“Duck!” He positioned her in front of him on the ground.
His shirt brushed against her back, and her skin tingled from his touch. His breath puffed against her neck as she crouched behind the huge stone. Sandy joined them silently and knelt down next to her. Soon after, a stream of Chancellors poured out from an opening in the ground a few feet away from them. They looked straight ahead, not moving their pale heads at all. Within seconds, they’d disappeared into the trees surrounding the opening.
“Can’t they see the horses?” Aspen said in a low voice.
“Demothi made a spell so they’re only visible to us. We have to hide, though—I don’t want the Chancellors to catch us.” His deep voice whispered against her ear, “Look out for Ginny. She might be at this waypoint.”
Her heart thudded nervously. Countless Chancellors continued to swarm out of the opening, but she couldn’t see Ginny anywhere. After ten anxious minutes, she breathed a sigh of relief as the sky lightened. A new group of Chancellors slipped into the tunnel and the noxious smell faded away.
“They can only travel aboveground during Lavendula, so they have to come out of the tunnels at some time,” Dylan said as he rose to his feet. He reached for Aspen’s hand and dragged her up next to him. Her fingers crackled with electricity from his touch.
Leeman and the remaining six Dream Walkers raced toward them. His face was flushed and his blue eyes sparkled with power. “Hurry, they’ll be at waypoint ten for certain.”
The warriors untied their mounts and galloped as fast as they could. Dylan helped Aspen back into the saddle and together with Sandy, followed the men as quickly as they could. After a while, the team met up with the first six men who’d left them earlier. The horses whinnied with excitement and breathed heavily after the hard ride. Leeman held his hand in the air and motioned the riders to stop in front of a small hill.
“The tunnel is in front of us. We’ll take this one. Go to waypoint eight in case they get away,” he ordered Ted.
The big warrior didn’t move. Instead he murmured sullenly, “That’s too close to the castle.”
Leeman twisted in his saddle and trained furious blue eyes at the man. “We’ve got no time to waste, Ted. If we don’t find her, she’ll be killed. Go now!”
Ted slunk back to his horse while the other men looked sheepishly at the ground. Dylan shook his head in disgust as he watched them mount their horses and head out for the next waypoint.
“I can’t believe he just said that,” Dylan said to Leeman.
Leeman’s expression was bleak. “When you’ve seen what goes on at the castle, you’ll know why they’re so scared. We have to find Ginny before they take her there.”
After the horses were secured behind the small hill, Aspen peeked her head over the top of the knoll to watch the tunnel below. They waited for another two minutes before the sky darkened and once again, Chancellors spilled out of the opening in the ground. It was a sight to behold. So many creatures appeared with pale faces and pitch-black eyes—completely devoid of emotion—and her nose wrinkled at the sickly sweet smell in the air.
Suddenly, a group of Chancellors pulled a limp body with long blond hair from the tunnel.
Leeman ran toward them and the rest of the team followed. They aimed blue balls of energy at the three Chancellors closest to Ginny. Aspen winced as Ginny opened her eyes and lifted her head. Her face was filthy and her arms were covered in cuts and bruises, but her jaw was gritted with determination. A long rope was wrapped around her arms and waist, and the Chancellors used it to drag her back into the hole. She struggled and wedged her feet apart so they couldn’t pull her into the tunnel.
“Shoot them!” Leeman shouted. “Don’t let them take her.”
That was exactly what Aspen had been waiting for, and she stood up to fire power balls at the Chancellors surrounding the hole. She didn’t want to harm Ginny, so she aimed for the creatures a few feet away from her. A tingling rose from her toes and burned through her veins, all the way up into the rest of her body.
Once the feeling had completely swamped her limbs, she rose up and within seconds, hovered about two feet from the ground. With a cry, she raised her hands and hurled blast after blast at the Chancellors. Huge holes exploded in the earth around her and about thirty Chancellors disappeared in a haze of smoke. The remaining Chancellors stood around Ginny and enveloped themselves in a force field. A bubble of energy surrounded them and none of the power balls could touch them.
She was about to aim for the shimmering globe when Dylan shouted at her.
“No, Aspen. Your blasts are too strong. You’ll destroy Ginny.”