Maker's Curse

by Trudi Canavan

  Rielle glanced at Qall. Are we not going to levitate? she thought, knowing he’d hear the question. He did not take his eyes off the sphere, but gave a tiny shake of his head.

  The sphere arrived, sending sand and water surging out in all directions and blocking out most of the light.

  And in the next moments the army was back in the place between worlds. Rielle could sense a presence close by, but it rapidly moved away to join others in the distance. She itched to give chase, or see someone else do so, but the importance of remaining together had been stressed during the tactical meetings and preparations.

  Qall skimmed them around the world, seeking another arrival place or path to the next world. The presences faded, unable to keep up. He found no other arrival place before they had to stop for Rielle and the other mortal fighters to breathe. She read frustration in Qall’s face. He had only allowed non-ageless sorcerers to join the army because it would be slowed down by Rielle anyway.

  Oh, what I’d do to become ageless again right now! But then she would be of no more use than everyone else here.

  At last they came upon a lightly used path. Qall sped along it without hesitation. The next world was weak but had been spared Kettin’s conquest. A stepping stone, Rielle guessed. Sure enough, it led them through two more destroyed worlds to another pristine one, then three before the next undisturbed oasis. The path remained a minor one, and Rielle began to wonder if it was one that followers of Kettin used to travel to and from her base. Perhaps even Kettin herself used it.

  No moonlike clusters of machines assailed them. No sorcerers kept pace with them. It was all too easy. Rielle looked at Qall to see him frowning with worry. Had the same possibility occurred to him?

  Then a world began to emerge that was already surrounded by a network of machines, without a web connecting them. The arrival place was on a rooftop of a small city that showed no sign of damage. Qall looked at her, his eyebrows rising in query.

  She shrugged. They would not know if it was Kettin’s world until they arrived.

  He took the army upwards to hover far above the city.

  “Separate!” he ordered. “Be ready to shield when you arrive. Clear a space among the machines and we will regroup.”

  The Restorers obeyed, spreading out as they parted. The nearest machines turned as the first fighters arrived, sensing movement.

  Qall turned to Rielle. “Shield and start generating magic immediately.” He didn’t wait to see her nod, instead turning to look around at the army. “Enter the world!” he called.

  To Rielle’s relief, none of the fighters screamed or fell as they did, but the sounds of battle immediately battered her senses.

  “Do your thing, Maker,” Qall ordered, flashing a quick smile as he moved away.

  She obeyed, trying to ignore the rapidly expanding battle as she created lights and set them moving. In the periphery of her vision she saw that thousands of machines were breaking formation and swarming upon the invaders. Focusing on the magic she was creating, she saw it being snatched up by the sorcerers around her in no organised pattern, unintentionally depriving some so that all too soon a scream reached her, and she glimpsed a body fall in the corner of her sight.

  Her stomach sank. We were warned about that.

  But the advisers had not been certain how they could prevent it. Nobody has ever fought like this before. The urge to smash at the machines rose again, but with the Restorers protectively surrounding her it was as likely she’d strike them as hit a machine. Stick to what you’re here for, she told herself, and set about just that.

  The air darkened, then filled with black lines.

  “More arriving!” someone shouted.

  “Check your position!” Qall roared.

  Rielle paused from her light show to avoid the shadow of a machine and the cables connecting it to its fellows. She and Qall attacked it simultaneously, shattering its shield and boring holes in its body. It sagged in the net of cables, then, as the network unlinked, fell. Drawing Rielle’s attention down, she saw it punch a hole through the roof of a house below. Her stomach sank again. The streets of the town had filled with people, some staring up at the battle, others fleeing the machines raining down on them.

  “Should we move away from the city?” she asked.

  Qall didn’t answer. Looking up, Rielle saw that he was scanning the horizon. “Where is she?” he muttered.

  “Shall I search so you can focus on the battle?” she asked.

  He glanced at her and shook his head. “No. Make magic.”

  Once again, she forced her attention away from her surroundings and began the dance of lights. Her heart wasn’t in it, and she could feel very little magic spilling from her. Every machine that dropped made her heart skip, and she couldn’t help looking to see where it landed. When one struck a man, she tore her eyes away. “We have to move, Qall.”

  “We will when I find her,” he growled.

  “More arriving!” Hapre shouted. The woman was hovering nearby.

  Qall looked up and around, his lip curling with annoyance as he saw another tangle of machines about to arrive. He stretched out an arm and faded a little, but she could still see him as his hand encountered part of the oncoming network of machines. Rielle gasped out a laugh as she saw the simple brilliance of his ploy. He was bound to be stronger than any of Kettin’s controllers.

  But he did not know how to collapse the network. Instead he moved it up and away from the Restorer army. It tilted, one side dipping into the ground far below, then grew abruptly more distinct. Puffs of dirt exploded up from the ground. Qall had brought the great sphere of machines into the world partly buried. As the surviving ones disconnected and began to swarm, Qall skimmed back to Rielle’s side.

  “Let them try that again!” he said smugly.

  “They are,” she told him as another cable appeared, faint but now familiar, in the air between them.

  He sighed and faded again. This time, as he took hold of the approaching network, it turned upside down. At first Rielle wondered if the sorcerer trying to bring it into the world had managed to regain some control, but as the machines arrived and uncoupled, she realised that most of them would have emerged far, far above, in the darkness beyond the sky.

  “More magic!” someone called.

  Rielle’s heart skipped. She cursed and set her attention to making magic again. If people were calling for it, they must be running dangerously low. She turned her mind to shaping a more complex light pattern. When a machine fell past her, she sent lights chasing it down in a dance of triumph.

  Suddenly Qall was back beside her. “There are more coming,” he said. “I think they aim to crowd the place between worlds with them so we can’t leave.”

  “Let some of us clear them away,” Hapre advised. “While you stay and search for Kettin.”

  He nodded. “Pick our strongest to do it.”

  Hapre moved off through the fighters. Qall’s attention returned to the distance, his expression searching. Rielle returned to making magic and her focus was not interrupted again, though she paused now and then to check how the battle was progressing. Each time she did, the swarms of machines attacking them were a little denser. Though the sorcerers Hapre had enlisted were successfully copying Qall’s ploy, each time a sphere arrived plenty of machines survived to join those already in the fight. They seemed to be accumulating faster than the army could destroy them.

  “I’ve… found her!” Qall exclaimed.

  Catching a hesitation in his voice, Rielle glanced at him.

  “But…?”

  “Only by searching for her in other people’s minds. I can’t see her mind.”

  “She’s that strong?”

  “Perhaps,” he said. “You’ll see what I mean when they arrive.”

  “’They?’”

  “She’s bringing her own sorcerers to fight. Or rather, they’re bringing her.”

  As she began searching for minds, Qall drew in a sharp bre
ath.

  “No. Generate magic,” he said. “We may need it.”

  Turning her attention back to her light show was difficult, but she forced herself to concentrate. What pattern should she create to greet Kettin? What might inspire the Restorer army? Kettin was all about destruction and death. So Rielle made her creations about life, mimicking swirling flocks of flying creatures, the growth and blossoming of plants, seeds bursting out of pods and petals spiralling towards the ground.

  “They’re here,” Qall said, his voice breathy and harsh. Rielle paused to see where he was looking just as Hapre appeared beside him.

  “There are too many machines now,” she said. “They’re overcoming our defences more and more.”

  Qall nodded. “Then let’s bring the fight to Kettin.”

  As Hapre followed the direction of his gaze, Rielle did so as well. Beyond the Restorers was a swarm of machines too thick to see through, but she could sense hundreds of minds on the other side of it. Focusing on one, she learned that he was one of Kettin’s sorcerers.

  The man was dragging his eyes away from the enormous cloud of attacking machines to what now seemed like a tiny army of sorcerers arranged around Kettin. Hundreds of golden masks tilted up towards the battle. He did not know Kettin’s plan. She had never required her sorcerers to fight beside her before. “Protect the controllers,” one of Kettin’s generals snapped. The man drew in a deep breath and readied himself for a fight.

  Hapre’s voice cut across the thoughts Rielle was reading.

  “The core of them have controls for the machines. They can stop them attacking.”

  “I see,” Qall replied. “They are to stop the battle if… ah. Interesting. It is a secondary defence. The masks should tell the machines not to attack the wearer, but they aren’t certain it will work.”

  “If they do, we need to remove them. Take them for ourselves.”

  “Yes. They are expecting us to attack from above, but I don’t think they’ve considered what would happen if we simply skimmed down and arrived among them.”

  “Drawing the machine’s attacks upon them as well.” Hapre paused, then laughed. “None are considering the possibility, as far as I can see.”

  “Link!” Qall shouted. The call was repeated, spreading outwards. Rielle placed a hand on Qall’s shoulder, her heart racing.

  “Give me a line of sight,” Qall ordered. Immediately a gap appeared as sorcerers moved out of the way. A wall of machines appeared.

  “What about me?” Rielle murmured. “What do I do when we get there?”

  “Protect yourself,” Qall replied. “Make magic. Don’t try to fight anyone.”

  “They’ll take the magic too.”

  “We’ll have to be faster.” He looked around. I must time this carefully, between arriving spheres. “Anyone not ready?”

  A faint reply came. A moment later, an affirmation of readiness followed. The swarms of machines faded as Qall took the army out of the world a little, then blurred as he sent everyone through them. As they emerged from the cloud, Qall did not slow. A larger golden shape drew Rielle’s attention to the centre of Kettin’s army. Someone was wearing not just a gold mask, but gold armour as well. Details grew clear as they sped closer, and she realised that the figure was not wearing gold armour. It was gold.

  She, Rielle corrected, as the humanoid held an arm up, signalling to her army.

  Kettin’s new body was more feminine than the one Tyen had made, more than five cycles ago. Its curves were strangely ludicrous. A body of metal did not need breasts or wide hips. Nor did it need fine clothing draped over its metallic skin. Bright jewel eyes reflected the sun as the humanoid looked up at the Restorer army.

  Eyes that seemed to fix upon Rielle. Or Qall.

  Qall slowed their descent. “She’s done it,” he said, speaking in the place between worlds. “I couldn’t read her mind because she is no longer human.”

  “She didn’t do it,” Rielle pointed out. “Her inventors did, willing and unwilling.”

  “All these other machines can’t hold much magic,” Hapre said. “Neither can she, I’d wager. If she had solved that problem, she’d have applied the solution to all her machines.”

  “Unless she hasn’t had time to modify her machines yet,” Rielle added. “Maybe it is so costly and difficult it was only worth it for her new body.”

  The three of them exchanged glances. Rielle looked back. The great mass of machines was close behind them, following them down. A new sphere was approaching in the place between.

  “We will soon find out,” Qall said.

  Kettin remained still as he neared, no emotion discernible on her rigid face, her arm still raised. Only when the Restorers were almost upon her did she drop it.

  Her followers hesitated, then surged up into the air.

  Through Qall’s army, still slightly outside of the world.

  Their confusion was clear to see as they came to a halt and turned about, belatedly realising that the Restorers had been slightly out of the world, and that they were now wedged between the machines and their enemy. Qall brought his army to a stop just above the ground. The enemy sorcerers hovered, attacked by machines that could no longer see the masks now that their backs were turned. The controllers among them activated their switches to stop the machines attacking. All paused, and quickly realised that it had not worked. The machines’ attack continued, only now Kettin’s army bore the brunt of it.

  “Separate!” Qall ordered. “Arrive, levitate and fight.”

  As Rielle let go of his shoulder, he turned and took her hand. “Their inexperience and reliance on machines is their weakness. Start making magic as soon as you can.”

  Air touched her face. She sucked it in, taking deep breaths, and created lights. The familiar sensations of sorcerous battle began as the Restorers rose to attack Kettin’s followers. Sorcerer fighting sorcerer. Or two against one. She saw a follower aim at the back of a Restorer hard pressed by two adversaries. In a reflexive move to protect him she sent one of her lights towards him, bright with her anger but otherwise ineffectual. She cursed her foolishness, yet at the same time wondered if this was the moment her determination to not kill would break. Except in defence, she reminded herself. If there was no other choice.

  The follower’s attack went wide. He shaded his eyes but could not see past the light.

  Maybe… I can be a part of this battle! And fight at the same time as Making! Creating more lights, she sent them in swarms at the enemy, blinding and distracting them. She shaped them into machines to confuse them, or into glowing figures that startled and frightened. Magic spilled from her, stronger as she created a new shape with which to distract and dazzle.

  “Stop, Rielle!” Qall said, spinning about and grabbing her arm. “Stop now!”

  She did. “But it’s helping, and I’m making magic at the same time.”

  “And they’re taking it too,” he told her. He looked around, shaking his head. “This was a mistake. We’ve lost our advantage and we can’t link.”

  “But we are winning.” The voice was Hapre’s. The woman dropped down from above. “They have lost their advantage, too. The machines are attacking them. And their army is weaker.”

  Looking around, Rielle saw that it was true. Though the size of the combined armies was smaller, both sides having lost many fighters, more of the Restorers had survived than their enemy. She looked for Kettin. The gold figure hovered between two followers. Looking into the pair’s minds, Rielle saw that they, too, had realised their side was losing. The pair nervously exchanged a glance.

  “She’s not used magic,” Qall said. “Let’s see what she does when directly threatened.”

  He began to move towards Kettin, bringing Rielle and Hapre with him. The two followers only noticed when Qall had halved the gap between them. The jaw of one clenched and he stood straighter. The other’s eyes widened. He looked at his companion and spoke. Then he quickly faded from sight. A moment later, the other va
nished too.

  The gold figure fell.

  A ripple went through the battle as the followers noticed. All fighting stopped as the humanoid plunged towards the ground. She landed with a dully metallic thud. The head broke from the body and rolled into a nearby depression, the eyes not quite staring upwards.

  And then those eyes flashed, rapidly.

  The followers began to vanish. One after another, then simultaneously.

  “Shall we give chase?” someone called.

  “No,” Qall replied. “Let them go.” He looked around at the Restorers, who were still, shielding against the continuing machine attack, and raised his voice. “Be ready to link!”

  He moved into the place between worlds and dove towards Kettin, Rielle and Hapre following, and landed several paces from Kettin’s head. Arriving beside him, Rielle stared down at the strange replica of a human face. The jewelled eyes seemed to glow.

  “Is she alive?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” he admitted.

  Hapre glanced at Qall. “Is it a trap?”

  “Perhaps. But if there’s any chance she could be repaired, we must destroy this. If it’s really her.”

  The jewel eyes moved, swivelling towards Qall. A voice came out of the head.

  “Fooled you.”

  Rielle tensed, increasing the strength of her shield. The air misted with cold as Qall did so as well.

  And then the light behind the humanoid eyes died.

  They did not move for a long moment, then Qall shook his head. “No,” he muttered. “Surely she wouldn’t.”

  “Was it Kettin or not?” Hapre asked.

  Qall looked around at the fallen followers. “Her supporters thought so. Surely she isn’t willing to sacrifice them for the sake of a… a…”

  “A joke?” Rielle replied. “Or a trick?”

  “Or a distraction?” Hapre suggested.

  A hollow feeling bloomed in Rielle’s gut. “From what?”

  The three of them exchanged glances, then looked up. The mass of machines swarmed between them and the sun, blotting out the light.