"How many?" I wanted to weep, my hands and body shaking at the sight of students, professors and attendees littering the floor and surrounding elevated seating.
"More than a thousand," Lok murmured, kissing my temple gently.
"Lok, let me stand," I was thankful my voice only quavered slightly. Lok lowered me to the floor, what little there was of it not covered with bodies, so I could turn around and survey the scene.
"Were there any in the bathrooms or outside, getting a drink of water or anything?" I asked. This was a small, private college, much like one I might have attended had Addah allowed me to go.
"I don't know," Lok answered, placing a hand under my elbow, in case my knees gave way.
"Where you think those things are—bathrooms?" Farzi gazed down at me. He and Nenzi were almost of a height—roughly two hands taller than I.
"Farzi, I think they might be toward the back of the gym. Maybe down some steps or something," I was improvising.
"Then we'll go check." Lok was humoring me, I think. I wasn't sure he or Lendill expected this sort of devastation. We stepped around and over bodies as we made our way toward a doorway at the back of the large gym.
"This it—I smell water," Nenzi affirmed, once we passed through the door. I nodded and gave Nenzi an encouraging smile—the best I could muster under the circumstances, anyway.
We found a set of bathrooms with showers for the athletes. Nenzi was correct; I heard the occasional drip of water from a small shower cubicle off to the side. Looking up, I saw that the ceiling was lower than that outside—it consisted of rectangular, fiber tiles set in a grid. A few holes had been punched through, here and there. No holes, however, were around the concrete walls of the room. I crooked my finger at Farzi and Nenzi. Without saying a word, both came.
"Can one or both of you make your way through one of those holes up there?" I whispered as softly as I could, pointing to the holes in question. Restroom stalls stood against one wall while the showers lined the other. Benches stood against the wall in between.
Both reptanoids nodded at me before their clothing dropped to the floor. Lok and I watched in fascination as they chose a restroom stall, lifted up and climbed on top of cubicle walls. Then, rising gracefully again, they chose a hole in a ceiling tile overhead and slipped inside it. Screaming and shouting began immediately, as six frightened students, anxious to escape the newest threat, fell through the ceiling tiles over the benches.
"Stop there!" Lok held a Ranos pistol in his hand, pointing it at the students. I sent frightened mindspeech to Lendill, who appeared at our side, just as Farzi and Nenzi came down. I handed their clothing to them and held the restroom cubicle door shut while they dressed again. No need to expose them to students, whom I'm sure had just escaped certain death.
"Who are you?" The young man's voice wasn't steady as he stared at Lendill and Lok.
"I'm Lendill Schaff, Vice-Director of the ASD," Lendill snapped. "How in the name of the daystar did you escape that carnage out there?"
We'd found four young men and two young women, and not so surprisingly, they'd sneaked up into the tiled ceiling and sat atop the concrete wall that rose past the ceiling grid so they could pass around a small bag of halucidust. Lendill cursed under his breath; he wasn't sure any of them had seen anything—enough to describe it, anyway.
Lendill and Lok were herding them toward the restroom door when we heard the shrieks from outside. I wanted to shout in frustration—it had been a trap. "Lendill, fold them out of here!" I shouted, indicating the students, Lok and the reptanoids. They wouldn't stand a chance against a thousand other students, professors and the attending locals who'd been bitten by Ra'Ak and then placed in stasis by a sick and twisted warlock.
"Reah!" Lendill shouted behind me, but my adrenalin was already pumping. I had no weapon with me except my Thifilatha, and I sent mindspeech as quickly as I could.
Em-pah, there are spawn, I shouted the mental message, even as I turned, the effort to become full Thifilatha almost bringing me to my knees. Lendill, who asked Farzi and Nenzi to guard the still-humanoid students, came up behind me, shooting as quickly as he could with his Ranos pistol, Lok doing likewise on my other side.
What do you do when more than a thousand spawn turn in your direction, running over one another, almost, attempting to get to you? I wept, I think, realizing that I was too weak to fight off that many at once. What touched me would burn, but Lendill and Lok would be overrun. I knew it as surely as Boodreatis' sun shone overhead. I batted an attacking spawn away; it had almost reached Lok, who was firing methodically into the oncoming mass of former students, their flesh now housing the worst kind of monsters.
Lendill, surprisingly, was firing his pistol with one hand while hurling energy blasts with the other. Latent talent, indeed. I had no time to dwell on that; I gathered what little strength I could and waded into the press. If Denevik, Gardevik, Jaydevik and Glindarok hadn't come, along with a few other High Demons I didn't recognize, I would have lost both Lendill and Lok. Likely, the students we'd found alive would have died as well—I can't say for sure about the reptanoids. If they'd gone to lion snake, they might have escaped. I can't imagine that they'd appeal to spawn as potential victims.
Jayd, Garde, my grandfather and four others were all black scales and death, but Glinda was a shining white. The spawn, thinking her an easy target, shifted as one and went after her. That was a mistake. Glinda was just as deadly as any of the males, and while the spawn shrieked and died, burning after coming into contact with the High Demon Queen, seven High Demon males burned them from behind. They'd formed their own trap, killing spawn indiscriminately.
The few that thought to come after Lendill, Lok and me were either hit with Ranos pistols or burned against my gold scales. The gym was filled with smoke and the acrid smell of burned spawn when it was over. Garde had chased down the last one, which had attempted to escape. Nothing gets away from a determined High Demon. Nothing.
"Reah, turn back, deah-mul," Lendill coaxed. I was so dizzy I couldn't understand what was happening or what he was asking for several ticks.
"Baby, come down and talk to us," Denevik was beside him quickly—he'd already turned. It took every bit of my remaining strength to make the change and I almost fainted afterward. My clothing had been destroyed, but somehow Glinda had something ready and she, Lendill and Lok managed to dress me. Only a few locals and ASD agents had survived the mass waking of more than a thousand Ra'Ak spawn, and those had run out the door first thing. They were back now, surveying the burned and blasted spawn dust covering the floor. You couldn't take a step without it crunching underfoot.
"We're going to local ASD headquarters," Lendill said softly. Garde and Jayd skipped the students plus the surviving ASD and constabulary, Lendill folded the rest of us.
"Reah, lean against Farzi and Nenzi, all right, love?" Lok whispered softly. Unconsciousness was still threatening, so I nodded as best I could and allowed Farzi to pull my body against his. Nenzi scooted over until I was sandwiched between them. I closed my eyes and allowed the darkness to take me.
"I don't know how she knew to take us in that direction," Lok said for the sixth time. "She just said she wanted to check the restrooms. Once we were inside, I didn't see anyone. Reah took one look at the holes punched in the ceiling tiles and asked Farzi and Nenzi to go up and check."
"I've sent another team to the college to go through the rest of it," Lendill paced. Norian had come, and he was hearing everything for the first time as Lok gave his report. Right on cue, Lendill's comp-vid beeped. "It's them," he said, punching the button to receive the call.
Both Norian and Lok heard when the commander of the search crew reported that he had Lersen Strand and one of his cousins in custody. Lendill exchanged a glance with Norian and they disappeared. They were back in moments with two prisoners. Lersen Strand and his cousin Darsen were dumped in front of Lok, who cursed and had his pistol waving in both faces in less than a blink.
"Oh, they don't want to escape," Norian grinned at his captives. "Those crazy Ra'Ak ate Ansen and Morsen Strand and then Hendars Klar, didn't they?" Norian was smugly satisfied by that turn of events.
"Please, anything is better than what we escaped," Darsen was begging and weeping. Lersen elbowed the younger man. "Shut up," he hissed. "If that fool warlock figures out we're not with the others, he'll come looking. Do you want that to happen?"
"No," Darsen moaned.
"Do you have a name for this warlock?" Lendill's arms were crossed over his chest as he stared at both prisoners. They'd been cuffed by the ones who'd found them hiding inside a janitor's cube.
"Delusional, that one," Lersen snapped. "Calls himself the hand of fate."
"And it was fun until he let those worms eat your cousins and Hendars, wasn't it? How many of those girls did you rape before you killed them?" Norian was done playing nice.
"I don’t have to tell you that," Lersen spat.
"No, but you have to tell me," Gavril appeared, his eyes red and fangs out. "Tell me everything you know about this. Quickly!"
"Why can't we just take her back with us?" Glinda was tired of waiting until Lendill, Norian and Gavril finished questioning the captives. Reah was unconscious but her breathing was even—Denevik checked after reassuring both Farzi and Nenzi. The reptanoids had Reah pressed close between them and both wore worried frowns although neither spoke.
"We can move her now," Lendill said softly, walking up to the four High Demons. "We want to put the Strands in the dungeons on Le-Ath Veronis, so we'll move Reah there. I didn't know this was going to be anything but an investigation, and the information I had before we left Tulgalan was spotty. I'd never have brought her if I'd known, but I think we're still alive because we did. Thank you for coming to help." He gave a respectful nod to Jayd and Glinda.