Use your mind. Greystone’s voice barked in my head. I whirled to look for him, but he was nowhere to be seen. He must have been separated from us somewhere in the woods. You can see them in the air above you. Strike them down!
I tapped into Mind, and sky above me grew foggy. In the mist I could see dark shapes, like shrouded birds, flitting back and forth. I struck at them with walls of force, batting them from the sky. Their wings snapped at the onslaught, more and more of their bodies falling broken to the earth. A great, keening cry erupted from the whole flock. Like a swarm of pigeons, they turned as one and wheeled away through the night. All I could see was two bright pinpoints of light that marked Raven and Ella.
I dropped my connection, and the sky grew inky black again. I sighed with relief.
We rode unmolested after that. Greystone found us again in the press of bodies, and within minutes he called us to a halt. In front of us was a slope that was practically vertical. There was no way we could climb it. Mountain ridges stretched away on either side. We were at the point of a funnel, with no way out but to turn around.
“Greystone, what is this?” said Sarah. “We’re in a dead end.”
“Not if we are upon the high ground,” said Greystone. A small ball of light appeared in his hand, and he cast it into the air. It flew up about thirty feet before I saw the cliff end suddenly.
“We fight them from up there?” said Miles. “Now that makes sense. No way they can make it up to us from down here.”
Blade looked at Greystone like he was nuts. “Yeah, but I don’t know if you noticed, grandpa,” he said, “but there’s no way we’re getting up there, either.”
Greystone rolled his eyes and shook his head. “The foolishness of Realm Keepers will be the death of me. We have the Keeper of Earth, you nitwit.” He turned to Sarah. “You must raise a road, Lady Sarah. Once the army is safely ensconced above, we will destroy it again. Then let Terrence try his hand against us. We can fight him off for a thousand years from there.”
Sarah looked up at the plateau, doubt in her eyes. “That’s pretty high, Greystone. I don’t know if I can move all of us up there.”
“You must,” said Greystone, “or we will all perish here against the cliff wall. I trust in your strength.”
Sarah took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay. Everybody stand back.”
We backed off. The Netiri swelled away from the ground before the cliff, eyeing us distrustfully. It didn’t look like they were big fans of magic. Abidemi began barking orders. Some of his men dismounted and drew their swords. Together they moved to the back of our force, forming a wall against anything that might come over the ridges and toward the plateau.
Sarah dismounted and began to concentrate. She took several long, slow breaths. I felt the ground begin to vibrate beneath my horse’s hooves. The soil before her began to shift, sliding to either side, and a solid road of stone rose up. While the nearer end remained rooted to the ground, the other side slid five feet up the cliff face. Then ten.
The ground stopped moving, and Sarah’s shoulders slumped. She was breathing hard, and huge beads of sweat stood out on her brow.
“You must hurry, Lady Sarah,” said Greystone. He eyed the other end of the mountain’s cleft. It still looked clear, but Terrence couldn’t be far behind.
“It’s too heavy,” Sarah gasped. “This will take me hours.”
Greystone whirled on me. “Lady Tess, you can help her,” he said.
“What?” I squeaked. “How?”
“Strengthen her,” he said. “Peer into her mind. Find the force she is exerting, and add your own.”
“What if I hurt her?” I said. “Can’t you do it?”
“I will do my best, but I do not have your strength,” said Greystone. He pushed forward to stand beside me, stooping a little bit and placing a hand on my shoulder. “Come now. I will guide you. Try!”
Sarah breathed deeply in and out before turning back to the road. I reached into my mind and called upon my magic. As the world grew foggy, I saw Sarah’s mind shining like a bright beacon before me. But I hesitated, fearful of peering into it. Greystone had warned me many times about the dangers of looking into someone else’s head.
Come, child, came a voice. Let me show you. You need not fear.
Greystone, I thought with relief. I could feel him in the back of my mind, and slowly the world around me faded away. I ceased to notice my body. Everything went quiet. I couldn’t hear the others speaking. I could no longer see physical form. I was a weightless, formless presence in the mist, and Sarah’s mind was a glowing ember in front of me.
There was a sensation like someone taking my hand, though I had no hand to take. I reached into Sarah’s mind. The instant I made contact, I could see the tendrils of her power snaking out and taking hold of the earth. She wasn’t just lifting the stone, she was forming the road as she went from chunks of rock that were buried beneath the ground.
See the effort she exerts? said the voice in my head. Reach out to it. Strengthen it, as if it were your own.
How does that work? I wondered. I use Mind. She uses Earth. How do they work together?
Mind is all, came the reply. Mind is the greatest power in the world, for in it is life itself, the foundation of all magic.
The words were kind, but it made me shiver. Elanor had said the same thing to me in Morrowdust, though that seemed lifetimes ago. It was that power that made her want to pretend to be my friend, before she betrayed us all.
I reached out to the power I could see Sarah pushing forward and strengthened it with my own mind. Instantly the tendrils of energy thickened and redoubled. The stone practically shot up out of the ground. In less than a minute, a wide road ran from the ground where we stood to the lip of the plateau high above.
I released my hold on Mind and came back to my body with a wave of relief. But that relief died as I felt myself being violently shaken.
“Lady Tess!” cried Greystone. “Lady Tess!”
I recoiled and wrapped my arms around my shoulders. “What?” I cried. “What did I do?” I looked over my shoulder—had Chaos arrived while I was submerged in my own mind?
Slowly I began to realize several things were wrong. I wasn’t on my horse any more. I was sitting propped on the ground, with Blade and Nora holding me up. Sarah was still on her horse, and had only just noticed me. Greystone was looking at me with terror in his eyes, as if he’d just come back from the dead.
“What’s wrong?” I said. “We did it. It worked!”
Greystone grasped my face in his hands, pulling down my eyelids and peering into my pupils. “How did you do it? I could not find you. You were gone.”
“What?” I said. “You were there. You showed me what to do. Together we helped Sarah make the road.”
Greystone shot a look at Sarah, then back at me, the fear in his face growing stronger. “I could not find you, my Lady. You passed from my sight, and then you fell from your saddle. I broke the connection, but you were still submerged within the magic.”
I shivered, and not from the thick snow I sat in. “I heard your voice,” I said, my voice tiny.
“Whatever has happened, if she is all right, we must ascend,” said Cara, still on her horse behind Greystone. “We can sort it out later.”
Greystone turned to her with wild eyes, then back to the rest of us. “Yes,” he mumbled. “Yes, of course. All of you, quickly! We must climb, before they reach us!”
Nora and Blade lifted me up and deposited me in my saddle. We turned and rode up the stone path, the Netiri following close behind us. Once we reached the top and everyone was safely on the plateau, Sarah turned and waved a hand. The stone path crumbled before her, falling to the ground as rubble.
“A lot easier to destroy than to build,” she said ruefully. “Let’s hope that stays true when Terrence gets here.”
I huddled deeper into my cloak and looked at Greystone again. “I don’t understand what happened,” I said. “I hea
rd your voice, I swear.”
“If you heard someone, it was not me,” said Greystone.
“Who then, Watcher?” said Nora. “Could Terrence have reached her? Is it possible?”
“I would have felt him, I am certain,” said Greystone. “And if Terrence could penetrate her mind, he would not help us flee to safety. He could have used her to any terrible purpose. He could have killed me, or one of the others. No, it was not Terrence.”
Out of nowhere, Yinnilith barked a single sharp laugh nearby. It was so unexpected that for a moment we were all struck dumb as we turned to stare at him.
“I am sorry,” he said, shaking his head. His white-blonde hair fell out from beneath his hood. “My thoughts are elsewhere.”
“They come!” cried Abidemi.
My eyes darted to the open ground between the two ridges that ripped the mountain cleft. At first I couldn’t see anything through the falling snow. Then the wind died for a moment, and the snow stopped gusting so heavily. Then I saw movement—just a shifting in the darkness of the night. But I knew what it was. It was Shadows.
I reached for my magic, and the world turned foggy. The forces of Chaos stood out in sharp relief, black forms amidst the whiteness of the world. Among them marched shapes that burned with light; their human soldiers, pressed into service by Terrence. Unlike the men and women around me, the light these humans gave off was not pure white, but a mottled grey. They looked sickened, weakened by their association with the darkness. I didn’t know if that weakness would translate into their fighting ability, but we’d find out soon enough.
I didn’t know how many there were, but it was too many. Thousands, to be sure. And more poured through the gap every moment. There seemed to be no end to them.
“Archers, ready!” cried Greystone. The Elves slung bows from their backs. Some of the Netiri were archers as well, and they readied their weapons. A hundred arrows were nocked to strings. It was a long moment before I remembered that I, too, carried a bow. I hurried to remove it from my back and ready an arrow. The bow made my hands feel steady. I almost felt the air warm up around me, but it had to be my imagination.
The Shadows stopped just out of arrow range, though I had a feeling I could hit them if I wanted to. But I wasn’t going to be the first one to loose an arrow. They’d stopped, at least for now. I didn’t want to give them a reason to press forward again.
In my mind’s eye, I saw some of the humans detach from the main force and head back out through the cleft. What were they doing? They were too far away for me to see.
“Greystone, some humans are leaving,” I said.
“Most likely they are fetching trees to fashion into ladders,” he growled. “Stay vigilant. It is likely that we will hear from—”
I didn’t hear him finish the sentence, because I saw what he was warning us about before he finished telling us. A single point of light—a perfect grey, halfway between white and black—detached from the front of the horde and came forward, riding upon a horse that was as black as midnight.
“The traitor comes,” hissed Cara. “Once you can confirm a shot, bring him down.”
“Do not waste the arrows,” said Greystone, his voice rising up to carry along our line. “They will be nothing to him. You will only have spared the soldiers in his army that we might yet kill. Terrence wishes to parley, the twit.”
And there he was. Terrence. He came to within a stone’s throw of the base of the cliff before finally pulling his horse to a halt. There he sat, grinning up at us, the malice in his eyes unmistakable.
“Watch for his power, Lady Sarah,” whispered Greystone. “He may try to bring down the edge of the cliff. The rest of you, be wary. If he tries to use his powers, you will feel it. But he will be casting from a great distance. It will weaken him. You can withstand him.”
“Got it,” said Sarah.
“I can hear you, you know,” said Terrence.
I started. I hadn’t heard his voice in months, not since the siege of Morrowdust. I’d forgotten how much hatred there could be in mere words. With Terrence it was always masked—sometimes behind cruelty, sometimes behind amusement, as it was now. But I could never escape it: he hated me, me and all the others, and he wanted nothing in the world so much as he wanted to see us dead.
“I hope you choke upon the words,” said Greystone.
“Come now, Greybones,” said Terrence with a light chuckle. “Do not tell me you still bear me enmity for what transpired in Yarvan?”
“Until the end of my days,” said Greystone. “Until I weary of this life and allow myself to pass from the world. Until long after I have ground your ashes to dust beneath my boot.”
Terrence laughed. “How dramatic.”
Then he turned to the rest of us, and I felt my blood run cold.
“My little Realm Keepers,” he said. His hatred’s mask turned from amusement to simpering concern. “How hard you have fought your ill-fated war. To think that you hardly even began to try before you came and begged for the help of the dragons. How typical of today’s children in America.”
It came like a punch in my gut. He knew where we were from—but exactly how much did he know? America could have been a lucky guess. He couldn’t have any more than that, or we’d all be dead.
He must have seen the shock register on all of our faces. “Oh yes,” he continued. “We have deduced that much. Our noose grows ever tighter upon the six of you. Tell me, how are Anna and Philip these days?”
“Don’t say anything,” Sarah said quietly. “He’s just trying to get to us.”
After several seconds of silence, Terrence shook his head. “It’s just as well. I wonder what they will do when the six of you die in your beds today. Where will they go? How long do you think they can hide? Not forever, certainly. I have nothing but patience.” His grin spread further across his face. “I will hunt them down, even if I must do it when they lay upon their deathbeds.”
“And what if we find you and kill you first, dirtbag?” shouted Blade from beside me.
Terrence’s face spasmed with anger, but only for a second before it was replaced by the mask once more. “Such a simple little child. Blade, isn’t it?”
My eyes went wide as I looked at the others. He knew our names? I saw the bravery in Sarah’s eyes slacken, her shoulders drooping slightly.
“My lady has been most thorough in relaying your information. Sarah, Miles, Tess, Blade, Raven and Calvin.” Terrence said each name with great drama, waving his arms around wildly and preach like he was doing Shakespeare on a Broadway stage. His arms dropped slowly to his sides as he finished. “Hardly the names of great heroes of legend.”
“And Terrence is? You sound like some computer dweeb who lives in his mom’s basement,” said Blade. He turned his voice nasally and held up a finger, pushing imaginary glasses higher up his nose. “Um, hi guys, my name is Terrence. I’m the new IT manager. Can I get anyone a coffee?”
“Blade, stop it,” said Sara, turning to him.
“You mock me?” said Terrence, his grin suddenly wolfish. “Children indeed, it seems. But even now, I will extend you mercy. Even now, I have an offer for you.”
“We want nothing of your offers, traitor!” said Greystone. “Take your forked tongue and your poisoned fangs and retreat to your masters.”
“Not before you hear my parley, such as it is,” said Terrence. “To any Realm Keeper who swears fealty to me—”.
Blade looked over at Calvin with a raised eyebrow.
“Means loyalty,” said Calvin, not taking his eyes from Terrence.
“I offer my mercy,” Terrence continued. “Abandon your doomed comrades and serve me. Help me conquer this woebegone realm and our precious True Earth as one of my Lieutenants.”
Barius stepped forward and spat over the cliff’s edge. “Like Reiko, you motherless bastard?” he roared. “You would have them march beside you with dead flesh and sightless eyes?”
“Ah, the survivor,” said Ter
rence. His tongue snaked out to slide across his teeth. “The one who meddled above his own station. You know, if you had not sought to sully Reiko with your own inferiority, she might have been mine. She might live today.”
Cara and Raven leapt forward, seizing Barius’ arms as he lunged, almost seeming to want to jump from the cliff. “If you had touched her, she would have cut off your hand,” Barius spat. “How often she told me that she hated you, that she suspected you of treason. Would that I had listened to her long ago.”
Terrence threw back his head and laughed again. “Would that you had, and attempted my life. Then I could have killed you long ago.” He waved a hand airily above his head. “No matter. My offer of mercy stands, Realm Keepers. Remember it as you battle my minions. Remember it as the Shadows get closer and closer. Remember it as your friends die beside you, and my wrath draws ever more near. Any man who renounces his fellows and fights with me will see the sun rise. Those who resist will be crushed.”
He turned his horse and strolled idly back toward the lines of Shadows that waited patiently out of range.
I turned to Greystone as a sudden thought struck me. “Greystone,” I said. “I think we can beat him.”
Greystone’s bushy eyebrows leapt up and down as he stared at me. “What do you mean, Lady Tess?”
I felt suddenly shy as he stared at me, and the others slowly did the same. “Think about it,” I said. “He’s got Mind, just like I do. But then we’ve got you, too. And Yinnilith and some of the other Elves can use the power of Mind. And we’ve got Meridia, too!” I could feel my pulse growing faster and faster as the reality of it sank in. “Doesn’t that mean we can beat him? Break through his defenses or whatever? Then the six of us can mop up his whole army by ourselves!”
“That sounds like it could work,” said Blade, pursing his lips in thought.
But even as I saw Greystone look at the Shadows with a light in his eyes, over his shoulder I caught sight of Yinnilith’s face. His normal broad grin was small and sad, and I saw no joy in his eyes.
Wyrmspire (Realm Keepers Book 2) Page 70
