Keith Baker: The Gates of Night

And that was his mistake.

Pierce leaped back a step, narrowly avoiding a fierce double blow that could have decapitated him. He was beginning his counterstroke when he felt a crushing pressure around his arms and chest.

Harmattan.

The strange warforged couldn’t unleash his full might without shredding Daine, but even in his humanoid form his strength was astonishing. Pierce had been so focused on Indigo that he hadn’t seen Harmattan move behind him. Now he was bound by metal and magic. For all that Harmattan’s body comprised fragments of metal, the force that held them together was tougher than any steel. Harmattan’s arms flowed together around Pierce’s chest, creating an unbreakable band. Pierce’s flail was half-caught in the metal mass, the chain dangling beyond. Indigo swept forward. Her adamantine blades flashed, and the flail fell apart, steel chain split as easily as rope. She took another step forward, a blade leveled at his eyes.

This ends, brother .

When Harmattan spoke, Pierce could feel the vibration. He struggled against his bonds, but his strength was no match for Harmattan’s power.

“So it would appear.”

“Why?” Indigo said. Pierce could no longer hear any anger in her voice. Just disappointment. “Why did you turn on us?”

“I did not want to.”

“You destroyed Hydra. I could have died as well. And for what? These bags of flesh and blood? They will be dead in a handful of years, at best. We have eternity.”

Yes. Think, little brother. You have nothing in common with these creatures .

“I have memories. I have friendship. Can you say the same?” A thought occurred to him, as the spirit embedded in his chest passed along a piece of information.

“Is there nothing between us?” Indigo’s blade hadn’t wavered, the point an inch from his eyes.

Pierce searched for words. “In truth,” he said, “I do not know what I feel. But I know I must protect my family.”

We are your family , said Harmattan.

“Perhaps you are. But you are forgetting something.”

And what is that?

“Our sister.”

Indigo’s gaze flickered to the side-

Too late.

Harmattan shattered into a thousand pieces, and Pierce lunged.

Lei was cold. Every nerve numb. It took all her energy to open her eyes, and when she did, her surroundings were blurred and distorted. She could hear distant sounds, but she couldn’t make sense of them or muster the strength to turn her head.

Memory trickled back through her mind. Crystals. Shards of crystal. A woman had given Lei a shattered object … pieces of a crystal sphere. When Lei touched it, a doorway had opened in her mind. She could feel the pattern within the sphere, feel its great age. The woman whispered to Lei, urging her to mend the broken pattern, and her voice was impossible to resist. Lei knew what had to be done. She felt as if she’d always known. She could see the proper pattern in her mind. She knew how to repair the damage. And at the urging of the voice, she had done just that. But it had taken so much energy-more than she had to give. She could see a network of light take shape as the crystal shards fused, the true shape emerging from the ruin. But as the pattern became clearer, her surroundings blurred. Thought became muddled. The only thing that mattered was repairing the damage. And as the last piece fell into place, everything else faded.

Sensation was returning. Lei flexed her fingers. Something felt wrong with her grip. Feeling returned to her arms, her legs. She was lying on a hard, cold platform. She heard metal scraping against stone. She turned her head to face the noise.

Pierce leaped into view. He was fighting another warforged-a smaller, slender figure who lashed at Pierce with twin blades. The two seemed well-matched, and their deadly dance distracted Lei. Then Harmattan bound Pierce with a coil of metal, and the battle came to an end.

The sight of Harmattan was a shock. Images flashed through her mind-

Harmattan ordering his minions to torture her .

Harmattan surviving a powerful blast of electricity, reforming after a hole was punched right through his torso .

Harmattan transforming into a storm of razor-edged steel, scouring the flesh from a pack of predators in the blink of an eye .

Lei blinked. The warforged were speaking, but there was no time to listen. Pierce needed her. There had to be an answer. Physical force was useless against Harmattan. He could reform from any injury. His body wasn’t a body at all. It was a mass of shards held together by magical force.

Held together by magical force .

No time to waste. Lei visualized a pattern in her mind and traced it on the palm of her left glove. As exhausted as she was, she found a last ember of energy within her, just enough power to complete the ritual.

The warforged hadn’t noticed her. The blue warrior had one of her blades leveled at Pierce’s face, the threat unmistakable. Offering a prayer to Onatar, Lei clenched her fist and made a swift throwing motion.

Only the faintest ripple in the air marked the passage of the energy she’d released-until it struck Harmattan.

Agony tore through Lei. She’d woven a charm of abjuration into her gauntlet, a burst of power that could shatter other spells. During the War she’d used this technique to counter the arcane blasts of enemy sorcerers. But she’d never touched such a powerful force. It was as if she’d tried to snuff a candle with her fingers and found her hand in a bonfire. Dousing this flame seemed impossible, and every instant the pain grew. But she wouldn’t let go. She remembered Harmattan’s mocking words, the pain as his servant Hydra cut off her finger, and she clung to that rage, using it as a pillar against the pain.

Harmattan shattered, as if a figure formed of sand struck by a mighty gust of wind: His body dissolved, scattering mirror-bright shards across the floor.

Indigo responded instantly. As Lei struggled to her feet, the warforged assassin was already turning toward her. Under normal circumstances, Lei’s powers might have proved a match for this foe; she had destroyed one of the warrior Hydra’s bodies earlier in the day. But she was drained. The attack on Harmattan had used her last reserves, and she didn’t have the energy to fuel any form of artifice. In her current state, a battle with Indigo would be brief and unpleasant.

But even as Indigo turned to face Lei, there was a flash of metal and the warforged tumbled to the ground.

Pierce!

Freed from Harmattan’s grasp, Pierce brought Indigo down with a well-placed kick. Lei felt a wave of relief-but it soon turned to fear. Indigo regained her feet, and the warforged fought in earnest. Pierce lost his flail, and with Harmattan’s fall Indigo fought more fiercely than before. Lei winced as a well-placed thrust sheared through Pierce’s left shoulder. For a creature of flesh and blood the wound might have been mortal, but Pierce continued the fight. Nonetheless, the outcome wasn’t in doubt. Weaponless, Pierce could slow Indigo but not stop her.

“Run, my lady!” he said as he dodged another blow. “Take Daine and go!”

Indigo hissed in fury, and her next blow shaved a layer of mithral from Pierce’s chest.

I’m not leaving you to her, Lei thought. She reached into her satchel, the magical bag that held her gear. She was too weak to wield her staff, but there had to be something …

There . Her fingers found a long wand. She smiled, drawing the weapon. It might have proven useless against Harmattan, but Lei had a hunch that Indigo wasn’t so durable.