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The crowd of dark cultists surrounded Sadiyah, knives
flashing into their paws. She was holding her injured Cadro protectively against
her chest and her eyes were wide with fear. I didn’t blame her, but it was no
time for self-recrimination about my getting her into this mess. I put Plan
B into action.
I stepped back unnoticed as the crowd began
to close in and pulled a shiny ball out of one of the pockets in my black leather
coat. Mentally setting its trigger, I flung it up towards the ceiling of the
throne chamber and neatly snagged it in the net of invisible dark magic energy
there. It immediately let out a loud atonal shriek, drawing the eyes and attention
of everyone to it. Everyone that is, except for me (who knew better) and Sadiyah
(who, being deaf, had no clue about it.)
The technical term for what happened next is "sensory overload."
The Chia Cops call it a "flash-bang", but I called it a beautiful
distraction. The huge explosion and blue-white fireball blinded and deafened
everyone in the room. The shock wave threw them all to the floor, and several
actually went into convulsions as their brains short-circuited from the intense
stimulus. Sadiyah and I recovered first, her by virtue of not having looked
at it (and not noticing the deafness), and me by my being prepared. I scrambled
up and started towards her, but my help wasn’t needed.
I would have winced at the ferocity and aim of those kicks, but I was just
glad that she was alive and kicking (literally). Unlucky dark cultists
lay scattered across her path as she fled towards me- and then past, towards
the just opened entrance. I took the hint and headed that way myself. At the
entrance itself, I pulled out my moon staff and grand lightning beam and proceeded
to lay waste to the place.
A moon staff defends against all dark icons,
and a grand lightning beam calls on the power of every light Faerie in the vicinity.
Put those together, and you have a mighty punch against the powers of darkness.
I hit the ceiling, and the frayed net broke totally, letting the suspended pyramid
tumble to crush the altar and those closest to it. I played it on the ceiling,
and that began to crumble as well as the magic nets that held things together
disintegrated. I backed out with one last barrage of shots across the floor,
putting a halt to the few cultists that had begun to recover.
It was time to turn and run, and I promptly did so. I darted down a couple
of passages before I came upon Sadiyah. She had stopped and was leaning up against
the wall. She had Mu'awin tucked into one arm, while she held the other protectively
against her middle. She curled over instinctively when she saw me coming and
shot me a look of pure misery.
I skidded to a halt and realized that not only was Sadiyah in pain from
her own minor wounds, not only was she worried sick about her beloved petpet,
but she was horribly mortified at being nearly naked. How someone who was a
belly dancer by profession could suffer such modesty pangs, I didn’t know, nor
did I care. I’d worry about that later- assuming that we had a later.
I shrugged off my own long black leather coat and threw it around her.
As she struggled into it, I looked back for any signs of pursuit. There were
none, although I felt a shaking in the ground. I had no idea what it was- prepared
or not, I was still suffering deafness from my own explosive device.
I turned back towards Sadiyah. We’d wasted enough time. I dropped to all fours
and came up underneath her. She fell forward on my back and instinctively grabbed
me around the neck. That was all I needed. We took off.
I have a legendary speed rating, and I used it to every advantage possible.
My eyes glued themselves to the green line that ran to my marker ball outside.
We shot through every imaginable type of chamber there was, and passed traps
that never had time to spring before we were through them. We were getting out.
Faster and faster we flew. At one point a wide chasm gaped in front of me.
Sadiyah’s arm tightened around my neck and I dimly sensed her fear. She needn’t
have bothered. We shot over it with never a missed hoofbeat.
The wind was thrumming hard against us as I pressed myself to the utmost. We
were nearing the exit when I remembered that it had been shut. But instead of
stopping like any sane creature, I chanted some magic spells to protect us from
the shock and to form the best shockwave possible in front of us. We flashed
into the first chamber and I collided horn first with the closed wall. There
was only an instant of pain before I lost consciousness.
A series of low rumblings and the heaving of the floor below me were the first
things I felt. I did some heaving of my own and left my supper on the still
shaking floor. I pulled myself into a sitting position and gingerly felt my
horn. The pain was enough to make me almost wish I could black out again, but
I concluded that my worst fears about it being broken were false. It might’ve
been loosened a bit, which was a wonder, considering that I had to have the
thickest bone skull around to ever pull a stunt like that. I decided I must’ve
been drunk on my own speed.
The first thing I noticed outside of my own miseries was the wall in front
of me. It showed some cracks, and I could see a small area that I’d blasted
out, but it was still standing. My hearing was returning now, and as the dull
explosions continued, I looked apprehensively over my shoulders. I had loaded
this pyramid with explosives on our way in, and now they were managing to set
each other off via sympathetic detonations. My throne room instant redecoration
was all that it had needed.
There were only a few torches left in the room, and those were burning low.
I suddenly thought of Sadiyah and looked around in something of a panic. One
of the black spots in the room was her, still huddled in my black leather coat.
As I approached her, I could see that she was shaking. I gulped. I didn’t need
our still barely functioning link to tell me that she was crying.
"Here, Sadiyah," I said in my gentlest
tones. I tried to pull her towards me, but all I got was one wild tear-streaked
glance before she huddled back in on herself. I realized that her Faerie Cadro
was still cradled in her arms and for one heart-stopping moment, I feared the
worst.
I dropped to my knees in front of her and the vise around my chest eased when
I saw that Mu’awin was still breathing. The amount of blood on him and Sadiyah,
though, didn’t bode well for his future.
I helped myself to my wands from the pockets of my coat. Sadiyah didn’t even
flinch when I did so. "Come on, Sadiyah," I wheedled. I tried to ease
Mu’awin from her grip. "I’m sure I can help him. Please?"
All I got was a glare as she scooted away from me. I almost threw my wands
onto the floor in disgust. She was mad at me, obviously- and no wonder- but
it really stank that I couldn’t help her now that she needed it. Or, to be more
blunt, that I couldn’t get her to let me. She couldn’t understand anything I
said, and she wasn’t in any mood to try.
I sighed. Well, if she wanted to play hardball… I dug into the pockets of my
coat again. Sadiyah cringed from my touch, but made no other protest. I pulled
out the silver tube containing Sun Pegasus and set him loose. My own petpet
baby fireball floated in the air in front of me, ready for orders. I mentally
directed him in what to do, and he flew down into Sadiyah’s face.
Sadiyah shrieked and jerked back from Sun Pegasus’ flames. I dove in and wrestled
Mu’awin from her loosened grip. Rage flared towards me through our link and
I did the best I could to mentally block that part of my mind out. She was just
going to have to be mad a while longer.
Sun Pegasus continued to force Sadiyah back, and I scrambled away with Mu’awin.
I carefully but quickly laid him out on the floor near a torch, getting what
light I could. (Sun Pegasus’ own light being busy fending off the animal growls
and screams coming from my client in the background.)
A fast look showed me that Mu’awin’s wounds were serious, although not life-threatening
under normal conditions. The only problem was that "normal conditions"
included a modern hospital and a skilled team of surgeons. That didn’t apply
here. He’d already lost way too much blood, and his eyes were rolling back in
shock. He’d never live long enough to make it to civilization.
Some pets ask why we even bother with things
like hospitals. After all, they say, the water Faerie has miraculous healing
powers- why not just do all healing with magic? The answer is that most of the
time it’s simply not worth the effort. The water Faerie probably spends more
of herself on her mission than any other Faerie and I include the soup Faerie
in that- but for all of her great resources, she still can’t get one hundred
percent predictable results.
Healing with magic is harder. It takes more skill. And even if you’re really
good, the hidden side-effects can still be nasty. Unfortunately for Mu’awin,
his healing was going to be at the hooves of a magic healer who was great at
battlefield patches, though never cut out for the delicate touch required to
be really good at it.
Tough. I laid out my wands and began the magic flows, trying to stabilize his
life force. It was sparking like a short-circuited power line. I spread my front
hooves and knees across his two feet and four hands, and concentrated on pulling
things into some semblance of order. I crooned the healing song of all flesh
as I did so, and soon lost myself in my work.
After a while, I gasped for breath. It was no use. I had things stretched into
some sort of shape, but there simply wasn’t enough life supply left to make
a continuous net. I sent Sun Pegasus an urgent mental message. He signaled that
it would be easy, and sure enough, Sadiyah’s sacrificial knife came clattering
across the ground towards me. If I’d been thinking straight, I would’ve realized
that she’d been trying to throw it at me, but at that point I was totally oblivious
to anything but my patient.
I said my best strengthening spells as I cut my right fetlock. The blood flowed
out, crimson and glowing with as much bright life energy as I could put into
it. I pulled the gaping wound in Mu’awin’s belly open and let it pour in as
fast as I dared.
Light faeries, bless this, I chanted.
Earth faeries, nurture him,.
Water faeries, wash away all tears,
Fire faeries, burn away all impurities,
Dark faeries, provide peace and rest,
Air faeries, carry my plea to the Queen of all,
Let this be sealed with the seventh star,
Held till the end of time,
The most precious gift there is,
Life, please Faerie let it be his.
As written out in words that you and I normally use, I know it doesn’t sound
like much. But in the original language, it is a truly beautiful song, one that
expresses well the yearning for life that we all have at our innermost core.
Mu’awin’s eyes flew open as my gift finished flowing into him. I dropped the
dagger to one side and gently pressed his wounds together. The glowing was still
bright around its edges, and I could almost see the speed with which the new
flesh began growing back. I spread his arms out again and redid my life-net
calibration. The ball of energy I’d dropped into his system easily rippled out
and filled everything.
Kyrii paws thudded onto the floor in front of me. My head jerked up and I practically
buried my nose in Sadiyah’s mane. She bent down past me to cover her petpet
and I let him go. I dry-heaved for a minute, and then began shaking myself.
One of these operations always leaves you drained, and I was no exception. I
spent the next minute frantically doing deep-breathing exercises and fighting
my own body’s urge to go into shock.
Sadiyah looked up at me, and a trembling smile formed on her lips. She brought
her right paw to her lips, made a kissing motion onto the front of her fingers,
and brought her paw down towards me, palm up. For a wild second I thought she
was blowing me a kiss, but then Mu’awin’s weak voice said, "Thank… you."
So. Thank you. That was how you said it in sign
language. I have to admit to being touched. But right then, the ceiling fell
in on us, and beautiful sentiments were forgotten.
To be continued...
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