Chapter 30
Osid
As expected, Pebble abandoned us shortly after we exited the service elevator on the first floor.
The courtyard outside was a burning mass of chaos: Biwbanian guards flew around on their hover scooters, their wings a blur of colorful feathers flipping to and fro as they tried to give orders to one another.
Many of them were armed with their shock sticks, while others blasted beams of light from ray guns.
I had felt the sting from those weapons before, and it was enough to leave a grown man sobbing in a heap on the floor.
But the Biwban were losing. That I didn’t expect.
Sankado warriors, some dressed in battered Singing Arrow armor while most of them were clad only in the flowing breezy robes often favored by the Roamcrest, launched hunting spears at the Biwban, destroying as many of their hovercrafts as they could, while others hailed fireballs on any of the Biwban foolish enough to meet them on the ground.
At first their formation seemed frenzied, but there was a pattern to their charges.
And then I saw the humans.
Dozens of them weaved into the crowd. Some armed with wooden signs I couldn’t read, while others hurled rocks, sticks, anything they got their hands on.
None of them had any armor; the best of them only had a thicker jacket like the one Blair had brought.
All it would take was one blast from a Biwbanian ray gun and they would be skewered through.
But none of them cowered, none of them flinched.
They interwove themselves among the Sankado warriors, and when the hovercrafts swept lower to blast at my kin, the women hurled themselves into the line of fire.
And the Biwban didn’t shoot.
Their skittering hovercrafts veered away at the last second, no doubt unwilling to risk harming a costly human just to subdue the ragtag force.
The women knew this, and used it, forming a living wall that confounded the Biwban forces, allowing the Sankado to carve through them.
A gaggle of the women broke off to hold their signs up and chant, “We are sapient! We matter! We demand justice!”
I saw the same woman who had been guarding the young herder before.
She launched herself in front of a Roamcrest and spread her arms wide.
Even from this far away, I could see that her knees were shaking as she stared down the barrel of a ray gun.
The orange Biwban took aim, his feathers falling flat against his sides.
She didn’t budge. At the last second, he broke and flew off.
This was Lok’s plan.
On Sankatul, this would’ve been seen as a cowardly approach.
Females, especially ones as rare and precious as these, should never be used as shields.
Let alone without any armor to save them should things go wrong.
But the luxury of decorum doesn’t exist when facing an enemy that sees you as little more than a beast to be cattled and bred.
I whirled, seeking the man himself, and found him at the top of his mount, skewering a hover scooter straight out of the air.
The general was back in his fully armored regalia.
He paused to scan the carnage with the indifference of a seasoned battle strategist. He raised his spear and barked orders, and a herd of yix barreled through the courtyard wall, trampling a squad of Biwban holding shock sticks.
The yix swung their large spiked tales like clubs, causing the incoming Biwban to steer clear of them.
Next to me, Sunbeam’s mouth watered as she stared at the carnage. “So. Much. Food.”
Blair’s body tensed. “Remember, you’re only to eat the Biwban.”
I wasn’t sure if a T. rex had the ability to roll their eyes, but if she could’ve, Sunbeam would’ve. “Yes, yes,” she conceded. “I will eat only the tasty birds.”
With that, she launched herself into the fray. Humans and Sankado alike scattered in her wake, some screaming in terror. But when the T. rex merely jumped to snatch a hovercraft out of the air and devour its rider, the tensions eased and went back to fighting.
“Osid!” Lok roared over the crowd. I turned to find him waving me down toward the now-broken wall.
“Go,” Blair said. “I’ll help the other girls shield the Sankado.” She didn’t wait for my answer before she ran off.
A hovercraft swooped low toward her, and I shot it out of the air. It crashed into the tower with a satisfying boom.
A group of Biwban attempted to regroup, forming a ring at the courtyard’s far edge.
A few of them pulled out a net and attempted to fling it over a green-haired woman.
But two Roamcrest appeared beside her and launched fireballs at the net, burning a hole right there at the center before it fell uselessly around the three of them.
By the time I had reached Lok, he already had three of his own men bashing the courtyard wall, forcing its hole even wider. Turning to me, he said, “You’re about to have a crash course in herding. When the titanstalk comes, help us chase it straight into the left side of the tower.”
“Titanstalk?” I asked. “Where did you get a—”
A low bellow sounded off, shaking the ground beneath my hooves. Lok grinned wide as he kicked loose a brick, causing a large section of the wall to fall away. “To answer your question, the same way I won the battle of Camshar.”
I remembered the battle well. We had just cornered his army in a pincer maneuver. But a quarter of my fleet was decimated by a herd of rampaging nylos that came out of nowhere.
With another ground-shaking bellow, trees fell to the ground in the wake of a massive bull titanstalk heading for us.
The terrified beast was flanked by Lok’s own mates, Dory and Sol, mounted on their duckbills.
When the titanstalk tried veering into its left, Sol spat fire in the beast’s wake, scaring it into staying on course.
Lok grabbed my shoulder and pointed to a spot farther toward the tower. The Biwban had a ray gun aimed straight at his back, and I didn’t think before taking the spear from Lok’s hands and driving it through the Biwban’s skull. He looked almost impressed when I handed it back to him.
“Don’t look so surprised,” I said. “You showed up to help me, I’m hardly going to let you die now.”
The general smirked. “Forgive me for not jumping at the chance to believe your words.”
I heard Blair shout and turned to see her surrounded by a flock of Biwban.
They drove at her with shock sticks; one nearly made contact with her gut.
Blair managed to grab hold of it just below the shock tip when the Biwban thrust, but there were too many of them.
Before I could run to her, Sunbeam shot over and bit the head off a yellow Biwban; its body flopped like a wet rag before the T.
rex gobbled that up, too, and swung her head to finish off the next.
With her foot planted firmly on the body of her latest kill, Sunbeam made a low barking call before launching herself at more Biwban. Far beyond the wall, a returning bellow echoed on the wind. “Come, young ones,” she said. “Come and eat.”
I wanted to grab Blair, drag her behind some pillar, and hide her away until the battle was over.
But I had no doubt that she would slap the shit out of me if I tried.
Instead, I took my position where Lok commanded and waited for the incoming titanstalk.
It didn’t take long for the gargantuan beast to barrel into the courtyard.
It tried to head straight through, no doubt hoping to plow a path through the other side of the courtyard and escape.
But I and the other warriors were ready for it.
Heat rocketed from the base of my tail to the palms of my hands, and I blasted fire straight at the beast’s long neck.
It reared up on its hind legs with a terrified groan.
It landed with a thud, knocking me and the others off our hooves.
I recovered quickly and hailed fire at the bull’s side until it veered course and charged straight at the side of the tower.
Biwban tried to intercept and blasted at the dinosaur, trying to get it to turn.
But the low voltage of the ray guns did absolutely nothing against the beast’s thick hide.
A spear embedded itself into the engine of a hovercraft, and its rider was ejected out.
Short teal wings worked furiously as the Biwban tried to right itself from crashing into the ground, only for both of them to be ripped off when Sunbeam’s children descended upon the easy target.
The titanstalk slammed itself against the side of the tower, trying to get away from the incoming warriors.
A rain of debris scattered around the beast before it wailed, thrashing harder against the now-decimated building before kicking a path through the wall and escaping.
The tower groaned like a dying beast before it sagged to one side.
Windows burst, spraying the yard with glass.
Equipment, files, and various machinery spewed out into the yard.
Frantic Biwban flew out of the tower as sirens blared.
Something floated out of the higher floors of the tower. At first, I only saw it as a shape in the haze of smoke. The wind changed, carrying the stench of salt, sea air, and something almost rotten.
Whatever it was, the Biwban recognized it instantly and ceased fighting.
Those engaged with their hovercrafts immediately flew up out of the Sankado’s reach and waited as the being floated down to the floor.
Our forces paused to look at the strange shape.
Even Sunbeam, full of bloodlust as she was, felt compelled to pause in the presence of something so fundamentally other.