Maker's Curse

by Trudi Canavan

  Rielle shook her head. “I fear if I do, I will be fuelling the machines and their makers if they come back.”

  The next world was also stripped and devastated. However, as the one after grew visible they found themselves surrounded by motion. As details emerged, the source was revealed: endless rows of machines marching – if their smooth, multi-legged movements could be called that – past.

  Rielle skimmed upwards so they would arrive somewhere not compromised by machine forms. They found themselves above another ruined city, many of the buildings still belching smoke. Columns of machines flowed over all, countless legs moving. Remembering Dahli’s story of being attacked by a horde of them, Rielle rose higher, hoping to stay out of range of the machines’ senses. She stilled the air in a sphere around herself and her companions as they arrived, so they had both support and shield.

  All surface magic had been stripped from the world, but it remained within the interior. Though they were far above the city, the stink of smoke still reached her nose. She glanced at her companions. Both were staring down at the machines, eyes wide with horror.

  “It’s like they’re alive,” Adene said in a voice hushed for fear of attracting the attention of thousands of inhuman sensors.

  “They’re not,” Liroc replied firmly, but with a slight quaver in his voice. He turned to Rielle. “Where now?”

  She considered. Following the machines was the most obvious next step. The relentless flow was hard to ignore. Slowly at first, then with increasing speed, she carried them in the direction they were travelling, shaping her shield so it created less resistance to wind. Not long after, another river of marching machines joined the flow, then another. The width of the line widened until it was like a flood. They moved over a hilly landscape that had once been rural, with small towns linked by unsealed roads. The machines ignored these landmarks, surging over everything.

  “What is that?” Liroc asked, pointing towards the horizon.

  The machines ahead were turning a different shade of grey. As Rielle drew closer, and she was able to make out individual machines, it became clear the change was merely a shift in the reflected light off metallic bodies, as the moving machines joined the mass of still ones, the boundary between still and moving machines appearing to slowly ripple outwards.

  Passing over the area of still machines, Rielle shivered as she saw how they had formed neat lines, stretching to the horizon. They were of different sizes and shapes, from the size of a lap pet to larger than a small house. The sight of so many was chilling. What world could resist such an army? And if each of those machines held enough magic to form one reasonable blast of heat or force, it was easy to imagine them defeating a sorcerer as powerful as Dahli.

  But were they a danger to an army of sorcerers?

  “So many. Will they continue making them until the entire world is covered?” Adene wondered.

  “Maybe we should ask their guardians,” Liroc replied. He pointed towards the horizon. “There’s a citadel over there. I had to refine my sight to see it.”

  Rielle sought his mind, and saw what he was looking at through eyes enhanced by pattern-shifting. At times like these she sorely missed being ageless. A cluster of towers rose above the ruins of another city. Pinpoints of light suggested life behind the windows. Yet she sensed no magic in that direction.

  “Will we go there?” he asked.

  She considered. Zeke might be there, but she would never know unless she created or released enough magic to read minds. Which would not just strengthen the machines, but also alert any sorcerers to her presence. If Dahli was right, that would put her and her companions in great danger.

  “No.” She turned away. “I don’t want to risk a confrontation until we learn as much as we can about the machines. The mines and forges we saw could not produce this many of them. Let’s discover where they are coming from.”

  She propelled them back the way they had come. They passed their arrival place and continued on, picking ever smaller branches of the converging machines to follow. After an even longer journey, they found the end of a column in the middle of an empty plain.

  “Can you see their tracks?” she asked Liroc.

  He narrowed his enhanced eyes. “Yes.” He pointed. “They go that way.”

  She carried them onwards. Now that they were not following machines, the danger of being sensed and attacked had diminished, so she descended enough that she could see the tracks for herself. After a short time, a motionless machine came into sight. It appeared to be missing several legs. They passed more of these broken machines, some still, some moving.

  Finally they reached a place where the tracks fanned out over a large area, and continued no further. An arrival place? Rielle brought them down and, when they were just above the ground, pushed out of the world. As she expected, a path led away into the place between worlds.

  “Follow the path?” Adene asked as Rielle returned them to the world.

  “Not yet,” Rielle replied. “I suspect it is one of many arrival places and I am wondering if I should look for more.” She turned to Liroc. “What can you see?”

  He scanned the horizon, then pointed. “Another line of them over there. And… that’s interesting. There’s a broken machine a few hundred strides away, and it has smaller machines fixing it.”

  “Tell me where.”

  She took them in the direction he indicated, and stopped when she was close enough to see what he had described. Two small machines were scurrying over the broken one’s form. As she watched, they removed a leg and replaced it. She didn’t see where the other leg had come from, but it became apparent when she took them up into the air again. Nearby, another machine was being dismantled by the small ones. She turned to Liroc.

  “Let’s investigate the other line you saw.”

  He directed her to it. The machines were a larger, slow-moving kind. The legs were short and thick, the bodies bulbous with a nozzle at the front.

  “I don’t think I want to know what is inside those,” Adene muttered.

  Rielle shook her head. “Nor do I. Let’s see where they came from.”

  She followed the machines back towards their source. This line, too, simply ended, and a path led away.

  “Where does this go?” Rielle murmured. She followed it to the next world, which was also a ruin. They arrived in a marshy area. The machines had left deep tracks in the ground. These led to a mountain ridge, to a dark opening in the rock.

  Adene glanced at Rielle. “Another mine?”

  “Possibly.”

  “Do you want to look inside?”

  “Yes, but… before we go inside, we should look for minds. I doubt there are any sorcerers left. They’re probably with their machines, but we should check.”

  She set them down on a ridge overlooking the possible mine entrance. Taking a deep breath, she let it out and calmed her mind. Then she began creating patterns of light. It did not take long to fill the area around them with magic. The two ageless sorcerers did not watch her this time, but stared down at the cave entrance.

  “There! There’s one!” Liroc exclaimed. “Four of them, actually.”

  Rielle stopped and sought the minds he’d found. Four men waited in a small room carved out of the rock. None had noticed the return of magic, their thoughts full of expectation and impatience. Almost instantly she understood that they were in a mine and machine factory, and were awaiting the return of several companions before they all joined their general and continued on to conquer another world and strip it of raw materials for machines. As she roamed from mind to mind seeking more information, a name caught her attention and she returned to the one who’d thought it.

  I hope Perren will be okay. Tarren’s supposed to be smart. He’ll have no hope against all the sorcerers Kettin sent, though.

  Rielle sucked in a quick breath. This Kettin was their leader, she read from their minds. He had sent several sorcerers to attack Tarren some days ago. She quickly scanned
the minds again, hoping to find out exactly how long ago the attackers had left, but all she found was a general sense that about half of the time they were expected to be absent had passed.

  Half to get there, half to return. Which meant the attack could be happening right now!

  She grasped Adene and Liroc’s hands tightly, then pushed out of the world.

  CHAPTER 15

  “This is not what Qall ordered,” Liroc said in the mild tone Rielle had so often heard used by the servants of feared leaders. He might have been making an observation about a small shift in weather, not her rush through the worlds. It broke through her focus, and filled her with apprehension at how she was coming across to these two people. She should be explaining her actions.

  “No,” Rielle replied. “But if I had the time to seek his opinion, I believe he would agree with me that letting Tarren and his students die would be unwise. We need teachers like Tarren. We’ll lose Tyen’s support if we don’t attempt to save him.”

  Adene’s brow was deeply lined. She shrugged as Rielle met her gaze. Liroc nodded, but his posture still spoke of his discomfort at abandoning their mission.

  Rielle paused before arriving in the next world so that she could speak without gasping for air. “Someone ought to report to Qall, to tell him what we have learned so far and where I am going. Are you able to separate? I may need one of you in Tarren’s world if I am injured.”

  The pair nodded, then turned to look at each other. Rielle brought them into the world, then bent over and braced her hands on her knees as dizziness from a lack of air overwhelmed her. Pain blossomed in her head and lungs. She felt a hand press against her arm and the pain faded. As her sight cleared, she looked up to see Adene’s eyes fixed somewhere within her.

  “You’ll be of no use to Tarren if you arrive like this,” the young woman said. She looked up at Liroc. “I’ll go with the Maker. You return to Qall.”

  He paused, looking as if he wanted to argue, then pressed his lips together and nodded.

  “Do you know where you are?” Rielle asked him.

  He looked around, then shook his head.

  “Stay with me for now. I will need to head towards the base first to get my bearings before starting towards Tarren’s world. Let me know when you recognise a world.”

  Rielle took a deep breath, let it out, then sucked in another and pushed out of the world again.

  They had passed through another twenty or so worlds when Liroc spoke in the place between.

  “This. I know this place. We passed through it on the way to meet you, but on a different path than the one we’re following now.” As they arrived on a raised stone platform in the middle of a spectacular fountain, he pulled out of Rielle’s grasp. “Be careful,” he said, looking from Rielle to Adene. He smiled. “You still owe me,” he told the young woman.

  Adene rolled her eyes and made a “tsk” noise. “We’ll see.”

  Liroc faded from sight. Rielle regarded Adene grimly. “Thanks for volunteering to come with me. I’m afraid you’ll have to go blindfold from here.”

  The woman’s smile faded. She nodded, and as Rielle took off her scarf and tied it around her head she did not protest.

  Taking the woman’s hand and a few more deep breaths, Rielle pushed on.

  Tarren’s world lay beyond the Restorer base, but not directly in line with it. She could have headed straight towards it, but that meant taking an unfamiliar path, requiring a slower pace to ensure the worlds she passed through were safe. It would be faster to travel familiar routes for as long as possible before striking out towards Tarren’s world.

  Quickening her pace, she rushed through worlds, managing to pass through several between each breath. Eventually she had to slow, as her speed demanded so much concentration she’d had no time to consider how to approach Tarren’s world.

  She was all too conscious that she was creating a path leading right to Tarren’s school. If it was under attack that would not matter – the ex-Liftre inventors and their leader, Kettin, already knew where it was. But if the four men had been wrong or misled, and those seeking Tarren only knew of his vague whereabouts, she might lead Tarren’s enemies to him.

  She couldn’t afford taking the time to hide her tracks, however. If the men were right, by the time Rielle arrived the battle could be well underway. Or over.

  She would not know the true situation until she reached his world. But then… she didn’t have to be at Tarren’s school to confirm it was under attack. As long as there was still magic in his world, she could seek out minds and see what was happening from far enough away that the attackers wouldn’t sense Adene’s mind. Then, if the school was not under attack, she could continue to the next world, and lead anyone on her trail away.

  Still, it would mean leading them uncomfortably close to Tarren’s school. Was there another way she could learn if Tarren was under attack without approaching it?

  As the answer came she smiled: her ability to sense magic. She could sense all of the magic in most worlds. If she arrived on the other side of Tarren’s, she could search for fresh voids of magic and new ones being formed, and that would tell her a battle was taking place. Tarren’s lessons at the school never involved such easily detectable shifts in magic. He took his students away from its location if he needed to teach something that would have that great an effect.

  By the time Rielle stopped to breathe again, she had a plan. She began pausing for shorter breaks and travelling for longer, but was forced to slow again when dizziness started to plague her whenever she stopped. Finally, Adene placed her free hand on her shoulder.

  “Here,” the young woman said. “Let me help.”

  Strength and steadiness returned with sudden rapidness. Rielle thanked Adene. “Can you do that whenever we stop, so we get there faster?”

  Adene nodded. Pushing out of the world again, Rielle sped onwards, her pauses to recover shortening as Adene healed her. Even so, time seemed to slow, and the number of worlds between them and Tarren’s world seemed infinite. But they weren’t, and at last the number shrank to zero. They arrived in Tarren’s world in a night-shrouded ruined city half a world away from the school. As Adene healed away dizziness, a heavy feeling of dread settled on Rielle. She closed her eyes and stretched her senses down through the ground. On the other side of the world she found several globes of darkness, sharply defined at the edges.

  Her stomach sank.

  Several sorcerers had taken magic, or one had taken magic several times. She could ascertain nothing more than that, but it was enough to convince her to risk skimming directly to the school. Taking her scarf off Adene’s head, she met the woman’s eyes.

  “Are you prepared for a battle?”

  The woman nodded once. “Yes.”

  “Then let’s hope that’s what we find, rather than the aftermath.”

  Rielle took them through the earth. If Adene was discomforted by this, Rielle could not see, since there was no light to show the woman’s expression. They emerged at the other side in a rush, shooting up into bright sunlight.

  Immediately it was clear that the best of the worst scenarios she had imagined was taking place. Tarren’s school was under attack, but the battle had not yet been won or lost.

  The ground exploded far below, rocks flying high and wide. A moment later, another patch erupted. The booms were muffled, muted by the place between but loud enough to hint at the true volume. Rielle entered the world cautiously, instantly creating a sphere of stilled air around herself and Adene. She searched for minds, and found them. Several sorcerers hovered in the sky a distance away, some of them smashing the ground below randomly in the hopes they would kill those they’d been sent to eliminate. They’d already destroyed the school and killed a few of the students, but they knew Tarren and the rest were in the maze of tunnels around and below it. They did not know where: their targets’ minds had vanished when they’d taken a sleeping drug.

  Tarren’s alive! Rielle’s relief w
as brief, as she realised any of the random attacks could have killed him and his attackers wouldn’t know.

  She caught a flash of thought. Focusing on it, she learned that some of the students were still conscious. Five of the strongest had volunteered to flee in different directions to lead the attackers’ attention away. One thought of Tarren, asleep and rolling away in an old mining cart down into the lower levels. Tarren wouldn’t know where he was when he woke. She hoped the Liftre sorcerers would give up and leave before then.

  Turning back to the minds of the attackers, Rielle saw that their leader had ordered them to wait until Tarren awoke. Some were considering descending to the ground to search the passages. Whoever killed the teacher would be well rewarded. Few of them held much respect for the group’s leader and some were contemplating acting against his orders.

  Looking down, Rielle considered her options. She could see only three. Like the attackers, the only way she would find Tarren was to wait for him to wake up, or start searching the passages. It was likely the students were scattered, too. To rescue all of them would be easier if they were awake and in one place, which they couldn’t safely be while under attack.

  She turned her attention to the attackers, counting twenty-four of them. They hadn’t noticed her or Adene yet. She didn’t doubt she could kill them, but she pushed that option aside. Their minds churned with the fears and reasoning of men who had become caught up in something terrible. Regret and guilt warred with ambition and fear. Given the chance, some of them would flee the mysterious new leader of the ex-Liftre inventors. Kettin was willing to destroy whole worlds, and some worried that his gaze would fall upon their home worlds. A few did not care, however. They relished the power they had over others, and freedom from the restraints of civilised societies.

  She sighed. Not killing wasn’t easy. Though she had always believed it was wrong, Tyen’s pacifism had given strength to her determination to never kill unless it would do more harm to avoid it than good. It was fortunate that these sorcerers didn’t know that, or her third and last choice of strategy would not have been effective.