Sunmaster, page 15
Cacophony filled the tent again, and the group around the grey-streaked woman closed in, anger and fear in their voices. She jolted to her feet, expression rich with loathing, and then earth witchery tore the ground to pieces.
The great tent's floor simply fell in. Rasim, at the very center of the rift, fell twice his height straight down, the ground just no longer there beneath him. He yowled with shock and fear, then threw an arm over his head, trying to protect himself as others followed him into the growing chasm. The grey-streaked woman's daughter landed on top of him as her mother dove past them. The earth opened farther for her, sorcery creating an escape route. Her daughter jolted to her feet, but stood frozen, staring after where her mother had gone.
Other people cascaded down, nearly landing on top of Rasim as he tried to crawl out of the way. Thrones and chairs toppled sideways and downward, sending Bayar and Oyun toward the earthy rift. Desimi threw himself toward Oyun, catching her with his shoulder in her belly. With a bullish roar, he scrambled out of the sudden chasm as if the earth itself shaped steps beneath his feet. Rasim lurched after them, but the ground turned to soft crumbling loam beneath his hands, unclimbable. Bayar hit the bottom of the crevasse beside him, and they both staggered back, looking for a way out.
Kisia crashed down, clawing at the tearing earth as she fell. Her shriek was more angry than afraid, but Rasim and Bayar both turned toward her, as if they could rescue her while they were all in the bottom of the pit. She snarled, pushing past them as a crash sounded almost above their heads. Rasim twisted, looking upward to see that Bikat and Irlin's thrones had slammed into each other, which kept them from falling into the pit. There were people on their bellies all around the hole's lip, reaching for those who had fallen. A hopeful Shenryalan man grabbed a fist full of deep grass root that had been torn apart as the pit opened, and tried to use it to climb upward. It almost worked, but the torn ground crumbled under his feet and he fell back down.
Kisia shrieked with rage and Rasim spun around again. The escaping grey-streaked witch was burrowing into the ground like a desert fox, digging at witchery-assisted speeds, and Kisia, incoherent with fury, followed her. Rasim thought she might chase her all the way to the center of the earth, but Nasira, up above, yelled, "Journeyman!" and Kisia stopped with a furious glare at their captain.
Nasira snarled, "Wipe that look off your face and take Lars's hand, Journeyman, or else!" and Kisia, sullenly, moved toward the round-shouldered Northerner.
He was well into the pit, but as part of a rescue crew, not because he'd fallen. He held Endat's hand as the Sunmaster lay on his belly with most of his weight on the solid ground. Kif was sitting on Endat's legs, pinning him in place. Lars seized Kisia's arm, almost throwing her out of the gaping hole before reaching for another Shenryalan woman. She scrambled toward him, and he hauled her upward as easily as he'd done Kisia, reminding Rasim that he'd spent most of his life in back-breaking labor in the mines. Hands caught her, pulling her the rest of the way up. Lars grabbed Rasim by the scruff and yanked him out of the ditch, too. He cried out in protest, trying to grab Bayar as Lars pulled him up, and missing by scant inches.
The grey-streaked woman's daughter turned from staring after her mother, and carefully moved toward Bayar instead of taking the reaching hands from above. He was too short to reach them himself, until the girl made a stirrup of her hands and whispered, "Go," beneath the shouts around them. Rasim saw him cast her an agonized look, but he stepped into her hands and she lifted him upward with a shouted bellow for strength. She sank into the soft exposed earth as she did so, ankle-deep in roots and dirt, and just barely missed the fingertips now reaching for her.
The rift slammed closed, the earth's surface rough but the gaping hole in it disappearing like it had never been.
Endat and several Shenryalans were stuck in the ground to the shoulder, and one man's head had been closed into the earth. Lars, the girl, and another Shenryalan woman were buried entirely as the rift closed. People started to scream again as they realized what was happening, falling to their knees to begin digging helplessly with their hands.
Desimi bellowed, "MOVE!" with such power that people scattered to the walls of the tent, gazes locked on the Ilyaran journeyman with obedient confusion. Rasim stood still, arrested with astonishment as Desimi, lip curled with concentration, spread his hands and repeated, "Move," into the sudden, overwhelming silence.
The earth pulled apart again.
CHAPTER 18
In the silence, under dozens of gaping gazes, Desimi shaped the earth as though he'd been meant to all along. Where it had torn and ripped violently under the woman's power, it now flowed, piling up like sand pushed by water as he delved deep enough to save those who had been buried. It was strangely beautiful.
Endat's shoulder and arm came loose, but he stayed where he was, still holding Lars's hand as the earth rift opened to first expose, and then free him. The Sunmaster hauled the Northman upward and Lars came to the surface coughing and gagging as a shout of relief went up around the tent. Moments later, the others were free, weeping and spitting dirt as they struggled for air. Rasim thought Desimi would shape steps or ramps from the earth to let them climb out, but the people on the surface were faster, helping their friends up. Irlin herself pulled the girl who had helped Bayar from the crevasse, but Bayar shouldered his mother aside and held the Shenryalan girl as she wept.
Desimi said, "Move," again, and this time lifted his head long enough to meet Rasim's eyes.
Rasim had known Desimi their whole lives, and even more, knew the look of a boy with a dangerous plan. He blurted, "Are you sure?" and got the faintest flicker of a smile, and a much more certain nod, in response. Rasim nodded back, and this time he lifted his voice, assisted by sky witchery, to cry, "Move!" in Shenryalan. He turned to the translator, talking as fast as he could, and as the interpreter echoed him, Rasim carried the translated words over as much of the camp as he could reach with his skymastery.
It amounted to 'pick up the babies and move the horses, the ground is about to open beneath you,' and that's what happened. Desimi worked with his eyes half closed, hands spread like he was pulling the earth apart between them, and his lips parted, moving with concentration. The rift he'd opened in the great tent spilled out its door, bending as his witchery followed the Shenryalan sorcerer's.
She had gone deep, like a burrowing desert spider. Her power had ripped the earth apart, but only where she'd meant it to, in the tent for her intial escape. Desimi was much more destructive, ripping the earth open from the surface all the way down, although he was clearly trying to be careful with his witchery, letting it run slowly enough that people had time to get out of the way. Rasim could almost see him learning the magic, figuring out how to make the earth move at his whim. All at once the rumbling broken surface of ground that he'd been tearing apart submerged, like he'd figured out how to do what the Shenryalan witch was doing.
By that time Milu and Telun were there, outside the great tent, both of them gaping. Milu knelt, putting both hands on the ground and tilting his head like he could hear inside the earth itself. Then a sharp grin shot across his face and he yelled, "Everybody brace!"
Rasim lifted the warning to all ears, watching people grab onto each other or drop to their bellies in order to ride out whatever was about to happen. Almost instantly, there was a deep snapping surge and the ground shook like something massive had hit it. Milu groaned and lay on his face, but Desimi cackled and said, "Good," then made a fist of one hand.
Not very far away, the ground broke apart and the Shenryalan witch rose from it. She was limp, not quite unconscious, but obviously not able to fend off the guards who rushed to seize her. Irlin, who had come to Rasim's side at the great tent's door, said, "Does your ship mother have any more of the drug you call heartbreak?"
Nasira, who was only a step or two behind them, still inside the tent, said, "I don't, I'm sorry. Lorens used the last of it weeks ago."
A spasm of doubt shot through Rasim as he recalled the cascade of certainties he'd felt about the Northern prince's hand in so many deaths. He looked for Lorens's yellow hair, and didn't see him, but before he could say or really even think much of anything, Milu said, "I think I can cut her off from her witchery," and Oyun, hobbling out of the great tent, snorted.
"Old Oyun knows she can." She spoke Ilyaran, gaining sharp glances from everybody but Rasim, who crooked a grin as she revealed her secret, then said, "Oh!" a little stupidly. "You have zjhala, don't you. That's what you gave me the first night."
Oyun clicked her tongue. "Too many secrets, sorcerer-boy. You learn too many of old Oyun's secrets. Shaman's secrets. The Great Spiral will bring you back here, one day." She paused, taking her attention from him to examine Desimi with a sort of critical but satisfied gaze. She thumped the big Ilyaran boy with her stick and he jumped, then rubbed his shoulder, half offended until Oyun met his eyes and nodded once.
Not at all to Rasim's surprise, Desimi's hand went to the necklace that King Taishm had given him for his efforts in service to the Ilyaran throne. Oyun's single nod felt like that same kind of praise, even to Rasim.
Enormously to his surprise, Desimi grinned crookedly and bowed to the old shaman, his hand still over the necklace and, not exactly coincidentally, over his heart. Oyun chortled, then snapped, "Bring her," in Shenryalan, and the earth witch's captors dragged her toward Oyun's tent. The old shaman led the way, leaving the Ilyarans temporarily gathered together, and more or less alone within the Shenryalan camp.
Everybody turned toward Desimi.
The big journeyman's shoulders hunched uncomfortably and he cast a helpless look at Rasim, as if Rasim might be able to explain what he couldn't. He mumbled, "It was important," and Nasira let loose a sharp, incredulous laugh.
"If importance gave us the ability to wield new witcheries at will, Journeyman, Ilyara never would have burned! What was that?"
Desimi, defensively, yelled, "I don't know! I've been watching Milu work earth since we got here and all of a sudden it was important and it didn't seem so hard so I did it! And Skymaster Arrat spent weeks trying to teach me skymastery on the Waifia so maybe that helped? I don't know? Rasim!"
Rasim nearly startled out of his skin. "I didn't do anything!"
"I know, but you're the one this keeps happening to, so why did it happen to me?" Desimi wasn't quite whining, but Rasim couldn't think of another word for his tone, either.
"And earth witchery," Sunmaster Endat burst out. "Ilyarans don't work earth witchery, Desimi!"
Milu cleared his throat, and Rasim said, "But you were unbalanced," to him, which made everybody's heads whip back in his direction. "Oyun said Milu was kind of like me. Earth witchery might have even been more natural to him than stone witchery, but he only learned stonemastery because that's what Ilyarans do. They're close enough that he probably wouldn't have ever—" He stopped abruptly, not really wanting to admit the dragon's arrival had been caused by his unbalanced magics.
"What do you mean, kind of like you?" Nasira's voice held a dangerous note, but Rasim was almost relieved. At least the question of dragons didn't have to be answered right now.
Or maybe it did. He sighed and slumped and wondered how, exactly, the moment had gone from everybody being stunned at Desimi to the captain being mad at him again. "Oyun thinks my sea witchery was so weak because the Great Fire scared me so much that I suppressed all my magic. And then I met Siliaria—"
"You mean she kissed you," Kisia whispered in a sing-song. Nasira shot her a daggered glare and she went guiltily quiet. Rasim had never been so grateful for the captain's ability to silence someone with a look.
"—and Oyun thinks that unlocked the potential I had. Not just for being a sea witch, though. Because she thinks that if I…" Rasim sighed. Trying to explain the old shaman's beliefs when it was exactly the opposite of how the whole Ilyaran guild system was set up seemed practically impossible. "Basically everything that's happened unbalanced my magic and she helped me straighten it out and Milu was like that but less so. So is Telun," he added abruptly, which made the older Stonemaster journeyman blink in surprise.
"Me?"
Rasim waved his hands in the air, wishing he'd kept his mouth shut. Wishing he'd done that most of a year ago, and hadn't gotten himself into any of this, although he couldn't ever regret sailing on the Waifia. "She said sniffing you told her that you'd been born with the potential to hear Tilarea, but that becoming a Stonemaster apprentice had silenced the air goddess's voice in your spirit. She didn't know if it could be reawakened."
Telun's jaw fell open. "I'm not a very good stone witch, you know."
Milu made a sound of protest, but Telun shrugged it off. "I'm not, love. It's fine, you've power for the two of us and half the guild besides, but…you weren't a good sea witch, Rasim. Does that mean you were born with the potential to hear a different god?"
Everyone turned their attention to Rasim again. He said, "I thought we were talking about Desimi now," but Nasira's face hardened, and he sighed. "Riorda. But the Great Fire scared the sun witchery right out of me, until Oyun…" With another sigh, Rasim turned his palm up, and, with care, called fire to life in his hand.
A sound of disbelief went up from the Ilyarans gathered around him, although Kisia whispered, "I knew it!" and Sunmaster Endat surged through the little group to seize Rasim's wrist.
"You've learned to find it! And call it from nothing?" Incredulity and possibly envy filled the sun witch's voice. "Do you know how rare that is?"
Rasim looked for Pynda, who had followed Milu and Telun from their tent when Desimi started using earth magic. Her jaw was set and tears glittered in her eyes like she was defying him to call her out on it. Instead, much more to her than the master, Rasim said, "I do," very gently. "Daka could do it, and I knew she was among the best of you."
Pynda's jaw clenched harder, but the tears spilled, and Kisia went to put her arms around the older girl. For long seconds, Pynda stayed as she was, rock solid and defiant, but then with a choked sob she collapsed into Kisia's hug, and for the first time that Rasim knew about, cried over the death of her friend. He closed his hand around the flame he'd called and turned his attention back to Endat. He felt very old and very tired in that moment, and Endat released him with an apologetic frown that suggested that burden of weariness was somehow in Rasim's face.
"You've done it, then," Endat said slowly. "You've become what King Taishm hoped. A master of all our witcheries."
Rasim winced. "A journeyman at best. And I'm never going to get beyond apprentice as a stone witch."
Kisia hummed with disagreement, but didn't argue aloud, and either way, Endat fell back a step, expression deep with thought. Rasim said, "But what about Desimi," and the bigger journeyman looked betrayed as everyone's attention returned to him.
"We should put the ground back," he mumbled. "Especially where you dug the rock up, Milu." They had, in fact, settled most of the rest of the earth already, but Nasira, in a tone of bewildered exasperation, said, "The rock?"
Milu and Desimi, both looking faintly ashamed of themselves, exchanged grins that were also exceptionally pleased. "There's a huge boulder under the surface," Milu said. "Their earth witch was tunneling toward it, but she would have passed over it, or gone around. I moved it into her path faster than she could react. She smashed right into it."
"Then when she was stunned I brought her to the surface," Desimi said cheerfully, although his humor slipped quickly. "I couldn't figure out how to get ahead of her to stop her, or grab hold of her to drag her up. I'm sorry, Captain."
Nasira's jaw worked as she searched for a response, and Milu clapped Desimi on the shoulder. "You did well for someone who's never used the power before. Exceptionally well. No one was even hurt when you tore up all that earth. I'll teach you." He paused, glancing around their surroundings, and shrugged. "Or their witches will."
In the wake of that, Nasira said, "You have nothing to apologize for, Journeyman," in a slightly strangled voice. "You have, in fact, done well. We'll arrange for lessons as soon as we can. Earth witchery," she said beneath her breath. "What is the world coming to?"
Oyun strode out of her tent, a look of satisfaction on her wrinkled face as she returned to the greater one. The Ilyarans followed her in, mostly, Rasim thought, because nobody wanted to miss anything, at this point. Not even Captain Nasira.
People were still setting the tent's interior to rights, making Rasim realize it had really only been a few minutes since Alsari's sister had torn the ground to pieces. Despite Desimi's best efforts, Bikat and Irlin's thrones were half sunk in the earth, and the chair Bayar usually sat in was gone entirely. Someone scurried to put Oyun's chair on its feet as she entered, but she stopped in the middle of the tent, at the heart of where the magic had started, and thumped her stick down. "Qyacha will work sorcery no more. Her anger is great, and until it begins to fail to despair, she will answer no questions."
"I have some guesses," Rasim said very quietly, almost hoping no one would hear him.
Instead, everyone heard him, as if he'd lifted his voice with sky witchery and boomed it out across the whole encampment. Those tidying up stopped and turned to him as the translator interpreted his words, and Bayar, who was still sitting on the floor comforting Qyacha's daughter, raised his head. "Tell us what you guess, Rasim al Ilialio."
"Alsari said she stole the knowledge of sky witchery. Is it possible—" Rasim's gaze skittered around the room, finally coming back to Oyun for answers. "Are your sorcerers trained in secret? It doesn't seem like Milu's training has been hidden, but I don't know what was happening before we got here."
