by C. L. Scheel
Amid the clashing of swords, Kitarisa heard a strange rushing sound. The brilliant white light of Malgora's changing flew around her in a fiery roar. The light rose higher and higher into the cavern and expanded into shape and substance. From the center, Kitarisa made out the emerging form of a scaled body, massive leathern wings and a long, spiked tail that grew from its massive body. Taloned claws thrust out from muscular forelimbs and legs, and reaching nearly to the roof of the cavern itself, was the massive rectangular head with huge jaws, supporting rows of long yellowed teeth and a split tongue. The beast turned maggot-white and its eyes, yellow. It stank of sulfur and death and from its scaled throat, it roared a deadly weapon of fire.
It turned to the fighting men on the floor of the cavern. Kitarisa heard the beast take a deep breath to sear them all where they stood.
"Run!" she screamed.
Assur looked up and shouted at the others. Malgora's fiery blast just missed them as they dove for cover behind the great stairway.
Thespa ran to her and grabbed her arm. "You must fight her Kitarisa. I am too old now, but you can. The Measure and the Balance will find you more equal to her in size and will. Malgora has taken the shape of the dead creatures that once lived here."
Hard determination filled Thespa's gentle eyes as she reached up and grasped Kitarisa's face between her hands.
"Child, you must do this. Assur and his men will free the warriors. The other Daughters and I will take care of the Sisters. Will you do this?" she demanded.
Forced to look into Thespa's unwavering gaze, Kitarisa found herself nodding mutely. She was powerless to resist her and somewhere in the back of her mind, she felt herself being gently pulled into Thespa's powerful control. Kitarisa nodded again and Thespa's fingers tightened against her temples.
The Daughter's words came in a rush as she hurriedly sought to equal Malgora's workings. Abruptly, she let go and stepped back from Kitarisa to allow for her own transformation to take place.
The change came so rapidly Kitarisa scarcely had time to notice. She glanced down and she saw her arm immediately begin to elongate and the once pale skin turn dark to the color of smoky ash. Her skin became scaled and her hands seemed to take on a life of their own. Talons grew out from her fingers, sharp and immensely strong. She felt her spine stretch and bones creak in the great effort change her entire form. She grew and filled the cavern with her immense size.
The skin on her back stretched and split to make room for emerging wings; her now-forked tongue flicked over razor sharp teeth and from her throat came the almost irresistible urge to exhale the building, raging heat.
She turned burning red eyes on Malgora and saw her enemy. Kitarisa felt the animal fury consume her and she spread her great wings to beat the air. Drawing in a deep breath, she opened her mouth and blasted a deadly stream of fire directly at Malgora.
The yellow-white beast reeled into the cavern walls making the entire side of the mountain shake. Rocks clattered from the ceiling of the cavern. A large boulder shook free from the walls and rolled over one of the Wrathmen, crushing the life out of him.
Malgora turned to burn them again but Assur and the others had scrambled up the stairs and through the entranceway to the temple, the way being far too small for her to reach them.
Screaming in frustration, Malgora rose to vent her wrath on Kitarisa, but she was ready for her.
From her great height Kitarisa saw the men clustered around the edge of the doorway just out of Malgora's reach. She knew immediately what they wanted and arched her great neck to face the vile white beast. Malgora had blocked the opening to the tunnel making escape impossible. Kitarisa sent another fiery blast, but the cunning beast ducked away and the flames only seared the cavern wall until it blackened and smoked from the force of the heat.
Roaring her own frustration, Kitarisa stretched her great wings and flew to the uppermost reaches of the cavern with Malgora close after her. The two coiled and struck at each other, the sound of the impact echoing and reechoing through the cavern like thunder.
The rank stink of sulphur swirled like a storm from the furious beating of their wings. Kitarisa wheeled around in a tight circle and made a short, hard dive at Malgora. She slammed into her, her claws managing to tear scaled skin and flesh. Malgora howled in pain. She too, turned on Kitarisa and both of them flew upward, grappling at each other, roaring their rage and sending their fiery breaths against the cavern walls.
There was no more room for them to carry on their terrible battle. From the ground, the stunned warriors watched as both of them reached higher and higher into the cavern, until there was a deafening explosion of flesh against stone. A thunderous roar shook the cave as the ceiling shattered, sending tons of rock to the floor. The dome of the cavern exploded and both the great beasts, screaming their defiance, hurtled into the night sky.
Chapter 20
A STUNNED SILENCE hung between Assur and the others as they watched Kitarisa and Malgora smash free from the confines of the cavern and fly into the night.
"If we hurry, she may give us enough time," Achad said, immediately practical. He gestured to some of the warriors. "Go below and free the horses."
Assur spun on his heel and entered the temple with Mar'Kess, Achad and the rest behind him.
"Has the battle resumed with Kazan?" Assur asked as they hurried through the dark corridors.
"Yes, and Mar'Kess was right--Kazan did try to pin us at the Rift Cut, but we were ready for him. However, he has those crossbows--the new ones. They are more powerful than we thought."
"Then we will have to fight harder, but this time, we will have more help. I will lead Malgora's horde, but for my own cause!"
The ranks of Wrathmen had thinned as more and more were slain, or had fled for their lives. Terrified, screaming women in white ran from the Talesians, trying to hide in the maze of corridors and chambers.
The warrior's blood raced through Assur as he mercilessly cut his way through rank upon rank of the hated Wrathmen. His sword ran with their blood. In the melee, many of the Sisters fell, but he could not stop or pity them.
By the time they reached the chambers that held the cages, Assur was panting for breath. He stared, appalled, at the rows upon rows of cages with their silent occupants. They looked out at him with empty eyes.
"They have no life in them," Achad exclaimed, waving his hand in front of the nearest one. The silent Odun looked back at him mildly as if he had only noticed the flutter of a falling leaf.
"Malgora saw to that," Assur said savagely as he smashed the lock away from the cage door. "Get them out, all of them."
In chamber after chamber, cage after cage, the Talesians and Riehlians alike shattered the locks freeing the hundreds and hundreds of bewildered warriors.
Like obedient sheep they began to follow Assur and the others through the temple corridors to the great cavern and down into the chambers that held their horses.
Through the rush of excited horses and milling warriors, Assur shouted to Mar'Kess.
"Take them out, head for the river. I will catch up."
Mar'Kess saluted him from the back of one of the borrowed horses and hastened to urge the dazed warriors out the cavern corridor.
Assur nodded to Achad and Kuurus: "Follow me. We must stop something that should have ended three hundred turns ago."
The three ran back through the darkened corridors of the Catacombs, heading straight for the Great Chamber. More Wrathmen appeared trying to stop them, but the Talesians cut them down before they drew another breath.
A few brave women, maddened by grief and confusion, flung themselves at the barbarians who had desecrated their sanctuary. Assur did not like killing the women, even as vile as they had become. None carried weapons, but fought only with their bare hands and the strength of their rage.
In the Great Chamber a small group of Sisters stood stalwartly around the massive bier and catafalque of their dead Reverend `Fa. A few had armed themselves with
kitchen utensils or swords dropped by fallen Wrathmen.
"Stand away," Assur ordered. He crouched in an attack stance and approached the great dais.
"Stay back, barbarian. You defile the very air with your presence!"
Assur looked up. From the lower tier of balconies, he spotted the somber form of Syunn. He held a cross-bow, a Maretstan double crossbow in his hands.
"The histories will record this momentous occasion, Talesian, how a Wrathman cut down the Ter-Rey of the Dominion in the presence of Medruth herself. I shall be immortal." Syuun smiled evilly at Assur. "In fact, I shall bring down two High Princes and a dog of a Siarsi."
"You will not get out of here alive, Syunn. You only have two bolts," Assur warned.
Syunn slid the crossbow over the stone railing of the balcony's edge and lifted the weapon to his shoulder, taking steady aim at Assur's heart.
"You do not know these caves as I, barbarian prince. The one who survives will have to catch me."
Assur and the others ran for the protection of the great bier, scattering some of the Sisters like frightened mice. The few women remaining at the dais, retreated slowly, holding their crude weapons before them.
"Get out of here, defiler!" one of them cried out, thrusting a butcher knife at Achad. The disgusted older prince swung backhanded at the girl with the flat of his blade, knocking her off-balance into the base of the coffin.
"Stay down, girl," he growled. "You will get us all killed."
The whirring sound of a bolt slipped past Achad's left ear and landed with a soft thunk into the thick wax of the massive candlestick behind his back.
"By Verlian's blade that was close," he muttered to the crouching Kuurus.
"He has one bolt left," Assur said. He glanced behind him, looking for a diversion. "If I can get him to shoot the other bolt, he will have no choice but to run." Assur looked at his father and at Kuurus and knew what they were thinking. He nodded. The coffin.
Seeing his chance, Assur stood, sword over his head. An ancient, savage war cry escaped his lips as a brought his sword down in the coffin with a deafening crash, destroying the Sisters' unsummoned abomination. Glass shards, brittle bones, and rotting silk spattered onto the cobbled stones of the Great Chamber. Assur raised his sword again and again, until he had smashed the remaining pieces of the coffin into fragments.
"No!" A collective scream rose from the remaining women as they backed away, horrified, from the ruined remains of their dead goddess.
A second bolt whirred away from Syunn's crossbow. Achad did not have enough time--he lunged at the nearest Sister, flinging his arms around her legs and throwing her to the floor, but it was too late. He looked up and saw the bolt tip, thrusting upward from the girl's breastbone.
"Now!" Assur shouted.
The three leaped from the shattered remains of the dead Medruth, pushing away the last of the faithful Sisters and knocking down the massive candlesticks to the floor. Flames burst from the tinder-dry silk draping of the ancient catafalque and devoured the shattered remains of the long dead `Fa.
"You will not find me in here, barbarian," Syunn called. The Wrathman captain hurtled the heavy crossbow over the high stone railing, sending it clattering to the red stones below. He turned and fled into a black tunnel as Assur darted toward the nearest stairway that led up to the balcony.
"Leave him, Assur," Achad called out.
Behind them the fire had spread to the hanging wall coverings directly behind the dais. Smoke and ash began to fill the Great Chamber. Both Achad and Kuurus were coughing and waving their hands against the smoke.
"We must save the others--let him go!"
Assur stopped halfway up the stairway before realizing that Achad was right. Syunn could wait, but only for a time.
Verlian's light shone down on the fleeing hordes of dazed warriors as they were herded away from Malgora's terrible prison to freedom. A few had partly shaken the affects of the witch's control and seemed to understand they were running for their lives. Those who were able to ride horses managed to keep moving in orderly files, but still had no notion as to where they were going.
Mar'Kess galloped up to Assur, leading Adzra, and reined in the excited horses.
"My lord, we will be at the river soon and I fear we cannot cross it while they are still under Malgora's hold. We may lose them all."
Assur nodded grimly. "Send some of the Riehlians ahead. Have them find the narrowest crossing. We will wait there at the river's edge." He turned toward Achad. "Father, you must ride ahead to the legions and prepare them to attack Kazan..."
"Are you mad, boy? Fighting in the dark?"
Achad did not see Assur's chagrined expression. "Since when is a Talesian warrior and a Chaliset at that, afraid to fight at night, Father?"
Achad grinned at him. "Not afraid, my son, just surprised. We will cut Kazan's forces down like the dogs they are, whether it is day or night." He glanced upward. "Perhaps we should pray to the Goddess for snow to make the battle more interesting."
Assur, too, looked up into Verlian's brilliant pale light and the blue-coldness of the night sky.
"No, Father. We must pray to the Goddess that She will give Kitarisa the strength to kill that creature. Only then can we defeat Kazan."
Qualani and Huon, Odun and Riehlian, all stumbled on into the night toward the Sherehn River. Assur rode up and down the endless lines of men, shouting encouragement, trying somehow to break Malgora's hold on them. Each had been given a sword or weapon familiar to them, but like bewildered children, they held their weapon as if holding a long-forgotten toy.
A dazed Odun looked up at Assur as he rode by. "Where are you taking us, master?"
"Where you can use that." He nodded at the man's long spear. "As you should."
At the river, Assur called for them to halt and wait. He stood up in his stirrups and strained to see across the river to the Talesian encampment. Torches and night fires dotted the shore and nearby hills, and far in the background, he could make out the black hulk of the Rift Cut rising into the night sky.
To his left, farther down the shoreline, Assur could see the faint fires of Kazan's camp. At dawn, they would strike but Assur was uncertain if they could hold against Kazan's armies. He ground his teeth in frustration. Already he could hear the rattle of war drums and the whinnying of excited horses as they made ready for the battle.
Mar'Kess suddenly pointed to the sky and shouted to him: "Look!"
All eyes turned toward the moon in time to see two monstrous beasts rise into its light. Great teeth and claws grappled at each other's flesh, inflicting terrible wounds. Fire roared from the gaping maws that were their mouths, searing scaled limbs and leathern wings. They wheeled away from each other, swooping down toward the ground so close, they could feel the rush of air from the stroke of their passing wings. Both Assur and Mar'Kess instinctively ducked.
"I have never seen such beasts. What are they?" Mar'Kess asked in amazement as he watched the two giant creatures again soar upward toward Verlian's light.
"By the Goddess, I do not know. There is no such thing...The Daughter said the Ancients knew them." Assur shook his head, both astonished and in awe of the spectacle. "Whatever they are...Kitarisa, the dark one, must kill the other if these warriors are to be free of Malgora's hold."
Both beasts flew at each other again, this time Kitarisa struck savagely at the maggot-white creature. Malgora screamed in agony and reeled away. Kitarisa's teeth had ripped open a great wound across Malgora's belly. Blood poured from the gash and fell to the earth like an unholy rain.
A collective groan escaped the lips of all the men nearest Assur and Mar'Kess. One man clutched at his head and sank to his knees. Assur heeled Adzra around to face Mar'Kess.
"What is happening, lord?" Mar'Kess shouted.
"Malgora's hold must be weakening! Hurry, head them toward the river."
Assur looked up again, this time to see Kitarisa slash at Malgora's wing, tearing a great gash throu
gh it. The beast would no longer be able to fly and arched away from Kitarisa, struggling to reach the highest rim of the Rift Cut.
"Kill her, Kita," he called up to the sky. "Kill her now!"
With each savage blow, Kitarisa drove the loathsome enemy closer to the edge of the escarpment. Her own left forelimb had been burned to a charred ruin from Malgora's fiery breath and hung uselessly at her side, but it did not deter her from her relentless drive to kill the hated witch. She sank her teeth into Malgora, tearing at her again and again--the bitter blood ran from her mouth.
Another moan rose from the captives. All of them sank to their knees in helpless submission to Malgora's tenacious hold.
"My lord, she is killing them!" Mar'Kess called out.
"No!" Assur kicked the great warhorse into a gallop and raced to the river's edge. Up and down the shoreline he watched the warriors collapse to their knees, writhing in agony. Malgora's death throes were killing her captives as well.
His hard-earned discipline was pressed to the limit as he struggled to find a way to break Malgora's hold on them. Behind him, across the river, he heard the strong rhythmic beating of the war drums. Achad had amassed the legions and soon he would release them on the Gorendtian forces.
The men before him were supposed to have been his to lead, only for Malgora's vile purposes--to be used as reinforcements with Gorendt and Maretstan to crush the Riehlian resistance. Once Riehl was defeated, he would have led them across the Adrex to conquer his own home and his own kind.
The voice came to him quite clearly: a serene, feminine voice, as cool as the moonlight above him, speaking directly to his inner ear.
Call on them, D'Assuriel. Malgora has no power. They are yours now to command. You must right the Balance.
At first he thought he was hearing things, but the voice came a second time, firmer and louder--and it was not Kitarisa's voice nor Malgora's.
Call on them, D'Assuriel. They will follow you.
Feeling somewhat foolish, Assur reluctantly raised his sword over his head.
