The Anzu's Egg 3 Page 5

  I returned my attention to Biyu, closed my eyes and lay on top of her so I could suffuse her body’s energy with my own. Instead of following her meridian channels, Biyu’s energy whizzed in all directions. Biyu’s essence was in shock. I slowed my breathing and fought my rising panic. In her current state, restoring her flow of qi, focussing it to accelerate her healing was like herding cats. If I stood any chance of success, I’d have to merge our essences and use the flow of my energy to act as a highway along which hers could follow.

  You’re in the middle of a one-sided battle, and you’ve used up too much of your own qi, I told myself. You’ll end up unconscious and neither of you will wake up—that’s if a Leyakian doesn’t shoot both of you first.

  This wasn’t a debate. I sank deeper into Biyu, her energy swarming over mine as if I’d stumbled onto an anthill. The sound of shooting faded and my vision darkened.

  I heard voices before I opened my eyes. Above me, rain clouds had turned the sky grey. On my left stood the wall I still hid behind. Biyu lay on my right, smaller now, childlike and three-feet tall. How long had I been out for?

  The approaching voices didn’t sound Zadrinesian. I lifted my head, peered above the wall and wished I hadn’t. Up to ten Leyakians approached the destroyed pavilion, all of them with their lightening rifles raised. I grabbed a piece of fallen masonry. If I leapt at them, hurt one or two of them before they riddled me with bullets, they might forget to look over the wall.

  Goodbye, Biyu, I said.

  I pushed myself up, flung the broken brick and rose.

  My head spun and the flare of pain in my right calf reminded me I’d been shot. I lost balance and windmilled my arms. Either the island or me had become unsteady.

  An invisible force lifted the nearest Leyakians off the ground. Some of those behind them dropped their lightening rifles as they fought for balance. The dirt beneath the advancing Leyakians fissured, widened and swallowed them.

  I dropped to my knees, unable to fathom what I’d witnessed. A sound, halfway between a growl and a meow, came from behind me.

  Cubchick staggered forward, his wings flapping as if they were all that stopped him from collapsing.

  I called his name and limped towards him. The bullet in my calf had torn a fair chunk of the muscle fibres, making it painful to walk. We reached each other in the same moment Cubchick’s legs splayed out. He panted as I picked him up, his body cold against my skin. Cubchick yowled when he caught sight of Biyu.

  ‘Thanks to you, she’ll be all right,’ I said, and then kissed him.

  I placed Cubchick next to Biyu and then examined my calf.

  The bullet had torn into flesh but hadn’t ruptured blood vessels. My tattoos flickered as I thickened my calf muscles to prevent the bullet from moving deeper and causing further damage. I’d be able to walk, and it would hurt like frit. I didn’t want to waste qi dampening the pain.

  I scanned the compound. A large contingent of monks had arrived and their arrows had slowed the enemy’s advance. Because of the Leyakians’ lightening rifles, the monks had suffered heavier casualties. Beyond the compound, I sighted the abbot and two monks on the lake’s island. They waited before the pavilion. Either the abbot planned on guarding the hellmouth or summoning Barag. I couldn’t tell which.

  I studied Biyu and Cubchick. Biyu remained unconscious, and the anzu panted, its eyes opening and closing. We were all spent. The Leyakians were close to securing the compound. If there was a last stand, it would be the pagoda. If those on the island could summon Barag, there was still a chance.

  I sighed. I had to carry Biyu and Cubchick, and if I didn’t leave now, before the Leyakians broke through the line of archers, we’d be out in the open and easy to pick off from a distance. Though it would take a few more minutes for the qi tablet I’d swallowed to take effect, we didn’t have time. I had to get moving.

  I grabbed Biyu’s right forearm and hoisted her over my shoulder. She didn’t stir. Next, I knelt and tucked Cubchick under my arm and just above my shoulder bag. I hauled myself up, my body already sweating from the exertion.

  ‘You weigh a ton,’ I told Cubchick.

  The anzu sniffed the shoulder bag and ignored me.

  I set off at a jog. My two passengers and the lack of flexibility in my lower right leg made it impossible to move with any speed. The pavilions that dotted the compound made excellent cover, though it made the route to the compound’s exit more circuitous. The bullet lodged in my calf rubbed against a nerve, making it hard to lock my knee when I put weight on the leg.

  We made it to the first pavilion without incident. I leaned against one of the wooden pillars and caught my breath.

  The second pavilion presented more of a problem. My knee threatened to give way, and Cubchick began to squirm as if he didn’t want me to hold him. I made it to the pavilion and had to sit on the low wall to rest my leg. Sweat burned my eyes. My breathing had become ragged. Some twenty feet ahead of me was the third pavilion, the final stop before I exited the compound. To motivate myself, I decided I’d put down both of my passengers when I reached it and take a longer rest before my final dash to the exit.

  The thought of putting down Biyu and Cubchick—whose squirming had become snarling and kicking—propelled me across the first fifteen feet. With the pavilion no more than seven steps away, I tried to tighten my hold on the anzu, who’d taken to writhing. My knee buckled. Whether a loss of concentration or a loss of balance was the cause, I don’t know. I fell and dropped the anzu to stop my face from hitting the dirt.

  Biyu groaned. Her feet stopped digging into my ribs as I forced myself up. I swivelled my head left and right and then over my shoulder. Cubchick had disappeared.

  I forgot about him when I spied a figure dressed in black emerge from the shrine’s doorway.

  The demoness had arrived on Arlanga.

  I scrambled to my feet, the gritty dirt scratching my palms. We were out of time. I slid my hands under Biyu and carried her as if she were a child. A single glance informed me the demoness was halfway down the steps.

  Thanks to us and Anjaneya’s daughter staff, the demoness who called herself Princess Ragni had made it onto Arlangan soil. If she opened the hellmouth and drew forth an army of demons, she’d hand Zadrinesia to the Leyakians on a plate.

  The thought was enough to launch me towards and then through the compound’s exit.

  11

  I ran another ten feet after clearing the compound’s exit, and then I had to stop. My lungs burned, and I struggled to catch my breath. I lay an unconscious Biyu on the ground.

  Across from me, the abbot and two monks still stood on the island. One of them banged a symbol in time to their summoning of Barag.

  I thought back to Biyu’s description of the panels inside the compound and how they described a battle between the demon king, Ragna, and an anzu. If the three men out on the island managed to summon Barag, then everything happening right now culminated in a replay of the battle. I remembered the Cachurean slugs and the magic their mucus had collected from my neck. I saw again the test tube filled with a red liquid so dark I’d mistaken it for black. Was Ragni’s magic more potent than her father’s? If it was, what chance did Barag have against it?

  A groan came from beneath me. Biyu rubbed her head and blinked all three of her eyelids. I gasped. A lightness exploded in my stomach. It replaced the tightness that had gripped my chest since a mortar had hit her.

  ‘Thank Khuda,’ I said, as I helped her to sit up and lean against the wall.

  ‘Where am I?’ she said. ‘What happened to your shirt? Frit—Sanjay, you’re covered in wheals.’ She took in her surroundings, her head turning left and right. ‘Where’s Cubchick?’

  I told her about the mortar and then about how, when I thought we were done for, Cubchick caused an earthquake that saved us.

  ‘My knee gave way,’ I said. ‘I dropped him.’ Biyu stared at me slack-jawed. ‘He’s clever,’ I quickly added. ‘Remember, he saved
us. He’s probably hiding. He’ll find us before we find him.’ I deepened my voice. I had to sound assertive and get Biyu to focus on our situation and not the anzu. ‘The Leyakians have taken control of the monastery. We need to defend the pagoda and the hellmouth.’ I pointed at the island behind me. ‘The monks are trying to summon an anzu they call Barag. It’s the one you saw on the compound’s panels. It won’t be long before the demoness makes an appearance.’

  Biyu closed her eyes. The air surrounding her shimmered and darkened as she grew to her adult size. She gasped, opened her eyes and rested her head against the wall.

  ‘I don’t have enough energy to fly us across.’

  I followed her eyes and spied a boat moored to a short jetty on the island. We had no way of crossing the water.

  ‘Sanjay,’ Biyu said. She pointed to her right and the compound’s entrance.

  The monks had formed two lines to defend it and, perhaps, buy those on the island more time. As one line rose to release their arrows, the other squatted. The Leyakians’ gunfire never ceased, and with each volley of arrows, another monk fell.

  ‘They’re being slaughtered,’ Biyu said.

  I pressed a hand to her shoulder to stop her getting up.

  The firing ended abruptly.

  The monks dropped their bows and pressed their hands to their heads. One by one, they began to scream. One of the screaming monks flew into the air. His body folded backwards at the waist. He shrieked. His spine snapped and his cries stopped. The monk’s limbs no longer flailed but dangled. He then became a bloody wrecking ball of smashed flesh and splintered bone. He swung as if a pendulum and crashed into the other monks.

  I stood when the demoness stepped past the entrance, the bodies rolling and scattering before her feet. She wore a robe and trailing cape of the deepest black and strode to the lake. Grey smoke plumed from her fiery red eyes. Lumps of sod erupted from the earth. The ground sputtered and sizzled. Carved into rocks and buried beneath the soil, the wards meant to protect the island were no match for magic powered by the hellmouth’s proximity. I’d felt that power when I’d stepped off the shrine.

  I was weaponless, and I doubted bullets would affect her. On the island, the monk continued to strike his cymbal. When he caught sight of the demoness, he bashed it with greater frequency.

  Sanjay? Biyu said. What are you doing?

  I marched towards the demoness, thankful no Leyakians followed her. I had little qi left, but I could try one last thing. Perhaps the only way to defeat her was to fight demon magic with demon magic.

  Even with ten steps between us, she didn’t deign to notice me. She’d fixed her full attention on the isle.

  I reached into my shoulder bag. Like her father had used the sceptre on Barag, I’d use it to cave in her skull.

  I skidded to a halt.

  The sceptre wasn’t in my bag. I looked down to examine it and found three parallel tears across its side.

  ‘Cubchick,’ I said. ‘What the frit?’

  The demoness turned my way but didn’t stop walking.

  ‘Sanjay, thank you for staying alive,’ she said, and raised her hand. ‘I look forward to watching my army trample you to death.’

  Instinct drove me to raise my hands and cross my forearms to protect my face. Qi ignited my tattoos as an invisible force that felt like lead struck my head and threw me backwards, slamming me against the compound’s wall.

  A constant ringing of a hammer striking an anvil filled my skull and made it throb. I tasted blood.

  Sanjay, called a distant voice. Please, wake up.

  I recognised it.

  Biyu’s bloodshot eyes stared into mine. Beyond her, the world had darkened. I rubbed the back of my head.

  ‘How long was I out for?’

  Biyu pulled me forward and ran her fingers over my head.

  ‘You’ve got a nasty bump,’ she said. ‘Skidding on your arse slowed you before you hit the wall. You’ve been out for a minute.’

  I looked up. A giant grey rain cloud drifted over us. It explained why I’d thought I’d been out for longer.

  Biyu sat back from me. We both watched as the demoness floated above the lake. The three men continued to call out to Barag, their voices a desperate synchronised cry.

  A low growl came from my right. Biyu had heard it too. She turned, and her mouth fell open with a smile. An anzu—twice the height of a man, its head covered by a thick mane of dark-brown hair—padded towards us, the sceptre in its mouth.

  ‘Cubchick,’ cried Biyu. She got up and dashed to the anzu.

  It had to be Cubchick. The sceptre, its magic, had sped up his growth and transformed him. I heaved myself up with a mixture of delight and relief at the sight of him. A second realisation, thanks to the crashing symbol, filled me with mild horror.

  Cubchick was the new Barag.

  Like iron filings drawn to a magnet, all the pieces drew together. This was the interconnectedness Toojan had described when we’d told him about the anzu’s egg. Even the sceptre was connected to Cubchick. The panel describing how King Ragna had struck Barag with the sceptre, and it explained why Cubchick went frantic whenever he saw it. The sceptre had touched its ancestor and had imbued it with Barag’s magic.

  I almost laughed until I noticed Biyu’s expression.

  ‘You fritting idiot, Sanjay,’ she said, her hands pressed to Cubchick’s side.

  I hurried over and realised the source of her anger. The entry wound caused by the Leyakian bullet was now three times as wide as my fist.

  ‘Toojan told you not to let him near anything magical,’ Biyu said. She sounded close to tears. ‘I can smell the infection. This is bad.’

  There wasn’t time to explain how Cubchick had nabbed the sceptre. I stepped in front of Biyu. Cubchick turned his giant head and tried to lick the wound. I pushed his head away.

  ‘Let me see,’ I said to both of them, laying my hands on the feathers either side of the hole.

  The heat hit me before the foul gangrenous fumes did.

  The symbol clangs stopped. I sidled past Cubchick’s hind legs. All three men had fallen, their bodies and limbs twisted into unnatural shapes.

  The demoness faced the pagoda and lifted her arms. The tower’s roof with its upward-facing eaves exploded. A second later, the tier below it burst apart.

  Biyu’s desperate cry of, ‘Cubchick!’ followed a loud swoop of wings. ‘You’re too sick,’ she called out.

  Cubchick’s roar shook the ground. I had to turn away as the downdraught of his wings stirred up dust and grit. He was two-thirds of the way across the lake when the dust settled.

  On the island, less than half of the pagoda remained. Cubchick roared again, and all of Anganera trembled. I placed a protective arm around Biyu, and we staggered forwards before the compound’s wall collapsed onto us.

  The demoness must have felt the earthquake, because she’d risen six feet off the ground and had trebled in size. She turned just as Cubchick struck her, his hind eagle feet grasping her legs and his front lion claws tearing at her torso. I couldn’t tell if the demoness or Cubchick’s wingbeats kept the pair of them afloat.

  The demoness screamed. I covered my ears before my eardrums burst. The ground shook so hard, Biyu and I had to kneel.

  The scream kept Cubchick at bay and tore into him. Patches of feathers and fur flew from him, and the sheer force of the sound prevented him from getting close enough to close his mouth around the demoness and end her with his powerful jaws.

  They hung there, neither moving. But how long could Cubchick hold on to the demoness before she flayed him to death?

  I shuffled over to where Cubchick had dropped the sceptre, my hands still covering my ears. I was desperate.

  What are you doing? Biyu said, her words barely audible above the demoness’s scream.

  My tattoos glowed as I summoned my qi. I grabbed the sceptre and heaved myself up to my full height.

  If I can distract the demoness, just for a moment,
it might make a difference.

  I took aim. As if leaning into a headwind, the sound blurred my vision, and the ground shuddered, making it hard to stand still and upright.

  Forget it, Biyu said. She’d quadrupled in length and was no longer humanoid. Don’t just stand there. She held out a foot. I can’t maintain this shape for long.

  There wasn’t time to argue, to assess how much qi she had to get the two of us over to the island.

  I grabbed her above the toes so she could clamp them around my forearm. Biyu rose a little higher and glided towards the water. The tips of my shoes scraped the ground. I bent my knees to reduce the friction.

  Like a stone skimming the lake’s surface, my heels touched the water. The further we flew, the lower we got. Biyu was tiring fast, and I was getting closer and closer to being drenched.

  Let go of me, I said. Otherwise, you won’t make it.

  My words had the opposite effect.

  We gained height and accelerated, but now I had Biyu’s angry scream and the demoness’s threatening to make my head implode. Above me, Biyu had shrunk.

  What little qi I possessed I needed to grip the sceptre and to stop the shoulder I hung from popping out of its socket. I had nothing left to give Biyu.

  We just reached the island when Biyu returned to her humanoid form. I tried to lift my knees to my chest to avoid colliding with the sloping bank. My buttocks skidded over grass, and I landed on my back. The impact knocked the air from my lungs. I tucked my head in and tumbled. I hit something hard and heard a crack as I rolled one last time.

  The demoness’s scream made it difficult to think and to understand why a white face with eyes rolled into their sockets gawked at me. I drew myself up onto my knees. I’d landed among the dead abbot and his monks. Seven feet from me, Biyu lay on her side, her eyes closed. I glanced over my shoulder and spotted the sceptre. The ground rocked, causing the sceptre to roll towards the bank. To my right, Cubchick and the dragoness floated above the ground.