Allan Cole - The Gods Awaken

"More light!" she shouted to the others.

And she charged through the opening, sprinting toward the place where she'd caught a brief glimpse of Palimak's pale face.

As she ran she heard Biner bellow orders. More torches arced into the cavern. Spears of light crashed against the floor, scattering flame in every direction so that the chamber became like a night sky lit by a meteor swarm.

Ungodly screams came from all around her, as if she'd burst into a nest of banshees.

She collided with a massive body, struck out blindly with her sword. An exploding torch revealed a horrible figure towering over her. As her sword bit into flesh she had time to realize that the creature was cowering in agony.

Warm fluid splashed her arms then she stepped around the creature and kept on running-dodging or slashing at any shadow that got in her way. The images revealed by the hurled torches seemed jerky, unreal, as light gouted, then died, then gouted again.

A smaller shadow loomed up and a stab of light came just in time for her to stay her hand: she saw Palimak-eyes wild, sword stained with gore.

"Leiria!" he cried, voice full of relief.

She leaped to his side, whirling to see a shadow army of shrieking beasts advancing on them. From far across the chamber she heard Biner bellow his war cry, followed by sounds of fighting. The others had joined the battle.

"They fear light!" Palimak shouted, at the same time dodging a huge claw striking out at him from the darkness.

Leiria lopped at the claw, sharp sword cutting through flesh and bone. And she heard a satisfying howl of pain.

"All I need is a little time," Palimak cried out, "and I can stop them!"

Knowing he meant to cast a spell, Leiria tried to give him the time he needed, chopping and thrusting in every direction. But there were too many of the creatures and after a moment Palimak broke off his efforts and joined her in the fight.

Even so, the fight was clearly turning against the Kyranians. She could hear Biner and the others trying to fight their way through. But her limbs grew weary and each blow seemed to have less effect. The torches were all guttering out and the chamber seemed to grow darker and more deadly by the minute.

Then she heard a wild ululation and a tall, slender figure vaulted over a knot of beasts.

There was a blast of light and the creatures howled, shrinking back. Leiria had time to see a shattered pot of burning pitch on the floor.

The light from the fire dazzled her for a moment, but as the flames died-too quickly! too quickly! — she saw that it was Jooli who had vaulted to their side.

She'd found a pike somewhere and was jabbing at the beasts in the guttering light as they recovered and pressed forward for the kill, mad with pain and hatred.

Jooli leaped up beside her, then turned, her shrill ululating war cry sweeping away Leiria's weariness.

The two of them attacked the beasts full force and it was if they had been a fighting team for years, instead of only a few minutes.

Jooli's pike would thrust at a creature, running it through to the backbone. While at the same time Leiria's sword would slash and cut at any who dared the defensive gap Jooli's attack would leave open.

Then Leiria would dance forward, doing awful damage with her sword, Jooli at her back, lancing pike giving Leiria the room she needed to maneuver.

Even greater damage was done when they would fall back, the creatures surging forward to take them.

Their very numbers making them easy targets for the steel snake-like strikes of sword and pike from the two warrior women.

Still, the numbers were so unequal that Leiria knew they couldn't last much longer. And she could tell from Biner's shouts and the sounds of fighting across the chamber that his attack was stalled.

Just then she heard a dry crack! and a cry of alarm from Jooli.

Leiria glanced to the side, but in the stormy twilight of the chamber she couldn't see what had happened.

All she knew was that suddenly she was ringed by snarling beasts, talons reaching out to take her.

Leiria struck at a shadowy claw, felt the blade bite, then she was flung back, her sword swept away.

Stone steps cut into her backbone as she fell, knocking her breath away.

And she sprawled there helpless, without even enough fight remaining to kick and bite and claw with her nails.

Two enormous red eyes loomed over her. She saw the glint of long fangs reaching for her throat.

Her mind raged in fighting fury. But she didn't even have breath enough to curse her enemy before she died.

Just then she heard Palimak shout: "Light!"

And suddenly a hot white light seared into being.

It was so bright, so blinding, that Leiria wasn't sure whether she'd been saved, or if she had been killed and her ghost was seeing the fiery entrance to the Hells.

Light delivered victory, but it came at a terrible price.

The creatures, with their pale, death-worm skins, cowered on the floor of the vast chamber. Their howls of agony from the light were so intense that even Leiria, the most battle-hardened of soldiers, was moved by pity.

They were like flies in a cruel boy's insect collection-pierced through with needles of light. Pinned to the floor, their immense wings flapping feebly as they circled those impaling shafts on all fours, shrieking in pain and begging for mercy.

After Leiria had recovered she clambered to her feet and saw Jooli rising from the place where she had fallen-tossing away her broken pike. Blood leaked from a shallow arm wound where a talon had caught her.

About twenty feet away she saw Biner, surrounded by the other members of the Kyranian party, transfixed by the sight of the groaning monsters. The Kyranians were covered with blood, but when they unfroze from the shock and started to move Leiria sighed in relief when she realized that little of the blood was their own.

Biner came up to her, shaking his big head. "What do we do with them, lass?" he asked. "Make them prisoners?"

Before she could form an answer out of the chaotic thoughts and feelings racing through her mind, Palimak stepped down from what Leiria realized for the first time was a dais.

Behind him she saw the great coffin sitting on the platform-the mighty sarcophagus that was also the source of all that brightness. For out of its open lid spilled a blazing river of light, filling every nook and cranny of the chamber with an intensity that forbade the existence of even the smallest shadow.

The coffin light framed Palimak, silhouetting him larger than life. As intense as that light was, Leiria could see his eyes huge and glowing with magical fires. She saw the long talons arcing out from his fingers. And when he opened his mouth to speak she shivered at the sharp teeth he revealed-almost like fangs.

His ears seemed to have points that were more pronounced than normal. And his pale skin appeared more translucent than usual, with a green cast just beneath the surface. It was as if, she thought, another Palimak were ready to burst through. His demon side. Which was a Palimak she wasn't so certain she wanted to know.

And then she thought, No, it is a trick of the magical light. He's still my little Palimak. My dear little Palimak. The strange child I carried away from Zanzair on horseback. Chortling the first rude words taught to him by Gundara and Gundaree, "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

He had been still oblivious to the fact that his mother, Nerisa, had just been killed by Iraj Protarus. Or that Iraj and his soldiers were hunting him now, bent on putting Safar, Leiria and the child to the sword.

Palimak turned to her, blazing eyes commanding. But when he spoke, his voice was a soft, almost mournful, counterpoint.