‘City’ had been just a name. A word which held meaning beyond Lilau’s grasp. Now that the place rose before her like some metallic behemoth, her mind still struggled to comprehend.

Iron walls stretched across the desert to Lilau’s left and right, reaching toward the sky as if to cut the very clouds in two. Two of the walls met in front of Lilau, joined by a massive tower jutting into the heavens. Lilau had already glanced up, seeking the top of the tower. She would not do so again. The sky-river, blinding in its brilliance even without her Spirit Sight, split into four thick streams, which flowed down from the sky. Three disappeared into distant parts of the City. The fourth gushed from the sky into the tower, a waterfall of pure power calling to the ember in her core with a pull difficult to resist.

“Lilau?”

She jumped at Macien’s voice. All fourteen of the Silent Hunter survivors stood before the great walls, plus dozens more from other camps. Great Cats pawed the ground and growled. Their riders looked to Macien and Lilau, stationed at the front like beacons.

“I need you to stay focused,” Macien said.

Lilau nodded, then continued to stare at the tower. The power of her bombs had been enough to take out the smaller towers before the City could adapt. Yet as the towers fell, reports from spies inside the City told of a sharp increase in the energy devoted to shielding. Perhaps enough to stop all the bombs the camps could throw at it. They hadn’t tested the theory, but the lack of response as they marched up to the City walls said all Lilau needed to hear.

Macien’s Great Cat Nadeer shifted side-to-side as the Weapons Master joined Lilau in burning the sight of the south-eastern tower into their minds.

The unnatural silence emanating from the metal monstrosity surrounding the City burrowed under Lilau’s skin until it twitched. She clenched her jaws as a buzzing settled in her mind.

Then a flicker.

Nearly imperceptible, it rushed down the surface of the tower and sparked against the ground. Their allies within the monster’s belly had succeeded.

Macien threw a blood-red orb. Lilau held her breath as it sailed through the air, coming into contact with the invisible shield around the City. She tensed on instinct, half-expecting to die in the backlash when the orb exploded against the shield. Instead, it passed through empty air and hit the tower with a crack.

Light bloomed. Cries of pain echoed as the essence released stung their eyes, forcing their gaze away. Lilau resisted. She pulled the hood of her robe down to block some of the burst, but would not look away.

The explosion bulged out, bubbling up under the weakened shield. In a moment, the shield would crack and the essence would spill out, engulfing them along with the tower.

It never got the chance.

The tower did what it was built to do. What Lilau and Macien had counted on it to do. The ball of light shrank as the tower absorbed it into its framework, channeling it down into pathways too narrow and holding vessels too small for the blast.

A whine cut through the air as the earth trembled. Slow at first, then faster until Makotae growled and the Great Cats hissed.

A wrenching sound, sharp and metallic, set Lilau’s teeth on edge as a crack appeared along the tower’s base where it touched the sand. The tower split. Its innards collapsed in an outburst of dust and debris, coating everyone in the vicinity with its last breath.

The earth stilled, but could not rest.

Makotae surged forward into the breech. He swerved to the side of the smoking metal remains, picking a narrow path where the tower tore from the wall as it fell. The rest of the camp followed. The more agile Great Cats bounded across the debris. Riders whooped as they freed weapons.

Although Lilau could not see them, she knew a few held back. Laden with every essence-powered weapon they could find save Lilau’s bow, their job was the next most important. All they needed was a clear path.

Makotae pushed past the wall. Dust covered their vision. Cries of pain of pain echoed under debris while yells of anger came from the distance. Lilau freed her bow.

A hum sliced through the air, pressed against her chest, and tossed her free of Makotae. She flew back out of the breech and onto hot sand. Makotae hit the ground beside her body first. A clump of camp members and Great Cats followed. The hum grew louder as a ripple ran across the breech, then faded.

The shield had come back up.

No…. Makotae, what happened?

Makotae groaned as he rolled to his feet. Look up.

A haze obscured most of their view of the sky, but enough stayed visible for Lilau to pick out what Makotae meant.

The sky-river still flowed into the City. Half of the City’s towers still stood. Taking out two had brought the shield down for a moment, but that was all.

The buzzing of the shield burrowed into Lilau’s mind. Losing half its power made it work harder, but it was more than enough to keep them out. Other camp members clustered around her and Makotae. Sixteen, including the five laden with weapons.

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“Do you have another bomb?” a young woman said.

Lilau narrowed her eyes at the newcomer. The woman was from another camp, and she didn’t know her name. “No. We all agreed to not carry extras. Using them without the towers to absorb the explosion would kill us all.”

The woman frowned and looked away as her Great Cat pawed the ground and hissed.

“Our weapons won’t do any good out here,” Yiddi, the goatherd, said.

Lilau ground her teeth as she stood, brushing the dust from her robes.

Another spoke up.

A screech covered up their complaints. Louder than the hum of the shield, the sound pierced Lilau’s heart, and it raced in response. The image of Great Eagles, diving to snatch her up, burned into her mind. Her eyes darted to the sound as her Spirit Sight came up in defense.

Rainbow wings of fire spread over the city. The bird Fokla, the same she’d seen in the sky moons ago, craned its long neck in her direction. Pools of molten gold shone above its elongated beak. The gold caught Lilau’s gaze. The same shade as the serpent, pulling her in with a force she couldn’t resist. She hurtled through the sky into liquid flame. Her fear, her frustration, her very existence melted away as warmth enveloped her. She didn’t even mind the burning, or the darkness creeping along the edges of her consciousness.

The warmth turned sharp, pricking her back to alertness. An urgency rose, hers and not hers. Someone needed her help and she could not rest until her job was done. But why? The reason skittered away as the darkness grew.

Look, something demanded, and understand.

The darkness and warmth vanished, replaced by the familiar, oppressive heat of the desert. Lilau’s heart dropped. Below her spread buildings of metal and wood, angular monsters of dull shades bound together by veins of pulsating, shining essence. Some large, some small. All clotted together around a central dome with veins sprouting from it like hair.

Nothing separated Lilau from the abomination below but a gulf of empty air. She tried to scream, flail, recede back into the darkness, but that same force held her still.

Look.

A heavy wingbeat echoed at Lilau’s sides, leaving a trail of rainbow fire in her peripheral. No. Not her sides. Her mind raced faster. The bird Fokla. Had it drawn her in, or had she accidentally used Animal Sight on it? No, that didn’t make sense. She’d done no preparations, no ritual. It had pulled her in and now held her in place. Why?

Lilau swallowed her rising panic and looked closer at the chaos below. The Fokla’s essence pierced into her own, pressure at first, then giving way to pain. If she did as it asked, perhaps it would let her go.

A shimmer at the edge of the clotted buildings caught her attention. The thick wall surrounded the City, two holes breaking through the shell at opposing corners. At the other two corners stood unblemished towers, their moonstones aglow with light from the split rainbow river. That’s why the shield didn’t go down. I know.

Pain receded to warmth, but the urgency remained. She was on the right path. Lilau focused in on one of the remaining towers. The Fokla’s vision telescoped in. In an instant, it was as if she hovered above the tower as Great Cats and riders paced outside the wall. They’d missed the opening to throw the bomb and now argued over whether they could damage the shield by throwing it, anyway.

The other tower showed nothing at all. The camp members meant to attack were nowhere to be seen, and no melted sand proved a bomb hadn’t been activated.

Now Lilau fully understood why the towers still stood, but she still didn’t understand what she could do about it. She pulled against the Fokla’s grip. What good does this do? I can’t change it. Those inside will die, and those outside will follow.

Bitterness rose, acrid and thick, as she accepted the truth. They’d all known the attack would likely fail, but it didn’t make facing it easier.

A yip chimed out, drawing Lilau’s gaze to a small blue streak bouncing across wooden rooftops. The fire in her core sparked at the familiar sight.

Tirijuki stopped at a building near the center of the City. Its carved bone face pointed toward the Fokla in the sky, yet its eyes bored into Lilau.

Rae-Lini. Are you still denying your gift?

Its voice rang clear, as if it stood next to her. A tremor shook through Lilau. There was little she wouldn’t give to sink an arrow in the lying Fokla’s chest. Gift? Are you referring to the poisoning I got after you pushed me into the lake?

Precisely. I never met another so resistant to meet their fate.

Fate? I nearly died!

Tirijuki laughed at the sky. The sound sent white hot shards through Lilau’s mind. Yet here you are, doing what no creature had done in ages. How does it feel to share Simurtahl’s form?

I didn’t have much of a choice.

The confession struck truer than Lilau expected. The flames in her core grew unbearably hot.

Your will is too strong to merely ask, Rae-Lini, yet that will is why it could only be you. Tirijuki’s tail swished behind it. I saw your will when I first looked into your eyes so long ago. The inferno inside you is not so easily quenched.

That same inferno reached a feverish pitch inside her. No!

Lilau writhed within Simurtahl. The bird screeched, clamped down on her, and held her in.

The others. Lilau pleaded. Makotae. They’ll die. Let me go!

If you don’t use your gift, you will all die just the same.

Please, Tirijuki!

Pull it to you, child! Your body may be the conduit, but the essence is the key.

I don’t know how!

Quit fighting it!

Tirijuki snarled as Simurtahl tightened its grip. The pressure of the inferno pushed until Lilau could feel her mind start to crack. It was over. She couldn’t contain it anymore. She stilled, seeking the warmth she’d felt before. Perhaps in their deaths, they could destroy enough of the City to buy the land more time. Darkness edged in. The world she’d fought so hard to stay in. She couldn’t save it, after all. Inalia, Macien, Radai, Yiddi and the others of the Silent Hunters who took her in. They deserved more than destruction at her hands.

Molten power rushed in. Scorching light, scouring away all. It flowed in ever-increasing waves that ate away her essence until all that remained was fire.

The fire moved, twisted, took form. Two wings, a tail, a long, elegant neck. It flowed down into a small fox-like creature, filling in its glowing fur with unbridled power. The flames filled them to the brim. Then, when they could contain no more, the fire grew furious, gnawing at their shells in an effort to escape.

The fox yipped as it stood on its hind legs. Four arms sprouted as its body expanded, changed into something much larger, dangerous, and solid. It laughed at the sky, and the fire bowed to it.

A heavy flap of wings. Flame tracing every radiant feather. Simurtahl had never felt so alive, yet the tiny core within had cracked. If it did not act, the core would shatter, taking with it the power and Simurtahl’s purpose.

Simurtahl focused inwardly. It cooled the little core, pressed it together until the cracks smoothed. Return, Simurtahl called. Fulfill our purpose. Your reason for birth.

The core become whole but remained stubbornly meek, all its fire sent outward. Simurtahl funneled its own essence into the core, giving it life once more.