03 - The Eternal Rose

by Gail Dayton

  Padrey and Joh tore at the demon leech, barely staying ahead of it with the demon near enough to feed the thing power. Now she was aware of it, Kallista could see how the shadow magic had twisted her thinking, had reinforced her errant thoughts and urged her farther along the wrong path, bit by insidious bit. But it had only fed on flaws already there.

  With a struggle, and Aisse's help, Kallista rose to her knees. Silently, she cried out to the One. Forgive me. If I've gone too far wrong, I accept whatever punishment I deserve. But my iliasti are innocent of what I have done. They tried to turn me aside from my wrong, and I would not listen to them, as I would not listen to you. Save them. Save our children.

  “What are you doing?” Zughralithiss-Shathina demanded. “Stop!"

  The leech magic tightened around Kallista's throat again, despite all Padrey and Joh could do. She ignored it. Take me, she begged. But save them. Please, save my family.

  Everyone in the room seemed frozen, most of them focused on the silent, nearly invisible, deadly struggle around Kallista. Save for the three clustered around her. Joh clawed at the shadow over her heart while Padrey seemed to wrestle snakes near her neck. Even Aisse had plunged in, though Kallista knew she couldn't see it. Aisse brushed her hand along Kallista's throat. And the magic stirred.

  Kallista grabbed it. Loyalty and utter devotion seeped past a tiny crack in the demonspell. With a sob, Kallista wrapped the thread of magic round her fingers and pulled it through.

  Torchay flinched at her sob and Kallista sent reassurance through all her links. She caught Joh's hand, found a wisp of clarity and a second thread of magic. She bound it with that from Aisse and pulled.

  Joh's gasp made Padrey look up. With a flick of his eyes from their clasped hands to Aisse's ecstatic face, he seemed to take in what was happening and slid his hand beneath the shadow onto Kallista's mark. Joy rushed into her and Kallista laughed out loud. She pushed the shadow back and took her first deep breath in too long.

  “Kill her!” the demon cried. “Kill them all!"

  The warriors’ stalemate ended on that shout. The Adarans attacked before the others could react. The Daryathi fell back a step or two, but more of them fed through the door to take the place of the fallen and push Kallista's people back.

  She reached through the links to her iliasti defending them—too pitifully few—but could not grasp their magic. Half-frantic with fear, Kallista squeezed Joh's hand, took a tight grip on his magic and let go.

  Yes. The magic stayed, even when they didn't touch. She needed the touch to recover the magic, but once captured, she did not need to maintain the hold. “Joh, take Viyelle's place. Send her to me."

  He nodded and slipped away, exchanging smoothly with their prinsipella ilias. Kallista took Viyelle's hand and used it to pull herself to her feet as she caught hold of Vee's magic and creativity. Viyelle laughed as her magic streamed into Kallista and was bound into the web.

  Torchay glanced back and almost paid for his inattention. Joh warded off the blow and Viyelle laughed again, coming to take Torchay's place with the defenders.

  A clatter had him springing past Kallista toward the other entrance, but he held his blow as Tayo Dai bodyguards crowded into the chamber.

  Good thing the big room hadn't been furnished, as many warriors as it held now.

  "Torchay." Kallista called him to her, needing the calm strength his magic gave.

  The Tayo Dai swept past her to join the fight—only six of them, but gratefully welcomed—while Torchay clasped her outstretched hand. His powerful magic poured into her. The instant Kallista bound it with the rest, the leech magic squalled as it vaporized in a wisp of smoke—as if Torchay's magic had grown so attuned to hers, she didn't have to consciously shape the whole for it to act.

  "No-o-o-ooo!" The demon shrieked with both Shathina's voice and its own in the dreamplane.

  Torchay brought Kallista's hand to his lips for a kiss, his eyes holding hers for an instant before he released her and plunged back into the battle. “Fox, Obed, Leyja—all of you go."

  The demon lashed out at the three not yet bound back in. Kallista leaped forward to defend them, and went nowhere, restrained by Aisse and Padrey. She threw magic out to stop it, to shield her three, but without Fox's order—

  The magic skidded, almost missed them in its haste, but Padrey's magic was not so wildly impulsive as Stone's. It listened better. Or something. The shields were weak, the approach skewed, but it served. Long enough for the three warriors to reach her and clasp her hands.

  Magic roared into her—Fox's order, Obed's truth, Leyja's unconditional love. Tears fell through Kallista's laughter and she hugged them to her, hugged their magic tight, then bound it into the web as the demon fought to keep them apart.

  I love you, she sent to her godmarked. Love you all so much. Take care of each other.

  Torchay swung around, leaving the fight to others, his eyes wide. “Kallista, what—"

  She smiled at him as she gathered the magic in her hands. She shaped it for sleep. Those not directly involved in the fight with the demon would only get in the way. She didn't have to conserve anything. It wasn't her own strength that fought here. The One would provide whatever was needed. She whispered her instructions to the magic and set it loose.

  Everyone in the embassy slowly crumpled to the floor. Daryathi champions, Adaran bodyguards, clerks, servants, even the children slept under her protective shielding. Everyone save Shakiri Shathina, Kallista, and her godmarked iliasti.

  “Now,” Kallista said. “It is as it should be. You and yours, me and mine."

  “Not fair!” the demon whined. “You have more than I do."

  “True. The power of the One is so vast, it must be spread out through more of us.” She sighed. “It's too bad the One chose to use such a weak vessel as myself. But here we are."

  She gathered magic and the demon attacked, tearing at her, at her links. They shuddered, but held. They would hold no matter what. Kallista knew that now. Only death could part her from those she loved, and even that was not final. She would see them again. And Stone was waiting.

  Kallista named the magic. Zughralithiss. Khoriseth. The smaller demon still existed somewhere inside its parent. She threw the magic out and immediately called more. Khoriseth had been able to—yes, it quenched the magic. Put out the fire before it burned much. No matter. She had more demon-killer to send.

  Again and again, Kallista called, shaped, sent. Again and again, the demon fought it off, clawing at her, tearing off bits of her self as her magic ate away its substance. Even with the magic pouring into her, shoring her up, bracing her against the awful attacks, she knew it would be a close-run thing.

  Yes, she had the infinite, endless power of the One behind her, but she herself was all too mortal. She wasn't meant for so much power. But she would stand. She would endure. She would use what the One had given her to destroy this demon even if it destroyed her in the doing. The One had accepted what she had offered, and what she had offered up was her whole self. All of her heart, her body, her soul. All of her love.

  Kallista opened herself and let the magic pour in, arms spread, head back, her beloved iliasti behind her, beside her, holding her up.

  The magic filled her until her body felt separated into the tiny bits that formed her, no longer quite real, no longer connected into a whole, because the magic needed the space between all her bits.

  She saw. Saw the writhing, twisted evil of the demon woven through the twisted, hate-filled heart of Shathina. She saw her willful, loyal Keldrey lying asleep in the corridor at the head of a troop where he had pushed out from the nursery, driving back their attackers. She saw her children, shining with promise and innocence, glowing with the love showered on them. She saw her godmarked, saw their hearts, their true selves, known already through the magic that bound them together.

  There, shining in the distance, impossibly far away yet as close as a whisper, she saw the light of the One. Love, joy and
righteous anger shivered through her, shuddered in the magic.

  "Zughralithiss," she whispered. "Khoriseth."

  The magic exploded from her, leaving all her bits and pieces stranded in their isolation. Kallista saw the magic fall on the demon, saw it consume all the darkness remaining before it flashed outward, into Mestada and beyond, in the instant she had left before the isolated bits of herself crumbled into oblivion.

  * * *

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  “No! Goddess, no.” Obed's knees failed. He would have fallen as Kallista's body went limp in their arms, but for the others holding him up. He couldn't lose her now, after all this.

  “Obed!” Torchay reached across her, gripped his arm. “We have to go after her. Are you with me, man?"

  “Wait, what are you doing?” Leyja caught Torchay's queue and yanked hard for his attention.

  “She taught us how,” Obed said, frantic to begin. “We won't put ourselves in danger. Look to her."

  “Joh, you're in charge,” Torchay said. “See if you can get ours awake before Shathina's. Kel first."

  “Right.” Joh drew away, taking the younger ones with him. Obed slid to the floor in unison with Torchay, holding Kallista between them.

  “She's not breathing,” Leyja said, her hand on Kallista's throat. “Her heart's stopped."

  “So breathe for her,” Torchay said. “You kept me alive. You can do it for her."

  “How long?"

  “Till we bring her back,” Obed snapped, losing patience. He closed his eyes. For a moment, he thought his fear would prevent him from escaping his body. Then he somehow heard the beating of Torchay's heart beyond Kallista between them. Obed reached out, across Kallista, below Leyja where she worked. He caught Torchay's hand reaching for his, and together they stepped up to the dreamplane.

  The gray mist looked just as it had before, splotched with bright glowing wisps of color. Obed turned in a circle, Torchay moving with him. Even here, they held onto each other. Especially here.

  “Where is she?” Torchay sounded as desperate as Obed felt. “She's here. I know she is. She's no’ gone, no’ yet."

  Obed fought back despair. Torchay's words felt right, but the demon had been so strong, the fight so terrible—Obed clung to one thing. Kallista said he held truth. He could see the truth, know it. So where was the truth here, in this place?

  He turned round again, searching harder. The mists billowed up, and in one place, they thinned. Obed looked.

  “Oh Goddess.” The groan tore from his throat. Jerking Torchay after him, Obed ran.

  Kallista lay on the mist, flat and insubstantial, shattered into tiny pieces as if she'd become a mosaic of herself. Was it truly Kallista, or just an image of what they sought? Obed found the truth. This was Kallista.

  "Hurry."

  At the sound of the familiar voice, Obed whipped around to see Stone, whole and alive, standing on the dreamfog. Illusion? Truth.

  Stone stopped them before they could leap across the distance to embrace him. “No time for that. You have to save her. She doesn't think she can go back."

  “Save her how?” Torchay's voice was rough with pain. “She's in pieces. We don't have any magic."

  Stone's smile was so beautiful, it made Obed's heart ache. “The only magic you need is love."

  “That, we've got.” Obed looked down at the broken thing that was Kallista. Could they just ... sweep her back together?

  He let go of Torchay and knelt beside her, afraid to try, afraid not to. What if it didn't work? But he'd rather try and fail than not even try. Carefully, to be sure he didn't miss any, Obed brushed his hands through the fog, pushing the bits of mosaic together. They clung to his fingers, making him shiver like touching her often did. And the bits clung to each other.

  “Help me.” Obed kept sweeping as he glanced up at Torchay. “It's working. She's going back together. She's not like broken glass. More like clay. She sticks."

  Torchay's face held the panic Obed felt. “She looks ... wrong. Lumpy."

  She did. The pieces stuck where he scooped them, misshapen and awkward. “She's together.” Obed deliberately refused to look any more than necessary. “If we get her back where she belongs, she'll sort it all out."

  “What if she doesn't? What if we get her back and she's no’ all there?"

  “I don't care.” Obed shook his head hard enough to send his hair flying, sweeping bits of Kallista back into a whole all the while. “I can't leave her here like this. If she comes back crippled or simple, they can select a new Reinine and I'll take her home to the mountains and take care of her there. I'll feed her, clean her, carry her on my back—whatever I have to do, whether you or anyone else comes with me."

  “You know I'll be there.” Torchay knelt on the other side of the Kallista bits, working more slowly and carefully than Obed, trying to pat her back into proper shape.

  “Stone said to hurry,” Obed reminded him.

  “That's right, he did.” Torchay swept faster, forming the leg bits into a lopsided ball. “That's a good sign, isn't it? That Stone was here?"

  “He's gone?” Obed took half an instant to look around.

  “Aye. But he came.” Torchay worked with Obed to press the pieces of Kallista's head together with extra care.

  “Have we got everything?” Obed stirred the streamers of dreamfog, terrified they might leave something vital behind.

  “I don't see any more pieces.” Torchay frowned. “How do we get her back into herself? We were assuming she'd be conscious if we had to come get her."

  “Do you remember how she put you back, the first time you came here?"

  “Perhaps."

  “We can only try.” Obed narrowed his eyes, looking at the dream-Kallista they'd mashed together. Some of the lumps seemed to be smoothing out, the fingers separating from the solid mass he'd pressed them into. “Does she look better to you?"

  Torchay took a deep breath and closed his eyes a moment before turning his head to look, as if afraid of what he might see. His eyes widened when he opened them and the tension on his face eased. “Aye. She does.” He pointed. “Her legs are almost the same length again."

  “So let's put her back where she belongs.” Obed clasped Kallista's hand and reached across for Torchay's. “Surely she'll stick there too."

  “If she doesn't, we'll hold her down till she does.” Torchay sounded grim, but his eyes shone with hope as he met Obed's gaze and took his hand. Torchay wrapped his hand around Kallista's and together, they stepped out of the dreamplane.

  * * * *

  Light pierced her eyelids. Kallista expected that. Heaven would be filled with light.

  What she hadn't expected was pain. She hurt all over. A groan escaped her before she could bite it back. It was rude to groan in heaven, wasn't it?

  “Kallista?” The voice in her ear belonging to the body at her back wasn't the one she expected. For one thing, it was female. Stone wasn't.

  “Leyja?” Kallista's voice sounded as rough as she felt. “I thought I was dead."

  “So did I.” Leyja hugged her, actually weeping, to Kallista's shock. Leyja hated tears more than Kallista. “So did we all, even after Torchay and Obed went to bring you back."

  Leyja sat up and Kallista collapsed onto her back. She cracked an eye open and saw Leyja wipe both eyes with the heels of her hands before putting on a work face.

  “Can you look at me, sweeting?” Leyja began her medic's examination as Torchay and Obed skidded into the room.

  “Blessed be,” Obed whispered, staring at her.

  “Kallista?” Torchay moved hesitantly toward the bed. “How are you feeling?"

  “Terrible.” She winced as Leyja probed a tender spot. “Wonderful.” Kallista stretched hands out to both of them, smiling as they came. “I didn't think I would get to see our babies grow up."

  These tears she didn't mind so much, the happy kind. When the four of them had cried on each other all Kallista could stand, Leyja and To
rchay consented to help her sit up. “Where are the others?” she asked. “How are they?"

  “All well,” Torchay said. “Keldrey took a bad cut across the ribs, but as long as you don't hug him too hard round the middle, he's well enough. They're just outside, anxious to see you, waiting their turn. We didn't want to overwhelm you."

  “Overwhelm, overwhelm!” Kallista beckoned with both arms, her aches and exhaustion leaving faster with every moment. “Fox!” she called. “Aisse, Joh—all of you, come!"

  They burst through the door with a happy babble of sound. Kallista hugged and kissed every one of them. She insisted that Keldrey open his invalid's wrap-front shirt to show her his wound. She called magic, delighting that she could, and healed him enough that she could hug him tight. She kissed Fox's nearsighted eyes and laughed when Aisse and Viyelle climbed onto the bed with her for their hugs. Joh's hair was loose this late in the day, spilling unbound over his shoulders in a silky brown curtain around her as they kissed. Kallista had to grab hold of Padrey and pull him from behind the others to hug him. Would he ever be comfortable with them?

  “So,” she said, when the tears were dried and her ilian ranged around her. “What's happened? How long has it been?"

  “Three endless days,” Obed said. “It's Peaceday."

  The end of the week that had begun with the trial on Firstday. So much had happened in that short time.

  “Shathina is dead?"

  Obed nodded. “Bekaara is Head of Line now. She's already arranged to remarry Thalassa's father. All the slaves have been set free. The embassy is packed with freed slaves, and more are at Shakiri House. Bekaara has pledged to help us."

  “We've already started sending them downriver to the coast,” Viyelle said. “To be transported home. So many are children, we can't send them over the mountains."

  “No protests from the en-Kameral?” Kallista was surprised. “What happened to the riots? To the Samerics?"