Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Ryker
When I unleashed lightning again, more guards screamed as they scampered out of the way. Two portals opened, and some soldiers fled into them, but most remained below. When he caught them, my father would make those who’d fled wish they’d been hit by lightning or burned alive.
More torches flew before hitting the ground. Realizing the torches marked where they were, some of the guards threw them away before scampering for cover behind the trees. Caught between the growing fire and us, those guards couldn’t hide for long.
Farley floated forward to bob beside me as the guards went into hiding while a few more fled. I could strike down the trees they hid behind, but that would only cause more damage to the forest, and while I’d never sensed anything from these woods before, I felt its suffering now.
I was sure Ellery did too, but I didn’t know how many others would as well. It was best to unleash less destructive means on the trees. The guards didn’t stand a chance.
“Now you can play,” I said to Farley as I unleashed more lightning on the few idiots who still held torches. They were determined to carry out my father’s orders.
Farley let out a whoop of excitement, lifted his arm in the air, and flew down the hill with his dagger before him. The other poltergeists echoed his battle cry as they swept toward the amsirah below.
I almost felt sorry for the poor unsuspecting souls below… almost. They had no idea what was coming for them.
From the woods behind us, the rattle of underbrush and snapping twigs drew my attention before a pack of black dogs burst free. Members of our group scattered to get out of the way of the sulfurous-smelling monsters bounding across the earth toward us.
I stiffened as lightning swirled up to my wrists, and Ellery lifted her hands to fend them off. However, the ravenous creatures ignored us as they pounded past with their red eyes glowing and their claws churning up the earth.
They sprinted toward the flames and guards as more creatures rushed out of the shadows. I couldn’t make out most of them, but they rattled the underbrush, swung through the trees, and descended on the guards.
The scorpion-like cordous held their stingers over their tiger heads as they scampered down the hill. Other creatures followed them.
Birds swooped out of the trees. The wind they created ruffled my hair, and one of their wings skimmed my cheek as they swooped past.
Screams rebounded from below as the creatures of the Revenant Woods mercilessly destroyed those threatening their home. I had no idea how they all knew to converge here, but much of these woods were a mystery and they always would be.
I recalled a conversation I once had with Tucker and Ianto. “What if they set the woods on fire?” Ianto had asked.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if they tried, but something tells me the Revenant Woods won’t be easily destroyed,” I’d replied.
“I agree,” Tucker had said.
We’d been right.
“We need rain!” Ellery yelled over the growing cacophony of the approaching flames and the tortured cries of the dying.
The hundred and fifty or so amsirah who could wield rain had joined us and started pulling moisture from the air. Their power, swelling around us, caressed my skin and fueled my rain ability as the air thickened.
The poltergeists’ battle cries cut off as the remaining torches went out and night descended in the valley. The encroaching inferno cast an eerie, orange glow over the forest still free of its destruction.
That glow did little to illuminate the massacre below, but no one survived what the poltergeists unleashed on them.
Smoke and flames leapt into the air as the falling ash thickened around us, the heat increased, and the smoke grew thicker. Every breath brought smoke into my lungs, and the cloying scent of the fire covered the lingering aroma of the black dogs.
Wood cracked and trees creaked as they tipped forward before hitting the ground. We were still a few thousand feet away from the fire, but we increasingly felt its effects.
As the moisture in the air intensified, hands lifted to the sky. The smoke was so thick it was impossible to see the clouds above, but a fat drop of rain hit my cheek as more of them pattered against the earth.
When the rain fell freely from the sky in a downpour that matted my hair to my face and caused rivers to pour from me, all those who could bear the wind worked with me and Ellery to whip it into a frenzy.
The wind twisted the rain into a hurricane that lashed the earth in a torrent aimed at the fire. The sizzle of the fire drifted across the distance separating us.
The flames fought the drenching rain, but even as they continued to leap and jump, their resistance was fading. The downpour was hammering it into submission.
Once we were certain we had it under control, I looked over my shoulder to where Ianto, Callan, Luna, and Tucker stood. “I’ll take half of them to Carthaway now.”
While we hadn’t been here for long, we needed to keep moving before the other fires spread out of control. We’d nearly extinguished this blaze, and once it was, the four of them would lead the others to join us.
Cupping my hands to the sides of my mouth, I bellowed down the hill. “We’re leaving, Farley!”
Ellery barely had time to open a portal before the poltergeists zoomed back up the hill. They all had ear-splitting grins as they waved their bloody daggers.
Ellery and I exchanged a look. It had been questionable to arm the specters, but it was too late to take the weapons back now… I certainly wasn’t going to try it.
“That was fun!” Farley gushed.
“Are you coming with us or staying here?” I asked.
“We’re coming! Give us more bodies!”