�������� �� Turning and running was not an option. She wasn't about to
find out
if these dopplegangers were as deadly predators as the true
Quickning
by giving them her back. Backing further she gave herself more
room and
time... their pace slowed as they watched her as intently as she
watched
them. Idly she wondered if the images of Warrior and Schemer
were just
forms, rather than manifestations of Flame and Stormy. Did these
figures
before her have the Quickning gifts?
��� ��� As if to answer her internal query Warrior melded and sank
into the
sand and Schemer blinked out. That was enough to spur her
urgency to
escape. She turned and ran towards the beach house, hoping
perhaps she
could find some kind of refuge there. Halfway there Schemer
blinked
right in front of her.. and she heard the hiss of sand spraying
behind
her as Warrior melded up from earth.
��� ��� With a shout she lunged at Schemer before her, the abysmal
sword
Midnight, springing to life in mid-arc. Schemer sinuously lunged
aside,
deftly clouting her on the side of the head with a large fist as
she
passed. Rolling to a crouch, Khyaris brought the sword around
defensively, all movements executed in the unconsciousness of a
body
lost in combat-mode. She had to let her body move on its own
since she
could barely see. With the blow, darkness seemed to be looming
on the
edges of her sight ready to close in. Damn if Wyddoe's dark
sickness
wasn't to blind her now. She scrambled back.. away from the
two that
stood looming over her.
��� ��� A wicked grin slid across her face as she snarled lowly at
the
blurred images of the impostors before her. If these two before
her
fancied themselves were-tigress, let them prove themselves
against the
real Flame and Stormy. She raised her free hand towards her
neck but
stopped midway to the locket that she wore just as her vision
cleared
enough to offer her a view of each of them holding Leyazik
crafted
Bane-blades.
��� ��� Their prowl had come to a tense halt as they watched her.
Something
was not quite right. Something about the way they watched her.
Not with
the expectation of her next move.. but watching what she did,
... their
eyes on her free hand.. poised over her chest. They were
waiting for
her to finish. A wretched curse snarled from her lips as she
completed
the move: whisking a couple of black darts from her collar and
letting
them fly with frightening speed. They dispatched with the darts
as she
had expected, with barely a sway of their blades. Schemer
looked at the
other and growled something, the other didn't answer, just sank
into a
crouch. The hunt had resumed again.
��� ��� ''J'Nekai... get Stygian'' Her voice was quiet and overly
calm spoke
to the small dragon image that seemed to take residence within
her own
shadow. Khyaris had no idea if J'Nekai heard her or not -or
even if
J'Nekai had any more access to the Shadows than she did. She
only hoped
her summons would get through. Just then, the growing light of
the
morning showed a small shadow break from hers and flit towards
the
cliffs of the beach. Schemer turned to watch the shadows move
before
blinking away to chase.
��� ��� As soon as Schemer blinked away Khyaris and Warrior moved
on each
other. Snarling a cry, she rushed to meet Warriors lunge. In
mid-leap
the Warrior illusion melted away and the ebon skinned Leyazik
battle
mage brought his Bane blade around to bear. The swords clashed
in a
deafening peal of thunder. Midnight nearly leaped from her
grasp and
she fell back, barely managing to keep her feet. Looking
across the
distance at the dark elf she saw he had also fallen back with
the
concussive force of the meeting of their blades. Their eyes
locked and
they began circling, the parley before the dance. So began her
stand
against Leyazik.
��� ��� Though the fight was far quicker than it felt, it dragged
on like a
fevered dream. She wondered that she still stood at all. Her
lungs
labored for every pain-filled gasp, her legs felt like water and
from
her shoulders down her arms were numb. Yet she kept on. It
seemed that
Midnight was the vanguard of her resistance. With it she had
harried
the mage and responded to his bane blade in kind. There was no
longer
any sound deafened as she was by the thunderclaps and jarring
bolts of
the blades striking. Stand. Fight. Keep fighting.
��� ��� The dark elf watched her keep coming at him like some
maddened
animal. He wondered that she still stood at all. Yet he was
just as
surprised when she did finally fall to with a strangled sob. It
wasn't
any blow that he had struck, yet to see her, it looked for all
the
world like she had been run through.
��� ��� ''J'Nek-ergh!'' The violent rending of a shard of her soul
brought
the buzz of combat to a grinding halt in her mind and body.
J'Nekai had
been taken down. Knees buckled and the ground had rushed up to
meet her.
Though the dark elf stood before her poised to strike, she was
blind to
it, so taken by the shock of the shattered bond. She didn't even
see
when Ivory formed in the space between them and unleashed her
acid
breath weapon upon the Leyazik until his cry of pain and
startlement
brought her back to the immediacy of the fight.
��� ��� The Lyzaek that was upon Khyaris now reeled back under the
pain of
burning skin before he sank through the earth. The battle mage
that had
worn Schemer's form as an illusion now appeared between them
all. He
thrust a hand out and from it a sizzling bolt of lightning
caught Ivory
square in the chest. Even as she was forced back by the blow,
the small
white dragon spread her wings to diffuse the fork of the bolt,
before
she absorbed it. Seeing that the dragon had some control of the
Element
the dark elf brought his Bane blade into play. Blue and gold
arcs of
energy flickered across the murky blade a moment before its tip
touched
the simmering tendril of lightning. The bolt writhed and bucked
with
over twice the power it had before.
��� ��� In the wake of a furious cry Khyaris sprang forward willing
herself
to cut down the dark elf before her. Out of the corner of her
eye she
saw the other rise up along side her from the sand. She spun
away from
the new threat but kept focused on her primary target. Ivory
saw the
increase in its charge and moved evasively, fading out as she
had faded
in.. but the bolt was guided. When it hit Ivory it sent her
sprawling to
the ground unconscious.
��� ��� Feeling her shoulder jerk slightly was the only indication
that
she not quite managed to dodge the earth-melding Leyazik. That
was,
until she swung Midnight around to hack at the dark elf who had
just
eliminated the threat of Ivory. Almost casually he turned on
her and
instead of turning his blade to block or parry, he lifted his
free hand
to catch her forearm. Not only was Midnight missing but also the
hand
which had wielded it.
��� ��� She tried to shift and encountered a wall of pain instead.
When her
vision cleared, she was still held fast by the dark elf, who
watched her
patiently with those damnable eyes.
��� ��� She stared at the empty space above her wrist dumbly. It
had
finally begun to occur to her. Every one of her strikes had been
blocked, dodged or swept aside. Their strikes had been
calculated. She
had been able to block or dodge them, tired as she was and
outnumbered
by the stronger creatures. -They had been toying with her all
along. A
test. A game. A mockery.
��� ��� It was over.
��� ��� He let her go and watched her fall to her knees as she
buckled
under the weight of her own exhaustion. The mage who had taken
Warriors
visage grunted something and thick tendrils of vines rose up
through the
ground to entwine around her arms, drawing them behind her back.
A knee
pressed into her back between shoulder blades and forced her
down so
that her face was inches from the sand.
��� ��� In a detached haze, she realized this was her end. Since
she didn't
produce the Quicknings, she was now to be executed. The pressure
on her
back told her a blade was being raised high. In fact, she heard
it come
down.
��� ��� The hurtling of a blade cutting through air gave an eerie
backdrop
of sound for the series of images that flashed in her mind's
eye.
Visions of her past: crisp, clear, striking and yet jumbled
upon each
other in the rush of displaced time: --The Clan that found her
--The
City that raised her --The Family that loved her. All woven into
a rich
tapestry that was her life. One brilliant thread shone defiantly
against
the rest. It refused to be lost in the texture and chroma of the
weave.
��� ��� ~* Su`Varen, I love y-
''To Die on Your Feet...'' Copyright � 1999 Angelina Greenwood