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  Edmath scowled.

  "Human-animal hybrids? But even Roshi does not allow that kind of experimentation."

  "Perhaps they are not above it after all," said Chelka. "So little is below them, it would not be hard to believe."

  "Roshi or not," said Ninafi, "we need to bloody them enough that they retreat. They always come from the inland pathways."

  Edmath arched an eyebrow at her.

  She spread her hands.

  "I have used my spells to witness their routes of approach. I have no ability to augury. No one in the village does."

  Chelka folded her arms.

  "We should see these remains. But first, how many warriors do we have in this village not counting those who just arrived?"

  "Say, fifteen able young fighters," said the man with the scarf. "I have been leading them, but they are far from professional fighters."

  "With our Whale Tribe soldiers and the mercenaries that makes a bit over two-score warriors," said Edmath.

  "Yes." Chelka nodded to the man with the scarf. "Sir, we will need to know the locations of the storehouses and animal stays so as to deploy our forces."

  The man pointed to the map spread across the table.

  "That was the subject of our discussion before you arrived. We have consolidated our stores in the buildings around the pier, including this hall and the tavern. We gather the animals in pens on the north side of the village each night. Lately, I have taken five of our men each night to protect them with the other ten to protect the people and our goods in the buildings. They have yet to break through."

  "Wise," said Chelka. "I think your plan must be working in that case."

  "For the moment," said the man.

  Edmath examined the map.

  "It appears you are ceding control of the rest of the village each night to protect your people.

  "It's the only way," said another elder.

  "Of course, I think your priorities make sense." Edmath's gaze moved across the gray lines marking out the buildings, the water's edge, and the tree lines to the west. "Do you investigate the rest of the village by daylight?"

  The man with the scarf nodded.

  "It's the first thing our warriors do at daybreak. The enemy does not remain after dawn."

  "The creator gives us small mercies," said Edmath with a frown. "Perhaps these attackers are only leftovers from an older time. It is possible they are not part of some Roshi offensive."

  "We can't rule out anything yet," said Chelka.

  "Especially not after the events of a month ago," said Edmath, shaking his head. "Let us see these remains, Lady Ninafi."

  "I will take you there," she said, then turned to the man with the scarf. "Elder Jatono, if you can meet with the Whale Prince you should. He has a troupe of whale warriors with him by the pier."

  The man with the scarf nodded.

  "I'll meet with him at once. We have but a few hours of daylight left."

  The three Saales went to a makeshift mortuary in the house nearest the hall. The building looked both abandoned by humans for the most part and ignored by their attackers as well. Edmath wondered if the enemy cared at all to find the remains of their fallen comrades. Perhaps they were truly monstrous and simply abandoned their dead? He posed the question to Ninafi as she unlocked the door to the house.

  She shook her head.

  "They drag away the bodies of anything they can, whether one of them or one of us. Jatono thinks they will even eat their own."

  Edmath shivered at the thought of these creatures being cannibalistic.

  "That frightens me, I will admit."

  Chelka put her arm around him.

  "Take care, Ed. We must keep calm no matter the nature of these foes."

  "Of course, my dear."

  Ninafi raised her eyebrows.

  "I had heard of two Saales marrying in Diar last year before the Worm King's rebellion. I take it that was you two?"

  "It was indeed," said Edmath. "Perhaps inauspiciously the same night Onoi tried to take the Sphere of Humanity for his own."

  "I'm mostly aware of the circumstances," said Ninafi with a sigh. "Please forgive me, for there is no good way to say this. My family fought on the side of Onoi. My father was a champion of his before surrendering at the end of the struggle."

  "Shollian Daderon is your father?" said Edmath.

  "Yes," said Ninafi. "Please do not hold his rebellion against me."

  Chelka scowled for a moment.

  "He served his master but came to his senses. Apart from that, one does not always control her family."

  "Quite so," said Edmath.

  They stepped into the house, then made their way to an interior room where Ninafi lit a lamp to brighten the chamber. Stretched across the bare floorboards lay the remains of three raiders in varying states of decay. Edmath covered his nose instinctually.

  "I treated all of these to keep them from spreading diseases," said Ninafi, crouching by the nearest humanoid corpse. "It's safe to breathe in here, though I couldn't do much for the smell."

  She motioned to the hands.

  "They all have claws, but the forms vary. Some are more like bears, others like big cats and more like wolves or even bird talons."

  "We may not be dealing with a single form of hybrid," said Chelka.

  "That's what I thought at first," said Ninafi. "But they all speak the same language, so if they're like royals it must not be an animal-tongue or they wouldn't all understand each other."

  Edmath peered over the bodies. Each one was papery-skinned, gray with death, and terribly skinny as if the creatures had never eaten a full meal in their lives. While they were all humanoid in shape, the three each had different facial structure and where one had body hair, the other two carried traces of feathers.

  "They're clearly hybrids," said Chelka. "But from where? And who made them?"

  "Could a Saale really create this kind of being?" asked Edmath.

  "I fear that answer is obvious," said Ninafi.

  "Of course," said Edmath. "I suppose the real question is why would one do so?"

  "Not all Saales are trained in the warmth of the imperial south." Ninafi sighed. "My college has had its share of deserters in recent years. It could be any of them, for combining humans may be forbidden but it is not necessarily difficult to do when one is wicked."

  "The questions mount," said Edmath. "I don't like this."

  "Neither do I," said Ninafi. "Now, we don't have much time. Best I show you the magic currents around the village before dark."

  "Lead on," said Chelka. "I doubt we will learn anything else by picking over these bodies for a few extra minutes."

  Dusk arrived as Edmath joined Brosk and the Rooster Tribe mercenaries west of the animal pens. The plan was to funnel the creatures toward Chelka and her lethal magic by repulsing them from the animal pens as quickly as possible. If they could bloody the enemy's nose, perhaps the village would be given time to rest from the nightly fray.

  Brosk used his echolocation to keep watch for movement in the tree line not far from them. They didn't wait long before he said, "A score of creatures are headed our way. It must be them."

  "It's them," said Elder Jatono, face grim. He had brought all of the village's regular defenders with him as part of the plan to drive the enemy toward Chelka, Ninafi, and the Whale Soldiers by the village hall.

  Tension ran up Edmath's arm, the one that held the stethian. He held two striker rings in his other hand, poised to strike and tear the world to let magic flow.

  Rustling came from the trees ahead of the line of fighters. Beside Brosk, Kana gritted her teeth but said nothing. Her team lined up on her other side, spears, and swords in their hands.

  Edmath's first sight of a living member of this monstrous kind was by the light of the magic Brosk's small tears opened as he shifted his striker chain uneasily. The gray-skinned humanoid charged from the trees at the he
ad of two-dozen others, each one mutated in a different way, bearing different animalistic features and sharp claws. None wore clothes or carried weapons.

  "They're on their way," said Brosk with a grimace. "Let us have at them, Ed."

  "Of course, my good prince," Edmath struck the air.

  The foe closed, howling and clawing at the air in front of them as if it too was an enemy to destroy. Then Brosk and Edmath unleashed their magic. Binding bones and piercing lengths of wood slashed and scythed through the ranks of charging monsters. Perhaps half a dozen fell at once. The rest continued forward at pace.

  The crystal orb at the end of Edmath's stethian issued pale smoke and Brosk grew pale with the drain of killing. He staggered to one side, brushing against Kana. She glanced at him.

  "What's wrong, whale prince?"

  "Death," he said. "I should have taken more care."

  "Your magic can't be used to kill without a price." She scowled. "Weak."

  Before Brosk or Edmath could retort the savage enemy hit their thin line.

  Cutting down foes with his striking vines and length of wood, Edmath retreated as he killed. The foe circled around either end of the line despite his efforts. Another, even larger wave appeared from the trees, bringing the count of the enemy to perhaps fifty still standing.

  Brosk roared and shifted into his whale tosh, swinging his chain and swatting enemies drunkenly with his closed fist. They retreated from him, as did the wary Rooster Tribe mercenaries not wanting to be hit by accident.

  Edmath raced to the far end of the line where young villagers clashed with monsters, blades against savagery. Two men were already down, wounded, and most of them had been cut somewhere by talons or claws.

  Edmath cast away one broken striker, still holding the other still-functional tool, then pushed the last of the magic he held into a flurry of thorny vines that encircled and tripped the survivors of the first wave of enemies. The villagers wasted no time in finishing the creatures off as they fell.

  Edmath glared at the fresh foes still closing with them. A third wave picked out of the tree line, this one even larger than the first two. How many of these monstrosities were there?

  "This isn't working," called Kana. "It's like they were waiting for a real fight."

  "I hate to agree," Jatono said, "but we must retreat."

  "Keep in good order," said Brosk, throwing down a broken enemy. "We want them to follow us."

  Edmath nodded.

  "I can help with that. I'll wall off the animal pens."

  He struck the air, then grew three thick oaks that melded with each other trunk to trunk to seal the gates of the animal pen behind their line. He fed magic into the trees so they would last longer as the line began to shift and fall back.

  To their credit, the villagers carrying their wounded comrades managed to keep order better than most professional troops, and the roosters fought with a fury that matched their foes even as they gave ground.

  Brosk, sickly pale and bleeding from a dozen small cuts, joined Edmath to protect him as they moved toward the village. Some thirty foes littered the ground, but still, the furious enemy surged forward, pressing the attack.

  Despairing, Edmath wondered if even Chelka's magic could send the message to these creatures they had hoped to deliver.

  The retreating warrior reached the outer buildings of the village alongside Edmath and Brosk, their attackers still in hot pursuit. The enemy swarmed into the village. Edmath cast up barriers of trunks and branches to funnel the creatures after them, driving every attacking monster toward the village hall and the pier. Chelka would be waiting there with Ninafi pooling all the magic they could.

  Chelka's fiery signs had to discourage or destroy their attackers, or this plan would be a mistake. The savage things could not be completely fearless, and even if they were near enough to it for their morale not to matter, they absolutely could not prove numberless.

  Edmath and the others reached the sealed wooden doors of the hall and squared their formation. Monsters howled as the battle rejoined in earnest at the center of the village.

  Edmath struck with vines and branches. Brosk, his magic weakened, waded once more into the fray, smashing an enemy from its feet with every blow. The roosters had all made it and kept slaying the enemies who got too close. Kana's spear gleamed red in sudden light from above them. Light all too familiar from Edmath spilled from the promontory of the hall's steeply slanted roof.

  Chelka's spells flashed from her shadow, burning through a line of foes with brutal efficacy. They screamed and fell. Other hesitated for the first time, looking up at Chelka's silhouette as she slashed the air with her stethian and slew more of them with every spell than Edmath had been able to manage during the entire first wave.

  Burning beasts scattered, but the Whale Tribe soldiers who had been waiting to counter-attack did not give them that chance. They drove the enemy back together with their tight shield wall. Monsters set each other alight in the press while those behind them faltered in their advance on the village hall.

  Edmath could have laughed out loud but for his coursing adrenaline.

  The plan was working. Ninafi kept striking behind Chelka, and given near-limitless magic for the short-term, Chelka could burn countless monsters with her fire and light.

  Smoke rose from fallen forms, darkening the few visible stars winking from the cloudy sky. Edmath lowered his stethian and striker, breathing hard. He stared over dozens of burnt bodies, curled and contorted by their death throes.

  A few of the ghoulish hybrids lurked within sight, but the rest of the survivors retreated from the village into the night. Those that remained seemed to be a rearguard of sorts, which made Edmath wonder if these creatures could be as intelligent as the humans they had been shaped from. He scowled at the thought.

  Humans could work magic by virtue of their complexity. These beings appeared human in shape, but they lacked the nuance to perform spells from what he'd seen so far. However, most humans could not work magic either. Could these monsters be hiding one of their cards?

  "I've never seen so many before," said Jatono, "let alone so many dead."

  "I hope it's enough," said Chelka from above them, smoke wafting from her stethian. "I'm exhausted for the moment, though if they come back, I'll find the strength to finish those who return."

  "You are truly a mighty Saale," said Ninafi. "Terrible to behold."

  "I agree," said Jatono. "It's about time we had some luck, and we couldn't have been luckier than to receive aid from the foremost war Saale."

  Chelka sat down on the peak of the roof.

  "You flatter me."

  "Not enough," said Edmath. "You were the first in our class."

  "Is that so," said Ninafi from beside Chelka. "I understand why. A skill like yours is powerful in battle."

  "I created it to defend myself first." Chelka sighed. "But it proves more useful for protecting my fellow Zelians."

  "Indeed." Brosk sat down on the bottom step of the hall. Kana and Senei approached him and started bandaging his cuts while the rest of the village vanguard started treating the other wounded.

  A bird's cry echoed over the village. Ninafi shouted a warning to Chelka. Edmath looked up in time to see a pair of black wings sail through the cloud of smoke. The beast connected to them struck at Chelka.

  Chelka

  She ducked the airborne beast's slavering wolf-like jaws. Its hind legs struck her on both shoulders. Chelka tumbled backward along the center of the rooftop. She barely managed to keep herself from falling down one side.

  Ninafi skidded down the shingles to her right, striking with a fresh ring of bone and muscle as she did. Their attacker circled, then landed on peek of the roof in front of them, snarling.

  The monster resembled a wolf fused with a man as if the human form had been sutured to the back, then halfway melted to combine flesh with flesh. Hideous jaws dripped black saliva. Lupine lips
drew back to reveal shining teeth, unnaturally clean for a wild animal. The human eyes on the opposite side of the beast's head moved frantically until they fixed on Ninafi to one side.

  Chelka scowled.

  "What are you?" she asked in common Zelian.

  The face of the wolf showed no recognition, but the man's expression changed from one of panic to annoyance. He spoke in a deep, reverberant voice, intoning words Chelka understood despite a thick accent.

  "I am the leader of this pack. Be gone from this place, murderer!"

  Chelka sniffed the air, smelling smoke.

  "Your pack is burning, creature. Lead the rest away, or join them."

  "N-no. Weakness is death. All of them deserved their demise by your hand, servant of Sayl." The wolfen eyes locked on Chelka's still-smoking Stethian. "You wield the tormentor's weapon. Unholy! Unholy!" The wolf growled as the human mouth spoke.

  Chelka raised the stethian, drawing in magic from the current Ninafi had torn while evading the beast.

  "Do you have a name, creature?" she asked.

  "Fyon," said the human voice. "Of the Wolf."

  "So, there are others like you out there."

  "Kin of mine, but none like me."

  Ninafi stood trembling under the man's maddened gaze. She reached slowly for the sword at her belt. The wolf snarled. Wings beat. He leapt, turning toward Ninafi in the same motion.

  Chelka completed her sign of the star. Fire shot from her stethian to intercept Fyon along his path. The batwings thundered, pushing the creature backward to avoid Chelka's fire. The monster dropped onto the opposite slope of the roof from Ninafi, who stepped back in surprise.

  "Defend yourself next time," Chelka said to the other Saale. Her eyes tracked Fyon's movements. "He's impressively quick."

  Ninafi nodded. Fyon growled as he padded along the rooftop, human legs dangling on either side his wolf tail.

  "Deadly magic. But I am no prey animal. Not like her." The hybrid monster shot a smug smirk at Ninafi. "Females. Always prey. Soon you will both serve at my desire."

  Chelka shook her head.

  "You're pretty confident for dodging one attack."