Tygg drew his courage and entered the cave. Daylight disappeared at his back. The cave was cold, but he was accustomed to the frigid temperatures of the cliffs. Taubastets knew how to tame the elements by sheer force of will, at least most of them did.
He blinked to focus his eyes. Although they were accustomed to darkness, all who entered the cave required some form of light to guide them. There were no stars or moon to give what lay within it shadow or shape.
A row of fiery torches came into view, and Tygg lifted one from its bracket. He held it out, casting a flickering glow upon a spiral of narrow stone steps leading toward the deepest recesses of the cave. He made his way down slowly, his free hand tracing the wall at his
side, until at last he reached the bottom and stopped. Before him four tunnels stretched from a large circular space. He had only to choose which one to take. All would lead him to the Circle Chamber, a tubular cavern that stretched beneath the towering needles of rocks that spiraled above the earth’s surface. But it was the exact location within the Chamber that would dictate his final Qwa t’sei.
Tygg studied each of the passages and felt doubt well in his chest. If he chose wrong, it could mean a false future, or worse still, a soulless death. Many seekers had made the wrong choice, never to be seen or heard from again. Was that to be his fate? He closed his eyes, trying to calm his racing heart.
The voice in your heart will tell you what to do,
Baunti’s words reminded him. Tygg opened his eyes to the passage directly in front of him. Though he had heard no voices in his heart, only the thundering of it, somehow the passage before him seemed right.
He stepped in, trusting his instincts to guide him, but he had not gone far before the tunnel grew narrow and confining. Had he chosen wrong? He thrust the torch out, refusing to turn back, and took another step, but the ground suddenly dropped from beneath him and he tumbled.
Tygg scrambled to his feet and retrieved the torch he had dropped, rotating in a slow circle as it cast its light upon the space. The walls around him were covered in mosses that radiated a luminous glow, and the crystals imbedded in the rocks winked at him like spectral eyes. Tygg shivered and crossed the space as quickly as he could. The chamber felt alive as he passed through, as if it were watching him, judging him. A path appeared up ahead and he hastened toward it, keeping his eyes on his feet rather than the lost souls he feared might dwell there.
The path led him on as it serpentined through spirals of rock that reached from floor to ceiling. Tygg worked to keep his feet planted on the slippery path, but it wasn’t long before he detected a flickering light up ahead. He hurried toward it, realizing it was the chamber he sought, but when he reached the threshold he stopped. No one dared enter the Circle Chamber without a direct invitation from Yatka, the Cloud Walker.
“Tygg,” a raspy voice said.
Tygg bowed. “Yatka. I have come to set the final phase of my Qwa t’sei.”
The Cloud Walker called Yatka shuffled toward him. A thick, molten candle burned in his hand, throwing distorted shadows across his weathered face. Hunched and half Tygg’s size, the Cloud Walker stopped at the threshold and leaned closer, his rheumy eyes scanning Tygg up and down. “So today it will be done,” he said.
“Aye,” Tygg replied.
The old man grinned, then gestured toward the room. “Enter.”
Tygg hesitated.
“Have you doubts?” the Cloud Walker asked, eyeing him closely.
“Should I not?”
“Indeed you should. As should we all.”
Tygg’s eyes skimmed over the flickering walls within the chamber. They were covered in images, so many it was impossible to tell where one began and another ended. How the Cloud Walker knew their meanings was anybody’s guess. So many paths. So many possibilities.
Tygg stepped into the chamber, his heart racing like that of an animal caught in a snare. Why was he so afraid? he wondered. The two times previously he had entered with bold determination, but now . . .
“Today the gods spoke to me,” Yatka said in a hushed voice. “The final image of your Qwa t’sei is drawn. Come.” He gestured for him to follow.
The Cloud Walker stopped before a section of the wall that was still wet with paint and nodded toward it.
Tygg studied the image. A nearly identical one, clearly much older, was drawn directly above it. “Why are there two?” he asked.
“Do you not know?”
Tygg straightened his back. “My great-grandsire,” he said. “But why are they the same?”
“You wish to make restitution for his dark deed, do you not? You must do what he could not.”
“Kill the host and return the Kee to Adjo.”
“Aye. The stars are shifting.”
Tygg’s eyes shot to his. “How soon?”
“A lifetime, no more.”
“But the Kee and the host are surely well guarded.”
“That is why you need the Pedant. You befriended him as you were meant to?”
“Aye.”
“And the Imela, the one of our blood, has been found?”
“She is with the Pedant as we speak.”
“Then your Qwa t’sei is clear,” the old man said. “You must escort them to Syddia.”
“Syddia? But surely I will be slain the moment I set foot there.”
“The Pedant will keep you safe for a time,” Yatka said. “That is how he will repay his debt to you. But your safety will last only until he is once again under the control of Marcassett.”
“So I am to escort the Pedant and the Imela to Syddia. Then I am to find a way to steal back the Kee from a creature who would love nothing more than to have my hide tacked to her wall. And if I fail?”
“Then we are lost.”
“You make it sound so final.”
“When the stars shift into their final alignment, the gods will return. We do not know who leads them now, for it was many generations since they were last here. During their first departure, Bastet gifted us the Kee, not only to keep us veiled from Sister World, but to keep the portals of A’niha open.”
“And only one portal remains,” Tygg said grimly.
“Aye, and Marcassett must not learn of it, for if she does she will destroy it as she did the others.”
“But if it was the Kee that kept them open, why did she simply not destroy it?”
“Marcassett did not know its purpose. It was molded by Bastet into a form she would not recognize, so it is believed she stole it only because it was gifted to us by the gods, whom she despises. Marcassett is an elusive, cunning creature with the ability to transfer her life force into the physical body of another. This is what kept her hidden from the gods when she fled after her mutiny, and is one of the reasons Sister World must never learn of us. For if they do they will seek us out, giving Marcassett an opportunity to move beyond our realm.”
“I do not understand why the gods gifted us only one weapon.”
“The Kee was never meant to be a weapon,” Yatka explained. “Perhaps Marcassett knows this, perhaps not, but still she uses it as a means of bloodshed. The last time the stars shifted, our people were without the Kee. During that time a great battle was fought between many tribes and Marcassett, who was in the form of a Tearian king. But she slipped into the form of another and took the Kee with her. That is the event your great-grandsire failed to prevent. If the gods return and realize the Kee is still in her possession, that she is once again in power and that Imelas are reaching our shores, they may feel we cannot be salvaged.”
“But they spared us before, did they not?”
“They did, at the last full shift of the stars, but only by the charity of a pure soul, a boy not of our tribe. He convinced them to give us more time. Through him the gods were swayed. But they will return. And when they do they may not be so easily convinced. If we fail . . .” Yatka shook his head.
Tygg felt a dark cloud loom over him. “What must I do?” he asked.
“After you arrive in Syddia, Marcassett, embodied as the Sovereign, will send for you. You are Taubastet. She will wish to torment you, to learn what she can of us. And that is when you must make your move. But I warn you: do not let her touch you.”
Tygg narrowed his eyes. “You mean do not let her reach into my mind.”
“Aye. Marcassett will try, but you must slay the host before she can find her way into you.” Yatka pulled a bundle from his pocket. It was small, wrapped in cloth and bound with twine. He handed it to him. “If you fail to prevent it, Tygg, you must swallow this. It is chichanei; one leaf placed on the tongue is all that is required. But you must be quick about it, for if she reaches your mind, she will know your plot.”
“So I am to face Marcassett, kill her host, find the Kee, steal it, escape the city, and bring the Kee to Adjo. And if she touches me, I am to eat poison, which still leaves us without the Kee.” He forced a laugh. “How simple.”
“Aye. If she touches you, we may not secure the Kee, but at least we will have trapped Marcassett, for if she enters your mind, she will be housed within you at that moment. Please know, Tygg, this is not the desired end. To succeed, you must bring us the Kee. If you fail in that, your death and hers will at least prove to the gods that we remain allies to them. We can only pray they will be satisfied with that.”
“And what of the Pedant and the Imela? How do they figure in the scheme?”
“You can expect no aid from Orryn, other than him protecting you for a time due to his debt. As for the girl, she gives you reason to go to Syddia. Nothing more.”
“But the Imela has ancestral memory. Orryn claims she spoke of Kiradyn.”
“Kiradyn?” Yatka turned his eyes to the image on the wall and studied it. “The gods did not tell me this,” he said.
“If they did not tell you this, what else have they not told you?” Tygg asked accusingly.
“I cannot know everything!” Yatka said, turning on him. “That would make me a god, and
that
I would never claim to be.” He turned his eyes back to the wall. “If the Imela has memory of this place, then others might have it also. And if they come looking for us . . .”
“If they come looking for us, what?”
“The gods made it clear that Sister World, that all the realms that surround us, are not to know of us. That is why they insist we remain hidden, avoiding contact with them. The gods do not yet know of the children stolen from our shores many generations ago. Nor do they know Aredyrah has at times winked in and out of view on account of it.”
“How can they not know?”
“We are but a grain of sand in the vast ocean of their existence, but that does not mean we are of less importance to them.”
“And when they do learn of the Lost, and the Kee? What then?”
“We can only pray they will not see our weakness as betrayal.”
“Is the Imela a threat to us do you think?”
Yatka shrugged. “I do not know. The elementals have allowed her to enter our shores. All we can do is trust their wisdom. They wish this world destroyed no more than we do. That is why they now protect our borders and allow only those descended from the Lost Ones to enter.”
“They have been mistaken before. Are there not many unmarked graves to attest to it?”
“Indeed. Hopefully there will not be another before your task is done.”
Tygg looked down at the bundle in his hand.
“Hide it in the waistband of your leathers,” Yatka said. “It will not likely be found there.”
“The gods ask much of me.”
“As they do all of us.” Yatka placed his hand on Tygg’s arm. “As for the Imela, do not concern yourself. She is but a means to get you into Syddia. You will argue that she is of our blood, thus it is your duty to go there and prove it. Of course that is not your true purpose. Your true purpose is to assassinate Marcassett and steal back the Kee.”
“I am but one man, Yatka. How can I hope to defeat such a creature?”
“The gods would not have chosen you if you were not worthy.”
“Am I? For I feel very small.”
“It depends on what you answer now. Will you risk your life to save your soul? Will you risk yourself to save us all?”
Tygg felt an overwhelming sense of helplessness. If he answered no, he would be no better than his great grandsire. If he answered yes, he would not likely live to see his daughter grown. And then there was Sachmei to consider. He could have a life with her, though his affection for her would never be the same as that for Nauney. Nauney. If he pledged himself to his Qwa t’sei, he would be assured a place in the After with her. Only those who dedicated themselves to the gods could ever hope to reach it.
“Well, Tygg? What say you?” Yatka asked.
Tygg nodded. “I will do it.”
Chandra awoke to discover a pair of wide brown eyes staring into hers. “Who are
you
?” she asked, blinking with surprise.
“I am Panya,” the little girl said. She leaned closer. “Tygg was right; they are
green.”
“What’s green?” Chandra lifted her fingers to her cheek. “Is there something on my face?”
The girl giggled. “Of course, silly—your eyes.”
“Oh, is that
all,” Chandra said with pretended relief. “I thought there were creepy-crawlies on me or something.”
“No, not on your face,” Panya said. “They are on your leg.” She looked toward Chandra’s wounded leg. “Black, though. Not green.”
“What?” Chandra cried. She sat up and leaned over to examine her leg, but a sudden explosion of pain shot through her ribs. She grabbed her side, trying to regain her breath, then attempted another look at her thigh. All along the gash black slug-like creatures burrowed in her flesh, making a feast of her blood. Chandra felt a rush of panic. She scrabbled from the cot, hopping on her good leg, shaking the other in an attempt to fling them off. “You’ve put bloodsucking insects on my leg? Get them off! Get-them-OFF!”
Panya took a startled step back.
Sachmei rushed into the room, kitchen knife in hand. “By the gods—” She aimed a scolding look at Panya. “Panya!”
“She is afraid of the leeches, Sachmei,” Panya said defensively. “She said they were bloodsucking insects!”
“Do not be ridiculous,” Sachmei said. “They are not insects. They are worms.”