The Last of the Ageless

by Traci Loudin

  Dalan rolled, and Azaiah was forced to release him in order to avoid being crushed. He rolled away and jumped to his feet as Dalan got to his hooves. Without hesitation, Dalan attacked.

  Azaiah spun, but wasn’t fast enough to sidestep. Dalan’s muscular tail lanced over his shoulder and slammed into Azaiah’s chest, sending him flying.

  The sound of metal on metal coming from Searchtown made Dalan flinch. Saquey flew overhead but didn’t show him the source of the noise. Peering toward Searchtown, he saw Zen loping across the field. Azaiah grabbed his horse’s reins and took off, abandoning his fight with Dalan.

  Dalan hunkered down, letting his golden fur blend in with the grasses. Moving faster than he’d thought possible, Zen lumbered by with Soledad in one arm.

  A scream brought Dalan to his hooves. He galloped full-tilt to the north, no longer caring if Zen noticed him. Following the contours of the rolling grasslands, he occasionally lost sight of the other figures in the distance.

  He crested another rise to see Kaia running away as Caetl tackled Nyr. The two of them collapsed in a pile at the Wizard’s feet. Nyr fought back as though possessed, her arms and claws splayed to catch any flesh they encountered, her legs kicking in all directions as though blind.

  Caetl! Dalan yelled. Stop it. Defend yourself against the Wizard.

  Nyr’s body went rigid. Caetl pummeled her before twisting away and tripping over his own feet. Dalan hung back and listened to Zen arguing with the Wizard as Azaiah dismounted beside him. As Zen’s voice rose in anger, Caetl stared at the sky, oblivious.

  Zen dropped Soledad next to Nyr with such carelessness Dalan wondered if she was alive. Korreth and Jorrim might be long gone. He sent a mental image to Saquey of Ti’rros, and the dragonfly buzzed back toward Searchtown.

  Zen stalked off in the direction Kaia had gone, leaving Azaiah with his original master. Azaiah’s slender tail lashed toward Nyr, and Dalan charged. Azaiah dropped back, and the Wizard let out a surprised shout.

  Nyr’s eyes rolled back in her head. A wound on the side of her face bled freely, her arm purple.

  The Wizard yelled, “Stupid mystic, stop staring and attack Dalan!”

  Caetl stood a few feet away. With his face upturned and his eyes fixed on the sky, he mouthed something over and over. Dalan pricked his ears toward him.

  The mystic’s voice droned, “They’re still up there. I know they are. They’re still up there.”

  At a rustle in the grasses, Dalan brought his tail up. Azaiah snagged a gun from the ground with his lithe tail.

  “I know you won’t try to kill us. The Wizard told me all about you. All of you,” Azaiah said, his eyes dropping to Nyr. “He said the most powerful among you was also the weakest, because of some stupid moral code your people cling to.”

  Azaiah raised his weapon as Dalan closed the distance. The gun went off, and something stung his left flank. He lowered his long neck and head-butted Azaiah, sending him tumbling back. The man landed hard and the gun fell into the grasses. He groggily sat up, a hand to his head. The Wizard stumbled away from them both.

  Careful to avoid trampling Nyr’s unconscious form, Dalan rushed him, hoping to keep him from the gun. He forgot about Azaiah’s other weapon until it was wrapped around his neck.

  He tossed his long neck, lifting the other Changeling in the air by his slender tail. Launching his own, more muscular tail forward, Dalan pounded the other Changeling over and over and gasped for air whenever his grip momentarily loosened. An image from Saquey hindered his vision, showing Jorrim and Korreth approaching on horseback.

  When his view returned, Dalan feinted at Azaiah’s head with his tail, looped it up and away, and then swept his feet out from under him. Azaiah landed hard but didn’t release his grip. The weight of a full body on his neck pulled Dalan’s head down, throwing him off balance.

  A red ball of energy exploded near Azaiah. He twisted away, his grip slipping. Dalan stumbled back. Azaiah recovered his gun as he rolled to his feet.

  His head fuzzy from the chokehold, Dalan coughed.

  “Don’t let the Wizard do this to you,” Nyr called.

  Jorrim fired at the Wizard, and the red orb spun through the center of his abdomen. The Wizard’s eyes widened. He slid toward youth and let out a horrible scream.

  The Ageless fled north, calling back over his shoulder, “Shoot them, Azaiah!”

  “Go after him, Dalan,” Nyr rasped. “Caetl won’t wake up.”

  He snorted, hoping Korreth and Jorrim would deal with Azaiah while Nyr tried to rouse Caetl.

  He galloped toward the Wizard. Sidling up to him, Dalan skidded to a stop and swept his trunk-like tail through the grasses, hitting the Wizard just above the knees. He tumbled away, shifting ages as he rolled.

  When he got to his feet, he raised a pink globular stone over his head—the amplifier. “I will live forever, ruling over Changelings, Purebreeds, and hybrids alike. Join me and you’ll have a favored position in our new empire with the other wearers of my sigil.”

  The Wizard pointed his chin toward Nyr and the others. “Or… I’ll torture all three of them until you surrender.”

  He glanced back to see Ti’rros had arrived. She and Jorrim squared off against Azaiah while Korreth kneeled next to Soledad.

  Ti’rros slammed her hands into either side of her head. She and Nyr collapsed to the ground, and Korreth rushed to the Joey’s side.

  To his surprise, Caetl got to his feet, his teeth gritted, his eyes closed. He was fighting back. Or so Dalan thought, until the Wizard said, “Get him, Caetl.”

  The mystic charged at Dalan, lumbering through the grasses with uncoordinated movements. His face was frozen in an expression of horror.

  Surrender. Surrender. Surrender. The words echoed in Dalan’s head. The voice was Caetl’s, but not the thoughts. He reared, knocking the mystic down. If the Wizard got to Dalan through Caetl, no one could stop him.

  When Caetl got to his feet, Dalan wrapped his tail around him, pinning his arms to his sides. Caetl, got to snap out of it. Stop letting the Wizard use you. Dalan’s mental words seemed to fall into a void. Nothing registered on the mystic’s face, and he squirmed in Dalan’s grip, yelling wordlessly, his face going red.

  “I’ll go after him.” Nyr sprinted after the Wizard’s fleeing form.

  She caught up to him and bowled him over. Dalan raised his head, trying to see over the grasses. She pinned him down and slashed at him with her good arm.

  Then her torso arched backwards. She fell over with both hands to her head. The mystic simultaneously went limp in Dalan’s grip.

  He charged toward Nyr and the Wizard, his tail straining under Caetl’s weight. The Wizard stood over Nyr, watching her writhe in pain. His eyes narrowed at Dalan before he retreated. Nyr let out a sigh and her muscles all went slack.

  Laying Caetl gently in the grass, Dalan prodded Nyr with his tail. Then he moved it in front of her nose and mouth and felt only the barest tickle of breath. Perhaps it was best they remained unconscious, so the Wizard couldn’t hurt them anymore.

  Caetl spoke, startling him, “I killed them, Dalan. My own clanmates.” His voice rose in a higher pitch than normal.

  Dalan hovered over the man he’d only known a few days, but whom he’d grown to respect and admire. Breath from his large nostrils ruffled Caetl’s hair. Caetl, what’s he done to you?

  His bones felt heavy, the tail-horse’s weight pulling him down. The fatigue of maintaining a partial transmeld permeated him to the core.

  The mystic’s eyes bored into him, through him, unblinking. Dalan heard shots fired nearby and hoped that Korreth and Jorrim were aware of their location.

  “Jaul. Neula.” The mystic continued in his strange voice. “Jaul would have been my second when I challenged Clan Master Klin… But I killed them like worthless Purebreeds. They deserved better.”

  Dalan reached out with his mind. What do you mean? Need your help to take the Wizard down, remember? Help us, Caetl.
But though he kneeled beside him, the mystic’s mind was impossibly far away.

  The grasses rustled, and Nyr sat up with a hand to her head. Most of the bleeding had stopped, at least.

  “Those are my clanmates he’s talking about.” Her eyebrows lowered. “It may be too late to save Caetl.”

  Her green eyes locked onto Dalan, her pupils widening from slits to dark holes. “Avenge him, Dalan.”

  Dalan snorted in agreement. The Wizard had made them a clan when he leashed them together. Without a word, he galloped after the Ageless, his veins filled with adrenaline and anguish. It was too late to help Caetl, but to save Nyr and Ti’rros, Dalan would have to either incapacitate the Wizard… or kill him.

  Korreth dashed to the Joey—the hybrid, he remembered—while not rising from a crouch. Not far away, the mystic climbed to his feet and took off in the direction the Wizard and Dalan had gone.

  Korreth repositioned Ti’rros’s limbs into better angles, but that was all he could do for her. The Wizard must be torturing them into unconsciousness.

  Azaiah smirked. “I guess my master has them under control. What about her, then, huh?”

  At first, Korreth thought Azaiah meant Ti’rros, or even Nyr. But his gun was pointed at a different angle… in Soledad’s direction.

  “The two of you must want to keep her alive for some reason, am I right? Otherwise why wouldn’t you have overpowered her by now and won back your freedom, your humanity? You’re no better than dogs, unworthy of the civilization Zen will bring about.”

  The Changeling’s words triggered a flash of memory. Soledad had told Korreth, “Then we can free our knowledge, restore civilization, and teach humanity to use the technology properly. At least, I’d like to hope so.” He remembered the hope in her voice, the conviction in her eyes.

  “Don’t be a fool,” Jorrim’s voice startled him. “She put a spell on us. That’s the only thing keeping us from killing her ourselves. Go ahead—you’ll be doing us a favor.”

  Something in Jorrim’s words struck the wrong chord with Korreth. Before Soledad had been poisoned by the dart, she hadn’t actually ordered them to take Dalan and the others outside. In fact, she hadn’t ordered them around much since they’d entered Searchtown.

  Their mistress was clever—she wanted them free to act of their own accord.

  Which meant Soledad would never join Zen. She’d tricked him as part of her plan, but now she was trapped in this age by the poison, unable to heal.

  The Changeling’s gaze shifted over to Korreth, and his eyes narrowed. “No, you’re lying. He cares if she lives.”

  Red energy burned through Azaiah’s throat and jaw. His eyes widened, and his rigid body fell straight back, flattening the grasses.

  Korreth blinked, and then tore his gaze away from the mutilated corpse. “I thought you were going to let him do it.”

  “His finger twitched.” Jorrim frowned.

  Nodding, Korreth kneeled down beside Soledad.

  Jorrim scanned the horizon before coming over. “What are you doing?”

  “Checking that she’s still alive. Her breathing was slow earlier.” Korreth passed a hand in front of her mouth and nose.

  When Korreth touched her neck, Jorrim said, “I think her spell will break if she dies. Then we can leave and not look back. We helped Dalan out, and I’d say that’s all we owe him. This is a fight between the Ageless, and if the other Changelings are fool enough to get in their way, I say we let them.”

  “But she’s not dead.” He tried shaking her to wake her up.

  Jorrim grabbed his upper arm and pulled him away. “What’s the matter with you? Don’t you want to go home? To see your kids?”

  “What if the spell kills us if she dies?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  Jorrim’s look of disapproval made his chest ache. He did want to go home, but Soledad had a plan to defeat Zen. He remembered how many corpses the monster had left behind from the last village he’d visited.

  Jorrim tilted his head. “Have you forgotten what she’s put us through? If it weren’t for her, we’d probably be back to our tribes by now.”

  Korreth met his friend’s gaze. “If it weren’t for her, we would be corpses at the bottom of a ravine, trampled to death.” He reached for her again.

  “Don’t wake her up!”

  “I’m not going to kill an unconscious, defenseless person.”

  “Don’t worry,” Jorrim said, raising the rifle to his shoulder. “I’ll do it.” His trigger finger hesitated.

  “Caetl told me she’s probably the only one who can stop Zen. Our people will never be safe,” Korreth said in a final attempt to stop him. But Jorrim hadn’t hesitated on purpose, he realized. “You can’t do it, can you?”

  Jorrim’s pale face went red, then purple as he strained to pull the trigger. Korreth gently slapped her twice, and then hit her harder.

  “What’s the matter with you? Let’s keep her unconscious.” Jorrim pleaded. “We can drug her again and go home. Keep her hidden until we figure out what to do.”

  “Something amazing and horrible happened here, Jorrim!” He looked up at his friend. “They saw the Catastrophe.”

  “You’re doing this for curiosity’s sake?” His friend’s voice shot from despondent to enraged in a split second.

  Korreth put a hand under Soledad’s back and lifted her to a sitting position. Her muscles seemed to help him, as though she were coming to consciousness. “That and the fact that Zen won’t stop until he dominates every race he considers unworthy. Which would include both our tribes. Only Soledad knows how to stop him.”

  Their mistress took a deep breath, and then coughed and aged. Whatever poison had rendered her unconscious before instantly wore off. Soledad smiled up at them.

  “Great,” Jorrim said, scowling.

  She took in their surroundings, but they couldn’t see much beyond the waving grasses.

  “Help me up,” she said, and Korreth pulled her to her feet.

  In the distance, the others stood out like monoliths in the slanting rays of light.

  The beads in Soledad’s hair clacked together as her gaze darted between the two of them. “You need to fight Zen until I’m ready.”

  Jorrim groaned and crossed his arms. “She’s going to get us killed.”

  Korreth grabbed her by the shoulders. “If we could help Dalan subdue the Wizard… Then he could help us with Zen. He may be our best weapon against him.”

  “No.” Her head tilted. “I am. Now go and keep Zen busy.”

  Chapter 29

  The grasses slapped Korreth’s arms as his body struggled to keep up with Soledad.

  “Kaia fled toward Searchtown?” Korreth asked between breaths.

  Soledad’s voice held a bitter tone. “She and Gryid must have a plan they forgot to let us in on.”

  “So she didn’t trust you after all,” Jorrim said.

  She paced him and Jorrim but eventually left them behind, framed by the backdrop of Searchtown ahead. Soon the figures near the dilapidated wall resolved into humanoid shapes. In the late afternoon sunlight, a smaller figure stood up to a bigger one: Kaia pointed a gun up at the giant.

  With light flashing off his forearms, Gryid charged Zen from behind and slashed at the backs of his knees. Korreth squinted. The red-haired Ageless had strapped blades to his forearms. The giant turned, scooped Gryid up with one arm, and tossed him at Kaia.

  The two of them flew through the air to crash against the stone wall. They toppled the piled stones and came to a rest next to one of the multicolored buildings. Without giving them time to recover, Zen lumbered toward them. Gryid popped back to his feet. Kaia didn’t.

  Soledad gasped and raced ahead. Korreth couldn’t believe the battle he was witnessing. Jorrim had been right—this fight belonged to the Ageless alone. But Soledad’s order to keep Zen busy forced him to keep running toward the Ageless against his will.

  Zen’s arm raised and plunged toward K
aia’s prone body. With Soledad and Zen in the way, Korreth couldn’t see what happened. Gryid screamed and threw himself at the cyborg.

  A few seconds later, Soledad stood over Kaia. “No, no, no, no.” She dropped to her knees in the rubble by the body.

  Despite the spell, Korreth and Jorrim paused on either side of their mistress. Kaia had died in the ruins of her own town, a place she had inhabited for centuries.

  Zen let out a roar of pain, but Korreth couldn’t take his eyes off the pulverized corpse. He was thankful she’d been face-down. Still, he knew he’d never get the image out of his mind: Kaia’s skull, neck, and part of her upper torso were flattened, as though a boulder had fallen on her.

  Korreth resolved to avoid sharing Kaia’s gruesome fate. The wind swirled around them, and Korreth and Jorrim raised their weapons.

  Her voice rough with tears and rage, Soledad commanded, “Attack Zen. Wear him down. But don’t kill him.”

  Like puppets, Korreth and Jorrim pivoted toward the monstrous giant. Korreth’s mind whirred. All this time, Soledad had told them she needed them to help her defeat Zen. He didn’t understand why she wouldn’t let them kill him if the chance arose.

  “Then it will be my turn,” she said in a gravelly voice.

  Korreth’s gaze anchored to the cyborg. With the blades strapped to his forearms, Gryid kept Zen occupied. The cyborg’s fist crashed through another of the multicolored buildings. Then he plucked one of the lampposts lining the street like the stem of a flower. Zen twirled it around in his metal hands and its oil splashed Gryid in the face.

  Together, Korreth and Jorrim fired their SCLs. Korreth’s shot went wide as the cyborg twisted to avoid Gryid’s slashing arms. Jorrim’s bolt splashed against the cyborg’s upper arm as he swung the lamppost at the other Ageless. Some of the energy must have struck a nerve, because Zen howled and faced them.

  “You two fools? You just don’t know to leave well enough alone.”

  “Split up,” Jorrim said, sprinting away from Korreth and back out into the grasslands.