Strange Attractors - Kim Falconer [190]
They want one of us alive. Stop them, Maudi! Drayco screamed in her head while he held three more warriors back.
A wave of energy welled up. She connected with the guards blocking her way to Teg, shifting to wolf, crushing bones before shifting back to feline, severing limbs, and up to falcon, slicing jugulars, her talons dripping red. She ripped from shape to shape, the essence of each totem so strong it hung midair, still fighting, as she shifted to the next. Each beast of her making battled beside the other, guarding her back and flanks. She leapt to her sword, buried to the hilt in mud, drawing it as she shifted again to human form. Mud slung in a high arc over her head as she lifted the blade. The lightning flashed, revealing her foe. Each alternative form hovered like ghosts around her, gathering for the next assault.
Drayco stood over Teg, fangs sinking into anything that came near, a sea of bodies around him. The rain diluted the pools of blood; it washed dead faces clean and filled vacant eyes then streamed across the ground, racing to the foaming creek. It ran dark red. Gaela’s tears washed through the Dumarkian Woods and the battle raged on. Lupins lay among the Corsanons. Rosette seethed, her chest rising and falling as she turned to face the last of the enemy. Her sword came singing through the air and she screamed a war cry, her blade poised to sever the head of the young warrior in front of her. His broad blade swung as well, the double edge coming up in a block across his face. Steel struck steel and the reverberation jarred them both back. Lightning flashed.
The jolt vibrated the ground and her shape-shifting forms snapped still, sucking back into her as she drew a deep breath. She let the momentum of the impact turn her side on, her blade again singing through the air, building for a backhanded strike. She called on the Elementals and brought the blade down over her enemy.
Their eyes locked and he whispered a single word. In the heartbeat before impact, she stopped, her sword freezing before it struck his bare neck. There hung a falcon pendant at his throat, the wings upstretched, a ruby sun on top of the raptor’s head.
Tio, he said again. This time the voice sounded in her mind. I give up.
She didn’t move. No longer did she see a Corsanon warrior in front of her but a young man, a boy really, who had dropped to his knees. His eyes were soft, staring up at her; his hands raised as he said the words again, mouthing them aloud—the words she had only ever heard from one other living soul.
‘Tío. Rosette. Tío.’ Tears streamed down his face. ‘It’s me. I’m…Jarrod.’
Her sword arm lowered, holding her blade out to the side. Darkness fell and when the lightning flashed again he stood to face her. The rain beat down on them, the battle raged, and still they didn’t move.
‘Jarrod,’ she whispered.
He nodded.
‘I’ve been looking for you.’ Her eyes filled with tears.
I got lost.
Drayco shouted in her mind. Maudi, a little help over here?
She and Jarrod turned as one and charged towards the warriors circling the temple cat.
Some tulpa you made, Jarrod. I like it. Attractive, but isn’t it a little…young?
Not actually a tulpa, Rosette. That’s been the problem.
She did a double take. What?
I healed the body but couldn’t get past the memories of the previous occupant. I thought I was him.
You’ll have to explain but in the meantime, please keep it in one piece, will you? I’d like to check it out before you get any scars.
He winked and they screamed a war cry together that shook the depths of the Dumarkian Woods.
Xane watched the shape-shifting witch. She tore through the High Priestesses to get to her familiar. The sight of the temple cat stretched between the ropes enraged him too. The animal was not the enemy. As the lightning flashed and he took in the death toll, he reconsidered. They had the advantage in numbers but the wolves, the witch and her familiar were decimating them. His head throbbed as he watched. The creatures