After they had walked for a league, they came to the top of a gentle rise. Instead of more green and brown hills, there was a line. From the coast in the south, it snaked its way northward through the hills; the scar in the world, the mark of Wist's first failure. Wist shivered and looked away.
Later, Haumea halted them beside a couple of twisted sequoia trees that sat guard at the top of a hill. The sun was setting, so Nikka and Tyla helped the Giant to ready a camp for the night. The air felt cool already. Damp, verdant smells filled Wist's nose. He sat on a bedroll that Tyla had rescued from the debris of the ship's wreckage. He looked over the shadowed ground to the tiny points of light that appeared alongside the divide.
'Maybe Aviti is there,' said Nikka as he sat down beside Wist. Wist muttered something to hide his shame. He hadn't thought of her since they started moving. She had just slipped from his mind again.
Haumea sat down and Tyla joined them after a ritual check of the camp. Darkness would be on them soon. The Giantess hummed a tuneless ditty as she prepared a meal for them all. Nikka helped her as she ghosted from one task to another.
A melody sprang up between them. Wist couldn't tell who started it. Perhaps the Cerni had latched onto Haumea's tune or the Giantess modulated his melody, but after a while the Giantess began to sing.
Thou hearth be filled with ash,
and heat and smoke no more,
Light has gone,
the flame consumed the night.
As winter passed from the world,
take grief and darkness too.
Let Spring reclaim the land for all
Let sparks rekindle life anew.
For darkness may take thy hearth
And flames consume thy time,
But light returns when needed most
and sweetness lingers on.
Wist tried to grasp the hope in the song, but it proved as elusive as peace. So he stood up and walked from his companions to look down onto the valley. It looked as though a massive serpent had crawled out of the sea and eaten its way up the land, devouring rock, soil, trees and life. After a moment, the sight shamed him, so he looked to the darkening eastern horizon.
Thousands of trees were there; hard, sharp trees. Maybe pine trees, but at this distance it was impossible to be sure. Then he glanced back to the west, past where Nikka now stood, to where the sun's halo disappeared between two titanic mountains. Nikka raised his right arm and pointed over Wist's shoulder, back to where he stared a moment before. The Cerni opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He closed, opened, then closed it once more. Tyla was beside him a heartbeat later. He looked and raised an eyebrow.
Wist turned as Haumea stood up, but nothing could have prepared him for what he saw. Crawling into the sky it came. At first mere tendrils of purest midnight were visible. They writhed in the blue-blackness of night's first touch.
Haumea mouthed a curse, and then said. 'Not a weapon of the Intoli surely? Who had the power to give birth to such a horror? But if not a weapon, then what is it?'
Little by little, piece by piece, a black disc emerged over the eastern horizon, a hole in reality, in through which malevolent fear poured.
Wist stared into the black hole in the night's sky. It writhed and pulsed as it crawled through the sky. Haumea and Nikka talked, trying to find a frame of reference for their fears. Behind them, he heard the occasional call of an animal; a wolf or something worse, but Wist did not care. The black disc was all that there was.
Then Tyla screamed.
2 - With Barely A Breath
Aviti awoke as her body hit the land. She heard a rasping guttural noise, like a soul fighting for breath. Then she felt arms under her, wrapped around her body, gripping her tight. If she had any energy left, she would have tried to break free. She orientated herself after a second. She was on her side, her face against damp sand. A shaft of light burned her eyes as she moved her head. She shook herself, trying to loosen her captor's grip.
'A second,' came a familiar voice, between pants, 'please'.
Then the arms which surrounded her were unlocked, so she tried to raise her head to see more than just the dark sand, but her head span. Her body felt beaten and the back of her skull ached. She sat up at the second attempt, but had to hold her head in her hands as she fought to contain the beating within it. The aroma of blood in the air was too much for her, and after a futile second trying to hold it in, she expelled the contents of her stomach onto the beach.
The man who had held her cursed and jerked himself away from her violent expulsion. Dregan's dark robes were ruined anyway. Most of his torso was exposed, displaying an array of cuts and gashes. Blood trickled from a couple of the wounds.
Aviti wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, tasting salt and blood. The back of her head throbbed. When she put a hand to the base of her skull she found it sticky with matted hair, salt-water and blood. Then she found a cut, about an inch long. Touching it brought a fresh bout of giddiness. Dregan pulled her round and examined it.
'It is clean, it will heal,' said the Mage. 'We must leave this place, find shelter. I must... I must find what has transpired. It is not as it should be.'
Aviti looked at the wreckage of the ships and humans on the beach.
The ship… That was right, the ship. She had been thrown into the water when…Before Aviti could straighten out her thoughts, Dregan grabbed her and forced her to her feet. She clung to him to stay erect.
At a cry from along the beach his grip tightened on her arm. It was from a sailor, dying amongst the flotsam. Then a few other unfortunate souls joined in, each hoping for a saviour. Perhaps some of them would find one. The pressure on Aviti's arm lessened, but he moved her away from the water and the dying.
As she stumbled on, she tried to focus her eyes. There was a line of trees. She had seen trees before of course, but these were brilliant green. They shone in her blurred vision, as if they contained more water or life than they had any right to. They felt powerful, but at the same time vulnerable.
Her feet burned with pain as the sand beneath them became littered with small, less-weathered stones. She must have lost her sandals, but she did not complain. As clouded as her thoughts were, she knew the Mage's urgency was real. So she held tight to him, and forced her body to comply with the demands he placed upon it.
The beach ended and soil, rich and loamy replaced the stones, relieving some of the pain in Aviti's feet. The ground here was a world away from the poor dusting of fertile soil that her parents had scraped a living from in Mashesh.
Another shout; this time from the north. This time a voice barked out an order, but it was not close enough for Aviti to make out words. Dregan pulled hard at her arm before she could ask.
With Dregan's help, she made it to a huge needled tree and collapsed breathless behind it. As she gasped, Dregan pushed his hand over her mouth. The effort of trying to subdue her heart caused the throbbing in her skull to swell to a crescendo. So she closed her eyes and clutched her head. Then she curled into a ball and left Dregan to watch. As she lay there, waiting for the pain to abate, she tried to think of her mother; not the real memories of her mother - the elderly, dying woman that she had known too briefly - but the woman she had seen in her vision. The vision that had helped awaken her power.
Through the aching haze that muddied her memories, Aviti could see her now; a proud and defiant woman who fought alongside her husband, Aviti's father. What she fought for, or whom she had fought, Aviti did not know. That did not matter, but she tried to recall the determination and passion that was in her mother's face. As she opened her eyes, she tried to hold on to that.
'It makes no sense,' whispered Dregan to himself. She ignored him for the moment and focused on the trees in front of her. There were so many of them; each one of them lined with the years of their lives. Rows of them stretched into the gloom, her view unobstructed at this level.
'They cannot be here. How has so much changed?'
'W
ho?' asked Aviti. 'Who are here?'
'Keep your voice down,' hissed the Mage, who gave up his attempts to peek around the tree. 'The Intoli. They are from the far north – Prasad and beyond.'
Aviti had heard of the Intoli. In another of her father's stories; a tale about them guarding something, or guarding against something.
The mage held a finger to his lips, his face now frantic. Aviti heard them approaching. She heard the sand of the beach kicked aside by many feet. Not in any uniform or regular way though. It sounded random.
Dregan's eyes scanned from side to side as they sat waiting. In a moment or two they would be alongside their tree. The voices became more distinct. Aviti could understand the words, but she had to grip them, as if they might slip away from her.
'Down there,' said one voice. 'Find any survivors. You heard the masters. Take those with Skill. Kill any without. Ware for Giants.'
Giants? But before Aviti could consider the implications, the voice continued. 'You, into the trees.'
Dregan was on his feet, pulling Aviti with him before she could take a breath. A suffocating thump of pain engulfed her, as the blood rushed to her head. In a second they were past the thin line of trees and deeper into the forest.
At a shout from behind, she shook free from Dregan's grasp, then passed him by. The Mage's elegant strides were gone and his graceless gait showed that he was unaccustomed to flight. Aviti may not have needed to run from many things in her life, but she adored the open platform above the desert in Mashesh. Unless she rode, she had always used her own strength to get where she needed to go to.
But where could they go now? The thickening trees stole the light and with it went their hopes.
Somehow, Dregan kept pace with Aviti. She stopped when she heard him curse as he collided with a tree. As she turned around, she saw him get to his feet.
'Where now?' she asked. 'What can we do?'
'We must not fall to these Intoli or their servants,' gasped Dregan. 'We must not.'
Aviti shook her head. She tried to clear the last of the fog, but it clung to her. She reached to her belt, but any weapon she may have had was gone; washed into the sea. Then she felt the urge for the magic within her, but she was too muddled to think.
'We cannot fight them; their power is… legendary. Even your inner strength, would be no match.' Aviti looked at his face for the first time since the disaster aboard the ship. He looked terrified, and his fear was obvious and genuine. He could use Magic and had performed astounding feats with it, so why was he so afraid. Unsure what to do, she reached for the chain around her neck, the one with her mother's pendant and pressed the edges to her skin.
A sharp retort from a foot breaking a fallen branch started Dregan running again and Aviti was forced to follow. Her eyes were adapting to this place, and the lack of light kept her headache bay.
Onward they ran, heedless of threat or consequence. Crashes and yells spread out behind them, like fire through dry brushwood.
Light broke through the trees, which caught Aviti off guard. It blinded her, triggering a fresh wave of pain through her head. She staggered, but kept running. As she went, she realised that the forest had thinned.
She shouted on Dregan, but it was too late. They broke through the trees into a waiting band of figures. They were a strange mixture of men and women, and taller creatures. In many ways the others resembled the humans, but they were all far taller, and their clear, white skin had a blue tinge. There were four of the creatures, one of them - the tallest - raised his hand and spoke a few words in its own language, a flowing sibilant tongue.
The creature spoke to another of her kind who emerged through the trees at her back. To her surprise, Dregan replied in the same flowing language, or at least it sounded similar to her ears. One creature made a brackish sound, and then it spoke to its companion.
A hand wrapped itself around Aviti's mouth and nose. It held a reeking cloth which it clamped in place. She thrashed and clawed at the hands which held her, but their grip was too tight. As she inhaled, her world span. She took a last look at Dregan who stood motionless beside her. Then arms were around her again, and her legs gave way.
-*-
As she came to for a second time that day, nausea swam inside Aviti once again. Her head still ached, but now giddiness joined it. Aviti waited for the disorientating sickness to fade.
A jolt underneath her brought a fresh wave of dizziness. Feeling beneath her, she found rough wood floor. She was flat on a litter of some description that bumped and jarred as it went.
A hand grabbed her, pulling her matted braid, tensing the skin and reopening the wound. She yelled in pain, but her open mouth was filled with a sweet and sickly fluid, pushed from a water skin. Then a hand was over her mouth again, whilst another rubbed her throat. This ungentle act forced her to swallow the liquid. The controlling fingers released their grip once their owner was satisfied.
'That will help with the sickness,' said a soft voice. It sounded different to the voice that had commanded her capture. This voice lacked the force of command or the relish of it. After a few moments, she managed to raise her head. At least she had not been lied to about that. She was in a small cart. It reminded Aviti of the cart from her parent's farm; the one that she and her brother used to save Wist when they had found him dying at the gates of Mashesh.
Dregan sat beside her with his head bowed. These Intoli must have subjected him to the same treatment that she had received. Her stomach churned as the potion swirled in her gut. Despite the vertiginous sensation the movement induced, she pulled herself up to sit beside the Mage.
Judging by the sun, they moved north or perhaps north-east, it was difficult to be certain with the forest still surrounding them. To the east of them, it looked impenetrable. The trees stood mighty and solid, like spikes bursting from the bed of discarded needles. To the west of the track, the pines were much sparser, as if they had lost the will to go on.
'Dregan,' Aviti said. The mage did not reply. So, she nudged him, once, then twice. He grunted and pulled up his head.
She said his name again and this time he looked at her. The distance in his eyes betrayed a glimpse of hidden pain. Then he blinked and the spectre was gone.
'What is happening here?' she asked him. 'I thought you knew this land? Who are these Intoli? What do they want with us?' She had a score more questions to ask him, but her mind felt beclouded.
'Intoli,' was his only answer.
'Yes, you said that, but what does that mean?'
The Mage looked bewildered. 'The Waren,' Dregan began, 'the limitless darkness that awoke the ability within you. If they are darkness and loss incarnate, then the Intoli are the world's response to it.'
Aviti sighed. If she could clear her head, the correct questions to ask might come to her. Perhaps this was how Wist felt; his mind mired in the perpetual sandstorms of his past.
'Then why are they to be feared?’ This made no sense, anything that opposed the Waren, should not be feared.
'How long can you stare at the Sun Aviti, before you must look away? The Intoli are beings with a single purpose: to guard against the darkness; to prevent the night from devouring the day. They exist in the frozen north of the world, having little to do with Men or Giants. There they watch and they wait and they guard.'
'It is said that they are as terrible as they are beautiful; a horror beyond imagining and a delight surpassing endurance.'
'You understand their speech,' said Aviti as her thoughts drifted.
'A House I was tied to in Bohba.’ Dregan said, taken aback. 'The Mage of the house was obsessed with the Intoli. He had gathered everything he could on them: books, scrolls, rumours, sketches. He claimed that they spoke something similar to the hill-folk of southern Prasad. He was in the process of learning it when I left the... service, of his house.'
'It was him that I learned of Enceladus from.' Enceladus, the powerful sentinel they had encountered in the Great Desert of Tapasya. He had
bestowed power, albeit temporary upon Dregan. But what use was that to them now?
Aviti thought about moving her head to discover more of their situation, but a surge of vertigo put an end to that idea. She could see a couple of the Intoli accompanying the cart. They looked as if walking unsettled them, or perhaps it was the ground underfoot. They walked like soldiers, but carried no weapon. The only thing in their hands was a bar of brass or gold. The two Intoli had identical bars, which they gripped.
They wore shimmering grey cloaks over sky blue garments, one with a dark blue trim, one with an aspect of gold. Neither of them looked at her or Dregan. Neither of them looked at each other.
'So, what are they doing with us? If they are so powerful, why capture us? Why search a shipwreck?'
'They have not spoken of their purpose,' said Dregan. 'They have mentioned Ravan and Raktata, but I think that might be the names of their leaders. They also spoke of Krura, but when they mentioned that name there was an air of reverence or...worship almost.'
The Intoli guards looked at Dregan when he said Krura. She held her breath for an instant, but they returned to following the cart.
'And they also talked of something or someone called Arkasona. I think it means heartstone or crux.'
'What of it?' said Aviti, as her temper rose. 'Did they speak of us? Did they find Wist or Nikka or... Or Tyla?' Heat rose in her as she thought of her companions and the Lyrat. She tried to think of his face, but her disorientation grew as he tried to bring him into focus. It worsened to the point that she did not hear Dregan's answer.
The cart jerked to a halt, which caused Aviti's stomach to turn once more. Dregan helped her out onto the path and after a few moments, she realised that they were in a village. Or at least it had been a village at some point. In its current state, it looked more like the desert hovels outside her home city, Mashesh. The purpose had been ripped from this place. Once, a community had thrived here, not unlike Aviti's home. Now it was a shell.
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