Song of Sundering

by A. R. Clinton

  "Uhhh—alright. What do you have planned?"

  Shara just grinned over at him, "Something beautiful."

  67

  Tani

  The fighting was calming down outside, but the aftermath of the incident was still unknown. Tani had spent her time glaring at her favorite Rat subject, testing out the strange combinations of food that Vin conjured up—like fried sweet bread with a spicy meat sauce to dip it in—and reviewing every piece of Blight Crystal data she could find, whether it was hers or others. At the moment, she was tapping on the rat cage and trying not to sound angry at the damn happy beast.

  "Come on, Rat-livier. Do something not boring," Tani spoke to the rat she had implanted with both Olivier's new crystal and the Blight crystal. He was so normal it was shocking. No crazy black tendrils or bubbles of red and golden light fighting in his tiny, furry body. At least, not that she could tell. He ate, shat, and slept like the rest of them.

  The terror of her dream had not left her. She waited to see what was to become of the poor creature, but it seemed all that happened was that he healed slightly more quickly than she had expected. Could be she got a little monster that naturally possessed strong healing. Could be the crystals. There was not enough variance from the norm for her to know.

  She sighed and turned from the tiny creature, flopping into her cot and pulling her LightTab from the table next to it. She glanced again at Dom's response to her message.

  We are not interested in information, so much as obtaining samples that we can use in our own projects. If you have a lead on this, please let us know.

  The message included a shuffling encrypted algorithm for a LightTab address, just like Tani had used for her own LightTab when posting in the feeds for patients. Did she dare tell the Artificers she had a way to get them samples?

  Would there be enough BloodSmiths left for her to even worry about breaking her alliance with them? Or enough Artificers to justify the forging of a new one?

  Options are never bad to have. Just don't make commitments you may want out of if things change.

  She responded, erasing the standard LightTab address and inserting the encrypted one:

  I have a contact that can get you samples. But, the request has to go through me. They won't supply more than a few at a time, so make sure whatever you're planning, you account for a limited supply.

  She pasted in a rolling encrypted contact address.

  A few moments later, a response popped up.

  It sounds like we could be very useful to each other. Conlan will want to meet you.

  68

  Kingston

  “That goddamn control freak.” Kingston muttered under his breath, leaving his jacket on as he plopped into the armchair in the front room of the small apartment Ayna had been gracious enough to offer him. It was on the fringes of the States House district, a few blocks from anyplace interesting in Prin and just one block from where the city started decaying into slum living. Sure, she had placed him there and everyone from Century because they all fit together and it was the only location she could fix up in the few weeks before the rest of Century had followed him to Prin. Being together had made the transition easier. But he was no different from her—except now his home was a fraction the size of hers.

  He had not gotten any farther with her since he had arrived. She kept everything close to her chest, and he hated her for it. The Blight Crystal project? He was banned from it. The war? He was only given information when it was to tell him that his child was going to be killed and she could do something about it, but wouldn’t, because it could mean her child would be sacrificed to save others. She would rather others were sacrificed in a doomed attempt to save her child. They were placing the entire future of Prin on a small, unconfirmed chance that Shara was what they wanted. Why not confirm it? Why not test the theory before sacrificing the near 500 soldiers they had left?

  It hadn’t taken Ayna long to pull from the former Century residents for reinforcements. The homes her engineers had scraped together for them now were half empty. Kingston didn’t know how many of them were already dead.

  A series of coughs wracked his body. He put his arm over his mouth until the fit stopped. When he pulled his arm away, small drops of blood were sprayed around the bend of his elbow. He grunted angrily at his body’s insistence to fall apart on him.

  He pushed himself up from the chair with a small wheeze, walking to the south facing balcony off the bedroom, where he had the last of some herbs growing. They would die soon with the coming the winter. He picked the last of the mint off the grow box and took them inside to wash and make into tea.

  The vapors from the steeping mint leaves soothed his lungs. He leaned over the counter, putting his face a few inches from the cup, and breathed deep.

  If I can just find which LightTabs were stolen, maybe I could confirm what Ayna won’t. Maybe I can convince others that we can still do something.

  He glanced out the window. The shadows of the night crawling towards Prin were thick already. He didn’t have much time before the battle was expected to start. I guess I’ll have to be unconventional. He grabbed his LightTab and started composing a message.

  III

  Progression And Regression

  69

  Shara

  Night had fallen along with a fresh blanket of snow. Shara was thankful that her tower protected her from the wind better than it would protect her from what was coming. Frantically, her four helpers, including Jon and Dolores, had covered the wood scraps with tarps to protect them from moisture. They now continued breaking up the larger pieces in a small covered area they’d put together with scraps of a cart. Shara helped from her tower by Ambercasting against the chunks, moving them out from their layers of tarp to the covered tent, then back once they had been chopped up, creating a constant supply for them without running back and forth. She was happy to see Jon and Dolores chatting and even laughing as they worked. The promise of what protection Shara could offer seemed to have helped them cast their disagreement aside.

  They still had a half of the wood to work through when the howling began. It was far away, but constant and from every direction. Hafi stood outside the ring around the camp and immediately sent runners and began grabbing soldiers, pulling them to their feet, and sending them to one of the gaps in the outer walls. Split between the two walls, their forces looked meager.

  I hope the fortifications hold.

  If they fell before a retreat to the inner circle was called, the few hundred men on each side would be slaughtered in seconds. One of Hafi’s training lessons came to mind, Never underestimate your enemy. Until they are destroyed, assume the fight can turn in a second. A huge advantage can become your undoing. Things change suddenly. Be prepared for chaos.

  She looked for James in the two crowds of soldiers. She found him and his shield, thrust close to the gap in near the western wall. He had been talking excitedly and showing off the shield and how it worked with his sword to some of the new recruits that had come from Century, but as the howling grew louder, they dropped the conversation and turned to face the wall. The men he was talking to formed up around him. For all his talk of being mocked in Century, it seemed they were still eager to follow him.

  The shouts of the Xenai grew closer. Shara could feel the pounding of the Xenai charge vibrating through the rocks around her all the way up to through her tower. The swarm would be here soon. The last few Pact stragglers reached the walls and Shara left the handling of the wood to her group as she closed her eyes and focused on the stone, touching the wall she had made. She could feel the echoes through it, more fierce to the west. She waved and yelled through her eye slits until she caught the attention of Dolores.

  “Tell Hafi there are more to the west; they didn’t evenly surround us. We’ll need to split a few extra men out to that side.”

  Dolores nodded and ran to the circular wall around them, slipping through the hole and heading toward where Hafi stood in th
e center of the open space. His team of runners had the lowest casualties of the army. He was flanked by nearly twenty young children. Soon, several were dispatched to the east to pull men to reinforce the west wall.

  The men moved from one side to the other as told, just as a shock of vibration burst through the rock. The mooncasters in the source group, just north of Hafi, jumped in surprise. The bark of the Xenai rose to a fierce intensity and the first dark smoky body threw itself across the small ravine Shara had made to the east, launching into the gap where it was greeted by a Pact spear.

  First blood was drawn.

  The body was kicked off the spear into the trench below, and another Xenai appeared, flying sideways through the gap, reaching for whoever they could. Shara could feel the thuds in the walls from Xenai that missed their aim—or Xenai that didn’t care if they were trampled to fill the trench. Occasionally a Xenai would get ahold of a Pact soldier, pulling them back through the gap with a scream.

  The Pact soldiers quickly developed a system on both sides. One would brace with a few soldiers supporting him, spear out to catch the Xenai. Once it was on their spear, they would crouch down, scraping the weapon along the floor to push the Xenai body off and the next group would stand over them, ready for the next Xenai. The awkward motions became fluid as each group was forced to repeat the process over and over as the Xenai came quicker and quicker. Shara couldn’t see through the gaps from her tower, but she was sure the bodies were quickly filling the small chasm.

  Shara closed her eyes again, reaching out to feel the army that surrounded them. Where are the Source-casters? That was the true threat to their fortifications. They could rip them down just as easily as Shara had built them. She could not sense them yet. They had sent the regular soldiers first.

  Shara refocused on the bodies filling the trenches. Although most of them were lifeless, she could sense their implants. They were filling the west hole more quickly than she had expected. Soon the Xenai would have enough corpses to walk right up to the gap.

  She reached out to the splinters of wood beneath her, creating a thread in her mind to carry them towards the west gap. They flew over the heads of the clump of soldiers as she created a new thread for a Stromcast. She formed a bubble of lightning on the Xenai side of the wall, thrusting the wood through it. She felt the change as most of the pieces burst into flame. She sent the pieces into anything she sensed living. It created a few seconds of reprieve for the soldiers at the front. A cheer went up from the men. She held on to the lightning cast, grabbing more wood to send west.

  A shout of panic rose from the east side.

  Shit!

  She reached out, throwing the last group of wood through her lightning bubble and into Xenai bodies. She could smell the burning flesh already. She closed her eyes, this was not going to be easy without amulets to help her. She created another sphere of lightning outside the east wall, lowering herself to her knees in her tower. She put her hands out, as if holding one sphere in each hand. She felt for the wood again, sending two large sections outward, one to each wall. It was impossible to use Lifecasting to find targets on top of the ambercast and stromcast. She had to send the splinters at the Xenai blind, hoping they would find enemies to hit. She pictured the Xenai, standing in a line, and aimed at where their stomachs would be. She heard an exultant cry from both sides as she let go of the cast.

  The Xenai response was another shock through stone. Shara felt the vibrations in both walls, just to the side of their bottlenecks. Both shuddered violently. The thud of the giant Xenai hitting the wall, followed by a crack and burst of lightning hitting the same spot. Over and over. Shara could feel the walls weakening.

  She stood, scanning the middle section frantically for Hafi.

  We need to pull back while they are focusing on breaking the walls!

  She caught sight of him to the east, yelling orders for the men to prepare for the wall to come down.

  God dammit, we can’t take that!

  She could feel them all, sense them—as soon as the wall cracked, they would push it in and both lines would be swarmed. There would be no hope for a retreat. She had to get down there now.

  She ripped her tower apart beneath her feet, reforming it into a series of steps and ran down them.

  70

  James

  The wall shook. Xenai kept coming through the gap, not caring that they were killing themselves in the lightning Shara had conjured just outside the hole. The bodies stacked up until they couldn’t slip through the bottleneck, but that didn’t stop them. They began crawling over their dead, jumping down and over the lightning. James backed up, creating a half circle with the other soldiers near him, surrounding where they landed. Before the Xenai could recover their feet from jumping, they stabbed and cut them apart, until the new pile of bodies became a slide that each Xenai slid down. They were coming too fast to take them all out, throwing themselves against the soldiers that surrounded them. The disadvantage of their daggers and small swords against the Pact shields and spears didn’t seem to bother them. They flung themselves in recklessly, stabbing anything they could find before they died.

  We need to retreat!

  “Fall back!” He yelled, not caring that no such order had come from an officer. No one listened. He heard the cracking and looked over at the wall while jabbing his sword into a charging Xenai. The wall had a large crack extending from a spot a dozen feet from the gap all the way to the gap itself. A giant thud hit and it shattered. Time seemed to stretch as he saw the giant chunks of rock flying inward at the group of men, followed by a hulking figure of a Xenai. The pile of Xenai bodies toppled into the space in the newly widened gap.

  The rocks suddenly stopped midair, then launched themselves the opposite direction, colliding into the oversized Xenai. A few zipped around it, knocking the wave of normal Xenai behind it off their feet. He spun around and looked towards Shara’s tower, only to find it wasn’t there anymore. She was running toward his wall, arms pushed out in front of her. He caught a flash of movement behind her. The other Source-casters had all run to the east side. It was just her coming to help them.

  He felt conflicting waves of both gratitude and terror.

  They’re going to kill her!

  He had taken his eyes off the battle for too long. As he started to turn back towards the wall, he felt a sharp, burning jab in his leg. He blinked down in shock to find the hilt of a dagger protruding out of the outer side of his leg. He gasped and fell with the dead Xenai, who still held onto the dagger.

  Another Xenai saw the opening and launched itself at him. He raised his shield, stabbing it into the Xenai corpse in front of him. The attacker hit it, landing on the top part that curved back and launched itself again, sailing over his head into the line of soldiers behind him. He heard the sounds of it dying as another heavy body hit his shield, launching itself off of it.

  Shit, I’m helping them!

  He lowered the shield. A Xenai was midair, about to land on it before he moved it. He dodged, rolling over the knife still in his leg, and screamed. The Xenai crashed to the ground behind him. Another launched itself at him, not caring that he had put the shield down. It stopped in the air, hovering above him as if it had hit a wall. It let out a horrible scream, dropped its weapons, and started clutching at its shoulder. Suddenly, strands of red burst from it, slicing through its body, spraying blood around it as it burst into pieces. A small black crystal hovered where its shoulder had been, then it lurched forward over his head. He felt a small arm wrap itself around him and pull. He struggled to his feet as it pulled him back. He turned to find Shara next to him. She smiled and stepped around him, placing herself between the charging Xenai and him. She pulled out a dagger from one of her two belts that held sheaths and kneeled, one leg out to the side. She reached out, the black gem in her hand, as the black smoky forms of the Xenai horde charged through the opening.

  The surrounding ranks of Pact soldiers rushed to her side. She shudder
ed as if hit with tremendous force and he saw the rush of Xenai stop in their tracks. They began to scream and so did Shara, as if what she was doing hurt her as much as it hurt them. Before her, the front line of Xenai rose off the ground and burst into pieces, splashes of blood and red lines flying out of them. The loops of red sliced through their bodies, hitting anything nearby. They tumbled to the ground in pieces.

  Fucking hell—no wonder they want to kill her.

  One Xenai remained in the front of the charge, now standing alone surrounded by body parts. It did not have the smoky appearance of the others, but rather looked like an Illara overgrown with the branches of a tree. It kept charging straight towards Shara.

  He heard Shara mumble something, and she grabbed her head as she lost her footing and fell to her knees. He pushed himself to his feet and hobbled over to her, getting there as a few of the soldiers near her took care of the single Xenai left. James grabbed at her, “Come on! We have to go!”

  She looked up at him, as if confused, “I—what?—so many voices.”