Meg’s knuckles turned white as she clung to her horse’s reins, the giant beast galloping frantically toward the billows of black smoke rising from Palayta Village.
Panic had turned her to ice inside. Even as the burning huts came into clearer view, her gaze swept the village for any sign of Jenny. Any glimpse of her flyaway blonde hair or her flowery pastel skirts.
If anything happens to Jenny—
Meg cut the thought off. She couldn’t think like that. Nothing would happen to Jenny.
The scent of charred wood and thatch filled her lungs as she rode into the village. Her horse shrieked and reared back, kicking its front legs out in terror as something dark lunged at them from the ground. Meg scrambled for the horse’s mane, but the motion was too fast. She tumbled backward off the horse and struck the ground with her back, rolling backward and breathing through the pain like Velanna had taught her.
She grasped the energy saber at her belt and switched it on as she settled into a defensive stance, the shimmering colorless blade of plasma stabbing into the air a meter high.
Her mouth tasted like dust and smoke.
The creature—what was it?—stood on four twisted legs with claws like fingers, a powerful tail thrashed behind it as long as the creature itself. A long neck, like a horse, pulsed with straining muscles, and its face—it looked like a skull with sharp bones flaring around a mouth full of razor teeth.
Eyeless. Blood and spit dribbling from under its sinewy, lashing tongue. It’s skin was black, mottled with dark blue and silver veins, claws like jet and teeth jagged obsidian.
What is it? Meg clutched her saber.
The beast tilted its skull-like head and stared directly at her, even though it had no eyes. It cracked open its toothy jaw and screamed at her, a fury-filled roar that sounded like thunder and nails on a chalkboard.
It lunged, jaw gaping open and teeth sparkling in the fires consuming Palayta Village. Meg swung her saber, and the plasma blade hissed as it met the creature’s skin. The beast tumbled sideways, wailing and squalling and clawing up the burned earth.
The concussive blast of a shotgun jolted Meg’s gaze behind where Barb approached, weapon trained on the beast and her green eyes wide with horror.
The shot nailed the creature in the side, and it stumbled sideways and fell over.
Meg paused, saber at the ready, as Barb came to stand beside her.
“What is it?” Barb asked, her voice shaking.
“No idea.”
“You don’t know what it is?” Barb squeaked.
“Never seen it before.” Meg slowly lowered her saber and switched the blade off. “But at least they’re not bulletproof.”
The creature twitched before them.
Barb took aim again, and Meg switched her saber back on. The creature shook and twisted and whined as though it were dying. It’s black skin, flayed off by the shotgun blast, shimmered and turned silver and blue, stretching and shifting to cover the wound.
“Meg,” Barb hissed. “I think you spoke too soon.”
“I think you should shoot it again.”
Barb cocked the shotgun and fired. The shot hit the creature in the same place, but the shotgun pellets skimmed off the surface of the creature’s skin. It rolled over and dug its shining claws into the earth, and it shrieked again, the force of its cry like a shockwave that drove Meg and Barb back a whole step.
Another shotgun blast drew Meg’s attention further into the village where Danny and Tolan were shooting more of the creatures.
How many were there? Where had they come from? What did they want?
Barb fired another shot, and it didn’t even phase the beast.
“Okay, we need another solution.” Barb took another step back.
Meg spun her saber and steadied her breathing. Hopefully she could get close enough to strike the creature again.
“Distract it,” Meg glanced at Barb.
“You’re not serious right now.”
“Be bait.”
“No.”
Meg glared at her. “Draw its attention away!”
“Why?”
Meg shook her energy saber at Barb. “I’m going to stab it.”
“Then stab it already!” Barb cocked the shotgun again and took aim.
Meg stepped into an attack posture, saber held over her head and left hand outstretched to judge distance.
Barb unloaded the shotgun into the animal. None of the shots pierced its skin, but the creature did wheel on Barb, crouching to the ground with its sightless face zeroed in on her.
Like a cat, it readied itself to leap.
Barb shot it in the face again.
It jumped for her, and Meg swung her saber at its side. The plasma blade cut into its skin, peeling flesh away from bone in a sizzling hiss. The animal reeled sideways, screeching in agony. It rolled away, thrashing its legs in the dirt.
“Hey,” Barb whispered. “Hey, that magic sword hurts it.”
“It’s not magic.” Meg settled back into her attack posture.
She changed her grip and fixed her gaze on its neck. Surely beheading it would kill it. If it didn’t—well, they’d have to deal with that problem once it became a problem.
The beast jumped up again and charged at her. Meg dove to the side and swung. The plasma blade sliced deep into one of its shoulder joints, and the creature crashed to the dirt.
Barb cheered, but Meg barely heard her. It was getting up again. How was she supposed to take its head off if she couldn’t get close enough to it?
She eyed its rear leg.
That could work.
Barb cocked the shotgun again and took aim. The animal roared at her, and Barb fired. The impact of the shot may not have broken its skin, but it did knock it’s rear left leg out from under it.
Meg didn’t wait to think. She charged at the animal’s hindquarters and swung.
The energy blade seared through the already unstable back leg. The blade didn’t take the leg off, but the muscles gave out. The animal collapsed in a flailing, shrieking heap.
It swung its head toward her.
Meg pivoted and slung the saber blade at its neck. The skin severed. The muscles tore. But the head didn’t come off.
The animal lashed at her, one of its claws catching her left hip deep enough to draw blood.
A shout from deeper in the village. Meg couldn’t make it out until a blurry figure raced toward her, black hair streaming behind her and teal-colored eyes narrowed in determination.
“Tzaitel!” Meg shouted. “I can’t kill it!”
Tzaitel didn’t respond, but she drew her own energy saber as she raced toward the downed creature. It lashed at Meg, again, and Meg blocked its strike.
Tzaitel spun into the fight like a dancer, the sparkle of her saber blade a shining beacon of light in the smoke and ash of the burning village. A scream of effort, and she swung.
The beast’s head came clean off and rolled through the singed grass, its left-behind body twitching and thrashing as black blood seeped out of its body.
Tzaitel gasped for breath over the beast’s corpse, her robes stained with black blood and ash.
“You got it,” Meg whispered. She stared at her sister, awestruck. “How did you do that?”
Tzaitel stepped around the beast and took Meg’s arm, turning her so she could examine the bloody gash on Meg’s leg.
“We shall discuss it at another time,” Tzaitel said. “You are wounded.”
“I’m all right.” Meg pulled away from her and shut her saber off. “Where is Jenny?”
“Meg!”
Meg spun as Jenny ran at her from deeper inside the village. Jenny plowed into her in a flurry of burned pastel fabric and hair that smelled of blood and smoke. Meg wrapped her up and clung to her.
“Jenny,” Meg gasped, holding her as tight as her arms could. “I was so scared. Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“I’m okay,” Jenny breathed against her. “It was so scary, Meg. They wouldn’t stop.” Jenny’s hands fisted in the back of Meg’s blouse.
Meg set her hands on Jenny’s shoulders and pulled her away. “Let me check you.”
“I’m fine, Meg. I promise.” Jenny sighed shakily and froze. “Meg, you’re bleeding!”
Meg glanced at the bloody gash in her leg. “It’s a scratch.”
“Meg!” Jenny turned halfway around. “Tolan, come tell Meg she’s being stubborn.”
Tolan poked his head around the corner of a smoldering hut. His face was smudged with streaks of ash and dark blood from a gash at the top of his head.
“Yes, Margaret, do stop bleeding everywhere.”
Jenny pointed at him. “You’re bleeding too!”
Tolan ducked back behind the hut.
Jenny threw her hands in the air. “Did you at least bring the medical kit?”
“On the horse.” Meg clipped her saber back on her belt and glanced back to where she’d last seen her terrified horse. “I don’t really know where it went.”
Muttering under her breath, Jenny stomped away, leaving Meg to shake her head. If she were fit enough to fuss, she was fine.
Barb stood over the headless corpse of the thick-skinned monster and poked it with the barrel of the shotgun. Meg crossed her arms and watched the way the other girl stood.
Barb hadn’t even hesitated to take multiple shots at the creature. She’d taken the shotgun and jumped into the fight. Meg hadn’t lived in Terran for ten years, but she remembered very clearly that average teenage girls didn’t make a habit of slaying monsters.
Barb Taylor was more than a dangerous fighter. She was—well, Meg wasn’t sure what she was.
As though Barb knew Meg was staring at her, she lifted her face and met Meg’s gaze. But for the first time, Barb’s eyes weren’t accusatory. They were still wide, and the freckles on her face stood out more than they had before.
Meg uncrossed her arms and went to stand next to the Terran girl. She knelt next to the dead creature, stifling a hiss of pain as the motion pulled on her wounded leg, and watched it for any sign of movement.
“You really don’t know what it is?” Barb asked, her voice shaking slightly.
“No, I really don’t.” Meg brushed her hand against the creature’s skin. The clammy coolness of its skin chilled Meg’s palm. As she pressed her fingers against it, the blue and black colors on the skin shifted and swirled.
“Whoa,” Barb mumbled.
Meg withdrew her hand. “Looks like only bijali katar can hurt them.”
Barb took a knee next to her, leaning on the stock of the shotgun. “Like what?”
Meg held up her energy saber. “Bijali katar.”
“Right. Your lightsabers.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
Tolan and Danny strode toward them, talking in low tones. Danny seemed no worse for wear. His shirt was torn, and he was dusty and dirty. He might have been limping, but he had no obvious wounds.
Tolan dabbed a piece of fabric against his seeping head gash, his blood a shade between maroon and purple.
“Are you badly hurt, Tolan?” Meg asked.
“No.” He stopped at the creature’s corpse. “But many Josharons are. Jennifer is tending the ones she can. I have sent Tzaitel back to the castle to fetch Zyna and her healers.”
“What is it?” Meg nodded to the creature.
“I have never seen a creature like this before, Margaret.” Tolan sighed and set his hands on his hips.
Meg bit her lip. “Do you think Velanna has?”
Tolan shook his head. “No. This is beyond both of us.”
Barb stood up and turned around in a circle. “How many of them were there?”
“The militia leaders say there were three.” Danny let his shotgun rest in his arms. “But nobody could bring them down until Tzaitel got here.”
Tolan turned to Meg. “It seems the only weapon that will hurt them—”
“The katar,” Meg finished.
“Where did they even come from?” Barb stretched the bandages around her ribs.
“The forest.” Danny turned and pointed to the line of trees that butted up against Palayta Village to the east.
Meg stood slowly, a sense of dread washing over her. “You don’t think?” She glanced at Barb and started walking toward the woods.
“Margaret?” Tolan called after her.
Meg took steady, even steps toward the treeline. In a moment, Barb jogged up beside her, and Tolan fell into step behind them.
“Margaret, where are you doing?” Tolan asked.
“What do you want to do with the corpse?” Meg glanced back at him.
“We should allow Velanna to examine it,” Tolan said. “But I believe they are too heavy to move. Thus, Velanna will need to come here.”
Meg nodded and led them into the forest. A few steps inside, she paused, her boots settling into the soft loam. No birds sang. The forest was utterly silent.
“I was thinking that maybe the Centaurs sent them,” Meg muttered.
“Centaurs?” Barb yelped.
“That is unlikely, Margaret,” Tolan said.
“You have legit Centaurs here?” Barb looked between Meg and Tolan in shock.
Meg sighed as her eyes spotted the undulating air pocket twenty feet up in the treetops, as though something were producing a great amount of heat.
“And then I had a thought.” Meg pointed to the disturbance.
“Is that another rip?” Barb hissed.
“Yeah,” Meg said. “How much do you want to bet that those creatures came from the rip?”
Barb stared at it. “What do you mean? They came from the rip? Jim and I came from the rip, and there’s nothing like that where we were.”
Tolan set a shaking hand on Meg’s shoulder. “We shall ask Velanna.” His voice sounded grim, and a trickle of purple blood ran down the side of her face. “Come, Margaret.”
Meg turned and allowed Tolan to lead her out of the forest back to the center of Palayta Village. Barb’s question was legitimate. Even if the creatures had come out of the rip, it still didn’t indicate where they had actually come from. They certainly hadn’t originated in Terran.
So if the rips that were hanging open all around Rainbow Valley didn’t connect back to the Terran Dimension, where did they lead?

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