"I've killed fourteen of your sisters tonight," she said, in the most threatening tone she could summon. "Which of you will be the fifteenth?"
She'd hoped the girls would run. Instead, they giggled and charged her, waving their knives wildly. They looked as if death was only a game to them. Sparrow knew she was little older than these women, but the time for playing games was forever gone. With a growl, she met their charge, sinking her teeth into the shoulder of the opponent to her left, burying the claws of her right fore-talon into the breast of the enemy to her right. Both humans stabbed her, driving their knives deep into her ribs. She felt no pain. She tightened her jaws, snapping the collarbone of the girl she held in her teeth. She felt the girl go limp with pain and release her grip on the blade.
With her fore-talon, Sparrow dug deeper into her final opponent's flesh, wriggling her claws past the cage of bone she found, probing for the lungs and heart. Streams of blood splashed on the floor beneath them as they whirled around, locked in a dance of death. The woman stubbornly refused to die, twisting her blade with all her remaining strength. Their eyes were locked. It was now a contest of will.
Sparrow fought for her home, her family, and her honor. She didn't know what drove the woman, and didn't care. At last, the woman's eyes clouded and her head slowly rolled to the side. Sparrow pushed her away. The woman slipped in the gore they stood in and fell roughly to the stone. Sparrow limped past her, steadying herself with her fore-talon against the wall. Dark specks danced all around her as she fell against the oak door, pushing it open with the full weight of her body. She staggered forward, the world narrowing into a dark tunnel. At the end of the tunnel was a large, steel bar, the master release for the fortress gates.
She reached out her fore-talon as she collapsed. Her bloody claw slipped on the steel. She fell to the floor, dying, uncertain if she'd pulled the lever or not. The world went perfectly dark. The only sound she could hear was her own heartbeat, which pounded in her ears like ceremonial drums.
And then, the drums stopped.
She was trapped inside herself, frozen, fading into the great unbroken silence.
Against that backdrop of oblivion came the click, click, clang of gears as the ancient machinery once more began to turn.
Jandra stared into the rainbow where Jazz had just vanished. Presumably, Jazz was now back on earth, expecting Jandra to follow. Jandra looked around the unending gray desert. She could run. But to where? How long could she survive in this bleak and barren place, without hint of water or food?
"Ven," she sighed. "You can't know how badly I need to talk to you right now."
"We both know that isn't possible," a familiar voice said over her shoulder. "But perhaps I'll do?"
She turned around. Vendevorex once more stood before her, ghostly, translucent, the stars on the distant horizon shimmering in his golden eyes.
"You're back!" she said.
"I never left," Vendevorex said. "Or rather, this recording has never left. If you're seeing me now, it's no doubt because I reached my demise before we completed your training. I've attempted to anticipate your most likely questions about operation of the helmet and will answer them to the best of my ability."
"Well, for one thing, the helmet isn't a helmet any more," said Jandra.
Vendevorex's shade nodded. "It wouldn't need to be. You may have noticed it adapted its shape to fit your skull as you donned it. You could shape it into many different forms and have it retain its function. The Atlanteans call such devices Global Encephalous Nanite Interaction Engines-a GENIE."
Jandra glanced back at the rainbow. How long did she have before Jazz came back looking for her? And, what was Jazz doing to Hex and Bitterwood in her absence?
"Ven," she said, "I have a lot of questions, but let me start with the most urgent. Do you know how to lock the, uh, genie?"
"Of course," he said. "My skullcap and your tiara were always locked to avoid detection by others wielding Atlantean technology. I commanded the devices to unlock in the event of my demise, so that you could don my skull cap and, if you chose, pass on your tiara to an apprentice."
Jandra grimaced at the thought of this. She'd left the palace in a hurry; her tiara had been left sitting on her dresser. Anyone could grab it. Could anyone use it?
"Fine," she said. "So how to I relock them?"
"Simple," he said. "Here is the twenty seven digit prime that will encrypt it to only respond to your thoughts."
Jandra listened to the number carefully. She repeated it internally, and could almost hear something in the back of her mind click shut. She repeated it once more and returned the device the state it had been in when Jazz had last seen her. She didn't know what lay on the other side of the portal. She wasn't ready to spring this little surprise on the goddess until she knew where Hex and Bitterwood were.
"I wish we had more time to talk," she said, turning toward the rainbow. "But if I don't get back, she's probably going to come looking for me.
"We have all the time in the world," Vendevorex assured her, as she leapt toward the void.
Bitterwood strained against his cocoon of thick kudzu. He was twenty feet above the ground, dangling upside down from the branches of a towering cottonwood; his struggles sent down a rain of leaves, but did nothing to loosen the grip of the vines.
Nearby, Hex was barely visible as a bulge beneath a thick carpet of green. His jaws were tightly wrapped by the clinging vines. The sun-dragon had made no noise for some time, but Bitterwood could tell from the rhythm of his breath that Hex was awake.
The artificial sky had, by now, fallen into a pattern of darkness. Mosquitoes crawled over Bitterwood's leathery face and the surrounding forest vibrated with the chorus of frogs and crickets. Against this cacophony, Bitterwood almost didn't hear the steps of the giant beast. Almost. In the end, his highly-tuned ears knew that Trisky was approaching long before she came into sight, with Adam astride her.
Adam looked sorrowful. He obviously had something on his mind as he guided his mount beneath Bitterwood. He looked up and said softly, "I'm ashamed of you, father."
Bitterwood said nothing.
"You desecrated the temple. You attacked the goddess and her angel without provocation. I'm captain of the long-wyrm riders. I've dedicated my life to serving the goddess. Why would you dishonor me so?"
Bitterwood blew away a mosquito that walked on his lips. He said, "I've spent the last twenty years believing you were dead. Perhaps it would have been best if you were. It would cause me less pain than to know you've devoted your life to this evil."
"Father," Adam said, struggling to maintain his composure. "I would slay any other man for uttering such blasphemy. The goddess is not evil. She spared you and the dragon."
"And what of the people of Big Lick? What of Zeeky and Jandra?"
"You cannot judge the actions of the goddess as good or evil," Adam said. "A storm brings rain and life to a parched land, yet may drown villages; its lightning may set fields aflame. Is a storm good or evil? The actions of the goddess are beyond the power of humans to judge."
Bitterwood closed his eyes.
"You've made your judgment," he said.
"Father, I implore you; repent your blasphemy and you'll be released unharmed. You may live out the remainder of your days here in paradise."
Bitterwood chuckled. "You live in a hole beneath the earth. How can this be paradise when you know that the stars above you are nothing but a lie?"
"Why do you think the world outside is any different?" Adam asked. "How can you know that the stars you look upon at night are real?"
Bitterwood didn't have an answer for this.
Adam continued: "You're a legend, father. The dragons call you the Ghost Who Kills. Yet, you aren't a ghost. Does this make your struggle any less just? The dragons think of you as a force of nature, a supernatural being that slays without cause. Does this make you evil, father? Or are you a good man because you've you fought to make the world a better place?"