The Broken World Book One - Children of Another God (31 page)

She looked up.
"Horran's fallen?"

"Two months
ago. Is that where you're from?"

"No. I passed
through there." She dug up a potato and added it to her pile. The
man watched her with hungry eyes.

"I could sure
do with a good meal."

"Sorry." She
shook her head. "I only have enough for myself."

"I could take
you to a town."

"What for? It's
safer here."

"I suppose
you're right. Don't you get lonely?"

"No." She shot
him a frown. "Be on your way, mister. If you need a fresh mount,
there are plenty wandering around. Take your pick, no one owns them
anymore."

The rider took
the hint, caught a fresh horse and rode away.

Another month
passed in an endless routine of fishing or hunting, digging
vegetables and cooking simple meals. In between, she sat on the
beach and stared out to sea, lost in memories of the gentle man who
had been her companion and friend. She missed him terribly, and
cursed the hateful people who had condemned him to a living death
because he was different.

Two months
after Rashkar's fall, weird creatures emerged from the sea to sun
themselves on the beach. The beasts had rainbow skins, frond-like
fins and fin-tipped tails. They slipped back into the ocean when
she approached, but more and more of them appeared, gathering at
times to sing strange moaning songs. Sometimes, at night, she would
listen to their mournful dirges, and once she crept out in the
moonlight to watch them dance on the glittering moon path in the
sea.

When she ran to
join them, they vanished beneath the waves without a ripple, but
she danced anyway and sang a song of sorrow. Peculiar beasts also
emerged from the forests or flew down from the sky. Some were huge,
bird-like creatures with butterfly wings of many iridescent
colours, long necks and beaks. They settled on the sand and scooped
it up until their crops were full, then flew away. The land
creatures were equally colourful and strange, like no animal she
had ever seen before. They splayed upon the ground and spread wings
of multi-coloured skin to bask in the sun. They did not appear to
eat at all.

Even more
bizarre, were the horse-sized beasts with stilt-like legs, which
selected a spot and drilled their legs into the ground. They stood
for hours, hooting occasionally, before plucking their thin limbs
out and wandering off. They seemed to like the soft soil around the
city, and many came to stand there all day. Like the other alien
beasts, their skins were patterned with many brilliant colours,
making them appear unreal. None would allow Talsy to approach, and
she observed them from a distance, marvelling at their weirdness.
The horses left them alone, and many quit the area, as if afraid of
the peculiar creatures.

Talsy wandered
along the beach, humming a tuneless song, when a man walked out of
the sea. She froze in disbelief, then gave a glad cry and ran
towards him, soon tiring in the soft sand. The creature’s skin
gleamed silver and translucent flaps joined his arms and legs like
the wings of a ray. He turned to face her, but then marched back
into the waves. Talsy shouted and tried to catch up with him,
running into the surf. The waves drove her back, and her puny
struggles made no headway against the sea's might.

The man dived
into the waves with a flash of silver and vanished beneath them.
Talsy stumbled back up the beach and sank down on the sand, tears
of frustration stinging her eyes. The strange man was clearly an
ocean creature, and might be able to find Chanter, if she could
only tell him of the Mujar's plight. She sat on the beach until
dusk, her heart aching with the loneliness of her vigil and the
pain of her loss.

The next day,
the silver man reappeared, but this time she just sat and watched
him roam the beach. He wandered up and down the beach, foraged in
the sand and ate whatever it was he found, but stayed away from
her. Two days later, he appeared again, and she observed him with
growing despair, the hope that he might come close enough to talk
to fading as he stayed out of earshot. The following day he
returned, and she approached him again, this time at a sedate pace,
so as not to alarm him, but he slipped into the sea before she
could get close enough to speak to him.

The next night,
as she sat before the cave staring out at the calm, moon-silvered
sea, a flash of movement in the water caught her attention. A
winged man-shape swam along the shore, making the ocean's sparkling
black surface seem magical and inviting. The man always escaped
into the wild sea, but now the ocean's tranquillity and his
proximity offered a rare opportunity to approach him in his
element. Perhaps then he would not be so afraid of her.

Talsy rose and
marched down the beach, determined to communicate her need to this
creature, who might be able to help Chanter. The ocean welcomed her
into its cold embrace, and the waves pulled her in and sucked her
out to sea. She swam towards the silver man, trying to keep him in
sight while she fought her dread of the black depths below. He
turned towards her, probably alerted by her splashing, but, as she
opened her mouth to call out to him, he dived. She trod water,
waiting for him to surface again.

Several minutes
passed, and her legs grew weary. Turning back to the shore, she
swam towards it, surprised at how far she was from the beach. It
receded despite her swift strokes, and she shivered as she realised
that a powerful undertow washed her away from it. She increased her
efforts, but, no matter how hard she swam, her futile exertion
merely sapped her strength, and despair chilled her.

Gasping with
fear and fatigue, she forced her aching legs to kick, coughing as
water splashed into her mouth. The pale strip of beach dwindled to
a faint line, and the waves grew bigger as she encountered the deep
ocean swells. With the last of her strength, she redoubled her
efforts, knowing that if she was swept any further away, she would
never make it back. She cursed herself for swimming out into the
ocean as if it was no more dangerous than a mill pond. Her limbs
grew numb with cold and tiredness, and waves washed over her
face.

Chill hands
gripped her and pulled her back to the surface, allowing her to
gasp air. Her unknown rescuer towed her towards the beach with the
ease of a fish, unhindered by the strong current that had defeated
her. She tried to grab hold of her saviour, her hands encountering
fragile wings of soft skin that made her recoil with a snort of
shock. The shore approached at an amazing speed, the sea foaming
around her with the swiftness of her travel, and soon her rubbery
legs touched sand. The sea man dragged her onto the beach, his long
webbed fingers gripping her sodden jacket. Talsy sobbed with relief
and gratitude, wiping stinging brine from her eyes as she peered at
him in the moonlight.

A jagged,
knife-thin ridge of bone ran over his skull in a short crest,
ending in a pair of tiny nostrils just above a gash of a mouth, and
deep-set green eyes glowed on either side of it. His ears were flat
areas of skin, designed for hearing underwater, and parallel gill
slits, like a shark's, ran along his jawline. The moonlight gleamed
on his smooth silver skin and shone through the translucent wings
that joined his wrists to his ankles.

The sea man
carried her up the beach and dumped her on the dry sand, then
turned to leave. Talsy made a grab for him and caught hold of a
slippery wing. He paused and tried to pry her fingers free.

"Don't go!" she
cried. "Wait, I need your help!"

He cocked his
head and stared her, nictitating membranes flicking across his
round eyes.

"He's in the
sea, somewhere out there! I need you to find him!"

The man cocked
his head the other way. He clearly did not understand her, but was
merely entranced by her voice.

Talsy
strengthened her grip on his fin. "He's Mujar! Out there! In the
sea!"

He stiffened at
the name, his eyes becoming intent.

Talsy grasped
at the straw of hope. "Mujar! Out there!" She pointed at the sea,
and the silver man's head turned to follow her finger. She tried to
shake him, desperate to get through, but her fingers slipped from
the translucent webbing, and she lunged at him to renew her hold.
He slipped away, pausing out of reach.

"Mujar! Mujar!"
She pointed at the sea, and he studied her. He mimicked her
gesture, and she nodded. "Mujar!"

Talsy crawled
towards the water, but he returned to pull her back and push her
down, adroitly avoiding her clutching hands. His meaning was clear.
He did not want her in the sea, but it could have been because her
corpse would foul the water, not because he was concerned for her
life. She gave up and pointed at the moon-silvered waves,
repeating, "Mujar."

The
silver-skinned sea man turned away, walked down to the sea and
dived in with hardly a ripple. Talsy relaxed, grateful to be alive,
but too tired to walk to the cave and dry herself. Fortunately, the
night was warm and still, and her exertions had banished the cold.
After the ocean's biting chill, the beach seemed comfortable.
Resolving to rest until some strength seeped back into her leaden
limbs, she closed her eyes.

A crab crawling
over her leg woke Talsy in the morning, and she walked to the cave,
where she nibbled cold potato and drank water to wash away the sour
taste of salt.

Chanter's
awareness was little more than a numb sensation. Before, he had
rolled around on a sandy seabed, and the currents had played with
him, washing him this way and that. Now he had become wedged into a
rock shelf. The sea ran past him in gentle currents, and seaweed
brushed his skin. He vaguely remembered the soft thud of hooves on
sand, muted by the water. Now only the currents whispered to him.
The sea's song reached him in warped, muted dirges, mixed with
skirls of sound that prickled his dull mind. Fish brushed against
him, and he was aware that he was being incorporated into the reef,
growing attached to it as it made him a part of it. The gold around
his neck blocked the Powers and reduced the world to a blurred,
senseless muddle.

Time had no
meaning, no way of being measured. He might have been here for a
day, a month or a year, he had no idea. Chanter remembered the pain
of being thrown into the sea so badly injured. The rush of
Shissar's healing, so sudden and strong, had transcended even the
gold's muting to lash him into a screaming frenzy of agony. That,
too, was gone now, however, like his powers, like the world of air,
and Talsy. None of that concerned him anymore. He knew only the
gentle tug of water and the soft sea sounds. At least it was
probably better than a Pit.

Talsy sat at
the cave mouth and stared out across the ocean. Days had passed
since the silver sea man had vanished back into the water. She had
not seen him roaming the beach or playing in the waves since then.
Was he searching for Chanter? Would he find him in the vast expanse
of ocean? The Mujar might have been washed far away by now, up or
down the coast, depending on the current and how far out he was.
Had the sea man understood her? Did he even care?

Tiny fish
jumped in the shallows in waves of silver sparkles. The thought of
cooked fish made her mouth water, but she had nothing with which to
catch them. She threw away the piece of potato she had been
nibbling, and a gull swooped down to snatch it and wing away,
pursued by others. On the rocks below the cave, she used her knife
to pry open shells and scooped out the salty meat. The shells that
covered the rocks at low tide were nutritious, and she gathered
more to take back to the cave and cook for dinner. She hoped the
sea man had understood her, and searched for Chanter.

Chanter became
aware that something tugged at him, making the coral that held him
creak. The sudden, unknown stimulation made him jerk away, breaking
the strange hold. A cold hand grasped his wrist again and pulled,
and the coral cracked, but held. The sea, with its endless washing
and surging, had wedged him far into the rocks, and coral had grown
around him. He opened his eyes, but the gold blurred the images of
soft blue light, dark coral and seaweed. Something flashed silver
nearby, and the tugging on his arm strengthened. He pulled back in
an instinctive, muddled reaction, and flashes of pain came from his
torso. More confused now, he retreated from the strangeness of his
senseless surroundings and relaxed.

The pulling
continued, first on his arms, then his legs. For a while it
stopped, allowing him to sink back into the peacefulness of
unknowing, the gentle washing of the sea and the brushing of weeds
against his skin.

The tugging
returned with renewed vigour and strength, other hands joining the
task. He opened his eyes. Blurred silver shapes surrounded him, and
he reacted to the abuse with savage jerks that banged his head
against the rocks and threw off his attackers. The stimulation
dragged him slightly from the fog that clouded his mind, and he
became aware of his coral prison crumbling. Tiny creatures scuttled
for cover as their homes broke. Pain flared in his back, and the
blueness around him became tinged with brown.

Buoyancy
returned as he drifted partially free of the rocks that had trapped
him in their cold embrace for so long. A leg held him back, and his
attackers concentrated on the limb, twisting and pulling. More pain
shot from his ankle, but the silver flashes persisted. They tugged
and twisted, turning him over to try to free him. Swinging limply
in their grasp, he stared at the blurred world that moved around as
it had not done for a long time. In their efforts to free his leg,
his attackers paid little attention to the rest of him, and his
face hit the seabed. He closed his eyes as his collision kicked up
a cloud of sand. Masses of matted blackness covered his face when
he opened them again, strands of pink and brown mixed with it.