The men at the front of the column skidded to a stop, and the men who'd been running behind them collided with them, collapsing the column and causing chaos. Corvan, mounted near the front, was trying to extricate some drafters from the crush to get them to work on clearing the flaming barricades. It would only take a minute or two, in normal circumstances.
Near to the back of the column, Karris pulled up sharply and started shouting at the men near her to form a rear guard. "Load muskets, affix matches!" She wheeled around in time to see the first of the color wights pursuing them.
Karris had never seen anything like it. She'd known green wights could change their joints to give their legs immense springiness, but the greens weren't the only color wights leaping from roof to roof behind them.
A yellow wight, limbs all aglow, ran straight toward the edge of a flat roof, gathering luxin in both hands. She leapt off the edge, and threw her hands down, releasing a jet of yellow at the ground, using the recoil to throw her up high enough to make it to the next roof. Like she was playing leapfrog in midair.
A flash of green, much closer.
Karris shot a ball of green up, intercepting the green wight as it descended. Her shot blasted the green wight off its trajectory, lifting it so that instead of landing among the terrified soldiers, it collided with the side of a building. The soldiers around it recovered before the wight did. Karris heard a rattle of musket fire.
Damn! Veterans would have dispatched it with their blades, saving precious shots for more active enemies.
Another green wight streaked through the air, and Karris missed it. It crashed through the back ranks, scattering men. Others, terrified, leveled their muskets and fired, most of them missing the wight and hitting their own friends.
By the time they put that one down, wights of every color were converging on them. Lord Omnichrome's army was rounding a corner, not three hundred paces away, jogging, picking up speed for a charge. Half a dozen of Omnichrome's red and sub-red drafters were mounted. They closed within two hundred paces and lobbed great flaming missiles toward Corvan's massed, trapped men.
A blue wight, all glittering angles and blades, was the next across the rooftops to the left. A sub-red was leaping across roofs on the right, bald, her whole body literally aflame.
Out of nowhere, a big drafter dropped into the street straight in front of Karris, his back to Corvan's men. He stood, arms spread out as if he were holding ropes and expecting a heavy load. His arms snapped out just as the blue wight and sub-red wight leapt to attack.
Both color wights jerked hard as the invisible superviolet luxin ropes around their necks went taut. The blue wight's body went abruptly horizontal, all the luxin it had held going to jelly in an instant as it lost concentration. It crashed to the ground in front of the rear guard.
The sub-red wight, without the benefit of blue armor around her neck, barely changed directions. Her body landed on the next roof and fell, and her flaming head rolled right into the river.
The drafter who'd saved them shot a glance back, making sure the color wights were dead. It took Karris's breath away. It was Usef Tep, the Purple Bear himself, the hero of the False Prism's War. Even as Karris registered the fact, she saw the flaming missiles that were arcing toward the rear guard suddenly veer left and right in the air, exploding at a safe distance.
Another green wight she hadn't even seen crashed into the ground, riddled with blue luxin knives. Karris saw Eleleph Corzin, skin luminous blue, step out of an alley.
"We've got your backs. Go!" a woman yelled.
Karris turned to see at least a dozen drafters stand on the last rooftop. It was like Karris had stepped into a heroes gallery. The woman who'd yelled was Samila Sayeh. Deedee Falling Leaf stood next to her, skin wrapped in vines of pure green luxin. Flamehands stood on the corner of the building, a steady stream of fireballs popping from each hand. Sisters Tala and Tayri to the right. Talon Gim bleeding heavily, left arm useless, but going to stand beside Usef Tep in the street. And others that Karris recognized from her youth, or who'd fought for Dazen and whom she'd heard described in vivid detail.
"Damn you! You and that boy are the only ones who can save Gavin. Take him and get the hell out of here!" Samila Sayeh yelled, her eyes flashing.
Corvan's men surged as the barricades gave way. Karris felt Kip stirring behind her. Lord Omnichrome's army was like an onrushing tide. Karris spurred her horse on, only shooting glances back at the magical conflagration behind her.
It was enough. All of Corvan's men made it over the bridge. From there, it was a straight adrenaline-fueled shot to the docks.
Karris made it with the last group. Corvan, up at the front, was moving toward Gavin down on the docks. Gavin was working, drafting barges, it looked like. Someone alerted Gavin, and Karris saw a flash of his crooked smile toward Corvan.
And in that moment, Karris knew. It was like she'd been clubbed. Her throat tightened. The pieces spun together. A thousand pieces from the past sixteen years, and the last few in the past few days: That grin. Patting Corvan's shoulder on the wall this morning. If Karris hadn't spent more than a decade in the Blackguard, she wouldn't have caught it. But Gavin and Corvan should hate each other. That could be explained away. They were professionals, sure. They had reasons to work together, right. But seamless command and instant obedience come only with time and trust. How could these men trust each other?
Who comes back from war a better man?
Gavin had said, "What's in that note, it isn't true. I swear it isn't true." Why would Gavin double down on a lie that he knew was going to be exposed minutes later?
Because it wasn't a lie.
Oh shit.
Chapter 91
Shaken from his torpor by Karris dismounting, Kip looked from one side to the other, squinting, head pounding. One moment, he'd been holding on to the woman, more concerned that as he clung to her his arms were touching her breasts and she was going to think he was groping her than worried about the exploding guns and coruscating magic.
He was, by any rational account, a moron.
And then, abruptly, they were at the docks. Kip couldn't follow things well. At first the men were challenging Corvan, and then welcoming him, and Corvan was giving orders and disappearing into the men, talking with this person and that. Kip felt simultaneously dizzy and as strong as a bear. Karris cursed aloud, but he didn't understand why. She pulled at his arms, still clamped around her waist. He released her, and almost fell when she slipped out of the saddle.
"I'll be back for you in a little while." Karris patted his arm. Suddenly, her face came into tight focus. Like he was looking through her, like he was understanding her. She looked… vulnerable.
Vulnerable? Karris White Oak? At another time, Kip would have laughed at the thought. Now his focus was too great. Her eyes were tight. Some of that was concern for Kip, but that pat of his forearm was a "You'll be fine in a little while" pat. She wasn't worried about Kip. She was nervous about something else.
Karris turned and Kip saw her square her shoulders. Her shoulders lifted-she was taking a deep breath. Then she strode down the dock as if she were as confident as always in between soldiers, drafters, sailors, and scared civilians. Despite the bustle and the nerves and the not-so-distant fighting, the crowd parted for this vision of war and beauty: knotted muscles and femininity, the luxin sword on her back still smoking, soot on her naked shoulders and cleavage, a clawed bich'hwa in her fist, barefoot, black hair windblown, her stride fearless.
She stopped behind a copper-haired drafter who was working on a great barge. Spoke. The man's head whipped around like it was on a swivel. Not just any man. The Prism.