Contents
Chapter 12
Overview
Evar, Clovis, and Kerrol flee a growing skeer horde across a plain toward a plateau light. After a brutal skirmish with flying skeer leaves Kerrol wounded, they reach humans led by Arpix, Livira’s old friend. An invisible boundary halts the skeer, prompting Clovis to demand the source as Arpix reveals he speaks their language.
The encounter offers sanctuary and a potential alliance or weapon, while escalating tension between Clovis’s ruthlessness and Evar’s restraint.
Summary
Evar, Clovis, and Kerrol descend from the mountains onto a dusty plain, hoping their lead over the skeer will hold. As night falls, the pursuing horde closes the distance. Spotting a twinkling light atop a plateau, they alter course, gambling on help despite the risk of drawing more danger.
Before they reach the heights, winged skeer dive from the moonlit sky. In the frantic melee, Evar saves Kerrol but Kerrol is pinned through the shoulder. Clovis drags them onward as ground skeer near, forcing a desperate push toward the signal fire.
At the plateau, the “fire” is a bowl of embers tended by unarmed humans who refuse to flee. Clovis prepares violence, but recognition stops her—she identifies their leader as Arpix, the human who once tended Livira. Kerrol, bleeding, warns that more skeer are arriving.
The approaching skeer, long-limbed and cautious, halt short and spread into a line, probing an unseen boundary. Clovis realizes there is an invisible wall preventing entry, explaining the humans’ presence and the beacon.
Clovis seizes Arpix, intent on seizing the “weapon” behind the barrier. Evar intervenes, arguing the humans lit the signal to save them. When Arpix addresses Clovis in her own tongue, she releases him—his fluency confirms shared understanding and raises the stakes of negotiation for the sanctuary’s secret.
Who Appears
- EvarLeads the flight across the plain, aids Kerrol, recognizes Arpix, urges restraint and negotiation.
- ClovisFierce protector; fights skeer, confronts Arpix, demands the source of the invisible barrier.
- KerrolStruggles to keep pace; wounded by a flying skeer; observes the skeer halted by an unseen wall.
- ArpixLeader of the plateau humans; recognized from Livira’s past; speaks the canith tongue and lured them with a beacon.
- SkeerPursuing insectoid horde; flying and runner types attack but are stopped by an invisible boundary.