Martyr (The Martyr Trilogy) (35 page)

“No!” 
I screamed.  “Maya!”  A crimson stain spread over her breast as her lifeblood
gushed in spurts from the open gash at her neck.  Behind me, Reya screamed
uncontrollably.

I
gasped for breath.  The golem continued to swing at me mindlessly.  With an
exertion of sheer will I emitted a shockwave that blasted it into its component
parts once more.  Stumbling, I stepped past Tal’s body and ran to where Maya’s
body hung, still suspended by Magus’ enchantments.  I clutched her body to
myself and she fell, limp, into my arms.  I crumbled to my knees.  I sobbed, unaware
and unconcerned about what was going on around me.  When I managed to open my
eyes once more, a shadow had fallen across me.  I saw the tip of a bone-white
blade emerge from my abdomen.  Everything went white.

Minutes
passed.  Hours perhaps.  The whiteness remained, but it had become warm, and it
enveloped me in its warmth.  Slowly I became certain that I could hear the
rhythmic lapping of waves against a sandy shore.  After endless time I heard a
voice.  It was deep as thunder and soft as a breath.            

“You
have done well.  But it is not yet finished.”

I
received the words without question.  The waves lapped against the shore.  A
long time passed.  I felt warm and safe.

“Through
a veil may one time pass, a sacrifice for all.”

These
were words I had heard before, words I knew.  They had no meaning.  They meant
everything.  The waves lapped the shore.  The warmth gave way to a coolness
that stirred my consciousness.  The words had meaning.  The words required
response.  A long time passed.

“Will
you do this for me?”

The
words had meaning.  I understood the meaning.  The waves lapped the shore.  The
words required response.  I mouthed the words.

(“I
will.”) I tried to say, but I didn’t hear my voice.

Then
I felt a gentle breeze, and the whiteness was a mist, and the mist began to
clear.  And I saw the sand, and the waves that lapped against it, and the sun
as it sparkled on the waves and the sand.  And I saw her, clothed only in the
mist, bare feet on the sand, raven hair flowing all about her.

“I
will,” she said.

(“Maya....Maya,
no!”) I tried to shout.  (“It’s not supposed to be you!”)  But I didn’t hear my
voice.  

I
was on the battlefield again.  The monstrous golem stood before me once more,
but it wasn’t facing me, it was looking at something else.  I looked past it,
to where Magus sat enthroned in the middle of a swirling vortex of shadowy
forms.  I watched him descend from his throne and go to examine Maya’s body,
which still hung suspended in the air, a crimson line across her neck.  Gone
was Magus’ gloating smile, replaced by a look of wonder that melted as he
looked at her into a mask of terror. 

As
I watched, Maya’s body began to glow, as if illuminated from within.  White
light beamed from the seams in her armor and dissolved the bonds between them
until the pieces of her armor fell like scales from her body.  Her whole body
glowed brightly with an inner light, and it shone from the tips of her fingers
and toes.  Tracings of light could be seen to define her eyelids, and it spread
along the strands of her jet-black hair from root to tip until her hair was
entirely white as if made of light.  It flowed in slow-moving waves in an
unfelt breeze, as if under water.  Then, in one fluid motion, luminous wings
burst from her back and stretched toward the heavens; not threads, but real,
feathery wings, expanding outward in layer upon layer of light-giving plumage
that seemed to fill the sky.  We all gazed on in wonder, except for Magus, who
had taken to shaking, and twitching, and shuddering in uncontrollable
convulsions.  Slowly, Maya’s head turned toward him, an angel’s face perched
atop a long, graceful neck, and suddenly her lids flicked open, revealing huge,
almond-shaped eyes, gateways into other-worldly wells of purest light.  Magus
screamed, and writhed in his skin, unable to bear the brightness of the light
from those eyes, yet unable to flee.  Then the feathers of Maya’s wings began
to vibrate and shimmer, and from somewhere within her breast came a rapid
swelling of power, an intensifying of light and of energy, accompanied by the
sound of a song that cannot be heard.  Growing in pitch and in volume until it
could not be contained, it burst in a supernova of infinite light and sound. 
For an endless time all of creation was bathed in its awesome, beautiful,
terrible light.  From this place the shadows fled away and were found no more,
and Magus, the scourge of the earth, stiffened and fell dead.  The shattered
plain was peppered with the bodies of countless dead soldiers, clad in black
armor and laying where they had stood.  Finally the golem crumbled,
surrendering the body of Tal-Makai at last.  Having finished the work to which
Chaer-Ul had called her, Maya’s head turned to face me, and in the midst of the
exceeding brilliance I thought I saw her smile at me briefly.  Then all of a
sudden the glory departed, and Martyr too fell dead.

Dreams
and visions.  I see a long road.  A caravan of war-weary travelers.  A row of
magnificent beasts with wings like fire, all but the first ridden by great
warriors.  The first bears a body, a black-haired angel bound in burial clothes
and secured to the animal’s back.  Shattered buildings give way to grassy
fields, to forests, to mountain heights.  A dream.  I sit on a mossy rock in a
lush, green place, sunlight dappled through a leafy canopy.  A crystalline
stream trickles over polished stones.  A figure sits on a stone on the other
side.  It is a man, but I cannot see his face.  The brook is his voice. 

“It’s
over,” he said.  “You did your part.”

“But
I didn’t,” I said.  “Hers was my part.  Now I have no part.” 

“Everyone
plays the part they were meant to play,” he said. 

“But
why did she have to die?” I asked.  “Was there no other way?”

“Men
will never understand.  Death is nothing.  It means nothing.  Whether or when
you die, that is not important.”

“What
is important?” I asked.

“Love,”
he said.  “And love that will spend life for another, that is worth something.”

“What
is it worth?” I asked. 

“Life,”
he said. 

“Whose
life?” I asked.

There
was a long pause…. “When you spoke, you couldn’t hear your voice,” he said at
last.  “But I did.  I know what you would have done.  For her.  For them.  For
me.”

Mountains
give way to hills, lowlands.  A ravaged city, a river, an upward-curving road. 
A dam.  Seven great white deer walking into the forest, disappearing among the
trees.

31

I
stood in the sepulchre where Tal-Makai had been laid to rest, waiting for the
others to pay their respects and file out.  I was hoping to have a long overdue
conversation with Reya, alone.  Jager lingered for what seemed an eternity,
then finally stood and left.  “So,” I said when he was gone, taking Reya’s
hands in mine, “that wasn’t the whole truth about your daughter, now was it?”

“Not
entirely,” she admitted. 

“Are
you ready to tell me what really happened?” I asked. 

“I
suspect you’ve already figured it out, mostly,” she said. 

“It
wasn’t just a close call, was it?” I asked.  “They really did take her.  They…Magus’
men…they killed your baby girl.  So the Maya I know…”

Reya’s
eyes were welling up again. 

“I’m
sorry,” I said.  “It can wait.”

“No,
you deserve the truth.”  She pulled back her hands.  Dabbing her eyes on her
sleeve, she pressed on.  “She was just like her, as much as she could possibly
be.  Chaer-Ul brought her.”

“A
double, from another world.  Like me.  And what about her real parents?” I
asked. 

“They
had both just died tragically,” Reya said.  “She would have been an orphan.”

“You
didn’t do anything wrong,” I said.  “Any parent would have done the same.” 

“She
was my daughter,” Reya said.  “As much as she would have been otherwise.” 

“She
was,” I said.  “And she knew it.  She wouldn’t have thought otherwise.”

“I
wonder if she’d understand,” Reya said.  “I hope she forgives me.”

“You
can tell her,” I said.  “I’m sure she’ll hear you.  I know she’d forgive you,
if there were anything to forgive.”

Reya
smiled.  “Yeah, I will, when I’m ready.  It’s waited this long…”

“We’ve
got all the time in the world,” I said.  “This is a new beginning.  We’ve all
got to learn a new way, but we’ll do it together.”

Reya
nodded, smiled warmly, and kissed me on the cheek.  She stood, took one last
look at the inscription, and left.  After she was gone I read it again, then
the one for Doog, and the one for Corvus.  I allowed myself a moment to
remember all that these men had done for us.  Next there was one for Mana – the
real Mana, though of course the box was empty.  She had just been an
unfortunate victim in a game she never knew she was playing.  Finally I let my
eyes drift to Maya’s epitaph, but my vision blurred; I didn’t want to read it
again.  This structure was a work in progress, of course; other names would be
added before all the fallen were accounted for.  So many good lives cut
short…but maybe now the time of healing could begin.

My
reverie was disrupted by a sound of feet scuffing the sand on the stone outside
the arched entryway.  Somebody cleared their throat softly.  A pretty face
tilted at an angle slid into view, the movement releasing a cascade of silky
black hair that hung halfway to the floor.  “Maya!” I said.  “You’re supposed
to be resting.”

“I
missed you!” she chirped as she stepped fully into the doorway.  She was
wearing something white, layered and flowy, not her usual utilitarian blacks. 
The indirect sunlight beaming down behind her imparted a downy glow to the
edges of the garment, and hinted at the lean curves underneath.  She had been
here before, but somehow kept returning.  Her nose wrinkled as she caught sight
of the stone bearing her name.  “Eeee, creepy…I hope they get rid of that
soon.” 

“Yeah,
I know,” I said.  “A bit premature, wasn’t it?”

“You
know, I always thought I’d be afraid when it was time to die,” she said, “but
there was no fear…I knew death wasn’t the end.  I’m just so grateful for this
second chance.”  She looked at the other epitaphs and sighed, then came to sit
beside me.  “It does feel good that he’s resting here with us, where he
belongs,” she said.  She was obviously referring to her longtime friend.  “I’m
really going to miss him.  He always knew the right thing to say.”  She blinked
away the tears that tried to form, then sat in silence for a long time.  Slowly
her breathing became more regular.  She leaned her head on my shoulder.  I
could feel her cheeks stretching into a smile before I looked down.

“What…?”
I said playfully, trying to tease it out of her.

“Um…you
know how you said we have to start rebuilding the world…?” she asked.

I
didn’t catch on immediately.  “Yeah…so?”  She smiled even bigger, drew her hand
in an arcing motion under her belly, then lifted big chocolate-brown eyes to
meet mine.   “You don’t mean….you’re….we’re…  Really?  Are you sure?!!?”

She
shook her head up and down emphatically. 

“Oh
wow!  But…Maya!  What about your mother…will she be all right with this?  I
mean…you know…we should make it official…”

Maya
stared blankly.  “What are you talking about, Darling?” she said.  “We’re
already married!  Remember, at the dam?”

“Yes,
I know,” I said.  “It’s just that…there was no ceremony…”

“Silly! 
This isn’t your world!” she said.  “Do you need a ceremony to meet with
Chaer-Ul?”

“Well,
no, I guess not, but…”

Maya
continued.  “We were bound for life the moment Chaer-Ul brought us together. 
People mate for life.  That’s just how it happens.  That’s how it’s always
happened.”

“Bound…for
life,” I repeated slowly, letting it process.  In my own world, I had always
been a bit wary of the whole marriage thing.  It wasn’t a fear of commitment;
more a skepticism about the long-term prospects, based no doubt on my own
cultural experience, my parents’ marriage…  But now that it was actually
happening, had already happened…I found I wasn’t afraid.  It felt normal.  And
as I looked at Maya, ‘life’ didn’t feel like a sentence.  It felt…right.  “So
you and me…?”

“Forever,”
she said.  “No matter what.”  Now I allowed myself to smile. 

Then
a furrow appeared over Maya’s eyes.  “Wait a second…you didn’t think we were “officially”
married?  But you…we…you didn’t think that I would have if…Justin!”

Mercifully,
there came a rumbling sound outside the sepulchre, distant at first, then
growing louder.  Excited voices could be heard, multiplying as the rumbling
grew to a steady roar.  Suddenly Knox stuck his head into the doorway.  “The
last scouting party is back!  And they’ve brought back…”

“My
bike!” Maya finished for him, jumping up and down excitedly and forgetting what
had upset her.  She started toward the door, then turned back abruptly and
placed a long, warm kiss on my lips before skipping out of the room, raven hair
flowing out behind her.