Mind Forged: Book One of the Enchanters of Xarparion (35 page)

He shook his head
. “None, I think they were the first tower to fall. Take out the heavy hitters first, you know.”

“
Yeah, I know. Sadly, I think many of them would have been good people without that corrupted Primus.”

Hons
nodded.

Maya strode over and interrupted
, “We need to hurry to the portal; we have less than ten minutes before the undead get here.”

“
You’re right.” He turned and shouted to the healers and earth wizards. “Let’s double time it, people!”

They rushed the rest of the way as Maya and I
helped clear the road. We made very good time as we rounded the corner to the portal. The portal looked just like the one that we used to go home, but this one was glowing yellow instead of blue. There were about twenty guards there who immediately started sending the people through.

Maya pointed out
Rosa near the portal talking with the Captain. She spotted us as we approached and rushed over to us as we dismounted, wrapping both of us in a hug as soon as we were on the ground. “Thank the gods you’re both alright! When you ran off, I thought you wouldn’t make it back in time!”

“
We had to round up who we could.”

She
squeezed some more. “I know, but I was still worried.” She released us. “So I see you got the earth wizards and the healers, no one else?”

“
We have a few water and wind wizards, but most of them voted to stay. Their towers have been sealed.”

She nodded slowly.
“I understand, but that complicates things for us down the road. I sent most of the guards through first to secure the area on the other side of the portal, along with most of my survival boxes as well as most of the staff who aren’t golems. If I recall, this portal opens onto one the unaligned areas; but anyway, they say it’s safe so we need to hurry. That yellow color means there’s less than five minutes left before it closes for good.”

“
Where are the twins and Darroth?”

She smiled
. “They’re all fine. They volunteered to go with the guards when I first opened the portal.” She tapped me on the shoulder. “Alex, don’t worry about the Foalshead portal. I knew you would be worried about your family and friends. I changed the end route parameters for any transfers from Xarparion to there. Any undead that go through are going to come out on the surface of the sun,” Rosa said grimly. “And with Foalshead’s geographical isolation, it will be a very long time before any undead walk there.”

I gave her a heartfelt hug
. “Thank you, Master, you are really the best! Or should I call you Headmaster now? We both hugged again and Maya linked up as well.

We waited an
d watched as the last of the students made it through, leaving us and the guards. I checked on Nia on my shoulder and she seemed to be doing just fine sleeping off her magic hangover, which was a relief to me.

As the portal turned
blood red, it was time for us to go. The guards went through first, followed by the Captain.

Rosa stayed with us as we watched the undead slowly
moving our way from the end of the road. She placed a hand on each of our shoulders. “We’ll be back.”

“
You know, I don’t think we will,” I said, deep in my own thoughts.

Maya took my hand
, squeezed it gently, and we walked through the portal together and said a final goodbye to our home.

End of book 1

Look for book two ‘Return to Sky Raven’ coming soon!