Tyla returned and sat beside them once more. After a moment, Nikka enquired about Dregan and Aviti. The Lyrat confirmed that she was still moving north. Of the mage, he could tell them nothing.
8 - The Good Soldier
A sharp slap tried to bring Aviti out of her fug, but it continued to lie on her like the oppressive har they had encountered on the ship from Bohba to Pyrite. Another slap and she jerked her hands up to her face to defend herself. The motion jarred the cursed bar that still throbbed in her flesh.
She heard voices, but she could not comprehend them; her mind remained out of alignment with her body. The last thing she remembered was Tyla. She reached out for him, but he had failed her. No, that was not right. Tyla had not failed her, but neither had she failed him she realised. She just had not known how to reach him.
Another voice, this one familiar to Aviti. The words reached her ears, but they remained a blur. It was Sevika's voice she realised, that heartless Intoli bitch. Aviti shuddered again, as her body recovered from the rigours of the previous day. When her convulsions were gone, she tried to pull together the threads of her life.
The dead tree.
The river.
The people she had destroyed.
They were not people she told herself, they were the soulless Damned. She had done them a mercy. But no matter what she told herself, the exhilaration she had felt at the act confirmed something awful. When the magic flowed through her, when she wallowed deep in its thrall, she would butcher living men, woman and children, to keep that connection alive. She was revolted with herself, disgusted by her weakness.
The night had come like a thief. She remembered being lifted, but she could not remember sleep claiming her. A shove in the back moved her forward, so she walked, pushing one leg before the other. Someone must have dragged her upright. At least moving gave her a distraction; a means to an end. She did not care where she went, as long as it was far from this spoiled place. The rhythm of her stride became her own personal mantra, to which she became a slave.
Others were with her; other men and woman, each accompanied by an Intoli. They shuffled along with her, repeating the same wordless mantra that she did.
‘Sevika,’ Aviti said on an impulse to her Intoli master, ‘what is the Arkasona?’
Sevika said nothing for a few moments and then said. ‘It is a fragment of the Source.’
‘What?’
‘The Source is Mother and Father to the light and therefore to the Intoli. The Arkasona is a fragment left in the earth.’
Aviti’s mind raced. How could anything be a part of the Intoli’s Source? But it did not matter what it was. ‘This is what you are enslaving a race for? This Arkasona?’ Sevika ignored her and increased the pressure through the bond forcing Aviti to move, leaving her with no strength for words
Soon the town was left behind. Massive oaks towered over them now and their broad leaves filtered the sunlight. This gave the ground a mottled look; leprous in appearance – carious even. A few bushes sat between the trees, drinking up the sunshine that the oaks had missed.
She was so lost in this foreign land. There were no reference points for her, no landmarks, not even a horizon here. Just gnarled trees and bushes.
So, she looked away from them and back at the other slaves that walked with them. These people were in a far worse state than her. They were starved as well as broken. The rags that served as clothes would not keep these people warm. Some of them would be lucky to survive a cold night in the forest.
As if responding to her thoughts, the wind picked up, delivering an ice-cold stab. Aviti felt a presence behind the gust; a dark purpose which directed the air. The leaves of the surrounding trees rustled in sympathy with the wind and then a single leaf came free from its place up high. At first, it evaded gravity's pull, drifting to and fro of its own accord. Then the leaf span and fell, flashing green and then dark brown; green and brown, green and brown, green and brown.
It approached the ground and then, in an apparent change of heart, it soared back up into the air. The trees and bushes around the small party shook their branches giving their own encouragement to the leaf. But the wind died and the leaf plummeted to the dirt.
The trees fell silent, but the bushes continued their movement. Aviti stared at them for a heartbeat or two, but she saw the danger too late.
Figures burst from the undergrowth. Caked in mud, twigs and grass, they overran the first few Intoli upon which they fell. Luminous red blood exploded from violent gashes in their ethereal flesh spraying their assailants as they fell.
Still reeling from the abuse that she had sustained yesterday, Aviti stood transfixed for a second. Then a hand grabbed her, hauled her to one side and Sevika was beside her. Her smooth featureless face creased as the Intoli took in the ambush.
Aviti went to strike Sevika, but the Intoli sent a piercing shaft of pain through the brass bolt, which left Aviti in the dirt. From there she watched the Intoli shout orders to another of her kind.
The ambushers attacked the humans. They were ignoring the Intoli. Instead, they cut and bludgeoned the enslaved humans with their makeshift weapons.
At Sevika's command, an Intoli used her human slave to send a bolt of fire into the attackers. It hit the first two ambushers and set them ablaze. Aviti expected to see the ragged humans flee back into the woods, but more of them poured out of the trees.
As she stood, Aviti realised that she was also in danger. Why were they killing the men and women and not the Intoli? Sevika grabbed her again and she did not resist. The Intoli barked a command to her people and then thrust Aviti away from the attackers.
'Move,' commanded Sevika. 'Move!'
They fled with sounds of butchery polluting the air. Running flat out, they headed east into the dense forest. They continued to run until Aviti collapsed at the foot of an ancient oak. She thumped her back off the tree as she went down, jarring the lump of metal inside her, but she was too exhausted to complain. As she fought to calm her breathing, Sevika paced up and down, muttering to herself.
Why had those people attacked their own kind? Why not slay the Intoli and free the humans? And then it hit her.
'You cannot do it yourself, can you?' Aviti accused the Intoli. Sevika stopped pacing and flexed her fingers on the brass bar. 'The Magic... you cannot do it by yourself can you?' The Intoli stood with her back to Aviti. 'That's why those people did not attack you directly. In their desperation they slay their own to rob you of the power.'
'For eons we did,' said Sevika, 'for that is what we entrapped the Waren with. We kept the darkness subdued. Time and again it would escape, but we would return it to the Dhuma.'
Sevika turned to look at Aviti. 'Then the world was split and our power began to fade.'
'And you presumed you had the right to take what you lost from those that you deem to be lesser creatures.' Aviti wished she could have put the force into those words that they deserved.
'Without us, the Source would already be lost and the world with it.' said the Intoli.
'So you can see the future?' Aviti shot back. 'Has your prescience granted you the knowledge of where we are?'
'Get up. We must move,' the Intoli said, ignoring Aviti's ire. 'You have seen what awaits you if we are caught.' As much as Aviti wanted to argue, she knew Sevika was right. So she stood up and followed Sevika.
- *-
They walked for the rest of the day, sheltered from the sun and its black counterpart by the tree's thick canopy, until it grew too dull to make their way through the roots and bushes. Aviti could not have taken another step. She believed that the Intoli would have walked through the night. These Intoli needed neither rest nor sustenance.
They stopped near a pool of water and Aviti managed to make a fire with some sticks and twigs to ward off the cold. Then she found edible roots, and boiled them to make gruel. It was tasteless, but she added some berries and these made the grey slop bearable. Habit and entrenched loyalty to her father f
orced her to offer some of it to Sevika. The Intoli stared at it and then refused with a slight shake of her head.
'Where are we going?' asked Aviti without any real hope of an answer.
'north,' replied Sevika.
Aviti sighed. That much she knew already. 'Where are we now?'
Sevika never bothered to look at her. Aviti gave up and finished her meagre meal. Then she settled down to rest.
The light faded and the dark sun rose. Whenever she glanced at Sevika, hoping to find the Intoli asleep or that her attention had strayed, the Intoli returned her look.
-*-
As soon as it was light enough to move, they were up and away. The morning was spent ploughing their way through forest. By midday, the forest thinned and an hour or so later they found a stream, so Sevika stopped to allow Aviti to rest.
'Do you ever get tired?' asked the Masheshi girl as she drank cool water from the stream. The Intoli blinked and looked away. The only signs of Sevika's travels were the marks that the earth had left on her clothes; dark green stains on a crystal white tapestry. A few moments later they were on the move again.
The going became much easier now. The ground was not so hard and the trees were sparser. It gave the sun the chance to warm her battered soul. 'How old are you?' asked Aviti as they walked.
'I was not born,' replied Sevika, 'if that is what you mean. I do not remember when I came to be, but none recall a time when we were not.'
Aviti blinked. 'You were not born? What of your mother and father?'
'I have no creator but the Source. Necessity and need are my parents. The Source had need of us so we came forth.' Aviti nodded blankly.
'Tell me about your people,' said Aviti trying to get something she to hold on to, something she could understand.
'We are not people,' said Sevika, 'we are one.' Sevika's words lacked the confidence they should have held. 'We shall restore the Source. Repair the balance of the world and we shall be returned to our proper place.'
'That is not what Ravan said,' began Aviti but then she skidded and fell. Her hands and knees sank into the soft, muddy earth. Sevika put a hand under her to help her rise. Aviti could have launched her weight backwards against the Intoli, but she knew she was too weak.
So, they battled on whilst the conditions worsened. A sudden downpour caught them out in the open and, even though it departed as the Kalsurja rose, they were soaked through. More problematic than the condition of their clothes was the ground underfoot. It had gone from soft to boggy.
'We are lost, are we not?' asked Aviti, but the Intoli did not answer. 'And you have dragged us into a swamp.' The sodden ground was not the only thing that had changed. The oak trees had been replaced by smaller shrubs and thinner, less substantial trees.
'Where we are is unimportant,' said Sevika. 'We go to join the Intoli.'
Aviti assumed that Sevika must be aware of where the other Intoli were, in the same way she felt Tyla far to the east. She thought about that for a second. They had moved north. If Tyla remained due east from her, then he too must be travelling north. That gave her some comfort. She missed the quiet desert man – the fearless Lyrat. Would he ever forgive her?
Sevika stopped and looked at her, as if seeing her in a new light, or for the first time. Aviti felt the hated brass bar tingle in her skin, as if it tried to move, tried to embed itself deeper in her flesh. Aviti pushed past the Intoli and dropped to the ground beside a solitary large oak. Its roots gave Aviti some protection from the soaking ground.
'I am exhausted,' she said. 'If you make me walk any more today I will collapse. I need food and heat and I need rest. Else leave me here.'
Sevika examined her. Even this heartless Intoli must hear the truth in her words? Aviti breathed a heavy sigh when the Intoli nodded. Then Sevika left Aviti alone, and without a word, walked into the marsh.
Aviti did not care whether the Intoli abandoned her or not. She gathered her legs to herself and tried to stop herself shivering.
The Intoli returned after a few moments with an armful of branches. She gathered them into a pile, where the ground sloped down from the tree to a large pool. After three or four more journeys, the pyre was complete. The wood was damp and the continual drizzle would not help get it lit.
The Intoli remained motionless and looked at her. 'You want me to light it,' she laughed. 'If I were home I could light it in an instant with a stone and flint.' Then it dawned on her. 'I…I am not sure I can.' She clawed at her bandaged shoulder as tried to move herself.
The Intoli continued to look at her. 'You will, or else you will freeze. I cannot.'
So Aviti breathed and prepared herself. She would have to open herself to the magic. Just a little, it was all she could handle. It was all she would be allowed to take. So, she let herself open the door within herself a crack, and the beautiful energy slipped through her. A moment or two later the wood was dry and the fire blazed. Aviti lay down beside it and slept before the pain of withdrawal could bite.
-*-
The smell of roasting meat roused Aviti from her slumber. She had no idea what it was, or how the Intoli had caught, but she did not care. It was burned to the point of inedibility, but it tasted like a slice of ecstasy.
Sevika stood beside the tree. She ate nothing and remained motionless. The Kalsurja dominated the sky. It would be night soon.
The heat from the fire kept Aviti warm and it dried her clothes while she slept. Her shoulder was pained and stiff from the insertion of the bar, but there was no heat in the pain. She raised her fingers to her bandaged shoulder.
'Leave it,' said Sevika, 'else it will fester.' Her voice lacked the note of command it usually carried. Aviti saw subtle lines of stress on the Intoli's face: around the eyes, at the corners of the mouth, across the pristine forehead. The indications were small, but they were there.
Aviti continued to eat and found that the Intoli had even filled a few water skins. Sevika showed no signs of exertion.
The sun dipped behind a cloud and refused to reappear. The shadows that remained were now a result of the fire. They pulsed in concert with the ebb and flow of the flame, dancing beside the large pond. Behind the obsidian sun, the moon languidly trailed. She had not seen the moon in weeks. It gave her a peculiar comfort knowing that it struggled on in the sky, despite the ominous presence of the Kalsurja.
'What do you think it is?' Aviti asked. 'The moon I mean. My father told me you could see it wherever you are in the world.'
Sevika surprised her by nodding. Then the Intoli turned her head from Aviti and looked across the pond as the sun set.
Aviti heard a whirring, clicking noise above the crack and rumble of the fire. Crickets, she thought to herself. It made her think of home, when the summer had gone and the autumn faded, the crickets would pass through. Many a farmer cursed them for pillaging their crops, but not her father. He saw them as part of life; neither to be hated nor adored, just accepted.
'Something approaches,' said the Intoli, sounding as impassive as a Lyrat. She held herself motionless, continuing her vigil. Aviti dragged herself up and moved beside Sevika, turning her back to the fire.
At first, she could see nothing, but then they materialised out of the growing darkness; a couple of points of light, dancing through the rushes. But then more came. Each speck of light shifted left or right as they made their way towards them, the effect of so many of them weaving back and forth delighted Aviti.
They circled the body of water before Aviti and Sevika, tracing the lines of the pool in the air. Aviti walked towards them and Sevika followed her. She stopped an arm's length from them. The light from the motes were bright and undarkened by the Kalsurja. They flowed past like shooting stars, humming a delicate melody. Each point dipped as it passed by Aviti; as if they sought to pay her homage. They flitted past Sevika as if she did not exist.
The circle began to slow and then the points of light gathered before Aviti. It was so bright that she averted her eyes, but the
light dimmed after a moment. Their glow was a tender yellow now, the colour of the desert on a warm spring evening. A single point approached her and Aviti held her breath.
'Girl of the Desert,' a voice said in her head, 'and child of the Intoli.'
'Who are you,' asked Aviti, ashamed that she had to speak aloud.
'We are Legion. And we are few.'
'We are the past and we are the future,' it continued, 'as are you.'
Aviti was not sure whether the voice meant the former or the later, but either way it made little sense to her. But the voice sang with a peculiar duality and it captivated her.
The lights around the water swayed and throbbed, pulsing to their own rhythm. They bathed the area in a soft, beneficent light, which made the glow of the fire insignificant. This was a proud and unbending light, and for once Aviti felt unaffected by the presence of the dark sun.
A tongue of flame leapt from the campfire to the light that bobbed in front of Aviti. The golden orb absorbed the flame with a small ripple of colour. When the fluctuation in the orbs settled down, it spoke again. 'We come to petition you, for you alone may help us.'
'Help you, how?' she asked.
The light dimmed for a heartbeat and then burned brighter. 'Heal this land, as only you may. Repair the ancient damage done.
'You must reunite the twins.'
'The twins?' asked Aviti. 'What twins?'
'More than this we cannot say,' said the voice with a note of sorrow. 'Even as we speak to you now we endanger all that is, and all that may be. But we must make the attempt.'
An idea occurred to Aviti, so she shoved her confusion to one side. 'Remove this,' said Aviti gesturing to her shoulder. 'Remove this and I will do whatever you want.' Aviti thought that Sevika would intervene, but the Intoli remained where she stood.
The light before her retreated, and it quavered as it went. Aviti held her breath. After a few more heartbeats, the glowing orb returned.
The Redemption of Wist Boxed Set: Books 1 - 3: The complete collection Page 39
