by Traci Loudin
Dalan’s heart sank. This changed everything. The Teachings assumed the Ancients abhorred violence. But the Wizard suggested that, not only had there been many battles before the aliens arrived, but their Ancient ancestors had reacted first, bringing about the violent and devastating Catastrophe.
Nyr screamed and lashed out. Her foot connected with the leg of the table. A crash followed, and the light went out.
Dalan lunged toward where he’d last seen the Wizard. He fumbled, catching cloth with his partially transmelded hands, and he slammed the Ageless to the wall. “Don’t mean to let you get away, Wizard. Stay right where you are.”
Faint light shone in from one of the windows.
“It’s okay!” Dalan heard the chagrin in Caetl’s tone. “Nyr woke up when I reset her arm.”
“Bastard.” Nyr’s voice was rough with pain.
“Hey, Dalan reset my shoulder for me, and he was right; I did thank him later. The least you could do—”
“Shut up, mystic. Find the damn light.”
“Okay, okay.”
Dalan heard a click, and the light returned. He released the Wizard and concentrated on maintaining enough of the tail-horse meld to suppress the necklace while keeping his clothing, which stretched tight over bulky inhuman muscles.
“I let her know what fun she missed.” Caetl winked at Dalan, but then whispered into his mind, She needs to wrap that arm up tight so the bone can mend, preferably with a splint. Doubtful that she’ll listen to me, though.
Nyr held her swollen, blue forearm away from her body. Dalan wondered if Caetl had reset the bone properly. The swelling made it impossible to tell.
“Don’t let him talk you to death.” Nyr’s red hair was tousled. “We don’t care about your stupid stories of the past. Just take the damn necklaces off.”
Though Dalan had let go of the Wizard, Nyr’s menacing tone kept him pinned to the wall, despite what he’d said about their inability to hurt him.
“Now,” she said, eyebrow raised.
The Wizard wedged himself into the corner. His arms fluttered up like a dragonfly’s wings. “Ehhh… I’d love to, friends, really I would. But the truth is, I don’t know how.”
Before Dalan could blink, Nyr lunged past him and pressed the Wizard into the corner. The claws of her good hand rested lightly on his face, beside his eye.
“Let’s see you shift ages before I can slice you to ribbons.” She gnashed her pointed incisors inches from his neck, and Dalan wondered if she really would use her fangs as well as her claws.
The Wizard’s gaze hardened, and Dalan expected him to make a move, but Saquey’s view from overhead the village interrupted Dalan’s sight. Daylight had broken, and a giant waded through the town, knocking the roofs off small huts with a careless shove here and there. His arms and chest glinted.
Dalan shook his head at the sounds of movement in the room, hoping Nyr hadn’t killed the Wizard. If he died, they might never get the necklaces off, and they couldn’t be sure someone else—namely Zen—wouldn’t pick up the technology and abuse it just as his predecessor had.
I doubt either of you could kill an Ageless, Caetl said in his mind. Though it looks like we may get the chance to find out.
As Dalan’s vision cleared, the first screams came from outside. He felt the bottom drop out of his stomach. Those people had done nothing except to get in the way of a titan. Ti’rros and Caetl rushed to the outer doorway and peered outside, while Nyr’s fingertips remained pressed to the Wizard’s face.
Outside, an impossibly loud voice boomed, “All I want to know is where my fellow Ageless is. Point me in his direction, and I will spare your pathetic homes.”
The Wizard gasped and pulled away from Nyr, suffering claw marks to do so. He knocked over a stool in his haste to get to the back room where he’d trapped Dalan. Before any of them could catch him, he hit the button on his wristlet. The shimmering material dropped from the ceiling once more, sealing the Wizard away from them.
Dalan expected him to start torturing the others again, but the Wizard’s face had lost all color. He wedged himself as far into the back corner as he could.
Dalan whirled to find the front door also covered by a translucent wall.
“It’s Zen,” the Wizard whispered. “He’s finally come to kill me too.”
Chapter 22
Dalan didn’t need to crowd around the shimmering doorway with the others to see the cyborg, as the Wizard had called him. Saquey showed him far more than he wanted to see.
The animal part of him noted how easily Zen picked up a young man who’d tried to attack him with a shovel. With one hand, the cyborg brought the villager up to his eye level. The man’s feet kicked futilely in the air.
Even from inside the hut, they could hear Zen’s threat. “We don’t have to do this the hard way, you know. Tell me where your Ageless master is, and I won’t have to rip your limbs from their sockets.” Zen took hold of his victim’s upper arms.
As his shiny hands inched further apart, the young man screamed, “In the far hut! The Wizard lives at the edge of town near the windmills!”
“Good.” With a casual toss, Zen’s informant sailed through the air. He landed on the roof of another hut and didn’t move.
Dalan’s normal vision returned in time to see Nyr’s expression as she gingerly prodded her forearm. He knew she was considering how well she could fight.
Ti’rros paced beside the front doorway’s force field like a trapped animal. “Why would he trap us in here with him?”
Nyr’s face contorted into hatred. “The coward wants as many walls between himself and that monster as he can get.”
“You have to keep me safe,” the Wizard said from the back room.
“You’re a fool if you think—”
A body slammed into the force field and slid down to rest on the ground.
She didn’t get up.
Caetl rushed to the doorway. “Kasma!?” He kneeled, both hands on the shimmering surface. “Wizard, she needs our help—”
“Is this how you welcome me, your fellow Ageless?” Zen bellowed. He ducked down to peer through the force field covering the doorway.
Nyr and Ti’rros jumped back. Without the two of them crowding the doorway, Dalan had a clear view of the monster.
The morning light bounced off the shiny surfaces of his head and arms. Metal sockets with glass lenses stared at them from where his eyes should have been. Behind the lenses something glowed, like the nightmarish eyes of a demon.
Caetl’s expression hardened. He rose, facing the cyborg through the force field. “You have no right to kill these people.”
“Are you the one these spiritless wretches call the Wizard?”
Caetl crossed his arms. “What if I am? The Prophet told us to separate, you know. You shouldn’t be here.”
“Let me in so we can talk more about the Prophet and the future of our race.” Zen’s lips pulled back in a smile.
“I’m not sure you’d fit.” Caetl motioned to the others standing behind him. “You see, there are so many in here already.”
Zen’s eyebrows drew down over his hideous eyes. “Liang! Wizard! Whatever you call yourself, I know you’re in there! Stop letting these unworthy fools speak for you, you coward! Come out and talk to me!”
He crossed his arms, waiting. Then he threw his hands in the air and marched deeper into the village, his back to them.
As Dalan approached the force field across the doorway, he realized he’d been holding his breath. Almost half again as tall as Dalan, the cyborg stalked forward. His legs lacked the fluid motion of a human’s; although patchwork denim covered them, Dalan guessed they were completely mechanical.
Dalan kneeled beside the force field and tried to determine if the woman lying outside lived.
No. Caetl’s mental voice weighed heavily in Dalan’s mind. Kasma is dead. Omun is alone in this world.
A bloodcurdling scream came from the village.
; “Open it, Wizard,” Dalan found himself saying. He didn’t know how they could fight a cyborg, but he couldn’t stand by while innocent people died.
Though she moved to stand beside him, Nyr hissed, “Are you insane?”
Dalan smiled at her, and then sprinted toward the back room where the Wizard was cowering in the corner. “You put these talismans around our necks for a reason! Wanted this all along, didn’t you—for us to fight him?” As if to punctuate his accusation, another horrifying scream came from outside. Dalan hoped Saquey would refrain from showing him what had happened. “Listen! Your people are dying!”
The Wizard didn’t answer, other than to touch a point further up his forearm. From behind Dalan, the force field hummed more loudly, then its drone ceased. Dalan charged through the small hut. As he dodged past the table and stools in the main room, he fell to all fours, transmelding directly from his partial tail-horse meld into the jaguar. Ti’rros joined him near the doorway and checked the LEC6, letting it recharge in the morning light.
Hope you’re with me. In his transmeld, he could reach out to Caetl’s mind as though the mystic were of the Omdecu Tribe. Mean to distract Zen away from the villagers.
Yes, Caetl answered. I’ll get them away.
Nyr growled, “I can’t believe we’re going to help that coward.”
Unable to answer her, Dalan lunged outside.
Behind him, Ti’rros replied for him, “It’s not the coward we’re defending.”
Dalan’s long feline strides catapulted him through the village. Some of the guards they’d fought last night pointed their weapons at the cyborg. Projectiles of all types ricocheted off, spraying nearby huts.
He let out a primal scream of fury and launched himself at the cyborg’s back, aiming for the jaguar’s usual target, the back of the neck.
Zen turned as Dalan leaped, and the metal of his arm intercepted him in midair. Dalan tried to sink his claws in, but found no purchase. He flew through the air, tumbled, and regained his feet. His tail swished up near his shoulders as he let out a coughing bark, followed by a rough growl.
Zen’s mouth twitched up in a smirk. “You were one of the ones hiding behind the force field, weren’t you? The brazen one who dared to call himself an Ageless, perhaps?”
The sounds of more shooting came from nearby, and Dalan hoped none of the villagers would accidentally hit him instead of their target. Behind the cyborg, Caetl and Ti’rros appeared with raised weapons.
Before the Joey could fire the LEC6, Zen charged at Dalan. Only his feline reflexes gave him the edge to leap to safety in time. The cyborg’s metallic hands slammed into dry dirt.
Caetl waved his arms to get the villagers’ attention. “Keptree, Helek, help me get everyone to safety. Run, all of you! Run while he’s distracted.”
Dalan recovered and threw himself at the still-bent monster, but his claws scraped ineffectively down the metal of Zen’s side. Growling in frustration, he sprang away before the cyborg could counterstrike.
Nicely done. Keep him busy, the mystic said in his head.
Have Nyr help you, Dalan replied. She’ll get herself killed if she goes up against him with a broken arm.
Dalan dashed toward the western edge of town, hoping the giant would follow. Taking advantage of the lull in the fight, he sent a tendril of a thought to Saquey. The dragonfly showed Nyr and Caetl trying to herd the villagers away.
Dalan passed mourners near the broken bodies of Zen’s earlier victims. He let out a coughing growl in the hopes of scaring them from Zen’s path.
Zen lumbered along behind him, every footstep sending tremors through the packed ground. “This is the most fun I’ve had in… oh, half a century or so.”
Once Dalan reached the end of the huts, he faced the giant. To his surprise, Ti’rros had stalked along behind them both. She used a nearby hut for cover and fired at the cyborg. The blue lightning flew past the titan’s shoulder as Zen lunged toward Dalan.
Circling to the side, Dalan swiped at the cyborg’s knee. Zen rolled forward on his forearms over his own head, and came to his feet. He spun to face the jaguar.
But by then, Dalan was already beside him, slashing at his knees from a different angle. The cyborg swung a fist sideways, hitting Dalan in the shoulder. Propelled through the air, he collapsed at the base of a hut.
Saquey interrupted with another vision: three people were running toward the village from the northeast. As his companion swooped closer, Dalan recognized the small figures as the Ageless woman and her two slaves. If he’d had a human mouth, he would have cursed.
He shook his head to clear away Saquey’s view, but his jaguar’s sight seemed more like the foreign vision as the cyborg strode his way.
Caetl, things just got more interesting.
What do you mean? Even the mystic’s mental voice sounded winded.
Getting to his feet, Dalan answered, We have company. Tell the others.
A clamor went up near the northeast huts as the villagers spotted the newcomers.
What? Oh.
“Here, kitty kitty,” the giant bellowed.
Dalan gave his full attention to the fight. He waited in a crouch as the cyborg’s shadow fell across him. With the slightest movement, Dalan’s inner cat would know when to dodge. His muscles bunched, and he leaped to the side before being consciously aware of the cyborg’s attack. For the first time, he felt truly at one with the jaguar in his blood.
A huge fist slammed into the ground beside the hut. Dalan circled and then sprang high into the air. As the cyborg stood up, Dalan’s claws raked across his head. The man let out an inhuman scream and clutched his jaw.
Dalan swiped at the monster’s knees. His foot caught Dalan in the face, momentarily stunning him.
A buzzing noise filled Dalan’s ears. The dragonfly swooped past Zen’s face, distracting him.
No, Saquey! Dalan caught himself trying to think thoughts at the dragonfly instead of images.
Dalan growled to regain the titan’s attention. He sidestepped as Zen pounded both fists into the ground, and Dalan struck his head with one paw. The force of his blow knocked the cyborg’s head to the side, and where the head went, the body followed. Zen crashed to the ground.
Dalan leaped toward him. Zen twisted, his arm curving across his body in a hook. His fist slid between Dalan’s outstretched paws and caught him in the chest.
Dalan collapsed, unable to get a full breath of air. Saquey showed him the Wizard’s guards, with a few other men and women gathering behind them. They faced the Ageless and her two Purebred slaves.
Even from this distance, he heard Azaiah shout, “We may not be able to take down the giant, but you we can stop.”
His breath coming in groaning gasps, Dalan lay bruised on the ground. A flash of pain ripped the vision away as his entire body weight suddenly suspended from his right rear leg.
He blinked, regarding the cyborg’s ruined face, upside down. Though a jaguar weighed much more than a human, the titan held him with one hand.
Zen whipped his arm. “What’s the matter, pussy cat? Feeling a bit—winded?” He released his grip.
Dalan flew through the air and then skidded across the top of a hut. With a shrill screeching, his claws gouged metal and wood, but his momentum carried him over the edge. He slammed into the wall of the next building over and crumpled at its base.
When he tried to gather his legs under him, his right rear gave out. The cat side of him couldn’t understand how anything could be more powerful than the mighty jaguar.
After frequent transmelding over the past day and night, exhaustion had set in, and Dalan knew defeat. He hoped his distraction had allowed the villagers to flee.
He slipped around the corner of a hut, away from Zen, and slowly transmelded back into the tail-horse, knowing he might need to help carry his companions to safety. Feeling like a coward, he trod as quietly as he could on his three-toed hooves. He took each painful change in his bone structure one at a time
.
As he trotted in the direction he’d last seen Caetl, he passed a body. Fresh claw marks marred the corpse’s turquoise-colored skin, making Dalan’s heart jump.
Have you seen Nyr?
She was helping herd the villagers away, as much as they would be herded. I’m not precisely sure where she is right now.
Saquey had shown Nyr trying to get the villagers to flee as well. He shook his head. He wasn’t thinking clearly. Can’t do anything against that monster. Must flee.
Caetl’s tone was grim. Trust me, we’re all agreed on that one. Ti’rros said she’s getting us some horses.
Stealing… Dalan glanced between huts, trying to spot any of the others.
Really not the time, Dalan.
Alright. What of our other enemies? Nyr might be fighting the Ageless woman and her slaves, who had their weapons back, thanks to him.
They’re not enemies.
What?
Their true enemy is Zen. They think you’re working for him. If we could convince them you’re not on Zen’s side, they might become allies against him.
Then… Dalan’s mind whirred, remembering how both Ageless women had been convinced Zen was their ‘master.’ Must help them get away, too. And then regroup.
I said they aren’t your enemies. But they’re not friends yet, either. Besides, Soledad has every intention of fighting Zen.
Dalan found Caetl still trying to convince the villagers to leave. “Staying here will only get you killed. Run while you have the chance.”
Dalan scooped him up with his tail as he trotted by and planted the mystic on his back. Is no point talking to them.
He hadn’t expected how heavy Caetl was, but he couldn’t leave him behind.
Gee, thanks.
Dalan ignored him as his long ears darted back and forth, catching the muttering of the crowd. Some of them guessed he was the jaguar who’d been fighting the giant.
He trotted over to the Ageless woman and her two slaves. Tell them we need to get out of here. All of us.
“Hello,” Caetl said from Dalan’s back as they approached the threesome. “I’m sure you recognize my friend here, the Changeling named Dalan? You saw him fighting the cyborg, the one called Zen. We’re on the same side.”
