A growling noise made everyone look up toward the mouth of the overhang. The wild girl sat crouched right next to the overhang, but she still didn’t come inside.

She made hideous faces and uttered a steady stream of snarling shrieks. Her eyes rolled in their sockets.

“Get lost!” Rien yelled at her. “We’ve given you enough food. Go find your own.”

Wesh turned to Anríq. “Could you heal her, too—or is she too far gone?”

Anríq barely looked at the girl. “She doesn’t need healing. There’s nothing wrong with her. She’s whole the way she is.”

Omer snorted. “There is definitely something wrong with her, little brother. She’s out of her mind.”

“Her name is Marine,” Anríq went on. “She’s communing with the Dark. She uses those noises to communicate with the Darklings.”

Yvan jolted to high alert. “Are you sure? She’s communing with the Dark?”

Anríq nodded. “She passes back and forth between the Coil and the Dark. She can exist in both places at the same time. That’s how she appears to be here while she can still talk to them.”

“That’s it. She has to go.” Yvan got to his feet. “This has gone on long enough.”

He started to stand up, but Anríq pulled him down. “Leave her alone. She’s whole.”

“She’s wholly Dark, you mean. I only let her hang around because I thought she was harmless. No way will I let any Darkling follow us around the Coil.”

Yvan tore his arm out of Anríq’s grip and stormed across the overhang to go after Marine.

Anríq stood up after him, but Yvan got there first.

He stalked over to her, grabbed her shoulder, and pushed her away. “Get out!” he snapped. “Go on! Go back where you came from!”

Anríq crossed the overhang right behind him, but not fast enough.

Marine resisted Yvan’s efforts and he laid hold of both her shoulders with both hands. He tried to turn her around to push her away.

Before Anríq could intervene, she whipped around fast, opened her mouth, and a blast of some kind of magical energy erupted from her.

It looked like a transparent liquid wave flowing through the air. It had no substance or color that Yann could see.

It smashed the Watch Commander in the face, tore him off his feet, and hurled him across the overhang just as Anríq near them.

All the other men of the Watch shot upright in a flash. Yann grabbed his glaive. The others advanced on the girl and pointed their weapons at her, but they came face to face with Anríq instead.

He held out both hands to the Watch. “She defended herself. Don’t touch her. Leave her alone.”

He hustled past them to where Yvan lay on his back. Rien, Barsali, and Omer moved to the front. They pointed their weapons at the girl to stop her from coming any closer, but she seemed to forget all about the Watch.

She retreated to the wall nearest to the mouth of the overhang. She huddled close to the wall, peered out at the mountains, and went back to grimacing and baring her teeth at whatever Dark forces she saw out there.

Anríq squatted down next to Yvan and touched the Watch Commander’s chest.

Yann wanted to help his fellow Watchmen defend the group against the girl, but concern for his father made him turn away. “Is he….is he dead?” Yann asked.

“He’s just injured.” Anríq scooped his hand under the back of Yvan’s neck and held his head for a second before Anríq put him back down. “He will recover.”

Yann glanced over at the girl. She didn’t try to enter the overhand again. She completely ignored everyone.

Eliska left the group and went over to her, but the girl only retreated from her, too.

Eliska faced the men. “You heard what he said. She defended herself. Leave her alone. Put your weapons down. Come on, Barsali. Back off.”

Barsali responded first followed by Omer. Rien lowered his weapon, but he didn’t leave to rejoin the group.

Yann stayed near his father watching Anríq go through the same process of touching and repairing all the internal injuries Yann couldn’t see.

“Are you sure he’ll be okay?” Yann asked. “What did she do to him?”

“She only protected herself,” Anríq muttered. “She didn’t damage him.”

“Why are you taking so long to heal him then?”

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Anríq shot one glance toward the girl. “She’s been with the Darklings a long time. I don’t think she knows how powerful she is.”

Another tense silence fell over the group. Marine’s constant growls and snarls kept making everyone jump.

Anríq finally took his hands off Yvan and sat back on his heels again. “He’ll sleep now. He’ll wake up in the morning.” He looked up at made eye contact with Yann. “You should sleep, too. Don’t tire yourself.”

Yann looked away. He had to resist the urge to ask again if Anríq was sure Yvan would be okay.

Why did Yann doubt anything Anríq did or said? Anríq’s presence undid something Yann had come to believe about reality.

How was it possible for one man to be good at absolutely everything? Yann didn’t see that Anríq had any flaws at all. He could do anything. Yann didn’t even see how anything could defeat Anríq in battle.

Yann knew that wasn’t true. Something must be able to defeat him. He was just a kid with all the same problems as everyone else.

Anríq got Eliska’s cloak—the one Yann had used to keep Anríq warm. He carried it over to Yvan and laid it over the Watch Commander.

Then everyone returned to the fire and went back to eating their food. Yann sat sideways where he could keep an eye on his father.

Yann should have been more concerned about Niyazi. He got more injured than Yvan. Anríq took a lot longer to heal Niyazi than he did Yvan.

Yann had to force himself to eat. The tension and danger of everything that happened since they left their camp this morning caught up with him.

The girl drew everyone’s attention by slinking down the wall working her way deeper into the overhang. She inched closer to the group. She never stopped howling and grimacing the whole time.

“Why did she follow us?” Vidal asked.

“She’s a Darkling,” Rien replied. “She was probably one of those that attacked us in the red landscape.”

“She can’t be a Darkling,” Eliska pointed out. “She wouldn’t have rescued me from the river if she was.”

“She serves all humanity,” Anríq chimed in. “She communes with the Dark to serve and protect the Coil.”

He stood up, flattened his hands together in front of his chest, and bowed to Marine.

She didn’t notice. She writhed against the wall, twisted around to glare outside, and then turned the other way to stare off into space.

“If she serves all humanity, maybe she’s trying to help us,” Eliska suggested. “Maybe she followed us to stop the Voyant from getting whatever it is he wants from us.” She glanced at Anríq. “Is that what she’s doing?”

He shut his eyes and bowed his head in her direction.

“Just say yes or no like a normal person,” Rien snapped. “Don’t give us all these stupid coded messages. You’re the one who said you would help us. Just tell us what you know without shrouding everything in mystery all the time.”

“Not everyone in the Coil thinks and acts the way you do,” Eliska fired back. “They aren’t dangerous or evil just because you don’t understand them.”

“Then why didn’t he just say that in the first place?” Rien countered. “He could have just told us she was trying to tell us about that.”

“He just did,” she replied. “What more do you want? It isn’t like it made any difference to us that he’s telling us now instead of telling us yesterday.”

Rien snorted and curled his lip at her to argue back, but the wild girl cut him off with another ear-splitting shriek. Everyone looked up, including Anríq.

He immediately grabbed his head and winced in pain. He squinted his eyes half-closed and gasped.

Eliska spun around the other way to stare at him. “What’s wrong?”

“She….she wants…..” He yelped as another stab of pain contorted his features in all the wrong ways. “She wants……to……” He actually screamed.

Eliska almost kicked Omer trying to stand up fast enough. “Anríq!” She grabbed Anríq’s shoulder and yelled in his face. “What’s wrong?! What is she doing to you?”

“She…….she wants…..to talk to you…..” He pressed his hand to his eyebrow panting and whining in agony.

Eliska cast a terrified glance over her shoulder toward the wild girl. “She what? Why does she want to talk to me?”

Anríq staggered to his feet shivering in pain. He didn’t take his hand down from his forehead.

He grabbed Eliska by the wrist with his other hand and towed her across the overhang. “Come here, Eliska,” he ordered.

She stumbled after him with her eyes hanging out of her sockets. She stared at Marine in white-faced horror.

Yann couldn’t move. His gut told him to intervene and stop what was about to happen.

He didn’t want Eliska anywhere near that girl, especially considering the way Anríq was acting.

Yann found it impossible to move. The other Watchmen stood back watching in matching horror. Even Wesh seemed to turn to solid granite.

Anríq stopped in front of Marine and clamped one muscular hand on Eliska’s shoulder. “I’m going to…..I’m going to……” He had to stop when another crippling attack hit him in the head.

Eliska stood there in stunned shock while he doubled over with a brutal howl. A trail of blood dripped out of his nose.

“I’m going to…..hold back the Dark……” He broke down in a wretched sob. He couldn’t stand upright anymore. “I’m going to…..hold back….the Dark…..so you…..so you…..so you……”

He trailed off with another pathetic whimper. Every ounce of Yann’s resolve told him to walk over there and pull Anríq and Eliska away from Marine.

Yann couldn’t move. Dread and horror held him in place.

Anríq’s knuckles went white on Eliska’s shoulder. He stood there convulsing and sobbing in pain. Blood dripped from his ear now.

He finally worked up the energy to fling his other hand at Marine and grabbed her arm near her bicep.

He bellowed in pain as soon as he made contact with her, but he didn’t let go of either girl.

Eliska froze with her wide eyes locked on Marine. Marine didn’t seem to realize what was happening. She didn’t respond to Anríq at all.

His howls of agony escalated to full-throated screams. The sound sent a shiver up Yann’s spine, but he couldn’t move to intervene. He didn’t even know how to.

Eliska didn’t see or hear him, either. All her attention riveted on Marine. She didn’t look away.

Anríq collapsed onto his knees sobbing and bellowing in torment. His unbreakable grip actually pulled both girls out of position, but he still held on.

Yann couldn’t watch this anymore. He shoved between the other Watchmen and attacked Anríq’s arms.

“Let go, Anríq!” Yann bellowed in Anríq’s face over the noise of Anríq’s agonized screams. “LET GO NOW OR YOU’LL DIE!!”

Anríq didn’t hear him, either. Yann attacked Anríq’s fingers in desperation, but nothing would pry them loose from Eliska’s shoulder.

Yann spun the other way and threw all his weight against Anríq’s powerful arms to try to knock them away. Blood covered his face and dripped from his nose into his mouth.

Yann almost froze again when he saw blood brimming out of Anríq’s eyes where tears should have been. He looked up at Yann in wild, crazed desperation.

Yann swallowed hard. He had to break the connection somehow.

His first thought was to ask Wesh to help. Why wasn’t Wesh here now? Why was Yann here all alone trying to save Anríq from this awful fate?

Yann looked up in time to see Wesh and the rest of the Watchmen rushing him to help out, but right then, Anríq collapsed.

His arms and hands went slack. He lost his grip on both girls and buckled into a pile on the floor.

End of Chapter 29.