Thread Skein (Golden Threads Trilogy Book 3)

by Leeland Artra

  Lord Lebuin is visiting here. I didn’t know he was interested in the emperor’s plans.

  A wave of energy passed over her, and she felt dizzy. Her stomach turned as her legs collapsed. Someone caught her.

  She lifted her hand to her head, but it didn’t move. Or maybe it did, it was impossible to tell. Her eyes either wouldn’t open, or weren’t working. Her mind was under siege by a massive headache that was causing convulsions in her muscles.

  “General, are you okay?”

  “Sir, we’re assembling a shelter. We’ve all lost the elemental protections.”

  “Yes, I know! Help me. Grab her pack.”

  “Sir, do you see that? Some of their team are down, too.”

  “Later — we have to get out of sight. All of the general’s spells have collapsed. We’re not being hidden from them. Set....”

  Strong arms lifted her as she slipped into unconsciousness.

  - - -

  Water trickled into her mouth. She coughed and tried to wipe her face, but her arm was so heavy, it flopped across her chest instead.

  “Careful, sir. Here, drink more. You need water.”

  More was dripped in, and she moved her mouth, recalling how to swallow. She drank, and the warm liquid brought more life to her. Opening her eyes, Hiri-Rula saw a fuzzy blur hovering over her, wearing a striking halo of light. Blinking, she tried to clear her eyes.

  “Ath affin o ee.” Even to her own ears, what she said was unintelligible.

  “General, I don’t know. You said something none of us heard clearly. Then all of your environmental protection spells stopped, and you collapsed. We’ve erected an emergency shelter in a rock gully. Two have already collapsed from heat sickness.”

  Hiri-Rula considered this answer to her correctly-interpreted question.

  Whoever that is, I’m impressed with his ability to translate gibberish.

  She flexed her fingers, trying to feel them. There was a light tingling, and then sharp needles started piercing her skin. It rushed from her hand, up her arm, and across her whole body. The pain wracked her as muscle spasms shook her violently. She couldn’t focus, and panic consumed her.

  Screaming, she arched her back and rolled off the bedding. Her head hit a rock, and the impact added stars to her vision. Something gripped her tightly. It felt like cycles spun by as her form quivered in agony. After an eternity, the stars still floated, but the pain ebbed, and she felt completely exhausted. She didn’t want to move, but something was crushing her. She found she could control her arms, and tried to push at whatever was on top of her.

  “Colonel, the seizure has stopped. Can we get up?”

  “No. Hold her. Don’t let her hurt herself. It’s the mage sickness this place causes. The seizures can happen multiple times over days before abating. We have to wait until her mind returns to us,” Colonel Runa-Emry commanded.

  “G’off ee!” she managed to grunt.

  “Sir?” asked the warrior holding her down, unsure.

  “It’s over. Get off me!” she commanded again, finally finding her voice clear in her ear.

  “Sir?” A second voice, female, came from somewhere near her legs.

  The weights lifted from her. Her vision cleared, and the three warriors who’d been pinning her with their whole bodies came into focus. They were in a rocky shelter under an open-ended tarp roof. The tarp barely stopped the sun, heat and light radiated down through it.

  She took a moment to breathe and center herself. It occurred to her that she wasn’t maintaining the environmental shielding Lebuin’s artifact let her extend to herself and the whole squad, yet she wasn’t uncomfortably hot. All the other members of the expedition were stripped down to light cotton garments, which were soaked in sweat. Colonel Runa-Emry knelt, facing her, and although the three warriors had sat back more casually, she could read that they were prepared to jump on her if the spasms returned.

  Sitting up was difficult until the colonel helped her. She noted that most of the group were leaning against the rock wall of the gully. Three warriors lay unconscious, as others dunked some cloths in a water basin, dabbing their comrades’ faces and necks first before doing the same to themselves.

  “Report.”

  “Lebuin, Ticca, and Illa fell at the same time you did. Lebuin was only down for a moment. We lost your camouflage spells, so we have only been confirming their location periodically. No one can stay out in the direct sun for too long.” He indicated the unconscious warriors. “Even with ample water, the heat is too much.”

  She nodded, taking a long drink from the water bladder Una-Omda handed her.

  Runa-Emry continued, “Their team has set up a camp, as we have, a short distance away. We’re well outside of their normal patrol distance. We weren’t spotted. You’ve been unconscious for three marks. You passed out after....”

  Hiri-Rula held up her hand, saying, “I heard your earlier description.”

  She realized why she wasn’t feeling the heat, as she looked down to see Lebuin’s cloak clasp fastened to her clothing. Its magics provided her with continuous cleaning, and more importantly, temperature-controlling shielding.

  He left this on me, knowing it would protect me from the worst of this place.

  She lifted her hand to touch the silver clasp and acknowledged Colonel Runa-Emry. “I was drawn into a vision in which I was someplace I don’t know called Elraci. But I saw Lebuin there, and knew him as a God. Lebuin made this.” She tapped the cloak clasp. “He doesn’t need it, so it must’ve been for Ticca. He’s been planning on coming here for a long time.” She slapped the clasp. “No mage would waste this much effort for spells he could maintain for himself, unless for the purpose of coming here, and needing someone to operate independently.”

  “Do you trust this vision? If Lebuin is a God, we must be more cautious.”

  “We will confirm this information. But for now, I’m feeling better; you’ve done well.”

  Hiri-Rula reached for her reserve powers, and extended the clasp’s incantations out to the whole team. Many warriors sighed with relief, feeling the change in climate. Those who could, turned and bowed to her in thanks.

  “This clasp makes more sense now. Ticca and Lebuin weren’t working for Magus Vestul and Duke. Magus Vestul was working for Lebuin. Duke is, too. That explains why Vestul and Duke went to Llino to meet with Lebuin. The Gods must have discovered something and sent Lebuin to investigate. Lebuin used the Guildhouse to hide his activities while he researched and made this. Llino is the only city shielded from our mage-gates. Lebuin did not want us to discover his activities.” She tapped the clasp again. “But what can be here that’s so important? And why is the Grand Warlord so concerned about this group’s activities here? What would need so much effort and time from a hidden God?”

  Hiri-Rula sat there, thinking, as her unit readied themselves, putting their armor back on. Finally, she stood and motioned for her armor. After she was dressed, she stepped out, looking at the setting sun.

  “Colonel, come with me.” She put on her wide-brimmed sun hat, and slipped on dull black sunglasses with leather side shields that cut off almost all the extra light, except what came through the smoky glass.

  She looked at Runa-Emry until he realized she was asking him to show her the way to Lebuin’s camp. He indicated the direction, and they slipped through the gully so stealthily, there was no trace of their passing. They came upon the observer on duty, and she extended the clasp’s incantations to that warrior, too.

  Using hand signals, Hiri-Rula ordered the warrior back to camp. Then she joined Runa-Emry as he peered over the edge of a small rise.

  A good distance away, a tarp shade was erected against the sun, using the side of another wash gully for additional shade. She shifted to mage sight. Magic was rolling around the a
rea. It moved fast in some places, and slow in others, and it changed shape, temperature, and color as it moved. She marveled again that so much power could be there. It was also one of the reasons it was so hot — the magic generated additional heat as it rolled and moved.

  She concentrated on peering through the swirling magic, but due to the distance, she couldn’t see the shelter. She considered the many scrying incantations she’d studied, settling on one she felt was small enough to work as needed in that environment. Pulling the power, she formed the pattern with her mind and fed energy to it. That created a small invisible third eye for her perceptions. Pushing with her will, she moved it closer to the shelter. She had to move it just past the halfway point before the lean-to came into clear view.

  In spite of her self-control, she sucked in her breath. Lebuin glowed like a sun. He had an unbelievable amount of magic flowing around him. She had no way to even quantify what she saw; it was beyond anything she’d witnessed in all her years of study.

  Runa-Emry motioned, asking if she was okay.

  “It’s confirmed. Lebuin is a God. Hold on, there’s something under that hill,” she whispered to him.

  A pair of energy sources were beneath Lebuin’s shelter. She moved her perception down and closer. As her magic eye circled the area, she found a narrow, elongated cave-like entrance into the hillside nearby. She added sight perceptions to the incantation and slipped it into the cave.

  Two magical beasts were resting inside, the larger one half-propped up on the other. They had translucent armored shells that showed some of their internal organs. They pulsed with magical power. Each of them had three enormous pincers and two long, curling tails, which ended in one-meter stingers that looked like serrated tri-blade swords. Every inch of their enormous bodies was heavily armored. They appeared to weigh at least 5,000 kilograms. As she watched, she noticed they also had six smaller pincers around their mouths that continuously grabbed floating particles of magic and shoved them into their mouths.

  They live on magic. Probably magic plus something else; those large pincers must have a purpose.

  The creatures reminded her of the huge crabs that had attacked Outpost Two, killing everyone but her. They only had two pincers and no tails, and they’d been magical constructs.

  Maybe these are escaped magical constructs.

  As she started to move her perception spell out of the cave, one of the creatures sprang at it. Its large pincers closed on the incantation. The backlash of the break slammed into her, and she felt her channels burning with residual magic.

  She leaned on the rock to shake off the adrenaline surge from the surprise attack. Runa-Emry placed a steadying hand on her shoulder.

  “What happened?” he whispered, since she had her eyes closed and he couldn’t use hand signals.

  She shook her head and held a hand up for him to give her a moment. Gaining control of her powers, she opened her eyes and looked at him. A distant chittering roar came from the direction of Lebuin’s shelter.

  Carefully poking their heads up over the rise, they saw both creatures scrambling over the top of the small hill. Their tails were curled for an attack. Her body involuntarily shuddered as she placed the creatures’ origins. Their movements were purely scorpion. Except for the extra pincer, second tail, and six pincers around the maw, they would look like man-sized scorpions. The two beasts stopped at the crest of the hill, swinging all their pincers in the air.

  The hairs on the back of her neck went up when she realized both creatures were staring directly at her.

  As if purposefully waiting for the perfect dramatic moment, they clipped the air together and raced down the side of the hill, faster than she thought possible for their size. They made a direct line for Hiri-Rula’s position.

  The monsters didn’t realize Lebuin’s shelter wasn’t part of the hillside, and they stepped out onto the flimsy tarp, both dropping on top of Lebuin’s unfortunate group. Screams came from the shelter as they reacted to the apparent attack.

  Lebuin and Ticca appeared from under the collapsed tarp. Together, they grabbed the edges of the tarp and ran towards the beasts, trying to entrap or entangle them in the canvas. It worked momentarily, and uncovered more of their group. Ditani and Runa-Illa joined Ticca and Lebuin in trying to distract or lure them away from the destroyed shelter. Ticca leapt in, landing on the back shell of one of them. Her knives moved as fast as Nhia-Samri, cutting off a few of the smaller pincers and stabbing the beast in a tender spot.

  The creature’s stingers thrust at her, but she dodged both of them by turning and leaning back gracefully. It screamed, and its large pincers swung in to grab Ticca. She ducked under one. Before the stingers had finished pulling back for a second shot, she vaulted off, using the second pincer like a gymnastic brace. Lebuin hit it with a series of magical blasts, which did nothing at all. The beast was immune to magics, and its attention was locked on Ticca.

  Illa had found a bow and was shooting arrow after arrow at the one going after Ticca. None of her arrows found a soft target. In the meantime, Ditani was pulling the other Daggers out of the collapsed shelter.

  Hiri-Rula didn’t have time to see what else happened. The second animal hadn’t been distracted by Lebuin’s group, and once it recovered from the surprise drop, it raced directly towards her.

  Hiri-Rula turned, pulling Runa-Emry with her. “RUN!”

  Lebuin

  Where the beasts came from, Lebuin had no idea, but it was apparent that they were immune to his attack incantations.

  Strange visions, pissed-off teammates, and now oversized…whatever these are. Why did they attack us now?

  Illa was standing next to Malla, their medic, who held three quivers and was handing Illa arrows as fast as the priestess could shoot them. Illa created a steady rhythm of schhwaff-whack, schhwaff-whack. The iron hunting heads bounced off the armor plates without much effect. The rest of the team was at least out from under the canvas, and miraculously, it looked like no one had been seriously injured when the monsters had jumped on their shelter. Persa was pulling their gear out, trying to get at more weapons.

  Ticca kicked him in the hip, throwing him to the side. A pincer slammed into the ground where he’d been standing. Sand and rock pelted him, accompanied by a loud thump from the narrow miss.

  “Wake up!” she shouted as she grabbed the back of the pincer. Persa threw a short sword to Ticca, who caught it. A stinger shot forward, narrowly missing Carda, who rolled out of the way.

  The creature lifted Ticca into the air, and she slid down its arm to land on its back. It paused as it tried to understand where she’d gone.

  While it was confused, Carda stepped inside its mandible zone, and sliced off a couple of the smaller pincers around the gaping mouth. She leapt backwards, doing a spin into a sideways roll as it reacted to her attack.

  Illa was aiming at different locations, and with the satisfying sound of schhwaff-THUNK, an arrow lodged in the front area near its mouth, between two plates. The beast chittered, and one of its smaller pincers near the mouth ripped the arrow out, crushing it in the process.

  Yes, wake up. Right. It’s sensitive in the mouth area.

  Rolling to the side, Lebuin got to his feet. Reinforcing his shield, he recalled a lightning strike incantation and quickly formed it, feeding it a lot of power. He targeted the same place where Illa’s arrow had hit it. Lightning arced from him, and slammed into the creature. It reared up with a grating scream as it recoiled from the attack.

  “Ha! Got you!”

  Ticca was thrown off, but she landed with an acrobatic twist just behind it.

  The second beast had been running off. At the scream, it turned, sliding to a stop. Its feet were digging troughs as its eight legs were already running back in their direction. Its open large pincers stretched out directly at Lebuin, and it s
creeched as it came.

  The first beast landed with a thump and turned towards Lebuin. Two of the large pincers were coming for him so fast that he didn’t have time to register the attack before they gripped his shields, crushing them. He strained to keep them up under the gigantic pressure. He couldn’t move, and his heart pounded in the certain knowledge that the pressure would break his protection, and him, any second.

  “Lebuin is pinned!” Persa called out.

  Nigan and Risy came running in with swords held high. Together they brought their weapons down with massive, meaty thuds, at a joint. It worked, and the creature let go of him, yanking the pincher arm-high.

  That didn’t stop its third pincer from swiping at the attackers. Risy dropped to the ground under the claw. Nigan was a fraction of a second too slow, and was clipped by the claw, which threw him at least ten feet. Risy jabbed up at its underside, causing it to jump.

  Illa screamed and ran towards Nigan. Malla ran towards Persa, who already knew what she was after. Persa picked up and threw the medical pack to Malla, then jumped out of the way of one of the stingers as it struck the ground where she’d just been. Catching the supplies, Malla turned and started running for Nigan.

  Illa didn’t pay attention as she ran for Nigan, bringing her into the path of the second creature. The intersection surprised both of them. It bowled Illa over, smashing her to the ground, as it tried to bring its pincers into play. As fast as the things were, it still missed Illa by a few inches.

  Ditani, Persa, and Ticca were keeping the other beast busy. For a moment, Lebuin thought Ditani was going to get skewered, but he was able to parry the stinger with his blade. However, the power behind the attack still knocked him down, and as he fell, his sword went flying away. As Lebuin dodged, he spotted Risy’s body on the ground, blood covering his head.

  Anger flared, and Lebuin pushed to finish constructing the twisted channels of the lightning-bolt incantation, targeting the creature’s open mouth. The attack sizzled, and the thing shook violently. Its pincer opened as it stepped back, shaking from left to right.