Alena attacked, vanishing and reappearing behind the queen. She drove her fist into the queen’s kidneys, gloating at the feel of her blow striking true. The punch folded the queen in half and sent her skipping across the roof.
Before the queen came to a stop, Alena vanished and reappeared again, this time directly in the path of the queen. She kicked, the blow launching the queen high into the air.
Alena imagined a sword in her hand and it was there.
It was time to end this.
She vanished and reappeared again, this time in the sky, again in the path of the queen. She raised her sword and cut.
But her sword didn’t cut through the queen’s body. It struck steel, the sound deafening. The queen now held her own sword, and had blocked Alena’s cut with ease.
Alena swore as she saw the queen grinning viciously.
She swore again as the queen’s image blurred and she found herself impaled on the queen’s sword.
The queen flung her down. Alena crashed against the roof, sending shingles flying in all directions. She clutched at her side as her lifeblood drained from her.
Landow flickered, and she remembered this was a soulwalk. She took a deep breath and imagined herself whole and healthy.
And she was.
Alena stood up.
She’d lost the element of surprise. Now it was just her against the queen.
She gripped her sword so tightly her knuckles turned white. The queen controlled an entire continent and had lived more lives than Alena could imagine.
Despite that, she was bouncing on her toes. She leaned forward, ready for the queen’s next move.
She wanted this.
The queen vanished, and Alena formed a sphere of protection. The queen’s sword cut into the sphere. The protection didn’t stop the cut, but it did slow the attack enough for Alena to respond.
She didn’t bother with the sword. Instead, she stole another idea from the queen. She imagined a sky full of spears, all pointing at the queen. Then she threw them all.
Alena turned to see her enemy impaled by nearly a dozen spears.
Unfortunately, the queen had protected her head and torso. None of the spears were immediately fatal, and soon they fell away from her body, which healed a moment later.
The queen studied her, and Alena’s own mind raced.
Killing most people in the soulwalk would be a simple matter. But Alena realized that killing an experienced soulwalker of equal power might be a challenge she wasn’t prepared for. Damage could happen almost instantly, but both Alena and the queen now shielded their most vital organs, and wounds could be healed as quickly as they were made here, so long as one kept their focus.
Alena settled in for a long fight.
But the queen didn’t attack.
“Join me.”
Alena took a step back. “What?”
“I need warriors like you.”
Alena prepared another attack, this one a single spear floating in the air over her shoulder. Perhaps she could throw it hard enough to pierce the queen’s shield.
The queen didn’t defend herself. Instead, a creature appeared between them, one fashioned from the queen’s knowledge. It appeared far less serpentine than Alena had seen before, but still recognizable.
The creature from the tunnels.
The creature that killed those that came before.
It radiated a cold menace, its regard gelid, making the queen seem a roaring campfire in comparison.
“You’ve seen this before, haven’t you?” the queen asked.
Alena nodded. “They killed those that came before.”
“I didn’t think anyone in your empire knew that.”
Alena realized she and her brother were probably the only two. “Not many do,” she admitted.
“They return, even now, as we speak.”
Alena took another two steps back, as though distancing herself from the representation between them would keep her safe. “You’re certain?”
“I am. Will you soulwalk with me?”
Alena suspected a trap. How could she not? And yet, curiosity pulled her forward, relentless. She protected herself, strengthening her shield even more. “Very well.”
The queen used their existing connection. She took Alena, not pulling her, but guiding her.
For the first time, Alena understood how little distance could mean to a soulwalker. And she understood how hopeless beating the queen in this space was. They traveled from Falar to the land of the queen in less than a heartbeat, then connected to a gate on a different continent. The queen made each act seem as easy as breathing, though Alena would have struggled to complete such tasks.
For a brief moment, Alena felt the presence of others. She expanded her sense, finding a dozen priests, all interconnected in a complex web with the queen and the gate. But the threads binding them weren’t just of connection.
They were also of compulsion.
Before Alena could even consider the implications, her attention was focused by the queen’s interaction with her gate. She learned more in a moment of studying the queen’s soulwalking than she did in a week of learning on her own.
The gate now served as a passage. The queen dove into and through the gate, launching herself untold distances.
Alena could do little but observe, events happening too fast for her to understand.
As usual, distance meant little in the soulwalk, but when they encountered the creatures, all Alena knew was that they were very, very far away. Farther even than some of the stars that lit the night sky. But the strength of the creatures was beyond reckoning. The only comparison Alena could make was that of the source of the gates’ power. And it was possessed by each.
But they were cold.
How did an insect understand the power of a human? The thought was the closest she could come to explaining what she felt, but even that didn’t accurately describe the separation. The queen was nothing but a child compared to these beasts.
They were ancient. Alena’s own life would be nothing but a blink compared to what they’d already lived. They might be mortal, but were so close to eternity the distinction barely mattered.
Her blood froze just contemplating them.
They sensed the queen’s presence.
They sensed Alena.
But they didn’t care.
They approached at speeds faster than Alena believed possible, and yet the distances were so
