The Shifter Part 24

Bang!

We all screamed as the door cracked inward like a burst bubble. Right across the white speckled area. Saints! Flashed pain hurt people; did it hurt things things as well? as well?

"They're breaking through," Danello said, pushing hard against the cots. "We need weapons. Kione, help us over here!"

I ran for more cots, dragging them over to fortify our barricade. I had to keep the guards out. Had to protect Tali and the apprentices. Please, don't let me have hurt all those people for nothing Please, don't let me have hurt all those people for nothing.

Aylin dashed to the cabinets and started searching for anything that could be used as a weapon, throwing rags and sheets over her shoulder as she dug through the shelves. The apprentices opened drawers along the back wall.

Bang!

Guards shoved at the cracked door, and a sword blade slipped through. An arm followed, creeping in and patting around as if looking for the lock. Danello slammed his fist against the hand, and it yanked back.

Nervous whimpers scurried through the room. The healed apprentices backed away and huddled together. I'd tried so hard to save them, but I'd only made things worse. The Luminary would kill all of us. We were nothing to him. Nothing but pynvium pynvium.

"Aylin," Danello called from the door. "Any luck on those weapons?"

"No!"

"Yes," I whispered, turning around. Maybe I wasn't a Healer, would never be be a Healer, but right now we didn't need healing, we needed weapons-and a Healer, but right now we didn't need healing, we needed weapons-and that that I could be. I had a whole room full of pain to shift. "I need an apprentice!" I could be. I had a whole room full of pain to shift. "I need an apprentice!"

Kione gasped. "You're going to use them on the barricade?"

"No, you henhead, I'm going to heal them and and keep the guards out at the same time." Kione just stood there, but Danello raced to the nearest cot and picked up a first cord a few years older than me. Hurt, but aware, she gritted her teeth and held her hand out to me. keep the guards out at the same time." Kione just stood there, but Danello raced to the nearest cot and picked up a first cord a few years older than me. Hurt, but aware, she gritted her teeth and held her hand out to me.

"Give those Baseeri sc.u.m all I've got."

I grabbed the first cord's hand as another arm snaked in. It stretched, exposing a thin band of wrist between cuff and glove. Aylin grabbed the hand, held it down for me. I reached for flesh and pushed pushed.

The man screamed, and the arm's angle changed as if he'd collapsed.

"Bring others," I hissed, needle stabs fading along my legs. Crushed bones for sure.

From Danello's arms, another apprentice offered me a trembling hand and I took it, shifting quickly before the guards pulled another man away.

BANG!.

The hole widened. Several cot frames snapped and fell to the floor. Wood screeched across stone, and the barricade moved a foot closer. A guard wiggled through the ragged hole in the door, kicking and shoving as he came, others right behind him, pushing him forward.

I turned. "I need more-" Words died. Behind me, the apprentices had formed a chain, hands clasped from cot to cot, the half-healed linking the rows and covering the gaps between those too weak to sit up.

Tali took the last hand and stretched her fingers to me, chin set, eyes hard. "Just like the twins, Nya, stronger when linked. We'll draw, you push."

It wouldn't be easy. Each Healer could heal the previous one in the chain, but the farther along the chain they healed, the worse it would get. By the time it got to Tali, she'd be unable to stop it-and neither would I. I'd have the pain from inside every last one of them. But unlike them, I could get rid of it without pynvium.

I wrapped my hand in Tali's, and Mama's face came to me. I suddenly knew how she'd felt that last day, facing Baseeri soldiers. She'd died to protect us. I wasn't going to let her-or Geveg-down now.

"Danello, grab him and pull back his sleeve," I said. I'd flashed pynvium, so maybe I could flash a person person, channel the pain through them to the rest of the room. Skin touched skin, and my hand warmed against Tali's. It tingled and stung like I'd left it asleep for weeks.

We'd all done terrible things out of desperation. Things we'd never have considered before the Duke first invaded us, kicked us even harder when we tried to rebel. Danello wouldn't have asked me to shift into his family. Lanelle wouldn't have hurt her friends to keep her job. I wouldn't have hurt strangers to save friends. None of it was right, but st.i.tch together enough wrongs, and it makes a blanket that almost keeps out the chill.

I was tired of shivering under the Duke's blankets.

I drew drew as Tali as Tali drew drew, as they all drew drew, reaching into one another, each healing the lower in the chain and dragging the pain up like a bucket from a ca.n.a.l. It rushed into me, boiling and hot. I opened a sluiceway as I'd done with the fisherman, the sisters, the parents, and families of those who came to Zertanik's for help.

Blinding pain sizzled between us. Two dozen voices merged in a single scream. It echoed in my ears long after the pain had left me, and it wasn't until Danello held me and smoothed my sweaty hair back that I realized the echoes were the guards' moans outside the door.

"Nya?" he said, sounding worried. "Can you hear me?"

"Danello?" My tongue felt thick and heavy in my mouth. My arms felt heavier, and I wasn't sure where my legs were. "Guards?"

"Unconscious, maybe worse. It looks like the pain went right through them all. As if it, I don't know, flashed from the man you had ahold of."

I sat forward and tried to move my limbs. Sharp tingling said my legs were indeed still there, though I wasn't sure I wanted them right now. "How...others?"

"They're okay. About the same as you, at least the ones at this end of the chain. The ones on the other side are better. They didn't have to heal as much as your side."

I managed to turn. Tali looked pale and sweaty, but was sitting up with a tired smile on her face. "Did it," she mumbled. The others smiled at me, at one another. They were all alive and moving.

"We have to get out of here." I struggled to stand. Danello helped me to my feet while Aylin helped Tali. "More guards will come."

Across the room, apprentices stood, those at the far end helping those near the door. Excited whispers and grins raced along them, same as the pain had.

"What did we do?"

"Did Heal Master Ginkev ever say we could link like that?"

"Wonder what else we can do."

"Wonder what else she she can do." Whispers ceased and eyes turned to me. My skin itched as if tiny spiders were running all over me. can do." Whispers ceased and eyes turned to me. My skin itched as if tiny spiders were running all over me.

I shook my arms. The last of the pain was fading and I felt like I had the morning after the ferry accident, but that muscle soreness would ease on its own.

I turned to the apprentices, the proof that the Luminary was lying, and the only people who could stop the riots and save Geveg.

"Come on-it's time to go."

TWENTY-ONE.

Everyone raced forward and grabbed a cot, dragging them away from the door like trapped pynvium miners digging themselves out of a cave-in. Wood thunked and sc.r.a.ped across the floor, clattering into a growing pile where the pain-filled apprentices had once whimpered. Danello found a sword lying just inside the door and beyond the reach of a pale, still hand. The sword wasn't as thin as his rapier, but he looked like he knew how to use it well enough.

I looked away from the hand and searched for Tali. "Take the lead with Danello," I said. "Show him the way out. I'll follow behind."

She nodded. "Okay, but stay close."

The apprentices filed out behind them. Some knelt down and grabbed the fallen swords littering the hall outside the spire room. I stepped around the guard I'd shifted into, lying in the doorway between the spire room and the hall. Though some of the other guards groaned and twitched, he didn't move. Part of me wanted to check and see if he was alive, but I was too scared to learn the answer.

A dozen more guards were in the hall, so the Luminary had probably sent most of the inside guards after us. I didn't want to look at them either, but I had to know if Elder Vinnot was among the unconscious and the- No, I wouldn't say it. They were all just unconscious. I found Vinnot groaning at the top of the stairs. I smiled. Let him put that that in his notebook. I resisted the urge to kick him as I pa.s.sed, and started down after the others. in his notebook. I resisted the urge to kick him as I pa.s.sed, and started down after the others.

I followed the apprentices as they trailed after Danello and Tali. I scanned every hall, every intersection, every room we pa.s.sed. No guards so far, but that couldn't last long.

As we turned onto the second floor, nervous whispers raced back through the apprentices.

"Guards!"

"What are we gonna do?"

"Shhh, they'll hear you."

"Hold it," one guard called, though I couldn't see him or how many were with him over the herd of apprentices. "What are you doing here?"

"Leaving," said Danello. I could picture the dangerously determined set to his chin, raised high like his sword probably was.

"Who are you?" Another voice, younger than the first guard.

"Dead apprentices," said Tali. "Only we're not dead, and we're getting out of here."

No answer from the guards. I stood on tiptoe but wasn't tall enough to see over the heads.

"You can't be apprentices...." Hesitant voices echoed his words. Several guards were up there at least. I looked around the intersection for anything I could stand on for a better view and found- "Lanelle," I gasped, face-to-face with her as she rounded the corner.

Eyes wide, Lanelle backed away, not limping at all. So she had had been healed! been healed!

"Mestov, it's me, Dima," an apprentice called. "You have to let us go. Please."

"Dima? Saints, they said you were dead!"

Now the guards were yelling questions, not just muttering them. It was clear they'd had no idea what had been going on upstairs.

"Stay away from me!" Lanelle said, not loud enough to rise above the guards, but loud enough to get Kione's attention. He turned.

"You're alive!" he gasped, looking just as shocked as I'd been.

Lanelle turned and ran down the hall, right toward- Saints and sinners! This hall led to the Luminary's wing! She was probably headed right for an Elder to save her job and betray us again.

I chased after her. Kione called her name and started following us.

"Lanelle!" he whisper-yelled. "Where are you going? We have to get out of here."

He still didn't realize what she must have done. I pictured her lying in her cot, the Luminary hovering over her, shaking her, demanding answers. I doubted she even hesitated to give them. Saints, I bet she'd even offered offered information about Tali and me to get herself healed. information about Tali and me to get herself healed.

"Why isn't she stopping?" Kione asked.

I kept running, pa.s.sing the windows overlooking the city. Smoke rose off the burning market square. I couldn't make out any uniforms in the mob below, but League green and Baseeri blue were likely hacking their way through the crowd, just as they had at every riot before.

Kione pulled ahead of me, and I followed him and Lanelle into a rectangular room that was almost Sanctuary quiet, with thick green carpets. Double doors were set in the middle of the far wall. On either side of the doors, padded benches sat between statues. Kione was halfway down the hall, but Lanelle was nearing the doors at the end of it.

My steps halted. I knew this hall, though it had been years since I was last here. We were outside the Luminary's office.

Suddenly a guard stepped out from a side nook and grabbed Lanelle. She screamed and yanked back.

"Let go of her!" Kione hollered, charging at the guard. Before he reached him, another guard appeared and shoved Kione down.

"Let her go! I work here," Kione said, trying unsuccessfully to yank himself free.

"Not in this wing you don't."

I turned to run before the guards saw me, but a wall of green slammed into me. Or maybe I slammed into it. Either way, I fell back and landed on my b.u.t.t.

"Busy day today," said the guard looming over me.

"It'll calm down," said the other. "Always does."

The guard hauled me to my feet as easily as picking up a sleeping chicken. I kicked him in the shins, then stumbled forward in pain.

"Ow!" I cried, my toes stinging.

He chuckled.

Eyes watering, I lifted my foot and rubbed my bruised toes. Only then did I notice the silver greaves strapped around his shins. Shifting bruised toes into him probably wouldn't even get his attention, much less distract him long enough for me to escape.

At least they'd caught Lanelle too.

Lanelle was slapping ineffectually at the guard holding fast to her arm. "I have to see the Luminary," she said.

One side of the double doors opened, and a man dressed in a mountain of silk stepped out. All the strength left my knees, and only the guard's grip on my arm kept me standing.

"What's all the noise out here?" Zertanik said with a frown. That changed to a smile when he looked up and saw me. "Well, Merlaina, how nice to see you again."

"Sir, sir!" Lanelle waved a hand at Zertanik. "This is the girl I told Elder Vinnot about. Tell the guards to let me go."

Kione stopped struggling. "Lanelle, what are you doing?"

"I saw the apprentices in the main corridor. They're getting away!"

A m.u.f.fled voice came from inside the room.

"What's that?" Zertanik said, leaning back into the office. He popped out a moment later and gestured at the guards. "Bring the girls in," he said, stepping aside.

"What about him?" the guard holding Kione asked. Kione kept staring at Lanelle, a tortured look on his face.

"Holding room for now." Zertanik grinned. "He might be useful later."