She stood on the promontory and stared at the black sky. She did not acknowledge his unsubtle approach or flinch when he slammed his tetsubo into the ground behind her. Indeed, she waited six whole heartbeats before glancing over her shoulder at him. He met her gaze and waited. If she wanted to play games, then he would play too. She finally turned to fully face him with a strange look in her eyes, as if acknowledging he had scored a point. “What is it that you wish, Kasaro To?”
“Your women tell me that the central chamber is prepared,” he said, doing nothing to disguise his displeasure. “They have begun expanding the other caverns. My warriors are ready and waiting impatiently. We have readied the ground around your refuge, should any of our enemies actually appear.”
She quirked an eyebrow at his words and tone, and he wanted to strike the faint smirk from her porcelain features. “Excellent. I assume you have more to say about your inaction to this point.”
He rumbled but kept it low. “None of my objections have changed, because nothing else has changed. We are reavers and slayers, not sentries. We should not be wasted here nursemaiding your witches.”
“Then rejoice, Anointed of Nozuki,” she replied, as patronizing as ever. “Our enemies approach at speed. I imagine it will be novel to have them come to you, but your people have proven adaptable and unflappable.”
Kasaro To snarled. “Do not toy with me, Amelial. I’ve no patience for it. You have treated us like dogs long enough. We are not your pawns or your lackeys. We do not serve at your pleasure, I least of all. We are allies. We cooperate. If our enemies truly are come, then we will slay them all, but we will not do it for you. We will do it because we are pleased to do it.” He leaned in slightly. “And you will thank us for it.”
Her smirk widened just slightly. “Of course, Kasaro To. You fight at your pleasure and we are grateful. We will show that gratitude, as one would show favor to a most faithful hound.”
Kasaro To quirked an eyebrow. His free hand struck like lightning, closing around the Herald’s throat with the force of an iron vice. He lifted her effortlessly as he rose to his full height and brought her eyes level with his. She looked so small, he reflected. Void esper raced around her instinctively and pulled his immense white mane around his head and past the curving blades rising from the back of his armor. He brought her within inches of his long tusks. He could see deep red esper coursing beneath the skin of his arm and rising around him like bloody snowflakes. For just an instant, he saw doubt in her eyes—she wondered if she had pushed him too far. Not quite, he thought, but nearly.
“Never forget, little Herald, that all hounds have teeth, and even the most faithful can be kicked once too often.”
“Release me,” she said with the faintest rasp. He sensed the effort she was putting into sounding unperturbed and tightened his grip.
“Of course,” he replied. “When I choose to, and because I choose to. Now answer me truly: do you see our enemies approach?”
“I do,” she said, her voice weakening. “And in force. The pirate Harker approaches, but he brings with him paladins. I sense great strength among them, likely at least one other Relic Knight. Their order has held your vaunted warriors in check for millennia. Do you feel equal to this fight?”
Kasaro To laughed and tightened his grip. “I cannot count the paladins I have slain. I will add this Knight’s head to my relic if he proves a worthy foe. But worthy or not, I will rend his body and drink his blood.”
“Release me.” Her voice sounded faint, and her face had grown paler.
He tossed Amelial aside like an unwanted rag. “I will prepare my warriors. I assume that you have already engaged them with spacecraft that you have kept concealed nearby.”
He could see her surprise, though she hid it well.
His smiled widened. “Good, my ships are ill-suited to such combat, but they shall attack those who slip past your nets. We will feast on any who manage to reach the surface. Have no fear for your safety, Amelial. The pirates and paladins will not reach your hole.”
She rose, and only his long association let him see the effort she expended to remain calm and sound strong. “See that they do not. We must be undisturbed for our work to succeed. The time is nearly come. And remember this, chosen of your god,” she nearly spat. “You believe yourself the embodied will of Nozuki. Perhaps you really are. But I have witnessed the death of gods as mighty as yours, and I will again. We all have a part in this drama. Do not forget yours.”
He did not look back as he strode away, merely waving his hand dismissively. Her words were all howl and no fang. Battle lay before him—he could smell it now. That was all that mattered. There would be time to deal with the Herald and her people afterward. He smiled at the idle thought of Amelial in one of his slave pens. He almost laughed as he called to a nearby priestess and demanded a rift to the Wrath of Wyrms. He had berserkers to prepare.
Chapter 19
Outside the Black Spot, Ulyxis orbital space
Kisa focused on keeping the Chance stable by the bay doors. Fighter craft and plasma beams whipped by around them, and she feared she would grind her teeth to nubs. So when the panel in front of Fiametta glowed, blinked, and started scrolling data, Kisa nearly jumped out of the pilot’s couch. “What? What happened?”
“She’s in,” Fiametta replied, running her hand over the controls. “And the spike is in place.” She glanced at her friend. “Deep breaths, oh great Relic Knight.”
“Well, there’s a lot going on,” Kisa mumbled. Scratch looked smug.
“Okay, let me open the—”
Orange lights flashed urgently across the top of three control panels as a warning tone sounded around them.
Kisa tapped an icon. “Slip shadow. Something coming out of slip space very near to us.” She blinked. “Something really, really big.”
“I—” Fiametta swallowed. “I see it.”
“What? No, you shouldn’t be able to see . . .”
Kisa trailed off as she followed her friend’s extended arm to a huge swath of space nearly over the planet’s north pole. The scattered stars wavered and went blurry, as if seen through a heat shimmer. It looked like an actual shadow had fallen over a section of the sky.
“That’s . . . That’s—”
An instant later, a staggeringly huge battlecruiser ripped its way into reality above Ulyxis.
“Holy Mother of Night!” Kisa shouted and scrambled to keep the Chance steady. “What is that thing?”
“It’s flying Shattered Sword colors,” Fiametta managed after a few seconds. She alternated between trying to read the data in front of her and gaping at the battlecruiser. “So I think it officially qualifies as the cavalry.”
The ship hauled up away from the planet’s powerful gravity well and twisted on its long axis. Ready starfighters launched from bays near its bow and stern. Its path took it across the midsection and stern of a massive dragon ship that looked almost proportional by comparison. In an impressive display of spacemanship and coordination, the battlecruiser’s starboard cannons fired a rolling broadside that raked the noh ship at close range. The paladins’ heavy guns punched through the ancient craft like bricks through paper. Secondary explosions rippled through the reaver vessel, and large sections of the superstructure ripped away. The dragon ship shuddered, listed, and began a slow and uncontrolled fall toward the planet below.
“They’ve been in real space for all of ten seconds,” Kisa muttered. She shook her head. “Call them.” She looked over at Fiametta and slapped her shoulder to get her attention. “Call them. Now. Tell them that we’re here and to leave the Black Spot alone. They could blow us out of the sky by accident. Say it’s a hostage rescue or whatever you think will work.” She shrugged as Fiametta opened a channel. “It kind of is, after all.”
She maneuvered in close and triggered the spike. The hangar bay yawned open obediently, and Kisa angled the Chance toward an empty cradle.
“Let’s make this quick.”
* * *
For the first time in a long time, Candy felt really afraid—not just the anxiousness of risk or the thrill of danger, but truly, deeply frightened. She had encountered the noh too often to not appreciate their danger, but this felt deeper and more powerful. The nerveless cold spread through her as the towering priestess advanced with measured, malevolent steps. Candy took a deep breath and revved her engines. Cola fired the relic’s cannon a second before Candy stomped on the gas.
The multicolored bolt streaked toward the noh as Candy steered the relic toward the cages. The blast struck some invisible barrier and shunted away, vaporizing another noh priestess around the corner. The lead noh moved forward a step, her voluminous sleeves and prayer scrolls twisting in strange winds, and raised her arms. She shouted something in her own language, and the distinctive smell of oil and ozone filled the air. Candy cut hard to the left, skidding and turning erratically, as rifts opened on either side of her path. Several huge noh berserkers flew out. They only narrowly missed landing on her.
She flipped around, the relic’s sword hissing as she struck. One of the berserkers died without a sound, cut nearly in half, and two more went flying from the force of the cleave. The last one leapt at her. She managed to cut her rear thrusters and angle upward before it landed. The move drove the relic’s chassis into the monster’s knees and narrowly kept it from tackling her off of the machine. As it was, she had to release the control yoke and use all her strength to keep the monster’s tusks and flailing claws from disemboweling her. She heard Cola shout something, and a colorful blast from the relic’s cannon sent the noh tumbling away. She kicked out instinctively, and the relic’s right leg moved so swiftly that it crushed half the berserker’s body when it connected.
Candy yanked the controls back and drove the relic into a steep climb. She could not go far, and turned the climb into a backward loop, but it gave her space and a chance to survey the field. The two remaining berserkers had gotten to their feet and moved between her and the chee. She pursed her lips and dove at them.
A bolt of red-black esper struck the relic’s nose just as she reached her targets. The force knocked her off course, and she watched in alarm as power readings across her panel dipped frighteningly low. The berserkers struck simultaneously but not together. She managed to get her relic’s empty hand up to keep one away, but the other knocked her sword aside and clawed toward her. Candy pulled her pistol and shot the noh six times before he fell. She grabbed her controls again and turned the relic’s sword on the other berserker just as it pulled free and raised its heavy blade to strike.
She swung the relic back toward the prisoners and saw the scroll-covered noh woman tracing an angry pattern with her claws. Esper flashed in the air, and darkness descended over Candy’s eyes. For an instant she felt nothing, and then searing pain ripped through her body like her bones had caught fire. Her vision narrowed, and she thought her eyes might burst.
The pain vanished suddenly, but so much strength had left her that she could only slump back in the flight couch. She realized she was screaming only when she stopped for lack of breath. She instinctively reached for esper to heal her injuries, but she felt so weak. Her relic careened out of control and slammed into the deck plates. Bones broke and skin ripped from her legs as she skidded into the hull beside the cages. That pain felt distant, though, and it troubled her little. She managed to raise her head and saw new rifts open and three demonic, six-eyed hounds come bounding through. She also saw the woman approaching with a careless grace. The hounds fell in at her sides. She pointed to Candy and spoke a sibilant word. The pack bayed and launched toward her.
Cola fired the cannon; it must have been Cola. The first hound fell in a ruined heap of smoking meat and bones, but the other two did not slow. Sparks fell around Candy but no more shots came. The cannon must have died. She managed to will the relic’s arm to rise, forcing another beast to change direction around it. But she could do nothing except stare at the fangs of the last monster as it reached for her. Its jaws locked onto her left arm and started to pull. She screamed again, feeling flesh tear away and bones twist and snap. Her weak healing esper faltered before the pain and shock. She reached feebly for her pistol.
Cola shot past her, attacking the beast’s rows of eyes with his sharp teeth. The hound let go and reared. Cola barely held on. Candy pushed esper into her wounds as fast as she could, but the energy flowed sluggishly and came from far away. She managed to get her gun into her hand and look up in time to see the other hound latch onto Cola and shake him like a rat. She heard and felt his neck snap. His limp body flew off to the side.
She could barely see past the pain, and both her pistol shots went wide. Then the hounds had her again, one by the shoulder and one on her exposed leg. They pulled. More skin tore and her other leg broke as they ripped her free from her relic. She saw the noh approaching, intoning in her harsh language. Candy recognized the sacrifice for what it was when her enemy raised a black curved blade.
Yellow-white esper whipped out across the noh’s path, narrowly missing her. She shrieked and turned toward something Candy could not see. The hounds let go suddenly and vanished. She could hear their growls and sudden cries of pain. She smelled fire, scorched metal, and burning hair.
She reached desperately for esper, her will flailing around inside her until she found the faint connection. The power moved slowly, but she clung to the life it offered. She managed to stop her bleeding, but energy came only in a slow drip, not the roaring rush she needed. Her mind groped around for her cypher and found him after a few seconds, unconscious but alive. She could barely concentrate past the pain, but she pushed what little esper she could command toward him and hoped that it did enough.
The sounds of fighting continued. A moment later, her cypher’s face swam into view, his fur matted with his own blood. He produced a bottle of soda from nowhere and forced her to drink a splash of it. Esper flowed from her mouth and throat into the rest of her in a rush. Cola gently put his paws on her neck and warmth radiated out as the bones, tendons, and other connections knit back together. She gasped suddenly, when she could, and gulped down air. When she could swallow, he carefully fed her the rest of the bottle. She could feel her body repairing, the esper mending internal injuries first and then closing her skin. She felt good enough to sob from the pain but only for a few seconds. Then she sat up, woozy, and looked around.
The noh woman and two others in far less ornate, though only slightly more practical, dress retreated before an enormous construct of stone and metal that glittered with esper. A librarian, Candy realized, remembering that several had sat dormant in the Lucky Chance’s hold. A second later, Mihos landed in her view, and Candy saw Kisa perched precariously on her relic’s arched back. Kisa sent another yellow-white whip of energy from her blazing staff to catch the last hound and hurl it into the far wall. It lay crumpled and still where it fell. Mihos slashed out and caught another berserker full in the chest. His body arced gracefully into one of the small rifts that still hung open around the bay. Fiametta sent a stream of fire into the tear, and an instant later it snapped shut almost audibly. Candy turned in time to watch the remaining noh step through the last rift. The tall woman’s hateful glare was the last thing any of them saw before that opening also vanished.
Kisa and Fiametta were beside Candy a second later, and both gapped when they saw her.
“You—” Fiametta stammered. “You were . . .”
“You were dead,” Kisa said flatly. She shook her head in pure disbelief. “You were true-as-the-Doctrines dead. I saw them nearly rip your limbs off. I was sure you were going to be a bloody pile of parts when we got here.” She shrugged, clearly lost for words. “How—I mean, I can take a beating, sure. I don’t know a Knight that can’t, but this . . . She shrugged again and gave up.
“It’s the first thing I learned to do when Cola showed up,” Candy said. Her tongue felt thick, and her words did not sound right in her ear
s yet. She climbed unsteadily to her feet with Fiametta’s help. “Useful trick, but I couldn’t keep it up. Something she did to me, some spell.” She shook her head and almost fell. “I don’t know. It felt like it ripped something out of me. I was so weak. The esper was so hard to use.” She coughed, hard and wet, for a moment and finally spit out some blood. “And clearly I’m not right yet.”
“No,” Kisa said, eyeing her, “but I wager you’ll live. Her, though,” she said, turning to the chee, “I’m not so sure about.”
“Can you do that,” Fiametta waved her hands from Candy’s wobbling but upright form to the chee’s scattered parts, “to her?”
Candy regarded the remains of the robot. “Yes? Maybe? I don’t think I can just pull all her parts back together. But if you cut her down and get everything back inside her, more or less in the right places, I can probably get her running again, yeah.” She took two shaky steps forward and sank down with her back to the bars. “Just—Just give me a minute or five.”
“Fiametta!” someone shouted, and they all looked around to the far cell. Squall knelt there, at the edge of her chains, looking absolutely delighted under the blood and scars.
“Squall!” Fiametta dashed over but recoiled as she reached for the cell door. “What in the empty stars is this? Some sort of dampener.”
“Vance is far more cunning than he looks,” Squall said, and even in her weakened condition, Candy could hear the ruefulness in the pirate’s voice. “He’ll also be here any second. Get me out.”
“We’ve got a minute,” Kisa said, striding over.
Mihos slashed down with one giant claw and crushed the cell door. Two quick blasts cut the chains, and Squall stumbled out. She pulled the manacles from her wrists and ankles without regard for the torn and bloody skin beneath and threw her arms around Fiametta.
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