Total Eclipse

Oh.

It was the nameless Dji

And now, it said, with my own voice, Stay away from my mother, you bastards!

Imara. My daughter, the Earth Oracle. Like David, she couldnt leave her own personal stronghold, where she was holding out against the madness of the Dji

Imara? I blurted. What are you doing?

Saving your life, I think. Honestly, do you ever stop doing insane things? What were you thinking? The Dji

Would you feel better if Id blundered into it stupidly?

Maybe I would. Imara snapped the Dji

He didnt seem to even hear her, or care that there was any kind of obstacle standing in his way. When he got within reach of the Dji

Ashan was looking every bit the vicious, smooth businessman hed always appeared to me. Hed always been partial to well-tailored suits, and this one was gray, matched to an off-white shirt and sky-blue tie. His physical form had no more personality to it than a store ma

He reached me, not seeming to hurry at all, and grabbed me around the throat. He did that alien head-tilt thing, just like Ve

But my dangers were also right in front of me, and there were a lot of them.

Ashan pulled me into the middle of the Dji

Tell us why, he said. Why you did this.

I needed to get your attention, I wheezed, around his iron grip. I think I have it now.

You do. Ashans smile was as artificial and cold as the rest of him, and just as assured. You will regret it.

Oh, sweetie, so ahead of you on that one. Let me go or Ill bleed all over you.

Promise? His smile widened. Maybe soon well let you die. Would you like that?

I had my hands free, so I shot him a finger. Not as much as Id like to watch you try it. It was getting harder to talk around his kung- fu grip, and I wasnt sure that last smart-ass remark came out as anything but garbled chokes. Ashan liked to play with his food. I thought that as long as I was giving back, he wouldnt move on to the next phase of agony.

Maybe.

The avatar had lost his battle with Ve

The beaten Dji

The Dji

Ashans hand gripped tighter, bending cartilage in my throat, and what little air I was gasping in cut off. I flailed at him, and it made no difference. None at all.

It never occurred to me to wonder who he was, until a shadow formed in the corner of my eye, and David walked out of it, carrying a . . . box?

I was clearly hallucinating. Oxygen deprivation.

David put the box down, lunged forward, and grabbed Ashans arm.

And broke it.

Ashan yelled in surprise and let go of me as he stared down at the dangling odd angle of his forearm, then caught hold of it with his left and snapped it back into a straight line, reconstructing the damagebut it gave David time to grab me and pull me away from Ashan.

Davids eyes were molten bronze, blazing so hot I could feel the feverish intensity behind them. He glanced at me once, a frantic, horrified look, and then put his attention on Ve

He slammed her back, into the Dji

No time, David gasped. He was trembling now, and I could feel the fear in him. Jo, in the box. You know what to do. I

He cried out, fell to his knees, and I watched the David I knew disappear. He fought it, oh God he fought it with everything in him, but he was a Dji

I watched his eyes turn pale, then white.

Panic drove me to follow his orders. I could lose myself; I could stand that. I couldnt see him reduced to a puppet, something used to hurt me. He wouldnt survive that. God, why had he done this? Hed been safe!

I ripped back the top of the box and found . . . bottles. Lots of bottles, all with corks in the tops.

It came to me in a blinding rush what he wanted me to do.

I grabbed the first one I could reach, popped the cork with my thumb, and focused on David as the Mother took possession of him.

Be thou bound to my service! I yelled, and didnt dare stop for a breath. Be thou bound to my service! Be thou bound to my service! As incantations go, it wasnt muchI spit the words out so fast that they were almost incomprehensible, and for a terrible second I thought Id rushed too much . . . that it wouldnt work at all.

It felt like the entire Dji

David screamedan inhuman scream, torment and furyand dissolved into mist.

Ve

I hung on to the slippery glass like grim death, and corked it. I hadnt waited for the mist to flow inside, but I hadnt really needed to; it was the corking that mattered, and suddenly I felt a complex network of power snap into place between me and David, overlaying the bonds we already had.

Now all I had to do was release him.

Ve

The Dji

David reformed in the middle of the Dji

The avatar was there, holding bottles with the corks already out. He passed me one, and I focused on Ve

I got all three iterations out before Ve