Green Wild (Thrones of the Firstborn Book 2) (11 page)

Nothing happened. Then an arm swiped at Cathay, pushing his sword away, and the creature yowled. The sword swerved as Cathay leaned back away from the stone, twisting with an almost inhuman grace “Some talons there. You’ll want to reach it before it reaches you, Kiar.” He made a shoving motion with his free hand, and the yowl turned into a squeal as something skittered off the top of the rock.

It was a warped lion, with the nose and eyes and arms of man. Those human hands were tipped with translucent ivory claws that Kiar saw all too well as it staggered towards her, unable to walk like a man or a cat. Slater said something and the guards circled behind it, their own swords unsheathed but still. It stumbled to a halt, its head turning slowly. It growled at the armed men behind it and then turned back to Kiar, who held no weapon at all. Its sleek golden hind legs crouched and its tail twitched, which was cat enough to be creepy.

Kiar shifted her weight, bracing herself. She muttered to the Logos, staring at the sky fiend. Fingers of air stroked the monster’s fur in response. She searched for what she thought of as the soft spot, the place where the eidolons would be born when it was ready to birth them.

It flattened its ears further and slitted those human eyes. Then, like a striking snake, it leapt.

Even braced, Kiar was caught off-guard. She ducked instinctively, putting her arms over her head. But even as she ducked, she searched: looking, looking. There it was, on the sky fiend’s belly. It was soaring over her, right there. She straightened up so fast that she almost lost her balance. Windmilling her other arm, she stretched out and her fingers just barely brushed the soft spot. But just barely was all she needed.

Her fingers sank into the cool space beyond the fiend and she opened herself to the world on the other side. When she opened her eyes, she stood on a plateau in the eidolon world. She could feel the invisible substance of the fiend around her left hand and knew that once again, she was somehow in two places at once.

She turned. Above her loomed an enormous silhouette of Tiana, streaming with blue light. She drifted closer to it, wondering why it was here. She’d seen it on her previous peeks, but never so close. The plateau was otherwise barren, as if the light had scoured away all the strange vegetation and mobile life forms she’d encountered on previous visits. The intense light reminded her of the skies of Ceria. It was beautiful.

Within the light, though, a vision awaited her. She stared onto a vertiginous tableau: the world, Ceria, northern fields, the scene at the rock. She could see herself, frozen in the act of catching the sky fiend, the substance of the creature wrapped around her hand like a glove. There were the guards and—

No wonder Ohedreton’s minions had no trouble finding them; no wonder the sky fiend had appeared so close. All they had to do was stroll over here and peer into the light.

Kiar scowled and tried to touch the edge of the silhouette, but it was as intangible as the sky. She had no idea how to make it go away. But maybe she could do the next best thing.

She stepped back again and stared up at what passed for a dismal sky here: pale-splotched emptiness. Then she spread both her hands wide and exhaled, shaping an eidolon of her own. A shield wrapped itself around the silhouette, shimmering as she adjusted its appearance until it was exactly the same as a patch of the local sky. She touched it gently and it complained to her of the blue light beating on its interior walls. But it would cope. She didn’t know how long it would last against Ohedreton himself; she’d seen how he’d absorbed the eidolons of others. But if that happened, she would know. Meanwhile, maybe they could get to wherever they were going. Tiana should be happy about that.

She turned her attention to the sky fiend, concentrating on the place where they’d interfaced, pulling together an idea of what caused that tunnel between her world and the eidolon world. She studied the inner shape of the sky fiend and realized it was illuminated by a flickering aura of eidolon-stuff. She touched the edge gently with an emanation, trying to understand how it was bound to the inner shape.

Nothing. She could sense nothing. The integration was as smooth and untouchable as the one between the silhouette and the local sky.

This was ridiculous. Was she totally useless? She prodded at the integration point again, this time using the emanation as a scalpel. It slid and scraped across the edge and she concentrated, trying to see someplace where she could pry the edges apart.

Distantly, she became aware of screaming. Her hand spasmed and she couldn’t breathe. Something was wrong.

She pushed herself away from the sky fiend, releasing it and coming back to herself in the real world. Agony ambushed her as the sky fiend bucked in a seizure, its claws raking her face and shoulder. Without conscious thought a shield bubble formed around her, shoving the fiend away. She collapsed to the ground in a huddle, bewildered. Chaos exploded behind her. The sky fiend yowled and men shouted. Slater appeared in front of her, peering at her closely, and was then replaced by Tiana.

Tiana said, “Should we kill it? Jinriki says he doesn’t know how to save it.” It was a demand for instructions, guidance, one Kiar couldn’t answer. She had no idea what had happened and she couldn’t pull her scattered thoughts together enough to make a decision about what to do now. After a moment Tiana shook her head and went around the side of the bubble.

More chaos behind her. Kiar explored her injuries with her fingers. The scratches weren’t deep: the side effects of the spasming sky fiend rather than a concerted attack. Already the agony had faded to a dull red throbbing. Once Lisette cleaned it, she probably wouldn’t even have scars.

She huddled amid shredded cabbages and tried to find the thread of her thoughts. The fiend’s reaction was something she’d have to think about. She had too many things to think about. The eidolon world confused her painfully. Once again, looming out of the mist of her mind, came the thought:
what are Ohedreton’s eidolons?
Was there a shard of his will in each of them? The natives she’d encountered on her first visit had seemed so real—alien, but independent. But how could an eidolon be self-willed? Was she misunderstanding what they were? Her thoughts whirled around, fevered and unanswerable and she hunched tighter around herself.

She pressed her hand against the injuries on her face until they burned. Even if shallow, the scratches on her shoulder and collarbone hurt more than she wanted. With a rush of homesickness, she missed her father. He had always done his best to protect her, in his own way. He’d sometimes been the one who cleaned her cuts as a child, and every time he did so he’d distract her from the pain with a puzzle. He didn’t expect her to run around saving fiends and making decisions. All he expected her to be was clever.

Tiana appeared in front of her bubble again. “It’s safe now. You can take down the bubble. Are you all right?” In her hand, Jinriki pulsed angrily. She hesitated and added, “The fiend is gone. Jinriki is really unhappy. I’m sorry we asked you to do that.”

Kiar lowered her eyes and forced the shield to dissipate. “I’ll be fine. I—” she shook her head and pushed herself to her feet, her muscles aching.

Tiana said, “What happened?”

“I wasn’t thinking clearly. I was stupid.” She could feel smeared blood drying on her face. “But before that, I found something important.” She explained about the Tiana-shaped window between the worlds, and the shield she’d put over it.

Tiana slid Jinriki into his sheath and said somberly, “That’s worth it, at least. It sounds like you did more than you didn’t, anyhow. Let’s have Lisette look at those injuries.”

All the same, Kiar couldn’t stop thinking about what she might have tried instead, and dreading the ‘next time’ she knew would come.

D
AWN HAD LONG
come and gone when Tiana woke, knowing Jinriki was gone. The absence ached. She stared at the sky, listening to the silent camp. Nothing moved, although the sky was bright blue. There was no smell of burned porridge, which was a blessing, but also horribly wrong.

Despite the lateness of the hour, she was the only one awake. That was wrong too, very wrong. But her thoughts were so sluggish that the wrongness was only a fleeting itch compared to her awareness of Jinriki’s absence. Though she was sure—as sure as up came down—that he was gone, she felt at her side for the sword. She found only her blanket.

She couldn’t remember what had happened, and surely she should remember? The guards woke her every morning, and there were always two keeping watch.

Jinriki had warned her they’d fail her eventually.

Spiderwebs entangled her thoughts, fragments of nightmare that refused to fade when she opened her eyes.

Brightness glimmered in the camp, crooning a lullaby. First one, then the second of the watching guards drifted off to sleep. She raged at them to wake up but they were far beyond the reach of dreams. When the camp slept, the glimmering became moonlight along slender limbs. A foxy visage looked down at her. “Sleepy mortal traitor. Great Prince, I have come! No longer must you suffer in such vile slavery. I dreamt you, Great Prince. The Betrayer hunts you! He does not wish any to recall Innis but oh, we cannot forget. We cannot.”

It reached down and picked her up. She fought back. The creature hissed and then purred, “Great Prince, you test me. But I am worthy.” She recognized it as an earth fiend, and struggled to wake herself instead. Earth fiends, immortal in their own way, were beyond her gifts with the mortal mind.

But that felt like hours ago. “Jinriki,” Tiana muttered, and then shouted. “Jinriki!” and bolted to her feet. What would happen without him? Why had he let the earth fiend take him? How would she protect the others?

She took deep breath. They’d go slower. She’d lived her whole life without the additional power Jinriki brought her. But—what had happened? She paced in a circle and the camp slowly woke up. The soldiers muttered to each other. Kiar sat upright, rubbing her eyes.

Tiana crouched by Lisette and shook her awake. “Enchantment. By an earth fiend, I think. A thief.” She closed her eyes and snatched at fragments of the dream. “It made us sleep.” She still
felt
Jinriki, as if he were just out of reach.

**She moves quickly. I am farther than that.**
Jinriki said. Tiana startled and he added,
**Silly princess. I told you mere distance could not free you from me.**

Tiana swallowed and said aloud, “An earth fiend enchanted us into deep sleep and stole Jinriki. She’s running now, fast and far.”

Slater said, “Are we going to pursue it?”

Tiana stared at him blankly. “Of course.” Slater looked away.

Kiar said, “Is it a trap?” What she meant was,
It’s a trap
. Tiana frowned and glanced at Lisette.

The Regent was tidying her hair into place, but absently she said, “Ohedreton hasn’t been shy about simply attacking us. I can’t imagine why he’d go to the trouble of luring us into a trap if he could enchant an unbreakable sleep and have an agent walk among us.”

Kiar shrugged. “He’s still talking to you? Where is he?”

Confidently, Tiana pointed. “That way. He said she’s moving fast, though.”

**Sometimes on two legs, sometimes on four. The injuries she’s sustained do seem to be causing her trouble.**
A fractured image passed before her eyes, of a creature loping on all fours, Jinriki’s sheathed blade carried in her mouth. She moved at the speed of a cantering horse.

“Can you still use his magic?” Kiar asked.

Tiana shook her head. “We can talk but his magic works through mine, when we’re very close.”

Cathay looked up from his hands and stepped lightly to Tiana’s side. “Excuse me, I’d just like to check something.” He kissed her cheek, near the edge of her mouth. Tiana blinked at him and touched the spot he kissed. She wondered if he’d missed, and if he was going to try again. Instead he ducked his head and stepped back, saying only, “How very interesting.”

Tiana’s attention flicked away again, pulled by her worry about Jinriki, and she said, “Kiar, the shield you created stops the enemy from detecting my location from the other world, right?”

Kiar looked alarmed. “I hope so but there hasn’t been enough time to verify that. Please don’t think whatever you’re thinking.”

“But I am. If the rest of the group continues traveling, I could catch up to the earth fiend and be back again before the enemy has a chance to notice.” To Lisette, she added, “I’m not running off to fight any battles on my own. This is what’s going to happen, so there’s no point in arguing.”

“Two will travel as fast as one,” Cathay said. “And be better able to handle any surprises.”

Tiana frowned at him. “You need to stay with the group.” She sounded like her sister, and she flinched away from that recognition.

Cathay shrugged. “That’s too bad. Because I’m not letting you go alone. And the longer we fight about it, the further away your sword gets.”

Slater said, “I’d like to come along, please.”

Tiana clenched her fists. “Why is nobody doing what I say?”

Jinriki said,
**Let him come along.**

**Why?**

After a pause, Jinriki said,
**He’s expendable. **

Tiana scowled.
**We’re going to have to talk more about that sort of thing.**
Then she glared at Kiar and Lisette. When neither of them seemed to have any comment, she blew out her breath. “Fine. I don’t have time to argue with either of you. But keep up. Somebody saddle my horse while I get something to eat.” To Jinriki, she said,
**Can you talk to the fiend?**

**You mean, as I speak with you? I suppose I could try that, but what would I say? This is not a rational creature.**

**You spoke to the sky fiends and they’re not rational either.**

**But once they were. I know them. Earth fiends have always been balanced on the edge of madness.**

Tiana thought.
**Tell her to stop and tend to her wounds. She called you a prince? Honor her with your attention.**

**What a novel idea.**

Ten minutes later, Tiana led the other two riders east after Jinriki. She would have liked a hard run, but the terrain was uncultivated, rocky meadowland, with old stream beds lurking beneath the grass. She scanned the horizon, wondering why the fiend had gone in this direction. Did it have a lair? Or had it fled randomly? It would have been convenient if it had run north.

**She is ridiculously pleased with my address, and assures me that soon we’ll be at a safe place where she can tend her battle scars.**

**That worked? Is she being cunning?**

**I don’t believe so. She seems astonishingly amenable. A pity I can’t interface with her as I would you.**

A cold thread uncoiled in Tiana’s stomach.
**We’re moving now. Can you describe the terrain you passed through?**

**My perceptions are skewed without you or another human around. I don’t think my descriptions would be meaningful.**

Tiana swore aloud. Days of pursuing the light of the Firstborn had taught her just how troublesome a simple heading could be.

Cathay, riding close at hand, said, “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t have any idea what’s between us and Jinriki, and he can’t tell me. I hate this.”

Cathay smiled. “I’ll send out an eidolon to scout ahead.” He closed his eyes. A lynx leapt out of him and vanished into the tall grass ahead.

Tiana sagged. “I should have thought of that.”

“You don’t think in terms of eidolons. And you’re distracted. We’re getting used to it. Although—I’m surprised. Has this overcome the pull northwest?”

Tiana bristled. “If you’re going to criticize me again because I’m working with Jinriki, you can just stop, right now.”

Cathay shook his head, still smiling faintly. “No, no. As much as I hate the thought, you made a conscious choice during Antecession. You’re still making your own decisions. You’re still you. So I respect that.”

“You didn’t last time we talked about it!”

“What, the day after Antecession? I was tired. I hadn’t come to terms with it.” He held her gaze. “But you did make a choice. And I’m not going to be able to look in the mirror if I scold you for not letting somebody else make your choices for you. Just... stay you, stormy weather.”

Now Tiana was irritated with herself. She bit her lip and said, “I’m sorry he dislikes you so.”

“It’s not
your
fault. Though I admit, I’m enjoying his absence right now. Normally when I ride so close to you, it’s not nearly as pleasant.” His smile widened and he raised his eyebrows as if confiding a secret.

Tiana didn’t know what to say to that, so she kept quiet, and Cathay didn’t pursue the conversation. She wondered how far his attraction to her pushed him. If Slater hadn’t insisted on coming along, would he have said more? Or was he truly content simply being with her?

Jinriki said,
**It’s uncanny how she seems to know me. I wish I could remember the events she speaks of. So much was lost...**
If Tiana had to guess, she would have said he sounded sad, which did not improve Tiana’s mood. Jinriki was never sad. He got angry instead.

**I thought you said she was ‘not a rational creature’? Maybe she’s making things up,**
she sent.

**There’s something familiar about it, though. Stories of the dawn of time. Fascinating...**

Tiana said aloud, “I’d like to move a little faster now.”

It was a long, unpleasant four hours they spent following Jinriki’s trail. Tiana retreated inside her head, since the phantasmagory was beyond her reach, curling up in the cold distant place where she kept the thoughts she didn’t want Jinriki to find. She watched through a narrow tunnel as Cathay picked a path, and her body moved like a thing apart, guiding her own horse. Minutes slid by, and the occasional conversation between Slater and Cathay joined the background chorus of crunching hooves and bird cries. The meadowland gave way to a little forest, and then turned back into meadowland again.

Eventually, Cathay said, “There are some ruins ahead. And a single voice within them.”

Tiana stirred and examined the pull. “We’re close.”

At the same time, Jinriki said,
**That’s us.**
and Tiana nodded to Cathay, who checked his sword.

Jinriki added,
**I’ve been thinking. How are you going to reclaim me from her?**

**No jumping to my hand again?**
asked Tiana wistfully.

**That would be a waste of energy. Still. And there are no monks here to repair the damage I’d do to the Logos. I haven’t Twist’s gift, you understand.**

Tiana set her jaw.
**Any way we can, then. If she can’t use you, it seems like it should be straightforward enough. Earth fiends are a pest, anyhow.**
It was true. They weren’t destructive like sky fiends but it wasn’t just fiendish swords they stole. They played tricks and stole livestock and flocked to the banner of any fiendish Blighter.

Jinriki’s thoughts came slowly, as if they were difficult for him.
**I wish to find a... non-violent... way of resolving this.**

Tiana yanked her horse to a halt. “What?”

**I have been friendly to her. I do not want to betray her. I wish no harm to come to her.**
His voice became firmer.

Numbly, Tiana relayed this to her companions.

Cathay said, “I don’t believe it.” He hesitated. “And yet... Well, I never would have expected compassion from
him
.”

Slater suggested, “Perhaps he wants something from it. It’s a fiend as well.”

“That must be it,” Cathay agreed.

Jinriki said,
**You humans are good at this kind of thing. Making peace.**

Tiana shifted position uncomfortably. She felt trapped and confused. After her father had told her of his conversation with an earth fiend, she’d daydreamed of talking to one herself someday. But now all she wanted was to reclaim her sword and continue her journey, as quickly as possible. She didn’t even want to see the earth fiend, if it could be avoided. And now Jinriki asked her to negotiate with it?

Doubtfully, Cathay said, “Sometimes you can talk to earth fiends, I’ve heard. That is, you can get them to stop whatever annoying tricks they’re engaged in and move along. But you have to figure out what they want.”

Slater said, “This one seems to have what it wants already.”

Cathay said, “Maybe. What will it do when we ride into the ruins? Even if we’re willing to talk to it, it has to be willing to talk to us as well.”

**Her first instinct is to hide. I may be able to convince her otherwise.**

Tiana couldn’t bring herself to be a relay again, so she just shrugged helplessly at Cathay’s curious look.

“Well, let’s go find out,” he said, and clicked to his horse. Her own horse shuffled after.

**
Do you
want
to hurt her?
** Jinriki’s voice was suddenly like velvet in her mind, close and warm.

**She’s a thief! I’m angry!**

**We are learning from each other, I see, you and I.**

And Tiana wanted to say,
No, that’s not it, this isn’t your lust for battle, this is something else, she stole you, she’s still stealing you! I have to stop it!
But she couldn’t. She couldn’t escape the memory of killing those boys in the city, and her grief and her inability to run away. Surely an earth fiend was closer to a human than the dark eidolons of Ohedreton’s creation. It at least belonged in this world. If it didn’t want to fight and she destroyed it anyhow—how much had she really changed?

This thought kept her occupied as they approached the ruins. Once, perhaps it had been a great manor house, but now all that was left was the foundation and some crumbling stone walls. The stones were blotched grey and black, as lichen grew over rock damaged by fire. There was nobody to be seen, but the broken walls provided plenty of hiding places. Cathay drew his horse to a halt and glanced at her.