Huntress Lost

by A. A. Chamberlynn

  I didn’t pause any longer to determine exactly what distraction Xavyr had wrought. I jumped back through to the capital. This time I grabbed two Grayfeathers and moved them to Skye. “Be ready to fight!” I yelled.

  For the next five minutes, I popped back and forth so many times I began to get dizzy. Flashes of smoke and flame, darkness and battle, then flashes of red sand, sun, distant trees and near silence. My limbs began to tremble and the ground no longer felt solid beneath my feet. It felt like I was walking on clouds, and that at any moment I would plunge through into nothingness. But my mother’s life was at stake. I would not fail.

  Titus and Waylan were the last two I took through. “You look a bit fatigued, dear,” Titus said with a sneer.

  “Yeah, well maybe I’ll drop you between realms,” I said, and the world compressed, and the static feeling of the wall between realms prickled over my skin, and we stepped out again into a maelstrom of violence.

  I didn’t wait to gage Titus’s reaction to the scene on Skye. Nor did I want him dogging my every move. I dashed into the melee heading for the fountain where I’d last seen my mother. The fires that had been going initially were dying down, but smoke still shrouded the square. I saw Hunters fighting Hunters, but I also saw some of the citizens of Skye leaping into the battle. Before they had been too cowed to fight back, but now that they had someone behind them they were taking full advantage.

  My mother was not where she’d been before, and neither was Soo Kai. I spun frantically in a circle, trying to catch sight of her. That’s when one of the Dragons rushed me, and I had no choice but to pull the bow strung across my back and defend myself. Rescuing the others would have to wait.

  I got in one shot with my bow, but it wasn’t a great one. My arrow hit my assailant in the thigh, which slowed him but didn’t kill him. He bowled into me and I went down hard on the cobblestones. My vision went black and flickers of color flashed through it. I dropped my bow and it landed a couple of feet away. Hands wrapped around my throat. I could barely move with the bulk of the body on top of me, but I stretched one hand down to my boot. My lungs began to burn. One of my fingertips touched my dagger. My vision was fading, my body screaming for air. I pulled out the dagger and stabbed it between my attacker’s shoulder blades.

  With a bellow of rage and pain, he reared back. I thrust my knee up between us, then kicked him hard in the stomach. He fell and I rolled to the side and onto my feet, dagger still in hand. The blade shone crimson in the lights of the square.

  Something dark flashed by my head and I realized it was Soo Kai’s dragon, the small one that had sealed our fire bond. It darted in and out of the crowd, shooting flames at the opposition. It was small, but it still had a range of several feet and shot enough fire to engulf a person in flame. Horror washed over me as I noticed several people already aflame, running for the fountain, or just falling to their knees, screaming. Was one of them my mother or father? Or Xavyr?

  I didn’t have time to think further on it, because one of the Ravens saw me and her eyes lit in recognition, even though I didn’t know who she was. Then her lips curled back in a growl and she moved toward me with purpose. I bent and retrieved my bow, notched an arrow, and let it fly. She ducked to the side, barely avoiding it, and then with a bellow, she charged me.

  My dagger came between us. Blood welled up from her stomach where I’d darted up and in as she drew close. It poured over my hand, making my grip on the blade slippery. Her eyes went wide. I twisted to the side and pushed her over. She fell to the ground, clutching at the hole I’d left in her.

  Footsteps sounded behind me and I spun to see four Ravens running at me, weapons drawn. Adrenaline pulsed in my veins, but it wasn’t enough to compensate for the fatigue that ate at my bones. I’d jumped a couple dozen people between realms in a very short period of time. My body’s reserves were just about depleted. Hand-to-hand combat was the last thing I needed to be engaging in right now. But it wasn’t as if I had a choice.

  Just as the four bore down on me, Xavyr was at my side. We stood back to back as the Hunters circled us. Xavyr had his double-bladed staff, which he whirled menacingly. If I were them, I would turn and run, but they probably hadn’t seen what he could do. Or, they were just dumb.

  They rushed us. One of my opponents had a mace, and the other a Morningstar. I darted in and out with my dagger, waiting until they got too close to move out of the way. But their weapons took their toll as well, especially since they had a longer reach. The spikes of the Morningstar hit my thigh and I screamed, my leg buckling. The mace flew toward my face for a skull-crushing blow, but Xavyr’s blade came up and separated the hand that held it from its body. Blood sprayed over us, and in that moment I lunged in and out, punching a neat hole in my second attacker’s abdomen.

  Xavyr turned to look at me, his two opponents already bleeding on the ground. “Your thigh looks pretty bad,” he said.

  “It feels pretty bad,” I gasped. “But we don’t have time to deal with that.”

  “No,” he agreed. “We don’t.”

  “Did you see where my mother went?”

  “Soo Kai took her. They headed that way.” He pointed toward the command center at the far end of the city. “We have to finish things here before we follow.”

  A low growl of frustration escaped my throat, but I knew he was right. “I’ll follow you. They need you right now.”

  “Do not engage anyone if you can help it,” he said, looking down again with worry at my leg. It was bleeding freely from about five holes, but they were all fairly shallow. Xavyr stripped off his tunic and tore it in half, then knelt and tied one half tightly around my wound. “That should keep you from bleeding out. For a few minutes at least.”

  “Then I guess you’d better do what you do,” I said with a grimace. “And fast.”

  He didn’t respond, but darted forward to the closest cluster of fighting, where two Dragons and a Raven fought two of the Rosewaters. I limped behind him and with each step my vision went just a little black. Sixty seconds later the opposing Hunters were on the ground clutching injuries, and we were moving on to the next cluster.

  The tide of the battle began to turn. Within a few minutes, we had the remaining Dragons and Ravens gathered in the center of the square, about a dozen of them, and they quickly surrendered. My father was there, with only a minor gash on his arm, and Rielle, and Titus and Waylan. A number of injured Hunters littered the cobblestones, and there were four dead: a Dragon, a Raven, and two Grayfeathers.

  Veron set a guard comprised of a mix of Hunters and Skye citizens on the prisoners, and then gathered another group to help those with injuries.

  “It’s time to make our move,” Xavyr said quietly.

  I nodded. “Let’s go get my mother.”

  We moved toward the command center, Xavyr holding me up under one arm. His cocoa skin glistened with sweat and he was streaked in blood. It didn’t seem to be his. As we approached the end of the city, the buildings became more modern, steel and glass, unlike the quaint style of the residential section. The metal wall encircling the city came into view, and I could see the hole in it where Soo Kai had blasted through days before. I shuddered as I remembered being dragged to the edge, my mother’s screams, being hurled into space…

  “Which one is it?” Xavyr asked.

  I pointed to the left. “The command center is there.”

  As we approached the building we saw no one outside. Was Soo Kai alone, or had she brought other Hunters inside with her to ambush us? We entered through the glass double doors and moved across a marble-floored lobby. There were glass elevators leading to the higher floors, but Xavyr shook his head. “We should take the stairs. They could be booby-trapped.”

  A voice rang out behind us. “Thought you’d slip away, did you?”

  We spun as Titus came through the doors behind us. He looked no worse for wear after the battle. He’d probably sat it out while the others fought for him.

  “
I’m rescuing my mother,” I said.

  “Ah, yes, your mother.” Titus shifted his white fur robe around his chest, his eyes sparkling with bitterness. “I would very much like to have a few words with her myself.”

  “You leave her alone,” I hissed.

  “Or what? What are you going to do to me?” Titus stepped forward so that he was practically chest to chest with me. “I control your every move, remember? The Council appointed me to take you back so you can be locked down for good. Enjoy these final moments of freedom.”

  Xavyr tensed and moved for Titus, but he was too late. I reached out and shoved the pompous bastard out of my space. He stumbled, falling to one knee. “We’re going to save Rhione, and Sabin and Jaffe as well. Or do you care about them at all?”

  “You can follow us, but keep your mouth shut,” Xavyr said. “I won’t have you risking her safety.”

  Without waiting for a response, we turned and walked off. We headed for the stairs across the lobby and then made our way up. I led us to the command room, a large circular space lined with dozens of screens showing views of the city. The residential section, the public square, the utilities hub, the engine room. It was on this last room that my eyes stopped and my heart froze. Soo Kai was there with my mother, Jaffe, and Sabin. She stared up at the camera, a deranged smile on her face.

  She’d been waiting for us.

  She knew I’d come to this room, knew I’d look at the screens. There were no other Hunters with her. Which meant only one thing. If she was making her final stand in the engine room, she meant to destroy the city.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Do you know how to get to the engine room?” Xavyr asked.

  “No,” I said. “I can jump there, though.”

  “Are you sure you have the energy?”

  “For one jump, yes.” I took Xavyr’s arm and followed the Call.

  The heat of the engines hit me like a physical slap. The room was large, filled with metal piping and large turbines pumping steam up through them. It sounded like a million helicopters hovering in one space. A fiery glow rose up from the machinery, visible through glass windows in what looked like massive ovens. All in all, it seemed a steam-powered version of Hell. Soo Kai could always be counted on for dramatic flair.

  She stood with her prisoners a dozen feet away, with her long black hair and eyes that matched the orange of the glowing coals. My mother’s head whipped up, and she looked both elated and devastated to see me. Next to them, Jaffe and Sabin stood, their hands in strange glowing ropes. My mother had them on as well, and I could only guess they acted like a Rai to prevent a Hunter from jumping realms. Jaffe bore an expression of wariness, and Sabin looked outright defiant.

  Titus appeared next to us. I hadn’t realized he could follow the Call, too. He locked eyes with my mother, and the terrified look on her face made me want to punch him in the throat.

  “You can imagine my utmost shock when my informants told me you were alive,” Soo Kai said, narrowing her eyes at me. “Hounds and hellfire—I threw you into the sky several days ago. How in all the realms did you survive?”

  “You underestimated my abilities,” I said. “You would be wise not to make the same mistake twice.”

  “Says the girl who can barely stand.” Soo Kai smiled. “You don’t have a move here, Lost One. I have your mother, I have your clan mates, and I have a dragon-fire explosive attached to one of the engines. You will do as I say, or we will all die.”

  To illustrate that she wasn’t bluffing, she stepped back and pointed at the massive engine behind her. At the base, a spherical orb was stuck to the side with some sort of glowing gooey substance. Inside the orb, red and orange and purple swirls of flame spun round and round. Soo Kai raised her hand to show a small metal device, no larger than a car key, which presumably was the detonator.

  “Why go to all the trouble to find and capture Skye if you were just going to blow it up?” I said.

  “Well, the plan wasn’t for you to show back up. Alive.” Soo Kai made a hissing sound between her teeth that made her look very much like a dragon herself. Her hair shone red in the glow of the engines. “No, you were supposed to be dead, and then there would be no other Hunter with the skill to board Skye. We could go about our business, untouchable as Skye was for decades.

  “But you survived, and you brought the Hunter’s Council against me, and the plan I’ve cultivated for years has come to nothing. So, I’m afraid it’s really quite simple, and quite unoriginal. But the fact is, if I can’t have Skye, I don’t want anyone to have it. And I’d rather die than let you win.”

  As the last sentence came out of Soo Kai’s mouth, she raised her hand and clicked the detonator several times. The dragon-fire orb began to glow even brighter and the colors within swirl faster.

  “I’ve just set detonation for sixty seconds.”

  “What is it you want from me?” I asked breathily.

  “The Artifex, you dumb girl. It’s always been about the Artifex. It’s really not difficult to grasp.”

  “I can’t give it to you,” I gasped. “It’s not possible.”

  Soo Kai grinned. “And now it’s I who does not believe you. You do know I’ve tortured your mother for days and she tried to give me that same line? She gave me that old clock and tried to convince me it was the Artifex, when the thing clearly had not an ounce of power. I am tired of games. Give me what I want!”

  And from within me, the Artifex answered. As my rage and frustration at the futility of my situation bubbled up, a molten heat seared through my chest, a hundred times hotter than the sweltering heat of the engines. It felt as if I were turning to flame myself, no longer a being of flesh and blood, but a thing of raw energy and power. My head rocked back and a pressure built at the backs of my eyes, and then a glow shot forth from them.

  Next to me, I was vaguely aware of Xavyr darting toward Soo Kai. His lunge hit nothing but empty air as she jumped realms, her eyes wide with panic. He cut the ropes from my mother, Jaffe, and Sabin, and they each popped out of view as they jumped, too. I felt rather than saw Titus do the same. Someone was yelling, but I couldn’t make out the words. It all sounded muffled, distant.

  “Evryn, you have to shut it down!” Xavyr yelled over the roar of the engines.

  “I—can’t—”

  The words came from some far-off place within me, some sliver of consciousness. I was not me anymore. I was the stuff that made universes. I was all things. I was creation. And in fire was birth. In death was life.

  Xavyr’s arms wrapped around me and then we were running. Behind us, something exploded, and reality rocked violently. We hit the ground but it was a distant sensation, something happening to someone else. I was glowing, everything was glowing, everything was melting and shifting and reforming…

  I felt a strange sensation, at first feather-light, then a more acute heat. It was an odd feeling to have as a thing of pure energy, pure light, a supernova. It reminded me of something I’d had, a physical form, a vessel, a self. I was not all things, I was one thing, and I had a name. I had a face. And something was touching that face. My lips to be specific.

  Ash. I tasted ash on my lips, on Xavyr’s lips. It was raining down all around us and an inferno raged in the distance. The metal floor was hard beneath me. Bruises were springing up all over my body, and my thigh felt like total hell. I gasped, and the air felt fresh even though it was anything but.

  “What did you do that for?”

  Xavyr’s face was deadly serious. “Well, I tried slapping you a couple of times and that didn’t have any effect.”

  “Where is everyone?”

  “They fled. I told them to.”

  “But you stayed.”

  “I stayed.”

  We looked at each other for several moments, and then Xavyr said, “Now that you’re not going to destroy the realm, we still have to save the city. One of the engines is blown. Can you jump us out of here?”

  I knew the answer t
o that without even trying to summon the Call. “No. I have nothing left.” My voice cracked a little.

  “We’ll find our way out of here, then.”

  Xavyr let me lean on him again and we began to half jog, half limp through the maze of engines and piping, away from the fire Soo Kai’s explosive had set. I sincerely hoped the way out of here didn’t lie that way, because it was a molten wreckage. As we moved further from the heat, I began to feel more and more normal again. It was an odd sensation to recognize your body again after transforming into something else.

  Skye was starting to list to the side and the remaining engines whined from the strain. There was also a distinct downward tilt. We were headed for the earth, or perhaps ocean, in whatever realm we floated. I had no idea how long we had, or if we could even do anything to stop the ship from perishing, and us along with it. I might have survived going nuclear just long enough to be crushed.

  It was slow going, what with the floor at an increasingly sharp angle. We slid into piping and machinery, some of which was quite hot, and had to crawl our way between narrow stretches of metal tubing. At last, I spotted stairs rising above us and almost cried in relief. The stairs were narrow, and Xavyr scooped me up at the base of them and carried me.

  When we reached the top, I recognized our location. “This is the lobby of the command center.”

  “We need to find your mother,” Xavyr said. “Or another resident who can help us fix the ship.”

  “She’ll be in the command center.”

  Xavyr nodded and trotted up another flight of stairs, still carrying me. When we entered the command room, I saw my mother, Jaffe, and Sabin. Yeeto Hillaro, the leader of the city, was with them.

  “Evr!” My mother shrieked, running for us.

  Xavyr put me down just in time for Rhione to crush me against her. “How did you survive?” she gasped.

  “This time, or the time before that?” I asked, and a bubble of slightly hysterical laughter escaped my lips. “Xavyr saved me this time.” I pointed to my shirtless bodyguard. “And when Soo Kai threw me off the city, I jumped realms.”