"You beautiful, beautiful things," a voice crooned. "You answer to anyone who calls you, provided that her voice is strong enough—and she gives you a reason to kill. Yes, go forth, as a plague upon infidels! Destroy their world, as the world of my father was destroyed…"

*

"I knew he’d come after me!" moaned Amercy. "I’m a danger to everyone—I shouldn’t have come here—I never should have—"

"You’re wrong!" Re replied. "No one should have gone through what you did. You were right to come here. We will protect you. I will protect you."

"Re…" Amercy whispered. The taller, older man looked away.

"It’s not the time for that," he said. "Right now, we have to fight. Are you coming?"

"It’s my responsibility, too." Amercy swallowed hard. "Since it’s my fault…"

"Don’t be an idiot!" Re shouted. "It’s not your fault that you were forced to make dralions, and it’s not your fault that they’re here. It’s that damned master of yours who decided to send them! If you really feel so bad about it, stop pitying yourself and fight!"

Amercy stared in shock. "I…I’m with you," he said.

*

Kieme pulled the crown-headdress off her head and threw it aside, pulled up her skirts, and set off at a run.

"Where are you going?" Tarin demanded.

"I’m going to protect my people, like you’ve always told me was my duty." The queen moved quickly towards the open door, and the others followed her.

"The army will take care of them," Tarin said. "You can’t take any more risks."

"And if I do?" Kieme retorted, not pausing. "I have a successor, don’t I?"

Kreis forced himself out of shock before Triana could manage to do the same. "You mean that I’m supposed to be—"

"Shut up," the queen snapped. "Thaliron is under attack. They wouldn’t come to me if it wasn’t important." She led them to a balcony, where they could see the city that lay below…

And they were shocked at what they saw. There were hundreds of dralions in the sky, and the people of the city were barely able to hold them off. Soldiers were fighting and losing, and normal people who had been caught on the streets when the sudden attack had come…

Kieme cursed. She turned to Kreis. "Link with me," she ordered him.

"What?"

"You’re the only chance we have to hold them all off. Look, what’s more important, your sentiments or the lives of thousands of people?"

Kreis took her hand and opened his mind and power to Kieme.

"Tarin, take care of any that come near us," she ordered the older woman. "Triana, find Amercy and bring him to me."

"What?" Triana gasped.

"I’m going to find the source," Kieme said. "Someone close by is sending them here—if we find them, we can stop the dralions from the source. Kreis—" Clear your mind, she continued, without speaking aloud. Think of silence.

The sounds of thunder and battle faded away, and Kreis felt almost like he was in the dreamspace, disconnected from reality. He closed his eyes, and the only sense of Kieme he had was a vague, warm power to his side.

Where are you? that presence asked, and Kreis felt more beings weighing down on him, hundreds of burning spots of hatred and a desire to kill. The feeling of it was sickening and terrifying. Were these the thoughts and feelings of the dralions?

He grew accustomed to the pulses of emotion as ones eyes slowly get accustomed to a change in lighting, and was able to "feel" links between them, spreading backwards like a spiderweb. Kieme traced them back, searching for a source, the person who was sending dralions to Thaliron. Kreis was merely a power source for this draining task, and could do little but watch.

Occasionally a spark on the web would flare out and then die, as the life of the corresponding dralion abruptly ended. More often, though, a point would glow with sickening satisfaction, a life taken. The citizens of Thaliron were no match for these monsters…

*

"Amercy!" Triana ran after the Tresuan boy and Re, who were headed out to join the battle. "The—the Queen of Shadows needs you."

"The Queen of Shadows?" echoed Amercy, who paused, while Re was already turning back.

"The Queen of Shadows is Kieme," Triana said. "But you already knew that, didn’t you?"

Re nodded. "Come on, Amercy."

"Why…why does Kieme need me?" Amercy asked, trying to fit into his head that Kieme, herself, was the Queen of Shadows. Not a faceless figure—but someone he knew—

"Move it!" Re said, and Amercy followed him and Triana. "Because she’s always wanted to talk to you about the dralions. If you helped make them, you know more about them than any of us—and you can help us to defeat them." Re looked to Triana. "What is she trying to do?"

"She said she was trying to find the source," Triana replied. "To stop the person who’s sending the dralions…"

"It’s no good," Amercy interrupted. "Now that they’re already here, it can’t help."

"But—if someone’s controlling them—" Re began.

"Dralions have minds of their own," Amercy replied. "But they’re only bent on killing and destroying. That was their design—the only way to control them is to give them a target to kill."

"That’s horrible," Triana whispered, leading Amercy and Re up a flight of stairs towards the balcony.

"They’re horrible," Amercy replied. "I…" he drifted off.

"Don’t start this again," Re said. "Kieme needs to know this. If they’ve been given a target to kill, then it’s probably—"

"Kieme! Oh, god!" Amercy took off at a run, tears welling up in his eyes. Triana tried to lead him, but she could hardly keep up. They finally arrived at the balcony, Amercy breathing heavily and crying his eyes out. Tarin was occupied sending a blast of fire at a dralion who swooped down towards Kieme and Kreis. The two were standing at the rail, eyes closed, and completely motionless. Tarin missed her target and spared a moment to see who had come up behind her.

"Help me—" she began.

"It’s no use!" Amercy cried. "It doesn’t matter who sent them, now!" The dralion came down again, followed by two others who had broken away from the fighting below. Amercy used his spell that made a dralion burst into flames, then tried to pull Kieme away from the edge. Triana cast a shield, but she wasn’t used to working alone…it wouldn’t hold long. She looked up in surprise as Tarin took her hand, adding energy to the barrier. The two dralions saw it and swerved away to avoid running into it.

"Couldn’t they do this somewhere safer?" Re asked, looking at the two entranced figures. Nothing had even fazed them—they were completely cut off from the outside world. Amercy dragged at Kieme in vain, then tried Kreis.

*

One of the spots in the matrix exploded with a blinding flash of rage and fear. It ripped through Kreis’s mind, the pain of its death searing through both him and the Queen of Shadows. Kreis was half-shaken out of the trance; he could hear Tarin screaming at him and Kieme, but he could see nothing. He thought he felt something—someone pulling him. Or was that his own body objecting to his departure?

"Break it, you idiot, break it!" Tarin was screaming. "It’s no use—get back here!"

Kieme would not be shaken. She somehow managed to find the threads that Kreis had lost in the flash, and he could feel her going further and further. I’m not going to give up…you cannot kill these people…

"You’re the one they want, Kieme! We can’t hold them back—"

Just as Kreis’s "vision" was clearing, another point of emotion appeared on the horizon; while Kieme was warm, this one was burning hot. The presence felt familiar; this was someone he’d met before…Kieme apparently recognized this person as well.

You again? For a long moment, there was nothing but silence. The point that was Kieme was beginning to grow brighter and brighter, as she gathered power, borrowing some from Kreis as well. Just as she was ready to strike—

Queen of Darkness, taste the Lord’s justice! The darkness was replaced by searing brightness and pain, and Kreis seized Kieme’s cooling, wilting shadow. He fled back through the darkness, and opened his eyes to find himself lying on the ground, Kieme beside him. Her hand, still clenched in his, was cold.

Four people stood around him, asking questions, and a shield shimmered above him, holding off the dralions, but Kreis neither saw nor heard any of it.

"Kieme," he said, shaking her body. "Kieme…Kieme!"