The World Weavers (15 page)

Sulis was moving before she realized it, flowing with precision. It felt right to start with a slant fly position and dance to sparrow's tail. The energy line flared as she did, and she watched it flare more as Master Anchee followed a second behind. Moving from sparrow to warrior pose, she stepped into a third chakra space and she exalted the warrior, pointing her hand at the sky as the energy channeled through her core, through her heart. Each step was placed with precision, yet the energy flowed from her arms, her heart. The energy around her grew more and more intense as she flowed. Several times the energy was not correct to fill the space with the pose they'd decided on, and Sulis struck the correct pose instead. Master Anchee did not hesitate, trusting her intuition and following her so quickly she could feel the crackle of energy between them.

The air became thick inside the mandala. Sulis could feel herself drawing energy from Ashraf to help her body keep moving. Sulis and Anchee danced farther away from each other as they spiraled to the outer edges. The energy was so raw that it was pushing them apart. Now they were skirting the black blood line, which pulsed with energy like a beating heart.

Sulis was gasping as she entered the final pose, kneeling behind the Altar of the One, her forehead on the earth in a bow and prostration.

Sulis opened her eyes and looked up as she heard giggling. Sanuri was seated on the Altar of the One, above Sulis, her face alight with joy. She made intricate motions with her hands as though drawing rope in and knotting it. Grandmother still spiraled around the mandala and her whirlwind siphoned in the masses of energy raised by Sulis and Anchee. She spun it, twisting it like fibers of silk, and gave it to Sanuri, who somehow knotted the fibers of energy together into a continuous whole.

Sulis was afraid to move, to disturb that fragile weave, so she knelt as Sanuri completed the knot and tied it to the blood line with a flare of light and heat that was seen and felt.

As Sulis blinked, Alannah stepped into the mandala beside Sulis and placed her hands on the orb.

She chanted, low and deep. Sulis did not recognize the language, but the orb glowed brighter, and Sulis could feel the knotted energy being drawn in by the One. It felt like a tug-­of-­war—­the One pulling, the deity resisting.

“Ahmatora!” Alannah cried.

The orb flared, and the One's presence reached out through the woven link. The deity tried to pull away, but the knots were too tight—­it and the One were woven together. When the One's essence touched Parasu, a feeling of relief, of release occurred. A sense of wonder and adoration rose in Sulis as the trapped core of the deity reached for the One, longing for reunion. Sulis reached for that reunion as well, feeling that longing.

Clay gave a great shout, clapping his hands and startling her away from the energy.

“Do not follow the energy to the One,” he shouted at the Chosen. “It will kill you!”

The orb flared again as deity and the One reunited. Then everything went still.

Sulis collapsed on the floor, breathing hard. She was shocked that she'd come so close to following the weaving to the One, to killing herself. She pushed herself up to her knees, and then staggered to her feet, looking around.

Most of the Chosen were sitting, stunned, around the mandala, barely stirring. Palou knelt by Grandmother, tending to her. Only Clay, Amon, and Alannah looked untouched by the ritual. Clay was studying Parasu's statue, a frown on his face.

Amon stared openmouthed at Sanuri, who giggled and put her arms around Alannah's neck as Alannah picked her up and carried her out of the pattern.

Master Anchee levered himself to one knee, looking unsteady and exhausted. He tried to stand and swayed toward Parasu's statue.

“Careful,” Clay warned, jerking forward. “Don't touch . . . No!”

Master Anchee put a hand out to keep himself from falling, reaching toward Parasu's statue. Clay knocked him aside before he could touch the deity, putting his body between the master and the statue. Master Anchee was knocked out of the pattern, but Clay's shoulder hit the statue. He cried out once, an agonized sound. His body fell heavily to the ground.

“Clay!” Ava screamed. She flew over to him, tried to turn his body over. Dani helped her, and she patted at Clay's cheeks. Dani put his head to Clay's chest.

“His heart isn't beating,” he told Lasha as she knelt beside him.

As Sulis staggered over, supported by Ashraf, Lasha's hands glowed, and she pushed them against Clay's body, once, twice, making the body jump.

“Stop,” Amon ordered. Lasha ignored him, pressing down on Clay's chest, and then breathing into his mouth.

“It will do no good,” Amon said, pulling her away. “His being, his essence, is in the statue now.”

They all stared at him and then at Parasu's statue.

“It killed him?” Ava shrilled. “My mandala killed him?”

“He is not fully dead,” Amon said gently. “Though his body is. That is what we are creating, traps.”

“Why didn't you warn us not to touch the statue?” Sulis asked, tears running down her face as Ava slowly approached the statue.

“I thought only Parasu's energy could be sucked in by the trap in Parasu's statue,” Amon said helplessly. “I did not know it could take us instead.”

“Clay realized it,” Master Anchee said, his voice full of sorrow. “He tried to warn me. I was too weak. He saved me.”

Lasha stepped up beside him, “Too proud to take my energy,” she said softly, anger in her voice.

Ava reached a hand out to the statue, and then hesitated.

“Will it suck me in, if I touch it?” she asked.

Amon shook his head. “It is full of energy now. In order to set the trap, we will have to empty it again.”

Ava looked horrified at the idea of emptying Clay out of the statue. She touched it and her eyes unfocused.

“He's here,” she told the group. “He's still alive in here. We have to get him out.”

Sulis looked over at Amon, who shook his head, and then down at Clay's body. She didn't know how they were going to break it to Ava that Clay could not return to a corpse. Nor could he stay in the statue, which needed to contain Parasu. Sulis realized with horror that Ava's next mandala would be chalked to drag Clay out of the statue—­and Sulis's next dance would be to finish Clay's death and send him on.

J
onas gasped and clutched his chest, feeling a sharp pain and then a sense of emptiness. He could not feel Parasu inside himself for the first time since winter.

“Tribune?” The Magistrate put a hand on Jonas's arm, his voice full of concern. “Are you ill?”

He guided Jonas away from prying eyes at the altar, to a chair in the office area. “I will fetch water and a healer,” he said.

“Water, but the healer is unnecessary,” Jonas said. The pain was gone, but the sense of emptiness remained. “I think the pain was Parasu's. I must meditate to open myself and communicate with him.”

The Magistrate fetched water, and Jonas motioned him to leave, to close the door.

“I will check on you in a half sandglass,” the Magistrate said, clearly still worried.

“That would be wise,” Jonas said. “I do not believe this is a physical pain, but I appreciate the intercession if I am incorrect.”

Left alone in his office, Jonas knelt on a bench beside his deity's altar. He poured some of the water into a copper bowl on a stand, and added a few drops of scented oil, then lighted a candle under the bowl. As the water steamed, he relaxed enough to search in his mind for Parasu.

Parasu's presence trickled into Jonas's body, but he could feel that Parasu's attention was focused elsewhere. Time passed as Jonas kept his mind open for his deity, waiting for him to help Jonas understand what was happening. Magistrate came to check on him twice, but he knelt and waited.

Jonas jerked fully awake suddenly, his deity within him. He hadn't realized he'd been nodding off in his vigil.

You have been faithful,
Parasu said approvingly.
You felt trouble, and kept yourself ready for my needs.

His weariness melted away, the pins and needles in his numb feet disappearing as Parasu fed him a wave of energy.

Thank you,
Jonas sent.
You were in pain. How may I serve you?

I don't know,
Parasu said, confused.
It came upon me suddenly. I do not usually feel overwhelming human emotions, but I felt fear. I was struggling against something mighty that would consume me. But the fear passed. Then joy arose, and I was suddenly more alive and complete than I ever had been before.

The longing in Parasu's mindvoice brought tears to Jonas's eyes.

Then it all disappeared,
Parasu said.
My being does not feel different. I do not know what happened.

Did you sense a direction?
Jonas asked.
Was it something being done in the desert, at this temple we will travel to?

Jonas felt a wave of negation.
It was in the ether,
Parasu told him.
That plane of existence that deities and the One occupy, outside of human experience. I felt no physical presence on the earth for this battle.

Should we go to the Herald?
Jonas asked.
See if Aryn felt the same?

Parasu sent a wave of negation and resentment.
No. We must show no weakness to the other deities. I cannot have them take advantage of us if somehow I have become weakened in the ethereal plane.

Who would attack you there? Was it the One?
Jonas asked.

Parasu hesitated for so long Jonas feared he'd left again.

I do not believe so,
Parasu said.
I feel exactly as I always have since the Sundering. I do not believe I am damaged.

Could it have been a premonition?
Jonas asked, wondering if deities had such things.

Parasu considered it.
We do not have visions as you humans do. But sometimes our consciousness escapes the boundaries of time and we are able to gain a view of the future. It has not happened to me since the Sundering, but sharing your body has made me stronger.
Parasu's presence became stronger, more confident.
That is the only explanation that makes sense though. I am truly fortunate to have such a wise servant in these uncertain times.

Parasu's warm regard made Jonas flush with pleasure.

Yes,
Parasu said.
What I was seeing was the future. We will have a difficult, painful battle to regain what we were before the Sundering. But when we are complete once again, when we have regained our lost selves, we will have great joy in our victory.

Jonas smiled with relief.

I felt urgency, though,
Parasu said.
We will march as soon as possible. You will convey this to Voras, without telling him of my vision. Tell him our sources say it must be soon. We will not allow him to delay us with his vendetta against the Northern Forsaken.

Your will is my own,
Jonas told him.
It will be as you asked.

Parasu was satisfied as Jonas levered himself off the kneeling bench. His body was energized from Parasu's touch—­a little too much so, and Jonas thought of cold water and nonarousing things as he wrote a summons for the Templar and the other Voices. Once his body calmed a little, he would explain what was needed to the Magistrate and set forth what his deity wanted from him.

“H
ow can we do it?” Sulis whispered to Alannah. “How can we force Clay out of the statue—­kill him?”

The group of Chosen and Guardians were halfheartedly eating late meal. Sari had greeted them when they left the temple. It had been painful, telling her about her old friend's sacrifice for the Chosen.

Alannah shook her head. “It will not be difficult,” she said softly, and Sulis looked at her. “I put my hand on the statue; I spoke with Clay while everyone was filing out of the temple. He does not fear death. He is happy to rejoin the One. All I will need to do is connect him to the Altar of the One, and he will go of his own free will.”

Tears filled Sulis's eyes. “I don't want him to go on,” she said.

“Which is why he stays,” Alannah said gently. “He needs to convince Ava it is okay for him to leave; otherwise, it could destroy her.”

“But we do not have time,” Amon said. “I know it is cruel of me to say so. I believe Parasu knew when we emptied his statue. The deities will be alert. They will be coming as soon as they can. We must empty the other shells and prepare for their arrival.”

Lasha shook her head. “There's no way the Chosen could repeat that ceremony tomorrow, or the next day. Look at them—­they're exhausted.”

Alannah looked directly at Lasha. “What happened with Anchee?” she asked.

Lasha shook her head, frustrated. “He thinks I'm too young. He has not opened himself fully to me. Even now he resists my energy.”

Palou overheard and looked sharply at her. “I will speak with him,” he said. “You need that connection if he is to survive.”

Sari looked over at their group and cleared her throat to get their attention. “We will need to take Clay's body out of the chasm in the morning for the burning ceremony,” she said. “Will you want to go with it, to send him on?”

They looked around at each other. Then Grandmother shook her head.

“There is nothing to send on in that body, so it would be a waste of energy we are already lacking,” she said. “We will have our own ceremony when we have truly sent him to the One. We will rest tomorrow.”

In the morning, Sulis and Alannah tried to convince Ava to let the guards take Clay's body, while Ashraf and Dani fed Nuisance and talked quietly.

“Ava, we cannot put Clay into a corpse,” Alannah said. “His body is dead. If his spirit were not trapped by the ancient spell, he would be with the One now.”