'You know not what you ask, daughter of the future,' it said and Aviti became aware of discord in the voice, or rather in the voices. It was not a single voice, but a multitude. Their perfect unison had gone. Now the words were ragged and the edges bled into each other.
'No,' it said, the violence in the voices abating. 'This above all things we must not do.'
Aviti could have wept. 'Why?'
'We have told you all that we may,' it concluded. 'Please do what we ask. Only you can release us. Only you can make us whole for we are also within you.' The orb of light dipped down before her once more, as if it sought to abase itself before her. Then it moved to a point before Sevika.
'Intoli,' it began, its voice full of reproachful sorrow. 'Krura saw truthfully when she saw the coming of the desert girl, but the heart of Intoli has a shadow upon it. The Arkasona which your people seek is chimera. Your path shall achieve ruin and shall swell our numbers. The victory for the darkness against which your people have striven since the Source was young shall be assured.'
The Intoli eyelids fluttered as the lights moved. And then they fled from Aviti and Sevika. There were many more than Aviti had first thought, hiding amongst the reeds and plants of the marshes. One by one, they flitted away into the distance. Sevika and Aviti were left with only the firelight and the image of a pale moon upon the water.
-*-
When she woke the next day, Aviti had no words for Sevika, so they made their way north in silence. The sound of the cold wind and the animals that made this marsh their home punctuated their footsteps. Then, after half a day of walking, Sevika spoke.
'You wished to know of the Intoli, but I know not what to tell you. Since the Ravan's absence and the death of Vigopa, the world has grown wild.'
'I follow the heart of the Intoli, but perhaps I am the shadow of which those apparitions spoke of. For ages of lesser races, there has been no doubt in the Intoli's purpose. For an eternity we have known nothing but service - pure and flawless service. Service sustained us and satisfied us and it was all that we required.
'But now...' said the Intoli.
'Then let me go,' said Aviti,
Sevika stopped and looked from Aviti to the Sun and back again. 'Should I cast aside an eternity of service and cast myself adrift at the behest of phantoms.'
'But Ravan returned to us after his decades of wandering.'
'No, I must hold true to Krura,' said Sevika, 'for she is all we have left.'
And so, they picked their way through the marsh for the rest of that day. It was slow and painful, but Aviti had recovered enough of her strength to allow them to maintain a reasonable pace. After a brief rest in the late afternoon for food, the terrain became easier to traverse. She should have questioned the Intoli further, but she had become too lost in her own thoughts.
As the sun began to sink and its blackened counterpart gained height, they found a road. This might be her last chance to escape, but she was so tired.
She gathered her bravery and prepared herself to assault Sevika, but as she did, figures crowned the hill that lay before them. At first, Aviti saw only men and she hoped that they might help her, but more and more people came over the hill. And amongst them were Intoli. Scores upon scores of Intoli.
9 - Overkill
Despite the damage that Wist had done to Nikka's hammer, the wood remained unharmed, although its leather grip was gone. It was too small for Wist to use as a stick to walk with, as Nikka suggested, but it felt good in his hands. He swept the stick around his head and began to move, slipping from position to position. He gained speed as he switched off his conscious mind. Memories of his time with Eliscius and the men and women who had trained him dripped through his mind. Lessons learned several lifetimes ago flitted by in an instant.
He brought the staff whirling around once more and a jarring crack brought him back to himself. Tyla had stepped in front of a swing and brought his Katana out to deflect the blow. The Lyrat nodded to Wist, encouraging him to continue, and so he did. So, the Lyrat weaved himself amongst the moves and they began to spar, the Lyrat using the flat of the blade to counter Wist's attacks. They moved around each other, neither tried to gain an advantage, both of them concentrated on stretching their bodies to their limits.
A ripple of applause broke out as they stopped. Haumea, Oinoir and Nikka all watched them, and so did many others. Giants, about a dozen or so, must have wandered over from their encampment, and most clapped or called out in appreciation. Then, seeing that the entertainment was finished, they made their way back around the lake and made preparations to leave.
The sun had risen when Wist and the others walked around the water. It threw glimmers of reflected golden sunlight as the sun broke through a bank of cloud. Crystal peaks danced on the water as the wind pushed it back and forth. But in a moment, it was left behind.
'Where is Aviti now,' asked Wist.
'North of us,' replied Tyla, 'but she moves closer.'
'Closer?' said Wist, and Tyla nodded.
'Then he is coming,' said Wist.
'Who is coming?' asked Haumea who walked behind them, alongside Nikka.
'Nobody,' said Oinoir, 'You should not listen to them. You have your orders. Stick to them or find yourself a kitchen hand once more.'
Nikka bristled, but said nothing when Haumea touched his arm and lowered her eyes. Wist ignored them all.
'We could use men like you,' said Oinoir addressing Wist and Tyla. 'You fight well, not like the rest of the rabble that fled the white demons.'
'You think that strength is enough to win a war?' said Nikka. 'You must be young indeed.'
'And what would you know of war, Dwarf?' spat Oinoir.
Nikka span and turned upon Oinoir. He rolled past the Giant's legs, freeing the massive sword that hung from Oinoir's belt. As the Giant made a grab for Nikka, the Cerni flipped the monstrous sword so that he held the flat of the blade. Then, as the Giant straightened, Nikka swung the weapon and used its weight to put force into the move. Oinoir saw it coming, but he saw it too late and the pommel cracked upon the iron helm that he wore. It sent the Giant down to sprawl on the ground.
A roar of laughter erupted from a party of Giant's that were close enough to see, but Nikka ignored them. He proffered the sword to the Giant, who took it and used it to climb to his feet.
'I did warn you,' said Nikka. 'I am a Cerni.'
-*-
Wist watched Tyla as they walked around the eastern side of a huge mountain. The Lyrat had stumbled twice that morning. The desert man's lack of attention worried Wist. He tried to speak to Tyla, but there was no reply.
'Looks like the Rathou,' said Nikka. Wist looked at the dark Cerni and shrugged his shoulders. 'The mountain. It puts me in mind of the Rathou.'
'You miss your home?' asked Haumea.
'Miss it?' Nikka laughed. 'Miss it? I am not sure that I truly have ever had a home. No, I do not miss it.'
'Ah, I miss my home,' said Haumea. Oinoir snorted, but a glance from Nikka silenced him.
'Maybe I shall find a place to call home that I can miss when I go wandering?'
He left the Cerni and crippled Giant to talk and returned his attention to Tyla. 'How close is she now? Is she closer?' Tyla moved away without answering. If she moved closer, then so must Tilden. What was he planning?
As they walked beside a group of Giant priests, the face of the woman from his dream appeared to him again. And with her came the feeling of peace again. This time he didn't try to bring her into sharp focus, but concentrated on his emotions instead.
This felt like the last piece of the puzzle. If he discovered who this woman was, and where she fit into his past, then everything else would make sense. It felt strange to admit it to himself, but he wasn't terrified of his past anymore. That self-imposed barrier was gone.
Then he thought of his brother and Wist's peace shattered. He became aware of everything around him again: the smell of the damp loam of the earth, the cold edge in t
he wind and the tramp of feet upon the flattened grass.
They came around the eastern point of the mountain and looked down upon the marching Giants. Wist shuddered as he surveyed the awesome force that lay before him. If he had had even half of these Giants marching behind him when he had first confronted Tilden, the outcome would have been different. But two centuries ago, he had not known that his brother was behind the army that had arrived at Mashesh. That was another crime that Tilden would be held to account for.
For the remainder of that day and all of the next, they marched north, through driving rain and mud. The huge mountain that they had passed disappeared into the distance as the Ghria Duh approached it. Now they followed a wide river that twisted around the contours of the land. The Giants could have forded it with some care, but the humans could not. They passed the remains of a few bridges. Both stone and wood had been torn up to block passage across the river.
'That is the Doigh,' said Haumea to Nikka pointing to the fast-flowing water that slipped by. Its source is said to be high up in the mountains. It meets the Dail and flows from there, gathering strength and power as it passes the land, until it passes from Pyrite into the seas.' Nikka looked upon the destruction of the crossing points and nodded as if he approved of, or at least understood the necessity of the act.
As it approached midday, they came to a long vale. The valley was a broad expanse of grass, punctuated with burns and tiny streams. A high range of hills bordered it on one side and the other was bounded by the river Doigh. The valley narrowed as it descended down to the river, compressing the marching army and slowing their pace.
Across the river, the trees thickened and Wist saw that, further up the eastern side of the Doigh, a high gravel bank sat behind the trees. It stretched as far north as Wist could see; its bare earth and rocks sitting incongruously above the soft lines of the towering oaks.
The narrowing of the valley allowed Wist and his companions to move past some of the slower moving Giants and people, those who moved supplies and spare armour, weapons and food. Oinoir was pleased with this. He was amongst warriors once more. With his spirits lifted, he chatted with some of the troops.
'What news, Brathoir?' the Giant called to an older, lightly armed comrade.
'For you, none!' grinned the older Giant.
'You always were a poor scout,' retorted Oinoir.
'At least I'm a better scout than you are a lover,' Brathoir replied. Then the two Giants embraced and after a moment separated.
'I heard of Oinair's fall,' said Brathoir. The pair regarded each other for a heartbeat or two, and then Brathoir grabbed the taller Giant once more.
'There is no blame for you,' he said as he released Oinoir. Oinoir looked away from the scout, but did not acknowledge his words.
'Any sign of the white demons?' asked Oinoir.
Brathoir shook his head. 'Not on this side of the Doigh.'
Oinoir nodded, but his face was grim. Then they spoke of other times and friends for moment or two, but Oinoir looked distracted and soon they parted with a final embrace.
Wist's attention slipped from the Giant when Tyla gripped his own shoulder again. He had done so several times that day. These sympathetic attacks had increased in frequency and intensity.
'She draws close,' said Tyla, speaking for the first time that day. He raised a hand and pointed over the river to a tree-covered hill. There a single figure stood; tall and slim, wreathed in silver and white. It glittered as the Ghria Duh crept over the line of trees. Wist thought that it was Tilden come again in the guise of an Intoli; as he had when Wist had smashed Nikka hammer. But it wasn't him.
Haumea looked where Tyla pointed and then she cried out to Oinoir. The Giant turned at the call and looked. Oinoir gaped. Through the trees poured the Intoli, each one of them accompanied by a human. At the front of the Giant's army, Ionracas bellows at his troops, his eyes were wild with despair and need, as he tried to prepare them for attack. Giants rushed to obey his orders.
Above them, the Intoli fanned out across the raised riverbank. Each one of them stood like a bolt of midnight lightning. The Giants closest to the river waded in, but the water was wide and deep.
Then Wist noticed the humans accompanying each of the Intoli. They were ragged, starved and broken.
'What are they doing,' shouted Wist to Oinoir, but the Giant stood as if trapped in a nightmare.
'The Intoli ready for attack,' shouted Haumea over the chaotic sounds of battle cries and confusion. Her wheeze had gone and her face flushed red.
'Attack how?' Wist asked, but the Intoli answered before Haumea could.
One of the humans that flanked the Intoli jerked and threw their hands out before them. A stream of light arced from the human's fingertips. It was as bright as the sun and as narrow as a stab of lightning. But unlike a bolt from the heavens, the line meandered along its trajectory, burning a bridge of light between the two sides of the river. As it reached its peak, Wist determined its destination. It would land in the heart of the Giant's forces.
The Giants stood and watched the golden light's approach. The chaotic panic of a few moments evaporated and an awed calm fell over them. Passive silence gripped them all. Then Haumea broke its spell. She screamed at her people to move. She yelled and howled at them, then she shoved Oinoir and Brathoir, but she was too late. They were too far away from where the bolt would strike.
And strike it did. It scorched its way through one Giant and then another, throwing a shower of blood into the air. But it did not matter, a heartbeat later, the intense yellow line made contact with the ground, and the earth erupted in molten fury. It incinerated those that stood nearby.
A dozen Giants died in that instant. Decades upon decades of life were extinguished in one shattered moment. The impact threw some of the other Giants to the ground in a tangle of armour and weapons, and the wave of pressure that followed knocked Wist from his feet. The rest of his comrades staggered, but Tyla remained standing.
Haumea shouted at Oinoir, trying to get him to retreat; to move his people away from the river and back up to the higher ground. As Wist regained his feet, he glanced at the crippled Giantess. She capered between Oinoir and Brathoir trying to convince them, but Oinoir struck her. Before Nikka could retaliate, Oinoir turned and ran towards the river shouting to the warriors around him to join him in his mad rush towards destruction.
Shouts went up as two, and then three and then four coloured bolts went up from the Intoli, or as Wist noticed, from the Intoli's human companions. These bolts were purple, but each was different: one violet; one cerise; another a deep palatinate shade and the last nearly black. They originated from points spaced along the river and it was the darkest bolt of light that headed for Wist and his comrades. Haumea was too busy staring after the departing Oinoir to notice the new threat. So Wist shouted at Nikka and pointed at the deep purple lights that burned an arc in the afternoon light. He saw and understood, and then moved to get the Giants away from the immediate danger. Then Tyla appeared.
'You must move,' he said. 'Get away from here.' The Lyrat's spoke through gritted teeth as if it took all his considerable strength to give those few words life. Wist glanced past Tyla to the sky where the purple streaks stopped above the Giant army. They hung there, and like inverted stars they burned violet holes in the day. Then the four of them burst and sent glittering, black missiles to rain down upon them. Wist felt a shove in the back. One of the missiles ghosted by his face, but another caught his head a glancing blow and sent him crashing to the earth.
He lay in the mud and heard the bellows of the Giants. Then he waited for the pain in his head to subside. Arms were thrust under his and he was hoisted to his feet. Blood rushed to his temples and the throbbing ache made him yearn for the ground. Nikka yelled something, but the words were indistinct.
Wist staggered forward and bumped into a Giant. Oinoir had returned. Blood streamed down the Giant's wild mien. He too yelled and pointed to his comrades; organi
sing, bullying, forcing his people to find their courage.
Another barrage of light erupted from the Intoli. This time it was yellow in colour; the hue of sickness. And now there were many more of these bolts. The sky writhed with fulgurite channels.
The sickly yellow missiles flew much faster than the previous barrage and they crossed the river in seconds. They slammed into the Giants and cut through their leather armour as if it were cloth. Gouts of blood exploded from a Giant who stood beside Oinoir. Then the Giant's body began to putrefy. He collapsed to the ground and, an instant later, all that remained was a pile of leprous offal. Even the Giant's clothes and weapons had been consumed.
Wist's vision swam as he turned his head. The point where the missile had struck his head pulsed now. He closed his eyes for a second to combat the remorseless beating of his blood in his skull. Each thump brought flashes of mottled yellow light. He forced his eyes open, but the blurring of his sight remained. He saw the Giant's and the panicked humans that still lived. The Giant's whom Oinoir had rallied to cross the river halted when Oinoir had been struck. Nikka moved beside Wist and was joined by Tyla and Haumea.
'This is going to be a massacre,' stated Nikka. 'Look at that fool, Ionracas.' Nikka pointed to the river. The Giant's Prime Glaine was out into the middle of flow.
'Ah, he is brave,' said Haumea.
'He is dead, or as good as,' continued Nikka. 'Wading out into that river. He condemns those that follow him to death. There's a steep bank on the other side and...' Nikka's voice trailed away when he looked at Haumea.
Then a hollow wail cut through the din. At first, Wist that the Intoli had launched a new weapon. Then he shuddered. It was the crippled Giant that had cried out. 'Ionracas!' she wailed. The leader of the Giants had fallen.
Wist's vision started to clear and if he kept his head still he could make out Giants and their foes clearly. The Giants were routed and they fled from the river, trying to get out of range of the Intoli's assaults. Now thin red streams shot in two narrow channels over the water. Instead of inflicting more losses on the Giant's, these lines remained in the air, as if drawn there. More and more lines shot out between these two parallel markers; crimson strands that filled void.
The Redemption of Wist Boxed Set: Books 1 - 3: The complete collection Page 40
