Aenir

by Garth Nix

  "South," said Zicka. "A few days' travel, walking. Do you have to go there?"

  Tal shook his head.

  "No. But I have to be somewhere I know. If the Enclave is a few days south, does that mean the Sunken Stone Circle is somewhere near here?"

  "Yes. Southeast. You could probably reach there by sundown, at a brisk pace. But that ring of stones is no place to be after dark."

  "Yes," Tal agreed. "But I have been to the Sunken Stone Circle several times before, so I know it well enough to use it as a crossing point."

  He looked up at the bow to where Milla was standing, shading her eyes to watch the river and the mountain ahead. Despite the sun, she cast no shadow.

  "I'd better… I'd better make my peace with Milla," Tal said, as he stared at the sunshine on the deck. He felt sick at what he'd done to her now, but he would never admit that.

  He approached her slowly, all too aware of the Merwin-horn sword at her side and her acute reflexes. When he was four or five stretches away, and possibly out of reach of a sudden lunge, he stopped.

  After a moment, Milla turned to face him. He saw hatred in her eyes, and flinched.

  "Milla," he said, unconscious that he was holding his hands out to the Icecarl, as if he begged something from her. "I… wanted to say…"

  "Your words are nothing," said Milla. "They are the mist that is parted by the ship, the ice chips under my skates, the blood that drips from day-old Selski meat."

  Tal gulped. This was even harder than he thought. He couldn't believe he was trying to apologize to someone who was so alien to him. He felt strangely inferior standing here before her. She seemed taller somehow, the Sunstone ring on her finger flaming in the sunlight, the Merwin-horn sword bright, too. More like a Chosen of legend than anything else.

  "I'm… I'm sorry," Tal said. He was shaking as he spoke, and there were tears glistening in his eyes, tears that were made as much of anger and guilt as they were of sorrow. "I didn't know… I just had to do it… My father told me I had to look after the family, that I had to do whatever it took to keep them safe.

  Whatever it took, and what it was was my shadow and your shadow, too, and I didn't even think what it would mean to you. And it was my fault that Gref climbed after me and got taken, and I

  have to find him and get him back. He's only nine and there's Kusi as well, and Mother… That's why I did it, that's why… Can you understand… can you…"

  His voice trailed off.

  Milla did not answer, but her eyes were no longer full of hate. Then she looked away, out over the water, and said, "Some of my people believe there is a great Reckoner of all Icecarl lives, a place where every hunt and battle is played out upon a vast board, where every birth and death, victory and defeat can be seen. There must have been a small carving there once, one of the smallest, of Selski bone or Merwin rib, that was Milla of the Far Raiders. But that piece has left the board now, and plays a different game of life. I do not know the hands that move me now. All I know is that I am not what I was."

  There was another, longer silence, then Tal said, "Nor am I."

  "Who knows what either of us will become," said Milla. She hesitated. "I understand why you sold my shadow, Tal of the Chosen. But I do not forget. And it is not the nature of an Icecarl to forgive."

  Tal nodded slowly, though he wasn't sure what she meant.

  "I cannot kill you," said Milla. "We have shared too much blood, and I understand too well why you have done what you did. One day you, too, may lose your future at the hands of someone you thought a friend."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  They beached Asteyr's ship on a strip of black mud in the shadow of the mountain and walked up to the very edge of the stony monolith.

  It wasn't a particularly big mountain, but it seemed larger than it really was to Tal when he considered that he was going to have to run underneath it. There was an awful lot of rock that would come crushing down if Adras couldn't keep blowing the whistle.

  Adras had won the breath-blowing competition, though both Storm Shepherds had managed to blow their breath for hours. This was very encouraging to Tal. He'd thought they might only have minutes to get the Codex out.

  "This is the place," announced Zicka, pointing up to where a thick vein of black stone ran through the gray rock, rather like a dark lightning bolt. "The Codex is straight ahead, about five ship lengths in."

  "A hundred and thirty stretches," said Milla. She took off her sword and laid it down, then shrugged off her Selski-hide breastplate and threw it down, too.

  Tal looked up the mountain and then back toward the river and the ship. He felt certain that whoever had put the Codex here would have also left guards or wards, or some protective magic. But he could see nothing. There was no movement on the mountain, in the sky, or on the river.

  That just made him more suspicious. There should have been birds or insects or something. But there was just a light breeze, whispering through the reeds behind them.

  "I am ready," announced Milla. She stretched her arms above her head, and lifted her legs and shook them. Tal saw that they were marked with mottled bruises, but he knew enough about Milla now not to ask.

  "There is only one thing I want to know before we run," said Milla.

  "What?" asked Tal.

  "Why is your hair green?" "A creature vomited on it," said Tal wearily.

  Milla smiled, but she did not laugh. Tal thought she would have laughed, before he'd given away her shadow.

  In addition to the green hair, Tal's shoulders still hurt and he was damp. Fortunately his legs were in fine shape, apart from slightly burned feet.

  There was no reason to delay. But he still hesitated, until Milla stopped her stretching and looked at him.

  Tal knew that look. She was thinking he wasn't brave enough to go ahead.

  "I'm ready, too," he said. "Adras? You know what to do?"

  "Sure!" boomed the Storm Shepherd. "I just blow in the whistle. Like this."

  He raised the whistle and started to blow before anyone could stop him.

  A single pure note, almost too high to hear, came out of the whistle. It seemed to come from all directions, not just from the actual whistle. Echoes came back, multiplying the sound.

  It grew louder and louder, and as the sound increased, the mountain moved.

  It started with a rumbling deep in the earth, and a vibration that rattled every bone in Tal's legs before traveling up into his teeth. Pebbles and clumps of dirt fell from the mountain's sides, followed by shrubs and trees whose roots were shivered loose as the pockets of dirt they grew in were shrugged off the mountain's back.

  Tal saw Adras look surprised. The Storm Shepherd hesitated a little and the note faltered.

  "Keep blowing!" screamed Tal.

  The Storm Shepherd nodded and kept blowing. The note steadied and grew even stronger.

  There was a mighty crack, and a curtain of dust and earth exploded everywhere along the mountain's length. Tal and Milla shielded their eyes with their forearms and gingerly edged forward.

  As the cloud of dust cleared they saw that the mountain was rising out of the earth. They could see daylight on the other, distant side, a gap only a stretch high. But the mountain continued to arch back, and the gap increased.

  "Go!" shouted Zicka. "Go!"

  Tal and Milla rushed forward, hunched over, running as fast as they could through the falling dust and over broken ground.

  Milla counted steps as she ran, calling out every ten. One of her paces was close enough to a stretch. At 120 or so, they should be able to see the Codex.

  They ran on, into the deeper shadow directly under the mountain's belly. It was so close that Tal could have jumped up and touched rock. But he didn't care about that. All his attention was on finding the Codex.

  "One hundred!" shouted Milla. "There it is!" Relief filled Tal's voice.

  He pointed up at a hole just ahead. There was a rectan
gle of silver light up there, bright here in the darkness.

  They ran to it. Tal jumped up, but could not get a grip. He fell back. Before he could jump again, Milla used his back and shoulders as a vaulting board. She got up easily, and reached an arm back down to pull Tal up.

  "Is that the Codex?" gasped Milla, pointing at the luminous slab.

  The silver rectangle flashed, and letters appeared on it. Tal read the words without realizing it.

  Yes, I am the Codex. Take me and run! Run! Run!

  Run!

  Tal gripped one side of the Codex as Milla grabbed the other. Both of them looked down, and realized that the mountain was still rising. They would have to jump down at least six stretches now, or wait till the mountain started to lower itself again. But that would invite being crushed on the way back!

  They lifted the Codex and jumped.

  At that exact moment, the mountain lurched itself up even higher.

  Tal and Milla landed hard, on their hands and knees, and dropped the Codex.

  Pain blossomed in Tal's left shoulder and he cried out. "Ahhh! My shoulder!"

  "Swap sides!" Milla yelled, running around to get her hands under the Codex. "Use your right hand. It's not that heavy." She looked across and saw that Tal's left arm was hanging down much lower than it should. It was obviously dislocated, but she did not have time to push it back in place.

  Tal bit back a sob and staggered around. He couldn't move his left arm at all, and he presumed it was broken in several places or something equally terrible. But it took only one glance at the vast expanse of rock above to make him get his right hand under the Codex and lift.

  "Go! Go!" shouted Milla. They started running again, a clumsy run with the door-sized Codex between them.

  They were halfway back to sunshine and safety when the whistle stopped. At exactly the same time, the mountain stopped rising.

  "Faster!" Milla shouted.

  Tal screamed something, too, though he didn't know what it was. Every step was agony in his shoulder and he could barely keep a grip on the Codex with his good hand.

  With a rumble that deafened them, the mountain started to settle back down. It lowered itself in sudden lurches and with frightening quickness. This was no slow and steady relaxation back into its own bed.

  Tal saw Zicka in the narrowing band of sunlight ahead of them. The lizard was jumping up and down, screaming something, too. Adras and Odris were shouting. Milla was shouting. Everyone was shouting.

  Then they heard the top of the Codex scrape on stone. A horrifying sound, even though it only lasted the second it took them to crouch even lower as they ran.

  Thirty stretches… twenty stretches… the top of the Codex scraped again and they were carrying it almost horizontally and neither could stand upright without hitting their heads… ten stretches and they were crawling and screaming with the stone pressing on their backs… five stretches… four stretches… their clothes were rubbing on stone… two stretches and then…

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Their heads were suddenly in sunshine and the Storm Shepherds were dragging them out, with the Codex between them. For a terrible second it seemed that the mountain had closed on their feet. And then they were free.

  "My shoulder, my shoulder!" Tal cried, half laughing with relief at having got out and half crying with pain from his arm.

  Milla stepped up to him, placed one hand on his shoulder and gripped his arm with her other hand.

  "Ow! No!" shrieked Tal. "I said I was sorry! Don't torture"

  Milla did something with both hands and there was a loud click as Tal's arm went back in his shoulder socket. Almost instantly the pain lessened to a dull ache.

  "Oh!" said Tal, moving it experimentally. "Thanks."

  "Dislocated," said Milla. She turned to Adras and grabbed a chunk of cloud roughly where his chest would be.

  "What happened to you?" she asked fiercely, twisting the cloud-flesh. "Why did you stop blowing?"

  "I didn't!" protested Adras. "I kept blowing, but no sound came out. It just stopped!"

  "That's true," said Zicka.

  Milla let go of the Storm Shepherd and quickly shrugged her armor back on. She didn't even seem to be out of breath, Tal noticed. But he felt a strange gladness in his heart. It was good to be back with Milla again, when it came to things like escaping from under a settling mountain.

  "We have to get away from here," he said urgently as he bent down to pick up the Codex. Milla finished tying her sword scabbard back on her belt and bent to help him.

  "I wonder how long it was under there," Milla said as she picked up her side of the Codex. It seemed a bit larger than it had been under the mountain. She was sure that it had been both thinner and less tall, though it was still about as wide as a door in the Castle.

  As Milla spoke, letters formed on the surface of the Codex, black against the silver luminosity.

  years, 23 days, 14 hours, 3 minutes, and 42 seconds.

  "What does it say?" asked Milla. The letters were from the Chosen alphabet.

  Even as Tal repeated the answer, the letters changed to Icecarl runes. Milla peered at them. She was not a great reader, but she had no trouble with numbers.

  "Who put you there?" asked Tal.

  Two Chosen carried me in. They were Julper YenBaren of the Fifth Indigo and Crislo Hane-Arrit of the Second Violet.

  Tal was about to describe the Spiritshadow that took his brother Gref away and ask which Chosen commanded it, but Zicka got in before him.

  "I greet you, Mighty Codex," he said. "If you were to give advice to us now, what would it be?"

  Flee. Those who put me here watch carefully. We must return to the Castle. I must not be recaptured by the minions of Skerrako.

  "Skerrako?" asked Tal. But he didn't get an answer. Milla was already lifting up her side, so he had to follow suit. Whatever words appeared on the surface of the Codex were seen only by the Storm and Shepherds, neither of them could read Chosen script.

  "Quickly!" Zicka ordered. "To the ship. I will put you ashore as close as I can to the Sunken Stones."

  The Codex seemed a lot heavier than it had under the mountain, Tal thought as they lifted it over the side and onto the deck. Though possibly that was because he'd been scared to death.

  They were back out in the middle of the stream when they heard the first awful screech from the mountain.

  Everyone looked back. There was still a lot of dust around Cold Stone Mountain, but it was easy enough to see the thing that had made the awful, chilling call.

  It was circling in the air above the mountain. A long and sinuous snake-thing with very long, thin wings that fluttered so quickly they were almost invisible. Its body was bright orange with black stripes, and it had a stinger on its end.

  Tal stared at it and his mouth went dry. He knew what it was. He'd seen it in the Beastmaker game. It was part insect, part reptile and could be played for Temper, Speed, or Special. It was a Waspwyrm.

  Tal had thought Waspwyrms were man-sized or smaller.

  This one was bigger than the ship.

  Somehow he knew that it had come to investigate the rising of Cold Stone Mountain.

  It was looking for the Codex.

  Tal hurled himself across the deck, throwing his coat over his head.

  Milla had the same idea. A few seconds later, the Codex was covered by their coats. Tal was surprised to see just how smelly and dirty his coat was. He'd gotten so used to wearing it he'd forgotten how rank it was. He hoped the Codex wouldn't mind.

  Tal looked back at the Waspwyrm. It was flying down to the point where they'd gone in to get the Codex. He wondered if it could scent them, or follow their tracks.

  "We'd better hurry," said Milla grimly. "Whatever that is, it looks for us."

  "It's a Waspwyrm," said Tal. He felt sick. "They're not very smart, but their sting is acid and they can squirt it. They also go crazy when they fight and th
ey're very, very fast. That one is a giant. They're supposed to be small."

  "How do they stand up to lightning?" asked Milla.

  "Lightning?" repeated Tal. He felt a bit better. He'd forgotten about the Storm Shepherds. "I don't know. They're sort of half lizard, half insect. I suppose it would kill them."

  "Good," said Milla and she went over to talk to Odris and Adras.

  Tal kept looking back toward the mountain. He was relieved to see the Waspwyrm rise up and disappear back the way it had come, instead of following him.

  But he knew that something would find them soon. They had to get to the Sunken Stone Circle and back to the Castle. The feeling of dread, the worry about Gref, was at its strongest now because they were so close. As soon as he could uncover the Codex he could ask it the questions that were burning in his head. As soon as it answered, he would know who was holding Gref… and perhaps what had happened to the rest of his family.

  Half an hour later, they came to the farthest point south and east that the ship could go. After unloading the Codex, Zicka pointed out which direction the Sunken Stone Circle lay in and wished them farewell from the deck of the ship.

  Milla clapped her fists together before the lizard, to give him honor, and Tal flashed his Sunstone, though guardedly in case anyone was watching from a distance.

  "If ever you come to Aenir again," said Zicka, "you will find news of me, at least, at the place commonly called Kurshken Corner. It is where most of my people live. Roquollollollahahinanahbek and I wish you well, daughter of Danir, and son of Ramellan. I would like to talk to that Codex of yours, but I know now is not the time. Nor ever, I suppose, for we Kurshken are sworn never to cross to your world. Farewell!"

  Without any sign or spoken word from the small green lizard, the ship turned back into the river and sped away. Tal and Milla waved once, then picked up the Codex and began to walk.

  Adras and Odris, obeying Milla's previous instructions, flew above them at different heights, keeping watch.