Jean Lorrah - Wulfston's odyssey

Zanos and Telek had found them.

Fighting as if they were partners rather than rivals, the two huge white men flung Zionae guards right and left, dealing death as casually as they might pick apples.

Z’Nelia’s guards scattered before them-but only for a moment.

It seemed as if hundreds more poured into the corridor, blocking their way as they struggled toward the entry to the tower. Chulaika had somehow reached the bottom of the steps, where she cowered, holding Chaiku before her.

“The gates?” Wulfston panted to Zanos when the two came together in the melee.

“They’ll hold!” the gladiator assured him, punching a man’s face inward to a crunch of mangled flesh no longer horrifying in that corridor of death.

On they fought, working step by slow step toward the tower stairs, until at last no more guards appeared and they stood gasping, blood-covered, but alive.

Tadisha was limping.

Barak leaned on a spear to steady his steps, but he was only exhausted, not injured.

Kamas cradled a broken arm.

Ashuru had a cut on her cheek and a blackening eye.

Chulaika held Chaiku, his face hidden against his mother’s shoulder.

Zanos and Telek showed numerous scratches and bruises, but no serious injuries.

“Kamas,” said Wulfston, “I must set your arm.”

“Don’t put me to sleep!” the boy said.

“I won’t,” he assured him. “Tadisha, Ashuru, See what’s happening. We don’t want another surprise attack.”

Kamas gritted his teeth as Wulfston pulled the bone ends back together, then invoked the healing fire to knit them. It would take a day of healing sleep to knit completely, but for the time being Kamas would not damage it merely by moving around.

“The gates are still closed,” Ashuru reported. “Except for the dead, there is no one but us in the castle…

and Z’Nelia waits for us in the tower.”

They climbed the stairs.

The door to the tower room swung open as they approached.

Lenardo was standing by the window, looking pale and drawn. But he was alive!

Wulfston took a step toward him, crying his name. Z’Nelia stepped out of nowhere, into his path.

Chulaika’s features. His mother’s eyes… burning with madness!

“Welcome, Beast Lord!” she said.

Suddenly his every nerve was aflame with pure pain!

Wulfston screamed, vaguely aware of the screams of his companions.

“Wulfston!”

Lenardo’s voice.

“Wulfston, open to Reading!” the Master Reader gasped.

Their minds met-and although Lenardo did not have his usual power, he showed them that the pain was not real. Had Z’Nelia actually seared their nerves, they would be dead.

As the Seers’ minds joined, the pain eased. Even Barak and Telek broke free.

Z’Nelia cried, “Seers you may be, but I am the greatest Mover of all!”

This time she caused real damage!

With no defenses, Telek fell dead.

Wulfston fought, felt Zanos’ powers joined to his, and Lenardo’s Adept power, small though it was-

“Tadisha! Ashuru! Kamas! Join your Movers’ powers to mine!” he cried.

They did, but against Z’Nelia’s strength, hoarded while they fought their way through her guards, their power was insufficient.

Z’Nelia’s mad laughter floated around them. Wulfston gripped Lenardo’s hand on one side, Tadisha’s on the other. Ashuru grasped Tadisha’s other hand, and the rest joined the circle until Chulaika stood alone with Chaiku, Barak and Kamas reaching toward her-

She thrust her son into the circle and closed it.

Renewed strength flowed around the circle until thunderbolts rained on them, too many to deflect-

Looking across the circle at Zanos, feeling the man’s desperate fury at being defeated in his revenge on the woman who had murdered his wife, Wulfston suddenly remembered Zanos and the burst water bag.

The scene seemed significant-but why?

Then he knew.

“Stop fighting her! Support her !” he gasped through pain. “Feed… energy back to her! Flood her!”

Ashuru stared, but she and Tadisha together joined their strength to Wulfston’s, directing their energy to Z’Nelia as if it were healing power. Lenardo joined them at once, giving what little strength he had.

Kamas did his part, and Barak stood transfixed, maintaining the circle.

Z’Nelia drank in the energy. Their pain diminished as she greedily soaked up the pure power.

Wulfston urged more on her, and his plan began to take effect!

From reveling, Z’Nelia’s feelings turned to faint discomfort, confusion-and then fear as more energy flowed into her!

Chulaika realized what was happening, as did Zanos, and they added their force, Chulaika focusing Chaiku’s power on her twin sister.

The Zionae queen’s nerves seared, her own energy overflowing her control. They broke the circle, reformed it around her, preventing her from casting the energy away.

Z’Nelia fell to her knees, keening in agony. Chaiku stared at her, then up at his mother, terrified to find his mother’s face on this stranger.

The witch-queen’s pain and terror grew. She fell, her body twitching grotesquely.

“Don’t kill her!” Wulfston exclaimed. “We’ve won. Lenardo-Ashuru-?”

It was Ashuru who replied, “She is helpless. There is no need to kill her.”

Ashuru had stopped pouring forth energy to See Z’Nelia. Lenardo was too weak to do more; Wulfston, Tadisha, and Kamas stopped together-

“No!” screamed Zanos. “She must die!”

Zanos and Chulaika refused to stop!

Wulfston turned, intending to knock them unconscious with his greater powers, when the stink of burning flesh filled the small room, and Z’Nelia’s death-screech shocked through their already-battered nerves.

In the white-hot fire of a funeral pyre, Z’Nelia’s body was consumed.

There was silence. Lenardo slumped to the floor.

Wulfston turned on Zanos. “Why?” he demanded.

“She killed Astra,” the gladiator replied. “She had to die.”

“And now this land will be torn apart-” Wulfston began, when suddenly a scream erupted behind him.

He turned, saw Chulaika on the floor, writhing-

He opened to Reading, and with the Seers observed the unimaginable.

Z’Nelia’s spirit was fighting for possession of her twin sister’s body!

Helplessly, the Seers observed as Z’Nelia fought for possession of Chulaika’s body. Equal in determination, neither would give way-until the body, weakened by the long struggle, collapsed.

Chaiku wailed, trying to wake his mother, until Ashuru bent and picked him up, cuddling him with a mother’s instinct while her mind still probed Chulaika’s.

Wulfston Read with them, his own Reading powers barely maintaining the link after he had poured out his Adept energy. He could feel Lenardo, too, only tenuously keeping touch, letting Ashuru and Tadisha search the mind of the woman on the floor, to find out which sister had survived.

Only to discover… both.

Two minds seethed angrily within the one person, but with the body they inhabited unconscious, it appeared that they must wait in frustration for its awakening to continue their contest.

The Seers withdrew, leaving Chulaika unconscious.

Wulfston looked around. The room was small, with a narrow window. No sounds of battle came through it.

A heap of ashes marked Z’Nelia’s physical remains. Telek’s body lay near the door. Wulfston looked for Zanos, wanting to make the man understand what he had done, but the gladiator had gone.

Lenardo sat cross-legged on the floor, struggling not to faint from weakness. Wulfston knelt beside him, lending strength from the last of his reserves. Lenardo looked up gratefully, but as soon as the desire to lapse into unconsciousness passed he put his hand on Wulfston’s arm, shaking his head. “Save your strength. There may be other healing to do.”