‘You two stay here hidden. This is a hornet’s nest. I’ll scout the perimeter, but the last thing I need is you caught in any crossfire.’
‘I’m a nurse, Idan,’ Sheba countered, her eyes burning with outrage. ‘I’ve got a small med kit on me, I can at least assist a few of them.’
Idan arched a brow at her unwavering defiance and sighed.
‘Will you at least let me take out the guards first?’
She gave him a tight nod.
He closed his eyes, drawing theSsignakhtpower from his core.
He projected his consciousness over the camp, his vision shifting into a thermal map of synaptic energy.
He tagged the sentinels and overseers as flickering pulses of hostile intent, no different from the threats he’d deleted eons ago on the celestial battlefields of Sacra.
He unleashed a targeted massive psionic wave, a noiseless, targeted routing of mental force that rippled through the valley.
The guards buckled where they stood, their nervous systems short-circuited by the psychic surge.
They slumped into the snow, their minds plunged into a deep void that would last for hours.
‘Honey, remind me never to be on your bad side,’ Sheba whispered, her voice trembling as the entire security detail collapsed in a single heartbeat.
Idan huffed in response, scanned the area once more, then nodded. ‘We’re clear. Follow me.’
Stepping into his protective shadow, Sheba and Nirana followed Idan.
He tore the heavy gate off its hinges with ease.
Up close, the reality was even grimmer.
Scores of miners stood about, thin, malnourished, and in shock as the trio burst through the entrance.
Nirana sprinted toward an older man and woman, and two girls shackled together near an outdoor kiln, who welcomed her with cries of joy at their reunion.
At the sight, the indentured workers rushed Idan, their lamentations and groans of the indentured, imprisoned workers piercing the air as they implored the couple to free them.
The bonded miners stood in filth, the skin on their bare feet decaying from the chemical runoff from the xentium drills.
‘Idan, their hands and legs,’ Sheba gritted in despair. ‘The shackles and poison have led to the freakin’ sepsis and open sores.’
Idan tracked first to Nirana’s relatives, jaw clenching as his fingers glowed and touched their iron locks.
The metal became brittle under the heat and shattered like glass.
The family let out cries of joy as they shook free their restraints.
With a nod, a squeeze of the older man’s shoulder, Idan moved on, eyes blazing as the prowled through the ranks of the shackled, freeing more of them.
Those he released headed for the gate, including Nirana and her family.
‘Sante,’ the child’s father croaked, the sound a dry rattle that drifted up the ridge as he hurried and disappeared into the forest with his kin.
As Idan set more workers free, Sheba followed him, her heart breaking at how few emergency supplies she had with her.
She approached the worst victims, speaking softly as she wrapped broken skin in the few ligatures in her kit and tore off shreds of Idan’s cloak to bandage larger wounds.
She also hunted for sturdy branches to serve as walking sticks for those who could only hobble toward freedom.
