The Last of the Ageless (24 page)

Three Purebreeds fired crossbow bolts at Nyr. When she ducked, they charged and knocked her off her feet. They screamed as they rained blows down on her with clubs. Struggling against the tail-horse’s terror, Dalan avoided kicking them, resolved not to interfere with vengeance this time.

Dalan reasserted control as two teenage felines advanced on Ti’rros. One of them wrapped Ti’rros’s necklace in a fist as the other raised a clawed hand. Ti’rros brought up her knife, but the boy blocked it. With his heavy tail, Dalan swept the teenager off his feet. Someone yelled, “Tal!” as he fell.

To Dalan’s surprise, Ti’rros jerked her other assailant into a tight embrace. With one hand tangled up in the necklace’s cord, the feline raked his other hand along the Joey’s shoulder. Ti’rros raised her knife and plunged it into the teenager’s back. As he fell, he pulled Ti’rros down on top of him.

Ti’rros struggled to disentangle herself as Dalan jabbed feline and Purebreed alike to keep them away from her. The sound of gunfire deafened Dalan’s right ear, and he slapped the Purebreed gunman aside. A stray bullet might easily kill either of them.

Dalan scanned his immediate surroundings, expecting another attack and trying to protect Ti’rros until she could climb on his back. They were in the center of the melee, vicious fights raging around them.

Motionless at the edge of the chaos, two male figures, one pale and one dark, caught Dalan’s attention. The dark-skinned one seemed to notice his scrutiny and raised a long-barreled gun.

Dalan whinnied a warning and danced to the side, knocking Ti’rros off her feet. A red orb flew from the tip of the weapon straight for them. It sizzled past Dalan’s flank and hit a feline. From the corner of his eye, Dalan saw the pale one aiming at them as well. Dalan collapsed to ground, and the next red orb flew overhead. Someone screamed.

Using his trunk-like tail, Dalan launched from the ground into a trot. The two calm ones targeted him specifically. Dalan charged through the pairs of fighters, interrupting deadly dances. Whenever he could, he knocked the felines aside. They deserved it. The Purebreeds had invoked vengeance, and Dalan surmised the other felines were as bloodthirsty as Nyr.

In the chaos, Dalan nearly trampled a little girl. He stared as a feline in a full-length dress lunged, claws extended toward her. The girl met her head-on, putting a foot on the feline’s knee and launching herself upward. The child wrapped her arms around the feline’s neck as she swung behind her, safe from her claws.

To Dalan’s surprise, the girl grew into a muscular woman with beads rattling in her dark hair. Her sudden change in weight bore them both to the ground.

Dalan found himself swept off his hooves as a heavyset feline man tackled his hind legs from the side. A feline with blackened fangs slashed at Dalan from the front. Gashes opened along his foreleg, and he shrilled in pain.

Twisting on the ground on his back, Dalan kicked Black Fangs with a foreleg. The heavyset feline backed away from Dalan’s uncoordinated movements, shaking his head, his mane of trophies jangling.

Rolling to his side, Dalan got to his hooves and held up his tail to block their blows. From the corner of his eye, he spotted Ti’rros, who pointed a pistol at Black Fangs. Dalan launched himself at Trophy Mane.

At the last second, Nyr got in his way. “No!”

Though her arms opened wide, her claws remained sheathed. Nyr looked over her shoulder at Trophy Mane. “Jaul, find someone else to pick on.”

Dalan ducked his head, suddenly remembering the reason he’d gone deeper into the fray—the two Purebreeds with Ancient rifles.

“Come,” Ti’rros said, taking advantage of the distraction.

Dalan followed the Joey around in the chaos of battle. In the darkness, he couldn’t spot the two calm Purebreeds. A gangly teenager backed into Ti’rros, then blindly stabbed at her. Ti’rros tripped him with her tail, fired down at him, and kept going.

Dalan glanced down to check if the Purebreed still lived, but the sound of the dragonfly’s buzzing wings distracted him. Over the din of screams, ripping cloth, and wet sounds he didn’t want to think about, he latched on to that familiar sound.

Through mental images, he tried to tell Saquey to keep its distance. He didn’t want the dragonfly to risk being knocked from the sky trying to protect him. But Saquey in turn showed him the pale Purebreed pointing his rifle at the tail-horse across the battlefield again.

Dalan’s vision returned in time for him to shove Ti’rros with his muzzle. He reared back as a red ball of energy passed underneath his three-toed hooves. It took off the arm of a nearby feline, who screamed in rage and pain. No blood spilled from her stump.

Dalan’s ears rang. He had no idea where he was. A surreal silence swept over him, rendering him a spectator. The melee surged all around, but no one engaged him. Then Saquey buzzed through his line of vision, and with that sound came everything else.

All the Purebreeds piled up on one feline in front of him. Underneath the scrambling limbs, Dalan caught sight of a speck of orange fur. A woman with long brown hair raised a pistol and yelled, “Let me shoot her!” But she couldn’t aim past her allies.

Dalan knew who they attacked, but he wouldn’t stand in the path of vengeance this time. Trophy Mane—Jaul, he remembered—and a snarling female rushed to Nyr’s aid.

“Should we—” Ti’rros started, but Dalan turned tail and trotted into the darkness. Farther from the fray, Dalan kneeled down. He threw back his head and snorted, urging Ti’rros on. Borderlands dirt rubbed his foreleg, stinging in his cuts. Ti’rros fired a warning shot before throwing a leg over Dalan’s back. She used her own tail to steady herself, then kicked at a feline who charged at them.

But more came on. Dalan thrashed his heavy tail, clearing the area, knocking aside Changeling and Purebreeds alike. He didn’t understand why they kept attacking him and Ti’rros.

When he swung his tail to the other side, it struck a Purebreed in the head with a sickening snap. As he collapsed, Dalan recognized him as the man who’d shouted for vengeance and triggered the battle.

Something rose within him, like water flooding a river bed, but he raised a dam against it. Using his heavy, trunk-like tail so much took its toll, leaving him exhausted and open to the physical and emotional onslaught of battle.

A feline stumbled over the Purebreed’s body. With so much blood matting her fur, Dalan didn't recognize her immediately. Once he did, his heart raced, and he considered galloping off to leave Nyr behind to face whatever happened. Unbidden, he remembered how she’d warned them to run, and how her claws had been sheathed…

To his surprise, Ti’rros yelled, “Climb up!” and held out a silver hand to her. 

While Dalan hesitated to kneel for her, a red ball of energy came from nowhere and hit Nyr in the chest. She flew back from the force, pink illumination enveloping her upper torso. Dalan shrilled in surprise.

Another feline charged them, his arms open as though nothing could harm him. Dalan smashed his tail point-first into his forehead, and the feline dropped like a rock from a canyon wall.

Ti’rros said, “Kneel, Dalan. She doesn’t have the strength.”

Dalan felt hands on his ribs and bent his knees again. The stinging of his foreleg made him jerk. He felt Ti’rros drag Nyr up on his back, and then Dalan pushed off the ground with his tail.

“That way,” Nyr muttered.

Ti’rros patted Dalan’s neck and pointed. “That way!” she repeated.

With Saquey overhead, Dalan fled the battle. Ti’rros and Nyr’s combined weight made his joints ache, but he forced himself forward, kicking up dust behind them.

Although Dalan gained speed at first, his strength ebbed until he imagined he wasn’t much faster than a human. Saquey buzzed beside him, sometimes getting ahead, as though urging him on. At one point, Ti’rros bounded alongside him, though he couldn’t remember her getting down. With her powerful legs, the Joey eventually outpaced him.

His trot slowed as dawn broke. Moisture tickled along his sides, and he wondered if Nyr was bleeding. They traveled a short distance more before his front knees locked. His tail fell limp behind him and his barrel chest heaved as Nyr dismounted. Catching his breath took his all of his attention.

When Ti’rros lifted a canteen to her blue lips, every fiber of Dalan’s body strained toward that water. He transmelded from tail-horse to birth form before he’d made the conscious decision to do so. The stinging of his foreleg soon paled in comparison to the agony of his bones and muscles changing size and shape.

His wounds healed as he changed. With shaking hands, Dalan ripped his pack open and grabbed his canteen. The cap flew off and landed on the ground, and he slammed the canteen to his lips. The water pouring over his tongue was the sweetest thing he’d ever tasted… and then it ended.

Nyr took a few steps away. “Incredible.”

Saquey landed on the ground behind Ti’rros. Its head turned toward them.

“More,” Dalan coughed around his swollen tongue. “Need more water.” His heart raced.

Nyr shook her head. “My satchel was lost back there.”

Ti’rros handed him a canteen. “It is our last.”

Saquey lifted into the air as if pulled on a string, and then darted back in the direction they’d come. For now, Dalan cared about nothing beyond the lukewarm liquid rushing into his mouth. Nyr narrowed her eyes. He gulped and gulped until an image from Saquey overwhelmed him.

With his head pounding, Dalan’s sluggish brain slowly processed the multi-faceted view. Three figures had followed them through the night. Dalan choked and sputtered when he recognized two of them…

Because both still carried their Ancient rifles.

Chapter 12

Korreth stared in disbelief, watching the Changeling boy’s transition into a golden animal the likes of which he’d never seen. The horse-like creature swept aside both felines and Purebreeds with his lithe tail. Tomlen went flying.

As two felines attacked the Joey, villagers from Mapleton tackled the feline with the purple pendant. Korreth assumed her pendant was what had allowed Soledad’s friend Kaia to track them.

The groans of a dying feline drew Korreth’s gaze, but he couldn’t afford to put her out of her misery. The side of his gun showed its energy pack nearly depleted, and Soledad’s commands had been clear: focus on wounding Zen’s pawns. He raised the rifle to his shoulder and aimed at the beautiful golden horse across the battlefield. The Changeling sidled away, and Korreth’s projectile struck a feline instead, killing her instantly.

“Is that the boy who was asleep?” Jorrim raised his rifle.

“Yes,” Korreth said. “It looks like Zen knows how to choose the right slaves.”

“Then we better take them down. Wouldn’t want to face them and the cyborg at once.”

“Wait—” Korreth called, putting a hand on Jorrim’s forearm. “Soledad’s in the way.”

They watched as their mistress surprised a feline with her ability to change ages and choked her to death.

A familiar voice cut through the darkness from his left. Korreth whipped his rifle around and peered down the sight to see Tora using the butt of her gun to smash a feline across the face.

Tora cried out again, and Korreth guessed she was out of ammunition. Korreth pulled the trigger just as Ritgur and the feline he fought danced across the path. The red ball of energy passed by the feline’s shoulder and into the villager’s body. Though Ritgur’s look of surprise cut Korreth deeply, he took aim again.

The gun let out a fizzling noise. Korreth groped at his bandolier and shoved a red cylinder into his weapon.

This time he didn’t miss. Tora’s enemy crumpled, and she took the moment of respite to reload her own weapon. Korreth opened his mouth to bolster the people of Mapleton, his eyes still on Tora.

Instead, Farlen called, “Stand firm!”

A speck of red blossomed on Tora’s light-colored shirt, and her mouth went slack. Her eyes wide, she dropped.

Taking aim at the nearest feline, Korreth pulled the trigger. He sighted at another and pulled again. Then he elbowed his way toward where he’d seen Tora collapse, knocking Lor aside.

Only upon reaching Tora’s side did Korreth realize none of the felines were armed with pistols—Tora had been brought down by a stray bullet. Korreth kneeled beside her, his eyes burning. Her eyes were already glassy, but he clutched her head to his lap. The battle surged, but Korreth heard and saw nothing.

A hand closed around his upper arm. Korreth shot upward, his fists swinging until he recognized Jorrim.

“You’re lucky no one looks down,” Jorrim said over the din of screams and battle cries.

When Korreth peered across the battlefield, Purebreeds and felines alike paused to gawk at the nearly hairless, silver-skinned humanoid atop the golden-furred horse. Those nearest the pair regained their composure first and attacked.

Korreth didn’t understand why the felines fought a fellow Changeling, but he felt a strange satisfaction when the pair extricated themselves, as the odds had been stacked against them. A blood-soaked feline stumbled toward them, a purple glow revealing her pendant.

Soledad had ordered Korreth and Jorrim to wound Zen’s pawns—unless they fled the battle, in which case they should shoot to kill. The wind hadn’t pressured Korreth to carry out either order, but if any of Zen’s pawns deserved to die, it was the feline who’d caused the chain of events leading to this slaughter.