Page 73 of Shadow Weaver
I took a step toward him. “What’s happening?”
“The wards are activated by the infection,” Brunner said. “They will kill him if we don’t get him off the grounds. They’re attacking the virus, and if it detonates while inside him, it will kill him.”
But Brady had been fine … Wait, had he? He’d been convulsing too until I’d cleansed him. Shit.
I turned wide-eyed to Brunner. “I need Madam Latrou. Now.”
“She isn’t here,” Brunner said. “She’s on portal leave, and right now all communications are down. This virus is affecting all the feytech.”
The doors burst open, and the familiar figure of Payne ran out followed by several others.
Kash, Joti, Harper, Minnie, and a few others I recognized; the rest were blurred smudges.
“Henrich is infected and ran off into the mist,” Brunner said. “We’re cut off. There’s nothing we can do.” Brunner was always composed and in control, but there was wild fear in her eyes now.
Behind me, Hyde’s screams had escalated.
No. There had to be a way. “Kash, Joti, I need you guys. Help me.” I rushed over to Hyde. His eyes had rolled back in his head. “We need to cleanse him. If we work together, we can do it. We need to connect to the weave and draw power through it and into him. I did that for Brady, and it worked.”
Joti looked at me in awe. “You did? We haven’t learned how to channel raw weave power into another object yet.”
Is that what I’d done? Shit, there was no time to dwell on it now, especially as I was too weak to do it again.
“Maybe I can help?” Kash said. “This is a supernatural virus, but any virus uses host cells to reproduce, and reproduction requires energy. If I can siphon enough energy from Hyde, maybe I can make the virus leave.”
“What if you siphon the virus?” Joti asked.
“It only affects those with the fomorian gene,” Madam Brunner said. “Do it.”
“Everyone back up,” Kash said. “I don’t want to siphon from you.”
Hyde arched his back and bellowed.
Kash stepped forward, and a wave of awareness skimmed over my skin. He was doing something.
Hyde yelled one more time and then went silent. The air crackled as grainy black shit rose up into the air. It swirled and pulsed erratically as if battling an unseen force.
The wards. The power in the wards was tearing at the virus, and then with a flash of white fire, the black stuff was gone.
The wards were weaver magic. They employed power from the weave … An idea formed in my mind.
“We need to find a way to extend the ward. Even if it’s for a few minutes. If we can send out a pulse across the mist, we can incapacitate the virus.”
“And then what?” Madam Garnet said. “That would kill the knights that are infected.”
Kash locked gazes with me, cottoning on to my idea. “Not if I siphon the energy from all the infected.”
“Can you do that?”
I looked to Joti. “The rune you told me about …”
Joti sat up straighter. “The magnify rune! Yes. We can use the magnifying rune.”
She pulled a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket and unfolded it to reveal the symbol she’d shown me a few days ago. “We need to put this on your skin. I need some Gentile herb and ink.”
Payne walked over and studied the rune. “This could work on an inanimate object that was charged with energy?”
Joti’s eyes grew wide with excitement. “Yes! We can paint it onto the Academy walls and boost the ward.”
