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

by David Gilchrist

  ‘What did you do Beira, Queen of Winter?’ asked Oinoir.

  ‘What...?’ Aviti began, but Haumea cut across her.

  ‘Oinoir, Prime Glaine you may be, but I warn you to remember the responsibility that the title brings. We are the last hope of the Giants, just as these few are that of the humans.’

  ‘And the white Demons,’ added Decheal. ‘Let us not forget them.’

  Haumea shot a glare at Decheal, and then she returned her attention to Oinoir.

  ‘Remember who our enemy is. It is the darkness, and the darkness that has devoured our sun now seeks us on the ground.’

  ‘Aviti saved us from the darkness, Oinoir,’ said Haumea. ‘You should thank her.’ She may have been addressing her fellow Glaine, but she included Decheal as she spoke.

  ‘You are not listening,’ shouted Aviti and she began to tremble. ‘It was not me.’

  Haumea swivelled around so swiftly, she struggled to keep her balance.

  ‘Of course it was you. I felt it.’

  ‘No, or rather yes, I felt it too, but it was not me.’

  She heard Decheal snort, but Aviti had lost interest in the Giants.

  ‘Sevika,’ said Aviti ‘What did you do?’

  ‘It was me,’ said the man that stood at the centre of them. His voice cracked as he spoke.

  Oinoir fell to his knees and said, ‘Dionach,’ he said as his tears began to fall. ‘You have returned to us.’ Decheal did not share his fervour. She spat and then touched her left and right shoulder, as if to ward off evil. Then she played with the bones concealed in her pockets.

  ‘No,’ said Wist. His voice was deeper than Aviti remembered, but she had not heard him speak since they were aboard the ship from Tapasya to Pyrite.

  ‘No,’ he repeated to Oinoir. ‘Rise, my friend.’ His beard and ragged clothes made him look like one of the beggars that gathered outside the Heirn temple for the meagre handouts that they might receive from the faithful.

  She could have laughed as she watched the Giant rise with a look of stunned reverence.

  Then Oinoir embraced Wist in his oversized arms. Aviti thought that Oinoir sought to crush the man in his grip, and Decheal had to say Oinoir’s name several times before he released his captive. Wist smiled up at the Giant and then turned his head from side to side.

  ‘Wist,’ said Aviti, his name feeling as strange on her tongue as it had the first time she had used it. ‘Oh Wist, where have you been?’

  Then the need to know the truth seized her, and this was her chance to find out. ‘Wist, who is this?’ She pointed her finger towards Enceladus. The sentinel’s inner glow had returned with the banishment of the lifeless Waren.

  Decheal snorted her approval of the question as Wist turned to look at Aviti. Wist’s gaze lingered on the desert girl for an eternity. The slight grin that had played on his lips since he entered his self-imposed exile was gone, replaced by a warm smile. And his light-blue eyes...they had been vacant only moments ago. Now they were sharp and hard.

  He opened his bare palms to Aviti, standing like a preacher giving a sermon. ‘Aviti, you know who this is?’

  ‘Damn you Wist, who is it?’ she said snarling at him.

  ‘It is Enceladus,’ he said confirming her hopes and fears.

  ‘And he is,’ she began to say, but stopped herself.

  Then Wist said. ‘Intoli.’

  6 - Corona Radiata

  ‘Damn it,’ said Aviti as she slipped again. When they left the felled trees behind, they had walked out onto a vast empty plain. The tiny dusting of snow concealed iron-hard ice below. Even Tyla had lost his balance when the wind picked up.

  ‘Stop,’ shouted Haumea as the wind threatened again. ‘This is hopeless. Decheal, Oinoir, with me.’

  Haumea dropped her pack and staff to the ground and slipped a blade from around her waist. Before the Giants responded, she began hacking at the ice. In a moment, she had sliced a line four times her height in the slippery surface.

  Decheal slipped a small axe from her pack and started cutting a line parallel to Haumea’s. Then Oinoir stood at one end of Haumea’s line and used his sword to connect the two. Haumea, having finished hers, moved to stand opposite Oinoir and completed the rectangle.

  Despite the restriction of her armour, Decheal burrowed until she found rock. Then she started hacking away, widening her side of the shape. Oinoir joined her and they hollowed out enough space for them to stand in. Then together, they forced their hands under the ice and heaved.

  Aviti watched as, for a moment or two, the ice resisted, groaning under the pressure brought to bear upon it. Then, with a deafening crack, it gave, and it was free. The Giant warriors lifted it and Haumea and Tyla helped to pull it up and over onto the frozen plane. The area exposed beneath the ice was big enough for them all to stand in, but it was still open to the elements. Haumea directed Tyla to cut the large block into smaller sections, whilst she and the other Giants laboured to remove another huge slab of ice.

  By the time the Giants freed the second mass of ice, Tyla had finished butchering the first. Aviti shivered as she watched the Giantess arrange the smaller blocks of ice around the hole.

  ‘They are building an igloo,’ said Wist with a smile beneath his beard. ‘I should have thought of that. Come on,’ he said to her.

  Wist reached out and took Aviti’s gloved hand. Even through the layers of material, the heat from him defrosted her fingers. He led her down into the Giant’s hollow, lifting a bundle of sticks that Haumea had dropped beside her pack. He laid them in the centre of the space and then he said, ‘Can you light it please Aviti?’

  ‘Cannot you?’ said Aviti.

  Wist flinched at the accusation in her voice, but he said, ‘I don’t think, that would be a good idea.’

  Feeling ashamed of her temper, she focused on the wood. It was frozen solid. ‘I would be better setting fire to the ice,’ she said. Still, she opened herself to magic and let it run through her, though she could not manage it without it touching her; without it stealing some of herself away, but there was no pain when she released the magic this time. As the wood burned, she slumped against the ice walls and watched Tyla as he piled the white bricks upon each other.

  ‘Your control is quite amazing,’ said Wist, as the Intoli joined them.

  ‘You can thank her for that,’ said Aviti nodding towards Sevika, her former captor. The Intoli did not acknowledge her words.

  The blocks continued to pile up around them, leaving only one side open to allow them entry.

  ‘Tell me what happened, Wist.’ Aviti asked him.

  ‘When did he appear,’ Wist asked instead of answering.

  ‘Who?’ she shot back.

  ‘Him,’ said Wist, pointing at Enceladus. The sentinel stood at the opposite side of the enclosure. He looked to the sky where the Giants were busy entombing them.

  ‘He appeared in Medicaut. Just like he did at the lake in the oasis.’

  Wist nodded.

  ‘He claims he is Ravan.’

  ‘Ravan?’ asked Wist.

  Aviti exhaled. ‘It was the same guise your brother adopted to infiltrate the Intoli. Sevika also told me that Ravan disappeared before then and returned to help the Intoli when one of their Queens was lost.’ It was a poor summary, but it was all she could muster for now. ‘Their other leader, their other Sakti – Krura – she went into the chamber beneath the earth; where Tyla found you. Sevika said that she is gone also.’

  Wist nodded again. ‘I killed her. I lost control.’

  ‘She was never alive. Not the way we are alive.’

  Wist laughed at that. ‘Alive? I’ve already killed myself.’ Aviti shuddered when she thought of Wist’s suicide on his own world. Then, unexpected laughter burst from her to join his.

  Haumea appeared as the others finished the roof. She stared at them as if they had lost their minds, but she smiled at them.

  Wist said, ‘From the moment I set foot on Pyrite, I could see not
hing clearly. Everything was viewed through a veil of my need to avenge the death of Eliscius, and…others.’

  ‘Haumea found us on the beach after the ship went down,’ he continued. ‘After I sank the ship.’ There was no trace of hesitation in his voice. It was as if it had been burned clean.

  ‘She took us to the Giants and told us about the Intoli. Then Tilden appeared, looking just like him,’ said Wist, pointing to Enceladus. ‘But then he changed. And I tried to kill him. I took Nikka’s hammer and tried to smash him with it, but I smashed his hammer instead.’ Wist eyes flicked from side to side. ‘Where is he? Where is Nikka?’

  Aviti had hoped that she would have been able to avoid this for now. ‘He is dead Wist. I...’

  ‘Dead?’ said Wist. Then he repeated, ‘Dead, yes,’ but there was no inquiry this time. ‘He gave us everything that he had left.’

  ‘He was trying to get to you when he died saving Haumea.’

  Haumea nodded and added. ‘When the lights appeared in the sky, the trails of red and blue light that preceded the battle at the mines, he said that he had figured it out, but he never told me any more than that.’

  ‘Dead,’ said Wist again, as if he had not heard a word spoken since the Cerni’s demise had been announced.

  The other Giants finished their labour, so they and Tyla joined Wist and Aviti inside the shelter. It was cramped, but there was enough room for them to rest upon the bare earth.

  ‘I have an idea,’ said Haumea. She slipped a long, thin blade loose and placed her hands at both ends. She placed it over her knee then tried to flex it. Decheal laughed at her, but she ignored her.

  Haumea put all the strength of her crippled frame in her efforts, but the steel would not give. When she decided that it would not work, she forced the blade into the wall.

  ‘What are you doing,’ said Decheal, revealing her blunt, wide teeth.

  ‘If I cool it, perhaps it will give.’

  ‘No,’ said Wist. ‘You need to heat it. You will only make it harder if you cool it down.’

  Haumea blinked a few times and then pulled the blade free and placed it in the fire.

  ‘No,’ said Wist again, ‘that’s not hot enough.’

  ‘He is right, Haumea,’ said Decheal. ‘What is it you attempt?’

  Haumea flushed at the warrior’s question. ‘If I could just break this metal.’

  ‘What size of pieces do you need it broken in to?’ asked Wist ignoring the others’ scoffing laughter. Haumea indicated a length that would mean the sword would need broken three times.

  ‘Aviti,’ he said to her. ‘Could you heat the metal in the sword, but not burn yourself? You would need to heat it until it is white hot, but not melt it. I think I know what Haumea is trying to do.’ Aviti grimaced at the thought of it, but she nodded.

  It was easier to do than she had expected. Just a trickle of magic concentrated into the right area was enough. She needed to maintain contact with the simple pommel, through her gloves, to apply the heat, but as it started to glow, Wist told her to step back and then Tyla struck the blade three times with his own. When he stepped back, and the deafening clatter abated, four pieces of metal lay on the hard floor of their cavern.

  Before they cooled, Wist asked Aviti if she could try making holes in each piece, one a few inches from each end, so she closed her eyes and tried to reach out with the magic. She found the pieces there in her mind. She could visualise them in such detail that all she had to do was rearrange the image and it was done. Then a warm glow enveloped her, filling her with the joy of creation

  Aviti blinked her eyes open. She saw Haumea stamp on the metal and grab its ends with cloth-wrapped hands. Then the Giantess bent the metal upwards and then back down, leaving the holes that Aviti had created pointing up and the ends of the piece of metal pointing down.

  Oinoir grasped Haumea’s intention, so he repeated what the Giantess had done. Then Haumea grabbed the third piece and asked Decheal to do the same. Not wanting to be seen to be unwilling to work, Decheal did as she was bid. Soon they were done and Haumea forced them into the soft snow of the walls of their igloo.

  ‘Now we have four bent pieces of metal and one less sword. Well done, Haumea,’ said Decheal with a laugh.

  Haumea removed the metal from the ice and produced a piece of string from a pocket and fastened her new creations to the soles of her boots.

  ‘See if you can fashion the ends into points,’ said Wist to Decheal. ‘We’ll need two more swords, assuming that the Intoli have no need for assistance walking?’ The Intoli ignored the question.

  Oinoir produced a spare blade, as did Decheal, after a protest. Aviti stepped forward, ready to repeat her feat of heating the blade.

  ‘Are you sure you are up to this?’ said Wist. Aviti nodded and turned from him. Had her previous addiction to magic been obvious to all? Well she had conquered that, by herself being mastered. Now, all she had to contend with was pain every time she used it. She stopped as she lifted the second blade.

  ‘Where was the pain? It was only a sliver of magic that she had passed into the blade, but she had still expected to pay a price for using it. It had always been that way since coming to Pyrite. In the earliest days of her power awakening, she had only felt ecstasy, but that time was gone now.

  She placed the sword back down and nodded to Tyla. Then she reached out as before, seeking for the metal in the sword, creating the picture in her mind. This time the image built itself. She could see the smallest imperfections in this weapon, where it would fail and betray its wielder. Then she pushed a sliver of power into it, and the substance of the blade began to vibrate in her mind.

  As she released her hold on the magic, she knew the blade was just right for Tyla to strike with his katana, and he did. Again, four pieces lay ready for Haumea to fashion, but Aviti stopped her. She closed her eyes once more, and focussed on all four pieces at once. With an imposition of her will, she bent the four pieces concurrently; to match the shape that Haumea had fashioned. Two of the pieces were much smaller, but this caused Aviti no problems.

  Before she was done, she visualised the ends as points, and trimmed the extra metal.

  She heard Decheal gasp as she re-opened her eyes. Haumea snatched the creations up and forced them into the snow once more.

  And still there was no pain. No ghosts of old agonies returned to echo through Aviti’s nerves, just the warm glow of having achieved something. She beamed at Tyla and he raised an eyebrow at her. Then the Lyrat slipped his katana back into its sheath and stepped back.

  ‘Are you worried I might split yours next,’ she said and Haumea laughed aloud.

  The final blade Aviti split herself, before forming the metal, and when she was done, she stood up and wobbled. Tyla caught her arm, but she laughed. ‘I am fine,’ she said to reassure him. ‘I am just tired.’

  ‘Let us rest and eat, and then we start out again,’ announced Oinoir. Aviti smiled at him. He looked calmer now, as if his internal crisis had passed.

  Aviti ate some meat, but then she reclined and closed her eyes. For all of her fatigue, she could not sleep, so she lay and thought of her mother and father.

  ‘Thank you,’ Wist said to Tyla. Aviti avoided the temptation and kept her eyes closed, trying to tune them out. ‘For taking care of Aviti.’

  ‘She does not need taking care of,’ came the reply.

  ‘I know Tyla, but thank you all the same.’

  Aviti heard some scuffling noises and she moved to try to get more comfortable.

  ‘What happened to Nikka?’

  ‘He died,’

  ‘I know he died Tyla, what happened to him?

  ‘He sacrificed himself saving the Giantess.’

  Several seconds of silence followed.

  ‘Aviti was forced to set the Giant’s king ablaze with a black fire that even the snow would not extinguish. You saw that.’

  ‘Ah, the fire was already inside him,’ said a third voice. It was Haumea. ‘He b
urned at night when the Ghria Duh shone.’

  ‘No,’ shouted one of the Giants.

  Oinoir, Aviti thought.

  ‘I saw him burn,’ replied Haumea between a mouthful of food. Her voice was not as loud, but it silenced the Giants. ‘Before we reached Dilsich, before the chaos of that battle, I quenched the madness within him with this.’ Then Aviti’s ears stung with the echoes of Haumea’s staff striking the floor. ‘My friend Nikka made this from the bones of the earth. It was the only thing that gave our King peace.’

  Silence claimed the room once more until Tyla spoke once more. ‘He sprayed fire upon his people. Haumea tried to reach him, and as he turned to kill her, Nikka jumped on him and stabbed him. Their king immolated him and then fled.’

  ‘Then I ended Nikka’s life,’ Haumea said finishing Tyla’s brutal retelling of events.

  After a few moments of scuffling noises, the shelter grew silent once more.

  ‘I remember the king being set on fire and then I chased him. I don’t remember Nikka dying,’ said Wist.

  ‘Tilden killed your king,’ he added into the silence.

  ‘Avarice took him first,’ said Decheal. ‘The obsession with that blood stone, the Dearg Fola. We should have left it and let the Intoli take it.’

  ‘It would not have stopped the Ghria Duh from taking the sun,’ Wist replied. ‘The Waren, like those that assailed us in the forest, they would have got what they wanted. And what about you Sevika? What is your story?’

  ‘She does not speak our language,’ said Haumea. ‘Or not more than a couple of words.’

  ‘Sevika,’ said Wist. ‘Can you understand me?’

  There was no answer that Aviti could discern. After another few seconds a new voice said, ‘I can relate your questions,’

  ‘And how can we trust you,’ said Decheal. ‘How can we trust either of you?’

  Aviti considered sitting up then, but Wist spoke. ‘Let them speak Decheal. Have they not lost as much as you have?’ Aviti heard the Giantess snort and sit once more.

  ‘What can you tell me of Tilden?’ asked Wist.