by L. W. Jacobs
She clenched, searching for Tai’s cell. He was at the slat, eyes looking out.
“Tai,” she said, unclenching.
“You came back.” His voice was weak but unmistakably happy.
“Of course I did. Take these.” She began shoving things through the slat: the healer’s potion, a bundle of wintermelon, several packets of elk and millet cakes.
“Gods,” he said, “thank you. Now go, before they figure you out.”
“We need a plan,” she hissed. “To get you out. I was thinking to steal the jailer’s keys, maybe distract him. Once you can waft again—”
Footsteps sounded in the hall, running. She turned to see the jailer and the two guards, but before she could strike resonance, strong hands were on her, binding her wrists together. Ella struck resonance to find the slip busy at work, tying her feet.
She kicked at him, faster, but the man just took the blow, wrapping thick arms around her legs. She kicked again, but he was too strong. In the distance, the jailer and soldiers ran at them through cold honey.
Ella kicked at him again. “Let me go!”
“I don’t think so,” he said, voice a slowed baritone. Ella fell back, hoping to hurt the slip, but he was fast enough to move, and she only succeeded in bringing them both to the floor, her head bouncing smartly off the stone.
Then the soldiers were on her, glacially slow hands holding her while the slip finished binding her. She unclenched, knowing she should save her uai.
“Excellent,” the jailer said, rubbing his hands together. “It’s rare we get such a specimen.”
40
But there are older and more sacred powers, brothers, and they walk among us as men, controlling uai as you or I control our tongue.
—Book of the Nine Spears, vol. 1
“No!” Tai threw himself at the wall. Pain flared in his wounds, but he pressed his eyes to the viewing slit. “Ella!”
“Tai!” she called, struggling, then one of the men hit her across the mouth and she went limp.
“No!” He kicked the iron door with his free leg, beat on the walls. “Bring her back!”
It was no use. He turned to the packets she’d given him, found the wintermelon, and started chewing. Saliva flowed—it was the first food he’d had in a day or more. Urgency kept him from enjoying it. “Come on, come on,” he muttered, waiting for the uai to digest.
Save your strength, Tai. We need to heal and get out first.
“No. There’s still time. If I can get to her—”
Power flowed into him. Tai turned in the cramped space, wedging his feet against the door and pushing with resonance. His legs bent from the force, arrow wounds throbbing under the pressure, but the door wouldn’t give. He pushed harder, legs bending double, a small ping coming from the iron. Harder yet, urgency driving him—he had to get there before they locked her in—
The skin began to pull down from him, bones creaking, his wounds crying out, and still the door didn’t budge. “Agh!” he cried, letting go, bouncing back from the door under the sudden return of gravity. “Stain it!” he cried, kicking the door.
His foot lit up with pain, and the throbs in his shoulder and neck grew teeth, gnawing at him. Tai lay on the floor, panting, trying not to lose consciousness. He’d done that too many times in the last day, or two, or however long he had been in here. Slept to ignore the pain, and hunger, and isolation, and the sense of defeat. There was no time for that now. Ella needed him.
Not anymore, Tai.
“Yes, she does!” Maybe if he overcame his revenant—Lumo had talked about a great surge of power when people first overcame. When he overcame his first revenant, he’d been unstoppable for days. Maybe it would be enough to get them out. “I can’t just sit here and let her get locked up! She’s here because of me.”
Exactly. She’s here because of you. Because you got her into the rebellion. Because you led her here. What can you do for her now?
Guilt rolled from the voice, an old guilt, Hake’s guilt. Tai knew it was manipulation, and still—
There was a seed of truth to it. Whatever she’d hoped from him, he’d failed her. The only way to regain her trust would be to break out now.
No. It will be hard enough to get yourself out. Going for her will only get you both killed. You have to forget about Ella, Tai. Take care of yourself first.
“No. She cares about me. She risked her life for me!”
What I saw was you risking your life for her, over and over. It was noble, but you won’t help anyone if you don’t survive first.
He wanted to argue that, wanted to deny it, but the voice was right. Tai slumped against the rough wall. “So, what do we do now?”
We save our strength. Look for a chance to escape. When they pull us out—that’s when we fight. Concern radiated from the voice, whatever it was, and Tai felt his shoulders relax some. Now eat.
He ate, the food sensual and delicious in the darkness, scent of elk and millet like the finest perfume. Ella had likely saved his life by bringing them. Or had she just prolonged it? Would they both die in here?
Sleep now, Tai. Sleep.
He woke sometime later, impossible to tell when in the darkness, only light a guttering torch down the hall. His body ached, curled into a ball in the darkness. Tai tried to move and pain cut into him, his whole torso and neck throbbing like a serrated sword was being pulled out. There was a smell too, the familiar smell of green. His wounds were worsening.
The medicine, Tai. Drink the medicine.
Tai found the small bottle in the dark. Smiled at the shape, the cork twisted in. It was Marrem’s work. Marrem was a good woman. Was she in the camp now? Or dead, even, with the army coming?
“Sorry I couldn’t find your better way,” he whispered into the darkness. One more person that he’d failed. Not that it mattered now.
He drank, tincture bitter against his throat. Not all of it. Save some for later.
He put it down.
Now eat.
He ate, delicious food bitter in his mouth. He knew he should care about getting out, about surviving, but he couldn’t escape the feeling that all his friends were locked up or dead. Theron. Karhail. His kids. Prophets, let the rest of them be safe, wherever they were.
We can find them, Tai. We’ll wait till the guards take us out. Pretend we’re dead. And when they do, we waft out of here.
Ella. He could get Ella then, too.
You have to be the priority here, Tai. We may only get one chance.
Tai shivered, sweat beading on his forehead. If a chance ever came.
He awoke to a banging at his door.
“Rebel!” The jailer’s voice.
Tai made a noise in response.
“Your wounds haven’t taken you yet?”
“Get stained.” It came out a croak.
The jailer laughed. “Well, it won’t matter much longer, anyway. The army’s arrived. Imagine they’ll want to clean up what’s left of your people. At least they gave me orders to kill everyone without useful information. And seeing as you refuse to talk, I guess that’s you, too.”
Tai growled, anger feeling good in his chest. Better that than grief.
“Oh, don’t worry; you’ve got a little time still. I have a more pressing subject to examine.” He gestured to the soldiers behind him. When Tai didn’t respond, he went on. “I should thank you, really, for luring her here. It isn’t often we get to work on lighthair nobility.”
“No!” Tai shoved forward with air, flattening himself against the wall, body screaming in pain. He collapsed again to the jailer’s laughter, fresh blood and scent flowing from his wounds.
Tai—
“Still have some yura? Impressive, though I doubt it will do much against solid stone.” He clucked his tongue. “No time. Boys!” He walked off, cadre of whitecoats marching after.
“Wait!” Tai called. “Take me! Experiment on me instead!”
The jailer’s laugh was his only answer. He heard a
n iron gate creak down the hall and a string of curses from Ella’s mouth. One of the men said something, and they all laughed. Tai pressed his face to the slat, watching as she drew closer.
Her cries grew louder. “Stainrings! Lousy excuses for men! Try untying me and see how strong you are then! I’ll kill you! Kill all of you!”
“Ella!” Tai called. “Ella I’m sorry!”
The curses broke off. “Tai?”
“Yes, it’s me!”
“Quiet,” one of the guards barked as they came into view, cracking her across the face.
“No!” Tai slammed himself against the wall. Blood poured from Ella’s nose, staining her dress.
“Tai!” she called, jerking against her bonds. “Tai, are you okay?”
“I am. Ella, I—”
“Shut up,” someone snarled, and shoved a blade through the slat.
Cold steel cut into Tai’s face, opening a line of fire from eye to ear. Tai shouted, jerking back, hands going to his face. Ella screamed too, her cry mixing with his and the laughter of the guards.
A clang sounded, the iron door of the room where they’d questioned him, muffling her cries. Tai kept yelling, wordless with rage and helplessness.
Quiet, quiet, his voice came, soothing. She’s gone now.
“She’s not gone!” he yelled, suddenly furious.
I am sorry it hurts, but they are all gone now.
“She’s still alive. There’s still a chance!”
For what? You failed her, Tai. You’re the reason she’s in here at all.
“No, I—” But it was true. She’d come to save him. Gotten into the rebellion in the first place because of him.
She will blame you for it, Tai. They all did. I’m the only one who will forgive you.
He shook his head, wanting to fight it, gut warring between failure and anger. “No. No, that’s not true—Aelya forgave me. The rebels forgave me. Even Fisher forgave me in the end.”
And they are all dead now or dying. Because of you. I’m the only one you have now.
It was true. But— He looked up in the darkness. “I haven’t lost Ella.”
She doesn’t want you.
“I don’t care what she wants! This is what I want!”
She’s gone, Tai. You have to let her go.
“No! That’s what you want me to think.” He narrowed his eyes, seeing the pattern. “You’re just trying to isolate me. Just like Hake, always arguing I should leave. Like Aelya said her voice was trying to do.”
No, I—
He shook his head. “What are you, anyway?”
I’m your only friend.
“No! You’re a revenant, just like Lumo said.” It all came clear then. “And as long as I keep believing in you, buying your guilt trips, you can feed off me and stay alive. That’s why you’re still here, even after I saw you weren’t Hake. Because I still believed you.”
Tai, you need to rest.
“No, I need to fight. And I start by fighting you. This isn’t my fault, this whole thing. The rebellion, the Councilate, the deaths. This is bigger than me.” The air stirred around him.
You’re right. So, let go of it.
“No! I can still do something, and I don’t need you to hold me back.” There was a buzzing in his legs, in his shoulder.
Tai wait, you—
“Leave me.” His voice was cold. Down the passage, Ella screamed.
Wait! Tai—
“LEAVE ME!” he roared, wind swirling in the tiny cell, lifting grit from the floor. An arrow pushed out of his shoulder.
Wait—
Like the scab of an old wound, picked at many times, something tore free from him, broke loose in the wind, spinning away.
His feet left the floor.
“Ella!” Tai yelled. “I’m coming!” He seized the tempest raging around him, the storm of uai. Seized it and pushed.
Power roared out from him, pushing at the walls, the ceiling, the floor. Iron groaned, ceramic cracked, then with a scream of wind escaping the ceiling shot free, the walls splitting outward, and Tai flew up in a maelstrom of debris.
41
There she was bound to live, and he down here on the ice, for the mistake their father had made. The moon fires are her promise of a warm hearth and daughters, if ever he can get Raven to carry him back.
—At’li story of the birth of the moon, Markels, Travels in the South: At’li and Achuri
The iron door banged shut. “Now,” the jailer said, settling an immaculate white apron on his shoulders. “This should be most interesting.”
Two soldiers flanked the door, chamber lit by a few guttering torches, walls lined with iron tools. It was hot, a fire roaring at the back. Tai’s shouts echoed in the hall outside.
“I don’t know anything,” she growled, voice nasal from her throbbing nose. “You’re wasting your time.”
The jailer smiled. “Time is never wasted in perfecting one’s art.” He took a pair of tongs from the wall. “Let’s start simply. Are you part of the rebellion, girl?”
“No. The only one I know is Tai.”
“Resistance. It’s to be expected.” The man drew a square of iron from the fire, the size of a walnut and glowing red. “How interesting that you also knew of the Minchu rebel. Our interrogation here is bound by rules—I’m quite interested to see whether your blood leads you to follow them better than the dark subjects. Rule number one: lies are punished with pain.”
He dropped the ingot on her thigh. The fabric vaporized, flesh beneath sizzling as pain seared up her leg. “I ask again. Are you part of the Ayugen rebellion?”
“I’m not!” she screamed, arching her back in pain. The sickly smell rose of charred meat.
The jailer eyed her like a boat captain buying slaves. “Remember the first rule, please.”
He dropped the iron onto her other thigh.
“Yaaa!” she screamed, jerking up against her bonds. The jailer was speaking, but it took her some time to swim up through the pain, body flushed and sweating.
“I said, are you part of the Ghost Rebellion?”
She clenched her teeth. “Shatter you.”
“By now, I thought maybe we’d move on from rule one. Well.”
A glowing ingot dropped into her navel. Pain layered on pain, and with it real fear for the first time: this could kill her. You did not recover from stomach wounds.
Ella, don’t fight him. Let’s just get through this.
The jailer plucked the glowing ingot with a pair of tongs, strands of flesh clinging to it. “How many do you know in the rebellion?” He put it back in the fire, taking another out.
“Just Tai! And I barely know him!”
“Lies,” he said, a malicious gleam coming into his eyes, “will be punished with pain.”
He thrust the ingot against her exposed ankle, and pain ripped up her leg. “It’s clear you care for him, girl. I would expect better of a lighthair.”
“Yes!” she shouted over the pain. “I care about someone! So, kill me already!”
Ella, no! Don’t say that! We need to get out of here!
She snorted at her brother. “You of all people should know better. They’re going to kill us, Telen.” A sense of peace came over her, speaking it out loud. “We’re not getting out of this alive.”
She took a shuddering breath, pain beginning to fade. “I’m sorry.”
An ingot seared into her other ankle, part of a thick blanket of pain.
How can you be so resigned? We’re going to die, Ella!
“Denying it won’t change it. At least I lived for a little bit.”
The man was talking still, demanding information, moving the smoking ingot to her chest. What do you mean?
“I mean I was trying to find meaning in other people, in other lifeways.” Ella marveled at the calm she felt. Was this what it felt like to die? “The truth is deeper than that. Any lifeway can be meaningful, if we care for other people. I just never cared for anyone else. Not after P
obby.”
You—never cared for me?
“I’m sorry, Telen. I was too wrapped up in myself, in my own issues. I had to get out of that, had to see that it’s not about me. That until I found the value in someone else, I could never see it in myself. No matter how hard I looked.”
The jailer hung the tongs up and pulled a long, serrated knife from the rack.
But you found it now! Let’s escape this!
“We’re trapped, Tells. No one’s coming. I’m sorry. For what it’s worth, I do care for you now. I can forgive you for keeping me imprisoned. You were just confused too.”
The jailer was speaking, laying the knife against the base of her ear.
I— Thank you. You really think so?
“Yeah, I do. I love you, brother.” The jailer began sawing, demanding she answer his questions, and a fresh seam of pain opened on her body.
Thank you. I—I needed that. His voice felt peaceful, without the edge she’d always known. I—think I’m going now.
Ella nodded, disrupting the sawing. “Currents carry you, brother. Maybe I’ll join you there soon.”
One of the soldiers gasped, and the jailer cursed. Ella felt a lightening, like old skin sloughing off. The pain was gone.
“Your ear,” the jailer whispered. “Your ear is back. How did you—”
The building groaned, cracks shooting up the walls. The soldiers cursed but Ella laughed, looking at the jailer. “I guess I pleased my ancestors.”
The door sucked open, torn from its hinges, wind and light roaring in. A figure floated in the maelstrom beyond, black against a blinding sky.
42
A descendant will come who conquers not one, or two, but all six revenants in all nine manifestations. You will know her, for she conquers without aid, for the sake of others, and the world will be as shadows before her gaze.
—Minchu diaphones
Tai shot from the jail, wind and remains of his cell swirling around him. Uai roared through him like a spring flood, like it had the day Hake had died. Overcoming releases a surge in power, Lumo had said. Even more so for those with great natural strength.
