Page 27 of The Surviving Sky
His skin began to crack and bleed. Spines grew on his back, in his neck, through his eyes. He opened his mouth, but only dust blew out, tiny gray-white seedlings rushing out of him. His gums rotted, spikes under his nails, twigs yanking his hair, and he thought,Yes, good, rip, bleed, die, seed, survive. He recognized a tiny batteringinterference—hisown—ashis trajecting dust mote tried to stop from ripping his plant self apart. He smiled through bloody teeth and pressed the pain deeper into himself. The agony was beautiful; he wept in itsrapture—
Iravan blinked.
He wrenched himself free, tearing through the grip of the magnaroot. He scrambled away from the star in panic.
The visions separated, but Iravan continued to retreat through the Moment, whimpering, terrified. Dangerous,dangerousto have the Two Visions merge. An architect could lose himself and wither away, never to return into his own body. He emptied his stomach on the nest’s floor. His trajection light faded.
The nest began to dissolve.
Thorns crumbled over their heads into dust, then a branch cracked and popped in shards. Ahilya whimpered, eyes frantic, as she watched their slim defense breaking.
“What is he doing?” Oam shrieked. “Is he crazy?”
Ahilya stared at him, hair disheveled, blood trickling down her forehead, beautiful and terrified. Her hands trembled as she tried to physically hold the nest together, as though anything she could do would make a difference.
Desperately, Iravan leaped back toward the magnaroot star. With no time for subtlety, he jammed his constellation lines, hundreds of them, into the star’s depths in an inartistic, inelegant command. The nest stopped dissolving. It thrummed in fury again. The constellation lines reared up, vibrating in his grip. The wrath of the magnaroot was almost too powerful. He was going to be sucked into it again, visions merging; he couldn’t let thathappen—
Abruptly, the nest stilled.
Iravan’s heart soared, a brief moment of victory.
Too late he saw a boulder sail through the air toward them, a wrecking ball.
Desperately, Iravan flung up a hand, clawing his constellation lines to grip the outer filaments of the nest. He jammed the branches of the nest into each other, splintering the magnaroot, knitting it through itself.
The boulder crashed into the nest. They hurtled on the forest floor, tumbling, bodies crashing into him, but the orb held,rages, it held.
How had the magnaroot known the boulder would fly toward them? It was a plant, it wasn’t a dust mote, it shouldn’t have seen thepossibilities—butthere was no time.
Iravan steadied himself in the Moment, generating one constellation line after another, tying them to the nest, using as much of the magnaroot’s desire to splinter itself as he could. Intent on destroying itself, the magnaroot leaped to obey him this time. Shoots ruptured into each other. The nest’s crust became a crisscross of branches. It became tighter, denser, and a surge of hope, of triumph, shot through Iravan. He’d done it; he had found a way.
In the next instant, soft white seeds flew out of the fractures, filling the air.
The bright light from his body diffused, and now they were all coughing, wheezing, choking, even as they were flung around. Ahilya’s eyes bulged, her hand on throat, and he knew he was killing her, he was killing all of them.
NO, he screamed soundlessly.
Through his trajection he could feel the magnaroot’s ecstasy at the release.
There had to be a way out to safety. There had to be!
Iravan flailed around in the Moment, hunting, cursing. He tried it all again, trajecting constellation lines into the star to stop the plant from rupturing itself, but the nest thrummed and flung itself into the air. He changed the pattern to force the nest into stillness, but the magnaroot waited until a boulder or a tree trunk rammed into it, shaking them. He attacked it, using its own desire against it, but the nest filled with tiny white seedlings, choking them, and Ahilya was becoming purple. Again, and again, and again.
He couldn’t outthink it. He couldn’t do anything. There was no way out. He’d exhausted all possibilities, all combinations.
The magnaroot taunted him.
He stared at it, the corners of the Moment they were caught in.
To the rages with you, he thought.I’ll take you from the inside. And he flung himself at the star, merging his Two Visions.
Blackness.
***
They tore into themselves.
The ecstasy made them weep.
