Reality's Plaything 5: The Infinity Annihilator

by Will Greenway

  Wyyr’s hands clenched and unclenched. No doubt he was weighing his options, he had hit her straight on with his power multiple times and she hadn’t twitched.

  Wren frowned at the hesitation. “Nevermind then.” Her blue eyes flared white, and a green radiance surrounded her limbs. She gestured and the blocks of metal clamped around Sarai’s limbs became puffs of vapor wafting into the air. “It’s probably better that you not have that power to create mischief with.”

  Sarai rose to stand, rolling the shoulder of the arm that had been pinned. She raised her blades. The edges winked and flashed in the poor corridor light.

  Wyyr’s eyes bulged.

  “Yes,” Gaea answered, the unspoken question. “I have the powers of all savants.” She clicked her tongue. “And I am quite proficient with them.” She made a curling gesture with her finger and the dark Kriar armor encasing his body sloughed off him like mud.

  “Mother, don’t play with him,” Sarai growled. “He’s a traitor.”

  Hands clutching where his armor used to be, Wyyr glanced between them. His limbs shook. Bannor realized he was exerting a lot of power. To do what? After a moment’s examination, he realized the elder was trying to do the only smart thing he could. Run away! Apparently, Gaea no longer wished to let him flee.

  “Daughter, I am not playing. It’s difficult to extract information from a corpse.”

  “He won’t tell us anything. He’s just another pawn.”

  Wren stepped forward and slapped Wyyr with a blow that half spun the enemy savant around. The man moaned and staggered, a hand pressed to his bloody mouth.

  “Stop trying to teleport when I’m having a discussion—it’s rude.” She glanced down the hall toward the Baronians, who had started to back up. “You creatures, begone!” She swung an arm and all of them vanished in a flare of sparks including the corpses.

  Wyyr, glanced back, his already pale face draining of what little color remained. He stared at Wren and made a whimpering sound.

  “Unfortunately, I believe what my daughter-to-be says is largely true. I waited to see if your Kriar allies would attempt to rescue you. It appears that they will not. What little value you might have had becomes moot.” She sighed. “I don’t like maiming one of my children, but sometimes you have to cut out the diseased flesh to keep it from infecting the rest.” She raised a glowing hand.

  Wyyr reeled away from Wren only to yelp as his back came up against Sarai’s sword tips. “Please,” he blubbered. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know!”

  Wren sniffed. “Do you know anything of value?”

  He forced down a convulsive gulp. “I—I—hope—so.”

  “All right,” Wren rumbled. “What were you offered to do this task?”

  “I bet they offered to give him an ascendant body,” Sarai said with a sniff. “Even though they have no idea what it means.”

  Wyyr focused wary eyes on her.

  “Mother?” Came Corim’s deep voice. “Wren?”

  Wren looked toward the sound. “Come. I have him under control now.”

  Corim, Daena, Sarai’s mother and sister came into the corridor followed by a half dozen valkyries that took up guard positions, weapons poised. They all wore concerned expressions, especially Kalindinai who rushed up to stand by Wren’s shoulder. She did not however get any closer to the savant.

  The Queen brushed back her dark hair and fixed amber eyes on Sarai. “Carellion! Mimi, you’re covered in blood! Are you all right?”

  “I’ll live,” Sarai answered. She poked Wyyr with Xersis. “Did the Daergons approach any other savants?”

  Wyyr frowned but didn’t answer.

  Wren put a finger in his tunic and pulled him close. Glowing blue eyes narrowed. “Did I in some way make myself unclear?” Sparks whirled around her hand casting the savant’s body in a dark radiance. The thin man screamed and clutched at her wrist as her fingers sunk into his body in a bloody froth. “I made you, Child. I can make another just like you.”

  The savant of matter howled and writhed. His hands lashed against Wren’s cheek and chest, but she was in the form of an ascendant and immune to nola powers, and his frail human body didn’t have the strength it took to harm immortal flesh. “No! No! Arrrgh!” He continued to beat and thrash at her gripping hand ineffectually, his voice growing weaker. The women all watched with implacable expressions on their faces, the man’s contortions reflected in their eyes. None of them would be interceding on his behalf. “I’ll do—do anything you want!”

  Wren let go. The bloody holes in his chest vanished in an instant.

  Wyyr relaxed with a gasp, hugging himself and rocking his head back. After a moment, he touched his chest realizing his wounds had been healed.

  The blonde savant wore a dark expression that would have had the bravest warrior backpedaling. “You will comply with every request, and comply with every anticipated need of every request. Failure to do so will have very unpleasant consequences. I have bound your nola, any future attempts to use it without my express permission will be spectacularly uncomfortable.” She turned to Kalindinai. “I trust that is good enough?”

  “Yes, it is, thank you,” the Queen answered with bow. “Are you sure we even need him?”

  Wren frowned at him. Wyyr swallowed. “I leave it to your discretion. I will not slay one of my own—even in anger.”

  “Mother,” Sarai asked. “Will you be able to help Bannor?”

  “I won’t know for certain until I am there in body,” she said with a tilt of her head. “I believe we will be done here soon. Do you believe him to be in immediate danger?”

  Sarai held up the sword Xersis. “Are you, Bannor?”

  He tried to snort but without a nose or lungs the gesture was lost. “You’re asking me? I can’t feel anything. I only feel what you feel. That and terrified for you.”

  Wren tilted her head, looking down at Xersis where Bannor knew his essence was somehow bound. “Fascinating. Bannor I was overjoyed to hear you survived. From what I can tell, this condition is stable. You can feel safe, the others are here now. I am glad Wren had the forethought to call me.”

  “How long before you’re back, Mother?” Kalindinai asked.

  “A few bells at least. We want to clear as many of them out as possible. It will be safer for everyone if we do.”

  “I understand,” he said through the sword. “A few more bells don’t matter.”

  Wren smiled. “I will be back soon to give you my full attention.” She turned to Wyyr. “I don’t need to be there in the flesh to deal with you. So, I recommend you behave.” Wren tilted her head back and a green glow flared around her limbs. The green color drained out of her skin and she let out a breath. She sighed and seemed to master herself again. When she spoke it was no longer with the all-mother’s penetrating boom. “Whew! What a rush!” She blinked glowing eyes and looked at Wyyr. She put a hand to the ishtite sword on her side. “I’m not nearly as nice as Mother, so mind yourself or I’ll gut you like a fish.” She looked back to Daena. “Dane turn him to paste if tries to get away.”

  The auburn-haired savant nodded and raised a hand and kept it oriented on Wyyr.

  “I understood the first time,” Wyyr said with a grimace.

  Corim rubbed the back of his head, riffling his long dark hair. “I recommend that he be taken for questioning by the Protectorate. The eternals have the proper facilities to keep someone like him detained.”

  Kalindinai put hands on hips. “And how exactly are you going to get him there?”

  The burly warrior’s brow furrowed. “That is something of an issue with everyone in the field. I guess we’ll detain him ourselves until we have adequate transport available.” He stepped toward Wyyr, who edged back. Stepping into the path of the savant’s retreat, Sarai raised both Garadhyr and Xersis. Daena stepped up on Sarai’s left, creating a formidable wall between the savant and escape.

  Corim frowned at Wyyr. “Sir, I sense the magic in you. While lady G
aea disrupted your savant powers, I am aware your magic abilities have not been hampered. I am prepared if you attempt to fast-cast—you will lose limbs.”

  “Where the frell did all of you come from?” Wyyr grumbled. “Bloody Shael Dal everywhere and…” He looked up at Wren and then to Daena. “Whatever they are.”

  Wren grinned and pulled out the blade enchanted by Ziedra. The powerful weapon hummed and shimmered, heat and magic contrails curling off the edges. She raised the tip and pointed it at Wyyr’s nose. “Give me a reason to chop off your head. Please?”

  Wyyr leaned back but kept still as Corim raised his shaladen to the enemy savant’s throat and transformed it into neckband with a handle on the back. He stepped behind the man and took hold. “Matradomma, this should keep his magic restrained until there is a spell shackle sufficient to block his casting abilities.”

  “I will see if we have something strong enough,” Kalindinai said. “Thank you, Corim.”

  The big man nodded to her and pushed Wyyr ahead of him toward the valkyries, two of which took his arms.

  With Wyyr safely away, Kalindinai came and hugged her daughter. Sarai transformed her shaladens into arm-bands and clutched her mother tight. She rested her head on her mother’s shoulder and sighed.

  “I know I don’t say it often enough,” Sarai murmured. “I love you.”

  The Queen rubbed her back. “Damn, we must get you cleaned up, you are a mess.”

  Janai came and gave her sister a hug. “Come here, Brat.”

  Sarai put an arm around her older sister. As she squeezed Janai tight Bannor felt the tremble in Sarai’s arms. She pressed her cheek to Janai’s then pushed away to focus on Wren.

  The blonde ascendant tilted her head and made the barest of smiles. With a sigh, she stepped forward and pressed herself against the Kel’varan’s feverishly warm body.

  “Thanks,” she whispered. “For getting us out of that.”

  Wren closed her arms around Sarai. “We’re sisters. It’s what we do.”

  Bannor felt the heat in Sarai’s face and the hot burning streaks and realized she was crying.

  Wren straightened up. She swung around and put and arm around both Sarai and the Queen. “Come on, let’s not tempt fate, let’s get back to the infirmary.”

  Two of the valkyries that remained to escort them, fell in step as the group walked together back around the corner, stepping over the blasted metal blockage that Wren had destroyed to get to Wyyr.

  Daena who was walking behind Sarai spoke up. “Matradomma, why do you suppose they were targeting Sarai?”

  The Queen shook her head. “Perhaps, it is as Gaea surmised, they are interested in the baby. We don’t know what information they have. I suppose the baby would be leverage on Gaea.”

  Wren rocked her head toward Sarai. “Sar, we know you’re a target now. Please don’t make us sit on you.”

  She sighed. “I’ll stay close.”

  “Good.”

  They entered the infirmary that still had more than a dozen people resting on the pallets, with a score more reclining against the walls. Five valkyries, three Kriar soldiers, two of the allied Baronian women, and one person he recognized—Arabella. When had she been injured? The red-haired bard lay huddled on the pallet, whether in real or psychological pain he couldn’t tell. Her injuries didn’t look that serious.

  A group of Loric’s youngest children sat along the wall, chatting quietly among themselves. Given their age they were remarkably disciplined.

  A group of five, three girls and two boys ranging from around eight to twelve summers followed Octavia, Mercedes, and Wysteri as they moved around the room giving nurture to the injured. It was clear the Kriar healers doted on the attention and reverence given to them by the children and they patiently explained what they were doing and why. For the most part, the valkyries and Kriar seemed to be soothed by the presence of the young-ones, especially their attempts to help treat injuries and be encouraging.

  Bannor remembered Kylie and how she had regarded young Daena. She was an immortal warrior now, but had once been a mother of four. It was pleasing to think he might have a young daughter running around underfoot some day. If he ever had feet again.

  Sarai stopped in the doorway watching the children much as he had. No doubt her thoughts turned as his did to their daughter Vhina and what it would be like.

  “Where did Wyyr and Corim go?” Daena wondered. “Octavia? Did Corim come in ahead of us?”

  The fire-haired mecha looked up from something she was manipulating on one of the diagnostic tables. Octavia pointed to the treatment room. “Corim is putting the prisoner in stasis. I agreed it was the safest way to restrain him.”

  Daena let out a breath.

  Wren chuckled. “Getting jumpy in your old age there, Dane.”

  The auburn-haired ascendant snorted. “We’re both ascendants and we couldn’t get through those damn walls he made.”

  Wren shrugged. “Elders are dangerous. Even in her mortal body, I think Damay would give both of us a hard time.” She turned her head and walked over to Arabella. She leaned down and put a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “What’s the matter, Red?”

  The bard moved as though she were made of wax or as if she thought she might break. She looked up, her pale face had a yellowish tint to the skin. “Feel sick,” she moaned. “Gods, I think—I think I puked up last week’s lunch.”

  Wren frowned. “Didn’t they treat you?”

  The bard groaned again. “None of them can—can find anything wrong.”

  Sarai stepped over with Wren. “Is it just your stomach?”

  Arabella rocked her head back. “Feel weak—I almost didn’t get back. Corim carried me in.”

  Kalindinai and Janai stood on the other side of the woman with concerned expressions. A few moments later Corim, and his two valkyrie escorts appeared at the doorway to the inner treatment area.

  “Wyyr is contained,” he reported. “I put him in Bannor’s stasis cell since he wasn’t using it.”

  For some reason, he found that disquieting; that and another thing. “Did you make sure he didn’t astral out of his body, before you froze him?”

  Corim stiffened. “Pardon?”

  Wren rocked her head back. “Spit! Sar, quick bring Bannor.”

  They rushed into the treatment room along the row of cylinders that contained the mortal bodies of the other savants.

  Wren stopped at the cylinder that contained Wyyr’s body.

  Sarai puffed to a stop with her mother, Janai, and Daena trailing after. She put a hand on the crystal and metal container.

  He focused his nola senses. Instead of looking for Wyyr directly, he followed his own nola thread back to eternity and the mingled sigils of all savants. He found Wyyr’s link and let his senses follow that thread to it’s terminus.

  He knew one thing for certain. It wasn’t this room.

  “He’s gone. I can feel where he is, and it’s not here. Without my body I can’t really tell you where that is.”

  “Frell, that’s trouble,” Wren grumbled.

  “I don’t understand the concern,” Corim said standing in the doorway with a furrowed brow. “He’s a bodiless spirit. Certainly he poses no threat.”

  “He’s a bodiless tao,” Wren told him scrubbing her forehead. “If you’d seen half the dren sword boy there can do with just a tao body, you’d be worried too.”

  “Sword boy?” Bannor bristled. He doubted the indignant tone came across. “She’s right. He’s not really dangerous without a savant or immort body that’s synchronized to him. However, if he does not care about damage to the host, he can forcibly take over a body and still use some of his powers until it burns out.”

  “We can catch him in an iron cage though can’t we,” Sarai asked. “Like Mazerak did to you, Wren?”

  “Sure, if he’s not already in a body,” Wren answered. “If he’s not… he’s going to be damn hard to catch.”

  Daena let out a breath,
folded her arms and shook her head. “It’s always something…”

  Return to Contents

  * * *

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  I saw that hall splattered with the gore

  of what had to be more than fifty dead

  Baronians. Princess Sarai was covered in

  blood, and next to none of it was hers. I am

  never getting her mad at me again. I don’t

  care if I am an ascendant—that woman

  would find a way to get even…

  —Kumiko Dinai “Daena” Sheento,

  Ward Prodigal of Malan

  Sarai stood staring the cylinder that contained the enemy savant Wyyr’s body. Bannor felt the tension in his wife to be, the efforts of the battle were beginning to catch up to her. The green glow in the room blurred in her vision, she wiped at the perspiration on her brow, sighed and shook her head. Around her, the Queen, Janai, Daena, and Wren all wore expressions of concern and dismay. An elder savant running around loose—no doubt an angry one—one that could take over people and cause destruction. With everything that had happened they certainly didn’t need this additional headache.

  “We’ve got to find a way to track him,” Sarai said. “I—” She grunted and staggered, catching herself against the cylinder.

  “You are going to get cleaned up and sit down,” Kalindinai said with a frown. In a surprising move she swept her daughter up in her arms and carried her to the diagnostic table and set her down.

  Sarai stared at her mother. It was easy to forget the Queen also had the power of a shaladen. To a member of the Protectorate, Sarai’s weight might as well be that of an infant.

  “Lord Vale,” Kalindinai said. “Please ask one of our healers to come look at Our daughter.”

  The burly warrior nodded and ducked out.

  Kalindinai looked to Wren. “Liandra, are not young ones the most vulnerable to takeover?”