by K. Ferrin
She felt like she was traveling through time as they dropped into the canyon. The cliffs were soon towering above them, swirled with shades of red, yellow, and orange, twisted into bizarre shapes from the wind and who knew what other forces. Perhaps Amentis himself had formed them. The thought caused another shiver to slip down her spine. Their route became increasingly confused as other canyons split off and wandered and meandered seemingly to no end. They’d run into a dead end from a canyon that looked promising, only to find their way through a narrow gap barely large enough for them to squeeze through with them pushing their packs in front of them.
Alekka felt a prickling on the back of her neck. She stilled and stared at the towering red walls around them. She heard a bird of some sort cry, a cascade from high note to low. It was a lonely cry, and beautiful.
“What is it?” Tredon asked, coming up beside her, and she started at the sound of his voice. He’d been avoiding her since the day Elisa left. He’d been walking behind her when she stopped and it was narrow enough here he could not easily slide past her.
“I’m not sure,” she said. “I feel like...like we are being watched. Or followed, or something. Just...like we’re not alone, I guess.” She felt stupid saying the words. As a mage she would have known without question instead of having to guess at gut feelings. She could feel it as clearly as she could feel rough bark under her hand when she touched a tree. Now, without her powers, she had only vague hunches, general feelings, and she never knew for certain what any of them meant. Is this what it’s like for Micah all the time? She thought, brows drawing together. She’d no idea how he’d survived so long if it were. Then again, he’d not know what he was missing. He’d always been this way, and he probably understood these vague rumblings better than she did.
Tredon faced her but kept his eyes on the ground. She began to feel uncomfortable with his silence. Why wasn’t he saying anything?
“Well,” he said at last, “We should form up and prepare to protect ourselves. It may be only a hunch, but I would trust a hunch from you any day, Alekka,” he said. His voice was gentle.
“Ashier!” He called out. “Leali! Wait!” He glanced at her face before quickly looking away again. “Come on, let’s catch up to the others and tell them what’s going on.”
She hurried up to Leali, Ashier, and Micah with Tredon on her heals. She wasted no time when she reached them. “I don’t think we’re alone any longer. I don’t know where, or what, or what their intentions are, but we are not alone.”
Micah scanned the cliffs stretching high above them and the canyon they were moving through.
“This is not a good spot to be trapped in. We’re ducks sitting in a pond, here. It’s narrow, we can’t maneuver, and we’d be hard pressed to avoid rocks thrown down onto us from above,” he said.
“Agreed. We need to get out,” Tredon said. “Can you find something better on that map, Micah?”
Micah had already unrolled that map and was searching for the closest likely spot. “Here,” He pointed. It was still a canyon, but it looked to be a very wide and open canyon, with plenty of room to move around as needed and plenty of room to avoid anything thrown from above.
Tredon and Leali crowded next to him to look at where he pointed. “There is a river there,” Leali pointed out. Alekka nodded—she’d noticed that as well with considerable relief, as it gave them an avenue to contact Anet and Freen if needed.
“That looks like our best bet. Let’s move, fast now,” Tredon urged. Ashier took the lead with Micah on his heels. Leali and Tredon took up the rear, nestling her in the middle of the group. She clenched her teeth at the need to be protected in such a way, trying to turn her mind away from it. They moved fast and quiet, eyes scanning every which way in an effort to find what tracked them.
They made it to the clearing and fanned out as they entered it. Another canyon-bird cried, its cascading call echoing from wall to wall.
Before the bird could finish its call, a wall gave way.
Dust exploded out from where the canyon wall had been only moments before, enveloping the entire space in a thick fog of red dirt, choking and blinding them. The sound was deafening as the wall crumbled and boulders rolled and bounced to the canyon floor all around them. Alekka screamed and dove out of the way as rocks pelted toward her. Micah stood above her as if he could physically block a giant rock from landing on her. She heard the murmur of words of power and the whoompf and crackle of magic all around her as the others called on their powers, but there was nothing to target.
The noise dissipated, and they could barely breathe with all the dust in the air. “We can no longer reach the water!” Ashier shouted, looming up in front of the rest of the party. “The rock has buried it.”
“On purpose?” Micah coughed.
“Can’t tell,” Ashier responded. “But I don’t think we’re being attacked. Nothing is out there.”
“Yet…” Leali said as she squatted beside them, squinting to see through all the dust.
Tredon joined them, and there they all waited, silent, watching, for whatever would come. The dust slowly settled, and the new shape of the canyon became visible. An enormous rockfall now lay where the river had been when they’d entered the canyon. The entire wall on the far side of the canyon had collapsed, widening the canyon by a good ten or fifteen feet but filling its base with dust, gravel, and boulders. The mouth of the canyon was intact, as was the area they had made their entrance from. Alekka still felt that they were being watched, but there was no sign the collapse had been part of an attack. Nothing moved as far as they could see.
“I don’t think that was part of any attack,” Alekka spoke her thoughts aloud. “I think it was just bad timing.”
“I don’t believe in coincidences, but I have to admit, it seems you’re right,” Tredon replied. “Keep your guard up, and let’s look around.”
“But we’re still not alone, I’m certain of it,” Alekka said, the tiny hairs on the back of her neck still standing on end. She looked towards Micah, who gave her a steadying nod. He believes me.
Tredon nodded as well. Micah, Ashier, and Leali spread out. Tredon stayed as he was, standing in front of her, her back against the wall. He didn’t say anything to her, and she didn’t try to talk to him. She scanned the canyon, watching and listening, and waited. Another of what she decided to call a Canyon Wren trilled its cascading call, and she smiled slightly. That bird was unflappable.
A scream split the air. High-pitched and breathless, it slammed through Alekka like a spear.
She reached out and grabbed Tredon’s arm.
“That’s Leali!”
She jumped toward where she thought the last echoes of the scream had come from, Tredon on her heels. She ran around a large pile of rocks and saw Leali kneeling on the ground right at the base of the new cliff face. Both her hands were tangled in her hair and her torso was jerking and twitching oddly. Alekka thought she was in the throes of some terrible fit when the other woman let loose another gut-wrenching scream.
Alekka ran to her. “Leali! Leali! What is it?” She grabbed at Leali’s shoulder and jerked her bodily around to face her. Leali’s eyes were squeezed shut and tears leaked from their edges.
“What is it?” Micah demanded as he skidded toward them, panting and red-faced but unharmed.
Leali didn’t respond and Alekka shook her, rocking her head on her neck.
“Look,” said Ashier, his voice quiet, standing at the base of the cliff where Leali had been kneeling. Alekka looked to where he pointed and saw oddly shaped rocks scattered on the ground there. They’d broken in strange patterns, leaving unusual shapes everywhere. A lot like—
She stood up and took the last few steps over to the new cliff face and fell to her knees. She reached out a hand and picked a bleached white shape up from the ground. They were bones. There were thousands and thousands of them, as if a great plague had happened and the residents of an entire city had been buried here.
“I see, but I don’t understand,” Alekka said. Obviously the bones were all human, but what did that matter? Why would Leali react this way to people she never knew and were long dead?
“It’s them, Alekka,” she said, holding out her hand where Alekka could see a long chain dangling from her clenched fist. Alekka reached out her hand and Leali dropped the object into her palm. Alekka felt her heart speed up, her chest tighten. Attached to the chain was a single pendant with a large acorn centered over a forest of oak trees in the background—the sigil of Aclay. Leali had worn a matching one for seventeen years. Since the day the Ragers had taken Leali’s mother.
She looked at the bones with new eyes and saw the thousands of women that had been taken from all across Dorine Lillith for all the centuries of Amentis’ existence. This wasn’t an entire city’s worth of bones—it was many cities of bones. It was the lost dreams of husbands and children and mothers and siblings as they were forced to watch their wives and mothers, sisters and daughters chained and led off by monsters. Her gut turned to steel. This, truly, was the reason for her sacrifice—for all of their sacrifices.
Alekka knew that Leali had harbored hope that they would find some of the women alive, be able to set them free, and return them to their families. Had dreamt of finding her own mother. That dream had sustained her, had fueled the fever in her eyes, the energy with which she tackled every day, had been the reason she woke them up in the morning and kept them walking late into the day. That dream was over. That hope was ended. They were dead. Leali’s mother was dead. They were all dead.
She crawled across the earth separating her from Leali and wrapped the other woman in her arms. They sobbed together, grieving one last time for a loss all Dorine Lillith shared with them as Ashier, Tredon, and Micah stood silently on.
Through her sobs, she heard footsteps approaching. For a moment she thought that she could feel Micah’s hand hovering just inches away from her hair, as if to tuck it behind her ear.
[ 28 ]
Magicless had no idea what to do. Leali and Alekka huddled on the ground together, sobbing. He’d almost let his guard down and reached out to touch a strand of Alekka’s hair, but had pulled himself back at the last second. Tredon, a shadow of himself for weeks, seemed to have shut down completely. Even Ashier—reliable Ashier—was on his hands and knees in front of all those bones staring at the ground in front of him and taking long, slow breaths. Magicless felt as if his own spirit had flown from his body, leaving behind a black-and-white version of himself.
He stared at the bleached bones around him, wondering what to do next. Everything was broken. He didn’t know if he had the strength to keep going—how could he get everyone else moving when he himself didn’t have enough strength?
He leaned back against a boulder and dropped his head into his hands, trying desperately to think of what to do. He listened to Ashier’s deep, steady breathing and tried to block out Alekka and Leali’s wracking sobs. He tried to match his breath to Ashier’s and willed himself to focus, to isolate himself from the heartbreak of what they had found, to distance himself enough to think clearly. Images of all the women he’d known over the years who’d been taken kept pushing into his mind, their faces sorrowful, forcing him to wonder if any of the bones scattered around him belonged to any of them. He felt he could hear their voices crying out for vengeance, and it was deafening.
“This must have been the rumble we heard. Looks like that entire wall collapsed.”
“I hope they were through this before it happened. They could be under all that rubble if they weren’t.”
“Don’t say that, Elisa. They are fine. We’d know it if they weren’t, we’d feel it.”
Magicless raised his head at the sound of conversation. The words made sense but the voices didn’t. Was he hearing things? He looked at the others and saw the same surprise on their faces. They’d heard it too.
He heard footsteps approaching and he jumped to his feet. “Jobin? Is that you?” He heard the footsteps stop abruptly, and then two voices rise in excitement.
“Micah? Where are you?” They both spoke at once.
“Over here!” Magicless moved out into the open where they could see him. His momentary excitement at realizing both Elisa and Jobin were alright and rejoining them was extinguished by the thought of the news he had to share.
The two came bounding across the clearing and they both threw their arms around his neck, babbling in excitement. “Where are the others?” Elisa asked after they’d practically hugged the stuffing out of him.
Magicless took each of them by the arm and looked hard into their eyes. Elisa’s widened, and she brought a hand up to her mouth. “What is it?” She whispered, fear plain on her face.
“We are all fine, but we found something. Something…bad.” He led them through the rubble to where the rest of the group huddled. “Look for yourselves.” He motioned toward the bones. “Show them, Alekka.”
“It’s them,” Leali choked. “They are all dead.”
Jobin and Elisa looked at her as if she were a shade, so changed was she from the woman they’d known a short time ago. Jobin approached Alekka and took the chain she held dangling from her hand and Elisa moved to where Magicless had motioned.
“They’re bones. A lot of bones,” Elisa said, scanning the ground around where they stood.
“Bones?” Jobin said sharply, looking at the pendant nestled in his palm.
“What is it?” Elisa said as she moved to him. He handed her the pendant and she stared long at it. “It’s the town’s sigil. Leali wears a...” Her voice trailed off and she looked at Leali, who was still huddled miserably on the ground. Then she looked again at all the bones scattered around, and then into Jobin’s eyes. “It can’t be,” she said.
“It can be, and it is. Whatever he does with them, they end up here,” Tredon said. He walked to Jobin and clasped his forearm. “I am sorry, Jobin. I’m sorry for what I said. I was wrong.” He turned and clasped Elisa’s forearm. “Elisa, your instincts were right. I am sorry I caused you to question them. I am glad you both are back.” Jobin nodded his acceptance of Tredon’s apology.
“What do we do now?” Jobin gave voice to the question on all of their minds. No one answered.
“We keep going, obviously. This changes nothing,” Elisa said.
“Changes nothing? Are you mad? This changes everything!” Leali cried out.
“Leali, I am sorry for your loss, truly I am. All our losses. If I could change it, believe me I would—my sister is most likely among them, remember. But the fact that...the fact that these women ended up here does not make our mission less important. It makes it even more important! Yes, it is too late for these women and I am so sorry for that. But we can still prevent hundreds more, maybe even thousands, from sharing their fate. We keep going.”
Magicless felt the clouds lift from his mind. He’d been so exhausted and so heartsick he’d almost lost sight of the entire reason they were here. Of course they kept going. Of course.
“I can’t. I’m done,” Leali said, face crumpling in on itself once more. “I’m tired. So tired. I can’t do this anymore.”
Elisa knelt in front of her, wiped her tears away with soft touches of her fingertips, and cupped the other woman’s face in her hands. “You can, and you will. Your mother would have wanted it and you know it.” Elisa’s voice was a soft caress.
Leali sobbed into Elisa’s shoulder. After long moments, she looked up, expression shifting. “She would. You are right, Elisa. She would.” She wiped her arm across her face sharply. “We keep going.”
Just then, Magicless heard a rustling sound from somewhere up and to his left, like wind through trees, except there were no trees.
A rock smashed against the boulder beside Magicless’ head and shattered, spraying him with sharp flakes of stone. Immediately, more b
egan smashing all around them. Ashier cried out as one pelted him on the side of his face, leaving a bloodied slash across his right cheek. Magicless clambered to his feet, trying to yank his sword from its sheath as he rose. He darted out from the small shelter of the boulders and ran straight into them.
They had no heads topping their shoulders, and huge mouths with sharp, gnashing teeth gaped from the center of their chests. They wielded primitive weapons; stones and spears made from shaved sticks of wood. They immediately surrounded him, sharp spears pointing at his chest.
With a howl, Magicless swung his sword up and around, knocking their spears aside as he jumped and shoved through them. They followed him with enraged yowls, some not even stabbing but instead using their spears as clubs. They cluttered close to one another, getting in each other’s way, tripping each other up, but their numbers could not be ignored. If enough of them got around him he’d be hard pressed to hold them off for long without taking damage from one of their spears.
He leapt to the top of a small boulder and looked around the clearing. More of the creatures were spilling down from the ledges above following no trail Magicless could see. Many more remained at the cliff top, pelting them with stones large enough and thrown fast enough to knock any one of them unconscious.
Light flashed into the group surrounding him and he saw Ashier standing far behind them, lightning sizzling in his hands and up his arms as he threw bolts at their assailants. Elisa stood at Jobin’s side, her thick hair shifting wildly in the currents created by their magic, arms at her sides and chin down on her chest as she glared at the creatures attacking them, fire surging from both hands. He pitied anyone who went up against her. Jobin was standing with his hands at his sides watching Elisa intently—Magicless wondered briefly if he had realized yet that he was unbound.
