Metal Swarm - Kevin J. Anderson [220]
By the time the fireball had passed, leaving heat ripples and a snapping sound in the air, more than half of the jousters had succumbed and lay in a pile of gleaming, shattered armour. One of the survivors rasped with a damaged voice, 'Go, Yazra'h! Take the Prime Designate away!'
Her group finally reached the spectacular inverse fountain where the seven raised streams intersected and poured down a gullet to where canals redistributed the water. Osira'h leaned over the open hole. 'We've been down there. We can make it if we jump.'
'Do as Osira'h says.' Yazra'h did not have time to question. Her cats leapt out of the overhang, fur bristling, lips curled back. Dropping his protective cloth, Daro'h stepped forward to help the children.
A fiery avatar of the fallen Hyrillka Designate emerged from an arched doorway, light flaring all around him. His blaze scintillated against the crystalline panes of the Palace. His expression was calm and satisfied, but his voice boomed. 'Where is Jora'h?'
'My father is safe from you!' Daro'h shouted back.
In a misguided protective gesture, one of Yazra'h's Isix cats sprang straight at the flaming man's throat. Rusa'h made a mere gesture, and the intensity of the flames around him brightened into a flash. Yazra'h screamed as her cat disappeared in a burst of smoke. The other two animals yowled, but Yazra'h shoved her cats behind her as a jagged sadness cut at her heart. Her face twisted in a snarl, but she would not throw her life away uselessly.
'Osira'h, get into the water. Now!' The girl grabbed her brother Rod'h, and they leapt together over the edge of the foaming waterfall into the pool below. Gale'nh, Tamo'l, and Muree'n followed quickly.
Rusa'h launched gouts of fire from his hands. Just in time, Yazra'h snatched up the flame-proof cloth and held on, protecting Daro'h, herself, and her two cats. She felt the buffeting waves hammer them, the furnace-blast of air too hot to inhale. Her fingers were singed and blistering.
The last few jousters locked their mirror shields, roared in defiance at the mad Designate, and pushed their lances forward to fire more laser bolts. One man actually thrust his crystal spear into the flaming body. The faeros incarnate writhed, cried out, and shattered the crystal lance before a wave of rolling fire cascaded around the mirrored jousters. They all dropped. Even their armour was insufficient against such a powerful attack.
'Must I stand and watch them all die for me?' Daro'h cried.
Yazra'h pushed him toward the waterfall. 'No! You must let them buy your escape.' She was not gentle as she shoved him into the cascading flow, then bodily knocked her reluctant cats in after him. Just as Rusa'h spewed more fire at her, she threw herself over the edge and fell down into the misty roar. Narrowly missing her, the shock front rippled over the top of the converging streams, creating a geyser of concealing steam.
She dropped at least ten metres, buffeted by pouring water, and plunged into a deep and blessedly cool pool where tangles of people and animals were struggling to swim. Her skin was burned and blistered. Much of her hair was singed, and she could barely see. Her two drenched cats paddled to keep themselves afloat.
This way,' Osira'h called out. They followed the current along a channel, passed through a catacomb, buffeting each other, and were finally swept out into one of the canals emerging from beneath the elliptical hill. Far from Rusa'h.
The water was choked with the blackened bodies of pilgrims killed by the overflying fireballs. When the canal widened, Yazra'h pulled a bedraggled Osira'h and Gale'nh to the shore, splashing through mud that caked their reddened skin. After helping Rod'h with his younger sisters, Prime Designate Daro'h got