When she felt as though the main group had passed, she unfurled and got unsteadily to her feet. The people who’d been on the cart were still helping each other up, and she broke into a limping trot to go back and see what she could do.
Brer caught sight of her and waved her away. “What are you doing? Go! Run!”
“I couldn’t just leave you all.”
The bison were long gone, chasing after the others, dragging their broken yoke along behind them, drawing grooves in the dirt.
Dela went to help the others up. She glanced back again to see the cloud even closer. She froze, mesmerized by it. Did she see things move within its folds? Black shadows only barely hidden …
A hand on her arm yanked her away.
“By the Gods, Dela,” Brer said. “What are you doing?”
She blinked. “What?”
“You’re just standing there, staring. We need to go!”
She realized she had been, too. The approaching clouds, or at least what she’d thought she’d seen in them, had rendered her useless. If Brer had not yanked on her arm, she could easily have stood there until they swallowed her.
The thought made her shudder, and she started to run, taking after the others. It was frantic confusion, with people of different races and animals everywhere, all trying to get away. She lost sight of Layla, and then Brer. She wondered what had happened to Norton, too. There were too many people and animals around to spot anyone. Everyone was moving too fast, just a glimpse of a dark head, or the flash of a boot.
Hooves pounded the ground, but they weren’t running away from her, but toward her. She looked up to see the white-haired Elvish leader—a prince, hadn’t they said?—pull his huge stag up next to her. He leaned over, offering his hand.
“Take it.” He looked down at her, his blue eyes intense.
She’d be stupid not to take the offer of help. She’d done what she could, which hadn’t felt like much at all, but why let herself die?
With a nod, she reached up and took his hand. He was only a little larger than she was, but from the way he pulled her up, she could feel the strength in his lithe muscles. Even with all the chaos going on, he was an incredible sight. His armor appeared to be the lightest of steels, and she suddenly remembered her dagger. Of course, Elvish steel. That’s what the armor must be made from. That, combined with his white hair and pale blue eyes, he was truly beautiful.
The breadth of the stag’s back wasn’t as great as a horse’s, and she hoped she’d be able to stay on. There was a saddle of sorts, but it wasn’t like the kind of saddle she’d seen used back in Anthoinia.
“Hold on tight,” he told her.
This wasn’t the time to feel shy or awkward about putting her arms around an Elvish prince—even though she did. He whirled the animal around, and then they were moving again, a gallop which meant they passed all those on foot. She felt wretched every time they flew past someone, but what could she do? The animal would be crushed to the ground if everyone tried to climb on. Anyway, who was she to tell an Elvish prince what to do? He’d come back for her, though she didn’t know why. Perhaps it was because she’d been at the head of the convoy when they’d first met, and she’d been the one to take the goods in exchange. Maybe they all thought she was someone important, and that was why they’d tried to help her. It was different than how she thought they’d be. Rumor had always been that the other races held a kind of disdain over the human folk, but so far they hadn’t treated her that way. They’d probably never get the chance to find out she was a nobody, anyway. The cloud was still gaining, and she couldn’t see any possible way they’d be able to outrun it. Already, the horses and other animals were starting to tire and slow, and they weren’t even a halfway out yet.
“Can we fight it?” She spoke loudly into the Elvish prince’s ear so he’d be able to hear her above the racket of hooves and feet running.
He looked over his shoulder at her. “Fight the cloud?”
“Yes, or at least whatever is in it.”
He shook his head. “I’ve never met anyone who has.”
“Maybe no one ever tried,” she shouted back.
“More likely no one ever survived to be able to tell us about it.”
Dela bit her lower lip and glanced back again. The fallen cart with the bison had been swallowed now, vanished within its thick, white billows. What was happening to them in there? Was it utter madness?
“We’re never going to outrun it like this,” she cried. “There must be some other option.”
“This is all we can do,” he called back. “I’m sorry.”
She held on tighter as he pushed the stag faster still.
Chapter 14
Vehel
Vehel had glanced back and spotted the young woman with the red-blonde hair trying to help others of her kind to their feet. He waivered for a moment, knowing his Elvish companions wouldn’t think highly of his actions, but then he’d pushed aside his worries and pulled the stag around and gone back for her. Chances were they wouldn’t survive long enough for Ehlark, Folwin, and the others to report back to his parents and brothers, anyway.
He didn’t know what it was, but something drew him to the human woman. She commanded his attention from the first moment he’d laid eyes on her when she’d been standing at the front of the human convoy. He’d expected her to be exhausted and broken—as most of the others she traveled with appeared to be—but instead she’d taken charge, making eye contact with each of them, even Warsgra. She didn’t appear intimidated in the slightest.
And then he’d watched her throw herself from the back of Orergon’s horse, and he’d wondered if she was brave or just crazy.
Either way, he couldn’t let her struggle, and so he’d turned his stag around and gone back for her, and now she was sitting right behind him, her arms wrapped around his waist, shouting instructions into his ear. He wasn’t used to people doing that either, especially not humans. Of course, she didn’t know who he was, but he figured in this situation, they would probably all die the same way.
Death was an excellent way of bringing everyone to the same level.
Vehel didn’t want to think about everyone dying here in the Southern Pass, but he was starting to accept its inevitability. The human woman was right when she said they wouldn’t be able to outrun the cloud. Their only chance was if the cloud stopped encroaching and began to withdraw, but at the pace it was currently rushing at them, he doubted it. He’d witnessed avalanches in the mountains of his home in the Inverlands, and the Long White Cloud reminded him of this, how the snow bundled toward them, picking up pace as it gathered momentum down the mountainside. The only difference here was that the cloud was utterly silent, whereas an avalanche sounded as though the entire of Xantearos was coming to an end.
His men hadn’t made any attempt to follow him when he’d turned back for the girl, but he saw Orergon had done the same thing. It was only because he was closer to the back of the group that Vehel had reached her first.
So, he wasn’t the only one who thought there was something special about her.
Orergon maneuvered his horse to bring it alongside Vehel’s stag. He didn’t address the woman, or mention what she’d done.
“Can you do what you did last time?” Orergon called out to him. “Can you use your abilities to stop it?”
The woman perked up at what he was saying, and he felt the weight pressing against his back increase as she leaned into him. “What? What abilities?”
They both ignored her.
“It’s not that simple,” he called back. “I don’t have control over it.”
“But it’s something,” Orergon insisted. “Surely we have to try. We can’t keep going much longer.”
He was right; people were already falling back. Up ahead, one of the horse’s front legs gave out beneath them, pitching the rider forward, over the animal’s head and to the ground. Those who were on foot were a long way behind them now, and the cloud was almost
upon them. He didn’t want to hear their screams when they were swallowed up.
To his surprise, a small fist hit him on the shoulder. “Hey, what ability?”
He glanced around at her, unsure of how to react. He was an Elvish prince, and no one had ever thumped him on the shoulder before—well, his brothers had plenty of times, but certainly no one of a lower standing, and definitely not a human girl.
But Orergon didn’t give him a chance to respond. “He can do magic. We were attacked by creatures farther down the pass, and Vehel was able to get rid of them.”
“Vehel? That’s your name?”
He nodded and called back over his shoulder, “What are you known by?”
“Dela Stonebridge,” she shouted in his ear.
“Well, Dela Stonebridge, you should know that magic is forbidden.”
She didn’t give up, continuing to shout over the sound of the pounding hooves and the heavy breaths. “But if you can do something, shouldn’t you try?”
“I agree with the human girl,” Orergon called over to him. “You need to try. We’re going to lose people soon.”
“There are humans here, Orergon. Say there is the slightest chance I save them, what then? They go back to Anthoinia and tell their king and queen that the Elvish prince used magic? That would be enough to start another Great War. The humans would have a reason to try to take back our lands for themselves, and what would happen to my people then? Yes, I might save the handful of lives here now, but it could ultimately cause the deaths of thousands of others.”
“I won’t let them,” the woman—Dela—yelled from behind them. “We’ll force everyone to keep it a secret.”
“That won’t work. It’s different among the inhabitants of the Western coast—we all have the same thing to lose—but the humans won’t feel as though they’ll lose anything. They’ll tell their families, and then their families will tell their friends, and before we know it, the whole of Anthoinia will know. The City Guard will take it to the king and queen, and that will be the start of a new war.”
“So you’re just going to let us all die!” she cried.
“I don’t even know if I can do anything. I don’t exactly have control over it. There’s a chance nothing will even happen.”
Her arms around his waist tightened. “But you have to try!”
The urgency in her voice settled deep in his soul. How had this all become his responsibility? The idea that he could save all these lives was insane.
“Where’s Warsgra?” he asked Orergon, still riding alongside them.
“Up ahead.”
“He’ll need to know what we’re doing.”
Orergon kicked his heels into his already exhausted horse and galloped away to find the Norc. Around him, the air of desperation and futility grew thicker. Those on foot cried that they couldn’t go on, and some of the animals pulling the carts stopped walking and refused to move, no matter how much they were coaxed. He didn’t want to be the one to decide if these people lived or died, or be the one to possibly start another war, but what kind of position was this to be in? If he wasn’t able to do anything—which he doubted he could, anyway—at least they’d all die with him trying. Dying while attempting something heroic and giving people hope was surely better than dying surrounded in nothing but fear and futility.
Orergon reappeared with Warsgra at his side, still mounted on his huge white goat. Like him, Warsga had a human woman sitting behind him. They came to a halt, and the two women reached out to each other, their fingertips meeting across the space between them. From the look in their eyes, Vehel could tell they meant something to each other. He’d have thought them to be sisters if they hadn’t been so opposite in looks.
“Orergon says you’re going to try the thing you did with those creatures that attacked us the other day,” Warsgra said.
Vehel nodded. “I can’t promise I’m even able to do anything, or that it will have an effect, but I’ve agreed to try.”
“If you don’t, we’re all going to die,” he stated.
“I’m aware of that.”
The last time it had happened, he hadn’t even thought about it. The feeling had simply filled him, and he’d released the energy toward the creatures. He wasn’t even sure he’d be able to do it again.
He climbed from his stag and turned toward the approaching cloud.
Chaos faced him.
People cried, dragging themselves away, while others were swallowed by the cloud, screaming. Most of the animals they’d been riding were faster than the folk on two legs, but a couple of carts had tipped in the chaos, trapping the bison beneath. They struggled beneath the wood and piles of coal, the whites of their eyes showing in fear, nostrils flared. The cart was too heavy for the animals to crawl from beneath, and the white cloud quickly engulfed them.
Vehel closed his eyes against the bedlam and dug inside himself for the thing he’d spent most of his life repressing. He’d known since he was a young boy that he was able to do things most of the other Elvish had long forgotten how to do. Nursemaids caught him lifting his toys into the air with only his thoughts, or conjuring one item of food into another. He’d even brought a pet bird back to life after he’d found it lifeless in the bottom of its cage one morning. He’d only been six years old, and hadn’t really understood why what he found so natural to do was so badly frowned upon. Before, he’d only received smacked hands in response to his magic, but that morning they’d beaten him badly. From that day forward, he’d done everything he could to ensure he kept his abilities hidden, even though he could feel them growing stronger. More than a hundred years had passed since he’d been a child, however, and keeping something repressed for so long meant it no longer felt natural to him.
The human woman, Dela, slid from his stag and came to stand beside him.
“I don’t know what you’ve got planned,” she said, glancing over at him, “but you really need to hurry.”
He gritted his teeth. “I’m aware.”
Others had picked up that there was something going on, and they began to stop fighting and running. People came to stand behind him or beside him, not so much his Elvish kin, who’d already tried to distance themselves as much as possible from him, but the other Moerians and the Norcs, too. Even the humans were sided with him.
Vehel closed his eyes. He reached deep inside himself, to where that nugget of buzzing power lived. He needed to release it, and even as he thought about it, the energy grew larger, swarming through his body and to his extremities. Yes, he still had it, and he’d be able to use it.
Question was whether it would make any difference.
“Hurry!” the woman cried. “It’s getting closer.”
He opened his eyes and threw the energy toward the cloud. Just like the previous day, blue light shot from his arms and hands, illuminating the normally gloomy Southern Pass.
It met with the wall of white, but didn’t stop it approaching.
Instead, the light only served to reveal the things lurking in the cloud. Dark, demon-like creatures, some walking on all fours, others with horns protruding from the tops of their heads. Their hands were tipped in razor sharp claws, and, as he watched in horror, one of the Norcs was swallowed by the cloud. The big man swung his axe, but it didn’t seem to injure the hellish creature. Instead, it let out a shriek, loud enough to make Vehel want to cover his ears with his hands, and swiped one clawed hand toward the man’s throat. He dropped his axe and clutched a hand to the wound, but even through the translucent cloud, Vehel was able to see the spurt of blood that signaled his artery opening.
“By the Gods!” Dela’s cry came from beside him.
He’d tried, and he’d failed.
There was nothing more he could do.
Chapter 15
Dela
They were all going to die.
The certainty settled in her heart, and her first thoughts went to her parents. They’d be left alone, and just like with Ridley, they’d probab
ly never know for sure what had happened to their last remaining child.
“Dela!”
The cry of panic came from Layla. She was still on the back of the mountain goat, with her arms around the waist of the big Norc leader, but Dela knew she wouldn’t want to die with her arms around a stranger.
“Layla!”
She reached for her friend, and Layla slid from the back of the goat and into her arms. “I’m frightened!” she cried.
“Me, too.” Dela drew her dagger from her belt. “But we’ll go down fighting, okay?”
Her lips pressed together and she shook her head. “I don’t want to go down at all.”
“Just stay behind me.” She stepped in front of Layla, putting herself between her friend and the cloud.
The different races had begun to gather around their leaders now, ready to defend and protect. The only one who was left alone was the Elvish prince who continued to spill blue light from his fingertips. The look of fierce concentration on his face was both terrifying and mesmerizing at the same time. Did none of his fellow Elvish come near him because they were afraid? Or did they simply not approve of him trying to help?
She noticed how the other races stepped closer, however, offering a protection of their own. Where his own people seemed to have abandoned him, both the leaders of the Moerians and the Norcs had moved in. She’d not been expecting such a thing, assuming the races hated each other, in much the same way humans had always been taught to hate and fear what was different from them. This show of solidarity spoke to her, however, and she found herself staying close to him, too.
A big Norc, similar to their leader, was at his leader’s side. “Stay back, Warsgra!”
But Warsgra stepped forward to stand beside him. “I’ll fight these demons alongside you, not behind you.” He brandished his axe.
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