Warlord's Ward

BailaLae

The smoke swallowed us. Coating everything in darkness.

"Touch him." Willow whispered. Her mages moving in to surround us. Putting hands on Killian and Rampage's shoulders and then on the mages further out, to keep us all huddled in a tight circle.

At the front was Killian who waited for the rest of us to link.

Then he took a long step to teach us the pace.

We moved with him.

Me, still pinched between the hips of he and Rampage who were leading the path.

A knight stepped through the bleak haze, and saw Rampage.

Lunging forward to pierce at him with the tip of his sword.

Rampage ducked beneath it and batted the flat side upward and then aside so he could catch the man by the throat.

"Should have ran away." He growled before twisting his wrist and snapping the man's neck in a gesture which seemed terrifyingly easy.

Then he let the man fall limply to the ground. Kicking him to send him sliding across the marble and back through the black barrier.

Making knights outside it cry out in objection.

And fear.

Their voices were a mix of commanding shouts and fearful, sharp noises.

Deciding if they're coming in after us.

Killian now had everyone marching to the rhythm of a long step. Then a shorter backstep. Then a long step.

Keeping us going as a unit.

But one dark head stepped from the group and Killian gave her a quick study. His eyes flaring blue. A watery shroud fell over her that made her reflect whatever was behind her. Turning her image into almost nothing. And with the dark haze she took only a few steps from us, before she was impossible to discern.

Tanya.

Killian nodded at her, satisfied with the result.

She bolted. Aimed for the small side room near the stairs.

To get BailaLae.

***

As we neared the doorway out into the bailey, he had no choice but to lift the haze enough we could all get through the single door.

"Tanya!" Rampage roared.

There was silence.

His attentions slipped and it seemed the crowd around us began to falter. He was looking everywhere worriedly. "Dammit, Tanya get back here."

The dark fog swished slightly, and I scanned that spot. Hoping it was her, but seeing nothing.

I felt my hands lift and realized it was a palm pressing mine upward. I peered in-front of me until I could make her out.

She lowered something heavy into my hands and as she did, she coated it in the magic. She slipped her fingers from beneath it and her color returned along her face and back, rolling downward until her arms were visible.

The coating withdrawing until it only circled the weight I gripped but couldn't see.

"Be very careful." She cautioned.

"Please, do not drop her." Killian said in a hushed voice.

BailaLae's cage.

But when he did so I realized that not only had his barrier dissuaded the knights, it'd kept crumbling stones and a fallen chandelier from harming us. The foyer was littered with armored bodies and debris.