Page 54 of The Stolen Throne
“Goddess help us.” Cain is beside me now, watching over my shoulder. “There’s not enough water or I’d—”
An unnatural blast of wind that has to be coming from a Hylorae in our camp howls over the dunes, knocking several Wanderers to the ground and sending unanchored tents and siding and poles rolling haphazardly away. The Elimination digs its talons into the sand and leans into the winds. Parts of him blow away. I can see the dust rise off him like fine, dry mist on the air.
How in the name of Nova did this thing survive in the oceans for so long? The thing should melt away in the water.
Even as I ask myself that, the Elimination reforms and rears back, bringing its front paws up. When it brings them down, the sandy body shifts and morphs into horse’s hooves, which it uses to trample another swath of tents with deadly intent.
It’s a shapeshifter.
That answers the ocean question. It must morph into something that can swim and breathe underwater.
“I’m going to try something!” I shout over my shoulder.
“Don’t—”
Focused on what I’m about to do, I ignore him and ignite my power, bringing it sizzling forward.
I haven’t done anything this big since fighting Eidolon. I hope with all the powers of the underworld and the Allusian heavens combined that I can.
Just one small piece. I’ll try to affect one small thing on the Elimination, and if it doesn’t work, then Cain’s right and goddess help us all.
Please, goddess, hear me. If one of you is in my amulet, I need your strength.
The amulet is already warm against my skin, but it does nothing. Maybe she didn’t hear me. Or maybe she’s not there at all. I don’t have time to work that out.
Instead, I center all my attention on a small part of the Elimination, something it hopefully won’t notice. I send my will through my power to all the tiny grains that make up this beast and picture the tip of its wolf tail still as stone.
Suddenly, the Elimination’s tail appears to be caught in the air, as though something snatched it. The tip doesn’t move, but the rest of the tail keeps trying and is swinging and yanking more and more wildly. I release it with a gasp just as the Elimination bends its body around to look at itself.
I stifle a giddy screech. It worked.
The question is, can I do that to the entire thing? Something so huge? It might wipe me out, but that’s worth the risk.
“Meren, what are you doing!”
Reven suddenly skids to a stop beside me. Menacing fury is visible in every ferocious inch of him, and I can feel his anger inside my own shadows, clenching, pounding.
Reven is threatening enough that Cain shoves himself bodily between us.
I’m pretty sure Reven could knock him away with a whim. I know he could disappear him entirely, and it sounds like Cain has seen it happen, too. Reven ignores him, his glare fully directed at me. “You promised.”
“Technically, I didn’t, but that’s why I’m hiding and not out there fighting.” I wave a hand at the chaos, then at him. “Why are you here? What about Tabra?”
“Horus and Tziah are with her.”
Okay, good. I glance at the Elimination, then back at him. If he’s going to end us so that I can do what I have to do, then he needs to let me do it. “It’s made of sand. I’m the only one who can stop it.”
“That’s what you’re doing?” Cain says from behind me. “No. No way.”
“I froze a piece of his tail.”
The Elimination rears up behind us, then sinks down as its back half shifts into a snake’s body, which coils upon itself, lifting up its torso like a cobra. Those boar’s tusks change to fangs.
“Fuck,” Reven mutters. Then the anger in his features changes…to acceptance. “Do it.”
24
Face-Off
