When Batu and I got back to the courthouse, Eeluk and his men surrounded the hole that opened up under the hearth. Tendrils stretched out of it like arteries. I was expecting to finally have to enlighten the men of court, but they were absent. They left the benches in disarray, and someone had stolen the gold accents from the torch-holders on the wall.
“My lord,” Eeluk said, barely looking away from the hole. “This…”
“It’s happening all over Karakhorum,” I said.
“My lord, something tried to come out of this one.”
“Wouldn’t you try and leave too?” Batu turned over an upside-down bench and slumped onto it. “That’s not exactly a palace.”
“What happened when it tried to come out?” I asked.
“I stepped on its hand,” Eeluk said.
“It has hands?” Batu said.
“Had. Enormous ones. The size of giants’.” Eeluk said. “It tried again. I cut it off. Well, I think I did.”
“Do you still have it?” I said. “The hand?”
“That’s the thing. It wasn’t a hand, my lord. I mean, it looked like one, but when I landed on the ground, it just… vanished. Like it was made of dust. Except it was made of…”
“Fire?” I approached the men. “Black, to be specific.”
“Blacker than black.”
“Is your sword fine?” I asked.
Eeluk glanced at his men. He sheathed his sword and pulled me away from them to a corner of the courthouse. “My lord, it melted my sword. I didn’t want my men to see, so I threw it into the hole and found another.”
“Good call,” I said. “If they saw that, they wouldn’t be standing nearly as close as they are.”
“How are the injured?”
“Much better my lord. Lady Erhi has been a blessing.”
“And Lady Khulan?”
He looked away. “Lady Khulan, uh, she was…”
“Well if you don’t like the water,” Khulan shouted. She wasn’t in the courthouse, but she sounded like she was. “Get your own! You just sprained your ankle, but if you want to act like it was cleaved off, I can arrange for that!”
“She was… hit or miss,” Eeluk said. “She’s a creature of extremes.”
“Could you tell her and Lady Erhi that I’ve returned?”
“Lady Erhi is asleep. Should I wake her?”
“No. Just bring Khulan and dispatch men to the holes to make sure nothing comes out.”
Eeluk nodded and walked off.
Batu had moved from his bench over to the hole. He and the guards were tossing bits of their uniforms into the hole. Buckles, swords, sheathes, boots, coats, stones, knives, wineskins and, judging by Batu’s unbuckling of his pants, piss. The guards howled and turned away from Batu, but most were laughing.
Khulan strode through the door and scanned the room. Her eyes lit up when she saw me. She smiled a little, but quickly suppressed it.
“You didn’t actually cut off anyone’s ankle, did you?” I said.
“Not yet.” She pursed her lips. “Well, not recently, at least.”
“Just try not to gravely injure anyone,” I said. “How many men do you command?”
“A few thousand.” She glanced at the hole. “Somehow I think we’ll be needing them. I’ve been involved with the Spirit Realm and its tricks for years. Glowing pits with hands coming out of them are rarely a good thing.”
“Rarely? So it could be a good thing?”
She shrugged. “I’m an optimist.”
“Evidently not.” I stepped closer to her. “It turns out that Oktai wasn’t killing those people who disappeared. Well, at least he claims he wasn’t.”
“What was he doing?”
I nodded at the hole. “Evidently turning them into hands in pits.”
She clenched her jaw and sighed. “That’s worse than killing them.”
“Not necessarily.”
She touched my arm. “What do you mean?”
“That black fire didn’t consume Oktai. I think we could free them from it.”
“And if we can’t?”
I smiled. “I’m an optimist.”
“You wouldn’t be if you recognized where those holes opened.” She took my hand. “Come with me. I have a suspicion.”
“Where’re we going?”
“To the holes. Well, one or two of them.”
We left the courtroom. Most of the injured had been helped, and now only a few of the worst ones lined the passageway on makeshift beds. Khulan led me through the same door Eeluk had used to take us to the upper district.
“We’re going back to Gantulga’s house.” When we got to the bottom of the staircase, she opened the door and gestured for me to go through. “I don’t think those holes are just randomly placed.”
“At least one of them wasn’t. Oktai made the first one. He became the first one by… melting.”
“Melting?” She stopped. “Well, he was always slimy.”
When we arrived at the upper district, people were picking through the remains of their houses. There wasn’t much that could be salvaged, but that didn’t stop them from trying to wipe clean the scorched remains of their furniture. Goblins, however, seemed to have been luckier. One goblin scurried into his little hole at the bases of his master’s house and emerged a moment later with a sack. He spilled it out onto the ground and picked through the silverware. His master glared at him. Stolen silverware, evidently. The goblin waddled over to his master and gave him a spoon.
“He’s going to get whipped for stealing those,” Khulan said. “Probably with that spoon.”
But the master just sighed, tucked the spoon away and continued cleaning. The goblin dragged the bucket of water closer and started helping.
“He’ll probably just get beaten later,” Khulan said.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “It’s a gradual change, but it’s changing.”
“And for your next trick: getting giants to stick around after they see fire.” Khulan took my hand again and started walking. “You’d think they wouldn’t be afraid of it, given their history with the dragons, but I saw them running as soon as Oktai landed and did all of this.”
“Actually, I was thinking I’d get you to tell me what you think we’re going to see and stop being mysterious.”
She gave me a flat look. “There are these… portals scattered all over. We called them waystones. The First Empire’s royal family used them to govern and move supplies, mostly. They’re like your map, except they go from one place to one other place. We had a few in the First Capital, in a garden, a brothel—”
“And a graveyard. I followed you in.”
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
“Point is, they’re all in old places. Places constructed by the First Empire. Places like, say, an upper-class district, or a courthouse…”
“You think the holes are where the waystones were.”
She nodded. “And now we’re going to see if I was right. The hole in the courthouse is exactly where the waystone used to be. If this one is too, then it’s probably right. The waystones are like a stream. Water trickles through, but this doesn’t look like trickling to me… If Oktai’s broken open the waystones, he’s turned streams into gushing rapids. The worst part, however, is that these waystones are everywhere on the continent.”
“And that means that there are these holes all over the continent.”
A light shone from behind where Gantulga’s house used to be. The hole had opened up in the middle of a garden. The remains of a statue had been scattered over the singed grass. Khulan bent down and picked up a piece of stone, then looked at me.
“Bad news?” I squatted next to her.
“The remains of men who went to the Spirit Realm created the Split-Skull Forest.” She looked at me. “Oktai’s opened up hundreds of direct channels of spiritual energy.”
“Not to mention his army of emissaries waiting to burst through at any moment.”
“His army who’s been soaking in the Spirit Realm for years.” She sighed. “It’s getting harder and harder to be an optimist.”
“Do you think these still work? As waystones, I mean. Where would this one lead?”
She put a hand on her chin. “All of the waystones in the city are connected, so you’ll probably end up by one of the others. I doubt it’ll work, though. You’ll probably just burst into flames, but don’t take my word for it: you’re welcome to jump in and see what happens.”
I picked up what was once the head of the statue. I tossed it into the pit. “He volunteered.”
“I would way we should erect a statue in his honor, but, well…”
I stood. “Let’s go.”
“Go where?”
“See if our martyr survived.”
#
“Brother!” Batu scrambled for me as soon as I came through the courthouse doors. “You won’t believe—”
“What just came through the hole in the courthouse?” Khulan stepped past me.
Batu’s voice fell low and his eyes shifted around the room. “…it was a head.”
“They’re probably angry that you pissed on them,” I said. “It must have been a warning.”
Khulan giggled.
“It’s all laughter until a hand reaches for you in your sleep,” Batu groaned.
“I’m the reason that head came out.” I said. “It belonged to a statue.”
“I don’t know what it’s made of it, but it certainly isn’t stone anymore.” Batu waved me over to the group of guards surrounding the head.
The guards were missing most of their uniforms, evidently having thrown them into the hole. They stood in a circle, one of them prodding the head with a stick. When it shifted, they shuddered and gasped.
“Relax,” Batu said as he approached them. “It’s just a statue’s head. Obviously. Don’t lose your composure over it.”
“Statue?” One of the men said. “Batu, you were the first one to—”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Batu shook his head.
“I’m sure you were calm and collected, brother,” I said.
“I was more worried about these men finding out that I faked throwing their coin pouches into the hole.” Batu reached into his armguard and pulled out three pouches of varying sizes.
One of the men scowled. “Hey! That one’s mine—”
Batu tucked his take away. “Don’t be so short. There’s a head on the courthouse floor!”
The men groaned and cursed at Batu under their breath, then shuffled off.
“See?” Batu pointed at the head. “Does that look like stone to you?”
The head had been melted, but still maintained its shape. Violet pooled below it. I could see why Batu would think this belonged to a living creature. I kicked it and it rolled with a wet squelch.
“You still want to use the waystones?” Khulan said.
“Has anything else come out of the hole?” I asked.
Batu shook his head.
“Do you know where this waystone went, Khulan?”
“Probably went to the First Capital.” She shrugged. “That’s usually where courthouse waystones go.”
“Well there might a circle of guards in the First Capital trying to figure out where a bunch of armor and piss came from.”
“We also threw a pig into the hole.”
“Alive?” Khulan said.
Batu scrunched his nose. “I’m not cruel. It was a roasted pig. I’m told it was delicious.”
“I’m sure they’ll enjoy it in the First Capital,” I said.
Khulan nodded at the statue’s head. “I doubt it’s kept its flavor.”
“Something’s bothering me about all this,” I said.
“Me too,” Batu said, glancing at the head.
“Oktai destroyed all the waystones,” I said. “So why isn’t his army coming through?”
“I… don’t know,” Khulan said.
“I doubt they’re scared of Batu pissing on them,” I said. “They must be waiting for something. How long did it take for the spiritual energy to corrupt the Split-Skull Forest?”
“I’ve heard some people say hundreds of years, thousands of years, six weeks, seven days and seven nights…” She down on a nearby bench. “We aren’t exactly dealing with eye-witnesses here. This is all word of mouth. The First Empire didn’t keep records of that kind of thing.”
“Come to think of it,” Batu said, “the hole is a little bigger now. It was at least two feet from that pillar over there. But now, it’s barely one.”
“It’s moved just over a foot in a few hours,” I said. “We don’t have a lot of time, if it keeps—”
The hole groaned and crept further, swallowing more of the courthouse tiles.
“That’s new,” Batu said.
“It’s getting faster,” I said. “That was half a foot.”
“How long do we have?” Khulan asked.
“Probably a couple days,” I said. “If that.”
“Then what?” Batu asked.
“Eeluk said that the hand that came out was… big.” I sat down next to Khulan. “They’re just waiting until they can fit through.”
Khulan tugged at my sleeve. “On the one hand, we know exactly where they’ll be coming from, so we can prepare. On the other, there’re hundreds of holes, and they’re all getting bigger, and if Oktai caused this much damage what could hundreds of giants with the same abilities do?”
“Not much,” I said. “If I have anything to say about it.”
“I doubt they’re going to listen to you run your mouth,” she said.
“Good.” I made a fist. “I have no intention to use my words.”
Khulan raised an eyebrow. “You can’t seriously think you have a fighting chance—”
“He does,” Batu whispered. “Trade secret.”
“Do you?” she asked.
“I don’t have to kill them.” I stood up. “I don’t want to kill them. Regardless of what Oktai says, I have to assume they’re innocent people who he did this to. We have to find a way of freeing them.”
“We might not have a choice,” Khulan said. “They might be beyond saving, and we can’t just let them trample through—”
“You’re right,” I said. “We can’t let them trample over us, but we can’t just kill hundreds of innocent people. Most, if not all, of them didn’t choose to be a pawn of Oktai.”
“You’ll figure something out,” Batu said. “You always have.”
The courthouse door creaked open. Erhi stepped into the courthouse and stared at the hole. She yawned, wiped her eyes and looked again. When she saw me, she flitted over, eyes locked on the hole as if it might reach out for her if she ignored it.
“Kublai.” Erhi put her hand on her throat. “Can you feel that?”
“Feel what?” I said.
“It feels like… I’m being choked. I think whatever’s happening woke me up.” She stepped behind me. “What is happening?”
“Kublai killed this guy who was on fire,” Batu said. “Then he melted like snow and became a hole. Lots of holes, actually.”
“The emissary wasn’t actually an emissary,” I said. “It was a Lord of the Council who’d attained similar abilities.”
The hole groaned and expanded again.
Erhi coughed, sucking in as much air as she could. “The air… is burning.”
Batu took a deep breath. “I don’t taste anything.”
Khulan smacked her lips. “It tastes like metal.”
“I taste it too,” I said. “It’s faint, but—”
It wasn’t faint for Erhi. She clutched at her throat and coughed violently. When she finished, she looked at her hand. Blood.
“You were in the Split-Skull Forest for years,” I said. “Why is this affecting you?”
“It’s like sticking your hand into a fire because you’ve been in the sun,” Erhi said. “This is more concentrated. That hole is…” Her eyes widened.
“Going directly to the Spirit Realm?” Khulan said. “We know.”
“No, not exactly. It’s not even really a hole.” Erhi scanned around the courthouse. She found two pieces of broken tile, then held one a foot away from the other. “It’s a rope, pulling the Spirit Realm closer to ours.” She nudged one tile closer to the other. “And when it gets here…” She crashed the tiles together. “It’ll be bad.”
“Do you know how we stop it?” I asked. “Can we plug the holes?”
She shook her head. “I don’t even know how this was set up, let alone how to stop it. But I do know that it’s more difficult than just closing the holes. That’s like stuffing the holes in a wine barrel with sand. Stopping this is like trying to stop gravity while you’re in mid-air.”
“So it’s even worse than we thought,” Khulan said.
“I thought it was bad enough as is,” Batu said. “We had about zero solutions before. Now we have…” Batu started mock counting on his fingers. “Fewer, by my count.”
“We have one, by mine. If we’re falling in mid-air, then the solution is right in front of us.” I smiled slightly. “Fly.”