Cities of Power Ch. 06

"I guess they can all fix a pot and make nails and braces. Cobalt is strong, like, inhumanly strong, and can smelt the ore from rocks better than anyone else. He is best at making the metals from raw materials, but he can use it in the forge as well. Emery is more of an inventor, he can work out how things should work and then build them. He gets caught up in the design phase though, and there are a lot of unfinished inventions that go back into the smelting pot," she laughed.

"Flint can make and do, though, like Mica?" Venn asked and smiled when she nodded. "Let's go have some fun with Mica," he chuckled.

Trix was laughing as Venn told Mica that they had obviously not taken the best of the metal workers and he could go home now that they had found Flint. Mica had raged indignantly until he realised Venn had been teasing him, but the whole scene was so hilarious that half of the came had been caught up in the joke.

Trix felt a subtle change in the air and looked around, her belly rolled and she felt nauseous. There was something wrong, something very wrong. She put her hand to her chest and grasped her pendant. It was ice cold and she cried out, "Talon!" Her knees buckled before he got to her and Flint was there sweeping her up into his arms and running for the tunnels.

"Stay alert!" Talon advised the warriors, who all stood now ready for attack and retreated, following in the direction Flint and Emery had run with Trix.

"Pyre is down too!" Char shouted, and went to the fire elemental who lay twisted in pain on the ground.

Within the fortress the three magicians flew through the mists to the source of the attack. The fourth followed close behind, watching and learning as the trail became brighter and stronger.

"Did you think we would just bow down and let you treat us like children?" a grotesque black figure asked. "Did you think we would not retaliate?"

"You are but a child," the spirit form of Ayla answered. "The baby is dead, so kill me if you must, my job is done!"

Judah reached out with a spirit hand and snapped the neck of the black mass and saw in the blink of an eye the men and women who had lent him their life essence fall with him. The fate of Pegasus was sealed now, and raised his hand as if to destroy more of the arrogant simpletons that lived there.

"Stay your hand, brother," Gabriel said sternly. "Ayla searches for the one that would lead them back."

"They are locked beneath the city in the penitent cells, I do not know how many still live!" she gasped.

"We will take the quorum and go to them with the dawn," Gabriel said. "Let us go back and tend the unicorn."

"There's so much blood!" Flint cried, looking at his hands as Talon held Trix's lifeless body to his chest. "There's too much blood!"

"Out of my way, young Hawk, she is not dead yet, nor will she be, if I have anything to say about it. Jade!" Ayla screamed the name, but the girl was already there laying her hands on the abdomen of the lifeless girl.

"Come, let us make plans for war. Gather your captains, the time is near!" Judah said seething at the loss of so much life because of one man's arrogance and stupidity.

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