The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold (34 page)
Read The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold Online
Authors: Jeffrey Quyle
He looked at Kinsey, and she knew what he was about to say. “Do you think we should go back? They might need help.”
“
Alec! If Imelda or Armilla found you alive on the battlefield, they’d kill you themselves!” Kinsey exclaimed loudly. “You don’t think they’d be in real trouble, do you?” she asked less certainly.
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I don’t know,” Alec replied, a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach.
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Let’s hurry to get to the Dominion side of the lines, and then find out where everyone is,” Kinsey suggested.
Alec looked at the slight ingenaire speculatively for a moment. He wondered if he could send her on her way to safety while he turned around and rode back to the battle. Given the marauders they had just encountered, he knew he couldn’t leave her alone. But he had a strong sense of foreboding about how his companions were coping on the battlefield, and felt torn with indecision.
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I think we have to go back,” Alec said. “I just feel it.”
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I can’t stop you Alec, but are you sure you’re not just feeling upset by those criminals we just ran into?” Kinsey asked. She sensed that Alec was feeling some compulsion from a deeper, unfathomable source, but still felt compelled to ask the question.
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This isn’t just jitters,” Alec said calmly. “I need to be there. Things aren’t going to go as Imelda planned, and they’re going to need me. I can feel it.
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If we start now, we’ll be back where we started before nightfall, and we can find out what the battlefield looks like,” Alec concluded. “Let’s head back, and keep your eyes open for any of those convicts on the loose.”
They rode steadily, stopping to water their horses twice, and letting the animals graze as the day began to cool. Alec felt guilty about the neglect of the animals during the long trip. He imagined a forthcoming day when he could treat them to apples and other special foods, brushing them and bedding them in comfortable stalls. “Out there, Alec, what’s that?” Kinsey asked, breaking his daydream. He responded by looking across the increasingly undulating plain, where he saw the far off patterns of movement.
“
It may be the lacertii in retreat, Kins,” he replied as he stood in his stirrups. “Let’s ride closer to check, and if it is a retreat, we’ll start riding up river to meet the Dominion forces.”
They climbed aboard the tired horses and started riding again, heading north and west until Alec called a halt to their movement. “Those are lacertii without a doubt,” he said, and Kinsey nodded in agreement. They dutifully turned full on to the west, moving further from the stream of the withdrawing forces, which grew stronger and wider as they moved opposite each other. They drifted further west as the noises cated that they had moved into a zone where active battle was still taking place.
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What are we going to do?” Kinsey asked as they watched and listened to disorganized combat take place on all sides of them.
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We’ll stick together, and we’ll look for cavalry,” Alec answered. “When we find cavalry, hopefully it will be some of our own, and we can find Imelda and the rest.”
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If it’s not ours, hopefully it will be Goldenfields cavalry that will know that Imelda is back, and where she is,” he continued. “Whatever happens, you stay close to me, as close as possible.”
Kinsey nodded. “I’ll stay very close to you; I think something is coming. Alec, I don’t have the gift of prophecy, but I can feel I need to stay with you. I think we’re about to experience something that has been preordained for us,” she said, and gave a small shudder.
Since the memorable night when she had witnessed Alec’s resuscitation of Cassie, she had felt called to follow him, even though she hadn’t known him. When the young ingenairii had abandoned Oyster Bay and fled to Goldenfields, she had joined them as much to be closer to Alec as to be away from the chaos on Ingenairii Hill. Then she had maneuvered to be one of the ingenairii who moved into his home, but nothing had come of it for months and months as he was there and left, then disappeared. When he eventually reappeared in Goldenfields, she had attached herself to his group. Now her sense of fate seemed to her to be arriving at a point of realization, and she was frightened by the implications of such a violent environment.
Alec reflexively shuddered as well. Kinsey’s comment made him remember the words of John Mark and the prophecies he made about him and his powers. It left him with a sense of being manipulated as he thought that he might be in a situation where he could do nothing to change the course of events that were about to occur.
They rode on warily now within Dominion-held territory, as they saw men in uniforms fighting the lacertii who were fleeing; the further north they went, the further they went from the current battle front, the safer they felt and the closer they came to the starting point of the day’s fighting. Numerous Dominion troops were in the field, and Alec walked cautiously through them. It was a sign of the degree of fighting that had occurred all day long, perhaps for several days, that there were no formal lines now, only soldiers who moved forward with their own companies. There were no longer any living lacertii in sight.
Alec stopped at last to speak to a small band of soldiers. The weary infantry looked through glazed eyes at the two people on horses. “Have you seen any cavalry fighting in the field, especially any from Bondell?” Alec asked a muddy figure who he thought might be a sergeant.
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What’s the difference between Bondell cavalry and all the others?” the soldier asked.
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The riders from Bondell wear bright green coats,” Alec explained. “They stand out.”
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We’ve been on our feet since day break,” the man told Alec, “and haven’t seen anything like that. Have you seen the rest of our unit? We’re from Slone.”
Alec regretted that he couldn’t help, and they moved on. A little while later they asked another group, and had no better luck. A third group had a junior officer, but no better information. “Let’s move closer to the river,” Kinsey suggested. “There aren’t any more lacertii to avoid, and I thought our friends were going to generally follow the river into the lines.”
Alec agreed with her advice, and kicked himself for not thinking of it himself. They shifted their course as the sun began to move closer to the western horizon. After a journey that involved moving around more and more infantry, they began to see large numbers of dead bodies on the ground. Both humans and lacertii had died in large numbers. Now the bodies were being picked over by looters, or checked more mercifully by medics searching for the living.
“
Have you seen any cavalry riders from Bondell?” Alec asked a medic. The man was dressed as a priest, and showed little sign of success in finding wounded soldiers to tend among the bodies across the field.
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Which ones are they?” the man asked as he stooped over another soldier, saying a quick prayer.
Alec dismounted from Walnut and offered the medic a hand as he found a grievously wounded man. Alec slipped some of his powers into the injured man, and relieved some of the cleric’s weariness as he placed his hand on the man’s shoulder. “The Bondell riders wore green jackets,” he said succinctly.
“
Oh, there are many, many of them back down the river a ways more. They got caught pretty badly by the lacertii. Those had wounds on all sides of their bodies, and they were piled up thick. It must have been the bloodiest fight of the day that I’ve seen, Lord have mercy,” the medic told Alec, who had a sinking feeling in his stomach.
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How far back?” Alec asked. “Were there many survivors?”
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I passed them two hours ago,” the field medic answered. “There wasn’t anyone alive.”
Alec thanked the man, and remounted Walnut. “Let’s hurry along,” he said urgently, hoping to find the Bondell field before the sun set. Alec knew that if Imelda had been engaged in a fierce battle, she would have refused to run for safety unless she could help others escape with her.
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Don’t fret too soon, Alec,” Kinsey tried to comfort him. “We don’t know if it’s really them, or just a small part that got separated from the rest, or some other possibility.”
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I keep telling myself that, but I keep feeling something else,” Alec said quietly. He stood in his stirrups to look ahead, then increased the pace to move faster.
Half an hour later the sun was close to setting, its red rays reflecting off the bottoms of western clouds, reflecting scarlet brilliance across the field, with long shadows stretching to the east of every protuberance.
“
Oh Alec!” Kinsey screamed. Alec ran over to her, and found her standing over a dead woman, one not wearing the colors of Bondell. It was Yula, who had been stabbed repeatedly in the torso and bled profusely. Her eyes were open, and Alec knelt down to close the lids, remembering for some reason the time he had fallen in her lap at the tavern in Goldenfields.
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Stay here,” Alec said in a choked tone. “I’m going to look around here. I think they all would have stayed together,” he said with a sinking heart. He walked away, and within twenty yards found Allisma, her body next to Shaiss’s, and Alder was trapped beneath another horse carcass close by. Alec grew increasingly upset, as his fears of the worst were being realized. The plan to ride and strike glancing blows at the rear of the lacertii had clearly gone dramatically wrong. His friends laid about him dead, and he feared that worse was yet to come. He next found a large body, headless. There was a tattoo on the upper arm that he recognized as Armilla’s and he started to sob at the loss of his motherly protector. Then the tears started to flow more profusely as he prepared himself to find Imelda.
Alec started to circle about, and stopped and abruptly knelt over a body. He had seen a spark of life; it was Nathaniel. Alec studied the badly hurt man who was unconscious, and then let an adrenaline surge of healing power vibrate down his arms to enter and repair the serious wounds in the warrior ingenaire.
Nathaniel’s chest rose in a deep breath, and then he coughed, fluttering his eyes momentarily. “Kinsey! Kinsey! Come see Nathaniel. He’s alive,” Alec shouted. He felt a surge of relief and joy. If Nathaniel was still alive, there was hope remaining that Imelda was also still breathing out here somewhere on the battlefield.
Kinsey’s gray form appeared next to Alec, and she knelt over Nathaniel, with a slight smile. Alec’s eyes locked with hers momentarily, and then he stood and glanced about, wondering where to look next. He began walking about in the twilight, his eyes searching intently for Imelda’s slender form, occasionally stooping to turn over a body only to find someone unknown. He grieved when he found Rashrew, his body heaped upon three others, with a wicked stab through the leather armor he wore on his chest.
“
Alec? Alec!” he heard a voice calling. He turned and saw a torch bobbing forward through the dark. He waited for Kinsey to reach him, and saw that she brought another man with her, the man who carried the torch. “This priest said there is a woman’s body atop a small rise near the river, this way,” Kinsey pointed.
Alec looked at the priest who was out looking for wounded, as the other priest they met had been doing. “Are you Alec the healer?” Antonio asked. A door opened in Alec’s mind, as he recollected the chaplain from the Goldenfields road building expedition, who had helped him heal Lewis, and then prayed over Alec himself. The two men huggedand smiled tight, sad smiles of friendship amid the desolation all around them.
“
This way, Alec. We may find the woman you’re looking for,” Antonio said, and motioned for Alec to follow.
With a deep breath and heavy heart, Alec followed Antonio, with Kinsey following him and leading the horses. The short walk was slow as they stepped around and over many bodies. The torch light showed a small hill, on which several lacertii bodies lay scattered in slaughter. “May I borrow your torch?” Alec asked. “I’d like to go up alone.”
Antonio wordlessly extended the flaming brand to Alec, who took it and walked up the brief slope to where the ground was completely covered with the dead from the battle. Atop the crown, Imelda lay on her back, arms flung wide and eyes open, staring up at the sky. Alec’s stomach flipped, and then heaved. He knelt and placed his hand on her chest, searching for any flicker of life within the badly wounded body, but there was none.
His grief exploded at the confirmation of the loss of this woman who had become such a good friend to him. He felt tears fall down his cheeks, and a loud roar filled his ears, his vision grew blurry, then seemed to increase slowly as a slight glow brightened the scene. “Alec, I know this is so hard,” he heard Kinsey murmur as she knelt beside him and placed her hand on his shoulder. He gave a guttural cry that stretched into the night for long painful moments. Before his mind even felt the scratchiness that his roar brought to his throat, he grew impossibly warm, then a flash of blue light exploded around him for a moment, and the roaring in his ears was replaced by the gentle voice of John Mark repeating the words he had given as prophecy in Alec’s last dream with the prophet.
“…there will come a time when you will take a spirit back with you to the time before death, and you will use all your powers for the final time, to undo the greatest battle’s last harm. Then you shall find great satisfaction in giving up all your talents
.”
Chapter 36 – The Fullest Use of Power
There was a roar of battle in his ears, and the sky was bright with sunlight again. Alec and Kinsey stood, and Alec whipped out his sword as a lacerta warrior lunged at him from his right. His warrior powers re-ignited for the second time in the day as he struck at the swordsman, then turned left and stabbed a lacerta wielding a battle ax. Without time to even think about the inexplicable circumstances, Alec pressed Kinsey down and swung his sword freely, using his warrior powers to preserve their lives as massive numbers of lacertii swarmed around the small hill they were on.
As he looked down to check on Kinsey he saw that she was holding Imelda’s hand, and the cavalry rider was blinking hard to slow down the tears of pain that were streamown her cheeks. Alec understood what had happened. His time travel ingenaire powers had activated and transferred him back to the time when Imelda had been wounded, and because Kinsey had been touching him, she had come back with him. For the moment the only thing he could concentrate on was exercising his warrior powers to their fullest extent simply to preserve the three human lives on the hilltop. Lacerta warriors, trapped by the river banks and the converging wings of the Dominion armies, had funneled into this region, leaving an endless supply of battle-maddened swordsmen ready to kill any human they found.
Alec swung his sword relentlessly, and gained foot space to empty the top of the rise of opponents. “How is she?” he shouted to Kinsey, as he flipped his sword into the path of an arrow, knocking it to the ground.
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She’s mad as hell the crown protector is about to get himself killed,” he heard Imelda answer for herself through clenched teeth.
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I won’t die here, not now, not doing this,” Alec said. “It has been prophesized.”
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How did you get here?” Imelda called.
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What happened, Alec?” Kinsey shouted at the same time. He continued to spring from side to side on the hilltop, strengthening the fear of the lacertii around him, and leaving a wall of dead bodies piled up in a circle that gave him a defined space to move in.
“
I was so grieved by the sight of Imelda’s body that it triggered my time travel powers. You were touching me when it happened, and you came with me. We’ve come back to the moments when she was still alive,” he explained as he continued to battle effortlessly, letting none of the lacertii approach close to his spot. The slaughter he was wreaking on the desperate soldiers was dissuading any others from charging.
“
She’s not well, Alec,” Kinsey said. “She’s passed out.”
Alec paused, knelt and looked at Imelda using his health vision to ascertain the wounds she had sustained. He dropped his warrior powers to the lowest level he could sustain. He remembered the dangers of trying to use his healing powers while his warrior powers were still engaged.
His healing powers came to the fore, and he felt the conflict between the two different types of energy begin. His head began to hurt, and he tried to reduce his healing powers to a lower level, but one that could still accomplish good works. He felt a dizziness and cramps in his muscles, but managed to focus on Imelda’s needs despite the distractions.
He placed his hands on her shoulders, and began to minimally heal the serious slices she had sustained. That reduced her blood loss though it left ugly red scars; he then laid both palms on her stomach and repaired the serious stab wound. He prayed his thanks to Jesus for this opportunity, then dropped his healer energies as he stood and returned to fighting the lacertii who were climbing over the dead bodies that protected them.
“
She looks much better, Alec,” Kinsey told him. “Her color is better. Her feelings are better, too, because you are here with her.”
“
Is she going to wake up? Will she be able to fight?” Alec shouted as he repelled the last of the newest wave of attackers.
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Her legs are pretty bad. I don’t think she can stand on them to fight,” Kinsey observed.
Alec stepped over to look, and realized that he hadn’t done anything to heal Imelda below the waist. He knelt as he took a deep breath, then delicately shifted his abilities again, and ran his fingers up the length of Imelda’s legs, repairing the cut muscles and nerves, making the skin whole again. As he finished and looked up, he saw Imelda’s head raised and her eyes open, staring at him. “If those hands had gone much further I would have slapped you, you know,” she said softly.
“
You wouldn’t be able to lay a hand on me,” Alec playfully taunted, picking up his sword and turning back to battle the lacertii.
Seconds later he heard a new sound as another sword began clashing behind him. He glanced and saw Imelda on her feet, swinging her sword with unsteady control to battle a lacerta below her on the hillside.
“
Imelda, will you stay here and protect Kinsey while I go out on the field? I want to go see if I can find Nathaniel and bring him back here with us,” he shouted. He saw her startled look as she glanced over her shoulder at him, and then he jumped over the wall of dead before she could respond, and began fighting his way across the battlefield.
Alec remembered vaguely where he had healed Nathaniel’s body, and he worked his way through the crowd in that direction. The number of the scaly-skinned soldiers was substantial, though still spread out across the width of the valley. The lacertii had spent the past day and night being driven backwards along the river valley, and hadn’t expected to find any humans here in their path of retreat. But Imelda had led the Bondell forces and her small band of Dominion soldiers and ingenairii right into the rear of this buzzing hive. That energized army was now the field through which Alec was fighting, his sword in one hand and a dagger in the other.
Alec had never felt his warrior ingenaire abilities tested as thoroughly as they were now, challenged by the unending field of metal that slashed at him. Alec felt the joy of uninhibited war; he knew that everything around him was against him, and he swung at everything he saw or sensed. He moved faster than he expected, through a field that no one else could move in at all. Above the heads of the lacertii before him, he saw a horse stand aloft and scream, and Alec charged in the direction of the cavalry rider.
Armilla stood atop the carcass of her horse, surrounded by lacertii. Alec approached rapidly, wanting to save his bodyguard. He fought his way through the backs of the lacertii that were focused on Armilla, and opened a hole that allowed him to jump up beside her and begin to clear space around her.
“
Oh Lord, Alec! I’ve never seen anything like the way you’re fighting. If I weren’t so mad at you for being here I’d be crying tears of joy. I’ve lost track of Imelda; I tried to stay with her but we were separated half an hour ago,” Armilla shouted.
“
She’s safe over on that small hill behind me. Kinsey is with her. Let’s go find Nathaniel and any others we can and get them back with Imelda. If we can survive the rest of this day we’ll be okay,” Alec responded.
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How will we be okay?” Armilla asked. “Assuming we can even make it through this day. It’s just mid-day, you know?”
“
We just will survive, trust me. Follow me in that direction when I say ‘go’,” Alec curtly replied.
He stepped forward. “Now! Go!” he exclaimed, as he led the charge forward towards where he reckoned Nathaniel’s body to have been. His sword crashed through the thicket of opponents, and he heard Armilla screaming a challenge behind as she followed him.
“
Nathaniel! Nathaniel, we’re coming!” Alec screamed repeatedly. He kept swinging his sword and stabbing with his dagger as his eyes searched the field for the sign of struggle around Nathaniel or some other survivor of the human warriors.
“
We’re here!” a faint voice reached Alec, causing him to redouble his efforts to effect another rescue. He heard Armilla still behind him as he hewed his path. A bright flash ahead made the air sizzle momentarily, and Alec realized that one of the light ingenairii was still alive.
Alec saw a lacerta just feet away from him stab downward, then raise its pike to stab again. Alec hurled his dagger at the hand that held the weapon, piercing the flesh and causing the pike to fall. Alec pushed forward, and saw Allisma on the ground, clutching her stomach. “Protect us, Armilla!” he called, as he reduced his warrior powers and crouched over the injured Water ingenaire. Allisma’s eyes opened and focused on Alec.
“
Oh Lord, Alec, don’t you die too!” she grimaced as she spoke haltingly. “Bethany wouldn’t forgive me if you died tending to me.” Alec didn’t answer, but slid his fingers beneath her hands, prepared himself for the pain he was about to suffer, then adjusted and released his powers, repairing the internal damage to the girl and then healing the violent rent in her flesh. “Stand up, Allisma, or when we get home Bethany will hear that you were lying down during the war!”
Allisma wore a look of astonishment. “Alec, how can you do that so fast?! It’s indescribable!”
Alec picked up his sword, and the pike that lay on the ground. “Here, use this, and keep it as a souvenir,” he told the girl as he tossed the long wooden pole to her. He found his dagger and stood again. “Thank you Armilla,” he added as he started to swipe at the lacertii in the vicinity. “Stay between Armilla and I, Allie,” Alec instructed.
He turned and saw Nathaniel less than a stone’s throw away. “Nathaniel, here we come,” he shouted. He felt a reckless abandon now, a sense of invincibility. Every move the lacerta tried to make was predictable, and he saw them coming far in advance. He parried before they began, and countered before the blow could be struck.
As he drew near, Alec saw that Shaiss and a pair of cavalry riders were with Nathaniel still, and as they reacht>
“
Has anyone seen Yula?” Alec asked. “He wanted to save the Plant ingenaire who had so reluctantly come along on this journey. “We’ve got the strength of force to go anywhere now. After we find Yula, Imelda and Kinsey are waiting for us on the small rise over by the river.”
“
Look over there,” Alder suggested, pointing to the north. With two warrior ingenairii and Armilla’s great strength and skill, the Dominion force was overpowering for the conscripts and ordinary lacertii soldiers from the mountains. They began to affect the whole area of the battlefield where the lacertii were converging as many of the best lacertii were leaving their regiments behind to join the battle against the trouble in their own midst.
Rashrew and his core of Bondell warriors noticed a lightening in the attacks they sustained as fewer lacertii pressed them. They took advantage of the temporary lapse to charge out of a trap, breaking towards the riverbank where they set up a defensive perimeter and were able to protect themselves better from attack.
As Alec continued to lead the small band of ingenairii forward in search of Yula, they heard a far-off noise. “Those sound like bugle calls for the Dominion forces,” Nathaniel exclaimed. “They must be getting closer.
Alec felt a sense of weariness. He wondered how many hours he had been fighting on the battlefield now, after traveling back to the war following a long day’s ride. “Stop Alec! She’s down there,” Shaess’s voice caught his wandering attention, and Alec turned to see Yula lying on the ground alone. He fell back and let Nathaniel and Armilla provide protection as he lay down his sword and bowed over her. She was dead, recently dead, he could tell by the wounds she bore.
Alec felt distraught. Of all the people who had come on this adventure that had ended so badly, Yula had come only because Alec had forced her to. He realized that his failure to save her was a failure to protect someone who had relied on him. What type of a ruler could he be if he let someone under his personal protection die, he wondered.
“
Alec, what’s happening?” he heard Armilla’s voice faintly as a blue glow surrounded him. There was a sudden roaring in his ears and a warm all around him, and he realized that he was again triggering a trip in time. He reached out and grabbed his sword, and felt the final lurch.
Again he was suddenly surrounded by battling lacertii. A horse whinnied loudly in panic, and Alec sliced his blade while turning to see Yula upon her horse, under severe attack. Draining every ounce of energy he could manage, Alec forced his way over to the animal and protected it from further assault.
Alec was feeling wrenching pain as a result of so many different energies channeling through him. He wiped sweat off his forehead, and placed a hand against the side of the horse to steady himself. A lacerta swiped a sword at him that grazed his forearm in his weakened state, and he rallied eady himlf to put up defensive actions.
Yula screamed anew, not knowing what was occurring at first. “Alec? Alec!” she yelled in panicked recognition. “Where did you come from?”
Alec vaulted up onto the back of the horse, seating himself behind Yula, and began to fight from up high, then set the horse in motion towards the spot where he had saved Imelda earlier. Alec placed his mouth to Yula’s ear. “Duck down low and hold on tight. We’re going to a safe place.”
He kicked the horse hard to set it running through and over the lacertii, and then pulled the reins to direct it to the left, where he saw Armilla and the others fighting for space. As his sword slashed right and left they made progress, and joined the others.
“
What did you do?” Nathaniel screamed over the din of the others. “You were glowing blue and then you disappeared with Yula’s body.”