Knights of Alchemy
Chapter Nine: Origin of the Inevitable
"I'd really like it if you'd take that away from my friend's throat," Cata informed the stranger, but as she moved to cut the bowstring, the rest of the group moved too, followed by the archer, and the bow sang out twice as the Knights fumbled in the darkness.
Padriac let out a yelp as he discovered -halfway to the ground- that one of the arrows had nailed his boot to the earth, though the lack of pain suggested that his foot had been spared. He tumbled into Cian as he fell, sending the Lemurian sprawling as well, and another cry signalled that Meg was, for the moment, unable to help.
Howl was fast, but a blast of Psynergy from the archer created a gust of wind that blasted him off his feet. He landed a long way back, thankfully just missing a tree trunk but momentarily stunned.
Cata swung wildly, not intending to harm but not too interested in avoiding it, either. Even if she might have, there was no reason to worry. The archer bent like a reed in high winds under and away from every strike, twisted around, drew a third arrow…
And they were in stalemate. Cata stood, sword ready to thrust the short distance between her and the other; while the archer was already in perfect position- just letting go of the string would set the arrow in a very short and final flight.
Elys, standing a foot or two away, flicked her wrist and snapped her fingers, a darkly amused expression on her face. A second later, it was replaced with a smile. "Wow. I am getting to be good at that." Cata's attention flickered away, the archer slightly changed her aim and let go.
The string stayed motionless, the arrow fell vertically to the ground. The unknown archer studied the unmoving string for a moment, then tapped it. The frozen string broke and fell into bits.
"Want to try talking this time?" asked Elys.
"Not with you. And don't try any false stories. You're not tan enough to be Naribwe, and you don't have any Kibombo markings. You're Alhafrans," she spat. Adjusting to night again after the blinding lightning not so long ago, Cata saw that the stranger was a girl, no older than her, perhaps younger, looking at them the way most people looked at leeches.
"Actually, we aren't," said Padriac, having pulled his boot free and now working the arrow out.
"I'm not especially inclined to believe you," she replied.
"Well, when you're holding the sword, you can make decisions like that," said Cata, graciously. "Me, Elys, and Zak the horse are all from Daila."
"Again with 'Zak the horse'," grumbled Zak the horse.
"Padriac is part Lemurian, mostly Champa, and a dash of pirate lightly seasoned with crazy, Cian's full-blooded Lemurian, Howl is a w- a lycanthrope, and Meg… I'm not sure what Meg is," Cata admitted.
"I'm not sure where Meg is," Cian said, as the Knights realised that she had vanished.
"Here," a voice gasped, and Howl dug through the undergrowth for a moment before finding her, lying almost limp. He lifted her clear of the brush, and suddenly they understood what had caused such a drain in her usual fighting spirit. Meg's left hand was clamped firmly around her other wrist, and her right hand had turned white. For a moment Cata thought she was actually gripping hard enough to cut off the circulation before she realised that there was blood seeping between her fingers.
"Elys!" Cata called as Padriac let go a subvocal stream of pirate-speech, half of which was totally incomprehensible, and the other half Cata wished she didn't understand.
"Nothing," Elys replied, staring at her hand in frustration. "I've been using too much Psynergy recently, haven't had time to gather any more."
"Let me," said the girl, shouldering between Cata and Padriac to reach the fallen huntress. She pried Cata's hand off, revealing a sight that made most of the Knights flinch away, but covered it just as quickly with her own hand. Fingers locked firmly on Meg's gashed wrist, she spoke very quietly, and blue light shone under her palm. It was still a reddish mess when the girl let go, but the flesh had sealed.
"That was Ply," Cian said.
"Full points for comparative Psynergy recognition," the girl muttered, still looking over the site of the former injury.
"But I saw you use Slash on Howl," the Lemurian went on.
"Saw it," grumbled Howl sarcastically, rubbing his neck. "Well, that certainly does prove things. Saw me get hit with it. I admit, I didn't see it, I was too busy closing my eyes to prepare for impact."
"Right on both counts," said the girl, apparently deciding that she had patched Meg up properly.
"Ply is Mercury. Slash is Jupiter. What's going on? What kind of Adept are you?"
"Ah. Now we get to an actual question." She stood and looked Cian in the eye. He was surprised by the force of her gaze, not like the ocean but like the incredible blue of the sky on rare occasions. "Jupiter, to my core. No doubt you've got another question coming," she said, before he could speak. "But I'd like to believe that you aren't from Alhafra, and if you aren't, then you probably don't deserve whatever has been happening to you. You look half-dead, and drowned most of the rest of the way."
"If you're thinking of trying something-" Cata began.
"I'm thinking of showing you the way to Contigo, where you can recover from whatever ordeals you've been through and decide what to do next." She looked over at Padriac, who was about to speak. "Lynn, disciple of Anemos, and thank you for being about to ask."
With that, Lynn turned and started into the woods again, gesturing for the others to follow. Her last sentence clicked with Cata, who followed a little reluctantly. "Mind reader," the Dailan muttered darkly.
The woman from the Yu Clan looked over the husk of a former Druj. The third was still running around somewhere in the forest, but she wasn't overly concerned. This second one had fallen easily enough after sufficient blasting with Mars Psynergy. What worried her was the way it had partially disintegrated, but left a sort of carapace behind, like a snake shedding a thick skin.
Any other Psynergy-corrupted animal would completely 'grey out' when slain, due to the unbinding of chaotic energies it had been holding, but these had not, making her wonder precisely where the difference lay.
"No animals look like this," Flash pointed out.
"I know," the woman replied. "That worries me too."
"Are you thinking…"
"I'd rather not," she said with a sigh, "but I have to admit that you seem to be right." She stood, and looked down at the slightly charred shell of the Druj. She would have to find and destroy the other before it could cause any damage to people or the forest. These creatures were good at destruction. They had been optimised for it. "These 'Druj' are not twisted animals. They were made."
The city of Contigo confused Meg from the beginning, simply because her natural dislike of cities didn't seem to catch it. This was a place where the city wasn't built to defy nature so much as provide a place to be while basking in it. The earth was sandy, but plants still grew in it, and they hadn't been cut away between the buildings of the city. Nor were the common paths bare, but carpeted with bright green grass.
Lemuria was said to be the greatest of all the cities, like a jewel risen from the ocean depths. But Cata had to admit that it was imposing -at least at the distance she had seen it from- where Contigo was soothing. The Lemurians no doubt had a larger city, with more people, breathtaking artwork, and mightier buildings, but it seemed placed on top of the land, a different layer, while Contigo almost seemed to have grown out of the earth.
"I'm rather surprised that the central city of the Jupiter Clan would be so filled with plants. They're aligned with Venus, after all," Cian remarked.
"It feels a little claustrophobic at times," Lynn agreed, "but the elders say that it's useful for higher meditation to mix opposites, and you're right, Venus is about as opposite as we can get to ourselves." She grinned, closed her eyes, and raised her face to catch the earliest rays of sunlight and first winds. "And you would not believe the way it smells in springtime. The aromas of a thousand different flowers on every street- and aromas are very much within Jupiter's realm."
There couldn't have been a more different place from Alhafra than Contigo, Meg decided as they entered the edges of the city, and maybe that meant that it wasn't too bad. Maybe even allowable. But she would meet a few more Contigans before making any real judgments.
"What are all those rocks?" asked Elys, pointing at the various large crystals that seemed to be popular decoration for homes, and occasionally were just placed at a crossroads on a tall pedestal. "It's a nice glow you get from them."
"Oh, yes, those are Psynergy Stones. When the sun goes down they start to glow, keeping the city a little brighter, and providing people with a little Psynergy boost if they need it during the day." Lynn slowed, finally stopping in the middle of the path for no obvious reason. "But the sun's already rising. What do you mean, 'nice glow'?"
"Well, not glowing, really," Elys amended. "Just, well… sort of… glowing. Differently."
"You can see their aura of Psynergy?" Lynn asked.
"You can't?" Elys responded.
"I can't," Zak added.
"No one can except for a few very experienced elders. The ones who have been meditating on Psynergy for decades and become masters of the arts of Jupiter," said Lynn.
"Cool," said Elys, grinning. "I can knit, too. Do you have knitting monks?"
"You're not from Alhafra, you've got a werewolf, a Lemurian, some kind of amazon woman, a talking horse, and someone who's probably a pirate-"
"Noble pirate," Padriac interjected.
"And now it turns out that one of the two potentially normal people can see Psynergy auras without practicing. You people are strange -no offence- and I think the elders are going to want to meet you. Come on," said Lynn, waving them down a different path.
"Did I misunderstand her, or did she imply that this would all make sense if we were from Alhafra?" asked Cata.
"Listen to the nice ruthless archer healer Jupiter Adept and maybe we'll get a chance to sleep today," said Cian, waving for Cata to get moving.
The regular sanctum of Contigo was nowhere near the grand scale of the Anemos Sanctum that made them known even in Daila, but that was just as well, since Anemos Sanctum was also at the centre of a massive crater to the east of the city, one whose origin was lost to older times. Possibly some of the elders of Contigo knew what had happened, but if they did, they were good at keeping secrets.
The newer sanctum was much like the ones found anywhere else on Weyard, if somewhat larger. Lynn swung open the stone doors without effort, which suggested that she either had tempered steel bones or there was some trick of mechanics involved- the latter seemed more likely, Jupiter Adepts were often very creative.
Inside there was the usual Great Healer's altar, currently unattended, but beyond there, the sanctum's single main room stretched out into a wide, airy space with meditation mats spread across the floor. At the far end of the room, on a slightly higher section of the floor, two of the mats were occupied by Contigan elders, who Lynn approached steadily but cautiously.
The woman, many year older than the man and with tan skin that suggested some part of her ancestry led to the shaman tribes of Hesperia, was apparently not as at-ease as her companion, and her eyes snapped open as the Knights approached, a healthy distance behind Lynn.
"Cata," said the woman. "And Elys, and Cian… and you've left Zak outside, I see, that's unfortunate. Perhaps I can meet with him later, he seems like such a nice young man." Her eyes swept across Padriac, Meg, and Howl. "I'm afraid I don't know you so well, but I hope we have a chance to correct that before you have to leave again. Lynn, did you bring them in?"
The Knights had completely frozen in mid-step, eyes wide, expressions shocked, and completely at a loss. Lynn wasn't in much better condition, except that she seemed to at least understand what was happening. "Yes, Phoveia, I did. How did you know…?"
"You know the capacity of Jupiter's Psynergy, Lynn," said Phoveia. "I have long been a wielder of the Fourth Sight, the power of prediction. And I have known from when you were only a small child that a day like this would come."
"Wait, wait, who said Jupiter Adepts had the power of prediction?" asked Cata, stepping forward. Lynn looked worried for a moment, but Phoveia simply smiled like a grandmother faced with a curious child.
"Oh, Cata, always so quick, always so forward," said the elder woman. "In Daila many skills of the Adepts are forgotten, or believed only legendary. I hope one day you can tell your people of the gifts they may not even know hover at their fingertips."
Cata blushed. "I can start with me. I'm a Jupiter Adept."
"Yet I don't hear your thoughts any clearer than the others," Phoveia observed. Cata mumbled something quietly. "I'm sorry?"
"I can't use Mind Read," she said, just fractionally louder.
"Dear Cata, don't be so quick to judge your own abilities! Most of us can't swim when we first step into the river, and I know you did not grow up in any sort of gathering of Jupiter Adepts. Children in Contigo are taught the most basic skills before they can even speak, and those lead to the development of Mind Read. Your parents wouldn't have known what to do."
"So I can't Mind Read and I can't predict," Cata summarized, slowly sinking into the lethargy of exhaustion. Sounds were becoming duller, the world was becoming detached.
"Not at all. Mind Read may be more difficult for you to learn now that you're older, I confess, but the skill will grow in time." Phoveia smiled again benevolently. "And no one can teach anyone to predict the future. That skill is as strong in you as it is in me. But I do believe you were brought here on a different matter?" Cata blushed again and stepped back, a little sluggishly, letting Lynn take the centre of attention.
"It's all right," said Lynn to Cata. "But I do want to know how you can already know so much about her, and the coming of all of them to Contigo. Does your prediction tell you so much?"
"Some of it does. I admit that I have paid particular attention to Clotho's greatest art, the telling of the lifeline, which certainly helps me learn more about your pasts."
"Perhaps you should not be saying so much to strangers," commented the younger male
'elder'. It was the first thing he had said, and he still hadn't bothered to open his eyes.
"Perhaps not," Phoveia admitted, but without the slightest severity. "No one truly knows what foreseeing the future is for, if it cannot be changed, and how we see it, if it can. I would not wish to foil Jupiter's plans."
"Can you tell me- all of us -why they're here?" asked Lynn.
"Of course. I believe it is vital that I do so." She looked saddened for a moment, but hopeful, too. "They have come to Contigo, Lynn, because they must leave with you among their number, and not doing so would doom them all." Lynn went silent, as frozen as the Knights had been by Phoveia's greeting, and so the elder went on. "I'm afraid so," -here Cata guessed Phoveia had read Lynn's mind- "the time has come for you to leave the home of the Jupiter Clan, to protect us all."
"Protect the clan…?" Lynn mumbled.
"The Tomegathericon," said Cian. "It is as dangerous as we have all feared, then?"
"Perhaps worse. I know not if it is even possible for you to escape this quest with your lives, brave Knights of Alchemy. But Lynn must go with you if there is to be any hope."
"Don't I have a choice?" asked Lynn, not seeming at all like the one-girl-skirmish they had met in the forest.
"Yes. Even no choice at all is still a choice. But there is no safe road."
"We could certainly use your help. It would take a lot of the pressure off me," said Elys, pretending to scowl at Cian, who looked away.
"And there is something else to consider. Lynn, set aside the Clan's laws for a moment and show them why you were allowed to take the Dragon's Trial at so young an age," said Phoveia. The Knights didn't understand what the elder meant in the slightest, but they were certainly getting to be familiar with what happened next.
Rather smugly, setting aside her uncertainty, Lynn held out a hand at arm's length, palm up. She grinned as purple light sparked together, taking shape and coming to rest on her hand. "This is Gale, a Jupiter Djinni."
"Gale!" shouted Zephyr happily, and the chorus was taken up by the other Djinn, until all six of them were out and greeting the newcomer Djinni, speaking too fast for any of the humans in the room to believe that they were conversing in any mortal language.
Lynn was shocked again, suddenly faced with a cloud of Djinn all scrambling to climb onto her arm or flutter around her head. Phoveia burst out laughing, but there was no hint of malice to it, simply wonder at the flood of elementals.
"You have more in common with them than you might have guessed, Lynn."
Slowly, still a little reluctantly, Lynn nodded. That was how it went, was it? One day she's been allowed to take the final trial to join the higher ranks of the Jupiter clan, despite her youth, the next she has to leave her home and head off with strangers to find the legendary Tomegathericon. Strangers with Djinni, admittedly, which made them less strange, but it was still jarring.
"When do we leave?" she asked eventually.
"Not yet," said Cian, wearily.
"Nowhere near yet," Howl agreed.
"Maybe after a few hours sleep," said Meg.
"Several," Elys amended.
"And at least one good meal," said Padriac.
"Several," Howl added, hopefully.
"But first…" said Cata, looking rather bleary now, "I believe there is the matter of us allowing you entrance. And so, in keeping with the tradition of the ancient and honourable traditions of the bro… sist… siblinghood of knights errantry, you must defeat me in single combat. We shall meet at dawn."
"Cata, it's already dawn," said Elys.
"Really? Excellent! Choose your implements of deconstructification!"
"Speaking of which, we've been awake since dawn yesterday," said Cian, stepping forward and putting a hand of Cata's shoulder to pull her back. She shrugged it off, and the passive struggle continued for a moment before Lynn stepped in front of Cata, trying not to smirk.
She raised a hand. "Sleep," said the Jupiter Adept. Ethereal sheep rained from the roof in a very small space, vanishing into the ground, and Cata staggered backward a step before collapsing completely. The concentrated woollen downpour had placed her solidly in the land of dreams, or at least snores, and Lynn looked to the others for judgment. "How was that?"
"A solid victory, I'd say," Cian decided.
"Artful," Meg agreed.
"Especially the bit about not mentioning your rather unusual tactics," Padriac commented.
"You think it was underhanded?" asked Lynn, slightly concerned.
"Yes." The pirate leaned in slightly and winked. "You'll fit in like gold in a pirate's pocket."
The Knights stayed another full day in Contigo, gathering their strength after what amounted to a two-day run across who knew how many miles of city, land, and river. The city was a wondrous place, and it was easy to believe Lynn's statement about the aromas of Contigo in springtime- even now, as Weyard's northern demidisc was heading into autumn, the city of the Jupiter Clan was filled with the scent of oranges from the orchard harvest.
Lynn's last day in Contigo was much simpler than Cata's would have been if the other Knights had appeared in Daila. As was apparently common in the Jupiter Clan, her parents were off with a band of other Jupiter Adepts, trading with other cities and taking stock of the world to the east. They would still not return for perhaps over a month, and Phoveia insisted that Lynn could not afford to slow the Knights down.
Instead, she ensured that she had done everything that she had been required to do, all her promises were kept (or at least postponed) and she was as well prepared for a long journey as could be expected for someone to whom the world ended a few miles beyond Contigo.
When they set out the next day, there was no crowd to say goodbye, but Lynn didn't seem bothered. Eventually, as they set out to the northeast, Cata snapped. "Where is everyone?" she blurted, and then withdrew, thinking she should have stayed quiet. Lynn just laughed.
"In important situations, the people of Contigo use Mind Read Psynergy to create a sort of mesh between people, allowing us to speak to each other no matter where we are in the village. Phoveia doesn't want it to be too well known that I'm leaving, but she hasn't forbidden me to tell anyone, either." She smiled, a little bittersweetly. "All the friends who might have been here to see me off-" and here she touched her temple "-are in here to say goodbye."
"'So long' is more like it, unless you're planning to live somewhere else when this is over," said Cata.
"I don't really know. Phoveia said that I am meant to follow you, and until I find out why, that I shall do. But we of the Jupiter Clan are more realistic than hopeful, and there is a certain joy to knowing that 'good bye' was not truly so."
"Ah. Precisely who we were missing. A professional orator and philosopher," said Meg.
"And healer," Cian added.
"Flaming good one," the huntress agreed, swivelling her unmarked wrist.
"You trust Phoveia a lot, then, don't you?" asked Zak.
"Absolutely. The most skilled Adept in all of Contigo, a great oracle… and if not for her, my parents would never have met, so in a way I owe her my very life," said Lynn.
"Well then, I think we should get busy and figure out what you're coming with us for," said Howl. "I've always wanted to have a Destiny. This is about as close as I figured I'm likely to get."
In Contigo, Phoveia was in the sanctum again, again alone except for the other elder, both meditating. But her thoughts were drawn to the young girl now leaving Contigo, slipping beyond the range even of the meshed minds.
"You're letting yourself be distracted," he murmured.
"Perhaps it's just a new focus," Phoveia countered.
"I should never get into these discussions with you."
"Probably not."
"It's not focus," he insisted, still not opening his eyes. "You're worried."
"Shouldn't I be? Isn't she too valuable to lose?"
"Is her value to us your only concern?" he countered.
Phoveia struggled to maintain her even breathing and keep from opening her eyes. "No, of course not. But you realise that we may be gambling a true disciple of Jupiter-"
"On the fate of all Weyard," he finished sharply, but then softened. "Yes, I know. But we must."
"If only I believed anything were so simple as 'must'," the elder woman sighed.
"All right, I have to know," said Lynn at last. "You're clearly a Lemurian, Cian. Why didn't you heal Meg when my arrow injured her? All Lemurians are Mercury Adepts."
"That's a generalisation, but I suppose the fact that it's true rather steals any possibility to get righteously annoyed," Cian admitted. They walked on in silence for a few more moments, slowly making their way across a wide green plain, following the Psynergy-trail of the Tomegathericon. The land rolled as it went, occasionally divided by rivers but mostly a simple expanse of long green grass.
"Cian?" said Lynn.
"Yes?" he replied nonchalantly.
"You ignored my question."
"Actually, I'd like to know the answer myself," said Meg, elbowing Cian amiably in the ribs.
"Oh, we know," Elys giggled, looking at Cata and Zak. "Cian just doesn't like talking about it."
"They've got me roped too, mate," said Padriac, apologetically. "Don't make me clap you in irons and do the dripping torture."
"Pirates don't clap people in irons," Cian pointed out, frowning.
"We don't really do the drip thing, either. It's more of a large cold bucketful around dawn."
"All right already!" the Lemurian relented. "I can't use Ply. I've tried all my life -and let me tell you, I'm about as old as most of you added together- and just can't do it. A Mercury Adept who can't heal." He looked at the others darkly. "You're supposed to laugh."
Lynn shrugged and looked to the rest of the Knights. "I don't see why. I'm not exactly a master of my own Psynergy either," said Howl. "See the fur?"
"Wouldn't make any more sense than laughing at Cata for not being able to use Mind Read," Lynn added.
"Which I'm quite happy about, thank you. I have no interest in the inner workings of any of you people or the rest of the population," said Cata, shifting her armor to a more comfortable position.
"Oh, I don't know," said Lynn innocently, grinning a little. "When the person being read isn't looking, you can learn some interesting things." The other Knights instantly spun to face her with varying degrees of vengeance in their expressions. "Anyway, I don't see why not being able to cast Ply is such a problem," she went on, and scored a few points for avoiding trouble by pretending it wasn't there.
"What am I supposed to do, then?" asked Cian, a little miserably.
"Well, how about Aura? That's a good healing Psynergy," said Lynn, helpfully.
"That's Mars," Cian said, frowning.
"I know."
For a moment the only sound was the wind in the tall grass and the occasional clop of Zak's hooves on stone.
"Is there something else you know that you're not telling us?" asked Cata.
Lynn looked confused. "Well, if he's a Lemurian, then he's got Mercury Psynergy, but he could still back that up with another element, even just for the healing powers," she explained more slowly.
"Try again," said Elys, but Howl and Meg just looked at each other. They were both Adepts allied with Djinn of another element, which had the potential to give them unusual powers if their Psynergy grew in strength, but Lynn's Djinni, Gale, was Jupiter, the same as her own alignment. …An alignment she had mentioned just after unleashing awesome healing energies on Meg, an event that had been rather burned into the minds of both of them (Meg because of her wrist, Howl because the smell of blood had made him lightheaded for hours).
"Lynn," said Meg, slowly, "are you saying that you've learned Mercury Psynergy as well as Jupiter, and that's why you're such a good healer?"
"Yes," said Lynn, as though she had been trying to explain the idea of math for an hour before someone asked if she meant two came after one.
"Never heard of double elements," said Cata.
"Never heard of Jupiter healers," said Elys.
"Never wanted to go on this quest in the first place," Zak muttered, shaking a bruised hoof tenderly. He looked up and noticed that everyone was staring at him. "Just following the pattern."
"Since when can Adepts learn Psynergy of more than one element?" demanded Padriac.
"Arr! It be the perfect chance fer the cap'n here ter fix this whole mess up! 'Till him, every Venus Adept on th' high seas had but one name anyway: 'prepare ter walk the plank'!" said Hail, hopping from nothingness onto Padriac's shoulder. No one had yet pointed it out to the rather spontaneous Djinni, but she reminded all of them, including landlocked Lynn, of a parrot when she perched there.
"I've been learning Mercury Psynergy since I was little. And I have a knack for Lyric, the Jupiter healing Psynergy, so most of my training as a healer was learning how to use both of them together," said Lynn. "A sort of synergy of Psynergy," she added, grinning. Everyone else remained blank. "Never mind."
"So it doesn't work for everyone?" asked Elys.
"Oh, no, as far as the elders can tell, it should be possible for anyone to learn Psynergy of a second element. …I've wondered for a long time why I didn't see more of the Contigans using something besides Jupiter, though. I wish I had paid more attention to that," she said, a little frustrated.
"How could you not pay attention to it? You're like two Adepts in one! Either tell us how it works or make up your mind!" Howl barked- rather literally. He wasn't angry, just excited, and there was unfortunately no better word for it.
"Calm down, boy!" said Cian, waving the lycanthrope into silence.
"I resent that. That was a remark intended to wound," he protested.
"No, it was meant to activate the furry obedient side of you. Anyway, it's not like you can blame her for not noticing," the Lemurian went on.
"Why?"
"I'm working on it, I'm working on it."
A strange, acrid smell came to them on the breeze at that moment, and a faintly red gust of wind rippled the grass just ahead of Padriac. In its wake, the blades turned brown and collapsed as though licked by flames. "Does anyone happen to know what kind of air kills grass that quickly?"
"Air?" asked Meg, coming forward to check the ravaged swath.
"It were red," Hail added.
"Red? …Not a Poison Flow, surely…" said Lynn.
"Probably," said Zak. "I have no idea what a Poison Flow is, but it sounds like our luck."
Lynn wasn't listening anymore. She was scanning the sky above them, shielding her eyes from the sun and hoping she wouldn't spot anything. As Zak had pointed out, though, they weren't that lucky. A silvery shape broke away from the cloud it had been camouflaged against and dropped toward them, rending the peace with a horrible shrieking roar.
Straight purple lightning carved a line through the group, scattering Knights on either side and blasting the ground apart where it struck. "Sky Dragon!" Lynn shouted, and then it was upon them.