Vantra attempted to avoid the attack, but the flames burned across the shield and leapt high from the surface, eating into the magic and producing ash that showered down the sides, marring her view. She heard the thmp thmp thmp of another spintop volley, distracting her.
She needed to focus. If she did not, who knew what would happen to the others?
She hit beings—or maybe a building, she could not tell through the rain of grey powder. Angry shouts she did not understand echoed around her as the barrier gave way, and she veered to avoid whoever made them. The side of the shield scraped against a wall, pieces of stone raining down and adding to the thuds of arrows and spears.
A towering shadow darkened the way in front, and she turned left to elude it. The corrupted roots sank into the protection. They did not last long; the flicker of black fire blazed past them as it crossed the exterior of the shield, and they exploded at the touch.
She reached for the ziptrail but still could not touch it.
The flames produced caustic clouds that ate the Light magic, and they took on a deep green glow, powered by the energy they consumed. She had a bad feeling about that, but did not know enough about the spell to even guess why.
The air vibrated, and Vantra felt her essence quiver in turn. The shield rose off the ground, and she squawked as the forward momentum stalled. Below her feet were dozens of roots, their ends curled into circles, and combined, they created a platform that lifted them up. Darkness attacks burned them to clumps of ash, but other roots replaced them as soon as the previous ones fell apart. She saw flashes of grey strike beneath her feet; spear tips? Arrows?
Why wasn’t the shield moving anymore? She looked over her shoulder, but nothing seemed amiss in the magic push; the defense should react like a ghostly essence, floating forward under the pressure of released energy at the back. They needed a punch to get them off the roots, and she had no idea how to form one.
“Lorgan—”
“I know.” He sounded distracted. “Just keep going. Something’s happening, and we need to get out of here.”
And how was she supposed to do that?
Black flames licked the shield, and a steady thrum of spintop attack against the right side made her flinch. They were not going to escape.
No. She could do this. She could. Her mind raced, focused on how she rode the Clear Rays magic in the Snake’s Den. Could she use that as a punch to get them moving forward?
Not that she had many options. She squeezed her eyes shut and cast the spell.
She eeped as the shield sailed off the roots, spinning. The other ghosts, who floated in the middle, were not affected, but she, holding onto the inside layer, rotated along with it. They hit several somethings that collapsed onto the shielding and bounced off; they needed to get to the ziptrail before the protections broke under the multi-assault strain. She sent thin tendrils of magic searching for the ziptrail, having no sense of where they were, and brushed against its edge. She scratched at it, but the jostling took her out of reach.
Thmp thmp thmp.
The shields broke, brilliant wisps flying into grey clouds burbling with black flame and dark green corruption. Vantra continued along her trajectory, flailing, as flashes of light from the left coincided with bullets tearing through her Ether form, taking energy with them. Black fire roared high, forming walls and curving into a sphere, but before it sealed at the top, another Light shield zipped into place, leaving her outside it. She tried to snag it with her fingers, but she traveled too far away. A length of thread shot from the shard and embedded in the shield; she could tow it.
The flames fell away as another volley from the spintops obliterated them; the enemy did not have a cohesive attack, did they? Hopefully that gave her enough time. She reached for the ziptrail, a finger-length closer than previous, and sank her Touch into it, clawing forward. Closer, closer . . .
The shield bumped in the opposite direction, dragging her away from her target. Her Touch stretched. She sucked energy from the shard, thickening the connection just enough.
They shot down the line and entered the ziptrail.
Vantra choked. The corruption of the exterior forest had infiltrated the ryiam within the trail, and it felt as if she moved through resin. Tacky stuff stuck to her and the shields, bits and pieces of essence breaking away as they flowed past. The interior had a steadier stream, but even then, it did not proceed with the vigor she associated with zip-fast travel.
Clear Rays burst from her in response to her disgust. The resin cracked and disintegrated; the ryiam, free, surged through, carrying them at a faster pace. She avoided larger chunks of corruption sitting like bulky rocks in the trail, but could not yank the shield away fast enough; it bounced off them, taking far more than a few layers. They could not hit many before the entire protection went down, which would be fine for ghosts, not so fine for Kenosera and Yut-ta.
Vantra screamed as something punched up. The shield careened out of the ziptrail, towing her along with it, leaving behind sparkling trails of ryiam. The strike did not have the sense of raw magic, but of corrupted forest.
A shadow whooshed across from the right, and it struck the shields. They broke, and Vantra, caught by the wind, flipped through the air, dark and light spinning around her. She smacked into something that she could not phase through and flumped to the dusty ground. She rolled, her senses screaming at her, but she could neither see nor sense what scared her. Perhaps it was the feel of the atmosphere; heavy with water and disgusted anger.
She floated up, checked the shard—still whole—and searched for the others, seeing no one. They’d all scattered? What happened to Kenosera, Yut-ta? Had Kjaelle and Janny cushioned their fall? Fear for their safety choked her. She spun, calling for them, but only saw torches wrapped in oil cloths producing fierce orange flames that kept the tainted foliage lining the road at bay.
The enemy must use the road, or they would not light it otherwise. Were they nearby? If so, should she continue to call out? That would alert them to her presence, so not a good idea. Unlike Jare or Mica, she was not a fighter, and she doubted that Clear Rays or Retravigance would give her the punch she needed to defeat a powerful opponent.
Gusts forced her into Physical Form; the caress of wind felt odd, as if it carried more than dust particles and bits of leaves with it. She touched her outer essence; oil coated her fingertips. Rubbing the stuff between her pads produced small brown balls, and she wiped them on a nearby plant to rid herself of the sticky stuff. The leaf wilted around the substance.
She stared, then turned Ether, letting the gunk fall through her, and spun a shield around her before the wind could tear her essence apart. She did not want to waste more energy on defense, but she did not have a choice. Whatever saturated the air reminded her too much of the stuff that fell with the rain in Selaserat, and that messed with ghosts and their ability to use magic.
The wind caught her shield, and she sank Sun-touched hooks into the dirt to keep from tumbling into the plants; she did not trust the forest there, not with Kjiven as caretaker. When it dwindled, she thought she heard shouting—Kenosera? He sounded uphill from her. Firming her lips, she surged forward—and bounced back.
What?
She reached out; her Touch slid along an invisible barrier. She had never seen the like, had thought such things a storyteller’s fancy. She could not sail over it due to the wind. How was she going to get through?
The gusts picked up again, and passed through without difficulty, carrying dust and stray bits of leaf litter. The shouting rose in volume—she definitely recognized Yut-ta. His anger and panic struck her. She had to get to them!
She popped into Physical Touch, dropped her shields, and passed through the barrier.
A weight descended, something magic-born, something that blanketed her essence and interfered with her drawing power from it. Could she even use Retravigance or Clear Rays?
No time to ponder it; she focused on shielding, pulling too much energy from the shard to form one. How was she going to keep it up? Ignoring what might happen if it failed, she floated to the corner and looked uphill. Kenosera clenched Yut-ta’s left arm in both his hands while the hooskine used the other to stab at roots that had wrapped themselves around the nomad and tried to pull him into the undergrowth. Black wafted from each hole, surrounding them in a foul mist.
She drew on Retravigance; nothing. It was as if she cupped her hands in a water sack and withdrew them, empty. No flashy thrown spell, then; she needed to get closer and touch them. Sucking power from the shard, she sped to them, then slapped the thick root squeezing Kenosera’s waist.
“RETRAVIGANCE!”
The corrupted plants caught fire, and the roots jerked back, dropping the nomad. Yut-ta dragged him from the flaming foliage; he left a trail of dark oil behind. The hooskine bent over, then nodded, and they both chanted the words she used to free Kenosera of Rezenarza’s touch. The oil shrank away from them and oozed back into the shadows, shuddering like pudding.
She swatted at the flora, and it retreated further, then backed up, eyeing the shadows and hoping the roots did not burst through the fire. Her resources dwindled, and she needed energy for the citadel. The back of her foot hit Kenosera’s leg, and she turned to slip her arms around them. Clear Rays entered them through the Touch. Any remaining nastiness burned with Sun; the shard added an extra punch to clean the weapon, causing both to twitch.
“You’re Sun is potent,” the hooskine said, pulling away and rubbing at his shoulder. “I thought Lokjac or your mother had the strongest Sun magic I’d ever seen, but I think you surpass them.”
“Maybe with Clear Rays, but I don’t know a lot about magic, just the few spells I thought might be handy.” She doubted the claim; how could she, a human without much spellcasting experience, outperform a seasoned priestess and elfine whizan? “I’m glad it’s still that potent, though; there’s a spell here messing with my castings.”
“You underestimate yourself,” Kenosera wheezed. She and Yut-ta helped him stand, and he bent over, hands on his knees, arms trembling.
“Kenosera?” she asked, worried, setting her hand on his back. Did he need more Clear Rays?
“I will be fine,” he whispered. “It is a latent fear reaction.” He shuddered. “The trees are . . .”
“Yeah.” She surrounded them with layer upon layer of Sun-touched protection, aided by the shard. The glare hurt her perception, and she touched her head, realizing she no longer wore the Darkness helmet. When had that disappeared? She dampened the glow so they could see without squinting. “What happened to Kjaelle and Janny?”
“We don’t know,” Yut-ta said, peering up the road, uneasy. “Something yanked us from them when we popped out of the ziptrail and flung us away. I managed to grab Kenosera and land us without much hurt.” He ruffled his wings to prove that, even if he could not fly, he could use them to cushion a landing. “Do you think Kjaelle—”
“No,” Kenosera said. “If she perished, we’d be swimming in Katta’s wrath right now.”
True enough. “Is this where you landed?”
“Yeah,” Yut-ta said. “We haven’t seen anyone else.”
“They weren’t on the road coming up. There was a shield, one that kept my Ether form from going through it. They might have struck that and tried to go around, because the wind would prevent them from flying over the top.” Worry pounded through Vantra, and she fought to keep it under control. Panic would not help them. Clutching the shard close, she peered around; contaminated foliage and torches, nothing more.
“Kjivendei is on top of a mountain,” Kenosera said quietly, gazing above the treetops. Light marred the darkness, and she wondered how many torches they used to get the intense glow. “We must have nearly reached it before we were struck from the ziptrail.”
“That would explain the torches.” Yut-ta pointed at the flames. “The Wiiv and their allies need something to keep them safe from the corruption defending the place.”
Kenosera nodded. “It looks like the citadels is drenched in this light.”
“Followers would do Kjiven no good if they died,” Yut-ta said.
Vantra’s essence prickled, and she disliked the sensation. “Kenosera, can you walk?” He nodded and straightened, then glanced behind them. “Don’t worry, I’ll take back.” The brave proclamation scared her, and she reminded herself that her mother would not hesitate to do the same.
“Do you want to continue to the citadel or look for the others?” Yut-ta asked.
“I don’t know.” A leader would know what to do, and she did not. Agitation and uncertainty bit into her, her fear providing a hearty meal. “Well, we’re going to have to walk on the road in either case, because the forest wants to eat us.”
Kenosera shuddered, and she regretted her words.
“Yeah, we need to stick to the road,” Yut-ta agreed. “We might as well head for the citadel, then. It’s the place we wanted to reach, and hopefully we can regroup there.”
“The enemy will be there,” Kenosera muttered.
“You want to chance the side of the road to hide?”
His silence answered the question.
