Child of Sorrows

by Michaelbrent Collings

  GODS

  15

  Sword felt like she was swimming in a circular pool. Going around and around and not getting anywhere at all, just becoming a bit more exhausted with every turn.

  "We can't move faster. Either we keep the beauracracy intact, and we move slowly, or we get rid of the whole thing and watch the Empire fall into utter chaos."

  For what felt like the millionth time, Tiawan crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. He added a snort this time, so at least there was a small bit of difference – for which Sword was oddly grateful.

  "And I already told you: let chaos come. It couldn't be worse than this." Tiawan gestured at the people all around, still preparing for the voluntary return to a city that had been their prison.

  His chair belched black smoke again. It hadn't stopped since they landed in the camp, though Sword wasn't sure if he even noticed it. The dark smoke rolled over him, billowing out and down in a cloud that engulfed him for a moment before blowing away on the hot breeze that swept the volcanic plains of Fear.

  Tiawan must have grown tired of the round-and-round nature of their talk, as well. He coughed and finally acknowledged the smoke, waving a hand through it and cursing when it failed to dispel fast enough. "La'ug!" he shouted.

  The girl materialized in only a moment. "Yes, Tee?" she said.

  "Where's Wahy?"

  La'ug pointed toward a pair of carts. Wahy was there, loading two huge baskets into them – baskets that were each as large as he and looked to weigh at least as much. But he didn't even seem to strain, just lifted and shoved them into place.

  "Get him," said Tiawan. La'ug ran to the cart, and Tiawan waited for her to return with the giant man. Then he turned and began pulling at his chair.

  No one spoke, and for a moment Sword wondered why he had called the other two over. Then she realized why, in the same moment that Tiawan saw her looking at them all.

  "You think I'm going to leave myself helpless in front of you?" He shook his head. "Not even if you are Judge and Jury. I'm not stupid." With a grunt, he pulled the back of his chair apart. The sound of gears turning and fires being stoked died instantly, and though the wheels of the chair didn't move at all, they seemed somehow more inert than they had been. The chair – and the armor it could become – were disabled.

  Tiawan turned back to her, holding a gear and a piece of machinery that Sword couldn't identify. Both were blackened and twisted, and the machinery had a smoking hole in one part of it.

  Tiawan eyed her almost admiringly. "Didn't even think that was possible."

  "What?"

  "For someone to breach my work." He put the machinery on his lap, then grabbed hold of the gear, and it seemed to suddenly lose its strength. To become not hard, strong metal, but some soft material as pliant as potter's clay. He worked it between his fingers, shaping it into a formless sphere, then back to the original gear – only now without the bent teeth. There were still blackened patches, but they no longer seemed to matter, more decorative than anything that would harm the strength of the piece.

  He put the gear back into its place in the chair behind him. Then took up the bit of machinery and started to disassemble it, the metal again turning soft as tallow beneath his fingers.

  Sword had been arguing with him through the night. Telling him to give the new regime time, receiving only taciturn statements to the effect that time only brought slow pain. And so why not get it over at once? Destroy the Emperor – no matter whether it be the real one or an impostor placed there by the Cursed Ones – and let the people of Ansborn sort themselves out.

  She told him – told him again and again – that that amounted to murder on a massive scale. "The people have nowhere to run to, nowhere to flee the wars that would come. We have to be careful, we have to be –"

  "Cowards," he spat – spat again and again – and so they went, around and around.

  Now, watching him work the metal with bare fingers in a way impossible to all but a few, she tried another tack.

  Machine pieces lay across Tiawan's lap in precisely-ordered patterns, ready to be put back together. Sword moved a bit closer to him, straining to look. La'ug took hold of Wahy's wrist, her fingernails hooked into his flesh, ready to turn him into a berserker. She also held out the woolly she held.

  Sword rolled her eyes. "Gods, girl, I'm not going to do anything. Not yet."

  Tiawan looked at her now, a long, calculating moment.

  "I just want to see," said Sword. She gestured at the tiny parts. "I've never seen anything like that. Amazing." She added the last on impulse.

  It worked. Tiawan, it seemed, was no more immune to flattery than were most. He nodded at La'ug, who stepped back – reluctantly. But not too far. And she kept her hand clamped on Wahy's huge wrist. For his part, the big man just grinned emptily and reached over to pet La'ug's woolly.

  Sword moved a tiny bit closer. "You're a Smith," she said. Then, looking at Wahy, she said, "And a Strong." She switched her gaze to La'ug and, looking at the woolly in the girl's hands, she said, "And a Critter."

  The last was purely a guess. She hadn't seen La'ug actually talk to the woolly, but there was a definite connection between them, and certainly the small creature acted like it understood the girl's unspoken requests.

  Tiawan revealed nothing. His face was a mask as he continued pulling the machinery apart, then began carefully putting it back together again. And of course, Wahy's own expression was just as blank – though more cheerful.

  La'ug, though…. The girl was careful, but still young. When Sword called out each of the Gifts, her gaze flickered. Surprise replaced the anger in her expression, if only for an instant. And when Sword called her a Critter, that surprise nearly gave way to shock.

  Sword looked back at Tiawan. He put the finishing touches on his work, then replaced the machinery in a slot in the back of his chair. There was a whoosh! and the rumble of perfectly-calibrated gears, and Sword knew the warrior had been reborn.

  Tiawan looked back at her. Saw that she knew she had guessed correctly, and shrugged. "Yes," he said. He waited.

  "But how is that possible?" she asked. "How do you have more than one Gift? How can she be a Critter and also change to that… thing?" La'ug bridled at that, but Sword ignored her, turning to Wahy. "How can he be a Strong and also turn into the killer I saw at the palace?" She returned her gaze to Tiawan. "At least what you do makes sense: you're still working with fire and air and metal – though I've never seen a Smith that does anything close to what you can."

  Tiawan shrugged again. "No," he said. "There is no Smith like me. Nor a Critter like La'ug nor another Strong like Wahy. We are…." He paused, feeling for a word. "A man once called us unique."

  She wondered who that man was. Thought about asking, but instead she pointed at his chest. She was going to say, "It's that, isn't it? That's what makes you 'unique'?" about whatever it was that she had seen glowing there.

  She didn't have the chance.

  As soon as her finger moved toward him, Tiawan jerked back. The chair slammed and shifted, encasing him in metal and turning him from a chair-bound cripple to a towering warrior of fire and steel.

  La'ug moved, too. She threw the woolly in the air, then there was a golden glow and a flash of color and Sword found herself facing not just the armored warrior but the panting beast that La'ug had become. Its many-jointed limbs shifted anxiously, and its mouth opened wide enough to bite a grown man in half.

  Wahy didn't move, other than to blink and look a bit confused. Whether because she had taken Tiawan's earlier warning about other people in the camp being harmed to heart, or because she had just moved too fast to spill his blood, the man-child remained himself – unbroken, unbleeding, unchanged.

  The woolly creature, though, stepped toward Sword, rage blazing from eyes trapped halfway between human and animal.

  She ignored it. Looked beyond it, to Tiawan's hulking form. She was peripherally aware of movement all around her:
the people of the makeshift camp. Half of them moving to help with whatever weapons they had, the other half fleeing as fast as they could.

  Sword didn't want bloodshed. Not here. Not now.

  And especially not mine.

  "I wasn't going to hurt you," she said to Tiawan. "I'm just trying to understand."

  The woolly creature growled, a deep, throaty growl of rage and bloodlust.

  Sword kept pretending La'ug – what had been La'ug – was not there. Only she and Tiawan had any chance of changing the course that had been set, so only she and Tiawan existed in this moment. "You are unique," she said. "You and your family," she said, using the term he had used earlier, though she did not know if they were actual family or merely family in a cause, "have great power. And you could use it to help us. To help everyone. Come, see what we're doing. Decide after you know all there is, instead of just the small piece you've seen."

  The woolly creature took one more step. Close enough that Sword could feel its hot breath on her.

  Sword concentrated on not calling forth her weapons. She looked at Tiawan. "Please," she said. "I ask only for you to know what is happening, rather than what you think is happening. Meet the people who now surround the Emperor. Meet the Cursed Ones."

  A clawed hand raised. Ready to drop on her, slash her to bits. Wahy laughed and clapped, not understanding what was happening but excited by it.

  The creature's clawed hand dropped. It was huge, the size of Sword's head. It slashed through the air, a downward arc that would tear out her throat.

  Sword didn't shy away. Didn't dodge.

  But the clawed hand didn't reach her. It stopped only a few inches away from her throat, hanging in mid-air, impaled by the glowing weapon Sword held. It was a dagger, but with an extra-large handguard that served to block the crushing attack of the creature's hand. The thing howled.

  "I don't want to fight you," Sword said through gritted teeth. Then she grinned tightly and added, "But I don't have to let you kill me, either." She flicked her wrist and drove the dagger down. It lengthened into something like a lance as she did, the blade extending in an arcing line of flame that stabbed deep into the dark, rocky earth, effectively nailing the creature's hand to the ground.

  The woolly creature screamed, a roar so loud that it hurt Sword's ears. She heard Wahy scream as well, the man-child afraid of the noise and the sight of his playmate hurt. He moved toward them, and Sword tensed, worried that she might have to brace all three of them at once.

  I couldn't beat one of them before. How am I to survive this?

  The woolly creature screeched and lurched back and forth, trying to loose itself from the bond Sword had fashioned. The spike of light held, but Sword could see the rock itself grinding to pieces, and knew the creature wouldn't remain captive much longer.

  Only Tiawan remained motionless, his helm oriented on her but nothing of his features or expression visible behind the metal.

  Wahy ran forward….

  La'ug – what had been La'ug – rocked back and forth, and the rock splintered apart….

  Tiawan's helm snapped open, disappearing into the back of the suit. "Stop," he said. Then, louder, "Stop!"

  Wahy skidded to a halt only a few inches behind Sword. La'ug stopped roaring just as suddenly, then swayed on her padded feet as though suddenly drunk. Something under the fur of the creature – just over where its heart should be – glowed yellow. Sword saw a yellow glow under Tiawan's chin, as well: the light at his chest illuminating upward through the cracks and crevices to escape at the neck of his suit of armor.

  What is that?

  Tiawan put a hand on La'ug's shoulder. The giant thing shivered and snarled, but still did not move. The yellow glow at its breast increased. "Don't, child." He looked at Sword. "Will you release her?"

  "Can she keep her temper?"

  Tiawan smiled as though she had just told a clever joke. "Little girls," he murmured, but there was no malice that Sword could hear. If anything, she seemed to have impressed him with her ability to face a challenge without overreacting.

  I wonder how respectful he would be if he knew how close I was to wetting myself right now.

  She concentrated on keeping her face neutral. On looking like neither predator nor prey. Just an equal.

  Tiawan put a huge, metal hand on La'ug's shoulder. He whispered into her ear. As he did, the yellow glow disappeared from within his armor, and the glow died on her chest, as well.

  Sword thought she saw something there, shifting under the fur. Just a glimpse, just an instant.

  A jewel?

  Impossible. What she saw was easily the size of a man's fist. And though such a thing could have been hung from a sturdy chain, then it would have bounced and shifted with every movement of the wearer. What she saw on La'ug's chest was stationary. And the only way for that to be possible was –

  "You may free her now," said Tiawan.

  Sword didn't move. She kept a tight grip on the hilt of the lance/dagger/spike that had La'ug pinned. The creature growled, and the blood flowing from her wound hissed and spat as it flowed down the flaming length of the weapon.

  Sword concentrated, and the weapon cooled. But she still didn't release her grip. Just stared evenly at Tiawan.

  He looked irritated for a moment, then took a small step back and added, "Please."

  It was what she had been waiting for: a sign that he regarded her as she was trying to regard him: not as something less or more, but as an equal.

  "Of course, Master Tiawan." The trail of light disappeared instantly. La'ug growled, her skull splitting apart to show a mouth too wide to be possible, crammed tight with too many teeth to be real. But she didn't move toward Sword, just pulled her wounded hand to herself and began licking it.

  Sword thought the grooming was unnecessary: as far as she could see, the wound disappeared almost the instant she released her hold on La'ug.

  How can these people be stopped?

  As she watched, La'ug shifted – not just her stance, but her form. She shrunk, and where she had been holding her wounded hand in the other, now she held a woolly in the hand of a girl.

  She was back as she had been. Only angrier-seeming, if that were possible. But she made no further move to attack, contenting herself with stroking the woolly, murmuring to it in a voice so low that Sword could make out no words – only a wrathful tone.

  Probably saying, "We'll murder her later, my pretty."

  Tiawan looked over Sword's shoulder. She glanced there as well, to see Wahy. The last vestiges of that same yellow glow disappeared from below his shirt, leaving him standing quiet and content. His friend was no longer hurt, no one was shouting, and apparently that was enough for him to live a happy life.

  He grinned and waved broadly when he saw Sword look at him. The smile and wave of a child hailing someone a league down the road. Sword was hard-pressed not to grin herself, his joy was so obvious and infectious.

  She turned back to Tiawan. He looked at her, saying nothing, waiting for her to speak. She hoped that was a good sign.

  "I don't want to fight you. I don't want you to fight me," she said.

  "You couldn't win," said Tiawan.

  She nodded. "Probably not. But other people might be hurt. And who knows?" A dagger flared into life in each hand, and she flipped them end-over-end into the air, catching each by the hilt again and then clenching her fists as they puffed out of existence. "I might get lucky."

  Tiawan nodded gravely. "Just so." His great, iron arms crossed. "What do you want, then?"

  "I've already told you. I want to keep helping. I want you to help." She gestured around. The people at this makeshift camp had finally finished their meager preparations. They began moving, urged forward by several men and women who seemed to be in charge – though whether they had taken that role themselves or been given it by Tiawan, she could not say. "You say you want them to have their own lives, their own choice. Fine. But make it the best choice. Don't just turn
them loose, to fight and live or die in a world where war covers all, and there is nowhere to go, nowhere to hide or to find anything better." She flushed, her words coming as hot and fast as any weapon she had ever wielded. "I was a Dog. I know what it is to be at the mercy of others. But I was a Dog, and that means I also know what it is to live in a world where only the strong survive, and the weak are trampled without thought." She exhaled, the strength suddenly going out of her.

  How long has it been since I slept?

  "You want to give them a life?" she asked. "That is well. You want to make sure no one else suffers as your family has? That, too, is well." She lifted her gaze to look Tiawan as squarely in the eye as she could. "But if you truly care about what they want, about their choice, then give them what they want, let them choose. Don't give them what you think they should have. Don't give them what you have decided they need." She pointed at a small group nearby: a man and a woman who were helping a pair of old ladies pick their way slowly over the rocks. "Do you think people like that would rather the Empire implode? Do you think they will accept a sudden death at the hands of would-be tyrants vying for power… because at least then they 'died as free people'?" She paused, then shrugged. "Perhaps they would. But would they prefer that to a chance at a better, peaceful future – even if it meant they had to wait longer for it?"

  The last words hung in the air. Sword felt exhausted.

  "'Almost thou persuadest me,'" murmured Tiawan.

  Sword allowed herself a small smile. "I love that quote," she said. The smile melted away. "But I never even knew the Gods' Book existed until a few months ago. Dogs are not permitted to read such things – to read anything. And would I have died to have the chance to escape? Yes. Yes. But I am glad I did not. I am glad I lived. I suffered longer, but now enjoy much more." A final breath, and she added, "Let these people have the same chance."

  The people still moved around them. Wahy stepped past Sword to join La'ug, swinging her up to his shoulder and laughing as he did. The woolly hissed and scampered up to La'ug's shoulder.