Jikata lurched from her feet as the mountain began to roll and buck under them, reached for all that connected her to Amee. Couldn’t find it here. Not like the Cavern she knew at all.
The volcano had been too shadowed in the Dark for too long.
All the others looked terrified. “We don’t have a good connection to the planet,” Marian said, her voice high and shaky, her face pale. “I hadn’t thought of that. We can’t—”
“Stop it! No negativity! We will do this,” Alexa yelled, crawled over the ground to the lower left point of a pentagram etched in the stone. Alexa was the first Summoned, the warrior, she might have a better link to the planet.
Alexa found her place, sat, glared at them all and Jikata felt her huge determination. It buoyed her, steadied her.
“If we can’t stand, we will sit. If we can’t sit, we will lie down. We will do this,” Alexa shouted.
A rock hit her in the head, clanging on her helmet. Alexa groaned, shook her head.
Jikata crawled to the middle of the pentacle and prepared to give the performance of her life.
45
Upper Cavern inside the Dark’s Nest
The mountain rumbled, tossed the sled about, Jaquar steadied it.
Then the Master appeared, raised twisted arms, deformed hands and grasped. “We rule here, no fresh air here, no air that obeys anyone other than me. Fetid air, blow them down to die!”
He yanked his arms and the sled fell into the crowd of horrors.
More monsters died.
They jumped free, Luthan and Bastien and Faucon on one side, Sevair, Marrec, Jaquar and Koz on the other. Luthan and Faucon pulled swords, lifted their shields, fought. Bastien drew a sword and his Marshalls’ baton and cut a swath as creatures flung themselves away from the bright, searing energy of it, fueled by his wild Power.
“Jaquar, look for the right opening, figure out a way to get us there,” Sevair, the Townmaster, ordered. His grin was fierce. “Leave the Master to me.”
There was a human cry and Luthan saw Koz pressing a hand against his throat where blood welled.
Jaquar shouted words and Koz was lifted to the hole in the middle of the wall, shoved down the chute to the lower cavern.
Luthan went after the sled.
The Master began to chant a spell to Summon all the horrors in the nest to here. Sevair hesitated, then broke away, fought through monsters toward the man who had betrayed him.
Singing Chamber inside the Dark’s Nest
Following Alexa’s example, they took their positions. Raine gritted her teeth and tried to pretend the shaking beneath her feet was a wooden deck, not stone.
It didn’t work.
She took her mark at the tip of the western point of the star. Calli was opposite her, Marian was in the lower right point, Bri at the top, the north. Alexa was in the lower left point and Jikata was in the middle.
The earth tremors stopped and they all stood.
Raine began her breathing exercises, thumbed off the music player, removed the earbuds, flinched when she heard noise of fighting, of cries from monsters and men—their men—from the cavern above. She just wanted things to happen. All the nerves of her skin felt exposed, raw.
Marian had given Jikata the weapon knot and it lay at her feet, throbbing to a beat that seemed to match Raine’s heart.
Jikata hummed middle C and everyone stilled.
“After the Blessing and opening chorus finish, the City Destroyer spell is initiated, the knot starts to untie.” They’d practiced with other knots so Raine was sure seeing thread wriggle wouldn’t panic her. “After the first, basic knot is untied, the spell can’t be stopped. The minute one of us moves from our mark the explosion will occur. We want that to be after our men are here and the final protective shield is Sung.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Alexa muttered, tilting her head as if listening more to what was going on in the upper cavern or outside the mountain.
“The sequence, Alexa,” Jikata commanded.
Alexa said, “Blessing. First chorus. Calli Sings, Marian Sings, Bri Sings, I Sing, Raine Sings, you Sing. Each of us untying one of the main knots of the whole thing.” She stared at the complex knot.
To Raine, it looked like it was growing and pulsing faster, redder. She shivered. Shouldn’t she be hot? But she was cold, from the inside out.
Alexa continued, “The guys show up during the ritual. Before the last verse we do a mental broadcast for everyone to get the hell off the island and back to the Ship. Then the last verse with all of us to undo the thread, encase us in a shield bubble to protect us, then boom.” She jerked her hands apart. “The mountain explodes, killing the Dark. We either remain safe here or go flying. Marian and Jaquar take care of us with their Power if we go flying.” Alexa grimaced. “Too bad we couldn’t practice that part.”
“Too draining,” Marian said.
“Yeah, yeah,” Alexa repeated. “The Ship comes and picks us up.” She pulled out her baton and waved it around, the flames on the end ignited. “Happily-ever-after ending.”
“Exactly,” Jikata said. She Sang scales, and they all followed, listening to the sound echo off the dome around them.
“Ah!” Alexa shuddered, put a hand over her heart, stood straight, looked at Calli, who was trembling, too. “Lost a pair of Marshalls and a pair of Chevaliers.” She glanced at Raine. “One of Faucon’s.”
Raine should have known—she cast her mind to Faucon. Fighting, uninjured. She’d been too damn preoccupied with herself.
Alexa twitched a smile on her face. “Our men are winning.” She looked at Jikata. “And we’re going to win, too.” Alexa’s nostrils flared. “Time to kill this thing.”
Marian said, “The Dark’s aware of us and the gong. Moving in two directions sluggishly, calling for the Master of horrors.”
Bri lifted her chin. “Sevair will take the Master out.”
Raine didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Sounded to her like the “things go to shit” part of the invasion plan they’d anticipated had started.
“Focus, and breathe, and now!”
They began the Blessing and it was beautiful, six voices rising in a purity of sound, setting the crystals to vibrating around them. Calmness settled over Raine. It had begun. The beginning of the end.
Then Koz fell through the hole in the ceiling, wounded, limp.
Ayes, the end.
On the last phrase of the Blessing, Jikata’s voice broke, destroying the pattern. She shut her eyes, shuddering. She must control her voice, but the Dark inside the mountain hated them and she couldn’t feel any link with Amee. Throat hoarse from the nasty air around her, she sent mentally, We will start again.
Ayes, Alexa said. Marian and the others echoed.
But they only got through the first verse again when the mountain bucked. Crystals fell, shards flew.
Marian shrieked and held up her left hand. They all stared. Her little finger had been severed. Bri scuttled over. She and Marian looked around. For the lost finger, Jikata realized, and knew if she didn’t turn away she’d vomit.
Face white, Marian hissed a word and Jikata saw the flesh of her hand flash red with searing flame. Marian flinched as the wound was cauterized.
Jikata’s eyes met Raine’s. They shook their heads at the same time. Raine pressed a hand to her side. Jikata hated that. It reminded Jikata of Amee with the leech, the planet she couldn’t reach, and without that connection they might all fail.
Dying was bad.
Failing was worse.
Evil cackled, an ominous smoke filled the small room. The Dark knew they were there, knew what they were trying to do. Sent a wave of triumph at them—You cannot. The words sliced at Jikata’s mind like frozen razors. Amee can’t reach you in my domain.
We must establish a link! Alexa said. With all her Power, Alexa reached, drew them all into the fight against the Dark, battled the roiling smoke back, then sent their minds plunging down, down, down, through
the mountain, a spearhead, angled around the Dark in its innermost lair. Down into the earth beneath the mountain, first fiery lava, then frozen tundra. They all reached, they all Sang in their minds for Amee.
They all begged.
They felt a torpid tendril of support, a tiny wisp from Amee, and it refreshed Jikata, the others.
The Dark snapped it.
They wept.
Upper Cavern, inside the Dark’s Nest
Luthan fought horrors, heading for the sled.
“I know you, Dapince,” Sevair shouted the Master’s—the once-man’s—name. Names had Power. “You can’t finish that spell to bring more horrors here correctly. You always screw up. You were a good assistant—” Sevair shrugged “—but not my best.” Another shrug, casual for a man yelling at the top of his lungs. “Not creative. You only know what you’re told, don’t you?”
“That’s a lie!” The Master didn’t truly speak, more like gurgled, rasped. And even with those words, his spell dissolved.
His mouth worked, he looked at Sevair, terrified.
Froze.
Long enough that Sevair could throw his hammer to split the Master’s head open and smear his brains against a wall.
The mountain shuddered, air clapped against Luthan’s ears like thunder.
Some of the horrors dropped, unconscious or dead.
Too many remained.
Luthan carved his way through the horrors, swinging his sword relentlessly. Soulsucker, render, slayer. Behead, thrust, slice. Kill.
Act. Do not think.
Then he was within reach of the sled, droplets of body acid from a slayer burning on his cheek. Stings that meant he was alive. He grabbed the sled’s rope, slick with blood of horrors. Turned back to see the other men fighting, shouting, killing.
Grimly hauling the sled back, he was close to the rest of them when the specter of his dead father rose. Dread filled Luthan as he saw the man. Ghost or projection from himself or splinter of the Dark?
It didn’t matter. Anger flashed through Luthan. He’d needed his father, dammit! Needed him all his life, a good father, not a damned tyrant.
But he’d never needed him as much as he did now, when his woman’s life, his brother’s, his friends’, his own and the fate of Amee all hung in the balance.
A render swiped at Luthan, hit, flinging him back away from the defense and protection of the others. No blood, only bruises—the dreeth skin had held.
“No, you will never be the man I am,” his father gloated.
“Prove it,” Luthan shouted. He flung up his shield against a flurry of slayer spines that thudded into it. His gaze burned into the cold form that was his father. “All your life you wanted fame, you wanted power, and you used the fight with the Dark to get it. So fight the Dark!” Luthan curled his lip, panted to increase the blood flow to his mind, his lungs, his limbs. “Those who fight this battle will be remembered forever. You died before you reached this pinnacle.”
His father scowled, slowly turned as if looking around.
We are in the very heart of the Dark’s Nest, Luthan said.
Bastien dispatched two soulsuckers.
Both your sons are here, fighting to destroy the Dark. Even your black-and-white wild Power son, Bastien. See how he fights and prevails. Ours are the names that will be recalled. Not yours. You will only be mentioned as our father, if at all.
Too long a speech, but Luthan fought through it, through the monsters to get back to the other men, drag the sled there.
Slowly the revenant looked around, then began to wield a ghostly sword, and horrors died.
Faucon watched Koz disappear, battled, worked toward the place where the others had gathered.
But some horrors had followed Koz, were going down to the women! The ladies, who were concentrating on Singing.
Palms slapped together. Grunting with effort, Faucon sent Power to Jaquar, found himself lifted, too. The sled appeared and they were tossed on it, grabbing onto each other.
And down and away.
Into the lower chamber where the women Sang scales. They hit the ground, picked their targets, fought. He ducked a render’s razor claws, swung his sword and cut them off.
Singing Chamber inside the Dark’s Nest
“We need a better link with Amee,” Marian gasped, cradling her hand missing the finger under her breasts, sending worried looks to her brother, who was lying too still beside her.
“We don’t have it.” Alexa was grim.
“We do.” Sevair’s voice rang out, and Jikata glanced around, saw only their men standing, dead horrors scattered around.
“We do,” Bastien echoed, yanking up Alexa, kissing her, keeping her solid against him, her feet not touching the ground.
Luthan came behind Jikata. “It was always meant to be this way. Lladranans and Exotiques together.”
“Men and women?” Marian asked. Jaquar was kissing the place her little finger had been.
“Not necessarily,” Jaquar said. “Had you pairbonded with women, this still would have been necessary. Exotiques cannot save a planet, not their own. Not without the commitment of natives. That is wrong.”
“I believe you,” Marian said on a shaky breath. She blinked and frowned. “I can’t hear or feel the Dark.”
“It, too, is alien,” Sevair said. He held Bri and scowled. “You don’t have much Power.”
Bri lifted her chin. “Enough to finish this.”
Alexa wiggled and Bastien put her down. She turned and set her feet inside his, another wide and steady stance, straightened her shoulders, hefted her baton, glanced back up at her mate. “You didn’t save us!”
“We save each other,” Luthan said, his breath on Jikata’s temple and it was the sweetest thing she’d ever felt. She closed her eyes, cleared her throat.
“We can Sing with you,” Luthan continued. “But we do not have the Power or the training to untie the weapon knot. You will save us all.”
“We will save each other,” Calli said, relaxing into her own silent, reliable mate, Marrec.
“I’ll welcome the deep voices,” Jikata said.
The mountain rumbled around them, the ground quavered under their feet, and outside she knew Chevaliers and Marshalls and volarans were dying. But now they could kill the Dark. Everything in her mind, soul and Song sensed that.
She opened her mouth and Sang the first note, at the lowest of her range.
Then they spiraled upward in the Blessing and she felt a bond with Amee again, given to her by Luthan, to the others by their men. The Blessing ended.
In the pause before the first chorus, more horrors fell through the hole. Luthan left her and the other men ran to face the monsters, fight them.
Jikata couldn’t stop the spell, couldn’t delay it. She glanced at the women, gathered their gazes, marked time with her hand and they started the first chorus on three.
The men joined in, Singing as they swung their blades and Sevair his hammers.
Pride surged through Jikata, matched by the other Exotiques.
The chorus ended and Calli launched into her solo, then Marian, Bri and Alexa. As the men killed horrors, they kept the Dark at bay.
Faucon whirled as a soulsucker tentacle lashed, probed for bare skin to drain his life. Slashed the tentacle, spun again and choked as he saw a slayer targeting Raine with his poisonous spines. Short distance, straight in the torso, able to penetrate the dreeth skin. He yelled her name, jumped toward her.
46
Raine forced her gaze away from the skirmishes between the men and the horrors, watched the last loop of Alexa’s knot wave in the air, tug, and…pull…loose.
“I am from the Seamasters, know oceans’ might!” Raine Sang, hitting the timing exactly! Relief and sweat trickled down her spine. These damn dreeth leathers were hot.
All the blue-green crystals in the room, the shades of gray, even black and white, all tints of the sea, glowed. Sound enveloped her, slipped along her skin, sank into her por
es, reverberated in every cell. All the sounds of the sea, too. The surf, the lap against a boat, a ship, sloshing and splashing, the depths where sound was simply vibration. Her breathing evened, her voice steadied, her determination firmed. She waded, floated, swam. Sang.
Raine! Faucon’s scream brought her from a trance. She turned. Agony lanced through her, took her to her knees.
You must Sing, Jikata yelled.
She must Sing. She rushed to expel a wavering note that she’d missed, bolstered the next. Concentrated on her solo, her Song of the sea, as she stared down at slayer spines in her body. One in her side, another in her hand.
Poison began to sink into her. Bracing, cutting one note a hair short, she ripped the spines out, hissed a breath, inhaled sharply, and let the next note tear from her throat, a low one, more groan than melody.
She must finish this solo.
Imperative.
So she thought only of the Song, the phrasing, the breath, the rhythm, all the little component parts that would make a mighty whole, like droplets of water in the ocean. Like raising a Ship. She could do this.
Jikata joined in to harmonize, even out Raine’s tones. The Singer was doing well for a “fire” person, but hadn’t she said she’d had a house in California? Bri, the other “water,” joined, too, and her support—more sound of rushing rivers, trickling streams, rain—helped. Focus.
Sing. The. Notes.
Watch the knot, Marian said, and that was good advice, too.
Raine watched the thread slowly lift, push under another loosened loop. She was doing it, her knot! A knot she should know, a seaman’s knot, but she couldn’t quite figure it out. Her vision narrowed to the throbbing blood-red string.
Her hand burned clear to her elbow. She couldn’t look at it or she might panic. Something gnawed at her side.
Bright flashes came at the edge of her vision, Alexa firing her baton at horrors.
Echoes in the Dark Page 43