Cole vs serpent

  Then the snake wheeled on Cole.

  He had no idea what to do. He tried to run as the snake approached, but within a moment it was encircling him, coils constricting. The thick body wrapped around him twice, pinning his arms to his sides and binding his legs together, immovable muscles clenching beneath smooth scales. Cole suspected the snake could crush his bones to dust if it desired.

  “Will that suffice?” Owandell asked.

  “Do you yield, Cole?” Ramarro asked lazily.

  Focusing on the physical contact with the serpent, Cole connected to its power. Peya’s power was impressive, but, unlike Ramarro’s, it was comprehensibly finite. Could Cole attack so much power directly? The nature of the energy reminded him of the power he had reignited in Elegance.

  Ribs creaking as he peered across the square, Cole saw Elegance watching. If only he could touch her, he could try to link her power to the snake.

  Keeping his connection to the Perennial Serpent, Cole concentrated on Elegance. Her power was there. He could sense it. Cole knew he could hold a connection without touching her. Why not make one?

  He had failed before. Many times.

  Still, he tried, reaching with his power, searching with his mind.

  He had a vague, general sense of her power. But nothing he could actually reach.

  Cole remembered the dead center he had accessed when he reenergized her. The expired coal he had saturated until it flared to life.

  What about that? Where was that?

  Suddenly he was no longer just searching for her power.

  He had a more specific target. A target he had not known existed.

  He was searching for her center.

  The heart of her power.

  The core.

  And he found it, throbbing in the midst of her power, small but intense. He had never noticed the core before. He had not known to look.

  Once found, it seemed more tangible than the rest of her power. If her power was light, this was the lantern. Connecting
proved almost effortless.

  “This is absurd,” Owandell said. “Yield. Peya does not have to be gentle.”

  Peya had sent Twitch away. And Brogan. And Mira. And Jace.

  Cole reached into Peya with all he had and heaved her power at Elegance. The transference developed quickly, and suddenly he was not pushing power from the serpent to the princess. It was flowing on its own.

  The grip of the snake slackened. And then the serpent began to shrink. Cole felt the power gushing out of the snake as if a dam had burst.

  “No!” Owandell cried. “Peya! Attack!”

  The spasming serpent offered no reaction. Within moments it lay still, barely a foot in length.

Chapter 26