The Last of the Ageless (54 page)

“What’s the matter, Wizard?” Nyr called. “Too cowardly to fight her yourself?”

The Wizard didn’t tear his glance away from the fight. “Now that I’ve emptied Caetl’s mind… I can do whatever I want with my little puppet.”

The Wizard’s glee-filled voice enraged Nyr. She unsheathed her claws with the intent to rake through his every age.

The Wizard winked, and Caetl threw himself toward her. Nyr jerked back. The mystic lost his footing as his forward momentum carried him farther than expected.

He recovered and lunged. Nyr met him with her fist lodged in his gut. His weight forced her backward, and she rolled over her back, springing to her feet with less grace than she would’ve liked. She was tired, but a fight involving the Ageless would not be quick.

Behind the Wizard, Kaia took advantage of the distraction and fled. Ignoring Caetl, Nyr closed the gap to the Wizard and slashed him across the chest. A blinding flash of pain seared her vision, turning the world black as she collapsed into the grasses.

Something collided with her ribs. When it happened a second time, she lashed out, pulling on someone’s ankle, knocking whoever it was to the ground. Unable to see through the pain, she threw herself onto the man and pummeled him with her good fist instead of claws, fearing it was the mystic.

“Caetl! I’m Nyr, your ally, remember?” She tried saying it simultaneously aloud and mentally, unsure if it worked. “You’re Caetl, a mystic. Wake up!”

He’d been right to condemn her ability to control her own thoughts. As she pounded the body beneath her, a crescendo built in her mind, rising from the depths of her subconscious.

“C’mon, Caetl. Force him out,” she shouted, or thought she did. She couldn’t actually hear herself over the noise in her head.

The man underneath her slipped away. On her hands and knees, she tried to follow him over the uneven earth. The pain in her head increased until her skull was too small to contain it. If she didn’t do something, she would black out.

Nyr got to her knees and forced her eyelids open, which required all her energy. As her eyes fell on the Wizard, Caetl tackled her from the side, smashing her to the ground and jarring her broken forearm.

The scream tore at her throat, but she heard nothing over the steadily increasing noise. Kicking and thrashing, she did everything she could to fight Caetl off without killing him. The pressure in her skull built until she barely registered any pain from the blows he rained down on her.

This was it.

Then all the noise and pain and pressure in her head just… stopped.

“What are you doing?” an angry voice boomed.

He spoke again, the sweetest sound she’d ever heard, the bringer of relief from pain. “Where is Kaia? She’s the objective here, not this unworthy filth. Or have you already forgotten our plans?”

“She fled when I had my mystic attack the feline.”

“Why didn’t you send the mystic after Kaia? You can keep the feline busy well enough on your own, even from a distance. In fact, you
both
should have gone after Kaia.”

“I don’t appreciate being talked to like a child.”

Still on her back, Nyr cracked an eyelid and gazed into the clear blue sky. A giant stood over her. She blinked and noticed the cyborg cradled a body in the crook of one arm. Soledad.

Nyr’s thoughts snapped into focus—where the Ageless went, her two slaves followed. The two Purebreeds couldn’t be far behind. Nyr twisted toward Searchtown but could see nothing through the tall grasses.

Soledad dropped into the grasses beside Nyr and didn’t so much as moan. Though they lay only inches apart, Nyr didn’t feel the woman’s breath.

“Fine.” Nyr cringed at Zen’s voice, her head clearing. “You look after the unconscious women, while I go after our target.”

The ground trembled.

“Oh,” Zen said, his footsteps pausing. “I almost forgot. Gryid may follow us as well, and I consider it your fault he’s here. He’s wearing one of your devices, so you deal with it.”

Nyr gathered her strength, knowing she’d only get one chance to take the Wizard down. Tensing, she prepared to rise and leap at the Wizard in one smooth motion.

Then a familiar face blocked her field of vision and leered down at her through one black eye and a busted lip.

“Hello, feline.” Azaiah grinned, his tail twining in the air. “What do you say we finish what we started?”

His tail whipped toward her.

Chapter 28

As the tail-horse, Dalan galloped across the grasslands. He lost sight of the other figures behind a slight dip in the field.

Caetl? Can you hear me?
Dalan had been trying to reach the mystic since leaving Searchtown, but never caught even a whisper of a foreign thought.

His horse-like mind reeled in fear at the scent of blood. The very strong scent of blood. As he crested the hillock, Dalan spied two bodies in the grass. His breath caught.

Matted in several areas, the grass told of a lethal battle. He approached a lithe female body and took a shaky breath of tainted air when he discovered she wasn’t Nyr. A large pool of blood surrounded the male feline, and scratches covered his body.

Nyr had survived vengeance once more.

A vision from Saquey blocked his view, showing Azaiah riding after him. He heard the hoofbeats and shook his head to clear the vision. Though he lunged into a gallop, Azaiah caught up to him and leapt from his saddle. His momentum knocked Dalan over and they collapsed to the ground, the Changeling’s tail wrapping around Dalan’s muscular neck.

Dalan rolled, and Azaiah was forced to release him in order to avoid being crushed. He rolled away and jumped to his feet as Dalan got to his hooves. Without hesitation, Dalan attacked.

Azaiah spun, but wasn’t fast enough to sidestep. Dalan’s muscular tail lanced over his shoulder and slammed into Azaiah’s chest, sending him flying.

The sound of metal on metal coming from Searchtown made Dalan flinch. Saquey flew overhead but didn’t show him the source of the noise. Peering toward Searchtown, he saw Zen loping across the field. Azaiah grabbed his horse’s reins and took off, abandoning his fight with Dalan.

Dalan hunkered down, letting his golden fur blend in with the grasses. Moving faster than he’d thought possible, Zen lumbered by with Soledad in one arm.

A scream brought Dalan to his hooves. He galloped full-tilt to the north, no longer caring if Zen noticed him. Following the contours of the rolling grasslands, he occasionally lost sight of the other figures in the distance.

He crested another rise to see Kaia running away as Caetl tackled Nyr. The two of them collapsed in a pile at the Wizard’s feet. Nyr fought back as though possessed, her arms and claws splayed to catch any flesh they encountered, her legs kicking in all directions as though blind.

Caetl!
Dalan yelled.
Stop it. Defend yourself against the Wizard.

Nyr’s body went rigid. Caetl pummeled her before twisting away and tripping over his own feet. Dalan hung back and listened to Zen arguing with the Wizard as Azaiah dismounted beside him. As Zen’s voice rose in anger, Caetl stared at the sky, oblivious.

Zen dropped Soledad next to Nyr with such carelessness Dalan wondered if she was alive. Korreth and Jorrim might be long gone. He sent a mental image to Saquey of Ti’rros, and the dragonfly buzzed back toward Searchtown.

Zen stalked off in the direction Kaia had gone, leaving Azaiah with his original master. Azaiah’s slender tail lashed toward Nyr, and Dalan charged. Azaiah dropped back, and the Wizard let out a surprised shout.

Nyr’s eyes rolled back in her head. A wound on the side of her face bled freely, her arm purple.

The Wizard yelled, “Stupid mystic, stop staring and attack Dalan!”

Caetl stood a few feet away. With his face upturned and his eyes fixed on the sky, he mouthed something over and over. Dalan pricked his ears toward him.

The mystic’s voice droned, “They’re still up there. I know they are. They’re still up there.”

At a rustle in the grasses, Dalan brought his tail up. Azaiah snagged a gun from the ground with his lithe tail.

“I know you won’t try to kill us. The Wizard told me all about you. All of you,” Azaiah said, his eyes dropping to Nyr. “He said the most powerful among you was also the weakest, because of some stupid moral code your people cling to.”

Azaiah raised his weapon as Dalan closed the distance. The gun went off, and something stung his left flank. He lowered his long neck and head-butted Azaiah, sending him tumbling back. The man landed hard and the gun fell into the grasses. He groggily sat up, a hand to his head. The Wizard stumbled away from them both.

Careful to avoid trampling Nyr’s unconscious form, Dalan rushed him, hoping to keep him from the gun. He forgot about Azaiah’s other weapon until it was wrapped around his neck.

He tossed his long neck, lifting the other Changeling in the air by his slender tail. Launching his own, more muscular tail forward, Dalan pounded the other Changeling over and over and gasped for air whenever his grip momentarily loosened. An image from Saquey hindered his vision, showing Jorrim and Korreth approaching on horseback.

When his view returned, Dalan feinted at Azaiah’s head with his tail, looped it up and away, and then swept his feet out from under him. Azaiah landed hard but didn’t release his grip. The weight of a full body on his neck pulled Dalan’s head down, throwing him off balance.

A red ball of energy exploded near Azaiah. He twisted away, his grip slipping. Dalan stumbled back. Azaiah recovered his gun as he rolled to his feet.

His head fuzzy from the chokehold, Dalan coughed.

“Don’t let the Wizard do this to you,” Nyr called.

Jorrim fired at the Wizard, and the red orb spun through the center of his abdomen. The Wizard’s eyes widened. He slid toward youth and let out a horrible scream.

The Ageless fled north, calling back over his shoulder, “Shoot them, Azaiah!”

“Go after him, Dalan,” Nyr rasped. “Caetl won’t wake up.”

He snorted, hoping Korreth and Jorrim would deal with Azaiah while Nyr tried to rouse Caetl.

He galloped toward the Wizard. Sidling up to him, Dalan skidded to a stop and swept his trunk-like tail through the grasses, hitting the Wizard just above the knees. He tumbled away, shifting ages as he rolled.

When he got to his feet, he raised a pink globular stone over his head—the amplifier. “I will live forever, ruling over Changelings, Purebreeds, and hybrids alike. Join me and you’ll have a favored position in our new empire with the other wearers of my sigil.”

The Wizard pointed his chin toward Nyr and the others. “Or… I’ll torture all three of them until you surrender.”

He glanced back to see Ti’rros had arrived. She and Jorrim squared off against Azaiah while Korreth kneeled next to Soledad.

Ti’rros slammed her hands into either side of her head. She and Nyr collapsed to the ground, and Korreth rushed to the Joey’s side.

To his surprise, Caetl got to his feet, his teeth gritted, his eyes closed. He was fighting back. Or so Dalan thought, until the Wizard said, “Get him, Caetl.”

The mystic charged at Dalan, lumbering through the grasses with uncoordinated movements. His face was frozen in an expression of horror.

Surrender. Surrender. Surrender.
The words echoed in Dalan’s head. The voice was Caetl’s, but not the thoughts. He reared, knocking the mystic down. If the Wizard got to Dalan through Caetl, no one could stop him.

When Caetl got to his feet, Dalan wrapped his tail around him, pinning his arms to his sides.
Caetl, got to snap out of it. Stop letting the Wizard use you.
Dalan’s mental words seemed to fall into a void. Nothing registered on the mystic’s face, and he squirmed in Dalan’s grip, yelling wordlessly, his face going red.

“I’ll go after him.” Nyr sprinted after the Wizard’s fleeing form.

She caught up to him and bowled him over. Dalan raised his head, trying to see over the grasses. She pinned him down and slashed at him with her good arm.

Then her torso arched backwards. She fell over with both hands to her head. The mystic simultaneously went limp in Dalan’s grip.

He charged toward Nyr and the Wizard, his tail straining under Caetl’s weight. The Wizard stood over Nyr, watching her writhe in pain. His eyes narrowed at Dalan before he retreated. Nyr let out a sigh and her muscles all went slack.

Laying Caetl gently in the grass, Dalan prodded Nyr with his tail. Then he moved it in front of her nose and mouth and felt only the barest tickle of breath. Perhaps it was best they remained unconscious, so the Wizard couldn’t hurt them anymore.

Caetl spoke, startling him, “I killed them, Dalan. My own clanmates.” His voice rose in a higher pitch than normal.

Dalan hovered over the man he’d only known a few days, but whom he’d grown to respect and admire. Breath from his large nostrils ruffled Caetl’s hair.
Caetl, what’s he done to you?

His bones felt heavy, the tail-horse’s weight pulling him down. The fatigue of maintaining a partial transmeld permeated him to the core.