Page 48 of Invocation

Suddenly, as if a dam had been broken, an incredible force pulled at her, sucking the air from her lungs. She would have shouted in fear if she’d had the breath to make a sound.

Black fog and golden light poured out of her, rushing into the air in a torrent of darkness and lightning. The power and size of it was overwhelming. Kneeling there in the middle of all of that magic, she was a castaway’s raft in a stormy sea, and it was all she could do to keep herself upright and conscious.

She gasped as the pulling sensation slowed, then snapped, breaking her connection to the obelisk. Finally released, she stumbled backward. The stones on the ground were glowing, giving off the same life-warmth she’d felt from the tree in Vondh Rav. The tornado of blackness was still growing, getting higher and more solid. The earth shook beneath her feet.

Vissarion and the others had stopped running toward her and were backing away instead, gaping up at the growing shadow-thing in horror. Behind them, the fighting had stopped, and Neiryn and Kadaki and Thala were staring alongside the same soldiers who had just been shooting at them.

Novikke backed into the trees at the edge of the ruins. The glow on the stones was spreading now, painting veins of light in a spiderweb across the ruins and beyond.

The blackness was growing tall and thin, into a trunk with four limbs—into a humanoid shape.

“Five above,” Novikke whispered. The vapor condensed into the shape of a woman, hundreds of feet tall and pitch black, with billowing hair and robes that floated in wind that wasn’t there. Her face was perfect, flat and blank like a statue’s, until she opened a pair of glowing, pupilless eyes.

The ground stopped shaking. An eerie silence fell over the ruins, like an invisible snowfall had dampened the sound. The avatar of Ravi loomed over them, unmoving. There was something terrifyingly uncanny about it—that such a large thing could be so silent.

Ravi’s head turned, the movement smooth and slow, and looked directly down at Novikke.

Her blood ran cold. Was this the part where she was punished for trespassing in Kuda Varai? For desecrating the temple in Vondh Rav and taking a part of a goddess that didn’t belong to her?

She dropped to her knees, feeling that it was the most appropriate gesture, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from Ravi’s. Those pale, luminescent eyes pulled at hers, magnetic and terrifying and beautiful. The goddess’s face remained expressionless, and Novikke could only guess at what she was thinking.

Ravi slowly turned her gaze to Vissarion and the other soldiers. They drew back in fright. Vissarion raised his sword, which shook in his quivering grip.

Novikke’s heart stuttered. Ravi was going to destroy them. This was an outcome Novikke could not have predicted. She’d never intended for anyone to die.

Ravi raised an ethereal hand, and the soldiers flinched. Black mist rose from the earth itself, shrouding them. Novikke waited for them to scream in pain or collapse dead, but none of that happened. Through the darkness, she watched their blades and armor dissolve, as if the black vapor were acid eating away at the metal.

Ravi took a slow step forward, blackness swirling around her, and the disarmed soldiers scattered out of her way. She lifted a hand again, waving it over the trees where Neiryn and the others hid. Neiryn had dropped to the ground, bowing his head, and had pulled Kadaki down with him. He looked up, ashen, as Ravi’s shadow fell over them.

The rest of the soldiers shouted and ran as tendrils of shadow reached for them. Bows and swords and chest plates dissolved into dust.

Ravi watched the terrified humans for a moment longer, her thoughts and intentions obfuscated. Then she turned and walked into the forest, towering twice as high as the tallest parts of the canopy. She moved with the silent grace of a shadow, disturbing neither the trees nor even the grass beneath her feet.

Where she walked, trees stretched taller and thicker, gaining years’ worth of growth in moments. Patches of dead, gnarled branches straightened and sprouted vibrantly black leaves. The spiderweb of glowing lines growing from the center of the ruins followed her, bringing life where they went.

A light drew Novikke’s attention to the tree above her head. Veins of gold traced up its trunk and along branches. Dry leaves unfurled. The entire tree grew lush and verdant again.

A hand touched her arm.

She turned. Aruna stood beside her. His eyes glowed blue with inner light, and she swore she could see sparks of that golden tree-light in them.

She reached out and crushed him to her chest, squeezing her eyes shut against tears. “Gods, I thought you were…”

“I’m all right.”

“Don’t ever do that to me again.”

“I did try to stay awake. It didn’t work.”

She pulled back to look at him. “I mean don’t let go of me again.”

He opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again, glancing away guiltily.

“I’m sorry,” he said after a moment. He raised his hands to her face, wiping a stray tear away. “Don’t be upset. I wasn’t worried. I knew you’d wake me up again.”

She hugged him. She never wanted to let him go again.

She pulled away just enough to turn her head and watch Ravi recede into the darkness.

“She’s incredible,” Novikke said. Aruna stared with her, his arms still wrapped around her. They watched the giant figure until she blended entirely into the darkness, though even then, Novikke could sense her presence in the distance.

Everyone exchanged bewildered, uncomfortable looks. Vissarion brushed dust from his jacket and glanced up at Novikke, looking torn between angry disappointment and lingering fear. Thala and the other Ardanians shot suspicious looks at Neiryn and Kadaki, who shot them right back, but no one seemed interested in fighting anymore.

Novikke sagged, suddenly realizing how tired she was.

“Now what?” she asked Aruna.

He leaned in and kissed her. It was a good answer.

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