The Core by Peter V. Brett
There were emotions, as well, but these Renna had a name for.
Evil. It saturated her. Penetrated her. Contaminated her.
Renna fell to the floor—or rather, she felt the floor strike her, but then it was lost in the maelstrom. She sloshed up, black ichor and charcoal gelatin jiggling in the bile in front of her face. She could not think, could not feel her body, had no idea if she were still breathing. Everything was pain and cacophony, skin to soul. Her vision bounced and vibrated, and she realized she was convulsing.
Then it all went black.
—
“She cannot be trusted, Par’chin!”
“None of us can be trusted,” Arlen said. “But like you said, ent no one to take our places.”
Cold water splashed Renna’s face, and she sat up with a jolt. Arlen stood over her with a pail, scowling. Behind him, Jardir had his spear at the ready, but he was not looking for outside threats.
He was pointing it at her.
Renna shivered. She tried to look around but everything was still alive in wardsight, the creatures too small to see with the naked eye glittering in the air. It was dizzying, and she put a hand out to steady herself.
“Easy now.” Arlen knelt at her side, steadying her with one hand as he ladled water from the pail and brought it to her lips. “That was real stupid, what you done.”
There was life in the water, too. So clear she could not believe she had never noticed it before. Millions of tiny organisms. She could feel them wriggling in her mouth and coughed, spattering Arlen. “Had to be done.”
“Din’t.” Arlen wiped water from his eye. “Have our plan.”
“Plan’s crazy, and you know it,” Renna said. “Told me yourself it was time for other ideas. Had one.”
“Meant ones less crazy than mine,” Arlen said.
“You’re the one overthinks everything,” Renna said. “Rest of us just do what feels right.”
“Overthinkin’s kept me alive,” Arlen said. “Doin’ what feels right lands you in hot water.”
Renna looked at him, seeing into his aura as never before. “Remind me again, who the first person to eat demon was?”
“Ay, and that’s worked out great,” Arlen said.
“Got you where you are today,” Renna said. “Mister Overthought now, but the Arlen Bales I knew back in the Brook was reckless.”
Arlen rubbed his face into a palm. “Might not be in this fix, I wern’t so reckless.”
“Maybe,” Renna conceded. “Or maybe we just might not have as good a chance to set it right.”
“It is pointless to argue,” Jardir said. Renna looked at him, and could see one of the gemstones on his crown glowing brighter than the rest as he stared into her aura, trying to decide if the demon’s mind had corrupted her in some way.
Core if I know, she thought. She felt like herself in some ways, but in others she was irrevocably changed.
Yet after a moment, Jardir seemed satisfied. He raised the point of his spear. “What did you see, Renna vah Harl? Your aura is…”
“Chaos,” Arlen finished.
“Saw everythin’,” Renna said. “And nothin’. Like everyone in the Hollow clustered in the Corelings’ Graveyard, all talkin’ at once. Too much to make out. Wasn’t no sense to it.”
Arlen nodded. “Was like that for me, when I touched that demon prince’s mind. But I remembered a few things. Things that might mean winnin’ and not losin’. There’s anythin’ you can recall—”
“Ent,” Renna said. “Leastways, not yet. Need time.”
“Time is the one thing we lack,” Jardir said. “The darkest hours are already passed. If we do not release Alagai Ka and enter the Mouth of the Abyss, we will need to wait out the day here, and lose any advantage of surprise.”
Renna pushed her feet under her and stood, breathing in rhythm to center herself. “Put it together on the way. Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 26
THE DARK BELOW
334 AR
Jardir embraced his doubts one by one as he left the Par’chin and his jiwah in the cave. Bad enough the woman carried an unborn child into the abyss, but she was unstable, as well. Unpredictable. Impulsive. Lacking judgment.
But what was he, to have agreed to this plan? To be led down into the abyss by Alagai Ka himself? The daughter of Harl was powerful. Fearless. Sacrificing her life and the life of her child in the First War. She was not Krasian, but she was Evejan in her heart. He shamed himself by doubting her.
Shanvah stood guard over Alagai Ka’s prison, just outside the cave mouth. Her father was still chained to the bench, the demon king locked behind warded steel, but Shanvah was alert, spear and shield at the ready, scanning for threats—external and from within.
“Deliverer.” She bowed when he drew close. “Is the daughter of Harl well?”
“It was foolish of her to risk herself by consuming the princeling’s mind,” Jardir said, “but she will recover, Everam willing.”
“Did it…work?” Shanvah asked. “Does she have the demon’s memories?”
Jardir shook his head. “It appears not. We will continue with our original plan. Now.”
“Inevera.” Shanvah sheathed her spear and leapt lightly onto the bench, backing the wagon up to the cave mouth. She untethered the horses and removed their traces. The demon’s prison could not go down into the abyss with them, and so it was time to set the animals free.
Jardir looked at the stallions, wondering if setting them free was sending them to their deaths. There were wards cut into their hooves, and the sun would rise in a few hours. Most of the demons in the area were dead, killed by the mind demon’s psychic scream. The horses had a better chance to survive the coming days than Jardir and his companions did.
Jardir raised his spear, tracing wards in the air over the creatures. The magic clung to the horses, revitalizing them one last time even as it shielded them from alagai talons. The magic would fade with dawn, but for the remainder of the night they would be protected.
The stallions lifted their heads, alert once more. “Everam watch over you, noble steeds,” Jardir said. “I name you Strength and Fortitude. If I live to tell of this journey, your names will not be forgotten in the holy verse.”
He drew another warding in the air, setting off a harmless bang and flash that sent the stallions galloping down the ancient road.
Jardir moved to Shanjat, unlocking the chain that secured him to the wagon bench. Shanjat did not react, staring as blankly as the horses had. Jardir pulled his brother-in-law down, throwing him over one shoulder like a practice dummy.
The son of Jeph and daughter of Harl were waiting with Shanvah as he set Shanjat on his knees by the wagon door.
My sister’s husband, Jardir thought. Who trained and fought beside me since Hannu Pash. And I lay him on his knees for Alagai Ka.
He looked down at his true friend. I swear on Everam’s light and my hope of Heaven, brother. When the time is right, Alagai Ka will pay for what he has done to you.
With that, Jardir unlocked the wagon door and pulled it open. The demon lay in the center, staring at him with those huge, alien eyes. He strode into the circle and unchained the creature, then gripped the demon by the throat and dragged it hissing out of the circle. He tossed it from the wagon to land unceremoniously by Shanjat.
He would allow the creature its life for the good of Ala, but it deserved no dignity.
Alagai Ka made no pretense this time, taking control of Shanjat immediately. The warrior opened his robe, securing the demon underneath the cloth on his back.
The two, demon and host, stared at the body of the slain mind, its skull opened and scooped like a melon. Then they turned to Renna.
“Nice night,” the daughter of Harl said, sucking ichor from her fingers.
Shanjat seemed to relax, smiling. “Your hatchling will be strong, if by some chance it survives. More akin to my kind than its weak ancestry.”
Renna’s aura flared so hot Jardir ha
Shanjat looked at her. “Do it. Kill me if you dare. If your ploy had worked and your primitive brain been able to comprehend the vastness of my get’s mind, you would have no need of me, and the Heir would have killed me as I lay helpless.”
Shanjat’s lips curled into a smile. “But you do, don’t you, Hunter? To kill me is to doom your own kind.”
“Maybe,” Renna said. “But mention my babe one more time, and you’ll be dead long before my ‘kind.’ ”
She meant every word. Jardir could see it in her aura. He feared she might lose control and doom their plan, but it was good for Alagai Ka to fear them. If the demon king began to feel secure, he would prove increasingly difficult to control.
If they even controlled him now.
“Your life only has value as long as you are of use to us, Prince of Lies,” Jardir said. “The Evejah tells us Kaji’s armies marched for three times seven days to reach the abyss. Is it so?”
“To reach the abyss?” The demon laughed with Shanjat’s throat. “Nie’s abyss is a fantasy created to motivate drones. There is no such place.”
Jardir bristled at the smug smile—had to restrain himself from killing the vile creature once and for all. It was baiting them, whispering truths that sounded like lies, and lies that rang of truth. Even without looking into their minds, the demon had an uncanny knack for manipulating their emotions. It would seek to confuse them, to get them to lower their guard. They must be vigilant.
“How long a walk to your hive?” the Par’chin asked.
“A turning, perhaps,” Shanjat said, winking at Jardir. “We travel deeper than Kavri and his dogs.”
Shanjat looked at him expectantly, but Jardir only smiled.
“And so did Kaji
Unleash his war dogs
Driving evil to Sharum spears
Like foxes before the hunter.”
“You think to insult me, demon?” Jardir asked. “To insult my people? Kaji’s dogs drove your kind back underground like cattle.”
“Scared, even if he don’t admit it,” Renna said. “Ent every day someone ets your son.”
Shanjat laughed again. “An unexpected boon, to be ridden of my strongest rival. I thank you for that.”
“He one of the ones that came to Anoch Sun?” the Par’chin asked.
Shanjat shook his head just as he had in life. It was unnerving. “No. He was one of two left in the mind court powerful enough to refuse my summons.”
“That is nine, including you,” Jardir said.
“We killed three in Anoch Sun,” Shanvah noted.
“And captured Alagai Ka,” Jardir said.
“This’un makes five.” Renna kicked the corpse of the demon princeling. “Plus the four we killed last summer.”
“Had over a dozen minds, before this all started,” the Par’chin said. “How many you got now? Four?”
“Four mature enough to survive a mating without being eaten alive when it is done.” Shanjat’s smile spread. “Along with juvenile princelings enough to lay waste to your Free Cities. They will scatter, striking where your people least suspect, building new hives and using drones to herd your kind underground like cattle to feed their hatchling queens.”
“Then why was the strongest of them here, far from any human city?” Jardir asked.
Shanjat looked at him as if he were a fool. It was a look Jardir had seen his brother make many times, but never in his direction. “There is power here. My get would have let his younger brothers fight over your territories, then taken spoils from them all when their forces were sufficiently weakened.”
“How do you know that?” Renna asked.
“Because I have done it many times over the millennia,” Shanjat said.
“Some other mind gonna try and claim the vent now?” the Par’chin asked.
“When they realize it is unguarded, certainly,” Shanjat said, “but it is unlikely they will encroach upon their elder brother’s territory enough to discover it soon.”
“When will they attack?” Jardir asked.
Shanjat threw back his head to laugh. “If my get was here, they already have! Krasia. Thesa.” He turned to look at Renna. “Perhaps even your Tibbet’s Brook. It is isolated, with so many deliciously empty minds to feast upon.”
Renna bared her teeth, but she held her tongue, and her ground.
The Par’chin wavered. “Still dark. I could skate back…”
“And do what, Par’chin?” Jardir asked. “Warn them of an attack that has already come? Abandon our mission to fight lesser princelings?”
“Don’t know,” the Par’chin said. “Might be somethin’ I can do.”
“Warned ’em best we could,” Renna said. “Ent this what you’re always preachin’? Save yourselves?”
The Par’chin blew out a breath. “Ent ever been one to stand by when trouble comes callin’.”
“It would be unwise for you to enter the between-state here in any case,” Shanjat said. “Even I take care when dissipating near such currents.”
“Lose yourself,” the Par’chin said.
“There is no return from the Core,” Shanjat said. “Not even for my kind.”
The Par’chin turned on Shanjat. “Why’re you so chatty, all a sudden? Why tell us about the attacks at all?”
Shanjat drew a deep, mocking breath through his nostrils. “For the exquisite scent of despair it imprints on you.” The Par’chin’s hand closed into a fist, but Shanjat wasn’t finished. “And to give you hope.”
“Hope?” Jardir asked. “What do the creatures of Nie know of hope?”
“We know how you apes treasure it,” Shanjat said. “How you cling to it. Kill for it. How it cuts you, when snatched away.”
“And is this your plan?” Jardir asked. “To dangle hope like a string to a cat, then snatch it away?”
“Of course,” Shanjat said.
“What hope can you dangle,” Jardir asked, “now that you have revealed your ploy? Now that you have told us war has begun upon our homes?”
“The hope that comes from knowing the mind court is empty while my get make war on your homes,” Shanjat said.
Jardir stiffened. If true, it meant their mission might actually succeed. If their people could hold back the alagai for another moon—two, at the most—they had a chance to cripple the hive once and for all.
But the demon already promised the hope would be snatched away. Was the claim a lie, or was there more Alagai Ka was not telling them?
Likely, it was both.
“The time for second guesses is past.” Jardir went to the wagon, pulling his pack from the storage compartment. Shanvah was already wearing hers. “If we walk the road to the abyss, let us be upon it.”
—
Jardir brought up the rear, watching Alagai Ka’s back. Even with his hands chained to his waist, Shanjat picked his way down the tunnel slope with familiar nimbleness. It was a reminder that the demon had more than possession of his brother-in-law’s body. It had all the skills and knowledge the man had in life.
Shanjat was a very dangerous man.
Renna and Shanvah walked to either side of the demon, eyes watching in periphery. The Par’chin was ahead out of sight, scouting the path.
Jardir lost track of time in the lightless tunnels. They had not rested, but with magic to sustain them, they might have been traveling days for all he could tell.
The path to the abyss was not what he expected. There was life even here, far from the holy sun. They had encountered no demons yet, but the damp soil teemed with insects, and other creatures too small to see with the naked eye lit up in his crownsight. There were underground streams full of fish, moss and lichen on the walls. Lizards. Salamanders. Frogs.
And sometimes,
The tunnel ended at the base of the slope, coming to a ledge that opened on a chasm so vast they could not see the other side. The Par’chin waited at its edge, leaning against a pitted stone archway of Krasian design.
“Bridge collapsed.”
“We will need to climb down to the cavern floor, and back up the far side,” Shanjat said. “This drone will need all his limbs to manage it.”
Jardir kept one eye on the prisoner as he moved to stand by the Par’chin. Together they stared out over the chasm. At the edge of his crownsight was a crumbling bridge support.
“I could fly across,” Jardir said.
“Maybe, but Ren and I shouldn’t,” the Par’chin said. “Demon’s right. Call of the Core’s gotten stronger, deeper we go. Need to stay solid, much as we can.” He squinted at the distant bridge support. “Too far to jump, even with a boost.”
“I could ferry us,” Jardir said.
“Demon, too?” the Par’chin asked. “Gonna get that close, away from backup, when you don’t have to?”
“So we climb,” Jardir said.
Renna joined them as they peered over the edge, the cavern floor lost in the haze of magic. “Need a meal and a rest, if we’re gonna unchain Shanjat’s hands for him to climb down that.” She spat over the edge, watching the spittle vanish silently into the haze. “ ’Less we want to just kick him over and have done.”
Jardir looked again at Shanjat. His fiercest lieutenant. A man whose prowess in the Maze was so great, Jardir gave his own sister for him to wed. How many times had he seen Shanjat kill with bare hands alone?
“Wise words,” he said. “My warrior’s heart wants nothing but to press on, but we must not let hunger and fatigue cause our vigilance over Alagai Ka to wane. It is too easy in this lightless world to forget the passage of time.”
“Ent no clock as reliable as my stomach these days.” Renna patted a belly that grew rounder by the day.
They gathered in the hollow of the tunnel mouth. The Par’chin and his jiwah striding over to Shanjat.