The Winds of Khalakovo - Bradley P. Beaulieu [160]
As she considers moving closer to the swirl of light, she hears the voices once more. She is surprised, however, to feel the mind of her mother.
Daughter, is that you?
Her first instinct is to hide, but she does not know how to do such a thing, and after thinking about it for a moment it seems cowardly.
It is I, she says.
The feeling of her mother intensifies, and as it does, so do four other presences. She has not spoken with any of them in some time, but she knows them to be the other Matri, the ones currently aligned against Khalakovo: Dhalingrad, Khazabyirsk, Nodhvyansk, and Bolgravya. She wonders why their presences feel so near when Saphia and the other Matri might be able to sense them. But then she feels a disturbance in the aether, an echo of life crossing over. It feels distant, but only because her mind is so focused on the rift. As she expands to encompass more of the island, she feels them. Deaths. Many of them. It is centered on Volgorod’s eyrie, but there is more coming from Radiskoye.
It can mean only one thing: her father has lost his patience and the blockade has progressed to all-out war.
Child, where are you? A moment later, she feels her mother’s surprise—she knows that Atiana lies within the lake in Iramanshah. What are you doing there?
She debates whether to reveal her true purpose, but in the end she realizes it would do more harm than good. Whether she likes it or not, Mother is too loyal to Father, and the chance that she would betray her confidence is too great.
She portrays a sense of indignance that she hopes is enough to fool her mother. I have been trying to find a way to reach you since I left Radiskoye.
She feels a probing as her mother attempts to read the truth in her thoughts, but Atiana is not so young as she once was. She is able to harden the walls around her, enough to make her mother back away.
Remain where you are, was her mother’s terse reply.
Her presence recedes. The others remain, little more than watchdogs ready to bark.
She no longer cares. She attempts to flee, to return to her form, but the Matri stand in her way. They hold her in place, preventing her from moving.
Release me, she shouts, but they do not listen.
The time is long past, Bolgravya says, for you to be chained.
This can mean only one thing: someone will be sent to Iramanshah to fetch her. She tries to widen her awareness, but the Matri push back. They tighten their grip. They press.
Nyet, Atiana realizes. It is not the Matri. It is something in Iramanshah...
Her shell. Her body, floating in the lake...
Something is wrong.
She attempts to return, but there is a presence that surrounds her. It is cold, fluid. As she tries to pin it down, to understand it, it slips free, always pressing, always bearing down.
She cannot breathe.
The air releases from her lungs, and she finds herself unable to draw even the smallest of breaths through the simple wooden tube that touches her lips.
She can feel her body though she still rides the currents, and she marvels at the feeling of being in both worlds at once. It is in this moment that she realizes that the veil to Adhiya has been pulled aside.
It is a glimpse of pure beauty.
Pure pain.
Pure madness.
She knows that a hezhan has found her. It preys upon her as the vanahezhan preyed upon the babe.
She rails against it. Thrashing in her terror.
And she wakes.
Seeing, towering above her, the liquid form of a jalahezhan.
CHAPTER 49
Atiana fell back into the water.
Her skin was numb, her muscles slow to respond, but her fear helped her to put distance between her and the beast.
As she did, she could still feel