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I'm thrown along the tide of bodies, and push to my feet.
I roll to the side just in time to avoid a boot to my head, but take one in my stomach.
Grunting, I force myself to my feet again and rush to the only place that feels safe to me: the nearest wall. Wincing, my belly still sore, I leap to the closest window. Climbing with a stomach wound is never fun, but adrenaline is on my side. I make myself scale the smooth wall of the rich property, until I reach the roof.
* * *
I only have time to summon a wall of ice overhead before the hard white stone collapses.
I know it won't be enough, yet my thoughts, instead of remaining focused on my impending demise, are fixed on her.
Helyn is in the Hall of Peace. I brought her here. She's going to die because of me.
The entire ceiling falls and cracks against a black mist, dispersing before it hits me. Rather than taking time to thank the witch by my side, I close my eyes and direct every single bit of my focus through the space surrounding until us until my mind locks on her.
She's alive.
Alive and alone in a crazed stampede. I need to get out of here.
"Take the tunnel, I'll hold it," Valina tells me.
I finally think to offer the thanks I owe her for so many things, but her skin exudes a flash of golden light, and in next moment, she disappears.
By tunnel, she means the pile of crumbled stone. Her dark mist forms a cylindrical wall, barely the size of a man, and I run through it, not letting myself question what might happen if she's distracted and lets go.
When I emerge on the other side, I reach a mostly intact hall supported by three of its seven columns. Sprinting toward the closest exit I know of, my attention is so focused on Helyn, who climbs away from the square to safety, I don't even see the men in front of me before they call out.
"Hey, you! Stop where you are unless you want a laser through your brain, demi scum."
I skid to a stop mere inches away from the blaster he points right at my face.
I take in his appearance: heavy boots, brown, nondescript hunting clothes. He's plain, with a rich salt-and-pepper beard and almost no hair on his head.
He could be anyone of the billion average male commons on the continent right now. My first instinct is to freeze his veins but instead, I smile and tell him, "But you want to please me. Don't you?"
Many assume I need to call to some power to use my influence. What they don't understand is that seducing away the will of others is what I am. I have to focus to prevent myself from doing it.
His eyes glaze over and he lowers the blaster. I snatch it from his hands and throw it aside. "Go to sleep."
Hopefully, he doesn't hit his head too hard on the marble floor where he crashes with a numb thud. After my effort to use nonlethal force, that'd be a waste.
I've almost made it to the south entrance when I encounter another obstacle—several common men, armed with the same type of fast laser weapon, point all of their weapons at me.
"That's the boy king!"
"Let's take him to command."
Command? They're that organized?
"Surrender or die, scum!" one of them demands.
Lasers are as fast as the speed of light, and one of them, aimed at the right spot, would be enough to kill me.
I might have spared the first man, but he posed no threat to me. This mob is another matter. There are two dozen of them, and should one strike true between my eyes, I'd be on the ground in seconds.
I'm but a few feet away from the main square, and I can still sense Helyn far too close. Should I make use of my best defense, there's no guarantee I wouldn't freeze her too. I can't risk it. Not even to save my neck.
And influencing one person or two at a time is one thing, but there's no way to do it to all of them at once.
