Lacuna - N.R. Walker Page 0,94

they’d know a lot more names yet.

“Ah, it is good to see you!” Samiel said as she stepped over the corpse of an Ascii beast. She offered Crow her hand to shake. “Never have I been so grateful than when I saw you all racing down the stairs to join us.”

Elmwood soon joined them, mostly covered in green blood, though he had a decent gash on his shoulder. He was breathing hard but smiling. “When I was a boy,” he said, “I yearned for excitement and war.” He shook his head. “I was a fool.”

Crow laughed with some humour but mostly with relief. “You are wounded.”

Elmwood looked down at the gash. “I’ll live.” He turned back to where he’d walked from. “Though I have some injured men. Kearmore needs a healer.”

Kearmore was his closest guard, he was what Soko was to Crow. “Is he okay?” Crow asked.

Elmwood nodded. “He took a hard hit. He’s tough, but I want him seen to.”

“Yes, of course.”

Tancho nodded. “We need to get the wounded back to the doorway. Send them to Westlands where our mentors are. They’ll know what to do.”

Crow turned back to the building, to the stairs. “We need to finish what we started. There were more than the number that arrived at Westlands. We need to find where they came through and close it off before more arrive.”

Samiel pointed her spear to the stairs. “We need to find Maghdlm and put a stop to it all.” She looked up to the sky, where the two moons were closing in on a total eclipse of the sun. “We are fast running out of time. The light is doing strange things and the eclipse draws near.”

It was true. The sunlight was strange. Golden, yes, but more than that . . . something was off.

“Look,” Tancho whispered. “Look at the ground.”

Everyone turned their gaze to their feet. The stone tiles, the green blood, the red, and it took Crow a second to realise what was wrong.

“We are without shadows,” Tancho murmured, stepping in closer to Crow, their bodies almost touching. “I don’t like it.”

Crow put his arm around him and pulled him into his side. There were no shadows, no play of light and dark on any surface. Everyone appeared to be two dimensional. “I don’t like it either. We need to end this, and end it now. Before the eclipse opens doorways we cannot close.”

Tancho, Samiel, and Elmwood all agreed.

“Gather the men that can hold weapons,” Samiel said to one of her red guards. “And see the wounded cared for.”

The soldiers able to fight were two-third the number than when they started, but those who remained were driven by anger and revenge. Typically not emotions Crow would encourage going into a fight but he hoped it was enough fuel to sustain them.

As they made their way back to the stairs with their legions of blood-splattered troops behind them, Crow gave Karasu a nod. “I still owe you a debt of gratitude for saving my life back there,” he said.

The corner of her lip lifted in an almost-smile. “It wasn’t for you. If you die, Tancho dies,” she replied. “See him live and I’ll consider all debts paid.”

Crow chuckled. “Done.”

“I saved Tancho,” Soko said, a clear attempt at trying to get in Karasu’s good graces.

She glared at him for his efforts. “And you almost got yourself killed in the process.”

“If you have any feelings for me, you only have to—”

Karasu stopped walking and aimed her sword at Soko, making the whole procession of soldiers come to a stop behind them. “I’ve not seen a man be parted from his ego, but I will—”

“Karasu,” Tancho hissed. “Not the time.”

“Not the place,” Kohaku added as if it was something they’d both said to her a thousand times.

They began walking again and Soko smirked at Crow. “Told you she likes me,” he murmured.

“She’ll see you parted from more than your ego if you don’t hold your tongue,” Crow warned.

Soko laughed and Karasu growled at him, but as they began down the corridor toward the grand hall, they fell silent.

And the more Crow listened, the less he heard. The whole of Aequi Kentron was far too silent. “I can’t hear them,” he said.

“Neither can I,” Tancho whispered as they crept forward.

“Where did they go?” Samiel wondered out loud, her hold on her spear and blade tightening.

Elmwood grunted. “Hopefully back to the pits of darkness from which they came.”

Crow didn’t think that was likely, as much as it was