Book 5

Siha: Rise of Rakhana

Part III

"Silver and Fire"


Braith winds her hands over her abdomen, and looks at herself sideways, "…Damn, that was fast," she mutters, hands moving to hips as she stares at the bump, "…Don't take your time or anything."

Tetonbaum waits outside, listening to her in the bathroom…Were she Kasumi, this would be all so much the sweeter, but she is not. She is Casnar and Ylyssus's wife and Tetonbaum has impregnated her in the way a th'ane might be sent to disrupt a lineage or marriage.

He rubs his hands together and leans close to the corner, "…Braith," he says, and she opens the door wide, tilting her head out, "…Do you need another glass of water."

"You give me any more, Tetonbaum," she steps back to turn and show him her belly bump, "…I might have to squeeze out a baby right here—so I can make room for my bladder…" At his widening gaze from his sapphires, she folds her shirt over her belly. "Joke? Didn't you once have a sense of humor?" Her power flicks against his.

"I have a sense of humor," he rebuffs her with a grin, "…Times are serious…" His grin is forced, "…I have much on my mind. A pathway to corrupt with a child of my own. My wife has been betrayed by myself, but then her life might now be spared…"

"Did you ever actually see her die, Tetonbaum?"

His mouth opens and closes, he had not thought of that…Why not?…

"Yes," he hears himself lying, "…I am most certain, and you yourself have only seen her death…"

"At your hand, Tetonbaum…"

She transforms into a silverish-blue light that flames forth—rising upwards and spelling into the Great Enmity once more…Tetonbaum leaps away, "…I am in the stönn still!" he cries aloud, shocked.

We're in this through to the end, Tetonbaum….His power speaks and Tetonbaum feels the meld in his mind as his biotic avatar forms and rises to ward away the Great Enmity—whose dripping fire and lava forms in puddles at its feet and claws, only to reabsorb through the torn rakka in the darkened cavern…

"You have been fighting for a way to recover your wife's future," the Great Enmity echoes among the cleaved walls…Where they are, deep underground now, Tetonbaum may see, and the Great Enmity's light fills vastness of its subterranean lair where holes drill off through the rakka everywhere, as if in a nest of insects…

The Silver! He sees the glow through the holes, the chambers of dormant life—asleep now, but soon to be awoken.

Tetonbaum bares his fists, "…When will you stop!…What is it that you want!…I need to take my brother and his mate's husband out of the shard—what have you done with them!…What will appease you and your Mechinist!"

"Bring the last of the chosen to Rakhana…Bring the female, bring the offspring, have them here in time for His army's awakening…You will not be released from the shard's power until you obey His will…"

There has to be another way! Tetonbaum thinks, panicking…He looks beyond the flames flicking off the skin of liquid blue fire, and sees something within the Great Enmity's chest.

A silhouette, a light of darkness if that made any sense…His glimpse of a body deep inside the beast…Cemal, the morthwyl—Braith's husband left behind in Rakka!…

He thrusts his power towards the Enmity—halving it with his sudden lash outwards, Tetonbaum sees for the first time…the skull of Cemal…the pulsing eyes…the blood-red tebris aglow as the morthwyl opens onyx lips and releases a silent scream…

He is still alive!…That is how it must be must connecting!…Tetonbaum realizes, trying his hardest to extract the tormented body and soul of the morthwyl from the stump of lava and stubborn flames, collecting again as the asthur head of his avatar reaches jaws towards Cemal's suspended form, …That is how it is connecting into the shards and keeping track of me!…Of Braith?…The twins?…

With a roar the Great Enmity slams itself together, completely enveloping Cemal and thrusting back Tetonbaum—this time hurling the drell a few yards away as his power snaps to coalesce round the th'ane in protecting its host…

"To the future…See what heartache awaits…Infidels…" The Great Enmity thunders, slamming blue-silver-fire fists into the rakka, summoning light from among the holes in the cavern walls—brightening it. "See what awaits this defiance…"

Infidels?

Tetonbaum tumbles from the vanished cavern. His power shields about him—a sphere of biotic energy ricocheted much as the small pebble down into the gorge, millions of projected pathways awaiting. There in the Eye of S'syalahe…

…Who else is in here listening, that the Great Enmity refers to more than one of us, as infidels?…Casnar…Ylyssus…

Tetonbaum despairs

…Where are you