Page 180 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
“Run!” My voice shrieks in the background as I advance to destroy the world. “Justrun!”
WereachedCrowcairnbridgetwo days later and pulled the wagon off the road into a palm copse upon a scenic overlook. The shade was relaxing after hours spent baking in the near summer heat, but both harbingers with me were as tense as I’d ever seen them, their muscles poised for a fight as they watched the crossing like hawks through the leaves.
I watched too, but more because I couldn’t take my eyes off the breathtaking panorama before me. The bridge was a massive arc of stone over a frothing pink river that flowed between mountainous, grassy hills like a fjord. Teeth-like standing stones, sparkling like quartz, fenced in both sides of the structure, and great vines of flowering ivy curtained its edges. I’d never seen anything so majestic in real life.
Of course, I could’ve done without the added visual of the four Ogres guarding the bridge. Just as I’d pictured, they were mammoths with bald, domed heads, beady eyes, and mouths of protruding teeth. They wielded spiked clubs the size of me in their dragging fists, bullying every traveler passing through—which was many, as the bridge connected the main thoroughfares from Spring into Summer—until they obtained their tithe. Most travelers scurried on after that, wanting as little interaction with the goons as possible.
Around twilight, sightseeing and people-watching now boring, I lazed in the back of the wagon, petting both Sionna and Kit, when I heard a vehement curse from both of “the boys.” I peered over the wagon ledge to find Pete glaring through branches, Sedge standing beside him, unaware he’d bared his fangs.
“Glashtyn,” Pete growled, his sharp gaze knifing the horizon. How keen was his predator eyesight if he could see at such far distances? Evidently keener than a Vampire’s. “And Pecks—damnhim.”
“Envious rat.” Sedge fisted his sword hilt.
“No sign of the Leprechauns.”
Leprechauns? Like the little dude on the cereal boxes?
“They could be lying in wait.”
“Maybe.” Pete thought on it, then shook his head. “We’ll wait until the moon is high to know for certain.”
Wait for what?I gulped.
“Dando and company are too impatient, too restless to stay hidden so long,” Pete said. “Even under shadow cloak.”
“Aye, but they’ll know to be careful in this. Dando’s strategic—and he kens he’s dealing with you.”
Pete smirked in a fleeting show of arrogance before he was once again the stoic sentinel.
My heart thumped in my ears as I clutched Sionna, whose eyes were already darting. Sedge’s nostrils flared several times, probably detecting my fear. Whenever this wait Pete requested was over, we were going to do something dangerous. Maybe dangerousandstupid. I could taste it in the air and grappled to contain my panic.
I’d say I failed at that when static electricity crackled in my hair. A storm was a-brewing. WasIthe real danger looming?
Finally, the sky now a navy ombre, Pete approached the wagon. I nearly swallowed my tongue, asking, “What’s going on?”
He rested a rough bear paw on mine, where it lay over Sionna’s sable head. For just one moment, I worried he wouldn’t tell me. That he thought me too hysterical or timid to handle knowing. But then—
“Other harbingers,” he murmured. “They’re waiting to ambush us. Down by the bridge.”
My throat damn near clamped shut. But I forced out one breath. Then two.
Pete’s paw moved up to squeeze my arm. Comforting me. “This is what we must do now—you, Sionna, and I are going to hunker down in the back of the wagon. It’s very dark on the bridge. If we stay out of the torchlight, they won’t see us under my shadow cloak. Sedge will lead the wagon across the bridge. Kit will stay in the back and lay over us—as much as we can stand.”
She was abigpuppy, after all.
I chewed my lip, my fingers trembling. “Will that work? I mean, they’re harbingers too. Won’t they assume you might be using your cloak to disguise us?”
“Aye.” He grimaced. “That’s an apt concern.” No sugar coating, as usual. “Kit will, of course, attack should they uncover us, and—” He swallowed hard. “If that should happen, I want you to run.”
I shook my head.
“I want you to run as fast and as far as you can. Run and find higher ground. Climb as high as you can, so—”
“Pete, I’mnotleaving you and Sedge to deal with this! This is my fault! I caused this! And I can help. Icanfight!” Even as I argued with him, I felt the wind whipping low in my belly, roiling for freedom.
“You might have to, at that.” Bleak, that’s how he looked. “I’m not asking you to scurry off like a mouse. I’m asking you to give yourself a head start, an advantage. To split the wankers up, like. Though if you do fight, unleash your wind upon them.”
Did he also sense my stirring storm?
