Rise of the Evening Star

No potions, Warren gasped. Give me the spear.

Vanessa gave him a sidelong glance. You’re in no condition-

The spear, he said, sitting up.

This might buy you time, Vanessa said, holding up a bottle. I think I recognize the potion. It has a distinctive odor. It will transform your body to a gaseous state. During that time, poison will not spread, acid will not burn, and blood will not flow.

Vanessa held it out to him.

Lips twisting into a grimace, Warren shook his head.

Vanessa held out the spear.

Snatching it, Warren rolled off the edge of the catwalk.

He was controlling his fall with the rod, but descending rapidly. Warren yelled —- a primal, barbaric challenge. The two-headed panther snarled up at him. Warren cried out again, directly above the feline monstrosity. The monster reared up to meet him, jaws agape.

Holding the spear poised, Warren let himself fall at full speed the final thirty feet, and so it was with tremendous force that he plunged the spear between the two necks an instant before striking the unyielding floor. With more than414 half the length of the spear buried in its body, the mightybeast took a few drunken steps, wobbled, leaned, and slumped to the floor.

Kendra grabbed the bottle from Vanessa and dove off the catwalk. She kept full gravity, and an incredible rush of wind washed over her as she plummeted downward. She whipped the rod around, and her fall began to slow, and then she brought the rod level, coming to a perfect stop beside Warren.

Warren was a wreck, facedown, unconscious, breathing shallowly. Heaving with both hands, Kendra rolled him over, wincing as something inside of him crunched. His mouth was open. Tilting his head up, she tried to ignore the snapping sound his neck made, and dumped the potion into his mouth. His Adam’s apple bobbed, and much of the fluid leaked out the sides of his mouth.

Once again, the body of the monster was bulging and undulating, as if it were about to erupt. Vanessa was yanking on the spear, tugging it out a little at a time, leaning into it with everything she had.

Chapter Nineteen

Get clear, Kendra, Vanessa called. This is not over.

When Kendra looked back at Warren, he was wispy and translucent. She tried to touch him, and her hand passed through him like he was mist, dissipating him slightly.

Kendra raced across the floor and grabbed the sword. Behind her, Vanessa finally jerked the spear free.

As Vanessa launched into the air, Kendra watched the ninth version of the guardian emerge. Long wings unfurled.

Twelve serpents sprouted from various spots along its back.415 Three heavy tails swayed. And three heads bellowedtogether, a deafening sound even from where Kendra stood behind the beast. The great wings beat down and the beast took flight, pursuing Vanessa.

Kendra gaped in petrified awe. From wingtip to wingtip, the monstrosity stretched across half the cavernous room. It rose swiftly.

Running out of room to ascend, Vanessa started falling instead of rising, hurling the spear as she neared her pursuer.

The weapon merely grazed the monster and tumbled toward the floor. All three heads snapped at Vanessa, and all missed.

She rebounded off its well-muscled body, snakes striking eagerly, and tumbled toward the ground. Vanessa managed to slow her descent at the last moment, but she still landed heavily only a moment after the spear struck the floor.

Like Errol before her, she lost her grip of the rod, and it floated away toward the ceiling. Quivering, snake-bitten, dragging a broken leg, she crawled for the spear. Above, the three-headed fiend descended, roaring exultantly. Beyond the monster, Kendra saw a pair of figures falling toward her.

Propping herself up with the spear, Vanessa stood and faced the three-headed monster cat as it landed before her.

The cat watched her from well out of reach. Kendra recognized

Tanu and Coulter descending swiftly, both albino, and she waved her arms at them.

Even as scalding sludge fountained from three mouths, dousing Vanessa in blistering agony, Tanu alighted beside

Kendra, snatched his potion pouch, and upended a bottle into his mouth. He accepted the sword from Kendra. As416 Vanessa screamed, Tanu expanded, clothes splitting as hedoubled in height, a huge man becoming a giant, the sword looking like a knife in his enormous hand.

Too late the three-headed monster turned, as Tanu raged, stabbing and slashing, hacking off wings and serpents even as he was clawed and bitten. Tanu’s heavy arm pistoned mercilessly until the monster crumpled, and Tanu collapsed atop the beast, bleeding from bitter wounds.

Kendra watched in horror as the carcass of the monster began to boil. Tanu scooted away from it. But this time, instead of folding in upon itself, the corpse melted away and simmered into nothingness, as if it had never been.

Coulter and Kendra ran to Tanu, who lay on his side.

The white Samoan pointed at the space the monster had occupied. There sat a bright, copper teapot worked into the shape of a cat, with the tail forming the spout. Coulter retrieved it. Doesn’t look like much, he said.

I may need to touch it, Kendra said, taking the pot from him. Light at first, the pot started getting heavier. The exterior of the pot did not change, but Kendra recognized the difference. It’s filling up.

Pour it, Tanu gasped.

Tanu had three deep, ragged gouges across his beefy forearm.

Kendra poured golden dust from the teapot onto the wounds. Much of the dust seemed to dissolve on contact.

The gouges vanished, leaving no scar. An enormous chunk of flesh was missing from Tanu’s shoulder, but when Kendra filled the gaping wound with dust from the teapot, it closed and the skin above it looked like new.417 As Kendra shook the feline teapot over Tanu, his whiteflesh returned to a healthy brown, and all his wounds closed and vanished. Tanu shook his head, powdery dust rising from his hair.

Kendra hurried over to Vanessa, who lay moaning, withered, unrecognizable, incapable of movement or speech. I

should heal her, Kendra said.

I would love to say no, Tanu said. But it is the right thing to do.

Technically we’re not on the preserve, Coulter reminded them. What happens in here, stays in here.

Don’t let her near any weapons, Kendra warned them.

Coulter kicked the spear away as Kendra coated Vanessa with the dust from the teapot. The healing dust renewed itself and continued to flow until Kendra stopped pouring, leaving Vanessa perfectly whole and unscarred. She sat up, staring at the teapot in wonder. Nothing could have cured those burns, she said in amazement. I was blind and nearly deaf.

This is over, Tanu told Vanessa. There are others stronger than us waiting just outside the entrance.

Vanessa said nothing more.

Coulter remained near her, sword in hand. I suppose it goes without saying, if you slip into a trance, you’ll never come out of it.