A/N: Chap 31 review responses are in my forums. it's good to have a computer back. For those of you wondering who don't read my review responses, yes, this is and always has been a 40K crossover fusion on top of the other crossover elements, from Theogony on.
Thanks for reading.
Chapter Thirty-Two: In The Hall Burned Her
It did not surprise Taylor when they emerged to find that the Lengii had established what looked like a days-old camp. Khatoom was the first to see them and rose from the small fire where they were cooking a jungle fowl and called out to them joyously.
The eldest Handmaiden, Alkhiara, rose to her feet and rushed to Jhaniara. "My dearest! My beloved great-sister! It was so long, we feared for you!"
The young god-empress blinked in confusion, her euphoria from the god-induced genetic memory fading in confusion. "I do not understand. We were gone only moments!"
"Days, my great-sister," Alkhiara said. "Three days!"
I hope Thoros is still in Leng Ma. Taylor crushed the worry. "In the first godly domain I entered, one day lasted a full year," Taylor told the stunned Lengii. "Time does not mean the same to gods as it does to mortals."
Alkhiara looked from Taylor to the Empress. "Our gods spoke to you both?"
"The gods spoke to each of us separately," Taylor said. "The message to the God-Empress was for her alone, and the message to me was for me alone. But I will tell you this–your god is mighty, and his love for you is ancient and strong."
The Lengii didn't just accept this, but seemed relieved by it. The young god-empress blinked her golden eyes and stared intently at Taylor. "What did the gods say to you, Telos?"
Jhaniara virtually trembled from the activated genetic memory. Taylor could see the potential violence surging in her soul, fueled by hate and a desire for revenge.
"The gods greeted me, bade me welcome and answered many questions I have carried for these past few years. But now I must travel north and gain passage from the island."
The god-empress nodded. She took Taylor's hand in hers, and glanced over her shoulder at Khatoom. "Telos Goddess shall go with gold, jewels, coin and silk! With high honors and the love of all Lengii. She shall be my sister in all things, and forever be welcome in this land."
"So shall it be!" Khatoom declared in a booming voice.
"And then we shall make the Little People pay for their crimes!" the young empress said fiercely. "Thus my gods said to me!"
~~Voluspa~~
~~Voluspa~~
The feast that night at the palace was unlike anything Taylor had ever seen before. Beautiful dancers, clad only in bright, extravagant paint, flew around bonfires set at each corner of the reflecting pool. The Lengii turned out not to be feudal-all things were owned by the God Empress, and it was by her bounty and will that land was farmed and food grown. All lives belonged to her, from the eldest farmer to their youngest grandchild. There were no lords and ladies, like in a medieval European society.
So those that celebrated were farmers and warriors alike, and all adored their young god-empress as she too donned only paint and danced among them with the same skill and grace as the adults around her. Half her handmaids joined, as did Khatoom himself.
Taylor sensed the dance was not for her. The presence of the spears and swords in their hands spoke clearly of martial intent. This wasn't just a celebration; it was a war dance and a prayer. It was a prelude to violence she wanted no part of.
She wasn't alone on the balcony that served as Jhaniara's private balcony. Hailia, the newly healed and restored handmaiden, kept her company with two other women. They brought her more of those sweet-spicy mango crab rice balls, and delicately sliced pheasant with the various dipping sauces and fruit.
Unlike the dancers below, those with Taylor dressed as she was dressed, with the revealing but still strategically acceptable jewel-encrusted silk tops and skirts that left their long, lean stomachs bare. She'd noticed many had pierced navels where they positioned rubies.
"When will your people attack the YiTi colony?"
The question startled the handmaiden. She blinked gold-green eyes at Taylor. "Has anyone spoken of such to you?"
"Your gods did, Hailia."
The woman snapped her mouth shut, then looked down at the dancers that filled the courtyard. "The call has gone forth. Leng shall be free in two days' time. When Leng Yi is secured, you are to be escorted north with full honors."
Taylor leaned over and picked up a mango. "Your gods charged me with an important mission, Hailia. One that could mean the lives of all Lengii as well as the Little People. How will I take ship from the island if all those who man the ships have been slain?"
Before the woman could answer, Taylor enchanted the mango. Its dull orange color turned into shining gold. Behind her, she heard the other handmaidens gasp, while Hailia herself stared with fascination.
"This mango has been enchanted with a powerful healing spell. I will leave ten of these with you. If my sister, the God-Empress, comes to harm, feed her one and she will be restored. Even from the edge of death itself. But for these gifts, I must leave this very night. I have no fear of danger in the jungle; your gods have given me their blessing. Will you do this, Hailia?"
"I will, Telos-Goddess."
Two hours later, a tired God-Empress stepped into Taylor's room in the palace. Her body paint was runny with sweat, and she'd thrown a tree-cloth skirt around her hips for modesty as she walked into the room. Her hands virtually shook with exhaustion and adrenaline. Her golden eyes seemed to catch and reflect the dim torchlight.
"You wish to go?"
Taylor heard sadness in the question; loss. "Your gods gave me a mission too, Jhaniara. No less important than your own."
Those brilliant eyes of hers shifted downward. "Khatoom tells me that there is no fear for those embraced by the gods. That death is nothing when our gods shall meet us again. But I still fear. I watched mother and my natural father choking on that poison, and there was no joy in their eyes to meet the gods. The Little People are weak, but there are so many of them. I fear we will fail, even with the gods' blessing."
Taylor could neither see nor sense any trace of Khatoom or the handmaidens. The young woman entered not as a god-empress, but as a twelve-year-old about to lead her people into a terrible battle.
Gently, Taylor took the girl's sweaty shoulders and pulled her into an embrace. "Not just your gods' blessing, Jhaniara. My blessing too."
Strong young arms squeezed her for a long moment. When they parted, Jhaniara Lengii took a deep breath. "Khatoom waits for you at the north entrance. He has your travel pack ready, filled with zhu, gold and precious gems. We have gold bands for your arms and ankles. You shall be Al'iaxu Lengii, the Pink Lengii. A sister and welcomed guest. No matter what transpires, if any Lengii survive, you shall be welcome."
"Thank you, Jhaniara."
"Go now, with my love and thanks."
The rest of the palace seemed empty as well, until Taylor realized all those who would ordinarily be within it were likely spreading word throughout the southern half of the island that war was coming. When she reached the northern entrance from the palace, she did indeed find Khatoom there. He'd also donned a skirt of tree cloth that hung to his knees. His body-paint too was ruined with sweat across his broad, powerful chest.
He nodded to her and held a well-fashioned leather pack heavy with treasure. "The pack is strong. Come, let you be adorned as befitting a sister of the god-empress."
The giant man took her arm and began gently pushing golden bands up-one just above her bicep, and then a long one on the back of her forearm, with matching bands for each arm. He knelt down and placed equal bands of heavy, solid gold around her ankles. He stood and opened the bag to reveal a pile of zhu bronzed coins, gold ingots and dozens of breathtaking rubies, sapphires and emeralds. The pack was very heavy.
"The reason the YiTi seek to control our island," he admitted to her. "I am honored to have met you, Telos-Goddess. Perhaps we will meet again."
"I hope so. Be safe, Khatoom. She needs you."
"And we need her. So it is right and just that she have me. Will you need a carriage?"
"I'll move faster on foot."
The man grinned. "So I saw. The forest blessed your steps like a true Lengii. Flee, Telos. Flee this land until the blood flows no more, then be welcome to return after."
Taylor secured the backpack tightly. She felt a little awkward wearing only the revealing silks they dressed her in when they returned that morning from the palace. But though she lacked the protections and physical imperviousness she used to have, her will commanded the spirits of the forest around her, including the insects that would otherwise have been feasting on her.
She walked quickly through the gardens until she came to the outer gate. The gates stood open, flanked by two of Khatoom's men. Both bowed from their waist as she passed by. Overhead, she could see unending space. The Milky Way ran in the opposite angle than what she grew up with, as if she were on the other side of it from Brockton Bay. And in the far distance, visible only to her magical vision, she saw an ugly tear in reality. An eye of evil that glared down at her malevolently.
I probably am on the other side of the galaxy, she realized. Even so, the stars shone brightly enough for even her normal divine eyes to see as if in the day. As soon as she left the black stone path and stepped onto the rich loam of the forest floor, she felt the forest itself cupping her foot. "Guide and strengthen my steps," she whispered.
The powerful spirits, as alive at night as during the day, whispered their assent. She began walking at first, but just like that walk up to the cabin with her father, the ground cushioned her steps so much she felt no exhaustion. It was as if the spirits were supporting her. And so she moved from a long-legged stride into a loping jog, and then into a steady run.
She felt her power meshing seamlessly with the forest, not just guiding her steps but also clearing her path. Underbrush moved or parted to allow her to easily jump over it. Valleys or pits took on a gentle glow as she could more easily avoid them.
Overhead, golden-furred monkeys began flinging themselves between the scaled bark trees in time with her steps, using symbiotic vines that ran through the lizard trees to aid their passage.
Eventually she reached the broad, fertile valley where many of the Lengii had their farms. The Lengii were all awake, thousands of them, preparing for the battle to come. They were so powerfully attuned to the forests and fields that they felt her steps and heard her passage where no other human could have.
They watched the pale, pink girl with the starlight eyes run by as fast as any Lengii to race through the forests, and she heard their tongues clicking behind her in farewells. Somehow, word had spread of her role even this far north.
She felt no hunger; no exhaustion. With the spirits to buoy her and the power of the forest to sustain her body, she maintained a pace that would be impossible for any normal mortal. North pulled at her, her senses as attuned to the directions of this world as her old.
Suddenly the power of the forest weakened, as if she moved from a strong current to a stagnant pool. The sudden shift caused her to stumble and even fall. She awkwardly pulled herself back to her feet and found herself facing a farm house, with wooden fencing holding a pen with small, pink pigs that she just knew were not native to the island. Unlike the reed or stone huts she saw in the valley, this house was built of finely milled lumber.
She'd crossed the entire island and entered the YiTish colony of Leng Yi.
The ground continued to cushion her steps, but the sustaining power of the forest's spirits could not extend out into land that, as far as the island spirit itself was concerned, had been profaned by outsiders.
Without that sustaining power, exhaustion began to sap at her. Her back ached from the weight of her backpack and her legs trembled. Still, she knew she didn't have much time. She could feel the first vanguards of dawn fighting through the darkness.
The YiTi farms were tightly clustered together. She thought it would be a small village of them, but as she continued to walk she realized that it wasn't a village-it was a non-stop line of small farms and other buildings that stretched as far as she could see. Thousands of people slept in the homes around her, and many more thousands were in front of her.
Jhaniara is going to slaughter them all.
The thought froze her mid-step. If she warned them, they would have time to prepare a defense that could mean dead Lengii. But if she didn't, she'd be a party to their murder. The Lengii did not view the YiTish as human; and so they felt no guilt over killing them all.
She couldn't just let them die.
The door of a nearby house opened, and a bowed man walked out. He looked young for such a bad posture, with a wiry black beard clinging to his chin. He glanced up at her and froze in fear as her bifrost eyes stared at him. The truth of him, in fact, was one of constant fear and crushing labor.
Decision made, Taylor called the name she saw in his soul. "Ya-Zhaoi! I bring a warning to your people. A storm approaches as I speak, and it will sweep the YiTish into the sea. Spread the word to all the people to gather what they can and flee. Anyone who remains will die."
With her warning delivered, Taylor continued toward the coast.
As the sky grew lighter, more people began to stir and emerge from their tiny wooden houses. And the more people who stared at her, the more Taylor realized she was severely underdressed. All of the people she saw, men and women, wore similar trousers, tied tunics and wooden sandals. The clothing looked almost like a uniform, since the only variation were the colors, which ran from dark blue to green and finally to a bleached white color. The women tended to wear greens or orange.
Taylor, meanwhile, wore nothing but a skirt of tree fibers and a silken, bejeweled vest that left her sides bare. Compared to the people around her, she was practically naked. It was ironic, when she left the palace she didn't dwell much on how revealing the clothing was. She'd simply become accustomed to it around the Lengii. But from the open, hostile glares of the YiTish people around her, she realized she was not going to be able to make it through the city dressed like a pale Lengii princess.
That was easily solved. She didn't even need an object to anchor a glamor to, not with the magic she'd learned in Asshai. With a wave of her hand over herself, she changed the appearance not just of her clothing, but of her whole body. She shrank down almost a foot, and her clothing shifted to a gray set of cotton trousers and a faded blue tunic. She even duplicated the broad-brimmed straw hats many of the relatively pale women wore against the hot, humid Leng sun.
With a mild suggestion pushed into the souls of those around her, the people whose hostility was quickly boiling toward action now faded back to confusion and indifference. She was not a strange, pale Lengii, she was one of them.
Freed from angry stares, Taylor crested a slight rise in the road and saw the endless ocean below. The water glistened in the mid-morning light, but it was the fleet of two hundred YiTish ships off the coast that really caught her breath. Other ships were moored along wooden piers flanked by brick and wood buildings, but there were so many YiTish vessels surrounding the port that she doubted any of the moored ships could leave.
"What is going on?" She muttered to herself.
The hill also gave her a good look at the rest of the YiTish city. The whole city was laid out in a perfect grid pattern. Each grid held two little houses and a common garden, or what looked like a temple, or a school, or other official building. It could have been beautiful, if it didn't so strikingly resemble a town out of a Madeleine L'Engle book. The road she walked on was one of three central thoroughfares that ran in perfectly straight lines from the jungle to the port.
Far down from her, in a large open square framed by important-looking buildings, a crowd was gathering. Curious, she focused beyond mortal sight until what she saw made her stop in the middle of the street.
A cage hung from a steel frame. A tall, awkward girl sat with her knees pushed up against her chin and her arms around her legs within the cage. Below, YiTish soldiers piled wood.
The girl within looked up with tearful, Lengi-gold eyes from a round, delicate YiTish face. Zho-Min.
"Please move along."
Taylor turned to see an older YiTish man in a long, black robe with a gold collar–the first she'd seen of that color. His soul spoke of a love of knowledge, and she could see the many faces of hundreds of young boys he carried in his memories. A teacher, but not of girls. Only boys.
She ducked her head, hefted her heavy pack, and began moving quickly down the street toward the soon-to-be-lit bonfire.
By the time she reached the open square, the pile of wood was high enough to ensure Zho-Min did not survive. Within the cage, the poor Lengii-YiTish crossbreed simply wept in silence as she stared out across her father's people.
The people screamed back at her. The hatred of those within the crowd left Taylor almost dizzy. They threw rotten fruit or stones at the poor girl in the cage.
The screaming did not stop until a man arrived on horseback. It was the first horse she'd seen on the island. He wore steel lamellar style armor over a rich crimson tunic. His helmet actually bore a brim similar to many of the hats in the crowd. Unlike the other soldiers who bore only spears and knives, he wore an ornate, curved sword at his waist.
As his men gathered around the bonfire, one of whom held a lit torch, the mounted soldier held up a paper scroll. "By order of the governor general, the Divine and Holy Azure Emperor and the gods on high, no creature born of YiTi and Leng shall be permitted to live. Light the fire!"
The people screamed again, expressing their hatred for the abomination of a girl born of the wrong set of parents. The waves of righteous joy they felt as the soldier with the torch stepped to the bonfire left Taylor feeling sickened.
There was a time for theatricality. Then there was a time to save lives.
At Taylor's silent command, a powerful wind blew the torch out, while clouds rolled in under the sky. The gathered people's angry screams faded as concern and awareness of the unnatural events broke through the haze of their righteous rage.
"Witch!" The soldier drew his sword. "Not just an abomination, but a witch! Kill her now!"
Taylor called the storm.
Lightning blasted down in multiple sheets, striking the perfectly shaped cobblestones all around the many soldiers. The energy of it blasted them off their feet and sent terrified people screaming in flight. A heavy deluge of rain suddenly fell with such density and speed it knocked some people down.
Into this confusion, Taylor let her glamor fall and walked toward the cage. Through the heavy rain, Zhu-Min saw her and wept freely as the cage around her bent and broke under the strength of Taylor's magic.
Rather than fall into the pile of now rain-soaked wood, the water in the air caught her and slid her toward Taylor. Weeping and unable to control herself, Zhu-Min clung to Taylor desperately.
Somehow, the mounted soldier had recovered himself and his mount. His horse reared up as he held his sword high. "You!" he called through the storm. "Witch of Asshai! We have heard of you! This does not concern you!"
So the YiTish had heard of her, and what she did in Asshai. Good. "No one is dead," Taylor said. She cast her voice across the entire square, forcing it into the ears and minds of all around. "And so no harm has been done. But this child is under my protection. If you leave us be, we will leave this city in peace and you will never see us again. Try to stop us, and there will be no peace for any of you."
"The Emperor and the Governor General have spoken," the soldier cried. "The abomination is to…"
Taylor flicked her hand. The burst of kinetic magical energy struck the man like a cricket bat the size of a Volkswagen. He made a brief, choking cry as he was blasted out of his saddle and flew, cartwheeling uncontrollably, across the square.
At her silent command, the horse came to her. She climbed onto the beautifully crafted saddle, and then helped Zhu-Min behind her. "Hang on!"
Taylor called on the rain to fall harder. Those few soldiers that had recovered their feet started to stumble toward her with their spears only to be blinded by the storm. But around Taylor and Min, the water did not fall.
"Do you know where we should go?"
Min clung to her from behind, her cheek against Taylor's bare back. "The barbarian quarter," she said. "East from here."
"Right." Focusing, Taylor looked across the city, through walls, temples and houses, until she found a collection of distinctly western-looking buildings. With her direction set, she gripped the reins of the horse and set it on its way. As she rode, she cast a simple glamour to hide her bifrost eyes. The soldiers of YiTi would not have to search hard if her eyes acted like a beacon through the rain.
~~Voluspa~~
~~Voluspa~~
The entire 'barbarian' quarter was walled off from the rest of the city, and the gate separating it from Leng-Yi was guarded. Taylor didn't even try to go through the gate. Under the cover of heavy rain, she guided the horse to the eight-foot high stone wall that separated the YiTish from the undesirable foreigners.
Without being prompted, Zhu-Min stood up on the saddle with the innate grace of her Lengii mother and easily climbed over. Taylor followed.
The buildings on the other side of the wall were made of brick and wood, rather than just wood, and had a much more utilitarian aspect to them. Most of the YiTish buildings had carved lions in the wood beams at the corners, but she didn't see any within this section.
She let herself dangle down over the wall before dropping the last few feet.
Once safe, Zhu-Min wiped her eyes. "I tried to sneak to the barbarian quarter with your message," she told Taylor. "But my father's brother saw me. He gathered others to hold me until the governor's police came to take me. He spat at me."
The girl's soul ached; the pain of loss and rejection almost crippled her. There were no words that could make it better, so Taylor simply held her. As she did so, she studied the barbarian "quarter."
It would have been better to call it an alley. The so-called quarter held a whopping total of ten buildings. Four appeared to be taverns, one looked like a brothel (if she was to judge from the woman wearing even less than she who was standing under an overhanging porch), two looked like trading houses, one looked distinctly YiTish, and two were warehouses. The place even had its own pier, at which two ships were moored.
One had a prow of an ornately carved lion painted gold. Focusing past the hull, she bit back a sigh of relief when she saw all her saved orphans safe within.
Considering herself, Taylor realized that in the torrential rain she summoned, her clothes clung to her so tightly it might as well have been gauze, and with its sides open she became intensely aware of how much of her body was exposed. Zhu-Min, having come from the God-Empress's palace, was little better off.
"We need better clothing," Taylor decided. "Come."
With the golden-eyed girl's hand in hers, she walked into the little section of foreigners to the brothel. It was the only place she could think of that might have women's clothes.
The woman lounging by the door in a diaphanous silk gown watched her approach. She was not what Taylor would have expected, being older and somewhat heavier than the stereotypical prostitute. She had platinum white hair that looked a little jarring against her darkly tanned skin, and violet eyes almost as striking as the gold of the Lengii.
Her right cheek held what looked like a tattoo of a teardrop.
"Never seen an Essos-born Lengii before," the woman said in passable YiTish. "And those eyes are something! But we take all kinds. Five Zhu per customer, no limits on how many. Most of our clientele are YiTi administrators wanting exotic western women. You might get more with those eyes."
"We need clothes," Taylor said, cutting the woman off. Rather than YiTish, she instinctively spoke the woman's native Valyrian. "Something that won't make the YiTi attack us in the streets. I have money."
The woman snorted. "This is no seamstress house, girly. Come back when it stops raining and…"
Taylor lifted her hand in a casual wave; the rain stopped. Overhead, at her will, the clouds quickly parted and boiled away. "The rain stopped. We need clothes, and I can pay. I have zhu, and precious stones from the God-Empress herself."
The woman paled and stepped out into the street, staring up at the clear sky. "How did you do that?"
Taylor ignored the question. "Clothes. How much?"
Under the now unfettered morning sun, the woman saw the runes that ran down her arms and legs until they ended in her blackened fingertips and bare toes. She saw the miserable-looking Zhu-Min, with her golden eyes set in a round, YiTish face. "Are you in trouble? Will my helping you get my girls hurt?"
"It depends on if you can get a berth on those ships before the God-Empress kills everyone here," Taylor said. She glanced at the woman's soul. "We need clothing, Alaerys. And I can pay."
The woman blinked at the use of her name. "Fine. Come on, then."