Page 74 of Drawn into Oblivion

Kiyoshi landed hard enough to have the air knocked out of him, but before Mai could think of how to keep him down, Jun surged to his feet. The terror on his face spread his features so wide she hardly recognized him. She swept her leg beneath him, dropping him to the ground. Then the high general stood. She did the same move again and was amazed it worked a second time. They’re not paying attention to me, she realized. As the weeping grew louder, all they could think about was going to its source.

Rosuke wheeled around, chest heaving. The wide-eyed look on his face was that of a child seeing a monster for the first time. Paralyzed, betrayed, and helpless. He walked forward, unable to resist the pull of the willow. She dove at him, planted her shoulder into his chest, and pushed him back until she’d pinned him to the tree root.

He struggled violently in her arms. Worse, the other three had regained their footing. She couldn’t keep all of them back. But she had to try.

She grasped the front of Rosuke’s shirt, planted her foot, and threw him to the ground. Kiyoshi was short enough to wrap her arm around his neck, and she pulled him off his feet. The same wasn’t true of Jun, who also outweighed her significantly, but his target fixation made him easy to trip. By the time he was down, Rosuke was back on his feet, and Vallen had shambled several steps away. She ran to the high general and stopped his progress with a hard kick to his hip that sent him sprawling.

The willow’s wails had grown in volume when she turned back to Rosuke, but Kiyoshi was barreling at her—or rather, past her. Wincing, she clotheslined him and put him back on the ground. Jun was slow to get up, so she shot to Rosuke and shoved his chest hard enough to send him stumbling back. Unfortunately, he kept his feet under him, and Vallen was already up and moving again. Please hurry, Shumei.

Not giving up, she ran to the high general, grabbed the back of his shirt, and spun him around toward the others. He tripped over Kiyoshi and sent both of them tumbling. Jun was standing but swayed as if drunk, so she caught Rosuke by the waist when he would have walked past her. Though he grabbed at her arms to pull her off, she put herself in front of him and dug in her toes. Her ear was pressed to his chest, and she could feel the wild thumping of his heart against her cheek. She didn’t want to hurt him again putting him down, but if she had to—

The willow let out a keening wail. Then it went silent. Rosuke sagged in her arms so suddenly, she couldn’t hold him up. He slipped from her embrace and went to his knees. A quick glance told her the other three were also free of the willow’s influence. Jun sat on his heels, head tilted back as he caught his breath. Kiyoshi lay on his back, eyes closed, and Vallen sat with his back to her, his head drooped low. A gust of wind blew past them, carrying the scent of magic. Shumei had done it.

Looking down, Mai used what little moonlight there was to see into Rosuke’s eyes. Raw emotion flickered across his face, but he saw her, had focused on her. He grasped her against him, forcing her to her knees, and his hand at the back of her neck pulled her down for a bruising kiss. She didn’t struggle, for she needed this as much as he did. She wrapped him up in a comforting embrace, encompassing his head to shut out the horrible place they were in. In only a moment, they’d have to keep going, but for a few, breathless seconds, the only place they’d be was in each other’s arms.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Mai had checked on everyone by the time Shumei returned. Though shaken, none of the officers had trouble responding to her signals. Kiyoshi was still rubbing the front of his neck when Mai bowed in apology, but he shook his head when she straightened, and he signaled, I’m fine. Thank you. Jun and Vallen expressed similar sentiments. When everyone was back on their feet, Shumei gathered them in another huddle and dared to remove her silence spell.

“Don’t,” Shumei began, stopping Jun when he would have dropped his silencing as well. “I’ll be replacing mine again. Just listen.” Pausing to gather her thoughts, she looked around at their group, lips tight. “We’re only halfway to the waste river and have encountered three enemies. I have no doubt ten times as many stand between us and our destination, not to mention the forces we’ll have to sneak past to get to the fortress. After what just happened, I feel we’ve underestimated the power of some of these enemies.”

The men frowned, their gazes wavering. Mai wanted to tell them not to blame themselves for what the Weeping Willow had done, but now was not the time.

“New plan. Vallen and I will join up with Kiyoshi, and Jun will join Mai and Rosuke. Having someone with stronger magic in each team may help if there are any more soul trees. We were lucky this one put out its call when all of us were together.”

Mai held out her fist and quickly signaled a question. What was it? Soberly, Shumei inclined her head and answered, “I saw what indeed looked like a tree—very large. No leaves, but it was bearing fruit, something like a peach, and each one had a face.” Wincing at the memory, she paused for a moment to take a deep breath. “The roots tried to pull me in, but they moved rather slowly. I used the lowest-level magic I could to slash it to pieces. And the fruit…moaned when it hit the ground. The moans of a hundred men. That thing ate them like fertilizer.”

Mai asked another question. But you and me…?

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Perhaps the soul tree was meant to target an empress’s soldiers—primarily men. Or it could be because we have stronger magic. You and I heard it and felt it, but it didn’t take us over.” Vallen pointed at her when she made her second suggestion and nodded in agreement. Then he signaled, The Divine One.

Of course. The power the Divine One had lent Shumei and Mai could have been what had protected them. Mai could only hope that edge could carry them all the way to their goal.

“Any other questions?” Shumei asked. Everyone shook their heads. “Then let’s continue.” She cast the silence spell on herself, and they split up into two teams.

The next thirty minutes were slow going, but no more incidents occurred. The empress had been both correct and incorrect, though, regarding the remainder of their trek through the forest. She had been right in saying the number of scouts would increase, but rather than ten times as many, they only had to contend with twice as many. No one dared question their luck.

Only once did Shumei send Mai to deal with a patrolling dog soldier. Vallen, Jun, and Rosuke all had their own enemy to silence while Shumei tended to a small wound Kiyoshi had received from a demon that had managed to surprise him. Mai found and dispatched her target without trouble, but her heart didn’t recover from the adrenaline for nearly twenty minutes.

When at last they arrived at the waste river, Mai was certain everyone present would rather turn around in defeat than go any closer to such filth, and they had to resort to magic to block the stench of the repulsive mixture of fluids that oozed through the channel below them. Mai had a quick flash of the disturbing dream she’d had of walls and floors caked with half-congealed blood, and stood well away from the tall, slippery bank.

They were surprised to learn the waste river did not flow through the city, but under it. A drainage pipe jutting from the high city wall was the source, and though the mouth of the pipe was quite a leap from the riverbank, the opening was even taller than Jun, and they could make short work of the bars over it.

In short, smuggling themselves through the city was one drainage pipe away from happening. All that remained was coming up with a way into it, preferably without falling into a river of excrement.

Shumei flashed them a small, sneaky smile and removed her silence spell. “Watch this,” she said before turning to the waste river. Then she whispered, “Mizugumo,” and took a running jump off the riverbank.

Mai knew the spell’s keyword translated to “water spider,” but she was nevertheless aghast and feared the worst. However, Shumei successfully landed upon the surface of the sludge like an insect on water. They all crowded as close to the bank as they dared, and Mai could see how Shumei’s weight only slightly dented the slow-moving slime.

Shumei beckoned them to follow. Everyone dropped their silencing magic to cast the water-walking spell and hopped onto the river’s surface one by one.

Mai was anxious to be less exposed to anything watching for intruders from atop the city wall, but stealthily moving upriver was no easy task. If she had to describe what walking on a river of sewage was like, she’d compare it to using a rope bridge: precarious and constantly moving.

Ahead, two vague figures patrolled the wall walk, but one was moving away, and the other stood at just enough distance that they were able to avoid its line of sight by crouching low. That the wall was so weakly guarded convinced Mai that Shumei had been right. The Damned One was not expecting them.

When they reached the mouth of the drainage pipe, Vallen took an impressive, standing jump and grabbed the lower lip of the opening. Spotted chunks of filth spilled out as he pulled himself up, and Mai’s throat convulsed. She quickly looked away while Vallen used magic to cut through the bars, enough to let them through. Then Jun lifted Shumei high enough to take Vallen’s hand. Rosuke was next, and he easily jumped the distance. At another time and in a much different place, Mai would have tried the jump herself, but rather than risk missing her first try and testing the limits of the water-walking spell, she let Jun lift her to Rosuke’s outstretched hand.

After the other two officers joined them, they all stood in a tight group at the end of the pipe and looked into the pitch-black depths of the demon city’s sewer system. Mai felt an instinctive aversion to going any deeper, her mind conjuring images of pale, sightless creatures wallowing in the filth and waiting only for prey stupid enough to venture inside.