“Eleven,” is the reply.
“Send six down. Three to protect the humans and three with me.” He ducks under the portcullis with a motion for Naito and me to follow.
“It’s clear, I presume?” Aren asks when I reach his side again.
I scan the flat area of land between us and the river approximately two hundred feet away. The foothills are just beyond it. Theoretically, Paige, Lee, and Tylan could go there, hide out in the caverns or in one of the mountain passes in the distance. Then they could choose the time to fissure out of the city. It’s what I would do.
Well, it’s what I would do if I didn’t know that the rebels knew about the serum and where to get it. I have to assume Paige has chosen her side now, and that she’ll tell the remnants how she was given the Sight. I don’t think Lee will stop her.
The betrayal hurts exactly as much as it should. We were friends. She shouldn’t stab me in the back like this. She shouldn’t ally with my enemy without asking me what this war is about. I’m going to kick her ass when we recapture her.
“McKenzie?” Aren says. He’s focused on the row of shops to our left. They’re a good hundred yards away and difficult to make out with the sky growing so dark.
“I don’t see anything,” I tell him. “Do you?”
“Maybe. Keep heading toward the gate.”
The six fae he requested from the wall have arrived. He assigns three to Naito and me, then he and the others disappear into slashes of white light. I see their exiting fissures near one of the gray-bricked buildings. Aren’s looking down the narrow walkway between them. He draws his sword, then—
I’m nearly blinded when a virtual wall of light opens up in front of me.
My guards react before I do, leaping between me and the newly arrived fae before the nearest one is able to take my head off. Instinct makes me drop to the ground anyway. I roll, and when I get back to my feet, Aren’s back at my side.
“Diversion,” he snaps out. “Stay close.”
Tylan must have fissured for reinforcements. No less than two dozen remnants fill the clearing between the river and wall. We’re outnumbered, but not for long. Other rebels join us—probably the rest of the guards from the wall—and they surround me and Naito, attacking any remnant who gets too close.
“We should go back!” Naito yells. I just barely hear him above the sounds of the fight…and of the thunder rumbling through the air. The sky is almost black with clouds. They shift as I watch them, and just when I realize that this storm isn’t natural, the hail begins to torpedo down.
Each strike feels like a bee sting. My clothing offers little protection. The tiny pellets bruise my face, my shoulders, my arms. Someone’s controlling this, concentrating the storm above us. If we…
There they are. Paige and Lee. They’re sprinting toward the gate from the east, not from the row of buildings to the west.
“Aren!” I unsling my sketchbook from my shoulder, start to open it up, but I’m knocked to the ground.
Then Aren’s above me, intercepting a remnant, keeping him away from me. I roll to my stomach, scramble forward to grab my sketchbook, but another remnant is there. His boot comes down on the center of a page. I grab the leather strap just as he lunges forward and yank it as hard as I can. The packed earth is treacherous, with the hail building up; the sketchbook slides easily, sending the remnant flying back on his ass.
He hits hard, nearly loses his grip on his sword, the sword that’s just within my reach.
I throw myself on top of him, grabbing his arm before he brings the blade up, but I’m totally screwed. He’s stronger than I am. As he turns over, he hooks his free arm behind my back, then slams me face-first to the ground.
I swing back with an elbow. Miss. Then I lose my hold on his sword arm and—
Warmth spills over my back. His weight disappears just before I’m yanked back to my feet. Aren steadies me as the remnant’s soul-shadow rises into the air.
“Back to the wall,” he grates out.
“They’re here,” I tell him, turning toward the gate.
Aren follows my gaze, curses, then fissures out.
“Get back to the wall!” Naito shouts, showing up at my side, but I’m useless there. I need to be close to read the shadows.
“Map the shadows of the injured fae,” I tell him. When fae are hurt, they instinctively fissure to locations they’re most familiar with. They might fissure home or, if we’re lucky, back to the remnants’ base of operations.
Naito protests, but I don’t listen. I catch the attention of the three nearest rebels and order them to cover me as I run toward the gate.
I lose one of my escorts on the way. He doesn’t enter the ether, but he’s hurt. I have to fight the urge to help him. Keep running.
“Paige!” I shout when I’m less than twenty feet from her. She looks my way. So does the remnant who’s with her.
Shit. It’s the fae from the corridor, the one who was supposed to be replacing the guard Lee knocked out. I’m an idiot. A complete and utter idiot.
It has to be Tylan. He’s pushing her forward, toward the blur at the edge of the river. I won’t reach them before they fissure out so I open my sketchbook and drop to my knees.
This is always the hardest part of reading the shadows. I have to ignore the strikes of metal against metal and the shouts and cries of the fae. I have to block everything out, open to a blank page, and lock my gaze on the fae approaching the gate. I grab my pencil, putting all my faith in the rebels who are protecting me.
A fissure splits through the air, but it’s next to the gate, not over it, and a fae steps out of it, not into it. I squint across the distance, focusing on the newcomer’s face and…
And it’s Kavok, the archivist. What the hell is he doing here?
I glance up at the sky, blinking as the hail continues to fall. Kavok is doing this? He’s fully capable of calling this storm, but he’s…He’s…
He dips his hand into the river.
He’s betraying us.
I have no time to let that soak in or to contemplate his motive; he steps into the gated-fissure with Lee. Shadows replace the extinguished slash of light, and I draw a long, curving line down the right side of the page. It hooks up toward the middle. A peninsula. They’re somewhere near its eastern coast. I’m guessing it’s Brith until I realize I’m not drawing the Realm. This is—
I can’t block out the remnant who fissures in front of my nose. He’s so close, he steps out of the light and onto my sketch. No rebel is near enough to intercept his attack.
I throw myself to the left, dropping my shoulder and rolling even though I know it’s too late. Only, it’s not too late. Something hits the remnant, spinning him around and throwing him so off-balance he loses his grip on his sword.
A fissure opens behind him. Lena steps out, crouches, then stabs upward, sliding her blade in beneath the remnant’s cuirass. The fae goes pale an instant before his soul-shadow replaces his body.
“Finish it,” she orders, taking up a defensive position to my right. She so shouldn’t be out here, but I grab my sketchbook, pulling it back in front of me, then find Kavok and Lee’s shadows again. They’re fading. My map won’t be very accurate.
Before I draw another line, Paige steps through those wispy shadows, escorted by Tylan, who dips his hand into the river, opening a fissure of his own.
I rip the page out of my sketchbook, start a new map when they disappear. I’m not even halfway through it when the sketchbook is whipped out from in front of me.
I look up, see Naito standing there. What? Does he want to be the one to map the shadows? He’s not as good at it as I am, but he might be good enough.
He doesn’t start drawing, though. He just stands there staring down at me.