Chapter XV, Part 1

  The Barrier Destroyed

  In which shadows are cleansed from the fortress

  “Whatever is above us outside is not sunlight,” Edana began. “We know because the Shadow Fangs persist between the outer and inner walls, and surround the fortress. The light of the heavens is supposed to destroy them. Not fire, not glowlights, but sunlight, moonlight, and starlight. Alternatively—the Shadow Fangs have grown powerful enough that they cannot be destroyed by celestial light. However, I doubt this. From what I know, if they were so powerful, they would have begun hunting for us, and they haven’t. They may still be weak enough to be bound to their territories.”

  Back in the warehouse, she once again uncovered the tall moonbow mirrors, this time for the benefit of all the wayfarers who came with her to Zanbil.

  With some effort, Tregarde lifted up one of the mirrors from its slot in the crate. As it was stored on its side, the first thing everyone saw was the heavy gold frame, styled as three long-stemmed lotus blossoms.

  “By Pamphilos and Puabi, those are beautiful,” Alia marveled. The sea dragon and dryad taught humanity how to use tools and craft beautiful works.

  “Aren’t they indeed,” Bessa agreed. “Let us hope they’re still intact when we finish our mission. We’re going to do this like Deukalion at Meli?eia,” she said, referring to an ancient battle in which the famed general blinded his enemies with magnificent shimmering mirrors.

  When Alia and Sheridan looked blankly at her in reply, Bessa quickly filled them in on Pelasgian history.

  “Thus we’ll clear the field so only the most dangerous remain,” Alia said.

  Earlier Selàna had explained to them what Tha?s said to her, of how the fortress barrier came to be erected. “Trapped in a living death,” she had said of the sacrificial victims. “Trapped just before their hearts stopped. That is a kind of timing that troubles me, because how well-practiced were the Zanbellians at the death arts that they could do such a thing precisely as intended? Without having to, um, practice? Getting it right on the first try? Without needing to select another victim?”

  In the present moment, Tregarde carefully lowered the mirror back into its place in the crate. “What you speak of is not a spell for an inexperienced sorcerer or death priest. And, all of this took place during the Age of Iniquity. Such knowledge and its practitioners may have been easy to come by in those days. What would worry me would be if that knowledge were passed on.” He eyed Selàna’s cuffs and smiled wryly. “Ironically, you may be the only one of us safe, because you’ve got those cuffs.”

  Silver light flashed as Edana raised her arm, revealing the silver bracelet on her own magic. The silver bracelets her artisans made, imbued with the blessings of the Sower’s priests against death powers.

  “Bessa has one, too,” she said. “Would that I had brought more. But I have the recipe for the elixir we took against the death wind at Amavand’s palace. So we are not utterly defenseless. What I want to know is whether or not the anchor souls used to create the barrier can do anything specific to harm us. Can they interfere if we destroy the last of the Shadow Fangs?”

  Alia pointed to Selena’s bottle of rock crystal. “Until now, I didn’t know it was possible for a Sending to be tangible. The nymph Tha?s gave Selàna her tears through a Sending. It may be she was able to do that because she’s divine herself, but I can’t be sure. The reason it matters is that the trapped souls may be able to perform Sendings of their own. Possibly they may only frighten us, but I wonder if they have some means of protecting themselves.”

  While they had spoken, Sheridan had gone over to examine a set of chains suspending assorted bronze bells and bronze sculptures from the ceiling. Though they looked delicate, they had proved to have the strength to hold up heavy objects for several centuries. He tugged on one of the sculptures, a large leaf-shaped fixture cast in hepatizon.

  The chain held fast.

  Edana eyed the experiment with interest. Chains with such strength would suit her purposes quite well.

  “Wait,” said Sheridan. “Why would they protect themselves? They were conscripted, weren’t they? Shouldn’t they welcome us liberating them from their living death? Shouldn’t they help us free them?”

  “Were it so, young acolyte, that would negate the point of the spell,” Tregarde pointed out. “If they could call for help, or help those who want to help them, then they would no longer be able to do their office. They can’t be allowed to go off duty. The ones who imprisoned them would have compelled them to defend their territory.” He paused, and grimaced. “Think like one who fights dirty. If you’re the type to set a spell like this, you might be the type to make traps that would turn the would-be liberators into mortar for your shield. What was it you said, Bessa, about the guardians of your family’s tomb?”

  Bessa shuddered. “Ugh. You’re right, the Conservationists wouldn’t have made it possible to get too close to wherever their victims are trapped. Not without us having to join their number ourselves.” She turned to Selàna and asked, “What did the naiad say we should do to free them?”

  “Only that her tears would unbind the seals that trap the victims. But I have my cuffs. And you and Edana have your bracelets, and we can make the elixir Edana mentioned. We aren’t helpless. And I volunteer to test it out for myself.”

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  “Cease this foolishness,” Edana snapped. “You’re not a lone wolf here, and your life is not solely your own. Should anything happen to you, I will have to look your mother in the eye and explain why. I shall not repay her lovingkindness with news of your death. We have everything we need to do this together. So let’s do this.”

  They began with mundane mirrors first. These were backed only by silver rather than moonbow steel. Edana was concerned that the Shadow Fangs might truly be able to leave their territory.

  “We don’t want to give them time to mount a counter defense, or hide, or whatever they might do. Let’s hit them all at once,” she said.

  Her first idea was to suspend the mirrors over the sides of the western inner wall. However, while she and Bessa had spent time searching for the mirrors, and Alia and Selàna had spent time cleaning the Restorer’s temple, Tregarde and Sheridan had meanwhile explored the towers of the western inner wall, and the western outer wall.

  “The towers all have windows that face the enclosure between the walls. We can place a few in those,” Tregarde explained. “The other mirrors we’ll put on top of the walls.”

  Following the sorcerer’s instructions, the group spent the better part of the day arranging the silver mirrors to ensure maximum light bounce. To make sure the mirrors did not fall down from the flat crenellations in the battlement, they used the chains Sheridan had found in the warehouse to anchor them to torches affixed to the merlons in the battlements. Their confidence in the chains came from closer examination, which revealed the chains were not ordinary metal. Their opalescence signaled they, too, were made of moonbow steel, which had prompted Bessa to wonder how a floating city came to have so much of the precious metal.

  “Mama said the Zanbellians knew how to capture the light of the lunar rainbow,” Selàna replied.

  “Knowledge worth acquiring,” Bessa mused. “Later, you must try and see if you can find any scrolls that mention how it’s done.”

  Because the strange light of the “sky” never waned, they did not have to rush. The group even had time to test Edana’s observation about the sky’s light coming from a source other than the heavens: though the mirrors directed beams of light into the enclosure, the shadows yet remained.

  “Where are we then, if we see light that’s not from the sun?” Sheridan wondered aloud. He drummed his fingers against the stone crenel of the battlements as he and Edana looked down at the enclosure between the inner and outer walls of the fortress.

  Nearly as tall as he was, the silver mirror would have been valuable in any other context, fetching a handsome sum in an open market. But on the inner wall of the fortress it was of no use, except to let them test how best to position the mirrors. Wails, though faint, made their way to their ears from the distant grounds below.

  Edana had considered this matter already, and thus she answered, “Wherever we are, I think the light is independent of the shield barrier over the fortress. After everything we’ve seen the Conservationists do this far, I think it’s unlikely they would have allowed anyone beneath this barrier to enjoy light.”

  She took hold of the chain draped a grey sheet over the mirror. Now that it had proved useless at killing Shadow Fangs, she saw no reason to keep the silver mirror uncovered. Next to it stood the moonbow mirror, wrapped in fine white linen.

  “Meaning what?” Sheridan asked.

  Together, they lifted the ordinary mirror out of the crenel, setting it behind the nearest merlon. Then they began raising the moonbow-steel mirror to position it where the ordinary mirror once stood.

  “Meaning they would have left the people here in darkness. It would fit the theme: darkness to go with the terror and despair they were sowing. They took away the holy symbols, they deconsecrated their temples, they poisoned the wells. Why would they allow for those who remained to have the comfort of light, especially when they let loose the Shadow Fangs to prey upon them?”

  Already having looped a chain around the long lotus “stems” that made up the mirror’s frame, Edana now looped affixed the chain to the torch fixture inside the nearest merlon. She tugged and tested it to make sure it would hold fast. From his end, Sheridan was doing the same thing.

  She continued, “Granted, the Shadow Fangs sow darkness, but why was there any light to obscure in the first place? No, it makes more sense if the light is coming from outside the barrier. We’ll find out when we bring down the ones here. Ready?” Edana gripped the cloth covering the mirror, preparing to pull it down.

  Somewhere in his searching through the fortress Sheridan had found a ram’s horn. Having tested it earlier, they knew the sound of the horn would carry. With the others in their designated stations, and all of the moonbow mirrors now in place, they could begin.

  Keeping her hands steady on the cloth, Edana awaited Sheridan. He unhooked the long, twisting ram’s horn attached to his belt and brought it to his mouth.

  Echoes reverberated throughout the fortress as the horn’s sounding came to them, scattered though they were. Immediately Edana gave the fabric in her hands a fierce yank, pulling it down from the mirror.

  Stationed as she was behind the merlon, she couldn’t see the beams of light projecting into the western enclosure. But within three beats of her heart she heard ghastly, preternatural screams from down below. Exultation surged through her veins, speeding her steps as she dashed to the nearest empty crenel.

  It was working! The mirrors were working!

  Just in time, she watched as she shadows evaporated. Golden light vaporized black shadows, and howls of rage and pain turned to a joyful chorus. Tears stung her eyes at this proof of so many souls devoured and trapped by the shadow crocodiles. But rage also sparked in her, at the injustice of what had happened to them. So many centuries removed from the cruel fate imposed upon them meant she could not avenge them as she wished.

  “Their descendants are innocent,” she murmured to herself.

  Eager though she was to enter the Royal Ward, she feared what sort of people she would find there. They hadn’t seen fit to destroy the fortress barrier. They did not trouble themselves to free the souls from within the Soul Devourers. While they hadn’t themselves brought the Shadow Fangs to the fortress, they hadn’t done anything to eliminate them, either.

  This thought was on her mind when she regrouped with the others in the largest tower of the inner western wall.

  “Shall we look for the staff now?” Selàna asked. In a pouch at her waist she kept the crystal bottle of naiad’s tears. She hefted the pouch in her hands, as if to make sure it was there.

  Undoubtedly the burden the naiad had lain upon her weighed on her mind. However, on the way to the tower Edana could not help but stare into the western enclosure. In what may have been a green and beautiful field at one time, was now an open grave. Bodies upon bodies lay scattered and heaped up on grounds below.

  “No,” Edana said firmly. “First we free the others. Then we attend to what’s left of the dead.”