Predatory Planeswalker

Words failed as a second sun, yellowish-green in color, loomed suddenly high overhead. The air exploded as it hurtled toward them. Xantcha had the wit to be frightened but hadn't begun to guess why or to yawn Urza's armor from the cyst, when the pavilion burst into screaming flames, and Urza seized her against his chest. He pulled her between-worlds. Without the armor to protect her, she was bleeding and gasping when they re-emerged.

Urza laid her on the ground then cradled her face in his hands. "Don't go," he whispered.

It seemed an incongruous request. Xantcha wasn't about to go anywhere. The between-worlds had battered her to exhaustion. Her body seemed to have already fallen asleep. She wanted only to close her eyes and join it.

"No!" Urza pinched her cheeks. "Stay awake! Stay with me!"

Power like fire or countless sharp needles swirled around her. Xantcha fought feebly to escape the pain. She pleaded with him to release her.

"Live!" he shouted. "I won't let you die now."

Death would have been preferable to the torture flowing from Urza's fingers, but Xantcha hadn't the strength to resist his will. Mote by mote, he healed her and dragged her back from the brink.

"Sleep now, if you wish."

His hand passed over her eyes. For an instant, there was darkness and oblivion, then there was light, and Xantcha was herself again. She exhaled a pent-up breath and sat up.

"I don't know what came over me."

"Death," Urza said calmly. "I nearly lost you."

***

"Manatarqua died. I suspect the others escaped unharmed, as I did. They prey on the young and the mortal because a mature 'walker is no easy target. But I had made up my mind almost from the start. I don't need another 'walker. I need you. To finally realize that and then feel you die so soon afterward-it was almost enough to make me worship the fickle gods."

***

But the brightening wasn't dawn. The new light came from a single point overhead, a star, Xantcha thought-there weren't so many of them in the Equilor sky that she hadn't already memorized the brightest patterns. She'd never seen a star grow brighter before, except on Gastal when the star had been a predatory planeswalker.

***

Planeswalker, Chapter 19-20