Betrayer's Bane

by Michael G. Manning

  Brigid was confused, “You think we should just make peace? You’re crazier than Emma.”

  Abby shook her head, “No, I think we’re wrong, but I’ve already committed myself. They have as much right to live as we do, but we can’t have it both ways. If I have to choose, I’ll choose our people over theirs.”

  “You’re seriously fucked up,” declared Brigid.

  Abby nodded, “You’re right. Now let me show you how to bathe them. I don’t have long, I need to get to the kitchen soon or we’ll all be eating porridge for dinner.”

  Chapter 32

  She could hear the sounds of people moving and it annoyed her. Why didn’t they realize she was trying to sleep? It seemed like it had been ages since she had had a proper night’s rest and now that she had finally gotten deeply asleep, there was a horde of people rummaging around in her room.

  Kate opened her eyes, or she thought she did. They didn’t seem to be operating normally. There was light, but everything was blurry. She squinted as the room slowly resolved itself. It never truly got into proper focus, but after a short time she could see that there was a man standing at the foot of her bed. A more slender figure stood to one side.

  “Kate? Can you hear me?” It was Lyra’s voice.

  “Why won’t you let me sleep?” she asked.

  A warm hand was placed against her forehead. No, it wasn’t just warm, it felt positively hot, as though the owner had a fever. It belonged to the slender figure, and Kate decided it must belong to Lyralliantha. Is she sick?

  “She’s cold,” announced Lyra’s voice. “Can’t you keep her warm?”

  A deeper male voice replied, “I’m bringing her temperature up gradually. She lost more blood than I expected during the procedure. She’ll be weak and disoriented, but it’s primarily a symptom of the blood loss.”

  Kate’s mind flashed back to a vision of Layla, bleeding onto the ground. Had she been wounded as well? “Why blood?” she asked.

  “Everything is alright, Kate,” said Lyra reassuringly. “Your baby girl is fine. The procedure was a success. You just have to get better now.”

  “My baby? What happened? Where is Koralltis? Did we reach the grove?”

  “I am here,” said the male voice.

  “Yes, Kate. We got here last night. Your daughter is safe. Would you like to see her?” asked Lyra.

  “How? She hasn’t been born yet.” Kate struggled to rise but encountered only pain. Firm hands pressed her back down into the bed.

  “Don’t try to get up,” cautioned Koralltis. “I’ve closed the skin and rejoined your muscles but the wound is still new. I don’t want you to start bleeding again.”

  “Why doesn’t she remember?” asked Lyra with concern in her voice.

  “She was very weak when we started,” explained Koralltis. “Her brain isn’t getting enough blood. Her confusion will pass but some memory loss of the recent past is to be expected.”

  A cry sounded from somewhere in the room.

  Kate turned her head, trying to track the sound, but her eyes still weren’t cooperating. “Is that?”

  “Yes,” said Lyra. “She’s beautiful. Would you like to hold her?”

  “Her lungs are functioning but she will need support or they may not last,” said Koralltis. “There’s also a risk of infection at this stage. I don’t recommend it.”

  “She needs to see her,” insisted Lyra. “Let me have her.”

  A moment later Kate felt something warm pressed against her on one side. She looked down, trying to see the infant there. Her vision was blurry but she could see well enough to tell she had dark hair. She was also small, almost too small. “She’s tiny.”

  “She would have been bigger if you had been able to carry her full term,” said Koralltis, “but she is not too small to survive.

  Kate wanted to hold her, but her arms betrayed her with their weakness. In the end, she settled for resting one hand beside the babe’s cheek. She was tired, so very tired. She decided to close her eyes, just for a moment, and the world faded away.

  Lyra turned to Koralltis, worried. “Why did she lose so much blood?”

  “Her system had been clotting abnormally for weeks before this. It exhausted the part of her blood responsible for clotting. That is why she bled so much, but her life is not in danger. She will need rest and good food. I believe she will be largely recovered within a few weeks.”

  “You believe?” said Lyra.

  The Prathion lore-warden sighed, “There are no certainties in this world, not even for the Illeniels. Surely you are aware of this?”

  Lyra fought down an irrational surge of anger at his remark. Her own fatigue was greater than she would have liked to admit and she had been on her feet for far too long. “Yes, of course,” she replied. “I need to rest.” She rested her hands on her own swollen abdomen.

  “Please do,” agreed Koralltis. “We will take care of her. Return when you have seen to your needs.”

  “I would rather sleep here,” said Lyra. “If that is permitted.”

  “There will be no problem. Allow me to make you a bed.”

  “I can do it myself,” insisted Lyra, but as she started to use her aythar she felt a wave of dizziness sweep over her. She had pushed herself too far already. Embarrassed she looked at the Prathion, “Never mind. I would be grateful for your assistance.”

  ***

  Careful! warned Ryan. The glass sphere was loose where it attached to the wall plate. You have to make sure the retaining ring is in place before you open the interior partition. If one of these things gets jarred loose we’re all dead.

  “Oh, sorry,” said Anthony sheepishly. “I thought that part was just used when you were done with it.”

  Ryan didn’t reply, other than to give his half-brother a hard stare. Anthony was good-natured but he was also entirely too easy going for the work they were doing. One accident would be too many while they were extracting and sealing the weaponized krytek.

  “If these things are that dangerous, wouldn’t it be good to put a blanket down on the floor?” asked Anthony, partly out of curiosity and partly because he couldn’t stand long awkward silences.

  Why?

  “What if you drop one? They look really fragile.”

  The glass spheres appeared quite delicate. They were less than an inch in diameter, barely bigger than the end of a man’s thumb, and the glass itself wasn’t very thick. What Anthony was failing to appreciate were the intricate runes engraved on its surface. To answer his question Ryan picked up one of the unused glass containers and threw it at the hard stone beneath their feet. It struck with a dull clink, bounced twice, and rolled away. The enchantment makes them more resilient than steel, he added. The big danger is the transfer. Pay attention while I show you again, unless you want to wind up like poor Blake.

  Anthony watched while Ryan secured the retaining ring and then, once the glass was firmly attached he pulled the small lever that raised small inner door, allowing the creatures in the other room a way to reach the container. Within seconds one of the small wasp-like krytek crawled in. Ryan reversed the lever, closing the door and then, using a small metal stylus he inscribed the final rune on the glass, activating the stasis enchantment before he removed it and sealed the top.

  “We didn’t have to wait long,” noted Anthony. “What makes them want to get in here so badly?”

  Us, said Ryan blandly. They are attracted to any source of aythar, like a moth to a flame.

  “Does that include animals or other things?”

  I believe so, but they can survive and reproduce using only two food sources. Humans and the She’Har Elders, explained Ryan. I tested one earlier on a rabbit to be certain. They went to it, but lost interest as soon as they were close.

  “So if one of those things escaped…”

  It would find the first available host and burrow in to lay its eggs. The life cycle is very rapid. Within a span of less than a quarter of an hour there would be hund
reds, if not thousands. The cycle appears to run faster if the host has a large amount of aythar.

  “And then…”

  They would spread. What remains of humankind would almost certainly be eliminated, along with most of the She’Har.

  “Only most?”

  I do not think they could cross the oceans. Unlike most krytek they can multiply and reproduce, but once they run out of food they will stop. Three months after that they will die and the cycle will end.

  Anthony frowned, “That’s what you think anyway. How do we know for sure?”

  Ryan pointed at the sealed chamber with a metal finger, Even after we finish preparing the spheres there will be some left in there. Without the benefit of the stasis enchantment they should die. Emma doesn’t intend to release them any sooner than that. We will have a firm answer by then.

  “You’ve put a lot of thought into this.”

  Ryan shook his head, once again glad that someone like his brother wasn’t in charge of the project. Wouldn’t you, if the fate of the world rested on your decisions?

  Anthony chuckled, “If my life were left up to me I would probably find a plump wife in Colne or maybe Lincoln and settle down. I might even get two or three wives, then I’d spend my days making babies by the dozen.”

  Two or three? Anthony never ceased to amaze him with his ridiculous ideas. Then again, the world would probably be a quieter place if everyone was like him. No one would let him marry more than one woman, though, thought Ryan. Then again, that obviously didn’t stop Father. Directing his mental voice outward he teased him, Perhaps you and Ian have more in common than I realized.

  Anthony made a sour face, “Don’t even joke about that. He’s only interested in girls that say ‘no’. I’m the exact opposite.”

  Ryan found himself remembering the test subjects, all carrying Ian’s children now, and shuddered as a feeling of shame swept over him. He felt a lot of guilt about their situation, guilt for capturing them, and guilt for allowing Ian to play his part. It would have been better if someone, anyone, had handled that part of things. But I wasn’t able. Was he any better for not being able to commit the final sin, or worse for allowing a sadistic bastard like Ian to do it instead?

  As he always did when confronted with uncomfortable thoughts or feelings, Ryan dragged his mind back into focus, putting it firmly on the task in front of him. It was something he had to do almost constantly these days. There was very little about his current life that didn’t make him queasy.

  Back to the spheres, he told Anthony. There’s one thing I’m surprised you haven’t asked me.

  “We can’t all be geniuses, Ryan,” said Anthony dryly. “What did I miss?”

  You haven’t asked me how the krytek will be released when required.

  Anthony decided to humor him, “Very well o’ sage, how will they be released when the time of apocalypse has come?”

  Look at the runes, here, Ryan said, pointing to one portion of the enchantment engraved on an as yet unfilled sphere. This links it to a master enchantment. Whoever has that can release them all at the same time with nothing more than a command word.

  “They don’t seem to make any sense,” said Anthony, frowning.

  That’s because they aren’t a regular rune structure, they’re an identifier. One that links that particular place in space with another.

  “I don’t really understand,” admitted his brother, “but it seems very clever.”

  It was, cleverer than anything Ryan had seen before, except perhaps the stasis enchantment itself. Unlike most of the enchantments they used, which were derived from She’Har spellweaves that Tyrion had studied or otherwise learned about, this one was based on an idea that Ryan had come up with himself.

  I’ve tested it and it works, Ryan told him, but the implications of what could be done with it make me wish I could spend all my time on it.

  Anthony sighed, “I don’t really care, but I know you’re going to tell me anyway.”

  Don’t you see? Said Ryan, warming to his subject. This is probably the sort of magic that underpins the way the Mordan gift works.

  “Teleportation?”

  Exactly. They do it subconsciously, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done deliberately, with careful planning and preparation. Using special identifiers like this it might be possible to link two places that are separated by any amount of distance, to create a portal that anyone could use to travel.

  “If that were possible, why haven’t the She’Har done it already?” countered Ryan.

  Perhaps they have, suggested Ryan. Or perhaps they haven’t bothered. They have the Mordan to rely on after all. We know nothing about the extent of their experience and knowledge. Or it may never have even occurred to them. They aren’t gods after all. I don’t think there’s anything that they can do that we can’t. They aren’t any smarter than we are.

  “Do you just sit around in your room at night, thinking this shit up?”

  Ryan shrugged, It beats thinking about what we’re actually doing.

  Anthony smirked, “I figured you had something more important to do with your evenings.”

  His metal fist clenched reflexively, just as his original flesh and blood fist might have done. For a second Ryan wanted nothing more than to use it to knock the knowing smile right off his brother’s face. Instead he took a deep breath, controlling his anger. Mention that again and things will get unpleasant, he warned.

  Anthony had already realized his mistake, glancing at his feet he apologized, “Sorry, Ryan, I didn’t mean that. I mean, I understand, and its none of my business…”

  Let’s get back to work.

  “Yeah,” replied Anthony. “That’s a good idea. How many of these do we have to do anyway, a hundred?”

  Ryan pointed at a large straw lined box in one corner, Thousands.

  “Ugh.”

  Chapter 33

  It had been a little more than two months since Kate’s emergency visit to the Prathion Grove. She and Lyra had stayed there for several weeks, until Lyra had had her own child, a boy. Shortly after that, though, they had relocated to Lyra’s old home within the Illeniel Grove.

  Kate couldn’t complain about the accommodations, despite their strangeness. She still experienced a bit of vertigo whenever she looked down from the edge of the platform, but she solved that problem by not looking down. What she couldn’t get over, however, was her constant fear that one day her baby might crawl over the edge.

  Little Layla was insatiably curious already, but she wasn’t moving enough for that to be a problem, yet. Lyra assured her that an invisible barrier would prevent such a thing, but it was hard for Kate to believe. Her brain might agree, but her heart was still worried.

  Lyralliantha’s baby, Garlin, was named after Daniel’s one time friend among the Prathion wardens. He had been born impossibly fat but as his body began growing he was soon merely chubby, and cute beyond belief. While he was a month younger than Layla, he was already bigger. In part because he had been born with more weight, and possibly because Layla was still playing catchup from her premature delivery.

  Kate glanced over at Lyra, who was currently sitting down, nursing her young son, her long silver hair draped casually over one shoulder. She was the very picture of motherhood, beauty, grace, and love. She was everything that Kate was not, with her disheveled hair, worn face, and sagging skin.

  She had recovered much of her strength, but this pregnancy had left her with many more souvenirs of her experience than her previous pregnancies. Her belly hung loosely in front of her, and she doubted it would ever return to its previous tone as it had after her first child. The marks on her skin made bright pink stripes around her middle.

  Perhaps it is better that he is gone. Daniel would not recognize me now, she thought.

  Lyra looked up from her son, catching Kate’s eye. Why she looked up Kate couldn’t be sure, perhaps she felt her eyes on her, or maybe she was able to sense the dark turn of her thoughts.
Whatever the reason was, Lyra smiled and without any obvious purpose or cause said, “I love you, Kate.”

  Kate had been struggling with dark moods and that comment, immediately on the heels of her jealous thoughts, undid her. Tears began sliding down her cheeks.

  Lyra’s expression turned to worry, “I’m sorry Kate. Did I do something wrong?”

  “No,” said Kate, getting up and walking over to give the other woman an awkward hug. “It’s not you, it’s me.”

  “Do you still miss him?”

  Kate nodded. That was the simple answer, so she left it at that. She did miss Daniel, but she also mourned for their lost home—and Layla. There were so many things to cry over, and yet crying had never been her way, at least not in the past. Since giving birth she had found herself prone to long bouts of sadness and she didn’t know how to fix whatever was wrong.

  And in the midst of all that I sit here, being jealous of the one person who has been the kindest to me, she thought, chiding herself.

  Lyra was like the sister she had always wanted. But in the dreams she had had as a girl that sister hadn’t been smarter, more beautiful, and eternally youthful.

  “Don’t worry, Kate,” said Lyra calmly. “We will go home soon.”

  “How? They’ll kill you if we go back.”

  Lyra shook her head, “We just have to get Tyrion first. He can straighten things out.”

  Kate looked at her without saying a word. The question in her eyes was plain enough.

  “We will talk to him. Convince him to return.”

  “You can do that?” asked Kate. “Brigid said he didn’t respond to her.”

  “I have been talking to the elders my entire life,” said Lyralliantha. “She probably did not wait long enough. Our words, our entire lives, are like flickers of light to them. To speak with them takes time and patience. I do not think Brigid is very good at that.”

  ***

  The Illeniel child has produced his offspring, said Ceylendor as he made his report to the Centyr Elders.