by Will Wight
Mercy’s heart tightened. Without the support of the Golds, she wouldn’t be able to save more than a handful of the Li clan.
She kept her voice even. “We’re all leaving. Us, and as many of the Li clan as we can carry.”
“Yes, of course, but I am afraid that we can’t carry many of this clan if they fight us at every step.”
The ground wasn’t shaking anymore, which she prayed meant that the Dreadgod wasn’t walking any closer. She hopped onto Suu, flying up above the walls.
Some of the guardian birds screeched a warning to her, but the sacred beasts were just as afraid of the Dreadgod as she was, and they left her alone.
When she rose high enough, she could see the situation inside the Li clan.
They were trying to escape.
A mass of people, hundreds if not a thousand, pushed against the main gate. They weren’t exactly trampling each other yet, but they screamed for the door to open.
The Fourth Elder walked out on the wall, holding out his hands to calm them. “The Matriarch is on her way. When she arrives, she will guide us.”
Mercy had spent enough time waiting on that woman. She extended her spiritual perception, hunting for the Jade.
The Matriarch, it turned out, wasn’t far away. She stood on a roof, peering up at the sky and consulting with other elders.
Mercy kept her staff low, flying close enough to hear.
It didn’t take long. As an Overlady, her hearing stretched further than the spiritual senses of any of these Jades.
“…activate the scripts,” the Matriarch was saying. “Find the keys to the guardians, seal the gates, and inspect the boundary flags. If the heavens fall upon us, they will crack on our roof. Have we heard anything from the Kazan clan?”
An old man next to her, wearing an elaborate network of gold and jewels, shook his head. “We’ve heard they’re on the move, but not for us. They seem to be headed east. This has the feel of one of their boundary fields, though; in this one’s humble opinion, they have activated this formation to aid them in battle against the outsiders.”
Sickness bubbled up from Mercy’s stomach.
They hadn’t been listening to her at all. The Matriarch had been stringing Mercy along, and now she was taking the signs of the Dreadgod’s coming as evidence that there was no Dreadgod.
Mercy hovered there on her staff, cold wind whipping her hair, as she fought with her choices.
The Golds wanted to leave, and she couldn’t blame them. While she still had them, they could tear the gates of the Li clan open and let the average citizens free.
She could grab the Matriarch herself and fly her up to where the Dreadgod was visible, but depending on the Titan’s location, that could take hours.
And—as the Fourth Elder had reminded Mercy repeatedly over the last day—the Wei clan could craft convincing illusions. Just seeing with one’s own eyes was not necessarily evidence.
There was no guarantee she could convince them, but if she just captured the clan and dragged them off, they would work against her.
She couldn’t avoid the question that slipped out from the depths of her heart: What would my mother do?
Mercy knew exactly what Malice would do in this situation. Her exploits were practically myths in the Akura clan. Her approach would work, too.
Mercy just didn’t want to do it.
But it would save lives…
With more time, she could come up with a better plan. If only she didn’t need to act now.
With a sudden burst of speed, Mercy zipped up to the edge of the flat roof where the Matriarch was speaking. She was up and over as the first Jades were spinning at the feel of her spirit, pulling up their venomous techniques.
Mercy had already landed, staff whirling.
Two Jade elders went to the ground in the first instant, one clipped across the head and the other with her feet swept out from under her. An Iron Enforcer went over the edge of the roof, and she webbed a second guard to the floor with Strings of Shadow.
A Forged arrowhead of venomous madra crashed into her chest, shattering on her bloodline armor. She broke the wrist of the Jade who had used that technique and buckled the knees of another.
The Matriarch had begun a Ruler and Striker technique at the same time, venom aura condensing over her shoulder as green light twisted in her hand.
Mercy’s staff came up as a bow, the violet-eyed dragon’s head glaring at the Matriarch. Her arrow’s point gleamed black.
“Drop your technique,” Mercy commanded.
The Matriarch’s eyes shifted as she took in the situation.
Mercy released her bowstring.
The arrow pinned the Jade’s wrist to the wall behind her. She grunted in pain, and her two techniques puffed to nothing as her madra was overwhelmed by shadow.
When the arrow was removed, there would be no wound in the woman’s flesh, but as long as it was embedded here, it would still hurt.
Mercy leaned closer, tapping into her bloodline legacy just enough to make sure her eyes were shining. “When I give you an instruction, you do not hesitate to obey. Do you understand?”
Behind her, one of the Jades started forming another technique.
She shot Strings of Shadow out blindly, and the technique stopped.
“Answer me.”
“I understand,” the Matriarch said quickly. “You have defeated me, but it will take more than you alone to conquer the Li clan.”
“No, it won’t.” Mercy triggered a communication construct inside her pocket in a prearranged signal. “But why would I waste so much time?”
Only a second later, the first Akura rose into the sky outside the Li clan walls. The other fifty followed suit a moment afterwards, spreading out in the sky.
The Matriarch inclined her head. “You are very strong. But we in the Li clan are not without our own—”
Mercy used her communication construct again, and this time she spoke a command. “Unveil.”
It took a moment for the message to reach the others, but when it did, the Akura Golds revealed the full extent of their power immediately.
The Li Jades gasped, and the Matriarch’s eyes bulged in their sockets. “Jades? All of them?”
“Scan me,” Mercy ordered.
When the Matriarch hesitated, Mercy lifted her bow again.
Immediately, a scan shivered through Mercy’s spirit. This time, the older woman’s breath caught. Color drained from her skin, and she dropped to her knees. Awkwardly, as her wrist was still pinned to the wall behind her. “Gold,” she breathed.
The others on the roof were face-down in moments.
“No,” Mercy corrected. “Gold is what they are.”
“Forgiveness, please. This one has offended you. If only you had revealed yourselves, we would have given you our entire clan at a moment’s notice.”
“We’re not here to take your clan. We’re here to save your clan.”
The Matriarch trembled. “Then…there’s really…”
“I would not tarnish my own soul by lying to a Jade. Now, how fast can you evacuate your clan?”
“We can have nine out of ten at Heaven’s Glory by the setting of the sun, honored…Sage.” Mercy made a face at the title, but the Matriarch took it as displeasure and hurried on. “Apologies, but that is truly the fastest that our lacking abilities will allow.”
“No, that is faster than I expected of you,” Mercy allowed, still holding on to her impression of Malice. “Do not overestimate your own abilities because you think it will please me. If you say you can reach Heaven’s Glory by sunset, that is the standard to which I will hold you.”
“It is the pride of the Li clan that we have the greatest number of clouds and flying chariots in Sacred Valley, outside the Holy Wind School. As we had been preparing for an attack since we first began feeling the unnatural earthquakes, we are ready to mobilize as soon as this one gives the signal. With your permission, of course.”
Mercy reached out and touched
the arrow, which dissolved into motes of black essence rising into the air. The others on the roof murmured when they saw that it had left no wound, which almost made Mercy roll her eyes. Even they had seen more impressive feats of sacred arts than this one, they were only trying to flatter her with a show of awe.
“You have more than my permission,” Mercy said. “It is my command. My soldiers wear black and violet. Let those who cannot reach Heaven’s Glory by sunset tonight report to them, and they will be carried. Everyone else is to travel for Heaven’s Glory at all speed.”
The Matriarch bowed deeply. “This one will comply. And this one thanks you once again for you—”
“Go. You all are no exceptions.”
The roof cleared as though Mercy had pushed them. The old man covered in jewelry actually leaped down to the streets.
Only seconds later, a horn signaled all throughout the Li clan. A moment later, the Matriarch’s words echoed out, repeating Mercy’s orders.
Once Mercy was alone, she collapsed.
She leaned up against the low wall around the rooftop, pulling up her legs and hugging her knees to herself.
All along, she had known this would work. In most places in the world, sacred artists were used to taking orders from the stronger. Even those like the Matriarch who were accustomed to power had spent their Iron years bowing before Jades, and their Copper years bowing before Irons. It was behavior ingrained so deep that it was practically instinct.
Malice wielded that instinct like a club, which Mercy hated. She had always tried to avoid it, whenever she could.
But this time she couldn’t. She’d had no choice, and this was for their own good.
Which was exactly what her mother always said.
When the sky turned gold, Ziel and the Kazan clan were caught off-guard. The change in color had been accompanied by one last, great heave of the earth, and their group had already been making their way across the uncertain footing of rocky foothills.
The Kazan clan stretched off in sinuous lines, and at the shaking of the earth, Ziel couldn’t count the number of people who fell.
From carriages losing their grip on the edge of a gravel road to rocks falling out from under marching feet, people slipped or slid or tumbled in a dozen different ways.
Some of the Akura Golds reacted, diving on their clouds to catch those nearby, but none of them were faster than Ziel.
A ring of green runes appeared beneath the first carriage he saw, catching it on a gentle plane of force, but he was already throwing out another. And another.
He didn’t have time to evaluate who was in the most danger, or even who was closer. He just Forged rings as fast as he could, straining himself to the limit in only a handful of seconds.
Then the quake was over. Anyone who was going to fall had already done so.
He hadn’t caught everyone. He hadn’t even been able to see everyone. But at least a dozen people were climbing out of his rings and back to safety.
“We don’t have time for a head count,” Ziel said, his eyes on the western sky. “Grab anyone who fell, but we have to keep moving.” Some of those who’d fallen would be safe, thanks to an Iron body or simply the luck of the fall.
The Akura Truegold looked at him strangely. “Regrettably, we have to leave. The Sage told us to prioritize our own lives at the first sign of the Titan’s approach.”
Some of the other Golds had already begun flying away, but she glanced to the Patriarch and his family. “We can take a handful with us,” she said. “Including you, of course.”
Ziel was already watching the nearby Patriarch and his family give orders and instruction. The column behind them stopped, as most people Ziel could see stared at the golden sky in horror, and their four children clustered around their mother’s knees.
He could guarantee they, at least, were safe. But if everyone saw the Patriarch’s family flying to safety, there would be even more panic.
“Make the offer,” he said to her in a low voice. “And please, don’t leave without taking some of them with you. Emphasize families with children.”
The Truegold woman reached out to a construct strapped to her wrist. “I’ll call them back. But once we fill our clouds, we’re leaving.”
“Good. Don’t take chances with a Dreadgod.”
Ziel settled wearily down on his own cloud, shutting his eyes so he wouldn’t have to see the Titan’s tinted sky.
“You can lead the way,” she said. “We’ll catch up to you.”
“I’ll stick with them a while longer. Don’t know how far they’ll make it without me around.”
There was a long pause before she said, “Yes, Archlord.”
“I’m not an Archlord,” he said automatically.
Though, he realized, his channels hadn’t felt like they were full of needles when he’d tossed out so many techniques in a handful of seconds. That wouldn’t make him an Archlord, even outside—he’d settle for being as capable as an Underlord—but it was a cheering thought.
Or it would cheer him, once there wasn’t a Dreadgod looming overhead.
“Of course, Archlord.”
She was mocking him. He cracked one eye, where the Truegold woman took a moment from staring worriedly at the western horizon to give him a brief smile.
She was young, if she still had the spirit to needle him with the Wandering Titan bearing down on them. Although, now that he thought of it, she couldn’t be more than five years younger than he was.
What a difference a life made.
“What’s your name?” he asked, for the first time.
“Akura Shira, Archlord.” So a close enough relative that she got the clan name, but not close to the head family. Otherwise she would have been named after one of their virtues, and she probably wouldn’t be stuck at Truegold.
“We were introduced when I was assigned to you,” she went on.
“Yeah, but I wasn’t paying attention. Stop dragging your feet and get out of here, Shira.”
Her brow creased in worry, and she looked from him to the clouds flying away, now with small Kazan families in tow. “If you don’t leave now, you’ll miss the cloudships.”
“Don’t worry, I know better than to stick around.”
Surviving one Dreadgod attack was enough for a lifetime. The second he saw an inch of the Wandering Titan’s tail, he was gone.
Until then, he could afford to wait for a little while.
Yerin reappeared a long way from where she meant to end up.
She generally recognized the spot. She was in between Mount Yoma to the north and Mount Somara to the east, in a grove of those purple-leafed orus trees. She wasn’t too far away from Orthos as he led the natives from the Fallen Leaf School to Heaven’s Glory, as she felt his presence. She’d be able to pinpoint him if she could focus her perception for a real scan.
The problem was, her Moonlight Bridge wasn’t supposed to miss.
Every time she’d used it before, she had just imagined where she wanted to end up, and the Bridge had taken her there. This time, it was off. Why?
Might be because I’m falling to pieces.
She had arrived on hands and knees, heaving air into scorched lungs, every breath coming out with a cough. Her whole body felt weak, her spirit ached, and she saw the trees only through a haze of pain, tears, and fury.
The Moonlight Bridge hadn’t worked quite right ever since they’d crossed the border to Sacred Valley. It took more out of her than it should.
Lindon had speculated that it was drawing on her willpower to make up for the authority that was being suppressed by Sacred Valley’s script, but he was just guessing.
Didn’t mean he was wrong. But it meant that she was lost and weak when she really didn’t want to be.
She caught her breath, wiped her eyes clean, and felt the Moonlight Bridge to see how much longer it might need to recharge. Her lungs had already started to clear, and she didn’t know if she had her almost-Herald body to thank for that
or the weakness of the Wei clan poison.
That brought her thoughts back to Lindon, and her anger and fear came flooding back. By all rights, the Wei clan’s betrayal shouldn’t hurt anything more than his feelings. If he wanted, he could clean them up with no more madra than it took him to light a torch. Dross could probably do it without Lindon lifting a finger.
But her master had thought he was so far above that he was untouchable, and he had taken stupid risks.
Stupid risks like coming into this place.
This place that choked the sacred arts, the life, from your spirit. This place that bred treacherous idiots who would stab any hand extended to save them.
Images of Jades swarming over her master overlapped with Lindon, and she pushed herself to her feet. The Moonlight Bridge had recovered, and though she looked forward to using it again about as much as a Copper looked forward to carrying a boulder uphill, Lindon was in danger.
She’d have given up her sword to turn around and help, but she was a boulder tied to Lindon’s ankle here. Orthos could help. Lindon just needed to hang on until he got there. He could do that.
As long as nothing else went wrong.
At the exact moment she thought as much, the ground trembled strongly enough to shake her balance. She looked down at the earth aura and saw it brighter than ever, bleeding up into the air. It overwhelmed all other aspects of aura until it was visible to the naked eye.
That was when the sky turned gold. It might have been an earthquake, but she could have sworn she heard a distant roar.
For just a moment, she stared blankly into the west, with one thought dominating her mind.
This place is cursed.
Then the panic overtook her and she walked through the Moonlight Bridge.
It was like sliding through a tunnel of white light, and this time it came out where she intended: next to Orthos.
The great black turtle was munching on a fallen log as he marched, surrounded by the Fallen Leaf School. Little Blue sat on his head, and both of them turned to Yerin in surprise as she appeared.
“Lindon…” she said between breaths. “…clan…betrayed…”
She bent over and rested hands on her knees, gulping down air. Heavens above, she hated being weak. She wished she could scream out her words.
