Glyphbinder

by T. Eric Bakutis

  Kara tensed as her lessons at Solyr came back. “My spirit isn’t trapped here. A Soulmage could retrieve it!”

  “And do you know anyone like that?”

  Kara felt warm all over. “Jair.”

  “Good.” Cantrall stepped closer. “You’ve never done this before, so I’ll explain how to call out to him as simply as I can.”

  As Kara listened, she felt new hope.

  “WELL,” XANDER SAID, as he watched Byn hug Sera on the ruined ground of Terras. “That was a rather idiotic thing to do.”

  “You stupid jerk,” Jair whispered.

  Trell blinked at him. His eyes had turned bright orange. Orange? Orange was Kara’s color!

  “Jair?” Trell barely dared believe it.

  “Trell!” Jair stood up. He rushed over and threw his arms around Trell. “Five take me, I think I love you!”

  Trell stared and gawked. Jair was Kara, somehow. Kara’s soul in Jair’s body. Then Xander pulled Jair away, almost crushing his shoulders. “Kara!”

  Jair stared up at him. “Are you really my father?” That was Kara, talking through Jair’s lips.

  Xander nodded as new tears welled in his eyes.

  “What happened to you?”

  “I wasn’t strong enough to keep you safe. I lost you and I lost Ona. Ten years passed before I remembered who I’d lost, how I’d lost you. I’m here now. I always will be.”

  Jair nodded. He held himself the same way Kara had, calm and poised with feet spread. Balanced and ready.

  “You must return to your body.” Trell glanced at her motionless corpse. “Do you know how?”

  Kara/Jair followed the direction of Trell’s gaze. When she saw herself, she frowned. “You saved my body? But ... it was shredded.”

  That’s when Sera and Byn all but tackled her, nearly knocking her to the ground. Trell felt a grin as they shared a group hug. For a moment, it was like they were in Solyr again.

  “We saved it for you.” Sera hugged Jair’s body tight. “How did you ever get back? Jair, how did you find her?”

  Kara/Jair hugged them back. “It was Cantrall. I couldn’t believe it. He told me how to call out to Jair.”

  “Then what are you waiting for?” Byn thumped Jair on the back. “Get back in your body!”

  Kara/Jair stepped back. “I can’t...” Then Jair shuddered, clutching his head. His eyes faded from orange to black as he dropped to his knees, staring up at them.

  “What’s happening?” Xander demanded. “Where’d she go?”

  “The Mavoureen found us.” Jair stood and grimaced. “They grabbed Kara. They’re trying to drag her back into the Underside.

  “Then stop them!”

  “I don't—” Jair stopped talking. He stared past Xander at someone none of them could see.

  “Jair?” Trell watched him and gripped the pommel of his sword.

  “I'm listening,” Jair said. There was silence for a moment, and then Jair’s eyes went wide. “I understand. Thank you.” He smiled, a warm, real smile. “I'll see you soon.”

  “What's happening?” Trell demanded. “Did you get Kara back? Did you find someone else?”

  “Yes.” Jair turned to Trell, eyes calm. "Give me your sword."

  Trell did that. He gave his sword to a man who had moments before been trying to kill them. Jair’s eyes widened as he took the weight, but he knelt and settled the pommel on the ground.

  He stood then, sliding his fingers up the blade, careful not to cut himself. Leaving the tip of the blade pointed at the sky.

  “I’ve failed you all in so many ways, but it doesn’t matter anymore. You saved me. You saved my soul from the Mavoureen.” Jair smiled wide. “Thank you for believing in me.”

  He tossed himself forward. He impaled himself on the sword tip, hitting so hard it thrust into his chest and out his back. Jair gasped and coughed, spitting blood, but then his head snapped up and his eyes flared bright blue.

  Trell dashed forward. “You fool!” He caught Jair just as he began to fall. “Why?”

  Jair coughed again and met Trell’s eyes, though it was hard to tell with all the glowing blue. That soon faded as Jair’s eyes changed, first black, then orange. “Trust me.”

  Byn stumbled over. “Drown me, Jair. Why?”

  “My mother.” Jair choked and coughed. “She told me everything. Kara has to live. We need her.”

  Jair’s chest heaved, and then he went still. Then he died, and it seemed none of the Five planned to bring him back. With Cantrall gone and the gate closed, they were past that now.

  Trell felt sick to his stomach. He held Jair until he decided leaving a sword stuck in him wasn’t appropriate. He pulled the blade out, carefully, and settled Jair’s body on the stones of Terras. Sera whispered a quiet prayer.

  “Did he go mad?” Xander asked. “What was he trying to do?”

  Someone gasped, and they all turned to look. It was Kara. Kara was gasping. Her body flailed, her eyes wide open. She coughed and struggled to breathe.

  Xander reached her a moment before Trell, and then Byn and Sera were there too. Only Melyssa watched, smiling.

  “Kara!” everyone shouted at once.

  She stared at them. Alive. “Jair saved me.”

  Trell went to hug her, but Xander beat him to it. He pulled Kara into his arms and held her, and none of them begrudged him that. He was her father, after all. Her real one.

  “I don't know how,” Kara said, “but Jair pulled me out of the Underside just before Paymon dragged me back. Then he led me back here. To my own body.”

  “Paymon?” Byn looked around. “Who’s Paymon?”

  Kara shuddered. “I think he’s the king of the Underside.”

  They shared a long moment of silence as each of them considered the magnitude of what Jair had done. What Kara had done. Finally, Xander settled back and let Kara go.

  “Rough seas.” Xander beamed at her. “You’re alive.”

  “As are we.” Melyssa chose that moment to approach, walking as steady as she had in some time. “Torn’s glyphs are unchanged by all that has transpired here. It’s time for you to leave.”

  “Where is Jair?” Sera looked up at Melyssa, then glanced at Trell. Her lips compressed. “Is he—”

  “In the Underside? No.” Melyssa tapped her own chin. “I was not aware he had learned that particular glyph, but I knew several Soulmages who used it during the All Province War. When we lost someone we could not afford to lose.”

  “Soulmages can resurrect the dead?” Byn asked. “We never learned anything about that!”

  “Nor would you. It is not a glyph I’d want any student to use.” Melyssa frowned. “Under normal circumstances, souls drawn from the Underside return there when released. They have no purchase here, nothing to anchor them down.”

  “Normal circumstances.” Trell glanced once more at Jair. He almost expected the young man’s eyes to pop open.

  “Long ago, a powerful Soulmage discovered a loophole. A lost soul can be anchored here if the Soulmage uses their own life to anchor them. They pass their anchor onto another as their soul travels beyond, die so another may live.”

  Xander grunted. “When I stand before Order and Ruin, I’m going to buy Jair a drink. I might even write him a song.” He crossed his arms. “Now how do we get back to Mynt?”

  Trell stood and shook his head. He could not imagine what would have inspired Jair to do this. Was it his mother? Something she had said to them? Or could he simply not live knowing he was part of the calamity that had sent Kara to the Underside?

  “The spectral storms won’t touch me,” Melyssa said, “or those with my blessing. That was Torn’s gift. His love.”

  “Love won’t get us back to Mynt.” Aryn chose that moment to return, and stopped dead when he saw Jair. “What happened?”

  “Jair brought Kara back.” Trell turned to him. “He gave his own life to ensure her soul returned here, to her body.”

  Kara hurried over to Aryn
and pulled him into a hug. He went stiff, not moving. Kara didn’t stop hugging him.

  “Thank you,” Kara said. “For Sera. For everything.”

  Aryn awkwardly hugged her back. “Don’t mention it.”

  “I already did.” Kara let him go and turned to the rest of them. “I’d never ask Jair to give his life for me, and I can never repay him. But I’m determined to make his sacrifice worthwhile. I’m going to live and save my mother. All of you are going to live with me.”

  “Jair’s sacrifice won’t be forgotten,” Melyssa agreed. “But now that you have decided to rejoin us, Aryn, you must return to Mynt.”

  Aryn uncrossed his arms. “Are we to grow wings and fly?”

  “You have legs.”

  Byn looked between them and groaned. “You want us to walk?”

  “If you’ve a better idea, I’ll hear it.”

  Kara walked over to Trell and took his hand. She didn’t look at him, but she didn’t have to. Trell knew what she was thinking.

  He remembered very little about his wife, Marabella, but he did remember her face now. Tan skin, long lashes and beautiful blue eyes. Dark hair to her waist. Life had taken Marabella’s form so he would trust her, but she had given him something she’d never intended. She had given him back a memory of his dead wife.

  Trell squeezed Kara’s hand and then pulled his away. He wasn’t ready to deal with this yet. Their relationship, whatever it was. Instead, he looked to the broken gates of Terras. The land beyond was gray and dead.

  “Well?” he said. “Shall we go?”

  “Not yet.” Kara knelt at Jair’s side and settled his hands together, over his chest. “First we bury him. A proper burial.” She looked up. “Melyssa, where are we headed?”

  Melyssa shook her head. “I’m staying here.”

  “What? Why?”

  “The library.” Melyssa glanced at Jyllith, and Trell only then remembered she was there. She had retreated to a dark corner after Aryn spared her life. She crouched there, hugging herself.

  “We have won a great victory today,” Melyssa said, “but work remains. Unless Jyllith and I find a way to fix it, both she and Sera will become Demonkin in less than a month. Given the defeat you’ve just handed the Mavoureen, their eternity will be worse than most.”

  Jyllith stared and rose. “So you are going to kill me.”

  “Not yet.” Melyssa pointed to a giant building that still stood. “There are books in Terras none have seen for seventy years. This academy was the center of all research regarding the Mavoureen. If there is a cure for the Demonkin curse—“

  “Right,” Kara interrupted. “So we’ll stay and help.” She looked at the others for agreement.

  “No,” Melyssa said. “You leave today.”

  “Why would we do that?”

  “You have family waiting. Your mother. It’s time for you to return to her and claim your place as the royal apprentice.”

  “So come with us! We can always bring you back.”

  “My place is here, with Jyllith. No one waits for either of us back in the Five Provinces.”

  “You think I’ll just leave you here to plot?” Xander advanced on Melyssa. “Not bloody likely.

  “So you still plan to kill me?”

  “Tempt me.”

  “You’re welcome to stay with us. To keep an eye on me. If, that is, you plan to abandon your daughter a second time.”

  Xander turned a deep red, glaring at her. Trell wondered if he’d need to step between them. Fortunately, Xander simply spit and looked away. “I’m never leaving my family again.”

  “Wonderful.” Melyssa strode to Kara. “Take my hand.”

  Kara took it. She blinked. “What was that?”

  “Things I need from Tarna’s library. Take Sera with you, and send her back once you’ve obtained them. Time is precious and it’s likely she won’t be able to access Tarna’s library without your help.”

  Kara glanced at Sera. “That work for you?”

  Sera shrugged. “As well as anything.”

  “All right. Consider it done.” Kara hugged her great-grandmother for the first time in all her life. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me. I mean it. We won’t fail you.”

  Melyssa smiled and held her close. “I know.”

  “What about me, Melyssa?” Aryn asked. “I scribed my soul to Balazel. Are you going to imprison me here, too?”

  Melyssa stepped back from Kara and eyed him up and down. “You are free of your curse. You have already been to the Underside. Your pact is complete.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense!”

  “Think about it until it does.” Melyssa turned back to Xander. “I give you my word I will never harm Kara or take her from you again. Now it’s up to you to make a choice. Stay here, watch me, or return to your daughter and wife.”

  He glared at her. “You had no right to take our lives away.”

  “Yet you still have them, don’t you?” Melyssa settled her hands on her hips. “If it was me, I would choose to spend the rest of my life with my husband. But I never had that choice.”

  “When you die,” Xander said, voice low, “I’ll be back to piss on your grave. I’ll make a special trip.”

  “I love you too.” Melyssa fixed him with a bright smile before she turned on Kara. “Now. It really is time for you to go. Jyllith and I will bury Jair and wait here, search the library, until Sera returns. Maybe we’ll have a cure by then. We won’t stop looking.”

  “All right.” Kara turned to Xander. “Let’s get moving.” She almost smiled. “Dad.” She marched for the gate, raising one arm and waving her hand. “We’re moving out!”

  Trell hurried after her. “Kara, wait. What if there’s something here that could heal your mother? Some cure in that library?”

  Kara glanced back at him. “I already have a cure.”

  “What?” Trell rushed to keep up. “Where?”

  “I understood what happened to my mother as soon as I examined Torn’s body, felt Torn’s blood inside me. I know how to fix her, and I’m going to ensure she lives to a ripe old age.”

  “Then the two of us will have lots of time to argue.” Xander threw an arm around Kara and pulled her close as they walked. “Assuming you still want to get to know your real father?”

  Kara did not push him off. “We could try that.”

  Trell glanced back. Aryn followed, scowling, and Byn and Sera walked just behind him. Holding hands. Jyllith stood at Melyssa’s side and stared after them, a ghost of the woman she had been before. A wraith left only with guilt and regret.

  Trell wondered what would become of her. He wondered if someone who had done as many horrible things as she had could ever be redeemed. He then decided, in her case, he didn’t care.

  They walked out of Terras and Kara led them resolutely east, the way Trell assumed would take them back to Mynt. They had no horses, no provisions. They would need to hunt on this journey. They would need to find something to eat.

  He watched Kara walk and tried to make sense of his conflicted feelings. Her death had been so brief that he had been unable to truly process it, but that did not make it any less disturbing. It had simply left him feeling ... empty.

  He could not know if what he felt for Kara was real or some aspect of Life’s influence. What he did know is Kara had saved his life and then saved their world. They had been through so much together that he could not imagine his life without her.

  For now, that was the only answer he had.

  Chapter 26

  FIVE DAYS LATER, JUST PAST SUNRISE on the same day fresh Sentinels were to arrive from Nevelaunt, Prince Beren received a report that his soldiers had captured a large gathering of gnarls at the border of the Unsettled Lands. They had a small group of humans as captives. He told Ona Tanner about it.

  Moments later Ona rode out with his guard, on Chesa, despite the agony in her body and the way each jolt made her want to scream. Ona had endured more pain than t
his for more years than she could count, and the thought of Kara, alive, could get her through anything. She would not lose her daughter now.

  Beren shouted orders as twenty of his best soldiers rode with them. If he had assumed their big warhorses would need to slow to avoid outdistancing Chesa, Ona’s mare proved them wrong. They rode just behind Beren, and Ona wondered if Chesa was eager to see Kara too. Solyr’s horses were unusually intelligent.

  As they rode Ona’s illness faded to a dull ache — it tended to come and go throughout the day, always worse at night — and today the pain was only a little bit agonizing. She could focus and think.

  Beren’s host thundered past disinterred skeletons, the reminders of the horrors a harvenger set loose upon her land. They rode hard until the sun was well risen. In early afternoon, they finally reached the edge of the Unsettled Lands. Ona gasped at the sight.

  The looming storms along the border of Mynt crackled with ominous light, gathered in an unnatural way, as if some invisible wall held them back. When Ona saw distant human figures among a horde of tall red gnarls, her grip tightened on Chesa’s reins.

  Beren halted his vanguard and Ona urged Chesa up beside his massive black warhorse. “My daughter’s out there?”

  “So I’ve been told.” Prince Beren was a massive man wearing gold armor that glittered in the sun, but Ona knew that was simply his ceremonial armor. What he wore to rally his legionnaires.

  She had seen his other armor, his real armor. Glyphed magesteel formed of interlocking plates. If Beren had intended to fight these gnarls, he would have come wearing that. Two scars marred his face, one on each side, and the left was far fresher than the right.

  Ona had earned her place at Beren’s side when she rode into his vanguard with a horde of gnarls and davengers on her tail, carrying Melyssa’s apprentice medallion. Beren’s legionnaires and Firebrands had torn the gnarl host apart, spears and shields and fireballs advancing as one. Ona still shuddered every time she thought about how close she had come to death. Now, her daughter was in danger.

  Another soldier hurried over to them, on foot. A legionnaire with four dark chevrons burned into his forehead. He stopped and saluted, armored plates clattering against his linked chain.