The Nothing: A Book of the Between (27 page)

“If she who is the Three In One—Dreamshifter, dragon, and of the sorcerer’s blood—shall come by night unto the cave that doth give birth to dreams, and if she shall there offer up the heart’s blood of a willing man, uttering the secret incantation, then she shall be given access thereunto.”

His eyes opened, trained squarely on Vivian, and the malevolence within him shone clear. He opened his hands and spread them wide, palms up. “Alas, I know not the incantation. Nor, to my knowledge, is it found in any of my books.”

“I know it,” Kalina said.

“Silence!” The old man lifted his hand and turned as if to strike. Vivian braced herself to intervene but the Master stood frozen, his hand raised. The blow did not descend.

Kalina did not cower before him. Her chin was uptilted, eyes wide, and it was her magic that held him. “I am done with silence and pretense. These good Giants have traveled far. The Lady Vivian has sacrificed beyond measure to restore the dragon spirit that lies within her. We will treat them now with the respect they deserve.”

“Leander.” The old man rubbed the side of his face and turned to his son. “Subdue your sister.”

The boy dropped his eyes, remaining in his chair.

“Don’t look to him for help,” Kalina said. “He has no magic.”

“But—”

“He never has had magic. Not since he was a baby. I lent him mine all these years. He knows the truth of it. You were too blind.”

“Yours was bound—”

She laughed. “You are not strong enough to bind what I have.”

The old man rubbed his face again, as though the skin bothered him. The right side of his mouth had begun to droop, and the right eyelid hung half closed.

“All this time?” he asked, his words slurring slightly.

“I love my brother, so I let you believe. The time for childish games has passed. The destruction of the worlds must be stopped before we all die. You are too weak. My brother lacks any magic at all. I know the incantation; I know the spell.”

Stroke, Vivian thought, looking at the way the old man’s face drooped. His right hand wasn’t working properly now. He tried to lift it in a questioning gesture but it fell back heavily on the table, a dead weight. His eyes followed it, confused. Vivian couldn’t find it in her heart to feel any sympathy.

Kraal stood, turned to Kalina, and bowed deeply. “While we have been wasting our time here at the whim of a soft-headed old man, our world, along with the others, is in mortal danger. If we are to save anything, we must act swiftly. You say that you know the magic. Will you help us?”

A challenge crossed the room between the two, something that Vivian could not read.

“I know the magic,” Kalina said.

“And will you perform the rite?”

“I will.”

“What bond do you offer as good faith?”

“My magic and my life.”

The exchange had a ritual flow to it, a sense that these were words passed down through generations. No matter how strong the magic coiled within her, Vivian was a stranger to the lore. Could not possibly know the history or the forms of ritual agreement or the shape of the rite Kraal and Kalina both seemed to understand.

And now both of them turned to her.

“And you—are you willing to act as the One, to perform the rite that will lead into the Forever?”

“Take care,” Zee warned.

She heard him and understood that there was more there than she was being told. She also felt the darkness behind her open eyelids, knew that the death of every Dreamworld would take something more from the light until there was nothing left.

“I will,” she said.

“What bond do you offer as good faith?”

“Me,” Zee said before she could speak the words Kalina had spoken. “I am her bond.”

A stark silence filled the spaces in the room. Kalina sucked in her breath. The Giants all sighed. And the old Master began to laugh. He laughed until the tears rolled down his cheeks and he was gasping for air. He laughed until he could no longer catch his breath, and his face turned red then slowly purple as he wheezed and clutched at his throat. Leander rose to catch him as he collapsed sideways out of his chair and struck the floor.

Again, silence spread throughout the room.

“Dead,” Leander said.

A stone fell from the ceiling and crashed down onto the table, cracking it in two.

“The castle was molded by his will,” Kalina said, glancing up at the gaping hole above them. “I can hold it a little while, but not long. We must go at once.”

“What about the body?” Vivian hesitated.

“There is no time for him.” A sharp, rending noise reverberated through the room. Another rock fell. Kalina grabbed her elbow and urged her toward the door. “We must go.”

Vivian braced her feet and held her ground. “He was your father.”

Leander got to his feet. His face was streaked with tears. “The stones will bury him. It is as he would have wished.”

The boy’s grief eased her as Zee grabbed her free hand and pulled her toward the door. Poe was right at her heels. She caught a glimpse of Kalina stooping to pick up the griffyn cub just before a creak and a groan shivered from the soles of her feet to the crown of her head. A heavy wooden timber fell across her path, so close it skimmed the front of her shirt and scraped the skin from her hands.

One of the Giants picked her up like a child while another rushed to shift the fallen beam. All was a blur of crashes and falling objects, of trying to look back to see that Zee was safe, and Poe, to see another of the Giants carrying Jared.

It was dark in the corridor. Kalina called up a light, and Vivian, copying the shape of the magic, called up another. Through one corridor after another they ran, then outside and away from the disintegrating castle. But here, still, they were not safe. A geyser threw up mud and water fifty feet into the air. The earth rumbled and quaked.

“How do we get off the island?” Kraal asked.

“How did you get here?”

“A door. Between our world and this. It is closed now.”

Again, the earth rumbled and trembled. Steam spouts emerged through cracks not far away. The whole thing was going to blow any minute.

Vivian slid down out of the Giant’s arms, knowing what she needed to do next. Her eyes met Zee’s and his lips twisted a little in a crooked smile.
 

“I’ll hold your clothes,” he said, and kissed her. “You are Vivian, always. No matter what.”

T
HE
SHIFT
was easy this time. Just a call to the dragon part of her, newly wakened and healed, and a letting-go of the control that kept her Vivian. Once in dragon form, everything became simpler, all geometric angles and planes. There was do and don’t do, with no shades of guilt and anger and grief. She was hungry, and the first overwhelming rush of desire was for the hunt.

Her nostrils flared with the stink of smoke, brimstone, dust. Closer by was the smell of blood and fear. It wafted off the two-legged ones gathered together. They stood still, not fleeing, but were not defenseless. There were clubs and bright steel and those who would fight. A danger of magic from the smallest female, but not enough to bind.

One of the males stepped forward. He wore the bright sword but it remained sheathed. His hands were open. Danger flared in his eyes but he made no move to harm her or defend himself. He spoke one word.

“Vivian.”

The word was like an arrow, a spike, straight to the heart. It held her in place, wings folded.

“Vivian,” he said again. And then a third time, “Vivian.”

Zee.
Not the first time he had named her so when she lost her human self in the wildness of the change. Memories of herself as also small and two-legged surfaced, along with the knowledge of the task ahead.

She bent her forelegs and knelt to him, stretching out her neck and resting her head on the ground. It was an act of trust. One of her memories was of mortal combat with this man and his hatred of dragons. He could slay her in an instant if he so desired.

Still, he did not draw the sword.

He turned and gestured to the others. “Hurry!”

“Will she carry us all?” one of the Giants asked.

Zee shook his head. “I doubt she’d make it off the ground. Is there another way off the island?”

“There’s a boat,” Leander said.

Zee nodded. “Kraal goes with us. Kalina and Jared. Leander?”

“The Giants are guests. I will go with them in the boat. I know these waters.”

“Go, then.” Kraal nodded his head toward the rest of his band, and Leander led them at a run toward the water. Zee helped Kalina, the griffyn cub in her arms, step up onto Vivian’s neck, then Jared. Anger flared and a little puff of smoke escaped Vivian’s nostrils as his uncertain footsteps made their way along her neck and onto her back.

“Easy,” Zee said to her. “We will take care of him later.”

The Giant came next. He was heavy, his footsteps crushing, but she was strong and could withstand his weight. Last of all, Zee, carrying Poe. Just in time. An explosion shook the earth. Off to the north of the island, a stream of molten stone spewed up. The last remnants of the castle crumbled and collapsed in on itself. The earth heaved and rocked. Vivian spread her wings and beat them, once, twice, three times before she was clear of the earth with her burden.

Below, Leander and the Giants raced destruction. The ground beneath their pounding feet heaved in waves like the sea. Leander lost his balance and fell. One of the Giants scooped him up. She could see the boat, not far now. But before they could reach it, the earth opened right before their feet.

“Back!” one of the Giants cried, retreating from the steaming crevice red with molten rock at the bottom. They raced along the side but it grew, cutting them off from their escape. One of the Giants fell, the earth giving way beneath his feet. He screamed as he fell, vanishing into the molten stone.

The Giant carrying Leander turned, pivoted, leaped wildly and cleared the fiery pit with only inches to spare. Another of the Giants followed successfully. The rest of them fell. Vivian was well above the chaos now, winging straight toward the open sea. Her last glimpse of the figures far below showed the survivors stepping into the boat.

An explosion half sound, half pressure hit her like an invisible giant bulldozer, driving her off course. Turning her head to look back over her shoulder, she saw the island erupt into a volcano. Feeling the passengers on her back sliding dangerously, she managed to correct her flight and tilt to the other side. The air continued turbulent and she did her best to ride out the rapid updrafts and drops. It wasn’t going to be enough. She was flying without control. Worse, the air was filled with ash. It didn’t trouble her to breathe it, but the humans would suffocate before long, if they didn’t fall during one of the updrafts and die in the boiling water below.

Reaching deep into memory and what remained of Vivian, she encountered the other thing, the Awareness, full to the brim with magic. She could no longer ignore or deny it. Dragon magic and Sorcieri came together in a clear fusion of light. All at once, she could see the air currents, not only feel them. Tentatively, she pushed back at a wave heading toward her with her will. It slowed. She tried shaping it, smoothing it a little. When it hit, she was able to flow up over it and down again without being jolted and storm-tossed. She wielded this ability to smooth the air, pushing back the turbulence, creating a clear space through which they could travel.

Over and over again, she eased the air currents in the direction she wanted to travel. They were halfway across the lake that surrounded the island. Still a long way to go, and already she was tiring. Each beat of her wings, instead of feeling wild and free, required concentration and focus. Her muscles ached and the air felt thin. This confused her. She had not flown that far, and while the air currents made things more difficult, the magic smoothed them out.

That was it. The magic. Each use of that reservoir drained her strength as well, which set up a problem. If she used the magic, she was going to run out of energy to fly. And if she didn’t, the wild currents in the air were going to crash them all into the water below. Even as she readied her will to smooth another air current, she heard a voice from behind.

“I’ll manage the magic. You just fly.”

The Sorcieri girl. Vivian could sense her magic, strong and bright. She waited, ready to take action if necessary, but the air wave smoothed before her and let her keep flying. A calm channel opened in front of her, farther than she could have managed in so short a time. It was also free of ash and debris. As she took advantage of the opening and increased her speed, a wind assisted her from behind.

She could fly faster now but was unable to chart her progress. The air directly around her was clear and calm, but outside the tunnel of safety, all she could see was gray. This made her uneasy. What would happen when they landed? The supply of magic was not infinite, and they were still close enough to the volcano to be suffocated by ash.

The world of the Sorcieri was neither Dreamworld nor Between, which left her a little confused as to where they were now. Her pendant had always told her the answer to this question, absent in the Dreamworld, present when Between. In dragon form, she couldn’t look at it, couldn’t check. What made the most sense was that the island and its weaving of magic barriers were something like Surmise, built out of the Between but separate. Which meant they were Between and she could open a Dreamworld.