Chapter 38
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Ryker
“Holy shit!” Tucker blurted as he drew his sword.
I released my sword, lifted my hands, and fired lightning at the guards. Val shrieked and scampered toward where the other amsirah sat huddled on the rocks with their arms around each other.
I didn’t have time for her betrayal to fully register as more and more guards funneled out of the portal.
Cryton bellowed as he flew at the guards. With murderous excitement, he stabbed and slashed at the invaders, but he couldn’t stem this flow. Even with my lightning, I couldn’t hold them back as they poured out of the opening to surround us.
Digging into myself, I called forth more energy than ever before and tapped into the pieces of Ellery’s power that remained within me. When our powers combined, they made us both stronger and bound us in a way I’d never known existed.
With all the rage I’d suppressed for centuries, I threw up my hands and unleashed a tidal wave of lightning from my fingers. It crackled across the air before smashing into the ten closest guards and throwing them into others.
As the dead soldiers bowled over some of their friends, more guards swarmed out of the portal. Most of the ten amsirah who’d come with me fell beneath the rampage.
Callan and Tucker continued to fend off some of the guards with their blades, but there were too many of them, and they wouldn’t last much longer. We didn’t have time to open a portal; if I stopped releasing lightning for even a few seconds, they’d be on me before the others could flee.
Even if we had the time to open a portal and flee into it, we’d never get through in time to avoid having a lot of these guards following us to our next destination. The clash of steel, the sizzle of lightning, and the screams of the injured or dying reverberated through the woods.
Cryton viciously hacked at the guards, but there were too many for him to inflict much damage. When I unleashed another wave of lightning, Callan cried out as he fell beneath the onslaught of men.
Only Tucker and I remained standing as the other amsirah with us had already fallen. Guards swarmed over Callan, and Tucker moved closer to me. I couldn’t tell if they’d killed Callan or not, but his shouts abruptly ended.
I hoped the minstrel was still alive, but I couldn’t think about him now. If we were going to be of any help to him, we had to escape this.
Kneeling, I ducked a blade that would have sliced my chest open and slammed my hand off the earth. Thunder exploded over the day with a concussive boom that sent a cloud of black birds screeching into the sky.
From somewhere deeper in the forest, an animal shrieked as the ground fractured apart and the crevice I’d created raced toward the portal. Unable to evade the chasm in time, guards screamed as they tumbled into oblivion.
Tucker hacked through two more guards, but another sliced open his arm. Blood sprayed outward as I lifted my palms, and two thick beams of lightning erupted from them.
Bracing my feet apart, I yelled as the lightning poured out of me in a torrent meant to destroy everyone and everything in its path. The steady stream, the likes of which I’d never unleashed before, cut down all the men and women charging at us.
An endless flow of them poured from the portal, but my lightning felt as endless. I didn’t know how much longer it would last, but I didn’t detect any weakening in the stream.
Cryton screamed as he sliced through more guards. Then one of them caught his blade and grasped it in her hand. Her grip on the blade had to hurt as blood poured from her closed palm, but she succeeded in yanking it away from the poltergeist.
Cryton screeched as he flew at the woman with his fists flailing, but the poltergeists were almost useless without a weapon. His hands did not affect the woman.
Beside me, Tucker yelped and went to one knee. My heart clenched as more of his blood flew into the air.
Not like this! I can’t lose him like this!
We’d been through far too much together. He was more than my best friend; he was the brother I never had, and his loss would devastate me.
Turning, I moved my steady stream of lightning toward the guards crawling over Tucker, but as I shifted my attention, something smashed into the back of my head. Stars exploded before my eyes, my tongue shot out, and I couldn’t bring it back into my mouth as gibberish words blubbered from me.
I had no idea what had happened, but I lost all control of my muscles as I fell to my knees. I shook my head, or at least I believed I was, but maybe my vision was blurring without movement.
I struggled not to blackout as I knelt on the ground. Am I kneeling?
I couldn’t stop the strange sounds coming from me, and my tongue felt five times too big for my mouth. Seeing wasn’t possible as my vision filled with white light and then blackness before switching back again.
Then I felt something cool against my wrists, and what little lightning I still produced vanished in an instant. The click of the manacles closing barely registered over the fading screams of the dying.