Probably two birds falling in love from afar, Rollan thought grumpily. At least they’re happy. I’m just cold. And worried.
His thoughts went to Meilin. Essix hadn’t been the only spirit animal in his dream—wherever she was, had Meilin felt a similar rupture to her bond with Jhi? He hoped she was more comfortable tonight than he was, sleepless in this chilly air and waiting for danger to strike. Had she and Conor found the mysterious door? He wished that they could all be together, camping with Tellun.
But Meilin wasn’t there, so Rollan would have to spend his watch with only Essix for company. At least the falcon was sticking close—she probably felt as confused as he did by the near loss of their bond. He stared out into the blackness, taking comfort from the slow rise and fall of his friends’ breathing and Essix’s little chirps. The falcon readjusted herself on Rollan’s arm, fluffing and unfluffing her feathers, trying to find the right temperature.
“Are we okay?” Rollan whispered to the falcon. But though he could make a guess, he had no idea what she was feeling. He could only pray the connection returned soon.
Throughout it all, the songbirds continued their happy chirping. There were three of them now, Rollan realized. One from the north, one from the south, and one … from the west.
Filling with dread, Rollan rose quietly to his feet and unsheathed his dagger. He could see from the silvered outline of the twin mountains that the sun had dawned on the other side, but their massive forms were still blocking most of the light.
He was nervous but wasn’t sure if he needed to awaken Abeke and Anda yet.
“Essix,” Rollan whispered, “can you see enough to scout around?”
Before he had even finished asking, Essix took to the air, rising into the night as silent as a whisper.
Rollan held still and opened his senses as much as he could. The songbirds were coming closer. Songbirds in the night? Closing in from three directions?
His intuition set off alarms. “Anda, Abeke!” he hissed. “Get up!”
Whatever was hunting him must have been waiting for him to make a noise, because the moment Rollan spoke was the moment the first animal struck, from out of nowhere. Something sharp locked on Rollan’s hamstring. He couldn’t see enough to know what it was that had attacked him, but it was strong enough to yank him to the ground. Rollan flailed, trying to get back to his feet even as his attacker bit deeper and pulled.
A man shouted, with a voice Rollan recognized but couldn’t quite place, and then the clearing was suddenly full of noise as attackers closed in. They came not from the west, the north, or the south.
They came from all three.
THE GROUP WAS GRIPPED BY A QUEASY SILENCE ALL THE way back to Phos Astos. Unbidden, Meilin’s mind kept replaying the sight of those white bodies struggling to get above frothing black water, inevitably failing and being swept under. She shivered. Carried off into the watery depths—it was a horrific way to go. Despite herself, she hoped at least a few of the monstrous creatures had somehow survived.
When the tunnel started to glow pink-green, Meilin knew they were nearing Phos Astos. Then they emerged into the main cavern, and she was again struck by the beauty of the lively oasis, glowing warmly in the midst of so many tons of dark and impenetrable rock. The nervous chatter of the Sadreans carried down the ruddy light of the entrance tunnel. Once she and the others had stepped out into the full light of the city, Meilin saw a ripple pass through them as they remarked on the strangers’ return. The Sadreans paused in their tasks, became still and watchful, waiting for news.
Ingailor raised a hand to the watching crowd. “You can return to your duties,” he said. “The Many attacked, but they have been fought off.” There was no cheering, only grim nods, rustling, and murmurs as everyone returned to work. Fighting off the Many was clearly something that had happened often before. Even so, most looked up every few seconds to scan their surroundings as they returned to work.
The last to emerge from the tunnel was Takoda—with Kovo. The moment the gorilla clambered down the handholds in the stone wall and thudded to the cave floor, the cavern of Phos Astos filled with audible gasps. Men and women fell to their knees where they were, bowing their foreheads to the ground in reverence. A complicated and almost wistful expression on his face, Kovo grunted and paced, finally working his way to the center of the cavern. There, he stood up on two legs and slowly pivoted, taking in the sight of the people he had tasked eons ago to found their underground civilization. He roared.
The youngest of the Sadreans screamed, their shrieks joining the gorilla’s roar and reverberating through the walls. The echoes strengthened one another until the noise sounded more like the rumbling of the earth than animal cries. Then the gorilla stopped, and gradually the cavern grew quiet.
Most of the Sadreans stood where they were along the edges of the giant mushrooms, but then the elders from the mural room made their way to the floor, expertly clambering down the handholds carved into the fiber. When they arrived, they formed a semicircle around the group.
One by one, the elders knelt, while Kovo lowered himself to the rock floor. One of the elders ran her hand over the shimmering fungus on the ground, then tentatively brought it toward the mighty ape. Meilin expected to see him bare his teeth, but Kovo stared into the distance coolly as the woman traced five lines across his cheek. Then the woman took another handful of color and traced it over her own cheek.
Each of the elders came forward and did the same, choosing a different part of Kovo to honor and leaving a mark on the same spot of their own bodies. Ingailor was the last, placing a pink handprint on Kovo’s chest and then one on his own. The ape bowed his head, acknowledging their ancient agreement. Meilin watching silently, not wanting to break the spell.
“Xanthe,” she finally whispered, nodding deferentially to the elders, “would it be okay if I showed them Jhi?”
“Of course!” Xanthe said. “We would be honored.”
Meilin brought the panda out, and Jhi emerged right over a small bush of round mushrooms, squashing them flat and letting out an iridescent pink-green cloud of spores. The panda looked around in surprise, then saw Meilin and bounded over, making a groaning sound that Meilin recognized as the sign of Jhi’s purest joy. Meilin threw her arms around her closest friend, breathing in the eucalyptus smell of Jhi’s fur, somehow constant through all of the panda’s appearings and disappearings. Immediately Jhi was covered in color, from the moist tip of her nose to the soles of her feet. She looked delighted by it.
Conor summoned Briggan, and the wolf was soon painted as well, though due to his thicker fur the color appeared only at the tips, giving him a shimmering aura. Briggan nuzzled Conor joyously, and Conor buried his face in his friend’s fur. Then they seemed to simultaneously remember where they were and got to their feet. The people of Phos Astos were watching them silently, smiles on their faces. Even Kovo’s mouth split into something that might have been a smirk.
“Let us rejoice tonight!” Ingailor called. “We have once again defeated the Many, and Great Beasts have come to Phos Astos.”
As the cheer died down, Jhi’s stomach growled.
Xanthe scrutinized the panda’s belly, and then she, too, threw her arms around Jhi. “It took me a moment to realize what that strange sound was,” she said. “You must all be starving. Come to my house. We’ll feast!”
“This isn’t precisely what I’d call a feast, not exactly,” Conor said through tight lips.
“Speak for yourself,” Meilin said. “I’m enjoying it immensely.” She lifted her bowl to her lips and downed a huge mouthful of food, smacking her lips in satisfaction. The food was strangely tasty, considering it consisted of boiled mushroom cubes and some kelp-like black weed. Though they looked the same, some of the mushrooms were peppery and some were sweet. Meilin had Conor on one side, but she’d spent most of the meal talking to Xanthe’s uncle on the other. His job was to distinguish and combine the various flavors.
Once th
ey’d eaten, Xanthe escorted the group through a series of passageways, up into some mushroom towers and out through others, until they were at the far side of Phos Astos. Once there, she asked them to bring their spirit animals into passive state, as they’d have to climb slender rope ladders to reach her clan’s sleeping quarters. Kovo was the last to go into his dormant state, giving the city a longing glance over his shoulder before he did. The ape had enjoyed the adoration he’d gotten from the Sadreans.
They climbed up more braided ropes that led to three ledges carved in the cavern’s rock walls. At the top, they plopped to the ground to rest. Once they were ready, Xanthe led the companions up the last few paces to a freestanding mushroom tower. An open portal fed to a dim interior room. As they entered, Sadrean children leaped down from rows of beds that had been cut out of the sides of the mushroom. They peered shyly from behind Xanthe.
Tiny pale faces with giant pink eyes—Sadrean children were surprisingly adorable, Meilin thought.
“Some of these are blood relatives and some lost their parents, like I once did,” Xanthe explained. “But we’re all brothers and sisters now.”
“War makes orphans everywhere,” Takoda said. He tousled the hair of one of the little girls, who patted it down furiously. Takoda messed it up all over again, and this time she broke into a giggling smile. Xanthe’s brothers and sisters soon got over their shyness and surrounded the upsiders, touching their garments curiously and asking dozens of questions about life on the surface.
“Let’s give them some space,” Xanthe finally told her siblings. “My new friends have had a long journey, and they’re very tired.”
Xanthe carved a path through her siblings and led Meilin, Conor, and Takoda to the rear of the chamber, where she pointed to four empty bunks carved into the rounded wall. “Have as long a rest as you need. You all deserve it.”
“I guess it’s hard to say ‘I’ll wake you in the morning’ when there’s no morning, huh?” Conor said.
“We have a water clock to keep time,” Xanthe said. “It’s night on the surface right now, actually.”
Meilin, Conor, and Takoda slotted their few belongings into cubbies at the foot of their bunks and settled in. Xanthe disappeared for a moment and returned with soft, shimmering black blankets. At first the blanket felt clammy over Meilin’s body, but soon it warmed and turned supple. She would sleep just fine.
“Good night,” Meilin said to the others as she slid into the bunk.
“I guess it is night,” Takoda sleepily responded. “Not that it matters down here. It’s a striking shift in perspective. What a marvelous opportunity for self-reflection.”
“Sure …” Meilin said, voice already weakening as she drifted off, “… absolutely marvelous.” Good night, Rollan, she mouthed to herself, wondering where he was.
Meilin dreamed of Jhi. She’d once had a poisoned bond with the panda, but ever since she’d been cured, Jhi was with her every sleeping moment. Sometimes the dreams were about Meilin’s life—her childhood in Zhong, memories of her father or, more distantly, her mother. But other times she dreamed of places she had never been, places that must have been part of Jhi’s memories instead. They’d wander into a cloudy forest of bamboo, with giant sloths swaying in the treetops, creatures that no longer existed on Erdas.
This was one of those nights. Meilin wandered that familiar dream forest, listening to the wind in the trees. Jhi was leading the way. Well, Jhi was more ambling the way, wandering among the stems, selecting the youngest shoots and passing every other one back for Meilin to eat. She ate them happily as she stared into the clouds—they tasted slightly spicy, like chives.
The openness of the dream space was such a pleasant break from sky-less Sadre. One of the clouds looked a little like Rollan. Well, not exactly, but it had the same goofy chin. Jhi, Meilin called in the dream, come see Rollan!
But Jhi wasn’t there anymore. Meilin whirled in the bamboo forest. The beauty of her surroundings had turned ominous. She was alone.
Meilin checked her arm, but the tattoo wasn’t there—Jhi wasn’t passive, but missing. Panic coursing through her, she ran heedlessly through the forest, calling out Jhi’s name. Leaves caught and dragged at her hair, scratching her arms and face. There were no monsters or terrors here, but all the same Meilin felt a sinister kind of fear at being so alone. She crashed through a thicket of bamboo, and suddenly she was in open black space, falling slowly down a chasm.
She felt her spine wrench and twist as she fell—
—and woke up screaming. Meilin sat up, gasping and soaked in sweat. The wrenching pain came once again, and it took all of Meilin’s will not to give in to the torment and buckle over. Marshaling her training, she made herself stand. The terrible pain ebbed, leaving her a shred of control over her senses. The first thing she did was roll up her sleeve and check her arm for Jhi’s tattoo. It was there. She hadn’t lost Jhi in the real world.
It dawned on Meilin that someone was shrieking, had been shrieking since she woke up. She fell into a fighter’s crouch, staring around in alarm.
It wasn’t a person making the sound, she realized, but more like the anguished hiss of steam leaving a kettle. The screamers. The alarm had been tripped.
“Conor! Takoda!” she said. But their beds were empty. She whirled, and found they all were vacant, rimmed in their usual phosphorescent pink-green. The incessant whine of the screamers continued. Between that noise and her painful awakening, Meilin was finding it hard to get her thoughts into any order. She clamped her hands over her ears and gritted her teeth so she wouldn’t start screaming herself.
Meilin grabbed her quarterstaff and staggered toward the exit, shaking her head in hopes of clearing it. Once she was out of the tight confines of the sleeping chamber, she summoned Jhi. It took longer for the panda to arrive, but when she finally did, Meilin calmed. Jhi startled in the dim light and blaring noise, then Meilin saw her ears wag, and the noise suddenly stopped.
They were surrounded by a sphere of stillness.
“Jhi,” Meilin whispered, “I didn’t know you could do that.”
Jhi nodded but looked at her glassily. Meilin felt a strange and uncomfortable distance between them. She wanted to ask what was wrong, but there wasn’t time. “Come,” she said, a hand on Jhi’s back. “We need to find Conor and Takoda!”
Jhi didn’t answer. When Meilin looked at her, she realized why.
The panda was staring out at the lights of Phos Astos. At first Meilin thought the lights were shimmering, but she quickly realized what was happening: The beautiful city was under assault. The Many were crawling over the mushroom towers like a plague of insects, making ripples in the glowing light. They climbed senselessly, moving up the mushrooms in pulsating waves, many of them tumbling to their deaths. But an ever-growing swarm was ready to take their place. The far half of the city was overrun—Meilin saw terrified families emerge from their homes, only to fall under the onslaught. She watched in horror as one of the ghoulish monsters broke into the spider pen and began eating the small animals—another entered the weavers’ quarters, exiting with blood on his clawed hands.
Jhi groaned and pointed her paw at the ceiling.
Ghouls were falling like rain.
The Many had managed to navigate the warren of tunnels to the updraft entrance. A long line of them slowly descended in the lazy hot air, thronging in one pale groaning mass at the first net before spilling over into the next. From there they spread out hungrily into Phos Astos, swarming the city like ants on a bean cake.
Meilin shook off her horror. There was a big fight to come, and terror would do her no good. Beside her, one of Xanthe’s siblings slipped past, grabbed a braided rope without losing any speed, and disappeared over the side of the mushroom, down to the next ledge.
“Where are you going?” Meilin called after her. But there was no answer.
What she did hear was the howl of a wolf from one of the ledges below. Briggan and Conor were already out a
nd fighting. “Jhi, get ready!” Meilin cried. “We’re joining them!”
She sprinted toward the braided rope ladder and grabbed it, allowing her momentum to kick her legs over the edge. Her hands held on tight to the rope and she spun, sliding down without losing any momentum.
While she was in the air, she did something she and Jhi had worked on during her months in Zhong: She called Jhi into her passive state as she contacted the rope, then sped down the length, where she quickly summoned the panda again. They’d gotten the high-speed summoning down to a science, but this time her bond seemed to shudder under the stress. A fraying pain whipped into the core of Meilin.
The distraction of it made her miss her target; girl and panda tumbled right onto the coarse fur of Briggan’s back. The wolf yelped in surprise and pivoted, his mouth in a snarl. When he saw who he’d cushioned, his tongue lolled out in happiness.
The four of them were alone on a broad ledge of rock. Conor stood at the lip and stared over, his ax out and ready.
“Conor!” Meilin cried.
He turned, surprised. His expression softened when he saw his friend, but then tightened back up with worry. “Another wave’s coming—Meilin, get ready!”
Meilin didn’t need to ask what he meant: A ghostly-white hand appeared at the lip of the ledge, followed by another and another. With hideous grunting sounds, the arms and heads of the ghastly creatures appeared. Briggan lunged, one of the monsters’ limbs instantly crunching within his jaws. With a flick of his head, he flung the ghoul over the side.
But more of the Many were appearing, and two of them soon had their long-nailed fingers around Briggan’s tail. The wolf danced and kicked, trying to free himself. Caught off-guard, one fell away—only to meet Jhi’s paw. With one mighty swipe, the panda sent the creature skittering across the ledge and into the void. Another of the Many got to its feet, only to face Conor’s ax, which swung through the pink-green light and slammed into its face. With a shriek of pain, the monster staggered backward—following the last one right over the edge. It fell screaming into the open air, the sound lasting a full second before it cut off in a sickening gargle.
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