Threshold of Annihilation (The Firebird Chronicles Book 3)

by T. A. White

  The lake wasn't that big, especially for a being as massive as a lu-ong.

  Graydon didn't have more than a second to spare on the question of why the creature hadn't already made the jump or what it was doing here.

  Right now, all that mattered was Kira and Devon and their safe recovery.

  Seconds before Graydon prepared to dive, the lu-ong from before breached the surface.

  Graydon veered away from his path, avoiding crashing into the ground only by chance. He circled quickly, a spear of black ki condensing in front of his palm.

  Before he could attack, the lu-ong's neck bent and its mouth opened. Two slimy forms were spit out.

  “They’re out. It’s Kira and Devon,” Wren shouted through their connection.

  “They’re not safe yet. Secondary attack from our right,” Torvald instructed in a calm voice.

  “Scatter bombs,” Amila spat.

  “Little Storm, Wren take care of the bombs,” Torvald ordered. “I’ve got the rest.”

  Graydon was already acting before the first word was out of Torvald’s mouth, the black spear he’d prepared for the lu-ong arcing toward the two silvery streaks.

  It destroyed the first of the scatter bombs, disintegrating it until only microscopic pieces of debris remained. Unobstructed, the spear shot past, grazing the second of the bombs.

  It impacted the ground with a dull roar, the shock wave hitting a second later.

  If Graydon and the rest hadn’t raised a ki shield they would have been knocked to the ground.

  A nearly transparent wall of gold formed between the prone figures on the ground and the blast seconds before it reached them.

  Wren flew past Graydon, his ki bursting out of him to destroy the second of the bombs. His actions weren’t as flashy as Graydon’s, but they were precise.

  “Stay focused. There’s no guarantee there won’t be another attack,” Graydon ordered before peeling off and heading for Kira.

  *

  Kira hit the ground hard, Devon right beside her.

  Kira lay still, processing the fact she wasn't dead or being digested in a lu-ong's stomach.

  Devon groaned.

  "You alive?" she asked.

  "Somehow."

  Kira pushed herself up to sitting, trying to figure out what happened. She remembered kicking away the waveboard in preparation for the crash. Then the gleam of teeth as they were swallowed. Afterward, there was only darkness and the feeling of being dipped in an electric hot bath akin to what she felt from the Mea'Ave.

  She had no idea how it was possible, but it was clear the lu-ong and the Mea’Ave were linked in some inextricable way. She simply didn't know how.

  By rights, even if the lu-ong had leapt out with the intention of catching them, they should still be dead.

  Their bones should have shattered when the lu-ong swallowed them. Kira was very clear on their possibility of surviving, despite what she'd told Devon and Jin.

  Honestly, she considered the fact she was still breathing a bit of a miracle.

  All she remembered in the seconds the lu-ong's mouth had closed around them was ki wrapping around her like a blanket, somehow cushioning her from damage.

  Even her muscles and bones felt better than they had before. An invisible energy filling her up to the brim.

  She clenched and unclenched her hands, catching sparkles darting in and out of her vision.

  "What happened?" Devon reached up to touch a spot on the side of his neck. His helmet unfolded, revealing his face.

  Kira shook her head, still occupied with the way ki seemed to be rising out of her armor in tiny flares before sinking back in.

  Devon's gaze fell to her hands as a small exclamation left him. "That's manifestation."

  “What is that?” Kira asked.

  Devon reached over, his hand hovering over the tiny flares. “It’s when your ki communes with the universe.”

  “That’s quite the poetic description,” Kira said.

  As was her habit when things felt out of control, she retreated to sarcasm.

  Devon didn’t take offense. “You’re like a pot boiling over, but instead of the water spilling, it is putting on a brilliant light show. We simply don’t have the eyes to see except in rare circumstances.”

  “Kind of like what you get with the aurora borealis,” Kira said, thinking she understood. “How is this possible if I’m wearing this?”

  Kira raised her wrist with the inhibitor.

  Devon touched it lightly. “The inhibitor doesn’t drain your ki. It simply puts a wall between you and it. The potential is always there whether you can touch it or not.”

  His explanation was similar to what the Tuann healers had given her. The inhibitor didn’t stop her from using ki. Rather it was like slowly opening a faucet.

  At first, the flow of ki was like a trickle, the opening gradually widening as she grew stronger, healing the ki channels she’d nearly destroyed through her misuse.

  A massive shadow fell over them before Kira could ask any other questions, the sense of being watched unmistakable. She stiffened, afraid to turn her head and see what was waiting.

  Seeing her expression, the awe on Devon's face faded.

  His hand moved slowly to his waist.

  Kira shook her head once. "Don't."

  Any blade he drew would be useless anyway.

  Inch by excruciating inch, Kira lifted her gaze until she was staring up at the giant lu-ong behind them. Its body half-submerged in the lake, small mounds of its serpentine form visible in places.

  The lu-ong's eyes were wise and knowing as he waited for her gaze to reach his.

  He had a scar along one side of his jaw and over his snout. His whiskers almost made him seem like a wizened old man with a mustache and beard. The color of dawn, they were the longest Kira had ever seen on a lu-ong, almost brushing the water. Against the black of his body they were even more vivid.

  His mane was sleeked back, indicating he was at ease. If it had been flared, they likely wouldn't have lived through the next few minutes.

  Kira was careful not to move, holding still as she gestured for Devon to do the same. He listened, his breathing slightly faster as he stared at her, not daring to look back.

  Kira moved to face the lu-ong more fully, ignoring the way her shoes squelched and the long strings of saliva still clinging to her.

  "I suppose we have you to thank for our lives," Kira finally said after what felt like an eternity of staring.

  Her previous encounters with the lu-ong had led her to believe they were highly intelligent.

  A deep chuckle reverberated through her bones. Wise child.

  The lu-ong's amusement brushing against her senses felt a lot like sandpaper, abrading but not painfully so.

  "Great one, why did you swallow us?"

  You looked in need of assistance.

  Kira couldn't argue with that. She bowed, her arms held away from her body, as if in doing so she could limit the amount of saliva that would get on her. An impossibility given every inch of her was coated in it.

  Kira contained her shudder. She had a thing about bodily fluids—as in she didn't want them on her.

  She held her revulsion in, knowing it could be construed as an insult. If it was this or possible death or maiming, she'd take the saliva, even if it didn’t lessen the ick factor.

  Approval pressed in on her.

  Straightening from her bow, she took a moment to observe him in more detail, noting what she hadn't before. Silvery white threaded through some of his scales.

  He was old. Much older than the ones she had met before.

  "This is the second time a lu-ong has saved me," Kira said.

  She didn't know whether to be concerned about that or not. Her debt to these strange creatures seemed to grow every time she turned around.

  "Why?"

  From what she'd inferred from Harlow and others, the lu-ong were treasured by the Tuann in the same way a god might be. They we
re worshipped from afar but didn't have much interaction with the Tuann.

  She found it strange that they'd concern themselves with her small existence.

  You still have a task to complete. It would be a shame if the machinations of others got in the way of that.

  "What does that mean?"

  The lu-ong lowered its head until an eye as large as her body was directly in front of her. For a moment, Kira caught the impression of galaxies in its depths.

  In your heart, you know what I mean. Not everything will remain true when put into the crucible.

  Kira's forehead furrowed. He might think she knew what he was talking about, but she was as lost as she'd been before this strange conversation.

  The lu-ong's attention shifted to over her shoulder. The rot has grown. Soon it will need to be excised.

  A heavy thud came from behind her, followed quickly by a second one.

  The intensity of the lu-ong's stare froze Kira in place in much the same way a snake did a rabbit right before it struck.

  One evil deed does not make a person evil. Nor does one good deed make a person good.

  "Well, that's cryptic," Kira said.

  The lu-ong sank into the lake. Light skimmed beneath the water's surface. When it was gone, the heavy weight of the lu-ong's mind disappeared too.

  "Kira!" Graydon's powerful strides carried him over to her.

  Before she had time to react, she found herself enveloped in his embrace. His hand landed on the back of her head, pushing her head more firmly against his chest.

  At any other time, Kira would have protested and done considerable damage at being manhandled without her permission. It was only because she felt the tremble in his hand and sensed his disquiet that she fell silent, letting the embrace lengthen.

  Graydon's smell, one that spoke of a summer storm, surrounded her.

  "You are bad for my heart," Graydon said into her ear.

  Kira's response was muffled against his shoulder. "Now you get it."

  Graydon's cheek brushed hers. "You make up for it in other ways."

  Kira's smile was brief. He said that now, but what about in the future when it became clear she wasn't going to stop?

  "If the lu-ong hadn't spit you out, I would have gone in after you."

  Kira slanted him a sideways glance. "And what good do you think that would have done?"

  They would likely have both perished at that point.

  Graydon's grin was roguish. "I'm sure I could have figured something out."

  Somehow, Kira found it hard to doubt him.

  "The boy?" Graydon asked, focusing on business again.

  "Safe." Kira tilted her head at Devon and the oshota who'd landed next to him. "You can have a look for yourself."

  A wail came from a distance. "Kira!"

  A muscle in Graydon's cheek jumped.

  Kira stepped aside in time for a round shape to barrel into her.

  "I thought you were dead!"

  Jin burrowed into her chest, stray bits of electricity pinging off his casing and zapping Kira.

  She winced but didn't push him away.

  "You should know I'm tougher to kill than that."

  Jin made a rude sound. "You got lucky."

  He knew better than anyone else how bad it could have gone. They'd seen the aftermath of numerous waveboard crashes. They weren't known for having high survivability rates.

  In a sense, the lu-ong's intervention was the best outcome they could have hoped for.

  "Not everyone can be swallowed by a lu-ong and survive," Kira pointed out.

  Jin held very still. She knew the exact instant he put together the fact she'd been in a creature's mouth with the substance he could see on her clothes.

  Kira's arms closed on him the moment he tried to dart away from her.

  She laughed at his struggles to escape.

  "No! What is this stuff? Why did you let me touch it?"

  Kira's chuckle was evil. "Don't you want to share in my fortune?"

  "No!" Jin broke free, landing on the ground where he rubbed all sides of himself against the dirt.

  Instead of removing the sticky substance, he simply mixed the dirt in with the saliva.

  Kira's head dipped, her shoulders shaking as Wren and the rest of Graydon's oshota landed nearby.

  The pitch of Jin's voice rose. "Are you laughing?"

  Kira shook her head frantically, unable to stop her grin from breaking over her face.

  Jin snarled, darting toward her head. Kira dodged as Jin chased her around Graydon.

  "You shouldn't be so mean to someone who was just in a lu-ong's belly," Kira shouted, avoiding another of Jin's swoops.

  Graydon stood still, letting them have their fun.

  "I'm so glad you find this amusing," Wren said in a neutral tone of voice.

  Kira and Jin shared a look as they stopped and faced Wren and the rest.

  The oshota crouched beside Devon drew her attention. For the first time the field in his hood wasn’t activated, allowing Kira to see his face.

  Like all Tuann, he had an ageless quality to him that made it impossible to guess his ages. Whether he was a hundred years or a thousand, his face would never age, except for the weight of experience in his eyes.

  Despite the lack of clues regarding his number of years, he had a calm reserve that said he was much older than he looked.

  His face was the sort that stayed with you long after its owner had dismissed you as unimportant. His hair was short and cut close to his head.

  His gold eyes were striking against the backdrop of his light brown skin. They were the first thing anybody would notice about him. Those eyes made you feel like there was no escape. They saw everything.

  For someone used to her secrets, that wasn't necessarily a good thing.

  Seeing him next to Devon, it was impossible to mistake their resemblance.

  There was a trace of awe and relief on Devon’s face as he looked up at the man.

  Jin moved closer to Kira. “Who is that?”

  Seconds passed as Kira studied Jin, surprised he needed to ask. Did he really not know?

  Devon and the man’s features held enough similar characteristics to those of Jin’s original form.

  After a moment, Kira mentally sighed.

  Perhaps it wasn’t so surprising after all that he didn’t recognize the link between himself and them. It had been decades since he’d had that form.

  The memories were no doubt hazy. It wasn’t like they’d spent the time in the camps admiring their reflections. Kira couldn’t recall a single time she’d looked at a mirror in that time. If she took all that into account, it was almost understandable Jin didn’t see what Kira did.

  "You really don't know?" Kira asked.

  "Should I?"

  Kira started to scrub one hand down her face and paused, eyeing it in distaste. Her hand dropped.

  “You find nothing familiar about that man? Nothing at all?”

  “No?” Jin made the word a question.

  For someone so smart, Jin could be awfully obtuse at times.

  He inched closer to Kira when she didn’t say anything else. “Are you going to tell me?”

  Kira debated with herself for half a second. She’d prefer to make this sort of revelation in privacy, but knowing Jin, now that he sensed something, he wouldn’t let the matter drop.

  Kira did something she rarely did since their comms were so much easier to use and caused less side effects later on. She reached out with her mind to project her thoughts at him.

  “Think of me and Harlow.” She sent him a pointed look.

  Jin’s puzzlement flooded the link, suppressing Kira’s emotions.

  This was the biggest reason they didn’t use this method of communicating often. It tore gaping holes in the boundary between their minds, making it hard to distinguish where one started and the other left off.

  “You mean you think he’s my uncle?” Jin said, choosing to use the comms rather
than their mental link.

  “Close.”

  Kira waited for the pin to drop. When several seconds passed and Jin seemed no closer to the answer, she shook her head.

  “I’m not certain but I think he might be your father.”

  Jin’s eye swung toward the two. “Kira, there’s at least an eighty percent chance that he and Devon are related, judging by the similarities in their features.”

  Kira folded her arms. Now he got it.

  “No.” He drew the word out.

  “Yup.”

  “Not possible.”

  “Only it is,” Kira assured him.

  “I can’t be related to that idiot.”

  Kira gave him a flat stare, reverting to normal speech. “Make me say yes one more time. I dare you.”

  Jin didn’t get another chance to deny it as Wren drew his en-blade, and Maksym erected a ki shield.

  "Incoming," Amila barked.

  NINETEEN

  THREE DOTS APPEARED against the backdrop of the sky, details becoming clearer as they neared. More elegant and refined than Kira would expect from a rescue vessel, the trio held more in common with pleasure crafts.

  Sails that looked like butterfly wings jutted from the main hull. Their design put Kira in mind of a vibrantly colored dorsal fin on one of the deadly fish the Haldeel stocked in their ponds.

  Like those predators, the vessels cut through the air with an efficiency that was as reliable as it was deadly.

  Jin retreated to Kira's side as the ships prepared to land. "Look who finally shows up when the fun is already over."

  Kira allowed the change in subject, knowing he’d talk when he was ready. Truthfully, she was grateful the revelation went over as well as it had.

  "Let's keep our thoughts to ourselves,” Kira told him. “We can't afford to offend the Haldeel."

  While Kira's actions had been necessary to preserve Devon's life, they could also be seen as presumptuous. Kira didn't want to be made the scapegoat in the event the Haldeel needed to save face.

  Jin grumbled but didn't say anything else as the first of the ships lowered in a gentle landing.

  "Is that a royal cutter?" Kira asked, feeling slightly sick as she caught sight of Haldeel soldiers wearing the armor of the royal guard.