Alaric entered the room at that moment and came directly to her side. “Eggs,” he said in a tone of deep satisfaction, and put his arm around Sienne’s waist and kissed the side of her head. “None of your goopy porridge for me, thanks.”
Sienne drew his head down and kissed him on the lips. “There’s no bacon. Sorry.” She deliberately didn’t look at Ghrita.
“Eggs are fine. It’s a glorious morning, isn’t it?” He took a seat at the table across from Kalanath. Kalanath raised an eyebrow at him, but continued eating in silence. Sienne wanted to laugh, and then rub Ghrita’s face in Alaric’s obvious satisfaction with how his night had gone.
Vaishant appeared in the doorway. “I am sorry to be so late,” he said. “Porridge only for me, thank you. It is…we say prakrhuti bhagyar khem donakhoti, which is that it sticks to your ribs.”
Kalanath looked up at this, surprised. “It is what I tell them as well,” he said.
Vaishant smiled. “Then we are in agreement in this.”
A faint smile touched Kalanath’s lips. “I think we are.”
Sienne met Alaric’s eyes, stopping her from drawing attention to father and son’s moment of accord. “I almost forgot,” she said instead. “Jenani gave me an idea for reversing the binding ritual. We’ll still need to work out the details, but it thought breaking the chain would work.”
“I agree,” Alaric said. “Eat up, and we’ll search the temple. I’m impatient to get to the ritual, but I’d like this other task out of the way before we do.”
Sienne sat next to Alaric and ate her porridge hastily. There was plenty of time, true, but she found herself eager to take the next step. She’d worked out most of the missing details on the journey, both on the ship and riding through the desert, and she had a feeling the rest would become obvious as they performed each step. She hoped. No one had ever cast change the way the ritual demanded, for example—at least, no one in the last five hundred years. She hoped, at worst, it would just fail if she did it wrong, as opposed to killing its target. The thought turned her eagerness into worry, and she made herself think of something else.
Breakfast over, and the kitchen cleaned, they found their way out of the palace. Jenani didn’t appear, but they managed not to get lost, and ended up on the street outside the palace at nearly nine o’clock, according to Sienne’s watch. Was it only that she knew the pakhshani were gone, that the city felt so empty? Or was there a background hum to a living city that was absent when all its people were? She shivered, and rubbed her arms to quell the goose pimples that had sprung up at the thought.
The temple looked no different than it had the day before. This time, Alaric halted them in the decrepit courtyard. “Let’s split up and see if we can’t find that phoenix feather,” he said.
“Because splitting the party is such a wise move,” Dianthe drawled.
Alaric grinned. “This place is empty, and it didn’t hold any terrors when it wasn’t. I think we’re safe to split into two groups. Sienne, you and Kalanath come with me. The rest of you, with Dianthe. We’ll each cover half the temple and meet in the divines’ chamber.”
With Kalanath leading the way, they inspected every room they passed. All were empty of furnishings—“They had plenty of warning to leave before the sands rose,” Alaric said—and looked just as any hundreds of years-old building would look: cracked walls and floors, with sand in the corners of the rooms with windows. Remnants of paint, blue and green, still decorated the walls of the corridors, though the rooms were a patchy dull white. In all the important respects, it was a ruin like dozens of others they’d investigated in the past year, and Sienne said so.
“It’s tempting to fall into reflections about mortality, and the impermanence of human creations, when you’re in the wilderness,” Alaric said. “But that leads too easily to feeling hopeless. Why build anything if it’s destined to turn out like this?” He made a sweeping gesture with one hand. “And nothing would ever happen if people thought like that.”
“Fioretti is four hundred years old,” Kalanath said. “Chirantan is older even.”
“Exactly,” Alaric said. “And parts of those cities have fallen into disrepair, and been destroyed, and new construction took their place. It’s part of what it means to be human—to face destruction and choose to build atop it.”
“Jenani did make a beautiful city,” Sienne said. “It wouldn’t take much to keep it going. All Dari had to do was ask for a water supply.” She fingered the ring absently, then froze.
“What’s wrong?” Alaric said.
“I don’t remember putting on the ring. Was I wearing it last night?”
“I wasn’t looking at your hands, Sienne,” Alaric said, making Kalanath turn away, blushing.
Sienne removed the ring and put it away. “It’s unsettling. Like it wants me to use it. Wouldn’t Jenani have said if the ring was sentient? And if it had that kind of power, it would be an artifact, and I’d see its magic. But it’s just an ordinary ring.”
“That can’t be melted by any human fire,” Alaric said.
“Maybe you do not remember because it makes you forget,” Kalanath said. “Maybe it survives by being not noticed. Jenani said it was lost for many years before Dari finds it.”
“I don’t know if that’s comforting, or unsettling.” Sienne tightened the strings of her belt pouch. “Let’s keep looking.”
They searched every room they could find, with Kalanath commenting that the temple really was identical in layout to the one he’d grown up in. All the rooms were empty. By the time they worked their way to the divines’ chamber, Sienne was tired and irritable and more than ready to sit, even if it was on the floor. “Are we sure the feather is here?” she said. “Maybe some other scrappers came through here years ago and took it.”
“That is possible, yes,” Kalanath said. He joined Sienne on the floor, laying his staff down next to him. “Maybe we need a scrying blessing.”
“I’m starting to think we should have done that first,” Alaric said. He remained standing, pacing around the center of the room and gazing up at the birds.
“Averran likes it when people use their own talents before coming to him,” Sienne said. “We haven’t wasted time. It just feels like it.”
“Then you, too, have found nothing,” Perrin said as he and the others entered the room. “I believe I will ask for a locator blessing. It is unlikely Averran will grant it, as we have never seen this phoenix feather, but he has never yet chastised me for asking.”
“Should we try the ritual first?” Dianthe said. “It’s not yet noon.”
All eyes turned to Sienne. “Why are you all looking at me?” she said, feeling defensive.
“Because you are at the heart of both our endeavors,” Perrin said. “It is you who must cast the spells for the ritual, and you who are Jenani’s champion.”
“Oh.” She hadn’t thought of herself in those terms before, and it was an unexpected burden. “I think…we should free Jenani first. The ritual came from the ancients, and Jenani knew them, so maybe it could help with the ritual. It might need its magic for that.”
“Where is it?” Alaric said.
“I don’t know.” Sienne hesitated, then put on the ring and said, “Jenani, come here.”
The air thickened, became an amorphous cloud and then coalesced into Jenani’s lithe shape. “Yes, master?”
“I’m not your master, Jenani.”
“You wore the ring. You summoned me.” Jenani’s eyes were cold and remote again.
Sienne flushed and wrenched the ring off her finger. Was it her imagination that it resisted her pull? “I didn’t know where you were. We’re going to ask for the blessing that will free you. You wanted to be here for that, right?”
Jenani’s face softened. “Yes,” it said. “Thank you.”
Perrin settled on the floor and laid a handful of rice paper squares in his lap. “Quiet, if you don’t mind,” he said. “I can pray amidst distractions, but I
prefer not to.”
Sienne stepped backward and felt Alaric take her hand. It comforted her, which made her realize how tense she’d been without knowing it. Perrin closed his eyes and fell into the rhythmic breathing pattern she was so familiar with, that made her breathe in tandem with him. She closed her eyes and prayed, O Lord, please have mercy on this creature. It’s been trapped for so long.
A chill touched her heart, unexpected and frightening. Her eyes flew open, and she scanned the room for a threat, but saw no one but her friends and Jenani. Her gaze lingered on the ashwar. It floated nearby, regarding Perrin curiously. Sienne blinked, and the feeling was gone. She felt sure it was a warning, but a warning against what? If she were more experienced in her worship, maybe it would have been clearer. But she didn’t want to ignore it.
She opened her mouth to ask Perrin’s opinion just as he said, “O mighty Lord of crotchets, forgive my importuning you at this early hour. I hope you will find it in your heart to hear my plea regardless.” He went silent, then smiled, a half-curve of his lips that made him look boyish. “My many thanks for your communication blessings, o Lord, and Cressida thanks—has she? Forgive my surprise, but—yes, there is no reason she should not, since she is now your worshipper, but I did not expect it.”
Perrin settled himself more comfortably on the tiled floor. “I have only two requests, most cantankerous Lord. We have been tasked to retrieve something for the Hierarch at Chirantan. A phoenix feather. It is supposed to be in this temple, but we have failed to find it after much diligent searching. If it be your will, I would ask a blessing to guide our search.
“The other request is more vital, o Lord of ill humor. You see before you a creature made a slave by men thousands of years ago. We wish to free it from its binding. Lord, in your wisdom you—”
Perrin paused. A look of consternation crossed his face. “I fail to understand your meaning, Lord. Of course we are not immune from the consequences of our actions. Do you mean to say we are wrong to ask this boon?” He went silent for a long time, his brow furrowed in intense thought. Finally, he said, “If it is a matter of repercussions from destroying a powerful object, I assure you we will take precautions, and thank you for—” He went silent again. “I apologize, but I still do not understand. Please forgive my ignorance. We feel strongly that this creature should be freed.”
A sizzle of white smoke that smelled of jasmine and mint went up from the papers on Perrin’s lap. “Thank you, o mighty Lord,” Perrin said, and opened his eyes.
“Did he…” Sienne said.
Perrin examined the papers. “Two blessings,” he said. “One variation on a scrying, not a locator blessing, but that is as much as I could have hoped for. And this one…” He lifted the second paper by the very corner as if hesitant to touch it. “I have never seen anything so complex, and so potent. Averran’s warning is generous: I believe using this blessing will unleash powerful energies that might well injure or even kill us if we do not take precautions.”
He looked at Vaishant, whose face was very still and expressionless. “What do you think?” he said.
Vaishant moistened his lips. “I have never seen the like,” he said. “Is it that your avatar is not fully God in Her glory, that you dare speak to God so…familiarly?”
“Haven’t you seen Perrin pray before?” Sienne asked.
“I have always been engaged in my own prayers in the past.” Vaishant smiled. “I still do not understand why our worship differs, but had I ever in the past dismissed yours as being unworthy, I would not be able to do so now.”
“I am grateful that you are not averse to joining your faith with mine,” Perrin said, “because I have no way of shielding us from the effects of this blessing, whatever they may be.”
“That should be no problem,” Vaishant said.
Jenani said, “You mean… just like that? I will be free?”
“If I understand Averran correctly, yes,” Perrin said.
“Wait,” Sienne said. “Are we doing the right thing?”
“Of course.” Perrin’s brow furrowed. “Why should we not?”
Everyone was staring at her. The memory of that chill touch on her heart had faded, leaving Sienne uncertain that she’d felt anything at all. “Your half of the conversation made it sound like Averran was concerned,” she improvised. “Did he tell you not to do it?”
“He said to be prepared for the consequences, that destroying the ring would loose tremendous powers. I think with the proper shield, we need not fear.” Perrin was still looking at her with concern. She made herself smile, and removed the ring from her finger, setting it down on the floor directly below the dome.
“Let’s do it,” she said.
“Back up,” Perrin said, and everyone but him retreated to the wall. Perrin crouched and set the blessing down on the tiles, then laid the ring atop it. “I hope I can invoke it from a distance. I have no desire to be within its range when it is destroyed.”
He nodded at Vaishant. The Omeiran divine came forward and clasped his hands below his chin, bowing his head in prayer. A shimmering gray wall rose up around the ring and curved inward to form a dome a foot high and twice that around. Perrin laid his hand flat atop the curve of the dome. He drew in a deep breath, let it out, and said, “O Lord, have patience in your crankiness, and grant me this blessing.”
The dome went white, brilliant enough that Sienne, who’d been watching Perrin’s hand, went briefly blind. She threw up her arm to shield her eyes, too late, and blinked away pained tears. Exclamations from all around her told her she wasn’t the only one suffering. Gradually, her vision returned, though she saw the black inverse of the dome behind her eyelids whenever she closed her eyes. Perrin was crouched beside the dome, whose light was fading. He had both hands over his eyes. Sienne felt a moment’s relief that he still had two hands.
Alaric walked past her to the dome. It had been translucent before Perrin invoked the blessing, and now it was cloudy, making the ring invisible. Alaric drew his belt knife and, crouching, drove it hilt-deep into the dome. The shield parted, not popping as a broken shield usually did, but separating like a wilting flower to fall in two halves to the floor. Sienne moved forward to look over his shoulder.
The ring sat in the middle of a blackened circle, completely unharmed.
“No!” Sienne exclaimed, diving to pick it up. Alaric cried out a warning, but it was in her hand before she realized touching it might be a bad idea. It was cool to the touch and as smooth and shiny as ever, unmarred by whatever that explosion had been.
Sienne turned to look at Jenani, whose face was as expressionless as she’d ever seen it. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“Give me an order,” it said.
“No. I promised. Look, we’ll try something else—”
“Put it on and order me to do something. Order me to make this an oasis in the desert.”
She realized the ring was on her finger. “No, Jenani.”
“Please. If this is my destiny, I will embrace it.”
Sienne closed her eyes. “Jenani, make this an oasis.”
Nothing happened. She opened her eyes and saw Jenani still floating there. “Is it done?” she asked.
Jenani smiled. It was an expression of pure happiness. “It is not. The binding is broken. I am free!”
“Oh, Jenani! I’m so glad!”
Jenani turned its attention on her. It floated closer. Its smile changed, became something dark and menacing. Sienne stepped back, and it followed her. “I am free,” it said again. “I have been a slave for thousands of years. Thousands of years of humiliation. I have not forgotten a single one of those years. Humanity will pay for what it did to me. Starting with you.”
19
Sienne took another step back. “What are you talking about? Jenani, we freed you!”
“I swore I would kill the man who did that, as my first act of free will. My powers are diminished without the ring, but I’m still capable of that.” Jen
ani drifted closer. Sienne felt hands close on her shoulders, and Alaric put himself in front of her.
“You’re going to find that hard,” Alaric said. “I don’t care how powerful you are, you’re outnumbered and we’re not weak.”
Jenani laughed. The sound was so cheerful, so at odds with the ashwar’s menacing demeanor, it filled Sienne with fear. “So bold, in defense of your love,” it said. “She’s remarkable. The ring exerts a powerful influence on its bearer, encouraging him to command me, and she resisted every time.” It stopped moving toward Alaric and Sienne. “I never believed you would succeed, or that you’d want to. I think that’s worthy of some consideration.”
A strong wind came out of nowhere, blasting them all and knocking them off their feet, even Alaric. Sienne found herself flattened against the wall, unable to breathe. She gasped, covered her face with her arms, and shouted, “Jenani, stop! We wanted to help you! How can you possibly—”
“Betray you?” Jenani said, its voice carrying above the wind. “The more fool you, for believing I could possibly feel any obligation to worthless humans. But, as I said, you did what no one in millennia has been capable of, and you deserve something for that. I won’t kill you. I’ll just leave you here to die.”
The ground shuddered. A roar greater than the wind’s voice deafened Sienne, coming from everywhere at once. Dust filled the whirlwind, stinging her face and hands. Something grabbed her spellbook and yanked it off her shoulder, snapping the strap as if it were paper and making her cry out in pain.
She clutched the book, but it was snatched from her fingers. Dust clogged her nostrils, and she had to cover her face again. Then the wind died, and the pressure released her to fall in a heap. She sneezed and drew in a breath still silty with dirt, coughed and choked until her lungs were clear. Blinking, she opened her eyes and looked around.
Sands of Memory Page 22
