I can’t believe that Reese would stoop this low. I know the knife was intended for me...there is no denying the direct path it was taking. I reach Echo in a few minutes, grab her quickly by the shoulders and settle her on the ground, as gently as I can under the circumstances. She is screaming loudly, and blood is rushing out of the wound, staining her face a horrible shade of red.
I inspect the knife…it isn’t too deep. I think I can pull it out and stop the flow of blood. I bite my lower lip, thinking. If it is too deep, I know she could die. Still, I can’t leave it there until we get to Harcourt. She will surely die if I do. I toss the options back and forth in my brain. Do I pull it out? Or leave it? Pull it out? Leave it? I inspect it again. It is only about a half inch deep, maybe more. Her skull should offer enough protection…
I talk quickly, knowing I have to move fast. “I am going to have to pull this out,” I tell her as I rip at the bottom of my cloak, forming a make shift bandage. “It is going to hurt something fierce, but I will wrap it, and that will help, okay?”
Echo is letting out something between a scream and a moan – her hands flailing, blood drenching her blue cloak, turning it an odd color of reddish - purple. I reach for the knife – it has a ruby red handle and looks to be made of excellent steel. As I grip the handle, ready to pull it out, I am interrupted by loud yelling and what sounds like a scuffle.
Reese’s voice and some others that I don’t recognize catch my attention. I glance away from Echo, my eyes traveling toward the voices. Two Destroyers, clad in dark black cloaks with glistening ruby handled swords placed in sheaths at their waists are standing near the giant elm tree. They are holding Reese; each has a hand firmly on one of his arms. It doesn’t take much to figure out that it wasn’t Reese who threw the knife – it must have been one of the Destroyers.
My chest tightens in response and my breath comes in fast, rapid pants. Destroyers. Fear ripples through my body as Reese, pale-faced and sweating, blubbers incoherently. He points directly at Thann and Soot, then over to me.
“There…there…they are ….I….I…told you….they were here.” Fat, ugly tears trickle down his face and yellow snot is leaking out of his nose. My stomach recoils at the sight of him. “Three of them…three Ghosts,” he continues.
One of the Destroyers turns toward Thann and fluidly pulls out his sword, aiming it directly at him. He is taller and bigger than Thann, and all I can think of is decapitation – their favorite form of killing…of Thann’s golden, stunning head sliced off of his body and hitting the ground. Koree’s voice pulls me back into the moment – he has somehow made his way next to Thann, who stands like a statue…motionless and mute.
“They all have the Mark of Power,” he logically and bravely tells the Destroyers, his voice low and serious. His hands are splayed wide in a gesture I have never seen before. “We come from Bay City…they would have been destroyed by now if they didn’t have the Mark.”
The smaller, younger Destroyer, breaks out into throaty, dark, laughter. At this point, Koree is holding his hands out in front of them, as if to ward off their Power. Or maybe he is doing something to them. I have seen Koree’s Power before…is it enough to fend off the Destroyers? To save Thann and Soot? Soot is locked into place behind Thann and Koree, her face bearing the same empty expression as Thann’s. Gunter is behind all three of them, an expression of shock on his face. His eyes are bigger than I have ever seen them.
“Stupid kid,” the tall Destroyers snorts. “Your circus tricks won’t work on us.” The shorter Destroyer holds out his hand, directing it toward Koree, and moves it in a fluid, swirling motion. Koree is immediately yanked off of his feet, astonishment overtaking his usually solemn face as he soars high into the air, sailing across the clearing and landing roughly on his back by a thicket of brush.
I gasp as his head bounces off a large rock before he settles, immobile in the dust. His neck rests at an odd angle against the rock, and I worry that it might be broken. My first instinct is to rush over to him, but my attention is diverted, shock at what I hear sending a new wave of fear through my entire body.
The tall Destroyer lets out a throaty laugh, almost a cackle. When he speaks, his voice is deep and low like a dark tunnel closing in on me. On all of us. “There’s a new law…the Purity Law…all Light Skins are to be destroyed, no matter what.” He sneers at Thann and Soot, two innocent rabbits about to be eaten by wolves. I have heard enough…seen enough. A cold tingle trickles up my spine.
I quickly yank the knife out of Echo’s head, trying not to hurt her, but my focus is on the Destroyers, especially the one advancing on Thann. Echo squeals – a sound so menacing it causes me to shiver, goose bumps forming on my arms. I feel remorse, but only for an instant. Blood gushes out of the hole in her forehead, spurting like a bright red faucet. I sigh in relief. Just blood. No brains or tissue leak from the hole. I shove the rag I made from my cloak on her wound, none too gently and stand up.
I grip the bloody knife in my hand, take aim, and launch it at the tall Destroyer who is by now next to Thann, his sword waving perilously before him, a maniacal grin on his repulsive face.
The knife sails through the air, swift and clean, and my lips curl up, ever so slightly. Its trajectory is strong and firm and precise… hitting the Destroyer directly in his heart…a bull’s eye…exactly like I have been trained. He might have had a target on his chest, I think, as he falls to the ground with a thump, blood leaking out of the wound I made with his own knife. Or his partner’s.
His giant, red handled sword bounces onto the ground beside him. For a moment all is still and silent and then he lets out a final gurgle, a rattle from his chest that speaks in only the language of death. A look of surprise smears onto his face as blood trickles out of his mouth like a wiggling red snake trying to escape.
Immediately, my stomach turns queasy and foul, flip flopping as if an animal were inside of it. I have killed someone…really killed a human being. I bend over, my hands on my knees as my head swirls with dizziness. I am gagging repeatedly and then vomit spews from my mouth onto the ground. I am a killer. I am a killer. It is all I can think. I am a killer. My hands are shaking and the taste in my mouth is sour and burning. I am about ready to vomit again when I hear a loud roar.
I look up. A primeval growl erupts from the other Destroyer’s open lips as he turns away from Soot, his sword already pulled, shock registering on his face as he stares at his dead partner.
I know three things at this moment. I don’t have a lot of time. I need another weapon if I am going to save Thann and Soot. And, I know I will have to kill again. If I am to save them, I will have to kill the other Destroyer. My stomach roils in protest, and I pause for just a moment. Can I do it again? Can I kill the other Destroyer?
I push the thought away and conjure up the image of my bow and arrows in my bag… if I can just get to my bag. I rise up quickly, judging the distance between Pebble and me to be about twenty feet – I am sure I can make it.
I start running, pumping my feet as fast as I can, legs flying underneath me, ignoring the screaming pain in my knee. I reach Pebble, grab my bag and rip it off her back, my breath coming in ragged gasps. It tumbles to the ground. I am panting, bending over, my hands flailing with urgency as I untie the cords, searching frantically for my bow and arrows. My clothes and belongings spill out onto the ground like dead soldiers. Soldiers that I ignore.
I find my bow and instantly nock an arrow into it. I stand up and turn around, pulling back on the string, searching for my target…the Destroyer.
But before I can let go of the arrow…before I can even aim, the Destroyer draws his sword, ripping it in one swift movement across Soot’s neck.
My arrow drops to the ground and I freeze, watching in helpless horror as her head hits the ground, blood spraying out like a torrential red rainstorm, drenching the Destroyer, the tree, Reese, Gunter, and especially Thann, who still hasn’t moved.
I can’t seem to breathe, as I almost collapse onto
the ground. But something inside me surges like a thunderstorm, a primitive scream threatening to explode from my lungs, my mouth, my entire body… an animalistic roar of fury and rage and sickness.
Soot’s reddish hair and the face I barely got to know are gone – mottled and covered in blood, face down in the dirt. Then, with a sickening thud, her body follows, hitting the ground and landing beside her head, two pieces of a person lying side by side, like twins separated at birth, never to be joined again.
Chapter 19