The Straits of Galahesh loa-2

by Bradley P. Beaulieu

  He wanted to call to Nasim, to warn him away. He wanted to wake him from this spell.

  But he could not. He was trapped by these events as surely as Nasim.

  On the horizon, the sun stood upon the edge of the world. The skies over the Spar were swirling, as if this place were the very center of all that ever was and ever would be.

  But then something caught Nikandr’s attention. Over Muqallad’s shoulder, beneath the swirling clouds, was a ship.

  And it was hurtling toward the Spar.

  It took him a moment to realize it was the Bhadyar.

  But Soroush was here, Nikandr thought. The Maharraht had abandoned their ships at the hidden bay…

  With a sudden and shocking clarity, he realized who had come.

  Grigory…

  Grigory had come with the men who’d been left behind, men too wounded to fight.

  Nikandr marveled at the very thought of it.

  Nasim watched as Nikandr kneeled on the blackened roadway. He was caught as everyone else was.

  Nasim understood now. The Al-Aqim needed to die for this ritual to be complete. Sariya had already fallen, succumbing to the wound inflicted by Ushai. Muqallad had hoped that the ritual on the beach of Alayazhar would free Khamal’s link to the Atalayina. Nasim had been saved by Rabiah, but now Muqallad would finish what he’d started, and the only way Nasim could prevent it was by coming to himself once and for all.

  To do this, his tie to Nikandr must be severed. Their shared link was why Nikandr had been able to commune with the havahezhan. It was why Nasim had been so limited, as well, and even though he was now able to touch Adhiya, it was not as complete as it might be. His bonds to Nikandr and Muqallad saw to that.

  Severing his tie was not so easily done, however. He would gladly give of himself, even if it meant he would pass from this world, never to return, but he refused to do so if it delivered the world to Muqallad.

  He remembered how it had felt in Oshtoyets, that small keep on the rocky coast of Duzol those many years ago. He had been at the heart of all things. It had felt as though he could reshape the world.

  And so it was now

  He only needed to embrace it.

  He pulled a knife from Soroush’s belt and strode forward, wishing there were another way.

  To sacrifice himself would be easy.

  But this…

  He didn’t know, even now, if he could do it.

  He drew the world around himself like a cloak, like a burial shroud. The other times he’d done this, it had been beneath his consciousness, but now he was fully aware of what he was doing.

  Time slowed. Muqallad’s movements became a crawl.

  Nasim stepped forward and kneeled before Nikandr until they were face-to-face. He looked into Nikandr’s handsome face, saw the small scar above his left eyebrow. He knew in that instant that it had been caused by an errant swipe of a fire brand, swung by his brother, Ranos. His eyes were a deep brown with the smallest traces of green, like hidden forest vales in the growth of spring. He’d looked at Nikandr before, but never in such an intimate way. It made Nasim supremely uncomfortable, but he owed Nikandr this for what he was about to do. Nikandr was not his father-he was nothing like Ashan-nor was he his brother. And still, he owed Nikandr much. Certainly he owed him this, an honest look into his soul before he took his life.

  Nikandr blinked. There was fear and uncertainty in his eyes, but there was also a resolve that made Nasim proud.

  Nikandr swallowed, his gaze dropping to the khanjar before meeting Nasim’s eyes once more. And then he nodded.

  With one hand Nasim held Nikandr’s shoulder, and with the other drove the knife into Nikandr’s chest. He drove it until it could go no further.

  Nikandr stared, eyes wide and tearing. He looked down. His lips were parted, releasing his final breath. His head quivered, and spittle fell onto the blackened stone.

  He met Nasim’s eyes one last time.

  The look on his face was one of understanding. He tried to smile, but failed to do so. He coughed once, and then leaned to one side, holding himself, barely, against the roadway of this massive work of man.

  Nasim lowered him down until he laid face up, staring at the sky, the knife quivering from his chest. His eyes opened and closed. He swallowed once, twice, and then lay perfectly still.

  The wind once more began to howl. The clouds once more began to swirl.

  And Muqallad stared down, his eyes aflame.

  He was coming to the realization that he had lost what he had sought, but in his mind there might still be time.

  He held the Atalayina high and reached for Nasim.

  Nasim rolled away and reached his feet as a bolt of lightning coursed forth from Muqallad’s outstretched palm.

  Nasim caught it in his own hand and delivered it to the world beyond. It was easy now, and Muqallad knew the tables had turned.

  Muqallad stepped forward and grabbed Nasim’s robes. He blocked the weak strike of Nasim’s fist, twisting his arm until he was forced down to roadway stones. As Muqallad held the Atalayina high, perhaps readying to smash it against Nasim’s skull, Nasim saw something large and dark and swift rushing toward the bridge.

  Muqallad had no more time than to turn and look before the windship crashed into the Spar.

  CHAPTER EIGHTY-FOUR

  N ikandr stared at the handle of the knife. It rested over his chest, moving in time to his heartbeat. He should grasp it, he thought. He should try to remove it. He managed to bring one hand to it, but the simple act of touching it brought searing white pain the likes of which he’d never known.

  He had time only to look up at a rush of movement at the edge of his vision before the world around him erupted.

  Something massive crashed into the Spar at the exact place where the explosion had weakened it.

  A ship. It was a ship.

  The hull buckled, collapsing like a house of cards as the ship drove down onto the keystones. The masts cracked. The sails were thrown downward. In a mere instant the front half of the ship transformed from a structured and ordered thing into a massive, tangled collection of splintered beams and rope and sail. The bodies of men flew and were dashed against the white stone.

  The landward foremast snapped at the hull, throwing the bulk of the mast and her sails sharply forward. Muqallad turned to meet this threat just as the mast’s topgallant swung down against the bridge, narrowly missing him. But the topgallant yard caught Muqallad squarely across the head, crushing him and throwing him down against the Spar’s roadway in a mass of red.

  The rear half of the ship groaned, hanging in the air momentarily before the keystones gave way. The structure beneath the roadway weakened as if it were little more than a pile of stones succumbing to the sea, and then it gave way entirely. It created a gap where the keystones had been, and it widened quickly, moving closer and closer to the section upon which Nikandr lay.

  And then roadway fell out from underneath him.

  He plummeted, grabbing ineffectually at empty air as the wound in his chest burned white hot. The underside of the Spar receded, faster and faster, until the wind threw him about and sent him twisting and turning and tumbling toward the sea.

  The desperate part of him wanted to claw for his havahezhan, but he knew the moment Nasim had driven the knife home that that link was gone. He’d felt it snap-his connection to Nasim, his connection to Adhiya.

  Something flashed in the sky above him.

  He lost it, found it again a moment later. Something burning brightly.

  It came nearer. It was a person, but the wind was whipping him about so fiercely he couldn’t tell who.

  But then the wind began working on him. He could feel it slowing him down, and suddenly he was hovering in the air not two paces from Nasim.

  Nasim tumbled once, but then steadied as he drifted closer. His control was now absolute, and they were close enough that if they reached out to one another, their fingers might just barely be able to t
ouch.

  Nasim was holding the Atalayina, and it glowed as brightly in his hand as it had in Muqallad’s. He was close enough to embrace. With one hand he held the Atalayina high. And with the other pulled the knife free.

  Nikandr screamed. Clutched at his wound.

  He blacked out for a moment, and when he woke, Nasim was pressing the Atalayina against his chest as if it were a bolt of cloth meant to staunch his wound.

  The Atalayina chilled Nikandr to his core. It was as cold as night, the feeling as wide and limitless as the firmament. The cold filled him, changed him, made him feel whole in ways he could not remember feeling before, and for a moment, the world opened up before him, was laid bare. He saw Erahm and Adhiya and the aether in between. Breath slipped from his lungs at the beauty of it all.

  But then the feeling was gone, and the wind began to change. It buffeted them in new and unexpected ways, and Nasim was suddenly and violently pulled away. The Atalayina was pulled away as well, and the moment it was no longer touching his skin, Nikandr felt alone and abandoned and forgotten. It felt as though he’d never been born.

  He dropped toward the water, limp, unable to do anything but let the currents of wind take him. Nasim, flailing wildly at the air with a horror-stricken expression, was too far away to do anything.

  “ Neh!” he screamed while trying and failing to come closer to Nikandr.

  And then a slight form barreled downward like a cormorant diving for the sea. It was Kaleh, Nikandr realized. She struck Nasim mid-air, and the Atalayina was knocked from his grasp to float free of the twisting, turning forms.

  The two of them crashed into the sea.

  Mere moments before Nikandr did.

  He fell deep, the sound of it raucous in his ears. The air was pressed from his lungs. He flailed in the dark, not understanding which way was up. The salty water of the sea forced its way into his lungs, and he coughed, drawing in more while trying desperately to pull himself up toward the surface.

  He kicked. He stroked his arms. All as the salt water burned his throat and mouth and lungs.

  Ages seemed to pass, but at last he broke through to the surface. The waves fell down upon him mercilessly, pulling him under. He coughed reflexively, water spilling from his throat.

  He tried to stay above the waves, but it was impossible. He was weak. So weak. And the waves threw him about, always tossing him back beneath the surface. He kicked. He pulled, but his strength was beginning to fail.

  He grew angry and desperate, kicking at the crest of each wave to look for Nasim. He managed to call to him once, but heard nothing in return. There was detritus from the ship that had crashed into the Spar-some of which was still falling and striking the sea around him-but of Nasim he saw nothing.

  And then it became too much. His anger was spent, and the waves once more began to drag him down.

  Again and again the water fell upon him. Filling his mouth, slipping down his throat and into his lungs before he could clear the water away. He was beyond desperation. He was despondent, accepting, for he knew the end was near.

  Until he heard a crash nearby.

  He felt the water roil around him. He felt it push him upward. It lifted him, a column of water above the roiling sea. Not far away was a large piece of the ship’s hull, tilting and turning on the sea-tossed waves. On it was a man, and through his wracking coughs he realized it was Ashan.

  He could see a wide area of the straits now, and he scanned the water desperately. “Nasim!” he called. “Nasim!”

  He tried again and again as the water bore him toward Ashan. He searched, shouting until his throat was raw, but he received no answer, and saw no signs.

  The column of water deposited Nikandr down upon the plank. Ashan, his face pinched with concern, moved quickly with strong arms to pull Nikandr to the center of the makeshift raft. In the clouds high above the Spar, a maelstrom spun. Dirt and debris caught by the wind rained down, biting the skin of his scalp and hands as he cowered from it.

  Again Ashan called upon the water to bear them swiftly across the channel toward the northern cliff. Massive pieces of the Spar, which was still breaking up, crashed into the sea, sending plumes of water high into the air. On the far side of the straits, a column of stone calved from the cliff face, crumbling as it fell. When it struck the water, a massive wave formed and spread outward, consuming the distance toward the opposite set of cliffs.

  Their raft reached a break in the cliffs, a shallow inlet. Ashan lifted them high on the mound of water as the worst of the massive waves crashed below. As they subsided, he set them down on a shelf of stone twenty feet up from the chaos below.

  As the wind continued to rage, as the debris rained down, Nikandr looked to the sea for Nasim or for Kaleh, and though he searched and called through the harrowing hours that followed, he never found them.

  Nikandr hoped to find Atiana on the northern side of the Spar, so when the storms finally died down, he asked Ashan to take him there. They flew up on currents of wind, and Ashan set them down near the Spar’s landing not twenty paces away from the auction house platform where he’d slipped Atiana’s soulstone necklace around her neck.

  “We should divide our efforts,” Ashan said as he waved to Nikandr. “There are those I would search for as well.”

  Nikandr wandered the streets of Vihrosh, asking questions of those he saw. Few braved the streets early on, but as time passed, more and more came out of their homes and began asking for news and inspecting the damage to their city. He spent hours, asking everyone he could if they’d seen a woman matching Atiana’s description, but they all shook their heads.

  The storm-so fierce only a few hours before-seemed to have burned itself out entirely, so that by the time Nikandr gave up the search, the clouds cleared and the sun shone down. It was a strange reality to be faced with-a beautiful day after the devastation he’d witnessed.

  When he returned to the Spar, Ashan stood at the landing with a young man of fourteen or fifteen. Ashan introduced him as Sukharam, and apparently he’d traveled far with Nasim.

  “Do you think him dead then?” Sukharam asked. Clearly Ashan had told him of the final moments on the Spar and the water below.

  “I hope not,” Nikandr said.

  The boy’s eyes became more intense, almost angry. “Do you think him dead?”

  It was a question he probably deserved an answer to, but Nikandr wouldn’t be pushed. Not now.

  “I hope not,” he said again, and walked past the two of them.

  He made his way to the broken end of the Spar and leaned out over the shorn edge to stare at the water below. He still had his soulstone. He had cast outward with it several times on his walk through Vihrosh, hoping to feel Atiana, and now he did so again. As it was before, he could not sense her, but neither could he sense anyone else-not his mother nor father nor any of the Matri. No one. The stone felt deadened, though whether this was due to their deaths or some artifact of the destruction of the Spar and the grand release of energy that followed he wasn’t sure.

  Ashan stepped up beside him and stared down toward the water as well. His foot shifted a stone, which flew down toward the sea, its arc curving as the wind took it. “Sukharam was brusk, but he had a point.”

  Nikandr shook his head sadly. “I don’t know if he died.” Where the knife had cut through his coat and shirt, he could reach through and touch the raw wound that Nasim had healed with the Atalayina. The subtle feeling that he was connected to Nasim was gone. And he was poorer for it. He’d always felt that he would one day find Nasim, that they would help one another close the rifts.

  But now…

  Now he didn’t know if that would ever be possible. Muqallad and Sariya had been stopped, but the world had been left in a terrible state. Who knew what would happen tomorrow?

  Movement along the Spar caught Nikandr’s attention.

  A skiff floated up and away from Baressa, making its way steadily toward the Spar, toward their location. After a wa
it that seemed like days, it crossed the gap at the center of the Spar and came to a rest nearby. Anahid was in the skiff, guiding it.

  And Atiana was there as well.

  As she swung over the side of the skiff, Nikandr rushed forward and swept her up in a deep embrace. He held her tight, a rush of emotions soaring inside him.

  “I thought you were gone,” he whispered.

  He heard her sniffling. “I thought the same of you.”

  When at last they pulled away, she smiled and brushed away his tears. He brushed away hers and drew her in again, kissing her warm, salt-laced lips.

  After taking his hand, she led him into the skiff. She beckoned to Ashan and Sukharam as well, and soon all four of them were inside, flying back toward the city.

  “Nikandr,” Atiana said, taking his hands in hers. She gripped them tightly as she sat on the thwart. “I have grave news.” Nikandr felt his insides go weak, but Atiana, with intent emotion, held his gaze, giving him strength. “My father is dead. Sacrificed by the Kamarisi before the first ships crossed the Spar.”

  Nikandr stared, shocked to hear these words. “It cannot be so.”

  She shook her head, squeezing his hands so that he would let her finish. “Your father… He came to lead the charge. He commanded brilliantly, but in the end the Galaheshi elite broke through and rushed the commanders huddled behind the lines.

  “They retreated, but your father was taken by a musket shot.” She paused, steeling herself, giving Nikandr time to absorb this. “He’s dead, Nischka. He lasted only minutes after taking the wound.”

  Nikandr felt himself go cold and distant. The sound of the wind faded in his ears. He felt Atiana’s hand on his knee, felt her move to sit on his thwart and hug him, and even though he hugged her back, none of it felt real, especially those words: He’s dead, Nischka.

  Anahid flew them up to Kasir Yalidoz and landed the skiff in the center of the grand patio. Anahid glanced at the kasir but refused to leave the skiff. “You have much to do,” she said, “and I would speak with Ashan.”

  Nikandr nodded numbly, grasping Ashan’s offered hand and kissing him on the forehead. “Thank you,” he said.