by S. M. Beiko
I was smashed aside by a river hunter that was twice my size, flying headlong into a statue of Queen Victoria. I say headlong, because the impact knocked her head clean off. She staggered, but reeled back and swung with her sceptre to clear a path.
I rolled on the soggy ground and righted myself, trying to refill again with the inferno I needed to keep going. Instead, I found myself whipped from the ground by a huge wind and thrown into a nearby shrubbery while a lamppost, lately of the Osborne Bridge, scythed through the place I’d been formerly collecting myself.
I looked up to see Solomon standing over me before he hauled me back to my feet.
“Thanks,” my flames hissed, but the gratitude was short-lived; an explosion rocked the air as Zabor’s tail cut through the apartment towers on the other side of Osborne. We heard screams over the din as they crumpled into themselves in a mass of smoke and destruction. Some of these buildings weren’t empty, and Zabor knew that. She laughed as the towers came down, swinging again to take out anything near her.
From the sidelines, we caught our startled breath. Solomon was covered in black muck, his face tight. Some of the statues were falling as the Rabbits that controlled them were overtaken by black, devouring shadows. A group of Foxes had banded together with some Owls to create a fireball tornado to cut through an advancing group, but no matter how many river hunters they sheared down, more rippled up from the riverbanks like slimy salamanders, shaking free of the mother who had no shortage of them. Natti and Aivik were trying to use whatever water was available to them for direct offense, freezing hunters and debris before it could crush someone, but Aivik sent a frozen hunter flying directly into Zabor’s chest, which made her twist around, angrier than she’d yet been.
Tail still submerged, Zabor struck down with the power of her mighty coils for the Seal that had dared use one of her children against her, but something threw him out of the way. Something black and screeching.
Brother.
Zabor pulled up short as Brother rattled out a cry that made the flames coming off me gutter. For a moment, the great snake looked pained, even moved back a little.
Then her face rearranged into a sneer and, with one swing of her hand, she smashed Brother down, killing him instantly.
Natti’s guttural cry rose up and diverted Zabor’s attention just enough — huge spikes of ice flew into her face, glancing off her powerful scales . . . but one shard struck an eye, and she bellowed as she staggered back, tail flailing and pulling trees up by the roots.
“The targe!” Solomon grabbed a hold of my shoulder with a claw, shaking me out of my daze. “Before she takes out the entire downtown core!”
I swallowed and leapt forward, but I brought myself up short. One of Zabor’s hands, finally tired of the pest Natti was making of herself, struck out and broadsided her, throwing her into a knot of screeching hunters. Phae broke away from a group of Rabbits and encased Natti in an orb of light. Natti smashed through the hunters like a bowling ball, and came to rest with Phae, who looked more fierce than I’d ever seen her. She spun out, her fist filling with blue lightning and sent the hunters retaliating to the riverbank, blinded.
She turned to me, face triumphant, but then it fell. “Roan!”
A hunter screeched from behind us, and Solomon’s scream punched a hole in me as I lunged, wrenching the hunter’s jaws from his leg — or what was left of it.
I threw myself down by his side. He was down, not dead. But how could we activate the targe now? Another Owl found us, the sharp-faced councilwoman. She looked to me, and I nodded, and she whisked him from the battlefield with a gust.
I turned back to the river. Zabor clutched her damaged eye, but pulled her hand away so she could fully take in the new adversary beneath her.
“Shit,” I hissed.
Sil, bright blade flashing, crackled like a living bolt of lightning, growing in height, though still miniscule compared to the river serpent. Zabor’s cackles saturated the dark air, her arms outstretched in supplication as she tilted her head up.
“What a boon that has been delivered me,” she cackled. “The Fox Paramount herself! A fine tribute. An enemy worthy of my wrath.”
The river hunters chittered with her, and as I looked around at our small contingent falling back, pulling injured comrades to the side for protection, I realized the demon and the warrior were going to have it out, one-on-one. Sil raised her blade.
“For my daughter, for my granddaughter, and for me!” And with that, she leapt and smashed her fire headlong into Zabor’s face. The skyscraper-huge tyrant recoiled, throwing every bit of her petulant rage forward as she chased after the Fox warrior, who gracefully danced out of the way.
Sil vaulted and wove — and brought Zabor farther and farther out of the river, closer to the legislature. I knew the drums I heard pounding in my blood made the beat she followed. She spun, a wild streak of joy and rage. And Zabor chased still.
I caught Sil’s eye and her smirk. This was a distraction. This was our chance to put her away. But with Solomon gone . . .
Another river hunter — quick and sleek — fell on me, snatching the targe from around my neck. The hunter nearly slipped my grasp, but I got a hold of its leg, hurling it into the front of the building.
It let go of the targe, which flew skyward and was hurtled by the gale-force winds to the top of the dome.
“Dammit!” I yelled, and in a fiery surge, I spun upwards to the first frieze of the building. I kicked off to the next level, cutting through the cold. I was getting close, but the higher I went, the harder it was to stay lit. I reached, but missed the edge of the temple-top.
Talons sank into my flesh and threw me so high I had to reach for the Golden Boy statue’s outstretched wheat sheaf. I swung over it and landed beside the statue, nearly slipping to my death.
Eli landed next to me, and steadied me on the wet dome before I could tumble back down. I clung to the Golden Boy with one arm, my other hand firmly around the targe dangling there. I slipped it back over my head. The way down was blocked by the curve of the roof, and I couldn’t see the full extent of the distance. I squeezed my eyes shut hard and swallowed.
“And where have you been!” I screamed, surprised and happy to see Eli, despite it all.
He didn’t say anything, face drawn and tight. I tilted myself as far out as I could to see Zabor and Sil coming closer to the building. From here, I could see the extent of the great snake’s destruction, and how far her tail stretched. She was half free of the water, but a massive amount of her tail still remained there. I searched the crowd for Natti, Barton, and Phae. They were rushing to three points around the colossal skirmish, preparing themselves.
I suddenly realized what Sil was doing, before she darted out from under Zabor’s grasp, landing on her tail in a dervish of fire, her blade rising above her head in her mighty, powerful arms.
The blade sank home, and Zabor convulsed hard enough to throw Sil aside. The garnet sword had cut deep, but not deep enough.
Something was spurting out of the wound — hissing and burbling and alive. It shot out for Sil and hit her directly in the eyes just as she’d risen back to her feet. She staggered, blinded, dropping her blade and clawing at her face.
This was enough of a stall for the giant tail to rear up, showing its terrible spikes as it pulled free of the mud bank.
“No!” I heard Eli screech, just as I let go of the Golden Boy and skittered down, a flaming bullet as I threw myself headlong for my grandmother. I flew faster and faster, the Canadian comet, any fear of heights or dying lost in the embers of my heart. I can make it, I can make it, I’m going to make —
The spike pierced Sil’s body like a spear. I landed short of her by a few feet, pulling myself up just in time to avoid merging with the pavement. But I couldn’t reach Sil, couldn’t do anything as she was thrown up like a newly caught trout on the end
of a barb. Then the spike slipped free of her, and the tail smashed her aside.
Ragdoll limp, she came to a stop on an upturned tree. My fire went out as I scrambled to her side.
“No, no,” I said, the words sounding terribly calm in my ears. “Nope, no. It’s okay, you’re okay. Phae! Phae!”
I looked around for her once, but I didn’t move from my place beside Sil. My hands were on either side of the wound gaping in her chest. Her eyelids were stuck together with the black muck of Zabor’s toxic blood and, with an exhale, the warrior body dissolved into ashes, leaving only the fox behind.
I pulled her up in my lap, careful not to jostle her, afraid that it might . . . that she . . .
“It’s just a body.” I was suddenly blubbering, breath heaving in and out of my lungs. “You’re fine. You’ve got a backup. Just go to it, okay? I’ll see you — I’ll see you back at home.” My fantasyland logic couldn’t be flawed. I wouldn’t allow it to be.
Sil laughed around her pain. “It doesn’t work that way, you silly pup.” The fur under my hands seemed to be cooling. “Now stop whining. Finish . . . finish the job.” Her fire was going out; I could feel it turning low. I held her tighter, closer.
“Not without you,” I seethed through gritted teeth. “Not without you.”
She pulled her black lips over her bleeding gums. “Never,” she sighed, and the fire she had left passed through my flesh and into me.
I erupted.
My body suddenly felt crowded. My bones argued against accommodating so much in such a small space. But any protest only sizzled away. I was the Fox warrior goddess. I saw the beginning and a glimpse of the end.
And I knew that end was not today.
I stood again, the storm whipping up anew, the river hunters a dim razor in the back of a mind too busy to acknowledge the sound. I moved towards the sword that had been abandoned and, though shadows in my periphery moved to stop me, I only turned them aside with a whisper of fire, and they burned.
I picked up the blade and soared towards the spurting black limb. More screaming and flailing. I moved with the curve of the Earth as it spun under Zabor’s rage. I wove through her aggravated attacks and smashed the blade down again and again. I cut and cauterized as I went, and finally the bone was cleaved apart, the snake and its tail separate at last.
I came back into myself for a moment, saw the tail lift itself up and smash to land, flipping and tossing and sending Denizens scattering. It sprayed black acid in a terrible pinwheel, and I saw Natti rear up and freeze it before it struck anyone. Rabbits, on Barton’s command, dashed in around her, bringing the ground up in plinths of rocks to pierce the tail and nail it in one place.
But the owner of the tail still had her wits, and she came down on me with all her body. I flew to the side, and the targe ripped free of the cord around my neck and, before I could grab it, it fell and smashed apart on the pavement.
I didn’t have the chance to gather the pieces of the targe. Zabor’s arm smashed into Natti and Barton. The next moment saw river hunters overtaking Phae, teeth coming down on her leg. Her scream nearly knocked me out.
Whatever power Sil had passed on to me overwhelmed every sense, until fear took them all. Zabor’s huge hand pinned me in a bed of my — Sil’s — nine tails.
“You think you can part me from my river?” Her horrible voice cut through my ears and my fire. “You think you can cut me from my tail and I will lose my terrible power? I will rip a hole so great in this world that my brothers will surge out, and we will blacken Ancient’s great creation as we were meant to. Your grave will pave the way for millions.”
I heard the beating of wings, and my spirit eye showed me only moths and the end their Great Queen had promised. I conceded that I had come as far as I could allow. That my parents would be proud, that what was left of my grandmother fluttering inside of me was satisfied.
But they were not moth wings. They were Owl wings. And I saw those unforgiving claws sink into demon-flesh, pulling the serpent’s head back with a howl as she batted Eli away.
But that’s what he wanted, her face turned to him and exposed, as he raised a shard of the glittering green targe and smashed it into her skull.
The sky opened and the river rumbled. Zabor reeled back, clawing at her face, but there was no removing the splinter. It burned like an oil flash, turning black, and there it stayed. I rolled to my haunches and managed to spot three pieces scattered near me. I ripped apart a river hunter who was making off with the fourth one. I turned and found Phae in Barton’s exhausted root arms, what was left of her power trying to reset the wound in her leg. Natti, eye blackened and hands bloodied, supported the weight of her injured brother nearby. Eli helped her rest Aivik against a downed tree.
We all turned to face the raging demon as she stumbled on the bloody stump of her tail, making for the confines of the river. She swatted away her faithful children as they swarmed her, despairing.
Sil’s and my words overlapped. “The pieces of the targe must be put into place.” I looked down at my scorched claw-hands, offering the glittering green shards to my friends. They each grasped one close, faces drawn.
“Okay, fly boy,” Barton said, holding out his piece. “Here, stick this one in her for me, would ya? Don’t think I can reach.”
Eli scowled and didn’t move. “I’ve done my part. Now you all must do the same.”
Barton tensed. “You want Phae and Natti to grow wings, too, and risk dying in the process? We all can’t be animal gods, for fuck’s sake.” He spat blood.
“Stop it,” Phae wheezed. “He’s right. We’ve come this far. We need to do what we came here for.”
“Then what? We’re fresh out of Bloodgates,” Barton persisted, clutching Phae to keep her steady as her healing did its work.
Eli’s eyes tensed in the cold dark, but he still didn’t move. “The targe will rend the two worlds apart for us and chain her to the Bloodlands in the process. But we’d better act fast, before she pulls the river back up and floods us all.”
The ground heaved beneath us, but the two of us stood firm. Unable to consolidate whatever was going on inside me, I turned my gaze outward instead, following Eli’s example. Zabor scrabbled and screamed at the shard in her head, but her thrashing, stump of a tail had a nubbin of new flesh where I’d cut it free. Her tail was growing back.
Phae was finally able to get to her feet, helping Barton into his overturned wheelchair. Part of me longed to hold her and reassure her. The dominating part, however, only acknowledged my best friend as nothing more than a passing shade; I was too high to feel anything.
“Roan —” she reached for me, but Natti pulled her back. They were afraid of me, but I felt that they ought to be.
Phae broke from her, mouth set, hair a sopping, tangled mess around her throat. Her dark eyes slid away, and her mighty antlers climbed slick and high.
“For Sil,” she whispered, blue lightning crackling. She turned to Barton and Natti, pressing her shard to her lips. “Once and for all.”
They nodded as one and left the cover of the fountain to meet their fate.
The river hunters, howling and furious, rushed forward like berserkers. A refreshed contingent of Denizens saw the approaching three and afforded them a defense, cobbled together as it was. Even still, Barton had to intervene, punching a fist into a piece of rocky debris, rippling the pavement under it. Phae, beside him, encased him in a solid ball of white light, and sent him tumbling like a pinball into the rocky outcrops he’d made. On her other side, Natti had swirled up armfuls of the river, freezing it behind her with such a force that she skated up it like a giant frozen geyser. She took Phae with her and, as they rose higher, Phae fixed her shard into her mighty antlers, goring the piece home into Zabor’s head as she swerved to meet them.
With the shard planted and smoking black, Phae fell free and into El
i’s talons. He jerked her smoothly out of Zabor’s path, and while she dove after them, Barton punched a plinth out of the ground, rising on the rock column until he could jam his shard into her jaw.
This time, the great snake queen struck. Barton soared, but Natti slid under him, her hailstorm still massive and growing behind her. She deposited him safely with a group of Rabbits who had seen him fall and turned again for Zabor.
It may have been her river all this time, but now it was Natti’s. With her fist held high, the Seal pulled the river to her and wrapped Zabor’s flailing, severed body in a coil of ice. Another fist of water shot Natti’s piece home.
Zabor’s rage reached a new volume. It was time to add my piece.
Beneath my feet, I felt the five gold rings rise and flash. Each one found my comrades, tethering our spirits to the Families that gave us power. We’d need to come together one last time.
The rings were alive. The voices on the other side called us, and Eli, Barton, Natti, and Phae each closed their eyes and I felt their spirits pray.
My shard winked with the light from my shining fire. Cecelia’s fire. I did as Phae had and pressed the shard to my lips in benefaction. Then my mouth moved again on its own. “To the power that gives our spirits light. To the Ancient force that guides us in its silence. From the Warren of the Rabbits. From the Den of the Foxes. From the Roost of the Owls. From the Glen of the Deer. From the Abyss of the Seals!” My voice rose louder and louder, and it wasn’t just mine, but Cecelia’s, too. “Place your Grace on us, and upon this targe!” This time I had control, and I walked steadily towards the snake.
Zabor struggled mightily, face fierce and pupils so small as to be invisible. Her icy bonds were cracking, melting, but not leaving her. She was calling the river to her in one last bid to annihilate. The water rose, and she with it, frantic and screaming so brutally that her children fled, but seemed to die as soon as they reached land, turning into river mud as they scattered. The remaining Denizens and the injured took cover behind me. But I stopped, at a standstill beneath her. Then I rose high on a twisting inferno churned up by my mighty tails, and we were face to face.
