An hour later the storm had worsened which actually worked to our advantage. Adah and Zillah walked out into the flurry where Lamech negotiated with the djinn. The rest of us were able to creep down the slopes of the valley and get uncomfortably close in the whiteout. Grist had gone off to a wooded area to gather his own force for the cause, leaving Elara and I behind to wait for the signal. I spoke to the wind and coaxed it to carry the voices in the valley to us. It was taxing on me in the snow, but I managed to get a low murmur that we could understand.

“You tire me,” a full female voice said that I assumed was the marid. “I have no need to conquer man. They are bugs to smash when I wish.”

“You could have possibly done so a century ago,” Lamech countered in his smug voice. “But how many millions have been born since then? How many millions would it take to overwhelm even one as great as you, Formione? In another hundred years will it even be possible?”

“I knew I would run into you again,” Elara said.

It broke me from my concentration and I realized that she couldn’t hear the conversation going on across the valley. It made me wonder at my newfound abilities. With enough practice could I reproduce the sounds so that she could hear them? “It has been a while,” I said.

“You’ve grown,” she said.

I wasn’t quite sure what she meant. Was she commenting about my height? I had grown taller in the past year. Or was it something else? She had definitely grown more beautiful and she carried an authority that she didn’t have before. It was as if in the past year she had seen ten and I supposed that with her that was entirely possible. “We need to talk,” I found myself saying. “About us.”

She cocked an eyebrow at me.

“Not about us together,” I clarified. “About you and what you are and about me and what I am, and I missed you.” I hadn’t meant to say that last bit and my face grew hot. Hopefully she couldn’t tell with the blizzard around us. At least I didn’t feel quite so cold anymore.

“Yes we do,” she said.

Her voice sounded so nice. Why was it so hard to focus when I looked at her? “Wait.” I held up my hand. Our talk would have to be saved for later. I could hear Adah and Zillah speaking to Lamech.

“We have news,” Adah said.

“Adah, Zillah,” Lamech greeted, probably for the djinn’s benefit. “Did you find them?”

“Yes my love, just like you thought,” said Adah. “Enoch sent his spies to stop us.”

I cursed softly.

“What is it?” Elara asked and I reminded myself that she couldn’t hear what was happening.

“Those treacherous kinslayers are betraying us,” then focused back on the conversation.

“There are two-hundred of them at least,” Zillah said.

“So, Enoch thinks he can stop me with a mere two-hundred,” Lamech growled.

Two-hundred? Were we betrayed or was this the distraction?

“Tubalcain, Jabal,” Lamech barked. “Gather hunting parties and drive the atlanteans this way. We will show you, my dear Formione, what it is we fight.”

I quickly whispered to Elara all that I had heard and within a few minutes dark figures were gathering at the edge of visibility. A pack of at least twenty rushed right past us in the whiteout. By luck they didn’t see or step on us. As they passed they split into two groups, I followed one and Elara took the other. I worried when I saw Elara going off on her own though I knew better than anyone how she could take care of herself. I worried nonetheless.

Putting my fears aside I ran after the dark shapes that loped through the snow. All of them were in the form of enormous wolves. Monstrously huge wolves and they were fast. I quickly wove a vibration through the falling snow toward them before they could escape. Four of them pricked their ears and stopped. I wove them promises of warmth and sleep. I could feel them push against my enticement like a washcloth soaking up a spill. The moon above encouraged them and fed them resistance.

I listened and tried to adjust but I was too new at this to do anything but simply push power into it and hope to oversaturate them. I was at my limit when the four began settling down to sleep and the other six returned. It had taken a lot more effort than I thought to put only four of them to sleep and now I had six pairs of eyes locked on me. My throat already hurt and now these monsters saw me and wanted my blood.

The leader of the pack was huge, easily large enough to take down a curelom and consume it in one gorging of flesh and bone. I ran and listened for his tone and timber as he snarled and clawed in my footprints. The snow was almost knee deep making me stumble on the uneven ground but the wolves had no trouble plowing through it. Right as the lead wolf snapped at me with its strong jaws I found his sound and let fly my own to oppose it.

The wolf yelped and fell down dead mid stride. I was aghast at how much easier it had been to simply kill than lull to sleep. I was lucky that the other wolves were just as shocked as I was. It gave me the few moments I needed to find my next target, discern its tone, and release the opposite to cancel it out. Two down.

The remaining four backed off and were more cautious of me now, not knowing that giving me room to breathe only gave me more power over them. I found another frequency, then another. Two more wolves dropped. The sleeping spell on the first four had nearly been too much for me, but with four dead I still had strength to fight. Killing should not have been so easy.

The other two charged together and I knew that I could only get one before the other reached me. I called death down on one but the other leaped up with open jaws to end me. A white blur rushed in front of me and reached out to touch the beast. Elara called my name just as she and the last wolf disappeared only inches from me. The flurry of snow in their wake washed over me, but they were gone. I was dumbfounded. I should have been dead.

“Elara,” I called out. I looked around and saw only lifeless lumps of tooth and fur half buried in the snow. “Elara!” I yelled again. A long muffled silence was the only answer. Had Elara just sacrificed herself for me? Dread filled me as I stood in the swirling snow unable to move or think of anything but Ealra.

“How long have you been standing there you pea brain? We still have a djinn to take care of,” Elara said.

I turned and there she was, standing proud and beautiful. “How?” I asked. “Where?”

“I left him in tomorrow,” Elara said. “Now I’m going to have to skip a day!”

The relief of seeing her was too much for me. I stumbled over and fell into her arms. “I didn’t know I could kill them like that,” I cried. “How do you do it? How did you manage to get rid of all of yours and still find me?” How was she still composed, I wanted to ask.

“Adah,” she answered. “She was leading the group I followed and I realized she was leading them away. Then I looked for you.”

I knew we had to keep moving. I knew we had to get to Lamech or it would all be for nothing, but I couldn’t stop crying and, truth be told, I liked being held by Elara. She had more sense than me, however, and pushed me away.

“I don’t think your wolves are as dead as you think,” she said. Indeed a couple of the bodies around us were still breathing. I felt a rush of relief and fear. Relief that I wasn’t as much a murderer as I thought and fear because I should have been but these creatures simply refused to die. I later learned that I only killed three that night which was still enough to put my murder count above Lamech or anyone else to date. I was grateful that those I had fought were in the shape of wolves. Had they looked human it may have broken me.

Elara half dragged me onward to where Lamech stood with a large shadow that twisted and shifted like a flame. Two men and two wolves still stood beside him. Elara strode boldly up, releasing me and pulling a device from her pocket. Without warning she clicked it to life and immediately a wave of trembling pain washed over me. I hummed a counter frequency that reduced it from the pain of an ax splitting my skull to a mere knife piercing it. All in all I was in about the same state as everyone there save Elara. I watched to see how she was not affected by the cursing atlantean device and noticed a slight wave only finger’s width around her.

“Lamech,” she pronounced. “I hereby detain you and commit you to transportation to Zion to be judged for your crimes.”

I reached out instinctively to touch Elara’s clothes and felt the counter resonance that was being emitted around her.

“Namir!” she shouted as Lamech recovered and drew a long knife. He lunged but before he could reach us I felt myself being yanked back and with a dizzying crash I was standing in the snow again crying on Elara’s shoulder. She pushed me away then winced and shook her head.

“What was that, Namir?”

I honestly had no idea and no defense so I remained silent.

“How did you extend my shield by touching me?”

Is that what I had done?

“Thanks to your little stunt I’m not sure if I can skip again tonight!”

“I’m sorry,” I said and I understood what she meant. My head had been so rattled that I doubted I could do much more sonic work tonight either.

“I don’t get infinite tries at this, Namir,” Elara said. “I can’t just keep going back and trying again.” She looked at me in bewilderment and I was too drained to come up with any answers. I didn’t know the rules for what we were doing. I didn’t know the cost. “Wait here,” she said, then marched toward Lamech and the djinn alone. I moved to follow but hesitated. She was probably right. What could I do other than get in the way again? In my mania to escape the pain of the atlantean device I had reproduced her shield large enough to cancel the whole field out. I had learned much about my new abilities in the past couple weeks, but I still had a long way to go.

Elara disappeared into the swirling snow and I stumbled after her, unwilling to leave her completely alone. I felt it when she activated the device again and I could even tune it out well enough at this distance to hear her clearly repeat the words, “Lamech, I hereby detain you and commit you to transportation to Zion to be judged for your crimes.” I got close enough that I could see all of their shapes through the flurry. Elara’s white solid presence, the men and wolves that cowered before her, and the undulating form of the djinn. Elara took the knife from Lamech’s belt and threw it away.

The marid rose above her and I saw that her device was only enough to make it angry. As it fell menacingly toward her I discerned its shape and tone then released one of my own. The marid wavered, giving Elara just enough time to notice the attack and get away. The marid, Formione, turned its full attention on me.

“Iblis,” the creature said. “No, he would not send a son of man.” I stood transfixed, staring at the djinn that could overpower anything I could throw at it and devour me.

“Namir, look out,” Elara cried too late for me to dodge the wolf that was springing at me. The giant wolf fell on me and I felt its claws digging through my clothing. It was distracted enough by the frequency of pain in the air that I was able to fend off its snapping jaws long enough for Elara to sink her hand into its fur. They both disappeared, but where or when they went I didn’t know.

Lamech regarded me as I stood. He, his two men, and his remaining wolf were all now free of the piercing pain. “The first time I saw you, boy, we both knew that I would kill you,” he snarled.

“No,” Formione commanded. “You will not touch the envoy of Iblis.” The djinn solidified into the shape of a human woman with long hair that spread around her, forming legs like a spider or possibly tentacles. “Go, wolf,” Formione said. “I will relay your request to Iblis, though I believe this boy could speak for him.”

Lamech grimaced as if swallowing something bitter as he backed away. “The next time we meet nothing will save you,” he threatened, then he and his followers stalked off into the blizzard and were gone.

I stood for several minutes in silence with the monstrous djinn and tried unsuccessfully to convince myself that the danger had passed. I shivered violently and realized that the snow had now piled up to my hips.

“Thank you,” I said through chattering teeth.

“Do not thank me, young one,” Formione replied. “I would have killed you myself were you not already claimed by Iblis. Farewell little incubus.” Then, like a candle blowing out, she was gone.