Ichu awoke to the rocking of the sled. He tried to sit up, then clutched his head and fell back. It felt like his skull was being slowly squeezed by the giant Allwiya. But he had seen Cosquella kill it, hadn’t he? Right through one of its gigantic eyes. The young woman was a monster with those hatchets, nearly as powerful as he was, after he had performed Tortoise’s Heavy Foot. Whatever sickness her mother had passed on to her—because her father certainly hadn’t—had also made her a mountain of a warrior.

So no, the giant Allwiya was dead, and he had seen Silluka and an entire sled sucked down beneath the sand by the giant millipede and then…and then.

His eyes widened when he remembered opening the tiny pocket sewn into his linen pants, the one where he’d stashed the vial the little Allwiya and the elder had kept him from taking. At first. He’d waited until they were both distracted one night—Elder Quilqi with the other village elders and Lugopo in designing that contraption for Silluka. He’d snuck to where the Allwiya had their little enclave on the second sled by cover of Quirra Hides In The Brush. It was a demeaning chayu to most Huaca citizens, but in this instance, necessary.

Everyone had outpaced him over the last few days and weeks. First Elder Quilqi revealed she was more than she seemed, full of prevarications about their village. Then Silluka made some sort of mental connection he still didn’t understand. The elder taught them of intent, and Akamu was showing them how to store the power from the center of the world in their sunqu. Even Cosquella, who couldn’t even summon the ampuka, had achieved more than him. He had been the most powerful bodycaster in the Huaca. Had been. Now he didn’t even know if their village was a Huaca. Were they really blessed by the gods? It didn’t seem so.

So he had stolen the vial. It had power in it, that much he knew from fighting the turtleman on the farm. Each one of them was far more powerful than one of the Huaca. Who was their god? Kallpa had never found out from those who came to this island early.

But he’d taken the vial for extreme situations only. After all, they’d been warned of the crazed Allwiya, and Akamu had told him the others in his band were itching to leave the stunted coast-dwellers. They had only stayed this long out of respect for their leader. He’d prepared, as he always did. Had the attack only been an excuse to use the vial? No. It had been to save Silluka. To prove that he still could.

Had he?

“You’re awake. Well? Caverns and fire! Do you think it was worth it?”

Ichu blinked up. Elder Quilqi couldn’t read his thoughts, could she? No. Certainly not. She had simply seen his eyes were open.

“Is Silluka safe?” he asked.

“Hmpf. No thanks to you.” That stung. The elder’s face relaxed a little, likely seeing the shame on his. “Well, perhaps some thanks to you. The girl says you saved her, but she was also instrumental in saving you. She’s a rare treasure. I haven’t seen one understand the chayus like that in a long time.”

Ichu tried to sit up again, and barely managed it this time, eyes squinting in the desert sun. He realized it hadn’t rained in days. Ever since the volcano, there hadn’t even been strong winds. Were even the tiny sand quakes gone now as well?

“Where are we?”

“In the stable desert. Far from any coast. It occupies a large part what you call your island. Continent, more like it, especially with the Eztli Mecatl’s island joining us. Chimor is not many days travel away.”

“And the desert Allwiya?”

Elder Quilqi shook her head, then handed him a cup of water, which he downed greedily. “They’ve been quiet. We encountered a group of five yesterday who were interested in taking our sleds apart for scrap. They weren’t violent. I think the first force had been gathering all the homicidal ones for some time, and that was the main brunt of their members. They weren’t expecting the stone warriors to stray into their territory. They haven’t in some while. Haven’t had any reason to.” She trailed off, leaving the implication to speak for itself.

Ichu raised his chin to look around, and regretted it.

“Speaking of which, Akamu is gone, with his group, four days ago. He says to remember his words to you. Something to eat?”

The elder produced a tray of nuts, fruits and dried meats and Ichu’s stomach tried to claw its way through his spine. He grabbed a handful.

“Careful now. You haven’t eaten in days.”

He let the elder’s words sink in while he chewed. So Akamu was gone. He’d promised he’d leave before they entered the stable desert, and Ichu had seen the other stone warriors sneaking glances at them when they thought Ichu wasn’t looking. They didn’t like their leader falling for a country bumpkin. Ichu hadn’t felt that was true when they first met the stone warriors, but he knew it for a fact now. A country bumpkin losing his ability.

“He’ll find me in Chimor,” Ichu said after he swallowed. They’d shared the few nights together they could, and that had been enough, for now. There had been no commitment on either of their parts, no promises, but Ichu knew Akamu would find him. He was an honorable man. And if they each found others in the meantime, that was the way of things. Ichu would gladly have the man even as just a friend, if it came to that. They worked well together, much more than anyone he’d been with in the past fifteen years.

Elder Quilqi was watching him, and Ichu grabbed another handful of fruits and nuts to give him a reason to look away.

“Speaking of Chimor, that brings me to another point.” Her eyes panned over his head and around, quick as a quirra. “Your sister is fortunately on the first sled with her strange girlfriend, working with Lugopo on that contraption of theirs. I haven’t quite figured Cosquella out yet. But its lucky you woke when you did.”

Or had the elder something to do with the timing?

The old woman leaned closer until her nose was almost touching his.

“You used the vial. You brought the god of another people into your body. Speeding islands, what were you thinking, boy? Would you commune with the many-legged horrors of the Allwiya? The aloof matriarchs of the…well, never mind that.” The elder brushed the comment away with one hand. “There are consequences of this, you know. Silluka and I purged the poison from your body, but that is only the physical effect. You’ll find the mental effect is much different, and worse.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Mental effect?” Ichu realized he had a handful of dried fruit held in front of him like an offering. He remembered the power, the speed, the energy the vial had given him. But he remembered it in a haze. Had Silluka been trying to tell him something? He only knew the pleasure of ripping the millipede vehicle limb from limb, the visceral happiness he felt as he beat it with its own legs. He had felt strong again. As strong as the turtleman he’d taken the vial from.

“You remember what Lugopo said? The elixir contained parts of Eztli Mecatl in it. It might open a link to their god, but it also connected you to its people. Permanently.”

Ichu swallowed. None of this sounded good, but he still wasn’t sure what the elder was getting at. “I admit my mind was clouded, but it’s clear now.”

“It’s clear now,” the elder repeated, “because we’ve driven the link deep into your center to give your body a chance to heal. But it’s connected to your sunqu for good. And it’s going to try to build that link up again, on its own. You’ll feel the urge soon. Whenever you perform a chayu, you will feel tearing within you. That’s your sunqu not knowing how to process the energy from the gods. You will want more. And you may even need more, to be able to bodycast correctly. I don’t know. I haven’t seen this before, in all my days. It’s been a very long time since so many islands, and gods, were clustered together like this.”

Ichu slumped back, food forgotten. He didn’t much understand the elder’s last comments, but he did the first ones. “The one thing I was good at.” He had felt his body growing weaker, had strived for some way to bring back the strength of his youth. And he’d gone for the first poison he found, just because it let him feel good for a few moments. There were plants, around the Huaca, which if boiled and prepared correctly, brought on a feeling of invincibility, but it was just that, a feeling. Those that used them were looked down on for their failure. The strong survived in the Huaca. And he was weak.

“What must I do?” There had to be some remedy.

Elder Quilqi raised an eyebrow. “You think I know? Blood and bile, I just said I hadn’t seen this before.”

Ichu closed his eyes. He’d failed at the one thing he was good at.

“But it’s never a bad idea to keep practicing,” the elder continued. He cracked one eye open, and she nodded at him. “I’ll work with both of you. I’m not planning on going anywhere. Your sister—and her girlfriend—are both most interesting. But you’ll have to work even harder than you did in your competition days, just to stay at your level. Take direction from your sister, if I can’t help. She has a good head on her shoulders, though she doesn’t need to hear you tell her that. Her pride’s swollen quite enough for now, and everything will change when we get to Chimor.”

Ichu’s hand crushed the dried fruit in it. Set below his sister, who he’d protected his whole life. Having to work harder, merely to keep the skills he had.

It was what he deserved. He looked back up, meeting Elder Quilqi’s eyes.

“I will practice harder than ever to make up for this. I will find out how to reverse it.”

“I have no doubt you will.” The elder rose to her feet and dusted her hands off. “Now eat some more and get your strength up. This is the last time we’ll have time to relax. Chimor is not for the faint of heart.”

* * *

The elder, and, he learned, Akamu, were correct in their predictions. Both thought the most violent members of the desert Allwiya had been building forces for some time, whether to control the shaking domain or to invade Chimor, they didn’t know. It had been fortuitous the stone warriors were accompanying them. It would be a long time before the crazed Allwiya had enough new converts to make another army.

Whatever the real reason, it meant their travel into the stable desert had been relatively calm for the four days Ichu had been asleep and for the week afterward. There were marked oases which Elder Quilqi, of course, knew of. They also carried stores of supplies restocked yearly by officials in Chimor so those crossing the desert would survive the journey.

Because there was little else here. Even the desert sand was in short supply. Mostly the landscape was sculpted bluffs, with yellows and oranges and reds dancing across them. It was beautiful, but deserted. Aside from scorpions, beetles, and the occasional bird or cactus, not much moved, especially during the heat of the day.

They changed their travel schedule as well, only letting the jakua run from late evening to just past midnight, then from early to late morning. It cooled off and heated up quickly in the desert.

Ichu was also surprised to learn that there were no more undesirables. Or rather there was no distinction any longer, even by the most rigid elder or bodycaster. They had lost too many people in the fight with the turtlemen, with the volcano, hazards on the river, and finally the Allwiya. All the villagers, plus Cosquella and the two workers left from her farm, mingled together. They shared food, blankets, and whatever else was left. They had lost a sled and several elders, and the original undesirable-made sled, created of spare parts, had become an integral part of their migration. The jakua handlers used all sleds equally.

They had all become refugees together, and if Akamu’s hints about Chimor were correct, no one would make any differentiation between the most proficient elder and an undesirable child once they arrived.

In the meantime, Ichu practiced with Silluka and Cosquella. Elder Quilqi came as often as she could, correcting their style and lecturing them on intent, and on how to use their sunqu. Elder Papaki, Tamaya and Waskar, and a few others came to watch as well, but none were able to grasp the things Silluka did—with only one hand. Cosquella was even worse than Silluka had been, before they left the village, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. She just didn’t seem to be able to connect to the ampuka.

Ichu couldn’t blame her. He was nearly as confused. He continued to strive for the perfection of form that would bring the ampuka—the glow around his body that showed he had done the chayu correctly. It was what every elder looked for when conferring citizenship on a member of the Huaca. But Silluka didn’t try for that perfection. She couldn’t with her right arm, but even with the rest of her body, she shifted stances if she thought it fit the chayu better, or moved the placement of an arm or a leg.

Yet now, she shone with the ampuka the moment she started a chayu.

“What is the difference,” Ichu asked Elder Quilqi on the third day, “between the ampuka and the energy from the core? Akamu said we connect to the core through the morning ritual, and I have been trying, but that doesn’t explain the ampuka.”

He had noticed the drop in his skill immediately. The afternoon after he awakened—since they largely traveled in evening now—he attempted Akamu’s exercise of trapping the god’s energy from the morning ritual in his sunqu. The elder was right. It was like there was a stake through his middle, tearing him in two. He hid his pain as best he could, and he was starting to get used to it. Visions of the viscous fluid in the vial rose up when he rested, exhausted, from practicing. There was no physical effect from the pain either. It was as if part of his being was dark and silent now, and he could only barely push the core’s energy into the undamaged part of his sunqu.

“Think of the ampuka as…excess energy,” Elder Quilqi told him. “It’s showing how inefficient you are. That excess could be used if you tapped it fully.” She pointed to Silluka, who was blazing like the sun after performing Quirra Hides His Nuts, one of her favorites.

“So she’s wasting energy?”

The elder twisted a hand in the air, moderating her words. “Not exactly. The girl has a strong connection, originally just with her mind, but now with her body too. She cannot use that much energy without danger, so it shows as a bright ampuka. She will learn over time, and her ampuka will dim as she uses more of it. All children in Chimor go through that stage when they learn.” She turned back to him. “You, on the other hand, need to truly grasp your intent behind the chayu to overcome the weakness you’ve brought on yourself. Your ampuka is dim because you are pulling in much less energy from the core than you used to.”

She turned away, heading back to Silluka to give her more instruction. “Keep practicing,” she said over her shoulder.

Once again, he was a failure.