The ground shook: the Tree shook: the Mountain trembled under her.“Old Serpent, turn You and face Us, for the fight is not done—!”
She could not believe her own strength. It filled her, making the initial release of the spell from her seem about as worldshattering by comparison as a stomach-growl. And she could not believe that the Old Serpent, the Lone One Itself, now looked at her from the Tree with eyes suddenly full of fear. Rage, yes, and frustration … but fear first.Is thatallit takes?she thought, astonished.One sentence—one word, one command? “Let there be light—”
Here and now … the answer seemed to be “yes.”
It was“yes” before too,said Queen Iau. But the voice was Rhiow’s own.
The Serpent began, very slowly, to uncoil Itself from around the Tree. As it did, the huge gouge that It had bitten in the Tree’s trunk began to bleed light afresh.
Ohno You don’t,Rhiow thought furiously, stepping forward.Where do you thinkYou’regoing?
She was immediately distracted by the way the ground shook under her when she moved. Rhiow would have been frightened by it except that inside her, acting with her—part of her, as if from a long time before—was One Who was not afraid of Her own power in the slightest.
Rhiow was abashed beyond belief. Not in her wildest expectations had she anticipated the spell might have this kind of result: she would hardly have dated to think of herself and the One in the same sentence.Oh, my Queen, I’m sorry—I mean, I—
Don’t apologize,came the thought of Iau Hauhai’h, and it was humorous, if momentarily grim.Usually gods don’t. Not in front of thatOne, anyway. Say what It needs to hear! We’ve got a lot of work to do.
Rhiow stood there, feeling the majesty cohabiting with her… and then held her head up, thinking of that statue in the Met, poor cold copy that it was. “Am I not the One,”She cried,“tomake power against death strong, and power for life stronger still? Shall I allow the darkness to prevail against My own? Their life is in Me, and of Me: save that You destroy Me as well, never shall they be wholly gone; and Me You cannot destroy, nor My power in Them. Rise up then, Aaurh My daughter, and be healed of Your dying; the dark dream is over, and awakening is comer.
Off to one side, where a shape lay dark and charred on the stone, there was movement—and then a flash of fire. If a form can burn backward, this one did. Flame leapt from nowhere to it, filled it, wrapped it round—not the cold white fire of the catenary, but flame with a hint of gold, the sun’s light concentrated, made personal and intense. Substance came with the fire: the shape filled out, rolled to its feet, shook itself, and stood, looking proud, and angry, and amused. It was a lioness, but one in whose pelt every hair was a line of golden fire, and the Sun rode above her like a crown—though it was not as bright as her eyes, or as fierce. “Iam here, my Dam and Queen,”said the voice of Aaurh the Warrior, the Queen’s Champion, the Mighty, the Destroyer-by-Fire; but it was Saash’s voice as well, and Rhiow could have laughed out loud for joy at the sound of that voice, itself nearly shaking with laughter under the stern words.
Oh Iau, Saash— I mean,oh— And Rhiowdidlaugh then: it was amazing how your vocabulary could be lessened by realizing you suddenly had the One inside you, and that it sounded surpassingly silly to be swearing at, or by, Yourself.Saash, are you all right?
Asnicker.Are you kidding? I’m dead. Or Iwas.But live by the fire, die by the fire.And she chuckled.It’s an occupational hazard.
“Rise up then, sa’Rrahh My daughter, and be healed of Your sore wounding; stand with Us against the Old Serpent that would have worked Your bane!”
The prone form that lay clutching painfully with its foreclaws at the stone now lifted its head and slowly began to glow both dark and bright, like its fur—night-and-moonlight, the pale fire and the dark one mingling, starfire and the darkness behind the stars: the essence of conflict and ambivalence. But neither fire burned less intensely for the other’s presence; and as the tigerish shape rose up to stand with its Dam, the eyes that looked outof its mighty head were terrible with knowledge of past and future, decisions well made and ill made, and action and passivity held in dangerous balance. Those awful, thoughtful eyes looked down at the body they inhabited … and suddenly went wide.
“Look at me! Justlookat me! I’m aqueen!”
Iau Kindler of Stars let out a long sigh.“Son,”She said,“shut up. It happens to the best of us.”
Rhiow put her radiant whiskers right forward in amusement It had not occurred to Rhiow that Arhumight manifest as sa’Rrahh, but the Tearer had always been as ambivalent about gender as anything else. “Oh all right,”said the Dark One.“I am here, my Dam and Queen. Now let me at that ragged-eared— ”
“In a moment. Rise up then, My consort, Urrua Lightning-Claw; be risen up, thou Old Tom, O Great Cat, O Cat Who stood under the Tree on the night the enemies of Life were destroyed. Urrua, My beloved, My Consort, rise up now, and stand with Us, to slay the One Who slew You!”
Off on the black stone, where blood lay pooled around a tom, silver-striped shape, darkness now pooled as well. It gathered together about that shape and began to weave brilliance into itself, the tabby coloration shading pale, to moondust grays and silvers and a brilliant white like the Moon at full, a light as pitiless in its way as the Moon looking down from a clear sky on those who would wish to hide, and can find no hiding place from what stalks them silently. That shape stood up, and was a panther’s shape, heavy-jowled and white-fanged, with unsheathed claws that burned and left molten spots on any stone they touched. The mighty shape shook itself, shedding silver light about it, then padded over to join the others, looking at them with one eye that was dark and terrible, knowing secrets;and the other that burned almost too bright to look upon, for battle was in it, and the joy of battle. “Iam here, My Dam and Queen, My Consort,”he said, and then added,“ ‘My consort,’ huh?”
“Don’t get any ideas, you… the post is purely ceremonial. —Lone Power, Old Serpent, for these murders, now We pronounce your fate—”
“No, wait a minute, lam first,”said sa’Rrahh suddenly.
Slowly, very slowly, Haath had begun backing away as he first caught sight of his Lord and Master beginning to unwrap Itself from the Tree. By the time Queen Iau had begun to raise Her dead, Haath was already running away across that great dark expanse at the best speed a tyrannosaur could manage, which was considerable. Now, though, the Queen looked after him… and suddenly Haath appeared directly in front of them again, and fell on his face with the suddenness of his translocation.
“Haath, Child of the Serpent,”said Rhiow and the Queen as he struggled to his feet,“you have brought your fate upon you: but still it lieth with you to save yourself, if you will. Renounce your false Master, and you may rejoin your kind, though your wizardry, not coming from the One, is confiscate.”
Haath crouched, his head low, and looked from the blazing, terrible forms before him to the dark radiance still in the process of slowly, slowly slipping from around the Tree.“I…” he said. “My Master … perhaps I was deluded in thinking…”
Allow Me to save you this crisis of conscience,said a huge, soft voice,by first renouncingyou.
Haath looked up in horror, already feeling the changes in his body. Rhiow knew, as Iau knew, that the Lone One had not told Haath the whole truth about his immortality: that even for the gods, death comes eventually, and mortals who try repeatedly to put it off may succeed for a while, but not forever. With his master’s renunciation, all of Haath’s deaths simply caught up with him at once. All that could be seen of the process was the look of shock and rage and betrayal on his face, those twelve claws lifted for one last wizardry … but there was no time for anything else, either action or reaction. Suddenly, he simply was not there; and if there was even a little dust left, the wind blowing through the darkness swept it unregarded into the River of Fire.