62. Scotlind
SIXTY-TWO
SCOTLIND
“The question is where do we attack first?” Dravenburg asked.
Another three days had passed—making it six days since we found out about the King murdering rank zeroes—which meant tomorrow we’d finally be fighting back. I’d been restless to do something. The idea of war was terrifying—and I had no idea what to expect from a battle—but I didn’t want to sit back any longer.
Kallon and I had been practicing with our powers for weeks now, and we were as ready as we could be. Everyone in the camp had gone through her portal at least once, so they’d know what to expect from the aftereffects of jumping, and Wells and Arcane developed a nausea serum to counter it.
Tezya and I had been training privately every day too, and I knew others were doing the same.
And despite me asking Tezya to teach me his abilities, to see if we could test Arcane’s theory, he refused. He claimed there wasn’t enough time to even try, which I knew some part of what he said was true. I was still learning and mastering my water and enhancement. And even though I was getting better at them, especially my enhancement, trying to learn his abilities—which took him decades to master—would be near impossible to do, and now we only had one day left.
But I also knew his reason for saying no was more than just our limited time. He wanted to be the one to go up against the Lux King. He didn’t want to risk me trying, and anytime I tried talking to him about it, he’d brushed it off, telling me he was going to be fine.
He had the ring now. Ever since Arcane told Tezya how to use it, Wells didn’t need to keep it in his lab anymore. Tezya wore it around his neck on a chain, but I knew he’d been sneaking off in the middle of the night to train with it when he thought I was asleep.
I hated it. I hated that as much as I wanted to go up against the King, it also meant we were one step closer to Tezya completing the prophecy. I knew it had to happen. Too many rank zeroes were being murdered every day. The daily broadcasts weren’t stopping, and the death tolls were adding up to nauseating numbers. We had to act before he eradicated them completely.
“I think we should attack Tennebris first,” Rainer said. “Lux is too powerful, and if we can conquer the Tennebrisian guards, they can help us when it comes time to fight Lux.”
“I disagree,” Tezya countered. “We need to do this once. We need to split up and attack both kingdoms at the same time. It’ll be our only element of surprise, and if we blow it on Tennebris first, that’ll give Lux more time to prepare.”
“Asking us to split up is dangerous.” Kallon glanced at Tezya. “It won’t give us enough numbers.”
“If we attack Tennebris first, we could lose a lot of people in the process,” Brock interjected. “It’d leave us with the same numbers when attacking Lux.”
“No.” Dovelyn’s eyes were the same eerily milky consistency. Her pupils were completely gone before she blinked back the silver into them.
“Did you have a vision?” Dravenburg asked, his back straightening.
Dovelyn nodded. “We attack Tennebris first. The Luxian army is too strong and lethal. We need Tennebris’ soldiers in order to win against them.”
“What happens if the Lux King brings his army to Tennebris?” Tezya asked.
“He won’t. My vision was of him. I saw his reaction to us attacking the Dark Kingdom. He won’t risk his own city for Tennebris. He’s too selfish to leave himself unprotected, but he will grow his defenses. Tezya is right. We’ll lose our element of surprise, but it wouldn’t be enough to defeat Lux anyway. We need numbers and at this point the King will already be expecting some from the Advenians who got out of the dungeons.”
“And you’re certain Lux won’t make a counter attack?” Tezya asked. I could tell he didn’t like the plan.
“Not from what I could see. We’ll have time to regroup before we go to Lux, and if we attack Lux from Tennebris, Kallon and Scotlind will have time to rebuild their reserves.”
I could sense Tezya visibly relaxing at that. He hated the idea of me using all my reserves to help Kallon portal everyone. I’d have nothing left of my powers for the actual fight, and I’d be forced to rely on my fighting skills. Not that it was new to me. I’d been doing it my whole life, but now that I had my abilities, that I was getting better at fighting, I didn’t want to go without them. But if we did it this way, I might have a small amount of my powers left when we attack Lux. I’d only have to get through the battle in Tennebris without my abilities.
“Alright. We attack Tennebris first. We’ll leave at first light.”
“We should leave tonight,” Sie said, surprising everyone. “ Tennebris is now in their dark season, so there’s no point in waiting until the morning.”
“You want to kill everyone while they’re sleeping?” Tezya asked.
“No. I want to murder Synder while he’s awake, but the only portal Kallon has there is in the woods in between Palm and Kitlarn. If we’re traveling by foot, it’ll take us half a day to get to the castle, and we don’t want to attract their attention while we’re doing it.”
Dravenburg clapped his hands together. “Alright. We leave after dinner. I’ll gather the camp and make sure everyone is ready.” He turned toward Sie and Tezya. “Go with Savannah to go over the maps. We need to know the weak points inside the castle.”
Vallie stood, her chair clattering to the ground, and it was so abrupt that everyone turned to look at her. “I can help with that. My ability is knowledge absorption, and I already have the entire kingdom memorized.”
“Good.” Dravenburg nodded. “Go plan out exactly where you want to attack.”