Torn: Bound Trilogy Book Two (39 page)

I spun to look back again. The soldiers in the alley were almost on top of us. Cassia and Kel stood closest to them, weapons drawn. Kel made for an imposing sight with his broad shoulders and determined glare, and Cassia no less so in spite of her slim build. Still, we were outnumbered, out-trained, and under-armored.

We needed to run, but a pair of guards blocked the way to the river.

Where did they come from?
They seemed to be emerging from the city’s walls like cockroaches.

Above the sounds of battle, a muffled snapping sound reached me. A shadow passed over us, but was gone before I looked up.

No distractions.

I couldn’t close my eyes this time, but watched as the two soldiers approached. I released my magic on a wave of fear and desperation, but directed it with my determination that we would not die here. I called to the river. It felt heavy, like I was trying to lift the earth itself, and wilder than the water in the cell or the baths. I clenched my jaw and pulled harder, straining the muscles in my neck and shoulders with the effort as I wrestled a force of nature far stronger them myself.

The water obeyed. A great wave of it rose above the banks of the river, carrying a red rowboat with it. Pain shot through my muscles in a great spasm, and I released the wave. It crashed down over the guards that stood ahead of us. The boat landed on one, pinning him to the ground, opening an escape route.

“Go!” I yelled. Nox, Kel, and Cassia sprinted past, heading for the river. Aren lagged behind.

I fit my body to the shadows glanced back. The other soldiers had emerged from the alley. Four came toward us, though none seemed to have his eye on me. The others went to help with Ulric, who was facing off with the one soldier still standing there. The king had done well, but his former enthusiasm had left him. His shoulders heaved with his breath, and his sneer at the oncoming soldiers was more grim than threatening.

Nox broke ahead of the group, racing for the docks, a Darmish soldier on her heels. He lunged and tackled her to the ground. Kel thundered toward them, followed closely by Cassia, then Aren, limping as quickly as he could. I called again to the water, gathering my strength, unsure of how to act without hurting my friends.

Kel attacked, shoving the soldier off of Nox, burying his knife in the man’s side where his armor gapped. Nox climbed to her feet and turned to me. Her eyes grew wide, and her dagger flashed in her hand. I gasped and ducked as the blade spun through the air, straight at my head.

A strangled sound behind me told me that the dagger had found its mark, and that it was a good thing I’d reacted quickly.

Cassia yelled. A guard had her backed against one of the sheds. The twin blades he held were no larger than her hunting knife, but his arms were longer, and she couldn’t get close enough to attack. She feinted toward the road, and when he moved to block her—no, I realized, to toy with her—she threw herself into the river. The guard dashed off into the darkness between two fishing sheds.

At least she can swim
, I thought, and then wondered how true that was if she couldn’t get her pants off and transform underwater. Odds had to be slim that they practiced swimming in their human legs.

I caught up with Aren, and Ulric ran toward us. “Tell me you can all swim,” he said as he reached me and Aren.

“Sort of,” Aren said, and glanced at Nox, who was headed for a green boat. She held a hand above her eyes, watching for Cassia.

Ulric sent out a blast of magic over his shoulder, and someone screamed—the last man standing from the group he’d been fighting. He leaned forward to rest his hands on his knees. His arms trembled.

The soldier who had been after Cassia darted out from his position between the sheds and ran at Nox. Aren took off toward her, more slowly than he usually ran, but from a closer position than the guard had started from. He reached Nox first and pushed her out of the way, into the river, just as the guard reached them.

Aren grimaced as his leg buckled under him, and my heart jumped into my throat. He pushed off from the wet ground, feet slipping in the mud beside the river, and knocked the soldier off-balance.

The soldier brought his knife over his head and down, plunging it deep into Aren’s shoulder.

“No!” I screamed, and pushed off from the wall to run to him. Ulric grabbed me and threw me back, away from Aren. He roared and sent out another blast of magic that I felt burning through my body, though I hadn’t been the target. The soldier fell in a pool of blood before he could strike at Aren again. Half of the soldier’s head had vanished, or been blown off.

Ulric stumbled sideways, but caught himself.

I fought back tears and ran toward Aren. In my peripheral vision I saw Kel dive into the river after Nox. They resurfaced and swam to join Cassia farther out.

“Aren!”

He knelt on the ground, one hand clasped over his shoulder. Blood flowed freely from between his fingers. “I’m fine.”

“Stop saying that. You’re not fine!” I braced myself in the slippery mud and pulled him to his feet.

“Rowan,” Ulric gasped as he caught up, and gestured back over his shoulder.

Despair filled Aren’s eyes as he looked, followed by a grim look of determination. “They’ve roused the sick ones.”

I turned. At least twenty fresh soldiers had arrived. Some appeared to be only halfway into their proper uniforms, moving out of time, as though they hadn’t quite wakened from the sleep they’d been pulled from. Still, they were too many. Far too many. Cold calm radiated from my chest and through my body as hope fled.

But not everyone had to die.

“Get into a boat, now,” I ordered. “Both of you. Grab Kel and Cassia and Nox. I don’t know how good any of them are at treading water.”

I looked back at the river in time to see several guards leap into a white boat and row toward them.

“No,” I whispered, and called the river again. My hands trembled, though I couldn’t say whether it was from fear, rage, or the shock of seeing Aren injured. Whatever it was, I used it as Ulric had taught me, to propel my magic.

The soldiers’ boat rocked, but still moved ahead. I pushed harder, willing the strength of my magic to make the river’s might my own. The waves rose up. The boat capsized, and the soldiers in their heavy armor disappeared.

I looked to Kel, Cassia, and Nox. They were weathering the waves, but wouldn’t last long.

“Get in a boat,” I repeated. “Now!”

Aren started to object, but Ulric grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the water. They climbed into the green rowboat. “Get in!” Aren called.

I looked back at the street. There were at least fifteen guards left, and likely more on the way as soon as they’d been roused and assembled. Unless I sank every boat on the river, they’d be after us. Even then, they’d come. “Go! I’ll hold them off.”

Aren climbed out of the boat, and Ulric pulled him back in with one hand as he untied the boat with the other. I gave the water a gentle push, and it carried them toward the middle of the river, where Ulric pulled Nox in and reached for the others. I wouldn’t risk pushing them more. Still, the current was strong enough to carry them, and they had oars.

I took a last, quick look at Aren. He’d slumped back against Kel, but kept his eyes on me.

Their only chance for survival, Aren’s only chance, was for me to keep the soldiers occupied. At least now it wouldn’t be a great tragedy if I hurt anyone while I experimented.

Magic still roared within me, though it felt calmer now. Smaller, perhaps, but I didn’t want to focus on it to find out how much I’d lost already.

Calm. Steady. The power is yours.
I stood firm in the muck of the riverbank, watching the assembling soldiers as they stepped around the bodies in the street. My heart pounded, but did not race. My breath strengthened me, and my magic infused my limbs and my mind, lifting me as though I might fly away.

I called to the water upstream. It came, and stacked into a shimmering wall that rose over the roofs of the sheds, then higher than the roofs across the street, broad as a barn, obediently remaining behind the river’s banks, waiting for my permission to move. Pride swelled in me at the sight.
Gods, it’s beautiful.
A lake’s worth of water, and still building.

There was no time to enjoy my victory. Soldiers clanked toward me, approaching cautiously, swords drawn. I reached over my head and behind me, as though I could grab hold of the water, and brought my hands forward in an arc as I darted into the shadows next to a shed to shield myself from the wave.

The wall of water obeyed, crashing forward and down over the street and the soldiers, landing like a rockslide. Though the wall of the shed sheltered me from the worst of it, I felt the crushing blow, and panic rose in me as my feet left the ground, swept up in the massive wave that swirled over the road and between buildings. Water filled my mouth and my nose. A moment later my feet found the ground, and I fell to my knees in the mud. I gasped a breath of wet air and stood. My skirt clung to my legs like a wet sheet, and I pulled it free.

The soldiers had been knocked off their feet, hit harder by the wave than I had been, but most were stirring, a few lifting themselves off the soaked ground.

I pushed sopping hair out of my eyes, flicked a strand of seaweed off my hand, and readied myself again. The magic definitely felt less now, though still greater than what I was accustomed to. I could manage my trick once more, and give the others time to escape.

A shadow passed over again. I’d have looked up, but a soldier had found his feet. He charged at me, disarmed, but heavy and strong and well-armored.

A white and grey shape fell from the air, landing on him, pinning him to the ground.

“Florizel!”

She whinnied and delivered a kick to the soldier’s head that seemed more out of panic than strategy, then hurried toward me.

“Get on!” she cried. I didn’t hesitate. As soon as I’d found my seat, I felt her muscles quiver, ready to take off.

“Wait,” I said. If we just flew off, the soldiers would turn their attention back on the boatload of enemies that had just escaped. “Give me a moment.”

Florizel whinnied, but stood her ground as the soldiers climbed to their feet.

I reached deep inside of myself to find something more peaceful than rage to drive me. I pictured Aren, remembered my shocked joy at seeing Kel and Cassia again. Remembered the school. Belleisle. The people there who made me feel like I was enough just as I was, but who believed I could be more. I remembered love.

And I called the river.

It rose again, not as a towering wall, but as a thick fog that rolled over the banks to surround us, closing over our heads and those of the soldiers.

“No one move!” someone hollered.

One more thing
, I begged my dimming magic.
Just this, and then we can rest.

I took in a deep chestful of the river-scented fog, and I imagined.

When the fog cleared, a half-dozen more Florizels and Rowans surrounded us. Florizel shied, and the others all did the same. I patted her neck, and my illusory sisters copied my action. Had I been more experienced, they might have acted on their own. Several of the illusions seemed real and solid. A few were clearly illusions, if good ones, and one was barely there at all. It would have to do.

“Now!” I said, and Florizel didn’t hesitate. She reared up and wheeled to face an empty section of street, and she ran, wings flapping hard, and lifted into the air. Her ribs heaved under my tightly-clamped legs, and her shoulders flexed and released with the beating of her wings.

“Over the river!” I called. She complied, passing over the water, heading downstream. “Other way!”

I wouldn’t follow the others. Not yet.

She turned. The illusions behaved just as we did, surrounding us as though we were a flock of great birds. I patted the right-hand side of Florizel’s neck and she veered that way, wheeling back over the soldiers in the street below.

An arrow arced toward us, released by one of the recently-arrived troop members, and shot straight through the Rowan next to me.

At least we’ve got their attention
, I thought. I indicated that Florizel should fly for the fortress upstream, and she complied.

They would be preparing their troops at the compound, too, if they had any left. With any luck, if we flew high enough, they’d think my rescuers had brought a herd of flying horses with them, and we were escaping that way. They’d follow us. By the time anyone told them any different, my friends would be safe.

Florizel flew well, weaving and darting high over the water. “Higher,” I called. “Over the walls, just so they see us.”

The bell still sounded inside the fortress. A dozen soldiers raced out over the drawbridge and halted as they caught sight of us. Dorset Langley led them, clad in his gray magic hunter’s uniform. He watched in silence as we flew over the fortress.

From the wall to our right came a volley of arrows. Florizel shied to the left. I held on, but cried out as a searing pain sliced through my left arm. Something fell to the ground below us—a pike, perhaps. I glanced at my arm. The blade had sliced through the sleeve of my dress, but with the wind whipping the soaked fabric about, I couldn’t see much aside from blood. The fingers of my left hand weakened and lost their grip on Florizel’s mane, and I couldn’t afford to let go with the right to put pressure on the wound.

“Shit,” I gasped.

Florizel stretched her neck out long and pushed harder through the air.

I remembered Aren’s body trying to heal a similar wound, and failing. My magic alone wouldn’t be enough. We’d have to land as soon as we knew the soldiers were no longer following.

The illusions around us faded as we flew toward an unfamiliar forest, and magical warmth built in the injured muscles of my arm as white spots appeared before my eyes.

Do not faint,
I ordered myself.
Not this time.

A horse screamed somewhere far behind us, and someone shouted.

We flew on.