The Cra gave them a wide berth, swooping out of reach and staying close to the ceilings while the harrowghasters massed below, reaching vainly. The mountain-womi kept close together and managed brief Confusions and walls of fire to keep the harrowghasters away. However, two witches had been exploring the Citadel independently and the younger of the two was caught unawares and swarmed. She was left now slumped on the stairs, her bloody chest gaping open. The harrowghasters moved on, following the scent of life.
Eliza and the wizard of Lil had spent no more than an hour searching unsuccessfully for books not yet drained by the Sorceress. Eliza had twice had to remind Uri Mon Lil of who she was, who he was, and what they were doing. Once this was clear to him, he would set about the task with renewed zeal until he forgot again. Eliza smelled the harrowghasters before she saw them, the unmistakable waft of rotting flesh pouring from the hallway. She dropped the book she’d been examining and drew her dagger.
“Something is coming,” she said to Uri Mon Lil. “Get behind me and find a spell in your book.”
Uri Mon Lil was more than happy to dart behind Eliza.
“Spells are at the back of the book,” Eliza reminded him.
“What am I looking for?” he asked, flipping pages frantically.
“Something useful,” said Eliza as the harrowghasters swarmed into the Library, their clouded eyes lighting on the girl and the wizard. The stench was overpowering. Eliza spoke a simple barrier spell and the harrowghasters pressed themselves around it. Their lips had rotted away, leaving black-toothed hideous grins exposed, and they clacked their teeth now with eagerness. She could feel the barrier buckling under their strength and knew her skill was not enough to hold it long.
“You need to do the spell of flight,” she said urgently to the wizard. “Flight with your staff. Quick.”
Uri Mon Lil read the spell. As he finished, Eliza let her barrier crumble and Uri Mon Lil shot up into the air with his staff. Eliza darted between two of the harrowghasters, racing towards Foss’s stone figure as if he could offer protection.
“Do something!” she shouted at the wizard, who was hovering way up near the ceiling, hanging over his staff and reading anxiously. The harrowghasters gave up on him and made for Eliza. For a minute or two she was able to fend them off with her dagger. She sliced off hands that reached for her, causing the harrowghasters to be a little more cautious, but there were too many of them to keep in her line of sight at all times. She stepped back and felt something like ice on her back, right between her shoulder blades, an awful cold grip that seemed to suck the air right out of her. The blood in her veins stopped flowing and a deathly heaviness sealed over her. Her eyes darted towards the dangling wizard but she could not make a sound, her lungs constricting violently.
Uri Mon Lil’s book flew from his hands and hurtled across the room, striking the harrowghaster that had touched Eliza in the head. It was only a second but the blow knocked him slightly and his fingers left her back. Her blood began to flow again and air rushed into her lungs. She dove sideways, away from that deathly touch. The others descended on her, but before they could lay their hands on her all the books on the floor rose up and began to whirl about the room, battering the harrowghasters. A path through the storm of books cleared before Eliza, straight to the window. She could hear a voice chanting, and for a terrible moment she thought it was Nia. But then the voice cried, “Run, my girl!” and she saw her grandmother, Selva, by the hole Nia had blasted through the wall. The empty books rained down on the harrowghasters. Eliza grabbed Uri Mon Lil’s book and ran to the window.
“Dragon of fire!” she shouted. Ka’s dragon, waiting in the grounds far below, lunged into the air towards the window.
“Get down here!” Eliza called to the wizard.
“How?” he whimpered. The staff dove down towards her but remained several feet off the ground.
“Just stop flying,” she shouted at him.
“I don’t know how to stop!” he returned, but then a book struck him hard and he tumbled off his staff to the floor with a great wail. The staff darted back up to the ceiling. The harrowghasters were fighting through the books, some of them making for Eliza and Uri, some of them for Selva. Eliza grabbed hold of Uri Mon Lil and pulled him out the broken window with her. The two of them were caught almost immediately by Ka’s dragon, who carried them out over the grounds under the darkening winter sky, nearly crushed in his talons, and set them down. Five of the harrowghasters hunched at the broken window, staring out after their vanished prey with dead eyes.
The Cra had been lying in wait. Since Eliza had returned to the Citadel, hundreds of them had been massing around the walls, bearing vast oily nets. When they saw that their nemesis had evaded the harrowghasters they surged up over the walls, shrieking. Ka’s dragon was instantly caught in a vast net. Another net was dropped over Anargul’s wounded dragon. Eliza knew that the weak enchantments of the Cra would not hold a dragon for more than a few moments but that was all the time such a horde of the Cra needed.
“Come on,” she said, catching the wizard by the hand and running towards the Inner Sanctum for shelter.
“Oh, what is happening?” cried Uri Mon Lil, who had forgotten everything again and was very distressed to find himself fleeing an army of winged monsters without knowing why.
Looking up as she ran, Eliza saw above the shrieking Cra a great dark cloud descending. For one sickening moment she thought it was further armies of the Cra, numbers beyond what even the dragons would be able to repel, but as the cloud fell towards them and separated into individual shapes she understood. Something struck the back of her neck and she stumbled forwards. The Cra were all over her in an instant, knocking her to the ground on top of the cowering wizard. She felt sharp teeth and claws driving into her, strong arms trying to pull her over, but she clung to the wizard, shielding her chest and face and holding the book tight against her with one arm.
And then the ravens fell cawing on the Cra, attacking them with their hard, vicious beaks. The grounds of the Citadel had become a surreal battleground, black feathers flying. Ka’s dragon tore his way out of the enchanted net and blazed fire in all directions, causing the Cra that could still do so to take flight. Eliza scrambled to her feet and pulled Uri Mon Lil into the Inner Sanctum. They huddled in the hallway listening to the sounds of the battle outside, the screams of the Cra beating a retreat, and then quiet. They were both battered from the flying books in the Library and badly cut by the claws and teeth of the Cra.
“Are you all right?” Uri Mon Lil ventured, after they had sat and caught their breath a while.
“I’m fine,” said Eliza, examining herself and concluding this was more or less true, since she was not bleeding heavily. “You?”
“I believe I am...not in mortal danger from these injuries,” said the wizard.
Eliza smiled weakly. “Good. Then we’re both all right.”
“I’m so glad,” said the wizard politely. “Do excuse me for asking, for this may strike you as a bit odd, but...”
“You dinnay know who you are or what’s happening,” Eliza finished for him. The wizard looked stunned by this.
“That is it, precisely. How did you know?”
“Everything is explained right here,” said Eliza, handing him his book. “But we need to get out of here first.”
She was getting slowly to her feet again, allowing herself to feel where it hurt now that she was safe, when a great scream came from Ka’s dragon outside. Eliza ran out of the Inner Sanctum with the wizard close behind her. Both were momentarily paralyzed with horror by what they saw.
The harrowghasters were all over Anargul’s dragon, who had only partially been able to get loose from the net the Cra had dropped. Ka’s dragon was wheeling above them and sending down blades of fire but the harrowghasters did not burn. Anargul’s dragon thrashed weakly for only a moment and then lay still. The harrowghasters began to burrow into the great beast’s chest. A few others were feedi
ng on the Cra left behind because they were too wounded to fly. It was a veritable feast for them. One of them spied Eliza and trudged half-heartedly in her direction.
“What is that?” cried the wizard. “It smells foul.”
“You cannay let them touch you,” said Eliza. “It’s death if they do.”
She did not need to call Ka’s dragon. It swooped down and Eliza and the wizard climbed onto its back, taking to the air well before the slothful harrowghaster reached them. In the shattered Library window she saw the dark-clothed figure of her grandmother raising a triumphant fist.
“Go north,” she commanded the dragon. The dark cloud of ravens followed in their wake.
~~~
They flew north for a few hours before deciding to rest. It was an overcast night and great heavy snowflakes fell from the sky. Unable to see anything but the falling snow in the blackness, Eliza had the dizzying sensation that they were soaring ever upwards, and the ground suddenly firm beneath them gave her a shock when the dragon landed. The wizard built a little shelter out of dead tree branches by a frozen river while Eliza broke the ice and enchanted some fish to leap ashore and become a midnight supper. The mass of ravens settled quietly in the sparse, snow-covered trees.
Uri Mon Lil read his book over by the fire after they had eaten and then said, “According to my last entry, I was in the Library of the Mancers seeking a book that might be useful in my quest. There I met you, the Shang Sorceress.” He gave her a slight bow here, which looked very odd sitting down. “Would you mind telling me what we are doing camping out in the snow now?”
“The Citadel wasnay safe,” said Eliza wearily. Uri Mon Lil scribbled this down. “The books were all empty, anyway.” She stretched and stared at the fire.
“I see.” Uri Mon Lil looked around and said politely, “And this place is...?”
“Lah, just a place to rest,” said Eliza. “Does your book mention harrowghasters?”
Uri Mon Lil flipped to the front and scanned the glossary of beings.
“Yes...here...oh my, they sound terrible. We haven’t had a run-in with them, have we?”
“Aye, we have,” said Eliza. “I wish I could forget all about it, too. Does your book say that they feed on the hearts of living beings?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what it says. Let me see...”
“So they wouldnay be interested in a ghost or a spirit, would they?” said Eliza.
Uri Mon Lil gave her an odd look. “What do you mean?”
Eliza shook her head. “It’s nay important now. We need to get some sleep, aye. Let’s take turns keeping the fire going. Here, I have an idea.” She took his book and pencil from him and wrote on an empty page the following instructions, KEEP THE FIRE GOING. Each time you forget everything and have to check your book, put a mark here. Once there are six marks, wake up Eliza. Satisfied, she handed it back. “That way, your watch should be just about three hours, and then I’ll take over for the next three hours.”
“Ingenious!” agreed Uri Mon Lil. “Now, perhaps you could explain to me our plan. Have we got one?”
“Nay yet,” said Eliza. “Stop asking questions – it’s your watch and that means it’s my turn to sleep.”
Wrapping her coat tightly around her, she curled up before the fire.
Uri Mon Lil sighed. To his impressions of Eliza he added surly, then spent the remainder of his watch writing down many poetical descriptions of snow, which he was quite struck by. Eliza barely slept. She lay with her eyes squeezed shut while images of the shrieking Cra and the half-dead harrowghasters closing in on her reeled through her mind. Had it not been for Eliza’s grandmother, they would not have made it out of the Library alive. The way the harrowghasters had made for her, too, told Eliza one thing for certain – Her grandmother was alive. Kyreth had lied to her.
The following morning, they spotted another dragon glinting gold in the sun – the one Eliza had sent north. Ka’s dragon called out to it. It veered towards them and landed by the river, vast wings stretched out and gleaming. Standing in the snow by the smouldering fire, even with all her cares, Eliza was struck by the beauty of the scene – their rough little camp, the snow crisp and thick over the ground and the trees, and the brilliant dragon descending. When it came close to them, she saw by the brand on its neck that it was Trahaearn’s dragon, and to her great relief, it had in its talons the Book of Barriers. Of course, when she opened it the Book was empty, drained of its knowledge by Nia, but that was of no great importance. All they needed was the object itself and the memory it would contain.
They worked the spell in the shelter by the river. The dragons took to the sky, their dark shadows wheeling across the snow and their scales shining in the morning sun, reveling in their freedom and power. Eliza and the wizard knelt on either side of the book, fingers entwined, and pressed their joined hands against it. Together they spoke the spell of Deep Seeing. They both felt the book giving way beneath their hands, the earth giving way beneath the spell, a tipping sensation as if the ground had suddenly tilted up vertically and they were sliding along it, and then they were swallowed by the book. It was the strangest sensation, as if they were liquid being poured down a spout and emerging as something entirely different.
Eliza was looking at Nia from an odd angle, as if lying on the floor looking up at the Sorceress. Nia’s arms were raised above her head. She was pouring with sweat and clothed in flame, long bright ribbons of it dancing around her. The words she spoke were heavy with power and rooted in something deep and dark and secret – each one shimmered with pain, was edged in fire. She spoke the Language of First Days and yet there was something strange about it, something different. It was not the language normally used for spells. These were not commands or pleas or even complete sentences or words but rather the original roots of certain words, disconnected, as if she were naming things with no past or future. Flesh and bone and blood and sweat, rage and sorrow and fear and regret, these she called forth and each one began and ended in pain. The flames that licked her body fell away and formed a broad circle of smoke and ash. She stepped out of the circle and placed in the middle of it a pale, dead finger.
Eliza fell face first onto the book. Uri Mon Lil was staring at her with horror.
“Who are you?” he asked in a terrified whisper. “What are we doing?”
Eliza could have wept. Forgetting his purpose, he had pulled out of the spell. They would have to start over every twenty-nine minutes.
“It’s important,” she said. “It’s important. We have to do it again.”
She reached her hands out but Uri Mon Lil did not take them. She saw her hands were shaking and took a deep breath.
“You are a wizard under a curse,” she said, struggling to control her voice. “There is no time to explain but please, you have to help me. We are performing a very important spell. Please trust me. I beg you.” Tears rose to her eyes and she blinked them away angrily. Slowly, hesitantly, Uri Mon Lil reached out and took her hands.
“Teach me the words,” he said in a low, uncertain voice.
They spent the day working the Magic. Every twenty-nine minutes Uri Mon Lil, forgetting their purpose, would withdraw from the spell in horror and they would have to begin again. The sixth time in, Eliza realized that the spell of Making had taken more than hours, more than days, in fact many months. They would need to skim through it like a book, looking for key moments, points of change. This was not easy but was in some way facilitated by the twenty-nine minute limit. They needed rest and timed these according to Uri Mon Lil’s memory loss. Then they would re-enter the spell, emerging again a half hour later, shaking and appalled.
Nia shouted, flamed, raked the air with fiery hands. The finger on the ground split open, began to grow. The bone branched out into a skeleton with many arms. The flesh formed the body within and around it. Fire and smoke threaded through the creature like nerves and veins. It had no heart or internal organs. It lay in the circle of ash, massive and unmoving
, lifeless. Nia had not Made anything yet, only changed the shape of the finger. Eliza remembered that awful moment more than two years ago when Nia had sliced off Rea’s little finger before letting her go. Had she been planning this since then? This monster was her mother’s very flesh and bone, changed and ravaged, but what animated it?
They slept poorly that night and began again at dawn. Although Uri Mon Lil could not remember any of it, they were developing a rhythm together, entering the spell more surely and easily each time. His hands and his power remembered, even if his mind did not. Each time she explained to him what they were doing he seemed more accepting of it.
Nia knelt on the ground and cupped her hands together. She whispered into a small opening between her thumbs. Eliza could not hear what she said and yet she felt it, a pure horror and a vengeful rage. She was half-relieved every time Uri Mon Lil’s concentration faltered and the spell spat them out. Then she would look into the wizard’s terrified, bewildered face and explain, as best she could, again and again and again. Nia’s hair began to fade and whiten, thin lines spidered across her face, and always she remained in the same posture, whispering hoarsely. The inaudible words radiated an unendurable level of pain, wrath and fear.
The Unmaking: The Last Days of Tian Di, Book Two Page 16