"I take it that was a vision." I dug through my bag and found the canteen.
She took it gratefully, tipped it over her mouth for a few quick swallows, and offered it to me when she was finished. I took a few sips as well, but I just wanted to know what her vision had been about.
"You take it correctly." She took a deep breath. "Nothing much. It's hard to make sense of it, but from what I can tell, it was only showing me that we were right. The men we're chasing, Tannin and the other advisors, have used this place in the past." She shuddered. "Magic like I've never seen before. Strange rituals. I don't know their purpose, but I do know that something strange is afoot with them. They gave me a bad feeling, at least."
I nodded. Bad feelings were all we had at this point, but it was better than nothing.
"And something else," she said slowly.
Heat blossomed on her cheeks, and it made me go cold. Something was not right if she acted that way, and I didn't like that at all.
"What else?" I asked.
She nodded toward the entrance of the ruins. "We're surrounded."
I jerked my head so hard that my neck cracked. She was right. A crowd of men with weapons stood at every entrance, weapons bristling toward us. From their crude armor, I couldn’t tell which side of the war they represented.
"That's less than ideal," I managed through gritted teeth. "But don't you think you could have said something about that a bit sooner?"
She shrugged, the back of her wrist nudging mine. Something cool brushed my palm, and I instinctively opened my hand to take it from her.
"I was in the middle of a vision. I can't control what I see. Believe me, I would have loved a bit more warning about them." She lifted her head to stare at the armed men approaching us.
I took the opportunity to look down at what she had given me. A gauntlet. Not the simple bracelet I had stolen from her before, but a full one, carefully tended leather with a large purple stone in the center to help me control my power.
My eyes widened, shocked that she would give me something so clearly useful, not to mention valuable. This was a far better mark of trust than anything she had shown me thus far.
She had taken her bracelet away from me, no doubt to make sure I didn't use my magic to lash out at her. Even though now she knew I could use magic without it, she also knew I needed something to control it. Still, she was taking the chance of me using my magic against her, and with the gauntlet to help me focus it, I could do far more damage.
I swallowed hard past the lump in my throat and tightened my grip on it, moving slowly to slide it into place on my right arm.
"Don't move," one of the men snapped as they stalked toward us, which of course I ignored.
Only a few of them had crossbows, and the rest of them weren't any danger to us unless they got much closer than they were now.
I focused more on the crossbows. My injured leg gave a sharp twinge, as if I needed the reminder that I had failed to stop the bolt before.
The men drew closer, and I was none too happy to wait for them. If we were going to do something about our current predicament, now was the time.
"So are we going to get taken again or bail?" I asked.
Legacy snorted under her breath, keeping her expression calm and her hands raised as she answered me in a low voice. "If you get shot in the back with a crossbow, we'll have to take care of that first."
I nodded slowly, doing a mental check of my magic. With the gauntlet and feeling well rested, I was fairly sure that I could stop the bolts before they hit us.
"We can make a run for it, but you can't be mad if I miss a bolt or two,” I said. “I'll try not to let us get killed."
Legacy arched her brows at me. "That's the best you can offer? Weprobablywon't die?"
I shrugged, already gathering my magic. I took a single step back, even as the men crept closer, snapping at us not to move.
"If you'd like to try to stop what is likely going to be a hail of arrows, please feel free," I muttered.
"Fine. Let's do this."
I grinned, and the magic flowed through the gauntlet and into my hand. With no signal between us, I whirled on my heel and sprinted toward the nearest entrance, with Legacy close on my heels. I yanked the magic up into a shield behind us, the arrows rattling against the magic and sending a jolt through me.
While I took care of the soldiers behind us, Legacy worried about those in front of us. Her magic surged out in a huge arc, knocking them all down like kicked buckets. I slithered through the middle of the falling crowd, shooting for the gap in the wall. The rock crumbled behind us as we scrambled through the narrow gap, and I aimed my magic backward, doing my best to plug the hole we'd gone through.
