Instead, he felt at peace. He had been through and seen so much. This time, he wasn’t just fighting for survival or to find some unknown weapon. He was fighting for Jarrett. He was fighting for home. There was no room for fear. His duty was more important.
A large door was set into the wall a few feet to his left, twenty feet tall and made of thick, riveted steel the color of old blood. Maybe it was old blood. How the hell was he going to get in there? Not for the first time, he wished he was attuned to Air, if only so he could fly. It would have made this so much easier.
He looked behind him, to the blank snow that swept against cars and coated everything a perfect, unbroken white. The fact that he was well-concealed was actually a hindrance. Well, that was easily changed.
He opened to Earth.
It began as a tremor, then a crack that struck through the air like a gunshot, like ice breaking in the Arctic. With one great tug, he pulled at the steel rods and concrete of the road. It reared from the ground like a serpent, the cracks and metallic screeches of its movements making Tenn’s teeth clench. The concrete viper twisted. He pulled it higher, made it arc overhead, its mass raining mists of snow and gravel hail. Its silhouette blotted out the stars above him. He moved it like a marionette, his fingers twisting as he worked his magic. And then, with a roar that sounded like the heavens falling, he crashed the great weight into the wall.
The structure gave immediately.
Large chunks of earth and steel collapsed as he let his hold on Earth vanish. The road collapsed on the wall, sent the whole chunk crumbling in a plume of ash and snow. Earth rumbled hungrily in his stomach and his body shook hard enough to bring him to his knees. When he forced himself to standing, his skin cracked and his scalp tingled; he didn’t rub his hair, for fear what would fall out. It had been too much magic, but it was too late for that worry now.
In a few hours, the twins would begin their attack, and he wanted this place to be in as much of a disheveled panic as possible before then. If that hadn’t gotten the town’s attention, nothing would. It would also make for an easy escape for the civilians.
Sure enough, only moments passed before he heard the first inhuman cries. Monsters swarmed over the felled wall, swelling into the otherwise-quiet night like a plague. Tenn pressed himself closer to the wall, didn’t dare to breathe. Thousands of kravens flooded into the landscape. They ran toward the remaining highway, spread out toward the mountains. Tenn prayed the twins had stayed inside the circle. A huddle of kravens ran past him, so close he could have reached out and touched the decaying gray flesh. Their jaws drooled saliva and congealed blood, their teeth broken, their bloodshot eyes and sagging nostrils seeking out whoever had done this. Here he was, inches away from the monsters that had once made his hair stand on end. And they didn’t even see him. He shot a pulse of Earth at the ground beneath a creature’s feet, made it stagger. It fell, and he watched as the other kravens piled on top of it. The sound of ripping flesh filled the air, along with a putrid scent he didn’t want to place.
Damn cannibals.
When the tide of kravens began to lessen, he edged along the opening and slipped into the town.
Guards huddled in a tight circle near the entrance, a few pointing at the wall and yelling. Tenn stayed far away, but he didn’t need to be close to hear the anger in their voices. What do you mean you couldn’t sense any magic? he could imagine them screaming.
Don’t worry, he thought as he began racing through the streets. Leanna will be dead before you can be held responsible.
The place must have been a skiing village before Leanna turned it into her own personal prison and sweatshop. The buildings that lined the street had high A-framed roofs and Swiss latticework hanging from the eaves. Dead strings of lights still twined over the roofs and empty windows. In spite of the smoke rising over the city, no fires burned within these dwellings. Tenn could sense the people crowded inside, twenty or more to a house, all huddled together to stay warm. A few faces peeked timidly through the windows, drawn by the commotion outside, but not one of those gaunt figures stepped out. Tenn couldn’t blame them. Kravens and necromancers roved the streets. He had no doubt that the citizens were only safe within their hovels, and even that wasn’t guaranteed.
He ran straight up the main street.
The pedestal of earth towered above the center of the town, the chateau atop it glowing white with electricity. The closer he got, the nicer the houses looked. Smoke came from a few of these chimneys, smoke that didn’t smell like coal or burning flesh. Wood smoke. If he closed his eyes and ignored the monsters running past him, he could have pretended he was camping in the woods, snow piling around his ankles... His eyes snapped open. The snow. He looked behind him, his heart hammering stupid stupid stupid, but the snow here was churned to hell and stained with dirt and...other things. Although his feet were making imprints, they were impossible to see in the churned-up muck. He sighed in relief. He might be invisible, but even a dumb kraven would notice footprints without a foot.
In minutes, he stood at the base of the earthen pedestal. It rose a good ten stories into the air, the sides sheer and glinting like granite. He considered what it would be like having to scale the thing—not impossible, not with the strength of Earth, but not something he wanted to try—when he heard the clomp of boots to his right. He followed the noise and found a ramp cut into the side of the mound. Guards ran down in tight formation. They wore armor and, of all things, carried assault rifles. The sight made him hesitate. Not out of fear—it was more the shock of seeing someone actually using a gun. Unless the guards had imbued each bullet with their own magic or blood, any mage could turn the projectiles against them.