Since his training in the monastery, he had become used to the different music of the elements. Fire remained the easiest for him to discern, but years of training had unlocked all four elements to various degrees.
He’d never heard anything like this.
The gate sang, a chorus of elements echoing with untold power. The intensity of it rolled over him, a pressure he barely understood. Fire, stone, water, and air joined, the notes of each forming complex chords, the joining of the elements something far sweeter than any one alone.
Brandt let go of the diamond and the song vanished. He was sprawled on the ground, panting with the effort of simply listening to the gate.
What was it?
Without the diamond, he sensed next to nothing. He heard the soft song of fire emanating from the two soulwalkers in front of him, and if he focused, he could feel the lower hum of rock below that. But that was all.
If he thought he had the strength to fight the soulwalkers on his own, he would have let the diamond lie next to him, untouched. But he lacked confidence. He didn’t even have the strength to move.
Brandt reached out and clasped the diamond again. With a deep breath, he funneled his affinity through the stone.
As before, the chamber pressed against his senses.
This time, Brandt was better prepared. He didn’t try to fight the power, but instead allow himself to be carried away by it.
As he did, more details revealed themselves. Brandt felt the soulwalkers, a combination of elements with a new song laid on top of them. A fifth element.
A soul.
He sensed faint tendrils extending from the soulwalkers to the gate. They were tying themselves to the object in a ritual he couldn’t begin to guess at.
There was something else, as well. As Brandt continued to ride the currents, he understood these underground passages better. They had been formed with the aid of the gate, and they weren’t just passages of stone. All the elements had played some role in their construction. He couldn’t say how he knew, but he was certain that even if the mountains themselves collapsed, these structures would remain.
The gate had made the passages immortal.
Brandt focused on the soulwalkers. Even though the currents of power from the gate threatened to overwhelm him, he believed he could use his affinity.
Just as he had with Kye, Brandt reached out and called for the fire from one of the soulwalkers. He found the element and pulled.
For a heartbeat, the process went as it should. Someplace far away, where his physical body resided, he could feel the heat building within him, providing comfort as he bled out on the cold stone.
Then it stopped. He pulled, as though he pulled on a stuck climbing rope. But nothing gave. No matter how great his effort, he could pull no more. Another force prevented his.
Then he felt tendrils reaching out toward him, the same way the soulwalkers were reaching toward the gate. In this place, he wasn’t sure how to defend himself. He imagined slapping one away, but it wrapped around him.
Exhaustion crashed over him. He had failed. He’d come all this way to die just a few paces away from his goal.
As a last ditch effort, he pushed some of the fire he’d stolen at the tendril. It burned away from his arm.
And he suddenly felt encouraged. He was still tired, sore, and dying, but the exhaustion and despair was gone.
The tendril.
He was fighting against soulwalkers, owners of the same techniques that had caused him to lose his memory. One of the soulwalkers was trying to compel him to give up.
More strands of power reached toward him, more aggressive than the first. He sent fire toward them, burning them up. More came, and faster. Whenever one so much as brushed against him he felt that same overwhelming despair.
Soul met fire, the two elements giving and losing territory as quick as thought. Brandt clutched the diamond, pulling heat through it. If he had to rely on his own strength alone, he would have lost after the first exchange.
But even with his borrowed strength, Brandt was losing ground. The tendrils whipped and snapped ever closer. As fast as he burned one, another two took its place. How could the soulwalker be so strong?
Brandt had more to give, but his skill didn’t match the soulwalker’s. Eventually the tendrils encircled him. Acting through a will that wasn’t his own, Brandt broke his connection with the diamond. He still held it, but he felt no desire to channel his affinity through it.
His connection broken, Brandt found himself back within his dying body, unable to move.
He didn’t want to, either. This task had always been hopeless. Again, he had brought a group of warriors to their deaths. He welcomed his next trip to the gate. Even death was better than he deserved.
As he lay there, wallowing in self-pity, he watched as one of the soulwalkers opened her eyes and stood up. It wasn’t the same soulwalker that held him tightly in her grip. That one was the slightly younger woman, still kneeling with her eyes closed.
The elder soulwalker stepped toward the gate, her stride purposeful. She stopped less than a pace away. Then she turned to Brandt and smiled, a grin as malicious as any he’d ever seen. The soulwalker gloated for a moment, then reached out and touched the gate.
The blue stone flared, brightening until the light was almost pure white. Despite the intensity, Brandt found that he had no problem watching. The light didn’t hurt his eyes, although it seemed as though he stared into the sun itself.
Now he couldn’t be sure if the despair he felt was the soulwalker’s or his. The sense of failure he felt moments before had become true.
The Lolani soulwalker had completed her mission.
66
Alena couldn’t run. She kept herself light, just to ensure she remained upright, but her control over her internal energies was fading.
