Page 172 of Elven Shadow

Dammit, why did there have to be more innocents involved in this?

That only meant more complications, more ways for things to go wrong. As much as Rebecca didn’t want to admit it, it also meant more powerful forces tugging on her conscience, pulling her in several different directions now when one direction and one objective was all she could afford.

She had no doubt this was Harkennr’s work. Rebecca had known it intimately once upon a time, long ago, and would recognize it anywhere.

An elf’s memory fixed in detailed precision was unnaturally long.

A Bloodshadow Elf’s memory was damn near eternal.

The chained line of terrified prisoners wobbled on their feet, some collapsing to their knees before three more guards patrolling on foot approached the newest living shipment to haul and threaten and beat their prisoners back onto their feet. Then everyone was roughly corralled toward the prison’s entrance.

Rebecca gritted her teeth and focused on committing every line of these patrol guards’ faces to memory.

She didn’t have the strength to fight off all Harkennr’s soldiers at once, or even one at a time on her own. She hadn’t anticipated going toe to toe with every single guard posted in the prison yard.

But later, once she’d regained her full strength and sufficiently assessed exactly what kind of threat waited both around and within these prison walls, she would sure as hell be back. When she returned, it would be with a full assault force from within Shade’s ranks, and they would raze this base to the ground to get these prisoners out.

She would make sure of it.

For now, though, the sharp ache of her helplessness and ensuing regret was enough of a reminder to bring Rebecca back to the present. She didn’t want to leave these victims here any more than she wanted to let the homunculus poison consume her from the inside out. But until she healed herself, she wouldn’t be of any use to anyone.

The closest guard to her current hiding place held his position beside the northeastern corner of the triangular defensive formation. His utility’s vehicle’s engine was off, the keys most likely left in the ignition for faster and easier access.

Rebecca could hardly believe her luck when the troll with two of the most enormous, grotesquely protruding tusks she’d ever seen beneath asingle glowing orange eye—its partner having been plucked out of its socket—leaned against the outside of his vehicle to light a cigarette.

How much more perfect could this get?

Maintaining her tight grip on the coils of Bloodshadow smoke almost concealing her completely, Rebecca crept across the dead grass toward the troll in uniform, his assault rifle dangling against his hip by its shoulder strap while he cupped a hand around the end of his cigarette and produced a flame at the tip of one finger.

Fine, a troll this skilled in pyromancy was rare, but his proficiency didn’t make him any less distracted.

Even if the air had emptied of the idling engines, the low growl of the scattered shouts and barked commands of the front gates’ security team, or the jagged, piercing wails and heart-rending pleas of Harkennr’s new victims mingling with the agonized screams of old victims inside the prison, Rebecca still wouldn’t have made a sound.

Her feet whispered across the withered husks of dead grass patches staggered across the yard, her gaze and every ounce of focus she could summon centered on that one unsuspecting troll taking a smoke break.

Her first target.

The first confirmed enemy combatant who would lay down his life to heal and fuel Rebecca’s.

She could almost taste his spark now—the brilliant essence of his life force, the sustaining energy animating his form that would soon clear the suffocating darkness inside of her, coiling tighter and tighter around her existence with every second.

Only life could combat death to sustain more life somewhere else.

She sincerely hoped that same life could also banish un-life as well.

Then she reached the utility truck’s rear, which fortunately didn’t carry any living cargo like the other. Rebecca pressed her back against the rear fender, making herself as small as possible.

The troll’s energy pulsed from right around the corner of the vehicle, his heartbeat strong and steady, if slightly fast. His long inhale for the first draw of his lit cigarette before he let it all out in a wave of acrid tobacco smoke washed over her.

That was what Rebecca needed.

The fact that this troll with a nicotine vicewillinglyserved Harkennr in guarding such dark and deadly atrocities inside the Old Joliet Prison only made Rebecca feel that much better about what she was about to do. That much more vindicated.

When the crackling hiss of his next drag reached her, Rebecca opened her right hand—she still couldn’t feel her left—and summoned her Bloodshadow spear with a quick flick of her wrist.

Nothing happened.

Shit. No…

---