The Root

by Na'amen Tilahun

  He repeated the Babel and she was flung back into the wall again.

  “Exactly. I am older than you. I remember when you were a simple Holder-Apprentice. I have been here this long because I am smarter than the rest of you. No one shall take my place before I am ready.”

  He left her there in a frowning crumpled heap and stalked toward Lil’s room.

  “No one.”

  LIL

  As soon as she arrived at her rooms, Lil went to the bedroom. Min and Davi were sleeping on the bed so she firmly shut the door. Arel and Jagi watched her from their usual spot, entwined on the sofa.

  “What’s happening?” Arel asked. Lil had started to notice that she could tell them apart by small things. Arel talked more than Jagi, and his voice was less hesitant.

  “June is coming by to negotiate.”

  Both sat up and neither looked particularly happy.

  “We’ll stay.” It was Jagi and Lil saw from the set of his jaw there would be no dissuading him. Not that she had any intention of trying. She wanted Arel and Jagi to stay through the discussion. She did not trust June, no matter that soon they might be allies. There was a loud pounding on the door. Lil jumped up and ran over to answer it before June woke her sibs.

  “Why are you pounding—Mayer?” Before she could say anything else, the Holder shoved his way past her and into the room. Arel and Jagi were on their feet but Mayer paid no attention, rounding on her as soon as she closed the door.

  “What the hell did you think you were doing?” His voice echoed.

  She moved closer and whispered furiously. “First of all, I was saving all of our lives, or at least helping to. Second, keep your voice down. Min and Davi are sleeping and I won’t have them disturbed.”

  Mayer’s usually pale face grew a furious red but he said nothing and closed his eyes. Slowly the red faded to a more sedate but still-disturbing pink. When he finally opened his eyes, the fire of anger still burned in them but it was controlled.

  “Do you understand the danger you put us in? We could be put to death for what you did tonight!”

  Lil tilted her head. He was angry but beneath she could sense his fear.

  “No one felt it but you.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “Besides, none of my power even touched the Antes—it only touched their magic. I stayed well within the rules.”

  “And how?”

  “Excuse me.”

  He stepped forward into her space. “Don’t pretend. You used to have trouble with small Babel effects and now you are countering a major joint working without strain? Your abilities have grown. What did you find in the Ossuary?”

  Lil blinked at him. She knew he was right; simply remembering that terrible night, running from the shadows, body exhausted, barely able to choke out a second word in Babel. It had changed that night, after the creeping dark had almost claimed her, after it had touched her with its burning edge and shattered across her body.

  “It has nothing to do with the Ossuary.”

  “Yes, she bound us before her first visit inside,” Jagi said.

  Lil cursed under her breath. That was not the defense she currently needed. That was skirting the rules as well, and Mayer didn’t need more ammunition. Mayer’s eyes widened and he turned to face the two Antes for the first time. Neither reacted to being under his gaze. They stared back, unblinking, their transparent eyelids shut, turning their color to a solid faded gray.

  Mayer turned back to Lil and his eyes were wide with fear now.

  “You bound them?”

  “Voluntarily and with blood, not Babel.” Not exactly. The word might have burned in her head but she never said it aloud.

  Mayer slowly shut his eyes, accepting the quibbles. “Well, at least you aren’t completely stupid.”

  “I’m not stupid at all. I’m trying. We are hindered at every turn and more and more of Zebub is being devoured.”

  Mayer sighed and sank down onto the couch. “It’s worse than you know. Mitlan, Ufren, and Ennom have had whole districts swallowed by the creeping dark.” He paused and Lil opened her mouth to speak when she realized this was not a stopping point—it was that whatever he had to say next was so horrible he needed to pause. She clamped her lips shut and listened with trepidation. “Anoan is gone.”

  “Gone?” Her voice choked as she said it and Arel and Jagi moved toward her, surprise and horror mirrored on each of their faces.

  “Now you understand why I need to know how you became so accomplished with Babel. It may be the only way to fight this thing.”

  “But the Babel does not harm it or stop it permanently, I thought.”

  “Not by itself. Tell me.”

  Lil tilted her head to the side and studied her mentor, the man who had been her supporter and bulwark for years now. When her parents turned against her, afraid of her, this man had offered her a home.

  “Haydn came to escort me to dinner tonight. He had some Alchemy on his hands. He touched me before I got away from him.”

  The look Mayer gave her fairly dripped disbelief, so she hurried on before he asked for more detail and she had to admit she didn’t know where Haydn actually was.

  “Afterwards, I noticed that as I sat in the hall my tongue tried to twist into Babel. Whatever was done made the Babel build up behind my tongue so when I spoke it came out with much more force than intended.”

  Some of it was true.

  She did not tell him that her ease with the language started before this. She did not reveal the way the tentacle had come for her face as she ran for the Athenaeum. Nor of the way, when she spoke and it broke apart, she had felt something on her tongue like a tiny grain of sand. She did not talk about how, since then, Babel had become more and more natural for her.

  Mayer did not seem satisfied by her answer, but he didn’t look as hostile as he had when he first appeared either. He opened his mouth but a knock on the door interrupted him.

  JUNE

  More than Lil were behind the door, June could feel it on all the fine hairs that covered zir body. Four lives were in the room. Two Antes and two ’dants. June could guess which two Antes—Arel and Jagi had been MIA since they were assigned to help the Holder-Apprentice. They returned to their quarters for sleep occasionally but otherwise spent their time with her and her sibs. The other ’dant ze had no idea, but there was only one way to find out. June knocked on the door, making sure zir lights were turned down. It would make zir less noticeable while waiting for the door to open and put the Holder-Apprentice at ease if ze weren’t lit up like the Sea of Wisps.

  Although if June were seen, most would just assume a tryst of some sort and sneer at zir rather than ask actual questions. The House of the Madame was useful for that.

  The door opened and Arel and Jagi stood on either side, staring. June nodded at both of them and strolled in between without waiting for the actual invitation, looking around the small sitting room. The Holder-Apprentice and her Holder were seated next to each other on the couch, with as much room between them as possible.

  “Well, shall we get started?”

  “Yes. What can you tell us?” The Holder-Apprentice leaned forward while the Holder’s mouth snapped shut.

  “Nothing until you get my answers for me.”

  “What exactly is it that you want my Holder-Apprentice to do?”

  The emphasis was not lost on June, or Lil from the sour twist of her mouth.

  “Nothing against the rules. There is something I want her to verify. I am much interested in the history of Zebub and it’s not a new obsession. I have been trying to piece together the time line of our history for decades. The written history goes back about twenty thousand years but beyond that it is a blank slate. I have some theories on why and something in the Ossuary would verify them.”

  “What theories?”

  June hesitated but eventually shrugged. Ze had come this far and to quit now would be nothing less than cowardly.

  “I do
not believe we originated in this world.”

  Everyone in the room was staring at zir now.

  “The Ruling Courts say that our history was lost in a war so devastating that it not only wiped the written record clean but changed the earth itself. However I have . . . allies in other cities who have investigated. Wars leave evidence in the ground, if nowhere else. Dig deep enough inside of Zebub and you will reach a layer of fine white dust. Remnants of the great Athenaeum Wars millennia ago. However, no matter how deep we dig here, the ground remains unchanged. There is no great shift. I do not doubt that something happened twenty thousand years ago. Something that changed everything. I simply doubt that it happened here.”

  They were hypnotized by June’s theory. Ze calmly waited for the questions to begin.

  “What can I find in the Ossuary that could prove or disprove this?”

  “The root.”

  “A root?”

  “No, the root. From a very special tree. In my research I have come across references to the Root, the Tree, and the Fruit. I believe they actually refer to what was used to build this world after the last one. The tree is the ground we walk on, the fruit is the world we live in, and the root is what caused it to grow.”

  “So it may not be an actual tree root.”

  “Well, no,” June admitted with reluctance. “In fact, I would be very surprised if it were a tree root. It could be anything, but they are seeds of this world. Do you know what that means?”

  “No.” The Holder was far less impressed by the request than his Apprentice or even Arel and Jagi. June shrugged off his indifference.

  “It means that we need not live this way. That the Ante-on-top hierarchy is arbitrary. This is a grown universe. Bigger than the ones that split off from us, but not the true world at all. We made the world this way.”

  The Holder-Apprentice deflated at his words. “So? Even if this world is an offshoot they built to rule, they still rule because of the power they wield.”

  “But that power is almost defenseless against the creeping dark, is it not? What if we could get to that other world? What other weapons might we find against my brethren?”

  “You say you do not want Lil to break any rules and yet you sit here with treason dripping from your lips. How is it not a crime if she helps you?” Arel spoke up.

  June recoiled but recovered zir calm quickly, too well trained to lose it for long.

  “I am only asking for information. What I do with that information is my business. Not anyone else’s. And I assure you I will not be caught. Do you agree to this? I will give you the answers that might help.”

  The Holder-Apprentice nodded but it was with clear reluctance. “How exactly would I find this thing? I have no idea what it looks like. The Ossuary is vast.”

  June smiled and reached into zir pocket to pull out a small bag. It looked like leather but was dahac skin. Long extinct, but the power in their skin hid whatever was wrapped in it. Ze tossed the bag to Lil and she caught it easily. It felt damp and warm in her hands.

  “Inside that bag is some of the Fruit. It will react to the Root.”

  “The Fruit?” Lil opened the bag and upended it into one palm. Seeds fell into her palm. Six of them, blood-red in the electric-plant light. “I thought you said the Fruit was the world that we walked in, not actual fruit seeds.”

  “The Fruit is many things. These were plucked from the very edge of our world, where the land has not yet grown. Where it still waits to bloom.”

  June stood to walk out and was stopped by the Holder’s voice.

  “Wait. How do we know that you even have anything for us? You must give us at least one piece of knowledge. In good faith.”

  Ze turned back around and smiled. “As you wish. The creeping dark is not of Corpiliu but was brought with us when we came here. We are only an appetizer. After it has devoured us whole? It will move on to the main course.”

  LIL

  Lil studied the pouch in her hands. She had replaced the fruit immediately in case it was giving off something that could be sensed. Mayer was pacing back and forth while Arel and Jagi stood behind her with a hand on each shoulder. She was thankful for the comfort and leaned into it.

  “We cannot trust June.”

  “Of course not.” Lil did not mean to snap but he had already expressed these points multiple times, yet provided no alternative. If what June said was correct, their world might be gone soon. They would be lucky to see the world end. The Antes would most likely kill them as scapegoats long before. “Who can we trust, though?”

  It came out sharper than she intended and Mayer stopped to face her. They stared at one another and though some part of Lil wanted to bridge the gap between them, the majority of her held back.

  “I am tired. Let’s discuss this further tomorrow when we inform Chayyliel.”

  Mayer frowned. “Who will not like all this talk of treason.”

  “You are my Holder. I will leave it up to you to decide what you wish to share.”

  “At least you leave some decisions to me.” And if his tone had been more joking and less biting, she could have believed they were in the days before they had come to the Ruling Courts when they could still tease one another. When she had believed she could trust him.

  “Yes.” It hung in the air between them until he finally nodded and left.

  Arel and Jagi were silent as she rose from the couch and began her own pacing. She felt trapped, her decisions not her own. She turned to the Antes.

  “What do you think?”

  “We are in dangerous times. We must come together if we are going to survive, yet old habits die hard. Everyone jockeys for position and power when it would mean nothing if we all fell. I am surprised they have not announced that Anoan is gone. It might be the thing to shock others into working together.”

  “Or fear would take over and the streets would rise up and then be put down in an ocean of ’dant blood,” Jagi added.

  Lil shuddered at the notion. So many roads led to death, hers or others’; it felt as if she stood on one side of a cliff and the only “safe” way to cross was to dive and trust the winds to carry her. She must fly or fall and either way could cause deaths.

  “There is also something we must tell you.”

  Lil watched them warily and nodded slowly. “What is it?”

  Jagi and Arel stared at each other.

  “There’s a prophecy. One that is passed down in our bloodline.”

  “Okay.” She watched them shift from foot to foot and realized it was the first time she’d seen them react with nerves.

  “We believe it may be about you.”

  “And what exactly does it say?” She kept her breath studied. She should be more shocked by this but there was so much already, what was one more pressure? Besides, she had studied prophecies extensively. They were things that might happen, not things that had to or even should happen.

  “It says:

  She will come

  two stars orbiting her.

  She will bleed Yanwan,

  turn three to four,

  the world will shatter

  follow her light

  and some may be saved.” They said it together.

  To be honest, she had heard much better; the rhyme scheme was obviously given very little importance and though the topics were pretty large, she had come across plenty of apocalyptic prophecies that had never, ever come to pass.

  She could only bring herself to care about things that might actually be about to happen. There was no room in her head for anything else.

  “Do you both believe this?”

  They frowned and shared another look and then shrugged.

  She nodded and thought. “The vow that you both gave to protect Min and Davi.”

  “We will hold to it, even if the promise was broken. You need not worry about them.” Arel stepped forward and took her hand in both of his. Jagi came up and did the same with her other hand. “You need never worry t
hat we will betray you or them.”

  “We do not simply care for you because of a prophecy.”

  Even as she saw what was coming, she allowed it. Arel kissed her first, a soft press of closed lips, and as he pulled away Jagi was there, brushing his lips across hers, quiet and shy, so light she was not sure it actually happened. They both turned and left before she said anything and she was grateful because she could think of nothing to say.

  MAYER

  He called his fellow Holders on his way out of Hive Chayyliel. The courtyard was filled with Antes moving to and fro but none paid him any attention. As he moved toward the Hive of Sorrow and Riches, he called them the old fashioned way, unsure if they were trained in it or would understand the message.

  Still, as his feet moved, his mind dived within himself, reached for the place in his thoughts where his connection with Kandake lived. Through long practice he ignored the knowledge that battered at him through the link, unimportant facts, badly written tales, awful poems, controversial opinions—all the rarely read books and rarely shared knowledge tried to force its way into him. To force him to accept it. He batted them aside with the strength of long practice and went deeper into connection until he found it. The knot of power that tied it to the other Athenaeums in Zebub. Smaller, more delicate threads led off into the distance, to other Athenaeums in other cities, but those closest had the strongest connection.

  He sent a pulse along the two strongest threads, less words than a feeling paired with a map to the room below the Hive. He knew that they had been doing work for the Courts there as well, though he doubted they knew the same of him or of each other. He was sweating when he was done, but it was the only way he could be sure the message would not be intercepted by anyone.