Chapter Thirty-Seven #2
Returning to the male, who was still crumpled on the ground, I made quick work of moving him to one of the wooden posts that held up the ceiling and tying him firmly in place.
After securing him, I ripped off a large strip of his own shirt and tied it tightly around his head so it covered his mouth.
He wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while.
Wiping my hands on my trousers, I slipped back out of the watchtower and carried on walking along the wall, though much faster than before.
It only took another few minutes before I finally saw the perfect spot for what I’d been looking for.
There were still structural supports at that point of the wall, but they looked as though maybe they’d been placed first, as they had obviously been weathered down over the years.
They were full of cracks, and one of them already looked slightly off center.
All I needed to do was help speed up the route they were already on.
Slyly observing my surroundings, I pulled the small vial of light gray liquid out of my pocket.
The alychite-combatant.
This better work, I thought as I popped the cork off and brought the elixir to my mouth. I downed it in one big gulp, cringing at the awful, spoiled taste now coating my tongue.
Tucking the empty vial away, I paused for a moment, waiting for something to hit me.
A minute passed, then another, and I could feel the panic scratching at the edges of my mind.
And then it hit all at once.
It felt like coming up for air the way my zirilium slammed back into my body. It was as though a switch had been flipped within me, the usual hum of my abilities flowing through my veins once more.
Flexing my hands in front of me, I smiled.
Chess and Ezra’s hard work had paid off, after all.
Checking once more to ensure nobody was in sight, I got to work.
Using my earth zirilium, I tore down the weathered supports that were holding up the section of wall that stood before me. I’d never been more grateful for my multiple abilities until that moment.
Though, once all the supports sat in piles of rubble, the wall still hadn’t shifted.
The wall itself was much too large for me to tear down on my own. Earth wielding was an ability I had yet to strengthen and build up as much as I should have, and I was regretting that now.
I’d have to find another way to open up the wall.
And I had to do so quickly—before the Northern higher ups of this place realized their males weren’t coming back.
Just as I was debating tearing the wall down with my bare hands, I heard the heavy footsteps of somebody running in my direction.
Spinning on my heels, my back to the wall, my eyes immediately caught on a male sprinting toward me. He appeared to be Southern, and when the morning sun glinted off the alychite cuff on his ankle, I realized quickly that he was a prisoner here.
And so were all the other males that came into view behind him.
They were practically a small army themselves, though I knew they weren’t the army I should be worried about.
The first male kicked up dirt behind him with how quickly he got to me, a rusted pickaxe as his weapon of choice. The other males, still far off, were yelling battle cries as the first one descended upon me.
He was tall, and though he looked underfed, he still had muscle to him—likely from the amount of labor he was forced into. He swung his pickaxe toward my shoulder, to which I ducked away from with seconds to spare.
“Friend or foe?” he ground out between clenched teeth as he circled me.
“Pardon?” I asked, debating on reaching for one of my daggers. I didn’t want to hurt the male—we were here to help, after all. Though if he got in my way and didn’t allow me to finish my task, I might not have much of a choice.
“Friend. Or. Foe?” he ground out again, slower this time.
“Friend!” I answered, dodging another swing of his pickaxe. “We’re here to help. We’re not leaving until each and every one of you are safe and free.”
“We?” he asked, his voice straining as we made rounds around each other.
Before I could respond, though, I realized the other males were advancing—and I wouldn’t be able to take them all.
The male swung, though each time he did, it was toward a non-vital point of my body. I noted that as I sidestepped him, causing him to stumble toward the wall behind me. And as he was righting himself, I took a few steps forward and called for my zirilium through a sun stone.
With the energy I needed boiling beneath my skin, I inhaled deeply, then released a long, deep breath, spitting fire straight from my core.
I turned my head as I did so there was a half-circle of thick blue flames surrounding me and the first male, the wall at my back protecting us where the fire couldn’t.
The males on the other side of the flames yelled out, holding different tools in the air as though they were proper weapons. Yet, the ones who got close enough to feel my flames quickly found out just how hot they burned.
Turning back to the male behind me, I realized he seemed slightly less hostile with us now being obscured from view.
And yet, he still advanced again.
“Do you want out of this place or not?” I asked, backing up a step.
“Of course I do. Now take this from me.” He motioned to the pickaxe as he charged forward. Not knowing what else to do besides listen to him, I gripped above and below where his hands lay on the handle of the pickaxe and yanked it from him harshly.
“Now what?” I asked as he retreated a few steps, as though he was reassessing the fight now that he was weaponless.
“Aim for the cuff,” he instructed, beginning to circle, his fists raised as though he was going to attack again.
“Why are you doing this?” I questioned, not sure if he could be trusted or not.
“They took the females and children—threatened to slaughter them all if we didn’t kill you and anybody else that tried to enter.
The males on the other side of these flames might not stop—not while the cuffs are on.
But that’s because they don’t know what happens when they come off.
” Then he threw a punch toward my jaw that would’ve knocked me out if I hadn’t ducked.
“The cuffs… they’re alychite. Your zirilium should return once they’re off, right?” For the sake of the performance we seemed to be putting on, I swung the pickaxe toward his side, to which he swiftly rolled out the way of.
“Let your aim be true and you’ll find out exactly what happens,” he said, a sort of finality to his voice when he kicked his leg high, as though to knock me down.
Hoping I was reading the situation correctly, I adjusted my aim as I brought the rusty pickaxe down on the thick cuff—right where the seam of the metal was.
Exactly where I imagined it was weakest.
The material dented and cracked, but didn’t fall off the way I thought it would. With no time to spare, I threw the pickaxe to the ground and conjured fire to my hand—enough that it coated me like another glove—though it didn’t burn me.
Needing no instruction this time, when the male kicked again, I grabbed his leg midair with both hands, making sure my flame-covered hand landed on the cuff attached to him.
Then I pushed all of that fire into the alychite until it melted from the male’s skin, ensuring that none of the fire burned him.
And as the last drop of alychite dripped off his flesh, I was thrown back and to the ground as the male seemed to burst.
The amount of energy leaking from him as he stumbled backwards, closer to the wall, was beyond extreme.
Then the earth crumpled beneath him.
It looked as though the earth was something soft as it gathered close to him. Then, almost as though he was giving himself over to the forbidden act of the reckoning, he fell to his knees and let his zirilium take him.
The male—who was obviously a powerful earth wielder—screamed as his power went out of him in waves of earth.
I quickly spread my wings and leaped into the air before the first wave of rippled earth could smack into me.
The moving earth dowsed the fire that had surrounded us, putting it out, though the males beyond that point were quickly knocked to the ground before they could advance further.
I watched as the first wave of rippling earth reached the wall, causing it to sway dangerously.
With the second wave, it began to crumble.
And with the third, it fell.
“Get out of there!” I called out to the male as large chunks of the wall began to rain down around him. Though I knew if I got any closer, I’d likely be struck myself.
“This was my purpose, friend,” he called back over the sound of rocks falling. “Now I’ll get to be with her again—among the Stars.”
With those final words, the last—and most powerful—wave of his power went out of him. The other males who had just got to their feet fell once again as the final wave knocked them down—just like the last of the wall fell.
Landing directly on top of the male.
“No!” I cried out, though I knew there was no saving him as his zirilium immediately gave out after the last of the wall landed. The earth he’d been involuntarily wielding settled back down into place as the power lost its source.
Chest heaving, I sent a silent wish to the Stars that they welcomed the fallen male with open arms.
Then, I flew through the long stretch of fallen wall and paused on the outskirts of the forest.
“My people!” I called out, ripping the cap and jacket from my body and letting them fall to the ground below. “Spare anybody you can that has a metal cuff on them—melt the cuffs off if you can!”
With those words to guide the army I knew was waiting for my signal in the forest, I turned back toward the encampment and shouted, “For all of Inphis!”
Countless shadows came spearing out of the forest, crossing through the fallen wall and into the encampment.
When the shadows took on their physical form, I noted that each had been carrying another soldier with them.
With the hundreds upon hundreds of shadow wielders and their counterparts inside, they began to face off with the other males that had charged me earlier.
Though, as I heard Quinn instruct the next wave to make their way inside, the sound that I often heard in my nightmares drowned her voice out.
Thousands of wingbeats arriving from the west.
I watched as the host of the North approached, having come from the Salic mountains beyond the encampment.
They’d been waiting for us to show our hand.
And they’d used prisoners to soften the battlefield.
The battle that had yet to truly begin.
Though what shocked me more than their horrific strategies was what I saw at the front of the winged host heading for us.
An almost pitch-black griffin—Ziana—lead the army.
And on her back sat my brother.
Dimitri was coming.