by TurtleMe
“I love you too, idiot. But we’re at war. We both have responsibilities, and people that need us,” she said in a solemn whisper.
I wrapped my hands around hers. “I know. And I have things I want to tell you, so how about we make a promise?”
“What sort of promise?”
“A promise to stay alive—so that we can have a future together, a relationship… a family.”
Her arms trembled, but when she answered, her voice was steady. “I promise.”
Tess pulled her arms away, but I didn’t turn around. I stared off at the Beast Glades, my mind pulled violently away from our mountainside ledge, our conversation, even from Tess… In the gloom, I had almost missed the cloud of dust drifting up from behind a large hill only a few dozen miles away.
“It’s too soon,” I muttered. Beside me, Tess raised her hand to her mouth, stifling a gasp.
The reports were wrong; they couldn’t be more than a few hours away. The beast horde was coming.
213
Enemy Territory III
CIRCE MILVIEW
I ran. It seemed as though my purpose, my entire function, had boiled down to running near-blind through this cursed forest. I sprinted in whatever direction my magic guided me. Without it, I was blind. Even if there was a moon tonight, I doubted its pale rays would be able to penetrate the dense canopy or the fog above.
Low-hanging branches scraped my cheeks and arms while thorny shrubs tore through my clothes. Next to the fire in my lungs and the knives piercing my every muscle, the pain was insignificant, but if I fell, all would be lost.
Every so often, I would see flashes of green light from Maeve’s magic, illuminating the trees and casting eerie shadows on the forest ground.
Maeve, Cole. Please make it out safely.
Running until the flashes of magical battle were barely visible, I skidded to a stop and took cover behind a thick shrub. I covered my mouth to muffle my gasping breaths, afraid that I’d be heard. Paranoia, doubt, and hopelessness threatened to overwhelm my will to go on.
You’re okay, Circe. You’re doing great, I told myself, wiping at the stream of tears that wouldn’t stop flowing. You have to survive. For your brother—for Seth.
After finally catching my breath and calming my nerves, I ignited my crest. Immediately, I could sense the location of the closest three-point array. It was farther away than I had hoped.
Unable to even curse aloud, I ground my teeth in frustration. Considering the distance between the arrays, just using mana wouldn’t be enough. It had to be strong.
Using my bare hands, I dug a small hole in the soft ground, then bit down on my thumb until I drew blood. Carefully, I let my blood drip into the hole, infusing it with the mana from my crest.
Purely by accident, I had discovered that using my blood as a medium for mana would amplify the effects of the array. Perhaps finding out why might one day begin my crest’s evolution into an emblem. If I survived long enough to return to Alacrya…
After my mana-infused blood had seeped into the small hole, I covered it up and moved on to a nearby tree.
Taking out my knife, I began carving a small hole underneath a low branch. I was about to put my bleeding thumb up against the hole when a sharp snap caused me to whirl around. I held the knife with both hands, pointing it toward the source of the sound and activating my first crest.
My senses expanded, covering a twenty-yard radius; it was just a small forest creature. I lowered my knife, frustrated at my own jumpiness. I was trembling, my back up against the tree, tears in my eyes again, but I clenched my fists, ground my teeth, and pushed the fear into a dark place at the back of my mind. Time enough to die when the job’s done, soldier.
Despite my best efforts, despite knowing the noise had been caused by an animal, I couldn’t focus. I was wasting time, but my instincts kept screaming, Check behind you! Check behind you!
“If someone was here, they would’ve killed me already,” I growled. It wasn’t a very comforting thought, but it was true. I was a Sentry—widely respected and valuable, but nearly defenseless compared to Strikers like Fane, Casters like Maeve, and even Shields like Cole.
Though the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, I forced myself around and, hands shaking, began the process again. After the second point was complete, I moved to the final tree to finish the three-point array. I knew that using blood as a medium for the array would take its toll, but I hadn’t been prepared for how weak I felt once the final point was in place. Despite the brisk winter air, which seemed even colder within the fog, I was sweating and my knees were close to giving out.
Got to move—almost there. Unable to mask my mana trail, I moved on. Fortunately, I wouldn’t have to use my blood again. I just needed to make sure I didn’t set the next imprint too far away.
A half-jog was all I could manage. In training, we’d often been made to run a sort of marathon where we alternated running and utilizing our power in a circuit, over and over until half the group had collapsed from exhaustion. I had hated those days the most, but now I understood. Without that conditioning, I would already be dead.
Have the others preceded me into the afterlife? I wondered. Annoying, motherly Maeve; foolish perpetual child, Cole; intolerant, wrathful Fane…
Cole would have fallen first, I knew. It was common with Shields; protection of the combat group was paramount, even to the very end. After Cole fell, Maeve wouldn’t be far behind. Casters were aggressive, entirely focused on offensive magic. Without her Shield to protect her, Maeve would be little more than target practice for the elven archers. Fane, though—he was a Striker and held an emblem. If any could survive blind and alone in the elves’ forest of death, it would be him. For awhile, at least.
My boot caught a knobby tree root and I pitched face forward into the dirt. Well, this is as good a place as any. Pushing myself up to my knees and igniting my crest, I got to work once more. Mana oozed painfully from my fingertips into the first point of the array. I was nearly drained of power. I could tell I wouldn’t have the energy to create many more arrays, but I couldn’t be sure how much farther the elven village was. I hadn’t been able to rest and use True Sight since the elf, Albold, had discovered us.
“Blood honor me,” I mumbled, performing the mental equivalent of squeezing a lemon to extract the last drops of power from within me as I formed the second point of the array. “Light guide me.” Dragging myself to a thin, white-barked tree, I began the third point. “Vritra protect me.”
It was as I completed the third point of the array that I heard it: footsteps hammering bullishly through the undergrowth. They were coming nearer. Using a low branch as a hand hold, I pulled myself to my feet and stumbled into a half-jog away from the three-point array.
Ahead of me, a large fallen log loomed suddenly from the fog. Using a nearby boulder as a step, I tried to jump over, but my legs didn’t have the strength. I caught the side of the log with my shin and pitched forward over the top, crashing into the brush on the other side. I couldn’t find the strength to stand again, so I lay in the dirt, the remains of the bush I’d crushed stabbing into my back, and waited for the footsteps to find me.
Moments later, a form flew over me, vaguely person shaped, but I couldn’t tell if it was an elf or not. Whoever it was, they hit the ground running. They must not have seen me. As the thought flitted through my mind, the heavy steps faltered. Slowly, torturously, I turned my head to look in the direction of the figure. The fog obscured the person’s features, so I activated my crest—pain burned through me as I did—and pushed my senses outward. Fane.
“You look like shit,” I said as the blood-covered Striker slowly made his way back to me.
Falling to his knees at my side, Fane leaned into me, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me up into an awkward embrace.
“What are you—”
“Quiet, Circe. There’s no time. Can you run?” he asked, pulling me suddenly to my feet. He seemed reluctant
to take his eyes off me, but eventually his wariness won out and he turned away, looking back over the fallen tree I’d failed to jump.
“I think so.”
Fane ignited his emblem. His entire body glowed and visible gusts of wind surrounded him like a whirlwind, lifting him off his feet. In his hand was a long spear with a sharp point that spun like a drill, whipping the still air around us into a gale.
“Then run. I’ll hold him off.”
Without another word, I turned and ran. I didn’t know who Fane was referring to, but from the way he had immediately ignited his emblem to its full power, I knew whoever it was must have been powerful.
It wasn’t long before I heard the sounds of battle behind me. The ground shook and the trees seemed to shudder in sympathy for their brethren being destroyed in the fight. More than once I was almost blown off my feet by a gale from behind me, but even then, I resisted the temptation to look back. Fane was doing his job; I had to do mine.
I kept going until my legs felt like lead. Every step seemed harder and harder to make, as if I was wading in a pool of tar. No matter how desperately I wanted to keep moving, my body had had enough. My feet were rooted to the ground, I couldn’t move at all. How far had I gone from the last array? It was hard to tell. Every yard felt like a mile, and my mind felt like someone had hammered out my brains, boiled them to broth, and poured the results back into my head.
“Idiot! Didn’t I tell you to keep running?” I hadn’t heard him approach, but I could tell Fane’s rough voice when I heard it. I never thought I’d be so happy to hear words coming out of his big, stupid mouth…
Without stopping, Fane dipped under my arm, allowing me to wrap it around his neck, and half carried, half dragged me along beside him.
“Fane. Y-your arm!” I moaned, wide-eyed.
“Not important,” he snapped. “I need you to focus on guiding me.”
I wanted to know what had happened, but now wasn’t the time. Pointing in the direction that True Sense had last shown me, I directed the veteran Striker toward our goal.
It was with mild surprise that I realized the sun was coming back up. We had been running non-stop throughout the night, and it was obvious that Fane was close to collapsing. He had to continually concentrate much of his mana on the stub where his left arm used to be in order to keep from bleeding out. The rest of his mana, what little he had left, was spent on reinforcing his body just to keep himself upright and moving.
“We’re almost there!” I said, pointing at an opening in the woods a few dozen yards away.
“Just a bit more… You need to focus everything you have on the three-point array. Do that and our mission is a success,” Fane huffed. “Can you do that?”
“I can.”
We stumbled to a stop and Fane dropped me on the ground. I assumed that the Striker wanted me to start on the array, but I was only half right.
Fane’s emblem glowed brightly underneath his shirt as he stepped in front of me. The spear once again formed in Fane’s hand, and he aimed it at an approaching figure—an elf. The same elf who had spotted us hidden up in that tree. It seemed like days ago now. Maeve and Cole had stayed behind to fight this elf…
If he was alive, that meant they’d met their end.
“Our lives are the light that will guide Alacrya to victory,” I muttered, forgetting for a moment about the array as the elf named Albold continued closing the distance between us. He looked injured and tired, but he was alive.
I heard an airy thwip, but before my brain could process what the noise meant, Fane’s wind spear had already moved, deflecting the arrow that was meant to take my life.
“Damn it, Circe, this will have to do. Make the array,” Fane hissed. “Now!”
Trusting Fane to keep me alive for the next few minutes, I ignited my crest one final time and imprints of the three-point arrays lit up like a map in my head. We had run too far from the last array; it would take blood to make this one strong enough to be seen. Drawing out my blade, I shakily drew the sharp edge across my forearm, letting my blood flow down into the soil.
The sudden clash of weapons just behind me startled me, but I refused to look back.
There was another thwip from behind, followed by a meaty thud. Fane let out a groan.
My hands trembled as I started the array.
Damn it! It’s not strong enough.
I tried to imbue more mana into the first point of the array, but so much was happening. From the corner of my eye, I could see the trees around us swaying. Another pained grunt behind me, but it wasn’t Fane’s voice. A sharp ache radiated from my crest, quickly growing more and more unbearable as I poured mana into the pool of blood on the ground in front of me.
I heard the bow loose another arrow, then found myself lying on my side, a blinding whiteness exploding in my head. Dully, I was aware of pain crawling up my arm like fire. I pushed drunkenly back up to my knees. My right hand wouldn’t move. The arm it was attached to was mangled beyond repair.
“The… array,” Fane croaked from behind me.
“I—I can’t,” I moaned. I couldn’t think; it felt like every inch of my right arm had been stabbed over and over again.
Blood pooled beneath me.
I knew it wouldn’t be long until I died. I almost wanted to die, but I had to think of Seth. He was waiting in a hospital bed back in Alacrya; he was almost dead as well. Even if I couldn’t live, shouldn’t he be able to?
Though I don’t know where I found the strength, I got back to my feet. Blood continued to flow freely from my mangled arm, but it was okay. I knew what I had to do.
“I hope you can forgive your sister… for not being able to make it back home,” I mumbled. “I’ll sleep with you in my heart—forever.”
I took a step to the side, creating a trail with my blood. The pain faded as my entire body seemed to go numb.
Fane came into view; he was barely standing and was dripping almost as much blood as I was.
Though neither of us could speak, Fane continued to protect me, using gusts of wind to deflect the glowing missiles that hissed through the air toward me while I made the array, strengthening it with my life’s blood.
I took another step, but I must’ve lost consciousness because I found the world turned on its side. Fane was still on his feet, holding off Albold and another elf with his spear, which had turned into a whirling wall of destruction.
Almost there.
I crawled, dragging my maimed arm on the ground to continue the bloody trail, but it was getting harder to see. I couldn’t have been unconscious for more than a second, but somehow an entire row of trees had moved, shifting out of the way to reveal a towering wall. And on the top of the wall were hundreds of elves, each armed with staves or bows. The staves were glowing in all sorts of colors, some green, some yellow, others blue. Hovering above them, a lone figure—the she-elf devil. She raised one hand and pointed at me. Blue energy gathered at her fingertip.
“Circe!” Fane yelled, snapping me out of my daze.
A desperate scream tore from my throat as I summoned every ounce of mana I had left through my crest. Drained of mana, energy, and blood, my body sagged like an empty wineskin, but that didn’t matter.
It had worked.
Every imprint I had left in the forest was now connected, and every Sentry waiting outside the forest would be able to sense the arrays. I had created a trail for our army to follow right to our enemy’s heart.
I couldn’t feel my face, but I hoped I was smiling as I stared up at the wall of Dicathian soldiers. I wanted them to see my expression so they’d know...
Even this damned forest won’t keep you safe anymore.
The Alacryan army is coming for you.
214
Welcoming Gift
ARTHUR LEYWIN
“We need to go warn the others!” Tess urged, mana already enveloping her body as she prepared to jump off the cliff.
I grabbed her wrist. “I’ll warn
everyone. You need to go get your teammates. You have a mission to accomplish.”
“That beast horde is more than a day early, Art! The people here aren’t prepared for this. I should stay and—”
“That’s what I’m here for, Tess,” I cut in firmly. “You have your orders, soldier.”
There was a tense moment of silence. Tess’s brows furrowed and her jaw tightened in frustration, but she finally relented. “Fine. I’ll gather my team and report to Captain Jesmiya before leaving.”
“Good. And Tess… be careful,” I replied with a gentle smile.
“That’s what I wanted to say, dummy,” she said before grabbing me by the scruff of my mantle and pulling me into a kiss.
As she let go and stepped up to the edge of the cliff, I found myself subconsciously touching my own lips, dazed.
Tess smiled at me, her flushed cheeks betraying her embarrassment at the bold move. Tugging on the chain of her leaf charm, she met my eyes. “Remember the promise.”
“I promise,” I replied, holding up my half of the charm dangling around my neck.
Just like that, Tess jumped off the cliff, sailing down the mountainside like an emerald comet. I watched her go, hoping that what I had said to her was for the best. I didn’t want her to stay here. In the Elshire Forest, she’d be hunting stragglers who were lost in an environment that she could freely navigate.
“It’s for the best, Arthur,” I said aloud to myself. After a moment, I reached out to Sylvie and informed her of the situation, then leapt off the cliff.
The people of the Wall handled the news surprisingly well. Though there was a brief surge of panic, between the adept leadership and the fact that most of the people present were either trained soldiers or veteran adventurers, they were quick to ready themselves for battle.