Ashes of the Sun

by Django Wexler

However safe the woods seemed, they still used Tanax’s watch charm whenever they camped, relying on the little device to give warning if their luck ran out. Maya cooked vulpi bacon and griddle cakes over a campfire while Beq and Tanax erected the tents. With mountains to the west, sunset came early, and they went to sleep as the first stars twinkled overhead.

  Tanax went to sleep, in any event. Maya and Beq experimented, gently. The reality of it—skin against skin, soft gasps in the dark, the little whining noise Beq made in the back of her throat when she neared her peak—was different from Maya’s nocturnal fantasies, slower and more complicated but infinitely sweeter. Falling asleep with the warm weight of Beq in her arms made her wish, full of guilt, that the journey would never end.

  We need to help Jaedia, Maya told herself firmly. We’ll bring her back to the Forge and tell everyone what happened. And then Beq and I can… go on together. She wasn’t sure exactly what form that would take, but she had never wanted any future more.

  Blearily, Maya reached for her canteen, and swore very quietly when she found it empty.

  It was well after dark, and Beq lay beside her, sound asleep. Maya extricated herself, carefully, and crawled to the tent flap. The moon was high, and she blinked in the silver light, skin pebbling in the cool mountain air.

  They’d camped beside a stream, and Maya shuffled over to it, empty canteen in hand. She was surprised to find Tanax sitting cross-legged on a nearby rock, looking up at the stars wheeling over the darkened mountains. Maya cleared her throat.

  “Is something wrong?” she said.

  “Just having trouble sleeping,” Tanax said.

  “Bad dreams?”

  “More like… regrets.” Tanax leaned back and sighed. “I keep thinking I should have seen through Nicomidi long before this. If I’d only noticed…”

  “You were obeying your master’s orders.” Maya knelt by the stream and let water glug into her canteen. “Nobody can fault you for that.”

  “I was his agathios. I knew him as well as anyone did. I think back to things he did, things he said, and try to figure out… why, I suppose.”

  “And?” Maya straightened up.

  “And I still don’t understand,” Tanax said. “Nicomidi was… distant. Stern, maybe. Uncompromising. But what he taught me, to always act in accordance with the principles of the Order, he lived that himself. He thought the Pragmatics were wrong, but he never talked about them like the enemy.” Tanax did his best to mask it, but Maya could hear the pain in his voice. “If you’d asked me a month ago, I would have said there was no one less likely to betray the Order.”

  “I’m sorry,” Maya said quietly.

  “We’ll find him, if he’s with Jaedia,” Tanax said. “And when we do, he’s going to explain to me exactly what he was thinking. I have to… understand, at least. Or else…” He shrugged. “That’s why I had to come with you. It seemed like the best chance of getting an answer.”

  “I think the Council would like some answers, too,” Maya said. “Personally, I’ll be happy as long as we get Jaedia back.”

  “Of course,” Tanax said. “I won’t lose sight of that, I promise.”

  He paused as Maya turned back to her tent, then spoke up again.

  “You and Arcanist Bequaria, eh?”

  “So?” Maya challenged. “Are you planning another lecture on Order propriety?”

  “When did I lecture you on Order propriety?”

  “In Deepfire, you accused us of sneaking out to a brothel.”

  “I did, didn’t I?” Tanax shook his head. “I was…”

  “Being an ass?” Maya suggested.

  “I was going to say ‘unkind.’” He sighed. “Worse than that. I was acting exactly as my master had taught me to act: completely certain of my own moral superiority. He’d told me that you’d been sent by the Pragmatics to ruin the mission, and I was so sure…” He shook his head again. “I’m not sure of anything anymore.”

  “If it helps, Jaedia told me the same thing about you. Nobody’s infallible.”

  “I suppose not.” Tanax gave a dark chuckle and climbed to his feet, stretching. “I should try to sleep. We must be getting close.”

  “Yes,” Maya acknowledged. “Almost there.”

  “Are you sure this is it?” Tanax said.

  Maya shaded her eyes and looked at the little stream, which descended from a cluster of rocks to join with a slightly larger creek and continue winding out of the mountains. The valley stretching up behind it, narrow and stony, looked like a hundred others they’d passed.

  “No,” Maya said honestly. “But if Marn’s directions are right, this is the most likely spot.” She sighed. “I wish we had some sign Jaedia came this way. We should have nearly caught up to her by now.”

  Beq twisted the dials on her spectacles, looking at the mountain that overshadowed the valley like a blue-white bank of grounded cloud. “It doesn’t look like it goes too far, anyway,” she said. “If we don’t find anything, we can backtrack without losing more than a day.” She glanced wistfully at their mounts, which were tethered to a scraggly tree a little ways off, pecking at the sparse grass. “We’ll have to leave the birds, though. They’d never get through those rocks.”

  “We’ll leave the tents and heavy gear with them,” Maya decided. “If we’re in the wrong place, we can be back here by nightfall.”

  “Assuming our luck with plaguespawn continues,” Tanax said.

  Swiftbirds were big and mean enough to handle a small plaguespawn, but a large one might scatter them, and there was no telling if they’d find their way back. Maya frowned, but there was nothing for it. “We’ll have to take the risk. Worse comes to worst, we won’t starve before we can walk back to Grace.”

  Tanax pondered a moment, then nodded agreement. They divested themselves of their heavy packs, leaving them in a pile beside the birds under a staked-down blanket. Maya broke open a bag of feed and scattered it on the ground in front of Blackbar and the other two, and soon they were pecking contentedly. She checked her gear—panoply belt, haken, a small pack with a few emergency supplies—and took a long breath of cool mountain air.

  Here we are. Hopefully. Jaedia could be just ahead, along with Nicomidi and Chosen knew what else. Maya stared up the rock slope, mind racing, then gave a start as Beq slipped a hand into hers.

  “We’ll find her,” Beq said quietly.

  “Yeah.” Maya squeezed her fingers. “Thanks.”

  After a short scramble, the valley leveled out into a steady uphill trudge broken by a few stretches of tumbled rocks. The sun climbed as they walked, but the air stayed cool. Everything was still and silent—so silent, in fact, that Maya started to worry. They’d surprised the occasional mountain goat or rabbit pretty regularly throughout their journey, but here—

  “Plaguespawn!” Tanax hissed, hand dropping to his haken.

  “Where?” Maya said.

  “There!” Beq pointed, twisting the dials of her lenses.

  Maya caught the flash of motion. A dark, asymmetrical shape loped over the ground a few hundred meters ahead, two long, canine heads rimmed with broken bones. But it was sprinting away, not charging them. As she watched, it disappeared over the rocks.

  “That’s… odd,” she said.

  “It must have been chasing something else,” Tanax muttered. “An animal, maybe.”

  “Plaguespawn prefer humans to animals,” Beq said.

  “Which means we may not be alone out here,” Maya said.

  “You think it was going after Jaedia and Nicomidi?” Tanax said.

  Maya shrugged. “If so, they can handle a few plaguespawn.”

  It wasn’t long after that they started hearing thunder, rippling booms echoing down the valley. Maya squinted and thought she could see flashes reflecting off the rocks.

  “That could be Nicomidi,” Tanax said. The Kyriliarch’s cognomen, Maya recalled, was Thunderclap.

  “It sounds… too regular,” Beq said, peering ahead. “Like
blaster fire.”

  “Centarchs don’t need blasters,” Maya said. Uncertainty fluttered in her chest. “Let’s hurry.”

  The booms eventually stopped, but by then there was no longer any doubt what was happening ahead of them. They passed the first battleground, strewn with plaguespawn corpses. Some of the monsters had been shattered by blaster bolts, others cut and torn with raw force. Maya didn’t think any of them bore the clean-edged cuts she would have expected if Jaedia had unleashed her powers.

  “What in the name of the Chosen is going on?” Tanax said. “I’ve never heard of this many plaguespawn in one place. And look at the size of that one!” He kicked the flank of a bear-sized monstrosity, limbs slackened in death. It looked as through it had been torn apart by another beast on the same scale.

  “Some of these are strange, too,” Beq said. She prodded another corpse carefully. “Look. No blood, and it’s covered in… rock, I think?”

  “Dhakim,” Maya muttered. “I knew Cyrtak wasn’t at the center of this. There must be another one directing the plaguespawn.”

  “How powerful does a dhakim need to be to pull together this many?” Tanax said.

  “That depends on a lot of factors,” Beq said. “It’s not even clear if a dhakim’s reach scales linearly with some kind of overall ability, or if—”

  “We have no idea, you mean,” Tanax interrupted.

  “Basically.” Beq swallowed. “But if you want my guess—”

  “Stronger than Cyrtak,” Maya said. “A lot stronger.”

  They pushed on, past more places where bodies of plaguespawn had piled up in drifts. Whoever the monsters were fighting, they were certainly giving a good account of themselves. It has to be Jaedia and Nicomidi, doesn’t it? Only a centarch could kill this many plaguespawn. But Cyrtak had said Jaedia was working with the dhakim. Maya ran her fingers through her hair in frustration, gritted her teeth, and kept climbing. Midday came and went, but no one suggested turning back. Whatever was happening in this remote valley, it was clearly the place they’d come to find.

  The mountain, Cracktooth, loomed ever larger. It did look a bit like a broken tooth, with a gentler slope on the far side but a sheer cliff on the face abutting the valley, rising to a rectangular summit. Passing another drift of plaguespawn, Maya spotted a rock formation that blocked half the valley, with the little stream curling around its base. She was about to suggest they climb it for a better view when Beq darted forward, adjusting her spectacles.

  “There’s someone up there!” she said. “Two people, I think.” She shook her head. “They’re behind the rocks now, but I’m sure I saw them.” She glanced at Maya, who nodded and looked at Tanax. Then, together, they broke into a run.

  A narrow path led up the side of the rocky outcrop, opening onto a wide, relatively flat space atop it. As Maya had predicted, it gave an excellent view of most of the valley, across a broad plain of scrub grass, to the face of the mountain.

  The sight of the plain took her breath away. It was covered with plaguespawn, hundreds of them, maybe thousands, a sea of raw, rippling muscles and shattered bone, misshapen monstrosities in every possible variety. A half dozen of the twisted giants were at the forefront, against the wall of rock, staring at a single spot where the grass was buried under a pile of plaguespawn corpses. Maya realized that every plaguespawn in that vast swarm was doing the same, focused as rigidly as soldiers on parade. As though they were all part of one vast creature, and whatever was there had its undivided attention.

  It took Maya a moment to drag her gaze away from the plaguespawn army and focus on the two human figures standing by the edge of the rock outcrop, also looking down into the field. There was a man and a woman, wearing fur-lined leather mountain coats, each carrying a haken on one hip. Beneath the woman’s hood, Maya saw the familiar green of Jaedia’s hair, lighter than Beq’s.

  Jaedia and Nicomidi. Standing side by side, without a care in the world, as if they weren’t enemies. Maya put one hand on her haken and drew on deiat, threading it into her panoply. She could sense Tanax doing likewise, and Nicomidi must have felt it as well, because he turned to face them, taking hold of his own weapon. Jaedia didn’t move.

  The Kyriliarch seemed to have aged a decade since Maya had last seen him, his thin face worn and unshaven, his eyes deep set with fatigue. A variety of emotions flitted across his features when he saw them—surprise, anger, and finally resignation. The smile he put on when he stepped forward was unconvincing.

  “Well, Jaedia, you were right,” he said. “Your agathios has come to find us at last. But she brought some unexpected company.”

  Jaedia remained still, facing the mass of plaguespawn. Tanax took a step forward.

  “The Council has declared her an agathios no longer,” he said. “She is Centarch Maya Burningblade, as I am Centarch Tanax Brokenedge.”

  “Of course they have,” Nicomidi said. “Without me, I’m sure Baselanthus the coward and Prodominus the dotard have had things all their own way.” He strolled forward. “I expected this stupidity from Maya, Tanax, but not from you. What are you doing here?”

  “What am I doing here?” Tanax shook his head. “You were the one who taught me that loyalty to the Order comes before any other considerations. How could you just throw that away?”

  “I’m sorry you were such a poor student,” Nicomidi said. “Our loyalty isn’t to the Order. It is to the ideals of the Order, to the Inheritance. Above all, to the Chosen, who have always guided our steps.”

  Maya tore her eyes away from Jaedia’s still form and focused on Nicomidi. “The Chosen are dead and gone.”

  “That is where you’re wrong,” Nicomidi said. “They live, hidden from mortal sight. Waiting only for us to make the preparations for their glorious return.”

  “People have been searching for any hint of the Chosen for centuries,” Beq said, stepping up behind Maya. “They’ve never found anything. How do you know they’re still alive?”

  “Because,” Nicomidi said, spreading his arms, “they speak to me.” He gestured over his shoulder. “This place, this mountain, is the last stronghold of the ghouls. The last remnant of their power. Once it is destroyed, the way will be clear at last for the return of our masters. The Republic and the Order have served their purpose. Now we will return to a golden age.”

  “He’s mad,” Beq muttered.

  “He’s a Kyriliarch,” Maya said. “Be careful.”

  Tanax, ignoring her, took another step forward, putting him face-to-face with his former master. “I need the truth,” he grated. “Did you try to make me kill Maya, in the arena?”

  “What if I did?” Nicomidi looked at Maya, and his lip curled. “She was a danger to the plan.”

  “There was… no honor in that.” Tanax took a deep breath. “Kyriliarch Nicomidi, you have committed treason against the Twilight Order. I am detaining you in the name of—”

  “I should have known better,” Nicomidi snarled, “than to argue with children.”

  He drew his haken and attacked in the same smooth motion, a single sideways cut so fast the eye could barely follow. His blade, a blue-gray ripple in the air, slashed across Tanax’s chest, and an ear-splitting boom rang out, fading away to a rumble like distant thunder. Tanax’s panoply flared, blue-white and too bright to look at, but the force of the blow still picked him up and sent him tumbling across the rock.

  Maya snatched her own haken from her side, blade igniting with a crackle. “Beq!” she said. “Help Tanax!”

  “Throw down the weapon, Centarch, and I won’t have to hurt you.” Nicomidi returned his haken to his side, bending his knees into an expectant crouch. “For reasons I don’t understand, your master wants you alive.”

  “Jaedia,” Maya said. “Stop this. Please.”

  Jaedia, still looking down at the plaguespawn, did not respond.

  “He’s all right,” Beq said, coming up behind Maya again. “The panoply held.”

  “All right,” Maya said
. “Ready?”

  Beq gave a tight nod.

  “I am a Kyriliarch of the Council,” Nicomidi said. “Do you really intend to measure your power against mine?”

  In answer, Maya blasted him with a wash of flame.

  Nicomidi snarled. A shield of rippling energy hung in front of him for a moment, and then he was coming forward at a run. Wild ripples of twisted air detonated around Maya, blasting her with ear-splitting sound from every direction. Beq screamed, nearly inaudible in the tumult. It was all Maya could do to focus in time to see Nicomidi draw his haken, his strike as fast as thought, cutting across his body. Her own blade was clumsy by comparison, moving to parry far too late, and in desperation she threw herself backward. She cannoned into Beq and sent them both stumbling to the rock. Nicomidi skidded to a halt, straightened up, and returned his haken to his side.

  “I’m impressed,” he said. “You’re not bad. In another thirty years, you might be a match for me.” Smiling, he sank into a crouch again. “However.”

  Chosen defend, he’s fast. That single strike, too powerful to stop, too quick to parry. Thunderclap. His cognomen suddenly made grim sense.

  “Maya,” Beq hissed as Maya pushed herself up. “I’ll distract him.”

  Maya gave a tiny nod, levered herself back up, and reignited her haken. Nicomidi sank deeper into his crouch, shifting on the balls of his feet. Before he could move, Beq suddenly rolled onto her stomach, sighting down the barrel of her blaster. The crack of the bolt rang in Maya’s ears. Nicomidi snatched his haken and intercepted it, then blocked another. By then Maya was already moving.

  The Kyriliarch brought his haken around, stopping her downward cut, and lashed out with deiat. Maya countered, twisting lines of fire breaking up his sonic bombs as they formed, strikes and counterstrikes surrounding them like a duel of multiheaded snakes as blade slammed against blade. Maya pushed Nicomidi backward, putting all her strength into the blows, not giving him time to recover. His speed was astonishing, but she found that his footwork was weak, his parries predictable. A grin spread across her face. You’ve been winning too many fights with that first strike.