As the rats began to advance on their prey, Sienna picked up one of the huge Bibles from the back of the pew, handing another to Xander. They moved slowly, eyes fixed on the rodents. Xander could see the individual hairs on one of the rats as it drew closer, each as thick and spiny as a porcupine quill. It bared its teeth ready to charge.
Asada pounced from behind, his huge legs crushing the beast’s back with a crunch.
The other rats attacked.
One rodent dashed toward Sienna, its yellow teeth in a grimace, its thick pink tail lashing behind. She stood, brandishing the Bible like a baseball bat. It was almost upon her when she swung the heavy book, thwacking the beast on the side of its head, knocking it into the wall. She followed it down, beating it with the Lord’s book, while she screamed her anger.
Xander turned as three giant rats lunged at Asada.
He swiped at one, knocking it into the wall, but another jumped on the lion’s back, worrying at his neck. The last latched its teeth onto his forelegs, biting down and shaking its head to dig deeper.
Blood welled and Asada roared, ripping the rat from his leg, crunching it between his jaws before spitting it to the ground, a broken husk.
Xander swung the great Bible at the rat on the lion’s back, connecting with a dull thud and knocking the creature to the floor. It writhed, spine broken, mewling with pain.
Asada suddenly dropped to his haunches, licking his foreleg as a black stain spread across the limb from the bite mark. Xander rushed to his side, his arms around the great mane. “Hold on. You’re going to be alright, boy. I promise.”
But even as he spoke, Xander saw a mark appear on his own arm. A sudden pain lanced through him as the black spread over Asada’s skin and his own flesh.
Xander looked at Sienna. “I can feel it in my veins.” His voice broke as he tried to hold back tears. “The plague has mutated. It’s fast moving now.”
He leaned against Asada, sensing the lion’s strength falter even as his own began to fade.
Sienna quickly looked around for anything she could use to slow the disease. She pulled a shirt from one of the bodies and tied it as tight as she could around Xander’s arm above the spreading black. Maybe the tourniquet would slow the movement of poison.
She thought about doing the same to Asada but he growled softly as he sank his huge head onto his paws, nuzzling against Xander. The lion might be an extension of Xander somehow, but he was still a wild animal. She needed to get them both out of here.
Sienna picked up the remaining sack and gingerly pushed the mewling rat into it, avoiding the jaws with those lethal teeth. She gathered up the other bag with its gruesome contents then pulled the ritual knife from inside her jacket. She nicked the side of her palm and as her blood dripped on the floor, mingling with Asada’s, she hesitated.
She could take Xander and Asada straight back to the Ministry. He would have a chance at surviving and the Borderlanders would not have the plague.
But then she thought of Mila and Perry — and Finn. Their survival depended on her returning with the samples.
She sighed. Who’s to say what the Ministry would do with the plague anyway? Since discovering the Mapwalkers, she had been torn as to who was right about the border, whose side she should fight on, or whether there could be any resolution to the question of who the land belonged to. Would those on Earthside be any better if they were handed this biological weapon?
She trusted her friends and together, they would figure out the next step.
Sienna drew a map with the scarlet drops, a map of a refugee camp with a grand tent at its center marked with the head of a wolf. She closed her eyes and traveled through.
When the smell of woodsmoke overpowered the stench of the bloated dead, Sienna opened her eyes. Xander and Asada lay before her, both unconscious, the two sacks by her side, one moving as the dying rat shifted inside.
Sir Douglas stood over her with a triumphant smile. He clicked his fingers at the guards on the door. “Bring the stretchers. We need to transport them to the pens.”
His words echoed through Sienna’s mind as she struggled to get her bearings. She was still woozy from traveling so fast, carrying the weight of the sick and the dying, the heavy load of the plague virus dragging her down in some unknown way. She couldn’t stand up, she could barely breathe properly.
Sir Douglas ignored her as he opened the two sacks, his smile widening at what lay within.
The Warlord, Kosai, peered in at the rat, his nose wrinkling at the smell. “I’m getting my men out of here before you release those creatures into the camp.”
Sir Douglas nodded. “Go now, take your best soldiers and start incursions into Earthside. Be ready when I open the gates fully.” He laughed and shook his head. “They won’t know what’s coming until it’s too late.”
Sienna thought of her father and Bridget back in Bath. She needed to warn them of what was coming but she could barely move, let alone get herself and the others out of there. Her limbs felt weighed down as if she was smothered under a thick blanket and she could almost feel the spread of shadow in her veins.
A group of soldiers stepped into the tent and bundled them all onto stretchers, tying them down with strips of cloth. Xander and Asada didn’t surface from oblivion as they were manhandled. Sienna tried to resist, but she was helpless against the strength of the men. She gave up, pretending to be woozy even as she began to feel her mind return to its former sharpness. Where were Mila, Perry and Finn?
The soldiers carried the stretchers double time back down the causeway toward a row of tents at the bottom of the hill nearer the river. As they approached, the stink of animal bodies grew stronger and Sienna heard the sound of squeaking — just like the plague island.
More rats. And they sounded hungry.
The soldiers carried the stretchers inside one of the biggest tents and laid them down on a dais in the middle of a series of pens each containing hundreds of rats trapped in wooden crates. Sienna tried to calculate how many there were in the tent and then multiplied it by the other similar tents nearby. There must be tens of thousands of the creatures. But how would they all be infected?
Sir Douglas stalked into the tent, his presence even more spectral than it had been before. A young woman with short silver hair skipped along by his side, her face angelic but something about her made Sienna’s skin crawl and her blood turn to ice. She feigned exhaustion, relaxing her body as if still semi-conscious even as she wanted to cry out in fear.
They approached the dais and the young woman ran to Asada, her slender fingers stroking the lion’s fur. She bit her lip and clenched her fists with excitement. “This one first.”
Sir Douglas nodded. “Of course, Elf.” He waved across the sea of rats. “You know what to do.”
The girl placed her hand on the lion’s flank and stretched out the other over the first pen of rodents. Her body tensed and then an almost ecstatic look came over her face, as if she was touched by some unseen force. The rats squeaked wildly as Asada’s body began to wither, his muscles dissolving under his tawny skin. Xander moaned and writhed on his stretcher, still unconscious but deeply connected to his lion through the magic that bound them together.
“No!” Sienna couldn’t help herself. “Stop it. You’re killing him.”
Elf looked down at her with eyes like a pool of ice. There was no regard for life in those depths, no love for her fellow creatures, just pure joy at the thrill of power that ran through her veins.
Sienna knew then that she had tasted a glimmer of that joy when she traveled and if she gave in to it, she would be like Elf, a creature completely of the shadow.
Asada’s body deflated, a bag of skin with dead bone inside, his life force and the plague that infected him now within the rats in the pen before them.
Sir Douglas gestured to a group of soldiers. “Take those crates to the other camps at the far gates and release them there. Be ready for the Warlord’s signal.”
The soldiers raced forward, lifted the crates and headed out the door. Sienna watched them go, dread rising within her at what they planned.
Elf walked to Xander’s side and looked down on the young man. She stroked the hair from his pale face, sweating now as the black nodules of plague covered both arms and rose up his neck. “He must have been beautiful once,” she whispered.
“Please, help him,” Sienna sobbed.
Elf placed her hand on Xander’s chest and stretched out the other over the next pen of rats. Her body tensed again as dark power surged through her. Xander convulsed under her touch, his body withering as the life was sucked from him.
Sienna wept for her friend’s passing.
It was only a matter of minutes to reduce another life to dust and Elf seemed to grow in stature as she radiated the plague out to the rats gathered below. Another phalanx of soldiers picked up the next set of crates and ran with them into the night.
Then Elf turned to look at Sienna, her eyes alive with blue fire as she assessed her next victim.