Istu awakened

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

'Madness,' declared Rann.

'Not so, cousin. Moriana and I are twins. There is a link between us, though we've spent our lives denying it.' She looked back at her sister, who sat like some green idol in the center of the Nexus. 'And my hatred is great. Give me your power, sister. I shall wield it with a fine rage.'

Moriana did not move. Perhaps she could not; perhaps she was frozen forever in that position with her legs folded under her, her hands resting on her thighs. So complete was her lack of response that Fost feared she had died or utterly lost her identity in the immensity of the World Spirit. Then, 'Yes,' filled the chamber. Rann raised a hand to halt Synalon as she went to the door.

'You'll need an escort, cousin. Someone to make sure you have time to achieve rapport with Moriana.' 'You propose I take an army? Where do we get the time for that?'

'A small escort will have a chance to approach the City unseen.' He hitched up his sword belt. 'With your permission, Highness.' 'I'm coming, too,' blurted Fost. A shadow crossed Synalon's face.

'No!' said Moriana firmly, though her expression didn't change. 'Let me congratulate you on your courage, Fost!' cried Erimenes. 'This is the ultimate adventure of a lifetime.' He whirled to face the genie.

'It's not courage. I'm doing this because I'm afraid, dammit. I've thought I'd carried on with this mad venture for love or loneliness or from sheer curiosity. But there's another reason. I'm afraid to live in a world that gods and devils use as their playground. We're just pawns to them, all of us. I can't take that, do you understand?'

'Go then,' said Moriana with resignation. Still she remained immobile, apparently lifeless.

Rann clasped forearms with Fost and left the chamber at a run. Fost paused, then picked up Ziore's jug and carried it into the Nexus, jumping across the burning lines and avoiding the nodes. His head swam to tidal surges of power, but he made it, depositing the jug at Moriana's side. He stooped and kissed her forehead; it was icy. Then he turned and ran for the door, slowing only to scoop up Erimenes's jar. 'Farewell, my love!' sang Erimenes. 'I'm off to the wars!'

'Dear Erimenes,' sighed Ziore, wavering at Moriana's side. She waved, sparks flying from her fingertips as they crossed a node. 'Goodbye,' said Moriana.

Fost felt emotion choke him. The word echoed in his brain with grim finality.

'Their counterattack has failed,' said Zak'zar. Istu's laugh rumbled from the Well.

'They've realized that without a mind the scope of Felarod's they cannot wield their power with any precision. They were doing themselves more damage than I inflicted.' 'Surely, they haven't given up.'

'Your faith in the Pale Ones is touching, Speaker. But it matters not. They've shown they cannot harm me. While I…'He chuckled like a poisoned spring. 'Watch, and you shall see.'

From the surface of the orange-red sun a wisp of starstuff was pared like skin from a fruit. An invisible force bent it into a flaming hoop, a strand, and drew it across space toward a green world waiting eighty million miles away…

The roar of eagles' wings filled the corridor Guardian had opened to the east. Four war birds flew in a line, their wingtips brushing the frigid walls. Fost hunched close to the neck of his mount and tried to decide whether he preferred the claustrophobic feeling the shining walls rushing by gave him or the dread of falling from the bird.

'Thank you for bringing me along, Fost,' said Erimenes at his side. 'I always knew you were a considerate soul.'

'Don't thank me yet, Erimenes. You yourself said Istu could destroy you.'

'And so he can. But he can destroy me as easily if I'm cowering in the belly of this garrulous glacier. I'd rather be where the battle rages and the blood flows.'

'I'm glad you enjoy the prospect,' said Fost grimly. He shifted the buckler strapped to his left arm so its bronze-bound rim wouldn't gouge his hip. 'As for me, I'm ready to swallow the bravado speech I made back in the Palace, syllable by syllable.'

'Nonsense, Fost. You, too, feel the thrill of approaching battle. And this isn't just any fight, you know. Your feats this day will live in ballads forever, as long as there are men to sing them.' 'There may not be, after today.'

They broke into the light. Fost squinted and let his eagle have its head. It was huge, almost as large as the midnight-black Nightwind Synalon rode, brown with white head and a white bib on its chest, and it knew what to do far better than Fost.

Rann's eagle, as gray as a cloudy sky, moved into the lead. The fourth bird was pure white. Its rider raised a gloved hand in salute to Fost as they took station on opposite sides of Nightwind. Fost waved back. Cerestan was a fool for coming along, but Fost was in no position to be critical.

Rann banked. Fost felt his bird tilt to follow the leftward turn, surging upward toward the City hanging above them, black against muttering storm clouds. He tried not to panic, tried not to think about losing his seat and tumbling end over end to the hard rocks below. He was strapped into the saddle and had both hands clinging to the harness. He looked up, up…

The sun reached down and drove its fist into the middle of the glacier.

As the solar prominence Istu had torn from the face of the sun bathed the glacier in flame, great clouds of steam billowed upward with a serpent's hiss magnified a millionfold. A groaning scream rang through Athalau, shaking loose great spires of ice, toppling ancient buildings. Men, women and children fled through the streets, covering their ears as they ran.

Zak'zar reeled back from the rimwall, shielding his eyes against the hellish brilliance. The Sky City began to rock with the force of the superheated steam boiling from below.

When the Speaker's eyes worked again, he beheld Istu standing braced on the rimwall, laughing and laughing as he raised his arms to bring down more sunfire.

Hot water washed down the nave of the Palace of Esoteric Wisdom and cascaded over the steps. The Ethereals did not stir as the tide came surging around them. They were one with the World Spirit and beyond feeling; some had turned dark, no longer touched with the green glow. These would never again feel physical agony.

'Princess.' The word was ground from a giant mill of agony. 'Princess, I… I melt! I cannot shield you much longer.' The words came scarcely less quickly than a human would have spoken, so great was Guardian's pain. 'Moriana, do something!' cried Ziore.

'I can stop the waters from flooding the city,' Moriana said, and this was done, the near-scalding tide receding until only an inch of cooling water swirled on the floor. 'But I cannot stop the burning.'

'If Synalon doesn't reach the City soon, we all shall die with Guardian.'

'Great merciful heavens,' cried Erimenes. 'What's going on?'

'They don't seem merciful to me. And I don't know,' snapped Fost, more intent on remaining on top of his eagle than on examining their plight.

There had come a blinding streak of light. It had been obscured at once by an explosion of steam. Only because the bird riders had flown to the eastern edge of Guardian were they saved from being scalded to death. Fost managed to blink back the green line of afterimage that split his sight, and he occasionally saw flashes of the fire streaming down from above through rents in the cloud as though a curtain were being drawn aside to give him a view of Hell.

He glimpsed motion to his right and looked that way. The gray eagle flapped alongside. Rann held up a gauntleted fist, then drove it upward and forward. The gray climbed away. 'What's that mean?' Erimenes asked. 'It means we go on.'

The steam-laden winds buffeted them like the fetid breath of Hell. The clouds proved a blessing; they were shielded from observation from above. But Fost wondered if they veered into that fall of sunfire.

Guardian struggled to retain life. 'Princess, the pain. I… I am almost pierced through.'

'I'm sorry. I can do nothing until my sister reaches the Sky City.' Moriana had the awful thought, if she does. If the sunflame didn't take her. Her and Fost. The thoughts were strong enough to stand out against the inchoate backgound of the World Spirit.

'I must die soon. I cannot be helped. But… save Athalau. I have done… done my best… to… guard… her.'

'I shall, good and faithful Guardian.' The words, 'If I can,' went unspoken.

Rann shot an arrow through the face that appeared, peering over a rimwall that loomed ghostly in the fog. Fost's eagle burst from the mist wing to wing with Nightwind. The giant black bird slashed a Hisser's head from his shoulders with a vicious stroke of his beak and shrieked triumph as he settled his claws once more on the gray-green stone of his home.

Rann's bird dropped toward a group of Vridzish racing to the wall. Rann shot another, cast aside his bow and leaped from the saddle as his bird came down like fury among the foe. Then Fost's own bird thumped to a landing. Fost forgot about the prince as he struggled to free himself from the safety strap before the half-dozen charging Zr'gsz reached him.

He had a powerful ally in the bird. Screaming in rage, it struck out with beak and talon, disembowelling and dismembering. But the wild movements threw Fost around in the saddle so furiously he couldn't free himself.

Then the bird stood alone amid black-bloodied corpses. Fost tore free the strap and jumped to the ground. His sword sang from its sheath. He felt power and control merge harmoniously within and knew he would fight well this day.

'Sister, I am ready!' he heard Synalon cry at his back. Cerestan engaged a knot of Hissers off to the left. More came at Fost, and he sprang to meet them with a roar of hatred.

His first blow tore apart one's face. His second took a clawed arm off at the shoulder. His third sent greasy ropes of intestines spilling about a Hisser's knees.

A whistling scream sounded and he saw his war bird reel back, blood fountaining from the stump of its neck. A huge Zr'gsz noble had taken the head off with a single stroke of an obsidian-edged sword. Fost ducked under the cut meant to remove his head; his sword slashed at the dark, bulging neck. He ripped his sword free and turned to face the lizard men streaming toward him with weapons in their claws.

There's no way out for me now,' he cried. 'So come ahead and we'll do this right! The Vridzish advanced.

The agonized screams of the glacier cut off as though severed by a knife. 'He's dead,' Ziore said, and began sobbing.

Though she felt the glacier's passing, Moriana never heard the nun. Her whole being strained to hold together under the terrific pressure of rapport with the World Spirit. It was like being twisted and pulled and compressed all at the same time, a million vectors tearing at her soul. She probed for her sister's mind and prayed she could hang on until contact was made.

As Erimenes predicted, Fost earned himself a place in the ballads that day. The spirit cheered hysterically from the jug while the tall man slew and slew like a figure out of legend. He used every trick of swordplay he knew, both fair and foul, and threw in alley fighting from boyhood days in Medurim. He hacked and stabbed and slashed, then smashed faces with his buckler. When an axe-blow split the shield, he hurled it in someone's face, picked up an abandoned shortsword and fought on tirelessly.

But Fost saw through the haze of blood and sweat in his eyes that Rann was the true hero. Fost fought with preternatural strength and fury, but Rann… Rann fought as no man ever had, nor would again. With scimitar in his left hand and his knife in the right, Rann walked among the Hissers like death incarnate. He disdained to parry, but no blade touched him. His weapons were in constant, blurring motion, the dagger picking at eyes and throats and exposed bellies; the scimitar slashed left and right and curved around the guard of an unsuspecting enemy to bring bloody death.

The tide of Hissers slackened. Fost staggered back against the wall. To his surprise he saw Cerestan still fought on. Synalon stood with arms upraised, straining to make contact with Moriana. Fost wondered how much longer any of them would be alive.

A figure strode down the narrow street, a green cloak flapping from its shoulders, a sword in hand. It stopped before the prince.

'You are Prince Rann,' said the newcomer. His skin was almost black, and he towered above the diminutive prince.

'And you are Zak'zar.' The scimitar whipped forward. With blinding speed, the sword snapped to guard. But the prince's stroke was never meant to connect. Instead, black blood from the scimitar's last victim spattered Zak'zar's eyes. He blinked and fell back a step. Rann lunged.

Zak'zar's reflexes were still those of Zr'gsz. His blade flashed. Rann's dagger whipped up – not fast enough. Fost saw the green blade cave in the right side of Rann's face, saw the tawny eye spilt in blood. Synalon screamed.

'Get away from her, Fost!' Erimenes shout sent him running to the right, heedless of whether he was attacked or not. He stepped on a javelin dropped by a skewered Hisser, went down, rolled and came up staring toward the wall. Synalon!

He couldn't look at her directly. Energy pulsed from her, fierce and white hot. The bird rider's garb she had worn burned away in an instant leaving her naked and splendid and terrible. Forces ebbed and flowed around her like the aurora, ghosts of color barely hinting at the potent energy fields of which they were the only visible part.

He got to his feet, looked back in time to see Rann spinning and ducking under the sweep of Zak'zar's sword. Rann whirled in a complete circle, getting inside the Zr'gsz's guard. His scimitar struck under the armpit, bit through the metal and Fost thought he heard the grating crunch when it hit the spine. Zak'zar dropped his sword with a clang. His hands spasmodically opened and closed twice, he vomited green-black blood, and died.

Rann stood over his foe's body for several heartbeats, then collapsed across the inert form.

More Hissers appeared. Several ran at Synalon. She gestured, and they turned to pillars of ash, slumping and beginning to flow, becoming incandescent piles of heated sand.

'You must flee,' Synalon said in a voice as vast as the sky. 'No one will pursue.'

She started walking forward. Cerestan lurched after, limping on one leg, determined not to leave the side of his queen. She sensed him, half-turned. 'No.'

It was too late. He entered the deadly embrace of the energies surrounding her and, with a last startled cry, turned to ash himself.

'Go, Fost!' Erimenes shouted. 'Great Ultimate, you've done it! You're free! There's two eagles left. Take one and go!' Fost turned and ran – straight for Rann.

'What are you doing, fool?' shrieked the genie. 'Leave him. You fool, save your own skin!' Fost stooped and grabbed Rann's wrist. He checked for pulse.

'He's dead, Fost. By the Five Holy Ones, flee now!'

He felt the faint flutter of a pulse and rose, swinging the prince across his shoulders. He marvelled at how light he was, then noticed the sunfire had died out and the steam was beginning to dissipate.

'He wouldn't have done the same for you. You fool, you incredible fool!'

Synalon approached. She saw him and smiled. A ripple of sensation passed through him, desire and revulsion and hate and admiration all at once. She was no longer merely human. She came straight on. He dodged to the side of the street, teetering to balance Rann on his back. Synalon swept past. He felt the tingle of the energies. She was growing taller, and at the far end of the street Istu waded through buildings to meet her. Fost turned to the rimwall and ran like hell.

It was birth and orgasm and death. Moriana's soul expanded in all directions, contracted to a point, and a blazing line surged between her and Synalon. Energy sluiced through her. For a moment the two points came together, merged. Synalon screamed. But Moriana was already fading, and it did not jolt her to look into her sister and see herself.

They broke apart. Moriana was a spark, and she was dimming. Her task was done. Synalon had been right; her malice was the perfect focus for the vengeful energies of the World Spirit. Now Moriana could relax, quit fighting to maintain identity, be absorbed into the World Spirit and know peace. She plummeted down… And was caught by a gentle, unyielding grip. I have you now, my child, came Ziore's thought. I won't let go.

Moriana began to swim back upward through the layers of the World Spirit's mind, back toward herself.

Istu lashed at Synalon with his talons. She skipped aside and the swipe brought down a spindly tower. She felt the power in her hand. She struck. Istu felt fire in his bowels and screamed. Her laughter eclipsed his cry of anguish.

The eagle dropped in a dizzying spiral groundward. Somehow, Fost hung on. He heard a tumult at his back as if the sky was breaking open. He dared not look back, nor did he know how the war eagle Nightwind fared, with a half-dead Prince Rann strapped to its back.

An immense round pit yawned beneath. He realized that the flare had burned through Guardian and into Athalau; he saw where the tops of lofty spires were melted and vitrified from the awful heat. He shut his eyes, squeezing out tears. 'Goodbye, Guardian,' he said. There seemed little else to say.

'He's dead?' asked Erimenes. Fost only nodded. 'Oh, no, no, no!' The spirit chanted a liturgy of negation, and Fost was amazed at the real pain in his voice.

The ground wheeled wildly below. The white war bird that had been Cerestan's braked with her wings and landed roughly in the scorched plaza near a silent, dry fountain. She staggered and collapsed under Fost's weight. The courier rolled free. The bird raised her head and stucked in great, ragged gulps of air.

Fost struggled to his feet and started toward the Palace of Esoteric Wisdom at a lurching run. His thoughts were of Moriana. 'Wait,' said Erimenes. 'Look. Above.'

The Sky City careened across a sky gone mad. Black clouds whirled crazily and the storm beat at the City with fists of wind and rain and lightning. Rocks exploded from the Ramparts to smash among the buildings of the floating City. The earth shifted violently beneath Fost's feet and flung him to the ground.

The tremor went on and on. Fost spread his arms and clung to the pavement. Erimenes shouted something that was swallowed in the din of crashing buildings. The shaking subsided. Fost looked up again.

Some trick of the forces allowed Fost to see only Istu and Synalon facing each other on the parapet. They battled with forces he neither saw nor comprehended.

Though she must have grown several times her natural size, Synalon was still dwarfed by Istu's midnight bulk. She flickered like a flame, dodging the Demon's increasing clumsy charges. The

World Spirit's energies flowed through her to tear at the minion of the Dark Ones.

Suddenly, she darted in, closing with the Demon. He threw back his head and bellowed. To Fost it seemed the slim white arms reached inside the blackness of Istu's body.

A gasp burst from the watchers below. Synalon planted her feet and raised the gigantic form of the Demon of the Dark Ones above her head as if he were a child. For a moment, she held him there. He writhed and kicked with clawed feet, roaring with a shrill and frightened voice. She laughed, the sound vibrating in all their skulls. Then she cast the Demon over the edge.

Over and over Istu tumbled. He changed shape as he fell, became a bird, a block, a blob, a fluttering leaf, crumbling, becoming dust, becoming… Nothing.

Fost felt a tightness in his throat and a stinging in his eyes. Istu had been the very soul of evil, but Istu had been old, had immeasurably endured – and died alone. In this way alone could he claim kinship with the mortals he had oppressed. Like them he died, toy of uncaring gods.

Synalon stood poised on the brink, arms outflung in triumph, infinitely desirable and infinitely frightening. Her hair streamed out like a banner as she rode the Sky City like a raft, wild across the seething sky, faster than ever it had gone before.

And then the City in the Sky struck a mountain peak. It exploded into a million fragments, and Synalon Etuul was joined forever with the City she loved.