Ennis began.
The page collapsed to his knees, his eyes widening as if startled. His mouth opened but no words came. He fell face-down into the mud of the lane. Three arrows protruded from his back.
"Jenna!" Ennis yelled. He pushed her into a doorway across the street as more arrows suddenly hissed past them. Ennis grunted, and Jenna saw a wooden shaft blossom in red at his shoulder. He staggered backward against the wall across the lane from her. His eyes on her, he shook his head as she started to run across to him. His hand closed around his cloch.
A moment later, she did the same, ripping open Lamh Shabhala so that its power roared out like a rogue wave.
She could sense Ennis and his cloch, along with a trio of Cloch Mor lurking just down the lane. Several
dozen people were moving toward them from the front as well as behind. She had no chance to identify any of the ambushers or judge their intentions: the three Cloch Mors arrayed against her struck.
They concentrated on Jenna. As she crouched in the doorway, a rush of heavy wings beat the air above her. She looked up to see a demonic horror above: twice as tall as herself, skin burnished like bronze over massive muscles, clawed fingers and feet, and a brick-red face scowling with anger under folds and horns. Leathery wings sprang from the crea-ture's back. Looking at the thing dredged an elemental feeling of revulsion and horror from her, as if this were a creature formed of ancient racial fears or memory. Jenna wondered at first if it was simply an illusion, the apparition slammed into the structure above her, its claws ripping deep into mortar and plaster. The mage-demon was real and physical enough. The house shuddered at the impact, and Jenna had to use part of Lamh Shabhala’s power to shield herself from falling stone and beams. The creature howled, roaring words in no tongue that she had ever heard before as it started to fall toward her, but she pushed it away. It snarled and spat, slamming again into the second story of the house as its great wings flailed the air.
In frustration, it ripped away at the house, pulling it apart as if it were made of paper and throwing pieces of the ruin down toward her.
Dust made her blink her eyes, but she kept the shield in place above her, pushing the splintered, hard rain away from her.
She could do little more than fend off the mage-demon. In her cloch-vision, she saw a stream of pure energy-a blue so brilliant it was nearly white-come snarling toward her. She threw up a wall of her own power barely in time, and the color broke against it, sizzling and burning.
Fire erupted in the street in front of her, molten gobs splattering against Lamh Shabhala’s wall. In the dust, Jenna saw a figure standing nearby, seemingly formed of lava and flame, glowing orange-red and covered with scabs of black, visible both to her eyes and the cloch-vision. The lava-creature lifted its hands and a glowing boulder erupted from them, arcing toward her. Jenna pushed back at the new assault, sending a blast of furious wind from Lamh Shabhala. The boulder went black and fell, shat-tering ten feet away in a
gout of fury. Jenna could feel the heat, searing and intense. The building was aflame above her.
The cloch-beast continued to tear at the structure, and she could sense the house starting to collapse around her. The roiling clouds of dust and smoke were so thick that she could see nothing as she flung herself back into the lane. Bowstrings sang from somewhere above and arrows arced toward her; with a flick of energy, she sent them to streaks of fire and ash. But some of them got through, hissing past or ricocheting from the door-way in which she now crouched.
I can’t keep this up… I can’t. .
A strobe of lightning illuminated the dust clouds as it streaked away: Ennis attacking. Down the lane, there was a cry of distress and the massive lava-creature grunted and shifted its attack to Ennis, though the blue-white beam still pounded at the defensive wall Jenna had erected. "Jenna! Back to the square!" she heard Ennis shout in the confusion. She thought she saw a glimpse of his figure, then the dust closed in again as the second story of the house fell in with a splintering, long crash. Someone screamed in the rubble. The mage-demon attacked directly once more, hovering above her with an audible whoomp-whoomp of wings before it plummeted down; Jenna formed the energy of Lamh Shabhala into hands and reached for it. The beast reared back as the hands caught and held it, fiery arcs of drool flying from its mouth and its wings flapping desperately, clawing at the unseen fingers that held it. Jenna could feel the claws, as if they were ripping into her own skin, and she screamed.
Jenna forced herself to focus, to fend off the beast and still hold back the others. She knew now how Lamh Shabhala had been beaten in the past-she could not put her attention anywhere long enough to counter-attack; inevitably someone would get through. She could sense that the other Cloch Mor Holders in the city were now aware of the battle: Moister Cleurach, the Banrion. . She could only hope that they would enter the fray soon. She gave way, the mage-demon following, backing down the lane and hoping Ennis was doing the same. She could feel him struggling against the fire cloch.
She heard his voice, calling out, "Jen-" and then cut off. She screamed her own pain and fear as the lava-creature stomped back toward her. Hold them.
They have to be weakening. . Already the cloch-beast's struggles were failing, though the other two clochs continued their assault. For an instant, she let down the wall, shouting against the pain as the energy stream burned her, as the clinging fire of the lava-creature struck her clothing. She channeled the flow of Lamh Shabhala toward the hands holding the mage-demon, imagining them crushing the life from the thing: the beast gibbered in panic, limbs flailing now in desperation. She heard bones cracking, and the soft, ugly sound of the body rupturing.
The cloch-beast vanished in a wail as down the lane she heard an echoing cry from its Holder.
Jenna threw the wall back up again, pushing away the other two clochs' assault. She'd fallen without knowing it, nearly losing hold of Lamh Shabhala.
Her cloca was scorched, her skin burned underneath. She forced herself to stand again, readied herself to release the wall now and counterattack.
Raging chaos shifted abruptly into silence and dark. In her cloch-vision, the other two clochs vanished. She could sense them still, but they were dim and inactive. The Holders were moving away, quickly, as if on horse-back. She flung furious lightning bolts toward them, but it was already too late. They were gone.
"Ennis!" She called his name, coughing in the dust, trying desperately to see either with her eyes or through Lamh Shabhala. "Ennis!"
He wasn't there. The dust was settling; she could see the street and the rubble strewn across it, but there was no sign of Ennis, and she could not feel him or his cloch with Lamh Shabhala.
He was gone. Taken.
"Ennis!" she called again, knowing in her heart it was useless. Footsteps were running toward her from the direction of the square. Jenna whirled, her hand on Lamh Shabhala, ready to strike.
"Holder!" One of the Ri's gardai-a sergeant by the insignia on his shoulder-came to an abrupt halt, staring in disbelief at the destruction around him and Jenna's battered appearance as half a dozen soldiers came hurrying behind. "Are you hurt?" "I'm fine," she said. "Mage O'Deoradhain has been captured." Jenna waved her arm. "Quickly! We have to find him!"
The sergeant barked orders and his men scattered, but Jenna knew it was too late.
Too late.
PART FOUR: The Shadow RI (Map: Dun Kiil)
Chapter 46: Decisions