiana, but the question is directed at Sariya.
At Atiana’s bidding, Sariya turns to Muqallad. “As I said, the Matri attacked, but there were more than I’d guessed, and they were nearer.”
“Where are they?”
“In the Shattering, but their minds are lost. We won’t be bothered again.”
Muqallad looks into the depths of Atiana’s eyes. She can feel him probing in the aether, trying to determine for himself if all is well, but he is not gifted in the ways of the dark and cannot penetrate her defenses.
Atiana feigns that Sariya’s spell still influences her, and Muqallad seems satisfied.
He glances to the east, where the sun’s first rays are cresting the horizon. “Come,” he says. “It is time.”
Nasim woke, jostling back and forth. The sky above him shook. It took him some time, but he realized he was in someone’s arms. He looked up and found Ashan grimacing as he carried Nasim away from the battle. Behind them, a dozen akhoz followed, galloping over the ground on all fours like a pack of mongrel dogs. There were no soldiers-no streltsi of Anuskaya, no janissaries of Yrstanla.
Over the tops of the smaller buildings, Nasim saw a gout of fire strike the vanahezhan he’d summoned. The skin of the vanahezhan’s chest steamed and cracked like parched earth.
Ashan was nearing the Spar’s wide, circular landing.
“Put me down,” Nasim said.
Ashan kept running.
“Put me down!”
Ashan stopped, and finally did put Nasim down. His glanced at his own shoulder, shaking, as if he were about to pass out. How he had managed to carry him so far, Nasim couldn’t guess.
Ashan smiled as widely as he was able, revealing crooked teeth. “I’ll be well.”
“Then come. We mu
st hurry.”
Together they took to the bridge, both of them moving slowly, Nasim from the wound to his left leg and Ashan from the shot to his shoulder. As they passed beyond the cliff and over the straits, the currents of the wind became chaotic. The wind gusted and howled, pressing against them as they made their way along it. It was so strong it threatened to knock them from their feet if they weren’t careful.
They moved lower to the ground, and could see others approaching the center of the bridge from the far side. A cadre of men and women wearing robes of black and gray-the Hratha, led by several Nasim already recognized: Muqallad and Sariya and Atiana.
And Nikandr, from whom he could still sense their shared bond. He was shocked. He thought it had been severed on Ghayavand, but here it still was, a tendril thin as spider’s silk.
The wind intensified. It was so loud Nasim could barely think. Two of the akhoz fell and were whisked off of the bridge. They twisted and clawed at empty air, twisting and tumbling until they were lost from sight.
Nasim drew upon a havahezhan to counter these winds-Ashan helped as well-but it was a constant tug o’ war, the two of them pulling this way and that in reaction to the chaotic ways of the winds.
They made slow progress, but three more akhoz were lost. The remaining seven Nasim unleashed. They stayed low as they sprinted forward, their calls nearly lost among the thunder of the wind. The Hratha-only two or three dozen were left now-ran forward to meet them. They raised their muskets, but Ashan called down rain to foil their shots. Only two managed to fire, and one of the akhoz dropped. It was up again in a moment, limping after the others.
The akhoz leapt upon the warriors. They belched fire as the Hratha’s curved shamshirs arced and spun. Their war calls dimly mixed with the braying of the akhoz.
Nasim and Ashan were now within a hundred paces of the Spar’s midpoint, which was marked by two squat towers on either side of the roadway.
From these towers, a score of men emerged-by the fates, they were the Maharraht.
As they ran toward the Hratha and the akhoz, two final forms emerged from the left tower. The first was Soroush, and the second was Ushai, the qiram Nasim had seen those many weeks ago on his flight toward Ghayavand. Her left arm was bandaged heavily, but she otherwise seemed hearty and hale. How she had come to be here with Soroush, he couldn’t guess, but there was no time to wonder.
They both appeared ready to chase after Soroush’s men, but when they spotted Nasim they stopped. Soroush glanced at the tower, then down at the roadway, and finally he beckoned to Ushai and began sprinting toward Nasim and Ashan.
They hadn’t taken ten long strides when an explosion rocked the Spar. Stone flew into the air, and the center of the bridge became little more than a roiling cloud of black smoke and bright flames.
Nasim was struck by something-he knew not what. It propelled him backward, throwing him down roughly against the roadway. A sound like worlds breaking came immediately after, and for long moments he could only blink his eyes and stare at the stones flying outward and the rubble raining down.
His ears rang.
His fingers were numb.
He pushed himself up so that he could sit and look upon the devastation. The wind had not yet cleared the air fully, but he could see through the dust and smoke the remains of the left tower. It was crumbling before his very eyes. The bulk of it collapsed and fell toward the cold embrace of the churning white waves, leaving only one low portion of wall, as if the destruction of the world had already begun.
At last the wind drew the dust away, and the roadway was revealed. Nearly half of it had been devoured by the explosion, but the rest remained.
It remained…
By the fates, Soroush had failed.
And that meant Muqallad could still complete his plans.
Atiana feels the explosion in her chest. She falls, but the sensations are distant, like a memory from her childhood.
She walks through the currents of the aether more than she does the world of Erahm, and the feeling is heady.
Ahead, the akhoz are the first to recover, but the Maharraht are not far behind. Together they attack what remain of the Hratha, killing many of them before Muqallad reaches his feet. He raises one hand, the one holding the Atalayina, and a bolt of searing white lightning arcs from it to the nearest of the akhoz. It slips through three of them, and one of the Maharraht, felling them in an instant.
Atiana feels the walls of the aether here. They are so close she can almost reach out and touch them. As she did on Oshtoyets years ago, she pushes them away in hopes that Muqallad’s summoning will become more difficult, but the pressure is too great. She forces Sariya to help her, and Ishkyna joins as well. The gap does indeed widen, but it does nothing to stop Muqallad from drawing upon a dhoshahezhan again and again until all of the Maharraht lay dead.
Only three akhoz remain, and to these he raises his hand and calls above the wind, “Come… Come, my children.”
The akhoz crouch and bare their teeth. They bark and snarl and stretch their necks as if they’re suddenly afflicted. One of them turns and looks back to the four souls who approach from the far side of the blackened tower. Nasim is there, as well as Ashan and Soroush and Ushai.
Two of the akhoz mewl and crawl toward Muqallad, but the other sprints toward Nasim. He does not gallop on all fours like the akhoz often do. Instead, he runs, as a child might. In that moment he looks like nothing more than a small, naked boy.
Before he can go more than ten paces another bolt flies from the Atalayina, but it strikes ground short of the akhoz. Another blinding strike is sent forth, but this too is foiled.
Nasim has one hand raised, and he walks ahead of the others. There is something about him that seems different. No longer does Atiana see a boy who cowers from the world, who wonders how he might find his way through it. Instead she sees a young man, confident and strong. Transcendent.
But Muqallad is not weak, and he holds the Atalayina.
Atiana beckons her sisters. Come.
Sariya, knowing the time approaches, grows desperate. She rises up, stronger than Atiana would have guessed she could be. She rails against Atiana and her sisters, and she surfaces at last. “Beware, Muqallad! The Matri have come!” With those simple words, she is overcome with pain, and she falls to her knees, clutching her side.
With Ishkyna and Mileva at her side, Atiana advances. The three of them know one another so well that they are able to fend off Muqallad’s clumsy attacks. He is not weak, however, and he stands against them.
And then his presence is gone. Simply gone.
Atiana searches desperately, until she realizes the Atalayina is the power behind this. Muqallad has somehow drawn his presence from the aether so that he exists only in the material world.
Muqallad turns, holding the Atalayina high. It is bright and blue. Power emanates from it like the light of the sun.
And then the world slows. The wind stills. A shimmering builds at the edges of her vision, and her mind feels leaden.
With a raised hand, Muqallad calls out to Nikandr. “Come,” he says. It is soft, for the wind can no longer be heard beyond a low susurrus at the edge of hearing. The clouds above have not stopped swirling, but they move so slowly that Atiana wonders if they are real. If this is real. Perhaps it is all a dream…
And yet she knows it is not. She knows this is the power of the Atalayina.
Nikandr goes to him.
Sariya, however, does not. She has fallen to the ground. She still holds her side, but she is weak and near to death.
Muqallad looks down at her with something akin to sadness or regret, but then he turns, beckoning Nikandr to follow. Together the two of them leave Sariya lying on the ground like a forgotten she-bitch and walk toward the blackened center of the Spar.
Stop! Atiana calls to Nikandr.
But he doesn’t look back. Not once.
Please, Nischka! Stop!
She calls to him over and over, bu
t she knows that his mind has been taken. She doesn’t understand how at first, but then she sees it, the tendril that connects him to Nasim. The connection that was formed between them years ago. It thinned when Nasim woke in Oshtoyets, but it had never been severed, and here it is now, being used against him.
Nikandr, please wake!
But he does not heed her calls.
Nikandr tried to deny Muqallad, but the command had come not just from him; it had been amplified by the Atalayina. Nikandr could feel it, glowing like a brand against his will, and he could do nothing but shrink from it.
He followed Muqallad to the center of the Spar, where one tower stood proud. The other was ruined, with only crumbling remains.
“I nearly lost him,” Muqallad said to Nikandr as he beckoned him to kneel.
Nikandr complied, staring up into Muqallad’s dark eyes.
“Had he been taken years ago, all of my plans would have been lost. But you,” Muqallad said. “You saved him. You sheltered him.”
And then Nikandr understood. He didn’t mean Nikandr had saved Nasim in any physical sense. He meant that Nikandr had saved his soul and mind through their bond.
Muqallad held out one hand.
Nikandr stared at it-his right hand. In his left Muqallad held the Atalayina. The stone glowed so brightly it was blinding, even compared to the light of the sun hanging over the horizon. He knew that if he took Muqallad’s hand, it would give him what he needed to reach Nasim.
He couldn’t do that-not to Nasim.
But neither could he resist.
He put all of himself into defying Muqallad’s will, and still his arm lifted. He could hear Atiana’s voice, but it was so distant that he heard only disjointed portions of her desperate pleas.
Smiling, Muqallad took Nikandr’s hand, and the moment he did, Nikandr felt the connection between him and Nasim grow stronger, more vibrant, like the thread of a web caught with morning dew.
He felt Nasim approach. He was being drawn by this thread, drawn by the will of Muqallad and the power of the Atalayina.
The Straits of Galahesh loa-2 Page 67