by Traci Loudin
Nyr’s shoulders ached from holding the uprooted bush in front of her face as they advanced ever so slowly through the night. “This is ridiculous,” she whispered. “We don’t even know if that’s really the Wizard in there. He could be feeding us a load of shit.”
They trudged along in single file with Nyr in front holding the bush and Ti’rros and Caetl directly behind. They’d abandoned the horses while Dalan flew on ahead.
“I’m standing right here,” the mystic whispered from behind her.
When Nyr took a step, Ti’rros and the mystic took a step behind her. “I know.”
“Silence is advisable—”
“Shut up, Joey. No one asked you.”
But Ti’rros kept talking. “The mystic is supposed to be concentrating—”
“We don’t know what he’s really doing, anyway.” Supposedly the mystic had been blocking the Wizard’s ability to hear their thoughts over the past day so he wouldn’t see their plan.
“I’m right here…” Even in a whisper, the mystic sounded exasperated.
Ti’rros replied, “I haven’t heard the voice in a while, so it must be working.”
“Or, as I said before, he is the Wizard,” Nyr growled.
A second or two of silence went by before the mystic said, “This is your plan.”
“Yes, and it’ll only work if you’re not screwing us. Let’s hope the four guards are as stupid as you say they are.” According to Caetl, the Wizard had grown more paranoid over time and started posting guards outside his hut. Which wouldn’t have been a problem, except apparently he could bring down some kind of magic walls if they gave him enough warning.
As they trudged along, Nyr’s thoughts began to wander. Lucky Dalan could flap along and bypass all the hard stuff. She let out a small growl and heard someone’s boot scuff the dry ground behind her.
“Keep your feet light,” Nyr said.
The mystic squeezed her shoulder. “Sorry. I thought it was an animal. Their thoughts are sometimes difficult to pick up, you know. But we should all focus on being quieter now.”
They took a few more slow steps.
“We’re almost within their hearing,” Caetl whispered. “Only mental communication from here on out.”
In the darkness, Nyr couldn’t see the hut or the guard they planned to ambush. She might have come up with the plan, but too much of it depended on information from the mystic.
People have a harder time seeing what’s right in front of them, coming straight on, compared to something moving laterally across their vision. Your plan is a good one. The reminder that the mystic could poke around inside her head annoyed her. And that he could hear her thinking about it being annoying was annoying.
Nyr tried to push him out as he’d taught her, even as she said, I know. I’ve done something like this before. Also at night.
While young and newly initiated, she and her fellow felines had sneaked into a Changeling village in the dead of a moonless night. After picking off the few sentries the Changelings had posted, her fellow clanmates had caused a ruckus, awakening the town.
“It’s more fun once they realize what’s about to happen,” one of the older felines had said before leaping into the fray. Firestarter Changelings could spark a flame, but once it began, they had as little control over it as any normal human.
Nyr had watched as Kyrun, one of her fellow newly initiated littermates, trapped two girls in a small stable. The older firestarter tried to fight and grabbed Kyrun’s face. She burned him, but the girls suffered a far worse fate. Kyrun barred the stable doors, letting them burn in their own flames.
Watching the firestarters’ desperate and futile attempts to save each other had sickened Nyr at the time. She hadn’t killed anyone that night, but she’d more than made up for it on her next outing with the Tiger Clan. And over the years she’d become immune to such weak feelings.
They’re not weak emotions, you know. Compassion is noble.
I don’t need lectured by the likes of you, mystic. And…
She knew he could already see her next thoughts, but he asked, Yes?
Giving him a mental middle finger, she said, Don’t tell Dalan anything you see inside my skull, okay? He wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Don’t worry. I’ve no reason to share your secrets.
I’m sure if you found a reason, you’d use it.
She heard the mystic sigh behind her. Before we get ourselves into this mess, I just want to remind you of something.
Yes? She couldn’t help but roll her eyes.
It’s okay to ask for help every now and then. Don’t forget that we need to work as a clan to take down the Wizard.
Something tall rose out of the darkness behind the hut, but all she could discern was the circular motion it made. A Changeling with horns protruding from his forehead stood guard.
It’s Ishan, the mystic whispered in her head.
You know him? When he didn’t answer, she thought, Alright, tell Ti’rros not to mess this up.
Yes, yes. I know my part in all this. Message central.
Nyr held her breath and scooted up another few inches. As a feline, she could see the outlines of the two other men standing at the other corners. She couldn’t believe they hadn’t noticed the bush advancing through the darkness.
They couldn’t see the bush until just now, the mystic seemed to feel the need to explain. There are plenty of bushes out here. I’ll let you know if they start getting suspicious.
Nyr took another step forward. Only her passage and her companions disturbed the still air of the drylands.
“The old man’s probably asleep by now,” Ishan said.
His voice was so loud and so near that it startled all of them. Nyr thought they’d been discovered, so she dropped the bush and prepared to strike. When she realized her mistake, it was too late.
“What the—”
Nyr leaped forward, pouncing on the horned Changeling. As she tried to rake across his neck, Ishan blocked her swipe and struck straight toward her chest. Her necklace’s shield foiled him, and she used her other hand to slice across his ribs, causing his hands to go down protectively.
The mystic’s voice sounded panicked in her head as he broadcast to all of them at once. Dalan, get inside before the Wizard can close the force fields. We’ll handle this.
When Ishan brought his hand back up, he was holding a gun. Before Nyr could lunge for him, a net of writhing blue strings enveloped his lower half. Ishan screamed, and the gun skittered across the packed earth.
“Idiot,” she hissed. The Joey had wasted the one shot Dalan’s worthless LEC6 had after dark on someone Nyr would’ve taken care of. And probably hadn’t killed him.
From her peripheral vision, Nyr caught the blur of someone coming in from her right. She kicked at his shins. Faster than Ishan, he dodged toward the hut.
A pressure around Nyr’s midsection took her breath away. Then she sailed through the air, giving her a moment to wonder if Ti’rros had tossed her aside again. She tumbled to the ground and let out a howl of pain as something snapped.
Shouts rose from the village, and Nyr cursed as she climbed to her knees. A Changeling with a long prehensile tail charged her. She met him with claws out, but his tail whipped forward and encircled her neck before she could do anything to counter it.
Raising a hand to slice at his tail brought a shock of pain, blanking out the rest of the scene.
“Everyone stop!” a voice called from inside the hut. “Let them come inside.”
The rope-like tail uncoiled from around Nyr’s neck. Two of the guards trained weapons on Ti’rros and the mystic.
Nyr moved toward the hut, but the man with the tail didn’t step aside. Pausing inches from his face, she grinned, exposing her feline teeth.
He gave her a sullen stare. “This isn’t over yet.”
“Oh, I certainly hope not.” She stared back, fully aware of the disconcerting effect of her slitted feline eyes. To his c
redit, he didn’t seem fazed.
“Azaiah, move!” The voice from the hut sounded indignant.
Azaiah stepped aside, and Nyr entered the hut behind the mystic and the Joey, while Dalan’s dragonfly perched on the roof above. A messy table with two stools dominated the front room. The table lamp provided the sole source of light in the hut, now crowded with all of them inside.
“Welcome to my home,” the unfamiliar occupant of the hut said. Nyr narrowed her eyes, trying to imagine whether this young man was actually the old one she’d dragged across the drylands in search of treasure.
Behind her, she heard a buzz like Dalan’s dragonfly. When she turned, the doorway they’d come through glowed, covered by a layer of shimmering light. She put a hand against it and marveled at how solid it felt.
Azaiah stared at her from outside.
She grinned and turned her back to him. The mystic squinted and grabbed his head with both hands. Ti’rros trained Dalan’s now-useless LEC6 on the Wizard and motioned him deeper into the hut. Dalan, whose skin still sprouted feathers as he tried to maintain his in-between form, followed them into the back room. Through the doorway, all Nyr could see of the room were some stools.
Her arm throbbed. She glanced down to see its bent shape, though thankfully no bones protruded. She felt nauseous.
“Please, have a seat,” she heard the Wizard say from the other room.
The mystic’s head whipped up. “No, don’t—”
Another iridescent shield of light appeared in the doorway to the back room, trapping Dalan on the other side, away from everyone else.
An enormous pressure filled Nyr’s mind as a voice boomed, YOU DARE TRY TO TAKE ME CAPTIVE IN MY OWN HOME?
The mystic reeled and squeezed his hands together.
KNEEL AND SURRENDER!
Caetl hadn’t been lying after all—Nyr recognized the voice inside their heads all too well.
Chapter 21
Dalan transmelded into the tail-horse and pounded his tail against the nearly invisible wall separating him from his companions and the Wizard. Although agile like an elephant’s trunk, his tail could do little against the force field.
He ran to one side of the room, rose up on his back legs, and smashed his hooves against the corner where the invisible surface met the real wall. The horse within him panicked. Trapped in an alien environment, far from the open grasslands… He shrilled.
In the other room, Nyr collapsed. With more effort than ever, Dalan pushed the animal’s thoughts down, but its fear battered at the back of his mind.
Caetl reeled back as if hit by physical blows. Dalan had hoped his dragonfly could find a way in to distract the Wizard, but Saquey sent him mental images of the outside of the hut—a shimmering force field blocked the doorway they’d come through.
The tail-horse’s panic rose again, and Dalan closed his eyes and focused on his breathing until he got it under control.
Saquey couldn’t fit through the smaller windows without damaging its wings. It sent a blurry image of Dalan as the tail-horse. He sensed Saquey’s frustration and impotence.
The Wizard stepped back into Dalan’s view, framed in the doorway to the back room. The Advisor had been regal in her advanced years, but the Wizard appeared frail, his skin wrinkled and loose. The Wizard glowered at him as though he’d heard his thoughts, but the mystic had assured Dalan that was impossible.
Isn’t it? Dalan aimed the thought at Caetl.
The Wizard opened his arms as though speaking to a crowd. “Now that I’ve got your attention.” Dalan was surprised he could hear him through the force field, which seemed impervious to all else. “I have something to say.”
The old man addressed Nyr as her eyes opened. “First, I’d like to apologize for such a rude welcome to the small village of Cabuda. It’s normally wonderful this time of year.”
Caetl stared at their captor, and Dalan imagined the two engaged in a heated mental discussion. Ti’rros stood shoulder-to-shoulder beside Caetl, presenting a united front.
The Wizard held up a hand. “The truth is, we’re all on the same side. As you heard from my fellow Ageless, Soledad… Ehhh, let’s just say a war is brewing. Zen is a formidable foe.”
As his tail-horse meld proved useless, Dalan slid along toward birth form, at least enough to gain human-like vocal cords and mouth structures. “Don’t care about your war, Ageless. We want our freedom.”
The Wizard waved a hand at Caetl. “Mystic, why don’t you tell him how many years we’ve been trying?”
“I already have. Now open the force field.”
“There you have it, Dalan. If he told you all you had to do was come here and wrest the secret free from me, he gave you false promises.”
“That’s not what I told them at all,” Caetl said.
Both he and Ti’rros shot forward, hands grasping. But the Wizard stepped back, his jaw set and eyes hard. Ti’rros let out an inhumanly high-pitched screech and dropped to the floor. Her blue eyes rolled back in her head.
Caetl lunged forward, and the Wizard’s mouth opened, his eyes wide with shock and pain. Caetl plunged a fist into the Ageless man’s jacket pocket but came away empty-handed.
The Wizard shoved him back, and Dalan finally saw the knife protruding from his chest. His drooping jowls tightened, and his cheekbones seemed to shift higher somehow as he transformed into a younger man. His ages flickered until he gained the presence of mind to yank the knife free. Then he stabilized at an age with Caetl.
“I’ll make things harder on them if you try that again,” the Wizard warned.
“Open the force fields and give me the amplifier.”
“Let me make this clear to all of you.” The Wizard glanced from Dalan to Ti’rros and Nyr on the floor. “There’s nothing you can do. I’m Ageless. As you just saw, any wound you manage to inflict, I will heal. You can’t hurt me.”
“Ah, that’s not entirely true.” Malice entered Caetl’s expression.
“But I can hurt you more. Except for you, Dalan. But everyone knows all I need to do to hurt you is to hurt them.” The Wizard gave a theatrical sigh. “Things were much easier when you thought me nothing more than a talking necklace. But if you help me, I promise it’ll all get better.”
Dalan didn’t know what to do or how much more Nyr and Ti’rros could withstand. Or Caetl, for that matter. Saquey’s six legs pounded at the force field over the window, but without anything to grasp, the dragonfly could only hover.
“Ehhhh, look, friends,” the Wizard said. “We’re all on the same side here, trust me. From what I understand, Zen is a pretty tough cookie.” He glanced at Dalan and said, “A tough bastard. He’s a cyborg, which means part of his body is now machine, making him stronger, probably faster, and definitely a hard hitter. He’s been killing others of my kind, as I hope Caetl mentioned to you.”
He’s trying to manipulate you, Caetl’s warm voice filled Dalan’s mind. Though what he says is true, you shouldn’t think him any less the enemy.
Hovering between birth form and his tail-horse transmeld, Dalan shifted his facial structure, hoping his bestial appearance looked more threatening than grotesque. He took a step forward and put on his best menacing expression, adopting Nyr’s attitude. “The question is, why should we care?”
The Wizard looked down at his hands, and his age shifted slightly. “Up until this point, I’ve only been trying to protect myself, it’s true. But in a way, I’ve also been worried about other Ageless using their powers to enslave other tribes. You don’t know how powerful our technology really is. Some of us have... differing opinions on our responsibilities to the rest of humanity.”
“Think I have some idea, after that display.”
The Wizard shook his head. “No. You have no idea. None of you do. During the Catastrophe, people exploited and misused technology in the worst ways. To avoid further corruption, the Prophet split up what technology we possessed, leaving us as eternal caretakers. But Zen, he has more than his f
air share now. He’s at least three times more powerful now than any other Ageless.”
Ti’rros climbed unsteadily to her feet. “Is it possible you actually lived through the Catastrophe?”
The Wizard touched his wrist, and all the force fields disappeared. “Yes. And I’ll tell you everything you want to know about it, my friends.”
The sudden disappearance of the force fields’ hum left Dalan’s ears ringing.
“He’s trying to manipulate you,” Caetl squeezed his hands into fists. “You can’t trust anything he says.”
Dalan hesitated, unsure about stepping over the threshold where the force field had been. The Wizard’s change of heart was suspicious, but even with a price to the knowledge, he couldn’t help but ask, “How did it happen? Was it…” he glanced at Ti’rros, hoping she wouldn’t take offense, “…an invasion?”
The Wizard squinted, as though trying to see through a dense fog. “The Catastrophe? Ehhhh… the K’inTesh did park ships all around the Earth. Plenty of people, including myself, certainly thought they would invade. It worried a lot of people. Powerful people. I wasn’t privy to a lot of the decisions, you know. But what I do know is that the aliens didn’t communicate with us, or at least, not in a way we could understand.”
Dalan felt his partial transmeld slipping as his mind reeled. He stood before one of the Ancients.
The mystic jutted his chin out. When he says K’inTesh, he means the Joeys. While you’ve got him distracted, I’m going to check on Nyr and try to reset her arm while she’s unconscious.
Dalan glanced at Nyr, whose eyes had closed once more. He cautiously stepped from the back room into the main room of the hut.
The Wizard kept his eyes on Dalan as he told his story, paying no attention to Caetl’s movements. “As in many battles waged throughout history, it’s hard to say who fired the first shot, but I believe it was us. Some arrogant rising power wanted to show the aliens who was boss. They sent missiles into space, killing a bunch of K’inTesh before they could fight back. Or someone got scared, who knows, hmm? The point is, nobody followed a rational, reasonable, scientific means of uncovering what was going on. Regardless of who fired first, we brought this on ourselves.”