He nodded. “Got it.”
Edgar had already taken off, always with Nessa in battles. Everyone else stood ready, muumuus on the ground and anticipation sparkling in their eyes.
“You heard what Niamh said,” I told them. “No killing.” I pointed directly at Cyra before I swung my finger to Dave. “Did you hear that?”
ThroughHer’sconnection, I could feel the mercenaries getting closer. The mages were behind them. They weren’t moving fast, so they must be walking. Two others, these on four legs, were running for all they were worth toward the town. Sentries, probably, coming to alert Drex.
“Heavily maim, butno killing,” I told my people.
Dave’s brow sank low. “It must’ve been them loitering in the woods, planning their violence, that made the mountain uneasy. The mountain asks that we exterminate?—“
“No killing,” I interrupted. “The mountain will get plenty of blood. It’ll be fine with that.” Probably. It was a mountain, since when did they give orders?
“How about burning off a limb?” Cyra asked hopefully.
“Just don’t kill,” I reiterated. “Or start a forest fire. I don’t want to spend a bunch of energy sucking away your flames.”
The number of times I had to repeat stuff like that.
I shifted and took to the sky. Tristan was right behind me, blasting up faster and grabbing me as he went. Cyra shot up, following the others, except for Hollace, who needed more space before he shifted into his mighty Thunderbird form. Thunder rolled as he rose into the sky, which was thankfully still overcast.The mercenaries walking up the last bit of the hill to the shifter town wouldn’t think anything of it.
A large gargoyle grabbed a newly clothed Sebastian, our weird mage wearing black sweats and runners. It was time for him to fight in a way Elliot Graves never could.
If Tristan guided the gargoyles with wing movements, the sound would reverberate down the mountain, so I sent the command to prepare for battle through our connection, and the gargoyles wasted no time. My crew fit into their positions.
Our people below had all shifted and fallen into their own formation, Austin was in the lead with Broken Sue coming up behind. Despite his issue with dominance when he’d first met Austin, Drex had no trouble falling back, a huge bear fitting into the other shifters as they started forward at a fast pace. The basajaunak briefly flanked them, before disappearing into the trees.
I sent directives to push them faster, instructing them to remain invisible and slip past the mercenaries so they could then crowd around the mages. When we struck, they would, too.
We kept pace with the shifters, flying above the trees. More thunder rolled around us. I could feel the location of the enemy advancing; not far now. They moved steadily, no doubt their magical blaster guns drawn. The more expensive of those guns could rip through magical defenses and then flesh and bone. However, these mages didn’t expect much in the way of a magical defense. They would be worried about the shifters, so I doubted the blasters they carried would be high-tech. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be a problem for us.
Hopefullybeing the operative word. You just never knew with mages, especially with the unknowns of this attack.
The trees blurred as Tristan put on a burst of speed. The mercenaries should be just ahead.
Anticipation hit me. The basajaunak had sighted something. They didn’t slow, splitting instead to curve around what I surmised was the enemy. I pointed in that direction and Tristan veered right.
He started to dive.Here we go.
My heart picked up pace. I couldn’t just flap around on my own this time. I had a team and a flight plan to navigate. My wingman would be trying to lead and anticipate me at the same time. This was real-life training and getting it wrong could mean death.
With a deep breath I wiggled, and he let me go. I dove, magic at the ready. I could feel Sebastian’s ride diving with me. Near the top of the trees, I saw the first mercenary. He sensed something and slowed, looking to his right and left, but not up.
They hadn’t been told what they’d face. Otherwiseupwas the first place they’d look.
I hammered down with a wide spell, and Sebastian did the same. One mercenary screamed and another splatted against a tree. Crap. That was supposed to be a low energy version of one of the grisly spells. I’d meant to scratch him to hell, not explode his middle. Hopefully, Cyra hadn’t seen that. She’d take it as a green light to go nuts.
I angled right as a gargoyle team of four flew over me. I picked up the pace to match their speed and covered them with a spell. A jet of yellow shot through the trees, hit my spell, adding to my energy, and then filtered through my connections to the generic magical defenses I applied to the shifters. It was by far the best magical discovery in one of the Ivy House books.
I fired a different altered spell, and a black line slashed across a mercenary’s head. He gave a bloodcurdling scream, his head tore in two, and he fell.
Dang it! I’dgreatlyreduced that spell, but the result was every bit as dangerous as the original. Clearly, these spells wouldn’t be tamed.
Blasts came fast now. I had to pull up and focus on defense. Tristan caught me and flew me toward the mages. We’d done enough to distract the mercenaries. Their guns wouldn’t be able to bleed through my protective magical defenses on the shifters. Austin knew how to handle them.
The mages had stopped. In a moment I saw them, hands out and at the ready. They weren’t looking up, either. They must not have been able to see the mercenaries through the trees.
I squirmed and Tristan released me again. Sebastian pulled up next to me, and I met his eyes. I gave a slight nod, and his gargoyle transport dropped lower with me to the treetops. I hammered spells as fast as I could, mundane ones thatshouldhurt like hell but not kill, but the tree cover was thick, and I couldn’t see well enough to hit the targets.
