Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it belongs to Tamora Pierce.
Ethalas Tuath'an: Yes, he does realize it. He mentions it briefly in this one. And it is why they split when they did later on. You are a sharp cookie.
Celuna Cirrus: Sorry, but you have to wait one more chapter. But it's all prepared here and I'll try to find time to work on it and get it up today.
Purple Eyed Cat: I don't think she ever questioned her feeling. I think she questioned marriage, which is a different thing. In their day, marriage means babies and women submitting their personalities to their husbands. Alanna is an exception. But even Thayet allowed Jon to arrange marriages for her children despite the fact that she didn't believe it was right. She also had a baby right away. Daine's parents were never married. There is nothing that says they ever did marry in the divine realm either. But they are no less committed. I will cover this before the end. I think Daine's only real dilemma was marriage and the fact that it sometimes makes people unhappy. The text says that she never considered marriage and she wonders if he will someday look at her and see a baby where he wants a woman. It never says she actually wonders if she feels what she feels. That's the POV I wrote from, anyway.
Sarramaks: Thanks so much. Do you know I kept trying to figure out where that went and finally put a new one in from the edit screen on That's what I get for finishing that chapter when I was so tired I could barely keep my head up.
Chapter 21 – Over the Edge
When they woke, they packed in determined silence. In Numair's head he as repeating the pawns over and over, like a war chant: Ozorne, Hadensra, Valmar, Denaiu, the unknown Spidren, the unknown female Stormwing, the unknown Hurrok, and the unknown winged ape. The immortals will be leaders of some sort.
"What are you thinking so hard?" Daine asked with a soft smile.
"Probably the same thing you are – the enemies revealed to us by Gainel. When we get back, we need to share the information right away. It is regrettable we didn't have this information before Goldstreak left. We could have sent word with the badger."
"We'll get back soon," she said. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "I was wondering, why was Kit among our pawns do you think?"
"Perhaps she is more capable than we give her credit for or perhaps her presence will bring about a person or immortal who will kill one of the eight. Gainel is a very wise God, but due to free will, he is not all-knowing. Even Shakith does not know everything that will come to pass."
The duckmole waddled over. "That is very true," Broad Foot said. "We cannot always see how one thing will affect another."
"So will I go after Ozorne?" Daine asked.
"That is ultimately up to you I suppose," Numair said. "I had actually hoped for the honor of destroying him myself," he added a bit icily. "But my path seems clear to me. One of those eight is too magical for any other."
"Hadensra?"
He nodded. "But we can discuss it in depth later. Let's get moving."
They picked up their pace that day at Daine's urging and by mid-day, had made a great deal more progress then expected. While they were eating their lunch and taking a break, more surprises revealed themselves. The ground shook violently and two thunderous sounds followed. The first sounded like an iron door being slammed. The other was the sound of a drawbridge being slowly lowered.
Daine and Numair covered their ears to no effect. When the booming echoes faded, Broad Foot said, "Oh, my goodness. So it's come to that."
"Come to what?" Daine asked. She, like Numair was rubbing her aching ears.
"Follow me," Broad Foot waddled to the nearby stream and breathed on its surface. Numair and Daine looked out and saw an image – or rather, three images.
The first, directly in front of where Numair was standing, showed the walls and ramparts of Port Legann from high overhead. A colossal spotted hyena gnawed on a tower, then on a siege engine outside the walls. Under her, around her, even through her, humans surged in battle. Raising a muzzle that dripped blood, she gave the stuttering, eerie cry that made her kind so feared. Sounds of battle grew faintly beneath her. Numair knew the reference from stories. This was Slaughter.
In the water before the duckmole was a picture of wheat fields. Cattle and sheep grazed nearby, herded by children and dogs. Superimposed above it all was the ghostly form of a yellow, mangy cur dog. He was skin and bones and appeared dreadfully unhealthy. He took bites from everything and each bit left behind shriveled fruit, wilting wheat, and sickly livestock. Again, Numair recognized the reference – Starvation.
In front of Daine stood the third image. It showed Corus, the Tortallan capital, with its crowds, rich marketplaces, and temples. A giant, spectral rat crept ominously through the streets. He licked a man who was making a speech in front of the stocks: The man coughed violently. A woman brought him water, but he was so stricken he could barely drink. Two men helped him to sit, but it was clear that he was suddenly very ill. The ghosts of tiny rats flowed from his mouth, landing on those who had gathered around him – Malady.
"Slaughter has been out since May," Broad Foot said. "Malady, though, and Starvation – what you heard were the gates to their dwellings being opened."
"The Three Sorrows," Numair whispered, making the Sign against evil on his chest. Daine followed suit. Numair saw Leaf rub its tiny head against her cheek.
"They are the siblings of the gods," the duckmole said. "Their appearance causes great changes, many for the good –"
"I doubt the ones they kill think so," murmured Daine. She stared to Broad Foot, giving him a look of earnest. Numair knew what she must be thinking because he was thinking it too – they needed some divine intervention.
"You know," he said casually, "the more disorder that is created in the mortal realms, the more power that Uusoae will have to use, or so it appears to me.
Daine looked at him conspiratorially. "I bet that Chaos will feed on this. How can she not, when all three Sorrows are wandering loose?"
The duckmole sighed. "So that's it. You want me to halt the Sorrows." He scratched himself. "I can't stop them all," he warned them. "They are strong. They ought to be, with humans feeding them for centuries. I can only hold one, and I'll have to remain in the mortal realms to keep it from breaking loose. The Great Gods themselves could do no better. Some powers cannot be ruled, even by the mightiest.
Numair and Daine exchanged worried looks, carrying on a silent conversation like they so often did. How does one choose between Slaughter, Malady and Starvation?
"Who are we to say which roams free?" whispered Daine desperately. "If we ask to hold Slaughter, Malady and Starvation will kill hordes of folk – but if we hold Starvation, which kills slow, the other two will wipe out large numbers.."
Numair began to try to put it in logical order in his head. How do we fight each? "Armed humans can defend themselves," he thought aloud. "Hopefully Starvation can be held at bay through food imports. But Malady…" he shuddered involuntarily. It could wipe out EVERYONE I care about, even the children. For Daine's benefit, he voiced, "Malady doesn't care who it takes, or how many. Malady can wipe out armies and leave no one in the Yamani Islands or Carthak to farm the land."
"And it's just out," added Broad Foot. "It's weak still."
Daine shivered and tried not to think of friends killed in battle or dying slowly of hunger. "Malady," she whispered. "If it can be only one, let it be that."
Broad Foot rocked from side to side, muttering. At last he stopped. "Stay on the path," he ordered. "It is a fixed thing, even on the Sea of Sand. It will lead you to the Dragonlands. Getting in, of course, is your affair."
"Of course," murmured Numair, grateful that the duckmole seemed willing to try to hold at least one of the sorrows.
Daine knelt before the duckmole. "I'll owe you for this, Broad Foot."
"So will I," Numair added.
"It is only fair. If you can force Uusoae to reveal herself, and save the divine and mortal realms, we ought to do some things for you. Be careful, then." He disappeared in a flash of silver fire.
"What will we do if the dragons refuse?" Daine asked Numair.
He smiled to her. "Fret about them later." He began to gather their things while she quickly finished her lunch. "I'm worried about crossing the Sea of Sand, if Rikash doesn't help us."
Daine stowed her pack and quiver on her back. "What's wrong with the Sea of Sand?"
"I keep forgetting that we haven't both made a study of myths and legends," he remarked, thinking that he should set up some lessons for her of that kind. He shrugged into his own pack. "The Sea of Sand is more than a desert. It's said the Great Gods take mortal heroes there – though Alanna the Champion never mentioned such an experience. If the hero survives, it is a sign that his – or her – mortal impurities have been seared away." Of course, maybe Alanna likes her mortal impurities, he thought, amused.
Daine winced. "Please, Goddess," she said looking up. "Send Rikash with help." She led the way to the path and they spent the next hours talking of philosophies regarding looking up to pray while one is in the divine realms, although Numair did most of the talking.
The day grew warmer and when the sun beat down unbearably, the two found a shady spot to nap until sunset. The rest of their journey would have to be traveled in the cooler hours.
When Numair awoke, Daine was not there. He sat up and called to her.
"Here," she said from the stream. She returned to his side and began to stuff things into her pack. "The Copper Isles is sending ten ships – they're flying battle flags – north. I think they're making for Legann."
The sun had set and they packed quickly to set out. Jelly changed its seat from Daine's Pocket to Numair's shoulder. He was quite entertained by the small creature and soon grew used to its company.
They walked fairly steadily into the night. The path became steep and wound through a group of stone formations that looked like cracked and broken pillars tightly jammed together. Wind and grit had cut the soft rock into laddered, fantastic shapes. Numair felt as if there were eyes in the rocks and wondered if they too might be gods. "Did your family or the badger ever say anything to you about stone gods?" he asked, turning to look behind him. Daine was not there. He back tracked a little frantically. He found her half hypnotized by a pillar's gaze. He drew her from the stone. "I feel it too," he told her quietly. "I don't know if this place is dangerous, but I will be happy to get out of here all the same."
The next two miles of the path followed a narrow slot between deep rock cliffs. Numair focused light through his crystal to guide their path. But it gave off frightening shadows and both Daine and Numair agreed it also gave off a sense of foreboding. Numair kept looking behind him to make sure that he and Daine didn't get separated again. As the shadows grew thicker, Daine became increasingly pale. At last she said, "Can you – put the staff out? I – I think it makes things worse."
He nodded and pulled his gift from the staff. Daine automatically took the lead, no doubt using animal eyes to search the landscape. Once his eyes adjusted, Numair saw well in the dark. His night sight had always been good, and it helped that they had the rippling battle flares and the light of a full moon.
A fresh breeze hit their faces, air from an open place being funneled into a narrow one. They looked up at the rock formations above them to see one that looked like a huge question mark. It was nearly perfect. "Well that's fitting," Numair remarked, earning a large grin from Daine. She slipped her small hand into his large one.
For a few minutes they walked hand in hand, feeling like the mood had lightened considerably. But soon the path became too narrow for anything less than single file travel. On their right was a cliff and to their left a wall of stone heights. They were now on the side of a mountain. Sage clung to the pale soil of the ledge; junipers thrust twisted limbs into the sky from rock clefts above their heads. Across the path, in a swath too wide for them to jump, a Chaos vent had overflowed, it's shifting colors pooled a yard from the cliff's edge. To get around and back onto the path, they would have to walk that narrow strip of bare earth between rim and air, then pass a massive clump of odd gray stones.
"Now that's curious." Numair frowned. "The indigenous stone is lava rock of the brown variety. These are different. They could be granite." He walked closer, studying them and halting a few yards from the chaos bile spill.
"Indi—what?" Daine asked behind him. He turned to see that she had strung her bow and knocked an arrow.
"Indigenous," he answered in nearly a whisper. "Local."
"Why you couldn't just say local…?"
He chuckled as he tested the gray rocks with his gift. "I'm sorry. I'd meant to do better than my university friends, and not upset people by talking in that abstrusive fashion. Then my father complained. He asked how did he know that I even went to those expensive teachers when I spoke just as I always had?" He didn't say that it was almost as if his father had challenged him to stay and study harder and not take the offered breaks at home.
Daine smiled at him beautifully. "You never told me that. I s'pose once you get used to doing it at home, you forget the rest of the time.
He pulled his magic back. "Those rocks seem all right."
He saw Daine cast her own copper fire at the stones. A look of horror and twisted pain crossed her face and he saw her bring her hands to her mouth and force it closed. Tears ran down her cheeks. He rushed back to her, but she seemed to be coming out of it. He pulled her to him with his free hand and enfolding her tightly. "What happened?" he said as he fumbled for a handkerchief around the staff held in the crook of his elbow. "You're white, you're—"
"They're touched with Chaos, those stones," she replied, wiping her eyes. "If I try to use my wild magic to look at something like that, it – it pulls me in."
"You shouldn't generalize from one experience –" he said automatically without thinking.
"But it wasn't just one. This made me remember the last time!" She finished wiping her face. "I looked into a chaos vent and felt the same thing and only a bite from a skink stopped me from falling in. Then, at Temptation Lake, it nearly happened again except Broad Foot woke me up. But the worst was with the skinners. When I reached for them with my magic it felt exactly the same, like it wanted to rip me to pieces. I think it would have if I hadn't suddenly shifted forms and fallen."
"Then how did you break free this time?" he asked.
"Leaf, you bit me, didn't you?" she asked, raising a hand to her right ear. When she showed Numair her fingers, there were tiny spots of blood there.
"Sorry," the small creature squeaked and hung it head.
"Don't apologize," Daine told it. "Do that whenever you think it's needful. You just saved me from maybe walking off a cliff." Numair saw the darking rub its head on her shoulder.
"For now, we shall delay the question of when it got teeth," he remarked. "Let's get away from here. Can you walk by those rocks, Daine?"
"Chaos mostly gets me thorugh my magic. I just won't use it," she answered. "And it's not like they're alive, after all." She seemed to stare over the drop anxiously and he thought about suggesting she shift and fly over, but he said nothing. "You go – I'll come after."
He nodded to her and resettled his pack. He walked boldly forward, clearing the vent's spill and turned back to watch Daine. He felt strange somehow, another foreboding sense. He saw the chaos bile reach a tentacle for her, but she skirted it safely and he breathed a sigh of relief. He never saw the rocks reach to grab him, but he felt them and they caught him completely unaware. He cried out, startled, as the stone wrapped itself completely around him and squeezed.
He had to fight. He felt jelly scamper into his shirt, out of harms way. Then Numair spun a shield around himself and pushed power into it, making it larger and larger, until the living stones around him began to shake violently. He could almost swear they cried out, and he kept pushing the power into the shield until the stones retreated, clearly crying in pain.
He stood on a tall ledge that he had not even been close to and Daine was no where in sight. The rock creatures must have carried him off. He scrambled down, trying to get himself back to path and nearly falling to his death twice in the process. "Daine!" he called, hoping she hadn't followed. "Daine!" He finally found the path and followed it back to the chaos vent. "Daine!" He was feeling desperate now. He could see one of her arrows near where he had been taken. "Daine!" And then he saw the ledge – it had collapsed.
"Goddess, no! Please! Daine!" He scrambled as far down the side as he dared without falling himself. More arrows were scattered in the path of freshly revealed soil, where the land had collapsed under the force of gravity. She had probably been on the ledge when it slid off into the depths below. There was no denying she had fallen and he could not see the bottom. "Da-a-aine!"
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Officially it has to continue in the next chapter. Sorry.