Ghost in the Hunt

by Moeller, Jonathan

  “You can, anyway,” said Caina. “Just make sure you take it from my corpse.”

  “Your corpse?” said Nasser.

  “What are you saying?” said Claudia. “Surely you cannot be considering her deal.”

  They all started talking at once.

  “Listen to me!” said Caina, and they fell silent. “I have no intention of taking her deal. But none of you can die here. Martin, if you die, the Empire will have no choice but to declare war upon Istarinmul, and the Empire cannot afford that now. Claudia, you are pregnant. Nasser, you have continue the fight against Callatas. Strabane and Laertes both have their responsibilities. If I die here…well, nothing is lost.” Kalgri’s taunt echoed in her mind. “I will give you my shadow-cloak before I go, and you can use it to conceal yourselves. If you find a good enough hiding place and use the shadow-cloak, Kalgri will never find you, and eventually she will give up and leave. Callatas sent her to kill me, not you. Once she departs, you can return to Istarinmul and continue your tasks.”

  “That plan is utter madness,” said Martin.

  “There is no need for you to sacrifice yourself,” said Nasser. “Not when we have the valikon.”

  “No,” said Claudia. “You are blaming yourself for things that are not your responsibility.”

  “It is a folly, I think,” said Strabane. “Better to fight and kill the Huntress, or to die fighting.”

  “This is the best plan,” said Caina.

  “Why do you want to sacrifice yourself?” said Claudia.

  The question jolted Caina a little. “I…”

  The others froze around her. For a moment Caina wondered if they had been startled, or if Kalgri had used the power of the Voice to render them motionless. Yet Kalgri and the kadrataagu were frozen as well. All the color had leached out of the world, leaving it painted in shades of gray.

  Caina turned and saw Samnirdamnus waiting for her.

  The djinni once again wore the form of Claudia, which was a bit disconcerting, since Claudia stood only a few paces away. Samnirdamnus’s eyes shone with the smokeless flame of the djinn, painting the face of the illusionary Claudia with harsh yellow-orange light. Caina was struck by the difference between that fire and the shadow-wreathed flames she had seen in the eyes of the nagataaru. The smokeless fire of the djinn was harsh and relentless, would burn anything that it touched. Yet it was not malicious, was not filled with hatred and hunger as was the fire of the nagataaru. The fire of the djinn was a simple force of nature. The fire of the nagataaru yearned to kill and torture.

  “Ah,” murmured Samnirdamnus. “You start to understand.”

  “Understand what?” said Caina.

  “The nature of our opposition to the nagataaru,” said Samnirdamnus.

  “You mean the djinn of the court of the Azure Sovereign,” said Caina, remembering the formula the magus Anaxander had used to summon Samnirdamnus before the heist at Callatas’s Maze.

  “Yes,” said Samnirdamnus. “You begin to see.”

  “See what?” said Caina with a shake of her head. “You have aided me before, but this is not the time for riddles.”

  “No,” said Samnirdamnus. “No, my darling demonslayer, I fear it is not. Instead it is time for your death.”

  His form blurred, and this time he became a duplicate of Caina herself. The sight took her aback. Did she really look so gaunt and tired, her eyes ringed with dark circles, her short hair ragged and uneven?

  “My death?” said Caina. “Then the Huntress is going to kill me?”

  “Almost certainly,” said Samnirdamnus. “Alas, the shadows of your future grow ever more certain, and it seems likely that you shall die within Silent Ash Temple before the sun rises again. I thought you might have been the one I have been looking for, the one I have sought since Callatas burned Iramis…but perhaps I was mistaken.”

  “Then help me,” said Caina. “You’ve been giving me whispers and hints and nudges for nearly a year now, pointing me in the direction of your foes and setting me loose. It’s saved my life a few times, but whispers won’t help me against Kalgri and the Voice. Give me some real help.”

  “I cannot,” said Samnirdamnus, the copy of Caina’s face solemn and grim. Or maybe she always looked like that and the djinn was simply mirroring her appearance.

  “Why not?” said Caina.

  “I cannot say,” said Samnirdamnus.

  “For the gods’ sake,” said Caina, her temper slipping a bit. “Have you only shown up to say you cannot help me? Why bother at all then? If I happen to starve to death, are you going to appear with a bowl of rice and eat it while saying that you are forbidden from feeding me?”

  “Of course not,” said Samnirdamnus. “I am an immortal spirit of the netherworld. I do not require material sustenance. And I cannot aid you.”

  “Then why speak to me at all?” said Caina. “Why not help me instead?”

  “Because I am bound,” said Samnirdamnus.

  “By Callatas,” said Caina. “To watch over the Maze and warn him of any intruders.”

  “You are clever,” said Samnirdamnus. “Think it over, my dear Balarigar. Why am I unable help you against the Huntress and the Voice?”

  “Because Callatas forbade it,” said Caina. “No. No, that’s not right. Because…Callatas is allied with the nagataaru. He made a pact with them, and part of the pact that binds you means you cannot act against the nagataaru.”

  “Alas, that is all too true,” said Samnirdamnus. “As a knight of the Azure Court, I cannot act against the nagataaru. Since the nagataaru have been my foes since before this world congealed out of the cosmic dust, you realize that this is a most vexing predicament.”

  An idea came to Caina. “Then are there are other elemental spirits like you.”

  “Well,” murmured Samnirdamnus. “None quite like me.”

  “But others,” said Caina. “Other djinn, other knights of the Azure Court. Can they aid me?”

  “Alas, no,” said Samnirdamnus. “They, too, are bound, if not quite in the same form.”

  “Surely Callatas could not have bound them all,” said Caina. “There are uncounted spirits in the netherworld. Even Callatas’s power would not have extended so far.”

  “He bound the djinn of the Azure Court,” said Samnirdamnus, “in the same instant that he burned Iramis. Disposing of two foes at once. Quite efficient, really.”

  “This is useful knowledge,” said Caina, “but only if I can stop the Huntress from killing me. Can you give me no aid? Not even a hint of what to do?”

  For a long moment Samnirdamnus was silent, the burning eyes unblinking.

  “Perhaps,” said the djinni at last. “Consider the first time you met Callatas.”

  “In Catekharon?” said Caina, wondering what that had to do with anything. “That was four years ago. I did not speak with him, and I don’t think he even noticed me.”

  Samnirdamnus waved a hand. “That was before you had come to my sight, before I thought you might be the one I sought. No. Recall instead the first time you saw him in Istarinmul.”

  Caina had to think for a moment. “It was…at Ulvan’s ascension, when I was masquerading as Natalia of the Nine Knives with Damla. Erghulan and Ulvan were so impressed that they tried to take us to bed. I pretended to have lice to get out of it. Callatas was with them.”

  “What did he say to you?” said Samnirdamnus.

  “He asked what I thought of the celebration,” said Caina. “I said something innocuous so I would not draw his attention.”

  “And then?” said Samnirdamnus.

  “He started lecturing,” said Caina, “how he thought the essential nature of life was predator and prey, the strong feasting upon the weak.” Which, in hindsight, sounded a great deal like a nagataaru. “He said the true nature of mankind was that of killers, of predators. He said that civilization was a…a false artifice, a corrupting thing that kept us from realizing our true potential.”

  “He was wrong,” said
Samnirdamnus. “Laws and civilization are what give mortals their strength. You need each other to become strong. Otherwise you will starve and die. Callatas would have mortal men become like beasts of the field – strong and savage and powerful, having no need for shelter or comfort or succor as you war eternally against each other. It is a refinement of your nature as killers, a distillation of your darker side, for he believes that is the only thing perfectible about mankind. He is not wrong…but he is not correct, either. You are killers, but you can be more. Istarinmul has misery and despair, but there is joy and hope as well. You have built yourselves shelter and clothing, farms and aqueducts, poetry and temples. You could be as beasts of the field, killing and rutting and dying, but instead you are more. You have made yourselves more. You have made each other more than you could have on your own. Callatas cannot see that, but you must.”

  They stood in silence for a moment, the world gray and frozen around them.

  “That is the longest speech you have ever made,” said Caina.

  “So it is,” said Samnirdamnus. “Now it is up to you to understand what you must do. Either you will understand, or you will perish.”

  The world blurred back into motion and color around her, and Caina stumbled.

  “Why do you want to sacrifice yourself?” Claudia was still saying. “It won’t even change anything. She’ll still kill us all, she’ll…” She shook her head. “Can I…let me talk to you alone, just for a minute.”

  “I think we have a few minutes,” said Caina, looking at the terrace. The Huntress still remained motionless, though she had donned her crimson mask and pulled up her cowl, making her look like a statue robed in blood. “If the Huntress moves, you should probably shoot her. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

  Martin snorted. “Why would we have good fortune now?”

  Claudia led Caina further down the rampart until they were out of earshot of the others.

  “What do you want to say?” said Caina, watching one of the kadrataagu skitter past the columns below. “Better make it quick.”

  “Your hair,” said Claudia.

  “What about it?” said Caina.

  “It…doesn’t look bad, short,” said Claudia. Caina blinked in surprise. “You would look better with long hair. But you have the cheekbones for short hair.”

  “Thank you?” said Caina, puzzled.

  “But if it was cut a little more evenly,” said Claudia, “that would…”

  “I appreciate the thought,” said Caina, “but I cannot help but wonder why we are talking about my hair now.”

  “I insulted your hair to be spiteful and petty,” said Claudia, “because I blamed you for Corvalis’s death.”

  “I suspected as much,” said Caina. “Not that you were spiteful, but that you blamed me. And…you were not wrong to do so.”

  “No,” said Claudia. “You told me the truth now. No matter what I do, I suspect you would still blame yourself. But do not…do not throw your life away for nothing, please. It would have broken Corvalis’s heart.”

  “I know,” said Caina. “But it won’t be for nothing. It will give you and Martin and Nasser a chance to escape. A chance, I know, but better than nothing. Martin needs to keep Istarinmul out of the war. You need to help him and watch over your child. Nasser needs to keep fighting the Apotheosis and Callatas. None of that will happen if you die here.”

  “But we need your help to do all of that,” said Claudia. “You’re the Balarigar.”

  “Don’t tell me you believe in the Balarigar, too,” said Caina.

  “I don’t,” said Claudia. “It’s a myth of the Szalds. But a lot of people believe in the Balarigar because of the deeds you have done. All the things we have to do? We need your help to do them. Martin and I would both be dead without you. I don’t know everything you did with Nasser, but from what I’ve gathered he and Laertes and Strabane would all be dead inside Callatas’s palace if you hadn’t done something clever.”

  “That was as much luck as anything else,” said Caina. “Perhaps the luck has at last run out.”

  “We need your help,” said Claudia. “We’ll think of something together. Just don’t…”

  Caina blinked.

  “Wait,” said Caina, looking at Claudia, at the Huntress, and then back at Claudia again.

  Help.

  They needed help…but Caina needed help, too. She hated sorcery, and because of that, she had resisted asking Claudia for help. In fact, the idea simply had not occurred to her. But if she put that aside, if she considered the full range of Claudia’s sorcerous abilities, then suddenly new possibilities for action opened before her.

  Caina and Claudia needed each other.

  “I’ll be damned,” said Caina. “That clever djinni.”

  “Djinni?” said Claudia, alarmed. “What djinni? Kalgri can summon elementals?”

  “Never mind,” said Caina. “Let’s talk to the others. I have an idea.”

  Chapter 20 - Huntress and Prey

  Kalgri waited, the Voice’s hatred seething within her thoughts.

  The Voice demanded Caina’s death, demanded it in a way the nagataaru rarely demanded anything. It was an…exhilarating, almost intoxicating, sensation, one that filled Kalgri with strength.

  It also made her cautious.

  The Voice wanted Caina dead so badly that it did not care if Kalgri was killed in the process.

  She had no illusions about her relationship to the Voice. If she did, she would have been as pathetic as Aiovost and the other kadrataagu. Kalgri and the Voice existed in harmony because they both enjoyed killing and feasting upon the energy of death.

  In the end, Kalgri’s caution overrode the Voice’s desire to kill. She had not expected Caina to have Annarah’s pyrikon, which had saved her from the immaterial sword, nor had she expected Claudia’s unusually potent spell of banishment. In Drynemet she had not expected the cleverness of Caina setting a trap for her. Kalgri had studied Caina for months and knew the depths of the Ghost’s cunning, but still had not expected either development.

  Best to be cautious, then. In this matter Kalgri’s will overrode the Voice’s hunger and her own desire for violence. Even the Voice could see reason. If Kalgri made a mistake and died, Caina would escape.

  So Kalgri waited, gazing at the colonnade as night fell and the stars came out, reaching through the senses of the Voice to track her opponents within Silent Ash Temple. Some of them were still upon the wall. Others had gone to the courtyard. At this distance she could not tell them apart, but…

  The postern door swung open.

  Kalgri blinked, her hands straying to her weapons.

  Caina Amalas walked out, still in the clothes and armor of a caravan guard, her stolen ghostsilver dagger in her right hand. The kadrataagu froze in place, their burning eyes rotating to follow her, their tentacles lashing around their heads. Caina stopped a dozen yards from Kalgri and waited, the dagger in hand.

  And did nothing else.

  The Voice screamed for her to attack, but Kalgri hesitated. She had not really expected Caina to take the offer. Kalgri glanced at the wall, half-expecting to find someone manning one of the ballistae, but the engines were deserted. Claudia stood over the gate, as did Laertes, Martin, and Strabane, but Nasser had disappeared. Likely Glasshand had fled to preserve his own life.

  No matter. Kalgri would catch him soon enough.

  “Well?” said Kalgri at last. “You accept?” Though Kalgri would hunt down and kill the rest of the Ghost circle in Istarinmul anyway. It would be a pleasant way to repay Caina for all the frustration the Ghost had caused her.

  “If you want me dead,” said Caina, “then stop talking and kill me already.”

  “Easily accomplished,” said Kalgri, drawing a scimitar and a dagger, the blades glinting in the moonlight.

  The Voice’s power filled and her, and she surged forward.

  ###

  Caina retreated, barely staying ahead of Kalgri’s attacks. The Huntress wa
s fast, inhumanly fast, and even without the augmentation of the Voice’s power, she would have been a lethally skilled fighter.

  Caina had no chance against Kalgri’s skill and the power of the Voice.

  But if Caina’s gamble worked, she wouldn’t need to fight Kalgri at all.

  She dodged another swing and ran backwards, Kalgri pursuing her. Caina took a deep breath and threw herself backwards in a wild, unbalanced leap, the sort of jump that would send her sprawling backwards across the ground.

  The crawling tingle of a spell washed over her.

  Kalgri’s scimitar rose for the kill.

  Claudia’s will closed around Caina in bands of psychokinetic force, pulling her into the air with terrific speed.

  ###

  Claudia gritted her teeth, her hands outstretched, the power thrumming through her.

  Caina was not that heavy, even with the added weight of her clothing and weapons. Yet Claudia was not that powerful, and pulling Caina through the air took a great deal of raw force. Yet fear and terror lent Claudia strength, and Caina sailed through the air in the grip of Claudia’s psychokinetic spell.

  Caina reached the edge of the rampart and she pulled herself up, Claudia releasing the spell with a gasp of exertion. Caina rolled over the rampart, bounced, and scrambled back to her feet.

  “Good catch,” said Caina.

  “Thanks,” said Claudia. She looked down just as Kalgri sprang into the air, her crimson cloak flaring behind her like bloody wings. “Run!”

  They raced towards one of the ballistae, where Strabane, Laertes, and Martin awaited, weapons in hand.

  Claudia risked a glance to the side and saw the Huntress land upon one of the pillars and scramble up the wall.

  ###

  Kalgri leapt from the pillar and landed atop the rampart of the outer colonnade. Caina and Claudia whirled to face her, Caina wielding her ghostsilver dagger, and Claudia casting the spell of banishment.

  Kalgri snarled behind her mask and shot forward. Claudia, with her spell of banishment, was by far the greater threat. Kalgri would stun Caina first and prevent her from interfering. Then she would kill Claudia, and the Balarigar and her allies would no longer have any means of doing lasting harm to Kalgri. She could kill them all at her leisure.