Page 96 of The Gilded Ones

Down, Ixa! I command, lifting my shield.

Ixa huddles into the sand as the arrows rain down. Bloodcurdling shrieks are now shattering the air, sending many of the soldiers to their knees. The smell of piss and vomit rises, soldiers convulse off their horses. They’re not used to the deathshriek screams the way the jatu and we alaki are.

Above the din, the generals call to the troops from their mammuts. “Prepare yourselves!” they shout.

It’s already too late. The deathshrieks are bursting through the mists, their bodies covered in crudely fashioned leather armour, their hands holding weapons – actual weapons. Massive swords and maces flash as they cut a bloody swath through the army, heading in our direction. The advance troops immediately assemble, trying to block the path to the emperor.

“Use your voice, Deka!” the emperor shouts to me. “Use your voice!”

I nod, fumbling to pull down my helmet so my face won’t be seen. I notice something strange out of the corner of my eye – a leaper deathshriek with bright red spikes running down its back. Those spikes rattle in the wind, looking familiar – achingly so.

“Deka!” the leaper shouts, jumping over the assembled ranks. Its voice is clearer than any other deathshriek I’ve ever heard. “Deka, stop! It’s me!”

Tears sting my eyes, and my hands tremble.

Why do I feel like I’m seeing a long-lost friend?

“Deka!” Keita’s voice is strangely close to my ears. “Use your voice, Deka!”

I raise my hands, channelling power, but stop when the leaper frantically does the same, holding out her own hands.

Her hands?

Why do I think the deathshriek is female? They’re all male, that’s what we’ve been told. That’s what we’ve always seen.

A shadow falls over me – Keita’s. “Deka, pay attention!” he shouts. “Kill the deathshrieks!”

“Yes,” I say, turning away from the strange leaper.

I will my power to rise again, letting it surge through every part of me. “STOP WHERE YOU—”

“DEKA, IT’S ME, KATYA!” the leaper shouts in that strange, clicking language, breaking into our ranks.

“Katya?” My hands fall to my sides.

No, it can’t be. I remember Katya, red hair spilling, skin turning blue as that deathshriek ripped out her spine. “You can’t be Katya!” I reply in Oteran. “This is a trick! You’re trying to trick me!”

Keita looks from me to the deathshriek. “Deka?” he asks, shocked.

The leaper hurries closer, batting aside any soldiers in her way. The battle is still raging around us, but somehow it feels like we’re the only two here. “No, Deka, it’s the humans that are tricking you! This is what happens to us when we die our final deaths. This is what we become! You have to come with us, hurry!” she clicks.

“Us?” I ask, the blood rushing past my ears. “Who is us?” I whisper.

“Deathshrieks and alaki!” Katya cries. “We’re one and the same! When an alaki dies her final death, she is reborn as a deathshriek! The emperor knows that. That’s why he’s using you to kill us. He’s using you to destroy your own kind. He wants us all to die, for ever this time!”

The earth falls out from under my feet.

“No…” I whisper. “It can’t be.” But even as I say this, I remember the long-ago conversation I had with White Hands, remember her words. “Till our empire is free of those monsters.”

Is this what she was talking about? Is this what she meant?

“Deka,” Keita says, grabbing me. “What do you mean, Katya? Is that thing saying it’s her?”

He looks back at her, repulsion visible in his eyes. I can imagine what he sees – a deathshriek, snarling and horrific, but that’s not what I see now. All I see is my friend Katya, her deathshriek form still pale, and that red hair transformed into bright red spikes.

It’s truly her.

Even after all our prayers that she would have a peaceful afterlife, here she is, again on the battlefield.

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