Alara Unbroken - Doug Beyer [44]
“Enough,” said Ajani. “I don’t want to hear any more excuses. I want to hear facts. I want to hear what you know about the murder.”
“Listen. Put me down and we’ll talk all you want about—”
“Better tell me what I want to hear, now. My arms are getting tired, and Jazal isn’t here to guide my morals.”
Tenoch’s tunic tore, dropping him a crucial few inches.
“I was warned!” Tenoch yelped. “Someone … Someone told me to stay far away from the village that night. But I ignored them. I should have run away …”
“Who was it?” Ajani roared. He jerked on Tenoch’s clothing, and it tore another few inches.
“I—”
“Tell me, Tenoch, or I’ll let you fall, as you deserve to.”
“My mother!” squeaked Tenoch. “Don’t drop me. Mother knew something was coming, she told me. But she didn’t plan it, I know it! She couldn’t have. It was something else. She didn’t do it, I swear, Ajani! She just told me to get away, and told me it was going to be my time to lead the pride. Please, let me go, I don’t know anything else.”
Fire burned in Ajani’s arms. The feeling spread throughout his mind. “Oh, I’ll let you go, all right.”
Tenoch felt so heavy. Ajani’s muscles quivered. His fingers longed to let go, so that Tenoch would slip out of his hands and fall away, out of the pride and out of his life. Tenoch had been a burden on the pride his whole life, and was clearly the benefactor of Jazal’s death. He was in Ajani’s debt. It would be so easy just to drop him. So he did.
As Ajani dropped Tenoch off the cliff, Tenoch’s claw grabbed onto Ajani’s arm and pulled him down. Tenoch’s weight yanked Ajani off his feet and pulled him over the edge along with the other nacatl. The two tumbled in space for a sickening moment, until Tenoch’s jerkin caught on the cliff’s edge. Ajani caught Tenoch’s leg, and swung around, slamming into the cliffside. Pebbles dropped into the cloud-jungle whiteness below.
“Tenoch … Do you have a good hold?” Ajani said, speaking carefully and trying not to budge.
“Let go of my foot,” Tenoch managed. He twitched his leg.
“Tenoch, stop. I can help us, but you have to hold on tight, and don’t move.” Ajani said.
“I’m losing my grip. I’m going to fall,” said Tenoch.
“Just hold on. If I can just concentrate, I can—”
“Good riddance,” said Tenoch, and kicked hard with the leg that Ajani was holding onto.
Ajani’s fingers slipped, and he fell.
BANT
Elspeth Tirel was a planeswalker with no desire to planeswalk.
Her own world was a place of nightmarish suffering. Even as a child, she had tried to fight back against the evils there. What she could not fight, she endured. When she could no longer endure, she broke. And when she broke, her planeswalker spark ignited, giving her the gift she desperately needed—the means to leave, never to return.
An infinity of worlds were at her disposal, yet she chose quickly. She had only visited a few planes when she came upon Bant, but arriving there, still in her youth, she immediately knew she was home. No orphan had ever been so happy.
Life made sense on Bant. The fields and olive orchards were sun-soaked and serene. The sky held the promise of the watchful eyes of angels. The sea lapped at the shores of the five noble nations. On Bant she could leave her planeswalker nature behind, forget that there ever were any other planes, and revel in the world’s embrace.
She never spoke of the existence of other worlds to anyone. It was her private gesture of gratitude to her adopted home: to maintain its innocence. Bant was paradise; there was no need to expose its denizens to the strife and torture that abounded beyond its borders. She need only live her life as a young girl, and pursue her new passion: knighthood.
Elspeth found that she took it naturally. As she unsheathed her Valeron-crafted steel, it felt good in her hands; the leather of the hilt had indented in all the right places to mold around her