46
FETIZZA ran amok as we slept. She must have done, for when I awoke it was to find the square and surrounding streets puddled with water, and spears of rock jutting towards the sun. Houses had reverted to their mud-brick, tiles to their ceramic glory, and reed…well, to reed.
Frogs choralled from the river.
“Threshold,” Boaz said to Zabrze.
“Tomorrow,” Zabrze said. “We’ll go down tomorrow.”
I think he wanted to spend a day of peace with Layla. Just one day, before we confronted the full horror of Nzame.
So we spent the day about Setkoth. As we’d thought, and as Layla had confirmed, many if not most of its people had fled north to En-Dor.
Others had not been so lucky. Layla said she was aware, locked in her stone, that the stone-men had shuffled through Setkoth day and night for weeks, searching for live flesh to drive down to Nzame.
“I would hear screaming, and the thud of stone feet,” she said to me. “And I would hear…feel, I don’t know…hear Nzame screaming for food. He had to be fed every day.”
She was quiet for a minute or two, and I tightened my hold on her arm. She was a lovely girl, in character as much as feature, and I was not much older than her. I wished I could have come through my trials with as much grace as Layla had.
“I lay awake for a long time last night,” she said, and she smiled at me, blinking in the sun. “I listened for the frogs. I never realised before now how beautifully they sang.”
I studied her carefully.
“And when Holdat served my supper last night, I swear that the ladle he used whispered to me.”
“Layla…Layla, you must speak with your stepmother soon. I think she has a great many things to teach you.”
“Yes.” Layla squeezed my arm. “You and she both, I think.”
“You have been much altered by your experience,” I remarked.
“I have been illumed,” she said. “Isphet is going to be very good for this realm and this people.”
After that, there was not much left to say.
One more day. One more day and it would all be over. One way or another. Boaz was so introspective he would hardly speak, but the manner in which he made love to me that night did all the talking that was necessary.
Sweet, loving, bitter, sad. Goodbye. I could feel it.
I walked the summer meadows of Viland again, locked in dream. Cool grass brushed my ankles, fragrant flowers teased my senses.
I wandered, alone, afraid, trapped. Waiting.
He slithered across the meadow towards me, snake-like yet man-formed.
Go away. Go back. I will kill him!
“I can say nothing to deter him.”
Fool! You have not even tried! Take him away, Tirzah! Flee to Viland before I decide to vent my wrath on you!
“You tried that, with Zabrze’s children, and failed.”
That was nothing but a diversion…did you like what I’d done to those children? Did you appreciate it?
“You could not touch Layla’s sweetness, Nzame. Her purity remained untouched by your stain.”
He hissed. Go back! Go back!
“Why? Do you fear us? Is Boaz going to destroy you?”
I told you before, bitch. There are only two options for him. He fails and dies, or succeeds in dragging me through to Infinity where he will spend eternity locked in my embrace.
And in that instant realisation hit me. I understood why the Song of the Frogs was so important. Why the Soulenai had insisted Boaz be able to use it. My mouth dropped slowly open.
Tell him to go back! There are no other options! Tell him –
I was so stunned at my own discovery I paid Nzame no attention. My mistake.
He seized me by the hair and dragged my head back. I tried to scream, but nothing came out.
Tirzah, listen to me well. He intends to meld with me, use the power of the One within Threshold to meld with me and drag me through into Infinity.
But, sweet Tirzah, there is a trap he does not yet know about. Shall I tell you? Yes, yes I shall. Tirzah, you and he are so closely bound in power and in love that should he meld with me there is a chance that for an instant he will give me an opportunity for escape.
He paused. I was sobbing with terror by this stage. How could I have been so foolish as to relax about this demon?
Where, Tirzah? Where? Into your womb, Tirzah. I think I shall grow me new strength in your womb. For a single instant when Boaz merges with me his bond with you will provide me with a bridge…a bridge to that tiny, fragile, vulnerable body you harbour in your womb. What shall you do, Tirzah, when you wander bereft as Boaz lingers in Infinity and I grow in your womb? What shall you do? What shall you do? What shall –
I screamed and screamed, rocking up with such force I hit my skull on the head of the bed.
Boaz grabbed me. “Tirzah? Tirzah?”
I couldn’t reply. I covered my face with my hands and sobbed.
“He lies, Tirzah. Whatever he said, it was a lie.”
“Boaz –”
“Don’t believe him.”
“Boaz, would you come back with me to Viland if I asked you? Would you –”
“Tirzah!” He forced my hands from my face so he could stare into my eyes. “Tirzah,” he said more gently. “If I leave Nzame to grow in Threshold nowhere will be safe. I must go in tomorrow. I must.”
“Will you come back, Boaz?”
He was silent, dropping his eyes.
“I know what you will do. I believe what Nzame told me, for it makes sense. You will use your power as a Magus to drag him all the way through into Infinity.”
“I will not be trapped, Tirzah.”
“No,” I said bitterly, “you will not be trapped in Infinity, Boaz, but you will be trapped in the Place Beyond.”
I knew what the Song of the Frogs meant. Boaz would use the power of the One to drag Nzame through to Infinity, then use his arts as a Necromancer and the power of the Song of the Frogs to escape from Infinity to the Place Beyond. But there he would remain. There was no pathway from the Place Beyond back to here.
“Sometimes,” Boaz said, “we have to take what we are given. Tirzah, I am so very, very sorry. But it is the only way.”
I lowered my head and wept. “I want a husband alive and trapped in my arms, not dead and at peace with his father!”
“Tirzah –”
“Boaz, I’m pregnant.”
“You can’t be!”
“The damage you did was not permanent. I healed, slowly, but I healed.” I tried to smile. “This baby we conceived while we were training in the Abyss. Boaz,” tears threatened, and I took a moment to blink them away, “Nzame said that if you melded with him, our shared love and power would create a bridge between you and me, and Nzame said he would take refuge in the baby. He said…he said he would grow within my womb while you…while you…”
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
“It took me over two months to believe it myself, and then I thought you would insist I remain behind in the Abyss. And then…well, there was so much happening about us…”
“Tirzah, I don’t know if he’s right or not. I just don’t know. But to be safe, it would be better if you –”
“No!”
“Tirzah, listen to me. If he is right…do you want to grow Nzame within you? Give him physical form? Rid yourself of the child, Tirzah. You must.”
“It is all I will have left of you,” I whispered. “All. Don’t make me do this. Please…”
“Oh gods, beloved. Do you think I want you to discard this child?” He slid his hand down over my belly, feeling for the life within me, cradling it gently. “A child is the greatest gift you could give me, but I cannot risk you like this. Nor could I submit a child of mine to the horror that enveloped Zabrze’s children.”
“Boaz…don’t make me…please…”
He said nothing, but folded me in his arms.
“Please…”