“Not anymore,” I point out. “You took on the creature from the Western Realms as a warrior. And unless I miss my guess, there’s more where that comes from.”
The sound of voices raised in argument pulls us from our conversation, and we turn to see Fortiss and Miriam stomp out onto the overlook, Caleb following several steps behind, as if wanting to stay out of range of their anger.
Fortiss stabs a finger at the councilor.
“Miriam, you’ve already lost this battle. You’re not going to win it here just because we’re outside.”
“I don’t plan on trying to win it anymore, but your plan is still flawed. However at least this flaw I can fix.” She draws herself up tall, smoothing her long gray robes. “I’m coming with you.”
“No.” Fortiss rejects that idea flat. “You’re not a warrior; you’re not banded to a Divh. You have no business traveling with us.”
“I have every business,” she retorts. “If this were a normal traveling party to the border, you would take a councilor to show that the ways of the Protectorate are being honored. It’s not an ordinary traveling party, but the need still remains. You think the lord of the Eighth House will respond favorably to four people he’s never met and the lord protector who has but recently ascended to the role, nephew of the lord protector who massacred warrior and Divh alike? I have met these people, Fortiss. Beyond that, I was born in the Eighth House. They know me. Arguably, they trust me. Certainly more than they trust you. They don’t know you or the rest of your party whom they have not met. More so than that, here you are trying to guide your Divhs across the distant planes, from your home to a space that your Divhs may not have traveled to. Certainly not anytime recently. How can you do that when you have never seen thegreat Meridian mountains, when you have never watched the sunrise over the granite and red-stone ramparts of the Eighth House? If you connect to me in the manner I know you now have the ability to do, Fortiss, I can give you those visions, I can help you see what I see. Failing that, I can at least recognize it when we get there. You have to take me.”
“There’s no possible way?—”
“Lord Protector Fortiss, the decision is yours, but I will say that councilor Miriam’s advice is well made, her position a sound one.” Nazar’s quiet words draw all our attention, but the old priest isn’t looking at us. He’s risen to his feet, and now he’s looking up to the stars. “But unfortunately, we can no longer debate the issue, only decide. It’s time.”
Chapter 20
Istep forward to the edge of the overlook, and beckon Nazar forward. Together, we face Fortiss, Tennet, Caleb, and Miriam.
“The first time I ever entered the plane of the Divhs was under Nazar’s tutelage,” I begin. “I went farther, experienced more than I should have. But I didn’t think anything of it because I didn’t know what I was doing. He knew better, of course, but he didn’t tell me to stop. After that, I ventured out more in training with Gent, racing over the hillsides of his home, trying to understand what it was and where it was, but mostly just trying to bond with him so that I could hold my own in battle after very little practice.”
Tennet rubs his jaw. “I never went anywhere outside of the initial training grounds, the field where I first banded to Ayne,”
“At least you did that,” Caleb scoffs, waving the comment away. “Until Nazar told me how things were supposed to go, I’d barely even thought abouttryingto see these training grounds. Marsh banded with me on the ground outside the coliseum during the Tournament of Gold. I haven’t had to go anywhere else but here, given that I’ve been training the new bandedsoldiers. Marsh has always come to me.” He offers a lopsided grin. “I think he likes it here.”
Nazar exhales a long stream of sweet-smelling smoke. Clearly, he already understands that we won’t be in a place for long where the luxury of pipes will be possible. “In the early days of my connection with Wrath, we followed the traditional path. Warrior and Divh met on the claiming fields of the Blessed Plane to bond together, to forge that first connection or to strengthen it if the bond itself was first made in this world. But there was no need for most warriors to interact with their Divhs outside of this plane. And, to be sure, the expectation was always that the Divh served the warrior, not the other way around. Those of us who have done battle with our Divhs—actual battle, not simply performing in exhibitions—know the truth is somewhat different than that.”
“The truth about a lot of things is different than that,” I agree. “And where one dispute occurs, more are possible. Why travel by horse across our great Protectorate when we could reach any destination in a quarter hour traveling through the plane of the Divhs? When my sandworm brought me her children, they still smelled of heat and sand. They’d been unsuccessful in their transition, and she was tired of waiting for them to figure it out. She plucked them from her plane to bring them here for training. That journey would have taken days on horseback.”
Tennet squints at me. “And you believe that because you have survived your brief encounters with the Divhs in their plane, you’ll be able to travelanywherein their plane?”
I shrug. “Maybe not alone, but with their presence, yes. They survive here. Not for very long, because we can’t sustain creatures their size.”
“And even that we know not to be entirely true,” Fortiss says, his voice turning bitter. “Rihad trapped Szonja for more than a decade in the caverns of the First House. He needed magic to doit, but he did it. She ate, she breathed, she survived. There’s no reason why we can’t do the same, especially if we’ll only be there a short time.”
I turn to the female councilor. “We should be fine, because we’re bonded to our Divhs. Miriam, there’s no guarantee you’ll be comfortable there. But Gent will know, and he’ll return you immediately if you don’t thrive. Worst case, you’ll end up somewhere in the midst of these plains—he’ll get you as close to the First House as possible.”
“I have horsemen already patrolling the area, searching for any remnants of the skrill,” Fortiss says. “You’ll be found.”
He issues that statement with an unshakeable confidence that feels right and true. He’s a commander, through and through—our commander. Mine. At least when it comes to the battlefield, if not anywhere else.
My lips twist in self-derision.Right. Keep telling yourself that.
“I’ll be fine.” Miriam waves off our concern with a dismissive, cutting gesture. “I haven’t endured this long as the only female on Rihad’s council to die a quarter mile from the First House with my face in the dirt.”
“Good enough.” I turn toward the wide plain, squinting into the darkness. “You, Gent, and I will go first. If we don’t reappear immediately, the rest of you follow. Once we all arrive in the Blessed Plane, we’ll reconvene, make sure we’re all stable, and decide how to proceed from there.”
Before anyone can gainsay me, I lift up my left arm, extending it to the heavens, and curl my right hand into a fist to lay on my heart. “Gent,” I whisper, the words soft and full in my mind.
From a seemingly far distance, I hear his distinctive ululating howl, a cry of sheer jubilance. A moment later, the sky seems to snap tight, and Miriam emits the tiniest whimper of surpriseas Gent’s gigantic form appears on the far horizon. He gallops across the wide plain toward us, covering massive distance with each mighty stride. I picture him gathering us both up, one in each hand, then remember almost too late how poor his vision is, how easily he can see me and no one else.
“Miriam!” I shout and lunge for her, wrapping her up tight. To her credit, she doesn’t struggle but grips me back. A moment later, the two of us are swept from the overlook and plastered against the back of Gent’s mighty palm. He pauses, lifting us up so that we are even with his enormous black eye, and I turn, one arm still firmly around Miriam. “Your home—the Blessed Plane,” I tell him, using Nazar’s term for it both in words and thought, while in my mind’s eye I imagine the beautiful blue sky and the endless hillside terrain covered in white and blue tipped flowers.
Gent could have no idea what my ultimate goal is, but he clearly doesn’t care. He turns around, his arms swinging in a wide arc as Miriam tries unsuccessfully to stifle a scream, and then he’s off and running again, two steps, three, five, and he leaps?—
My sight winks out, blackness surrounding me as he grips his fist tight around us—but only for a second. When my vision clears, I can see the world has utterly changed. The dry, almost harsh air of the First House plains has been replaced with a heavy, humid mist that instantly covers my skin with fine droplets. It’s dark here, but not completely black, the light of a distant rising sun somehow mimicking our own experience of day.
