The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms Read online

  He moved into my line of sight, blocking my view of those eyes. I could hear a soft murmur, Scimina speaking in a low voice. It sounded like she was giving instructions, which made a peculiar parallel with Tvril in front of me doing the same. I barely heard them both. I felt so cold.

  Viraines study is two levels above us. There are lifting chambers at every third corridor juncture; look for an alcove between vases of flowers. Justjust get to one of those, and then think up. The door will be straight ahead. While theres still light in the sky you have a chance. Go. Run!

  He pushed me, and I stumbled off. Behind me rose an inhuman howl, like the voices of a hundred wolves and a hundred jaguars and a hundred winter winds, all of them hungry for my flesh. Then there was silence, and that was most frightening of all.

  I ran. I ran. I ran.

  3

  Darkness

  SHOULD I PAUSE TO EXPLAIN? It is poor storytelling. But I must remember everything, remember and remember and remember, to keep a tight grip on it. So many bits of myself have escaped already.

  So.

  There were once three gods. The one who matters killed one of the ones who didnt and cast the other into a hellish prison. The walls of this prison were blood and bone; the barred windows were eyes; the punishments included sleep and pain and hunger and all the other incessant demands of mortal flesh. Then this creature, trapped in his tangible vessel, was given to the Arameri for safekeeping, along with three of his godly children. After the horror of incarnation, what difference could mere slavery make?

  As a little girl, I learned from the priests of Bright Itempas that this fallen god was pure evil. In the time of the Three, his followers had been a dark, savage cult devoted to violent midnight revels, worshipping madness as a sacrament. If that one had won the war between the gods, the priests intoned direly, mortalkind would probably no longer exist.

  So be good, the priests would add, or the Nightlord will get you.

  * * *

  I ran from the Nightlord through halls of light. Some property of the stuff that made up Skys substance made it glow with its own soft, white luminescence now that the sun had set. Twenty paces behind me charged the god of darkness and chaos. On the one occasion that I risked a glance back, I saw the gentle glow of the hallway fade into a throat of blackness so deep looking that way hurt the eye. I did not look back again.

  I could not go straight. All that had saved me thus far was my head start, and the fact that the monster behind me seemed incapable of moving faster than a mortals pace. Perhaps the god retained a human form somewhere within all that dark; even so, his legs were longer than mine.

  So I turned at nearly every juncture, slamming into walls to brake my speed and give me something to push against as I sprinted away. I say this as if the wall slamming was deliberate on my part; it was not. If I had been able to reason through my abject terror, I might have retained a general sense of which direction I was going in. As it was, I was already hopelessly lost.

  Fortunately, where reason failed, blind panic served well enough.

  Spying one of the alcoves that Tvril had described, I flung myself into it, pressing against the back wall. He had told me to think up, which would activate the lifting spell and propel me to the next level of the palace. Instead I thought AWAY AWAY AWAY, not realizing the magic would oblige that, too.

  When the coach had brought me from the Salon to Sky-the-palace, Id had the curtains closed. The coachman had simply driven us to a particular spot and stopped; my skin had prickled; a moment later the coachman opened the door to reveal we were there. It had not occurred to me that the magic had pulled me through half a mile of solid matter in the blink of an eye.

  Now it happened again. The little alcove, which had been growing dim as the Nightlord closed in, suddenly seemed to stretch, its entrance moving impossibly farther away while I remained still. There was an inbreath of tension, and then I shot forward as if from a sling. Walls flew at my face; I screamed and flung my arms over my eyes even as they passed through me. And then everything stopped.

  I lowered my arms slowly. Before I could muster my wits enough to wonder whether this was the same alcove or another just like it, a child thrust his face through the opening, looked around, and spied me.

  Come on, he said. Hurry up. It wont take him long to find us.

  * * *

  The Arameri magic had brought me to a vast open chamber within the body of Sky. Dumb, I looked around at the cold, featureless space as we hurried through it.

  The arena, said the boy ahead of me. Some of the highbloods fancy themselves warriors. This way.

  I glanced back toward the alcove, wondering if there was some way to block it off so the Nightlord couldnt follow.

  No, that wont work, said the boy, following my gaze. But the palace itself inhibits his power on a night like this. He can hunt you using only his senses. (As opposed to what else? I wondered.) On a moonless night youd be in trouble, but tonight hes just a man.

  That was not a man, I said. My voice sounded high and shaky in my own ears.

  If that were true, you wouldnt be running for your life right now. And apparently I wasnt running fast enough. The boy caught my hand and pulled me along faster. He glanced back at me, and I caught a glimpse of a high-cheekboned, pointed face that would one day be handsome.

  Where are you taking me? My ability to reason was returning, though slowly. To Viraine?

  He uttered a derisive snort. We left the arena and passed into more of the mazelike white halls. Dont be foolish. Were going to hide.

  But that man Nahadoth. Now I remembered where Id heard the name. Never whisper it in the dark, read the childrens tales, unless you want him to answer.

  Oh, so now hes a man? We just have to keep ahead of him and everything will be fine. The boy ran around a corner, more nimble than me; I stumbled to keep up. He darted his eyes around the corridor, looking for something. Dont worry. I get away from him all the time.

  This did not sound wise. I w-want to go to Viraine. I tried to say it with authority, but I was still too frightened, and winded now besides.

  The boy responded by stopping, but not because of me. Here! he said, and put his hand against one of the pearlescent walls. Atadie!

  The wall opened.

  It was like watching ripples in water. The pearly stuff moved away from his hand in steady waves, forming an openinga holea door. Beyond the wall lay an oddly shaped, narrow chamber, not so much a room as a space between. When the door was big enough for us both, the boy pulled me inside.

  What is this? I asked.

  Dead space in the body of the palace. All these curving corridors and round rooms. Theres another half a palace in between that no one usesexcept me. The boy turned to me and flashed an up-to-no-good grin. We can rest for a little while.

  I was beginning to catch my breath, and with it came a weakness that I recognized as the aftermath of adrenaline. The wall had rippled shut behind me, becoming as solid as before. I leaned back against it gingerly at first, then gratefully. And then I examined my rescuer.

  He wasnt much smaller than me, maybe nine years old, with the spindly look of a fast grower. Not Amn, not with skin as dark as mine and sharpfold eyes like those of the Tema people. They were a murky, tired green, those eyeslike my own, and my mothers. Maybe his father had been another wandering Arameri.

  He was examining me as well. After a moment, his grin widened. Im Sieh.

  Two syllables. Sieh Arameri?

  Just Sieh. With a childs boneless grace, he stretched his arms above his head. You dont look like much.

  I was too tired to take offense. Ive found it useful, I replied, to be underestimated.

  Yes. Always good strategy, that. Lightning-quick, he straightened and grew serious. Hell find us if we dont keep moving. En!

  I jumped, startled by his shout. But Sieh was looking up. A moment later, a childs yellow kickball fell into his hands.

  Puzzled, I looked up. The dead space we
nt up several floors, a featureless triangular shaft; I saw no openings from which the ball could have come. There was certainly no one hovering above who could have thrown the ball to him.

  I looked at the boy and suffered a sudden, chilling suspicion.

  Sieh laughed at my face and put the ball on the floor. Then he sat on it, cross-legged. The ball held perfectly still beneath him until he was comfortable, and then it rose into the air. It stopped when he was a few feet above the ground and hovered. Then the boy who was not a boy reached out to me.

  I wont hurt you, he said. Im helping you, arent I?

  I just looked at his hand, pressing myself back against the wall.

  I could have led you in a circle, you know. Right back to him.

  There was that. After a moment, I took his hand. His grip left no question; this was not a childs strength.

  Just a little ways, he said. Then, dangling me like a snared rabbit, he floated us both up through the shaft.

  * * *

  There is another thing I remember from my childhood. A song, and it went How did it go? Ah, yes. Trickster, trickster / Stole the sun for a prank. / Will you really ride it? / Where will you hide it? / Down by the riverbank

  It was not our sun, mind you.

  * * *

  Sieh opened two ceilings and another wall before finally setting me down in a dead space that was as big as Grandfather Dekartas audience chamber. But it was not the size of this space that made my mouth gape.

  More spheres floated in this room, dozens of them. They were fantastically variedof all shapes and sizes and colorsturning slowly and drifting through the air. They seemed to be nothing more than a childs toys, until I looked closely at one and saw clouds swirling over its surface.

  Sieh hovered near as I wandered among his toys, his expression somewhere between anxiety and pride. The yellow ball had taken up position near the center of the room; all the other balls revolved around it.

  Theyre pretty, arent they? he asked me, while I stared at a tiny red marble. A great cloud massa storm?devoured the nearer hemisphere. I tore my eyes from it to look at Sieh. He bounced on his toes, impatient for my answer. Its a good collection.

  Trickster, trickster, stole the sun for a prank. And apparently because it was pretty. The Three had borne many children before their falling-out. Sieh was immeasurably old, another of the Arameris deadly weapons, and yet I could not bring myself to dash the shy hope I saw in his eyes.

  Theyre all beautiful, I agreed. It was true.

  He beamed and took my hand againnot pulling me anywhere, just feeling companionable. I think the others will like you, he said. Even Naha, when he calms down. Its been a long time since we had a mortal of our own to talk to.

  His words were gibberish strung together without meaning. Others? Naha? Calm?

  He laughed at me again. I especially like your face. You dont show much emotionis that a Darre thing, or your mothers training?but when you do, all the world can read it.

  My mother had warned me of the same thing long ago. Sieh I had a thousand questions and couldnt decide where to begin. One of the balls, a plain green one with bright white poles, went past us, tumbling end over end. I didnt register it as an anomaly until Sieh saw it and stiffened. That was when my own instincts belatedly sent a warning.

  I turned to find that Nahadoth stood behind us.

  In the instant that my mind and body froze, he could have had me. He was only a few paces away. But he did not move or speak, and so we stared at each other. Face like the moon, pale and somehow wavering. I could get the gist of his features, but none of it stuck in my mind beyond an impression of astonishing beauty. His long, long hair wafted around him like black smoke, its tendrils curling and moving of their own volition. His cloakor perhaps that was hair, tooshifted as if in an unfelt wind. I could not recall him wearing a cloak before, on the balcony.

  The madness still lurked in his face, but it was a quieter madness now, not the rabid-animal savagery of before. Something elseI could not bring myself to call it humanitystirred underneath the gleam.

  Sieh stepped forward, careful not to move in front of me. Are you with us yet, Naha?

  Nahadoth did not answer, did not even seem to see Sieh. Siehs toys, I noticed with the fragment of my mind that wasnt frozen, went wild when they came near him. Their slow, graceful orbits changed: some drifted in a different direction, some froze in place, some sped up. One split in half and fell broken to the floor as I watched. He took a step forward, sending more of the colored balls spinning out of control.

  That one step was enough to jar me out of my paralysis. I stumbled back and would have fled screaming if Id known how to make the walls open.

  Dont run! Siehs voice snapped at me like a whip. I froze.

  Nahadoth stepped forward again, close enough that I could see a minute shiver pass through him. His hands flexed. He opened his mouth; struggled a moment; spoke. P-predictable, Sieh. His voice was deep, but shockingly human. I had expected a bestial growl.

  Sieh hunched, a sulky little boy again. Didnt think youd catch up that fast. He cocked his head, studying Nahadoths face, and spoke slowly, as if to a simpleton. You are here, arent you?

  I can see it, whispered the Nightlord. His eyes were fixed on my face.

  To my surprise, Sieh nodded as if he knew what such ravings meant. I wasnt expecting that, either, he said softly. But perhaps you remember nowwe need this one. Do you remember? Sieh stepped forward, reaching for his hand.

  I did not see that hand move. I was watching Nahadoths face. All I saw was the flash of blind, murderous rage that crossed his features, and then one of his hands was round Siehs throat. Sieh had no chance to cry out before he was lifted off the ground, gagging and kicking.

  For a breath I was too shocked to react.

  Then I got angry.

  I burned with angerand madness, too, which is the only possible explanation for what I did then. I drew my knife and cried, Leave him alone!

  As well a rabbit threaten a wolf. But to my utter shock, the Nightlord looked at me. He did not lower Sieh, but he blinked. Just that quickly, the madness left him, replaced by a look of astonishment and dawning wonder. It was the look of a man who has just discovered treasure beneath a pile of offal. But he was still choking the life out of Sieh.

  Let him go! I crouched, shifting my stance the way my Darren grandmother had taught me. My hands shooknot with fear, but with that mad, wild, righteous fury. Sieh was a child. Stop it!

  Nahadoth smiled.

  I lunged. The knife went into his chest, going deep before lodging in bone with such a sudden impact that my hand was jarred free of the hilt. There was an instant in which I braced myself against his chest, trying to push away. I marveled that he was solid, warm, flesh and blood despite the power writhing about him. I marveled even more when his free hand wrapped around my wrist like a vise. So fast, despite the knife in his heart.

  With the strength in that hand, he could have crushed my wrist. Instead he held me in place. His blood coated my hand, hotter than my rage. I looked up; his eyes were warm, gentle, desperate. Human.

  I have waited so long for you, the god breathed. Then he kissed me.

  Then he fell.

  4

  Magician

  WHEN THE NIGHTLORD SAGGED to the ground, dropping Sieh in the process, I nearly fell with them. I had no idea why I was still alive. The tales of the Arameris weapons are full of them slaughtering whole armies. There are no stories of crazed barbarian girls fighting back.

  Sieh, to my great relief, immediately pushed himself up on his elbows. He seemed fine, though his eyes went very round at the sight of Nahadoths motionless form. Look what you did!

  I I was shaking, almost too hard to talk. I didnt mean He was killing you. I couldntI swallowed hardlet him.

  Nahadoth would not have killed Sieh, said a new voice behind me. My nerves did not like this. I jumped and grabbed for the knife that was no longer tucked into my back-sheath. A woman re
solved out of the silent drift of Siehs toys. The first thing I noticed was that she was huge, like the great sea ships of the Ken. She was built like one of those ships, too, broad and powerful and astonishingly graceful; none of it was fat. I could not guess her race, because no woman of any race I knew was that damned big.

  She knelt to help Sieh up. Sieh was shaking, too, though with excitement. Did you see what she did? he asked the newcomer. He pointed at Nahadoth; he was grinning.

  Yes, I saw. Setting Sieh on his feet, the woman turned to regard me for a moment. Kneeling, she was taller than Sieh standing. Her clothing was simplegray tunic and pants, a gray kerchief covering her hair. Maybe it was her grayness after the unrelenting black of the Nightlord, but there was something about her that seemed fundamentally gentle to me.

  There is no greater warrior than a mother protecting her child, the woman said. But Sieh is far less fragile than you, Lady Yeine.

  I nodded slowly, not allowing myself to feel foolish. Logic had not been part of what Id done.

  Sieh came over and took my hand. Thank you anyway, he said shyly. The purpled, ugly handprint around his throat was fading even as I watched.

  We all looked over at Nahadoth. He sat on his knees as he had fallen, the knife still hilt-deep in his chest, his head slumped. With a soft sigh, the gray woman went to him and pulled the knife out. I had felt it lodge in bone, but she made the withdrawal look easy. She examined it, shook her head, then offered it to me hilt first.

  I made myself take it, getting more gods blood on my hand. I thought that she held the blade more firmly than necessary because my hand was shaking so badly. But as I got a better grip on the hilt, the womans fingers trailed down the blade. When I had the knife again, I realized that not only was it clean of blood, but it was a different shapecurved nowand finely honed.