Air and Darkness (56 page)
Authors: David Drake
“Of course I fought!” Varus said. He started to add,
What choice did I have?
but those words did not reach his lips.
He watched the Blight throbbing like the intestines of a horse disemboweled in the arena. Varus hadn't seen that while he fought. His world had been foul blackness in all directions. The blue crackling that prevented the Blight from swallowing him would remain only so long as he willed it to remain, and doing that was like carrying the Temple of Jupiter Best and Greatest on his shoulders.
“I did know from the first that I couldn't win,” Varus said instead. “But I had to fight. There wasn't anywhere for me to run to, and even if there had been ⦠I wouldn't want to remember that I had let that
horror
destroy the Earth.”
Varus watched as Bacchus, bathed in golden light, spread the transformed Blight across Anti-Thule like rich compost. Every sort of vegetation was springing up.
“I tried,” Varus said to the Sibyl, “but I wasn't strong enough.”
“Yes,” said the old woman. She pointed at an unfamiliar jungle scene. “Your sister and Master Corylus fought a demon at the Tomb of the Eternals. They weren't strong enough, either.”
Hedia, whom Varus hadn't noticed and whom the demon had certainly forgotten, stepped up behind the creature swinging a rock at the end of a silken cord. The demon dropped like a sacrificial bullock struck in the forehead by the underpriest's hammer. Corylus knelt to cut its head off as Alphena drove her sword deep into the broad chest.
“Lady Hedia helped them,” the Sibyl said, “as she helped you. But she is a very ordinary matron of Carce, Lord Wizard. She cannot work magic or use a sword.”
Varus smiled wryly. “Mother isn't ordinary,” he said. “But I take your point.”
He looked down at his body, walking on Hedia's arm toward the remaining fragment of Govinda's sanctum. He turned to meet the Sibyl's eyes and said, “Sibyl, why am I here? What is next?”
She smiled, another wrinkle in a face as seamed as a dried apple. “That is up to you, Lord Wizard,” the Sibyl said. “This is a fork in the road your future will follow. From here on, the world will be ruled either by logic or by magic. By wisdom or by superstition, as you would have put it not long ago. Which path will the future take?”
Varus stiffened as though she had slapped him. He said, “
I
can't make that decision!”
“You
will
make that decision, Gaius Varus,” the Sibyl said. She did not raise her voice, but Hedia herself could not have put more steely certainty into the words.
Varus rubbed his temples. “Sibyl, why me?” he said.
“Did you not stand alone against all the power of the Cosmos, Lord Wizard?” the Sibyl said.
“Yes, but I couldn't win!” Varus said. “I couldn't even have stood much longer!”
“True,” said the Sibyl, smiling again. “The help of the gods was necessary to save you and to save your world.
Our
world, Gaius Varus.”
“Then the decision is clear,” said Varus. With the words, he felt his spirit fly back to his flesh and his friends as they stepped into a Carce full of magic and wonder.
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DAVID DRAKE
is best known for his military SF and has authored or coauthored more than sixty books. He lives in Pittsboro, North Carolina. You can sign up for email updates
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TOR BOOKS BY
DAVID DRAKE
Birds of Prey
Bridgehead
Cross the Stars
The Dragon Lord
The Forlorn Hope
Fortress
From the Heart of Darkness
Goddess of the Ice Realm
Killer
(with Karl Edward Wagner)
Patriots
Skyripper
Tyrannosaur
The Voyage
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CONTENTS
Â
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
AIR AND DARKNESS
Copyright © 2015 by David Drake
All rights reserved.
Cover design by Peter Lutjen
Cover art by Donato
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
Tor
®
is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Drake, David, 1945â
    Air and darkness / by David Drake.âFirst edition.
        p. cm.â(Book of the Elements; [Book 4])
    ISBN 978-0-7653-2081-0 (hardcover)
    ISBN 978-1-4299-5172-2 (e-book)
    1. MagiciansâFiction.   2. MonstersâFiction.   3. RomansâFiction.   4. End of the worldâFiction.   5. EuropeâFiction.   I. Title.
PS3554.R196A73 2015
813'.54âdc23
2015023073
e-ISBN 9781429951722
Our e-books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945, extension 5442, or by e-mail at [email protected].
First Edition: November 2015
