ten warriors and sniffed it off. One of the
oldest and most powerful savants we had
met and she dealt with him like she would a
child. When she was done, she turned those
blood red eyes on me and I just had to
shudder…
—Kalindinai T’Evagduran,
Queen of Malan
Kalindinai stared up at the newcomer, seemingly mesmerized by the powerful creature. Daena stepped closer to the Queen, umber-colored eyes wide, apparently afraid to look away. Vulcindra did nothing overt, leaning back on her high heels, crimson eyes studying the two of them with what seemed to be vague amusement. She fingered a long gold chain hanging around her neck, and nibbled absently at a long silver-lacquered nail. Around them the quiet of the mage precincts echoed with warning gongs, and the sound of boots pounding toward them came from different directions.
As the storm of rapidly approaching elves drew close, Vulcindra raised her chin. Her voice made the walls vibrate. “Do keep your rabble back. I don’t do crowds.” She narrowed her eyes and started to raise a hand. “At least, not the way you’d prefer…”
Bannor felt the jolt of realization sing through Kalandinai. She slammed her staff on the floor, sending a surge of magic swelling through her body.
She spun and threw out a hand. “Stop! Approach no closer!”
As the Queen of Malan revealed herself, staff and rod upraised, the guards slid to a stop, glowing eyes wide.
“Please!” she said with even more volume.
Still breathing hard, the elves stared at her, weapons gripped in white knuckled hands. Except for one in red, the dozen or so guild guardians were dressed in white enameled cuirasses, embossed with gold filigree—the precinct’s high guard.
Kalindinai pushed the black rod of state into her sash. She touched between her breasts and her hand glowed. A silver disk flared into being between her fingers. She held out the metal emblem embossed with the griffon symbol of Malan, jewels and filigree winking on its surface.
“Lower your weapons,” she added, swinging the seal so all of them could view it.
The guards dropped the points of their weapons. The single guard in red sheathed his sword and stepped forward. He stood taller than the others though not as big King T’Evagduran. His hair had a golden color like metal, and his glowing eyes were the color of dark sapphires. “Matradomma,” he said with a bow of his head. “Pardon the presumption. Please let me verify your seal.”
The Queen stiffened. She glanced back at Vulcindra. The female had dropped her hand, and stood watching with arms folded. When Kalindinai’s gaze met hers, she raised an eyebrow and made a little smile.
Kalindinai nodded and came forward to hold the symbol out. The blond elf bowed and approached. He removed a ring from a chain around his neck and placed it on his hand. He held his hand over the proffered device. A green glow illuminated the ring.
He bowed again. “My apologies, Matradomma,” he said with cough. “Things have been very strange of late.”
“Yes,” she responded. “All is as it should be senior praelor. We will be leaving directly.” Kalindinai turned back to the young elf collapsed and now twitching on the floor. She made a circular motion with her staff and the boy rose off the ground and floated toward the nearest guard who sheathed his weapon and caught him. Another guard stepped over and they each took and arm over their neck to support him.
“Take him to a healer,” she requested. “I have the one who assaulted him here.” She nudged Wyyr’s glowing body with her staff. “I will deal with this villain. You may secure this area as soon as we are gone. Until then, if your squad will be kind enough to give Us some room.”
She glanced back toward Vulcindra then back to him, eyes narrowing. Bannor sensed her moving her lips but couldn’t tell what she was saying. The lead guard seemed to understand, because he raised his chin and glanced toward Vulcindra. He paled. He turned to the other elves and gestured them back the way they had come.
Kalindinai watched them until they were out of sight, and then turned toward Vulcindra.
The woman with crimson eyes ran a tongue over her lips. She turned her head. “I do find dark-haired elves attractive. It is unfortunate your own kind see it as an outsider’s trait.”
Bannor felt Kalindinai mustering her resolve. He knew that she would stare down pantheon lords, but this creature scared her and for good reason. Somewhere in the exchange Daena had come to be gripping her arm like she’d become attached.
“Kidomma Skybane,” Kalindinai said with a nod. “We thank your intervention in this matter. We were dreading a long hunt for that one.” She cast her gaze at Wyyr’s still form.
Vulcindra glanced down at the savant and shoved him with her foot. The expression on her face was like she was examining a pile of excrement. “He used to be a lackey of mine until a decade or so ago. I sensed his attacks against a Shael Dal and came to collect him.”
“A Shael Dal?” the Queen murmured. “But you are not a shaladen wielder.”
Vulcindra raised an eyebrow. “Only amateurs need a special focus to gain access to the Protectorate powers.” She pursed her lips. “I find you having two shaladens, especially in such perfect synchronous, to be quite intriguing. Pray, how does one so young accomplish such a thing?”
Kalindinai frowned. “I’m not that young.”
The other woman rolled her eyes and snorted. “I mark you at two and half millennia at the outside. You are just starting to learn what magic is about.” She turned her baleful eyes on Daena. “While you are of interest, it is this young one that fascinates me. Pray, show me your real self.”
Daena swallowed. “You can see my aura?”
The dark woman grinned. “That bending of energies is only good against cretins.”
“Cretins?” Daena breathed. “It works against pantheon lords and some of the eternals!”
Vulcindra waved a hand in front of her face like something smelled bad. “As I said. Show me.” She flicked her other hand at Daena and sparks flared around the young woman’s body.
The girl gasped as a red glow surrounded her, her flesh frothed and bubbled and returned to its normal shape. In a matter of instants she was standing in her original ascendant form clothed in skintight black. She loomed over Kalindinai, long auburn hair gleaming and sparking, green glowing eyes wide with surprise.
Vulcindra rocked her head back and laughed. The sound echoed in the wood and stone corridor. Bannor didn’t have skin, but felt a prickling sensation just the same.
“So, this is what Koass was hiding from me, how very droll.” She bit her tongue. “And such a sweet attractive young thing you are. Just like candy.” She rubbed her fingers together. “You should come give your big sister a kiss.”
The young ascendant staggered forward two steps before digging in with a grunt of effort. “Uhhh, hey, no!”
The woman raised an eyebrow. “Ah and strong-willed too; how delectable.”
“Kidomma Skybane,” Kalindinai said. “I don’t want to appear rude, not after the favor you have done us. Perhaps there is some point to all this?”
“A point?” Vulcindra sniffed. “Not really. This thing with the Baronians is annoying. Sroth is spending far too much of his attention on this matter rather than on me.”
“Sroth?” Kalindinai said. “Eternal Sroth?”
“Do you know another?” She held out a hand and Wyyr’s glowing body drifted up to it. “Since Koass won’t allow me to be directly involved in things, this seemed to be the most appropriate bit of peripheral entertainment.”
“I see,” Kalindinai said. “So, are you planning to incarcerate him so he won’t cause any trouble?”
“Incarcerate?” Vulcindra said with a frown. “Why would I waste such resources on this traitorous wight? I would have killed him already except I am not positive I got all his bodies.”
“As long as he doesn’t bother us again, I don’t care,” Kalindinai s
aid. “He tried to kidnap my daughter.”
“Ah,” Vulcindra said with a nod. “She was the one I felt fighting him. As I recall she had two shaladens synchronized as well… interesting.” She narrowed her eyes. She flicked a finger at Kalindinai’s wrist, the one with Xersis clamped around it. The Queen’s arm jerked up and she was dragged sliding toward the powerful mage.
“Hey!”
“There it is,” Vulcindra said, eying the band without touching it. “How did one of my siblings get in there? Surely, Brother, you can talk—share what must be an entertaining story.”
“Sister Vulcindra, please let her go,” he said.
“Why?” she asked, frowning.
“Because as you said, we are kin,” he answered. “None of us contest that you are stronger than we are. I can see that you use your nola to fold space in such a way that you can tap an unlimited amount of eternity’s energy. We can’t fight that.”
She stared at the band as if she could see him. She dropped her gesture and Kalindinai relaxed. “Tell me your name.”
“Bannor,” he answered.
“And you can see that from inside a shaladen?”
“It’s not easy,” he answered.
“Never mind,” Vulcindra said. “I—” She stopped, and tilted her head. “The Daergons are not friends of yours, right?”
“Definitely not,” the Queen answered.
The woman with crimson eyes sighed. “Come.” She made a hooking gesture with her finger. “Get closer. If I let those gold freaks have you, Koass will give me another century of probation.”
As Daena and Kalindinai stepped closer Vulcindra made a slashing motion with her hand. The air itself seemed to be sliced open. Instead of them going to the cut, it came to them like a hungry maw that chomped down on them in gust of storm struck air.
The threads of the universe kinked around them and abruptly straightened, leaving the three of them in the citadel infirmary. Their abrupt appearance causing all three mecha healers to clutch their chests in fright, and send wounded Kriar and valkyries surging to their feet.
Kalindinai held up her staff. “It’s okay! Calm. Calm.”
The Queen’s yell forestalled the Valkur and Kriar while they were still steps away.
Wren and Corim came sprinting in from the hall and slid to a stop in the doorway.
“Lady Vulcindra,” Octavia said. There was an uncharacteristic tremble in the mecha’s voice. Usually they were so imperturbable. “What—what are you doing here?”
“Octavia?” Vulcindra replied. “Interesting.” She dropped Wyyr’s body like a sack of rocks. His thudded on the floor like a wooden log. “One might ask the same of you.”
Octavia surreptitiously stepped in front of Wysteri, Mercedes and the Felspar children as if to shield them. “Counsel Solaris and domma Eladrazelle bid me take care of mother Gaea.”
“Gaea?” Vulcindra’s eyebrows rose. She looked to Wren. “Another sister.” Her gaze fixed on Corim. “Hello, little boy, still soul-sharing with Aarlen I see.”
Corim swallowed but bowed his head. “Highness Skybane.”
Vulcindra put hands on hips. “So—many—toys!” She growled. “I will never forgive Koass, I—” She stopped in mid-word as her gaze settled on Arabella. She brushed past Kalindinai and stepped over to the pallet with the red-haired bard. The woman looked better than she had when they left but she still looked ill. “Bella,” she brushed a hand through the woman’s thick locks. “My, you’ve seen better days.”
The bard groaned. “Tell me about it.”
Vulcindra’s expression turned serious. She put a hand against Arabella’s neck.
Octavia lurched forward and held out a hand. “Lady, please…”
Vulcindra scowled at her. This time the growl was an angry growl. “Yes?”
The mecha swallowed, and bit her tongue in silence.
The dark woman picked up the bard’s hands one at a time and examined her fingers. “You’ve been fighting without gauntlets again,” the woman said. “How are you supposed to play properly with your hands mangled?”
“Sorry, Mistress,” Arabella murmured.
She put a hand gently on the bard’s abdomen, and the red-haired woman cringed and gritted her teeth.
Bannor saw Wren look to Corim who stood frozen, and then to the Kriar and valkyries who were not moving. She shoved past the shaladen warrior and strode over to Vulcindra.
Kalindinai and Daena tried to wave Wren off but the blonde ascendant ignored it. She stopped a step from the dark woman, flipped back her blonde hair, and glared at her with glowing blue eyes. “Excuse me, Lady Vulcindra was it? Should you be doing that? You can’t just come in here like you own the place and do as you please.”
Arabella threw out a hand to Wren. “Wren, no…” she tried to rise and started coughing and groaning. “D-don’t.”
Vulcindra pushed Arabella back down. “Hush.”
“I think you should stop touching her,” Wren growled. Even through Kalindinai’s body, he felt the room tremble. This was not fragile Wren he remembered from Hecate’s war, running and dodging from lesser demons. This was an ascendant with enormous power, able to withstand the blast of one of the Kriar great weapons and devastate dozens of Baronians with a single attack.
The dark woman raised her chin, red eyes suddenly burning like flames. “Our kinship is no license to take that tone with me. I go where I want and do what I want. Back off.” She shoved Wren back a step, her silver nailed hand sparking as it hit something around Wren’s skin. “You can glare at me, but what good is a perfect magical defense and infinite resources if I dump your cute little arse in a star, hmmm? I guarantee you can’t redirect that. So, run along. I’ll play with you later.”
She went back to what she was doing and ignored Wren.
Bannor felt the wind in the room begin to swirl. The blonde ascendant’s hair stirring in the haze of power gathering around her body. She stepped forward and grabbed Vulcindra’s arm. “I think you’ll be going now.”
“Fool,” Vulcindra growled. The room trembled. “So be it.”
She slammed a palm against Wren’s chest that deflected with a flare of sparks.
Wren raised an eyebrow. “Yes, your majesty?” She backhanded the powerful immortal. The force of the blow made the whole room vibrate.
The impact knocked Vulcindra back.
“Look Lady,” Wren snarled. The air in the room crackled. “You are not the queen bad girl you think you are. Test me and I guarantee you won’t be happy with the results.”
The dark woman clenched her fist and dropped into a fighting stance.
“I swear to Gaea,” Wren boomed. “You swing on me, I will frelling rip out your nola and your magic talent and feed them to you.”
“Right,” Vulcindra said with a fierce grin, and started forward.
“Be,” Wren rumbled. A thundering blackness surrounded her body, and her hands became gleaming stars. Bannor saw the whole room become choked with threads, millions of them, so many he had to stop looking through his nola. Wren made a fist and pulled down.
Vulcindra made an incoherent sound and staggered to one knee.
“I fought Hecate with a half-immort body,” Wren said. “I beat her like a dirty rug. This body is, oh, around ten times stronger. If you want, I can add a little more power and tie all that skharvarren of yours in knots and you can live with that for the rest of your life.”
“Urrr…” Vulcindra growled, veins standing out on her arms and neck. “You—can’t—do—that.”
Dark clouds spun around Wren’s body. Heat images shimmered on the surface of her skin. She stepped forward and gripped Vulcindra’s shuddering face. “You don’t get it do you? There’s only one head boss lady and that’s Gaea.” She put a hand behind Vulcindra’s head and twined her fingers in her hair and pulled.
The woman with the blood colored eyes gritted her teeth, eyes of flame narrowed. “Let go.”
“Make me,” Wren rumbled br
inging herself nose to nose with the other woman. “A hundred… a thousand… ten thousand first ones, I can be them all at once—that was the legacy Gaea left to me so I could handle folks just like you. You might be the biggest bad-arse in your demesnes… but I have news for you.” She patted the woman’s cheek with a smoldering hand. “You aren’t so bad. So, you want to be polite or do I have to neuter all your powers?”
“That—urk,” Vulcindra gasped. “—won’t be necessary.”
Wren closed her fist which began to glow red, and rasps of lightning crackled around it. “Try it again—with feeling.”
“Urrgh!” the woman moaned through sputtering lips. “A-a-all right!”
Wren tilted her head, gleaming eyes narrow. “All right, what?”
“Grrr!” With what seemed a truly massive effort Vulcindra sent a hand whistling into Wren’s throat and clamped down. “I will not—”
The fierce look on Wren’s face was that of something wild, something near to losing control. “I don’t remember giving you a choice. Say it… say it now.”
Vulcindra managed to get another hand around Wren’s throat. “No! I will… arrgh!” She rocked her head back and howled as blood began weeping from her eyes and ears.
Wren’s voice dropped. “Say it, or you will be a useless lump!” The ascendant roared. “How many times have you done this to others, Vulcindra? How many thousands, how many millions? You use Gaea’s gifts and even the eternals step carefully around you. You think I can’t see—think I don’t know. I see it all you vindictive cruel little bitch. I thought Hecate was bad.” She yanked on Vulcindra’s hair causing her to yelp in pain. “Last chance.”
Vulcindra dropped her hands. “M-m-my lady, I—I—arrrgh!” She let out another pained howl. “I apologize! I will—urrgh—behave!” Wren squeezed again. “Nnngh. I swear!”
Wren tossed her back on the floor. The ascendant stepped back and with a heave of effort tossed off the power of Starholme Prime like she were shedding a cloak.
The blackness sizzled away and drifted up toward the ceiling and was gone. Wren drew a breath, puffed out her cheeks and let it out slow. Bannor noticed her hands were shaking. She put them behind her back.
Reality's Plaything 5: The Infinity Annihilator Page 43
