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Chapter 30

Harris had stayed behind to command the Kartik troops that would be sliding in behind them to surround the hive, and Jabone had told Kasiria, "They have always fought side by side, so Madra feels almost naked, but his leg . . . He would slow us down in the caves."

She had watched with baited breath as Jabone had moved to fill the place at Tarius's side. Kasiria had almost protested when Tarius had taken him inside the cave opening with her, and Kasiria's heart had all but stopped until they both walked out and rejoined the group. When they did she was already the Katabull.

"Looks like you're getting more control of that," Jestia whispered to her.

"No, I was just that scared," Kasiria admitted. "I still have no control over when I change."

Tarius and Jabone reached them then just as Radkin and Rimmy who would lead their troop into the other entrance did.

"There were only two guards and there are candles lit. Not many but enough so no light spell will be needed. Also, at least this passage appears to be man-made, carved out not a natural cave," Tarius said

"Ours was natural at least in part. It has been widened but also only two guards and lit by candles. More than enough for Katabull to see," Radkin said.

The hill and the area surrounding it had few trees-probably because the soil was very shallow being a bare sprinkling over a layer of rock. Tarius noticed that there was little deadfall and imagined that they picked it up as soon as it fell to be used for heat and cooking within the hive. In the new dawn she could easily make out—but probably only because she was looking for it—several patches of brush that were probably placed strategically to camouflage air holes and door ways on the hill. She pointed these out to a couple of her men who would be staying behind as spotters and said, "There isn't much deadfall to burn but it looks like they might have actually supplied the wood for our fires. Especially if we shifted some of it from the holes we want them to use to the ones we don't." The man nodded.

Tarius looked at Hellibolt expectantly and Hellibolt moved some ahead of the group. Just feet from the hive he raised his hands into the air and began his incantation, "Follow the music, children. Follow the tune. Children under eight, oh children under eight rise up, be quiet, walk but don't awake. The morning air awaits. Crawl out, crawl out from out of your holes. Only the young and not the old. Follow the music. Hurry don't wait. Follow the music your freedom awaits."

"Wow," Tarius said in an almost disappointed whisper at Kasiria's shoulder, "that was almost pretty."

"I know. Usually his incantations hurt the ears," Kasiria whispered back.

Jena sighed. "Let's hope it works."

They were all standing, weapons in hand, ready just in case the Amalites started to boil up out of the ground. They were only going in two entrances but there were dozens. The idea was to get all the children to follow the music and all come out the openings where they had already eliminated the guards. If it worked the children would come out and Hellibolt would lead them deeper into the forest. If not they would fight, then retreat to where their horses were and go back to where the rest of their troops should already be moving up to surround the hive. Then when they came back in force they would smoke the Amalites from their hive.

Kasiria didn't hear any music but the way she understood it was that only the children would hear it. They all waited with baited breath. Then just when Kasiria was sure it wasn't going to work, children began walking out of the cave entrances, silent and obviously still asleep. They started to gather around Hellibolt who moved deeper into the woods to make room. Children just kept coming in large groups for about an hour and then it slowed to a trickle until finally after waiting for several long minutes there were no more. Kasiria had counted on hundred and seventy-two in all, some literally still crawling more than walking.

Hellibolt took them far into the woods, gathered them into a circle, then did an incantation, "Lay down and sleep, rest so that you don't know what we're about to do. Sleep deep, deep sleep, wake only when I speak."

Kasiria smiled that was more like the incantations she was used to hearing from him.

Then the two groups were splitting. Hellibolt was going with the other troop and Jestia was coming with theirs. Tarius was leading of course but Kasiria still felt good that her unit was all together.

Tarius led with Jabone by her side and Jena behind her. Kasiria was behind Jabone. Jestia had cast something on them all called silent armor which was really weird because they didn't make a sound as they moved. It was of course exactly what they wanted, but still a little disconcerting.

They had purposely put Jestia in the middle of their group. She was right behind Kasiria and Ufalla was behind Jena. Eric and young Tarius were behind them and Riglid and Laz were bringing up the rear.

They were the vanguard and in a few minutes ten more would enter the cave behind them.

Jestia cast something that Kasiria knew—because it was part of the plan—was to find infants. The next thing Kasiria knew they were all following what looked to her like a little puff of blue smoke. The hive was a mixture of natural cave and rooms and halls carved into the sandstone the mountain was made of. The hallways were just wide enough for two people to walk through without bumping each other or the walls. The only wider spots were those areas where doorways were carved out, usually one right across from the other. There were rooms carved into the rock and you could see where they had carved things around the original cave—what was natural and what was man made. She might have been able to enjoy the beauty and the craftsmanship of it if the entire cave didn't stink of death and human filth, though the halls they walked through and the rooms they looked into looked fairly clean.

The candles burning smelled horrid and black smoke came from them. At her shoulder Jestia whispered, "The candles are made of human tallow."

Kasiria nodded and felt sick but she didn't dare to speak because one thing was sure—the hive was full. When Tarius walked into the first room that the blue smoke indicated a baby was in, Kasiria, Jabone and Jena stood outside the door, ready in case any of the adults woke up. As she looked in there were dozens of them sleeping in the room carved from rock, literally lying on their sides to have enough room. Tarius grabbed the baby which Jestia had obviously cast some silence spell on because it didn't make a sound and it obviously wanted to be screaming. Tarius handed Kasiria the baby and she handed it back to young Tarius. He was the fastest, so he would be running the infant back to the group behind them and then coming back to join them. It was dangerous in the extreme and her worry must have shown in her face as she handed him the infant because he looked at her and smiled reassuringly before he took off.

They started walking again, following the bouncing smoke. They hadn't gone far when young Tarius was with them again, and she felt relieved.

Kasiria tried to ignore the older children she saw in each room they passed. Sleeping, none of them looked like the horrid monsters that had attacked them so vehemently. The sword in her hand ached for their blood. She could feel it and knew it didn't care whether the blood ran through a forty year old warrior or a nine year old child—all were its enemies.

It was hard not to admire the ingenuity of the cave system. They had carved aqueducts into the rock that were fed by tunnels that led to the surface to pick up water when it rained on the mountain. When they had walked onto the path that went into the natural vault of the cavern the beauty was only marred by the foul stench. There was a ceiling high above them and it was covered with the bats Jestia had called. No more wondering where they had come from, now they knew. There were millions of them.

The trail curved around the right side of what seemed to be a vast bottomless pit from which a cold constant wind blew and the horrid stench emanated.

"Their refuse," Tarius whispered. "Everything they don't want goes into this pit. It's why the whole place smells so vile and why there are no piles of rubble outside from all the rooms they've carved in the rock. They have thrown it all into this pit."

"We can use this pit, Tarius," Jestia said in a whisper.

"How so?" Tarius asked curiously.

"What's down there? Rock, sand, dirt yes, but also bones, human waste—all those things will burn. Look," she pointed to a hole in the roof of the cave that had been covered with brush to hide it. "They have already brought us the stuff to start the fire. If we could set that on fire and knock it into the pit and get what's in this pit burning they'd have to flee, it might even be enough by itself to kill many of them."

"There is certainly enough draft," Jabone said.

"When we are ready to leave the caves you will cast the smoke spell here Jestia," Tarius said.

She nodded and they moved on collecting more infants, but there weren't as many as their total numbers or even the number of children would indicate there should be. Perhaps Hellibolt and his people were picking up more. Then a cold chill filled her as they rounded a corner and found themselves in a vast chamber carved into the rock with pillars to support the roof at intervals. The place felt like death itself. The walls were a deep rust color and when she reached out to touch it, Jestia grabbed her hand.

"Painted in blood," she told her. Kasiria quickly drew her hand back. Odd, she thought. She was the Katabull, a creature who used blood, and yet the thought of an entire huge room being painted in human blood made her own blood run cold. Pictures had been carved into the rock by going through the blood stain to the original tan color of the rock. The pictures depicted the Amalite gods of course but also there were pictures of the gods butchering humans and offering them up to their followers. The pictures depicted every stage of the process from their hunting humans to them rendering their fat for candles.

There were many candles in this room and an altar at the front of the room would have told her what it was even if Tarius the Black hadn't whispered, "It's a temple."

The blue smoke was dancing around a bundle of cloth at the foot of the altar. They all walked up to the bundle. It was a tiny infant, perhaps only hours old.

"What is this baby doing here?" young Tarius said in a voice filled with the sickness they were all feeling.

Tarius the Black bent over and picked the infant up and tucked him into the crook of her arm.

"He's a sacrifice isn't he?" young Tarius asked, his eyes swimming in tears.

"Not anymore. Let's go." She sent young Tarius on ahead of them to tell the groups behind them that they were leaving and he ran like the wind through the tunnels. Then Tarius the Black started leading the way out of the cave and Kasiria hoped she had more idea about how they had come than she did because Kasiria was pretty sure that she couldn't have found her way back out by herself.

Kasiria noticed then that the blue smoke was no more and knew what that meant, No more babies. She did a count of the babies they had found ten. Only ten. Thousands and thousands of Amalites in the hive yet only one hundred and seventy-two children. Even if Radkin's troop had found twice as many babies that was only a total thirty. How long had these things been sacrificing and eating their own young? She fought a wave of nausea as she thought of walls painted in the blood of babies.

At the pit Jestia put down the bundle of twigs she'd brought with her, started it on fire, and then she did her "smoke to find openings" spell and they moved even faster. They were almost out of the cave when they could smell the smoke coming up behind them and knew the fires had been lit. They moved a little faster.

Suddenly an Amalite who had no doubt smelled the smoke ran into the tunnel in front of them. He got a scream out before Tarius's blade silenced him. Then they were boiling out of rooms on either side of the hall and Kasiria's blade was bathed in the Amalite blood it so craved.

* * *

Jestia knew they were close to the surface. She looked at the tunnel at their back. If she could just stop them from coming up from behind them. There were thousands behind them but only dozens before them, and she was sure that they could fight their way out if they didn't have to fight the thousands of them at their back. Invisible shield wouldn't hold long enough, wasn't big enough. She looked up at the roof of the tunnel even as she realized her sword was just sitting in her hand doing nothing as poor Ufalla was beside her fighting for them both. She cast invisible shield in front of Ufalla. She was scared and she was thirsty and . . . Damned tea pot and cup right beside her, it momentarily zapped her self confidence. But then as if Jestia had made it for just that purpose Ufalla grabbed the tea pot, spun and slung it into the wall just behind three Amalites who found themselves covered with hot tea and china shards. Ufalla turned to her smiled and Jestia found the strength she needed. She quickly turned to the tunnel at their back and concentrated all her energy at the roof of the cave ignoring the wave of angry Amalites now coming down the tunnel. "Ball lighting!" The roof exploded as a ball of white light smashed into it and then it was coming down and Ufalla was dragging her out of the way of falling debris.

* * *

Kasiria was like a machine, mowing down everything between them and the way out. The real problem was that they were in the tunnel at a point where two rooms opened into it so they were literally being hit from both sides. She heard an explosion and a shake and even that didn't distract her from what she was doing. She could see Tarius the Black who was to her left and just in front of her. Jabone was somewhere in front of her and to her right but she wasn't sure where.

Tarius was clutching the infant to her with her left arm and fighting with her right arm alone. No small feat with bastard sword but she did it with a skill that could easily have made Kasiria jealous if that skill wasn't keeping them all alive.

Kasiria had no idea where anyone else was. It was kill or be killed, and if any of them were going to make it out alive she had to concentrate on nothing but killing.

The unit that had been just in front of them and had no doubt made it out of the cave came running back in and attacked the Amalites between them and the exit. Then she saw Tarius turn away from the battle in front of her so quickly she nearly missed a simple block, and Kasiria felt her own blade tugging her in a totally different direction than where she wanted to go.

It was Jena, a blade was coming at her and she was already fully engaged and Tarius, she wasn't going to make it in time. Kasiria spun quickly and shot up with her blade and then down into Jena's would-be assassin and he collapsed. Jena killed her own opponent and had no idea how close she'd come to dying, but the look Tarius gave Kasiria told her that she did. Then they were both just fighting again.

In minutes they had killed everything that stood in their way and gladly ran out into the light. "Don't stop, keep running. Get behind the shield wall, move, move, move!" Tarius ordered, running. "Don't look back and don't engage. Just run."

Kasiria didn't have to ask why. She could hear them at her back. Most of them couldn't come out at the hole at their back, but there were dozens of other holes and now their anger and the smoke was driving the Amalites up out of the ground.

Tarius and her troop ran through the openning in the shield wall they had made for them and Tarius yelled out, "Fire! Fire!" And a volley of arrows went over her head. "Hold the shield wall. Pikes and spears attack."

Kasiria heard the orders yelled through the ranks. When she turned the mountain was mostly on fire, and smoke and Amalites were pouring from every hole.

"Kill them to the last man!" Tarius screamed.

Beside Kasiria, Jabone had taken up a spear and was behind the shield wall. Many of the Amalites weren't even armed. It didn't matter. They were an abomination. All must die. She dove back over the shield wall and started laying into them.

"Kasiria no!" Jabone screamed, but that was somewhere in the back of her mind, something she didn't really hear and that she didn't understand.

Then Hellibolt's voice was in her head. "Kasiria, don't let the sword wield you," it said, and she suddenly realized where she was—on amongst the Amalites alone. No, not alone, Jabone was at her side now with his sword in his hand.

"Get back behind the shield wall, Kasiria," he ordered even as he drove a man to the ground and pulled his sword free in one movement. She realized as she watched him, still a bit dazed, that she'd never match his skill with sword. He was mowing down their attackers three and four at a time. He pushed her a bit and then the two of them dove back over their shield wall together.

Kasiria looked at him, feeling a sudden shame. "I'm sorry, Jabone."

He sheathed his sword, picked up a spear, and then he smiled at her. "Don't be sorry, just don't do anything that stupid again. Who do you think you are, Tarius the Black?"

* * *

Tarius didn't have time to think about her near catastrophe. She just pushed Jena towards the back of the ranks where she'd be safest and started to command her army. There was no time to do anything with the baby, either. It was drop it or hold it and she couldn't make herself drop it. So she just ran through the ranks giving orders, occasionally killing some Amalite that was trying to go over the shield wall, all with the baby tucked in the crook of her arm.

Suddenly a loud crackling sound came from deep within the mountain and then black smoke was billowing out every crevice. The refuse in the pit had caught fire and those Amalites who hadn't already vacated the mountain did so then. They had them blocked in. They couldn't go back underground; they couldn't go out the back because fire blocked their way; they had to come out the front of the hive and face the armies of three nations waiting for them there. Many of them were unarmed but none of the soldiers showed mercy, none was deserved.

At one point she ran past Kasiria who was standing shoulder to shoulder with Jabone spear in hand holding the line.

"Thank you," she said as she ran past.

"Don't thank me it was the sword!" Kasiria screamed after her.

Tarius saw Harris with spear behind the shield wall and moved quickly to stand beside him. She smiled at him briefly and said, "Finally this battle feels as it should." He smiled back and they continued to kill the horde that struck their shield wall 'til there was nothing left to kill.

* * *

Kasiria had been driven, killing everything that came in reach of her and thinking nothing of it. She lost her spear in one of them and just pulled her sword and continued the job she was doing 'til one of them came screaming up the shield wall and she found what had to be a child under twelve hanging on the point of her sword. She slung him quickly off, feeling sick, but there wasn't time to think about what she had done or what she kept doing. There were just too many of them and they all had to die. When there were none left standing she just collapsed to her knees exhausted, and when she looked the front of her body, her sword and her hands were covered in blood.

Jabone took her sword out of her hands, rubbed his fingers down the blade to clear it, and sheathed it on her back. Then he put his hands under her shoulders and picked her up. When she was on her feet and looked around Tarius was standing with Jena and Harris was a few feet from them. Jena and Harris, covered in as much blood as she was, Tarius covered in even more and she was still clutching the baby in one hand and her sword in the other. The blanket the infant had been wrapped in was covered in blood and Kasiria wondered if it was even still alive until it cried. Then Tarius sheathed her sword with one hand, put the infant on her bloody shoulder, and started patting him.

"Poor baby," Jabone said with a laugh. "My madra, she always was a little rough."

Kasiria nodded silently.

"Are you all right Kasiria?" Jabone asked.

"I'm fine," Kasiria said fighting her tears. "I just, I know what Hellibolt was saying about Jabone's sword."

"It's your sword now, Kasiria."

"No, it's still his sword. It just belongs to me."

* * *

Tarius shifted the baby and grabbed Jena in her free arm and hugged her. Jena hugged her back. She kissed the top of Jena's head which since her helmet had come off was the only clean spot on her body. "I almost lost you today, Jena. I turned but I didn't have enough time. Were it not for Kasiria we'd both be dead today, because I wouldn't live without you."

"Or I without you," Jena said. Then she smiled broadly.

"What?" Tarius asked, a bit put off that Jena was near laughing at such a poignant moment.

"What are you still holding that baby for?"

"I . . . I." The baby had stopped crying and she realized something. "It didn't cry the whole time. I was sure Jestia had put a spell on it like all the others." Then in sudden panic she asked, "Harris where are the girls, where is Tarius?"

"Calm down, Tarius, all are well." Harris pointed to where they were all sitting on a patch of clean ground. "Jestia's a bit drained. I think the ball lightning spell took its toll."

"It saved us," Tarius said. She started to walk around; she had to check on her troops. She staggered and Jena grabbed her arm and steadied her. Exhausted, she was exhausted.

"Tarius, you need to rest." Jena took her thumb and wiped the blood from Tarius's chin.

"I can rest when I have checked on my people," Tarius said.

"You want me to take the baby, Tarius?"

"No," she said quickly and held him to her. The Jethriks had taken the most casualties. The Kartik unit had lost twenty people. Among her people only two were badly wounded. It helped that most of her people were Katabull and that those who weren't knew to stand behind or beside those that were. She had all her wounded and the Kartik wounded moved immediately from the woods to the wagons and on their way to the Port of Sagal. Hellibolt did a spell to make them move faster and she thanked him for that and for everything else he had done.

She walked up to the Jethrik generals. "I will move my people and the children back to our base camp now. Come morning we will move on towards Pearson Garrison and leave the children there to be farmed out as they see fit. This mess is yours to clean up. I suggest you throw the bodies of the Amalites into the caves they lived in. Better still take them deep within when the fire stops and throw them into the pit. Since that was where they threw their trash it seems appropriate."

They just nodded, didn't even say thank you, and she gathered her battle-weary people together and the infants and children and started to leave. Hellibolt stopped her getting on her horse which had been brought for her.

"Tarius, my old friend, I will stay with my people now. I wanted to say goodbye." She embraced him with her free arm, the other still holding the baby. "Tarius . . . What are you going to do with that?"

"With what?" Tarius asked, not understanding the question.

"Nothing," he said. He embraced Jena and then her son and then Kasiria. "Kasiria, you are beyond all that I had dreamed you would be. You will live a long life and all that know you shall be richer for that knowledge."

"Thank you, Hellibolt, for everything."

He nodded humbly then he caught Tarius's eyes and held them. "They will never say it, but thank you Tarius, and not just for once again saving the day or doing it in your very unique way, but thank you for having the courage to always do what's right no matter how distasteful it may be. My personal thanks for having allowed me to be something more than just a palace figurehead."

"Allowed?" Tarius laughed, getting into her saddle and resituating the baby. "Hell, we couldn't get rid of you. I love you, Hellibolt, and don't speak as if we shall never see each other again. Our days are still long and our world still small."

He laughed. "Indeed."

* * *

They had kept the children in a trance 'til they got them to the camp then taken them out of the trance, which Tarius decided was a huge mistake. They were terrified of the Katabull and trying to keep them in line was like herding cats. Finally she'd just had them all fed, put into tents, and had Jestia put a sleep spell on them. There were only fifteen babies altogether and they turned out to be no trouble at all once the cook had come up with some milk. It was no problem at all finding people willing to hold a baby. After all the killing it felt good to be so close to new life. She simply handed the babies out to different people and told them to care for them 'til they could get to the garrison.

Tarius was still covered in blood and was trying to get the baby to eat, but he really was just barely born. In fact his—because it was a boy—umbilicus wasn't even dry.

Jena sat down on the log beside her. "Tarius, why don't you give him to me? I'll take care of him and you can go get a bath."

"I just . . . I want him to eat first, Jena," Tarius said, more than a little frustrated.

"Tarius . . . What are you doing with that baby?" Jena asked again.

Tarius didn't know. She really didn't. "I don't know, Jena. I just feel like . . . Well there has to be some reason."

"Reason for what?"

"Everything that happens to us, has ever happened to us." She looked at Jena then and whispered so that no one else could here. "I think . . . We're supposed to keep this baby. I think he's ours."

Jena didn't even look surprised. She just kissed Tarius, leaned over and looked in the baby's face and said, "What should we call him?"

"Darian. Then one will be named for my father and one for yours," Tarius said. She must have been thinking about it more than even she thought because then she said, "We'll tell everyone that he's your child, and that Dustan is his fadra. Then he'll never have to know what he was born to or that he was meant to be a sacrifice and a meal. If anyone dare tell him the truth then I will split them."

"Good. Then if all that's settled, give me our new son and I'll go clean him up while you go get a bath," Jena said. She smiled brightly as Tarius handed her the baby.

"He should be yours Jena, because had I not listened to you none of them would have made it out alive. He certainly wouldn't have." Tarius smiled. The baby looked right in Jena's arms. She kissed Jena on the top of the head and then went off to get a bath.

* * *

Jena took the baby, cleaned him up, diapered him in a piece of cloth, and then wrapped him in a clean blanket, but she still couldn't get him to accept much milk from the cloth nipple she held in her hand. She sat close to the fire on a log where it was warm and he seemed content just to be warm and dry and held but she knew he needed more milk than he was taking.

Jabone walked up and sat beside her. He ran his huge hand over the baby's tiny head. "What have you got, Mother?"

"Your brother," Jena said with a smile. "His name is Darian after my father, and apparently Dustan and I are his fadra and madra."

"Father will be very surprised," Jabone said with a smile. "When she just held him through the whole battle I knew she'd never be able to let him go."

"I'm worried. He doesn't really want to eat."

"He is my brother of course he doesn't want to suck on some cloth tit."

"Jabone!" Jena slapped at him playfully. "You really are just like your madra."

He smiled happily. "You know, Mother, that's not such a bad thing to be. It's not even so bad to just always be in her shadow."

"Where is Kasiria?" Jena asked. "Your madra tells me I owe her my life."

"She is in our tent sleeping, exhausted, as we all are, and more than a little sick and sad."

Jena nodded understanding. "And you son, how are you?"
"You know Mother that I didn't want to come back here and fight this battle and now . . . " tears welled up in his eyes but didn't fall. "I know why all the stories are so grand, because as horrible as it may be there is something that happens to all of us in battle together. We become so close. To be part of something that changes the world. Those things, all those little kids, you saw how they act. They are afraid of everything. My new brother left as a sacrifice . . . "

"Oh, that's another thing. No one is to ever speak of that or your madra will split them."

Jabone nodded his understanding. "There were only fifteen babies Mother. You saw how many of them there were. Kasiria said that they must have gotten over crowded and just decided to start eating their young. To stop something like that, to give him a life, a good life with the best parents and big brother ever, I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else. I know Kasiria feels the same way, or she will eventually."

Jena was getting more worried about the baby's lack of interest in the bottle by the minute, and Jabone must have noticed.

"When Madra gets here she will order him to drink," he said with a smile.

"Where is she anyway?" Jena asked. "I'm worried. It shouldn't have taken her this long to bathe. Would you go and find her for me son?" Jabone had just stood up when Tarius walked over with Jestia in tow.

"Here, take this," Jestia said, handing Jena a vial.

"Why?" Jena asked.

"It's the same potion you took when Jabone was an infant so that you could nurse him."

"Tarius . . . I'm over forty. I can't be nursing a baby."

"If you can have a baby, you can nurse it," Tarius said.

"Tarius . . . I didn't really have this baby, remember?"

"Yes you did," Tarius insisted, as if Jena had been too long in the sun and didn't remember giving birth.

Jena took the vial and looked at it then down at the tiny baby in her arms. It felt good to have a baby in her arms again. It felt right that this was her child. Once again Tarius was handing her a baby and saying here this is yours. She shrugged and took the potion. It couldn't look that much more foolish for a woman of her age to nurse a baby than to just have one.

"It will take a couple of hours for your milk to come down," Jestia said.

"Ah . . . I'm going," Jabone said. He kissed Jena on the top of the head and then kissed the baby's head, too. "I finally have my brother back." Jena felt the tears welling up in her chest.

"You are the most amazing person, Jabone," Jena said with a sniffle.

"She'll be a little emotional for a couple of days. That's the potion," Jestia explained to Tarius. Tarius nodded and hugged Jabone who then took off for his own tent.

"How are you Jestia?" Jena asked with real concern. She knew the girl had over used her powers.

"Tired, and overwhelmed like everyone else. But other than that, well everyone I care about got out alive and we saved all those screaming, hateful little brats so . . . I just want to laugh out loud I'm so happy."

"That's the way Tarius has always been," Jena said.

"And do you just want to . . ."

"Yes," Tarius said with a smile.

"But now we have a tiny baby so I guess that will have to wait. After all I'm very tired having fought a great battle and given birth all in the same day."

 

 

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