SPIRIT BLOOD

Chapter 10

With the town still blazing around them and the smoke only growing thicker, the four of them quickly came to an unspoken agreement that any further discussion could wait until they were far enough away to escape the heat of the flames.

The dark-haired girl wasn't in a good way. Though Shari licked the gash in the girl's leg a few times to stop the bleeding, it'd take far more than that to heal it completely. Adrenaline was one thing, but expecting her to run was another entirely.

Lira glanced a question at Shari, who rumbled her approval. Lira walked over to the dark-haired girl, who squeaked in surprise as Lira lifted her onto the cloak that covered Shari's back.

"Hold there," said Lira, pointing at part of Shari's back where she knew the strap of the cloak would be.

The girl didn't argue. She just followed the instruction, one hand on Shari's back grabbing the strap through the fabric, the other clutching the small bird spirit right over her heart as she stared down at Shari's head with wide, slightly terrified eyes.

Lira pressed a hand to her head, trying to stop the pounding from shaking the world for a second as she looked to Thea. "Any idea which way is out?"

Thea gave the streets a quick glance around with squinted eyes before she clucked her tongue, leaned her staff in the crook of her elbow, and covered her spirit eye with the eyepatch. "Which way is the most direct path out of town?"

The dark haired girl pointed down a street. "Mostly a straight line, widest street, but it looks blocked."

"I don't think it matters," said Thea, clutching both hands on the length of her staff. "I should be able to clear a path."

"Lead the way," said Lira.

Thea licked her lips, took a deep breath, and with a little hop, started running.

Lira, Shari, and her two passengers stayed close behind her.

As they approached the first blockage, Thea slowed down, thrusting her staff out in front of her. The jewel at the head of her staff flashed--an amplifier that all spirit mages used. In the span of a few seconds, a pale blue shield of solid spirit energy expanded from the centre of the blockage. Shaped like an archway, the result was a tunnel, just tall enough for Lira and wide enough for Shari.

Thea went through first, Lira after her. The large, smouldering beams loomed above her as the radiant heat from the flames either side blasted her, but the spirit shield-turned-tunnel held.

Once the five of them were through, Thea dismissed the shield and kept running, her steps glimmering with spirit energy as she retook her place at the head of the group.

As one blockage turned into two, then three, Lira kept a close eye on Thea, watching for any sign of burnout. Other than holding her breath every time they ran through a tunnel, the spirit mage seemed fine. There was no sign of the tell-tale cyan veins, no threads of silvery-blue hair. She was flushed and coughing every so often, but the fire was taking its toll on all of them.

Lira stayed beside Shari, keeping a hand on her partner's head to steady herself. Her head was throbbing, her bicep aching where she'd cut it. The world was spinning more than she liked, but she'd make it. She'd just need to find a quiet place to rest for a few hours afterwards. Somewhere to lie down, to close her eyes, to--

Lira swore and shook her head, forcing herself to focus. She knew what fatigue felt like, but this heat was making her thoughts blur together.

"How close are we?" Lira breathlessly asked the dark-haired girl.

"I think... think that's the blacksmith's store," replied the girl, nodding towards a building to their right. "Means we're close."

The girl was right. After Thea shoved aside one last pile of burning debris, far smaller than the ruined buildings she'd tunneled through earlier, they began to see other buildings, houses yet to catch fire. The flames chased them, but for the first time, they were outrunning the heat. They could see the forest, see the dusky sky beyond the plume of firelit smoke.