Mistress Of The Ages (In Her Name, Book 9) by Michael R. Hicks

landed within the confines of the temple. Several of the remaining Desh-Ka acolytes sacrificed themselves, leaping to block glowing missiles that would otherwise have fallen among the robed ones and younglings. To their credit, priests and priestesses from the orders, even those that had come to claim the lives of the Desh-Ka survivors, gave in to their training and instincts and did the same, sacrificing nearly two dozen of their number.
    Then the warriors dropped by the airships landed among them. None of the defenders had realized when the attackers were but tiny specks against the enormous vessels above that they were anything but more of the queen’s warriors. But these were different, far different than any eyes beyond the temple of Ka’i-Nur and the dead senior priests and priestesses of the Desh-Ka had seen since the end of the Second Age. They were nearly twice the size of the defenders, monstrously large warriors even bigger than Drakh-Nur, whose own blood descended from the Ka’i-Nur. Their armor was a highly reflective silver, not black, and covered them from head to toe. While they carried swords in scabbards on their backs, in their hands they held weapons that had been greatly improved upon since the battle fought at the Ka’i-Nur temple against the Desh-Ka, then led by Ayan-Dar and T’ier-Kunai. Both the armor and the weapons were modeled after those used near the end of the Second Age. They were not here to engage in honorable combat. They were here to slaughter any and all who opposed them. They fell free until near the ground, when jets flared from their armor, slowing their descent at the last moment to prevent them from being smashed against the earth.  
    Priests and priestesses screamed in pain and shock as beams of white hot energy from the Ka’i-Nur weapons swept across the plateau. Shrekkas, which could normally slice through regular metal armor at close range, merely bounced off the shining plate, barely leaving a nick. Using their power to move through space, the priests and priestesses advanced on their enemy. With sword and claw they fought, and then with the special powers with which they each were endowed when they discovered that their blades were useless, that the Ka’i-Nur armor was itself forged from living metal. The priests and priestesses killed dozens of the hulking attackers in the first moments of the battle, but hundreds more were dropping from an endless stream of airships that sailed over the temple.
    One of the most-high shouted, “Attack the airships!”
    Before any of the Desh-Ka could warn them, a host of the gathered priesthoods looked skyward and disappeared.
    As before, thunderous explosions followed as more airships were sacrificed in the hopes of killing off those who bore a sigil upon their collar. Flaming wreckage again fell like rain upon the plateau, immolating more of the defenders, and the remaining priests and priestesses of the other orders cried out in anguish as their brothers and sisters died. The hulking Ka’i-Nur warriors wasted no time in taking advantage of the momentary weakness of their opponents, blasting as many of the stunned defenders as they could.
    The airships that fell were quickly replaced by more. Hundreds were now orbiting at a distance from the plateau, the warriors manning them impatiently awaiting their chance at glory.
    Of the priests and priestesses who had joined the attack upon the airships, none of them returned.
    ***
    Tara-Khan howled with primal rage as Drakh-Nur tossed him in the air. Dagger in hand, he somersaulted mid-flight to land on the back of a warrior who held a priest of the Nyur-A’il by the neck with one hand, and with the other was blasting with his weapon at the priest’s midsection. The priest, badly wounded, was somehow deflecting most of the energy away from his body, and the heat seared Tara-Khan’s face. Wrenching the massive warrior’s head to one side, Tara-Khan drove the tip of the dagger through the