Chapter Eighteen #3
As the men fought against the icy blast, I noticed Shaar reaching his hands out toward the shard beneath him again. Rather than encasing it in more of the pink magic, it felt like he was trying to control it.
A dull pain sprouted from the root of my neck up to my brain, and I grunted as I felt my nose start to drip with blood.
The shard pulsated and shook like I’d never seen it before. Shaar was straining against it, too, and his thin lips were pulled back in a snarl as he tried to bend the crystal to his will.
As Karrida rushed to join Raeth, I was pinned in place by the overwhelming pain of Shaar attempting to control us. I tried to lift my gun again, but my hand shook so violently that I was worried I’d misfire and hit one of my girls.
Suddenly, the pink shield surrounding the shard warbled, and pulses of purple energy rippled out of the crystal and spread like crashing waves across the room.
As the rings continued to propel out of it, I felt my body gain a small amount of control. My knees unlocked themselves, and the shaking eased down enough for me to securely hold my gun again.
I shuddered as I remembered my dream. The bird’s-eye view of Gladewood had shown me those exact same rings making their way across the land.
I didn’t know what that meant, and I didn’t know what the shard was doing, but I prayed that it kept Shaar from gaining any more control.
Before I could get back into the fight, I heard the hurried scrape of boots against the stones behind me. I whirled around to shoot whoever was advancing from the rear tunnel, only to be met with…
“Aila?” I asked in a breathless voice. “What are you doing here?”
The golden Hand was alone and red in the face, and her chest heaved up and down as she glanced at the chaos unfolding in the cavern.
As soon as she spotted the shard, she choked on her labored breaths, but then her violet eyes found mine, and a determination settled across her face and steeled her features.
“I’m alone,” she said. “And now I know the truth.”
“Congratulations,” I said dryly as I pulled my sword out of its sheath with my other hand. “But we’ve got bigger problems right now.”
To my surprise, rather than slap shackles over my wrists, Aila bounded over like a flash of golden steel and ran headfirst toward the recuperating men winded by Ellyn’s icy blast.
I had to blink away my stupor and take advantage of my agency before Shaar took it away again. There was too much chaos happening for me to get a clear shot with my Glock, so I charged forward with my sword and slashed at any bandits that got too close.
There were a few still clawing out of the surrounding voids, and they were far away enough that I could fire a few shots into the holes before they even had the chance to escape.
When the slide locked back on my gun because the mag was empty, I slipped it back into its holster and focused on using my sword.
I had spare ammo, but I needed a moment of safety to actually reload, otherwise, I’d be left vulnerable.
Shaar’s prison containing the shard was warbling as more and more rings pulsed out of its purple form. When I glanced up at Drakar’s puppet ?between slashes of my sword, I had to do a double take.
His already mauled face was becoming more withered. Wrinkles had formed on his skin, like a grape left to prune in the sun, and his eyes had become bloodshot and sunken.
Despite it all, though, the madman was still grinning and trying to sink his claws into the vibrating crystal.
I sliced my blade through a few more of the oncoming attackers before the ground trembled beneath our feet again.
But it wasn’t because of the shard this time. The rumble came from the walls themselves, and for a brief moment, everyone paused in their fighting. Even Shaar loosened his magical grip on the shard to glance at the openings with furrowed eyebrows.
No more men poured out of the holes surrounding us. Instead, their distant screams of terror echoed around the cavern and made a hot sweat drip down the back of my neck.
The screams got closer and closer, and I prepared myself for whatever was causing those vibrations, but the last thing I expected was for a furry face to burst through one of the holes and snarl at the bandits surrounding us.
The creature was huge and covered in gray hair. Two large, clawed hands pushed through the small opening, and black talons dug into the stone wall as the beast pulled itself out.
The massive animal had no eyes, but it did have a giant pink nose with tendrils wriggling out of it in all directions. Rows of razor-sharp, yellowed teeth sat beneath the writhing appendage, with two huge front ones poking down beneath its bloodied chin.
The men surrounding us cried out in fright and briefly turned their attention to the colossal star-nosed mole as it slammed its body in front of me.
I staggered back and expected it to attack all of us without prejudice, but then it turned its wet, wriggling nose toward me and sniffed.
It flashed its teeth, and rather than swallowing me whole, it leaped onto the closest group of bandits that had attempted to run for the furthest corner of the cavern.
Chaos ensued again, but this time, we had a giant mole on our side cutting through bandits like this was its favorite pastime. Three more moles clawed out of the other surrounding holes, and they also jumped down to join in the frenzy.
Shaar roared in anger as he watched his men be torn apart by the unexpected guests, and his venomous glare turned from me, and then to the shard.
That’s when I realized why those creatures had come to our aid, and why they weren’t attacking us. The rings the shard had sent out must have called to them, and this was nature getting its own payback.