Mine to Fear (22 page)

“
Of course. Sorry about being late.”
Behind his back, Jack slams one fist
on the other,
indicating one of us should take this guy out.

I cast a sleep spell, knocking him to
the floor. We hesitate a moment, just long enough to see if anyone
is coming. When no one does, Cynthia strengthens the spell for him
to sleep even more,
and we drag him across the ground
to the other side of the building out of sight. He's so heavy, it
takes all of us pulling and shoving to get him there. The fact that
he sleeps through it all is a good sign.

“
I'm going to go through first,” Jack
whispers. “If this warlock mistook me for his replacement, perhaps
the others will as well.”

I nod. If only we knew how many others there
are for certain. We don't know exactly what we're walking into.

Jack heads in first. As the rest of us wait
outside, I can't help but imagine a plethora of horrid things that
could happen to him. What if he never comes back? What if I never
see him again? What if he's badly injured? Or worse?

I shake my head in the direction of the
door. Chadwick firmly shakes his head and holds up two fingers,
indicating we should wait two more minutes. Which maybe we should,
but what if he's in there being hexed to death? Waiting is only
going to make that worse.

Each second of those two minutes is torture,
to stand there and do nothing. When they're finally up, I reach for
the doorknob.

“
Give him another minute,” Chadwick
whispers.

I shake my head, but before I can turn the
knob, the door bursts open.

I jump back, but it's only Jack.

He gives me a small grin but tainted with
something I fear. “There's no other guards in here. That guy was
the only one.”

“
Don't tell me that means we need to
drag him inside,” I say.

“
Let's leave him out here.” He gives
me a look. “I think it might be best if you girls stay out
here.”

“
I don't think so,” I
retort.

“
What she said,” Cynthia
adds.

“
It's up to you,” Jack says. “But it's
not a pleasant sight in there.”

A chill grips me, pricking my whole body
with its iciness. “We can't help if we can't see it.”

Lukas takes a hold of Cynthia's hand. The
action makes me want to hold someone’s hand as well. But whose
would it be? Chadwick or Jack? Why are either of them even on that
list? Chadwick is what's expected of me, and Jack is—now isn't the
time to think about this.

Jack leads us in the building. At first it's
nothing more than a hallway. Nothing on the walls, just fresh white
paint and bright lights on the ceiling. Too bright. Glaring.

We walk into a big, open room, the middle of
which is a bright purple spell around some sort of machine that
goes up into the ceiling. I don't spend much time trying to figure
it out, though, because of what's surrounding it.

Lying on the floor all around it are bodies.
Unmoving bodies. Too many of them. Women and men alike, all with
one arm tied up to the machine. As I get a closer look, each arm
tied to the machine has a cut on it where the purple spell is
pulling at it, taking their blood. Their magic.

This is what the Grand Chancellor meant by
using people to make electricity? I want to retch. My heart aches
in a way it never has before. It’s heavy to the point it physically
hurts, the pain overriding my senses.

One of the people on the floor's foot moves.
I jump, grabbing onto Jack's arm. He gives my hand a pat and then
walks over to the person who just moved. He whispers something I
can't hear.

“
All is well,” he says louder. “We're
here to help.”

More people begin to stir. It's a good
thing. They need to be able to move to get out of here, but seeing
how alive these people are, what they are going through, is almost
more than I can take.

Jack unhooks the machine attached to the
foot mover’s arm. The spell releases with the detachment. It spurs
me into action. I fly to the machine and unhook as many of the
people as quickly as I can. The others help, but it doesn't feel
fast enough. We can't get away from this place soon enough.

Hoarse whispers of thanks are mingled with
exhausted looks. The people are weak from their ordeal. Seeing them
try and do something as simple as walking, seeing them struggle to
put one foot in front of the other, to not fall to the ground, all
of it makes my stomach sick.

I feel a torrent of rage at the Grand
Chancellor for putting these people in this situation. It should
never, ever have come about. He should have stuck to his trade
routes with Chryos instead of ruining these people.

“
How are we going to get them home?” I
whisper to Jack.

He shakes his head. “One step at a
time.”

“
And not get caught?” It's a
formidable task. But one we have to succeed at.

We let them rest, giving them what food and
water we have, though it's not nearly enough. They have been well
fed, but with the strain of giving up so much magic and blood, it's
not enough. Half an hour later, we decide that we can't wait any
longer, no matter how much these people need rest. Here is not the
place to let them have it.

Chadwick checks out front, then says, “It's
clear.”

Jack leads the way, herding the group of
twenty-five people out of the building and through the expanse of
nothing but dirt and weeds toward the forest. I help a woman in the
middle who, despite the rest, can barely walk. Chadwick brings up
the back, and the others are scattered throughout.

My heart is breaking as I try to help the
woman while watching the others around me. What type of madman is
the Grand Chancellor? Why would anyone help him do this?

We're about halfway to the forest when Jack
calls out, “Run!”

He turns toward the right where a warlock is
coming out of the forest opposite of where we're going. I pick up
the woman I was helping and sprint to the forest. As soon as we're
safely in the trees, I set her down. “Ask the first person who
comes through here to give you a hand.”

And I'm off, trying not to worry about her.
There isn't time.

Cynthia, Lukas, and Chadwick are spelling
the warlock who's now attacking them, while Jack is hurrying the
people to the forest.

I rush toward the back of the group where
two people have fallen behind. A burst of dark blue mixed with
purple zips through the guarding spells and passes a few feet in
front of me.

That was too close. I make it to the two
stragglers. Both are thin, but with two of them I can't do any
carrying. I put an arm under each of them, wincing at how scrawny
they feel beneath my arms.

We take off running, the two are able to go
faster now that I'm helping, but it’s still not fast enough. A
second spell slams into the woman on my left. She collapses to the
ground, gasping. The other person I was helping yells for me to
take care of the woman and does their best trotting toward the
forest.

Drat my being too focused on the end goal. I
dive toward the woman, doing my best to protect her from any more
incoming spells. She coughs several times. No more spells come our
way, but the others have a flurry flying around them. It looks as
though a second warlock has joined our attacker.

“
I'm fine,” the woman gasps
out.

She doesn't sound well at all, but I scoop
her up in my arms and hustle toward the protection the forest
offers. Jack is coming for the other person I was helping. We're
the last four to make it to the forest.

Cynthia casts a spell so bright it's
blinding. I can't see at all where I'm going, but I keep on
running. As my vision comes back, I'm almost to the forest. I say a
silent thanks that I didn't trip on the way over. As soon as I
think that, I go flying toward the ground.

Time seems to slow. All I can think is curse
my luck. I roll my body and the women I'm carrying so I'll land on
my back with her on top. My back hits a sharp rock, and time speeds
back up.

“
Ow.” Nothing wants to move. None of
my body seems to understand the danger we're in, only pain. Sharp,
jagged pain. The woman stands and tries to help me up. Her feeble
attempts aren't nearly enough to get me off the ground, but they
are enough to get my body to remember the urgency we're
under.

“
I'm fine. Get to the forest.” She
hesitates only a moment before following my direction.

Those we saved are all in the forest. Jack
comes back, grabs my hand, and yanks me off the ground. “Don't you
dare fall again.”

As we run, I huff back, “I don't plan on
it.”

He puts a hand on my back, helping me toward
the trees. As soon as we make it, I turn toward the fight. Only,
there is no more fight. The warlocks are both on the ground and the
others are running toward us. But not all are well. Chadwick is
cradling his left arm like it's been injured.

“
Keep them going,” Cynthia
yells.

Jack races into action. It takes me a moment
longer. My instinct says to check on Chadwick, to see how injured
he is. But he's a grown man. He can take care of himself for the
moment while I help others who need my help more than he does. I
turn and follow Jack, helping him to get the people moving.

Behind us, Cynthia calls out. I turn toward
her. She's running toward us, two forms on the ground behind
her.

“
Go!” she yells.

The lumps on the ground don't get up
to follow. Jack slows to cover our tracks, and Cynthia helps him. I
stay where I am, helping the people move on. It's going to be a
very long journey back to the cave, especially if we're avoiding
capt
ure
.

Chapter
Thirty-Nine

I
t takes
several days to return to the cave, but we eventually make it in
the end. Whether it's due to not being chased or Cynthia and Jack's
excellent track-covering skills, we aren't followed. Chadwick's arm
is tender, but not as badly injured as I first suspected and easily
fixed. All in all, it was a fairly successful, if not what I was
expecting, break out.

The hardest trick is not thinking on what I
saw. My dreams are nothing but nightmares now. Me locked up to that
horrid machine. Or worse yet, those I care about locked up to the
machine and being unable to help them.

The nightmares continue to haunt me as
Bethany, Cynthia, Tawny, and Serena help me get the newest members
settled. Good places to rest and plenty of food and drink. More
than we can afford to give them, really, but with their weakened
state, I don't know how we can't give it to them.

As I hand one man a bowl of stew, tears fill
his eyes. “Thank you for saving us.”

“
It was the least we could do,” I
reply, my own eyes tearing in response. “You shouldn't have been
put in that situation anyway.”

“
No, I shouldn't have. No one should
be,” he says. “Do you know why I was put in there?”

“
I don't.”

“
Because I owed the Grand Chancellor a
partly sum of money.”

“
That's it?” I ask, not knowing what
else to say when this burning rage fills me. “He's clearly a
madman.”

“
The worst there ever was.”

His words continue to haunt me as I dish out
more food to men and women. What were they all taken for? Not
paying their bills? No matter what you can or can't pay, your life
force shouldn't be the consequence.

I scrape the last bit of stew from the pot,
and my belly growls. At least there was enough for those we just
found. They need it more than I do, but at this rate, there won't
be enough for even them. Food has always been a concern, but never
this bad.

After handing out the last bowl, I gather
the others helping me and have them follow me out of the cave. Once
we're away from everyone else, I say, “We have to get more food.
We're not going to survive without it.”

“
I didn't expect it to be this bad,”
Bethany says.

I'm just grateful she didn't see them in the
power plant. “Neither did I.”

“
Where else can we get food, though?”
Serena asks. “We're already getting as much as we can and it's
getting more risky every time we try.”

“
We could try hitting a farm instead
of the markets,” Cynthia says.

“
But would that get the farmers in
trouble?” Bethany asks.

“
No more than it's gotten the shop
owners in trouble,” Serena says.

A cloud of darkness descends. Helping a
nation find its way is not going very smoothly. “We're going to
have to do something. As much as I don't want anyone else to get in
trouble because of us, we have to feed these people, or we'll never
survive and the Grand Chancellor will win.”

Cynthia says, “A farm it is.”

***

After a couple weeks of searching, we've
found the perfect farm to hit. Lots of food nearby, vegetables and
much needed fruit and only a farmer and one helper running it. We
gather as many as we can to help us. We're not leaving anything to
chance. The more help we have, the less likely we will be to lose,
and land's knows we can't afford to lose.

The attack is not really an attack. We go in
there, spells blazing—or ready to. Our hands are all up to cast a
spell when we come across the first farmer.

“
Whoa,” he says. “Don't go blasting me
yet.”