Rise of Legends (The Kin of Kings Book 2) (18 page)

He killed another with Annah’s help, and then another. An arrow zipped by Basen, barely missed Abith, and lodged in Peter’s right shoulder. He stumbled backward as he gasped. Basen could glance behind him no longer as he defended himself against two men at once. One was shot in the back of the head by his own archer, and the other fell from psyche.

Basen felt his back bump against Abith’s. Trusting that Annah would keep the swordsmen off him, he turned for a quick chance at killing Abith. But the master swordsman was much quicker and grabbed him and swung him around so that the two of them switched places. Basen yelped as Cleve’s blade came at him, but Cleve shifted his lunge at the last moment, tearing off the shoulder of Basen’s coat.

Basen gathered his wits and took a wild swing behind him, hoping to take off Abith’s head. But he’d rolled toward his fellow swordsmen to give himself room to turn around.

Despite the arrow protruding from him, Peter shoved Basen out of the way and, with Cleve behind him, ran at Abith. The three blades clashed, Abith blocking both of them at once but stumbling back two steps. Peter and Cleve came after him again.

Abith ducked, leaned, and continued to block, too quick to catch, especially now that Peter moved at half the speed he did before. But Abith couldn’t seem to find an opening for one attack of his own.

Annah looked exhausted, though she managed to take down every swordsman who tried to assist Abith. Basen and Jackrie found a few opportunities to shoot as their group continued to advance, Alabell standing at the back. Basen’s leg had begun to sting terribly where Abith had cut him but it still seemed to function almost normally.

Peter eventually switched his sword to his left hand, unable to use his right very well. He lacked skill, though, and Abith upped his aggression. Basen tried to help, but there wasn’t enough room, and Peter didn’t allow him through.

“We almost have him,” Peter grunted.

But Abith danced between Peter and Cleve in that moment and nearly took Annah’s head off. She fell backward to get away, and her head slammed hard against a wall, nearly knocking her out.

Basen stepped in front of her for protection. Abith retreated by dancing through Cleve and Peter once again.

Annah got back on her feet, but stumbled sideways. Basen grabbed her, yet her feet couldn’t seem to find purchase even with him holding most of her weight. Her body wanted to fall one way, then the other.

Swordsmen assisted Abith now that psyche no longer stopped them, and Peter and Cleve quickly became overwhelmed.

“Run to the left,” Basen urged them while holding Annah. “Just a little farther.”

His allies seemed to notice the glowing ceiling, and they drove Abith and his ever-growing army back with a burst of aggression.

“Can you walk?” Basen asked Annah.

“I…where?”

“Give her to me.” Alabell wrapped her arms beneath Annah’s armpits to support her weight from behind. Annah fell as Basen released her, taking Alabell down with her. Soon, both women were back on their feet with Jackrie helping. Basen joined Cleve and Peter at the front, focusing his efforts on the swordsmen swarming around them.

Basen caught glimpses of red on his allies’ clothes and skin. Cleve and Peter had both been cut in various places, yet so had Abith—a gash in his forearm and one down his shoulder. Basen deflected attacks and killed with his counterattacks, but he misjudged the strength of a smaller swordsman and didn’t deflect the blade far enough from his body, his hip catching it. Pain came instantly, shooting down his leg and slowing his step.

Without psyche, Basen and his comrades certainly would lose this fight, but they’d made it beneath the glowing ceiling by then. Basen could feel everyone’s fear rising, their faces desperate as they eyed Basen during the brief moments they could.

“Do it,” Jackrie urged.

Basen sucked the bastial energy down from the ceiling in one strong gust, as if taking a quick and massive breath, using his mind to grasp the energy. The immediate weight felt like he was suddenly leagues underwater, the pressure almost too much to bear. He tried to think of the Academy as he ripped open a portal, but his focus went into maintaining control as the energy fell into the black and red sphere he’d created.

He lost all of the BE immediately to the portal. The sphere grew to Cleve’s size as it sucked in all the energy. It wanted to collapse in on itself, but Basen forced it to stay open, the strain making his head and chest feel as if they were being crushed.

Abith kicked Cleve into the portal, and the enormous warrior became smaller as he rolled away.

“What in god’s world is that?” Abith backed away, the portal sitting between his army and Basen’s party.

Their shock only lasted a moment, but it was enough for Jackrie and Alabell to drag Annah in. Now swordsmen and Abith swarmed Peter, who guarded Basen like an enraged dog.

“Go,” Basen uttered, barely able to speak from the strain. They were the last two left.

“You first!”

Basen didn’t have focus to argue, so he stumbled into the portal as quickly as his injured and enervated body could carry him.

There was nothing beneath his feet to find purchase. But instead of falling, something pulled him from the side. His shoulder and knee crashed into something as hard as rock, yet he still couldn’t regain his feet. The world around him was sideways, with no ground for hundreds of feet! Disoriented and dizzy, he tried to get his hands around something to hold, but they found nothing as he rolled along the wall.

Finally, he realized that it wasn’t a wall that he’d crashed into but the ground. He got his feet beneath him, yet the dizziness was too much and he went down again. He held his stomach to avoid retching.

Slowly, the dizziness faded and the world seemed to be right again beneath his feet. Heat punched his back. He turned to find a sea of lava, which explained the red he’d seen within the portal when it had opened. On his other side, the enormous cavern stretched wider and wider until it shrank down as it came to a yawning opening, where a door of darkness prevented Basen from seeing farther.

The portal was gone. Basen had lost control the instant he’d gone through. The rest of his party was still recovering, glancing around in confusion, most holding their stomachs.

Peter hadn’t made it through.

God’s mercy, he’s going to think I closed the portal on purpose.

Why was this Basen’s first thought? Peter had been left wounded and alone. He was likely dead.

Shit
.

“What happened?” Jackrie asked.

“He told me to go first. There was no time to argue.” Basen’s voice was laden with guilt.

The rest of their party gathered around, except for Annah, who was unconscious. Alabell had her in her arms.

“Peter didn’t make it?” Cleve asked.

“No,” Jackrie answered.

Everyone fell silent as they stared at Basen.

“I was too disoriented when I went through the portal,” he explained. “I couldn’t keep it open.”

Jackrie took a moment to glance around, then asked, “Where did you take us?”

“I have no idea.”

*****

Sanya gasped as she sat up in bed. Something heavy had disrupted the spiritual world, her mother’s spirit jolting toward it. Sanya jumped off her bed and ran after her mother’s spirit, but the wall of her bedroom within the castle soon stopped her. Although they were in different worlds, Sanya remained connected to her mother so that the two of them could feel wherever the other went. But this force pulled her mother away so violently and quickly that Sanya immediately lost track.

She wanted to scream, but someone might hear and send for Tauwin. It already had been difficult enough convincing him to sleep in his own bed. If he caught word that something had happened to her during the night, there would be no talking him out of staying with her after that.

She ran to her dresser, opened a drawer, threw her clothes on the ground to get them out of the way, then grabbed the vial of safli potion at the bottom. She took a swig, then ran back to bed.

“Damn you, Basen. I should’ve killed you.” She put her palms over her eyes and forced herself back asleep with psyche. The safli potion would make most people dream, but she no longer was capable. Her connection to the spiritual world sent her there instead.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Effie slept little before Steffen roused her with a shake to her shoulder. “It’s daylight,” he said apologetically. He’d kept watch, taking a potion to keep himself awake.

Wilfre was already up, standing with his hands on his hips. He glanced to the north longingly as if he could see the Academy through the trees and wished to return to it. He had on a fresh shirt because Steffen had ripped his old one in order to properly treat the arrow wounds, but Wilfre must not have had another pair of pants, for he still had on the same ones with blood dried around one leg.

He moved slowly as he turned, wearing a miserable look. “Let’s get this over with.”

It isn’t much farther to Trentyre
, Effie reminded herself.

They walked for a while in silence. Eventually Effie heard voices of men ahead of them. They snuck closer to the sound until Reela could sense their enemies with psyche.

She gave a sorrowful sigh. “There are twenty or thirty of them.”

Steffen started west at a quick pace, as if this news didn’t affect him. “Let’s see if we can go around.”

They spent half the day traversing the forest to the west, Reela continuing to sense enemies between them and Trentyre and growing ever more annoyed and worried.

“It’s no use,” Wilfre complained. “We can’t get through.”

“Are we giving up?” Effie asked. It had been up to them to find a way to communicate with their allies in Trentyre. But if it was impossible, then there was no use staying in Raywhite Forest any longer.

“Yes,” Wilfre said to her delight. “Let’s go back.”

“Not yet.” Steffen put his hands on a tree as if he was about to climb it. “We have to at least see what we can. Wilfre, lend me your back.”

“My back is injured. Use Reela’s.”

“Your back is fine. I healed you myself.”

“It still hurts. The caregelow potion didn’t work as well as it should have.”

“It saved your life and closed your wounds, like it’s supposed to.”

Reela sighed as she got on her hands and knees beneath the tree. “Just use mine and be careful.”

Steffen stepped up onto her back, then reached up to grab a branch. Effie pushed him up by his feet until he could swing his leg over. He got himself onto the branch, where there were many more branches like it to support him. He moved deftly up the tree, as if he’d climbed many times before.

He stopped halfway up, when he was high enough that a fall surely would kill him. Squinting, he peered to the south.

“I see a trench and men within it.”

“How far does it go?” Wilfre asked.

“I don’t see the end of it because there are trees in the way. It might end farther west, but going around would be too far for us to get into Trentyre without being seen. The trees have all been cleared between the trench and the city. But there’s another trench wrapped around Trentyre.”

Steffen carefully began his descent while Wilfre shook his head. “
Now
it’s time to go back.”

“Or we could do as much damage to them as we can,” Effie said. This aggression was Sanya’s fault, she realized, but she might as well make use of it.

“Yes,” Steffen agreed. “It doesn’t look like they’re ready for a surprise attack, and I don’t see why they would be. Our only chance at defeating them would be if half or more of our army could march on them, but there are too many scouts watching the Academy. They’d know we were coming, and the Academy would be taken in the absence of our men and women. But they wouldn’t be ready for just four of us.”

“We might be able to kill their commander if we can locate him first,” Reela suggested.

“No.” Wilfre continued to shake his head. “I’ll never find a safe route through to Trentyre if we make it obvious we’re here.”

Reela folded her arms and glared at him. “What do you hope to accomplish by running back to the Academy?”

“It’s Terren’s job to figure out what to do,” he said flippantly.

Doesn’t he get it?
Effie still didn’t understand how this man was the king’s liaison. “A safe route through is no longer an option,” she explained. “We can either take this opportunity to do as much damage as we can, or this trip will account for nothing but giving you scars and killing the only friendly bear in the world.”

Wilfre blinked at her tiredly.

Steffen cleared his throat. “Perhaps there
is
a safe route, Eff.”

“We’re likely to get ourselves caught if we spend all day looking for an opening,” Wilfre argued. “And even if we do find one, we’re bound to be seen by archers and mages as we cross. You’re the one who said all the trees have been cleared between Henry Hiller’s trench and our enemies.”