Before the next breath, a new sound, a closer sound filled my ears. Shoosh, shoosh. It took longer than it should have to realize they were arrows. My mind couldn't seem to process the scene fast enough, before I could distinguish the threats, they were changing. The hands I'd splayed against the wall of stones for support were now in bonds. I forced myself to look away from Ruby's back, her arms stretched out defensively, to see what was holding me.
My breath came then, fierce and gasping. Panic. Long vines were wrapping tightly around my wrists, reaching out for my legs. I burned my right wrist free, fighting to reach my sword before they grew back. Large thorns burst from the vines on my legs and pierced my skin like knives. I barely had the capacity to hope they weren't poison. I sliced at them furiously but I wasn't fast enough. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of lightning and it confused me for a moment, no storm was near.
I was trapped. I looked back to Ruby, but she could not help me now. Beyond her, a line of long flowing robes was marching through the mist... coming for us.
The sight gave me strength, or courage, or blinding stupidity. I didn't know but I went with it. I knew I was trapped against the wall, unable to move. Not that I would have been much help with nothing but fire, but there was one thing I could do.
The sun broke through the clouds and I saw precisely what I needed. A distinct shadow crossed the ground in front of us, a hawk flying overhead. I felt the corner of my mouth pull up in a smile as I closed my eyes to join him.
The scene from above was just as incomprehensible. I focused on one thing at a time. Directly below me, I saw Grey. He was caught, wrapped in vines as my own body was. But there were flames circling his feet. I followed his gaze to find his opponent, and then dove.
I hadn't put much planning in this, but I was still running on adrenaline. I decided the fastest course of action was pecking his eyes out. It worked. He threw his hands up, covering his face, screaming. But he did not attack me. As I rose back to find my next target, I saw the wolves. They were also not being attacked, fighting with no opposition. And then, I remembered what Chevelle had said. They would not kill the animals.
As I laughed, the hawk screeched. I saw Chevelle and Steed briefly glance up at the sound. They were fighting, almost back to back, the bodies of councilmen strewn around them. I surveyed the land, searching for a stronger animal to jump to, something more harmful. I ran through my options, where was a quill pig when you needed it, but I wasn't able to find anything near, evidently the fight had cleared the mountain. Okay, so it was just the hawk. And the horses. I quickly passed through their minds, causing an impromptu stampede, and then returned to the sky.
When I entered the bird again, something was wrong. It wasn't only the bird, someone was there... someone else. The shock of it threw me back to my own mind. My eyes shot open and I scanned the scene again.
I'd forgotten what I was looking for when I recognized a face, hooded in a cloak, fighting against her own. Junnie. She stared back at me for one brief moment before she turned to fight some invisible foe. The stun took the last of the borrowed courage from me. I felt myself drawing in, afraid, as my body remained encaged in vine. I became aware of an unbroken chant, a voice I didn't recognize, and I turned, stunned again, as I saw Asher. He wasn't in the battle, he stood back, seemingly a bystander as the words flowed from his barely moving lips. And then he ran.
Confusion again as I watched Junnie follow after him. Chase him.
Ruby's whip cracked in front of me and I knew the advance had gotten too far. And I was tied to a wall. Why hadn't they killed me already? I waited for the flames. What came instead was far more painful.
I expected to collapse as my body disconnected from my mind, but the vines held me in place. I saw a few final flickers of the battle before my eyes looked toward the sky, rolling back into my head. I had no way of forming a coherent thought or I might have been afraid.
Chapter Seventeen
A Fitting End
I was surprised, in my dreams, that I wasn’t already dead. They came on slowly, fuzzy. When they became clearer, they were shattered, put back together wrong. For a long time, there was no sound, only those disjointed images.
And then, when the sound came, there was something else wrong. It was like… like I wasn’t alone. Someone else was there, dreaming with me, and I could see their dreams. They mixed with mine, creating chaos.
There were faces I didn’t recognize… and those I did.
I dreamt of Steed, winking mischievously at me… mine.
A large, dark, frightening man in leather and armor… not mine.
My room in the old tree, mother’s pendant casting rainbows on the bed… mine.
A long, damp stone corridor lit with torches… not mine.
There was Junnie, her blond hair shining in the sun as she greeted me at her door on the west side of the village. And Junnie, mysterious under a hooded cloak, fighting with magic and weaponry, killing members of the council guard.