“Why?” Taniel asked. He took a couple of breaths, trying to find the words.
“Summon Kresimir?” Julene rolled her eyes.
“No. Why this dog? Why the ruse? He could have just as easily waited and killed us all. Why not kill me now?”
Julene shrugged. “If your father manages to survive the coming pitfire, I will keep you as some leverage. He’s not resourceful, but he is stubborn.”
Taniel tried to come to terms with what she was saying. “Just kill me now,” he said.
She tapped his neck with long nails. “I will if I need to.” She raised one hand. Taniel closed his eyes. After a moment, he opened them, only to receive an open-handed slap. He felt her nails rake at his skin.
“That’s for throwing me off a cliff,” she said. She turned to go.
Taniel twitched his fingers. They would move. Good. What could he do? “Going to summon Kresimir?” he asked.
Julene chuckled. “Already done,” she said. “I’m going to watch him descend. Care to come with me? The last time he touched earth, he collapsed half the mountain. You might want to find some protection in my sorcery.”
Jekel ducked after Julene with a look of concern. Taniel blinked. He set his fingers on his pistol, then followed after them.
The balcony was full of people. Two dozen Privileged, if not more. They held their eyes to the sky. Taniel was at the peak of the mighty building – or as close as one could get. He nudged his way among the Privileged and looked over the side. He stifled a hysterical laugh as he realized that there was a coliseum down by the lake. He could see right into it from this vantage point.
“Enjoy the show,” a voice whispered in his ear.
It was Jekel. The false monk gave Taniel a shallow smile.
“You disgust me,” Jekel said. “You and your kind. Kresimir will destroy the powder mages once and for all. Damned Marked.”
Taniel grabbed Jekel by the front of his robe. Jekel sneered, lifted his gloved hands. Taniel tossed him off the balcony.
The man’s scream lasted a long time, even as he bounced and slid down the outside of the giant sheen of volcanic rock that was the building’s shell.
“What?” someone asked.
“Who the pit is this?” a Privileged said.
Taniel drew a pistol and then wondered what for. What damage could he possibly do? Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of a glowing light, up in the clouds. He felt the blood drain from his face. He tightened his grip on his pistol. He could at least take a few of them with him.
A Privileged raised his gloved hands at Taniel. His fingers twitched. Taniel whipped up his pistol, only to hesitate as the Privileged suddenly – and apparently gleefully – threw himself off the balcony.
Another Privileged followed suit. Then a third collapsed to the ground screaming, gouging at his eyes. Taniel whirled toward the balcony entrance.
Ka-poel stood there, legs planted wide, arms spread. Her buckskin vest was loosened sloppily at the neck, and her rucksack lay at her feet. Dolls lay scattered around it. Her fire-red hair was wild. She raised one hand.
The dolls, dozens of them, rose into the air. They spread out before her like cards before a soothsayer, held up by invisible hands. Julene caught sight of Ka-poel, and she screamed.
Everything happened at once. Privileged scrambled for their gloves and made warding gestures. Julene froze, as if in a panic, and Ka-poel began her attack.
Fire spread from her fingertips. It hit several of the dolls, and Privileged burst into flames. A needle appeared in Ka-poel’s hand. She jabbed hard, quickly, into different dolls. Screams of agony filled the balcony.
A flash of light raced toward Ka-poel as a Privileged got off a shot. She didn’t even waver. The light arced, flashing into a doll. The Privileged to Taniel’s right turned to dust and blew away with the wind.
The mongoose had found the serpent’s nest, and Taniel was right in the bloody middle. He lifted his pistol and shot a Privileged that wasn’t getting any attention from Ka-poel. He tossed the pistol aside and grabbed his second. When that was spent, he rolled his rifle off his shoulder.
Julene regained her faculties as Ka-poel decimated the Privileged. Julene balled her fists and strode toward Ka-poel, face twisted in fury. Taniel felt fear then, and it wasn’t for himself. Turn her unfamiliar magics as she might against the Kez Privileged, Ka-poel would not be able to handle Julene.
Taniel rushed Julene, bayonet forward. She waved her hand, and he felt himself sail through the air. Something crunched as he crashed into the balcony railing. He’d barely arrested his own fall, scrambling for some handhold, his rifle clattering away across the balcony. Privileged lay dead and dying around Julene, and she strode on toward Ka-poel.
Ka-poel’s dolls melted as Privileged died. Some wavered and dropped, still others drifted away. She twirled her hands, and the remaining dolls rotated. Taniel recognized Julene’s doll.
Julene laughed fiercely as Ka-poel massaged the air above the doll. Ka-poel opened her mouth.
“Taniel, run!”
The voice had come from Julene, yet it had not been her voice. It was a girl’s voice, a voice tinged by desperation.
“Get out now!”
Julene didn’t seem to notice that she’d spoken. She put down her head and charged Ka-poel, fire flinging from her fingertips, setting alight all it touched – stone and flesh alike. It sprayed some of Ka-poel’s dolls, and two Privileged wailed in agony.
Taniel found his rifle in the other corner of the balcony. The remaining Privileged didn’t even seem to notice him. They had backed away as far as they could from Ka-poel, spread out, and threw their hands up frantically to fend off her magic.
No, he would not run. He’d not leave Ka-poel to fight alone.
Taniel snatched up his rifle. He checked the barrel. The bullet had come out in his fall. He cleared the barrel and loaded one, then another, both redstripes. He rammed cotton batting to hold the bullets in. A Privileged stumbled toward him, hands raised. He rammed his bayonet through the Privileged’s eye.
He found a place at the railing to line up his shot. The glow he’d seen earlier was descending from the heavens. It looked like a cloud, falling swiftly as it grew closer.
The cloud flew past, lowering itself into the center of the coliseum below. Taniel licked his lips. He cleared his throat. He tried to steady his hands. A pinch of powder helped to clear his mind and sharpen his eyes.
The coliseum was too far away. Six miles, at least. There was no way he could make a shot that far. He took a deep breath. The cloud touched the ground.
A foot emerged from the cloud, followed by a person. Taniel fought off the darkness of a fainting spell.
The man from the cloud was more beautiful than anyone Taniel had ever seen. His skin was perfect, his golden hair long and lustrous. He wore a tunic, something out of a play depicting the Time of Kresimir. He stepped from the cloud and paused. His perfect face was marred by a frown.
Taniel blinked the sweat out of his eyes and pulled the trigger. The crack echoed in his ears, and he lowered his rifle. He didn’t so much see as he felt the two bullets speeding toward Kresimir. Long after they should have fallen to the ground, his will kept them in the air. His mind began to hurt from the effort, his hands began to tremble. Pain blossomed in his head as he burned through his powder horn to keep the bullets flying. Still he held on.
One bullet entered Kresimir’s right eye. The other hit his chest and pierced his heart. Taniel watched the god’s body crumple and fall.
Taniel felt a sob wrench itself from his chest. He’d killed a god.
He dropped to the balcony floor.
He couldn’t bring himself to care as Julene’s roar of fury tore at his brain. He heard a mighty thump, and then the world began to shake. He cradled his rifle, trying to pull himself into a fetal position. The building was falling. I killed a god.