A Day of Fallen Night (The Roots of Chaos)

It was not the return she had expected. When her boots touched the snow of Mount Ipyeda for the first time in over a year, she ran straight for the bell tower. Below, the sorrowers called from their nests.

She knew what to do.

She knew how to protect Seiiki.

Only the moon shone, but she would have known her way in complete darkness. She stopped before the giant bell, and there was the inscription on its waist, the one she now began to understand:

TO HOLD THE RISEN FIRE AT BAY

UNTIL THE NIGHT DESCENDS

Dumai wrapped a rope around each hand and hauled back the striker, the great log she and Kanifa had oiled and cleaned for years, straining with all her might. She flung her weight the other way, hurling the beam towards ancient iron.

The Queen Bell rang out.

She let go of the ropes. The sound rolled low and deep, through her every bone, booming into the black night.

Little by little, it tapered away. Dumai slumped into the snow, listening to the quiet beneath the roar.

Perhaps no one would answer. It was winter, and the dead of night, and no one had ever heard the bell calling. No one who still drew breath.

Somewhere below, a second bell clanged. After another period of silence, a third answered – farther away, but loud enough to be heard above the wind.

The music pealed across the city, and with each strike and toll came another, far away. Dumai rallied. She used every drop of strength in her body to draw back the hammer and swing it again – over and over, until her arms were shaking and her knees gave way.

The summoning filled the Seiikinese night. It rippled out from the Rayonti Basin, west to Sidupi and north to Ginura, east to Isunka and all the way south, to the stormy hook of Ampiki.

And at last – at long last – the gods woke from their slumber. From deep in the rivers and down in the lakes; from the harbours, the old mangrove forests, they rose. Each and every star appeared to splinter into thousands more, the dark sky dazzling with dragons.

***

And somewhere, a woman awoke with a cry as the figure in her dream flaked to pieces and blew away like ash, and with it, the long thread between them, leaving her alone.