The spear! It was lying beside her. I reached for it. But as I did, she spoke again.
“No, wait,” she gasped, but with urgency in her tone. She struggled up a bit and held out her right hand. On it was a glove made of a bright silver material.
“Take … this … first,” she said, each word separated by a gurgling breath.
I hesitated, but only for a moment as the battle raged with increased ferocity all around us. I took the glove off and slipped it onto my own hand. It looked like metal but was as soft as leather.
She dropped back to the ground. “Now,” she said breathlessly.
I reached over and picked up the spear. It was lighter than it looked.
“The Elemental,” she said in a low voice that I had to bend down to hear.
“What?”
“The Elemental. Take it.” She took a long burbling breath that I knew heralded the end of her life. “When you have … no other friends … it will be there … for you.”
I couldn’t think how a spear could be a friend. “Who are you?” I said. “Why are you fighting?”
She was about to say something in reply when a sound came that shook the very ground. When I looked up, I saw to my horror that advancing upon the battlefield were three gigantic figures, each standing at least twenty yards tall, with huge muscular bodies and small heads. They were grabbing flying steeds and riders out of the air and crushing them in their grasp even as they galumphed across the ground.
I looked back down when the dying female grabbed my cloak. “Go!”
“But —”
“Now.” And what she said next shocked me more than anything ever had in my life.
She took a shuddering breath, gripped the back of my head and pulled me so close I could see that her eyes were so brilliantly blue they made the color of the entire sky look insignificant. Those eyes bored into me. “You must survive, Vega Jane.” She shook violently and her hand fell away. Her eyes glazed over as she stared upward.
She was gone.
I stared down at her. She had called me Vega Jane. She knew who I was. But who was she? And how did she know my name?
When I looked down at her right hand, my heart nearly stopped. On one of the fingers was a ring, with the same three hooks that my grandfather’s held. I reached out to touch it. And then take it. But it would not come off. I would have to cut off her finger to leave here with the ring. And I could not do that, not to a brave female warrior who had saved my life.
I took a moment to close her eyes, gripped the Elemental, scooped up Harry Two in my free hand, looked back once at the giants whose every stride covered a score of yards, and ran for my life.
While the giants were now the focal point on the field, the battle raged on, both on the ground and in the air. As I turned back once to see how close they were growing, a steed and rider swooped low, wielding a great sword nearly as long as I was tall. He ducked under the outstretched arms of one of the giants, and, using both hands, he swung his great blade with incredible force. It sliced the giant’s head clean off its shoulders.
“Take that, you bloody colossal!” he screamed before he and his steed swooped safely away.
A colossal? What the bloody Hel was a colossal?
But as the colossal fell, it soon became apparent that he would topple right onto me. And as I estimated he weighed the better part of four tons, there would be nothing left of Harry Two or me.
I ran as fast as I’d ever run, even as I could see the shadow of the colossal blocking out the light and reaching ahead of me by a handful of yards. I was never going to make it, not while carrying both the Elemental and Harry Two. And I was unwilling to sacrifice either one.
And then it occurred to me. “You prat,” I told myself.
As the shadow of the falling colossal engulfed me, I lifted off the ground and soared straight ahead, barely a yard in the air. I needed distance now, not height. I half closed my eyes because I was still unsure if I was going to squeak past. The thunderous crash that occurred right behind me jarred my eyes fully open. I glanced back. The dead colossal had missed me by less than two feet.
I soared upward, but this only made me more of a target. Streams of light were coming at me from all directions. Harry Two barked and snapped at them, as though his teeth could defeat the threat they each carried. I used the only tool I had: the Elemental. I did not hurl it because I was not practiced at aiming it while flying. Rather, I used it as a shield. I didn’t know if it would block the lights coming at me, but I found out quickly enough.
It did. The lights ricocheted off. One deflected blue streak knocked a rider clean off his steed. A purple streak struck one of the remaining colossals squarely in the chest and he dropped to his knees and fell face-forward, digging a hole ten feet deep in the ground with the force of his impact and crushing a rider and his steed underneath.
All I knew was, I wanted to get the Hel out of here. But to do so, I had to find the gates. And I had no idea where they were.
As I flew, I looked ahead and saw my own death speeding toward me. Six abreast they were. All huge males wearing chain mail. They were riding steeds with withers as wide across as I was tall and they had upraised swords in hand. Yet they didn’t wait to get close enough to swing them at me; they brought them down in a slashing move and out of each sword blasted shafts of white light. I gripped the Elemental like I had seen the dead female do. In my head I knew what I wanted the thing to do, but I had no idea how to make it happen.
I hurled the Elemental with all my strength, but I didn’t throw it straight at the oncoming shafts of light. I threw it to the right side of the shafts with as much backspin torque as my poor arm could muster. The spear turned to the left, gained speed and shot straight across the air. It hit the first white shaft, then the second, the third, and then the remaining three. It caused them to bounce off and head in reverse, like an orb thrown against a wall.
When the deflected shafts of light struck the wall of riders and their steeds, there came the loudest explosion I had yet seen on the battlefield, even louder than when the first colossal had fallen. Harry Two and I were knocked heels over arse as waves of concussive air pummeled us. When the smoke and fire cleared, the riders and their enormous steeds had vanished. I did not dwell on my improbable victory. I had righted myself in time and had caught the Elemental squarely in my gloved hand as it reversed course and soared back to me.
As I pointed downward and looked toward the ground, I saw them in a valley miles away and partially obscured in a sea of mist. But they were still unmistakable to me: the flaming-red gates. I went into a dive. I had to. For a new peril had emerged from the heavens. Right behind me was a creature I can only describe as a jabbit with wings. And if it were possible, the vile thing was even more terrifying than the dirt-bound variety. And as fast as I could fly, the winged jabbit was swifter.
I looked at the Elemental. I knew I could not throw it as the chain-mailed female had. But she had said that, when I had no other friends, it would be there for me. Well, friends are supposed to be good listeners. I looked back at the jabbit. It was now or never.
I spun in the air, faced the oncoming jabbit and threw the Elemental. In my mind, it flew straight and true at the target.
The jabbit exploded and the Elemental flew in a graceful curve right back into my gloved hand. I landed, set down Harry Two and we ran full tilt toward the gates. I’d had quite enough of the past. As soon as I passed through the gates, everything became black.