“What do you mean by ‘vanished?’ Is she dead?”
“I don’t know.”
“I could find out easily enough.”
Despite the black lumir crystal constantly nibbling at her power, the Queen of All Trees was a psychopomp, and she could still shift planes but—
“You said Gaia tried to send my sister-Queen to Mount Eredren. When I left the mountain, the beast was sealed up, and the Adversary was engaged in a whisper campaign. Granted, that was some time ago. Do you know what's been going on there since then that might have spooked Gaia?”
Bear shrugged. “Well, Ran did call me a time or three, so there's that, but he is a small child. You have to take that into account.”
“And children do scare easily.”
Bear’s lips quirked up in an ironic smile. “His father is remarkably hard to kill and quite canny for such an inexperienced mage. So they're probably all right.”
“But?”
Bear hung his head. “The lad keeps calling.”
And her children were dying. While the Queen of All Trees had talked to Bear, six more had been dusted. The wind carrying her children’s remains ruffled her luminous leaves. The Queen of All Trees called their spirits to her, and they passed through her bark to the next world and their eventual reward for their solid service.
Sarn would have to fend for himself for a while. She'd left him well-protected from the Adversary. That black lumir crystal was the greater threat, and her sister-Queen had failed to stop it.
I can’t watch this anymore, but I can’t stop it until Aralore violates the terms of our agreement. Our bargain won’t let me, not on this plane.
But there were others, and some were aligned with this one. In theory, she could shift to one of those, cross the intervening distance and shift back directly into Aralore’s path. If the promise let her. Would it?
Those orange-robed souls were so misguided, but she’d run out of time. Reeducating them about the way the world really worked would take too long. I must stop them.
The Queen of All Trees curled her roots about her trunk and severed her tethers to this world.
“What are you doing?”
“What my sister-Queen could not.”
“But you can’t. You promised—”
That was all Bear had time to say before the Queen of All Trees had gathered the ragged ends of her power and spun the wheel to open the way. For all things were circular, even the Twelve Planes of Existence. The Gray Between Worlds beckoned.
“Wait!” Bear shouted as he rushed forward, but it was far too late for that now.
Lightning slammed into the ground and stayed there. It was a jagged line of white joining the earth to the heavens instead of the perfect circle it should have been. As it expanded, that wrongness intensified. The Queen of All Trees bent double, bending her crown low as a gray fog shot through with red light rolled through that expanding gap.
“My Queen! What’s wrong?” Bear touched her fading leaves. “Is it that blasted stone draining you again?”
She shook her crown but could not rise. If she had knees, she would have knelt, so weighed down was she by the primal forces flowing out of that portal.
“Then what is it?”
“I don’t know.”
In all the long years of her life, she’d never encountered anything like this before. Or had she? A memory stirred, but it was buried too deeply by time and life to rise to her conscious mind, not while she battled just to survive the onslaught of raw power pummeling her into submission. I must close the way before my attacker crosses through it.
She drew on her people and their regard for her and raised her crown. “I will not bend. I will not break. I am the Queen of Shayari now and forever. This is my land. You can not pass.”
A strange shadow fell over her as she righted herself, and she stared into the red, swirling eyes of chaos itself. Oh, God most high, what have I done?
Bad Magic
“Wait Papa!”
Ran waved a hand in front of Papa’s face. His eyes were still a vibrant green even though they no longer glowed. That was a good sign. Maybe the magic was still in there waiting for the right time to return.
Ran waved again, but Papa’s eyes were unfocused like they sometimes were when the magic showed him things, but his magic was all bottled up by that mysterious ‘Question’ business.
I think that’s a trick to weaken him. But Papa thought it was real, and the lack of glow worried Ran. It turned the staircase into a shadow-laden blur as Papa rushed up the steps.
“Papa what’s wrong? Why’re you acting like this?”
True, Papa was a quiet man, but this was a little extreme even for him.
“Papa? Is it that ‘Question’ thing again? Don’t let it take you away from me.”
His voice broke on the last word, and Papa slowed. Even his pendant had gone all funky. It was strobing, and the rapid shifts in illumination hurt Ran’s eyes.
Are you the problem? He poked the crystal, but it didn’t stop. So Ran grabbed Papa’s collar and dropped the pendant into the dark chasm it revealed. But pinpoints of white light shined through Papa’s tunic, spoiling his experiment. The crystal refused to hide, and Papa kept going onward and upward.
Not even the increased darkness stopped his mindless ascent. Papa found those stairs without even looking at them, and that just wasn’t fair.
“Auntie Sovvan? Are you here? Something’s wrong with Papa. He needs you. And I need you too.”
Because the staircase was all kinds of creepy. Shadows flowed past like that magic-eating mist, but they’d left that stuff behind in the Lower Quarters. Whatever the Queen Tree had done to stop it before wasn’t working anymore. She needs to come back and fix that. But only Papa knew how to call her, and he wasn’t in his right mind.
“Auntie Sovvan?”
His angelic aunt didn’t appear, and that was strange because she’d popped in before when he needed her. Though sometimes there was a delay, and she’d never explained that.
“Auntie Sovvan? Are you in trouble?”
That he could understand. Papa often got into trouble, so his sister must be the same, right? They were twins after all. But she has wings and special powers, and that question thing had stripped Papa of his magic.
Ran still didn't understand that because he could feel that magic churning inside Papa. It was an angry gyre of white glowing motes trying to break out of its cage. It heated Papa’s skin, which he appreciated since this staircase was drafty and cold.
“I want you back. You protect me, and Papa gets into too much trouble without you.” Ran said to the white conflagration inside Papa. “Is there a way I can free you?”
Ran listened hard. Sometimes the magic spoke to Papa. Maybe it would talk to him and tell him what to do. Ran waited, but Papa turned two more bends in the dark spiral that was the stairs. He barely made a sound. Neither did his magic. Maybe it can’t talk to me because of that ‘question’ thingy.
“Auntie Sovvan?”
Her name echoed, and the stairs groaned, but she didn't pop into view. Nor could he sense her presence. “Where are you, Auntie Sovvan? Why aren't you here?”
Far below and getting further away every minute, Jersten shouted about this being the wrong way, but Papa kept climbing as if he hadn’t heard. Nor did Auntie Sovvan reply to his repeated calls.
“Bear? Do you know what’s happening?”
Bear didn’t answer either. His fuzzy body rested in Ran’s arms, plump and lifeless like a true toy. Bear’s home was empty of its ghost.
“Bear, where are you? Why aren’t you here with me?” A tear slipped down Ran's cheek. He was all alone against whatever had overtaken Papa.
“Papa come back to me,” Ran said into his father’s shoulder as another tear fell. “You promised you'd never leave me.”
That still didn’t garner a response. And that wasn’t right because Papa was a stickler about promises. He always kept them even if the
keeping hurt him.
“Is that what’s happening now? Is the promise hurting you again? But how can it? Promises are only words.”
Ran chewed his lower lip. Papa made a lot of promises, mostly to him, but every now and again, to others as well. Right now, Papa had two promises to fulfill. Well, three counting the one he made to me. Maybe the three promises were warring for control of Papa. That didn't explain how they could hurt him, though.
“Why won't you talk to me?”
Instead of answering, Papa kept running up those stairs, and his gaze stayed focused somewhere deep inside himself. Water dripped on Ran’s head. No, not water, Papa looped around another bend and a clay hand held a guttering lumir crystal. Its yellow glow picked out the tears running down Papa’s cold face. Before its light winked out, it revealed the problem—those black marks were back. They headed for his left eye.
Oh, no, you don't. You can't have Papa. I don't share.
“Papa?” Ran wiped those tears away. “Come back to me. I need you, and you need me.”
Magic sparkled as it spread from his fingers across Papa’s cheek, breaking the strange spell, and more importantly, shoving those marks away. Those thick black whorls receded until Papa's tunic hid them.
Papa slammed to a halt, breathing hard.
“Ran?” he said in a shaky voice.
“It’s okay now. Bad magic got you, but I chased it away.”
But it might come back because Papa no longer had any protection against it, not with his magic locked away by that ‘question’ thing the Adversary had sprung on him. But the bad magic didn’t get me. Maybe it can’t.
Ran patted Papa’s cheek. “If it comes back, I’ll protect you from it just like you protect me.”
“No, not bad magic,” Papa said finally between gasps. “Its that promise I made before you were born—the one we just talked about. It’s binding even without my magic. It might even be stronger without it.”
Papa started to explain, but he didn't have to. Ran already knew all about that particular promise. Uncle Miren often complained about it. But this seemed like more than that. Somehow, this was the Adversary’s doing.
Pain racked Papa. He doubled over but held tightly to Ran with shaking arms.
“The bad magic’s hurting you again. I’ll stop it.”
Ran squared his little shoulders and prepared to do battle. A white spark danced in his heart. It was an offshoot of Papa’s other power—the newer one he’d used to call the Queen Tree several times now. Despite the Question thing and the black lumir crystals, it still burned fiercely inside Papa, searching for a way out.
I'll be your way out. Ran patted that conflagration. Papa’s magic didn't reply, but it had heard him. Maybe it was already working through his little heart-flame. Ran waited, but he didn't feel powerful. Maybe his little gift needed a push. Burn brighter. I want to be a big fire like Papa. His internal flame bobbed around. Are you growing?
It was hard to tell because Papa jostled him each time he looped around a bend, and the staircase had lots of those. Maybe his little light needed another push, or perhaps a poke to get it going. That sounded about right, so Ran wedged Bear between him and Papa just in case and poked his gift.
It poked him back in a very ticklish place. Ran squirmed, trusting Papa not to drop him, and he didn’t. Apparently, his magic was more playful than serious. Maybe it needs training.
How did I get Papa’s mind back before?
Ran fiddled with Bear’s sparkly bow—the one J.C. had given him and smiled. A pale glow coated his fingers. He touched Papa’s face again, and the bad magic released him. Papa slid down the curving wall and sat on a step as a rogue shadow melted into the wall. It was the bad thing that had hurt Papa, not the promise. Ran patted his cheek.
“I told you I’d protect you.”
Papa’s eyes widened in surprise. “What did you do?”
“Bear helped.”
“Is he back?”
“No, but his bow has special powers. So do I.”
Ran smiled, but the darkness drained his mirth, flipping his smile to a frown. Papa winced. He was still in pain, but it didn’t control him anymore.
“It’s still hurting you?”
Papa nodded and gritted his teeth as another wave of pain threatened to send him away again.
The Only Way is Down
Miren glared at the guards blocking his way. They crossed their spears and gave him a bored stare.
“Turn back. You can't go down there. It isn't safe,” said the balding man on the left when Miren didn't stop.
Both their blue uniforms were so stained, they looked black in the dim light. Those Guards must have been on duty for quite a few hours by now. Might that give him an advantage?
If it did, Miren couldn't see how. He was tall for his age but gangly, and the heavy rucksack slung across his back dug into his shoulders and compromised his balance. He leaned on his crutch. I could hit them with my crutch, but Sarn will kill me if I break it, and I doubt my bad leg would hold me up, not with all the weight I’m carrying on my back.
Well, not literally kill him, Sarn would never do that. But his elder brother would be angry and disappointed in him again, and death was preferable to that.
“Of course, it’s unsafe down there. It’s the Lower Quarters. When is it not?”
“Exactly, so you have no business going down there. Now run along and play with your friends,” said the other guard.
His blue uniform bore several dark spots that might be blood. It was hard to tell in the dim lighting. Three warrior statues wearing antique armor stood back-to-back in a tight circle right in the middle of the hallway because the Litherians wanted everyone to bump into their life-like creations.
Just to make the ensemble even more annoying, each warrior woman had been carved mid-swing, and they all held iron morning stars bristling with sharp spikes. These were serious warriors covered head-to-toe in spiky armor unlike anything Miren had ever seen before. He only knew they were female because not even metal could render them completely sexless. They still had a vaguely feminine silhouette, but there was a hardness in their eyes that made him glad they were just statues.
Arrayed against them were hunched wolf-men and wolf-women who looked ill-at-ease standing on two legs. They had a patchy kind of half armor, and the ancient artisan had chosen to capture them lunging, clawing and generally in the way of anyone dumb enough to try to use this staircase. Which was why Miren had picked it.
All the better candidates were guarded, but this one was located in an out-of-the-way area used mostly for storage, judging by the signs carved above the doors he'd passed.
This stair shouldn’t be guarded. How did they even know about it? Anyone who wanted to use it must first weave through a frozen battle to find it.
More questions he had no answers for. He should be used to that by now since he lived with a laconic mage, and said mage lived downstairs in the one place he'd spent the last couple of hours trying and failing to reach.
“I can’t. I have family down there, and I'm worried about them. Let me pass so I can make sure they’re all right.”
“I can’t do that. We have orders,” said Lefty, shaking his head.
“And even if we didn’t, we couldn’t let you pass. There’s something very wrong down there. You don’t want to be part of it. Trust me,” said the righthand Guard. He looked at Miren with haunted eyes.
“What’s happening down there? Tell me what you saw. I know you saw something.” Miren leaned on his crutch and fought down the fear cramping his stomach.
The longer the two guards remained silent, the more his guts knotted. You’d better be all right, brother. And Ran had better be with the Foundlings, and they’d better be taking excellent care of him, or there would be hell to pay. I’ve got to get down there.
“Tell me. The only family I have in this world is down there.”
Miren pointed at the dark stairwell. Only three steps were visibl
e. The rest were lost in churning shadows. He rubbed his eyes certain he was seeing things. Shadows just didn’t spin like that. But these were, and their dance was mesmeric.
“Tell me,” he pressed when their silence only deepened.
Into that quiet, he heard a voice. “Descend, descend,” it whispered.
I’m trying to, but they won’t let me pass. Miren threaded through the statues. The lumir crystals studding the ceiling in a representation of the night sky cast just barely enough light to navigate around the stone combatants if you were very careful. And Miren was. If he got hurt, it would only increase his brother’s debt, and that had to be avoided at all costs.
“Tell me.”
The left Guard shook his head regretfully. Before his partner could speak, the floor seemed to move. No, not the floor, the shadows—they were extending semi-transparent tentacles as they slithered out of the stairwell. One touched the left guard, and he shuddered as it passed through him.
Miren backed up. What the hell is that? He dug through his memories for any mention of crawling shadows and came up empty. If Sarn had faced such a threat before, he hadn’t mentioned it. He never tells me anything anymore. Damn his silences.
The right guard shuddered, and his eyes also blanked. When he stilled, he dropped his spear. It landed on the one his fellow guardsman had dropped. Shadows flowed over them. Miren fell back another step and slammed into a statue, of course. Damn those Litherians.
“Descend, descend, descend into the pit,” the two guards said in unison as they shuffled toward Miren.
“Not sure which pit you’re talking about. There are dozens in the Lower Quarters. But the down part, I’m on board with. That was the plan all along.”
Neither guard acknowledged Miren had even spoken or spared him a glance. It was as if he no longer existed. They threaded through the statue installation and continued on their way to do who knew what.
Not my concern. I need to get down stairs and check on my brother and nephew. Someone else can sort those two out.
But not this way. Those shadows were rising in a black tide that threatened to engulf Miren as he turned and fled, dodging the statues in his path. Behind him, those shadows were gaining, but he hobbled on as fast as he could. I just need to find an unguarded staircase.
Curse Breaker: Sundered Page 8
