Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
I’m in my tent again, pulling on the standard mission uniform. Mace gave the order for us to get ready to move out, Stella’s orders being imminent.
I would have loved to stay for a bit longer with Allen and grill him about what he meant about my magic, but maybe I’m not ready to confront what the test says about my power.
That I still don’t belong anywhere.
As I pick up my backpack, Mace opens the flaps of my tent. ‘We need to get moving. Stella gave us the orders for the next mission.’
‘Whoop,’ I say with fake cheer.
Mace is too focused to pay me too much attention. As soon as I follow him outside, he pulls at three levers at the base of the tent, making it collapse onto itself so it’s small enough to fit in my backpack.
Humph. Maybe I should have listened better when Allen explained to me how the tent works.
Mace is striding away, barking orders. He seems to be in mission-mode. It’s almost as if he could blow anything substandard to pieces just with the power of his disapproval.
But I can hardly understand a word he’s saying. I mean, I understand the words individually, but I don’t understand what he wants.
Allen appears by my side. ‘Just stay with the group. You’ll get the hang of it. And I’ll translate in plain language if you’re too confused.’
I assume he was able to feel that through the link. It’s a little scary that someone can read my emotions, and yet, with Allen none of this feels forced or frightening. I have an ally, at least. He smiles at me, trying to reassure me, and I find myself smiling back.
Xandra drifts by us and towards Mace. ‘I still think we should leave Ellie behind,’ she says. ‘She’ll only slow us down.’
‘We can’t leave her unprotected,’ Allen says softly.
Mace narrows his eyes at Xandra as she draws up to him. ‘Nobody gets left behind on my watch,’ he says in a low growl. ‘Not now, not ever. And not Ellie. And this is the last time I’m saying this. If I have to repeat myself again, there will be consequences. Did I make myself clear, Reynolds?’
He throws the full force of his ire at Xandra, and even she, who must be used to his moods by now, who is a powerful Warrior on her own, lowers her gaze and says nothing.
‘I said, did I make myself clear?’
Shit. That growl.
It seems to settle right into my bones and make me shiver. His eyes are pits of darkness, promising retaliation if someone dares not to follow his orders.
‘Yes, Mace,’ she says.
Normally, I’d scoff and say something like, No chance you’re leaving me behind in the middle of nowhere. But my tongue has completely forgotten how to articulate words.
Not Ellie.
There’s something in the way Mace said my name, that makes me gape.
He must sense I’m staring, because that darkness in his eyes grows and pulses. His jaw working, the muscles in his shoulder tightening.
‘Right. Let’s go,’ he says, and turns away from me.
We trek the entire night and most of the next morning towards our new location. I’m sweaty and overheated and I’ve never needed a shower more. But most of all, I’m grateful that they didn’t leave me behind or send me back.
At least, with them I feel safe.
There are creatures in these woods, that I’ve only read about, or that I’ve only seen footage of.
I assume, if I were to face them alone, I’d survive the grand total of two minutes or so.
But Allen shows me patiently how to look for them on the map that Stella provided on the ART, with constantly refreshing data of where they are and in which direction they’re moving.
Top Team knows how to act to best avoid any clashes with them.
Handy, as I wouldn’t have known that if I found myself in the path of a feral bear it would be best to stay completely still and just watch it as it straightened up to the entirety of its ten feet and sniff at berries and tree trunks, and wait until it found something more interesting to do.
I wouldn’t have been able to conjure a sword if I strayed into the Ur-wolves’ territories, and let power lick down the blade, creating pinpricks of light that the spotted wolves, with their sensitivity to light, would avoid. As it is, I’m surrounded – protected – by Top Team as we move.
Even so, my heart pounds through half the night until Mace jabs me in the shoulder. ‘Take one of the fear-blockers,’ he says. ‘You reek of fear; therefore, you reek of prey, and you’re like a magnet for every single predator in the Disputed Lands.’
I know that Warriors take these fear-blocker pills when they’re on a mission, to stop them from running back to The Citadel in terror.
I always thought that those pills were bullshit, but I don’t want to endanger the mission, so I reluctantly pop a pill into my mouth and then, as the minutes tick by, I notice how increasingly detached from myself – and from what might happen if a pack of Ur-wolves does get me in their claws – I become. Like, who cares? Not even I do.
But the overwhelming, so-what feeling makes me uncomfortable. ‘These pills are atrocious,’ I say to Allen, who is walking close by my side.
Allen groans. ‘If you think these are bad, you should see what the bloodlust pills do. And you don’t want to know how they make you feel afterwards.’
I understand what he isn’t saying. ‘These pills should be banned,’ I say.
‘Central Command never will. They justify it by saying that we can’t let anything stop us when protecting the city, especially since we’re at war with the kingdoms in our immediate vicinity. They’d be more than happy to wipe us out if any Warrior on the field hesitated in a battle.’
‘Why does everyone else hate us so much?’ I ask.
Allen shrugs. What can you do about it?
Mace’s ART pings and Stella gives us a new mission: to plant one of the golden flags in the designated location.
She quickly conjures a hologram of the interior of a …
cave, but one with the walls coated in the same metal that clads most of The Citadel.
Inscriptions run across it, just like at home, and I can guess that these serve as lines of code.
‘Okay,’ Mace says. ‘Keep moving.’
I slump my shoulders. I’m exhausted. Dawn isn’t far off, and I’d much prefer to find a place to camp and get some sleep, but I know this suggestion won’t go down well, to put it mildly, because my team wants to complete the mission as quickly as possible.
We jog up a steep, tall hill, and by the time we’ve arrived at our destination, a straight cliff wall, I’m exhausted. Mace passes Allen a small stick, with a piece of golden fabric wrapped at its top. ‘You play flag bearer.’
Xandra has already conjured her twin set of swords, and I can’t help but ask, ‘Why all this fuss? I thought that we were just planting a flag?’
‘There is no guarantee that that cave will be empty,’ Julian says, casting an admiring glance at Xandra, who’s taken up a wide stance, her entire body tense, and looks like a warrior goddess incarnate, with the red glow of her magic casting shadows on her face.
‘Stay close to us, don’t wander off,’ Mace tells me.
‘Oh, believe me, I wasn’t planning to.’
They’ve all assumed their fighting stances now, and for the hundredth time, I feel the odd one out. The one who doesn’t belong here.
‘Here goes nothing,’ Mace says, touching his hand to the wall and sending out a thread of power. Bright purple fills invisible cracks in the stone, lighting it up, and then a huge slab slides forwards and to the side, revealing a tunnel.
Mace is the first one to step through, with Xandra at his side, then me, Allen and Julian.
The only light is coming from their magical weapons, which throw colourful patterns on the wall.
It looks kind of like a rainbow and the pretty image is jarring, contrasting with the cold concentration on Top Team’s faces.
They look the part of the Warriors that they are.
‘Put up that shield,’ Mace hisses at me.
I’m about to point out that we’re in a deserted tunnel, but wisely decide to shut up, and the eerie, shimmering white light from my dome washes through the cave.
The tunnel opens about fifteen feet from us into a wide, cavernous room with those metal panels at the back and a round socket a few steps in front of them, probably destined for the flag.
We move like a solid unit, and I’m about to ask why Allen doesn’t just sprint forwards and plant the flag in there, when the cave lights up with the shimmer of dozens of holograms.
I’ve never seen as many in one place.
Mace immediately barks orders and the others get into fighting positions – the attacks from the holograms are coming in hard and fast. I don’t even know which way to look, my heart is hammering wildly and I’m rooted on the spot, my dome a solid, shimmering shield around me.
‘Hold your shield up, Ellie,’ Mace says, and stalks forwards with Xandra. They’re a storm: Mace is the steady beat of thunder, his blows hard and precise, and Xandra is like the wind – swinging, parrying, slipping between her opponents’ defences.
‘We can do this, team,’ says Mace.
‘Yeah, sure,’ says Julian. ‘We’re outnumbered five to one, but we’ll be just fine, right?’
‘We were trained for this,’ says Xandra.
‘Of course,’ says Allen. ‘But these bastards move incredibly fast. Even by our standards.’
I plant my feet on the stone floor, willing my shield to hold as two holograms get past the others and start attacking me.
Outside of it, my teammates are shouting and panting, muscles flexing, arms moving, feet sliding in what almost looks like a dance.
It feels like a repeat of the attack by the holograms on the hill, and yet I feel the strain, maybe picking up some of the emotions that Allen unintentionally broadcasts.
‘What the fuck?’ says Julian, sidestepping to avoid a blow, landing right in front of another hologram. We’re still boxed in at the entrance, and even if only so many holograms can attack us at any one time, more are waiting in the wide, cavernous chamber beyond. ‘These things fight like fiends.’
‘Told you,’ says Allen.