The Way Into Darkness: Book Three of The Great Way (6 page)

She came to a bare patch of grass with an open hole in front of it. It looked very like a rodent tunnel; Cazia dropped to her knees before it.
 

Was there a special greeting she was supposed to use? No, there couldn’t be. Ivy would have told her. “Greetings, Kelvijinian, god of the earth.”

The echoing voice that answered did not come from the head itself, but from a hole in the ground below. “Welcome. Living. Human. Child. Did. You. Come. To. Ask. Something. Of. Me?”
 

The words wafted out of the tunnel on puffs of air. Kelvijinian’s breath. It smelled of freshly turned soil and earthworms. Cazia peered down into the darkness to see if there were lips or a tongue down there, but whatever made those sounds was too deep to see.
 

Cazia’s head was buzzing and her hands began to tremble. She was talking with all of Kal-Maddum, and it sounded surprisingly gentle. She had always thought the gods cared little for humankind, with the sole exception of Fury, but Kelvijinian’s voice was full of kindness. Did she have a question? Before she could put any thought into it, she blurted, “Where did you come from?”
 

Immediately, she knew she’d made a mistake. She was not supposed to be indulging her curiosity. She needed him to contact someone at Tempest Pass.
 

“Well!” the voice answered, echoing hollow through the earthen tunnel. “No. One. Has. Asked. Me. A. Question. Like. That. In. Many. Years! Thank. You. The. Truth. Is. That. I. Came. Here. Fleeing. A. War.”

Whatever she had been expecting him to say, it wasn’t that. “A war?”
 

“Yes. Long. Long. Ago. I. Lived. Among. My. Own. Kind. Earth. Water. Fire. Air. Many. Others. As. Well. We. Were. Not. A. Peaceful. People. But. We. Had. Balance. Then. The. Enemy. Came.”

Cazia glanced at the huge head. Its eyes seemed wider than before. It didn’t look like it was half-dreaming anymore. “Were they gods, too?”

“Gods?” the voice asked. It paused even longer than usual, as though thinking very hard about what it should say next. “No.
Invaders
. Creatures. Of. Shallow. Waters. And. Muddy. Ground. They. Had. Potent. Magic. It. Was. A. Transformation. War. We. Had. No. Experience. With. Power. Like. That. No. Defenses. We. Were. Hunted. I. Escaped. Alone. Through. A. Hole. In. The. World. Arriving. Here.”
 

Cazia needed a moment to truly understand what he meant. Great Way, Kelvijinian was just another invader. Like The Blessing, like the Tilkilit, he had come to Kal-Maddum through a portal. What’s more, he had, in his way, conquered. “This was long ago?”
 

“Long. Before. Your. Kind. Arrived,” he answered. Cazia felt a sudden chill.
No, we aren’t invaders. This is our land. Human beings belong here.
“Old. Now,” the god continued. “I. Was. Here. When. The. Sweeps. Were. Burned. Into. Existence. I. Was. Here. When. Gol-Maddum. Broke. Away. I. Should. Have. Died. Years. Ago. But. I. Am. All. Alone. There. Is. No. One. To. Shatter. Me. So. I. Grow. Larger. And. Deeper. Every. Year. Until. The. Day. I. Sleep. And. Never. Awaken.”

This was no god. Or if it was, then a “god” was much more like a living person than she had expected. “Is it painful? Is there something I can do to help you?”
 

“Ages. Ago. I. Would. Not. Have. Known. What. Pain. Is. I. Have. Learned. It. From. You. There. Is. Nothing. But. Weariness. Thank. You. For. Your. Kindness.”

“You’re welcome. What about the portal that brought you here? Can’t it send you back home?”

“Once. Perhaps. It. Has. Sunk. Below. The. Water. Now. And. I. Do. Not. Know. What. Happened. To. My. World. Perhaps. It. Is. A. Dead. Thing.”
 

“I’m sorry,” Cazia said. There was a genuine pang of pain and regret in her heart. “War destroyed my home, too.” There was more to say, but it all seemed to big to fit into words. The sun was setting, bathing the rocks in a beautiful golden glow, but the wind was growing more wet and more chilly, too. “Your story frightens me.”
 

“I. Have. Met. Many. Who. Were. Frightened. Of. Me. But. None. Who. Feared. My. Story. Why?”

Cazia wasn’t even sure herself, but the words came out anyway. “Because the war you suffered is older than the mountains around us, but the damage it did lingers in you. It seems the harm we do to each other outlives us all. Worse, I think some of the people I love have been the cause of this pain.”
 

Kelvijinian was quiet for a time. The golden sunset light began to fade and the land grew dark.
Gol-Maddum,
he had said. The idea that there was another land mass out beyond the waves wasn’t a new one, but that this creature--this god--had seen it was astonishing.
 

And what had he called this own war? A “transformation” war? Great Way, but wasn’t that exactly what Peradain was going through?
 

“Ask. Of. Me. A. Boon,” Kelvijinian finally said. “You. Have. Asked. For. Nothing. You. Have. Only. Listened. Ask. Of. Me. A. Boon.”

“Thank you.” Cazia lowered her face to the ground. “Friends of mine have travelled far to a place called Tempest Pass.” She thought back to the maps she’d studied in the Scholars’ Tower when everyone thought the doors were tightly locked. “It’s in the hills at the most northern and western part of the Sweeps. I’m hoping to talk to a man named Tejohn Treygar there, or at least hear news of him.”
 

“I. Cannot.”

Cazia almost protested, but she bit her lip. Belterzhimi had been entirely explicit: no bargaining and no nagging. “I’m sorry.”
 

“It. Is. I. Who. Am. Sorry,” Kelvijinian said. “My. Awareness. Reaches. To. Every. Part. Of. The. Southern. Shore. And. Beneath. The. Ice. Of. The. Snowy. Caps. I. Can. Tell. You. The. Shape. And. Weight. Of. Every. Object. At. The. Muddy. Bottom. Of. The. Straim. But. I. Cannot. Stretch. Myself. Into. The. Far. Western. End. Of. The. Sweeps. There. Is. Poison. For. Me. There.”
 

Cazia gasped at the word “poison.” What could Ghoron Italga be doing in his secluded tower that would be toxic to a being like Kelvijinian? “It was silly of me to ask.”
 

“Ask. A. Different. Boon.”
 

Well, if you insist.
“I need a piece of crystal. Not a precious gem; it doesn’t have to be valuable. I just need a small crystalline stone to make a gift for someone I love.”
 

“This. Request. Is. More. Common. And. Easily. Granted.” Three pieces of clear quartz pushed through the ground like a flower stalk. “Will. These. Do?”

Cazia laid one on her damaged hand and ran her good hand across it. It was bigger than most of the crystals she’d worked with in the Scholars’ Tower, nearly as long as her little finger, and as she ran through the first few mental exercises to cast a translation spell, she could sense that the size would make the spell easier. “Oh, yes, thank you!”

“I. Will. Search. For. ‘Treygar.’ To. Deliver. A. Message. If. You. Wish.”

“Thank you, Kelvijinian. Tell him ‘Cazia is coming with help,’ please. You have really been terrifically kind to me.”

“Until. You. Asked. I. Had. Forgotten. The. Long. Ago. War. I. Have. Seen. Fighting. In. The. West. But. Did. Not. Remember. How. Much. It. Is. Like. The. War. That. Drove. Me. From. My. Home. Also. You. Asked. Me. Of. My. Life. That. Is. A. Rare. Thing. Thank. You. Now. I. Must. Rest.”

Cazia stood and slipped the crystals into a skirt pocket. “Thank you again.” She bowed and started toward the campfire she had shared with Ivy and Kinz.
 

Belterzhimi had been watching her, apparently, and walked to intercept her. “Please join me and Ivy,” Cazia said before he could speak. “I’d like to discuss something important before we head to Goldgrass Hill. I assume that’s where we’re going next.”
 

“You are correct,” Belterzhimi said. “You spoke with him for quite a long time.”

“Surprised by that, are you?
 
That’s why you made me wait until the end of the day, when you knew he would be tired--maybe too tired to speak to me.”
 

“Kelvijinian does not grow tired,” Belterzhimi corrected. His dour, handsome face looked disapproving, and Cazia thought that some woman somewhere would be happy to claim him as her own, but it could never be her, even if he were not so terribly
old
. There was too much distance between them. “How could he rule the land otherwise? It is just this avatar.”
 

Apparently, it wasn’t just the Durdric who invented their own rules about their god. Good thing Cazia’s people did not do that. “Fine. The avatar would be too tired to talk to me. I risk my life to bring your cousin here when I ought to be heading west, but I’m still being offered contempt and thin gruel.”
 

Belterzhimi stopped walking suddenly, and Cazia was so surprised that she stopped, too. He bowed stiffly. “I have behaved like a rat in the pantry, taking without giving back. I apologize.”

Great Way, he sounded almost kind again. It really was too bad. “Accepted. Let’s hurry.”
 

They continued across the broad, empty meadow, walking down the slope toward Ivy and Kinz’s little fire. Cazia wished the warden would talk again, because talking would be easier than thinking.
 

The god of the Indregai--one of them, at least--was real, and he wasn’t a demon. Cazia was beginning to understand that the world was more complicated than she’d thought. What’s more, Kelvijinian had come to this world the way so many other creatures had: through a portal.
 

What did that mean for her own gods? Fury, Song, Monument, Great Way...were they embodied concepts manifested out of the universe and given form and thought, as she’d been taught? Or were they refugees from some other place?
 

Cazia was spared any further exploration of that line of thought when she arrived at the campfire. “How did it go?” Kinz asked. “Did you make to send your message?”
 

Cazia shook her head. “No, but that’s not important.” Ivy handed her a piece of flatbread soaked with wine. The sour smell wasn’t as offensive as the first time she’d tried it. Monument sustain her, she was learning to like it. All four of them crouched beside the fire and she turned her attention to Belterzhimi. “What’s important is that as much as you don’t want to split your forces, you’re going to have to. Kinz and I will take the princess to her parents. You need to leave your troops here.”

“It is a violation,” Belterzhimi said, shaking his head. “The treaty would be forfeit if any one people’s troops occupied the temple.”

“Well, you’re going to have to do something, because the most important thing you can do is protect Kelvijinian...I mean, protect his avatar. If he receives The Blessing, we will all be lost.”

Chapter 4

“You can’t do that!” Tejohn said. “There are children down there. Babes in arms!”
 

“And soldiers!” Tyr Twofin cried. “And priests studying magic in secret, and scheming tyrs, and the witch-queen of Peradain, Amlian Italga! There is no other way for me to be safe!” The old man took a deep breath and tried to control himself. “And, of course, no other way to ensure the safety of my people. When the time comes, my brother assures me that we can plug the hole in Twofin Lake. The waters will never return to their normal levels, but if there are more portals beneath the waves--and of course there are, there must be--the flood waters will drain out into other realms. Only then will it be safe for my people to claim the lowland farms that had rightfully been ours before the Bendertuks came.”
 

“
Farms flooded with salt water? And w
hat if the grunts have already reached the mountains? What if you murder all those people only to find that your enemy has survived. No, my tyr, please do not do this. There is no honor in this. It is genocide.”
 

“Psh. There are no grunts in the upper wilds, not when there are so many lowlanders to feed on. Besides, the beasts have neither boots nor hooves; how would they move among the rocks?” The old tyr shook his bald head and frowned. His certitude was unshakeable. “No. This is the only way. That’s why I have already sent mining scholars out into the peaks. Even now, they tunnel toward the bottom of the lake.”

Tejohn stared at him in astonishment. So, this was not a plan for the future? It was already happening? Tejohn half expected to hear the sudden rush of a newborn waterfall right at that moment.

“No tyr has the kind of power at their command as I do,” Twofin said haughtily. “And as for those babes in arms you’re so worried about, they aren’t
my
--”
 

He never finished that sentence. Tejohn spun suddenly, snatching a spear from the nearest guard.
 

Tyr Twofin, to his credit, reacted swiftly, starting immediately toward the great hall. Unfortunately for him, that only made Tejohn’s attack stronger.

Tejohn swung the spear like a bludgeon, bringing the butt end down on top of the old man’s head. If the tyr had still been close, he might have survived it. Instead, he was struck by the very end of the shaft, where the blow was most powerful.