When Haumea did wake, she did not appear to be in any pain at all.
‘Damn my clumsiness,’ said Haumea, ‘pass me my staff.’
Wist retrieved it and gave it to her outstretched hand. He began to speak, but Haumea said, ‘you have saved my leg.’ Then she propped herself up with the staff. ‘I fear my journey with you must end here friends, and from the look on your faces I see that you have already reached the same conclusion.’
Then she laughed and said, ‘Do not be sad. I have lived the lives of three score Giants already and I am not dead yet.’
‘I cannot leave you here in the dark,’ said Aviti.
‘Then promise that you will return for me,’ said Haumea.
‘Haumea, I – ‘
‘Promise me, Aviti. It is all that I need.’
Aviti stopped herself and took a breath. Then she said, ‘I will return for you.’
‘There is something else,’ said Wist.
‘What?’ said Aviti.
He ignored the ire in her voice and said, ‘If we succeed… when we succeed, this place will become unbearable for you.
Of course, thought Aviti, the crystal. ‘The light,’ she said and Wist nodded.
‘Then blindfold me,’ said Haumea.
‘Blindfold you?’ Aviti asked.
‘Yes. Take the torch as well. If I am to be blindfolded, then I may as well be alone in the dark.’
‘Haumea?’ Aviti said.
‘I am sorry, I am only teasing you Aviti, but you know it makes sense. I shall sit here and talk to Nikka. He told me a little of his time in the dark under the Rathou. Perhaps he will tell me some more? But, before you go, please take this also,’ Haumea said and then she handed Aviti her staff.
‘Haumea, no!’ she said.
’What use is it here to me? Shall I cuddle it, Aviti?’ The Giantess laughed as she pressed the staff into Aviti’s hands.
Having no other choice, Aviti accepted it and thanked Haumea. The staff was too tall and too broad for her, but it was well balanced.
‘Now blindfold me child and leave me, but do not forget to return.’
Aviti embraced the Giantess, but held onto her tears. When she released her, the Giantess smiled and then Aviti moved behind her. She accepted the scrap of cloth that Wist offered her. It was grubby and stained dark brown, possibly from the dragon’s blood that had marked his skin. Aviti folded it carefully, making it as thick as possible, but still wide enough to cover Haumea’s gentle eyes. Then she fed it over the Giantess’ eyes then pulled it as tight as she could, pulling against the matted mess of dark hair on her head. After this, Aviti looped the ends over and repeated the process of pulling it tight and feeding the ends through each other. Once it was done, she breathed out and stepped back.
Wist walked up to Haumea with the still burning brand in his hand. ‘Can you see this?’ he said, waving it back and forth.
‘I can feel the heat, but it is as dark as night in here,’ said Haumea.
‘Are you sure?’ he asked again.
‘Yes! Now leave me so I may get some rest. And remember to ward your own sight!’
Then Wist hugged Haumea and she laughed once more. ‘Begone, but do not forget me.’
‘As if I could,’ said Wist. He put down all of their remaining water and then they turned and walked towards the huge hole in the world.
23 - Deceiver of the Gods
Crystal sparkled all around them as they mounted the first step. To Aviti, the steps themselves looked smooth as glass, but the walls were as ragged as the cuts on Wist’s wrist. The torch that he carried blazed, but its defiance looked forced, like a smile painted onto a street artist’s face.
The stairs that jutted out from the walls jarred in Aviti’s mind. As they went up and around, they formed a perfect circle around the bottomless Dhuma. The temptation to gaze into its depth played on her mind as she took each step.
Aviti had not looked back to see Haumea before they started their assent.
Do not forget to return, the Giantess’ words rang in her ears, and Aviti had promised her.
But she would never be able to keep it. She hated herself for the lie, but what else could she have done?
She put one foot in front of the other and just kept going.
Wist was in front of her and Sevika behind. She tried to focus on Wist’s back. His clothes were filthy rags now, but so were hers. She shivered again as she thought of her warm furs that had been abandoned in the Hylobs’ land. Every step they took forward chilled the air further.
Wist’s footsteps clacked around her head as his feet slapped the unforgiving crystal. Each clattering step gave a counterpoint to the tapping of the Giantess’ staff in Aviti’s hands. Thoughts, visions, hopes and fears flowed around in her mind, chasing the relentless thumps and bangs.
The golden bracelet pulsed against her skin, keeping time with the thumping in her head and the beating of her heart. In some ways, it was as intrusive as the brass bar that the Intoli used to enslave her. She felt the bracelet’s need for power, or perhaps it was just her own need reflected back at her. She was sure she had found the solution to her need for power on the wasted land above Dilsich. What if she was wrong? What if she had only buried it beneath her grief?
Each step they took must be taking them higher, but nothing changed. When Aviti looked up or down, all she could see was a circle of darkness, miles ahead and behind. The stairs formed a huge helix, spiralling up towards open sky or down towards the unknown.
Aviti stopped for a second, just to let Sevika past her and to catch a quick breath. Shortly, she had to start walking again or the light from Wist’s torch would escape her. She quickened her step to make up the ground she had lost. Cold air caressed her exposed skin and crept into the gaps in her clothing. As she walked on, the deep cold of Prasad began to penetrate her bones.
Wist walked on with mechanical certainty, eating up the steps that led to their end, whilst Aviti watched Sevika’s strides fall into line with Wist’s. The smaller stride that Sevika had adopted made Aviti laugh, or it would have, if her life was not entangled within those steps.
Aviti struggled to keep up with her two companions. What she wanted to do was lie down. Lie down and sleep, and maybe not get up again. Just rest and let everything drift away. Her bone-numbing fatigue fought with her anger for control of her.
But she could hear her father’s words urging her on. This was not about her. It was about all the people who had been left behind; those who clung onto life at the fringes of existence. They would be dying in the deserts of Tapasya, cowering in the hills of Pyrite or shivering in the caves of Prasad.
She wished she could be as certain as her companions. Wist knew what he would face once they reached the summit. Aviti had no idea how he could know, but he was too certain of his fate to be mistaken.
And Sevika. Aviti had wanted to kill the Intoli, when she had been her captor, but now…If she was honest with herself, the thought was still there, lodged in the blackest part of her heart. It still spoke to her of the power of revenge.
As Aviti went to take her next step, his torch died and the world went black again.
‘Wist!’ she shouted, but there was no response, just the continued slap, slap, slap of footfalls. ‘Do not leave me here!’
Her words got no reply, but the footsteps stopped. Her heart juddered in her chest as she imagined being alone in the cold blackness forever.
Then a voice said, ‘I have not left you.’
‘Father?’ she asked, then there was a hand on her shoulder.
‘What?’ asked Wist.
‘Nothing,’ said Aviti thankful for the darkness to hide her embarrassment.
‘I don’t think it is much further to go. Just walk behind me. Keep your hand on the wall, OK?’
Aviti thought for a moment and then said, ‘Yes.’
‘Let’s go.’
So, she started walking. For the first few steps, she stubbed her toes on each stair,
but then she found the rhythm.
The hand that she held against the wall was so cold that she was afraid that her skin might be left behind. She missed the gloves that Tyla had made for her.
She had to press her hand hard against it to fight the feeling that it was not real. Aviti bumped the staff down harder than before, using the sound helped to keep her anchored in reality, but before she could stop it, the metal on her wrist started to deform. It flowed over her palms and around her fingers. Then the walls began to scream in pain. She should have pulled her hand away, for the sound horrified her, but at the same time, it brought her macabre comfort. Wist was either so focused on his doom that he never heard the screeching noise, or he managed to block it out. Sparks flew from her fingertips as the metal bit deeper. Their brief light did not help her see any better, but it did help to shatter the illusion of infinity that her mind had created.
Then Aviti withdrew her hand as a tiny point of light appeared above them. It outlined a crescent of crystal against the endless blackness of the sky. A second later, the walls exploded with piercing white light.
Wist’s laughter cascaded around her head as she clamped her eyes tight.
‘The moon,’ he said through his laughter. ‘The moon has come to light our way.’
It took Aviti several seconds to force her eyes opened. The light was as bright as midday on a summer’s day in Mashesh, but it lacked the warmth. The light was white and brutal. There was no forgiveness in it.
Every inch of the structure that they stood in brimmed with light. Below then, vibrant colours reflected from one side of the column to the other, making a spiral rainbow that circled downwards, into the Dhuma.
‘Come on,’ said Wist, ‘we’re nearly there.’ Then he took Aviti’s hand and pulled her onwards.
The moon burst over the rim less, which lay than a hundred yards above them. Aviti managed to keep her eyes open this time. It was like an old friend come to visit them.
But the light revealed something to her. ‘Sevika.’ she said. ‘Where is she?’
‘I think she must have kept going. Hurry and we can catch her.’
Wist released her and they bolted up the stairs, using moonlight as their guide. As they ran, the band tightened around Aviti’s wrist, but she tried to keep her mind from it. On and on, they ran up the perfect spiral that encompassed their doom. Each hurried step she took felt less substantial than the previous. Only the click of Haumea’s staff kept her rooted in reality.
Then they were there, on a plateau above the world. The light from the moon reflected all around them, broken into all of its constituent parts. The colours tumbled about her head. Violets and indigos mixed with crimsons and ochres to make the most wonderful display of lights in the sky. The ephemeral lines trailed away in the night, taking streaks of colour with them. She followed one line and then another as they fanned out from where they stood, like spokes from the hub of a wheel.
‘Tilden,’ said Wist, in a paper dry voice, but even that was not enough to break the dancing light’s hold over Aviti. ‘Tilden, my god.’
Aviti cried out when she saw the black streaks penetrate the lines in the sky. Unlike the lights emanating from the crystal platform, the blackness moved towards them; towards Wist. Then she looked around.
In front of her, on the huge circular dais, were Wist and Sevika. Between them, a lump stuck out of the frozen surface. It stood the same height as Sevika. With the light shining up into Aviti’s eyes, she could not make out what was inside the block of ice, so she walked towards them. Her friends were perched at the far side of the precipice from which they had just ascended. Aviti glanced up as she walked. The blackness had changed and it moved for them.
As Aviti rounded the curve towards her friends, light caught her full in the face and she was forced to stop. When she could see again, she was confronted by both sides of Wist’s head. The back of his head was as it should be, but beside it, his face was trapped in the ice. It looked tortured and broken, and half of it looked melted away.
Then she took another step and the face and head separated. Wist’s weathered features detached from the destroyed visage of Tilden. Wist’s brother was encased in ice.
As Aviti saw Tilden, a smile crept onto her face. This was what he had done to the Mage Dregan. Tilden had imprisoned his legs in stone and then desecrated his flesh. Then he encouraged the Queen of the Intoli, their Sakti, to bleed him for his power.
‘Leave him there to rot,’ she said, letting her ire rise.
‘You don’t understand,’ said Wist.
‘I understand enough,’ she replied.
‘No, you don’t.’
But as Wist spoke, the light around them changed once more. The colours that had sparkled and delighted her senses lost their lustre. The moon was still in the sky above them, pouring its beneficence down, but it was joined by another presence.
The Ghria Duh slid over the edge of the horizon and into the sky. Its oily touch brought Aviti’s anger to the boil. With it came the Waren and their arrival of the Waren refocused her thoughts. They landed all around them, drawn to them like insects to a carcass. The darkness cooked at the edge of her vision.
‘Welcome,’ said a familiar voice and Aviti’s anger flared once more.
Tilden stood free. The ice in which he had been encased was gone.
‘Is this all that is left of your friends?’ Tilden asked, loading the final word with spite. ‘The desert whore, and a broken Intoli.’
Aviti ignored his words, forcing down her rage. Behind Tilden, shapes formed in the darkness of the Waren. She had expected claws and teeth, but these were humans and Giants.
‘Wist,’ she called. He glanced back to her, whilst the Damned wandered obliviously through the darkness. Tilden laughed as they approached.
‘Ah, here come the rest of your brethren. Welcome them home brother. They have come to pay homage to their God.’
The first to step into the circle of light was a thin, pale-skinned man. He was intact, bar the cuts decorating most of his flesh. Only a few rags remained of his clothes to cover his dignity, not that he cared. This man might have been ages with Aviti’s father, it was so difficult to tell with his condition. Who cared for this wretch? He stumbled along towards them, but Aviti and her companions were not his intended target. Aviti yelled as the poor soul walked off the ledge and into the endless Dhuma.
It triggered another burst of laughter from Tilden. ‘I wouldn’t worry it. It won’t feel a thing. I’m not even sure if there is a bottom for it to hit. Maybe it will fall forever?’
‘Maybe I should throw you in?’ said Aviti. Why was Wist saying nothing? Why did he not act? Sevika too stood motionless within striking distance of Tilden.
The golden metal slipped through the fingers of her clenched fist that she held out before her. The moonlight that danced along the forming blade looked sullied by the metal, as if it were ashamed to fall upon so heinous an object.
‘No,’ said Wist as he turned to face Aviti. The light from the moon fought with the shadows cast by the black sun for control of his features.
‘No?’ she screamed at him.
‘Aviti you don’t understand,’ he said as more of the Damned emerged from the darkness to throw themselves to their eternal doom. Then he turned to Tilden. ‘We have to stop this.’
‘We? said Tilden. ‘Brother, only you can put an end to all of this. Follow the Damned into the rift in this world that you created, and bring us peace.’
The rift in the world. The scar than ran from Aviti’s home in Tapasya all the way to here. They had traced the path of it: Mashesh, Bohba, The line of war in Pyrite, and the broken wastes of this land.
Wist turned his head to look into the Dhuma. Aviti saw his foot twitch, but then his hand came out and he extended it to his brother.
‘Join me,’ Wist said.
Before Aviti could scream at him, the Waren attacked. Only a few shapes flew at her this time and the first to reach her m
ade her cry out in despair. Then a wraith in the form of her brother, Cairn, materialised out of the blackness. He bore their father’s sword, which he swung high overhead. Aviti brought her golden blade up to counter the down-stroke. Cairn’s blade dissolved upon touching Aviti’s, but its black essence continued on its original trajectory. When the black cloud reached her, the voices began.
‘You will never measure up to Mother.’
‘Nobody will ever love you.’
‘Abomination.’
She shouted and swung her blade around and brought it down as hard as she could. It sliced through her brother’s arm cleaving it clean off, but there was no blood. The severed appendage lay a yard beyond her brother. He glowered at her, as wisps of black smoke trailed away from his open shoulder.
Then Cairn opened his mouth to laugh, but out came roiling blackness. Aviti lunged forward and rammed her blade through her brother’s skull, but it passed through him with little resistance.
The wraith disintegrated, reverting to its true form, a black cloud of emptiness. It came at her, moving against the prevailing wind. She swung her ethereal weapon at it, but it flowed around the blade, paying it no heed.
‘Give up.’
‘Give in.’
‘Lose yourself.’
‘No,’ Aviti shouted as she whirled around and brought her weapon down in a futile attempt to drive the darkness away.
‘That is twice you have killed me sister.’
‘Aviti stop!’ yelled Wist, but it was too late. Aviti was beyond all restraint. Her brother’s words drove a barb into her heart and so she lashed out at the only thing she could find. She drove her blade into the ground.
The world shook on its axis. The stone plateau under her feet convulsed and the girl from Mashesh struggled to keep her feet.
When Aviti’s vision cleared and she could see the Ghria Duh pulsing in the sky. Tendrils of hate and despair reached out from the heavens to caress the ground. Like blackened snakes, they raced across the ground to Aviti. The door inside her, behind which the magic lay, was tantalisingly close. She could throw it open and eviscerate them all; the darkness, the Waren, the Damned, her friends, and her hope for the future.
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