City of Towers_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [125]
Teral howled. He grabbed Daine by the throat and lifted him off of the ground. Blood was streaming from Teral’s mouth and down his chest, but his strength was inhuman. His hand was crushing Daine’s throat, the world began to fade—
And then Teral’s head exploded.
Pierce had come up behind Teral and brought the full force of his flail on the councilor’s skull. Teral instantly turned to dead weight, dragging Daine to the ground. Even in death his grip was strong, and Daine struggled to pry the grasping fingers from his throat.
“Pierce …” he gasped. For a moment, relief washed over him. Then he realized Chyrassk was nowhere to be seen.
With one curt kick, Pierce knocked Teral’s body aside, then planted his steel foot on Daine’s chest, slamming him back to the ground. Without a word, Pierce raised his flail for another killing blow.
Lei groaned. The coppery taste of blood filled her mouth, and her head was a throbbing anvil. Gripping the staff, she forced herself to her feet, trying to ignore the pain in her ribs. She found her footing just in time to see Pierce shatter Teral’s skull. But as she moved forward, Pierce knocked Daine to the ground and pulled back for a second swing.
It was clear to her in an instant. As difficult as it was to influence the thoughts of a warforged, it was not impossible. Chyrassk must have found a way to twist Pierce’s perceptions. Pierce had struck Teral first, and Lei surmised he was seeing everyone as enemies. If so—she prayed she was right—at least Pierce wasn’t under Chyrassk’s direct control. If that were the case, she knew beyond doubt that she and Daine were both dead.
Lei lunged forward and put her hand on his chest. She concentrated and time seemed to stand still. Pierce became the center of all her senses, the rest of the world fading away as his binding web of energy came into view. She sharpened her focus, trying to find some way to sense what Chyrassk had done, to break his mental hold. Her talent was with mending metal and stone, not thought and spirit, but desperation drove her to act on pure instinct, and she pushed deeper and deeper. But there was nothing to be done, and for all that time seemed frozen she knew that she only had moments to act. Filled with remorse, she hardened her thoughts and struck at the heart of the web, the light that gave Pierce life. And her world exploded.
For a moment she thought she had gone mad. Pierce’s lifeweb had replicated, and she was looking at four different variations of the same pattern. Then she realized that changes were being made, that someone else was thinking with her mind and making minor adjustments to each of the four webs, discussing the shifts with another whose thoughts she couldn’t feel. She couldn’t hold onto any of the words. It was as if she forgot them the moment she heard them. But there was a sense of self, a recognition, and she realized these were the thoughts of her mother, preserved in the very essence of Pierce since the moment of his creation. In that instant, that mere fraction of an indrawn breath, she knew what Pierce had been built for.
And just as suddenly, she was back in the material world, falling to her knees. Pierce stood stock still for a second, wavered, then collapsed. Lei retched, both from the pain in her ribs and head and the horrible ache in her mind. The memories were already fading, and she could no longer remember exactly what it was she had seen. But she knew that her parents had built Pierce the same year that she was born, and looking down at the fallen warforged, she wondered if she had killed her brother.
Daine struggled to his feet. Lei was looking down at Pierce’s inert form. “Is he dead?” he said, reaching out and putting