'You should be forcing me to march,' said Aviti. She breathed out and was caught in the face when the wind changed direction and blew dirt into the air. Aviti spat out a mouthful of the gritty dirt and leaves, and then she laughed at herself. She took a few steps off the dusty path and knelt down beside the huge lake. Cupping her hands together, she lifted a handful of the fresh water to her lips and rinsed out her mouth. Aviti repeated the motion, but this time she swallowed and swallowed until her belly ached. Then she poured water over her head. She shivered as it ran through her matted braid and down her back
She shook her head, whipping her hair back and forth. 'Do you ever just look at the land?' Aviti gestured expansively across the lake to the mountain on the far north side. As Aviti turned, she saw the reflection of the dark sun, the Kalsurja as the Intoli had christened it, and she shuddered.
'What is there of beauty in this place?' said the Intoli. 'Water, rock and air,' Sevika pointed to the lake, the mountain and then the sky in turn. 'You should see Prasad in winter: Mountains that make mortals tremble, once they braved the maddening seas of ice and lifeless tundra at its approach. And the imperious ice wyverns. Even those are pale reflections of the Source.'
'So, none of this is important, because it is not vast or impressive enough? Is this whole land a price worth paying?' Sevika returned her stare, but gave nothing away.
Then the Intoli turned her head and walked away from the water's edge. After a second, Aviti also moved, but not before she saw a faint arch of colours appear, bending towards the western edge of the lake. She hoped that this rainbow brought luck to someone. Maybe Tyla also looked upon it, but she doubted if he believed in such superstitions.
So, they walked west, following the path that marked the boundary between the forest and the lake. Its bank was so slight that Aviti wondered how much rain it would take for it to burst its banks and deluge the forest. They had climbed a slight gradient as they left the swamp and headed north. It must be where the water went when the lake overflowed, she thought.
The water of the lake had done more than refresh Aviti's body; it had sharpened her mind. She felt possibilities begin to form within her. Those fragile hopes, nurtured since being tethered, began to stir. It was these that Raktata thought expunged from Aviti's mind, but the bitter Intoli had failed.
Something else fuelled those hopes now. She headed towards him now, and the Lyrat came towards her and with every step, she grew more certain of it. With each step, her impression of him grew clearer; better defined in her heart. This would be her chance. But she was not sated yet.
'Do you not even have a name for this place?' asked Aviti. 'Or does your kind only give names to towns you have despoiled?' If she could make this Intoli accept it as a place, as a home, she might be able to change her heart.
'We are going towards Zradah,' said Sevika as if that answered Aviti's question.
'And what is there?' she asked, but this was ignored by Sevika.
An ache in her shoulder caused Aviti to stop. She pushed her cloak aside and then, in a sudden rage, she pulled at the bandages that hid her wound. Sevika halted, but did not to stop her. Aviti picked at the ends of the material, which were coated in something that resembled wax from a candle. She picked at it with her broken fingernail. She tore at it with her desperation. After a few seconds Aviti, broke a chunk of it off and part of the strapping came with it.
'You should wait until it has healed,' said Sevika, but Aviti ignored her. She broke piece after piece off, careless of whether she took parts of her skin with it. With one desperate tear, she removed the majority of the bandage. Underneath was a mass of scarred pink lines on her once flawless brown skin. And at the epicentre of the damage, the butt of the brass bar was there. It was an effort to focus on something so close, but Aviti forced herself to examine it.
The bar was only a lump of metal. What appalled her was the area where the bar met her flesh. Where there should have been a distinct line that demarked flesh from metal, as definable as the line where the lake met the land, there was a gradual change of colour from the burnished gold of the bar to the pink scar tissue of her body. Her body was accepting the foreign object as part of her.
'I am never going to be able to get it out,' she said. It was intended it as a question, but it came out as a whimper. Sevika shook her head and then motioned for them to continue. Aviti's thoughts of escape departed on the strengthening breeze. Its whispering touch forewarned of the changing season. She pulled her cloak back over her shoulder and then moved off, trailing behind Sevika.
After another hour, the path started to veer south and she caught sight of a massive stone rampart that stretched away into the distance towards the western end of the lake. The stones looked like a dam, placed there to alter the course of a river.
As they left the water behind, the trees which surrounded them now no longer felt vibrant with life. They were oppressive, as if they conspired to steal the air from her lungs. She yearned for the open expanse of the desert of her homeland. She longed for her dead home and her murdered family.
Catching her foot on a stray root, Aviti stumbled into the back of Sevika. The army had become congested in the trees, forcing the Intoli to stop. Sevika moved on when she was able, passing through her comrades with relative ease, urging Aviti to follow either with gestures or with less gentle prods through the unseen and unwelcome bond.
Aviti crashed along without care or notice. She would never be free. Even if she killed Sevika, even if she held the counterpart of the bar in her shoulder, she would never be free. While the brass object was in her body, she would be forever subject to its control.
The sound of Intoli army was joined by another, growing din. Howls and shouts reached her ears now, indistinct but all too real. The Intoli had found their foes.
'Here,' shouted a harsh Intoli voice. Aviti should have recognised it, but she did not care. She was grabbed and shoved towards an approaching figure.
A hand was thrust out and accepted by Sevika. Then Aviti knew her fate. Raktata had claimed her. The oily corruption of his touch flooded the bond and it made her heave, but Raktata forced her to walk. She passed through rank after rank of Intoli and their human slave partners. Some cried out and one tried to run, but she collapsed after taking a step. Aviti saw the woman's first convulsions as her Intoli master racked the poor wretch with waves of pain.
As they approached the western edge of the forest, Aviti watched as red strips of light shot through the air. More and more ribbons of light joined them as she moved.
She was knocked backwards when a man walked straight into her. He ambled away from her and the noise and light. An Intoli warrior beside Aviti slipped a sword from his sheath, but before he used it, Raktata said, 'Conserve your strength. That thing is of no further use. It has been expended.'
But then she realised that it this was not a man, not anymore. It was one of the Damned, the animate, soulless dead; the men and women that did not pass on once their time was complete, and then roamed the world for eternity. Then Raktata pulled her again with the magical bond, jerking her forward. More and more of the Damned wandered back through the ranks of the Intoli making their progress harder. The glowing red light from ahead gave the trees the aspect of a charnel house.
Aviti saw Sevika in the corner of her eye doing her best to wade through the Intoli and the flow of soulless Damned. But there was no time to spare for her, or the Damned, or the mud beneath her feet. The bond, the other bond she had formed with Tyla, had come alive.
He was here. Just through the trees and she would see him, she knew it. But they stopped when Raktata met a tall Intoli and began questioning him. Raktata flew into a towering rage. He yelled and ranted at the other Intoli, and then he dismissed it from his presence. Raktata had seized control of the army from him.
The ground shook and Raktata grimaced. Then he shoved the Intoli commander aside and dragged Aviti forward, breaking out of the line of the trees. At first, all she c
ould see were the backs of the Intoli and their human slaves, firing line after line of crimson light. She averted her eyes from the structure it was forming; a connection across a divide. She looked along the line of Intoli that stood to the north, all along the trees. A few of the Damned wandered up in that direction, but they fell as they tried to climb a huge pile of stones that blocked the path. Behind this must be the rampart that held back the lake in the forest.
She was shoved again, this time physically. Raktata moved her between the two lines of Intoli. Flanked by Raktata and Sevika they moved to a small mound that stood before the ethereal bridge. The white scars on Raktata's face pulsed again. And then it hit her. Those scars, she had seen those scars before. She had seen them on the face of the Intoli that had been enslaved her; the one who had been there when the bar went through her body.
And then she saw it all. The divide between the Intoli and their foes was a river, which ran beneath them. It was wide and deep, and flowing as fast as she had ever seen water move. Across the deep valley that the river lay in, bodies were scattered; massive, armoured bodies of Giants, some of whom still writhed and bled. Many others did not.
Beyond them, Giants in dull leather armour ran away from them, racing up the banks. They ran to join their comrades who were forming lines at the top. These were battle lines designed to grind down a foe. But now they faced both a physical foe and an ethereal power.
The Intoli's bridge spanned the river. It was now a shade away from black. It glittered in the sunlight as if it were made from precious stones.
Then the land convulsed once more and a crack appeared in the crossing.
'Enough!' bellowed Raktata.
Before she could oppose it, magic poured into Aviti. Raktata's brutal attack brushed aside any of her defences, and all she could do was fight to hold the precious magical energy inside.
Aviti refused to let out the force that gathered within her. There was no ecstasy in the magic this time, but there was need. The coarse poison of Raktata burned in her veins and she yearned to be rid of it just as her need for it urged her to hold on to it. Raktata opened his narrow mouth and bared crystalline teeth in the semblance of a smile. He knew that Aviti's efforts were futile. When she did relent, it would devastate the Giants.
She swayed as she saw her trap. Without warning of the impending strike, the Giants would be slaughtered. And with them Tyla, and maybe Wist and Nikka.
Aviti started to shake as she reached the pinnacle of what she could hold on to. Delirium threatened to take her. Raktata tightened his hold on her until she could not move, not even to avert her eyes.
The ground trembled again and a section fell from the bridge. As it fell, Raktata's focus wavered. So Aviti touched the only thing that was hers; the bond with Tyla. She drew what little she could from it, and then she acted.
Aviti yelled as the magic erupted from her in a titanic wave of power. Then she cried out. If this worked, she might save the Giants; at least for now.
The wave of force passed over the line of Intoli that stood on the northern bank of the river. It threw some of them into the river, but before their fall was complete, the magical force hit its target. The face of the stone stockade took the full impact of the blow. It exploded in a shower of rock and dust.
Raktata spun and struck her with savage force. It threw her backwards to the ground, but before he struck her again, a grinding noise filled the air. It sounded like the bones of the earth being mashed together. Raktata turned from her, stood open-mouthed, and stared out in to the valley.
Where Aviti's magical force had hit the stone blockade, a geyser of water shot into the sky. It arced high in to the air. The bar that controlled Aviti's fate slipped from Raktata's trembling hands back to Sevika's.
The first wave of pain hit Aviti then, but not before she heard the massive crack that shot out. The roar that followed combined with her screams. Her own cries filled her ears as she writhed helpless on the ground.
Then there was thunder and it drowned out all other noise. The stone wall that had, for an age, held back the great lake, began to break and a river was reborn.
11 - The Path
Nikka saw water pour forth from the ruptured dyke and sprang into action. He bellowed at Haumea telling her to move everyone up the hill. It would be too little he knew, but he could help some of them to get clear. These Giants were a wonder in themselves, but nothing could withstand the force that would assail them within moments.
The front line of Giant warriors turned away panicked and fled up the hill, when they saw the water. Even the Priests abandoned their chanting and attempted to run, but their progress was hampered by the second and third ranks. They heard the noise, but did not comprehend their peril. Not yet anyway.
Nikka could have run ahead of them. He was small and still agile enough to fit through the gaps that the lumbering Giants left, but he would not leave Haumea's side. The twisted Giant was terrified. But as she scampered along the line of her kinsmen, Nikka saw that her fear was not for herself, but for them.
And then the water came. First, it tore out trees from the eastern bank, smashed the Intoli lines to broken pieces and pulled a huge shelf of soil and detritus down into the valley. With it, the ethereal bridge that the Intoli had formed from strands of magic unravelled and then evaporated.
The first surge of water that reached the Giants on the western shore collapsed, but then the leading wave peaked on the eastern side and a bigger, more destructive wave, rushed at them. And a sound that echoed back from the mountains. The weakened wall that held back complete disaster gave notice that it could no longer protect the valley.
Nikka screamed at the Giants, pushing, shoving, yelling at them. He had lost track of Wist, but he would need to fend for himself.
Then his legs were swept from under him as the water battered into him. Nikka was thrown high up over the heads of a line of Giants who were submerged in an instant. Dressed as they were for battle, those Giants were lost. Even those with meagre armour of boiled leather would find moving impossible with the weight of the reborn river pushing down upon them.
Arms wrapped around him and he was launched from the water to land in a heap amongst Giants, branches, boulders and mud. Nearby, Haumea lifted herself to her feet. She had thrown him clear from the water. Then she spun around and ran back to the now receding water. Nikka spat out a mouthful of water, while he watched Haumea defied her infirmity. She danced over the spilth to reach those still caught in the flood's thrall.
Nikka jumped up in a heartbeat and ran to join Haumea. However, as he went, he saw Tyla, Wist and Oinoir. They were with a Giant who lay pinned beneath an oak tree. Nikka grabbed a hold opposite the Lyrat and helped Tyla withhold the killing weight from the Giant.
Wist and Oinoir each pulled an arm of the injured Giant. With Nikka's help, the Giant was pulled clear of the tree.
'Brathoir,' said Oinoir. 'Speak to me brother.'
Brathoir lay on the ground, spitting water and blood from between his teeth.
'Christ, look at his leg,' said Wist. Nikka looked down and saw a yard of white bone protruding in a shard through the Giant's skin. Blood flowed around it. Nikka had seen worse, much worse, but it was a sharp reminder of the price of war.
'We'll need to sort it or he'll die,' said Wist. He blanched before he spoke again. 'Pull his leg. Pull it straight. It will pull the bone back into place.' Tyla nodded and ran to Giant's foot. Oinoir stared at Wist.
'Do you want your friend to die?' shouted Wist. 'Do it, do it now!'
Oinoir dropped down beside his friend and grabbed the injured leg causing Brathoir to growl in pain.
'Find a branch to splint the leg, Nikka,' asked Wist, the fire gone from his voice. Nikka turned as they began to pull the Giant's leg. He saw the blood begin to flow from the wound as the bone moved. Brathoir never screamed or shouted. He just growled and ground his teeth.
As Nikka went to find a tree limb big enough to bind the Giant's leg,
he saw Wist run to another fallen Giant and then, finding that this one had already died, he ran to the next.
With the amount of debris discarded on the muddy banks of the river, Nikka soon found what he needed. Moving it was another matter, but a Giant came to his aid and soon they laid it down beside the now unconscious Brathoir.
A rumble from the north reminded them all that a greater, catastrophic breach of the wall would soon happen.
More Giants joined them as they bound the fallen Giant's leg. Then they carried him up the hill. Oinoir accompanied his friend, but Tyla and Nikka went to help Wist who now beat upon the chest of an unmoving Giant warrior. Haumea eased Wist aside when she arrived. She pounded upon her comrade's chest until water spouted like a fountain between his lips. As Nikka drew close, he saw that the motionless Giant still breathed.
Haumea pushed her body under the fallen Giant and tried to lift him, but her twisted spine would allow her. So Tyla and Nikka positioned themselves at the other side of the immense figure and together they started up the hill.
A dead crunch from the north was followed by a roar. Nikka did not have to look. The remainder of the wall holding back the water had given way.
There was too far to go. With the burden of the fallen Giant, they could not make it clear.
One look at Haumea told him all he needed to know. She would never leave the side of the Giant she had fought so hard to save. And so Nikka stayed as well.
'Take Wist and go,' shouted Nikka to Tyla.
'No!' commanded Wist, so Nikka threw himself into his task. They hauled the unconscious Giant, pulling his dead weight inch by inch towards safety. Some other Giants had been moved, but scores upon scores lay on the filthy ground.
They were too low down. The water would engulf them any second and their efforts to save this Giant would be wasted.
He heard it coming; the low rumble of the water and the hiss of the spray. Haumea misplaced a foot and went to her knees, so Nikka went to help her, leaving Tyla to shoulder his burden.
The Redemption of Wist Boxed Set: Books 1 - 3: The complete collection Page 42