Acolyte's Underworld

by Levi Jacobs

  Marea drew a deep breath and held out her hand. “Give it to me.”

  49

  “What?” Ella asked, drawing back. “Why?”

  The new power tingling in Marea’s fingertips begged to be used. It would be so easy to knock the spear from Ella’s hands.

  You don’t need to explain yourself to her. Or to anyone, once you take it.

  “I don’t want to hurt you, Ella,” Marea said. “But I am going to need the spear.” She stuck a shamanic arm out and began stringing revenants on it.

  “Don’t be stupid. I have a staining god spear in my hands. I’m the one who doesn’t want to hurt you.” She swept the spear back toward the crowd coming up the stairs and a roar of wind rushed down, stopping them halfway up the last tier.

  “Then give me the spear,” Marea said, still stringing revenants. “I’m not as weak as I used to be. And I know more than you do now. A lot more.”

  “Can’t you see Uhallen’s using you?” Ella cried. “He’s just trying to get you to take it because the pact means he can’t take it himself!”

  “What pact?”

  “A pact, that the archrevenants have. They can’t attack each other. That’s why he’s been sending assassins after Tai. And why he sent you after me instead of coming himself!”

  Marea slowed in stringing revenants. Is that true? She asked inside.

  We do have a pact, but think about this Marea. It means I won’t take the spear from you either.

  Marea stumbled back, shattered rock skittering under her feet. You’re an archrevenant? Why didn’t you tell me?

  “You’re talking to him,” Ella said. “I know it. Whatever he’s telling you, it’s lies.”

  Would you have trusted me if you knew? I didn’t tell you because it didn’t matter. I saw potential in you Marea. I still do. And I sent you there this morning because I want you to use it. To join me. To become a god and experience the freedom our power gives.

  Marea mind reeled—Uhallen was an archrevenant. That explained how he could afford to live where he did. How he had seemingly endless power and knowledge. Currents, she’d been living with an archrevenant?

  And now he wanted her to become one?

  “Marea he’s using you! You have to see that.”

  Marea took a deep breath, the desire for that power warring with her dislike of what it meant for her friend.

  She is no friend of yours. Friends don’t condemn and judge. Friends help each other. More thralls appeared, strands floating spider-thin on the breeze. Now go and do this. Then join me.

  Marea took the thralls, the rush of power reassuring in the chaos of her emotions. “Didn’t feel like we were friends after the Downs. Felt like you were talking to a child.”

  “And I am sorry, but I was right! Uhallen is using you!”

  “Or he’s actually treating me like an equal, which you never did. Remember our fight at the teahouse? And what you said to me after Aran? And how you tried to mother me even back at the Yati waystone?”

  Ella stamped her foot. “And I was right all those times! If you’d listened to me Avery never would have come with us!”

  Oh that was too much. A black rage rose up in Marea and she struck out, slamming the revenant string onto Ella’s neck.

  Ella screamed and fell. Marea ran forward, reaching for the spear.

  A solid block of stone rammed her in the stomach, driving her backwards. She slammed against one of the massive pillars, and something broke inside.

  “I swear to the Ascending Gods I don’t want to hurt you,” Ella panted, pushing up. “But if Teynsley gets this spear, we’re all dead.”

  Marea gritted her teeth, believing herself healed in an icy wash of uai. “He’s not trying to get it. The pact, remember?”

  She struck out again, following her revenant attack with a focused blast of air. The spear spun from Ella’s hands.

  Marea ran after it, howling wind that had kept the crowd away suddenly dropping. Ten paces, five, reaching her hand out—

  Ella appeared in a zip of rent air, spear in her hands. “Stop,” she said, winds roaring to life again. “Uhallen is using you. He’s already got you believing his lies. Who knows what other trick he’ll use to get it from you once you take it from me? Or maybe he just wants a puppet.”

  Marea’s saw red. “I’m no one’s puppet,” she growled. And suddenly the vision of what she needed was clear: Ella unconscious on the ground, the roar of power in her ears, the smooth haft of the spear in her grip. Marea slammed a string of revenants home and struck her resonance as she did, willing all the possible futures to condense to the one she wanted.

  Ella fell, spear spinning from her grip. Marea ran as if in a dream and leaned down to pick it up. Her vision was playing out perfectly. Perfect except that Ella was convulsing less than a pace away, screaming her throat raw, that arc of light still twinkling in her stomach.

  Marea hesitated, hand above the spear.

  That is your chance to take control, Marea. This woman is not your friend.

  Still she hesitated, Ella arching her back and thrashing, face red and eyes streaming. Without the spear’s power she could be stuck under the revenant attack for a long time. Was this worth it?

  Forget her. You can find plenty more Ellas once you have your power.

  And suddenly in the maelstrom of her emotions one thing came clear.

  “No,” Marea said. “There’s only one Ella. And she deserves this as much as I do.”

  50

  “Fool,” a voice snarled to Marea’s right.

  She turned, a sudden wind howling, to find Uhallen standing a few paces away on the stone, black kurta billowing.

  “I offered you the power of a god,” he said. No, not Uhallen—this man was sandy-haired and weathered, though the uneven eyes were the same. Teynsley. His name was Teynsley.

  Marea took the spear and shoved it into Ella’s hands, keeping her own grip on it.

  “You showed me the loneliness of a god too,” Marea said, spear’s power roaring into her. “I think I’ll pass.”

  Ella sucked in a breath, eyes opening.

  “Praise the currents,” Marea said, meeting her friend’s eyes. “We should be safe as long as we both hold on to the spear. Unless he decides to break the pact.”

  “I’d like to see him try,” Ella growled, using the spear to get her feet.

  Marea grinned. “I missed you.”

  “I missed you too. Sorry I treated you like a such a scatstain.”

  “Yeah, well,” Marea said, looking down. “I know you were doing it because you care about me.”

  Ella barked a laugh. “Then you’re smarter than I am. My mother treated me like that for years and I never saw the love in it. It took getting pregnant to realize I was doing the same thing. I’m sorry. I won’t question your decisions anymore.”

  “No,” Marea said, “I want you to question them. I’ll just try to not be so sensitive that I storm off instead of admitting when you’re right.”

  Teynsley cleared his throat and Marea spun. She’d almost forgotten the man was there.

  “If you two are done with your tearful reunion? I’ll be taking the spear.”

  “I don’t think so,” Ella said. “Try and all the other archrevenants will come down so fast you won’t know what happened.”

  Teynsley’s fingers twitched, as if looking for a cigar. “Yes but think this through,” he said, smooth voice condescending. “So long as you are both holding the spear then yes, you are both an archrevenant. But do you really want to go through life clinging to the spear? Go to sleep like that? Use the privy like that?”

  Marea looked over at Ella and as if on cue they both giggled. “I mean,” Marea said, “it sounds a lot better than trying to learn to smoke cigars.”

  The man’s face remained impassive. “Sooner or later one of you will slip. A hand will fall off in slumber. A stumble while you are walking. And I will be there, waiting.”

  A spike of ice s
hot through Marea’s giddy relief. “So you’re threatening to kill one of us? Not going to make the surviving one want to give you a spear very badly.”

  “Which is why you should give it to me now,” he said with exaggerated patience. “Then you get to keep each other’s company, which you seem to love so much.”

  Marea shivered. How had she ever trusted this man?

  “Or,” Ella said calmly, “you give us your power instead.”

  51

  Uhallen barked a laugh. “I don’t have a spear. You would have to take my life, and as you’ve said the other gods will not allow it.”

  “Will not allow another god to take a life,” Ella corrected, rage so hot it had turned to ice inside. This was the man behind all her problems. Finally. “But you felt quite comfortable helping Marea take mine. She’s on my side now. So if you’re watching us, we’ll watch you too. And sooner or later you’ll let your guard down. Fall asleep, relax, lose yourself in conversation. And then?”

  Ella summoned uai and belief. An elk kicked her in every square inch of her body, then she and Marea were standing a mere spanswidth from Teynsley.

  He started. Good. Let him see her threats were not idle.

  “And then we will be there,” she said. “And one of us will let go of the spear just long enough to end your life.”

  Uhallen stared at her. “So you think I’m just going to kill myself instead?”

  “I don’t necessarily need you dead,” Ella said, some small part of her amazed at her own audacity. “Stay alive if you want. Keep some thralls even. But give us the bulk of them and we’ll leave you be. Doesn’t that sound nice? Like a relief, after all these years?”

  Teynsley laughed, but Marea shifted beside her.

  “You’re afraid,” the girl said.

  Interesting. The girl should know him well, after all the time they’d spent together.

  “This is foolish. Good luck,” Teynsley said, and vanished in a clap of air.

  Marea stared. “What—how are you traveling like that?”

  “Uai and belief,” Ella said. Time to see how far that belief would go. She summoned the power of the spear and believed her and Marea to be wherever Teynsley had gone. A mule kick later they appeared on the top floor of the archrevenant’s tower.

  Teynsley was there, cigar halfway to his mouth.

  “Oh very good,” he said. “Another thousand years and you might actually be a challenge.”

  “Uai and belief,” Ella said. “And there is no reason we won’t live that long. The difference is we can sleep in shifts. You will have to stay wary day and night. Does that really sound like a life you want to lead?”

  Teynsley opened his mouth and Ella struck resonance through the spear, time slowing to a crawl.

  Marea frowned, staring at the motionless archrevanant. “What happened?”

  “I timeslipped us,” Ella said. “Deep enough that by the time he reacts we will hopefully have made our strategy. Now. All threats aside, I don’t actually want to wage a cold war with this man for the next thousand years.”

  “Agreed,” Marea said. “So—we kill him?”

  Ella swallowed. This was what she’d wanted all along, but…

  “Yes,” she said, resolution firming.

  Marea rolled her shoulders. “Are you sure? I mean, I’m up for it. I’m not letting another backstabber make me look like an idiot. But you—have more people to worry about than I do.” She glanced at Ella’s belly. “And you know all kinds of powerful shamans have tried to kill Teynsley already, and failed.”

  “They didn’t have the power of a god on their side,” Ella said. “Or the kind of reasons we do. You heard him. We either kill him here, or sit around and wait for him to strike. I can’t do that. And it won’t be long before he thinks to start killing our friends to get us to give up the spear.”

  “Not a problem for me,” Marea said. “You’re the only friend I have.”

  Sympathy punched Ella in the gut. She ignored it—no time for that. “You’re right though, we have to use all the advantages we have. One is the pact. Teynsley can’t attack another archrevenant without the rest of them killing him, so as long as we’re holding the spear we should be protected.”

  “But we’ll have to let go to attack him, or the same thing will happen to us.”

  “Yes,” Ella said, mind spinning through the implications. “One of us. The other one will back her up with the spear’s power. Another advantage is that with two of us, he won’t know who’s going to let go until the moment we do.”

  “We won’t either,” Marea said, gumming a strand of her hair. “If we try to talk or think it out he’s going to hear it.”

  “Then we’ll just have to trust each other,” Ella said, meeting her eyes.

  The girl swallowed. “And you trust me, after what I just did?”

  For answer Ella swung the far end of the spear into her hands. “With my life.”

  “Touching.” Teynsley said, mouth moving in a frozen body. “Meanwhile, a most pleasant thought occurred to me: I can’t attack another archrevenant, but there’s no rule about attacking spears.”

  He blurred and the spear ripped from Ella’s grip, leaving her exposed to the wrath of a god.

  52

  Marea stumbled back, spear in her hand. She had just enough time to put two things together: without the spear Ella was exposed. And Teynsley was in a deeper slip than theirs.

  Too bad he’d taught her his tricks. Tempest of uai raging through her, Marea believed herself faster than Teynsley. The air condensed to solid rock around her, but she didn’t need to move—what she needed was a moment to think. Teynsley unblurred at the far end of the circular space where they had so often practiced, a strange four-pronged bow already bent and aimed for Ella’s throat.

  An idea came to her, and Marea believed the spear longer than it was. The wood stretched, shooting across the open space to butt into Ella. Making her an archrevenant again.

  “Ha!” Marea tried to call, but the air was stone in her mouth.

  She loosened time and the archrevenant cursed. His arrow puffed to dust a pace from Ella, who shivered into life as the spear’s power found her and she slipped deeper.

  “It’s finally a fair fight, Uhallen,” Marea called. “Whatever you can do I can imagine a solution to just as quickly.”

  “Can you?” the man asked, and in a chorus of explosions the pillars holding up the tower’s heavy stone shot outward. The giant cupola crashed downward.

  Animal fear struck Marea, but before she could react the vaulted stone cap split into the cut stones making it up, each of them changing course to fly outwards instead of down.

  “Got it!” Ella cried from the far end of the spear. “Uai and belief, right? Go, I’ll cover you!”

  Did she mean it, or was that a ruse for Teynsley so Ella could strike?

  No way to tell or time to think—she would have to trust. Marea ran toward Teynsley, still holding to the spear as if she were going to let go at the last second and attack him.

  At the other end Ella ran too, stones still exploding upward in slowed time above them, lit by the morning sun. Marea believed a sword into her hand, for effect, just as a stone wall appeared around Teynsley. A stone shot from it toward the five-pace-long spear.

  The spear would get knocked from their hands—if it stayed its current size or shape. Power raging through her, Marea imagined it made of the elastic hygen root fishermen used for their nets. It changed in her hand just as the stone struck, bowing backwards rather than tearing from their grasp.

  At the same time, Teynsley’s wall exploded inward on him—that had to be Ella. The woman released her end of the spear and zipped toward the archrevenant.

  A clap echoed from the exploding roof above. Ella cursed in a voice timeshifted comically high. She reappeared holding the end of the spear-rope. “He travelled,” she said. “Ready?”

  Before Marea could answer a herd of elk trampled her and they were
standing on open water, Teynsley a few paces away, sun low in a sky full of clouds.

  Marea shrieked.

  “You’re safe, dear,” Teynsley said. “We are slipped so deeply most surfaces are hard as rock. Now stop this nonsense and join me.”

  “So I can go kill my friends?” Marea said, keeping a firm grip on the rope. “Never.”

  “They are not your friends,” Teynsley said, stepping slightly to one side as his feet sank.

  “Why didn’t you kill us when you had the chance?” Ella cut in, panting at the far end of the spear-rope.

  “Because it is what you would expect an archrevenant to do,” Teynsley said. “And because I never waste a pawn without reason. You, Ella, I knew were a longshot to go after Tai, whom I assumed had already thralled the spear like any reasonable human. But you, Marea.” He turned to her. “You have true potential. And you know you cannot defeat me in open battle.”

  “Probably not,” Marea said. “Good thing I don’t have to do it alone.”

  They ran for him again, shoes slapping strangely on the almost-hard water. An immense pair of axes appeared in Ella’s hands and Marea frowned. That was good, but it was still thinking in terms of regular limits. And this power had no limits.

  Marea imagined an eight-pace-long sword reaching from her free hand to just below the apple in Teynsley’s neck. She dropped the spear just as momentum rammed the sword in.

  Teynsley laughed, blood bubbling from his mouth. The sword shattered. The wound healed.

  “You see the futility of this, right?” Teynsley asked, brushing aside Ella’s attack. Marea grabbed the free end of the spear-rope. “We can kill each other for days with this kind of power. Trust me, I’ve done it.”

  Another thunderclap and he was gone.

  Marea stared, dismay welling up.

  “Marea!” Ella called. “You ready?”

  “I’m—not sure we can do this,” she said, hating how weak her voice sounded. “He’s a god, Ella.”

  Ella snorted. “We’re gods. Goddesses, I mean. Did you see what we just did? We’re as divine as he is—Teynsley’s still just a man under all his power. And he wouldn’t be running from us if he wasn’t afraid of something.”