Retreat
Even in peacetime, Captain Rabu’s bellow echoed from anywhere in the cenobium. In battle, he was impossible to miss.
At first, Math was happy to hear him, because it meant Rabu was awake and already fighting back the invaders. That was until Math saw that Rabu was attacking the other knights.
Rabu was being controlled by the Queens.
This was a disaster. If those Queens were using the purple spores to control everyone who breathed them, that number included dozens of knights and two of the cenobium’s strongest fighters. Who could stop Rabu?
Math spotted Lieutenant Nuhzar.
“Nuhzar! Alik!” Math shouted. The man glanced his way and summoned up his halberd, but in the dim light, Math couldn’t tell how much armor he wore. Not his full set, certainly.
“They’re being controlled!” Math yelled. “Everyone who breathed in the spores is being controlled!”
Nuhzar, thankfully, hadn’t been nearby when the spores had spread.
Maybe Nuhzar would’ve questioned Math more, since Math, too, had breathed in those damn spores—but a violent scream cut the air as Rabu’s hammer sent a knight flying across the courtyard.
Nuhzar ran toward his captain.
Math might not hold any fondness for Alik Nuhzar, but he would be the first to admit the man was murder in a fight.
Captain Rabu had more experience, not to mention avalanche-like ferocity, but Nuhzar favored precision and speed.
He might not win, but he’d distract Rabu until other captains arrived.
Captain Yihura, the archer, was the more serious problem.
Math had already passed two knights with arrows threaded cleanly through the slits in their helmets, dead before they finished falling. Yihura would pick off anyone foolish enough to cross into the open.
Or … almost anyone. She’d already had several clear shots on him—each opportunity ignored.
Apparently, the Queens really did want to talk to him.
Meanwhile, they were going to kill everyone he cared about. Maybe not the kids—but their fate wouldn’t be much better. And given that Math had been like an older brother to most of them, he couldn’t live with the idea of just accepting that outcome.
Thunderclaps boomed. Blinding white light blazed across the courtyard as a bolt flew down from heaven and slammed into a running knight. The man was tossed aside and didn’t stir again.
Rolling, violent storm clouds now cloaked the stars that had been visible just hours earlier. The scent of rain-soaked stone, lightning, and freshly cut lumber filled the air. But for the smoke and blood, it might have been beautiful.
The Queens were using magic. That probably made them witches, but the old definitions didn’t feel like they applied.
A burst of movement caught his eye—Tanxi, half-dressed, was sprinting down the aerie stairwell, still tugging on her breastplate.
Her gaze slid past him, then snapped back. Her face was a battleground of worry and relief. “Who’s attacking?” she demanded, stepping into the courtyard.
“No!” Math grabbed her arm and yanked her back. A second later, an arrow slammed into a nearby pillar—right where Tanxi’s head had been.
Tanxi answered with a second-circle Storm spell. Wind howled around her, flinging arrows off course and pelting Math with grit and stone. It wouldn’t stop a certain captain from using her manifested weapon.
“Stay under cover. The trees are attacking.” Ridiculous, but it was the only explanation he had. “They’re controlling Rabu and Yihura and some of the knights.” He tightened his hold on her arm, ignoring the stinging debris. “Did you send off a bird?”
“Are you joking? I sent them all.”
“Good. Tanxi, I…”
He had questions. Why had his sister gone to Talu? Had she any idea what was going to happen to him?
She looked worried, not guilty—certainly not like someone who knew she’d betrayed him.
This wasn’t the time.
“I overheard some of the knights being controlled. Their orders are to kill the adults, but capture the children and bring them to those monsters. I don’t know why, but if it’s anything like what they did to the lumberjacks back at that camp, we have to stop them.”
“Does Commander Talu know this?” Was he imagining the hesitation in her voice?
“I don’t know where the commander is.” That, at least, wasn’t a lie. “You go find him. I’m taking the novitiates to the—”
He paused.
If this were an ordinary army, there were protocols: secret exits, fallback positions. But the Queens? One might be waiting in ambush at any exit.
When escape was impossible, a different protocol took priority.
“I’m taking them to the maze antechamber,” he finished. He’d apologize to that knight on watch if they both lived. Apparently, he was going back there after all.
“Don’t be a fool,” Tanxi said. “I’ll come with you. You aren’t wearing armor. You don’t even have a weapon.”
True enough. If he could summon one out of thin air, he wouldn’t be a novitiate.
He almost argued, but Tanxi might be safer at his side.
“Fine,” he said. “Let’s go.”