Page 92 of Queen Demon
Ziede cried out in rage. Wind-devils rushed past Kai with the cold force of a gale. He gathered the pain from his bruised back and reached for the intention on his shoulder. But he was too far away to cast it at either Immortal Blessed with any chance of hitting them. Then the air-blast struck Eleni and knocked her backwards down the wall. Highsun hesitated for an instant, then ran away along the ridge of debris.
Ramad scrambled over the rocks toward Tahren as Ziede caught Kai’s arm and lifted them both up into the air. Kai found he no longer cared about any explanation Highsun might have for this. They would puzzle it out over the man’s dead body.
Ziede carried them toward the ridge of collapsed wall as Highsun fled down the slope. He was making for an intact passage into the tor’s interior. Then Ramad shouted, “She’s not breathing!”
Ziede jerked to a halt in mid-air, gripping Kai’s arm tightly. Her eyes were wide. “Go to her!” Kai said immediately, trying to pull his arm free. Ziede was the one best able to coax breath back into someone’s lungs. “Just drop me!”
She dipped down and let him go just above the debris. Kai leapt forward and clawed his way over the rocks and shifting dirt after Highsun as Ziede shot back toward Tahren and Ramad.
He tumbled down the slope and came to his feet in time to see Highsun disappear into the dark passage. Kai raced after him.
He followed Highsun further into the ruin, darker now that so many firepots were out. Walls and columns were dangerously cracked, though there was no telling if it was from the explosion or the earlier use of the Voice. Kai had an awareness of Ziede, moving air in and out of Tahren’s lungs, keeping the blood flowing in and out of her heart as she tried to coax her to breathe on her own.
Footsteps clattered on the broken stone behind him and Kai whirled into a half crouch. But it was Tenes, slipping on the loosetile as she struggled to catch up. Her face was so pale her skin looked paper-fragile, and scrapes and cuts marked the bridge of her nose; she must have fallen into the rocks at some point.You all right?he signed rapidly.
She nodded and urged him to keep going.
Kai started across the court again, then heard the whine of the Blessed weapon. He grabbed Tenes’ arm in warning and they dropped to the floor. The carving in the wall behind them shattered. The whine continued and Kai counted heartbeats in his head; the buried knowledge of how long these weapons could fire and how long they had to rest in between had surfaced at need. Just before the whine faded he leapt up and lunged.
Highsun was on the other side of the court, framed in the doorway. His eyes widened in startled anger at Kai’s rapid approach. Then he slapped something on the doorframe and bolted. The crack echoed through the rock and Kai slid to a halt just as the doorway and wall collapsed in front of him. He stumbled back, coughing at the wave of dust.
Tenes reached him, almost falling on the broken floor, and he caught her to keep her upright. He asked, “Can you get us through that?”
Tenes stretched out a hand to the rubble, then swayed backward, obviously too weak. Kai steadied her. “No, don’t. We’ll go around.”
She followed Kai back through the court to another passage. Tenes had managed to move a lot of rock in a very short time to get them out of that doorway. It drained the will and the body to get spirits to do a Witch’s bidding, especially to force them to do it quickly enough to prevent your companions from suffocating, instead of gently coaxing them to act in their own time. Kai was covered with bruises and cuts but at least his pain aided his power; Tenes’ pain would just eat away at her concentration and stamina. She signed,I pushed too hard, I just need time to recover.
Kai didn’t think they had time. He said, frustrated, “Why is he doing this?”
Tenes tugged his arm, and when he turned toward her again, she signed,Will he make himself a Hierarch?
That seemed impossible, there had to be another reason. “He doesn’t know how,” Kai told her.
The Hierarch told us how,Tenes signed rapidly.They said they were put on an altar block. It must be here somewhere.
It flashed through Kai’s mind that Highsun had been held prisoner in the Well chamber. He had seen the stairs at the edge of the Well’s platform. He said reluctantly, “You might be right.” The block might be up there somewhere, probably near the opening into the Well. Had Highsun suspected that it was also how Hierarchs were consecrated?He stayed back in the corridor wondering if there was a way to get the answers he needed from the Hierarch, and then the Hierarch just told us. And Highsun had gone to use his explosive device to kill them, to leave the way clear for him to consecrate himself to the Well. “I hope you’re not right.”
Tenes’ expression was grim.I hope so too.
As they found their way past fallen debris and through the next two connecting passages, Kai couldn’t stop thinking about it. Could an Immortal Blessed consecrated to the Well of Thosaren actually become a Hierarch? It seemed unlikely, but Kai didn’t know enough about it. But he remembered that the Hierarchs had demanded Blessed to be consecrated as their Priests. Dahin had been selected as one, and preventing that had been the first reason Tahren turned against her own people. If the Well of the Hierarchs had some affinity for Immortal Blessed…
Kai heard movement ahead. Fighting, a clash of metal.
They turned a corner and found Arnsterath dodging around a wrecked court, hacking at a construct with a Blessed sword. Kai was tempted to just leave her, but Tenes stepped forward and touched the wall. A pillar, broken at the top and already unstable, shifted sideways and collapsed onto the construct. Pinned to the floor like a beetle, it waved too many arms, continuing to struggle.
Arnsterath regarded them warily. “What is happening—?” she began.
Kai started down the next passage. They were close now. Tenes hurried to catch up with him.
Unfortunately Arnsterath did too. She said, “I saw Ziede knock that fool of a Blessed Eleni off the tor.” That explained where Arnsterath had gotten the sword. “Why?”
Kai wanted to ignore her, but it was foolish not to explain. “Highsun betrayed us. He blew the side of the tor open.”
Tenes signed impatiently,He’s going to make himself a Hierarch!
Kai fought the impulse to argue. Just because he didn’t want it to be happening didn’t mean it wasn’t.
Arnsterath peered at Tenes uncertainly. “Highsun? Why would—”
