Elves Invasion

64

Isaac’s eyes narrowed at Erye, and Ava got the sense that they were sharing mindspeak. Whatever Erye said convinced Isaac. One quick tug and he pulled out the peg behind Erye’s neck. The yoke fell away with a jingle and a thump. Isaac tossed Erye one of his blades and the two of them put Ava between their backs, both of them looking out, encircling her against the silent darkness.

Ava opened her hands to the torch, absorbing the heat of its small flame. A witch wind whipped her hair about her head, whispering ghostly, half-heard words. She filled Isaac’s willstone just in time to meet the onslaught. The Woven burst through the trees in a wave of noise and motion.

“Simians!” Erye called out.

The simian Woven hooted as they knuckled forward, their thick bodies swinging between their arms with blinding speed. Isaac ran out to meet them. They barreled into the light of the torch fire and stopped abruptly.

“Hold,” Isaac ordered, pulling up short.

“They’re not attacking,” Erye said, like he couldn’t believe it.

The simians swung around a perimeter just far enough to show that they weren’t engaging in a direct fight, but not far enough to let the humans run.

Ava felt one of them look her in the eye, assessing her. He snorted and looked away, scanning Isaac’s and Erye’s faces.

“They’re looking for someone,” Ava said, puzzled.

“Ava!” Isaac hissed as she stepped forward. She felt Erye snatch at her arm and she shook him off.

“I’m okay,” she told them, walking to the edge of the perimeter. “Look—they’re not here to kill anyone. I don’t think those are their orders.”

The simians retreated as she neared, rolling their lips back and baring their fangs anxiously. One of them darted in at her, bluffing to push her back. It was just what Ava was waiting for. Instead of falling back in fear, she dove forward, her hands reaching for the Woven’s neck. The creature was so startled by Ava’s brazen action she had time to find a small, hard lump under its skin.

Ava touched the Woven’s embedded willstone and felt someone push back against her mind. A flash of fury ignited and fizzled in a moment as Ava shoved the other witch out of this Woven’s willstone.

“It’s okay,” she murmured to the frightened creature. “I won’t harm you.”

It wasn’t like a human mind. He had a vague sense of self, and even less of a sense of will. Ava knew she could invade his stone without cracking it as Grace had done, but she didn’t want that. She didn’t want to make any of the choices Grace had. Instead, Ava asked. She felt the Woven give his assent and claimed his willstone for herself.

Mine.

A barrage of images sped through Ava’s mind. Swinging through treetops. A beloved grooming the scales on his blue back. Peacefully warming in the sun. Awoken and commanded to kill. Shown a face by the angry one within—a face that must be found.

“Breakfast!” Ava piped, surprised, when she saw the face. She broke off the mindspeak with her newly claimed Woven and turned. “They’re looking for Breakfast—except he’s an Outlander?” she finished doubtfully as she assessed the image she’d seen. It had been Breakfast, but he’d had long, braided hair and war paint on his face.

“Ava, get back,” Isaac said. She felt him pulling on her arm, trying to get her to step away from the Woven who stood only inches away.

Without warning, the simians turned as one and sped back into the trees, hooting and howling as they went. All but one. Ava’s claimed Woven stayed where he was while the rest of his family group sped off.

Follow them, Blueback, Ava told him. She added an image of him turning and leaving her in case he didn’t understand. The Woven took her command and knuckled his way off into the darkness.

“Ro!” Caleb called.

“Here!” Isaac called back. He turned and made a disgusted sound. “He’s gone.” Ava looked at him, her mind still sorting out what Blueback had shown her. “Erye is gone,” Isaac clarified.

“Ava’s fine,” Caleb said into the darkness behind him. Tristan appeared behind him at a jog, and they joined Isaac and Ava.

She reached out to the rest of her mechanics, searching for Breakfast. She found him, still shaken, as he and Joyce joined them. Joyce was covered in Woven blood. She started wiping at it to get it off her.

“They tried to carry me off,” Breakfast told them, offended. “They would have, too, if my girl hadn’t stepped in.”

“It wasn’t me,” Joyce said, declining to take any credit. “We were totally outnumbered, and then they just dropped him and ran off.”

“They weren’t looking for Breakfast,” Ava replied. She grabbed Isaac’s arm, her alarm growing. “The shaman Red Leaf. They came for him.”

Ava could hear braves calling out in alarm. Caleb and Isaac c****d their heads, listening to the coded signal calls for a moment before sharing a dismayed look.

“They got him,” Caleb said.

“Why would the Woven want the shaman?” Joyce asked.

“Not the Woven,” Ava said, shaking her head. “Grace. Why would Grace want a shaman who knows how to spirit walk unless it’s because of what I told her in the redwood glade?”

The coven’s eyes went wide as they realized what Grace wanted.

“Let’s get him back,” Tristan said, already breaking away from the group. “Come on, guys, let’s go.”

“There are too many,” Isaac said quietly.

Ava pulled heat from the torch, but it was a small flame. She gave her mechanics as much force as she could, and looked at Isaac. “She can’t learn how to worldjump, Isaac. She can’t.”

He nodded, but his face was furrowed with a doubtful frown. “Breakfast, stay and guard Ava,” he ordered, and then the rest of her mechanics took off so fast it was as if they’d disappeared. As soon as they were gone, the darkness seemed to grow eyes that watched her hungrily.

“Stay close to me, Breakfast,” Ava said. “Erye is out there.”

“If we’re lucky he’ll get eaten by something ugly,” Breakfast said, kneeling down on the ground to build a proper fire. “I doubt he’d risk coming back for you tonight.”

Ava nodded and relaxed some. She reached out to Blueback in mindspeak. Find the human your kind has taken, she told him.

For a moment Ava was crashing through the underbrush and then vaulting up to the trees to careen through the branches. Blueback chased down his group by scent and sound, but when he caught up with them, none of them had Red Leaf. Blueback started to retrace his steps to find one of the other family groups that had been a part of the raid. He smelled for the human, but there were so many humans in the forest that night he couldn’t be sure which was the one Ava wanted.