Page 14 of The Enduring Universe (The Rages Trilogy #3)

AHILYA

Her desire amplified by the vriksh, Ahilya reached into the earth.

She did not know what she was supposed to do, only that she had to find a way to protect Irshar and the planet, protect Iravan before the Virohi destroyed him, and the Virohi before they unleashed chaos. The vriksh listened to her unspoken commands and obeyed on its own.

Massive roots, each as thick as a house, plunged into the soil, crisscrossing the jungle and intertwining into tight nodes as deep as the planet. The planet wobbled, and held, tightening around the tree.

Iravan’s voice flickered in her mind, Let me go.

Ahilya shook her head, unsure if she could really hear him.

In her mind’s eye, she saw the tree rear back, whipping in all directions, leaves raining down, branches creaking. It expanded within Irshar, the trunk growing massive, shooting upward to blot out the sky. Roots rippled out, curling all around Irshar’s broken architecture, supporting roads and bridges where they fell apart, and wrapping thick tentacles around buildings that had caved in. Before, the vriksh had been a gigantic tree, but it had limited its reach to Irshar’s plaza. Now, it exploded, swelling and surging all around the ashram, catching fragmenting structures, wrapping itself gently around huddling citizens in protection.

Sluggishly, Ahilya watched the tree looming inside and beyond her. Branches burst into existence, and the jungle shrieked.

The vriksh waited coiled with her heart. Please, she begged, gasping. Please.

The tree gave all of itself to her.

And, knowing what to do, Ahilya directed the Virohi toward the vriksh. The Virohi were one of her; they could not deny her call, not when they were a hive mind and they had learned to see themselves as her.

They responded against their will, and their voices merged with the memories of a thousand years, screaming, weeping, grieving.

Ahilya pulled her many selves together. She saw the vriksh rising higher and higher, binding the Virohi to itself as she desired. Branches wrapped around the trunk in tight coils like a human hugging their own body. Roots curled, like fingers closing. Underneath Irshar, more roots secured the planet, clutching with hair-thin fibers, straining, containing the Virohi within themselves.

A cry, and the mirrored Ahilyas shrieked, mouths wide open, eyes wild.

The vriksh bound itself. It shook, and Ahilya sank to her knees with the effort, her entire body quivering.

Iravan cried out, a sound of wretched despair and sorrow—

Until—

Silence.

She snapped back to her reality, eyes focusing on Eskayra and the architects. Her mind buzzed like she had a fever. Her breath came out in heaves.

The voices of the Virohi whispered, but it was in a manner of an aftershock, a phantom presence in her mind. She started to shiver.

Between her brows, she caught a glimpse of Iravan still floating above the ashram, head tilted back, arms spread out like wings. The feather cloak continued to flutter, and he was a picture of both stillness and motion. There was shock in his posture, a deep amazement that bordered on agony. Could he see the vriksh? It was tall enough to shelter him too. What was he thinking? Would he stop now?

The glimpse shattered, and Ahilya retched, throwing up. Eskayra bent to her.

“What in rages happened?”

the woman asked, frantic.

“What did you do?”

I won.

“I trapped the Virohi,”

Ahilya sputtered, wiping her mouth.

“They’re in the vriksh now.”

She cut off, only now realizing the eerie silence surrounding her. The jungle had stopped rumbling. The storm that had begun suddenly had ended, just as abruptly. Trees were motionless again, in strange postures of pain, caught midway toward being destroyed. Sap seemed frozen, amber stuck to trunks like honey, and the earth was torn, great gaping crevasses riven with a thousand tiny streams.

But all was still, and Ahilya couldn’t believe that only a few minutes ago, she had been lamenting that stillness. It was so precious. The alternative was so much worse. She could see how much worse.

With Eskayra’s help, she straightened. The architects had stopped screaming. Chaiyya was still on the forest floor, but she was sitting up, half supported by Kamala and Meena, the two non-architect nurses who had evidently revived her. Other non-architects of Eskayra’s team were helping their architect comrades, but all of them looked around them at the broken jungle in deep shock and horror. Perhaps they knew how close they had come to death.

“A-Ahilya,”

Chaiyya said trembling. That was all she could get out before bursting into sobs.

Eskayra pulled Ahilya aside.

“What happened to them?”

she asked in a low voice, gesturing with her head toward the architects.

Ahilya met her gaze.

“The Moment is gone.”

Eskayra’s eyes grew wide. She tapped at her citizen ring but it did not respond. With the Moment gone, all sungineering in Irshar was dead.

“How long will it take us to get back if we go now?”

Ahilya asked.

“If we don’t stop to rest at all, and with no trajection from the architects…”

Eskayra considered, and Ahilya tried to make the same calculation.

It had taken them three days to find this city site, but they had meandered through the jungle, finding the path. Chaiyya had reached it in only a few hours using a trajected nest. Without architects it would take them…

“Maybe by dawn?”

Eskayra said.

“Or tomorrow afternoon? If we do not stop at all.”

“We won’t stop.”

Ahilya said.

“Gather them all, Esk. We must go.”