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A BEMUSED THANIS stood in the yard regarding a feral cat. The cat sniffed along a line of hedges, probably trying to detect a mouse or vole.
“That is a lovely creature,” he said.
“A cat,” Zan said.
“How do you say that word? ‘Cat?’” Thanis made a sour face. “Harsh-sounding when compared with my language.”
“Cats are quite graceful, Thanis, even if their name is not,” Rainer said as he checked their gear.
“I see it steps with great delicacy.” The adept scanned the sky. “Thank you for indulging my curiosity, but we should go. I see a rift right over there, outside your wall.”
“Good,” Rainer said. “Please conceal us until we pass within.”
“A chance to practice,” Thanis said with a nod. Within a minute or two they had entered the rift. Zan felt a rush of panic. At first, she felt only Thanis and his lack of surety in a world so new to him, but it wasn’t long before Rainer calmed her.
No light. Only Rainer, the tingling of my bond with him, and Thanis, floating at the outer boundaries. Air. I feel air, then wind. With a whoosh, we land in a sapphire sea, below a sky filled with dark red clouds, not ominous—the red of passion. We rise and fall on swells of vibrant waters, deep as eternity, filled with soft forms, intimations of life, bits of sparkling flotsam. Thunder rumbles. Lightning in pearly white and black plays among the cumulus of heart and blood, jagged, beautiful, filled with power. Rainer rides this energy, creates this energy that is part of me, safe and warm, dangerous and thrilling. It carries me along to go wherever he goes, he goes wherever I go, together, ever together.
Once she emerged from the wonders of her bond with Rainer, Zan was greeted by a sight no less wondrous and more real to her senses. Although her mind conjured extraordinary images during her cosmic journeys, she was human after all, and meant to receive information through her senses—sunlight in her eyes, birdsong tickling her ears, a breeze caressing her skin. Outside the rift, mountains crowded her perception, so mammoth she had to lean her head back to take in the snow-covered heights, monuments of the world’s highest range—the Himalayas.
They stood in a valley between the peaks, so narrow it was almost a canyon. A river churned white through tumbles of boulders. Zan took a lungful of its fresh mineral scent and closed her eyes to concentrate on its soothing sound.
Behind her, the land spread away in tiers of hazy green rice paddies and copses of trees. A little farther upriver to the left, sat the village Mel had told them about, on both sides of a wide path that hugged the mountain. The low buildings were built completely of stacked stone, tan and flat, sealed with mud, with wooden windows and doors, their russet paint cracked and peeling. The roofs were also made of wood, piled and interlocked, with some sort of tar coating to keep out the rain. Zan could see soldiers patrolling the path and a few on the rooftops, the muzzles of their guns sticking out from their hips. Somewhere in that fascinating village, families mourned the loss of their loved ones to beasts once thought to be only the stuff of nightmares.
Nepal! I’ve dreamed of coming here since I was a little girl. I wish the circumstances weren’t so grim.
“What a spot,” she said. “Have you been to Nepal before, honey?”
“Yes, a long time ago, but not this area.” He put his arm around her. When she turned to ask Thanis what he thought, she discovered he was gaping at them, with no eye at all for the dramatic landscape.
“What is wrong, Thanis?”
“The traveling bond. I have never felt anything like it.”
“My mate and I are something new,” Rainer said. “Do not try to understand it. Union is a mystery.”
“Yes,” the adept said, looking askance at him. “Union is a mystery, and so, I think, are you, warrior.”
Rainer smiled. “Perhaps, but let us turn to the task at hand—killing.”
“I think I would more easily detect the demons from a height.”
“Will we go through a rift?” Zan asked.
“No, I will carry you,” Rainer said. “I see a promontory that should offer a wide view, and I am feeling a bit bloodlusty. I could use the exertion.”
“You do look a little antsy,” Zan said in English. She climbed into her usual position on Rainer’s hip. He grabbed Thanis and ascended through the dense vegetation at the base of the peak on their left side with dizzying speed. Zan asked him to slow down.
Might as well savor this.
The surroundings did not disappoint. At first, they ascended a steep slope covered with closely packed rhododendrons. Their blooms were long gone but they were still lush green, their branches curving together. Higher up, the rhododendrons gave way to thick bushes, vines, and the thin-trunked trees common in the valley, their small leaves whispering in the breeze. Once, they caught a glimpse of a large monkey, its black fur tipped with gray. Zan got ridiculously excited.
“Ooh, what was that? Did you see it, Rainer? Follow it!”
“We will have time to take in the flora and fauna after we have dispatched the demons, my love.”
I forgot why we’re here. How embarrassing. We would probably scare the poor thing anyway.
Rainer came out of the trees onto an even steeper slope covered with hardy shrubs and spotted with snow and ice. Zan was glad she had her suit. She felt on her face how cold it was at elevation. They left the vegetation behind and gained the rocky promontory Rainer had seen from below. He set his passengers down. Zan turned to find an endless vista of pure white peaks sparkling in the sun, their pristine snow giving away in the lower reaches to brown ridgelines. Zan was so taken with the view she barely heard Rainer and Thanis discussing how to find the demons.
“Are you all right in the thin air, my love?” Rainer asked.
“Uh, yes. I think so. I’ll put my helmet on if I have to climb or run. I think I’ll need it.”
Thanis went to the edge of promontory and scanned the landscape below. Two hours later and he was still at it. Zan had long since put on her helmet to ward off the chill. At first, she’d sat on the ground practically on top of Rainer until her suit was all charged up, then she’d passed the time watching the ever-changing clouds that ringed the high peaks in the distance. As day approached evening, the lowering sun lit their undersides with gentle shades of salmon and rose. She didn’t mind at all that Thanis needed this time to figure out how to detect and track the demons. She could sit there for days.
Finally, in the third hour since he’d begun, when the sun had set and the almost-full moon reflected off the snow to light the world in silver, Thanis announced that he knew the location of the demons.
“They are quite far away, Barakiel. I cannot detect them through these mountains, which are far too massive, but their energy signatures appeared on that ridge to the east,” he pointed into the distance. To Zan, all the ridges blended together, but Rainer could see the spot. “We must get closer.” Thanis continued.
“Shall we use a rift?” Rainer asked.
“All right.” The adept scanned the sky. “I see one. A short way below us, thank Balance. I think I can manage to reach it without your help, although these mountains are steep enough to rival Streamcatcher.”
“That they are. Zan?”
“I can make it. The suit helps.”
Rainer nodded and they set off down the slope. As Zan pushed through a wedge of crusty snow, she wondered if hers were the first human footsteps ever to mark that spot. Then it was into the rift and out again, into a distant valley below the ridge where Thanis had spotted the demons.
“Any sign of the beasts?” Rainer asked.
Thanis swept his unruly lion’s mane out of his eyes. “Give me a moment.”
“Take your time,” Zan said. “In this moonlight, I can see the demons’ tracks.” She pointed to scores in the dirt.
“Excellent!” Rainer said. “We will follow you.” Even though it was much warmer in the valley than on the promontory, Zan kept her helmet on, given that they were closing in on the demons. They moved as quickly as her suit would carry her until Thanis said, “There!”
All Zan’s human eyes could see were the demons’ tracks fading into darkness, even under the bright moon. She engaged her weapon’s targeting system so she could see the beasts through the readout in her helmet. They were far ahead, seven of them.
“They are sniffing the air,” Rainer said. “They know we are here.”
“They smell meat,” Thanis said.
“Well, they are in for a rude surprise,” Zan said, a moment before the demons rushed their location. “Should I blast them, honey?”
“Only if one gets past me,” Rainer answered. “Thanis, stay behind Zan and shield yourself.” The adept nodded, and Rainer—with a spirited yell—sped to meet the demons. Zan thought he sounded like a skier about to push off down a challenging slope or a skydiver leaping from a plane.
How he loves to kill the things he hates. All the better if he feels it is his duty.
Zan ran forward as well. She didn’t want to miss the spectacle, but she should have known Rainer would move too quickly for her eyes. Her targeting system showed he attacked in a zig-zag pattern, and though she couldn’t really see, she could hear the whisper of his sword—thwap, thwap, thwap—as it removed the demons’ heads from their bodies. He ran back to her.
“Mission accomplished,” he said.
“Well, that was easy.”
“Of course it was.”
“Shall I desiccate the bodies, Barakiel?” Thanis asked.
“No. In fact, I should have brought a sling. I would like to gather the heads and leave them near the village. The people there should know they can relax now. The beasts will trouble them no more.”
“I can fashion a sling if you can find vines or something of that nature,” Thanis said. “It would be a simple matter to weave them.”
“Good,” Rainer said. He charged off over a ridgeline to find materials because the valley where they stood was barren. Zan and Thanis walked over to stare at the dead demons, whose blood had oozed into oblongs of darkness against dirt that appeared pale in the moonlight. They could hear the wind wailing above, but in the valley, all was quiet.
“How are you finding the Earthly Realm, Thanis?”
“It is much more varied than the Covalent Realm. I find it fascinating.”
“Is this your first time?”
“No. I came here once, long ago, when curiosity got the better of me. Secrecy had been imposed but travel here had not yet been outlawed. Your realm smelled better then. The air is quite foul now. Not so much here, but it is where the two of you have made your home. You should make a new home. In a place like this.” He made an expansive gesture toward the mountains.
“I am tempted.”
Rainer returned a few minutes later with an armful of vines and flexible branches. Zan watched with interest as the materials transformed into a shimmery cloud then resolidified into a perfectly normal-looking sling, grayish in the moonlight. Rainer gathered up his gruesome trophies and they trudged off toward a rift.
Midday. Horns sounded across the square, blown by Buddhist monks, their saffron headdresses and maroon robes visible on the rooftops. The low drones of the horns mingled with the murmuring of hundreds of tourists come to see Boudhanath Stupa, one of the largest in the world, its whitewashed dome topped by a golden pyramid tower bearing painted eyes that looked in all the cardinal directions, the all-seeing eyes of Buddha. Prayer flags in white, yellow, red, green, and blue ran down from the pyramid on ropes toward the rectangular platforms that formed the mandala supporting the dome.
Zan loved all of it, every sound, smell, and sight. She, Rainer, and Thanis had wandered toward Boudhanath past vendors with tables full of cloth or bowls of rich-colored curry, saffron, and masala. She imagined the proprietor of their guest house haggling at one of those tables. The man was an excellent cook, judging by the breakfast they’d enjoyed of dal bhat, a spicy Nepali dish with rice, lentils, and curried vegetables. Thanis had found it delicious, and amused Zan by eating almost as much as Rainer. The proprietor seemed a bit distressed that the two Covalent ate almost his entire pot, but felt better about it when Rainer laid three times the normal price on the table.
In the square, Zan admired the tiered, wooden balconies fronting the many Buddhist monasteries and convents founded by Tibetan refugees. She turned prayer wheels as they passed, red cylinders painted with gold characters. When they reached the stupa, they bought tickets and joined the stream of peaceful tourists, or perhaps pilgrims, perambulating around the dome. Zan had stood on the ancient walls of Covalent City, but for some reason, it affected her more to be walking on a fifteen-hundred-year-old monument constructed by humans.
“You are beaming, my love,” Rainer said.
“This is an amazing place.”
“I knew you would enjoy it.”
“I’m so glad we came, even if we are attracting a ridiculous amount of attention.”
“Ha! For once it is not me. Thanis seems to be collecting the most stares.”
While Zan and Rainer had brought casual clothes with them. Thanis had only his black robes. Zan figured people thought he was some kind of strange monk. His round face and reddish-brown skin fit in well enough, but his lion’s mane of tawny hair and gold-green eyes were bizarre enough to elicit a few double takes.
Zan leaned towards him to speak Covalent in a low voice. “Are you enjoying yourself, Thanis?”
“Oh, yes. What a marvelous place. Its energy is quiet, yet strong.”
They walked along in companionable silence until Rainer brought up her conversation with Mel that morning. “Do you think Mel will get past her anger over the, um, evidence I left behind?”
“Eventually. She can’t argue with the results, and I think she saw your point, to let the villagers know they don’t have to live in fear.”
“Good. Did she say anything about the task that awaits us in South Africa other than that we should wait until night has fallen there?”
“No. She figures we don’t need her advice. She didn’t even tell me to be careful.”
“I want you to be careful.”
“You, too. Don’t get complacent.” She poked him.
“Never.”