I’m telling you this because I want you to let me die for you. I think it will work. I’m a vessel for the nightstrands’ prison. When I’m gone, they’ll be free.
No, I said abruptly. That’s now how we solve this. I have an idea, but I need to wait until Mieshk tries to make us choose.
As I spoke, I did everything I could to hold my emotions close. I couldn’t let Paono feel what I planned. Tyrak’s words had finally sparked a realization. Paono’s ability surfaced only in the noblest of people. He could never Want to kill someone to power his dawnweaving—unless he reached a point of utter despair. He needed to feel that no choice remained.
Weeks ago, Peldin, the speaker for the Vanished civilization, had spoken of Paono with awe. He’s a life channeler, Lilik, he’d said. He can heal the island.
One of us might need to die to save Ioene and our world. But it would not be Paono.
Chapter Twenty-Two
NEAR IOENE’S SUMMIT not even Mieshk could craft a straight trail. Deep cracks gouged the jagged, black stone. Steam and sulfurous vapors vented from tiny fissures and yawning pits. Lava oozed from gaps in the crater rim, folding over itself in great, bulging waves. Heat hazed the air, and the acrid smell of burning stone stung my nostrils. Our bearers stumbled over sharp rubble, rocks so fresh and raw that each edge could slice flesh.
Ahead, Mieshk halted at a gash in the earth so deep that lava glowed in its depths. She peered down as if captivated. Intoxicated by the sight of so much fire, maybe.
I thought of the Hollow One below. At least Mieshk still had emotions, no matter how crazed and vile. That thing at the harbor was entirely different. Nothing could describe the deep, aching evil it had exuded. Our human words—hunger, avarice, evil—were nothing but poor attempts to classify what the Hunger and its Hollow Ones embodied.
After a moment, Mieshk shook free of her daze and turned for the summit. A narrow rock rib thrust up from the jumbled and steaming slope. The ridge speared straight for the summit, a knife of black stone. Mieshk looked from the serrated rib to her groups of porters carrying her prizes. She seemed to be contemplating whether they could navigate the rib without dropping us or losing some of their numbers to falls.
“Let us walk,” I said.
She curled her lip at me. “Do you think I’m stupid?”
I tried to sit up to better speak to her, but the thief holding my shoulders kept me flat.
“I don’t want any of my friends to die trying to maneuver me up that climb,” I said. I meant it. Gritting my teeth, I continued, “Wrap us in your fire. Force us up if necessary.”
Behind Mieshk’s eyes of blackened stone, I sensed her thoughts working. Commanding the fire used her power. I suspected that her strength could be exhausted without a new supply of nightstrands to feed it. After a moment, she shook her head. “Carry them,” she said.
I closed my eyes to avoid looking at the drop. The ridge was too narrow for my bearers to walk even two abreast, so they formed a line and passed me up, holding me firm while those from the rear scrambled around and braced themselves to take my weight again. I didn’t resist. If anyone fell, they might knock the whole group off the ridge.
Stone clattered as fragments broke away. The rock here was brittle and sharp. When I dared peek through cracked eyelids, I saw blood slicking the hands of my captors. Burgundy handprints dirtied my tunic and trousers. But eventually, I felt my body rotated upright as a wave of heat and steam crashed over me. I opened my eyes and looked down Ioene’s throat. We stood atop a sharp spire overhanging a lake of lava many times the size of Istanik. Around the rim, other towers and pinnacles of stone looked like gargoyles defending the pit beneath. Crusts of black rock floated on the lake’s surface, joining in places, cracking in others. Gouts of flame and molten stone bubbled and sprayed from hotspots in the sea of fire.
It was strangely mesmerizing. Ever since I was a little girl, I’d felt a strange kinship with Ioene. Stories of the volcano had always captivated me, and the Nocturnai had been both a dream fulfilled and an unimaginable nightmare. But I’d never envisioned myself standing over Ioene’s fire like this. Through the cloud of ash and smoke that hung over the peak, I glimpsed the aurora. They’d worked their blessing during our climb, and my vision was nearly clear again. At least I would meet my last moments with my eyes wide open.
Mieshk was busy preening and soaking in the power of the fire. Even I could feel the raw energy. But it wasn’t fire that brought evil to the world. I understood that while staring at Ioene’s naked heart. It was greed and madness and selfishness wielded by those who hungered for power and disrupted the balance between fire and aurora in their quest. A rift had opened before, bringing about the cataclysm that destroyed the Vanished civilization. I couldn’t say how I knew it, only that it was true. And somewhere amongst the nightstrands, someone knew how the breach had been sealed. Paono would find out the truth. He’d lead the others through whatever steps were necessary to close the gate and force the Hunger from our world.
Peldin had foreseen the truth long ago. Paono would heal the island.
Still enthralled by Mieshk’s command, my friends and allies stood back in a semicircle, ready to stop any attempts at escape. I searched their eyes, wondering who had been shielded from the compulsion by Paono’s channeling. I imagined I glimpsed the light of free will in a thief’s eyes. But I couldn’t be sure. With my gaze roving over the whole group, Paono included, I swallowed.
“You can still go back from this,” I said to Mieshk. “We can figure out how close the rift together.”
I didn’t expect anything out of her, but I had to try.
Mieshk simply snarled. “Fool gutterborn. So weak she can’t even understand the power in what I’ve done.”
“Last chance,” I said.
Her lips drew back. “Or what? You stab me again?” She laughed.
I shrugged. “Tell Raav I didn’t see any other way,” I said as I started to turn. As my gaze passed over Paono, I saw realization strike him.
“What?” Paono snapped. “No!”
He wasn’t fast enough. Whirling, I sprinted the final distance to the brink. At the last moment, I yanked Tyrak from his sheath and threw him over the heads of the group. Distantly, I heard metal ping off stone as he tumbled down the slope. Someday, someone would find him again. Maybe even reunite him with his beloved Zyri.
With a quick inhalation, I whirled, teetered on the crater rim. Dug my toe against sharp rock and pushed off into open air. Arms wide, I dove for the burning lake. Time stretched out as I fell, wind scouring my face. I spun, lazily flipping head over heels. Sky and fire, sky and fire. In the instant before I impacted the molten stone, I saw Paono silhouetted against the aurora. Three figures—the few he’d shielded from Mieshk’s command—held him back from the drop, preventing him from following me to my death.
Peace flooded my heart as I fell into the lava. To the deepest core of my soul, I knew I’d chosen the one act that would allow us to win. Paono would despair. He’d failed to protect the girl he’d always loved. Finally, he would truly Want to destroy Mieshk forever. No matter what.
Molten stone closed over me. Excruciating heat. Fire poured down my throat.
I felt nothing else.
Chapter Twenty-Three
LIGHT, CRYSTALLINE, ENTERED my eyes.
Glints.
Shards.
An infinite glimmerscape stretching in all directions. A white-gold sky arched overhead.
I looked down.
My body was a lacework sculpture, spun of sugar and salt and glowing from within.
This wasn’t right. I remembered the aether and how my body had appeared. I’d projected an image of the gutterborn girl from Istanik, ragged clothing tattered at the hems. And there’d been others, their spirits likewise manifesting as shades of their former physical existence.
The nightstrands were imprisoned. Had I somehow been sucked into Paono’s crystalline shell?
I turned at
the sound of water lapping. To my left, a quicksilver sea kissed the crystal shores. Pearls rolled at the tide line. As I stood, bewildered, the colors of the landscape shifted from iridescent white to the welcoming tones of chocolate and through the many moods of the sea I’d loved to watch on Istanik. Deep azure beneath a creamy sun. Steel-gray as wind and rain lashed the surface.
And back to white.
“Hello?” I called.
My voice spilled across the landscape, setting the crystals in the sand shivering.
No response.
I turned for the sea, my light-spun body shedding salt as I moved only to collect grains of sand that rolled up my shape to replace what was lost. I crouched beside the silvery water and dipped in a finger.
Suddenly, I wanted nothing more than to dive into that silver sea. Two quick steps, and I leaped, my body soaring in a graceful arc before plunging into the water. It was neither warm nor cold nor any temperature at all. Surfacing, I began to tread water. A current rose from the deep, pulling me away from shore. Faster and faster, and as the land faded from sight, I glimpsed other figures.
Like me, they glowed, colors shifting and shimmering over the surface of their flesh. Yet these were not whole. Not like me. How did I know that?
I blinked, dove beneath the surface again, and peered through the wavering silver liquid. Glowing threads trailed behind the others, leading to distant places.
To distant sparks.
I gasped, inhaling the flowing silver. But rather than making me cough and sputter, it filled me with tranquility. I swam for the surface and found myself pulled toward a central pillar, an obelisk containing all the colors in the world.
When I touched the nexus, I knew. The sensation was the same as feeling him over our link.
“Paono?” I said.
Shock rippled through the air.
Lilik! His thought boomed across the sea. You’re alive!
“I—Paono, I don’t know where I am. Or what I am.”
More lights drifted toward the pillar. Toward Paono. Confusion over my answer haloed the obelisk, a swirl of aquamarine fog. The lights drew closer, vitality radiating off them.
“Is this a dawnweaving?” I asked. It seemed to fit. Paono was calling energy from living sparks, and the threads that streamed behind them kept the fragments from being severed from the bodies.
I dove beneath the surface and twirled, looking for my own thread. But there was nothing.
Yes, he said. I didn’t know what else to do. I had to save you. I Wanted to save you. And you’re here.
Hesitation colored his final thought, a wave of blue-gray trepidation spilling over the water.
But I saw the lava pull you down… he added.
I ran my hands over my body then pressed. My fingers dove into the light as if I had no substance at all.
I was dead. I’d felt the lava take me inside it. The flash of pain had been so quick I’d hardly noticed it. But my body had burned. All that remained was my spirit.
I’d expected to wake in the aether. But this was different.
“Paono, can you feel my spirit? Can you sense which spark is mine?”
A gentle tide washed from the pillar, probing. Abruptly, the water hardened, turning to stone.
I… Oh tides. Lilik, I pulled too hard. I took too much. It’s like before.
“What do you mean? What is it, Paono?”
I killed you.
The stone collapsed, returning to water. But now, the sea roiled. Waves lashed the surface, throwing anguish-colored spray across the landscape.
“Wait, Paono. No! The lava killed me. Not you!” I could scarcely hear my voice over the crash and spume of Paono’s despair. But I knew he could hear me.
Lies! I have your entire spark. It’s joining my weave. I did this to you.
Water thick with self-loathing slapped against my face. Paono’s grief poured down my throat. I understood now. This world lived within Paono’s mind. It was the foundation for his ability. Beautiful and boundless, and now as full of despair as deep as the Hunger was fathomless.
But if I was here, a complete living spark, did that mean I was alive? Dead, but simply waylaid on my journey to the aether?
“Stop!” I screamed. “Stop, Paono!”
I didn’t know what else to do, so I swam for his pillar. Waves threw me against the sides of the obelisk then sucked me away only to pound me against its hardness again. But I persisted, and finally, I caught hold of a corner of the obelisk. I closed my eyes, visualizing my bond with my friend. I had no body. I had no bounds. Focusing all my will on believing I was immaterial, that this sea and sky were nothing but illusions, I slipped inside Paono’s mind.
Look out! I screamed.
Paono’s skin was alive with the power flowing into his body from the gathering sparks. Colors shone brighter and the crunch of feet on stone grated in his ears as our friends—Mieshk’s slaves—advanced.
The three people he’d shielded from Mieshk’s compulsion were warm presences against his mind. He’d maintained the links, but his concentration was wavering. For now, his trio of defenders, a male smuggler wearing spiked leather gloves, Captain Altak’s navigator, a slight woman who looked as if she had little experience fighting, and an oarsman with muscles to make up for his lack of a blade, formed a wall between my friend and the advancing attackers.
Every person on the precipice stood with a slight hunch in their back, pain tightening the skin around their eyes. The dawnweaving was hurting them. I remembered the sick feeling, the sensation that my organs were being removed through my throat. I was surprised they could even stand upright. Maybe Paono just hadn’t drawn much from them yet.
I looked out from Paono’s eyes and sensed the emotions coursing through him, but I couldn’t influence his body. As the first attacker sprang, only to be knocked back by a swipe of the oarsman’s massive fist, I realized that this might be the last time I sensed the world through a human form. My body was gone, yet I hadn’t entered the aether. When Paono released the dawnweaving, I might simply cease to exist.
But I couldn’t think about that now.
Tell me you’re alive, Lilik. I know it’s not true, but maybe if you say it… You were always so strong. If anyone could bend the world, reshape reality to suit her vision, it’s you.
As Paono cast the thought inward, he stood with hands limp at his side. Another attacker sidled forward, eyes darting in search of an opening in the smuggler’s defensive crouch. The attacker flinched and stepped back when the smuggler aimed a quick jab at the air before his face.
Mieshk shrieked. “Kill him, you idiots!”
Faces grimacing in pain, the crowd shifted forward again. Their movements were reluctant as if Paono’s draw had weakened Mieshk’s hold. But we wouldn’t last long even under a subdued attack, not with Paono standing here, defeated.
With a snarl of annoyance at her slaves, Mieshk tramped forward, shoving aside a sailor who stumbled, went down, and nearly fell off the rock rib.
Snap out of it, Paono! I yelled.
Mieshk stepped closer, her heat washing over us to join the warmth radiating from Ioene. The smuggler defending Paono stood before the Ulstat heir, fists raised yet trembling.
Don’t make him die for you, I yelled.
With a roar, Paono gathered his grief, packed it so tight inside his heart that it became a hard knot of rage.
“Step aside. I’ll take care of her,” he said in a low growl. As he spoke, Paono drew deeper from the energy of the sparks. Even Mieshk winced. As tainted and twisted as it was, her soul was still part of the living. Her own energy would aid in her defeat. I wanted nothing more than to leap forth and wrap my hands around Mieshk’s throat. Instead, I shoved every drop of determination and resolve across the link that bound me to Paono. He nodded as my emotions flooded him.
We’ve got this, Lilik. Together.
As Paono advanced on her, Mieshk screamed and raised her arms, the hands of flame erupting once agai
n. She reached for Paono. Like it had been with me, her flame couldn’t contact his flesh. But the power in her fire wrapped him, binding his hands to his side. His flesh bubbled, blisters bursting. Paono accepted the pain, wrapped it up and forced it into the blazing rage at his core.
With a sudden snap as if a coin had been spinning and spinning until finally landing face up, Paono’s dawnweaving crashed into place. From inside the weave as well as inside Paono’s mind, I felt the sudden surge of his Want.
I expected his magic to throw off Mieshk’s hands, to fall over her in a crushing wave, to inundate her lungs and drown her right before us. But Paono didn’t Want that. No matter his anger or grief or regret, in his heart, Paono remained true. His calling was mercy. As I stared, shocked, through his eyes, the shimmering cloud that surrounded him lifted free. The glimmering motes passed through the fire and fell like a gentle rain atop Mieshk’s blazing form. Where every speck landed, fire fizzled. Wisps of steam drifted off her body as she fought the cleansing fog. The flaming hands vanished as the aurora snuffed her blaze. Paono’s hands were outstretched, palms forward. As the aurora left him, his skin lost the inner glow, returning him to the boy I’d grown up with.
Within the space of moments, the last of the aurora fled Paono to quench Mieshk’s power. The remnants of her fire sputtered and died.
Mieshk fell to her knees, a wretched thing. No longer charred and cracked, her skin returned to the tan hues of the islands. She ran clawed hands over her bare scalp, plunged fists into eyes slowly returning to ordinary human orbs.
A shattering sensation filled Paono’s mind as the raw energy in his dawnweaving pierced the shell containing the nightstrands. At once, the souls burst from their prison, shouting in a clamor of exultation. The deluge of spirits raced through Paono’s mind, forcing me to shut down my senses lest I lose my identity in their torrent.
The Vanished were free at last. Paono had claimed he needed to kill someone for his dawnweaving to undo the prison he had built. It had never occurred to me that I might be the soul that was lost. Deep in Paono’s mind, I felt hints that he was coming to the same realization. But he wasn’t ready to acknowledge it. He still held hope that I wasn’t gone.
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