Sir Vyktor stared at the mass of struggling soldiers daring anyone to move so he could point them out. “Well! What have you to say, worms!”
“Surrender,” a Xinnish officer cried, he held his hands up, but he wasn’t looking at Yuna. He was looking at the young man who had summoned lightning as he wept with the dead woman in his arms.
Yes, Echinni thought, we have a new champion now, another hero of legend, another Syklan powerful enough to be Yuna’s equal.
“Surrender!” echoed hundreds of other soldiers, still trying to make sense of what was happening. Many of them were also looking at the same Syklan, and all were giving him a wide berth. They feared Yuna, but this man’s power terrified them.
“Naira, I’m sorry, Naira,” the man said as he rocked back and forth.
Echinni knelt beside him and placed a gentle hand on his arm, and as she did so, the Will surged around her. Its music rose through a crescendo, growing in complexity and beauty as it did. She was filled with it, and even though she no longer could believe some benevolent hand guided its strange music, she could no more ignore its call than ignore her body’s instinct to breathe.
She had to follow the path.
Soldiers with the emblems of the Salucian Union on their tabards and uniforms began to rise and organise themselves. They surrounded the remaining Xinnish forces and civilians who were all surrendering, but none of it mattered to Echinni, for she saw only the two in front of her. A man cupping the head of the woman he had loved. Her blood mixed with the falling rain onto the street below them, and then she knew what to do.
“Kai,” Echinni said. “Get …”
“… the drum,” Kai finished for her. She looked back at him and could see he too felt what was happening. He resonated with the holy song just as she did.
Kai ran back into the tavern.
Sir Vyktor walked over to Echinni and stopped in front of Yuna. “Your Majesty, High Queen Echinni,” Sir Vyktor said, “Thank the gods you are safe. High Queen, it was all meant to lure your father here and assassinate him. We failed to see the trap ...” Sir Vyktor trailed off, shaking his head.
“I know.” Echinni heard Yuna breathe in hard, heard the big woman fight against emotion she never let show. Yuna gripped Hunsa even harder.
“Thank you, Sir Vyktor,” Echinni said calmly. She realised now she still wore the long flowing white dress she was meant to wear on stage. It wasn’t regal, but it would have to do. The power of the song around them filled her and began to block out every other sense she had.
“Secure the square. Inform our soldiers, and let no further harm come to these people,” she heard herself say but felt as if someone else had spoken. Her mind drifted on the currents running between her and the people in the square, drifted to the grieving man and the empty shell he held.
No, she was wrong, not completely empty.
There was a memory there, a connection which had been broken. A discord where there should be harmony.
“Yes, Your Highness.” Sir Vyktor saluted and bowed to her as Echinni started to walk towards the grieving Syklan. “The High King is dead! Long live the high queen!” Sir Vyktor shouted at the square.
“Long live the high queen!” Soldiers and Syklans around the square dropped to a knee and saluted. Many of the captured rebels did as well. “Long live the high queen.”
Echinni held up a hand, quieting the shouts around her and silence fell over the onlookers like a cloak, and in that silence, they all heard the sad words of the man beside her.
“I couldn’t stop it,” the man said, looking down into the woman’s dead eyes. “I saw it happening, and I couldn’t stop it.”
“You did everything you could. Your amazing display of power saved the day. What is your name?” Echinni asked gently and dipped her head so he could see her.
“Matoh Spierling, Your Highness,” Matoh said through shuddering breaths.
“You were there that day, with Adel. You were her friend, trying to help her. And before, with your brother, at the initiation ceremony,” Echinni said.
Kai and Jachem, carrying the Demon Drum, caught up with her carrying the Demon Drum.
“Matoh?” Kai said, looking surprised and then sad as he saw the dead woman in Matoh’s arms. “Oh, no. Matoh, I’m so sorry.” There was compassion in Kai’s voice, yet also some of the same detachment Echinni heard in her own voice.
They both heard the Song behind the events around them.
She saw Kai pull the drumsticks from his pocket as he watched the woman in Matoh’s arms. “I wonder… I stopped a heart, can I maybe…?” Kai trailed off as he looked to Echinni.
The song erupted within Echinni before she knew what she was doing, and she began to sing.
Tears streaked down Kai’s cheeks, and his hands moved of their own volition as the drumsticks started to beat out a rhythm upon the Demon Drum.
It was that of a heartbeat.
Thump, thump.
Growing softly each time, the simple beat was repeated.
Echinni sang no words, though the notes pouring from her mouth held meaning far deeper and far older than words ever could.
The beat and the song resonated through the square. It attached itself to every heart, every breath, every pulse, every thought, every mind and every nuance of existence which belonged to those who heard Echinni and Kai.
Thump, thump.
The song was filled with understanding, with connection, and with life.
Matoh sat transfixed as Echinni lay her hand upon the gash across the dead woman’s throat. Pain and grief swam within Matoh’s eyes, but also love.
Tears, matching Kai’s own, wetted all cheeks, and within the square, all heartbeats and all breaths joined together with the rhythm of the drum and the melody of the song.
Thump, thump.
Their breaths began to quicken, and hearts began to pound within chests. They were joined now.
Thump, thump.
Kai’s drumsticks began to fall harder and harder. The demon eyes upon the wooden drum’s side looked wild, animated as if they were watching, bearing witness.
Thump, thump.
The crowd had become one entity; all hearts beat as one, pulsing towards their young queen holding the dead woman in their centre.
Thump, thump.
Echinni closed her eyes and searched for the energy which had left the young woman. Echinni felt the old rhythm which had once inhabited her body, felt the ebbs and flows which had defined the woman Matoh held in his arms.
Slowly Echinni found those rhythms, brought them together again within the body under her hand. Her song deepened, and Echinni pushed the song into the very souls of those who chanted with her. Together they shared a moment of perfect unity, and it was then Echinni pulled a small piece of remembered life from all who shared that moment, a fractional memory of the living gifted to this brave woman.
Something was holding Echinni back. Something had been stolen from the dead woman, something captured, stolen and taken away.
Thump, thump.
Yet Echinni could feel the form of its absence, could hear the song which had been pulled away from this body, and Echinni let the music of the young girl sing through her, let the memory of who she was burst forth in melody and rhythm.
Kai’s hands pounded down. Echinni’s heart and everyone’s hearts felt the beat right down to their core, and those within the square gasped for breath as the rhythm of the drum thundered within their chests.
THUMP! THUMP!
Now. Echinni knew. Now was what this all had been leading to.
It was time.
Echinni’s voice became ethereal, emanating from within her yet also from beyond. Her voice filled the square, filled all of those who were drawn into the song, and filled the body of the woman beneath Echinni’s hand.
Discord once again became harmony.
THUMP, THUMP!
Kai pounded the drum, then forced it silent with his palm, just as Echinni’s c
hant stopped.
Echinni opened her eyes and pulled her hand away from the woman’s throat.
Silence echoed through the square.
The dead woman’s eyes blinked open.
The woman gasped for air and grabbed hold of the young man who held her in his arms.
Her eyes stared around, confused, but as Echinni put her fingers to the woman’s cheek, she calmed, and a look of peace swept her fear and confusion away.
“Naira!” Matoh gasped.
The wound was gone from her neck, and Naira O’Bannon blinked against the rain slowly ebbing away to reveal a blanket of stars behind it.
“You’re alive,” Matoh cried in wonder.
“Matoh?” Naira smiled up at him.
“Yes,” Matoh sobbed with joy. “I’m here. I’ve got you.”
Echinni stepped away as the song, and the Will quietened to a light buzz within her. Yuna caught hold of Echinni as her legs buckled and her strength left her.
“A miracle!” someone in the crowd cried. “Resurrection!”
“An angel?” a tough veteran’s voice asked.
“She is the Raven! The Raven returned to us. Bringing life from the heavens and returning it to thy mortal flesh!” another cried.
Disjointed questions and statements quietly circulated through the awestruck onlookers. “Healed her ... only Meskaiwa was able to do that ... she is an angel. The Raven returned to us! It is a sign! Halom’s Will... a miracle!”
Murmur upon murmur circulated through the crowd until a strong voice shouted out. “Halom’s Will has come to us, He blesses our struggle against the infidels! Against the invaders and those who would stand against Salucia. Hail to our Holy Saviour. Hail the High Queen!” It was Sir Vyktor, who stood with his hand held high, looking reverently at Echinni.
Chanting began with his declaration. The entire square was caught up in the holy rapture.
“Halom sings again! She is His song here on earth. Halom sings through us once more! Halom sings!” a man in a Singer’s robe shouted in reverence.
Unified cheers rose from the crowd as fists pumped into the air. “Halom sings! Halom sings!”
Echinni saw Matoh Spierling look up at her with tears in his eyes as he held the woman he loved. She touched his forehead, and he bowed as if blessed.
With Yuna’s help, Echinni turned to the crowd and smiled.
In unison, hands all around her rose to the sky. “Hail the Holy Saviour!” the crowd cried as they bobbed their heads up and down in praise to the heavens.
47 - A Brother’s Burden
You only ever get to choose between the paths life lets you see, rarely are they the ones you imagined walking down.
- Natasha Spierling speaking to her troops before the Battle of Istol
Matoh
New Toeron, Bauffin
Matoh held Naira for a long time. Feeling her warmth, the soft curves of her body, and how she fit so perfectly in his arms. She looked like an angel who had fallen and found herself in his lap.
He could hardly see her through the tears in his eyes. “You’re alive,” he said quietly down to her for what must have been the tenth time. “I can’t believe you’re alive.”
“I … wasn’t,” Naira said as she looked around, confused. “What did she do?” Naira looked at Echinni with wonder.
“I don’t know. She sang. We were all connected and felt the song right down to our cores. She sang through us and with us somehow, and the song brought you back,” Matoh said, watching their new high queen in rapt wonder as she walked amongst her people.
Naira nodded at Matoh’s words as if they made some sense. Clarity returned to her, and she looked around anxiously. “You’re alive, so, Thannis, you killed him?”
“I … no,” Matoh sputtered. “He ran. After he had killed–” Matoh shuddered as he remembered the knife slice through Naira’s neck. “Well, he got away. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Naira quirked her head as if she were listening to something. She seemed distant, as if, for the moment, she were somewhere else entirely. Matoh heard a ringing sound around them, but then Naira snapped her attention back to him, and they were together once more. She let her fingers trace the line of his jaw. “I had to stop him.”
“I know,” Matoh said, letting his head fall softly to rest atop hers. “And you did. Whatever he was trying to convince everyone of was interrupted. He ran and–”
“Adel chased him,” Naira finished.
Matoh quirked his head back to look at her, narrowing his eyes as he did. “Yes, but how could you know that?”
“I’m not certain,” Naira answered as if she were in some daydream. “I just do.”
Naira sat up gingerly and got to her feet slowly with Matoh’s help. “Thannis healed himself somehow. He should have died.”
“I remember now,” Matoh said, and now it was his time to sound distant. “You disappeared somehow? How did you do that?”
“How do you call lightning?” Naira countered with a slight smile on her lips. She sighed and said, “I don’t know, is the answer. It happened to me only a few times before. When I needed to escape, suddenly there was this light and a sound, a ringing of such high frequency you could feel it all the way down to your bones. Then flash, and I was somewhere else. I don’t know how, but that’s how it would happen, and just before he stabbed me, I felt like I was controlling it. I couldn’t let him get away, not again.”
“I get it.” Matoh nodded sadly.
It was then a large group of constables came walking back into the square with four of them hoisting a travois between them.
“The senior prefect,” Naira said in distress. “He’s hurt, and Adel’s with them.”
Naira pulled Matoh with her towards them, and it was then Adel saw Naira.
“Naira! How?” Adel stopped dead in her tracks, but only for a moment before jumping to her friend and smothering her in an embrace. Tears of joy streamed down Adel’s cheeks as she cried in gasping sobs. “You’re alive, you’re alive,” she said over and over again.
“It was High Queen Echinni,” Matoh explained. “She sang like Meskaiwa did in the Tenets of the Elohim. The high queen sang and brought Naira back.”
“Where’s Thannis?” Naira asked as she pushed Adel back gently. Naira’s gaze was intense as she gripped Adel’s arms. “Did he escape?”
“No,” Adel said. “He’s dead.” Adel related what had happened to her in the tunnels with a measure of disbelief at her own story.
“He was healing himself when I fought him as well,” Naira said. “Are you sure he’s gone?”
“Nobody could heal from a fall from that high onto jagged rocks, Naira,” Adel said. “The constabulary is already searching for the body, and they are ordering boats to patrol the coastline for a dozen miles in every direction. Naira, Thannis is gone.”
Naira slumped back, and Matoh felt her relax into him. She turned and wrapped her arms around him to pull him down.
She kissed Matoh with a passion he had never felt before.
He wanted to stay within that moment for eternity.
Naira released first and looked up at him. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t fair to you. After he attacked me, I didn’t want anyone to touch me, and I didn’t want to see the pity you felt for me. I was ashamed.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about.” Matoh smiled and brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. “I’m glad he’s dead, though I wish I were the one who’d killed him.” Matoh pulled her close to him once more and cherished the feel of her.
“She’s the real thing. Isn’t she?” Adel said watching High Queen Echinni walk through the crowd.
“Yes,” Matoh said. He knew then that he would follow the high queen wherever she led, and then he shook himself as he once again caught a glimpse of Senior Prefect Stonebridge being carried over to a medic. The old veteran seemed to be shooing her away, saying he would be fine, but the medic insisted on inspecting the old man’s wounds.
“Hey, look at this, got most of the group back together. So, Naira, did you see Lady Death?” Kevin asked Naira, the cocky smile already on his face.
Bastion didn’t hesitate. His fist slammed into Kevin’s jaw, knocking the Tawan out cold.
Jerome had seen it happening and caught his comatose friend before Kevin sustained any further injury by hitting the street.
“Sorry, Naira O’Bannon,” Bastion said, looking red-faced with anger and embarrassment. “We are all glad you are alive. You were glorious in your attack. I saw you charge him, your attack was swift, and you would have won if it was not for his black magic.” The big man’s lip curled in derision as he spat out his last words.
Kevin sputtered awake, gasping for air.
“Easy now,” Jerome said holding his friend. “Your bell’s just been rung.”
Kevin’s eyes swam in his head for a moment and looked as if he was about to say something. Bastion raised a big finger at Kevin and gave him a look which could have killed any number of small animals. Kevin shut his mouth.
Matoh suddenly became aware that his brother was nowhere to be seen. “Where’s Wayran? Is he back at the Academy?” Matoh asked. Panic and ice gripped his heart.
Wayran should be with Kevin – the last time he had seen Wayran, he was being hauled back behind the lines with Kevin.
The confused looks of his friends filled Matoh with dread.
“No. No. No. Where’s Wayran?” Matoh stood, trying to get a view of the square. “Wayran! No, no, no.” Matoh put his hands to his head, then grabbed Kevin by the front of his leather armour. “He was supposed to be with you!” Matoh yelled.
Yet in the back of his mind, he knew anything could happen in a battle. Kevin would have left him with a medic and would then have been called back into the fight. Yet he couldn’t accept the logic of it. “I left him with you!”
Awakenings Page 52