What are you doing? she asked Tara.
Containing the storm, was the reply. There is a reason that the Shadowstorms do not leave the fiefs.
Waitare you always aware of the storms?
No. Not always. But even were I not sensitive to their proximity, I could hardly fail to notice this one. She lifted her arms. Her wings spread and their tips rose, framing her. They also almost knocked Kaylin off her feet.
Watch, Tara said as Kaylin adjusted both her stance and her distance.
Watch what?
The storm. I do not see as you see, Chosen. I see as a Tower sees. Watch. My Lord watches, as well.
Not at a very safe distance.
He is behind the border. The storm will not pass me.
CHAPTER 6
The storm drew closer. Kaylin took an involuntary step back, and felt Severns hand on her shoulder, steadying her. She smiled; he couldnt see it, but it didnt matter; he could feel the hand she lifted and placed over his. The clouds were thick and as they approached, the darkness revealed itself as a gray-green haze. They looked like thunderclouds to Kaylin, although shed never seen them this close before.
But thunderclouds moving at a distance were impersonal; only the lightning they shed was a danger. These clouds, similar in color, contained a more immediate threat. She had seen the Devourer as a void or a spreading darkness; she saw these clouds as something entirely different. Their moving folds hinted at shapesboth familiar and newbreaking and distorting them before Kaylin could fully catch or name them.
She heard Dragon conversation, but at a remove, as if it were thunder.
Which was strange. She realized this storm and its clouds were silent. Shapes continued to unfurl as they approached Tara, blocking out sunlight and shadowing her white visage. White, pale, it was as giving as stone.
Stone could tell a story if one understood its cracks and the way it wore over time. But this stone was new. Kaylin thought, watching Tara, that it hadnt yet been tested. Or maybe it had, and it had faltered once. As if she could hear the thought, Tara tensed and her wings flexed.
The clouds hit then.
All sense that they had anything in common with the storms that occasionally covered the city skies vanished; they battered the air above and in front of the Avatar, stretching and thinning as they did. Stretched and thin, they were blacker, darker; they lost the tantalizing hint of moving forms, and for a moment, became two large hands, fingers pressed and curved against nothing.
The storm roared, as if it were a disembodied dragon; there was both agony and fury in the sound. Through it all, Tara stood like a wall, lifting her chin as she gazed into its heart in defiance.
The heart of the storm gazed back. Kaylin could see its eyes, disembodied but visceral, present. She could see a mouth, made of dense shadow, forming words that she couldnt understand but could almost see.
Taras response was clearer; it was more solid. Seen more than heard, runes filled the space between the two: Tower and destroyer. The ground beneath the Towers feet shifted, cobbles melting and reforming over and over again as the storm sought purchase and Tara defied it. Denied ground, it rose, warping the heavens. Above the storm the sky became what opals might have been if they had been truly repulsive. And cold.
Lightning sheared stone, but this lightning, from that sky, wasnt a flash of white: it was a lance of many colors and those colors bled, like chaos, into the ground itself, defining the hard line of the border in a way that nothing else had. Where the Towers Avatar stood, the known, the reliable, held sway; where the storm raged, nothing did.
Kaylin looked toward Sanabalis, who hadnt yet gone Dragon, although his eyes were almost red, and his nostrilsin human formwere flared. Hed also managed to singe his beard, something shedve bet was impossible. Sanabalis, is this
He lifted a hand, swatting her words to one side. Given the color of his eyes, she let them go, and turned, reluctantly, back to the storm. It was screaming.
Severn caught her wrist and yanked her around, stepping to the side to avoid the flailing edge of the sword she hadnt dropped. He pulled her into his arms, her back to his chest, and held her tightly, lowering his jaw until it rested close to her right ear. She knew he was speaking. But she felt his words as a tickle of breath and a sensation; she couldnt hear anything but the sound of the storm itself.
The storm and her own answering cries.
She wanted to run to it. To run into it. Hadnt she done that once, already? Maybe this time, maybe this time, she could travel back to the night that Steffi and Jade had died. And this time, she would be armed. This time she wasnt thirteen. This time she knew what would happen. She could change it. She could unmake it. She could do what shed failed to do then.
She swallowed her screams, opened her eyes, forced herself to look.
Why doesnt it affect you the same way? she asked Severn in the silence and privacy she almost never used.
Im not you. She felt his smile. Its almost passed, he added, and she opened eyes that she hadnt realized shed closed. The sky was still the wrong color above the angry mass of darkness, but the darkness itself was dissipating, and its screams had faded into attenuated cries that still broke the heart.
She preferred multi-eyed demonic heads with obsidian claws and mouths in their butt ends.
When will the sky return to normal? she asked as Severn released her almost reluctantly and stepped back.
Normal? Tara lifted her head, her eyes narrowing briefly. Ah. Not, I think, anytime soon. It isa statement, Kaylin.
Of what?
The sky isoff limits? Is that you how say it?
Kaylin nodded.
The sky is off limits for my Lord, should he choose to attempt to cross the border in that fashion.
What will happen to him if he does?
No one can say. But we can be certain that something will.
Kaylin hesitated, and then said, The Shadows arent fond of the storm, either.
Tara frowned, and then inclined her head, lowering her wings and folding them across her back. Silence descended, and as it did, the wings folded themselves into the shades of brown that were the Avatars gardening clothing. It was a surprisingly effective indication that the conflictand its inherent dangerwas over. No, she told Kaylin, her gaze still fixed at a point beyond her own borders, they are not.
Then you dont know for certain what might happen.
No. We know only that there is change, and it is neither predictable nor, in the end, desired by those who have been changed. Our history isincomplete.
But I came to you, at your awakening.
Yes. Tara still spoke in a voice better suited to the height of cold stone fortification than the gardening clothes she wore.
And I came through the storm.
No.
But Tiamaris called it
He was incorrect.
Does he know he was wrong?
Yes. The borders and their defense are the reason I wasborn. They are not, however, the sole reason I was reborn. I want this life, she added, and as she did, her voice softened, and her eyes lost the hard flint of steel. She now looked exhausted. Weve discussed this at length. My Lord felt that the stormthat what he had identified as stormhad not only proved fortuitous, but, in some fashion, benevolent.
This stretched Kaylins strict definition of benevolent, although she couldnt argue with the eventual outcome.
He thus argued that the storms themselves ultimately had some greater purpose, and that some faith or trust might be placed in them. He is willing to risk much, she added, voice soft, expression pensive. Then she shook herself, reminding Kaylin very much of one of the women who worked three days a week in the office as she didwhich wasnt generally something she thought of when she thought of ancient, god-touched edifices.
You know it wasnt a storm.
Yes.
But in shape
And in look, yes. There were reasons that my Lord made his assumption, Kaylin. This, she said, pointing to the now empty and still air in front of her, was a storm. Can you see the difference?
The urge to be humorous came and went. Yes, Kaylin replied. She did so slowly enough that Tara raised a single impatient brow. The first storm we encountered had no voice.
Voice?
You couldnt hear this one? It was screaming, Tara.
I told you, Chosen; I do not perceive Shadow the way you perceive it. Her eyes closed for a few seconds. Nor does my Lord.
Morse joined Tara. The former fieflords lieutenant had taken one new gash across her forearm, which had destroyed padding but had managed to break very little skin.
So, Kaylin asked her, this happen often?
Every other day.
Tara frowned. Morse, it doesnt happen every other
Figure of speech, Morse broke in quickly. Kaylin stifled even the hint of a smile. Believe it or not, its better than it was before the fieflord.
Theoh, you mean Tiamaris.
I dont mean Barren. Morse spit.
Tara watched her covertly, as if fascinated by the gesture, and then turned back to Kaylin.
I understood what Morse meant, Kaylin said quickly. These border attacks happen frequently. She glanced at the People.
Tara frowned. Illien is still within my Tower, as my Lords guest. I remember Illien, and I remember the feel of the borders of his domain beforeI could no longer sense them. You can cross the border, she added. And at the moment, it is safe; the storm has driven the Shadows from them, and they will return slowly, if at all today. I do not think you will notice the difference, if you travel farther up the road; the road here has been destroyed by the storm, and it will be a while before it once again looks like the other half of a street, at least to mortal vision.
Itllitll go back to what it once was?
Yes.
The fiefs streets didnt. And the buildings that were half consumed or transformed by Shadowsthose didnt, either.
No. That is one of the differences between the Shadowlands and your own. Your landsmy Lords landsare solid; they exist.
The Shadowlands are more malleable; they do not take scars in the same way. Where Shadows are strong, the landscape on that side of the border will respond to the weight of its call, the force of its power. The buildings will shift and change, growing or sinking or fading; the streets will become molten pools or gaping pits. But when the Shadow passes, so does the changes it made. Were I to likewise make such drastic changes in the geography of my fief, when the battle was over, what would remain would be those destroyed buildings, the molten rock, and the fissures.
Can I ask how you know this?
Tara raised a brow. The knowledge was built into me, she finally replied. And when I close my eyes, I can see the dim and faded image of ancient battles; I can hear their attenuated battle cries. She smiled then, and it was an almost bitter smile. I am not what you are, Kaylin. Why do you need to know?
Kaylin shook her head. I want to knowwhich is different from needbecause its always a good idea to have as much knowledge of your enemy as possible. Itd be better if any of it made any sense. Saying this, she lifted the sword that was still, against all odds, in her hands. Take this, for instance. I would swear it was a greatsword meant for a giant when I first laid eyes on it.
Tara said nothing.
please dont tell me you recognize this weapon.
I do not recognize the weapon, was the Towers reply. It was evasive, and honestly? While Tara had learned many things about interacting with people, she wasnt actually good at some of them. Which, given she could take you apart and find her waywith easeto the darkest and most painful of your memories, said something. Kaylin, at this moment, wasnt sure what.
What do the runes on the blade say?
Runes? The Tower frowned. Glancing at Tiamaris, who was now waiting, wings folded, in the still streets, she said, My Lord, I believe the danger has passed for the moment. May we retire?
His eyes shifted color. You are injured?
No! No. But the storms are tiring.
I will remain. Morse!
Morse nodded. It wouldnt pass muster as respectful anywhere but the fiefs, but since thats where they were standing, it worked. You want me to keep watch on the construction?
The People are here. Escort the Lady home.
Tara pointed at Maggaron, and Tiamariss brows constricted; they were silent for a long moment, but at length, he nodded.
The Ladys escort was not confined to Morse; Kaylin and Severn traveled with her, at her request, Maggaron walking to their left in subdued silence. Subdued or no, he still wore armor, and he was still eight feetplus in height; he cleared streets just by existing.
Lord Sanabalis, however, remainedin human format the side of his former student. His gaze flickered rapidly over the sword in Kaylins hands, but he chose not to say a word. Loudly, and with an expression that implied that all the words he held in abeyance would be put to better use later.
The border streets grew smaller as they walked, and the streets themselves were, not surprisingly, empty of anyone that wasnt about eight feet tall. Even the children of the new arrivals remained out of sight. Morse, in the absence of Tiamaris, relaxed. She didnt so much walk as move while slouching.
So. This happens a lot? Kaylin asked, picking up the strands of their previous conversation, if it could be called that.
Not the storm. But the Shadows have gone nuts in the last couple of days.
Since the People arrived?
The giants?
Is that what theyre called hereabouts?
Nah. We call them the Norannir.
Why?
Its what they call themselves. Morse grinned. Its more or less what they call anyone who isnt a Shadow, and we adopted it. The other Imperial guy
Sanabalis. When Severn cleared his throat, Kaylin added, Lord Sanabalis.
Hes attempting to learn some of their language, and attempting to at least teach their kids some of ours. The kids pick it up faster.
What else have the Norannir been doing?
Anything. I mean anything theyre asked to do, if we can make it clear. Buttheyre not afraid of the Shadow. They hate it, dont get me wrong, but they dont fear it. They dont fear the Ferals, either; they make camp beside the damn border, and they watch. She grimaced. Truth is, they make the streets safer just by living there.