by Lori Hyrup
The fog parted before Aria, revealing to her eyes what the shard had already perceived. Without wasting a breath for warning, Aria leaped from Xierex’s back as she neared her companions and tucked into a roll, her momentum carrying her practically to their feet. Before she came to a full stop, Aria twisted to her left and blocked yet another incoming lance, this one aimed for Kharra. Zephyron released Targus and stood, summoning his weapon reflexively; he had neither seen nor sensed the attack coming, something almost unheard of for the Guardian. He quickly regained his composure.
“This shard beast is new to me,” Aria admitted as her eyes and senses scanned the area. “Somehow it is the fog or at least part of it. It can strike from any direction.”
“How do you fight something like that?” Kharra asked, her eyes darting back and forth. “I can’t sense it at all.”
Aria ignored Kharra’s question.
“Aria, are you a sight for sore eyes,” said the other kruusta from the ground where Zephyron had left him, wounded in both body and pride.
“Targus, are you still able to fight?” Aria asked as she assessed the injury to his shoulder.
“Yes,” he said as he stood with a grunt. “The thing was just here before these two arrived.” He practically spat as he referred to Aria’s companions. She ignored the attitude. “But I have no idea where it went. I can’t sense it clearly.”
Aria had fought with this particular kruusta a handful of times in the past, always against shard drakes. A seasoned kruusta with over three decades of fighting experience, he was known for being both a hothead and more than a little arrogant. He readied himself for the attack he knew would come soon. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at Zephyron and the Guardian’s unusual weapon but said nothing.
The anticipated strike came but from two different directions simultaneously. One hurled toward Targus and the other toward Zephyron. Targus spun and swung down, catching the lance as it hurled passed him. Zephyron swung in defense, his energy blade causing sparks to fly as it collided with the crystalline lance.
“How do we fight this thing if we can’t see it?” Targus said, more than a little exasperated.
“Leave that to me,” Aria said.
Kharra, Zephyron, and Targus all glanced at her with a mixture of optimism and skepticism. What could a kruusta, a warrior of the blade, do against a shard beast that had no physical form? What indeed?
Aria relinquished her krusword, reabsorbing it back into her shard and drawing a wary look from Targus. “Aria, what are you doing?” demanded the other kruusta.
Aria pushed his voice from her mind. She closed her eyes and drew on the power of both her shard and the shard from the city’s temple. With her connection to the city’s shard, she easily saw the creature with her mind’s eye. She focused on that image, forming it in her mind and willing it to separate itself from the fog.
An intake of breath from Kharra informed her it had worked.
“By the spirits…” Targus whispered.
Aria opened her eyes but kept her concentration fixated on the image. As she did, all of the fog in the area faded away, and before them towered a monstrosity unlike any Aria had ever seen. The body she had previously seen was but a small portion of the actual shard beast.
Before the four of them loomed a humanoid body supported by dozens of thick weaving and slithering serpentine appendages, as if the tails of several giant snakes had come together in a single torso. Overlapping iridescent scales protected the underside of the appendages and the lower portion of the torso. The six shoulder protrusions Aria had spied before were no longer obscured by the fog. Each protrusion revealed itself to be another type of appendage; these ones were long—at least two horses in length—and folded against themselves, facing outward. She now knew where the lances came from. Each one of those appendages hovered at different angles and each was poised to strike out at any moment. Aria already knew how fast they moved.
Without a word Zephyron exploded into action, his blue blade of energy intercepting the first lightning-quick strike of one of the appendage-lances. Crystal meeting energy blade resulted in an explosion of light and sparks. Zephyron allowed his momentum to carry him to the creature’s opposite side.
A second lance struck out at Targus. The kruusta brought up his krusword to parry the attack, gritting his teeth as the force of the blow pushed him back. He counterattacked against the lance before it withdrew, but the krusword did no lasting damage.
A third lance struck out at Aria. Seeing the incoming attack, Aria summoned her krusword and brought up her blade to deflect it, but the shifting of her focus slowed her response. The fog instantly rolled back in, and the lance clipped her hip. She yelped as it connected, and her footing slipped.
“Aria, what are you doing?” shouted Targus over his shoulder. “We need your help.”
Seeing a fallen victim, the creature snarled and struck at Aria again. This time Kharra stepped in front of her. The creature shrieked in protest as it collided with an invisible barrier. I got you, Kharra said to her mind. Go back to what you were doing and just maintain your focus. Kharra’s mind voice conveyed with it an understanding of Aria’s task, even if the others could not see it.
Aria nodded as she pushed herself to her feet and retracted her krusword. Once again she focused her full attention on the unusual shard beast and formed an image of it in her mind.
Two additional lances struck out at Kharra, but they too failed to reach their target. Aria sensed Kharra tensing against the assault, but the young woman stood her ground. Zephyron launched a counterattack at the distracted creature, leaping high into the air and landing a blow against its fused torso. The creature howled in fury, causing the hair on Aria’s arms to stand on end. She ground her teeth to maintain her concentration as one of the shard beast’s lower appendages whipped around and flung Zephyron away as if he were nothing more than a rag doll. The Guardian flipped backward as he was thrown and managed to land on his hands and feet.
Targus chopped at a pair of the lances as they beat against Kharra’s invisible barrier. His krusword connected, slicing through the hard exoskeleton protecting the creature’s thrusting limbs. One crystalline lance shattered, spraying out against Kharra’s invisible barrier. Another lance struck out at Targus even as the creature recoiled the injured one. The attack came so quick that Targus failed to see it, but Zephyron deflected it just inches away from the left side of Targus’s head. The blood drained from the kruusta’s face. Targus gave a slight nod of thanks to the white-haired swordsman and shifted to the creature’s opposite side.
Zephyron remained to the creature’s right while Targus danced over to its left. Five of its six lances were still functioning, but its attacks were somewhat limited by its visual range, which appeared to be no different than that of a human. With their positioning, the two fighters forced the creature to split its attention.
Every instinct screamed at Aria to call forth her krusword and join the fray, but she forced the sentiment away as the shard beast struggled against her hold, its power grappling against her own. Aria’s lips curled as sweat beaded on her face and her breathing grew deeper. The creature’s true advantage rested in its ability to disappear into and reappear from anywhere within the fog, and it desperately wanted to regain that advantage.
Even with the assistance of the city’s shard, Aria’s mental endurance struggled against the battle, and she felt herself losing ground against the creature’s overwhelming power. Her eyes stung, and her vision and the image she maintained wavered. A swirl of misty vapor seeped into the area, slowly circulating around the shard beast’s body.
No longer aware of the fighting around her, Aria snarled in defiance, knowing death hovered just feet away. She closed her eyes once again. The droning rhythm from the clashing of krusword and energy blade against the shard beast faded into white noise, but the birds chittering angrily from nearby trees still came through, an annoyance Aria failed to banish from her though
ts. She poured every ounce of mental strength into maintaining the image in her mind and forcing the creature to remain in its corporeal form.
A hand touched Aria’s right shoulder, and an immediate rush of warm strength flooded her body, revitalizing every weary neuron and reinforcing every weakening muscle. Her exhaustion washed away, replaced by a renewed vigor and determination.
As time passed, the sun bore down on Aria’s face, burning her fair skin, and sweat ran freely along her brow. Her muscles protested, but she endured. The rhythm of the battle continued to rage around her, but she could not tell who was winning. She wanted to open her eyes, but she dared not; she did not want to risk distraction.
A rush of air brushed her cheek as the sound of crackling energy sizzled beside her ear and intercepted something solid. Nearby, Kharra growled with exertion. Through the chaos swirling about her, Aria fought to maintain her concentration.
Suddenly and without warning, Aria’s grasp on the shard beast wavered again. Panic threatened to overwhelm her as it continued to slip free even as she tried desperately to maintain the smallest hold.
“No!” she exclaimed as she fell forward to her knees. She scrambled to reform the image in her mind, but she could not find it. She opened her eyes. Before her, strewn for many yards in every direction, were the shattered remains of the shard beast; their iridescence reflected colorfully underneath the early afternoon sun. It was like sitting in a field of rainbows. Strange how such a hideous and dangerous creature could leave behind something so beautiful.
Aria remained on her knees for several moments, allowing herself to catch her breath. Kharra offered a hand to help her stand, and Aria accepted gratefully.
Targus limped toward the women, his brown hair clinging to his brow. “Aria, what were you doing?” he demanded angrily. “We needed your sword!”
Aria stared at him blankly, not registering the verbal assault.
Zephyron moved to intercept him, but Kharra got there first, stepping between him and Aria. She thrust her index finger into his chest. “We would all likely be dead if not for what she did.”
Targus shot a look at Kharra and then back at Aria. “What do you mean? She did nothing!”
Aria placed her hand on Kharra’s shoulder, gently guided her to one side, and stepped closer to Targus. Looking down at Kharra, she said, “What I did was not normal for a kruusta. At least I don’t think it was. He could neither see nor sense what I was doing.”
Targus’s scowling brow eased its tension as a look of confusion took its place.
Aria continued. “Do you remember the fog that covered the area?”
Targus nodded, his face dubious as if he was unsure sure how that was relevant to the original question.
“That fog was the shard beast. It was not something the creature created. It was part of the creature. It had the ability to solidify its form in order to attack and disperse again. That is why you were unable to pinpoint its location. The only chance we had of defeating it was to make it stay solid. That is what I was doing.”
Targus tilted his head and furrowed his brow. “I don’t understand. How did you do that?”
“I do not know. Instinct guided me,” Aria answered, though she omitted the part about the shard providing her with insight. Targus lived in a world of black and white. He would not understand an explanation about the shards. “I was somehow able to force this”—Aria waved her hand across the field—“thing to remain in a single, solid form by maintaining an image of it in my head, but if I stopped concentrating, I would lose the image and my hold over it. That’s why I could not fight.”
All the anger left Targus’s face. He shifted his posture and crossed his arms, still watching Aria. “Huh,” he said, studying Aria’s face.
Aria gave him a slow nod.
“Do you sense anything else in the area?” Kharra asked.
“I sense nothing,” Targus responded.
As she had in Braylore, Aria used the additional power of the shard to allow her senses to travel along with the veins that crisscrossed the areas nearby. She sensed her companions in her immediate vicinity, but no other humans or shard beasts. Farther away she sensed normal wildlife. To the east she sensed people and animals moving in and out of the city, going about their usual business.
Aria lifted her head to the southwest. Kharra, Targus, and Zephyron followed her gaze. “There was someone watching us.” She pointed up to a steeply rising hill to the west. “From up there. He’s gone now though. I believe he headed toward Haan.”
Targus looked back at her, pain and weariness evident in his face. “That’s where I’m headed. I’m to meet up with Kruusta Jacia in Tara Gol.”
Confident that the threat was gone, Aria finally relinquished her connection to the shard, silently thanking it as she did so. She had no idea if such a mundane thought registered with the entity, but it felt right to her. As its power separated itself from her, exhaustion threatened to overwhelm her. She swayed, but Zephyron shifted quickly and steadied her, his hold both sturdy and gentle.
“Are you okay?” Zephyron whispered to her.
“I have to be,” she responded so only he could hear as she put a hand on his shoulder to steady herself.
He nodded and released her.
Aria cleared her throat. “We need to search the area,” she said to all of them.
The four combed through the area. It was a mostly grassy field with a scattering of big leafy trees forming a perimeter. Aria fought against her exhaustion as she scouted the locale. She found shredded tents, trampled firepits, broken swords—all the signs of some sort of battle.
The group reconvened.
“We found five bodies,” said Targus. “Maybe this was just a scouting party and the camp is farther west.”
Zephyron shook his head. “No, they were here. There are patches of splattered blood, dozens of firepits, and fresh supplies scattered for a mile in every direction. They were hit some time in the middle of the night.”
“So where are they? Surely there would be more bodies?” Targus questioned. “Five hundred troops, you said? I don’t see any horses. Even if someone looted them, there would still be more bodies.”
To her companions, Aria sent, Many kruustas rely so heavily on their inherent ability to sense shard beasts that they do not work to hone their tracking skills.
Aria received a mental acknowledgment from both of them.
“You didn’t look close enough,” Zephyron said, earning himself a scowl from the kruusta. “There is horseflesh and bits of their hide all about us. Most of that blood is from horses, not people.”
Targus scowled at the Guardian. “What are you saying? If the blood is from the horses, where are the carcasses?”
Zephyron leveled his gaze at Targus. “I’m saying something ate the horses, saddles and all. I found enough torn leather bits to piece that together. This whole place is trampled.” He pointed to one side of the clearing. “I found the tracks of Prince Kiem’s forces coming into the area but not leaving.” Zephyron then pointed in a different direction. “And I found several tracks of many somethings leaving the area. I have no idea what they are.”
“Show me,” Aria said wearily.
Zephyron led them west across the field. “Here,” he said, pointing to several large sets of tracks. He moved a short distance to the left. “And see how the tracks here heading into the clearing do not sink as deeply as the ones leaving? That leads me to believe they were carrying something heavier, probably people, on the way out.”
Sounding uncertain, Targus said, “Those look like…”
“Splinter maws,” Aria finished coldly.
“But that can’t be right,” Targus said with a frown as he paced around the tracks. “These are way too big.”
“What are splinter maws?” Kharra asked.
“They are nasty little shard beasts about the size of a medium-sized dog. They have three pairs of legs, plus an additional pair of appendages along their
shoulders that they can use to manipulate their environment. Their maw is filled with hundreds of tiny needle-sharp teeth. The worst part though is that the saliva of a splinter maw induces muscle paralysis and can be fatal if left untreated, not unlike a prism wraith. These tracks are unmistakably splinter maws, only about six times the normal size.” Aria moved slowly around Zephyron’s discovery, examining the different sets of distinct V-shaped tracks. “There are so many overlapping tracks. I can’t really tell how many there are. At best guess, I’d say there were about seventy-five of these things here.”
It would seem you do not rely solely on your ability to sense shard beasts, came Zephyron’s mental voice.
Aria almost retorted before she realized he was complimenting her. Instead she gave a mental chuckle and responded, Indeed.
Targus ran a hand, covered with his own dried blood, through his brown hair. “What in Tanoria is going on here?” he demanded, his voice strained.
Aria shook her head. “We don’t know, but we have been investigating the shards and strange shard beast activity since we left Murali three weeks ago. Have you noticed anything strange or out of place with either the shards or the shard beasts?”
Targus stared, his eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong with the shards?”
Aria fought down the rage that started to build up within her as she recalled her experience in Murali. “The shard in Murali was dying, and the one in White Bluff was completely destroyed.”
Targus’s mouth hung open, his eyes wide. “Kruustas Zach and Vera both fell this past week,” he whispered, his gaze catching Aria’s. She pursed her lips. That made six kruustas who had fallen in the past month.
Zephyron cleared his throat. “Sorry to change the subject, but we have pressing concerns right now. I didn’t find Prince Kiem’s body here, so we can assume that he’s been taken. What are your procedures for dealing with something like that?”
