The Gates of Night_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [4]
And that was his mistake.
Pierce leaped back a step, narrowly avoiding a fierce double blow that could have decapitated him. He was beginning his counterstroke when he felt a crushing pressure around his arms and chest.
Harmattan.
The strange warforged couldn’t unleash his full might without shredding Daine, but even in his humanoid form his strength was astonishing. Pierce had been so focused on Indigo that he hadn’t seen Harmattan move behind him. Now he was bound by metal and magic. For all that Harmattan’s body comprised fragments of metal, the force that held them together was tougher than any steel. Harmattan’s arms flowed together around Pierce’s chest, creating an unbreakable band. Pierce’s flail was half-caught in the metal mass, the chain dangling beyond. Indigo swept forward. Her adamantine blades flashed, and the flail fell apart, steel chain split as easily as rope. She took another step forward, a blade leveled at his eyes.
This ends, brother.
When Harmattan spoke, Pierce could feel the vibration. He struggled against his bonds, but his strength was no match for Harmattan’s power.
“So it would appear.”
“Why?” Indigo said. Pierce could no longer hear any anger in her voice. Just disappointment. “Why did you turn on us?”
“I did not want to.”
“You destroyed Hydra. I could have died as well. And for what? These bags of flesh and blood? They will be dead in a handful of years, at best. We have eternity.”
Yes. Think, little brother. You have nothing in common with these creatures.
“I have memories. I have friendship. Can you say the same?” A thought occurred to him, as the spirit embedded in his chest passed along a piece of information.
“Is there nothing between us?” Indigo’s blade hadn’t wavered, the point an inch from his eyes.
Pierce searched for words. “In truth,” he said, “I do not know what I feel. But I know I must protect my family.”
We are your family, said Harmattan.
“Perhaps you are. But you are forgetting something.”
And what is that?
“Our sister.”
Indigo’s gaze flickered to the side—
Too late.
Harmattan shattered into a thousand pieces, and Pierce lunged.
Lei was cold. Every nerve numb. It took all her energy to open her eyes, and when she did, her surroundings were blurred and distorted. She could hear distant sounds, but she couldn’t make sense of them or muster the strength to turn her head.
Memory trickled back through her mind. Crystals. Shards of crystal. A woman had given Lei a shattered object … pieces of a crystal sphere. When Lei touched it, a doorway had opened in her mind. She could feel the pattern within the sphere, feel its great age. The woman whispered to Lei, urging her to mend the broken pattern, and her voice was impossible to resist. Lei knew what had to be done. She felt as if she’d always known. She could see the proper pattern in her mind. She knew how to repair the damage. And at the urging of the voice, she had done just that. But it had taken so much energy—more than she had to give. She could see a network of light take shape as the crystal shards fused, the true shape emerging from the ruin. But as the pattern became clearer, her surroundings blurred. Thought became muddled. The only thing that mattered was repairing the damage. And as the last piece fell into place, everything else faded.
Sensation was returning. Lei flexed her fingers. Something felt wrong with her grip. Feeling returned to her arms, her legs. She was lying on a hard, cold platform. She heard metal scraping against stone. She turned her head to face the noise.
Pierce leaped into view. He was fighting another warforged—a smaller, slender figure who lashed at Pierce with twin blades. The two seemed well-matched, and their deadly dance distracted Lei. Then Harmattan bound Pierce with a coil of metal, and the battle came to an end.
The sight of Harmattan was a shock. Images flashed through her mind—
Harmattan ordering his minions to torture her.
Harmattan surviving