by Rin Chupeco
“And you do?” Realization dawned in his eyes, that gut instinct flaring when they know they’ve got a rival. He was quicker on the uptake about this, at least.
“No. But of the two of us, I’m the only one jumping out this window for her.” I spun around and, just to prove my point, pitched myself out the sill and onto the ice.
Haidee’s trajectories were sound, but I kept up a steady stream of swearing just to keep in practice as I hurtled down the sculpted ice. The winds slapped at my face, but they prevented me from speeding down so fast that it would be fatal. Haidee had angled the end of the sheet slightly upward, so I could slide off and land safely on my feet without stumbling, without breaking stride, as I took off running after the others.
Haidee skidded to a stop, frantically signaling at us to hide behind one of the buildings. “We can’t go out this way,” she whispered.
The gates were opening. Regiments were already lining up, streaming out of the city to face the invaders. Odessa clutched at Lan. “Do you think Mother will fight them?” she asked.
Lan’s eyebrows drew down; she was clearly too tired to hide her worry. “I don’t see how Asteria has a choice.”
“I have to confront her.”
“Odessa—”
“It feels like it’s been years since I last saw Mother. Everything I’ve discovered about her since then makes her seem like a stranger to me now. But I need to talk to her. I need to hear the truth from her own lips. I want to hear her admit I’m not her daughter.”
“I know she owes you an explanation. She owes everyone.” Lan sounded hoarse. “But not now. Not while we’ve got the city already against us.”
“We’ll need to sneak out the way we came in,” Haidee said matter-of-factly. “Too much activity here. Once we’re done, Charley, tell Jes and Rodge to—”
The mechanika hugged her without warning. “I know, Your Holiness, and I will. We’re just all so glad you’re all right. Even Yeong-ho, if he’s too grouchy to say it.”
Haidee’s eyes filled with tears. “Charley, thank you. Tell everyone I’m so sorry.”
“Just happy to serve, Your Holiness.” The mechanika was also tearing up. “Don’t forget us while you’re out there. Maybe when your mother calms down, you can come back.”
The goddesses wasted no time carving a fresh hole in the sand-dome so we could escape back out into the desert. The portal had disappeared, and the two armies had stopped two hundred paces or so away from each other, waiting for a signal from their commanders to attack. Asteria’s army was noticeably smaller than Latona’s, but I knew that didn’t necessarily mean they would lose, if Odessa and Lan were right about her.
“We have to go, Your Holiness,” Noelle said urgently, but Odessa was rooted to the spot, unable to tear her eyes away. So was Haidee, her face white.
Because Latona was standing right there at the front of her army in all her self-righteous fury, bolts of lightning sizzling behind her. And across from her, on the other side of the field, was her twin sister, the patterns flying around her made of the same volatile, destructive energy.
We were in so much trouble.
Chapter Ten
Lan and the Demoness
IT WAS ASTERIA WHO CAME striding forward first. I didn’t know what to expect, but even I would have had trouble telling the goddesses apart if she wasn’t wrapped from head to toe in furs and Aranth colors, her hair as wild as the gathering storm above us.
I saw more familiar faces emerge from Asteria’s camp, as other Devoted scrambled to defend their position. Filia, Halida, and Miel must have forgiven Gareen; all were laboring to erect barriers of Wind around their group. Slyp, Merika, and the rest of Odessa’s faction of Devoted were working side by side with Gracea’s faction. I hadn’t expected this alliance; the original Devoted had been abusive to the new recruits. The latter had retaliated with extreme prejudice once Odessa had given them the power to fight back.
But much to my shock, I saw other citizens from Aranth as well, all scrambling as far away from the goddesses as they could. They were ordinary people from the city, neither Devoted nor soldiers. Why had Asteria brought them here?
Was it possible that they were here as a show of good faith, to negotiate a cease-fire with Latona? The older goddesses had each thought that the other was dead for almost twenty years. Surely they could put aside their differences, at least for the moment?
That hope faded as soon as Asteria opened her mouth. “Latona,” the goddess said, in a terrible voice that was just as loud as the thunder.
Latona didn’t even bother with a greeting. A bolt of lightning streaked down toward Asteria. Odessa cried out, the sound lost amid the rain, but her mother extended an arm and plucked the light out from the very air, the ball sizzling in her palm. Haidee gasped.
Asteria had gone through the galla’s rituals herself. I knew that now. But I’d never seen the extent of her abilities before. She’d never had cause to display them so openly, beyond the Banishing.
Latona’s eyes blazed with barely suppressed fury. Asteria matched her stride for stride, until they were both several yards away from their respective armies, staring at each other, close enough to touch.
It was an unnerving sight. Side by side they looked so much more similar than their daughters, down to the way they wore their hair, which glittered with the same shifting colors.
“I see you survived the Abyss, dear sister.” Latona was full of venom.
“You left Farthengrove to save my life, didn’t you?” Asteria’s voice was more tempered, but I could hear the same fury. “It would have been a shame if your efforts had gone to waste.”
“I should never have tried to rescue you. I should have let them throw you down into the chasm, let the demons consume your soul for all of eternity.”
“You brought him to Brighthenge. I begged you not to. His death is on your conscience as much as it is on mine.”
“He tried to protect you!” Latona all but screamed. “He loved me, but he loved you, too, even if it wasn’t in the way you wanted! And you killed him!”
“You knew I was full of the galla’s spite. You knew I wasn’t myself!” Asteria shouted, her temper now rising to match her sister’s. “I begged you not to bring him to Brighthenge!”
“Did you really think he would listen? Did you think he would agree to be left behind with the world falling apart around us?” There were tears trickling down Latona’s face. “I couldn’t stop him. And you—you knew what was going to happen. You knew! And you didn’t care!”
“He was never in danger!”
“Liar! You loved him! The final galla required his sacrifice!” Latona was raging fire and brimstone.
“He was never in any danger! But you never trusted me enough to believe me, even then! I wanted you both to be happy! I didn’t ask to be saved!”
“Maybe what you wanted all along was to see him dead. If you couldn’t have him . . . !”
“How dare you accuse me of that.” Asteria had gone quiet. It was a bad sign.
I tugged at Odessa. “We have to go.” Both older goddesses were too caught up in their past resentments to care that their fight was putting their daughters in danger, but I knew that there was no point in trying to make them see reason today.
“I’ve never seen Mother cry,” Haidee whispered, shaken. “I can’t leave her like this. What if Asteria—”
“We have to go!” Arjun interrupted, echoing my words.
“You claimed you would let him go. That you would see us happy.” The lightning was now sparking around Latona, kicking up dust everywhere it sizzled into the sand. In contrast, clouds gathered above Asteria, and for the first time since arriving at the Skeleton Coast I felt a genuine chill, a promise of frost. “Was naming your city after him evidence you were ready to give him up, Asteria? Was this your way of ruling over him, even after his death?”
It was Odessa’s turn to gasp.
Asteria didn’t answer. Instead, icicl
es shot up from the sand, sharp-tipped stakes heading straight for Latona.
The other goddess shattered them with her bolts. She threw more lightning at her sister, and Asteria parried with blocks of ice erected before her like shields. Neither of the armies were willing to engage, both withdrawing to a safer distance while the furious goddesses traded elements, each doing their best to kill the other. In their rage, the sisters made no distinction between friend or foe. I saw soldiers on both sides blasted with lightning, impaled on icicles.
But creating this much ice in a place that had very little water to begin with was taking its toll on even Asteria. The cold spikes she wielded were shorter and brittler than the large stalagmites she could summon with ease to strengthen the ice walls in Aranth. But Asteria had always been quick to adapt; when another of Latona’s lightning strikes blazed her way, she responded with one of her own. Patterns of concentrated, immeasurable energy crackled against each other, and despite the distance I could feel the hair standing on the back of my neck. There was too much magic here. It was only a matter of time before one of them would truly be hurt.
“Stop,” Odessa whimpered.
“We’re too damn close to the fight!” Arjun was yelling now. “We need to get back to the rig!”
“What if they kill each other?” Haidee cried. “We can’t—there must be something—”
“Stop!” Odessa shouted.
Arjun and I traded glances, and a quick flash of understanding. We were both in love with fools of goddesses, it was plain to see, and the best thing we could do for them now was to haul their asses away from this place, as fast as we could carry them.
“Put me down!” Haidee squeaked as Arjun slung her over his shoulder.
“Once we’re out of here, sure. Lan agrees.”
“You weren’t even talking!”
“The two of you communicate just fine without words,” I said, as I hoisted my goddess up in the same way. “I’m sure the ability transfers to your consorts.”
“This is a completely illogical hypothesis!”
“No,” Odessa said, and gasped, staring past me. “Oh no.”
I didn’t know who the hell the apparitions were. Somewhere in between the flashes of lightning they had suddenly appeared, and one look told me they weren’t human. They were almost translucent, like someone had drawn outlines of their shapes but had forgotten to fill them in with color. And yet their features were cast in a peculiar sharp relief, standing out despite their gray, ashen forms.
“Are those mirages?” Lisette gasped.
More figures had manifested around the dead Devoted, ones that I’d never seen before. They wore similar clothes, albeit designed in a different style, much more in keeping with what rangers from Aranth wore. Their cloaks were thick and furred, with swatches of colors lining their hoods. Unlike the other mirages they did not hide their faces underneath their cowls, so I could see them clearly: an older man, two young girls, a youth.
I didn’t want them here. I had hoped against all odds that they had found their rest back at Brighthenge. I knew it would gut Odessa terribly, seeing them again. I knew the guilt she harbored, knew she had blamed herself for their deaths. I’d done the same, but I never had to deal with my rangers’ ghosts like Odessa had to deal with her dead Devoted.
The specters remained still, content to watch the scene unfold. Both Asteria and Latona had reined in their tempers, neither willing to attack the new obstacles in their path. Arjun and I resumed dragging Odessa and Haidee away, using their temporary truce to flee undetected. It was a wise decision; I could see more clouds gathering around them, the rain falling harder just as the wind picked up, telling me that this was only just the beginning of an even worse storm to come.
“Where there’s mirages, there’ll be sandstorms!” Arjun yelled. “Let’s move!”
He was right. A sandstorm came spinning out of nowhere, almost on top of where the undead had gathered. Odessa made a startled sound, but I refused to set her down. “There’s nothing we can do for them.”
“I resurrected them. They’re still my responsibility!” Odessa was actually crying now. “Cathei, Nebly, and Salleemae gave their lives for me. I can’t leave them!”
“I’m sorry, Odessa. Let them go.”
“I can’t! Mother’s here. Out in the open, without the Spire and the city of Aranth as a shield, and this is the only time I’ll ever be able to tear out her secrets, everything she kept from me since the day I was born!” Odessa jerked out of my grasp without warning. I stumbled, and she ran.
“Odessa!”
Haidee flipped herself over Arjun’s shoulder, landed on the ground, and ran for her twin, and we had no choice but to swear and follow after.
Asteria stopped at Haidee’s cry, and so did Latona. The latter had had days to adjust to her youngest daughter’s presence, but her eyes were a mystery as Odessa approached. It was easier for me to read Asteria, for all her reticence. At the fore was relief, in a softening around her eyes.
But all she said was “Do not intervene, Odessa.”
“You’re not my real mother.” The words came almost like a physical blow, and Asteria visibly recoiled from the truth of it.
“Yes,” she said, after an eternity in between breaths.
“Why?” Odessa sobbed. “I trusted you. I believed you. Why did you lie to me?”
“I would have lied to you for the rest of my life,” Asteria said, with a frankness that startled me, “if it meant you would get better. You grew sicker by the night, and I was desperate. Look at you now. Stronger than I remember, and with the galla yours to command. The galla’s gifts made me stronger. I knew they would do the same for you.”
“You allowed her access to the galla?” Latona snarled. “What have you done, Asteria?”
“I saved her life, Latona. Your daughter’s life.”
Latona snarled, the gates in her eyes a crimson red.
“Mother!” Haidee took one more step toward Latona. “Please, stop.”
The clouds dimmed, and the rain slacked off. For a moment, it felt like the whole world had stood still. Like it was taking a breath, holding it in.
But then it let go.
The earthquake was immense. Fissures rose from the earth, cracks lancing across the ground. Fine sand cascaded into bottomless chasms, and I had to dance out of the way to avoid a sudden tear that ripped through the ground under my feet. It had not come from Latona, or from Asteria; I saw the twin looks of shock on their faces as they too fought to regain their balance.
There was a roar behind me. I turned—and saw one more impossibility, one more horror.
This was the nightmare that had haunted me for months. I thought our distance from the Abyss would keep us safe—that it could appear now at will, even this far away, was terrifying. Surely nothing this massive could assume corporeality in just a blink of an eye.
And yet it was here, looming above us. It was a human-shaped tower with hands that looked harder than stone, and shadow-feet. There was the suggestion of a large head, but I could make out no features in that impenetrable face. Its arms and torso seemed to lengthen upon command, which meant there was no one here who wasn’t within its reach. Something glittered upon its brow: a dark crown fashioned from blue gemstones.
Daughters, it said, and I screamed.
Madi’s body, ripped apart. Yarrow before the edge of the Abyss, violently cut in two. Cecily on the ground sobbing, her tears no defense against the shadows that eventually consumed her. Merritt and Nuala, their lives hanging on a choice that I never made.
We had faced it at the Great Abyss. It was easier for me on the second visit; I knew what I was going to find there, and my fears for Odessa were stronger than even my terror of it. When we had made our escape through the gateway, I thought we would be free of its grasp as long as we remained outside its territory.
And now it was here. The distance from the Great Abyss to the Skeleton Coast was not a barrier to its hunger. The
corrupted goddess Inanna seemed formed from smoke and fog, as if she was composed entirely out of penumbra.
In the early days of my recovery I had hallucinated its shadow, convinced that it would find me anywhere: within the city, along Aranth’s borders, even on the first night I was to protect Odessa. And now that fear was coming true.
It had no mouth, but a low, dreadful sound emanated from within it—a haunting moan that sucked out all other sound from the desert.
The war between Latona and Asteria was forgotten. As one, both goddesses turned to face the new threat. For Asteria, defense came in the thick slices of Air curved like daggers, hurtling to embed themselves deeply into the monster’s torso. For Latona, it was the fires of the desert: thick bursts of glowfire, aimed high to explode against the shadow’s chest. The giant shadow staggered, but continued to move.
Much to my horror, it was heading directly toward me. Though it had none, I swore I could feel eyes on me, a peculiar hunger that did not require a face to convey. I took a step back, away from Odessa, and its face turned to follow my path, ignoring the goddesses’ assault.
“Stop!” Odessa cried out.
“It’s not like the galla,” I whispered, trying to curb the fear in my own gut. I had escaped death that first time, and it was coming for me now, to complete its collection of dead rangers. “It won’t obey you.”
Unexpectedly, the shadow reeled back, its arm caught in a sudden conflagration of blue flames. Arjun stood on top of his rig, smoke still rising from his Howler as he whipped more Fire into the cylinder, the tip glowing a bright blue as he prepared to shoot again.
“You will not!” Asteria roared, and more ice raked the creature, shattering parts of it with sudden bursts of hail. It should have been a mortal blow, yet it reconstituted itself quickly, the holes and punctures closing up as we stared in horror. I retreated again as it continued its inexorable trek toward me, a hand already reaching out in apparent eagerness.
“Get the goddesses on the rig,” I ordered Noelle, and took off running in the opposite direction.