Behind us the high pitched yells and laughter of children mixed with the lower, grimmer tones of their elders. My eyes caught those of a mother, watching her children play on the frozen river. Anxiety filled her eyes. We needed to find somewhere safe for them.
“What about those buttes?” I asked, pointing to the cliff side to the south of us that flanked the creek.
He nodded, considering it carefully. “That’s what I was thinking. We could mount an effective defense there — or at least as effective as anywhere else.”
“Why are they so much faster than we expected?” I asked.
“I think they will ride their mounts to their deaths. Something drives them. Something more than revenge.”
Could they know that this winter would never end? Did they somehow think we could stop that? Maybe Catane told them that I could, or maybe they just believed in him so thoroughly that they’d do anything he asked.
“We need to hurry, then.”
As Rusk gathered the Clan Leaders together, I looked out at the wave of black rushing towards us. There were so many of them. I swallowed down my fear. You could only live once, but then again, you only had to die once, too. And dying with people for a shared hope was the best kind of death you could have. I clenched my fists, trying to conjure up more strength. It wasn’t that I was afraid to face Catane. I was just afraid of failing them all. I couldn’t bear to fail them, to fail Kjexx, to fail Rusk, to fail that tiny waving hand.
I ran my hands over my face and through my hair. Time to take the gamble. If the odds broke just right, we could still escape this and return to Everturn. And then I’d just have to toss the dice again and see if I could conjure nothing into something.
...
By mid-afternoon, we were set up on the butte. The children and elderly were camped as close to the cliffs as we could safely situate them. We built fires, pitched tents and dragged fallen logs and rocks into short walls around our camp. The Eaglekin were lightened. This wasn’t good terrain for them to fight, but they’d still help, and they needed to stay far from the civilian camp so they didn’t trample anyone by mistake. I worked beside Rusk, helping him drag logs into place, nodding as he gave directions to the Clan Leaders on where to position their men. My belly writhed with nerves. They’d be here before dusk. Would they attack right away, or would they wait?
We ate, rested as much as we could, and we waited. Rusk and I were in a central spot, watching over both the camp and the troops.
“They trust you,” I told him.
“It’s you that they are following.”
My eyes widened. Me?
He smiled crookedly. “They loved Kjexx. They respect his choice and the tradition that they are his army by blood. And, I think you give them hope. They’ve seen your lightnings. Will you be able to call them tonight?”
“I hope so.”
He nodded, but he looked worried.
“If I can’t, then what happens?”
“Then I die with you, Tazminera Tylira Nyota.”
He took my hand, gripping it as if he thought he could channel his very energy into me. I wouldn’t fail him. I didn’t dare.
Chapter Thirty-Two: Trapped
“Tylira!” An’alepp’s scream pulled me into Ra’shara.
She was outside the gate, up on that barren, rocky hill, suspended in the air with a pattern, not unlike those created by the scintellex, spreading out from her.
“What happened?” I gasped. In the real world, the sound of drums could be heard over the calm of the camp. The enemy was coming.
“You can’t unweave it, so don’t try.”
I picked at the pattern with my fingers. “What is it?”
“A pattern woven by the mind of Catane. He caught me spying.”
“It keeps you in place?”
“While it remains I can’t move, and neither you nor I may touch the Common.”
I felt the blood drain from my face. In the real world I could hear the sounds of the approaching enemy. How long did we have until they attacked? Rusk was depending on me. He’d need my help when Catane arrived. I grabbed at the pattern around An’alepp with my hands, shockingly, it was a physical thing. I began to tug.
“Tylira, I couldn’t see the code he entered. We’ll need to get that code to use the door or we will be stuck here forever.”
“Why can’t I just open a hole into Ra’shara and then into Everturn like I did before with Amandera?”
This time it was An’alepp’s turn to go pale. “You can’t.”
“Why does that bother you so much? You’re just as horrified as the other ancestors, but why? It would save the lives of innocent children!”
I tugged harder. This Penspray-forsaken pattern had to come loose somehow! The pattern pulled free from my hands and I cursed, grabbing it again.
“You don’t understand!” She looked torn, frustrated and her eyes pleaded with me.
“Exactly! I don’t understand. I shouldn’t bother trying. I should just do it. As soon as you’re free, we’ll do it.”
There! I had purchase on it. Roughly, I tugged and pulled, tracing the path to untangle it like a necklace that had been stored with ten others. It was tangled and snagged so badly that with every gain I made I found a new tangle.
“If you do that, Tylira — and you’d better not! — you’ll suck every bit of life out of me. I’m not exaggerating, or joking. You will dry me up. It will be the end of your access to the Common. The end of any hopes you, or I, or anyone, have of you saving these people and repairing the cataclysm. It won’t just suck me dry, but any ancestor who might be nearby. You’ll use up all that’s left of ten of us, and maybe burn yourself away, too.”
“Burn myself away?” I asked, tugging at a new knot, my mind occupied with following where that strand went. “You could help me, ancestor.”
An’alepp began to tug on her own end. She needed to hurry. In the real world Rusk was shouting orders in a deep baritone that sent shivers down my spine. I’d follow that voice into death itself. Feet pounded on the ground as warriors hurried to respond. The jaws of one of the Eaglekin snapped at something just beyond the low barrier we’d constructed.
“Burn yourself out. Die. Not just here, but in the world beyond.”
“What if I didn’t burn out? What if there were enough ancestors to absorb the need for their energy?”
An’alepp scoffed, pulling at her thread with an energy that seemed more the result of irritation than true hope.
“If you were selfish enough to burn up what’s left of me and of every other ancestor in the area —and I remind you that there are none here! — then you’d be bereft of the Common forever. Someone else who has gone before would need to adopt you and give you their soul to plunder, and who would do that, Tylira? Who? You have no other allies among the ancestors. Perhaps Amandera could plead for you, but I doubt that she would.”
“Ancestor,” I said, as the swords clashed in the real world, “we need to hurry.”
Our efforts redoubled, now in silence. It was not silent in the real world. The sounds of the battle commencing fueled my desperation. They needed me out there. They needed me now.
Desperately, I pulled at the shreds of the pattern, but at the same time, I reached out to An’alepp, seized the Common and began to unweave in the real world, shedding lightning into the waves of black that lapped against our fortifications. Screams and the scent of burning meat washed up from down the slope. Success.
“You’re crazy,” An’alepp said as she fought her bonds. “How did you do that?”
“I’m desperate,” I admitted. “I’ll do what I must. And I don’t care how.”
If anything, her expression was more troubled.
I fought like that for what felt like hours, pulling at the threads in Ra’shara, and sending out the lightnings to support our battle in the real world. Rusk and his warriors fought hard. Everything in front of me there was a blur of charging Eaglekin, desperate sword battles a
nd yells of victory or screams of terror. Sweat dripped down my face, despite the cold. Fear filled my belly, but what more could I do?
“I think it only works because you are in here with me. If you went back out there fully you’d lose the connection.”
I probably should leave. But what if she were right? And what if I returned only to find I was in the same position, but had to begin the pattern again from the start? I didn’t dare risk it. I battled on.
We were nearly done untangling the knots of An’alepp’s trap when my worst fears materialized in the form of Catane, striding to the front of the battlefield — a black wolf-skin cloak billowed around him, but he was still bare-chested, showing off his golden tattoos. Was that writing the same as the writing on the scintellex? And if it was, had he had his mind rewritten by the device, too?
Chapter Thirty- Three: Pinned
OUR EYES LOCKED ACROSS the battlefield, and his mouth spread into a grin. My own lips were pressed in a thin line. It was time to focus, time to concentrate. With a final tug, I pulled An’alepp free, and threw my concentration into the battle, now without distractions.
I unwove the trees behind the front line of the enemy, watching them shatter in deadly splinters as long as a man’s arm. Lightning danced out from where the weave hit, shooting forth like the vengeance of an angry god. Two black-clad men flew backwards through the air, plowing into the ranks behind them. In front of them, their fellows lay in a flower-like pattern of death, a scorched mark in the center of it.
Catane responded with his own blast, obliterating one of our Clan leaders and a knot of men behind him. I gasped, horrified, as their limp bodies rained down from where they’d been flung. Swallowing my gorge, I focused on Catane. I couldn’t help with the main battle; I needed to focus on defeating the one person who could destroy us all.
I followed his movements with my eyes and feet, stumbling along in my effort to study his weaving. The moment he began to unweave, I saw the threads flexing in Ra’shara, they glowed a faint scarlet where he stressed their bonds. Had I ever seen that before? Maybe I really was seeing the world afresh! I seized his threads, shoving them back and forcing his unweaving back to nothing. The soldier he’d been about to destroy fought on, never knowing what he’d narrowly escaped. Catane’s eyes sought my own. He knew.
He moved faster down the line, and I struggled to keep up with him. I couldn’t let him out of sight. I must not let him kill again. His weaves began, and deftly, I plucked them away. His expression turned to a snarl, but he didn’t look at me this time. His eyes scanned for something, or someone. What was he looking for?
I nearly tripped over a melee right in front of me, but a Clan Leader grabbed me around the waist, flinging me to the side of the conflict. The clash of swords met in the spot I’d been standing in a moment before. I was turned around, uncertain where I was in the chaos, but lucky to be alive. I shouldn’t just be concentrating on Catane, I needed to work to open a door for Kjexx’s people. I heard the crackle of lightning and spun towards it. Three of our men went down, speared through with streaking electricity. My fault. My fault for not concentrating hard enough.
Where was Catane? There! I angled towards him again. His eyes were bright and his pace hurried. He must have found what he was looking for. And there, glowing in his ko, was a red glimmer of light. Was that his connection to the Common? Could I find a way to distort it, or hinder it? Could I stop his aggression at the source? I was being pushed back with my troops, and the flow of bodies impeded my path. I needed to get closer to where he was to prevent — there! He was plucking at threads again. I threw myself forward, digging his hold off of the threads and thwarting him.
We were giving ground, backing up towards where the civilians stood. This battle couldn’t go on much longer or we would lose too much ground and our precious charges would be gone. I needed to find a way to turn the tide. Something decisive. Something immediate.
Rusk materialized out of the fray, tugging at my arm.
“Tylira, come on! You’re distracting our warriors. It’s extra work for them to keep the swords out of your back.”
He deflected one of those swords as he spoke, his face grim.
“I have to keep Catane back.”
“I know, but please, let me protect you, and fallback with us.”
“If we can work our way to the centre of the camp, I can weave a door away from here.”
He nodded. “You can do that?”
“It would be a desperate move, but I want to try.”
“Then come on!”
He tugged me towards the centre. I let him lead me, but my eyes roved again, looking for Catane. I’d lost him in the flurry of battle. Where was he? What was he doing? If I could just find him I could pluck at the red glow in his ko. I was certain that was my tipping point.
We fell back with the rest, forming a fresh wall of bodies, back all the way to where the Eaglekin were stationed and shoulder to shoulder now with them. I shouldn’t have suggested a butte. There was nowhere to run now that we were cornered. If we failed, no one would survive. I must not fail. I must not allow all their deaths to be my fault. This was the perfect place to weave a door. I drew on my connection with the common, picturing what I wanted in my mind.
I felt a tap on my shoulder and I turned to see a set of black eyes lock onto mine. They were like the eyes of a tiger before he bites and the grin that matched them sent chills down my spine. Catane reached out and grabbed Rusk’s shoulder and then he split a hole from the living world into Ra’shara.
“Round Two,” he said, yanking Rusk in with him. Rusk’s cry was lost as he was dragged into the meditation world, his hand slipping from where it held mine only moments before. My mouth opened in a soundless scream.
Chapter Thirty-Four: Stolen
AROUND ME THE BLACK Brigade thundered to meet our clans. The battle was moving towards the tents. I saw a mother scoop up her child, only to be knocked over by one of Catane’s men. I didn’t dare unweave near him, for fear of hitting the child, but one of our warriors threw the little boy to his mother. She swept up her screaming child and ran, but there was nowhere to run to. I needed to end this now, but did I stay and use my lightnings to fight for us, or did I chase Catane and Rusk? I felt torn, pulled first towards my duty and then towards my heart. With a wrenching groan I flung myself through the closing rip Catane had made and tumbled into Ra’shara.
Had I chosen poorly? There was no time to second guess myself. Catane, paces ahead of me, had ripped a second hole in the fabric of Ra’shara and was fighting Rusk, sword to sword, trying to maneuver him through it.
“I won’t go back with you, dark master,” Rusk said. “I told you then and I tell you again, you can’t use me.”
“Watch me,” Catane said, his mouth wide in a smile that suggested he had a secret.
“Catane!” I called out. “If you want me, then why are you always lashing out at the people around me?”
“Because it’s thrilling to watch you squirm. Maybe this one will leap to his death, too.”
Rusk had his back to the rip in Ra’shara and I eyed it worriedly as he spun and wove through the forms of swordplay. His movements were smooth, but any stumble and misstep would send him through that rip. Where was Catane’s ancestor in all of this? Who was he wringing dry to produce rips like these?
As I thought those words, a hand reached through the rip behind Rusk’s back, grabbed a fist full of his coat and yanked. Rusk stumbled backwards, arms wide, and then fell through the hole. Catane, laughing, stepped through behind him and I dove through the air, head first, towards the rip. They wouldn’t steal him away from me this time. Not without a fight. But I had to hurry. How much longer could the Landers hold out without my help?
My dive continued through the rip and I fell heavily onto Catane. He gripped me around the waist and stood up, pulling me with him. I had expected he would take us to the Heart of Veen. In fact, I had half-expected to find myself in the conserv
atory, but instead we were on the mountain with the door to Everturn. I glanced towards the butte where the battle raged. I could almost make it out from here, but other than a plume of smoke there was no sign of the conflict.
“Is your heart here or there, little sister?” Catane asked.
My eyes shifted to Rusk, a knife was at his throat, and a he was pulled in tight by his attacker. I needed to save him, but I needed to save them, too. With every moment I spent here that was one less moment to help them. One more possible child-sized grave. I had to hurry.
“You brought both of them, my love. That was clever of you,” Amandera said.
“You lived,” I said.
“Of course she did.” Catane dropped his hold on me and crossed to Amandera. “I would never let her drop to her death. Was there a reason that you let your lover die, or were you just too weak to save him?”
He kissed Amandera. I flinched as Rusk’s face twisted in pain. The knife had bit into his flesh in Amandera’s moment of distraction.
“Watch yourself, Amandera. If you hurt him you will pay a thousand times over.”
She arched an eyebrow at me. “Really, Lesser Tazminera? And will you do what is needed to prevent his injury? His health is in your hands.”
Rusk shifted his stance, as if remembering something. Catane made a shushing noise, caressing his shoulder with a free hand. I’d never asked Rusk what they did to him when they held him captive all those days. I thought it was obvious, but now I wondered. He shied away from that caress more intensely than he’d shied away from the knife.
“We did everything you think we did to him…and more. And we’re going to do it again.” Catane smiled slowly, pressing his knife to Rusk’s neck and switching places with Amandera. I fought the urge to vomit. “Unless you give us the code.”
What could he possibly mean?
“Don’t play innocent,” he said.
Amandera shifted to the side of him, arms crossed over her chest. “You should give him what he wants, Tylira. He’s destined to be the next High Tazmin. He’s far stronger than you ever were. And he has the mark of an heir.”
Lightning Strikes Twice (Unweaving Chronicles Book 2) Page 19
