Chapter 49
Chapter Forty-Nine
Bondsmith
The crack of lightning across the sky, followed by the quick booms of unnatural thunder, could only indicate one thing: Solace was here.
And she was filled with an unholy fury.
My heart skipped as a second fork of lightning split the sky with a crack that had the littles covering their ears. Even Itanya flinched, drifting closer to my side as we continued our harried journey from Imena, northward to the caves.
The terrifying display of magic continued to light up the night, illuminating our path and surroundings in jagged intermissions. The fear was palpable, almost strong enough to smell above the sudden pungent stench of ozone.
Terrified cries rang out loudly through the once silent night, puncturing the stillness as white-hot light snaked down from the sky to strike a tree directly in the middle of our path.
Bodies were thrown to the ground from the force of impact, a few unlucky ones struck by the residual lightning that rebounded from the tall oak.
They lay still where they fell, their corpses smoldering lightly.
I grimaced as Itanya retched onto the dark forest path, her small, sweaty palm gripping my own, terror writ in every tremble of her limbs.
Death no longer surprised me, no longer affected me.
But, as the tree caught fire, the blaze quickly reaching an inferno as the dry twigs and leaves caught light, I began to panic.
The oak was tall and wide, thousands of years old, if I had to guess. Its massive size burned quickly, spurned by the unnatural breeze that flowed from the south, coaxing it to blaze brighter, to illuminate us and act as a beacon for my crazed sister and her army of sycophants.
Frightened people began to move quicker, propelled forward by some innate sense to flee a larger predator, but they wouldn’t make it in time.
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, my heart threatening to thump out of my chest, as I felt her move closer.
“RUN!” I screamed, breaking through the stillness and quiet of the night. Loud enough that those in front could hear and urge our band of misfits forward. “Run, run!”
My screech pulled wary and terrified gazes my way, their faces lit by the ever-burning tree.
I waved my free hand, gesturing wildly for them to continue their retreat, only at a much faster pace.
Whatever was writ in my expression spurned a few to increase their pace, but the howls and sudden blasts of magic at my back forced even the most skeptical to flee.
“Run, Itanya,” I barked, pulling on her hand as I pushed the stragglers ahead of us. Screams and wails pierced the night as men and women scrambled over tree roots and felled branches, their steps no longer silent and concealed.
I felt it before I saw it, a looming threat at my back that only grew larger the farther I moved away.
“Take cover!” I shouted, my voice breaking on the screech.
At the last second, I pulled Itanya with me behind another massive oak tree just as a spinning vortex of air and fire blasted its way down our previous path.
A few heeded my call and took shelter beneath swaying branches, but some were not as fortunate, their screams cut off as the magic consumed them whole.
Itanya shuddered next to me, but there was little time for reassurance.
Get to the caves. We must get to the caves.
“Come,” I urged, pulling on her hand as we began sprinting through the woods once more, vaulting over rocks and branches, sidestepping felled bodies.
I cursed my decision to wear a dress tonight; the thick navy skirt continually got caught between my legs, tripping my movements. Itanya cried out as she fell, her own celadon silk skirts twisting her legs.
It took me a moment to halt my steps, my momentum and grip on Itanya’s hand dragging her along the rocky pathway. She cried out again as rocks and splinters embedded themselves in her exposed skin.
I threw myself on the ground just as the zap of lightning cut through the air where my head was.
“Crawl to me, Itanya,” I commanded, shouting above the cacophony of battle.
The oak tree still crackled and burned yards behind us, the refugees’ screams and cries mixed with the snapping of twigs as they ran through the forest. Above it all, the snarls and hoots of Solace’s sycophants echoed through the night, drawing ever closer.
Itanya scrambled over the ground, whimpering as a rock bit into her palm. Reaching out, I grabbed her forearms and hauled her onto my lap as I sat against a felled tree, trying to catch my breath.
I panted, hands shaking, as I grasped the hem of Itanya’s dress and pulled, popping seams and renting fabric as I tore it up to her mid-thigh before doing the same to my dress.
“There,” I said, softly brushing the debris from her skin. “Good as new.”
“I want my mommy, Gamma. I want Daddy and Papa and Da,” she whispered, voice breaking as she longed for her parents. I’d been closest to her when the attacks started; her parents called away to usher their people out of Imena like cattle.
“I know, sweetheart, I know,” I cooed, cuddling her against my chest for a moment. “But we’ll see them at the caves. I promise, little one.”
She nodded into my chest, her little fists tightening in the satin of my dress as her tears wet my exposed skin.
“Now, we must hurry again. We must run,” I said, gently prying her from me. Itanya wiped her eyes with the back of a dirty hand; a few of her braids were stuck with leaves and twigs, while others had been pulled partially free.
The sounds of thundering steps and crashing magic grew closer, and I sprang to my feet, eyes wild.
“Come, child! We must go!” I started running again, pulling a scrambling Itanya behind me as we worked to catch up to the rest of the fleeing rebels.
Almost there. We’re almost there.
I hadn’t allowed myself to hope, to think of the finish line as we ran, but when we exploded from the tree line with the outline of the caves clearly in sight, my traitorous heart thumped in excitement.
“We’re almost there, Itanya,” I breathed, yanking the girl along again as her much smaller strides fought to keep up with mine.
“Gamma, I’m tired. I-I can’t—” she panted, voice bordering on hysterical as she worked to breathe and run.
I stopped halfway across the open moonlit plain, Talamh’s and Torin’s voices ringing through the night, urging us onward.
“Here, I’ll—” I stopped only briefly. Just enough to reach for the tired child and swing her into my arms with assurances that I’d carry her to safety.
But that one small second where I released her small hand, the one moment I relinquished my hold on the terrified child, was enough time for a vine to snake from the woods and curl around Itanya’s waist.
It happened all too fast, yet in slow motion.
My arms reached down to Itanya as her little hands reached out to me.
Fear and surprise widened her eyes as the brown vine snapped around her waist. My own eyes widened in recognition and horror as the Earth Mage the vine belonged to tugged, pulling Itanya to the ground and back toward the woods at a pace I could not follow.
“ITANYA!” I screamed, bent in half with panic and grief.
“GAMMA!” Her terrified shriek echoed through the night, rebounding off the caves to my back. Itanya’s call ended with a sharp cry of pain as she was unceremoniously dragged through the tree line, into the hands of the enemy.
I nearly sank to my knees then, the horror of what happened hitting me firmly in the gut. Tears spilled down my cheeks as the memories of Itanya’s capture mixed with those of Faylinn’s.
No. No. I’ve failed again.
“BONDSMITH!” Torin roared as a jet of fire, unlike any I’d seen before, shot from the mouth of the cave to incinerate a dozen vines as they shot from the tree line straight toward me.
“Let them take me,” I mumbled, legs shaky as I stood swaying from exhaustion and grief, eyes fixed on the spot I’d last seen Itanya.
The girl who called me Gamma.
“Bondsmith, you need to seal the cave. NOW!” Talamh’s voice and magic joined the fight as Mages stepped from the cover of the trees into the open plain, eyes dark and hungry, sinister smiles plastered on their faces.
“Let them take me,” I repeated, opening my arms wide as if to welcome my sister’s killing blow. After everything I’d done, I deserved nothing less.
The ground beneath my feet shook and rumbled before groaning as it split in two, a deep chasm forming between me and the rapidly encroaching Mages. It grew wider, forcing me to my ass as I fell from the shaking.
I shot a look to the trees once more, my blood turning to ice as I watched Solace slowly step through the ancient oaks, Itanya clutched firmly in her arms. The girl kicked and squealed, fighting like hell to dislodge Solace’s hold.
My sister was as bright as the full moon above, her radiance nearly blinding.
But it was only the outside that was pure. Everything else inside was rotten and filthy, dead as she should be.
“Run, Gamma! Run!” Itanya squealed. Her words were enough to distract Solace for a moment, giving me time to turn and sprint the rest of the way to the caves.
My heart grew heavier with each step, pain lancing through my side as a spear caught the edge of my body.
Magic flew overhead and behind me as I sprinted the last few yards to the caves.
The mouth grew closer with each step, Torin and Talamh’s forms illuminated in the bright moonlight and by the magic they clutched in their fists.
Torin’s face was a tumultuous combination of anger and sadness that I felt in the marrow of my bones.
“Seal us in, Bondsmith,” Talamh growled as I skidded into the cave’s entrance, tripping on loose stones.
I neither felt nor cared about the sharp sting of impact as I threw my body to the rocky ground, procuring a dagger from the inside of my thigh. In one savage swipe, I opened my forearm from elbow to wrist, blood spraying the floor, walls, and bodies of those nearest me.