“Need I remind you how much depends on thisblasted thing?” Ged snapped.
“More depends on our mission.” Ilusha tried to cut a hand through the air but stopped as the movement elicited too much pain. Her white face, drained of blood, shimmered with sweat beneath the palestone lights. “We’re running out of time.”
“If you’re through trying to help,” said Ged, “shut your mouth.”
His movements had grown abrupt, even agitated. He was sweating and kept fidgeting with that ring.
Of course. This wasn’t just about Zivora’s infrastructure, was it? Ged saw the pyramid and everything it controlled as power.Hispower, already slipping out of his grasp in every other way that mattered. He had a death grip on what was left, and he would never willingly let it go. Ged and Ilusha were still arguing when the priest froze—sudden enough to make Ged shut up, too. His eyes narrowed. Ilusha’s widened. Her voice went thin with panic. “Something’s wrong.”
43
APOSTATE
JACEN
The fight by the Gate had been brief, but it left Neri in a bad state. Jacen hadn’t realized it until they left the caves below Zal Fel, and the boy finally stopped performing—wheezing and grey-faced, too exhausted to keep up a façade. He’d refused Commander Teheda’s first several offers to carry him until the burly militiaman had said firmly, “My lord, you have already saved all our lives. You’re about to do so again, but not if you can’t keep pace.Please,let me help.”
And so, reluctantly, Neri had acquiesced. He seemed too mortified to speak to Jacen or Teheda. The militiaman, too, maintained a professional reticence. As they hiked through the ruins, toward the spires, he addressed Jacen tersely and only when necessary.
The architectural achievements of their ancestors loomed around them as Jacen had never seen them before—vast and minimally adorned stone walls, designed to make one feel as small and insignificant as the unknown dark. The Firstborn must have liked that; they’d copied it in Zivora. Jacen wassurprised to find it here, just as he had been to see the rite of exorcism inscribed in Zal glyphs.
From these canyon cliffs, one could see for miles. Zivora sprawled in the distance like the sun-bleached bones of a colossal beast, starkly pale against the red desert. The city slumbered, any chaos in its streets invisible from on high. But in the valley below, much closer, Jacen spotted an array of tents—out of place amidst the ancient ruins. He recognized their make.
“City Guard,” he said. “Might be a problem.” Fighting the Firstborn was one matter. Fighting their own kind would be another entirely.
Commander Teheda peered at where he pointed. “Camp’s not moving. Not on alert.”
That boded well. Jacen surmised, “A contingency plan.” Likely, this legion had been deployed out there after Ged’s coup—just in case. “How far are they from Zal Fel?”
“Four miles. Maybe five.” Teheda grimaced. “A couple of hours. Not ideal but also not close enough to stop us from boarding the transport if everything goes according to plan.”
They continued along the path. It sloped down toward the base of the spires where, according to Urien, they would find a door.
Jacen stopped in his tracks. “Someone’s up ahead.”
Teheda stopped too. Neri struggled to be let down from his back.
Someonemight have been the wrong word. A cluster of humanoid figures shuffled out of the brush, along the trail. They were tall and thin, hunched and clad in tattered rags. Insectile clicking noises emanated from them, almost like they were speaking to each other.
“Osuun,” said Teheda. “The lost.”
“The Harvested,” Neri corrected him. “Possessed by lesser demons. They keep people away from the base.” He did notexplain how he knew this, nor did he volunteer any further information, but Jacen sensed the imprint of a traumatic experience on Neri’s mind.
“Can they . . .” Teheda trailed off.
“Can they be exorcised?” Jacen managed to shake his head, stunned as he was. “Maybe. But it wouldn’t do them much good.”
Nothing human remained in these Osuun. Whatever minds still lurked beneath the puppeteering demons would be dull as insects’.
“Elyas said as much,” Teheda muttered. “I didn’t want to believe it.” Jacen’s chest tightened. “You knew Elyas?”
“Good friend of mine.” Teheda seemed to regret having spoken. He nodded at the Osuun. “We’ve got more pressing concerns.”
“They won’t bother us.” Neri limped ahead along the trail.
Jacen and Teheda watched, hardly daring to breathe, as Neri approached the shambling cluster of the possessed. Jacen expected him to unleash his power, but the lesser demons recognized Naxal. The Osuun cowered and fled, as they might from an apex predator.
At the door—a slab of dusty grey metal in the sandstone—two guards stood on duty, both armored Firstborn. From behind a large boulder, Jacen nudged their minds, redirecting their attention toward a pair of Osuun stragglers. Teheda handled one of Urien’s tools, a plasma weapon, with practiced ease. He shot from cover, downing both guards quickly, and moved in to finish the job.
