Costa’s mindvoice was amused. This should be interesting.
The wastryls keened their defiance as they dove to attack. The M’hir, as if on their side, sent another sudden gust against the rastis. Wings whirled and twisted, caught and tore. Costa and Aryl slid to their knees within the stems and hung on. Her arms ached with the effort but she kept looking.
The wastryls struck.
Thunder and lightning shattered the open sky. A blast of hot air slammed into the rastis from the opposite side, against the M’hir, and Aryl was blinded and falling. Her hands grabbed and held. Her body slammed into whatever it was—a stem that broke—then the ladder—which didn’t.
Everyone was still falling, leaving her behind!
Bern?! She didn’t need eyes to find him. Her mind rang with his terror, his horror as he dropped.
No!
He had to be safe. He had to be . . . the bridge below, the safe, solid bridge. Aryl wanted Bern on the bridge, safe. Bern had to be on the bridge. NOW!
Something inside Aryl pushed.
The crown shifted back; the M’hir reclaimed the sky. She sobbed and clung to the swaying ladder, unable to climb up or down. She could smell burning. Wings and wastryl, caught by fire, being swept clear by the wind.
It was over.
“What have I done?” Aryl whispered. “What have I done?” But she knew.
Bern was on the bridge. Safe, if terrified.
The rest of the harvesters, the cream of the Yena Om’ray, were gone. Aryl had felt them fall through the canopy, the lucky ones impaled on branches, the rest plunging into the black waters of the Lay. She’d felt those who’d survived that impact, their minds afire with pain that was extinguished as they were eaten alive.
Oh, she’d saved Bern.
Aryl pressed her face against the braided rope of the ladder. She closed her eyes. She shut down every other sense, withdrawing deeper and deeper, wanting away until she found herself in a darkness that surged and flowed with the violence of the M’hir itself. A perfect place.
A place where she couldn’t feel Costa die, too.
Interlude
THE SHOP’S BIN SAT EMPTY within the latest pile of metal shards. As usual, the Oud who delivered the leavings during the night had missed the bin—or the point of the bin. Enris Mendolar had yet to hear anyone sure on the question.
That the Oud brought the metal was more important.
Out of habit, Enris picked up a loose, green-tinged shard from the packed earth near his feet and tossed it on the pile. A dozen iglies scattered from their hiding places with bright flashes of alarm, jointed legs working almost as fast as their jaws as they scampered for deeper shadows. Once safe, the tiny creatures made wet smacking sounds, a bravado sure to impress other iglies, if not beings inclined to squash them flat.
Enris dipped his cart forward on its front wheels and shoved it into the tallest part of the pile as hard as he could. Pieces sharp enough to cut flesh spilled over, striking his well-wrapped legs and booted feet, but the cart was full. Load number one of the day.
He tugged the cart free and turned it, heading home again. He took it slow. The path, though smooth, rose in steep twists. Ordinary Oud only came this close to the surface; Om’ray would only go this far from it. His steps were sure and steady, his breaths deeper with effort but unlabored. He was strong for his age, with a last spurt of growth that left him larger than most Chosen in Clan Tuana. His hands were callused and hard, his shoulders already bent from cart and shovel. Though Council agreed with his family’s pride in his skills, Enris privately believed he was most useful here, pushing the cart, collecting the wonderful metal of the Oud.
Maybe one of his younger cousins would grow.
The glowstrip along this section dimmed and then brightened. They’d need to power it up, Enris noted absently. Not that he couldn’t find his way in the dark. Anyone could. Up was toward that warm presence, the rest of his kind. Down was away from it, and dangerous. The Oud didn’t care for company. They begrudged making room over their lands for those on Passage.
The Om’ray didn’t care for the Oud. Made it even.
“Enris!” The call echoed down the tunnel, followed by the rapid thud of boots.
Startled, he sent without thinking. What’s wrong? He quickly silenced his inner voice. Not down here, this close to the Oud. Never this close. “Ral?”
His fifth youngest cousin burst around the turn ahead, catching himself before he stumbled into the cart and its sharp contents. “Enris! There you are. The most amazing thing’s happened!”
Loath to waste momentum, Enris didn’t slow his steps. “What is it this time?” The other Om’ray could enthuse over a rainbow.
Ral dodged and kept pace with him. “Naryn. She’s done it. In front of Council and the Adepts and everyone. Except you,” he added. “I had to come and tell you!”
Bowing his head, Enris leaned into the cart. The next turn led to the final, steepest section.
Ral trotted along. He didn’t offer to help. The last time he’d tried, the cart had toppled sideways and spilled its load the width of the tunnel. His strength lay elsewhere, when he could settle long enough to use it, designing ways to bring water to their crops. “C’mon. You know you’re impressed,” his cousin suggested slyly. “Wasn’t it you who said she’d never dare?”
Enris thought of Naryn S’udlaat and shook his head, dark hair tumbling across one eye. “I said she shouldn’t,” he growled. “I knew the fool would.”
He didn’t have to ask what she’d done. The willful daughter of Adepts believed herself a child of destiny as well, one with great Talent about to show itself any day. Unfortunately, it had, and at him. When he’d refused to let her take her pick from their shop’s display, Naryn had used Power, not her hands, to launch a hammer at his head. Her amazed triumph had been somewhat dampened by his refusal, having dodged the hammer, to relent. When she’d failed to repeat her accomplishment for anyone else—Enris himself bluntly vowing he’d never testify for her without mentioning her attempt to take what wasn’t hers—he’d hoped that was the end of it.
He hadn’t been the only one. They’d tried to hide their relief, back then, the Adepts, the older ones, but Enris had felt it and understood. The Tuana Om’ray lived a fine line between Oud and sky. Troubling those underfoot wasn’t wise; their Clan had paid the price before this. But there’d be no stopping Naryn now.
The vast expanse of tunnel behind him seemed to listen to his thoughts. Enris felt the skin of his neck tighten, tasted change.
The Oud didn’t care for that either.
Chapter 3
BELLS TOLLED ONCE, THEN AGAIN. Aryl heard each deep mournful sound; felt it tremble the bed, crawl up her fingers. She counted ... ten ... eleven ... then lost track. Tears leaked from her closed eyelids. Which had been for Costa? She should know, shouldn’t she?
A breeze lifted the hair stuck to her forehead. She shuddered and drew herself into a ball under the sheet. She couldn’t find Costa. She couldn’t find anyone. That couldn’t be. No one was alone. The world was Om’ray, given shape by their presence.
Where was she, if there was no one else?
Aryl. An identification more than a name, shrouded in grief and worry. She clung to it without understanding. She was alone. How could there be a voice?
The sheet lifted, leaving her cold. She squirmed and whimpered until a gentle hand rested on her forehead and granted her sleep.
Low, passionate voices. They belonged to no one. There was no one else. Aryl lay still, wherever this was, and heard without caring.