Knowing all too well that she won’t change her mind, I grit my teeth. “Make sure you come back alive.”
“I will, but we need to get out of here right now.”
I hand my spear to Larn and then clamp my arms across his chest. After he loops one arm under my uninjured leg, he lopes up the valley to the north. With the muddy ground and my added weight, he has trouble getting any traction or gaining speed. Still nursing her stomach with one hand, Sash runs by our side.
“Get going!” she yells at Larn.
“I don’t have enough speed to travel yet!”
Directly in front of us, four Murkovin round the base of a hill.
Chapter 38
As the Murkovin trample towards us, Larn and Sash skid to a stop. After Larn drops me to the mud, I swipe my spear from his hand. Bracing for the attack, Larn and Sash crouch with their weapons at the ready in front of them. On the hill to our left, two shapes of light rocket over the crest and down the slope.
“Two more on our left!” I shout.
Hopping on one foot, I move to the left of Larn and Sash and balance on my good leg. If I can at least slow down the two Murkovin coming down the slope when they come out of their blends, maybe I can buy enough time for Larn and Sash to take out the others. The first four are only a few yards away from us when the two on the side of the hill exit the light. As one shape morphs into the body of a woman, blue glimmers from her hair.
“Yes!” I cheer at the top of my lungs.
Slightly ahead of Jeni, Roen sprints out of the beams. Never slowing his pace, he steamrolls into the first Murkovin he reaches. The beast ricochets off Roen and hits the brute beside him. Both Murkovin sprawl to the ground.
The two Murkovin that are still on their feet screech to a standstill. Jenny immediately crashes into one. As he flops to the mud, he twists and ramrods the point of his spear into Jeni’s arm. Using only one hand, Jeni viciously spikes her weapon into the Murkovin’s chest. When she yanks the tip from his body, the eruption of blood leaves no doubt that she impaled his heart.
Larn zeroes in on one of the two Murkovin flattened by Roen. Before the creature can push himself out of the mud, Larn’s weapon pierces deep into his skull. The other beast on the ground shuffles to his feet, but Roen blindsides him with a spear through the side of his head.
Trapped in the middle of Jeni, Sash, and me, the lone Murkovin still on his feet eyeballs the blood all over my leg. When he bursts in my direction, Sash springs forward and drives her spear into his back. Sash recoils from the impact, doubles over, and cradles her gut in her hands.
The Murkovin flails in my direction. I strong-arm my weapon through his throat and whip him to the ground. Unable to keep my footing with the wound in my leg, I careen off-balance towards the mud. Jeni leaps to my side, catches me mid-fall, and hoists me back up. As I slide my spear out of the Murkovin at my feet, Sash stands upright with a fresh flow of blood from her wound.
“Chase can’t travel,” Larn yells to Roen and Jeni while squatting with his back to me. “Sash is wounded.”
“We need to go now!” Roen shouts, pointing his spear down the valley behind us.
A football field away, a dozen Murkovin thunder towards us. As Jeni heaves me onto Larn’s back, I toss one arm around his chest. He loops an arm under my good leg, but we both keep our spears in our other hands in case we can’t escape.
“Stay with Sash!” I holler at Roen. “She’s going after Tela!”
“No!” Sash wails. “He’ll slow me down.”
With one arm crossed over her stomach, Sash takes off running to the north. Jeni drags Larn by the arm until we’re fleeing up the valley behind her. After sprinting past us, Roen catches up to Sash. He reaches out his canister to her as they run. She grabs it and loops the rope around her neck. Roen glances over his shoulder at the Murkovin.
“They’re gaining on us!” he yells.
“Be ready to travel!” Larn shouts at me.
I scrunch a handful of Larn’s shirt in my hand. The tromping of feet in the mud behind us grows louder and louder. Grunting while he churns his legs, Larn spurts forward a few times but doesn’t have enough momentum to get into his blend. Slowing their pace until they’re beside us, Roen and Sash prepare to thwart off a Murkovin assault. On our other flank, Jeni checks behind us.
“Now or never!” she screams.
“Now!” Larn bellows.
With a force that almost throws me off his back, we jettison into the beams. As the wind lashes across my face, I cling to Larn’s shirt like a rider on a bucking bronc. Jeni streams to our side, but there’s no sign of Sash and Roen. I twist my neck to the rear to make sure they’re with us. Already in their blends, they’re on our tail.
“No way,” I whisper.
One by one, every Murkovin in sight scorches into light.
“They’re all traveling!” I shout.
Larn soars past a hill and banks hard to the west. Jeni stays right by our side. As we cross a broad flat area, luminescent figurescrisscross in the stormy dark behind us. It’s impossible to tell who’s who with so many bodies traveling in such a close range.
When two shapes pull away from the horde, I assume they’re Sash and Roen. As they close in on us, one veers sharply to the north. The wisps of light gain so much speed in a
