Series: Echoes of War — 4: Dances of War «

Paths of the Towers

Homesick I’m quiet as we enter the scout pod and rise toward Keesha’s ship. I smell the Fiklow pilot’s fear, and I can’t help but touch his thoughts. He wonders what I am. A Jiku wearing a Fiklow body? The shadow to the queen? Or a spirit from the world of the dead, come [...]

Stardust Rising

The Cave We glide quickly through the spinning, sparkling tunnel that leads from the Seven Towers to Siksa. An energy shield surrounds us and protects us from the wild energies of the tunnel, and whatever dangers we may find at tunnel’s end.

“Are you mad at me, Yagrin?” asks Dilasa, as she touches my [...]

Visions of Play

Story Music fills an open plaza near one of the river bridges, and bright spheres of colored ice dance in the air, fifty feet above the bridge. It’s warm in the city, but Mayla spins cool breezes around us to mirror the ice above.

There are crystal tables in the plaza arranged in a [...]

Star Voice

Away Shazira is furious. “You’re leaving?!”

I repeat what Mayla told us, and I try to explain, but Shazira continues to yell at me. Tzina and Dilasa come to our room, surprised by the yelling they hear when I open the privacy shield. Shazira stops when she sees the children.

“What’s wrong?” asks Dilasa [...]

Star Shadow

Star Map Morning comes. I walk around the starship as it rests on the sand, not far from the waves of the inland sea. Mayla’s new design is fast, elegant, and beautiful. The ship is eighty feet in diameter, reddish-gold, black, silver, and green.

When the city was built, no one planned to launch [...]

First Sting

Weapons Shazira sits next to me as the ship returns to Siksa. We’re quiet, and our spirits rest, together.

Dilasa sits on the other side of Shazira, and looks troubled. She turns toward me, and I sense her mind touch, and her fear.

“How do we stop the Spiral, ina?” “Don’t you need a [...]

Oceans of Fire and Light

A Good Death Dilasa and I walk again on Sinesu, among shattered, blood-stained pieces of Sindar’s monument. Nearby, one of the large, automated weapons sits, quiet and dark. Part of the vision has come true Wisten is dead and the monument gone, but the town survives with little damage, and we’ve driven away the [...]

Death Cry

Lost Mayru I return to Keesha’s ship, and share my memories of the Mayru, growers of stars, children of the star spirits.

“How will they help us defeat the Spiral, ina?” asks Dilasa.

“I don’t know,” I answer, frustrated, “but their destiny is tied up with ours.”

“Let’s look for a vision,” she suggests. [...]

Awakening

Cocoon “Now, you want to let the Spiral go?!” yells Dilasa. “It has to die.”

“It’s already dead, Dilasa,” I answer quietly. “The group mind is shattered, and the energy gone.” “Only a few spirits remain.”

“I don’t care,” she says. “Kill them all.”

“The remaining spirits are too weak to join together again, [...]