The Way Into Darkness: Book Three of The Great Way (33 page)

The Great Way allowed The Blessing to invade Kal-Maddum.

No. No, it couldn’t be true. Cazia shut her eyes. The Blessing had killed and cursed helpless children and…and The Great Way had simply
allowed
it? And the Tilkilit, Mother and her people, spiders, dragons…giant eels and sea giants, perhaps? There was so much blood and pain and terror; was The Great Way indifferent to it all, or were those murdered children part of some great plan?
 

“All magic comes from these portals,” Tejohn said.
 

“True.”
 

“So…” Tejohn rubbed his hands together. “So. So. The Blessing? It’s just a scholar’s spell?”

Cazia looked at him out of the corner of her eye.
Is he blaming us?
 

“Actually, no.” Dhe looked down at the bowl in his lap as though it held him in place. Cazia felt a rush of annoyance with him; if he didn’t want it any more, why didn’t he set it on the bench beside him? “It’s a sort of magic that my people have never learned. At least, I don’t think we know it. I’m not part of the high councils.”
 

“If it’s not a spell, what is it?”

“It’s something that I didn’t think was possible. It’s a fragment of The Great Way. It’s a piece of its power and conscience, but twisted and corrupted. It’s a foul thing, and I’m sorry that your companions have not been completely cleansed. If you allow them to keep the…” He paused as though he almost said a word he shouldn’t. “…stones, have them covered with metal. Formerly living tissue like cloth or cut wood might transmit the effect, but stone or metal won’t.”

“Why didn’t it affect me when I touched Ivy’s leather bracer?” Dhe quirked his head in confusion. “You saw me do it just now. Ivy took the bracer out of the clamshell, put it on her wrist. I helped her tie it but it didn’t affect me. I can’t figure out why.”

Dhe stared at her a moment. “They’re poison to my kind. One touch would kill me. I was taught how to protect myself, but I never thought I would need it.”

“Of course,” Cazia said. It was probably best to let it go. “Er, if you can sense portals, can you sense The Blessing, too? Are there any near?”
 

The Evening Person closed his eyes. “I have never tried. I don’t know, but I will attempt to teach myself.”
 

Cazia wasn’t sure what to say. “Thank you.”
 

“Dhe,” Tejohn said with a note of finality, “what spells do you know?”

“They aren’t spells to us,” he answered, “but the only magic I can do is to make growing things grow faster without ruining the soil. I’m…not renowned.”
 

“We don’t need renown. We need stout wooden staves to cure your people and mine of The Blessing.”
 

“I can do that. I can help with the crops, too.”
 

Tejohn nodded. “Is there anything you need from us to make that happen?”
 

Dhe raised the bowl. “An increase in my rations? I would also like to never again be in the presence of those stones you are making.”
 

Tejohn stood. “I’m sure that can be arranged. I’ll ask Esselba to have extra meals delivered to you. Cazia, we should go.”
 

She followed him out of the cave, her head buzzing with everything they’d learned. At the top of the stairs, Tejohn paused. “What do you think?”
 

The Great Way allowed this invasion to happen.
“I believe him,” she said immediately. “I think we need to rescue more of his people. There’s a lot we could learn.”
 

“I believe him, too, but we are past the time for more rescues and interrogations. No more holding back, marshaling our strength, or planning. It’s time for a counterattack. We need to get these weapons out into the world before we’re the only ones left to wield them. Ghoron can create a flying cart, can’t he?”
 

“Er, I think he can put a flying spell onto a cart someone else has made.”
 

“Yes,” Tejohn said, “that’s what I meant, not that he could hammer one together. Well, we need more.”
 

“We only have two people who can fly them.”
 

“What about Kinz?”
 

Cazia shook her head. “It will take time.”
 

Tejohn turned to the cliff wall and laid his hand on the rock as though he wanted to take out his frustration on it. Then he turned toward the valley. Cazia stood beside him. The terraced rice paddies and mini-orchards of the unnamed village lay below them, then there was the broad expanse of Lake Windmark. To the east, it narrowed to a finger, but at this end of the Sweeps, it took up almost all of the valley below. Beyond that, the stones of the Southern Barrier rose nearly straight up, while to the east, the land rose gently out of the water, yellow green with marsh grass.
 

All of it scoured by the Sweeps wind. The grasses bent. The water rippled. How many of the seeds growing out there had blown through the little hole in the sky?
 

She peered up into the sky in the hopes of seeing it for herself, but it was too far, assuming it existed at all. Fire and Fury, why pretend to have doubts? She did believe it existed. She was sure.
 

“We’ll need several more days to prepare,” Tejohn said. “You need to make as many kinzchu stones as you can without going hollow. The village folk will have to hammer together a second cart for Ghoron to enchant. The princess will need it when we send her east with weapons for her people.”
 

“Oh, good.” Cazia’s relief was so palpable, she nearly sat down right there on the stone stairs. “Oh, I’m so glad to hear you say that. Will I be going with her?” The question surprised her; she hadn’t realized that she’d already ceded leadership to him, but she had. Until he made a terrible mistake, of course. Looking at him now, she didn’t expect to do that anytime soon.
It’s time for a counterattack.
 

“No,” he answered. “The Indregai will be receiving many gifts from us: the princess, the weapons, and Dhe. If all goes according to plan, Kal-Maddum will soon be crowded with Evening People, so it’s just a goodwill gesture. You will be flying the other cart. I need you to drop me off at Salt Pass so I can convert Doctor Twofin to our side and mobilize their spears. If they still have them.”

“Drop you off?” Cazia said uncertainly. “On the way to where?”

“To see your father.”

Chapter 20

Tejohn had expected more of a reaction to his plan, but aside from a brief expression of surprise, Cazia seemed to think it was a good idea. The only thing she said was “You know that I’m only fifteen, right?”
 

“I’m not likely to forget.”
 

Even before Tejohn had arrived at Tempest Pass, he explained, Tyr Simblin had lost all contact with the rest of the empire. Possibly they had been overrun by sea giants, a fate they had forestalled with bow and catapult for years. Perhaps he had been assassinated. Perhaps anything. All Tejohn could be sure of was that Simblin lands had become a blank space on the map.

That left a single tyr in the westernmost part of Kal-Maddum, Tyr Cwainzik Freewell, her father. Of everyone in this village, Cazia was the only person he was unlikely to execute on sight.

Assuming his holdfast was still secure. Assuming the same about Twofin’s. If both those places were overrun, there might be no one left but the Durdric, and he knew all too well how the Holy Sons felt about Peradaini soldiers.
 

Cazia looked up at him. “Do you think there are any human beings left in the world besides us?”
 

Laoni.
“If not, there will be soon.”

Preparations went quickly under Winstul’s direction. Tejohn began training some of the local folk to use the kinzchu spears. Another cart was constructed; it was smaller than the first, but it also had less groan and wobble in it. Tejohn wished it could be his, but no. Indrega was far; Dhe and the princess needed a sturdy vehicle.
 

The cart was large enough to hold three hundred slender spears in a rack on the bottom and twenty more on each side. It was not a lot of weapons to secure an entire peninsula, but it was what they had.
 

On the morning they were to leave, Dhe climbed into the cart before any weapons were loaded. He stood at the back of the cart stiffly, his eyes wide. Tejohn thought he looked like a rat in a kennel.
 

The princess made a point of directing the kinzchu spears and maces be loaded with the stones as far from the driver’s position as possible. She was clearly putting on a little show for Dhe, for all the comfort it brought him.
 

When Kinz announced that she intended to return to Indregai with them, there was a chorus of dismayed voices from the men loading the weapons and provisions. Over the last several days, a half dozen had taken to following her from job to job, making excuses to be near her, even grabbing hold of her arm to prevent her walking away.

Tejohn had warned Esselba that he was going to crack someone’s head over it, and she took him seriously. Still, Kinz had enjoyed little peace among the village folk and seemed doggedly determined to move on, scholar training or no.
 

Before they left, Tejohn pulled Kinz and Vilavivianna aside. “I wanted to wish you good luck on your journey,” he said, “and remind you that my wife and children are among the refugees in Beargrunt.”
 

The princess laid her hand on his. “We will do whatever we can to protect them.”
 

Fire and Fury, who had taught this child to behave this way? Tejohn had never met anyone of any age who bore a rank and title so well. “Tell them I am alive. Tell them I’m still fighting, and I have every intention of seeing them again. Soon.”

The two girls nodded. “We will make to clear the east,” Kinz said, “while you clear the west.”

Cazia Freewell joined them. “And you’ll have help,” she said, offering two little yellow crystals to Kinz. “Mother’s people should be more than ready to throw in on this fight by now.”
 

Translation stones. For once, Tejohn didn’t feel a reflexive alarm at the thought of magic going beyond the borders of the empire.
There is no more empire.
Fire and Fury, he was capable of changing after all.
 

“Safe travel,” he said, then withdrew so the friends could make their goodbyes in earnest. From a distance, he saw many tears and heartfelt embraces.

Dhe stared at him, his golden skin looking pale in the bright daylight. “Be at ease,” Tejohn said. “That girl and her people will guard you like a treasure.”

The Evening Person did not respond. Tejohn withdrew even farther. When the cart lifted off and started eastward down the length of the Sweeps, he offered a prayer for their safety.
 

A prayer to The Great Way. He was no longer sure it made any sense at all to pray, but he did it and he felt stronger afterwards. More resolute.
 

Grateful am I to be permitted to travel The Way.
Yes, he felt better afterward. The truth was, he was still grateful for his life. Yes, there had been tragedy, pain, and toil. Yes, there would be more of all three in the future, but he was fighting to help his people--all people. The only better life than that would have been a quiet one with his family.
 

“Are you ready?” Cazia asked him. He nodded.
 

Their own loads of kinzchu spears took longer to tie in place, partly because the mounts on the side of the cart had been built for barrels of oil. Esselba’s people did the best they could, tying twice the number of weapons to their large, shaky cart than they did to Dhe’s. Tejohn made sure they lashed some inside as well. They had also removed the wheels, replacing them with tall skids. He needed a ladder to climb into it, but it stood much higher off the ground and held more weapons.
 

Winstul and Esselba met them at the entrance to the terrace. “Ghoron remains busy in the yard below. Work will continue in your absence,” Winstul assured them.
 

Tejohn clasped his hand. “I’m glad to hear it.”

“Thank you, my tyr.” He looked around at their faces and said, “May I say, my tyr, how surprised and delighted I am that you are really you? And that I have met you for real at last?”

“What do you mean?”

“I have met many men of a certain age who laid claim to that name. Most were not even real soldiers, but all took your name in the hopes of getting a free meal and dry bed. Only now, upon meeting the real you, do I realize…well, I’m not sure. No doubt it will be several days before my realization becomes clear. Still, it has been a great honor. Well. Yes. I’ll bet back to it.” He scuttled off to one of the lower terraces.
 

“I wish we could have kept your gold-skinned friend,” Esselba said without preamble. “Two entire harvests we had while he was here. Wood and rice and—”

“You’ll have to go back to the old, boring way of doing things,” Tejohn told her.