Page 128 of Forged in Flame and Shadow

He and I dart between Bastion’s buildings as acolytes pour out of the sanctuary. I hear them spread out, and inevitably a handful of them pick up our trail.

“This way.” Alastor yanks me around a corner just as a flare of fire explodes against the wall in a flurry of sparks. I look around us and realize I have no idea which way the laundry building is.

“We need to get closer to the perimeter,” Alastor pants, reading my mind. “We can trace our way back from there.”

We run for the outer wall, footsteps stomping behind us. A gust of wind like a battering ram nearly sends me and the codex flying, but Alastor catches me, and I send sun beams shooting wildly over my shoulder. There are some shouts of alarm in response, and the footsteps grow a little quieter. I don’t want to kill any of these kids if I don’t have to, but I have to keep them far away enough that they can’t use their magic effectively against us.

We hit the outer wall, and from here I can make out the sounds of battle on the other side. We can’t be far from Harman and the others.

“Hyllus, really anytime now,” I murmur through gritted teeth.

The ground beneath us starts to quiver, and a rumble like thunder fills my ears.

Six acolytes reach the wall behind us. They’re from the group of older teens and are therefore the fastest, but the confusion on their faces makes them look young.

“There!” one of them shouts, pointing out Alastor and me. She steps forward and throws up a hand to conjure some magic, but she’s struggling to maintain her balance on the shaking ground.

“Go right,now,” Alastor orders, and as we hurl ourselves away from the wall, the ground beneath the acolytes splits open.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Leon use his power on this scale before. The earth collapses like wet sand, disappearing into a rift about twenty feet wide. The acolytes plummet downward, their screams drowned out by the groan of the moving earth, but I see the fear on their faces before they vanish into the churning dirt.

I would probably freeze if it wasn’t for Alastor shoving me to keep me moving. We find the wall again and follow it until we spot the laundry building. Hauling ourselves up onto the roof, I’m relieved to see the rebels still crouched on the other side. I toss the codex down to them, and they conjure their magic to help us descend safely. After that, the plan is that we go straight to a safehouse near Kestis, where we’ll meet the rest of the team.

Just when I’m perched on the top of the wall, about to head down the other side, I look out across the complex. I can’t see the battle raging outside the walls, but I can see the point where the buildings are shaking and rumbling like a great beast is about to awaken and erupt from the earth. Leon is there somewhere, alive and well and ripping the ground apart.

It’s enough reassurance for now, and I climb down to the rebels so Alastor and I can go with them to the safehouse.

Leon

Red. Red everywhere. In the swirling crimson of the clerics’ robes, in the blood spilling on the ground, in the flames arcing through the air from the palms of incendi.

The Hand members who provided our intel didn’t know the number of clerics at Bastion, that much is clear, and with the Temple’s twin-blessed forces, the rebels should’ve been slaughtered twice over by now. But my soldiers have been here before, and we Filusians know how to deal with Ethirans.

I block a projectile with my blade, the stone ricocheting off the metal with a clang. I spin and aim for the aesteri who flung it at me. He can’t aim again in time, and I separate his head from his shoulders.

A few feet away, a man laughs uncontrollably, tears of mirth streaming down his face as Damia runs him through. Another woman sobs behind him, gripped by an impossible sadness she doesn’t understand. That sorrow is the last thing she feels as Phaia finishes her.

Ana. I don’t know where she is or what she’s doing. Whether she’s alive or dead. I sent the diversion after Hyllus gave me the signal—but was it enough to save her? My heart thuds as I fight my way through the clerics toward the rebels.

The Hand members have allowed themselves to be driven up against the outer wall, trying to protect Harman, who’s slumpedon the ground with a chunk taken out of his shoulder by a particularly nasty geostri spell.

I throw a wave of my own geostri magic toward the clerics bearing down on them, and it reverberates past the wall and into the complex, making the ground groan as buildings shift. The clerics scatter before the ground can split open, giving me enough room to reach the rebels. Hyllus is among them, using his size to shield as many as he can.

“What’s happening inside?” I demand. “Why don’t we have news?”

“We do,” Hyllus says. “The codex team sent the second signal. They’re heading home.”

Home.That’s the code for the safehouse where we’ll meet when this is over. It means Ana is safe and away from this mess. It means they probably have the codex too. The mission is done, and we can leave this cursed place at last.

“Retreat!” I bellow to the rebels and my soldiers. “Fall back!”

Hyllus hauls Harman onto his shoulders, and we move as a group, blocking a volley of terrial magic from the clerics as we go. We just need to get up into the foothills, and then we’ll be shielded. This open ground around Bastion’s outer walls is deadly, and a few more rebels fall as we withdraw.

I see Esther in the grass scrabbling to put out a fire on the leg of her pants as a red-robed figure approaches. I dart forward to cover her, only to recognize the face of the cleric stalking toward me.

I lift my blade and bare my teeth.

Sophos.

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