Spin of Fate, page 36
A massive quake ripped through the mountain. It rattled the ground and sundered the rock, sending new peaks bursting skyward.
Aranel would have been swallowed into the chasm if he hadn’t latched on with his chitrons, scarcely managing to hang on as the world unraveled around him.
Pieces of the sky rained down, enormous chunks that smashed against the earth, opened new craters, and sent up fountains of bright sparks.
Not the sky, realized Aranel, staring at the chunks. The chitronic shield. It’s coming undone.
Zenyra had succeeded, at least in part. The shield around Mayana was breaking.
Chunks hailed from the sky for minutes, then hours, until Aranel lost track of time. All he could do was cling onto the bit of mountain that remained and pray to Sherka he didn’t get crushed.
And then it stopped. Aranel looked up, lungs seizing and breaths coming short.
The torana in front of him had disappeared, leaving a gaping wound on the horizon, a blemish of red that stained the magnificent golden sunset.
A grating screech shook the air again. The hole grew bigger as the fabric of the universe ripped apart by its seams. The smell of ruin, sharp as a knife, splintered through the honeyed air of Mayana.
Then Aranel felt it in his soul and through his chitronic bond with the rock—a creeping unease that swelled to a miasma of despair as new chitrons poured into the realm. Aranel released the bond in dismay and clambered onto the cliff.
The redness of Malin swallowed half the sky. Zenyra’s actions had opened up a giant rift in the chitronic shield. Around the rift, Mayana appeared intact, with its chitronic shield ruptured but not fully undone. But here, the sky and earth opened into Malin, connecting the two realms as one.
In the distance Aranel heard the rumbling of thousands of footsteps. A dark wave converged upon the horizon.
Kaldrav’s—no, Zenyra’s army.
Aranel’s spot on the mountain afforded him a good view of the forces as they poured through the rift into Mayana: a never-ending river of dark armor and tattered black flags, all marked with a single white circle.
There were thousands of them. Tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds.
Far more than Aranel had envisioned.
Fear wracked him as he watched them pass.
Meizan was right.
The forces at Kaufgar and Incaraz had been but a fraction of this monstrosity. Kirnos would have a day’s notice at best, the other Mayani kingdoms a couple days or weeks more. That might be enough to hold off an army of ten or even fifty thousand. But this?
They would be destroyed.
The villages and towns would fall first. Then the smaller kingdoms, Nishaki and Samaras and Amaratir. Eventually, the great kingdoms of Kirnos and Tahamur would fall as well. They had skilled channelers, but they would be outnumbered by an army of such scale.
Not all the soldiers will attack, Aranel tried to reassure himself. Zenyra said several will desert. For those who remain, surely she can curb their violence and direct their attacks toward the Preservation. But as far as I know, the chitronic shield around Paramos is still intact, which means she has no way to march directly upon Ashkator.
“My soldiers!”
A familiar voice rolled through the air like thunder. Zenyra stood silhouetted against the blazing sky. She balanced atop a floating chunk of rock, copper hair rippling like a cloak of flame. Fragments of the chitronic shield rained around her, but Zenyra redirected them with a swish of her fingers to send them exploding in the distance.
“Over a decade ago, we made you a promise—myself and the man who called himself your king. Today, that promise has been delivered upon.” Zenyra’s magnified voice echoed through the heavens. “I have broken a portion of the barrier that separated Malin and Mayana, my soldiers. I have given you the war you desire.”
Dissatisfied mutters broke through the ranks, and several soldiers shouted their discontent.
“You were supposed to break all the barriers, you bitch!”
“We’re not your soldiers, you blood-haired tramp!”
Zenyra raised her voice, drowning the shouts. “Keep your focus, my soldiers! This is but the first step in restoring Kal Ekana. As you say, only one set of barriers is broken. But that presents us with an opportunity. To march upon Mayana and sow chaos. To smoke the Preservation out of Paramos like roaches before a flame. To distract and incapacitate them before they have a chance to repair this barrier and reseparate the realms!”
“Screw incapacitation!” screamed a soldier. “Let us annihilate them!”
“Exterminate them!” added another. “Smash their bones and crush their hearts!”
“Stop wasting our time with bleeding speeches! We’re here to fight!”
“We will not win this war with aimless violence,” said Zenyra. “We cannot defeat the Mayani with the sharpness of our blades and the savagery in our hearts. They are a disciplined folk and excellent channelers. So I ask you, my soldiers, to trust my word and follow my command in battle. I ask you to refrain from indiscriminate slaughter and the harming of innocents.”
“Why the hell should we follow you, upper-born wench?” came a shout.
“What do you know of the savagery in our hearts? You’ve never known a day of pain!”
“I say burn this soft-soul and give us our maggoty king!”
It’s not working! Cold fear gripped Aranel. There’s no way she’ll be able to control an entire army!
When Zenyra spoke again, her voice took a sharper tone, edged with a cynicism Aranel had never heard from her.
“Give you your king?” She let out a cold laugh. “Oh, how I wish I could…give you a taste of how he begged and groveled, like the broken warrior he was. Give you a glimpse of Kaldrav’s tear-soaked face in the moment before I erased his soul.”
The soldiers’ yells died down, and Aranel’s mouth went dry. He’d suspected Zenyra had erased Kaldrav herself, but the way she spoke of it now sounded more like a premeditated attack rather than the result of a failed experiment.
“You think I cannot understand your pain?” She chuckled. “I have walked these realms since Kal Ekana. I have nurtured centuries of pain, and my hatred runs deeper than yours. I have no greater desire than to see the Preservation crumble. Shatter like this very barrier I have broken before your eyes.”
There was a round of raucous laughter at this, and Zenyra continued. “Follow my lead, my soldiers, and you will have your moment of justice. Your moment of revenge.”
The laughter faded, and Zenyra’s voice grew louder, shaking the skies. “For centuries, you have lived under the dominion of Toranic Law, your lives bound within its shackles. You have festered in corruption and darkness while they basked in the light. You have known pain and famine while they knew comfort and abundance.
“You have been told you deserved this torment, that you fomented it with your sins. Yet it is not sin that birthed you into Malin, but the rotten hand of chance. It is not the spin of your soul that begot your suffering, but a hapless spin of fate.
“And it is time to reverse that spin.” Zenyra spread her arms. “Time to even the score. Balance the imbalance. In our new world there shall be equality! Equal fortune, equal merriment…and also equal suffering!”
“Damn right!” yelled a soldier, and several others hooted and clapped.
“Embrace your hatred, my soldiers,” cried Zenyra. “Embrace every bit of agony and misery, and let it burn within you. Channel the flames upon those who would keep the realms split unjustly. Those who would preserve past inequalities for their own benefit.”
Aranel shrank against the rock. She doesn’t mean it, he told himself. She’s only trying to speak to their savagery so she can get them on her side.
Zenyra’s terrible voice rang through Malin, heavy with rage. The soldiers grew louder, the air thick with jeers and curses that had never before been uttered in Mayana.
But they were cursing now not at Zenyra, but at the Mayani and the Preservation.
Zenyra drew herself up and pounded the sky with her fist. “Their minds shall break!”
“THEIR MINDS SHALL BREAK!” The soldiers chorused her vicious promise while thousands of weapons beat the ground in unison.
“Their hearts shall wither!”
“THEIR HEARTS SHALL WITHER!”
“Their souls shall tarnish!” screamed Zenyra, her beautiful face twisted in fury.
“THEIR SOULS SHALL TARNISH!”
She doesn’t mean it, repeated Aranel like a mantra. She’s only doing it to earn their respect. To ensure they obey her in battle and don’t slaughter indiscriminately.
Except how much would Zenyra be able to control once the fighting started? And how much of the coming violence would be worth it in the end?
Aranel dug his nails into his palm, carving circles into the flesh. He couldn’t afford to be dragged into Meizan’s pessimistic outlook. Zenyra had already garnered the support of her army with one blistering speech. She would control their chaos. It was the only way to bring down the Preservation and restore the chitronic shields to a more equitable state.
“Today is the birth of a new universe!” declared Zenyra. “Our first target is the kingdom of Kirnos, where the hand of the Preservation holds most sway.”
Aranel’s breath faltered. It’s a necessary sacrifice, he told himself. Better Kirnos than one of the smaller kingdoms or, worse, the villages. The Kirnosi are healers. Excellent channelers. No matter what she throws at them, they will survive.
“Charge, my soldiers!” ordered Zenyra. “Attack Kirnos and destroy the kingdom! Burn their great lotus until there is nothing left but ash and withered petals! Ravage their temples and palaces until there is nothing left for the Preservation to restore!”
With an answering roar, the army charged across Mayana, crashing through soft grass and sweet air in a wave of dread.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Splintering Sky Above
Meizan jolted awake to the chilling shrieks of the kapizer. He found himself sprawled on his back with the cadaverous trees of Martharan looming above. He leaped up and reached for his sword, only to find his scabbard empty.
He’d given the sword back to his chief. And his chief had—
Meizan buried the memory and kicked himself for falling asleep. He was supposed to be looking for Aina.
After the explosion had thrown him out of the Void and back into Malin, he’d spent close to a day tracking her through the charred woods of Martharan. He’d been too exhausted for another soul projection, but with Kaldrav’s army blocking off a large part of the forest, there was only one way she could have gone.
Bones aching, Meizan dashed in the direction of the shrieks. The kapizer only screamed for a reason. Sure enough, Meizan found half a dozen monkeys in a clearing, hellbent on attacking something—or rather, someone.
Meizan rushed forward as he recognized the mop of tangled hair, but Aina didn’t need his help. The kapizer were flung back in a blast of dark turquoise. The attack seared the air and left a smoldering crater around its channeler.
Was that a stun beam? Meizan eyed the smoking bodies. Somehow, Aina’s chitronic control had gotten worse.
He took a step toward his teammate. Aina’s cheeks were sunken and her gaunt face smeared with dried blood. Her right side was marred by a large wound with ribbons of flesh dangling around its edges. It seemed the kapizer had gotten a few swipes in before Aina had defended herself.
At the sight of Meizan, Aina let out a growl like a cornered animal. Her keiza had dulled. The direction of its swirl had flipped to match his.
“Aina.” Meizan’s voice faltered.
What could he say? How could he tell her about her mother?
“You.” Aina’s hands curled into fists. “You were there. And you let it happen.”
“What?”
“I saw it!” Aina screamed, face contorting in rage. “I projected into the Void and I saw everything! And you were there, you were with her, so how could you let it—”
She jumped at him. Meizan stumbled back, catching her fists as she pounded his chest.
“You were supposed to protect her!” Aina’s eyes were bloodshot, and tears poured down her cheeks. “You were supposed to stop it from happening!”
“I didn’t expect—”
“You were her second-in-command!” Aina shoved him, and Meizan let her. Mostly because he was too stunned to react, and also because Aina was right. He should have found a way. He should have stopped the chief from taking Zenyra’s hit.
“She trusted you!” Aina shrieked. “If you couldn’t have stopped it, you should’ve taken her place!”
Meizan hung his head. His fingers ghosted over the empty scabbard at his waist.
“Say something!” Aina grabbed his collar and shook him. “Say something, damn you!”
“You’re right,” Meizan whispered. “I failed her…”
Aina punched him, hard, and Meizan didn’t bother to tilt his head away. Pain tore across his jaw, but it was nothing, nothing compared to the agony in his heart.
In the time he’d known her, Kanna had been more than a chief. She had rescued him from a lifetime of bitterness. Taken him under her wing, guided him, and given him a purpose. They shared no bloodline—no bond beyond clan alliance—and yet Kanna had risked Kanjallen’s troops to rescue him from Kaufgar.
And now she was gone, and Meizan was left with her daughter. A girl who wished him erased from the universe.
But it’s not all my fault, Meizan told himself as Aina slammed a fist into his gut. Aina’s the flaming idiot who stabbed herself to open the Void. She’s the bleeding fool who got carried away by Zenyra’s lies.
Meizan dodged Aina’s next blow and kicked her across the clearing.
“None of it would’ve happened if you weren’t so damn gullible!” he shouted. “We were coming to save you, Aina! From the start, your mother was trying to prote—”
“You think I don’t know that?”
Aina let out another blast of energy, darker and more powerful than anything Meizan had ever felt from her. She wasn’t channeling but only unleashing her own chitrons. They washed over Meizan in a torrent of anger and grief, amplifying his own misery. Unable to withstand the raw anguish of Aina’s soul a moment longer, Meizan erected a chitronic shield.
She was Malini again. But she carried more hatred and pain than most in the realm.
Another scream ripped from Aina’s throat as she pounced on him in a fury. Meizan dodged swiftly, his shield chipping away under her continued assault.
He didn’t recognize this Aina. There was no telling what she’d do. He should attack outright and get it over with, and yet Meizan found it impossible to raise a fist against her.
Because even if Aina was dangerous, she was the last of Kanna’s blood. The girl Meizan had promised—and failed—to protect.
Meizan dodged a barrage of punches, then sent his chitrons to wrap around Aina like a shroud. She thrashed against the shield as it encapsulated her and contained her attacks. Aina’s chitrons rubbed against his, malicious and clamoring for revenge.
Meizan heard approaching footsteps behind him, and Aina gave a furious yell. The shield shattered and she dove forward. A dark claw of energy extended from her palm.
Aina flew past Meizan to pin Aranel against a tree.
“You!” Aina snarled. “You bleeding traitor! You self-serving son of a bitch! I can’t believe I ever—” She let out an enraged cry, and her chitrons tightened around his throat.
Aranel coughed, and blood spilled from his lips, but he made no move to fight back or break free. “Aina…I’m so…sorry.”
“I’ll erase you for what you did! I’ll wipe out every chitron in your soul!”
“Aina…wait…this isn’t you.”
“There’s nothing left of me!” Aina’s voice broke as more tears leaked from her eyes. The claw squeezed tighter. Aranel’s breaths grew erratic, his fingers scraping at his neck. “Everything I was, everything I did, was all so I could be with her again! And you destroyed her! You and that manipulative witch!”
Choked sobs wracked Aina’s thin shoulders as the chitrons around Aranel’s neck tightened.
Was the idiot just going to let her choke him until he passed out?
Swearing, Meizan tackled Aina from behind, and the binds around Aranel flickered. He broke free as Meizan and Aina rolled on the ground, both struggling to get the upper hand.
Meizan scrambled to his feet as Aranel reached into his pocket. There was a flash of silver, and Aina’s eyes drooped shut, the kapizer spine embedded in her shoulder. Aranel caught her and laid her on the ground. He bound her side with a strip of his tunic before turning to Meizan.
“Meizan, I’m sor—”
“Save it.”
“But I never meant—”
“It doesn’t matter what you meant,” Meizan said. “She came prepared with the blood. Regardless of your intervention, she would’ve done what she set out to do. I was stupid to think we could stop her.”
Aranel was silent, and Meizan stared at the sky above. The chitronic shield had disintegrated in parts, giving way to patches of golden light where Mayana seeped through. The chitrons were disrupted too; their frenzied flows clashed like lightning overhead.
“I saw the army,” Aranel said, his tone desperate, pleading. “It’s bigger than I thought it would be. They’re attacking Kirnos first. They’re going to destroy it.”
I warned you, Meizan almost said. In the Void, he’d been shocked by the ease with which Aranel fell for Zenyra’s illogical claims of a short-lived war with minimal destruction. Then again, it’s just like him to believe her. Meizan remembered their first encounter in Martharan and Aranel’s thickheaded refusal to injure the kapizer. He’s always been idealistic to the point of idiocy. And now it’s come to bite him in the ass.
