The Tree
Page 36
Lil came up on her side and paused.
“Where is Erik?” Razel asked.
The branch floated off Lil’s waist and formed the words before Razel.
StillInTheHeartOfKandake
WeWillRetrieveHimLater.
“And everyone who was seeking sanctuary?” Razel asked.
ISentThemDeeper Inside
TheyWillBeSaferThere.
“Being Holder suits you,” Razel said, fully taking in Liliana, her smiling face, and her confident stance. The power almost dripped from every gesture.
Lil nodded and stepped forward, raising her hands.
LIL
Lil reached for her bond with Kandake and it flooded into her. Instead of a trickle, this was a river: wild, free, and untameable. She felt all of Kandake; the rooms hidden from view, the ones blocked off, and the ones that had to be coaxed open.
Not only did she suddenly know where these rooms were, but she knew the knowledge they contained; not intimately, but the general subjects. Lil thought of TheLefai Compendium of Refraction and Revenge: the first book about power she had ever read cover to cover, when she was still angry at her parents. To her surprise, when she thought of a page, it appeared in her mind’s eye, stains and rips and all. Exactly as she had seen it.
She thought of other books—Ngota’s Treatise on Control, Linche’s Poisons Both Natural and Un, and even the small, nearly forgotten folk collection The ‘dant Under Our Feet by Ertemisha. All of them flipped through her mind, page after remembered page. Then she thought of the pages she had sketched out of the movement of the root, so long ago. As Lil thought of them, she saw them all laid out in a pattern, and she could read it.
Her whole body froze.
She could feel the Babel blazing off the pages. The bones had been tracing out the long-lost language for her, but she had not seen it. That was what their movement had contained. The language of creation. She could have stayed forever exploring the Babel, but she felt the anger and rage and fear gathering just beyond the range of her body. Not beyond the range of the Athenaeum, though.
With a thought, Lil moved herself from the center of Kandake to the front hall. It was disorienting; like being in two places at once. At the same time that she was plucking her body from one room and putting it in another, she could feel her body being moved by an outside force. It was very confusing, and would take her a while to get used to.
She grabbed Matthias as well, pulling him along with her. When she reached for Erik, though, he slipped through her mental fingers; his body refused to be moved. It felt hollow, yet also too heavy to lift. Lil left him alone and released herself and Matthias into the front hall.
Bright white lights obscured her vision for a moment, and then cleared just as two thumps against her legs nearly threw her off balance. Lil recovered and looked down to see Min and Davi. She knelt and kissed them both soundly on the cheeks.
“I knew you would come back,” Min said into her neck.
She squeezed her tighter for a second, wanting to tell Min that she would never leave her. Since neither of her sibs could read, though, Lil had no way to communicate with them without Arel and Jagi as a go between. She held them tighter and looked to Matthias.
TellEveryoneToGoDeeperIntoKandake
TouchNothingTheyWillBeSafe.
He nodded and turned to the room, speaking loudly. She stood up, releasing her sibs. She smiled at them and nodded outside. They seemed to understand and smiled at her.
“I know you’ll come back,” Min said as she pulled Davi to her.
Lil smiled so wide the scars around her mouth ached, but she did not care. She nodded and turned to head out. People streamed to safety behind her. Matthias walked at her back.
After a quick talk with Razel, she stepped forward and pulled the water from the air and funneled it into the Maasu facing her Antes. The rain coalesced in a funnel around the combatants and then sunk into the black-armored being. The Maasu began to swell and struggled to move. The seams of its body became visible. It screamed while Arel and Jagi hurried to her side. Once they were clear she sucked all the moisture from the thing. The Maasu became a dried husk in seconds.
Lil stepped past them and crossed halfway to where Chayyliel stood.
YouWillLeave
IHoldKandakeNow.
“You are still a child, even if you Hold Kandake. And you must learn to not speak to the Ruling Court so,” Chayyliel responded.
IAmDoneWithLessonsFromYouChayyliel.
Lil thought of the page in Folding Space and You, a great primer by one of the previous Holders. The equations flashed in her mind and she put them into play, plugging numbers in. She held the resulting sigil in her mind and, pointing at Chayyliel, channeled it down her arm.
The Ante disappeared with a pop and reappeared only a few feet closer to Lil, screaming, without any of its limbs. She had adjusted the circumference of the space to only include its narrow torso and head, leaving everything else behind. The Antes in the crowd were screeching and screaming things, stinking the air with their displeasure, flashing complicated threats with patterns of light. Lil did not care. She moved forward to stand over the Ante who had thought to silence her by taking her tongue.
YouTookFromMeLordChayyliel
NowYouMayConsiderUsEven.
Chayyliel was too busy bleeding out a stream of white and screaming to see or read, but the message was not for it, but for all the other Antes in the crowd.
GoNow.
“No can do, princess.”
The voice called through the crowd. At first Lil could not see where it came from, but then the speaker glided forward between the Maasu and Antes. The thing that came forward looked like a ‘dant but it was not. She could see through it, like that one ‘dant from the other world, but inside this one was darkness. The same hunger Lil had felt from the darkness in her parents’ home pulsed at her from the thing. It continued to come closer to her body, to Kandake. She knew it had to be stopped.
The Antes and Maasu around it hissed and growled and snapped, they spat lightning and fire. They broke the earth beneath its feet and turned the air around it molten with heat.
None of it touched the thing.
She heard Matthias let out a long stream of what she assumed were curses.
Matthias stepped forward to flank her, as did rest from the other world. They all had anger and disgust clearly etched across their faces.
“Daniel,” Matthias growled. “I knew something about you was wrong.”
Daniel’s smile remained the same as he looked at all of them. “And yet here we stand. I guess Erik doesn’t trust—oh excuse me, I meant didn’t—”
Matthias’s hand shot to his pocket and came up with what looked like a small, round disk of silver. He flung it at Daniel, and as the object pierced Daniel between the eyes his whole body froze and then jerked to and fro in the air before going blurry and almost fading completely.
Daniel’s body snapped back into focus. He stared at Matthias. “That actually hurt. Merging with this form must have given me some of its weaknesses. Fascinating.”
“I’ve been stocking up on my spirit killing gear,” Matthias said with a nasty smile.
Daniel frowned at him, waiting, but Matthias only watched him back. Finally, the spirit turned to face Lil again.
“I’m quite angry with you, you know. I was not ready to reveal myself yet, but you taking hold of Kandake? That was a snag I wasn’t counting on. It takes a lot to surprise me.”
YouAreTheDarkness.
“I am many things, little girl, most of which would take you centuries to comprehend, but know this: I am your death. It is the way ahead and nothing you do here today can change that.”
IfThatIsTrueWhyBother
ToRevealYourselfAtAll?
Lil saw Matthias slowly pulling other things out of his pockets, so she did her best to keep Daniel’s attention on her by calling bright white light to her hands. It was a simple call since the lights did n
othing but glow, but still Daniel watched her hands warily.
“I prefer things to run smoothly. I feel it’s pretty obvious that these fools will be no challenge to you. Though now that I’m here—”
Matthias flung whatever was in his hands; it flashed gold in the air and struck Daniel in the stomach, but instead of going through it, the small disc stopped there in his midsection. Daniel screamed and sank his hands into his stomach, trying to pull the metal from his form. The disc would not move; instead, the parts of Daniel’s body in contact with it began to stretch and warp. Soon, Daniel’s whole form was sinking into the coin. When it was gone, the metal itself winked out of existence.
Everyone looked to Matthias.
WhatWasThat?
“A penny that has already crossed all five rivers of the Underworld of the Greeks. It will take a spirit, even a partial one as powerful as Daniel, at least a few moments to cross them again and return to the world of the living,” Matthias answered.
“Leave this place. Now!” Arel shouted at the gathered group of enemies facing them.
Lil watched the gathering, and a few of the Antes did turn to leave. She knew that there were Antes in Kandake who had sought shelter with her and that not all Antes were foul, but these were of the Ruling Courts. Most of those gathered were those who had been ruling for far too long to contenance anything challenging them. It would be a fight no matter what.
Both sides were waiting until a single Maasu crept closer, one that looked like a ‘dant except for the wickedly long claws and teeth that dripped with something yellow and sizzling. It came too close to Yonas, who reached out a hand and pressed it against the thing’s face. It screamed as Yonas burned through its skull and killed it.
The battle was truly joined after that, and Lil struck them down as they came at her. She had already done the base calculation for time and date and location for folding space, so she used it over and over, maiming Ante and Maasu alike as she moved pieces of them back and forth. She could feel the root still hanging in the pouch in her hip pocket. She could feel power leeching into her from where it pressed against her.
Lil pushed her way forward, as did the others, pushing the group back step by step. As other Antes fled, they were confronted with more Maasu.
They suffered their own injuries. She could see where Assan was sitting on the ground, one of his legs bleeding sluggishly, but still aiming carefully with his gun and letting fly. Kima crouched over him, her face covered in scratches that would scar her face in a crisscross pattern for all of her days. If she survived.
One of the foreign ‘dants yelled as a clawed hand wrapped around her arm and dislocated her shoulder before she could pull away. Hlani stood over an unconscious Quinn, who had blood covering her face, facing a Maasu that would soon rip her to shreds. Lil concentrated, moving part of it away and letting the other pieces drop, severed and dead. Hlani looked around until she met Lil’s eyes and nodded her thanks. She picked up her lover and ran for the doors of Kandake.
Uchel was using her powders like bombs, mixing powders and liquids in clear bladders and then throwing them with deadly accuracy. They burned the Antes’ skin, and when they hit the eyes of the Maasu, it blinded them.
Lil turned a corner and found Mayer crumbled behind one of the ruins that used to be buildings. He caught sight of her and fought to sit upright.
“So, it’s come to this?”
ItDidntHaveTo
YouBetrayedMe
YouForcedThis.
“No. I think neither one of us could have avoided this,” Mayer muttered, looking down at his wrinkled hands.
IfThatMakesYou FeelBetterAbout
YourActionsFeelFreeToBelieveIt.
Mayer looked up at her. He was now an old man, older than anyone she had ever seen, with his skin barely hanging on to his bones. The peach of his skin had withered to an unhealthy yellow that matched his teeth. He shook his head as he looked down at his hands. The knobs of his knuckles were huge against the twigs of his fingers.
Lil tried to bring herself to kill this ‘dant before her; the one who had raised her for almost twelve cycles; the ‘dant who had taught her so much, both how to heal and hurt, and most important, how to survive. But Mayer was also the ‘dant who had betrayed his people and her, who had brought all this upon himself. She reconciled these two parts of her former Holder very easily, but it did not make it simple to decide what to do. Was it mercy now or foolishness that urged her to allow him to live?
In the end, he had been her enemy. She thought of it and a page flashed in her head. A lesson on war from one of the best leaders of all time, kaSenzangakhona: Never leave an enemy behind, or it will rise again to fly at your throat. She could at least give him some semblance of dignity in death. She worked out the differences.
“Goodbye.” Mayer said, looking in her eyes. She managed to smile at him as she put all of the equations together in her mind.
He exploded into the sky, turning into silver light, spreading across the sky as something beautiful. She watched until he faded, mourning the man she had thought him to be, and then went back to the fight. They were winning and pushing the Maasu back, thanks to herself and those from the other place. More and more Antes had fled. Kima had dragged Assan inside and left those more effective against the Maasu to deal with the teeming hordes of black-armored monsters.
Then Daniel reappeared in an explosion of light.
“I did not like that!” With a gesture, the Maasu that Matthias was facing was wrapped in a teeming bubble of shadow. It screeched and screamed as it fell to the ground and the darkness burrowed into it and then went still. When it rose shakily back to its feet it was twice as tall as before. The holes where the darkness had eaten its way in were now covered with sharp black spikes that curled out.
The darkness shot out of the ground all around them, infecting the Maasu and growing them, turning them larger, more vicious, and harder to kill. Lil pulled the moisture from the air again, planning to use it to slow these opponents down and bury them. Before she could do this, something caught her in the chest and sent her flying into the air until her back slammed into something hard.
She fell to the ground, dazed, and looked up to see Daniel looking down at her. She narrowed her eyes.
“You’re not within your Athenaeum now, are you? Not even close enough to call on much of its power,” Daniel smirked.
Lil reached for her link with Kandake; it was there, but it was not flooding her with the power she’d had only moments ago.
“Your link has made you more powerful, but that power decreases the further you step from Kandake.” Daniel came closer.
The shield formed around her without much thought, an older spell Lil had learned very young. She fed all the power that Kandake was giving her into the shield. The root flared and the strength of the shield grew further but she didn’t know if it mattered any more. This close, she could feel the power and hunger from Daniel. Lil suspected that even were she in Kandake itself, she would not have the strength to stave off this power.
Lil let out a hoarse cry as the weight of the world came down on her shield, rubble and stone pushing down, trying to pierce her shield and get to her. Then the stone began to glow, heating to red hot, and the heat made its way through the shield. She began to sweat and any part of her touching the shield started to burn.
She struggled to push the shield out further and curled her body down smaller to give herself some breathing room. She brought the moving equations to mind once more and then, taking a deep breath, she applied them to herself.
And appeared on the steps of Kandake.
The increased power from being closer to Kandake helped her stay standing. Daniel turned toward her, flying forward.
Then Erik appeared above the Athenaeum, floating and glowing with power. The sky was ripping apart behind him, showing glimpses of white nothingness. Erik’s eyes were nothing but light from lid to lid and he looked at all of them with a smile.
The one they called Daniel did not seem injured, but there was definitely strain on his face where there had only been smug satisfaction before.
“Well, seems like you’ve learned a few tricks,” Daniel remarked.
Erik smirked right back. “More than a few.”
Erik looked down and behind him straight at Razel. Then he turned to look at Riana. He pointed at her.
“Traitor. Enheduanna is no longer yours. It belongs to this one.” Erik’s hand swung around to Razel.
Both women fell to the ground gasping, tears leaking from their eyes. The expressions on their faces were vastly different. Razel smiled, her whole face lighting up. Riana’s face was nothing but anger and resentment. She dove for her former apprentice but did not make it. She was lifted into the air until she faced Erik. He reached out slowly and touched her forehead. As soon as his fingertip made contact her mouth opened in a silent scream.
She began to glow a bright white, and a pulse passed from her forehead into Erik’s finger. In a flash, Riana was gone.
“What did you do?” Razel asked. There was no censure in her voice, but there was the beginning of fear.
When Erik looked at her, there was no emotion on his face, and Lil felt a shiver. “Do not concern yourself. She has been given the chance to help right what she has wronged.”
“Well,” Daniel said. “Looks like I have to take you out of the game.”
A thick tendril of darkness cracked the ground beneath Erik and shot into the air, wrapping itself around Erik. The man struggled against it and let out a roar as he tore pieces of it in his hands. Before Lil could think to do anything, the tendril pulled Erik beneath and the ground sealed itself over them.
“No!” She turned and saw Matthias screaming and heading for Daniel as quickly as he could.
MATTHIAS