Out of the Black - Lee Doty [149]
She never got the chance. As the power began to flow out of her crippled Turbulence Cast, the weave exploded. The kid had grafted a rider into her Cast! He was casting without templates, modifying both of their weaves at will.
A lesser Savant would have been destroyed, or at least incapacitated. Even Shiva was knocked to the ground. The energy that blew from her sabotaged Cast was mostly twisted around her closest shields, but her grip on the Loom had been shaken. She scrambled to reinforce her defenses, to get them back together before the kid made his next move.
She wanted to pretend that this was exciting, that it was great to finally have a real challenge, but like most of the cruel, she was a coward. She hated this struggle, and would have fled if she dared- if she weren't more afraid of reprisals from her masters at Asado, not to mention their hungry, playful ally. She shuddered at the thought of what it would do to her if she failed to acquire its precious key.
She had mostly rigged her defenses, but the kid just kept plunking away at them. He might be some kind of prodigy with the Loom, but he hadn't been able to accumulate much power before she knocked down his collector. He was again accumulating power, but he was using it as fast as it came in with a quick series of small and ineffective attacks. He was still young, still foolish. He had to realize that his attacks weren't doing much more than keeping her occupied.
This thought led to a suspicion that never came to the point of realization before Shiva was surrounded by excruciating light, then final darkness.
The mostly unheard explosion blossomed around Ping as Roy's blade shattered shield, warp, and other defenses. It moved through the woman's brown's suit and the body it enclosed without resistance. Both parts of her body fell to the ground.
Across the room, Alex slumped forward onto all fours. He looked like a man who had just completed a triathlon after an all night drinking binge. He was laughing and crying, but mostly moaning in complete exhaustion, rolling his head from side to side on the floor near the burrito-wrapped Fed.
"Help me up." Rae said, trying to press up from the ground on one arm.
Ping moved to her quickly, lifting her by the elbow. She stood shakily for a moment, then e him a bloody smile. "Nice moves, karate man."
"You too." He said returning her smile.
"Didn't even see you moving 'till she was dead."
"Neither did she... had to wait until she was distracted." He said, snapping his sword back into its hilt.
"Admit it, you got the ninja mask at home." Rae said with a teasing smile.
"I'm Chinese, not Japanese."
"I thought you were Irish."
Ping's short bark of laughter caught him by surprise. He chucked Rae on the shoulder and looked to Alex. "That Kaspari lady wasn't so bad!" He shouted across the room.
Alex pulled his head up. His lips twisted into a tragic smile. "That wasn't Kaspari."
"Yeah," Ping shrugged, "Figured as much."
"Next to Kaspari, she was an amateur." Alex said, trying to get to his feet, but failing and rolling to his side.
"Swell." Ping looked at Anne, who was crouching on the floor examining her wounded hands. Ping moved to her side.
"You okay?"
She sniffed, "Yeah, wouldn't have really been a full day without a little crucifixion."
"Let me see." Ping said, holding out his hands. She straightened and held out her hands, palms up. He took her hands in his, looked at the wounds in the palms. "It's not as bad as it looks." He said with his most reassuring bedside manner. "Look at the bright side, we're in a hospital."
"Yeah, we'd all be dead if I still worked at Arby's."
This time his laughter caught both of them by surprise. It seemed incongruous in a scene of such violence and sorrow. "You're pretty funny for someone so covered in the blood of others." He gave her an inquisitive look.
She looked up, and their eyes