She caught her breath, wiped her eyes clean, and felt the Moonlight Bridge to see how much longer it might need to recharge. Her lungs had already started to clear, and she didn’t know if she had her almost-Herald body to thank for that or the weakness of the Wei clan poison.
That brought her thoughts back to Lindon, and her anger and fear came flooding back. By all rights, the Wei clan’s betrayal shouldn’t hurt anything more than his feelings. If he wanted, he could clean them up with no more madra than it took him to light a torch. Dross could probably do it without Lindon lifting a finger.
But her master had thought he was so far above that he was untouchable, and he had taken stupid risks.
Stupid risks like coming into this place.
This place that choked the sacred arts, the life, from your spirit. This place that bred treacherous idiots who would stab any hand extended to save them.
Images of Jades swarming over her master overlapped with Lindon, and she pushed herself to her feet. The Moonlight Bridge had recovered, and though she looked forward to using it again about as much as a Copper looked forward to carrying a boulder uphill, Lindon was in danger.
She’d have given up her sword to turn around and help, but she was a boulder tied to Lindon’s ankle here. Orthos could help. Lindon just needed to hang on until he got there. He could do that.
As long as nothing else went wrong.
At the exact moment she thought as much, the ground trembled strongly enough to shake her balance. She looked down at the earth aura and saw it brighter than ever, bleeding up into the air. It overwhelmed all other aspects of aura until it was visible to the naked eye.
That was when the sky turned gold. It might have been an earthquake, but she could have sworn she heard a distant roar.
For just a moment, she stared blankly into the west, with one thought dominating her mind.
This place is cursed.
Then the panic overtook her and she walked through the Moonlight Bridge.
It was like sliding through a tunnel of white light, and this time it came out where she intended: next to Orthos.
The great black turtle was munching on a fallen log as he marched, surrounded by the Fallen Leaf School. Little Blue sat on his head, and both of them turned to Yerin in surprise as she appeared.
“Lindon…” she said between breaths. “…clan…betrayed…”
She bent over and rested hands on her knees, gulping down air. Heavens above, she hated being weak. She wished she could scream out her words.
Orthos exchanged glances with Little Blue. “He does not feel like he is in danger.”
Blue chirped agreement.
Yerin’s heart eased a little. She had worried that Orthos would tell her that Lindon was horribly injured. Yerin took that to mean that she had enough spare time to catch her breath before she responded. “What does he feel like?”
“Old anger,” Orthos responded. “And deep sorrow.”
Blue sang a long, sad note.
“Bleed and bury them.” She was starting to think the Wei clan might be worth even less than the Heaven’s Glory School, though she suspected there wasn’t a rat hair’s difference between them. “Go anyway. Scoop up Lindon, and let’s fly ‘til we run out of sky. Let this whole place burn.”
Orthos’ head tilted upward again. “We were just discussing the sky. From what Little Blue tells me, that’s what we should be worried about.”
The Riverseed spread her arms and gave a high chime, emphasizing the size of the Dreadgod.
“Can’t contend she’s wrong.”
Yerin looked up to the rust-colored mountain, which had been stained with gold.
How much time did they have left? Two days? Three? Or would the Titan stop dragging its feet and just kill everyone already?
Yeah, it was time to leave. If anyone decided to stay after being warned and got crushed under a Dreadgod’s heel, that was between them and the heavens.
Something moved in the horizon, and she realized one of the distant peaks past Mount Venture had crumbled. No surprise there. With the earth shaking like it—
Her thought cut off as the Wandering Titan crashed through the mountain.
It swept through the mountain like it was brushing aside tree branches. Its dark silhouette was distant, and clouds cut off its head.
It walked a few steps closer, but those steps must have eaten miles. Only then did it move to its knees, disappearing below the reddish mountain.