Book 4

Siha: Rise of Rakhana

Part II

Casnar places Braith into the back of the skyrunner, Jenner clutching her, she with her arms around their son.

He backs out, sights Ylyssus running down the idle lane from the grasses with a small form in his arms, "…In the back, get in, get in—get in!"

He shuts the door and opens the front.

Braith looks up at Ylyssus, his eyes vexed with worry. Jaspin peers over at her with his little wet patak, "…My neck…"

Casnar kicks the bottom of the dash and steering column open, curses and takes off his slippers then continues to accost it until it pops off onto the floor. He ducks below the U-handles and pulls out the exposed circuitry and wires, his exquisite memory and engineering thriving in the conditions, and his ability to see well enough in the dark allowing him to pull wires, strip plastic with his teeth, tie connections together and bypass certain governor circuits…

"…What are you doing, Casnar?" Ylyssus asks anxiously, looking over the seat, out the window, smelling the mix of their scents with the former occupants, and the vessel's interior…Rain…

"Hacking this skyrunner," Casnar shoves the circuitboards back into their slots, "…All set…Let's see her fly."

"Love you, Casnar," Braith whispers.

"Love you, too." Casnar looks for a pen or something he can pierce the side of the column with, and picking up one such discarded on the floor, he jams it into the starter, cracks off the cover for the fob's insert, pulls out the motherswitch and snaps off the positive-negative shield.

He converts the ignition into a manual wireset, and the skyrunner hums.

Shouts from the cottus can be heard…but Braith feels the vessel rising and tilting left, sliding their bodies right in the back benchseating…They hold tight to the children.

"…Why didn't you pick our skyrunner, Casnar," Braith winces, neck shooting pain-stabs into her head, "…This…is a government—"

"It's armored sides, bulletproof windows, et cetera, Braith dear…It'll be bugged like our own until I have more time to find it and break it out, but right now we simply need to make a hasty departure…Don't doubt me…I've worked for the Illuminated Primacy in the past."

"I recall you telling me," Braith murmurs, Ylyssus brushing her forehead with his fingers.

"…And thus I know what to expect with these vessels," he levels out the flight and accelerates with the display's offerings, "…Now stop fretting…Who did you hit with your power—I was surprised you didn't use it against…" He lets the rest be unsaid.

"One of the agents with the others…I didn't use my power on Tetonbaum," Braith shares, working through the discomfort, "…I wouldn't kill him for what he's done for us…Not until I know what exactly he's thinking…"

They all contemplate this in silence...Casnar wipes his eyes, and Ylyssus sees the gesture as he is sitting upright.

"I think it is safe to say," Ylyssus ventures after some minutes go by, "…Tetonbaum chose Kasumi over us."

"She can't go anywhere," Braith says in defense, adjusting Jenner whose little body sleeps on her chest, lulled by fatigue and her comforting heat, "…She put on the government tracker…He won't go anywhere without her…What I don't understand is why he tried to kill me…"

Casnar and Ylyssus look at each other in the mirror…Casnar lowers his eyes, "…I'm going to tell her, Ylyssus…"

"I was thinking that some of what we saw, Sered, was not tied to the laws of the shards…"

The shards…Shit…

Casnar has one, and the rest have been left with…

…Mithras, they'll all go mad if they use them…

"That thing, Braith…The Great Enmity was in the shard somehow…We confronted it with Tetonbaum…"

"That's when it gave Tetonbaum the ultimatum," Ylyssus says. "This Mechinist is coming—"

"That's what Tetonbaum was talking about…"

"Yes," Casnar replies, adjusting their course for the next holosphere and checking the fuel levels, "…The Enmity gave him a choice: help its master, the Mechinist, find you—or Kasumi would be taken from him…"

Braith lays quiet for a spell, thinking of the burden on Tetonbaum...

"What did the Enmity look like…" She caresses Jenner's shoulders through his night gown.

"Fire…Bluish light, liquid and not," Ylyssus murmurs, his memory keen, "…Tetonbaum's power repelled it…"

"An asthur," Casnar remembers, "…The shard does something with biotic energy…Not sure why the asthur—"

"The asthurs were the guardians of Musaphat's Beloved," Ylyssus shares, pulling on his studies in Merce'des while he worked on his th'aneship, "…They have always been symbolic of the people Musaphat took with him, or invited into the ocean…They guarded against Ysuphet's people, that could reach the exodus and prevent them from leaving..."

Casnar sighs, "…Why do I have the feeling we need him…"

Because Braith said we would in the pathway shown us by the shard, Ylyssus thinks, …and Casnar must realize this…He was there, watching with me…He gazes down at Jaspin's coiled crests on his nape, the child's head hanging before he lifts the small bony chin to straighten out the neck and support his head better…My beautiful son, what a gift it can be to see you fully grown…Ylyssus's eyes tear up at the memory—almost a guilty joy and a terrible apprehension it will not come to be—of the twins grown to seventeen…

"Seventeen," Ylyssus whispers aloud, and Casnar looks sharply at his eyes through the mirror.

"Say nothing else," Casnar hisses. Braith's eyes open slightly…

"Tetonbaum said all Soterios kindred are stewards of the shard…I, myself, can be considered morthwyl, Casnar…" She looks to the top of his smooth crests, visible over the front bench back, "…You can speak of it to me…We won't suffer…And Jaspin, who's a Kiross…"

"…Will be unaffected," Ylyssus says…Of course…He looks down at Braith, "…You remind me."

She catches his smile with her eyes, "…You told me you only knew of Dahnna Kiross as if she were a stranger…" Her eyebrows knit, "…Ylyssus…Cemal didn't kill you because—"

"…I am the grandson of her brother, Cuillean the Scourge," Ylyssus answers. Casnar flinches noticeably up front and actually twists in his seat to stare.

"That bastard killed hundreds of Kerhasi!" Casnar hisses, "…You're the son of a mass murderer!—Just like the damn ancestor—"

"Pilar Sousan was a butcher, too, before he became a cruel pacificist," Ylyssus strikes back, defending his ancestral legacy, "…And Braith's own parents…" He looks down at her face, "…What will we learn about your ilk, dear wife?"

Braith thoughtfully caresses Jaspin's foot, which has fallen to her shoulder and kicks with the stirrings of a dream, "…Nothing so glamorous as the two of yours, my dear husbands."

Ylyssus and Casnar and Braith resume silence as they consider the information…

Braith may hear them speak of the pathways of the Stönn of S'syalahe, Jaspin and Jenner will become wards, too, one day…

…If they are not all caught for what the Great Enmity demands...

Casnar rubs his patak and taps his cheekbone, "…We're going to have to pull over and sleep…I can't drive all night…Braith," he glances at the mirror, admonishing himself next as he cannot see her there, "…How are you doing."

"Neck's going to mend, baby," she speaks up from below Ylyssus's chest and Jaspin cuddled on it, "…I'll be okay…No hospitals…Get us where we can be safe for a little."

"Running again," Casnar snarls softly to himself, "…If I had a ship…"

"So go to Sybilla, or…Better yet," Braith thinks for a while, "…Was there anything else that you learned from your excursion into the shard that might be helpful to us?"

"We know that Bangal'roux has significance," Casnar relays, somewhat apprehensive about telling her, but reasoning in parallel with what she and Ylyssus have speculated about sharing the shard's path amongst themselves, "…There is where this Mechinist has sent his captain—what you have called the Great Enmity—to set up some point of operations, to clear the way…"

"Sounds like Sovereign…The Reaper I fought with the Normandy and the Council navies on the Citadal in eighty-three…"

"Yes, that's what it is," Casnar nods, "…a scout of sorts, but with more decision-making privilege…It was waiting for us in the shard, which means it hijacked your husband, Cemal, somehow…"

Braith purses her lips, "…I told them I needed to find him…"

"Could he be alive still?" Ylyssus asks her.

She shakes her head conservatively, tendering her neck, "…No…He's probably being used like…a conduit somehow into the shards' fabric…which means something else—possibly—has intervened to prevent the Enmity from finding me, and the twins."

"It said it would find us," Ylyssus warns, "…Casnar and I…It knows we know where you are…"

…The Voice of His Greatness…"The Voice…" Casnar thinks back, "…Does that mean something…Is that some type of army…?"

Braith shakes her head, "…I know the Al'Kin are one…Cartira's another…The Voice could be something else…"

"The Silver," Casnar spits to the floor in front of the passenger seating, "…The Silvers—we were fighting them—"

"Silvers…What are those?"

Casnar looks at the mirror again briefly, before out the windshield, "…Enemies of the rachni…They might be the voice of the Mechinist…They had nests in Bangal'roux, throughout the Birutise'aha…We were blowing them up, so they are at least able to be killed or mitigated with firepower…It helped," he remembers Braith telling him what she did in the pathway last travelled before the Enmity revealed itself, "…But it didn't lead us any closer to this Mechinist…He remained elusive…"

"Who is he," Braith wonders, looking at the ceiling of the skyrunner and its inactive light cases, feeling Jenner's hands open and close on her skin, "…Why is he called the Mechinist…Why did he send his captain to Bangal'roux…"

…And why are the morthwyl so important to eliminated…What threat are I and my children?…

…The Enmity is sensitive to biotic power…

…Oh, my Cemal—I wish I'd been there to save you all from such an end…

She holds Jenner and Jaspin's foot tighter, weeping a little.

"Perhaps to wake the Silver," Ylyssus says, his chest tightening at the sight of her tears—and the thought of the Silvers coming awake from their dormancy, "…to wake the army asleep under Bangal'roux..."

Braith wipes at her eyes and cheeks, replacing her damp fingers to Jenner's back, "…Does anyone know of such an army…The rachni—"

"We need to reach the Archives," Casnar declares flatly, "…I'll fly us to the Sybilla Sea and we can get out of this ship, hide in the Archives and find out more…I know they will hold something…From there we can likely steal or stow ourselves a ship off Kahje…"

"The protheans must have known of them," Braith deduces, shifting with a surge of renewed energy—compelled to action—though she cannot do anything right then where they are, flying over fog and deep waters, "…and if it helps, get me access to a communicator—that can reach off-world…I have a friend or two still, I think."