Labyrinth Wall (9780991531219) (27 page)

Gradually, the rest of the group joins us in hiding. Darith drags Rase along, the last of our companions to join us behind the bushes.

“Explain.” Soll points at the floating rock.

Her eyes are big with marvel, but not shock.

“Well?” I say.

“You don’t stand a chance.” She almost sounds worried. “They’ll never let you go. If it takes all the power of the Creators to keep you here, then so be it.”

What a typical end-of-the-world response for her. It’s not worth it. We’re here now. We’ve got to try for the wall.

“Why is it like that though?” Keelie’s curious too.

Rase’s eyes soften landing on her. “It’s magic, Keelie. It’s all magic, and you can’t run away from it. There’s no escaping.”

“Watch us.” I extract the Buyu spike from my bag. This thing makes no sense. It’s a little scary, but it’s amazing at the same time. It could backfire, but it could save us. Despite my hesitations, we need it to get through the wall.

Probably sensing my uneasy handling of the spike, Korun encourages me, “You can do this, Araina.”

“All right,” Soll instructs, pointing to the area of the field he wants lit. “Over there.”

It’s almost painful to light the one beautiful place in the labyrinth on fire, but it has to be done. Inhaling heavily, I aim the spike off into the field adjacent to the guards. My eyes close, refusing to watch. My hand plunges inside, waiting for the thing’s tight grip. The sensation of its attachment is so odd, like the grasp of a handshake. As it thrusts on, orange fire shoots out its tip ferociously. The flames feed off the grass, setting the field ablaze in an instant.

Jerking the spike back off my hand, I observe the guards anxiously. After about five minutes of the fire growing and smoke thickening in the air, the guards finally begin to shout. Many of them run toward it.

We utilize the distraction to transition into other bushes along the wall, inching our way toward our destination.

“Where did it come from?” the guards yell frantically as they scatter. Some run back toward the castle as others head for the pool of water where we exited. Perhaps they think filling their personal canisters will do some good but the fire’s too far spread for that.

We’re very near our exit now and still haven’t been seen. Our location is only about twenty feet from the wall, and there’s no closer cover to which we can run.

At this point, there are only ten guards still posted by the wall. We’re slightly outnumbered, but the spike gives us an advantage.

“Now, don’t set those guards on fire yet, Araina,” Soll tells me quietly. “We need to fight our way past them first. If you light them up now, we risk setting the grass around them on fire, cutting ourselves off from the wall.”

He’s right. We’ll have to face them hand to hand before the spike can even be used.

Before we begin our attack, we survey the field and the other guards one more time. It looks like the others are sufficiently distracted with the growing flames, threatening to quench their lives.

I’ve got to do something with Rase. “Someone is going to have to watch her,” I tell my companions. “I need to be able to fight and use the spike when the time comes. I can’t do all that and worry about her at the same time.” I hold up her ropes, offering her to Vickon. He’s the best choice for the job. We gave him a sword from one of the guards at the river, but he doesn’t know how to wield it proficiently.

“I can help fight,” he offers hopefully with a big heart.

“We need someone to watch her,” Korun backs me up. “Someone strong enough to keep control of her.”

He nods willingly as he accepts the ropes I’ve offered him. At his size, she can’t overtake him.

“Keep your hand on that sword. Don’t let her mess with you or get away. We need her to get us through that wall.”

“I know.”

“Follow us. Try to stay out of the way,” I tell him. “They don’t know she’s a Creator, so they’re likely to come after the both of you. Just stay behind us.”

“Don’t worry. I only wish I could do more to help, but if this is all I can do right now, I’m going to get it right.” Vickon smiles. He doesn’t specifically bring up his gratitude about what happened at the river, but it speaks in his eyes.

Getting fidgety and impatient with our constant talk, Darith ignites the attack. “Kill the guards or we might as well go jump in the fire,” he yells wildly as he charges out of the bushes.

Having been apart so long, I forgot how he tends to act then think. He’s running now, so the rest of us also take off, close behind him.

Keelie, Korun, and I utilize our arrows as we approach, shooting one guard down dead and injuring two others. Their bodies fall like rain drops, spilling to the ground.

Darith heads straight for the bulkiest guard. He sends a trident spear buzzing through the guard’s leg before he’s upon him. The guard is barely able to unsheathe his sword and deflect Darith’s first swing. Their swords continue to clash, and the huge guard seems only slightly set back by the spear lodged in his leg.

Meanwhile, Soll has been faring successfully against two guards, with his dual swords. The man is possibly the best fighter I’ve ever seen. He swoops at them hastily, comfortably fending off their attempted blows.

Keelie faces the guard she already shot in the arm. She never ceases to impress me. As weak as her small body is, she’s vicious with a whip. She wrangles the guard’s sword just as she begins to withdraw it then flings the weapon out into the field.

Korun has managed to take out his second guard with an arrow before even reaching the group. The guard I shot is now targeting Korun and moving fairly quickly, despite the seeping wound in his side. Approaching at an angle barely out of Korun’s view, the guard draws his sword for his attack. Unable to extract an arrow quick enough, I call out to warn Korun.

Korun dodges, catching what looks like a small gash to the back of his upper leg. Not even making a sound in pain, he’s turned around in an instant and dueling the guard. Axe crunched against sword, the two weapons meet a standstill. Their opponents are situated merely paces apart. The guard capitalizes on Korun’s wound, kicking his injury to gain the upper hand.

My legs charge at full speed, carrying me in his direction instinctively, as if I have to know I tried to save Korun, even though nothing else good might come from our efforts. I retrieve my dagger from its spot and launch it through the air. Rapidly spiraling, the weapon lands in the guard’s back, ripping like the massive tooth of a shark through its prey. Korun gains his footing as the guard staggers in agony.

As I work my way toward him, a loud thud sounds alarmingly close to me, catching my attention.

Laon’s large club has forcefully smacked into the face of a female guard who must’ve been after me, knocking her unconscious. Another guard sends a dagger at Laon’s hand, causing him to drop the club. The guard’s only about eight feet from him. He won’t have time to recover. It’s too soon to pull out the spike. My dagger is now on the ground, between Korun and the guard who has dislodged it from his back. Helplessness sinks inside me.

Saige has seen Laon’s distress. She launches the spear through the man’s chest. He collapses to the ground. Life drains from his eyes. Motion leaves him as if it had never existed.

By this time, there’s another guard upon me, his sword drawn and ready to kill. Breaking any proper rules of a fight, I spit in his eye, partially blinding him for a moment. Korun tosses me my dagger, nearly losing his life to his opponent in the process. The guard holds his sword strong as he swings at me, but I kick him breathless. I get a good stab at his arm.

Regardless of my efforts, he manages to gain the upper hand on me. Pushing me to my knees, he clenches my hand tightly, forcing the dagger out of my grasp. Deep hatred exudes from his pale eyes as he raises the sword above me. Pain, there’s going to be a lot of pain any second!

As I brace myself fearfully, warm blood sprays from his head across my face. Saige’s other spear has submerged into his head, and he falls over lifeless. A deep exhale escapes, and I regain my dagger. Keelie’s at my side before I’m done realizing I’m still alive, and she helps me to my feet.

I missed some of the details during my own encounters, but our entire group is still standing. Korun’s leg is injured. It looks like Laon took a fair hit too, but no one went down. Korun swiftly tends to Laon’s wound then tries to begin on his own. The healer emits intense focus as he holds his hands steadily over his leg. Nothing happens.

“What’s going on?” I ask him.

“Not sure,” he answers. A couple more minutes go by as he attempts to heal the wound on his own leg but has no success.

“You’re probably drained from helping Laon,” I offer.

“Could be, but we need to hurry.” He rips some material from his shirt and bandages his leg. “It’s not that bad. I’ll deal with it later.”

He might be able to deal with it later, but the realization that he may not be able to cure himself hits me like a dagger to the chest.

Chapter 28
Fire and Ice

“Now, Araina!” Soll disrupts my thoughts. “Use the spike!”

It’s hard to tear my eyes from the dead guards and burning field, but it’s necessary. Swallowing down bitter emotions, I remove the inky-looking shiny spike from my bag. Guards head our way from the castle now. Even some who had been trying to kill the fire caught sight of us. For a moment, I’m overwhelmed by their numbers. There may be sixty in all.

Having no time for hesitation, I set my aim onto the field. Quickly, my hand slides into the Buyu spike. A semicircle of flames closes in around us, about twenty or thirty feet from where we stand. Some guards are burned by my flames and still charge through to us, but most are forced to turn back.

Their bodies torched, four guards dash madly in our direction, screaming in pain. Korun shoots two of them, but the other two reach us too quickly.

Leaving the fighting to the others, Rase becomes my focus. “Thank you,” I tell Vickon, taking her ropes back and forcing her to the wall. “Get us through.” My voice is stern. “Or you die with us.” My head motions at the fire creeping toward us.

To my surprise, she doesn’t even make a sassy comment. “All I want is my clothing back,” she demands.

“What?” I choke out. The smoke is thickening around us.

“Otherwise they’ll kill me on first sight when I go back,” she answers, her brown eyes pleading. “Give me some guard clothes. You can all go first. Just let me have some guard clothes. Quickly!”

“I threw out my ruined guard clothes a while ago. I don’t have any to give you. We’re going to die!” My voice cracks as the flames angrily approach us.

Sweat trickles down her sooty cheeks, streaking her face. She motions her head at Darith.

“Damn it!” I scream and call out, “Darith, get over here!”

“How can I assist you ladies?” he asks in his cool manner, as if we aren’t about to be engulfed in flames.

“She wants your clothes.” I point at Rase. He starts to make some smart comment, but I cut him off “Now! We don’t have time.”

He might pretend to be immortal, but I’d rather try to avoid burning in the fire.

Everyone is with us at the wall now. The guards must all be dead.

“Laon, can he use your spare outfit?” I gesture at Darith.

Laon extracts the clothing without any inquiries and gives them to Darith. Darith removes the Creator clothing and tosses her his outfit. The swap goes quickly.

“So,” I tell Rase, “get us through!” My voice is shaky. The smoke burns our eyes as the fire quickly approaches. “Now!”

“I am, I am!” she whines back, feeling along the wall.

Everyone is coughing. It’s starting to look like this was all a mistake. Blue flutters beside me nervously, croaking at her loudest. She could easily fly away right now and escape this mess, but she stays beside me.

My heart can’t take it when I see the despair in Keelie’s eyes as she clings to Soll.

Probably about twelve feet away now, the bright orange flames are growing taller and wilder. It’s becoming difficult to even see my companions through the haze, though they stand only feet away.

“Come on,” I yell at Rase again even though she’s clearly trying. Panic mode is bringing out my temper.

“Okay.” She looks at me as she slides her fingers into a small crack “We’ve got it.” She smiles and whispers a phrase, “Segment two.”

The bottom of the wall begins to waver then ripple. As the waves spread upward, Vickon grabs Rase’s arm before she can run through. “They go first.” He points at us.

The flames are at our backs now. Laon and Darith dart through first, followed closely by Saige, Keelie, and Soll. I force Blue in. Then Korun pushes me through, holding my hand as we enter the strange liquid wall.

My hand clings to his. There is only black all around us, and I close my eyes instinctively. A cool feeling provides sudden relief from the scorching fumes behind me. Strangely, the sensation isn’t like liquid at all or any familiar substance. It feels almost as if we float through the wall. It’s not possible to propel my body in any direction or run at all. I have to wait patiently.