Serial Saturday: "Clan of Outcasts" Season 3, Part 35: "Bring An End"

 

Part 35

"Bring An End"

The Roque was a scene of blood, bandages, beds and more people and activity than it had seen in a decade.

The shielding runes laid by the Nysir siblings held strong, admitting no one but those in the company of their friends and allies. The Great Hall held row upon row of cots, full of wounded soldiers waiting for Brinley and Tessa to come and tend to them. Injured and disabled soldiers entered, shuttled in with the assistance of Quilla and Nyella, while restored and rejuvenated soldiers took the underground passageway back out to the forest to rejoin the fray.

A thudding sound like a furious hailstorm rattled the roof, and Tessa glanced up warily. "What is that?" she whispered.

Brinley saw the flutter of small, dark wings and heard the ugly croak. A thought from her, and Bronn charged up the stairs with a heavy bark, charging and swiping at the crows that had somehow slipped inside.

"How did they get in?" Tessa demanded, but Brinley could only shrug.
"My guess is that they must have worn down the defenses at the very top of the building, and they can slip through the chinks one at a time, since they're so small."

The lady of the Roque shivered as she finished bandaging a soldier. "If only Polaris were here," she whispered. "I hope he can fend off Mallory and get back in time."

Denahlia stirred and sat up in her bed, ignoring the bursts of odd colors over her vision, and the pain lancing through her arms because of the damage to her implants. "I've got to get out there," she muttered to herself.
Tessa rushed over and stopped her from rising altogether. "You're not going anywhere!" she said. "You haven't fully healed yet."

The former Hunter groaned. Neither Tessa nor Brinley understood the technology so closely integrated with her body. They could clean and patch up wounds, but without electricity, they couldn't restore her implants. She flopped back with a sigh. "At least when the implants were in my eyes, I could still use my body!" she complained.

Out on the rooftop, Seline darted back and forth on her powerful white wings, slashing and batting at the intruding crows. A few had slipped past her reach, but she had no doubt that the others would take care of them. At least these ones weren't turning into vicious armed men as soon as they landed; she figured it must mean that the power to shapeshift resided with Mallory alone, and that without her focus and direction, the crows stayed crows, although they fought with beak and talon as well as they could.

The forces on the battlefield clashed again, but this time, Seline watched as thick walls of ice grew and partitioned off areas of the wide grassy plain, often with enemy soldiers trapped inside. She could sense the magic spells being cast by not just one, but two Mages, further away, perhaps defending the Gate. Thick bolts of lightning ricocheted through enemy soldiers in bright spiderwebbing patterns. Seline drove away scores more of the squawking, dark birds, but their activity had only attracted the attention of more swirling hordes, as the trapped soldiers turned into birds and flew toward the vulnerable Roque.

"Someone help!" Seline called out, willing the request out to any Gifted who could hear her and respond.

The lightning streaked closer to her, but Jaran wouldn't be able to strike at them from a distance. Seline felt dozens of tiny, sharp talons grip the tops of her wings, as fierce beaks pierced the membrane through her protective feathers. She recoiled with a pained cry as the weight of them cost her altitude. She was going to fall down the front of the building, if they kept tugging on her in this way.
"Seline!" Jaran called out from below the Roque. "I'm coming!"

He let out a concentrated burst of lightning, and used the energy as a sort of stepping-stool. It stayed in place long enough to boost him off the ground, and as he released another energy burst in front and higher up, he could step again without falling. In this manner, Jaran made it all the way up to the rooftop, where he could spread his arms wide and dispatch nearly all the crows at once with branches of lightning.

Seline landed with a pained grimace, her wings hanging limp from her shoulder blades.
"Thank you, sire," she said softly.

Jaran's hands crackled, and he glanced down to where he had stood only moments before. "I've had the idea that I could use the lightning to climb stuff before," he mused, "but I've never gotten to test that theory out. I guess I know that it works!"

Seline watched his hands and shoulders spark, and thought about the sparks coming off of Denahlia and her cousin. She seized Jaran's hand. "Good thing you're here," said the Angel. "Because I have an idea." Mentally, she sent a communication up to the man riding the dragon over the battlefield. Markus, report to the Roque immediately. I have something that will help you. And tell Denahlia to come up to the roof as well.

Moments later, Hadrian swooped out of the grey sky and landed on the stones. Markus couldn't climb safely off her back, so Hadrian reached with her foreclaw and gently lifted him to the ground. Denahlia arrived, shuffling slowly with her arm slung limply over Brinley's shoulder.
"What's going on up here?" she asked.

Seline grinned. "I think I have a solution for restoring the implants in both of you to full power." She pointed to Jaran. "I can harness his lightning and send it into you both, which should give you the boost you need." Her fingers played over his palm, and Jaran watched tiny tendrils of light unfurl from his skin, coursing toward Seline like threads being pulled from a tapestry. Seline nodded. "There's enough power here to increase your abilities beyond what they were before."

Denahlia hesitated, as Brinley backed away with a wary glance at the lightning. "You mean, like Jacking?"
Seline shrugged. "Only this time, it won't be something uncontrollable, because it's not exactly a Gift--just augmentation."

Jaran frowned and studied Denahlia closely. "Wait... so you're not Gifted?" he looked between the two cousins. "I thought your super-human sight was a power just like my lightning."
Markus glanced at his cousin and gave her a small nudge. Whether their minds communicated unspoken thoughts, no one else could tell, but Denahlia sighed.
"Your brother knows, so I might as well tell you also. Your Majesty, I have a confession to make. There is a dereliction of my duties as Harbor Watch that I have been hiding from you."

Jaran blinked, and his expression hardened. "What? When? How?"

She bowed her head. "One year after you were crowned King, I was drawn--abducted, really--to another dimension, another world. My homeworld, actually. I found out that it was the place where I was born, and that I had been born without sight. In an effort to correct the issue, they had made special implants for me--but what they didn't know, and I was never fully aware, was that their technology, while distinct from magic, was not quite unsusceptible to its influence. Therefore, when my parents fled that world and came to The Realm, they saw that my implants behaved just like a Gift, and so they never told me any differently, so I grew up thinking that I'd always lived in the Realm, and that the strange thing I could do with my vision was a Gift from Juros' Angels."

"Someone brought you into another system of worlds just to tell you all this?" Jaran asked. His mind spun to think that everything he knew about Denahlia, the Hunter of Outcasts, was not altogether true.

Denahlia shook her head. "The reason I ended up there was for another purpose entirely, but it is of no consequence. What you need to know is that my eye-implants malfunctioned on this other world, and in the process of my recovery, I requested that they change the location of my magic-infused implants to my wrists, and give me non-magical implants for my eyes instead." She raised her hands before her. "That's why I look different, and I use my Gift differently now."

Markus slowly worked his way over to his cousin's side, easing his broken mechanical leg with every step.

Jaran stroked his chin. "You say this happened a year after the coronation?" he considered the implications. "How long were you gone into this other world?"

Denahlia watched his face earnestly. "A year," she confessed. "It took that long for the people hosting me to find a wizard strong and skilled enough to send me back to The Realm."
"A whole year?" Jaran blurted. "But then... that would be about the time you started placing all manner of new and strange devices all around the kingdom, and the White Castle."

Denahlia nodded. "I brought those things back with me. Since my implants had the same source as these things, I knew I could build defenses into every area of the Realm that only I could control. Things fell apart quite a bit while I was gone," she admitted. "And although I have tried to make up for it, they're not quite back to what they once were, and I have no one to blame but myself."

The King nodded solemnly. "At least you have the good sense to take responsibility for the consequences," he said. "I forgive you, and I want you to know I still trust you to do what's best for The Realm."
Denahlia smiled a little, and nodded her head.

Seline gave a little cough. "Are you ready?" she asked the cousins.
Markus stood as straight as he could manage. "Ready!" he said.

Seline prompted Jaran, who strengthened the pulse that the Angel directed into Denahlia's wrists and Markus' injured left side. Both cousins gave sharp grunts of pain, but when Seline released the pulse, they staggered back and panted for breath.
Denahlia recovered first, staring down at her hands, clenching and unclenching them.
"How does it feel?" Jaran asked.

Denahlia ran her finger over the smooth, healed skin where her implants rested in her wrists. "It feels... more..." she whispered.

A flick of her hand produced a glowing holographic gauntlet, and when she clenched her fist, the disc of glowing light grew and expanded to encompass her whole body. "A shield!" Denahlia gasped. "Cool!"

Markus tested out his restored leg, even going so far as to lift his right foot and balance his whole weight on his mechanical side. A quick jog in place to test the response of the joints, and he raised his hand, flexing his arm pistons the way he would to shift into gun mode. Barrels and bullets clicked into place, and Markus fired on a circling crow overhead with pinpoint accuracy. "That's cool!" he gushed.

Denahlia scurried over to the edge of the balcony. "I want to try something," she said quickly, extending her hands and beckoning to something.

The ground rumbled, and the Golem appeared, staring down at Denahlia. She gestured with her hands, and the lights on the Golem's chest flickered and blinked for a moment, then held steady.
Denahlia lifted her right hand. The Golem raised its right hand. When she raised her left hand, the Golem repeated the motion. She waggled her hands back and forth, dancing from foot to foot while sticking her tongue out.
The ground shook even more as the Golem repeated the motion in real time, opening its mouth and roaring so loudly that Markus' aural implants squealed with feedback.

Denahlia grinned and turned back toward the group, holding up her hand to "pause" the Golem. "Check it out!" she gushed. "I can fight with this avatar without even leaving this rooftop!" To prove her point, Denahlia clenched her fist and pounded to the ground, close to where a squadron of Crow soldiers were attempting to infiltrate the Roque's defenses. The Golem's fist crushed them flat.

For his part, Markus sent Hadrian into the air, and used his improved implants to connect with her senses. "This is awesome!" he said. "Now I can see what she sees, and I can tell her where I want her to go!"

Jaran clapped him on the shoulder. "Good! See if she can find Trevon--he disappeared from Gybralltyr City while we were fighting off Mallory, and she's looking for him right now. We want to find him first."
"Yes, your Highness," Markus responded, and Hadrian banked in the sky, swooping in wide arcs over the battlefield.

Denahlia sent the Golem stomping across the swarming troops to find him as well, enjoying the sight of mown-down troops that would allow their allies to get to safety.

"There he is!" Markus cried, as Hadrian came to a stop over a corner of the battlefield close to the side of the island nearer to the cove.
"Hang on," Denahlia grunted, "I'm having a hard time getting Stompy over to you."

"It looks like the White Castle soldiers have him surrounded!" Markus announced. "He's trying to fend them off, but--wait! Hey!"

"Send it to me!" Denahlia left the Golem standing at the side of the battlefield inert, while she received the visual data from her cousin.
"Does that seem wrong to you?" he asked.

Denahlia watched Trevon gesture and freeze two or three soldiers in their tracks, while turning another to stone. Yet another soldier fell victim to writhing, grasping vines exploding from the ground. "Those are different Gifts than the ones he used against us!" she gasped. She looked at Seline. "We thought Mallory had made him into a Shadow... but he's using multiple Gifts! Can he do that?"

Seline's face froze in fear and deep concern. "We never knew the extent of the experiments she ran on him," she murmured. "If it's true, and he has the capacity to use the Gifts of anyone around him... that's not good."
"Oh no!" Markus suddenly flailed wildly with his hands. "We've been spotted. Get out of there, Hadrian!"

A massive rumble shook the mansion, as the gigantic Golem exploded in large chunks of shrapnel and sparking machinery.
Denahlia reeled backward with a cry, collapsing to the floor of the balcony.
"Denahlia!" Markus gasped, dashing toward his cousin.

Jaran stiffened and strode toward the balustrade. "Azelie!" he gasped. "She was almost hit by a piece of machinery. Markus, can you find her?"
Markus left his cousin in the care of Brinley, and sent Hadrian the directions to find the telepathic Queen.
"There she is!" Markus nodded as he and his dragon located her. "She's safe, and staying out of reach of any of the enemy soldiers, sire."

Jaran smiled as he strained, as if he could see Azelie on approach. "She's clever--she can use her Gift to make them forget they've seen her." His smile dimmed. "But she worries that she can't make it to the front of the house without being attacked. The battle is pretty fierce down there."

"Wait! Look!" Denahlia cried, pointing to the forest on the side of the battlefield. "It's moving!"
"Well... I'll be..." Jaran gasped, watching as the trees swayed and groaned as if in a hurricane-force gale, although hardly any wind blew at all. "They're moving the forest!"

Sure enough, on a lower-level cliff beside the Roque, Tristan and Javira stood side by side, shifting whole trees from the forest and transplanting them into the middle of the battlefield, disrupting the fighting and providing additional protection for the mansion. Jaran watched as Javira left off shifting trees to gesture toward the side of the mansion. A double-row of hedges and thorns sprouted up, wide enough for a single person to walk through without touching the sides, but too thick and tall to penetrate from the outside. The path she carved led straight to Azelie, giving the Queen a straight, clear shot toward the mansion's entrance. As Azelie came closer in, Javira closed up the hedge-way behind her, trapping any soldiers who attempted to follow her.

Azelie sighed with relief as she passed through the magic wards and into safety. Nyella and Quilla were among the first to greet her with warm embraces. "Queen Azelie, you made it!" Nyella gushed.

Azelie followed her from the entrance way and into the Great Hall, where she saw Brinley, Raedyn, Velora and Sir Landis, along with a good portion of the White Castle's army--recovering quickly, thanks to the healing skills of the Gifted, but not quite ready to return to fighting, given the extent of their wounds. Bronn trundled back and forth with a basket of warm towels strapped to his back.
There was just one sensation that Azelie felt, whom she did not see. "Where is Zayra?" she asked Velora.

The Alpha pointed to an upper landing, near a window. "She won't leave that spot," she said.
Azelie crept up the stairs to her sister-in-law. "Zayra?" she said softly.

Zayra stared at the battlefield, now littered with ice and trees and machinery from the destroyed Golem. Tears trickled down her face. With a long sigh, Zayra steeled herself, wiped her cheeks, and when she turned to Azelie, her expression had hardened with keen determination that would not be refuted. She drew herself up, the way she had done so many times as Queen, and declared to Azelie, "This fighting has gone on long enough. We have defended against Mallory, only for her to attack us more and more. I'm done simply standing by and resisting."

Azelie reached for her mind, but found no purchase in her thoughts. "What are you going to do?" she asked.

Zayra glided down the stairs with elegance and grace, an unstoppable force in herself, the belt of vials still slung over her shoulder. "I'm going to bring an end to this once and for all!"

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Upstream Updates: Summer 2021

Life Stuff

Wow... Summer went fast. Did it feel fast to anyone else? I felt like I barely had time to think "Wow, the school year is over!" before I blinked and we were gearing up to go back to work again!

That's not to say that I had an uneventful summer, heat wave aside! I welcomed a new niece in July, and she's just the cutest little munchkin! She started out pretty tiny, but is quickly growing into a roly-poly, squishy baby with all sorts of coos and babbles to say!

As far as work goes, I admit I spent the month of August watching my inbox for any kind of sign as to what we might expect for the coming school year, and hoping fervently that it would be more akin to "normal" than it had been in the last... 3 years?? (1 extra year beyond the 2 years of pandemic, because before all of that, we were also dealing with a remodel that very much disrupted at least half, if not more, of the school building!) At this point, all I can say is it's not what anybody expected! 

We're required to mask up inside, but not outside--and on the one hand that means more fresh air, which is a good thing, but on the other hand, it means that at least three people are losing/dropping their mask at just about every single recess, so the school basically ran through their entire stock of on-hand "extra" masks in just the first couple weeks, and now has to resort to a stockpile of disposable masks.... which aren't always the right size for tiny kindergarten faces! In the cafeteria, the school invested in sheets of plexiglass dividing each table into 4 single-person sections, to prevent circulation of germs as students share a table and take their masks off to eat... but the plastic panes extend from the edge of each table by a couple inches, which makes it difficult to navigate a full cafeteria effectively, and the chatty kids are still ducking their heads underneath the panes to talk to one another, while the messy kids are flicking food and milk on the plexiglass panes... Staffing shortages are an issue too, as we've had several staff members who took jobs at other schools, or resigned, and so there are unfilled "holes" for which there may or may not be a substitute ready to jump in and work. We're trying our best to make the most of it, but man the stress level is high this year!

On a more positive note, I started a new Bible study with my mom and some ladies from her church, and I joined a church group with the church I'm attending, so my days are pretty full!

I did have a pretty eventful summer, if the totals below are any indication! I've kept right on writing nearly every day, adding another 100+ days to the total count, and on September 14th, I logged my 500th straight day of writing! You'd think I'd at least have something finished to show for it... but I suppose, in a way, I do: series like "Priscilla Sum", a whole draft of The Last Inkweaver, and all but the last little bit of "Clan of Outcasts" and the first draft of a brand-new book Fugitive of Crossway--so I suppose in a way there was lots that I accomplished! There's still more to do, though... so here's to another 100 days!

Words Written:
June—26,005
July—25,958
August—26,910

Books Read: 34/40

Now onto the nuts-and-bolts of the updates!

Writing

Current WIP: Fugitive of Crossway

This draft is shaping up nicely! I am working on the final chapter now, and I just have the epilogue to go. What a journey this has been! First developing a story entirely from scratch, then realizing that it was actually two stories--Mellisande's and Simon's--that I had to somehow weave together without losing momentum for either, and now as I'm looking back over how far I've come, I am pretty certain that I've managed to hit all the "high points" that I wanted to include in the story... and once it's finished, I'll be going back over it to do the same thing, but better!

I will definitely say that this story is going to have several more significant main characters than I had worked with in Princess of Undersea. In that first book, I could mainly focus on Ylaine, because everything was from her point of view, and Nathan, because his story was important to hers as well. Anyone who didn't have direct contact with either of those two wasn't really vital and so the story could stay fairly well condensed and focused on just the antics of a human and a Mermaid trying to navigate their prescribed social roles.
In Fugitive, I have at least four main characters: Simon, Yssandra, Mellisande, and Nykkola. Therefore the number of characters who have direct significance for each of those four is compounded, plus I needed a wider landscape to scatter them into.

More places, more events, more story... all of that added up to a much longer book than I could ever make Princess of Undersea into, and I've got to pare that down, figure out which scenes are useful to have all played out as the "key beats" of the story, and which are just brief stops along the way, and can be glossed over, or summarized in retrospect. There is something to be said for giving both sides of the story equal "page time", as it were, and not emphasizing one side more than another... Although, now that I'm thinking about it, I do kind of gloss over big chunks of Mellisande's story, and it still makes sense... Perhaps if I could simplify Simon's side in the same way, and kind of pick out the big moments for him, maybe it wouldn't take so long to get through both narratives.

Anyway, once I finish the draft, I think I'm going to go back and re-tool the two short stories that are going along with this one, namely the ones I wrote a while back for the A-to-Z Challenge, "Yet You Are Young" and possibly "Unlucky Urcellus" as well. The reasoning is that first of all, there is more that I wanted to add to "Yet You are Young" which I didn't at the time, and second... I couldn't help noticing how the third Undersea story I wrote back then, "Gondu's Gamble", seemed to confuse a lot of readers, since I really left a lot of the wording the same, so it really comes across as a rather slapdash, shoe-horned narrative than an actual short story. I won't make that same mistake again!

Also, if you're reading this, but you haven't followed me on social media yet, I should let you know that you're probably missing out! All month long (September), on a whim, I decided to create a post for every day this last month, to share different fun facts and sneak-peeks at both Princess of Undersea and the forthcoming Fugitive of Crossway. Fourteen fun facts plus an interactive game from each, making a total of 30 posts! I have to say, it's a neat marketing tool to have on hand now.

All in all, I've had a lot of fun with re-tooling Pinocchio, but it'll be even more fun to get on with the last two books and get back to actually re-telling a fairy tale again! Wish me luck for the rewrites and editing--I can already tell the job is going to be a doozy!

Blog serial: Clan of Outcasts Season 3

Speaking of a doozy... I'm calling it. This "season" of this never-ending tale is nothing short of a behemoth! I am well over 150K, and I have only just now reached the penultimate moment in the story! By comparison, the previous "seasons" combined clocked in at less than 100K. Basically, I'm almost doubling the word count.

Again, I think it speaks to the way I tend to start out with a story focusing intently on a handful of characters and limiting my world-building to "just the basics", such as the way I limited the realm to just the four "cardinal" locations: Wilderness, Castle, Harbor, and Forest. 

For Season 3, I added a pirate ship as a location, a ruined city and a secluded mansion both situated on a faraway island, I turned the Wilderness into an actual settlement called "Wildhaven".... and just like I was explaining above with Fugitive, I also had the audacity to add to this story with its already-loaded cast a host of new characters, introducing some of them in flashbacks of the last 3 years between the end of last "season" and the start of this one, and bringing aboard others in fresh and exciting ways.

I think that's been my favorite part of this serial story, is revisiting old characters in new ways, exploring their development even farther than before, expanding the world beyond the boundaries of The Realm... It's been so much fun, but I'm excited to see it end. And I mean it this time! After this, I don't think I have another loose end, another way to drag everybody into some kind of peril all over again. (Of course, I'm just going to leave this here for posterity in case I've just jinxed myself and I come back in three years with an even BIGGER caper!) At this point, the way things are planned out, the characters reach a healthy conclusion, the resolution doesn't leave anything very much undone, and I am pretty sure I'll be able to finish it over the month of October, which is great because after October, of course, comes...

NANOWRIMO (or as the laypeople call it, November)

Yep, yours truly is a glutton for writing projects, it would seem.

You would think I'd have learned. Last year I used NaNo as a launch-pad to get me rolling on Fugitive and it carried me through fairly well, I might add. I could have passed it by this year, too, since I've got other projects and things, and I didn't actually want to start Book 3 yet until I had a better handle on Book 2, which would definitely not be enough to warrant my 50K goal.

Made by me on Canva!

Instead, after I wrap on "Clan of Outcasts", I'm going to start plotting out an older story that I've been meaning to go back and rewrite. In fact, it was the first non-fanfiction story I ever attempted in earnest. I've actually excerpted it a few times already on this blog... now it's getting a re-boot: Fairies Under Glass! I even made a mock cover for it! 

I decided that I might have an easier time refining the story if I wrote it more like a blog serial, so that's what I'll be doing! Here's hoping I can get planning on it, so that when the time comes, I'll be able to present it in a consistent manner. Who knows how much things will change (I'm most definitely changing some character names!) when I start making notes and whatnot? I am excited to go back to this story that was really foundational in letting my imagination run wild, and applying all that I've learned about character development, pacing, and plot in the years since then!

So yeah, there's heaps of motivation to get things cracking over the rest of this month! As for what I'm going to be posting over the month of November... well, that just depends on what stage I'm at, I suppose.

Special Announcement: Return of the Blog Hops!

I suppose now is a good time to let you all know that starting in November, I'll be participating in a blog hop that will hopefully run one week a month, with the same group I've done hops with before--it's going to be lots of fun participating in these hops again! Look for those posts in a couple weeks!

Reading

Whew!! Going from 20 books to 34 in a single summer is quite the feat! I think it helped that a couple of the titles were a short story and a novelette... and I should qualify that to say that it was more like 11, because 3 of the titles in that count were from the month of September--but still! Not too shabby!

Starting in June, after the last update, I did indeed manage to finish One Word Kill by Mark Lawrence and found it fantastic! Definitely some good Stranger Things vibes, time travel, these things like "prophecies" or "predictions"... good times! A change of pace from his usual grimdark fantasy fare, but still magnificent nonetheless!

Through July and August, I managed an average of 5 books a month, which was cool. I even made a few trips to the library, as you can see by the pictures of my nightstand! It was nice to browse the bookshelves again, and that was how I was able to pick up books from series I've already started, such as Dead Beat by Jim Butcher (Yay, reanimated zombie T-Rex!!), Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman (give me ALL the dragons!!), and U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton (Only 4 books left in the ABC Mystery series!). 

Not only that, but I also picked up books from new (to me) authors such as Ruth Ware's The Death of Mrs. Westaway (recommended by a friend who loves whodunnits, and I have concluded that we have similar tastes, although our reading habits might differ!), and R. L. LaFever's Theodosia and The Serpents of Chaos (It's Dresden Files for kids!!). Rounding that off with Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater, the first book in a new trilogy that focuses on the three Lynch brothers from her best-selling Raven Boys Cycle--such an awesome summer of reading, I must say!

I also read four different indie titles, for which I posted Reader's Reviews. I've hyperlinked each of the following titles, so if you want to read my review, in case any of them sound interesting, you can definitely do that! First off was Speaker of Words by E. G. Stone, an author and book blogger who was kind enough to review Princess of Undersea on her blog, so I took this opportunity to return the favor! The next book I read to review was Find Me If You Can by Kelly Blanchard. I've officially started "Phase 3" of The Chronicles of Lorrek, and I honestly can't believe what's happening right now! You'll just have to read the review to know more.
The final books I read to review were the really short ones I mentioned earlier. Gutshot: The Catastrophe and Vulnerable serve as prequels of sorts to the Red Dog Conspiracy series by Patricia Loofbourrow, with the former giving the backstory all the way back to the cataclysm that made the world the way it is in her "alternate history future" that is the setting for the series, and the latter telling of one very important character's arrival in the future-noir city. Very cool to read, especially after a reader is immersed in the fantastic world of the series, and already familiar with a lot of the characters and world-building details.

As you can see from the picture, I still have a few books more waiting on my nightstand: Pendragon by D. J. MacHale (which I meant to read sooner, but didn't...), The Hollow by Agatha Christie (a Poirot book I haven't read yet? le gasp!!), and Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith (and I had no idea there was yet another Cormoran Strike novel!). The others I've already read or started (as in the case of Conjuror by John and Carole Barrowman, after the whole mess of confusion I went through trying to start the Orion Chronicles last year...) and I'll tell you what I think of them in my next Upstream Update!

That's all for now, and until next time--

Catch You Further Upstream!

Serial Saturday: "Clan of Outcasts" Season 3, Part 34: "Turning Fates"

Part 34

"Turning Fates"

The dense shadows coalesced into the form of a thick and tall man dressed in black leather. He wore the darkness like a cape trailing behind him. The temple was a broad space, but there was no missing the pile of scaly flesh amid the rubble of the damaged roof. The wings draped limp and useless, while a massive stone rested upon her right foreclaw, crushing it.

He reached for her mind, but found it closed off, absent, or somehow detached.
He stood on the wreckage of a balcony just above the injured dragon. He could see her skin flinching, but she gave no other indication that she yet lived. Clearly the dragon had suffered too many injuries in her fall.

Trevon sighed. “Oh well,” he murmured thickly. “If I cannot use you, then I don’t see any use for you.”
He stretched out a hand, reaching toward her with tendrils of Shadow that would bind her fast while he drained her of her life’s energy. He hardly noticed the bent, withered figure rising up from against the base of the nearest sculpture.

“STOP!” Thundered the voice, and Trevon felt the ground give way under his feet. The blast of brilliant blue magic sent him skidding backwards over the rubble. He caught himself with a cushion of shadow and curled his lip.

Out of my way, old man, thought Trevon, reaching his hand out in a sweeping motion.

The man stumbled a little, but he dug the end of his staff into the ground before him, and held against the telepathic force.
“You have no quarrel here,” the wizard said softly.

Trevon curled his lip; what did he know? He reached out again for the dragon’s mind, and once more he found his efforts rebuffed by a wall of blue shielding magic.
Fine, Trevon thought to himself. If the fool won’t be moved, I’ll just move the ground he stands on!

The Crow Prince gestured with his hands, and a torrential wind blew through the gaps in the masonry, carrying small pebbles with it. They swirled around the combatants, threatening to puncture or shred at the slightest twitch.

The wizened mage held Trevon’s gaze and merely sat down on the rock beside the dragon. He waited till the wind died down, and wagged his head.
“This is not your fight, son,” he said softly. “Why do you cling so ardently to the ambitions of another? Has she told you that you will have partial rulership at her side? Perhaps she has promised you a portion of the world to do with as you please… or that she would use her eventual power to restore all that you have lost.”

This time, Trevon had the sense not to telegraph what he was about to do. He flexed his hands and fireballs appeared. He didn’t launch them at the lonely Mage, but laid the flames around the perimeter of their space, illuminating it fully. He looked around as other things came into view: Angel statues flanking the walls, their forms weathered and twisted in postures of despair and agony. Trevon scowled and lashed out with his shadows, finding purchase at last as they clung to the Mage’s robes and yanked the staff out of the old man’s hand. The blackness crept upward, but the Mage didn’t strike back.

“What is the meaning of this?” Hissed a cold voice overhead.

Borne on black wings sprouting from her shoulders, Crow Queen Mallory glided into the space, frowning at her adopted brother. “Trevon, I’ve been searching for you everywhere! Why did you just—“ 

She stopped speaking when she saw the massive shape taking up most of the room. “Oh, so this is where the dragon ended up! And…”She frowned at the new face currently entangled in shadows. “Who are you?”
The Mage gripped his staff and engaged his will in keeping the shadows back. “I am the one who has been waiting for you, child.”

“I am nobody’s child!” Mallory snarled, lashing out with magic of her own. The ground quaked beneath them, and lightning pounded the rubble all around them.

“Step aside, old man!” Mallory commanded. “You’re in my way, and I am very willing to kill you if necessary.”

The Mage stroked his stubbled chin and smiled. “I think you’ll find that I am notoriously hard to kill.” He raised the staff, speaking words of power to unleash a brilliant blue light. It slid right over the black shadows, crackling like lightning—until Mallory beckoned with her hand, and all that glowing magic congealed and joined together, in a round, flickering orb of light. She let it collect and hover over her hand, and then when she clenched her fist, it disappeared.
Mallory wagged her head. “I see you have much to learn, doddering fool,” she spat, waving toward him.

Now it was the Mage’s turn to buckle under the telekinetic pressure. He collapsed against Erlis’s side with a cry.
Mallory’s gaze shifted to the towering man at her side. “Well done finding the Gate,” she gestured to a recessed portion of the cliff in front of them. “If only you hadn’t let the Key get away!”

Trevon wordlessly raised his hands.
The Mage gave a wheezing, coughing giggle.

Mallory sneered at him. “What’s so funny?”

He wagged his head, speaking softly between gasps. “The ineffability of prophecy,” he said, gazing around at the solemn Angel statues poised to watch the scene unfolding.
Mallory and Trevon shared a glance. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.

The Mage said nothing, only lifted his eyes to at the stone Angels extending their arms overhead.
Queen Mallory rolled her eyes. “I don’t have time for your nonsense, you relic!” She held her hand toward him, snatching at the air.

The Mage’s body froze, levitating off the ground a few inches.
A host of new arrivals closed in on their position.

“Korsan!” someone cried, and Mallory felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise as the air crackled with electricity. She dropped the choking Mage and turned to face these new threats.

A second Mage lobbed flurries of purple Darklight toward the pair. Mallory ducked an attack of hailstones as she engaged a heavily-armed commander with more of her telekinetic tricks, twisting the redheaded soldier's weapons and pinching the plates of her armor. A fiery shape screamed toward her, and Mallory didn't have time to defend herself--but at the last moment, a wall of black shadow engulfed her, and Trevon materialized at her side.

Mallory frowned at him. "I thought I told you to get out of here," she said. "Never mind, I'll go after the Key; you stay here and finish them off!"

Trevon looked down at her, a strange hesitation flickering across his normally blank expression. Mallory almost asked him why he hesitated, but just then his telepathic voice posed a question in her mind that she'd never heard him utter before: Why?

Mallory took off into the air, searching for a more advantageous position as the Gifted defenders swarmed around the fallen dragon, shifting the rubble off her battered body and forming a protective shield around it.

"Don't question me!" She snarled at Trevon. "Just get rid of them!" She signaled her airborne forces, and a whole host of black birds converged in the grey sky overhead. "Fight for me!" Mallory commanded, and the crows became soldiers ready to throw themselves at the attackers.

Damaris tossed fireballs at the oncoming soldiers with one hand, while he flourished a whipping tail of flame with his longstaff. As he sent a row of soldiers screaming an beating out the flames in the feathers around their collars, he heard voice whisper "Damaris..."

He turned around, but the only people behind him were Azelie, Nyella, and Jaran, fending off the invaders still in crow form from the damaged dragon.
He directed his thoughts to the Queen. Azelie, did you call me?
Her reply was direct and short. I'm a little busy right now, Damaris. Try not to disrupt my focus!

Damaris... There it was again! This time, he recognized the voice and made his way through the skirmishing stories to reach the source. Erlis, I'm here, he thought in return. What do you need?
She directed him toward her right foreclaw, the one that had been crushed by the rock.

"Damaris!" Rysin roared behind him. "Get out of the way! Master Korsan and I are laying down an impenetrable protection spell, and nothing or no one will be able to get in or out!"

Damaris glimpsed something glinting among the twisted claws. "Just give me a minute!"
"Go now, Damaris!" Korsan roared, as the swirling blue and purple magic combined into a wall around Erlis.

Damaris slipped his pickpocket hands in between the claws and gripped the shining thing in a hurry, tucking it into his tunic as he dashed over the growing barrier. In the time it took to regain his balance, the barrier sealed with a sonic explosion. Damaris looked at the thing in his hand: a large pendant hanging on a gold chain. The Key! A shiver ran down his spine as he realized that this thing he held was the same artifact that had rendered Zayra invisible for several days. More than that, this pendant apparently unlocked the fabled Gate somewhere in the cliffside, offering the mortal world direct access to Justicia, the domain of Juros.

Damaris lifted his head, at once honing his pickpocket skills to weave his way between murderous soldiers and warring Gifted to a quiet edge of the vicinity. Lucky for them all, he knew exactly who to give this Key to, and keep it from falling into Mallory's clutches.

Damaris dashed out to the high point at the middle of the city, climbed up the highest point he could reach, and used the flame on the end of his longstaff to send up a signal.
Kaidan!
What is it, Damaris?
I need you to send word to Markus. Tell him to scan the battlefield and find Sir Roger.
Why are you looking for Sir Roger?

Damaris smiled and began working his way back down to the ground, ready to depart in any direction at a moment's notice. I have something to give him.
I'll see what I can do, answered the former Historian.

Minutes later, Damaris saw Hadrian swooping low over the edge of the city, and curving back toward the battlefield, where fresh soldiers replaced their fallen comrades by the dozen. Damaris used his flame to signal her, and Hadrian answered with a jet of her own, pointing east of his position. Damaris took off in that direction, surrounding himself with a ring of flame to shield himself as he barreled over the scorched grass and the blood-soaked mud. A detachment of White Castle Knights had surrounded a group of crow soldiers. Surely Sir Roger must be among them!

Damaris felt his sense of balance shift mid-stride. When he righted himself, he wasn't on the battlefield anymore. A wide tunnel yawned in front of him--but he was still going too fast to stop. He caught his foot on a protruding root and tumbled headlong into the darkness.
"Sorry about the stumble," said a voice from the darkness.

Damaris brushed the soil from his hair and his clothes, and quickly checked his hand to make sure that the Key was still there.

Polaris fairly glowed in the absence of natural light.

"Thanks for nothing!" Damaris grumbled, folding his arms and slumping against a root system hanging overhead.
Polaris shrugged and pointed to his hand. "What do you have there?"
Damaris held up the gleaming pendant, causing Polaris to recoil.
"How did you get that?"

The young Phoenix shrugged and told Polaris all about what went down in Gybralltyr. "Erlis is protected now, and the others are fighting back the soldiers. I don't know where Trevon went to, but Mallory herself is fighting there as well." He fiddled with the gold chain between his fingers. "Erlis told me Zayra had handed the pendant off to her while she flew over the battlefield, and she wanted me to take it before no one would have access to her."

"Why in the world would you be carrying that thing so openly through hostile territory?" the Shadow demanded.

"I wasn't carrying it openly," Damaris protested. "And, if you must know, I was taking it to Sir Roger--I mean, Juros. He should be the one to have it. Mallory wouldn't dare try to take it from him. Now, bring me back to where he is!"

Polaris shook his head. "That Key is vulnerable out on the battlefield, no matter who is carrying it. You've gotten it out of Gybralltyr, and that is good. I want to ensure that it never goes anywhere near that city again. Come follow me. This passage leads to The Roque. It would be the safest place for the Key right now."
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

In the wide field between the city and the isolated Roque, there seemed to be no end to the carnage. Every soldier the Gifted struck down could be raised by Mallory as a bird, and restored to a whole human again by sheer force of her will. As they dropped from exhaustion, she brought more birds into the area, and transformed those, ready to devote themselves to the cause she instilled within them. She kept them intent on one goal: Kill the Gifted. Loot the bodies. Retrieve the Key. Kill. Loot. Retrieve. It kept things simple that way, she didn't have to worry about strategy or defenses. She could set them in motion and concentrate on other things.

Such as where the blazes Trevon had gone. And why he had suddenly questioned her, out of the blue.
"Dammit, Trevon," she muttered as she stalked through the battlefield, heedless of the constant surge of soldiers and crows happening all around her. "Where are you?"

In her agitation, she bypassed several pockets of fallen soldiers, and unlike their compatriots, these remained dead and injured where they fell. A thick swirling mass of crows circled and screamed overhead, waiting their turn to land and follow the standing directive of Kill. Loot. Retrieve... But no such change occurred, and ever so slowly, things started to shift in favor of the Gifted forces and their allies.

In the ruined city, the Gifted fighters ensured that all those who were fighting against them had been subdued, and Erlis was secure to begin the healing process, whereupon she needed only to find the rune sequence Korsan had implanted in her mind, and she would be free to rejoin her friends.
Risyn sent out a spell that confused the sense of direction in the nearest soldiers, causing them to run the opposite way they intended, and stop in their tracks when their every effort resulted in even more disorientation.
Jaran drew the enchanted knife and called out, "Polaris!"

The star-bound Shadow appeared at once. "Yes, your Majesty," he said with a nod of his ethereal head.
Jaran gestured to his wife huddling near his side. "Get Azelie to safety. Now that Erlis is secure, she's too vulnerable, and she cannot hear the thoughts of Queen Mallory's forces anyway."

Azelie gripped her husband's hand. "Wait! That's not strictly true!" She looked up at him. "I can hear some of them now!"

Beren joined his brother, panting heavily after the exertion of pushing large waves around. "She can what now?"

Azelie pointed to a handful of black-garbed soldiers who had stopped striking wantonly, and now looked around at the mass of confusion as if realizing their situation for the first time. "Those men! I couldn't hear anyone under Mallory's control, because her influence is so complete and overbearing... but there is something different about these ones."

Jaran considered the implications. "Her control must be slipping! Risyn, can you bind those men to remove them from combat?"

Risyn played his collection of runes through his fingers. "I might be able to," he said. "But no matter what I try, all Mallory would have to do is wave her hand, and they'd be right back under."

Azelie had stood rooted to the spot, an expression of intense concentration on her face. "Not if I keep turning their minds," she said at last. "I can keep them distracted so her influence can't take hold."

Jaran laid a tender hand on his wife's shoulder. "Can you do this from the safety of The Roque?"
Azelie nodded. "I will still be able to see the battlefield from there, and that's really all I need."

Beren sighed with relief. "Well! This is a new development--if we can just turn them, maybe we don't have to kill them to remove them from Mallory's influence!"

Jaran nodded in agreement, and when he turned to check with his wife--Azelie had wandered farther away from them, and a new unit of Crow Soldiers had just descended on the field in front of them!

"Azelie!" Jaran shouted, but the screams of the angry soldiers drowned out his voice. He saw her briefly once more, a pale silver glimpse in a sea of black leather and feathers, and she was gone.
Jaran gripped the enchanted knife harder, pulling Polaris closer to him. "Stay with her!" he begged. "Do not let any harm come to her!"

I'm all right for now, her reassuring whisper reached the minds of her friends. There is something else we should know about these soldiers that aren't as trapped in Mallory's control, Azelie continued. From what I can observe, they are Gifted, just like us.

Jaran started. "She has Gifted soldiers fighting for her? Don't they know they're fighting against Juros?"
I cannot tell if they know while they're under her spells, Azelie answered, But I do know that the ones with stronger Gifts are more apt to fight, since they are more of an asset to her. But their Gifts also mean that once her sway is broken, their psyche recovers faster.

Polaris nodded. "She's right--I can sense all those who are Gifted on the battlefield, both our allies, and our enemies."

"How does that help us?" Risyn asked. "We don't want to call out our Angel to just Gift all the soldiers--that would make them even more dangerous!"

Jaran glanced at the ghostly Knight beside him. "But we have a Shadow," he said. "What can Shadows do for the Gifted?"

Polaris tilted his head. "My ability is Jacking--I can alter the strength of the Gift." He lifted a finger as inspiration struck. "I don't want to make them even more powerful than they already are, but I can sap their strength until the Gift is completely nullified, rendering them almost impotent."
Beren snorted. "I imagine they won't be so keen to fight, then, which would make them almost useless to Mallory."

Jaran nodded to the indentured Knight. "Do that, for all our sakes. If we succeed in discouraging more and more of her forces, it may reduce the threat so that the only one she has to fight against us is herself!"

"Let's go, then!" Edri roared, bounding into her lion form with a ferocious roar. Soldiers scattered, standing stiffly in a terrified group while the Lion of The Realm prowled about.

Beren made his way over to where Anahita called down a torrential downpour over the heads of a group of soldiers, reducing visibility to almost nothing.

She looked up at his approach, and he nodded in approval. "Not bad," he said. "Now, would you like to learn how to construct a wall of solid ice?"
The water-dancer's eyes lit up. "Teach me, please!"

As the sun coasted across the sky, more and more soldiers found themselves in a state of confusion as they began to question why they were fighting, and why the battlefield was suddenly sectioned off by walls of ice twenty feet high and two feet thick.

The Gifted allies felt the strength of their hope returning. Victory was in sight, at last!

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