Kjexx took him by the upper arm and pulled him away from Astrex.
“You don’t understand,” he said, leaning in. “Either she passes or she dies. We have faithfully tested anyone with potential since our ancestors gave us the creed.”
“Has anyone passed?” Rusk asked.
Kjexx looked away.
“Do you think we’d be looking so hard if they had?” Astrex asked.
She jabbed a hand at Axrun’s projection and everything faded to black for me again.
Chapter Nine: Snake Bite
THIS TIME I AWOKE in a place that looked like home. I was along a river in a dry wilderness. The sun was close to setting and a nightendahl sang in the trees.
“Nice place,” An’alepp said. She looked over her shoulder with wary caution, hunching in on herself despite the lulling surroundings.
“Hiding from someone, ancestor?”
“I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. Last time you used lightnings, that man with the golden tattoos came out of nowhere and tossed me around until he got bored. Now you’ve used them twice and nothing. Even though we’re in virtual reality, I still expect him to arrive.”
“Maybe he just likes roughing up old ladies.”
I hiked towards the river. This wasn’t like their other tests.
“I think he was looking for you.”
“You’re paranoid.” I scanned the horizon. “Since there’s nothing hindering us, we should jump around this place and see if we can find a lead on where that box is buried.”
“Not a bad plan.” A snake darted out of the grass, quick as thought, and bit An’alepp. She tossed the yellow asp aside. “Youch!”
“You can be snake bit in Ra’shara?” Should I be worried about her? I’d never seen a yellow snake like that one before.
She shook her head, looking concerned.
“Not usually, little girl.” The voice was velvet smooth and it ran down my spine like mercury in a glass. I was instantly chilled. From the shadows stepped the man from the last trial, the one who looked like me and shaved his head bald. Only now he wore no shirt, and his arms were etched with glowing golden tattoos. I was beginning to dread the sight of those tattoos.
I stepped back with a hiss.
“They’re doing their little test. Did they tell you what they want?” He was alone, but that didn’t make him any less terrifying.
“Who are you?”
“I’m hijacking your test. You run to my rhythm now.”
Abruptly, a golden cage materialized from thin air, surrounding An’alepp. A look of panic filled her face, and then she froze inside, midway through reaching towards the bars.
“You shouldn’t have come here so ill prepared, little Tazminera.”
How did he know my title? There was only one possibility.
“You’re Catane. The one they say came through the door, just like I did.”
He smiled. “That’s Lesser Tazmin Catane, to you.”
Did I know a Lesser Tazmin with that name? I didn’t think so. Was it possible that he was somehow my blood?
“And now, little Tazminera, you will give me your heartstone and I will give your ancestor the antidote to that snake bite and set her free from the cage.”
Could he really hurt her here in Ra’shara?
“I see from your expression that you doubt that I could harm her.”
An’alepp unfroze and finished reaching for the bars. “Tylira!”
There was a loud snap and then she screamed, falling forward and freezing halfway to the ground.
“That was her femur. Any more doubts?”
“If you are so powerful, then what do you want from me?”
He laughed. “Two things. You will come to me in the heart of the Veen Empire to give me the second, but the first is your heartstone. Hand it over.”
“I think I’d like to know what the second is.”
“Your fealty and service.”
“I’m not the serving kind.”
He laughed, a deep belly laugh. “We all serve someone. Those ridiculous magicphobes you are being tested by want your service. They want you to steal my collection.”
“Collection?”
He grinned and then a long dark tube, like ebony, appeared in his hands. It was carved all over with a cramped writing I did not recognize and along its length were rings that could be twisted to line the writing up in new ways.
“I like magical things. And this world is old. Look what I found just the other day. Isn’t it amazing? It’s in my collection now, and so are the things that they want you to steal. But come now, you aren’t a petty thief, you’re a Lesser Tazminera. And you’re a smart one. Smart enough to hand over your heartstone and come to the Heart of Veen so I can receive your fealty.”
“Come and get it,” I said, curving my hands in a gesture that told him I was ready for his attack.
“I think I’m going to like you.”
His lightnings caught me so much by surprise that I barely dodged them. I fell to the ground, tasting dust and picking at threads, twisting them and snapping them free in a frenzy of desperation. He could do the same thing I could! How did I fight that? Could I rip a hole in space and go somewhere else like I had to save Amandera? But that would leave An’alepp here with him. He would kill her or torture her, and I would lose any chance to defeat him if he destroyed my ancestor. There had to be a way to fight free.
I tugged at a string of Ra’shara close to Catane, letting it fly free, waving wildly and then I rolled and ducked to the side.
“I think I’ll reach into your world and kill one of your new friends, Tazminera. Just to show you why you should follow me. I can do that through this test. Did you know that? I can reach through and kill one…or maybe even two.”
This wasn’t real. His threats were empty. It was just a test. But how real of a test? Was An’alepp right that it was a part of Ra’shara, or had that been part of the test, too? What if this was a part of the VR, not part of Ra’shara? What if all I had to do was mentally override its programming and go back in time to save An’alepp? But if that was true, then how could Catane know so much about me? Unless they dug it out of my subconscious with this technology…
They said to watch for the path. Well, there was only one way out of this one. I dodged another bolt of lightning, weaving my own to fling back at Catane as my mind worked on the problem. Faithfulness always. Do not hesitate.
Faithfulness. Faithful to one way. Catane grinned, unweaving the ground beneath me as I jumped to the side to escape the hole that seemed to be filled with only darkness.
The only way I could think of was impossible, but if everyone else had died trying, then maybe they thought it was impossible, too. I just had to be strongminded about this and force my own choice on whatever wove the story we were in. If there was one thing I could be, it was stubborn.
I focussed my mind with as much intensity as I could muster and closed my eyes. If I didn’t do this quickly I would be at Catane’s mercy. Mentally, I remembered arriving at the river with An’alepp. I remembered how the river looked and smelled and the song of that Nightendahl.
I opened my eyes.
“Not a bad…” An’alepp was saying.
I snatched up the yellow asp and snapped it between my hands, flinging it to the ground and stomping the life out of it.
“I had no idea you hated snakes so much,” An’alepp said.
There was no time for playful banter. Do not hesitate.
I closed my eyes and willed myself out of the test and back to the real world.
I opened my eyes to blackness, but I knew it was just the VR helmet. I wrenched it off, uncaring about whether I was damaging important technology. I set to ripping the straps off my arms. My mind was a blur. I’d beat their ridiculous test. They’d threatened me, and cajoled me, and I still didn’t know if An’alepp was hurt or not, or if Catane had been real, or if they had cut off Rusk’s digits.
I had the straps off
in seconds and launched myself out of the chair, ready to do battle with anyone who would fight back.
The first face I saw was Rusk’s. He was standing with his hands out towards me, as if he wasn’t sure if he was surrendering or placating me. His face was wary, but I counted ten fingers. Good. I would make them pay a little less.
Astrex was gasping for breath, wide-eyed at the desk, her fingers clawing at the surface. Axrun stood stalk still, like a man in a trance. Kjexx’s mouth was slightly open, his eyes wide with wonder. Did their little test mean so much to him? Had I gained some sort of respect by passing it? I hoped so. I would need every scrap of respect that I could muster.
He clapped his hand over his fist and bowed and around the room the ringed warriors did the same. I frowned and crossed my arms.
“I passed your test,” I said. “And now you want me to steal something for you from the Emperor of Veen. Tell me what it is and why you want it, and maybe I’ll give you what you want.”
Axrun fell to the floor, his body shaking and writhing uncontrollably. Kjexx gasped and ran to his father’s side, his hands running over his body. I swallowed hard, fighting desperately at the terror that threatened to seize control of my face. Catane had said he would reach back and kill one of them. Could he possibly have done that? Wasn’t he just a part of the test?
“He was real.” Astrex’s voice shook with terror. Her hands dry-washed themselves over and over. “He was really in the VR. It wasn’t just a programming malfunction.”
“It was the prophesy,” Kjexx said as his father ceased to shake, his body falling limp in his son’s arms. “It was just as our ancestors foretold.”
He looked up at me, eyes glassy with tears. I couldn’t read his expression. What did they expect from me? I didn’t make their precious prophesy. I didn’t ask them to kidnap me and force me to take their ridiculous test. I didn’t ask to be a pawn in their fight against the Veen Empire.
“The Windbearer will bring the winds of change. Behold, restoration to peace, freedom from the bonds of evil and life for the people of Axum. But the great one shall bear the pain of the past and death alone may relieve it.” Astrex sounded as if she were reciting.
Well, that wasn’t much to expect at all. And one little test somehow told them it was me?
“Do you think that you might have the wrong person? That seems like a pretty large calling — and I’m not one of you.”
Astrex cleared her throat. She was still shaking. Must be pretty exciting to meet your Windbearer, or maybe she thought she was next to go. After all, if Axrun died for being a ‘great one’ maybe she would too.
“You have the mark,” she said, and the look she was giving me wasn’t fear. It was closer to worship. I shivered. Now I was catching their crazy-bug. “You passed the tests. Only one other ever has — and not like that. It was as if you could read what we wanted, but then gave us double what we could have hoped for.”
“It wasn’t real.”
Kjexx looked up from his father’s corpse. His eyes were lit up as bright as Astrex’s. “It’s real now.”
What was I supposed to say? That his father’s death was probably a freak coincidence? That I wasn’t anyone’s special prophesy come to life? That I had my own world to save.
Rusk came up beside me and rested his shoulder against mine, speaking in a whisper so low that I was sure only I could hear it.
“Desperate people will see hope anywhere, and these are as desperate as I’ve ever seen.”
Clearly. But I couldn’t give them what they were looking for. I had my own prophesy to deal with. My own people to save. I bit my lip. Then again, if that was the real Catane, and if he really did have a collection, then what I was looking for and what they were looking for might be in the same place. It might not hurt anything to promise them what they wanted. I could use their help in figuring out where the Heart of Veen was, and getting some warmer clothes and mounts.
“What do you want from Catane?”
“The freedom of our people,” Kjexx said, as he gently crossed his father’s hands over his chest.
“No one is free.” It felt strange to echo Catane. Had he been real?
“A device that will stop what Catane began,” Astrex said, waving her hands in the projected image over the desk.
“If you swear to these people you will have to keep your word,” Rusk advised quietly.
“We need the legendary scintellex,” Astrex said. “It has the power to change everything.”
Above the desk a long cylinder with rings appeared…the very one Catane had shown me.
I swallowed a lump in my throat. I could say no. I could unleash the lightnings, battle my way out, and find some way to get back home without that door, but since the moment I saw that cylinder in Catane’s hand I’d been curious about it. I had to go there anyway to find the solution to the cataclysm on Everturn, and I didn’t like Catane. It would feel right to mess with him the way he had with me.
“Agreed,” I said. “But we do this my way.”
Chapter Ten: The Other Cataclysm
RUSK PRESSED HIS FOREHEAD against Graxx’s. The Saur’s eyes glittered in the light of dawn, his breath gusting in great cloudy billows. I shivered and stomped my feet. Would I never be warm again? Even the furs we’d been loaned were not enough. I wasn’t made for a world like this.
I looked more like a warrior than a princess in these clothes while Rusk looked like the general he was. He wore the heavy boiled leather armour like he had been born in it.
“Isn’t he amazing?” Rusk asked, his tone low and hushed. He’d said the same thing twice already.
“I think he likes you.”
“He likes you, too. He spoke to you at the door. I heard him.” Rusk flashed me a quick grin, bright and fleeting as the sun peeking out from behind a cloud.
I couldn’t help but smile back. “You can hear all of them, can’t you? Speak to all of them.”
“Yes, but Graxx is their leader. I must respect that.” He was smiling again, bouncing on his toes like a child as he leaned his forehead into Graxx’s.
I blew into my hands, longing for the warmth of the Black Talon, but if I left the makeshift stables Rusk would have to leave too, and he was in love.
“He’s not for sale, if you’re wondering.” Kjexx sauntered into the high-roofed ruin, leather bags and weapons thrown over his shoulders.
“They shouldn’t be sold. They’re intelligent individuals,” Rusk said.
“The Saurs?” I asked.
“They call themselves Eaglekin.”
“We call them Saurs. Always have,” Kjexx said. He looked intently at Rusk, but Rusk didn’t seem to notice.
“Where did they come from?” I asked, once I realized that Rusk wasn’t listening. He was too deep in conversation with the Saurs.
“We steal the eggs of wild Saurs and raise them to do our bidding. Our ancestors have been doing the same for five generations.”
“And does Catane have similar mounts?” Perhaps Rusk could talk them into turning to our side.
“Ha!” Kjexx began to saddle the grey Saur beside Graxx, slipping a confusing tangle of leather straps effortlessly into place and arranging it around the beast. “Catane has no respect for the old ways. He has brought magic here.”
“Don’t your people use magic? You spoke of prophesies.”
“There was a time when we first arrived on this world, before my father’s father’s father, that our ancestors tapped into some living soul of this planet and then they saw visions of the future, but that is no more.”
Ra’shara. They could access it at one time. I shivered as I remembered the ancestors in a long line of mineral-like pillars. Kjexx was moving from mount to mount, deftly preparing them for our journey.
“What happened to it?” I asked, rubbing my arms with my hands. At least I’d gotten rid of that strange one-piece outfit from the shuttle, but these new clothes smelled like they had been alive once — which, of course
, they had been.
Kjexx handed me a set of reins with a knowing grin. He looked like he knew secrets about me that I didn’t know myself. “Here, hold these for a moment. He won’t bite.”
“Did it fade gradually or disappear all at once?”
“Does it make you nervous that the magic here died? Do you expect yours to shrivel up and perish?” His eyes danced as he poked at me. Was it so easy to see why I was worried, or was he just remarkably perceptive?
“Catane’s still seems strong. And he must have been here for a long time to have established the Veen Empire.”
Kjexx’s grin faded. “Ten years. He has been here ten years, snatching up any group or people too weak to fight back or too faithless to remain with us.”
“Faithless? Because they turned on you? Was he at war with you from the start?”
Kjexx handed me another set of reins, setting back to work on the next beast. There were five more in this part of the ruins.
“Catane has always been for himself, and only himself. That makes him the enemy of anyone who has any other goal. The Veen embrace him because he gives them what they want — position by merit and not birth. Our ancestors left us with their technology and made us swear to keep and preserve it until such a time as the Windbearer came and swept us away to a better life. We pass it on from ancestor to descendant and together we remain faithful.”
Rusk’s head whipped around, his gaze boring in on Kjexx. “Saviour of your people? Not just from Catane, but from everything? Sweeping you to a better life? You didn’t mention that earlier.”
Kjexx squared his shoulders. “You think she is not up to the challenge, War Leader? You don’t have faith in her?”
“I think you are asking for the impossible, Chieftain.”
Kjexx’s grin turned on again. “We shall see.” He turned his gaze to me, and that note of worship was on his face again. I shifted my weight and swallowed hard. I didn’t like that look on his face. He had expectations I couldn’t meet. “I have complete confidence in her.”
I needed to put a stop to this. It wasn’t right, going around worshiping people. But what about the High Tazmin? I bore the mark of his heir. What if I eventually replaced him on the throne? Wouldn’t I be seeing people with that look in their eyes every day?
Lightning Strikes Twice (Unweaving Chronicles Book 2) Page 6
