In Her Name: The First Empress: Book 01 - From Chaos Born (14 page)

In rapid succession, her hand moving at blinding speed, T’ier-Kunai hurled her three
shrekkas
at the Ka’i-Nur priestess. She did not expect any of them to strike. She just needed a momentary diversion.
 

As the crimson priestess turned briefly to flick the three weapons away, she was struck in the side by a massive bolt of lightning from one of the Desh-Ka priests that sent her tumbling to the ground.
 

“Finish her!” T’ier-Kunai and three of the others sailed through the air to land in a circle around the Ka’i-Nur priestess, who was struggling to get back to her feet.
 

Holding out their hands toward one another, thick arcs of lightning exploded between the open palms of the Desh-Ka warriors, rapidly forming a globe of lightning that enveloped the enemy priestess. She looked up in time to realize her fate, but by then it was too late.

The crackling globe of pure cyan energy began to contract around her, intensifying as it grew smaller. The priestess triggered her energy weapon again, but that only aided in her undoing. None of the energy escaped the cyan globe that was rapidly collapsing around her. Her armor failed in a dozen places, exposing her frail flesh to the contained maelstrom.
 

Her shrieks of pain were mercifully cut off as the globe shrank, faster and faster, to consume her body. When it had collapsed to the size of T’ier-Kunai’s fist, the globe flared and vanished.

There was nothing left of the Ka’i-Nur priestess, not even ash.

“Beware!”
 

The remaining priest who was tending to the injuries of their fallen comrade shouted a warning.

Blinking her eyes, T’ier-Kunai noticed with relief that her vision was slowly returning. At the blurry image that greeted her, she suddenly wished that she was still blind.
 

Hundreds of warriors were charging from the mouth of the atrium capping the great stairway. And all of them wore crimson armor and carried energy weapons.

* * *

Ayan-Dar leaped up the stairway, using his power to loft himself as far as he could, kicking off the walls as the stairway turned.

The
genoth
howled in rage and hunger, and he could hear the beast’s diamond-hard claws scrabbling up the steps close behind him.

It had been one small measure of good fortune that the beast had been released below him, that it did not block his path to freedom.

Or so he had thought until his second sight revealed the mass of Ka’i-Nur warriors gathering above him. While he could only guess at their nature, he assumed these to be drawn from the same ranks as those T’ier-Kunai and the others now fought on the surface. If they were as formidable as the sensations from his companions indicated, his chances of survival were slim. He could probably kill the
genoth
, but there was no escape in the direction from which he had come. And above was the legion of warriors that was now pouring forth to engage T’ier-Kunai and the others, and which could easily overwhelm him as the
genoth
drove him toward the surface.

Some might have considered themselves trapped, but Ayan-Dar knew from long experience that was only a state of mind.
 

Sensing a group of warriors on the second level, just below the surface, who must have been waiting for him, he slowed his pace slightly, allowing the
genoth
to close the distance. It roared as it caught sight of him, the fury of its deep voice plain as a spoken word.
 

Ayan-Dar had not seen the full extent of the beast, only its snout and front claws as it tore up the stairs behind him, but he did not need his second sight to tell him that it was huge. The massive stairway shuddered at the beast’s movement, and its roar was deafening.

Slowing just a bit, he was able to get a good look at the beast. The head, like the rest of the creature’s body, was covered in thick scales that were as tough as armor. The head was enormous, and the jaws with their rows of needle-like teeth were large enough to swallow a
magthep
whole. The two horns at the top of the head were as long as Ayan-Dar stood tall, and the yellow eyes were fixed on him, its prey. He did not need to see the rest of its great body, with six powerful legs and feet boasting talons as long as his arm, or the whipping tail with its diamond-hard tip.

What shocked him was the thick metal band that he glimpsed around the beast’s long, curving neck. It must have been raised here as a hatchling, for he could not conceive of an adult beast ever being captured alive by any means. And raising a
genoth
in captivity was nothing short of an act of madness.

It lunged for him, snapping its jaws a hands-breadth from his heel as he again kicked away from the outside railing of the stairway. Making sure he did not let himself get far from the beast’s snapping teeth and fetid breath, he propelled himself upward.

The
genoth
, sensing it was gaining on its prey, sprinted toward him, opening its deadly jaws.

* * *

In the great courtyard, the priests and priestesses of the Desh-Ka stood in a line facing the oncoming crimson warriors of the Ka’i-Nur who poured from the entrance to the great stairway.

“Three hundred, do you think?” One of the priests speculated idly.

“Three hundred and thirty-eight, by my count.” Sal’ah-Umir now stood with them, supported by one of the others, who had cauterized the stump of his leg with a controlled burst of energy. The healers could grow him a new one, assuming he survived.
 

“There are more within,” T’ier-Kunai observed.

“They must be waiting for Ayan-Dar.”

“Then we must deal quickly with these,” T’ier-Kunai told them, “now that we have a better appreciation of what we face.”
 

The enemy warriors had cleared the entrance and were organizing themselves into a series of cohorts, rather than simply swarming at the Desh-Ka.

That will make things somewhat simpler
, T’ier-Kunai thought.

As if hearing her unspoken words, the Ka’i-Nur opened fire with their energy weapons in a massive barrage, the searing white light reflecting off the polished black stone of the inner walls and cobblestones.

All seven of the Desh-Ka raised their hands, and a curving shield of cyan lightning crackled into existence before them. The energy of the enemy’s weapons thundered against it, and the very ground shook. The shield shimmered for a moment, as if weakened by the assault. Then it grew even brighter and began to expand.

The stone of the fortress walls nearest the battle began to glow from the enormous heat. The polished stone turned red, then white hot before oozing toward the ground like lava.
 

The wind began to howl as the clash of energy heated the air, and a superheated column rose swiftly, drawing cooler air behind it to fill the vacuum. In moments the entire fortress was swept by a gale that threatened to knock the combatants off their feet. Above the fortress, a huge cloud bloomed, quickly turning dark as water condensed from the surrounding air.

The Ka’i-Nur advanced, firing constantly. The warriors of the Desh-Ka reached deep within themselves, into their spirits, drawing out every last bit of energy to hurl against the enemy.

The cyan shield grew until it towered over the Ka’i-Nur. T’ier-Kunai’s face contorted with concentration as she sought to control it, to bend the combined energy of herself and her companions to her will. The wall of energy they were projecting was no longer a shield, but a great hammer with which she would destroy their enemies.

Too late, the Ka’i-Nur realized what was going to happen. Many of them broke and ran, trying to escape as the gracefully curved wall of lightning rolled over upon them like a giant wave breaking upon a beach.
 

Watching with her mind as much as her eyes, T’ier-Kunai gave the great wall one final push, and it fell upon the enemy formation. Shattering like glass, it fragmented into a million bolts of lightning that incinerated everything in its path. The sound shook the very foundations of the ancient fortress.

When the last of the lightning had flickered out of existence, there was only white hot stone in the fortress square where the Ka’i-Nur warriors had stood.

* * *

Ayan-Dar sensed the destruction of the enemy warriors on the surface, but also sensed something else: the warriors who had been laying in wait for him were now charging down the stairway, fleeing from T’ier-Kunai and the others.

Better to be vaporized or eaten?
The question was more than academic now as he again darted away from the
genoth’s
snapping jaws.
 

In a way, the retreat of the warriors above him made things easier. Their panic might make them forget, if only for a moment, what was coming
up
the stairway.
 

Of course, there was always the pleasant possibility that the warriors might flee into one of the chambers above him, but he could not count on that.

Keeping the
genoth
as close behind him as he dared, he flew up the stairway toward the descending warriors. He could hear them now, their heavy footfalls on the stone audible above the mad scrabbling behind him.

The beast roared again, and Ayan-Dar heard and sensed the warriors above him come to a shuddering stop.
 

Despite the perils of his own situation, a fierce grin came to his lips as he imagined their predicament. To face the mad beast coming up from below, or die at the hands of the Desh-Ka who waited outside?

As he suspected, they chose to face the
genoth
. With the weapons they had, they could kill it, even if some of their number died in the process. For by now they knew the futility of facing the companions of his order.

All Ayan-Dar had to do was survive the coming encounter.

The warriors were suddenly
there
, and he did the
genoth
a small favor by blasting the first rank with a bolt of energy. He wasn’t trying to kill them, just sow further confusion.

A handful of the crimson-clad warriors went down. Others, unable to stop in time in their headlong rush down the curving stairway, sprawled over the top of their fallen comrades.

Drawing his sword, Ayan-Dar leaped over the heads of those warriors still standing, slashing and stabbing to add a greater measure of confusion and mayhem.

Behind him, the
genoth
tore straight into the mass of warriors, trampling some and tearing others to bits in its massive jaws. The Ka’i-Nur fired their energy weapons at it, but in these close quarters the massive release of energy killed half their number while only wounding, and further angering, the
genoth
.
 

Ayan-Dar winced as some of the reflected energy seared his lower legs, but he ignored the pain. With a few more leaps, he reached the top level, where T’ier-Kunai and the others awaited him.

After he had sheathed his sword, they greeted as the long-acquainted warriors they were, clasping forearms.
 

T’ier-Kunai’s expression on her badly burned face was grim as she spoke above the echoing roar of the beast below, still savaging its victims. “I hope you found the answer you sought, and that it was worth the price all have had to pay.”

“I have, my priestess.” He clasped her arm even tighter, a look of anguish on his face. “But I fear this is only a small glimpse of what is yet to come.”

CHAPTER NINE

“I beg of you, summon the other orders. Call for a conclave.” Ayan-Dar stood in the temple’s central hall, which was now filled with the members of the Desh-Ka priesthood, while the acolytes went about their duties outside.
 

T’ier-Kunai, the burns on her body now gone after being tended by the healers, sat in the chair at the front of the great room, presiding over the assembly that Ayan-Dar had requested.
 

Two weeks had passed since the battle with the Ka’i-Nur. Two weeks that the Desh-Ka warriors had been prepared for an attack. But the dark fortress had remained silent as a tomb. T’ier-Kunai had posted two of the priesthood outside the fortress to provide warning should the Ka’i-Nur march out. While those sentinels remained, the unpleasant duty rotating among members of the priesthood, she had allowed the temple to resume its normal routine.

Once the imminent threat had passed, Ayan-Dar had begun begging her every day for an assembly to discuss the conclave, and she had finally given in.

“A conclave has not been called since before the other orders departed for the Settlements, thousands of cycles ago,” one of the priestesses observed. “And that was for something that had never occurred before in our history, Ayan-Dar.”

“As is this!” The old priest fought to restrain his frustration. He paced in front of his peers, trying to find the right words to convince them, and through them, T’ier-Kunai. “In fact, I believe the event of which we speak here is even more momentous. I believe this child is the key to the future of our race…”

One of the other priests interrupted. “Ayan-Dar, think of what you ask. All you have is a few lines of verse from a prophecy from the end of the Second Age, from a time when we cannot divine the difference between fact and legend.” He gestured toward a male in maroon robes, the master of the temple’s Books of Time. “Is this not true?”

“Such may be said,” the keeper answered quietly. He was very old, although not so old, Ayan-Dar suspected, as the now-toeless old crone who fulfilled the same role at the temple of the Ka’i-Nur. “But it is also true that all that has ever been written in the Books of Time was originally based on fact, or something that was known or believed at the time to be such. Much of it we can repeat or recreate, but much has also been lost from those long-ago times before the Final Annihilation in the Second Age. Many of the ancient storehouses of knowledge were destroyed in the great devastation that swept our world in that terrible upheaval. Even the Books of Time held by the Ka’i-Nur are not complete. They contain far more information than is available elsewhere, but great gaps exist. In many cases, we have fragments of what once was, pieces of some larger puzzle, but we do not know how the completed puzzle was intended to appear to the beholder.”