Just For Fun: My Favorite Moments, Part 3

 

Continuing answering the question of what my favorite moments in my own works are!

 

Polychrome: My only self-published work to date, Polychrome is a grown-up readership-targeted Oz novel. It is also the only story I've ever had that FORCED me to write it – literally shutting off my ability to write in my contracted novels unless I wrote at least a chapter in Polychrome per week.

As such, one can guess that there are a lot of moments in Polychrome that resonate strongly with me; still, I have to pick three, so here we go.

First off is the moment when Erik fulfills the first major requirement of the Prophecy of the Bear (the first MINOR requirement being that the chosen one would be the one that first spoke her name), and shows Polychrome a beauty that she had never known:

 

The night air was cooler, and I knew that to her it would be cold, but either way it wouldn't be long now. I led her to the best location, took a deep breath and gave a wordless prayer to whatever powers there might be. "Okay, Polychrome. Open your eyes."

She opened her eyes… and gasped.

Before her was the city of Albany – but not the city as she'd seen it in the light of day, an impressive but somewhat dingy-grungy pile of masonry, buildings jumbled together, showing all the warts all too clearly in the sunlight. This was a magnificent blaze of light in the darkness, the mighty four hundred foot main tower of the South Mall alight with a thousand brilliant tiny squares of luminance, four smaller towers shining next to it, the curve of the Egg outlined in reflected glory, the rest of the city adding to it, standing against the surrounding night, a mighty beacon of edges and beams and hard-cut stone defying the power of darkness. In daylight it had been merely a city; with the cloak of night and the infinite brilliance of electricity, it became a symbol.

 

As Erik realized, Polychrome could never have seen a modern city at night; she only entered the mortal, or even ordinary faerie, world during the day, because only then could a rainbow reach the Earth. And she had not visited the Mortal world in many, many years; nothing like Albany, let alone New York City, existed the last time she set foot in the mortal world.

The second moment (I have to say it is really, really really HARD to choose only three, and I'm skipping over a bunch that I'd really like to discuss, such as Zenga's Crowning Moment of Awesome) is Polychrome's utter defeat of The Yoop when she thinks Erik's been killed:

 

     For a moment, everything seemed to exist in a dreamlike slowness; she saw the monstrous spike-covered weapon hammer down on top of Erik, crushing him down and into the very rock beneath like a fly being smashed under some immense fist. She heard herself screaming his name, felt horror rising in her, and looked up to see a wide, gloating smile on the face of Yoop.

At that smile something else rose, a storm of cold silver fury, and she heard a choir of voices deep and hard around her, and the call of horns and drums resounded from the Spheres, and it swept up the horror, made it part of fury and pain and DROVE her forward, running on air as she had never done before, a kick to the giant's knee that made him roar in pain, dodging his grasping hand, running UP the arm, a roundhouse swing of her shield that smashed the side of his head as though driven by the giant's own strength. He staggered, his roar now confused, but there was no thought in her of mercy, it was far too late for that, it was time only for Judgment, and the cold silver voices echoed the fury that redoubled every time she saw the crushed stone beneath the mace Yoop no longer held.

She was off his shoulder, behind him, and drove her sword in, deep, deep, and his roar was a scream now, a cry of fear,and fear spun him around faster, hand lashing out, catching at her.

Now she heard laughter, cold and bitter, and a part of her shivered to realize that it was her voice, so chill and cruel, but the rest of her echoed that laugh, and her blade cut deep, cut through, and even as the Giant looked in slow-witted disbelief at his hand as it came away, she was up, up, and hammering into Yoop's chin with all the strength this frightening unstoppable rage had given her, then around as he reeled, with one final screaming kick, tears streaming from her eyes. And with that blow Yoop was driven face-first into the ground and lay still, the blood pooling from his hand and then slowing, slowing.

 

This is the point at which Polychrome comes to realize what she was told is true: some of the power of the Above resides in her, and can come to her call.

The third is the climactic instant of the novel, in which Erik suddenly realizes the key to unlocking the power that he had thought lay only in his own death at Amanita's hands:

 

     And then I understood. For one terrible moment I hated them all, Iris, the damned Pink Bear, Nimbus, all those who must have known. A laugh escaped me, an ugly sound, and more like another sob than anything else.

"The preparations are complete." Ugu said quietly, and looked down at me. "Come. Let us… end this."

     Oh, we'll end this. But not the way you think.

Slowly I lowered Polychrome to the ground, feeling wetness across my chest as well as my face as I did so, and took a deep breath.

"Ozma," I said, my voice barely a whisper, and the words came to me, as though I had known them all along, "I, a Mortal Man, bathed in the blood of my heart call to thee. Give me the power to set right what is wrong," and I let my voice rise to its full volume, "and wipe these monsters from the face of Faerie!"

Ugu shot to his feet, shock and dawning understanding on his face. "What –"

I reached back and slammed my hand onto the face of the shining pyramid.

     "COME FORTH!"

 

 

For of course, there is a way one could be bathed in one's heart's blood and still speak…

Phoenix Rising: The first book in the Balanced Sword trilogy, Phoenix Rising had a lot of worldbuilding and character work to do before it could get most of the action underway, but once it did, I think it came out swinging. There were a lot of fun moments in this – a story I'd been wanting to publish since 1991 – but there are always standouts.

Number one has to be Tobimar's last-minute rescue by something he doesn't know is even there, but that will turn out to be his best friend:

 

Finally he realized there was a pause, a gap. He stared around, seeing that he must have killed eight, nine of them already… but there were at least eighteen remaining. Reinforcements.

The Mazakhar stepped slightly forward, hissing. "A good fight, boy, and brave speech. But you slow, you tire, and we are many. Nearly all in this house have come. What, then, should we fear?"

And in that moment, when he searched for some words that would mean something, another voice spoke. A voice strange and hollow, echoing around the room, seeming to come from no clear source above or below.

"Fear me."

And the huge Mazakhar bellowed in agony, clutching futilely at its back as though something had impaled it there. The other mazakh whirled, seeking the source of that voice and that pain.

 

The mysterious voice is of course Poplock Duckweed, tiny Toad with a fast blade and a faster mind and a very sharp awareness of the effectiveness of psychological warfare. And, as other adversaries will learn to their sorrow, he is a force to fear indeed.

Second in this book comes the moment when Kyri Vantage is broken with the realization that her family was murdered by those she trusted most, and DEMANDS an explanation from the god itself:

 

     "Why, Myrionar? Why? We believed in you, we called your name, we trusted in Justice and Vengeance and your Wisdom and Mercy! My parents raised us to believe!" She reached inside her shirt, tore off the golden symbol so hard the chain left bleeding welts on her neck, but she didn't care. She shook the tiny sword-balance at its celestial mirror. "Even after they died we followed you, Rion gave his life for you, and you did nothing! Your own Justiciars! Your own Justiciars betrayed us, mouthed lies and deceit in my own house, set foot in your temples and you give us not a hint?"

The tears streamed down her face so that she could no longer see the stars, and her furious tirade was full of pain and sorrow as well as smoke-black anger. "How could you? Where is the Vengeance or Justice that could explain this?" She hurled the symbol away from her and fell to her knees again, crying, no longer able to scream, just to speak in pain-wracked sobs. "The Arbiter tore his soul to save Rion in your name! Kelsley almost died, and Rion did, and all for nothing! How could you? How could you abandon us all?" She raised her face and glared once more at the distant stars. "ANSWER ME!"

Her final cry echoed through the trees and died away to nothing. Silence surrounded her, a silence deeper than any forest should hold, and a chill went down her spine. Not a bird, a single animal, even the buzz and hum of insects was absent, and in the profound quiet the only sound she heard was her own ragged breathing and, under that, the pounding of her broken heart.

            "I have not abandoned you."

With the words came the presence, the feeling of something vast and wise that had always been a part of the Temple; only this time it was a hundred times stronger, and the voice itself, though quiet, thundered through her bones, echoed in the ground, a voice that seemed both as unfamiliar as a stranger on the street, yet so familiar that she felt she had always known it.

 

And thus Kyri learns a small part of the truth, and becomes the last, one, true Justiciar of Myrionar… and her quest and course is set.

Deciding on the third moment in this book took a bit of thought, and in fact I decided on one, and then changed my mind. For my last moment, I think I will go with a moment of awesome for a character who had previously been tricked by the forces of evil and seemed kindly but weak:

 

     Blue-silver light slammed into Skyharrier, knocking the bow skittering away. "You shall harm no one," Kelsley said, and from his hands – and the great Balanced Sword behind him – another bludgeon of argent-sapphire power smashed Bolthawk backwards. "You have betrayed the Balanced Sword." Another bolt of power, even brighter, and Kelsley strode forward, cane discarded, his voice now thunder, his hands blue lightning. "You have defiled your names. You have spoken lies in the name of the Balance."

Even the Watchland was backing away, Kyri with him; no one dared stand between Arbiter Kelsley and the false Justiciars. Skyharrier's wings blocked the next blast – and the armor shattered. "You have tried to speak lies of this child, you have killed her family, performed only the gods know what unspeakable acts, and still you thought to trick the Watchland, trick us all?" Kelsley spread his arms wide, and Tobimar saw blood trickling from his nose, and remembered Kyri's story; the priest wobbled unsteadily, weakened or dizzy. "Never more. Never again." The false Justiciars saw him waver, took two steps forward, and Kelsley's head came up, proud and certain. "Not in MY Temple!"

There was a blaze like burning diamonds in the sun and a concussion that staggered Tobimar, drove him to his knees. Screams and curses filled the air, and the Prince of Skysand blinked, desperately trying to clear his vision. Then he felt his jaw sag.

A hole had been blown clean through the Temple, in line with and above the great doorways, missing all the nearby crowd. Through the still-open doorway he could see Skyharrier and Bolthawk, nearly a hundred yards from those portals. Bolthawk was literally smoking, his armor almost completely gone.

 

I felt it was very important in this book to show WHY being a priest of a god was nothing to laugh at, even if your god's an ostensibly weak one like Myrionar.

Phoenix in Shadow: Second in the trilogy, the book's title has a double meaning; not only is Kyri going into a place that is supposedly shadowed in pure evil, but also the events in this book are, to a great extent, even more significant for Tobimar than for Kyri, thus in a sense Kyri is "overshadowed" by Tobimar.

Most of the moments I choose tend to be fairly positive – I resonate a lot with the heroic side of things, after all – but sometimes the bad guys get good innings. My first moment in Phoenix in Shadow is one of these:

 

Tobimar followed the Spiritsmith's gaze. Through the narrow gap in the mountains, a thin sliver of land was visible, cracked and seamed plain interrupted by virulent green tangle of growth, jagged tumble of stone shards hundreds of feet high, steaming pools of water and mud, flat and empty desert – an impossible and repellent patchwork of terrain that could not possibly exist together… yet did.

But it was not this which the huge creature stared at in mute horror. Beyond the abominable landscape, far away, at the very horizon or even beyond, was … darkness. Tobimar blinked. The bright sky dimmed there, dimmed and went to complete blackness, a darkness that rose up in the center to a knife-thin line that seemed to stretch upwards to the roof of heaven, draining the very light from everything around it and turning it to ebon shadow. And despite being so far away, something about the sight pressed in on the Skysand Prince's senses, as though merely to look upon it was enough to weaken life and break hope. The land shuddered again, this time with the groaning motion of an earthquake, and pebbles and rock cascaded down. "What is it? What's happening, Spiritsmith?"

The question, spoken so urgently, managed to penetrate the creature's shock; he turned his head slightly, and the deep-set eyes were wide, with a fear that nothing so ancient and powerful should be able to feel. "T'Ameris Kerveria," the Spiritsmith said quietly. And then he translated, and Tobimar understood the true meaning of horror. "The Black City. The Fortress of Kerlamion Blackstar.

"The Gateway and Nexus of all Hells is come once more to Zarathan, and Kerlamion its King sits in his throne and gazes out upon our living world."

 

And that is the moment when the Chaoswar can be said to truly begin: when the being generally considered (if not in actuality) the ultimate evil arrives upon Zarathan itself.

There are a ton of other moments to choose from, but in some ways I think the "let's change everything" moment from early in the book is one of the best:

 

Poplock blinked his eyes in disbelief.

They stood atop a ridge, looking down on a sprawling town dotted with great trees amidst a sweep of pure, green grass that stretched down to the blue-green of the river that passed through the middle of the town. Great white, fluffy clouds drifted through a sky bluer and more pure than he remembered even from Evanwyl; in the distance were tilled fields, and a winding road extending to the horizon. Birds flew, trilling, and he could smell the purity in the air, in the land.

A buzzing insect flew near, and he snapped out his tongue. Even the taste of the creature was like something new, something born pure and unique into the world for the first time, and Poplock could see the stunned surprise on his friends' faces too as they gazed on the world about them, smelled the fresh and untainted breeze, looked upon even stones and earth that seemed more right than anything they had ever seen. The setting sun cast a glow over the clouds and everything else that touched all with the wealth of the heavens.

"Welcome," Miri said. "Welcome, travellers from afar, to the Unity of the Seven Lights; welcome to Kaizatenzei."

 

If my writing to that point works, the reader should be almost as shocked as the characters; everything points to this place being a haven of darkness and evil, and suddenly they're somewhere that seems more pure than anything they've ever encountered.

Unfortunately, taking my first two from so early in the book, I'm now stuck taking only one from the climactic moments of the novel. And there's a bunch that I'd like to choose. In the end, though, I think I have to go with the reveal of, as video games might say, the Final Boss:

 

     As Tanvol looked at her uncertainly, the earth reared up like a steed preparing to bolt. Screams and curses and the sounds of shattering stone and glass filled the air, even as the great lake beyond rose up in a mountainous moving mass of water that dwarfed the prior surge to insignificance.

But it continued to rise, something within forcing the water upward on a scale so titanic that Kyri froze, momentarily unable to even comprehend what she was looking at. The far end of the peninsula split down the center, a yawning chasm into which water poured. The rising power split the mass of water with a roar that struck with a physical force, nearly felled her again, sending Brobdingnagian waves hundreds of feet high to left and right. Balance, the destruction that will cause around the Lake! How far will those monster waves go?

But at the same time the water began to retreat, draining away to fill the space vacated by the impossibility that was rising from the lakebed. Water streamed in thundering waterfalls from glistening ebony and red scales, scales themselves the size of houses, and two blazing green eyes opened, glaring down at the cowering motes before it as bottom-mud and stone fell away, as inconsequential as dust from a man's boot. Farther back, so far it was halfway to the horizon, vast pinions surged from the roiling water, stretching out, out, casting shadows across land and water as though great banks of cloud had suddenly materialized, and with a mighty heave something the size of a mountain lunged skyward, and hung above them, floating impossibly in the sky, casting the entire city and all about into black shadow, as though night had replaced day.

Sanamaveridion, the Elderwyrm, was free.

 

"You say he's a big dragon? How big?"

"You know Smaug? The Bewilderbeast? Kalessin?"

"Yes?"

"Newts."

Phoenix Ascendant: Last book in the trilogy, Phoenix Ascendant brings all the threads of the prior books to a close. This one of all is the hardest to choose only three from, since by its very design it was always intended to have as many moments of "wow" as I could pack in. Still, three I said, and three I'll give you.

A bittersweet moment first, with one of my favorite secondary characters getting his final bow:

 

     The gasp of pure air was the most wonderful thing he had ever felt. For a moment he simply hung there, letting the air force back the reddish-black haze that had nearly taken him. Then he managed to open his eyes again.

Tanvol was holding him half-suspended in air, the huge Light gasping for breath himself, draped across a brace that was jammed diagonally in the stairway that ascended to the Valatar Throneroom.

"Thanks," Tobimar managed.

"Think… nothing of it… Prince of Skysand," Tanvol replied slowly. His grip slackened. "Glad to… have been able… to provide a last… service."

A sliver of ice pierced Tobimar's heart. The massive, boisterous, inexhaustible Light seemed to be… fading. "Last… what do you mean?"

"It appears," Tanvol said, with his brilliant grin wan and regretful, "that one of the few capsules… we failed to retrieve… was my own." His eyes were clouded. "I… see two places at once… here, and … a dark place, with vague shimmering against glass before my eyes, and it is cold."

"T.. Tanvol? No, NO, NO!" Miri was stumbling up the steps. "No, I won't let –"

The rumbling chuckle was a ghost of its former self, but the humor was there. "Alas, my one-time demonic comrade, I fear you … cannot forbid… death." The black eyes blinked, glazed, the head was drooping, even as Lady Shae and Phoenix staggered up. "I see… cracks forming. Slow enough… to allow a farewell… swift enough to not draw out the pain. It… was a good life… Lady Shae… Miri… do not mourn, but … sing for me. The Light… awaits me. I see it now… Light beyond here… beyond the glass… that drips water upon… my unmoving face."

Tanvol's eyes closed, but he was smiling, and the lips parted once more. "… and with … such glory ahead… who wants… to live… forever?"

The massive Light's body sagged, and Tobimar caught it as it slid, now lifeless, to the ground.

 

After that, I travel a considerable ways through the book, skipping many worthy moments. The moment depicted on the cover – Kyri's rebirth – would certainly be one, but instead, for my second selection I choose the moment when the most tragic figure in the trilogy finally makes the right choice:

 

Even as he thought this, his arm was rising, gripping the Demonshard, moving with a volition beyond his own. Kyri looked up and met his stunned, frozen gaze, and she spoke.

"Forgive me, Aran," she said.

The words pierced through his anger and anguish and self-righteous justifications, reverbrated past even the impassioned and venomous urgings of the Demonshard, shattering the hatred that had squatted, vile and cold and corrupting, in his heart for all this time.

He froze, the Demonshard upraised, fighting the weapon of the King of All Hells one final time. NO.

YES! I was created for this! You will not – you cannot – deny me this kill!

I can and I do. He forced his body to turn – not even an inch, but he turned, turned away from the woman he had hunted. I renounce that oath. I renounce my vengeance. I renouce my oath as a false Justiciar. I renounce it all. And most of all, foul weapon, corrupter, Demonshard, monster-blade, I renounce YOU. You have no more power over me, for I am no longer Condor. I am Aran.

I am Aran.

I am Aran!

"I am ARAN!" he screamed, and with all his might spun, flinging the Demonshard away. He toppled, rolled down the hill, and lay there, sobbing, feeling both the revulsion at everything he had done and the slow-emerging wonder that he had somehow stayed his hand… and that the Phoenix, the true Justiciar, was by some miracle Kyri Vantage, the one person it should have been.

 

Aran Condor had, in some ways, the worst journey of all in the book. I think it was clear from the beginning that he was a good man, a very decent man, who was placed in impossible situations… and made some choices that did not turn out well. But in the end, he finds the strength to do the right thing.

And so we come to the end of the novel, with so many major scenes that I waffled between, trying to decide which one I liked most. And really, I can't say. My preference literally changes as I read them. But still, I must choose one… and so rather than the three or four in the primary confrontation, I think I will end as I began, with Poplock's last moment of awesome:

 

     Poplock felt the agony in his chest only distantly; seeing the monstrous wasp-things tearing into his friends, hearing the Mazolishta's slow, deliberate steps approaching, simply drove personal concerns from his mind. I'm not running.

He drew Steelthorn and faced Voorith. "Then I'll finish it here. And just maybe stick you in a really tender spot." He glanced back quickly. Maybe if I can keep his attention, they'll be less coordinated in their…

The voorwasps lifted up without warning, backing away. Poplock glanced back, and suddenly he grinned. "Or maybe I've got one more ally."

"Then I shall slay them as well," the Demonlord said; then he, too, noticed the wasp's behavior, and tilted his head in confusion.

"I don't think so," Poplock said. "You wanted to teach me fear, but as I might say, you should –"

"FEAR ME," thundered a voice so deep and powerful that the rocks all about them vibrated like sand on a drum.

Voorith whirled, to see towering up behind him a gargantuan Toad, black as night, with glowing golden eyes and mouth gaping wide in a humorless, hungry grin.

And at that moment, as a screech of furious terror started from the Mazolishta's throat and its minions scattered to the four winds, the central dome of the Retreat shuddered, split, and collapsed; the Balanced Sword fell, the gigantic blade rotating, and plunged straight down to strike with earthshaking force.

 

Fear the Toad, indeed.

I hope you've enjoyed reading these little sections! Please comment! Tell me your favorite moments, characters, events, whatever!