Chapter 34
For a moment, everyone is silent, watchful as the walls of Hemaira crumble, the ancient monoliths collapsing on themselves with a deep, primal groan that seems to echo up from the darkest pits of the Afterlands.
Then common sense sets in.
Curses sound as soldiers abandon their positions, humans and alaki running for cover, aviax taking to the air. Just one of the walls’ massive stones is enough to wipe out an entire unit. Except, when the stones finally land, they don’t explode against the ground as everyone expects. I watch, eyes wide with wonder, as they puff into what seems like clouds each time they make impact, cascading over the fleeing soldiers as softly as feathers over grass.
One astonished soldier blinks as his entire body is pasted white with the substance. Then he tastes it. “It’s ash!” he says, shocked. He whirls around, relieved. “It’s ash! It’s ash!”
The call echoes across the battlefield, the excited soldiers repeating the wonder and devastation that is White Hands’s gift. “She turned the walls of Hemaira to ash!”
The mood is so infectious, even my friends are affected, Britta reaching over to embrace me excitedly. “Did ye see, Deka?” she gasps. “Did ye see wha she did?”
But I don’t reply. Because now that the walls are down, I see what they were hiding. What we never noticed in all this time we’ve been watching the city. Five gigantic figures, each so enormous, their bodies seem to encompass the city itself. They stand on opposite sides of Hemaira, three of them male, two of them female. Darkness emanates from them, a monstrous cloud covering the city. No one notices them but me, not even as they stand there, entire universes swirling inside those massive bodies, armies of gold and red clashing at their feet.
Katya gapes at the battle inside the wall, her eyes round behind her war mask.
“The divine armies,” she gasps. “They’re already there. How did we not hear them?” They’re a deafening roar now, the sound of metal clanging, men, women, and deathshrieks screaming as they engage in mortal combat.
The Gilded Ones and the Idugu may be fighting, but it seems it’s their armies that are enacting the actual battle.
“The gods,” I say hoarsely. “They’re there with them. Both the Gilded Ones and the Idugu.”
“What?” Rian seems startled as he asks this question. While he didn’t go with us to Gar Fatu, he’s here now, at Katya’s side. “What do you mean, they’re there?”
I don’t answer. I can’t, because now I’m seeing something else: vale gates—hundreds of them, perhaps even thousands—forming across Hemaira’s streets. I watch as the clouds of iridescent mist grow bigger and bigger, those tendrils expanding, those dark centers opening. Strangely, they all seem similar, like they’re part of one vast, interconnected web.
But I’m the only one who can see them, that much is apparent. The others don’t seem to be reacting to them, which means this is just like it was in Gar Nasim: I’m the only one who has any sense of the danger.
Horror rises in me as I watch the vale gates open. “We have to warn White Hands!” I cry. “We have to warn the army. This will be a massacre.”
Britta grabs my hands. “Deka, slow down, wha do ye mean? Wha are ye seein’?” Her eyes search the streets as if trying to see what it is that has me so terrified.
I point at the city, the one that will very soon become a killing ground unlike any I or anyone else has ever seen before. Worse, the armies there are unaware. They think they’re fighting against each other on their gods’ behalf, but that’s not all they’re there for. “The gods are here, and they’ve brought the shadow vales. If our forces advance now, they’ll be food for both the Idugu and the Gilded Ones.”
It’s a meal that will bring them all the power they seek and more. Power enough to destroy Otera—to destroy the entire world if they wish. And White Hands and I brought it right to their door.
The horror of it rouses me from my stupor, and I jerk upright, preparing myself. As both White Hands and Gazal bring down their swords, commanding the army to go onward, I submerge into the combat state so completely, the entire army resembles an ocean of white, their souls all gathered in front of me. I can feel the Greater Divinity reaching for me, extending me its power. I embrace the feeling as I shout out the one word now swelling up inside me.
“STOP!” I command, my voice shattering the din.
I don’t care if I’m giving myself away and scuttling our well-laid plans. Our plans will come to nothing if the slaughter I anticipate happens—if everyone here is killed in the shadow vales of the gods.
“THERE IS DANGER IN HEMAIRA!” I continue shouting as every alaki and jatu, every deathshriek, immediately stops in their tracks—the children of the gods all helpless before the power of my voice. “THE CITY IS FILLED WITH SHADOW VALES! RETREAT OR YOU WILL FALL PREY TO THEM!”
That’s all I manage to say before I feel it, the emptiness rising inside of me again. Even with the ebiki armor and the Greater Divinity, this body is still on its last legs, still edging closer and closer to disaster. And what I just did has just pushed it a little more.
The moment I slump, gasping for breath, White Hands turns to Gazal, who swiftly gestures to the army, pretending it was she who spoke. Given that she’s still wearing her war mask, it’s an easy enough pretense.
But the army is not who I’m worried about fooling. The gods are still standing there, silent, invisible monoliths. I can only hope they’re so engrossed in their strange, motionless battle against each other, they don’t notice that it was me who actually spoke.
When none of them move so much as a muscle, I watch, relieved, as White Hands and Gazal take charge of the retreat. “FALL BACK!” White Hands calls, motioning to the army. “DO AS THE ANGORO COMMANDS!”
The pair backtrack, their footsteps pounding through the mounds of ash, until a lone scream rises above the din of the warring armies. It’s so filled with terror, I jerk toward it, my eyes lighting on the grand market nearest to what used to be the main gate. Half the stalls are gone now, all their precious spices and fabrics scattered across the ground. In their place instead is a strange, terrifying darkness. It covers a mass of what appear to be tiny, insect-like winged creatures, all of them swarming over a single merchant—the person who screamed loud enough to make himself heard over actual armies.
I watch, gorge rising in my throat, as the insects peel the flesh and muscle from his body, the process so fast, his scream ends almost as abruptly as it starts, an aborted, gurgling sound all the more frightening for its brevity.
I gulp, turning to the others. “You see that, right?”
On the other side of me, Keita nods, his eyes grim. “Now I know what those flapping sounds were—the ones we heard in the very first shadow vale.”
I shudder, realizing how lucky we were that we got the gigantic vale wraiths instead. But it’s clear that when we enter Hemaira, that luck may no longer hold. Vales are opening all across the city now, areas of darkness enveloping the light, entire houses and buildings suddenly covered in black or red sand and tentacles. Yet more terrified screams sound, but they’re as abrupt as the merchant’s. Soldier or civilian, it doesn’t matter—wherever the vales appear, deaths swiftly follows.
Our entire army is silent now, everyone watching in horror.
“Wha do we do?” Britta asks.
“We can’t enter the city with those vales opening all over the place,” Li says.
“Except we have to.” This quiet reminder comes from Belcalis. “Remember what the Maiwurians said: the vales are the first sign of the world’s collapse. And now they’re opening all across Hemaira. We need to get Deka’s kelai and swiftly, before the gods become too swollen with power.”
“Not to mention, we need to help all the people still trapped in the city.” Sighs rise as I point out this unwelcome fact. Three months ago, when we rescued our sisters from the Warthu Bera, we also led a larger escape, allowing people who didn’t want to be in Hemaira safe passage out of the city. But not everybody was able to leave. And worse, not everybody wanted to.
And now we have to help them.
When everyone turns to me, shaking their heads, I continue: “There are still innocents in Hemaira, people who aren’t soldiers for either army.”
“But they chose to stay,” Adwapa humphs, “so as far as I’m concerned, that’s not my issue.”
“Not even the children?” Katya asks—not so much a question as a silent condemnation. Her eyes pierce into Adwapa’s until finally, the older girl blinks.
“Infinity take me, I hate having a conscience,” she growls.
“But you do have one, and so do we all,” I reply.
“Which is why, as I said before, we have to hurry,” Belcalis continues. “The longer the wait, the longer this escalates and the more innocent people die.”
But even as she says this, a roar sounds from the front of the army. I turn to find Gazal pointing toward the city with her atikas. I can’t hear what she’s saying, but I see the results: three contingents of aviax head into the city. Only they’re not flying toward the two clashing armies; they’re headed for the vales and the people caught inside them.
When Gazal turns to me and gives me a brief nod, my heart lifts. “She’s saving them!”
“Just as you would do,” Keita says with a nod. “Gazal really is the perfect decoy. She understands precisely how you would behave and—”
“Deeeekaaaaa…” My entire body tenses when a familiar voice sings out my name. As I turn, every muscle even more tense than before, a bat-like figure explodes out of the city, easily soaring over the shadow vale now developing over what remains of the wall’s foundations, to plant itself in the middle of the battlefield.
“DEEEEKAAAA…,” Melanis continues calling out, head swiveling as she searches through the gathered army. “I KNOW YOU’RE HERE….”
At the front of the army, Gazal swiftly unsheathes the double atikas that have been carefully crafted to resemble mine and approaches the Firstborn. But Melanis doesn’t even spare her a glance. She darts over the army, easily evading the aviax who quickly give chase. I gasp when she finally comes into full view. The winged Firstborn has completely transformed, her face and body now so gaunt, they might as well just be flesh and bone, her eye sockets sealed over with eerie pink skin.
But how is she maneuvering without being able to see?
“COME OUT, DEKA!” Melanis shouts, briefly stopping to slice her claws through the belly of one of the pursuing aviax.
When he falls with an agonized shriek, Melanis flits down to dig her clawed fingers into the wound. She pulls out the aviax’s entrails triumphantly, shaking them at the gathered army. “Come out, Deka, or I’ll be forced to make such a splash, the sand will turn permanently red.”
By now, I’m gritting my teeth so hard, I’m almost certain I’ve cracked them. Melanis isn’t exaggerating when she says she’ll turn the sand red. She fully intends to keep killing soldiers one by one until she forces my hand.
Even as I think this, she turns in my direction, a dark smile slicing her lips. “Found you!” she says, hurtling toward me, claws outstretched.
I unsheathe my atikas, shaken. How does she know it’s me? She isn’t even using her eyes anymore. It’s like she can find me even in complete darkness, and—
My eyes widen, Anok’s last few words suddenly washing over me: Do not allow yourself to shine too brightly in the dark…. So that’s what she meant. Melanis isn’t searching for me by sight anymore—she’s using the combat state. She can literally see me in the dark!
Britta turns in my direction. “Wha do we do, Deka? Wha do we do?”
I look at Melanis, who’s still darting around, those sightless eyes no doubt combing over the thousands of glowing souls on this battlefield to find me on behalf of her goddesses. But I’m wise to her tactics now. Just as I’m wiser to the gods’—after all, it’s they who taught her what to do. How to locate me. I inhale back into the combat state, and then I sit there, looking at myself for the first time—at my hands, feet, and all the parts of me I can see.
I haven’t done so since I used to watch myself in the lake when White Hands trained me. That’s why I never realized—I glow a brilliant, almost blinding gold. A color much brighter than anyone else around me.
Why did I never notice it before? I shine brightly enough to pick out from a distance. No wonder the gods and their minions kept finding me. I shine brightly in the dark!
But not for long.
I glance down at my hands again, already imagining their brightness dimming, growing just as weak as everyone else’s is around me. To my relief, they quickly do as I desire, their light growing fainter and fainter, until soon, they’re indistinguishable from those of my friends.
I’m just a part of the crowd now. Indistinguishable from it. The gods themselves couldn’t find me—nor can Melanis. To ensure this, I leap from the wagon.
“Everyone, scatter and regroup in ten.”
I don’t wait for their reply as I slip into the crowd, making several rounds until soon, I don’t even see the wagon anymore.
It doesn’t take long before Melanis is well and truly confused. I follow her path as she flies across the battlefield, maliciously ripping down aviax midflight. Her voice is even more high-pitched as she calls out to me, but I’m just another faceless figure in the crowd now. She’s well and truly blinded. Which is why, no doubt, she doesn’t notice White Hands mounting a gryph behind her, or Sayuri plucking a spear from a nearby soldier.
As they approach behind her, I nod grimly. Melanis is no longer my problem. Her sisters will take care of her. I double back to the wagon, where the others have gathered again, their gryphs already saddled.
“Deka?” Britta asks, confused.
“White Hands and Sayuri will deal with Melanis,” I explain. “And the gods can’t track me anymore. It’s time for us to do what we came here to do.”
I silently thank Anok again as I mount Ixa, who’s been patiently waiting. Get ready, Ixa, I say. We’re going into the city. And absolutely no stopping until we make it into the palace.
Deka.He nods, excited.
I turn to my friends. “It’ll be chaos in there, so stay close. I’ll lead you as safely as I can around the shadow vales, but you have to be prepared for anything. I don’t know what the gods are doing, but I do know this: whatever it is, it doesn’t bode well for us.”
“It never does, does it,” Katya tsks.
“No,” I reply. “But we’ll do what we always do: we’ll triumph.”
I nudge Ixa onward.
We enter the city within minutes, evading the aviax whizzing to and fro as they rescue the people caught by the vale wraiths as well as the vales themselves, which are a much more difficult proposition. They’re constantly opening in the most unexpected places. Even then, I manage to maneuver past them. All I have to do is watch where the vales’ tendrils are expanding and then steer my friends clear.
What’s not as easy to avoid is the divine armies. Tens of thousands of alaki, jatu, and deathshrieks are massed in the streets, most of them in varying levels of panic or fear. Where minutes before they were busy destroying each other, they’re now singularly focused on avoiding the vales, which thrum around them with malicious energy, their darkness covering the entire city now.
The gods, it seems, have abandoned all pretense of protecting their children. Instead, they’re letting the vales devour them all in a mad rush to snatch as many lives as they can.
I watch, horrified, as a Forsworn, one of those massive purple deathshrieks devoted to the Idugu, is dragged into a river by a slithering, serpentine vale wraith. He roars and shrieks, but the creature pulls him down with the same ease a child would a doll.
“Sooo, we’re not using the river, then, correct?” Kweku shouts beside me.
“Never!” I shout, shaking my head, but as I turn toward him, he suddenly goes flying into a market stall, courtesy of a deathshriek’s hammer. “KWEKU!” I turn back, but Ixa continues onward, not obeying my gestures.
Ixa no pause,he says determinedly, repeating the instruction I gave him earlier: no stopping till we reach the palace.
“I’VE GOT HIM!” I breathe a sigh of relief as Asha shouts this from somewhere behind me, grunts sounding as she lights into the offending deathshriek. I’d almost forgotten that I wasn’t alone here. That my friends don’t just have me; they have each other.
I just have to trust that they can handle whatever comes their way.
I continue on as Oyomo’s Eye rises in the distance. The former imperial palace is so close now, I can almost touch it. Tentacles reach for me, and I slice them away. One of those serpentine wraiths lunges out of a well to snap at Acalan, but he ducks so quickly, it goes crashing into a wall. Everything is a whirl of motion now, the chaos and sheer desperation of it all propelling us onward.
Then we’re finally there, at the very edges of Oyomo’s Eye, the palace’s once luxurious gardens rising above us. Ixa stops even before I call a halt, evidently having sensed the exact same thing I have.
“What? What is it, Deka?” Keita asks as he pulls his gryph to a stop beside me. The others quickly do the same, but I don’t reply. I can’t, especially not given what I’m seeing.
I had wondered why the Idugu were silent. Why they weren’t moving even though the Gilded Ones had invaded their territory. I’d even assumed that they must be locked in some kind of silent combat with the goddesses.
But the vales opening all across Hemaira—none of them belong to the Idugu. I should have known that the moment I felt the connection between all those vales—that connection I likened to a giant spiderweb spreading from a singular source when I first saw it. The Gilded Ones are the gods desperately gorging on Hemairans as though the city is a buffet and this is their last feast. They’re the ones killing Hemairans indiscriminately.
The Idugu didn’t open any vale gates in the city, because theirs are all here. Thousands of them, shimmering invisibly around the palace. Hidden. In fact, if I hadn’t been in two of the Idugu’s vales before—felt the oiliness that accompanies the male gods’ presence—I would never have even known they were there.
The goddesses’ vales, I now realize, are ham-handed works of brutality. But the Idugu’s are masterworks. Delicate, ephemeral creations nearly invisible to even the divine eye. A silken lattice protecting their most important possession: my kelai.
And I can’t use any doors to get past them without alerting the Idugu to my presence.
I turn to Keita, my eyes wide. “The entrance to the Eye is covered with the Idugu’s vale gates. There’s no way we can get through. We’re stuck.”