Giya's Betrayal: Book Three of the Firebird's Daughter series

by Kyrja

  “No!” Ceirat suddenly stopped, her body physically swaying backwards, as if she was repulsed by something. “There is danger there,” she said, taking a step backwards, while nodding at the grove of trees where they were supposed to meet Batal, Ordan, and Sabbah.

  “Can you give us more details?” Honsa asked, putting his arms around her to give her more emotional stability. “Is it because someone unexpected is in there?”

  “No,” she frowned, shaking her head. “No. Not yet. Something is going to happen,” she replied.

  “You mean there is the potential for something to happen,” Honsa reminded her. Sometimes she felt things so intensely, she forgot that she was only reading the potential and not the reality. He felt her body immediately relax as she nodded, turning eyes full of gratitude towards him. And now she was blushing, as if she was embarrassed.

  “It’s all right,” he assured her, “but can you tell what might cause a problem?”

  “The water,” Ceirat replied, her forehead wrinkled in concentration. “No, something in the water,” she said, still trying to grope along the thread of time she had felt unravelling.

  “But there’s no danger right now?” Savaar asked.

  “It’s coming,” Ceirat replied, starting to move away again. “No!” she suddenly shouted. “It’s here! It’s here!”

  * * * * * * * *

  Jarles watched in astonishment as a woman rose up out of the sand, and continued to rise, until her feet were above his head. He could feel a sensation from her he hadn’t felt in a while. There was something crawling around in the back of his mind, trying to help him remember what it was, but he was coming up short. Something important. It wasn’t exactly a warning, but it was telling him something about this woman. He only ever felt that sensation when he was with … That’s it! She was a god!

  “I am Jahari,” she said, looking down at them, “and this is my land now. You are unwelcome in Nohoyo and must leave. This is your only warning.”

  “My Lady!” Chared shouted, immediately throwing his arms wide and kneeling. “We are here seeking a companion who has gone missing. If you are the goddess of these lands now, perhaps you know of her.”

  Jarles wasn’t sure whether Chared looked like a fool for kneeling, or whether he did for failing to kneel. Suppressing a sigh, he went to one knee, signaling the others to follow his lead. When he heard the rustling of clothing, he assumed they had done as he’d asked. While meeting gods wasn’t exactly a new experience for him, it was still a rare enough occurrence that he thought Chared’s instincts had probably been the right ones.

  “Your quest is not my concern,” Jahari replied.

  “Please!” Jarles pleaded. “She is my grandmother! Denit. Do you know of her? She may have been in flames, and wouldn’t have been easy to miss. She may … she may have even caused some trouble. She was pretty upset,” he finished lamely, feeling ridiculous for the way it sounded.

  “I know of her,” she replied, a sudden smile blooming across her face. “She has, indeed, caused much mischief,” she said, as she slowly descended until her feet were touching the ground in front of them. “But then, she has been through much turmoil too.”

  “Is she all right?” Jarles asked, coming to his feet, his heart beginning to beat faster.

  “The crystal has not been shattered, and she has gone to fight Sov, but Giya is hopeful she will return in time,” she replied.

  Jarles felt a wave of confusion wash over him, realizing he had no idea what she was talking about. “Crystal?” was the only thing he could manage.

  “Wait!” Ceirat shouted, surprising all of them. “The danger is not past. It’s still in there!” she shouted, pointing at the small grove of trees.

  “That is Borja,” Jahari said, “she has been charged with taking care of the waters of Nohoyo, and is already very territorial. But then, you can’t blame us for being wary; we’re expecting an army of soldiers from Bila.”

  “Oh no...” Savaar whispered.

  “Come, let us go collect your friends and I will take you to Giya much quicker than you can get there on your own,” she paused, looking at Honsa and Ceirat. “They are your friends, yes? I feel the connection between you and the one who is a man in a woman’s body.”

  “Ordan, yes,” Honsa replied. “You really are a goddess, aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” she smiled at him, “much like your friend here,” she said touching Jarles with a single finger in the center of his chest. “Quickly now,” she told them, clapping her hands together. “There may be something you can do to help your grandmother before Sov tears the world to pieces.”

  * * * * * * * *

  Sina waited a long time after everyone left before she unghosted, and then waited some more before she moved. Ordan had used some kind of magic to make sure the others didn’t see her when they arrived with the new goddess of Nohoyo. That wasn’t going to be something she would be able to wrap her mind around for a very long time to come, she knew, but then, she didn’t have to. She was leaving Nohoyo, despite Ordan’s insistence that everything would be different now.

  She stood up, stretching her arms and legs, looking to the sky to judge how long she might have until sundown to travel, but decided that Sov was no longer something she could trust. Her body told her it should be night, or close to it, but he was still shining brightly. No, “shining” wasn’t the right word. He was blazing. And he looked more like a creature now, than a round disc in the sky. It was really too much for her to take in, so she decided not to look any more. She would just start walking and see what happened from there. She was still scared, but she was also starting to feel numb. She was tired of being afraid, and just wanted to get to a place where she would feel better. She wasn’t sure there was a safe place any more. Ordan seemed to think there would be soon – if Sov didn’t destroy the planet. It just didn’t matter anymore though. She was a Fire Tender. She would have to be very careful from now on, so she didn’t kill anyone. She had seen that Ordan hadn’t died when she had taken his outstretched hands, so maybe it only happened when she was angry. She shook her head, feeling sad. If Ordan hadn’t gone into the city, she would have liked to have stayed with him. He’d made her feel safe. But he was gone now.

  “You can come with me,” she heard a voice coming from the fountain.

  Chapter Nineteen – Fire Tenders and Kasais

  Vray was awestruck. It was absolutely fascinating to be able to see how his magic worked as it pulled the life force from one plant into his keeping, and then to watch again as he gave that energy to another plant. The glowing lines Sahil created so they could both watch how the magic worked gave him a better understanding of exactly what was happening. Sahil had said he wasn’t the one who created the lines, that they were always there; his magic merely made them visible. Sahil had laughed out loud at the face Vray had made when he’d made the lines appear after the old man had showed him the right way to put his hands, and the words to say. He had told the Fire Tender that when he got used to doing it, he would no longer have to say the words out loud, that his thoughts alone would be enough to make the lines show up. Despite having “uncovered” the lines himself, as Sahil called it, Vray wasn’t convinced that they were always there. Perhaps one day he might, but for now, he would hold on to his doubts. Either way, they were very useful.

  Despite seeing the process for himself, though, he still didn’t understand why he was able to pull the life force out of any living thing, while others were only able to do the same on other people. Sahil said he would have to watch as Vray did it to another person before he could see if there was a difference between what happened with plants and what happened with people. When he had started talked about experiments, though, Vray began feeling uneasy. Perhaps, he thought, it was easier for Sahil to talk about these things than it was for him, because he was not the one who had seen all those people turning into dead bodies at his own feet. He had not been the one to have held each body as the life rush
ed out of the person, leaving behind a dead thing, instead of the unique man, woman, or child who had been there the moment before. He had not felt the still-warm skin of each person, nor had he looked into their eyes as their lives were taken from them. In another land, Vray knew that what he had done for most of his life would be considered murder. Sahil was fascinated by the magic, while Vray was sickened by the results.

  “We will have to try this on another person before I am certain of it, but I think I may have a solution for our friends,” Sahil told him, making the lines disappear with a smile.

  “You mean to put all the Fire Tenders to sleep?” Vray asked, his lip curling in automatic disgust. He shook his head then, looking away. How could they even be thinking of doing this? And what about the bodies of all of those who would be going to sleep? If they stayed asleep very long, they would die without water and food. Perhaps it would be better to just round them all up and kill them at once, instead of letting their bodies rot over time. There just had to be a better solution! He felt the ground rock beneath his feet as another explosion from overhead sounded. His skin crawled at the thought of all those people being left unprotected. All of his people.

  “No,” Sahil leaned in towards him, “not for putting them to sleep, but for changing their magic so they can’t take the life from anything ever again.”

  “What? How is this possible?” Vray wasn’t sure whether to be excited, or disgusted. It felt wrong to make people change a part of themselves, even if that part could be dangerous to others. But it was easy to see Sahil was excited. For him, there was only the choice between killing the Fire Tenders or changing them. The other man must have seen the look on his own face, because he sobered immediately, asking “Do you have another suggestion?”

  It seemed to Vray that he was sincere, and not mocking him, so he answered. “It seems like everyone is thinking they … we … all of the Fire Tenders … that we are nothing more than weapons. We are people, Sahil, just like you. You say you know many ways to kill others, but nobody is thinking of putting you to sleep or taking your magic from you, and nobody, nobody at all, is talking about killing you. Why is this?”

  “Because, my friend,” Sahil said quietly, looking directly into Vray’s eyes, “you and your friends have known nothing else except killing.” When Vray started to protest, he held up a finger to forestall whatever he may have said. “Can you tell me any of you know how to farm, or make blankets? Do you know how to work together to create anything? Can you even work together without the Kasais, or someone else, telling you what to do, where to go, when to sleep, and when to eat?”

  “How will we ever know if we don’t try?” Vray protested, feeling as if he had already lost this argument.

  “How many … no, wait … Let me ask you a different question,” Sahil continued. “If you had never been a Fire Tender, and had lived all of your life being afraid of them, would you want to live with them nearby? And what about your children, Vray? Would you want your children to live nearby, knowing that any of the other children they were playing with might be a Fire Tender who hasn’t figured it out yet? Would you want your child to be the one to die finding out the hard way? Help me, Vray. Help me to find a way to make sure all of your friends live. That’s what I’m trying to do here, by combining both of our magics. I want to give you and your friends the ability to create, instead of to destroy.”

  Vray could hear the sincerity in the old man’s voice, and see it in his eyes, but he didn’t want to give up who he was in order to gain something different. He didn’t want to stop being himself.

  “Do you want to go on killing Vray? Do you think that is what the others want? Do you think that it will make you stronger? Do you think you will no longer have to be afraid, now that the Kasais are gone? Is that what your fear is – that you will be able to protect yourself better now that you have the upper hand instead of them? I come from a place where there have been many magics which have been forbidden over the centuries because they have the ability to hurt other people. Even some kinds of magic which would could be very helpful to some people, but they have the potential to harm others.”

  “That’s stupid,” Vray spat. “Just because fire can burn you, or even kill you, or …” he knew he was starting to sound desperate, but he didn’t care, because he knew he was right, “or … you can use it to kill others, that doesn’t mean it should be forbidden!”

  “What if someone could make you kill someone else – against your own will - using magic?” Sahil asked quietly. “Do you think that kind of magic should be forbidden?”

  Vray just stood there, glaring at the other man, his chest heaving. There was nothing he could say that would help the Fire Tenders. Nothing that Sahil couldn’t counter.

  “What I have in mind would help the Fire Tenders to grow things, Vray, instead of kill them. You wouldn’t even have to take the life force from one plant to give to another plant,” he paused. “If I can do this right, then Fire Tenders should be able to take a seed, or a cutting from one plant, put it in the soil, and it will begin to grow right away. The seeds would germinate immediately because of the new kind of magic. Or the cutting would begin to grow roots right away, instead of having to wait to see if they rooted. Think about it Vray, please,” Sahil pleaded. “Your people – all of your people – have a lot of work to do, and everything – I mean everything – will have to change. What if the Fire Tenders were the ones who helped to feed everyone instead of being feared? You would be heroes instead of … instead of … “Sahil grasped for the right word.

  “Killers,” Vray supplied for him.

  * * * * * * * *

  Idiot, Than thought, shaking his head. It was just like Sahil to try to change things instead of accepting the world the way it was. There would always be war. Always – no matter what people like Sahil might wish. It was far smarter to align yourself with the most-powerful so you were always on the winning side than to spend your life crushed and delusional, begging the world to be kinder to you. The emperor could use the Fire Tenders to wipe out every enemy all around him. And I’m just the one to make sure that happens. All he had to do now was to round up a few of them and get them to Bila. The emperor would forgive him for not bringing Sahil back when he presented him with a gift of Fire Tenders. Smiling to himself, Than backed away from the gardens. He knew just where to find what he was looking for, too.

  * * * * * * * *

  “You shouldn’t have heard that,” Sakari said with a sigh, sitting herself down next to Muuaji, where he was leaning against a decorative stone pillar only found in the gardens.

  “I think …” he started, then stopped, shrugging, running his hands through his hair. “I think, maybe, we all have to hear it,” he tried, then shrugged again, clearly distressed. “What do you think they,” he gestured towards Sahil and Vray, “will decide to do about Kasais?”

  While she was tempted to give an answer she knew he wouldn’t appreciate, given that the Kasais had been responsible for rampant fear throughout the populous of Nohoyo for a long, long time, she shook her head in silence instead.

  “I have done everything I was ever told,” he said quietly. “I served Sov with all of my heart, all of my life, and in everything I ever did. There was order, and I had purpose. I even had pride in doing my job. But now God is dying and I don’t know what to believe any more. I don’t even …” he shrugged, defeated. “I don’t even know where I am supposed to sleep tonight, or when I will eat again, or if night will even come.” She saw him shiver as another explosion thundered overhead, shaking the pillar they were leaning against. “Maybe I will just sit here until this stone falls on me,” he said, bowing his head.

  “Muuaji,” she said, trying to fit the pieces together in her mind before she opened her mouth. “The Kasais made people do things against their will. They had no choice but to do what you said, or they would be punished.”

  “Did you not have a father?” he asked her, turning his head to look at her.
“Did he not punish you when you disobeyed? Did he not keep you safe from the poor choices you made until you learned to do things the right way?”

  She smiled then, thinking of Sahil. “Yes,” she replied. “He punished me by making me understand how I did things wrong, but he always helped me to learn the right ways. Not through hitting me, or putting me in jail, though. He taught me how to think for myself, so if I …” She stopped, then tried again, “So that when I made another mistake, I would better understand how I had created my own mess. It was often up to me to fix it. That way, when I fixed it, I would learn how to do it right the next time.”

  Muuaji frowned as he shook his head, displeased. “But there is no order that way. And everyone will make the same mistakes over and over again. That makes no sense.”

  “Maybe not,” she sighed. “But people make mistakes. We all do, no matter where we’re from. And where I’m from, many things are very much the same as they are here, only the people who punish those who make mistakes are called soldiers. They do as they’re told, like you do. And everyone is afraid of them too.”

  “The word “Kasais” means “guide,” he told her. “We are supposed to guide Sov’s people in worship and praise so that he gains glory from his people. But I am beginning to think we are more like your soldiers. We are punishers, not guides.”

  “But you also heal people,” she pointed out. “Maybe …” she said, drawing out the word, starting to get excited by the possibility, “Kasais can be the new healers, like the Fire Tenders can be the new growers. I mean,” she went on, “we all know almost everything has to change, so maybe you can be the one to take this idea to the new council, or whoever is going to be in charge. What do you think?”

  “I’m not sure,” he shrugged. “I have no idea how to make people want to ask a Kasais for help though. They are usually afraid of us.”

  “We don’t have to think of everything right now,” Sakari assured him, then patted him on the leg as she started to rise. “Come on, let’s go talk to Sahil and Vray. I have to show them something, and you can tell them about healing.” She held out her hand to help him get up. “It’s a beginning,” she said, smiling at him.