The tendril holding Maya’s arm peeled back, opening like a flower. She hit the ground in a crouch, gasping for breath, right shoulder screaming with pain.
“Nononono,” the Jaedia-thing snarled. Her flesh-tentacles writhed wildly. “I am in control. I am always in control. I—”
“Maya!” Beq’s voice.
From the corner of her eye, something came flying toward her, and Maya reached out with her good arm, snatching her haken out of the air. Jaedia’s eyes went very wide, and the tendrils reached, but fire was already blooming around Maya, pushing them away. Maya surged to her feet and brought her hand around to the back of her mentor’s neck. She felt the hard shell of the black spider under her fingers.
“Sha’deia,” Jaedia gasped. “Maybe you are the one—”
Maya focused a burst of flame, as small and hot as she could make it, tearing through the monstrous thing in a blaze of focused plasma. Jaedia dropped at once, like all her bones had been removed. The horrible flesh-armor with its tentacles collapsed around her, disintegrating into twisted meat and shattered bones. Maya landed on her knees, coughing and struggling for breath.
“Jaedia!” Maya tossed her haken aside and scrambled forward, heedless of the slick of blood and torn flesh. Jaedia lay amid the ruins, her breathing ragged. As Maya reached her, she gave a scream, arched her back for a strained moment, then fell limp.
No no no no. Maya fell to her knees beside her mentor. Not now. Not after all this. She pulled Jaedia toward her, resting her head across Maya’s stained lap. Blood ran from the back of Jaedia’s neck where the spider had bitten her, a steady trickle of crimson. Her breath rattled harshly in her chest, and her eyes were closed.
“Jaedia,” Maya said frantically. “Jaedia, please.”
Her mentor’s soft green eyes opened, focusing slowly. “M … Maya?”
“I’m here,” Maya said. “I found you. You’re going to be all right.”
“I …” Jaedia’s features tensed as a wave of pain ran through her. “I couldn’t. Let him hurt you. Not you.”
“I know,” Maya said. Her throat was thick. “You beat him.”
“I … I killed …” Her eyes filled with tears.
“It wasn’t you. I’ll explain everything to Basel.” Maya furiously wiped her own eyes, spreading gore across her face. “We’ll get you back to the Forge and figure everything out.”
“Marn,” Jaedia whispered. “I left him.”
“He’s all right,” Maya said. “I found him.”
“Good,” Jaedia said, then stiffened again. Her breath escaped her with a sigh. “That’s … good.”
“Please don’t die.” Maya’s voice was a whisper. “Not now. I need you.”
“Maya.” Jaedia swallowed. “Listen to me. The mountain.”
“W … what?”
“Under the mountain.” Jaedia jerked again. “There is—power. The ghouls—”
“The ghouls?” Maya said. “I don’t understand. Is it a ruin?”
“The ghouls are here,” Jaedia gasped out. “If they … reach it … everything will fall. Order. Republic. Everything.” Her hand came up, catching Maya’s arm in a death grip. “You have to stop them.”
“But …”
“Stop. Them.” Jaedia could barely force the words out. “Please.”
“Don’t do this,” Maya said. “Don’t put this on me like you’re going to die. Jaedia!”
Jaedia’s back arched again, her body as taut as a bowstring. Her eyes showed only whites.
No. Maya’s hand scrabbled in the wet ruin until she found her haken. Deiat bloomed inside her. You can’t. She pulled at the flow of power, the fire of creation, until it crackled through her body like a tempest of flame. The Thing went from skin-warm to white-hot in moments, and a curl of smoke rose from where it scorched her shirt. You can’t. You can’t die.
A voice echoed in her mind. Her own voice, but not, full of such authority that to disobey it was unthinkable.
I will not allow it.
Pinpricks of warmth, all over her skin, grew in intensity to match the Thing’s blaze. Maya, suffused with the power of the sun, looked down at Jaedia’s body, and she saw. The poison the spider had left behind, its petty revenge, caustic venom tearing Jaedia apart from the inside, like black worms writhing through her veins. Maya focused, and the worms burned, strings of fire too small to see with the naked eye running through Jaedia like the tide. A hundred, a thousand, a million tiny shreds of divine fire. Too many. No one can do this, Maya thought, and she felt herself wobble atop the torrent of power.
You can, little sha’deia. Something was watching her, something distant and vast and cold. Oh, you can.
I will see you again. Soon …
The last of the black poison burned away. Maya let deiat slip from her fingers, and the world slipped away with it, burying her in darkness.
*
“Maya!” Someone was tapping her cheek. “Maya, please wake up.”
“We can’t carry both of them.” Tanax’s voice, more distant.
“Maya!” Beq.
Maya opened her eyes and saw Beq’s face inches from her own, melting with relief. “She’s awake!”
“I …” Maya coughed. “Jaedia!”
“She’s alive,” Beq said. “I don’t know what you did, Maya, but it was amazing. You were glowing, and then Jaedia was glowing too, and—”
“We can explain things later,” Tanax said. “We need to get out of here now.”
“What’s happening?” Maya sat up, a little too quickly, and the world spun around her. Beq gave her a hand, and she got gently to her feet. When she saw, she felt the bottom drop out of her stomach. “Oh.”
The army of plaguespawn was coming apart. Whatever will had held them in place had died with the black spider, and in its wake had come madness even worse than what was normal for plaguespawn. The creatures were attacking at random, tearing mindlessly at one another with teeth and claws, the giants scything through dozens of their smaller brethren with enormous talons. The whole head of the valley was a boiling, vicious melee.
At the edge of the crowd, monsters were breaking away from the pack in all directions, including directly toward the rock face on which Maya and the others stood. None had yet found their way up the narrow path leading to the top, but it was only a matter of time.
“We have to get away,” Tanax said. “Back down the valley.” His voice was grim, and Maya could see why.
“We’ll never make it,” Maya said. “Not with that many of them behind us.”
“If we stay here, they’ll surround us,” Tanax shot back. “Better a small chance than none at all.”
“I’m not sure how far I can run,” Beq said matter-of-factly. She had a bandage tied around the wound in her leg, but blood was already soaking through. Only the rapid working of her throat betrayed her fear. “And someone has to carry Jaedia.”
“We’ll never make it,” Maya repeated.
“Do you have a better idea?” Tanax snapped.