Chapter 19

Quyloc was on the sand under the purple-black sky once again, the bone knife clenched in his fist. This time the cloaked figure was there, waiting for him.

Water is what you seek, the cloaked figure told him.

Water?

In the Pente Akka, water is power. Find water and dip the knife into it. It will imbue the knife with power and you will no longer be easy prey to every creature that dwells there. They will see that you have teeth and can bite back.

Are you talking about the river? Quyloc asked. Is that what I’m to put the knife into?

No. You are far from being strong enough to do that. If you come that close to the river, it will sweep you away. You want still water, a small pool. You should be able to handle that.

That sent a chill through Quyloc. He should be able to handle it? What did that mean? What if he couldn’t? What would happen?

I don’t know where to find water in there.

I can show you a place. Follow me.

The cloaked figure led him along the edge of the Veil, then stopped. Here. Enter here and you will find water. The cloaked figure began to walk away.

Wait! I have more questions.

Not now. He is too close. In moments the cloaked figure was gone.

Quyloc turned to the Veil. Should he follow the cloaked figure’s advice? He wasn’t fool enough to believe that the cloaked figure helped him out of any altruistic motives. The figure used him just as surely as Lowellin did.

But he also didn’t have a lot of options. He was at the mercy of everything in that place and sooner or later something was going to catch him.

The question he needed the answer to was why? Why was the cloaked figure helping him? It clearly didn’t want Lowellin to know, so from that he could safely assume that it opposed Lowellin. Which meant that he was caught between two powerful adversaries. Which was very bad news for him. However, he might be able to find a way to play them off against each other if he was careful and very, very lucky.

It was likely that the cloaked figure didn’t want the weapon Quyloc was seeking to fall into Lowellin’s hands. Which meant it wanted the weapon for itself. He could also assume that, like Lowellin, the cloaked figure wasn’t able to enter the Pente Akka.

Where did that leave him?

With too many questions and not enough answers.

Quyloc steeled himself and plunged through the Veil.

          

He found himself in a broad, flat area. The soil was gray and had dried in irregular, interlocking geometric patterns that had peeled up on the edges. It looked like a dried lake bed.

In the distance was a large mound of dirt, probably thirty feet high, topped by a ring of standing white stones, like jagged teeth. There were no other features visible, so Quyloc headed for it.

Quyloc climbed the mound. Partway up he heard a howling sound in the distance and turned to look. Far off was a small cloud of dust, thrown up by a pack of fast-moving, four-legged creatures. He didn’t have more than a few minutes before they would be on him.

He made it the rest of the way to the top. There were gaps between the stones and squeezed through one. He worked his way forward until he could see beyond. The center of the mound was hollowed out. Down in the bottom was a small pool of water.

But it was what was waiting beside the pool that made his blood run cold.

Easily twenty feet long, it looked like a giant centipede, its body as big around as a man’s torso. It was a dull red color, its legs bright yellow and hooked on the ends. The head was black with long antennae.

Quyloc’s first thought was to summon the Veil and leave. There was no way he could get past that thing. He doubted the bone knife would be able to pierce its armored exoskeleton even if he could strike it squarely.

But if he left now he was no better off than before, and there was no guarantee he could find his way back to this same spot again. He was going to have to take the risk.

He needed some way to distract the thing long enough for him to get to the pool and dip the knife in. What happened after that…well, he just had to hope that the cloaked figure wasn’t lying to him about water being power. If it was, then he was doomed. He looked at the knife. It seemed awfully small. Even if dipping it in the pool did what the cloaked figure said it would, it still wasn’t much to bring to a fight with something that large.

He must be crazy to even be considering this.

He needed to act before he thought about it too much and lost his nerve completely.

On the ground were several fist-sized chunks of rock. He picked up two of them and moved to the very edge of his cover. In rapid succession he threw both rocks at the standing stones on the other side of the mound.

The centipede thing came instantly awake and scurried around the pool and up the other side to investigate.

As soon as it did, Quyloc took off at a dead run for the pool. He ran as quietly as he could and at first it looked like he was going to make it there before the centipede thing noticed.

But before he was halfway there his foot struck a loose stone, which rattled down the slope.

The centipede thing whirled—surprisingly fast for such a large creature—its black, expressionless eyes fixing on Quyloc, and raced toward him.

He wasn’t going to make it. The thing was moving too quickly. But he also knew it was too late to run away. Before he could make it to the cover of the standing stones it would be on him.

In the instant it took for the thoughts to race through Quyloc’s mind his pace never faltered. He was less than ten feet from the pool when the centipede thing intercepted him.

It rose up over him, its front half lifting off the ground. Its maw opened and curved fangs extended, glistening with venom.

It struck at him.

But Quyloc had anticipated the strike, and he threw himself inside the attack, toward the monster, tucking and rolling as he did so. The monster just missed him, the fangs clicking together inches from his head.

The underside of its body hit him, knocking him out of his roll so that when he came out of it, instead of being right at the edge of the pool where he planned, he fell into it.

Not the whole way; he got his hands under him and caught himself.

As his hands struck the water, something powerful and painful jolted through him and he cried out.

In almost the same instant he hit the water, he recovered and threw himself to the side, rolling again. A split second later the centipede thing struck the very spot where he’d been, sending up a spray of water, some of which splashed onto him, each drop like fire.

Quyloc rolled onto his knees, then back to his feet, where he froze for an instant, dumbfounded by what he saw.

His hands were burning with purple-tinged fire.

There was no time to understand. The centipede thing had recovered already and was striking at him again. Frozen by what he’d seen, Quyloc couldn’t possibly move in time.

So he did the only thing he could.

He stabbed the thing in the face with the bone knife.

He struck with power and speed beyond anything he’d ever experienced. The knife tore clear through the creature’s head, shearing most of its jaw away. Yellow ichor sprayed wildly in every direction.

The thing fell backwards and began thrashing wildly on the ground.

Quyloc looked at his hands. The purple-tinged fire flickered and went out. Time to leave.

He summoned the Veil and, as the first howling things broke through the ring of standing stones, calmly slashed an opening in the Veil and stepped through.

          

Quyloc paused for a moment on the other side of the Veil and looked back the way he’d come. Did he really just do that?

He turned away, closed his eyes and visualized his secret chamber. When he opened his eyes he was back home. The lantern was still burning. It was still dark outside.

He was exultant. He’d done it! He’d gone into the Pente Akka and faced down one of its dangers and he’d not just survived, but killed the thing.

All his earlier fear and exhaustion were wiped away. He felt strong, unstoppable. He wanted to shout his triumph from the tallest building.

There was no way he could sleep now. He needed to go outside, to move around. He had too much energy. It was burning through his veins.

He put the bone knife on the desk and as he did so he noticed something strange. His hands and wrists had turned white. He turned them this way and that, looking at them in the weak light. It was like all the pigment had been bleached from his skin wherever the water touched him. He frowned. He flexed his hands, but they seemed all right. There was no pain, only a thrumming that filled every inch of his body.

He shrugged it off. If this was the price he had to pay, he was willing to pay it. He left the room and walked back up the tunnels, through the tower and outside.

Once outside the tower, he stopped. It was amazing. It was as if all his senses blazed with life. He could hear the presence of people nearby, hundreds of them, like a faint buzzing in the corner of his mind. Right now they were all mixed up together—a veritable barrage of emotions and sensations—but he had a feeling that with practice he could learn to focus on just one at a time.

Behind all that was something else, something that filled Quyloc with excitement. It was the beautiful, gentle melody of LifeSong. How long had he longed to hear it more clearly?

He sensed someone approaching and stepped back deeper into the shadows of the tower.

It was one of the guards, making his patrol along the edge of the wall. He wasn’t paying much attention—there was really no risk of anyone scaling the high cliffs and entering the palace grounds this way, but Naills, the castellan, was nothing if not meticulous in his duties—and he didn’t see Quyloc at all.

The guard seemed to glow with a soft light that covered his body, though it was very faint and when Quyloc blinked he wasn’t sure he saw it at all. For just a moment Quyloc saw something deeper, a shadow within that light and into his mind came the thought that the shadow was an illness growing within the man, but still so faint that he was not yet aware of it.

The guard passed by and Quyloc stepped out of the shadows. He was starting for the front gates, with the thought of walking around in the city, when the pain hit him.

He grunted involuntarily and bent over, the pain shooting throughout his body. With the pain came nausea so intense that he retched.

There was a presence beside him and Quyloc managed to look up. It was Lowellin.

“Help me,” Quyloc said.

The guard came running up then, but before he could say anything, Lowellin turned on him. “This does not concern you. I will handle it. Return to your rounds.”

The guard hesitated, but Quyloc managed to gasp out, “Go!” and he hurried away.

“You need to be on bedrock for me to help you. Follow me,” Lowellin said, walking to the tower door. He made no offer to help Quyloc, who staggered after him.

          

Once in the tower, Quyloc collapsed and curled up into a ball. Shivers ran up and down his body in continuous waves. His heart was beating too fast. His skin was hot, too tight for his flesh. At any moment he felt he would split open like an overripe melon.

Lowellin crouched beside him and placed his palms on the stone floor. “Don’t move.” Lowellin warned him.

Another spasm of pain racked Quyloc and he clamped his teeth together, trying not to move.

The stone around Lowellin’s hands began to glow red. The glowing area grew until it encompassed Quyloc. Strangely, no heat came from the glowing stone, but Quyloc felt a painful pressure beginning to build, as if a great weight pressed on him from all sides. The pressure built until he began to fear he was being crushed.

“It’s too much!” he cried.

“Not yet,” Lowellin replied grimly. “Not until all the poison has been leached from you.”

The pressure increased and it was all Quyloc could do to keep from screaming. He thought that surely he was about to die.

Then the pressure began to recede. As it went, the burning pain inside him receded as well, as if drawn into the stone. A few minutes later the pressure and the pain were all gone, though Quyloc felt raw and sore. The glow was gone as well.

With an effort, Quyloc sat up. Lowellin had lit a lantern and he held it by Quyloc’s face, examining him.

“I was not sure that would work,” he said. “Living things are far too delicate for stone power. Usually they are killed by it.”

“What did you do?”

“I encased the chaos power in stone and sealed it away.”

“I don’t understand. What is chaos power?”

“It is the power of the abyss, the place from which the Pente Akka springs. But that is not important now. What is important is that you nearly killed yourself.” He sounded angry.

“So?” Quyloc retorted. “I thought you didn’t care if I lived or died.”

“I don’t. But you have shown promise and if you die now precious time will be wasted finding one to replace you. And the bone knife would be lost. Such an object is extremely rare.”

“I’m so glad you have my best interests at heart.”

Lowellin was looking at his hands. “You touched water.”

“It was an accident.”

Lowellin’s eyes narrowed. “You accidentally found water there, where it is very rare except in the river, and then you accidentally touched it?”

“It was a small pool in this hollowed-out mound.”

“And it was not defended?”

“Not at first,” Quyloc said, hoping Lowellin wouldn’t hear the lie. “I went over to look at it and that’s when this thing, like a giant bug, attacked me. I fought it off, but while doing so I got the water on me.”

Lowellin’s suspiciousness did not abate. “It sounds like you were incredibly lucky.”

“I don’t feel so lucky right now.”

“Did someone tell you that water holds power there?”

“Who?” Quyloc asked defiantly. “Who would tell me that?”

“Maybe you read it somewhere.”

Quyloc felt the trap there and he didn’t take it. Best to stick with his original story. “It was an accident, like I said.”

“It seems unlikely, not just to find the water, but to find it undefended, even for a moment.”

“Unlikely, but not impossible. Think about it. What else could it be? Where would I get the information? I saw the water and something about it drew me. When I got closer I was attacked and accidentally got some on me. If you’re worried that I’ll do it again, don’t be. That was enough of a lesson for me.”

Lowellin still didn’t look like he really believed Quyloc, but he didn’t accuse him again.

“What is chaos energy?” Quyloc asked.

“You don’t need to know that right now. For now, it’s enough that you know the energy of that place is deadly to you. When you find the river I will tell you more.” He stood up.

“Yeah, about that. It would be helpful if I actually, you know, could find you when I need you.”

“You don’t need to. I will find you. Wherever you are.” The way he said the last words sounded like a threat.

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