Dream of a City of Ruin: Dreams of QaiMaj Book II

Chapter 15: Queen of Chraun: Maia

When the moon was a crescent again, just a few days before they saw the great lake in the distance, Maia thought she would bleed as she normally did during that phase, but for the second time in over two months, her blood didn't come. She had not cast the bones since before the Dhuciri had captured them, and she felt a strong urge to do so. She resisted the urge for several days, recalling her misery as a maiden when she had used the bones to learn of her future mate. Was this question important, or was it too personal and frivolous?

On the fifth night of the waxing crescent, they were still traversing the shore of the huge lake. The waters were corrosive to the skin, so they could not bathe in it, but Stasia and Dynat used their powers to clean enough water for drinking, and they found a food source in strange but edible fish that Dynat shocked out of the water with his white fire.

Dynat insisted they approach the ruins with great caution. Stasia did not think they were the ruins she had Dreamed of, but could not be certain.

And still Maia had not bled. She could bear it no longer. When they made camp for the day a few yards from the lakeshore, she sat cross-legged on the stony ground and pulled a particular pouch from her belt. There was no way to make a fire, so she sprinkled a little of the urchin powder onto a flat rock. Dynat lounged nearby on his cloak, watching her, and she gestured at the tiny blue pile.

"Will you light it for me?"

"What is this?" Dynat asked.

"Urchin spine powder. It gives visions to the few Khell who have the power to see ahead."

He looked into her eyes with his deep, searching gaze that made her feel as if he could see her every secret, then abruptly turned away. Stasia sat up on her parka, watching them intently.

The pile of powder burst into flame, and smoldered on the rock. Blue smoke rose in tiny wisps. It was not quite like using a fire, but Maia's head grew heavy, her eyelids drowsy. She spread her mat and placed the bones in her palm. They rattled softly in the silent night as she shook them, then scattered them over the mat.

Crossbones. Darkness comes. Stinking death and darkness. Dust. Everything dust.

Maia walked over a wasteland under sparkling stars. The sun blazed to her right and a shadow ran over the ground at her left. Overhead, the stars went out one by one, each one eclipsed by the wings of a Dhuciri steed, until there were more Dhuciri in the sky than stars. The sun burned against her skin, and the shadow chilled her to her core. Out of the darkness of the shadow made darker by the Dhuciri, silver beasts with razor teeth sprang. They tore at her body, leaving bloody slashes over her skin.

A fire sprang up in her belly and burned hot and painful. She walked on. A jumble of black rocks rose on the horizon, and she waded through rushing water to reach them. Hakua stood before the jumble, calling out to her. When she drew closer, she could see that he was crumbling away in rivulets of dust. All of the Liathua stood beside him, crumbling into dust as well. She looked down at her hands and the wind blew her fingers away in a dark stream of dust.

Dynat caught the dust and put it back on her arms, putting her hands back together. He knelt at her feet. "Queen of Chraun," he said, hands on her belly. "Burn." Her belly burned hotter, hot as the sun.

Maia started awake with a yell. "My hands," she cried, raising them to her face. They were both solid flesh, not dust at all. She heaved a sigh of relief, and then she realized that her belly was still burning. She looked down, expecting to see her tunic ablaze, but it was not. "Why . . ."

Her womb felt like a boiling bag over a bonfire. She stood and staggered forward, sweat beading her brow. Dynat caught her in his arms, but Stasia's cool hands reached under her tunic. Maia groaned in pain. It felt as though she were birthing the sun.