Onaya Bone leaned on one elbow and rubbed some stiffness at the back of her neck. She sighed.
“They demanded our surrender then, as well. The threat was less immediate at that time. Now they have Lindent’s ring.”
“If you knew what they wanted, Bone Mother,” Talis said, feeling a tightness across her chest and a sour burning in her stomach. “Why were the aliens allowed to stay so long?”
Onaya Bone briefly flicked her eyes to the side, to where Illiya stood behind Talis.
“It is not common knowledge, but I suppose those who can use it against us already are aware: The alien ship’s weapons are able to disrupt our alchemical abilities.”
Talis felt a coldness grip her. It crept, sharp-legged, up her spine, and clamped down on the back of her skull. She felt woozy. The room shifted as though the stone mesa were no more substantial than the blowing sands.
“What does that mean, Bone Mother?” Talis asked. Refusing to accept that she knew what it meant.
“The aliens have the power to kill the gods,” Illiya said, “and steal their power.” Her voice was calm, still strong.
“You knew this?” Talis turned to her old friend.
Illiya flinched.
“All of our highest-ranking disciples were told,” Onaya Bone said. Her voice was airy, low. Tired. “They have maintained the spirits of our children while we have been unable to directly walk among them.”
The coldness found its way to her mind, and hit behind her forehead like a spark.
“Wait.”
“Yes,” said Onaya Bone. An invitation to continue, but an admission of what Talis had yet to ask.
“How do we know they can kill…”
But it was clear. The terrible truth hung in the room, made the air impossible to breathe.
Talis swallowed again. “… Who?”
Onaya Bone and Illiya exchanged a look. Onaya Bone put a hand over her heart, and Talis saw her shoulders rise with a deep breath.
“Silus Cutter.”
Chapter 26
It was as though the floor fell away. Just gone. She was falling. Everything tilted, lurching angles that rushed past her vision.
Pain registered somewhere far away as her knees hit the hard floor. The palms of her hands followed. She felt sand, felt her fingernails scrape into the soft turquoise inlay. Her stomach heaved, and her throat burned with bile and the mix of tea and alcohol that revisited her throat. She croaked, high-pitched, in anguish.
“Talis,” Illiya said, her voice as thick as cream and far away.
Firm hands clasped her shoulders. Talis shouted, terrified, and scrambled backward on her hands and the balls of her feet.
“Calm her, my child,” Onaya Bone’s voice said. “We may lose her.”
Talis’s chest burned. The room would not stop moving. She couldn’t breathe.
There was a sharp prick at the base of her neck, and Talis shrank away from it, to the side. Illiya crouched beside her, a hypodermic needle held in her hand, its brass plunger pushed to empty.
“There now,” she cooed. “You’re all right.”
Sounds went in and out of focus. The points of light in the room flared until it seemed Talis was inside one of the glowing pumpkins instead of a dark chamber. But Illiya was right. She was breathing. Her throat still burned, but it was with the pressure of a restrained battle cry.
Talis held a hand out and looked at it. Small, but capable of anything.
“What did you give me?” Her voice was bold. Tempered steel.
“Courage,” said Onaya Bone. “To face what comes next.”
“What comes next?” Talis asked.
“An armada of aliens waits in the darkness beyond Peridot’s atmosphere. They are armed with the power they stole from Silus Cutter. We must be ready.”
Talis was ready. Ready for anything. She itched to run. But not away, not anymore. She climbed to her feet, which were steady again.
The room felt cool, but she was warm. Somewhere a memory tickled her, of Illiya’s carefully arranged case of pharmaceutical interrogation aids. The brightly colored vials nestled in silk-lined trays. The thirsty needles, waiting to be filled. A part of her brain that was keeping carefully out of the way told her she was drugged. That it would wear off, and she would again be overwhelmed by the devastation. But the rest of her mind stifled the thought, to hear what she would be commanded to do.
“Give me purpose, Onaya Bone.”
“There is a power on this planet beyond alchemy,” said the goddess. It seemed her fatigue was gone. She had let her hair down, and it lifted in some unseen wind and whipped about her head and shoulders. “Nexus is made of such power. The ring you retrieved also contained it. It is this energy the aliens wish to harvest.”
“I knew it wasn’t just some ugly ancient artifact.” Talis spoke with confidence. Dropped the formalities of addressing the goddess. There was no need to be humble any longer. Her blood thrummed in her ears. A call to battle, beat on the drum of her warrior’s heart.
“Certainly not,” Onaya Bone said. Leather armor began to coalesce on her shoulders, neck, and collarbone, as if called out of thin air. “Lindent Vein’s ring is one of five, each filled at the very instant the Cataclysm released all the energies of the planet. We alchemists crafted Nexus with the remainder of this power to make Peridot habitable again. Its power shields us from direct attack, but we cannot wield it against the Yu’Nyun without risking the planet’s integrity.
“The rings’ power, however, is mobile. Stronger, and it can be unleashed. By combining the strength of all five rings, we will create a weapon that can turn away the alien invasion and ensure Peridot’s safety against any other threats that find their way to our world.”
Illiya took hold of Talis’s right hand, and Talis watched eagerly as the high priestess produced a small tool with an intricate metal design welded to one end. She depressed the flat end of it with her thumb, and in
