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    THIRTY-SEVEN


    <h2 style="text-transform: uppercase">EMERYN</h2>


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    Freyn’s face morphed into Emeryn’s mother’s visage, except for her smile. Taera grinned maliciously as vines erupted from the earth, sending dirt flying in all directions. A thick green vine struck out at Emeryn, shattering her arm.


    Emeryn fell to her knees. The pain was overwhelming, and it suddenly doubled. Gasping out, Emeryn watched with wonder as her broken limb twisted back into place. Her bones snapping together.


    Tomford wasn’t even looking in her direction as he was busily untangling the vines wrapped around Wade’s legs.


    Emeryn quickly grafted an arm of stone and struck the wide-eyed god in her stupid face, wiping off her hideous grin. She heard a terrible crunch as Taera was flung back. The dread from their last meeting sprouted to the surface, but Emeryn desperately pushed it aside. “Where is Freyn?”


    “She’s alive, for now,” Taera said, her voice dripping with satisfaction.


    Growers emerged from between the trees. Ignoring his trapped legs, Wade sent bolt after bolt of lightning down from the clear blue sky, crashing into the Kin and tearing them apart.


    “No!” Emeryn shouted. “Don’t hurt them!”


    “We don’t have a choice!” Wade shouted back, finally kicking free of the vines. To punctate his statement, he released another bolt. Even in the damp, a patch of grass caught fire. It spread quickly, effectively cutting off many of the growers’ approach.


    Taera raised her hands and flowers bloomed all around her. A pungent smell followed. Without warning, the flowers all released a green, sickly looking gas in the group’s direction. Wade immediately threw a gust of wind, redirecting the noxious gas back at Taera.


    Emeryn opened a chasm in the ground beneath Taera’s feet, hoping to trap her. The attempt failed. The earth was filled with roots and vines and what little Emeryn could manipulate made no difference against Taera and her powers.


    A vine shot out for Wade, but Tomford stepped in and took the powerful lashing. He remained standing, uninjured from the attack.


    Wade answered with another lightning bolt, this one striking down on Taera. Her vines blew apart and the hair atop the Halvgud’s head caught fire. Other than that, the lightning strike had little apparent effect.


    “How are we supposed to hurt her?” Tomford asked as he healed Wade again. A needle bush had grown behind the Loftian, stinging him with venomous thorns.


    “You can’t,” Taera said, a multitude of plants growing around her. “And your little healing will not last long, follower of Anea.”


    Emeryn spoke under her breath. “Keep her talking a little longer.”


    The fire, along with Wade’s continuous lightning strikes, kept the growers at bay. Tomford squared up to Taera. “I am no follower of that mad, dead creature.”


    Taera nodded to the bag still clutched tight in Wade’s hand. “She is very much alive, and you know it.”


    “For as long as I draw breath, she will not be allowed back into Vatnbloet,” Tomford spat.


    Taera laughed in his face. “You overestimate yourself, healer. Thus far, all I’ve done is play the role of a grower. By now, you should know I’m so much more.”


    The ground shook beneath their feet, sending them all sprawling, including Taera.


    “Tom! Hold her down!” Emeryn shouted. She had begun reaching downward the moment she realized that they were trapped.


    Deep down beneath the surface, an unfathomable power roared in an endless inferno waiting to be released. She learned of it as a child.


    <i>Volcano.</i>


    Even the word itself conveyed strength and fury. Unreachable depths beneath the ground.


    Emeryn refused to accept that only nature could bring about a volcano. Today, the very core of the earth would dance to her machinations.


    Emeryn rended the earth beneath Taera’s feet after painstakingly having coaxed the molten rock steadily up from the depths. Hot molten lava surged and Tomford pressed down on Taera’s smaller frame. Taera’s wail mixed with Tomford’s scream as the lava engulfed them.


    Together, they burned until Tomford could withstand it no longer. He pulled back, his arms melted down into nubs. Even as he fell back, Emeryn watched as his arms grew back with incredible speed.


    Taera’s face and body were submerged in the lava, leaving behind a melted hunk of flailing flesh. Her scream cut off as her throat burned away. She thrashed once more before vanishing.


    In the absence of their god, the growers fled. Emeryn and her group did not take up pursuit. They stepped away from the outpouring of lava, and Emeryn attempted to close the rupture in the earth. Any attempt to stem the flow ended in an explosion of dirt and sharp pieces of rock.


    “I don’t think I can stem it,” she said.


    Wade stared at the glowing molten rock. “You’ll have to teach me how to do that.”


    “Ow,” Tomford said, flexing his regenerating fingers.


    “I’m sorry, Tom,” Emeryn said.


    “I’ll be fine,” Tomford replied, his jaw set against the pain.


    “Is there anything I can do?”


    He shook his head.


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Emeryn took another look at Tomford’s fingers and scratched at her left shoulder. “Hey Tom?”


    “Yes?”


    “How are you able to do that?”


    Tomford flexed his new arms. “Honestly, I didn’t know I could. From what I’ve been taught, it shouldn’t be possible. Od told me that limiting what we think is possible makes it impossible, kind of like your little trick there. That shouldn’t be possible either.”


    Emeryn tried to brush off his comment. “That is just moving earth and rock around.”


    “And how far should a geomancer be able to reach with her power?”


    Her cheeks reddened. “Not that far.”


    “Exactly.”


    “So can you regrow her arm now, or what?” Wade asked.


    Tomford flexed his fingers again, now fully regrown. His skin was paler than the rest of him and missing the many callouses and scars as before. “Let’s try. Come here.”


    Emeryn’s heart was beating faster than during her battle with Taera. The thought of her former arm returning made her tear up.


    Once she got close enough, Tomford put a hand to where her arm used to be and closed his eyes. “My glow is nearly spent. I’ll need to recover, but I can try.”


    Nothing happened. Tomford sighed and opened his eyes again, leaning back in exhaustion. “I’m sorry, Emeryn, but I think it’s been too long. Your body no longer recognizes the missing arm as an injury. This,” he said, gesturing to her entire body, “is what you’re supposed to be. I can’t heal you, because there’s nothing to heal.”


    Emeryn did her best to keep it together, wiping at her burning eyes. “That’s fine. Thank you for trying.”


    “So, what’s our next step?” Wade asked.


    “We pursue them.”


    “You want to chase the growers?” Tomford asked.


    Emeryn nodded grimly. “We follow Taera. This will be our only chance to talk to her.”


    “No longer looking to kill her?” Wade asked.


    “We need her. I understand that now. Also, I don’t think we can. Freyn will be held captive at their camp if she is still alive. My mother might even be there as well.”


    “What about that?” Tomford asked, gesturing to the lava that slowly flowed out of the fissure Emeryn created.


    “I can’t stop it. Good thing we aren’t in the middle of a bustling city.”


    “Let’s go then,” Wade said impatiently.


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    * * *


    When they walked into the camp, the growers fell back and allowed them to enter. Emeryn’s sister walked with their escort. Kienna looked worn but excited and kept glancing in Emeryn’s direction and smiling. They were too far apart to exchange any words, but her sister’s presence and wellbeing was reassuring.


    They approached a shelter constructed from intertwining trees and vines. Taera waited for them on the same throne she sat on when Emeryn met her last in the Fourth Circle.


    Taera’s face and body were a mass of charred remains. She stared at them silently while the growers shuffled into position, arraying themselves along the walls.


    Emeryn broke the silence. “We’ve come to talk.”


    Her words hung between them for several breaths before Taera moved. The Halvgud transformed. Charred skin and flesh fell away, and her body rippled. A flash of Emeryn’s mother appeared before disappearing just as quickly.


    Taera settled on the form of a young woman, the same as the one Emeryn met down in the cave. The growers all gasped and their eyes filled with a sickening love.


    Once her new form settled into place, Taera raised an eyebrow. “Talk? Believe it or not, but my kind still feels pain. After what you dare do to me, you wish to talk? Where are my siblings?” Her voice was that of an adolescent, matching her form.


    “Not here and you’ll never find them without us.”


    Taera’s eyes hardened. “I’ll kill you.”


    Emeryn swallowed hard but didn’t let her gaze leave Taera, not for a second. “Do so and they will be lost to you forever.”


    Taera glared. “Perhaps I don’t need them.”


    A tense silence settled over the room, broken only when Tomford joined in the conversation. “We are fighting to keep the Prime out of Maydian. Rather than futilely hiding away, you must join us. With your help and those of your brothers and sisters, perhaps we might stand a chance.”


    “Must I?”


    “It’s either that or die, my dear,” Heradion said, suddenly stepping out from a dark corner.


    “You!”


    Heradion gave her a small wave. “Hello!”


    Taera scoffed. “The Jester is your ally. I should have known you were not fit to handle the complex magic traps down in the chamber.” She sneered at Heradion. “To think you’d come before me again after the thrashing you received last time!”


    “If you look a little closer, even you should see that I am no longer the man I used to be.”


    She narrowed her eyes, then leaned back, eyes wide. “No.”


    Heradion grinned. “Oh, yes.”


    Emeryn looked from one to the other, confused. “What is happening right now?”


    Taera vanished from the chair without another word.


    “No,” Heradion said.


    Taera reappeared with a wild look in her eyes. “Why are you here? Is it because of that mad dog you call a friend?” Emeryn was surprised to hear the shrillness in Taera’s voice. She sounded terrified.


    “I’m not here to harm you or force you to act against your will. Just wanted to make sure these children remain unharmed.”


    “Why?” Taera asked, her face a mask of incredulity.


    Heradion shrugged. “Just hear them out. Then, if you want to stay hidden, then do so. What does it matter to me if you decide to rot away into obscurity?”


    “Make her release the Kin,” Emeryn said.


    Heradion glanced in her direction. “No.”


    “Why not?”


    “Like I just said, I’m not going to make her do anything.”


    Taera licked her lips, glancing uncertainly between Heradion to Emeryn. “So, what you’re saying is you hope to stand against the Prime of Chaos?”


    “We’re currently working on denying him entry, but we can’t hold on forever. We need your help and those of the other Halvgudar.”


    “Our friend, Sarien, asked us to retrieve the cubes and you,” Tomford added.


    Taera turned back to Heradion. “Sarien? How many of these Maydians are you carting around, Guardian?”


    “Just a few. He’s the Prime Flow of Order, Taera. You must have felt his awakening.”


    “I’m feeling a lot of things these days,” she grunted. “You know I came here for some peace and quiet, to hide from father’s inevitable escape from that farcical little cell.”


    “You enslaved an entire kingdom!” Emeryn shouted, unable to contain herself. “The four of you enslaved an entire world!”


    Taera waved the heated words aside. “Now you’re asking me to work against my Prime. You’re familiar with one who can actually open the cell doors in my siblings’ prison. There’s some weight behind that bluster then, at least.”


    “If you don’t help us, do you really think you’ll escape Wyndemir’s wrath?” Tomford asked.


    The Halvgud rolled her eyes and turned back to Heradion. “What have you been teaching them? Him? His? Wrath?”


    “They still have a lot to learn, but what he says is true. You know this.”


    “I have conditions,” Taera said.


    “These are the terms,” Emeryn said, pointing at the growers standing still like statues around them. “You release the Kin. All of you will join us in the fight. And once we’ve defeated Wyndemir, you leave Maydian forever.”


    Taera gave her a long look, began to say something, then stopped. She shook her head and sighed, waved in the air, as if shooing a particularly annoying gnat. The growers all collapsed to the ground, panting, shouting, and crying.


    Kienna called out over the cries. “Emeryn?”


    Emeryn ran over to her sister. “Kienna! Are you all right?”


    “She’s gone,” Kienna said, clutching her head. “She is gone from my head!”