Aenir

by Garth Nix

  Tal and Milla did not speak as they walked. It was an effort to carry the Codex, but that was not why they found it difficult to talk. Neither knew how to bridge the gap that had come between them. Both, in their own way, wanted to, but both were held back by what they were and how they had changed. Tal was not really a Chosen anymore and Milla was not really an Icecarl. But they did not know how to forge a new understanding or forgive each other for the things that had happened.

  So on they trudged in silence, pushing themselves as fast as they could through the black mud, crushed reeds, and sudden pits of bubbling black metal that Milla called ghalt.

  Finally Tal saw what he was looking for. They had come to the top of a hill, and there in the valley below was a circle of stones. A strange circle, for the stones were buried so that only the very tops showed, so they looked rather like large mushrooms from a distance.

  "The Sunken Stones!" Tal cried out, though he barely had breath to do so. He'd been there several times and his family had once transferred back to the Dark World from here. Escape was in sight!

  Before they could start down the hill, Odris called out from above them.

  "Look out behind!"

  Tal and Milla set the Codex down on its lower edge and turned to look.

  First they saw the Waspwyrm. But it was not alone. Four other, smaller Waspwyrms flew with it. And on the ground there was almost an army of creatures, running, leaping, loping, and jumping down the previous hill. There were Vengenarls and Borzogs and Filjiks and all sorts of vicious things.

  There was also a man running amidst the pack, a man in the Violet Robes of a high Chosen, Sunstones winking at his neck and on his hands.

  "They'll catch us!" said Milla, rapidly calculating the relative distance between the Waspwyrms and themselves and to the stone circle.

  "No," said Tal. "We'll fly. Odris! Adras!"

  He held up one hand, keeping a tight grip on the Codex with the other.

  Milla held up her hand, too, but she said, "I thought no Aeniran could touch the Codex?"

  "They won't," said Tal. He was already clenching his teeth in expectation of his shoulder being wrenched out again. "We'll hold on to the Codex and the Storm Shepherds will hold on to… owww!"

  The Storm Shepherds had swooped down and lifted them up. Tal's arm wasn't dislocated out of his shoulder, but it hurt almost as much.

  "To the stone circle!" shouted Tal. "Right to the middle! Quickly!"

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  The Storm Shepherds dropped them into the middle of the stone circle, then both shot back up into the sky. They had to get above the approaching Waspwyrms to use their lightning.

  Tal and Milla laid the Codex down. Milla was about to draw her sword and rush to the circle's edge, but Tal stopped her.

  "No," he said. "Lie down next to the Codex and put your Sunstone on your chest! I'll speak the Way to the Castle. You need to repeat it in your head, and concentrate on the colors."

  "No!" said Milla. "I won't leave… even you… here to fight alone."

  "I'll leave, too!" said Tal. "But you have to go first. You don't know the Way."

  Thunder boomed above them and lightning lit up the sky. Tal and Milla looked across and saw the Waspwyrms break formation and momentarily circle back as Odris and Adras shot lightning bolts down at them.

  "The Codex has to get back!" shouted Tal above the thunder. "It's the only way to find Gref. Ebbitt will know what to do with it."

  "I cannot leave a comrade in battle," yelled Milla.

  "It's not a battle!" shrieked Tal. He racked his brain, trying to think of something that would influence her, and babbled, "Please, Milla. You have to go first. Think of your clan. They need the Sunstone. Gref… Ebbitt… my people need the Codex. Whatever's going on, it'll be bad for the Icecarls, too. One of us has to get back."

  Whatever Tal had said, it worked. Milla nodded decisively and lay down next to the Codex. She put her left hand flat upon it and held her Sunstone on her chest.

  Tal took a swift look back at the approaching enemy, then bent down next to Milla. He raised his own Sunstone and began to speak the Way to the Castle.

  Milla concentrated on his words, shutting out the crash of thunder and the distant roars and cries of their pursuers. She saw color spring out of her Sunstone and wash back over her face. As in her last crossing, the colors provoked different sensations on her skin.

  Tal's face faded as the colors spread, and the sky changed color. But before the sky blurred away entirely, Milla heard Odris cry out, behind the words that Tal spoke. "Adras! I'm going!"

  The Storm Shepherd dropped faster than a stone, reaching out one cloudy hand. Milla felt it touch her just as all the colors flashed brighter and became a rainbow.

  Milla blinked, and was gone.

  Tal stood up. Milla and the Codex had vanished, sent back to the Castle, back to the Dark World. Odris had gone with them.

  Adras was still there, frantically flinging lightning bolts at the Waspwyrms. But while the Storm Shepherd was keeping the flying creatures back, the other creatures were already halfway down the other hill.

  Tal felt an almost overwhelming desire to run. There were scores of terrible creatures charging at him. They would be all over the stone circle in a minute or even less. If he lay down and tried to transfer himself to the Dark World, they might get him before the spell was complete.

  But they'd get him for sure if he ran.

  "Adras!" Tal shouted even as he threw himself down. "Come as low as you can!"

  He was shivering, Tal discovered, his hand unable to stay still on his chest. He stared at the Sunstone on his finger but didn't even try to take it off. He knew he'd drop it if he did.

  He immediately started reciting the Way to the Castle. Red light spilled out of his Sunstone as he spoke the words, the light flowing like water across his chest and down toward his legs.

  The thunder stopped and now Tal could hear howls and shrieks and screeches that made his heart pound faster than he thought humanly possible. All his aches and pains were forgotten. Every tiny part of his mind was focused on his Sunstone and on the Way.

  Tal spoke even faster, adding the other colors. He'd never spoken the incantation so quickly. He was afraid that he'd garble the words and end up who knew where. But he was more afraid of the creatures that were probably almost upon his defenseless body.

  The rainbow started to form. Through the fuzziness of it, Tal could see Adras diving down to him, one arm outstretched. They couldn't cross until the

  Storm Shepherd touched him, as Adras had Tal's shadow. It was an anchor keeping him in Aenir.

  As he saw the blurred shape of Adras swooping down, Tal saw a normal-sized Waspwyrm fly in. Storm Shepherd and monster met directly above his body. Adras reached down to touch Tal with one hand and bash the Waspwyrm with the other. At the same time the Waspwyrm jetted acid down from its sting.

  Rainbow light flashed. Tal and Adras disappeared.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Tal arrived in the Dark World screaming. Acid was burning through his leg. He jerked up to look at the damage and hit his head on the coffin lid. He'd forgotten that he'd left his body in the Chosen's Mausoleum. It had seemed the safest place at the time.

  With an acid burn on his leg and his head cracked on the lid, choosing the coffin seemed very stupid. Tal reached up to try and shift the lid. As always when he returned from Aenir, his body felt very heavy and slow.

  "This is very strange," said a voice that was somehow under him. Tal stiffened in shock, till he realized who it was.

  It was Adras, who had become a shadow.

  A puffy shadow-arm reached around Tal's body and joined with him in opening the lid. But the shadow went straight through.

  "You… you have to concentrate," said Tal. His voice sounded strange to his own ears. It, too, was different from in Aenir. He was also speaking through gritted teeth as he tried to cope wit
h the pain in his leg. "To make your shadow-flesh strong enough to interact with stone or flesh."

  "How?" asked Adras plaintively.

  "I don't know," whispered Tal. "Think of it being… I don't know… tougher. Imagine."

  Adras reached past him again, and this time the shadow-hand did not go through the stone. The lid began to slide open.

  Tal dimmed the light of his Sunstone and Adras said, "What happened? I feel weak."

  "Keep quiet," whispered Tal. He didn't want any Chosen who might be in the Mausoleum to hear them. "You're a Spiritshadow now. You need light to be strong."

  "Oh," said Adras. Just as when he'd been a Storm Shepherd, he didn't know how to keep his voice down.

  Tal closed his eyes and tried to breathe more slowly. Any minute now, he told himself, Ebbitt will be looking down and he'll use his Sunstone to stop the pain. Any minute now. All he had to do was concentrate on breathing.

  "Tal! What happened?"

  It was not Ebbitt. It was Milla.

  Tal opened his eyes. Milla was looking at his leg, where tendrils of acid smoke were still rising. Odris loomed up behind her, a huge Spiritshadow. She still had the look of a Storm Shepherd, but was smaller than she'd usually been in Aenir. Interestingly, small sparks of darker shadow occasionally shot out of Odris. Tal had never seen that in a Spiritshadow before.

  "Acid," whispered Tal. "Waspwyrm. Get Ebbitt." "He's not here," said Milla. "He left me a note, but I can't read it. You've got one, too."

  Tal lifted his head a little and groaned. There was a rolled-up scroll near his right hand. But he was too much in shock to pick it up or make any attempt to read it.

  "Healing magic," he whispered again. "Use Sunstone."

  "I don't know how," said Milla. She looked at his leg again. The acid had burned straight through Tal's fur leggings and eaten away the flesh underneath.

  She could see white bone. On the Ice, his leg would have to be cut off and the stump cauterized, unless there was a very skilled healer close by.

  "Ask the Codex," Tal whispered.

  Then he fainted.

  Milla looked at the leg for a little longer, raising the fur. Then she went over to the coffin she'd just emerged from. The Codex was still in it. It had changed shape to fit, growing narrower and longer. But as she'd guessed, it still weighed as much as it ever had, and it took all her strength to lever it out and set it upright next to the coffin that held Tal.

  It was also a noisy operation. When she had it set up, Milla looked around the Mausoleum to make sure the noise hadn't attracted any attention. But the vast hall was quiet. The tiny Sunstones overhead continued to flicker like the Aeniran stars they mimicked. There was no sudden flare of bright light. Nor was there any movement among the rows and rows of Spiritshadow statues that adorned the coffins.

  "Odris," Milla said softly, "keep a watch on that door over there. Adras, you watch the main gate."

  Odris turned to the door. Adras rose up to his full height, easily three times as tall as Milla, and said, "Why should I?"

  "Because Milla said so," ordered Odris sharply. "So there."

  Adras snorted. A small lightning bolt of dark shadow came out his nose, which made him giggle.

  Milla ignored him and looked at the Codex. She looked at it for a long time. It seemed to her that if she asked it to teach her how to heal wounds with her Sunstone she was taking yet another step away from being a Shield Maiden. Or even an Icecarl.

  Yet once again, there was the complex web of debts she owed Tal and those he owed her.

  "I need to use my Sunstone to heal an acid burn," she said to the Codex. "Tell me how."

  The silvery surface of the Codex rippled, but no letters appeared.

  "Speak to me," said Milla. She rapped the surface of the Codex with her knuckle. It felt cold, like ice, but left no mark and had no effect.

  "I order you to tell me!"

  The Codex shimmered, but no words came.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  "Why don't you answer?" Milla said, her frustration making her voice harsh.

  This time, Icecarl runes did appear, dark symbols rising to the silver surface as if from some great depth.

  Because you did not ask a question. You must ask me questions.

  "How do I use my Sunstone to heal an acid burn?" asked Milla.

  Watch and learn.

  The runes disappeared and a picture swam into focus. A picture so lifelike that for a moment Milla thought that it was real. It showed an Icecarl girl holding up a Sunstone ring. It took her another second to realize that the picture was of her.

  More runes appeared under the picture. They told her what to do and then the picture of Milla did what the runes said. Then Milla copied the picture. When she got it wrong because she hadn't read the runes correctly, the picture repeated what it was doing until she got it right.

  It took some time. Milla had to stop the Codex a few times to check on Tal. He was unconscious, but the wound was not bleeding. The acid seemed to have sealed off the blood vessels, which was some small mercy.

  Finally, Milla was ready. She looked down on Tal and raised her Sunstone. Slowly, she called up a Blue Ray of Healing. It had to be exactly the right shade and density, but she had memorized that. It looked right.

  As her forehead creased in the sharpest frown she'd ever had, Milla played the Blue Ray across the wound. Wherever the light touched, it soothed and healed. The flesh began to grow back.

  Milla kept the Blue Ray going and started to build a second ray, the Yellow Ray of Replacement. This was the really hard one. It would put a layer of light over the blue, building up artificial bone, muscle, nerves, and blood vessels to act as temporary replacements until the real ones grew back.

  The Yellow Ray wove back and forth, slowly replacing Tal's missing flesh, layer by layer.

  Finally, it was done. Milla let the light sink back into the Sunstone and let out a deep sigh of relief. Only then did she notice that Tal was awake and watching her.

  "Thank you," he said. "That was well done. You have a knack for healing."

  "I am a warrior," Milla replied, and for an instant Tal thought she was offended. But she went on to say, "It is the mark of a true warrior to be a healer, too. Though that is more the way of a Sword-Thane than a Shield Maiden."

  Tal sat up and gingerly felt his leg. It ached to the bone, rather like a nasty toothache, deep and constant. But he could use the leg, if he was careful.

  Adras helped him climb out. It was strange to feel friendly shadow-flesh again, Tal thought. Somehow Adras did not feel unpleasant and clammy, as other Spiritshadows did.

  "Didn't you say Ebbitt left a message?" Tal asked. Milla handed him the scroll that had been in her coffin, and got out the one that had been in his. Tal opened both. It took only a moment to see they were the same. He read it aloud so Milla and the Spiritshadows would know what it contained.

  Dear Children,

  Somebody thinks I have become dangerous, for certain Spiritshadows have tried to sniff me out. To draw them off your scent as well as mine, I have gone down, down, down, down, down, down, and then down once more, from my usual abode. Come join me there if you can. If you have the Codex, bring it with you. Trust no one, absolutely no one at all. Except me of course. I have found an Underfolk corridor from the Mausoleum that leads to one of their main stairs. If you take this way you should have few problems. Unless I have been caught using it, in which case you will have many problems. But then we all have problems.

  Yours truly,

  E.

  "Typical Ebbitt!" groaned Tal. "Where has he gone?" asked Milla. "I don't understand."

  "The Seventh Underfolk Level," said Tal. "I think that's what he means."

  He shook his head. "But I'm not going down there. I have to rescue Gref. That's the main reason for getting the Codex in the first place!"

  "I think we should take the Codex to Ebbitt," said Milla. "It ca
nnot be lost to your…

  our enemies."

  "No!" exclaimed Tal. "I

  have to rescue Gref!"

  The effort of speaking made him even paler. Despite the Sunstone's healing magic he was still weak.

  Milla did not answer, but her eyes narrowed as she looked at him.

  "What do you mean when you say our enemies, anyway?" asked Tal.

  "Now that I know much more, I think there are bad Chosen and… stupid Chosen. The stupid Chosen are not important. Your enemies are the bad Chosen and they are enemies of the Icecarl, too."

  "Er, good," said Tal, but it was clear to Milla he didn't want to think about anything except finding Gref.

  He looked at the Codex as he spoke. Milla caught the glance and said, "You must ask it questions. It will not speak otherwise."

  Tal nodded and slowly made his way over to the strange silvery artifact. It looked a bit like a mirror, propped up against the coffin. But its silver surface did not reflect anything.

  It took Tal a moment to phrase a question. It all seemed to have happened so long ago. Gref climbing up the Red Tower after him, the Spiritshadow that caught him and took him back inside…

  "Which Chosen is the Master of a Spiritshadow in the shape of a Borzog?" asked Tal.

  Words formed on the surface of the Codex. A great list of Chosen names moving across and up the Codex. Then they stopped and one name grew larger and larger.

  Nilhir Jerel-Orim, of the Third Order of the Red.

  "Where are the rooms of Nilhir Jerel-Orim of the Third Order of the Red?" asked Tal. He wasn't sure if the Codex could answer this sort of question, but it was worth a try.

  The Codex answered immediately, with a clearly labeled map. As expected Nilhir had rooms in the Red Levels. But strangely enough, the Codex also showed him having a room in the abandoned White Levels quite close to the Hall of Nightmares.

  That was where they would be holding Gref, Tal thought. It had to be. He stared at the map, memorizing the location of the room.