Fear dominated the slaves’ expressions, yet it was far from the only emotion. Lilau saw the scowls, the eyes flicking toward blue robes. The slaves had tasted hope, and that would not die with her.

A screech from the sky. Lilau’s heart jumped. She knew that voice.

The guard trying to tie her chains to the pole yelled in surprise as a desert-colored flash dove at his head. He let go and covered his head.

Chaos erupted. A small group of blue robes surged forward as the others stood gaping at the angry hawk tearing at the guard’s hood. The slaves shouted, turning to shove the nearest City dweller to the ground. Four blue robes stormed up the steps toward Lilau, metal glinting as two of them engaged the guards. A third blue robe ducked low, ramming Lilau in the gut as they picked her up and draped her across their shoulder.

Yells, screams, the sounds of struggle, and the roars of Great Cats.

Her most recent captor dropped off the platform and onto the back of a tawny Great Cat who growled and took off.

Lilau struggled to comprehend what happened as another Great Cat raced up beside them, its blue-robed rider tucked low. No, not just any Great Cat. Even bouncing along the City streets and darting around the debris of their last attack, the Great Cat’s face was familiar.

An arrow lodged between the two cats, derailing Lilau’s thoughts as they leaped away in different directions. The familiar cat vanished from view. The cat she rode darted erratically, seeking cover behind buildings, people, and torn bits of metal.

More thunks as arrows sought them out.

A bystander screamed as a stray arrow hit them. A looming shadow covered them as the torn down wall of the City passed by.

The arrows stopped.

The screams and yells faded away, replaced by the panting of the Great Cat and the soft sound of its paws on sand.

A burning prickle sparked on Lilau’s exposed skin as the sun beat down on her. The discomfort cleared away her haze. She twisted, trying to get a look at the blue clad rider behind her without falling off the saddle.

“Be still,” the rider hissed. “I’d rather not have to stop to pick you up off the ground.”

Lilau’s heart leaped into her throat. “Macien!”

The Weapons Master chuckled. “Sorry it wasn’t Radai who scooped you off the Death Block. Poor man would have collapsed from the effort.”

“Hey, I think I made a fine distraction!”

Aza and Radai, his blue hood pulled down, raced up to them.

“You came to save me?”

Radai frowned. “Of course we did. Did you think we’d leave you to die?”

“I didn’t think you could—”

“Fight? Eh. Turns out I just need the right incentive.”

Lilau smiled. A warm feeling rose in her chest. It turned to ice as the empty spot in her mind grew. “Makotae.” Her voice cracked. “What happened to Makotae?”

Macien snorted. “Probably gorging on City Guard flesh right about now. I thought Great Cats went mad about their rider’s safety. That wolf of your brings a whole new meaning to insanity.”

“He’s the one who led us to you,” Radai said. “Your captors took you both, but they didn’t realize Great Beasts can talk to each other. Understandable when Great Beasts refuse to bond with you, I suppose.”

They spoke as if he was still alive. Lilau shook her head. How could that be? “When did he last speak?”

“Huh? Uh….” Radai went quiet as he talked to Aza. “Well, I wouldn’t call it ‘speaking’, but he’s still raging right now. The Great Cats are trying to get him out of the City. He…. Shouldn’t you know this already?” His eyes dropped to her shackles. “Oh. The shackles! They’re designed to keep Spirit Tribe from using their gifts. Maybe it’s keeping you from connecting to Makotae?”

Lilau’s breath caught. She’d forgotten about the moonstones embedded in the shackles. Could they be the cause? She’d been around much stronger moonstones with no problems, though. She rattled the chains, twisting her wrists inside the shackles. Despite her small size, her bonds refused to slip off.

“Once we get to a safe camp, we’ll break you out of those things,” Macien said.

“No! If Makotae is still in the City, I need to talk to him now.”

Lilau’s mind shied away from the growing black hole inside. As it grew, her very sanity seemed to get sucked within its depths. If the same was happening to Makotae, she needed to restore the connection while there still was one.

“No. It’s not safe,” Macien said.

Lilau threw her weight to the side, causing Macien’s Great Cat to stumble. Macien caught Lilau around the waist and pulled her upright.

Lilau growled. “Let me go. If you can’t get these shackles off now, I need to get Makotae myself!”

“Lilau.”

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“He’ll die!”

A boom echoed from above. The Great Cats hissed, jumping sideways on reflex. Lilau came unseated. She hit the sand rolling, chains slapping across her body in painful jolts. Macien cursed as the three of them picked themselves up off the sand, the two cats still hissing into the distance, backs arched and ears back.

“What are you going on about, Nadeer?” Macien said through clenched teeth. “I don’t see anything.”

Radai stayed silent, a frown on his face as he looked toward the sky.

Lilau followed his gaze. Thick, heavy, dark clouds gathered above them at unnatural speeds, born of air as they materialized in the clear blue. A flash, then another boom shook the desert. Thunder. It had been so long since Lilau had heard it, she hadn’t recognized it at first.

“What?” Macien glared at the clouds. “It’s not time for the rains. What is this?”

The storm expanded. Black and roiling, it spread out in all directions, covering the sun and casting them all in shadow. Chills ran up Lilau’s limbs as a gust of moist wind brought the sharp tang of coming rain.

Radai came close to Lilau, eyes filled with worry. Aza went quiet as she watched her rider.

“This isn’t right,” Radai said. He put his back to Lilau, turning back toward the growing storm as five more flashes arced through the clouds, followed quickly by thunder.

Aza padded over, hair on her back sticking straight up, and wrapped around them both. Nadeer followed her example, still hissing as he rubbed up against Macien.

The Weapons Master looked ready to hiss herself. “Be ready.” She freed a curved saber and dropped into a guard position. Lilau wondered what she thought she was going to stab.

The clouds let loose. Rain, the likes of which Lilau had never seen, roared from the sky in unending sheets of water. Warm at first, then dropping to ice cold as the deluge continued. Lilau yelped as it struck her skin. It stung like tiny knives and soaked her to the bone in an instant.

Radai spun a second too late, his robe flaring out in a futile attempt to shield Lilau from the torrent. Aza curled tighter against them, and all went dark. It was an all too familiar sensation. The ache in Lilau’s mind grew, the discomfort within and without merging into a misery she was drowning in.

The roar stopped, yet Lilau’s skin still tingled as droplets continued to cascade from her hair into her eyes.

Radai cursed as he and Aza backed up.

Aza’s growl bubbled out of her. She roared, and Nadeer echoed her displeasure.

Lilau’s heart dropped. Metal and stone debris lay scattered around rectangular, hard buildings. All of it surrounded a stone-floored square. They stood in the center of the square, raised up on a platform with long, bloody poles sticking out the top. Somehow, they’d been transported right back to where they started.

Ka-al appeared at one end of the square, atop a stone dais. His guards came next, each popping into existence like the storm clouds. After Ka-al and his guards people came. Not there, then there, a few at first, then more and more. Cries of surprise and fear echoed around the stone and metal until blue-robed people covered every part of the square and spilled out on the edges.

Lilau’s mouth went dry. Her head spun, the ground tilting up toward her. Without her gifts, without her weapons, without Makotae, she was a pale, weak baby once again left to die in the woods. She flinched as hands rested on her shoulders.

“It’s all right. I’m not going to leave you.”

Radai’s hands were still cool and slick from the storm, yet there was still a touch of warmth.

Macien’s face twisted into a snarl, her teeth as bared as the two Great Cats nearby.

Run free, Rae-Lini.

Narasten’s words purred in her mind. A jolt. It started in her core, clearing the sluggishness in her veins, pulsing out into her wrists. The shackles shattered, the remnants cascading to her feet in glittering shards.

The fire ignited.

It devoured her pain, fear, confusion. It ate at her memories of being hunted and alone, fuelling itself into an inferno which burned away a familiar presence as it struggled to take its rightful place in her mind. A coolness, as if a stream cut the wildfire in half, etched a path in her consciousness. The fire sank into the water. Slowly at first, then faster and faster until the waters boiled. Lilau shrank from it as it flowed away, leaving a burning ache in its wake.

Lilau cried out. A thousand voices answered in a mix of awe and terror. Something wet and rough dragged across her face as her senses returned. She was lying down, someone’s arm supporting her shoulders.

Lilau, come back. Please don’t leave me!

“Makotae!”

Her arms shot out, wrapping around his soft neck. Radai let go as Makotae curled around her. Tears ran down Lilau’s face and soaked into his coat. Makotae, I thought you were dead.

And I you, until Aza told me of the City’s moonstone shackles. I had already vowed to return as many of the bottom feeders to the land as I could. He growled. I think I did well, although it looks like I’m not the only one looking for a tally.

The outcry of voices which had accompanied Lilau back to her senses had gone silent. Now, murmuring rose, merging with the sound of many robes and sandalled feet shuffling around.

Look, Makotae urged.

Lilau raised her eyes from Makotae’s fur. Her breath caught. The empty ache in her core suddenly made sense.

Before her, nestled among the crowd of blue robes, stood Narasten. The blue robes crammed themselves between their Guardian and a flame-red wall erected around the crowd. Narasten’s flaming mane flared into existence as its shimmering body turned solid. Like Tirijuki and Simurtahl, Narasten had used her gift to gain physical form.

People screamed. Some fell to their knees. Those still standing surged back, pressing so close to the barrier Lilau could smell burning cloth. The noise swelled and pressed against Lilau’s ears like daggers.

“Enough!” Narasten roared, its mane flashing bright as the sun. A ripple of air poured from its mouth. The air billowed outward, covering everyone in the square and freezing them in place. “You who have built your dwellings off the backs of others, who have shackled your cousins and treated them worse than mice in the field. Tortured, maimed, killed, for your comfort. And you—”

Narasten spun in place, locking eyes with Ka-al on his dais. The ruler had been frozen standing up with shoulders back, one of the few who hadn’t fled at the sight of his Guardian.

“You who have shackled me, your Guardian, to your abomination of a City. Killing the world to preserve your own power.”

Ka-al grinned, a lop-sided thing which chilled Lilau’s blood. Then he moved.

He threw his arms out, waving as if to point out the chaos all around him. “Yes. I pushed my dear father to resurrect you, Great Guardian. I told him it would immortalize his rule. It wasn’t a lie. I merely left out the best part.” He pointed at Narasten. “Your form, your essence, your very existence, all belong to me. Obey your true God, Guardian.”

The amulet on Ka-al’s neck flared blood-red as Narasten stiffened and growled.

The barrier vanished, and control returned to all in the square. People cried out, fighting to get away from the living Guardian.

“Peace, my subjects,” Ka-al said, his voice booming over the crowd. “Before you stands Narasten in the flesh. Creator of our people, bringer of the sun.”

The crowd quieted at their leader’s command, but continued to shuffle and push away.

“I have raised Narasten from the dead and tied our Guardian to my very essence. My will is Narasten’s, and its power is ours.”

All went still.

“Do not fear the Guardian, or the rubble of our City. With this power, we shall rebuild. Our slave pens will swell with all tribes, and we, the Firstborn, shall dwell within paradise as is our birthright.” Ka-al turned his attention to the bloody platform, to Lilau. “All who stand against us will perish in ever-burning fire.”

Lilau scrambled back as Narasten turned toward her, its mouth pulled back in a snarl. Macien leaped between her and the mouth full of teeth.

Darkness engulfed her.