Boltanis's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

The ember beast closed fast. Boltanis knelt on the dry shelf, hands shaking on the dead tortoise. His legs would not answer. The new power sat inside him, warm and heavy, a pull toward every buried scrap of metal in the mud. He could feel it. He just could not stand to use it. So he used it from his knees. Boltanis slapped both palms on the tortoise's shell. The plates were thick steel, bolted over the creature's back. He reached for the pull the way he reached for his own breath. The shell tore loose from the body and rose. It hung in the air before him, spinning, dragged along by his will. The ember beast was ten paces out. Its jaws threw orange light. Cracks glowed along its black rock skin. It roared and lowered its head to ram. Boltanis aimed the shell. Behind the beast stood a cluster of gem rock, jagged crystals jutting from the ground, taller than a man. He flexed the power and threw. The steel shell shot sideways, not straight. It slammed into the beast's shoulder and knocked it off its line. The beast stumbled. Then the pull kept dragging, and the shell carried the stunned creature with it. Metal and beast crashed into the gem rock together. The crystals cracked. The beast's skull hit stone with a wet sound. It twitched, then lay still. The glowing cracks in its hide dimmed to dull red. Boltanis dropped his arms. The pull faded. His whole body ached. He sat in the mud and breathed. The silence did not last. The gem rock groaned. Boltanis looked up. The crystals were not stone. They were a shell, a thick ribbed husk the size of a small house, rooted into the ground on twisted legs. The crash had split it open. Dark windows gaped in its surface. Something lived inside. A shape poured out of the broken husk. It moved on four legs, long and low, with a narrow head and a mouth full of teeth. Pale cords trailed from its neck and whipped the air. Its scales caught the light like oiled armor. The thing fixed its eyes on Boltanis and the dead beast between them. It did not charge. It studied him. The cords lifted and tasted the air, slow and careful. This was no dumb animal. It was hunting. Boltanis tried to rise. His knees buckled again. The draining weakness still gripped him. He had spent his strength breaking one monster and had woken a worse one. He got one hand under himself and pushed. His arm trembled. The creature took a single step toward him, then stopped, as if deciding how much he was worth. "Well," Boltanis said. His voice came out rough. "You're new." The creature opened its mouth and hissed. Boltanis had no power left to take, and no legs left to run.