The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - By N. K. Jemisin Page 0,84
whether to dodge or reach for my knife
And in that sliver of time, I felt the power around me coalesce, malice-hard and sharp as crystal.
* * *
That this analogy occurred to me should have been a warning.
* * *
Rish swung. I held still, tense for the blow. Three inches from my face Rishs fist seemed to glance off something no one could seeand when it did, there was a high hard clacking sound, like stone striking stone.
Rish drew his hand away, startled and perhaps puzzled by his failure to put me in my place. He looked at his fist, on which a patch of shining, faceted black had appeared about the knuckles. I was close enough to see the flesh around this patch blistering, beading with moisture like meat cooked over a flame. Except it was not burning, but freezing; I could feel the waft of cold air from where I stood. The effect was the same, however, and as the flesh withered and crisped away as if it had been charred, what appeared underneath was not raw flesh, but stone.
I was surprised that Rish took so long to begin screaming.
All the men in the room reacted to Rishs cry. One stumbled back from the table and nearly fell over a chair. Two others ran over to Rish to try and help him. Gemd moved to help as well, but some powerful preservative instinct must have risen in the well-dressed man beside him; he grabbed Gemd by the shoulder to halt him. That turned out to be wise, because the first of the men who reached Rishone of the Toksgrabbed Rishs wrist to see what was the matter.
The black was spreading swiftly; nearly the whole hand was now a glittering lump of black crystal in the rough shape of a fist. Only the tips of Rishs fingers remained flesh, and they transformed even as I watched. Rish fought the Tok, maddened with agony, and the Tok grabbed Rishs fist in an effort to hold him still. Almost immediately he jerked away, as if the stone had been too cold to touchand then the Tok, too, stared at his palm, and the black blotch that was now spreading there.
Not merely crystal, I realized, in the part of my mind that was not frozen in horror. The black substance was too pretty to be quartz, too flawless and clear in its faceting. The stone caught the light like diamond, because that was what their flesh had become. Black diamond, the rarest and most valuable of all.
The Tok began to scream. So did several others of the men in the room.
Through it all I remained still and kept my face impassive.
* * *
He shouldnt have tried to hit me. He deserved what he got. He shouldnt have tried to hit me.
And the man who tried to help him? What did that one deserve?
They are all my enemies, my peoples enemies. They should not have they should not Oh, gods. Gods.
The Nightlord cannot be controlled, child. He can only be unleashed. And you asked him not to kill.
* * *
I could not show weakness.
So while the two men flailed and screamed, I stepped around them and walked up to the table. Gemd looked at me, his mouth distorted with disgust and disbelief.
I said, Take all the time you like to discuss my order. Then I turned to leave.
W-wait. Gemd. I paused, not allowing my eyes to linger on the two men. Rish was almost half diamond now, the stone creeping over his arm and chest, down one leg and up the side of his neck. He lay on the floor, no longer screaming, though he still keened in a low, agonized voice. Perhaps his throat had turned to diamond already. The other man was reaching toward his comrades, begging for a sword so he could cut off his arm. A young fellowone of Gemds heirs, to judge by his featuresdrew his blade and edged close, but then another man grabbed him and hauled him back. Another wise decision; flecks of black no larger than a grain of sand sparkled on the floor around the two men. Bits of Rishs flesh, transformed and cast about by his flailing. As I watched, the Tok fell onto his good hand, and his thumb touched one of the flecks. It, too, began to change.
Stop this, Gemd murmured.
I did not start it.
He cursed swiftly in his language. Stop it, gods damn you! What kind of monster are you?