He swore as Ampelas Rooted somehow managed to return fire, two serpents of lightning writhing out behind it.
They must have struck, though he could not see past the Che’Malle keep, but the thunder of impacts trembled the earth-and then he saw one of the Nah’ruk keeps rising behind Ampelas Rooted, climbing on streamers of smoke.
His eyes widened to see the huge thing gaining speed as it shot still higher. With smoke swarming down its flanks, damaged beyond hope of control, the keep seemed to lunge as it shot into the sky-and kept going.
The remaining two ignited in another sorcerous strike.
Light engulfed Ampelas Uprooted-
The K’ell Hunters plunged into the buckling flanks of the Nah’ruk Furies that were locked jaw to jaw with the Ve’Gath. Their massive blades hacked bloody paths into the press. The Nah’ruk could not match their speed, their reach, and they seemed to melt before the attack.
In his mind, Gesler was shouting the same words over and over, a mantra of desperation. Close close close in-close-they won’t fire if-
Two sky keeps, hovering directly above the battle, sent down writhing spears. Nah’ruk, Ve’Gath and K’ell bodies lifted into the air, blackened, iron shattering.
You pieces of shit!
It was lost. All of it. He realized that in this instant.
The keeps would sterilize the plain below them, if that was what it took-
Off to the west, two more sky keeps were swinging round to approach the battle.
Gesler glared at them.
And then both exploded.
My flesh is stone. My blood rages hot as molten iron. I have a thousand eyes. A thousand swords. And one mind.
I have heard the death-cry. Was she kin? She said as much, when first she touched me. We were upon the ground. Far from each other, and yet of a kind.
I heard her die.
And so I came to mourn her, I came to find her body, her silent tomb.
But she dies still. I do not understand. She dies still-and there are strangers. Cruel strangers. I knew them once. I know them now. I know, too, that they will not yield.
Who am I?
What am I?
But I know the answers to these questions. I believe, at last, that I do.
Strangers, you bring pain. You bring suffering. You bring to so many dreams the dust of death.
But, strangers, I am Icarium.
And I bring far worse.
Kalyth’s eyes flickered open, on a scene jostled and chaotic with smoke. She was in Gunth Mach’s clutches, gripped as would be a child. The One Daughter was flanked on the right by Sag’Churok and by Bre’nigan on the left, the three of them running at a steady trot across the valley floor.
The battle raged just beyond the J’an Sentinel. The K’ell Hunters had cut through to the foremost ranks of the Ve’Gath, but now the enemy had begun an encirclement.
Lightning lashed down from the keeps directly above the field, tearing ragged paths of destruction through the press.
Huge drums were pounding the air to her right and she twisted round to look in that direction. Two Nah’ruk keeps were breaking apart, the fires in their cores burning so hot she saw stone melting like wax, falling away from iron bones. The one to the north was descending earthward as if sinking through water. Multiple explosions racked them both.
Rising from behind them, shouldering through thick pillars of black smoke, another Uprooted.
What? Who? Sag’Churok-
‘Kalse Uprooted, Destriant. But there is no Matron within it. The one who commands… it has been a long time since he last walked among the K’Chain Che’Malle and Nah’ruk.’
Sorcery swarmed round Kalse, green, blue and white-a kind she had never before seen-and then suddenly pulsed out in a seething wave. The magic cut through the two dying keeps and Kalyth gasped to see ice explode out from fissures in the ravaged black stone. As the wave burst through the struck keeps, the one to the south simply split in half, the lower section dropping like a mountain, the upper end lifting and spinning inside swirling streams of smoke, rubble and shards of ice. The other one’s upper third disintegrated in a white cloud moments before it struck the ground.
The concussions of the two impacts shook the earth. The hills to the west were crushed flat. The remnants of the keeps blew apart in vast clouds of dust and rock.
At this same moment the wave passed directly over Kalyth and the three K’Chain Che’Malle, carrying with it air so cold it stunned her lungs. Gasping, agony convulsing her chest, she did not see the wave strike the three sky keeps above the battlefield. The explosions deafened her-darkness rushed in, even as Gunth Mach staggered.
The arrival of a second Che’Malle keep filled the sky with a storm of violence. Above them, Gesler could see nothing but churning clouds and deathly flashes-even the bulks of the keeps had vanished. It seemed as if the sky itself burned, raining white-hot stones that snapped as they shot down through bitterly cold air. Impossibly, snow swirled down amidst ashes and rubble.
Nah’ruk keeps crowded the warren’s gate, as if seeking to break through to bring succour to those dying before the stranger’s onslaught, but wave after wave slammed into them, and the unknown Uprooted was bulling ever closer, as if to drive down the very throat of the warren. Lightning lashed into it, tore huge gashes in its flanks. Death poured down from the sky.
Gesler’s mount towered amidst the K’ell Hunters crowded in on all sides-he knew the K’ell were providing a cordon around them-though nothing could defend any of them against the deadly deluge from above. He could see the rear Nah’ruk Furies committing to the battle-they had been and were still being decimated by falling wreckage. Even so, sheer numbers alone were beginning to tell. Stormy’s Ve’Gath had ceased their advance, but Gesler could see his friend, the battle lust upon him, his face red as his hair, his eyes blazing with madness.
‘Stormy! Stormy! Androjan Redarr, you brainless bastard!’
The head swung round. The man smiled.
Gods below, Stormy. ‘We’re encircled!’
‘And we’re cutting ’em to pieces!’
‘We need to break out-the sky’s killing us!’
‘Withdraw your K’ell! Regroup and set up a charge!’
‘Which side?’
‘Whatever’s behind Kalse!’
Kalse. I ain’t been paying attention. ‘And you?’
‘Back-to-back wedges-we’re driving out to the fucking sides! You watch ’em pour into the gap and then you charge ’em! We about face and close the vice!’
Stormy, you Hood-damned genius. ‘Agreed!’
The pain was overwhelming. He bled from wounds sheathing his body. Blow after blow hammered into him. Blind, deafened, he struck back, not even knowing if his sorcery found the enemy. He felt himself tearing loose, moments from being ripped from his flesh of cracked stone, his bones of tortured iron.
I shall become a ghost again. Lost. Where are my children? You have abandoned me-there are too many of them, they close like wolves-my children-help me-
‘You must close the gate.’
Breath?
‘Yes. Feather Witch. The Errant drowned me. I took his eye, he took my life. Never bargain with gods. His eye-I give it to you, Lifestealer. The gate-do you see it? You are drawing nearer-Lifestealer, do not stop-’
Another voice spoke. ‘They killed a dragon for this power, Icarium.’
Taxilian?
‘Its blood burned this hole-if you fail, the sky shall fill with the enemy machines-and the Nah’ruk will triumph this day. See the K’Chain Che’Malle, Icarium? They can win this-if you stop the Gath’ran Citadels, if you stop them from entering this realm. Seal the gate!’
He could see it now. He held in his hand the eye of an Elder God. Slick, soft, smeared with blood.
The wound between the realms was vast-even Kalse Uprooted could not-
‘You must build a wall-’
‘A prison!’
Feather Witch hissed, ‘Root and Blueiron, Lifestealer! Ice Haunt is not enough! You must awaken the warrens within you! Root to the rock and earth. Blueiron to hold life in your machines. Command the breach!’
‘I cannot hold. I am dying.’
‘There are children in the world, Icarium.’
‘Asane? You do not understand. You are not enough-’
‘There are children in the world. The warrens you have made from your own blood-’
Feather Witch snarled. ‘Our blood!’
‘And ours, yes. The warrens, Icarium-did you imagine they belonged to you and none other? It is too late for that. This day is the day of fire, Icarium. The children wait. The children hear.’
In his mind, even as it crumbled on all sides, he could hear a new voice, a sweet voice, one he had never heard before.
‘I dream we are three
Rutt who is not Rutt and Held
Who cannot be held-
The girl knows silence
Is a game
The boy knows the kiss
Of the Eres’al
The mother of wheeling stars
Who seeds all time
Through me they hear your need
I am the voice of the unborn
In crystal I see fire and I see smoke
I see lizards and Fathers
In crystal I see the boy and the girl.
Heal the wound, God,
Your children are close-’
Rautos whispered-the last words Icarium would remember. ‘Icarium, in the name of a blessed wife… have faith.’
Faith. He took hold of that word.
His hand closed about the eye and he heard the shriek of an Elder God, as he transformed the eye into what he needed. For Root.
A seed.
A Finnest.