The Fifth Dawn (33 page)

He gasped as the air left his lungs and his ribs cracked. The leonin brought himself up to all fours with an agonizing effort and fought back his gorge.

“What in the name of—?” Raksha coughed.

Lyese easily slipped her leg free of the cabling and leaped to her feet. She followed with a sharp-toed boot to Raksha’s gut. He spat up silvery red blood and flopped onto his side, clutching his belly, and was unable to avoid yet another kick that caught him behind the ear. The sky above spun lazily, and the leonin fought the urge to pass out.

“Raksha, Raksha, Raksha …” Lyese said, driving a boot into his side with each repitition. “You’re not supposed to be here. You were supposed to die up there, with Yshkar. You really should have done that.”

“What are you talking about?” Raksha croaked. “What are you doing?”

“My job, your Kha-ness,” Lyese replied. Keeping one eye on the leonin, she backed over to the metal ball she’d been leaning against when she was “trapped” and crouched over the strange object, which Raksha could now see bore ancient carvings that looked vedalken. Two blue crystals mounted on top of the artifact began to glow and a low hum struck the leonin’s sensitive ears. “Sorry you had to find me,” the elf added. “You’re not going to be as easy to cow as that fool Dwugget, or as easy to seduce as your idiot cousin. And you know what that means, my Kha. I get to kill you
personally.”

“Lyese, why?” Raksha whispered. “Glissa would—”

Lyese laughed, a cold, tinny sound unlike anything Raksha had ever heard. When next she spoke, her voice changed. The tones of the young elf girl he knew were underlaid with a low, masculine baritone that filled the air all around the leonin’s head.

“Who are you?” Raksha whispered.

“Ah, he figured it out,” the Lyese-thing sneered, and gave him another kick. “You should have gone along with the Vulshok, cat-man. You’d still have your elf girl, and your precious palace would still be in one piece. Of course,
you
would still be dead, but what is the life of a Kha compared to those of his subjects?” The false Lyese tapped out a pattern on the glowing artifact and stood, apparently satisfied.

“Release the girl,” Raksha coughed. “Or I will kill you whoever you look like.”

“Idiot. Leonin, the girl is right here. She’s terrified, let me tell
you. I’m going to enjoy consuming her mind when I move on.”

“Move on?” Raksha asked.

“Tell me, did I squeeze you too hard, my Kha?” the elf said as she brought her fists together. “You can’t imagine how tricky it is to use only enough strength when you’re an ogre.”

“Ogre?” Raksha managed. He was already recovering, but tried to hide it. If Lyese got close enough, he might be able to surprise her.

“Gave you too much credit, I see,” Lyese said. “I’ll make it easier for you. Here’s a riddle. What do a Vulshok priest, an ogre, and an elf girl have in common?”

“Sounds like a bad goblin joke,” Raksha said.

“You are the opposite of fun,” Lyese said. “Vektro, at your service.” The elf strolled around the glowing artifact, which now hummed louder than before. When she reached the leonin, she took a deep bow with exaggerated flourish.

“Alderok Vektro?” Raksha said. “Alderok Vektro is dead.”

“Just Vektro, if you please,” the thing that wore Lyese’s body said. Vektro brought elf girl’s visage mere inches from Raksha’s and added, “The human Alderok is nothing but a smear on the path now.”

Raksha brough a gauntleted fist crashing into the imposter’s borrowed face, knocking Vektro backward. The Kha rolled forward onto his feet and spun into a crouch, faced the imposter, and roared. “I am Raksha Golden Cub, Kha of Taj Nar. I have no need of your services.”

The imposter screamed and charged the leonin Kha. Raksha had lost his sword, but no leonin was ever defenseless as long as he had his claws. He blocked Vektro’s first punch with his palm and drove a fist into the imposter’s gut. Vektro doubled over with a cough, and the leonin followed through with a knee to the face that knocked the imposter backward, stunned.

“Whatever you are, Vektro, it’s good to see you can take a beating no matter what you look like,” Raksha snarled. “Now get out of that body before we rip its head off. We really don’t want to do that.”

“No deal, Kha,” the imposter coughed. “I’ve been waiting a long, long time for a body all my own, and now that I’ve got it I’m not leaving. The master says this one is mine to keep. And I intend to.”

Raksha launched himself into a forward roll and tackled Vektro around the legs, bringing the ersatz elf to the hard metal floor of the old armory with a crash. He followed with a fist to the jaw and pinned Vektro’s head back with one elbow as he threw himself across the elf girl’s stolen body. “That device,” Raksha said. He nodded to the glowing ball of humming silver. “It is a weapon?”

Vektro smiled, and looked pointedly over Raksha’s shoulder. All traces of the strange Vektro-voice gone, Lyese screamed. “Yshkar! He’s gone mad! That artifact is going to destroy Taj Nar. We’ve got to get out!”

Raksha didn’t see Yshkar’s blow coming until it was too late. He was thrown back and struck his head hard enough to make the world spin. Yshkar crouched over him and placed a hand against Raksha’s forehead, then muttered a standard spell used by the leonin on those rare occasions it paid to take live prisoners in war. Raksha’s muscles went slack, and without ceremony Yshkar slung the Kha over his shoulder. Raksha would be paralyzed below the neck for hours.

“What is that?” Yshkar said, jabbing a claw at the whining silver globe.

“It’s a mana bomb, and he said it’s going to go off any minute,” Lyese said. “Yshkar, he’s betrayed us all. You have to leave him, or we won’t have time to save the rest of your people.” She
leaned in closer and whispered loud enough for Raksha to hear,
“Our
people.”

“Most have already evacuated. I gave the order after that last blast,” Yshkar said.

“Good,” Raksha mumbled deliriously.

Lyese was already heading toward the cable ladder Yshkar had used to get down to the basement level. Within seconds the elf girl—and the being that controlled her—scrambled up the ladder and away from the glowing, whining bomb.

“Damn,” Yshkar growled, and followed. “Raksha, I will see you dead for this. But not today.” He followed Lyese up the ladder, and within minutes Yshkar and the elf girl were well clear of Taj Nar.

Yshkar dropped Raksha to the ground without ceremony and propped the paralyzed leonin against a pile of leonin bodies that reeked of blood and rot. “Yshkar,” the Kha croaked. “She is not—”

Before Raksha could finish, Taj Nar disappeared in a blinding flash of blue and white. A half second later, the deafening thunder of the mana bomb explosion reached his ears and blasted the world into silence. Unable even to shield his eyes, Raksha was forced to watch as his home, his kingdom, and the future of his people were laid low under a rapidly expanding cloud of destruction.

“You saw it go up,” Glissa said. Something tickled her cheek, and her hand came away covered with tears she hadn’t noticed until now.

“I couldn’t look away,” Raksha said. “Though my soul very nearly died that day.”

“I think I can figure out what happened next from what they
told me,” Glissa interrupted. “Vektro accused you, and all Yshkar could see was you trying to kill the woman he loved. It sounds like she would have killed everyone if you hadn’t stopped her.”

“It was Yshkar’s evacuation order that saved everyone,” Raksha said. “My discovery only saved the imposter.”

“But what
was
Vektro? How can I get Lyese back?” Glissa’s eyes flashed with fury. “You told me she was dead, but this is worse. A lot worse. She’s still in there, Raksha. I know it.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Raksha said with a sigh. The leonin placed a firm paw on her shoulder. “He will not leave her until she is mortally wounded. We would have to kill her to save her.”

“I can’t accept that,” Glissa said. “We have to figure out what he is, and how to get him out. I want my sister back, Raksha.”

“Glissa, she’s dead. She has to be,” Raksha replied.

She stood to look the leonin eye to eye and jabbed a finger in his chest. “Why?” Glissa demanded.

“Because we have a chance to stop what’s coming now,” Raksha said. “If you choose to confront Vektro, you will fail to strike Memnarch when the time comes. That is why she must be dead. If there is a way to force Vektro out, we will do it. But you cannot concern yourself with her now. It’s one life, one life that might not even exist.”

Glissa knew the leonin was right. There was nothing she could do but fail if she tried to save Lyese now. “All right, damn you,” she said. “I’ll set Lyese—I’ll set her aside. But why even carry on this war? Lyese—Vektro—is a monarch. It doesn’t make any sense. She could have simply ended the conflict and let the nim in years ago. Why the bomb?”

“The war serves Memnarch’s ends,” Raksha said. “I do think I was meant to die in the bomb blast, but luck conspired to let me find it, and Lyese—and Vektro’s treachery before it was too late. Vektro only accused me as a last resort. I owe my life to Yshkar,
despite what has come since. With Taj Nar destroyed, the nim and leveler armies could have moved on to Krark-Home, and maybe that was the original plan.” He stopped pacing, and placed a hand on Glissa’s shoulder.

“How did you learn all this hiding out in the Tangle?” Glissa asked, still unconvinced.

“Do you remember the name Ghonthas?” Raksha asked.

“Who?” Glissa said.

“She was a Sylvok. One of Vektro’s vessels,” Raksha said. “She knew you.”

“I don’t know any—wait,” Glissa said. “There was a Sylvok judge at my trial. In Viridia.”

“That was Vektro, inhabiting Ghonthas,” Raksha said. “The imposter was, at the time, trying to ensure the Viridians didn’t execute you, which would have spoiled Memnarch’s plans. When you escaped, Vektro was forced to leave the Slyvok.”

“And showed up on the mountain with a pack of goblins,” Glissa said.

Raksha nodded. “A few months after I’d entered the tangle, I encountered Ghonthas while tracking a vorrac. The human had been wounded by a pack of kharybdogs, but she recognized me. She remembered everything Vektro knew, including the length of Memnarch’s hibernation, the Miracore, and the part you were bound to play. And you’ve confirmed everything she told me. That cannot be a coincidence.”

“What made you believe her?” Glissa asked. “A dying human wandering in the woods?”

“She knew things,” Raksha said. “Things about you. The story you told at the trial did not fall on deaf ears.” He flicked his ears in leonin embarrassment. “And perhaps I believed her because my heart wanted it to be true. It gave me hope.”

“Well, it’s a start,” Glissa said.

Glissa awoke to the sound of Raksha putting on another kettle of homebrew. He offered the elf girl a simple meal of fruit and jerky, which they ate in silence. Neither spoke as they filled their packs with a two-day supply of food. Even Geth remained quiet.

“The journey down the lacuna will take the rest of the day,” Raksha said when they had finished packing, breaking the spell of silence and anxiety. “That will give us the night to reach Memnarch. Will that gemstone of yours work for me too?”

“I think so,” Glissa said. “Bruenna said it had an infinite charge.” She pushed back her tunic sleeve and held the blue stone up for him to see. “Here, try it. Just put a finger on it, then say ‘Fly, fly, fly.’”

“Clever,” the leonin rumbled. “I really must speak thusly?”

“It’s simple,” Glissa replied. “Easy to remember. Stop stalling, your Kha-ship.”

Raksha placed a fingertip on the gem. “Fly, fly … fly.”

The leonin floated a few inches off the ground, as if blown by a gentle breeze. “Amazing!” he said and cautiously floated about the room. “Forget what I said, we can get to the interior in about an hour.”

“We should still be on the move,” Glissa said. “I’d rather have a chance to peek around the corner before we walk in. Ghonthas didn’t say
that
would ruin everything, did he?”

Raksha did an experimental loop, and a stalactite nearly took his head off. “What?”