Risen

19

Sagash’s duelling arena had two levels: a raised balcony halfway to the ceiling, and a lower floor with a duelling ring marked on the stone. A set of iron stairs joined the two levels, and a door at the far end led into what had once been Sagash’s laboratory.

Anne was on the upper level, bare forearms resting against the balcony rail, the pale skin of her legs and arms standing out against the darkness. This room had been where Anne’s other self had been born. Perhaps today it would be where she’d meet her end.

‘You summoned me, marid,’ I told the sultan. ‘I have come.’

The sultan studied me through Anne’s eyes. ‘I assume this is your work.’

‘I’d call it more of a team effort. But I was co-ordinating, if that’s what you’re asking.’

While I spoke, most of my attention was on path-walking, my thoughts whirling with futures and attack plans. The focus was ready in my left hand. It should be able to stun her . . . if I got close.

I focused on the futures in which I interacted with Arachne’s last gift, the black skater dress that Anne was wearing. I didn’t know if Arachne had seen all the way ahead to this moment, but if she had, she might have modified the imbued item with a back door, some kind of hidden vulnerability that would let me close the distance. I knew it was a long shot. Dark Anne wasn’t stupid – she’d have gone over that dress with a fine-tooth comb – but there was always the chance she might have missed something. I looked into the futures in which I channelled into the dress, evading the flashes of combat to the ones where I tried to activate it . . .

And my heart leapt. There! A latent spell, subtle and well-hidden. And one that could be triggered from range.

‘You think too highly of yourself, human.’ The scornful words of the jinn sounded jarring in Anne’s soft voice. ‘You believe conquering this hovel of a keep is a deed worthy of pride?’

‘Sorry it doesn’t meet your expectations,’ I said. I narrowed my vision into the futures, carefully keeping any trace of excitement out of my voice. ‘But look on the bright side. It’s about to be destroyed anyway.’

‘A suitable fate for the works of your kind.’

I found the future I was looking for, one where I dodged the jinn’s attacks long enough to trigger the spell. I saw it activate, unfolding like a flower. It was powerful but almost impossible to detect, and I looked ahead eagerly to see what it would do. A paralysis effect, or a stun? Or – my hopes leapt – something that would banish the jinn altogether? I might not have to use Elsewhere at all. I could get out of here alive. I focused, my heart pounding. The futures parted and I finally got a clear look. It was a spell of . . .

. . . healing.

Some kind of healing effect designed to repair trauma to the mind and body.

It wasn’t going to disable the jinn. In fact, from what I could see, it would actually make Anne slightly stronger.

I wanted to sigh. Well, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Nothing else today had been easy, why should I expect this to be?

‘And were that not enough,’ the sultan continued, ‘you have required me to go through this whole demeaning process again. Who knows how long it will take to find a new shadow realm and a new set of suitable hosts?’ It frowned at me. ‘In a more just age, I would have the time to punish you appropriately.’

There was one good thing about listening to the marid: there was no way I could hear its words and still have the slightest illusion that I was talking to Anne. Looking at her face still made my heart twist, but as long as I concentrated on the futures and on what I was hearing, I could forget that I was facing the woman I loved.

I put the dress out of my mind. ‘You did say you wanted to talk to me,’ I told the marid. ‘Did you have anything to say, or shall we just skip to the part where we kill each other?’

‘Very well,’ the marid said. ‘You are to become the new bearer for the entity which in your language you call the Sun That Brings Death.’

I blinked. ‘Um, I’m honoured. Mind if I ask what I’ve done to deserve this?’

‘You have done nothing to deserve this,’ the jinn stated. ‘But this host, for reasons that do not interest me, would prefer that you survive. Your opposition bolsters her resistance, which is an irritation that distracts me from more important matters. As such, I have decided that you shall serve at my side. Punishment for your crimes against my person shall be deferred.’

‘Well,’ I said. ‘I’m not quite sure what to say.’

‘I have no interest in anything you might say.’

‘Okay, here’s the thing,’ I said. ‘The British Council have really not given me many reasons to like them, and the Dark mages looking to replace them aren’t any better. So I came in here figuring that I’d at least try talking things out. But honestly, it’s taken less than five minutes of listening to you to make me realise that no matter how bad the Light and Dark mages of this country are, they’re—’

‘Silence,’ the marid said.

I sighed. So much for talking.

The marid pointed to the walkway in front of where it stood. ‘Approach.’

I paused, then shrugged. ‘All right.’

I walked around the gallery. Another tremor went through the keep, making the balcony sway under my feet. ‘Halt,’ the marid said once I was close enough.

I did.

‘Remove your clothes.’

‘Okay, I know you’re possessing the one person who can actually get away with telling me that, but I prefer a little more romance.’

‘Do not test my patience.’

I looked back at Anne – the jinn – and laughed.

The marid waited for me to finish, and when it next spoke there was a flat, dangerous tone to its voice. ‘Your life hangs by a thread.’

I looked at the marid, my smile fading. ‘Oh, I’m not laughing at you. It’s just . . . you have any idea how long I spent coming up with plans to get this close? And it turns out, all I needed to do was follow your orders.’

‘You expect to use that weapon against me?’

‘This?’ I said, lifting the sovnya. ‘No, you’d kill me in a heartbeat. But here’s the thing about humans. We don’t have the powers you marids do, but working together, we can do some pretty impressive things.’

‘None of you can—’ the marid began.

I put every last bit of power into the disruption focus on my left hand and fired.

An impenetrable black-green shield flashed up around Anne. But the spell in the Council focus hadn’t been designed to attack the subject’s body, and as it struck the shield it flowed into it, the black wires of the jinn’s magic acting like conduits into Anne’s mind. Anne’s head jerked back and she fell.

Ever since I’d started walking towards the marid, I’d been using the fateweaver, subtly altering the futures to bring about a natural thinning of reality. Now I threw out my hand and channelled through the dreamstone, forming a gate to Elsewhere. It shimmered into existence, ten times faster than normal.

Anne was already recovering. She was on her hands and knees, and now she looked up, life magic flaring. But I hadn’t created the gate vertically; I’d formed it horizontally, at her feet.

Anne dropped through. With three running strides, I leapt after her.

Normally when I step into Elsewhere, it’s hardly any different from using a gate to travel to our world. You could almost believe you’ve stepped into the same place you came from. It’s subtle and quiet.

Entering Elsewhere this time was neither of those things.

As soon as Anne dropped through the portal, Elsewhere went mad. The ground and walls shredded away, the fragments warping through an impossible range of colours, violet and cerulean and deepest black. Space shimmered and twisted.

The gate that I could normally hold open for minutes tore itself apart in seconds. Anne was falling away from me and with an effort of will I closed the distance, but there was nothing to land on. All around was a spinning kaleidoscope of colours.

This had to be something to do with Anne. I caught hold of her arm; her eyes were closed but her body was blurred, vibrating, as if pulling in three different directions. I tried to shape the space around us, land us somewhere familiar—

And suddenly my feet were on solid ground. The swirl of colours vanished.

We were back in Anne’s Elsewhere. I was crouched on a plaza of smooth obsidian, stretching out around me to the high walls that blocked out all but the upper branches of the forest behind. The tower loomed over us, reaching towards the roiling sky. Storm-clouds thrashed and boiled in the heavens above, but the winds didn’t touch the air around me.

Anne was lying at my feet, unconscious. Or at least her body was.

Dark Anne and Light Anne were facing each other on the plaza, shouting at each other, their words blending together so that I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Their faces were twisted in fury, perfectly alike; the only way I could tell them apart was that one was wearing black and the other white. When I enter Elsewhere, I do it as a single entity, body and mind. Apparently with Anne, things were a little more complicated.

Thunder rumbled in the distance. The jinn had been torn away, but it had already recovered and it was coming for us. ‘Both of you shut up!’ I shouted.

The two Annes turned on me with identical looks of anger.

They’re getting worse. I could feel the jinn drawing closer; we didn’t have long. ‘Settle this later,’ I told them. ‘Your marid is coming and it’s not in a good mood. We are going to bind it and that means you two need to work together.’

‘No,’ both Annes said in echo.

‘I wasn’t asking,’ I told them. I pulled the ring from my pocket and held it up. ‘You do this, or I die and the two of you are enslaved for ever.’

‘I can’t work with her—’

‘This is her fault—’

‘I SAID SHUT UP!’ I shouted. ‘All of this insane crap started because the two of you couldn’t deal with each other! Now once that marid is gone you can do whatever the hell you like, but right now you ARE going to work together or I swear to God, before I die, the last thing I do will be to figure out which one of you helped least and put the other one in charge!’

Light Anne and Dark Anne glared but didn’t argue. I knelt down next to Anne’s body, placed the ring on her stomach and clasped her hands over it. The first faint trails of mist were starting to rise from her skin. ‘One on each side,’ I ordered, pointing. ‘We’re only getting one shot at this.’

Surprisingly, both Annes obeyed. Far away I could hear something approaching, the distant crashing sound of falling trees.

Ever since I’d stepped into Elsewhere I’d sensed a change in the sovnya. I turned to look.

It felt as though I were seeing the weapon for the first time. On one level it looked as it had in the outside world, a long, slender polearm with a black haft and a curving blade. But overlaid upon that was another form, something larger and brighter and more real, something that towered over me from more than twice my height. It was sculpted of black iron that burned like fire, lined with claw-like barbs hooked to rip and tear. The blade was almost as tall as I was, a monstrous thing of twisted metal, etched with glowing letters in a language that stung my eyes. Where the blade met the haft was an eye, yellow and slitted like a cat’s, that blinked and roved. Just to look at the weapon was to feel a hunger, a void that could never be filled.

I pulled my eyes away with a shudder. I’ve been wielding THAT?

The sovnya didn’t seem to notice my reaction. Its attention was turned away, towards the approaching jinn. And that was how it had always been, hadn’t it? All it’d cared about was killing, and all I’d cared about was what it could do.

Maybe what I saw looking at the weapon was how Light mages saw me.

I put it out of my mind. The thunder of the marid was growing louder, and I could see a disturbance in the clouds. ‘The marid will come at us with everything it’s got,’ I told the two Annes. ‘It can’t back down, not now.’ I pointed to Light Anne. ‘You have the strength. You never accepted the marid’s contract. That gives you power over it.’ I pointed to Dark Anne. ‘You have the knowledge. You worked with the marid, used its magic.’ I looked from one to the other. ‘The two of you together have the power to bind it. But only if you commit absolutely. Falter, waver, and . . .’ I turned away from the Annes and took a grip on the sovnya. ‘Get ready.’

The obsidian beneath my feet was shuddering. The crashing of falling trees was a constant roar, mixing with the thunder of the storm. I could feel the sovnya trembling with anticipation. There was a vortex spinning in the clouds, glowing with a sickly yellow light. It drew closer until it was just outside the walls.

A towering figure materialised beneath the vortex.

I kicked off the ground, soaring upwards. I couldn’t see the jinn, not really – my eyes slid away from it, and at some level I knew it was for my own protection, that seeing it fully and clearly would tear something open inside my mind. All I had was an impression, a looming giant with legs like mountains and arms that blotted out the sky. Its steps shook the earth, and its gaze burned like fire, but as I flew up to meet it there was no fear in me, and the sovnya in my hands needed no guidance at all. Bloodlust and exultation filled me as the sovnya tore into the marid’s enormous form.

And the marid flinched. Unfathomably powerful as it was, it could still be hurt, and it was facing a weapon created to be its living nemesis. A fiery gash opened up on the jinn’s body as I came around for another blow.

Far below, at the foot of the tower, I heard Dark Anne’s voice, ringing out above the storm. ‘By my will and power, our contract is ended! I cast you out from my body and mind, and I bind you to your prison in Suleiman’s name!’

The marid aimed some kind of attack at me. I couldn’t see it and didn’t know what it was, but I knew what I could do and somehow I managed to dodge. Behind me, the top half of the tower disintegrated into dust. I struck the marid once more and felt it recoil from the sovnya’s dark flame.

Below me, Dark Anne shouted again. ‘Twice I bind you! This is my place of power, and you are not welcome here! Be gone, and be bound to your prison in Suleiman’s name!’

I could sense something building below, a wave of power. The marid sensed it too and it turned down and away, reaching for Anne’s body where it lay helpless on the ground.

I dived in, bringing around the sovnya, but this time the marid was ready. Another attack came swinging at me, ponderous and massive. I tried to get out of the way, but it was like trying to dodge a falling tree and it caught me a glancing blow.

My vision fuzzed out. Thoughts frayed and scattered; the jinn’s attack was striking both my body and mind and I could feel a horrible thinning sensation, as though I was fraying away thread by thread. I clung desperately to my thoughts, my feelings, everything from my memories of Anne to the fight in the shadow realm; I squeezed the sovnya in a death grip. For an endless moment, I teetered between existence and the void.

Gradually, I caught my balance. It was like wavering on the very edge of a cliff and pulling yourself back. Sight and hearing returned and I realised that both my armour and the sovnya were blazing with power; both looked weakened but they’d shared the blow, anchoring me. I looked down.

Below me was the kind of scene that you remember for the rest of your life. The marid was looming over the remains of the walls and tower, a titan of darkness, so vast that it seemed the mountains themselves had risen in anger. It was leaning downwards, its attention fixed, bringing all of its crushing power to bear – but where that power met the earth was a sphere of brilliant white-green light. Anne’s body lay unmoving on the ground, but Anne’s Elsewhere-self stood in front of it, her hand raised up in a command to halt. And the marid had halted. That globe of light looked like a marble caught beneath a giant’s hammer, but it was holding the marid back.

I took it all in in a single glance, then dived towards the marid like a thunderbolt.

The sovnya flared with a terrible joy. It tore through the marid like a lance, cutting through the jinn’s outer self and into its core.

The marid screamed, a noise beyond imagining. Walls cracked and trees shattered, and it reared back in agony.

Dark Anne’s voice rose up one last time, somehow audible over the scream. ‘Three times I bind you! By my power, by our power, by the strength of this land and earth and life! Be bound to your prison in Suleiman’s name!’ She drew a breath and when she spoke again it was with vengeful anger. ‘Get out and never come back!’

Power boomed with a clap of thunder. The marid reached down, trying to blot us from existence, but something else reached up to seize it, pulling into a vortex. The marid was drawn down into the ring, shrinking. I heard it scream, an awful sound of rage and hatred, as it was pulled in, smaller and smaller until it was a sphere of impenetrable black.

The sphere imploded and a shockwave burst out. The debris from the battle was flung away and every remaining tree had its leaves stripped from its branches in an echoing boom.

And suddenly everything was silent.

I sank from the sky, touching down on the plaza. The obsidian floor had been scoured mirror-smooth. Anne lay where I’d placed her, eyes still closed, hands still folded over her stomach, wisps of light trailing from her skin and dress. But the item in her hands . . . I couldn’t see the ring beneath her fingers, but I could feel it. It was the same feeling I’d once sensed from the monkey’s paw.

The marid was bound again.

Movement made me look up. Light Anne and Dark Anne were getting to their feet. They’d both been flung away, but they didn’t seem hurt and as they recovered they began walking back towards me. But as they drew closer to me, they drew closer to each other, and they shot each other looks and slowed until both came to a stop, the three of us forming a triangle fifteen feet on each side.

‘We actually did it,’ Dark Anne said. For once she didn’t sound flippant or angry.

‘It’s really over,’ Light Anne said.

‘No,’ I said. I looked between the two Annes. ‘There’s one last thing.’

Both Annes’ faces changed. ‘I won’t—’ one began.

‘I can’t—’ the other said.

I spoke over them both. ‘Be quiet.’

They frowned at me.

‘You do not get a vote on this,’ I said. ‘William Shakespeare himself could not find the words to express how tired I am of the both of you. I have journeyed through war and blood and death to reach you here, and after all I have sacrificed I am not going to let you pick yourselves up and do the same stupid shit all over again.’

‘We’re different people, Alex,’ Light Anne said.

‘You can’t shove us together,’ Dark Anne said.

‘For any other two people, you’d be right. But you’re not two people. You’re one person, and the only reason you stay apart is because the two of you keep it that way.’ I gestured. ‘Look around.’

Dark Anne and Light Anne did as I said, frowning. The walls around the tower had been rebuilt, sheer and tall once again. So had the tower itself. Hardly any time had gone by, but it was as though the battle with the jinn had never happened.

‘You told me, when we first met,’ I said to Dark Anne. ‘The very first words out of your mouth. You said those walls were to keep things in. But that was only half true, wasn’t it? You fight just as hard to keep her out.’

‘Can’t we just go home?’ Light Anne said.

‘In fact, you two are so split that when I take you into Elsewhere, you can’t even occupy your own body.’ I gestured back to where Anne’s body lay, its eyes still closed. ‘Which is bad for a lot of reasons, but right now, the most relevant one is that it means you can’t defend yourself very well.’

‘From what?’ Dark Anne said sharply.

I met her eyes, then raised one hand.

It was Dr Shirland who’d given me the clue to figure it out. Anne’s two halves weren’t different people: they were just two parts of her that wanted incompatible things. On its own, that was nothing special. But just at the age where Anne should have been dealing with that, when she should have been coming to understand herself, Sagash had captured her and taken her to his castle, and he’d hurt her badly enough that she couldn’t handle the things she’d had to do.

So Anne had turned to Elsewhere, sealing off the parts of herself she couldn’t accept. Aggression, self-interest, short-term desire – she’d poured them all into this tower, into her other self. But Elsewhere couldn’t actually change her into a different person; the most it could do was keep the two halves of her personality apart. The two Annes weren’t meant to be separate – they were drawn together like opposite poles of a magnet, and the only reason they hadn’t merged long ago was because they were both using Elsewhere to maintain the barrier that held the other at arm’s length.

And if that barrier was created in Elsewhere, it could be destroyed in Elsewhere.

Realisation flashed into Dark Anne’s eyes. ‘Wait—’

The walls and the tower were a part of Anne. It had been easy to spot, once I’d thought to look for it. They existed both outside her, and within the mind of the girl behind me. I focused my will, took a deep breath and prayed with all my heart that this was going to work.

Then I snapped my fingers and wiped the barrier from existence.

Both Annes cried out in shock. The tower and the walls burst, shattering into a million pieces that flared into nothingness. The two Annes were pulled towards each other, their cries ringing out in stereo, their bodies thinning and fading. As they did, Anne’s Elsewhere dissolved around us, and both Anne and I fell into nothingness.

It was only for a moment, then we were standing on stone. We were in the Elsewhere-reflection of Sagash’s duelling arena, the walls shadowed and grim, holding the echo of all those that had died there. Anne’s body was lying at my feet, still unconscious. Of Anne’s light and dark halves, there was no sign.

There was no more time. My armour and Anne’s dress had given us some protection, but the wisps of light rising from Anne’s skin were dangerously bright and I was starting to get the airy, too-light feeling that I recognised as a warning of approaching death. I shouldered the sovnya, lifted Anne, and channelled through the dreamstone, feeling for the thin patch where I’d brought Elsewhere together with the castle. A portal opened and I jumped back into the shadow realm.