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Rayen rushed along behind Callan who lit the way for her with his hands, but she could see other lights coming from the right and the left. “How do you know where to go?”
Callan leaped over a log. She followed him as he explained, “Kenja contacted Kaz, and he called out to me.”
“How many TecKnati have broken through the barrier?”
“We’re about to find out.” Callan slid to a stop and held an arm out to block her from passing him.
“What are you doing?”
He leaned over and whispered, “I knew the ward would be breached once the traitor got word out, so I intentionally left several spots vulnerable. Then Kaz and I created a trap inside our ward in those areas and I told Kenja to keep her people clear of them.”
“Kenja was in on it?”
“Yes. She wasn’t in the Sphere when the traitor released the TecKnati we captured the first day we had you, Tony, and Gabby in our prison hut.”
She muttered, “I remember that.”
Callan kissed her. “That was before we realized you weren’t the enemy. Anyhow, Kenja isn’t the traitor.”
“That leaves Kaz out, too.”
“Right.”
“Then who is it?”
“If we’ve captured a TecKnati or two, we’ll find out.”
Kenja came running up to them, but she was quiet as a whisper covering the same ground Rayen had just crashed through. If she spent much more time around Kenja, Rayen was going to get a complex about her warrior skills even though she’d used a dose of her power to blast Kenja across the common area one time.
Callan lifted his chin at Kenja. “How many?”
“None on the far side. Kaz and my warriors are watching the second weak spot we created to make sure this is not a distraction so that they can send an army through that area.”
“Good. Ready?”
Insult narrowed Kenja’s gaze. “I will not honor that with an answer.”
Callan muttered something that sounded like a curse and led the way.
As soon as they neared the trap, Rayen could feel energy swirling in a tight weave of ward and spell that had the pull of a strong magnet. When she focused on the ward trap area, the light Callan shined on it blurred around the edges, allowing her to determine the perimeter of the trap.
Two bodies were stuck against an invisible wall much like oversized insects pinned against a huge sticky surface.
Their arms were stretched out. They struggled, then one of them cursed and they both looked up at Callan.
Or Kenja.
Either sight should put the fear in a TecKnati captured inside this village.
Callan said to Kenja, “I’ll release them one at a time. You contain them then I’ll transport.”
“Fine by me.”
Walking through an open area between the trap and the ward perimeter wall, Callan stepped behind the first TeK and placed a hand on his shoulder.
The guy screamed and fell to the ground, then curled up as if he expected to be kicked.
“What did you do?” Rayen called to Callan.
“Nothing. I only touched him, and he cries like a baby.”
Callan sounded bewildered.
Kenja passed through the ward and ordered the guy, “Sit up, coward.”
The TeK remained curled in a ball.
“Very well.” She held her hands over him and spun one hand as if wrapping something in the air.
A fine blue film circled the TeK on the ground until he was completely covered.
Rayen asked, “Can he breathe? If not, he won’t be of much use to question.”
Kenja nodded. “Air flows through the entire wrap.”
They repeated the process with the second TeK, but without all the drama. This scout stood as Kenja wrapped him from knees to head and announced, “You will walk.”
When he didn’t move, Kenja pointed at him and he started jumping around shouting, “Stop it! Stop it!”
She snapped her fingers and he wobbled to the side. “Are you ready to walk now?”
He nodded.
Callan used kinetics to lift the whimpering TeK from the ground and float him to a prison hut Rayne hadn’t noticed, but there were still parts of this place she had yet to see.
The hut they tossed the prisoners into was four long strides across, much larger than the one she, Tony, and Gabby had been locked in that first time, plus it wasn’t made of the same vibrating green material. This one looked woven of vines so thick she couldn’t see through the seams.
Kenja did her finger trick and the wrap disappeared from the heads of both captives. The wimpy TeK had no choice except to remain balled up and hadn’t shown any interest in unrolling himself anyway.
Callan ignored him and speared the standing TeK with an icy glare. “Who opened the ward for you?”
“I don’t know.”
Kenja didn’t hesitate or warn the scout before she pointed her finger at him.
The TecKnati started begging, “No, please don’t, I swear I don’t know. Please, please ...” Tears rolled down his face and he twisted one way then the other trying to stop whatever was upsetting him.
“What’s he feeling?” Rayen asked.
Kenja calmly said, “It is much like having a thousand black ants attack your most sensitive and private areas.”
The scout cried out, “I swear I’d tell you. I don’t know. Please make it stop,” he pleaded.
Callan gave Kenja a look. She shrugged then snapped her fingers.
The guy fell to the ground, shaking and jerking. His voice was much higher now, and raspy.
Callan squatted next to him. “Are you willing to tell me what you know now?”
“Yes, anything, please don’t do that.”
“How did you know the ward would be open in that spot?”
“Thylan told us it was marked on the outside.”
“Marked how?”
“With a glowing section of grass.”
“Is it still there?”
“We were told it would vanish as soon as a TecKnati touched it.”
Callan pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.
Rayen could feel his frustration. He’d set a trap to uncover the traitor. If this guy knew, he’d have screamed the name by now. He might have a level of tolerance for pain, but not the kind Kenja inflicted.
Kenja asked, “Why were you sent here?”
“To find the computer and take it to Thylan.”
Standing, Callan stepped out of the hut. Once Kenja and Rayen were out, he sealed it shut and set a ward of power that buzzed with the three of them this close to it.
He clearly didn’t want to risk the traitor letting these two go.
She directed a question at both Callan and Kenja. “How many MystiKs can make the grass glow?”
Kenja glanced at Callan who answered her. “All of them. It’s a simple exercise learned as a child and when anyone other than a MystiK touches it the glow disappears.”
“What are we going to do now?” Kenja asked and Rayen was glad she had decided to stay.
Callan moved them far enough away from the prison hut to talk without being overheard. “We can’t set traps all along this ward. It’s too much area to protect and we don’t have enough people to cover what we do have. It’s not going to take long for Thylan to realize his scouts failed to get the computer. Once he does, he may be crazy enough to attack. He must be getting desperate to send two of his people inside this village.”
Rayen suggested, “What if we reduce the ward’s protection area so that there’s a smaller perimeter to protect?”
“We can’t,” Kenja said. “Remember the ground cover that emits a hallucinogenic mist?”
“Oh, yes.” Rayen had encountered that on the last trip and shuddered at how close she’d come to killing Callan, because of hallucinating he was a Tek.
“It’s mutating and poisoning the plants we’ve been using to sustain us. That in turn will affect the animals. This village is barely surviving on what we can forage inside this ward.”
“Then we have to strengthen the ward.”
Callan said, “We’ve tried. Gabby and Jaxxson exhausted all they had to get it to the point it is right now, and I only allowed that because I knew everyone was inside. We can’t risk losing our strongest healers, but the ward is slowly failing.”
“What about my power?” Rayen asked, thinking that was the obvious next move.
Neither Kenja nor Callan said a word.
