Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
Ryker
The others all sprang forward while Ellery and I scrambled to our feet. Without looking at the guards behind me, I unleashed a torrent of lightning from my palms as Ellery waved her hands beside her before moving them back toward the guards assembling on the hill.
A silvery fog rose from the earth in a wave that swiftly obscured the grass. It grew thicker as it crept over the hill and climbed higher.
The creeping tendrils devoured everything in their way until the guards vanished, but not before the archers lifted their bows and fired. Arrows arched high into the sky before descending toward us in a deadly wave meant to devastate all living things.
Throwing up our hands, Ellery and I created a twisting funnel of wind that descended from the sky. It sucked up some of the arrows and spun them away, but it didn’t stop them all.
We sprinted for the carriage as the arrows thudded into the ground. When they struck the earth, their feathers vibrated all around us, but none of them struck flesh.
While it might not occur to my father right away, and it may slip under his radar entirely, by using her fog, Ellery had revealed that she possessed all five weathers. We’d told those in Tucker’s encampment about her unheard-of power, but word of it hadn’t spread beyond the Revenant Woods.
If someone told my father about Ellery and the fog, he would learn her final secret. I was sure that, by now, he’d looked up the abilities she was registered to possess; fog was not one of them.
“They’ll know about you having all five weathers,” I said as we raced toward the carriage.
“Let them know,” she replied.
And while the idea of this troubled me, I couldn’t help but smile at her response. She was so strong and ready to take on all those in her way. I just had to ensure she survived it, even if it meant sacrificing everything.
We reached the road as the archers released another round of arrows. I drew more lightning from the sky to cut through them while Ellery created a blast of wind that knocked more aside.
We couldn’t keep all the projectiles at bay, but again, none of them struck flesh. I fell back to run behind Ellery for the next volley of arrows, but I doubted they’d aim at her anyway. It was the rest of us they sought to take out.
I sprinted across the last few feet of grass before my boots hit the hard-packed sandy road. Ellery moved toward the right as Callan emerged from behind the carriage with a chest in hand.
A small bit of relief ran through me at the sight of one of the siblings. If he was okay and still robbing the carriage, then Luna was too.
Twisting, I looked back up the hill as soldiers sprinted through the fog with their swords raised. The swirling tendrils rose to engulf them once more, but it couldn’t hide the fact that they were coming.
On the other side of the road, soldiers sprinted down the hills toward us as more of them closed in from the roadway. With the horses gone, we were missing the barricade they’d provided.
As they rushed forward with their swords drawn, Ellery knelt and slammed her hand against the ground. A rolling thunder shook the earth and heaved it upward as a crack splintered the ground, tearing it in two.
The opening chasm zigzagged toward the soldiers pushing toward us on both sides of the roadway. As it tore apart the road, it swallowed everything in its way; weapons and bodies tumbled into the pit.
Seeing the crack racing toward them, the guards further on the hill yelled and tried to scramble away from the hungry earth, but their brethren blocked their retreat, so most didn’t succeed. Their screams echoed off the walls as they fell.
Bending, I slapped my hand off the ground, and another thunderous boom reverberated through the air. It rattled the windows on the carriage until they exploded outward in a cascade of shards.
Callan ducked away from it and almost lost the chest before righting himself.
As he did so, guards emerged from around the back of the vehicle and charged toward Callan before realizing their deadly mistake as the fissure tearing apart the earth raced toward them.
They tried to run away from it, but most lost the battle and toppled into the crater.
Callan, a few feet away from the opening, danced away from the fissure. His mouth gaped, and his feet moved so fast they barely touched the ground.
Unfortunately, his movements brought him closer to the next wave of guards coming around the side of the carriage. Callan released the chest and reached for his sword as Tucker pulled his blade free and, dropping down, swung low to take out the legs of the guard closest to Callan.
Flashes of lightning shot down from the sky as the whistle of more arrows filled the air. The guards, still covered by fog, had no idea where they were shooting or that some of their own were now in the target zone, and they didn’t care.
“Take cover!” I bellowed.
Unfortunately, Tucker and Callan couldn’t escape the wave of arrows descending from the sky. They’d become entangled with the guards who continued to come.
Pulling my sword free, I ran toward them while shouting at Ellery. “Get under the carriage!”
Fletcher grabbed his daughter, Scarlet, and scrambled toward the vehicle as Ellery knelt and slapped her hands off the ground.
The earth heaved upward as, like waves rushing toward the shore, thunder rolled across the grass, up the hill, and vanished beneath the fog while more arrows pummeled the earth.
Circling a hand over her head, Ellery created a funnel of wind that didn’t quite form a tornado, but it swirled through the air over our surrounding area. The twisting funnel caught the arrows and spun them around.
Ellery threw her hand forward and whipped the projectiles at the guards trying to find their way around the fissures we’d created. The guards didn’t have enough time to evade the weapons.
Their screams had barely begun before the projectiles embedded in their bodies. The ones who weren’t injured developed a whole new fear of Ellery as their eyes flicked from her to their screaming comrades.
Fletcher and Scarlet poked their hooded heads out from under the carriage. I still had no idea where Luna was, but she was good at taking care of herself.
Lifting my sword, I brought it down across the back of one of the guards engaged in battle with Tucker. The man screamed as he tried to recoil from the blow, but my sword remained inside him.
Fletcher and Scarlet emerged from under the carriage as Ellery unleashed lightning across the fields, driving back any guards still brave enough to come closer.
“Get the chest!” I shouted at Scarlet and Fletcher.
They sprinted for it as, from the dense bank of fog, the archers shouted, and some of them emerged from the silvery mist and ran toward us.
Behind them, riders on horseback materialized like they were emerging from an entirely different world.
Their hoofbeats, pounding the ground, shook it until pebbles bounced up and down.
For now, we were holding them back, but that would end soon. The riders would overwhelm us.