The progenitor said, “Then bargain.”
Consolation seemed to brace herself. “The tree. When they’re the dead, the tree. And a consort, alive.”
“No.”
Consolation did a convincing imitation of mortal offense. “What, no? Why not?”
“You wish to breed, breed with your rulers.”
Where is she? Heart wondered. What is she waiting for—
That was when she realized one of the rulers was on the ground and Malachite stood beside the progenitor.
First and the other dakti near Heart squeaked in unfeigned terror and the kethel jerked back. The breath caught in Heart’s throat as she stared. I knew she was there, and I forgot. She made us all forget. Heart concentrated, reaching for the memory of the last few moments, the way she did for sudden visions. She realized she had seen Malachite come up from between the rocks that blocked the view of the pool. That Malachite had walked between Consolation’s dakti without alerting them, up to the progenitor’s ruler and slashed his throat.
Consolation flinched and dropped into a crouch. The remaining rulers keened in startled fear and leapt backward. Consolation’s kethel moved closer, within pouncing distance of Malachite but also near to the progenitor’s kethel.
The progenitor snarled, “We know you, Malachite of Opal Night. Have you come to join us?”
Malachite flared her spines with predatory deliberation as she circled to the left, delicately stepping around the choking ruler. “Always the same offers, always the same mistakes.”
The progenitor drew back, gathering herself. “You were foolish to come here alone.”
Malachite stopped. She bared her fangs in amusement. “There is a question you should ask yourself.”
The progenitor braced to leap. “We know the abomination aids you. We expected a trap. Others come and you cannot kill us all.”
Unperturbed, Malachite continued, “The question is: was this mound here yesterday?”
The progenitor went still. She started to turn and Malachite leapt forward.
And the other side of the mound exploded. Dirt rained down as the kethel hidden inside stood up and surged over the progenitor’s kethel. A gold form flashed out as Pearl appeared and a storm of Indigo Cloud and Opal Night warriors followed her into the air. Then the half-Fell leapt on the progenitor’s dakti and kethel and everything collapsed into claws and fangs and growling.
In the hours of darkness, the Arbora had crept out here and transformed this spot, removing the turf, digging the hiding chamber and the shafts to allow in air for the warriors, Pearl, and the single kethel, then replanting the grass and weeds. Malachite must have dug in somewhere too, though Heart wasn’t sure where.
Heart should have stayed out of the battle as Pearl had ordered but she lunged into the center of it, bloodlust whiting out conscious thought. A dakti raced for Malachite and Heart shifted in mid-leap and landed on it. It tore at her chest but her heavier claws ripped through its throat as she rolled. She shoved upright and shook the mutilated body off her.
Pearl’s golden form flashed overhead, the warriors fought the dakti in snarling knots. Kethel battled in the air and a struggling cluster of them bounced off the edge of the pool. Malachite and the progenitor slammed across the hilltop, a fury of scales and claws that rammed through a scatter of dakti. Consolation wrestled with a ruler but Pearl hit them both from above, peeled the ruler away from Consolation and ripped his head off.
Consolation staggered free, then leapt to land on the progenitor’s back. But the progenitor was too big, too strong. She rolled and crushed Consolation under her weight combined with Malachite’s. As the combatants rolled away they left Consolation in the flattened grass, stunned. Heart leapt toward her to guard her from the progenitor’s dakti.
The progenitor broke away from Malachite and they faced each other. Malachite’s scales bore slashes and streaks of blood, hers mingled with the progenitor’s. Malachite bared bloody fangs in a predator’s smile and said, “Finish it.”
The progenitor snarled back, “I intend to.”
Heart crouched, watching wide-eyed.
Malachite said, “I wasn’t talking to you,” just as Pearl leapt atop the progenitor’s head.
Consolation shoved unsteadily to her feet, but a ruler leapt at her. Heart lunged forward to help her but staggered sideways as another dakti slammed into her. Heart swung it around, bit into its throat. A ruler grabbed her from behind and she clawed at its arms, too enraged to feel terror.
Then First and a swarm of half-Fell dakti landed on them. Heart bit into the ruler’s arm, aware of the strange sensation of a half-Fell dakti prying the ruler’s claws out of her frills. The ruler wrenched away, snarling. Heart staggered to her feet and saw Pearl with her foot claws buried deep in the progenitor’s neck and Malachite tearing at her stomach and chest. The progenitor tried to extend her jaw, then Malachite widened her own and bit down into the progenitor’s face.
Then a dakti grabbed Heart’s arm and she nearly shredded it before she recognized it as First. It pointed toward the east. “There! There!”
Heart squinted into the distance. A dozen kethel and a cloud of dakti shot through the sky, coming this way. “Pearl!” she shouted. They had to go, now, the progenitor was dying and . . . The kethel weren’t coming. They were falling. Falling out of the sky.
Vision struck again and Heart saw a cold wave from somewhere out of the southeast, moving over the plain like a wall of ice, destroying everything in its wake. She felt the pressure of it already, in the places in her head that sensed direction, that controlled her mentor’s skills, that allowed her to shift. She shouted, “Pearl, Pearl, we have to go! It’s coming!”
The progenitor flung Malachite away, and staggered back. The other Fell screamed at her and she stared toward the east and the dark shapes dropping out of the sky. The quiet spread like a pool as the others felt it, Fell and half-Fell and Raksura alike, everyone staring into the east. Pearl landed beside Heart and snarled, “What is it?”
“Death.” Heart shook the vision off. “We have to run, it’s almost too late!”
Pearl grabbed Heart and whirled around. “Go! To the trees!”
The nearest warriors were all Indigo Cloud. They snatched up their wounded and dying and bounded away to leap into flight. Floret, Aura, and Sand landed beside Pearl. The Opal Night warriors waited, watching Malachite.
Malachite shoved to her feet but the progenitor snarled and leapt away. She landed further down the mound, then sprung into flight. Rulers, dakti, and kethel curved up to follow her.
The half-Fell were left behind, confused and hesitating. Consolation stumbled to her feet, blood dripping down her side. First keened in fear to see her hurt, but Consolation shouted and leapt upward. First and the rest of the half-Fell flight launched themselves after her.
Malachite took a step forward as if she meant to follow the progenitor. Loud enough to make Heart’s ears ring, Pearl bellowed, “Malachite, tell your warriors to run for the trees if you don’t want them all to die!”
That got through to her. Malachite turned back, flicked her spines, and all the Opal Night warriors were suddenly alight. The jolt when Pearl flung herself into the air after them took Heart’s breath. She managed to wrench her head around to get a look back.
The wave of death crossed the wetlands toward them. In the distance another flight of Fell exploded up into the air, a cloud of frantic black dots, then slowed, and dropped like stones. “Hurry,” Heart hissed, “faster.” She felt Pearl’s wingbeats in her own chest as they shot into the green shadow of the mountain-trees. Their path became erratic as Pearl dodged branches and kept flying. All around them were warriors, the half-Fell dakti and kethel.