Threads 109-Descent 11

Ling Qi took in her enemies, blanketed in their leader’s power. They were not writhing in pain as she had, as her allies had. If anything, the set of the bodies and the sound of their battle cries had only grown more fervent. She saw, out of the corner of her eye, a shishigui covered in horrible burns hauling himself back to his feet. There was another, caught on the edge of Guan Zhi’s kick, ignoring the blood pouring from his severed arm to raise his spear.

She felt the clash of power in the air above her, the power of two fully formed domains warping the world, and the way that the qi of the world bent and buckled unnaturally under their clashing wills.

She would only be a hindrance here.

Ling Qi leapt away from the dancer spinning to face her and blinked through the shadows, appearing beside Zhengui and Ji Rong. Her dancing phantoms danced inward and flung away the drained enemies they had seized. Ling Qi took a step and left the fortress, dragging her allies along.

The world parted like a curtain, and for just a moment, she stood in an unending field of psychedelic color where thoughts danced and dreams bloomed like a field of flowers. Sixiang stood at her side amidst the revelers, one hand on her shoulder.

Then they were outside, well into the fungal forest.

Ji Rong stumbled, looking around wildly, only to round on her. “The hell?! Why’d you pull us out like that?”

“Because we had no business being involved in that,” Ling Qi shot back. She glanced around nervously. Something was bothering her like a fly buzzing around her ears.

“We could have fought in retreat,” Relong hissed, raising his head. “Our lords remain!”

Ji Rong glanced down at the bloodied dragon and looked as if he had bitten into a lemon.

“You dummies should stop arguing with Big Sis. You’re just wasting time,” Hanyi retorted.

“Brother and I—” Relong began, puffing up the scales around his neck to look bigger.

“Enough,” Ji Rong said gruffly. “Let’s go. Choice has been made. Relong, stay close.”

Ling Qi shot the boy a surprised look as he turned and dashed off into the forest, but she didn’t have time to ponder his actions for now. The qi maintaining the revel quivered as she drew it in, keeping the Mist and her phantoms close as she took off after him.

Behind her, the noise of battle only rose. The booming of air, the thunder of crumbling stone, and the cries of battle echoed after them. Through her wisps, Ling Qi could see smoke and debris rising from the fortress. She could see the twin points of distortion rising above the walls, and she felt the wave of pressure as the two fourth realms clashed, splintering and bowing the trees they ran through.

But there was still something bothering her. She couldn’t quite place it. Were her nerves just rattled?

<No, there’s definitely something,> Sixiang thought. The two of them focused, wisps whirling to face the greater bulk of the cavern.

Drums. There were drums in the dark.

She couldn’t hear them, but she could feel them, a ceaseless beating of drums echoing through the endless twilight of this underworld. Dozens, scores, even hundreds of drums, each beating a pattern that echoed through the dark. It was not merely the wild beating of a tribesman’s drum or the rhythmic pounding of a drill.

They were communicating something. There was an order to the rhythm, urgent but regimented and disciplined. It almost reminded her of Lady Renxiang. Yet no matter how foreign, it was music, and she understood in parts.

[Enemy movement detected—Forces gather—Zone *&^*—Advance units launched.]

“We need to move faster,” Ling Qi said tersely.

Ji Rong barely had time to glance back at her in surprise before she twisted her sprint into a pirouette and carried them back into Dream.

The toe of her slipper touched down on a swell of portent, and Ling Qi peered through the haze of potential, spying three bright stars. Behind , she felt the threads of Other, dreams foreign and incomprehensible, swelling like storm clouds on the edge of her senses.

She stepped again, and they emerged amidst Xuan Shi and the others. She heard Ji Rong curse again. She saw her allies almost raise their weapons at their sudden intrusion.

“Pick up the pace! We have more enemies incoming,” Ling Qi snapped out, hitting the ground and barely slowing her pace. They were already running, but they weren’t sprinting. With a thought, she reached out through her connection to Zhengui and Hanyi and pulled in a way she rarely did. They both dematerialized immediately.

Ji Rong rolled back to his feet and shot her a dirty look. Bian Ya bounded ahead on the back of her mount. Su Ling sat behind her on the three tailed fox, clutching her back and looking mutinous. Xuan Shi flew off to her side, standing atop five linked hexagonal plates which hovered a few inches above the ground.

<Big Sister, I can still help! I’m not even hurt!> Zhengui complained, and Hanyi gave a wordless cry of protest as well.

<You’ll help if we fight. We’re running now,> Ling Qi thought back hastily.

“What are you speaking of?” Bian Ya asked, clutching tightly at the silk wound around her fox’s chest as the horse-sized beast bounded through the dark. “Obviously, there are reinforcements, but we have much distance to cover. We cannot exhaust ourselves—”

“Not from the fortress,” Ling Qi interrupted. “Look behind us, and listen.” If anyone here could sense what she had, it would be Bian Ya.