Re-Awakening: I Ascend with a Legendary class

Chapter 867: Running

Clovelle came back on the third evening, as she had said she would.

She came over the north rise alone, folding the ground in long tired steps. Marcus had stayed behind in Brightwater. She walked straight to Ainen’s fire and sat down in the grass before anyone could ask her anything.

"They know," she said. "All of them. Kael’s got the hunters out every day, bringing in parts. The Empress has Skytheum sleeping in shifts. Silvester’s training anyone who can hold a stick."

She took the bowl Ainen gave her. "Callum sent word from Westhollow. He’s keeping his people in, but he’s sending forty fighters. They’ll be there in eight days."

"Eight’s too late," said Big D.

"I told him." Clovelle drank. "He said forty late is better than forty never."

Big D did not argue with that.

They left at first light.

There were ten in the chain this time. Clovelle went at the front. Then Almond, with Lily’s hand in his, then Kayla, Big D, Rudra, Ainen and Hessa. John came last, with the old woman holding on to him.

Corvin walked them to the north stones.

"You’ll hold here?" Almond asked him.

"I’ll hold." Corvin looked around at the ring behind him. It was crowded wall to wall now, with Frosthold and Duskspire and Voidmere and Vaelmourn and Ravengard all packed in together. "Somebody has to be rude to five kingdoms at once. I’m the only one qualified."

"If it comes here first..."

"Then I’ll freeze it, and Rudra’s not here to steal the credit." Corvin turned to John. He did not say anything for a moment. Then he jabbed one stiff white finger at John’s chest.

"Bring her back here when it’s done," he said, and nodded at the old woman. "She hasn’t seen my tree properly yet."

"I will," said John.

"And don’t die. I’ve still got things to say to you."

"You’ve been saying them for years."

"I’m not finished."

Clovelle folded the ground.

They came into Brightwater on the evening of the second day.

The town had changed in the few days they had been gone. Almond saw it as they walked in under the south gate. There were stacks of firewood along every wall.

There were water barrels at every corner. On the open ground inside the north stones, Silvester had a hundred people in rows, swinging sticks at nothing while he shouted at them.

In the middle of the square, the young tree stood taller than ever. Its leaves had come in thick. Under it, someone had built a small ring of stones for a fire.

The old woman stopped walking.

She stood at the edge of the square and looked at the tree. Then she looked at the white stones beyond the houses, glowing faintly in the dusk. Then she looked at the great hall with its door standing open, and the light inside.

"Is this one of them?" she asked John. "The seeds?"

"This one was ours," said Lily, before John could answer. "My husband’s family carried it. Big D carried it the whole way."

The old woman turned and looked at Big D.

"You carried a whole town?" she said.

"In a pocket," said Big D.

She looked at him a moment longer. Then she laughed. It was the first time any of them had heard her laugh, and it was a real one, short and surprised.

"That’s how I carried the bread," she said.

Saffa and Fraisea got to Ainen before he was halfway across the square. Saffa hit him on the arm. Fraisea did not hit him. She held on to him and did not say anything at all.

Kael came out of the hall with the Empress behind him. He was walking well now. There was color in his face again.

"Good," he said to Almond. "You’re here. Come and look at this."

He led them into the hall.

The long table had been pushed against one wall. On it, in neat rows, lay pieces of Enders. There were teeth and claws and hides and strange round stones. Each one had a scrap of cloth beside it with a name on it.

"Every part we’ve brought in for six days," Kael said. "Every one is matched to somebody who thinks it fits. Natalia’s been sorting them."

"How many orbs?" asked Big D.

"Sixty-one new ones." Kael paused. "Nineteen parts crumbled. People guessed wrong."

"Sixty-one’s good."

"Sixty-one’s not enough." Kael looked at Almond. "Hessa sent word through Marcus. Lords at the front. Packs behind. Something big at the back. How many lords?"

Everybody looked at Hessa.

She was standing in the doorway with her hand over her eyes. She had been looking north since the moment they came through the gate.

"I’m counting," she said.

Then she went still.

"Hessa?" said Lily.

"Natalia," Hessa said. "Where’s Natalia?"

Kael frowned. "Out with a hunting party. North woods. She took Noah and Kira and six others. Why?"

Hessa lowered her hand. Her face had gone white.

"Because there are Closers in the north woods," she said. "A pack of them. Nine. And they’re not hunting. They’re running south, straight through the trees." "They’re the front of it, Almond. Something told them to run."

Almond was already moving.

"Clovelle."

"I can’t." Clovelle was sitting on the bench by the door. Her hands were shaking. "I’m sorry. I’ve folded two days straight. If I fold now, I’ll drop you halfway."

"How far is Natalia?"

"An hour’s run," said Kael. "North road, then east into the trees."

"Then we run."

They ran. Almond, Kael, Rudra and Big D went out through the north gate with Hessa running behind them. Hessa ran with one hand over her eyes and the other on Big D’s belt, and called the turns.

"Left of the road," she said. "There’s a stream. They’re on the far side. Natalia’s got them in a circle. The Closers are coming from the north."

The light was almost gone when they reached the trees.

They heard it before they saw it. There was a shout, and a scream, and the hard crack of a spear shaft on bone.

Then they were through the last of the trees and out on the bank of the stream, and there was the hunting party.

There were nine of them, back to back in a tight ring on the far bank. Natalia was in the middle, with her bow up. Noah and Kira stood on either side of her, and blood was running down Noah’s arm.

Around them stood the Closers.

They were tall and thin and white, like herons made of bone, with long beaks. They did not run at the circle. They did not need to.

One of them stood forty yards off by the trees. Then it was simply there, beside Kira, with no space between, and its beak drove down at her neck.

Kira twisted away. The beak opened her shoulder.

"Kael!" Almond shouted.

Quickstep.

Kael was gone from beside him. He crossed the stream in six steps at full speed, and his sword went into the Closer’s long neck as it drew its beak back. The Closer folded up on the bank.

Another Closer stood beside Kael.

It had not been there a moment ago. It was there now, beak already falling.

Quiet Edge.

Almond’s cut came across the stream without a sound and without a warning. The Closer’s beak came off at the root and fell into the water.

Natalia had seen them. She did not stop to say hello.

Mark.

A thin red light touched each of the white shapes around the circle. It touched them one after another, seven of them, until every Closer in the clearing glowed faintly in the dusk.

"Now we see where they’re going to be," she said. "Every time they move, the mark moves first."

Almond saw it. The red light on the nearest Closer jumped, a heartbeat early, to the ground beside Big D. Then the Closer was there.

Big D was already turning. His fist came round and met it as it arrived.

Endure.

The bone body broke in half.

Rudra waded into the stream. He stood in it up to his knees and put one hand flat on the moving water.

Deadwater.

The stream went black and still. Two Closers that had appeared in the shallows, either side of him, stopped with their legs frozen in the black water to the knee.

They could not move. They could close the distance to anything in the world, but they could not take their feet out of the stream.

Kira killed one with her knife. Noah, with his good arm, killed the other.

The last four Closers stood at the edge of the trees.

They did not come closer. They looked at the party. Then, together, they turned and went away into the trees, and their red marks went with them, fading.

Almond stood on the bank with the stream running around his boots and breathed.

"Count," Big D said.

"Nine," said Natalia. "All nine. Noah’s arm’s cut deep. Kira’s shoulder." She lowered her bow. Her hands were steady. "Nobody dead."

"Good," said Big D.

Hessa had not lowered her hand from her eyes. She was standing at the edge of the trees, facing north, and Almond saw her shoulders shaking.

"Hessa," he said. "They’ve gone."

"Those four have," she said. "They’re going back to tell it where we are."

"Tell what?"

Hessa turned her head toward him. Her hand was still over her eyes. Her voice was quiet.

"It isn’t nine days anymore," she said. "It was, while it walked. But since the Door went quiet, it’s running." She lowered her hand at last. "The front of it will be at the edge of these woods the day after tomorrow."