Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Even if I’m running faster than I ever have in my life, I’m too freaking slow. Julian calls to check in with the others from time to time and Allen tells him, ‘We’re keeping them at bay, for now. Hurry.’
Two teams. Two teams have ambushed the three of them, and as otherworldly as Mace and Xandra’s fighting skills are, they’ll be vastly outnumbered.
How long can they hold on? My magic thrums and writhes inside of me, pushing at the edges of my skin, as if trying to break through and bolt outside of my body.
Julian must feel as disquieted as I do, because he’s pushing on and on and on, until he’s barely a speck ahead of me.
The bean rings in my ear. Julian, an impersonal voice says, and I pull on my ear, to take the call.
‘Ellie, you need to be faster.’ He sounds panicked.
‘We need to be faster. We need to help them. Now. Ten minutes ago. They already needed us ten minutes ago.’
I could scream in frustration. I can’t fucking believe that Stella would send us away on the shitty sensor-placing mission, knowing perfectly well that Team Silver and Team Bronze were closing in on us – blinded as we were to their movements, their maps working just fine.
‘Don’t wait for me,’ I say, panting hard. The magic writhes within me with such a force that it threatens to tear me apart. ‘Forge on. They need you.’
They need us.
Fight.
In a flash, understanding bolts through me. I need to fight. I need to fight the other teams, who ambushed us, but I don’t need to fight my own magic: it’s trying to show me the way, but I’ve been panicking too much to see it properly.
‘I—’ Julian starts, but I’m splintering into a thousand pieces, shooting myself forwards as fast as my magic can carry me.
I materialise next to him, so close that my elbow brushes against his as we both keep running.
He stumbles, nearly losing his balance, cursing through his teeth. ‘What the actual fuck, Ellie?’
The bean echoes in my ear, so I pull at my lobe to end the call. ‘Go,’ I say. ‘As fast as you can. I’ll try to keep up.’
His eyes widen, but then he nods, and taps something on his ART.
‘Don’t hold back,’ I say.
‘Allen isn’t answering calls anymore,’ he says.
My team. Mace and Allen and even obnoxious Xandra, the three of them are up against at least eight or nine Warrior Apprentices.
I’m too terrified to ask if capturing them is all that the rival teams will do, because an unpleasant feeling in my gut tells me they wouldn’t stop there.
And if my team gets wounded… The backpack suddenly isn’t a burden anymore, but a priority.
No matter what I do, I can’t let the other teams capture it and take my Pocket Healer, because it can make a difference in the coming hours.
Julian takes off at a sprint, and I realise he’d been holding back, so he wouldn’t lose me. The speed with which he moves is out of this world, and the air shimmers blue around him, which makes me realise that he is somehow using his magic to move faster.
I jog lightly behind him, letting my own magic thrum and build up, until I feel it trying to pierce my skin, bubbling in discontent.
That’s when I let it loose and let it propel me forward, until I catch up with Julian.
We go on and on and on. Sweat trickles down my temples and my muscles ache, since I’ve barely given myself time to catch my breath after I teleported, but of all things, time is what we don’t have right now.
‘Getting close,’ Julian says after my fifth or sixth jump to catch up with him – I’ve lost count. He points to our left, where the line of trees thins, and I propel myself forwards without a second thought.
I begin cursing when I catch sight of my team.
Or barely catch sight of them, better said, because more than half a dozen Warriors from the other two teams circle them.
I catch glimpses of Mace’s purple-gleaming longsword and Xandra’s red one, of their footwork that complements each other, precise blows that push back against the attackers.
The purple sword glimmers, and the attackers momentarily part. Far behind them, Allen has collapsed on the ground and is bleeding, his body curled around a golden flag.
I don’t know what to do, what I should do so that I don’t get in their way. I can’t really fight, and I definitely can’t fight in formation. I scream at Julian to hurry, so he can make a plan and tell me how I can help.
Julian is already behind me, taking in the scene with panting breaths. ‘Fuck,’ he says.
‘My thoughts exactly.’
Even with my lack of experience in sword fighting, I can tell that the other two teams are leading a coordinated attack and that they’re beginning to wear Xandra and Mace down.
It doesn’t matter that they’re both spectacular fighters, dodging and parrying and landing blows, pushing the others back.
Still they come, still they go at them – they have the numbers.
It doesn’t matter that even from here I can tell the sheer power that Mace exudes, the strength of his blows. Three rival Warriors are on the ground, patching up their wounds as best as they can, but six are still standing against our two.
‘What now?’ I ask Julian.
‘We’ll sneak up from behind,’ Julian says. ‘Keep your dome up. Try to draw at least one Warrior towards you, so we can even the numbers. They might go for it; they might think you’re easy prey. And I’ll fall on them from the back, and hope that they’ll break their formation.’
Xandra’s shout pierces the air. It can’t be anyone else but her, because she stumbles away from Mace, defending her side.
But this leaves Mace alone with five attackers, trying to stop them from reaching Allen.
I don’t see half their moves because of the way the other Warriors crowd our captain, and I don’t understand half of what I see, but Mace lands on his knees, barely holding off a Warrior with two short swords.
It takes a splinter of a second for me to understand somewhere deep within my being that Team Silver and Team Bronze will not stop at capturing Mace, and that they’re either too lost to the bloodlust, or they wanted to inflict damage from the get-go.
Julian confirms my worst suspicions. ‘Something isn’t right. The way that Team Silver moves. I think they’re on the bloodlust pills.’
‘Why, though?’ I breathe.
‘To get an edge.’
But this means Team Silver might not be in control of what they’re about to do, that they might get carried away. Julian begins saying something, but I don’t hear the end of it. Fear like I never felt before makes my magic explode out of me.
My power reacts and catapults me right behind Mace.
One moment, I’m listening to Julian’s string of curses; a millisecond later, the rival Warriors are watching me, dumbstruck.
Mace turns. ‘Ellie?’
The Team Silver captain is the first to catch himself and to react. He swings his longsword, lowering it towards Mace’s unprotected shoulder.
I react, lifting a shield around us both. The longsword falls against my shield with a bang, and the Team Silver captain is thrown a dozen steps back by a whoosh of power, in the same way that Julian was thrown when he tried to attack my shield, the day when I first started training.
Everyone freezes. Mace rises slowly to his feet, backing up until he’s almost shoulder to shoulder with me. ‘Not a fucking second too soon,’ he says. ‘Jon wanted my head on a pike.’
Who was I, thinking that I deserved at least a thank you for this intervention?
I give a sideways look to Xandra, who was somehow pushed to the side when the rival Warriors tried to isolate Mace and bring him to his knees.
She’s taken a defensive stance but doesn’t move to attack yet.
I don’t dare turn around and check what state Allen is in.
A tall Warrior, who looks eerily like Xandra in the way she holds herself, lifts her sword. Her tight cornrow braids are pulled together at the back of her head. ‘What was that?’ They stare at my shield like it’s about to grow legs and pinch them.
Mace’s gaze drifts to a point behind the rival Warrior’s shoulder, and I realise that I’ve left Julian behind, and that he must be hurrying to join us, in his usual stealthy, sneaky way. I think Mace is planning to distract the others for a bit longer.
The Warrior I tossed back, the Team Silver Captain – Jon – is approaching us on unsteady feet. ‘Where did you even come from?’
I tilt my head to my side, feeding power into my shield, making sure it’s still holding fast. ‘I just came back from capturing one of your teammates,’ I say. ‘You know? Chrissy, the Healer? Golden skin, great legs? Remember her?’
At least three Team Silver Warriors hiss through their teeth, while behind me, Allen moans in pain.
A shiver goes down my spine. We need to resolve this situation, and we need to do it fast. But how can the four of us push back nine Warriors, even if three of them are already injured?
I can’t even fight properly, and the element of surprise is wearing off.
‘That’s what you get for leaving your teammates behind,’ I say, taunting them.
But Jon isn’t listening anymore. He gives a sign, and three Warriors begin surrounding Xandra, rousing from their initial shock at seeing me pop from thin air with my shield.
‘Xandra, get back, get closer to Ellie’s shield,’ Mace says, throwing another look into the distance. He’s calculating, judging by the way his jaw twitches. ‘One minute, Ellie,’ he whispers. ‘I need one more minute.’
But I’m already moving.
If the weapons that the other Warriors wield have the same effect on my shield as both Julian’s and Allen’s, I can use that to my advantage. ‘Move with me,’ I instruct Mace, and start stepping carefully towards the Warriors surrounding Xandra.
Two of them duck out of the way, but Jon doesn’t see us – he’s too focused on trying to land a blow on Xandra. His sword swings back with the momentum of the blow and brushes against my shield. There’s a loud popping sound, and he is thrown back again.