*
“ . . . bhin . . .”
The feminine voice echoed around Ōbhin. His ears pricked up and he glanced out to his left to the distant glow of Avena’s group. Her lantern seemed to bob and wink out for a moment, blocked by an object. He frowned as he wondered if she was coming closer.
“This definitely leads up,” Dajouth said, peering up the sloping ramp they found. The wall to their right had collapsed, heavy stones crushing a metal carriage, part of its mangled body thrusting out from it. “I can hear space up there.”
“Yeah,” Dualayn agreed. “We should attract the others’ attention.”
“I think they’re coming towards us,” Ōbhin said. He could hear their footsteps, distant but thudding closer and closer.
“Ōbhin!” Avena shouted, her voice clearer. She was crossing the carriage house fast.
“Something’s wrong,” Ōbhin said, his hand on his sword. “Avena!”
The thudding grew louder and louder. It boomed with heavy steps. It seemed to echo all around them for a moment and then it was behind him. He turned his head, confused by what was causing it. He thought it was Avena and her group. The thudding grew louder, echoing from near the collapsed wall.
He frowned. The sound came from a dark spot he hadn’t noticed before. Something glowed. A faint red and green, like the mixed moonlight of Firedrop and Earthheart shining at the same time.
“What is that glow?” Dualayn asked, backing up.
A figure made of amethyst stepped into the carriage house. It held the rough shape of a man, its body faceted. It stood a head taller than Ōbhin, its conical crown just clearing the ceiling. A ruby glowed in the center of its chest while emeralds shone in various spots around its body. For eyes, it had diamonds. It creaked as it lumbered forward, the floor shaking from the impact of its step.
“Crystalman,” Dualayn croaked, voice as choked as Ōbhin’s throat felt.
It seemed to look right at Ōbhin and pause. He drew his weapon, breathing labored.
An ear-splitting shriek burst from the figure before it boomed words in a musical language Ōbhin didn’t understand.
Dualayn groaned.
Ōbhin activated his resonance blade.
Chapter Twenty-One
The ear-splitting alarm blaring from the crystalman assaulted Ōbhin’s ears. The world grew woozy, the sound knifing into his balance. Diamond eyes flared bright, focusing on him. The gemstone figure thundered towards Ōbhin.
“He called us ‘crystal flawers’!” Dualayn shouted. “I think it means intruders or something bad.”
“Niszeh’s Black Tone,” Ōbhin curse, dropping his lantern with a clatter, the diamond light winking out. The crystalman’s eyes shone brighter as it advanced.
Dajouth’s binder burst with amethyst light. Avena shouted his name. Ōbhin let it all fade as he focused on the hulking automaton lumbering at him. The ruby jewel in its chest, where its heart would be, drew his scrutiny. It had to be important. He shifted his stance, dropping out of his guard position to ready a strike.
Sweat dripped down his scalp as he waited for the perfect moment to attack. The ground shook with each of its steps. The diamond lights blazing from its eyes were almost blinding. The siren shrieked louder, his ears throbbing from the volume.
The crystalman entered his range.
He lunged forward, pushing off with his back foot. His sweat-soaked jerkin creaked around him. He slashed hard, the pitch of his sword humming louder. The crystalman’s arm drew back to deliver a punch, gemstone fingers curling into a fist the size of Ōbhin’s head.
His sword arced down into the chest and struck solid crystal.
The resonance blade should have cut through the amethyst with the same ease of a seamstress cutting through a bolt of linen. Taking no effort. Meeting no resistance. Instead, Ōbhin’s sword hit the gemstone and rebound though no barrier of amethyst energy had been thrown up. The shock of the impact shivered up the weapon and into his hand. Jarred up his humerus. His fingers went numb and his blade fell from his hand and clattered to the floor.
“Niszeh’s Black Tones!” he cursed in Qothian as the massive crystal fist barreled down at him.
He threw himself to the side out of desperation. The fist clipped his thigh. Bruising pain burst through his leg. The blow spun him. The dark world of the carriage house spun around him. He hit the ground hard on his belly. The loud smack echoed around him. Air burst from his lungs.
He coughed, gasping for air, dust billowing around his face.
The ground thudded. The crystalman loomed over him and drew back its arm for another fist.
“No!” someone shouted.
*
Avena dropped her lantern as the cry burst from her lips.
She didn’t think. Couldn’t think. Her lover lay on the ground. The crystalman—what else can it be? she’d thought when she’d seen it—prepared to deliver a fatal blow. She pushed the activation button on her earthen gauntlet. Green light flared around her arm.
She threw herself before the crystalman and thrust her right arm before her, palm open, fingers fuzzed numb. She had greater strength. Emeralds enhanced her limb. She felt it as she caught the fist threatening to kill Ōbhin.
Pain exploded in her shoulder. Though her arm had the strength to take the punch, the enhancing energy ended where the glove did. Thought it had a long sleeve, extending nearly to her shoulder, it didn’t reach there. Ligaments ripped. The ball of her humerus dislocated from her shoulder socket. The force of the impact threw her off her feet. She hurtled backward, howling in agony.
Her back struck the hood of one of the autonomous carriages. Metal groaned. She flipped and tumbled over it then fell off on the far side. She landed on the unyielding, dusty floor in a ball of groaning pain.
“Avena!”
Fingers knelt beside her, setting down his lantern. Bran and Miguil raced
