Blood of the Cosmos (23 page)

Just then a surge of panic and destruction rippled through the entire Ildiran race—and it was more than just the attack here. He felt as if the
thism
were tangled, asphyxiating him.

“This is not the only battle!” He forced the words through gritted teeth, realizing that the Shana Rei must have launched other insidious attacks as well. On Ildira! But he fought to concentrate on the targeting controls.
This
was his battle.

With reinforcements protecting the Adar's cutter, the robot attackers left the air battle and plunged back down to the wrecked shrine, where ample targets remained. The black ships launched a saturation bombardment on the mountainside, and Adar Zan'nh felt sick as blossoms of fire and smoke erupted from the shrine half-buried in snow. The warm Lightsource surge he had felt in the
thism
suddenly died away.…

The passengers let out a low moan, sensing the deaths of all those who had been left behind. Zan'nh could feel many strands of
thism
simply snipped and left frayed and dangling.

Hunched in his seat near the lens priests, Rusa'h said in a cold voice, “They are all dead, Adar. You know none of these ships can save them. Withdraw your cutters, or you will risk more lives.”

The robot ships attacked the Lightsource shrine again and again, utterly ruthless as they leveled the ancient structure. Avalanches poured down the mountainside.

Tal Gale'nh said, “We have to make sure there are no survivors!”

Rusa'h shook his head. “We are sure—you know it. I know it.”

Now the rest of the robot ships left the destroyed shrine and launched into the sky to attack the cutters.

Zan'nh cursed again under his breath. “To the flagship—that is our primary battle now. Alert Septar Dre'nh we are on our way.”

Up in orbit, the flagship was engaged in intense combat, but with little success. Hundreds of Ildiran streamers harried the robot ships, but their high-tech targeting systems failed to function properly in the vicinity of the chaotic Shana Rei. The warliner had seven laser-cannon batteries, which the septar directed toward the ominous hex ships. Roaring gouts of laser energy hacked off chunks of the obsidian material, which dissolved like smoke in the vacuum.

With the Hiltos shrine leveled, the black robot ships raced back to the shadow cloud and the protection of the Shana Rei. Another laser-cannon barrage blasted out toward the hex ships, striking one of the retreating black robot vessels that blundered into the beam path.

The Adar transmitted to the flagship as they approached. “Septar Dre'nh, prepare to launch a sun bomb the moment all cutters get back aboard. Recall the streamer squadrons—get them out of the blast vicinity, and quickly. Their shields will never survive the shock wave—and we will use the diversion of the blast to escape.” He looked at how little damage the Ildiran streamers had inflicted on the black robots and the Shana Rei. One warliner would never be enough to defeat such an enemy. The Solar Navy could not afford to lose more ships.

Ten minutes later, his overloaded cutter accompanied the others into the flagship's landing bay. Disembarking, Zan'nh raced toward the command nucleus, yelling into his comm. “Launch the sun bomb, Septar. Now!” Tal Gale'nh and even Rusa'h accompanied him. “And be ready to activate the stardrive to get us out of here.”

A throbbing orange sphere hurtled out of the warliner's weapons port, a ticking bomb building to a nuclear reaction that was equivalent to the core of a sun. When the sun bomb exploded against the nearest Shana Rei hex vessel, the flare vaporized huge chunks of the black nether material.

Zan'nh arrived in the command nucleus just as the sun bomb glare began to fade. The flagship was already retreating, the helmsman increasing speed. Septar Dre'nh called out to activate the stardrive.

As they departed, the Adar watched as the obviously wounded Shana Rei hex ships plunged back into the shadow cloud, followed by the flurry of black robot vessels. The last attack ships flew into the void just as the dimensional tear closed.

The Ildirans in the command nucleus began to cheer as they raced away to safety, damaged but still intact. But Zan'nh felt sick at the destruction of the Lightsource shrine. All of the lens kithmen were dead down there.

The Adar looked at mad Designate Rusa'h, angry to waste the effort in saving such an infamous figure when Kao'l and so many others had died. He feared what this evil man might do now; Rusa'h had already caused so much harm to the Ildiran Empire.

The mad Designate fixed him with a piercing gaze that held an unsettling emptiness behind his eyes. “Now I can help you with this war.”

 

CHAPTER

34

YAZRA'H

Far from Theroc's main fungus-reef city, Yazra'h and her fellow hunters continued to stalk their prey, senses alert. Muree'n shadowed her, springing from one branch to another like a natural treedancer. The group moved along at midlevel beneath the canopy, where sunlight percolated through the leaves in lush green shadows.

Beltrias led the way. He carried bow and arrows, spear, and knives—similar to the hand weapons Yazra'h and Muree'n used. None of them underestimated the threat of the beast. To ensure their victory, Yazra'h also carried three small detonators clipped to her belt. She had to be certain to protect Rememberer Anton.

The historian followed the group at a safe distance—far enough away to avoid any direct fighting, but close enough that Yazra'h could save him if need be. She found the worldforest to be a strange place, with subtle hazards that were different from anything encountered on Ildira.

Beltrias paused every so often to touch a tree, close his eyes, and use telink to view the surrounding area through verdani senses. The hunter green priest had identified a nesting area frequented by the wyvern, and they climbed there to lie in wait.

Beltrias said, “We'll stay close. We've found its territory.”

Muree'n scampered along a wide branch to a tangle of gossamer strands. Human bones lay all around, mixed with the drained husks of insects the wyvern had eaten. She called to the others.

Rememberer Anton climbed the branches, resting to catch his balance and his breath before he moved higher. His face was streaked with sap and leaf stains. Yazra'h snatched him by the arm and helped him up. “I take it the wyvern isn't here?”

She was proud of Anton. He wasn't as athletic or graceful as she was, but he was competent and determined, and although exhausted, he kept up with them. Most scholarly rememberers could not have done what he was now doing.

Beltrias said, “We know the wyvern will come back here, so we lie in wait.”

“How much of our tale have you written, Rememberer Anton?” Yazra'h asked.

He had added notes and kept a careful chronicle. “I don't know how it ends yet.”

She flashed him a grin. “It will end soon. I can sense it.”

*   *   *

The monster came back at sunset.

Yazra'h could hear the buzz of giant wings, and Beltrias rose to his feet. Muree'n scrambled up the fronds, hand-over-hand, to reach a perch on top of the canopy. Although Yazra'h wanted to be the first to attack the creature, she took time to check that Rememberer Anton was safe in the thick branches, where he could still observe the fight.

“Be as heroic as you want,” he called to her. “Go make a fine story for me to tell, but I have no interest in writing a tragedy!”

Beltrias balanced on a high branch with his spear extended, open and vulnerable. He raised his hands and waved them to attract the creature's attention.

The wyvern saw him with multiple faceted eyes and swooped in, beating twin sets of sail-like wings. The wings were veined and transparent, but the chitin shells were bright blue and mottled with leopard spots. The wyvern's head was a horror of mandibles, and eight segmented limbs extended from its lower body. Claws reached down toward the green priest.

Just as the wyvern tried to seize its prey, Muree'n sprang closer and threw one of her daggers. The blade sank into the connecting tissue between the wyvern's thorax and abdomen—an irritation, not a mortal wound.

As if choreographed, Beltrias threw his spear in a smooth follow-through movement. His throw was well-practiced from the deep multilayered experience the worldforest had given him, but the weapon clacked off the tough exoskeleton and clattered out of sight into the mass of branches.

The wyvern flapped its huge thrumming wings, creating a breeze. Letting out a loud cry, Muree'n hurled weighted strings, a tangled bolo that twirled through the air and wrapped around two of the segmented limbs. The creature battered her with one segmented wing, knocking the girl off her perch. She flailed in the air, grabbing at branches as she tumbled.

Confident that her prot
é
g
é
e would catch herself, Yazra'h sprang into the open air just as the monster swooped by. She landed on its back, grabbed the smooth chitin behind its head, but slid downward as the wyvern thrashed its wings. She held the katana in her right hand and tried to use the fingers of her left hand to slow the movement. Finally, she caught on the joint of the second set of wings, which pumped like giant bellows. Clinging desperately with one hand, she hammered the shell with the butt end of her katana staff, pounding and pounding until the exoskeleton cracked.

Below, Beltrias was waving and shouting to attract the wyvern's attention again. “Here, here!”

The monster spun in the air, trying to dislodge Yazra'h, but rudimentary instincts also drove it down to attack the green priest. Two of its segmented legs were still tangled in Muree'n's bolo, but it reached out with other claws to snatch Beltrias—which was what the hunter wanted. Caught in the creature's grasp, he grabbed a dagger from his waist and slashed at the wyvern's underbelly.

With one hand, Yazra'h pulled herself up to the thing's neck, caught her balance, and reached forward with her blade to gouge out one of the faceted eyes. Greenish ichor oozed out, and the creature's mandibles clacked in frantic alarm. With its forelimbs, it tried to pull Beltrias toward its jaws.

Yazra'h hammered the wyvern's head, but could not break through the hard shell. She blinded another one of its eyes, but it had many more. She needed to inflict a fatal wound.

The green priest shouted up to Yazra'h. “Abdomen! Second neural cluster! Another brain—more easily accessible.” The mandibles snapped at him, but he twisted in the claws to avoid being eaten. He shoved his slime-covered blade into the mouth. The jaws clamped down and tore the weapon from his hand, but the blade was set deep.

Now unarmed, Beltrias struggled to break free; the damaged mandibles opened and closed, oozing ichor. He used main strength to snap the joint of one of the forelimbs that held him, tearing gashes in his own skin as he broke himself loose. Suddenly freed, the green priest tumbled toward the lush canopy, where he caught the loose fronds and saved himself from a fatal fall.

The monster circled and dipped in the air, but Yazra'h held on. Recalling what Beltrias had shouted to her, she let her body slide to the next set of segmented wings, working her way down. This creature would have two rudimentary brains, the main one inside its well-protected head, the secondary one down lower, where she could more easily kill it.

After all the bloodshed this thing had caused, she didn't need to be pretty or heroic. This was already a grand tale, and she smiled knowing that Rememberer Anton was watching down below.

She grasped the joint with one hand and swung her body down so she could use one of her daggers against the soft spot in the abdomen. Yazra'h sawed open the tough plated side, felt ooze spurting out from the wound. The neural cluster would be deep inside, and she could either crawl halfway into the cavity hoping to find it with her blade, or she could choose a faster alternative.

Messy, but permanent.

Yazra'h pulled one of the detonators from her belt and activated it. Without even looking at how high she was above the treetops, she thrust the detonator inside the abdomen, pushing her arm into the goo all the way to her elbow. She counted down the seconds in her mind as the wyvern swooped and flapped, trying to escape.

Only three seconds left.

Two.

The monster swooped down, as if it meant to crash into the treetops, and Yazra'h saw her chance. She sprang free, leaping out toward the deceptively soft-looking worldtree fronds. She extended her hands as she fell, ready to grasp anything.

As she plummeted, she had the satisfaction of watching the detonator erupt, splattering off the wyvern's entire bottom half. The monster spun and reeled in a mass of colorful wings and exoskeleton, like a starship without engines, falling out of the sky.

Then Yazra'h smashed into the leaves as if she had fallen into a verdant ocean. Branches tore at her, fronds whipped her face, but she seized one, holding on with all her strength. The sudden jerk nearly yanked her arm out of its socket, but she held on and swung, then caught a larger branch with a curved leg. When she stopped herself, she was panting, exhausted—and completely exhilarated.

Yazra'h didn't rest, didn't stop, because she knew the real pain would hit her at any moment. Instead, she climbed up and made her way across the branches. She reached the canopy, where the colors of sunset were growing deeper and richer, and from there she spotted Muree'n, who had also climbed to the top of the canopy, helping Rememberer Anton get to the open air.

The historian shaded his eyes and looked into the setting sun, obviously searching for her. She waved and made her way over to them just as Beltrias also climbed onto the canopy. When she was within earshot, Yazra'h shouted, “Rememberer Anton, did you see? Can you tell the tale?”

“Yes!” he called back. “I couldn't make up anything more dramatic than what I actually saw.”