“We need rain!” Ellery yelled over the growing cacophony of the approaching flames and the tortured cries of the dying.
The hundred and fifty or so amsirah who could wield rain had joined us and started pulling moisture from the air. Their power, swelling around us, caressed my skin and fueled my rain ability as the air thickened.
The poltergeists’ battle cries cut off as the remaining torches went out and night descended in the valley. The encroaching inferno cast an eerie, orange glow over the forest still free of its destruction.
That glow did little to illuminate the massacre below, butno onesurvived what the poltergeists unleashed on them.
Smoke and flames leapt into the air as the falling ash thickened around us, the heat increased, and the smoke grew thicker. Every breath brought smoke into my lungs, and the cloying scent of the fire covered the lingering aroma of the black dogs.
Wood cracked and trees creaked as they tipped forward before hitting the ground. We were still a few thousand feet away from the fire, but we increasingly felt its effects.
As the moisture in the air intensified, hands lifted to the sky. The smoke was so thick it was impossible to see the clouds above, but a fat drop of rain hit my cheek as more of them pattered against the earth.
When the rain fell freely from the sky in a downpour that matted my hair to my face and caused rivers to pour from me,all those who could bear the wind worked with me and Ellery to whip it into a frenzy.
The wind twisted the rain into a hurricane that lashed the earth in a torrent aimed at the fire. The sizzle of the fire drifted across the distance separating us.
The flames fought the drenching rain, but even as they continued to leap and jump, their resistance was fading. The downpour was hammering it into submission.
Once we were certain we had it under control, I looked over my shoulder to where Ianto, Callan, Luna, and Tucker stood. “I’ll take half of them to Carthaway now.”
While we hadn’t been here for long, we needed to keep moving before the other fires spread out of control. We’d nearly extinguished this blaze, and once it was, the four of them would lead the others to join us.
Cupping my hands to the sides of my mouth, I bellowed down the hill. “We’re leaving, Farley!”
Ellery barely had time to open a portal before the poltergeists zoomed back up the hill. They all had ear-splitting grins as they waved their bloody daggers.
Ellery and I exchanged a look. It had been questionable to arm the specters, but it was too late to take the weapons back now… I certainly wasn’t going to try it.
“That wasfun!” Farley gushed.
“Are you coming with us or staying here?” I asked.
“We’re coming! Give us more bodies!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Ellery
We moved swiftlythrough the other towns surrounding the Revenant Woods until we finally arrived in Nottingshire. By that time, the sun was rising, but it was impossible to see through the raging inferno.
The flames outside of Nottingshire were higher, angrier, and further into the woods than they’d been in the other towns. We were also allexhausted.
Well, all of us except for the poltergeists, who were still waving their bloody daggers with earsplitting grins. They continued to charge into battle with the mindless resolve of steers on a stampede. Being dead had the benefit of not requiring sleep.
Though we were still safely away from the fire, because it had spread so much, we’d misjudged where to open the portal and were far closer to the soldiers than we’d anticipated. Their eyes widened when they spotted us only fifty feet away.
Farley and the poltergeists released a savage shout as they flew at the guards with their knives pointed directly at them.Unprepared for the malicious attack from the immortal specters, the soldiers didn’t know how to fend them off.
Many pulled their swords from their sheaths and swung them at the poltergeists. All their blades succeeded in doing was creating tendrils in the air as they sliced through the specters.
The poltergeists reformed as they jabbed into the guards, sliced throats, and ruthlessly stabbed over and over again until blood filled the air. Their wrath filled the air as they unleashed it on all those who’d invaded their home.
Watching them throughout the night, I’d realized they hadn’t been anywhere near as ruthless as they could have been to the unsuspecting souls they’d tormented in the Revenant Woods. They’d mostly scared and harassed those amsirah.
This wrath was either suppressed for years or solely reserved for the nobility and anyone who helped them. I suspected it was mostly the latter and that some of their rage had bled over to all those they’d traumatized in the woods.
They’d been angry enough to harass innocent amsirah but still had enough control not to slaughter in this ruthless way. They laughed as the guards screamed and mocked when they pleaded for mercy.
