by R S Penney
The idiot raised his gun again.
Her sword snapped up, the blade absorbing the stream of electricity before it got anywhere near her. She killed the Sink, ran across the rooftop and leaped from the edge. Once she was airbourne, she triggered the Sink again.
Azra twirled in the air for a kick that hit his jaw with enough force to shatter bone. The poor fool was dazed.
She extended her free hand again, releasing a torrent of kinetic energy. Blown backward with incredible force, the enemy Field Binder soared across the street. He collided with a stone wall and then hung there, kept aloft by his Gravity-Sink. He would float until the Sink gave out.
She turned her attention to the pyramid.
The massive crystal was glowing with a powerful light, as if someone had captured a star within it. Azra could feel a thrumming in the Ether. Somewhere in the distance, Hanak Tuvar screamed.
It was time to do what she had come here to do.
Desa was lost in the Ether’s caress, riding tidal waves of energy that crashed over her enemy. Hanak Tuvar screeched, its tentacles flailing as it struggled against them. The Ether coalesced around the demon, guided by Desa and Nari working in concert, forming a gigantic cocoon.
With the gentlest touch, they trapped the creature inside a new prison, a pocket of reality from which it could not escape. She understood, at last, the brilliance of Nari’s plan. They had created a micro-universe around Hanak Tuvar, cutting it off from the rest of space and time. Now, all they had to do was force that tiny universe into the void.
It would affix itself to the edge of a larger universe like a boil growing out of healthy tissue. There was no avoiding that. Most likely, it would be Desa’s universe as that was closer than any other. Hanak Tuvar would be able to whisper in the thoughts of greedy and vicious people, manipulating them into setting it free once again. But if the knowledge of what it was could be preserved, that danger would be contained.
Desa and Nari gathered their will.
The Ether flexed.
The bubble that surrounded Hanak Tuvar drifted out of phase with the rest of her universe. It was working! Just a little further! Just a little further! The demon redoubled its efforts to break free, but together, Desa and Nari held it in a tight grip.
Pain raced through Miri’s body like a fire burning out of control. She couldn’t move her left arm or her left leg. She had broken bones in the fall; she knew that. Sweet Mercy, it was so hard to focus! The grays were surrounding her. She had the briefest glimpse of one man lifting a rifle, ready to finish her off.
In a moment of desperation, Miri reached into her coat pocket and closed her hand around the first thing she found. She squeezed hard, the crystal shattering into a thousand tiny fragments that all vanished a second later.
The rainbow spread over her, consuming her from head to toe, colours oscillating in an endless cycle. Lucidity returned to her mind as she drew in a ragged breath. Her bones reknit themselves, and her pain evaporated like dew on a hot, summer morning. Startled by the sudden flash of light, the grays recoiled, backing away from her.
Curling up into a ball, Miri slapped her hands down on the ground and sprang off with core strength. She landed on her feet, flinging her coat open and retrieving another pair of throwing knives. The rainbow slowly faded.
Scanning the enemies that surrounded her, Miri flashed a smile. “Well, come on then,” she said. “What are you waiting for?”
The grays surged.
She threw one knife and then the other, glittering metal tumbling through the air. One sank into the shoulder of a bald man with a neat goatee, causing him to drop his rifle. The other stung the arm of a skinny fellow with a scar on his cheek.
A hulking brute came up behind her, trapping Miri in a bear hup.
She squeezed her eyes shut, then flung her head backward, striking his nose with the back of her skull. That momentary distraction earned her a little wiggle room. She elbowed the brute in his belly.
Too many.
She saw dozens of bodies crowding around her, all trying to grab her. If they got their hands on her, they would throw her down and trample her to death. No way out! She was trapped! If only she could go up.
You can, she realized.
With a deft hand, Miri double-tapped her belt and felt a sense of weightlessness settling onto her. She jumped, shooting into the air just in time to avoid a dozen grasping hands. The freedom! She had never wanted to learn Field Binding, but she was beginning to see the appeal.
The ground dropped away beneath her, gray faces staring up in dismay. Her new-found confidence fizzled away when she realized that she had no way to slow down or change direction. And that wasn’t the worst of her problems.
Miri looked over her shoulder and gasped when she saw the red haze creeping over the ground, slowly moving toward the city. It enveloped the cannons at the back of the army, and those melted. Hanak Tuvar had no further need of them.
The demon was flickering! At first, she thought there was something wrong with her eyes, but no. It was real. The humongous squid would vanish for half a second only to reappear and then vanish again. What could be causing that?
The crimson wall was nearly upon her.
“Oh no…” she whispered.
Thinking fast, she twisted around in midair and drew her pistol. She pointed it at the oncoming distortion – angled slightly upward – and fired several times. That put her on a downward trajectory, headed back to the city.
Miri turned her body, swooping low over the outer buildings, rushing toward those on the other side of the street. She double-tapped her belt buckle and fell the last few feet, somersaulting over the rooftop.
Gasping for breath, she stood up and looked around. Where was Rojan? She got her answer when she looked into the street below. The Field Binders were fighting an army of grays that had surged into the city. They were going for the pyramid, trying to reach Desa while she was vulnerable. Well, that settled it. There was nothing for Miri to do but join the fight.
Desa heaved with every ounce of willpower she could muster, trying to shove Hanak Tuvar out of this reality. Every time she gained an inch – so to speak – the beast fought back twice as hard.
It was just too damn powerful!
The cocoon of Ether that held it stretched as Hanak Tuvar struggled against its prison. She kept having to reinforce it before the demon ripped through the barrier. Four times now, she had almost lost control.
And she was so tired.
Her body was a distant thing, a lump of aches and fatigue at the edge of awareness, but that distance would not help if the exhaustion overwhelmed her. If her physical form collapsed, Desa would lose contact with the Ether. And then it would all be over.
She had to keep fighting.
Tommy sat with Kalia on the steps that led up to the pyramid’s main entrance. Wrapped in the Ether’s embrace, he felt the series of pulses that Desa and Nari created. They were ten times as powerful as those produced by the crystal, each crashing over Hanak Tuvar with the force of a hurricane.
The demon writhed under their persistent onslaught. Tommy could sense the shell that surrounded it. He had no other word for it. Somehow, Desa and Nari had wrapped a pocket of the Ether around the towering squid creature.
“Focus,” Kalia said, her speech slurred.
Seated beside him with her hands folded in her lap, she blazed like the sun, white light forming a nimbus around her body. That one word was enough to draw Tommy out of his reverie. He had let himself become distracted. They were supposed to be keeping watch on the pyramid, not observing the cosmic battle between Desa and Hanak Tuvar. But in his defense, cosmic battles were hard to ignore.
Tommy knew his job, and he knew why it was necessary. He let his mind drift over the pyramid, searching it from one end to the other, and found nothing amiss. He sensed no one on the far side of the building, no one climbing the back wall to sneak up on Desa from behind.
The outer streets on the north side of the c
ity were overflowing with grays. Field Binders struck them down – the Ether surging as they triggered their Infusions – but they just kept coming. Dead men in drab, colourless uniforms, all carrying rifles. The whole place was abuzz with gunfire like the constant thunder of a furious storm that would not let up.
His mind recoiled when he peeked into those streets. He couldn’t bear to watch. He didn’t know what he would do if he witnessed Miri’s death.
Dalen and Jim were taking refuge inside the pyramid. It was the safest place for them. Both had insisted on going out to fight, but Rojan had been firm in his refusal to accept their help, and Tommy agreed with the man’s decision. Dalen and Jim had no business going out there. Neither one of them could touch the Ether, and between them, they had only a few weeks of training with a bow. Jim wasn’t a terrible shot, but a few extra arrows would not turn the tide of this battle.
Tommy scanned his surroundings again.
The battle raged to the north, but he felt nothing to the east, west and south. Not a soul for miles and miles. Sadly, that did nothing to ease his anxiety. There was no doubt in his mind that Hanak Tuvar would try something devious; the demon had demonstrated its ability to improvise on several occasions.
“What…that?” Kalia slurred.
He felt the approach of an active Gravity-Sink an instant before he sensed a human-shaped mass of particles flying through the space between two buildings. A tall woman in a red hood landed in front of the pyramid, twenty feet away from the bottom step.
Tommy let go of the Ether.
As his consciousness snapped back into his body, he felt the dull ache in his back that came from sitting on stone for too long. With a grunt, he stood up and started down the stairs.
Kalia fell in beside him.
Baring his teeth with a growl, Tommy shook his head. “Should have known it’d be you,” he said. “Get out of here, Azra. This isn’t a fight you can win.”
She paused on the bottom step, reaching up to caress the hilt of a sword that she wore on her back. “I just took down two of your friends, boy,” she mocked. “Like a wolf in the sheep pen. It was…mildly diverting.”
Kalia stood beside Tommy with one hand on the grip of her holstered pistol, her eyes fixed on the other woman. “You won’t get past us,” she promised.
Azra began her slow ascent, chuckling maliciously as she lifted a beringed hand and wiggled her fingers. A not-so-subtle reminder that she carried many Infused weapons on her person. Tommy wasn’t intimidated. He had just as many waiting in his quiver. “How many times have you tried to stop me, Sheriff?”
“Oh, good!” Kalia spat. “More boasting!”
“How many times have I eluded your grasp?” Azra’s face was hidden under that hood, but Tommy could still feel the menace of her smile. “Sometimes, a cat will leave a mouse alive. To toy with it. Up until now, I’ve been content to do that with you. But you’ve gone and put yourself in an unenviable position. Desa loves you. And when she feels the life draining out of your body, it might just distract her long enough for Hanak Tuvar to break free.”
Azra leaped for them.
Stepping forward, Kalia raised her hand and triggered the Force-Source in her ring. Kinetic energy slammed into Azra, throwing her backward, but the woman simply used her change in momentum. She back-flipped, landing further down the stairs.
With a growl, Azra thrust out a closed fist. Lightning erupted from her ring, a jagged lance that tried to scorch Kalia. The former sheriff squeezed her eyes shut, turning her face away as the Electric-Sink in her pendant absorbed the energy.
The lightning winked out.
Tommy seized the opportunity.
Stepping forward, he pulled an arrow from his quiver, nocked it and drew back the string. He let it fly, but Azra dodged with inhuman speed, the shaft zipping past her right ear. “Green!” Tommy shouted, triggering the Gravity-Source. Kalia triggered her Sink. They had worked out a code based on colours to signal what they wanted to do without giving the plan away to the enemy.
Azra was yanked backward, stumbling several steps until she too used a Sink to free herself from the arrow’s power. That momentary distraction was all Tommy needed. He loosed another arrow.
This one stopped dead right in front of Azra, stilled by a Force-Sink that she kept under her tunic.
Kalia snarled, drawing her pistol in a blur, stepping forward and pointing it at the other woman. CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! Bullets hovered in the air mere inches away from Azra’s chest.
Azra screamed, then jumped and soared into the sky. Her hand flew out, and the next thing Tommy knew, glittering coins were raining down on him and Kalia, Each one began to emit heat as they landed on the stone steps.
He and Kalia turned, jumping in different directions, desperately trying to avoid the deadly heat. In seconds, those steps were an oven. He felt burns on his body, the wind’s soft caress bringing with it a sharp sting.
Killing his Sink, he landed on the plateau near the pyramid’s main entrance. He didn’t see where Kalia had gone. Hopefully, she was all right. Desa and Nari were still on the roof. He could feel them manipulating the Ether.
Ignoring him, Azra chose to focus on her primary target. She tossed a coin out behind herself and used a surge of kinetic energy to propel herself toward Desa.
Craning his neck to track her, Tommy narrowed his eyes. “Oh, no you don’t!” He pulled an arrow from his quiver, nocked it and sent it into the sky.
As the shaft streaked past Azra, he triggered a Force-Source that knocked her off course. She screamed as she was thrown sideways on a trajectory that took her toward Tommy.
Rather than letting herself get near him, she chose to kill her Sink and end her flight prematurely. She landed on the plateau, right in front of the tunnel that led down into the pyramid.
Standing up in one smooth motion, she drew her strange sword as she marched toward him. “I should have killed you in New Beloran,” she said. “No! I should have done it back in Aladar. You have become a nuisance, boy!”
He dropped the bow. It would do him no good in a close fight.
Azra twirled the sword in one hand, the curved blade catching the sunlight. Her soft laughter sent shivers down Tommy’s spine. Even after what Desa had told him, he knew he didn’t want to see what was under that hood.
She swung at his neck.
Tommy hopped back, the tip of her blade almost cutting his throat and hitting the wall of the pyramid instead. Enraged, she advanced on him, lifted her sword over her head and brought it down in an overhand swing.
Crouching, Tommy raised his hands as if to catch the blade but triggered the Force-Source in his ring instead. The blast of kinetic energy tore the weapon right out of her grip and sent it tumbling through the air.
Azra shrieked and lunged for him.
Tommy kicked her in the stomach, delivering a blow that made her wheeze and bend double. He stepped forward for a punch, but her hands snapped up to catch his wrist, and then she twisted his arm to an odd angle.
Before he could react, he was being shoved face-first into the wall. Pain. Terrible pain. His head was swimming. His vision blurred, and then he was lying on his back. How had that happened? He didn’t remember falling.
Azra drew her belt knife, dropped to a crouch and then rammed it down through Tommy’s chest. “You see?” She pulled the crimson blade out of his flesh, blood dripping from its pointed tip. “Easily defeated.”
Azra turned and walked away.
Tommy couldn’t breathe. The life was draining out of him, slipping away bit by bit. In a few moments, he would lose consciousness. He had to act before that. Summoning every last scrap of willpower, he slipped his hands into his pocket and closed his fingers around a crystal.
The rainbow welcomed him into its warm embrace, a cocoon of light that covered him from head to toe. He felt his pain fading away, felt lucidity returning to his mind. Azra stopped in her tracks, turning around.
Tommy stood up and gre
eted her with a cheeky grin. “You were saying?”
Desa could feel the battle raging nearby. Her protégé and the love of her life locked in a desperate struggle with the most dangerous woman she had ever met. A part of her was screaming to abandon this useless plan and go help her friends before Azra cut them to pieces. But she didn’t dare. Not when the fate of the world itself hung in the balance. She and Nari worked together, offering one final push, and Hanak Tuvar started to slide out of their reality.
I hate flying! I hate flying!
Kalia descended to the pyramid, her limbs flailing as she tried to steady herself. She landed on the plateau just outside the main entrance, grunting and killing the Gravity-Sink in her belt buckle.
Azra stood with her back turned, slowly advancing on Tommy, forcing him to retreat to the very edge of the platform. She had him cornered. Not that it would matter very much. If she knocked him off, he would just make himself weightless.
Drawing her pistol, Kalia moved forward at a steady pace. She tried to keep her footfalls as light as possible to avoid making too much noise. A well-placed bullet would end this here and now. She just had to-
Azra rounded on her.
Enough sunlight penetrated the hood for her to see the other woman’s face. Deep, yellow eyes stared back at her. “Hello, Sheriff,” Azra purred.
Kalia tried to shove her pistol into the other woman’s stomach.
Moving like a striking snake, Azra grabbed her wrist and adjusted her aim to point the gun at nothing at all. CRACK! A bullet went speeding harmlessly toward the distant buildings.
With her free hand, Azra punched Kalia in the face. Tears blurred Kalia’s vision. Her head felt like a rock that had been struck by a very big hammer. She was barely even aware of the boot that landed in her chest, sending her backward across the plateau. She let herself fall.
And Tommy drew his revolver, pointing it at Azra’s back.
Reacting with incredible speed, the hooded woman twisted and stretched a hand toward him, hitting him with a blast of kinetic energy that hurled him off the plateau before he could pull the trigger.