There were a few people in the entrance hall of the Nabrinja, mostly Sanalog guards, but also a few Volgs passing through. The humans and Volgs were too busy eyeing each other to pay any attention to the group of blood-spattered Ninifins and Arnorins who scurried past.
Once they reached the library, Meleng waited for everyone to get inside, then closed the doors. He placed his hands over the latch and began to trace equations along it.
“What are you doing?” Nin-Akna asked.
“I think I might be able to slow her down a little.” He wasn’t sure this would work, but in principle it ought to. All he needed to do was bend the frame and latch a little to jam the door. He hated to ruin the craftsmanship, but there wasn’t much other option. Ses-Tlacotl would be able to force her way through, but it would take her time.
He spoke the words of the spell and a shock jolted through him. He jumped back in alarm. He should have realised there would be magical protections on the door. But the door and frame still bent—not as much as he’d hoped, but it was something. The shock had left a tingling in his hand, which he proceeded to rub with his other hand. The protective spells must be breaking down like the translation spell and other spells in the Nabrinja. He suspected that jolt was intended to be a lot stronger.
“You are a wizard, too, cute one?” Ses-Inhuan said.
Meleng groaned. “Please don’t call me that.”
“Apologies. You have earned greater respect. I also did not know you spoke our language. You are full of surprises. It seems you have better taste in men than I thought, Nin-Akna.”
Nin-Akna looked away from him and Ses-Inhuan. “The library translates for us.”
“Really?” Nin-Chicahua asked. “Everything?”
Meleng nodded. “Just about.”
“That is fascinating. I guess it means we cannot hold secret conversations about him in front of him, can we, Akna?”
“Chica!” Nin-Akna protested.
Nin-Chicahua patted Nin-Akna’s shoulder. “I am only teasing. To keep my mind off the horrors. Which way?”
“This way,” Quilla said, leading across the room to the dais.
They’d made it about halfway when Nin-Chicahua jerked to a stop as Ses-Tlacotl’s spear rammed up under her chin and into her head. This time, Meleng couldn’t help but be sick.
“Chica!” Nin-Akna caught her body as at it fell when Ses-Tlacotl pulled the spear back out.
Ses-Inhuan pounced, thrusting her spear towards the still visible Ses-Tlacotl, who knocked it aside. One of the other bodyguards lunged as well, but Ses-Tlacotl curled her fingers on one hand, and the guard fell against one of the tables, clutching at her head and screaming.
Ses-Inhuan and the two remaining bodyguards grabbed the edges of one of the tables and shoved it into Ses-Tlacotl, who stumbled into the male statue by the dais. The two bodyguards climbed over the table. One knocked Ses-Tlacotl’s spear aside, while the second wrenched it from her grasp and held it away from her.
Then Ses-Inhuan jumped onto the table and jabbed with her own spear, but Ses-Tlacotl rolled around the statue, pushing it towards her attackers. They stepped aside and it clattered against the table, rolled sideways, and smashed into the ground. As Ses-Tlacotl regained her footing, she tilted her head to the side and vanished again.
Meleng looked back at the entrance. It had not been broken through. She had already been in here by the time he’d jammed it. Now he’d blocked them in with her.
“You said she was not after us!” Nin-Akna screamed at him. She was cradling Nin-Chicahua’s body in her arms, the pretend queen’s blood soaking her. “You said she wanted the Will-Breaker!”
Meleng stumbled against one of the benches and sat down. What was he supposed to do? “We already led her here. She doesn’t need... Oh gods, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He’d messed everything up.
“Now is not the time to lose our nerve,” Ses-Inhuan yelled. She was helping the guard who had been screaming a moment earlier back to her feet. “We keep going to the Will-Breaker.”
Meleng wiped the sick from his face. “Yes, right. We...ah...Follow Quilla.”
But Quilla wasn’t there.
Meleng looked around the room, but there was no sign of her. “Where did she go?”
“Did she run?” one of the bodyguards asked.
“I did not see,” Ses-Inhuan replied.
“We’ll...we’ll find her,” Meleng said. “I hope. Follow me then.”
He hurried to the dais and went to the right hand door. He waited for the others to catch up. Nin-Akna was still cradling Nin-Chicahua’s body.
“Nin-Akna, we have to go,” Ses-Inhuan said.
“I cannot leave her,” Nin-Akna whimpered.
“And you cannot avenge her if you do not. Now move!” Ses-Inhuan grabbed Nin-Akna and pulled her away from the body. Nin-Akna resisted for only a moment, then grabbed her spear and stood up.
“I’m really sorry,” Meleng said to Nin-Akna as she reached him.
She stopped and stared at him for a moment, her body stiff. “Just give me the chance to kill her.”
“I...I’ll try,” Meleng said.
Then she marched past him through the door.
Meleng usually found the dimmer lighting in the stacks to be calming. Although it sometimes made reading a little trickier, it also made it feel more private, more isolated. Meleng could lose himself in that isolating effect. Now, however, the dim light meant more shadows for Ses-Tlacotl to hide in, more ways for her to fool their minds into thinking she wasn’t there.
The aisles were narrow and they had to proceed single file. Meleng took the lead, but Ses-Inhuan held him back. “You should not be in front.”
“But I know the way.”
“You can tell me when to turn.” Ses-Inhuan took the lead, with Meleng right behind her, then Nin-Akna, and then the remaining three Youth Guards.
“This is a bad place to fight,” Nin-Akna said. “Too close quarters. Daggers.”
Not stopping, Ses-Inhuan held out her spear in one hand to Meleng and drew her dagger with the other. “Take it,” she hissed when Meleng didn’t respond.
“What am I supposed to do with it? I don’t know how to use it.”
“Just hold it. It is too long to use effectively in here.”
“And these,” Nin-Akna said, passing him five more spears. They clacked and rattled as he tried to hold all of them together, and their shafts clanged on the metal floor. The one taken from Ses-Tlacotl was obvious, caked in blood and viscera.
Meleng directed them along the aisles to the far side of the large room and the metal staircase that led down to the floor below. Ses-Inhuan started down and Meleng had stepped onto the first step when a clattering behind him made him pause. He and Nin-Akna looked back.
“Watch where you are going,” the second-to-last guard said to the one at the back.
“I am sorry, Netl.” She was the one that Ses-Tlacotl had caused to scream earlier.
“You are always so clumsy.”
“Enough,” Nin-Akna hissed. “This is no time for petty arguments.”
“I am just very dizzy,” the girl at the back said. “I do not know why.”
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
Dizzy?
“Fra-Nenetl, take the rear,” Nin-Akna said. “Fra-Chan, come to me. I will support you.”
Something wasn’t right. Meleng stared along the guards as they shuffled their positions. Was that a distortion in the air? “She’s here!” He pointed and the spears he was carrying clattered to the ground, the banging echoing through the stacks.
Fra-Nenetl’s head twisted back as though something had grabbed her chin. Then Meleng could see the eye tattoo on Ses-Tlacotl’s head, her hand on Fra-Nenetl’s chin, her other hand tearing a dagger across the girl’s neck.
Nin-Akna and the other guard whose name Meleng still did not know lunged forward. Fra-Chan tried to spin round, but tripped on the pile of spears and fell face first onto the floor. Meleng bent down to try to help her.
There was a cry from Ses-Tlacotl and Meleng looked up to see her shove Fra-Nenetl’s body into Nin-Akna. A new gash on her arm dripped blood.
He reached out a hand to Fra-Chan just as Ses-Inhuan pushed past him. She did a better job of navigating the spears that were still clattering about.
Fra-Chan took his hand and he helped her back to her feet. Her legs twisted several times as she tried to find her footing, but he held onto her. Finally, she was standing again. And shivering.
“I do not know why I am so clumsy right now,” Fra-Chan said. “I am just so scared.” She had to be one of the youngest members of Nin-Akna’s warriors. No more than fourteen.
“I don’t think it’s you,” Meleng said. “It’s...”
He looked and realised Ses-Tlacotl was gone again. He saw Nin-Akna’s mouth move, her body shake as she kicked at the ground, but the library didn’t let him hear what she said. He suspected he didn’t want to.
“Another dead,” Fra-Chan said.
Nin-Akna clenched her fists.
“They will all be avenged,” Ses-Inhuan said, “but for now, we must keep moving.”
Nin-Akna nodded.
They descended the stairs, Ses-Inhuan in the lead again, skipping every other step. “Down as far as they go,” Meleng said. He tried to keep up, but he wasn’t comfortable skipping steps in the same way.
At each new floor, they rushed around and descended the next flight, down four flights to the second-to-lowest level, where the stairs ended.
Meleng had gotten much more used to the library’s layout during his time here. He could find his way around without problem now. However, there were aspects that still puzzled him. Two separate sections of stacks with no connection between them other than the entrance hall, and the lowest level of this one—but not the other—required crossing the entire floor above to reach the stairs, which did not join the stairs to the other floors. Maneshka had said some scholars theorised it was to give that level an extra degree of privacy, but no one knew for sure why it had been designed that way. It did make it a convenient place to hide Felitïa, though it also made running for your life a lot more inconvenient.
Just before they reached the spiral stairs leading to the lowest level, Ses-Inhuan held up her hand, motioning for them to stop. She knelt down and looked closely at something in front of her. “Blood. It is fresh. She must be nearby.”
“On full alert,” Nin-Akna said. “As Meleng told us, look for shadows or distortions in the air. No more of us are to die today.”
Meleng looked about as they edged forwards. So many books. So many ancient, beautiful books full of knowledge. There could be untold secrets waiting for discovery here: lost disciplines of magic like light and sound; historical accounts from before the Great War; forgotten works of art from plays to stories to music, paintings, and more; scientific and engineering treatises; medicine; and so much more.
Ever since the incident with the books in Mesone, he’d had an idea in his head. Explosions were bizarre things. Dangerous and potentially deadly, but what if they could be controlled? What sort of energies could be tapped into? On the trip to Scovese, he’d spent a lot of time trying to figure out the equations. For the most part, he’d made no progress, but a few things had presented themselves to him.
Some things were easier to break apart, for one. It seemed obvious, but when it came to applying force in the right place and the right way, the specifics became less obvious. Paper tore to shreds easily; metal, less so. But he didn’t need to shred metal right now. He didn’t need a controlled explosion either.
He stopped walking. “I have an idea.”
The others stopped. “Tell us,” Nin-Akna said.
“I’m going to try something that will hopefully catch her. It probably won’t hurt her much, but with a little luck, it will make it impossible for her to hide from us. When I say run, run for the edge of the stacks, but don’t go down the stairs. Turn and face what happens.”
Nin-Akna nodded. Her body tensed, as did the others’.
Meleng ran his fingers along the metal of the shelves on both sides of the aisle, then up along the books as well, tracing equations of disruption. It was just a matter of finding the right frequencies.
The beautiful books.
It was just one floor. And most of the books would survive. Probably. Maybe. Truth was, he couldn’t be sure this would even work. This was way beyond anything he’d ever done. Beyond the small explosion of clothes he’d caused on the trip from Quorge. Hell, even if it worked, Ses-Tlacotl could have been watching and listening, could have gotten herself to a place of safety. Would there even be one?
Stop being stupid, he told himself. Everyone kept saying he needed more confidence. Well, now was the time. He could do this.
“Run.”
The others ran and Meleng traced the final part of the spell. Then he ran after them.
Behind him, the books burst open and the shelves themselves creaked and cracked. A massive cacophony of metal against metal rang through the room.
Nin-Akna and the others had already reached the stairs and were looking back at what was happening. They raised their arms to shield their faces.
Meleng reached them and spun around. The shelves had broken free of their supports and had crashed into the aisles beside them, causing a cascading effect outwards, shelf after shelf crashing into the next. Books and paper flew into the air along with pieces of metal. He too shielded his face as the onslaught pelted over them.
“There!” Nin-Akna cried.
Meleng lowered his arm to see where she was pointing. Stumbling out of the wreckage, paper and book covers still battering down on her, was Ses-Tlacotl.
The four guards ran for her, leaping over the tangled book covers and bits of paper in their way. Meleng couldn’t see her very well, but even though she looked bruised and even seemed to be limping, she still managed to dart aside from their attacks. Fra-Chan fell back, clutching at her head and screaming again. Ses-Inhuan swiped at her, but Ses-Tlacotl grabbed her by the wrist and wrenched her arm back. The dagger in her hand went flying to the floor and Ses-Inhuan cried out as Ses-Tlacotl bent the Youth Guard’s arm backwards at the elbow over her own arm. Meleng was certain he couldn’t actually hear the crack of bone, but he imagined he could.
Then he realised there was someone beside him. It was Felitïa, supporting herself on crutches. Sinitïa must have had them delivered.
“Enough.” Felitïa’s voice was still hoarse, but commanding and assured.
Fra-Chan stopped screaming and stumbled against the wall for support. At the same time Ses-Tlacotl’s body went rigid. Nin-Akna and the other Youth Guard moved in towards her, but then Felitïa gasped and Ses-Tlacotl vanished.
“No!” Nin-Akna yelled.
Felitïa tried to steady herself, but her good leg was shaking as were her arms.
A piece of paper still floating in the air near Nin-Akna bounced off its trajectory. Meleng started to point it out, but Nin-Akna had already seen it. She pounced, looking like a jaguar leaping through the air, and landed on Ses-Tlacotl’s back, sending the mentalist sprawling face first to the ground. She had been running for Felitïa.
Nin-Akna grabbed Ses-Tlacotl’s hair and yanked her head up, then smashed it back down into the floor. “Pain breaks your concentration, does it? Then have pain.” She did it again.
“Nin-Akna, that’s enough,” Felitïa said. “I have control now. She’s not causing any more damage.”
Nin-Akna pulled up on Ses-Tlacotl’s hair again. The mentalist spat out blood and broken teeth. Her face was a mess, nose clearly broken, eyes swollen. “She killed Chica,” Nin-Akna spat. “She killed half of my command. She dies!”
“I understand,” Felitïa said, “but we need information.” She hobbled over to the Ninifins.
Nin-Akna let go of Ses-Tlacotl’s hair. “Why did you do it?”
Ses-Tlacotl said nothing.
“Who else are you working with?” Felitïa asked.
Still, Ses-Tlacotl did not reply.
“I could make you talk,” Felitïa said.
“No, you cannot,” Ses-Tlacotl said. “You are too weak. I pierced the fabled Will-Breaker’s defences. You have no power over me right now.”
Felitïa sighed. “She’ll kill you, you know.”
“I die in the glory of Nyx.”
Nin-Akna recoiled. “You dare use that name? You are no better than a Volg or Isyar.”
“They are both your betters, girl.”
Nin-Akna grabbed Ses-Tlacotl’s hair again and rammed her face into the floor, over and over. Meleng doubled over and vomited.
“Nin-Akna,” Felitïa said. “Nin-Akna, it’s over. She’s dead. You can stop now.”
Nin-Akna slammed what used to be a face into the floor one last time then stumbled to her feet, her body shaking. “I...I...” She fell back against the wall and slid to the floor, hugging her legs.
Felitïa hobbled over to her and struggled to lower herself beside her.
“She killed so many,” Nin-Akna muttered. “She killed Chica. She had to die.”
“I know. It’s all right. Time to sleep for now.” Felitïa half closed her eyes and tilted her head—and Nin-Akna slumped over, fast asleep.
“I’m going to need some help getting back up again,” Felitïa said.
“Oh right.” Meleng hurried towards her, but she shook her head.
“Help that one first.” She motioned to Ses-Inhuan, who was lying on the ground, cradling her broken arm.
As Meleng got to the Ninifin, Felitïa said, “That was a good trick with the stacks. Don’t know what Maneshka will think of it.”
Meleng grimaced as he made a quick check of Ses-Inhuan’s arm, confirming that it was broken. When he looked up, Maneshka was coming up the stairs, and he grimaced again.
“Now I understand the noise,” Maneshka said.
Behind her was Quilla.
Meleng breathed a sigh of relief. “You’re all right!”
“When she attacked upstairs, I rushed down here to warn Felitïa,” Quilla said.
“Unfortunately, it was all I could do to get up the stairs to this level,” Felitïa said. “So I had to wait for you here. You’re lucky I wasn’t hiding in the aisles when you set off that spell.”
Meleng groaned. He hadn’t thought of that. He really wasn’t cut out for this kind of thing.
“Still, you did well, Meleng,” Felitïa said.
“A lot of people died,” he answered.
“And these ones survived.”
“She is right,” Ses-Inhuan said. “You did well. Now, please do something about my arm before I pass out from the pain.”
He nodded. “Quilla, help me find something for a splint.”