“Ushanti,” said Glissa, looking straight into the old leonin’s wide, white eyes, “I don’t know that I believe your visions, but I do not wish to destroy this world. Is there any way I can stop this?”
“Die,” said Ushanti. “Die before the end. It is the only way we see.”
The room was heavy with silence.
“Is there no way to defeat this enemy?” asked Raksha at last.
“His power is older than the Glimmervoid, older than the Tangle and the Mephidross,” said Ushanti. Her words began to slur. Her head rolled back until she stared at the smoky ceiling. “Only a power older than the world can stop him.”
“What’s his name?” asked Glissa. “Is it Memnarch? Does that name mean anything?”
Ushanti fell forward. Glissa caught the old leonin and grabbed the vial before it spilled to the floor. Raksha picked up Ushanti, lifting her as easily as he did his shield. Glissa replaced the stopper on the vial, while the Kha carried the healer through the curtains, followed by an agitated Rishan.
When the two leonin returned, Glissa asked, “Will she be all right?”
“She needs rest,” said Rishan. She was wringing her paws and darting looks over her shoulder toward the back room. “Somehow that blue liquid brought on another trance. In her weakened state, she could not handle the strain.”
“I need to know where this liquid came from,” said Glissa, “and who she saw in that vision. Will she be able to help us?”
“So you believe her now?” asked Rishan, her eyes betraying her anger. Her eyes sought Raksha’s and softened. “Come back tomorrow. Once Mother is stronger, I will ask her to help you.”
Glissa was surprised by the young healer’s change, but glancing from her to Raksha, she began to understand. The two young leonin had eyes only for each other.
* * * * *
Shouts invaded Glissa’s sleep. She was dreaming of the clearing she had glimpsed in her last flare. Elves were screaming as they fell into the pool of light. She could see them falling but couldn’t reach them. The screams grew louder as they fell farther down into the white hole. She strained at the edge, trying to get her fingertips a little closer to the falling elves. Then she, too, was falling.
She awoke on the metal floor next to the soft bed, the blankets tangled around her body. The shouting continued. After a moment, she realized the screams came from outside her room. She stumbled to her feet, grabbing her boots and sword. When she opened the door, the elf was almost knocked down by a group of warriors rushing past, pulling on armor and shields. Glissa rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
“What’s going on?” she shouted at a retreating soldier.
“We’re under attack.”
Glissa pulled on her boots and followed the soldiers into the main courtyard. Warriors lined the wall already, spears at the ready. Raksha stood in the center of the line, his battle mask covering his face. Glissa stamped her feet into her boots and ran to his side.
“Is it the nim?” she asked.
“No,” came the booming reply. Raksha’s voice seemed amplified through the mask. It was odd to hear his voice but not see his mouth move. “Our pteron riders skirmished with silver raptors before the first moon rose. Only a single rider returned alive. The beasts have followed. Look there!”
He pointed toward the rising red moon. Glissa saw specks in the halo of the moon’s light. They grew as she watched. In a minute, she could see light glinting off their wings. A second later she heard an unholy wail that sounded like claws scraping against metal.
Glissa raised her sword and waited for the beasts to arrive. She tried to gauge their distance, but it was impossible to see the birds clearly by the light of the red moon. The hair on the back of her neck began to tingle just before a bolt of blue lightning streaked across the sky, hurled by the lead bird. The bolt blasted into the wall down the line. A leonin warrior screamed as metal ruptured in front of him, sending him to his death over the damaged wall.
Glissa’s hair tingled again, and another bolt screamed through the air. The lightning struck a warrior, blasting a hole through his chest and continuing into the floor of the courtyard behind him. Bolt after bolt arced through the air, and the leonin soldiers scrambled away from the walls.
Glissa and Raksha held their ground. The elf felt another tingle on her neck and looked up. She saw a dot instead of a line. The bolt was headed straight toward her and Raksha. She dived to the side, knocking the leonin ruler to the ground and landing on top of him. The lightning exploded into the metal cobbles behind them, melting the silver and rupturing the floor.
Glissa rolled off Raksha and searched the skies for the attackers, but the silver-winged creatures had already flown by. She could see them now, but none were close enough for her sword. Their tails and wings looked as if they would be more at home in water than in air. Their serpentine tails ended in a vertical blade or barb that seemed to act as a rudder. As one, the flock flipped their tails to the side, sending them into a gentle turn. Their slender wings remained stiff, glinting in the red rays of the rising moon. But it was the creatures’ heads that riveted Glissa. There were no eyes, no mouths, just a blue globe that seemed to pulse with energy.
She had seen these creatures before. They were the artifacts Geth had spoken of. They were the silver birds she had seen hovering over the robed figure in the Mephidross.
Raksha stood and called out, “Spears! Now!”
A dozen spears flew toward the retreating beasts. More than half hit their mark, piercing wings and tails, but only one of the winged horrors was brought down. The spear Raksha tossed struck one creature’s bulbous head. The globe exploded, showering the courtyard with shards of glass. The body of the beast smashed into a wall, crashing through to the chamber beyond.
The silver creatures completed their turn and swept down for another attack. Glissa’s hair began to tingle again.
“Look out!” she cried.
Bolts slammed into the ground. Glissa sheathed her sword and grabbed one of the spears. She aimed for the closest creature and threw, but the spear fell far short of the target.
The creatures veered off again, never nearing the ground. Raksha’s troops threw their spears at the retreating birds. While their spears flew straighter, none of them had the strength to pierce the metal hide of their attackers.
“I cannot fight them from here!” shouted Glissa to Raksha. “I feel useless here on the ground. Where’s that pteron that returned?”
“There,” said Raksha, gesturing, “but take care.”
Glissa ran around the courtyard to the stairs. She saw Slobad peeking out from a doorway. “Get the golem,” she called. “Protect Raksha.”
She bounded up the stairs three at a time. When she reached the pteron, she leaped onto its wing, slapped its beak back when it snapped at her, and climbed into the saddle.
She dug her feet into the bird’s back as she had seen the riders do. The pteron walked off the ledge. As they plummeted, Glissa realized she had no idea how to pull from a dive. She pulled back on the reins, and the pteron’s head lifted up. A moment later, the bird’s wings flapped, and they leveled off.
Hoping she could control the pteron, the elf looped around toward the top of the tower in a wide arc. She scanned the skies for the blue-globed birds. The flock had turned and was heading back toward the tower. Glissa yanked on the reins and kicked the pteron’s side again to spur it on. The great raptor flapped its huge wings. She was gaining but wouldn’t arrive in time. The silver-winged creatures unleashed their blue lightning again toward the courtyard. Glissa saw a half dozen explosions. Leonin scattered.
Raksha stood his ground, spear in hand. At the last moment, he flung the weapon. It impaled a diving attacker just as the blue globe flashed. Lightning crackled along the surface of the globe and back along the creature’s sinewy spine. The beast stopped for a moment in mid-air, engulfed in blue energy, then exploded. Shards rained down on the courtyard. Glissa saw the golem step in front of Raksha just as the debris reached the parapet. Glass shattered across the metal man’s large chest.