The
mist-things had slid the ground apart quietly above us; as we
climbed, we could see the stars, and the hulking shapes of pillars
blocking out portions of the sky. One of the mist-things waited very
near to the top.
Hold a
moment, here. We intended to needle our enemies from another side in
soon enough; your coming gives us the opportunity to make that same harassment into a diversion for your benefit.
We held,
staring upwards, and heard an echoed sound in the distance. To play
a water glass, you wet a finger and run it smoothly around the edge
of that glass; the sound we heard was as if a whole orchestra had
chosen to change to such instruments, far away. This sound was
almost overwhelmed, though, by the snapping and rushing sounds of a
thousand sets of wings, as the nightkind took flight above, away to
engage their enemy.
We ran,
sprinting towards a pillar with several hives hanging from it. As we
drew close, I could hear Ray behind me, muttering to himself. He was
noting the parts of the pillar we could see, trying to discern from
the details which of his patients this might be. Looking back to
him, though, I saw wings folding back, stooping down towards us. I
drew one of my revolvers, but kept running.
Gina was
bringing up the rear. Before I could shout a warning, she saw my
expression change, and my hands dropping to my guns. She took her own
quick look back. Seeing what she saw, she slid, turned, and stood
facing back. I was skidding to a halt, and Ray shot past me, his own
eyes still locked on the pillar, with a look of dawning comprehension
beginning to cross his face. I had a half-second to realize that my
"skid" to a halt had been literal - I had hammered down
with my feet, and slid to a stop, tearing the grass under me in a
foot-long furrow. Then the things were on us.
I felt
pretty badass, you know; I went into that fight with a pair of
revolvers and a panther-sized cat, and we accounted for three of the
flying things on that pass. Ulla took a a gash to her flank, and I got
one on my shoulder, but we did okay.
Gina turned
on them bare-handed, and was fumbling with her gear when one of them
caught hold of her, lifting her of the ground. She screamed, and
spat some bit of gibberish at it... And the air between them
writhed, the thing flailed, and hit the ground with an unmistakably
metallic noise.
In the
moments while the creatures regained height and turned, presumably
for another run, Gina stared at the one she'd cursed. She kicked it,
heard that odd clanking again, and started to laugh, wild and high,
even as a bloodstain spread across her ribs. I was already running
to grab her, and I could see Ray, having reached the pillar door,
panicking with indecision - sort out an entrance for us, or run back
to us?
"GET
THE GODDAMN DOOR" I screamed at him, and he nodded, fast; he
turned to the pillar and I tuned to Gina, who was standing tall, now
watching the things finish their turn.
Seeing me,
she said only "Oh, coz, it's the elder tongue", and turned
back to watch the things begin their dive, seemingly supreme in her
confidence as she stood tall, in the open and waiting.
As the
things drove down at us, talons outstretched in anticipation, she
began to speak to them. The words she spoke were, in and of
themselves, new to me - sounds I can only transcribe as being like
P'Taghn, Av'u'u'ckta, and similar novelties. Gibberish in the waking
world, certainly, but not there. There, the sounds were electric;
they were alive, incandescent. Hearing them clearly, just as she
spoke them, was like feeling someone unscrew the top of my head and
begin to explore my brain with blazing light and hot irons.
There were
perhaps a dozen of the things when they turned to fall on us. By the
time they reached us, there were four. The others burnt away in
green fire, exploded into strands of milky thread, or simply caved
in, imploding into nonexistence. That didn't stop those four from
taking their pound of flesh from Gina, though; every one of them left
her with some terrible wound as the tore past us. I caught her as
she fell, and ran for where Ray was standing in an open door, a girl
in a dress beside him.
