61: GUARDIANS OF THE CAGE
(Kihrin’s story)
Relos Var looked the same as when I’d seen him last. Time had left no mark on him, even though years had passed since our last unfriendly meeting. He still dressed in plain garb, and looked like no one of any importance if you couldn’t see his aura.
Wait … little brother?
I was definitely not that. Maybe he meant it the way Darzin liked to call me “boy.”*
“Raverí?” Relos Var looked at me curiously. “What are you doing in there?”
“Oh fuck. He can see—”
Relos Var waved two fingers. “Come out of there.”
I felt a ripping sensation and Tyentso stood by my side. She stared at her hands, then at the glittering strands of energy surrounding us, before muttering a curse that somehow didn’t melt the very stones, although it made a good attempt.
Relos Var’s smile was delighted. “I am so pleased you survived that unpleasantness in the Capital, Raverí. I hope you’re not still working with your father. The only thing worse than a power-hungry fool is a power-hungry fool who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else.”?
Tyentso’s stare was ice. “I guess that confirms he really is still alive.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t call it ‘life,’” Relos Var replied.
“Tyentso, who are you talking about?” I’d have thought they meant Gadrith, except for the “father” bit.
“Gadrith,” Tyentso said. “He means Gadrith.”
“Uh … no? Gadrith’s your husband,” I said.
“Yeah, he was that too.” She scowled. “Don’t look at me like that, Scamp. I wouldn’t have married him if he had any interest in sleeping with me. Or anyone, really.”
“Don’t kid yourself, Raverí. Yes, you would have,” Relos Var said. “Now I admire a woman who’s willing to make any sacrifice to get what she wants. Perhaps you and I can come to some arrangement? Your life for service to me?”
“You can’t do that,” Tyentso said, shaking her head. “You can’t Return me back to life.”
Relos Var took her denial in stride. “You will find that there is little I cannot do.”
I looked to the side at Tyentso’s ghost. “Can you get us out of here?”
“Only by possessing you,” Tyentso said, “and I can’t do that right now. Look at your hands.”
I did. Both hands were covered in the same tracery patterns as the cage, and the ruins. It didn’t stop me from moving, but I assumed it would stop Tyentso from possessing me.
“If you’re going to kill me,” I spat at Relos Var, “get it over with.”
He chuckled. “Kill you? Why in all the heavens would I do that? You’re going to save us all. What have they been teaching you?”
I couldn’t tell if he was joking.
“I lament that while you are in the right place,” he said, “this is the wrong time, and my plans are not ready for you yet. Now why don’t we get you out of here and see about healing that wound, before those pesky morgage come back and make our lives difficult—”
A spear impacted the wall of energy and shattered. Another landed next to Relos Var’s feet.
“Too late,” he said. He waved a hand, and shards of wood flew backward toward their point of origin.
The morgage were ready. They raised shields and (in the case of the singular woman) a magical field of energy to stop the reversal of their attack.
“I hope you realize this can only end one way,” Relos Var called out. He clenched a fist, and one of the morgage warriors erupted in flames, screaming. “Let us go so you may return to your important duties.”
The woman spoke, and to my surprise she spoke Guarem. “No deal, traitor. You are not welcome here in the lands you destroyed, nor will you be allowed to take what belongs to us.”
I had a feeling that when she said “what belongs to us” she meant me.
I’ll be honest: I was growing a bit tired of being passed around like a favorite dish at dinner.
“Oh, rip the Veil,” Relos Var said. “One experiment goes awry, and people never let you hear the end of it.” He raised his fist again, squeezed, and another morgage went up in flames.
They didn’t retreat. Even if two of their members were almost cer tainly dead with more to follow, the morgage didn’t take a single step backward.
I cast about for something, anything, I could do. My leg hurt with a desperate pain and the stone around my neck chilled my flesh: I was a long way from being safe. Even though Relos Var was rapidly escalating a wizard duel with the morgage sorceress, the magical prison he’d crafted around me hadn’t lessened in strength. Tyentso couldn’t return to my body, where she might talk me through casting a spell.
If I was going to do something, I’d better do it fast.
“Dear Taja,” I whispered, hoping my words would go unnoticed in the commotion. “Hear my prayer. I’m in a lot of trouble right now and I need your help. Relos Var is here and—”
I lost my voice.
“Stop that,” Relos Var snapped. He gestured again, and my arms locked at my sides. “I am trying to help, but this is no place for such a discussion.”
“No, it is not,” a woman said. My heart leapt as I heard her voice, although I had only ever heard it before in a dream. “And the idea that you are trying to help is every bit as laughable.”
Taja appeared in the middle of the street.
I guess she’d been listening after all.
She didn’t look like a child this time, but her silver hair, her eyes, and her white skin remained the same. I knew her immediately.
Taja gestured; the prison surrounding me faded. Her attention, however, focused on the sorcerer. “Leave now, or I will force the issue.”
Relos Var tilted his head and regarded the goddess. “Here? In my sanctum? There is no place on this planet where I am stronger or you are weaker. You don’t dare have a true fight with me here.”
I blinked.
The plan had rather counted on the fact that a goddess—not just any goddess but one of the Three Sisters—would be someone no sorcerer would be so foolish as to fight. He’d backed down against Khaemezra, so it followed he’d back down when faced by a genuine goddess.
He would have to. Right?
Except he didn’t seem to be playing along. In fact, everything about Relos Var’s manner suggested that he didn’t think he was outmatched. He was prepared for a violent confrontation, even though he couldn’t be that powerful. And yet …
“You might beat one of us here, but not all of us,” said another woman’s voice, more familiar than Taja’s in many respects because I heard it so often.