The lamassu, sensing its prey was already experiencing its final death throws, released the mast and turned its massive body in the air—a graceful feat defying explanation. It then winged its way back toward the beach where it landed and thundered past Iltani’s position, its hooves churning the sand.
Iltani lost her balance and fell to one knee.
“Stay down.” The lamassu’s warning blazed across her mind.
She felt more than saw a massive spear fly past her shoulder and impale some other poor soul behind her.
Iltani sent her magic flying even as she tracked the new threat.
Boats.
Over a dozen of them. She’d never seen the spear-launching weapons in person, but Burrukan had once told her about these harpoons. Each boat had one secured to its prow. These must have already been in the water before she and the stone lamassu had mortally wounded the main ship.
Besides the harpoons, each boat was loaded with sword and spear-carrying warriors. Again, Iltani didn’t know much about the outside world—every bit of knowledge she owned was thanks to Burrukan, but her understanding was that humans from the outside world had evolved past the use of spears long ago.
They now preferred weapons called pistols and muskets, which were too unstable to use near magic wielders. At close range, magic could ignite the black powder they used as fuel. But the outsiders shouldn’t have possessed that information; they shouldn’t have made it this deep into gryphon territory at all. A citizen of New Sumer would have had to have given these invaders that knowledge and aided them in other ways, too.
She cataloged that knowledge for later, to add to her list of crimes once she found the traitor responsible for this sacrilege.
At least, she didn’t see any archers in this group, which was good.
The harpoons were deadly enough.
When the first ship was close enough to make an easy target, she lashed out with power. The boat next to the one she’d intended to hit vanished in a shroud of billowing vapor. When it thinned enough to see through, she noted the ship behind it was gone too. However, her intended target kept coming. Her magic rose within her again. The second attempt took out the boat.
Ishtar’s gifts were impressive, Iltani admitted, in awe of the great power riding her. Yet, as the first waves of boats made it to shore and vomited up their cargo of warriors, she feared the goddess’ power given into Iltani’s own unprepared hands might not be enough to defeat these enemies.
Lashing out again, another destructive wave slammed into both men and boats. All were reduced to ash and swirling mist by Ishtar’s power.
All along the beach, other boats made it to shore.
Holding her position, her crystalline sword still buried with half its blade length in the ground, Iltani continued to use magic as her primary line of defense until the very last moment. When the first wave of warriors was upon her, she gripped her sword’s hilt and smiled at her enemies.
One smiled back—a giant beast of a man, a wall of solid muscle. His broad chest was covered in a black garment, similar to a robe but it opened all the way down the front. Rows of tiny fastenings ran down one side.
Under it, he wore yet more layers. Though none looked like armor, which stunned her. A wide three-pointed covering sat atop his head, but it wasn’t a helmet. The only protection it would lend its wearer would be from the sun.
She circled her enemy, and he mimicked her, studying her in turn as if she was the strangest thing he’d seen.
What strange garb. Burrukan had once told her a bit about two warring empires from the old world across the ocean. The two human empires were building colonies and warring with each other for gold, lands and other trade goods. New Sumer had always been protected and hidden by its magic, safe from the outside world, so Iltani had never paid much mind to the humans in the world beyond the ten city-states. However, she knew by the lack of uniformity in how these enemies dressed, that they were not soldiers belonging to either of the empires. No, these soldiers, with their motley dress, were rogues. Pirates—their services sold to the highest bidder.
It did not mean they were not dangerous.
By some unseen signal, they started toward her, only to hesitate as they were almost upon her. She wondered if they saw Ishtar looking out at them through her eyes. Whatever the cause, it gave her an opening, and she gave them death with the slash of her sword.
Where sword blades met, hers melted through steel with a hiss and then buried itself into the belly of the bigger of the two. He didn’t have time to scream before power crawled across his skin and he blew apart on the ocean breeze, just bits of ash and swirling smoke.
Her second opponent met the same fate.
A third and a fourth fell before her. Some had more skills than others, but all succumbed to Ishtar’s wrath. Iltani floated in her own body as her goddess of battle directed her.
Time passed.
Iltani didn’t know how much time, but ash coated her body along with sea spray and sweat. She needed to get to Ditanu’s side. The blood link allowed her to sense him—he was not hurt, not yet, but the need to get to his side was increasing within her.
But no matter how many enemies she cut down, more just kept coming, preventing her from reaching her king.
Pushing aside that need, for now, she focused on the battle. She wouldn’t do Ditanu a speck of good if her foolish worry distracted Ishtar at the wrong time.
The newest arrivals to come ashore were more cautious, studying the lay of the land instead of just rushing forward with swords drawn. All the time, the boats still out in the water were targeting gryphons with their harpoons.
Reaching out with her senses, she felt where three gryphons already lay wounded on the beach. With a wave of one arm, she sent magic racing out to destroy another boat.
A great dark shadow appeared over her head, and Iltani cursed in fear, though the cold dread in her stomach wasn’t for herself.
Ditanu dropped down onto the sand next to her and slammed her to the ground, his massive wings mantling over her protectively.
A spear flew past, less than an arm’s length from her head. A moment later, Ditanu moved off her, and a scream jerked her back to the battle. Ditanu, in full gryphon fury, slashed out at her attacker, gutting, tearing muscle, and snapping bones with one mighty blow from his paw.
Her king had just saved her life. Shaking off a sudden feeling of self-doubt, she came to her knees, spitting sand from her mouth and blinking furiously to clear her vision. She was still recovering when agonizing pain blazed along their blood link.
“Ditanu!” She screamed his name, echoing his roar of pain.
Even before she fully understood what had happened, she was summoning magic to dispatch the threat to Ditanu’s life. Moments later, her eyes found and confirmed what her blood link told her.
Ditanu was grounded, a spear embedded up high near his wing joint on his left side. A human was advancing upon him with a sword poised to kill.
She lashed out with another blast of power, and the human vanished, more ash into the breeze.
Iltani sprinted to Ditanu’s side. Three of his guards were already with him, but she didn’t have eyes for them. All her attention was riveted upon the length of a spear piercing Ditanu’s wing joint. She shoved her way between the guards—there were more gathering now, thank the goddess.
A closer look at the angle of the entry wound showed the spear hadn’t shattered the joint. Then whispering an apology to her king, she placed one hand on the wooden shaft and the other against his side.
The spear had pierced through muscle and cartilage but missed bone and the main blood vessels. Otherwise, Ditanu’s wound would have been gushing his life force out onto the sand.
“Ditanu,” she shouted to be heard over the noise of the battle. “Hold as still as you can. I’m going to use magic on the shaft and then cauterize the wound.”
The king flicked a tufted ear in acknowledgment and gave her a sharp nod. H
is beak gaped open in pain. Otherwise, he showed no outward signs that he wasn’t ready to continue the fight. The beloved idiot. Her hands started to shake as relief swept through her body. He was hurt but would heal in a few days. She just needed to get him off this beach.
Shaking off her trepidation, she gripped the wooden shaft and sent her magic racing down its length. Where it touched, it ate into the surface, and the wood vanished in another shower of light and ash.
Ditanu snapped his beak closed with a hiss of pain as a second pulse of her magic sealed the wound. It would require proper healing later, but for now, her field dressing would do.
“That will hold for…” A thunderous roar drowned out Iltani’s words. She twisted around toward the fearsome sound in time to witness the north wall and a good portion of the upper temple shear away from the face of the cliff.
It crashed downed toward the beach, to the sounds of shouts and cries of fear.
Many of those shouts of alarm were cut short, silenced forever.
A cloud of dust and sand rolled across the shore, obscuring both the dead and the survivors. Iltani’s magic flared, screaming that the cubs were in pain, their lives in peril. Ditanu roared, calling for his cubs.
The fighting paused as all opponents choked in the debris-filled air.
Iltani tore a length of veil from her skirt and tied it around her face and then turned to scan the area with magic, seeking Ditanu’s cubs.
Two life forces were bright spots in her mind, but the third…the third was flickering like a guttering candle.
“Stay with the king,” Iltani ordered the other Shadows and began to run.
The air was thick with stone dust and visibility was terrible, but she didn’t need her eyes.
Her magic guided her and she swiftly made her way through the maze of fallen rubble.
Coming around a mostly intact piece of turret, Iltani halted suddenly. After taking in the sight of Burrukan and several Shadows digging desperately at one section of rubble, her heart dropped to her stomach, knowing what it meant even if her blood link hadn’t already informed her of the terrible truth.
“Move,” she yelled as she joined them, a cluster of Shadows in her way. When they ignored her or likely didn’t hear her over the noise of shifting rocks, she shouldered her way forward.
When the first boulder was within reach, she touched it, and it popped out of existence with a snap of magic. The two soldiers nearest her turned to study her with startled looks. These two had been with Consort Ahassunu the entire night, so they hadn't seen the ceremony and likely didn’t know she was Ishtar’s Blade.
They could figure it out on their own time.
“You!” She pointed to the one to her left. “Move the smaller bits of rock and rubble. I’ll deal with the larger pieces.” She glanced to the male on her right. “You, help him.”
If they were surprised at standing shoulder to shoulder with Ishtar’s Blade, they buried it under layers of discipline.
She touched a second, and then the third piece of rock, vanishing three fragments before Ditanu’s presence was at her back again. His rage, pain, and fear flooded out across their link.
He paced back and forth, wanting to get to his cubs, but too weak to shapeshift back into human form.
Gryphon form was superior in battle, but their paws useless in this endeavor. Ditanu was rational enough to know getting in the way would not help his cubs.
Iltani closed off the emotions flowing from her king to concentrate on his cubs. With a sense of desperation, she realized she could only sense two of them.
“We’re losing one,” she screamed feeling helpless. There was still too much rock between her and that tiny flickering life. Rage flowed through her body. Her magic spiked, escaping her control and entire sections of rock vanished. Iltani renewed her desperate digging.
A wing. A tiny leg glimpsed between pieces of rock.
“I see one!” Iltani shouted and the two guards nearest her race forward.
“Hold,” Burrukan barked as he joined them. “Careful. Or the rocks above will crush him.”
Iltani froze in sick horror and closed her fist on another wave of power. It burned between her fingers but didn’t leap out across the space to the boulder she’d already targeted.
Burrukan was correct.
“How many can you take out at once?” He speared her with a fierce look.
The simple answer was ‘all of them’ but this task would require a precision she didn’t know if she’d mastered yet. “It needs to be direct touch. Ishtar’s magic is too strong, too wild for me to control. I can’t risk the cubs.”
“Then we won’t. Start with this one,” Burrukan said and pointed to the one he wanted her to target.
She did as instructed, vanishing piece after piece he selected. Burrukan had a good eye for it, and the pile didn’t shift dangerously at any point, but she swore it was taking an eternity. Slowly the section of rubble they worked on got smaller. She could see more of the cub. It was Ilanum. His chest barely rose and fell. He was bleeding from his mouth. Iltani, heart in her throat, continued to clear the rocks Burrukan chose.
Ditanu paced forward, close enough to jam his beak into the space between two of the more massive boulders and touched his cub.
He made a pitying whine, but when Iltani and Burrukan tackled the one boulder pinning the cub, Ditanu quickly snatched the cub to safety. Iltani only had a moment to see the tiny battered body before Ditanu mantled his wings around his little one.
Iltani didn’t have time to see more. Burrukan dragged her to a different section of the pile.
“We are close to the consort. I can smell her.” Burrukan sounded both panicked and pained. “And blood. I can smell that too.”
Iltani pitied him at that moment. As much as he and Ahassunu had betrayed the king, she still couldn’t hate her mentor.
“Here, this one,” Iltani said, pointing to a different section than where the Shadows had been working.
She could only hone in on the cubs, not Ahassunu.
She hoped they were together.
***
They worked feverishly. The Shadows removing smaller obstacles while Burrukan‘s keen eye picked out the best spot for Iltani to use her power. On the beach behind them, the battle still raged on.
The lone lamassu had been joined by three of its siblings and two of the temple’s smaller genies and a stone lion. The genies and the lion fought alongside the Shadows, but the great lamassu were going out into the surf.
The great winged behemoths made short work of both the landing boats and the soldiers within them. Iltani, connected to the stone guardians by Ishtar’s magic, could feel their fierce joy at defending their land.
“Iltani! Here,” Burrukan shouted, drawing both her attention and Ditanu’s sharp, half-wild gaze. The gryphon rushed forward, so did Iltani.
She vaporized another section of rock at Burrukan’s urging and then stepped back as he dragged Ahassunu from the rubble. It was amazing the weight of the stones hadn’t crushed her. Iltani glanced back at the rocks. Ah, she’d used magic. That’s why the rocks hadn’t crushed her.
Burrukan and Ditanu were checking Ahassunu over for injuries, but the consort shook them off and came to all fours—although unsteadily. She said something to Ditanu, and he stalked forward toward Iltani and the crevice they’d just pulled Ahassunu from.
Understanding hit. Iltani dropped to her hands and knees and crawled into the narrow space. In the far back corner, two cubs huddled together, too frightened to move.
“Kuwari!” she called. She couldn’t make out which was which, but one head popped up out of the twin lumps of fur and feathers.
He squealed and tried to get up, at which point his cry turned into a series of pained yelps.
Outside Ditanu roared. It was a fresh wave of anger, not pain, which washed across the link. Ditanu was just reacting to his cub’s pain, not injured himself.
Crawling on her hands and knees,
she made her way toward the back of the magically created cavern.
It was narrow but deeper than she’d expected. Ahassunu must have been trying to dig her way free.
Ditanu called to his cubs again, this time shoving his head and shoulders into the opening.
“Ditanu, get out of the way. You’re blocking all the light.” Iltani spoke to him as she did when they were children. It gave her comfort in this small tomb-like cave.
He huffed and pulled back enough to allow light in.
“I’m making my way to the cubs now. They’re both alive.” At least, they were both breathing. She feared to see what she’d find when she reached them, though.
There was a scuffle at the entrance.
This time, Ahassunu was there. “I wasn’t able to free them without bringing down that entire back wall.” Ahassunu’s voice came out strained with the guilt of a parent unable to protect a child. “My magic wasn’t great enough to free them.”
Ahassunu hadn’t asked, but Iltani heard the plea there anyway. Wiggling the last of the way, she touched Kuwari gently. Her crystalline sword gave off enough light to see he wasn’t mortally wounded, but part of one wing and the tip of his tail were trapped under a substantial chunk of rock.
She couldn’t start randomly vaporizing pieces without bringing half a cliff’s worth of rock down upon herself.
If she had no other choice, she could sever the tip of his tail and cut the trapped wing feathers. When she gently shifted Kuwari enough to examine his sister, she instantly knew the female could not be freed in such a way. Her entire hind end was trapped, likely crushed.
It was probably too late to save the tiny female, but Iltani’s blood link and the steel in her own soul wouldn’t let her give up either.
She glanced between Ahassunu and the cubs. “Get Ditanu and yourself out of here. Once he is at a safe distance, I’ll shield the cubs and then release Ishtar’s rage upon this entire cursed beach. The power should vaporize this pile of rubble, and any enemies I can catch in the blast.”
While that probably wasn’t a lie, Iltani didn’t know if she or the cubs would survive it, either. The thought of Ditanu losing all his cubs struck terror into Iltani’s heart, but surely as long as he still had Ahassunu and the unborn cubs she carried, that would be enough to keep him safe from the clutches of grief madness even if the worse happened and Iltani failed.
Queen of the Gryphons: Ishtar's Legacy: Books 1 & 2 Page 13