Wist peered over across the river at the Intoli. The Intoli along the banks were in two groups now, each beside an end of the growing red structure. They vibrated with energy and implied threat.
'A bridge,' declared Nikka. He ran over to Oinoir who had re-joined them and shouted in his face. 'Move them up the hill. Move them up and organise them into a wall. You will be slaughtered here.' Oinoir looked at the Cerni through matted blood. He stared and looked from Nikka to the Intoli.
'Move them or more of your people will die here!' Nikka reaffirmed. Oinoir eyes snapped into focus as if Nikka's words had slapped him. He straightened himself and bellowed to those around him. In a moment, most of the Giants began to move up the valley, away from the river and the immediate threat of the Intoli, but a group of priests refused to move. They chanted and called to the river, praying to something or someone.
No more streaks of light or missiles were issued from the Intoli. Instead, they focused all their efforts into the crimson construction. With every breath, it solidified.
Wist retreated up the slope with Nikka and Tyla, and then he looked back. A second group of Intoli emerged through the trees. This group were different from the first. He saw the glitter of silver and gold from this group; weapons and armour that caught reflections of the failing sun.
As Wist reached the end of the initial rise, he saw that the first group of Giants were organised in four clusters. Bows and spears jostled amongst these Giants as they tried to ready themselves.
Row upon row of sword-wielding Giant joined them. With the loss of Ionracas, disaster loomed over the Giants and panic hung in the air like a grim spectre. Oinoir bellowed at them, bullying them into formation. He pushed the front rank together, forcing those with shields to stand shoulder to shoulder with their shield protecting their neighbour. These Giants drew out shorter swords, although these were the still the length of Wist's arm.
Behind them, Brathoir began to marshal the second rank, but he made mistakes. Wist saw them, but he could do nothing to correct their faults.
The colour of the Intolis' bridge deepened. It passed from crimson to magenta and as it grew darker, it became less translucent. Then the rows of armed Intoli parted in a single motion. As one, they took a step, leaving a corridor to the trees.
The Giants behind the front line, led by Brathoir, banged their weapons on their shields. At first it sounded like a random clangour of noise; all guts and thunder and lacking any cohesion. But from the deafening racket, a pattern emerged. It rolled along the line and back again. Back and forth it oscillated; back and forth. Like a wave trapped in a shallow pool, it reflected and grew in strength.
Then they began to chant. Perhaps it was an ancient prayer, or it might have been an articulation of their need for power, but it fortified the Giants' courage. Across the river, Intoli stepped out the shadow of the forest all along the banks of the river.
From his vantage point, Wist looked straight along the channel that the Intoli had opened in their ranks. They brought something towards the river. It must be a weapon; something to be feared. This must be it. This must be the Dearg Fola that Tilden wanted, that Oinoir would not speak of. Did he have it already?
Despite the bridge being complete, none of the Intoli made a move towards it.
Now was the time to act. Once the fighting was underway Wist couldn't risk unleashing whatever he had tapped into when he had confronted Tilden. He would be unable to save any of the Giants from its effect. And if Tilden could use this weapon, this Dearg Fola, there would be slaughter here.
Acting instinctively, he reached for Nikka staff. He pulled it out before him and gripped the narrowed end. He wondered how much blood was infused into the wood. All those people Nikka had sent to their graves.
'Wist,' said Tyla. 'Do not.' But even as he spoke, the Lyrat doubled over clutching at his shoulder. Nikka went to the Lyrat leaving Wist alone.
Wist focussed on the bridge, which was now almost the colour of the dark sun. He used the rhythm of the Giant's chant, their call and response, to try to tap into what he needed. He raised the remains of Nikka's hammer before him.
Then he brought the staff down. As it connected with the ground, Wist's head exploded with pain once more. The ground may have shaken for an instance, but with the turmoil inside his head and the Giant's war song echoing in his ears, he couldn't be sure.
He looked to the bridge. At first, it looked unaltered, but there was a bright red fissure along the width of the bridge at its highest point. Wist's head pounded with every breath, but he had to do this. As he blinked against the pain, he saw that the Intoli had already repaired the crack in their bridge.
Cursing, Wist looked past the bridge and saw that the Intoli's were moving. They were bringing forth their weapon from the woods. He could have laughed.
It was no Dearg Fola. It was a human; a human between two Intoli. A dark-skinned human woman.
Wist raised the staff once more and gritted his teeth.
'Aviti!' he cried and rammed the wooden pole into the dirt. This time the pain in his head suffocated him. It obliterated everything from his world. Only when he forced his thoughts to the woman who had haunted his dreams did the pain began to abate.
When he opened his eyes, he saw that he had damaged the bridge again. This time he had ripped a section from the centre of the structure. But it was not fundamentally weakened. He knew that he couldn't destroy it. The Intoli would repair it and the Giants would have to fight. And then they would die.
Then a snap so loud that it pierced even the Giant's throbbing chant tore at Wist's heart, and thunder ripped through the sky.
10 - Rainbow's Gold
Rain assailed the Intoli as they marched west. None of the Intoli that Aviti saw had human counterparts, they were all warriors. Each of them carried a weapon; some ordinary: a sword, a bow, a spear; others were more obscure, but their sharp points and glittering edges left little doubt as to their ultimate purpose.
We are Legion. And we are few.
The words echoed through her mind. The multitude of voices that had spoken to her had rung with such poignancy.
We are the past and we are the future. As are you.
But what did those words mean; the past and the future? How could something be the past and the future?
Daughter of the future. Reunite the twins.
Again the future, but what future? At the moment, her future was enslavement to the Intoli. So, she trudged on beside Sevika. The Intoli still held the end of the invisible leash that kept Aviti prisoner. That damned brass bar went all the way through her body at her shoulder and its matching replica remained in Sevika's grip. Twins, Aviti thought, the bar in her body and the one in the Intoli's hand. Maybe those were the twins that those apparitions had spoken of? But she knew of no way she could reunite them.
A human pushed up to them as its Intoli master forced him on. The Intoli had the same silver white robes that all those paired with humans did, but this one had a red hue to it. There were no obvious panels or pieces of crimson material, but the clothing emanated a deep red glow underneath the superficial surface of white.
As the Intoli drew level with Sevika, it spoke. 'Gau,' it said. Aviti saw Sevika flinch. It was a small movement and almost imperceptible, but Aviti caught it.
Sevika stopped in the midst of the flow of Intoli and human. Sevika inclined her head to the newcomer who, like Sevika, held a golden ingot in her fist. 'Sevika,' it continued. 'I have come for you.' Aviti studied Sevika for any signs of weakness.
'Krura has sent me,' the smaller Intoli said. The Intoli's flat, dead tones chilled Aviti's blood. Aviti had heard the name Krura before.
Sevika did not reply. She did not move or acknowledge the word. She stood, rooted to the spot and stared.
'Strathyrin has been lost to us,' the crimson Intoli said.
'Raktata, no!' said Sevika, her immaculate facade cracking.
The shorter Intoli backhanded Sevika with his clenched fi
st, the same fist that held the slave's brass bar.
'Raktata, I am ashamed,' said Sevika still reeling from the blow.
'Ravan was right.' said Raktata. The pale scars on the Intoli's face rippled with argent fire for an instant.
Ravan, thought Aviti. The damned Intoli that had forced her to destroy the trees. And then he had used her to obliterate the Damned. The taste of dust still lingered in her mouth.
Sevika bowed her head once more, deeper this time.
'You knew the importance of the task you were set?' asked Raktata rhetorically.
Then a profound silence fell between the Intoli. Aviti thought they may be communing silently, but Raktata may just have been using the silence to shame Sevika. Intoli continued to stream by them, passing them as if they did not exist. Then Raktata's blue eyes glittered. He thrust out his empty hand, exposing the pallid palm. Sevika stared at it for a heartbeat or two and then she grasped the outstretched hand.
Aviti gasped. She realised too late what had happened. Raktata withdrew his hand from the embrace and with it, he took the brass bar - the bar that controlled Aviti. He had given his bar to Sevika.
The new presence forced its way into her. Sevika's touch was unwanted and Aviti fought it constantly, but in some ways, she grew accustomed to its repugnant presence. This new intrusion was as violent as when the bar had been rammed into her flesh. Raktata's touch was an avaricious, grasping, needful thing. It was as brutal as it was insatiable.
She disgorged the contents of her stomach. Not because of the dreadful, desperate need that repulsed her, but because of the wrongness that lay at the root of it. A poison coursed through the channel that the bar opened from her to Raktata, and it felt like decay.
-*-
For the remainder of the day, Aviti was forced to perform feats of magic and theurgy by Raktata. She had produced fire and wind; blasts of force and piercing shards of ice. Now she was exhausted, but sleep would not come to ease her body and mind.
She lay shivering under a thin, coarse blanket and tried not to think of how she had performed like a trained animal. Raktata was merciless. And he had slighted Sevika at every opportunity, for all of her failures in training of this prize.
Aviti lay awake. Her senses still reeled from Raktata's touch, despite the hated brass bar being returned to Sevika.
Every time she used the Magic, her ecstasy was tainted with rot and decay. She had to fight to stop it permeating her soul. In some ways, it made it easier for her not to lose herself. She would have preferred to struggle with that than to suffer the diseased touch of Raktata.
He had tried to break her and he thought he had succeeded. She sensed Raktata's self-satisfaction with his performance today.
Aviti had also discovered their plan. They were to move across a river and then attack a place in the north. She tried to catch the name, but it slipped by her. She would be used to blow any resistance out of the path of the Intoli.
She would not allow herself to be used to kill innocent men and women. Death would be more acceptable to her. Then she laughed aloud at the absurdity of it, causing Sevika to enter her tent and examine her. Aviti did not say anything to the Intoli. The irony of contemplating suicide would be lost on Sevika.
Suicide; what else could she call it? When she had found out about Wist's suicide – in his own world – it had felt so repulsive, so alien.
So, she laughed again. It did not lift her worries, but it allowed her to refocus. She breathed in and out a few times. She smelled the damp mustiness of the trees underneath the stench of sweat and rot. She tried to draw in the invigorating life of the forest with each breath and blow out the waste and dirt that clogged her lungs.
Sevika sat and watched Aviti. The Intoli never spoke or moved. She sat so still that Aviti was reminded of the Lyrats. Aviti needed her bond with Tyla now. She tried hard to conceal it from Sevika, but now she wanted his support. The silent link still shamed her, but also it brought warmth, strength and concern. She scratched at the bandage on her shoulder reflexively.
'I am sorry,' said Aviti. Sevika raised an eyebrow.
'Sorry?'
'Yes, sorry. I have brought shame upon you have I not?' Aviti tried to temper the sarcasm in her voice.
'You are just another victim of this,' said Aviti. 'And you cannot see it.'
'Aviti,' replied Sevika. 'We will all be victims when the darkness claims the world.'
Aviti would have replied, but the use of her name threw her. She took a breath, held it, and then said 'You are a victim now.' Without replying, Sevika left Aviti and went to stand outside again.
And soon, too soon, the dawn came. Aviti may not have slept, but she was ready when Sevika returned. She did not need to be coerced to follow the Intoli. In the deep, dark night she found her answer; an answer of sorts. So when the bar passed from Sevika to Raktata, Aviti did not fight it. She succumbed to the control and Raktata was pleased with that. Though the tainted touch that flowed through the link between her and Raktata repulsed Aviti, she accepted it. It would pass through her, but it would not sully her.
A smaller Intoli, the smallest Aviti had ever seen, scuttled up to Raktata. He spoke with such a sharp, brittle accent that Aviti lost his words. Raktata turned from the messenger to Sevika. His blue eyes flashed and the two of them gripped hands once more. Aviti gasped with relief when the bar returned to Sevika. Aviti had expected another day of brutal realignment. For an instant, she feared that this was a feint; a trick to get her to drop her guard and Raktata would re-assume his merciless control of her. Then Raktata nodded to Sevika and strode off, entering the flow of the passing Intoli army.
A flood of Intoli with human slaves pushed past them. They headed after Raktata. Aviti ignored the Intoli and looked at the men and women. Dregan was either not amongst them or he had changed beyond all recognition. It was as if she saw the same few people over and over again; pathetic men and women with nothing left to live for. None of them returned her gaze. They struggled along beside their masters, stumbling and jerking, as if invisible strings bound them together. Just like the Damned.
Sevika motioned to Aviti and the two of them moved off behind a line of Intoli warriors. The oak trees thinned here. On occasion, Aviti saw other trees; foreign and verdant. She was taken with the variety of contorted limbs that they displayed. They did not look pained. Instead, they looked like they had gained the right to live, and they displayed the price that they had paid with pride.
One old, broken tree caught her eye. It sat in a clearing on its own. The surrounding oaks faced the dead tree as if they paid tribute to an old leader of their kind. The old, dead tree's branches reached out in supplication to its brethren. A plate of fungus protruded from its side pronouncing its decay to the world. A small rodent scuttled up into its higher branches, hiding from the intruders in its domain. The Intoli marched on, immune to the lure of nature. Immune to the harm they caused.
They pushed further into the forest, their movements easier now as the trees thinned. This allowed the Intoli and human slaves to spread out.
'Why are you here?' Aviti asked Sevika as her mind slipped from one possibility to another. Sevika said nothing. 'I heard about this Arkasona, but why not go and just take it.' But the answer was obvious and it came to her even as she asked her question. 'You could not defeat the Giants without the slaves, without the magic? You had to enslave a race to get what you need.'
Aviti laughed, but Sevika continued to ignore her.
'Were you punished?' asked Aviti.
'Punished?' Sevika replied starling Aviti.
'You are a failure are you not?' said Aviti, recovering quickly. 'You were meant to break me. But you have not. Your master had to do it for you.'
'Raktata is no master,' said Sevika. 'He is one of three, but he guides those that only use the magic.'
'Only magic? But you...?'
'There are those who use magic and those that use force. I am given to both.'
Sevika carri
ed a sword and a bow, but she had not realised the difference between her and the other Intoli. 'But why do you need weapons? Who could possibly assault the mighty Intoli?'
'There are occasions when the Intoli must leave the guardianship of the Dhuma and involve themselves in the affairs of the world. There are others in this world that are immune to magic. Therefore, we must resort to other methods'
'But what of this…Dhuma? Who guards that thing whilst you are gone; for all the good it has done. Is that what this Arkasona is for?'
If Sevika took umbrage, she showed no sign. 'When matters are important enough, some of the Intoli are sent to deal with the threat. The rest remain.'
When matters are important enough. Her city, her family, her entire life, destroyed by a horde of rampaging Lyrats, was that not important? But despite herself, and despite of all the reasons she had to hate Sevika, when she looked at the Intoli she saw the pain and years of sacrifice. A few days ago, Sevika's face had looked passive.
'It is no wonder that your people are insane. No-one should be required to serve for eternity. I do not care if you live until the end of time... You do not even sleep! How can anyone give up so much without losing everything?'
Aviti stormed away from Sevika, or at least she tried to. The invisible tether would not let her go. So, she let her mind fill with thoughts of Tyla. She allowed her mind access to the bond. Despite her fear of accessing it, her fear that the Intoli might learn something about her beloved Lyrat, she went to the bond. She needed his support. She needed the company of another human. Then she admitted to herself that she needed far more than that, but the simple contact was enough to help her keep a grip on her sanity. To her surprise, she could now even determine where he was, or at least she could sense in which direction he lay and that he remained at a constant distance.
They emerged from the forest beside a host of Intoli warriors. When the warriors moved on, Aviti saw water; crystal-blue water that shimmered placid and inviting, and a cloudy sky above it.
The Redemption of Wist Boxed Set: Books 1 - 3: The complete collection Page 41