There was no such physical damage. What he saw with his eyes was nothing but a bit of smoke streaming from the train he'd wrecked.
With his mind's sense, though, he saw what they'd been running from. A new Burn, boiling out from where Thelyan had died, the sphere of it centered on the mountaintop, angry jags of thought-lightning roiling in chaos. Where they neared the railroad tracks, the streaks of energy smeared and bent. A secondary Burn, linear, rushed in either direction along the bands of steel.
Ash came up next to him, and with an arm around his waist watched with him until it was certain that the new Burn wouldn't overflow the rails. Once they were sure the danger was past, they leaned into each other and stood embracing. There was nothing that had to be said out loud. They just held each other for a long time.
It was Sona's bald friend with the beard who finally got their attention. He stood around clearing his throat until they turned to him.
"Hate to bust up your romantic moment," he said, "but we're all kinda wondering -- what now?"
Kieran raised an eyebrow. "You're asking me?"
"Well, yeah. I mean, it's true not everybody likes you much. And to be honest, looking at you boys grabbing on each other is making me sorta sick. But you came back for us. We ain't gonna forget that. So if you got us out to do something for you, like fight or something, looks like we're up for it."
Kieran opened his mouth to protest that he hadn't freed them, but Ash touched his lips to silence him, and answered for him. "If you want to fight, that's up to you. We all have reason to be rebels. But be smart about it. Don't waste yourselves. As for us, we're used up."
"Fair enough." The bearded man glanced around at the other men who were watching this conversation. "We got no food or water, though."
"Food's a problem," said Kieran. "You white boys better ask the Iavaians to help you with that.
As for water..." He rolled his eyes up to the sky, sent a brush of thought out to see whether anything was coming. Smiled. "You got about five hours to find something to catch it in."
"Wait!" That was Sona, calling out as Kieran turned away. "What are you going to do?"
He glanced at Ash, who grinned back at him.
"I don't think you really want to know."
Epilogue
"Funny how things work out." Ash gave a weary laugh to hear that cliche come out of his mouth.
"What I mean is, I can't get my head around it."
"Don't have to, I guess." Kieran glanced up at the clouds that had been creeping out of the west for the past hour or so. The sun had gone behind them, and the shade eased the heat a little. Ash was still not sure he could keep walking. He hadn't asked where they were going. Kieran seemed to know, and that was good enough.
Since leaving Churchrock and the former prisoners behind, they hadn't talked much. There would be time to talk later. For now they needed their breath for walking. Ash had very little power left. Kieran seemed to be worn out as well. What little they could gather as they went was just enough to keep them upright and moving in the face of their thirst and hunger.
There was a time, Ash thought bemusedly, when being this hungry, this filthy, this tired, would have been the peak of misery for me. But I have my Kai, I have his hand in my hand, and so the rest of it isn't important.
Though he hadn't sent his thoughts out, Kieran turned to smile at him. "I'm sorry it's such a long walk. It'll be like when we busted out before, I'm afraid. Eating snakes and sleeping in caves. At least until we get there."
"Is there food where we're going?"
"Um." Kieran's smile turned wry. "I thought we could steal something from the miners. But it just occurred to me that the rail spur that went there -- well, it would be part of the new Burn, now."
"Maybe it spread out enough..."
"Hope so. There were people there. They had nothing to do with this." Kieran bit his lip, bowing his head. After a few minutes, he went on, "I'm sick of death, Ash. I must've killed more than fifty men today. More in one day than I did in my whole life before. I'm so tired of being the bad guy."
Ash raised their joined hands to his lips, kissed the tattooed dots on Kieran's skin. "I don't want you to start beating yourself up over this. They were Watchmen. Soldiers. And I -- I killed someone too, you saw -- even if the first shot was yours, I set it up, and then I finished him."
"It had to be done."
"Did it?"
Kieran nodded. "I have a lot to tell you before it'll make sense. You were sending me strength when I fought with Ka'an, but I don't know how much you understand of what he was, what Thelyan was..."
"And what you are now? And what I am now?"
Questioning, Kieran turned to him, step faltering. "You? Is that how you did those things?"
"It's confusing as hell. The thing you saw curled up in me, that was a sort of goddess, a thing like Ka'an but not cruel like he was -- an old woman, not so powerful, and there was Chaiel in the bubble -- he woke her, and she told me things -- gave me her power, what there was of it, and I think I have a new way of doing magic, I'll have to show you later -- so we got out, and there was this little girl with wings, and then we ran into the ward -- that's when you helped -- and I guess Shy thought I was dead, but I woke up with so much energy and it all seemed so obvious --
" He broke off, finally realizing he was babbling. He gave Kieran a lopsided smile. "What I mean is, I don't think I've become a god or anything. But I'm not just an empath anymore."
"Yeah." Kieran chuckled. "I gathered that."
"It's a little scary. I don't know what I can do. I have a new theory, though. About how magic works, I mean. It's how I got out of the bubble."
"You realize none of this is making a damn bit of sense to me."
"Sorry."
"Start at the beginning. When I left you -- god, I hated doing that."
"I know. I didn't think you'd be able to come back for me. I just wanted you to get away. I figured I could handle whatever happened, as long as I knew you were free somewhere."
"Ashes..."
"Anyway, when they found me, I started shooting. I got one of them in the hip and clipped one across the scalp. Then my rifle jammed. I'm surprised it worked at all, it was so full of mud. I got shot in the arm, right here." He showed a scar just above his elbow. "It didn't hurt, though. I was too worked up. They dropped some kind of spell on me. Next thing I know, I'm floating in the middle of a little stone room, with a naked kid sitting on my chest. That Chaiel person I mentioned."
"What? Why was he naked?"
"We both were. I guess Thelyan took our clothes so we couldn't use them to make a rope or something."
Kieran's face darkened. "How old was this 'kid'? Was he attractive?"
"Are you jealous?" Ash laughed, but the laugh faded as he realized how he'd have to answer Kieran's questions. "Um, he looked about fifteen. And yeah, I guess he was cute. And -- just to get all the unfortunate implications out of the way, the bubble that imprisoned us shoved everything in it toward the center, so we were sort of stuck together. You don't seriously think that was anything but an inconvenience to me, do you?"
Kieran gave him a wry smile. "I get a little irrational about you, you know that. Go on. You were stuck together."
Ash told the story carefully, relating conversations as close to verbatim as he could manage.
Kieran listened quietly until near the end, when Ash explained how he'd tried to break the ward and swallowed it instead.
"I got some use out of what you sent me," Kieran interrupted. "Just about killed me, though, before I got it broken down into something I could work with. How did you do it?"
"Math," Ash answered simply. "It's all mathematical. I'd explain, but I think I'd have to teach you calculus first."
Kieran shook his head. "Never mind. You're a genius. Let's just leave it at that."
"For now. I bet you could learn, though. You're smarter than you think you are, love. It's just that nobody bothered to teach you."
>
"You think so?"
"I'm sure of it."
"And you'd teach me?"
"If that's what you want."
Kieran gave a crooked smile. He seemed surprised by his own joy. "We have time, don't we?
There's... there's a future. I have a future, and you're in it. Sorry, I'm getting sappy."
"You think I mind?"
"Go on with your story."
"There's not much more. I walked around, found myself in the cell block. The place was wrecked. There were some... I found some dead men. Falling rock killed them. I found Sona alive, with a rock on his leg. I helped him. I just meant to stop the bleeding, but I found I had so much power, it was easy to fix it all the way. If there'd been anything left of his leg I could've saved it, but the flesh was dead. I went out looking for other people to help -- I wanted to come to you right away, but you seemed to be winning, and there were injured people everywhere.
Then I found where they were fighting, and I stopped them."
"Just like that."
"Well, yes." He shrugged. "It was just projective empathy. I thought it was pointless for them to be fighting, when all any of them wanted was to get away. So I showed them what they really felt, and they stopped. I sent them in opposite directions."
"And at the end there -- I'm afraid to ask. Did you know what you were doing? Did you know what it would do to you?"
"I saw the shape of his shield. It blocked solid matter. If I'd had a bucket of water or an apple or something, you could have shot through that. I considered using my hand or some other part farther from vital organs, but I was afraid you'd cripple me. I tried to put the path through the same place where you were shot, because you survived that -- or would have, if we hadn't been on the run -- but I guess my aim was a little off." He hung his head. "Sorry about that. I didn't plan to sacrifice myself, I swear."
"You're saying your blood breached his shield?"
"Just long enough to let the bullet through."
"You are really something, Ashes."
"We used it all up, though. All that power. If we have to deal with anything else, we're in deep trouble."
"Only if it happens tonight. We'll build up our strength again. You are taking in power, right?"
"Just enough to keep walking."
"Maybe I'm better at it, because I'm getting more than that. Want to try taking some?"
When Ash nodded, Kieran closed his eyes for a moment. A trickle of strength flowed through their joined hands. Ash's fatigue abated. They shared a smile, and went on at a better pace.
"So where exactly are we going?" Ash was only curious. He was getting to enjoy the walking a bit, now that being tired wasn't a problem.
"You remember how you told me once, if we got out of prison, we should find a lake and swim around until we get all pruney?"
"Yeah. We swam in the river, but only for a few minutes. If we're going back to that temple, it'll be all mud still..."
"Nope. This place is better. It's got this lake in it that's just -- you'll see."
Nodding, Ash didn't have to reply. This was all right. Walking. Talking or not talking. Night beginning to come down as the clouds rose up.
They trudged on into darkness.
Sometime after full night had fallen, rain came. Spatters at first, then a downpour. They tilted their heads back to drink it, caught it in their hands. It washed them clean, washed out their tracks. Chilled them, then tapered away to a gentle spattering that didn't keep them from drawing enough power to warm themselves. Kieran wrapped his shredded coat around Ash's bare shoulders, and they went on.
They reached a stream as clouds cleared and released the moon. "This is Burn River," Kieran told him in an amused tone, before hopping across.
"Is it safe to drink?"
"It should be now."
So Ash waded into the water, warmer than the air, tendrils of mist curling around his legs. He scooped up handfuls to finish off his thirst. It only came up to his knees at its deepest point.
When they had both drunk enough, they moved on, upstream.
--==*==--
It took Ash several minutes to figure out what he was seeing: a lake, an endless sheet of still water running out to the horizon. He breathed his amazement, and Kieran's smile was proprietary, proud to show off his discovery. And there were further wonders; circling the lake's barren shore, they encountered tumbled walls, ruined buildings that hinted at a forgotten grandeur. Toppled pillars, slumped jetties and seawalls, stairs that led down toward the water and ended ten feet above its surface.
"This wasn't always a desert," Ash guessed.
Kieran just nodded.
They threaded their way through the traces of narrow streets, heading for an area where the buildings looked a little more intact. They were moving west, toward the mountains that were just now tipped with gold, toward some flat-topped ruins from which a thread of smoke climbed...
Kieran stopped, hauling back on Ash's hand. He gave a faint groan. "Oh hell. I don't want to fight anyone right now."
"There's not supposed to be anyone here, is there?"
"No."
"I'll go look."
"No!" Kieran's hands clutched his arms, unwilling to let him move any closer to the mysterious smoke. "We are not going through that again!"
Warmed to his soul by those words, despite their impractical implications in this situation, Ash took a moment to lean against Kieran's shoulder before answering. "With my mind, I mean. I should be able to tell what kind of person it is. At least, whether they have magic."
"I'll do it."
"We need you alert if it comes to a fight."
Kieran nodded, but he didn't look happy. "Be careful. Be so goddamn careful, Ash."
"I will." Ash closed his eyes, and sent his senses creeping out. Gently, tentatively, ready to sink away at the first sign of recognition.
A moment later, he opened his eyes laughing.
"What?" Kieran demanded.
"It's Chaiel. And he has that little kid with him."
"The one who was in the bubble, right? What the hell is he doing here? Can we trust him?"
"He's a friend."
"A friend?" Kieran frowned at him for a moment longer, then relaxed, sighing resignation. "I should've figured. You could make friends in Hell. You could make friends on the moon." He let Ash tow him toward the rising smoke.
When the smell of cooking food reached them, the last of Kieran's resistance crumbled. Soon he was the one leading.
They got a bit turned around when they got close enough that the mostly intact walls around them blocked the sight of the smoke. Ash was about to cast out again with his mind, weary though he was, when a tiny figure bobbed around a corner and waved to him. A tiny figure with wings.
"Whoa." Kieran faltered. "That's not normal."
"Hello again," Ash said as brightly as he could manage. "You're here to take us to Chaiel?"
The child nodded. Solemn-faced, she grabbed their clasped hands and tugged. When she turned away, he saw that the infected swelling around the grafted wings was gone. The scars of stitches were clearly visible, but other than that it looked as if the wings had grown there. She took them through a maze of dust-choked alleys, brought them into a courtyard strewn with piles and bundles.
Beside a small cookfire in the center of the courtyard, Chaiel was just in the act of standing up.
Ash smiled to see how different he looked. He'd cut his hair neatly at his shoulders, and was wrapped in layers of mismatched, ill-fitting clothing. He nodded welcome, gesturing to the objects piled around him, and the pot full of what smelled like stewed chicken.
"You'll want to eat first, no doubt, but I've clothes for you when you've finished. Medur, please set out blankets for these gentlemen."
The child nodded. She went to scramble among the baggage.
"You named her Medur?" Ash sank gratefully down beside the fire, reaching for the bowl Chaiel offered.
"It's the best nam
e I know."
Ash passed a bowl to Kieran, whose questioning frown was threatening a tirade. "Kieran, this is Chaiel. He's an immortal, Thelyan was keeping him prisoner. Try to remember not to shorten his name. For some reason that's hard for me. Chaiel, this is Kieran, who is absolutely not Ka'an."