Echoes in the Dark (64 page)

Grief
poured through Jikata, added timbre to her voice, enriched it. But she couldn’t
afford clogging tears. She was a professional and this was the greatest Song in
her life. A Song that would save a world,
worlds,
destroy great evil.

It
didn’t matter that her special voice would be gone.

The
feycoocus shot down the tube, separated to their persons. Sinafinal sped over
to Alexa as a miniature greyhound, added Power and yips to the Song, magic.

Tuckerinal
raced as a huge hamster to Marian, glanced at her, then detoured to hop on Koz.
His pumping chest eased.

Enerin
ran as a kitten to Raine, settled on her lap, mewing.

Luthan’s
arms wrapped around Jikata and she focused more on the Song. The men were
Singing low as the women continued to spiral high. As she watched, a throbbing
blood-red strand of the knot lifted, slithered through a loop, laid limp.

Color
seeped into her mind, images from Luthan. She was leaning against him now.

Look
at the knot.
Marian’s mental voice was hushed.

Jikata
did. It had swollen to the size of a snake, crossed over itself only a few
times. It wasn’t the red of blood as it had always been, it was covered with
sparkles. Glittering tiny explosions popping like champagne corks. Getting
bigger and bigger.

The
knot grew and throbbed and sparkled, twelve small sparks growing into six
larger ones.

A
stifling, thick black ooze filled the lava tube entrance, slithered down the
wall of the cavern, defiling and killing the crystals, harming the spellsong.
The Dark had reached them.

Jikata
signaled everyone to speed the pace even faster, Sing louder, emphasized key
words herself.

The
air around her thickened, glazed. A bubble forming. The spells’ defense.

Flames
replaced the sparks on the thread, decreased from six to four to two…

The
Dark whipped out a tendril, slashed the bubble, bounced off.

BOOM!

The
mountain shattered around them, screams filled the air, horrors, monsters
incinerated in an instant.

No!
There was a
shriek of disbelief and fury as the Dark died.

Stone
disintegrated, and they were in the open air, falling.

Jaquar
and Marian Sang, voices strong and competent, completely confident and the
bubble encasing them all slowed and righted.

Bri
huddled over Raine, sending healing energy through the injured woman, nasty pus
and dark red stain drained from her wounds. Faucon was holding Raine and
praying, his Song a counterpoint to Jaquar’s and Marian’s.

A
dreeth dived at them.

The
roc intercepted it.

They
fought, beaks and claws, fell, ripped into the bubble.

It
couldn’t take the blow.

The
bubble popped.

Jikata
grabbed the pieces, held them together, Sang as she never had before.

Until
her voice simply broke.

The
force field disappeared and it was like a vision moment where she could see
everything progress in slow motion.

Jaquar
snagged Koz, Marian brought a wind to break their fall, pushed air at the
others, slowed Bastien and Alexa’s fall, but they hit hard, Bastien’s shin bone
poked through the skin. Alexa stroked him and yelled for Bri, then took her
baton and his and had him arching, screaming, but the bone set. Alexa sobbed.

Volarans
whirled about Calli and Marrec, brought them safely down to the fused glass
that had been sandy beach beyond the smoking crater of the mountain. They were
yards from Bastien and Alexa, and ran to them.

The
roc, crippled and torn, grabbed Bri and Sevair, tried to glide, but they fell
the last ten feet and there was a horrible snap and Bri’s grief-stricken cry
came as she flung herself on the dead bird.

Marian’s
air hit Jikata, Luthan, Raine, Faucon.

Jikata
and Luthan came together, held on. The two older feycoocus were there, dug in
their claws, slowed them until they were five feet from the ground then
bulleted off toward where Enerin struggled to help Raine.

The
planet jarred under Jikata’s feet, she slipped, came down hard on her butt.

Screams
of pain split the air, stopped short.

“Are
you all right?” asked Luthan. He’d rolled in some sort of Chevalier maneuver
and was favoring his left shoulder and leg, but looked okay. Alive. Completely
and absolutely gorgeous.

“Ayes,”
she croaked, then remembered. Her voice was gone. Tears overran her eyes, she
shook her head, let herself grieve for an instant, shook her head again
impatiently. They were alive! They’d destroyed the Dark! She managed a quivery
smile, touched her throat. “No voice, I won’t be the Singer.”

He
held out his hand and she put hers in it, let him draw her to her feet.

Marian
shrieked, and Faucon yelled, “No!” then, “Bri!”

Luthan
met Jikata’s gaze. “Raine,” he said.

“Raine,”
she whispered sorrowfully. It had always been Raine who’d had the least chance
of surviving.

“Koz
didn’t have the connection with Amee that the rest of you do, either,” Luthan
said. They ran toward the others.

Bri
stumbled to an outcropping, set one hand on Raine, the other on Koz. They’d
landed on the rocks.

“Bri—”
said Sevair, her husband, but it was too late. Bri poured the healingstream
into them, poured herself into them.

Jikata
and Luthan drew near and he put a tight arm around her waist. It was hopeless.

But
Bri continued until she toppled over, pale and still.

Alexa
crawled over to her, stroked her hair. “Her healing skill is gone.”

“Like
my voice,” Jikata said.

47

On the Glassy
Island Beach

R
aine’s vision
was dimming, black at the edges of her sight, colors bleeding out into gray.
She was dying. She knew that and it wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be.
In fact, she thought that just…beyond…she could see a shining golden door a
little like the portals of the Dimensional Corridor.

This
dying wasn’t so bad, the pain was a dull ache that she knew she could bear, and
dying among friends who were more like sisters—and brothers—and in the arms of
the man she loved after saving a world. Not bad at all.

Her
gaze fixed on Faucon’s face. She wanted that to be her last sight. She was
sorry this would hurt him.

“No,”
he yelled. “Bri!”

But
Bri’s life force was nearly as thready as Raine’s own. She couldn’t heal, would
be lucky to survive.

“No!”
Faucon shouted again and it was deeper, more sonorous, almost a Song. “Jikata!”

Jikata
opened her mouth but nothing came out, though Raine felt the touch of her
Power. Jikata’s special voice was gone, too.

“No!”
Faucon’s word
was Song…prayer…
demand.
His brown eyes flashed and he rose with Raine,
jostling her broken bones and piercing already ruptured organs. Terrible pain
made the world bright again, tore a rattling gasp from her.

He
shouted, “
No!
I am a true Lladranan, true Amian and I say
no.
This woman, brought here against her will, fulfilling all your demands deserves
better!” A chant with Power.

She
thought she heard a hum in counterpoint. Marian, exhausted, giving her all,
tears streaking down her face as she and Jaquar held Koz, who was dying like
Raine was, too broken to be mended.

“These
native men and these Exotique women have
freed
you, Mother Amee. They
deserve
better from you, blessing and benediction!”

It
all rhymed in Lladranan, and rolled over Raine like a wave, giving her the
strength to smile up at Faucon.

Then
it happened, the slightest wisp of a Touch, with blessing, with amusement. They
all felt the Power of the world.

I
pay my debts,
Amee Sang.

Raine
gasped again with strong, perfect lungs. Faucon collapsed with her onto the
beach and they held each other tight.

J
ikata wept in
joy. She’d felt Amee Touch her…with Power that healed. She sang a low C and the
next moment draped around her in a glittering shininess of Vision. Luthan’s
fingers tightened on her own and she knew they shared this prophecy.

She
and Bri and Raine and Koz had been Healed, her voice, which had been gone,
Bri’s exhaustion of her healing gift, which had also been gone, Raine’s and
Koz’s mortal injuries. In that Great Healing they gained more, all three of the
women would have children with their men.

Time
stopped.

“Look
at them all.” Luthan’s whisper was hoarse, his grip tight. “Alexa…”

Jikata
glanced at the Lady Knight Swordmarshall, did a double take. Alexa’s hair had
turned a flame-red. Jikata choked on a laugh as she saw the woman’s future.
Alexa had complained about being a Joan of Arc so Jikata didn’t think she’d
tell Alexa that she’d be George Washington and John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
all rolled into one—a person who forged and held together a new nation. Oh, not
like the democratic republics of home, but a culture that found its own way,
melded together into one people through adversity.

Luthan,
who was shaking his head beside her, jutted his chin toward Marian.

“Oh.
Oh.” Tears gathered in Jikata’s throat. They’d all known that Marian was the
most likely to have children, but when Amee had Touched the Circlet, she’d
quickened a child that had been conceived by Marian and Jaquar the night
before. Marian’s left pinkie was still gone, but neither she nor Jaquar could
hide the Power that made them faintly glow.

“Calli,”
Luthan continued the litany.

Calli
had been the least hurt, beloved by her husband, her children, all the volarans
of Amee, wrapped in a protective bubble of their love.

Since
she hadn’t been injured, her gift from Amee was less.

She
would never have children of her body, but have more children than all of the
rest of them put together. She and Marrec would travel throughout the world,
live the longest.

Bri
laughed and poked Alexa in the ribs. “Your hair is red, like you wanted.”

“What!”
Alexa clamped both filthy hands in her hair.

Bri
was back to normal, grinning impishly.

“Bri
will be the greatest healer of all time, founder of many schools, revered,”
Luthan muttered. He met Jikata’s eyes, his own sheened. “As you will be a
legendary Singer, your voice returned with additional richness and Power by
Amee herself.”

“And
we’ll both have children.” She leaned against him, felt his solidity, his love.

Koz
struggled away from Marian. “Sis!” He propped himself on his elbows, looked
down at his body showing health under the shreds of his leathers. He shook his
head in disgust, glanced at Jikata and Luthan and his eyes widened. Jikata
didn’t know what he saw, whether their eyes had turned a different color as his
had. Now his irises held a glimmer of silver like his own mirrors. “Wow,” he
said. He looked around. “We made it.” He grimaced and shook his body. “Coulda
done without all the pain.” New lines were in his face.

Sevair
grinned. “Ayes, we destroyed the Dark.” Then his expression sobered as he
looked around. “I can’t get my bearings.”

Jikata
stood and moved slowly inland around the crumbling mass of the volcano. A gasp
strangled in her throat as she looked down. There, about three feet underneath
her feet, looking as if he’d been encased in a smoky glass coffin, was
Bossgond.

He
still held his long staff in his hand, his robe still showed his boney knees
and shoulders, and his face had a look of startled surprise. His eyes were
open. Jikata thought the black mark on his forehead must have been his death
wound.

She
must have made some noise because the others gathered. Marian stifled a sob and
knelt down to touch the glassy surface of the ground over his face.

“But
Amee takes those who fall into her ground,” Raine said dazedly, leaning heavily
on Faucon. She met Jikata’s eyes. “Not the monsters, but Lladranans, the
Lorebooks say so. Ella—is Ella here?”

Raine’s
gaze followed Alexa as she hurried, sliding a little on the glassy surface.

This
was the battlefield.

Jaquar
stroked Marian’s hair, his jaw clenching. He said, “Bossgond went out fighting.
He and all the others here bought us the time we needed to defeat the Master
and the Dark.”

Tears
welled into Jikata’s eyes at the sight of the man with whom she’d spent only a
few comforting moments.

Alexa
gave a cry and Jikata and the others followed. She’d only gotten a stride away
before she saw a volaran and a female Chevalier in profile, as if they’d fallen
on their sides—almost like they’d been caught in amber, her arm was raised,
sword outthrust, her grin fierce. A yellow, poisonous spine was stuck in her
neck. Jikata averted her eyes and stumbled on.