Another Greencloak galloped over to Rollan. He had several horses with him, stallions that looked much stronger than the mounts they’d been traveling with. It took Rollan a moment to realize that the Greencloak was Monte, with his raccoon spirit animal perched in front of him on the saddle. The raccoon’s hackles stood on end, and it hissed in the direction of the battle.
“Go as fast as you can!” he shouted as he flung the reins toward Rollan. “We’ll cover you!” Then he waved reinforcements over and turned them onto the Conquerors on their tail.
Rollan let out a bark of laughter. Perhaps the tide had turned! He grabbed the reins and tried to swing up onto the horse’s back. “Stop!” Rollan shouted at the horse. It only slowed slightly for him.
“Here, let me!” Abeke shouted beside him. She made a running leap, grabbed the horse’s mane, and swung up in one fluid move. Then she pulled the horse to a halt so that Rollan could climb up behind her.
Ahead of them, the large red rock formation loomed close in the night. They could make it.
Then Rollan heard a familiar voice next to them.
“Poor little boy. Shall I force you to fight the girl you care for?”
Meilin materialized out of the chaos, riding alongside on her own stallion. Her hair streamed out behind her. At her back rode other Conquerors. When she glanced at Rollan and Abeke, her expression looked stone-cold. Her eyes flashed like mirrors in the darkness. Hearing Gerathon’s words in Meilin’s voice sent a chill down Rollan’s spine. He narrowed his eyes at her.
“I’ll fight you,” Rollan snapped back. “And I’ll make you pay for what you’ve done to Meilin.”
Ahead, another patrol of Conquerors had blocked their path, forcing Finn to pull to a halt. Abeke turned their horse to face Meilin. Uraza growled at Jhi, who stayed firmly by Meilin’s side.
“Meilin, it’s us!” Abeke shouted. “Look – I’m okay, I made it here with the Greencloaks! Come with us!”
“She’s no longer your concern,” Shane called back, emerging from the shadows behind Meilin to face Rollan and Abeke. Several talismans hung from his belt, clacking together against his hip. Shane wore one around his neck, though Rollan couldn’t make out which.
Abeke fell silent. Rollan looked on in rage.
Shane stared at Abeke for a moment, his brows furrowed, as if he wanted to say something. Then he seemed to change his mind. He nodded at Meilin. “I say it’s time to take their remaining talismans. Don’t you?”
Meilin narrowed her yellow eyes, then kicked her stallion forward. “Attack!” she said. She charged at them, aiming for Abeke and Rollan.
Abeke spurred their stallion on. The two horses charged at each other. As they drew near, Meilin hopped nimbly onto her steed’s back – then, as soon as they were close enough, she jumped. She knocked Abeke right off the horse, leaving only Rollan astride it. The two landed on the ground with a shower of dust.
Rollan swung down from the stallion and rushed to where Meilin was striking out ferociously at Abeke. Abeke put her arms up desperately over her face, trying to shield herself from the onslaught, but Meilin still caught her now and then, her movements a blur of motion. Head, side, jaw, arm. She struck everywhere, far too fast for Abeke to deflect. Nearby, Uraza snarled and growled at Jhi, who kept her at bay with her enormous, deadly paws.
“Meilin!” Abeke shouted. “Stop! I don’t want to fight you!” She struggled to defend herself without attacking back, but Meilin bared her teeth and continued on. Abeke’s breaths came in ragged gasps, then sobs. “I can’t fight you!” she cried out. Meilin caught her in a blow to the stomach, and Abeke doubled over in agony, all the wind knocked out of her. She wheezed.
Uraza roared in fury. She tried again to lunge toward Meilin, but Jhi muscled her way between them, baring her teeth at the leopard. Essix cried out from somewhere above Rollan. She dove at Jhi, claws extended, but seemed unwilling to inflict real damage, avoiding the panda’s eyes and going instead for the thick fur of her neck.
Rollan lunged forward as Meilin raised her fist to knock Abeke unconscious. He grabbed her shoulders from behind. “Meilin –” he began.
Meilin whirled on him, knocking him right off his feet. He landed with a thud onto his back. Immediately he put his arms up to protect his head, but Meilin kicked him hard with her shin. The blow crushed his own arm against his face. Rollan rolled away, then scrambled to his feet. His arm throbbed with pain, as if just hit with a mace. His heart pounded wildly. She could kill him here, if she wanted to. She wouldn’t even have to try.
“I saw you fighting it earlier,” he said. “You can do it again!”
Though Meilin’s face was the picture of anger, when she spoke, her voice cracked with anguish. “Leave me behind,” she sobbed. “Run!” She lunged for him again.
Abeke scrambled up and tried to grab her arms, but Meilin was on her in a flash, kicking her squarely in the chest and knocking her down again. This time, Shane joined in – he shouted a command at his crocodile, and the giant creature snapped its jaws at Abeke. For a second, Rollan lost sight of Abeke behind the crocodile’s towering figure. Then he saw her jump backward and whirl on her old friend with a determined stance. Beside her, Uraza let out a roar. She grabbed her bow off her back and pointed an arrow at him.
Rollan tried to remember his combat lessons, but facing Meilin, he couldn’t seem to fight at all. He sidestepped Meilin’s next attack, but she drifted with him, kicking out at his legs in a quick flourish. Rollan stumbled forward – he caught himself before spilling over and then dodged Meilin’s short sword by a mere inch. She whirled. He could barely see her through the speed of her movements.
“I’m not leaving you!” Rollan shouted as he desperately tried to match each of her punches. One landed hard on his shoulder. He cried out in pain – it felt like someone striking him with a hammer. Meilin’s eyes flashed from yellow to brown and the huge dilated pupils shrank to a normal size, then back again – whatever toll it took on her to resist killing him, he couldn’t guess. How do I snap her out of it? How do I help?
“Such a weakling,” Meilin snapped at him. Gerathon’s words. “What does she see in a street urchin like you?”
“Meilin!” he yelled as she stabbed out with her sword again. The blade nicked his arm, and he felt hot blood well up against his skin before he felt the pain. “Do you remember when I first met you? Remember how much we irritated each other? Do you remember how many times you saved me?”
“Why should she remember anything about you?” Meilin hissed back. The words dripped with dark amusement. “You are nothing.”
Meilin lunged for him, and the tip of her sword looked like a pointed star as it thrust straight toward his eye. Rollan ducked, stumbling, but continued stubbornly on. “Remember my fever rash in Zhong? How you stayed with me when I caught the Sunset Death? Or that time we were journeying to Samis, when you stopped that thief before he could stab me?”
Something flickered on Meilin’s face – the old Meilin, the one he knew and cared about. Her yellow eyes filled with tears, but still she continued to advance.
Nearby, Rollan heard a sword clash with something wooden. It was Abeke’s bow against Shane’s blade. Abeke shrieked – but whether it was in pain or anger, Rollan couldn’t tell.
“Remember when you fought off the sharks in Oceanus?” he said. “Do you know how worried I was? How … how impressed?” His last few words wavered and his eyes burned as the memory of their last journey together hit him. Meilin let out a harsh battle cry and leaped for him, as if to make him stop. He tried dodging her again, but she caught him this time with her fist and sent him tumbling backward. The impact knocked the breath out of him – for a moment he struggled just to inhale. Meilin lifted her sword over her head. Her yellow eyes flashed wildly.
“Don’t you prefer to die like this?” Gerathon’s taunting words. “By her hands?”
Rollan told himself to ignore it. “Do you remember Abeke? Conor?” he gasped. Then he
suddenly dropped his hands. Meilin had a clear shot at him, but he didn’t bother to defend himself anymore. I have to do this. “You’re a Greencloak, Meilin! You’re one of us, and we’ll stand at your side until the very end. You’re our friend.”
The blade trembled. Rollan shut his eyes and braced himself. His hands clutched tightly against the talisman on his chest. “You belong with us,” he said weakly.
The blow didn’t come. Rollan waited. The sounds of battle roared all around him. Then he opened his eyes carefully.
Meilin stayed suspended over him, but she had put down her blade and now both of her arms hung at her sides. Behind them, Shane glanced over from where he fought with Abeke. His face was incredulous. “What are you waiting for, Gerathon?” he snapped at Meilin. “Get the Coral Octopus!”
Rollan kept his eyes fixed on Meilin’s.
Her eyes were brown – a beautiful, human brown.
His lips tilted into a lopsided smile. “If you’re not here, who am I going to tease all the time?”
A laugh emerged from Meilin’s throat – sad, amused, relieved. She still looked like she was struggling, but she helped Rollan stand up and then glanced frantically around the battlefield. “Keep me shackled,” she said. “Don’t let me go.”
“I won’t,” Rollan replied.
Meilin called Jhi into her dormant state. The panda disappeared in a flash. Rollan seized the moment to hurriedly wrap Meilin’s hands tightly behind her back.
Shane saw what was happening. His face twisted first in confusion, then in rage. He turned to Meilin. “Gerathon!” he shouted. “What are you doing? Command her to attack them!”
But Meilin’s eyes didn’t change. They stayed dark.
“Gerathon!” Shane shouted, angrier this time. He viciously shoved Abeke aside and hurried toward them.
“This is no time to play around,” Shane snapped at her, drawing his sword. He paused in his steps when he saw Rollan take a firm stance in front of Meilin. Abeke pushed herself back up on her feet and joined him. She turned her fierce eyes onto Shane.
“If you’re so worried,” Abeke said through clenched teeth, “then come attack us yourself!”
Shane narrowed his eyes at her. He hoisted his blade higher. “So be it,” he shouted. “If the Great Serpent is too weak to control a girl!”
Suddenly Shane froze in place. His eyes widened. He winced, then clutched his head as if something had stabbed him there. A terrible gasp escaped from his lips. He shrieked once. Rollan watched as the Devourer’s eyes changed … into sickly gold. His pupils dilated until they nearly filled up his irises.
So. It was true, then. Shane had drunk the Bile – and now, he had become Gerathon’s puppet.
Shane shuddered violently. Then, he lifted his head and looked at Abeke again with his new eyes. He smiled and hoisted his saber again.
“I’ll be ordered around by no human,” he spat.
Then he touched the talisman looped around his neck and roared. The Golden Lion! Rollan realized too late.
The noise echoed across the battlefield – a deafening blast that knocked them off their feet.
Shane mounted his own stallion again, then called his crocodile into its dormant state. Rollan’s eyes darted up, following Shane’s path.
Zerif waited several dozen yards away. Wrapped around his hands were the other talismans. “To Muttering Rock!” the man shouted. Shane kicked his horse, spurring it on. The two galloped in the direction of the red rock formation.
“Quickly!” Rollan shouted, pulling Meilin over toward their horse. Abeke struggled up from where she was and ran for her horse too. All around the plains, Olvan’s Greencloaks had mounted a successful attack. Conquerors were breaking into smaller, chaotic clusters, herded into position by determined Greencloaks. Far in the middle of the plain, Rollan thought he saw Olvan in the melee.
Conor came dashing up to them on his horse. He pulled to a halt and Briggan loped up beside him, his gray fur lustrous in the firelight. Conor looked from Meilin to Rollan. His eyes were very wide, almost wild like his wolf’s.
“Is she –?” Conor started to say.
“She’s fine,” Rollan huffed, out of breath.
Meilin screamed. Her dark irises flickered to yellow, and she struggled against her bonds.
“She will be fine,” Rollan clarified. “She’s holding off the Bile as well as she can.”
“Let’s get her on a horse,” Conor said. “We have to go after Shane and Zerif – now. They’re going to free Kovo!”
CONOR URGED HIS STALLION FORWARD, IN THE DIRECTION that Shane and Zerif had gone – toward Muttering Rock. The vision and dreams he’d been experiencing for days now came rushing back to him: the bloodred stone, Shane astride the eagle, Kovo roaring outside his prison. Tellun’s voice, ringing in his ears.
It is the end of an era. We need you here.
They would find Tellun tonight. Conor was sure of it.
Conor spurred his horse into a sprint. The others followed closely behind him. As the battle between the Conquerors and the Greencloaks raged on, Conor kept his focus on the enormous rock formation that loomed nearer and nearer. Ahead, Shane’s and Zerif’s horses kicked up a cloud of dust. They would reach the bottom of the rock before long. Conor clenched his jaw and urged his horse to go faster.
They reached the wall right as Shane and Zerif began to scale it. They went at a frightening pace, aided by the stolen talismans – Shane crawled across the rock as if he were a squirrel, his grip steady and sure, and Zerif was yanked up after him, sliding from foothold to foothold in a rush, tied to Shane with a length of rope. Conor swung off his horse at the foot of the rock and hurried over to the others as they dismounted. He and Abeke helped Rollan get Meilin off the horse.
All four stared up at the looming wall of rock. It seemed unscalable.
“The Granite Ram,” Conor said, pointing to the talisman looped around Abeke’s neck.
Abeke handed it over. “Go,” she said. “We’ll follow as far as we can.” She tilted her head at Rollan. “Essix can send it back when you’re up.”
As Conor tugged the talisman over his head, Rollan turned and looked at Meilin. “Can you climb?”
“No,” Meilin said immediately.
“Yes, you can,” Rollan pressed.
Meilin’s voice sounded frantic. “Absolutely not. I’ll only be a danger to you up there. I –”
Before Conor even realized that Rollan had his dagger in hand, he’d slashed it down, cutting the rope that bound Meilin’s hands in one swift movement. The coils fell to the ground in a heap, leaving her unrestrained.
Meilin looked down at her hands in horror and wonder, opening and closing her fingers.
“Rollan …” Conor said. “Are you sure about this? Gerathon could turn her against us at any moment.”
“I said I’m not leaving her,” Rollan muttered, sheathing the dagger. Meilin’s eyes darted from her hands up to him. He shook his head at her. “And I’m not.”
“You should,” Meilin said again, although this time she said it weakly.
“No.” Rollan’s eyes were steady, unafraid. “I trust you.”
“We all do,” Abeke said. She stepped forward and squeezed Meilin’s pale hands with her own. Tears started to well up in Meilin’s eyes.
Conor thought back to when he had betrayed the others, and how they’d forgiven him. How, no matter what, they had to set their fears aside sometimes and put their faith in each other. He reached out and touched Meilin’s shoulder. He smiled at her. “Come on, Meilin. Let’s go.”
Meilin shut her eyes and her tears overflowed, spilling down her cheeks. “Okay,” she whispered. “Thank you.” She looked at each of them in turn. “For everything. I’ll fight Gerathon with everything I have. I promise.”
Conor glanced up the rock. “I have to go.”
“Be swift,” Abeke said. “We’ll be right behind you.”
Conor clutched the talisman tightly. Suddenly it felt
as if he could see every single foothold on the entire sheer rock side. He gave a mighty leap. The Granite Ram shot him up into the air – he landed instinctively in a spot where he could find footholds. “Hold on!” he called down to the others. Then he took another wild leap to another hold. Wind rushed past him. When Conor chanced a look down, a prickly sensation rushed up his spine. He had covered over fifty feet in the span of a few seconds. The others followed his path at a slower rate while he jumped ahead. He glanced up to where Shane and Zerif dashed. Then he leaped again.
A piercing cry rang out overhead. For an instant, Conor flinched and thought he would see Halawir flying overhead, just like in his nightmares. But the cry came from Essix. The gyrfalcon flew ahead of them, calling out a shrill warning. Conor looked up to see Shane wielding the Crystal Polar Bear. His eyes widened.
“Watch out!” Conor yelled down to the others. As he said it, a violent explosion shook the cliff side – followed by the sound of crumbling boulders. Shane had knocked an avalanche of debris down toward them. Essix shrieked and darted away from the cliff. Conor made a giant leap out of the rocks’ way. An enormous boulder hurtled past him, hit the edge of the sheer wall, and crumbled into smaller rocks. They barely missed Abeke, who managed to fling herself to one side.
More rocks came tumbling down. Conor leaped from side to side as Shane struck out repeatedly with the Crystal Polar Bear’s invisible arms, raining more debris onto them. “Spread out!” Conor shouted down to the others. He saw Abeke taking the lead and guiding them farther out to the right. More boulders hurtled down the side, smashing entire chunks out of the wall and adding to the avalanche.
I have to distract Shane. Conor jumped and climbed to the opposite side of the wall, forcing Shane to concentrate on stopping him. He coughed from the dust stirred up by the falling boulders. Halfway there, Conor took another flying leap, and then another, moving as fast as he could. But Shane and Zerif had the Marble Swan. With the extra burst of agility it would give them for their climb, they would undoubtedly reach the top before he could.