Blood of the Tallan (The Petralist Book 7)

by Frank Morin

  “What Fire is saying is that you can become something more,” Water tried to interject, but he read in her eyes that she realized Fire had said too much.

  Their offer was so very tempting, but the price was much greater than they’d suggested. He now realized they wanted him to destroy his bridge back to Alasdair, sever ties with his humanity. Only then could they use him, somehow craft him into the conduit into the real world that they required to gain their freedom. He doubted he’d survive the process, which meant all their fair promises were lies.

  He still didn’t want them as enemies, though. So he said, “My friends, I thank you for your generous offer. Thank you for coming to me in my time of need, but I can’t give you what you want. Not today. Maybe with some more study we can figure out—”

  “No!” Fire interrupted angrily. “We’ve given you too much time, boy. You’ve rejected us at every turn, and today the consequences of your arrogance will be yours alone to face. Good luck dying.”

  He faded away, followed by Earth and Air, who both looked equally disgusted. Water lingered, looking so sad, Connor hated himself. Tears like little waterfalls slipped from her eyes, her shoulders slumped in defeat, and she looked absolutely crestfallen. “Connor, you choose to keep us prisoners?”

  As much as he wanted to make her happy, destroying himself and unleashing them without restraint upon the world was far too high a price to pay. “And yet you’re willing to see me consumed in order to free yourself?” he asked softly.

  She hesitated, and that was all the confirmation he needed. So Connor said, “If I survive today, please visit me again. Maybe we can find a different way.”

  Without a word, she faded from his mind.

  Connor sighed, feeling dejected by that new breakup with the elementals. They might be gone, but he could still access their powers through the doorways in his mind, and he made sure to keep those doorways opened. With so much healing power pouring into him, he easily connected with fleshcrafting. It would fade soon, but at the moment, he still felt a strong connection, and he drank it in. With a flick of his fleshcrafting senses, he cataloged all his injuries, and then winced.

  He didn’t think he’d ever heard of anyone having such a bad day and living to talk about it. Miraculously, his connection to his affinities and fleshcrafting provided the link to life. He needed to restore his bones, rebuild his organs, fuse his skull and mind back together, but first he focused on his eyes.

  They had ruptured under the brutal impact, but within seconds he reformed them, along with enough of the muscles of his neck to turn his broken head toward where he felt the queen like a deadly beacon. She had followed Connor to the ground and landed right next to Evander-giant.

  Connor wanted to blink, but didn’t have working eyelids yet. The view of what he was seeing was so shocking, for a second he didn’t want to believe it. Queen Dreokt had knocked Evander-giant to the ground and as he focused on her, she smashed down onto his head like a lightning bolt.

  His head imploded.

  Evander-giant’s skull shattered, bits of earth spraying out like the gray matter Connor had lost when the queen had super-headbutted him. The giant’s body twitched, hands clutching empty air as the queen kicked his head apart, gloating with her conquest. Connor would have screamed if his lungs and throat worked, but all he could do was rage in his mind. Evander had defeated that elfonnel. It was Connor who had failed, failed to keep the queen busy and to protect Evander from his vengeful grandmother.

  He felt crushed anew by the devastating image of Queen Dreokt killing another of his friends. Evander was one of the strongest, and she’d smashed him to pieces. The agony of the tragedy threatened to consume Connor and cast his thoughts back into the dark place where she’d pushed him just moments before.

  He was completely unprepared to see one of Evander-giant’s huge fists transform into a pointed dagger and the arm punch the queen in the back. The blow tumbled her away with another ghastly wound. How many times could she repair from getting her heart, lungs, or spine ripped out?

  She recovered almost instantly.

  At least one more time, apparently.

  Connor struggled to keep up, barely allowed himself to believe what he was seeing. He’d been so traumatized, his recovery was still terribly fragile, but he exulted to see Evander-giant flow back to its feet. As it reformed, a new head grew, and it faced the queen, looking completely healed.

  Through his earth senses, Connor saw the monster glowing as bright as a prism lantern, with its heart blazing like a miniature sun. It looked as strong as the queen herself. He realized what he was seeing.

  That ancient sculpted slate.

  When Evander raised his elfonnel he built it around that sculpted slate. It was the ancient stone he’d taken from the elfonnel in one of the southern realms of Obrion, the one that controlled the affinity with earth. By forming his elfonnel around it, he was protecting it and also reinforcing his strength and connection to earth. It was a brilliant move that looked like it had saved his life.

  Evander’s thoughts touched his through that connection to earth. “Elfonnel are not limited like mortal beings. They are constructs of elements, so do not actually have a brain to destroy. Most Petralists forget this fact, as my grandmother did in her moment of vengeful fury.”

  That was amazing, and Connor hadn’t realized he could connect to Evander’s thoughts through earth. He wasn’t actively tapping chert, but maybe since Evander was one with earth, that close connection allowed them to talk.

  Something to worry about when he had more time. And arms.

  Queen Dreokt stalked toward the giant that towered over her, looking more than a little annoyed. Then she brightened. “I seem to be in need of a new servant to slumber at this convergence point and fuel my regenerative powers. You’re it, kid.”

  43

  Hunter versus the Hunted

  Hamish wiped monster gore from his visor as he banked away from his latest kill, one of the long, serpentine flying monsters. It just destroyed one of Defender Flight’s craft in the intense battle above Battalion One. He was relieved to see the woman settling down toward the Battalion deck using her personal descent device.

  “Hamish, Lady Briet and the albatross are in troubles. Can you assisting?” Gisela asked in a worried tone.

  Hamish hovered, turning to make a quick scan of the aerial battlefield. He had been so engrossed in fighting one flying monster after another that he had not been paying enough attention to the rest of the battle. The number of flying monsters was significantly reduced, and the defenders seemed to be figuring out how to target the remaining ones between the rapid-fire siege weapons, advanced speedslings, and coordinated maneuvering of the remaining flights.

  They needed to end it. Hamish increased his tap rate on obsidian and got a good idea. Obsidian was the best! He toggled Jean’s line. “Jean, have someone call up the backup hive and deploy it over the Battalion.”

  “To what end?”

  He grinned. “Catch monsters in it. If they get caught in the spiral tunnel, direct them right over the rapid-fire emplacements.”

  “Good idea. We’re on it. Hamish, did you hear from Gisela?” She too sounded worried.

  “I did. Where’s the Albatross?”

  “South. Half a mile. Getting swarmed.”

  “I’m on it.” Hamish oriented in that direction and ignited every thruster.

  The acceleration took his breath away and he grinned with the thrill of it. He loved how fast the Second Skin accelerated. It felt like his stomach was getting shoved down into his boots. He wondered if he accelerated like that enough times, would that stretch his stomach down low enough that he could eat more? He decided to experiment with it later.

  His good humor vanished as he spotted the Albatross trying to bank away from a swarm of enemy monsters attacking it from every side. Nine monsters swarmed all around it, battering at their shields, led by a huge, hawk-like monster with talons so long, it was try
ing to rip the wings right off the Albatross.

  Hamish embraced the battle fury that had served him so well through the wild aerial fight. They were winning against the monsters, but they’d lost nine pilots and twice that number of attack craft. He didn’t want to lose any more.

  The Albatross was getting battered, but they were still fighting. It was an extremely powerful battle platform, and Hamish had designed the shielding with tiny holes, too small for monsters to creep through, but big enough for weapons to fire. As he rocketed toward the struggling craft, two missiles fired and enormous speedslings opened up with a barrage of deadly hornets.

  Perfect timing. The barrage caught two of the monsters, and they exploded, rocking the Albatross and the other monsters, but not damaging any of them.

  Hamish launched two of the missiles in racks under the protective arms of the second skin, and the aiming reticules of the sightstones attached to the tips of each one activated as small viewscreens in the upper corners of his visor. The missiles accelerated away at twice his already impressive speed.

  He used sculpted obsidian to control the tiny directional thrusters and guide them in on their targets. He chose two of the monsters attacking the albatross wings. Those were the most vulnerable sections, where the shielding extended farthest from the quartzite projecting it. If the monsters broke through, they could destroy the Albatross’ weapons or even rip those wings off and send the craft into a death spiral.

  The monsters had not spotted his advance. The missiles struck true, and the targeted monsters exploded in sprays of ooze and wild shrieking death wails.

  That was good shooting. Hamish activated the connection to the Albatross. “You started a party without me?”

  Lady Briet answered immediately, her voice sounding panicked. “Thank the seas you’re here. Our shields are fallen below ten percent.”

  “I’ll be there in a few seconds. Hold on,” Hamish said, trying to squeeze a little more speed out of his thrusters, but they were already maxed.

  His missiles drew the attention of three of the enemy monsters. They swept back toward him, leaving the last two monsters to continue the assault on the Albatross. They clearly intended to intercept him before he could assist the struggling craft. That was impressive teamwork for supposedly dumb summoned creatures. Hamish did not have time to wonder about it though, because he was closing on the monsters at a ridiculous speed.

  They were weird looking creations. One of them resembled a fluffy cloud, except it was dark blue, and it was covered in gaping, fang-filled mouths, with long, snakelike tongues. The queen must have had a particularly insane spell to invent that one. The second looked like a long horse with six legs, capped in wicked talons and an oversized head with long fangs dripping fire. The last was a big, blocky, leathery monster that looked like a giant cousin to Evander’s leather duster. Hamish had dispatched a couple other monsters with similar designs. Their strange hide could deflect hornets sometimes, but they still ruptured readily under piercing metal or slashing blades.

  Hamish activated his last two missiles, hoping for another quick kill, but the first two monsters immediately banked away. He could control the missiles to a certain degree, but not throw them into aggressive aerial acrobatics. So he directed both of them against the final, leathery monster.

  It too tried to dodge, but it turned more slowly and Hamish easily kept on target. The double missile strike disintegrated it in a huge fireball that was impressive to look at, but which accomplished nothing else. If he had shot that thing when it was still next to the Albatross, the explosion might have been enough to break through the remaining shields.

  The other two monsters banked back toward Hamish, but the huge horselike creature turned faster, galloping through the air toward him from a two o’clock position, slightly below him. The angry blue cloud floated in from the left, but wouldn’t reach Hamish as fast, so Hamish banked right to take on the psycho horse first.

  As they closed fast, he activated the Second Skin arms. They all twisted forward like a forest of long, steel spears. He reinforced his inner shielding just before impact, and struck the monster in its massive chest with all eight piercing blades.

  They collided so hard, the impact brutally wrenched Hamish forward against his harness straps. He groaned as the Second Skin pierced the monster and shredded it. He erupted out the back half a second later in a spray of monster gore. The thing exploded in another wailing cry as the air that give it life escaped.

  “That one’s for my dad!” Hamish shouted as he activated a bit of soapstone to create a jet of water to clear off his visor. His dad always hated horses. Somehow he was aiming straight down, and he activated directional thrusters to level out to find next monster. Impact at such high speeds was brutal, and it took him a few seconds to recover. If not for his extra layer of shielding, he might have ripped right through that harness and splattered himself on the inside of his own mechanical.

  He lingered a second too long. Something struck violently from above, the impact wrenching him painfully in the harness and smacking his helmeted head against the body of the Second Skin directly above him.

  “Tallan take it and stew it for lunch,” Hamish muttered as he tried igniting thrusters to pivot.

  Nothing happened. The angry cloud had clamped onto the Second Skin with a bunch of its jaws. Its flexible body was pressing forward, encircling the entire top of the framework and spreading down over the steel arms. The creature emitted a terrible stench, as if a storm cloud had sucked a skunk into its heart. As more and more of its strange body flowed over the Second Skin, more teeth chomped on, securing it tighter and tighter to him.

  It was disgusting and creepy and very dangerous. “I definitely don’t want to join the skunk in your gullet,” Hamish said, activating the powerful arms of the Second Skin. He hoped to wrench the monster off so he could shred it with his speedslings or drop his last bomb down one of its many mouths. The engine whined, then sputtered. A second later, he heard a sharp cracking sound and his connection to the Second Skin arms disappeared.

  Not good. It sounded like the monster had just eaten the cables connecting the engine to the control points of the arms, rendering them useless.

  “Shields are gone!” Lady Briet screamed. Through the open connection Hamish heard shrieking of metal and screams as the Albatross cockpit was ripped apart.

  He was out of time and people were dying. That fact infuriated him.

  Hamish yanked the release straps to unhook his harness, and dropped free from of the Second Skin, just barely slipping between the encroaching bulk of the angry cloud monster. Several of the jaws snapped at him, missing by inches. If he’d hesitated any longer, it would have encircled him and he might never have escaped.

  As he fell, he twisted and extended both arms toward the monster that had not yet realized it was chewing only on that mechanical shell. Two tiny missiles strapped to his forearms erupted away and struck true.

  His last bomb.

  The Second Skin exploded with fantastic ferocity, rupturing the engine housing, triggering a secondary explosion five times bigger than the bomb alone. The Second Skin arms blasted free of the main housing like spears, and the superheated gasses from the explosion tore through the gaps and poured down many of the open mouths.

  The angry cloud exploded under the intense blast. Its own internal fires burst forth, magnifying the explosion even further. The double shockwave clobbered Hamish, who had already turned toward the crippled Albatross. The impact catapulted him downward and he grunted, the air blasted from his lungs. If not for the overlapping hardened granite leaves of his battle suit, reinforced by a protective layer of water, that explosion might have simply jellified him.

  “Thank you, Jean for helping me improve this suit,” he whispered, again activating thrusters to accelerate out around the still-spreading cloud of fire and destruction. He oriented on the Albatross and his worst fears were realized. That huge hawk-like creature had indeed broken thro
ugh the shielding and ripped the craft apart. Its talons were bloody.

  “Hamish!” Lady Briet shrieked, and he spotted her tumbling into empty space beneath the craft.

  He accelerated toward her, but the last remaining monster, another of the long, serpentlike creatures, had spotted her too, and it was even closer. Hamish realized with growing dread that he would not reach her in time. The giant hawk shrieked, a high-pitched, piercing cry of victory. The monster was almost as big as the Albatross, and it ripped the front right off the crippled craft. It too turned after Lady Briet and beat its huge wings to catch the last living prey.

  Hamish swore to kill the beast for murdering those poor pilots, but he was out of missiles.

  Lady Briet activated a personal descent mechanical. Immediately her wild, tumbling fall slowed and she leveled out, legs down, under control. She leaned back, swinging something around, and only then did Hamish realize that when she had abandoned ship she had managed to take one of the huge speedslings along with her.

  She oriented on the serpentlike monster as it swept in to destroy her, and unleashed a deadly volley of hornets. They ripped the monster apart, hornets tearing into stonelike flesh and diorite explosions shattering it into bits.

  Hamish cheered with a spark of renewed hope. She only needed to hold off the hawk for a few seconds and he would deal with it.

  The intense storm of hornets from the speedsling spun Lady Briet in a slow circle away from the hawk that was plummeting toward her, its enormous beak already gaping open. Hamish had every thruster maxed, including the extra directional hand thrusters, but he was still too far away. He silently willed her to spin faster, to get back on target.

  She fired a brief burst, with the barrel held sideways, which increased her turn. That was brilliant, and it spun her around to face the hawk again. She raised the speedsling and unleashed a volley of hornets. The deadly projectiles tore into its feathered wings, but then abruptly stopped.