Wolf switched to a wind scry. The signature was full of confusion as the thousands of shifting bodies echoed back as a chaotic chop of charged particles. While he could determine little of the horror sheltered by the cage, the power of the scry didn’t change as he held it.
“What’s wrong?” Wraith Arrow asked as Wolf changed back to a fire scry.
“I think there’s more than one horror in this camp. There’s a big one but there’re several smaller creatures of a similar type on the west end. They’re all fading from my scry as if…” He hissed as curse as he realized what it could mean. “I think they’re phoenix scorpions.”
“Are you sure?” Wraith Arrow said. “The Fire esva is worse than useless against them. Fire empowers them.”
“It matches with what I’ve been told of them.”
All the Skin Clan’s horrors like the phoenix scorpions had been hunted down and killed long before Wolf’s father was even born. Maybe even before True Flame had been born.
Had his older cousin noticed the results of Wolf’s scry? Would he realize what it meant? Wolf’s scry would be nearly invisible to the Stone Clan domana; they would only be aware that he was casting spells. Not that it mattered much — they were at a point of no return. The oni were arming themselves. If no attack came, they could pursue the elves, vastly outnumbering them.
“How many of the smaller scorpions?” Wraith Arrow asked. “How much smaller?”
“Four about the size of a horse.” Wolf felt True Flame pull from the Spell Stones and cast a scry. He sensed the signatures as if he’d cast the spell himself. He focused on the smaller scorpions covered in the odd runes. There was something disturbingly familiar with them. “Get the laedin away. I’m not going to be able to protect them while fighting. I’m casting call-lightning on the horror.” The spell needed two hands to cast, which meant he couldn’t keep a shield up. He doubted he could kill the horror in a single shot and it was known to be smart enough to rush its attacker. “Have the laedin swing south and join Sunder. They’ll be safer with the Stone Clan with phoenix scorpions on the loose.”
He could feel True Flame recast his scry. The male wasn’t attacking, which probably meant he’d identified the horror.
Darkness’s gossamer came soaring over the ridge. The oni armed with rifles opened fire on the airship in a panic. Cana Lily, though, was holding a Stone Clan shield on the entire craft.
The gossamer dived toward the camp, its machicolations opening to drop war fire down on the oni.
“No, no, no!” Wolf cast wind blast, trying to shift the chemicals away from the phoenix scorpion.
Flames erupted as the chemicals mixed, water igniting the naphtha and quicklime mixture. The sheets of fire roared up and then snuffed out as the energy of the flame was sucked in by the giant phoenix scorpion. The horror started to glow like a landbound sun. It shattered its cage. It was a nightmare taken form with a scorpion-curled stinger tail, large crab-like pinchers, and transparent wasp wings.
The gossamer paused over the eastern edge of the camp. Its gondola hatch opened. Darkness and his people dropped down, in among the oni, shielded by Darkness. The laedin and sekasha were all armed with spell arrows. They landed and released their arrows. The spells printed on the shafts were activated by the whistle of them cutting through the air, changing the bolts into brilliant piercing energy.
“Is he mad?” Wolf cried. “Why would he not abort? How could he miss the phoenix scorpion?”
“He’s dropped into the heart of the enemy a thousand times before,” Wraith Arrow said. “He would not see any reason to not do it again. Here, put this in your ears.”
“What is this?” Wolf asked.
“Beeswax and cotton.” Wraith Arrow held out two plugs that he had made from his medicine kit. “Be quick about it.”
Wolf pushed the wax into his ears. All sound became muffled like he was under water. A moment later, the scorpion began to make a horrific noise. It was like the song of a cicada, only louder than a hundred human sirens combined. Even with the plugs in his ear, the sound seemed to pierce through his head.
“Ready shields!” Wraith Arrow signed using blade talk.
The sekasha gathered close around Wolf.
Wolf called on the winds in order to summon his lightning. Magic thrummed around him, ready to be used. He shifted through his call-lightning spell. His right hand primed the clouds as his left hand readied the ground. Magic flooded over the rocky outcrop on a hot wave. The hairs on his arms rose as the magic shifted into potential. He felt it reach its critical point and brought his hands together, aiming the channel through which the lightning would run. The faint leader flashed downward out of the belly of the clouds, and then the return stroke leapt from on top of the scorpion, up to meet the leader with a deafening clap of thunder. The blinding column of light flared the area around the scorpion to white haze, and the thunder rumbled as the stroke climbed up into the sky.
The horror shrieked in pain. The lightning licked the sky, as leader and return stroke danced back and forth over the open channel. There was a strange magical pulse from the scorpion, something akin to a fire scry, but filled with static. It washed over Wolf, identifying him as holding an active attack spell.
“Here it comes!” Wolf shouted and started another call.
It had been huge at the distance of a quarter mile. It grew in scale as it winged toward them. Its chitin exterior glowed molten gold with stored magic; it set fire to the cattails when it landed in the center of the marsh. Steam rose hissing where each of its eight legs touched the damp earth. The keening noise it made grew louder as it neared. Wolf could feel the vibration of it in his bones and under his feet. It felt like nails were being stabbed into his head through his ears.
Wolf brought his hands together, bringing down another leader at the horror. It was his last chance to hit it. Call-lighting was a wildly inaccurate weapon. He couldn’t risk hitting his own people once the beast closed with them.
The lightning flared again and again. The flash within a few yards from the rocky outcrop was blinding. Thunder followed instantly, loud enough to feel. Wolf cast call-lighting again, rushing through the motions, hoping for one last hit as it visibly staggered.
Wolf could feel Darkness in the heart of the fort, maintaining a shield around his people as he slammed Force Strike after Force Strike through the oni. True Flame had started to blast oni escaping to the north. Where were Sunder and Cana Lily? As if in answer, Cana Lily cast a large inclusive scry that let even non-Stone-Clan domana sense what was going on in a one-mile radius.
The horror rushed forward, its eight long legs propelling it like an arrow released from a bow. It was on them faster than Wolf could even follow. The horror was so massive that it towered over the rocky outcrop. Wolf dropped the call-lightning and started to cast a wind shield as it slammed into his sekasha. Their shields weren’t strong enough to stop the monster, but his people overlapped as they fell back, so the warriors behind them protected those in front even as their spells failed. Even as they slid sideways and back, they slashed at the massive claws that hammered down at them. Wolf had trusted his people to know what to do; still, the tactic surprised him.
The massive barbed tail, the size of an automobile, came slashing forward.
Wolf jumped backward and shouted the activation of his shield. It snapped into existence, buffering the head-splitting noise that the horror was making.