The Giant warlord said nothing. He continued to move his hands over the embers of the fire.
'I don't know if you plan to conjure the answers from last night's fire, but I'd appreciate an answer.' Haumea looked horrified at Wist's lack of respect. Nikka began to speak, but Wist had let other people make his decisions for him for too long.
'Listen I don't give a damn about you or your war. We are no threat. We just want to get to Medicaut.'
Ionracas laughed then, but it was a tired sound, the sound of exasperation and burdens borne for too long. But instead of speaking to Wist, he turned on the Giantess. 'Haumea, third Glaine,' he said, loading the words with scorn. 'You are sent to scout an area, where it is known there is no danger, to you or our people. And only you, poor crippled Haumea, could return from a trip to the shore with an impossible gift for me.'
Haumea looked crushed by his words. She slumped back inside herself, and for the first time Wist was aware of the curvature of her spine.
'So now I am left with a black dwarf, a man that has the look of an assassin and a man so white he might as well be transparent.'
'We are fighting a war Haumea,' roared the Giant. 'These dammed Intoli will not stop until they have swept us all from the land. The humans are already beaten. Pushed from their homes and forced to flee to the mountains. Only the Giants have been able stop the Intoli.'
The Prime Glaine of the Giants paused for a breath as he tried to bring himself back under control. He moved his ferocious glare to Wist. 'And you storm in here, demand our help and tell me that my war, my people's struggle to keep their land and their lives is nothing for you to care about? Do not speak to me of care!'
'Take them to the camp Haumea and guard them. That should keep you from trouble and rid us of your stupidity.'
This brutal dismissal was too much for Nikka. 'You may have the weight of this land upon your shoulders, Sir, but you are as unjust as you are oversized. Would you have thanked Haumea had she left us to roam these lands unchecked?'
'No son,' said the Cerni, 'if there is blame to be apportioned, then best leave space in that ample belly of yours for a sizeable slice.'
'I have heard enough of this!' shouted Ionracas.
'Aye,' Nikka bit back, ' have not we all?' He turned his back on the Glaine of the Giants. 'Come and find me when we are done here,' he said to Wist and Tyla. With a quick glance to Haumea, he extended his invitation to her. Then he walked out of the tent with Ionracas' bellows following him. A Giant popped his head through the gap in the tent and was ordered, in no uncertain terms, to watch the Cerni.
The leader of the Giants continued to swear at the Cerni's absent form. He was interrupted when the second of the guards appeared through the entrance. He had brought someone with him.
'Glaine, ' said the newcomer. He was smaller than Ionracas, by a hand or so, and wore with much less armour than his leader. This new, younger Giant bowed and removed his iron helmet revealing a head of blonde hair. Then continued to speak. 'I have urgent news.'
The emotion in Ionracas' face disappeared. He sloughed off the trivial concerns of his own and adopted the mantle of his office once more, ignoring the intruders in his midst.
'Tell me Oinoir,' said Ionracas without a trace of emotion.
Oinoir took a breath then looked around the room. He took in the strangers and then looked back at his Glaine. The massive leader of the Giants nodded, and so Oinoir began.
'The Intoli have taken Ghosa. It fell a handful of days ago. They came with sword and bow. We held out until they unleashed magic. They could not be stopped. Even as we hacked them to bits they continued to come. Burning us...'
'And Oinair?' asked Ionracas.
Oinoir took a breath, and then another. 'Lost,' he said. Haumea gasped but said nothing. Then Oinoir's composure broke. 'How can we stand my Glaine? How can we stop this? Can you reason with these Intoli? They only seek to take. How Ion, how can we?'
The Prime Glaine of the Giants stepped forward and took his comrade in his arms as he wept. Great racking sobs escaped the bereaved Giant before he was done, but after a scant few moments, Ionracas released him and he stood straight once more.
'Forgive me Glaine, forgive me,' said Oinoir, 'I have had no time for sleep. Grief and death will come when I have time for them. By the World, I have run without cease since the fall of Ghosa. At my sister's last command, I ran with all the speed these useless lumps would give me.' The Giant thumped his thighs with a fist. 'May I go and clean myself Glaine?'
'Do so here,' said Ionracas indicating a stoneware pitcher and huge bowl. So, the travel-worn Giant moved to the furthest corner of the tent, where he began to strip off his light armour and travelling clothes.
Wist shuffled. Being in the presence of such raw grief drew him too close to his own pain, the pain he had thought burned clean at Jerel's tower.
'Let us go,' said Wist. 'We will only be in the way here. Just point us in the direction of Medicaut and we will go.' Tyla shifted beside him.
'Medicaut?' Oinoir turned to face him, water running down the crags of his face. 'You will have a job getting there and...' Ionracas cut the Giant off, but then he reconsidered and waved a hand.
'Medicaut is no more,' continued Oinoir. 'It fell from the mountain, just before the Intoli emerged from the frozen hell of the north. There was a great movement in the land. Here, it caused little damage, apart from in Ghosa, but that was only a few buildings. Ancient and revered buildings, but just buildings.'
'But Medicaut, the great place of learning for the humans. The tremors were concentrated by the mountains. The city tore itself from its perch to smash upon the rocks.'
'Take them to the camp, as I have asked, Haumea.' interrupted Ionracas, as if he were worried that his comrade might give more away than he would wish. 'Take them there and I will send someone when I have time. I have to prepare our people. We must turn the tide of this war now, before it is too late.'
Tyla gripped Wist's arm and led him towards the exit from the tent. Wist wanted to argue, but he knew that Tyla was right. He had to think. Medicaut was gone. Then what were they to do? Where would they find Tilden? Had he dragged them all across two continents only to embroil them in a war at the price of losing his target? Haumea had followed them from the tent. Wist saw the tears on her cheeks. He should have felt her pain, but he couldn't.
Tyla stopped him outside the tent. The Lyrat stooped to retrieve his blade and daggers, which lay unattended. Nikka's hammer was there, but there was no sign of the Cerni. Wist lifted the weapon, unwilling to leave it. Had he been taken to the camp already? He couldn't believe Nikka would have gone to the camp willingly or otherwise and no guards were outside the tent to ask.
'Where do you think he's gone,' Wist asked Tyla. He ran his fingertips over the hammer, feeling the smooth edges of the cold metal.
Wist shrugged when the Lyrat looked at him. The road ran back where they had come, and out further east.
'I'll try this way,' Wist pointed to the east with Nikka's hammer. 'You go back that way. Meet back here once you've either found him or you've figured out he's not gone that way.' He expected Haumea to object, but she was lost in her own thoughts. Wist needed some time alone.
So, he was relieved when Tyla agreed to his commands without a word and, after replacing his weapons, the Lyrat strode off along the road with the Giantess trailing behind him. Wist turned and strode away from the tent.
Before long, it was out of sight. As he walked passed more abandoned houses and farms. Then he caught sight of a pair of huge Giants sparring in a field to the south of the road. The two female Giants were stripped of armour and weapons and wrestled with each other. They exchanged banter as they moved, each one trying to gain the upper hand in the fight. There was purity in their combat. It excluded outside influence, rejected any corruption of their purpose. Wist regretted leaving them behind, but he needed space and he should be looking for the Cerni.
He realised that he was walking t
owards the front line of this war; towards where the black sun would rise. The black sun. What did Haumea call it? Gria something? Ghria Duh, that was is. It sounded right. It sounded apt. Ghria Duh... The Black Sun.
Nikka probably hadn't have come this way, but he walked on, swinging the hammer in time with his strides. The path lead him to a hill that blocked his view of the east; hiding whatever devastation had been inflicted upon the land. At the foot of this hill was the last of the lifeless farms. He stepped on his lengthening shadow as he approached it. There were no Giants here and none anywhere to be seen. He heard nothing; no calls or shouts, no noise at all.
Then a figure stepped from the shaded side of the building. It was tall - not as tall as a Giant, and not as imposing. It wore strange light-coloured robes; white with flashes of gold and something darker. For a second he thought of Enceladus and the oasis in the desert. Then he blinked and thought it might be Dregan.
But this figure was taller than Mage, and slimmer. Its stretched features might look like human if they were compressed.
The thing walked towards him without saying a word. It stopped a yard from Wist. Then it smiled at him; a smile that bared its teeth, giving it the appearance of mocking him.
A cloud obscured the sun, drenching them both in darkness too profound. It lasted a heartbeat, but when it passed, the creature vanished and in its place stood Tilden. His face was no longer the handsome, boyish visage that it had been when Tilden had tried to goad him into suicide. Now it was torn and ravaged.
The cup of black liquid that Tilden had tried to force Wist to consume, he thought. He had thrown it in Tilden's face. And it still smouldered. He must be in agony.
'Ah, brother, are you still wandering lost in this hell?' Wist felt a pressure before him, stopping him reaching Tilden.
'I'm going to kill you,' promised Wist. 'You will pay this time.'
Tilden began to laugh, but pain forced him to stop. 'Your arrogance knows no end. I am here to tell you that I no longer need you. I have my answer, but I am content that you shall witness my triumph. And you that shall remain here. In the darkness, forever.'
'Tell the desert rat that I have his whore. Did you feel the strength in her? I shall break her. With her I shall take the Giant’s precious Dearg Fola.'
The last words were too much. As if they were infused with energy, a white-hot passion flowered in him. It grew quickly, blossoming from the dark seed in his heart. In an instant, his whole body filled with magma. Had he tried to resist it, he would have been consumed as it sought release. But he never even stopped to think. Then Nikka's hammer was in his hands and he swung it.
It should have hit Tilden's ethereal barrier, but it passed straight through, as if only air lay between them.
As the hammer came down upon his head, Tilden glided to the side. His physical being did not move; it transitioned from one place to the other, as if he had never existed at the first location.
Robbed of its target, the hammer continued its arc, driven by the relentless forces inside Wist and he smashed it into the rock that lay hidden beneath his brother. Wist didn't try to stop the swing. He put every ounce of his strength into it. It must find a release.
As it smashed into the ground, the world exploded. Time fractured into moments and instants; the present and past blurred into an indistinguishable singularity.
And everything stopped.
For one blessed, infinite moment, he felt nothing. Cool, endless oblivion cradled him. And then he was thrust outward - back into the world.
He caught a glimpse of Tilden, and then the world erupted and he was thrown down.
The ground thrashed under him. He thought he had split the world again - somehow ripped another thread lose in the reality of this world. But the tremors in the land calmed after a moment and he watched as the black hole raced into the sky, casting its hopeless despair upon them all.
After an eternity, it stopped and Nikka's dark face appeared above him. 'I think this has seen better days.' he said. The shaft of his hammer lay in one of his hands and broken pieces of the head in the other.
6 - The Line Begins to Blur
Aviti watched the sun through the small hole in the rear of the room, as it rose towards its peak. The opening might have been big enough to fit her arm through, but positioned as it was high up between the wall and ceiling, it did not provide even the vaguest hope of escape.
All night, she listened to other men and women cry out; some in pity for themselves, some in despair for loved ones. She had tried calling out for Dregan, but received a mouthful of abuse and curses from the adjacent room.
She thought of trying to grab the magic, but even as it entered her head, a pain caught her - not an intense pain - but a sharp kick; enough to let her know that the Intoli sat outside the door with that damnable brass bar in its clutches. As if she was ever in any doubt. Apart from that intrusion, and when Sevika had brought her food, she was left alone.
Aviti watched the dreadful black Sun through the earlier part of the night. At first, she could bear to look at it for only a moment at a time, but she found herself returning time and again to peer through the tiny window; gazing upon the horrific spectacle. She never became entranced, never fell back into the same state that she had on the hill outside the town. But she yearned to test herself against it. She wished that she could throw herself into that hole, not in hope that it would consume her, but in hope that it could devour the darkness within and somehow leave her cleansed.
The door complained as it moved inwards and two Intoli entered. She had not seen these two before. They were smaller than the other Intoli, but both were taller than her. They had the same elongated facial features as Sevika, and sleek, translucent hair. But both of them lacked the poise that Sevika displayed. Also, they had a purple colouring to their ice-white robes. When they gestured for Aviti to follow them, she left the window and moved along behind them.
Sevika awaited them outside the building. She accepted the genuflections of the two Intoli and walked before them. Sevika had the bar that controlled her. She knew it without needing to see it. Had the Intoli stood like a sentinel all night or had she passed the bar to someone else? That thought gave Aviti hope. If they had to change who controlled of her, she could exploit that weakness. Even a second would be enough; even a heartbeat. She kept that thought close to her heart, placed it alongside Tyla and the resurrected bond: secret, and safe.
Aviti walked the sloping road without a word, looking around herself, trying to get her bearings. Her recollections about the town from yesterday were vague. They had rushed here, trying to get out from under the black sun. Now, she saw men moving about – some of them were coupled to machinery - like the men that the Intoli had used to pull her cart. Elsewhere, others moved on unknown errands, without any haste.
This place was not silent, but she would have preferred that. There were no sounds of children, no idle chatter, nor were there any sounds of complaint. She heard only the shuffling of her own feet and the rustle of the leaves. The Intoli's control over these people was complete. She would not find aid here.
She looked across the valley at the trees. Since arriving in Pyrite, she had only ever seen those massive, dark-green trees, covered in biting needles. Here the trees were dressed in small rounded leaves that gave the impression of natural health. The trunks of these trees were two or three times as thick as the others. And they had gaps between them.
Just outside of the town, a bend in the road lead them to a large field, where the two Intoli guards that accompanied them halted. In the field stood an Intoli, the same one that Sevika had presented her to last night. Sevika had addressed the Intoli as Ravan, and with some deference.
He stood with his back to them as if he appraised the forest. Then he rotated as they approached; the same half-smile on his lips that had made Aviti's breath catch yesterday.
He said a couple of terse words to Sevika then said, 'Here.'
It took Aviti a second
to register that the command was directed at her. Sevika looked stunned or appalled. When she moved beside Ravan, Sevika stood between them and the forced connection between herself and the Intoli was there too.
The bar's inflexibility was in her flesh, day and night, that ever-present reminder of her enslavement. But now the metal seemed to move into her body, as if it sought to invade her.
'Sevika,' said Ravan. 'This human is different from the others, different even from those useful to us. She has a power that can move these intransigent creatures from our path. Krura herself has sent me. This is whom we have been seeking. This is why I left Prasad so long ago.'
'The Sakti of the world has imparted her knowledge to us all since we lost Vigopa. Many things, known to be timeless and unchanging, have altered since I returned.' The Intoli gave a bitter sigh through its long, slanted nostrils. 'This human will also give us the means of using the ill that poisons the Earth and free us at last from our penance.'
The words were meaningless to Aviti, she was focused on Sevika. The Intoli extended her hand that held the brass bar within it to Ravan and Aviti's heart leapt. This was her chance. She readied herself to act the instant that the Intoli released the bar.
Sevika began to speak, but Ravan stopped her. 'No Sevika. The honour and the burden shall be yours. I must return to Krura, when we are done here. You witnessed the Kalsurja. It has come as it was foretold. If we let it consume the Source, then not even Krura and Vigopa together would have been able to save this world.'
'For an eternity we have guarded against the darkness. We have held back its obsidian hatred. We must not flinch from the task that has awaited us since the dawn of our age. These days will see our final victory over the darkness. Be proud that you have been given this honour.'
'You shall not use me, Intoli,' said Aviti. Sevika blinked and moved a step back from Ravan, tightening her grip on the brass bar once more. A ripple traversed the Intoli's face. For an instant, she thought of Enceladus, the powerful sentinel who had granted her visions of her family.
The Redemption of Wist Boxed Set: Books 1 - 3: The complete collection Page 36