Page 139 of The Surviving Sky
The tunnel exploded in silence.
Ahilya gasped, startled, as the rock disintegrated around her into soft green dust, filling her vision. She didn’t know howlong—itwas a deepbreath—
The dust sparkled, thenvanished.
They were submerged in deep darkness, the first true darkness of this strange habitat. Iravan’s light muted to a twilight glow. Ahilya blinked and squinted. She could make out shapes in the yawning shadows. Grass crunched underneath her feet.
“What did you do?” she whispered.
“I brought us to clarity,” he said quietly.
“Where are we?”
He didn’t answer, but his hand tightened over hers in assurance.
“Iravan, thisdarkness…”Ahilya said, swallowing. “You could make light.”
She felt more than saw his head shake. “It’s best not to disturb them, I think.”
Ahilya frowned, not understanding. Her sight adjusted to Iravan’s dim light, and shadows grew, like great hills aroundthem—
They were not alone.
Eyes glinted out of the darkness, monstrous great eyes, yellow and green and red.
Yakshas.
Ahilya’s mouth went dry. Her heart pounded so hard against her chest, she thought it might rupture.
Iravan strode forward into the dark, sensing his own path.
Ahilya kept close to him, trembling against her wont, as snarls filled the darkness. She had ventured out to study yakshas before, butthis—toknow they were truly architects, trajectors of the highestkind—complexbeings—Shecouldn’t stop shaking. Something breathed by her ear, a heavy presence. Once, she saw a tusk, with what looked like a sungineering tracker attached to it; another time, a jagged set of teeth.
Ahilya gripped Iravan’s bicep, and he put his arm around her but carried on, oblivious to the snarls that filled the dark. She imagined them walking through an endless cavern full of gigantic sleeping yakshas, although she could see nothing but the grass under her, illuminated one step at a time. The path sloped up; they began climbing. Ahilya kept her eyes in front of her. She focused on Iravan’s touch, tried not to bolt as much as her body told herto—
Iravan stopped.
His light grew a touch brighter.
They’d reached a flat mound of grass. Silver glinted, and then a rustling came to Ahilya. Wings unfurled, then shook out, and Iravan grew brighter. Ahilya squinted. Less than twenty feet away, perched on a rockyoutcrop—
The gigantic falcon-yaksha.
Despite being prepared for it, the creature’s size took Ahilya aback.
The bird towered over them like a great building. It ruffled its silvery-gray shoulders, then unfurled its majestic wings. The yaksha looked down at the two of them, its eyes glinting black, rings forming in the pupils.
Ahilya froze.
It was going to traject.
“Iravan,” she began in terror.
Light burst on Iravan’s skin, the patterns of spirals merging with delicate winged patterns.
The yaksha cried, a high, chilling sound.
On the short path toward the creature, a vortex of blinding blue-green light erupted from the grass. It shot into the sky, seemingly without beginning or end.
