Aurek spun toward Artras. “Can you get us through it?”
“I doubt anything that was caught in the ley after the first few seconds still exists. The concentration of the ley is strong enough that anything organic that passes through it now will be destroyed. I could possibly shield some of us from the ley for a while, but I wouldn’t bet my life on it, let alone others’.”
“What about the Gorrani who were caught in it?” Hernande’s tone indicated he already knew the answer.
“Gone. Dead and gone. Not even Baron Arent thought to use the ley in such a manner. It’s an abomination.”
Aurek barked laughter. The lord turned to face them, his horse pawing the ground. “This is why we hunt the White Cloaks.” He drew his sword, and suddenly the entire group tensed—Hollowers and raiders alike. They were all mixed in with each other, stragglers from the charge still filtering in, but as more and more blades were drawn, the Hollowers stepped toward the wagon protectively, Bryce taking up a position at the rear.
Allan didn’t move, his eyes fixed on Aurek. “Not all of the Wielders are like the White Cloaks.”
“So you’ve claimed before. I’d rather not risk it.”
Artras climbed to her feet, using the wagon’s headboard for support. The ground still trembled, although Allan didn’t think anyone was paying any attention to that. “Don’t you think if we were like the White Cloaks, with this much power, we’d have used it already? Why would we have let you raid the Hollow? Why wouldn’t we have simply burned you out before you got there?”
“Because you don’t have this much power!”
“Fool! It’s because we choose not to use it!” She leaned forward over the headboard, her voice dropping. “We could have burned you at the Hollow. We could have destroyed you at any point on our travels here. And we could fry you where you stand right now if we wanted to.”
More ley leaped from the ground, only this time it came up in front of Aurek’s mount. Aurek shouted as his horse shied away from it, the rest of the raiders jumping back in fear. The Hollowers closed in tighter about the wagon, a few of them with looks as wild with terror as the raiders.
Aurek seized control of his horse again, but refused to back off. “You’re bluffing.”
The white tendril of ley rose higher, began to spread to either side. “Don’t tempt me.”
Allan glanced back and noticed Mareane and Jude both had their eyes closed, Cory supporting Mareane’s limp body while Jasom held Jude.
Aurek’s men fidgeted. Even Devin, his second, appeared wary. He didn’t lower his sword, but as the ley grew and flicked closer to his position, he stepped back.
Aurek held Artras’ gaze, eyes narrowing as he weighed the truth of her words—
Then his lips curled into a smile. “You’re lying. Kill them. Kill them all!”
Allan spat a curse, dropping the reins of the wagon as he stood and drew his sword.
At the same moment, a thunderous growl rolled out from the direction of the Needle and the earth lurched—once, twice—and then pitched upward with enough force that Allan was flung from the wagon. He slammed into the ground, one arm going numb, his sword slipping from his fingers. His vision swam and he groaned as he attempted to haul himself to his feet, but the earth rolled beneath him, no longer solid. Stone cracked and split, the sound shocking, felt as a thud in his chest that sucked the breath from him. A horse screamed. The air suddenly filled with dust. Choking, Allan crawled forward toward a body lying on the trampled grass—Hernande—and almost got caught beneath the wheels of the wagon as the horse panicked and bolted. Mareane rolled from the bed with a shriek, landing two steps distant, but he could see Cory, Artras, and a few others still huddled flat in the back as it passed.
“Mareane!” Allan snagged her attention as he continued toward Hernande. “Are you hurt?”
She answered by scrambling toward him, not trying to get to her feet. “It’s not stopping.”
Allan rolled Hernande over. Blood ran from a wound above his forehead, but the mentor stirred. “See if you can help him.” He turned his attention toward the rest of the group.
The wall of white fire still burned in front of the stone walls of the Needle. Beneath it, the Gorrani were scrambling away from a massive crack in the earth, like the one he and Bryce had seen earlier. It radiated out from the wall into the plains, snaking farther out as he watched, widening as it grew. The raiders and Hollowers were all stumbling about, a couple bodies lying motionless, scattered. At least half of the raiders had bolted toward the north, away from the Needle, some of the Hollowers with them. In their panic, a few had run toward the crevice and were swallowed up before they could turn back. Among the men were three or four riderless horses. The wagon was a good distance away, headed northeast full tilt. Two figures clutched each other and flung themselves from the back, landing out of sight. A breath later, the wagon hit something hard, the bed leaping upward, splinters of wood flying. It landed, the rear wheels gone, dust billowing up as the horse dragged it another hundred feet before it fell completely apart, the animal tearing off into the distance with its traces and part of the wagon’s support trailing behind it.
He didn’t see Aurek or Devin, but Bryce staggered up to him, sword still out, his free hand clutching his shoulder. Glenn came up behind him.
“Glenn, go see who survived from the wagon. I saw them jump just before it broke up.” Glenn nodded and trotted off toward the northeast, stumbling as the ground continued to shake. “Bryce, gather together as many of the remaining Hollowers as you can.”
“What about the raiders?”
“Leave them, unless they attack you.”
He turned back to Mareane and Hernande as he heard Bryce head off. Mareane had the mentor sitting up. He had one hand on his forehead, probing the wound, blood now trickling down between his eyes and along his nose, into his mustache and beard. He winced, brought his fingers away, and stared at the dark red coating his fingers. He didn’t appear groggy at all.
“I must have landed on a stone when I fell from the wagon.” He glanced up. His entire body stilled.
Allan felt the point of a sword dig lightly into his back.
“I should have killed you all back at your pathetic village,” Aurek muttered.
Allan didn’t answer. With each shudder of the earth, the point dug deeper, an inch from his spine, a hair beneath his shoulder blade. He could feel blood matting his shirt. If Aurek pressed hard enough, it would slide straight through him, most likely nicking his heart.
“Don’t move.”
Allan thought Hernande was talking to Aurek, then realized he was looking directly at him. “I don’t intend to.”
Hernande’s attention shifted to Aurek. “Take your men and leave now, or I’ll kill you.”
“The White Cloaks are going to kill us all. But like that Wielder bitch earlier, I think you’re bluffing.”
Through the blade lightly embedded in Allan’s back, he felt Aurek tense. He lurched forward and whirled, instinctively reaching for the blade he no longer had.
Aurek stood, face stricken, a rictus of pain, his free hand clutched to his chest, fingers a claw.
He gasped once, then collapsed to the side and lay still.
Allan propped himself up on one elbow. “What happened?”
“I burst his heart. I don’t bluff.” Hernande glanced around, taking in the walls, the white flame, the fissure opening up to their west. “But Aurek was right. The White Cloaks are going to kill us all.”
“We have other problems,” Bryce said, coming in from the side with a dozen men and women from the Hollow. He gestured behind them, toward the plains. “Devin is rounding up the raiders who haven’t managed to escape.” He glanced down at Aurek’s body. “I assume he’s going to be pissed you killed his Baron.”
Kara felt Lecrucius release the ley. She was hea
rtened to see Marcus looking aghast. Even Carter appeared troubled.
“What are we going to do?”
“We’re going to have to wrest control of the Nexus away from him.” The words held more conviction than Kara felt.
“How?” Marcus let his gaze slide toward the sixteen enforcers that surrounded them and the half dozen others scattered throughout the pit, his eyebrows raised in question. Most of them were focused on the fountain of ley and the White Cloaks that surrounded it, but two of them kept glancing back at the group of Wielders they guarded, eyeing them warily.
Isolated even from Kara and the rest, Carter had grown restless. Now he suddenly burst out, “I won’t let you ruin this for me,” and spun toward the pit. “Lecrucius! Lecrucius, they’re planning to—”
Okata’s fist connected with the younger Wielder’s jaw and Carter’s head snapped back. He collapsed to one side in a heap. The nearest guard turned, began to say, “Hey!” but Okata was already moving. He grabbed the enforcer by the throat, lifted him up as he snatched the man’s sword from its sheath with a ringing hiss, then tossed him into the two nearest guards that were only now starting to react.
“Get behind me.” Okata didn’t wait to see if the other Wielders complied. With a single step, he stood over the three enforcers now on the ground, stabbing once, twice, a third time, one of the guards screaming.
Kara stood stock still, until Marcus grabbed her arm and shoved her and Dylan back toward where Carter lay on the stone, out cold. Hartman joined them, but as Okata stepped over to meet the remaining guards, half of whom had finally drawn weapons, Jenner grabbed one of the fallen guards’ blades and moved in behind Okata.
The two of them stepped forward together, swords clashing and ringing, another guard falling by Okata’s hand before Marcus suddenly stepped in front of Kara, cutting off her view. Her ex-lover’s face was intent.
“He’s a Gorrani.” He gripped Kara by one shoulder, fingers digging in to focus her attention. “Let him handle the guards. You need to deal with Lecrucius.”
Kara turned to Hartman. “Take Dylan. I may need you all as support.”
Even before Dylan’s weight had shifted from her, she dove into the ley, aiming straight for the Nexus.
But the White Cloaks were waiting. She sensed their presence a moment before one of them slammed into her, thrusting her to the side. They continued to buffet her, keeping her back from the crystals, from the pit where Lecrucius and the others were channeling the ley into the fiery wall she could feel surrounding the Needle. She circled the pit, probing, seeking a weak point. Behind her, Marcus, Dylan, and Hartman joined her on the ley, but they kept their distance and the White Cloaks left them alone. She heard the clang of swords where Okata and Jenner held the other guards off, but it was muted and distant.
She sank herself deeper into the ley, down toward where the lines connected with the pit, beneath the Nexus itself. The energy being drawn toward the Needle was immense, nearly knocking her away. She forged forward, noticed that the White Cloaks who had been hounding her couldn’t follow, the current too strong for them to withstand. She followed the flow of the combined lines from Erenthrall, Farrade, and the nodes to the south, north, and west up from the pit toward the Nexus from beneath. No one tried to stop her; none of the White Cloaks could.
She braced herself to enter the Nexus—
And felt the surge coming from Erenthrall behind her.
She spun, managed to duck out of the Erenthrall line into the Farrade one for cover a heartbeat before it hit.
She didn’t even have time to warn Marcus and the others.
The wave of ley hit the Nexus hard, the White Cloaks set to stabilize it screaming as they tried to contain the blast. At least three of them didn’t survive, their presence on the ley snapping silent as they burned out. Up above, around the pit, Kara knew their bodies were hitting the floor as senseless as Carter’s, except they’d never rise again. Their minds were wiped, if their hearts hadn’t stopped.
But the rest retained control, Lecrucius’ hold on the devastating white fire never wavering.
Then the quake hit.
It rolled up out of the earth with a growl, shuddering through the pit around Kara, its violence finding release above as the ground cracked and exploded, a fault line splitting the Needle’s city in two. The White Cloaks who’d survived the surge were flung to the floor, Lecrucius’ hold wavering. Two of them were jolted into the pit itself, screaming as they fell until the ley caught them. Kara shot out of the Farrade tunnel back toward the pit’s edge, slamming back into her own body as the earth continued to shake.
She found Marcus, Dylan, and the others clinging to the floor, chunks of stone falling from the pit’s wall overhead. Only Okata remained standing, feet spread wide, sword still ready in one hand. The enforcers that remained were crawling away from him, faces contorted in terror, as the quake continued to rip the city apart. The gap in the crack from the previous quake had widened by another two hands.
“Something’s happened in Erenthrall!” Kara yelled over the grinding of stone. The quake had flung her body to the floor as well, but she grabbed Dylan and dragged him toward the pit’s wall. Marcus and Hartman were already attempting to join them, Hartman snatching hold of Carter’s body as he came. Jenner tapped Okata’s leg from behind and motioned toward them, the two Wielders falling back from the retreating enforcers.
“We have to regain control of the Nexus. It’s our only chance to stop this quake. Lecrucius has destabilized the entire network.”
“I found a way in, but I’m going to need everyone’s help.”
“Do it! We’ll support you.”
Halfway around the pit, part of the ledge that they and the White Cloaks were huddled on suddenly split and fell away, dropping down into the well below, taking one of the White Cloaks with it. Kara dove back into the ley, the others following her one by one. She reached beneath the Nexus as she had before, but noticed that the line from Erenthrall now pulsed with a steady throb. It was feeding the quake, feeding the Nexus, the power escalating with each beat.
She had to break the cycle before it peaked.
Gathering the strength of the others around her, she aimed straight up through the torrent of ley energy and pierced the Nexus through the heart.
It was in chaos, the crystals barely held in place by Iscivius, Irmona, and the other White Cloaks. But she ignored them, focused on Lecrucius, the Prime still maintaining the wall of ley around the city.
“Help them stabilize the Nexus!” She wasn’t certain the others could hear her, but she reached out through the ley and seized Lecrucius.
He roared in defiance, the sound muffled beneath the sounds of the quake but reverberating on the ley. The two locked hold of each other, grappling as the ley raged around them, Lecrucius managing to keep the protective wall raised. Every attempt Kara made to seize the lines supplying the wall was countered with a slap of force, knocking her aside. And now that he knew she’d slipped through his White Cloaks, he began constructing a shield around himself. She reached out desperately to block him.
But then Marcus was there. Distantly, where her body rested against the stone wall of the pit, she heard him say, “There’s no time.”
Marcus gathered up the excess ley spilling off of the Nexus, concentrated it, and funneled it directly toward Lecrucius.
It hit him full force, shattered through the shield he hadn’t yet completed and seared into his physical body on the platform. The scream he’d barely begun died out, only an echo of it rippling through the ley around them.
“Stop the wall of ley!” Marcus turned back to the Nexus, two of the crystals trembling, Iscivius and Irmona concentrating so hard they hadn’t yet noticed that Lecrucius was dead.
Kara snatched at the lines holding the wall of ley around the Needle stable. With cold certainty, she snipped them off, ch
anneling the ley back toward the Nexus.
It was too much. Irmona shrieked and crumbled to the stone as it overwhelmed her, the crystal she controlled released. Marcus leaped forward, seizing it before it could spin completely out of control. Kara rushed to help him, both of them straining to hold it. But they were fighting each other, Kara pushing while Marcus pulled. Both of them thought they knew how to align it correctly, at odds—
Until Marcus suddenly stepped back.
Kara leaped forward, struggling on her own now, wrestling the pane toward a new configuration. She could have done it alone, but when she felt Marcus behind her, ready to give her his strength, she accepted.
It was like working together as Wielders in Eld. They complemented each other, their power slipping together and melding smoothly. Kara gasped as they joined, but the pane held her entire attention. With their combined strength, the wildness of the pane’s motion settled and stilled. It slid into position and immediately the chaos of the Nexus died out. The White Cloaks sagged in relief.
But the pulses coming from Erenthrall hadn’t stopped.
Beside her on the shaking platform, Marcus said tightly, “I’ll hold it. You go see what’s happening in Erenthrall.”
Kara didn’t argue. Withdrawing from her connection to the Nexus—to Marcus—she paused to steady herself—
And then she dove into the ley line leading to Erenthrall.
Twenty-Five
“HOW MANY PEOPLE DO WE HAVE LEFT?” Allan could probably count them himself, those that remained grouped in a tight huddle behind him, Glenn at the back watching the Gorrani near the walls, he and Bryce at the front focused on Devin as he rallied the raiders.
“Thirty-four, including the Wielders and mages.”
Allan’s fist closed over the pommel of his reclaimed sword. He wondered who’d they’d lost and who’d simply panicked and run. “Devin has three times that.”
Threading the Needle Page 49
