And Aviti’s own people, from Mashesh. Murdered in their own homes.
Each touch of the wind, each rough caress, brought her anger closer to the surface. She gripped the brass bracer with her right hand as if she sought to stop it changing again; as if she could control it with pure strength.
This impotent rage that built inside her needed a target, but the only one she could find was herself. Wist did not deserve it. He had been the catalyst that started this unending torment, but it was not his fault. Just like Haumea, Sevika had also been swept up in events.
‘Do you know the way from here?’ Wist asked Sevika. Aviti repeated the question in the Intoli language without it registering in her consciousness. Then Aviti looked up to see the labyrinth that stretched out before them. Sharp edges and angles jutted out at her from all directions. Every surface displayed a thousand facets and every facet had innumerable edges, and in those edges, the fire from Haumea’s torch danced.
It was like looking into the night’s sky: sparkling starlight and darkness.
A whimper from Sevika broke the spell. ‘Sevika, what is it?’
The Intoli’s head jerked from side to side. Then she tilted her face upward and stood there.
‘Sevika, what is wrong?’ Aviti asked once more.
‘The Source,’ Sevika whispered.
‘What is it?’ Wist asked, but Aviti motioned him to move away. Then Aviti repeated Wist’s words to her former captor.
‘The Source,’ Sevika said once more, but her voice was louder and more secure this time. ‘It is gone.’
‘We know this. Why are you telling me this now?’ She tried to keep her unjustified frustration from her voice.
‘This is the Angi-Prasada: the palace of light, but it is…’
‘Dark,’ said Aviti.
Then she saw it. This place was formed from crystal. Aviti walked forward and touched one of the reflections of light, except it was not on the surface of the wall. The light was within its fabric.
‘You must have expected this.’ Aviti hated how callous she sounded, but she pushed on anyway. ‘Do you want to stay here and mourn the damage you and your people have caused?’
Sevika raised her head and, just for an instant, Aviti caught a glimpse of that arrogance that had encapsulated the Intoli. Then it vanished again, but the Intoli quailed no more.
‘Lead us Sevika,’ Aviti commanded and Sevika obeyed.
The Intoli stormed ahead, setting a ferocious pace, and although Haumea could amble along, Wist and Aviti had to jog to keep up. The broken crystal path spread out before them like hands reaching out into the darkness.
They raced through the maze, dragged by Sevika’s pace. They were moths to Sevika’s flame, running heedless into the unknown. Haumea’s simple torch supplied an impossible amount of light down here, but the refractions and reflection showed them nothing but false paths.
Then shadows appeared in the lights. The little black spots within the dancing flames flickered and vanished, then reappeared again. ‘Wist,’ Aviti shouted, but Wist was focused on Sevika.
‘I see them,’ said Haumea.
The black spots grew and grew until there was only a small glimmer of light. Sevika and Wist ran on regardless. Something knocked Aviti back and she heard Haumea cry out.
Another heavy blow sent Aviti sprawling. She rolled away before something landed on the space she had just occupied. Before she could stop herself, she plunged the reformed dagger into her attacker. She did it again and again until she was dragged away. Haumea’s huge arms encircled her, preventing her from striking out again.
‘It is just the Damned,’ whispered Haumea into her ear. ‘It is just the Damned.’
Aviti struggled against the restraining hold, until her anger abated. Haumea released her, then the veil of anger lifted from her eyes, and she saw the mess she had created. Through the shadows of the other Damned that stumbled around them, she saw the ribbons of flesh and gore scattered at her feet.
For all the mess, there was little blood. This poor creature must have lost it when it died. This empty shell of a human had wandered into Aviti and she had destroyed it. Just like she had done, when Tilden had forced her to.
It all came back to Tilden. This was his fault too.
When something bumped her again, Aviti only just managed to stop herself from attacking the poor soulless thing.
‘No!’ screamed Haumea. ‘No.’ Then she ran at a huge shadow and rammed her staff into it. It was a soulless Giant; one of the Damned; just another lost soul amongst the hundreds that now milled around them. It fell back under the blow, but was not vanquished. It got back to its feet and walked off, until it collided with a wall and then set off in a new direction.
‘No,’ said Haumea again, but her voice sounded more helpless than full of fury now.
‘Come on,’ said Aviti, ‘or we will lose the others.’ The truth was they already had, but Haumea was sure she could follow them, so Aviti grasped her arm and they moved on. The Giantess pushed their way through the crowds. Haumea shuddered each time she came into contact with one of them. In a way, Haumea’s revulsion helped Aviti keep her temper under her tenuous control.
When the way became less crowded Aviti asked the Giantess, ‘Are we still going the right way? Can you be sure?’
‘Look around you Aviti. This place is just one huge tunnel. There is only one way through it. The rest is just…’
‘Reflections of the true path,’ Aviti said, finishing Haumea’s sentence for her, and as she said it, it became clear. All the reflections, all the images and all the shadows, fell into sharp relief in her mind, and the central path was limned in argent.
Now it was all she could see. Even her anger only pushed her on, down the path that Haumea had revealed to her. With the Giantess at her side, she felt invulnerable.
‘That was the purpose of this place,’ said Haumea. ‘To reveal the truth. The sun, or the Source as the Intoli call it, flows through this place, and when it does, who but the Intoli could withstand it?’
‘Yes,’ said Aviti as she released Haumea’s arm, ‘but it is more than that.’ Her mind followed the path, projecting it forward. She could see the way it spiralled around, bending inward and upwards towards its goal.
‘The Dhuma,’ said Aviti.
‘What?’ said Haumea.
‘This is the Dhuma, or the source of its power.’
‘Wait, Aviti.’
But she was too consumed with the need to move on. Her fatigue was forgotten. She had to reach the end of the path. She lurched forward, pulled on by her compulsion. Somehow, if she could get to the end of this path, everything would be better. Everything would be the way it was before.
‘Aviti!’
Then Aviti was running flat out, slipping between gaps in the Damned; moving forward, onward. If she stopped, she would be lost, and this time it would be forever. There would be no coming back.
But it was wrong. It was all wrong. What difference did it make if she stopped or just kept going?
A hand grabbed her, arresting her momentum. She slid and fell on her rump and the Giantess tumbled over her. When she landed, there was a huge crack and then a forlorn scream.
Aviti shook her head to clear the sensations that had overtaken her. It had been so sudden, but so absolute.
‘Christ, Haumea,’ said Wist, appearing beside them. ‘What a mess.’
Aviti could see the Giantess sprawled out in the large open cave toward which she had been running. Haumea’s torch lay beside her, still burning, with her staff close by. Then Haumea cried out once more.
‘What is wrong?’ asked Aviti.
Then she saw the Giantess’ shin bone. It thrust out through her skin at an obscene angle.
‘Damn it Haumea,’ said Wist as he walked over to the writhing Giant. ‘This is what happened to Brathoir. I can’t lose you.’
‘I am sorry,’ said Aviti as she got to her feet, ‘I do not know what came over me. I just started
running. I…I just needed to move.’
‘At least you saved her life, and your own, by falling down,’ said Wist as he sat beside the Giantess.
Aviti looked past Wist, Haumea and Sevika, who stood motionless where Wist had been. Just beyond the fallen Giantess lay a gaping hole. It stretched the nearly the full width of the chamber. Around its edges, there was a helix staircase made from the same crystal that had enraptured Aviti.
‘Aviti, come here,’ demanded Wist and she obeyed without question this time.
When Aviti got there, she saw that Wist was right. Haumea’s leg was a mess, blood was pouring from the wound.
‘We have to stop the bleeding or she will die,’ said Wist.
‘What can I do?’ replied Aviti.
‘Meld her bones.’
‘What?’ she said.
‘Join her bones back together,’
‘I cannot do that,’
‘You can, and you will, or she’ll die.’
‘I do not know how.’
‘I don’t care!’ Wist roared at her. ‘Learn.’ Then he lowered his head and spoke to Haumea.
‘Haumea,’ said Wist. ‘I need you to stay still. I cannot hold you and move your leg back into position.
‘My staff,’ said Haumea in a grunt.
‘We don’t have time,’ said Wist.
‘My Staff!’ she bellowed.
Aviti went to move, but she stopped when she saw Sevika lift the staff and walk towards them. The Intoli dropped the staff into Haumea’s outstretched hands.
‘Thank you,’ said Wist.
‘Do it,’ growled Haumea, sounding like Ionracas.
Wist turned to Aviti and said, ‘On three.’ Then he moved to Haumea’s foot and grabbed hold.
‘One,’ said Wist staring straight into Aviti’s eyes.
‘Two,’ he continued, blinking once. Aviti reached forward and put a hand on Haumea’ staff.
‘Three,’ Wist said and he pushed and twisted the Giantess’ leg.
Haumea’s desperate cry did not register with Aviti. Even the horrific sounds of the bone being forced back inside of her leg were hidden from her. She pushed her consciousness out and into Haumea’s wrecked flesh. Her revulsion at the injury made the staff slip in her grasp.
‘Focus,’ Wist shouted at her. ‘Focus.’
Aviti steadied her breathing. She concentrated on the pulse of Haumea’s massive heart. Then she joined the flow of blood around the Giantess, until she found the severed arteries and the bone that had caused the rupture.
The violence that had caused the damage called to Aviti. She felt the compulsion to complete its work; to sever the wasted flesh, to put the Giantess out of her misery.
Focus.
She could see what she needed to do.
Focus.
Before she panicked and fled, before her abhorrence at the wound overtook her, she started.
Through the staff, her power flowed into the Giantess. The bones in Haumea’s leg started to deform, so Aviti reigned her power in, lest she liquefied them.
‘Push,’ said Aviti to Wist and he responded. Haumea grunted and ground her teeth.
Then Aviti said ‘Hold,’ as Haumea went slack. Wist reduced the pressure and Aviti increased the flow of magic into the Giantess. The bones were too ragged at the edges to mesh back together, so Aviti focused her energy at those points.
‘Push,’ she said once more and when Wist obliged, she melded the enormous bones together, allowing one part to flow into the other.
‘Hold,’ she commanded.
Then she removed herself from the Giantess and took a step back.
Wist sighed as he put down the now straight leg. ‘Aviti, we must stop the bleeding or she will die anyway.’
The pressure swelled inside Aviti. Had she not given enough?
No, she said to herself. It is never enough.
Wist’s eyes widened, but she ignored his miscomprehension and stepped forward again.
‘Aviti, stop,’ he said and he took a step toward her.
But the blade had formed in her hand and she fed her passion into it. It wanted blood and vengeance, but she could only satisfy one of those desires. She cut away the dead flesh from the Giantess’ leg, feeling satisfaction and repulsion at the act. Then she lay the blade flat along the ragged cut and poured her magic into it. The gold metal flowed over the damaged flesh and along the narrow tear in her thigh.
Then she let more magic flow into the metal. The smell of searing flesh made her gag and forced her to withdraw, but the job was done. She tried to walk away, but after a few steps, she collapsed in a heap as the first tendrils of pain racked her body. There had been no pain when she melded the bones, it had only started when she fed the blade.
As she rolled into a ball, Sevika knelt over her and placed her hands onto Aviti’s back. The relief that the Intoli brought to Aviti made her gasp. She had only ever received pain as a punishment from Sevika during her time as her slave, through their enforced bond.
Aviti felt the cold, soothe her bones. It was different from the healing warmth she had got from Tyla. How she ached for him now. She caressed her bond as Sevika continued to heal her. She tried to pass her love for him to her. By now, she was sure that they would never meet again, but it did not matter. In her short life, she had felt love: from her parents – unconditional and pure; from her brother – strained at times, but true; and from Tyla – unfulfilled, but none the less real for it.
As the pain lessened, she let the bond slide to the back of her consciousness. Then she sat up and said, ‘Thank you,’ to Sevika.
The Intoli did not react, but it did not matter.
Aviti watched as Wist wrapped cloth torn from his clothes around Haumea’s leg. As she stood, Wist put his head against the Giantess’ chest, then he too stood up and joined them.
‘I think she will live,’ said Wist bearing his teeth in something that resembled a smile.
Most of the red staining on his skin had gone. Now it just looked wrinkled and worn.
‘We will need to leave her here.’
‘No,’ said Aviti instantly.
‘Aviti, you can come back for her when we are done. It is a miracle that you have been able to save her life, but she simply cannot travel yet. I forced Brathoir to move when I had… when I had amputated his leg and it killed him. Haumea has lost too much blood. She needs time and fluids, and many things we don’t have right now.’
‘She will die if we leave her here,’ said Aviti.
‘You don’t know that, but there is nothing else we can do but go on, and the end is close now… so close.’
And how can you know that?’ she retorted.
‘I just do Aviti, you will need to trust me.’
Aviti glanced at Sevika and then said. ‘Trust…You are not planning to return, are you?’
‘Aviti – ‘
‘You are planning to finish what you started. You are going to give him what he wants. You are going to give in to Tilden.’
‘Aviti, whatever happens, you need to finish this.’
‘Damn you just give me a straight answer. Are you going to kill yourself? You have dragged yourself and us all this way so you can commit suicide.’ Then she added with all the spite she could muster. ‘Again.’
‘It is not as simple as that.’
‘Simple?’ she said, but as she heard the echoes of the word reverberate around the chamber, memories came back to her; memories of her time as Sevika’s prisoner. That dark time had brought about her own crisis, when she would have taken her own life to escape the pain, if the opportunity had arisen.
‘Just promise me that you won’t give up,’ said Wist.
She spat on the ground and pinned him with her eyes then said, ‘I will not.’
Whether Wist decided to misunderstand her response or not, she did not know or care. She took the few steps back to Haumea and sat beside her. Then Aviti heard the light footsteps of the Intoli joining them.
‘We wait for Haumea to wake before we leave,’ said Aviti.
‘Yes, of course,’ said Wist.
Aviti huffed, then she sat and waited, watching the Giantess’ chest rise and fall in a regular rhythm. She had watched over her father when he was bed-ridden, but he had never displayed such vitality. His infirmity had developed apace and once he gave up tending to their meagre farm, it ravaged his body.
Aviti could trace his decline to the loss of her mother, his wife, his brave Mabon. She smiled as she thought that her father was there with her just now, and then admonished herself for her selfishness.
‘When I first released you,’ Sevika said, breaking into Aviti’s introspective thoughts, ‘I thought that He was the one I needed to follow.’
‘Follow?’ Aviti asked. ‘Who? Wist?’
‘No. Your mate.’
‘My mate?’ blushing as she said it. ‘Tyla?’
‘Yes, the human Tyla. When I lost all connection to the Sakti and to the Intoli, I thought that he could take their place. He shone with such purpose and intensity, but it was not for me, and so again I was lost, with only you to cling to, but now that I am returned home, I see that it does not matter. The past is only the past, and the future is nothing to me. I only have the present.’
‘I do not understand, Sevika.’
‘You have taught me more about the World than any Intoli has ever learned. I have been closer to being material than I could ever have imagined, and now perhaps I see why you cling onto your meagre existence. And so, I no longer need to follow or to lead. To be in company is enough.’
Aviti thought for a few moments about what the Intoli had just said, but she left her questions unspoken, so they sat and held their vigil together, whilst Wist stood over them.
The Redemption of Wist Boxed Set: Books 1 - 3: The complete collection Page 87