Luckily, if there’s one thing diviners are good at, it’s being prepared.
I’d briefed the others thoroughly before gating into the shadow realm. I hadn’t been able to see past the first few seconds of the fight, but I’d been able to see where and how the attack would come, and Luna, Anne, and Variam reacted instantly. I felt a flash of heat to my left and knew Variam was casting, but I didn’t turn to look. The front arc was Variam’s responsibility, but the right arc was mine, and three of the creatures were racing in. I’d trust Variam and the girls to watch my back, just as they trusted me to cover theirs.
The gun came up smoothly to my shoulder, kicked back with a stuttering ba-ba-bang! and I had a fraction of a second to see the creature framed clearly in my sights, an elfin humanoid with blackened teeth and thorned spindly limbs, before its head disappeared in a spray of green liquid. It dropped and I was already swinging to aim for the next one but it swerved just as I fired, and I missed and corrected and fired again, sending it tumbling to the ground.
The moment’s delay had given the last one the chance to close, and as I started to wheel I realised I wouldn’t get the gun around in time. I turned the movement into a twist and a blow jarred my arm, spikes digging in, but my armour held and the thing’s momentum took it past. It came around, slashing at my eyes, but I’d had just long enough to sight and with a ba-ba-bang! the MP7 tore a hole through its body. It staggered, took another volley, and fell to the grass.
All of that happened in less than five seconds, yet it felt like ten times that long and when I turned back the battle was raging. Variam held the front alone, sheets of flame walling us off from the clearing, and through the fire I could see the flowers shying away: those that touched the flame crisped and burned, falling to join the others on the blackening grass. Luna and Anne were facing twice their number of the thorned humanoids, yet two more were lying on the grass and as I watched Anne caught one jumping in and the thing dropped like a puppet with its strings cut. The thornling behind shied away and soaked up a lash of silver mist from Luna’s whip. It tried to slide around to flank her, tripped and fell into Variam’s wall of fire, and was gone with a single piercing scream.
I sighted and fired, saw one more of the thornlings stagger, then my precognition sent me jumping back as two of the flowers zipped through the space where my face had been. Now that I was close, I could see that the points at the end of their stalks were long and barbed with a reddish tinge, and they flew like birds, reversing and darting at me. The gun was useless against such small targets; I dropped it in its sling and tried to draw my sword, fumbling at the hilt as more of the flowers gathered, thorns stabbing. The air tasted sweet, foggy, and I coughed, managed to drag the sword out, split one of the flowers with a clumsy slash, but there were more and more of them and thorns stabbed into me, bouncing off the armour on my arms, my back. I kept slashing but my movements were slower now; it was harder to lift my arms and I managed to cut down one more of the flowers, but there were more than a dozen and they were swarming all over me. One caught my neck and I stumbled, going to one knee—
Then Anne was there, her hands quick and sure. As her fingers brushed each flower they stiffened and went limp, falling to the grass, and she touched my neck. Warmth seemed to flow through me, the pain from the wound vanished, and I could move freely again. I pulled myself up but Anne was already gone, running back to cover Luna.
Airborne toxin. I’d seen from my divination that we’d face venom, but I hadn’t been able to see how, and I’d assumed that it was going to be delivered on claws or teeth. Instead it had been carried in the air. Anne had promised that she’d be able to immunise us as soon as she saw it working, and she’d been as good as her word.
I cut down one more flower and suddenly the battle was over. Variam had scattered the swarms and now only a few stragglers remained; occasionally one would swoop in and Variam would burn it to ash. All the thornlings were down, dead, or both. “Anyone poisoned?” I called to Anne.
“You’re all clear,” Anne called back.
Another flower came winging towards Luna. Variam flicked a hand at it and a small burst of fire engulfed it, there and gone in a second. A blackened stalk dropped to the earth. “Nice work,” I said to Variam. Vari’s never been short of power, but control’s another story. Obviously he’d improved.
“Guys,” Luna said, pointing. “Look.”
I followed the direction of Luna’s finger and shivered. Where the red flowers had been planted the grass was thinner, and now that the flowers were gone I could see silhouettes of flesh and bone. The wind shifted slightly, blowing towards us, and just for a second I caught the aroma of rotting meat. From the shapes there were at least three bodies, maybe more.
“You know,” Variam said, “I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something’s telling me we’re not welcome here.”
“Look how desiccated they are,” Anne said, staring. Her lifesight had shown her the flowers, but not the dead bodies beneath. “I think something drained their blood.”
“Guess those flowers get hungry,” Luna said.
“And I guess we’re not the only ones trying to get through,” I said. “Those bodies can’t be more than a week old.” Apparently they’d tried to get past Karyos too, and lost the argument. Might explain why she hadn’t bothered to talk.
“Heads up,” Variam said. “We’ve got company.”
There was movement above the treetops, small objects flitting between the branches. From a distance they looked like birds, but I knew they weren’t. “Anne?” I asked. “Any more of those thorn things?”
“No . . . yes,” Anne said. “They’re staying behind the trees.”
“Guess they saw what happened to the last lot,” Luna said.
I shook my head. “No. You saw how they just charged in? These things are pretty much mindless. They’re being directed.”
“Karyos,” Luna said. “We take her out, they stop, right?”
“Then you better hurry,” Variam said, “because they brought friends.”
Looking into the futures, I saw that Variam was right. In only a few minutes we’d be attacked again, and this time there’d be almost three times as many. I didn’t know how many reserves Karyos had, and I didn’t like the idea of waiting around to find out. “Anne, can you see her?” I asked.
Anne shook her head. “Not in my range.”
I thought quickly. Karyos must be relying on her minions, keeping herself away from the fight. Which meant that the surest way to bait out a response would be to threaten her directly . . .
I looked ahead again, but this time I searched the futures in which we advanced, scanning the different directions. In most of them, the creatures fell back before us, content to wait while they gathered their forces. But in one cluster, if we went ahead and a little to the left, it’d provoke a furious attack.
“I think I’ve found her,” I said. “Head straight forward and angle left around the big tree. And get ready. Once they realise where we’re going, they’re not going to be happy.”
“You want to take point?” Variam asked.
“You and me together,” I said. “Luna, you’re rearguard. Anne, stay at the centre where you can reach everyone. Got it?”
Three faces nodded at me. “Okay,” I said. “Keep to a walk until I say.”