Jazz's neck twisted. Her tongue cramped, bunching into a hard knot near the back of her throat. Her left hand jerked forward spastically, fingers wide, as if grasping for a rope just out of reach. Her jaw began to move of its own accord as she exhaled, "Kiilll meee..." "Kiilll meee..."

Tears trickled onto Shay's cheeks as he closed his eyes and squeezed the trigger.

Jazz was knocked from her feet by the force of the lead b.a.l.l.s smacking into her. They tore at the cotton blouse Jandra wore, but failed to penetrate the silver sh.e.l.l of nanites that coated her skin. She hit the ground hard. The impact silenced the spirit that had temporarily grabbed control of some of her muscles.

"Son of a b.i.t.c.h," she muttered as she sat up. Her ribs felt like they'd been hit with a hammer. "This is why I hate guns."

She rose on shaky legs. Her toes didn't feel right. Was something wrong? This was Jazz's first experience with putting her mind into a new body. The Atlanteans did it all the time. No doubt there was going to be a learning curve.

Shay was busy reloading. While she was confident the gun couldn't do any real damage, she wasn't in the mood to get knocked on her a.s.s again.

"I honestly hadn't intended to kill you until now," said Jazz.

Shay walked backward as she approached, still reloading the gun. He was attempting to pull the ramrod free as Jazz lunged forward and grabbed the gun barrel. It was still hot from the previous firing, but nothing like flaming angel sword hot. Almost pleasant, in fact. She ripped the shotgun from his hands, grabbed him by the collar, pulled him to her face, and whispered, "It was sweet of you to reload. Now, it's my turn to see if bullets bounce off yoooooOOO! yoooooOOO!" She cried out as something sank its beak deep into her inner thigh. She staggered backward, dragging a heavy weight on her left leg. She looked down and found a twenty pound earth-dragon with its mouth clamped firmly onto her leg just beneath her crotch. The little beast hadn't pierced the nanite sh.e.l.l, but it had pinched several inches of skin, muscle, and nerves between its powerful beak.

She banged it on the head with the shotgun. "Get off me, you d.a.m.n lizard!" The small beast growled and shook its head, refusing to let go. She hit it again, harder. Still it held on. When she tried to strike again her swing went wide and the shotgun flew from her grasp. Her mouth moved without her ordering it too. "Run Lizard! She'll kill you!"

Jazz grimaced and retook control of her mouth. Tears welled in her eyes; the dragon bite hurt like h.e.l.l, and the beast showed no signs of letting go. She said, her voice quavering, "You should have listened to your mama."

With a thought, she electrified her nanite sh.e.l.l. Lizard flew back and rolled across the burnt ground. White smoke trailed from his open jaws. She studied the dent on her inner thigh, half expecting to find that the little devil had drawn blood. It hadn't, though it had torn away a fair-sized chunk of Jandra's pants and long-johns. The silver thigh that shone through danced with reflected flame.

She looked up in time to see Gabriel's sword coming straight for her neck. She ducked as the blade pa.s.sed overhead, trailing an arc of fire. Shay grunted loudly and fought to maintain his balance after the missed blow. The way Shay held the blade revealed that he wasn't terribly experienced with sword-fighting. The way he was standing so out of balance hinted he wasn't experienced at any sort of fighting, period.

Jazz straightened up before he could attack again with a backstroke. She raised her leg with all the power that her newly-youthful muscles could summon, planting the boniest part of her knee right into Shay's t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es. The young man's eyes bulged and the sword flew from his fingers. He dropped to his knees before her, unable to breathe.

She grabbed him by the hair. He had a skinny neck. Would Jandra's body be sufficient to break it? She grabbed his chin and the back of his skull and decided to give it a test.

Shay spoiled the moment by vomiting. A pale, fishy soup splashed all over Jazz's belly. Jazz jumped backward, wrinkling her nose. "Ewwww!"

She stared down at her ruined clothes and snapped her fingers, willing the fibers to disintegrate. Jandra's clothes fluttered away into dust. Except for black leather boots, Jazz was now wearing only the nanite sh.e.l.l. It flattered her. She looked at herself in the mirror of her inner arm. She would have been the heartthrob of any teenage sci-fi geek, if they all hadn't died off a thousand years ago.

She glanced up at Shay, who crawled across the ground toward the fallen sword.

"What, you aren't even going to gawk at me?" Jazz asked. "I'm practically naked and you're more interested in the sword? What's wrong with you?"

Shay's fingers closed around the hilt. "I've seen Jandra naked. She was beautiful. You're an abomination!"

Jazz snickered. "This sweet talk is doing nothing to delay your violent death."

Jazz stepped toward him. He pulled himself to his knees. A shadow fell across his face, a trick of the light that made it seem as if he knew death was approaching.

Except the shadow wasn't a trick of the light. There was a sound like a flag snapping in the wind and a powerful downdraft sent black ash swirling in all directions. Jazz looked up and found a familiar sun-dragon swooping toward her, his wings spread into parachutes, his long jaws open wide with twin rows of teeth aimed straight at her head.

"You again?" she said, or started to say as the jaws snapped down. She clenched her teeth and concentrated on her nanite sh.e.l.l to resist the impact and pressure of the bite. The teeth slammed into her ribs with a force greater than the shotgun pellets. Her face flattened up against the dragon's broad, hot tongue. His thick saliva smooshed through a gap in her lips, gagging her with the taste of some long dead mammal that still haunted his breath.

She turned her head and spat. "Gross!" She electrified her nanite sh.e.l.l. The stench of frying tongue was added to the unpleasant mix washing into her nostrils. Unfortunately, the sun-dragon proved a tougher opponent than Lizard. The brute refused to open his jaws. Instead, he jerked Jazz from her feet with a growl that nearly deafened her, given her proximity to his vocal chords. She was swung through the air until an abrupt collision with the hard-packed ground numbed her from the waist down.

He lifted her up to slam her down again. She was certain the points of several of his teeth had punched through the nanite sh.e.l.l and were now slipping between her ribs. She wanted to scream, but she couldn't even breathe.

She grabbed the longest tooth in his bottom jaw with both hands. It was time to test Jandra's strength. She grimaced until veins bulged in her forehead as she tried to push the tooth away from her ribs. All she accomplished was to drive the teeth at her back further in.

Fighting her urge to gag, and breaking her ten-century long commitment against taking a bite of meat, she opened her mouth as wide as she could and sank her teeth into the dragon's tongue. The dragon flinched. Blood spilled into her mouth.

She commanded a stream of nanites to swim into the open wound.

Seconds later, the beast's bite slackened. Jazz dropped from his saliva coated jaws, slipping in the pool of drool beneath her as the sun-dragon staggered away. He shook his head violently, banging it on the ground, as if he were trying smash to death a hive of bees that had somehow found its way into his skull.

She sat up, feeling woozy as she gasped in air. Several of her ribs were broken. A three-inch gash near her belly b.u.t.ton bled profusely. Her old body would have already fixed this injury. Of course, her old body had more nanites in it than actual biological molecules. Jandra's blood was still mostly blood. She would have to fix that.

Before she could command the nanite sh.e.l.l to cover the wound, she went down again as the young earth-dragon tackled her, sinking his claws into her silvery hair, snarling as he bit at her right ear. "Bad boss! Bad boss!"

She grabbed the little dragon with both hands and jerked him free. Lizard wriggled in her grasp, kicking and scratching like a rabid animal, his eyes red with fury, his sharp beak snapping empty air.

"You are just so cute," Jazz said. She grabbed Lizard's beak with one hand, and his shoulder with the other. She gave a sharp twist, and the little creature went limp in her hands. "I really don't do cute."

She tossed Lizard's corpse aside as she tried to stand, but her legs wouldn't obey. Without warning, her left hand flew up and punched her in the eye.

"Kill you!" her lips snarled.

"Calm down!" Jazz shouted.

"Kill you!" the voice shouted again. The fingers of the left hand began to grow long, silver knives that slashed at Jazz's face. She grabbed her left hand with her right and pushed it away. Her breath came in panicked, sobbing gasps.

"Calm down!" she commanded again.

"Die!" a voice shouted. Only this time, it wasn't from her mouth. Shay ran toward her with the sword brandished in both hands. He lunged, chopping the sword down with a grunt. Jazz rolled to the side, but something fought her and kept her from moving as far as she could have. The sword cut a deep gash into her left shoulder. At least he'd hit the side she was having trouble controlling. She eyed the gaping wound in disbelief as blood spilled down her silver skin. A chill ran through her. This dumb slave boy might actually kill her. If Jandra's brain was burned to ash, she didn't have another back-up.

Shay raised the sword once more.

Jazz clenched her jaw and raised her right hand, willing the nanite sh.e.l.l to full strength. She caught the sword against her shielded palm with a satisfying CLANG CLANG. She closed her fingers and jerked the blade from Shay's grasp, tossing it as far into the forest as she could manage. He looked forlorn as the flaming sword flew away.

He never saw her foot flying toward his crotch again. She hated repeating herself, but this did seem to be his Achilles' heel. Shay staggered backward, doubled over, until he tripped over the tail of the still thrashing sun-dragon. She was surprised the sun-dragon hadn't died yet. Of course, sun-dragons had the largest brains of any sentient organism on earth, and she hadn't exactly been concentrating on guiding her nanites to the important bits of his gray matter. If she stayed around to guide the attack she could finish him off in less than a minute, but sticking around felt like a bad idea. She was having enough trouble fighting the unwelcome ghost inside her without having to worry about external enemies as well.

Jazz reached out and traced an arch in the air. Her finger trailed a thread of pale white light that blossomed into a rainbow. A black crack of nothingness yawned between the bands of light. She crawled forward and fell, tumbling into darkness.

HEX ROLLED OVER onto his belly as the rainbow fizzled away. The bees buzzing in his brain slowly quieted. He was too weak to stand. His mind felt full of holes. He tried counting to ten. The numbers were still there, he hoped. If he was forgetting one, how would he know? What if there was some number between six and seven that was now absent from his brain? onto his belly as the rainbow fizzled away. The bees buzzing in his brain slowly quieted. He was too weak to stand. His mind felt full of holes. He tried counting to ten. The numbers were still there, he hoped. If he was forgetting one, how would he know? What if there was some number between six and seven that was now absent from his brain?

Down near his tail, a human wept.

With a great deal of effort, Hex lifted his head and craned his neck around to better see the red-haired man who crawled across the dust toward the body of a small earth-dragon.

"Do I know you?" Hex asked. "I feel as if we've met. Why can't I recall where?"

The man didn't look back. He reached the small dragon and tentatively touched its shoulder. It lay perfectly motionless. The man dropped his head to the earth-dragon's chest. He kept his ear against the dragon's breast for a long moment, before rolling away to sit down, his hands on his knees. Tear tracks stained his soot-blackened cheeks.

"He's dead," said the man.

"I'm sorry," said Hex. He tried to rise, making it to all fours, trembling as he learned to control his muscles once more. Specks of light danced before him. He had the worst headache of his life.

"I'm Shay," the man said. He sighed heavily. "You're Hexilizan, Albekizan's eldest son. You know me because you were an aid to Dacorn and I was personal slave to Chapelion."

"Ah," said Hex, slowly rising onto his hind-talons, stretching his wings for balance. "You traveled with Chapelion to the Isle of Horses. I remember now. I take it you've escaped?"

Shay tensed. His eyes searched across the ground, perhaps hunting for a weapon.

"You've nothing to fear," said Hex. "I am a fervent opponent of slavery."

Shay nodded. He looked more relaxed now, but also more sorrowful.

"Jandra's gone," he whispered. "Lizard's dead. I warned her not to remove the sword from the heart."

"Did you help her dig it up?"

Shay nodded.

"Perhaps dissuading her from taking that step would have been more effective."

"I didn't know the heart would be alive," Shay said. "I thought it was some kind of machine. I imagined it like a heart-shaped clock." Then, his face hardened. He stared up at Hex. "You're the reason we came here! You're the dragon that stole her genie!"

Hex nodded. "It's true. Jandra was in possession of incredible power. I couldn't trust that the spirit of the G.o.ddess wasn't lurking somewhere inside her."

"You drove Jandra back into the kingdom of the G.o.ddess," said Shay. "You caused the thing you were trying to prevent!"

Hex kept his mouth shut. He wanted to argue that this wasn't his fault, but a significant part of his throbbing brain was shouting that he was, indeed, responsible. He decided to accept blame and move on to the next phase, finding a solution. "No matter where Jazz has gone, I'll hunt her down."

"And then what?" said Shay. "You'll kill her?"

"I have no other choice. Though, as we've both witnessed, that may not be an easy task."

"Jandra's still alive inside her," said Shay. "She was fighting to get back out. I don't understand everything that's happened here. But Jazz said her spirit had survived inside her genie. What if part of Jandra's spirit survives inside the genie you stole from her? What if we gave it back to Jandra? It might let her become the dominant mind inside her own body once more."

"Or it might add to Jazz's already formidable powers," said Hex.

"Just how much more powerful can she get?" asked Shay.

"You wouldn't ask that if you'd fought the G.o.ddess the first time. However, your idea is worthy. We'll go to the Free City."

"The Free City? Why?"

"That's where I buried Jandra's genie. The Free City has been abandoned in the aftermath of the atrocities that took place there. No human or dragon would want to call that cursed place home. I'd planned to keep the genie there until I could locate some force powerful enough to destroy it."

"After we get the genie, how can we find Jandra?" Shay asked.

Hex sat down. His legs were still weak. The dancing lights before his eyes were fading, at least. "We should find Bitterwood. He killed Jazz last time. She may seek revenge. More importantly, Bitterwood is now the guardian of Zeeky, a girl who possessed a power that the G.o.ddess greatly desired."

"What power?"

"I'll tell you what I understand, though when Jandra explained it to me I failed to grasp much of it. You witnessed the rainbow Jazz escaped through?"

"Yes. I've never seen anything like it."

"Beneath our own reality, there's a larger reality known as unders.p.a.ce. The rainbow gates let you slip through unders.p.a.ce to travel instantly to any other part of our own world. Apparently it's possible to become trapped in unders.p.a.ce. If you linger outside our reality, you gain the ability to see all points of s.p.a.ce and time. You become omniscient."

"What does that have to do with Zeeky? She's smart for her age, but hardly omniscient."

"Jazz trapped Zeeky's family inside unders.p.a.ce, sealed inside a crystal ball. The G.o.ddess can't communicate with them, but, somehow, Zeeky can. From what Jandra told me, Jazz wanted to study Zeeky to discover what quirk of her brain gave her this ability."

Shay stood up. He walked over and picked up the flaming sword. "It sounds as if we have a plan. Recover the genie. Find Bitterwood. Guard Zeeky and hope the G.o.ddess still wants her."

He held up the sword, looking mournfully at the dancing flames. "This blade cut her. If I'd been a better fighter, she might not have escaped."

"Let me carry the sword. I trained extensively in my youth. When we find Bitterwood, we'll let him carry the blade."

Shay frowned. "How do I know you won't just fly off and bury this?"

Hex sighed. "I've done nothing to earn your trust. Keep the blade. Let us hope your mistrust doesn't doom Jandra."

"Let's hope your mistrust of Jandra, which led you to take her genie, doesn't doom us all," said Shay.

"We can argue later. We should leave. We have a long journey from this place back to the surface."

"Maybe not," said Shay. "We found a map at the barracks. It showed a shorter route out of here. We should stop and get it. There were other supplies that also would be useful."

"Lead on," said Hex.

Shay walked toward the fallen earth-dragon. The coat Jandra had discarded lay nearby. He knelt and wrapped the small body within it.

"I ... I didn't like Lizard," he said. He shook his head slowly. "I thought Jandra was taking a risk in adopting him." He cradled the bundle to his chest as he stood. "When we make it back to the surface, I hope you don't mind if I pause for a while to bury him. He deserves better than to rot away down here in this sunless kingdom. I'd like to find a tranquil valley, or a sun-drenched mountain top. Some place... some place that ..."

"Of course," said Hex. He wanted to ask more about Jandra's adoption of a dragon, but held his tongue. In truth, he wasn't surprised. Jandra had befriended Hex almost from the moment they'd met. She'd been, perhaps, the most trusting, open-minded individual he'd ever known. The burden of betraying her still weighed heavily on his soul.

Could all of this have been avoided if he'd extended her the same faith and trust she'd shown him?

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR:.

STRUGGLE AGAINST MONSTERS.