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The first kraal-Jann charged forward. The second was but a yard behind. Nomar pulled an arrow from the ground and set it. The first Jann brushed across what looked like a low branch. The instant it did, the trap sprung.
There was a soft whoosh, followed by a loud grunt, as the branch set with long and sharp wooden spikes struck the ghazi rider. The Jann kept running forward, but the ghazi was suspended on the stakes until the weight of his huge body sent him crashing to the ground. He died thrashing.
The second Jann charged after the first, moving to the right to avoid another possible trap. Just as it did, it triggered another planted switch, and for the second time a trap was sprung. This time the ghazi tried to duck under the stakes. It was a heartbeat too late. One of the stakes penetrated its faceplate and bore directly through its eye and into its brain.
It didn’t move when it struck the ground. The two kraal-Janns stopped their charge and moved together. Nomar watched them press each other’s sides, waver, and meld into one as a third ghazi charged down the middle of the pathway. When it was halfway to Nomar, the Free Blade released the arrow. It struck the ghazi in its throat. The last three ghazi stopped short, their Jann mounts prancing in anger. The ghazi dismounted, came together, and the three charged Nomar on foot.
He released an arrow at the charging ghazi, the arrow sped to the middle ghazi, struck a hairsbreadth below the small opening at the ghazi’s neck, and bounced off the body amour. Before that arrow hit the ground, he’d launched a second arrow. This one hit the exact spot of the opening. The ghazi fell, rolled, and lay still. The two ghazi remaining stopped in their tracks.
Just then a loud bellow shook the forest around them as the seventh Jann stopped and Irret dismounted. The two ghazi charging Nomar stopped in their tracks. The sound came again, and Nomar realized it was the Jann. All of them had bunched together and were wavering, shifting, and swaying. A dark mist whirled around the seven creatures. When the loud booming cry ended, the mist dissolved, and a monstrosity stood in the middle of the pathway.
Half again the height of a man, and wider, the creature’s scale-covered skin reflected the light. It stood on two legs, from the tips of its long feet extended curved and pointed claws. Its arms were short in comparison to its body, and from its hands grew five-inch curved claws. Spikes stood outward on its back, directly in line with its backbone.
The Jann’s shoulders were wide enough to support a thick and short neck, and an enormously wide head with pointed and upright ears. But it was the eyes that bespoke to Nomar of what it was: a dark and deadly force that would destroy anything around it.
It lifted its head, opened a fanged mouth, and gave vent to a furious cry. The sound whipped out like a battle hammer to a warrior’s head. Nomar shook his head, clearing it of the echoes bouncing within, turned to Jalil, and saw him raising the Staff of Afzal. Even before the Staff was pointed at the beast, the Jann’s head swiveled to Jalil, and its eyes locked on the Dark Master.
The Jann’s spikes stiffened, it raised one leg and slammed it down, the vibrations raced outward for hundreds of feet. The Jann backstepped, tensed; and leaned forward. Then it charged Jalil.
The sound of laughter rose suddenly. Behind the two remaining ghazi stood Irret. She was laughing at Nomar and at Jalil while her head pivoted back and forth, her eyes searching until she stopped, turned, and went in the direction where Ailish lay.
“No!” he said as the creature closed the distance to Jalil, and the two ghazi charged him.
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The little pinch of sensation grew, spreading through her mind, rebuilding the pathways of her brain. It was slow work, but Ailish was beginning to recognize what The Speaker was doing. A few minutes later, she had enough of her mind connected to begin working with The Speaker. While she did, she realized it was all of the sorceresses of the Eight, and not just the one.
She pushed harder but was stopped by The Speaker. Slow is this work, but to go faster, harder, is to miss something of importance.
Accepting The Speaker’s wisdom, she stopped rushing herself. After another few seconds, she started hearing things again. What she heard wasn’t birds, or insects, or even animals. It was the sound of fighting.
A loud roar unlike anything she had ever heard, shattered the air, and shook the ground around her. Faster, she pleaded. Something is wrong, something is happening.
Open your eyes, The Speaker commanded.
She did, and was able to see for the first time in ... she had no idea.
Good. Find your power, now!
Ailish closed her eyes and concentrated, forcing everything within her being to rekindle the powers laying deep within the very base of her femininity.
She pushed as if she were delivering a child, and as she did, cried out! Before the sound of her voice faded, her body erupted with all the powerful forces of her ability.
The heat did not just rise, it blasted upward in searing waves of power. Her eyes snapped open, she forced her stiff muscles to move, her joints to bend and flex as she rolled over and used her hands and knees to rise.
Standing, she turned just as another roaring bellow issued from behind a wall of trees. Before she could take a step toward the sound, Irret emerged from between two of the trees.
“Now you die!” the black sorceress screamed. Her hand was pointed at Ailish; a flash of power leapt forward.
Without thinking at the strangeness of seeing Irret here, Ailish raised her hand and swiped sideways. There was another flash, larger, and then it disappeared.
Yar let out a growl and started forward. No, wait, she told him. The rantor stayed still but she could hear the rumbling in his throat.
“How did you free yourself?”
“From your formula, from your spell?”
“From my Master’s spell!” she spat.
Yet another bellow issued from behind the trees. Ailish’s eyes flicked toward the sound. Irret laughed aloud. “Both of them will be dead in a few minutes. My Master’s demon, the Jann will do so.”
Yar, find Nomar. Help him!
She felt his resistance. He would not leave her. Go! Now! she pleaded even as she drew up a weapon from within her abilities and sent it at Irret.
It struck, and when Irret staggered back, Yar took off, disappearing into the trees before Irret regained her feet.
Sitting up quickly, Irret’s hands moved quickly; and a wave of power struck Ailish with the force of a giant’s punch.
Lifted from the ground and flung backwards, Ailish landed in the silks she’d just risen from. She rolled quickly, gained her feet, and turned to face Irret, who had crossed half the distance between them at a full out run.
“That won’t work again, Your Highness!” Irret sneered, her entire arm now glowing with a mist of darkness flickering up and down its length. She raised her arm and released her powers at Ailish.
Ailish created a shield the instant before Irret’s weapon struck her. As the power faded, Yar joined with her and she saw the Jann. The sound of her indrawn breath was loud in her own ears. The creature was lumbering toward Jalil, while Nomar fought two ghazi. Help Nomar, she asked of her aoutem.
The Jann roared again. Irret stopped, a smile breaking across her face. “The Staff of Afzal will be mine. The old Master dies today. The Free Blade does as well. You die today, and your aoutem with you! Know this, Queen of Nothing, when I finish with you, I will wipe your bloodline from the face of Nevaeh! When I am finished, your bloodline will cease to exist!”
The black sorceress’s words rushed through Ailish’s mind. Her anger surged like the strike of a poisonous snuck. Like a snuck, Ailish’s left arm, bending at the elbow, whipped up. Her fingers pointed at Irret from a hand curved toward the black witch. Her eyes narrowed and she released all the power she had within her. A stream of blue light burst from her fingertips and wrapped around Irret.
Keeping her left hand pointed at Irret, she raised her right hand toward the light surrounding Irret. “You’ll do what?” she challenged and raised her hand several inches, a cocoon of light surrounding Irret lifted into the air and hovered over the ground. Then Ailish pointed the index finger of her right hand at the top of the cavern, hundreds of feet above. The light encasing Irret, and Irret herself, went straight up, stopping only when it touched the rock face of the cavern’s top.
As her entire body trembled with the force of her anger, she thought of her husband’s death, and of Irret’s promise to kill her entire family, Nomar, and Jalil.
“Not in this life, you bitch!”
Bending, and then kneeling, she slammed her now-fisted right hand into the ground. The blue envelope of light followed the path of her fist, smashing into the ground, ten feet in front of her.
Turning from what was left of Irret’s body, its blood soaking into the ground, she looked for her weapons. Her bow was nowhere to be seen; her sword lay on the ground next to her silks. She raced to it, grabbed the weapon with her right hand, and ran to the wall of trees and the sounds of fighting. Her left hand was still covered in blue-white light.
