Page 114 of Hidden Kingdoms

Pain radiated through me as the world beyond my closed eyes lightened, the mumble of voices began to sharpen, and my mind fought its way out of the fog it had descended into. Activity buzzed in every direction as shouts of muffled instruction werebandied over my head. I didn’t try too hard to listen as I lay there, open wound festering in the filth squelching beneath me.

Getting up wasn’t an option, and a low groan was all I could manage from my exhausted body.

At least when I was passed out, it didn’t hurt.

The thudding of footfalls around me didn’t help, but before I could gather my thoughts enough to tell them all the noise was doing nothing for my head, someone dropped to the floor by my side, a warm hand pushing the hair from my face.

“Come on, Killer. Wake up.” A shadow shaded my face from the brightness above, but I kept my eyes shut. The ground was starting to feel like a great place to sleep away the agony that coursed through me.

“I know you can hear me, and I know you’re awake. You can’t nap in the mud.”

“I can,” I mumbled, my throat working hard through the rawness that scraped down it.

A lilting laugh washed over me, and I found a slither of relief in the sound.

“Ok, you’re right,you can. But you probably shouldn’t. Who knows how many of those soldiers shit themselves before your big bad self came along and saved them.”

Alouette’s light eyes twinkled as mine flew open. Her freckled face smeared with mud and sweat, and gods knew what else. Fiery hair falling loose from the braid she kept it in.

Kneeling in the mud next to me, she slipped her hand into one of mine, squeezing it gently. The unforgiving temperature was making itself known as I began to shiver, trying to find the energy to sit up. Between the pain that was almost overwhelming and the hollow inside my chest, I wasn’t sure I had the strength.

“It’s gone.” It wasn’t question. There was no way I’d be lying here if The Darkness was still hovering above.

She nodded again, squeezing harder before letting go, and her eyes widened a fraction as she spoke quietly to me. “You need to get up.”

I looked past her to the pairs of black boots that formed a barrier around us; between them, I could see other soldiers hurrying around. Squinting slightly at the sun that now shone as if nothing had happened, I saw the shield that faintly shimmered above us,whole.

Pushing out a breath, I reached deep for any resolve I could find, preparing for everything to feel a million times worse the moment I sat up. Alouette was right—I couldn’t stay in the mud.

Gritting my teeth, I pulled myself up right, Alouette catching my elbow to stop me falling back. Head swimming, my vision blurred as bright spots danced across my eyes.

My body protested all movement as they pulled at the gashed across back, a hot trickle of blood ran down my back, dripping into the shredded fabric gathered near my waist. Breathing deep, I willed my magik to help, and for a heart-stopping moment, I wondered if it was gone. If when I had sent it to Bastian, I had severed its tie to me.

Dots were still forming in my vision as the thought almost consumed me, only to be swamped by a fresh wave of the pain that made thinking on anything else almost impossible.

No, it was my magik, my power.

I couldn’t just throw it away. It was tired, spent and exhausted like my body, but it was there. That flame of energy that burned within me had reduced to a spark, but I knew what it could do if I stoked it. Opening myself to its embers, it eagerly embraced me, pulsing under my skin just enough to push away the worst of the pain, enough for me to stagger to my feet.

Alouette was at my side, standing close so I could use her if I needed, and the soldiers rearranged themselves around us. They were drained, too, but they all stood tall, hands loosely at theirsides and a myriad of weapons strapped to them. I caught more than a few curious looks cast my way.

Light now illuminated the torn ground completely turned to sludge, churned under the boots that stomped through it. The arctic air chilled the wet mud that coated my back, the wound there shoulder stinging with its rawness.

Shouted of orders rang through the clamour, and uniformed men and women, began filing into the lines of armoured trucks spread out around us in a haphazard way.

Not much point parking in neat lines when there was a smoky menace trying to kill us all.

Some were propped up on a friend, others dragging their own feet slowly. There were still a few passed out in the mud being nudged by a black boot here and there. I spotted some dressed in the uniform I’d come to recognise as those who worked in the palace traipsing behind the soldiers, faces marked with exhaustion as they made their way to the transport. Full trucks roared to life and raced away in the direction of the palace, mud spraying from their wheels in arcs.

Swaying on my feet, my eyes lingered on the palace. Its huge marble walls sparkling under the sun now that the sky was no longer made of shadows.

Had Marcellus and Kaius got there in time? I don’t think anyone had been too badly hurt here, but they were mostly soldiers; they were trained for this sort of stuff. The people in the palace, not so much.

Had they managed to get people to safety? Hadtheygot to safety? It was probably stupid to worry, since they had magik and were infinitely more skilled than I ever would be—of course they were ok.

The red streaks that ran through the stones, were just visible from this distance, uncomfortably similar to the red-tinged mud at my feet that I was avoiding looking down at. Raising my handto the gash on my shoulder, I felt the raw edge of skin that had been flayed open and the mud that now coated it.

“Come on. Let’s get that looked at.” Alouette nodded towards my shoulder, and I dropped my hand, fingers covered with mud and blood which I wiped on the leg of my trousers. It didn’t matter. I was already a mess.

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