by Rin Chupeco
Anahita’s temple had been a symbol of Grezel’s power, as the oracle’s temple had been of the Willows’. Had not the Dark asha admitted to me her fondness for old stories?
“There are no bodies,” Lord Fox reported, “and there are no signs of violence beyond the flames.”
“The oracle has survived for millennia, Fox.” Lady Altaecia stooped down to pick up something that glittered in the moonlight. It was a half-melted zivar, its jewels shattered from the heat. “I do not believe she would perish so easily. She told me once that I would raise a girl who will one day change the world. Mykaela told me she was given the same prophecy once. Perhaps the seeress knew about Tea all along.”
The man gazed at the rubble. “She was the first to tell Tea her future. She warned us that Tea would come to burn the city. Tea must have known and resented her for both.”
“It would appear that there are many things that Tea resents,” Zoya noted dryly. “But I would not have believed her to be this petty.”
Altaecia scoffed. “An innocent city laid to waste, Zoya, and you don’t find her petty?” The round asha challenged.
“Not like this. I can understand her rage against the Willows, but the oracle was not to blame for speaking the truth.” The pretty woman laughed. “Look at me, defending the oracle! She rejected me when I first presented myself as an asha novitiate, Bard. I had not come to her hallowed halls to be an asha, she said, but to win the heart of one. She was right, but I hated her for years. It was a blow to my pride. But I expected Tea to have a firmer hold on her temper than this.”
“Unless the darkrot has already began to infect her senses.”
A small blast erupted from nearby; one of the houses had caved in, sending fresh waves of fire spreading onto nearby asha-ka.
“Stay here, Fox,” Lady Altaecia ordered. “I will attend to this. Zoya, come with me.”
The women dashed off, but Lord Fox turned away. “She’s here,” he said, as if the words were rigid on his tongue. “She is—” He spun in a circle, gaze searching the smoke and the soot. His eyes narrowed, and for a brief moment, he was as still.
“The graveyard,” he finally growled. “She’s in the graveyard.”
8
First things first, Fox said, speaking directly into my mind. There was some damage to the forge, but Wolf says it’s nothing they won’t be able to fix.
My brother, Khalad, Althy, and Kalen had ridden out to Knightscross with a handful of Deathseekers to assess the damage and hunt for the blighted victim, who had not yet been captured. Daisy accompanied them, volunteering her assistance to coordinate with the rest of the villagers. Inessa was also of the same mind, which meant she and Fox had spent a good half hour in the palace arguing about the necessity of her presence. I sat and stewed quietly in a corner of Fox’s head, resisting the urge to yell at them to hurry up because the princess was going to win anyway, as she often did. Fighting and making up were integral parts of their relationship—which was unfortunate, as I was privy to both whenever my brother or I forgot to keep up our barriers.
The Veiling rune had been dropped for the time being, for me to see the village through my brother’s eyes. A great number of houses had been destroyed, a host of injuries reported. Althy had her hands full attending to the victims, and Khalad helped her.
Who’s been hurt? I demanded. I was sitting on a fluffy cushion in the Valerian asha-ka with my legs folded underneath me, but I could also feel myself walking across the ground, the sun’s heat beating down on my head at the same time. It was a dizzying sensation, and I had to remind myself not to step forward using Fox’s feet instead of mine.
Sadness touched Fox’s thoughts. “Old Kebble and his wife died when their roof caved in,” he said aloud. “Their children were injured but are out of danger. Their aunt is attending to them. The Habbat twins were hit by some debris and they’re sporting a few concussions. And Mrs. Drury has a broken leg. She was more terrified at seeing me again than at the prospect of losing a limb though.”
Why am I not surprised? Mrs. Drury had been the first to turn against us after I’d resurrected Fox. Who was blighted?
“That’s what Daisy and Kalen are trying to find out.”
“No longer trying,” Daisy said. She hurried toward my brother. Her face was pale. “It’s Sam, Fox. Sam Fallow.”
The name sounded familiar. Wasn’t that Daisy’s old flame?
“I’m not sure that’s important right now, Tea.”
“Who are you talking to? Is Tea in your head? Lady Zoya tried explaining, but she lost me in the middle of it.” Daisy placed her hand against Fox’s forehead. “Tea? Can you hear me?”
“That’s not how this works,” my brother growled. “She can hear you the same way I can. Has Kalen tracked down Fallow?”
“He and his Deathseeker friends are saddling the horses as we speak. They think he’s fled to the Kingswood.” Daisy shuddered, tears filling her eyes. “They said he had antennae and bulging eyes like an insect. Why would anyone do this? Can you save him, Fox?”
“I’ll try, Daisy,” Fox told her, skirting away from an actual answer. “I want you to stay here and help Khalad and Althy. Do whatever they tell you to do and don’t stray too far from them until we return.”
“I’m coming with you,” Inessa said firmly, emerging from the forge. “You’ve been training me for more than a year. You said I was good at it.”
“Not that good yet. I want you to stay and protect Daisy and Khalad. Don’t fight me on this, Inessa.”
The princess glared but, sensing his urgency, relented. Fox had borrowed Chief for the journey and lost no time vaulting on my horse and cantering off in the direction of the forest.
He quickly caught up with Kalen and the others along the edges of the Kingswood. “I’m surprised Inessa isn’t with you,” Kalen remarked.
“Not for want of trying. Any luck?”
“Ostry’s found signs it passed through this way. Is Tea with you?”
What can I do to help?
Fox relayed my message.
“Can she locate the creature the way she can locate daeva?”
I cast the Scrying rune and focused, but all I could find were faint thoughts coming from the other Deathseekers. Fox shook his head.
“Worth a shot. We’re trying to corral the borders and see if we can close in on it from—”
A yell rose up nearby. I recognized Levi’s voice.
“Over there!” Kalen wheeled his horse around, riding hard toward the sound.
Fox followed suit, Chief beating the other steed by a few yards.
Levi was on the ground. A quick check told me he was unconscious and wounded. Ostry was trying to drag him away as he struggled to put up Shield runes between himself and the strange creature that stood a few meters away.
There were certain similarities between this blighted beast and Garindor’s assistant, but there were marked differences too. This one was insect-like and taller, seven or eight feet at the most. It had leathery, mothlike wings that beat futilely at the air behind it. Three pairs of large beaks sprouted along its chin, and its hands were like crab pincers.
Fox raced forward on Chief, drawing his sword and blocking the creature’s attack, giving Ostry ample time to drag Levi away to safety. “Aim for its head!” I heard Kalen shout as more Deathseekers arrived.
The creature let out a heavy wheezing sound and tried to attack again with a pincer. Fox moved to obstruct it again, and Chief reared up to give the monster a swift, hard kick to the face. It stumbled back, and arcs of fire—courtesy of the Deathseekers—sailed toward the creature. The blighted squealed. Its leathery wings folded around its hideous frame, and the flames burned uselessly against its hide. I felt the shift in the air when Kalen summoned cold runes instead, but they had the same effect. The ice seemed to melt even before it touched its wings.<
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Fox slid off Chief and moved in closer, hacking at the furred feathers with little effect. Frantic, I tried to throw myself into the creature’s head and encountered resistance.
In the past, that meant another mind was in charge. Faceless like Aenah and Usij were fond of such tactics. But here I could detect no other thoughts, could find no outside forces commanding its actions. Instead, I felt a roiling, red hate that drowned all cognitive thought. It was the same malevolence I’d felt when I’d tried to control Yarrod. Whatever Sam Fallow was before this transformation, he was long gone.
It’s not submitting to me, Fox!
Keep an eye on Kalen and the others, and make sure they don’t get too close was Fox’s reply as he swung his sword the instant the creature reemerged from its grotesque cocoon. The blade bit through an extended arm, hacking it off at the elbow. The creature wailed and retreated. “Kalen, the wings might be impenetrable, but the rest of it isn’t!”
“How are we gonna hit it if it keeps cheating?” Mavren demanded.
“I have an idea.”
Don’t you dare, Fox! I screeched.
You’ll fix me up once we’re back, right?
The creature’s wings lifted again, but this time Fox slid nimbly into the small opening it presented, disappearing from view as the wings snapped back into place around him. Almost at the same time, I felt the Veiling rune between us flare to life. The wall was up before I could stop him.
Fox! I hammered at the barrier he had created. Fox!
There was no answer, but in his haste, the link between us had not been entirely broken. I could still feel him, despite his detaching me from his mind. I could feel him being stabbed with those hooks, yet I felt none of the pain. I could do nothing but watch as the creature’s remaining pincer and beaks began to eviscerate Fox everywhere they could reach. It was a horrible violation to feel no agony even as it tried to kill my brother.
Fox angled his sword and thrust. The blade plunged straight into the creature’s head, coming out the back of its skull—
—Fox was shredded from the inside out. His screams told me he could suddenly feel pain, that he had somehow became human in that split second, only to suffer a grisly death. But the blighted monster was gone, and I had taken his place, my hands winnowing through his insides. Fox’s blood soaked my hands, and he collapsed, a mangled unidentifiable blob of blood and bones, and I began to scream—
The creature made one last feeble cry, and its wings retracted. The blighted monster went still on the ground, blood seeping from its head and puddling in a slippery black. Fox blinked against the bright light in full view of the others.
On anyone else, the pincers would have been fatal. One deep laceration had nearly bisected Fox, and one beak had sunk into his neck, leaving a gaping hole. He was streaked in deep cuts, one hand ripped to shreds. Some of the Deathseekers, fierce warriors who had seen their share of battles, blanched as they looked at him, their faces turning white.
I clasped my head, breathing hard. The false vision of Fox had seemed real…
“Need help?” Kalen asked my brother quietly, face guarded.
My brother shook his head. “Sorry. I know you wanted to bring him back alive if possible…”
“I don’t think we had a choice. I knew it wasn’t likely when I saw the full extent of its abilities.” Kalen glanced down at the corpse on the ground. “We’ll bring back the body. Levi’s our priority.”
“That was some hardcore fighting, Fox,” Ostry said with admiration, despite being green around the gills. “Rather painful though?”
“For it, maybe.” Tea? Are you there? Tea?
I couldn’t reply. In my mind’s eye, I still saw his fallen body, his lifeless, dissected form. I did that. I killed him. I killed him, echoed through my head.
Tea? Tea?
I killed you.
• • •
“You didn’t kill me,” Fox said once they’d returned. I was tending to his wounds, the wards modified so I could draw on Bloodletting and watch his flesh slowly knit back together. Even seeing him made whole again couldn’t shake the nightmare from my mind.
“Then why do I keep having these visions?” I demanded bitterly. “Am I going crazy?”
“Is it because you were in my head before I fought the blighted? You’ve never done that before. Not while I was being… Well.” He looked pained.
“Maybe.” I gulped in air. “And it’s the first time you fought a daeva-like creature without me in control.”
“I know. It won’t happen next time. I’ll boot you out of my head—”
“Next time? Fox, are you hearing yourself? Next time? Is this how you really want to live? Is this how you want to come home to Inessa, looking like you’ve been tortured and left for dead? What’s next time going to look like? What body parts will you be missing? Your head? I’m sure Inessa would love that.”
“You leave her out of this, Tea!” my brother fired back. “I don’t have much choice!”
“Maybe you should! Maybe we should have found a better way to live instead of me putting you back together all the time!”
Fox quieted. “There isn’t a better way, Tea.”
“What if there was?”
“What?”
“The book we found in Istera for starters. It said that we weren’t intended to have these abilities, that no one should have been an asha or a Deathseeker to begin with.”
“Hollow Knife was a trickster.”
“And so was Blade that Soars!”
“You know the real problem? It’s that damned heartsglass of yours! It’s darkrot, Tea. You’re so stubborn thinking you can control it! We have to tell Mykkie, or it’ll be too late!”
“You promised me more time!” I yelled back. “It’s my decision! Not yours!”
“You’re tired.” Fox sounded exhausted, grim. “And you’re obviously stressed. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”
What was the point? My brother wasn’t going to believe me tomorrow any more than he did today. But I nodded, because he was right about one thing: I was tired of talking.
“Are you okay?” Kalen asked, entering the cell after Fox had left.
I sniffed, looking away.
“I can go.”
“No.” I reached for him, and a new vision rose to meet my gaze. But unlike Fox’s horrible deaths, there was warmth, love. Another Kalen superimposed himself over the original—stubbled, face framed by long hair and a wilder look, reaching his hand out for mine. Are you ready, love? he asked.
Then there was another me accepting his offer, rising to my feet, feeling strong and beautiful and happy, answering him in a voice that was mine but also wasn’t. “Always.”
I blinked, and both were gone. Kalen, clean-shaven Kalen, was the only one left.
“Please stay.” My voice was husky, unwilling to think about what this meant, why all my visions prophesied the worst for everyone but him. “Always stay.”
• • •
I was dreaming again. I held a knife and I was covered in blood, but the blood was not my own.
There was someone on the floor in front of me. I saw red pouring from her chest, and I knew she was dead. Her eyes were wide, mouth open in stunned surprise.
She looked familiar. I tried to place her face through the strange haze that obscured my view but could not.
She wasn’t enough, something in my head spoke up, but it was not my voice. It felt wrong to have it there, but try as I might, I could not dislodge it. We need another.
“Tea,” someone said from behind me.
I turned.
Fox stared back, face so pale that the moonlight drifting through the window did nothing to change his pallor. He looked past me at the fallen figure, then sank to the ground, his breathing uneven.
“Tea,” he said a
gain. “Why?”
My view widened. I was standing before the entrance of the Valerian asha-ka, not in my cell. But I was wearing the same clothing as before I had drifted off to sleep. I blinked at the knife in my hand. I knew this make, this style. I carried it with me often, only now it was stained crimson. Disgust and fear raced through me. I dropped the knife, and it clattered to the ground.
Fox cradled the dead girl in his arms, sounds of agony coming through his lips. There was more commotion behind me. “Tea,” Kalen said, in a voice so gentle that I knew something was wrong.
I looked down at my heartsglass. It was the darkest black. When I looked back at the dead girl, the haze lifted. I knew why she was familiar.
Her name was Daisy. She was my sister.
The horror broke through.
This was not a dream.
She knelt before two graves and wept.
She had fractured the kingdoms. She had brought revolution to Daanoris and sent hellfire raining down on her enemies in Kion. She tamed seven daeva, fought armies, killed two Faceless. She faced blighted creatures and lived when others more experienced in years and skills had not. And yet, it was these small headstones, half-hidden among the weeds, which broke her.
“Rise up,” she told one of the forlorn mounds, the words built out of panic, cobbled from hysteria. “Rise up. Rise up! RISE UP!”
Nothing moved but the ferns, bending, swaying in the breeze.
“I raised Kalen. Why can’t I raise you? I broke so many rules, one more shouldn’t hurt like this. Why can’t I break the silver? Why can’t I break the one law I would give everything to overcome?”
Beside me, Lord Fox did not attack. Lord Fox did not summon the soldiers. Instead, he slipped across the grass like a wayward shadow and stopped where she knelt. His hand hovered above her shoulder, seemingly caught between maintaining the gap and being a brother—but the distance won. He was silent as she cried until she had nothing left to give.
Uneasy, I shifted away, knowing I was an unwanted stranger during this private moment, though not before I read the plain carvings on those round stones. Daisy Pahlavi, said one. Polaire Ishina, said the other.