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"Vanjit-cha," Maati said, "we can talk this through. We can ... we can
still end this well."
"You tried to murder me," Vanjit said. "You and your pet poisoner. If
you'd had your way, I would be dead now. How, Maati-kvo, do you propose
to talk that through?"
"I . . ." he said. "There must ... there must be a way."
"What was I supposed to be that I wasn't?" Vanjit asked as she walked
toward the black chair with its tiny beast. "You knew what the Galts had
done to me. Did you want me to get this power, and then forget? Forgive?
Was this supposed to be the compensation for their deaths?"
"No," Maati said. "No, of course not."
"No," she said. "Because you didn't care when I blinded them, did you?
That was my decision. My burden, if I chose to take it up. I
women. Children. I could destroy them, and you could treat it as
justice, but I went too far. I blinded you. For half a hand, I turned it
against you, and for that, I deserved to die."
"The andat, Vanjit-kya," Maati said, his voice breaking. "They have
always schemed against their poets. They have manipulated the people
around them in terrible ways. Eiah and I ..."
"You hear that?" Vanjit said, scooping up Clarity-of-Sight. The andat's
black eyes met hers. "This is your doing."
The andat cooed and waved its arms. Vanjit smiled as if at some unspoken
jest, shared only between those two.
"I thought I would make the world right again," Vanjit said. "I thought
I could make a baby. Make a family."
"You thought you could save the world," Maati said.
"I thought you could," she said in a voice like cold vinegar. "Look at me.
"I don't understand," he said.
"Look."
Her face sharpened. He saw the smudge of dust along her cheek, the
stippled pores along her cheek, the individual hairs smaller than the
thi
whites, and the pupils glowed like a wolf's where the candlelight
reflected from their depths. Her skin was a mosaic, tiny scales that
broke and scattered with every movement. Insects too small to see
scuttled through the roots of her hair, her eyelashes.
Maati's stomach turned, a deep nausea taking him. He closed his eyes,
pressing his palms into the lids.
"Please," he said, and Vanjit wrenched his hands away from his face.
"Look at me!" she shouted. "Look!"
Reluctantly, slowly, Maati opened his eyes. There was too much. Vanjit
was no longer a woman but a landscape as wide as the world, moving,
breaking, shifting. Looking at her was being tossed on an infinite sea.
"Can you see my pain, Maati-kvo? Can you see it?"
No, he tried to say, but his throat closed against his illness. Vanjit
pushed him away, and he spun, a thousand details assaulting him in the
space of a heartbeat. He fell to the stone floor and retched.
"I didn't think you would," she said.
"Please," Maati said.
"You've taken it from me," Vanjit said. "You and Eiah. All the others. I
was ready to do anything for you. I risked death. I did. And you don't
even know me."
Her laugh was short and brutal.
"My eyes," he said.
"Fine," Vanjit said, and Maati's vision went away. He was once again in
the fog of blindness. "Is that better?"
Maati reached toward the sound of her voice, then stumbled. Vanjit
kicked him once in the ribs. The surprise was worse than the pain.
"There is nothing you have to teach me anymore, old man," she said.
"I've learned everything you know. I understand."
"No," Maati said. "There's more. I can tell you more. I know what it is
to lose someone you love. I know what it is to feel betrayed by the ones
you thought closest to you."
"Then you know the world isn't worth saving," Vanjit said.
The words hung in the air. Maati tried to rise, but he was short of
breath, wheezing like he'd run a race. His racing heart filled his ears
with the sound of rushing blood.
"It is," he said. "It's worth ..."
"Ah. There's Eymond. Everyone in Eymond, blind as a stone. And Eddensea.
There. Gone. Bakta. But why stop there, Maati-kya? Here, the birds. All
the birds in the world. There. The fish. The beasts." She laughed. "All
the flies are blind. I've just done that. All the flies and the spiders.
I say we give the world to the trees and the worms. One great nation of
the eyeless."
"Vanjit," Maati said. His back hurt like someone had stabbed him and
left the blade in. He fought to find the words. "You mustn't do this. I
didn't teach you this."
"I did what you told me," she said, her voice rising. The andat's cry
rose with her, an infantile rage and anguish and exultation at the
world's destruction. "I did what you wanted. More, Maati-kvo, I did what
you couldn't do yourself, and you hated me for it. You wanted me dead?
Fine, then. I'll die. And the world can come with me."
"No!" Maati cried.
"I'm not a monster," Vanjit said. Like a candle being snuffed, the
andat's wail ceased. Vanjit collapsed beside him, as limp as a puppet
with cut strings.
There were voices. Otah, Danat, Eiah, Idaan, Ana. And others. He lay
back, letting his eyes close. He didn't know what had happened. For the
moment, he didn't care. His body was a single, sudden wash of pain. And
then, his chest only ached. Maati opened his eyes. An unfamiliar face
was looking down at him.
The man had skin as pale as snow and flowing ink-black hair. His eyes
were deep brown, as soft as fur and as warm as tea. His robe was blue
silk embroidered with thread of gold. The pale man smiled and took a
pose of greeting. Maati responded reflexively. Vanjit lay on the floor,
her arm bent awkwardly behind her, her eyes open and empty.
"Killed her," Maati said. "You. Killed her."
"Well. More precisely, we wounded her profoundly and then she died," the
pale man said. "But I'll grant you it's a fine point. The effect is much
the same."
"Maati!"
He lifted his head. Eiah was rushing toward him, her robes pressed back
like a ba