When the General reached the edge of the clump of trees, he gestured to the men behind him. They disappeared among the trunks, moving silently as they took possession of the only significant shelter between the lake and the settlement.
I stopped completely, and the man behind me grabbed my elbow, roughly shoving me toward Renley who stood by the closest tree, frowning back in our direction. Our eyes met, the concern reflecting back between us.
Had the General truly believed I was now loyal to his cause to the point of attacking a group of people come to rescue me? Or was my inclusion in the group a sign of his confidence in his victory?
He must think I was no danger to him, weaponless and without my ability.
Without thinking it through further, I sucked in a deep breath and screamed, the sound piercing the quiet morning.
An angry shout from the General echoed my cry, and sound and movement erupted from the far side of the trees. I wrenched my arm free of the man beside me and plunged into the trees. The canopy was denser than it should have been, and something that looked terrifyingly like an enormous spider lowered itself toward me.
I put both arms over my head protectively and charged forward, doing my best to ignore everything around me. It sounded like Renley had tackled the raider I’d just escaped, preventing him from going after me, but I didn’t look back.
The trees around me groaned and creaked, the branches above me rustling loudly. I burst out from among them, straight into the face of a gale force wind. I screamed again, but this time the sound was snatched away from me.
I swayed, trying to catch my balance just as the wind whipped in the other direction, spinning its way into a tornado. It swept past me with such force that I felt myself being tugged upward.
Before I could actually leave the ground, however, something lashed up from the dirt, twisting around my ankle and anchoring me in place. I looked down to see a green vine twined around each leg. The dirt beneath me shifted, covering over both feet and securing me to the ground.
The wind howled, gathering fury and making me glad for the restraints that held me in place. I strained to see past the dust that had been lifted into the air, trying to identify the combatants.
Zeke caught my eye first, his gaze trained on his own feet which were slowly sinking into the ground. When he finished securing himself in the same manner as me, he looked up. When he caught me watching him, he winked.
So he was responsible for keeping me from being sucked away into the vortex. I appreciated his efforts, but I hadn’t expected to see him here. For all his natural power, he was still an apprentice. Surely the Tartorans had sent experienced fighters.
The whipping wind moved slightly, revealing Gia and just beyond her Nikolas. My stomach seized. There was no way King Marius would have sent his two children on an elite rescue mission. Which meant this was an unsanctioned expedition, not a selection of the Guild’s most talented mages.
A garbled scream gave me warning to duck as the wind whipped a flailing raider past my head. A moment later it spit him out, a sickening thud sounding as he hit the ground.
I looked behind me, scanning for any sign of Renley, but he hadn’t emerged from the trees. As I twisted back toward the lake, the wind suddenly cut off.
The deafening stillness revealed the General standing menacingly in the center of the destruction, facing off against a figure so familiar it made my heart twist inside my chest. Evermund.
I tried to pull free of the vines and dirt clinging to my feet to run to him, but they held me firm. Looking desperately toward Zeke, I caught his eye and gestured toward them. He nodded, and the vines instantly let me go, the ground pushing me gently upward.
While I waited impatiently, a much larger vine, this one covered in thorns, erupted from the earth beside Evermund and lashed toward him. Just before it made contact, however, it burst into flames and crumbled into ash.
My feet released, but I hesitated. My frustrated grip closed around the neutralizer. If I ran to Evermund, I would just distract him. I could do nothing to help in such a battle.
Instead, I scanned the rest of the rolling plain that stretched from the trees down to the lake. Lawson stood within the shadow of the trees, his eyes fixed on Evermund as two more thorny vines pushed free of the dirt.
I raced over to Zeke, grabbing his arm and pointing to Lawson.
“It’s him,” I said. “And he’s the one who attacked you in the Guild, too.”
Zeke’s brows drew together, and the ground beneath Lawson shuddered and cracked. His concentration was shattered, and the vines lashing at Evermund dropped to the ground. At least one of them had made contact, though, from the red that streaked its thorns.
Lawson turned toward us with a growl, and I backed away from Zeke. Once again, I was worse than useless, a dead weight needing protection.
But Nikolas stepped into my line of sight, moving toward Lawson from the other side, his eyes darting between Zeke and the raider mage. Lawson, his focus still on Zeke, stepped sideways, his foot slipping on a sudden crater that formed in the earth behind him.
Zeke and Nikolas stepped toward him in unison, closing from both sides. I turned away, still looking for the one familiar face I both wanted and dreaded seeing.
Instead, I found Gia. She stood further toward the lake, in the direction Nikolas had come from, her attention on her brother’s battle.
Two raiders stepped out of the trees behind her. I tried to shout a warning, but she was beyond my reach. Catching her by surprise, they seized her by both arms.
She responded with fury instead of fear, however. Tongues of flame sprouted from the raiders’ clothing, and both of them let her go, shouting in alarm. I grinned, my gaze traveling on.
If Zeke, and Nikolas, and Gia were here, then surely…
There. I breathed a sharp breath in and out. Cadence.
My sister had come for me.
Chapter 26
Airlie
The paralysis of uncertainty that had been keeping me stationary disappeared, and I flew across the distance between us. She turned in time to see me just before I collided with her.
“Airlie!” she screamed, wrapping her arms around me just as I did the same to her.
“What are you doing here?” Tears ran down my cheeks unheeded. “You’re going to get yourself killed.”
“No, I’m not.” Her face had a determination I didn’t recognize, her eyes gleaming with a new look of confidence and experience. “You’re not the only one with power now, big sister.”
“NO!” I screamed, pushing her so hard she fell into the dirt, hopefully breaking her concentration before she could call on her ability.
“What are you doing?” She scrambled up again, glaring at me. “I’m not going to let us all get killed, Airlie.”
“And I’m not letting you kill yourself saving us. You can’t use the wild power, Cadie. Promise me you won’t.”
“Wild power?” She frowned. “You mean the tainted power? I can take the pain, Air.”
The whoosh and crackle of flames made us both look behind me. My face paled as I saw the column of bright flame where Evermund had been standing.
A cloud appeared over his head, dumping a deluge of water that quenched the flames. I drew in a shaky breath as he appeared, his clothes partially ash, the rest marred with long, bloody rips. But he was still standing, facing the General with the same determined expression as before.