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Cold wind swirled and eddied in the roo out at the things that attacked theround and shattered, frozen solid
Oliver swung Hunyadi’s sword His arms and face were streaked with red lashes froed to keep theend-Born safe as his first priority
A large section of the glass wall had beco in Blue Jay’s sto if Grin and Cheval could survive such a fall
As the room filled with more jellyfish, more eels, he knew
"Frost!" he shouted
The winter man and Oliver both turned to look at him
"We’re screwed Get the hell out of here"
Even as the words left hishe had ever heard, mournful and full of surrender He spun to see that in seconds, Kitsune had been overwhelmed by the jellyfish They lashed themselves to her face and hair Some wrapped around her arling there
Kitsune ran for the shattered
Oliver reached out for her as she passed hiret and terror in that glance The trickster lunged after her as well, but he was too far away Kitsune seele breath hanging in lass above the shattered section of , and it cracked, spiderweb fractures running through the glass as he reached out and grabbed hold of her cloak, that copper-red fur, glittering in the sunshine
The jellyfish attached to Kitsune stung his hand, several of theers
Kitsune caught Blue Jay’s eyes as she fell Herwords none of theht have said I’m sorry, but he couldn’t be sure
"No!" Jay shouted
Oliver stepped back frolass wall
Blue Jay didn’t slon He barreled past Oliver and out into the air above the plaza The beauty of Atlantis, its ant curves spread out before hiht his breath, wondering if this would be the last thing he ever saw
The trickster bent, ars once more They blurred beneath his arms and he felt--as always--the pull of his other forht was such pleasure to him But the blue bird could not save Kitsune Only the trickster could help her now
It felt like fire The stings of the jellyfish burned her flesh and their venoh her blood The stones below rushed up to meet her and Kitsune relished their approach, the escape froers, she traced the air, feeling it rushing between thes twisted and her free ar New stings pierced her and she wanted to let go, to fall, but the hand would not let go
"Change!" Blue Jay shouted at her
Her weight dragged on hi on the air, the only way he could stay up without becos that blurred, barely visible, under his ar down to the center of herself where there was no pain, no fear--where there was only the fox--Kitsune changed Her flesh rippled Her fur clung to her, and as it did the jellyfish were shed from her body She diminished into the fox--her spirit did not diminish with her flesh, however The jellyfish on her head and forelegs were still there, too
Blue Jay touched the ground He reached down and stripped the last of the jellyfish froreat plaza Her veins were on fire with venom, her skin lashed and scarred Kitsune could not rise
On her side, the fox saw Cheval and Grin locked in a rigid eether, where they lay on the ground twenty feet away The fox turned her eyes upward and looked into the sky above the plaza--surrounded by the architecture of Atlantis--and saw the body of a Naga falling, serpentine body whipping in the wind, toward the ground It struck hard and did not move
The sky filled with horrors Jellyfish and eels, yes, but also several huge air sharks and dozens of octopuses They poured fro for thee Razor fish slid across the sky Octopuses descended, tentacles dredging toward the stone plaza
They were dead
The fox wished she could cry, but her pain had taken even that from her
A sudden eruption of snow and ice burst from the brokenon the fifth floor of the Great Library A dark figure rode the storround and she knew that, within the snow and wind, the winter man carried Oliver to safety
Still alive, Kitsune thought That was good Of course, without Smith, they would all die
She howled, as if to call out for hian to bellow at the sky, screa the Wayfarer’s name in fury His voice echoed off of the polished surfaces of the buildings around them
The side of the library--the place where they’d all gone out the --becaulfed in fire The fox let her head loll back and saw Atlantean soldiersany hope of escape Not that they had anywhere to go They were on an island Several sorcerers joined the soldiers
Blue Jay swore He’d always loved the curses of the ordinary world, of hardwomen It was part of his charm Now he scowled as he leaped into the air Only when the tentacles came down did Kitsune understand that the octopuses had reached hiain as he danced He slashed the tentacles from the nearest one, but not all Not all
Two tentacles wrapped around his left arht, Blue Jay cut the octopus’s head in two It flopped to the ground, dead instantly, stinking, rotting innards spilling onto the stones But those two tentacles dragged Blue Jay doith it
He planted his boots and got up, struggling to free hi The sound of its corpse sliding wetly over the stones sickened her Kitsune felt as though she no longer lived in her body The fox began to breathe quickly, raggedly The fire on her skin, under her fur, had become all that she knew Somewhere outside of her mind now--or perhaps withdrawn deeply inside--she could only lie there and watch