Chapter 69. Not an Elegant Speech, but It Got Everyone Moving

Chapter 69: 69. Not an Elegant Speech, but It Got Everyone Moving

She looked at Garrick. And then she looked at me.

For one long moment, I thought the panic would swallow her, and she’d drop her blade and run.

But then I saw her fingers tighten on the hilt, and her ears came up, and she lifted her sword again, with her gaze fixed on the dark cliff across the water.

’Four,’ I thought. ’Two. Six.’

Then the panel snapped open in front of me, so bright that it washed out half the camp.

[HOSTILE PRESENCE DETECTED.]

[Threat Level: S-]

I read it, and I looked at the cliff... and I looked at the man lying under my hands with a red drawing clutched against his heart.

The trap we’d walked into with our eyes open had just closed around us.

It wasn’t an escort mission anymore... It was a war, and it had started on a hill in the dark.

I tried to close my eyes for a second, just to see that Garrick was still lying on the floor of the wagon with a crystal bolt buried in his chest, and for about a second and a half... the whole hilltop stopped moving.

I think it was Sharon’s roar that did it. It rolled across the camp like a thunderclap, and every monster within reach of it flinched, skidded, and hesitated with its paws half raised.

The wolves backed up a step. And the boar shook its head.

Even the bear dropped to all fours and gave a low, confused grunt.

It was a perfectly natural reaction, the kind of thing animals do when something much bigger than them loses its temper, and it lasted exactly as long as it took for the crystal collars to flare and drag them forward again.

I didn’t see any of that.

I was kneeling at the tailgate with both hands on Garrick’s shoulders, staring at the little blue-white flame that was crawling across his shirt.

[Target: Garrick Voss.]

[Aether Drain: Active.]

[Estimated Time to Collapse: 40 minutes.]

I read it three times. And I’ll make sure that the words didn’t change.

"Forty minutes," I said out loud, to nobody.

Garrick’s eyes found my face. His lips were moving, and I leaned in close enough to hear a thin, wet whisper that might have been my name.

He was shaking all over, and his skin had gone gray and cold, like a candle that had been blown out.

The bolt hadn’t gone into his heart... I could see that much. It had hit him just below the collarbone, and it had stopped there, humming, with a bright blue crystal head half sunk in the muscle.

But the light spreading out from it was feeding on him. Every pulse drew a little more color from his face.

I raised my head and looked back at the cliff.

The man in black armor was still standing on his ledge, with the crossbow lowered at his side. I couldn’t see his face from that distance, but I could see the way he stood, perfectly relaxed, like a man who has just posted a letter.

Then he lifted his right hand, held two fingers against his temple, and gave me a lazy little salute.

A second later... the ledge was empty.

"You son of a bitch," I whispered.

An hour earlier, I’d been staring at the stars and wishing for sleep. Less than a week ago, my biggest problem had been a stuffed rabbit and a woman with a bun.

But now... I had a prisoner with a death clock on his chest, a camp full of monsters, and a guy who saluted me like we were old friends.

I jumped to my feet, ignoring the white-hot protest from my ribs, and cupped my hands around my mouth.

"EVERYBODY!" I bellowed. "LISTEN TO ME!"

"WE ARE NOT LOSING HIM TONIGHT!"

It wasn’t elegant... I’m not sure it was even a good speech.

But I saw Alicia’s head snap around, and I saw Laura’s sword stop in the middle of a cut, and I saw Sharon grin like a wolf in the middle of a pile of dead wolves.

’Four hours ago, I wanted to sleep,’ I thought. ’And now... I have a deadline.’

’The universe really can’t stand me being comfortable.’

"Listen," I said, "because I’m only going to say this once, and then I’m going to run."

They’d pulled in around me in a ragged knot, just behind the wagon, where the shield wall gave us a few seconds of cover.

Alicia was breathing hard, with an arrow stuck in the edge of her shield and a bloody scratch along her jaw.

Laura’s armor was spattered with black blood. Sharon had come back at a jog, still carrying a wolf’s collar in one hand like a trophy, and she dropped it at her feet and cracked her neck.

"Alicia," I said. "Wagon! You’ve got the guards, and you’ve got the shield wall!"

"Nothing gets near Garrick. And I meant it by nothing at all!"

"Understood."

"Laura, the riverbank! The monsters are going to keep coming up from the water, and you’re the only one who can hold them without losing your head!"

"Understood."

"Sharon... the road! Something’s coming from the south! I can feel it..." My body is shaking. "It’s big, it’s organized, and it’s not an animal!"

"I need you to stop it before it reaches the hill!"

"With pleasure," said Sharon, and rolled her shoulder. "Finally, someone who gives orders like a grown man!"

"Eveline."

She was standing at the back of the group, with her sword in both hands and her ears quivering. She looked up quickly, and I saw her swallow.

"The arrows are coming from the north slope," I said. "There are at least three archers in those trees."

"I can’t reach them, and neither can anyone else, but... I know that someone can." I smiled with serious intent. "I need you to cut the lane! Don’t fight them for the sake of fighting!"

"Just take them off the board!"

"I can do that," she said, and her voice shook only a little.

"I know you can."

"And me..." I took a breath, and the pain in my side made it a short one. "I’m going to find whoever’s steering these animals..."

"They’re not attacking like normal monsters... Somebody’s controlling them, and if I can cut the signal, half the fight goes away!"

"One more thing," said Alicia, who had been counting on her fingers. "Anyone who can hear me!"

"If you see an arrow with a blue tip... don’t use Aether on it! Use iron, or wood, or your own two hands!" Alicia looked at the arrows. "Those crystals eat power."

"She’s right," I said. "Don’t fight the crystals with Aether! They’ll fucking drink it."

"I’ve been telling you that for ten minutes," said Laura, in a flat voice.

"I know... I’m a slow learner."

"The slowest."

Sharon laughed, a short, harsh bark. She slung her giant sword up onto her shoulder and turned to go, then paused and looked back at me, with an expression I hadn’t seen on her before.

"Good plan," she said gruffly. "And make sure to not die before seeing your orders succeed!"

"That’s the plan."

"It’s a very good one indeed."

She was gone before I could answer.

The others scattered like startled birds, each one heading for a different corner of the camp, and I stood there for half a heartbeat with the wind blowing through my hair and a dozen things I wanted to say.

Then I drew my sword and went to find a signal.

Alicia had built her fortress out of anything that wasn’t nailed down, and by the time I looked back... it was already working.

She’d called it a turtle and spear, the way you’d name a favorite recipe. Holt, Wynn, Dessa, and Pike stood shoulder to shoulder around the wagon in a tight ring, with their tower shields overlapped like the scales on a fish.

The shields formed three layers, one against the next, so that any arrow that managed to pierce the first would hit the second and die against the third.

In the gaps between the shields, Ferris and Oswin crouched with long spears, ready to stab at anything that came close.

And Alicia was in the weakest spot.

It was the northeastern corner of the ring, where the line bent around a heap of boulders and left a short, awkward stretch of open ground.

Any competent archer would have aimed there. She stood with her back to the wagon and her sword in her right hand and a borrowed buckler in her left, with her braid whipping behind her in the wind, and she looked like a girl who had been born to stand in exactly that place.

I’d only been watching for a few seconds when the first volley came.

A dozen blue-tipped arrows came whistling over the rocks.

Most of them smacked into the shields and stuck there, humming. But one of them hit a shield at a bad angle, burrowed straight through the oak, and burst out the other side with its crystal tip glowing.

It was heading directly at Dessa’s face.

Alicia moved.

I’ve been watching her fight for most of my life, and I thought I knew every trick she had. But still though... I’d never seen her move like that.