by J. A. Comley
Chapter 26
Rain of Blood
Racing in towards the fallen Outer Wall, the two groups split up. Naleiya gave them a final wave before Herio commanded her vapurix to lead the others around from the opposite side to where they could see the large black cloud of magmi.
Starla held on tighter to Larkel as Herio bounded up over the dust mound of the Outer Wall. Then she gasped. Spread around them was utter destruction. All the beautiful buildings she had seen on her first day here were gone. Instead, grotesque mounds of tainted glass reared up in the shadows.
“Easy, Herio,” Larkel cautioned as the vapurix's paws slid on smooth pools of melted and re-solidified glass.
The sky ahead exploded and a gale-force wind slammed into them, pushing them back from their goal. Starla snarled in frustration as their fast pace became a slow crawl, Herio struggling against the sudden storm, his claws gaining little purchase from the cobbled streets.
The Guardians tumbled down around them, Lua looking very frustrated that she couldn't help. They walked along beside Herio.
“I can't help him with magic! Kyron will sense me!” Larkel shouted over the howling wind.
Starla squinted through the storm. A short way ahead she thought she could make out the giant white blocks of stone that had once made up the six towers of the Makhi.
“Look out!” Larkel ordered, securing Starla's wrists in his hand as Herio's sudden dodge nearly threw her off.
Balls of fire were raining down from the sky, crashing into the melted glass pools, setting anything that escaped the magmi's attack on fire.
Starla looked up into the sky, terrified that somehow they had failed and Kyron was attacking them. Then, she saw them, barely noticing the wind cease.
Kyron was sitting atop his alpha magmus, staff forgotten for the moment as he tried to steady his mount. One of the magmus' red eyes was missing, the hole visible as it reared its head to spew fire at its attacker. Above it, an enormous cyrion bird wheeled agilely away, Ezira sitting atop it, silver dress shining as she rained spells down on Kyron's shield.
“She came,” Starla murmured.
As she watched, Ezira created a blue sphere that absorbed all the magmus flame. At the same time her bird's golden beak found purchase on the leathery skin of the magmus' left wing.
Kyron's spell of red light hurled both of them back and they began to circle each other in the sky once more. Starla saw the green blood smeared on both, oozing slowly from wounds.
Dismount, she heard Larkel order in her mind.
Starla blinked. They were right at the edge of the buildings of the Imperial Circle. Between them and their army was a prowling mass of ergothan and grobblers. Beyond them stood a high wall of shining metal.
“We will have to sneak around. We cannot risk fighting them,” Larkel whispered to the small group as they sheltered behind a small outbuilding.
“We'll make it. We'll win,” Starla smiled broadly. “Ezira has come.”
Astria nodded to her Inagium, who had until this point remained mostly on the sidelines. Kara had gifted her strength to her grandmother. She could not face the drodemions at the moment. For her mental sanity, she should not join this battle herself.
“It is time,” she commanded, closing her eyes.
She found that calm place in her mind, the source of all her magical power, the higher pool from where it spread to the rest of her body. With a feeling that never got easier, that never felt less like losing herself, she ordered the power to run from a trickle to a roar, to tear her body apart, to free her spirit-self from within.
King Eldos looked away from his wife. Watching her transform hadn't become any easier in their three thousand years of marriage. The look of pain on her face was too brutal. The other Inagium were all focusing, like her, their faces twisting from calm to agonized in moments.
Around him, the battle raged. Many drodemions who had already fallen were raising up again, as Kyron seemed to have awoken them. The allied soldiers were not weary or afraid, thanks to Astria's Spirits of Battle, but still more of them fell as they found themselves suddenly surrounded by newly-risen drodemions. The children carting the fallen ones away were doing a good job, but it was not fast enough.
Makhi Jensula was hovering, eyes straining for an opening to get to Beky. Around him, the other Makhi were working fiercely to keep the magmi at bay, to stop their breath from burning the drodemions and allied soldiers, alike.
Prince Niden was side by side with General Okano, drodemions surrounding them. The beasts that had so bravely borne them into this seemingly never-ending battle had fallen, taken down by darts of fire from above.
A sudden burst of energy distracted Niden. Above him, his grandmother rose, a giant, winged beast, sleeker than a magmus, and made entirely of dark blue light. Around her, the other Inagium's spirit-selves burst forth. Huge, cat-like creatures, birds, reptiles, even a fish. They soared towards the magmi, attacking, ripping and tearing.
A guttural scream of pain brought his attention back to the ground. Okano was on the floor, his blade in a drodemion's chest in front of Niden. He was writhing and screaming.
Niden blinked and the scene came crashing into sharp focus. In his distraction, Okano had been left to defend them alone. He had sacrificed himself stopping a drodemion from touching Niden. The last survivor had attacked the Aurelian General from behind.
“No!” bellowed Niden, ramming his sword through the drodemion who had taken down Okano. “No,” he said again, as Okano's skin melted and turned grey, all because he had acted like a foolish boy, getting distracted on the battlefield.
A spell hit his sword and it flew several feet away. Niden stumbled back as Okano rose, a blind drodemion, and levelled a blackened blade at Niden.
Commander Medara was trying to cut a path to her Prince, but Niden knew she wouldn't arrive on time. Facing Okano, Niden readied himself for the end. As he waited, expecting Okano to move forward at any moment, a curved blade poked itself out of the Okano's corrupted chest, its tip glowing yellow, then disappeared, allowing the drodemion to crumple to the ground.
Valana's silver eyes shone with fierce tears. Zerina had Niden's sword in her hands as she rushed towards him.
“You're back!” Niden exclaimed, accepting his sword and parrying another drodemion's advance.
Zerina laughed and drove a long dagger into another drodemion. Valana waved some warriors over and hurriedly, they dragged their fallen King and General over to the hole down which all the sleeping drodemions were being sent. Then, she shut her eyes. When they re-opened, they were glowing. Having given herself up to the void, Valana let her Nightstalker instincts have their way.
Lesser Makhi! Get the fallen drodemions out of here! Larkel's order stunned every Makhi on the field momentarily. Now! he added, stilling the babble of surprise, welcomes and questions. The rest of you keep the magmi at bay. Assist the Inagium!
“We're losing this!” Commander Medara said to her wife as more men and woman died around them, run through with drodemion blades. Then she fell silent as Naleiya's eyes lost focus and a broad smile came over her face. There had been no time for a happy reunion, no time to welcome her wife home. Still, she found her strength renewed when Naleiya appeared beside her. “Is Starla ready?” she added hopefully.
“Where is the Star?” Naleiya yelled, her eyes suddenly fixed on Astria's spirit-self high above them. “The plan won't work without it!”
Infuriatingly, the others yelled back their lack of knowledge as they fought the drodemion horde. Many rose again, even as the Makhi swept them up into the hole, like dirt into a pan.
“They—” Niden ducked as a drodemion swung a sword, meaning to decapitate him, “they were in the bunker!” He struggled against three more drodemions, Zerina finishing hers off and coming to join his fight.
“She must have given it to Kara!” the Commander shouted to her wife as Naleiya kept the drodemions away from her with a purple circle of flame. “In
the Hall!”
Naleiya spared her wife one longing look, then the fire vanished and she was sprinting. She didn't know exactly where her brother was but clearly he was close enough to see the battle well enough to give orders. They needed that Star. It was all they were waiting for.
The ground rocked under her feet and she staggered through the Hall's door. A pair of hands steadied her.
“Kara!” Naleiya said, meeting the strained gold gaze.
“I should be out there!” Kara hissed. “Where is Starla? Did you get to her in time?” she asked, as if suddenly realising who it was she had caught.
“Yes! She needs her Star! Astria had it—” Naleiya trailed off as Kara lifted a black square of fabric out of her pocket.
“Release it!” Naleiya said urgently.
Kara did as she was told and both women stared as the Star clattered to the ground.
“Astria said it would find Starla,” Kara murmured picking it up again, careful not to let it touch her skin. “What happened?”
“I don't know!” Naleiya screeched, sending a mental call to her brother. “Larkel doesn't know either. Starla is here, it should have—”
Kara was already out of the doors, racing towards the battlefield.
Naleiya sprinted after her, barely keeping her balance as the ground heaved again, the sound of breaking earth hurting her ears.
The Star is coming! Kara is bringing it! Look for her! Get ready! she thought to Larkel, then she stumbled again as the ground fell still.
Men and women lay broken everywhere, where rocks and foundations had been hurled up from under their feet. Drodemions, though broken, too, were getting back up, limping or clawing their way towards their mostly helpless victims.
Naleiya wielded her staff with a fury she couldn't have described, blasting drodemions through the air like rag-dolls. They just had to hold on a little longer. This battle would soon be Starla's.
Makhi Jensula darted forward as the ground heaved. He watched in triumph as Beky's form was thrown into the air. Using skills he had learned under the High Lord, who was now mercifully returned to them, he captured her in a shield form that she would not detect and so not fight against. At least for a short while.
Landing at the edge of the battlefield, steeling himself against the cries as the earth fell back to the ground, he grabbed the metal syringe. The creature's blind eyes suddenly snapped up to Kyron. Taking the opportunity, Jensula plunged the syringe along with a small yellow dagger into her heart, pushing down the plunger as she collapsed from the elixir-smothered blade.
Kyron lashed out in fury at the ground, even as Ezira dove down on him. They were taking his drodemions and moving them away. He couldn't allow that. The ground heaved and groaned under his spell. It spewed up men and woman, children and animals. Rocks, dirt and stone blew up beneath the fighting army then tumbled back down to bury them. Mentally, he commanded his drodemions to rise, to attack all around them.
The Baron had to use all of his self control to remain still, not to yell or make any movement as Kara came running into view. His could see her eyes widen in horror as the ground stopped heaving, revealing the mess of broken bodies. She stood upon an upturned chunk of foundation, her golden eyes searching restlessly about, her purple hair fluttering around her sweet face. She was as perfect as the day he had lost her. He felt his grey eyes burn with tears that he forced back.
Kyron fired a spell at the ground. The Baron bit through his lip, drawing blood, his eyes fixed on the woman he had loved before his heart had darkened.
At first, it seemed like nothing had happened. Everything remained as it was. Those soldiers who could still stand were desperately trying to protect their fallen friends. Makhi were stopping to heal those they could instead of continuing to shield or drag the fallen drodemions away so that they could not rise again.
He watched from his magmus as all the buildings in the Imperial Circle started to blacken then melt away, disappearing in a haze of smoky dust. Kyron gave a short burst of laughter as the civilians hiding in the Hall's bunker came into view. A quick spell destroyed their protective shield.
Ezira followed her brother's gaze and saw the city emptied of buildings, saw the spare weapons and elixirs laid bare. She saw the terror in the toddlers' eyes as their shelter vanished and Kyron laughed. She commanded the cyrion to dive, drawing yet more of her dwindling strength into a spell. His magmus reared in pain, another gash appearing in its neck, another rip in its wing.
“Enough,” he hissed through his teeth, as the spell raced up towards him.
They were just beyond the metal wall on a large piece of recently raised earth.
“No!” Starla's scream blended into the same scream echoed by all those who had been watching the sky.
The great cyrion bird screeched and plummeted into the ground beyond the wall of earth that the Brosney had managed to keep standing through Kyron's earthquake. Where it hit the ground, many grobblers were crushed beneath it, their own screams joining those watching in horror as their talisman fell. The bird's brilliant white plumage slowly turned blue as the blood flowed out of its broken body.
Starla's eyes snapped back to the sky. Ezira was still there, flying on her own, her face determined as she swung her staff.
Kyron hissed in pain, a deep wound appearing across his chest. But his eyes no longer looked worried.
Starla knew, from the High Lord beside her, that Ezira would have to finish him quickly now because her magic was being drained faster in order to keep herself airborne.
Ezira screamed, her staff shattering to splinters in her hand, and then she was falling.
Starla gripped Larkel's arm tightly as the Demilain stopped falling and rose back up to Kyron's level. Starla's momentary elation turned to despair as she saw Ezira writhe as if bound by an invisible force.
Kyron's malicious smile spread slowly over his face as his power enveloped the Demilain Creator.
“I have killed twenty Demilain in ten galaxies!” his cold voice fell over the fighting below. “All that time, waiting for the chance for it to be you!”
Ezira opened her mouth but no sounds came out, even as new sprays of green blood leaked from half a dozen new wounds.
“We have to help!” Starla said desperately.
“No, we have to stick to the plan. It is our only hope,” Larkel said, though his voice was dark with rage, his eyes never leaving the scene in the sky.
“You thought you could betray me without consequence? Me, half of your own soul?” Kyron was saying, his dark eyes fierce in hatred of the woman suspended before him.
He met her turquoise eyes, trying to see if she would join him again, if she would restore to him the true infinite powers of a Demilain, instead of the limited power he still wielded, paltry by comparison. He found only pity and sadness. No remorse, no surrender.
Kyron let out a primitive bellow and Ezira screamed.
The drodemions still fighting seemed to explode, bits of bodies flying everywhere as they reverted back to their original forms.
Ezira was turned around and around in the air, as her body was shredded to pieces until nothing was left. Green blood rained down from the sky.
Larkel turned his face away, trying to banish the image of Ezira's last moments from his mind, trying to ignore the immense power surge he could feel as Kyron absorbed Ezira's remaining strength.
He rubbed circles on Starla's back as the green rain pattered against the shield the Makhi were still holding up, even though the magmi had fallen back.
“Shh, my love,” he whispered. “It isn't over yet. We can still save all these people.”
“I need the Star,” she murmured.
Larkel felt his muscles tense. He tilted her head to look into her eyes.
“Promise me you will wait. Please. For the last moment.”
Starla's eyes became questioning, even as he knew she must feel the fear in his mind, though he hid the source.
Starla looked past
him beyond the wall of metal the Brosney had raised. On one side, the ergothan were now fighting over the cyrion carcass, the grobblers trying their best to scale the wall and avoid the sharp claws and teeth of the predators. On the other, stood the remains of the allied forces, now below fifty thousand. They were taking the respite to heal the injured, to move the turned. The civilians who had been hiding under the Hall were being surrounded by the remaining soldiers as the Makhi swept across the field doing everything else.
Larkel was right. None of the sleeping drodemions had exploded in Kyron's fury. She could see Markis and Shaneulia offering spare bottles of elixir to men and women. She could see Naleiya taking charge of the Makhi on the ground, no doubt speaking out loud what Larkel ordered mentally. Commander Medara was still there, looking bruised and tense, but still ready to fight. Just beyond them, she saw her human friends. All held swords, even Father Joe, his face spattered with blood.
The Inagium seemed to have survived their tangle with the magmi. Still in spirit form, they awaited Astria's next command.
High, on the block of foundation revealed after Kyron's earthquake, Starla recognised Kara, her long, purple hair billowing around her.
“Look,” Starla whispered to Larkel, pointing towards her sister.
“Promise me.” He held her gaze again.
“I promise.”
Naleiya, get Kara to hold up the Star, Larkel ordered, his eyes never leaving Starla's. I will summon it.
Then they both turned to Kara. They watched, together, as the princess held up her right hand, palm up and open. Starla felt a heat around her heart, then jumped as something ice cold pressed against her sternum.
Larkel looked down at her, confused as she shuddered in his arms, then the fire in his indigo eyes blazed as she pulled the Star from under her dress.
He hadn't needed to summon it. It had returned willingly to its master.
