DESCENT
“She went berserk,” the corporal said.
Mara gazed at Karigan behind the bars of the block house. They’d manacled her wrists and attached them with a chain to the back wall of her cell. That was how crazed she’d been, they told Mara. Currently, Karigan seemed to be involved in a conversation with herself. The name “Nyssa” kept coming up, and the words “I will kill them all,” as well. There were dark rings beneath her eyes. Mara had already sent Anna for Ben.
“She killed, I dunno how many, a bunch of the enemy,” the corporal continued, “and it made the difference. They’d have overrun us, otherwise.”
A contingent of Second Empire’s soldiers had somehow approached the east wall unseen. She strongly suspected magic. The east, west, and north walls were sparsely guarded, with much of the city’s forces concentrated near the gate at the south district where they faced the bulk of Second Empire’s army. Mara did not know what the queen and her advisors would decide to do in light of this new tactic, but they were spread too thin. She prayed that King Zachary and his army would arrive soon.
“We were lucky to have a swordmaster there,” the corporal said. “She cut ’em down like hay at harvest. But then when there were no more, she turned on us. She nearly got Major M’Gyre, but we tackled her and brought her here. Wasn’t easy.”
No, it didn’t look like it had been. The corporal and his companions, two privates, were bruised and cut, had bloody noses. All of that could have been a result of their melee with Second Empire, but she kind of didn’t think so.
“Thank you, Corporal,” she said, “you may be excused.”
He nodded, and as he and the privates exited the block house, they all glanced one last time at Karigan with wide-eyed expressions of awe.
Mara sighed. Karigan had clearly snapped. When one thought about it, it wasn’t really surprising, given everything she’d been through over the last year or two—travel through the evil that was Blackveil Forest, the loss of a man she had loved in the future time, then the torture up north, and captivity by the Darrow Raiders. Frankly, Mara was surprised she’d held it together for as long as she had.
She approached the cell. Karigan seemed not to notice her.
“Karigan?”
Karigan did not acknowledge her, did not even look her way.
“Karigan, can you hear me?” she asked more loudly.
This time, Karigan seemed to hear. She raised her head. “Go away,” she growled. “Get out of my mind.”
“I am not in your mind. I am right here outside your cell.”
Now Karigan looked. Mara’s hair stood on the nape of her neck for she hardly recognized her friend. Her expression was feral. Then she collected herself and leaped at the bars with a snarl. Her chains, which didn’t extend that far, snapped her back. Still, Mara was spooked enough that she jumped.
“A real animal, that one,” said the block house guard. He sat with his feet up on his desk, and picked at his teeth with the tip of his knife.
“Karigan—” Mara began.
“I will end you,” Karigan said, “all the Nyssas until there are no more.” She looked a wounded, crazed animal.
“Oh, Karigan,” Mara said. She hoped Ben would be able to help.
It felt like it was taking forever for Anna to return with him, and she had to endure seeing her friend in this state while she waited, and listen to her muttering madly to herself. When finally they did arrive, she saw how haggard Ben looked as he dragged himself in. Blood splatters and splotches stained his mender’s smock. Mara gave him a rundown, and as she did, he moved closer to the bars to watch Karigan. She had turned to face the wall and had quieted.
“She’s not talking strange anymore,” Anna observed.
“You say she hasn’t been sleeping well?” Ben asked.
“No,” Mara replied. “Maybe not at all.”
“She isn’t the only one,” he mumbled. “I am afraid that after we woke her for the parley, we didn’t follow through with getting her back into the mending wing for more rest and healing. It’s been . . . busy.”
A vast understatement, Mara thought. “Can you help her?”
“I don’t know. This sounds more like a sickness of her mind. As you said, what she’s been through is more than enough to break anyone.”
“Lieutenant,” Anna said quietly. She pointed at the cell.
At first Mara didn’t get what Anna was seeing, but she noticed Karigan standing more erect, her head held high. She still faced the wall so they couldn’t see her expression, but the attitude of her body had changed, and there was something else, a change in the air or the light, almost like the downsweep of great wings about her.
“You will DESCEND,” came a voice that was Karigan’s, but somehow not. It was not loud, yet it reverberated through the entirety of Mara’s body and raised gooseflesh on her arms. It came from nowhere and everywhere, and was so full of command that she felt compelled to obey, though she knew not how.
“I will end you,” Karigan told the Nyssa on the other side of the bars. “All the Nyssas until there are no more.”
It is too late, Nyssa said, a tone of glee in her voice. You are broken, and you are mine.
Karigan clenched her hands and faced the back wall of the cell. I don’t know who I am or what is real anymore.
Nyssa laughed.
I can’t take this anymore, Karigan thought. I want to die. There were no tears. She couldn’t seem to make them. There was only the exhaustion she felt bone deep. She wanted to die, but would there be relief even in the grave?
I will always be with you, Nyssa told her.
Karigan had not felt this hopeless since the north in the days following her torture. There was a time when she had been strong, strong enough to command the dead, at least as Westrion’s avatar, but though she had tried, she could not rid herself of Nyssa. The command had failed her. Westrion had abandoned her.
You need me, Nyssa said. You want me because I remind you of how weak you are, of how much of a victim you are, which you can use as an excuse for your fear and evoke the pity of your friends, and especially your king.
It was not true.
Is it not? You revel in the attention they give you. The attention he gives you.
A part of Karigan knew this was not true. She didn’t want pity. And yet, another part doubted. Was it all a ploy she used to draw Zachary closer? She just wanted to bash her head against the stone wall to rid herself of the sound of Nyssa’s voice, but doing so meant Nyssa won. Giving in to the grave was a victory for her. Giving up meant the torturer won all.
“I have had enough,” Karigan whispered. “I own my fear.”
Nyssa laughed again. It’s so adorable when you try to defy me.
“I own my fear,” Karigan repeated, “and I will be free.”
The Nyssa standing in the cell with her seemed to yawn. I wonder how you will manage that, especially when you want me with you. You want me to stay.
Karigan paused and gazed at the unwavering figure of the ghost in her cell. You want me to stay, Nyssa had said. Her words suggested she could leave, or maybe even be gotten rid of.
You’re wrong, Nyssa said hastily. You can’t be rid of me. I will always be with you.
Cold washed through Karigan’s veins, the cold of the heavens. Maybe this time . . . Maybe this time she could compel Nyssa to leave her alone, to cast her away. “I own my fear,” she whispered. “I have no need of you.”
You do. You NEED me.
Darkness flooded the edges of Karigan’s vision, where the stars of the heavens pierced the vast tapestry of the infinite. Though not clad in the star steel armor of the avatar, the power of that office filled her.
The spirit of Nyssa Starling fluctuated in an otherworldly breeze. With a twitch of Karigan’s finger, the torturer’s whip dissolved into a wisp of supernatural smoke.
No! Nyssa cried. Don’t do this—you need me!
Karigan smiled. She thought to draw the moment out, to make Nyssa beg, but she tired of her existence. “You will DESCEND.”
No!
Karigan pointed at the floor. It began to absorb Nyssa’s feet. She screamed.
You can’t do this! You need me!
“I do not,” Karigan replied. “DESCEND.”
Nyssa screamed and raged as she melted into the floor to her knees, then to her hips and shoulders. Another flick of Karigan’s finger took away her voice so that the torture of descent was silent, animated only by her contorted expression and voiceless scream. She would seep into the hells, drawn from one to another until she reached the worst, where she would suffer worse torments than those she had inflicted on her victims.
When Nyssa was finally gone, the otherworldliness, the cold presence of the heavens seeped out of Karigan’s being. She felt as if she would simply float up from the floor. The silence in her mind, but for her own thoughts, was amazing. There would always be some echo of Nyssa, and reminders of her, always the reminders, that the descent of the torturer would not erase, but Karigan was now free without that voice constantly undermining her and trying to break her.
She turned and saw Mara, Anna, and Ben watching her with bewildered expressions on their faces. She smiled, then laughed. “I’m free,” she told them. “I’m finally free.”