The Seeds of Dissolution (Dissolution Cycle Book 1)
Page 34
The rest of it—Origon felt his crest rise, up and out. This was intricate. There were glissandos, trills, and other extraneous notes that added inflection and personality to the music. It was almost too fast to hear. He could barely catch one phrase before another overrode it, the music flashing by. Hand Dancer must have tried to place one of her notes somewhere and slow down the tempo. Only because he was expecting a trap, did he hear the repeating atonal motif, interweaving through the larger melody, the one that would snatch such placed notes away and make them part of the barrier. He could not bear to lose any more of his notes. Hand Dancer was right. This would take days to unravel. Maybe working together, they could—
“Majus Cyrysi.” Sam’s whisper was intense. “There are guards talking above us. I think they may have seen the bubble of air, or maybe—” A pause. “Majus Hand Dancer’s attempt alerted them? It’s hard to make out words in the Symphony.”
Dear ancestors, he could hear words in the music?
“They sent someone down!” Sam’s voice was too loud.
“We have to go,” Rilan hissed.
“Can we stop them? Set up a barrier?” This was from Inas.
“To do what? Attack the, hmm, Lobath guard?” Caroom had finally gotten upright again. “This one will not condone such violence.”
“There has to be another way in,” Enos said. Sam, next to her craned his neck, watching the shaking outline of the bubble. Origon could see him trembling, and his knuckles were white around the watch. His apprentice looked to Enos, then to Inas. His eyes were wide, mouth opened as if he wanted to speak. What was between them? It must be something that could help, but what could apprentices do that maji could not? The same feeling that had been pulling his feathers for days crept back.
Origon’s mind whirled. Was his guess about the twins correct? It was impossible.
“No other doors but the front entrance.” Rilan said, interrupting Origon’s thoughts. “We checked the entire complex.”
“The roof?” Origon offered, halfway in an attempt to stifle his traitorous thoughts.
Rilan shook her head.
“We have to get in!” Sam’s voice rose, ringing in the night’s stillness. “Are we just going to wait until the Drains destroy everything?”
“Calm down.” Rilan crossed to him, putting her hands on the young man’s shoulder. “You’ll give us away. Unless you know of a way to impersonate a councilmember, there’s no way in. We have to take our losses. We’ll find something else.”
If Origon hadn’t been watching, he wouldn’t have caught the twins stiffening in unison. Impersonate a councilmember. Aridori could do that.
He caught Sam’s eyes and held them. “Can they get us in, Sam?”
Sam’s face was white in the low light from Enos’ lantern. Then, very slowly, his chin dropped in a nod. It was as much an answer as a shout.
Inas’ mouth was open, his eyes wide. “No, Sam,” he said. “Not this way.”
“How could they get us in?” Rilan asked. Origon recognized the focus on her face, the little pucker of skin between her eyebrows. Then her face went blank, and she waved two fingers in front of her eyes once, twice. “Oh. Oh Brahm preserve us.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Trust is a Fleeting Thing
-The House of Strength is both defensive and nourishing. While many study the foundational aspects such as masonry, personal defense, and transfer of constitution, no few turn their paths toward the herbaceous aspects.
Part of “A Description of the House of Strength,” 421 A.A.W., author unknown
“These ones are Aridori?” The question, which must have come from Caroom, gouged at Sam. He was curled inward, sucking his notes back. His half of the dome collapsed, leaving them partially visible if anyone was watching. I hope my friends aren’t looking, aren’t seeing how I failed to keep their secret.
Majus Cyrysi was altering his dome. Sam could hear where the majus forced his notes to bend the melody farther, thickening and lowering the tempo until the air was barely moving. He could tell the music was bending toward the twins, and he could help, or hinder. It was in his power. Has Enos or Inas fought back? His heart beat against his chest, and the darkened sky threatened to cave in on him. Why can’t I do anything? Why am I useless? If he moved, he would drown. He forced his eyes up. At the very least he could watch what he had unleashed. He had almost told their secret with no prompting, but then his mentor had guessed. Would he have known if Sam hadn’t frozen?
Enos slowed as Majus Cyrysi’s yellow dome solidified around her, leaving them all visible, and she strained against air like thick mud. Inas was close by, green of the House of Strength running down his arms and legs. None of the maji approached. It’s my fault. It’s all my fault.
Majus Ayama cornered Inas, holding her arms out to either side, not touching him, but threatening. There was a white and olive haze around her, and an emerald green wall rose from Inas, resisting her, matching each pulse from the Symphony of Healing.
“Maji, assistance please,” Majus Cyrysi said. “We must prepare a containment, and we have only seconds.” His words were rough, his crest flared up and out. Enos had spheres of white around her joints, somehow counteracting the compressed air holding her. The notes Majus Cyrysi had placed in the Symphony of the air crumbled where they touched her.
Get free, Sam thought at her. He cleared his throat, found his voice. “Run! Don’t let them catch you!” It came out as a whisper.
“Then it will be a partial containment,” Majus Cyrysi snapped.
Majus Hand Dancer stepped toward Majus Caroom, her hands flickering fast and vague, the words oddly muffled. One of her eyes had a film of orange and gray over it and she pointed to a spot near the wall.
In response, Majus Caroom took one step forward, their massive gnarled foot striking the ground, and a wash of emerald and tan flowed out. Their change bolstered his mentor, and the Symphony of Communication surged. Enos slumped in response, while Majus Ayama herded Inas toward his sister. Sam could hear boots, far above them, pounding along the roof.
Sam struggled to get to his feet, pushing against the sky pressing down, the terror welling up from within. He had no idea how fast his heart was pounding. He couldn’t feel his fingers any more. I have to get them to see reason. It will be better for everyone, now they know. If they don’t kill each other first. He couldn’t move.
Majus Cyrysi joined hands with Majus Ayama and their colors intertwined. The other two maji stepped forward and added their own. Enos and Inas struggled against them, but they were forced back against the prison wall. They’re going to push them into the field that shocked Majus Hand Dancer.
“Stop.” His voice was weak, and he struggled up. Stand, damn you! “Don’t hurt them!”
Majus Ayama spun to him, her eyes blazing in the reflected light from Enos’ lantern, lying sideways on the ground. “How could you hide that my apprentice is an Aridori?”
If he couldn’t pin his anxiety down in this moment, then he never would. He had to keep them from hurting Enos and Inas. He clutched his watch. I’m better than this.
“We don’t have time to fight,” he said. “Majus Cyrysi is right—they can get us in to see the prisoner.” If Enos and Inas were useful, the maji wouldn’t hurt them.
“Out of the question,” Majus Ayama hissed. “You expect me to trust an Aridori? A live Aridori—my own apprentice! Vish’s knees, I’m dense. I should have seen this.” Her words were fast.
“Please,” Sam said. His knees were weak. Seconds were ticking off in his head. How long until the guards get here? “They won’t do anything. They can help us. They’re not like the other Aridori, in the stories.”
“How would this one, hmm, know?” Majus Caroom’s eyes were flickering fast, more emotional than Sam had seen them before.
“They told me,” Sam said. “Enos rescued me when we were captured. She could have left me there.” Enos and Inas were standing, defeated, not attempting to escape. Stay there, stay helpful.
Majus Ayama snorted, loudly. “It is the most foolish thing to trust an Aridori. It is their nature to betray. Everyone knows that.”
“How do you know?” Sam asked her. He was almost shouting. If the guards hadn’t been alerted before, they would be now. A warmth rose in him, washing the panic away with its strength. Enos’ words in the alley came back to him. “Have you met any before? Is it like how people say Lobath are stupid, or Kirians are arrogant, or Sathssn are fundamentalists?”
Majus Ayama narrowed her eyes, turned to the twins. “Give me one reason not to leave you to the guards,” she told them.
Sam ached to go to them, force his way through that ring of color, but the majus had already ignored his words. The twins had to speak for themselves. Enos had Inas by the hand, both of them small against the four full maji. She stared at him, and closed his eyes against the pain, the betrayal he saw in her eyes.
“We can help you, as he says,” she spat. “None of you know anything about the Aridori. We are not like the stories. We may be the last, in any case.”
“Save for the prisoner we’re trying to see,” Majus Ayama said.
Inas raised his head. His didn’t even look at Sam. “We want to know where this Aridori comes from too. The rest of our family was destroyed in the Drain.”
“They were targeted as much as Dalhni, and Earth,” Sam said.
“As was the, hmm, Methiemum space program,” Caroom said.
Hand Dancer suddenly let her change fade, the orange disintegrating. She stepped backwards.
Majus Ayama actually growled, and Sam took a step back involuntarily. Then her white and olive faded, followed by Majus Cyrysi’s yellow and Majus Caroom’s green. “We will figure this out when guards are not coming for us, or we’ll all be in the same prison cell. The Aridori in front, where we can keep an eye on them. Sam, you’re behind them.” She waved them forward. “Quick! Now!”
Sam pulled his feet forward, stumbling behind Enos and Inas, along the path of wilted plants and through the fence. He could feel the disapproval of the maji, as bright as the searchlights rounding the side of the prison.
* * *
They kept to the darkened streets, Rilan herding the Aridori in front, Caroom next to her. Ori kept up a whispered stream of strategy for their next attempt, and Rilan nodded along. If they were to follow this crazy plan they would need to act quickly, before the next day, capitalizing on the chaos they had created, and giving the Aridori as little chance as possible to escape.
Ori’s apprentice was huddled as near the twins as Rilan would let him. It must be his naiveté that had let the two get so close to him. How long had he known?
Hand Dancer followed, keeping an eye on the Aridori—no, Enos and Inas, they had names—from the rear. Rilan made her jaw unclench, forced herself to stop grinding her teeth. “Let’s get this over with.”
The rain had started again, a steady drizzle. They stopped under an overhang built out from a building constructed from a section of giant mushroom. The shelters were dispersed around the town, giving relief from the constant rain.
Sam was the first to speak. He hunched inward and the little majus-light overhead cast shadows lengthening his bent shoulders. “They can get us in. They just have to look like councilors, coming to check on the break-in. We can walk in the front entrance.”
Caroom crossed their arms, leaning against the wall. Their fluorescent eyes flickered at their apprentice, who stood quietly next to his sister, both staring back with little expression. It was the same stone wall Rilan ran into when she pressed too hard into Enos’ past. That made a lot more sense now.
“What do, hmmm, these two have to say of it? Will they go along with this plan?”
Inas clasped his hands together, knuckles whitening. “It seems we have little choice.”
“We will not force you,” Ori said. He was pacing the edge of the overhang, only three strides across, his crest flaring and collapsing. Then he stopped to peer at the twins, like they were a particularly interesting species of grub. “Amazing, really. I would be quite interested to be seeing the transformation process.”
“We are not your toys,” Enos told him, her voice acid. “If we wished to be imprisoned and analyzed, we would have told you our species voluntarily.” She directed the last word like a spear at Ori, but Sam was the one to duck his head, face crumpling.
“Which we would not normally need to,” Inas replied.
Rilan stared at the Lobhl. She didn’t know it was such a challenge for them. She looked back to Enos—her apprentice, after all. The young woman had given no indication but that she wanted to excel at being a majus. It was just what Rilan had done as an apprentice.
Enos drew in a deep breath and sighed it out. Her breath misted into the rain. “If we were to do this for you, we would need to be familiar with who we were to impersonate.”
“Councilor Feldo, for that one was the one to, hmm, capture the prisoner,” Caroom said.
“I am familiar enough with him to impersonate him, I think,” Inas said, and his sister stared at him.
“So quickly?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I would rather do that than stand in the wet being stared at.”
Enos raised her hands, palms wide. “Fine. We might as well. This is surreal as it is.” She shook her head. “I would rather be back with my family—” She cut off, abruptly, blinking.
Never trust what an Aridori says or does. The phrase ran through Rilan’s head before she could stop it. Did she really believe Enos’ grief was a farce? No. She knew her apprentice that well, didn’t she?
“Hathssas,” Rilan said. Sam and Ori looked confused for a moment. “The new councilor for the House of Power. She’s not well known. Easier to impersonate.”
Enos surprised her by nodding along. “I am familiar with Sathssn, if the face and mannerisms do not need to be exact.”
“I do not think the guards would be able to tell,” Ori said. “She is very new.”
The twins turned to the wall of the shelter, but Rilan could see their skin begin to crawl and change. Rilan thought about insisting they face them, but once the fleshy sounds of skin rubbing on skin and joints popping started, Rilan faced away, to leave them with some dignity. Ori was fixated, of course, but the others gave them privacy. Fortunately their change was a slow process. If the Aridori took time to become another person, then they could be caught in the process and found out. It was little comfort.
* * *
Soon after, they found the entrance to Gloomlight prison a kicked ant’s nest. Lobath guards and police officers from the city were describing complicated arcs of their investigation with lanterns. It was too early for the city to be up, but past midnight.
Rilan trailed behind Councilors Feldo and Hathssas—she automatically thought of the twins that way, so perfect was the approximation. Feldo especially, had every hair and wrinkle in the correct place. Eerie. Hathssas, as Enos had imagined h
er, was a dark green Sathssn woman, from what Rilan could see under the cowl covering her head. The two even copied the clothes of the councilors from black cloak, gloves, and boots, to Feldo’s brown suit and collection of artifacts. The range of the Aridori ability was impressive and troubling, offset only by its speed. How many more are hiding among us? The twins said they were the last, yet that was already a lie, because of the one imprisoned.
Rilan pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to relieve the pressure in her head. Shiv’s teeth and tongue! Her hands clenched into white-knuckled balls, fingers tingling as her nails bit into her palms. The collected guards let them through automatically, until they came to a lone officer, a badge of rank on the shoulder of her jumpsuit. The Lobath frowned at them.
“We are here to investigate the disturbance of a few lightenings past,” Enos hissed in a fair approximation of a Sathssn accent. Hopefully the Nether’s translation would blur any incongruities.
“We wish to make certain the special prisoner is unharmed,” Inas said, and the familiar deep timbre of Councilor Feldo’s voice made Rilan shiver. It wasn’t the words the councilor would have said, but the inflection was correct, and evidently enough for the officer.
“Yes, Councilor,” she said.
“Councilors,” Enos corrected.
Rilan barely kept in a manic giggle. Brahm, they’re going to bury us so deep no one will ever know what happened to us.
The officer stood straighter, the tips of her head-tentacles twitching. “My apologies. Councilors.” Her large silver eyes flicked over the group. “How many are there?”
“Just us two.” Feldo—Inas—Rilan had to keep that forefront in her mind—gestured to him and Hathssas. “We cannot send the entire Council for every emergency, especially at such short notice. The others are helping in this investigation.”