What had possessed him to agree to this?

Ruban sighed, as another energy shell crashed into the little rocky outcrop behind which they’d taken shelter. He pushed Ashwin behind him, out of the way of the debris that rained promptly down on their heads.

Ashwin probably didn’t need his protection.

But Ruban couldn’t shake the image of him shackled to the wall, a long metal staff skewering his wings, and every visible inch of skin marred by bruises and lacerations.

He swallowed back the bile that rose to his throat. That first, nightmarish glimpse of Ashwin – after the weeks of anticipation and dread that’d preceded it – would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Another shell lit the night sky as it soared over their heads, crashing into an adjacent hillside.

A moment of silence followed.

Then, Simani returned fire, distracting the vankrai with her bullets to create an opening for Kaheen to attack.

Shells flew back and forth. They momentarily illuminated the dark, rugged landscape, before detonating in the distance with a thunderous roar.

The lights reminded Ruban of the meteor showers he’d sometimes watched, back home in Surai, ensconced in the old veranda with Baba and Miki.

He shook his head, trying to clear it of the ill-timed nostalgia.

This wasn’t the time for sentimentality. They were surrounded, outnumbered and outgunned – figuratively speaking. He and Simani were probably the only ones left wielding any actual guns.

He didn’t know where Janak Nath was, or if he was still alive.

After Ashwin blew massive sections of the castle walls out of existence, he and Kaheen had simply picked the Hunters up and flown them out of the crumbling citadel.

Some of the vankrai had given chase.

To elude his pursuers, Ashwin had trussed himself and Ruban behind this outcrop, leaving Simani and Kaheen to take shelter among a cluster of trees on a nearby hill.

This had kept them alive for the last fifteen minutes.

But they couldn’t hide out behind rocks and vegetation forever. Any minute now, one of the vankrai would make an accurate strike – by accident, if not by design.

And outnumbered as they were, Ruban knew that if one of them was killed, the rest would go down soon after.

“How many rounds do you have left?” Ashwin asked under his breath.

“Six.” Ruban squinted suspiciously in the darkness. “Why?”

“Well, there are four men holed up behind those hedges near the castle–”

“What hedges?” Ruban blinked, trying to make out the distant outline of the battered castle. “And what men? I thought we’d already dealt with Janak’s lot before you blew the great hall in half.”

“As did I. But apparently, we were wrong. A few of them must’ve gotten away when the vankrai showed up. There are at least four behind those hedges right now, and they’re gunning for Simani.”

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“Probably to keep her distracted while the vankrai take care of Kaheen.” As the bombardment of shells continued, Ruban pressed himself further back against the uneven rocks. “I can’t see them from this far out. What’s your plan?”

“A fire-shell would do the trick, but they’re too close to the castle. I don’t want to risk damaging it any more than I have to. We don’t know if Vikram has left those tunnels yet. And the last thing we want is for the whole structure to collapse in on itself, with him still inside.”

Ruban’s breath hitched at the image those words conjured. He’d all but forgotten about Vik, once the vankrai appeared. But Ashwin was right. He was probably still inside the castle. It was a miracle the damned structure was still standing. They couldn’t risk damaging it any further tonight, not until they knew for certain Vik was safely out of the tunnels.

“So, I’m guessing you want to get closer to the targets?” Ruban muttered, trying to keep the anxiety out of his voice. “Pick them off the old-fashioned way.”

“Energy shells predate bullets by a few millennia,” Ashwin drawled. “But yes. I’ll fly us over their hiding place, then back. You think you can take them out from the air?”

Against his better judgment, Ruban nodded.

The humid night air bludgeoned his face as they flew swiftly over the hills, Ashwin’s arms wrapped tight around his torso. Ruban forced his eyes open against the insistent battering of the wind. What he wouldn’t have given for a sturdy pair of safety goggles, just then.

Still, he needed to focus. Losing an eye was definitely preferable to losing his life.

As they approached the castle, he could finally see the overgrown hedges Ashwin had been talking about. He’d barely noticed them on the way in, focused as he was on locating the entrance to the tunnel system that Kaheen had marked out on the blueprint. Now that he was paying attention, however, he realized that they bordered almost a third of the castle grounds, especially near the back.

Trusting Ashwin not to let him fall, he relaxed his shoulders, cocked his gun, and waited for an opening.

The men were well-concealed. Ruban and Ashwin spent a few minutes circling the grounds, trying to locate their opponents without giving their own position away.

In the end, it was the muzzle flash from an ill-timed gunshot that exposed them.

Ruban opened fire, dropping three of the men in quick succession.

The fourth dove into the surrounding bushes, disappearing from view before they had a chance to react.

“Put me down,” Ruban hissed, twisting in Ashwin’s hold. “I need to find him. He’s armed and desperate. We can’t have another loose cannon stumbling around, waiting to go off when we least expect it.”

“I’m not letting you do this alone.” Ashwin swooped downwards, his wings slicing the air. “We’ll find him–”

“No we won’t,” Ruban snapped, his voice rising as he struggled to be heard over the rushing of the wind. “There’s too much ground to cover, and he’s too small a target. He won’t be stupid enough to give himself away by firing again anytime soon. We’ll never find him from up here.

“Damnit, Ashwin! I know what I’m doing. I need to be on the ground. And you need to go help Simani and Kaheen deal with the vankrai.”

“If you need help–”

“I’ll fire into the air. And you can swoop in for the rescue. Happy? Now put me down.”

Ashwin groaned audibly. He flew one last loop around the castle. Then, his wings undulating gently, he angled his body downwards for a slow, steady descent.

As soon as they landed, Ruban scrambled to get his feet under him. He blinked to clear his vision and grabbed Ashwin’s shoulder for support, trying to keep the sudden bout of dizziness at bay.

A rustle of movement in the hedges drew his attention. He looked over Ashwin’s shoulder, still struggling to regain his balance and stay upright.

A shadow leapt out of the overgrown, untended shrubbery and lunged at Ashwin. The tip of a sifblade glinted ominously in the starlight.

Ruban’s grip tightened on Ashwin’s shoulder as he shoved him bodily out of the way.

Pain flared under his right rib cage. Ruban cried out, sinking to his knees. Blood welled – warm and sticky – and soaked the grimy fabric of his shirt.

Through the white-hot pain blurring his vision, Ruban saw an energy shell hit his attacker square in the chest. The man was hurled twenty feet across the valley, into the trunk of a tree covered in tiny yellow flowers. His abdomen was a mess of charred flesh and protruding bones.

Ashwin kneeled on the damp ground beside Ruban. “You damned idiot!” Speaking through gritted teeth, he tore Ruban’s shirt off, using the fabric to press down on the stab wound. “Of all the ways you could’ve gone down, it had to be a sifblade through the liver?”