The Way Into Darkness: Book Three of The Great Way Read online

  He was barely out of earshot when Kinz rushed forward. “What was happening?”

  Ivy pressed her lips together, unwilling to talk until her cousin had gone much farther. Cazia didn’t care. “I don’t understand. If he wanted to give me a gift to thank me, why did he wait so long? And why not Kinz, too?”

  “He has something you want,” Ivy whispered, as she brushed the dirt off a smooth stone so she could sit on it. “Worse, he owes you because you helped me. If you had accepted the jewel—and it was so beautiful, I would bet it was one of the named jewels in the family line—the debt would have been discharged and he could have demanded something in return for permission to visit the temple.” Ivy pressed her fingers against her lips. “I can not imagine what he would want from you, though.”

  “Information on the flying carts,” Cazia said, the realization coming to her at the same time the words came out of her mouth. “Peradaini refugees from East Ford would have crossed the Straim, right? They probably brought a flying cart across with them. You and I might be the only people he’s met who have admitted to riding on one.”

  “Belterzhimi would want every whisper, every rumor he could get, so he could identify the driver.”

  Kinz shrugged. “I do not blame him. If he could make to spy safely on The Blessing, he could better protect his side of the river.”

  Cazia and Ivy looked at each other. “Did we tell him about the way the grunts destroyed those carts above Peradain?” Ivy asked. “I am not sure if we did. You should tell him, Cazia; he is my family, so I am expected to forgive very large obligations.”

  Far across the clearing, Cazia could see the serpents still clustered at the eastern edge of the clearing. They hadn’t lingered that way at any of the previous campsites. “If I’d accepted that jewel, I could have made a translation stone for you, like you asked. Um, one moment.” She walked across the meadow, feeling the wind against her back. Soldiers watched her with blank, unfriendly expressions and she was careful to make a circuitous route that avoided the narrow stone column and roof without walls that comprised Kelvijinian’s temple. She knew she wasn’t supposed to approach it and didn’t want to give the archers an excuse to take a shot at her.

  A dozen serpents lingered at the far edge of the meadow, but only two appeared to be coiled and resting. The others held their heads high as if on guard. Great Way, they were beautiful creatures: long and muscular, their scales shimmering in the sun light like a rainbow. As she came closer, she noticed a narrow path behind them, very near the base of the mountain. The serpents appeared to be blocking it.

  Cazia told herself that Ivy knew better than she did. That the serpents, no matter how they swayed back and forth, no matter how many of them lifted their heads as she approached, no matter how closely they watched her, were allies to the humans of Indrega.

  Not that she looked like an Indregai girl; her face was too broad and her skin too dark, but she had the clothes. That ought to be enough to protect her from them, shouldn’t it?

  As she came within twenty paces, even the serpents who had been coiled and resting raised themselves up. All stared at her steadily, their heads swaying back and forth. Were they hissing louder as she approached? Maybe it was just that she was getting close enough to hear them.

  Ivy had assured her the serpents were safe. Friendly, even. Her people who lived with them every day. Cazia told herself that the serpents seemed hostile because they were so different, like Mother and the other giant eagles. She was sure that, if she understood their body language, she would know that they were probably only rising up to greet her.

  Then the nearest serpent bared its fangs and hissed at her.

  Cazia gasped and staggered back, almost colliding with someone behind her.

  “They know who and what you are.” A blond archer stood much too close. Cazia didn’t recognize her, but there were so many of these pale-narrow-skulled women with murderous expressions that it was hard to tell them apart. Her Peradaini was surprisingly good, though.

  The archer leaned in close. “They know how many of us your people have killed. If I shoved you at them, daughter of butchers, they would probably drag you into the weeds and eat you alive. Have you ever seen someone try to scream when the lungs have been punctured by a serpent’s fangs? Can you imagine one of them wrapping the huge jaws over your face before they gulp you--”

  “Enough!” Ivy’s thin voice startled the archer into silence. Although she barely came up to the archer’s breastbone, she wagged her finger in the soldier’s face and scolded her like a child. In Ergoll, though. Cazia couldn’t help but feel cheated that she couldn’t understand them.

  “Come with me, please, Cazia,” Ivy said, switching back to Peradaini. “The serpents are territorial, and part of our understanding with them is that we will keep the lands inviolate.”

  “So this is the edge of their territory?” Cazia asked.

  “It is. The temple is as far to the east as we dare go. Not that it matters. The land in the northeast is stony and uneven, terrible for farming or raising okshim. Come. My cousin wants to speak with you. Remember to be nice; guests are not supposed to be funny.”

  “I’m always nice,” Cazia snapped. She looked back at the serpents. They hissed quietly while they stared.

  Belterzhimi did indeed want to speak with her but only to invite the three of them to his campfire for their dinner meal. The sun was low in the west by the time they joined him, and while they ate, they traded polite stories about their childhood. Belterzhimi did not press her to tell him secrets and did not seem to care if her stories were of the endless prank war she’d waged against the palace tutors and servants.

  Only when the meal was finished did he seem ready to talk business. The smile he’d worn during their meal--which had never really seemed to suit him--vanished. He began to ask sharp questions about Cazia’s desire to enter the temple. Who did she want to send a message to? Where would this message be going? What was the content?

  The princess tried to intercede, but Cazia laid a hand on her shoulder to let her know it was all right. Cazia explained that soldiers she knew had ventured into the west to find a spell that would help them against The Blessing. She wanted to know if they had gotten it and how the war was going.

  Belterzhimi said that she could ask to speak to someone at a specific place, but that gods were fickle and if he declined, she was not to pursue the matter. One request, one answer, and she must accept it or suffer the consequences.

  “I understand.”

  “Good,” the warden said. “You may speak to him now, if it pleases you.”

  “Thank you.”

  She stood and started across the meadow toward the Temple. Ivy got to her feet as if to follow her, but Cazia held up her hand. There was no need for a babysitter this time.

  Fire and Fury, that massive face! The blocky nose, the half-lidded eyes, the gaping mouth that looked like a black cave. If she climbed into that darkness, would gigantic teeth clamp down on her?

  She glanced at the Indregai soldiers around her. If anything, their expressions were more closed, more hostile than they had ever been. She forced herself to look back at Kelvijinian and was struck again by the idea that it was everywhere around her. She’d grown accustomed to it as the long day went on, but now that she approached, she was chilled once again by its size and power.

  She was walking on its body. She slept on it, ate food grown from it, built fires on it, dug holes in it to empty her bowels. Everywhere. All around her.

  Goose bumps ran the length of her body and she began to feel claustrophobic. Her gods were everywhere at once, obviously, but they had always been an abstraction. The god of the Ergoll was right there and she was about to talk to it.

  She came to a bare patch of grass with an open hole in front of it. It looked very like a rodent tunnel; Cazia dropped to her knees before it.

  Was there a special greeting she was supposed to use? No, there couldn’t be. Ivy would have to
ld her. “Greetings, Kelvijinian, god of the earth.”

  The echoing voice that answered did not come from the head itself, but from a hole in the ground below. “Welcome. Living. Human. Child. Did. You. Come. To. Ask. Something. Of. Me?”

  The words wafted out of the tunnel on puffs of air. Kelvijinian’s breath. It smelled of freshly turned soil and earthworms. Cazia peered down into the darkness to see if there were lips or a tongue down there, but whatever made those sounds was too deep to see.

  Cazia’s head was buzzing and her hands began to tremble. She was talking with all of Kal-Maddum, and it sounded surprisingly gentle. She had always thought the gods cared little for humankind, with the sole exception of Fury, but Kelvijinian’s voice was full of kindness. Did she have a question? Before she could put any thought into it, she blurted, “Where did you come from?”

  Immediately, she knew she’d made a mistake. She was not supposed to be indulging her curiosity. She needed him to contact someone at Tempest Pass.

  “Well!” the voice answered, echoing hollow through the earthen tunnel. “No. One. Has. Asked. Me. A. Question. Like. That. In. Many. Years! Thank. You. The. Truth. Is. That. I. Came. Here. Fleeing. A. War.”

  Whatever she had been expecting him to say, it wasn’t that. “A war?”

  “Yes. Long. Long. Ago. I. Lived. Among. My. Own. Kind. Earth. Water. Fire. Air. Many. Others. As. Well. We. Were. Not. A. Peaceful. People. But. We. Had. Balance. Then. The. Enemy. Came.”

  Cazia glanced at the huge head. Its eyes seemed wider than before. It didn’t look like it was half-dreaming anymore. “Were they gods, too?”

  “Gods?” the voice asked. It paused even longer than usual, as though thinking very hard about what it should say next. “No. Invaders. Creatures. Of. Shallow. Waters. And. Muddy. Ground. They. Had. Potent. Magic. It. Was. A. Transformation. War. We. Had. No. Experience. With. Power. Like. That. No. Defenses. We. Were. Hunted. I. Escaped. Alone. Through. A. Hole. In. The. World. Arriving. Here.”

  Cazia needed a moment to truly understand what he meant. Great Way, Kelvijinian was just another invader. Like The Blessing, like the Tilkilit, he had come to Kal-Maddum through a portal. What’s more, he had, in his way, conquered. “This was long ago?”

  “Long. Before. Your. Kind. Arrived,” he answered. Cazia felt a sudden chill. No, we aren’t invaders. This is our land. Human beings belong here. “Old. Now,” the god continued. “I. Was. Here. When. The. Sweeps. Were. Burned. Into. Existence. I. Was. Here. When. Gol-Maddum. Broke. Away. I. Should. Have. Died. Years. Ago. But. I. Am. All. Alone. There. Is. No. One. To. Shatter. Me. So. I. Grow. Larger. And. Deeper. Every. Year. Until. The. Day. I. Sleep. And. Never. Awaken.”

  This was no god. Or if it was, then a “god” was much more like a living person than she had expected. “Is it painful? Is there something I can do to help you?”

  “Ages. Ago. I. Would. Not. Have. Known. What. Pain. Is. I. Have. Learned. It. From. You. There. Is. Nothing. But. Weariness. Thank. You. For. Your. Kindness.”

  “You’re welcome. What about the portal that brought you here? Can’t it send you back home?”

  “Once. Perhaps. It. Has. Sunk. Below. The. Water. Now. And. I. Do. Not. Know. What. Happened. To. My. World. Perhaps. It. Is. A. Dead. Thing.”

  “I’m sorry,” Cazia said. There was a genuine pang of pain and regret in her heart. “War destroyed my home, too.” There was more to say, but it all seemed to big to fit into words. The sun was setting, bathing the rocks in a beautiful golden glow, but the wind was growing more wet and more chilly, too. “Your story frightens me.”

  “I. Have. Met. Many. Who. Were. Frightened. Of. Me. But. None. Who. Feared. My. Story. Why?”

  Cazia wasn’t even sure herself, but the words came out anyway. “Because the war you suffered is older than the mountains around us, but the damage it did lingers in you. It seems the harm we do to each other outlives us all. Worse, I think some of the people I love have been the cause of this pain.”

  Kelvijinian was quiet for a time. The golden sunset light began to fade and the land grew dark. Gol-Maddum, he had said. The idea that there was another land mass out beyond the waves wasn’t a new one, but that this creature--this god--had seen it was astonishing.

  And what had he called this own war? A “transformation” war? Great Way, but wasn’t that exactly what Peradain was going through?

  “Ask. Of. Me. A. Boon,” Kelvijinian finally said. “You. Have. Asked. For. Nothing. You. Have. Only. Listened. Ask. Of. Me. A. Boon.”

  “Thank you.” Cazia lowered her face to the ground. “Friends of mine have travelled far to a place called Tempest Pass.” She thought back to the maps she’d studied in the Scholars’ Tower when everyone thought the doors were tightly locked. “It’s in the hills at the most northern and western part of the Sweeps. I’m hoping to talk to a man named Tejohn Treygar there, or at least hear news of him.”

  “I. Cannot.”

  Cazia almost protested, but she bit her lip. Belterzhimi had been entirely explicit: no bargaining and no nagging. “I’m sorry.”

  “It. Is. I. Who. Am. Sorry,” Kelvijinian said. “My. Awareness. Reaches. To. Every. Part. Of. The. Southern. Shore. And. Beneath. The. Ice. Of. The. Snowy. Caps. I. Can. Tell. You. The. Shape. And. Weight. Of. Every. Object. At. The. Muddy. Bottom. Of. The. Straim. But. I. Cannot. Stretch. Myself. Into. The. Far. Western. End. Of. The. Sweeps. There. Is. Poison. For. Me. There.”

  Cazia gasped at the word “poison.” What could Ghoron Italga be doing in his secluded tower that would be toxic to a being like Kelvijinian? “It was silly of me to ask.”

  “Ask. A. Different. Boon.”

  Well, if you insist. “I need a piece of crystal. Not a precious gem; it doesn’t have to be valuable. I just need a small crystalline stone to make a gift for someone I love.”

  “This. Request. Is. More. Common. And. Easily. Granted.” Three pieces of clear quartz pushed through the ground like a flower stalk. “Will. These. Do?”

  Cazia laid one on her damaged hand and ran her good hand across it. It was bigger than most of the crystals she’d worked with in the Scholars’ Tower, nearly as long as her little finger, and as she ran through the first few mental exercises to cast a translation spell, she could sense that the size would make the spell easier. “Oh, yes, thank you!”

  “I. Will. Search. For. ‘Treygar.’ To. Deliver. A. Message. If. You. Wish.”

  “Thank you, Kelvijinian. Tell him ‘Cazia is coming with help,’ please. You have really been terrifically kind to me.”

  “Until. You. Asked. I. Had. Forgotten. The. Long. Ago. War. I. Have. Seen. Fighting. In. The. West. But. Did. Not. Remember. How. Much. It. Is. Like. The. War. That. Drove. Me. From. My. Home. Also. You. Asked. Me. Of. My. Life. That. Is. A. Rare. Thing. Thank. You. Now. I. Must. Rest.”

  Cazia stood and slipped the crystals into a skirt pocket. “Thank you again.” She bowed and started toward the campfire she had shared with Ivy and Kinz.

  Belterzhimi had been watching her, apparently, and walked to intercept her. “Please join me and Ivy,” Cazia said before he could speak. “I’d like to discuss something important before we head to Goldgrass Hill. I assume that’s where we’re going next.”

  “You are correct,” Belterzhimi said. “You spoke with him for quite a long time.”

  “Surprised by that, are you? That’s why you made me wait until the end of the day, when you knew he would be tired--maybe too tired to speak to me.”

  “Kelvijinian does not grow tired,” Belterzhimi corrected. His dour, handsome face looked disapproving, and Cazia thought that some woman somewhere would be happy to claim him as her own, but it could never be her, even if he were not so terribly old. There was too much distance between them. “How could he rule the land otherwise? It is just this avatar.”

  Apparently, it wasn’t just the Durdric who invented their own rules about their god. Good thing Cazia’s people did not do that. “Fine. The avatar would be too tir
ed to talk to me. I risk my life to bring your cousin here when I ought to be heading west, but I’m still being offered contempt and thin gruel.”

  Belterzhimi stopped walking suddenly, and Cazia was so surprised that she stopped, too. He bowed stiffly. “I have behaved like a rat in the pantry, taking without giving back. I apologize.”

  Great Way, he sounded almost kind again. It really was too bad. “Accepted. Let’s hurry.”

  They continued across the broad, empty meadow, walking down the slope toward Ivy and Kinz’s little fire. Cazia wished the warden would talk again, because talking would be easier than thinking.

  The god of the Indregai--one of them, at least--was real, and he wasn’t a demon. Cazia was beginning to understand that the world was more complicated than she’d thought. What’s more, Kelvijinian had come to this world the way so many other creatures had: through a portal.

  What did that mean for her own gods? Fury, Song, Monument, Great Way...were they embodied concepts manifested out of the universe and given form and thought, as she’d been taught? Or were they refugees from some other place?

  Cazia was spared any further exploration of that line of thought when she arrived at the campfire. “How did it go?” Kinz asked. “Did you make to send your message?”

  Cazia shook her head. “No, but that’s not important.” Ivy handed her a piece of flatbread soaked with wine. The sour smell wasn’t as offensive as the first time she’d tried it. Monument sustain her, she was learning to like it. All four of them crouched beside the fire and she turned her attention to Belterzhimi. “What’s important is that as much as you don’t want to split your forces, you’re going to have to. Kinz and I will take the princess to her parents. You need to leave your troops here.”

  “It is a violation,” Belterzhimi said, shaking his head. “The treaty would be forfeit if any one people’s troops occupied the temple.”

  “Well, you’re going to have to do something, because the most important thing you can do is protect Kelvijinian...I mean, protect his avatar. If he receives The Blessing, we will all be lost.”