Surfacing Ch. 34

His hands were bleeding. Disentangling a soul from a web of garroted limbs while providing no healing...he wanted to look away but would not. There was barely the core left. The Underdark queen was gone, burned out by the searing flame of the past, but the original Sister-Seeker from the Red Sands was still there. Despite all those whom she'd given to the Abyss, if the demons couldn't take this one—for whom they had waited so long—it would be a greater justice for his people and his world than tossing such a large part of their history away...

*We need not lose you, Mother.*

*Do not call me Mother! I-I have no ch-children!*

*You had one, before the Draegloth. Lolth required you to sacrifice him.*

*No!* she protested, but it was weakening as each blade-wire snapped free, leaving her ever more numb to her fear as the truth came back.

He kept speaking, kept cutting at the webs cutting his fingers. *You have me, Ishuna. Believe that you may call me your son this day. I am your son, I will carry the quest for you. I have been doing all of this for you, and for him, even as you could never know it or you'd kill me, just as you did all the others.*

Her original, tawny eyes continued to stare at him, and he saw her grief, the immense burst of horror seeing the Truth. He saw regret...and just the barest flicker of hope.

She blinked, and he heard her.

*Ta'suil...*

He shuddered, bearing those new, bloody, rusted hooks in his heart as the punishing edge of all her deeds no longer sliced into only one brother who believed himself as alone as their Mother.

*Ta'suil...!*

*Let go, Mother. Let go, and let me help you climb out of where you are.*

*********

*Oh, no...no. No. Not yet. Please. I'm so afraid.*

Here it was.

The time was now, and he was alone in the garden still with Sirana's spiders.

Shyntre felt Her leaving. He felt Her pain...and She was dying.

The young mage stumbled where he'd been trying to steady himself against the granite wall. He'd been listening to the rise of the City's voices and the small riots just starting to break out, wondering when they might get bold enough to start coming over the wall.

Now he was alone and he couldn't run. From them. From Her. From anyone...

His head filled with the voice of another; he wailed and roared until he was hoarse and it yet still failed to drown it out before his body began to spasm. A robed and hooded shadow covered him from above. Hooked spider legs dug into his back, his flanks, his thighs...

*NO! NO, YOU WILL NOT TAKE HER FROM MEEEEEEE!*

The large guardian spiders jumped onto him but withheld their bite. They crawled, comforting in their own way, waiting for the seizure to pass as they protected him from all others outside the shadow Herself...

*******

"Auslan?!"

After D'Shea had stormed off to find Phaelous, Gaelan had signed that she'd keep an eye on her—which I'd gratefully accepted. At that point we'd had no choice but to follow the most direct path to the fight—two rooms over now—which had stopped quite abruptly after a lot of very haunting screaming. There was no time to use the spyways or look very long before we had to leap; we had to see what was happening and decide what to do before the ceiling caved in on us.

What I saw now in that room, I knew I did not understand. Clearly Vic and Halena knew that, too.

"No! Don't touch them!" Vic begged with his palms out toward me, setting his body between us and my Consort.

Auslan had both his hands planted on the Valsharess. His eyes were open and locked with Ishuna's but he was sweating and shivering, in some kind of trance...

"No, he can't heal her!" I said in alarm.

Mourn wasn't going to be held back by a mere shadow if he didn't want to be, but he did hold himself back and that was telling. His wings and tail waved as his tongue flicked out to taste the air; magic-suppression collar or not, he could still read something.

"He's not healing her," the hybrid rumbled.

"What's he doing, then?" Jael demanded.

"He's taking some of the burden from Shyntre," Halena called out, also begging to hold our attention. "Please, she's dying, the Valsharess *is* dying but she had a stranglehold on the mage. Auslan said the shock could be enough that we'd only find Shyntre's body somewhere later if he doesn't try this!"

Auslan had been saying something like this for a while now, I could admit, but up until this point I had pictured him trying to free Shyntre from the Abyss, not the Valsharess. I kind of wondered if he'd been omitting just as much as the rest of us, or maybe he'd just seen the opportunity.

Eyin reminded us, "Auslan asked us to repay a debt. Listen to them, listen to him."

"I will," I assured them, spying also Innathi as she lay some distance away with her head lolling side to side, muttering gibberish. "Let me get closer...in case they need my strength, too."

"He won't ask you," Vic said, still blocking me. "Don't touch them under any circumstances."

"Why not?" I asked.

"The Consort's severing the webs."

Mourn murmured in agreement as he drew in the scents. He glanced at me. "A surgery as equally painful for the surgeon, from the smell of it."

I grimaced. Gavin had done that, probably more than once, but at least I knew he welcomed the pain as it was part of his practice.

Vic nodded. "Either this works or it doesn't. He told me not to let you touch him, Sirana, he doesn't want to make it so easy for the Spider Queen to reach you."

"I won't touch him, either of them," I promised, "but I'm getting closer."

"As am I," Mourn said. "If Ishuna starts healing, in any way, I will end her. We can only hold back so long and that powder is already wearing off Innathi."

"Fuck," Vic cursed and backed up without turning his back to us. He set himself between Innathi and Ishuna with Auslan, and all of us could position ourselves better. "Be careful, she wanted to attack Auslan because she thinks he is the Valsharess's child."

"Why would she think that?" Jael sneered.

"Well..." Vic and Halena shared a glance but the male spoke. "He called her 'Mother' in Innathi's hearing."

"It's just symbolic, though," Halena added. "She didn't understand that."

My head wanted to spin. What had happened in this room? I had just eased close enough to see Auslan at a better angle. He was paying attention to no one but the Valsharess as she bled out slowly from multiple stab wounds. My anxiety spiked not only because I worried that he'd never pull himself out—that he'd drown in the Abyss and fade away with her—but also as I watched, his wracked fingertips eased into some of the open wounds, as if he was digging for worms with thin wire wrapped around each finger, tight enough to cut off the blood.

Mourn caught my shoulder as I thoughtlessly took a step forward. "Do not, champion. You got him this far."

"We still need to find Shyntre," I said. "Auslan may be too weak to wrestle both of them out of the 'webs' like this..."

Mourn nodded in agreement. "Then he might call for your aid."

"M-Morix...?" Innathi said, finally lifting her head, her ears trained on his voice even as her eyes hadn't yet focused.

His tail performed a tight curve but he looked at Jael and signed to reconfirm her cooperation. Her eyes teared up and she didn't answer. I'd never see her look so worried before, and Mourn and I both shifted to block her hands from the sight of the others except for Eyin.

*Jael?* Mourn signed.

*We have to get that THING off you!* she answered with emphasis.

*We will,* he assured her.

*I can't...feel you,* she confessed, including in her gesture how much this bothered her. Worse than just "muted," like it was gone, a void.

He made a fine point by brushing her cheek his knuckles. *Yes, you can, Jael. For now, please continue to hide this jewel. The collar helps us both when we'll be most tempted to weaken. Hold to the plan.*

My mouth slid into a smile and Jael noticed, quirking a questioning brow at me. *We knew this before him, as novices. Use a disadvantage to your advantage.*

My little Sister blinked and the tears receded as she glanced toward Innathi , who was now rolling up to her knees, saying their mage-match's name again. Her face became like stone and she jerked a nod, even as she frowned at Mourn. *Go to her.*

He nodded his thanks and turned to this task. Jael glanced at me, her mouth tight, and I learned to kiss it on the corner. She scoffed, but acquiesced to smile a bit just before she saddened again and signed to me.

*I know how D'Shea feels. We shouldn't take long here if the Valsharess is dead. We need Phaelous to remove the collar, don't we? And she needs him, too.*

*If we can get him,* I agreed.

"Where is it, Morixxyleth?" Innathi was asking, raising her voice now.

Jael and I both stiffened at the tone. Only then did we realize how stained her robes were in her sister's blood

"I want it. Quickly! Before Ishuna dies, the dagger can still claim her!"

"No. I have said it was safe, and we're not using it. We don't have to."

"You are making a mistake!"

Her eyes narrowed and she easily found the weapons charms on the metal bands on his wrists. Her green-eyed gaze slid over him possessively, until she saw the new collar around his neck. She was intrigued.

"Oh, yes," she seemed to recollect how he'd gotten it. "Ishuna's own attempt to lay claim on my Dragonchild, hm?"

She reached up and tried to hook her bloodied finger beneath it using the hollow of his throat—as if she intended lead him by it—but Mourn hissed. He not only jerked his head out of her reach but swatted her hand to the side. Jael and I watched his spines come up along his spine; I touched the Daratrix's arm just to be sure—and sure enough, she was as hard as rock and aching for action.

*Stay. I'm sorry, Jael, but just don't.*

I heard Jael's mental growl and Innathi smiled in queenly beauty again, delighted with Mourn's response. A challenge for later, clearly, but she knew better than to push it right now. That didn't prevent an additional dig, however.

"So. It's not your choice regardless whether we use Soul Drinker. You must be freed before you can free my dagger." She frowned in disappointment. "There's no way Ishuna will get her just punishment, there's not enough time. Are you pleased, Morixxyleth?"

"Yes," he said flatly, offering no more than that.

She exhaled, looking over to me. "Sirana. Come here."

The way she said it sounded like she'd caught me doing something I wasn't supposed to. Of course, she'd have to pick which crime, and I doubted I'd be surprised with the accusation.

I glanced over toward Auslan and the Valsharess, seeing Vic and Halena both adamantly guarding him, watching all of us for sudden movements. It was at that moment that my Consort ran out of strength for what he was doing and his blood-soaked hands finally left the corpse of the Underdark queen as he toppled over. Vic tried to catch him but only managed to just keep his head from striking the stone.

So did this mean he somehow saved Shyntre? Or was it already too late...?

"Sirana!" Innathi barked.

"What?!" I barked back, caught in distraction.

"You have a problem."

I had a lot of them, as a matter of fact. I was just trying not to drop them all hard enough to shatter. "Do speak, Your Grace."

"I told you to come closer!"

I looked at her face rather than so easily get fed up with the demand. I really looked at it.

Innathi had just stabbed her sister to death, and she was shaken. She was testing our willingness to obey her—it was her choice for reassurance. I could reassure her or I could make her doubt us all the more, right now.

This might have been the time for Mourn to make his choice as well but...not only had he made it, it wasn't the one we'd thought necessary. He was far from helpless, but I had to assume that damned collar had really thrown a stick into the wheel spokes.

"Of course, Your Grace," I said, moving to be on Mourn's right side and standing before of her. "What is the problem?"

She lifted her robes and showed us both torn undergarments and angry, inflamed scar tissue on her dark thighs. I saw Tarra had kept her bush trim even with the rippling flesh around it. Innathi's face and her aura were both boiling and now I knew exactly why.

"Ishuna did this, both before I came here, and just now. This body is barren."

"I know, Your Grace," I agreed readily with a nod. "So was I, once, with the same taint. Now I'm pregnant with my first son."

She blinked, her anger faltering. "You were healed from this?"

"Something similar, yes. A demonblood in an Abyssal ritual. It's what ultimately brought me to you, Your Grace." I looked her in the eyes, keeping tight control on myself as I was fully aware I was walking a knife's edge. "You asked for the right age and magic, Innathi. The only match was a Priestess of Lolth, and I told you that. I figured there could be time to heal afterward."

Her anger came right back. "You should have told me! Ishuna made me doubt you! She almost won using these scars against me!" She gripped the Priestess robes hard, her knuckles greying out. "LOOK!"

I looked. I had a private moment at the same time.

*Mourn?*

*You're doing fine.*

*I figured, but what do we do now?*

*Focus. We find D'Shea and Phaelous. We find Shyntre. We deal with Auranka.*

*Innathi will only distract us during all that. She's too dangerous.*

I felt his frustration, even as he agreed with me.

*There was a mage's bond formed while bringing her out of Soul Drinker, Sirana. She wouldn't pass through without it. It's not as strong as Jael's but it will hurt the bond between my Daratrix and myself if I free myself of Innathi the wrong way. I cannot do it at all wearing this collar. I need my full aura to protect Jael from the backlash.*

That made more sense. It explained why Mourn wouldn't be more specific about Innathi when D'Shea asked. It explained why Mourn hadn't killed her just now when we had the chance.

*Is that why Innathi's blind to Jael, still?*

A mental nod. *I thank our good fortune she is. Keep helping Jael, Sirana. The collar is making it easy for her to believe Innathi has the stronger hold on me when she does not.*

*Well, that and your actions.*

I felt a mental smirk. *We are what we do when it counts. Jael knows this lesson, let her practice it. Be assured, I will return to her.*

*Gotcha.*

I was still staring at Innathi's scarred cooch. I blinked. "I-I didn't know about that danger, Your Grace, I most deeply apologize. I wasn't a Priestess, I was a sacrifice."

"How were you healed?" she demanded, still testing me.

I glanced over my shoulder at Auslan. Halena was pouring water from her own supply over his hands as Vic held him up slouched against his chest.

"My Consort."

I was so grateful for the shadows' warning when I saw Innathi's face twist.

"Ishuna's son..." she snarled. "Another thing you didn't tell me."

"He is not her son, but she *was* his Mother," I explained. "She was the Matron who blessed his union to other females, made his choices for him on where he would live, as is any Matron's right."

Innathi nodded her agreement, willing me to go on. This was perfectly normal to her.

"The Consorts had no House to which they belonged, they were all property to the Valsharess and were cared for by the Priesthood. Auslan is the last Consort. It makes perfect sense to me that he would call Ishuna 'Mother.'"

Innathi thrust out an arm to point at him by her sister's corpse. "What was he doing just now? He didn't heal her, but he was doing something taxing!" She glimpsed that way, looked back, then looked again, her expression changing to alarm or horror. "What happened to his hands?!"

I dared to look back that way as well, and I saw what she meant. Now that the blood was washed off, the shadows were binding open cuts on his fingers, palms, and the backs of his hands. They were using undyed bandages that normally looked light grey when manufactured, and the quantity of blood stains showing through as quickly as Halena could bind them could only mean those were deep cuts still freely bleeding.

All he had done was put his hands over some stab wounds...

"Burn her," Innathi said intensely. "We must burn her body if Lolth's poison did *that* just from bleeding out!"

"I agree," Mourn said in a commanding voice, pulling a rough sphere from a small pouch on his harness. "We will leave now. We need to catch up with D'Shea."

"I want to watch," she insisted, locking eyes with him. "I must be sure!"

"You will." He looked around us, cracking the outer shell of whatever it was against a dagger hilt and splitting it one-handed like an egg. He treated the large, glossy pellet he caught with extreme care. "Everyone move out. Gaelan's not here to control the smoke. Do not breathe this in."

With Vic's help, Halena already had an unconscious Auslan across her shoulders and they both had their masks down. They hurried toward Eyin as she gestured to them, then the Lead Shadow looked at me. She must have read something in my expression because she fell alongside me as Jael and I left, too, signing.

*Into the spyways out of sight. We'll bring him when he wakes. Focus on your mission. Find D'Shea and Phaelous. Wait on Auslan to find Shyntre.*

Right. I could believe they'd already been caring for my Consort for weeks. Thank Goddess they still considered him worth it.

*Thank you. Warn us if he seems at all different to you.*

Eyin nodded and glanced back where Mourn and Innathi stood at the hole in the wall; he was preparing to toss the ball. Rausery's old companion kept signing quickly as we gained distance; Jael and I both read it.

*Morix's pearls still work but his voice is quiet, as is Jael's."

My younger Sister gave her a loud, dry look: I KNOW.

Eyin smiled a little but continued. *I hear Gaelan, Vic, and Rausery. Rausery is catching the riots before they grow. No reports of Shyntre outside yet but they aren't sweeping the grounds for him yet. They will. Gaelan is with D'Shea and Jaunda now, trying to break a Ward. They need help.*

We nodded and jumped at the same time when something sounded as if it had sucked all the air out of a room with a shriek just ahead of a sizzling roar. Innathi might have wished to watch the body become ash but Mourn was having none of that. She had to be content with watching the entire room go up in a blaze as he caught up to us in the main hallway carrying her across his shoulders.

I could easily detect the heat coming from that back room and knew my eyes were wider despite that being a bad idea right now.

"It will burn itself out quickly," he said.

"Two long hallways, up six floors," Eyin repeated to him aloud. "Gaelan and D'Shea need you. Jaunda is with them."

A single nod. "Get to another floor close by and wait until Auslan wakes. Inform Gaelan that exact moment."

Eyin confirmed and disappeared into another room as the rest of us ran to escape the smoke that would be filling the otherwise empty halls on this floor.

"So," Jael panted aloud, "six floors up is...?"

"The altar room," he said, evening out his breathing even with the added weight of Innathi. "Where D'Shea was kept... until Phaelous traded places with her."

I noticed the dagger queen wasn't protesting the way she was carried; basically her crotch and her breasts pressed to each of his shoulders, though if she rolled off backward she would cause immense discomfort to Mourn's wings. She clung to one of his arms as his other stabilized her hips, probably accepting that we could run faster this way. He had to rely on Jael and me to act first if we ran into something on our way, and our formation reflected that as Jael shifted to be out in front and me just behind her.