Collision: The Alliance Series Book Three (27 page)

From here, I could count ten summoners, and almost twice as many children. Shuffling movements caught my attention, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone move in the window of a nearby house. A woman, crying. She caught my eye, and even though I didn’t speak the language, I could see the words in her eyes:
help them.

That did it for me. I broke into a swift walk, skirting tree roots, reaching for the magic I knew must be present here. I could go to third level…

And so could they.

Red smoke rushed towards us even though I hadn’t consciously meant to draw on so much.
Stop!

Too late. The summoners turned around, and all eyes fixed on me.

All of them spoke at once. One word, in a chilling monotone.

“Veyak.”

Next thing I knew, they were kneeling in the dirt.

I stared at them. Did they call me by the name of their deity?

Kay swore. He was right behind me, and his hand brushed against mine, somehow calming the raging static against my skin. Did they think
I
was a summoner?

Crap. I didn’t have a clue what to say. I looked pleadingly at Mathran, just behind Kay. Must have come to try and stop me. Too late.

“What are they saying?” I asked in a hoarse whisper.

“They believe you called upon Veyak. And as it happens, they are right.”

My heart thudded. “What?”

The summoners knelt amongst the tangled tree roots, the children in a terrified huddle behind them.

“Well, that’s what they believe.”

My throat dried up. “Tell them–no, tell them to let the children go. Please.”

Mathran shook his head. “Veyak is the strongest of the gods. You cannot challenge them and hope to survive it. If I could, I would, but with Veyak on their side…”

“Then tell
me
how to say it. Please.” We were breaking Alliance code. Majorly. No interference. Except the handbook didn’t lay down rules on what to do when faced with a local cult with magic acting up. But Vey-Xanetha was connected, however distantly, to the Alliance. They were breaking the laws of their
own
world, and had killed their entire police force to boot. I couldn’t stop to think about what the Alliance would say to us about intervening with those kids standing right there.

Kay moved closer to me, fixing Mathran with his stone-cold Alliance guard stare. “Do it.”

Fear flashed in Mathran’s eyes, but he shook his head again, frantically. Behind, Raj and Iriel stood with their weapons out, but both looked more prepared to run away than to fight. They knew the rules, too, and the first order would always be to save our own necks. But if I really could do something… I couldn’t sit down and accept defeat.

Kay muttered a curse, and spoke aloud. “Release them.”

I stared for a moment, then remembered the earpiece. Did he speak Vey-Xanethan?

The blood drained from Mathran’s face.

A summoner looked up, at Kay, then me.
Whoa.
His eyes were luminous laser-red, with no pupils. “This is the order of Veyak?” he said, in a low, buzzing monotone.

Holy shit. They really did think I was some kind of messenger. I cursed myself for not taking the time to at least learn a couple of phrases. Kay must have done so. Though he had the advantage of a genius memory.

“Yes.”

“This one is
verek.”
He pointed to me. Abomination. “We will take her to the chasm.”

I shook my head.

“No,” said Kay.

“It is Veyak’s wish.” Every one of them stood. “We do not disobey.”

Lightning crackled over
their
heads, this time. The magic charge built in the air, growing stronger and raising the hairs on my arms. The sky boiled red, clouds swirling in response.

Aimed at me.

Nowhere to run, so I threw myself behind the nearest tree root. A blast shook the earth inches from where I’d been standing, sending me flying back. I slammed into Kay and the two of us were flung into the dilapidated remains of an abandoned house. My head struck the wall and stars winked before my eyes. I slid to the ground, the summoners blurring. Shivers ran up my arms from the static.
I just absorbed—
second level at least.

Crap. The others. I twisted around and saw Kay slumped a few feet away. For an instant my heart stopped, but then he tilted his head. Our eyes met, and he inched over to me. “You okay?” He spoke in a whisper.

“Yeah.” My voice was more of a croak, my heart slamming against my ribs.
Holy shit.
I shook my head fiercely to quell the panic rising in my chest. If I hadn’t been standing in front of Kay, he might have—

“Stay down. They think you’re dead.”

I glanced back over the giant tree root and saw the summoners had disappeared into the surrounding jungle. That was enough to snap me back to attention. Cursing, I pushed to my feet.

“Ada—”

I yanked my hand away from Kay. “I’m fine,” I said, ignoring the throbbing lump forming on the back of my head. The summoners were leaving, taking those kids with them—and they were heading right where we’d opened the doorway. “I’m going after them.”

“Hold on,” he said. “You can’t go running out there without a plan. They’re magic-wielders, and those kids are right in the way.”

“Then we’ll get them
out
of the way,” I said. “No question.”

Kay nodded, and I knew I shouldn’t have doubted him. Except I couldn’t see the others anywhere. The aftermath of magic hung in the air, a red haze over everything, and my skin tingled again.
How much did I absorb?

I couldn’t worry about that now. Climbing over the tree roots, I saw the robed figures herding the children down a side-path between houses and amongst the thick-trunked trees. I cursed under my breath. How to use magic without drawing attention–strike them down without hurting any of the children
or
getting ourselves blown to pieces?

Magic swirled around my palm, as though in response to my thoughts. The charge built, demanding to be released, but I couldn’t attack them with all those kids in the way
.
I aimed carefully, playing out the scenario in my mind’s eye. If I hit the summoners just so, nobody else would be in danger of getting caught in the blast.

A screech echoed from ahead, and the group drew closer together. Lightning split the sky above them and a heavy shape crashed through the trees. A winged shape.
Holy hell.
It might have been one of those three-headed birds from earlier. The summoners had killed it without even looking up.

Again, lightning flashed, and the static in the air rose. Kay swore behind me.

“Third level,” he hissed. “There’s no backlash.”

No. That’s what was missing. No backlash. Just like when Mathran had demonstrated magic.

The three laws didn’t apply here.

I raised my hand, took aim, and the world burst apart in white light. My ears rang, a metallic taste rose on my tongue, and every nerve in my body lit up. I blinked repeatedly, trying to clear my eyes—trying to push away the feeling I wasn’t entirely in control of my own movements—

“Ada!”

Kay’s shout brought me back to the present. I staggered and almost fell over the edge of a crater which hadn’t been in front of us before.

Where had it come from? When I’d used magic…

Crap, what had I done? I blinked, the white light clearing from my vision. The summoners were gone. The crater had hit the spot where the back of their line had been following those kids, but no people were about.

No!
I ran towards the jungle, leaping tree roots like hurdles. My feet caught on something. Not a tree root. A body. Two summoners were splayed across the ground, unmoving. No blood. No visible injury.

I clapped a hand to my mouth. “Did I…?”

Kay clambered over the tree root behind me. “Ada, stop.”

“Did I kill them? Where did the rest go?”

“The kids ran away in the jungle, but the summoners went after them–”

“Shit!” I ran, ignoring the shakiness in my legs and the magic buzzing against my skin. I racked my memory, but came up blank after that flash of light. I’d hit two, which meant…

A sharp stick whizzed past, burying itself in a tree root. Kay swore and raised his dagger in time to deflect a second projectile, which disappeared into the bushes nearby. They were hiding somewhere amongst the houses? Lightning flashed overhead and I jumped, thinking I’d done it–but Kay raised his non-weapon hand, sparks jumping from his skin. Eyes gleaming black.

My heart stopped.

I looked back at the roots snaking around the house we’d stopped in front of, the place the weapon had come from.

“Ada. Let’s move.” Kay’s hand closed around mine, and I jumped as the sparks flying from his palm met the static in my own hand. He let go just as quickly. “Shit. I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

I shook my head, scanning the trees for the others. No sign of them. We had to move.

I took his hand again and we turned invisible. I’d anticipated it a split-second before it happened, but barely caught myself before I stumbled over another tree root. This was a bad time to try this, but if it helped us avoid more attacks…

And helped us kill them…

I shook the thought away, disquieted by the way magic stirred around me as I imagined calling on it again.
The children. We have to rescue the children.

“Where did they…?”

Kay guided my steps to stop me tripping over the roots with my invisible feet. Ordinarily I’d have protested when he went as far as to lift me over a particularly tall tree root, but the faster we caught those summoners–
how
had they moved so quickly?

I stopped dead. Stared.

A doorway lay open, cutting the forest in two. Not the doorway we’d come through. A new one.

Impossible.
On the other side of the opening was what looked like a canyon. Burned red ground, no plants, no life, red cliffs rising on either side and cupping the sun, at the centre point of the purplish-red sky.

“What the hell?” I whispered.

“Shit,” Kay said. “That must be the chasm they mentioned.”

I hadn’t heard. But now…
hell.
What I’d taken for the horizon behind the doorway was the edge of a cliff. My skin prickled all over.

Figures emerged from behind the trees on our side of the doorway, and I froze, breathing quietly. I counted six of them.
Where are those kids?

The answer came when the final summoner said one word, and lightning flashed. Immediately, a number of smaller figures ran out from behind trees, behind roots, clearly terrified out of their wits but drawn by the magic. Scared of the magic, and what it could do.

Horror hit my heart.

Stop. Please.

The summoners beckoned the children from the canyon until they’d formed a group again, and they all stepped through the doorway. Except one summoner, who lay at the edge, unmoving, his coat fanning out. Magic sparked from his skin.

“He sacrificed himself to open the door.” Kay’s tone was flat, quiet. ”Or, they sacrificed him.”

“What…” I whispered, staring through the door, an impossibility merging two scenes together seamlessly. “Is that place even
this
world?”

Kay cursed under his breath. One of the summoners had turned our way, and raised his hand to the sky—as if to strike us down as easily as that bird.

No way.

I pulled my dagger. Magic rushed through my fingers, sparked into the dagger’s hilt, and I let go.

The dagger sank into a summoner’s back and he went down, choking on a scream. I’d got him right in the spine, a fatal shot Nell had taught me. He’d be dead in seconds.

The others saw, and chaos erupted around us. Magic-wielders moved towards us as though they could see us, ignoring their captives, and several weapons flew wide. Kay dragged me behind a tree as one came dangerously close. I pulled my second dagger and squeezed his hand.
Trust me.

Three summoners had come back into the forest, into range. I let magic flow towards me, and it sparked from my hands, giving my location away–but it was too late for them. Anger surged in my veins, in tandem with the raging magic, and lightning speared the sky, striking all three of them down. Screams sounded from behind the doorway and my heart plunged. I ran past the dead summoners, ignoring the lingering magic sparking at my skin. Two behind the door had fallen, too, their throats cut. Only three remained, and one raised a hand to the sky.

Lightning exploded across my vision. I gasped, and when I blinked my eyes clear, I saw Kay blocking a knife blow from a summoner, swiping with his own dagger.

Two others moved towards me, blinking rapidly. They’d been dazzled, too, but quickly recovered. And the invisibility had dropped at some point when I’d used magic.