Siege (The Warrior Chronicles, #5) - K.F. Breene Page 0,77

the edge before the big kid was crawling up onto the roof.

“Wow.” Leilius backed up and wiped his forehead with his sleeve. “Good job.”

“Let’s go.” Xavier’s chest heaved from exertion.

Off they went again, covering a huge area before they hit another gap larger then they could easily jump or hop over. Panting from fatigue, Leilius put his hands on his hips before he stared down at a unique-looking ladder. At the end the rope was connected to a little anchor-like thing in the roof.

“Looks like we’re not the only ones who thought of getting around this way…” Leilius looked around the rooftops, but only saw chimneys and the encroaching night.

“Get down!”

Leilius’ shirt tugged him downward until Xavier let go. “What?”

Following Xavier’s pointed finger, he looked out over the edge of the building to the street. Walking down the middle were two men dressed in black. They were too far away to see if they were Inkna or Graygual.

“We’ll just wait until—” A light prod touched Leilius’ mind. It felt like a finger jabbing his brain. He barely had time for a shock of warning before a blast of needles tore through him. Spikes of hot metal pounded into his head while a meat cleaver chopped into his body. The pain made his jaw clench and body convulse. Blackness fizzled his thoughts, taking over him. He could barely breathe. He couldn’t feel his limbs.

He was going to die.

A new burning filled his mouth and coated his throat. He coughed and swallowed, barely feeling a hand on his face. Weakly, he batted at a palm covering his nose and mouth until the pain started to recede. His body slowly went numb. He’d let S’am down.

21

Shanti slowly dropped her hands, ignoring Rohnan’s thrust. Their gentle sparring to pass the time suddenly forgotten, she turned toward the distant city as her heart started to hammer. Leilius’ mind went blank. Xavier’s did the same a moment later.

Breath catching in her throat, she took two fast steps and put more power into her touch. Nothing. There was an emptiness where their minds should have been.

“No,” she breathed against the tears coming to her eyes. She felt the others, giving them a soft poke to make sure they were alive. Delight swirled up from Alena, cutting through her intense focus in the middle of the city, and relief came from the others who were making their way to the rear gate. Shanti didn’t know what Alena was doing, but she was sure it would help their cause. Alena didn’t do anything by halves. The others were right on target.

Trying to breathe through a tight chest, Shanti started pacing. She searched the area where they’d last been right before incredible pain took them. “I can’t feel Xavier and Leilius,” Shanti announced. “They’re gone. Their brain paths are black.”

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to her. Rohnan’s comforting hand on her shoulder was welcomed.

“You said they’d had some pain earlier,” Kallon said in a businesslike voice, purposefully showing no emotion, as was his job as her First Fighter. “Perhaps this is related and they have simply lost consciousness.”

Shanti thought back, shaking her head. “Xavier fought that enemy away, I’d bet my life on it. He got Leilius out of whatever they’d landed in. This was…different. A different kind of pain. This was Inkna.”

“The other wasn’t?” Sonson asked.

“No. That was physical. No Gift.” Tingles spread through Shanti’s body as adrenaline keyed up. Rage started to simmer, feeding on the fear that she had lost two people so dear to her heart that they were family.

She would not lose any more of her family. “I’m going after them.”

“No. Wait!” Rohnan’s hand turned into a hindrance. “We must wait. It is not time.”

“I don’t care what fucking time it is, Rohnan. I will not lose those boys, do you hear me? Not them.”

“Just to present all sides of the argument,” Sonson said with his hands out, “if they are already dead, going now might kill the rest of them, you, and this whole plan. If they are dead, there is no help you can give them.”

Shanti slapped Rohnan’s hand away and squared off with a straight-faced Sonson. “If they are dead, I will bring back their bodies so that we might give them a proper burial like they deserve. Alive or dead, I will not forsake them. I will not leave them in there to rot. I’ll go alone if I have to. I am not asking you to follow