Serah and Fergus helped him stand, both of whom had their shockspears at the ready. A tornado of sand surrounded them, swirling with violet Psionic Magic. It surrounded the entirety of the spire, protecting it from the outside. Lucian watched in awe. He felt as if he were in a trance looking at it.
“We can’t stop and gawk,” Fergus said. “We’re here! Let’s get the Orb. We don’t know if that wave got the Queen. If we reach it first . . .”
A blinding, violet light shimmered from the direction of the Psionic storm. It could only mean one thing. The Queen was coming, and her Psionic Magic was surely strong enough to endure the Psionic wall, just as theirs had been. A blue tether bound itself to the base of the spire just fifty meters away.
“They’re coming!” Serah said.
The four of them ran. Lucian tried to reach for the Orb of Binding again, to undo the focal point set by the Queen, but his mind was so fried that he couldn’t even reach for it. And the others were not strong enough in Binding to do so, either.
Their only hope was to outrun the Sorceress-Queen and reach the Orb of Psionics first.
45
The entrance of the Spire swallowed them, and within it, they found a massive empty space extending all the way to the top, with a glowing crystalline staircase running up the room’s circular perimeter. A purple light shone at the top of those stairs.
The Orb was waiting.
“The three of you go,” Fergus said. “I’ll guard the entrance.”
Was he serious? “What? You’ll die!”
“I swore an oath to see you safely to the Orb. Now, Lucian, you must do your part. Use it to end the Queen’s reign of terror! Promise me!”
“Fergus—”
“Do it!” he bellowed. “I can hold them off long enough.”
Lucian saw that there was no point arguing with him. He ran, and Serah joined him. He glanced over his shoulder to see that Cleon, too, was staying behind.
“I have unfinished business with Kiani,” he called. “I have a feeling he’s with the Sorceress-Queen now. And two will last twice as long as one.”
Fergus nodded gratefully, before both men pointed their spears outward toward the entrance.
These two would be dead long before he and Serah reached the Orb. And now, Lucian had no choice. People were already dying for his cause.
“Run, slow-ass!”
Serah charged ahead, taking the steps two at a time, almost skipping up them in the low gravity. They were running for a couple of minutes before Lucian dared to look down again at the floor, where Cleon and Fergus still stood, spears wreathed in electricity and a Psionic ward deployed.
“If it comes to it,” Serah said, between breaths, “I’ll have to stay behind, too.”
“Stop talking like that,” Lucian said. “We’ll make it before the fight even begins.”
“Can’t you tether us up there?”
Lucian reached for the Orb, but his Focus was unresponsive, and he couldn’t latch onto anything. It was if everything in this Spire was warded in some way, keeping his Binding stream from attaching. “I can’t.”
They didn’t waste any more breath. They charged up the stairs until they were about halfway to the top. The violet radiance was becoming so bright that Lucian was blinded to the floor below them. The only sounds were their footsteps, the hum of the Orb above, and finally, shouts and the clash of spears and shields below.
So much for getting there before the fighting started.
Not a moment later, Lucian felt ten times heavier. He collapsed to the stairs, like a fly caught in a trap.
“Damn her!” Serah said. “She’s strong!”
“Ward it!”
“I’m trying!”
They were reduced to a crawl with two more spirals left to go. It might have been Lucian’s imagination, but he thought he could see the Sorceress-Queen circling up the steps far below them, along with several of her Mage-Knights. Of Lord Kiani, there was no sign. Had the fight ended so soon? Or was time simply flying at the speed of light?
“Fergus . . . Cleon . . .” Lucian said. “I’m sorry.”
“Stop apologizing, start running!”
Lucian was suddenly light on his feet again. He bounded up the steps, with Serah ahead of him. At least, until she collapsed with a gray gravity amplification disc glowing below her.
Lucian reached her. “Serah!”
“Go! She thinks you’ll stop for me.”
“No. I won’t leave you here.”
“You idiot! Get the Orb! If you can get it, you can save me.”
She was right. As bad as it felt, he had to leave her behind and go for the Orb.
He felt his legs being pulled – someone was trying to tether him. He reached for the Orb of Binding, which he used to shield himself. Instantly, the tether disintegrated. He continued to run, keeping the Binding shield alive, a shell of blue surrounding him. A ward in this situation would not be strong enough to stand up to repeated attacks. Multiple tethers grabbed at his back, his legs, his feet. They slowed him down, but he only streamed his shield stronger to dislodge them.
He looked down to see the Sorceress-Queen advancing at incredible speed, no longer walking, but gliding. She was just meters from reaching Serah.
Her voice entered his head. Stop running, you fool! You can’t use the Orb of Psionics without me.
He ignored her, and instead drew deeply from the Orb of Binding. What he was about to do would take a lot of magic, and he was already near the breaking point. But he simply couldn’t leave Serah to her fate.
He’d learned little enough
