Vendevorex nodded. He swept his wing over the shattered pool with a dramatic flourish, sending out a shower of silver dust. The shards of glass began to dance, hopping and popping until they formed bowls around the gasping fish. He closed his fore-talon, and the water that clung to the bottom of the pool rose in a mist. He opened his talon, and the water poured down in precise rain clouds, filling the fishbowls.
If Jazz had known he'd complete the task so efficiently, she wouldn't have shared the key. Not that it was important. Vendevorex might have been a wizard among more primitive minds, but he was little more frightening than a birthday party magician to her. He could push a few molecules around, bend a little light, and knit together a bad cut. Parlor tricks compared to the technology's full potential. Jazz configured the last circuit.
"Omega," she whispered, activating the signal. Instantly, the angels remaining in the air exploded into clouds of dust.
Seconds later, a howl that could have come from the depths of hell itself echoed through the city, as six billion souls that had felt the touch of a shared mind for a millennium suddenly found themselves alone with their own thoughts.
In the rain of dust, it was impossible to see more than ten feet. Hex and Bitterwood couldn't see her right now. Jazz turned to Vendevorex. She twisted the electromagnetic field around her fingers as she once more opened the razor thin underspace gate that would form a rainbow blade. "Thanks for helping with the goldfish. Now, no hard feelings, I'm going to kill you."
She slashed the blade across his throat. She waited, watching for his neck to slide from his shoulders. His eyes, rather than rolling back into his head, glared at her with a stern look of disapproval.
He said, with a voice unmarred by trachea severing, "You've taken something from my daughter. It's time you give it back."
The underspace blade was so sharp that perhaps the surface tension of the water in his cells was holding his neck. Jazz stretched her silver-plated fingers forward to give his head a nudge and knock it loose.
Her fingers passed through thin air.
Her feet were suddenly locked in place as the thick glass rim of the fountain began to climb up her legs. She went blind as twin phosphorous flares erupted inches from her face. A dragon's fore-talon fell upon her shoulder from behind.
Parlor tricks.
From the moment she'd stepped from the rainbow gate, Vendevorex had suspected that Jazz was the mind animating the body of Jandra. When he'd come back into contact with his genie, he'd discovered something curious: Nearly a month of Jandra's recent memories were stored within the device, recorded during the time Jandra had worn his genie. Jandra apparently hadn't discovered this was a function of the device, since she hadn't encoded her memories so that other users couldn't access them. Thus, he knew in great detail the events of Jandra's life from the moment she'd put on his skull cap to the moment that Hex had ripped the genie from Jandra's spine. He knew who Jazz was, and the threat she represented.
He wondered if Jazz was aware of the threat he represented.
The ground beneath them rumbled as an earthquake wracked the island. He had no time to ponder the cause.
By now, the glass of the fountain had climbed to Jazz's waist, immobilizing the lower half of her body. Jazz twisted her neck around, trying to see him, but it wouldn't have mattered if she'd swiveled her head in a complete circle. With the flares before her eyes, she couldn't see a thing. He fashioned a long staff of glass with a head in the shape of his fore-talon, and lowered it to her shoulder. As anticipated, she whipped her arm over her back, stabbing the rainbow blade into the space where he should have been standing in order to touch her. He dropped the staff and leapt forward, grabbing her wrist, pushing it against her back so that the impossibly sharp sword cut away a thin slice of the nanite shell along her spine, exposing Jandra's skin.
He needed both his talons to control the blade as she struggled to free herself. He bent his serpentine neck forward and caught the torn edge of the silver shell with his teeth, peeling it out from her skin. Then, though it would cost him his powers, he willed his genie to reconfigure itself, turning into a stream of silver liquid that raced down his scaly snout and leapt onto the patch of skin he'd exposed.
Instantly, the flares vanished. He leapt back, flapping his wings, getting out of the reach of the blade. The glass around Jazz's legs cracked and shattered, as Jazz overpowered his unguided nanites.
Jazz spun around, her face distorted with rage. "Flying won't protect you, you bastard," she snarled.
Before Vendevorex could fly higher, the glass of the shattered fountain reshaped itself into an enormous hand that reached up and plucked him from the sky. The fingers closed upon his ribs with an unearthly swiftness and pressure. The sound of snapping bones reached his ears a fraction of a second before the bolts of pain.
Suddenly, Jazz shouted out, "No! Noooo!"
The glass hand went slack. Vendevorex lost awareness as he tumbled into the flowers below.
Shay felt an odd sensation in his wings, a new sense he hadn't known he possessed until this moment. There was an unseen wave of energy in the air as he emerged through the gate, and his wings tingled with each pulse.
His arrival was badly timed. He seemed to be in the middle of an earthquake. The air was thick with dust. The ground beneath him shook violently. Yet, instead of buildings toppling, the opposite was happening. A structure was rising from the earth nearby. He recognized it from the books he'd studied as a Greek temple, with walls formed by gleaming white columns of marble. In scale, it rivaled the Dragon Palace. Within its shadowy confines, a giant man, two hundred feet tall, glared out. He wore a shimmering toga and sported a thick white beard and a mane of long white hair. He carried a trident, like the image of the god Poseidon.
The god did not look happy.
Thunder rumbled through the air, loud enough to rattle Shay's teeth. It took a second to realize the thunder formed words: "Who dares silence the voices of my children?"
A golden dragon that bore some resemblance to Hex darted through the air toward the god. In scale, it was like an eagle attacking a bear. The god lifted his hand in a dismissive swat. The golden beast flew off in a streak and smashed into one of the impossibly tall towers. The force drove the dragon through the wall. Shay couldn't see if he emerged from the other side.
Skitter slithered from the gate beside him. Zeeky craned her neck toward the god's angry face. She sighed. "I guess I'd better go talk to him."
"Talk to who?" Shay asked.
"Him," said Zeeky, pointing to the giant.
"Him?"
Zeeky nodded. "I can talk to pretty much anyone. It's my gift."
By now, the dust was starting to settle. Jazz stood beside a large spire topped with a golden disk. The granite-tiled walkway she stood on was sopping wet. For some reason, she was surrounded by hundreds of goldfish bowls.
Jazz looked as if she were dancing. Her skin was silver once more. She was whipping back and forth, her silver hair flying, raising her hands over her shoulders to claw at her back.
Shay rushed toward her and raised his sword to strike. Yet, as he neared, he realized Jazz wasn't dancing. There was something moving beneath the silver shell that coated her back, and she was trying to claw it off.
"Get out!" Jazz screamed. Or was it Jandra?
Knowing he might forever regret his decision, he swung his angel sword. The flat of the blade smacked squarely across Jazz's ear. The force of the blow tore the sword from his grasp and sent him spinning through the air.
When he stabilized, he turned to see the results of his blow. The silver-shelled woman stared at him. She didn't look injured.