by Sulin Young
Lightning flashed down. Baneyon watched as Raimus was forced to abandon his task, weaving a thick wall of earth to shield them from being fried. However, a stray finger of lightning found its way through a gap in Raimus’s defences and caught Kalum. The others watched in horror as he instantly roasted. The odour of singed flesh filled the air, and he collapsed to the ground.
“Kalum!” L-Master Ana cried.
“He’s still alive, but barely,” Quempa said grimly. “Ana, I’m going to weave a dust storm — it’ll help to deflect this lightning. I need you to lace it so that it lasts indefinitely.”
L-Master Ana nodded. “I’m ready.”
Quempa’s eyes began to glow. “Baneyon, give me a good wind.”
Visibility inside the dome was reduced to zero as Quempa flooded it with dust. It whipped around everyone like a hurricane, coating the ash and slowing its progress.
“Raimus! What about the dogs?” Quempa yelled out.
“Er, we have a slight problem on that front,” replied Raimus. “They’d rather remain underground, sheltered from the storm.”
“Get them out!” snapped Quempa.
“Watch out!” shouted Lady Fless. She raised her broadswords and deflected several knife attacks as the third demon dashed in and out. They couldn’t see the other demons through the thick dust. Quempa grunted in pain and collapsed, his wing nearly sliced off.
Lady Fless rushed to his defence but it was L-Master Ana who fell next. She gasped and looked down at Ana’s stomach, where a large wound had just appeared.
“BANEYON,” screamed Lady Fless. “FIND HIM!”
Baneyon released his spear and it pulled away, chasing after the third demon. Something struck Baneyon from behind and he fell.
Meldogan loomed over him. Lady Fless moved to attack, but Meldogan was quicker. A knee slammed into her face and she crumpled almost instantly, knocked out cold. Raimus was felled in a similar manner.
When all the team were sprawled on the ground, the dust storm inside the dome subsided.
“Play time is over,” snarled Meldogan, plucking the pendant from Baneyon’s hand. “You held onto it long enough.” He slipped the pendant beneath his armour. Now that it was no longer a worry, he leaned over Baneyon, his hand crackling with electricity. “This is for Garok.” He dragged his finger along Baneyon’s chest and the Imeldor screamed as live current coursed through his body. Meldogan’s lip curled, and out of sheer cruelty, he dug his fingers into the Baneyon’s flesh.
As Baneyon lay twitching and dying, he wondered why his life was not flashing before his eyes like it had done for other people. Good times, bad times — he couldn’t see them. Instead, it was fear that clouded his mind. Fear that he hadn’t accomplished all that he had wanted to in his short life. Baneyon was young for a Pophusian; they could live for more than two centuries. He had shown promise in his early career, becoming an Imeldor at an age when most Pophusians were barely out of their diapers. For the briefest moment, Baneyon regretted his career choice.
He shivered. His fingers and toes felt like ice despite the searing heat from the lightning. Sparks flew off his chest as Meldogan continued to torture him, but instead of screaming in agony, he felt nothing. Did death feel like this? he wondered. In his haziness, he watched Meldogan leap away from him, the demon’s face a mass of confusion as he glanced around the dome. Meldogan’s hand was covered in ice.
“What’s happening?” Meldogan yelled.
“Meldogan!”
Something blurred by and grabbed Meldogan. Where the demon had stood, an ice-rod skewered the ground. Baneyon could have cried his relief when he saw it. The distress signal they had sent out earlier must have been received, and help had finally arrived. Not just any help either — they had sent the big guns. They had sent the queen.
30
The queen’s wrath
A hole ate its way through the dome and sunlight flooded in. A rush of insane ecstasy rose in Baneyon when he saw the queen storm through on her faar. Charging immediately on her heels was Lady Anrath. Hundreds of tiny needles pierced the lightning-ash cloud, and Baneyon watched the dome disintegrate.
Baneyon grimaced as he staggered to his feet, pulling an equally pained Quempa up with him. They were the only ones conscious. As the faars landed, both Lady Anrath and the queen dismounted and walked quickly to the fallen Imeldors and L-Masters.
The tall and dark Lady Anrath quickly coated the more seriously injured L-Master Kalum in ice, and lifted him onto her faar. To rouse the others from their unconscious states, she wove clear sacs of freezing cold water, which she promptly released. In no time at all, Lady Fless, L-Master Ana, and Raimus were sitting up, completely drenched and spluttering.
“As soon as the dome collapses, the dratkaars will start to attack. Lady Anrath will ride out to meet and destroy them, but I want you to clear a path for her,” the queen said to Baneyon, Raimus, and Quempa without emotion.
The trio were aghast, but did not show their alarm. Instead, Baneyon gave a hopeful look towards the queen’s faar. “Could we not borrow Nisa?”
“She remains here with me,” the queen replied. That was the end of any transport relief for Baneyon, Raimus, and Quempa.
“The lightning demon has the pendant, Your Highness,” Quempa said.
“Not anymore, he doesn’t. The masked demon has it. Leave! You are in my way.”
“The dogs already approach,” warned Lady Anrath. She helped L-Master Ana and Lady Fless onto her faar and turned the beast towards the dogs. “Start clearing a path,” she ordered Baneyon with as much feeling as a rock. Baneyon scowled at the dark woman with her white corn braids, and thought pettily that the queen had chosen the perfect companion.
“Move!” barked the queen.
Baneyon held his hand out and called his spear to him. It flew into his grasp and he, Raimus, and Quempa ran towards the dogs, ahead of Lady Anrath’s faar. Meanwhile, the queen aimed an almost hungry look at the demons, her ice-blue eyes glittering in the sweltering heat of the three suns. Like Lady Fless, she also carried two long swords which were crossed over her back.
“Return the pendant!” she called out.
Nashim, with the half mask, stepped forwards. “Queen Julere,” he said. It was the first time he had spoken, and his voice was deep and gravelly. It carried across the terrain and reached the other Imeldors’ ears. Quempa, Raimus, and Baneyon turned and looked back at the demons.
“Had you remained in your sector, you could have lived another day,” Nashim continued to the queen. “But instead, you chose to rescue your worthless comrades. As soon as the dratkaars arrive, your qi will be neutralised and you’ll be on our level.”
“Then I expect you to hand it over before they arrive.” The queen’s tone was dictatorial.
Nashim and Meldogan laughed, but the third demon, Eera, snarled, his face turning nasty. “I’ll hand you this!” He vanished suddenly, but he wasn’t the only one who did. The queen also vanished. A knife slashed the air where she once stood and Eera materialised, looking surprised.
“You’re too slow,” the queen whispered behind him. Her hands came around his head. The shocked expression remained on his face as his body fell away. The queen tossed his head aside carelessly, and it rolled across the cracked ground, leaving a trail of green blood. She glanced at the two remaining demons. Their sneering expressions had disappeared now that their comrade lay in two pieces on the dry, baked earth.
“No qi required,” she said lightly, “and yet, I highly doubt we are on the same level.”
“EERA!” Meldogan screamed. He shot her an enraged look. “I’m going to kill you!“His words carried to where Baneyon and the others were watching.
“Quempa, did you see that?” yelped Baneyon. “She just ripped his head off with her bare hands! Now they’re only two!”
“Keep moving, Baneyon,” his friend said in a grumpy voice. “There’s a reason the queen told us to leave.”
“Yes,” added a sti
ll groggy Raimus. The three of them were struggling to stay ahead of Lady Anrath. “Aside from the fact that she’d only demonstrate how useless we are, the other reason is, Nashim still has the pendant. As soon as he figures out how to activate it, the queen won’t be able to protect us. She knows that too.”
Baneyon scowled. “You two are missing the point here. She ripped his head off!”
“And the dratkaars are about to rip ours,” said Quempa. “Focus, Baneyon!”
Baneyon groaned and ran towards the dogs with his comrades. Quempa was right about the dogs — it was going to be a difficult task to clear a path.
Meanwhile, Meldogan was rushing at the queen. Lightning streaked down towards her, but she evaded the strikes and appeared in front of Meldogan. “Die,” she said. Her hand grabbed his shoulder and Meldogan was suddenly unable to move. His eyes widened in terror when he realised his blood was beginning to freeze. Attempts to expel her qi from his body proved futile. The queen’s qi, for whatever reason, could not be overcome.
Nashim appeared at his side and ash blew into the queen’s face. While she was momentarily distracted, Nashim pulled Meldogan away. They retreated at least thirty metres. The ash fizzled and vanished, and Queen Julere advanced on the demons, her expression a frozen landscape of death.
Nashim faced her and hissed. “So the rumours have substance — your breath is comparable to the ice-phoenixes of Dartkala.”
The queen did not answer. Instead, she began running towards them.
“NOW, MELDOGAN!” screamed Nashim.
The two of them combined their qi to produce a super tornado of ash and lightning, directing it towards the queen. Meldogan dropped to his knees and hammered the ground with his fist; it split open and the queen fell through. The tornado jumped in after her.
Lightning struck the ground and dark ash ate away the earth where the queen had disappeared. It lasted for what seemed an eternity, and when it finally subsided, there was no sign of the queen. Only a large scar remained in the ground, where Meldogan had split it open. Minutes ticked by.
A blackened body rose into the air, and the demons shrieked their joy. The queen floated in front of them, her body charred and limp.
“Look!” Meldogan shouted across to the watching Imeldors. “Even the mighty queen is nothing against our combined powers! Her ice failed to fend off the burning fury of lightning and ash!”
From where they watched, Baneyon trembled in disbelief. He refused to believe that the queen could so easily have been thwarted by the demons. She had been their only hope of getting out of Si Ren Da alive. “Quempa, please tell me she’s not dead,” he whispered.
Beside him, his friend also shook. “It was Meldogan,” he said hoarsely. “He was the key. That explains why they weren’t afraid to meet her head on.”
“What are you talking about? You don’t make any sense!”
Quempa threw Baneyon an angry look. “Use your head! Meldogan is a lightning user. How is lightning formed? From the positive and negative charges caused by ice in the air. That means, like the queen, he controls similar elements. We were so stupid! All this time we just thought he was a lightning user, but we never once thought of how he created it.”
Quempa’s words were beginning to make sense to Baneyon.
“Meldogan used the queen’s power and turned it against her,” Quempa continued. “When the tornado struck, the queen grounded herself in ice. At that precise moment, Meldogan interfered and created the negative charge needed for lightning. He created lightning inside her shield. She was completely unprotected.”
“Dartkala,” whispered Baneyon. “You mean to say it was planned from the very beginning?”
“Look out!” shouted Raimus. The first pack of dratkaars had arrived. Baneyon ducked as one leapt over his head. Quempa ran up Baneyon’s back, catapulting in the air. He landed just behind a dratkaar’s neck and sent it crashing into the ground. Baneyon then ran up and kicked it in the head, rendering it unconscious. Four more dratkaars leapt onto Lady Anrath’s faar, but she punched one in the face, sending it flying. Her faar took care of the remaining three; it gored two with its horns, and in one powerful swipe, it broke the neck of the last one.
The ground trembled beneath their feet and everyone, including the dratkaars, was thrown off balance. A particularly violent tremor caused them to slide across the surface. They looked down and were surprised to discover the baked, cracked ground covered in ice. It even reached the demons.
“Hurry!” Lady Anrath said urgently. “While the dratkaars are still confused, head to Mire’s Point!”
In the distance, the demons watched the Imeldors race away, surprised that the ice had reached even them. “Who would have thought the dark woman also wove ice?” said Meldogan, dusting the snow off his feet.
“Whoever said it was her?” came a mocking, familiar voice.
Both demons stared in horrified disbelief at the queen, who was hovering in the air, her cold blue eyes piercing right through them. She was smiling, but it was clear that it wasn’t the friendly kind. Her charred, blackened skin fell away like ash, only to be replaced by dark scales that covered her entire body.
“Excuse the attire, but you didn’t leave me with much choice,” she said, her eyes glinting. “Now, where was I?”
One of Meldogan’s fingers exploded, and the demon screamed. He wasn’t granted any reprieve as the rest followed, clouding the air with bloody spray as lightning destroyed them from within.
“Meldogan!” Nashim reached to pull him away, but the dark demon stopped him.
“Stay back!” Meldogan growled. “She’s controlling the charges in my body! I’m a bomb right now!” His right arm tore to pieces and another blast removed it entirely from his shoulder. He screamed horribly.
Nashim snarled and smacked his fist into the ground. It cracked open, releasing all the dratkaars that had previously been trapped beneath. He was close to unlocking the pendant’s power, but until he figured out how, he had to find a way to neutralise the queen.
Dratkaars surrounded them on all sides. Their vast presence had an immediate effect on both the queen and the demons. Meldogan broke free of the queen’s grasp and returned to Nashim’s side.
“Let’s see how you fare without your qi,” growled Nashim.
The queen dropped to the ground lightly. A smile crossed her cold, beautiful features as she faced the demons. She drew out the swords from behind her back, and they gleamed like cold death in the sun.
“Let’s.”
31
Garok’s Return
“Dragoth’s found them, and they are in trouble!” Prince Gil Ra Im shouted over his shoulder. Dragoth had entered Si Ren Da’s atmosphere in an almost vertical dive and was flying straight towards Baneyon’s team. As Dragoth plummeted, the protective shield the faar had wrapped around his passengers disintegrated, and Terrana, Lorn, and the prince were exposed to the planet’s hot atmospheric winds.
“Where are they?” Terrana shouted back, craning her neck as much as she could over the prince’s shoulder to try and catch a glimpse of Baneyon.
“West of us! Dragoth says that Eindz, Lady Anrath’s faar, is wounded. I’ll need to drop the both of you at that peak there.” He pointed to a nearby pinnacle that jutted from the mountain range up ahead. It was the same one Terrana had seen in her dream. Mire’s Point.
“That’s the least you could do after dragging us here,” growled Lorn. He was still simmering, furious that the prince had instructed his faar to escape Minda Yerra with him and Terrana still on board. The ride had made them both sick because they were not used to the effects of the transformation necessary for their bodies to survive the In-Between.
The prince ignored him. “We are nearly low enough. You should be able to manage the jump.”
“What? No, wait! You want us to jump off Dragoth right now in the middle of the sky?” Terrana yelped. The memory of Dartkala’s Arrow was still fresh in her mind.
“No argu
ments from you!” snapped Lorn. He grabbed her by the waist, pulling her close.
“Don’t scream,” the prince warned. “We mustn’t alert anyone to our presence.”
Terrana didn’t even get the chance. Lorn covered her mouth and leaned heavily to the side. They slid off Dragoth into emptiness, plunging towards the mountains at bloodcurdling speed. Dragoth and the prince sped towards the Imeldors.
Dragoth, the dratkaars are too many. You’ll not be able to fly once you land. You’ll also be weakened.
We will race to the top, Prince Gil Ra Im. There, we can all fly.
The prince drew a long, thin sword from a sheath that had been attached to Dragoth’s side. It was an elegant sword, and despite the lack of engraving and decor, one could tell that it had been forged by a master sword smith.
As they neared Baneyon and the others, Dragoth unleashed his first attack. Long, deadly needles shot from his mane, straight towards the dratkaars. Laced with qi, the needles did not halt at penetration but forged on through their target until they exited naturally or their qi wore off. Because the dratkaars had the ability to nullify qi, the needles would, at the most, only slow them down.
Baneyon and Quempa were back to back, fighting off the hell dogs as they continued to charge at the Imeldors mercilessly. Raimus was using his weight, combined with his bulk, to ram into the dratkaars so they would lose their footing. Then he would be able to slide a short dagger through their eyes and into their brains.
Lady Anrath, Lady Fless, and L-Master Ana struggled atop the faar, kicking, punching, and cutting through the dratkaars that leapt at them. Eindz, Lady Anrath’s faar, was bleeding badly. The dratkaars had attacked him in full force, and many of his scales had been ripped from his body. But the majestic faar fought back, taking down six dratkaars at a time as they leapt onto him. He ploughed on furiously, forcing a bloody path through the gnashing beasts.
Everyone blinked in surprise as the dratkaars fell back suddenly, yelping and whining. Their surprise turned to amazement when Dragoth and the prince ploughed into the dratkaars, pushing them back. Dragoth tore the dratkaars off Eindz’s flanks, tossing them high into the air.
