Collision: The Alliance Series Book Three (16 page)

“Hurt?” Mathran shook his head, appearing even more baffled. “The deities would not do us harm.”

There’s no backlash? Impossible.
Even in Aglaia, where the mages used magic for almost everything, the three rules held. They’d summon up a storm, and it’d cause a drought elsewhere or later on.

This
world, though…

“It’s possible,” said Iriel, slowly. “If you use first level to do something subtle, the backlash is absorbed into the atmosphere. That’s what happens on midlevel magic worlds like Valeria.

“It does?” asked Ada.

I nodded. “I think so. Can’t say I know much about it. Like you can pick a lock or open a window, and the backlash will barely stir a breeze. It’s in the application, and it depends on the world’s magic level. I don’t know how that would work here.” If these deities supposedly governed all magic use, then probably not. But I couldn’t count on that.

“Wow,” said Ada. “I’d never thought of it like that. On Earth, the backlash is pretty noticeable.”

“You use magic on Earth?” asked Iriel, curious.

“Uh.” She flushed. “I used to. Before I found out…”

Before she found out how destructive it could be. She’d never used it to harm people before, even in the Passages. I shook my head to disperse the lingering guilt. I’d been at least partly responsible for breaking her trust in magic, even if it
was
about as safe as a rampaging wyvern.

“So, can you demonstrate?” I asked Mathran instead. That seemed a reasonable request given what he’d told us.

Mathran bowed his head. “Very well. We shall have to go outside.”

He stood, and Raj and Iriel exchanged raised eyebrows. Guess none of us had expected him to say yes.

Several feet away from the base, Mathran paused, turning to face us. He adopted the same stance he’d used when we were being attacked.

“I will attempt to call Aktha,” he said. “It’s been so long, but he rewards those who follow him.”

Magic made its presence known as he splayed his hands. The surface of the rock he stood on swirled, like an invisible hand drew on it, and a scraping sounded as it dug deeper into the rock. When Mathran lowered his hands, a symbol appeared etched at his feet, a complex glyph of swirling lines.

“Aktha,” he whispered. “Why have you forsaken us?”

No response. The others stared at the symbol, too, but it gave us no answers.

“This is carved into our places of worship,” he explained. “It’s usually clearer… perhaps Aktha is weakening. That is the only explanation I can think of.”

“You think the deities are losing their power?”

“I dare not suggest it, yet it seems one of few explanations that make sense. The trio have protected my people since we first arrived on this world. Now the world itself has changed… I need to talk to a friend,” said Mathran, with a glance at Avar. “We lost contact.”

“Contact? How did you communicate with them, exactly?” asked Iriel.

“Our technology no longer works,” said Mathran. “We used to keep contact with a group of… I suppose you would call them science-summoners?”

“Scientists,” I said. So magic and science coexisted here?

“Yes… they have certain artefacts, certain information. It has been a long time, but if you have a way to cross the continent… you did not use the door?”

He worked with the Alliance, but I hesitated before pulling out the world-key. Ms Weston had said he’d seen that technology before, and it wasn’t strictly an Earth Alliance secret.

“Yes,” I said. “If you come with us into the Passages, I can open a door anywhere on the continent.” Pity it didn’t work like a tracker, which picked up on a particular person who’d used magic recently and could track their exact location–well, it worked on Earth, but not usually on high-magic worlds. Though, if I combined the two and amplified them, maybe
I
could. I’d never had reason to try…

Later,
I told myself. God only knew I’d done enough magic-related meddling today already.

“Very well.” Mathran gave the symbol on the ground one last, sad look, then walked around it, as though afraid to disturb the one tangible sign of his god left in the world.

For some reason, the thought sent an uncomfortable chill down my spine.

Outside the Passage door, an outline cut into the cliff-side, and Mathran regarded it warily.

“It’s safe,” said Raj.

Mathran nodded. “It’s just a silly superstition… the Vey-Xanethans say if one person leaves this world, every other Vey-Xanethan will be forced to follow them or face destruction.”

Raj and Iriel exchanged uneasy glances, while Ada chewed on her lower lip. Mathran’s people had been forced to leave their world once already, and a legend like that didn’t bode well. After all, if gods were real, all bets were off.

There
had
to be an explanation. I didn’t think Mathran was lying. The people really believed it. And I’d seen no shortage of evidence for preternatural beings, creatures of pure magic. Might these deities be like that?

But whatever they were, I wasn’t sure they were on our side.

CHAPTER EIGHT

ADA

Kay used the world-key device to open another doorway after closing the first one. Mathran scanned the Passages nervously, edgier than the rest of us put together. I couldn’t exactly blame him. His eyes grew round as Kay opened the door, but the scene on the other side was empty sea, no land in sight.

Imagine using that world-key to travel anywhere on Earth
. But it was set to Vey-Xanetha, according to Kay. Even Ms Weston didn’t entirely understand how it worked. Yet another mystery only the higher-up members of the Alliance would understand. It kind of bugged me, seeing as
we
were the ones going into dangerous territory, but I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to explore. And possibly get answers about magic. I’d never heard of a world where ‘force’ and ‘deity’ meant the same thing… but Vey-Xanetha had had nothing to do with the Alliance for the past twenty-five years.

The view through the doorway looked more like a forest than a city, though a path carved its way through thick red-barked trees with roots taller than I was. A rainforest, with low-hanging clouds draped around the trees like curtains.

“This is close to the city,” said Mathran.

The sweltering heat got to me immediately, and even though I knew this world was teeming with magic-related threats, I couldn’t help but wish I wore something more suited to the weather than skin-tight, jet-back guard gear.

“I’m dying,” Raj muttered. “Is there a fountain I can jump in? Or is that breaking some law?”

Mathran gave him a blank look, and I stifled a giggle.

“Where’s this city, anyway?” asked Iriel. She had a point; the snaking path didn’t seem to lead anywhere but deeper into thick forest. Bright flowers bloomed all around us, filling the air with unfamiliar scents, which combined with the heat, made it even more difficult to breathe. I’d never been to a rainforest on Earth, so I didn’t have anything to compare it to, but I hadn’t thought
walking
would become exhausting within minutes. And even with the track beneath our feet, thick vines draped across our path, and strange, bright-winged insects buzzed around us. My ear stung as something bit me, and spun around, swatting at it.

“Nothing’s poisonous in here, is it?” I asked, warily. I really didn’t want to die in the jungle on a distant world.

Mathran shook his head. “Not the insects, no, but I wouldn’t touch the plants.”

“And there went my plan to take some of those as a souvenir,” said Raj, pointing at a cluster of vivid yellow mug-shaped flowers.

“Those are hideous,” said Iriel. “And you’re still doing that?”

“Still doing what?” I asked.

“He insists on taking ‘tokens’ from every world he goes to,” said Iriel. “It’s got him arrested a couple of times.”

“Not tokens,” said Raj. “Souvenirs. Only from Alliance-approved areas. Come on, I have to have something to show my girlfriend after I’ve been gallivanting off for a week.”

“You have a girlfriend?” I asked.

“That was a joke,” said Raj. “Non-Alliance members tend to tire of the excuses. Sorry, I can’t come home tonight, I’m staying on Alvienne and there’s a sixty per cent chance I’ll be mauled by a griffin. Been there, done that.”

Iriel burst out laughing. I couldn’t help glancing sideways at Kay. Had
he
been thinking long-term, before I’d screwed everything up? Or had he even wanted a relationship at all? Sure, my family’s general attitude towards him didn’t help, but still. If not for the obvious total inappropriateness of the scenario, I almost wished for another glass of inhibition-killing wine so I could just
ask
him. And then I wondered if there wasn’t the tiniest chance the heat had short-circuited my brain cells.

Right now, Kay was in Alliance-mode, closed-off and tense, though I’d sensed anger beneath the surface ever since he’d come out of Ms Weston’s office. I’d heard her yelling at him in there, and I gathered she’d threatened to put him on probation for using magic in Central. I could hardly believe he’d actually done that. None of us had a weapon, but with Earth’s magic levels going crazy, even I didn’t dare use magic.

Still, he hadn’t used it in a way that might have hurt anyone, no more than the damage the griffin caused. And Ms Weston had been in her office and the guards nowhere to be found. To be honest, a griffin in Central didn’t seem like something the Alliance would allow at all, but Earth itself had gone absolutely insane over the past two days.

We really needed an explanation. Fast.

“We’re here,” said Mathran, stopping in the middle of the path.

“Here’s… where?” asked Raj uncertainly. Thick tree roots enclosed the path like natural-made fences, and the trees themselves were as wide as houses… wait. I looked up at the canopy, convinced I’d seen movement. Yes–there were
people
up there, crossing the thick branches between the trees, some of which were hollow.

There were people living in the trees.

“Holy crap,” I said, gaping as a figure jumped between two trees high above.

Mathran shook his head. “Xanet’s followers.”

“What is this place?” I asked. “Is the whole city up in the trees?”

“The trees
are
the city,” said Mathran. “This is the main entrance,” he added, leaving the path via a sort of alleyway between two curving tree roots. Alongside the tree lay what looked like a handmade pulley system supporting a cage of interlocked branches.

“This is how goods are carried in and out of the city,” he said. “And people.”

“You’re kidding me,” said Raj, mouth hanging open. “That doesn’t look safe.”

“It is perfectly safe,” said Mathran, a touch of reproach in his voice. “Xanet’s protection is in the branches.”

Considering the deities were supposedly losing their power, this wasn’t exactly reassuring. I glanced at Kay, whose frown suggested he’d had the same thought.

Once Mathran had demonstrated the platform was, however, pretty sturdy, and signalled to someone in the tree-building at the top to activate the system, we didn’t have a lot of options other than to climb in.

“And there I was, thinking we were done with tree-climbing,” I muttered, but didn’t get a reaction. Kay’s hands were clenched on the edges of the platform, like he wanted to jump out and climb instead.

“Lighten up,” Iriel said to Raj, who looked equally uncomfortable. “This is hardly different from the Alliance’s glass lifts.”

“I thought a griffin smashed two of those to pieces today,” said Raj, through clenched teeth.

“Thanks for the reminder,” I said to him.

“Are there many people about?” Iriel asked Mathran.

“Few will leave their houses, given the circumstances,” said Mathran. “Kevar is a summoner of Xanet. I would have also liked to introduce you to a Veyak summoner, too, as I am told the Alliance would like to hear all sides of the story.”

“All three deities,” said Kay. “You said this city pertains to… Xanet?”

“Xanet is our nature deity, so this is her natural home,” he said. “Particularly gifted summoners take on the appearance of the forest itself. As followers of Aktha may develop certain aspects to their appearance, too.” He tapped the side of the platform with a finger, creating a distinct, and unexpected, hollow sound. More like one rock striking another.

“You’re made out of stone?” said Raj. “Um. Not literally. Right?”

“In a way, I take Aktha as part of myself.”

Holy wow. This I’d
never
heard of, and I’d talked to people from so many worlds I’d lost count.

“And there’s no chance we can talk to anyone else?” asked Iriel.

“None of you speak Vey-Xanethan,” said Mathran. “That would not be wise.”