by Tora Moon
As she ran toward the nest, the remaining janack sent out several more brechas. “Dear Mother!” Rizelya swore. “There shouldn’t be any brechas left in the nest. Damn, there shouldn’t even be the thirty already on the field.”
She fed more fire magic into her helbraught, slicing through the spiky limbs of the brechas blocking her way to the janack still in the nest. She didn’t know how Eiden did it, but she felt a thin shield of air form around her. Ichor slid off it, not touching her skin or clothes. Soft growls next to her let her know several of the warriors had also broken away from the perimeter fight. She let them have the brechas. Rizelya focused all of her attention on getting through to the nest and the last janack.
Naila and Histrun reached the nest moments before Rizelya. She was surprised he had joined them. Damn old man, he was supposed to help the new warriors on the sidelines. She had to grudgingly admit he was moving well for someone so old. Then the janack rose on two of its tentacles, and she had other things to worry about.
Heat stalks tracked the small group. It was the largest janack Rizelya had ever seen; its stomach and head over ten feet in diameter and its tentacle over thirteen feet long. Gulping, she realized her helbraught wasn’t long enough to keep her away from its snapping teeth. A ring of fire sprang up behind them, keeping any monsters from attacking them from behind. She added her strength to Naila’s fire-ring. None of the monsters should be able to get through the double fire. Nor could any of their people join them.
It was just the three of them and the massive janack.
Rizelya noticed a weird protrusion on the top of the janacks’ head just as a tentacle whipped toward her. She jumped back, but before she could bring down her fiery blade, the tentacle ricocheted back, knocking her to the ground. The tentacle rose to crush her. She jabbed her helbraught into it and rolled, dragging the blade with her. Only her momentum allowed her to shave off a chunk of the tentacle. She continued rolling to escape the falling mass. The tentacle sprayed ichor as it reached for her again. She ran forward to cut away more of the tentacle closer to the body. It took a hard thrust to get her helbraught blade into the hide of the janack.
Usually the sharp blade, made sharper with her fire magic, easily cut through the tough hide of either a janack or brecha. She jerked on the blade to slice more of the tentacle away. A piece fell flopping on the ground. The rest of the tentacle shot toward her. She parried and ran under the tentacle until she was as close to the head as possible. She added more fire magic to her blade and shoved it into the tentacle. Pulling her blade across it, she cut deep into it but couldn’t cut it off. Avoiding the raining ichor, she slid under the tentacle to get to the other side. Another burst of fire magic into the blade and a deep thrust, and she was finally able to finish the cut. She jumped away and ran to the edge of the fire-ring to get away from the tentacle falling to the ground
As she reached the fire-ring, she felt a slamming against her senses as brechas assaulted the fire-ring around them. “What the frag!” she cursed. Brechas didn’t willingly run into the magic fire of the Reds. She glanced up, noticing again the peculiar protrusion on the janack’s head. Narrowing her focus, she heard a faint, strange humming coming from it.
The janack’s clicking sounded more like it was angry than in pain. Naila and Histrun were both battling tentacles of their own. Rizelya was happy to note they were both unharmed and fighting well. So far, she was the only one to sever one of the tentacles. Histrun darted in toward the body while Naila distracted it by thrusting her fiery helbraught at the mouth. A tentacle grasped for Naila, coming from behind her. She sensed the movement and jumped to the side, swinging her blade and chopping off a small chunk. Histrun missed his strike when the janack suddenly raised its body up out of his reach. She stood watching them fight for a few milcrons and suddenly realized it seemed as if this janack could not only sense them but could also track their movements. Testing her theory, Rizelya walked slowly to the right and several of the heat stalks waved and leaned in her direction. They followed her when she moved in the opposite direction. As she brandished her helbraught at the janack, the strange protrusion turned toward her. A tentacle snapped down, Rizelya dodged out of the way. The protrusion followed her movements until she reached the fire-ring and was out of its range.
In all the years Rizelya had fought these monsters, not once had this happened before. Something isn’t right about this janack, well about this whole nest. If Naila and Histrun could keep the attention of the monster on them, she might have a chance at reaching the head and severing it from the thin neck connecting it to its body. It was taking too long for Histrun’s venom to have any effect on the over-sized monster.
Each time she rushed toward the monster, heat stalks turned her way and a tentacle slammed toward her. Again, she danced back to the edge of the fire-ring. Unbelievably, it was still being bombarded by brechas, many of them on fire. It seemed as if all the brechas had abandoned the fighting on the outer ring and stormed the fire-ring surrounding the nest and the strange janack. This far back, Rizelya could hear the weird humming sound coming from the janack even more clearly. The more cuts it received from Naila and Histrun, the louder the hum and the fiercer the attacks on the fire-ring by the brechas. Dear Mother! They’re trying to rescue and protect it. This is new. I bet it has something to do with that strange protrusion.
Rizelya could sense her pack-mates behind her, attacking the brecha mob. Her quick respite showed her neither Naila nor Histrun were making any progress in reaching the head-bulb. She rushed in again at the monster only to have a tentacle reach for her. This time she was prepared; she had fed the blade even more fire magic and was able to slice through it. At the edge of her mind she sensed Eiden, and a sudden idea struck her.
*Eiden!* she mind-called. Only with pack-mates could they communicate by mind-speech. *Can you make an cold-air shield around me?*
*I don’t know …* Eiden’s reply was thoughtful. *I haven’t tried that before …*
A few moments later, the air around Rizelya was freezing. Small ice crystals danced in front of her.
*Whatever you’re doing, it’s working! Keep it up while I try to get to the head. This won’t end until this damned janack is dead.* Even as she said it, Rizelya knew it to be true.
This time when she rushed toward the monster, the heat stalks kept their attention on Naila and Histrun. She jumped, using her helbraught as a lever to vault up on a tentacle. She raced up the tentacle toward the head. Luck was with her; the tentacle she had chosen was on the opposite side of its mouth and gnashing teeth. As large as this janack was, it could easily eat a horse whole. The weird protrusion seemed to sense the danger and whipped toward her.
The sound was no longer a hum. It was loud and deep, piercing Rizelya’s head, making her feel like it would explode. Her fingers began to loosen their grip on the helbraught. The tentacle she stood on bucked and thrashed, attempting to throw her off. When that didn’t work, the end of it started to curl around to wind around her. She leaped onto the head, the tentacle missing her.
Rizelya gritted her teeth against the pain in her head. As she did, she realized the sound was almost mind-speech, convincing her to let go of the helbraught and stand still. It was all she needed. No one is ever going to mind control me! She tightened her grip and swung the blade with all her might at the protrusion. The blade met resistance, then slid through.
Immediately, the humming ceased and the brechas stopped throwing themselves at the fire-ring. But the danger wasn’t over until this monster was dead. Rizelya fed more fire magic into her helbraught blade, more than she had ever attempted before. The blade glowed deep red and orange. Tiny flames licked across its surface. She drove her helbraught deep into the janack’s head.
Exploding a janack was dangerous—the falling debris could injure one of the fighters—and was to be used as a last resort. They had already tried all the usual methods. Just trying to cut off the tentacles was proving to be more difficult than
usual. The blades seemed to need more fire magic than usual to do the job, and Histrun’s venom wasn’t working fast enough. There was something different about it other than just its size and the peculiar protrusion. There was no other choice; she released her fire magic into the janack’s head.
She heard a sizzling noise, jumped off the janack, and raced to the edge of the fire-ring. As she did so, she yelled and mind-spoke at the same time, “Run! It’s going to explode!”
***
Rizelya threw a shield over herself just as the janack exploded. Gray ichor, green slime, and parts of tentacles plummeted to the ground. She felt the fire-ring flare as Naila cast a fire shield under the ring to contain the fallout of the explosion.
Rizelya huddled under her shield while the burning remains of the strange janack rained on her. She could vaguely hear the commotion of the other warriors and Reds fighting the rest of the janacks and brechas.
*Are you and Histrun okay?* she mind-spoke to Naila.
*I am. Histrun flew out of the fire-ring. Did you see the strange protrusion?*
*Up close. It was tracking the fighting, and I heard a hum. It seemed as if the janack was directing the others. This is so weird.*
*I didn’t notice. I was too busy fighting. Ah … the ‘rain’ has stopped.*
Rizelya looked around. No more monster parts fell.
*Go ahead and release your shield,* Naila said. *I’ll keep mine up so we can examine this thing.*
Rizelya let her shield go and slowly stood up. Naila’s fire shield and ring still surrounded the remains of the strange janack. Rizelya glanced around at the fighting behind the fire-ring. There was only one janack left. As she watched, a warrior drew its attention while a Red slashed at it with her glowing helbraught. The severed head flew to the ground. The janack shuddered, and tentacles thrashed in its death throes. A tentacle caught a young warrior unaware, tossing him several feet. He lay still.
A number of forms were spread out on the ground. Most were changing from warrior to human, but two were motionless, remaining in the warrior form. They were lucky more weren’t dead the way this fight had gone. Only one of the Reds was down, although the rest of them had wounds seeping blood. The women were checking each other for splotches of ichor and using their helbraughts to burn it off. Later, the healers would treat their wounds and purge them of any remaining toxin. First the area had to be cleansed. Eiden was holding up Leistrun as he limped toward the path leading to the horses. Once all the ichor was burned off them, the Reds crisscrossed the field, burning all the monster bits and parts they could find. It was the only way to keep the monsters’ malignant magic and poison from spreading.
A galloping horse drew Rizelya’s attention. Kaieli flung herself from her mount, bag in her hand, and raced to the nearest motionless form. The other Browns weren’t far behind. She could hear Kaieli directing the warriors and Browns to the various wounded even while she worked on the Red motionless beneath her hands. If Kaieli was working on her, her injury was serious, but she hadn’t passed into the Mother’s arms yet.
There would be time later to find out how the pack had fared in the battle. Rizelya’s job wasn’t finished.
Her head throbbed and her right arm burned. Surprised, she looked at her bicep. Blood flowed where ichor had eaten through her shirt. Raising her helbraught, she placed the glowing blade on the wound, it hissed as it neutralized most of the acid. Later she would have Kaieli remove the rest. If left untreated long enough, the acidic ichor turned poisonous. She didn’t have time to go to the healers now. She’d be fine for another octar or so.
“You okay?” Naila asked, looking Rizelya over as she joined her.
“Yeah, just a scratch.” Rizelya noted Naila’s own wounds, most of them also cauterized. “Here, you missed a spot.” She fed fire into her blade and then touched it to Naila’s forehead, where a drop of ichor had fallen. Rizelya was surprised neither of them weren’t more seriously wounded.
Naila looked around at the smoking monster debris. She frowned at Rizelya while shaking her head and rolling her eyes.
“Sorry, I didn’t see any other way of killing the janack. Nothing else was working.”
“I know. Glad you did. Need to find that thing.”
They walked around the remains of the strange janack, searching within the burning bits for the strange protrusion. Monster parts were flung all over within the Naila’s fire shield. They split up when it was apparent they weren’t going to find it quickly. They started in the central area with the largest of the monster parts and worked outward toward the fire barrier. One would prod something or turn over a bit with an air of excitement, only to be disappointed.
In the quiet Rizelya could hear an odd, high-pitched screech. It was so high she felt it more than heard it. She noticed it became louder when she was in the far south quadrant of their enclosure. She took a few steps toward the barrier. The sound grew louder.
“Do you hear that?”
Naila looked up from her own search, eyebrows knitted in confusion. “Hear what?”
“A high-pitched screech?”
Naila stood in an attitude of listening. “Nothing.”
“Come over here where it’s louder.”
Naila left off her search to join Rizelya, zigzagging around pieces of janack, some of which continued to twitch.
“Still nothing.” She shook her head when she stood next to Rizelya.
“Damn. You didn’t hear the humming either, did you?”
“Nope.”
“I think I’m hearing the protrusion. I don’t know why I can hear it and you can’t.”
Naila shrugged.
Rizelya took a step toward the barrier, the sound was louder. Her head began to throb. A few steps to the left and the sound and pain lessened. “It isn’t in that direction.” She returned to where Naila was standing and went right, and again the sound lessened. When she stepped forward the sound and pain intensified. “It’s in this direction, I’m sure.”
Using her pain as a beacon, she made her way to the fire-ring barrier, the sound and pain growing greater with each step she took. Spots swam in front of her eyes. A hand span from the barrier, she found it; any closer and the thing would have burned.
“Here it is,” Rizelya called out. Without thinking, she poked it with the tip of her helbraught. The resulting screech almost deafened her. She dug her helbraught into the ground, white knuckles gripping the staff. A wave of darkness hit her. In it she thought she saw a strange pale gray, gaunt face with dark gray hair and black eyes. The vision faded too fast for her to make much sense of it.
“Riz!” Naila cried in alarm.
Rizelya forced the bile in her throat back down. She squeezed her eyes shut until she felt the fear fade. When she opened her eyes, she found herself looking up at her sister. She’d blacked out. Rizelya clapped her hands over her ears at the horrendous screeching. Abruptly it stopped. Grateful for the reprieve, she turned onto her side to find herself staring at the protrusion. “Dark Mother!” she spat and scrambled back.
Naila’s air magic encased it, making it blurry, and blocked the sound it was emitting.
“Thanks! That helps.”
“Should see it closer,” Naila observed.
“I’m not going anywhere near that thing.” Rizelya dragged her helbraught to her. She tried to feed magic into the blade in case the thing jumped at her, but couldn’t. Huh? Where’s my magic? She scooted away and sat back on her heels, close enough to see what Naila was doing with the protrusion, but not close enough to touch it.
The protrusion was as long as her arm and translucent, with bumps running along the length. Naila squatted in front of the thing. Carefully she inserted the tip of her knife into the bubble of air surrounding it. Using the blade tip, she prodded the protrusion. “It’s squishy.”
“It was easy to cut off.” Rizelya felt like someone was watching her. It was there and gone in a moment.
*You coming over to see?*
“Nope, I’m staying right here.”
Naila rolled her eyes. She continued with her inspection, flinging comments to Rizelya. “Doesn’t want to turn over. Multiple circles.” Naila sliced one open.
Rizelya slammed her hands over her ears. “Don’t do that! Even with your shield I can still hear the stupid thing.”
“Okay. Won’t.” Naila turned back to her specimen. *A jelly like substance oozed out.* She lifted the mass near the cut end with her knife. *There’s some type of filament dangling from the bottom.*
The hair on Rizelya’s neck stood up. Someone was watching her. She glanced around. No one. Everyone else was busy taking care of the wounded and destroying monster bits. Then her gaze fell on the protrusion. Naila tipped it away from Rizelya, and the watching sensation eased. The protrusion rolled until the circles faced Rizelya; as it did, the watching sensation returned.
“Burn it!” she yelled. “That damn thing is watching us.”
“You sure?”
“Yes!”
It was a testament of Naila’s trust in her when Naila fed fire into her helstrablade. The fire touched the mass, and even with the air shield, the screeching hit Rizelya like a hammer. Pain blazed in her head. Again, she saw a flash of the gray women before she knew nothing.
Rizelya woke up moaning with Naila standing over her. “Ah crap, I blacked out again, didn’t I?”
Naila nodded then held up two fingers. *That’s twice in less than an octar.*
She struggled to sit up. Naila had to help her. “This is embarrassing. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“Don’t know either. Kaieli might,” Naila observed.
“Is it gone?”
Naila nodded again and pointed.
Rizelya turned her head. A mass of smoldering slime was all that was left of the protrusion. She listened hard and couldn’t hear any lingering sound, but her head still pounded like a herd of billocks stampeding.
