Oblivion's Grasp

by Eric T Knight

“You were on Landsend Plateau when it exploded?” Cara’s eyes went wide. “We could see the smoke from here.”

  “It’s where I met Shorn.” Netra gestured. Shorn was standing nearby, watching, waiting.

  Cara started when she saw Shorn. “Oh,” she said, in a small voice. “He’s awfully big.”

  “He’s the reason I’m here,” Netra said. “He saved me more than once.”

  Cara put her hand on her heart. “Thank you for bringing my friend back,” she told him.

  Shorn did not reply.

  “He’s not much of a talker,” Netra said.

  Cara turned back to Netra. “Please, sit down. I want to hear everything.” She noticed Netra’s wince as she said the words and she wondered at it.

  “It’s a long story,” Netra said, sitting down on the bench beside her. “I’ve…been through a lot.”

  Cara looked at her worriedly. Her friend looked so tired and worn. She seemed so much older. She reached over and squeezed her hand. “You can tell me when you’re ready.”

  Netra leaned back on the bench. “It feels so good to just sit down. I feel like I could sleep for days.”

  Cara noticed that she moved her body gingerly, as if she were wounded. “Are you hurt?”

  Netra put her hand on her left side. “I’m all right. It’s going away.”

  “Are you sure? We have a really good healer…”

  “I don’t think she could help me. It’s not an ordinary wound.”

  Now Cara was really worried. “I don’t like the sound of that, Netra. Let me see it.” Netra tried to protest, but Cara wouldn’t have it. “If you won’t let a healer look at it, you at least have to let me. I didn’t just get my dearest friend back only to have her bleed to death on me.”

  “It’s not bleeding.”

  “Then let me see it.”

  “Okay, if it means you’ll leave me alone about it. What happened to you? When did you get so bossy?”

  Cara considered this. It hadn’t really occurred to her before, but now that Netra mentioned it she could see the truth of it. “Ricarn’s been working on me,” she said.

  “Who’s Ricarn?”

  Cara shook her head. “Stop trying to distract me. Let me see your injury.”

  Reluctantly, Netra lifted the edge of her shirt. There was an angry red blotch on her lower ribcage and red lines radiating outward from it.

  “That doesn’t look like nothing to me,” Cara said. “You need to see a healer.”

  “Trust me. It’s much better than it was.”

  Cara looked at her suspiciously, then turned to Shorn for confirmation. “It is true,” he said after a moment.

  She turned back to Netra. “That’s no ordinary bruise. What caused it?”

  Netra pulled her shirt back down. “One of the Children. She hit me with some kind of…I don’t know what it was. It looked like a big, thick spider web. I couldn’t break free and she was draining my life with it.”

  “She what? You were captured by the Children? How did that happen? How did you get away?”

  Netra gave her a wan smile. “That’s too many questions at once.”

  Cara looked at her friend closer. “You didn’t just go to the Plateau, did you?”

  Netra looked away, but not before Cara saw the sudden shame in her eyes. “No, I didn’t,” she said in a small voice.

  “It’s okay,” Cara said, taking hold of her hand. “Whatever happened, it’s okay now.”

  “I wish that were true.”

  Cara swallowed, the reality of their current situation falling down on her. Seeing Netra again so unexpectedly had pushed it out of her mind for a brief time, but now it was back.

  The Children were coming.

  The threat of the Children’s approach hung like a cloud over the city. Sometimes Cara woke up in the middle of the night choking on that fear. At least half the residents of Qarath had fled the city. How many times had she laid there in the dark and wished she could go with them?

  “How come you don’t have a sulbit?” Netra asked, pulling Cara out of her thoughts.

  Cara clasped her hands in her lap and looked down. She bit her lip. “I said no.” She was surprised at how guilty she still felt by that decision, even while she absolutely felt it was the right decision and would do the same thing again. It was just more proof of what Ricarn was always telling her, that she spent too much time being sorry and not enough time just being herself. She looked up at Netra. “When we got here all of us were told to go with Lowellin and receive our sulbits. But when the FirstMother told me to go I said no.”

  “Really? You said no?”

  Cara caught the surprise in Netra’s voice and smiled. “I know. It surprised me too.”

  “You said no to that scary woman.” Netra seemed like she was trying to convince herself.

  “Does she scare you too?”

  “Yes.”

  “I think she scares all the Tenders. Except Ricarn. Nothing scares her.”

  “She must have been furious.”

  “She was. I thought she was going to kick me out into the streets.”

  “And yet you didn’t back down.”

  “I wanted to. I just couldn’t. It just felt wrong.”

  “Well, I’m proud of you.”

  “Of me? Really?” Hearing those words from Netra meant so much to Cara. She’d always had a deep, secret fear that Netra looked down on her for being so weak.

  “I’m sorry,” Netra said suddenly.

  “For what?”

  “I never thought…I always thought that…” Netra stumbled, unsure what to say.

  “It’s okay. Neither did I.”

  They sat there for a minute, then Netra said, “The Children will be here this afternoon I think.”

  Though the news wasn’t surprising—Ricarn was tracking the Children’s progress through her insect spies—still it brought a shudder from Cara.

  “I have information I think the FirstMother should have. It’s about the Children and it might help,” Netra continued. “But she wouldn’t listen to me.”

  “We should find Bronwyn. She’ll be able to help. The FirstMother will listen to her.”

  “Bronwyn’s here?” Netra asked, her eyes lighting up. “Who else?”

  “Just Owina, Karyn and Donae. Jolene disappeared before we left and Siena and Brelisha chose not to come. They’re still at the Haven.” She saw the sudden pain on Netra’s face and said, “What is it?”

  “Siena and Brelisha…they’re dead. Tharn killed them.”

  “Oh.” Cara put her hand over her mouth. Those women had been all the parents she ever had. She wiped at her eyes. “It seems unimaginable to me. I always thought they would live forever.”

  “Me too.”

  “And yet, every morning when I go out into the city for morning services, I cannot help but think that every person I see will probably be dead in a few days, and I will be also.”

  “I found some,” Cara said, walking into the room where Netra was just finishing her bath. She was carrying a pair of wool trousers and a plain, cotton shirt. It was midafternoon. “Jemry, he’s one of the guards, is about your size. You should have seen the look on his face when I asked him for his spare clothes.” She set the clothes down on a small table and handed Netra a towel. Wrinkling her nose, she nudged the small pile of dirty clothes lying on the floor beside the tub with her foot. They were the clothes Netra had been wearing when she arrived. They were little more than tatters and dirty beyond any hope of cleaning. “I can’t believe you had these hidden outside the Haven and that you put them on when you were out roaming around in the countryside. Brelisha was already furious with you for dodging your lessons. If she’d known you were wearing men’s clothes her eyes would have popped out of her head. You’d have been doing kitchen cleanup until you were an old woman.”

  “Which is why I never told you about them,” Netra said with a small smile, picking up the shirt. “You’re the worst liar ever. The second
Brelisha looked at you, you would’ve cracked and told her everything.”

  “I know. I never could stand up to her. I was always a little afraid of her.” Her words trailed off as she wiped a sudden tear from her eye. Then she said, “But you’re back now, where you belong. I don’t understand why you don’t just wear a robe like the rest of us.”

  “I’ve been wearing pants for so long I’m not sure how to wear anything else,” Netra replied, wringing water out of her hair.

  “Really, Netra? Or is it that you prefer wearing pants?”

  Netra pulled the pants on and turned to her. “There’s a fight coming, Cara. I need to be able to move around. A robe will just get in my way.”

  As if triggered by her words, horns began blowing in the distance. The Children had been spotted. Netra began putting her moccasins on.

  “But you don’t have a sulbit,” Cara protested. “The FirstMother said only Tenders with sulbits are to go anywhere near the wall. The rest of us are supposed to stay here.”

  “I’m sorry, Cara,” Netra said, standing up and putting one hand on her shoulder. “But I’ve gone through too much to just sit here and do nothing.”

  Cara opened her mouth to argue with her, then closed it. “You’re right, of course. It was selfish of me to try and keep you here with me. We need all the help we can get. I’m just afraid of losing you again.”

  Netra pulled her in and gave her a hug. “You’re not going to lose me that easily. Remember, I have Shorn to look out for me.”

  They left the room. Shorn was waiting in the hall and the three of them hurried outside. Tenders and guards were scurrying everywhere. The FirstMother was yelling orders. Soon there were a couple dozen Tenders lined up on the carriage way in front of the FirstMother. The rest of the Tenders and their guards gathered behind them. A woman dressed in a red robe walked up to stand next to the FirstMother. She alone seemed completely calm and unhurried.

  “Who’s that?” Netra asked.

  “It’s Ricarn. She’s an Insect Tender.”

  “But I thought they were…” Netra began, then broke off. “Forget it. We’ll talk about it later.”

  “It’s time,” the FirstMother said, walking along the line of Tenders. “I know you’re frightened. But we’ve been through the fire before. We faced Kasai and Tharn…” She broke off. Her sulbit was acting very strange, scurrying from one shoulder to the other and making frightened noises. All the sulbits were doing the same.

  “Quit that!” the FirstMother snapped. “Settle down!” She tried to grab her sulbit, but it eluded her and jumped to the ground. It chittered to its brethren and they chittered back. Then they began abandoning their Tenders and running for the estate gates.

  “Shut the gates!” the FirstMother yelled, but the guards, stunned by what was happening, were slow to react and before the gates were halfway closed the sulbits had streamed out into the street.

  The FirstMother cursed and ran after them, everyone else following. When Netra got into the street, she saw that the sulbits were standing on their hind legs in a tight circle, chittering and shifting from one foot to the other.

  “Enough of this,” the FirstMother snarled, striding over to them.

  “Don’t,” Ricarn said, but the FirstMother ignored her. She bent down to grab her sulbit, but before she could get a hold of it, it turned on her, hissed and spat something at her.

  At that moment Ricarn pushed the FirstMother, not hard, but just enough so that she staggered to the side.

  The sulbit’s attack missed the FirstMother’s face and struck her in the shoulder. There was a sizzling sound and the fabric of her robe dissolved. The skin underneath blistered instantly. The FirstMother clutched her shoulder and stared at her sulbit, her face gone white.

  The sulbits tilted their heads to the sky and began to wail, a strange, unearthly sound that made the hair rise on the back of Netra’s neck. The air around them began to blur.

  “What are they doing?” Cara whispered.

  “I don’t know.” The blurriness grew stronger and then mists appeared, rising out of nothing. Netra rubbed her eyes in disbelief. “Can you see that?” she asked Cara, who nodded. From the noises around them, Netra realized that she and Cara weren’t the only ones who saw what was happening. “It can’t be,” Netra murmured. “The kind of power necessary to pull all of us beyond…there’s no way those things have that much inside them. To do that they’d need the power of…”

  She and Cara exchanged looks.

  “They’re summoning the River,” Cara breathed.

  “But how is that possible?” A realization struck Netra. “Those things come from the River, don’t they?” Cara nodded.

  Netra turned back to look and was shocked at what she saw. Inside the circle of sulbits the street was gone. In its place was a dark hole.

  Something was rising in the hole, something that glowed with a powerful, golden brilliance, that thundered with silent power. It spilled up out of the hole and rose into the air, a wild, foaming mass like a small geyser. The sulbits were still wailing, tiny forelegs raised up as if in supplication.

  “They’re going home,” Cara said.

  The FirstMother must have realized the same thing, because she turned to Ricarn. “Do something,” she said, an unusual pleading note in her voice.

  Ricarn moved forward. The FirstMother’s sulbit turned its head and hissed at her. She crouched, holding out her hands, palms outward. Then she chittered.

  The FirstMother looked stunned. “You can talk to them?”

  Ricarn ignored her, all her attention focused on the sulbit. She chittered again. The FirstMother’s sulbit responded. To Netra it sounded wary.

  Ricarn moved closer. The River was now a churning, glowing mass twenty feet tall. She made a motion as if she were wiping a window clean, and when she pulled her hand away a horrified murmur arose from the Tenders. The sulbits fell back, tiny voices rising in alarm.

  There was a streak of purple darkness in the River.

  Ricarn chittered again. The sulbits hesitated, looking from her to the River and back.

  “What is that?” the FirstMother asked Ricarn hoarsely.

  Without looking at her, Ricarn replied. “It is chaos power. I am showing them that their home is no longer safe.”

  “Did the Children do that?”

  “No. This taint comes from the abyss. I believe it was done by one of the Guardians.”

  “Mother help us,” the FirstMother whispered, low enough that Netra barely heard her.

  The sulbits were now chittering amongst themselves. They seemed to be arguing. Then the one belonging to the FirstMother made a loud rasping sound and the others went quiet. It chittered at them. None responded.

  The River began to recede, sliding back down into the ground. In moments it was gone, along with the hole and the mists. The sulbits began to return to their Tenders.

  “How did she do that?” Netra asked Cara.

  Cara shrugged. “I have no idea. I can’t figure that woman out at all.”

  Sixteen

  “What took you so long?” Rome yelled at Nalene as the wagons bearing the Tenders arrived. He was jumpy. Everyone was. He couldn’t see the Children from here, but he could feel them and they were getting closer. They made him feel…unbalanced. It was like he was standing on the edge of a massive cliff and a great wind was trying to push him over the edge.

  “We had a problem with the sulbits,” she snapped, getting down from the wagon.

  “What’s wrong with them?” The sulbits were clearly agitated. Nalene’s was making a mewling noise and scurrying back and forth from one shoulder to the other. A couple of the Tenders’ sulbits were crouched on their shoulders, tiny claws locked into the cloth of their robes, teeth bared. On some of the Tenders he couldn’t see the creatures at all, but he could see them moving underneath their robes, trying to find a place to hide.

  “What do you think is wrong with them?” she retorted. “They’re afraid of
the Children.” With some difficulty she managed to get a hold of her sulbit and tucked it into the crook of her arm. One of the other sulbits squirmed away from its Tender, jumped down and ran underneath the wagon.

  “We don’t have time for this,” Rome said. “We have to have that barrier.”

  “You think I don’t realize that?” she barked. “You think I can’t feel them coming?”

  Rome bit back the angry comment he’d been about to make. Standing here fighting wasn’t going to do anything but waste time. He saw Quyloc hurrying up and turned to him. “Do you still think this is going to work?”

  “It’s all we have,” Quyloc replied.

  “I’ll try to buy you as much time as I can.”

  Rome took off at a trot for the wall. He ran up the stone steps and gained the top of the wall. It made him feel a little bit better to see that his soldiers were ready. They looked pale, but they looked resolute as well. Most of them were veterans of the battle of Guardians Watch and he knew he could count on them.

  About half of the soldiers held bows and the rest, except for those manning the ballistae, were armed with long spears.

  “That doesn’t look good,” Tairus said, looking down at the Tenders.

  “It seems those things are afraid of the Children too,” Rome said grimly.

  “Where’s their guards?” Tairus asked. “Where are they going to get the Song they need to put up the barrier? They’re not going to use my soldiers, are they?” There were several squads of soldiers formed up in the square, waiting orders.

  “No, they’re not going to use soldiers,” Rome replied. “From the way the FirstMother explained it, they don’t need to use people like that anymore.” In the first battle of Guardians Watch, the Tenders bled the Song they used for their attacks from their guards’ flows. Later they bled that Song directly from the enemy. “That’s part of the reason they’ve been feeding those things so much recently. It’s not just to make them stronger, it’s to build up a reserve of Song inside them. The Song for the barrier is going to come straight from the sulbits.”

  “You think it will work, the barrier? When they practiced it yesterday it didn’t work.”