The Black God's War (32 page)

The spear flew out of Aayu, backwards, just as it went in. It flipped over in mid-flight and shot headlong in the opposite direction.

A man’s pained cry curdled the night.

A woman screamed out in the Rezzian language, “Ilario!”

Blood spittle, bubbling over his red lips.

Warrior thighs rattling, shaking, failing.

Rasping, inhuman moans, heralds of death.

Extinguished like a wick’s flame between two fingers.

Rao grabbed Aayu’s arm and pulled him into the darkest patch of forest nearby. Aayu clutched his chest, but the blood and the wound were mostly gone. “It’s the royal daughter,” Rao said. “They followed us.”

“Did we kill the Haizzem?” Aayu pressed one of his hands against the wound.

“I don’t think so. Ilario is a Rezzian name.” Rao sensed a hot flare of psychic content around them. “Do you feel that?”

Indomitable rage.

“I feel something.”

A fog displaced the clear night air, whooshing in with an icy bite and electric tang.
Moonlight sparkled through the sudden mist.

“This is a mistake!” Rao shouted. “We don’t want to fight you.”

“Pigs!” the woman screamed the common slur. Electricity crackled in all directions.

“The Storm Goddess,” Rao said. “No time to shift. Stay in your center. You cannot be harmed.”

Blinding light flashed as sizzling heat pulsed through Rao’s body. He clung to an inner visualization of himself and Aayu standing upright and unharmed.

Breathe through the pain. Breathe through … the pain.

As the blast stopped, Aayu swayed on his weak legs. Rao rushed behind him and held his friend upright, feeling Aayu’s weight against his body. Rao grabbed Aayu around his chest and they stumbled together.

Flames licked the trees around them. Acrid smoke irritated Rao’s nose. His eyes watered. Rezzia’s royal daughter stepped into the now hazy clearing. The air buzzed quietly, chaotically.

A black cloak covered her body, except for her possessed face and vermilion-red hair. Yellow and red gems on her round shield reflected a distracting light. Her sword pointed away from her body, diagonally downward.

Rao clung to Aayu, who was still recovering, and tried to stabilize both of them.

The Rezzian strode shield-first and elevated the blade, positioned to strike. Her murderous eyes fixed on Rao as she surged forward. She swung with a three-quarters motion across her body, screaming “Ysa!”

Rao stepped in front of Aayu in a martial stance. As the blade came down on his shoulder, he held a clear vision of his health. The blade sliced through to his opposite hip, as if his body had not been there.

Rao’s hands shot to her sword arm and he focused his
ojas
on pushing her back.

She swung her shield all the way around.

It cracked against Rao’s skull and down across his face. He fell to one knee, his nose and forehead stinging as if attacked by a swarm of hornets.

She swung the shield backhanded against his head.

He fell onto his back. She raised the blade, her lips tight against her bared teeth.

The sword came down through his right lung while he breathed through his visualization of perfect health. Her sword thrusts felt like icy shivers, passing through him like a violent ghost.

Aayu dove at her, and she screamed.

The Rezzian’s white blade sliced across one of Aayu’s arms—he screamed as he tackled her to the ground. Aayu grabbed a rock, pinned her sword arm down with his left hand, and swung at her face. She brought the shield up to block him. He sat on her pelvis and continued slamming the rock against her shield, trying to overwhelm her with his strength.

Aayu and the royal daughter traded grunts back and forth, punctuated by the collision of stone against metal.

Rao crawled to Aayu’s right, gripped the leather sleeve of the woman’s sword arm with both hands, and used all his weight to pin her to the ground.

Aayu used his free hand to pull the shield away from her face and pounded her skull with the rock.

Chapter 47: No Return

CAIO SAW THE FORK OF LIGHTNING in the starry sky and looked to the beach. Ilario and Lucia were running toward the woods with their weapons in hand, waving to him.

Gods!

He’d only wanted to give them some time alone. Caio hurried and tripped on the rocks, cutting his knees. He stood and pulled Mya’s rod from the pocket inside his tunic.

After covering most of the distance to the forest, he heard Lucia scream Ilario’s name.

“What’s happening?” he screamed. “What?”

No answer. He ran faster, with the chilly wind raising goosebumps on his flesh.

They have to be all right. I am almost there!

The massive god Sansone awaited him at the forest’s edge: black hair, eyes, and beard. Caio had only seen the form of Ilario’s god through painting and sculpture. The deity raised his heavy iron chain and motioned for Caio to follow him into the trees.

Caio’s heart raced as he chased the god. A strange fog hovered around them.

A violent explosion shocked Caio into cowering. Electric static warmed his body and raised the hairs on his arms and legs. A subtle buzzing hummed in his ears.

The metallic rustling of Sansone’s dragging chain turned Caio’s attention to Ilario, flat on his back—his own spear stabbed through his heart.

Sansone lowered his iron links and the black anvil holy symbol onto Ilario’s chest. The god knelt by Ilario’s head and with his thick fingers lowered Ilario’s eyelids.

Caio fell onto Ilario’s body and wrapped his arms around his massive chest.
No heartbeat?
Caio looked at his own tattooed arms, remembering the Pawelon boy he resurrected.
Oh no …

Soul and spirit had deserted Ilario’s masculine face. His tight cheeks sagged. His firm jaw hung slack. Caio grabbed his face and shook it. He pressed Mya’s rod against Ilario’s chest and prayed.

Please heal him. You have to heal him for me.

Caio spun around to look for Ilario’s god. He wasn’t there.

Mya, do something, please! I am like a helpless child in your arms. Please save my brother!

He couldn’t see Mya, couldn’t sense or hear her.

For me, Mya? For your poor son? I am nothing without you.

“Ysa!” he heard Lucia’s scream and pushed his body to its limits running toward the sound of her voice. Ahead, the fog sparkled in the moonlit clearing. Lucia yelled and grunted. As did an unseen man.

Lucia and the man screamed as a hard object hammered against metal.

The fog thinned as Caio approached. Two men held Lucia to the ground. The larger of the two struck her face with a rock.

Oderigo, Lord of the Book of Time, stop them now!

The ground began to quake. Caio lost his balance and stumbled to a nearby tree. He held its trunk as the earth rippled beneath his feet.

With a slithering noise like giant snakes pushing through the soil, two massive vines thrust themselves through the forest floor, throwing up dirt as they soared above the trees and reached toward the moon. The green stalks swayed like cobras.

The Pawelons had fallen to the ground. Lucia was crawling away from them. Oderigo’s vines bent over and swung toward the Pawelons, wrapped around them three times, and lifted them high above the canopy of the trees. Their screams for mercy sounded far away.

Caio yelled back in their language, “You killed my brother? You attacked my sister? You expect quarter?” He ran to Lucia as she tried to stand and grabbed one of her leather-covered arms. Blood covered her forehead and nose.

Though the earth had stilled, Lucia’s legs failed her as she tried to stand. Caio lost his grip and she tumbled to the ground, falling closer to Ysa’s sword. She grabbed the sword’s grip and lay on her side grimacing in pain. “They’re the ones who abducted me, Caio.”

“
Lord Oderigo
,”
Caio’s lungs heaved like great flapping wings as he yelled into the cursed night, “finish them!”

Chapter 48: Whispers of Love

Earlier that day.

NARAYANI WATCHED Rao and Aayu pack. Her bags hung from her shoulders, but they felt much heavier before she’d used Aayu’s mantras to activate his
sadhana
. She watched Rao leave notes for her and her father.

At least you’re doing that much.

Soon after, they disappeared from her sight the same way she had from theirs. She followed the path she guessed they would have to take, down the tower’s stairs and toward the gate that pointed toward distant Lake Parishana.

Narayani waited a long time for the gate to open to let some scouts in. She hoped she was leaving the citadel at the same time as Rao and Aayu, and headed for the wide trail leading below, along the way spotting vegetation she had never seen in the wild before.

Ghrita Kumari plants! I can’t wait to return later and gather some.

Guggulu shrubs! Aayu could use these.

Narayani took short breaks to examine the plants, but pushed herself to keep walking. She guessed at the speed Rao and Aayu would be traveling, so she walked a little faster than her normal pace. If she couldn’t locate them before they reached the lake, she would try to find them after she got there—though she had no idea how far she would have to walk.

Much later in the day, she heard their voices well ahead of her and hurried to catch up with them.

“It’s about Narayani. I know she’s annoying sometimes—I think so, anyway—but there are some things you don’t know about her. She told you she never knew her mom, right?”

Aayu, you stupid …

“Yes,” Rao answered.

“Well that’s not true.”

Narayani thought about emerging from hiding to stop him, but couldn’t pass up the chance to eavesdrop on their brotherly conversation. Having her secrets revealed to Rao was infuriating—and oddly liberating.

Aayu wiped his watering eyes. “What am I, a girl?”

Aw, you do love me.

“Don’t hold any of it against her,” Aayu said.

“Aayu, I would never do that.”

“You won’t say anything then?”

“Never. I promise you.”

“Good, because you know I’d have to kill you. She really blossomed after she met you. She’s a lot calmer now, if you can believe that. You just have to be careful with her. Do you see what I am saying?”

“Aayu, I want to marry her someday.”

“I know you love her ...”

She felt it, from both of them, and wanted to cry.

The conversations between Rao and Aayu were surprisingly mirthful the rest of the day and night. After a while, Narayani felt glad she didn’t normally hear their private humor. So glad, in fact, that by the end of the trek she fell back and let them walk ahead of her. She stayed close enough to hear their voices and see where they were, but felt guilty enough to allow them a little privacy. Their pace was too hard anyway. Even with Aayu’s
sadhana
making her body feel lighter, her muscles ached and it was tough to keep up.