Diviner (27 page)

“Nonsense. The change must be gradual. These people have been slaves all their lives.” Taushin raised his voice. “What do you say, humans? Will you be able to defend yourselves against the wild beasts we dragons now chase away? Can you choose a leader who will govern you? Who among you is qualified to write your laws, police your activities, and render judgment when someone commits a crime? Can you build shelters in the colder climate when you have no craftsmen who have ever assembled anything more complex than a raft without the help of dragons?”

Murmurs rose from the crowd, peppered with a few clear statements. “He’s right,” and “I wouldn’t want to be a leader,” and “Hyborn chased a wolf away and saved my son.”

“So you see,” Taushin continued, “your own people realize that the faith you ask them to embrace is unreasonable. No one can make such a drastic change. It is impossible.”

Koren glared at Taushin. He was crafty. His faithless rhetoric filtered into the ears of pitiful wretches who knew nothing other than cruel slavery. And those words brought nods of approval, nods of ignorance. How could someone who had never known freedom understand the reality of living without chains? Such a life seemed impossible, because they had never experienced it, nor seen anyone live it. Somehow, she had to show them the truth and expose Taushin for the liar he was.

Spreading out her cloak again, Koren called, “Jason! Elyssa! All who hail from Darksphere. Stand under me.”

“No!” Taushin’s ears rotated furiously. “You shall speak no more. You are too powerful for these good people and dragons to endure.”

While Jason and the others from Darksphere gathered under Koren, Arxad lifted a wing toward Exodus. “Do you fear her influence? She speaks words, mere words. Allow us to decide whether to believe her or not.”

“I appreciate your support, Arxad,” Koren said as she spread out her cloak again, “but Taushin cannot silence me. No matter what happens, I must show these people what they cannot understand. Their slavery has blinded them, and they are deceived by those who are also blind. If I do not try everything possible to open their eyes, I would be a wicked sorceress indeed.”

“She is a sorceress,” Yeager said. “How else could a ghost be walking among us? She will hypnotize us again, and the dragons will retaliate against our children.” He laid his hands over his ears. “If you want your little ones to live to see another day, don’t listen to her.”

Many others covered their ears, while some mothers covered the eyes of their children, especially those of the children who seemed to be trying to get a better look at Deference.

“I have an alternative idea.” Taushin waved a wing. “Hyborn, select a child—a young female—and bring her to me. No man will rise up against us as long as we hold her.”

With a quick snap of his neck, Hyborn snatched a female toddler with his teeth. He carried her to Taushin, holding her by her tunic’s collar. The girl wailed and kicked, but Hyborn’s grip stayed firm. A woman screamed, “My daughter!” and tried to follow, but the crowd held her back.

Hyborn set the girl down on her stomach in front of Taushin and laid his tail over her struggling body. “This one should be suitable,” Hyborn said.

Arxad growled. “This is barbaric! Threats are no way to control behavior. All you will do is prejudice their thoughts against us and prove Koren’s charge of cruelty.”

“There will be no cruelty if the humans continue to submit to my authority.” Taushin nodded toward Koren. “Say what you must, Starlighter. The people are aware of the consequences if they heed your words.”

Boiling inside, Koren spun her cloak around her legs. “Hear me, you who live in chains, you who believe that there is no life but slavery. You think you were born to serve dragons and that there is no escape from your labors, no avoiding their whips. I will show you otherwise. I will show you freedom. I will show you rest.” She lowered her hands to the floor of Exodus and, clutching air, slowly raised her fists, as if pulling a heavy load from below. Then she clapped her hands and spread them out wide, shouting, “Behold!”

The village transformed again. A brown-grass meadow stretched between the crowd and the Zodiac, and a shallow brook trickled over a bed of pebbles. Five children and an old man danced at the edge, splashing each other while laughing merrily. Three adults, two men and a woman, sat to the right, one man with a long grass blade in his mouth. Smiles abounded. The sound of singing overwhelmed the babbling of the brook. In front of the adults, a variety of breads and fruits covered a checkered cloth of black and white.

One woman from the crowd padded slowly toward the children, pointing. “That’s Natalla! I’m sure of it!”

“And Tam,” another woman said. “The man with the grass in his mouth is Cowl, and Mark is sitting next to him.”

“And the man in the water is …” The first woman walked through the grass to the edge of the brook. Then, turning back, she shouted, “It’s Micah! We thought they were dead!”

Koren cried out again. “You are seeing the world we have called Darksphere. The people standing under me are the warriors who rescued Micah, Cowl, Mark, and the girls. Now, instead of cringing under whips and sweating through their toilsome labors, these former captives play in a cool stream. You can see for yourselves that there are no new stripes on their legs. Their eyes are clear. Their faces are full. They exude joy. Slavery is now a memory, a dark nightmare from which they have awoken. This is the life that every child should live. Free. Unshackled. Unburdened. Free to laugh, free to dance, free to sing. Their chains are broken. Light has chased away darkness. Love has conquered hate. Freedom has triumphed over slavery.”

Nearly every man, woman, and child watched the display, entranced, their shuffling feet drifting slowly toward the joyous gathering. Yeager, his ears still covered, glanced that way. His expression twisted into an angry frown, but he stayed quiet.

“You fear for your children.” Koren paused, wincing. The pain in her side was getting worse, and a deep gnawing in her gut seemed to grow, as if a rodent inside her stomach was trying to chew its way out. But she couldn’t stop. Not now. “You fear that dragons will maim or kill them. It is true. They will. But is a moment of suffering worse than a lifetime of toil, decades of struggle, year upon year of lost joy? Will you sacrifice in order to provide the gift of freedom to future generations?”

A little boy broke away from the crowd and joined the circle of phantoms. He splashed with Micah and the others, his smile wider than any Koren had seen on a slave child. Several more children streamed toward them. Some looked back at the dragons, but when they saw their masters staring blankly, they turned and hurried to the dance.

Koren pressed a fist against her stomach, easing the pain enough to allow her to continue. “Taushin is a liar. He will never allow you to join these liberated souls. If you will only choose to believe my words, I will keep the dragons under my control. The few who can resist my power will not be able to stand against you.”

“It’s all true,” Elyssa shouted. “I have been to that field myself.”

“I took Micah and the others to that creek,” Randall added. “I watched this celebration with my own eyes.”

“I believe you!” one woman called.

An old man waved a gnarled hand. “It has to be true!”

While several more shouted their agreement, Exodus shifted lower. As its light made a halo around the Darksphere visitors, they moved out of the way.

Taushin shouted, “Koren cannot hold dragons under her spell forever. She will become weary, and when they break free, I will order them to kill every human who joins with her, as well as every child among you. There will be no exceptions.”

A man with gray-speckled hair emerged from the crowd and looked up at Koren. “Will you really be able to keep the dragons under your spell?”

Koren studied the man’s face. Although more wrinkled and scarred than the last time she saw him, he looked like Madam’s brother, Samuel, one of the elder men. If he could be convinced, many would follow. “I will not lie to you, Samuel. My endurance is untested, and my strength could fail. Since I am merely a messenger, I think you will have to trust in the Creator rather than in me. The Creator is the one who calls you to freedom, and even if it requires the same agony your dear sister is suffering, we still must be willing to answer the call.”

Looking down, Samuel shook his head. “Your words, the images of freed slaves, and your control over the dragons are temporary. They will soon fly away with the breeze. I think most of us need a better guarantee than that.”

Koren moved her hand to her side and pressed against the wound. “Oh, Samuel, dear Samuel. Some might die. Some might suffer grave wounds. Even children might perish. Freedom cannot come without sacrifice. Joy for the many cannot come without the suffering of the few. I guarantee only that whatever suffering our people go through, the freedom the survivors find will be worth it.”

“Survivors?” Yeager repeated loudly enough for everyone to hear. “So you don’t guarantee anything.”

A new round of murmurs buzzed through the crowd, and expressions altered from smiles to frowns.

“If you turn against her,” Taushin said, “all expressions of rebellion will be forgiven, and you will be free to go to your labors without punishment. And I will keep my promise to grant your freedom as soon as possible, but that cannot come without this rebellious girl’s agreement to submit to me.”

Jason pointed a finger at Taushin. “What do you know about freedom? You coerce with threats, sinking so low that you hold a little girl hostage. Humans are consumed by dragons, both in body and in spirit, and you grind the leftovers into pulp to put out as bait for beasts. You are so vile you call it a Promotion to be served as a dragon’s dinner. You don’t have a shred of decency, and no one here should believe a word you say.”

“You speak the venom of adders,” Taushin yelled. “The promoted slaves went to the Northlands. Arxad himself will tell you that.”

Arxad lowered his head. “I have nothing to say.”

Fuming once again, Koren lifted her arms. “I didn’t want to show this orgy of carnage, but I must. I call upon Starlight to give these people a view of Magnar’s banquet table. Parents, hide your children’s eyes. This is a sight they must not see.”

The meadow disappeared. The brook evaporated. The Starlight slave children ceased their dance, looking back at the crowd with perplexed expressions. Several adults waved their arms, urging them to return.

Magnar appeared where the meadow was before, sitting on his haunches. Agatha stood in front of him, wavering from side to side as if drugged.

“Arxad,” Taushin said, “you must put a stop to this, or else I will tell them your role in this process.”

Arxad’s ears flattened. “I will not stop it. If the slaves hear about my participation, they will merely learn the truth. I am guilty of many crimes, and allowing this to happen is perhaps the worst crime of all. Let them judge me as they will.”

Magnar grabbed Agatha’s arm with a clawed hand. As he pulled her close to his open mouth, her eyes bulged, and her head bobbed like a rag doll’s.

A woman screamed, then another. Children cried. A man covered a little girl’s eyes and shouted, “How dare you show this to us? It’s too gruesome!”

Yeager marched toward Elyssa. “I will put a stop to it!” He snatched the rope from her and jerked out the spear. The barbed point ripped a gash in the membrane, and the spear fell with a clank onto the ground.

Koren dropped to her knees, blood pouring from her side. Pain roared through her body. As she swayed back and forth, a gray cloud swept across her vision. It seemed that the ground drifted away, as if propelled by an unseen force.

Arxad’s voice erupted. “Hurry! Throw the spear! We must keep Exodus from flying away!”

“I’ve got it!” Randall called. Seconds later, the spear again plunged through, this time making a hole above the first wound.

A new agony throttled Koren’s body. More blood flowed. Something pulled the spear back through the hole, but the barb caught the membrane, holding it in place.

“Koren,” Elyssa shouted. “Jason’s on his way!”

Arxad’s voice boomed. “Humans! Run for your lives! Hurry to your homes and wash yourselves thoroughly! The star is spreading a disease!”

More screams erupted, blended with the thunder of pounding footsteps. Each sound vibrated the spear, sending new shockwaves through Koren’s body.

Blinking, she tried to look around. White gas spewed outward from the star’s larger wound, and Exodus seemed to be pulling against the lodged spear. Randall and Tibalt stood below, holding the rope and keeping Exodus in place.

Jason climbed the Basilica gate’s bars. Standing on top, he stretched toward Exodus, trying to grab the side opposite the wounds, but his fingers merely slipped across the smooth surface.

Fighting through the pain, Koren twisted to look at the spear. With tension on the rope constantly pulling, the barbed point tore at the membrane, ripping her own skin mercilessly. Fire crawled along the paper label around the explosive tube. It sparked and sizzled as if fueled by something more volatile than paper. She had to push the spear out or else risk getting her insides blown to pieces.

Clenching her teeth, Koren dropped to all fours and crawled toward the wound, but as spasms ripped through her muscles, she crumpled to a fetal position. A whispered prayer was all she could manage. “Oh, Creator … have mercy … Release me from this star.”

Something snapped from around her head. The Starlighter’s glowing crown floated upward, fading as it rose within Exodus. Gasping for breath, she watched the ground through the transparent floor.

Jason shouted from the top of the gate. “Elyssa! Throw me my sword!”

Elyssa scrambled for the sword and tossed it to him. He snatched the hilt out of the air and, with a wild swipe, sliced a gash in Exodus’s wall and dropped the blade. He leaped and grabbed one side of the rip. As he hung there, a new stream of gas spewed over his hands and face. “I’m coming, Koren!” He sputtered and spat, but his determined expression never waned.