EPT——————————————————————————————————————————
Up it went, the home that flew, bearing the Ihan-rii, the Great teachers, the Makers, the Guardians away, away, forever away. Dozens of lithe, purple-blue-gray shapes sprang into the air in futile pursuit, clinging to starkly beautiful crystals that had edges sharps as shikmas. The home that flew continued to ascend, its inhabitants unmoved by either the begging and pleading of those who adored them or the rage and fury of those who would see them slain. Hands now slicked with blood lost their grip and the panicked beings fell to the earth, fell too far to survive, striking the ground with a sickening thudding sound that was drowned out by the overwhelming noise of the departing vessel and the excruciating mental din that threatened to tear Temlaa's head apart, just as the pain in his heart threatened to rip his mind apart.
No, no, they mustn't go, they were everything—
Overcome with despair, Temlaa fell to the ground as well, thrashing, his dark blue skin mottled and heated with blinding, smothering fear and fury. What would they do? How could they go on? Alone, alone, so alone—
"It is your fault, Shelak!"
Temlaa was clawing the soil, marking gashes in it, churning it up with his anguish and torment. His head whipped up at the mental accusation. He crouched on the earth, shaking, hands and feet dug deep, and stared at the Furinax who had dared think such a thing.
"You are the reason they abandoned us! Now they're gone, gone—"
"Us? We ever served them!" It was Temlaa's blood-kin Raamar, answering the filthy slander in a mental retort. Raamar drew himself up to his full height, the bones strung about his neck rattling with the gesture, his hands clenching and unclenching as if they wanted to close about the Furinax's throat—
"Serve?" The Furinax bobbed its head, its nerve cords flying, a gesture of utter contempt. "You drove them away with your hounding, your pathetic pawing of them, your—"
Temlaa's fingers closed on a rock. He rose, took, aim, and hurled it hard toward the source of the raging other. Pure ecstasy shuddered through him as the stone cracked the skull. The Furinax toppled mid-oath, blood and brains spattering.
Good, it was good, and Temlaa sprang and tore with sharp-clawed hands until the warm blood bathed his face—
.
