Free Mistress Of The Ages (In Her Name, Book 9) by Michael R. Hicks Page B

city. The outer walls formed what might have been considered a multifaceted pyramid, while a great tower was growing around the slender spire on which she stood.
    The spire began to tremble. Suppressing a surge of fear, she lay down and dared to peer over the edge of her vantage point, looking directly below. She gasped at what she saw.
    A titanic building was growing up around the base of the spire, rising higher and higher. Then, still far below her, an enormous chamber, larger than any building she had ever seen, even the temple’s coliseum, began to form. Within the chamber a massive pyramid that reflected the architecture of the outer structure grew around the spire, reaching toward her. Faster and faster, the pyramid grew, rising higher and higher.
    At the last moment, just as she was sure the pyramid would consume her, its growth slowed, then stopped, the top forming into a dais that came level with the column to which she had been clinging. Blinking her eyes, Keel-Tath saw that instead of lying on the broken obsidian of the moon’s surface, she was now lying on smooth, gleaming white stone, just like what made up the rest of the huge structure.  
    Getting to her knees, she looked up. The outer walls of the great tower continued to rise above her, half again as high as the pyramid stood. The walls glowed, providing an even illumination as if she were standing outside in the sun.  
    It was then that the stone all around the top of the chamber began to thin, and in but moments had transformed into some sort of clear crystal that gave a breathtaking view of the Homeworld above and the moon’s still barren surface beyond the boundaries of the construct.  
    This is not some mere construct , she thought. It was a palace. Her palace. This place was the seat of power from which she would someday guide her entire race, or so Anuir-Ruhal’te would have had her believe. Where she stood now atop the enormous pyramid, upon this very spot, would be her throne.  
    While the palace looked complete on the surface, she could sense that the transformation she had set in motion was far, far from over. A subtle vibration ran through the stone, and she could sense in her blood that the moon was only now coming fully alive. It was as if the moon had paused to take a deep breath after a great exertion, but things deep and distant must yet run their course.  
    She wondered if the moon could defend her from Syr-Nagath, and in answer dark spires arose in the distance to form a cordon around the palace. Blue fire danced from their tips, and she felt a tingle of enormous energy held at bay. What she beheld was the technology that had once held off the greatest weapons her kind had ever produced. The palace would be safe from anything that Syr-Nagath could ever bring to bear. Or so she must hope.
    Thinking of the Dark Queen, a tide of anger rose within her as she turned her gaze to the Homeworld. The Desh-Ka were in deadly peril, and what she had come to accomplish here was done. Now she had to save them.
    She was terrified of what must come next. “Ayan-Dar,” she whispered as she closed her eyes and clamped down on her fear. “Please, take my hand and guide me.”
    Picturing the Kal’ai-Il of the Desh-Ka temple in her mind, she willed herself to go there.
    Opening her eyes, she looked around. She was still in the palace, standing on the same spot.
    “They are dying,” she whispered fiercely as the tide of pain from her kin rose in the Bloodsong. “I…must… go …”
    With a sudden rush of wind through the throne room, she stepped into the not-space between where she was and where she wished to be.

CHAPTER EIGHT

    As the crackling globes rained down upon them, the host of Nyur-A’il conjured a whirling storm that swept most of the weapons aside. Most, but not all. Even though thousands were diverted from their intended targets, many of them falling from the plateau to slaughter the Dark Queen’s warriors below, hundreds still