Gods of the Forevergreen
Part Three
The night brought with it a sheeting rain that blurred the landscape and hindered the night watchmen. Quicksilver lead Sunstream and Wavecatcher down to the ground and through the wet underbrush. “It’s through here,” she whispered, for they were still afraid to send openly with Door around.
They edged across the machete-cleared scrubland at the outer perimeter of the farmlands and took refuge inside a lean-to of thatch sheilding farm tools from the rain. “Look over there,” Quicksilver said. She pointed, and they squinted to see in the dim light. They could see the night watchmen patroling the farmlands, and the faint outlines of the shambling farm huts. At first Sunstream couldn’t see what she was indicating, but then his eyes adjusted, and he saw an irrigation canal bisecting the largest plots. His eyes followed it towards the rock wall, and he saw a wide pool, perhaps ten feet across, hugging the outskirts of the rocks.
“I’m not with you,” he murmured. But Wavecatcher was already ahead of him.
“Look at the current,” the mer-elf said. Sure enough, the channel was flowing out from the pool at a gentle pace. “That’s not just a pool, it’s a spring.”
“How does that prove it leads into the city?”
“It doesn’t... yet,” Wavecatcher murmured. Quicksilver nodded.
“Wait a minute–”
“I can do it, Sunstream. That channel’s more than deep enough. And the rain should be enough to keep them from seeing me – even with that nightsight sap.”
“I don’t know–”
“Give me a few moments, nothing more. Let me see what happens when I go into the pool. If there’s nothing there, I’ll be right back. If there is... I’ll have a quick look, that’s it.”
“And if someone sees you, they can spear you like a longfish on a pike. Or you could get trapped underwater somewhere. You might look it, but you can’t actually breathe underwater!”
“No, but I can shame your average river otter – your average slap-tail, for that matter. Look, we can’t play it safe forever, Sunstream. Not if we want to get Spar out of there.”
Sunstream looked at Quicksilver. She nodded. “It’s the best chance we’ve got.”
Sunsteam brooded in silence. At length he nodded. “In and out. Don’t dawdle. And don’t you dare send to Yun. If she knows you’re trying this she’ll be out here in a heartbeat.”
Wavecatcher left the safety of the lean-to and crept to the edge of the canal. Without a sound, he shaped himself a long tail and slid into the water. He barely made a ripple, and the everpresent guards continued to patrol the fields, blissfully unaware.
Quicksilver gave her lifemate’s hand a squeeze. Sunstream tried to summon a confident smile, but he failed. They crept out from under the lean-to and waited in the rain. Their keen eyes could just barely make out Wavecatcher’s form as he slowly swam up the canal.
**If he does find a way in,** Sunstream locksent to Quicksilver, **what about the rest of us?**
**If there is a spring inside the city – and it would make sense that the Hoan-G’Tay-Sho would build their settlement over one – then you’d think it would be a pretty simple channel leading to the fields outside, wouldn’t it? I mean, didn’t Door shape the wall just to keep out other humans or wild animals? So if it’s just a quick swim underwater... we could make it.**
**I hope you’re right. It’s the best shot we’ve found so far.**
They waited impatiently, listening to the rain sheeting down around them. Time slipped by far too slowly. Then they saw Wavecatcher’s silver form slowly swimming towards them. The elf pulled himself out of the canal and shaped his legs back.
He was out of breath, and he could only manage a faint nod. Suddenly they heard shouts from the human guards. Three broad-shouldered round-ears were converging on his location.
“Puckernuts!” Sunstream growled. **Dart, Kimo, Yun, Windkin, get down here! Weapons drawn!** He and Quicksilver drew their short-swords and picked up long sheaves of the tough rainforest bark used to make the lean-to’s roof.
Wavecatcher dove behind Sunstream and Quicksilver, and they raised their shields to protect him. “Can you run?”
“Let’s go!” Wavecatcher scrambled back to his feet.
They ran for the trees as blowgun darts struck the sides of their shields. The elves were faster, but the humans had greater strides, and they were steadily gaining as the elves raced for shelter.
“Where are the others?” Quicksilver shouted as she swung her bark-shield around, trying to protect everyone’s backs.
Suddenly a second contigent of humans appeared out of the scrub, blocking their retreat to the trees, swords raised. These ones weren’t about bother trying to capture them.
Just then three Wolfriders dropped from the trees, while a large black wolf sprang from the underbrush. The wolf flung himself on the largest human and hamstrung him with a snap of his fearsome jaws. Dart and Yun brandished their swords and cleaved a path for the fleeing elves through human flesh. “Come on!” Windkin cried, as he flew over the battle. He swung down and caught Quicksilver, then pulled her up into the air.
“Hey!” Sunstream snapped. But now the wolf had reached him, and Sunstream and Wavecatcher bounded onto his back. Kimo bore them back into the jungle at breakneck speed, while Yun and Dart covered them. Wavecatcher cried out as a blowgun dart struck his bicep. But moments later they were safely in the cover of the trees. Sunstream and Wavecatcher scrambled off Kimo’s back and climbed up into the trees. Kimo shaped back into an elf and hurried after them. Dart and Yun were close behind them. Windkin swept down and scooped up his former lovemate, and Dart bounded up into the trees just as an arrow struck the underbrush next to his foot. The humans pursued, hacking through the underbrush. But within moments they had lost their quarry. They backtracked just below the elves’ perch several times before they abandoned the search and returned to the fields.
“Ahh,” Wavecatcher winced as Quicksilver removed the dart from his arm. Blood mingled with a strange oily sap around the pinprick wound.
“I’ve got to get the poison out before it reaches your heart,” she said. “But this is going to hurt.”
He nodded. Quicksilver bent her hand and sunk her teeth into the wound, sucking out the venom. Wavecatcher grit his teeth and held his tongue. Quicksilver turned and spat out the poison, then wedged her fingernails around the wound and squeezed the skin until blood and whitish oil welled up. She repeated the treatment, until only blood rose when she squeezed the wound. Quicksilver turned and spat several more times to clear any residual venom from her mouth, then snatched a handful of leaves from a nearby branch and pressed them against the wound. “Wish I could make a real poultice for you, but I don’t trust any of these plants. Here,” she tied the makeshift banadage about his arm with a spare leather thong. “It’s ugly, but it should keep the dirt out until it scabs over.”
“I’ve had worse bites from the bugs around the Green River,” Wavecatcher joked, but his face was a little pale.
“Your head might spin a little – some of the venom probably escaped. But you shouldn’t run a fever like Windkin.”
Yun sat behind Wavecatcher, and now she wrapped her long arms and legs around him protectively. “You’re never doing anything that stupid again unless I’m with you,” she insisted, and she dropped a kiss to his bare shoulder. “I hope it was worth it.”
“What did you find?” Sunstream asked now. The others clustered around him expectantly.
“Well, it’s pretty dark in there, but I followed the bottom of the canal into the pool, then decided to hug the bottom of the pool as well. The pond’s about... twice again my height deep. I could feel a pretty strong current, so I followed it. I bumped my head on a rock, actually, so I’ll probably be dizzy from that before the venom in the dart–”
“Oh, Wavecatcher,” Yun fretted, and again kissed his shoulder in comfort.
“–But I found what we were looking for.”
“A way in?” Sunstream asked.
“Uh-huh. A little tunnel, just wide enough for one elf to manage at a time. It cuts in a straight line through the rock at the bottom of the pool. You go straight for... oh, six strokes, then you hang a sharp turn and start swimming upwards. And when you surface...” he grinned. “A little pool inside a cave, light up by a few torches and guarded by two sleeping lander thugs! And a deep canal that leads upstream through a wide rock-shaped tunnel. You were right, Quicksilver. They built their city right on top of a spring, and Door shaped all the rocks around the stream that flows out.”
“Did they see you?”
“The guards? Fat lumps of meat fast asleep. They didn’t see a thing.”
“Then we have a way in!” Windkin exclaimed.
“Let’s not rush things,” Sunstream said. “We’ll still have to figure out how to swim the length of that canal without being caught – and without running out of breath.”
“Cover of darkness is little good with them and their nightsight sap,” Dart said glumly.
“It’s still better than daytime.”
“We’re forgetting something, Quicksilver,” Kimo said. “The humans just caught us nosing around the channel. They didn’t see you in the water, did they, Wavecatcher.”
“No. At least... I don’t think so.”
“They’ll be expecting we’ll strike here again.”
Sunstream nodded. “He’s right.”
Dart smiled wryly. “So we should probably spend this coming day making them think we’ll hit somewhere else.”
Windkin grinned. “You have something in mind?”
“We’ll go north,” Quicksilver said.
“Right. The other side of the city. We’ll make them think that we’ve given up the south end. We’ll play Mantricker for the round-ears and kept ‘em guessing all day long. Then tomorrow night, we hit the water.”
Sunstream nodded. “Yes. But we can’t take on the Hoan-G’Tay-Sho and Door with little sleep. Let’s get up higher in the trees and sleep until dawn. Let the guards change shifts in the morning. Then we’ll get to work.”
“She always said... I had great promise. But I never lived up to my potential. I was weak. I let myself be pulled too easily, she said. I had no will of my own. So I pushed back. I was ungrateful, she said. I was arrogant. I had to be broken.”
Spar listened in horror as Door continued his reverie. Dawn was breaking outside the window as they reclined on the bed, propped up by pillows and folded blankets. After he had left her the evening before, Spar had not expected to see him return, but she had awoken late in the night to find him once again fast asleep next to her. The early morning chatter of the jungle creatures had awoken them both, and after another deep sleep, Door now seemed in a more lucid state. How long that would last she could only guess.
She wanted to beg him to stop, to speak of something else. But she was spellbound. His disjointed narrative was vague, often laced with riddles, but slowly Spar was beginning to assemble a picture of the years he had spent as Winnowill’s “student.”
Simple emotional enslavement to begin; isolation from his family when he was still a child, followed by the carefully plotted trauma of early initiation, and all the manipulations only a healer could affect. Pleasure blurring to pain and back to pleasure, forcing him to hatred, devotion, insecurity, and a desperate need for approval.
He was her helpless slave, less a lovemate than a plaything, to be used and discarded at will. And then, once Winnowill became bored with the simple conquest he had become, new forms of manipulation and torment.
“‘You are my Door. Door. Say it. You are my Door.’”
Pain when he refused, delight when he complied.
“‘I will make you the greatest rockshaper, the most powerful of the Gliders.’”
Slow and methodical sapping his will, as she teased his physical strength into mental power.
“It hurt... but she said I was a coward. I was resisting. And that was why there was pain. I had to submit. I had to stop fighting...”
How simple. A healer’s powers combined with skilled emotional torture, all applied so subtly that by the time he realized what was happening, it was already too late.
“Let me go, Winnowill...” he whispered, letting his eyes fall closed. And then he chuckled low in his throat. “And she said: ‘If I won’t pity my own whelp, why do you think I would spare a thought for you?’”
Spar found herself clutching his hand tightly. “Door...” she breathed softly, at a loss to say more.
“She never spoke to me again... save to order me to work the door. I was... nothing now. A piece of furniture. A tool. ‘You are mine...’ she once said, so long ago. ‘I will take care of you when all others abandon you... I am all you have... you are nothing without me.’” Again the bitter laugh. “And I believed her. But... in the end I was nothing with her. And she was always there. Even when I went within, dug myself a grave, smothered myself in darkness. But she was always there. I could... feel her, lodged behind my eyes. For years... she was all I saw.”
“What happened? What changed.”
“I saw... the wolf chief?”
“Swift?”
His eyes darkened. “She was the first to awaken me. I suppose... I owe her a debt.”
Spar sat up. “Awaken you? How?”
“The Mountain was falling... the Egg... it was not... right. Winnowill was gone, everything was falling apart. But I stayed at my post. I stayed at my duty. I knew nothing but duty. Intruders – savages. They had tried to break into my Lord’s chambers. I had one caught – a fly in a spider’s web – a stone web.”
Spar nodded. She knew the tales well. “Skywise.”
“I would not open for anyone but Winnowill... and the other... the archer with the powerful sendings.”
“Strongbow.”
“Yes. He – he could reach me. The others – they beg me to open, but all I hear is buzzing – buzzing in my mind like little insects. I swat them away. But then... the wolf chief is sending.” He frowned. “I can hear her. Buzzing, buzzing little thing. ‘Door, open! Winnowill’s gone! You’re free! Open! There’s nothing left to protect. You’ll die. We’ll all die! Open!’ Buzz buzz buzz. I don’t believe a word of it. I don’t hear – I don’t hear her. And then...”
He began to send a memory of Swift’s next move, and Spar stiffened at the intensity of it. **“Cursed moss-brained Glider!”** Pain! Sudden awareness! **“You’ll open this slab or I’ll open YOU!!”** Vicious, brutal thoughts. A snarling wolf. **“And you’ll be awake for it – believe me!”**
But in sending there is only truth. And Door opened the wall, releasing Skywise.
Spar shuddered. She knew the blood that flowed in Swift’s veins, but she had never imagined her cousin was capable of such brutality, such primal violence.
Door continued the sending, relaying clipped bursts of sendings from Swift as she hauled him and Skywise from the Egg. **“Move! Move, curse you! You’ll shape that rock or I’ll shape your insides! Now! Do you want to die, you withered worm? Now move! Work faster, Door! I see light! Light – have you forgotten what real sunlight looks like! Come on, just a little further!”** At times cajoling, at times ruthless, Swift shoved and wrenched his mind just as she dragged his body, until they were out safely. Moments later, the Egg fell.
“I... I lay on the ground – they forgot about me once they pulled me to safety – and I looked up at the sky,” he continued aloud. “And it was so... big. All white and golden and vast. I saw the sun... hanging high above. First time in... ages. Maybe I had never seen it before – ever. The world was so much bigger than I ever imagined. And I looked up at the sky... and I thought it would pull me up into it. And I thought I would fly apart without the walls to hold me in.”
“I was afraid. And I retreated. And I was safe again – within. The elves tried to wake me, but I would not come back. Swift didn’t bother with me again. No one did.”
Spar licked her lips. “Swift had... her own worries.”
“No one cared about me... except the humans. They took me in. They cared for me. They helped me remember... what it means to live... what it means to be awake.”
“But don’t you see, Door? You aren’t awake yet. This is all a bad dream that’s clinging to you. You can’t be healed here – no matter how hard the humans wish it. There are some things that can only be achieved with your kin. With other elves.”
“That’s why you’ve come to me, Sohn.”
Still she flinched inwardly at his casual use of her soulname. “I did not mean to give that name.”
“Then why did you?”
“I didn’t. You...” Spar paused. She was about to say “You forced it from me” but she realized it was not entirely true. No, he had not taken it. “When I heard your sending... I felt... compelled. I did not want to... but I did.”
Door smiled. “Your heart knew the truth, my sweet, even if your head did not.”
“What truth?” she asked.
Door slipped his arms about her waist, and Spar struggled not to expose her lingering discomfort as he buried his face in her hair and murmured: “That we are meant to be together.”
No. He was wrong. If his sending hadn’t been so forceful, she never would have given up her true self and he would not have this hold over her.
This wasn’t Recognition. He wasn’t her lifemate.
Yet... there was something between them... something she could not put into words.
Something she did not entirely mind.
No, she pitied him, that was all. No fondness, no affection, certainly no love.
No... no love.
“Door?”
“Hmm?”
“Will you give me a present?”
“Of course.” He sat up. “Anything. What do you desire?”
“Order Kamara to stop his pursuit of my friends.”
“But... you want them brought here.”
“Yes, but not as prisoners of humans – do not delude yourself, Door, they will not allow themselves to be brought here by force. Tell Kamara to stand down. Then invite my friends to come here, by their own free will.”
“They will try to take you away from me.”
Spar smiled disarmingly. “I won’t let them. And they will not take me against my will. That is not our Way.”
Door hesitated. “Please, Door,” Spar said softly. “Let them in.”
“And you won’t try to leave with them?”
**Not without you. I promise.**
In sending there was only truth, and Spar was amazed to realize that she really meant what she sent.
Door touched her cheek, and Spar did not flinch. At length he nodded.
Spar hid herself in the next room when Kamara answered the summons to the throne room. It would not be wise to provoke the man now. Kamara would be angry enough already once he learned what his “pet” wanted.
Perhaps he already suspected what Door wanted of him, for Kamara waited until late in the afternoon before he finally arrived.
“Ah... it is good of you to visit me, Kamara,” Door said. There was a hint of annoyance in his voice which Kamara ignored.
“I was bidden, Almighty,” he said smoothly. “And so I answered. I always heed the call of the Almighty.”
“Eventually.”
“Is there anything you desire?”
“Oh, I have all that I need... all things but one.”
Kamara waited. When Door said no more he cleared his throat. “Yes?”
“My mate desires company. But I fear my efforts to... escort her companions into the city have only alienated them. I do not wish to alienate the other spirits. I wish them to come here of their own free will and live with me in peace. I want you to abandon your efforts to retrieve the other spirits. I will call to them on the spirit plane and invite them here. You will make no effort to restrain them when they come.”
Kamara flinched. Though she could not see around the corner, Spar could practically hear his spine snap back in indignation. “Almighty, I fear that is most unwise. These spirits are not gentle like your Goddess Redcrown. They are violent creatures. They have wounded and killed several of my guards – your guards. I fear for your safety if they are allowed inside the city walls.”
Door chuckled low. “I think I can be trusted to tend to my own safety, Kamara. I am your Almighty, after all.”
“These are no ordinary spirits, Almighty. In fact... when I hear the reports of my men, I am reminded of the demons the heathen Ulu-roa once worshipped before you showed them the truth of the Sky Spirit. I fear... I fear these ‘companions’ of your mate may be nothing more than false friends, creatures of the night sent by our enemies to destroy us. My lord, these demons present a grave threat to us all.”
For a moment Spar feared Kamara’s smooth words might sway Door – he had been moved by far less. But after a pause Door only said: “You can trust your god, Kamara.”
“My lord... I fear you may be misplacing your trust.”
A pause. “Choose your words carefully, Kamara.”
Again he cleared his throat. “Almighty, I worry. You have been... most different of late, since your mate came to you.”
“Yes....” Affection in his voice. “She has reawakened me.”
“Or has she simply woven a web of dreams about you?”
“What are you saying?”
Spar heard a soft thud as Kamara prostrated himself on the stone floor. “My lord... I am ashamed. I fear I may have misjudged your Redcrown. When I found her, and she said ‘Take me to my mate’ I rejoiced and brought her here without thinking. I should have considered her bestial companions. I should not have ignored my inner voice. Almighty Door – Redcrown’s desires will only endanger you. She is not a worthy mate of a Sky Spirit, and I beg pardon that I brought her here to so threaten your peace.”
Door hesitated. When he spoke again, his voice was softer. “Yes... she does threaten my peace. I am changing – I feel it in my bones. The old life is dying...”
“She is killing you. She is destroying the safety you have built yourself.”
“Yes. More and more... I am remembering... things I would rather not.”
“Of course. And it pains you, doesn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Almighty, I worry. Now that I see you today, I have genuine fear for you. This... this she-spirit is no fit mate for you. She does not support you. She does not serve you as a good woman should. No, she seeks to change you. She seeks to twist you to her purposes.”
“No... not like that.”
“Yes! Just like that. Oh, piety has held my tongue until now, but I can bear it no longer.”
“She is... a good mate. She is helping me...”
Now Spar heard real doubt in his voice, and she wondered if the sendings they had shared were really enough to break the hold the humans had perfected over five hundred years.
“By forcing you to become something you do not wish to be? By remaking you in her image. I know of another false spirit that so abused you – her name was Win-o-wil!”
Spar held her breath. Kamara had played his hand well indeed.
A pause. Then: “Winnowill?”
“You remember how you hated her. You remember how you feared her. You remember... the torments.... the pain. Don’t let yourself be ruled by another Win-o-wil, Almighty. Don’t become a slave to Redcrown’s desires.”
Door made a sound, a low murmur in his throat, and for a moment Spar feared the worst. Then the murmur became a chuckle, and she relaxed. Then the chuckle became a roar.
“You dare mention her name? You dare compare my mate to the Black Snake?”
The floor shook. The entire ziggurat quaked.
“M-my lord god–”
“You will be silent! For generations – long before you were born – I was slave to your people – slave to you as I was slave to Winnowill! Oh, how well you and the Geo’kali fed me your poison and kept me asleep, to dream only the dreams you saw fit to give me! No more! My mate has awakened me to your lies! Your reign is over!”
“But... but...”
“I am the one they worship! It is I they pray to – not some grotesque five-finger! You have kept me silent too long. Now it is I who speak. And you, Kamara, will listen!”
“I will not! I will not heed the ravings of a spirit gone mad!”
“Then I will find a new high priest.”
“Door–”
“Get out!”
Spar heard Kamara’s footsteps as he stalked out, more enraged than cowed. She bit her lip and leaned back against the stone wall. Closing out all distractions, she sent a desperate lock-sending for Sunstream.
**Sunstream, hurry.**
**Spar... what’s happened.**
**Please, hurry. I thought I was helping, but I’ve just made things much worse.**
Kamara called Aina to his room. After he had explained the situation, Aina nodded gravely. “I understand. Shall I recall the search parties?”
“You’ll do no such damn thing.”
“My lord?”
“You will continue to search for the demons. The guards will shoot to kill. Under no circumstances are those... those creatures to be allowed to enter the city walls. They will only bring further confusion and madness with them. I cannot allow the Almighty to be corrupted.”
Aina hesitated. “Yes, my lord.”
“And I want you to watch the Sky Spirit’s rooms closely. I want you to let me know the moment Goddess Redcrown is alone.”
“My lord?”
Kamara moved to a side table and downed a cup of syrupy wine. “The moment she is alone, away from the Almighty. Understand?”
Aina swallowed. “Yes, my lord. But...”
“What?”
“Are you certain?”
Kamara chuckled deep in his throat as he removed a black knife from the little wooden box on the table. “Very.” He ran his fingertip over the edge of the obsidian blade, and he smiled at the sight of his own blood welling up in a thin stream.
“I’ve indulged that bitch long enough,” he muttered. “The reign of spirits is at an end.”
* * *
“Door!” Spar chased after him. The Glider had been pacing restlessly ever since Kamara left, growling under his breath about Winnowill and humans and Blue Mountain.
“A cleansing... must have a cleansing... put everything in its place.”
“Door, stop. Calm down.”
“I am the Sky Spirit. Yet I have been their slave. And you – you, my sweet, have opened my eyes. No more. No more will I be enslaved. No... it’s time for a cleansing!” He sent out a ringing cry. **Fellow spirits! Kin of my mate! Come to the city! Let us work together to purge the evil of the Hoan-G’Tay-Sho!**
“Door, listen to me.” Spar touched his arm.
“No!” Door threw her off roughly, and she fell back to the floor, landing hard on her side. She rolled over and crouched on her knees. Her lip curled back in a snarl.
“Is that all you have in you, Glider?”
But the rage had already left Door’s eyes. Now he was pacing again, muttering to himself. “Time for renewal.... yes... one must first destroy in order to gain control. The more one tears down, the more one can create...”
“That’s Winnowill talking,” Spar growled.
“Yes... the dark mother taught me well...”
“You’re not her slave anymore. You’re not the humans’ slave anymore!”
“I have decisions to make...”
Spar got to her feet. As Door turned towards her in his pacing, she struck him hard across the face.
Still lost in his trance, Door barely noticed. Enraged, Spar struck him again. When she brought her hand back for a third blow, Door caught her wrist in a vise-like grip. His eyes focused on her at last, and they burned with smoldering hate.
“So there’s one thing that still reaches you,” Spar breathed.
Door released her hand and stepped back. “I... I didn’t... didn’t mean.”
“Can you do nothing but rage or hide within? I’m trying to help you, Door, though only the High Ones know why!”
“Must regain control...” he stammered, wrenching his skullcap from his head.
“You’ve never had control of the Hoan-G’Tay-Sho, don’t you understand that?”
“Hoan-G’Tay-Sho?” he frowned. “No... not of them...”
“Door,” her expression softened. “Come sit with me. I don’t want you drifting away again. Please.”
“We go forward, we go back...” he whispered, and she read the telltale signs in his face. He was already beginning to retreat within. “We push or we let ourselves be pulled. I was always too weak to push back. Always... she used to say...”
She seized his hands in hers. “Sometimes it’s not weakness to let ourselves be pulled.”
Door relunctantly followed as she backed up towards the bed. His steps began more uncertain until at last his strength failed and he swooned against her.
“Augh... you weigh as much as a human,” she complained as she finally set him down on the bed. “Arua!” she shouted. “Bring fruit and wine! The Almighty is hungry!”
The Ulu-roa women rushed in bearing food and drink. Spar poured Door a cup of wine, collected several small melons and a piece of smoked meat, then shooed the humans away. “Close the door behind you, and do not return unless bidden. Let no one enter, especially not Aina or Kamara.”
Arua nodded. “Do not worry, Spar.”
“Here, drink,” Spar insisted, offering Door the cup. “You need your strength.”
Door reluctantly drank, gromacing at the taste. “I hate this wine.”
“I know. It could stand to be boiled down. But you need something a little richer than water. One day, when you’re better, I’ll take you to my father’s Holt. I have a tribemate, Littlefire, who can brew the best wines – dreamberry, plainsberry, red plums – anything for your mood. Littlefire is Egg’s son, you know.”
“Egg... has a son?”
“Mm-hm. He’s a fine tribemate... if a little odd. But no odder than you, old bird,” she added wryly. “Actually, I think you’d like him. You should come with me. We can travel to the Evertree together. It’s just a little ways from where Blue Mountain used to be.”
Door said nothing, but dutifully ate his meal. When he cleaned his plate, Spar urged him to lie down. “Sleep. You’ll feel better.”
“I can’t sleep.”
“Of course you can. It’s almost dusk anyway.”
“Already?”
“Kamara kept us waiting, remember?”
“I can’t sleep,” Door insisted. “I can’t face the blackness.”
“But I’ve seen you sleep.”
He smiled sadly. “It’s easier now. I’m not alone anymore.” He touched her cheek. “I have you in there with me. You help me chase her away... sometimes.”
“You can’t always depend on me, Door. I may not always be here.”
A desperate light seized his eyes and he caught her wrist. “You promised you wouldn’t leave me! You swore!”
“We do not always have a choice in the paths we take. Your Black Snake swore she would never let you escape, but in the end she could not hold you.”
He looked down, sullen now, almost childishly churlish. Spar touched his shoulder gently. “You can’t depend on another to fulfill you. Not even... a mate. Mates complement each other, they do not define each other. You have to find yourself. And you will, Door. That I can promise. There’s a light inside you, in that darkness of yours. And when you find it, it’ll chase the Black Snake away, it will clear out the shadows and you will never be afraid again.”
Door shook his head sadly.
“It is there,” she insisted. “I’ve seen that light appear in your eyes. Only for a moment or two. And then it fades. You have to catch it, hold onto it.” She felt a strange tightness in the pit of her stomach and she continued in a rush, “Door, no elf deserves to suffer like this – not even the Black Snake. Yes, the Black Snake,” she repeated when he glared at her. “Revenge isn’t the answer. Winnowill is healed now, and she would weep if she remembered what she has done to you. Door, you have to let go of the past. Don’t you see, you’re only walking in circles in that room of yours, looking for that door. Look for the light instead – it’s there.” She felt a lump growing in her throat and imagined emotion was getting the better of her. She fell silent then and simply sat with him, waiting for the moment to pass. But the lump in her throat continued to rise, a pressure at the back of her mouth – insistent, begging release. She parted her lips and the pressure eased, escaping as a sound.
“Fenn...”
Door looked up. “What?” his eyes were wide, his voice hoarse. “What did you say?”
Spar blinked. “I...” She frowned, trying to put into words what she had felt as she spoke the sound.
Door seized her bicep tight. “What did you call me?”
“Fenn,” she repeated. “Your name... who you are inside. At the core... you are Fenn.”
“Fenn...” he breathed. “My name is... Fenn.” His eyes lit up. “My father was... Arvoll. My mother was... Vannarin – third daughter of Runya, son of Haken. My sisters... there were three. Anyeean, Aroris, Anvaleel. My family... there were six of us... until she took me away! She took my name. My name – Fenn. I am Fenn!”
His face crumpled into a mask of combined sorrow and joy, and he buried his face against Spar’s shoulder. Spar held him tight, shushing him gently as he wept in relief.
The human guards raced through the undergrowth, slicing at ferns and shrubs with their machetes. The howling continued, all around them. They heard lupine growls in the underbrush. Stones and berries pelted down on them from above, but when they looked, there was only the green understory.
“Blast it! Where are the demons?”
“I saw the black wolf go in here. He has to be here.”
“Lord Kamara will have our hides if we let them escape.”
Another rain of stones fell on them. The leader of the party roared and fired off an arrow. It lodged in a tree high above them. Mocking laughter followed the stones.
“Damn them all to the endless night!” the leader swore. “Come on, you fools. They have to be nearby. That damned wolf can’t climb trees, can it?”
High above in the understory Kimo struggled to restrain his laughter. Dart snickered and gave him a friendly punch to the shoulder. Sunstream chuckled. “If my great-grandsire Mantricker could only see us now...”
Quicksilver threw a pebble into the trees. It clattered across a tree trunk then fell down to earth. The humans swore in the distance.
A moment later Yun, Wavecatcher and Windkin appeared, racing across the highways of branches. They dropped into position next to Sunstream. “We’ve got the humans chasing their own tails,” she announced cheerfully. “They’re practically deaf – they could shoot at our laughter forever and never hit anything.”
“All the same, I think we’ve done enough,” Sunstream said. “We’ll move east and harass the next party a little. I think that should be enough to convince them that we’re intent on entering the city by the north.”
**Sunstream...** Spar’s distant sending touched his mind.
**Spar – how are you doing?**
**Be careful. Door has abandoned his war against you but the humans haven’t. And Door’s starting to realize more and more than he has no control over them.**
**We’ve got our way in. By dawn tomorrow we’ll be with you. Hold on. Don’t provoke Door or the humans.** Sunstream closed the connection with Spar and turned back to the others. “She’s closing off a large part of her mind to me – probably to keep Door out – though I’m not sure. Her sendings are getting... strange.”
“How?” Dart asked.
“The only way I can put it is... they... smell different. Like she’s changed... inside.”
“High Ones only know what that monster Door has done to her,” Yun growled. “Five days with him now, he could have twisted her mind to believe anything. How do we know he isn’t using her to get us right where he wants us?”
Windkin frowned. “We all heard Door’s sending. Surely... in sending there is only truth?”
“Don’t warm to him just because he’s your kin,” Yun said.
“He lied in sending already,” Quicksilver said thoughtfully. “He sent Sunstream that vision of a haven for our kind. And you hear what he called us.”
“‘Fellow spirits,’” Windkin whispered. “You spend enough years treated as a god and you start to believe it.”
“‘Kin of his mate,’” Quicksilver corrected gently. “What will he do when we insist that Spar doesn’t belong to him?”
Sunstream nodded. “We go in assuming Door is still our enemy.”
“And if we cross paths with him?” Yun asked. “Shoot to kill?”
“No. Not unless there is no other way. Times may have changed since the old days when we all said ‘No elf has ever killed another,’ but I will not have that Glider’s blood on my hands, understand? Dart? Yun?”
Yun nodded reluctantly. “But I won’t have any of our blood on my hands, either.”
“We kill in self-defense only. Immediate self-defense. That goes for humans too.”
“You’re too soft-hearted, sometimes,” Dart said.
“I’m chief today, Dart,” Sunstream said calmly.
Dart nodded. In the end, it was the Way, and that was all that mattered.
“When?” he asked next.
“At the first rays of dawn. Before the guards change duty. The night watch will still be patrolling.”
Quicksilver grinned. “But as the light returns, the nightsight sap in their eyes will cloud their vision.”
“Right. We strike while they’re half-blind. Come on. Let’s pay our friends to the east a visit. Then we’ll get some rest. Every moment will count tomorrow morning.”
Spar awoke late at night. She sat up in bed and looked out at the jungle beyond the ziggurat walls. It had started to rain some time after she had dozed off, and now the world was a gray blur beyond the stone bars on the window. She smiled at the gentle sound.
Door was fast asleep on the bed beside her. Once again his face was serene in repose, a mask of the youngster he once was.
He was so beautiful.
“Fenn...” she whispered, rolling the sound on her tongue. She reached out and touched his cheek, her fingertips tracing a line down to his jawline.
Door’s eyes flickered open. He stared up at her with a drowsy expression.
“Fenn,” she repeated, smiling.
He blinked in confusion. “Sohn?”
Strange, she felt no more pain when he spoke her soulname, no more unease.
Her hand was still cradling his face. It lingered there even as Door sat up to better regard her, even as he brought his face so close to hers that their noses nearly touched.
“I... didn’t mean to wake you,” she stammered.
“I never mind waking to see you.”
They locked stares. In the dim light, Door’s gray eyes seemed to glow. Strange, she had never noticed how brightly they shone, untold depths of quicksilver.
Her heart was beating faster, her breath quickening. So was Door’s. She could feel his breath on her lips.
“Sohn...”
Spar leaned forward and covered his mouth with hers.
Door drew back abruptly, bewildered. “That’s what humans do–” he stammered.
Spar grinned, shy and emboldened at once. “Not just humans.”
Door blinked. Hesitantly, he raised his hand to cup her jaw, and Spar leaned into the caress. Door drew her against him and returned the kiss, clumsily at first, then with a growing passion. Spar melted against him, slipping her hands up through the wide sleeves of his caftan and clinging to his shoulders tightly. Her pulse had become a fierce drumbeat in her ear.
“Sohn,” Door whispered against her lips. “My Sohn,”
“Fenn,” she sighed softly as his lips moved down her jawline and she obligingly buried her face in his silver hair. There was nothing more to say.
Elfquest copyright 2014 Warp Graphics, Inc. Elfquest, its logos, characters, situations, all related indicia, and their distinctive likenesses are trademarks of Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Some dialogue taken from Elfquest comics. All such dialogue copyright 2014 Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Alternaverse characters and insanity copyright 2014 Jane Senese and Erin Roberts