them. Cracks zigzagged across the walls, dust choked the dank air.
Crash!!
Coruna saw the nearer wall swaying, toppling. The floor lifted and buckled and she fell to the lurching ground. All the world was an insanity of racket and ruin.
The lintel caved in, the portal sagged. Coruna leaped for the opening like a pouncing erinye. The women swarmed with it, out through the widening hole while the roof came down behind them.
Someone screamed, a faint lost sound in the grinding fury of sundering stone. Rocks were flying—Coruna saw one of them crack a woman's head like a melon. Wildly she ran as the outer facade came down.
There was a madness of storm outside, wind screaming to fill the sky, driving solid sheets of rain and hail before it.
The incessant blinding lightning glared in a cold shadowless brilliance, the bawling thunder drowned the roar of exploding devil-powder. They fought out through the courtyard, past the deserted outer gate.
There came a blast which seemed to crack the sky. Coruna was knocked down as by a giant's fist. She lay in the mud and saw a pillar of flame lift toward the heavens with the castle containing up on its wings. Thunder roared over the earth, shouting to the storm that raged in the heavens.
Coruna picked herself up and leaned dizzily against a tree stripped clean by the blast. Rain slanted across the ground, churning the mud beneath her feet, the livid lightning-glare blazing above. Vaguely, through ringing, deafened ears, she heard the wild clamor of the sea. Looking down the cataract which the upward trail had become, she saw the Brisceir rocking in the wind where he lay on the beach.
She gestured to Imaza, who staggered up to join her. Her voice was barely audible over the shouting wind: 'Take the women down there. We can't sail in this storm, but make the ship fast, stand guard over him. If I'm not back when the storm is done, start for home.'
'Where are you going?' cried the Unilotuan.
'I'll be back—maybe. Stay with the ship!'
Coruna turned and slogged across the ground toward the jungle.
Weariness was gone. She was like a machine running without thought or pain until it burned out. Chryseir would have fled toward high ground, she thought dully.
Behind her, Imaza started forward, then checked herself. Something of the ultimate loneliness that was in Coruna must have come to the Umlotuan. It was not a mission on which any other woman might go. And they had to save the ship. She gestured to her few remaining women and they began the slow climb down to the beach.
The castle was a heap of shattered rock, still moving convulsively as the last few' boxes of devil-powder exploded. The rain boiled down over it, churning through the fragments. Lightning flamed in the berserk heavens.
Coruna pushed through underbrush that clutched at her feet and clawed at her skin. The sword was still hanging loosely in one hand, nicked and blunted with battle. She went on mechanically, scarcely noticing the wind-whipped trees that barred her way.
It came to her that she was fighting for Khromona, the thalassocrat of Achaera, ruler by right of conquest over Conahur. But there were worse things than foreign rule, if it was human, and one of the greater evils had fled toward the mountain.
Presently she came out on the bare rocks above the fringe of jungle growth. The rain hammered at her, driven by a wind that screamed like a maddened beast. Thunder boomed and rolled overhead, a roar of doom answering the thud of her heart. The water rushed over her ankles, foaming down toward the sea.
He stood waiting for her atop a high bare hill. His cloak was drawn tightly about his slender body, but the wind caught at it, whipped and tore it. His rain-wet hair blew wild.
'Coruna,' he called under the gale. 'Coruna.'
'I am coming,' she said, not caring if he heard her or not. She struggled up to where he stood limned against the sheeted fire in heaven. They faced each other while the storm raged around them. 'Coruna—'
He read death in her eyes as she lifted the sword. His form blurred, the outlines of a monster grew to her eyes.
She laughed bitterly. 'I know what your magic is,' she said. 'You saw me kill Tsatha.'
He was human again, human and lovely, a light-footed spirit of the hurricane. His face was etched white in the lightning-glare.
'Peria!' he screamed.
The erinye crept forth, belly to the ground, tail lashing. Hell glared out of the ice-green eyes. Coruna braced herself, sword in hand.
Peria sprang—not straight at the woman, but into the air. Her wings caught the wind, whirling her aloft. Twisting in mid-flight, she arrowed down. Coruna struck at her. The erinye dodged the blow and one buffeting wingtip caught the woman's wrist. The sword fell from Coruna's hand. At once the erinye was ()whim.
Coruna fell under that smashing attack. The erinye's fangs gleamed above her throat, the claws sank into her muscles. She flung up an arm and the teeth crunched on it, grinding at the bone.
Coruna wrapped her legs in a scissor-lock around the gaunt body, pressing herself too close for the clawed hind feet to disembowel her. Her free hand reached out, gouging—he felt an eyeball tear loose, and the erinye opened her mouth in a thin scream. Coruna pulled her torn arm free. She struck with a balled fist at the devil-beast and felt her knuckles break under the impact. But bone snapped. Peria' jaw hung suddenly loose.
The erinye sprang back and Coruna lurched to hands and knees. Peria edged closer, stiff-legged. Coruna stumbled erect and Peria charged. One great wing smashed out, brought the woman toppling back to earth. Peria leaped for her exposed belly.
Coruna lashed out with both feet. The thud was dull and hollow under the racketing thunder. Peria tumbled back and Coruna sprang on her. The barbed tail slashed, laying Coruna's thigh open. She fell atop the struggling beast and got her free hand on the throat.
The mighty wings threshed, half lifting woman and erinye. Coruna pulled herself over on the writhing back. She locked legs around the body, arms around the neck, and heaved.
The erinye yowled. Her wings clashed together, with skull-cracking force, barely missing the head of the woman who hugged her back. Her tail raked against Coruna's back, seeking the vitals. Coruna gave another yank. She felt the supple spine bending. Heave!
Peria lifted a brassy scream. The strange dry sound of snapping vertebrae crackled out. Coruna rolled away from the threshing form.
Peria gasped, lifted her broken head, and looked with filming green eyes at Chryseir where he stood unmoving against the white fire of the sky. Slowly, painfully, she dragged herself toward him. Breath rattled in and out of her blood-filled lungs.
'Peria—' Chryseir bent over to touch the great head. The erinye sighed. Her rough tongue licked his feet. Then she shuddered and lay still.
'Peria.'
Coruna climbed to her feet and stood shaking. There was no strength left in her—it was running out through a dozen yawning wounds. The ground whirled and tilted crazily about her. She saw his standing against the sky and slowly, slowly, she came toward him.
Chryseir picked up a stone and threw it. It seemed to take an immense time, arcing toward her. Some dim corner of her buckling consciousness realized that it would knock her out, that he could then kill her with the sword and escape into the hills.
It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. The stone crashed against her skull and the world exploded into darkness.
X
She woke up, slowly and painfully, and lay for a long time in a state of half-awareness, remembering only confused fragments of battle and despair.
When she opened her eyes, she saw that the storm was dying. Lightning was wan in the sky, and thunder mumbled farewell. The wind had fallen, the rain fell slow and heavy down on her.
She saw him bending over her. The long wet hair tumbled past his face to fall on her breast. She was wrapped in his cloak, and he had ripped bandages from his robe for her hurts.
She tried to move, and could only stir feebly. He laid a hand on her cheek. 'Don't,' he whispered. 'Just lie there, Coruna.'
Her head was on his lap, she realized dimly. Her eyes questioned him. He laughed, softly under the falling rain.
'Don't you see?' he said. 'Didn't you think of it? Shorzona's geas was put on me as a child I was always under her will. Even when she was dead, it was strong enough to drive me along her road.
'But I love you, Coruna. I will always love you. My love warred with Shorzona's will even as I tried to kill you. And when I saw you lying there helpless, after such a fight as no woman has ever waged since the gods walked the earth—''
'I tried to stab you. And I couldn't. Shorzona's geas was broken.'
His hands stroked her hair. 'You aren't too badly hurt, Coruna. I'll get you down to the ship. With my witch's powers, we can win through any Xanthi who try to stop us—not that I think they will, with their leaders destroyed. We can get safely to Achaera.'
He sighed. 'I will see that you escape my mother's power, Coruna. If you will return to the pirate life, I will follow you.
She shook her head. 'No,' she whispered. 'No, I will take service under Khromona, if she will have me.'
'She will,' he vowed softly. 'She needs strong women. And someday you can be thalassocrat of the empire—'
It wasn't so bad, thought Coruna. Khromona was a good sort. A highly placed Conahurian could gradually ease the burdens of her people until they had full equality with Achaera in a united and peaceful domain.
The menace of the Xanthi was ended. To be on the safe side, Achaera had better- make them tributary; an
Witch of the Demon Seas Resailed Page 12
