by Reiter
“There was only one aside from the Prince!” Fayja declared.
“That is still all of them, is it not?” Kannadi pressed, quickly turning her head before Fayja could respond. Something was amiss. “You are simply waiting for my Master to be the rule and not the exception.” Kannadi’s eyes closed and her nostrils flared; her senses tried to make sense of the impulse she had felt. “And it does not matter if he is like all the others or not. Your fear isn’t thwarting you because you do not know him. It thwarts you because…” Both sensory sweeps returned with traits of the estate that had never belonged there before; they had been very recently added. The scent was foul but sharp, like burning human flesh but stronger. Her ears found the sound of flesh and bone striking against stone. “… you do not know yourself!
“Call for help, now!” Kannadi barked before she tore down the corridor toward the center of the household. “The Master is under attack!” When Nalyik young woman reached the door to take the stairs, Fayja gasped as a body flew out of the stairway door… a winged body with a spiked tail. Using its wings to keep itself aloft, the yellow-skinned creature hissed at its captive, the pinned and stunned Kannadi, who was helpless, pressed against what was now the cracked stone of the corridor.
“Gods of the stars!” Fayja thought as Kannadi looked up at the creature with anger. It was as if she was daring the thing to harm her.
The beast whispered something, but Fayja could not understand the language it spoke. She could, however, see the look on its face quite clearly. It was a familiar sort of glare that sparkled in its green eyes. The spiked tail slowly came over its right shoulder and lifted Kannadi’s chin.
“You strong,” the incubus hissed at Kannadi in Orka. It recognized her kind, which explained to the young woman why it had not released her. “But not strong as me! My Master take your Master… and I take you!” Glass shattered against the head of the demon, doing absolutely no damage to it whatsoever. But it was distracted and looked to the source of the feeble attack. Kannadi did not require further invitation. Her teeth gnashed down on the tail of the demon and the sharpened edges and fangs cut through the skin of the creature and it wailed in pain. Kannadi was released and took hold of the tail just before she was lifted from the floor by the strength of it. The creature sought to lift her up and then slam her body into the floor, but Kannadi released her three grips and ascended to the top of the corridor ceiling where she caught hold of the chandelier. The incubus continued to cry out in pain as it looked at its tail.
“Look what you did!” it screamed. “You hurt my tail!”
“Only the first!” Kannadi roared as she released the chandelier and landed on the left wing of the demon. The sound of bones breaking echoed down the corridor. As the creature yelled, Kannadi took hold of the tail and drove the spiked end through the neck of the creature. She could hear Fayja screaming as the incubus fell to the floor, bleeding and slowly dying.
Reaching to its hip, Kannadi removed its dagger and a mace. She flipped the dagger, catching the blade. She screamed as she turned and threw the weapon down the corridor. The blade lodged in the door of the cupboard Fayja was standing in front of and the impact of the weapon startled the Vohlbred woman.
“Go!” Kannadi hissed in the common tongue. “Take the dagger and go for help, now!” She then looked down at the mace and back at Fayja. Not wanting to see her throw the mace, Fayja quickly turned and ran out of the kitchen. Kannadi nodded as she took a firm grip of the weapon. “Only the first,” she whispered as she ran for the stairway.
Imperial Sentinels were not known for possessing a broad sense of humor. Fayja knew firsthand what could come of a misunderstanding with an Imperial soldier. But she could not let that sway her. Two people were fighting for their lives against demons and they needed help. Climbing out of the air-car, she decided she would use the very device Kannadi had employed to get Fayja to run in the first place. The first Sentinel Fayja met looked at the blade only after his eyes had taken in the form of the lovely female running toward him. Fayja’s concerns were truthful and accurate, but they did not necessarily apply to her. Realizing he could not place the workmanship of the blade, the Sentinel put his hand to the side of his visor, opening a channel to his Central Command Center and scanning the weapon at the same time; alarms sounded a nanosecond later! While the Terran Triangle was more noted for having problems with demon-kind, the Inner Rim was not entirely removed from the experience, and what little history they had had moved them to design and implement severe countermeasures. An alert was sent to the Convocation of the Church, another to the throne, and, once Ernestan’s name was added to the report, a final alert was sent to Princess Maradothia. She was the last to receive word of the event and the first to put thought into action.
“Blood of my masters!” the young Nalyik woman gasped as she entered Ernestan’s Gazing Chamber. The glass ceiling no longer allowed the Star Gaper to look up at the starry night sky, but rather the bowels of one of the Zarta-Planes of MoGo!
In spite of her age and lack of knowledge of the Energies, Kannadi recognized the look – and more importantly – the feel of the place. She had been to one of the planes herself; an effect of a Black Witch cursing her parents. She could remember what it had been like, feeling the earth swallow her only to spit her out at the edge of the Millpond of Agony. Kannadi and her family had been meant to be thrown in with the other miscast souls… a fact no one had made clear enough to Trag Klawbone. She had seen her father fight before, but never with such tempered ferocity. His wife and Kannadi’s mother, the ArcheR Dyseena, took to her black-bone bow, and Kannadi would never forget the sound of it creaking as the bow string was pulled back. Even at the age of being called a warrior, Kannadi could not pull that bow, and it was a struggle for Trag to use it. But Dyseena just breathed out softly between her lips as she pulled the string and released a shaft that caught two skeletal demons, pinning a third to the millwheel of bone and blood. It had seemed like hours, the fight against the first wave of demons, but her father had said it had only been minutes… only minutes for Kannadi to lose her older brother, half the vision of her younger sister, and two clansmen. Kannadi too had been wounded, but she had said nothing of it as she cleared the dust and bits of broken bones from her body. Trag would later proclaim that was the moment his daughter had left his lodge and became a warrior of the Klawbone Clan. Though she was now without the swords she had used in that campaign, it was three years later and the demon’s mace would suffice.
Her first swing shattered the right wing of the demon holding her Master’s right arm. Kannadi ducked as she spun and she did not care how many things flew over her head; they had all missed and her second swing did not. With her legs curled under her, Kannadi jumped up and avoided another three attacks, including soulfire, and her mace sank into the skull of the demon on Ernestan’s left side. The demon fell away from Ernestan whose eyes opened the moment the icy flesh of the demon left his wrists. Such a soul-paralyzing cold that could never be measured with any technical device, the demon’s touch had held him immobile, but it was gone now and though his body still trembled, his mind locked into his threshold of ThoughtWill. It was one thing for him to expire and leave the realm. He had come to be comfortable with the notion, as it was a part of nature. But to look upon the eldest living child of a woman – who was more than a sister to him – and see her fall was inconceivable. The demons had not come with enough of the impossible for him to believe otherwise. He closed his eyes and slapped his hands together. A very selective telekinetic pulse flew from his body, over Kannadi, and into the seven remaining demons in the room. It was more than four times the force he had used to open the Prince’s bedchambers, and the demons flew back to the walls that had been shielded to repel their flesh.
“See to their portal, Master!” Kannadi yelled as she spun the mace around her right hand only to reset her grip. “These demons are mine!
“But first,” Kannadi whispered as she looked around the r
oom, finding the closest opponent. “… my left hand longs for company!” To the common eye, the Black Nalyik females were by far the most comely of the entire race and because of that, they were often not taken for serious combatants. The unfortunate truth was that they were every bit as ferocious, strong, and inhumanly fast as the males of the specie. They simply did not have bones protruding from their skin. The battle cry Kannadi gave echoed through the chamber, and even Ernestan was intimidated by its ferocity. The ankle of the demon Kannadi had selected shattered under the weight of the weapon and the power of her body. The stone tile underneath would have to be replaced, but Ernestan would most probably keep the shattered tile as a keepsake. As the demon wailed in agony, Kannadi took hold of its sword with her left hand and bashed the creature’s shoulder with the mace. She spun away, avoiding a desperate clawing leap from another demon. The one who followed it found itself impaled on Kannadi’s latest acquisition. Her head-butt sent the body back off her blade and Kannadi started her dance of death and dismemberment.
Ernestan had wanted to argue against the directive Kannadi had given, but he could not find fault with its wisdom. For her to remove the aperture meant she would have to enter MoGo, and there was too much of a chance that once the device responsible for the doorway was resolved, the aperture would close too quickly for her to escape the realm. Ernestan would have to answer the riddle of what would motivate demons to breach the realm another time. He extended his senses into MoGo and quickly found the heart of the issue: a Terran InvokeR bound in service to the demons.
“Gods, help me!” Ernestan thought as it was immediately all too clear to the gifted PsyondaR what he would have to do. There was no time to mount a rescue. Kannadi was more than holding her own, but she had exhausted the element of surprise, and the demons would be quick to regroup. The one she had taken the sword from had already healed its broken limbs – proving that while the mace was a weapon of some sort of enchantment, it was not true daemonsteel – and had taken to the air. All it would take was for one to meet her, weapon for weapon, and the overwhelming numbers would do to her what they had done to him. There simply was no time for Ernestan to assist the mortal prisoner. There was plenty, however, to send a PsyoniK burst to the mind of the SpellCasteR and disrupt the hold of the spell. When that connection was broken, the Star Gaper felt something quickly take hold of the InvokeR and remove it from the area. An instant later, Ernestan announced that he had trapped the demons in this realm and they all looked to see the aperture beginning to fade. One demon cried out a command in their tongue and flew for the closing doorway. Kannadi swung at one, but scored only a leg, and the demon continued to fly as it screamed in pain.
“Not you!” Kannadi shouted as the yellow-skinned demon came out of the stairway. Though it was fatigued and still quite battered, it dodged the thrown mace and took flight. Kannadi landed on its back and drove her blade into the joint where the wing met the shoulder. The demon screamed as both bodies fell back to the floor. Ernestan used telekinesis to catch Kannadi as the demon crashed against the stone tiles. Looking up at Ernestan, Kannadi smiled and nodded. “Good catch, Master!”
“I felt I had to do something to feel worthwhile in this exchange,” Ernestan returned, limping forward to look down on the wounded demon. The steel of the demon-make sword kept it from healing itself, and the positioning of the weapon made it difficult to reach with its hand. The Star Gaper looked at the wound on its tail and it too was not mending at the normal rate.
“The claws and fangs of the Klawbone Clan,” Ernestan thought as he sat on the reclining chair. “It is a wonder why they take weapons into battle at all!”
“I would say you fight like your father, but I have never seen him engage an enemy and your mother is most gifted with the bow.”
“Forgive me, Master, there were no bows present,” Kannadi replied and Ernestan shook his head in both disgust and appreciation of the young female’s skills.
“No, I suppose not,” he stated. “… but this gives me a new approach to your instruction. We shall make the Energies a weapon to you, and you can become acquainted with them in that fashion.”
“But the Energies are more than a mere weapon. Are they not?!”
Ernestan nodded, remembering a fledgling student who had spoken just to say she should remain quiet. He now wondered what she had wanted to say. What had she detected that he had not? “And if that demon had not moved, that mace would have struck its face. I, for one, did not know a mace could be thrown with that sort of accuracy. I would hazard to guess that such an application of the weapon was not taught to you, but you adjusted what you were taught. We shall do the same with the En–”
“Lord Geelmus!” Maradothia cried as she ran up the stairs into the gazing chamber. Ernestan was about to correct her, but he could hear the footfalls of many others along with hers. They were not in the sort of company which would allow for her to use informal speech.
“Alas, our heroes!” he murmured softly and Kannadi covered her mouth to keep from laughing. “Princess Maradothia,” he said aloud as he waved. “It is always a pleasure.” Ernestan started to make his explanations as Kannadi looked up to see a very worried Fayja make her way into the room. Their eyes met and Fayja’s tears touched Kannadi’s heart.
“Have you started to learn of yourself?” Kannadi asked as she approached the young woman.
“Not yet, Sister,” Fayja cried as she embraced the Nalyik female. “… but I am glad to be learning of you!”
** b *** t *** o *** r **
Bystanders knew once the first Imperial weapon had been fired that just about anywhere – so long as it was away from the spaceport – was probably the best place for them to be. It could have been said they were very curious to see what was happening, but once the first witness cried out the word ‘Imperials’, curiosity took a back seat to self-preservation. Far too many of the curious sort had never been heard from again after an Imperial incident.
Jocasta was just over one hundred meters from the doors that led to more options and more fighting room; it was better known as the exit. They were doors that would take a little longer to reach. Not having a solid floor under one’s feet made running problematic.
She wailed as she flew through the air after a large tile was ripped up from the floor with her on it. The animal man tossed the tile aside, and growled as he jumped up to pounce on the woman who had avoided three of his softer attempts to apprehend her. He had tasted her boot leather twice and received a head-butt from her mask for his troubles. Now she would receive punishment from his hands and feet.
“Buckshot,” the woman muttered as he began his downward arc. Brutum did not hear the gun go off, but he more than felt the blast Jocasta leveled into his chest. The power of the blast robbed him of all forward progress and he dropped toward the ground, receiving another blast before he could reach it. Jocasta kicked up to her feet and resumed her run. “Satithe!”
“From what I am able to deduce, Captain, he is still alive. His skin seems to be impenetrable to your shells.” Jocasta blurted out a laugh as she could hear growling behind her. He was already getting up.
“But if he is just getting up,” she thought as her awareness registered another form. “… then what is that right behind me?!” Jocasta hopped, landed hard on her heels, and then jumped for the wall to her left.
“Whoa!” she cried, coming up off the floor. She twisted her body and then jumped up from the wall, soaring up and across the walkway before landing on the second floor. She heard an explosion on the lower level near where she had been standing, and growling a few meters off from the disruptive booming.
“That was a directed energy attack,” Satithe advised.
“Gee, ya think?!” Jocasta whispered as she holstered her guns. Her hands had just come away from the pistol grips when Jocasta found herself running atop a thick sheet of ice. She quickly hopped and then jumped forward, landing heels first in the ice, cracking it.
“Tha
t is just all kinds of resourceful!” Culn said as he came floating up over the edge of the railing. “Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked of Brutum as he was riding atop an energy platform that the EnervationisT had created.
“She is quick,” the shape-shifter commented.
“If you’re talking about the muscle between her ears relative to your own, whom could we say is not quick?” Culn received a growling glare for his humorous inquiry. He put his hand to his mouth as Brutum looked back at Jocasta.
“You two look like you need to work things out,” Jocasta remarked, gesturing for the door. “I can just wait outside.”
“You know what, woman,” Brutum said as he shifted more toward lupine. The claws on the ends of his toes gave him plenty of traction on the ice. “… I’m not even going to give you a chance to give up anymore.”
“Which only proves you’re a realist,” she fired back as she drew her cane from her side. “Same reason why you don’t waste time begging for mercy. And as sad as it is for me to say, thanks to your friend, I’m about to put your mangy hide on ice!”
Brutum roared as he lunged forward, slashing with horizontal swipes of his clawed hands. Jocasta kicked the inside of his right arm and batted the inside of the left, leaning into her opponent with a head-butt that landed directly on his snout. Brutum yelped like a wild dog as he grabbed his nose. The cane then traveled from the shape-shifter’s forearm to his eye, and Brutum was further debilitated. Jocasta spun to where her back was facing her opponent and thrust the end of her cane under her arm, striking the man’s sternum. She could hear her opponent nearly lose his wind from the blow. She had time.
