“This area is rich in silver these days, but in Midnight’s time there were no mines
here. Where do you think this silver came from? For that matter, where did your ancestors
get the silver for their hunters’ blades?”
“Wherever people got silver two hundred years ago,” Jay answered. The question wasn’t
idle, obviously, though Brina’s thoughts were still too tangled in the image of Angelica’s
blackening face and wheezing cough for Jay to get her point without asking, “I don’t
know. Where?”
“Zacatecas, Potosí,” Brina answered. “Modern Mexico, Bolivia, even Peru. This silver
traveled at least two thousand miles before it reached this spot, in a day when there
were no planes or trains. Maybe it went to the avian shapeshifters first, since they
are famous for their silverwork. They sold it to some Shantel mother, probably in
exchange for furs or leather. And do you know where those trades would have taken
place?” In her mind, Jay again saw the market they had found. “In an age when few
humans traveled a hundred miles from their homes, Midnight had minds that remembered
the great empires of the Aztecs, the Romans, and the Chinese. We maintained trade
routes that humans wouldn’t discover for centuries. Your kind might not have openly
purchased Midnight’s tainted goods, but I guarantee that you prospered from it even
while you tried to kill us.”
“Prospered?”
Jay snapped. “Most of us were wiped out!”
“And those who were not founded SingleEarth. You have your own empire now to control
humans, and the shapeshifter kings who once bowed to us now bow to you.”
“We founded SingleEarth for protection, not to rule.”
“Why do you think Mistress Jeshickah founded Midnight?” Brina challenged. “The Inquisition
killed dozens of those who thought they were immortal. Shapeshifter mercenaries helped.”
She looked at his expression, and her shoulders squared defensively. “I am not saying
this makes Midnight good or SingleEarth evil. But I know the modern Midnight fears
SingleEarth. Don’t you think that should concern you?”
“I trust my kin.”
Brina smiled sadly. “And apparently you trust that your kin will always be in charge
of a massive international organization that has its fingers in the governments and
economies of every major civilization in the modern world. That makes it an empire—one
with a branch devoted to mercenary work, if rumors of an alliance with the Bruja guilds
are to be believed.”
“Okay, I’ll admit there is a
potential
for abuse, but that’s different from an empire totally devoted to slavery and subjugation.”
“I believe in two absolute laws of politics,” Brina admitted. “Power corrupts, and
good intentions are the fastest way to hell. Oh, and none of us really wants to live
on our own. That’s why we make these alliances in the first place. There’s no shame
in not wanting to be alone.”
What had happened to the addled woman so known for obliviousness that Xeke had been
surprised she had noticed her own brother’s death?
As Brina flinched instinctively from Jay’s hard stare, he learned the answer to his
question: no one had ever listened to her before, or challenged her when she’d spoken
up, no matter how outrageous she’d gotten. She was enjoying arguing with him.
As the uncomfortable moment stretched, Brina dropped the silver pacifier and said,
“All I see here are cracked plaza tiles, collapsed buildings, and an ancient stone
wall. What are we hoping to
do
?”
Jay wanted to prod her back into the fight, both because
he wanted to come up with a retort to defend SingleEarth and because she was entertaining
to wrangle with.
There will be time for that if we can figure out how to save the world
.
“I don’t know,” Jay admitted. “I had thought maybe we could reason with the elemental,
but if it knows we’re here, it’s ignoring us. We need Rikai and Xeke.”
“What I know of Shantel magic is that you could not step a foot in their forest without
the
sakkri
knowing. The
sakkri
controls the magic, and it controls where you go,” Brina said. “Right now, you’re
the only witch this woods has. Bring Rikai and Xeke here.”
It was on the tip of Jay’s tongue to point out that a Marinitch empath and a Shantel
sakkri
were very different, but maybe it wasn’t as crazy as it seemed. Jay
had
been able to mingle with the woods around the new Midnight, even though that magic
had been outright hostile toward him. The Shantel elemental had tried to help him
the last time he’d communicated with it. If this forest considered him an ally, maybe
he
could
speak to it, albeit in his own way.
“I’ll try,” he said, earning another sunlight smile from her. “I’ll probably space
out while I do this. Touch me if you need my attention, okay?”
Brina nodded.
Jay sat on the ground, where he could put his bare hands against the cobblestone ground,
then closed his eyes. Beneath the cobbles was raw earth. Through that earth, he stretched
his awareness as far as he could, not looking for animal minds but drifting in the
ebb and flow of the power around him.
Impressive
. The magic wrapped into this land was so complex, it dazzled him. He envisioned it
like a spiderweb, with crystal drops of mist stuck to it. Each bead of moisture was
a living being, hanging on the gossamer strands.
Except spiderwebs were fragile. This had existed, and would continue, for ages.
Brina was a bright glow near him. Yes, her vampirism was gone, but he realized she
had power in her, like a witch’s magic, lingering, dormant in her blood. Could that
power wake?
He skipped his awareness along the line of Shantel territory, through the leaves and
winter breezes, the pine trees stretching in the cold air, and the deciduous trees
tranquil in their long sleep.
He reached for Brina’s hand. She hesitated before taking his, concerned that he had
told her to touch him only if she needed to interrupt him, but then followed his lead.
Look
.
It was clumsy, like a child’s first steps, but once she realized what he was trying
to do, she worked with him. Her artist’s mind was able to manipulate the patterns
of magic in an instinctive way, so she was able to “see” as he did. The trees were
his nerves, and the animals, his eyes. He could feel the power like a heartbeat and
a pulse, a thought that made Brina nervous, until she recklessly submerged herself
in the forest’s awareness.
They both could have drowned that way, forgetting their purpose in the lazy pulse
of the forest’s slow life, but then they touched Rikai and Xeke. Those unwelcome powers
were
an irritation, like hot ash falling on the skin. Both of them were in pain, exhausted
and starving, not for food but for
power …
and for hope. They had been lost since Jay and Brina had disappeared.
This way
, Jay called.
Brina echoed him, lending her power to his.
This way
, she said.
Hurry
.
Together, they siphoned some of the forest’s abundant energy into the Triste and vampire,
giving them the strength to stand and walk.
Once Rikai and Xeke drew near, though, their efforts drew the elemental’s attention.
Until then the forest had responded to Jay and Brina, but now the elemental itself
noticed what they were doing. As Rikai and Xeke hoisted themselves over the stone
borders of the plaza and hurried to Jay and Brina, the spiderweb of magic shook itself,
flinging Jay and Brina away.
When they opened their eyes, disoriented, a figure loomed in front of them.
She did not register to any sense but Jay’s eyes; to his magic, she was an extension
of the land itself, in no way a separate being. Once, this body had belonged to a
shapeshifter with ink-black skin and hair marked with white. Now, it had been claimed
by darkness itself.
True darkness wasn’t evil. It was the ultimate neutral. People could kill each other
under its cover, or make love. Like so many things, the only value the darkness held
was that which others gave it, often based on its use—or ancient fears, of course,
since so many things had used the darkness for their own nefarious purposes.
This darkness might once have been the neutral coolness of a deep cave, beyond the
interference of fire’s light, but now it had been tainted by pain and loss and anger.
It looked at Jay, and in its face he saw the fury of betrayal.
T
HE CREATURE THAT
stood before them, possessing the shapeshifter’s form, no longer saw Jay as an ally.
“Shantel,” Rikai said, stepping between Jay and the hostile immortal, “I know now
how you have grown so strong. All that power in the ruins of Midnight, all the
flesh
sacrificed that day—you used them to bond yourself to everyone at the battle, including
the other elementals. Since that day, you have secretly fed on every elemental that
gave magic to that fight. That is how you are now strong enough to challenge Leona,
while others have faded into obscurity.”
Jay would have been happy to let the Triste negotiate with the elemental, but Brina
stepped forward, madly, and reached
for the once-shapeshifter’s hand. As in everything, she saw heartbreaking beauty in
this figure.
She is the night
, Brina thought.
That’s not your Pet anymore
, Jay thought back. The elemental was clearly occupying the shapeshifter’s body, but
Jay doubted that made it weaker.
Maybe you shouldn’t move so—
Brina touched the elemental’s arm, and the jolt of power passed through her and Jay
both, blinding and deafening them for several moments.
By the time he recovered, the world around him had changed. The shadowy felines that
had haunted the corners of his perception before were now solid and visible before
him. Cats of all colors and patterns—many not found in nature—stalked around them.
They were not entirely real, but neither could they be disregarded.
It took him three tries to see Lynx, who looked pale and colorless against the visions.
Lynx backed away from the other cats, bristling.
The elemental stood above them like a vengeful angel.
“We didn’t come here to hurt you or any of your … people,” Jay said as he pushed himself
slowly back to his feet. “We came here to try to ask you not to hurt my people. They
never harmed you or any of your—”
“They did not help us, either,”
the elemental replied, its voice heavy like thunder. Jay feared that its words alone
might have the power to destroy him. Listening to it speak made his bones ache.
“Who do you think destroyed Midnight centuries ago?” Jay argued. Where were Xeke and
Rikai? Nearby, he hoped.…
“What good did that little revolution do, when the worst creatures all survived? When,
after your kin declared victory, my child continued to live in suffering?”
You’re reasoning with it the wrong way
, Brina thought.
“Spirit of the Shantel,” Brina said, her voice gentle and respectful, “you wear the
form of one who used to belong to me.”
The elemental snarled, recoiling.
“The
sakkri
of the Shantel belongs to no one!”
Brina tilted her head, as if confused. “I know of no
sakkri
. I know only of a creature named Pet. Has she not introduced herself to you as such?”
Was the elemental getting bigger? Or was Jay shrinking?
“Brina,” he whispered, trying to warn.
“You tried to name her and tried to own her,”
the elemental said,
“but the shell you possessed was meaningless.”
“The same shell you possess now?” Brina asked, tilting her head as if confused. “Is
the
sakkri
even in there with you? Did you protect her at all, or did you just claim her for
your own use? After all, you could not have been too fond of her, considering you
were the one who gave her away. Is all this anger just a mask for your own regrets?”
Brina’s distraction had given Jay a chance to recall their original plan: get inside
Shantel land, and therefore inside the elemental’s defenses, so Leona could fight
back.
If the Shantel elemental is here, where’s Leona?
“You think this is all of me?”
the elemental replied to his thought.
“This shell you see is a fragment of my power, nothing more
than I need to speak with you. The battle continues, beyond the ken of mere mortals.”
“Shantel!” Xeke called, striding forward. “This is a foolish battle.”
The elemental turned to him, and the felines moved closer, snarling, until the rumble
of the earth threw Jay and Brina to the ground. Only as he fell did Jay realize that
Xeke’s form was shimmering, as overwhelming to behold as the possessed
sakkri
herself.
One of Xeke’s progenitors has a bond to an earth elemental called Leshan
, Rikai had said.
I was able to partially block Xeke’s connection to Leona and tighten his bond to Leshan
.
By bringing Xeke into this place, they had allowed more than just a vampire to breach
the Shantel’s defenses.
“Leshan,”
Shantel demanded.
“Why have you ridden your bond into my territory?”
“Shantel,”
Xeke replied, his voice deeper now, his form changing to the golden and green of
summer trees.
“This bond’s body is fading. I can preserve him for a time, but not the way Leona
could. He will die. In that way, you have killed many of my bonds. Did you expect
me not to respond?”
“I have meddled with no one not tainted by the fire,”
Shantel replied. The cats near her raised their hackles.
“We have had a truce with Leona for millennia,”
Xeke—or Leshan now—said.
“You know this!”
“Truce?”
The day became darker as the forest canopy inexplicably thickened, covering the Shantel
courtyard.
“That truce ended when my
sakkri
was destroyed by those bound to Leona—and
you,
Leshan, among others. Jeshickah’s trainers fed many of you, didn’t they? Fed you in
the flesh and blood of
my
people!”