But the moment they cleared the treetops, he felt Batya tense. I can’t do it.
He dropped back, the brigade with him. He felt Batya relax against him.
The forest started screaming again. I knew I’d lose the ability to concentrate.
Quinlan glanced behind him. What about using Lorelei at the same time to do the blocking like she did earlier?
I’ve thought about that. But what happens if she can’t sustain it, and we’ve gotten so far off the path we can’t get back to safety? We’d be out in the open, vulnerable, and Margetta would take us down, you know she would.
Let met path to Lorelei and see what she says.
Good idea.
He switched pathing frequencies and sought Lorelei’s but she told him she just didn’t know.
Taking the variables into account, he knew he couldn’t risk the brigade, not if Lorelei wasn’t sure.
Returning to Batya’s frequency, he related the conversation.
Then, we should stick to the path through the Dead Forest. We at least know we’re safe here.
He set his gaze up the trail. We’ll just have to figure out how to do the switchbacks.
Hey, I’m not getting heavy, am I?
He snorted. As if.
She laughed. Yeah, yeah, vampires are strong.
Well, we are, and I’m not your regular old vampire, either.
He felt her lips suddenly on his neck, right in the middle of a flight through the Dead Forest. No, that you’re not. Something enormous burst in his chest, like a firework exploding and sending sparks everywhere. Sweet Goddess, a few words and she turned his world upside down.
He’d been content before Batya. Now everything seemed to be changing, morphing as fast as Lorelei could switch from shifter, to wraith, to fae.
Back to the problem, he pathed, but even in his head and probably hers, his voice sounded hoarse.
He turned his attention to the witch flying in front of them. Margetta. Power-on-power. He moved swiftly as Batya sustained her enthrallment power, holding his brigade together, keeping Lorelei safe for the present.
Screams erupted from behind him, toward the back of the ranks. What was that, he pathed. Can you see?
I don’t know, but I have the worst feeling. A light flashed back there. Quin, I see smoke. Another round of screams erupted.
Sweet Goddess, Margetta’s crew has found a way to launch some kind of fire bomb through the Dead Forest, across the path at random. I know they can’t see through the shield, so they’re guessing where your brigade is at, but they’re hitting targets because of it. What are we supposed to do?
Let me contact Henry.
He drew in a deep breath, and switched pathing lanes again as he continued to speed up the trail just a few feet off the ground. Henry, what’s going on?
The she-witch has had her wraith-pairs sending battle frequency blasts through the forest, the trees ignite, and fire shoots across the path. By all the Elf Lords, we’ve lost at least five of our force.
The enthrallment shield only disguised their position, but couldn’t protect them from the fire blazing across the path.
Shit. He had to change things now so he made a quick decision. Henry, we’re going to speed this party up. You game?
Hell-yeah.
Let your troops know.
Done.
Quinlan didn’t wait for Henry, he just launched, doubling, tripling his speed. The dead would be left behind. There was nothing he could do about that. But changing up the flight would help.
Batya pathed. Don’t worry, the brigade is catching up.
Henry knows what to do.
He loved his world, his troops, his Guardsmen, all his brigades. Losing even one of his men was a terrible loss and the thought of those left behind just plain hurt.
But he wouldn’t think about that now.
He just had to get the women to the snowfields, cross them, and deliver Lorelei to Ferrenden Peace. But what was he supposed to do about the powerful, mastyr vampire wraith-pairs?
There didn’t seem to be an answer any way he cut it.
* * * * * * * * *
Batya’s stomach turned as another flash burst through the forest in the distance and a third round of screams erupted from the troops in the back, despite that the column now moved at an incredible rate. Her shield held, but couldn’t prevent the random fires that Margetta’s force launched through the forest.
Men were dying and there was nothing she could do.
She felt Quinlan’s determination in the taut state of his muscles as he held onto her and with the speed he moved.
Switchbacks coming up. How’s the shield?
We’re okay. Facing backward helps.
Lorelei’s eyes were closed as she held onto the sides of the sling and the trolls in charge of her strove to keep a bare three feet behind Quinlan.
The snowfields were the next stage of the journey. While still watching the brigade, she focused her senses forward, on what lay ahead. All these experiences were so new to her that she felt disoriented and uncertain. She’d kept most of her fae powers in a latent state, except her healing gifts.
The one that moved within her now had to do with the path that Quinlan carried her over. She wasn’t even certain what kind of fae power she possessed as she searched well ahead of Quinlan’s position. She let the snowfields take shape in her mind and she saw them, vision-like, as clearly as the moment she’d seen the image for the painting the first time, before she’d ever laid a brush-to-canvas.
The mystery of it astonished her, that despite her desire to keep her faeness in severe check, it had emerged anyway and had laid out the route by which, hope-to-Goddess, Lorelei might be saved from her evil mother. Instinctively, Batya knew that if Margetta ever got hold of Lorelei, the ancient fae would gain a critical advantage over the Nine Realms.
As she continued to search into the future, what came from within her was a new kind of vibration. The Nine Realms was a world of vibrations and frequencies, all kinds, mating, battling, healing and so many more. But this one didn’t yet have a name.
What are you doing now?
Quinlan’s voice in her head comforted her and gave her a surprising kind of peace. At least, his increased speed had stopped the screams from the back of the troop line.
She tested the enthrallment shield. Though it held, Margetta still sensed enough about their position to be able to orchestrate the streams of energy that ignited the flash fires.
While holding her enthrallment steady, she turned in Quinlan’s arms. Something’s going on up ahead.
The trail’s incline rose sharply. They’d reached the mountain and would soon begin a series of switchbacks.
Can you hold your enthrallment?