Siege (The Warrior Chronicles, #5) - K.F. Breene Page 0,91
surroundings rumbled, speaking of thunder. A flash of lightning.
The cats ran around him and then slunk into the shadows of the buildings, still hunting for outliers.
The rumble sounded again before the air within the battle fizzed. Piercing screams frayed Sanders’ nerves for a second, the sound of agony so great a mortal man shouldn’t live through it. The screams ended in a horrible gurgle of death, amplified in a chorus of pain.
“Help them!” Sanders called, running back into the fray. He raked his sword across a stomach and kicked someone in the nuts, before ramming the heel of his hand into someone’s nose. The man staggered backward as blood gushed down his face. Sanders ran him through.
The air crackled again before a deep roll slammed into the enemy. More agonized screams echoed against the walls.
“Take cover!” came a woman’s voice.
Something dropped from the roof behind the enemy lines. Down the wall, something else fell right before someone took off in the other direction.
“Get down!” Sanders screamed, running to the side.
Two huge blasts in quick succession tore at the buildings and sent debris flying through the crowd. A head bounced on the roof off to the left. Someone threw up, unable to handle the carnage. Everyone and everything paused, including the mental power, as the dust settled.
Sanders turned toward Lucius, hopefully still in earshot on the rooftops behind him. “Close that drawbridge. Don’t let anyone out. We need to keep this information in here.”
Lucius cupped his mouth and yelled, “But what if we need to retreat?”
“We won’t!” Not with the Captain in this kind of a mood, anyway. When the thunder started rolling on a clear day, he was not one to mess with.
As if to punctuate Sanders’ thoughts, another rolling boom rocked the city, followed quickly by strikes of pain and torture that turned quickly to death. The Captain knocked them down, and Shanti killed them. Effective.
“Okay, spread out. Let’s push deeper into the city and take them down. Do not kill any innocents!” Sanders yelled.
24
Shanti ran along the building, sensing someone ahead on the right. Their Gift flared and sparked, revealing a high-powered Inkna hiding from the battle. She bet there were a lot of those who would hide and try to sneak away.
“We’ve got to prevent them from leaving,” Shanti yelled at Cayan as he rocked out another huge burst of power.
As she slipped into the space between buildings she heard a disembodied “Mine!” The word fell away as she found the Inkna pressed against the wall. “Your sort should do yourselves a favor and learn to at least defend yourselves.” She grabbed his shirt front and jammed her blade into his throat.
Stepping back, she cleaned her knife as he fell to the ground.
Sanders jogged to a stop in the mouth of the alley with an incredulous expression on his face. “Did you not hear me say mine?”
“Oh. I didn’t realize that was you. And that you meant this one.” No time to lose, she jogged around Sanders and met up with Cayan again, working toward the enemy. “If they take information about the explosives, and about the root, we lose two huge advantages.”
“Xandre will already know about the explosions.” Cayan’s surge of power smashed into a line of Graygual. Shanti rained down shots of white-hot pain, piercing their brains before quickly moving on. Somewhere in the distance, another blast concussed the air.
“What about the innocents?” Cayan yelled above the din, referring to the explosions.
“They are only using those in primarily Inkna and Graygual areas. Except for here, which are not homes.” Shanti threw a knife, hitting a running Inkna in the middle of his back.
“Damn it, Shanti!” Sanders growled, keeping pace with her. “You are making it impossible for me to finally get some vengeance on these vermin.”
Shanti grimaced. “Sorry.”
“Sanders, take some men to the front and tell the Shadow Lord to close the front drawbridge. We end this now. Kill them all.” Cayan slowed.
Shanti felt it then. Ahead of them, filling an entire few blocks of the city, both Inkna and Graygual poured out. Shanti turned back toward Sanders, to yell at him to stop, but he was already on his way to trap them.
“He made us think this would be easy. He lured us into the heart of the city, and then he unleashed the majority of his army.” Cayan shook his head as something close to wonder colored his thoughts. “Genius.”