Island Shifters: Book 01 - An Oath of the Blood (14 page)

For Beck, time and motion suddenly slowed and his feet rooted in place as he looked from scene to terrifying scene. Earthshifters with little magic to call forth were on the ground taking on the larger invaders in a physical fight to the death. Bodyshifters were summoning their fiercest forms to tear at the trespassers with sharp teeth and claws.

In time that felt mired in thick syrup, Beck struggled to turn his head to the left and saw that Rogan was still battling the fire monster, muscles straining and arms and face blistered by the alien flames. Farther down the platform, Beck finally found Commander Dismore. He was lying face up, with his eyes open and a hole in his chest where a ball of fire slammed into him.

For the first time in three hundred years, the security at The Crown Bluffs was breached. Legionnaires were dying. Young men Beck’s age, most of whom had grown up in Parsis and attended the Academy with him.

Dead.

His friends.

Through the haze, Beck faintly heard Rory crying out to him from the stairs several feet below. “Lieutenant! We need help!”

Beck fought to turn his head to look over once again at his best friend. Rogan continued his solitary fight, breaking down the monster with every mighty swing he took. He was the last one standing on the cliff now and if Beck left him, he would be utterly alone.

Rogan must have sensed his hesitation, because he immediately turned to him and screamed, “Go, Beck, I’ve got this!”

Rogan’s words brought time slamming back into place and Beck’s body jerked in reaction. That was when he remembered that Kiernan was down there somewhere. Shaking his head, he nodded to Rogan and ran down the steps, passing Rory on his headlong flight into the fight.

The first person he saw as he leapt from the stairs was Airron. The Elf was sprinting, the air shimmering around him as he raced to reach Jon Anders who was locked in mortal combat with one of the giants. By the look of the creature’s open wounds, Jon had put up a good fight but the earthshifter now had his back up against the cliff wall. He was leaning into it in exhaustion, sword point dropping to the ground.

The invader grinned and made an aggressive maneuver toward Jon.

Behind him, Airron sprang and shifted mid-air into one of the great black wolves of the Grayan Forest, sailing onto the creature’s back and digging his claws into its body. The thing bellowed in pain and twisted around to grab at the wolf clinging to its broad shoulders. The distraction provided Jon the opportunity he needed, and he took it, shoving his sword into the single eye of his combatant. The creature fell over dead, and the wolf jumped free of the falling enemy and grinned.

“We have to get out of here…. Lieutenant,” said Jon to Beck, tiredly. “We are no match against these invaders, and we have to save those still alive.”

Beck nodded. “How many have we lost?”

“Over half,” said Jon.

He was right. Retreat was the only viable option at this point. Beck approached the wolf. “Where’s Kiernan? Have you seen her?” The black wolf shook his head and then loped away, hopefully, to find her.

“Anders, I have to go back for Rogan. Gather up the legionnaires and meet me at the top of the valley where we first arrived.”

The blonde earthshifter nodded. “Retreat!” he yelled, running through the melee. “Retreat!”

Beck studied the battlefield and at the same time held out his arms and shifted the earth. The dirt and stones ran up and over his body in a wave creating an earthen suit of armor. When he was finished, he had a two-inch layer of stone covering every part of his body except his eyes. “Kiernan!” he shouted over the screams of battle. “Kiernan!”

He spotted a small, hooded legionnaire near the barracks fighting one of the monsters. The legionnaire was an expert swordsperson, and Beck knew it was Kiernan even before the hood slipped off her head and revealed her blonde hair. Howling with rage, he started to charge toward her when one of the invaders struck him from behind. He fell into the dirt and looked up just in time to roll to the side and avoid a powerful two-handed blow. Beck put his hands underneath him and summoned the earth to lift him to his feet effortlessly. With his feet now planted squarely underneath him, he swung a mighty fist of stone at his foe and knocked him several feet into the air and up against the cliff wall, dead.

Another challenger rushed him and Beck ducked under his grasp and took him down at the knees. He then lifted the giant by one arm and one leg and swung him around with all of his super strength before letting him go and sending the creature sailing into what was once Dismore’s quarters, caving in one wall. Looking for Kiernan again, he was relieved to see Bajan at her side, the creature she had been fighting unmoving on the ground.

Starting toward her once again, he was knocked to the ground by a large explosion that rocked the morning air. He looked up at a sky littered with tiny sparks of fire, and the deadly embers fell down onto the rooftops of the buildings in the camp and started to take hold.

Rogan ran down the stone steps yelling, “I got it! Let’s get out of here!”

Distracted, Beck did not notice one of the creatures standing over him until it was holding a Northwatch Legion sword at his eye—the only visible breach in his earthen armor. Beck flinched in shock when the thing spoke to him.

“Do not move,” the giant commanded.

Beck looked up at the huge form and was quickly calculating how to shift the earth just enough so that the sword point did not penetrate his brain, when he saw something in the creature’s eye that surprised him.

It was indecision.

Abruptly, the creature swung his head up, paused, and then threw down his weapon. Beck scrambled out from under him and followed the monster’s gaze.

There was Kiernan, barely able to stand upright, leaning on her sword. Like the rest of them, she had been fighting for her life.

“Kiernan!” Beck shouted in relief, getting to his feet and allowing the armor of stone and dirt to slide off him. She stumbled over to him and into his arms.

Nothing had ever felt so good to him in his life.

“We have to get out of here,” she said, green eyes worried.

“I know,” he said and reached out to wipe a smudge of dirt from under her eye. “You go. I have to make sure we get everyone out safely. I will catch up with you. Just go!”

“No need, Beck,” said Airron, who had rejoined them. “There is no one else. It is just us.”

Beck stared at him uncomprehendingly. “What do you mean?” he asked looking around and realizing how eerily quiet it suddenly seemed. Dead bodies, human and creature alike, were strewn across the encampment. “Hell,” he whispered under his breath. “Where is Anders? I sent Anders to round everyone up!”

“Over there,” pointed Airron to Jon’s corpse. There he was, blonde curls matted with blood and lying face down with his own sword through his back.

Beck was dazed. All of the legionnaires and the first wave of attackers were dead.

Kiernan squeezed his arm.

“The entire Legion gone?” Beck muttered, running a hand through his hair as he continued to survey the area in disbelief.

The buildings were engulfed in flames now.

“Just the four of us left standing, and we do not have time for discussion,” replied Airron, pointing toward the channel. “That fireshifter in black will be sending more troops in any moment.”

Rogan looked at the mindshifted invader and thrust his thumb out. “What about him?”

Beck thought for a moment. “We take him with us,” he growled. “I want to learn more about why they are here and what their plans are. Can you keep him under your control, Kiernan?”

She nodded and looked over at the creature, and he tilted his head to the side as he processed the telepathic thought she deftly inserted. Then, he turned and walked away from them.

“What did you do?”

“I told him to hurry and saddle five horses for us.”

“Just tell him four,” said Beck, as he put a finger and thumb in his mouth to whistle.

Within seconds, Chasin’s shiny black head appeared from the top of the valley and he raced down the hill toward Beck’s call. Beck ran out to meet the horse and swung up into the saddle. About to head back to the others, he heard a faint noise. It sounded like a cry for help.

Abruptly, he hauled on Chasin’s reins and kicked the horse into action. Cantering over to where he thought he heard the wail, he dismounted quickly when he saw a small hand waving from under a much larger body. Beck shoved the dead man aside and there was Rory Greeley, bleeding from a gash on his head, but otherwise unhurt.

Beck held out his hand, and the small voice said “Thank you, sir. I knew you wouldn’t leave me.”

He smiled grimly and helped Rory up and onto Chasin. “No, I would not, Rory. Not if I could help it.”

The enemy prisoner was returning with the mounts when Beck and Rory joined the others. Everyone was overjoyed to discover that another of the Legion had survived. “Now, we
do
need another horse,” said Rogan.

“He can have mine,” said Airron, disrobing and stuffing his clothes into his pack. He threw it to Rogan when he was finished and shifted into a white stallion, arrogantly rearing up on his hind legs to paw at the air.

The five riders and six horses sped away up the crest of the hill and then turned for one last look at the valley and the generations-old Northwatch Legion encampment.

This time, they saw not the beauty of the bluffs, the waterfalls and the blue lake that they admired less than a day ago, but the smoldering fires of ruin and an unknown enemy swarming mercilessly over the land held by their forefathers for three hundred years.

Hundreds of companies of the Legion, thousands of men.

Troop 158 would be the last.

Chapter 9

F
RIEND OR
F
OE
?

T
he sun was directly overhead before Beck slowed their hurried flight south towards Galen’s Pass. Up to that point, Kiernan had managed to maintain a steady stream of shifting to the prisoner, but he could see that she was tiring of the effort. Realizing how hard it was for her to concentrate on her magic while fleeing for her life, Beck finally called a stop.

He swung a leg over Chasin and dismounted before the big horse had a chance to come to a full stop. Quickly rushing to Kiernan, he reached up to wrap his hands around her waist and helped her down. “Are you all right?” he asked worriedly, staring intently into her tired eyes.

“I’m fine,” she said with a small smile.

“Liar. Tell me, how long can you keep this up?” he asked, nodding toward their captive.

She sighed. “Hours, if I have the ability to concentrate because the link requires periodic mental reinforcement.”

Beck was impressed. He knew that for most mindshifters, a thought shifted to another person lasted for just a few moments. “And the shifted person cannot discard the thoughts you give them and act on their own, correct?”

She shook her head and a strand of blonde hair tumbled over one eye. Beck used a finger to tuck the unruly tress back behind her ear. “No. Once I have established a connection, the receiver of the magic is blocked from having any independent thoughts during that time and is powerless to counter the directive of the simulated thought.”

“Does the receiver know what is happening?” he asked. At the Academy, students concentrated on developing their own individual metamagic with the other forms of shifting covered in a very superficial manner only. There was no need for more since the magic users of Pyraan never exhibited aptitude in more than one ability.

“Normally, no, because the shifting takes place so fast that the receiver just treats the foreign thought as one of their own. Again, with me, because I can cause such a large span of time to be under my control, people familiar with magic would know a mindshifter was involved.” She nodded her head to their catatonic captive. “Even without the knowledge of magic, this one will know that something untoward has happened because he will end up miles from where he last was and a prisoner of war no less. My shifting also leaves people a little unsteady, but this usually clears up quickly.”

As if on cue, they both turned when they heard the captive moan with his head in his hands. “He is becoming free of my magic. Should I shift him again?” she asked wearily.