Stran slammed his fists again and again into the base of the tower as the ground rumbled beneath them. One more hit, andit crumbled. The rag doll constructs tumble-ran down the side of the wall as it fell. They launched themselves into the air and spread their arms as if they were sails. Kreya caught them. She pivoted, ready to run.
And saw what they’d failed to discover in the tunnels.
“There was more than one exit,” Jentt said.
Zera began swearing, colorfully and ceaselessly.
Across the plains, the skeletal soldiers and killing machines were clawing their way up through holes in the earth. They encircled the tower in every direction. Back-to-back, Kreya and her friends drew their weapons.
“Anyone see a weak point?” Kreya asked, her voice calm and steady. There had to be a way out of this. They’d faced terrible odds before and survived. They were the Heroes of Vos—this couldn’t be their end.
I won’t let us die in secret and in vain.
The horrors kept spilling out from at least five points across the plain. As they emerged, they spread, clicking and whirring and crying to fill in the space between them.
“There, where they’re climbing out.” Zera pointed. “Yes, it’s less dense in between the exits, but those soldiers are prepared for us. The ones emerging are jumbled.”
Kreya nodded. “Aim for the exits, then run straight for the wall.” It wasn’t much of a plan. In fact, it was a terrible plan. But they couldn’t fight an army this size. Their only option was to try to flee before the enemy was at full strength. She hoped Zera had enough talismans. It had seemed like so many back at the farmhouse. Now she didn’t know if it would be enough.
“Stealth and speed?” Jentt asked.
“No stealth. Unnecessary. The enemy knows we’re here.” And at this point, it didn’t matter if the guards saw them. Especially if they also saw the army. They only had one goal this time: survive.
Stran flexed his muscles. “We do it like we did before. Jentt unbalances the enemy, and I take them out.” He squeezed a talisman in one hand and adjusted his grip on a knife with the other.
“Not like before,” Kreya snapped. “Only speed.”
All that mattered this time was escape. She watched the nearest point—they had to hit it when it was at its densest and use the confusion. Even then...We’re not going to make it,Kreya thought.This is impossible. I led them to their deaths. All of us, this time.
Zera passed out her strongest speed talismans. “These are carved for speed but not endurance,” she warned. “You’ll get a ten-minute burst out of each, and that’s it. Use it well.”
As Zera’s fingers touched hers, Kreya could feel the power buzzing through it. Later, if there was a later, she’d ask what kind of bone Zera used. For now, though—
“Run.”
Marso took off first, a hair faster than the others, but Jentt knew how to use every bit of power inside a speed talisman. He soon stretched into the lead. The others were a blur around Kreya.
It took mere seconds, but Kreya felt as if her mind slowed to see it all: the blueness of the sky, the sway of the autumn wildflowers, the deadliness of the force arrayed before them.
We can make it! We can—
And then she heard a voice behind them:
“My old friends, you must stay and visit.”
His voice was soft and urbane, yet it carried, amplified, to all their ears, and beside Kreya, she saw Stran slow at the soundof Eklor’s voice. Only a slight hitch to his stride, but it was enough.
Ahead of them, a construct with a metal frame, steel feathers, and the remnants of flesh clinging to once-human arms rose from the grasses—it had been hidden there, perhaps since before the earth opened up to disgorge the army of horrors.
In one hand, it gripped a three-foot blade, a narrow flash of silver.
Kreya saw it all in a millisecond. Less. But before she could scream a warning, the construct plunged the blade into Stran.
Chapter Fifteen
It was happening again.
She was going to lose someone she cared about. Someone she was responsible for. And it was her fault. She’d led them here, given the orders, and made the mistakes.
