Chapter 21: 12. A Shadow in the Salted Lands

~Meriel~

In the deep of night, even the walls of safety could be made sinister by their shadows. Even Telis, relentless in her desire to make good time, was unwilling to travel too long in the Salted Lands by night. They'd not gone far from the bridge to Falien when it became impossible to see where they were going. The moon was stubborn. It seemed to hide from them, dodging behind clouds and high peaks almost on purpose. Before they were out of the mountainous eastern point of Otenlan, Telis found a small cave to rest for the night. It was ideal, she said. Big enough to accommodate the four of them, without anybody needing to be too cramped or too close to the mouth. There was only one entrance, as far as Telis could tell--and she gave the entire cave a once-over with a torch lit by her magic before approving it. It was important to pick your shelter smartly, she said. What life there was in the Salted Lands usually wanted you dead. The more ways into your cave of choice, the more chances that something would sneak by you undetected. When there was only one entrance, there was only one place you had to keep watch over.

Meriel had been forbidden from taking a shift at watch, of course. It was too important that she stay out of harm's way, Telis said, and anyway she had no skill at fighting. If something did come, she wouldn't be able to fend it off. That didn't offend Meriel. She was no fool; she knew her strengths lay elsewhere. Cad took less kindly to Telis forbidding him from watch. He at least had the grace to sulk silently.

In the end, Telis took first and third watch. She relented on letting Helicent do a spell, in part because of the speed with which Helicent had noticed the ash-rat and in part because not even a Magus could stay awake all night and all day and keep functioning properly.

The cave made for an uncomfortable bed, and the long-stretching shadows made it an uneasy rest. Exhaustion won out, though; barely had Meriel nestled herself into a comfortable position before she drifted off. Her dreams were a jumble. Memories of the past days--Helicent standing over the ash-rat, Telis killing the man in the inn at Camistane, her father lying dead on the kitchen floor--were interspersed with strange images Meriel didn't understand. Birds scattered about, disturbed from their perches. She saw blue and red and yellow, nightjars and curlews and kingfishers. And her father, lying dead on the kitchen floor. She dreamt of a castle, tall and proud, its roof a glittering red gemstone. Three children, none older than thirteen, hanging from makeshift rafters against the highest tower. And her father, lying dead on the kitchen floor. And she dreamt of a woman in fineries, golden waves of hair down to her breasts, on a throne. The woman was dead. Next to her stood a man with an eye that burned like fire, a man who Meriel thought she remembered from some distant daydream. And her father, lying dead on the kitchen floor.

When at last she woke, it was as if she'd had no rest at all.

It was the gentle wafting of smoke that woke her. Morning had broken, but much of the sunlight was filtered by the cave mouth. Only a shaft of it reached as far back as the little nook in the rock that Meriel had taken for her bed. In the middle of the cave, Telis had gathered sticks and set them ablaze, and was tending the fire. She had a small metal pot which she'd rested on the fire. Inside it, she was cooking up something--Meriel couldn't tell from the smell exactly what.

"Ah, the Princess is awake!" Cad, looking a mess with his hair all askew and only one foot booted, rose from his own spot. He moved in close to Meriel and whispered in her ear. "I was beginning to worry that our witch friend had murdered you while you slept."

Meriel shook her head. "Grow up, Cad." Ignoring the open mouth that heralded his imminent retort, she wandered over to the fire. Telis' brow was slick with sweat. What happens when you stand in front of the fire too long, presumably. Meriel took a long sniff; whatever Telis had planned for breakfast, it seemed like it was going to be delicious. "This smells good," she said.

Telis turned. "Good morning, Meriel! Yes, it's nothing spectacular I'm afraid. Burrbacks I picked up on the road out of Camistane."

"Bugs?" Cad pulled a face.

"They'll crunch in your mouth, and your breath will smell foul for a day or two, but they'll keep you alive and well." Telis gave him a withering look. "I'm afraid we're in no fine position to be particular with our food. The bread I brought with me was only ever meant to last Meriel and I until we could replenish our supply in Camistane. Instead of more food, however, I found myself with more mouths to feed. I can only ration it so far. And unless you think you can hunt better than Helicent can--and she's found nothing to eat since we crossed into the Salted Lands--burrbacks are the best I can offer."

"I thought you were supposed to be magic," said Cad. "If you're what you claim, can't you simply conjure us up something better than a handful of bugs?"

"No." Telis looked sidelong at Cad. "I'm not all-powerful. Despite what you may think, magic is not without limits. There are some things that just... cannot be done."

Cad shook his head and stalked off to the mouth of the cave, where Helicent was crouched, on her watch. Meriel made sure to smile at Telis. "I'm sure they'll taste just great." It was a lie, of course, but the rumbling in her belly told her it really wouldn't matter if the burrbacks actually tasted edible.

Leaving Telis to the cooking, Meriel wandered over to Helicent and Cad. Helicent was on her haunches, her bow in one hand, pointedly looking out at the Salted Lands rather than acknowledging Cad. In the light of day, Otenlan wasn't nearly as scary as it had been at night. There were trees here--stunted things, twisted and dark, but trees nonetheless. They lined the contours of hill and mountain, their greenery in contrast to the bland beiges and browns of the dead dirt they sprang from.

"This doesn't sit right with me," Cad was saying. "None of it. Falien, she said. That's where we're going. It's safe in Falien. They have cities and people and the ground isn't poisoned. I can deal with places like that. I like them, even. But no: suddenly, we can't go to Falien. We have to go through the Salted Lands. Which, guess what, are deadly as all buggery and completely abandoned since the Magi butchered the people who lived here. What a fine place to go for a stroll with a Magus."

Helicent met Meriel's eye with a significant look. "We couldn't go into Falien," she said. "It was warded, remember?"

"Was it? Or did Magus Telis just say it was warded? I don't remember seeing any magic. As I remember it, I was perfectly happily crossing that bridge when all of a sudden she decided it was too dangerous. And we just took her word for it."

"She's a Magus," said Meriel. "None of us are. If anyone's going to know what wards look like, it's her."

Cad shrugged. "I suppose it's just convenient that the ward none of us could see forced us to go into the dangerous Salted Lands, where we have to cling like babes to Magus Telis lest the ground swallow us up. I bet she loves that."

"Telis doesn't exactly look chuffed to be here," Meriel pointed out. "I think she'd have avoided this place as happily as you or I."

That drew a short laugh from Cad. "I believe that's what she wants us to think. Meriel, she's a Magus. That's what she does: she lies. Do you remember back in the Village? Before all this madness? She disappeared. For a week. And then all of a sudden your father's dead and Telis is back. Mighty convenient, that."

Meriel shook her head. "Telis had nothing to do with that. Father was dead before she arrived. He..." She forced down a lump in her throat. "He tried to kill me. I killed him, instead." She felt a gentle touch on her shoulder. Helicent, brushing her skin with a light finger. "That man wasn't my father. He was someone who wanted to use me. Who wanted to kill me. That was his plan all along."

"Was it?" Cad's voice was rising almost to a shout. "Strange, then, that it took him sixteen years to do anything about it. How do you know he wasn't bewitched? Perhaps that's what Telis was doing. She was casting her magic on your father, messing with his mind."

"Telis wouldn't do that."

"Wouldn't she? Perhaps she's got you hoodwinked too."

"Cad, no," said Helicent, with a tone of ice.

Cad didn't relent, though. "Why else would you trust in her over your father? A stranger, over your flesh and blood."

"Telis has never been cruel to me." Meriel was trembling, she realised. "She never hurt me. Never tried to kill me. My father did all of those things."

"Yes, because he was bewitched--"

"No." Meriel surprised herself with the force in her voice; it clearly wrong-footed Cad, who fell suddenly silent. Helicent's eyebrows rose. "My father wasn't cruel to me on the day he died. He was cruel to me every other day of my entire life. And you know what? I'm glad he's dead. And I'm glad he's not really my father. I don't want to be a queen, I don't know how to be a queen, but I'd much rather have a queen's blood in my veins than a cruel, self-centred man who tried to run a sword through me." She found the words had run dry. In the silence that came after, she saw Helicent glaring at Cad, who tried to find somewhere else to look.

"Breakfast," called Telis from the cookfire, breaking the silence.

Insects weren't Meriel's first choice of breakfast, but she was hungry enough not to care all that much. And, honestly, the burrbacks weren't half bad. Telis had done a good job of turning them into a proper meal. They were crispy on the outside but, when Meriel bit into them, the juice just spilled out into her mouth. If she didn't look too hard, she could even forget that they were just bugs.

"I felt a tremor in the Chains," said Telis, idly, as they ate. "Something broken. Or something about to break. That's why I left the Village. I had to be sure I wasn't the only one--that something really had happened. If I'd brought Meriel to the Tower, into the world, too soon, it would have put her in danger. I was in Falien. In Aptalis, to speak with one of my Sisters." Popping the last of her burrbacks into her mouth, Telis looked Cad firm in the eye. "This cave has an echo, Cadriel Mathe. I heard every word you said just now, and I had no idea you hated Meriel so much."

"I don't hate Meriel," Cad said, beginning his protest.

"Then why would you be so cruel to her?"

"I wasn't... I--"

"It behoves you to think on, young master," said Telis. "There's a place at the Octal Tower for a young blacksmith with the will to work hard. There's no place for a village wem who knows only rudeness. It should be no more than four days until we get to the Tower. You have until then to decide which you want to be."

After their breakfast, Telis disappeared into the rear of the cave, where daylight didn't breach the shadow. Meriel took the time to rummage through her saddlebag before she followed. She wasn't sure why; there was little in there save for her shawl and the blindfold she hoped never to have to wear again. Even that was a hard slog. Saddlebags were designed for the strong back of a horse, and even empty Meriel doubted she'd have been able to carry one too easily. She wondered how Telis was managing lugging around A Treatise on the Sidereal Portents. What was so important about the book that the Magus had carried it all this way?

She found Telis knelt over a burbling stream, filling up a waterskin while three others were rested against the rocky wall of the cave. The Magus had conjured a small ball of light, the only light to be seen this deep, which floated a dozen feet over her head and bathed her in a ghostly pallor. Meriel's footsteps echoed around the cave as she approached. Telis straightened up. "I imagined you'd stay with your friends, Meriel," she said, still holding the waterskin in the stream.

"I wanted to talk to you, Magus Telis," said Meriel. "There's still a lot I don't understand. Things I wanted to ask you, before Cad and Helicent appeared."

Telis nodded. "Ask away, then, child."

"It's... Magus Telis, I know you have that book with you."

"What book?" Telis could do a good job feigning ignorance. Perhaps that was a skill Magi learnt at the Octal Tower.

"The book on the stars. The one I took from your house."

Telis turned to face Meriel at last, the waterskin momentarily forgotten. "Tell me what you know about that book."

"Nothing? I... it's about the stars, I think. Or... there were diagrams inside."

"So you've looked inside?"

Meriel nodded sheepishly. "Yes. A bit. Are you upset at me for it?"

"Upset?" Telis shook her head. "Why would I be upset? I left the book out for you to find."

That threw Meriel. "You did?"

"I told you. I felt something wrong with the Chain. When I went to speak with Magus Easind, I wasn't certain I'd return. I knew you'd visit my house if you thought something was wrong. I hoped you'd notice a big volume out of place on the table."

"But why?"

"You were half-right, child," said Telis, with a slight smile. "It is a book on the stars. It's also a book on the magic we gained from the stars. What remains of the ancient wisdom, distilled into something digestible. I sought the book in the first instance because I hoped to ease my worries. Unsuccessfully, I might add, or else I'd have not needed to travel at great haste to Falien. And it was my hope that, should something happen to me, you'd have found the book and it would have led you to the Tower."

"What did you think might happen to you?"

"We're entering dangerous days." Telis' tone had become sombre. "Meriel, many Magi have died in the last weeks, my own Chain-Mother among them. That was the disturbance I felt. Why I was so scared."

"Chain-Mother?"

"The woman to whom I was bound. Meia. When we get to the Tower, and you're bound to me, I will become your Chain-Mother. And when the day comes that I die, you will know. The moment is called Awakening. It's the moment you cease to be merely a woman linked to the Chain--you become the Chain itself."

"I didn't realise there was a difference," said Meriel.

"Oh, very much so," said Telis. "I've been a Magus much of my life. I came to the Tower when I was fourteen, and was bound to Meia when I was twenty-four. For thirty years I have worn the Hummingbird around my neck. It's been little more than a fortnight since I became the Hummingbird. I still don't have the words to describe how that feels. All that time I saw Meia as a mother. I realise now, she was never my mother. She was my sister."

"And the book?" Meriel couldn't help but feel as though Telis was trying to guide the conversation away from what, exactly, A Treatise on the Sidereal Portents contained.

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"Very valuable. There are prophecies held there which may well concern you, and once we reach the Tower I hope to find a Magus who can decipher them properly."

"Prophecies?"

"You have the eyes of the fire, Meriel," said Telis, "and the blood of a queen. The Berylblood. Your mother belongs to a famous lineage, child. You shouldn't be surprised that there are prophecies written about you."

Meriel swallowed, her throat dry. "At Camistane, you told me my mother was still alive," she said. "Does she know about me? Where I am?"

Telis stood up suddenly. "No more questions now, child. The day's getting away from us. Come: I hope to be halfway to Faradwel before the sun goes down." Scooping up the skins, Telis walked past Meriel and towards the mouth of the cave. The magic light disappeared as she did, casting Meriel in darkness. She scurried after Telis before the Magus got too far away. In the dark, the cave was cold; when her thoughts turned to her mother, a mother kept apart from her child, Meriel's blood grew colder.

The Salted Lands had forests, in a sense. There was never a regularity to them, never the thick canopies and lush tranquility that the woods around the Village held, but the trees of the Salted Lands--malformed as they were--grew sometimes in thicker clusters. These were the areas Telis seemed most concerned by. In the open dry she was happy to let them talk amongst themselves--not that Cad had much to say; he'd been in his thoughts really since Telis had spoken to him over breakfast. Whenever the trees became a copse, however, she'd bring them to a stop, her cloak idly flapping. They were to walk single file, she said, keeping close to one another and following her footsteps as exactly as they could. If they so much as whispered to one another while within the forest, Telis would turn her neck and shush them. She whispered to herself, though. That was the weird thing. Sometimes it was a muttered word here or there, but sometimes she seemed to have entire whispered conversations. Meriel asked her about it at one point, when they were in a patch of drylands with not a tree in sight. Telis denied that she'd said a word. "I counselled silence in the forests of the Salted Lands," she said, in that soft and innocent voice of hers, "and I am in the habit of practicing what I counsel."

Helicent had noticed it too, though. "I don't understand why she'd deny it. She must know we could hear her."

Meriel thought it best not to ask Cad his thoughts. He'd had a sour look on his face ever since Telis' chastisement in the cave, a look which had only grown more rotten as the day wore on. She resolved instead to position herself directly behind Telis at the next forest. Close enough that she might pick up on what, exactly, Telis was whispering.

The next forest turned out to be the biggest they'd come to yet. Some of the twisted trunks stretched twenty or more feet up, and were pockmarked by bitter fungus. This particular forest was in the middle of a valley, so Telis said, but standing in the shade of those trees it was impossible to see the far end of the valley.

Soon enough the shade was all-encompassing. If it was a wonder that anything grew in the Salted Lands, it was even more a wonder that the trees here could have such full canopies. Especially at this time of year, so close to winter. Leaves should have been falling from their perches. Meriel wondered idly if the trees of the Salted Lands followed the same natural laws as everywhere else.

"I don't like this," murmured Helicent, as they trudged through the woods. "These woods feel heavier than the ones before. There's no bugs."

"I bet there's loads of bugs," said Meriel. "Under leaves and stuff."

"No." Helicent shook her head. "There's none."

There were stones, though, scattered throughout the trees. Some had been worked to make bricks, and were stacked into little walls; others had things carved into them, though quite what had been rendered obscure by a coating of slimy moss. Telis didn't stop to look closer at the stones, refused to even acknowledge them. Meriel wondered if the Magus knew what this place had been. She still wasn't quite sure exactly when Otenlan had been driven to ruin by war. The way Telis talked about it, though, gave Meriel the feeling that her stories were a little more than just folklore from centuries ago. This had been human habitation at some point in the past. A village? Maybe even a city like Camistane?

Without meaning to, she found herself thinking of home once again. The Village. As they moved deeper into the forest, the stones became more frequent. Soon enough there were outlines of houses marked by what remained of the bricks, three or four high. A few buildings were standing proud still. Empty, hollow, ghosts of what they had been--but standing nevertheless. They seemed to still carry the weight of those who'd once lived here.

"This would make a good spot to camp for the night," said Cad, breaking an eight-hour silence. "Proper houses. Look. This one still has a roof. It would keep the rain right off us."

He was making his way over to one of the more-intact structures as he spoke. At once, Telis swooped across to block his path. "You're quite right. Were it to rain these houses would keep us dry. But we will not make camp here."

"Then where? It doesn't look like we're going to stumble over another cave any time soon," Cad scoffed.

"Out in the open, if need be," said Telis, calm. "We can rest here for a few minutes. I dare not stay too long. Dark things happened here."

Cad exchanged glances with Meriel. "So why bring us here?"

"I warned you of the dangers you'd find in the Salted Lands," Telis told him. "This is the best way to the Octal Tower. That doesn't mean it's safe." She reached into her saddlebag and drew from it one of the waterskins she'd filled at the cave, which she tossed to Cad in a smooth movement. "Drink if you're thirsty. We can stay here for five minutes or so."

Cad shook his head as he removed the skin's topper with his teeth, throwing his head back to let the water pour into his mouth. "I've had enough," he said, so Telis couldn't hear him. "I want to go home. I understand the Village. There's none of this danger, none of this madness."

"It's a bit thrilling, really," said Helicent. "The Village is nice, but being out here, in the world... it's different. Exciting."

"You're mad," said Cad.

"Maybe," Helicent shrugged. "I wasn't born in the Village. Perhaps it doesn't run in my blood like it does in yours. At times I wonder if I'll ever even want to go home. The adventure is fun. Better that than stalking harts and being watched by sidhe all the time."

Cad frowned. "But you'll go home eventually?"

"I suppose so," Helicent admitted. "I'll miss my mother, for one. And I'll miss winning all that money at dice." She laughed at that, and Meriel did too. Even Cad, begrudgingly, offered a chuckle.

In the lull that followed, Helicent sighed, eyes cast around her and her hand on the haft of her bow.

"You'll be there too, Meriel," said Cad. "When all this is over. Imagine, the three of us, at dice. The stories we can tell!"

"I'm going to the Tower," said Meriel. "I'm going to become a Magus, like Telis."

Cad's lip twitched. "Yes, but after that. You'll come home, right?"

Would she? The question of home led her to maudlin thought, a replay of her life to date. Despite Father, she'd enjoyed herself as a girl. She was sure of that. It wasn't because of the Village, though. It was because of Helicent, and Cad, and Telis. Her eye caught one of the sombre old ruins. In her head she could almost see the goodwife setting a pie to cool in the window, the woodsman chopping firewood in the yard, the children running happily around. They were gone, of course. Worse, they had never existed. Mere conjurings from her mind. Take them out of the picture, though, and put Meriel and her travelling companions there instead... she'd be happy here, in this monument to a past desolation. At least as happy as she'd ever been in the Village.

"No," she said, finally. "No, I don't think I could ever go back. There's nothing for me in the Village. Nothing to drag me back." She turned away from the others. This ruined old village, all but lost to the blighted forest, was as much a home as the Village had ever been. More, maybe. Here there was only peace and the memory of sadness. There was no cruelty. Could it be that the world had more places like this than places like the Village? Perhaps Meriel could yet find her place. She chanced to dream as the darkling stillness of the woods washed over her.

Helicent punctuated the quiet with a gasp.

"What is it?" asked Cad.

And then the verdure came alive.

The detritus shifted slowly, at first a dead leaf here or a petrified twig there. Shadows dancing. Things twitching in the corner of Meriel's eye. She took a step towards Telis, just to be close to someone. What little was left of this village offered poor quarter if she were to need to hide or defend herself. Last night's cave was suddenly sitting fond in the memory.

"This is a trick, right?" said Cad, a tremor in his voice. His eyes were fixed on Telis. "You're doing this. To... to teach us a lesson, or something."

"I'm doing nothing," said Telis softly.

Then came a slither. Black and brown, shifting beneath the bed of dead foliage. Dessicated leaves crackling and crumbling as, having been raised up by something passing underneath, they fell gently back to the ground, now displaced. And after that, an explosion of greenery and repulsive slime. Something burst from the earth. A short distance in front of them, between the outline of an old house and the stone wall of a well, a titan rose up. Its flesh was dark, solid, slick. A tangle of arms and legs in varying stages of distension sprung from it. Long beadles of saliva dripped down from a mouth that was more a rough opening than anything.

Meriel let out a squeak, drawing nearer still to Telis. The Magus was watching the creature carefully; her eyes were raised, her brows furrowed. Helicent, whose hand was as always grasping her bow, raised the weapon in front of her. She reached into the quiver on her hip and removed one of her arrows, nocking it as she aimed the bow at the creature. She loosed. The arrow arced through the air and collided with the abomination's flesh with a dull putt.

In the time it took for the arrow to reach its mark, Helicent had grabbed another. This, too, she loosed. This, too, did nothing but mildly irritate the creature. As the second arrow impacted its flesh, it let out a guttural growl. Eyes like great lanterns fixed their gaze on Helicent.

"Don't antagonise it," Telis hissed. But even if Helicent had been inclined to listen it would have been too late. Already a third arrow was sailing through the air. A fourth followed, and a fifth. Each hit their mark. Helicent never missed--that was true of the fauna in the forests around the Village, and it was holding true for the wild monsters of the Salted Lands too. But none of the arrows seemed to do anything to the creature. It lumbered slowly in Helicent's direction, crunching dead leaves beneath it. Cad, meanwhile, was creeping towards the shelter of one of the more intact houses, some distance to the left. Well out of the creature's vision. It still had walls enough that Cad could hide; Meriel wanted to join him, but she'd have to pass right in front of the creature to get there. There was no way she could manage that unnoticed. All she'd do is bring the creature down on Cad.

Helicent didn't break as the creature moved towards her. She reached to her quiver for another arrow--and her hands found only air. "Run!" Meriel felt like screaming. Foolish. Helicent wouldn't run, not ever. The huntress let her bow fall to the floor and drew from its sheath her iron dirk. It was something she always seemed to have on her when she was out and about but something Meriel had never seen her use. Usually, the bow alone was enough. The things Helicent wanted dead were rarely in range while still alive.

If she got close enough to the creature, it would make short work of her. Break her body into pieces.

"Helicent, don't!" Meriel's cry came out as a strangled scream, her voice hoarsened by a suddenly-dry throat. The cry was pointless. Helicent started to run for the creature. As Meriel watched her, she saw a shadow swelling in her vision. Only too late she realised what it was. Oh, she thought. I've been an idiot. And then a blackened limb hit her. It swiped her off her feet immediately, sent her tumbling through the air. She thought her flight might never end--at least, until she hit something solid. Behind her was the remains of what had once been a tower of sorts. The creature's lash had hurled her directly into the old brickwork at high speed. Shorn of horizontal momentum, Meriel fell. Her leg--the leg that had borne the brunt of the impact--was slow to respond. As she hit the ground, it twisted beneath her. She heard a snap, felt a shot of pain, and screamed.

Helicent had raised a cry of her own--a battle-cry. A swiping leg from the creature did nothing to impede her charge; she made one, two, three quick steps then leapt, off the ground, at the creature. Her dirk, raised, nestled firmly in the creature's flesh. She hung from it. Her feet didn't quite touch the floor. And for a second this equilibrium held. The handle of a dirk is small, though; Helicent's grip wavered, and she lost the hold. She fell the short distance to the ground, turning the fall into a roll, as the creature pulled away.

Telis was standing with eyes screwed tightly shut. Her hands were outstretched with the palms facing up, and glowing from the illumination of twin orbs of gently-pulsing yellow light resting on each hand. With each pulse, the orbs grew slightly. Her riding cloak billowed behind her by some magical wind. The air here was still, yet Telis looked as though she was facing a gale.

As Helicent got to her feet again, so the creature unleashed a flurry. Its limbs--four of them, and the thick body behind them--moved at great speed towards her. She backed up a step but it was never going to be far enough. Nothing was.

Before the moment of impact, the yellow light from Telis' hands enfolded Helicent. Within a second she was glowing, she was lifted off the ground, she was guided by Telis through the air and away from the creature's flailing limbs. The push grew stronger. Meriel saw briefly a look of pure surprise on Helicent's face--and then she was gone, somewhere out of sight. From his hiding place Meriel heard Cad call out "Helicent!". She saw him running into the open, towards where Helicent had gone. She saw Telis, panting and puffing. With a grim-set mouth, Telis closed her eyes again, and held her palms out. Light began to swell again. The air was suddenly abuzz. Meriel could feel her head beginning to whirl.

It was as if the clearing, the village, was drawing in on itself. Opaque winds rushed hither and thither. The very earth seemed to shift around them. Leaves and detritus caught in a sudden whirlwind began to rise into the air around the creature--and after that, the soil rose too. Even the masonry from the old village, where it was caught in the cyclone, was lifted. At first it was slow. The more the ground shifted, though, the faster it seemed to happen. Meriel could only watch.

All the while Telis did not look away. She matched the creature's gaze evenly, her hands unmoving, as light streamed from them, a river of it, rushing to replenish what was channelled into the rising dirt. Her hands began to quake. Then, an almighty burst. One huge pulse of light. Sunfire, in the heart of a dead village. An explosion of air blew at Meriel, and the sound a second later. Where the creature was, the earth was no longer shifting. Instead it came up in a single instant. Talons of dirt and dust stretched out, a great cloud of it, and the sound was like a thunderstorm always rising in intensity. And then the storm broke. Light no longer came from Telis' hands. The huge cloud of dirt began to settle on the ground. Where the creature had been, there was no trace. Meriel strained to look for it, but shifted her weight in doing so. Her leg twisted and throbbed in protest. Shards of agony. Driven direct into her.

She saw Telis rushing towards her. The Magus was a mess. Her cloak, her riding dress, her hair, all were beaten and blown and covered in dust and dirt and sweat. Her left eye was bloodshot. On her cheeks were strange lines, grey ridges where the flesh was raised. Blood weeped from cracks in the flesh. Telis crouched in front of Meriel. "You're hurt."

"Is it over?" Meriel's head was beginning to feel light.

"It's over," Telis nodded. "That creature won't be back, not for a while at least. We must take you to the Octal Tower."

"Helicent," Meriel murmured. "Cad."

Telis shook her head. "I did what I could for them. I don't know where they are now. They'll be fine, I'm sure. Meriel, it's you I'm worried about."

Meriel turned her head in the direction Cad and Helicent had gone. There was only stillness there. The ground was badly churned, many trees now fallen, and no life seemed to stir in the shadows there.

She felt Telis hoisting her up by her armpits, and throwing her over her shoulder. "We don't have time to wait for them, Meriel. We just have to keep moving. We're nearly there." But there was no mistaking the tremor in her voice. For the first time, Meriel wondered just how much Telis really knew.

And then she surrendered to the pain, and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

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