Feudlings (11 page)

"Again?" Will's worry came loud and clear through the line. "Ari, how about I open a doorway and you just come to me? They—"

"Will, I don't have much time. Can you send a shroud or not?" she interrupted, glancing at the door.

Silence for several seconds, and then, "Yeah I'll send it. Open your doorway in ten, nine, eight… " Ari hung up and stuffed her phone into her pocket but kept counting down in her head. “One,” she whispered, drawing the
saldepement
spell in front of her. As the doorway shimmered open she could see Will on the other side, and as always she had to fight the temptation to just step through and hide there with him.

Instead she held out her hand and his shroud spell blasted through, enveloping her. As it settled over her skin like a warm blanket, she whispered, "Thank you."

He shook his head sadly. "Be careful, Ari," he answered as the doorway faded.

Resolute, she turned her back on the remaining sparkle and marched out of the room.

Will was a powerful shrouder. The whole colony he lived in was hidden in one of his shrouds so that no one on the outside could see what they were doing inside. Ari used his shrouds every time she went into battle. That way no one could tell what she looked like, or even where she was. Ari couldn't do shroud spells herself, but Richard didn't know that.

She pulled the hood of her gray cloak up and stalked toward the team waiting for her. She watched as their eyes flickered up at her and away, and they all scuttled out of her path, clearing the way to the waiting black SUV. She slid inside and waited while the rest of them piled in behind her. It was a tight fit, but no one dared sit too close to the distorted shape of the Prodigy; they rode in uncomfortable, fearful silence the entire way. Ari just stared out the window, her reflection a gray, undistinguishable shimmer.

She could see the sparkle of blue Carules magic traces before the building even came into view. It was a nondescript warehouse in a nondescript industrial district. She didn't care what it looked like. While the rest of the team jumped out of the SUV and moved stealthily toward the only visible door, Ari climbed out slowly, watching them with weariness. She didn’t want to do this. She didn’t want to fight with anyone. But what choice did she have? Shoving the remaining traces of her humanity way down deep, she straightened her spine and slammed the car door shut behind her. Shocked and more than a little startled, they all whirled to look at her, but she ignored them and stalked straight up to the warehouse door.

It was locked, of course. Ignoring the second-in-command of her team, who rushed forward with a lock pick, Ari stepped back and traced a
sabate
on the front of the door, pushing the spell with her hands. It was a minor spell that created a small explosion, but she shoved it a little too forcefully, perhaps, as the door blasted inside, its pieces smashing into the opposite wall. She heard yelling as the Carules in the building above scrambled to ready themselves. Didn’t they realize who must be coming? Didn’t they realize it was a lost cause to fight her? Why couldn’t they ever just
run
?

Angry now, because they wouldn’t save themselves, she stormed in, turned left down the hall, and found the stairs. She could feel Troy and his partner above her, and in the back of her mind she wondered why no one had bothered to tell her his partner’s name. Probably because no one had ever considered that she might like to know who she was rescuing.

At the top of the stairs she paused, getting a feel for where her Edren targets were. Blue flames blasted by her head and she turned, her fingers already up and throwing an
alable
spell. Fire shot from her hands, chasing the Carules warrior who had dared to attack her. He dove behind a wall but her flames blasted through it. She heard him scream as he was hit and horror tried to rise up from somewhere around her stomach, but she shoved it away as she turned her attention to a second, third, fourth Carules coming around the corner at a dead run. She traced the spell again and threw the flames at them, so fast they couldn't follow her movements, let alone get out of the way. Before the spell hit and she could see the terror in their faces, she turned away, looking for the next threat.

Her team had caught up and swarmed around her, trying pointlessly to protect her. More Carules poured out of the rooms on either side of the hallway, throwing spells of their own. Blue flames assaulted her team and she watched two of them go down, taking fire for her.

Please don’t lose your lives for me.

"Get behind me!" she yelled. They, of course, didn't listen, desperate to protect their Prodigy. She couldn't throw any of her spells without fear of hitting her team. Frustrated, she darted forward, shoving them out of her way. Already tracing her spell into the air in front of her, she forcibly moved her second-in-command (
shouldn’t I at least know his name?)
out of her way and threw her spell, but not fast enough. Blue flames slammed into her shoulder, a powerful fireball spell that seared into her skin. She didn't pause, because acknowledging the pain would get her whole team killed.

She drew another spell, and as it burned in the air before her she thought randomly that her
nacinin
was a pretty spell. The Carules, however, didn’t agree. Once they recognized it, they fell all over each other trying to get out of the hallway. As if watching from a distance, she shoved the spell forward and it flew away from her, the red flames growing, expanding into an awful form, distortedly canine, fangs dripping venom, so big it enveloped the entire hallway. It slashed forward with razor-edged paws, and they didn't stand a chance, falling prey to the flames. She thought the screaming would never stop, and then all at once, it did. The hallway was silent.

Ari moved forward, resisting the urge to hold her wounded shoulder, her eyes flicking over the rest of the warehouse for any more traces of Carules magic. She turned to her team, motioning them to come, wanting to scream at them for being so stupid and forcing her to kill the Carules. But her team didn't deserve to be screamed at, and she knew it. She was the only person in the history of Edren or Carules magic who could throw that spell, and she was the only one to blame.

"Secure the building," she said woodenly as she turned the corner into a large lobby-like area. Troy and his unnamed partner sat, tied, beaten and unconscious, in the middle of the room.

She hurried over to them, squatting and putting a hand to each of their necks. "They're alive," she murmured to no one, but one of her team stood silently behind her.

"I'll alert the healers. We should get them out of here before more Carules show up." He motioned to a few of the others standing nearby and they scurried forward, glancing at Ari and then away as if she would throw that spell again at them, just for looking at her.

I did it to save you
, she thought sadly.

But they didn’t see that. Ari stood and moved away just as her team commander came, announcing that the building was secure. She stood near the wall as the rest of them made fast work of freeing the Carules restraints that bound their two captives. When they were free and it was clear she was no longer needed, she left, slipping down the stairs.

She left the building before any of them even realized she was gone. She climbed in the SUV. The driver started the engine and pulled away. "What about my team?" she asked, her voice hollow as she glanced behind her at the warehouse.

"Another transport is on the way. We've been instructed to get you back to the hanger." Ari nodded and turned to stare, unseeing, out the window, leaning her forehead against the cool glass.

Their best Edren healer met her on the jet and worked on her all the way home. However, for some reason no one could ever heal Ari properly, so the healer did the best she could and left her alone. Ari spent the rest of the flight staring out the window at the dawn. She did her best not to think, but she failed. When they landed at her family's estate in Pennsylvania she went straight to her room and locked the door without speaking to anyone. She should have said hello to her mother, at least, but just couldn't muster the energy. She took the pain pills the regular Normals doctor had left for her and fell gratefully into a drug-induced sleep.

Chapter Eight

"The Prodigy attacked last night in New York." Hunter hung up his cell phone as he approached Shane and Charity in the shade at the far reaches of the school property — it was Charity’s favorite place on campus. Shane threw rocks desolately in the small pond, watching the ripples fade.

"What happened?" Shane leaned forward, frowning. Next to him, Charity's eyes started to glow; Shane and Hunter both fell silent, watching her face, waiting for her to tell them about her vision. After a moment, the light faded and her glittering silver eyes returned to normal. She bit her lip.

"What do you see?" Shane asked.

When Charity didn't speak right away, Hunter cleared his throat. "They attacked, but the Prodigy had a whole team with him. No one survived. They didn’t even have time to make the captured Edrens talk before — “

Charity interrupted him. "The Council knew he would come. They knew everyone there would be killed, and they didn't care." Silent tears slid down her pale cheeks. Shane and Hunter both jerked toward her in surprise.

“How do you know that?” Hunter asked.

“I saw it! The Council figured they would be able to catch him, but he walked through the wards. Somehow he must have known about them and disabled them.” She paused, her chin quivering. “But the Council knew when they set up the ambush that no one would survive."

"That can't be right." Hunter glared over her shoulder, unwilling to meet her eyes. Charity said nothing, dropping her gaze to stare at the ground, a pink blush spreading across her cheeks.

Shane shook his head. "How many?"

"Thirteen," Hunter and Charity answered together.

Shane jumped to his feet. "That should have been me facing him! Not them!" He slammed his fist into the rough bark of a tree trunk. The bones cracked and the skin tore but he didn't care. He welcomed the pain. Physical pain he could handle.

"The Council wants to make sure they know what they're dealing with before they send you after him. This isn't a battle where we can take chances." Hunter’s voice was deceptively bland as he edged himself between Shane and any more defenseless trees.

"They send their Prodigy out every chance they get. And I sit here and pretend to be a normal person!" Shane’s chest rose and fell as he sucked in ragged breaths, staring at the ground, unwilling to look into the face of Hunter’s calm.

"Yeah, and their Prodigy gets injured. And weakened. And we learn more about him than they know about you. When you do go against him, you'll have the advantage. It won't even be a real fight," Hunter said.

"Yeah. And while we're learning, our people are getting killed. Because of me!"

"It isn't because of you. It's because of this stupid war. When they're ready, the Council will send you out, and the war will be over. It will be worth it,” Hunter told him. Shane looked away, chest heaving.

“I see it sometimes,” Charity whispered. They both looked over at her, startled. She was staring into the pond, and Shane wasn’t sure she was even talking to them.

“See what?” he asked.

“The original Charity. Her vision. Her… prophesy that started the war.”

Hunter leaned forward, studying Charity like he could read her mind. “Tell us.”

She blinked up at him, surprised. Maybe she’d thought they would laugh at her, but Shane was just as anxious to hear what she’d seen as Hunter. She chewed the inside of her cheek for a second, and then nodded. She closed her eyes as they started to glow. Her voice took on an odd, dislocated hollow tone as she recounted what she was seeing.

“
With a gasp, her silver eyes flew open and stared, unseeing, at the ceiling above her head, her vision still racing through her mind. Her eyes focused and she heard the howling of the storm through the closed shutters. She fumbled for the candle on the stand beside her, and clambered out of bed, wrapping the bedcovers around her slender shoulders for warmth. The thin walls of this place didn’t keep the heat in. Or the cold out. She peeked through the window but drew back at the chill. There weren’t storms like this at home. Storms frightened her. They always seemed a forbearer of bad things to come. Turning away, she crouched and dug through her satchel on the roughly hewn wood floor, emerging with a quill and paper, then sat at the worn desk and began to write, her mind flitting from her vision to the storm and back again.

Long after her hand throbbed with the effort and her candle had burned low, she continued to write. Finally, exhausted, she sat back, massaging her aching hand and re-reading the last lines she had written. “There will be a great war between those whose blood run with flames. Blue as the deepest ocean and crimson as a pierced heart. It will be unstoppable until the day two will rise up, more powerful than any before or any to come after, and the one soul who houses both will be put to rest and bring an end to the war.”

“But what was the betrayal?” Hunter asked.

Charity jerked, startled out of her vision. Blinking several times, she stared owlishly at Hunter before her brain caught up. “The betrayal was the Edren Duke and his daughter Ada torturing Christian, who was a Carules. And… and his cousin, Charity.” She shuddered. The original Charity had lost her mind because of spells the Duke had practiced on her. She threw herself from a bridge not long after the war had started.

“It won’t happen to you, Char. The Duke of Adlington has been dead for hundreds of years,” Shane said.

It was as if he hadn’t spoken. Charity said nothing, watching ripples race across the pond.

****

In History Monday, Shane walked into class, his feet dragging. It was a constant battle to fight the images in his head of his people being murdered.

He was anxious to see Ari, hoping she would provide a much needed distraction. He was surprised when her seat was still empty, and although he kept watching the door all through class, Ari never showed up. Even Hunter seemed preoccupied, glancing from her empty seat to the door as if he could conjure her into place. Although… it was Monday, and they had a football game that day. Knowing Hunter, he was probably worried about losing the game without her.