Oblivion's Grasp

by Eric T Knight

  “How does it get under the wall?”

  He swung his head—he had very little neck so turning his head required turning most of his body—back to look at the river again. “There is an opening under the wall.” He started to go take a closer look, but she stopped him.

  “Don’t go over there right now, you idiot.”

  He glared at her.

  “If you go now, while it’s still light, they’ll get suspicious. Maybe put up a barrier?” she said, exasperated. Was there anything besides muscle in that thick head of his?

  “We wait. Hit them after dark.”

  “Exactly. They won a small victory this afternoon. We’ll let them celebrate it. Let them think that maybe they will survive this.”

  “I can’t wait anymore,” one of the nearby Children said plaintively. “I’m so hungry.”

  Reyna ignored her. “We’ll wait until after midnight, when most of them are asleep.” She went back to looking in the mirror. She’d been working on her face for the past half hour and she was quite pleased with the results. Her lips were red and full. Her eyes were larger now, tilted, with an almost feline look to them. Her teeth were longer, sharper, her cheekbones more pronounced. She wanted to do more, but the light was failing.

  “How do you know there isn’t a barrier there too?” Heram asked.

  “Because I have a brain, that’s why!” she snapped. She couldn’t wait until she had no more use for this idiot and could rid herself of him. “If they had a barrier up, we’d be able to feel it.” What passed for a brow on his lumpy face furrowed as he struggled to follow her. She gestured at the front gates. “Focus. Can’t you feel the barrier there? Can’t you hear it?”

  After a moment he nodded. “It’s like a swarm of hornets in the distance.”

  “That’s how I know there isn’t one blocking the river entrance.”

  He looked over at the river, then back at the city wall. “It could take time to break through. We need a distraction. Some attack there.” He pointed with a thick finger at the main gate. “While we go in by the river.”

  She had to admit that wasn’t a bad idea. To herself anyway. She didn’t have to admit anything to this walking lump of stupid. “Fine. We’ll do that. You pick the ones for the distraction. I’ll let you know when it’s time.”

  He turned back to her. His face betrayed none of his thoughts. Maybe he didn’t have any. That would explain why he’d survived the prison so much better than most of the others. It was their thoughts that drove them mad. “It must be terrible for you,” he said slowly.

  “What is?”

  “That you still need me.” He reached out and flicked one of her long, red tresses. “Maybe you should have spent more power on muscle, less on this junk.”

  “Don’t touch me!” she hissed. “Don’t ever touch me!”

  “We will see, I guess.” His face was as flat and blank as ever.

  “There is nothing to see. Muscle or no, I am far more powerful than you. You should be thinking about how you will placate me, rather than angering me further.”

  He rubbed his broad jaw and said again, “We will see.”

  “Quit saying that.”

  “They fear you,” he said, gesturing at the other Children. “But they hate you more.”

  His words chilled her. Reyna had to struggle to make sure her sudden fear didn’t show on her face. “If I even think you are rousing them against me, I will destroy you first. Be sure you understand that. Whatever else happens, you will not survive it.”

  He nodded. “We will see.”

  “It’s time. Are you going to explain your brilliant plan to them, or do you want me to?” Reyna asked Heram. It was an hour after midnight. The city was quiet.

  “I’m not sure,” he replied. “Maybe I’m too stupid.”

  “We both know the answer to that.”

  “I will try.” Earlier Heram had told those Children who could still move to gather and wait for his orders. Now he stumped over to where they were waiting. Excited murmuring rose from them. They knew something was about to happen, but not what it was. Heram named a dozen names, then said, “Dubron, you lead them over to the main gates. Give us a few minutes to get into place, then attack the barrier.”

  “What?” Dubron demanded. “Why?”

  “Because I told you to,” Heram growled. Dubron subsided, but some of the others whose names had been called continued to complain.

  “I’m not going to do it,” Karrl said. He hadn’t fed in some time. Large flaps of his newly-grown skin were peeling off, showing gray underneath.

  “Me either,” Linde, his wife, said. “I’m going with everyone else.” She and her husband moved over to stand with the larger group.

  Heram made no reply. He simply charged them. They shrieked and tried to run but they weren’t fast enough. He picked the two of them up by their necks, dragged them over to Dubron’s group, bashed their heads together twice and threw them on the ground, where they lay whining and moaning.

  “Anyone else unhappy?” Heram asked. There was no reply. “Now go. Hit the barrier hard, so they believe it is a new attack.”

  Reluctantly, the ones Heram had chosen moved off in the direction of the gates, arguing amongst themselves. Linde slapped Karrl and he cursed at her.

  “You have quite a way with words,” Reyna said. Heram grunted.

  The rest of the Children followed Reyna and Heram excitedly. One of them began talking loudly. Heram turned and growled at him. “Shut up.” He did.

  They entered the line of trees bordering the river and moved through them toward the wall, stopping when they reached the area where the trees had been cut back. They were still a couple hundred paces from the wall and there was no cover to approach closer. Torches flickered on top of the wall, illuminating the sentries. Near the wall, the banks of the river were steep and rocky. The grate the river flowed through was dimly visible. It was made of thick interwoven bars of iron set into stone.

  “Do you think you can rip that out?” Reyna asked.

  In answer, Heram flexed his thick shoulders and cracked his knuckles.

  Several minutes later there were yells from the distance, followed by flickers of light and cries of pain as Children threw themselves at the barrier. On top of the wall, the sentries began to move that way, weapons in their hands. Soon there were only two left, both turned toward the disturbance at the front gates.

  “I have to get closer,” she whispered. “Wait here.” She crept forward along the bank of the river, feeling surprisingly exposed. Again and again the defenders had proven they were not helpless. What other defenses did they possess? Were they readying an attack even then?

  One of the sentries froze, as he caught movement from the corner of his eye. He turned, hesitated, not sure what he was seeing in the poor light.

  His hesitation cost him his life.

  Reyna ran forward, throwing up her hands as she did so. Gray-white webs shot from her palms and struck the men. A yank and they were dragged over the battlements, hitting the ground with solid thumps. The other Children rushed forward, drawn to the two fallen soldiers like moths to a flame.

  Reyna was just finishing off the soldiers when the first of the Children fell on them. Reyna released the webs and they dissolved into nothing almost instantly. Then for a moment she just stood there, basking in the feel of the Song coursing through her. Truly, nothing else could ever compare with this feeling.

  Heram reached the wall and slid down the river back. He walked out to the grate and stood in the swirling waters of the river like a boulder. He took hold of the thick bars and set his feet.

  Reyna reached the river and splashed down into it, a handful of the Children right behind her.

  Heram began to pull. At first nothing happened. He reset his feet and pulled again, the muscles knotting and bunching under his red skin.

  All at once the grate gave way with a squeal of metal and cracking stone. Heram turned and threw the grate to the side
with a grunt.

  The underbelly of Qarath lay open.

  Twenty-one

  Treylen was jolted out of his sleep the instant Heram set foot in the Cron River. He straightened, every sense coming alert. He was sitting on one of the low footbridges that spanned the river, not far from the wall, his feet dangling in the water. He’d been there since sunset, certain the Children would try this way into the city and determined to be ready. Yet still he’d somehow managed to fall asleep, not even awakening when the Children attacked the barrier at the main gates. It took Heram’s presence in the river to awaken him.

  Another shock traveled through the water, stronger even than the one caused by Heram. This one was almost painful. He knew instantly it was Reyna. A normal person wouldn’t have felt either shock, but Treylen wasn’t normal. He was a Sounder, part of an ancient, nearly extinct order dedicated to the Sea and its denizens. He’d kept his allegiance hidden his whole life: the people of Atria feared and distrusted the ocean and those who worshipped it were not well treated.

  Another shock, then a dozen more in short order. All of them drawing closer. He’d been right about the attack.

  He wished he’d been wrong.

  There wasn’t much time. From inside his coat he fumbled out a hollow, wooden tube, about as long as his arm and as big around as his thumb, nearly dropping it in the process. He put one end in the water. From a pocket he took a reddish fossil that looked like an eel curled into a tight ball, its tail in its mouth. With the fossil, he began tapping on the tube. He tapped, paused. Tapped. Paused. A short, repeating pattern.

  By then Heram had reached the gate and was tightening his muscles. All this the water told Treylen. The water told him a great deal, attuned to it as he was. With one finger in the water he could sense the presence of a person standing in the water miles away, could tell if the person was male or female, even sense emotions, if they were strong enough.

  The rage and madness coming off Heram was strong enough to leave a foul taste in Treylen’s mouth and cold fear in his chest. He tapped faster, with more urgency. Where were they?

  They weren’t going to answer. They’d fled.

  Heram tugged on the iron grate. The stone cracked.

  Still there was no answer from the li-shlikti, the creatures that dwelled in the water, mostly in the sea. For them the rivers were too confining. The li-shlikti were not creatures born of Life. They were lesser Shapers, of the Sphere of Sea. For days Treylen had been calling to them, warning them of the danger posed by the Children, danger that would eventually reach them. He didn’t know if they were listening, but he kept trying anyway. What other choice did he have?

  Heram yanked again on the grate and suddenly the stone holding it in place broke away. He tossed the grate aside.

  Treylen scrambled to his feet, adrenalin pumping. In the dimness under the wall he could just see a dark, bulky shape coming through. Other shapes crowded behind.

  Treylen ran off the bridge. On the bank he stopped and looked back. Every instinct told him to run, but he knew it would do no good. If the Children got in now, no place in the city would be safe. There were shouts from the top of the wall and the sound of running soldiers, but they were too late. The Children had breached the wall and Qarath would fall.

  Heram emerged from beneath the wall and straightened. His bulk nearly blocked the opening. He looked bigger close up than he had from a distance, masses of slab-like muscle covered in reddish skin. Heram looked around and when his eyes fell on him, suddenly Treylen realized how quickly he would die.

  Heram waded toward him. Other Children spilled out behind him, led by the tall, red-haired one.

  On legs that felt like dead stumps, Treylen began to back away. He saw the red-haired one raise one hand toward him and felt the power within her gather.

  The water in the river suddenly rose. At the same time, the water around Heram’s feet began to boil madly. He looked down in confusion. The disturbance spread until it surrounded all the Children. Several cried out. There were dim shapes in the water, pale blue and silver, long and slim like eels.

  Treylen almost cried out in relief. The li-shlikti had come.

  The li-shlikti raced faster and faster, racing in circles around the Children, more of them arriving every second. Heram bellowed his rage and slapped at the things as they wrapped around his legs, but they had no real physical form, being creatures of the water, and his blows had no effect. He grabbed at them, tried to yank them off him, but there was nothing to grab onto.

  Heram turned to the nearest river bank, realizing he had to get out of the water. More of the li-shlikti swarmed over him, wrapping around his torso, several getting onto his arms. Reyna was yelling, stabbing at the water with bolts of power, none of which had any effect. The other Children added their impotent yelps as they were engulfed by the creatures.

  The river rose higher, becoming a raging flood, though upstream from the Children it was as low and placid as ever. Being smaller and weaker, the rest of the Children succumbed quickly. The li-shlikti covered them completely, binding their legs together, pinning their arms to their sides. Unable to maintain their balance, the Children began to toppled over and were soon swept away, disappearing under the wall.

  Reyna held out a little longer, but it wasn’t long before she fell over and was swept away too.

  Heram made it almost to the riverbank before he could go no further. He stood there, bent at the waist, every muscle engaged as he fought to break their grip on his legs and take that final step. The river raged around him as scores of li-shlikti wrapped around his entire body except for his head.

  Heram turned his head and fixed Treylen with his cold gaze. “Still this won’t stop me,” he said.

  Heram toppled over. More of the creatures swarmed over him and, slowly at first, then with gathering speed, he was dragged back to the opening under the wall. Just before he disappeared under it, he got one huge hand free and grabbed the bottom of the wall. There he hung, his great strength too much for the creatures to overcome.

  Then the stone he was holding tore away and Heram was flushed under the wall.

  Treylen walked into the river—the flood was already beginning to recede—and stood there with his eyes closed, reading the currents. He felt it as the Children were dragged out into the sea, then out to the deep water, and sucked down.

  With dismay he realized that the li-shlikti were already loosing their holds on the Children and swimming away. Treylen could feel their pain and confusion and he went cold inside as he realized something:

  The li-shlikti had to let go because the Children were absorbing Sea force from them.

  Treylen slumped to the ground, exhausted. How long he sat there he did not know, but at some point people walked up to him, carrying lanterns. He looked up and saw Macht Rome, Quyloc and the FirstMother looking down at him.

  “What happened here?” Rome asked him.

  Treylen tried to stand, then gave it up. “They broke in, but I called the li-shlikti and they dragged them away. They’re in the sea now.”

  “You did what?” Rome asked.

  “He’s a Sounder,” the FirstMother said.

  “What is a Sounder?” Rome asked.

  “They worship the Sea,” Quyloc added.

  Treylen wanted to correct him. His kind didn’t worship the sea. They felt an affinity for it. It was not the same thing. But he was too tired.

  “I thought they were all gone,” the FirstMother said. “Our order hunted them mercilessly during the days of the Empire.”

  “You didn’t get us all,” Treylen said, finding a bit of defiance left in him.

  Rome was looking at the gap under the wall. There were soldiers on top of the wall, talking excitedly. “It’s a good thing they didn’t,” he said. “You just saved us all.”

  “This is my home too,” Treylen said.

  “We need to talk some more,” Rome said. “Once you’re recovered. You look ready to drop. For now though, you
have my gratitude for what you did here tonight.” He extended his hand and helped Treylen to his feet. “Get a cart over here and help this man to his home,” he ordered.

  “One more thing,” Treylen said. “The Children…they hurt the ones I called to help.”

  Rome blinked at him, not understanding, but Quyloc got it. “They can absorb power from the Sphere of Sea now too.”

  “Mother preserve us,” Nalene whispered.

  Twenty-two

  It was predawn the next morning when Cara arose. Though she moved quietly, Netra woke up almost immediately and sat up. She’d slept on the floor in Cara’s hut, Shorn sleeping outside.

  “You should go back to sleep,” Cara said.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I lead the morning services,” Cara said, casting her eyes down.

  “You do? For the other Tenders?”

  “No. For the whole city. Those who are interested anyway.”

  Netra got up, rubbing her eyes and trying to process this new information. “You lead services for the whole city?”

  Cara shrugged modestly. “It’s nothing, really. The FirstMother just has me do them because she’s too busy since she got back.”

  “That’s not true at all,” a new voice said. “They’re not nothing. Her services are beautiful, that’s what they are.”

  They both turned. A Tender was standing in the doorway. She was a bit odd looking, one shoulder lower than the other, an unusual cast to her eyes. Those eyes looked angry right then.

  “Oh, Adira,” Cara said. “How long have you been standing there?”

  “Long enough.” Adira came into the tiny hut and stared defiantly at Netra, as if she was somehow to blame. “When she said no to the sulbit I hated her. But I was wrong. She’s a Tender, a real Tender. Like the olden days.”

  “I agree with you,” Netra said, which didn’t seem to soften Adira’s anger at all. She stood there looking at Netra darkly. Netra realized then that Adira had taken hold of Cara’s robe and was clutching it with one hand. Without saying anything, Cara pulled her robe away from the woman.