Goblin was too
eager. Twice I felt compelled to yell at him to slow down. He
plunged down the dark stairwell at a pace I could not match. Even
wearing the Voroshk apparel the bruising impacts with the walls
became too much for my nerve.
We had not yet gone as deep as the ice cavern where Soulcatcher
lay when I bellowed an order to stop. Wonder of wonders, this time
Goblin heard me. And listened. And responded when I told him we had
to go back up.
“What?” He turned the word into a two syllable
whisper from an old tomb.
“We can’t do this in the dark. We’ll beat
ourselves unconscious before we get down there. Or at least get
there too beaten up to think.”
He made a sound that signified reluctant agreement. He had had a
few unpleasant collisions of his own.
“We have to go get lights.” Why had I overlooked
something so obvious? Because I was too damned busy looking for
the subtle and the sneaky, I suppose.
The stairwell was much too tight to turn the flying posts. We
had to back them up. That was a slow, humbling, sometimes painful
task. And things did not get much less humiliating when we did
reach the top.
The girls and the white crow awaited us. In attitudes so smug
they could be read even though the ladies were clad for action.
Arkana swung a lantern back and forth.
For an instant I suffered an entirely irrelevant worry because I
had not brought my Widowmaker costume. It seemed appropriate to the
situation. But definitely not necessary.
All that armor ever was was a costume.
Now Shukrat waved a lantern back and forth. And laughed.
“Not a word,” I grumped.
“Did I say anything?”
“You’re thinking it, darling daughter.”
She raised her lantern higher, the better to see what I was
wearing. My apparel was in slow, creeping motion all around me,
repairing extensive damage. “Not a word from me, old-timer.
You know your Shukrat. Honors her elders to a fault. But I’m
going to laugh, now. Please don’t jump to conclusions and
think that it’s at you.”
Arkana laughed harder.
Goblin made a series of noises, depleting his vocabulary
fast.
“He’s right. Give us those lanterns. We need to get
this done.” I hoped my dimwit failure to consider the need
for light would not be the one little thing that got us destroyed.
And that that was the last little thing I had been dumb enough to
forget.
Goblin took the lantern from Shukrat. He headed down into the
earth again. He was not nearly so hurried this time. Possibly his
lust for revenge had begun to cool.
I took Arkana’s lantern. The white crow flapped over to
the tip of my post. Before I finished telling it that traveling
with me might not be a good idea. Shukrat had another lantern going
and was helping Arkana get herself another lit.
The girls had been ready for us.
I bickered with them all the way down to the ice cavern. They
had fun with me all the way. They refused to listen to my
warnings.
The white crow decided the cave of the ancients would be a fine
place to detour. I bellowed, “Don’t touch anything in
there! Especially don’t touch yourself.” I continued,
mumbling, “When will I learn to keep my big damned mouth
shut?” It would be a great and wonderful irony if the
bird’s touch was Soulcatcher’s undoing, after all her
lucky years.
Goblin got the hurries again. When I tried to slow him down he
told me, “There’s something going on with Kina!
She’s starting to stir.”
“Shit!”
Keeping up was impossible, until we reached the black barrier.
There Goblin’s nerve failed him. There he froze, recalling
the horror of the years he had spent on the other side.
“Goblin. We’re almost there. We’ve got to do
this. We’ve got to do it now.” Numb as I was to things
supernatural even I could sense Kina’s proximity and her
heightened awareness. Which must not be our fault. Her attention
was focused elsewhere. “Now!” I said with more
force.
Behind us the girls had begun whispering, troubled. They sensed
much more than I ever could.
I told them, “You two go back upstairs now. I guarantee
you that you’ll be glad you did. Especially if things
don’t work out for us. Goblin.”
He reclaimed his courage. Or maybe just found his hatred again.
His face hardened. He started forward.
“Don’t rush,” I stage-whispered as he passed
through the black barrier. “Girls, I mean it. Start running
now. There have to be some survivors.” I pushed through the
terrible barrier behind Goblin, nearly messing myself with the
fear. Despite what I had told the little man this was no time to be
slow or tentative. Once we breached the barrier Kina knew that we
had come. Her slowness would be our only ally.
Once I breached that barrier I flung myself into the anteroom
area outside the entrance to Kina’s prison. Goblin lined
himself up to charge. I had to do several things at once: encourage
him, prepare myself to weather what was about to happen and do my
thankless bit to make this deicide work.
Got to keep the whole picture in mind. Got to do each thing on
time, in the right order, just the way you worked it out over the
last few months.
As Goblin surged forward I placed my flying post into the angle
where the floor met the left-hand wall, then plastered myself
against the wall above it and willed my Voroshk clothing to form a
protective scab over it and me. Then, in light almost too dim for
use, I found the right page in the First Father’s notebook. I
kept my protection open just enough to let me watch Goblin hurtle
straight at Kina and, to my surprise, drive One-Eye’s spear
into her temple. I had expected him to go for the heart.
I completed the cantrip that would destroy Goblin’s post,
finished shutting me and my post in. Then I allowed myself to feel
lower than snake shit because of what I was doing.
I had been hard at work justifying myself to myself for months.
And had carried on. But now it was happening. And when it was over
I would have to live with my deceits forever.
The entire universe shook. The cavern where Kina lay was big but
it was confined. The stairwell was the only escape the products of
that violence could find. The energy wave pounded at my
protection.
I clung to the stone wall, beneath layers and layers of Voroshk
material, while the universe howled and shuddered. I swore that if
Kina was powerful enough to get through this I would enlist in her
service myself because the only thing tougher than her would be the
guys who tied her up. And they had not been seen for several
millenia.
The noise began to fade. But I had trouble hearing it go. The
roar had deafened me temporarily.
I hoped the girls did head back up the way I told them.
I hoped the violence did no damage elsewhere. I doubted that it
would. A major earthquake had split the plain open without
destroying the ice caves or doing any harm down here.
I willed the Voroshk clothing to open a crack through which I
could see. If need be, if Kina had survived but was injured, I
would push my post in there and blow it, too. And if I survived a
second blast I would start hoping that I did not suffer a heart
attack or starve to death while trying to climb those miles of
steps.
The material protecting me had been so traumatized that it took
ten minutes to respond. It twitched and shivered and crawled,
moving in small surges, as it tried to heal itself.
Once I had an eyehole I discovered that there was nothing to
see. Intense bright light still burned inside Kina’s cell. It
might have been fading but it was going slowly if it was.
It was half an hour before I could look for details without
having my eyeballs hurt. Just as well. It took that long for my
protective outfit to heal and relax sufficiently to allow me off
the wall.
Those outfits are made smart. They take just long enough
recovering to keep you from doing something stupid.
I mounted my post and moved forward, knowing, as I went, that my
protection would not survive another blast soon.
At first I could find nothing. Later, after the light faded some
more, I began to discover bits of what might once have been tooth
or bone embedded in various surfaces. Of flesh, be it
Goblin’s or the Goddess’s, there was no sign.
In fact, I doubted that any of the tooth and bone fragments
could have belonged to any mere mortal. The explosion had been that
violent. More violent, even, than those that had destroyed the
Voroshk shadowgate, that had initiated the collapse of the
Palace.
Kina’s destruction had somehow added vast energy to the
explosion.
My post was not behaving quite right. It stuttered and was slow
to respond. It must have gotten rattled around some even though I
had done my best to protect it.
Once the light faded round where the Goddess had lain I saw what
looked like a long black snake lying in the rubble of Kina’s
rock bed. It was the only nonwhite thing in the place, other than
me.
I approached carefully. For all I knew that was the bone of
darkness that had snuggled next to Kina’s heart. And I was
prepared to believe that anything I saw or experienced in this
place would be illusion.
Kina was the Mother of Deceit.
One of the great powers of the Deceivers was their ability to
leave you doubting everything and trusting no one.
The black thing was no snake. It was the deformed remains of
One-Eye’s spear. It had come through the violence with
surprisingly little damage. It was just twisted and bent a little,
and lightly charred on its surface. The metal inlays had been only
slightly distorted by intense heat.
Man, he must have put some artful protective spells onto that
thing.
I gathered the spear, went and made sure that I was securely
attached to my post, then gave it the command to take me back to
base point.
Goblin was too
eager. Twice I felt compelled to yell at him to slow down. He
plunged down the dark stairwell at a pace I could not match. Even
wearing the Voroshk apparel the bruising impacts with the walls
became too much for my nerve.
We had not yet gone as deep as the ice cavern where Soulcatcher
lay when I bellowed an order to stop. Wonder of wonders, this time
Goblin heard me. And listened. And responded when I told him we had
to go back up.
“What?” He turned the word into a two syllable
whisper from an old tomb.
“We can’t do this in the dark. We’ll beat
ourselves unconscious before we get down there. Or at least get
there too beaten up to think.”
He made a sound that signified reluctant agreement. He had had a
few unpleasant collisions of his own.
“We have to go get lights.” Why had I overlooked
something so obvious? Because I was too damned busy looking for
the subtle and the sneaky, I suppose.
The stairwell was much too tight to turn the flying posts. We
had to back them up. That was a slow, humbling, sometimes painful
task. And things did not get much less humiliating when we did
reach the top.
The girls and the white crow awaited us. In attitudes so smug
they could be read even though the ladies were clad for action.
Arkana swung a lantern back and forth.
For an instant I suffered an entirely irrelevant worry because I
had not brought my Widowmaker costume. It seemed appropriate to the
situation. But definitely not necessary.
All that armor ever was was a costume.
Now Shukrat waved a lantern back and forth. And laughed.
“Not a word,” I grumped.
“Did I say anything?”
“You’re thinking it, darling daughter.”
She raised her lantern higher, the better to see what I was
wearing. My apparel was in slow, creeping motion all around me,
repairing extensive damage. “Not a word from me, old-timer.
You know your Shukrat. Honors her elders to a fault. But I’m
going to laugh, now. Please don’t jump to conclusions and
think that it’s at you.”
Arkana laughed harder.
Goblin made a series of noises, depleting his vocabulary
fast.
“He’s right. Give us those lanterns. We need to get
this done.” I hoped my dimwit failure to consider the need
for light would not be the one little thing that got us destroyed.
And that that was the last little thing I had been dumb enough to
forget.
Goblin took the lantern from Shukrat. He headed down into the
earth again. He was not nearly so hurried this time. Possibly his
lust for revenge had begun to cool.
I took Arkana’s lantern. The white crow flapped over to
the tip of my post. Before I finished telling it that traveling
with me might not be a good idea. Shukrat had another lantern going
and was helping Arkana get herself another lit.
The girls had been ready for us.
I bickered with them all the way down to the ice cavern. They
had fun with me all the way. They refused to listen to my
warnings.
The white crow decided the cave of the ancients would be a fine
place to detour. I bellowed, “Don’t touch anything in
there! Especially don’t touch yourself.” I continued,
mumbling, “When will I learn to keep my big damned mouth
shut?” It would be a great and wonderful irony if the
bird’s touch was Soulcatcher’s undoing, after all her
lucky years.
Goblin got the hurries again. When I tried to slow him down he
told me, “There’s something going on with Kina!
She’s starting to stir.”
“Shit!”
Keeping up was impossible, until we reached the black barrier.
There Goblin’s nerve failed him. There he froze, recalling
the horror of the years he had spent on the other side.
“Goblin. We’re almost there. We’ve got to do
this. We’ve got to do it now.” Numb as I was to things
supernatural even I could sense Kina’s proximity and her
heightened awareness. Which must not be our fault. Her attention
was focused elsewhere. “Now!” I said with more
force.
Behind us the girls had begun whispering, troubled. They sensed
much more than I ever could.
I told them, “You two go back upstairs now. I guarantee
you that you’ll be glad you did. Especially if things
don’t work out for us. Goblin.”
He reclaimed his courage. Or maybe just found his hatred again.
His face hardened. He started forward.
“Don’t rush,” I stage-whispered as he passed
through the black barrier. “Girls, I mean it. Start running
now. There have to be some survivors.” I pushed through the
terrible barrier behind Goblin, nearly messing myself with the
fear. Despite what I had told the little man this was no time to be
slow or tentative. Once we breached the barrier Kina knew that we
had come. Her slowness would be our only ally.
Once I breached that barrier I flung myself into the anteroom
area outside the entrance to Kina’s prison. Goblin lined
himself up to charge. I had to do several things at once: encourage
him, prepare myself to weather what was about to happen and do my
thankless bit to make this deicide work.
Got to keep the whole picture in mind. Got to do each thing on
time, in the right order, just the way you worked it out over the
last few months.
As Goblin surged forward I placed my flying post into the angle
where the floor met the left-hand wall, then plastered myself
against the wall above it and willed my Voroshk clothing to form a
protective scab over it and me. Then, in light almost too dim for
use, I found the right page in the First Father’s notebook. I
kept my protection open just enough to let me watch Goblin hurtle
straight at Kina and, to my surprise, drive One-Eye’s spear
into her temple. I had expected him to go for the heart.
I completed the cantrip that would destroy Goblin’s post,
finished shutting me and my post in. Then I allowed myself to feel
lower than snake shit because of what I was doing.
I had been hard at work justifying myself to myself for months.
And had carried on. But now it was happening. And when it was over
I would have to live with my deceits forever.
The entire universe shook. The cavern where Kina lay was big but
it was confined. The stairwell was the only escape the products of
that violence could find. The energy wave pounded at my
protection.
I clung to the stone wall, beneath layers and layers of Voroshk
material, while the universe howled and shuddered. I swore that if
Kina was powerful enough to get through this I would enlist in her
service myself because the only thing tougher than her would be the
guys who tied her up. And they had not been seen for several
millenia.
The noise began to fade. But I had trouble hearing it go. The
roar had deafened me temporarily.
I hoped the girls did head back up the way I told them.
I hoped the violence did no damage elsewhere. I doubted that it
would. A major earthquake had split the plain open without
destroying the ice caves or doing any harm down here.
I willed the Voroshk clothing to open a crack through which I
could see. If need be, if Kina had survived but was injured, I
would push my post in there and blow it, too. And if I survived a
second blast I would start hoping that I did not suffer a heart
attack or starve to death while trying to climb those miles of
steps.
The material protecting me had been so traumatized that it took
ten minutes to respond. It twitched and shivered and crawled,
moving in small surges, as it tried to heal itself.
Once I had an eyehole I discovered that there was nothing to
see. Intense bright light still burned inside Kina’s cell. It
might have been fading but it was going slowly if it was.
It was half an hour before I could look for details without
having my eyeballs hurt. Just as well. It took that long for my
protective outfit to heal and relax sufficiently to allow me off
the wall.
Those outfits are made smart. They take just long enough
recovering to keep you from doing something stupid.
I mounted my post and moved forward, knowing, as I went, that my
protection would not survive another blast soon.
At first I could find nothing. Later, after the light faded some
more, I began to discover bits of what might once have been tooth
or bone embedded in various surfaces. Of flesh, be it
Goblin’s or the Goddess’s, there was no sign.
In fact, I doubted that any of the tooth and bone fragments
could have belonged to any mere mortal. The explosion had been that
violent. More violent, even, than those that had destroyed the
Voroshk shadowgate, that had initiated the collapse of the
Palace.
Kina’s destruction had somehow added vast energy to the
explosion.
My post was not behaving quite right. It stuttered and was slow
to respond. It must have gotten rattled around some even though I
had done my best to protect it.
Once the light faded round where the Goddess had lain I saw what
looked like a long black snake lying in the rubble of Kina’s
rock bed. It was the only nonwhite thing in the place, other than
me.
I approached carefully. For all I knew that was the bone of
darkness that had snuggled next to Kina’s heart. And I was
prepared to believe that anything I saw or experienced in this
place would be illusion.
Kina was the Mother of Deceit.
One of the great powers of the Deceivers was their ability to
leave you doubting everything and trusting no one.
The black thing was no snake. It was the deformed remains of
One-Eye’s spear. It had come through the violence with
surprisingly little damage. It was just twisted and bent a little,
and lightly charred on its surface. The metal inlays had been only
slightly distorted by intense heat.
Man, he must have put some artful protective spells onto that
thing.
I gathered the spear, went and made sure that I was securely
attached to my post, then gave it the command to take me back to
base point.