S Farrell - Holder of Lightning

The head had a long muzzle, the mouth partially open to reveal twin rows of daggered white teeth. The ears were like a cat’s also, though be-tween them were scales like staggered rows of painted shields; its eye-brows were two fans of spines, meeting above the muzzle and running back over the middle of the skull. The eyes were frighteningly human; the large, expressive eyes of a child, and as Jenna gazed at the statue, the eyes blinked and opened. Though the mouth didn’t move, a low, stentorian voice purred.

"So. Another one comes after all these years."

Jenna could feel the power flooding from the statue; above, the mage-lights curled, visible even in the bright sunlight. The trees of the forest beyond writhed and swayed as if they, too, were alive and capable of pulling roots from ground and capering about. "Who are you?" Jenna asked. Her voice sounded thin and weak in this charged atmosphere.

The eyes blinked once more. A shimmering change rippled through the body from spiny crest to curled-claw feet and when it passed, the thing was no longer painted stone but living flesh. It stretched

like a cat waking from a nap, the wings snapping and sending a rush of wind past Jenna. "I am An Phionos," it said. "I am the First, and you are now in my world."

Its voice was Ennis'.

"Stop that!" Jenna shouted at the creature, and it reared its great head, the mouth curling in a near-laugh, the eyes flashing.

"Ah, my dear Jenna. Do you think you're so strong that you can com-mand my obedience?" it asked with seeming mirth, still with Ennis in-flection and tone. Then the mocking amusement left, along with the memory of Ennis' voice. An Phionos hissed, steam venting from its nos-trils. Mage-lights flickered around it in a bright storm. "Are you stronger than me, Jenna? Do you remember Peria's fate? Do you remember how she screamed as I crushed the life from her? I give you this boon: release Lamh Shabhala now, before it's too late."

Jenna's fisted hand trembled around the cloch.

She could feel An Phionos bending its will to her, insinuating itself into her muscles and prying at her fingers, loosening them. Yet with the intrusion she also caught a glimmer of the entity's mind, and she realized that, despite its fury and insolence, An Phionos didn't actively seek her death. It had no choice as to how it must act. "Why do you do this?" she asked, gasping as she fought to keep hold of the cloch.

An Phionos laughed, a bitter and wild sound. "One should never offend a god," it answered. "Their revenge is swift and eternal, and that's why I sit here forever waiting. You, at least, have a choice-let go of the cloch and live, Jenna, or continue to hold it and die."

"And if I hold it and don't die?"

"That won't happen. But if you do… there are depths within Lamh Shabhala that you have only glimpsed, and the shaping of this entire age could be yours." Again the laugh. "I hope you don't think that's a gift. It would be the greatest burden of all." An Phionos bent down close to her. The scent of rotting meat drifted from its mouth. "Release the cloch, Jenna. I have nothing for you but pain." An Phionos' hold on her hand vanished; it sat back on its haunches again. "Make your choice now."

Jenna glanced wildly about her and An Phionos snorted. "Your friend can’t help you. Look. ." The air shimmered, and for a moment Jenna caught a glimpse of Seancoim, his mouth open in a shout, trying to push forward toward her as the mage-lights threw him back. Then he was gone again. "He doesn’t see what you see. He sees only your struggle, not me." An Phionos’ front paws kneaded the earth, tearing at the limestone. His voice was Ennis’ again, and now Ennis’ eyes gazed down at her from An Phionos’ face, a single tear rising and sliding down a scaled cheek to splash on the rocks. "I don’t want you to die, my love. Don’t do this."

"Stop.’" Jenna screamed again. She raised the cloch, pulling the chain from around her neck and lifting it high. Her fist tightened around it. "Here! Here’s your answer."

An Phionos bared its teeth. The wings spread wide; the claws gouged new furrows in the stone. Mage-lights snapped and shattered around it. Then we begin," it said. It drew in a great breath, pulling in the mage-lights as if they were smoke. Its neck arced, the head reared back and it exhaled in a roar, blinding light rushing from its mouth. Jenna reflexively interposed a wall with Lamh Shabhala; the mage-lights crashed upon it like a furious tidal wave. Jenna stumbled back against the assault, the Pressure of it driving her to her knees as An Phionos vomited forth an lending stream of raw power. Jenna’s hand tightened around Lamh Shabhala, wrenching the cloch fully open. She imagined the wall growing, expanding, pushing back: slowly, she stood. She thought of the wall as a Mirror-smooth lake, reflecting back what came to it as the Banrion’s cloch had done. The wall shifted with the thought and she found herself wielding a weapon as the shield gathered in the energy thrown at her hurled it back at An Phionos. The beast staggered back at the first impact, roaring in wordless pain.

Then it nodded to her, as if in satisfaction. "So it won’t be simple. Good. You would have disappointed me if it had, Holder. After so many years, to be awakened only for a moment. ."

It was pacing now, the scale-armored body striding back and forth before the hoary, vine-laden oaks: fifty feet long without the enormous barbed tail, half again as high to the crown of the head, the wings folded against its back. Then the wings

opened, and a hurricane wind lashed Jenna as it took to the air, rising high above. The mage-lights encircled it like arms, burning like a second sun so that An Phionos was silhouetted against the glare.

Jenna waited for the inevitable attack: fireballs; thunderbolts of bright power; burning thickets of spears and swords; blasts of winds; demons or giants or a flight of angry dragons. None of it came.

The silver bands holding Lamh Shabhala dug into her palm. The land-scape shifted around her again: she floated in a featureless void with An Phionos. The forest, the cliff, the sound of the seas, even the mage-lights-all of them were gone, though she could feel their energy support-ing her. An Phionos swept its wings leisurely, circling slowly around her, and she waved her arms to follow its movement as if swimming in the emptiness.

"It's just the two of us, Jenna," it said, still circling. "That's all it's ever been. The shape of the energy doesn't matter. Each cloch na thintri bonds to its Holder in a different manner, in the form that a long sequence of Holders has worn into it like grooves in a road. Most Holders follow that same path because it's easiest to see and hold to, and that's why the clochs na thintri tend to be used in the same way each time a new cloudmage uses them. Very few have the strength to shape the power of their cloch na thintri in a new way, to give it a new form that might suit them better. It's no different with Lamh Shabhala."

"Are you intending to talk me to death?" Jenna asked.

An Phionos laughed. It stopped, hovering in front of her with slow beats of its leathery wings. "Perhaps. Do you die that easily?"

"No," Jenna answered. "I don't plan on dying at all."

The teeth bared again. "No? Even to be with him?"

Now Ennis stood before her. He smiled, almost shyly, holding out hand. "Jenna," he said. "I wish.

There was so much I wanted to you, just to say one last time that I loved you. ."

She wanted to take that hand, wanted desperately to take him in her arms, to bruise her lips with his kisses. She started to lift her left hand, then forced

it back to her side. She looked at An Phionos, not Ennis. "You can’t seduce me with false images," she told it.

The huge, scaled head lifted. "Not false," it said. "That is Ennis, or the spirit that was once him. I brought him here. He awaits you, Jenna, on the other side of death."