Fall of the Tower 2

by Cecelia Isaac

  ~*~

  She couldn't rightfully blame Amadou for this situation. They both knew how dangerous the area around Carnate was, and they'd been rolling on the ground like ninnies. And not even in a fun way. She could think of a million things she'd rather do on the ground with Amadou. He rarely shed his sorcerer's robe. When he did, he looked nothing like the bookworm she'd accused him of being. His clothes flattered his long, lean frame. His hair hung loose, but his eyes were attentive and seeking. She watched the gears turn in his head as he scanned the room.

  One guard! The wolves had no idea who they'd captured. Unfortunately, like in Saccharine, they did not have time to take advantage of their position in a Hji camp. They had left a bigger problem in a chest on a fast-moving carriage on the way to Carnate.

  Ursa sank into a folded sitting position. Amadou hadn't given any signal of what he wanted to do yet. He was walking the edge of his cell, perfectly unaware of how out of place he looked. If the dozing guard awoke, her suspicions would be confirmed that Ursa and Amadou were no laborers.

  She watched Ama inspect the bars, possibly learning about the Hji design. He'd always held an interest in Hji technology, and how the wheel-encampments drew wells of power in large and small ways. His fingers reached out to trace a design, his back to her.

  Ursa put her chin on her knees. The motion was getting harder around her belly.

  She couldn't shake the bad mood she was in, and as she watched Amadou move about his cell, she realized what it was: sadness. She couldn't picture him with anyone else. She’d begun to string together the outline of a future, with a beautiful child and a kind partner. The future had started to look rosy. She'd been holding that future cupped in her hands the past week. Nurturing it, keeping it from reality. Now reality was here. Would she have to let him go? Would she leave Carnate? Would she let her mother finally marry her off?

  Tears welled in her eyes. Ursa wiped them away before Amadou turned around and realized. He hadn't meant to hurt her on this level. She should just let him go. That would be easiest for everyone. She wasn't sure how to express that in words though. How did you tell someone you had maybe wanted everything from them, but if they couldn't give it, no problem, we can still be friends? We can still live ten feet apart and you can still come to my workroom to talk, and I'll just watch you from afar?

  Amadou turned. She sat straighter.

  "We can knock out the guard, unlock our doors, and slip out the back. I think don't think there are any other guards around these tents. We should follow a path back. Transforming into birds and going straight up might trigger a protection charm. Can you weave a—is something wrong?"

  We just threw grass at each other, she wanted to say. Do you want to talk about it?

  What should we do with each other?

  ~*~

  Ursa shook her head. "I'm fine." Her voice was soft, and she hadn't moved from her place on the ground.

  Amadou approached the bars between them. "Ursa, listen..."

  "We can talk at Carnate."

  "I'm sorry, all right? I hate when we fight. I think the only other time was—"

  "—The fruitcake incident." They spoke at the same time. The corner of her mouth quirked up. Thank goodness. That's progress.

  "I never meant to make you think I wasn't happy for you and your baby. I am. I just had my own...trouble with it."

  She gave him a look that told him that wasn't going to be enough for her.

  "It just represented a finality to me." The words were a struggle to get out, but he knew it was the right thing. Put your cards on the table, Amadou.

  "Children are like that."

  "No, you don't understand. It meant we'd never be together. Because you love another. And I... wanted to be together. But I'm going to do better, I swear. You deserve better from your...best friend."

  He'd meant the words to be a peace offering, but she frowned.

  "Why did you think I was in love with another?"

  Now Amadou frowned in confusion. "Well—" He gestured at her belly.

  "But Ama, I never speak of him."

  "And we respected your privacy. You never said he wasn’t involved." They hadn't really respected her privacy. The other sorcerers had had many a conversation about the mysterious father. Amadou had even once walked in on a conversation where they were discussing the possibility of him being the father, and all the reasons he and Ursa might've covered it up.

  "You thought I wouldn't mention this great love for months?"

  "Just yesterday you said you did not wish to be engaged and that your mother tried to marry you off, but you refused."

  Ursa struggled to her feet. "You fool. I was trying to work up the nerve to tell you how I felt. But I hesitated. I thought you were repelled by another man’s baby."

  “But I have a large family,” he pointed out. His hands sketched the heights of his beloved younger siblings and his older siblings’ children. “I’ve been talking care of babies since I was old enough to hold them.”

  “Oh. Right.”

  “And anyway, I’m adopted.”

  Her eyebrows shot up on her grimy face. “Ama! I had no idea. Why didn’t you ever say?”

  He shrugged. “My mother and father are the neighbors of my actual mother. When she fell ill, they swore they’d care for me. I don’t remember her at all.” His thoughts turned distant. “Sometimes I think about how my powers could have saved her, if only I’d been a little older.”

  Ursa clasped his hands through the bars. “I’m sorry.” He could guess she thought of her own father’s early passage from this world.

  Amadou refocused on her. “What I’m trying to say is I don’t care where your baby came from. We can still be a family.”

  Ursa said, “I love you.”

  ~*~

  She would have given quite a bit to be in Amadou's head as those words tripped from her mouth. Easily. Like they'd been waiting an eternity to be said.

  Amadou was shocked into silence.

  She went on, "So do you still love me? Because if so, I see no reason for us to spend another moment apart."

  "Yes," said Amadou. "I love you."

  She felt no trepidation at the declaration. Where she'd thought there would be fear or uncertainty was replaced by solid ground. Ursa knew she'd be able to return to this surety, this safe harbor, for the rest of her life.

  She smiled, and saw Amadou was mirroring her, grinning deliriously.

  ~*~

  Great Eye, he wished he could freeze in time the moment she'd said those words to him. Was it too early to ask to hear them again?

  He straightened his features. "So I'll go ask your mother for permission—"

  "You will not!" Ursa protested laughingly. The guard started in her seat. "I've no need for a full council to rule on my choice. I know when I've chosen well."

  "Are you sure? You said some things on the plain..."

  Ursa pulled a face. "You know I didn't mean any of it. You are my best friend. You can lean on me for anything."

  He hadn't stopped looking at her from the moment she'd said she loved him. Now he gripped the iron bars. He spoke a djinn word, and the barrier between them vanished into thin air.

  "Ai!" cried the guard, springing from her seat. "You can't—" She tripped over the stool and landed on her knees. Thinking better of taking on someone who had just displayed such powerful magic, the guard scrambled out of the tent on all fours.

  Amadou stepped forward. Ursa wrapped her arms around him. They melted into each other, lips meeting. They kissed by the glow of the softly burning mage lights.

  ~*~

  Ursa pulled away with deep reluctance. Amadou's face was pink and she could guess hers looked the same. She hadn't been kissed deeply in so long. Trysts were all well and good, but the thrill faded quickly. The feeling of Amadou was settling into her bones, there to stay.

  "Don't say it," Amadou said. He sounded breathless.

  "We should go."

  He gr
imaced. She clasped his face and they laughed together.

  Amadou swooped down for another kiss. Then they parted.

  "The guard is gone," Ursa said. "Shall we make a new plan? I don't think we'll be sneaking out of here after all."

  "Whatever you'd like, my dear."

  Ursa giggled at his tone. "This camp may be part of a larger wheel strategy. We should destroy everything."

  "Fantastic. It would be stress-relieving to finally punch the damn Hji."

  "The others will be sorry they missed it."

  With another word of power, Ursa unlocked the cell door. Hearing voices outside, she sealed the tent flap. Several bodies thudded against it from the outside.

  Amadou ripped the top of the tent open along one of the seams. He and Ursa rose through the air.

  Five Hji had staggered back as the tent ripped open. As they emerged in the night air, cries rose up. Somewhere, an alarm bell clanged.

  They generated a rising wind around them. The fires wavered, threatening to go out and plunge them into darkness. Though she did not have a robe, Ursa was certain they still cut imposing figures.

  One Hji scrambled in a pouch, producing a charm of red stone.

  "That will not work on us," Amadou said, his voice broadcast larger than life through a spell. "Do not waste it."

  Then he threw down a hand and collapsed the jail tent in a whirl of power.

  Ursa landed and took on the other tents. She ripped down one and then the other, scattering the wooden platforms across the pathways that made up the concentric circles. Anything that broke the pathway of magic.

  "Amadou!" someone cried, from far away. It seemed the Hji were well-informed about who their enemies were.

  While she took on the tents, Amadou scattered ceremonial fires, not caring where the sparks fell. He snatched trinkets from the ashes and put them into his trouser pockets.

  She shook her head. Couldn't he just relax, and enjoy the destruction? She flattened four smaller tents. Many were empty, which made sense if this was just a smaller camp for troops farther out. She and Ama did not want to spend too much time here, and so she picked the tents that would wreak the most damage to the magic system, and break the Hji regularity.

  ~*~

  Amadou heard a Hji soldier call his name, but he paid no mind. All that meant was he and Ursa would have to be a little faster. There was no way the Hji sorcerers could be summoned and make it here in time to catch them.

  They’d formed a barricade around the healer’s tent, which he found heartwarming. Perhaps the Hji were people too. Now if only they’d just leave Carnate. In any case, he had no interest in the wounded, or even in killing anyone. As always, his concern was the magic. He’d thought of blanketing Carnate in Hji colors, but that was a sword that could cut both ways: either the magic would consider the Hji army part of Carnate, in which case Carnate’s magic would strengthen, or Carnate might be considered part of the Hji, in which case their magic would weaken. Any weaker, and the Great Dome would fall. That was something they could not afford.

  Since he wasn’t quite sure where they were, he did not know what camp they were destroying. Still, anything would help.

  Amadou felt an attack charm plink off his shield as he bent to take the stuff burning at the center of a ceremonial fire. Strange. He’d always thought they were just charms made by sorcerers or priestesses. Now he saw that the ceremonial fires were spells in and of themselves, with ingredients tossed into the flames. Unfortunately, some burned quicker than others, so he did not have the full recipe.

  An arrow zipped by his head.

  High time we left.

  “Ursa!” he called.

  “Yes?” An explosion followed her answer, and he shook his head and smiled.

  “Are you ready?”

  “I am, my love. Can I call you that?”

  “Yes, please do.” The very thought pleased him.

  She laughed with pleasure, then he saw a peregrine streak into the sky.

  Amadou pulled the shape of a peregrine over himself as well, and was in the air right behind her.

  ~*~

  They left the Hji camp in utter chaos. Fire burned down tents while the Hji scrambled.

  They’ll be back up and running in a day, she thought bitterly, knowing how well-organized and well-supplied the Hji were. But she hoped they’d realized Carnate had some fight left.

  She and Amadou winged around each other. He’d taken her preferred bird form, and she couldn’t help but feel it was a good sign. She hadn’t thought to worry about how they would change their friendship into a romance. Now it felt like the transition would be smooth.

  Now with only hours left until dawn, they sped back toward the city.

  ~*~

  They still hadn't caught up with the carriage an hour later. They had finally crossed over the route they had decided for the way back. This time, they had decided speed was the more important factor, and had taken the carriage over the plains directly to the northwest gate. There was a chance of being waylaid by the Hji, but the guard on the wall and those stationed outside the city were ready and waiting for the arrival of the carriage. The guard stationed in the hills were following along, out of sight in the hills.

  It is a good thing we haven't seen them, Amadou reminded himself. Still, a knot twisted in his stomach. They carried dangerous cargo, and if anything happened...

  He could tell Ursa was growing more focused as well. Once they had caught up the tracks of the carriage, they had no longer wheeled and spiraled in the joy of crushing the Hji camp. They had settled into a fast pace, fueled by the natural speed of the peregrine.

  Overhead, the sky started to lighten.

  ~*~

  She breathed a sigh of relief when Carnate came into view. They still had not seen the carriage, and she felt confident now that it had arrived safely in the walls of Carnate. Once it was secure, they could find En Heduanna and insist the demon went to the temple. Especially with its bonds so loose.

  The sight of the walls urged her on, and she began a steep descent, Amadou at her back.

  As they approached, she made out the sight of something that had been obscured by the glimmer of the Great Dome. A column of purple smoke billowed upward in an unnatural shape.

  Amadou kraa-ed in alarm. Her stomach dropped.

  The purple smoke was a signal for help. Not inside Carnate!

  Exhaustion left her. She and Amadou flew faster than before. They streaked over the wall, through the Dome, and between the buildings.

  The column of smoke flowed from a charm cast in the middle of a main street, one which led directly to the tower.

  She and Amadou landed and transformed as one into the middle of the street, and the middle of a battle already lost.

  Guards picked themselves up, supporting wounded fellows. Debris scattered across the road, as well as two columns made of wood. A few uninjured guards ran up the street toward the tower.

  "What happened?" Ursa yelled at no one in particular.

  A guard stepped forward. "Ambush. They went that way." He pointed toward the tower.

  At that moment a crash sounded in the distance. The sound shook the buildings around them like an earthquake.

  "Damn!" Amadou said.

  "Let's go!" she cried in response, already transforming into a bird again. They sped toward the tower.

  ~*~

  Amadou cursed every djinn he could name. How had this gone so wrong? Weren't the Hji supposed to be their greatest enemy?

  They were not yet at the gardens when he saw the tower move strangely—that is, that it moved at all.

  They shot out from over the buildings to see the carnage. The carriage, shattered against the tower. But the tower had not won the exchange. It sported a gaping hole.

  He and Ursa landed in the gardens as the tower noticeably creaked once more.

  "Ama, it's going to fall!"

  She was probably right, but he couldn't fathom it. The tower, fall? Impossi
ble. The Hji hadn't gotten anywhere near it—

  "Ama!"

  Ursa's cry finally awakened him.

  "We have to catch it!"

  ~*~

  Just as unbelievable as the tower falling was Amadou's suggestion that they catch it.

  "Imposs—" Ursa cut herself off. The tower groaned against its own weight. What could they do? Let those inside die? There was no other option than this crazy idea.

  "Take my hand," she said. If ever there was a time to draw on the magic of connections, of lived things and places, of wells of experience and feeling, this was it.

  Amadou grabbed her hand. He shouted into the noise and the dust in the air and the desperation of it all, shouted words of power drawn from a deep place. White light limned him, and traveled to her. Ursa matched him word for word, seizing the power in her mind and cupping it there before casting it out.

  The tower fell. It strained against the bonds she and Amadou crafted, snapping them faster than they could build the spell.

  It was impossible. If they could move something that heavy, the war would have been over already. They would have rolled right over the Hji.

  The tower continued in exorably toward the earth.

  ~*~

  Amadou felt the tower fall even as he pulled on every ounce of strength and power he had. The net was not working. It was too intangible against the forces of the world.

  Suddenly his eyes fluttered open. "I've got it, Ursa. We can't build a net. We need to imbue the whole tower."

  She frowned, head snapping back and forth between him and the tower in a precious second.

  "The astral spell," she said. "I can modify it and imbue the tower.”

  "I will call the others. We will channel through you."

  He cast out into the city. Thisbe and Khalil, on the wall, and Obiad and Isis in the top of the tower, met him with mental cries of confusion and anguish.

  Funnel to Ursa! he ordered with no time to hear their thoughts.