“I’ve kept control all these years only through sheer force of will, Elyana,” Beryl continued, his voice lost in the roar of the flames. “That and memories of you. I’ve kept them safe, Elyana, the Rahuli people. They are our children, you said, our legacy and our honor, even though they hated and despised you for what you were. They abandoned you to exile and silent study while I led them in pointless battle.”
Memories Beryl had left hidden within partitioned sections of his mind poured through him, stilling all the voices except for his own and the vulcanist.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help you. I fought physical battles. I gathered the clans. I battled Serthim and his Sister. I formed the Roterralar. I’ve tried to keep the Rahuli people safe.”
Tears formed in his eyes but were burned away by the heat before they could fall down his cheeks.
“You saved them once, at least part of them. Maybe I can save them too.”
Beryl smiled and, after a thousand years of struggle, gave up the fight and let the vulcanist consume the other voices and, finally, his own.
Chapter 24: Honor
“The Progressions dictate the actions of their followers. There is a Sister for each of them, guiding her specific faction in their quest for radiance and, ultimately, a place in the first hell, rather than the seventh.”
—From Commentary on the Schema, Volume I
Gavin fell to the ground, slamming into the bouncing earth and then getting jostled onto his back. Lhaurel’s scream from beside him announced her similar predicament, though Gavin couldn’t see her. The lamp shook loose and crashed to the ground, flames leaping up before a section of stone toppled from the ceiling and smothered them in a shower of dust and bits of rock.
Even in the middle of bouncing along the ground, Gavin turned to look at Samsin and Nikanor. Samsin was on the ground, like Gavin was, but Nikanor stood calmly on his feet as if the earth were his to command. A small section around him remained still and immobile. His broken bonds dangled from his wrists, and his eyes were half-shut in concentration.
“What in the sands,” Gavin shouted, trying hard not to bite his own tongue as he was jostled and bounced along the ground, “is going on?”
The shaking earth subsided and then passed. Gavin rose on unsteady feet. Though the quakes weren’t uncommon in general—Gavin remembered three or four others in his nearly twenty years—three so close together was something else entirely. Gavin felt worry worm its way into his stomach and beginning knowing at his insides.
“I can’t hold it back for long,” Nikanor said through clenched teeth.
Gavin looked over at the man while helping Lhaurel to her feet. The woman’s hand felt unusually thin and bony.
“What?”
“Beryl,” Nikanor said. “He’s now a vulcanist. He’s trying to force an eruption. I can hold the earth in place above it for a while, but—” He gasped suddenly and a small tremble hit the earth, then vanished. “He’s strong. Very strong. I didn’t know vulcanists had this sort of strength.” Sweat beaded on the man’s brow and dripped down his face.
Samsin got to his feet clumsily, hands still bound. “You can’t hold back a volcano, Nikanor. We’ve got to get out of here while we still can. Forget about these people. They’re dead anyway.”
Gavin turned a sharp look over to Samsin, who didn’t look the least bit embarrassed by what he had just said.
“Gavin,” Lhaurel said, “I can feel it too. This isn’t natural, this isn’t normal. Beryl feels different somehow. I—I can feel Nikanor and Beryl fighting one another. This is real. We need to leave. Now!”
Gavin was torn for a moment, then made a decision. He stepped over to Samsin and untied his hands. The man frowned down at Gavin, but Gavin ignored him. When he was done, Gavin turned to Nikanor.
“Can you walk and keep Beryl contained at the same time?”
Nikanor shook his head.
Gavin nodded, understanding the full implications and looking at the Orinai with grudging and surprised respect. “How much time can you give us?”
“I don’t know. Hurry.” The strain was plain in his voice.
Why would he do this? Did it really matter, though? It was what was needed for them to survive. Gavin nodded his respect to the man, hoping to convey some measure of the gratitude he felt.
Samsin moved up alongside Gavin, pushing him aside with one arm.
“What are you doing, Nikanor?” Samsin nearly shouted. “You came all the way here just to die saving these people? You betrayed the Seven Sisters already and then you dragged me into it. I thought we’d talked about this. I thought we were here to observe, not incite another civil war.”
Nikanor turned his head to look down at Gavin. “Go,” he said. “I’ll send Samsin along in a minute. He’s a good man, though he doesn’t know it yet. He’ll show you the way out.”
Gavin opened his mouth to argue, then snapped it shut and nodded. Lhaurel was already waiting for him at the door. She nodded at Nikanor over Gavin’s shoulder and then they rushed out into the passageway beyond.
“Go get Khari,” Gavin said. “Tell her to gather the aevians and send riders out to the other clans. Send them north toward the old Aeril Warren.”
Lhaurel nodded, fear evident in her expression, though it was mixed with the steely resolve Gavin had grown to expect from her. She took off down the hall, red hair bouncing on her shoulders and only a slight limp slowing her.
Gavin waited by the door for a long moment, waiting to see if Samsin would come, but then shrugged and raced off toward the greatroom.
* * *
Twenty minutes later the entire populace of the Roterralar clan waited in the eyrie, whatever supplies they could carry strapped either to themselves or to the backs of the aevians they could convince to bear burdens. The aevians themselves were agitated and ill-tempered, dozens simply taking flight of their own volition and flying off without any indication where they were going.
Khari was there, directing people to aevians and making sure they’d gathered what they needed from the eyrie itself. There was a hollow, haunted expression to her eyes, as if something inside her had broken, but Lhaurel remained near her side, careful to provide direction where needed.
Gavin stood calmly in the middle of the chaos, directing the flow of fearful bodies as they pushed and shoved through the throng. There were enough aevians equipped with saddles for nearly everyone, but a few would have to double up. Gavin had been mildly surprised at how easy it had been to convince everyone that they had to leave—the continued tremors had helped—but he wasn’t about to question good fortune when it fell in his lap. Cobb had also been helpful and had sent out additional riders to warn the clans. Gavin only hoped they were fast enough to save them. Depending on how far away from the Roterralar Warren they’d made it, it would take them the better part of a day to get to the section of Forbiddence Nikanor had mentioned, even if they ran the whole way.
“What are you waiting for, lad?” Cobb asked, walking over. Several others followed close behind him, including the man who’d shown deference to Lhaurel earlier and a few others Gavin knew he should probably recognize.
“I’m waiting for the Orinai,” Gavin said. “He knows where we’re going.”
As if speaking of him had drawn the man’s attention, Samsin burst through one of the entrances. The doors flung outward with tremendous force. The Orinai’s face looked thunderous, as if a storm cloud had somehow taken human form. The Roterralar scattered before him, shying away from the massive man. He strode through the crowd with long, powerful strides, making his way directly toward Gavin. Cobb and one of the other men, Lhaurel’s friend from earlier, stepped up beside Gavin.
“Why are you still here?” Samsin snapped, his voice a harsh growl. Gavin noticed the redness of man’s eyes.
“Well, you’re the one that knows the way, after all,” Gavin said. “Perhaps you’d care to show us.”
Samsin grumbled something under his breath
. “Fine. But I’m not riding behind someone this time. I get my own bird.”
Cobb chuckled. “I don’t think that will be happening anytime soon.”
“That’s fine, Samsin,” Gavin said, holding up a hand to forestall Cobb’s continued objections. “Khari can help you find an aevian that will carry you. She’s the short one over there. Tell her I sent you.” Gavin pointed toward Khari and Samsin sniffed, before striding off in the indicated direction.
“You can’t be serious, Gavin,” Cobb objected as soon as Samsin had made it a reasonable distance from them. “You’re not going to simply let that—that—”
“Man?” Gavin supplied.
“That Orinai walk around free like he’s one of us, are you?”
Gavin shrugged. “Now is not the time to be fighting amongst ourselves. He knows how to get us where we need to go. I don’t have to trust him when helping us is the only way he’ll survive too. Pragmatism is sometimes far more powerful. Now let’s get this group on the move.”
Cobb started to protest again, face growing red and eyebrows coming together like bushy clouds above his nose, but the other man put a placating hand on Cobb’s shoulder and the old man subsided.
Gavin whistled sharply as he turned away and Nabil screeched and leapt from a crag on the wall to land near him. The large white aevian still favored his leg, but it hadn’t slowed his fierce pride any at all. Gavin reached up and scratched the aevian just beneath the eye, then vaulted up into the saddle and clipped himself in. The soft buzz of voices stilled as the assembled Roterralar noticed him up on Nabil’s back. Gavin felt a great weight settle on his shoulders as he regarded the faces of those looking up at him. It appeared Khari had found Samsin a riding harness and aevian. Lhaurel stood not far from her. Gavin found Shallee among the crowd as well, her newborn tied across her chest by several long strips of cloth.
Gavin took a deep breath through his nose and steeled his posture and expression.
“The time has come,” Gavin said in a voice that carried to the back of the eyrie. “Terror comes at us once again. I would say that this a new thing, a new threat, but it’s not, not really anyway. We’re Rahuli, the people of the Sharani Desert. We grew up knowing that the genesauri would come each year. We lived each day knowing that where we called home could and would change. This is not new to us. We’re moving again, though this time we won’t be coming back. I know you’re frightened. I know you’re all probably wondering what’s going on. I am too. But we’ve dealt with this before and come out stronger for it. We will do it again because we are Rahuli. Remember that.”
Gavin leaned to the side and Nabil turned in that direction so they were facing out toward the Sharani desert. Storm clouds dotted the horizon, flashing with the occasional burst of lightning. Behind him, Gavin heard several dozen metallic clicks as people snapped into their saddles.
“Samsin,” Gavin called over one shoulder. “Fly alongside me. I’ll get us to where I found you, but then you’ll need to show us the rest of the way.” Gavin leaned down slightly in the saddle and rested a hand on Nabil’s broad back. “Alright then, Nabil,” Gavin whispered. “Let’s go.”
Nabil launched into the sky.
* * *
They flew north in a great concourse of aevians, with Gavin, Samsin, and Khari at their head. The aevians had been instructed to follow Nabil and Gwyanth, but most of the new Roterralar had never ridden an aevian before so the process was a slow one. Still, the sands seemed to undulate beneath them, though it was due to the wind rather than shaking earth.
Gavin looked back over his shoulder at those following him frequently, making sure everyone was still safe. Small children rode with their parents or with older siblings. Cobb sat stiffly on the back of his aevian, but his wrinkled, stony face held a note of child-like wonder on it as well. Gavin marveled that the man, so taciturn, straight-forward, and blunt at times, could still marvel in the face of everything that was going on.
In the back of Gavin’s mind, fear was taking root and slowly spreading through him. It wasn’t the fear of the unknown though. As he’d said to the others, they’d dealt with the unknown their entire lives. He truly believed that. They were a strong people, able to adapt to whatever situations came. No, the fear that climbed through him like an insidious vine from the Oasis, was a fear that, once again, he wouldn’t be able to save the people.
His entire life, his grandmother had instilled in him a sense of duty, honor, and compassion. At first, Gavin had thought it only applied to the outcasts, but he’d begun to realize that it was something more. All the Rahuli deserved protection and some measure of unity, if they could manage it. He’d thought the Rahuli safe, despite the nagging doubts. True, Kaiden had still been there and the clans had struggled to work together, but Gavin had thought those things that would eventually work themselves out. But this? The Orinai? Beryl threatening their very existence? Gavin had no idea how long they had, but a small voice inside him knew it would not be enough.
He urged Nabil to fly faster.
As they flew, other riders appeared on the horizon and moved to join them, shouting that they’d reached the clans and were directing them toward the old Aeril Warren. All, that is, except the ones following Maugier. Those refused to come.
Gavin ground his teeth together. Of course Maugier wouldn’t come. Stubborn, idiot, sands-cursed man. Gavin was half-tempted to go after them in that very moment, but then thought better of it. If he got these ones to where they could start getting out, he could go back with the aevian riders and begin relaying as many as he could. That is, of course, if the aevians could take the abuse. Already, Gavin could sense the exhaustion in Nabil’s wingbeats.
The Forbiddence grew large on the horizon, the sun low over its lip to his left. They were only a few short minutes’ flight away, close to the stoneway pillar. Gavin had signaled for Samsin to show them the way and the massive blonde Orinai had managed to direct his aevian into the lead. Once again Gavin was struck by the sheer height of the monolithic black wall. Had Samsin and Nikanor really managed a way through it? Doubt crept through Gavin and intertwined with the fear already there.
If Gavin hadn’t been looking right at the Forbiddence, he would have missed it, but as it was, he watched in stunned disbelief as a massive section of the Forbiddence simply crumbled and fell inward, leaving a gaping hole. Dust flew into the air in a great, billowing cloud and, even as high in the sky as they were, Gavin felt the concussive impact of the stone and the echoing rumble of the earth far below. The aevians shrieked and cawed and Nabil twisted oddly in the air, making Gavin grab onto the pommel. Mingled exclamations of surprise and fear rose on the wind behind him, only to be stifled by the echoing retort of the cascading stone.
Gavin swore. Behind him, Khari—at least, Gavin assumed it was Khari—whistled sharply to signal a descent. Gavin nudged Nabil with his knees and urged him onward, then noticed Samsin just ahead and to the left of him. Color had drained from the Orinai’s face, though his gaze and expression were intent and focused on the billowing dust cloud as it slowly began settling. The aevian he was riding responded to Khari’s calls and began to descend along with the others. Gavin hesitated, then edged Nabil down as well.
Nabil alighted on the ground alongside Samsin, and Gavin unclipped from the saddle and leapt to the ground. The Orinai had hopped out of the saddle in an apparent daze, for he was still attached to his saddle by a taut leather lead. One of Samsin’s hands was absently working back up the lead toward the saddle, but it wasn’t really helping.
Gavin hopped over and pulled it free.
“What is it, Samsin?” Gavin asked. “The other Orinai?”
Samsin nodded. “They must have been right on our heels the entire time,” he whispered. “But how did they know?” His voice trailed off as, emerging from the billowing dust cloud like blood from a wound, a vast army of red-clad archers appeared within the gaping hole which had been blown in the Forbiddence wall.
Part 5
: Survivor
Chapter 25: Orinai
“Those who attain any of the third and highest of the Iterations are granted solace within the first hell, according to our beliefs. Though this scholar promised not to delve into religion, it is the driving force of the movement along the Iterations and the means by which the reincarnations of our former lives can speak with us in dream.”
—From Commentary on the Schema, Volume I
Lhaurel pushed through the throng of confused Roterralar, dread spreading through her like an icy torrent of water. Someone growled something at her, but Lhaurel ignored it and instinctively drew on her powers. She knew using her own blood would be counter-productive in the long run, leaving her weak after she released it, but she needed the extra strength and clarity now, in the face of what she saw unfolding before her.
Red-clad archers poured out of the gap in the Forbiddence like a bleeding wound. Here and there along the line Lhaurel could see larger men, ones with the same sense of solidity to their build and movements that Nikanor and Beryl shared. They fell into a posture that made them seem to merge with the stone of the Forbiddence itself upon which they trod. She recognized them, both from their similarity to Nikanor and her readings from the scrolls. Earth Wards. It must have been them who had brought down the Forbiddence. Lhaurel pushed passed the last stunned onlookers and broke into an open space for a few moments before coming up alongside Gavin, Samsin, and Khari. More archers poured down the gap. Now that she was clear of the press of aevians and people, Lhaurel realized that the gap was downward sloped, as if the army pouring into the Sharani Desert had to descend from a great height.
“Talk to me, Samsin,” Gavin demanded, his voice cracking like a whip with the urgency of his words. Lhaurel glanced sidelong at him, but her eyes immediately returned to the army. More warriors came down.
“Earth Wards,” Samsin said, voice soft. “Those there are Earth Wards. They’ll keep Beryl from blowing this place as long as the Sisters are here.” His voice caught at that, but Gavin made a pointed grunt and Samsin continued. “The archers are the Sisters’ Bleeders.”
Sharani series Box Set Page 58
