“What is it?” he asked in a low voice as soon as his diplo had skidded to a stop.
“Nikura says it’s something called a kadjet,” she said, not taking her eyes off the sky.
Zakiel swore softly, and the Hunters close enough to hear her answer did the same. Garundel gave orders to two Hunters, who immediately began moving all of the servants and drovers off the dirt track they’d been following, and into the trees where they’d be safer.
“Kapia, take Hara Tiari into the trees, then both of you get under your diplos,” Zakiel said in a low voice.
“Yes, Brother,” Kapia said. She reached over and grabbed Tiari’s reins, then hurried after the servants with Tiari’s diplo trotting behind Goldy.
“I hear a faint buzzing sound,” Karma said a moment later. “It seems to be growing louder. What do you know about this thing?”
“Not a lot,” Zakiel said. “It’s big, has multiple sets of wings depending on it’s size, and many legs, all of which have grasping claws that they use to pick up prey with. They usually have between two to six segments, though I read an account of one that had eight segments.”
Karma glanced at Zakiel, hearing the hesitation in his voice, and noticed that all of the Hunters had dismounted and formed a circle around her, Zakiel, and Nikura, their weapons in their hands. “Tell me the rest,” she said, before returning her eyes to the sky. The buzzing was growing louder, but the forest was so thick, the trees so tall, that they had a very limited view of the sky. They could see directly overhead, and a narrow strip running above the track they were following in either direction, but that was all.
“If it’s killed, each of its segments will break apart and become a new demon that looks exactly like the first one,” Zakiel said, his voice loud enough for all of the Hunters to hear.
“Oh, that’s just great,” Karma said. “Nikura?”
“Prince Zakiel is correct,” Nikura said. He’d lowered his paw to the platform and was now crouched down as though ready to spring, his eyes still on the sky.
“I can’t kill it?” Karma asked. “Is that what you’re telling me?”
“It can be killed,” Nikura replied. “You just have to destroy the section that contains it’s heart. Only then will it stay dead.”
“Good,” Karma said, relieved. “Just tell me where the thing’s heart is and I’ll burn it to a crisp.”
“If I knew, I would have already told you,” Nikura said with an air of impatience. “Unfortunately, with the kadjet, you never know where the heart is going to be. It changes from demon to demon.”
“This just gets better and better,” Karma muttered. She looked at Zakiel, then back up at the sky, afraid to take her eyes off of it for too long. Then she began repeating what Nikura had said, speaking loudly enough that all of the Hunters could hear.
“Nikura,” she said when she was finished, “what if I use the power of the sun to engulf the entire thing in a fire beam. Will that work?”
Nikura’s tail twitched as he considered that for a few moments. “It’s an excellent idea, Lady Techu,” he said finally. “The truth is, I don’t know if you can channel that much power without causing damage to yourself. Much depends on the their size.”
“Zakiel?” Karma asked after repeating what Nikura had said. “Do you have any ideas?”
“Nikura, if we injure it just enough to run it off, it won’t multiply, is that right?” he asked.
“That’s correct,” Nikura replied. “Just remember that these things are not that hard to kill. Kadjet are not divided into separate sexes, and they do not have reproductive organs. They reproduce by killing each other and multiplying.”
“Why haven’t they overrun the planet?” Karma asked, appalled by the idea of reproduction by death.
“Two reasons,” Nikura said. “The first, they are loners by nature. Like most living creatures, they struggle to avoid death, and as they are their own worst enemy, they stay away from each other. The second reason is that humans know how they reproduce, so leave them alone.”
Karma again repeated what Nikura had said, raising her voice to speak over the buzzing that had grown much louder.
“There are three of them,” Nikura said, shocked. “I’ve never seen nor heard of more than one kadjet attacking at one time.”
Karma repeated that information and felt the Hunter’s tension rise around her. “I’m going to have to try my idea of engulfing one with the power of the sun.”
“Only if it’s not very big, valia,” Zakiel agreed. “Unless anyone else has an idea?”
Karma didn’t hear anyone speak, and she didn’t take her eyes from the sky to see if they nodded or shook their heads. Instead, she began sending more and more energy into the Ti-Ank, building it up in preparation for what she meant to do. The Ti-Ank wouldn’t let her use the power of the sun until it recognized a demon, but she had no doubt that it would the moment the things came into sight. The more energy she put into the Ti-Ank now, the more power she could draw from the sun and use against the demons when they appeared. She’d learned that lesson when fighting the Ken-No-Kel, and wouldn’t soon forget it.
“Do it,” Zakiel said, his voice deep and growly, letting her know that his Tigren was present. Which gave her an idea.
“What about the Vatra?” she asked Zakiel. “Do you think the Fire Bird can help us?”
“I don’t know,” Zakiel said with obvious frustration. “You’d have to give me some of your energy, and I’m not sure you can risk that right now. Nikura?”
“We should save that as a last resort,” the Sphin said. “It is dangerous for the Prince to accept such power before the Vatra has fully prepared him for it.”
“We did it against Sobek and it worked,” Karma pointed out.
“Yes, and it was a risk then, as well,” Nikura replied. “Having done it once before does not decrease the risk, it increases it.”
“All right, back to the first plan then,” Karma said after telling Zakiel what Nikura had said. She thought about using some of her energy so that everyone could hear Nikura, but knew she’d need all of it for the kadjet.
Finally, what looked to Karma like three gigantic wasps appeared high in the sky, approaching directly from the south along the track they’d followed through the forest. If wasps were fifteen to twenty feet long, had a few extra sets of wings, a few extra body parts, and were red and green instead of yellow and black.
The three kadjet were heading in a straight line toward them, flying lower and lower as they approached. They were far larger than she’d expected, and she suddenly doubted her ability to fully engulf one in a fire beam. She wasn’t going to give up without making the attempt.
“Karma,” Tiari called. Karma turned her head in surprise and saw Tiari sitting atop her diplo on the far side of the track, in the open. She was staring straight at the wasp-like things flying toward them.
“The one in front, I think its heart is in the last segment,” she said.
“How do you know?” Zakiel demanded.
“I see a dark, pulsing mass there, right in the center of that section,” Tiari replied. “The one in the middle has the same thing in it’s first segment. I can’t see the last one yet. The others are blocking it.”
“Nikura?” Karma asked silently even as she studied the kadjet carefully to determine if she could see a dark area like Tiari had described. She couldn’t.
“Believe her,” Nikura replied at once.
Karma aimed the Ti-Ank, then tilted it until the light of the sun hit it just right, sending a thin beam of light into the sky. She adjusted her aim, then waited for the kadjet to get closer. Their angle was such that she didn’t have a clear shot at the last segment, so she waited. And waited.
“Karma,” Zakiel warned, as the kadjet grew larger and larger, closer and closer.
“Almost,” Karma whispered. Suddenly, she realized that she had a clear view of the first segment of the second kadjet, though the lead kadjet was still block
ing its rear section from her line of sight. She adjusted her aim and pulled deep on her energy, then sent power pouring into and out of the Ti-Ank.
The beam of light grew so bright it was hard to look at it as it burned away the first segment of the middle kadjet in a flash. The rest of the body instantly began to fall from the sky, but Karma ignored that. The Hunters could watch it and let her know if it suddenly began turning into more of the things.
She adjusted her aim, alarmed at how close the other two were now, almost directly overhead. She sent power through the Ti-Ank again but the lead kadjet swerved to avoid the beam, moving far faster than she’d thought possible.
“I got it,” Tomas said calmly, just loud enough for Karma to hear. She turned to see Tomas standing in front of Tiari’s diplo, an arrow fitted to his bow. He released the arrow and they all watched it fly straight and true, piercing the center of the last segment of the lead kadjet. It tumbled from the sky, leaving only one remaining. When Karma aimed the Ti-Ank at the final one, she saw for the first time that it had not four, or even six, but eight segments.
“Tiari?” she called.
“It has two hearts,” Tiari said, her voice tense now. “I’m sure, Karma. There are two.”
“I believe you, Tiari,” Karma said. “Just tell me where they are.”
“Second section, and...let me count...fifth, two and five,” Tiari said.
“Nikura, what happens if I do them one at a time?” Karma asked, just as the final demon let out an ear shattering scream.
“Split the power,” Nikura said without wasting time on further explanation. “Two beams.”
Karma had no idea if such a thing was even possible, but she had to try. She focused on the pale beam coming out of the Ti-Ank and, concentrating hard, she forced it to part into two. A whimper escaped her as a spike of pain shot through her head and her vision grayed out. She heard a shout, metal clanging against metal, a deep throaty roar from Zakiel, more shouts and a scream suddenly cut off, all the while struggling to stay conscious, focus her vision, and keep the energy going into the Ti-Ank in an unbroken stream.
By the time she was able to see again the sky was empty. “Where?” she gasped hoarsely.
“It’s coming,” Zakiel said tightly, and relief flooded Karma to know it had not been him screaming, “Hang on, valia, just another moment.”
Karma focused on widening the gap between the two beams, relieved that this was easier than splitting one beam into two had been. She spread them apart a little bit more and felt something warm dripping from her chin that she calmly ignored. She could not risk losing her focus, or her control for even one fraction of a second.
A few moments later the kadjet was back in the sky high above them. It screamed again, only this time she knew she had only a second before it dived and she lost sight of the segments. She nudged the beams apart just a bit more, then channeled every scrap of energy she had, reaching as deeply as she could, stopping only when the edges of her vision started to gray out again. Then she used the energy she’d poured into the Ti-Ank to pull more power from the sun than she’d ever attempted before, and sent it all at the kadjet. She was so focused that she didn’t realize that her mouth was open wide and she was screaming at the top of her lungs. Her eyes closed against the blinding flare of twin beams that shot toward the demon, erasing the second and fifth segments as though they’d never been. A fraction of a second later, the beams engulfed the remainder of the kadjet in another flare of white hot light, and it was gone. There wasn’t even enough left for ash to float down.
“Excellent, Lady Techu,” Nikura said from a long, long way away. “They are all dead.”
“Good,” she replied faintly as she fought against the darkness closing in on her. It had been a while since she’d passed out from using the Ti-Ank, and she did not want it to happen now. She felt Zakiel lift her from her saddle and lay her across his lap. She smiled up at him, wanting to stroke the orange and black stripes that marked him when the Tigren surfaced, but she was too tired to raise her arm. She felt him slip the Ti-Ank from her hand and put it into a loop on his saddle, and relaxed now that she didn’t have to worry about dropping it.
“Tiari?” she whispered so softly that he read her lips more than heard her.
“She’s fine,” Zakiel said after glancing up. “She gave Tomas a bit of a scare, but she’s handling him.”
Karma smiled. “Close your eyes, valia,” he said. “Get some rest.”
Karma felt her eyes begin to close, but fought it. “Trust me, wife,” Zakiel whispered. “I think I can handle matters while you rest.”
Karma wanted to roll her eyes at him, but didn’t quite have the energy. When her eyes tried to close again, she let them, sighing softly as the cool darkness closed in.
***
Tomas had watched Kapia take Tiari’s reins and head for the trees behind the servants. Relieved, he’d turned his diplo over to a drover and taken his place in the circle of Hunters around Lady Techu, Nikura, and Prince Zakiel, his bow ready, eyes on the sky as he listened to them discuss the coming demon. As Lady Techu repeated Nikura’s words to all of them, he remembered once telling Zakiel that he doubted she was the real Lady Techu, and he felt shame pour through him. He’d never truly doubted her, but he’d tried to convince Zakiel to doubt her. He couldn’t even remember why he’d done it. He shook his head. That was not true. He knew exactly why he’d done it. Attention. But he was a grown man, not a child. It was past time for him to build his own life and stop trying to fit into someone else’s.
On the heels of that thought an image of Tiari formed in his mind, and he smiled to himself. Yes, if he was to build a life for himself, he wanted, no, he needed that life to include Tiari. That he’d only just met her meant nothing. Just as he finished that thought, he heard Tiari call out to Karma and his heart turned to ice in his chest.
He spun around to see Tiari sitting atop her diplo in the open, gazing into the sky as she called out to Karma. Holding his bow in one hand, he raced toward her and grabbed the reins of her diplo with the other. As soon as he tried to move the animal, Tiari stopped him.
“No, Tomas, don’t,” she said urgently. “I need to be able to see.”
Tomas hesitated, realizing only then that whatever Tiari had said to Karma, Karma had called back to her. She was helping somehow, though his panicked mind couldn’t quite put it all together.
“I must help, Tomas,” Tiari said. “Please, let me be of use.”
Something in her voice tore at his heart. He looked into her eyes and saw how important this was to her, and understood all too well how she felt. She was so small, so frail, yet the picture she made as she sat there, back straight, eyes calm, voice steady, chin set with determination, filled him with pride.
“Of course,” he said. “I shall stand guard for you.”
“Thank you,” she replied. Tomas walked around the diplo so that he was standing between it and the approaching demons. He reset his arrow, drew back, and took aim on the foremost demon. Nothing, absolutely nothing, would harm Tiari so long as he had breath in his body and blood in his veins.
When the lead kadjet avoided Karma’s second beam, Tomas had been watching it carefully and saw that it was watching her. It had seen its fellow be destroyed by her beam of light and was ready for it. But it was not expecting an attack from a different direction.
He called out to let Karma know what he was going to do, and then he’d let fly. If there was one thing in his entire life that he’d ever excelled at, it was this. He could hit anything he aimed at with a bow, even if the arrow was bent or the bow poor. He was not surprised when his arrow found its mark, though he barely noticed as he reached for another arrow and readied it.
“You did it Tomas,” Tiari said. “That was amazing.”
Tomas smiled, but did not take his eyes from the remaining demon. When Tiari called out that it had two hearts, his eyes widened in surprise. He was good, very good, in fact, and he’d shot
multiple arrows before. But even he could not hit two targets that were that far apart.
“Can you hit both hearts at the same time?” Tiari asked nervously.
“No, I can’t,” Tomas admitted. “But don’t worry. If it can be done, Lady Techu will do it.”
Just then the remaining kadjet swooped down toward the center of the circle where Karma sat with the Ti-Ank, it’s many clawed feet snapping at the swords and spears that reached up to hack at it in an effort to drive it away. No one dared try to kill it, but they did their best to injure it. It caught a Hunter by the arm in one set of claws, and Tomas nearly let his arrow fly before reminding himself that to do so would be a disaster. If it was killed, they’d have eight more exactly like it to deal with.
He watched as Zakiel, his Tigren fully manifested, leapt to his feet on his saddle and began swiping at the kadjet’s legs, the Tigren’s razor sharp claws slicing through the spindly insectile legs that held the Hunter with ease. The Hunter fell to the ground, his scream cutting off sharply.
Tomas continued to follow the kadjet with his arrow until it was some distance away before looking back to check on the Hunter. The man was alive, thanks to Zakiel, though bleeding badly. He would not get help until the remaining demon was destroyed.
“I’m frightened, Tomas,” Tiari admitted in a low voice. “I’m ashamed to admit it, but it’s true.”
“There is no shame in fear, Tiari,” Tomas said. “You sit there on your diplo, in the open, without a weapon to defend yourself, so that you can help the rest of us in a way that no one else can. You’ve conquered your fear, and that is the very definition of real courage.”
“Are you afraid, too?” Tiari asked.
“Yes, I am,” Tomas admitted, amazing himself. “I am afraid that something will happen to you, that I will fail in my duty to protect you.”
“Protecting me is not your duty, Tomas,” she said. “If something happens to me, you cannot take responsibility for it.”
“Protecting you is my duty, Tiari,” Tomas argued calmly, not taking his eyes from the kadjet as it circled above them. “It is a duty I have chosen for myself, and I mean to uphold it.”
Quest for the Sun Orb Page 10