Shard, page 16
part #2 of Cruelly Made Series
Something strange shifts through me, like clouds passing across the horizon, glorious and beautiful and dangerous like storm clouds in the morning, tumbling, flickering, mixed with an aurora of colors. There’s more than one presence, and my Aether pulls upward, like a thousand hooks suspending me from a ceiling.
I accept my damnation. I do not ask for redemption. I seek whatever atonement I can, I will serve whatever penance I must. I do not deserve forgiveness. I ask only to save them from an unjust fate.
I’m released.
I slump onto the stones. Hair falls around me. I’m sweating. There’s terrible pain in my back and ribs.
But on the stones in front of me, just under my gaze, is a snake made of crystal with deep, cosmic-blue eyes that are like peering into an endless, depthless pool of water on a moonless winter night. Complete with little flecks of light like reflective stars.
“Snake,” I whisper in wonder.
It worked. The gods heard my prayers and granted me a familiar.
The snake’s little tongue, red as Blood’s, flicks out of its snout, sampling the air. I push myself back onto my heels and it slithers up to me, then over my knees and winds itself around my arm until it gets to my face.
It’s the size of a large garden snake, and covered in beautiful crystal scales along its top and sides, then its belly is a checkerboard pattern of smokey gray and reds, and its tail is a tiny, sharp point like conjured crystal. It samples my face with its tongue, those gorgeous eyes staring back at me like it understands, and then it opens its mouth, showing a pink mouth and two long, curved fangs in its slightly pointed, angular snout.
The door to the chapel shudders under an immense impact.
It closes its jaws, curls around my neck and shoulders, then slithers down my arm and back onto the stones. It stretches itself and transforms into its utility form.
“You’ve got the right idea.” Its utility form is a short sword: a slightly curved, flared blade of a bluish steel emblazoned with the pattern of scales, and the hilt a carved snake clutching a large blue sapphire in its open maw.
I grasp the sword and get to my feet as the door shudders again. My warding circle has burned a pattern in the stones and destroyed the Aether thread woven through the tiles. The Priests had stopped their chanting and are looking at the door, and at the burned circle on the floor.
“Sorry,” I say, sword in hand, “Had to consecrate my familiar.”
They look at me with their strange hourglass eyes, shaken, and one rasps, “Please go. This is the only sanctuary here, and you are endangering it.”
I flinch. I know that, but it still hurts to hear it. I move to tuck my sword behind my back before realizing I’m not wearing a baldric and damn near skinning myself.
I am such a klutz.
My familiar’s sword form is airy and light, and balanced perfectly in my hand, like it’s an extension of my arm. I flick it over my shoulder and just as I do, the door blasts open.
Inferno and Frost charge through. I duck a barrage of fire, then manage not to slip and fall on my ass from a wave of frost shot across the stones under my bare feet.
“Stop!” one of the Priests shouts. “You can’t fight in a holy place!”
“You mean this unholy shack?!” Inferno lifts his hands over his head, summoning a blazing fireball between his palms.
“Don’t!” I scream.
Inferno shoots forward and flattens on the stone. His magic fizzles.
Smoke kneels with one knee on Inferno’s back. “Lady Crystal, success?”
“Holy shit, Smoke.” I’m super eloquent in these moments.
Frost shrieks and blasts us with a wave of frigid cold while the Priests shout warnings. Inferno flips over and flings fire at Smoke, which thaws him out just in time for him to spirit himself out of range of the fire, and Rot barrels into the room with Aegis hanging off him, and outside, metal shatters as Metal flings bolts at Blood.
I crack off the frost shell. I hold out an empty hand to Frost. “Stop it! We’re not here to—”
She pulls down a curtain of freezing cold on me. My lungs turn into brittle tissue. My Aether flares as the shock torments my system. My magic surges upwards, heady and decadent, and no more controlled for having a familiar than before.
It feels even worse now.
How could my familiar make things worse?
Rot flings off the Aegis and swings a massive fist at Frost. A metal bolt blasts him back into the altar.
I break out of the frost prison. We’ve got to get out of here. Something’s pulling on my magic as something else causes it to roil and boil hotter.
“Don’t!” I scream. “We don’t want to fight! We’ll go quietly! We surrender!”
“The fuck we do!” Rot bellows.
I swing outward, my magic surging towards him, and I instinctively grab at him. It’s easier this time, layers of silk rope binding us together. “We do! We do! We can’t fight down here! It’s too Blighted!”
Something wants us to fight. Something is fueling their Fell magic and burning it hot, hot, hot, and I see the auras rising off them as they surge and swell with magic, and I can feel the way it’s whispering to them, spreading through them.
“Stop,” I say to Rot, aware of the taint spreading through my own soul, and my vision clears. “We surrender. We surrender.”
Inferno rolls to his feet.
“Fuck your surrender!” Frost shrieks. “You goddamn murderer!”
She lunges at me.
“Frost!” Aegis hauls himself up and gestures with both hands, and warding circles appear under Frost as she moves, and they burn and dissolve against the Aether-inlaid stones. The stones push up and reshape, trying to net around her ankles.
I throw myself out of the way. Blood slides through the doorway with Metal on his heels. He spins to his feet, whips of blood spiraling around him.
“Frost!” Aegis shouts again.
“Smoke!” I shout.
He weaves an acrid column of smoke around his fingers. Metal blasts Rot’s back, and the power crackles through both of us. He drops to his knees. I fall with him. His Fell thread thunders to life, beating under my own heart.
I grab his face with my free hand, clawing at his cheek and force him to look at me, every part of me straining and my Aether searing my skin as the shocks crackle over us. “I’m here! I’m here, we’ve got to get out of here.”
His eyes focus on me, then slip away.
I kiss him hard, shoving my tongue between his lips, and my magic sinks downward, deep, deep—
“Now’s not the time you two,” Blood says, suddenly at our side. “Nice sword, Pebbles. But we’ve got problems.”
Smoke tries to smother Frost while Aegis tries to defend her. His face is wet with tears as he weaves stone magic, but Inferno and Metal have lost the thread and don’t realize Frost’s getting eaten up by Blight.
The Priests have: they’ve left the chapel.
The Aether thread in the stones chars and rots away.
Frost snarls, and it’s not entirely a human snarl anymore.
Aegis wails and flings himself at Frost, and lashes his arms around her.
“Stay with me,” I tell Rot, still digging my fingernails into his face. “Do you hear me? You stay with me.”
He nods and releases me. I drop to the ground, sword in my off hand and touch Blood. His Fell thread thumps into my awareness. Now I’ve got all three of them pounding against me like a headache and multiple heartbeats. My magic strains hard as I fight to cast a full warding circle against the dark, shadowy tide burning the Aether in the stones.
Frost flings Aegis off and spins around on him.
I suppress a scream.
She—
“No!” Metal screams.
“Frost!” I fling Crystal magic out at her and try to capture her in my grip. I pull as hard as I can against my Aether, and my magic surges like a geyser, and I direct it outward in crystalline ribbons.
The Blight in here is so malevolent, so intense, so jaw-dropping, I gasp and arch and almost drop my sword.
Smoke grabs me before I collapse.
Frost hisses, her face softening, sagging on her bones, her limbs elongating under an invisible weight, the scent in the chapel is awful, and her colors fade from bright white and blue and smoke to greenish pus and sickly cream. The Aether in her chest burns a final, bright blue, then chars over, burning off her armor, spreading like a toxin through her.
“No!” Aegis howls, the agony in his voice echoing an agony I know myself. “No! Frost!”
I lunge forward. Magic shifts through my body, and my familiar burns in my hand. I dart forward faster than I ever have before, and plunge my sword into Frost’s chest.
She grabs me with both hands. Talon-like fingers mush into me, the bones trying to penetrate my skin and the flesh just sloughing around me like custard. We tumble down to the rocks. Blood spurts up around my sword. I grab it in both hands and drive down, sobbing, magic pouring out down the hilt into the blade.
“I’m sorry,” I tell her. Her eyes haven’t changed color: they’re still ice blue, and the soul that looks back at me is… Frost.
And she hates me.
I twist. Ribs crack. Shatter. Heart is torn.
Blight slides back into the shadows.
Frost is dead under me.
22
SMOKE
Pebbles moved so quickly even Smoke had lost track of her. Now she’s kneeling on Frost’s stomach, her sword plunged into the Aether’s chest, both hands around the hilt as she twists a final time. No hesitation. Ribs crack as the blade separates bone and cartilage.
Frost is dead. Her colors are ruined and corrupted, but her eyes are still mostly ice blue.
Pebbles’ has successfully consecrated her familiar, which is currently plunged into the Aether’s chest in the form of a beautiful short sword. At least what Smoke can see of it.
Pebbles sags against her sword, breathing hard, hair in disarray, skin shining like she’s been dusted with fresh snow.
Aegis is screaming. Inferno is holding him.
The screams are… terrible.
Smoke listens to them for a second, his own heart beating a different rhythm to the silky pulse of his Fell thread. His soul twists and squirms, like it’s being rubbed with sandpaper. That’s the Blight inside him: rubbing his instincts to give a shit the wrong way.
He’s never felt it… quite like that before.
His eyes rest on Crystal. She looks up, prismatic eyes huge and teary, her expression total horror and shock.
She killed again. Like the Warden said she would.
“You fucking monster!” Metal shrieks. The Aether charges towards Pebbles and shoves her off Frost’s corpse.
Pebbles tumbles back in a storm of long hair and limbs and collapses onto the charred floor.
“No, no, no,” Metal mourns, bending over Frost. “No, no. What did she do? What did she do to you?”
“She saved her soul,” Blood says. “The Blight overtook her.”
“Because of her!” Metal shouts. “She did this!”
“How does a Crystal Aether make anyone a Blightling?” Blood snaps. “You aren’t thinking clearly. Hold it together, Aegis. We have to get out of here.”
The Aegis is sobbing into Inferno’s chest. The sobs are deep, soul-tearing. Smoke shifts. Crystal flips onto her knees and gets shakily to her feet, her face gaunt. She focuses on Aegis, and the nightmare reflecting in her eyes twists Smoke’s heart.
She’s seen this before. She’s lived this before.
Smoke shifts again, fading and dissipating while he grapples with the strange abrasions in his soul. Her suffering is plain as day on her face. She hadn’t wanted to kill Frost. She’d done it to save Frost’s soul at the expense of her life.
Crystal’s voice shakes. “We have to get out of here.”
Metal gets to his feet and knots his fists. “You would say that, prisoner!”
“Metal,” she extends one hand to stop him, her skin flickering with colors and light, “we have to leave. We’re in a storm of Blight. Your Frost has been killed, we—”
“Because you killed her!” Metal flings shards at her.
She rolls out of the way, bloody sword in her hand. She side-steps, bending towards the Aegis and away from Frost. Her voice has stopped shaking and become cool, steady command, each syllable like a heartbeat. “Aegis, you have to get your team out of here.”
Aegis blubbers something and crawls towards Frost.
“Aegis,” she says again.
“Leave him alone!” Metal screams. Inferno surges up and fire wraps itself around his forearms.
Blood strides forward and gestures to Frost’s body. “Rot, get the body. Quick. We’ve got to move.”
Inferno howls and a column of fire erupts from his hand. Blood jumps to the side. Verdance lashes out with brown-yellow vines that entangle Blood’s feet.
That’s a bad sign.
“We have to get them out of here,” Crystal tells Blood, her face streaked with tears and her eyes red-rimmed, but her tone steady and strangely fearless. “They’re torn open!”
Blood extends a hand and Inferno grasps at his neck, color draining out of his face. He extends his other hand, and drains Verdance’s blood away from his brain the same way. The tendrils rot into the ground. Crystal grabs Aegis, looping her arm under the destroyed Mage, and hauling him to his feet. Blood orders, “Rot, grab the body and the Aegis. One over each shoulder. The rest of us? Run like hell.”
“You aren’t going anywhere!” Metal snarls.
Smoke flips him the finger. “So catch us, Blightling.”
Nothing like taunting an Aether.
He bolts. Metal screams and flings metal shards at him. He fades, the shards passing through him harmlessly, and sticking into the wall of the tunnel. Blood releases Inferno and is right behind him.
“They following?” Smoke asks.
“Yep. The Blight’s crawling in them.” Blood’s grim tone is obvious even over their footfalls and breathing. “Not that the Blight already didn’t have its claws in them. Verdance is fucked.”
Smoke glances behind them. Inferno, Verdance, and Metal are right behind them, their faces twisted by shadows. Verdance’s colors have twisted to yellow. Behind them, are Rot, carting Frost’s body and the wrecked Aegis over each shoulder, and Crystal. Her skin shines and sparkles, and it looks like little tendrils of light rise off her skin like seedlings, and she’s holding Aegis’ floppy hand.
“Left!” she shouts.
Blood shoves him. A bolt of fire smacks into where Smoke had just been.
“So what’s the plan once we’re out of here?” Smoke asks. This time Blood jumps to the right to dodge metal shards. “We could just suffocate them.”
“Then we aren’t going to get them out of here.”
“You know they’re already gone.”
Blood gives him a terrible look. “Fuck that. They are not done. Maybe she can pull them out. She can pull us out. She should be able to do some Aethers.”
“Why do you care? They’d leave us to rot.”
“Because we’re better than that.”
“They don’t think so.”
“You want to make them liars or you want to make them right? There’s the door. Familiar time.”
Smoke yanks off his pendant. His bird dives towards the oncoming Aethers while Blood shoves the door into the shed up. His bird flaps and caws and pecks at the Aethers, dodging and weaving around punches and snarls. Rot barrels right over the Aethers. “Got your Aegis!”
Blood practically leaps through the door and shoves his hand down. He yanks Smoke up and over, then they get out of the way for Rot. He drops the Aegis and Frost on the ground. “Pebbles!”
“Right behind you!” she shouts, still in the tunnel.
Fire erupts out of the doorway, incinerating the shed.
“Fuck!” Blood grabs Smoke and pushes him out of the door. Embers, ash and fire are everywhere. The building burns.
Rot grabs Aegis and drags him out of the burning shed.
Inferno, blazing with something more like scathefire than fire, comes out of the hole, followed by a molten-looking Metal, and a sickly-swamp-like Verdance.
Smoke’s heart crunches. He freezes for a moment before Rot shoves him through what’s left of the door to the shed. Blood plunges back into the burning shed. “Where are you, you stupid Aether!”
“Suffocate them!” Rot shouts. “All of them!”
It’s the only way: if he can suffocate the three of them, they’ll be incoherent. The Blight generally needs a coherent victim. He weaves the smoke billowing off the shed into a thick fabric and smothers the three Aethers with it. They gasp and choke.
Blood and Crystal leap out of the burning shack through a hole in one wall. She shines like a star, and his concentration falters, She runs to the Aegis, and pleads with him, “Your team needs you. Come back, Aegis! Follow me out!”
Bright magic slides off her and slides off the Aegis, like a net that forms and dissolves and he slips through each time.
Suffocating a bunch of angry Aethers is hard when one of them is a Verdance. Smoke grits his teeth and focuses on the Verdance, he and Blood working in concert to strangle him and the Blight rotting through him.
Rot charges across the stones and punches Verdance in the head.
The momentary stun is all they need. Their smoke and blood magic snake through the break in Verdance’s magic and incapacitate him. Metal and Inferno are easy after that.
Blood holds their lives like the reins of a double bridle, if the reins were made of blood droplets woven through his fingers. He breathes hard.
“It doesn’t have to be pretty,” Smoke says as Rot rubs his fist. “But it worked.
“Damn right.” Rot looks at Crystal, who is still trying to get Aegis back from his howling, gibbering grief.
“Where’s Frost?” Smoke asks in the sudden quiet, even though bells are still ringing and soldiers race around still trying to round up prisoners, and now there’s fire.
