Allegiance (River of Souls 3)

Her soul leapt—as though it were a physical thing—against the cage of her flesh. She felt Mann’s hand clasp hers more tightly. The air thickened, so thick she found it hard to draw a breath, and the magic strong enough that she could taste it.

And then, and then …

The world blinked into nothing.

She stood with her companions on a rim of brightness. Below their feet all the worlds of the universe spun, like multicolored threads of glass in an enormous invisible globe. Except she knew there was no depth or dimension to this plane. It was all her poor attempt to translate the magical to her human understanding.

Without releasing his hold on Ilse’s hand, Iani crouched down, as though seeking the signpost that would lead them back to their own world and Duenne. Ilse tried to follow his gaze. It was like searching for a single minnow in a flashing swarm. There, there was the inn at Tiralien. There, a silvery ribbon that could be the Solvatni River in Duszranjo. One, twice, the images froze. She recognized Melnek. Blinked and saw a vast expanse of golden dunes, stretching toward an alien horizon. Blinked again, and had to narrow her eyes against the whirling specks of color.

Next to her, Mann stared fixedly at the maelstrom below. His hand trembled, and she tightened her grip. “What is wrong?” she asked.

“I am afraid. I see … faces.”

“Close your eyes,” Ilse said quickly. “Those are monsters, liars.”

The worlds beneath them vanished. Clouds of smoke and ashes enveloped them. From a distance came the hiss of an enormous fire, and her skin drew tight. Her mouth felt parched from terror. She tried to remind herself this was another illusion, but she had read too many histories of magic. A mage could die in Anderswar, whether they came in flesh or spirit.

“Is this another lie?” Mann said. His voice was high and light. Ilse felt him tremble and she gripped his hand tighter.

“Anderswar lies,” she said. “But a lie can kill you here. If you believe it, that is.”

He gave a bark of laughter. “Oh. So glad I would never—”

Light bloomed at their feet. Now Ilse could see a wall of flame surrounding them, bright gold and rippling like water flowing over stone. A burst of wind scented with burning wood and magic struck her in the face. She coughed, then nearly choked when the flames parted and a massive catlike creature made directly for them, ash and burning embers spinning in its wake.

Its color was as bright and golden as the flames. Its eyes were like twin white suns. Its tongue hung from its mouth, a rivulet of fire against a greater conflagration. Ilse gulped down a lungful of scorching air, and squeezed Mann’s and Iani’s hands even harder. Mann was shivering. Iani had gone unnervingly still.

The beast circled around them, once and twice. The third time it stopped before Mann. Its face shimmered and lengthened. Josef. My love. I had not expected you would ever come to me.

Mann flinched. “Mathis?” he whispered.

“What is it?” Ilse said. “What do you see?”

Mann didn’t answer. The beast arched its neck until its face hovered inches away from Mann’s. Mann tilted his head backward and stared, his eyes wide and blank, his lips stretched in an unconscious imitation of the beast’s grin.

Benno was cursing under his breath. Ilse shook Mann’s hand. She shouted in his ear. Nothing did any good. In fury and desperation, she drove her booted foot onto his instep. Mann recoiled from the beast with a muffled cry. Ilse yanked him to his knees and bent over him, her face between his and the monster’s. “Listen to me,” she said. “You see tricksers. Tricksters and liars. That is Anderswar. It lies. It wants to snare you with your own fears. Do not listen.”

“But I saw…”

You saw me, Josef. You saw the truth. If you go to Duenne, you will die.

Josef Mann sucked in his breath. He stared beyond Ilse as though he looked directly into the monster’s eyes. Then he shook his head, assayed a smile that was a faint echo of his usual self. “Then I die,” he said. “I will someday, no matter what. Begone, monster and liar.”

The golden flames vanished. Once more they stood upon the edge of the universe. Mann glanced downward, as though he might still make a fatal leap. But when Ilse pressed her hand within his, he smiled once more. To Benno Iani, he said, “Do we go on? Or shall we hold a dance and conversation with more demons?”

“No need to delay,” Benno Iani said. “I have found our destination.”

He spoke a phrase in Erythandran. Light and shadow transposed themselves around them. Another bursting bloom of magic, another sudden shift in perception, and they were falling down and down and down, through a maelstrom of shrieks and brilliant, sickening colors. She had a moment of unrestrained panic. Heard screams, her own, Josef Mann’s, and even Benno Iani’s …

As always, the transition came abruptly. One moment they plunged through the void. The next, Ilse lay sprawled on a cold dank expanse of stone. Her stomach heaved. Her heartbeat echoed inside her skull. At first she could take in nothing except the hard stones beneath her. She might have landed atop a mountain, or in a city on the far side of the continent, or even in a world in another universe. She could not tell. But no, she recognized the scents of cardamom and ginger, of wood smoke from oak and pine, and then the thread of song from a distant window, the words unmistakably Veraenen.

With shaking limbs, she drew herself to sitting. Tipped back her head to see the stars she knew from childhood. The moon was the same quarter moon she had left behind in Tiralien, grown only a shade brighter and larger.

They had come to a small courtyard, bounded by tall brick walls, a gate at each end. Not a country village courtyard, she guessed. This place belonged to some grand inn. A wind drifted through, carrying with it the smell of horse and grass and plains from everlasting, of a city buried in land, no seas within a ride’s distance.

Next to her, a man wept.

Still unsteady, she crawled to the man’s side. It was Josef Mann. He huddled over himself, and his rough sobs echoed from the walls. When she touched his shoulder, his head jerked up and he stared at her wide-eyed.