I tried to smile, but the daeva’s thoughts slammed back into mine. My stomach plummeted as it dove straight toward the center of the army, and I forced it back toward the sky without inflicting any casualties, though a trail of arrows followed in our wake. I goaded all three mouths into opening again, and the resulting fire raked across the regiments in front, a blazing line in the ground that prevented them from pushing forward.
I could feel Fox lifting me again, felt him run. I heard sounds of battle and the surge of magic as we fought our way out of the palace. And then I heard Chief close by, nickering, and Fox murmuring softly to the stallion.
I could see Deathseekers and asha engaging the soldiers. Capitalizing on the azi’s work, they summoned more Fire runes until a wall of flames faced the army. The Deathseeker Ostry was calling out orders, and at his command, sharp stalagmites burst from the ground, a natural defense against attackers.
I heard Inessa cry out from somewhere behind us, sensed Fox hesitating.
“Protect the princess, Fox,” Kalen’s voice drew closer. “I’ll stay with Tea.” I felt him take my brother’s place, pressing me against his chest as he took command of Chief. I leaned into his warmth.
I shifted tactics. The daeva made for the entrance of the city, landing with such force that the whole of Kion shuddered.
The Deathseekers had retreated, Ostry and Alsron yelling at their companions not to provoke the azi. We deliberately turned our backs on them, bayed thirstily at the Odalians to do their worst.
A fireball came out of nowhere straight toward us. My first instinct was to dodge it, but the human part of our mind was screaming, reminding me that the people behind me would be the first to suffer from that choice.
Daeva were immune to most forms of attack but not to pain, and the azi hissed as the fire licked at its skin. There are spellbinders in the Odalian army, Fox, I hissed, and he started. Send word to Althy to investigate the asha and Deathseekers in Ankyo. There may be more traitors hiding there.
In the distance, something flared.
A seeking stone! Another flare lit up among the soldiers and then another.
The men, once so hesitant to fight, went rigid, unnaturally silent. And then, as one, they shuffled forward.
Fox, tell the others to stay back!
The army picked up speed. I swept my mind out into the crowd, reaching for the stones—and encountered a barrier. The men kept running, swords falling uselessly from their hands. This was a suicide mission, a show of force. If the azi didn’t kill them, they would dash their brains out against the city walls.
I searched for the seeking stones a second time and encountered a Compulsion so great, my mind snapped back from the force. If I had not been inside the daeva’s mind, if the azi had not pushed away that corrupting magic, I could have easily been turned.
“Deathseekers, to me!” I heard Ostry yell. I felt another surge of magic as Shield runes popped up behind us, braced for impact.
The azi struggled, eager to defend itself, but I forced my full will on the beast, shouting at it to keep still, do not move, do not hurt them.
The Rot rune appeared under the soldiers’ feet a second before the ground disintegrated. The opposing army slid down the steep embankment as a large sinkhole opened beneath them, deep enough to make climbing out difficult.
“It’s Althy!” Zoya was awestruck. “She’s literally sweeping them off their feet!”
From within that strange barrier, I finally found cracks I could slip through amid the confusion and located the stones.
“Kalen!” Fox yelled. The Deathseeker and I had outpaced the others, mostly because of Chief. “Right field, by the flag bearer!”
Kalen scanned the army quickly and wove the air around us. Bursts of wind and fire spiraled out, directed toward the location Fox had shouted, and snatched the seeking stones with accuracy, leaving flames in their wake. Fox called out more locations, using my sight for his own, and Kalen stole them away, gathering them all in the air above us. I briefly shook myself free from the azi’s mind to weave the Strangle rune around them. The sound of the seeking stones shattering gave me immense satisfaction.
I could feel rage and consternation, and then the unseen mind was gone. The soldiers stumbled and fell to their knees, shaking their heads groggily. Many had collapsed, unconscious, but their lives were intact.
I could feel Fox and the others arriving at the city gates, Princess Inessa screaming at the Deathseekers to let them through. I opened the doors of my own mind to the azi, felt it snake its way in, closing around me like a fitted glove. Through the azi’s eyes, I saw Likh and Princess Inessa shrinking back and Zoya bravely standing her ground in front of Shadi despite the fear in her eyes. Alsron and Mavren tensed, but Ostry remained where he was, his mouth open as our three heads bowed to him. “Tea?” Those two syllables left his mouth in a near squeak.
I laughed; the azi rumbled. In this form, they looked strange, almost grotesque—as if it were them and not us who were the unnatural beasts.
Play, I told the azi, searching its memories and latching on to a vision of another city of stonework and marble, its ivory domes unmistakable. The azi cawed, and its wide wings lowered.
I felt the group scrambling up our back and a “Y’all really gonna climb up that?” from Mavren. We explored the fallen soldiers for any remnants of that powerful mind and found none. Deathseekers and asha were hard to surprise; after their initial amazement, they went to work, grabbing our trunks and tossing them up to my companions.
“Wouldn’t want you ladies naked in Daanoris!” Levi guffawed, always the quickest to find levity in any situation.
“Come back in one piece, you reckless loonies,” Ostry yelled at us.
We rose, Zoya leaving more invectives in our wake as we flew at breakneck speed. The city of Kion was soon gone, replaced by an endless landscape of trees and mountains.
The wind gave little opportunity for conversation, and it was all the others could do to cling to us as we flew. The land soon disappeared, and the crisp blue waters of the Swiftsea took its place.
It felt like eons had passed before I saw approaching land, the Haitsa mountains at a distance, though it must have only been an hour. The azi called out a warning as it descended, and we soon found ourselves standing in the kingdom of Daanoris, dirt and heat rising around us with the pearl roofs and spiral towers of its capital city, Santiang, only half a day’s ride away.
A new sound reached our ears—an explosion. At this, the bone witch abandoned her story to rush toward the window. She stared eagerly out at the carnage below. Large fireballs rose and fell, consuming the Dark asha’s undead by the dozens. Still more fire rained down on Santiang, and I froze in fear, imagining the asha’s efforts to protect the Daanorian citizens coming to naught should the city burst into flames.
Before anyone could stop him, the Deathseeker leaped out the window. The Dark asha’s cry was drowned out by the cawing of the azi, who swooped in and caught him easily. Kalen swung up on its back as it made for the army. The bone witch inhaled noisily, let her breath out slowly. “That idiot,” she muttered.
“I wonder where he learned that trick?” the Heartforger drawled.
“Shut up, Khalad.”