Page 126 of Shifter King

It thrummed and pulsed around him, expanding.

Three more mantises shot in. Their tra-based devices exploded and caught fire before they were within twenty feet. Down they fell onto the dew-soaked grass.

They wanted him to go someplace. They were herding him. Didn't matter.

His gaze turned again to the tower. Sunlight reflected off it, sparking and brightening. More rage burned within him. Perhaps Amelia was in there. They'd hidden her scent. She could be.

He charged forward, claws digging deep. More and more mantises swarmed toward him. As they struck the outer range of his raiku form, they lurched and jolted, the tra exploding within their devices and short circuiting through their entire bodies.

His vision hazed. More waves poured over him, dark and unrelenting. Shutting his eyes, he thrust it back and kept running.

He struck sand.

More sand?

He turned slowly, trying to grasp where he was. A line of mantis corpses streamed behind him, strewn out on the grass in a blackened line. But he was now in a massive sand pit with coarse stone walls. There were others about. Vague forms. Vawtrians. Not Amelia.

He closed his eyes, struggling to focus. His mind burned now as well. Arcs of fire and electricity bent over his vision even in the darkness now, setting him ablaze.

A slightly larger than average golden fox shot out into the sand and seized a skinny girl by the back of her grey shirt. A fin shot at her, and a large blue-grey crab clipped at it. The jaws just missed, and the crab clattered away.

The small Vawtrians raced toward the stone walls. Others knelt and lifted them up.

Someone screamed, the words indiscernible. He lunged in that direction. A stone croc emerged, sand streaming off its back. He seized it by the tail and flung it away.

What did this have to do with Amelia? Where was she? How many people were even out there? Everything swam in this endless haze. All smelled dry and dead. Dust filled his nostrils.

A turquoise cradle-spined dragon landed a few hundred feet away, dropping its left wing and shoulders. Three of the smaller frail Vawtrians climbed on. The dragon hissed and bit at a silt squid that scrabbled up.

That smell was somewhat familiar—distant. AaQar? Yes. His brother.

Naatos staggered to the side, another wave of distorted images and tangled emotions pouring on him.

Yes. AaQar. And that was QueQoa dragging back a sand shark. WroOth had to be somewhere.

Good. Then—then this was where he was supposed to be.

So Amelia had to be close. Of course she would be. And they were rescuing the Vawtrian children. Babies.

So where was she? The tower caught his attention once more. Baring his teeth, he snarled, then charged.

* * *

This was nothow he had planned for the day to go. A rescue before the wedding? It hadn't even seemed like a possibility.

AaQar grabbed up the last of the weakened Vawtrians and put them on his back. "Hold tight," he commanded.

They grabbed hold of the great curved spines, some clenching their eyes shut as others remained crouched, poised to leap away if necessary. The sands moved beneath him, rumbling and stirring. It was coming, and it was angry.

He flung himself backward and then punched his wings down just as a sand shark lunged up out of the depths. Its fearsome jaws scraped along the outside of his chest, shaving off a few turquoise scales before it dropped back on the silt squid corpse. He punched his wings down once more and gained height.

Naatos staggered, grabbing at his head, still in raiku form. The lizard-lion shape with the broad energy charging centers had to be taxing him beyond strength. How was he still standing? Not only standing. Fighting!

AaQar hadn't intended to leap into this rescue with QueQoa, but it had seemed like allowing Naatos to fight these creatures might be enough to weaken and rouse him back to consciousness without too much risk. None of the creatures in the sandpit had venom.

It wasn't working quite as hoped. Naatos had certainly been serving enough of a distraction for them to get the Vawtrians out. But Naatos hadn't left the raiku form yet.

"Naatos," AaQar shouted down at him. "You must listen to me. I will take you to where Amelia is. But you have to come with me now."