Gathering Voices

by Kris Humphrey

  Time stretched. Mika scanned the gardens and the mansion as best she could. At every breath she willed Jen to emerge with the precious supplies so they could get going, back to the safety of the basement.

  There was a burst of noise on the opposite side of the garden and Mika swung her gaze away from Zabeh. A large gang of crows flapped skywards from a grove of trees. Their raucous shrieks were like a riot in the quiet of the garden. Mika searched the trees for what had frightened the birds into flight, but she felt nothing.

  It was then she heard Guran’s sharp intake of breath. Mika turned back to the cellar hatch. Zabeh had drawn her sword.

  Mika followed her friend’s gaze, out toward the rockery just a few paces from the hatch. She felt it then, a darting movement, a cold, sickening touch at the edge of her mind.

  Mika cried aloud as the demon broke cover, its grey eyes glowing in the stolen face of a smart, portly man.

  Guran was already running. Yukio unleashed an arrow, which barely missed Guran as it arced across the garden. The demon leaped at Zabeh just as the arrow hit with a horrible thump.

  But the demon barely faltered. It fell upon Zabeh, knocking her sword away and pushing her into the dirt.

  Guran howled a battle cry and swung his spear. He collided with the demon, slashing with fearless strength.

  Mika stood, fixed to the spot. She had to banish the demon, but when she tried to enter the earth trance it slipped her grasp. The trance required calm, an all-encompassing connection to the earth that was tricky to maintain. Mika was too scared, too shocked by what was happening to concentrate.

  Zabeh was on the ground, unmoving.

  The Narlaw dealt a savage blow and Guran flew back. His spear clattered away as he landed. The demon looked up then, grey eyes meeting Mika’s from across the garden. Another arrow flew and the Narlaw ducked away.

  Mika closed her eyes. She remembered Astor and their long days of training together. She brought calm into her mind and reached down into the living soil. The earth trance came. A tide of warmth filled her mind and body – the earth’s power, a tiny fraction of it. Mika knew what she had to do next.

  She reached out to embrace the demon, but its presence touched her like poison and her concentration faltered. For an instant she felt the demon’s fear. It knew she was a Whisperer, that she could send it back to the Darklands. But Mika’s sense of calm was broken. She struggled desperately to maintain the trance. She had to do this. Zabeh needed her.

  Mika cried out in pure frustration as the earth trance slipped away completely. She opened her eyes and saw Zabeh on the ground, the three warriors climbing to their feet as the demon fled from the garden in an unnatural blur of limbs.

  Mika ran across the garden and dropped to her knees beside her friend. Star arrived at her side an instant later.

  Is she all right? asked Star.

  Mika couldn’t speak. She couldn’t even whisper.

  Zabeh’s eyes were closed. She was lost in the ghost-sleep.

  They hurried back to their basement hiding place. Mika led the way, her mind racing with disbelief and guilt. Why hadn’t she spotted the demon? Why couldn’t she have banished it when she had the chance? Yukio carried Zabeh over his shoulder and Guran and Jen struggled behind them with two sacks of rice each. Guran was badly winded and limping from the fight.

  Once they were inside the grand house where they had taken shelter, Guran gave the secret knock on the basement door and they were let back in. Yukio lay Zabeh gently on to a bedroll and Mika immediately kneeled at her side.

  She clenched her eyes shut against the tears, her failure stinging in her chest. She felt a sudden fury at the demons. What right did they have to take her friend from her?

  Star brushed up against her. Mika, she whispered. It’s not your fault.

  It is my fault, said Mika. I didn’t protect her. I didn’t banish the demon. It was the only thing I had to do and I didn’t do it.

  She reached out to Zabeh with her Whisperer sense, delving to feel the far-away glimmer of her friend’s life. The dark of the ghost-sleep blocked her way. Zabeh was still there, but Mika could barely feel her at all. She knew it would do no good, but she reached down toward Zabeh again and again, each time letting her anger drive her as she clashed against the sickening demon presence that was holding Zabeh under its spell.

  She pushed again, harder, more desperate than before. Her senses recoiled, and she felt Star shudder beside her as the sickness spiked across the bond between them. But Mika kept going, punishing herself for having let this happen and wishing beyond anything she had ever wished for that Zabeh would return to her.

  Please, said Star. You can’t do anything now. We have to find the demon that did this and banish it. That’s the only way.

  Find the demon? Mika whispered. How do we find one demon in a city of thousands? How do we banish it when I don’t even know how?

  Frustration boiled through Mika as she threw herself at the wall in her friend’s mind. It was almost more than she could stand. But as she reached desperately for Zabeh she felt new sensations there – thread-like textures, sticky and yet tough, like spider silk. She flinched once again, but an idea had lit in her mind. She breathed deeply and slowly, letting calm settle over her. Then she entered the earth trance and the basement melted away around her. She no longer felt or heard Star, instead directing everything she had at the barrier between her and Zabeh.

  She reached further and further, until the weave of the demon’s binding became clear. Her trance had become deep now, and she felt the power of the earth swell through her. Mika grasped a strand of the binding as she had been taught to grasp a demon’s presence during banishment. It snapped instantly.

  Again and again she grasped and tore away at the binding, fighting her way into the sickening dark. In her head she chanted Zabeh’s name, begging the earth for greater power, channelling it against the demon’s evil.

  She burrowed, destroyed and cleansed. The need to save her friend gave Mika more power than she ever knew she had. Finally a flicker of warmth appeared – Zabeh was within reach.

  “Zabeh,” she murmured aloud.

  She could feel the threads of the demon’s power coiling around her, sticking to her as she was freeing Zabeh of them. This was dangerous, but the realization couldn’t stop her. She struck at the binding, tearing at it shred by shred. It was a never-ending web covering and confusing everything.

  As Mika fought against the demon’s power, she began to tire. She’d never maintained a trance for so long before, or with such intensity. She felt dizzy and weak, but she kept up her attack, and the web of ghost-sleep slowly dissolved before her.

  As Zabeh’s presence grew stronger, Mika drew strength from it. But then her head began to spin and a cry flew from her lips.

  Her eyes snapped open and the room swung around her. The floor leaped up and struck her painfully. For an instant Star’s face was close to hers.

  Mika blinked and tried to speak, but everything faded to black.

  When Mika woke it seemed like hours had passed, but from the commotion around her she knew her faint hadn’t lasted long. Guran crouched over her, a disbelieving grin lighting his tired face.

  “Mika,” he called. “Mika. Look what you did.”

  Mika sat up. Her head swam as she turned. She felt Star’s damp nose on her cheek, followed by the roughness of her tongue.

  You did it! said Star. You brought her back!

  Mika stared into her companion’s eyes and felt Star’s pride surge across the bond.

  What do you mean? asked Mika.

  Then she looked past Star and saw Zabeh – eyes open, awake, alive.

  Mika wrapped her arms around Zabeh and held her tightly.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I should have sensed that demon. I should have banished it…” She cried into Zabeh’s collar.

  Zabeh hugged her back weakly. “It’s all right,” she murmured. “You brought me back.”

&nb
sp; Mika pulled away and stared at her friend. Only now did the importance of what she’d done become clear. She had reversed the ghost-sleep. She had broken through the Narlaw’s evil.

  She could feel Star sending her encouragement through their bond, to counter the enormity of what she had just done. Mika reached out and found the soft fur of her companion’s back.

  Around the room Guran and his warriors looked on with an uneasy quiet.

  Can you do it again? asked Star. Can you wake Astor and the others?

  I don’t know, said Mika. She shivered, remembering the horrifying tangle of Narlaw threads that had almost trapped her in the ghost-sleep with Zabeh. She had been lucky, and a part of her wanted to just forget the whole experience and enjoy the fact that Zabeh was back with her. But Star was right. Astor and the others were still deep in the ghost-sleep. She had to try again.

  Suri, Astor’s goat companion, paced between the beds of the sleepers, her hooves tapping against the stone in an anxious, irregular rhythm. A single storm lamp hung from a hook on the stone ceiling, casting a ring of golden light. Mika stood over Astor with Star by her side. Her body tingled with a mixture of excitement and fear. What if she couldn’t free Astor from the ghost-sleep? What if she did it wrong and became trapped in the darkness with her mentor?

  Do you need more rest? asked Star. Maybe you should wait a while before you try this again?

  Mika shook her head. I’m fine, she said. I can handle it.

  But she didn’t know for sure. She still felt weak after waking Zabeh. The relief at reviving her friend had been glorious, but it was also strange and terrifying to know she was capable of such powerful channelling, as if right up until that moment, she’d been unaware of who she really was.

  And now she had to do it all over again.

  Zabeh had suggested they set out for Meridar right away, but Mika disagreed. What use was sharing this discovery if she couldn’t repeat it?

  No. She needed to be thorough and learn the method first. This was her way, and, as Star often reminded her, she could be as stubborn as a boulder in a blizzard.

  Mika stared into Astor’s sleeping face and then took in her thick woollen coat. It was colourfully embroidered like Mika’s, but where Mika’s coat had just one wind icon stitched to its cuff, Astor’s was adorned with all four. She was a skilled channeller, able to draw great power from the chaotic, swirling winds.

  Star leaped gently on to the foot of Astor’s bed and peered up at Mika. So where do we begin? she asked.

  Mika pushed her uncertainties aside and thought back to what she had done with Zabeh. The sleep is maintained through some kind of binding, she said. It seemed like nothing but darkness at first, but when I reached deeper toward Zabeh I found the darkness was actually made up of lots of individual threads.

  And you broke through? asked Star.

  The threads were tough, said Mika. Sticky like a spider’s web and woven tightly together. The sickness came on quickly, too. I dropped into the earth trance, but with Zabeh, I think it was my anger and guilt that carried me through.

  Star pressed her thick fur against Mika’s hands and nuzzled her. Then you have to get furious again, she said.

  Mika ran her hand down Star’s back and over the flick of her tail. She wanted to be furious, but all she felt was fear.

  She closed her eyes, placed her hands flat on the edge of the bed and reached into the vast dark of the ghost-sleep. Suri grunted in agitation behind her and Mika steadied herself against the dizzying touch of the demon’s binding.

  Star whispered a wordless reassurance across the bond and Mika focused, pushing down toward that faintest of glimmers – Astor’s living presence. She had reached for Astor like this every day since her mentor had been lost to the ghost-sleep. Now it was time to go further. But the moment Mika pushed at the binding, the sickness overwhelmed her and she stepped back from the bed.

  What is it? Star asked.

  Mika shook her head. The binding feels stronger than it did on Zabeh.

  You’re still weak from the last time, said Star.

  This was true, and the power of Mika’s emotions had shielded her against the worst of the demon sickness before. So what should she do now that she was approaching with a clear mind? Zabeh’s fall had been so sudden and upsetting – and Mika had blamed herself for not sensing the demon in time. To recreate such a potent blend of emotions didn’t seem possible.

  If only we could carry her to a wind shrine, Mika said. I could channel their strength.

  You’ve done it once without the winds, said Star. You can do it again. I know you can.

  Mika placed one hand on Astor’s forehead and one on her shoulder. Then she readied herself for the earth trance. Mika tried to pretend that she was back in the rooms she shared with Astor, embarking on another lesson under her mentor’s watchful eye. She felt calmness flow into her and the trance engulfed her.

  Battling the urge to turn back, Mika pushed and pushed, carrying herself into the smothering void of the ghost-sleep.

  She felt the threads of the demon’s binding and set about her task. The fury she had felt that morning was rekindled. How dare the Narlaw take her mentor from her? How dare they use these people for their own evil ends?

  The heat of Mika’s anger surged, dissolving the first clutch of threads as if they were nothing but frost to a flame. Mika struck again and again with her mind, snapping and unravelling, feeling the warmth of Astor’s being grow ever so slowly closer.

  As she worked, the threads became denser and more difficult to break. Mika found herself suddenly unmoving. She could push no further and, with a sinking feeling, she realized she had no sense of how to find her way out of the trance. Then fear took hold of her completely. What if she was trapped in here? Lost like Astor?

  That panic was the final edge she needed. She let out a cry of fear, which gave her a sudden surge of energy, propelling her deeper into the dark tangle of the demon’s binding.

  Astor was close now. Her presence shone like a full moon behind the clouds. With a ferocious effort, Mika tore through the last of the bindings. Astor broke free, engulfing Mika with feelings of shock and relief. Her presence grew until it filled the room.

  Mika drew back, her eyes snapping open. She would have fallen again if Suri hadn’t been there to steady her with a firm nudge of her horns. Mika lowered herself to the floor, unable to speak, and Star jumped down to be beside her, her tail swishing nervously.

  Suri stamped her hooves and her joyful braying echoed loudly around the chamber.

  Mika sat on the cold stone floor and let Star nuzzle into her. Her pride was like a warm glow inside her.

  Astor perched on the edge of the bed, eating a rice cake Mika had brought her and scratching Suri’s chin. The storm lamp flickered gently where it hung on the roof beam. Mika noted that Astor seemed frail. She had returned to them, but the ghost-sleep had taken its toll.

  “We should climb to the wind shrine on Bone Hill,” Astor said. “I can replenish my strength there.”

  Mika took a deep breath before answering. She doubted Astor could make it to the top of Bone Hill right now, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell her mentor that. And anyway, there was worse news she had to break. “We can’t get to the shrine,” she said. “The whole city has fallen to the Narlaw.”

  “In seven days the city has fallen?” Astor frowned with disbelief and Mika detected a familiar edge of disappointment in her mentor’s voice. “There are no militia left?”

  “Only the ones in this basement,” said Mika.

  Astor stared around at the three sleeping warriors on their bunks. “Then we must revive as many as we can.” She gave Mika a serious look, which seemed to be part interrogation and part pride. “It’s a powerful thing you’ve discovered. Can you show me how it’s done?”

  For the remainder of that day Mika and Astor studied Mika’s new technique. Mika delved for the hidden minds of the three ghost-sleeping soldiers and Astor wat
ched over her, too fragile to risk attacking the demon bindings herself. One by one, Mika raised the warriors back into the waking world.

  Each time it happened slightly differently, but by the end, Mika was certain it would work for anyone.

  The warriors next door noisily welcomed their fallen comrades and Mika sat with Astor, drained of energy, but thrilled with their progress. They were all but alone now; Star was in the adjoining room, eating, and Suri had fallen asleep on the flagstones at Astor’s feet.

  “You’ve done well to survive here so long,” Astor said. “It can’t have been easy.” Mika blushed at the praise. Astor was usually such a strict, demanding teacher. “But you must do more now,” Astor told her. “You must carry this wisdom of yours to the capital.”

  “Yes,” said Mika, though the thought of trying to get beyond the city filled her with dread.

  “Remember,” Astor said. “There are still warriors left and we know this city better than any demon. A young one like yourself will find a way.”

  “And you?” asked Mika. “Will you come, too?”

  “I’ll try.” She smiled and let her eyes rest on the slumbering form of her companion.

  Mika nodded, staring at the floor. She couldn’t leave Astor behind. This was part of the reason she hadn’t wanted to leave before now. She could never have left her mentor in the ghost-sleep, hidden in this cellar with demons stalking all around.

  “One more observation,” said Astor. “Something you may not have noticed while you were freeing me.” She narrowed her eyes. “When you released me from the demon’s binding, I felt another sensation – one unlike anything I’ve felt during the act of banishment.” She stared into Mika’s eyes, waiting for her understanding to blossom.

  “But the demon was banished, no?” Mika said.

  Astor tilted her head. “More than that,” she said. “I felt a purity in the earth as I woke, as if the demon had been cast even further away – beyond the earth.”