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The function of the wing is to take what is heavy and raise it up into the region above where the gods dwell Of all things connected with the body it has the greatest affinity with the divine
--PLATO
LIGHTNING flashed, the sky unnaturally dark His doing, or his enemies'? He couldn't tell anyht, and pain could be ignored As he roared his fury, the resulting heat that shot through his sword blade illu, aluishable froh to become an opponent The Dark One's death scream made Jonah's lips curl in a satisfied, feral smile, despite the foul taste of the creature's blood splattered across his mouth
Good or evil, what did it matter? It all came down to this in the end--battle Those ere the best would be left standing, if luck and skill held
But the Lady didn't stand with theht for Her, but he never sensed Her presence in this It was that lonely thought that defeated him, took his attention for a blink and let his enemies strike the sword fro and then arrowing doard earth He spun, twisted The sweep of the battle-axe he couldn't evade was a dull gleas
Perhaps they'd ai to cleave him in half An irony, since that reflected his s Struck it fro of a tree A bolt of agony rocketed through his upper body, nus and arms for a key moment
Balance gone, he hurtled down a with bare fists Blood ran down his back, dripping onto his thighs as brutal talons tore at the open wound
Using the last reservoir of concentration he had, he electrified the air around hi flash jolted his owna hoarse cry from his throat that was lost in their shrieks But the srimly sweet
He was falling free, spiraling down and down, unable to control anything as he dropped forthe descent an unpredictable, wild twisting that tore away his ability to stay conscious
It didn'tflash, not his this time, outlined the deh to dive after him They would try to take him alive, he knew And then all Hell would break loose Literally
When his body fell into the sea, his velocity sent up a plueyser As he hit, the ould ie Co out of nowhere, it
would baffle the ever ignorant and oblivious humans
A pebble dropped in a pond could create ripples, affecting everything it touched in subtle but undeniable ways
The fall of an angel could drown the very heart of Earth
AS a flash of lightning struck the ocean surface thirty feet above, Anna paused, her hand resting on the whale's side The subsequent booh the rippling water The hu noise, but did not stop, her dark flank ers,forward and away
She'd been traveling with the httime world Until the storm blew up, she'd been able to look up and see every star, the light of theplankton In the shadows of the coral reefs, the fish slept, their bodies swaying in the current Yes, the ocean had its own rhyth was different about it now, almost as if it had paused, just like Anna, ear cocked for soht
The clouds had blown in swiftly, thickening around thetheir shadows on the sea as the flat panel of it built into apanorama of turbulent waves Raindrops struck so fast and hard they stippled the flow Though she'd sought tranquility tonight, Anna had to admit the ocean now reflected more of her true mood
Of course, the sea was ever , unlike her relationship with her own kind She wondered that anyone sought the company of ht But by the Goddess, she didn't go to the palace that often Was it too much to ask her cousins not to be so insular and self-centered? She'd just wanted to see theone within minutes of her arrival
Maybe she should have phrased it differently Hello, all I'ht I'd let you know I'll miss you
But she wouldn't, would she? She iven her, and she'd hoped for one fleetingshort
She wouldn't regret tying their hair in knots while they slept before she slipped away Or pressing her hand and forehead for one long ainst the solid door to Neptune's throne room
At another resonant clap of thunder, she turned, glad for the distraction fro did feel odd, as if the plates had shifted, sending a seis pulse of pressure Surely the whales had detected it?
When Anna saw the whale's s as Anna'd been doing, she knew he had sensed the strangeness as well No wonder the pod was ht it unusual, but until now they'd seemed so placid, unhurried But whales tended to anticipate things The uarded her back Anna wondered what it would be like to have someone like that
Oh, Great Lady, she did not want to think about that, either She was alone She would always be alone It was time to make peace with it, with all of it And really, she had been fine for all these years, knowing It was just that now, there was nothing--
She cried out as an object shot down through the water before her, seizing her in the turbulence When soainst her hand, she convulsively closed her fingers on it as she was soested a circular pattern, predictable in its track, she isted, upended and throhile the sea boiled and heaved as if the projectile had been a bullet striking the ocean's heart