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

by David Gilchrist

  ‘No,’ shouted Wist.

  Molock raised himself to his full height and bellowed, ‘Do not accuse me of falsehood, human!’

  ‘No-one has accused you,’ said Haumea. ‘Please accept our apologies.’

  She glared at Wist, until he added, ‘Yes, sorry. But, there must be a way through. Did the Intoli not pass through here on their way to invade Pyrite?’

  ‘The one that accompanied you here was only the fourth I have ever seen,’ said Molock,’ and only the second that most here have.’

  ‘But how – ‘Wist began, but his voice trailed off.

  ‘I promised that we would not harm you, and we will not do so. You may stay, or you may leave, but we cannot aid you in your quest.’

  Wist’s unfocussed eyes looked at the lights, his brow was furrowed and worn. The crimson pattern on his skin looked faded now, as if it was growing thinner, less substantial.

  Aviti shrugged and looked at Haumea. ‘What now?’ she asked the Giant, drawing some exasperated mutters from Cambo and Muoll.

  ‘We have to find Sevika,’ said Wist. ‘Perhaps she will have figured out what to do.’ Aviti heard the slight tremor in Wist’s voice, which she had not heard since Tapasya.

  Without waiting to be dismissed, Wist spun and walked out. Aviti and Haumea fell in behind him, listening to the complaints of the Hylobs as they walked. Kloss came with them, and one of the other Hylobs – Brach, accompanied her.

  As they walked back into the depths of the Hylobs’ layer, Aviti listened as Haumea chat to the Hylobs. Whilst they talked, Aviti replayed what the Hylob’s words, but she could not find anything but the truth in them. They could not help them. They did not know the way.

  But something bothered her. ‘Tell me about Hoolab,’ she said aloud, cutting across Haumea and the Hylobs’ conversation. When neither of them answered, she added, ‘You said that he, or she, was lost.’

  ‘He is not lost,’ said Brach after a reluctant pause, ‘not anymore.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ prompted Aviti, after a moment or two of silence.

  ‘Hoolab went with a troop down into the pits. When they returned with their delvings, he did not. Not at first. When he did return, he was… not as he had been.’

  This time the Hylob did not need any prompting to continue. ‘He would not speak to anyone, would not tell us what had befallen him. He is one of the Elders, one of our leaders, but he would not, will not, engage with anyone.’

  ‘Where is he now?’ asked Aviti as they turned around a dipping bend in a corridor.

  ‘We could not bring ourselves to restrain him, so we allow him to roam where he wills.’

  ‘And he does not eat or sleep or drink, I bet?’ said Wist, although it was more a statement than a question.

  After a lengthy pause, Brach nodded her head. ‘Yes, but how did you know.’

  ‘The Damned,’ breathed Wist. ‘Its curse is here as well.’

  ‘The what?’ asked Brach.

  Aviti expected Wist to answer, to explain about the plague that spread along the scar in the world, but he stayed silent, and Brach did not question him any further.

  They walked out to the Spires as a few young Hylobs scampered away amongst the heights. Aviti could see them peeking out amongst the rafters, black eyes sparkling in the shadows. Then she looked at the lights as they approached them. Try as she might, she could not see the darkness there.

  Wist began to pace around the imposing structure, gazing up at the ceiling, where the vertical poles vanished. Aviti and Haumea went the other way around and stopped after a few paces when they came across two figures.

  The first was a Hylob. It walked into the stone wall that lay behind the pillars of light. Again and again, the Hylob attempted to pass through the impenetrable barrier, and when he fell, he got back up and started again. His movements were random and ponderous, giving the whole thing a comical air.

  The second figure was Sevika.

  Aviti watched the Hylob’s attempts for a few seconds before she asked, ‘Why does someone not stop him?’

  ‘We have tried to, many times,’ said Brach, ‘but every time we do, he wanders off for a while. Then he returns here.’

  ‘You know he is dead?’ said Aviti. Neither of the Hylobs acknowledged the question, so she turned her attention away from them.

  ‘Sevika. What are you doing?’

  The Intoli flinched at the mention of her name, but did not respond.

  ‘Sevika, why are you watching him?’

  ‘It is here,’ she said.

  Aviti blinked and said to Haumea, ‘She says that it is here.’

  ‘What is here?’

  ‘The Dhuma.’

  ‘The Dhuma,’ she shouted, and then shuddered when she heard her voice reflecting back at her. Haumea looked at both of them, but said nothing.

  ‘It is here,’ said Sevika again. ‘And it is not.’

  ‘What?’ said Aviti. ‘How can it be here and not here?’

  ‘I can feel it. It is here, but it is distant also.’

  ‘What is it Aviti?’ said Wist, as he came around the far side of the illuminated structure.

  Aviti explained to Wist what Sevika had said. Wist nodded and walked forward to the Hylob that continued his impossible journey. When Wist placed his hand on the Hoolab’s shoulder, the Hylob collapsed on the floor. The two other Hylobs rushed to their fallen kin. Wist just stood there and stared at the point on the wall that the Hylob had been trying to reach.

  ‘He’s gone,’ said Wist to the Hylobs, without taking his eyes of the spot on the wall.

  Haumea came up behind him and, placed a hand on Wist’s shoulder.

  Wist left the hand there, but he reached forward and touched the wall. As soon as his fingers made contact, a slice of the wall fell away. The two Hylobs jumped as the rock hit the ground.

  The section of wall that had fallen away revealed a smooth section of flat, black slate. It looked so incongruous beside the pitted surface that it drew Aviti forward. She moved Wist back and he did not resist her urgings.

  She brushed the dust away from the matt black plane, and there it was, smack in the middle; an eight-pointed star, just like the one that hung around her neck.

  Aviti gasped and pulled her hand away. She grasped her chain as if someone sought to steal it from her.

  ‘No,’ she said, her voice breaking, threatening to reveal the panic that lay behind them.

  Massive arms enfolded her and she buried her head into Haumea’s chest. A copy of her mother’s star lay just below the Giantess’ clothes.

  Why would her mother have been here? Why did she have this symbol? Why had she not asked her mother about it?

  The questions raced around in her mind. They had seen this sign before, when Enceladus had appeared. It was scattered all over the fallen city of Medicaut.

  ‘Aviti,’ said a voice.

  ‘Aviti,’ it repeated, ‘come here.’

  She pushed herself away from Haumea and turned to see Wist with his hand extended to her. Forcing down her fear, she stepped towards him.

  ‘Can you feel it there?’ he asked pointing at the star.

  Reluctantly, Aviti held her hand out. At first, all she felt was the cold, smooth rock beneath her hand. Then she let a trickle of magic flow through her and she reached out into the structure.

  Her reality bifurcated. The dense, cooled magma of the wall was there, but she could also sense something else there beside it or behind it. It was empty, like a void or a space.

  She released her hold on the magic and took a step back. Then without holding onto any magic, she tried to push her mind into the stone, the way she had heard Nikka describe it, when he talked of melding. As her senses extended into the rock, all she could feel was more and more of the same porous material, stretching out into the distance.

  ‘It is not there,’ said Aviti as she pulled back from the wall once more, ‘but it is.’

  ‘How do we reach it?’ said Wist.
r />   ‘I was hoping that you would tell me,’ she replied as she tried to realign her senses with her surroundings. She watched as the two Hylobs lifted the lifeless body of Hoolab. Then they walked sombrely away around the far side of the lights. The columns glowed with muted amber and warm tones of deep red as they passed.

  ‘How did you do that?’ Aviti asked Wist. ‘You… released him.’

  ‘I guess I did. I don’t know. It was just instinct. Sometimes you just feel the need and you do what you can.’

  ‘And you do not feel the need now?’ she asked him. He just shrugged and Haumea laughed.

  ‘Damn you Tyla,’ she exclaimed. Why did you have to go?

  ‘Tyla?’ asked Wist. ‘Is he OK?’

  ‘I am sure he is,’ said Aviti, regretting her mention of the Lyrat.

  ‘Sevika,’ she said, trying to deflect Wist’s attention, ‘how can we get there. I can sense it there, behind the wall - or inside of it, it is difficult to describe, but you are correct, it is there.’

  ‘I do not know,’ said Sevika.

  Aviti returned to the wall once more. The eight-pointed star that Wist’s touch had revealed was about the same size as Aviti’s palm. She traced the glistening lines around, touching each point in turn. On impulse, she placed her right hand against the star and pushed.

  Nothing happened. Her cheeks flushed as she removed her hand.

  ‘It must be here for a reason,’ said Wist. He placed his hand where Aviti’s had been, but nothing happened for him either. Aviti sat and watched as Wist insisted that Haumea, and Sevika through a series of grunts and gestures, tried it as well, but nothing worked. Then Wist tried striking it, shouting at it and even tried reciting something he must have made up.

  Haumea soon tired of watching his efforts and sat beside Aviti. She lay her staff flat across her lap and took a deep drink from a water skin.

  ‘I can understand why the Hylobs want no part of saving our world,’ the Giantess said. ‘It is… comfortable here: no rain, no snow, no wind, but this life is so limited. What is life without peril? What is joy without despair?’

  ‘I could live a life without despair,’ said Aviti.

  ‘And the joy?’

  ‘When was the last time you felt joy - real, true, honest joy? Life is one giant slog. It is not hard. It is impossible, Haumea. I just want to…’

  ‘Give up?’ asked Haumea, without a hint malice.

  Aviti bowed her head and let a few tears escape her control. ‘Is it wrong?’ she said. ‘Is it wrong to despair? Is it wrong to just give up and stop?’

  ‘That’s what I did,’ said Wist as he sat on the other side of Aviti.

  ‘I did not mean that,’ said Aviti.

  ‘I know what you meant,’ he replied. Then he drew a long breath and glanced around. ‘Despair? Despair is not wicked. It is not a sin. Despair is only the other side of hope.’

  Then he tossed a stone, which rolled away to rest at the wall. As he picked up another, he said, ‘It is the habit of despair that you must avoid. I only wish that I had figured that out a long time ago.’

  ‘That is all very well,’ said Haumea, ‘but what about our more pressing problem. If the Dhuma is behind this wall, how do we get there?’

  ‘We cannot break the wall down,’ said Aviti. ‘It is not behind the wall. It is inside it somehow.’

  Wist nodded. ‘I cannot reach it myself. I could tear the place down, but I cannot get there. So, I have to ask more of you, my friends.’

  ‘And if we refuse?’ said Aviti.

  ‘Then we sit here ‘til the end of the world, and beyond.’

  Haumea laughed. ‘Ah, my poor, twisted legs will not allow me to sit for that long.’

  Aviti rose and shook herself, then she began to pace. As she did, she thought of her mother and her father. She thought of the life that they had led before they returned to Mashesh.

  She had witnessed the white-hot passion that had flared in her mother; the fierce love that her mother had for her father, and the fierce love that she felt for her daughter.

  The spot on the wall called out to her as she walked past it. It taunted her. She tried to push it out of her mind. She tried to call up a vision of Tyla, but his face would not come to her. All she could envision was the peril that awaited him, and the dead world that would swallow him when she failed.

  But she would not fail she told herself. She could not let it happen. She increased her pace. Each time she passed the point on the wall the fear spiked in her mind.

  She would fail. She would die here.

  No.

  Tyla would die in Tapasya

  No

  She would fail her father.

  No.

  She would fail herself.

  ‘No!’ she screamed and she drove her fist into the star on the wall. As she hit it, the bracer on her wrist absorbed her passion and shot out into the wall, and then the lights in the pillars went out.

  Heaven’s Not Overflowing

  At first the Hylob’s screamed because of the dark. When the structure lit back up, the cracks on the wall were revealed. They radiated out from the eight-pointed star, like lightning strikes. The rock had split at their touch, transforming the smooth plane into a tortured mess.

  Wist watched as the spike in Aviti’s hand reformed around her wrist. Her face twisted in revulsion. Wist went to her as she screamed, filling the silence that the Hylobs had left behind. As she screamed, pieces of rock fell from the wall. Small pieces tumbled at the edges of the fractures and dust puffed out along these lines.

  ‘What have I done?’ asked Aviti, ‘What have I done.’

  Wist held her close for a moment, whilst her trembling subsided. Then he said, ‘You did what I could not.’

  More dust billowed out from the wall and covered them. It filled Wist’s mouth and nose forcing him to gasp for breath and then cough. He ground the suffocating dust between his teeth. The taste of it was all too familiar to him. He thought of reassuring Aviti, but before he could find his voice, the wall exploded.

  Pieces of rock showered them and the detonation echoed around. A lump struck Wist on the head, but he shook off the glancing blow.

  The lights flickered again and then black streaks lanced along the columns and pipes, stabbing into the heart of the Hylobs’ land. The young Hylobs, who remained in the heights, screamed and fled.

  Wist released Aviti and turned whilst brushing himself down. He gazed at where the wall should be, but there was nothing there. Where the exposed innards of the mountain should have been, there was only darkness; flat, black nothingness.

  Haumea joined Wist and Aviti who faced the void. ‘I did not mean to do it, I just lost control.’ said Aviti.

  ‘Is this it?’ asked Haumea. ‘Is this the way?’

  ‘I do not know,’ said Aviti, her voice still trembling.

  Many Hylobs crushed into the space behind them. Brach and Kloss were amongst the throng. Some of the Hylobs cried out when they saw the void. Some turned and fled the way they had come. Most just gaped and pointed.

  ‘It must– ‘Wist began to say. Then Sevika screamed. Wist had forgotten all about her. Her scream ripped right through him. Its ethereal sounds threatened his grip on his sanity. Inside it, he heard the cries of his ghosts - his mother, his father and Autumn his lover.

  Then the scream died away and his current reality re-imposed itself on him. It was just a dead black space that lacked everything. It had no depth, no colour, no light. It didn’t even have darkness. It was so uniform and lifeless.

  And it called to Wist.

  Peace. Peace at last. The peace that he had sought all this time. He just needed to take a step forward and let it claim him.

  But he refused. With every fibre of his being, he resisted the pull of oblivion. It could have him soon enough, but not yet. He wouldn’t fail Aviti, or Haumea, or even Sevika.

  ‘No,’ he said and the blackness shook. Then shapes burst from the void.

  ‘The Wa
ren,’ he screamed, ‘The Waren.’

  When they had fought the Waren before, it was always an indefinite, shapeless mass they had faced. This time it was a flood of abominations that assailed them, except they never attacked Wist, nor Aviti, nor Haumea. The Waren ignored even Sevika. The mass of blackened creatures flooded past them. Claws and teeth fled by them, seeking prey; seeking something on which to sate their hunger.

  ‘No,’ said Wist again, but there was no defiance in his voice this time, only laval anger. He took an impotent swing at a monstrosity that lurched past him.

  The Hylobs screamed as the malevolent shapes fell upon them. They gouged and tore at the poor creatures. Unprepared for this assault, the Hylobs died where they stood. Their blood splashed around the chamber; over the floor, up the walls and across the colourful pipes, despoiling their sanctum.

  Bursts of light erupted from Sevika, scattering the Waren that it met.

  Aviti lifted her head when Brach called to Kloss, begging for help. She ran to them, wielding the gold-brass bracelet, which she formed into a long, thin blade. Wist drew an eager satisfaction from seeing the Waren burst upon touching the weapon, vanishing in flashes of crimson and midnight. Haumea stood over a Hylob that cowered in her shadow. Using her staff, she drove off the Waren that approached, but they just moved on to easier prey.

  As some Hylobs fled the devastation, others arrived, drawn by the screams and shouts, providing fresh fodder for the Waren.

  Aviti continued to throw herself into the fight heedless of her own safety.

  Dead Hylobs rose from their resting places. They fell over themselves and the living, trying to reach the hole in the wall. The first one to reach it disappeared, the animate corpse devoured by the insatiable void.

  Wist’s passion threatened to overwhelm him. His focused blurred once more. The tensions within him fought for control of his heart. The desire to destroy was overwhelming, but he forced it down. If he let it control him, he would end it for all of them. So, he imposed his will and focussed.