Atai: The World of Yesod, #5

By Marzia Bosoni

The Keys of the Power have been retrieved, but the mission is not yet over and now reaches its climax. The chosen ones are more aware than ever that everything they have experienced and faced could prove useless and that the prophecy might demand the ultimate sacrifice from them.

The fortress of Atai guards secrets that the chosen ones must uncover before they can bring life back to their dying world, and the Enemy will go to any lengths to prevent them. Through the realms of dreams, at the junction of life and death, Avir finds the answers he was searching for, while his friends must face an old enemy looking for a terrible revenge. A revenge that will also affect Avir, and could take him away from his friends for ever.

The Errant must decide again what part he will play in the final decisive battle; he is supported by the noble Se’ara, “Smiling eyes”, and the great wisdom of a people remembered only in legend, the Gliders of the Mountains.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BadPress
• Release date: Aug 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781667461830

Book preview

Chapter 1 – Old grudges, new traps

The man walked slowly backwards and forwards: he seemed weighed down by his age as never before. He had been so close to success then, suddenly, victory had slipped out of his grasp because of four ignorant children.

Yet he had never underestimated them, even for an instant, since their first meeting. The fragile boy from Air, completely in the dark about his great power, was nonetheless a dangerous opponent because his connection to the Power was much deeper than he ever imagined. And the chosen one from Water! He had immediately recognised her as Leli’s daughter, so proud, conceited Rani had failed again!

The other two chosen ones were not, apparently, particularly dangerous, but he was sure that, if the Power had called them, they also held the ancient magic that had first prevailed a thousand years earlier.

But he knew what to expect now, unlike that first time. Now he knew the name of the force that had beaten the Enemy in the distant past, and he would be prepared. If that magic was repeated, there would be nothing he could do to stop it, of course, because its power was far stronger than his knowledge and abilities; so he had to stop the chosen ones or prevent them understanding.

The first attempt, at Oldstone, had been a sort of test of the skills of the Power’s chosen champions, without exposing himself too much, but things had gone very differently from how he had expected.

When he had sent Rani to follow the tracks of the girl from Water, he had warned him not to fail again. Rani was a powerful Zalyan, but too sure of himself and, above all, too keen on personal grudges. So his failure had not surprised him too much. Still, from what he had learnt, Rani had managed to kill Leli, before allowing himself to be eliminated by the chosen ones.

What stung most, though, was the failure of his neat plan to compromise the power of the Key of Fire. Fooling Argash, the older brother of the chosen one from Fire, had not been too difficult, but it had still taken time and resources to organise all the details of the set-up. He had been sure the news that his father was still alive would make Argash so blindly obsessed that he would not check the truth of such a faint possibility too closely. But he had also counted on the fact that young Esh’s love for his father and, above all, the guilt that still gnawed at him, would make him listen to his brother and free his father with the help of the Key of Fire.

Then the Key’s power would have been corrupted, perverted, and it would have been easy for him to control it and make it do what he wanted. But Esh’s loyalty to the Power had overcome the doubt in his heart, and the clever plan to get hold of the Key had failed miserably.

And now the four reunited Keys were travelling towards Atai.

The man stopped and a thin smile appeared on his face: the chosen ones still lacked one thing, but they could not know that, and until they did know the Enemy would not be beaten!

Nokel walked decisively towards the courtyard. For many years he had been an esteemed councillor of the Governor of Earth and had known how to move in the shadows to stir up rivalry between his kingdom and the others, and gain more power. But when the Company of Seekers had escaped from Oldstone he had quickly fallen from grace, to the point of having to leave Earth’s capital in a hurry and hide in a safe place from which he could carry on his work. Before leaving, though, he had given himself the small personal satisfaction of killing the weak and rather useless Governor Erden, throwing the whole of Oldstone into a panic.

Then he had taken refuge in a big, isolated house belonging to faithful allies, just across the border in the kingdom of Air. The Enemy certainly had more servants than in the past, but since the Power had vanished their numbers should have grown rapidly. Instead, many desperate people, who had stopped resisting before, had started believing in the Power and in the future again, which was all the chosen ones’ fault. It had not been the growing success of the mission that inspired this new hope, so much as the four children’s behaviour: people who met them had been so affected by it that they had changed profoundly. People who had lost the will to fight took courage again; those who had resigned themselves to their fate had started looking for solutions; those who had dragged themselves wearily through life found the energy to start again. And, especially in the villages on the borders of the kingdoms, people started working together again.

Nokel gave a disgusted scowl. With his own eyes he had seen people in a village near the border of Earth going up the hills and using the power of vibration to break down the mountain peaks and allow the wind to reach the suffocating people in Air.

Idiots! he thought scornfully. Weak creatures that don’t deserve to serve my master.

But the ex-Councillor was irritated by knowing the unexpected effect that the chosen ones’ journey had on people; he had seen many of his supporters in Oldstone revolt against him in defence of the four brats.

He increased his pace again and reached the inner courtyard, where two tired, dirty men were waiting for him. Nokel looked them over briefly, then gave them a curt nod.

They bowed clumsily to him, but stayed silent.

Impatient, he burst out, Well? What news do you have for me?

The younger cleared his throat. They have retrieved the Key of Fire.

I know that, useless! And if you were going to add that the trap at the cave failed, don’t! I’ll feed your insolent tongue to the hawks!

The older man pushed the younger aside and hurriedly bowed again. They’re riding towards Atai.

Very good, Nokel commented drily. We must be ready for when they leave Atai.

The two men looked at each other, obviously confused, then the older one, looking firmly at the ground, tried to reply. But… sir, if we let them reach Atai, it’ll be too late! We must stop them before that.

Nokel had a far-away look. No. They will leave Atai confused and slightly demoralised and they will head for the only place they think they will find answers. They will lower their guard because they will be thinking about other things, and they will be easy prey.

But, sir…

The man’s voice stopped abruptly at Nokel’s suddenly icy, cruel glare.

Do you dare doubt what I say? I follow the master’s orders, but if you think I’m wrong, you can ask him yourself. Would you like me to take you to him?

The two men shook violently and bowed so low they almost touched the ground. The one who had spoken responded quickly, No, no, sir! Excuse me. I obey your orders. I spoke without thinking; it won’t happen again!

Nokel put his hand on the shaking man’s shoulder, and smiled as he spoke. I know it won’t happen again.

He nodded to other men who were minding the horses and as they grasped the unfortunate man by the arms he just said, Give his tongue to the spotted buzzards and make him watch them eat it.

He turned away, ignoring the man’s desperate cries, and started walking across the wide courtyard, going over the details of his plan. They would catch one of the chosen ones, because the death of even one of them would mean their mission failed. The impudent brat who had made fun of him, cleverly pretending to send him the Key, would pay with his life for the insult: Avir of Air would be dead within a few days. And the others would follow him.

Chapter 2 – Desolate lands

He woke very agitated; his body was covered in sweat and shivering for no reason, and his heart thudded furiously in his ears. He closed his eyes to try and shut out the images that tormented him. He knew exactly what he had seen because it was not the first time he had had this dream: for more than a week it had obsessed him every night, with new details each time. To start with he had only seen death and destruction, then the single lights had arrived, ignored by the Enemy. In later dreams other lights had joined the first ones, and now he had seen them heading towards a very familiar place: Atai.

He knew those images, he knew the dream was about things that had happened a thousand years earlier, when the Power had first arrived in Yesod and defeated the Enemy, but what were the lights? And, more to the point, why did these visions torment him every night, as though they had a message just for him?

He wanted to find the answers and could think of only one place where he could find them, but first he had to finish what he had begun.

The Company of Seekers had been riding tirelessly with the Errant for over a week.

Two nights ago, away to the south, they had seen the red glow of the capital, Slowfire, and watched it for a long time before going to sleep. They had nothing to fear from the Governor of Fire and the Council in the capital, having been welcomed there as friends a few weeks earlier. Now that they had retrieved the fourth and final Key they would be hailed as heroes, but they had decided to go straight to Atai without any detours.

They had the four Keys and could feel themselves nearing the end of their mission, but they remained vigilant and alert, all for different reasons.

Mayim often mulled over the words of the second prophecy, where it said that the chosen ones might have to pay with their lives for the success of the mission; even though Avir had told her not to think that was their real meaning, the words of the prophecy still had a sinister fascination for her. She was also not really sure she wanted to find out what would happen once the Power had returned and they all went their separate ways.

She glanced at Esh, who was riding next to her, but he was concentrating on picking up any sign of danger. The terrible trap they had escaped a few days earlier had made them aware of a dreadful adversary, someone who knew far too much about their mission. So he stayed alert, knowing they would not be safe until they had reached Atai.

Avir rode at the front of the group. The dark shadows under his eyes stood out starkly against his pale skin, proof of his tiredness and worry. He could feel the answers he had pursued for so long slipping away like sand through his fingers, and the closer they got to Atai the more he felt the urgency of something he could not name.

Karka listened to the slow beat of her heart and every beat brought an echo of her friends’ thoughts. She felt that the mission was still missing something, but she did not want to dwell on the thought of what would happen after they had taken the Keys to Atai. At the same time, she felt an evil presence around them.

Behind her, Khor rode in silence. The Errant still had a part to play before the mission was finished.

When Atai had been built, a thousand years earlier, each of the four kingdoms had agreed to give up a small part of its territory around the fortress, so the name Atai referred to the whole area extending a few miles from the magic fortress to the surrounding kingdoms. As Atai was the centre and heart of their world, all four nations looked after the area, which flourished, summer and winter, with the most generous gifts of the four kingdoms. Even the border zones were looked after with great care, so that travellers could get to Atai easily.

Unfortunately, in the dark centuries that had overtaken Yesod, those areas were quickly abandoned and forgotten, and brambles and wild animals had taken over. The previously flowery valley of Atai was now a dull plain where everything grew in disorder, and the border areas between the kingdoms and the heart of Yesod were isolated and hostile, as though they wanted to discourage travellers. But no-one went to Atai now.

After by-passing the night-time glow of Slowfire, the children began pushing their way through this desolate land. They found what was left of a wide road that, centuries before, must have been the main road to Atai but was now totally neglected. They stopped in silence to admire the splendours of the past. The road had been built with great slabs of black lava rock, on which skilled sculptors had carved innumerable scenes of the four kingdoms. Beside the road stood obsidian, garnet and yellow-veined marble statues. Here and there, inns and other buildings had let travellers stop for the night.

The chosen ones observed the neglect for some time. Many of the slabs were uneven and broken and the finely-carved scenes had almost been erased by the storms of time. In some places the road hardly existed, blocked by thick thorn bushes and tall trees that had shattered the great slabs with their knobbly roots. Between the remaining slabs grew clumps of dangerous sharpling and other strange plants, creeping and spreading over the stone. The statues that had decorated the road were hardly more than a memory, their old bases overrun by plants and sad little scraps were scattered about, smoothed by time: a hand, a head, some kind of raptor…

The buildings that had welcomed travellers were now piles of old rubble covered in plants.

Everything looked forgotten, despairing; even the air seemed so sad that it repelled anyone foolish enough