70. Scotlind
SEVENTY
SCOTLIND
Scotlind? Sie’s voice came through my head at the same time the explosion went off.
Yeah, I’m here.
Good. Brock and Rainer just took the monorail back to Tennebris. There were more soldiers than we anticipated, so the last wave will take longer to get here.
“What should we do?” Savannah whispered.
“I don’t know,” I admitted to her, but it also must have gone to Sie.
What don’t you know? he asked.
Sorry, I was talking to Savannah, I shot back. We’re at the border of the jungle and —
The mortal is with you? he snapped.
Yeah, but that’s not the point. Sie, the King has…
That girl has a fucking death wish.
Sie, I stopped him, t he King has humans surrounding the castle, and they’re all armed.
Fuck. I’m coming back now. Don’t attack yet.
See if you can tell any of the other waves with your telepathy. Try to warn them about the humans, I said to Sie .
We’re done, Rumor. Tezya’s voice came through. All the serums are destroyed. The King will only have whatever he has on hand.
Tezya, we have a bigger problem. Savannah was right. The King was stealing humans. He has them surrounding the castle.
Shit. Tezya’s voice sounded. I was starting to feel his emotions through our bond. Worry and frustration were coursing through me.
What do we do? I asked.
Can you get past them without conflict?
I scanned the miles of open fields in front of us. The humans were crammed against one another so tightly there was no way of getting through them without a fight.
No. There’s too many of them. They’re completely surrounding the castle.
Okay. Have an air user create a shield to—
I cut him off. Tezya, the air users aren’t wearing masks since we didn’t have enough supplies for everyone. Once we attack, they’re suppose to stop their shields to make ones for themselves. If they keep us covered, most won’t have any reserves left to protect themselves against any vapor Alluse.
“What’s going on?” Kallon asked as she placed a warm hand on my back.
I turned away from the massive crowd before us to look back at the jungle and was surprised to see a full head of purple hair and another with half black, half aqua. We weren’t invisible anymore.
“I told the air users to let down their shields,” Kallon said, noting my shock at seeing them. “But I told everyone to wait to attack until you guys came back. I wanted to see what was taking so long.” Kallon looked past me, and her face crumbled the moment she saw what we did. “Are they—”
“Humans,” Savannah replied, then half screamed as Sie teleported next to us .
He placed his hand over her mouth. “Shut up or all your humans are going to start attacking us.”
She bristled as she nudged out of his grip. He withdrew his hand immediately then turned to me. “I could only warn my wave. Apparently the third one already started attacking. The humans are fighting to kill.”
“We can’t kill them,” Savannah seethed. “They’re innocent.”
“I know,” Sie gritted his teeth. “I tried to compel a few of them to stop fighting, but it didn’t work.”
“It’s the mass compulsion serum,” I breathed. “It worked.”
“Well, I guess Arcane’s serum just went from ninety percent effective to one hundred,” Kallon attempted to joke.
“Shit,” Savannah cursed. “What can we do?”
“I can portal everyone to another point,” Kallon started.
“They’re surrounding the castle from all sides,” Sie interjected.
“Then I’ll portal everyone inside like I did for Tezya and Dove. I have portals throughout the castle.”
“Portaling this many people is going to kill both of your reserves,” he countered, meeting my gaze. “Plus with the amount of times you’ll have to go back and forth, the King will catch on and send soldiers to stop you both. It’s not smart.”
I sucked in a breath at a loss for what to do. I didn’t want to drain myself. I needed to still have access to my abilities in case Tezya needed me, but to do nothing would mean we’d have to fight our way through the humans. I was already starting to hear screams coming from the other side of the castle…
Portal the humans, Tezya’s voice sounded in my head again. He must have been listening to our conversation through my thoughts.
Tez, they aren’t going to willingly go with us.
I know, Rumor. Have Kallon open a portal and then use your enhancement to widen it. You don’t have to portal all of them. Just enough to make a path for everyone to run through. Have the air users put up shields, making an archway so the remaining humans can’t get past it and fight you as you make your way across the field. It’s the only way I can see you guys getting into the castle without spilling their blood or yours. If you do it fast enough, the air users shouldn’t use up too much of their reserves.
And where are we sending the humans? I asked. We can’t put them back in mortal territory while they’re compelled and all holding weapons.
Send them to the hut. Kal has a portal there and it’s far enough that they won’t be able to find their way back to the castle in time. Let the serum run out of their systems, and we’ll help them once this is all over.
I quickly told them all Tezya’s plan.
“It might work,” Kallon said, “and it would use less of our reserves than portaling everyone inside. I’ll check with the air users to see if they can make an arch.”
Once Kallon left, Sie turned toward Savannah. “I thought Dravenburg gave you orders to not fight.”
“He also tried to stop you from fighting today, but here you are. You have more of a target on your back than me.”
Sie shrugged just as Kallon came back with five air users. “Okay, Scottie. You ready?”
I nodded then turned to look at the humans.
“Make us invisible,” Kallon ordered. “We need to get inside the crowd. Sav, go get the rest of the group and make sure they’re ready to run on my command.”
Kallon grabbed my hand just as we both turned invisible.
We were slowly making our way to the middle of the clearing, but it was hard to navigate without accidentally touching anyone.
I felt her squeeze my hand once before she dropped it, indicating that she was going to make her portal. My enhancement so familiar with her now, it felt like second nature. I was getting better at connecting to all different kinds of powers, learning the telltale signs of each ability.
Once Kallon was done, she tapped my forearm, and I widened it, consuming and expanding the portal to make a long pathway from here to the castle.
We didn’t have time to process the human’s reaction as we forced them through the portal, because the moment our feet sank into the sand, Kallon grabbed me and took us back to the clearing. We were no longer invisible. The air users couldn’t maintain their connection inside her portal.
For one long moment, Kallon and I were standing in the middle of the field. The remaining humans looked at us in a daze for a split second before they started charging.
“Now,” Kallon screamed at the same time the air users put up their shields, forming a tunnel around us. Savannah must have said something to our wave because everyone immediately started sprinting toward the castle.
I stood in shock, staring at the humans charging into the invisible shield. Most had expressions of abhorrence, and I knew the feeling. They had no idea why they were doing what they were doing. No idea why the weapons were glued to their hands, why they kept running into an invisible wall with thoughts of murder.
I saw some of them collapse, some bleeding from the carelessness of their blades, some with broken bones from the force at which they were throwing themselves into the shield. It was barbaric.
Kallon wrapped her hand around my arm. “Come on, Scottie. We have to go. They can’t keep the shield up long.”
I nodded, trying to push my thoughts away from the helpless humans, and followed Kallon and the others as we ran toward the castle.
All I could think about was how much I hated the King. I hated what he was doing and how he used people as nothing more than objects at his disposal.
I wanted him dead.
I just prayed it wouldn’t be at the cost of Tezya’s life.