The Fractured Sky

CHAPTER FOUR

Myshik found the descent through the earth unsettling. It wasn't the magic itself; his draconic heritage had made him used to that. No, he did not mind most preternatural exercises. But sliding through solid rock was something new.

The half-dragon felt neither substantial nor ethereal. He couldn't find a word that quite described it. Regardless, the spell that Tekthyrios had employed was strange.

It's as though the rock slides through me, he decided.

Once the celestial guards had been dispatched, the storm dragon had instructed Myshik to enter the cave and seek an inscribed circle upon the ground. The symbol was easy to spot, and once Myshik stood within it, Tekthyrios engaged the magic.

The half-dragon began to sink into the ground immediately, as though it had turned to quicksand. But it did not suffocate him, and once over the initial fear, Myshik found the journey fascinating.

He descended for several moments then suddenly found himself falling through a white void. He engaged his wings on instinct, struck the bottom of the vacancy without much force, and settled easily into a crouch. Myshik tried to peer around, but a bright, pearlescent glow surrounded him, and he was forced to squint as his eyes adjusted. At last, the draconic hobgoblin's vision returned, and he could examine his surroundings.

Another figure drew his attention. It lay huddled near his feet, unmoving. It faced away from him, so he could not discern the nature of the creature, other than to note that it was a humanoid dressed in a simple brown robe and had long, rather unhealthy hair.

Myshik felt over his shoulder for the handle of his axe to reassure himself, then he began to examine the place.

He discovered that he stood at the bottom of a perfect sphere, and the glow of light seemed to radiate from the walls, indeed the entire inner surface of the room. The chamber was not very large, perhaps only ten paces in diameter. Utterly devoid of any furnishings or features, it would have proven to be a rather mind-numbing prison, should he have found himself trapped there.

A cursed existence, the half-hobgoblin thought, glancing again at the figure.

Is she there? the storm dragon's voice inquired, bouncing around in Myshik's head as his father's and uncle's once had.

Yes, he answered. She?

Indeed, came the reply. Wake her, but do it gently. She has been there a long time and may not know what to make of a visitor, especially one of your… um, countenance.

As you wish. Myshik stepped closer to the figure.

Fighting the urge to grip his axe, the half-dragon knelt down beside the figure. He reached one clawed hand out and tapped the woman once, softly, on the shoulder.

She did not budge.

Myshik tapped again, then he took hold of her shoulders and shook her.

With a shriek, the woman rose up lightning fast, turning with fingers outstretched. She lunged at Myshik, who fell back involuntarily from her unexpected onslaught.

Her wrinkled and pale face framed eyes as black as midnight that burned with hatred, or perhaps insanity. Her gray hair hung in long, limp clumps around her face and nearly down to her waist. Her breath smelled foul, and Myshik could see only a few cracked, yellowed teeth as she sucked in air for another scream.

She came at him where he had sprawled, hands outstretched to throttle him or claw his eyes out. He let her momentum carry her forward, over his own body, then used his feet to propel her past himself. She soared beyond him and struck the sloping side of the sphere with a gasp and a thud.

She's enraged! the half-dragon said as he clambered to his feet. Wants to rend me! How do I stop her without maiming her?

There was a soft laugh in his head not of his own mind's making. She is harder to maim than you might imagine, came the answer. Speak to her. Call her name. Kashada.

Myshik turned to face the crazed woman and saw her gathering herself for another charge. Her face contorted in rage or fear, and her eyes glazed with it. The half-dragon doubted she would make sense of his words.

"Kashada!" he called out. "I am not here to hurt you!"

The woman shrieked and rushed at him, her fingers bent into the shape of claws. She reached for his face, his eyes, but the draconic hobgoblin leaped high and used his wings to gain even more elevation. Her pell-mell charge overbalanced her, and she stumbled into a heap against the opposite slope of the sphere.

Myshik dropped deftly to the surface once more. "Kashada!" he said, more forcefully. "Hear me! I have come to take you from this prison! Let me help you!"

Kashada whirled, staggered like a drunken thing, and glared at her would-be rescuer. "Shadows!" she screamed at him. "There are no shadows!" She swayed where she stood and began to sob, clenching her eyes shut in misery.

Her mind is lost, Myshik thought, projecting to Tekthyrios. She has no reason left. She screams of there being no shadows.

Of course! Tekthyrios said. How clever. Myshik, you must create a shadow for her. You can restore her mind if you can show her a shadow. Do it!

The half-dragon scowled, looking around the sphere. He had not noticed it before, but with light glowing from the entire inner surface, no shadows were cast anywhere. He could see no way to shield any area from the light.

Kashada howled, a forlorn wailing that reminded Myshik of the jackals in the great desert of Anauroch, singing to the moon at night. She kept her eyes closed, uninterested in attacking him further.

A thought struck Myshik. Working quickly, he removed his cloak and draped it upon the lowest point of the sphere, essentially the floor. He reached into an inner pocket and pulled out an oblong bundle. Unwrapping it, the half-dragon produced a glowing, prism-shaped white crystal twice as thick as his thumb and as long as his hand. He knelt down upon his cloak and held the crystal over it. He placed his other hand between the glow of the crystal and the dark cloth of the cloak. A faint shadow formed there.

"Kashada," Myshik called. "Look, a shadow."

The crone's eyes flew open, and she ceased her wailing. She stared at Myshik for a moment, cocking her head from side to side like some predatory bird. Then she spied the light in his hands, and the patch of darkness he had created. She shrieked in delight and rushed forward. Myshik flinched, expecting her to strike at him again, but instead she knelt down, cooing softly.

"Darker," she demanded, still staring at the shadow. "It must be darker. Make it darker!" she finished with a scream.

Myshik frowned, uncertain. Then inspiration struck. He rose to his feet again and loomed over the crystal, blocking as much of the sphere's light as he could with his body.

The shadow of his hand upon the cloak deepened.

"Yes!" Kashada shouted in triumph. Her voice had changed. It was stronger, less shrill. "You've done it!" Then the woman lunged forward and dived at the hand-shaped area of darkness.

Before Myshik's eyes, she melted into the shadow and vanished.

Tauran rested upon his favorite protrusion of stone, high above the Lifespring. He sat a pace away from the edge, leaning back against a towering pinnacle of rock pointed skyward like a poniard. A tumbling waterfall roared next to him, emerging from a cleft in the cliff face and plunging over the side of the protrusion, out of sight.

"We should be inside!" Micus said, shouting to be heard. The other angel sat next to Tauran, huddled against the spire of rock, trying to avoid of the worst of the wind. "Why in the Hells are we out here in this?"

Tauran ignored his friend and crawled toward the end of the protrusion. The howling, lashing storms whipped the spray from the churning torrent, peppering him with a fine, cool mist. The dampness made the stone beneath his hands and feet slick. The wind tore at his tunic as if it wanted to rip him from the precipice and carry him away. Ignoring the gale, Tauran reached the edge and peered over.

It was a long drop.

The spire behind him rose as the tallest, most impossibly thin peak in a high, sharp ridge of jagged, jutting stone. The ridge formed a deep basin surrounding the Lifespring on three sides. Most days, the waters shimmered in golden sunlight, a tranquil pool of divine healing magic. That day, they churned and frothed in a blue-gray maelstrom covered in whitecaps.

Tauran could barely see the distant shore, where the water spilled over a lower lip of the ridge to other basins even farther below. Remnants of clouds, shredded and reformed by the whipping wind, slashed across his view, giving the whole plane an eerie, translucent look.

Tauran crawled back to his friend. "Do you remember the first time you asked me about diving off here?" he asked Micus. "Right before I began teaching you how to do it?"

The other angel frowned but nodded. "Yes," he replied. "Right before we tried to save that marilith's child. What of it?"

"Do you remember what you asked me that day?"

Micus shook his head. "Something about why you did it. But it was a long time ago."

Tauran nodded. "That's right. I told you that I did it to remind me that the easiest path is not always the right one, and that I must remain vigilant against complacency. Right?"

"I suppose so," Micus answered, his face filled with doubt. Then his eyes widened. "You're not actually planning to-you must be mad!"

Tauran held his hand up, gesturing tor his old friend to relax. "No," he said. "I'm not mad. No diving for either of us today."

Micus sagged back in relief. "Good," he said. "Because if you tried, then I'd know you had lost your way."

"That's just it, though," Tauran said. "I feel like what I face right now, with Aliisza and Vhok, is just like diving off this precipice. The easy thing would be to remit them to the High Council, let them lock the fiends away, and move on to other things."

"Sounds like a fine plan to me," Micus said dryly. "And the one I'm advising you to go with."

"But don't you see? That's the easy path. It's the safe path. I don't think it's the right path." Please understand me, old friend, he thought. You of all my companions might recognize what I'm trying to say.

Micus was silent for a moment, then said, "Sometimes, we need others, wiser than ourselves, to tell us which path to follow. Sometimes, like young children, we try to climb over boulders in the road, rather than go around them. Why does every path have to be hard?"

"They don't," Tauran admitted. Tyr knows I wish this one weren't so hard. "But diving off these rocks was supposed to remind me to stay vigilant against growing complacent. That means recognizing when the harder route is the right one."

Micus sat without speaking for another moment. "It sounds as though you've already made up your mind, Tauran," he said at last. "You've already decided what you're going to do, and nothing I say will change your decision."

"Perhaps," Tauran said. Yes, he admitted to himself. I have.

"Then what do you want from me?" Micus asked. "What purpose can I possibly serve by sitting out here in this wretched storm?"

I need you to believe in me, Tauran thought. I need you to tell me that I'm not trying to dive off this cliff right now. Because that's what this feels like. "I just wanted you to understand that I'm clear headed, steady in my faith," he said aloud. "I just wanted you to know that I believe in my heart that something is profoundly wrong with the universe right now, and I can see it, even where others cannot."

"Tauran," Micus said. His voice was odd, almost warning his friend. "I can't support what I don't believe in. We have existed with Tyr's laws for millennia, and they have served all who dwell within this realm quite well. Right now, at this moment, when so much else is in turmoil, is the very time to uphold them. That is how they endure, how we survive."

"I know," Tauran said, suddenly feeling very tired.

"You want to bend one rule, and then another, and another. You claim that it's because you see some catastrophe on the horizon, and you intend to stop it, but what if the very catastrophe you envision is the result of your own misguided transgressions? What if some calamity does befall the House, and it all could have been avoided if you had just adhered to the rules?"

Tauran held his hands up in despair. "It is always possible," he admitted. "I cannot foresee the outcomes any better than you." That's why I feel like I'm standing on the edge of this maelstrom, ready to throw myself over. "But every way I look at this, I see the same thing. Every part of my body just feels that I am right."

It was Micus's turn to throw his hands up. "We are not creatures of gut instincts and intuitive guesswork, Tauran. Watching you place so much emphasis on 'feelings' troubles me more than anything. As far as I'm concerned, the path is clear. There is no deliberation necessary. The law is the law, and we are bound to abide by it."

Tauran nodded, staring at the wet rock before him. "I understand," he said. He felt a great sadness wash over him. "You would handle this differently. I had hoped you would see my viewpoint, had hoped that all these years of diving together from this point had allowed us to share some common insight. I guess it is not to be."

Micus reached out and placed his hand upon Tauran's arm. "I'm sorry, my friend. I do see the value in what you taught me, but vigilance can only carry one so far. Powers much greater than ourselves have both the wisdom and insight to guide the rest of us, and we have the wisdom-and the responsibility-to be guided. If you doubt, turn to Tyr. He is mysterious, but he will not lead you astray."

Tauran smiled. How can you be so sure? he thought. "I hope you are right," he said.

Micus rose up onto his knees. "Do not stay out here much longer, my friend," he said. "This storm seems to grow worse by the moment."

"I won't," Tauran promised. "See you in a while."

Micus stood and launched himself into the tempest. Fighting the winds, he flew off, leaving his friend alone to contemplate.

Tauran frowned as he watched the other angel grow small before vanishing within a cloud bank. The storm is going to get worse, he thought. Much, much worse.

Micus had not been gone long when another angel arrived at Tauran's ledge. She swooped up from below and hovered for a heartbeat or two, then she settled in the spot where Micus had stood only a moment before. She reached out to steady herself against the buffeting winds.

Tauran started at her arrival, then he smiled and stood. "Eirwyn!" he said. "I hate it when you do that."

"Oh, you do not!" she replied. "You're very glad to see me, and you know it."

She looked older than Tauran, her bronze skin crisscrossed with wrinkles. Her merry eyes twinkled with genuine friendship as she smiled. Her long, flowing hair hung down in a single braid over one shoulder. It gleamed silver in the cloudy day.

She went straight to Tauran. "You look very tired," she said, embracing him.

I am tired, he thought. Bone weary, as the mortals say. "I'm better now that you're here," he said. "What's brought you?"

The elder deva adapted a look of mock indignation. "Why, Tauran! You wound me! Think you so little of my divination skills that you would doubt my ability to know when and where I am needed?"

Tauran laughed, gladness filling him for a moment. "You divined that I would be here?" he asked.

"No, I did not expect to find you here," she answered. "I merely augured that I would be needed here, at this time. As usual, I was right." She hugged him again, then pulled back to stare the angel squarely in the face. "What troubles you?" she asked.

Tauran looked away and felt the full weight of his worries. "I don't know," he said, watching the storm-tossed clouds roil around the two of them. "I fear that I am losing my way, Eirwyn," he said, returning to gaze earnestly at her. "No one seems to see what I see, the menace that seems to be gathering in the House. Not even Micus shows any grasp of the threats I fear."

Eirwyn sighed. "This feud between Tyr and Helm has upset the balance. The sooner they settle it, the better off we'll all be."

For a moment, they sat together unspeaking, with only the roar of wind and waterfall filling their ears. The moment stretched out, became a bit uncomfortable. Tauran wanted to share more, but he fretted that he was about to cross a threshold from which he could not return.

"You can tell me, Tauran," Eirwyn said at last. "It won't hurt my feelings. We've been friends too long to let this feud come between us."

If only it were that benign, Tauran thought. He smiled slightly. "It's actually the opposite," he said. He drew a deep breath before proceeding. "I believe Tyr has lost his reason."

Eirwyn drew her head back a bit when she heard the angel's words. She scrutinized him for several heartbeats, until he began to fear that he had misjudged her. I thought she would understand better than most. But maybe-

"That's a dangerous thing you say, Tauran," the elder deva said. "Most within the House-or at least the Court-would not take kindly to hearing those words."

"Believe me," Tauran said, "I know. I dare not blaspheme that way in front of"-he cast a quick glance in Eyrwin's direction-"anyone less sympathetic to the notion." He saw her smile slightly then. "But I believe it," he continued, "and furthermore, I think I can prove that Cyric has his hand in it."

Eirwyn gave a small gasp. "You don't really have a good grasp for building support for your ideas, do you?"

Tauran's chuckle felt mirthless. "It would seem not," he said. "And yet, I'm about to go before the High Council and argue that very thing."

"Tauran!" she said, admonishing him. "I don't think that's wise."

Tauran sighed. "Perhaps," he said. "But if I'm correct and do nothing, then I fear I have committed the greater crime. The risk I take in revealing my suspicions pales in comparison to the repercussions if I am right."

"What leads you to believe this?" she asked.

Tauran explained what he knew of Aliisza, Vhok, and Zasian.

When he was done, Eirwyn sat very still. Finally, she rose to her feet. "What you claim is very serious, Tauran. But my divinations did not lead me here to talk you out of your plan. Of that I am confident."

Tauran stared up at her, waiting to see what she would say next. What he thought he had lost in Micus, he hoped against hope he had gained in Eirwyn.

"I am going to meditate on this," she said. "And when I have more information, I will seek you out again. Perhaps I have a part to play in this."

"Thank you," Tauran said, rising to face her. "You've given me renewed strength to see this through."

Eirwyn held up her hands to forestall his gratitude. "I cannot promise that I will be able to offer you much," she said, "but I will do what I can."

"That is all that I can ask," Tauran replied. He hugged her then, thankful for her friendship.

When he stepped back, her gaze bore into him. "Be very careful, Tauran," she said. "You will make many enemies revealing these theories. The High Council of Tyr is a dangerous entity to rile."

Tauran nodded. "I know," he said. Then he drew a deep breath. "But I am due to appear before them any moment, so I must go. Thank you again."

Eirwyn smiled and vanished. A moment later, Tauran departed too.

Neither of them had noticed the lantern archon flitting nearby, hiding beneath the protrusion upon which they sat. Having heard the entire conversion, it vanished, too, hurrying with a heavy heart to report to Micus of Tauran's treachery against Tyr.

Aliisza sat on the bed and wished Kaanyr would stop pacing. The cambion had been at it since the two of them had been brought to her chambers-at least, she assumed they were hers. It felt as if only a day or so had passed since she had last been there, and she had to keep reminding herself it had been eleven years. She wondered if anyone else had spent time here. That thought mildly annoyed her.

What's the matter with me? she thought, growing more agitated. I'm acting like I want to stay here.

On the contrary, the moment two of the dog-headed creatures had escorted the pair to her chambers while Tauran and Kael departed to attend to other matters, Aliisza had grown restless. Certainly, the foreboding sensation of being trapped again unsettled her. But the alu knew it was more than that.

Tauran and Kael's departure had stirred feelings of… regret.

I didn't want them to leave, Aliisza realized. Am I so loath to face Kaanyr alone? Or is there more to it?

"I've been going about this all wrong," Kaanyr said, disrupting her thoughts. "I've been fighting this the whole time. I should know better."

"Fighting what?" she asked, thankful that he had deigned to come out of his brooding to speak to her.

"The angel's hold over me. His plans. All of it."

"Yes," she said.

Kaanyr stopped pacing and turned to look at her. "What is that supposed to mean?" he asked, scowling. "You never just agree with me lately."

"Only because you've been making no sense lately," she countered. "You have been acting the fool, revealing your every emotion, reacting instead of scheming. You have not been the Kaanyr Vhok I thought I knew." Does that Kaanyr Vhok even exist? she wondered.

The cambion stood and stared at her for a long time. His eyes bored into hers, roamed up and down her body, lingering appreciatively in certain places. She had assumed her true form when they had returned to her chambers, but he hadn't noticed before right then. For the first time in a very long time, Kaanyr seemed…

Hungry, Aliisza decided. She actually began to blush beneath that gaze.

Kaanyr seemed to shake himself out of his carnal stupor. "I'm not the only one behaving oddly," he said. He turned and sat upon a cushioned chair on the far side of the room. "You are not yourself, either."

Aliisza caught herself feeling a bit jealous that Kaanyr had managed to stroll away so easily. She didn't want the moment to end quite like that.

"Who's to blame for that?" she asked, feeling the tiniest bit petulant. "Who arranged for me to become trapped here, under the tutelage of an angel? What did you expect would happen?"

"Zasian assured me that his protective spells would ward you from any true change." Vhok's voice was quiet. "Did he lie about that, too?"

Aliisza thought for a long moment before answering. "No," she said at last. "But he didn't tell you the truth, either. What he did-the spells that he wove over me to shield me from Tauran's influence-wasn't so much a protective mask as it was a… reversion."

Kaanyr cocked his head to one side. "Explain," he demanded.

"He didn't cast a spell that would shield me from something Tauran forced on me. He cast a spell that would change me back at the end."

"So the angel's damnable tricks took hold?" Kaanyr narrowed his eyes and scowled.

"That's just it," Aliisza said, feeling uneasy. She wasn't sure if she wanted to admit her next words to herself, much less to Kaanyr. "There were no tricks, my love. He only showed me a perspective."

"Perspective about what?"

"About the nature of goodness. It's not so easy to explain. I'm not sure I understand it myself."

"I'm not sure I want to," Kaanyr countered, waving her away.

"Oh, but you will hear what I say!" Aliisza shouted, angry at his flippant dismissal. "You are the one who subjected me to it, so you are damn well going to hear me out!"

Kaanyr glowered at the alu, but he finally nodded once, almost imperceptibly. "Because it's you," he said.

A flood of old emotions rushed through Aliisza, but she pushed them away and continued. "I came to understand that I could give myself up, make myself vulnerable, and allow myself to care about others before myself," she said. "I learned to surrender to caring, because it can come back tenfold, if you let it. I know it doesn't make any sense to you, because you did not go through what I did, but trust me, there can be times when the benefit you reap is worth the price you pay."

She could tell by the look on Kaanyr's face that he either didn't understand what she was talking about or didn't care to. She pushed on without letting him interrupt.

"I think Zasian understood what would happen to me and simply lied to you. He might have told you that Tauran's efforts would involve coercion or divine trickery, but that's not how it happened. I came to those conclusions on my own. All Zasian did was plant a trigger that would remind me of who I was before-snap me out of it, if you will."

Kaanyr pursed his lips in thought. "So, where do things stand for you now?" he asked. "Whose side are you on?"

"That's just it," Aliisza said, rising from the bed to begin pacing. She had to choose her next words very carefully. "I'm not on anyone's side."

"So you believe this nonsense that the angel spouts?" The cambion's voice dripped with disgust. "Or else you claim to in order to torment me."

"No!" Aliisza said, turning to face him. She clenched her hands, feeling helpless to explain. "Not like that," she said, but her voice was faint. She knew Kaanyr wouldn't believe her. She didn't believe the words herself.

The reward you reap is worth the price you pay.

"I love four men," she said at last, blurting it out before she could think about it.

Kaanyr raised one eyebrow. He looked almost bemused. "That's just not a word I hear from your lips, lover," he said, then, when he realized his own irony, added, "at least not used in that way."

Aliisza almost chuckled. He thought her notion of being in love was stranger than the fact that she shared it among four men. "I love each of you in a very different way," she said, "and I will not demean any of it by trying to explain them all to you."

"How noble of you," he countered. That sardonic tone was back.

"But know that you are one of them," she said, staring him straight in the eye. "Despite everything that has happened, despite all that you have done to me, I am still yours, lover." She almost felt herself slip into that provocative, purring tone of voice. She resisted it.

Kaanyr smirked. "You have a strange way of showing it," he said. "Most of my lovers don't trick me into entering subservient arrangements with angels."

Aliisza smiled sheepishly in spite of her pounding heart. "I know," she said. "I was angry with you. I wanted to punish you."

Kaanyr raised that single eyebrow again. "Punish me?" he asked. "I don't take too kindly to punishment," he said. "From anyone," he added. His voice carried a dangerous edge to it.

Aliisza did allow herself to slip into that familiar role of temptress then. She sauntered over to Kaanyr. "Perhaps," she said, and she was almost surprised at how smoky her voice had become, "but I do." She closed the distance until she was standing directly in front of him. She cocked her hips to one side and rested her hands on them. "Aliisza's been a good girl," she said softly. "Make her bad again."

She held her breath, wondering if it would work.

Kaanyr sat very still, though the alu could see the muscles of his neck working as he swallowed several times. She knew she was getting to him.

"Why are you still here?" he asked, his own voice soft. "You can flee whenever you want. So why remain, be that angel's lackey?"

Aliisza cast a glance toward the open balcony, saw the roiling storms beyond the opening, and returned her gaze to the cambion's face. Don't think I haven't thought about it, she thought. Almost every second since we got tossed back in here. "Because I want to stay with you," she answered, and it was the truth.

Kaanyr nodded. "And who are the other three?" he asked.

Aliisza fought not to show her fear. What will you do when I tell you? she wondered. She took a deep breath. "One, I love like a mother. One, like a daughter. And one no longer even lives," she said. "But the only one that matters right now, I love in the most mischievous way possible."

Kaanyr smiled then and reached for Aliisza at last.