24

Rally the Reapers

XAVIER

In the midst of the festival, our black birds began crying, their screeches panicked.

“To ar-ms!” Mal cawed. “Ar-ms!”

“B-ad!” croaked Shade alongside him. “B-ad! B-ad! B-ad!”

Under their ceaseless hollering, a haunting silence fell over the crowd. Then a quiet swell of noise rose from the distance. It was a soft chatter at first, but as we listened, the screams ripped clear and bloodied.

Sirens blared to life, so loud I had to block my grown wolf ears, the screams worsening. We had to brace ourselves from the people shoving past us.

Then we saw the cause.

“Nira help us,” I whispered.

A swarm of Fera slithered into the streets, clambering over the buildings and crawling down the walls like a hive of squirming insects. Their bones cracked and popped as they marched, those in the back hurrying to keep pace with the frontline, as if they’d made some disorganized formation. It was a parade of death.

Though, oddly, they stayed within a single street, flooding through like a river confined in a canal. Just as quickly as they flowed in, they vanished behind the buildings one street down from us.

“Death!” Jaq hurried to unwind the chain around his wrist, preparing his scythe. “Again?!”

“Of course again!” I yelled over the blaring sirens, twisting to Henry. “Henry, armor!”

“On it!” Henry had already thrown open his dufflebag and yanked out our armor sets, tossing them to each of us. “Get on what you can, we don’t have time for all the pieces!”

I threw on my chainmail, then tugged on my breastplate and already-attached shoulderguards, the weight sinking over my limbs as I slipped on the gauntlets next. Henry tossed us visor-less helms, and I slid mine on, nodding to Octavius—whom I saw had already strapped the holsters of his throwing-scythes on his belt and legs.

“Get somewhere high and cover us as much as you’re able,” I told Octavius.

“R-right!” He veered off and snagged a ladder bolted to the side of a building, climbing up.

I then plucked the two scythe-spheres from my neck-chain, arming myself. Vendy and Henry had donned their own brass armor and equipped themselves with longswords—and Vendy’s Spiritcrystal blade.

I nodded to them. “Henry, with Jaq. Vendy, with me. If you’re killed, Alex will have to resurrect you again, so stay close.”

Vendy pounded her breastplate with a determined fist. “You got it!”

Teams assigned, we darted forward—

CROOOOOHHHCH…!

The earsplitting sound of crunching boulders made us skid to a stop.

“What the Death was that?” Jaq asked.

A second roar erupted, and the ground shook. The pavement cracked under our feet.

CROOOOOHHHCH…! That sound came again, like rocks scraping and clattering down a mountain. An enormous shadow cast over us. Our eyes splintered upward.

A colossal beast was breaking its way between the buildings, five stories tall, scales made of rock, joints grinding like teeth gnawing on brick. And it wasn’t alone. Three more of these walking mountains stormed into the marketplace, crashing into buildings.

Vendy staggered at my side, lowering her sword in shock. “Stonedragons?!”

“Now?!” Henry looked dumbfounded. “They’re supposed to be in hibernation until winter!”

“Welp,” Jaq said with a swallow. “They’re awake now.”

“We can’t fight dragons!” I shouted, and almost heaved up bile when a cluster of people were crushed by the dragon’s boulder-like feet, bones and organs sloshing back to the ground when its leg lifted. I glanced at Vendy uncertainly. “Can we?”

A roar sounded from one of the Stonedragons, and a dark shadow engulfed her and me. Panicking, we skidded to either side of the shadow.

SMASH!

The dragon’s foot fractured the ground where we’d been standing.

“Where did these damned dragons come from?!” Jaq hollered from some distance away, he and Henry hacking away at the dragon’s foot in vain.

“Void if I know!” I called over the noise, panting as the four of us sprinted away.

“They should be hibernating!” Vendy yelled, hustling at my side, our heavy armor clattering. “We don’t have the right weapons for dragons!”

“Or experience!” I panted.

Jaq pointed forward with his curved blade. “What about them?”

A squad of gold plated Rockraiders barreled toward us, their swords drawn and visors lowered.

The Land Knights charged for the dragon. Their heavy blades clanged against the beast’s rocky hide. Some managed to spear their swords between the scales, and the dragon let out an echoing screech as the bits were torn from its skin, leaving bloody lesions.

“Ah, right, good,” I exhaled sharply. “They’ll handle those things. Come, let’s do our part and exterminate the Fera.”

Jaq grimaced. “Ya mean try to?”

“Either way!” Vendy groaned and sped ahead. “Come on already!”

“Vendy!” I called, catching up to her. “Remember what I said about staying close!”

She idly cocked her sword over a shoulder as she ran, her rabbit ears folding from under her helm, and gave a snort. “Yeah, yeah. If I get ripped open, Da’torr Alex has to resurrect me again. Hey, but what happens to my soul if I do die again? Will I slip out like last time?”

“Not if I feed more Hallows into your temporary Seam,” I said, realizing that was probably a good idea, and shoved my violet-glowing hand at her chest. I was wearing gauntlets, so the purple lights were hazy and jagged, but the Hallows seeped through the fabric well enough. I poured the smoky energy into Vendy’s chest, the lights seeping under her breastplate from the neck, and I felt a wave of satisfying static as I reinforced her temporary NecroSeam with an added strength. “There,” I said, puffing. “That will keep your soul secure, even if your vessel expires.”

She grinned. “Great! You know, I could get used to this ‘being dead’ gig.”

I gave a grimacing nod to the side. “I suppose you haven’t much choice, have you?”

Jaq and Henry ran at the other side of the street, keeping pace with us, until the demons came within sight again.

Lucrine and Cilia are definitely leading a horde this large. My gaze whipped about, spying all the victims scattered on the road. They were dead, certainly, but their chests were left unmolested. No ribs were cracked open, nor even scratched, by the look of it. Are they ignoring the souls? Instead of eating them? In Nulani, all but Vendy had been devoured within seconds. Why change their behavior now?

The road ended at a corner street. The Fera were piling at the bend… then, they stopped.

What in Nirus?

Vendy sped ahead of me, veering to the side to jump atop a stack of wooden crates. Her long braid wavered behind her as she leapt over the demon’s heads and disappeared within the eerily-still mass.

“Damn it, Vendy!” I followed her path and jumped atop the stack of crates, leaping over the horde and landing in a crouch within the eye of the mass. “Do I have to give you a direct command to stay the Death beside us—?”

I froze, staggering. Vendy and I weren’t alone in the eye.

A Grimish girl was backed against a window, surrounded by the horde with Vendy and me. The Grimlette’s eyes flicked to my face—and she stiffened.

I stayed crouched in the center with Vendy, confused, all of us staring at one another.

The Grimlette’s long hair was a light shade of charcoal, the strands twirling in messy curls that wavered in the wind like silken ribbons. Her loose tunic and long trousers were tattered and splotched with grease, the dark brown color contrasting her Grim-pale skin.

Fastened in her grip was a staved scythe, and beside her flew a black bird the size of a canary, fluttering in a blur at her side.

Another Reaper? My brow knitted desperately, the Grimlette matching my dumbfounded look. Here?

My gaze darted to the crowding Fera, which hadn’t moved. They hissed and snarled, but kept their distance, and Vendy circled me protectively, her Crystal sword raised at the ready by her ear. Are they targeting this Reaper?

I twisted to the Grimlette, my wolf ears curled. “Do you have backup here?” I asked.

“I… I suppose if you only count yourselves,” she said, sounding both relieved and awe stricken. “Bloods be good, is it really…?”

“H-hey!” Jaq hollered from behind the cluster, his head bobbing up and down beside Henry. “Why’d they stop?”

My eyes swept the roofs to check the buildings, something catching my eye. My lids narrowed at a distant figure watching us from a balcony. It was the horse-shifter from Nulani.

“Lucrine…” I growled, gaze inching to the Grimlette behind me. “Hold your guard. There is a Sentient up there. I have a feeling he’s here for you.”

Her teeth sharpened. “I Bloody knew it…!”

“What does he want with you?”

“That, I don’t know. This is the first time he’s shown himself.”

I craned to look at Lucrine again. The Sentient shook his head and walked through his balcony’s doorway—

The Fera shrieked and charged.

Vendy skidded in front of me and evoked her rock Hallows, the ground before us stretching into deadly spikes and spearing the first line of beasts who came for us. She sprinted in a wide perimeter around the Grimlette and myself, forming a circle with those ground-spikes that were aimed away from us like a barrier.

Though, it only served to slow the creatures, unable to kill them or cause permanent damage. The beasts crawled over Vendy’s barrier and skittered inside screeching.

“Vendy, try and trap them!” I called.

“On it!” She yelled, slicing into a Fera with her crystal sword, then fell back and used her Terravoking to stretch her spikes into domed cages around the beasts, ensnaring as many as she could.

A winged beast spiraled toward me, and I thrust my blade at its head. But something suddenly shot through its chest. The creature dropped with an agonized screech and shriveled in place as the black glop disappeared from the corpse.

A glowing, throwing-scythe was sticking out of its back, having been shot through its heart from the front. I looked up at the roofs, finding Octavius waving down to me. I gave him an appreciative nod, then remembered we had a new comrade to assist.

Where has the Grimlette gone?

I searched the chaos frantically, but the sludge-infested beasts were too thick to see even Jaq, and he was the tallest of us.

Then I heard the Grimlette grunt to my right. I spun on my heels in time to see her wheel her scythe round, slicing off a cluster of Fera heads in one swift draw. She reaped their Seams in a matter of twirling seconds, her arms crossing and dipping, shifting and bowing in a rhythmic dance.

My step faltered. There was something familiar about that style of reaping. It was delicate, yet powerful and precise as trails of black blood circled her.

“When I hold a scythe,” a young girl’s voice echoed in my memory. “I feel like I can do anything. My father swears when I first held one, I danced with it, as if I ought to have been born with it in my grasp…”

My stare blanked at the Grimlette. Do I… know her?

She took a dazed moment to rest and leaned on her scythe. She was limping, clutching her leg—

Skririririii!

A glopping creature pounced for her. She jerked her staff up to block, but lost her footing, favoring one side. She collapsed under the demon, wheezing under its weight, arms quivering to keep her scythe, and the demon, above her.

She ripped a determined growl. “I’m so… Bloody tired of… you bastards…!”

Her grasp slipped, and her arms gave way.

“No!” My legs burst forward.

I thrust my blades into the demon’s back, tearing down its spine and kicked it off her. “Are you all right?!” I shouted, perhaps louder than necessary. Patience had left me. I knew her. I Bloody knew her.

She gawked at me, as though my face had grown a bizarre, alien head.

I yanked her up by the arm. “Are you hurt?”

Sorrowed Death, she was shorter than even Vendy. She couldn’t have been more than five feet tall, my neck had to crane drastically low to see her stunned face. Yet, she didn’t seem as young as my teenaged vassal. While Vendy was tall for her age, this Grimlette was short for hers.

Exhaustion leaked from her breath, her tattered clothes and tangled hair amplifying her drained visage. What in Bloods had she been through? How long had she been fighting these things?

“Vendy,” I said to my vassal. “Guard the Grimlette. She’s exhausted and she’ll be as good as dead if she loses focus in the middle of this—”

A beast drove its claws into my arm, digging deep into an open space in my armor. I gave a hard grunt at the pain, the cuts seeping with blood.

“Da’torr!” Vendy bolted for me—

I staggered backward and tripped over a littered corpse, stumbling to my back. I lost my scythes, the weapons clattering and skidding away as the demon shrieked for me.

Then Vendy’s golden Hallows glittered over the ground in front of me, and she had the stones stretch into a long spike that skewered the beast through the chest. The demon was trapped in the spire, wriggling uselessly in the air.

Vendy sprinted over and helped me to my feet, panting as she had the ground stretch into another spiked wall around us and the Grimlette.

“That’s far enough, fellas,” a new voice barked from within the horde.

Lucrine appeared, his arms spread and waving the creatures away like a shepherd directing livestock. I hurried to pick up my scythes, touching backs with Vendy, the Grimlette gripping her staved scythe furiously and joining us in a tight triangular formation.

“Party’s over,” Lucrine announced to the grudgingly retreating horde. “Go back to your nest! All of ya! This ain’t your fight, got that? Bloody mongrels.” Lucrine twisted to us, his white pupils lackadaisical. “Sorry about them. Slight miscommunication on our part. We got it fixed right, though, so no worries.”

“Stay back!” I shouted. “Draw any closer and we’ll send you straight to the Void!”

Lucrine’s large nose scrunched. Then he laughed. “Kid, you couldn’t scratch an itch for me. Why don’t ya wait a few years before messing with the big leagues, yeah?” He turned away and started after the horde he’d dismissed.

“You won’t live long enough to see that day, demon,” the girl spat behind me. She stepped forward, cocking her scythe. “If you’re here to kill me, I suggest you finish me off now. Else be finished yourself!” She sprinted for Lucrine, vaulting over Vendy’s spiked wall. “I will not be stalked by any more of your beasts…!”

Lucrine sighed and absently bent his neck, evading the Grimlette’s swing. He grabbed her staff and kicked her stomach. The girl was sent flying back. She crashed against the brick buildings and collapsed to the ground, coughing.

Vendy and I dashed between them and took a guarded stance. “What do you want with her?” I demanded.

Lucrine paused. “Her? Bloods, you have no idea.” Lucrine chuckled and shook his head. “Really, though, I have to go. Cilia’s not going to be in a cheery mood if I don’t leave already.”

“Then she’ll have to be disappointed.” I bounded for him, knowing the Grimlette had been right: if we let him retreat now, these attacks would never end.

Lucrine hopped away from my first strike, and I swung again, barely missing his horse ear. He ducked behind me and cracked his elbow against my spine, grabbing me by the hair and shoved me to the ground. My cheek scrapped the warm street, and Lucrine gave a disgruntled sigh as he pushed my head down with a foot.

“Look kid,” he said, “I like your guts, but I’ve been ordered to keep ya alive for now. We can play later, all right—?”

“Get off him!” Vendy snarled and leapt for the Sentient, plunging her sword into the demon’s shoulder—

He shoved her off, plucking her sword out and rammed the blade through Vendy’s throat.

Vendy sputtered, lips and throat dripping with blood, and she collapsed beside me.

“Dumb little insects,” Lucrine spat above me, ripping Vendy’s sword out of her neck and tossing it aside with a clatter. Then the pressure disappeared from my temple. “We’ll catch ya later.”

I pushed up, catching the last of him and his grotesque soldiers scattering away.

“Get… get back here!” I wheezed, my spine and head throbbing. I rolled to my stomach, looking at Vendy’s blood-soaked corpse. “Bloody Death… Alex?”

Alex switched with me, and I watched from the psyche as he declined to lift off his stomach, panting, and touched a violet-glowing hand over Vendy’s reddened breastplate. Her neck wound healed, and she soon gasped awake. “Land!” She jolted upright. “That Bloody hurt.”

“So much for… getting used to this ‘dead gig’, eh?” Alex puffed, pushing to his feet. He helped Vendy up next. “Now, where did that Grimlette go?”

SMASH!

A boulder-like dragon’s foot crushed the building in front of us, shaking the ground. Alex fumbled back and cursed, watching the Stonedragon smash its way toward us. “Gods damn it!”

Coughing sounded behind us, and Alex found the Grimlette laying on a pile of stone rubble. He sprinted to her, hoisting her up and dragged her away from the colossus, its enormous feet erupting behind.

“The… the demon…” The Grimlette hacked up dust and debris, spit dripping from her chin as she limped behind us. “Where…?”

“He’s gone.” Alex shoved her down to avoid the dragon’s swinging tail, then pulled her aside. “We have other matters to tend to at the moment!”

The three hurried around the dragon as it clambered after us, breaking the street in its wake. Vendy was forced to sprint on its other side, trying like Death not to be crushed under its steps.

“There must be a way to stop that thing,” I said from the psyche.

“Well,” Alex panted. “I’m open to ideas.”

The Grimlette beside us gave a skeptical breath. “You expect me to think of something?”

“Not you,” Alex muttered.

We spotted Jaq and Henry running toward us, hollering.

“Mates!” the viper called when we caught up with them. Octavius had hopped down from the roofs to join the two as well, and we all ran from the destructive dragon.

Jaq glanced at the new Grimlette. “Who’re you?”

Alex answered for her. “A Sister Reaper. Run now, ask later.”

Henry panted. “Where’d the demons go?”

“They’re gone—don’t ask why. Though, we’re currently taking ideas on how to kill that thing if you’re in a contributing mood.”

Jaq pointed ahead with his scythe, drawing attention to the carcass of a dead Stonedragon on the adjacent street. “Can you resurrect that thing and make it fight the other one?”

The Grimlette sounded exasperated behind us. “That giant? I’m only one person! And I’m exhausted enough as it is!”

That made Alex snap back to her. I only now noticed the Death mark below her collarbone. Another Necrovoker.

“You may be too exhausted,” Alex said. “But I’m not.”

From my window, I watched him put away his scythes and he leapt onto the enormous carcass of the dragon, pressing his hands against its exposed underbelly. His birthmark of black diamonds brightened and changed into a white Death mark as he evoked his Hallows, grunting as the magic poured into the beast’s skin.

The creature shuddered under him.

He slid down when it rose, its blood sloshing as Alex dragged his hands—and his new puppet—toward the living dragon chasing us.

The resurrected beast complied without protest, sluggishly clashing with the other dragon. Its horned head slammed against the enemy’s side, and it crashed into a nearby building.

Alex winced on impact.

“Death.” He watched the beasts engage in clumsy combat, more buildings crumbling. “We don’t want to cause more destruction… There has to be another way. My Hallows will only hold something that large for so long without a direct casting.”

“Woa-hoh!” Vendy cried excitedly as she hopped to our side, watching the dueling dragons with giggling delight. “That was so cool, Da’torr! You resurrected that huge thing?”

Alex shrugged. “I may not have studied dragon anatomy, but its bones and organs were already in place. It wasn’t as difficult as you may think. At least, not for me.”

“Show off,” I snorted from the psyche.

The Grimlette stared at Alex in shock, blinking like a feral guppy. “How did you do that?”

Alex gave her an odd look. “I believe you saw how.”

“But you can’t… hang on. What happened to your eyes?”

Alex stiffened, realizing she could see the difference between our heterochromia. He turned away to let me take control again, and when I was outside, I addressed her again. “Pardon? What about my eyes?”

Her features wrenched in disbelief, clearly registering that my eyes had returned to normal. Confused, she clutched her head. Perhaps she assumed she’d sustained an injury during battle and had simply imagined our ‘changing eyes’. Good. We could use that excuse later.

I brushed past her, watching the battling dragons intently. I noticed a small bare spot on the living dragon’s belly, the scales already pried off. The Rockraiders must have tried to kill it and failed, many lances and swords still stuck in the beast’s ribs. Our scythes wouldn’t be long enough to reach the thing’s heart, we’d need one of those lances.

“Vendy, with me,” I told our vassal, hurrying to the beasts with the rabbit, my eyes fixed on one lance sticking out of the creature’s foot. “How is your aim?”

Vendy’s nose scrunched. “Aim?”

“There’s a bare spot on the dragon’s underbelly. If you can use your Terravoking to throw one of those lances at that spot, it may be enough to strike its heart.”

Vendy squinted at the dragon to look. “What spot? You mean that tiny speck?”

“That’s the one.”

“Da’torr, I’m not a markswoman. Every time I’ve tried throwing any kind of lance, it just goes flat and smacks the target with the staff—”

“Then perhaps I can assist?” The Grimlette suddenly piped from my other side. When in Void had she started following us?

The resurrected dragon was abruptly knocked back by the living beast, and all of us scattered away from its fumbled step. We were finally close enough to the opposing dragon, and I leaped over a pile of rubble, then wrenched the lance out of the thing’s foot.

I glanced at the Grimlette, cocking an eyebrow at her. “You think you can hit that spot?”

“I’ve trained with every staved weapon there is,” she said, pulling back her long, grey strands and tightening her hair-ribbon to keep them in place.

“Better qualified than I,” I agreed, then tossed her the staff. “Aim surely.”

She twirled the lance under an arm, nodded, then slid under the beast and cocked the weapon back, preparing to strike.

But she was thrown down when our undead-dragon slammed to the ground, causing a powerful tremor. Alexander’s Hallows had run out, and the beast was dead once more. The living dragon trumpeted in triumph, raising its front legs and throwing them down, ready to crunch the Grimlette beneath.

I dove for her, clumsily grabbing her arm, and skidded both of us away as the dragon’s foot landed behind us.

“Might I—khmm! Khmm!—offer some advice?” I coughed up dust as we pushed upright. “Perhaps you ought to try not being crushed on this next try?”

“I’ll consider it,” she muttered, grabbing the lance again and running back under the dragon. Vendy and I followed her, ready to grab her in case the dragon tried to step on her again.

I saw that Octavius had found a lance of his own and drove it into the dragon’s front foot. He clung to the staff for dear life, yelling each time he was lifted off the ground and brought back down, lifted up, and brought down.

Jaq had caught the creature by its tail with his chain scythe, but it was proving useless. The dragon was too heavy for him to slow. Henry wildly hacked at the thing’s toes with his broadsword, the blade clanging noisily over the dragon’s rocky hide.

The Grimlette dashed with a nimble flourish of dodging steps under the dragon, and as she vaulted herself upward with the staff’s dull end, she thrust the lance into the dragon’s bare spot, her aim deadly sure.

Though, as impressive as it had been, the lance still didn’t sink in very deep. She pushed with all her might, fox ears curling, but the spear wouldn’t budge any deeper.

“It’s stuck…!” she grunted. “The skin’s too thick!”

She yelped when the beast thrashed about, careening around the corner street. She let go of the lance and we fell behind, dodging its feet frantically—

The beast suddenly screamed to a stop.

The ground itself had cracked apart and burst upward, stretching into two, towering sharp spikes that glowed with a golden light, and stabbed into the dragon’s right foot, keeping it trapped. Similar spikes burst into its other feet, and two barely missed Octavius’s head.

“Vendy?” I panted, looking at our vassal in question and pointing at the enormous spikes. They had been far larger than I’d seen Vendy produce before. “Was that your doing?”

Vendy shook her head, equally confused. “Uh, no. Uncle? Was that you?”

“Not mine!” Henry called from the back of the dragon, the Blacksmith ducking under the beast’s swishing tail.

Where had that come from? I searched the street for oddities. Then I caught a glimpse of a blond, lion tailed man staring at us from an alleyway. That same Terravoker from Nulani? What is HE doing here?

With the dragon’s feet skewered by the spikes, it shrieked and writhed, the thick spires cracking and chipping.

“Vendy!” I yelled to the teen. “The lance is in place!”

Vendy nodded and evoked her golden Hallows, heaving her glowing hands upward in a vicious thrust. The metal spearhead of the lance gleamed with the same golden light, and it drove into the beast’s heart at Vendy’s command.

The beast wailed in pain, swaying limp, and crashed against a building while the Sister and I ran to safety. Jaq, Henry and Octavius sprinted to our side to watch the giant fall, giving a final grumble before its eyes glazed, and became still.

“Yes!” Vendy punched the air, hopping in excited circles. “We did it, we did it, we did it!”

“Holy Bloods,” I panted in shock. “We… actually did.”

“It looks like that was the last one, too,” Jaq noted, glancing around. “I don’t hear any more of them.”

“That was too close.” Octavius let out a relieved breath, patting his chest.

Henry grunted and sheathed his sword. “I don’t think we’ll be that lucky next time.”

I grimaced. “Let’s hope there isn’t a next—mmng…!”

My pained groan tried to escape, but I sucked on my teeth to keep from screaming. The bleeding wound on my left arm swelled, the cuts burning, pressure building like someone trying to pry their boney fingers under the skin. The numbness of adrenaline had apparently faded, and the pain simmered there all at once. “Damned demons…”

The Grimlette gave a concerned frown, her fox ears still grown and folded. “You’re hurt?” she asked. Dread contorted her face with small creases. The look was… familiar.

Nostalgia hit again, like a tiny leak spewing from a cracked dam. How do I know her?

Alex cleared his throat from my thoughts, and I blinked. “Hmm?—oh, er, sorry?”

“You have cuts on your arm,” the Grimlette said, hesitant to reach a hand to the slits.

“I’ll be fi…nngh…!” I’d rolled back the shoulder, but recoiled when the cuts swelled again. I clutched my arm. It wasn’t debilitating, but Death did it sting.

The Grimlette snagged my left hand. “Clearly you aren’t fine. Death, they’re deep… You’ll need a Healer. Though, I have a tonic that may help as well.”

I felt the blood pour down my arm and drip over the back of my gauntlet—which she removed curiously. She lifted my newly bare fingers closer to her face, brushing her thumbs over my skin to wipe away the blood covering my Evocator’s mark of black diamonds.

Her eyes went wide, and a smile stretched her lips. “Nira, it is you…”

A scuffle of feet echoed through the street. A troupe of armored Raiders came to examine the wreckage, looking at the corpses and yelling commands for the Runners to search for survivors.

The Grimlette flinched at the sight of the Raiders. She cursed, shoving past me and fleeing.

“W-wait…!” I called after her, but she’d already wheeled round a corner and disappeared.

“What the Death was that about?” Jaq questioned.

Octavius scratched his head. “Weird. Who was she, anyway?”

“I’m not sure…” I admitted, dismayed. “But Lucrine was after her. And it sounds as though Cilia’s come with him. We must learn what they wanted with her.”

“Too late for that, mate.” Jaq spat excess venom at the ground. “She’s already gone. How’re we gonna find her again?”

Lindel was a bigger city than the last two we’d visited. It could take days to find her again if she was a fast runner and a good hider. But why would she run?

I glanced back at the Stonedragon we’d killed. Its feet were still trapped in those spikes that had jutted out of the ground.

And that Terravoker from Nulani was here also, helping us. Where had he gone? And what was he doing here at all?

Priorities. Aside from my stinging shoulder wound—for which I quickly sought an on-duty Healer to seal—there were many bodies lying dead on the streets. But there were also wounded survivors. Unlike Nulani, all of these souls seemed to still be tied to their bodies, not a single chest disturbed. Why are the Fera acting so strangely?

I shook away the question, joining the Footrunners and Rockraiders in searching for those still alive, helping to cart them to the Healing clinic as quickly as possible.