Ivy

The Summoner put a finger to his lips, then motioned for her to come to him. His face was tender, but Ivy knew he was the enemy. It was the Wizards and the Elves against the Imperials and Dwarves. She could not trust him.

“Bay—!”

He cut off her scream with a snap of his hand. “Don’t scream,” he hissed. “I need to talk to you.”

But Bayne had heard and was there beside her, dagger at the ready. “Ye’ll not touch her, foul Wizard! I’ll cut yer magical fingers off, I will! By twos!”

“It’s Foul Wizard Kashur, or Kashur, Foul Wizard, or better yet, just Kashur. And you can settle down! I’m not here to hurt you.” The Summoner surveyed the camp nervously, ducking back into the trees. “I’m here to help you. You’re both in danger. The Wizards are coming and they’ve brought reinforcements.”

“The Wizards are here, I’d say!” Bayne growled, nudging Ivy behind him as he brandished the knife.

Ivy opened and closed her mouth, trying to cry out, but no sound came. She felt like a fish on land.

That name—Kashur. Could it be?

“I’ll take the spell off you if you promise not to scream,” the Summoner said.

She nodded, and she could speak again.

“Terris be blessed, this is an impressive camp.” His gaze lifted to the looming golems. “I guess I didn’t realize how big this war was getting—”

“We drown spies in these parts!” Bayne warned.

The Summoner chuckled. “Well, since I just finally dried off from the last time I drowned, I’ll get to the point. You need to leave. Both of you. Now. Grab your stuff and come with me.”

“Why would we do that?” Bayne demanded.

“Because you’re about to be overrun.”

Bayne snorted. “Ye don’t have the numbers. Not even with the Elves.”

The Summoner’s smile wasn’t a merry one. “We do now.”

An unholy sound erupted from the far end of the camp. A hoard of something poured out of the forest, all gray flesh and teeth.

“What in the living Rubies is that?” Bayne asked.

“Goblins. And they’re coming for you.”

A leering, gray face split the trees behind the Summoner. His hands moved in a flash, his voice low and resonant, undercutting the breathy th-th-th-th sound of the goblins. Ivy felt the air change around her, almost like it had solidified. The Goblin horde flowed right past them.

“My protection will only last so long,” the Summoner said. “We must leave now!”

“Go with him!” Bayne’s face was twisted in terror as he pushed Ivy toward Kashur, then started scooping the power generator, the pieces of the opal, as well as handfuls of parts. “I can’t leave our work behind!”

“There’s no time for that!” Kashur cried as battle erupted all around them.

A Goblin fell out of the sky, landing just in front of Ivy. She screamed into its face and it screamed back. She dove into her tent, grabbed her bag and clutched it to her. Shadows moved across the canvas, the light shifting. But her tent couldn’t block out the yelling, explosions, and the horrific sounds made by these new creatures—something directly out of her nightmares. Ivy buried her face in her bag, praying it would all go away.

Th-th-th-th-th.

The sound was right outside her tent flap. She held her breath as something poked at the tent wall, then broke through—a black claw tip.

Outside, she heard Kashur and Bayne calling her name. She wanted to get to them, but the only exit from the tent was right next to where the Goblin was now ripping its way in. A rift opened, and a gray, ruined face leered through it. Ivy screamed as its great lumpy head pushed through the hole. She didn’t even have a weapon! Reaching into her bag, she only found a handful of coin. She threw it at the beast, striking it in the face. The goblin blinked, then peered at the gold coins, its attention momentarily captured. Ivy dove for the tent flap.

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“There you are!” Kashur scooped her up in his arms. She fought him, pummeling him with her fists.

“No! Where’s Bayne?”

“He ran off! Ow!” Kashur complained when she scratched his face. “Stop it, I’m trying to save you!”

She kneed him where she knew it hurt and scrambled out of his arms when he groaned and bent over in agony. She had to find Bayne. She couldn’t leave him behind. She dodged Imperials fighting Goblins and Dwarves fighting Goblins and the random Wizard throwing spells with impunity. The Emperor’s litter was crawling with Goblins.

“Bayne!” she shouted. “Where are you?”

A whoosh of hydraulics cut the air above the trees like a song. Two red ruby eyes lit up a square metal face. Ivy dropped her gaze to the golem’s chest. There was Bayne, tucked inside.

Relief flooded her. He was okay! She would go with Kashur. They would find each other after the battle. She turned back to see the Wizard in hand-to-hand combat with a pair of Imperials. He couldn’t throw fireballs as fast as they could throw punches. Looking around, she spotted a branch sticking out of a still-burning cookfire. She dragged it out of the flames.

We go for the knees, Bayne had said when he was teaching her how to fight an Imperial. She swung the branch as hard as she could at the backs of one soldier’s legs. The flaming branch cracked, and he went down. Kashur made eye contact with her just before dispatching his other attacker with a roar and twisting of his gloved hand into the accompanying token. Then he did the same to the other.

Terror bloomed in her chest. She’d never seen him like this—as an avenging Wizard.

Th-th-th-th-th.

Another Goblin! Ivy ducked under the cook cart just as it lunged for her. She popped up on the other side, taking a second to snatch a carving knife from the cart before scrambling across patches of dead white sand, making for the treeline. The Goblin launched itself in the air, aiming to land just on top of her, but a thick golem arm swept over her, knocking it squealing away like a plaything. Ivy scurried for the stone wall, where she and Bayne had found the entrance to the mine. She could hide there. But there were Wizards and Imperials crossing swords, blocking her path. She dropped the knife into her bag and seized a curtain of thick roots dangling over the rock wall from above. Cinching her knees, she began to shimmy up. It was a long way up, but she kept climbing. She didn’t look down.

When she reached the top, she scrambled over the ledge and clung to the mammoth tree overhanging the rock outcropping. From here she could see the battle raging below, bodies littering the campsite, Bayne’s golem rampaging, and patches of dead white land everywhere.

She searched for Kashur fighting in the fray, but there was no sign of him. And then she saw the dark blue smudge lying on the ground. It was wearing his boots.

Ivy clutched the cloth at her chest. She’d lost her true family, she’d been in bad homes, she’d had to survive on her own before, but she’d never had to face anything like this. War. Destruction everywhere. Even the very destruction of Terris.

Th-th-th-th-th.

The Goblin! It had found her. Or another one had. Ivy spotted its pointy, distorted ear behind the tree trunk. Ivy reached into her bag, first with one hand, then the other. She circled around the trunk, away from the ledge, the knife’s handle gripped tightly in her hand. The Goblin was tittering at her with its odd, insectile sound. She would have to time this right.

It didn’t speak, but in a strange way, Ivy felt like she understood it. The way it moved told a story. Each step, each tilt of its head gave away its intention. At the moment she felt was right, she tossed the handful of coins.

Like a reptile to movement, its attention jumped to the glittering hexagons, and Ivy leapt. Her blade went for its neck—the long, smooth section exposed when it craned its head to look at the glittering coins. Either greed was its sin, or simple curiosity. She forfeited the right to know as she slashed.

Black blood gushed from the artery she’d severed. Ivy jumped back, twisting her ankle in the tangled roots, but recovering quickly, blade in hand, ready for another attack. But the Goblin did not retaliate as its blood pulsed out of it, painting the tree roots under its crumpled body. Ivy moved so it wouldn’t sully her boots.

But the roots under her feet shifted, and she soon saw why. Where the goblin’s blood fell, the organic matter beneath it disintegrated. Thick soil clinging to tree roots broke down into fragile grains of sand. The roots themselves grew pale and brittle, breaking with the slightest application of force. Ivy’s boot crunched through a root, and her leg plunged down into nothingness where there had once been a sturdy ledge of hard-packed earth.

She tried to pull her leg out, but more sturdy earth beneath her collapsed. Her other foot plunged downward as well. Another shift, and she was hanging in a yawing vertical tunnel of jagged roots, leading the way to a deadly plunge into a rock mine. She managed to jam her knife blade into a sturdy root, and there she hung.

“Bayne! Kashur!” she cried.

But Bayne was fighting inside the golem, and if the pile of dark robes she’d seen far below on the ground was Kashur, he wasn’t in any state to help her.

Her knife blade tilted. Any moment now it would pull loose.

Ivy wished she had a ruby to pray to. She wished she had anything to pray to—anything that might offer her hope or comfort.

But there was nothing but fear as her knife blade let go, and she plunged. She hoped it wouldn’t hurt too much when she hit the rocky ground.

With a splash, she landed in water—water that wasn’t there a moment ago. She inhaled in shock, coughing as the liquid that had risen to catch her trickled away just as quickly, depositing her on the rocky ground in a small puddle.

She looked around for Kashur, for certainly it had been a Wizard’s spell that had saved her.

Instead, she found two ice-chip eyes shining from the shadows.