A Hollow Mountain (The Brightest Shadow Book 2), page 68
"That's just what I can't trust about you." Tani's voice rose enough that Slaten glanced nervously toward the band, but no one came to investigate. She stepped close, glaring at Celivia, but kept her voice lower. "Even if you didn't hate us, you did everything that was necessary to complete your mission. You lied to me."
Celivia smiled sadly. "The other reason I came was because I hoped to see you again. Both of you. I'm truly sorry for what happened, but-"
"But you serve the mansthein army first of all. The army that invaded our homelands and nearly killed us."
"And what do you expect of me?" Celivia's smile had vanished, her pupils contracting dangerously. Slaten wanted to interject but couldn't find any words. "You think I should turn against my own people and abandon everything I've ever known? I want the wars to end and I'm working to do it with as little loss of life as possible. Would it be fair if I blamed you for every Coran aggression?"
"Those aren't the same at all! You never tried to talk to us, you only lied so you could complete your mission!"
"Please stop." Slaten didn't know what he intended to say, and he took a step back as both women turned furious gazes on him. What emerged from his mouth was a question he hadn't expected. "Celivia, you've claimed that you want to change the mansthein army from within. What would you change?"
"Other than ending the wars?" Celivia regarded him with narrow eyes, then turned away. There was little to see as the darkness draped over the hills, but her gaze became lost in it. "I could tell you how I think I could end the violence, but you wouldn't believe me, would you?"
Before Slaten could answer, Tani spat "No" and continued glaring at her. Celivia was silent for while longer, then spoke in a very different voice.
"In some parts of Orphos, lower caste women are imprisoned in deep pits. Some locked in cages, others forced to work. When the time comes, all of them are bred like livestock, their children taken from them to become a new generation of soldiers. The practice was dying away, but now Kreue intends to revive it here." Celivia turned back to them, eyes murderous. "If I had the power, that is what I would change first."
"Celivia..." Tani breathed the name, her anger cut from under her. "Then... when I saw your memory..."
"It was not false. The only piece I changed was making us appear to be human."
For a moment, Slaten hoped that they had found peace with one another. But the betrayal ran deep in Tani's blood, and Slaten knew he had always been a poor negotiator. Soon he saw Tani's face harden again. "And yet you fight for them."
"I fight to change the only system that exists for us. When someone offers me an alternative that doesn't involve the slaughter of every mansthein in the world, I'll consider it."
They could have shouted at one another, but instead they only stared in spent rage. Something had changed, but Slaten could not say if it was an improvement. When the silence stretched on long enough, he spoke. "I think we need to speak to the Sage, but I don't know how the battle will fall. Whatever else we believe, we need to be prepared for it."
"Melal is coming." Tani took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "I don't know if he's gathered another army or if he's coming alone, but I have no doubt that he will be here."
"I think it would be best if I stayed with Celivia for now. That way we can see both sides of the conflict and do... whatever can be done."
Celivia nodded. "It will depend on how much resistance remains. Morale is low on our side, and if the soldiers are bloodied again, the remaining cohorts may break. But there's always the possibility that Kreue will return and this will become another bloodbath."
"Then we listen and wait." Tani turned away and stepped off the edge, sliding down into the shadows without a trace.
Slaten waited in the silence, then returned the collar to his neck.
~ ~ ~
The others said nothing about the encounter the next day. Celivia knew that Fijn suspected, but he said nothing. Ghalia and Reina would have noticed her absence, but even Ghalia didn't take the opportunity to ask if she had helped Slaten with his business. She thought that it might have passed entirely without comment until the middle of the march, when Reina began walking beside her.
"I got a better look at the human this time." Reina watched her with a strange expression. "She's pretty, at least."
"Rei..."
"There's only the minor detail that she hates you."
"I expect this from Ghalia, not you."
"It isn't that, Celi." Reina's face immediately became sorrowful. "I truly want you to be happy. But this... I don't see how it could work. You're making a mistake even entertaining the thought."
"You didn't see us before. She's right that I lied to her, but I thought that she would understand."
"Are you sure that she wasn't friendly with you only because you looked human?"
Celivia shot Reina a glance. "Tani isn't like that. She's one of the most open-hearted people I know, even after all she's suffered. She wasn't blind to the barbarism of the resistance and even criticized it. But I don't know if she can forgive my betrayal..."
"Then I apologize for judging, but my opinion hasn't changed." Reina gave her an awkward half-hug around the waist as they walked. "The real question is how she'll react to the northern pits. If she can ignore that suffering, then I don't think she's worth it."
"You're investing a lot of thought into this, Rei. Slaten has been with us for days and you never asked about him."
Reina snorted. "Your strange tastes are your own business. Besides, I don't like how he kept ogling me."
"Slaten? Ogling you?" For a moment Celivia stared, but Reina's expression soon shifted from her usual scorn.
"That's the wrong word. Not with lust, only... like he was thinking about how to kill me."
"Are you sure you weren't glaring back at him the entire time?"
"Of course I was! But he started it."
Talking to Reina helped Celivia relax, but it also made her realize that it couldn't last. Regardless of how it ended, they were nearing the conclusion of the conflict. Ghalia might be able to travel for long periods of time, but Reina was technically past any leave she could justify and potentially would suffer the consequences. She couldn't in good conscience request that her friends remain for much longer.
Though it was still more than a day until they reached Mount Tmil, the low dark clouds made the mountain seem to hang over them at all times. The army grew tense as they drew closer, a phenomenon she might have blamed on the Legend if Slaten hadn't shared it. His eyes often searched for the peak in the clouds above.
Celivia's band marched on the western flank of the army, so she didn't see when it happened. She only felt the earth shudder, then looked up in time to see a boulder crashing through the valley as if it was no more than a stone. At first she searched for an ambush above, then she felt the presence from a different peak entirely.
A human stood there, carrying an oblong stone larger than his own body. Though he looked like any other human raider, she instantly knew that he must be the master who stood in their way. His sein defied classification by a single sense, searing an impression of a flaming wind in her mind. When he spoke, his voice rang out over the valley.
"That was a warning, Deathspawn. Not because I don't want to kill you, but because I promised only to defend this peak. If you continue forward then I, Aganomu, will be your end."
"Shields!" One of the commanders at the head of the army shouted the command and the front lines began to drop down. Celivia realized that they all carried tall metal shields, almost as if they had known what they would face. They knelt to the ground and held their shields at an angle, so that a projectile might pass over them instead.
It was madness. She didn't think untrained soldiers could resist an ordinary boulder rolled from a great height, much less one thrown by a true master. From his peak, Aganomu hefted his stone onto his shoulder, ready to throw it like a spear.
"Kaen?" Ghasfik stared at her with wide eyes and she saw that the rest watched her as well. "Do we raise our shields?"
"It wouldn't do any good." Once she might have feared to look cowardly, but they had survived the previous battle and understood. "If the Zeitai appears to fight for us, we advance. If not, we need to reach a defended position."
"Loose!" Another commander shouted and Celivia realized that an entire company of archers had massed in the center of their remaining army. Their shafts lifted into the air as one, a storm of arrows rising to join the clouds above.
The human master hurled his boulder. Not toward the army, but toward the mountain beside them.
She didn't even see it strike, only saw the mountain itself erupt. An unfathomable weight of stone burst into the air and half the mountainside crumbled like a child's pile of sand. From a distance Celivia could see it all happen, the stones crashing down into others and sending them tumbling in an ever-larger avalanche that swept over the army below.
A second boulder struck and she felt a much closer eruption. Celivia realized that another avalanche was beginning and turned to the others. She saw horror on the faces of her band, but her gaze was meant for the other warriors.
Ghalia moved first, sweeping several men over each shoulder and leaping away. Celivia wanted to save Ghasfik and Fijn, but instead grabbed whoever was closest. She saw Reina intentionally step around Splinters to carry Huthur over her head instead, but to her surprise Slaten lifted the other members of her band and followed with them.
They had not been in the center of the second avalanche, so their speed was more than enough to escape. When they skidded to a halt at a safe distance, all the soldiers were still recoiling from the shock. Celivia set down the two she had carried and saw that Puga's ears were bleeding. Though his eyes were wide, she thought he was merely alarmed, not seinshocked. Ghalia had taken Brifik to safety, but now he huddled against himself, shaking violently.
Behind them, the two avalanches crashed together. She had expected them to meet like waves, but instead stones tumbled in every direction for only a cacophonous moment before they fell together in a sea of rock.
Some survived, as every band contained at least one trained warrior. Though many of them had been crushed by the rock, several Catai had taken up shields and successfully defended a pocket of soldiers, now rising and sending smaller stones tumbling from them. Yet over half of their numbers had been crushed and Celivia knew for a certainty that the war was over. They stood within sight of the Sage's village, but they might as well be gazing on another world.
"Your Zeitai fled like a coward." Aganomu stood in the center of the valley, tossing and catching a stone in his left hand. It was only a small rock, not a boulder, but it was threat enough. "If he wants what I protect, tell him to stop sending boys and fight me himself."
He turned his back on them and walked toward the village. He could have run there in a blink, so it could only be that he wanted them all to watch his back and understand how little they threatened him. Some of the strongest in the remaining forces could no doubt have harmed him, but in the remnants of their army, they did nothing.
"No Zeitai." Tani's voice emerged from behind them, and this time Celivia hadn't been aware of her. Though the young woman had done nothing to assist, she at least looked over the avalanche in sorrow. "I think that all of you should go. I spotted Melal less than a day from here, and his warriors will slaughter everyone they find."
"You're right." Celivia took a deep breath and then turned to the humans. "Both of you can go. But you're traveling north as well, aren't you? Melal won't stop until he has the seal."
"He won't." Slaten set a hand on the hilt of his sword as he stared upward. "But you have more time than we do. Will you be going there first?"
"I have a friend who was just assigned to manage the mine, and I hope... even if she can't change the Zeitai's orders, I hope that she will be able to evacuate the civilians." Celivia smiled bitterly at both of them. "I want to see you again, but I fear what might happen if I do."
Slaten nodded seriously to her and turned away. Tani lingered for a heartbeat longer, staring at her with a strange expression, then she turned so rapidly that her hair spun behind her. The two of them quickly vanished into the hills before the mansthein army could regroup. Before she lost the sight, Celivia tried to fix their sein in her memory.
Since Slaten remained an indecipherable sphere of flame, she spent more time examining Tani. Her inner self was a carefully tended campfire, a pyramid of even branches interlacing one another, glowing from the flame within. Though it was only a vision in her sein, Celivia wished that it could warm her.
Though there were a thousand things to do to recover, Celivia ignored them and instead marched over the remains of the avalanche, searching for someone in charge. The untrained leaders of the army had been crushed, but several of the top warriors stood atop piles of stones and bodies. She spotted Yelaan and leapt up to stand beside the Zeitai's functionary.
"You should have known better than this." Celivia knew she was speaking out of turn, but couldn't hold back. "If the Zeitai didn't intend to fight Aganomu, why send us all this way?"
"It is regrettable that the human master proved stronger than we expected." Those flat eyes suggested it was a dry regret that could be represented by a few numbers on a piece of paper. "But the fact that this mad campaign to kill a single human was unsuccessful does not mean that our operations were futile."
Eyes widening, Celivia resisted the urge to step back. "Did you call the Zeitai's plan a mad campaign?"
"It is his job to be concerned with Heroes and Legends." Yelaan shrugged. "That allows the rest of us to focus on practical matters."
"How is losing so much of a legion practical?"
"Everyone was focused on the Sage, even our enemies in the human nations. What you all fail to realize is that the legion spent the vast majority of its time battling the human raiders that have been interfering with our caravans. Entire clans have been eliminated and many passes have been cleared."
"Other humans will replace them..." Yet even as she voiced the objection, the horror dawned on her. It had been about trade from the beginning.
"We have proven to the human guilds that we can punish the raiders and cleared the borders that were always so clogged by politics." Yelaan smiled with bloodless confidence. "At the same time, the Zeitai proved that we can play by their rules. When we resume negotiations, the long stalemate will be broken."
She knew that nothing she said could ever pierce his certainty, but Celivia still swept her arm over the battlefield. "Was that worth all this?"
"That is not for me to decide." Yet the look in his eyes was answer enough.
As she returned to her band, Celivia tried to convert the sensation of loss into a more fathomable calculation. She believed that Kreue had been sincere in his concern over the Hero, so what did this mean? Did his subordinates actively work against him, scorning the Legend? Or had he played the same game, willing to sacrifice some pride in order to gain advantage?
At that moment, Celivia thought she saw Kreue's personal Voidwalker standing atop one of the nearby peaks. After the day she'd had, Celivia rubbed her eyes to be sure, and when she looked again, he was gone.
Though her band had survived with only a few bruises, they were in no shape to celebrate their victory. Ghasfik convinced a few to help move rocks, rescuing those who were still alive near the edges of the avalanche. Celivia intended to join them, but first found herself facing Ghalia and Reina.
"It's going to be a long road back." The Catai shielded her eyes to look north, then grimaced. "I'm glad I joined you, Celi, but I grow weary of this war. When you're tired of playing with humans, you're always welcome with Xetsu's legions."
"Thank you, Ghali." For the first time, the name felt wrong in her mouth.
"I don't know if you'll listen, but you need to be careful. You might have grown much stronger personally, but you've fought far too much with no promotion to show for it. You were always the best of us at that political shit. Don't let Jeraeli or anyone else trick you."
"I'll keep that in mind." Celivia must have sounded harsher than she intended, because Reina met her gaze cautiously before she spoke.
"I agree you need to be careful, Celi. There's so much politics in this place... I don't want to leave you, but I almost miss the Laenans. I've been away for far too long."
"I understand." Celivia embraced them both, and for all her doubts, she found that she didn't want to let go of Ghalia. They lingered in the embrace for some time, and in the wake of the defeat, no one dared to say a word. Though the two would not leave immediately, when they parted, Celivia felt tears forming as if they were already gone.
She sat down near the others, as numb as Brifik's empty stare. For a time she only rested, trying not to think about the fact that she had just left four friends. Even if they had been victorious that day, it meant nothing. Not when her only reward was to return north and face what Kreue was doing there.
"I get why you train so much now." Big Ragh sat down beside her and slapped her knee roughly. Celivia realized slowly that he was doing his best to comfort her and nodded.
"You did well to survive. We'll be stronger next time."
"Aye. But not just yet. For all that went wrong, we survived. We get to go home."
Celivia nodded, this time for different reasons. As she thought about the pits, she realized that it was almost true. Home, in a sense.
Chapter 51
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"About the strange custom of mansthein females to wrap their heads in turbans, this handbook can say little. Some proclaim that their lack of hair is a certain sign that they are not truly women, yet some do possess hair. Rumor has it that their hair is ill-suited to braids, which may reflect their underlying temperament."
- Portantese Young Lady's Handbook
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With every step upward, the clouds grew thicker, yet the air thinner. Tani had wanted to enjoy the view from Mount Tmil, but advancing had required more and more of her focus until everything was lost in the clouds. Now she proceeded on willpower alone.
