“Yes, but…”

“Do not question me.” He opened his arms wide. “Have you forgotten what I have given you? Others abandoned you, but I did not. I built for you this paradise. Are you so ungrateful? Do my gifts mean so little to you?”

Nirati stepped away. “No, Grandfather. I love you-I love all you have done for me. So do my brothers.”

Qiro laughed, but Nirati found no pleasure in the sound. “They have no idea what I have done or what I can do. They have no chance of understanding. Not your brothers, not Nelesquin, none of them. Even you refuse to understand who I am and what I am.”

With a contemptuous flick of a finger, Qiro made the mountain rise again from the ocean depths. With another gesture he sliced the top from the mountain as cleanly as if he wielded an invisible sword. The stone rose in the air. It flattened into a thick disk, which hollowed itself into a wheel. Spokes connected the exterior with a hollow hub. In it hung a platform linked to the hub’s rim by slender spokes and wheels. As the large wheel rolled through the air, the platform remained stable.

The ground shook when the black wheel touched down and rolled toward them. Takwee squealed and Nirati dropped to her knees. The wheel rumbled forward, stopping when Qiro raised his hand. Somehow the towering device remained upright and the platform slowly swung to a stop.

Qiro nodded at her. “They think of me as a cartographer. They cannot see more, even though I understand far more than they can even imagine. Jorim brought animals back for the Prince, and wrote reports. Did he think I could not understand them? And Keles, when he surveyed the Gold River, I understood. I understood how he wanted to transform the river, making it passable to commerce. Yet everyone thought I was just the one who made maps. Worse, they thought I was the one who presided over a workshop of others who made maps. They forgot that I had traveled, I had seen the world.

“They dared not imagine that I understood it.” Qiro smiled. “And because I understood, I have been able to change it.”

“Yes, Grandfather.”

Qiro’s eyelid twitched. “There are things going on, Nirati, that need not concern you. You should remain free of them, but I cannot. I am going to have to leave you here. I need to return to the Nine and set things to rights.”

“You will stop Nelesquin?”

“Oh no, I have no desire to do that. He has value, your Nelesquin, and I shall use him.”

Nirati looked up at him. “I don’t understand, Grandfather. Nelesquin used you badly. You were…”

“Broken? Crushed?” The old man nodded. “I can remember that, but dimly. I was not myself then. But I do not expect you to understand.”

“No, Grandfather.”

“But I do expect you to obey me, however, so that the Anturasi family may take its rightful place in creation.”

She nodded. “Yes, Grandfather, I shall obey. What would you have me do?”

“Nothing, child, nothing at all.” Qiro bent down and kissed her on the forehead. “Knowing that you are here and safe will grant me the peace I need to deal with what I face. Will you do that for me, Nirati?”

“Yes, Grandfather.”

“Very good. Thank you.” He smiled. “Await my return, child, and all shall be well.”

Qiro turned and rose in the air. White hair flowing, white robe flapping, he settled on the platform at the wheel’s heart. The wheel lurched forward, then turned, leaning over. Nirati feared it would fall and her grandfather would be crushed, but then it righted itself and plunged down the cliff.

She scrambled to her feet and rushed to the cliff’s edge. The wheel hit halfway down. The tremor dropped her back onto her knees again. The wheel bounced forward and splashed into the water. It continued to roll past the decapitated mountain, then sank beneath the waves.

Her hand rose to her mouth. Her grandfather would drown. Or will he? He clearly did not think he was in danger. Yet to travel from Anturasixan to the mainland rolling along the bottom of the ocean had to kill a man.

“But he is no longer a man.”

Nirati shivered and Takwee hugged her tightly. She stroked the creature’s fur, hoping its warmth would transfer to her, but to no avail.

Then something burned her foot. Another ant-this one bigger and copper-colored-walked across her foot. Its mandibles closed, tearing away flesh. Nirati smashed it with her hand.

She rose and backed away from the cliff’s edge. Where the wheel had slammed into the ground, a rift had opened. Copper ants were pouring from it.

Already they were devouring the dead fish.

The pain began to fade and the blood to dry, but the impression of Jorim that seeped in intensified. The pain was his pain. She wanted to scream for him, but she couldn’t. This frustrated her, but she knew it was for the best. If she gave voice to his agony, it would drive her mad.

But as Nirati stepped away from the cliff, a thorned vine caught at her ankle. The vine grew thicker, then tightened. Thorns pierced her flesh.

Takwee leaped from her back and uprooted the plant, tossing it away, but the vine stabbed its roots back into the earth and began to grow toward Nirati again. Takwee squealed in terror, extending bleeding paws to Nirati. The woman took the creature into her arms, stroking her fur, refusing to panic.

“This is my place. This is my paradise.”

She drew a crescent-shaped line through the air with a finger. The section of the cliff described by her gesture broke away and slid into the ocean. It swept away the copper ants and the vine. It took everything save for the sense of her brother’s pain.

Nirati looked off in the direction her grandfather had gone. “You didn’t feel Jorim’s pain because you cannot, Grandfather. I am closer to him now. I am dead. I belong in the Underworld, and this is where Jorim is trapped.”

She turned from the ocean and began walking. It took her no more than a dozen steps before she turned to the right and arrived at her destination. Takwee leaped free, hooting delightedly. The creature crept up to the edge of the spring-fed pool and watched as little fish flashed gold and silver beneath her shadow.

Takwee circled the pond so she would not have the sun at her back, but Nirati remained, her shadow stabbing across the glassy surface. “From these depths Nelesquin emerged. I doubtless came to Kunjiqui through this portal as well.”

She stared into the shimmering water and the pond began to drain. The water eroded a tunnel through the earth. Fish flopped. Springwater trickled down one wall. The tunnel opened out and spiraled down into darkness. A fetid breeze rose, smelling of things worse than dying fish.

Takwee backed slowly away from the tunnel’s mouth.

Nirati smiled. “I want to go down there even less than you, but I have no choice. My brother suffers. I cannot allow this.”

Takwee drew another step back.

Nirati laughed. “I understand what I am doing, Takwee. Though I may be dead, I am not stupid. We are off to lay siege to the Nine Hells, and we shall not go alone.”

TheNewWorld