Chapter Forty-Two
G reat idea, but where? I wondered, staring at a scene unlike anything I’d seen even in Faerie, where impossible sights were an everyday occurrence. But not like this.
We found ourselves in the middle of a squirming, thrashing, flailing ball of blood, flying spells, flashing weapons, and severed body parts. And we hadn’t joined the dozens already floating lifelessly in the sea only because the merfolk were too busy slaughtering the Horrors to bother with us. And getting slaughtered back, I thought, as a powerful-looking warrior nonetheless ended up impaled on something’s three-foot claws.
I stared as he twitched like a speared fish for a moment before being ripped apart when the creature tore its talons back out. And didn’t even know who to root for since whoever won was going to eviscerate us for an encore. And yet, there was no path out of here that wouldn’t mean immediate death, something Bodil seemed to agree with as she didn’t even try to swim off with me.
There was nowhere to go.
“Human!” ?subrand said shrilly, appearing at my side. I guessed the current hell had jolted him out of the remains of his disorientation because he looked sane if overwhelmed. And then he cursed as something huge and black darted at us and was blasted back by a wave from Bodil, sending it tumbling head over heels into some of its fellow Horrors, who savaged it in their panic.
?subrand stared at them for a second with the same shock that was probably on my face. Then, he turned on me again. “What is he doing?”
I stared uncomprehendingly. “What? Who?”
“The demon!”
“Which one?”
“Your one!”
I looked for Pritkin, but at that moment, the whole world shivered again, although that is a wholly inadequate description. It wasn’t like the faux earthquake in the mud pit; it wasn’t like the previous quake down here; it wasn’t like anything I’d ever experienced. The world convulsed and sent the whole sea churning with wild fluctuations that ripped me away from the silver prince and sent me into a maelstrom of teeth, claws, and jumbled-up bodies.
That would have been the end, except our enemies were freaked out about what was happening, too. The battle paused momentarily as we all realized that we had bigger problems. And I felt a surge of hope because was that it? Was Faerie’s dying convulsion going to buy us one last chance?
And then one of the biggest creatures roared, a stuttering, mind-ripping challenge that reverberated through the water and into my very soul.
And it was on.
Enid appeared at my side, somehow fighting her way through the carnage and cursing multiple creatures on all sides. Including one I hadn’t noticed that had been about to eat my head. And then ?subrand, who was nothing if not single-minded, grabbed me again. Right before we were all thrown almost back to where we’d started by another convulsion, one bad enough to cause great stones from above to break off their foundations and come speeding down at us.
But since they were in the sea, they weren’t speeding as fast as they could have been, leaving me watching huge black boulders, pillars as big as skyscrapers, and small rocks the size of cars tumbling through the battlefield. Where they were dodged by the combatants who kept right on slaughtering each other. It was weirdly beautiful, with the dim light cascading down from above, spearing the dark blue water like the rays through the windows of a cathedral.
Appropriate, I thought, as this was the funeral for a dying world. . .
And then somebody grabbed me hard enough that it jolted me out of my shock. I looked up to see ?subrand screaming in my face. “What is he doing ?”
I followed his gaze to see Pritkin inside a shield, probably to keep anything from killing him for a minute while he tried one last Hail Mary, moving his arm in circles as he had in front of the great throne while trying to summon the tunnel.
“He’s using elemental magic, isn’t he?” ?subrand demanded, shaking me.
I nodded. “He’s trying to summon a spell to get us out of here, but he doesn’t have the power—”
“ I have power!”
“Yes, but it isn’t just about energy. It takes a command of all four elements—”
The shaking recommenced wildly, leaving me feeling a bit like a bobblehead doll, one whose neck was about to snap and probably already would have, except for the water cushioning it. But then he said something that made me forget about that, that made me forget everything. “I have all four elements!”
I blinked at him. “That’s not possible. Nobody has all four except Pritkin—”
“Why do you think my father married my mother?” he asked me hysterically. “For love ? He wanted a son who could command all four, to help bring back his precious gods, but that didn’t work out as he’d planned and—”
He cut off because I screamed my head off into the translator link between Pritkin and me. “?subrand has all four elements!”
Pritkin turned, his eyes flooding a brilliant, blistering green. And a moment after that, something blazed bright blue among the carnage, a small compass-shaped something that abruptly spiraled out into the mouth of a black stone tunnel where it had no business being. Only no, it wasn’t a tunnel anymore, I thought as Pritkin flung me down its maw.
It was a tomb because guess who was crowding in behind us?
I wasn’t sure if the Ancient Horrors were chasing us or just trying to escape from the earthquake or the slaughter or the collapse of the world, but it didn’t matter. We were engulfed by them, along with a ton of water that abhorred a vacuum and was doing its best to fill it as fast as possible. And it was doing a good job.
I suddenly couldn’t see anything but crashing waves as they poured in behind us. And thousands of bubbles as we all went spilling down the stone tube at an absurd speed. Something raked claws down my armor, but I wasn’t sure it knew that because there was no follow-up. Something else grabbed hold of me, but it was less an I’m-going-to-savage-you moment than a please-help-me!
But I couldn’t help even myself. Like when we dropped out of the tunnel as abruptly as we’d entered it and fell at least a dozen yards into a rapidly flooding room that was supposed to be already underwater. Hadn’t that been what Faerie had said, that the palace was flooded?
Tell that to my ass, I thought, as it hit stone and didn’t break, but only because of the tons of water spilling out all around me. And trying to drown me as I turned over and half crawled, half dragged myself forward, trying to get out of the way of the things crashing down all around me. And then started swimming as the large space began filling up with liquid and things in the liquid that did not appear happy to be there.
That was particularly true when the ceiling cracked like a gunshot, the room shivered all around us, and the braced doors on several sides, which I guessed had kept out the flood until now, burst open.
I went under in the sudden deluge and came up spluttering because my air bubble had just collapsed. And looked up to see the tunnel spewing out dozens, if not hundreds, of the smaller Horrors before Pritkin slashed a hand through the air and sent it away again. And chopped one of the bigger specimens in two in the process, half of which left with the tunnel and the rest—
Stayed here.
A torrent of blood and the stuff the blood was attached to hit me and sent me back under, pinning me to the floor and leaving me fighting with more weight than I could manage. Until Alphonse somehow found me in all that, pulled me out from under, and dragged me back up to the pandemonium that had overtaken what had been a large room covered in plaster and mosaics. And was now—
I didn’t have words for what it was now. Some Margygr had gotten through as well and were laying waste to the remaining Horrors, who they seemed to have a bigger hate-on than for than us. Maybe because those same creatures had ravaged their world and killed who knew how many of their people before they were forced to retreat and wall themselves off.
That did not appear to have been forgotten and would have been a slight relief—if I hadn’t been in a drowning room filled with a churning mass of waves and foam and flailing limbs, and then of bright yellow light that spiraled up out of nowhere on the far wall, showing through an image of—
Home.
My thoughts cut out, and all the sights, sounds, and insanity instantly receded. I could hear the blood rushing in my ears insanely fast, but it didn’t matter, either. My attention was wholly focused on that small, whirling yellow star and the glimpse of dark desert beyond it.
I had never realized it before, but Earth had a quality all its own. I didn’t have any way of knowing where the portal was tuned to, but I didn’t need it. I could smell it, taste it, sense it with every fiber of my being. I knew it as sure as I’d ever known anything, but I knew something else, too.
There was no way to reach it.
There was a war between us at the wall, which was the length of a football field away. The room was huge, I guessed to accommodate the trade that passed through the portal, some of the goods of which were still piled about the walls. And there was no way that we were getting over there, no way at all.
And that was before the room decided to fall apart. Cracks sped up the walls, causing them to crumble around us; water speared in from the two doors, threatening to drown us; and then the ceiling started following the walls, including a great chunk that would have killed us except that Alphonse caught it. And screamed in effort because something was above it, like a whole palace complex!
I crouched there, caught between a rock and a wet place, not sure whether to try to get out from under or not, as everything was coming down now. And burying people and things under the waves whenever chunks hit down. Including a battling duo who went to their graves with a trident through its stomach and its teeth buried in its opponent’s throat.
And we weren’t likely to be far behind because Alphonse was losing it. I looked up to see the veins in his neck standing out in full relief, the swarthy skin a red tone, and the normally impassive face anguished. We had seconds if that.
And then something hit me, but it wasn’t falling masonry.
The great city, golden bright even now, with its battle scars and charred domes, began to crumble. Aeslinn, black robes flying about him, bolted out of a disintegrating corridor and stood on the farthest point of the great square, a level section of golden stone used for festivals and days of thanksgiving, as it gave the best view of the city as a whole. And stared behind him as a black, jagged line tore its way upward from the mountaintop, ripping through buildings and sending pieces of stone flying into the pale blue sky.
Until the whole grand edifice cracked and crumbled like the mountain was doing underneath it, like the world. He turned around, looking outward over the great valley below, and saw the same thing happening there. The crack that had already sundered his city scrawled down the river, the waters of which disappeared instantly.
Similar cracks shivered through the surrounding mountain range. Colossal peaks that had been there for as long as the eldest could remember were now falling, crumbling to dust, and vanishing as he watched—like his city. Like his world. Like him.
As he fell into oblivion, the rocks giving way under his feet, his last thought was, “What have I done?”
But there was no answer.
There was no anything.
“Cassie—Cassie!” Someone was shaking me again; why were they always doing that? And what was that smell? What was—
I came back to myself to see that we’d somehow gotten out from under and were hugging what remained of a wall. I couldn’t see what was happening very well, as images were still crowding my mind, hazy diaphanous things obscuring my sight like sunglasses worn indoors. Everywhere I looked, people ran screaming, the sounds ringing in my ears even louder than the madness around me.
Faerie must still have her link to me, I thought dizzily. She was sending me images. Did she know it? Was it supposed to help?
Or was she too far gone to realize what she was doing and that she was threatening to take us with her? Because I could barely see, hear, or control the rest of my senses, which had been hijacked by a dying goddess. But I could smell.
What was that? It was divine, like the best meal ever, like— Like power, I realized, managing to focus on a nearby Margygr, surrounded by a cloud of magic that sparkled in the distant portal light.
I pulled some of it to me, and as soon as it sank into my veins, I could see again. Strange shadows still fluttered across my vision, but they were annoying, not debilitating. And then I drew more in and more, and with the hits of energy came information from a dozen minds.
The Margygr had tried a collective spell to keep the room from collapsing. But it had come too late, and many of them were now dead, crushed under the weight of stone or slashed to death by the Horrors that had soon thereafter perished themselves. But their magic—
Was still here. Much of it had never been used after being released, and I drank it in, calling it to me from all parts of the room. And it came, a virtual flood of it. But this flood I welcomed, this flood I needed, as I had to find— there .
My vision telescoped, showing me Pritkin battling one of the Horrors by the far wall, with the crazed spider-looking thing unable to understand what was happening or refusing to care. It would die, but it would take him with it, only it wouldn’t. Because I shifted him straight through the portal a second later.
I saw him fall into Bodil, who was also on the other side. I heard them screaming at each other but didn’t care. I only cared about one thing and— there .
?subrand was underwater, out of view of my eyes, but not of the power surging through my veins. He had been crushed under one of the stone slabs from the ceiling, and while it hadn’t killed him, he had been unable to get out. Until I shifted him, too, sending him through the raging yellow sun and into another world.
And immediately staggered under the power loss because the Pythian energy wasn’t here. I was trying to run god-tier spells on Margygr power, and it might work, but it wouldn’t last. So I sent Alphonse, who was yelling at me as usual and heard his voice cut off mid-shriek.
He tumbled through the portal, and I collapsed to my knees, my head going under the waves, and I didn’t have the power to raise it again. Had I done too much? Where was . . . I needed more . . . I needed . . .
The room started to darken. Because there was no more power available unless you counted a few scant scraps that I could feel pinging against my skin, but that did almost nothing. They weren’t even enough to let me fight off the images, which were back with a vengeance, utterly overwhelming me.
Everywhere I looked, cities were going up in flames or crumbling to dust; rivers were spewing all over the landscape, having been knocked off their courses; and avalanches were cascading down mountains, which were right on their heels, racing each other into the dirt that itself was convulsing, was splitting, was—
Dying.
I hadn’t really believed it before, that an entire world could die, but I was seeing it now. And I was dying along with it because I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, couldn’t see anything but carnage. And Enid’s face, appearing inches away from mine.
We surfaced from the bloody waves, I guessed because she’d dragged me up, although I couldn’t feel her. I was busy burning to death in a foreign city as my house collapsed around me; was chasing the family dog, who was panicked and running in a circle as multiple threads of lightning set our farm ablaze; was on a ship, going to my knees and staring with my mouth hanging open as a volcano spewed forth a cloud of fire and ash—
“Do you trust me?” Enid screamed. She was right in my face, but I couldn’t answer her, couldn’t speak, didn’t have the strength or breath. I just nodded.
And found out why even the gods had decided to let the Margygr alone. Because Enid had wanted to fight and fight, she did. Sending a blast of something ahead of us that carved a path through Horrors and merfolk alike before grabbing me against her and all but flying through the waves.
It shouldn’t have worked, but she’d caught everyone by surprise. The other Margygr had been focused on the Horrors and either hadn’t noticed Enid or hadn’t cared. What could a quarter fey do anyway?
That, I thought wildly, as she put on a burst of speed like a freaking torpedo, dodging or cursing anything that got in her path. And giving me a brief view through the stinging spray in my face, the blood in my eyes, and the roaring of the battle in my ears of a brilliant sun getting rapidly bigger. It reminded me of Rask and his people, who had thought they’d gotten away, only to have the world come crashing down on top of them.
I could see them now, running through a forest even as trees toppled around them. Could hear children screaming and men and women calling out for family members they’d been separated from and not finding them. Could see Rask pausing at the top of a rise, staring at the burning valley beneath him, the one his people had already started descending toward.
He didn’t follow them. Young as he was, he knew the end when he saw it. Or maybe that was something else, or someone else whispering in his ear. Instead of climbing down, he turned and looked me full in the face, and his eyes said the same thing that Faerie had.
I hope I chose my champion well.
“I’ll come back!” I screamed as Enid and I hit the portal’s surface, and its power grabbed us, sending us spinning into the void.
I swear to you.
I’ll come back.
The story continues in Hijack the Seas: Tsunami .