The Balance of Power (Godsland Series: Books Four, Five, and Six) (43 page)

* * *

Seethe flew in the way a wounded fish swims, and Kyrien's instincts latched on to that. Deep within him, he invoked primal and ancient skills to make speed and close on the wounded beast. Thorakis also did not look well, which led Catrin to believe that she'd made the correct decision, no matter how painful it may have been. She had done the right thing. But still it hurt, and she wanted to inflict that same emotional pain on Thorakis and Seethe. She knew it was impossible; she would have to settle for physical damage.

Like cold air bursting downward from a thunderstorm, Kyrien descended on Seethe. Thorakis was not caught unaware, and with a wild look in his eyes, he held Koe and the Staff of Life above him. Again Catrin felt the guilt that Nat Dersinger had laid upon her soul. She'd allowed one of the most powerful forces in the world to become a tool for the darkness. It was unforgivable.

Returning the staff to the hands of those who would serve the light was a task for Catrin alone, and she would die for that cause, though she wanted desperately to survive and once again hold her son. For too many years, she'd let the power of her position keep her from him, too many herald globes and not enough time playing fitch or strawman as the other boys had with their parents. So many times he had wanted her to play, and so many times she'd allowed the world to take her away. Though she knew she'd been driven by the need to save all those she cared about, that did little to lessen the guilt. Too many of the current circumstances working against her were the result of her own mistakes. That thought was burned into her mind when Thorakis's fire struck.

The pain was worse than what Catrin had felt before, and she did what she could to snuff the flames as quickly as possible. Even with a quick response, the pain and lingering effects were devastating. Now it was Kyrien’s flight path that wobbled and strayed, and the two dragons looked as if they might both crash into the waves of the Inland Sea. Catrin could figure no reason for Seethe to come here, and she knew that flying out into the storm-plagued Inland Sea was suicide in their current condition. Even if Kyrien could rest and fly at the same time, Catrin knew storms on the Inland Sea were unpredictable and often formed rapidly.

Unwilling to relent, Kyrien pursued Seethe, and Catrin could feel Thorakis preparing for another attack. It would be the last attack, she knew. There was a certainty that drove her to reckless action. Instead of erecting defenses she knew would not hold, Catrin did something she'd never attempted before.

Reaching out to the staff and Koe, Catrin tried to align herself with their energy, as she'd done so many times before. Even as she did, she found a harmonic resonance in their connection that allowed her to feel the power that coursed through them along with the brute force Thorakis used to control them. He didn't connect with them and draw from them as Catrin did; Thorakis wrung them like a wet towel. She could feel the stress it put on the very structure of these objects that were so sacred to her. The pain of it made her think she might faint, or perhaps it was the thin air around her since she was no longer maintaining the pressure. So much of her energy had been expended that even simple things such as breathing became much more difficult, and her head swam with the slow realization of a fogged mind.

Still, she had made a connection, and though she could draw no energy from them, she felt she could send energy to them. For a moment, she considered flooding them with energy and attempting to overwhelm Thorakis. Perhaps he would burst into flames from the excess, but she knew that she would destroy the staff and Koe in the process, and she looked for another way. She would have to find another solution fast; time was running out. Power gathered within Thorakis, wrenched free from every source available.

Without another thought, Catrin lashed out at the staff, not to destroy it, but using her energy to form a connection between the staff and the base of Seethe's massive skull. Lightning flashed between them, startling Thorakis, who then released the energy he'd accumulated, but it did not obey his intention. Instead, his energy followed the path of least resistance through the staff, which glowed from within. The massive charge was diverted through the staff, along Catrin's tendril of energy, and into Seethe.

The feral's wings twitched violently, and he veered to the right, spiraling toward the water below. Catrin watched him fall, knowing the staff and Koe would be lost. The wounded dragon seemed to be trying to get back over land, to have some chance of landing and surviving, but Catrin knew he would die.

In the end, the mighty feral dragon struck solid ground with fatal force.

* * *

Black smoke curled up from the many fires burning within Wolfhold. At the height where Sinjin stood, it all seemed to congeal into a continuous noxious haze. Still he watched the pair of distant dragons as they struggled. A bright light flashed between the two, and Seethe veered off.

"The whole lower keep is aflame, sir, and they're going to make a run at us with ladders." Sinjin wasn't certain who had spoken, but he didn't turn his head; his mother's fate mattered more than anything at that moment. Even as the cries of "Dragon!" rang through the hold, still he watched, and even after it appeared that Seethe had landed or fallen from the sky, unable to be certain, he watched. Squinting, he ignored the command from Jharmin, telling him to get back inside. Still he watched as a giant shape rose from the waters of the Inland Sea and engulfed the distant silhouette that was Kyrien and his mother.

Sinjin would have continued to watch if rough hands hadn't grabbed him from behind and pulled him away.

"Put me down!" he cried out and struggled against the man who carried him away. He could no longer see what was happening to his mother. He could feel only primal fear after what he'd seen. Nothing could be that big, his brain screamed, but he'd seen it, and there was no other explanation he could come up with. He considered for an instant that it might have been a dragon closer to them, but he'd clearly seen it leave the water, and he knew a monster was attacking his mother. He would have continued to struggle if not for the giant black claws that reached for him amid the flapping of massive wings and the huge jaws closing around them as the man ran for the entrance to Jharmin's chambers. The teeth snapped shut on nothing but air. Though closed, those jaws showed they were far from harmless when they slammed into the entranceway with force that shook the room. Chunks of stone flew across the rooms and demolished whatever was in their path.

In the bustle, the man carrying him stumbled and pushed Sinjin forward. Finally showing his good sense, Sinjin tucked his head and ran, trying to catch up to Jharmin and Kendra and his guards. They were only a few steps ahead of him when the dragon struck again, or perhaps it was another dragon; Sinjin had no way of knowing. Again chunks of stone launched into the air, and one of Jharmin's guards was struck; he went down in a heap. Sinjin paused for a moment in shock, but then he pushed after Jharmin as fast as he could.

The remaining guard urged Jharmin and Kendra to reckless speed, and they were pulling away from Sinjin, but at least he, too, was now beyond the reach of the dragons--he hoped. Somehow he knew the dragons would tear the place apart to root them out if that was what it took. The ferocity of their attacks conveyed such hatred that there could be no other outcome. The ferals would find every last one of them until they were gone from Godsland. Perhaps he should just go back and enjoy a quick end. Why prolong the misery?

It took some time to realize that he was not beyond the reach of the feral. Dark thoughts continued to assert themselves, but Sinjin knew them for what they were, and that made them at least a little easier to resist. It seemed such an insidious and evil power to control the mind of another, to impose the will of one on the many, to remove the ability for an individual to make his own decisions. It was this knowing that bolstered Sinjin's will, and the distance he continued to put between himself and the outside world also seemed to be helping.

Ahead of him, Jharmin and the guard turned, and Sinjin raced along behind them. He thought he heard his uncle's voice shouting his name and saying something else, but he couldn't make out the words over the sound of his feet hitting the stone and the pounding of blood in his ears.

When he made the turn, he found a tight spiral stair that had been cut into the stone. The cylinder was narrow and close, and Sinjin felt confined by the encroaching stone as he climbed. Twice he passed equally narrow landings that opened into larger tunnels that led to only darkness and the unknown. Above him, he could see a dim light and hear the sounds of shuffling boots. Hoping there were no enemies within the hold, Sinjin climbed. When at last he found the dimly lit chamber, he saw Jharmin and his guard struggling to turn an apparatus with long, wooden spokes poking out of it.

"Help us," Jharmin barked as soon as Sinjin entered, and Kendra gave him an exasperated look from another of the spokes. Together they pushed; toward what purpose, Sinjin had no guess, but he wasn't fool enough to stand around, asking questions at a time such as this. Slowly the stone pedestal began to move, and they had it. Movement continued to be slow, but it was steady. As it turned, Sinjin saw for the first time what surrounded them. Giant spheres of stone, as big around as greatoaks, looked as if they were suspended in air. Sinjin could not tell how many there were, but there looked to be many.

With a bone-jarring
thunk,
the wooden shaft in Sinjin's hands vibrated and stopped. It felt as if the entire keep responded to whatever command it was that turning this device had given.

A creaking sound filled the hall, and Jharmin waited with an expectant look on his face. The creaking grew higher in pitch, and there was another bone-rattling
thunk
just before the huge spheres began dropping from sight. The chamber that held the spheres was revealed as more stones dropped, and Sinjin could see that there must be hundreds of them. The keep vibrated and hummed.

Running to where the light streamed in, Jharmin climbed so he could look through a natural break in the stone. Sinjin followed, and no one tried to stop him. When he reached the place where Jharmin now waited in tense anticipation, Sinjin saw what a commanding view the height provided, and he watched in silent awe as the lands around Wolfhold exploded. Some of the spheres erupted from hillsides nearly whole, blasting away whatever had stood there, then rolling and crushing whatever was in their paths; others erupted from under roadways and bridges.

Almost no homes lay in the paths of the crushing, monolithic spheres, and Sinjin knew this must have been by design, though he'd never have guessed it prior to this moment. From the view he'd had when they approached Wolfhold, everything had seemed perfectly normal, not that looking out from under that infernal blanket had given him much of a view.

A cloud of dust clogged the air, and it became difficult to see what was taking place down below. What Sinjin did notice was that many of the demons, giants, and soldiers were crowding onto bits of land that had not been disturbed, only to be annihilated when a stone burst out from underneath them. Some were clever and ran to places where a sphere had already erupted. As the stones continued to drop, Sinjin saw that some followed the same path as stones before, and the black army found that those places weren't safe either.

Dragons continued to fill the air, and Sinjin still had the sense they would tear the stone down around him to get to him, and he suddenly wanted to get away from the opening, remembering how devastating the dragons' attacks had been. But another part of him needed to see this, needed to understand the circumstances in which he found himself. He'd been trained all his life to understand his situation and act accordingly, and all of his training said he needed to find a way out.

* * *

The blackness rose up before them so suddenly that Catrin nearly bit her tongue when Kyrien climbed, thrusting her down into the saddle so hard that her arms were glued to her sides from the force. With a wingspan larger than any dragon Catrin had ever seen, a feral queen rose from the depths and gained the skies. This was a foe like nothing she or Kyrien had ever faced, and she could feel the power of the beast; the air practically crackled with it, and a musky smell that Catrin couldn't identify assaulted her senses. A tingling sensation washed over her, and it took her a moment to realize the feeling was coming from Kyrien. She could not imagine how he could cope with a feral queen after losing his own queen to the ferals; it was cruel irony.

The two dragons flew in near synchronicity, one following wherever the other would choose to flee, so they twisted and spiraled through the air. Catrin knew this battle was one they could not win, especially not in their current condition, and her only thought was to launch a massive attack to buy time for them to take evasive action.

No.

Raw compulsion reeked from Kyrien. His command held her suspended, and she stopped her preparations, trying to understand what it was he wanted from her.

Still they soared higher in the air, and still the feral queen mirrored Kyrien's movements like a deadly dance. Catrin's jaws slammed together from the jarring impact when the two collided. She watched in horror as Kyrien wrapped his neck around that of the feral queen, and she looked back to see their tails twined as well. Kyrien's consciousness was flooded with a red haze of primal need, and locked together, the two dragons dropped from the sky like stones. Watching the water approach with such undeniable certainty, Catrin accepted her fate. After only three more breaths came the darkness.