Bone War

by Steven Harper

  The queen turned her attention back to Ranadar. “The golems must stay in Balsia until you come to me, as you swore you would. The moment you arrive, our bargain will be sealed and you will have what you asked for. I am waiting for you at Lone Mountain in Alfhame. Oh, my son, how I have missed you!” She stepped in to kiss his forehead as she had done before, and Ranadar smelled the daisy scent in her hair, a smell of childhood and home. Then she was gone and a very confused page was standing in her place while a sprite fled to the sky.

  “What—?” began the page.

  A low rumbling started under their feet. It grew louder. Shouts and screams rose within the Gold Keep. The page ran back toward the gate. Ranadar waited, pacing a little. More shouts and screams, punctuated with occasional crashes and thumps. Someone shouted an order to lower the portcullis. But this apparently came too late. Moments later, a herd of Talfis in ragged clothes thundered around the corner. Ranadar smiled and prudently crossed the street. A startled, bruised-looking set of guards followed them, along with a clay golem that hopped on one leg and carried the other in its hand. The people on the street scattered. Horses neighed and reared. One of the Talfis saw Ranadar and pointed.

  “Ran!” he shouted. “Vik! It’s Ran!”

  The Talfis scattered in a hundred directions, running with Talfi’s easy, loping speed and flummoxing the guards, who did not know which way to turn. It was breathtaking, in a strange, stomach-wrenching way. Ranadar always forgot how fast Talfi could run, and it made sense that his duplicates would share the trait. Hafren came up behind the guards. Her hair was in disarray, her iron circlet was missing, and her dress was torn. Ranadar wanted to laugh aloud.

  “Catch them, you idiots!” she screeched. But the Talfis were already gone. Except for one, the one who had pointed out Ranadar and the only one who was not required by Mother’s command to scatter and hide. This Talfi, the true Talfi, flung himself into Ranadar’s arms.

  “Ran!” he said breathlessly into Ranadar’s ear.

  Ranadar’s entire body sagged with thrilled relief, but he had the presence of mind to spin a glamour. It would not make the two of them invisible, but it would make people reluctant to notice them.

  “You are safe,” he said. “Thank the Nine you are safe!”

  “I’m sorry about last night!” Talfi blurted. “I would never leave you! Never! I was just mad, and—”

  “I am also sorry,” Ranadar interrupted. “But we should move. I cannot hide two people under a glamour for long.”

  “Where are we going?” Talfi asked as they moved down the street together.

  “Back to Mrs. Farley’s to get some things,” Ranadar said, avoiding the long-term answer for now. It was so good to have Talfi back he did not want to ruin the moment with the news of his promise to Mother. “What happened to you?” he asked instead.

  “After we … fought,” Talfi said, “I ran into a bunch of trolls. They were looking for me … for the flesh golems. They didn’t believe me when I told them I wasn’t a golem, and I guess I wouldn’t have, either. They threw me in a cage on a cart with a bunch of other versions of me, and that had to be the strangest thing I’ve seen in a while. They could have broken out of the cart any time they wanted to, but no one gave them the orders. I told them to do it, and they wouldn’t, even though I’m the First.”

  Because Mother wanted them arrested, Ranadar thought. He led them around a knot of carts and narrowly missed a goose girl with a herd of geese. “What happened then?”

  “They hauled us down into the cells and left us there. It was cold and wet and they didn’t feed us or empty the shit bucket, so it stank to make your eyes water. I was scared you didn’t know where I was. Eventually, a bunch of guards came in and dragged three of them away. We didn’t know what was going on, but we could guess. And then all of a sudden, the golems went berserk. They smashed down the doors and stampeded up the stairs, right over a bunch of the guards. I wasn’t going to stay! When I got out the gates, I saw you.”

  “Lady Hafren was going to execute all of you,” Ranadar said grimly.

  “And Karsten went along with this?” Talfi’s eyes were wide.

  “Karsten doesn’t know. I think he’s too busy dealing with the earthquake.”

  “But why?” Talfi said.

  “A combination.” They turned another corner, and Ranadar judged they were safe enough to let the glamour drop. “She does not like regi men, and she does not like the Fae and she does not like a Fae prince living in Balsia and she does not like flesh golems, so she would rather kill them. And you.”

  Talfi halted and caught Ranadar in another breathless embrace. “I’m sorry about everything I said,” he whispered into Ranadar’s ear. “I was stupid, and I don’t ever want to fight with you again. I can’t live without you. Not a century, not a year, not a day.”

  “I feel the same, my Talashka,” Ranadar whispered back, but he was tense with the words he still had to say.

  They continued on their way. Life was returning to normal in the city. People were already repairing or rebuilding damaged houses, and the streets bustled with business.

  “The big question is why the golems decided to revolt,” Talfi said. He turned to look at Ranadar. They were nearly at Mrs. Farley’s now. “Did you have something to do with it?”

  “I?” Ranadar temporized. “What makes you think I had—”

  “You were right there when it happened. That’s too big a coincidence to swallow. Don’t get me wrong, Ran—I’m insanely glad it happened. But what did you do?”

  “I—”

  Ranadar was saved from answering further by Other Talfi, who barreled out of Mrs. Farley’s door to greet them. He nearly knocked Talfi over with a hug.

  “First!” he said breathlessly. “You’re all right! Well, of course you’re all right. You can’t be anything else. It’s just good to know that—”

  “You’re babbling,” Talfi said, disentangling himself. “What’s wrong with you? You’ve never acted like this.”

  “Just glad to see you.” Other Talfi ran a hand through his hair and kept his eyes away from Ranadar. “Yep. Really glad.”

  “Were you not ordered to scatter and hide?” Ranadar said.

  “Yeah,” Other Talfi said. “I hid here. She didn’t say how long we had to hide, so now I’m coming out.”

  “Hide? She?” Talfi said. “What’s going on?”

  “The queen ordered it.” Other Talfi tapped his temple. “I heard her in my head.”

  “Why would she order that all the way from Alfhame?” Talfi said, bewildered. “How did she order it from Alfhame? Does it have anything do with the escape?”

  “Well, yeah,” said Other Talfi brightly. “Ranadar promised Queen Gwylph that if she called off the invasion and broke you out of the cells, he’d go back to Alfhame.”

  The blood drained from Talfi’s face and Ranadar felt as if he had been punched in the gut. “You promised what?” Talfi whispered.

  “It is not quite like that,” Ranadar said quickly. “I did not—”

  “Did you promise her you’d go back to Alfhame?” Talfi interrupted.

  “Yes, but—”

  “Vik’s balls!” Talfi turned his back in a fury. “After everything we argued about, you went to your mother and promised this while I was in prison? Did you also promise I’d come as your slave?”

  “Damn you!” Ranadar hissed at Other Talfi.

  “I’ll go with you,” said Other Talfi. “She won’t notice the difference unless she looks closely, and she won’t.”

  “Talfi.” Ranadar put a hand on Talfi’s shoulder. “Please, listen. I swore to her I would return, yes, but only because it was the only way I could get you out of the cells. They were planning to kill you. And the invasion! I got her to call off the invasion!”

  “I can’t die, Ran. You didn’t need to promise anything.” The red anger in his voice rang harsh against Ranadar’s ears. Only moments before Ranadar had been worried that he would
never see Talfi again, and now they were fighting again. What was wrong with them? A faint smell of rotting plants drifted past, and he wrinkled his nose, trying to ignore it.

  “We do not know that entirely,” Ranadar said. “What if they cut your head off and put it on a spike outside the gates like they did with the others? Would you come back then?”

  Talfi turned back around. “Spikes?”

  “You did not see—we were trying to get away.” Ranadar swallowed. “I was angry at the way Hafren treated me and at what she said about you, and I did not want all the golems to be executed. So I promised my mother I would return if she would call off the invasion and get you and the others out. She did, so now I have to go to Alfhame.”

  A silence stretched between them. Ranadar wanted to speak, but the silence was too heavy, and he could not break it. At last, Talfi sighed and rubbed his nose with the back of his hand.

  “Well,” he said, “I suppose we would have had to pop over to Alfhame next anyway.”

  The shift was so abrupt it made Ranadar sway. The rotten plant smell vanished. “We would?” he said.

  “Yeah. Danr went with Kalessa and Aisa to find the Bone Sword while we stayed here to find out what the candle wax man was about. And we did—Queen Gwylph was planning to invade Balsia with him and the other golems. But she called it off, and now we have to go to Alfhame.”

  “Why?” asked Other Talfi.

  “The invasion may be off, but Pendra is still caged up,” Talfi pointed out. “Aisa and Danr and Kalessa are heading to Alfhame with the Bone Sword to stop the queen once and for all. We can’t let them do it alone.”

  “I’m coming, too,” said Other Talfi. “You’ll need help.”

  Talfi snorted. “Sure. And the minute the queen tells you to stab us in the back, you’ll do it.”

  “Not if Ranadar tells me to do something different,” Other Talfi said. “Do you think I like having to obey the queen? She’s beautiful and I feel that need to obey her, but I don’t … I don’t … you know.”

  “Love her?” Ranadar said.

  Other Talfi glanced away. “Yeah.”

  Ranadar shook his head. He felt nothing for Other Talfi. Did not wish to. But he did feel bad for him. It was not his fault—

  “I wonder what would happen to all you golems if the queen died,” Talfi mused aloud.

  Other Talfi’s head came around. “What?”

  “You know.” Talfi spread his hands. “Elves addict humans with a touch. Mind games and glamour. I wonder if something like that’s what makes you obey her. I mean, elven addiction doesn’t affect me anymore because I died and came back, but you aren’t quite me. She built you, so maybe she was able to make a little change. But the addiction ends when the elf dies—sorry, Ran—so I was just wondering what would happen.”

  “Hmm,” said Ranadar. “This is not a line of thinking I enjoy.”

  “Well,” Talfi said, “how exactly are we going to stop your mother? Reason with her?”

  “I was hoping, yes,” said Ranadar. “She wants me back on the throne, either beside her or beneath her. She will have to listen to some of what I say.”

  “Uh-huh.” Talfi chewed a thumbnail. “I don’t think you know your mother as well as you think you do.”

  “How can I kill my own mother?” Ranadar tried to say, but it came out as a half wail.

  “I know, Ran, and I’m sorry. But she killed me,” Talfi said. “And all those Stane. And a bunch of Kin.”

  “Yes.” Ranadar’s face was pale. “But … could you kill your own mother?”

  “I don’t remember her,” Talfi said truthfully. “It’s not an easy thing, but it’s a necessary thing, Ran.”

  “We can use reason,” Ranadar said. “And we don’t have to kill her. Danr and Aisa and Kalessa probably have the Bone Sword by now, and they will use it to free Pendra. Once that happens, my mother will lose nearly all her power and we will not need to kill her.”

  “Sure,” Talfi said doubtfully. “I just think we need to keep our options open.”

  “Mother said she was at the Lone Mountain,” Ranadar went on doggedly. “We need to get there before Danr and the others show up with the Bone Sword so we can run interference.”

  “How?” Talfi said.

  “My arrival will help a great deal,” Ranadar said seriously. “It will lull Mother into a sense of security and put her off her guard. If I take my position as crown prince, I can change the patrols and make it easier for our friends to get there. Or, if they are captured, I can stop them from being killed outright.”

  “Let’s go, then.” Talfi turned to Other Talfi. “But not you. You’re staying behind.”

  “Do either of you know the way to the Lone Mountain?” Other Talfi countered.

  Ranadar and Talfi exchanged looks. “Not from here,” Ranadar admitted.

  Other Talfi grinned. “Then it looks like I’m leading the way.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  The mud monsters reached for Danr with cold, squashy hands. His roar echoed across the Garden and he back-swung a heavy arm. His fist and forearm smashed through them with a squishing sound and most of them flopped to the Garden floor in pieces. They reminded Danr of half-formed golems, an army of faceless, vaguely human forms made of mud instead of clay. Aisa swung her sickle through several more with a yell of her own, neatly severing them at the waist. They toppled backward amid flailing limbs. Another wave lurched toward them both while the ones on the ground slurped and slithered about, melding their bodies back together again. Several paces behind Danr and Aisa stood Nu and Tan, looking withered and tired within their cloaks. Tan leaned heavily on her hoe and Nu’s seed sack hung slack and empty from her clawed hands.

  “More here!” Danr shouted. He grabbed one mud monster by the arm and used it as a club to smash some of the others. They fell apart as well, but joined the others in slithering back together. Some of the first group was already rising from the ground. Their muddy groans filled the Garden air. Two of them grabbed Danr’s shins from the ground, rooting him in place like cold quicksand. The ground wasn’t level, and it was hard to keep his balance.

  “This is useless!” Aisa sliced three more in half, but more stepped forward to take their places. “They are endless.”

  Danr tried to pull his feet free, gave up, and bashed more mud monsters. Unfortunately, this time his right fist got stuck in one of them. He raised his arm, but two more mud monsters grabbed hold and dragged it back down. “What do we do?”

  “Keep them busy! I have an idea.” Aisa retreated and dashed back to the Gardeners. She snatched Tan’s seed sack from the Fate’s unresisting hands.

  Danr lashed out with his left hand and flung more mud monsters away, but others were crawling up his legs. He was sinking in foul-smelling mud, even though he was standing in one place. So far he was buried up to his waist on the slanted ground. “Whatever you’re going to do, make it fast!” He managed to pull his right hand free, but that only buried his left hand. Mud rose to his chest.

  Aisa sprinted up to him and opened the sack. From it, she scattered seeds over the mud monsters—a dozen seeds, a hundred, a thousand. Tiny seeds, large seeds, even downy seeds that floated on the still air and stuck to the mud monsters’ heads and shoulders. Maple tree seeds twirled away and drilled into the mud monsters’ bodies. Pinecones pelted them, even as the mud came up to Danr’s chin. He gasped for air.

  “Grow!” Aisa said in a strange, deep voice Danr had never heard before.

  The chilly mud covered Danr’s mouth, and his heartbeat sang in his ears. Then it all paused. There was a whisper of sound, a breath of movement. The mud monsters and the pile of mud shuddered. Danr inhaled sharply, trying to draw breath through just his nose while the mud pressed hard against his chest. Tiny green leaves sprouted all over the mud, popping up in ones and pairs and trios. Stalks pushed up next, faster than any plant had a right to grow. In a second, a tangle of plants was crawling over the mud pile and the mud monsters
. The monsters who could move tried to flee, but the plants weighed them down. Flowers burst in a riot of colors. Small trees put out long branches and dug into the mud with their roots. Every mud monster lurched, tripped, and finally dropped to the ground, pressed down by the new life. A few twitched and trembled, but eventually they went still.

  Danr found himself buried in a patch of petunias. He heaved, but the earth was simply too heavy. After a moment’s thought, he gathered his own power and took his human shape. He shrank, leaving a great deal of free space around himself. A hole opened up around his neck and head, allowing him to dig around. Aisa arrived, and with her help, he clawed his way out, leaving his ruined clothes behind.

  “Whoof!” Naked, he collapsed to the muddy grass beneath the shady light, though he had to brace himself so he wouldn’t roll away—the slant was fairly bad here. “Are you all right? Is the baby all right?”

  “The baby is fine,” Aisa said. “You must stop asking that question every time I sneeze or visit the privy or fight a dread monster.”

  “I’m the dad.” Danr pushed muddy hair out of his eyes. “I get to ask as often as I like.”

  “Hmm.” Aisa touched her belly in what was already becoming a habit, though even Danr knew it would be many weeks before anything showed. Dad and Father were still new words to Danr, and he liked saying them aloud to get used to them. He closed his right eye and looked again, just as he had yesterday. Huh. There was the baby, still healthy and perfectly fine, as Aisa had said. A boy—ha! But …

  “You are looking again,” Aisa accused.

  “You said I could,” Danr shot back, “any time I wanted to.”

  “Has anything changed?”

  “No,” he sighed. “I can’t tell if he’s going to be mortal or immortal or something else. I can’t even tell if he’ll be Stane or Kin or a shape mage or anything else.”

  “That is because his fate has not been decided yet.” Nu hobbled over, using her hoe as a cane.

  “He is but a seed,” added Tan, retrieving her seed sack from Aisa. “He can have no plant here until he is born.”