by Tora Moon
“But that be sacrilege!” Ambrelya made the sign against evil.
Blazel laughed. “I grew up with the old woman. I can ask her.”
Ambrelya still looked scandalized and she wouldn’t talk to him at all.
At their next rest stop, trees surrounded a pool of water fed by a stream, rather than a spring. The long, thick grasses of the plains had thinned considerably. Birds twittered in the trees and chipmunks crawled on the rocks.
“We will be entering Strunlair Province this afternoon,” Jaehaas said. His tail flicked across his rump, disturbing the flies. “I imagine we’ll pick up an escort soon.”
They left the small oasis and continued their journey north. The plains grass gave way to low lying grass and brush. The trees grew thicker. Blazel could feel his horse pulling as they began to climb the foothills, her hooves clicking on pebbles. Squirrels chittered at them and birds flitted in the air over their heads.
Suddenly it became quiet and then a crow burst out of the tree canopy, followed by the rest of its flock. A black tentacle reached into the air, plucking a bird from the flock. The noxious stench of the monsters reached them on the breeze along with the sound of battle.
Jaehaas pulled his bow out of its case and quickly strung it. His quiver of arrows was adjusted so he could easily reach them. Ambrelya’s helbraught began to glow as she fed fire magic into it. When she held out her hand for Lighzel’s reins, Blazel tossed them to her and leaped off the saddle. By the time his feet touched the ground, they were the massive paws of a Posair warrior.
Blazel now stood at nine feet instead of his normal six and weighed 150 pounds more. The long claws on his front paws could slash and rip through the tough monster hides. His jaws were powerful and filled with sharp teeth. His saliva was now a deadly toxin to the monsters and he had venom sacks under the pads of his front claws. The warrior form was built for one thing: to destroy and kill the Malvers monsters.
He lifted his head and howled. A howl answered him. He raced off in its direction with Jaehaas and Ambrelya close behind him. At some point Ambrelya stopped, and when he glanced back, she was running with them again, the horses nowhere in sight.
Blazel shook his head, trying to clear the odd humming he could hear, but as he ran closer to the fight, it became louder. Ignoring it, he continued to run. When they came to a large clearing, he skidded to a halt, the marsh making the ground soggy. A platoon of fighters surrounded the nest. The eight normal-sized janacks and their accompanying hoard of brechas were being systematically cut away from the nest leaving the largest janack Blazel had ever seen—even larger than the ones in the Barrens—alone. It had a strange protrusion on its head and it seemed to be directing the fight.
He ran toward the strange janack, leaping over the fire-ring, and landed in a crouch. The fire-ring blazed up to form a dome surrounding the nest. His jaw dropped; he’d never seen such magic. As he watched, a brecha slammed into the shield, sparks flew, and the brecha pulled back, patches of its hide burning. A blue light streamed toward the brecha, freezing it in moments. His gaze followed the direction of the light and he saw a gorgeous woman, her deep sapphire-blue hair swinging at her hips. She sent another blast of freezing water into another brecha. What in the crone’s fires! A strong Blue is fighting!
“Don’t just stand there gawking!” A woman with bright canary-yellow hair yelled at him. “Go fight!” Suddenly the air around him was ice-cold.
He ran to the janack and stopped when it didn’t try to attack him. It didn’t seem to even know he was there. Huh? A cold-air shield? Taking advantage of the opportunity, he leaped, slicing his claws into the nearest tentacle, and pumped venom into the wound. He continued to slice into the janack, twisting and turning to keep away from searching tentacles.
A Red ran past him, used her helbraught to leap onto the janack, and raced to its head. Blazel sliced again and jumped back as a piece of tentacle flew off. He glanced up, wondering what the Red was doing. She slammed her helbraught into the head, sinking the blade deep.
The humming turned into a scream. Blazel roared, fighting the pain in his head. A warrior came out of nowhere and pushed him out of the way of a tentacle flashing toward him.
“Run! It’s going to blow!” the Red yelled.
The other warrior grabbed Blazel’s arm and together they raced to the fire shield’s edge. They crouched down, throwing their arms over their heads to protect them. The janack exploded. Blazel tensed, expecting to feel janack debris pounding onto his back. When he didn’t, he peeked under his arm and saw a shield wavering around him and his new friend.
Then the Red did something to the strange protrusion. Blazel’s head exploded with the sound of fury in his mind. Darkness pressed around him and he let it take him.
Chapter 7
Blazel awoke on his back on the soggy ground with a petite woman kneeling over him. At first he couldn’t understand how Faelyn had made it to Strunlair Territory before him. Then he saw the curls framing the woman’s heart-shaped face. They were a much deeper brown than Faelyn’s, so brown they looked almost black. This woman was an extremely strong Brown. She noticed he was awake.
“Rizelya’s the only other person I’ve heard about who passes out from the control janack’s screams,” the woman said. “No one else seems to hear them, except for now you. Hmm, I wonder if this is why?” She fingered a dreadlock hanging in front of his face, the one with the gray streak.
He pushed her hand away and struggled to sit up. “I thought everyone could hear them.”
She shook her head. “Nope. Until now, just Rizelya, and as far as we know she doesn’t have a drop of Gray Talent, unlike you. She’s a strong Red. I’m Kaieli by the way.”
“Blazel. Who is this Rizelya?”
“Oh, she’s my heart sister,” Kaieli said and then grinned. “And Histrun’s daughter. He’s been worried about you, Blazel. He’ll be happy to see you. Here, eat this. It will help with the headache and weakness.”
She handed him a trail bar. He took it and bit into it. After a few bites, his headache started to ease. “Thank you, it is helping.”
“You’re lucky I happen to have one of those with me. It was developed to help Rizelya, and I thought I’d try it with the others. Saffren has trouble with the damned control janack too.”
Blazel heard the distinct clomping of Jaehaas’s hooves, and he looked up to see Jaehaas, Ambrelya, and several people walking toward him. One was an older woman of medium height, with the air of authority around her. Her bright red hair had some gold streaks and was pulled back in a thick braid. Another Red walked by her side; this one Blazel guessed wasn’t much older than himself, in her early thirties. She had copper hair, brown eyes, and was tall and wiry. A man still in warrior form guarded the older woman’s left side.
Blazel struggled to get to his feet. Kaieli put a hand under his arm to surreptitiously help him. He was glad when she left it there as subtle support. Whatever the control janack had done, it had left him weak.
“Ah, so you be awake,” Jaehaas said. “You scared us there. What happened?”
“The control janack,” Kaieli answered. “It affects some people more than others.”
Blazel noticed she looked significantly at the older woman.
“Blazel, let me introduce you to our fighting mates,” Jaehaas said. He nodded to the older woman. “This be Strunland Keep Alpha Naila, the other Red be Laynar de Strunheim, and the warrior be Strunland Keep Alpha Kelstrun. We’ve lucked out and arrived at Strunlair Keep in time for a Clan meeting. We’ll be able to talk to all the Strunlair alphas.”
Blazel shook hands with each of the new arrivals. Then he looked at Kaieli and asked, “Is Histrun here too?”
“Of course he is. Do you think he’d stay away from something this important?”
“No, he wouldn’t.” He looked at Naila and asked, “Did I see a Blue fighting? How can a Blue fight?”
Naila smiled. “You did. Good fighter.” Her voice was rough
and Blazel could see it took her a lot of effort to speak. He then noticed the ragged scar across her throat. Naila made an impatient gesture at Laynar.
“Rizelya figured out the other Talents could fight,” Laynar said. “We now have Yellows, Greens, Browns, and a few Blues in our fighting force. You must have seen Saffren. It sounds like we have much to discuss.”
“I told them about our mission,” Jaehaas said.
“Now isn’t the time to chat,” Laynar said. “Besides, the other alphas would feel slighted if we heard your news first. I know my grandmother would be. Blazel, are you steady enough to ride?”
Blazel had continued to munch on the travel bar and was now feeling more like himself. He nodded.
“Good,” Naila said.
“Ambrelya left your horses with ours,” Laynar said. “Let’s go. The cleanup is almost complete. The others will follow when they’re done.”
The group turned and trudged through the marsh grass, pulling Blazel in their wake. Kaieli patted his arm and then slipped away. Blazel imagined there were other injuries for the healer to treat.
As they walked across the battlefield, Blazel saw some strange sights. One brecha was still oozing lava while another looked like it was rotting at an incredible rate. Within moments the carcass heaved and was covered with giant slug-like creatures who were devouring it.
“Is that the other Talents’ work?” he asked, pointing to the monster with lava.
“Yes, they can do amazing things,” Laynar answered. “Wait until you see Saffren’s ice curtain.”
This Rizelya must be some woman to convince the other Talents to fight.
“Where is Rizelya? I’d like to meet her.”
“Gone. She’s on her way to the Sanctuary.”
“Then perhaps I’ll meet her there. I’m also traveling to the Sanctuary.”
At the battlefield’s edge, Kelstrun shifted back to his human form. Blazel thought it took him a long, painful time to do so. He blessed the time he’d spent practicing, for now his change to warrior and back was almost as easy as to his wolf form.
The horses were guarded by several teenage boys, who waved and smiled in relief when the alphas came in sight. Lighzel whinnied a greeting to him and hurried to meet him at the corral gate. It didn’t take long for the small group to get onto their horses.
They had just vacated the corral when everyone else arrived. Blazel saw the Blue he guessed was Saffren laughing with a group of women. He felt a bit of a shock to see women with canary-yellow hair, or dark forest-green hair, or sapphire-blue hair in red leathers. He chuckled to himself. It was probably as much of a shock for others to see him, a male, in the red leathers. Soon all the fighters were mounted. Quite a few of them were staring at Blazel and Jaehaas. Together they made a strange sight.
Naila seemed to be the alpha of this fighting-pack, and she set a fast pace. From the conversation around him, he gathered this pack was a blend of people from each of the eight Strunlair territories. After the initial uneasiness, the fighters made Jaehaas, Ambrelya, and Blazel part of the group. Several had seen Jaehaas use his bow and fire arrows and were excited about learning this new skill.
Laynar had been riding beside Blazel for several measures when he gathered his courage. “What can you tell me about Rizelya?”
“How to describe Rizelya?” Laynar idly slapped the end of her horse’s reins against her thigh. “I don’t know what she’s seen in her dreams, she never shared them with me. But they have made her a strong advocate that we need to find more and better ways to fight the Malvers monsters. She believes the old ways of fighting them will soon no longer be effective or useful. She stresses we have to find new ways or risk losing the battle for survival. Her passion infects everyone she meets. So now we have other Talents fighting alongside the Reds and warriors.”
He looked at the unusual group of fighters with new respect. For some reason, he imagined Rizelya to be an older woman like Naila to have as much influence she seemed to have. “So what Keep is she Alpha of?”
Laynar laughed. “None. She’s only twenty-three and was only recently made a squad-alpha, and from what I understand, it was under protest. She just has a way about her that makes people listen.”
Blazel was stunned. Now, I have to meet this woman!
They soon reached the safe house where they would stay the night. Blazel quickly took care of Lighzel and joined the alphas in the house. Jaehaas had already gone in and was talking with Laynar. Tables were being rearranged to create an open space near the hearth. They looked odd to Blazel, then he realized he’d become used to seeing the high tables for centaurs that this safe house was distinctly missing. Apparently, this clan-pack wasn’t used to having a centaur around and didn’t have the special modifications needed to accommodate them. What are they going to do so Jaehaas can join us for the evening meal?
As he wondered about his friend, Blazel caught a whiff of a hot, spicy scent. Someone had already started the ubiquitous large pot of stew. When there were forty or fifty people to feed, stew was the easiest and fastest thing to fix. He glanced over at the stove. A woman with forest-green hair stood with one hand was on her hip while the other stirred the stew. She had such an intense look of concentration on her face, he wondered what she was thinking about. He looked down to see she was standing on a block of wood so she could see into the pot. No one else was around, so Blazel sauntered over to her.
“Hi,” he said.
She jumped, the long wooden spoon clanking on the pot’s edge. She spun around, the spoon in her hand raised to strike.
“Sorry.” Blazel put his hands up. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I just wanted to meet you.”
“Oh, you’re the guy who doesn’t have a clan-pack.”
Blazel grimaced, his shoulders slumped, and said, “Yeah, that’s me. I’ll leave you alone.”
“No, don’t go, I was rude.” She put the spoon down and held out her hand. “I’m Grazeen de Strunven, but now I’m with the Strunland pack.”
“Blazel,” he said and took her wrist in a warrior’s greeting. He smiled at her widened eyes. “I was curious how you became a fighter. Not that I think anything is wrong with it,” he hurried to say when her eyes narrowed. He could guess there were some people who were attached to the old traditions that said only Reds could fight.
“Rizelya. She came to Strunven Keep and found us. Let’s go sit down.” She hopped off her block, poured hot taevo into a couple of mugs, and went to the table nearest the stove. When Blazel was seated, she handed him one of the mugs.
He took a sip and raised an eyebrow. Instead of the spicy taevo he was used to, it was minty with a hint of fruit. “This is good. Your blend?”
Grazeen nodded, looking pleased. “I made the stew spicy, so the taevo needs to be cooling. Although cooking isn’t my specialty.”
“What is?”
“Growing food and …” she paused, took a gulp of air, and leaned forward. “Raising snelks. Someone has to. If not, then how would we get rid of all the garbage? Snelks serve a great purpose.”
Apparently, this was also a sore issue for Grazeen. He smiled at her in reassurance. “Yes, it’s important work.” Then it dawned on him what she meant. “You’re the one who made the brecha rot! Are snelks the slug-like creatures that were swarming it?”
She nodded. “Yep, that was me. Rizelya isn’t nauseated by my magic, like some. She thinks it’s great. She was traveling all over Strunlair Province because of the new control janack, finding ways to kill the darned thing. She’d already discovered Yellows were very useful in the fight because they could form cold-air shields to hide the fighters from the control janack. But she believed the other Talents could be useful too.
“Our group had already been training with Maendy in secret. We were trying to prove to our Keep Alpha, Sujeen, that we could fight. She wouldn’t listen. But then Saehala fought Sujeen because she tried to kill Rizelya, just because she is Histrun’s daughter. I’m so glad she di
d. Rizelya took us to the next monster battle, without Saehala’s permission or knowledge, and we proved we could kill monsters as well as any Red.” Grazeen leaned forward and lowered her voice, “Even better than some.” She sat back with a smug smile on her face. “Saehala listened to Rizelya and now we’re part of Rizelya’s pack. We’ll be going back to Strunland Keep with her when she gets back from the Sanctuary.”
“Rizelya sounds like an extraordinary woman,” Blazel said. “I hope to meet her when I get to the Sanctuary.”
“You’ll like her,” Grazeen said, standing up. “Everyone likes her. Sorry, I need to finish dinner. The wolves are getting hungry and impatient.”
“Thank you for talking to me.”
“I hope we can be friends.” Grazeen gave him a shy smile, grabbed their empty mugs, and went back to the stove.
Blazel turned around at the sound of Jaehaas clomping behind him.
“Looks like you made a new friend,” Jaehaas said, with a wave toward Grazeen.
“She’s a good kid,” Blazel said nodding. “Are you being treated well?”
“Yes. Naila be a good alpha and takes care of her people. Since we fought together, apparently we now be considered her people. Did you know she be sister to this Rizelya everyone be raving about?”
“No, I didn’t.” Blazel resolved Naila would be getting a visitor after dinner so he could learn more about Rizelya. “Rizelya seems to be a resourceful person.”
Jaehaas threw back his head and laughed. “That be one way of putting it. I be reserving judgment until I meet her. She sounds like a glory seeker. Although, she did come up with a genius way of fighting and killing the control janack.”
The woman with canary-yellow hair stood up and, in a voice obviously enhanced with her air Talent, bellowed, “Food’s ready! Form a line.”
Blazel and Jaehaas were joined by Ambrelya, and together they fell into the line. By the time they had bowls in hand, blocks had been put under a small table, making it high enough so Jaehaas could eat as part of the group. A lump formed in Blazel’s throat at Naila’s kindness.