Chapter 22

It was like being in a bubble. A soundless cone of silence. We could see the tree branches on the other side of our safe spot, wavering in the ward’s mist. The blue sky above our heads. We could feel the ground shaking under our feet as the army approached. But we couldn’t hear a thing as the procession of horses and wagons made its way past us in a blur of colors and swords and shields.

I closed my eyes as the moving shadows danced through the trees like a strobe light, pulsing against my eyelids. Holding my breath, I prayed desperately that we had warded us enough to stay hidden from our enemy. That we had covered our tracks well enough. That Starke and the guards had laid a plausible trail, enough to lure them away. That they would be safe. So many thoughts and fears running through my head, even as I concentrated on helping Kara keep the ward up. Concentrating on the hum of electricity running through my veins and into my sai and mumbling the spell word Kara had taught me to keep us hidden.

Folaigh. Folaigh. Folaigh.

Just a little bit longer. We could do this. We were not getting caught by these assholes. Not today.

Time slowed to a crawl. It no longer had meaning. It felt like we were trapped in this floating vortex, absent from all sound and point of time. It felt like we’d been hiding here for hours, yet the ground still trembled as the army rode past. How many of her soldiers were there?

Folaigh. Folaigh. Folaigh.

The word repeated over and over in my head like a mantra, and I kept mumbling. My arms trembled from the effort of holding my sai up. My head hurt from concentrating so hard. My heart thudded, full of fear for everyone depending on me. Sweat bubbled on my forehead and slowly began to drip down my face, but I didn’t dare make the effort to wipe it away. I didn’t dare lose my concentration.

No one spoke. We were squashed in this little radius, thirty-five people, two horses and a wagon, in an area big enough for not even half that, but I didn’t hear a peep from anyone. Not a whimper, not a sigh, not a breath. Every single person here knew to be found probably meant death. It was enough to keep the noisiest Chatty Cathy silent as a mouse. I kept my eyes shut. I didn’t want to see the looks of terror I knew were etched in every one of their faces. I wouldn’t be able to handle it.

Folaigh.

“Jette girl.”

Folaigh.

“Stop.”

The word hissed in my ear and I startled, bumping into the body directly behind me. My eyes flew open and I stared into Bishop’s face.

“I think they have passed.”

I still kept mumbling the spell even as I peered through the forest. Bish was right. The amount of road we could see through the woods was clear. No soldiers, no wagons. All that was left was the trodden path where a hundred horses had just passed by. I bent down, laying my palm flat against the ground, but it was still. No shaking or rumbling from an army. They had moved on.

“Oh my God,” I whispered at Bish and Kara as I stood back up, wiping my sweaty face with my sleeve. “Are you telling me this lame brained idea really worked?”

“It appears so,” Kara grinned. “But I will keep the ward up for a while yet. There could be stragglers.”

“We wait an hour then we move on towards the village,” Bish whispered and I stared back stupefied.

“No. We wait until Starke and the guards get back. Then we move out.”

“Prince Starke was insistent—”

“So am I,” I hissed back. “I will not leave them behind. I’m staying put until they come back safe. You can take the villagers and go, I won’t stop you, but I’m waiting.”

“Then we wait together, water wielder.” The tiny voice came from the crush of bodies in the back of the wagon. A little old lady, her bun of white hair askew to the side and her face ashen from her fear. Yet her voice was clear and firm. “We will not abandon our prince. None of us will. We wait as well until he returns safely.”

I ducked my head at her, marveling in their loyalty to Starke. It didn’t surprise me in the least. I dropped them all a tiny smile of gratitude before my gaze averted back to Bish and Kara. “We all in agreement?”

“I believe we are,” Bish answered.

“Good. Maybe we should get comfortable. It may take a while.”

The words no sooner dropped from my lips before a shimmer of dark electricity jolted over my body and slithered down my spine. I shivered like someone had just walked over my grave. A shadow fell over the copse of trees where we hid, blocking the sun in the clear sky and encasing the grove with a coldness that cut deep into my bones. I glanced up as a long, menacing shadow glided overhead. My mind did this weird flashback to when I was twelve and went on a school trip to the aquarium. We’d gone through a tunnel underneath the shark tank and the sharks had circled above us with all the cunning and predatory instinct that came naturally to them. I remembered how terrified I’d been. So terrified that I’d peed my pants a little. This was that exact same feeling, but this shadow was no shark. It was much, much deadlier. Asha and her morquals were here.

Snapping myself out of my terror, I whirled on Kara.

“Can you ward us enough to keep us hidden from her?”

“Asha?” she asked, eyes wide.

“No, the Queen of England,” I snipped. “Yes Asha. In case you haven’t realized, that was her doing a flyover by morqual.”

Kara ignored my fear-fueled sarcasm.

“I can’t carry the ward that long. My magic will never be enough to hide us from her. Eventually she will find us.”

Not what I wanted to hear. The shadow flew overhead again, and I caught a glimpse of the blue-black scales flashing through the trees. She was flying lower than before. She was hunting.

“What will we do?”The whisper originated from the wagon, the speaker not even bothering to try and hide their terror.

“She will kill us all, just like she did to everyone at the village.”

A child began crying. Low and mournful, it ripped at my heart. I couldn’t let anything happen to these people. Starke’s people. My people.We couldn’t just stay here like sitting ducks and let her find us. I needed to do something.

“Kara, lower the ward for a split second,” I whispered.

“What? No, we can’t take that chance.”

“Just do it,” I hissed. “I have a plan. On three, okay?”

“Jette girl, what are you doing?” Bishop gripped my shoulder, spinning me to face him. I bit my lip, trying not to let my terror leak out.

“Asha wants only one thing. Me. If I lead her away, she’ll not bother with any of you, right?”

“Out of the question,” Bishop growled.

“Only way,” I shot back. “Trust me, I’m not planning on getting caught. Once I’m far enough away, I’ll use magic and draw her attention. Lead her away from you guys.”

“Then what?” Bishop hissed.

“I don’t know, Bish. I’m playing this by ear okay. But I have to do something.” I glanced over at the villagers. The children. I couldn’t let them die. He must have seen the desperation in my eyes, heard it in my voice, since he nodded once in approval.

I grabbed his hand tight and stared into his worried eyes. “Keep them safe.” My gaze shifted to Kara. “On three. One….two….” I sucked in a big gulp of air and swallowed, trying to keep my heart out of my throat. “Three.”

I knew the moment Kara dropped the ward. It felt like the whole area depressurized and I swear my ears popped. I stumbled away from the others, tripping over a root and nearly falling to my knees. I glanced back over my shoulder, preparing to yell at her to raise the ward. Only instead I found myself face to face with Bish as I watched Kara and the villagers blend into the shadows once more.

“Bish,” I hissed, pissed at him for following me. “What the hell are you doing?”

“You will not do this without me, Jette girl. Just as you wish to keep the others safe, I mean to do the same for you.”

“Stupid old man,” I growled at him. “Go—”

I never got the back out. The shadow passed overhead again and Bishop slammed me against a broad pine, hiding us from searching eyes. Now that I was outside the ward, I felt Asha’s probing presence tenfold. Her dark and diseased magic slithering through the forest, searching for its prey. Searching for us.

“This way,” I motioned with my thumb and Bish and I started running in the opposite direction, away from Kara and the villagers, further into the trees.

We ran, darting between the saplings and pines, the branches and roots trying to hinder our progress every step of the way, like they were under Asha’s control. A couple of times I shot a weak bolt of my magic into the trees and away from us, leaving her a trail of breadcrumbs further away from the innocents we’d left behind. As feeble as my jolts were, I knew Asha registered them since only minutes later that terrifying shadow would hover overhead, trying to pinpoint the source of the magic. I wasn’t about to let her do that.

We kept moving, keeping up the lethal game of hide and go seek. I lost track of how much time passed, or how many times that damn morqual passed overhead with its miserable screeches echoing through the trees. My body told me to just keep moving.

“Jette, down.” Bish nearly pulled my arm out of joint as he yanked me to my knees behind a shrubbery filled with big, succulent purple berries that I had no name for. The faint aroma of lilacs wafted by my nose as I stared through the shrub and past the berries to the squadron of soldiers creeping through the pines.

Dammit.

There had to be at least a dozen or more, already starting to spread out through the trees. There was no way they weren’t going to find us. I raised my sai, my magic surging through me, ready to be expended.

“Bish, I’ll take them out. Be ready to run. I’ll have to use a lot of magic. Asha will track us in no time.”

“No don’t, Jette girl. If you use such power, she will capture you.”

“Shut up. We’re not being captured,” I whispered at him. “Got it? Now get ready to run. I’ll pin them to the right so our left will be wide open, okay? I don’t know how long I’ll be able to stop them so don’t waste time. Get out of here.”

I closed my eyes, filling my sai with the power I needed. The only indication I had that Bish was gone was the breath of cool air that flowed over my face before opening my eyes to his retreating back. No. What the hell was he doing? He was supposed to wait for me to trap the soldiers first. Even as the confusion swirled in my head, the answer hit me. He was leading the soldiers away from me so I wouldn’t give myself away. Stupid man!

The soldiers began yelling and chasing after him as he zigzagged through the trees. I prepared my sai, ready to let loose my magic on the soldiers and save his stupid ass. But I hesitated. I didn’t. He was right. If I used the amount of magic needed to stop the soldiers, Asha would be on me in no time. And as much as I feared for Bish, I wasn’t about to give her that upper hand.

Argh.

The scream I couldn’t vocalize echoed in my head. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Bish wasn’t supposed to sacrifice himself. Not for me. I couldn’t just let him be captured…or worse. Okay then, what to do. If I couldn’t use magic to save Bish, then I’d have to do this the old-fashioned way. I was gonna have to kick some soldier butt.

I waited until the last of the battalion had passed me by before following. At least they were easy to trail. They were making more noise than a herd of elephants barreling through the woods. They weren’t trying to muffle their presence at all which covered any sounds I was making on their tail. By the time I caught up with the last soldier at the back of the pack, he had no idea I was near. Making sure the others were far enough ahead to not take notice, I leaped at his back and wrapped my arm around his neck, jerking back as hard as I could. We fell into the shrubbery with me on my back and him splayed on top of me like a wet blanket. I wrapped my legs around him to keep him from flipping us over, but he fought back like a madman. Tightening my arm around his neck, I grabbed my other hand, using my arm as a noose, choking off his air. He struggled and jerked trying to get me off his neck, but I was not letting go, no matter how much my arms trembled from the effort.

Pass out already!

He bucked again and clawed at my arms, but finally I felt his energy fading. Pulling tighter for good measure, his body finally went slack, and his hands fell away. I waited for any more movement, but I didn’t think he was faking it. He was out cold. Shoving his body off in disgust, since I don’t believe personal hygiene was high on his list of priorities, I crawled back to my feet.

Thank you, Netflix and the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.

One down. Only twelve or so more to go. I got this.

A slight movement ahead and I sped off in search of my next target, praying desperately I had enough strength and luck left to chokehold a dozen more soldiers.

I didn’t make it more than ten steps before a hand slapped over my mouth and I was dragged back behind a giant pine. Reacting on instinct, I elbowed my captor in the gut with everything I had and prepared to bolt. A quiet oof whizzed past my ears seconds before the smoky pine smell assaulted my senses.

Starke.

I whirled, never so happy to see those emerald orbs. The fear that I’d been holding onto ever since he left, dissipated and overwhelmed me with a mixture of relief and joy. It was so good to see him alive and safe and whole.

But instead of saying what was in my heart, I punched him in the shoulder.

“Dammit. You scared the crap out of me,” I whispered, before throwing my arms around his neck and trying hard not to cry as the myriad of emotions coursed through me.

“It’s so good to see you too, little rabbit,” he muttered against the top of my head, understanding what I was feeling without me having to say a word. “I told you I’d be back.”

“Took you long enough,” I chastised him, as I backed out of his embrace. “They’re after Bish.”

“I saw. The others?”

“Safe for now. But I need to save Bishop.”

He nodded in agreement, no more words necessary. Pointing to the thicket ahead, he led the way.

We didn’t get far. The trees soon thinned out and tapered off to an open, wide field, leading upwards to a slight rise backdropped by an expanse of blue sky. I didn’t need to see the ocean below the cliffs to know it was there. I could hear it crashing against the rocks, its power thrumming through my body. Bish stood on the bluff above the thunderous waves, holding a large branch in his hands as if he was about to fight off the soldiers surrounding him. I had to fight the urge to scream at him across the field. To tell him to hold on. That we were on our way to help. But the soldiers weren’t focused on Bish. Nor was his focus on them. Instead all eyes were fixated upwards as the merciless sun was suddenly blocked by the grey mist and shadows moving in fast. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was happening. If the screeching of the morquals wasn’t a dead giveaway, the dark wrongness of her magic announced her arrival with all the pomp and pageantry of a marching band. Asha was coming in for a landing.