Disclaimer: Tamora Pierce set the rules, and I broke them all. Hahahahaha
A/N: So this is a new record. Three chapters in one day. I'm seriously obsessed. I just got to the really good part and I can't seem to stop.
Chapter 19 - Swallowed
Daine sat in on her fourth brainstorming session in seven days. The problem with suggesting that she liked the way Numair's mind worked was that he then included her on these over-cerebral arguments between him, Harailt and Lindhall. It wasn't a lie. She loved her tall, brilliant friend just the way he was. But he didn't seem to be aware that he spoke a completely different language here than in other settings. He never talked down to Daine. But somehow it seemed that these three men couldn't get together without showing off their vocabularies for one another. Daine wanted to participate and even contribute intelligently. But no one stopped to explain foreign concepts and they seemed to forget that most people had a limited number of three and four syllable words at their disposal. She yawned widely.
Numair looked at her. "Are you tired, Magelet?"
"No, Numair," she said at the end of her tether. "I'm hopelessly lost. You keep talking about theories I don't recognize and using words I don't think I've ever heard. I want to pretend I'm smart as you, but I'm not." She didn't say that she was beginning to feel hopeless about it. The pit had not grown in the last week, but no progress had been made since Numair's displacement theory which was now nine days old.
Lindhall and Harailt looked shocked at her candor. "Of course you are," Numair insisted. "Do you think we understand everything said here at any given moment?"
"You don't?" she asked, taken aback.
"Not always. Occasionally, I have to fake it until I get a concept and sometime I understand the idea but don't recognize the reference at all."
"Hush, Numair, you'll give away all our secrets," Lindhall said kindly.
"That's sweet and all, Numair, but there's no way you're half as lost as me," Daine said.
She saw three masters open their mouths to correct her grammar. Apparently all thought better of it. Numair chuckled lightly. "No, Daine, I'm probably not lost as often as you. I'm fourteen years older than you and I have spent the majority of my life in a university setting full of people talking too much and listening too little. I picked up bad habits."
Harailt chuckled lightly. "I think I should be insulted, Numair. I wish you weren't right."
Lindhall laughed, "Let me second that."
"Where did we lose you?"
"Elemental power was the last thing you said that I recognized," she answered.
"Well, you're not that lost at all, then," Lindhall said.
Shocked, she did not know how to respond. She opened her mouth and closed it again, wordlessly.
"We think this has to be elemental power, because we can't come up with a reason for a god to do this," Numair explained.
"Gods and Goddesses don't always play fair, that's a good 'nuf reason isn't it?" she remarked, thinking of the Graveyard Hag.
"What the Hag did was crudely orchestrated, but she did have a reasonable motivation," Lindhall argued.
"No, she didn't!" Daine snapped incredulously. "Her first wrong move was letting a dolt like Ozorne get away with everything he did for so long. There's no good motivation there. She just fell for sugar coated words from an acid tongue."
Harailt and Lindhall looked around as if they expected the Hag to strike her down. Numair burst into laughter. "Now that's why I asked you here, Daine, fresh perspective."
Daine probably should have been angry about his laughter. But there was so much respect in his eyes that she thought he might actually mean it. "You want a fresh thought?" she asked. All three men nodded fervently. "Maybe someone mortal or immortal borrowed power from a God or an Elemental."
Numair's eyes opened wide and his hand flew in front of his mouth.
Harailt shook his head. "That's not possible."
Daine pointed at Bonedancer who was at that moment flying away from Kit as if trying to escape. "If I did it, someone else could."
"No," Harailt argued. "The Hag gave you use of her power and elementals don't exist anymore."
"But their power was available," Numair relayed quietly. "It was released in December when the barrier fell. And anyone who could siphon off the power fromslave childrenwould know how to absorb it from there and make use of it." He looked a little green when he said it. She heard a sharp intake of breath from Lindhall and Harailt turned ghostly white.
At that moment, someone sounded the alarm and horns called every fighter to take up arms. Daine felt a waive of wrongness so powerful that she nearly vomited on the spot. "There's a horde of immortals moving in fast. Goddess protect us, I've never felt so many at once." Daine grabbed her bow and quiver and Numair picked up Kit. They flew out the door with Lindhall and Harailt close behind.
They moved toward the forest, swallowed in peasants who were fleeing toward the palace and soldiers fighting to reach the attack line. At the forest rim they found Alanna, who seemed to be giving orders. She directed Daine to join the other archers on the west side and asked Numair to do what he could in the center of the action.
"What about the chasm," Daine heard Numair ask.
"We haven't figured out how to fight it, let's use it to our advantage. Let them fall in and get trapped. It will serve them right for trying to sneak up on us in the night. Just remember where it is and don't fall in."
Daine took up position in the line where Thayet, Buri and Onua were already standing. Daine was grateful she had her long bow this time. It gave her more range and she could loose more quickly. "Kit, either stay right behind me or go back with Kally. If you do anything else you might get me or you killed, understand?" The little dragon trilled in fright and moved behind Daine. "Thayet, should you be out here?"
"My children are in that palace and my husband is a long way away. I'm going to fight for my home and no one will convince me otherwise."
Buri gave Daine a look like I could have told you as much. She grinned at Daine who grinned back. She saw black fire shoot toward her quiver and felt it vibrate. She experienced a surge of pride at Numair's trust in her aim.
"What was that?" Onua asked.
"Numair gave my arrows a little something extra," she answered, smiling malevolently. "Come on monsters, I've got a surprise for you," she whispered. Several of the archers around her looked at her and chuckled. Thayet put her own arrow back in her quiver and knocked one of Daine's. Daine held up two fingers so Numair knew two were coming, in case he needed to warn anyone.
The first monsters that tried to break through were probably flying monkeys, although Daine never saw them. Spelled fog rolled in (the only spell they really have) and the mages punched right through it. Archers positioned in the trees shot down the actual immortals. Hurroks were the first beast that she actually got to see. She would never know if there were too many for the archers in the trees or if their forces were that numerous. But when her first arrow hit, the hurrok exploded violently. Thayet took one next to her and shouted with glee when her arrow also caused the foe to splatter in miniscule pieces. "Beautiful and deadly," a male archer near them commented. Both women grinned.
The unfortunate thing was that most of Alanna's orders seemed to backfire. Attacks on the spur of the moment or without specific direction succeeded magnificently. But every time Alanna tried to organize the forces for a strategic assault, it was as if she had a spy over her shoulder. Lord Wyldon, the man who trained the pages and unassigned squires seemed to have similar bad luck. The siege lasted through the long hours of the night and only by the assistance of animals in spying on the approaching immortals and providing distractions, did they really gain any ground.
When the immortal numbers began to dwindle or fall back, the own and riders took after them in the dark, and a force of protectors, including Alanna, Numair, Buri, Thayet, Onua, Daine, the sixth rider group and the pages remained to guard the original front line in case any wounded beasts found a second wind or any unwounded ones were hiding in the trees. It seemed to be going well enough. Thayet moved to inner edge at the insistence of Lord Wyldon and the battle seemed to be won. And then some stormwings tried to use magic on the chasm.
A violent shrieking rip lit the air as the chasm began to grow. Daine wished she had the runed stone so she could see the new edges. She rushed backward in fear, struggling to keep track of Kit and still watch for attackers. A rumble like a quake rolled beneath them and Daine heard Buri cry out as what could only be the chasm swallowed the ground beneath her feet. Daine dived for her, shifting smoothly to a condor and praying she would have the strength to lift her K'miri friend to safety. Kit whistled in alarm and the chasm grabbed her magic and pulled. The little dragon, Daine and Buri fell into the dark unknown, leaving behind shocked friends to cry in disbelief.
When the chasm finally quit growing, a group of grief stricken fighters stared at the void. And the only thing that kept one tall mage from diving in after them, was the combined strength of Alanna, Thayet, Onua, and Lindhall.
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I'm gonna' get hate mail.