Page 77 of Shadow Caster
I gripped Brady’s arm. “It was a fomorian. He saved me from the others. He called them fir bolg.”
Brady ran his gaze over me again. He gripped my chin gently and coaxed my head to the side to scan the spot where the fomorian had planted his hand.
“He hurt you?”
“No. Not really. I mean he knocked me out and took me to the cave outside the catacombs. But he was trying to hide me from these fir bolg creatures.” I stared up at him. “He was feeling the effects of the mist by the time we split, but he said the others, these fir bolg, could withstand longer periods in the mist. He called the mist poison lands. How can that be? I thought we were warding off fomorians. No one mentioned anything else.”
“Yeah,” Brady said. “So did I.” His attention dropped to my mouth, and he released me. “Let’s get you back to base. I need to call this in.”
Twenty-Four
We were gathered in the whiteboard room, butts parked on the plastic chairs. The atmosphere was a mixture of apprehension and excitement. It had been an hour since the incident. Brady had taken a statement and ushered me to change and shower. By the time I’d gotten out, Vince was back with Hyde in tow.
The troop had been summoned, and here we were.
Hyde stood by the whiteboard, arms crossed, face like thunder. “After the incident in the mist, we’ve been instructed to increase patrols in all sectors. I’ll be taking the first years back to the Academy and sending the rest of the second years to Vince for allocation.”
Vince nodded, his face grim. “The fomorians must have found a new way to withstand the mist.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I don’t think that’s the case. The one that … engaged with me. He was struggling to breathe, and he was covered in the clay you guys told us about.”
“We pulled some clay off your hair. It’s the same,” Brady said. “Carlo ran tests on the composition.”
Carlo raised two fingers. “I did, and it is.”
“What about the fir bolg? It’s this other race the fomorian mentioned that confuses me. He saidtheywere the ones trying to bring down the posts, andhewas looking for … salvation or something. He could have killed me, but he didn’t.”
Hyde looked thoughtful. “Henrich, the shadow master, has been passed your statement of what happened. They are looking into it.”
“Super soldiers?” Lloyd said softly. “Maybe these fir whatever are some kind of super soldier trained to spend longer periods in the mist.”
“It will still kill them,” Vince said. “The damage doesn’t vanish once they get out of the mist. Damage is permanent.”
“I doubt they care,” Hyde muttered. “If they can take down enough posts, then they win.”
“Two more posts went down around the time they were sighted,” Brady said. “Just before Justice called in.” He ran a hand over his face. “Lloyd and Harmon fixed them.”
He had his head down as if he was ashamed or something. Shit, he was probably kicking himself over his decision to let me go out alone. But it wasn’t his fault. I needed him to know that.
I tried to catch his eye, but he kept his dark gaze averted.
“A raid this far in …” Hyde rubbed a hand over his mouth.
I rubbed the mark on my inner arm absently. It had healed but scarred, so it looked like a brown ink tattoo.
“And he gave you that so he could communicate with you …” Carlo said softly, his gaze on my arm. “Doesn’t sound like the actions of an evil fomorian.”
No, it didn’t.
“Fucking hell,” Vince snapped. “So, one fucker saved Justice’s ass. He could be here for any reason. Salvation? What the fuck does that mean? Probably some Otherworld religious nut getting himself mixed up in fomorian affairs. The fact is that this was a raid. The fact is that two posts were taken out. The fucking fact is these fuckers have found a way to get to sector one without dying.”
There was a rumble of agreement from the cadets.
Hyde’s gaze was fixed on me, but not on my face, on the mark on my arm. “We need to stick to protocol,” he said. “Right now, the first years need to get back to the Academy.” He dropped his arms to his sides. “I’ll be back later,” he said to Vince before turning his attention on Harmon, Thomas, and me. “Grab your gear. We need to head back. Now.”
* * *
Master Hyde didn’t speak allthe way back to the Academy. Tension rolled off him like a menacing fog. He got us to the stone steps leading up to the shadow wing and stopped.
