Siege at Howling Rock
Part Two
“I think she’s waking up.”
“Give her some room.”
Slowly, Ember’s blue-green eyes fluttered open. She blinked up groggily at Teir’s smiling face for several moments before she slowly returned his smile.
“Mother.” Halcyon’s voice made Ember turn her head. Her two children crouched just behind their father.
“My cubs…” Ember whispered. “You’re… you’re alive.”
“Thank the High Ones you’re all right!” Teir exclaimed.
“More or less, lifemate. Unh… hurts,” she grimaced as she shifted on the bed of furs. “Where?” she looked beyond her family, at the starstone walls. “What…?”
“You’re safe,” Teir insisted. “We’re all safe in the Palace.”
“No,” Ember protested. She struggled to sit, but she could not find the strength. “Not the Palace! The corruption–”
“-Is drawn to magic,” Rayek spoke up. Ember twisted onto her side to focus on the elves standing a few paces from her bed: Rayek, Swift and Aurek, a trio of anxious faces.
“We know,” Rayek said evenly. “The moment the Palace set down, the corruption began to advance. Visibly.”
Ember’s lip curled back in a snarl. “Deathbringer!” she spat accusingly. “Is that all you can do now?!”
Rayek flinched at the venom in her voice. “Do not fear,” Aurek interjected, his voice mild. “We have moved the Palace to safe ground, some leagues beyond the rim of the dead zone. Scouts confirm the corruption’s spread has halted, or at least has slowed to a point where we cannot observe it directly. It appears we are outside its range of perception.”
Ember wasn’t listening. She continued to stare at Rayek with naked loathing.
“Mother, do you remember what happened?” Halcyon prompted. Ember glanced back at her.
“I… was asleep… I had a nightmare.” She shuddered.
“We all did,” Teir explained.
“But they were no natural dreams,” Aurek added. “The corruption was working on our minds, trying to undo us through our greatest fears. Trying to extinguish our spirits. In your case, it nearly succeeded.”
Ember swallowed and rubbed at her breastbone. “Is that why my chest hurts?”
“Your heart stopped,” Halcyon said gravely.
“Feels like it tore itself apart.”
“It nearly did,” Teir said. “No, wait, K’Chaiya–”
But Ember was determined to sit up. Halcyon climbed onto the bed to assist her. Between Halcyon’s help and Teir’s, Ember managed to sit, holding her head against the dizziness. She flinched at the feel of her restored left ear.
“I’m sorry,” Teir said. “I did not warn Melati in time. She healed your ear with the rest of you.”
“Melati?” Ember turned the name over in her head. “Leetah’s granddaughter? I thought she was in Oasis?”
“She’s our guest at the moment,” Swift said. “A long story, but we’re more interested in yours, right now.”
“I feel… different,” Ember murmured. “My hands… fingers… tingling. It – it feels like my ears are plugged. I can’t hear properly.”
Swift and Teir exchanged a glance. Teir shook his head.
“You need to rest, Mother,” Halcyon soothed. “Your body has taken a beating tonight.”
“Night… is it still night?”
“It’s midafternoon,” Teir said.
“Then I’ve slept long enough. I need to get moving again…”
“Ember, please!” Teir begged, holding her down as she tried to swing her legs off the bed.
“No… can’t stay here… I need – I need to see the sky over my head. I need to smell the green growing things. I – I’m a Wolfrider… I need –” her words slurred as her strength began to fail her again. She wheezed for breath.
“Peace! I’ll help you outside, but you musn’t push yourself!”
“Listen to him, Mother. We nearly lost you once already.”
Reluctantly, Ember gave up her struggles. She held her head in her hands, exploring her newly-healed ear with her fingertips.
Swift stepped forward. “Ember, I know this has been hard for you, but we need your help. If you have the strength – we need to know what you saw in your dreams.”
“Surely this can wait–” Teir began.
“My dream…” Ember shuddered. “Why? What good will it do?”
Aurek approached. “The corruption attacked us all in sendings, attacking our souls through our dreams. And in doing do, it linked us all together.”
“You mean we were sharing the same dream?” Ember asked.
“Not entirely. But elements of one elf’s dream appear inside another’s, especially between lifemates or family members. Cheipar’s dream was the key – he was asleep in the Palace-pod with Skywise, Vaya and myself. And because his sleep was the lightest of all of us, he was able to touch our dreams – to see our fears manifested – and in turn to break free of his own. Since this morning, I have been comparing everyone’s dreams, and I see many threads linking us. In each dream, the corruption took the form of our greatest fear – or our bitterest foe. In each dream, the corruption tried to provoke emotions of desperation and futility. I believe there is something to be learned from all our dreams – some shared insight that could be vital in our fight against the corruption.”
“You want me to tell you what I saw,” Ember’s gaze flicked past Aurek, to land briefly on Rayek.
“More than seeing,” Aurek said. “And more than telling. There are some links that can only be discerned in sending.”
“No!” Ember cried suddenly.
“I know it no small matter, letting another see into your most private thoughts,” Aurek began. “But I have long trained in memory-gathering. I will accept any secrets you share, without judgment. And they will remain safely locked away in the deepest recesses of my mind, I swear.”
“We’ve all shared our dreams with Aurek,” Halcyon explained.
“You…?” Ember shuddered. “Oh, cubling, it went after you too?”
“It touched everyone who was asleep,” Aurek emphasized. “Leaving scars on their souls. Visions, feelings, memories – I have been collecting them all, trying to weave a pattern. Yours is the last dream, Ember – the final thread in our tapestry. If you will locksend with me–”
Ember shook her head. “I need to find the Now again – not haunt myself with these dark memories.” She drew her legs in, hugging her knees. “What I saw… what I felt…”
“Let it go, Mother,” Halcyon urged. “You must. You know it will heal your heart.”
Again Ember stared at Rayek. “It’s not the dream I fear to share,” she murmured. “It’s what came before, what comes after. It’s the truth in my heart.”
“Your heart,” Rayek muttered, “has not been very reliable lately.”
“Rayek–” Swift began disapprovingly, but when she glanced back and saw the cold fire burning in her lifemate’s eyes, she held her tongue.
“The way you look at me,” Rayek continued. “I was your nightmare.”
Ember nodded.
“You blame me for this, then? For all of this! Though I saved your life and many others’.”
“And how many did you take?” Ember charged.
“It was war. I will not be shamed for fighting for my people. But that… that corruption out there – that creeping death – that is Kahvi’s doing!”
“You sparked the fire. She’s just the tinder.”
“Then show me,” Rayek challenged. He stepped forward, extending a hand. “You won’t burden Aurek with this truth – this horror you claim is so much worse than anyone else’s. Burden me!” His gaze turned pleading, and his hand began to tremble. “I need to see!”
Ember’s eyes narrowed. Rayek swayed slightly on his feet. The tremor in his hand ran up his arm. His face turned ashen and his eyes widened, even as his pupils shrank. Swift’s head whipped one way, then the other, as she tried to follow their silent communion.
It was over in moments. Rayek clenched his fists closed and swallowed.
**Rayek?** Swift send, only to encounter a wall.
“Excuse me,” Rayek murmured. He turned on his heel and fled from the room, his strides long but his steps shaky.
“Rayek?” Aurek called after him. “Rayek!”
“Leave me!” he shouted back, his voice a ragged sob.
Ember closed her eyes tight as she curled up against Teir’s chest. Tears caught on her eyelashes.
* * *
Swift tracked Rayek to their bedroom at the opposite end of the Palace. The open doorway had become a solid wall. **Open,** Swift commanded. When the wall wouldn’t obey she huffed in frustration and barked the order aloud. The wall shivered, then reshaped itself into a door. Almost immediately, it began to close again. Swift hurried through before the hole sealed itself up.
She saw no sign of Rayek at first. Then she listened carefully, and heard ragged breathing coming from behind the bed.
He sat on the floor, wedged between the bed and the wall, his long limbs folded against him as if he meant to make himself small enough to disappear. He was shivering – no, heaving, fighting for breath, hugging his knees tightly for support. His head bowed over his knees, his face was lost under the curtain of his hair. Muffled cries rose up from him, ragged sobs and feeble whimpers.
“Rayek…” Swift rushed to his side. She finger-combed his hair out ofhis face, ignoring his struggles. She hung onto his shoulders tightly, turning him so that he leaned against her for support. She held him as he wept. And all the while she sent to him, steadily assaulting the wall of panic and grief he had erected around his mind.
**Tam – I am Tam. And you are Rayek. Come back to me.**
For the longest time, he couldn’t hear her. He was as much a prisoner of the dream as Ember had been. At times his sobs grew so violent Swift feared his body was going into shock. But gradually his breathing began to slow, and his joints began to unlock.
**Come back to me, now,** Swift urged. **Come back to your Tam.**
**Tam…** Rayek’s sending was weak, even as he clung to her with an iron grip. **Don’t leave me.**
**Never.**
When Rayek’s breathing was approaching a healthy pace, Swift asked: “Was it the dream? Did she share the moment her heart stopped?”
“I’m not one to be frightened by a dream.” He closed his eyes tight. “It was the truth she shared – the truth I never knew – but I will not be blamed for it!” he repeated vehemently, shaking his head. “It was war. I was fighting for my people. I was fighting… I will not be blamed for it! Least of all by a sham of a Wolfrider who abandoned her tribe at the first blood! Not when I have spent millennia keeping our kind safe! When I am Master of the Palace!”
Swift waited patiently for his anger to ebb. She knew better than to poke her mountain lion when he was in such a state. Instead she let him argue with the voice of guilt in his head.
And when he fell silent again she gently corrected: “But it wasn’t war, was it? Not really. We had rescued all those we could.”
“Not all. She showed me.”
“What did she show you? Share it with me.”
Rayek shook his head. “No. I dare not.”
“A burden shared is a burden halved.”
“No. Never! This is my burden! It was my choice.”
Swift licked her lips nervously. “But… it wasn’t yours alone. I was there too. I saw what you were going to do. And I let you.”
He turned a critical eye on her. “You think you could have stopped me?”
“No. But I didn’t even try. I wanted you to burn them,” she admitted. “Just as I wanted you to burn the Djunsmen at Thorny Mountain. They had hurt me and mine, and I wanted them wiped off the earth. It was… instinct. But that doesn’t make it right.”
His expression turned anguished. “You blame me too?”
“I blame us both. It was a mistake. A moment of rage – a lack of self-control. Understandable… forgiveable. We should have admitted what it was then. We should have learned from it. But all we learned was that humans burn easily under the light of the Palace. And that… that we can come to justify ugliness in ourselves we would condemn in others.
“Ember is wrong to make you into a monster. But we were wrong to answer every human challenge with destruction. One of the first lessons I learned as chief was the cost of hate. When the humans burned down Father Tree, I didn’t understand how they could do it. They destroyed their whole world, just to see us suffer. Even when those survivors staggered into Sorrow’s End – they felt no remorse, no regret. Only regret that they did not kill us all. I thought ‘No elf could ever be so cruel… so mad!’ But the Holt forest grew back. The Homeland forgot. Howling Rock didn’t.”
“I didn’t–”
“–think it would be like this,” Swift finished. “But we both knew what you’d do on Thorny Mountain. And at Port Bane… Rayek, we both know that wasn’t right! We can call it war and we can call it a necessary evil, but the truth is we were the trolls’ hired killers!”
“Not we; you killed no humans.”
“And I didn’t raise a finger to stop it either. I watched you burn those Djunsmen with less thought than I’d spare a swarm of gnats.” Swift felt her throat tighten as she forced out the words. “You weren’t striking in anger – or – or out of hurt. You were–” she laughed bitterly, “I almost wish I could say you were dealing pain for the pleasure of it – but there wasn’t even pleasure in that, was there? I heard your voice when you called yourself Djunkiller and I didn’t hear any pride, only... indifference. It scared me, Rayek!”
He recoiled as if struck, then scrambled to his knees and seized her shoulders. “No! Don’t say that! You of all elves – you know you have nothing to fear from me!”
“No, never! But I fear for you! I fear what you could become,” The tears spilled from her eyes. “When I first met you, you felt so deeply, you were unwilling to deal a tuskhog even a moment’s pain! What happened to that Rayek?”
“I do not know, Tam. I – I only know I am so weary. I sought to protect all our kind. ‘No elf must die’ – so we’ve always believed! And with the power of the Palace behind me, I thought I could keep us safe forever.
“But I failed. The humans slaughtered our kindred at Howling Rock. They razed Thorny Mountain and attacked the Firstcomers’ Shell. They set fire to Port Bane… and each time I could not prevent it. But I could see them suffer. I could do that! And now… I cannot even destroy our enemies properly. Ember is right – I planted the first seed of this corruption. She showed me…”
“What did she show me. Tell me if you will not send. Please – for my sake if not your own. I can’t bear to see you like this!”
Rayek could not meet her gaze. He closed his eyes tight as he summoned up the memory. “In the dream I am Ember. And I am running… running over burnt ground. Howling Rock is ahead, lit up by flames. All around me: elves, humans, beasts, all burning… melting in the flames… like tallow. They cannot move – they are candles melting into the ground. But they scream, they scream as their mouths twist into empty holes. The elves – I know them all. Halcyon… Teir… others – so many others: faces Rayek does not know, but Ember does! Two elves Rayek remembers dimly – faces he wants to forget – the ones he dropped to save Weatherbird from that human arrow. Their names – I never asked their names before, but I know them now. Shim and Lhasa. Ember blames me for their deaths. But I had to choose, Tam, and I chose our granddaughter! Is that so wrong?”
“Of course not,” Swift assured him.
“I can’t save them now, either,” Rayek continued. “They melt away before I can reach them. So I run past them. There is a little girl screaming, hands over her ears as she burns away. Her name is Mika – I know it – and I know I can’t save her either. So I keep running towards the Rock. Someone is standing atop it. A dark figure, kindling a ball of white flame. I know what it will do. I try to scream ‘stop’ but I cannot catch my breath. All I can do is I run. I push myself harder, faster, until I can feel my joints come loose, until I feel my sinews tear and my limbs shatter. But I know I cannot get there in time.
“The figure turns, he looks at me. I see the nightmare’s face and I know he wants nothing less than to destroy everything!” He does not need to say whose face it is.
“And he smiles,” Rayek continues with a shudder. “And then the white flame explodes… the light of countless suns. It sears everything. My flesh boils away. There is nothing but agony. And then… then I am running again, and Howling Rock is a little closer, and I think… perhaps I can reach him this time. So I push myself harder. I force myself not to waver, and I run past all my loved ones without looking at their melting faces… but I cannot reach the Rock in time.
“And on it goes… again and again – each time a little closer, each time the fire a little brighter, the betrayal a little sharper. This is what I cannot share with you, Tam: the dying, the horror, the knowing it will never end! That I will never stop it! The despair… and yet, the futile stubborness to keep trying. Knowing I must fail! Trapped for eternity in Ember’s nightmare – a nightmare I created! I – I wanted to lead our people – to inspire them to greatness. But all I’ve done here is sow fear and sorrow.”
“We’ll find a way to fix it,” Swift insisted. “We’ll stop Kahvi, undo this corruption. I promise. We’ll set everything right.”
“We cannot undo the past,” Rayek said grimly. “We dare not.”
“No... but we can do better from now on.” She wound her arms around him and held him close. “My mountain lion.” She nuzzled his forehead. “I believe in you. Don’t ever forget that. You’ve stepped off the right trail, but you’ll get back on it. We will do better, both of us.”
She stroked his hair, she murmured words of love in his ear. She waited for Rayek’s own innate ambition to turn his grief into a determination to overcome. But his spirits would not be lifted. She could not remember the last time she had seen him so… passive.
“Would you like some tea?” she offered.
He neither accepted nor refused it, so she rose and fetched the ceramic pot they always kept stocked with Rayek’s favorite blend of herbs. She poured a cupful and brought it back to him. She had to close his hand around the cup. Rayek contemplated the golden liquid miserably, then raised the cup to his lips and grimaced at the stale taste.
“Don’t you want to heat it up first?” Swift prompted gently.
Rayek stared at the cup in his hand. His eyes narrowed and Swift waited for the liquid to start steaming as Rayek’s magic set the tea’s very molecules vibrating. But nothing happened.
“I… I cannot,” Rayek murmured. “I cannot do it. I reach out my will… but I cannot touch anything. I –” he looked up at her, terrified. “I cannot feel – Tam, I cannot feel my magic!”
* * *
Aurek found Timmain in the little cubicle where they had stored the cocoon of the broken Firstcomer. Timmain sat in a meditative trance, one hand resting on the threads of wrapstuff.
“High One?” Aurek asked.
Timmain’s eyes fluttered open. “Aurek. I had not thought to see you now. It is the time for daysleep, is it not? And after last night, I imagined you and your lifemate would be in sore need of rest.”
“I left Vaya with Pike and Skot. When I last saw them, the three of them were fast asleep, piled together like wolf pups.” He smiled ruefully. “But for myself, I dare not let down my guard.”
“Skywise has moved us well beyond the range of the corruption.”
“It’s not the corruption I fear, but the dreams I have collected since this morning. It will take me time to master them.”
“I will be curious to see them, once you incorporate them into the Egg.”
Aurek shook his head. “No. They were not given to me to share. These are private thoughts and fears, in places nearly touching the elf’s very soul. Once we have eliminated the corruption, I plan to purge all the details from my memory.”
Timmain frowned quizzically. “Then, will you not share them even with me?”
“Not without their consent. Not everything can be shared freely.” He sat down next to her on the starstone pallet. “You were communing with the Navigator?”
“Attempting it. I thought to test Swift’s belief that a gentle approach might guide his soul back to his skin. But I cannot find his spirit.”
“It has left the confines of the Palace?”
“Or merged too fully with the souls of the others. It is as I have often tried to explain. Blend one candle flame with another, and you realize they there never were, never could be anything but one. Any fire is all fire, and any spirit is all spirits. The Navigators merged into one single flame long ago. I cannot imagine anything would tempt one to tear itself away from the communal fire.”
“It is hard for those who are attached to their skins to appreciate the freedom of such an existence. As I remember it was so hard for me to appreciate the advantages of physical form, when I was first forced back to awareness. It was hard work to find Aurek in the ruins of Egg. Many times during my long convalescence I considered abandoning the effort.”
Timmain regarded him curiously. “But you did not. Why?”
“I sensed my learning was not yet done.”
“The learning, yes. Though there is much to be learned in spirit, some things can only be felt through the flesh. Just as this cruel world had much to teach us. Our kind is undeniably stronger for our trials here. I see how my descendents have thrived, and I know I did the right thing in embracing the worldsong. We were changeless in our Homeshell – complacent and stagnant. We needed to grow, but we could not within our starstone walls. And yet there is much this Navigator could teach my children, if they could only look beyond the crude confines of their own selves.”
“What do you mean?”
“I envy him his freedom. He can become one with the spirit-fire, become whatever he wishes. Whereas as I am bound to remember, and to serve my kind.” Her expression turned weary. “A service most unwelcome at times.”
“What troubles you?”
“Many things, great-grandson. The sum of many small rejections.” For a moment it seemed she would not admit more, then: “It is my own fault. I made a mistake more suited my younger, more impulsive self.”
Aurek waited patiently.
“I approached Pool’s offspring. Young Melati. Only she is not Pool’s child, whatever her blood. She is Haken’s, heart and soul. And he has taught her such hatred. Such arrogance. It will devour her from the inside if she is not mindful.”
“What did you wish from her?”
“Only to help her. She suffers from her contact with the messenger sphere; I sought to ease her suffering. To guide her to a higher state of being. But she does not wish to grow. She does not seek wisdom – only her own selfish desires. She learned that from Chani, I think. My poor lost daughter. I love her as I have loved all my children – mortal and immortal alike. But she is the most selfish creature I have ever known.
“Understand me, Aurek. I do not speak simply of concern for one’s own desires. I mean the inability to grow beyond the limits a soul has set itself. The hoarding of a candle flame. Nine thousand years Chani’s soul was in the Palace, but she refused to blend her flame with the others. She refused to grow beyond her own defiant spark. This defiance helped her back to her body, and she is celebrated for the feat. But is it so praiseworthy? To limit oneself so stubbornly? To fear transformation? With the memories of the messenger sphere within her, Melati could embrace an existence well beyond herself. But she thinks of nothing but Melati’s desires, Melati’s whims.”
“And it is her choice,” Aurek reminded her.
“So it is. And we must all be free to choose for ourselves – provided our choices touch none but ourselves. Ever since I stopped leading the wolfpack, I have never sought to interfere with my children’s choices. Even when I know they are the wrong ones. But Aurek, it is so wearying, watching so many missteps.”
“You mean the events on Thorny Mountain? Or Howling Rock?”
“They are but threads of the same cloth. The seeds of this current threat were sown long before Rayek’s aggression against the humans. The starstone should never have been entrusted to elves unable to properly tend it. Skywise accuses me of inaction while he and his brethren took mastery of the Palace for themselves. As if ‘mastery’ of the Homeshell is a simple matter of telekinesis and telemutation. But his words cut deeper than he knows. It is truth – I let others lead because I found leadership burdensome. Weighing the countless possible outcomes of each choice, trying to chart a course through such uncertainty. I told myself I was not meant to make history, only to witness it. Once… once I led … and my choice touched so many others… so many lives taken and given – so many possibilities, yet only one could become real. I could not face the pain of choosing – the self-doubt. Better to live as this world does – celebrating the moment, without thought or care for what came before or after.”
Aurek nodded. “You are charged to remember, but what you wish dearly is to forget.”
“Yes,” Timmain said, the word rushing out of her like a moan.
“And that is why you cannot bear to wear this skin too long.”
The corner of Timmain’s lips rose in a sad smile. “Now you sound like Weatherbird. She always tells me: ‘Shapechanging is a way of dissociating from your feelings.’ In truth, it is the only way I can embrace my feelings. For in the songs of this world’s creatures I find myself... yet that is simply another form of selfishness.”
She stood, shaking out of her skirts. “Timmain was but one part of the Circle. But a new Circle has formed inside this Palace, and there is no room in it for Timmain’s wisdom.”
“That’s not true. You know your insight is always valued.”
“Swift and Rayek tolerate me the same way they would tolerate a toothless wolf too old to feed itself,” she stated without a hint of emotion. “Skywise has not met my gaze since the night of the Reappearance. Haken has raised generations of elves to despise me. Even Sunstream does not heed my words as he once did.”
“When this is over, we will return to the College. You know you are loved there. You can take up your place in its heart once more and return to your contemplation.”
The High One smiled gently. “I have found great peace in the Egg’s walls. But I fear… I must learn to think about more than my own peace. My own needs.”
She ran her hand along the starstone wall. “One cannot choose the path for many without their consent. Yet I did just that, the day I drove Haken from the Palace. And it was the right choice. From that betrayal our race learned to thrive again. Now we find ourselves on a precipice once more, torn between destruction and renewal. Must another betrayal force the proper choice?”
“Whose betrayal, Timmain? Your words worry me.”
“They worry me as well,” Timmain admitted.
* * *
After the daysleep, the Palacedwellers and their family gathered together for a council. Skywise commanded the starstone to form enough chairs at the table for everyone. Sunstream sat with Quicksilver, Weatherbird and Cheipar, while Aurek, Vaya, Savin and Skywise took the other side of the table. Ember still rested, but Teir and Halcyon sat to represent the Plainsrunners. Cholla fidgetted in her seat, waiting impatiently for Rayek. Timmain declined a seat, preferring to stand at one end of the table.
After several sending summons, Swift arrived alone.
“Rayek?” Cholla asked.
“He’s… not feeling up to it.”
“What happened to him? I’ve been tried to send to him, but he won’t let me in.”
“He’s taking the dream-sharing hard,” Swift said, with an evasive glance at Aurek. “I’ll tell you more later.” The former wolf-chief sat down at her place. “Skywise?”
Skywise stood. “This is what he know: the corruption covers a circle some ten leagues across, with Howling Rock – and Kahvi – in the middle of it. The corruption is sentient magic. As far as Aurek can tell, the leftovers of Rayek’s death-light mixed with the spirit-echoes of the elves who died, and Kahvi’s anger was the spark that gave the magic a life of its own. Whether Kahvi controls the corruption or whether the corruption is now controlling her – we can’t tell from here. Probably doesn’t matter one way or the other. They’re one foe, as far as we’re concerned.”
He waved his hand, and a light shimmered over the tabletop. A ghostly image of Howling Rock and the ravaged landscape slowly took shape.
“So, Howling Rock. We can’t walk out to it: the corrupted ground drains the life out of any creature after about eight hundred heartbeats. We can’t fly out to it: Kahvi shoots down anything in the air. We can’t take the Palace: the corruption feeds off the power of elfin magic. So what does that leave us?”
“I hate riddles,” Swift muttered.
“We go underground,” Skywise finished. “Go under the corruption.”
“But how do you know the corruption doesn’t extend underground too?” Teir asked.
“Mika.”
Halcyon drew in a sharp breath. “Of course. That’s how she–” she glanced at Sunstream and held her tongue.
“Who is Mika?” Cholla asked.
“Bruma’s daughter,” Halcyon said. “She was a child when Howling Rock fell. She…” again the furtive look at Sunstream and his family. “She took her mother’s death hard. We were trying to regroup after the death-light when she ran off – hid herself in the tunnels under the Rock. When we… went down to get her out… we found moss and Ember’s toadstool garden still growing.”
“The initial death-light did not penetrate the soil more than a handspan,” Aurek took up the explanation. “Since the corruption awakened, it has burrowed to the limits of the soil. But the soil around Howling Rock is thin. The bedrock lies less than two elfspans below the surface. The corruption seeks to eradicate all life. But the rock is already lifeless. I believe Skywise is correct – there should be no reason for the corruption to burrow underground.”
“So… so…” Swift tapped her chin. “We tunnel under Howling Rock to get to Kahvi. But what do we do once we have her? We can’t just go charging in swords raised. We saw what good that did on Thorny Mountain.”
“We cannot use magic,” Aurek warned strongly. “It will only feed the corruption.”
“So what’s that leave us with? Wrapstuff?”
“It may work as a temporary measure,” Aurek said. “But the goal must be to separate Kahvi from the corrupted starstone.”
“How?”
“We can drain the starstone completely,” Timmain said. “It will take many minds working in harmony. And even then, a favorable outcome is not certain. In the time long before we were aground… several of my race experimented with integrating the starstone into their flesh. As you can imagine, it proved a fatal endeavour, though none quite achieved the results Kahvi has. In one case, the Circle working together was able to render the starstone inert and thus remove it from our kindred.”
“You said it was fatal,” Swift remarked.
“It was. But this was in the time when we could grow new vessels easily. The spirit passed unhindered to new flesh.”
“You said ‘in one case,’” Sunstream spoke up. “But you mentioned ‘several’ High Ones. What happened to the others?”
Timmain hesitated before speaking. “Each separate case necessitated a unique resolution. None is better than another, seen from enough distance in perspective.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It is not a time I enjoy revisiting.”
“The Circle killed them all,” Melati spoke up from the doorway, making heads turn. The healer clung to the archway for support, her eyes closed with the effort of remembering.
“One was burned up in the light of a sun,” she recited, “another was blasted apart with death-light. They wanted to live, but they had to be cleansed. Most were weak, and we overwhelmed them. But Neelim was strong. We couldn’t cleanse him. He wanted to live, so we let him live. A flitrin’s cocoon to start, but his magic began to burn through it. So we left him on a rock in empty space. Haken burned the shaft in the rock’s shell and we buried his cocoon there. By the time he escaped his cocoon, we were gone. The starstone would decay naturally. Neelim was strong, but even he could not keep it fed forever. Perhaps by now he is finally still. We could hear him screaming in our minds as we left. But there was nothing to be done. We never returned to that star family.”
Everyone turned to look at Timmain. She nodded reluctantly. “It is as she remembers. And it is… an option we must be prepared to contemplate.”
“What? Bury Kahvi alive inside Mother Moon?” Vaya sputtered.
“No. That is too close to our world. I would recommend leaving this star system entirely… if it comes to that.”
“It won’t,” Swift insisted. “Whatever happens, we are not letting her suffer forever!”
“It would not be forever. Five or six spirals should be enough to complete the process of decay.”
“No, Timmain!” Vaya exploded. “Absolutely not! Under no circumstance!”
“Even if the circumstances are that the corruption spreads and consumes all life on Abode?”
“We’re a long way from that,” Swift said.
“By your reckoning of time, perhaps.”
“In one case you were able to safely drain the starstone,” Aurek reminded Timmain. “Why then?”
“The host consented to the cleansing.”
“Kahvi wants to die,” Halcyon said. “Surely we can–”
“What? Persuade her?” Teir asked archly. “To submit?”
“No, Kahvi would never consent to end things on our terms,” Aurek said. “And now that she is bound to the corruption at Howling Rock, she views all life as an abomination. I doubt she will be content with merely her own death.”
Weatherbird raised a hand to her temple. “Winnowill asks to speak.”
Cheipar moaned a curse into the palm of his hand.
“Oh, go ahead,” Swift sighed. “Why not? Can’t be any worse than the other things I’ve heard today.”
“Thank you, Swift,” Winnowill drawled, as Weatherbird’s voice dropped into a slightly lower register. “I believe we’re neglecting one of our greatest assets.” She raised a hand to indicate Melati, still hunched nervously in the doorway. “My dark sister has many powers over the mind. Even the ability to erase memories.”
Timmain looked at Melati in horror. “Haken taught you to mind-wipe?”
“I taught myself,” Melati retorted.
“Weatherbird’s little boy stumbled upon her lair several months past, and she wiped it clean from his memory.”
Cheipar leapt his feet. “She did what?!” he roared, voice echoing off the crystal ceiling.
“Oh, sit!” Winnowill seized his shirt and pulled him back down. “Voll’s bones, you are tedious! My point is, if we can subdue Kahvi long enough, Melati can wipe all memories of the corrupt magic from her mind. Return her to the state she was in before she came to Howling Rock. Perhaps… with my assistance – and that of the Circle,” she added flippantly, “even before she was infected with the starstone.”
Melati shook her head. “I can’t go that deep. I’ve never gone that deep before.”
“And those two statements bear no relation to each other,” Winnowill said. “It is worth the attempt.”
“She is correct,” Timmain said. “The starstone that feeds on Kahvi needs her thoughts and emotions, but not her memories. It may not protect her the way it has done in the past.”
“Then… could we save her?” Vaya asked hesitantly. “Heal her body…”
Timmain’s head swung like a bell. “Her shell is too closely bound to the starstone. And the starstone is far too damaged to be saved.”
“Her spirit will be free,” Teir said. “That’s what she wants.”
“Yes,” Vaya agreed sadly. “You’re right.”
“Melati, what do you say?” Swift asked. “Are you willing to try?”
Melati nodded cautiously. She took a few steps towards the table. Cholla smiled and beckoned her nearer. “Here, sit by me,” she patted Rayek’s empty seat, and Melati perched timidly on the edge of the chair.
“All right, we have a plan forming,” Swift ruled. “We take Kahvi by surprise – get Petalwing and Waterleaf in there and wrap her up snug. That should slow this corrupt magic, if not stop it. Melati – can you work on the mind through wrapstuff?”
“I… I think so,” Melati said. “I can send through wrapstuff. Mindwiping is just a kind of sending.”
“Timmain and I can lend her our power,” Winnowill said. “And if Weatherbird can bear the extra company–”
Weatherbird’s own soprano cut in with a challenging: “If?”
Winnowill’s voice returned, “then I will summon some of my spirit friends to lend their magic as well.”
“This all assumes the wrapstuff can hold the corruption at bay long enough,” Sunstream pointed out.
“It’s not the kind of thing we can run a mock-hunt to test,” Swift remarked.
Skywise gazed at the glowing image on the table. “If we burrow right under the Rock, here, we should be able to move fast enough to catch her by surprise. But we’ll need an awful lot of rockshaping magic to dig a tunnel that long. And we’ve only got Aurek and Melati with us.”
“I can channel one of the rockshapers, Grandfather,” Weatherbird offered.
“That’s three. And to make a tunnel five leagues long – no, longer, since we’d have to go underground well shy of the corruption’s edge… Aurek, how long do you figure that’ll take?”
“Three elves, through this rock? A month, perhaps. Assuming we do not encounter any adverse conditions.”
“In a month the corruption could have spread another five leagues!” Swift exclaimed.
“My Red Snakes,” Melati said.
“Who?” Vaya asked.
“My warriors.” Melati turned a ghost of a smile at Weatherbird and Winnowill. “My ‘Chosen Eight.’ Every one of them is a trueborn rockshaper. And every one a Glider too,” she added proudly, before stopping to think. “No, one isn’t. The little one… Carrun dotes on him…” she frowned. “Augh – his name!”
“Greenflame,” Cholla offered.
“Yes, yes, thank you. Greenflame. Son of Hansha and Elsbett. Copper burns green when it’s smelted, like his eyes and his father’s eyes.” She blinked repeatedly, as if clearing a memory. “He can’t float,” she resumed. “But he can shape rock.”
“Eight-and-three rockshapers… that will cut it to less than half a month,” Skywise said. “And if we get Haken and the elders involved–”
“I do not think this a good idea,” Timmain said.
“Look, we all know you and Haken don’t work well together–” Swift began, but Timmain cut her off with a lift of her fingers.
“My feelings are inconsequential. But the purpose is to take Kahvi unawares. And the combined magic of so many powerful rockshapers will surely attract her attention.”
Aurek considered it, then nodded. “A good point,”
“Drukk it,” Swift moaned. “Where does that leave us? How are we supposed to get to Howling Rock, then?”
Savin and Quicksilver had sat silent throughout the council. Now mother and daughter exchanged glances and spoke as one, twin smiles tugging at their lips.
“Trolls.”
Elfquest copyright 2015 Warp Graphics, Inc. Elfquest, its logos, characters, situations, all related indicia, and their distinctive likenesses are trademarks of Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Some dialogue taken from Elfquest comics. All such dialogue copyright 2015 Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Alternaverse characters and insanity copyright 2015 Jane Senese and Erin Roberts.