The First Kaiaru (28 page)

T
he Storm Dragon roared into being, and Turesobei shouted.

“Everyone to me!”

As they gathered around him, he drew a spell strip for the
spell of the greater force field.
He did a quick-casting and put everything he could into it. Only a brief wave of dizziness passed over him. Because of the spell’s limitations, the only way he could kill himself casting this one was if his internal kenja was already depleted.

A dimly flickering dome of energy spread out to cover everyone.

Twenty four meteors, each one twice the size of Motekeru, rained down from above. The first slammed into the earth nearby with a thunderous explosion, kicking dust and ash into the air. The others struck in quick succession, their impacts centered around the pool of lava. Bits of rock and fiery debris splattered against the force field.

One meteor headed right toward them. There was no time to dodge out of the way, and even if they did they would be running right out into the hell storm of debris kicked up by the other meteors.

“Incoming!” Iniru shouted.

Everyone ducked down, putting their arms over their heads, except Kurine who raised her shield over Turesobei and Motekeru who covered Awasa with his body. Storm Dragon Lu Bei hovered at the top of the force-field dome with his wings spread out.

A split second before the meteor struck, the Storm Dragon blasted it with lightning. The remaining fiery fragments knocked out the force field. But all that struck them was a pelting rain of small rocks and dust, and Lu Bei blocked out most of that.

“We’ve got trouble,” Iniru said. “Big trouble.”

Turesobei wiped the dust from his eyes, then cursed. Out from the wreckage of the other meteors climbed nineteen zokatari-kagi: demon warriors with bodies made of solid rock. Each was shorter than Motekeru but bigger across.

Zaiporo's bow twanged, and an arrow shattered on the forehead of one of the rock warriors. “How the heck are we supposed to break through their skin?!”

“I
think
white-steel or magic will do the trick,” Turesobei said.

The warriors lumbered toward them.

“At least they’re slow,” Kurine said.

Zaiporo nodded. “Let’s withdraw and use that to our advantage. If we get some distance on them, we can come up with a plan while the Storm Dragon attacks them.”

The Storm Dragon blasted the nearest rock warrior, and it shattered into a dozen pieces. Lu Bei intercepted the second-closest one. His lightning bolts only scarred the rock warrior, but they did slow it down.

As they ran Turesobei did a quick-casting of the
spell of the stone wall
and placed it right behind them. He made it only waist-high, so that he could extend it out over fifty paces across. Judging by the stubby legs of the rock warriors, it would take them just as long to climb over the wall as it would to walk around it. The spell wasn’t easy, but in this case, he felt like it was worth it.

Because of his injuries, Motekeru lagged behind the others. Turesobei hadn’t even realized he was struggling, until he glanced back and saw Motekeru on the other side of the wall. Still, he managed to climb over well before the rock warriors even reached it.

The Storm Dragon destroyed another rock warrior with a concentrated blast of lightning, followed by a claw strike.

“We need a plan,” Zaiporo said. “Before the big guardian shows up.”

Kurine wiped her face off with her sleeve. “At least the volcano hasn’t fired out any more—”

With a deep boom, the earth shook below them. A second quake followed, and tiny cracks spread through the earth beneath them.

“That’s disturbing,” Zaiporo said.

Kurine shrugged. “I’ve walked across cracked ice plenty of times. This can’t be worse than that…right?”

“I don’t know….” Iniru spun around, scanning the area. “That tremor may have been widespread, but the cracks in the earth are only right around us.”

“We should keep moving,” Zaiporo suggested, “just in case.”

As everyone followed Zaiporo’s lead, Turesobei opened his kenja-sight and once again examined the area. Something about all of this bothered him. From the beginning, he had felt like this location was different than the others, especially that pool of lava.

When he got a good look at the energy patterns of the zokatari-kagi, he realized they had a big problem.

“Crap! Those aren’t normal zokatari-kagi. They can regenerate.”

“How?” Kurine asked.

Groaning, Iniru pointed. “Like that.”

The scattered fragments of the first warrior the Storm Dragon had destroyed were sliding across the ground, pulled toward one another as if magnetically linked. As the pieces touched, they melded together. At the current rate, it would only take a few minutes for the rock warrior to reform.

“What about the generator?” Zaiporo asked. “Got a read on it yet?”

“Please tell me the generator’s not in the volcano,” Kurine said.

“The generator’s nearby,” Turesobei replied. “That’s the good news.”

“And the bad?” Zaiporo asked.

Turesobei watched energy pulses dance along the delicate threads of subtype-three fire kenja that trailed from the rock warriors to their generator.

“It’s in the pool of lava where the heart stone should be.” He dropped his kenja-sight. “Or maybe it is the pool of lava itself. I can’t tell which without examining the pool again—up close.”

“Okay then,” Zaiporo said. “Back to the lava pool.”

“We’ll have to move fast,” Iniru said. “Sobei, can you throw up another wall to slow them down?”

“I can cast that spell a few more times.”

“Then do it,” Zaiporo said.

With Motekeru lumbering behind them, they raced back toward the lava pool, making a wide circle around the rock warriors. Turesobei summoned another wall to keep the zokatari-kagi from taking an angle and cutting them off. Lu Bei did his part by popping the rock warriors in the face with his bolts, causing them to stagger. Of course, what helped the most was that the Storm Dragon had already destroyed half of them.

Two rock warriors had reformed and were starting to walk again, albeit staggeringly. As slow as even the undamaged ones were, Turesobei was confident in their chances of surviving this encounter—as long as the zokatari-kagi were all they had to face. If a big guardian showed up and the Storm Dragon could no longer fight the rock warriors, they would be in trouble.

With the others forming a line of defense behind another low wall Turesobei had conjured, he and Awasa knelt beside the pool. He opened his kenja-sight and peered deep into the molten rock. Then he closed his eyes and tried to sense the flow of the currents.

“I know the generator’s here…” he sighed with frustration “…but I can’t pinpoint it.”

“Is it the pool itself?” Iniru asked.

He shook his head. “It’s somewhere in the pool. But that’s the only thing I’m sure of.”

“I’ve got it!” Awasa said. She was holding complex mudras with both hands. “I hate to give you bad news, but the generator’s twenty feet down into the lava, at the bottom of the pool.”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Zaiporo said. “How in Torment are we supposed to destroy it?”

“Can you pull the generator out with a spell?” Iniru asked.

“Possibly,” Turesobei replied. “The problem is I can’t detect it. For some reason, Awasa’s mudra techniques are working where my senses are failing.”

“We could link our minds,” Awasa said. “Then you’d be able to sense it through me…assuming you’re willing to risk it.”

It wasn’t a question of trusting her. Without Awasa, Turesobei doubted they would’ve made it this far. But Awasa’s mind was treacherous, even for her.

But they didn’t have any other option as far as he could see.

He released the stone walls he’d conjured, except for the nearest one, and they crumbled to dust. Once his concentration was broken that one would probably fall apart, too.

Turesobei reached out and touched the eight-pointed star on Awasa’s forehead. Closing his eyes, he opened his mind to hers. A sudden flood of anger, frustration, and barely restrained lust rushed into him. He wasn’t the target of her lust, which surprised him, but before he could figure out who was, Awasa blocked that part of herself off from him. She didn’t, or more likely couldn’t, block out the other emotions. They were too much a part of her now.

“
Do you feel like this all the time
?” Turesobei asked her telepathically.

“
Sometimes it’s worse than this
,” she replied. “
All right, I’ve locked onto the generator again, can you detect it now?
”

He immediately sensed its location, and she was right. It was twenty feet down. But he couldn’t get a solid lock on it, nor could he tell anything about it except that it was a guardian generator. Maybe, now that he knew where to look, he could find out more with his own abilities. He pulled back into his own mind and tried to analyze it with his kenja-sight.

He groaned. “
Without you I still can’t sense it at all. My abilities are useless on this thing.
”

“
I can tell where it is
,” she replied, “
but that’s it. I’m sorry I don’t know how to do anything else
.”

“
It’s not your fault
,” he said. “
Your magic is so different than mine. If I could use your abilities, I’m sure I could figure out something. But to do that—
” He paused. “
Awasa you’re going to have to host me
.”

“
You mean you’re going to…to possess me
?” The shuddering jolt of fear that spiked through her spiked through him as well. “
Sobei, I love you, and I trust you, but I can’t let you do that—not for any reason. The last time someone possessed me
….”

“
It won’t be like that, I promise. This will be like Enashoma and Nāa. When you host me, it will be as if we’re both inhabiting the same space, in this case yours, but we’ll remain two separate people. And you can kick me out anytime you like. You have to be willing the entire time, or it won’t work
.”

Awasa blocked out her fear. “
Okay, I’ll give it a try. Just understand that I might panic. And be prepared to defend yourself if I freak out.”

“
I understand. And if you do lash out, I won’t blame you
.”

She relaxed and gave an ironic mental chuckle. “
Well, this isn’t how I thought you and I would ever…you know,
be
together
.”

He laughed. “
Very few people have ever been together like this. Wizards study this technique, but we never practice it. Few situations require it, and not many people would be comfortable with this level of intimacy
.”

“I don’t know what you two are doing,” Iniru said, “or if you can even hear me, but you need to hurry. The rock warriors are reforming faster now. And they don’t have to take on their previous shapes. Two of them just split into six knob-sized versions of themselves. And it looks like three others are combining into a triple-sized beast. Lu Bei is zapping pieces, trying to keep them from rejoining, while the Storm Dragon is attacking the active ones.”

“The worst part,” Zaiporo added, “is that the warriors are somehow getting tougher as they go. It’s now taking multiple blasts for the Storm Dragon to take one out.”

If the warriors were getting tougher, that meant they were drawing on all of the volcanic energy in the area and not just from their generator. He needed to hurry.

Turesobei took a deep breath and prepared himself. “
Okay, here goes
.” By using a mudra, speaking a command phrase, and envisioning a few runes, he shifted his consciousness over onto Awasa.

First, he experienced an intense disorientation, which he had expected. After all, his awareness had left his body and now fully inhabited hers.

Next came confusion. Everything was wrong: what he saw…what he heard…what he felt. These weren’t the senses he’d spent his whole life getting used to. And his whole body was wrong. He was missing parts he was used to having, and he had new parts—
girl parts
.

Surprised, he grabbed his chest. Crap! He had grabbed
her
chest. He put her hands in her lap, and then, self-consciously, swiftly moved them aside.

“
I’m sorry
,” Turesobei said to her.

Awasa laughed. “
It’s too funny for me to be offended.
”

“
I’m glad you think so
.”

“
How could you being in a girl’s body not be hilarious
?”

“
I bet if you were in my body, you wouldn’t feel that way
.”

She shrugged. “
Having you in here with me isn’t as bad as I’d feared—except when you take control of my movements. That’s very strange
.”

“
Your eyesight is terrible by the
—”

A wave of anger crashed into him. The sinister presence within the eight-pointed star on her forehead had recognized him and was doing its best to force him out. But Awasa pushed back, and the presence faded away.

“
Welcome to my world
.” Awasa took control of her hands and performed the necessary mudras. “
Now, let’s get this done and get you out of me
.”

“
Okay, I want you to do exactly what you were doing before. At the same time, I’m going to take over your voice, so that I can cast a few spells
.”

Using her senses, he locked onto the energy pattern of the generator at the bottom of the lava pool. Then he attempted to cast the
spell of magical analysis
. It was hard enough casting a spell from her body using the kavaru still attached to his, but her voice was coarse yet higher pitched, and the tongue and lips were awkward for him. He stuttered through the spell, and it failed. Finally, on his fourth attempt, he managed to get it right.

The generator was a spherical crystal about the size of a fire globe, and it was encased in a web of protection spells.

Focusing on the generator, he cast the
spell of the spirit hand
so he could pull it out of the pool. He used as much power as he could with the spell, but he couldn't dislodge it.

“There are powerful protection wards on the crystal,” Turesobei said aloud with Awasa’s voice. “I can’t bring it up with telekinesis. It can only be brought out through actual physical touch.”