Knight of Stars

by Tom Lloyd

  The minutes stretched on. The darkness deepened. The tysarn circled. Lynx could feel the anticipation in the air, but An Vir remained still and silent.

  ‘Has the water stopped them?’ Lastani asked after a long while.

  ‘Mebbe just looking for a way around,’ Toil said. ‘Hunters take their time.’

  She pointed at the boat, off-shore. ‘Wouldn’t they have spotted them? But if they have crossed it, surely we would have heard something? The mages have seeded An Vir with traps.’

  ‘It’s likely they can sense the traps and avoid them.’

  ‘Or eat ’em,’ Lynx said. ‘If anyone’s going to build a trap for me, I like to think they’d make it out of bacon.’

  The idea seemed to startle Lastani. ‘They’re taking their time, dismantling the traps on the way?’

  ‘Why not? They’ve got a fight ahead of them. Nice to have a snack beforehand, keep the strength up. A little trail of appetisers leading to the main course.’

  On the shoreline, the mages clearly agreed, either that or some scout had sent word. There was a shudder in the channel between islands and for an awful moment Lynx thought the golantha were going to erupt from it. Then the water began to part and his tattoos started to glow as the linked mages put their strength to work.

  ‘What’re they doing? Clearing the damn way?’

  ‘Exactly that,’ Lastani said, pointing. ‘Look, they’re dragging a wall of water each way, a blend of earth-magic and water-magic.’

  ‘Let’s hope the beasts ain’t as fast as they look,’ Anatin muttered. ‘Or clever.’

  ‘They’re beasts,’ she insisted. ‘Presented with an easy path to a great source of food.’

  ‘Beasts ain’t stupid.’

  ‘Nor do they think too hard,’ Toil chimed in. ‘Something that big isn’t likely to be in the habit of hesitating. If you’re the scariest thing around, you’re rarely cautious.’

  ‘That right, Reft?’ Anatin called with a half-laugh.

  The big man nodded and gave a wide grin, displaying none of the fear the rest of them seemed to have. His pale, hairless skin took on an even more ethereal quality in the moonlight. For all the Lynx had seen Wisps up close and knew they were nothing similar to human, it still gave him pause.

  With the magic humming inside him, all of the marked Cards possessing a faint shine in the gloaming, Lynx watched the darkness ahead. Unexpectedly, there was a brief burst of light from one of the streets, oil spilling from a lamp as something knocked it flying. A great moan rose up from the assembled army and bursts of mage-light swept over the far shore, searching. Lynx saw the line shudder as men and women recoiled from the sight, but somehow it held.

  A golantha had emerged from a side-street, perhaps kept away by the lights, and it moved tentatively into the open. Antennae quested across the road-mouth, ten yards or more long. Those it brushed back and forth over the ground, touching doorways and balconies as it investigated its surroundings. When it advanced, it moved just a few yards, antennae flicking forward like fishing lines – casting out ghostly spider-threads of light which were then gathered back in to its mandibles. Whatever trap had been laid there, faint pops of light appeared in the air then were drawn in and consumed.

  He could see no eyes, nothing beyond a repulsive, shifting tangle of overlapping mouthparts. The legs seemed all the more massive now; a shorter, thicker upper part that hinged into a lower section three times the length. The golantha planted legs on buildings on either side of the island’s wide street and tasted the air.

  Behind it came a second, drawn by the taste of magic and with less caution. That seemed to make up the first one’s mind and it surged unexpectedly forward. They moved with deceptive speed, segmented bodies that rose and fell with fluid grace as they crested a boathouse built right at the edge of the land and continued on into the now-empty channel.

  A volley of gunshots rang out, a stuttered boom that lit up the night air with icer lines. The first creature was hit at least twenty times, icers slamming into its armoured body and sparkers bursting in a brief haze across its mouth. Veteran of too many gunfights, Lynx realised the sparkers vanished far faster than normal – even as the golantha shuddered under the massed impacts. Antennae and mandibles both embraced the jagged burst of lightning and ripped the magic from the air. But then the water hit.

  A massive wave slammed into the side of the golantha, sweeping in from the right as tonnes of water were released by the mages. Already halfway across the channel, the huge monster was unable to resist that sort of power. Lynx saw it tumble before the churning waters closed over it and bore it away – under the high stone bridge and beyond. Off to the left, the other wall of water held until the first reached it. When they met a great explosion of spray burst fifty yards up into the sky then the greater momentum carried it on. The torrent drove out into the open sea where a churning white wave fanned out wide over the dark water.

  The second golantha had only managed to get half of its body into the channel when the water came. It too was hammered sideways, its front half pulled from the ground by the force of water, but the rear legs still gripped the shore. For a few tortuous seconds Lynx saw it fighting the enormous power of the water. Then something broke and it began to slip.

  This golantha wasn’t swallowed by the tumult, however, having resisted the initial impact. Instead, it was dragged along the shoreline until it reached the stone bridge that spanned the channel. It slammed into the far end of the bridge and was almost dragged underneath, but somehow found purchase.

  The bridge itself crumpled under the impact, already weakened by the mages. Great chunks of stone crashed on to the monster’s back, others tumbled towards the sea. Some were gathered up by the assembled stone mages. Those were dragged to the near shore as the golantha fought to right itself, twisting and slashing at the crumbling stub of bridge.

  Mortar flaked away as grey-white magic swarmed around the stone, then chunks the size of a man’s body were hurled at the golantha. They were accompanied by more gunfire, icers casting flashes of white light while burners spilled briefly over the roiling waters and the light mages cast flares up into the night air.

  Lynx watched the beast shudder under those impacts, but even the huge pieces of stone clattered off its armoured back without causing any great damage. The burners spilled across it all too briefly, a flash of light then drained of magic.

  One huge piece of stone was hoisted, no doubt by a marked mage or some sort of linked group. Whatever the source, the golantha felt the power from across the channel. It darted forwards, antennae and pincers slashing at the air. The greenish threads seemed to tug at the magic and unravelled it in one movement.

  The stone fell and people screamed. A gun went off and sparks burst over one section of the defenders, then a cartridge case exploded. The burst of light illuminated a shower of blood and several of the light-flares winked immediately out.

  ‘Get ready to move,’ Anatin shouted.

  Lynx hefted his mage-gun, preparing to advance on the horrors, only for Anatin to point into the streets of An Vir. There were more coming, three huge dark shapes outlined in flickers of pale green light.

  ‘Shitting gods!’

  The defenders saw them a few moments later and the gunfire started. It barely made the golantha hesitate. One slewed sideways and ascended a housing block, a few deft steps of its dozen or more legs taking it ten yards above street level. There it only attracted more of the gunfire, but most of that clattered harmlessly off the creature’s back-plates. But one earther cracked its chitin armour while another snapped a leg and demolished the balcony it was using for a foothold. The golantha faltered, instinctively coiling in on itself as it was hurt, but their respite lasted only moments. It dropped with a great thump and made for the ruined bridge as the first pulled itself on to the shore.

  Grenades were thrown and the far shore momentarily vanished in a sudden, furious display of fire and lightning. Lynx winced at the brightnes
s and clearly so did the golantha, but in moments the light was gone.

  Even as they reared up, away from the light, they drained the magic feeding it. Another flopped heavily forward into the water and drove through – just its antennae held high above the surface for a few seconds. Then it emerged with terrible fury on the other side. At point-blank range the gunfire could hardly miss – Lynx couldn’t count the icers that slammed into it – but the golantha didn’t seem to care.

  Once across, the huge creatures simply waded forward into the ranks, not trying to kill. Broader than an elephant and twenty yards long, each barged through the crowd and laid waste to everything in its path. The Mastrunners were armed with every pole-arm and axe they had, but few even scored a blow. The golantha were too big, each leg a barbed and spear-tipped tree trunk. They tore through thee ranks like a siege weapon.

  The only thing that slowed them was bursts of light as the city’s mages attacked, but none of their efforts seemed to hurt it. Each attack drew the target’s attention and the golantha snapped up mage after mage, holding them broken in its mandibles as it drank the magic from their bodies. It didn’t take long for the mages to stop. A last few hurled chunks of stone then more earthers roared out. Those seemed to hurt it, but by then there were four golantha across and the army was overrun. It was over and the Cards were already running ahead of the rout.

  ‘No tastier treats than us!’ Deern yelled, drunk on terror or just drunk, as they piled down the steps to ground level.

  There was crazed, panicked laughter from some of the other Cards. Lynx felt it bubble up inside him too, but he was too focused on keeping his feet to let it out. Down at street level it felt suddenly darker, a confusing array of roads ahead of them, but Teshen ploughed forward without hesitation.

  Shadows lurched from every corner, dark jagged shapes that made Lynx’s hands clamp fearfully around his gun grip. They were all experienced enough to keep fingers away from triggers, but even in this mad flight he could hear sporadic gunfire and screams from behind them.

  The whoosh of wings made them all flinch as a large shape swept overhead. Someone fired an icer up at the beast, the rest offered just curses as the tysarn passed by. Lynx looked around.

  ‘Oh screaming spirits, not the tysarn too!’

  They were all flying low over the district now, apparently unafraid of the golantha. Even as Lynx watched, he saw one plunge down behind a nearby building. Someone shrieked in fear and pain as it landed, the sound continuing for several long seconds before being cut abruptly off.

  ‘Drawn by the blood!’ Toil yelled. ‘They’re not the golantha’s prey.’

  ‘Fucking bully for them,’ Anatin shouted back. ‘Move, you bastards!’

  Teshen stood at the end of the street, mage-gun propped on his hip and waving them forward. As Lynx stumbled forward, Teshen levelled the gun and fired at the sky above them. The white streak of an icer punched through a descending tysarn and the creature crashed dead through the door of a nearby building.

  Lynx barrelled on, almost shoving Toil out of the way in the process. The Cards ran out into a square with a vine-draped arcade around the inner face. There Anatin called a halt and demanded a head count. The Knights of the company reeled them off swiftly, Lynx’s finishing last because Atieno was last to enter the square.

  The ageing mage was struggling, he could see that, and Lynx offered the man a shoulder as Suth finished the count. There were two missing, somehow lost in the rush, but before Anatin could decide if there was time to look for them, Kas gave a yell.

  A huge shape appeared over the rooftops and shock hit Lynx like a punch. At a distance it was massive. Up close the golantha was vast and all the more terrifying. He could hear the swish of its antennae as they swept above the square and the air shimmered with sickly green light. The twitching mass of mandibles made him physically recoil as much as the large main pair of pincers that reached round from the lower side of its head. Three yards long, each ended in a curved spike longer than Lynx’s falchion.

  In that glow the tattoos of the marked Cards seemed to blaze. The mages became bright beacons, casting jagged light. The sheer variety of prey seemed to surprise the golantha and it hesitated, turning from left to right as it tried to make sense of the scampering figures. At the base of each antenna was a glistening block slightly lighter than the rest of its body – looking for all the world like a dozen mismatched cobblestones. With a jolt Lynx realised they were its eyes and his hands were already moving. His icer struck just to one side of the eye, but four more shots followed then a pair of earthers rocked it backwards.

  The golantha heaved up, but seemed to roll with the blows like a seasoned brawler. Before anyone else could fire, it bent over the rooftop and snatched Lastani up in its pincers. The young mage screamed in pain, white-blond hair blazing in the strange light. Magic began to stream from her body. Lynx felt the strange tug inside him as it began to flow and the air grew colder.

  He realised the golantha was feeding as she screamed, drinking in the magic that roared through her body. One pincer had gone through her thigh. Lynx could feel the pain in her cries as blood welled up fast and black in the stark light. He reloaded, backing away to some pretence of cover, while Reft raced forward. The Knight of Blood launched himself off a stepped planter at one end of the vines and hammered a hatchet into the pincer pressing bloodily against Lastani’s back. It was hard enough for the weapon to lodge, but the golantha ignored it as Reft dropped and rolled away.

  Just then Lastani’s cry took on a note of fury. The air around her shimmered with power, an icy haze that was being drained by the feeding golantha. In that moment she seemed to remember she was the most powerful mage in the Riven Kingdom. Anger eclipsed pain and Lynx felt a great jolt forward as the draw of magic intensified. All around him the marked Cards stumbled, fumbling as they reloaded. Their tattoos went from shining to an eye-watering intensity.

  The chill in the summer air turned ferociously cold. The air began to glitter with ice crystals and Lastani’s hands blazed with power. She didn’t try anything clever, just hurled power at it with all the strength she had left. The golantha recoiled now, faltering in its greedy efforts as a hoarfrost burst across its head. The ice moved rapidly, Lastani put every ounce of her strength into the wild stream of magic – more than even the golantha could absorb.

  For good measure, some of the Cards off to the sides fired into the underside of its head, clear of Lastani. The shots seemed to pain it more now. An earther tore a chunk of flesh out and one of its great legs went limp. The golantha tried to turn and flee, to shake Lastani from its pincers, but ice now coated its head. Its eyes were blind and it seemed disorientated, too confused to know how to escape, while all the time Lastani continued pouring her energy into it.

  A second earther sent chunks of ice flying as it buried into the creature’s side. The golantha flinched away from the impact – clumsy in its movements, but still its limbs were huge and powerful. With one sweep of a leg it brushed Lastani away and she fell in a spray of blood. As soon as she was out of the way a wave of earthers hammered it, three or four wrecking the antennae and mandibles of its mouth before it was able to pull away.

  Himbel and Sitain ran to Lastani. Himbel had a belt in his hand ready to tie off the leg, but then he faltered. Lastani clutched at the wound only feebly, her mouth working but only a hoarse croak came out. Blood flooded over the stone floor of the square. Her leg had been almost entirely torn off.

  ‘Shit, Sitain! Help her!’

  Himbel had to grab the stunned mage by the collar and shake Sitain before the shock faded. She gaped wordlessly at Himbel for a moment then realised what he meant and placed a hand on Lastani’s head. One brief pulse of magic and the young woman flopped still.

  ‘We can’t stay!’ Anatin roared.

  There were other Cards down, several crying in pain from where they’d been batted aside by the golantha. Each was grabbed and hauled away, Teshen shouting directio
ns from the rear of the square. Lynx went to grab Sitain and pull her back. The young woman resisted for a moment then looked pleadingly up at him.

  ‘She’s dead, or as good as,’ he said, more roughly than he intended. ‘We can’t bring her.’

  ‘But the tysarn!’

  He nodded and knelt at Lastani’s side. The blood still flowed from her leg, but when he put his fingers at her throat he couldn’t find a pulse. ‘Sorry, girl,’ Lynx muttered. ‘You didn’t deserve this life.’

  Someone knelt beside him, offering forward a mage cartridge. It was Anatin, a burner in his fingers. Lynx took it with a nod and folded Lastani’s hands around it.

  ‘She was one of us,’ Anatin said. ‘I ain’t leaving her to be lunch.’

  Lynx got up, one hand under Sitain’s armpit. ‘You want to do it?’ he asked, offering his mage-pistol to her. As she stared at it, Lynx pulled a sparker from his cartridge case. ‘Damn things aren’t much use anyway against these monsters.’

  Sitain looked away and shook her head so he pushed her in the direction of Teshen where the rest were already moving. Loading the gun, he saw an approving nod from Anatin before the commander followed, chivvying Sitain on with his usual gentleness.

  Lynx followed, stopping at the edge of the square and looking back. Lastani almost looked peaceful there, alone on the ground while all seven hells continued to rage in the streets beyond. Finding he had no last words, Lynx fired the sparker and was halfway gone by the time the burner ignited.

  Chapter 36

  The Cards crossed to the largest island of Vi No Le without further incident. The screams and explosions on Si Jo continued, but not even Lynx thought about turning round. Across the rooftops raced groups of Mastrunners, colourful and ragged, heading for the great warren of Xi Le. They moved faster than the Cards, leaping across narrow alleys or using archways to cross the wider ones. It was more dangerous though, as tysarn of all sizes danced and wheeled above the city.