A Glimmer on the Blade
Page 27
“It’s coming down between us. The whole flaming thing!” he gasped, watching the trajectory of the floundering bag of gas. The Dragons motioned for them to hurry and get under the safety of the trees.
“Stay there!” Anoni shouted to them, grabbing Corin’s hand. They ran the opposite direction toward the closest tree, a dead white tree with a wide spread of leafless branches. Corin watched the cloud creature. A secondary explosion threw burning pieces up high over the clumps of the other airborne creatures. The air shook with the deep screams of the creatures as their outsides began to burn.
The sky blossomed in two more explosions as more creatures burst their bells. As Anoni pulled Corin under the twisted branches of the tree she heard him mutter, “The sky is burning...”
“We’ll be safe here,” she almost got out before the ground gave way between the roots and they tumbled through the earth into the dark.
CHAPTER 15
Tall Grasses, Safiro Wilds
Vansainté
Vansainté saw the earth swallow Anoni and Corin just before the first burning carcass hit. The impact shook the ground. The dry grass was catching fire from the burning gas creature. Fast thoughts tripped each other in his brain. They couldn’t find Anoni now, if any of them were going to survive this plain, they would have to go now before a fire storm built that would rival the wrath of Califf. Their sheltering forest would catch fire and they were only a handful of men.
Already, the Dragons’ horses were screaming and fighting their riders. Arjent and Nekobashi were struggling to keep the wagon horse from taking the supplies into the forest. They had to go, and they had to go now. The steady breeze built the flames in a hungry line of flame moving outward. The cloud creatures burning in the distance began their death throws.
“Form up!” Vansainté ordered. “We go around the carcass as fast as possible. Make for the other side. Keep moving and watch out for holes.”
The men worked quickly to get the horses in order. Heart pounding, Vansainté leaped to the seat of the wagon and gave his horse’s reins to Giovicci. He could keep the wagon horse under control better than any of the other men. In a split second, he took in the condition of the men. Their faces were grim but stolid. No one was going to break in panic. He got the horse pointed in the right direction and let it have its head. The sheets of grassfire were getting closer. The heat was as bad as a blacksmith furnace. The air was filled with the scream of horses and the echoing scream of the dying creatures.
They had to make it to the other side. Vansainté breathed shallowly, trying to avoid the smoke and stench of the dying creatures. The Dragons tried to stay together, but they plunged into a fiery chaos.
“Run!” Vansainté commanded, urging the wagon horse on. Another cloud exploded, sending the flames higher into the sky.
***
Below Tall Grasses
Corin and Anoni
Anoni and Corin splashed down into cold dark, rushing waters. Rocks and debris came down around them, but the underground river swept them away. There was no touching bottom of the river; it was too deep and the current too fast. It was so dark Corin couldn’t tell if his eyes were open or closed as he struggled to keep above water. He was a strong swimmer, orienting his feet first and steered with his hands, trying to stay in the middle of the channel to avoid rocks. He couldn’t see them and he couldn’t see Anoni either, but he could hear her. She was screaming.
“Not the water!”
“Anoni, where are you?”
“Over here. Please don’t leave me!”
Corin was swept past a boulder, glancing off it with bruising force on knees and shoulder. He pushed off it in the direction of her voice.
“Here,” he gasped as he caught hold of her hand. “Take deep breaths. Get your feet ahead of you.”
“Don’t leave me to the water,” she begged, young and afraid. Corin had a flash of memory. Anoni had been drowned in a lightless water barrel.
“I won’t leave you,” he reassured her. He could hear a rushing sound ahead. “Take a deep breath and hold it, we’re going under.”
The channel dropped several feet and then squeezed between rocks. It was an airless passage. They were swept under the surface, and rolled along the roof of the passage, but Corin kept a death grip on Anoni’s hand. He held his breath as the skin was scraped from his shoulder, counting the seconds. They might never come out of this passage. The rest of the river could be without air...he thought frantically. They slammed into a rock, crying out under water. He lost most of his air and his body started pulling in water trying to find the air. Corin almost blacked out. They spun in the current and bobbed to the surface. Gasping and sputtering, he looked about. There was a soft ruby light to their right that offered some visibility. The passage opened up into a cavern with a wide pebble beach to their right. The current had slowed enough for him to direct their path.
“Swim for it!” He stroked strongly for the beach with one hand. After a second, Anoni did the same with her other hand. They both wouldn’t risk losing their grip. Still coughing up the last of the water in his lungs, he crawled with her up on the beach. Corin helped Anoni to sit. She was shaking, eyes darting around in every direction. The ruby light seemed to emanate from a point in the water where the river disappeared back under the rock wall. He noticed the wall opening had spell lines in swirls carved all the way around; a quick check showed the hole where they had come in with the river had similar marks. The beach was empty but for a few old bones and long red feathers. Shuddering, he sat down next to Anoni. The place smelled only a little dank. They shivered, trying to gather enough strength to speak.
“I’m so cold,” she said through chattering teeth. “I’m sorry. I can’t stand the water.”
“I know,” he said. He put his arm around her shoulder. “Share the warmth?”
“Okay. We must be in one of the rivers under Tall Grasses. Did you see what happened to the men?”
“No. Any ideas about getting out of here?”
“No. Not really,” she said sadly. “Do you see that?”
The red light was coming upstream toward them. Anoni could see movement, like a tail, or swimming motions in the glow.
“Do we run?” Corin asked.
“Nowhere to go.” She took a couple deep breaths to try and steady herself. Drawing her sword, she stood. The Teha steel had survived without a chip. The light was recognizable as coming from a human-sized figure. It surfaced and pulled itself up on the beach. For a moment she was wordless, trying to take it all in. It was very clearly male, nude, and heavily muscled.
He glowed in the color of blood garnets, about seven feet tall, with a strange face that was human enough to be handsome. He was naked except for the feathers that covered his head and ran down his spine. The quills of the feathers made a crest-like mane down his back. He was studying her, and his interest was accompanied by the feathers rising to attention. It was like the ruff of an angry dog coming up his spine. His eyes were red and the pupils slit like a cat.
“Ah...guests...” he said with only a trace sibilance from his long upper and lower canine teeth. “Delicious...” He rushed them, roaring like a nightmare lion. Anoni and Corin scrambled backward and readied their weapons. Her strike snapped the creature’s arm as he deflected the blade away. He slammed into Anoni, pinning her to the cave wall as her sword clattered to the stones. He roared his dank breath into her face, shaking out the broken arm like that would fix it and she heard the bones crackling as he grabbed her by the throat. His claws scored her neck, flexing as he studied her from inches away. He was a spirit beast, but more solid than any she had seen so far. She recognized him, in the way children recognize recurring nightmares or the villain in a folk-tale. He was a flesh eater, a man hunter with fangs, claws, and chilling alien eyes. Staring face to face with him, she could see the downy pale feathers that grew in place of his eyebrows. His nose was aquiline. Despite the fear slithering in her gut, the knowledge blossomed in
her: he moved like a man. He had once been human, or had once been something else and had wanted to be human.
Corin tried to rush in from behind, but faster than a viper strike, without even looking, the beast had Corin by the throat. A fizzing sensation burned at Corin’s throat and blackness crept in on him. His hands and legs went numb, and his heart stuttered. He was slipping away. He was dying.
Anoni hammered her fist down on the creature’s nose, and kicked him between the legs. He dropped Corin, letting him fall, barely conscious and gasping like a fish, to the ground. The Ozuk clung to her throat, even almost doubled over in pain. He bared his teeth, more in annoyance of the blood running from the broken nose than at any damage her attack might have wrought as he caught his breath.
“What do you want?” Anoni gasped out, still fighting his grasp. He didn’t have her pinned to the wall anymore; her attack had moved him a crucial couple of feet so he didn’t have the wall as leverage.
“Your flesh between my teeth, human. What do you expect from an Ozuk?”
The long dagger was in her hand, drawn in a reflex she had practiced hundreds of times. She rammed it into his deep red eye. He staggered backward, snarling and startled enough for Anoni to break the hold of his steely muscles. She stumbled backward and made it to Corin. He was conscious and breathing heavily, but his skin was almost blue. “Corin? What did you do to him?” she demanded. The Ozuk pulled her dagger from his eye and was watching her with interest as the ruined eye began to regenerate.
“Did it to himself...” he said with cold speculation. “Interesting, I haven’t seen anyone spelled up like him in a while. I’ll remind you, Ozuk live forever.”
“I promise, we’ll be a prickly mouthful.” She drew her other dagger and grabbed Corin’s sword and stood in an Eastern guard position, arms spread. She stepped between the Ozuk and Corin as Corin struggled to gather himself.
The Ozuk gave her a crafty smile. “I just couldn’t contain myself. I am Koseichiro.” He gestured with mocking hospitality. “This is my cave.”
“We’ll just be leaving, thanks,” Corin said in a rasping voice, grabbing Anoni’s arm. She stayed still.
“Don’t be so hasty,” Koseichiro said, his skin changing colors from red to orange and back. “There is no guarantee you would survive the journey. No air.”
“No, I won’t take the water.” Anoni looked at Corin. “There must be another way out of here.”
“Possibly. If you take me with you.” The Ozuk moved with hungry grace, every inch the beast as he walked around them, appraising. His skin and feathers cycled garnet and then black like old blood.
“You can’t leave?” Anoni asked, keeping an eye on him.
“I was imprisoned here almost seven hundred years ago. If you take me with you, I’ll show you another way out.”
“And if we don’t?” Corin wheezed.
“Then I catch you and eat you slowly. You might get away, but I don’t sleep or tire. Your only other option is back into the water.”
“We can’t free a dangerous beast into the world,” Corin said to Anoni quietly. “We can’t free that...”
“Really?” The Ozuk lunged at Corin, who leaned away from his hands. “You would rather feed my hunger?”
“Don’t touch me!” Corin yelped and tried to scoot away.
Anoni tapped the Ozuk on the shoulder with Corin’s sword. “Back up.”
“He’ll just kill us anyway,” Corin said under his breath.
The Ozuk looked at him sharply. “Do not mock me, mortal! If I give my word that I will not kill you, then you will reach the surface alive. It’s a complicated thing I ask.”
“What do you mean?” Anoni asked.
“The chains of power that hold me here are written with my name. They would only slip if I was not myself anymore. I believe that if I halved my power, I could escape the chains that hold me here. I could leave the cave and perhaps move on.”
“I still don’t understand,” Anoni said.
“I would have to rive my soul, bond it to another. The magic that holds me here would not hold a mortal.”
“You’re talking about possession,” Corin said angrily. “I won’t do it.”
Koseichiro gave him a disgusted look. “You couldn’t. The sigil is on you so strong, I’d fry both of us like an egg. You,” he pointed to Anoni. “You could do it.”
“Come on, Anoni. I’ll take the water.” Corin staggered up and tried to pull her toward the dark river. She still would not move. She turned haunted eyes on him.
“I can’t. I can’t go back in that water.” She put the dagger back in its sheath.
“He could be lying. Is most likely lying. A trick. He could destroy your soul. You don’t want to go that way,” Corin said, gestured urgently, trying to convince her.
She stared him straight in the eye. “I can’t go into that water, Corin. I can’t.”
“He’ll take your soul, Anoni.” He desperately wanted to get away from the Ozuk. Alcyenne’s warning kept replaying over and over in his mind. That slipping numbness was death.
“I risked it once for the prince. I’ll do what I like with my soul on my own account. It can’t be as bad as the Goddess.” Anoni turned back to the Ozuk. “How does this work?”
“It has to be a willing sacrifice. I cannot give up my power unless the subject and I are willing. No mortal has ever had the honor.”
“Giovicci said I lacked imagination...” Anoni muttered, rolling her eyes.
The Ozuk continued, “It is more of a matter of carrying a piece of power than anything else. We all slip free, and when you die, that part of my soul will come back to me.”
“He could just kill you,” Corin protested. “I mean it, Anoni. Don’t do this!” She looked at the hand he had placed on her arm until he removed it. “Then he will kill me, and I won’t have to go back in the water. There is a chance that we can both get out of here, alive,” she said grimly. She turned away.
Corin grasped her by the shoulders and kissed her for all he was worth. Their desperation was in the kiss. She didn’t think there was any other way to get both of them out. She couldn’t take the Ozuk in a fight. She couldn’t go back in the water. This was her only option, but she had to know before she did this how Corin felt for her.
A none-too-soft throat clearing behind them broke them apart moments later.
“Sweet, really. I’m waiting,” the Ozuk said impatiently.
“You’ve waited this long, you can wait a minute more,” Corin growled. He looked into Anoni’s eyes, holding them with his own. Nodding solemnly, she crossed the distance to the Ozuk.
“Cute, now be still,” he said curtly, cupping his hands over her temples, closing his eyes and muttering words. The sharp points of his claws snagged in her hair.
“What do I do?” Anoni asked, tense and tight lipped grimly.
“Just stand there.” He stepped back, raised one hand palm open up to his lips. He asked, “Are you sure?”
“Do it.” She flinched as her confidence faltered.
The Ozuk blew across his palm, and a garnet kernel of power drifted across from it to Anoni. It passed into her left eye, warm but not painful. She blinked, starting, the garnet light shining out of the eye.
“That’s it?” she got out, and then crumpled to the ground like she’d been poleaxed.
The Ozuk made no move to catch her, just watched with detached interest. “Take her and go,” said the Ozuk shortly, his attention unwavering from her prone form.
Warily, Corin picked her up. “Where? How?”
“The river. It widens from here. It will take you to Cape Miliar.”
“You Califf-cursed bastard!” Corin was almost screaming. “All that and you lied?”
The Ozuk shot him a glowing look of frustrated anger. “Go before I change my mind. I could throw her in the river and trust fate to decide. You...I wonder what it would take to make that body dissipate.” Corin immediately shut up, face white.
“Wait,” called Koseichiro.
The Ozuk was at his shoulder. “Take these. She’ll want them.” He held out the dagger, the Red Dragon sword, and Corin’s sword.
Corin took a moment to put Anoni down and return her weapons and his own to their rightful sheaths. Then he gathered her up again. He glanced back once before he entered the water.
Feathers were coming loose and falling to the ground around the Ozuk. The beast himself studied his own clawed hands. Without looking at him, the Ozuk growled, “Tell her I'm sorry.”
Corin hurried into the water, keeping Anoni’s back against his chest and their heads above water. For good measure, he kicked into the current, moving to the end of the cavern as fast as he could. The river sped up and dropped a few feet as its path narrowed. It carried Corin and the limp Anoni to the spell-lined hole where the river left the cavern. He took a deep breath and ducked them under the water and out of the cavern.
***
The Temple at Lyceo
Copelia
Lyceo was an open-minded city—that is to say they didn’t take offense at other religions, but the temple still had a 150 or so devout followers who had stayed up late to attend temple. They spread out in the rings of pews, sitting in clumps in the temple. There were sleepy mothers, riding point on young children energized by staying up past bedtime. There were tired-looking masons and carpenters still in their work clothes. A few daring young people had shown up in their sleep clothes, a practice mentioned in one of the holy books, though not encouraged by the clergy or their parents. The pews could seat six hundred people easily. Copelia had mixed feelings as she studied them from her position just inside the north door, breathing deep of the incense. Half of her was sad that this temple could fit so many, yet the followers didn’t come. The other half of her was glad there was so few. She had never done, or even heard about, what she was about to do. Her instincts were telling her something had to be done. She had no idea if it would work, or what it would look like for the men and women praying quietly on the pews. She was dressed in a dark shirt and black pants. She hadn’t been able to find the place where the priestess and priest of the temple kept their extras. She had also found a pair of soft leather gloves to cover her casters. She didn’t want to take off her metal, but also knew that until business was settled in Aquillion the clergy would be more likely to stone her as a theomancer than believe she was their new leader. A blue scarf wrapped around her neck hid the four scars from the teeth of the nightlion. She looked like a normal young woman going to temple. She snorted quietly. There would be a show tonight.