The Redemption of Wist Boxed Set: Books 1 - 3: The complete collection

by David Gilchrist

  ‘He will not move,’ said the Lyrat.

  ‘Who?’ asked Haumea.

  ‘Wist,’ said Aviti, as Tyla began to reply. Then she laughed aloud.

  The two Giants Oinoir and Decheal were taking turns trying to shift Wist. First, Oinoir wrapped his arms around the tiny figure. He heaved and bellowed, but he had to release his hold. Then Decheal took a dozen paces back and ran at Wist.

  The concussion that followed blew a circular hole in the snow, but Wist remained standing. As Decheal regained her feet, Oinoir took a step away from them all, towards their destination. Then he stopped and stared downwards. Tyla raised an eyebrow at Aviti, and together they walked to Wist and the Giants. Haumea trailed behind them, blowing her cheeks out as she went.

  When she reached Oinoir, Aviti could see the circular pattern that the Giant had created. Wist stood at its centre, breath leaking from him in slow puffs. The circle was broken at Oinoir’s feet by a sharp black line running perpendicular to the hills.

  Oinoir stooped to touch it, but before his hand reached it, a crack from the ground stopped him. Tyla’s hand was on Aviti’s scarred shoulder pulling her away as the snow beyond the line fell away. The ice beneath the snow crashed when it hit the bottom of the chasm that had opened before them. It was only a few yards wide, but it was deep enough that had they stepped on it, it would have swallowed them all.

  As Aviti stepped forward to look into the precipice, Oinoir turned away and approached Wist. Then he kneeled before the insensate man and said, ‘Thank you Dionach.’ Aviti had heard the Giant use the honorific title before when referring to Wist.

  ‘What does it mean, Dionach?’ she asked Haumea, who had joined her at the gap.

  The Giantess shrugged her shoulders and said, ’I do not know. I have heard it in stories. It is an old title given to those who help the Giants; fight alongside us and win a great victory.’

  Wist’s half-smile remained on his face as the Giant Oinoir regained his feet. Even kneeling down, the Giant was taller than Wist. Now he loomed over the human. Wist abruptly pivoted on the ball of one foot and the heel of the other, performing a perfect right turn, then he took three marched steps and stood to attention beside Tyla.

  ‘Blood and bone, what now?’ asked Decheal. ‘Will I throw him across?’

  Aviti grimaced as she received a jolt of anger from Tyla, but she ignored it and moved between him and Wist. Then she looked into Wist’s eyes. Aviti could see something in them; a spark trapped deep in the pit of his soul perhaps. ‘He does not want us to cross,’ said Aviti. Then she corrected herself, ‘He does not want us to go to Medicaut.’

  ‘At last, there is something we can agree upon,’ scoffed Decheal, but as the Giantess spoke, the light in Wist’s eyes faded. Had she imagined it?

  ‘Tyla,’ Aviti said, ‘take Wist across, please.’ Decheal protested, but Aviti ignored her. She watched Tyla as the Lyrat crouched and put his arms around Wist. Then, to the consternation of the Giants, he lifted Wist into the air. Instead of folding over Tyla’s shoulder, Wist remained stiff.

  Tyla took three strides and leapt over the crack, landing a few feet beyond. The Lyrat slid on the ice as he landed, but he deposited Wist on his feet as he went down. Then Decheal spat and threw herself over, beside Tyla. A heartbeat later, Oinoir was also across the gap.

  Haumea stared at Aviti. After a few seconds, Aviti said ‘Would you like me to carry you?’ The Giantess blinked and then roared with laughter. Then she ran to the edge and pushed her staff into the snow. There was a crack as the Giantess rose into the air. At first Aviti thought that the staff had broken under her weight, but the edge of the chasm had fractured. The Giantess landed with a heavy thump and Decheal pulled her clear of the edge.

  A spec of snow landed on Aviti’s eyelash as Haumea struggled to her feet. She batted it away, but several more replaced it an instant later. This was the first fresh fall they had had in a week. Aviti clenched her teeth. Bitter flakes nipped at her cheeks, each one relieving her of a precious sliver of heat.

  She turned from her companions, from the yawning gap before her, and looked south. She stared for a moment until Decheal shouted, ‘Thinking of running away?’ Aviti turned back and scowled through the snow, and then she ran. As she threw herself across the chasm, she yelled. In frustration and in sympathy with the land’s plight, she screamed as loud as she could manage, but her calls flew away on the strengthening wind that brought more snow with it.

  Aviti landed well past the break in the ice, and just like Tyla, she slid. Unable to repeat the Lyrat’s acrobatic feat, she thumped down onto her back and cried out.

  An instant later, Haumea was beside her. ‘Are you hurt Aviti?’ she asked. The Masheshi girl sat up and held her shoulder. Then she shook her head and got to her feet.

  ‘Your face tells a different tale,’ said the Giantess, but Aviti turned away.

  They moved off in silence. Clouds continued to swell in the sky and release their burden onto the companions as they went. The fresh snowfall made walking easier at first, and Aviti found that her feet gained better purchase. Each step brought a spike of pain in her shoulder though, but she did her best to ignore it.

  As she tried to look through the relentless flakes, she saw the last of her companions slip into the dark-grey mist before her. She did not need to see them though, she could feel Tyla through their bond; the bond she had forced on him.

  Then she bumped into Haumea. The Giantess had stopped and was waiting for her. ‘We must stop,’ she yelled into Aviti’s face through the blizzard. ‘Tyla has found a cave. I will show you.’

  ‘Of course he has,’ Aviti said to herself. The Giantess extinguished her brand and grabbed Aviti’s arm, and this time she did not resist. She could only make out Haumea’s silhouette in the turmoil and the soft clump of the Giantess’ staff aiding her steps.

  The swirling patterns that formed in front of Aviti mesmerised her. Everything was hidden from her by the rotating, metamorphosing shapes made by the falling motes. In their fathomless reach, she lost herself for a time. She allowed her mind to stroll along the black paths of the future and the past, whilst her body rebelled against the suffocating cold.

  Aviti jerked out of Haumea’s grip as a face leered out at her. It was Wist’s stained visage that greeted her as they stepped out of the blizzard and into the shallow cave. He had stood sentry waiting for her, and now that she arrived, he let Tyla guide him inside and sat beside the fire that Oinoir had started.

  ‘That is the last of our firewood,’ he stated and Tyla nodded. Decheal snorted and sat with her back to the wall, fumbling in her cloak for something. Then she pulled her hand out and threw it at her side. She cursed as if unhappy with whatever had happened and scooped her possessions back up.

  Sevika stood with Tyla at the far side of Wist. Aviti joined Haumea after the Giantess had fed her kin, and together they shared some food whilst the others talked.

  2 - Dark Ages

  The snow gave up its assault after a couple of hours. They stayed in the cave until the fire exhausted their wood, allowing them time to absorb the heat and try to rest. Night and day had become indistinguishable since the ascent of the Kalsurja, the Ghria Duh as the Giants called it; since it had covered the Sun.

  Aviti shuddered as they emerged back onto the blanketed valley. The lying snow had hardened and it crunched beneath their boots as they set off. Though the snow had stopped, the wind remained. The perpetual darkness and the clouds obscuring both the moon and stars hampered their progress, but they pushed ahead anyway. Wist ambled along beside Tyla and Sevika, and the Giants Oinoir and Decheal did their best to keep up.

  Haumea remained beside her kin. Despite her elevated position as Prime Glaine, equal to that of Oinoir and far above Decheal as a lowly Second, she tended to the other Giants.

  ‘Why do you let them treat you so?’ asked Aviti. The Giantess glanced at her, her eyes reflecting a dagger of light from her torch.

  ‘You le
t Oinoir and Decheal treat you like...like a servant.’

  Haumea chuckled and said, ‘You think because I serve that I am less than they? I do not lay their bedrolls and prepare their meals because I think myself unworthy to take my place beside them. No, not anymore.’

  ‘No, I have found that my hands and my heart can find some measure of peace, in the service of others.’ The Giantess sighed and her chest rattled once more.

  ‘Have you fought in many battles Aviti?’ Aviti could not find the heart to reply.

  ‘No, of course not. Nikka told me a little of your tale, but I know you were forced to take lives. You know what it is to kill.’

  Aviti nodded and blinked to stop saltwater welling in her eyes. ‘But do you know what it is to lose yourself in the act.’ The mottled staff trembled in Haumea’s hand as she lifted it to take another step. ‘Do you know what it is to lust after blood?’

  The question hung in the air between them until the Giantess spoke once more. ‘I did not fall under the sway of the battle-lust that Nikka spoke of, but I felt its touch. Had I been required to fight for any longer, then I cannot swear that I would not have been taken by it.’

  As Aviti was considering her reply, a spike of moonlight slid through a gap in the clouds and sped down the eastern slope towards them. Haumea began to speak, but Aviti ignored her. A ripple of concern from Tyla confirmed that he had spotted it too. Another shimmer of silver cut through the darkness as the clouds began to disperse. Aviti pointed to the hill where a shape plummeted towards them. Tyla was beside her a second later and he moved Wist between them.

  ‘Buralo,’ spat Decheal as she and Oinoir joined them. Then the glistening shape on the hill split into two and then each part into three, gaining speed as they came.

  ‘Wolves,’ said Haumea as she flipped the staff in her hand. Decheal banged her torch off her breastplate and yelled, casting obscenities into the night, hoping to ward off the beasts. Oinoir joined her, stamping his feet and yelling. As Haumea took up the call, the approaching beasts reached the flat valley, but there they stopped. They were close enough now that Aviti could make out wisps of hair on the buralo’s back. These buralo were no more fearsome than the Krowen they had faced down in the Great desert, but there was desperate hunger in them, and they were huge. One of them could best a Giant, if caught unawares.

  ‘This weather… this darkness has brought them down from the mountains,’ said Decheal. ‘We must move.’ Tyla agreed with a nod and they walked on in their circular formation. The buralo pack slinked alongside them slipping in and out of their meagre light.

  Aviti gasped with the effort of keeping up with the Giants, but Haumea remained at her side, with a burning brand in one hand and her staff in the other. From time to time, one of the wolves would drop into the circle of light that the company threw out, but it retreated when Decheal or Oinoir yelled at it.

  Wist was as emotionless as ever, but he increased his pace at Tyla’s urging. There was no sweat on his exposed, stained skin; no sign of exertion or care. Aviti envied him for that at least.

  As she took a larger step to avoid an exposed boulder, she misplaced her foot and fell. Then something hauled her backwards and she screamed as she flew past Haumea. She could smell the stench of the buralo that had seized her. It had come from behind them, splitting from the pack and picking off the weakest of their prey. Aviti thrashed in its grip, trying to kick out at the beast, but with her face dragging along the ice, it was impossible.

  Then the beast released her. As she rolled onto her back, Tyla’s rage surged through their bond, and then the air was thick with black spurts of blood that glistened as they fell. The buralo squealed and squirmed as it died, throwing its life’s blood in a wide arc around them. Some of it splattered over Aviti’s face.

  There were shouts from behind her; desperate yells from the Giants. She stood and turned as Tyla leapt from the corpse of the dead animal. She was with him as he ran, dagger in her hand, katana in his. Two of the buralo attacked Oinoir. Aviti could see the rest of the pack moving to surround them. They waited for the outcome of this fight now that one of their number had been felled.

  The beasts that attacked the Giant were double the size of the one that had tried to drag her away. If Decheal had not been ready, the Giant would have lost another of the Prime Glaines. Aviti and Tyla relieved Haumea of the duty of guarding Wist and Sevika. If either of their silent companions were fearful, it was impossible for Aviti to tell.

  One of the buralo threw Decheal back and broke past her. Tyla stepped in front of it, but he could not dispatch this foe as easily as the last. He used the beast’s momentum to push it away from them, but its claws found purchase in the ice beneath the snow and it turned on him.

  Aviti moved beside the Lyrat. The tension in her heartbeat mirrored his, but she focussed on the creature in front of them, blocking out the cries from the Giants and the howls of the buralo. It bared its teeth as it tried to decide which of the two humans was the weaker. Aviti moved back, willing it onto her, and it took the bait. As it moved forward, Tyla stepped in and slashed its side. It tried to bite the Lyrat as he withdrew. Aviti moved in to mimic the Lyrat’s cut, but her blade was too short and after she stabbed the buralo, it raked her hands through her gloves with its teeth. She cursed her carelessness as Tyla sliced down at its back.

  The buralo hesitated, just for an instant, and they fell upon it. She plunged her dagger into its head again and again, but it hit the brute’s skull. Tyla’s strikes were more precise. There was no wasted energy in them. He slipped his blade in and out as Aviti futilely pounded on. It flailed at Aviti’s legs, but she danced aside as its strength began to fail. Then it gave one last desperate lunge at Tyla. The Lyrat slid aside as it came. Then he pushed his Katana through its spine and ended its life. It crashed to the ice and threw shards of silver lightning into the air.

  The Giants had driven off the beast that assailed them, but only to the limits of the light cast by their torches. One of the buralo howled and Aviti waited from them to attack, but it did not come.

  ‘How far are we from the city?’ asked Tyla as they gathered around Wist and Sevika.

  Decheal grinned at him, her teeth standing out in her olive-skinned face. ‘Medicaut? It is miles from here up the hill.’

  ‘We know that the dammed thing fell into the valley, but where are the buildings you told us of?’

  ‘Scared of the wolves, little one?’ Decheal said.

  ‘How far?’ repeated Tyla, ignoring the Giantess.

  The Giant shrugged and said ‘Half a league?’

  Then Oinoir said, ‘Enough talking. The beasts will be on us again before we reach it. They have had to travel far to eat. They will not let us slip away.’

  Tyla was the first to move, guiding Wist forward. Sevika followed the Lyrat and the Giants moved off as one. As Aviti followed them, the wind attacked the perspiration on her forehead. When she went to wipe it away, she caught the sight of her bloodied skin through the torn fabric of her mitts. Now she was aware of it, her hand began to sting. She was sure it was not deep, but the constant nip was an un-needed distraction.

  Her bond with Tyla sparkled in her mind, helping her focus. His tension and focus resonated in her soul, but his lack of fear for himself amazed her. When it caught her, his heart had lurched. When the buralo had come for him, he could have been stepping through a training exercise with Faric. As she thought of Tyla’s dead Pair, the bond twitched. She was still unfamiliar with the connection she had forced on the two of them. Tyla had lived all of his life with such a link.

  ‘You must let me tend to your hand when we stop,’ said Haumea, shaking Aviti from her introspection. Aviti offered the Giantess a half-hearted smile.

  ‘You seem confident that we shall reach Medicaut,’ said Aviti.

  The Giantess laughed, ‘Confident? No, but I make plans all the same. It is either that or despair, and I do not believe that allowing my twisted bones to freeze here would hon
our the sacrifice that others have made.’

  ‘You would make a paltry meal for the buralo anyway,’ shouted Decheal. Haumea was the only one who laughed.

  They trudged on with only the Giants’ breath and the hiss from the torches punctuating the monotonous tension. Aviti’s legs throbbed and her stomach growled, but this was the way it had been since she had left her parent’s farm: running, fighting, pushing. How much more could she put herself through?

  Whatever it took, until the end; until the end.

  Step by step, they drove on through this dark, frozen hell, until the silhouette of a domed building appeared in the star-speckled sky in front of them. As she went to speak to Tyla, the buralo rushed them.

  It was a head on assault this time. Five giant wolves flew at them out of the darkness. This time they would feast or they would die, they would not retreat and risk losing their prey. The two Giants at the front dropped their brands to free their hands, but Haumea thrust hers into a beast’s face.

  The Giantess’ luck was with her and the flames took the buralo’s eyes. It careered about, colliding with another of its kind that had come for Haumea, halting its progress for the moment. Two of the other buralo attacked Oinoir, but Decheal moved so that she stood shoulder to shoulder with her Prime Glaine and together they held them off.

  Another of the beasts went for Tyla, but Sevika pulled out a sword and stepped in front of him. This forced Tyla to change his movement, resulting in an awkward lurch to the side.

  Aviti moved her blade to her weaker side, as her dominant hand still throbbed. The beast that approached her was darker than the rest, patches of black hair punctuating the white on its back. This one was more cautious than the rest. Its head darted from side to side as it assessed Aviti. Its bared teeth glittered in the black sun and moonlight, as if this creature had been bred for this task. There was a desperate, hardness to its physique. The mountains produced predators like this, with the capacity to live in the harshest conditions. It might even be able to survive without the light of the sun, but with nothing to eat, it would die like everything else.