Whatever happens to it, I decided that Sparky wasn’t going to get any say in the matter.
“Yes,” I said, softly. “Come with me.”
She put her arms around me and I hugged her close. She put her head on my shoulder.
“Tort’s angel,” she said, softly, “and my monster. We both love you. Amber and Tianna do, too. Amber will learn to show it.”
“She gets that problem from me, I think.”
“I am certain she does. You will be there for both of them, even so?”
“I’ll do my best to watch over them,” I assured her. She nodded into my neck.
“I am ready, my monster… and my angel.”
I gently extended my psychic tendrils to either side, like unfolding wings. The room seemed to turn grey as they spread wider and wider, thickening, darkening. I enfolded her like dark fog rolling over a meadow, engulfing her entirely in the incoming tide of black. A bright spark of white in a vast expanse of night, gleaming brilliantly, the painful pinprick of light left after a sun burns down to the core. Streamers of radiance swam out from it, spinning off like an accretion disk in reverse, shrinking it further, but making it burn brighter, ever brighter.
My teeth touched her skin, my tongue slid across the flesh, and blood gently flowed. I bit deeper, slowly, and the blood seemed to flee her body, hurrying into me.
Everything went away.
We were in the blackness together. I held her in my arms like a bride being carried over a threshold. She looked young again; her hair was a bright flame and her face unlined, more beautiful than I remembered. She laughed as the color slowly faded from her, glowing like the sky at sunset and fading to night.
The old woman stood in front of me, holding out her hand. She smiled at me.
“I knew this moment would come,” she said. “Well-met, Halar, one of the Lords of Night.”
Tamara and I both looked at her.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“That is the Grey Lady,” Tamara said, softly. The elderly figure nodded, still smiling. She looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite remember where I’d seen her before. In a great, gilded temple, I thought.
“And you’re going to take Tamara wherever it is she’s supposed to go?” I asked.
“I must do as I am meant to. We each have our purpose and function.”
Tamara’s colors faded slowly, turning her into a monochrome figure, all black and white and shades of grey. I set her on her feet and she held my hand.
“Maybe so,” I allowed, “but, if you would be so kind, explain the purposes and functions involved here.”
“Are you planning to be difficult about this mortal?” asked the Grey Lady.
“I’m not planning to be, but I want to know what she’s getting into,” I told her. “I’m not going to blindly turn her immortal soul over to someone I’ve never met without some assurances.”
“Halar,” Tamara whispered, “this is the
Grey Lady
.” As if that meant anything to me, and as if I should care. I ignored her.
“So,” I went on, “if you would be so kind as to explain a bit, I’ll do my best to be cooperative.”
“Why should I? She is here.”
“But so am I, and she’s mine.”
“Oh, really?” asked the Grey Lady. “You interest me strangely, godling. Do you think you can keep her from me?”
“Nope. But you might wonder if it was worth the fight.”
That stopped her for a moment, and it shocked Tamara.
“You know you will lose, but you will challenge me anyway?” she asked.
“I don’t want to challenge you. I just want a couple of questions answered. Which one sounds like more work?”
The Grey Lady looked at me, unsmiling and thoughtful.
“You are clever,” she said, finally, “and bolder than I thought. What is it that you wish to know?”
“Tamara, here, is about to die. What happens? How are you involved? How am I involved? What’s supposed to be the ‘natural order’ of things?”
The Grey Lady folded her arms together and pressed a finger to her lips in thought. Tamara squeezed my hand, looking scared. I squeezed her hand as well, hoping to reassure her. She didn’t seem reassured, but I suppose I can’t blame her for that.
“All you want,” said the Grey Lady, “is to know the truth about the mystery of death for the race of men.”
“If I’m involved in sending people there, or through, or whatever, shouldn’t I know what I’m doing?”
“It is true that you are no longer a mortal man,” she mused. “Yes… yes, I choose to tell you.”
“Thank you. Please do.”
“When the Lords of Night came to this world with men, they consumed the power of men’s blood and souls. The blood fueled their bodies and the souls fueled their powers—or so it was believed. The soul merely passes through a Lord of Night. What your kind truly fed upon were their lives, their experiences, not their souls. You constantly… emit? Yes, you emit the soul-stuff from yourself, purged of all experience and life, so that it may rejoin the great ocean of light, refined and purified, to be reborn.
“Without the Lords of Night to aid them—whether through such feeding, or in the manner you have chosen for this one—their living souls must journey to the underworld, there to travel in darkness and cold, reliving their lives piece by piece, leaving each moment in glittering crystals, frozen behind them. There, the things that live beyond the edge of the world devour the frozen crystals of memory and hunger for more.
“My purpose is to see to it that souls given into my care reach the underworld without incident. They do not wander the lands of light to haunt the living, nor are they captured and used by magicians or sorcerers. They arrive safely and quickly, there to be refined and returned to the great soul sea, the ocean of light, and be reborn.”
I looked at Tamara, a black-and-white image of youth and beauty. She smiled sadly and nodded.
“I will miss you,” she said.
“And I, you.” I turned to the Grey Lady. “So, if I consume her soul, it’s quicker?”
“It is. It is also painful. If you will take my advice, do not do it.”
“Why?”
“You are still full of soul-stuff. It emerges from you, like your breath set aflame. It will take some time before you are done with Zirafel and the Golden Temple.” The Grey Lady smiled and held out her hand. “Please, let me take care of her. She has been a good priestess, both kind and gentle to those who come to my care. I promise, she will not suffer more than any other soul, and less than most.”
A Goddess just asked nicely. She even said, “Please.” And She didn’t have to.
I looked at Tamara. She looked at me. She seemed unable to speak. We stayed like that for some time, recognizing the last time for what it was. It was hard, extremely hard, but I let go of her hand.
“Goodbye,” I whispered.
Lights. Taste. Touch. The Temple of the Grey Lady. The body in my arms.
I licked at the wounds, just to be neat, and laid her pale, pale body down on the altar. I folded her shrunken hands together and adjusted her gown and hair. I stepped back.
A tiny hand insinuated itself into mine. I looked down at Tianna. She looked up at me.
“Why are you sad, Grandpa?”
“Because I’m selfish.”
“Selfish?”
“I’m going to miss her.”
“Oh. But you’ll still be here when she comes back,” she pointed out.
That caught me by surprise. Clever girl. I hadn’t thought of that.
“True, but she won’t know me.”
Amber moved up to the other side of Tianna and took her hand.
“Come along. We’re done here.”
“No,” I said. Amber and Tianna both looked at me. “You’re not done. I want her cremated.”
“We can do that tomorrow,” Amber said, and I held up my free hand.
“We’re not doing it at dawn or sunset. The Mother was pis—was angry with her, so we’re not going to do this where she can be offended by having to watch. You can do it right now, in front of the Grey Lady and me, or I will.”
Amber looked at me with an unreadable expression. Not neutral, but an expression I simply couldn’t read. Even watching her spiritual interior didn’t help; it was still all bright white and yellow, like looking into a star. Did her eyes give off a fiery glint?
Tianna, on the other hand, didn’t have her mother’s sense of hesitation. I saw the bright flare of spiritual light between Amber and I, and Amber’s expression turned to one of surprise.
Tianna’s hair blazed.
Amber wanted to say something, but she checked herself and watched, eyes narrowed as she observed Tianna’s actions carefully.
Fire bloomed on the altar, first orange, then yellow, then white, blazing higher and higher until I wondered if the beams of the roof were going to have problems. They did.
I raised my free hand and started working. Immaterial tendrils shot up, untouched by the flames, to shake and pry at the shakes and shingles of the roof. I gestured with a very basic spell, punching the roof, as well. A hole opened as a chunk of roof gave way, debris flying up or deflected to the sides; dozens of tiles slid down the pitch of the roof outside.
I hurried around the altar, hands upraised, to wrap it in a makeshift circle of power, extended upward in a cylinder, through the roof. This containment reflected heat, raising the interior temperature further while shielding the structure of the building itself. Now the flames could roar up unimpeded. I stirred the column of air inside the containment spell, making the flames spin, whirling as they shot skyward.
The heat didn’t seem to bother me. Interesting. Tianna doesn’t generate mundane flames, apparently.
Bronze stepped back out through the doorway as wind started to whistle in, swirling madly around the room. Ashes stirred and flaked away in the center of the flames, dancing in the air, spinning in a vortex up through the roof and into the sky. A column of fire, a whirlwind of flame and ash, rose toward the stars.
In minutes, Tianna burned the body to ash and the wind sucked it up, scattering it into the sky. Tianna let out a huge breath and the flames died. I let go the whirlwind spell and the wind died with it. Amber relaxed her vigilance; I think she was worried about Tianna losing control or losing focus.
I knelt beside Tianna. She was covered in sweat everywhere but in her hair; that was perfectly dry once it was extinguished.
“Thank you very much, Tianna. That was very well done. Even Firebrand couldn’t have done better,” I told her. She looked pleased at the praise.
“You’re welcome,” she replied. She sounded tired. I stood up again.
“Thank you both. I appreciate you being here. I know Tamara was glad to have you here, too.”
“I would not miss the opportunity to say farewell to my mother,” Amber said, “and Tianna, her grandmother.”
“Shall I see you both back to your home?”
“Yes!” Tianna said, just as Amber said, “No, we’ll be fine.”
“But Mom! I want to ride!”
“It’s no trouble,” I added, “and Tianna seems tired.”
“Oh… all right,” Amber gave in. We stepped outside.
The crowd had spread out to get a look at the fire-fountain coming through the roof. I made a mental note to have the hole fixed. When the crowd saw us, everyone knelt. A wave of descent spread out from us like dominos toppling. Amber barely blinked. Tianna stood still and stared. I don’t think anyone ever knelt to her before.
I was very pleased to notice that people went to one knee, not both. I was less pleased and more confused at the gesture. Some used both hands, fingers interlaced, thumbs back along the temples, as though shielding their eyes from wind or rain. Others used only one hand, placing it like the brim of a baseball cap. Either way, they looked down, hiding their eyes from us. I’d seen Parva do it, and a few others. I wondered whether it was meant for me or for Amber.
I helped Tianna up onto Bronze, bounced up behind her, and swung Amber into place behind me. Amber wrapped her arms around my chest, pressed her face to my back, and squeezed. Tianna kicked her heels and jerked on Bronze’s mane.
Bronze humored her by rearing up, pawing at the air, blowing fire, and galloping off. She was very good about not stepping on anything soft, but headed through the thinnest section of the crowd—the people got out of her way, and she went slowly enough to let them. Once free of the crowd, we circled around much more swiftly to get back to the Temple of Flame. Tianna, of course, screamed the equivalent of “Whee!” the whole way. Amber kept quiet and hung on as though her life depended on it. I don’t think she likes to ride.
We sat on Bronze for a bit just outside the house. I chatted with Tianna for a moment while her mother pulled herself together. When Amber slid down Bronze’s side, I dismounted and helped Tianna down. We said our good-nights and the two of them went inside, Tianna talking a mile a minute while Amber pretended to listen.
Outside, the wind was picking up and smelled like rain. I stroked Bronze’s nose. She seemed amused, then nuzzled me when she caught my mood. A tongue like a hot metal file stroked the side of my face just in front of my ear.