Valry opened her eyes, tears flooding down her cheeks as she drew more power from the Well. She kept her link to her father, then began slowly pulling the power from the Well back from him.
"Valry--" Aiqho'il's voice was alarmed.
"I need your help," she said, her voice trembling. "I'm not strong enough."
Aiqho'il watched Zared for a moment. "I will be able to stop you if you try to harm her," he warned him.
Zared gave him an amused look. "You do realize I'm a god, don't you?" he asked.
Aiqho'il smiled. "You do realize I killed our gods, don't you?" he returned.
"I may be an arrogant bastard, but I've got nothing on these two," Rial sighed to Inacia.
Aiqho'il turned to Valry, holding one hand toward her. She turned her hand from the Well toward him. A thick column of power moved between them, starting a deep violet at Aiqho'il's hand and turning a bright green when it reached Valry's.
With the new power and better control from Aiqho'il, Valry was able to pull the power back from Nahtan. She felt it building inside her, malevolent and twisted, angry and dark. It was everything that had been driving her father in the months since Thorvald had taken her away from him at the temple.
She pulled the last of his power from the Well back, her entire body trembling from the force contained within her.
"All of it."
Nahtan's thought touched hers, and she saw what he meant. He wanted her to destroy his link to the Well. She hesitated.
"Valry. All of it."
She swallowed, then closed her eyes, grasping for his link from her own, holding it tightly to the bridge between them, then collapsing the bridge. She screamed, feeling it tearing away from him violently.
She caught glimpses within it of who he'd been. Taller than Aiqho'il, with dark hair and a strong presence. The slant to his eyes hadn't been as sharp, but his ears had tapered to a higher point. He had been powerful, feared by even those who were supposed to be closest to him. The only person who hadn't feared him his been his brother, Aiqho'il.
She faltered, realizing what she'd pulled away from him. The last of who he'd been in this dead world. She realized for a split second that she could rebuild the bridge and put it back. If she kept it away from him, then he would never be able to return here. He would be forever trapped in Zakris' world and when he died, his spirit would be like the rest of theirs and go to one of the gods' spirit realms. Daghr'il would be dead and only Nahtan would remain.
"Oh, child," Zared's voice was almost ecstatic. "There's so much power inside you. I can give you so much when you come to me. One day you'll even replace Aduran at my side."
"Valry, don't listen to him," Inacia said. "He'll just betray you. He only wants you to set him free so he can destroy your father and hurt Jensina and your mother."
"You've already shown you hold much in common with me," Zared told Valry. "You're destroying your father for me. I can feel his power inside you. He's growing weaker by the second. He's dying, Valry, and you're killing him. You've torn his very core from him."
Valry struggled to keep control, the power from her father twisting inside her. The hatred and rage building with each second. She understood now how he could welcome the power this way when she'd been taken from him.
"Valry," Aiqho'il's voice broke into her thoughts. "You aren't strong enough to hold that much power. You need to channel it somewhere."
"I know," she said, her tone exasperated at his reminder. She hesitated again, feeling two fingers tap on her wrist, then a line drawn down the back of her hand. She smiled at the signal. "Lord Valin, can you swim?" she asked, her voice struggling.
"Yes, I can," he replied, his voice next to her.
"Are you afraid?"
"No, Princess, I'm not."
Valry turned to nod at him, then looked at Zared. "You want papa so bad?" she asked Zared. "You can have him." She turned her hand toward him, releasing all of the pent up energy and power inside her. She screamed again as the rage within it threatened to tear her apart as well.
"Yes!" Zared exulted, the power filling him. "Set me free, child, and I'll make you favored of all my priestesses."
Valry's scream fell silent as the rage left her. Turning her other hand towards Aiqho'il, he responded immediately, sending her more power. After several seconds, Zared's face turned from one of ecstasy to fear, then to terror as he quickly realized he had no way to control the power that was flooding into him. Valry began chanting and Zared's robes tightened around him, binding him in place.
Aiqho'il added his own chant, a dark shadow circling around Zared and sinking into his robes.
"Zared needs to go now," Valry told Rial.
Rial nodded, ramming into Zared hard enough to knock them both over the edge of the chasm.
"Rial!" Inacia yelled, running to the edge of the chasm.
"That was a very big risk, little one," Aiqho'il told Valry.
Valry collapsed into his arms, starting to cry.
"I killed papa," she sobbed into his chest.
Eleven - "How did you get in here?"
Rial's hand hit the top of the chasm, trying to find something to hold onto. He felt someone grab it, recognizing Inacia's grip almost immediately. She held onto him tightly as his other hand grabbed the rocky ledge, pulling himself upwards.
"I thought you were dead," she told him as he hoisted himself up over the edge of the chasm.
"That was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life," he said, sitting on the edge and catching his breath. Colorless tendrils fell away from him, twisting back to the ledge and falling back into the Well. He wasn't even sure he could describe what had it had felt like. He supposed swimming in thick water where you could still breathe was the closest he could come.
Aiqho'il sat on the ground where he'd been standing before, Valry on his lap as she clung to him and sobbed against his chest.
"The Well wasn't entirely sure what to make of you, either," Aiqho'il told him. "But it knows you acted to save the little one, so it bore you no ill will."
"What happened?" Inacia asked Rial.
"Something grabbed Zared as soon as we went over," Rial shook his head. "It pulled him down away from me the same time something else pushed me back up to the ledge." He looked at Aiqho'il. "Is Zared dead?"
Aiqho'il shook his head. "Only bound and imprisoned. Valry bound his body, I bound his power. The Well will hold him for at least as long as it considers him a threat to Valry." He paused. "I may hold him there longer simply because I don't like him."
"So Zared no longer has any power in the world?" Inacia asked.
"His followers do," Aiqho'il replied. "There will always be some who keep his teachings alive, there always are. But Zared himself is no longer able to be a part of your world."
Rial studied Aiqho'il for a moment. "Now I can see why she got so upset and told Aduran his ears were wrong when he called her 'little one'."
Aiqho'il chuckled and stroked Valry's hair. "She's quite fascinated with my ears," he nodded.
Valry sniffled and wiped her nose and eyes on her sleeve as she looked away from Aiqho'il's chest.
"Lord Valin?" she asked, her voice tired and weak.
"Yes, Princess?" he asked.
"Promise you won't kill papa anymore," she turned to look over at him. "He can't come back now. If you kill him again, he'll really die."
Rial watched her, wondering just what she'd done to her father. "Can I still throw sharp things at him when he slams me into walls?" he asked her. "If I promise not to hit anything important?" He wished he could promise her the conflicts with Nahtan would end, but he knew better. It was simply the nature of their personalities and how they clashed.
Valry gave him a weak smile. "Just don't kill him," she insisted.
"I promise, Princess," he bowed his head to her. "The next time your father dies, it won't be by my hand."
"Thank you." She turned back to Aiqho'il's chest.
"I'll need to sen
d you two back to your world," Aiqho'il told them. "The Well will send Valry back when her body wakes up, but it can't do that with you two. I don't know what kind of state her father's going to be in after this, so it might be a bit until he can get to her. Please keep her safe."
Rial nodded his head. "Does anyone else know who you are?" he asked.
"Nahtan, obviously," Aiqho'il replied. "And Yenene was told. Other than that, only your gods. To anyone else, Gaurel is only a young man on an adventure before settling down in life."
Rial nodded as Aiqho'il began chanting. He felt the air tighten around him, constricting and growing thinner. At the moment when it grew too thin to breathe, his eyes opened and he recognized the prayer room in the temple.
His head pounded and he heard Inacia moan quietly, then grunt as Hun-Ki started licking her face. Rial pushed himself up onto his elbow, blinking and trying to get his bearings. Valry still lay between them, her small body barely giving any indication she was alive. He turned to check her, then stopped when he saw Tion sitting a short distance away.
He sat cross-legged on one of the prayer pillows, a stack of parchment paper on his lap and assorted lengths and widths of charcoal next to his foot. He was drawing something and paused when Rial sat up, bowing his head to him in greeting.
"Do I even want to know how you got in here?" he asked. The sweetness from the wine still clung to his mouth and he wished he had his packs to find something to eat to get rid of it.
"Hun-Ki, stop," Inacia finally managed. She struggled to sit up. "Does your head hurt?" she asked.
"Yes," Rial replied. "We have company."
Inacia turned, alarmed, stopping when she saw Tion. She stared at him, then her eyes widened.
Tion only glanced at her, then looked back at his drawing. After a second he looked at Valry and raised his eyebrows in question at Rial.
"She probably won't be waking up for a bit," he replied.
Tion nodded, then gathered his things and put them into his pack. He stood up and dusted himself off, tying his pack closed and swinging it onto his back. He motioned to his head, then looked from Rial to Inacia and then motioned to the door.
"Just give us a second," Rial said. "How did you even get in here?"
Tion shrugged, sitting back down, then making walking motions with his first two fingers.
"Of course you did."
Tion glanced at Inacia again as she continued to stare at him, then he sighed.
"What?" Rial asked Inacia.
"That's not a little boy," she said, shaking her head.
"From what I saw in Jensina's temple in Edgewind, I'm sure he's not," Rial said. "I'm sure he's here from one of the gods." He remembered how Tion had stood between Zared's priests and Valry, and how the priests had been unable to go past him. Even when they had hissed their prayers, curses, or whatever at him, he had been unaffected. He turned to look at Inacia fully. "What's the prickling of the skin?" he asked her.
"What?" she asked him.
"You were a priestess here," he reminded her. "What do they hiss that makes my skin prickle? Thorvald's pet priests did it more than once to me when he and I would be arguing and it was quiet annoying."
She blinked, then slowly shook her head. "It only made your skin prickle?"
Rial nodded.
"It--it's sort of a prayer from Zared. Kind of like how the Dwellers' flutes ask the other gods for favors, but this is just from Zared. Only it's not supposed to just make your skin do that. It makes your blood surge and can make your heart explode if it goes on long enough. Priests of a certain level use it to either warn people away or if someone's injured they can use it to make them bleed out faster."
"Well, it didn't work on me," Rial told her. He studied her for a moment. "Could you do it before?"
She shook her head. "I hadn't learned that yet," she said. "I fell out of favor before I learned any of Zared's higher prayers."
"You are still going to tell me that story."
She sighed and nodded. "And I'll still leave after if you want me to."
Tion tapped his head, looking between them.
"I suppose my head is clear enough to kill people," Rial nodded. His head still hurt, but most of the fog seemed to be lifting from it. He pulled himself to his feet, checking his daggers in their sheaths and offering Inacia a hand up. "Can you get her?" he motioned to Valry.
Inacia nodded, picking Valry up, her head resting on Inacia's shoulder and body pressed against her chest. Tion stood and walked to the door, opening it without bothering to unlock it.
Rial stared at him as they walked into the hallway. Tion glanced up at him and shrugged, smiling just a bit. He paused in the hall, taking a crumpled piece of flour sack from a pocket on his pack and handing it to Rial. Rial unfolded it, then looked back at him.
"No, you are definitely not a little boy," he said.
Tion shrugged again and turned to lead them down the hall as Rial showed Inacia the drawing of the burning temple. Rial motioned for Inacia to go ahead of him, putting her and Valry in the middle with Hun-Ki, while he walked behind.
Tion led them purposefully down each turn, and any priests they came across would immediately back away from him. Those brave enough to try to come at them from the rear once Tion had passed only found Rial more than willing to put a quick end to them.
When there were more than Rial could handle on his own, Tion would stop and come back, staring at whichever priest Rial wasn't strangling or fighting. Some ran away screaming while others sank to their knees, begging for mercy before crawling away, sobbing and clutching their robes. More than once Rial heard them wailing about judgment and oblivion as they disappeared down the hall.
One crawled to the edge of the hall and began pounding his head against the wall until he collapsed into unconsciousness.
Another fell writhing to the floor, looking up at Rial and begging him to kill him. Rial only stood there, then deliberately sheathed his daggers, watching as the man continued to writhe, then began tearing at his own throat. Others clawed out their own eyes and one tore his own ears off then started pounding his head against the floor as he writhed in his own blood.
Each time they had to stop, Inacia would press herself against the wall, Hun-Ki standing in front of her. She'd hold Valry's head against her shoulder, then hide her own face from what was going on around them.
When they passed particular rooms, Tion would stop and go inside, pushing over any candles or braziers. As the flames spread quickly, he'd return and lead them further out of the temple.
By the time they left the temple, the building was collapsing into a chaos of bodies, madness and flames. Tion led them to the horses, only nodding when Rial stopped, surprised to see them there. He pulled himself onto Ayita's back then motioned for Inacia to hand him Valry.
Rial helped her lift the girl onto the Dweller mare's back, helping Tion get her situated so he could hold her and ride. He and Inacia ran to their horses, swinging up into their saddles and following Tion as he motioned for them to come with him.
Rather than follow the road out from the temple, he led them along a narrow path into the hills behind it. They wound their way upwards for some distance, finally coming to a stop on hill overlooking the temple and part of the valley below.
Rial could see now why they hadn't followed the road. He could make out the edges of an army camped there, though it didn't look like a very big one. Below them, smoke began to drift from the temple, thin at first, then slowly growing darker and heavier. Screams drifted up from below, and doors and windows began opening as priests sought any means of escape.
"What now?" Inacia asked, her voice shaken.
Tion shrugged and pointed at Rial.
Rial considered their options. It was obvious the church guards were still a threat here, and Aiqho'il had said he didn't know what kind of state Nahtan would be in. He wasn't going to risk trying to get Valry to her father down there.
"Go change," he told her. "It
'll be easier for you to ride in your regular clothes."
Inacia nodded and swung down from her saddle. She pulled her clothes from her pack and disappeared back down the hill a bit.
Rial looked at Tion. "Just what did you do to them to drive them mad like that?"
Tion continued to watch the temple, only shrugging and tapping the side of his head. After a moment more of watching the temple, he turned to Rial and tapped his eye, then his forehead.
Rial stared at him. "You made them see what they'd done."
Tion nodded his head, shrugging again and looking back down at the temple below. Inacia returned shortly after, stuffing the robe into her pack and pulling herself back into her saddle.
"So did you decide which way to go?" she asked. She adjusted her quiver on her back, making sure it was positioned correctly before slipping her bow over her head and arm.
"We'll head to Herridon," Rial decided. "If the city's still under siege, we'll take her to the Stronghold. She'll be safe there."
"What about her father?" Inacia asked.
Rial turned to look at her.
"He's still got battles to fight here," he said, pointing to the army below. "If he lives through them, then he'll be heading to Herridon as well. If he dies," he paused to look at Valry. "Then Herridon will need its queen."
Tion nodded, turning and leading them down off the hill. They stayed close to the base of the hills as they rode north so they'd have quick cover if needed. They rode at a gallop for some time, trying to put as much distance as they could between them and the temple and church guards.
"All right, fallen one," Rial said after they'd slowed to let the horses recover from the run. "What's your story? Why didn't Zared's priests or Aduran know who you were?"
Inacia sighed. "Like you said, anything you tell them has to be based in truth so they can't see that you're lying to them. My parents really did die in a plague in Basiyr when I was a child, and I was sent to live with my uncle and cousins outside the city. When I told Aduran I wasn't there when I reached the age of Selection for the temple, I was telling the truth."
Basiyr: Chronicles of Nahtan: Book 6 (The Herridon Chronicles) Page 19