The Unmaking (37 page)

Nia said, “That was rather heroic. Pointless, but heroism usually is.”

Rising to her feet was painful and her balance was off, but Nell stumbled over to where Ander lay impaled, staring about him in a startled sort of way. Nia watched them, interested.

“Mr. Brady,” said Nell thickly, “are you all right?”

It would occur to her later, when she had time to process it all, that this was probably the single stupidest thing she had ever said in her entire life. Ander Brady was not all right. He had a spear through his chest and would be dead in moments.

“Hello Nell,” said Ander, which was also an odd thing to say under the circumstances, but Ander would have no time to think about it later. He gave a sputtering little cough, gasped down one last breath, and then his eyes glassed over and he stopped breathing altogether.

Nell stood next to him, unable to think for a moment. Then she walked over to where the Faery had dropped his sword, picked it up, and looked at Nia with bleak hatred.

“Nell, don’t,” Jalo begged her, his face white and stricken.

But Nia was laughing. “
You
are
adorable!”
she exclaimed. “What in the worlds are you and that man
doing
here?”

“I’m Eliza’s friend,” said Nell, and she ran at Nia with the sword.

She found herself sitting down hard. The sword was in Nia’s hand, who twirled it at her threateningly and then said, “That makes perfect sense. Where
is
Eliza, anyway? I hope she’s still having fun with the present I Made her. I haven’t had a chance to look in on her, I’ve been so busy, but no doubt she’s hard at work. I’m quite eager to see how much she’s figured out. She’s an original, isn’t she, our Eliza?”

“Are you going to kill me now?” asked Nell dully. The cockroach was racing across the rubble-strewn hall towards her, as if he might protect her in insect form.

“Oh, no!” said Nia. “You get a free pass, my girl. I’m not about to go killing Eliza’s friends off. She’d think I was being malicious and, oddly enough, her opinion matters to me.
He
wasn’t a friend of hers, was he? I didn’t really mean to kill him but he did get in my way.”

Nell looked at Ander again, lying back with the spear in him. She could not weep or feel sorrow or fear or anything at all really, beyond a hazy sense of nothing being quite real. She looked around the Hall. The shattered statues, the dead myrkestra, the Faery bound in silver, his face a mask of misery, and Swarn sitting on the pile of rocks, eyes darting about but settling nowhere, her mouth hanging open. The cockroach reached her and crawled onto her hand. She watched Nia go to the myrkestra and pull the lower half of the spear out of it with a hideous sucking sound that made Nell want to throw up.

“I should snap her out of it for this last bit,” commented Nia to Nell. “It’s no good killing someone when they aren’t even aware you’re doing it. It takes away the whole point of revenge.”

Nell tried to get up but couldn’t. Something was stopping her, something she had no way of fighting. She curled a hand around the cockroach and looked away. She didn’t want to watch. Nia stepped carefully through the rubble and waved the end of the spear before Swarn’s face. Swarn’s eyes cleared. She drew in a painful gasp of air and stared up at Nia.

“You’re a better match for me than your sister was,” said Nia, sounding quite friendly.

Swarn glanced at the spear, her face showing nothing.

“Last words?” asked Nia. “Something like
I’m sorry
perhaps?”

“I’m not sorry,” rasped Swarn.

“Those are the last words I would choose, too,” said Nia approvingly, and drove the broken spear down towards Swarn’s heart. It glanced aside, and Swarn laughed weakly. Nia looked very put out.

“How can there be
deeper
enchantments on it?” she asked petulantly. “How long do you
spend
on your weapons? Never mind. I’m not inflexible. If I have to kill you with a Faery sword instead, so be it. It’s not as poignant, but it’ll serve.” She tossed aside the shaft of the spear and pointed the sword at Swarn. “They say you have to pierce a witch straight through the heart and then burn her to be certain she’s dead. Burning and drowning, those are the most popular, aren’t they? But we’ll begin with the heart. Then I’ll burn you to cinders and drown the pieces on my way back to Di Shang. I don’t want you coming back for me.”

She lunged for Swarn again. Again the sword glanced away.

“Barriers!” cried Nia. “I know a thing or two about barriers, you sad sack.”

She pressed her hand against the barrier. Swarn kept her eyes fixed on Nia’s face.

“It’s strong,” said Nia, then stood up straight, looking around her in surprise. “Too strong for you to have done it just now, weak as you are. Who is there?”

Nell looked up just in time to see ravens pouring into the hall, filling the great vault with the sound of their wings. The tiger gave a full-throated roar, driving the ravens up to the top of the vault, where they swarmed and screamed.

“Eliza!” shouted Nia. “Spare me your feathered friends! Come out and say hello!”

The wall opened and Eliza stepped through it, dagger in hand. She did not cast a glance towards her friend – even when Nell called out to her – or the Faery in chains, or even the dead man. She fixed her gaze on Nia.

“What are you doing
here
, Smidgen?” said Nia irritably. “Can’t you see I’m busy killing this witch?”

“I’m done with the Kwellrahg,” said Eliza.

“You
can’t
be.”

Eliza said nothing.

“You didn’t kill it,” said Nia. “And you didn’t make that barrier by yourself, either
–
it’s too strong for you alone. Who is with you? You didn’t find a stray Mancer I missed, did you?”

“No,” said Eliza. She looked around at the hall briefly. “You’ve made a mess, aye,” she said.

“Yes,” said Nia happily. “The Hall of the Ancients! You can really feel it here, can’t you? Their vast indifference. You and I are all that’s left of their long-ago, too-slight pity.”

“How profound,” said Eliza.

Nia raised an eyebrow. “Sarcasm doesn’t suit you, Smidgen. What are you
up
to? Where is the Kwellrahg?”

“Usually I’m impatient and you want to talk,” commented Eliza.

“Oh, have you come to
talk?”
asked Nia, thoroughly annoyed now and keeping one eye on Swarn. “What would you like to talk
about?”

“You’re the only one who knows everything
my mother used to know,” said Eliza. “You have so many of the answers I want.”

Nia rolled her eyes. “Answers are over-rated. They wouldn’t satisfy you anyway. Now, I can see you’ve made all kinds of progress in the last few days, as your noisy flock up there attests. I’m obviously good for you. But if you want to sit down and have a long chat, do you mind if I kill the witch first? I didn’t kill your charming little friend by the way, even though she started waving a sword at me. How’s that for generous?”

“I willnay let you kill Swarn,” said Eliza.

“You’re going to stop me, are you? I’m fascinated. You’re actually a bit creepy when you’re being cryptic and calm. Well, let’s see who you’ve brought with you.”

Nia turned her back on Eliza and made her way towards Swarn. Nell found she was able to move again. Immediately she scrambled to her feet and ran to Eliza to embrace her. Eliza gestured her aside, barely looking at her, murmuring, “Not yet, not yet.” Nell stepped back. Nia was pressing on the barrier around Swarn with her palms. She laughed and turned, beckoning. The wall opened again and Uri Mon Lil found himself stumbling out into the hall.

“A wizard!” said Nia. “Under a
Curse
, no less. What odd friends you have, Smidgen.”

The ravens started to descend and the tiger roared again, sending them all flapping back up, shrieking noisily.

“Well. Are you going to tell me what you’ve done with the Kwellrahg?” asked Nia. “Or are you going to make me guess?”

Eliza drew the rock out of her pocket and held it out on her palm to show the Sorceress. A flicker of alarm crossed Nia’s face.

“How in the worlds did you manage that?” she asked. “You can’t possibly have broken my spell.”

“I didnay break anything,” said Eliza. “I added things.”

“But
what?”
Nia’s gaze was fixed on the dark rock.

“It’s nay Magic,” said Eliza. “You wouldnay understand.”

Nia laughed shortly at that, then held her hand out and spoke its former name,
Kwellrahg.
It didn’t budge. Nia paled slightly.

“The renaming was Magic,” Eliza admitted.

“How clever you are, Eliza,” Nia said quietly. “Much cleverer, as it turns out, than me. But what will you do with it?”

Eliza did not reply. She kept her eyes steady on Nia, her mind closed firmly against the Sorceress. They were at a stalemate until one of them acted.

“I could kill you easily,” said Nia, her voice still very soft. “It would take me half a second.”

“I know,” said Eliza. “But what a waste of power that would be.”

“Yes,” said Nia, a smile tugging at her lips. “Precisely. Oh, Eliza, what
are
you thinking?”

Nia made up her mind. She spun around and made for Swarn. She uttered a powerful spell that left the barrier in tatters instantly and snatched up the broken spear shaft again. As soon as Nia used her Magic, Eliza whispered her command to the core of the Urkleis. Nia arched backwards with a sudden, startled cry as Magic poured out of her, drawn to the Urkleis. She swung to face Eliza, understanding now, and raised the spear, but it was too late. The Urkleis drew Nia’s Magic towards it in a great rush that made the Hall tremble and, at the same time, poured her Magic back at her. Her own Magic met itself in an unbreakable deadlock and Nia, whose physical form and strength were made up so entirely of Magic, was pinioned mid-run, her body rigid with the effort of tearing herself free, arms out, the fingers of one hand spread, the other hand clutching the broken spear.

“Eliza,” she said, her voice strained. “Don’t do this to me.”

Eliza shut her out, keeping her eyes down now. She knew if she but looked at Nia she would relent. As Nia had done in the Arctic, Eliza whispered the name,
Urkleis
, and pressed the dark rock to her chest, just above her heart. It was excruciating. Flesh and bone pried themselves apart to make way, and closed again around the stone.

“Well done,” breathed Uri Mon Lil.

For a moment, none of them moved. Then the cockroach became Charlie, Swarn rose slowly to her feet, and Nell threw her arms around her best friend.

“So
you
are the Shang Sorceress,” said Jalo, with deep respect.

Chapter

~22~

T
he ravens had all disappeared now.
Nia’s tiger paced around his Mistress in circles, snarling at the group. Nia struggled to speak, but she could not move her tongue.

Eliza unchained the Faery. They gathered around the body of Ander Brady.

“Is that the police chief from Holburg?” asked Eliza, shocked.

Nell bent down to close his staring eyes and Swarn pulled the end of her spear from his body. Jalo removed his cloak and laid it on the ground. Together they lifted the large man onto it and wrapped it around him.

~~~

They made their camp on the mountainside. It was a cold night but Jalo created a roaring bonfire with his firestick and they gathered around it.

“Is it customary to...burn your dead?” asked Jalo.

“We’ll take him back to Holburg,” said Nell. “He should be cremated and buried there. Nay here.” She said
here
with real loathing, as if no place could be as barren or as heartless as this place.

~~~

“Today is the Day of Feasting,” said Nell sardonically. None of them was hungry.

“It’s almost tomorrow,” said Eliza.

“The Day of Dancing,” said Nell. She began to laugh, then stopped abruptly and closed her eyes.

There was a distant rumble of thunder. In the ruined Hall at the top of the mountain, Nia’s tiger let out a desolate roar.

~~~

There was a storm off to the north, moving away from them, further into the distance. Nell and Charlie fell asleep wrapped in blankets by the fire. Uri Mon Lil nodded off in the middle of updating his book and, at last, Jalo dozed as well.

Eliza looked at Swarn. Her clothes were soaked in blood, particularly around her right shoulder, and her face was swollen and bruised. She sat very still.

“Are you injured badly?” asked Eliza quietly.

“Yes,” said Swarn. “But I’ll live. What is the Magic you did?”

“The main bit wasnay Magic at all,” said Eliza. “I used the Sorma techniques of taming and healing
–
that was how we disassembled the monster. That was enough to stop it from doing any harm, but I remembered what you told me about the wizard who Made the dragons and was absorbed by them. I was gambling that anything a being Makes could draw Magic from its Maker. You and the Mancers taught me that the Magic in the worlds is what was left here by the Ancients, the Magic of their Making, but I’m nay even sure...” Here Eliza took a deep breath, and then she said, “I’m nay sure the Ancients left Tian Di. I think maybe Tian Di absorbed them.”