“Isn’t there some other choice? Maybe one where food is plentiful and death comes at old age and I don’t have to worry about someone taking what I have away?”
He tilted his head to the side. “No…Not really. That stage never lasts. A couple hundred years at most. No more.”
K’lrsa backed away. “Why are you even asking me this? I thought it was out of my control now. We already took the objects and we can’t put them back.”
“Mmm…You might be surprised.” He leaned closer. “We gods are a conservative bunch for the most part. We don’t like change. Not like this. Most of the gods are sitting back, waiting to see what you do. You and Vedhe and Badru.”
He stepped back. “See, the question is this: Will you use the objects to defeat Aran—who really was becoming a bit too much with his overuse of that death walker magic—and then give them up after? Or will you cling to them, desperate to protect yourselves at any cost?”
“If we give them up?”
“Then the world goes back to what it was before.”
“And if we keep them?”
He held his arms out, shrugging. “Then I sit back and watch as the gods scramble to create the most powerful object they can imagine, each one creating an object more powerful than the last until…” He shrugged again. “I don’t know. Death? Destruction? Perhaps a new balance with everyone that much more powerful than before. The world stable once more but on a smaller pivot point, waiting for another Aran to come along and wreck it all?”
K’lrsa shivered. “I have no interest in keeping the power after Aran’s defeated. I just want to be left alone. And for my parents to be able to move on to the Promised Plains.”
He pursed his lips, studying her. “Can you say the same for your companions? Will a man like Badru, who knows the preventative value of superior strength, be willing to let go? And what about Vedhe? Can she give up the only power she has after being made to feel so powerless for so long? Especially when her enemies still walk the earth?”
K’lrsa shivered, wondering if either of her friends would give up their weapons, even knowing the destruction it might cause if they kept them.
She was afraid she knew the answer already.
The Trickster shrugged and turned away. “So there you have it. The world is watching you K’lrsa dan V’na of the White Horse Tribe. Don’t let us down.”
As the fog swirled closer, hiding his form, he added. “Oh! Almost forgot—Aran is in Toreem. But not sure that matters, because his army will be attacking your camp before the sun sets. And they have ten times more men than you do. Should be fun!” He disappeared with one final cackling laugh.
Chapter 58
K’lrsa jolted awake, the Trickster’s laughter still echoing in her head. It was past midday already. The Daliph’s troops would be attacking soon. She had to warn Badru.
But first she called to Vedhe, who was curled up asleep on the other side of the tent. “Vedhe. Get up.”
Vedhe sat up, already reaching for her clothes. “The Trickster just told me. Aran’s men are coming.”
“Did he tell you they have ten times as many men as we do?”
“It doesn’t matter. Between the orb and the staff they won’t be able to stand against us.”
In the murky light of the tent, Vedhe’s eyes danced with flames.
“I’m not sure we should use them, though.” K’lrsa finished dressing and reluctantly grabbed the staff before leading the way out of the tent.
“Why not? Why would you let even one Rider risk injury if we can defeat them with our weapons?”
“I think this is a test.” She pushed her way through camp, looking for Badru. “Or a challenge. Herin said every time we use the objects they’ll change us. So what if Aran is trying to force us to use them before we fight him so we’re too weak to defeat him when the time comes?”
There was no sign of the approaching soldiers, but it was only a matter of time before they arrived. K’lrsa spotted Badru at the edge of camp and turned towards him.
Vedhe trotted at her side. “If we can defeat Aran’s soldiers, we should.”
They reached Badru. He was directing a group digging a ditch between the barren lands and the camp. “Rested?” he asked, smiling.
“Hardly.”
He looked back and forth between them. “What? What is it?”
“The Trickster came to us in our dreams. He said Aran’s soldiers are going to be here before sunset and that they have ten times more men than we do.” K’lrsa glanced at the ditch. “What’s that for?”
“Not much at the moment. I was hoping we’d have another day or two to finish it. Once it was deep enough we were going to put sharpened sticks in it and then cover it over with cloth and some dirt. I was hoping the soldiers wouldn‘t see it and they’d fall in.”
“Killing their horses?”
He nodded.
K’lrsa grimaced.
“Better than my men.”
“I know. I just don’t like it. What did those horses ever do to anyone?”
Badru started to laugh, but stopped when he realized how serious she was.
Vedhe pulled out the sun orb. “We don’t need that. Or anyone else. We can defeat them with this. And with the staff.” She glared at K’lrsa. “If you ever bother to unwrap it.”
K’lrsa glanced at the bundle in her hands. “I don’t trust it. It calls to me.”
“As the sun orb calls to me. They were made to be used.” Flames danced in Vedhe’s eyes, and K’lrsa shivered as she pictured Vedhe using the orb on living, breathing men. Men with families and children and homes to return to.
“Maybe we can scare them away. Do you think you can set a path of flame before them? Or maybe I can cause the river to overflow and block their path?”
“Scare them? They’ll just come back later. We have to stop them. Now.”
“Vedhe…”
Vedhe shook her head in disgust. “If you don’t want to use the power you chose, then don’t. I can do this myself.”
Badru looked back and forth between them and K’lrsa realized she hadn’t told him about the nature of the objects. Or what Vedhe had been like on their trip from the Hidden City. Or the balance. Or her dream. Or any of it.
“No. I’ll do it. Save the sun orb for Aran.”
Worst case scenario, K’lrsa could still use the moon power against Aran, whatever good it would do.
She unwrapped the staff, peeling back each layer slowly, reluctantly. It throbbed with power, begging to be used, to call the stream and turn it into a mighty river that would rage so fierce none could cross it.
She sighed as she removed the last layer and gripped the smooth wooden surface. “Like you pointed out, I’m not sure how I’d use the staff in Toreem anyway.”
“Toreem?” Badru asked. “What makes you think we need to go all the way there?”
“The Trickster told me that’s where Aran is.” She stepped past him and stood in front of Vedhe, trying to get her attention. “Vedhe? Did you hear me? I’ll use the staff. You can put the sun orb away now.”
Vedhe stared into the barren lands, her fingers white where they clutched the orb, her eyes full of fire.
“Vedhe?” She poked Vedhe’s arm.
Vedhe raised her fist, the orb in her hand alight with red fire.
“Vedhe! What are you doing?” She stepped back, hands raised, wondering how to defend herself against fire. “I’m not your enemy.”
Vedhe’s arm shook as she struggled to lower the orb. She stared at K’lrsa, eyes wide with fear as fire spat from her hand.
Slowly—too slowly—she brought her hand back down and shoved the orb into the pouch at her waist.
“Vedhe?” K’lrsa stepped closer, trying to meet her friend’s eyes. “Are you okay?”
Vedhe nodded, but wouldn’t look at her. “It wants to be used…” she muttered.
“I know. But not until we confront Aran, okay?”
Vedhe didn’t answer. He
r fingers were still twitching towards the pouch. K’lrsa gripped her hand to stop her from taking it up again.
Badru came closer. “Maybe we should hide it away until we get there.”
“No!” Vedhe turned on him. “It’s mine. I won’t give it up.”
“Okay. Sorry.” Badru backed away, hands up. “It was just a suggestion.”
“Vedhe? Are you okay now?” K’lrsa asked.
Vedhe nodded. “I have it under control.”
But her hands still twitched towards the pouch at her belt and flames still danced in her eyes. K’lrsa flicked a glance at Badru and he stepped closer, taking Vedhe’s elbow and pulling her to the side. “Here. Come with me. We don’t want to get caught by whatever K’lrsa’s about to do.”
Vedhe resisted at first, but then she let him lead her away.
One of the Riders digging the ditch shouted and pointed towards the barren lands.
There, just on the horizon, was the first sign of Aran’s soldiers. Ten men across, they appeared, marching forward in precise lines. Row after row after row of them.
K’lrsa shivered as she gripped the staff tighter. She didn’t want to do this. But she had to. Vedhe was right. Why risk the Riders when they had the power to defeat the soldiers without risking a single life?
She moved towards the stream.
If this failed…
She shivered, picturing what it would be like for Vedhe to release the fire that burned inside her with so many men so close. In the throes of the sun orb’s power, she wouldn’t know friend from foe.
K’lrsa had to succeed. For everyone’s sake.
Chapter 59
K’lrsa walked towards the stream, her hands so sweaty she could barely hold the staff, her legs jittery with fear. She tried to find the Rider’s version of the Core, but it was elusive, just out of reach.
The closer they got to the water, the more the power of the staff beat against her mind, demanding to be used. The stream was about four paces across and knee-deep at its deepest. It provided a nice source of water to drink and maybe wash off, but it certainly wasn’t enough to keep an army at bay.
How was she going to turn something so small and peaceful into the raging torrent she’d need to defeat Aran’s men?
Was it even possible?
She had to try.
Or else Vedhe would send fire into their ranks. And maybe the Riders’ as well.
She shuddered as she imagined men burning, their flesh blackened and twisted, while Vedhe smiled, wielding death and destruction upon them.
K’lrsa stopped at the stream bank, her feet sinking into the mud at the water’s edge. She glanced to where Badru and Vedhe stood, watching her, waiting to see what she could do.
She planted the staff in the water and closed her eyes, letting her awareness settle on the spot where her palms met the wood of the staff, following the well of power she sensed down the staff’s length to the ground.
She traced the stream in her mind’s eye, following its meandering path northward towards where a great body of water lay. She could draw that water to her, bring it crashing down the length of the stream, building it ever higher until it was powerful enough to destroy her enemies.
But it was too far away to call in the time she had.
She moved her awareness away from the stream, seeking in all directions for any other source of water she could use.
The barren lands were like dark sludge and she shied away from their seeping poison, looking elsewhere.
Down. Deep, deep, down in the earth, she found a vast pool of water that had gathered over the ages one slow drip at a time. Still and silent, it called to her.
And she called to it.
She pulled the water from its hidden home, straining as she brought it through layer after layer of earth, carving a path to the surface.
She braced herself with the staff as the ground erupted at her feet, thousands of years’ worth of dirt and rocks shoved aside to make room for the geyser of water she’d called from the depths of the earth.
It shot upward into the sky, answering her call, responding to the power of the staff. Water that had trickled and flowed through cracks and fissures over thousands of years came to the surface in just a few heartbeats, unstoppable and overwhelming in its force.
Distantly, she heard screams. Aran’s men or her own, she didn’t know, she was too lost in the power of the staff, in the communion with the water that rushed through the rent she’d made in the earth.
The water shot high into the air and then plummeted back down at her command. She directed it towards the approaching soldiers and it crashed through their ranks like a giant fist, sending men flying in all directions like pebbles strewn by a careless hand.
None could stand against it.
The power of the staff filled her, vibrating through every part of her body, demanding more. It wanted her to reach for that distant water to the north, to call it to her and drown this dark and barren place in life-giving water.
Aran’s soldiers—those who could still move—fled back the way they’d come.
But she didn’t let go of the staff.
She couldn’t.
A small part of her desperately wanted to stop, but the call of the staff was too powerful.
She reached for that vast, endless stretch of water to the north…
Someone wrenched the staff out of her hands and flung it to the ground. She cried out, dropping to her knees, crawling after it through the mud and what little remained of the stream.
Distantly she could hear Badru screaming her name as he pulled her back, trying to keep her from reaching the staff again.
She fought him, desperate to renew that connection, to feel that power once more, but he wrapped her in his arms and pinned her to the ground.
She sobbed.
She was hollow, empty inside. Dead.
She needed the staff. It made her whole.
She fought Badru once again, kicking and biting and elbowing him. Screaming for him to let her go. But he held on, refusing to release her.
“I hate you.”
“Stop, K’lrsa. You did it. It’s enough. Let it go now.”
Vedhe stepped around them and wrapped the staff back up in its three layers of blankets. She took it away, walking back towards camp.
With each step the call of the staff faded.
K’lrsa lay there, gasping, still wanting the staff, but no longer overwhelmed by her need for it. Slowly, she calmed herself.
“It’s okay, Badru. You can let me go.”
“Can I?”
“Vedhe has the staff. And the sun orb. I’m sure she can keep me from taking it back.”
He let her up, wiping the worst of the mud from his arms. She was covered in it. It clung to her face and her hair and her clothes. She moved towards the stream to wash the worst of it off, but the stream was gone.
She clutched her arms across her stomach as she studied the carnage she’d wrought.
The ground was buckled and broken, like a giant had crumpled it in his fist. Aran’s soldiers were scatted everywhere. Or at least their bodies were. Bent and broken. Some buried in mud. A hand stuck out of the earth a few paces away, but no other sign of the soldier remained.
A few paces beyond that a man lay, his body twisted at an angle that shouldn’t be possible, his eyes frozen open in horror.
K’lrsa shook uncontrollably. “How many did I kill?”
“A lot.”
“Enough?”
Badru nodded.
K’lrsa turned towards the Riders’ camp. The destruction there was less, but her own hadn’t been spared. The trench Badru’s men had been building was full of water, a man in Rider’s garb floating facedown in the center.
K’lrsa buried her face in Badru’s soldier. “What have I done?”
She’d never wanted to kill. She’d just wanted to hunt and ride Fallion and spend time with her family.
But in this one moment, this one da
y, she’d killed more men than anyone she knew had ever killed.
And worse.
Even now, even seeing what she’d done, she longed to hold the staff and call that distant water from the north down upon them. To drown the world and cleanse it.
She couldn’t be trusted to use the staff again.
She’d kill them all.
Chapter 60
K’lrsa stumbled through the wreckage of the camp, Badru by her side. Even though Vedhe had the staff and it was wrapped in three layers of blankets and on the other side of camp, it called to her, telling her where even the smallest drop of water was and how easy it would be to gather that water to herself and use it.
A Rider ran up to them, her head bleeding from a nasty gash. “Badru.”
“Report.”
“Five dead. They were in the trench when the…” She glanced sidelong at K’lrsa. “When whatever it was struck. We rescued two, but were too late to save the others.”
K’lrsa shuddered. She’d thought using the staff would save lives, but it hadn’t. She’d killed those Riders. Her. It was her fault they were dead. They might’ve survived a battle, but how were they supposed to stand against a raging torrent of water?
Badru squeezed her hand, but kept his attention focused on the Rider. “Any others dead?”
The Rider shook her head. “No. But we have a lot of injuries. A few broken legs or arms, some cuts. If the soldiers come back we won’t be in any position to stand against them.”
Vedhe, who’d just joined them, answered, “They won’t come back. And if they do, I’ll handle them.”
The Rider looked back and forth between K’lrsa and Vedhe her eyes wide with fear.
“Thank you.” Badru rested a hand on her shoulder as he spoke, and she visibly relaxed. “I appreciate the report. Now, go. Take care of that cut.”
The Rider ran away after one last frightened look at them.
K’lrsa winced, but it was to be expected, wasn’t it? She was a monster. Look what she’d done. Without even trying.
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