The Feathered Serpent was no more. The reptilian sorceress had been salted as well. Iardu had yet to strike. Lyrilan cowered behind the Almighty like a village boy afraid to cast a spear on his first hunt. White flame devoured Zyung’s lower half, and the sister of Vireon had become a burning, howling maelstrom.
Was the sacrifice of these allies part of Iardu’s plan? Was he waiting, like Ianthe, until Zyung had spent the majority of his power destroying them? Perhaps then the Shaper would strike and Lyrilan could work his transforming spell.
Sungui fretted as she tossed light across the battling titans. Uurz was a wailing holocaust below the dreadnoughts.
“Turn your lights upon the city!” Sungui gave the command to all the High Ones. “Zyung does not need us. Bring down the golden towers! Send the walls to ash!”
Her distraction worked: The High Ones who were truly attacking Zyung’s combatants turned instead to the blazing city, casting their deathlights upon it. They could not conceive that the Almighty should need their aid any longer; he was making quick work of the seven sorcerers. The High Seraphim and the Lesser Seraphim would complete what the dreadnoughts had begun. The earth shook beneath crumbling, burning Uurz. The outer walls began to melt and splinter, collapsing across the bodies of Giants and battalions of Men.
The cries of winged beasts filled the sky above the Seraphim. The first rank of dreadnoughts released its Trill Knights, who descended like a flock of vultures into the devastation. Uurzians who fled between the collapsing towers and flaming walls were skewered on the lances of the riders. On the decks of the airships the massed ranks of Manslayers beat swords against shields, anticipating the moment when they would be set to ground, turned loose to plunder the shattered city.
Sungui turned her eyes back to Zyung.
Iardu and Lyrilan pounced on him like tigers.
Be patient…
We are four.
Sharadza, torn and blazing from the deathlights, lunges once more toward Zyung. She has armored herself in condensed sun-rays, forging a greatsword from that same brightness.
Lyrilan and I strike as one. Our blazing hands dig into the GodKing’s back, tearing through stony flesh toward the beating heart within. Lyrilan chants a song of annihilation. I join his spell, although it cannot affect the Conqueror unless we claim his heart.
Alua’s flame engulfs the lower half of Zyung now. The Conqueror grows even larger, increasing in mass and density. He tosses us from him as a hound slings water from its fur. Even Alua’s white flame is cast away.
Zyung’s arms move faster than my eyes can follow. He catches Sharadza and Alua in his tightening fists. Lyrilan and I rush through the air at him.
The city burns and shatters below us, and the Seraphim have begun casting their deathlights upon it. A flock of leather-winged lizards rises from the ships, diving in the hundreds toward Uurz’s remaining defenders. On their backs armored riders carry Giant-killing lances.
Again Zyung’s voice rises above the fray, and two more of our number perish in salt.
The remains of Sharadza and Alua stream like white sand from Zyung’s clenched fists.
We are only two.
“Now!” I yell at the Emperor of Uurz.
Lyrilan sings again the ancient incantation that he spoke at Shar Dni.
Yet Zyung mutters his own syllables of power, reflecting Lyrilan’s sorcery.
Instead of Zyung it is Lyrilan who whitens and falls to join the heaps of salt.
No…
Sungui watched the colossal Lyrilan crystalize and plummet toward the plain, bursting into a cloud of salt before the broken gates. Zyung stood tall as a mountain now, ready to trample the world beneath his heel. Iardu was an insect buzzing about his granite face, avoiding his blazing eyes.
We have waited too long! What hope has Iardu without Lyrilan?
Among the hovering Seraphim, Sungui found Ianthe’s stunned face. The Panther turned to meet her, and the panic in her black eyes turned to fury. Gammir growled like a beast in the air beside her, his face gone crimson in the glow of the burning city.
Now! Like shattering glass Ianthe’s command exploded inside the heads of the coven. Sungui nearly screamed at the intimate violence. Turn on your brethren, my children! Let each one choose annihilation or freedom!
The five hundred seized their fellow High Seraphim, grabbing them by wrists and necks. “Join us against Zyung, or be sent to salt.” There was nothing else that need be said. Here, in simple words spoken plainly, was the last chance the loyalists would get to share in the plunder of the Living Empire, once it was broken and divided among the Rebel Seraphim.
Sungui and Eshad grabbed one between them.
“Never!” screamed the loyalist, deathlights flashing from his eyes.
As one, the two rebels breathed their spell, while the loyalist struggled and vomited sorcery at them. In seconds it was over. The loyalist was an effigy of salt. Sungui and Eshad broke him into pieces, stuffing him into distended mouths.