Writing > Threads Part 2

Chapter 65

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Daen:
Chapter 65

“Thank you Lem,” Jaas whispered to herself, arms outstretched as she stared up into the sky. All around her, everyone else in the Courtyard was looking up as well, their expressions a mix of awe and wonderment. Even Arico, the one person here who might have been able to predict this, looked overwhelmed by what he was seeing and feeling.

Jaas carefully kept count of the seconds as they passed. After twenty, she spoke again. “Yes, this is what rain feels like! This is the Waters as they are on the Outside—freely available to anyone and everyone. The rains don’t care where you were born, or to whom. They don’t even care if you can navigate! This is what I offer to every one of you: all you need to do is tell me when and where, and the rains will come.”

She’d carefully timed her little speech to match the rainfall. At exactly sixty seconds, she let her arms drop down to her side. At the same moment Lem ended the portal he’d opened far, far above the city, and the rain correspondingly ended here at ground level. Once again she marveled at Lem’s precision. He’d calculated down to a split second exactly how long the water from the river would take to fall down here from his portal, and he was exactly right.

“It’s a deception!” Tanner yelled, sounding both outraged and bewildered at the same time. “She’s using Outside sorcery to trick us! She’s been using similar tricks to manipulate the stra’tchi for months now!”

“I gave them knowledge, about their own past,” Jaas clarified. “Just as I’m giving them the Waters now. Those are only a few of the many benefits that people like me from the Outside can bring here to the city. That is part of what the Council has hidden from you,” she called out to the people. “A city that they can isolate from the rest of the world is a city they can more easily control!”

Despite all the revelations the crowd had experienced in just the last half hour—all of the twists and turns they’d been subjected to—it seemed this one still had the intended effect. Most of the crowd was stra’tchi and farmers from Sustained patches as well, and they understood the value of the Waters falling from the sky better than anyone.

Tanner apparently wouldn’t be so easily swayed, though. “I will not hear the words of a lying witch,” he spat out, recoiling from her as if she was somehow poisonous to him. “Guards! As the acting Lord Ascendant of Patchwork, I order you to execute this agent of the Shemra immediately. Before she can call down any more of her corrupt tricks upon us!”

Some of the Ascendants, including those guarding Berilo, started to aim their guns at her, but even they seemed hesitant. Arico’s guard looked down at him for a moment, and then pulled him to his feet. He carefully loosened the gag, and Arico thanked him quietly before moving to Jaas’ side.

“What are you waiting for?” Tanner demanded. “Do as I say!”

Arico stepped forward. “It’s over, my lord,” he said gently. Much more gently that Jaas would have, in his shoes. “The Ascendants are soldiers, not butchers. Now that everyone knows what you’ve done—what the entire Council has done… they won’t obey you so easily.”

Tanner’s face twitched spasmodically for a second. “Then I’ll do it myself!” He raised his own gun at Arico. Jaas gasped in anticipation, but there was a blur of motion just as Tanner fired. The Clarion rushed in and took the shot himself!

He was shorter than Arico, and had been shot in the throat instead of the chest. He collapsed immediately, and Arico barely caught him. Blood sprayed out from the poor man, and for an instant Jaas was back in the Fishbowl, standing over that stricken Ascendant. The people let out a noise of dismay as well, and even Tanner seemed taken aback for a moment. He adjusted quickly, though. “You all saw it,” he said harshly to the crowd. “He tried to protect them. He’s just as guilty as they are!”

Arico was gently lowering the Clarion to the ground, but from this close Jaas could tell that there was little hope. It looked like the Clarion’s spine had been hit, probably paralyzing him. As she watched his breathing slowed, and then stopped. His eyes closed, but his mouth was curled in just the slightest smile.

An unearthly wail started up behind them, and Jaas whipped around. Hazra was standing there shrieking at the sight. The noise was one Jaas had never heard, nor wanted to hear before. It was the anguish an animal might have at the sight of a plundered nest—or the rage that same creature might know upon seeing the one responsible. As the noise finally faded away, Hazra looked up at Tanner.

Her cloak fell from around her shoulders as she pulled the skull mask over her face. From her sleeves, a pair of daggers appeared in her hands.

The sight of Heartbane seemed to snap the guards out of their indecision. They aimed at her by reflex. As she started running at Tanner, a half dozen of them fired. It seemed that the hatred for Heartbane was universal, regardless of who she was trying to kill.

None of the shots hit her, or anything else that Jaas could see. Arico was still on the ground but he twitched in surprise, and Jaas could guess why. In the blink of an eye, far faster than he apparently could, Heartbane had threaded every bullet that would have hit her!

Tanner had started reloading as soon as he’d seen the mask, but had barely gotten anywhere with it by the time she reached him. As quick as a striking snake she jabbed both daggers into his chest and pulled them out again. He just stood there for a moment, staring at the blood flowing down his shirt, before his knees buckled and he fell forward onto the stage.

Hazra was already moving towards the Clarion. “Get away from him!” She snapped, and Arico scrambled backwards to give her some space. In front of everyone, Hazra knelt next to the Clarion’s body. She cradled his head in her arms and wept.

-.-

As he stood up, Arico could only stare in shock at what had just happened. Tanner and the Clarion both dead. His father deposed and taken into custody—though for how long remained to be seen: despite his current circumstances Berilo still looked quite confident. Proof of the Council’s crimes from Velya and Endu. And most impressive of all, the rains that Jaas had somehow been able to call down upon all of them.

There was no time to dwell on it all, though. He still had a job to do, and there was an increasingly nervous crowd to tend to. Squaring his shoulders, Arico stepped forward to the center of the stage. Sabra and some of the guards were still in their standoff, but neither side seemed particularly interested in taking action for now.

He was about to make his proposal concerning Berilo when a dull roaring noise began, a good distance to the southwest. Arico turned to look, and at the same time felt a slight tremor pass through the ground. There was smoke rising now, from about half a league away to the north. Right about where the Aquunite Temple stood. The Temple was out of sight from behind the wall, though.

Arico’s stomach knotted. He knew that smoke. He’d seen it himself, just a few days ago.

Another tremor passed under their feet, about ten seconds later. This time the smoke seemed to start rising from behind the Spire itself. The column of dust was wide enough for him to see around its sides, but barely. Again after ten seconds, a third shockwave hit, this time to the west. Even Berilo twitched at that one. It had come from the direction of his home.

Three blasts, ten seconds apart. The Temple, the Ascendant Barracks, the Lord Ascendant’s Manor and now… Right on cue, the Spire itself shook. The crowd gasped as the whole structure tilted and swayed. It began falling apart even as the Spire dropped like a felled tree into the dust.

Arico had no doubt that they were next. “Grab my arm!” He hissed at Jaas quickly, and she did so without hesitation. Arico considered running down to Endu and Sabra, but there was no time for that!

Concentrating, he pulled the threads to him, enveloping himself and Jaas at the same time. She was still holding on tightly or she would have been killed. As long as he kept them both enveloped, they’d be safe. He could only hope that Velya could do the same for Endu and Sabra, and that Hazra was ready to escape as well. For the others… there was no time to save them. Grimacing, he closed his eyes in preparation.

Nothing happened. Arico hesitantly opened his eyes, but could only see a frightened and confused crowd. Why had they been spared?

“Arico!” A voice called to him from the west side of the Courtyard. Whoever it was was on top of the wall, but Arico couldn’t see him clearly until the distant figure stood up. It was Tarith! He was waving down at the stage.

“I cut the fuse leading to the Courtyard, Arico!” The kid continued, paying no heed to the people in between them, “but it’s only a matter of time before father finds where I did it and lights it again! You have to get out of here, now!”

Another figure appeared atop the wall and began moving towards Tarith. It was Taen, and he didn’t look too happy. “Look out!” Arico called out on reflex, and Tarith spun around. Too fast, in fact. He lost his balance at the edge, teetered there for a moment, and then fell inwards.

“Catch him!” Arico snapped, but he needn’t have bothered. Already a dozen strong arms were reaching out, and Tarith was pretty light. With a breath of relief, Arico saw them slow his fall and then set him on the ground safely.

Another figure appeared where Taen had arrived. “I didn’t want it to be this way, Arico,” Nemith said angrily, as his gaze swept the crowd. “You had a chance to end this yourself, with a minimum of bloodshed. But you couldn’t go through with it, because of her,” he pointed over at Jaas. “You forced me to take many more lives to achieve our goal!”

Arico glanced at the multiple plumes of dust rising into the sky. Despite the Twin Suns there still would have been dozens of people inside those buildings. Servants mostly. Guards on duty. Sick people in the Temple, waiting for medical care.

“You don’t have to do this, Nemith,” he said pleadingly. “Our orders no longer apply! Didn’t you feel the rain like the rest of us? The Council is broken now. They can’t control the stra’tchi anymore, not when anyone can have the Waters just for the asking! Their crimes have been laid bare as well—they will have to answer for what they’ve done eventually. You can walk away.” He looked at Taen as well, and the others of their group who had also come up on the wall. “You all can!”

Nemith shook his head. “You’ve always been naïve, Arico. It’s one of the reasons so many people are willing to put their faith in you. They see hope in you, even if that hope isn’t justified. Yes, I felt the Waters fall just now, but as wonderful as that was… it won’t be enough! The Council will just find another way to keep squeezing the people for everything they have! They won’t stop, not until they’re all sent to the Shemra!”

The Councilors’ individual guards were now at the gates, pressing against them and trying to push them open. “We’ve barred both entrances from the outside,” Nemith said contemptuously down at them. “You might be able to force them open eventually, but certainly not in time. I suggest you take Jaas and leave while you still can, Arico,” he looked back at the stage. “Despite your failure, I wouldn’t want you to die along with the rest.”

“Your son is down here too, Nemith! Don’t do this!”

For an instant, a flash of anguish passed over Nemith’s features. It was gone quickly, though. “Tarith made his own choice,” he said with difficulty. “As far as I’m concerned, he’s no longer my son.” He hesitated for a moment, and then signaled the others. “Goodbye, Arico.” As one they all ran to the stairs on the outside of the walls and vanished.

Arico took a deep breath. First things first. “Tarith,” he called. “How long do we have?”

Tarith didn’t answer. The poor boy was still staring up at the wall where his father had been, and he looked stricken. “Tarith! How long?”

One of the stra’tchi grabbed him and lifted him up so Arico could see him more easily. The burly farmer gave him a hard shake, and he seemed to come back to himself. “Uh… the fuse split pretty early. A minute? Maybe two,” he guessed, as his eyes strayed back to the wall.

One minute. There was no time to make multiple trips, and no way he could take everyone with him, not by himself. But then he wasn’t the only person here who could pull on the threads, was he?

“Hazra!” He turned to face her. She didn’t respond, and he grimaced. The Clarion had warned him she might lose all sense of herself, and based on her actions it seemed he’d been right.

“Heartbane,” he spoke again, and this time she looked in his direction. Tears dripped from underneath her mask onto the stage. “I need your help. Please, help me save these people.”

“I don’t care what happens to them,” she said contemptuously.

“But he did,” Arico nodded at the Clarion, and Hazra stiffened.

He had to handle this delicately, but quickly as well. “I’ll take the other side of the Courtyard, and you take this side, all right? It’s what he would want.” He could see her lips form into a snarl below the mask, but after a thankfully brief pause, she gave a curt nod.

Arico didn’t wait. He jumped off the stage and began pushing his way through the crowd. Most of them were chattering in fear, or weeping at the sight of the explosions in the distance. Not all of them really understood what had just happened on the wall. They were just packed in too tight. He couldn’t make much headway. “Sabra, a little help here?” He called over his shoulder, as he tried to push his way further in.

“Everybody move!” Sabra bellowed obligingly, and most of the noise from the crowd stopped immediately. The giant must have pointed in Arico’s direction, because the crowd thinned noticeably in front of him.

Arico smiled as he got moving again. Sabra was quick to anger, but he was also quick to forgive. Apparently he wasn’t holding any grudges about how they’d last parted company. As he reached about the midpoint for the north half of the Courtyard, Arico took a deep breath.

“All right. I’m going to navigate everyone out of here,” he said loudly, trying to reach everyone around him. “We’ll go to the north side of the patch, and end up right next to the threads. Grab ahold of my arms, or onto each other. If you’re not touching someone else’s skin, you don’t stand a chance!” He added pointedly.

Most of the people around him did so without question, and Arico’s arms, neck, face, and head were immediately covered in sweaty hands, all gripping him tightly. He was distantly aware of the other side doing the same. It looked like Hazra wasn’t moving from the Clarion, but that didn’t matter. As long as there was a connection from her to the crowd, she could still get them out.

He gave them a few more seconds to join hands, and then navigated.

The familiar white emptiness of the threads surrounded him, and he looked around. Arico quickly lost count of the various shapes and faces nearby. Most of them were in human form, but the navigators were all in their natural state—mostly animals. In fact, he was in his previous kingfisher form as well. He hadn’t been able to concentrate on looking human.

Arico opened a window and stepped out of it onto the north side of Sevvas patch. He kept moving to keep clear of the edge, and pulled a lot of hands, arms, and then people with him. He could barely move at first, with that many people holding on. With one labored step after another, he slowly made his way into the patch.

It got easier immediately. As soon as other navigators left the threads, they were able to pick up the slack and keep moving people out in his place. Arico collapsed on the ground for a few moments, panting with the effort.

Hazra had done much the same on her end, but she’d let go almost immediately. Her nearby navigators had been forced to move the rest of their people much sooner. She just sat on the ground, cradling Clarion’s body for a moment. Then she looked at Arico for an instant and vanished with the Clarion’s body. Arico actually felt relief at that, on top of his gratitude. Wherever she went would most certainly be safer for her than here.

It looked like they’d gotten most of the people out. There were a few gaps in the crowd as it formed. People who had held onto only each other, or other members of a small group, had been left behind. He shakily stood up to go back there for them, but there was another concussive blast even as he did so. To the south, the whole Courtyard shuddered. Its walls wavered and then fell inwards, and the ground itself collapsed into a deep pit underneath. Just like the Keep had.

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