Scenes from an Unholy War Read Online Free

shook the whole stable. Just as she was about to collide with them, Lyra twisted around and stopped before glaring at the doors. She didn’t punch or kick at them—there was no sense wasting the energy. That wasn’t what a professional did.
    “What’s the meaning of this?” the mayor inquired. Though the doors had closed, there were plenty of windows, so it was still more than bright enough to see.
    “We’ve got hostiles outside. How’s he doing?” Lyra asked, turning to Sheryl, who had her hand against D’s brow.
    “He’s really running a fever. We’ve got to get him to the doctor right away,” she said.
    The medical center in town was operated by a circuit physician. The village had no permanent doctor, but they would periodically employ a traveling one. Circuit physicians included independently operating individuals, members of small Frontier medical associations, and doctors dispatched from the Capital. They might provide treatment in a given village for as little as a few hours, or for as long as six months. The third such doctor to come to the village had already been there for more than three months.
    “Who in the world is outside?” asked Sheryl.
    “Like I said, hostiles. People with a score to settle with me, or you and your dad, or maybe the super stud there.”
    Lyra looked up at the ceiling. There was a big window open on the wall directly in front of her. When she bounded up for it, she looked like a crimson falling star flying in reverse. However, as she easily reached the window more than fifteen feet off the ground, her body instantly warped like a TV signal rocked by interference. With a base grunt of pain, Lyra was thrown backward. Executing a flip in midair, she managed to gracefully land feet first.
    “ Lyra? ”
    As if in response to Sheryl’s cry, the warrior woman stood up straight, and then twisted again. Her eyes stretched wide, her mouth shrank down to a dot, and the fingers of her elongated hands grew about as long as she was tall.
    “Don’t come near me,” Lyra said, her voice echoing on top of itself. It, too, was warped. “They’ve got a spatial distorter. Everyone, gather in the middle. And don’t touch anything!”
    “But what about him?”
    “Forget about the infirm. You have to look out for yourself. Hurry up!” 



“Let’s go, Sheryl!” the mayor said, his arm around her shoulder, but when the girl stood up, the scene around them began to change.
    The ceiling and three of the walls were warping. Noticing the strange transformation, the horses tethered in the back began whinnying. Then they stopped unexpectedly.
    Turning to look at them, Sheryl let out a scream.
    Even the horses had been distorted. And the boards that partitioned each animal into a separate stall rolled and bulged like the picture on a poorly tuned TV. The horses were no longer horses at all. With twisted muzzles, legs dripping like molasses, and barrels stretched like serpents, the creatures that stood there were truly bizarre.
    “The horses and the walls—they’re all running together!”
    “Can’t you do anything, Deputy?” the mayor shouted, stomping his feet indignantly.
    “There is something I could try,” Lyra replied, her words distorted.
    “What might that be?”
    “I could hit this field head on. That might do something.”
    The color draining from her face, Sheryl shouted at her to stop. “If you did that, you’d be obliterated!”
    “That goes with the territory,” Lyra said, her body shaking. The distortion suddenly disappeared—apparently, the spatial distorter hadn’t had a permanent effect yet. Pointing at D, she continued, “I think you’re gonna be fine. If I don’t make it, get him to do whatever needs to be done. And don’t, under any circumstances, allow him to just leave.”
    Sheryl didn’t know what to say to that.
    “Well, here goes nothing.”
    Twisting her upper body around, Lyra poised herself for a running start.
    The wind struck her