He roared, revealing teeth that were long, white, and every bit as deadly looking as that of a regular Adlin. It was a sound of defiance, and yet one that held the edge of command. As the sound echoed harshly across the silence, the remaining Adlin moved as a mass, flowing from the edge of the inner wall across to the outer one. The throbbing under my feet instantly muted, but the scream of the earth intensified.
The children, the air whispered. They attack the outer wall.
Which suggested the queen had given up her quest for the other bracelet and was now intent on escape. I ran across to the outer edge, peering down until I spotted Trey and two of his people. A brown-haired man stood on his left, and a woman with dark hair stood on his right. All three had their hands splayed across the wall, but Trey’s hands overlapped those of the other two.
The rest of his soldiers stood in a semicircle several paces farther back from the wall, their weapons held in readiness.
They combine strength to repair, the earth whispered. They will not hear you.
Combining strength… that’s what had been happening with the children. The one capable of earth magic had been using the strength of the other two to help punch a door through the wall.
And while it might be true that Trey wouldn’t hear me, the soldiers below still needed to be warned what was going on. We couldn’t let those kids be taken away—they were too damn dangerous, for a start, but we also needed to probe them more fully, to understand what had been done to them and perhaps even get some idea as to who was behind this whole stinking mess.
“Hey,” I shouted down, “the Adlin are now trying to break out through the curtain wall.”
A pale-skinned woman glanced up. I didn’t recognize her, but she was wearing the colors of a sergeant. “At what point?”
“Twenty feet before the place where to the two walls meet.”
She immediately spoke to one of her counterparts, then as he raced toward the smaller command center, she and the remaining soldiers ran for the drawbridge. I bent and forced my fingers through the rubber matting until I touched the metal. While I had no doubt there were easier ways to contact the earth, this had worked last time. I reached down to that inner part of me again, and said, Trey and the other earth witches need to know what is happening while they work to repair the wall. Can you please warn them?
As the earth agreed to do so, I thrust up and ran across to the main wall, stopping just above the point where the Adlin were clustered. I reloaded the rifle and aimed for the small gap between the false roof and the wall, and then fired everything the gun had. Sparks and metal flew as the pellets caught the edges of the wall, but a lot made it through. Three Adlin went down. The rest gathered up the bodies of the fallen and held them overhead, using them as shields. I swore softly. It was an effective ploy, because even if I reloaded, I’d only be shooting the already dead.
The klaxon sound of a siren began to ring out and, as I looked up, a full squad of soldiers raced toward the broken section of wall. They were fully kitted up, but even so, there were at least seven Adlin still alive down there. It would be a close battle, even with a full squad.
The earth’s screaming reached a fever pitch, the sound so loud and agonized it hurt my ears. As the wall began to vibrate and the metal under my feet grew hotter and hotter, I realized I only had minutes, if not seconds, to get off the damn wall.
I turned and ran.
The vibrations abruptly ceased and, just for a minute, I thought we were safe, that the children’s strength had finally failed them.
Then a whole damn section of the wall exploded upward, taking me with it.
9
I flew high, surrounded by shards of metal and stone that sliced through my flesh as easily as they sliced through the air. My uniform was shredded in seconds and my skin became slick with blood. I rose skyward for so long it seemed as if I’d reach the stars, but gravity soon reasserted itself, sending me hurtling back to the ground. It was a long, long way down, and there’d be little more than a red stain and a few flattened remnants of flesh and bone to scrape up if I hit it at this speed.
I closed my eyes and reached for the wind. She answered immediately, her cold fingers battering away the stones and metal that continued to rain around me even as she provided a cushion of thicker air to impede the speed of my fall. I hit feet first and hard enough to rattle my teeth, then staggered forward and fell with a grunt to my knees. For several minutes, I couldn’t do anything more than suck air into my burning lungs as I tried to ignore the pain reverberating through my body. Thankfully, the wind still battered away the wall remnants; they rained all around me, many of them hitting so hard the ground shook under the impact. But it wasn’t the falling pieces of stone and metal that provided the biggest danger right now; it was the Adlin.
Because with the wall smashed open, they were free of Blacklake and on the run.
I couldn’t see them, but I could feel them. Could follow their progress through the impact of their steps on the earth.
Some were running away.
Some were coming straight at me.
And my rifle was who knew where; I’d lost grip of it when the wall had exploded. Which meant I was about to see if the sword was as good as the knife when it came to the flesh of the Adlin.
I pushed upright. Sharp shards of stone dug into my foot; I winced and looked down. My left boot was missing. And while it was inconvenient, it wasn’t as deadly as the loss of the rifle might yet prove to be.
I drew the sword from its scabbard across my back. The thick glass blade gleamed in the pre-dawn darkness, but it looked wholly inadequate against the three Adlin racing toward me.
I glanced around, looking for a more suitable place to make a stand. Although the immediate area was littered with huge chunks of stone and large sheets of metal, none of them were of much use when it came to cover. Not when I had to have the room to swing a sword. Now, if they’d formed a rough semicircle, it would have at least curtailed their attack options….
The thought had barely crossed my mind when the ground heaved and the big chunks of stone began to roll, gently at first but with increasing speed, into a half circle formation. The earth had heard me. It seemed that a direct connection, be it hands or feet, was the answer when it came to summoning her power—for me at least, anyway.
As the Adlin’s battle cry reverberated across the night, I spun and ran into the newly created circle. The space between the two curved ends was small enough that only one Adlin could run through at a time. It gave me time to react and kill; whether or not it would make a difference was something I’d learn in little more than a few minutes.
Because in truth, by restricting their avenues of attack, I was also restricting my escape options.
I gripped the sword tightly with both hands and waited. In the distance, through the opening in the stones, I could see the fleeing Adlin. The stained one was carrying three small bundles under his arms, and was pulling away from the other Adlin. He was protecting the children—saving them—at the possible cost of his companions.
That wasn’t Adlin behavior. They hunted and fought as one, no matter what their numbers. I’d never heard of any Adlin providing a rearguard service to ensure one of their number got away. But that one Adlin was under the control of whoever was behind this madness, and he held sway over the Adlin as a whole. Unusual or not, it was obvious they would obey their leader no matter what.
The battle cry of the Adlin bit through the air. I swung my attention back to them and took a deep, steadying breath.
I could do this.