Widows of the Sun-Moon

by Barbara Ann Wright

  “And Simon Lazlo.”

  “Why? We already know this is his fault.”

  But they didn’t know the whole story. Few did. She wanted them to ask questions, to debate with the Storm Lord if they could, if it was safe, but she couldn’t form coherent signals, could barely think them. She cried out again for her son, and they kept working on her until she pleaded for them to stop, for everything to stop, so this agony could leech away.

  “Enough!” someone said. “Enough, can’t you hear her!”

  “We can’t just let her die.”

  She sent out a last, desperate telepathic burst, making them all cry out again and stagger back, their power leaving her, and she could take one final shuddering breath before merciful darkness surrounded her.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Celeste stretched near a delta with the ocean beyond. Its rose colored walls glowed in the sun, and what Natalya could see of the buildings seemed to shine. The ocean looked like polished metal, with a yellow cast like flames. When she’d first heard of the ocean, Natalya had pictured something like the swamp, with water that just sat there, but even from a distance, the ocean seemed to move and rock as if swirled by a giant hand.

  Kora said, “It reminds me of San Francisco Bay.”

  Natalya glanced at her, expecting to see Naos’s smirk, but this was Kora’s open, honest face. Natalya was about to point out that the memories weren’t hers, but Kora frowned.

  “No, it doesn’t,” Kora said. “Those aren’t my memories. It’s not the same.” She stared at Natalya as if having a revelation.

  Before Natalya could respond, Kora’s head snapped back as if someone had grabbed her by the hair, and when she looked to Natalya again, her right eye shone fiercely blue. “What have you done to her?”

  “Nothing!” The air left Natalya’s lungs in a rush as Naos’s power closed around her, cutting off thought. Her head burned as Naos tore into her mind, ripping through memories that played in Natalya’s mind like a vid. She went through every conversation with Kora, every treasonous thought Natalya had ever entertained.

  “And you were so happy to have a replacement,” Naos said with Kora’s mouth, the words coming with a harsh growl. “And now you’re trying to take her away from me?”

  “She’s just a girl!”

  “She’s mine. You’re mine. Every single creature in this world or the next is mine!”

  Natalya fell to her knees. She’d thought nothing could be worse than the overwhelming feeling of too much power, but now Naos took everything away, robbing Natalya of every sense except sight, and even that narrowed to a long tunnel. She’d known this would happen. She’d tried to pretend it wouldn’t, but part of her had always known it would come to this.

  “No!” Kora staggered, and Natalya sagged as the power released her, and all the feeling came rushing back to her limbs, her lungs. Kora pointed at empty air as if someone was standing there. “We need her!”

  The tone sounded different, though the voice was the same, and Natalya knew this was the confused person she’d once met in the tent late at night. Natalya staggered to her feet, coughing, as Kora, Naos, and this new entity argued with each other, though Kora probably didn’t get many words in. Was there even room for her?

  The plains dweller army crept forward, staring at their mad godchild. Natalya waved them back. She sent a cautious tendril of micro power and sensed two connections to Kora. She wished again for telepathy so she could see what was going on in that mind, but did she really want to know?

  As quickly as she’d started fighting with herself, Kora took a deep breath. The second connection faded slowly, and Kora turned back to Natalya, still with that one blue eye.

  “Goddess?” Natalya asked, hoping she sounded scared. She felt it. She only hoped Naos had forgotten what prompted this particular explosion in the first place.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Naos said with a wave. “I’m here now. I’m staying.”

  Natalya stayed silent, keeping even her thoughts from having expectations.

  Naos smoothed down Kora’s simple shirt. “Shall we begin?”

  “Begin what?” Natalya looked back at the army and at Celeste’s stone walls. To get that much stone, they probably used ships or barges to quarry the mountains to the north. Natalya wondered how many mines they had. “You want to attack the wall?”

  Naos sneered. “You attack the people inside. The wall is just an obstacle.”

  “Right.” Not only was it tall, but large weapons stood atop it, and she could see archers waiting. Obstacle indeed. Naos was staring at her. Fantastic. “Um.”

  Naos’s lips wobbled, and she brayed a laugh. “Your face! You should see it.” She laughed for a solid minute before wiping her eyes. “Oh man. Now.” She turned to the wall, and Natalya sensed power filling her, growing until Natalya fancied she could see it as well as sense it. Her own macro powers were drawn in without her say-so, and she felt the immense strength flooding Kora’s limbs. How could one person contain it? Kora would be torn to bits, and Natalya opened her mouth to say so when Naos flung the power outward, compressing it into an invisible ram that slammed into the walls of Celeste and blew a hole clean through in a boom of exploding stone.

  *

  Cordelia approved of the plan to defend Celeste. Fajir had told her about the archers and the ballistae on the walls that would hammer the enemy before they even came close to the gates. And if by some miracle the plains dwellers managed to get in, infantry would be waiting, with more archers stationed on the highest buildings and inner walls. And if those should fail, the Sun-Moon would wait along the main thoroughfare with their two friends from the Atlas, Lisa and Aaron, just in case.

  All non-combatants had already moved to the city center, near the palace and out of the way. Cordelia hadn’t liked the idea of crowding the civilians so close together. If a fire or close-quarters fighting started, they’d be trapped. Fajir agreed and argued with her fellow serens that even with all the precautions, barricades should be built through the city to slow down any troops. She seemed to be the only commander who wasn’t completely cocky, but as people who knew Naos personally, the Sun-Moon agreed with her, and the barricades were built.

  To Cordelia’s dismay, the Sun-Moon planned to keep Horace close when the battle started. She’d been hoping they could sneak away in the commotion, but when the opportunity didn’t arise, she thought it best to keep everyone as safe as possible. So Horace and Mamet stayed with the Sun-Moon near one of the barricades, and Cordelia decided to look over the defenses with Nettle and Fajir. She’d been peering over Fajir’s shoulder at a map, standing near the wall, when the whole world shrunk to the size of a roar that lifted her off her feet and covered her in shards of stone.

  Her breath wheezed in and out of her lungs as she lay in a pile of rubble. With a frown, she tried to remember what had happened. She’d been looking at a map. And now…all this rock and dust. How did that make sense? A twisted man lay next to her, blood streaming down his face. His mouth was open, but he didn’t make a sound. Was he mute, or was she deaf?

  She felt her own face and found it sticky and dusty. Everything was dusty. The Sun-Moon should have cleaned if they were expecting company. The thought made her laugh, and she couldn’t hear herself either.

  Bits of rubble quietly rolled away as she stood. That wasn’t right. The street shouldn’t have been covered in stone. People moved through the hazy air like ghosts, and she watched them pull Fajir out of the pile. Her face was slack, her head bloody. Someone grabbed Cordelia’s arm, and her hazy memory said, “Nettle.” She had streaks of gold along her face, and her mouth moved as if shouting.

  “What happened?” Cordelia tried to ask.

  Nettle dragged her into a jog, but she’d never felt like staying still so much in all her life. Her stomach lurched, and she threw up in the street, but Nettle didn’t let her stop.

  “The wall,” Nettle called, her voice so faint. “They will be coming!”
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  Cordelia tried to turn, fumbling for the wooden sword on her hip, but Nettle kept pushing her to run.

  “Horace will heal you!”

  Dimly, she thought she should at least know what Nettle was talking about, but it wasn’t until they reached a barricade and a wide-eyed Horace ran toward her that she realized something had gone wrong. Her mind cleared like mist before the breeze.

  “What the fuck happened?” She gripped Nettle’s arm. “Are you all right?”

  “Scratched. Something hit the wall, some force. The enemy will be pouring through.”

  “I felt something,” Horace said, “some great macro force like…” He blanched. “I think I’ve felt it before, but it couldn’t be her.”

  “Who?”

  “My friend Natalya, you remember her? Before we left Gale, she was augmented like me. I…thought I sensed her a minute ago.”

  Cordelia looked back the way they had come; dust had blown up the street, and shouts came from around the corner. “How strong is she? If this Naos is still in orbit, maybe she needs someone here to guide her hand.”

  “It does not matter,” Nettle said. “How can we stand against such a force?”

  “We can’t.” Horace looked back to the barricade; the Sun-Moon stood staring into the city. Who knew what the fuck they were even doing?

  Horace went to the other wounded, healing Fajir along with some others. Cordelia thought about trying to stop him, but no matter how Horace felt about someone, he was a born healer, and as the drushka said, you couldn’t stop a shawness from fixing people.

  But the Sun-Moon were distracted. The battle had begun. Now would be the time to slip away. She crept close to Horace, Nettle with her, but realized they were missing someone. “Where’s Mamet?”

  “She’s not with you?” Horace asked.

  Cordelia swore. All the warnings, and she’d still managed to get herself lost. “We left her here.”

  “She went to find you.”

  “Shit! How long ago?”

  “I have no idea.”

  Cordelia looked to the Sun-Moon again; they were talking with Fajir. “Come with us, Horace, and—”

  “No,” the Sun-Moon said loudly. “He will remain here, under Fajir’s watch.”

  Cordelia fought back the urge to curse again. “Fine. We’ll find Mamet on our own.”

  She and Nettle ran toward the sounds of combat that were echoing through the street. Plains dwellers had taken advantage of the hole in the wall, and knots of people fought amongst the debris. Some plains dwellers might even have made it farther into the city before the Sun-Moons caught them.

  In all the chaos, Mamet could have easily taken a wrong turn or been forced down another street by the combat. They were soon in the thick of the fighting, and Cordelia’s heart sank. She didn’t want to fight her fellow humans, not like this. They might be under some mind control garbage. She thumped heads where she could and saw Nettle using her claws, the paralyzing poison rarely strong enough to kill unless someone had a bad reaction, but their chances of survival were better than with a slit throat.

  “There!” Nettle cried, pointing ahead.

  Cordelia saw Mamet among the fighters, but she stood shoulder to shoulder with other plains dwellers, hacking at Sun-Moon soldiers. “What the fuck?”

  “Perhaps it is telepathy,” Nettle yelled.

  “If that were true, we’d all be affected, wouldn’t we?”

  Nettle sucked her teeth. “I will get her.”

  Cordelia wanted to argue, but Nettle squeezed between the Sun-Moons and leapt up, elbowing a plains dweller in the face. She tackled Mamet and dragged her through the crowd before anyone had a chance to realize what had happened or where the drushka had sprung from and then disappeared to in half a heartbeat.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Cordelia yelled when they were out of the fighting.

  Mamet was panting, her face red, and Cordelia noted tear tracks down her cheeks. “I was looking for you.”

  “And so you joined the other side?” Nettle asked. “Or do my eyes fail me?”

  “They’re my people.” She gestured wildly with her sword. “I got lost! I saw some plains dwellers, and I hid. They were caught by Sun-Moon archers. Some were killed. I told the rest to surrender. I said if they threw down their weapons, they wouldn’t be harmed.” Her mouth wobbled, and one small sob escaped. “I yelled it so all could hear, and I know the Sun-Moons understood me. And when the plains dwellers surrendered, the Sun-Moons shot them!”

  She slashed her sword through the air, and Cordelia was tempted to wrestle it away from her. “They looked like me,” Mamet said, “dressed like me. I’ve seen their faces in the faces of my neighbors, my clan. They don’t go about in pairs or have tattoos or torture people!”

  “These are not your kin,” Nettle said softly.

  “They’re closer than the Sun-Moons! And if the Sun-Moon get their hands on my family, they’ll treat them just as they treated me. At least all these people would do is kill me!”

  Cordelia sighed. “I don’t trust the Sun-Moon to give us clean towels, let alone let us go, but we can’t fight them, not yet. We have four of us to think about, and they’re keeping Horace close.”

  “I would say now is the time to look for your kinsmen,” Nettle said. “But with the fighting, we must look for a chance to flee.”

  The fighting was getting closer. “We have to go, Mamet,” Cordelia said. “And if I knew how the Sun-Moon would react, I would tell you to get as far away from here as possible, but while they still have Horace, I don’t know if we can risk making them angry. They almost killed us once, and we had surprise on our side.”

  Mamet swallowed hard, and Cordelia watched her weighing her options. She didn’t know any of them. She could run, no matter what she’d pledged, what sort of bonds she said they’d formed. She was young, probably hadn’t figured out what kind of person she would be.

  In the end, she nodded. “But I won’t help them kill anyone else.”

  Cordelia nodded, and Nettle seemed pleased by that answer.

  *

  Natalya couldn’t get over the sounds. She’d killed people with the goddess before, but they’d always been at least fifty feet away. Now, as the screams of the wounded and dying surrounded her, she didn’t know if that had truly been distance or something inside herself. She supposed it didn’t matter. The crunch of breaking bone and the dull, wet sounds of weapons hitting flesh assaulted her senses as much as the terror-filled cries of the living, whether they ran toward death or away from it, and she couldn’t get away from them.

  She stayed by Kora’s side, and now they stood within Celeste itself; there had been no more great displays of power after the wall. Naos swayed slightly, eyes half-lidded. Blood landed on her in a fine mist as someone got their brains bludgeoned out, and she turned her face toward it as if it was a cool breeze.

  Natalya flung away a Sun-Moon worshiper who got too close. “Goddess, end this!”

  Naos ignored her. The Sun-Moon worshipers had scattered at first, caught off guard, but they were quickly organizing into rows of deadly infantry supported by archers on the high wall or scattered along the tops of buildings. The surprise of the attack wouldn’t last much longer, but Naos didn’t need it to. She could end this anytime she wanted.

  “Naos!”

  Her eyes snapped open, and Natalya thought she was going to answer, but she smiled, her right eye even more brilliant blue. “There they are.” She grunted and grabbed her chest as if someone had punched her.

  Natalya sensed another presence attacking the link between Kora and Naos, not the other person who’d shared it with them before. It had to be the Sun-Moon, but they were attacking with telepathy, trying to subdue both Kora and Naos and succeeding against neither. They should have been trying to distract her instead. Or they should have attacked with all the powers at their disposal, but like all telepaths, they thought it the superior power.

  Naos gathere
d her own considerable telepathy and began to hunt for them, but Natalya sensed glee in her rather than the desperation of the Sun-Moon. If they wanted to fight with mind powers, it seemed she’d take them up on it rather than just flatten their city.

  Natalya looked to the growing press around them. They could soon find themselves alone, and Naos seemed too distracted to fight, but what did she care? It wasn’t her body in danger.

  “Fall back!” Natalya called. “Organized retreat.”

  Around her, the dwindling army obeyed, and they inched toward the wall. Natalya kept her hands on Kora’s shoulders and guided her slowly.

  “No!” Naos called.

  Natalya let her go. “Goddess, we must—”

  “Lead the army out of the city!”

  “Uh…yes, I will. We were—”

  Naos grunted and pushed her arms out as if shoving an invisible foe. Natalya felt a strike of huge telepathic and micro-psychokinetic power but couldn’t tell where it went. “There. That should take care of them for a while.” Naos turned toward the wall, and when Natalya didn’t move, Naos slapped her, but there was no power behind it. “Move!”

  Natalya cried to the army to fall back and felt it as Naos sent out a telepathic call to withdraw. They filtered out slowly, Natalya still guiding Naos along as she muttered to herself, her eyes tracking invisible enemies. She kept calling someone else stupid and finally yelled, “He’s going to die anyway!” She slashed a hand through the air. “This is the last time we do what you want. Enough of this!”

  Facing the gates, Naos spread her hands apart, and the plains dwellers that stood between her and the wall scooted gently to the sides of the street. Naos stalked toward the gates, and Natalya followed. She ducked as Naos flung her arms upward as if slamming a window open. A wall of force flew from her in a cone, and buildings blew apart like split kindling. Natalya ducked at the deafening crunch as buildings collapsed, and stones were torn from the street. The gates blew outward, followed by tons of debris that scattered outside the city as if someone had dragged a hand through a pile of dirt.