The Ballad of Two Edge
Part Two
Life is hard, at first. Two-Edge doesn’t understand this new world. He can’t understand why Rain comes to his room every day, massaging his broken feet with this healing powers until the bones gradually begin to heal normally again. He can’t fathom why Rain’s pretty lifemate Moonsbreath brings him fresh bear-fat broth. Kindness... compassion... none of it makes any sense.
Two-Edge has a small room near the door to the Palace, and he seldoms leaves it at first. His bed is a stone slab covered in soft furs. His belongings sit on a stone shelf. Wolfriders bring him food. Sometimes Venka or Suntop peaks inside and asks to come in and talk.
Children – children are everywhere. Go-Back young run around happily. Many of the females are starting to swell as the first year passes. There will be more young soon. Tyldak’s mate Dewshine is now growing a little fatter every day. The bird-elf is so happy. He can’t wait to hold his baby son.
Did Winnowill long to hold her son as Two-Edge grew in her womb? Or did she feel nothing but a cold curiosity, as though watching ants scurry along the walls of the deeper caves?
Some Wolfriders live in the Palace. Others sleep out in caves dug in the frozen ground and shaped into the roots of the softwood trees. Rayek is always in the Scroll Chamber, studying the strange elfin magic. Sometimes Two-Edge watches him. Ever since Rain first touched him, Two-Edge has been learning how to send. Now he is recovering the power of his lost elfin blood. No, the low blood doesn’t cancel the high – so he must then understand the power of the high.
Suntop and Venka watch the Scroll turning too. Rayek wants Suntop to become Master of Palace one day. How nice it must be, to have such high ambitions for one’s child.
One night Two-Edge sneaks into the Swift-elf’s room. The family is fast asleep in their large stone bed. How foolish the elves are to sleep so soundly. He could murder them all if he wanted to. But he does not. Instead he stands and watches them. Swift lies on her back, her hair out of its little chief’s topknot. At her right side, Rayek is fast asleep, half-turned towards her. Suntop nuzzles against Rayek’s shoulder while Venka squeezes between her mother and father.
They all look so happy.
Madness! Who ever feels joy with their own young, or with their own parents?
Liar! Two-Edge’s heart rages. You remember. You and Mother and Father, in those few years under Blue Mountain... the laughter, the joy, the nights spent together in the same bed. Those few, precious years...
Two-Edge staggers away from the door to the wolf-chief’s room.
* * *
Exhausted, Rayek turns away from the Scroll. He cannot read the colours anymore. Two-Edge watches silently as the palacemaster collapses on the stone bench.
“Father?” Suntop asks.
“It’s nothing. I’m weary, is all.”
“Should I go get Rain?”
“No, son, I’m fine. Were you going to join your sister? Go, go, don’t waste a worry over me.” Rayek touched Suntop’s cheek. “I’ll come find you later.”
Suntop runs off. “’Bye, Father, ‘bye Two-Edge!”
Two-Edge slowly moves towards Rayek. Rayek gives him a weary smile. “You watch my children like a scavenger hawk, half-troll. Do you plan to eat them up one day?”
Two-Edge sits down, gingerly, on the edge of the bench. The stone is old – the fossilized remnants of the High One’s dead star. It does not quiver under his heavy weight. Daintier wooden structures have been less fortunate.
“What is it like to have a child?” Two-Edge asks hesitantly. “A wanted child.”
Rayek blinks. “Do you long for your own?”
Two-Edge shrugs. He looks down at his hands. They are so rough and calloused under the heavy gloves. “If I had a son... I would always cherish him... I would... never let him forget he is loved. But... but I would surely never have a son. It was enough... of a joke – a cruel joke – for Winnowill to have me! Life is not cruel enough to curse the world with a child of mine.”
Rayek shrugs. “One never knows.”
“Bah! Who would ever bear a child to a monster?”
Rayek is kind enough not to try to answer. Instead he gives Two-Edge a clumsy pat on the back. “All I will say is that Winnowill must truly be mad to inflict such pain on her own child. For I cannot imagine that my love for my children could ever tarnish into such hatred.”
Two-Edge glares at Rayek abruptly. “And if your daughter killed your mate in front of your eyes – tortured her to death while you were bound helpless? Would you still love her then?”
Rayek rises. “That will never happen, and so I cannot debate with you, Two-Edge.”
“Afraid to face it, Glider?”
“No. Confident I will never have to.”
“Never is a long time!”
Rayek gives him a thin smile. “Then perhaps you will have your son one day.”
Two-Edge hangs his head as the Master of the Palace walks away. Oh, he would love to have a child – a child to hold, to comfort. But what he would not give to be a child again, safe in his mother’s arms.
* * *
Many young are born, the second death-sleep after the Palace War. First comes Dewshine’s little boy – a floater, a Glider like his father! They call him Windkin, they name him a Wolfrider. But all know his heart – his soulname, they call it – is a Glider’s.
Pure blood. The other Wolfriders... they are not full elves. Two-Edge knows this. He overheard Winnowill hissing to herself in the darkness of Blue Mountain. They are impure – just like Two-Edge.
They don’t know that he knows this.
They are mostly elf... but part wolf as well.
So they can be both elf and wolf... but why can’t I be both elf and troll?
He asks Swift this, the night Windkin is born.
“I can’t tell you, Two-Edge. The answer is in your heart. You have to find the key to unlock it.”
Two-Edge smiles cruelly. “Only she can unlock this riddle.”
“Oh... Two-Edge...”
More young are born. Five Go-Backs are whelped, including a daughter of the white-haired brother of Swift Keen-Blade. How he is smiling, this Skywise, to see his daughter blink up at him with his own silver eyes.
Cruel joke! That Two-Edge should be surrounded with young.
He offers, clumsily, to help keep watch over all the babies. The Go-Backs only laugh. But Ekuar understands. The rockshaper forgave Two-Edge for all the pain the halfling caused him, and now he offers Two-Edge a change to help with the babies. He teaches the troll how to cradle a newborn gently. And in time Dewshine lets him climb up to her nest, set up high in the tallest spire of the castle-ship. She lets him sit and watch little Windkin as he smiles, as he nurses, as he laughs.
A child’s laughter...
How can something hurt so much, yet feel so good?
* * *
It is another year later. Rayek is hunting on stagback. Skot and Pike come along. Two-Edge follows a pace behind on his own stag. “We might need that big hammer of yours, crazy brains!” Skot laughs.
“Don’t call him that,” Pike hisses under his breath.
They have strayed far from the Palace and the Go-Back’s lodge. They are stalking snowbears. A large one left tracks near the western side of the mountain, and Skot wants to bring its hide back. Paugh! Go-Backs. Yet, in their way they are honourable as trolls. They know what they wanted and they make no attempt to hide it.
They play fair, at least.
The Wolfriders are off hunting on their own. Rayek doesn’t like riding wolves and keeps to the stags. Two-Edge imagines he likes to hunt with the Go-Back lad and Pike – the least wolfish Wolfrider of the pack. Some of Wolfrider elders still make Rayek feel the outsider – especially now that he is Master of the Palace. The elders don’t understand the castle-ship. They don’t want to understand.
Willing blindness. Two-Edge understands it well.
“Hey, what’s that up there?” Skot asks. He points into the clear spring sky.
“A bird,” Pike says. “Flying pretty low, huh?”
Two-Edge looks up. His heart freezes in his chest.
“That’s no bird,” Rayek breathes. “It’s one of the Gliders’ giant hawks.”
“The Gliders?” Pike whispers. “Oh, Bearclaw’s beard – not again!”
Skreeeeawwwww! The bird cries.
“NO!” Two-Edge screams.
“Two-Edge–” Rayek begins. He doesn’t hear it.
“She has come for me! She has not forgotten! I am found! The cell! The games! Rats! Spiders! Pain! PAIN! NOOOOO!”
He springs from his stag. He runs over the rocky plain. He runs until his heart pounds in his chest. But the bird spots him. Running only made things worse. The bird is curious now... even if its rider is not.
Curiosity! Cruel, vicious curiosity.
“Mother...” Two-Edge whimpers as he runs. “No...”
NOOO!
The bird swoops down. It snags him in its huge claws. It lifts off into the air, four talons crushing him in a vice. A cage! No! Not again. Two-Edge weeps. “Rayek! Help me!”
The bird lands on a rocky outcropping. It screams and caws at its prey. “Help!” Two-Edge wails. “The claws! He crushes me! Help me!”
“Aroree!” Rayek cries, somewhere in the distance. “Aroree – what are you doing here?”
Rayek floats up onto the cliff’s summit while Pike and Skot can only watch from far below. He rushes to help the troll as the bird’s rider flies down to examine what her mount has caught.
“Rayek! You... you did not die.”
“Small thanks to you, dear maiden.” Rayek’s voice drips with ice. “You and your kin abandoned us to the trolls. Now you have returned – and for what purpose, I wonder?”
“Help me! Stop babbling and help me!” Two-Edge screams.
“That voice...” the maiden whispers. “The voice from behind the walls. I have heard it often in Blue Mountain – thought I dream it! What are you?”
“He can answer you better, Glider, if he knows he will not be devoured.”
At length the claws release, and Rayek tugs Two-Edge free. Two-Edge growls, staggering to his feet. He turns on his tormentor.
He sees her.
He has seen this Chosen Eight in shadows and from a distance. But never has he looked up into her haunted eyes before. Her skin is made of the same powder pearl as Winnowill’s. Her limbs are just as long and elegant. But her eyes... they are so sad... tipped with dark golden lashes, brimful of untold ages of slow, carefully administered pain.
She has suffered... like him. He sees new scars in those sky blue eyes.
“Now...” Rayek crossed his arms. “Explain yourself, Aroree. The last thing we saw of you was your fleeing backside as the trolls fell upon us!”
“Please... Rayek... we... we had no choice. We had never seen such war. Our lord was dead... we... couldn’t...”
“Tyldak found the courage to stay and stand by his fellow elves.” His eyes light up. “Is that it? Have you come looking to drag him back to Winnowill? I imagine she rules the roost now that Voll is dead.”
“Please!” she cries. “I do not want to go back to Blue Mountain – to her! I came here to escape – but there is no escape. She is inside our minds – always! Always inside... always whispering – oh, the whispers in my mind, Rayek!”
Two-Edge chokes back a cry. He knows those voices well.
“Worse than when Lord Voll lived!” Aroree continues. “She feed on more than our dreams. They all sleep – all but the Chosen Eight who keep watch. She feeds off all their energy. She draws on their wills – all to build, to build the Great Egg.”
“The Egg? What of the Egg?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know!” Aroree collapses to the ground, weeping. Two-Edge kneels down and offers her a hand on her shoulder. Aroree flinches. Two-Edge scowls and looks away. Of course. What maiden would welcome his rough touch?
“She is always watching the Egg. It is... changing somehow. All the Gliders sleep and float in dreams, but the most powerful magic-users sleep suspended in the air above the Egg itself.”
“But you escaped Blue Mountain?”
“I... I flew! I had to. She sent me into the grove to find the Preservers. She wants to bind our bodies in endless sleep so that she may feed on our powers like a blood-bat. But I fled! I saw the clear sky and I raced north. I remembered... you and Tyldak... and I thought... perhaps you lived still. Perhaps you could give me shelter from her. Ohh, she is very angry now. I can feel her. She knows that I have fled beyond the grove. She tries to call me back. Please... please help me. Let me stay here. Chase her from my mind.”
Rayek frowns. It is all Two-Edge can do not to throttle him.
“Muckin’ Glider!” he shouts at Rayek. “Can’t you see? This is her newest game, and this maiden is just another pawn in her riddles! Send her back to Winnowill and she wins! Send her to Rain – to Rain! Make him chase away the voices.”
Rayek considers it. Then he nods slowly. “But you will leave your hawk here, Aroree.”
* * *
The Wolfriders gather around the Glider. Rain lays his hands on her cheeks and chases away the voices. Tyldak ventures close with Dewshine. Windkin floats in the air, tethered to Dewshine’s waist. Something happens. Aroree sees the child and a strange light strikes her eyes. Winnowill is working through her still. She lunges at the baby, weeping madly. She flies up, away from the tribal gathering outside the Palace.
But she cannot escape. Tyldak and Rayek seize her, drag her down to the ground. They want to kill her now, the Master of the Palace and the angry father. But Rain only seizes her anew and continues healing. At length Aroree’s wild screams begin to fade to whimpers and choking sobs.
“Forgive me, forgive me.”
“Why, Aroree?” Dewshine cries. “Why did you try to steal my baby?”
“I... I... forgive me! I only saw a floater... a chance to please my lord... a chance to escape. Perhaps... if I could give her a new life to raise... she would let me go.”
“Betrayer!” Tyldak rages. “You would have given that snake my son!”
“Shh. All of you,” Rain says. “Aroree is not herself. But she will be... soon.”
Two-Edge hovers nearby, watching closely as Rain heals Aroree. He watches the madness slowly begin to flee from her eyes. Oh, how brightly they shine now. The shadows are all but gone now.
Calmly now, Aroree tells them all more. Winnowill is trying to build upon the Great Egg. She wants to transform it into some sort of twin to the castle-ship. She wants to create a completely new world around the Egg... a world in which all sleep but she... a world where she rules all dreams. She plans to bind the Gliders in wrapstuff... and then she plans to strike out at all the magic-users... the Mother of Memory and the Sun Folk, Swift Keen-Blade’s twins... and the High One herself.
At this Timmain snorts loudly. How much does the wolf understand? Two-Edge knows all about her transformation to elf and then to wolf. Suntop told him. He understands. He too would love to change his form, to shed his strange halfling form and take on the clean body of a forest animal. Perhaps out of everyone, Two-Edge understands why Timmain did not remain as elf for more than a few minutes.
“We have to stop the Black Snake,” Swift says. “We cannot sit here and wait. She will send another to complete the task Aroree abandoned. She will capture Savah anew – but in body as well as in spirit. She will come after our lifemates and our cubs. Rayek, Tyldak, Suntop, Venka, Windkin, Ekuar... she will take all of them as her slaves. And as for the rest of us, we wolf-blooded elves, and the magic-less Go-Backs – there will be only torment and death. We must act now.”
“Aye,” One-Eye nods.
“Tell us what to do, Swift,” Nightfall says.
Swift forms a plan. She, Rayek, Skywise, the twins, and Redlance and Nightfall are going south to destroy Winnowill’s power. Their most powerful magic-users and their most fearless warriors – a good match. As the eldest Wolfrider, Rain will act as chief among the remaining elves. One call from Suntop and they will come down to help their kin.
But then Rayek approaches Two-Edge. He wants him to help the explorers... to show them a way into Blue Mountain.
“No... I cannot,” he stammers. “Don’t make me go back to her.”
“We need you, Two-Edge. You have lived free of her for three years. Aroree is in no shape to guide us. She must stay here and recover her strength.”
“No... no... don’t make me...”
“Two-Edge,” Ekuar asks gently. “Do you want Winnowill to come for us... and steal our babies?”
No... no. Not the babies. Not little Windkin and the Go-Back fawns. Not Suntop and Venka. “Yes,” Two-Edge stammers. “I will come help you.”
* * *
They set off. Rayek rides a stag, and Suntop sits behind him in the saddle. Venka rides her young wolf Patch alongside Swift astride her grisled wolf Skyfrost. Each day the snow is lighter, and each dawn the morning frost melts faster.
“I think I know now why Winnowill wishes to focus the power of the Gliders on the Egg,” Rayek says one day. “She means to turn it into a new Palace. Much as I’ve always said that the power of the Gliders might well be enough to make the Palace fly again, I believe Winnowill plans to build a twin to the Palace from within that great stone Scroll of Colors. By Yurek – Winnowill has the right idea but she goes about it the wrong way. If only we could heal her... she could be a match for Timmain.”
“And she’d kill us all before she’d let us lay a healing hand on her,” Swift says. “Remember that.”
Soon they can spot Blue Mountain as a tiny speck on the horizon. Soon it grows larger until Two-Edge recognizes the northeastern slope of the pyramid.
He can feel her... in his mind. She senses him... she is calling to him.
“Two-Edge?” Suntop asks.
His newfound sending gifts have become a curse now.
“Two-Edge...”
She is calling... whispering so seductively...
“Two-Edge... my son...”
“NO! No, I won’t be your pawn.”
“Two-Edge...”
“Two-Edge!” Rayek cries. But Two-Edge doesn’t hear him.
He only hears her now.
Sobbing, he flees. He cannot stay with them. He can go no closer to the mountain. She will sink her claws into her and never let him out of the cell again. He has to run. He has to hide. He will crawl deep under the ground, so far under the earth that even she cannot find him.
He abandons them less than a day away from Blue Mountain. He tell himself that he is helping them, by drawing Winnowill’s sending star away. But he is wrong.
They come on their hawks. The seven remaining elves of the Chosen Eight. Winnowill has spotted the elves in her mind. Two-Edge did not flee fast enough. And yet... had he lingered only a day longer... he could have protected his new family from the attack.
The Chosen Eight strike. They don’t want Two-Edge. No, they want Suntop. Venka is nothing, Winnowill coos later. It would be best for all if the Chosen Eight can kill her in the attack. But Suntop is the link. He is the last missing piece in her newest puzzle.
The Chosen Eight strike. The adults defend the babies. They know the hawks’ attacks now, and they hide in the trees so the hawks cannot pluck them off the ground. They blind two of the birds. They save Suntop. But the Chosen Eight take Swift instead.
No! Not the Keen-Blade. She will not survive her trip to Blue Mountain this time.
Two-Edge sees it all. But he is too afraid to stand out. He doesn’t want to be caught by the hawks again. They will tear him to pieces this time. So he watches from the shadows as Swift is taken away.
“Mother! Mother!” the twins cry.
They have taken away the babies’ mother. No. No more children will cry because of Winnowill. Two-Edge cannot face them after his failure. But he can help them recover their mother.
Two-Edge turns and runs towards Blue Mountain.
* * *
Two-Edge slips in to Blue Mountain from the northeastern flank. Carefully picking his way through the old tunnels, he seeks out Winnowill’s chambers. The humans who once roamed free – the humans who once loved her – are now sealed behind spiked stone bars... just as Two-Edge once was. Old ones... young ones... all locked, unable to do more than watch Winnowill’s evil with mournful eyes.
In the smallest cage, tucked into a natural recess in the rocks, Swift lies on the floor. Her prison is so small that she cannot stand, even if she had the strength. She is exhausted by the physical attack, and Winnowill’s psychic torments. Her eyes are distant. Her skin is white. Two-Edge recognizes all the signs. She has fought with Winnowill for over a full day, but she hasn’t the strength to go on. Now and then she locks eyes with the humans in their cages. One of the older men smiles gently. It seems to them that a young spirit-child has been imprisoned.
They are right, in their way.
Two-Edge doesn’t dare send. So he whispers. “Swift-elf, Keen-Blade.”
“Two-Edge? Where were you...? The hawks...”
“Shh. Your kin are coming.”
A dark shadow appears against the far wall. Two-Edge retreats.
“Two-Edge...” Swift pleads.
No... he cannot face her. He will have to wait until she is gone.
But Winnowill does not come alone. Two of the Chosen Eight are there. Reevol and... Kureel, he realizes. Winnowill gestures to the cage. Reevol has some rudimentary rock-shaping powers, and he melts the bars away. Swift tries to rise, but she is too tired. Reevol and Kureel seize her and drag her out behind Winnowill.
“Two-Edge...” Swift moans softly. Winnowill glances back into the shadows. She knows Two-Edge is there. But she knows he cannot face her. She smiles smugly. And Two-Edge remains in the darkness, shivering with terror.
* * *
He follows them all the way to the Egg Chamber. The Egg is slowly changing, shaping. Paralyzed Gliders float everywhere. Swift lies on one of the fur-covered benches. Her eyes dart around. But she cannot move. She cannot even move her lips. She is paralyzed as surely as the others.
Winnowill sits at her side. “I know you think me a monster, Swift. But I have only the highest hopes for our kind. I only want the best for all of us. Don’t you see? The Egg is the answer. The Palace lies dead and useless. But two more layers are even now being added to the Egg – eight in all. The Egg will be the new castle-ship. It will travel to the Frozen Mountains and absorb the Palace of the High Ones – along with the attendant spirits bound to the time and world in which it exists. All living, pure-blooded magic-users, all healers and gloaters, fire-makers and shapers of every kind will then be called to the Egg. With that much power we will escape this World of Two Moons! Wrapped in Preserver cocoons, all but myself shall travel in endless sleep among the stars. I shall make certain that former grievous errors are not repeated. Only in dreams will we visit other worlds, take on other shapes, experience through other. I shall permit no physical risks to be taken. No quest, no battles, no blending of strange blood with our own. But before we leave, the Egg’s power shall erase every trace of the Firstcomers’ great blunder!”
And then his dark mother smiles. “Your tribe will perish. But for you I have a gift. Your lifemate... your son... even your meddling daughter, all are pure-blooded and powerful magic-users. It would grieve me to see them suffer at losing you. So I shall make you pure, perfect and eternal like the stars. And then you can fly with us.”
Two-Edge shudders. But he cannot act. He dares not.
Winnowill’s fingertips caress Swift’s temples.
“I will purify you...”
Swift cannot move. She cannot scream. All she can do is let the tears stream down her face as Winnowill’s slowly, painfully, draws out every trace of the mortal wolf element in her blood.
* * *
Swift lies helpless on the bed. She has lain there for three days now. Winnowill has tortured her in agonizingly drawn-out sessions. More than once, she drew Swift to the edge of death with her “cleansing”, only to heal Swift so she could begin again. Swift is visibly gaunter now... she has neither eaten nor slept for four days. If only Winnowill would leave. But while she sits so proudly next to her prisoner, Two-Edge cannot act.
Two-Edge senses the others. The Wolfriders have answered Suntop’s cry for help.
He cannot face Winnowill. But he can help the others enter the mountain.
He runs to the side door near Winnowill’s chambers and opens it. He retreats quickly. He does not want the elves to find him. He cannot face them. Not until Swift is safe.
The rescue party charges down his tunnel. Skywise leads the way, followed by Suntop, Venka, Rayek, Rain, Clearbrook, One-Eye, Strongbow and Moonshade. Warriors and elders, yes... good.
Will they find Swift in time? The transformation is almost complete. The Egg is almost finished. The tunnels are collapsing, twisting... shaping. Two-Edge struggles to escape the side tunnel he took back to the Egg Chamber before it smushes him like a fly between fingertips.
Two-Edge hears Strongbow sending a call to Winnowill’s Door. The Door opens, then closes anew. Two-Edge hears a distant cry of pain. Someone has been caught in the rock.
But the others are still coming. They have now been separated by the shifting rock. But they are coming, drawn by Swift’s silent cries of pain.
It will all be over soon... one way or another.
* * *
Rayek breaks into the Egg Chamber. He is well ahead of the others. Winnowill smiles warmly. “Ah... my friend, at last. Welcome, dark brother. Come see the work I have done.”
Two-Edge takes up his position high above the chamber. He watches as Rayek take two steps towards Winnowill, then falters. No! Why does he slow? Has the snake worked her magic already?
“What have you done to her?” he manages to gasp.
“Rayek...” Winnowill whispers seductively. “Dear brother of my soul...”
No! Two-Edge rages silently. He knows that tone. He remembers how she used it against his father.
“Release her...” Rayek stammers.
“Of course, dear heart, if you so wish it.” She draws on her gown, to better expose a long leg. “You see I have purified her... as a gift to her. She can now live forever... just like you.”
Rayek’s eyes widen. “Like me?”
“Yes... you understand, do you not? The Egg is complete – a perfect new vessel for all pure-blooded elves. We will travel the stars together... all of us.”
Rayek staggers closer, Winnowill wraps her arms around his shoulders teasingly. “The stars beckon, do they not?” She brushes his cheekbones with her fingertips. “Dear Rayek... are you truly willing to remain earthbound?”
“No...” he licks his lips nervously. “No... we belong in the stars...”
“Yes... I see you know my heart. And now that you are here with me... there will be no more withholding, no more waiting...”
She eases off his headband. She frees his hair and runs her fingers through it.
“Can your primitive mate there truly understand the fires that drive your soul?”
“You... cannot deceive me... snake...” Rayek stammers.
Oh, he is fighting. His is a strong will. But none can resist her.
“Join me, Rayek. Under our guidance the Egg will soar freely through the heavens. And you will be free of all this world’s constraints... you will be a High One!”
“And Swift...”
“She will see all the stars with us. She will raise your children to cherish all the powers of our kind. The five of us... we will be as one... Rayek...”
She kisses his lips. He returns the embrace. At length they part and Rayek stammers one final, feeble denial.
“Rayek....” Winnowill purrs. “Join with me... I have completed Swift... let me complete you...”
“Yes...” Rayek bent his lips to her throat. “I see now...”
Two-Edge bit his lip to keep from screaming in horror. Will they join right beneath Swift’s paralyzed body?
Suddenly Rayek draws the dagger at his side. He plunges it deep into Winnowill’s breast. She cries out and collapses to the floor.
**RAIN!** Rayek sends desperately. **We need you now!** He falls at Swift’s side. “Swift... Swift... lifemate... can you hear me?”
Swift can only cry more silent tears.
“Traitor...” Winnowill stammers. She yanks the dagger from her breast. Already she is healing herself. “I will see you burn!!”
Rayek winces under the power of her black sendings. But he does not leave Swift’s side.
“Winnowill!” Rain shouts as he races into the Egg Chamber. The twins follow behind him. Winnowill turns from Rayek and shoots terrible black sending stars into their very minds. But Rain and the cubs hold their ground.
**Winnowill!** he sends clearly. **A healing is needed here! It has been needed for a very long time.**
**Now the hurts will stop!** Suntop sends.
**A healing!** the three send together.
Winnowill screams. She crumples to the floor.
Rain breaks from the cubs to heal Swift. In a moment she is freed of Winnowill’s spell. She staggers to her feet and adds her own sending stars to the cry.
**A healing! No more bad dreams.**
Winnowill is near total collapse. Two-Edge seizes his chance. He leaps down to join them. He adds his sending to the others’.
“NO! Filth! You came to see me fall!” Winnowill screams.
**A healing, Mother!**
“NOOO!”
Still bleeding a little, worn out from the psychic duel, Winnowill’s strength leaves her. She is fading fast. She cannot run. She cannot hide. The game is almost over. At last she falls over, unconscious. Quickly the Preserver Two-Edge hasn’t noticed until now sweeps in. It bundles her tight in wrapstuff. Then Rain lays his hands on the cocoon and continues his healing.
Rocks begin to cascade from the ceiling. Rayek helps Swift to her feet. They stare at Two-Edge. He turns away.
“We have to get out of here!” Swift cries. “Without Winnowill something’s gone wrong.”
“The Gliders!” Rayek looks up at the sleeping elves. “It is their doing. They are bringing this mountain – this Egg – down!”
“Rain! Rain. You can’t heal her now. Rain – snap out of it. We have to get out of of here.
“What about Skywise?” Suntop cries.
“Skywise? Where is he?”
She sends silently. Then she turns back to Two-Edge. “Take her!” she says. She points to the cocoon. “Take her out of here. She cannot die. She must live, so Rain can finish the healing. Rain! Wake up. Come out of the trance.”
Rain finally awakes from the healing trance. More rocks fall around them now. Two-Edge gathers up the cocoon in his arms.
She is so light.
“Rayek,” Swift turns. “Can you fly Rain and the twins out?”
Rayek nods. “I can – just barely. But you –”
“I’m going to get Skywise.”
“You are still so weak.”
“I know his soul. I can find him. Take Rain and the cubs. Go. I’ll find you outside.”
She and Rayek embrace quickly. Their tears stain each others' cheeks. Then Rayek is gone, Rain on his back, a cub in either arm. Swift turns to Two-Edge. “GO!”
Two-Edge turns. He runs. The walls are shivering now. Everything will fall soon. Two-Edge turns the corner, disappears down a buckling staircase. No, he won’t go outside. He won’t see the sun again.
He goes deeper, deeper, until he finds Winnowill’s old chambers. They are mutated now. The humans who were once imprisoned there are all dead, crushed by the rocks. All that remains are twisted symbols and shapes, crumbling into dust.
Two-Edge sits. He lays Winnowill’s cocoon in his lap.
“Soon... Mother...” he croons softly. “It will be over soon.”
* * *
He hears distant voices... as if in a dream.
“We’re out!”
“Thank High Ones, it’s almost ov–”
“Whoa! We’ll never get down!”
“Swift! There you are! There was no way back in!”
“Rayek!”
“Come, I will lower you both to the ground.
“And Door too. We can’t leave him”
“What?! No, you oaf! It’s too mmuu-uucccch–”
“There’s my lass! I’ve got you!”
“Ooophh... Rayek...”
“Unh... here, Swift... though a little worse for wear...”
**Two-Edge!** Swift’s sending star touches him. **We are all outside! Where are you?**
**Go away...** he send back. **Leave me.**
She senses the truth. **Are you mad? You two can’t stay in there! She can’t die! She’ll only infect the world with her black spirit! You know this! Two-Edge!**
He locks her from his mind. He looks down at the cocoon.
The Egg is swaying in the air now.
Two-Edge tears open the cocoon. Winnowill yawns softly as the magical sleep leaves her. She looks up. Her eyes are blue now.
“Mother...” he whispers.
The Egg falls.
Elfquest copyright 2014 Warp Graphics, Inc. Elfquest, its logos, characters, situations, all related indicia, and their distinctive likenesses are trademarks of Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Some dialogue taken from Elfquest comics. All such dialogue copyright 2014 Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Alternaverse characters and insanity copyright 2014 Jane Senese and Erin Roberts