“But if I did, let me guess, I wouldn’t make it back alive, right?” I said.
“You would not kill him,” Greystone said, more subdued now. “I know that for a fact. Even if you did surpass my expectations and reach him. He is stronger than you know. He has powers you cannot begin to comprehend.”
“Like Wyrdspeech?” asked Calvin pointedly.
Greystone’s eyes shot up to him. “Where did you learn about that?”
“When he was casting that spell that took down the barrier,” Calvin said, ducking his head. “Someone told me what he was saying.”
Greystone gave a suspicious look at Darren, but he let it pass. “Yes. He has knowledge of the ancient magic. Only a smattering, but that is enough. And while his skill with all of the elements might not be as strong as yours, he nevertheless commands all six of them, whereas each of you has only one.”
I balked at that. “Wait, Terrence has all six? Earth, Fire, Air — ”
“All of them,” Greystone repeated. He gave an angry snort. “He is, if you must know, somewhat like me, only more powerful.”
That shut me up. The thought of a foe who was almost as powerful as we were, but able to command every element at once, was terrifying.
“Was he the one who cloaked the Shadows as they crept up to the wall?” Tess asked from beside me. Her shoulders sagged with exhaustion. I wanted to do something to comfort her, but I couldn’t think of what.
“No, thank goodness,” said Greystone. “If he had already reached that level of strength, we would all be doomed.”
“That means we’re not doomed, guys!” I said, giving the others a cheery grin. “So cheer up! We’re all going to be fine!”
“Shut up, Blade,” Sarah muttered.
“No, the cloak was cast by the mage of Mind who attacked the gates,” said Greystone. “The one you slew in the field. Which was well done, by the way.” He gave a significant look at Miles and inclined his head.
“I’d rather not talk about it,” Miles said gruffly.
I knew what Miles was talking about. I’d seen Samuel kill a man for the first time when we’d traveled to Faya. It still shook me up just to think about it. Miles couldn’t have known how hard it was when he asked me to kill the mages. A big, big part of me was happy that I hadn’t succeeded, that it had been Miles, Raven and Sarah instead of me. Even though they’d been trying to kill us, too.
“Okay, so let’s back it up,” I said. “Our job is to hold down the fort until Raven comes back with reinforcements, right?”
“That is correct,” said Greystone with mock deference. “Do you think you can handle that, Lord Blade?”
I shrugged, putting on my best poker face. “I guess we’ll see.”
I turned and headed for the staircase leading up to our rooms. But I wasn’t going to my room, of course. I had some things to take care of first.
I woke up in the tent. Miles was already lying there awake, a hand over his eyes.
“How you feelin’, man?” asked Miles.
“Not too bad,” I said, groaning as I sat up. My back was a mass of ache. “Got some stuff I need to take care of, though. Personal stuff.”
Miles cocked an eyebrow. “What, you gotta use the restroom? Plenty of trees around here.”
I sighed. “No, numskull. I mean back in town.”
“Oh, okay,” Miles said with a nod. Then his face brightened with an idea. “Hey! Why don’t we spend the night at my place? I told my mom we might come over. She’s totally cool with it.”
I shook my head. “Bad idea, bro. We’re getting close to the end. I can feel it. Next time we go to sleep, we might be out for a couple of days. What if that happens while we’re at your folks’ house? We both get thrown in the hospital, that’s what.”
Miles’ face fell. “Oh. That’s right. Okay, bad idea.”
I chuckled and started getting up. “Don’t worry about it. We all have them sometimes.”
We rolled up the sleeping bags and packed up the tent, tossing them into the Mustang. Fifteen minutes later, we were on our way back to town.
We talked a little, mostly small, boring stuff about life on Earth. I definitely didn’t want to talk about Midrealm, and I don’t think Miles did either.
“Where do you want me to drop you off?” I asked.
Miles looked at me, surprised. “Drop me off? Can’t I just stay in the car?”
My mouth set in a firm line. “Like I said: I’ve got personal stuff to do.”
Miles shrugged, looking awkwardly outside. “I don’t know, I guess. We’re supposed to be in school, so I can’t go home.”
“Tell you what,” I said. “Why don’t I drop you off at a supermarket with some cash. You can do more shopping. We’re almost out of Pringles.”
Miles frowned. “You let me shop, I’m getting something healthier than potato chips. I’m an athlete, man. I can’t live forever on this stuff.”
I inclined my head. “Fair enough. Get whatever you want. Then just hang out until I come and grab you.”
Fifteen minutes later we pulled into the parking lot of an All-N-All, the newest, biggest general purpose store in the country. I handed Miles half of my remaining cash: twenty bucks.
“That’s not gonna get us much,” he said doubtfully.
“That, plus your twenty will get us enough for a couple of days,” I smirked. “And by then, I have a feeling Terrence will be dead or we will.”
“Cheery.”
“Glad I could help. See you in less than an hour.”
I pulled out of the lot, already yanking out my cell phone. I whispered a brief prayer of thanks that Sarah had made us all exchange contact info early on.
The phone rang four times before someone picked up.
“Hernandez residence,” said a cautious, female voice with a thick Hispanic accent.
“Hello there,” I said, making my voice as deep as possible. “This is Professor Schumacher with Roosevelt High. I was calling to check in on Contessa Hernandez?”
“Oh, hello there,” said the woman, sounding relieved. “This is her mother. Tess just woke up. She has a condition — ”
“I’m aware of the situation,” I said comfortingly. “That’s good. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. Would she be available to speak? There’s an assignment due today, but I want to make arrangements for her to re-test if needed.”
“Sure,” said her mom doubtfully. “Contessa?”
There was a moment of silence, then I heard the rustling of the phone being picked up. “Hello?”
“Hey, Tess, it’s Blade. I said I was your teacher,” I said quickly. “I need to talk. Alone. Can I pick you up?”
There was a moment of silence. “Yes, I’m planning on coming in. I’m leaving in just a few minutes and taking the bus.”
“Sidewalk outside your house?”
“Sure, sure, that sounds great,” she said. “See you soon.”
The line clicked off and I stepped harder on the gas.
I pulled up in front of her apartment building a few minutes later. Tess was already waiting on the sidewalk. She swung open the door and got in. She stared around at the interior of the car, her eyes wide.
“Sorry about the mess,” I said, suddenly self-conscious.
“It’s okay,” she said, but her eyes still wandered. “So you’re really living out in the woods right now?”
“Me and Miles,” I nodded. “But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“What is it, then?”
“Hold on. Let’s get somewhere where we can sit.”
I drove to a nearby park and found a picnic table secluded from the rest. I sat down across from Tess and leaned forward seriously, looking into her eyes. There was something off about her. Then I realized with some shock that she’d brushed her hair back to stare at me with both eyes rather than hide behind the curtain of her hair like she normally did. It made me smile.
She smiled back, awkward and embarra
ssed. “What?” she said quietly.
“Nothing,” I said, shaking my head. She probably didn’t even realize she’d done it. “I want to talk about Terrence. I want you to help me sneak into his camp.”
Tess’ eyes widened. “Are you serious?” she whispered. “Why?”
“To end him,” I said solemnly. “It’s the only way I see this working out. If we let him sit too long, he’s going to break into the Runehold. It’s only a matter of time.”
Tess looked around nervously, as though there was anyone on Earth who could overhear us and actually know what we were talking about. “I don’t know, Blade. Greystone wants us to stay and fight them from the Runehold.”
“I know, but I know that’s wrong,” I said urgently. “I don’t know how I know, I just know. Call it a gut feeling. And Terrence will never see us coming. As far as he knows, we’re all sitting comfortably inside the Runehold waiting for him to attack. But if you can make us invisible or whatever, we can get into his camp and take him out. The army will collapse without a leader. They’re not called Chaos because of their excellent organizational structure.”
She smiled, but her face became serious again immediately. “Blade, it’s way too dangerous. Even if we can get into the camp, which I’m not sure we can, how would we get out after we do it?”
“You can make us invisible,” I said with a shrug. “You get me in, I hit him, then you put the cloak around us again or whatever and we run like crazy. Things will be way too chaotic for people to search for us, especially if they can’t see us. Plus, we’ll sneak in through the human side of his camp. The people he brought along to build the catapults and siege towers and stuff. That way, even if somebody catches a glimpse of us, they’ll just think we’re one of them. Not like if we were trying to sneak through the Shadow encampment.”
Tess shook her head doubtfully. “I don’t know. I think we should at least bring it to Sarah.”
I shook my head firmly. “No. She’ll say no, and I know it. But sometimes you’ve got to do things that other people think are bad ideas, just because they’re not willing to accept as much risk as you are. And think about this: think about how happy they’ll be when we do it. Think about coming back into the Runehold and telling them that Terrence is dead.”
I saw a little smile break in her face, and I knew I had won.
We woke in the Runehold a short time later, hours before we’d told Greystone we’d return. I went to my dresser, but instead of my Realm Keeper outfit I drew out some normal, everyday clothes from the bottom drawer. I pulled them on and snuck out into the hallway. Samuel was nowhere in sight.
Tess met me there, and together we stole down to the staircase that would take us to the great hall. We snuck down the stone stairs with no more sound than a mouse might make.
“Okay,” I whispered once we reached the bottom. “Do your thing.”
“Don’t you think it will be weird if people see the door swing open on its own?” Tess whispered.
“We’ll do it quietly and hope no one is watching,” I said. “If anyone sees us in these clothes, there’s going to be questions.”
Tess sighed and shook her head, but I saw her concentrate. After a moment, her eyes went white. I felt a shimmer in the air.
“We’re good to go,” she whispered.
“You’re sure?”
Her sightless white eyes snapped to mine, and a very un-Tess-like frown appeared at the corners of her mouth.
“Okay, okay,” I muttered. “Sheesh.”
I slowly edged the door open a centimeter at a time. As soon as there was enough room, I poked my head out.
The great hall was practically empty, save for one servant scrubbing the table with their back to us. The Runegard guarding the front door at the other end of the hall were turned to the side, neither of them with their eyes on our door.
I motioned Tess forward and slipped through the door. As soon as she was out, I swung it closed silently. It rested against the door frame without latching, which I was grateful for. Even that tiny click would have been like a gunshot in this open, empty space.
I snuck down the hallway toward the stairs that led up to the keep’s roof. Tess was right on my heels. We climbed up the stairs to the door at the top, where we waited a moment and tried to listen through it. There were no sounds.
“Wish us luck,” I breathed, and I swung the door open.
The rooftop was empty. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised — it wasn’t a good position of defense unless the enemy had already breached the inner and outer walls. We were too far away from any invader to fire arrows.
At the edge of the roof was the coiled rope I had left there yesterday before going to bed. It had been tricky getting away from Samuel for long enough to get it out there. I strung out one end and tied it securely around an iron torch holder. Then I let the rest of the rope fall over the edge, dropping to the roof of the inner wall.
“You want to go first or second?” I asked.
Tess shrugged.
“All right, I’ll go,” I said, swinging my legs out into empty space. I lowered myself on the rope slowly, hand over hand, trying to minimize the sound of my boots scraping on the stone.
Within minutes we were on the inner wall. We snuck over to the battlement closest to the bailey. There I had stashed another rope. But this part would be much harder. There were Runegard everywhere in the yard below us. If Tess lost her concentration for a moment, we were toast. If we made too much noise, we were toast.
“Okay, we’ve got to be really careful and really quiet now,” I began. “We can’t let anyone even catch a glimpse that something might be wrong.”
Tess looked at me curiously. “Why don’t you want me to just fly us out?”
I blinked. “What?”
“Well, not fly, technically,” she said, shrugging. “But I could just make a walkway from this wall to the other and keep us invisible.”
I looked at the gap. It was a good thirty feet, but I’d seen Calvin do something similar at the city wall. “You can make us a force field or whatever?”
“Of course,” she said with a simple shrug.
I pursed my lips. “Well, I really wish I had thought of that.”
So we ended up sneaking the rest of the way out of the Runehold thanks to Tess’ powers instead of my own smarts. Which, to be honest, was a little bit of a downer for me. But I was willing to let it slide.
Once Tess had lowered us over the outer wall on a sort of invisible platform, we snuck off through the streets, our leather boots making no sound as we passed invisible among the buildings. We darted down the first street quickly but silently and rounded the corner to the main thoroughfare that would take us to the demolished city gate.
And that’s where we ran into a whole pack of Shadows.
They were standing in perfect formation, their black forms moving up and down only slightly with their harsh, hissing, breathing. They were waiting for the signal to attack so they could swarm down the street we’d just come up, surging at the Runehold with hundreds of their buddies.
I almost summoned fire to blast them with on instinct, until I realized that they weren’t moving. The invisibility was working. No one could see us.
I didn’t dare even whisper to Tess. I knew we were muffled, but I wouldn’t take any chances. Instead I motioned to her with my eyes, gesturing around the Shadows. She nodded. We snuck against the edge of the buildings to skirt their formation, then disappeared into the darkness of the next street.
We made our slow way through the city, keeping to shadows wherever we could and going through alleys rather than taking streets. In reality it didn’t take us that long, but it seemed like an eternity. I figured we had about six hours till sunup, which meant that we needed to get to Terrence’s tent in two hours or we’d be trying to sneak back during daylight. While that wasn’t impossible, I’d rather avoid it. And I wanted to give ourselves some extra time for the trip back, in case things got hectic
and we needed to lay low for a while.
We crept to the edge of the last building before the gate. Fortunately the rubble had been cleared away where Sarah had cast it down, and there were no guards posted. I figured all their attention had to be on the Runehold and the royal palace. They didn’t have time to waste guarding an empty gate that they thought no one would try to use.
We darted across the cobblestones and reached the gap just as a group of humans in black armor reached it, coming the other direction.
I skidded to a stop on the stone street. In my ears, the sound of my boots sliding was loud as a glass breaking, but it was muffled by the soldiers’ tramping boot steps. The humans were marching double-time, jogging instead of walking, and we were right in their path. I tried to scramble out of the way, pushing Tess to the side, but my feet tripped themselves up and I went crashing to the ground. I barely managed to put a hand to my mouth to muffle my grunt. My legs were right out in the open, and a soldier tripped over them before I could pull them back.
He went down with a clatter of armor and a cry of dismay. The man behind him stopped before he could do the same, and I quickly pulled my legs back. Tess grabbed my arms, and I scrambled to my feet as the whole procession ground to a halt.
“What the blazes?” said the soldier, pushing himself up.
The man at the front of the procession, a tall, imposing figure with dark eyes, strode right up to him and got right up in his face. “What’s the matter, maggot? Can’t even walk without tripping over your own feet?”
The man who’d tripped snapped to attention. “No, sir! I tripped over something.”
The officer made a broad show of looking behind the soldier. “I don’t see anything there. Maybe a ghost tripped you.”
I was expecting scattered laughter from the other soldiers, but they were as silent as a tomb.
“No, sir. It was my fault,” the soldier said, his voice quavering.
The officer drew a dagger and put the tip of it under the man’s chin. “If you trip like that in a fight, the enemy won’t even get a chance to stick you while you’re down,” he growled. “I’ll cut your throat myself.”
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