Echoes in the Dark

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Echoes in the Dark Page 44

by Robin D. Owens


  Raine wanted to smile but her face felt a little numb.

  That thought brought fear. She must Sing. Back to looking at the knot, back to listening to the echoes of the crystals. Pain returned and she ignored it, as she formed each note, strained to Sing them right. This part had a rock-and-roll beat.

  Pain came because Bri was linked with her sending her healingstream through their bond, fighting for her.

  One last sentence, a repeat of the first.

  “Ahm frm th’ Seamashters’, kno oshuns’ might!” She spit out the last word, saw the thread jerk and her knot fall apart.

  Jikata’s voice filled the room, strong and rich. Raine curled on her spot and let the pain take her, panted the continuing Song. She thought she heard Enerin’s soft weeping in the back of her mind. Her vision blurred to turquoise…turquoise? Oh. The blue-green of being under tropical seas. Snorkeling? Scuba diving?

  Not diving, dying.

  Jikata was amazed that Raine had Sung her part, then Jikata sang hers and they all launched into the second-to-last chorus. Jikata used all her art, skill, technique, Power to bolster Raine’s voice, surprised the woman continued the Song. Her hand was swollen to twice its size, red and with pus dribbling from the spine wound. Jikata was in awe that the woman could even hum. But she was doing her part, adding the lilt of the sea to the spell.

  You are faltering. The words came to her mind. Not the Dark, but the Singer. Jikata had an image of her, dressed in a heavily silver embroidered sky-blue robe, sitting in the silver chair in the chamber identical to this one in the Caverns of Prophecy. The songspell wavers.

  Not by much, and not Jikata’s part, only Raine’s. Jikata added more Power.

  I will help. I will save you all.

  Too late for that, Jikata was sure. She was also sure that they would do fine without the Singer. But Jikata let her Singing breath out in increments. They would do better with the Singer. And the old woman wasn’t asking.

  Rich Song added to the room, and Jikata sensed the others’ surprise, then the Singer melded into Raine’s part. The Singer didn’t have Raine’s heart, and was of an air element and not water, but she’d had a century of practice. She could match Raine’s voice, blend Raine’s Power with hers. Incredible.

  The spell strengthened.

  The accompaniment of ringing metal, human grunts and monster cries stopped.

  Jikata blinked, saw all the men but Sevair run to their women, hold them, boosting their Power with battle adrenaline. Luthan’s scent and touch behind her was the best thing of the day.

  Faucon sat and propped Raine against him. Sweat running down their faces, the men prepared for the pause before the last chorus.

  Sevair clashed his hammers together and they sounded remarkably like the gong. Must have been forged to do so. Another secret. The note was sweet, sweet, and Jikata knew it echoed through the mountain and outside.

  “The others will withdraw now,” Sevair said. He walked to Bri, lifted her into his arms, held her, spread his feet in a solid stance.

  Alexa mind-shouted the command, Return to the Ship!

  Jikata sensed there weren’t many warriors left to heed the call, perhaps a quarter of the force. Now and again through the Song, Alexa or Calli had jolted, tears sprang from their eyes and rolled down their faces. Friends lost forever.

  Or for just a short time if she and the others failed, and died.

  The men stood behind their women, linking to them, providing Power surging with adrenaline and testosterone to boost the energy that carefully unworking the knot had drained.

  With Luthan’s arms around her, his chest touching her back, his breath in her ear, Jikata hummed one note, and they all, even Raine, started on the right beat.

  All went well until the middle and Raine faded. The Singer carried on. Raine was supposed to be amplified for two lines, and Jikata could feel her muzzy mind focus on this one last task thinking of the rhythm of the ocean, could feel Faucon’s Song intertwined with hers, helping.

  I can Sing these last notes, the Singer said.

  They were pure, beautiful. Until the Singer died.

  Jikata felt the shock of it, of the old woman’s passing, as she had weeks before, when Ishi had died.

  Like then, she kept on, steadied herself and the Song as the others realized what had happened, as there seemed to be a void in the world. Until she became the Singer of Lladrana herself.

  For a short amount of time.

  Sweat poured down Jikata’s body, and about three quarters of the way through the last chorus, she knew she might break her voice, strain her vocal cords beyond repair by the time the spell was ended. She got light-headed from the lack of good air, and the others sent her Power so she didn’t falter, but her lungs worked like bellows. The other Colorado women were in slightly better shape from living at high altitude, but Raine was keeping her murmur steady at a high price.

  They might escape with their lives, but they would be forever changed. Jikata met Sevair’s worried eyes, he glanced down at the top of Bri’s head. She, too, was draining herself of her Power, pushing her gift to the limits.

  Koz was dying. Raine was severely injured. They might not survive.

  Grief poured through Jikata, added timbre to her voice, enriched it. But she couldn’t afford clogging tears. She was a professional and this was the greatest Song in her life. A Song that would save a world, worlds, destroy great evil.

  It didn’t matter that her special voice would be gone.

  The feycoocus shot down the tube, separated to their persons. Sinafinal sped over to Alexa as a miniature greyhound, added Power and yips to the Song, magic.

  Tuckerinal raced as a huge hamster to Marian, glanced at her, then detoured to hop on Koz. His pumping chest eased.

  Enerin ran as a kitten to Raine, settled on her lap, mewing.

  Luthan’s arms wrapped around Jikata and she focused more on the Song. The men were Singing low as the women continued to spiral high. As she watched, a throbbing blood-red strand of the knot lifted, slithered through a loop, laid limp.

  Color seeped into her mind, images from Luthan. She was leaning against him now.

  Look at the knot. Marian’s mental voice was hushed.

  Jikata did. It had swollen to the size of a snake, crossed over itself only a few times. It wasn’t the red of blood as it had always been, it was covered with sparkles. Glittering tiny explosions popping like champagne corks. Getting bigger and bigger.

  The knot grew and throbbed and sparkled, twelve small sparks growing into six larger ones.

  A stifling, thick black ooze filled the lava tube entrance, slithered down the wall of the cavern, defiling and killing the crystals, harming the spellsong. The Dark had reached them.

  Jikata signaled everyone to speed the pace even faster, Sing louder, emphasized key words herself.

  The air around her thickened, glazed. A bubble forming. The spells’ defense.

  Flames replaced the sparks on the thread, decreased from six to four to two…

  The Dark whipped out a tendril, slashed the bubble, bounced off.

  BOOM!

  The mountain shattered around them, screams filled the air, horrors, monsters incinerated in an instant.

  No! There was a shriek of disbelief and fury as the Dark died.

  Stone disintegrated, and they were in the open air, falling.

  Jaquar and Marian Sang, voices strong and competent, completely confident and the bubble encasing them all slowed and righted.

  Bri huddled over Raine, sending healing energy through the injured woman, nasty pus and dark red stain drained from her wounds. Faucon was holding Raine and praying, his Song a counterpoint to Jaquar’s and Marian’s.

  A dreeth dived at them.

  The roc intercepted it.

  They fought, beaks and claws, fell, ripped into the bubble.

  It couldn’t take the blow.

  The bubble popped.

  Jikata grabbed the pieces, held them t
ogether, Sang as she never had before.

  Until her voice simply broke.

  The force field disappeared and it was like a vision moment where she could see everything progress in slow motion.

  Jaquar snagged Koz, Marian brought a wind to break their fall, pushed air at the others, slowed Bastien and Alexa’s fall, but they hit hard, Bastien’s shin bone poked through the skin. Alexa stroked him and yelled for Bri, then took her baton and his and had him arching, screaming, but the bone set. Alexa sobbed.

  Volarans whirled about Calli and Marrec, brought them safely down to the fused glass that had been sandy beach beyond the smoking crater of the mountain. They were yards from Bastien and Alexa, and ran to them.

  The roc, crippled and torn, grabbed Bri and Sevair, tried to glide, but they fell the last ten feet and there was a horrible snap and Bri’s grief-stricken cry came as she flung herself on the dead bird.

  Marian’s air hit Jikata, Luthan, Raine, Faucon.

  Jikata and Luthan came together, held on. The two older feycoocus were there, dug in their claws, slowed them until they were five feet from the ground then bulleted off toward where Enerin struggled to help Raine.

  The planet jarred under Jikata’s feet, she slipped, came down hard on her butt.

  Screams of pain split the air, stopped short.

  “Are you all right?” asked Luthan. He’d rolled in some sort of Chevalier maneuver and was favoring his left shoulder and leg, but looked okay. Alive. Completely and absolutely gorgeous.

  “Ayes,” she croaked, then remembered. Her voice was gone. Tears overran her eyes, she shook her head, let herself grieve for an instant, shook her head again impatiently. They were alive! They’d destroyed the Dark! She managed a quivery smile, touched her throat. “No voice, I won’t be the Singer.”

  He held out his hand and she put hers in it, let him draw her to her feet.

  Marian shrieked, and Faucon yelled, “No!” then, “Bri!”

  Luthan met Jikata’s gaze. “Raine,” he said.

  “Raine,” she whispered sorrowfully. It had always been Raine who’d had the least chance of surviving.

  “Koz didn’t have the connection with Amee that the rest of you do, either,” Luthan said. They ran toward the others.

  Bri stumbled to an outcropping, set one hand on Raine, the other on Koz. They’d landed on the rocks.

  “Bri—” said Sevair, her husband, but it was too late. Bri poured the healingstream into them, poured herself into them.

  Jikata and Luthan drew near and he put a tight arm around her waist. It was hopeless.

  But Bri continued until she toppled over, pale and still.

  Alexa crawled over to her, stroked her hair. “Her healing skill is gone.”

  “Like my voice,” Jikata said.

  47

  On the Glassy Island Beach

  Raine’s vision was dimming, black at the edges of her sight, colors bleeding out into gray. She was dying. She knew that and it wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be. In fact, she thought that just…beyond…she could see a shining golden door a little like the portals of the Dimensional Corridor.

  This dying wasn’t so bad, the pain was a dull ache that she knew she could bear, and dying among friends who were more like sisters—and brothers—and in the arms of the man she loved after saving a world. Not bad at all.

  Her gaze fixed on Faucon’s face. She wanted that to be her last sight. She was sorry this would hurt him.

  “No,” he yelled. “Bri!”

  But Bri’s life force was nearly as thready as Raine’s own. She couldn’t heal, would be lucky to survive.

  “No!” Faucon shouted again and it was deeper, more sonorous, almost a Song. “Jikata!”

  Jikata opened her mouth but nothing came out, though Raine felt the touch of her Power. Jikata’s special voice was gone, too.

  “No!” Faucon’s word was Song…prayer…demand. His brown eyes flashed and he rose with Raine, jostling her broken bones and piercing already ruptured organs. Terrible pain made the world bright again, tore a rattling gasp from her.

  He shouted, “No! I am a true Lladranan, true Amian and I say no. This woman, brought here against her will, fulfilling all your demands deserves better!” A chant with Power.

  She thought she heard a hum in counterpoint. Marian, exhausted, giving her all, tears streaking down her face as she and Jaquar held Koz, who was dying like Raine was, too broken to be mended.

  “These native men and these Exotique women have freed you, Mother Amee. They deserve better from you, blessing and benediction!”

  It all rhymed in Lladranan, and rolled over Raine like a wave, giving her the strength to smile up at Faucon.

  Then it happened, the slightest wisp of a Touch, with blessing, with amusement. They all felt the Power of the world.

  I pay my debts, Amee Sang.

  Raine gasped again with strong, perfect lungs. Faucon collapsed with her onto the beach and they held each other tight.

  Jikata wept in joy. She’d felt Amee Touch her…with Power that healed. She sang a low C and the next moment draped around her in a glittering shininess of Vision. Luthan’s fingers tightened on her own and she knew they shared this prophecy.

  She and Bri and Raine and Koz had been Healed, her voice, which had been gone, Bri’s exhaustion of her healing gift, which had also been gone, Raine’s and Koz’s mortal injuries. In that Great Healing they gained more, all three of the women would have children with their men.

  Time stopped.

  “Look at them all.” Luthan’s whisper was hoarse, his grip tight. “Alexa…”

  Jikata glanced at the Lady Knight Swordmarshall, did a double take. Alexa’s hair had turned a flame-red. Jikata choked on a laugh as she saw the woman’s future. Alexa had complained about being a Joan of Arc so Jikata didn’t think she’d tell Alexa that she’d be George Washington and John Adams and Thomas Jefferson all rolled into one—a person who forged and held together a new nation. Oh, not like the democratic republics of home, but a culture that found its own way, melded together into one people through adversity.

  Luthan, who was shaking his head beside her, jutted his chin toward Marian.

  “Oh. Oh.” Tears gathered in Jikata’s throat. They’d all known that Marian was the most likely to have children, but when Amee had Touched the Circlet, she’d quickened a child that had been conceived by Marian and Jaquar the night before. Marian’s left pinkie was still gone, but neither she nor Jaquar could hide the Power that made them faintly glow.

  “Calli,” Luthan continued the litany.

  Calli had been the least hurt, beloved by her husband, her children, all the volarans of Amee, wrapped in a protective bubble of their love.

  Since she hadn’t been injured, her gift from Amee was less.

  She would never have children of her body, but have more children than all of the rest of them put together. She and Marrec would travel throughout the world, live the longest.

  Bri laughed and poked Alexa in the ribs. “Your hair is red, like you wanted.”

  “What!” Alexa clamped both filthy hands in her hair.

  Bri was back to normal, grinning impishly.

  “Bri will be the greatest healer of all time, founder of many schools, revered,” Luthan muttered. He met Jikata’s eyes, his own sheened. “As you will be a legendary Singer, your voice returned with additional richness and Power by Amee herself.”

  “And we’ll both have children.” She leaned against him, felt his solidity, his love.

  Koz struggled away from Marian. “Sis!” He propped himself on his elbows, looked down at his body showing health under the shreds of his leathers. He shook his head in disgust, glanced at Jikata and Luthan and his eyes widened. Jikata didn’t know what he saw, whether their eyes had turned a different color as his had. Now his irises held a glimmer of silver like his own mirrors. “Wow,” he said. He looked around. “We made it.” He grimaced and shook his body. “Coulda done without all the
pain.” New lines were in his face.

  Sevair grinned. “Ayes, we destroyed the Dark.” Then his expression sobered as he looked around. “I can’t get my bearings.”

  Jikata stood and moved slowly inland around the crumbling mass of the volcano. A gasp strangled in her throat as she looked down. There, about three feet underneath her feet, looking as if he’d been encased in a smoky glass coffin, was Bossgond.

  He still held his long staff in his hand, his robe still showed his boney knees and shoulders, and his face had a look of startled surprise. His eyes were open. Jikata thought the black mark on his forehead must have been his death wound.

  She must have made some noise because the others gathered. Marian stifled a sob and knelt down to touch the glassy surface of the ground over his face.

  “But Amee takes those who fall into her ground,” Raine said dazedly, leaning heavily on Faucon. She met Jikata’s eyes. “Not the monsters, but Lladranans, the Lorebooks say so. Ella—is Ella here?”

  Raine’s gaze followed Alexa as she hurried, sliding a little on the glassy surface.

  This was the battlefield.

  Jaquar stroked Marian’s hair, his jaw clenching. He said, “Bossgond went out fighting. He and all the others here bought us the time we needed to defeat the Master and the Dark.”

  Tears welled into Jikata’s eyes at the sight of the man with whom she’d spent only a few comforting moments.

  Alexa gave a cry and Jikata and the others followed. She’d only gotten a stride away before she saw a volaran and a female Chevalier in profile, as if they’d fallen on their sides—almost like they’d been caught in amber, her arm was raised, sword outthrust, her grin fierce. A yellow, poisonous spine was stuck in her neck. Jikata averted her eyes and stumbled on.

  They all ranged what was left of the battlefield. Did they feel the need to witness as Jikata did? She walked over the smokily transparent surface, showing bodies beneath. Thankfully most of the death wounds were shadowed. Luthan held her elbow.

  “A monument to all who fought the Dark, by Amee,” he murmured.

  Jikata caught her breath again as she trod over the Chevalier representative, Lady Hallard, and her Shield.

 

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