Page 107 of Tell No Tales
"What are they doing up there?" Vadim asked.
"I don't know, but we'll never reach them in time. The tower is packed with weavers, and the courtyard is full of undead."
"Where is Coryn?" Hugo dug his fingers into Vadim's upper arm.
When he closed his eyes and focused on the power he'd stolen from her, he could sense her still in the palace, hours from restoring enough energy to wake.
"Not here."
"We're in deep shit, then," Hugo said. "Her army only responds to her." He pointed to the green between the tower and the library. There weren't that many, maybe fifty ambling across the yard at a leisurely pace, but it would have been enough to overpower Vadim alone. He was more worried about the steady flow of bodies still exiting the library.
"I'll give you time," Klaus said. "Get him to the tower and get them in the air." Klaus turned toward the undead army.
Vadim didn't want to leave Klaus. He turned to Hugo, prying his hands away from his arm. "Stay here."
In two strides, he closed the distance to Klaus. Anyone else would have jumped from his nearness. Even Klaus had pulled away from him when they were first linked, but now he turned toward him, placing his hands on Vadim's chest and sinking into him. Vadim kissed him, hard and fierce, not caring what Hugo thought. He didn't want to leave Klaus, even if that meant keeping Hugo safe. He claimed Klaus with his lips, tongue, and teeth, marking the inside of his mouth and the side of his neck so the world would know Klaus belonged to him while they were apart.
Klaus shoved him away with a laugh and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. "Go. I'll be fine."
This time, Vadim trussed Hugo up over his shoulder and carried him. Hugo clung to his back, but he didn't argue. He was nearing the level of exhaustion that would drop him unconscious. Vadim had healed him as much as possible. Now, he needed to eat and sleep. Vadim hoped he could hang on until they were safe.
He climbed the stairs as fast as he could. The classroom doors had tiny windows at chest height. Thankfully, no one was watching at the doors as he passed the first five floors.
He sensed someone on the sixth-floor landing. Before he turned the corner, he pulled on them, draining them of consciousness and feeding the power to Klaus. He had turned his focus to the west, behind the tower, where another hundred or so undead stood unmoving. "Why are they waiting to attack?" he asked.
"They only attack without orders when someone enters the space they're guarding or attacked them first," Hugo said. "Your friends must have attacked the ones outside."
"Are any weavers successful against them?" he asked as he pushed on, past the fallen guard.
"Fire," Hugo said. "I've seen earth weavers attempt to bury them, but they seem to be immune to being crushed, and no matter how much earth is dropped on them, they find a way to the top within seconds. It's uncanny how fast they can crawl through."
"They're slower in open air," Vadim surmised. "We tried water before."
"Water only makes them angry," Hugo said. "A storm might do more damage, but a wave of water didn't stop them."
"Neither did a water barrier."
"Ice?" Hugo frowned. "It would make them brittle, I suppose."
Vadim tucked the information away for later. He was finally at the door to the roof.
"Took you long enough," Yvette said when he finally broke through the door after rotting it around the hinges. He handed Hugo off to her, though the emperor was strong enough to stand on his own until he found a chimney to lean against.
"Why didn't you come for us?" Vadim asked.
"We needed our earth weaver to do repairs," Nola said. "One of those things ripped the sail when we tried to take off." She glared down at the milling undead before motioning toward Trin with a sympathetic frown. "First, Yvette fixed her ruined throat. She's going to need a good meal when we get to your ship. Let's hope that fool Efren stocked supplies for the trip home."
Vadim couldn't worry about Efren or the state ofStarlight Specternow. They needed to get there, first.
"Are you all right?" Vadim knelt beside Trin, who was huddled over her knees studying a rip in the sail they'd used as a balloon.
"I'm better now," she said. "This tear is confusing. I've never worked with textiles."
"You can improvise," Vadim said. "If it's better to make it a solid sheet of fiber, do that."
Trin glanced up at him. "Really?"
"The tighter the weave, the less energy the air weavers will need to keep her afloat."
