by Davis Ashura
She and Jessira finally reached the end of Chimera Seed and Serena breathed a little easier.
She must have exhaled too heavily because Jessira paused and eyed her in question. “Do you need a break?”
“I’m fine,” Serena said, shifting the burden on her back.
Both she and Jessira carried a sack full of white-phosphorous shells encased in iron that Lilith’s blacksmiths had created in record time. The munitions were individually wrapped in soft cotton but still managed to shift about, making their travel more difficult. Serena noted that despite the unwieldy weight Jessira still moved with more grace than most women could have managed unencumbered.
“We’re going to the Main Stairs now,” Jessira said.
“Yes, ma’am.” Serena shuffled forward, making sure to remain in the shadow of Jessira’s Blend once they set off. They traded Chimera Seed’s slick stones for the dry ones of the Main Stairs, where ragged fires and stinging smoke replaced the waterfall’s mist. Serena created a braid of Air to protect her eyes from the drifting smoke, and she sensed Jessira copying her weave.
“Much better,” Jessira said.
They pressed on until Jessira paused unexpectedly. “Five steps are missing up ahead. We’ll have to jump together. Otherwise, you’ll leave the Blend. On three?”
“On three,” Serena agreed.
Jessira counted, and on three, they leapt. Serena landed well, but the weight of the iron shells on her back threw her off-balance. She threatened to fall and tumble down the steps but Jessira jerked her back.
“Thanks,” Serena said. She wiped the sweat from her brow and glowered at the cloudless sky. Just a little rain. Anything to replace the oppressive humidity they’d had for the past few weeks.
The rest of the trip down the Main Stairs passed uneventfully, with only a few more obstacles to avoid. They reached the base of Lilith’s Cliffs and approached the Guanyin. Not much farther to go.
They crossed the silvery bridge, and for once Serena didn’t bother looking at the statues carved along the walls of the narrow gorge.
Jessira came to a halt when they reached Lilith Beach. Despite the swirling smoke, the sun beat down, and Serena shaded her eyes with a braid of Air, Earth, and Water. Sunglasses. She’d first created them while teaching William to sail, and she wistfully recalled those happier times.
Jessira pointed to the Sinskrill fleet floating in the bay. “Now comes the hard part. We’ve got to cross the beach and hope no one sees us.”
“You think they can see us through the Blend?” Serena asked in surprise.
“I think the unformed can, and the Servitor is supposed to have some of their power.”
Serena cursed. She’d forgotten about her father’s unformed powers. She shifted her regard to the trees south of their location. The jungle leading to her cottage stood several hundred yards away, and a simple path of white bricks covered by a film of sand led to the tree-line. That’s where the Irregulars Jessira had sent down earlier should be, and while Serena couldn’t yet see them, she knew they were there. They’d phoned in an hour ago and confirmed their position.
“We’ll take it at a run,” Jessira said. “Stay on my left hip.”
Serena made one final adjustment to the shells on her back. “Ready.”
Jessira took a deep inhalation. “Let’s roll.” She set off at a sprint.
Serena immediately chased after her, keeping her head down as her world shrank to the path directly before her. She barely heard her own panting breaths or the dull clanking of the iron shells she carried knocking against one another. The susurrations of waves sweeping against the shore never entered her thoughts. Instead, she hummed “Gloria” and even managed to lose herself in the rhythm of the sprint. When she lifted her gaze to the jungle, she took heart. Only fifty more yards to cover.
Movement at the corner of her eye caused Serena to glance at the bay. Demolition had fired. A shell screamed straight at them. “Incoming!” she shouted.
Jessira had already seen it. She Shielded even as she picked up speed.
Serena tucked her head, pumped her arms, and ran flat out, barely able to keep up with the other woman. Her heart seized as the shell accelerated toward them. An instant prior to impact she threw herself on the ground and covered her head. The shell blasted like a thunderclap. Serena peeked a look.
Despite being braced for impact, the explosion had cast Jessira twenty feet through the air. She slammed into the beach, and an explosion of sand billowed outward. She rolled another ten feet and banged her head hard on the ground.
Serena ran to Jessira, casting a fearful gaze at the Sinskrill fleet. They hadn’t fired another shot, but that could change at any second. She reached Jessira right as the other woman sat up with a groan. Blood leaked from a scalp wound, and she explored it with her fingers before cursing and levering herself upright.
“Fragging unholy hells,” Jessira growled.
Serena helped her the rest of the way to her feet.
Jessira glared at the Sinskrill fleet. “I’m going to hurt every one of those fraggers.” She shook off Serena’s help. “Let’s go.”
They set off once more. Jessira shambled at first, but after a few seconds, she apparently had her legs under her. Serena kept an eye out toward Demolition, but no further shells blasted toward them. The last few yards to the jungle’s safety passed in a blur.
William kept his focus on the mahavans on the distant hillside. Perspiration beaded his forehead and soaked his chest and back. He wiped a drop of sweat threatening to drip into his eyes, and he shot a glare skyward, wishing the humid weather would go away or at least the winds would pick up some.
“Looks like we’ve wiped them out,” said Mink Ware, his second in command. Her brown hair, which she kept cropped, and her equally dark eyes and light-brown skin proclaimed her as native-born to Arylyn. She also resembled the animal for which she’d been named: small, cute, and deadly and had been the one to land the shot that had detonated like a brick of dynamite amongst the mahavans.
William reckoned that Mink’s one blast had wiped out half the Sinskrill forces. After that, the rest had swiftly fallen to the Irregulars’ shelling. Once he might have lamented the death of the mahavans, but not now. Not after seeing Daniel’s mangled form along with the ruined bodies of so many Irregulars, men and women he had come to know and love.
Mink created a braid, a weave of binoculars. “I think one of them is still moving.”
William focused in the direction of her gaze. The dust raised by their attack had yet to settle entirely on the mahavans’ encampment. Is anyone still alive over there? He couldn’t tell for certain, and Rukh needed him to be certain.
For you, Daniel. He bared his teeth and quoted one of his friend’s favorite lines. “Nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”
Mink regarded him in confusion.
William shook his head. Except for Daniel and Jason, no one got his nerd references. “One more shell,” he said. “Then we destroy those battlements before our forces reach them.”
“Yes, sir,” Mink said. She carried out his orders.
Seconds later, a nomasra launched toward the hillside. The subsequent explosion ripped open a chasm. Some of the mahavans’ corpses slipped into the hill’s gaping wound, as did all of their cannons.
That did it. William moved his attention to the battlements, which crawled with mahavans. “Bulldoze them, if you please,” he ordered.
“Ah . . . bulldoze, sir?”
William hid a sigh. “Just blow the hell out of them.”
Mink saluted. “Yes, sir.”
William sensed her and the other Irregulars sourcing their lorethasras and fusing braids of Fire, Air, Water, Earth, and Spirit to the cannons. Within seconds, disk-shaped shells rocketed skyward, and William watched their flight. Some juked as the mahavans sought to push the munitions away.
The Irregulars maintained control of the shells, and the nomasras fell like
fiery balls, trailing smoke and heat. They exploded into the mahavan battlements, demolishing the fortifications, blowing off their tops or tearing them apart.
Rocks and dirt shot outward and upward. It took a few seconds for the sound to reach them, a rumble of thunder along with the clamor of stones cracking and being crushed to powder. The noise overwhelmed any screams the mahavans might have made, and William was certain there were screams amongst the din.
“Again,” he ordered.
The shelling continued as Rukh’s forces advanced unopposed. Suddenly one of the fortifications vaporized. It blew apart as if a giant foot had crushed it. A wide throat opened up and the Irregulars rushed in. The battle began in earnest.
William could only watch. The Irregulars formed a beachhead, one established almost single-handedly by Rukh. He could easily be seen as he held off mahavans, slashing and moving faster than any normal person should.
William noticed movement to the north of the battlements. He focused his attention on it and quickly made out another set of cannons, two or three of them. Mahavan design. Some latecomers. He pointed them out to Mink. “Send them our regards.”
She stared at where he pointed and called out commands. Their cannons were shifted. Three volleys later, they obliterated the enemy position.
The battle below had also largely ended. A few last mahavans put up a knot of resistance and quickly died beneath a storm of Air and Fire.
William’s phone chirped. It was Rukh. “Yes, sir,” William answered.
“Get down here,” Rukh said. “We captured one of the mahavans. She has something interesting to say. I want to know your thoughts about it.”
“What about our cannons?”
“Tell Mink and the rest of your unit to remain with them in case we missed any mahavans.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Make it fast.”
William passed on Rukh’s commands to Mink before setting off. He slid down the steep hill and hit the canyon floor at a run, crunching across the pebbled, dusty surface. A shallow rise slowed him a bit, but he made up the time on the other side where the ground dropped-off slightly. He pumped his arms and built up speed. His boots kicked up puffs of dust as his necrosed-enhanced endurance and strength allowed him to sprint the half-mile in a little under two minutes.
He passed through the torn-apart mahavan’s fortifications where Rukh met him on the other side. William managed a sloppy salute.
“Catch your breath,” Rukh said.
William bent over, hands on knees, and panted.
Rukh silently passed him a canteen of water.
William nodded his ‘thanks’ and took a deep swig. His pounding heart slowed, and he no longer gulped his breaths.
“You made good time,” Rukh noted.
“You told me to,” William said.
Rukh grunted. “Come with me.”
William followed Rukh to a figure sitting upon the ground, bound with hands tied behind her back and feet secured before her at the ankles. Her blue eyes flashed as she glared at everyone around her. For once, her auburn hair lay flat and disheveled, but William still recognized her. Evelyn Mason.
“She’s the only mahavan who survived,” Rukh said. “I put a lock on her lorethasra.” Rukh faced the mahavan. “Tell him what you told me.”
Evelyn smirked. “Which part? The fact that you only defeated part of our forces? Or the part where the Servitor will burn your precious Lilith to the ground?”
Rukh blurred forward and clenched Evelyn by the jaw. He squeezed hard enough to leave a bruise. “We don’t have time for your games. Speak and live. Waste my time and I’ll end you.” He shoved her to the ground.
Evelyn’s breezy confidence faltered. “Adam left with the rest of his unformed.” She spat in disgust. “He’s one of them.”
William folded his arms. “How many unformed are there?”
Evelyn snarled. “What difference does it make?”
Rukh stepped forward.
“Fifty,” Evelyn said quickly.
“How many mahavans remain?” Rukh asked.
“Seventy. Samuel commands them. He’s got a long head start on you.” She sneered. “You better run if you want to catch them.”
William eyed her in revulsion. Evelyn represented the worst aspects of an already ugly people: arrogance married to brutality and with no regard for others. “Why were you left behind?”
Evelyn’s smirk remained in place, and William imagined smashing it off her smug face. She must have sensed his anger because her smiled widened. “Little raha’asra, you don’t scare me.”
Rukh tilted his head to the side, and his gaze grew distant, as if in consideration or listening to a conversation only he could hear. A second later, he broke into a grin.
Evelyn’s apparent good mood broke. “What?” she asked, her face suspicious.
William’s gaze snapped toward the northwest. A dust cloud arose from that direction as something approached, something running faster than he could. A tall form became apparent, along with several less distinct forms.
“Hold,” Rukh said, setting the Irregulars at ease. Many had readied weapons.
Moments later, the forms took shape: Travail and two large cats. One had a familiar calico pattern and the other one had the tawny coat of a lion.
Yards away from William and the Irregulars, Travail and the two cats slowed to a walk.
*Rukh!* a voice shouted in William’s mind. The calico cat approached with a flick of her tail and a shiver of her coat. She seemed to bristle with excitement.
Rukh wore a broad grin of sheer joy, happier than at any time William had seen him. *Aia!* He reached the calico cat and hugged her while she rested her head on his shoulder. Her eyes closed, and she purred like rumbling thunder.
Rukh hugged her tighter for an instant more. He leaned back. *I missed you, little girl.*
The cat pressed her forehead against Rukh’s. *I missed you, too, little human.*
William did a double-take. *Aia?*
The calico cat lifted her head. *Of course, William Wilde.*
Aia, once a small kitten, now stood as high as William’s shoulder, and he couldn’t get over the changes in her.
*I’m not done growing,* she said, sounding smug.
Rukh approached the tawny cat and rubbed the space in front of his ears. *Hello, Shon. Jessira can’t wait to see you.*
*I can’t wait to see her.* Shon’s eyes closed, and he, too, purred. *That is nice, but not as nice as when Jessira does it.*
*Of course,* Rukh said with a chuckle. *You’ll see her soon enough.*
“Are these Kesarins?” William asked, still confused.
Rukh nodded. “Formal introductions will have to wait, though.” He addressed Aia and pointed to Evelyn, who had watched the entire scene with wary fear. *I could use your help. This one knows secrets she won’t divulge.*
Aia growled, baring her fangs as she took a menacing step toward Evelyn. *She’ll divulge them to me.*
Serena wiped the perspiration off her forehead. Though she worked in the shade, she sweated heavily here. Lilith Bay’s golden beach stood no more than ten feet away, but the gusting trade wind dissipated as soon as it hit the tree-line. The highest branches shook and a few low-lying fronds and leaves whispered, but otherwise the jungle sweltered in silence. The cannon crews Jessira had sent down waited quietly. No animals cried out. Not even any birds or insects. They seemed to sense the violence being made ready within their home. Hopefully the violence won’t come from me dropping a shell.
Serena carefully lifted one of the phosphorous-filled iron munitions and braced it on the lip of the cannon’s mouth. Each round shot had been welded to one of the nomasra shells. The nomasra portion would hopefully allow the Spirit master to guide the shot, but the combined construction made handling them awkward.
Serena licked her lips. Now to seat the shell inside the cannon. This would be the hard part. She took a set of bracing breaths while readying herse
lf to load the munition the rest of the way. She couldn’t let it crack. The white phosphorous would probably kill them all if it did.
Diana Mangold, a stoutly-built magus with short, spiked hair, stepped forward then. “I’ve got a brace of Air behind the shell. It won’t crack. You can let it go.”
“Thank you,” Serena said. She let the shell slip off her fingers, even as she mentally chided herself. I should have thought of doing something like that.
Diana’s bracing braid held, and the shell slowly slid down the barrel, dropping softly into place. Serena’s heart pounded the entire time. She made her features drone-flat. She didn’t want anyone seeing her fear and distantly wondered if she’d ever rid herself of the habit. Or if she wanted to. A question for another time.
“All done,” Diana said with a grin.
Loading the second cannon took less time. Serena stepped away from the weapon and faced the mahavan ships. The ten-member cannon crew—twelve now with Serena and Jessira—had dragged the two cannons to the edge of the tree-line. From here, they had a clear line of sight at the Sinskrill fleet. After shelling her and Jessira on the beach, the Servitor’s ships hadn’t fired upon them any further. Serena didn’t know why. They had them dead to rights. Instead, the mahavan fleet had resumed their destruction of Lilith’s terraces, reducing more and more of it to rubble. The ships floated serenely in the aqua-blue water as they eradicated a place of beauty.
Jessira held motionless but carried the sense of a caged animal. “Stay within the Blend,” she ordered the crew. “The Servitor can probably see through it, but hopefully the screen of trees and bushes will keep us hidden until we burn their ships to the waterline.”
Serena stood with arms crossed and glared at the Sinskrill fleet. Burn them to the waterline. She nodded. That sounded like a great idea.