by Lisa Lowell
Rashel wore a bronze bodice etched with ivy over a long silk tunic and deeper green leather breeches. Gold and silver stitchery lined every hem, and her hair braid had wrapped up into a bun in which finger-long thorns of gold emerged. She carried a spear and shield, neither of which she knew how to use, but that didn’t matter at this point. She was the mother bear, and she would savage anyone that waylaid her.
Rashel didn’t imagine she would or could kill with the spear she carried. At the moment, her thoughts were more likely to stop someone’s heart rather than any weapon she carried. Her mind went before her, pressing through the ground and making note of where the outlanders had hidden. The demon-men scrambled to the surface, warned perhaps by their masters, but nothing would move them fast enough to get away from four angry Wise Ones bearing down on them.
“Drive them to the ships,” Yeolani ordered, and his tornadoes moved in, pushing from the east and south. With angry Wise Ones coming from the north side, it drove them toward West and over the bridge, but Vamilion had that already blocked with a wall of stone and magic. The demon-driven men scattered about East’s ruins, but really there was no way for them to escape. Some chose to hide in the blown-out basements. When faced with being speared or shot cowering in a corner of a pit, they elected to claw their way out and march toward the ships. Others tried to dig into the holes they had formed in the search for Rashel’s ring. She drove them out, choking the passageways with swiftly grown ivy or oak roots that effectively thrust them back out. Tornadoes swept them up and deposited them unceremoniously on the ships that remained at anchor, awaiting their cargo.
“They’re humans who probably didn’t volunteer for this,” Yeolani said grimly as they checked to see that no one was missing. “Someday, we need to find a way to seal off the Limbo world from the physical world so demons cannot pass through and do this to others.”
“But not today,” Rashel declared. “Bad things happen. They go.”
“They probably won’t be allowed back into Limbo,” Vamilion speculated. “The human part of them will commit suicide, and the demons will try to find another host. They, unfortunately, cannot die that we know.”
“Any more than the fairies?” Honiea asked with a curious comment. “I wonder if it could work like that.”
“What are you thinking?” Rashel asked with an edge to her voice. She didn’t want to consider any kind of mercy for anyone involved in Nevai’s murder.
“If you’re thinking that one of the Life Givers can bring Nevai back, there has to be a body to heal, dear. It cannot work on ashes. I’m sorry.”
“No, that’s not what I meant,” Rashel replied impatiently. “No, if Yeolani can curse an immortal magical creature like a fairy and have it die, why can’t he do that to a demon?”
Everyone looked at her with surprise. It hadn’t occurred to any of them as a possibility. While Yeolani had almost no experience with demons, he did suspect they were more powerful than fairies. Could he curse the demons, leaving the possessed people free?
“These aren’t magicians,” Rashel replied to that thought. “They’re just everyday people who didn’t ask to be possessed. Don’t we have to try?”
Everyone shrugged, unsure, but they shared each other’s thoughts. Would it be possible to at least experiment? And what would happen to the demon once driven out of the human host? Would it be free to float about looking for another body? That would probably be worse than the present situation. Could they drive the demons out into a form less dangerous, like a fish?
“Roach!” Yeolani shouted out to the ships, verbally and mentally, calling to the one demon he knew.
“Are you insane?” Honiea protested silently into Yeolani’s mind. “Are you going to try this?”
“No,” Yeolani promised. “I’m going to find out what they think of that possibility, and I’m going to challenge him again. Last time, I gave him two options. This time there’s only one.”
On the lead ship, one of the men came to the side and shouted back. Yeolani didn’t recognize the body of the man who stood at the bow to address him. “We are all Roach,” the demon man shouted back.
“Then,” and the whirlwind came up and sucked the one man off the boat and placed him in front of Yeolani. “Then you will come and speak with me. Last time I sent you home. This time I can put you in the ground, unable to leave or to occupy a body. Would being forced back to Limbo be better? Which is preferable?”
The man’s face contorted as if he indeed had a horde of roaches inside him. With a thick accent in the Land’s language, he seemed confident as he faced down four Wise Ones, but his compatriots on board the ship didn’t look as comfortable. The sailors began running at the side, trying to bash their way through the magical shields and barriers set around each deck. All they managed to do was to rock the ship like a toy in a tub. Absently, Vamilion held out a hand, and the boat stopped shifting, but dozens of demon soldiers collided against his barriers with the abrupt stop of their rocking motion.
“You’re offering us a choice?” Roach asked. “Go back to Limbo or sit in a trap. It’s not much of a choice. And besides that, we know you cannot banish us without killing this body.”
“Oh, that’s where you are wrong. I’ve done it before. I have a way to bring back a person I have killed. I wonder how many of your compatriots, if given a choice, would remain trapped without a body with no escape or go back to where you came from.”
Hands on board all three ships went up at that suggestion. Some here wanted the freedom to leave rather than to be trapped forever. Very well, Yeolani had learned something.
Very carefully, Yeolani closed his eyes and grounded himself to the prairie at his feet. Then, with all his will, he cursed the Roach demon before him.
Roach only cackled at him, as if the demon wasn’t even aware of his curse. “You know there will always be demons trying to come here. There are also powers in the Land that don’t answer to any of us and have no desire for a body. I could teach you about them,” Roach suggested arrogantly, knowing he was correct.
Yeolani sighed but did not let on how he had failed. “Oh, I’ve met the Siren of the River,” Yeolani replied flatly. “I survived her and will one day challenge her again. There are doubtless others as well. That is not an issue.”
Yeolani’s eyes burned with pent-up tension, frustration, and grief as he completed his interview. “Now, you are leaving sealed in that ship and never returning. Eventually, this Land will be sealed from you and your kind. The magic of the Land is not yours to possess and never will be.”
And with that, Yeolani flung the body back onto the ship. “Do we have them all?”
Honiea nodded, for she had checked to see that no one in West had been infected, and Rashel knew that the eastern shore had been cleansed of the scent of demons. Without hesitation, Yeolani unanchored the ships and sent them south on the river with a push from a looming storm just short of a tornado. And then, for good measure, he set all three ships afire with a blue-white blaze that burned nothing but the sky.
24
Memorial for Nevai
Yeolani left Rashel to follow the ships with his storm eyes on them for six days, using his compass to know he was going the correct way. He took the form of a cloud threatening rain the whole voyage.
Along the trek, he passed one of the palaces he had not seen yet, on the eastern bank of the Lara, out in the open, without any town built around it. Only a herd of buffalo enjoyed grazing in its shade. They stood so thick about the building that the ground had turned brown with their backs and seemed to move oddly. His home? Yeolani promised himself that he’d come back this way to investigate, but right now he had to monitor three burning ships.
He also got a bird’s-eye view of the swampland where he had encountered the Siren. No one could imagine living there, he knew. In the middle of that river delta, another empty palace of the Wise Ones stood guarding the riverway. He felt no compulsion to stop there, and the Siren’s presence
nearby would make that dangerous for anyone investigating. He hoped not to encounter her again, no matter what he had to say to the Roach.
Once the ships drifted out to sea, he blew the vessels south toward open water and set a seal that would see that they never reached land again. It would also capsize them, still afire, if anyone tried to stop the ships. With those magical imperatives, he released his power over them and returned back from where he had come.
Yeolani still traveled as a storm, but with less contact with the ground and more control. As he turned, he passed very near where Everic and his family had settled and thought he might visit them. It could be ages before he could return to thank them for their hospitality. Also, he wanted to reassure himself that Everic’s Elin was not harmed for him choosing to be with Rashel. He took human form on the beach at dusk and walked up the trail to the bluff and toward their house. As he approached, he conjured a perfect bow to fit Everic to pay him for his kindness.
Everic’s children were still bright-eyed and Emmi was soon to bring a seventh into the world. It made the death of Nevai all the more painful to see what he’d lost in the future of Everic’s humble world. Yeolani tried not to look too closely at Elin as she hid behind her mother’s skirt. The girl remained completely forgetful of the stranger who had come to visit them the winter before. Instead of dwelling on that uncomfortable time, Yeolani assured them that all was well and that he had regained his memory. He warned them away from going anywhere near the swamp to the west and left them with one of Honiea’s candles as well. Then he departed before supper so that their happy children would not bring him to tears.
When Yeolani finally arrived back at East he hardly recognized the place. He had only been gone a week and landed in the middle of his bridge rather than trusting what his eyes said to him. East had become a garden, cultivated and green, with food growing on one quarter, a miniature jungle in another, flowers and shrubbery in the third, and a full-grown forest of trees in the last, all with the magician’s tower in the center, still crumbled and covered in ivy. Yeolani was about to walk down toward the garden to investigate when Rashel came out of the undergrowth to him.
“What’s this?” he asked by way of greeting.
She looked tired but smiled to see him, wordlessly wrapping her arms around him and stopping his exploration. “I had to. That land was so sick with demon magic and then with all our salt, so I became a healer. The ring helps. I don’t know if it was the ring or just my gift, but seeds come out of it, one at a time. The seeds it gives are unique and just right for the spot, hardier and able to grow on the poisoned soil. The ring knows. I think that’s why the demons wanted it. They could have used my ring to grow anything, including demons.”
Yeolani considered that disturbing thought and felt a chill. “No, the Talismans are for the Wise Ones. They might have tried for that, but I don’t think a demon could ever grow something from your Talisman any more than the Siren could use my compass to misguide me. I just hope the demons don’t continue to seek the other Talismans. We’ve got enough difficulty finding them for ourselves.” Then Yeolani looked at the wondrous garden, knowing that none of these plants would thrive without Rashel’s influence. “And the ring wanted an entire garden like this? I’ve never seen plants like these,” he murmured, stroking her back and tugging at her braid.
“As I said, it only made unique, life-giving seeds, like no other,” Rashel replied. “And while it’s pretty, no one will really appreciate it. I might as well seal the garden like a Wise One’s palace.” She sighed with regret and then continued. “No one will ever live there. The people of West are afraid of this place. I removed all the salt and toxins and made it a garden, but they still fear it. Honiea and Vamilion have been speaking to the people of West, and they still want to leave. The river has brought them nothing but misery, and they don’t want to stay here, unprotected and vulnerable to anyone…anything coming up the river.”
Her words made an itch in the back of Yeolani’s mind, and suddenly he got an inspired idea. “Halfway. We can invite them to the Halfway Tree.”
“Halfway? There’s no water…oh, my spigot. I knew there was a reason I conjured that.”
“There’s more than enough water. We’ll make more trees for homes. A town there will never be invaded because there’s no river there, just your tree to watch over a village.”
“I think you’ve got a grand idea,” she laughed. “I’m glad you have a solution for them because we’re going to have a mass emigration as our next responsibility. I bet your compass will even point that way.”
With that, she tucked her arm around his waist and walked him back over the bridge with the sun setting in their eyes to go find Sethan’s inn to discuss a migration.
A few days later, most of the people of West had gathered their possessions and had crossed the bridge to follow the river path to Edgewood. Once there, Yeolani would meet them to build the road needed to go on the less traveled path to the city he planned to create halfway between the rivers of the Land. Rashel would grow crops for them, as well as a forest so they could put up homes and stores for the coming winter.
However, they didn’t have to travel with the setters just yet. Indeed, the compass advised them to stay.
They had one more thing to do. Rashel still had not decided how to break away from this place because of Nevai. She knew she needed to move on, but she also wanted to create a memorial for him. She at first had hoped the wondrous garden in East would fit that purpose, but it didn’t feel right. Finally, two days after the people of West had departed, she gathered the courage to return to the dead Gathering Tree.
At dusk, Yeolani went with her to support her as well as to say his own goodbyes. He needed to mourn his child also. With summer beginning to bake the prairie around them, against the low fallen sun, the tree looked all the sadder there on the river’s edge. Without discussing it, they both used magic to lift the charred oak from its roots and threw it into the river. Then, as she half expected, Rashel addressed her Talisman ring and opened a little chamber beneath the gemstone. In it she found a seed, one she had never encountered before. She placed it in the hollow left by the dead oak and then covered it with soil.
Yeolani watched her as she worked, finally feeling some peace. Rashel used magic to draw river water to soak the ground well and then lifted her arms slowly. A sprout emerged from the bed of earth. In a matter of a few heartbeats, a strong sapling grew up with leaves that shown silver on one side and a velvety green on the other. Its clear bark shimmered gray as an aspen but thicker and more rugged. Neither of them had ever seen such a tree, pale and willowy.
“A ghost tree?” Rashel named it.
“A memorial tree,” Yeolani amended. “He’s not a ghost. He would have moved on, as we should. I’m just very grateful to the fairies for giving us the time we had with Nevai.”
As if his words triggered something, the branches rising above their heads lit up with fairies.
Against the dusky sky, the glow warmed their aching hearts. The fairies dipped and swooped as if in celebration of the leaves in this wondrous tree. Yeolani strained to understand their fluting voices and heard so many at once that he began to tune them out.
“No, don’t push them away,” Rashel corrected. “They say they have a gift for us as well.”
Suddenly, a cranky, teething cry cut through the air from the far side of the tree. They both bolted around the trunk to find Nevai in a fairy-crafted basket wearing the same type of swaddling in which he had first appeared to Yeolani. They scooped him up with wonder, crying and laughing at one time, squeezing their baby until he protested that too. He appeared perfectly sound and had not aged at all during his time away from them.
“Thank you,” Rashel called to the fairies in the tree. “This gift is so beautiful. We cannot ever thank you enough. I’ll try to plant more of these memorial trees for you if you wish.”
“No,” the fairy voices seemed to say. “We took him only
when we knew he was alone. We kept him safe from all magic. We only want to watch your son from time to time. If you will let us.”
Yeolani almost burst out laughing. “Babysitters?” though the word didn’t actually make sense when it applied to fairies.
“We are going to have to find someone who can watch him when we’re going about the Land. I will not leave him alone again.” Rashel’s words formed an oath and put her into a glorious silk dress with honeysuckle woven through her hair. She looked glorious and far less deadly this way, but her oath was to be taken seriously.
“Yes, ma’am,” Yeolani replied obediently and kissed her. Then he looked down at Nevai who squawked in protest at being squished between his parents. “What’s this?”
He found a pendant tucked under a layer of Nevai’s wrapping. Yeolani brushed his hand across a gold and silver pin and felt an embossed symbol he’d seen when he wore his own regalia: waves of grass, a horse galloping across the scene with mountains in the background. The elegantly etched pin symbolized the King of the Plains, and yet Yeolani had no idea what it meant.
“It is your pendant, King of the Plains,” the fairy voices chimed. “It is for you, given by your doorkeeper so that when you find your home, you may open the gates.”
“Doorkeeper?” asked Rashel. “What does a doorkeeper…? How did Nevai come to have it? Did the fairies give it to you or to Nevai?” asked Rashel. Surely he would have told her if he had found something more in his Seeking.
“No,” Yeolani replied in a wondering voice. “The pendant is meant to be given to a Wise One by his or her door steward. Door stewards aren’t magical people, but they live forever and have the…. I wonder.”
Now, Rashel was beginning to understand. “Forever? Is Nevai going to live forever? As your door steward?” Rashel gasped. She couldn’t bring words to how that delighted her. Yeolani read her thoughts and grinned boyishly. Nevai was going to be part of this wonderful family for an eternity.
