With them temporarily taken out of the fight, and the wind clan naturi defending Cynnia, that left only Danaus, Knox, and me to wipe out the naturi that were creeping closer to our position. It wasn’t the best odds I’d had in a while, but I was unwilling to accept that they were impossible. I had to get through this fight to get my chance at Aurora’s head.
“Can you boil any of them now?” I asked Danaus. The darts had stopped flying and the naturi were now running toward us with short swords drawn.
“Not a problem,” he said as he rose from behind the large rock he had been using as a shield. With lightning speed he pitched two silver blades at the approaching naturi, catching two of them in the throat and sending them choking to the ground. He lifted his right hand and I could feel the energy surge from within him to sweep out toward the approaching naturi, and then it stopped just as suddenly. I twisted around, daring to look at him for a second, to find him staring at the ground.
“What’s wrong?” I demanded.
“I’m sinking,” he said, confusion filling his voice. Both of his feet were already covered in wet earth up to his ankles. He lifted one leg, trying to pull it free, but the quickly rising earth seemed to reach up and pull him back down. The earth clan had stolen away my other weapon by pulling him down into the earth. I needed to kill these bastards fast before Danaus was buried alive.
I turned back in time to see three naturi, and taking position directly in front of Danaus, raised my short sword in time to block a series of blows aimed at removing some critical body parts. While fending off the naturi, I continued to try summoning up flames to ward off my opponents, but every flicker was quickly doused by the light clan naturi, protected at the back of the cave by a small contingent of the earth clan.
Burn them! Boil them! We’re losing this one, Knox cried in my brain. And he was right. I could feel the panic rising in Danaus behind me as he continued to sink. He was so completely distracted by just trying to survive that he didn’t have a chance to use his powers, and I couldn’t harness his powers because it would sap him of the strength to fight the sinking earth.
“Shelly, get out of here!” I shouted, hating to admit defeat. The wind clan surrounding Cynnia had no magical edge under the earth, and we could only fight off the earth clan naturi with swords. If they turned their magic on the princess, we would be buried alive unless Shelly had a fresh trick up her sleeve, and I wasn’t willing to bet on that just yet. With Cynnia and her pack out of the way, we might at least get rid of some of the naturi should they turn their attention to the fleeing group.
However, luck just didn’t seem to be on my side. The earth clan naturi continued to come at us. I killed one of my opponents, but another took his place. Growling intensified from the far corner, indicating that some of the earth naturi were approaching the two lycanthropes. It wasn’t going to be a fair fight with one of them still wounded.
For the first time since the return of the naturi, I had to admit I was outgunned. I had spent most of my time going up against light and wind clan naturi, finding ways around their powers and keeping the fight on a physical level. I wasn’t prepared for a combination of earth and light clan in an area that gave them a distinct advantage.
“Mira! Can’t breathe!” Danaus gasped.
I didn’t need to look around to know that Danaus had sunk down into the earth to the level of his chest, the naturi using the dirt to crush him, keeping his lungs from properly expanding.
“Knox!” I screamed. I needed help. Someone had to free Danaus.
“I’m trapped,” he shouted back.
“I’ll see if I can help!” Shelly replied, stunning me.
“I told you to get out of here,” I snarled. I ducked low to avoid a sword aimed at my throat while blocking a second sword aimed at plunging through my heart. A few glancing blows had left me bleeding in a few places along my arms and legs, but nothing that had me concerned.
“Cynnia said that we won’t abandon you,” Shelly said, sounding distinctly closer.
I wanted to open my mouth to argue with her but said nothing as I continued to fight with the three naturi that stood before me. If Cynnia wanted to take this risk, it wasn’t my place to try to stop her. I was more concerned about saving Danaus, and I didn’t care where the help came from.
A scream from near the entrance of the tunnels seemed to draw everyone to a halt. I quickly looked over the heads of the naturi facing me to see a group of figures dressed all in black moving into the tunnels with amazing speed. A quick scan revealed that they were nightwalkers, but I was not at all familiar with them. And at that moment I didn’t care. The tables had finally turned.
“Shelly, shield me!” I commanded. In a blink of an eye a blue shield popped around me, protecting me from the swords of the naturi. Safe from my closest opponents, I turned my full attention to the light clan naturi, throwing fireball after fireball at her so she was preoccupied when the unknown nightwalkers finally plunged a knife into her chest and cut off her head.
The light clan naturi finally eliminated, I pulled more energy to my side and set aflame the remaining earth clan naturi that filled the cave. With the arrival of the unknown nightwalkers, the fight was over in a couple minutes. But now I was faced with the question of who our saviors were and what I owed them for their much needed assistance.
Fifteen
Shelly immediately dropped the shield from around me and rushed over to the deep shadows where the lycanthropes were hunkered down. I turned to find Danaus chest deep in the earth, struggling to get a full breath of air. The earth clan naturi had essentially turned the earth around him into a somewhat hard quicksand so he sank down, but as the pressure increased, the earth was crushing him.
“Knox! Help me free him!” I cried, falling to my knees before the hunter. My hands trembled as I dug into the dirt around his chest, breaking fingernails and tearing my fingers up as I pulled the earth away. Knox dropped to his knees beside me and quickly joined me in freeing the hunter.
“I can breath,” Danaus proclaimed after nearly a minute of digging. He sucked in a few deep breaths as Knox and I paused.
“Do you think we can pull you out or is it hardened completely around you?” Knox asked, clamping his left hand over a cut on his right arm that was struggling to close.
“You can try to pull me out,” Danaus said, twisting his body as much as he could, trying to free up some space. “Just don’t pull my arms out of their sockets.”
“Gee, thanks for the warning,” I groused as I pushed wearily to my feet. Then I grabbed his left arm while Knox got on his right. On the count of three we pulled as gently as we could, slowly lifting Danaus out of the earth and back onto solid ground. The hunter immediately collapsed to his knees and sucked in more air.
“Take a break,” I murmured, running my fingers through his hair before turning my attention to Knox. “Keep an eye on Cynnia for me as well as our new companions. It seems that Cynnia’s witch bodyguard is somewhat preoccupied with the shifters.”
“Got it.”
Watching the nightwalkers that continued to hover near the entrance to the tunnels out of the corner of my eye, I walked over to the lycanthropes. Both Cooper and Shelly were kneeling beside Barrett, who was sprawled naked across the ground. Shelly had her hand pressed tightly against his stomach, while Cooper, who was also naked, had one hand pressed to his brother’s right arm, attempting to stanch the bleeding. The witch was chanting softly with her eyes closed. I could feel the energy swirling in the air around her as she attempted to heal the worst of Barrett’s wounds.