The World Weavers (24 page)

“That's what we'd like to know,” Sulis said. “You were working in the temple, and then the ground shook. When we ran in, all of you were unconscious.”

“Ava!” Alannah said, sitting up all the way to look around. “Is she okay?”

Sulis looked over to the other beds. Dani was sitting up, his head in his hands, as Lasha bent over him. Grandmother, Palou, and Anchee were around Ava's bed, and Sulis could feel the energy they gave her. No one had helped Amon yet, so Sulis went to his bedside and took his hand. Ashraf helped as she sent energy into his body. It didn't take much before his eyes fluttered open.

“What are we doing wasting time here?” he snapped at Sulis, and he tried to sit up. His eyes rolled back, and he passed out again.

“I think he can recover on his own from here,” Ashraf said, annoyed.

Sulis was relieved to see Ava stirring in her bed.

“Is she okay?” Sulis asked Grandmother.

“I think so,” Grandmother said. “She'll need to rest though. Looks like the energy was simply sucked out of her.”

“It was,” Alannah confirmed. “She was drawing some sort of combined energy I've never seen before, but she tripped over her own feet and fell onto the line just as it was completed. Even though she and Sanuri were sealed into the mandala, the energy was ripped from me.”

“Why would it do that?” Ashraf asked.

Alannah shook her head and winced. “Ouch. I think the
feli
have been shielding us from such things. She's smudged a line or tripped before, but she's always had Nuisance with her, and Dani and I have always had our
feli
. Today none of the
feli
showed up. And then she had this breakthrough with the energy, and Amon was so excited we went ahead with it.”

“Why was Amon so excited?” Sulis wondered.

“Because she was connecting Ivanha's statue to the earth,” Amon said from his bed, his voice gravelly and weak. “She was tying into the very bedrock of the mountains. That will make the trap irresistible to Ivanha. We didn't know she could tie the mandalas to the elements.”

Anchee shook his head. “I wish Clay were here. He would know how to help Ava safely work with elemental energy.”

“I think we should wait for our
feli
to come back,” Dani said. “I don't ever want to feel like that again. I thought Ava was dying and I couldn't reach her.”

Sari nodded. “I think you need to rest for today. You'll stay here, where we can keep an eye on you. The pain you are feeling is backlash from having all that energy disappear at once. Hopefully the
feli
will return tomorrow, and you can figure out how to proceed.”

In the morning when Sulis came out of the dormitory to the main courtyard, Djinn was back, looking pleased. He flopped himself down in front of Sulis and wriggled onto his back, asking for a belly rub. Sulis was so glad to see him she scrubbed his fur with both hands, rousing a loud purr from him.

“Oh my goodness,” Ashraf murmured and Sulis looked up.

There were
feli
draped on every raised surface of the courtyard, clear up to the Obsidian Temple. There was a mix of the long, lean
feli
, similar to Djinn, and the heavier
feli
of the savannah like Lasha's
feli
, only dun colored.

“By the One, there are hundreds of them!” Sulis exclaimed.

The Kabandha warriors eyed the
feli
warily from windows and the doorways of buildings and kept close to cover rather than practicing sword dances in the courtyard where they usually trained. Sulis could see why as temple master Sari walked to Sulis from the Obsidian Temple. If Sari got too close to the felines, the wild
feli
growled at her. She was remarkably calm, walking among hundreds of snarling felines—­but Sulis could see that her breathing was uneven and her face was too still.

“Sulis, can you do something about this?” Sari asked as she came abreast of her and Ashraf. ­“People are afraid to come out. We have much planning and training to do this ten-­day.”

“Whiskers!” Lasha exclaimed behind Sulis. “Where did they all come from?”

“Obviously our
feli
found them,” Alannah said. Sulis looked at her with concern. Yaslin was by her side, looking as pleased as Djinn.

“Should you be out of the infirmary?” she asked.

“I feel fine,” Alannah said. “We need to do something before they start fighting with each other.”

“What?” Sulis asked with frustration. “These are wild
feli
, not tame ones. They'll do what they like. They don't follow orders.”

“Not much different from our tame ones, then,” Lasha said under her breath as Alta bumped her head against Lasha's thigh.

“Well, Sulis, you're the one who used to brag about taming wild
feli
when we were pledges,” Alannah said mildly. “You've got the greatest affinity for the big felines. Do your thing.”

Sulis looked at Alannah to find a crowd had gathered behind her. All the Chosen were among the crowd. Her grandmother made shooing motions as Ava giggled at Sulis's horrified expression.

“I should have known that would come back to haunt me,” Sulis muttered.

“Oh, look,” Ava squealed. “There's Nuisance with his siblings!”

She was bowled over by the
feli
cubs, now as tall as the adults.

Sulis spoke to Sari as they watched Ava try to extricate herself from the rough feline tongues. “Where am I supposed to send them? They must have come to assist in some way.”

“Maybe you could convince them to go to the ledges behind the temple where the spring splits? It would be cooler there and they would be bothered less.”

Sulis walked into the center of the courtyard. She looked around to find all feline eyes upon her. None approached, but at least they weren't snarling at her. Djinn bumped his head against her ribs and she put a hand on his ruff. She closed her eyes and reached out to the energy of the felines around her. She tried to project an image of the ledges behind them, the cool dimness of the little caverns, the access to running water. She opened her eyes. None of the
feli
had moved. Several cleaned themselves to show her what they thought of her suggestion.

“Impressive,” Lasha said. “Are you sure you were talking to the cats and not the rocks they're sitting on? I've never seen so many bored
feli
in my life.”

Sulis turned to retort but stopped as Amon approached the group. He looked entranced, drawn to the gathering. He pushed his way through the crowd to stand beside Sulis.

“They're here for me,” Amon said, a little breathlessly.

Sulis looked at the
feli
. They were intently staring at the Descendant. Several had sat up on their ledges. Amon looked unnerved. He turned to Sulis.

“What am I supposed to do with them?” he asked. “I don't know anything about
feli
.”

“Well, getting them out of everyone's way would be a good start,” Sulis said, enjoying the man's uncertainty. “I was trying to send them a picture of the ledges and alcoves behind the temple. You may want to try that.”

Amon stared at her a moment, then closed his eyes. The
feli
stood. After a few hisses and swipes of claws and teeth, they sorted themselves out and wandered off in different directions, but heading away from the main group of humans. Several
feli
slipped past the guards to enter the Obsidian Temple. Amon opened his eyes.

“That was easy,” he said, his voice surprised.

Sari stepped forward. “The show is over, warriors,” she said. “You will return to your routines. Please use caution around the new
feli
. They are wild and you should avoid interaction when possible.”

The Chosen gathered around Amon as the warriors took formation in the courtyard and sparred.

Alannah slapped Amon on the back. “So you've been chosen by several hundred
feli
?” she asked. “I thought one was bad enough.”

“Did anyone get a good count?” Master Anchee wanted to know.

“Over two hundred,” Grandmother said. “The shadows hid many.”

“You sure showed up Sulis,” Lasha said.

Sulis frowned. “I didn't know they were bonded to him. You know how
feli
hate taking orders from anyone but their chosen.”

“Do we know why several hundred
feli
just arrived to claim Amon?” Ashraf asked.

Amon nodded slowly. “
Feli
are shielders,” he said. “Until yesterday, I had not realized that they were shielding us from energy. But they are also energy enhancers—­they are energy. They see through illusions with the clarity the One gives them, but this many
feli
can obscure any energy work we've been doing. They can help strengthen the illusion around the mandala we are setting so that even the deities do not suspect something is hidden in the rock.”

Lasha shook her head. “Won't they be a little suspicious about hundreds of
feli
gathered in one place?”

Amon shrugged. “I don't think all the
feli
can fit into the Obsidian Temple. I'm guessing that their presence near the temple will be enough to confuse the deities. That is something we must work with until the final battle arrives. I want everyone at the temple in a sandglass.”

Amon strode off toward the temple, leaving the others staring after him.

“I think it's going to be a long day,” Palou said. “Clay would tell us to eat a good breakfast.”

Lasha sighed. “Amon will be even more intolerable than Sulis about the
feli
, won't he?”

Sulis opened her mouth to retort, stung by the criticism, and then caught the sparkle in the other woman's eyes. She slugged Lasha on the shoulder.

“Ouch, grouchy,” Lasha said. “Ashraf, you better get your beloved some
tash
before she wrests control from Amon and sics a hundred
feli
on us.”

J
onas dismounted from his horse, and an aide took its reins. He looked around at the abandoned town, the last bit of civilization before the deeper desert took over.

“They must have been warned,” the Templar snarled as he peered into an empty shop. “We have spies among us.”

The Herald shook her head. “Don't get paranoid. They don't need spies to see thousands of ­people marching across the desert. We should have realized the towns would scatter when they saw an army coming.”

“I thought there wasn't any place to run to,” the Crone said. She turned to Kadar. “Where could these ­people have gone?” she asked.

“There are many smaller domiciles scattered around the area,” Kadar said. “Places where ­people have dug wells or found smaller springs. In an emergency, ­people could flee to those homes.”

“It looks like they cleared out quickly with only what they could carry,” the Templar said. “I'll send my men around to gather supplies.”

“Most of the humpbacks are gone,” Kadar said, frustration in his voice. “They only left injured or sick beasts behind. Let me look through the corrals and see if any are suitable for travel to carry you and your supplies.”

The Crone sent him off with a smile and then turned to the others. “We need to make haste. If this village has been warned, they would have sent warning to the desert warriors.”

“My Knights are scouting the area. I expected they'd have warriors here to ambush us when we came, but the scouts have reported they've seen no life in the surrounding area.”

“So we can expect an ambush once we enter the Sands region?” the Herald asked.

“We will proceed with caution—­but that would be unlikely. They don't have enough men to win a full-­out battle. In the dunes they cannot find cover to hide and ambush us from. The Tigus can hide themselves, but not with our
feli
present.”

“What about an ambush at one of the oases?” Jonas asked.

“We will be the most cautious as we approach oases,” the Templar agreed. “Though again, that would create a one-­on-­one battle. I think the Tigu warriors will try to pick our men off throughout the desert, with small hit-­and-­run attacks. I believe the attack by the warriors of the One will come when we approach the Obsidian Temple. We will be closest to the mountains at that point. The rocks and cliffs will give them a greater advantage. But we have the greater numbers.”

“Simply throwing our fighters at theirs will waste many lives,” the Herald said, frowning. “Can we approach from behind?”

“We have only one guide,” the Crone said. “We have to follow the route he knows. Who cares how many humans we spend, as long as we win out in the end? Recovering our deities' lost powers is our priority.”

Parasu nodded. Kadar ran back to them, not looking happy.

“I think I've found enough humpbacks to mount the Voices and carry some of the supplies,” he said. “We'll have to load up your mules and horses as well, and hope enough of them survive until we reach the next oasis.”

“We have wagons for supplies,” the Crone said, frowning.

“Only if you want to push them every time they sink into the sand,” Kadar said. “You'll be lucky if you don't lose most of your horses, with a ­couple days between oases, anyway. You don't want to lose your supplies as well.”

Jonas stared out at the shimmering dunes that lay south of this town. “Is it really possible to make it to the temple?” he asked. “Or should we turn back?”

Kadar grinned. “I can get you there,” he assured them. “You might be a little hungry, but I've done this route hundreds of times, in some of the worst conditions you will know. If you are willing, I will find a way.”