Natanial hefted the ax handle, weighing his options. Saradyn was six paces from Anavha. Five.
Natanial threw his ax handle. It hit Anavha squarely in the back of the head. Anavha gasped, clutched at his head, and bowled over. The black eyes winked out. Natanial crossed to Saradyn and headbutted him. Natanial pulled a knife from Saradyn’s belt and backed up against Anavha, who had fallen to his knees, still clutching at the back of his head. Blood seeped through his fingers. That could make things even worse.
“Be calm,” Natanial said. “Calm yourself the way you were taught. We have this.”
Most of the creatures, a dozen in all, were on the ground or barely standing, too injured and stunned to continue. They peered at Natanial and Anavha with their beady eyes.
Seven soldiers came in from the door behind them. One wore the purple coat of a sinajista.
“Burn these things!” Monshara said.
Natanial pointed at Saradyn. “But not him,” he said. “Leave him.”
The creatures went up in flame. They oozed a thick, oily smoke that left those who remained coughing heavily. Natanial pulled Anavha to his feet and dragged him over to the soldiers, near the door where the air was better, then went back for Saradyn. Monshara leaned in the doorway with the soldiers, being tended by a passing medic.
“Why do you want that mad old man?” Monshara said.
“Saradyn is many things,” Natanial said. “But he has one especially useful skill. He’s worth taking back with us.”
“I don’t have time for laggards,” Monshara said. “Speak plainly.”
Natanial gazed into Saradyn’s haggard face: the matted hair, the tangled beard, and the dark eyes – eyes that still held the wild, angry soul of a man Natanial had believed could unite Tordin.
“Your empress needs a way to detect infiltrators,” Natanial said, “to see who’s from this world and who isn’t, to root out all those little spies in her temples. I’ve seen this man do that. Daorian is fallen. You and I need to remind your empress just how useful we are to her.”
11
Luna sat with Yisaoh over tea and half of a biscuit, still shivering with the memory of the field of the dead, though ze had cleaned off the mud and sludge from hir face and changed clothes. It had been over an hour, and still no one had opened a wink to them. They sat in a small alcove in what had once been a very grand hall. Tirajista-trained vines covered most of the windows, but light still cut through in places, illuminating the dusty, intricately tiled floor. The people and beasts that swam across the floor’s design were utterly foreign to Luna.
“Does this happen a lot?” Luna asked. “Not being able to call on Oma?”
“More than Kirana would like,” Yisaoh said. She offered her own biscuit to her daughter, Tasia, who took it and scampered off into the hall. Tasia had insisted on having tea; a treat, here, Luna discovered. Weak tea and moldering biscuits.
“Do you have many children?”
“Three.”
“The others went over?”
“Yes, they are living with Kirana in that temple.”
Luna could not finish hir own biscuit. Hir stomach cramped painfully. The larvae of little weevils waved their maggoty forms at hir from inside of it as ze set down the rest. More protein, ze thought wearily, and washed it down with the rest of the tea. Hir stomach cramped again. Though hunger roared again since ze had eaten, ze knew from long practice that ze needed to go slowly or ze would vomit everything up, or worse.
They sat in silence while the toxic wind rattled the windows and makeshift coverings around the stronghold.
“There are two dozen of us still here,” Yisaoh said. “Not a lot, by any standard.” She spoke softly, staring into her tea, as if talking to herself. “What are another two dozen dead, after all this blood and sorrow?”
“You destroyed the Saiduan. All of them. For what? For nothing.”
Yisaoh sighed. “I cannot make you help us. Nor can Kirana, as much as she would like to believe herself a god.”
“You aren’t as confident in her anymore.”
Yisaoh peered at her. “Perhaps not. She knows that. She knows I question these decisions. As do you, as you have every right to. But Luna… you were willing to die rather than help end all this. What if you chose to live?”
The air around them grew heavy. Luna tensed. Hir ears popped.
A slender tear appeared six paces away, beside the large empty hearth, certainly meant for cooking more than heat here.
“Oma has returned,” Yisaoh murmured.
The seam widened, and a jista, Suari, stepped through, flanked by two soldiers.
“Consort Yisaoh? You are well?” Suari asked, tentative, gaze darting about the foyer.
“The child doesn’t bite,” Yisaoh said. “We had a chat.”
“Empress Kirana said to bring hir back immediately, once we held Oma again.”
“Where is Kirana?” Yisaoh asked.
“There has been an… incident. Nothing to worry about, consort. But an urgent matter the Empress needed to address.”
“There was a time I was her most urgent matter,” Yisaoh said, and stood. She offered a hand to Luna. “I’m sorry, but you must go back.”
“She will put me in a cell again,” Luna said.
“Suari, you will tell the Empress I request that she release Luna when she has helped with the task set her. No more death. No more imprisonment.”
Suari’s jaw tightened. “Of course, consort.”
Yisaoh squeezed Luna’s hand. “That’s all the protection I can offer you, my word.”
“When the ways between are closed… there won’t be any more death? No more war?”
“I am weary of war. So is Kirana. We want to raise our family, Luna, as anyone else would.”
Luna gazed at where Tasia played in the outer hall, munching on a biscuit as she set her dolls to the task of finding a missing dog, or some such.
Ze nodded, once, not to Yisaoh, but in the direction of Tasia. Then, to Suari, “I will tell the Empress what I know. But only her.”
“I understand,” Suari said. He glanced at Yisaoh. “I will have her wait in a guest room, until the Empress returns.”
Yisaoh inclined her head.
Luna trusted no one. Relied on nothing. But ze had leapt before, and would leap again.
“If I do this – I want to be free, Yisaoh.”
“I know. So do I, Luna. So do I.”
“What the fuck is it?” Kirana demanded, raising her spyglass to her eye and gazing out over the plateau, toward the massive mountain that had fallen from the sky.
“We’ve already gotten birds back, and a runner,” said Madah, her intelligence officer and a former line commander. “It’s not a mountain, it’s some kind of boat.”
The spyglass gave Kirana a clearer view of the outline of the great shape that marred the horizon. There certainly was something… organic about it. Something alive, as if some great gnarl-skinned monster slumbered out there in the woods.
“Is the stronghold intact?”
“Much of it was crushed,” Madah said. “What wasn’t crushed shattered in the aftershocks. The temples have held, though.”
“Fuck,” Kirana said. She took the spyglass from her eye. “Gaiso had charge of that hold. We had thousands of soldiers and sixteen jistas under her there.”
“There are still damage reports coming in from the settlements. There… could be some survivors.”
“Fuck! Suari! Where’s my wink?”
“Still working on it,” Suari called.
“Oma’s being fickle,” Kirana said, handing the spyglass back to Madah. “Take Mysa Joasta with you and ride out there. I want an in-person report. You may get there before Oma allows Mysa to make a connection again. Bloody fucking satellite.”
“Yes, Kai.” Madah bowed and hurried across the Assembly Chamber.
Kirana took a deep, calming breath and settled her mind. Tucked away thoughts of Yisaoh and that Dhai girl. Yisaoh could handle
the girl, no doubt, but Kirana hated to be cut off from her family. The uncertainty would eat her alive if she stopped to think too hard over it. She went back to her room and spent some time in meditation, clearing her mind. Emotional decisions could wreck them. She needed clarity.
Once her mind calmed, she went to her office and dug through the notes of the accounts her people had gathered from the Saiduan archives about the last rising of Oma and had one of the servants bring them into the Assembly Chamber.
Suari called, “I have Oma again.”
As he did, a wink opened just above the Assembly Chamber table. Madah and Mysa peered through. Behind them was the great organic hulk; this close the skin of it was visible, a burnt, scaly black flaking at the edges. It was so enormous it towered outside the frame of the wink.
“Empress, we have a significant force here,” Madah said. “They are wounded, shocked, asking for safe harbor. But it’s… large.”
Kirana jutted a finger at Suari. “Take these two and go retrieve that girl from Yisaoh. Right now!”
Suari opened a wink on the other side of the room.
Kirana fixed her attention back on Madah. “How many?”
“Best guess, several thousand are still alive. Maybe more, once the wounded and dead are sorted.”
“They have a leader?”
“Yes, it’s one of the near-worlds we’ve caught scouts from.”
“Kalinda? Aradan?”
“No, it’s our favorite one. Gian.”
“Fuck. I should have known. She was the most stubborn. Any idea how many jistas she has?”
“No, but if you recall, she had those fighting bears.”
“I do. Let’s hope they’re dead. How did we miss her building that monstrous ark?”
“I think she’ll deal, Empress,” Madah said. “They are worse off than… uh, they are unwell. Food reserves at near zero. This was a desperate act. I think her people will parley.”
Kirana knew what Madah had nearly said: “They are worse off than us.” She grimaced. She had two options, here: pick them off now, one by one, while they were weak and newly arrived, or work out some deal with Gian so they could align themselves against the other incoming worlds.
“We’ll need to know if this is a single event,” Kirana said, “or if she’s expecting more. Madah, you have authority to call in as many troops as you need. Tell Monshara I need two of her companies.”
“Yes, Empress.”
From the corner of her eye, Kirana saw Suari return from the other side, escorting Luna with him. Kirana let out a breath, unaware she had been holding one.
Kirana waved at Mysa to end the connection. The wink closed. She rounded on Suari.
“How did Mysa snag Oma’s breath before you did?”
Suari stiffened, hand still on Luna’s arm. “I don’t know. It’s highly individualized. Perhaps her position–”
Kirana was keenly aware of witnesses to their discussion, and kept her voice low. “She was clearly still in the temple. Yet she was able to bring herself and Madah there, investigate, and open a wink back here before you even felt it return.”
Suari raised his voice. “This one has something to tell you, Empress. Something that will please you.” He released Luna.
Kirana noted that in the hour the ataisa had been gone, someone had clearly washed and combed out hir hair, and ze had probably eaten something, based on the renewed vigor in the eyes.
“I met your consort,” Luna croaked.
“You did. And did she explain our troubles?”
“I’ll tell you,” Luna whispered. “But then you let me go.”
“When my scholars confirm what you’ve told me is true, yes.”
“So I can go, when I give you this? That’s what Yisaoh said. She said you wouldn’t harm me. She gave her word.”
“Well, I wouldn’t want to make my consort a liar.”
Luna nodded.
Kirana snapped her fingers at Rimey. “Go get the scholars from downstairs. Have them bring the book.”
Rimey ran off to the stairs.
“Will you eat something?” Kirana asked.
Luna nodded.
Kirana called for tea; she wasn’t going to waste bread and butter on this one.
Luna sipped the tea as they waited for the scholars to come up. Ze would not look at Kirana.
“You met my wife? My daughter?” Kirana asked.
Luna nodded.
“How is Tasia?”
“She seems well,” Luna murmured.
Kirana leaned back in her chair. Perhaps she should not ruin whatever spell Yisaoh had cast on this one.
The scholars arrived, breathing heavily, their coats whirling behind them; Orhin in the lead, face bunched up as if he smelled something terrible; Himsa just behind him, trying to match his great stride; and Talahina, shoulders hunched, eyes big, gaze darting all about the chamber. Kirana had never invited them this far up into the temple before. Talahina held the book, and set it onto the table in front of Kirana.
“Show them,” Kirana told Luna, pushing the book at hir. And, thinking of her mother, and Yisaoh’s endless patience, added, “Please.”
Orhin carefully leaned over and opened the page to the section with the temple diagrams. “We know these symbols here correspond with the type of jista.”
Luna’s fingers trembled as ze put hir fingers to the diagram. “This explains the machines,” she said.
“We gathered that,” Orhin said. “We need the key for the language. The diagrams – we can puzzle that out once we have the key. You do… have the key?”
Luna met Kirana’s look again. “She promised.”
“She did,” Kirana said. “I do not make promises I can’t keep.”
Luna pulled a piece of green paper from inside the book and began to write out a series of symbols. “This is the Kai cipher,” Luna said.
“We are familiar,” Orhin said. “But that doesn’t–”
Luna shook hir head. “It isn’t a straight translation. That was the trick of it. Roh understood that.” Luna’s eyes filled. Some other dead Dhai in Saiduan, most likely. “It reads from left to right, not right to left.”
“Oma’s breath,” Talahina swore, “how did I miss that?”
“It’s not that simple,” Orhin sputtered. “The Kai cipher was considered and discarded! It was nonsense in relation to this text.”
“You can work out the title, here,” Luna said, “like this.” Luna dutifully translated the title of the book, showing the scholars in detail how ze did it using the cipher.
Kirana leaned back, hands behind her head.
Orhin said, “We’ll get to work on this immediately, Empress. All three of us. We’ll call in help, also, so we can–”
“Excellent,” Kirana said. “Luna, we’ll need you here a few more days, in case they have questions.”
“Yes,” Luna said, softly.
Kirana called over one of her guards. “Take this one back to one of our nicer suites, will you? And ensure it gets something to eat.”
When Luna was gone, Kirana addressed her babbling scholars, all of them crowing over the book.
“You’re a year behind!” Kirana yelled, and pounded her fist on the table.
They quieted.
“Get back down there and get this done,” Kirana hissed.
They bowed and hurried off, so quickly they forgot the book. Kirana grabbed the book and threw it across the room. It rattled the far windows, but did not break them.
“Fuck!” Kirana yelled.
Luna knew hir fate when ze gazed upon Kirana’s triumphant face. Though the guards took hir to one of the nicer rooms three floors below where they kept their political prisoners, Luna was still aware of hir status. Luna would only be fed and clothed and tolerated until the book was fully deciphered. After that? Kirana would not keep her promise. It wasn’t her promise, after all.
Luna waited for a guard to return with hir meal. Despite it being a better room, ze sti
ll tripped on a loose stone in the floor, barely covered over with a rug.
Ze sat meekly at the end of the bed as the guard entered. A young woman, not much older than Luna, truth be told. Luna could not look into her face. Instead, ze held out hir hands for the bowl and eating sticks.
As Luna’s left hand gripped the bowl, ze took hold of the eating sticks with hir right, and leapt at the guard.
Luna jammed them into the guard’s eye. She screamed and clutched at her face. Luna lunged and picked up the loose stone from the floor. Turned before the guard had recovered, and bludgeoned her head with the rock. She went down, but Luna needed to make sure she stayed down. Luna hit her a second time, a third.
Luna fumbled with the keys on the bludgeoned woman’s keyring. Ze darted into the hall, closed the door behind hir, and tucked the rock into hir pocket. Ze went casually to the main stairwell. Two jistas were coming up from below.
Wasn’t there another set of steps? One less obvious? Luna cast about for a doorway. There. Six steps down. Luna breathed slowly, carefully, taking the steps without hurry. Hir hand met the door. Ze pushed inward, and came into a tight, narrow corridor. The servants’ stair.
Luna went down another flight of steps, then risked going out into another hallway. Yisaoh had dressed Luna in a plain gray tunic and trousers, which was similar enough to what the other servants wore for hir to slip among them without too much trouble. Luna spied a girl dressed much as ze was, pulling soiled bedding from a guest room. Luna waited until the girl’s back was turned and then scooped up the discarded towels from outside the door.
Ze still had the keys with hir, and the stone. As ze came to the main floor, hir breath quickened. Hir hands shook. A dozen servants and various officials and soldiers still moved about the space, many of them heading to the banquet hall for the evening meal.
Luna passed into the foyer. Dusk had fallen. Flame flies droned lazily in lanterns set into niches in the walls. Ze went quietly to the great front doors opposite the grand staircase. The doors were closed. One soldier sat on a stool there, dozing with his head against the wall.
Ze steeled hirself and padded to the sally port set in the larger gate. It was locked. Of course. Luna dared not try the keys; ze doubted the guards would have keys to the main gate anyway. Instead, Luna crossed to the banquet room on the other side of the doors. Voices came from the far end, in what must have been the kitchen area.
The Worldbreaker Saga Omnibus Page 116
