Sixty-nine

The proverbial gauntlet has been thrown. In one swift move, he grabs, the one woman that by no means deserves to be dragged into this, Marie.

She yelps when he fists her hair drags her in front of him, and then slides the knife along her throat. A drop of blood trickles, sliding down her neck, and soaking the neckline of her shirt. I watch, captivated as the blood fuses with the fabric while my rage reaches new heights. She has lost so much already. Her daughter, and her husband at the hands of the V'asay. She doesn't deserve to die at the hands of a man she has never met and never wronged.

" Now," My brother says with a sinister smile," I believe we have an understanding," He looks at me," Go fetch the seals, darling sister or she dies. Slow and painfully," He digs the blade further into Marie's neck, and a whimper slips past her lips, as more blood begins to trickle down her neck.

Sacrifice innocent people to protect something that was probably never mine to keep. Not worth it.

" Laira," I call, and she slips through the crowd, and steps in the small circle that has formed around the trio.

" Give him the hilt," For once Laira's argumentative side doesn't show. She unzips her jacket and rummages through the inside pockets, stalling.

I slide a little bit closer, while my brother is distracted by Laira's treasure hunt. The hilt is not small but not big either. So unless her pockets have mysteriously become bottomless, then she shouldn't have to go through so much trouble to find the hilt.

I'd like to avoid hurting anyone even more than she is, but right now everything I'll do carries a certain risk.

I grip my other blade and bring it to my side and when Laira finally produces the hilt and holds it out in front of her, I take my aim.

" Give it to me," My brother demands, and Laira tilts her chin up defiantly and drops the hilt to the floor.

" Get it yourself," She struts through the crowd and returns to her place by the wall.

Unwilling to lose the cover Marie's body provides him, he forcefully nudges Marie towards the hilt and stops when it is within reach.

As he bends down, I throw one blade at Mason and throw the other one in his direction while Mason charges towards him, nimbly, at breakneck speed.

My blade nicks the back of his thigh, he drops the knife and Marie slips out of his grasp and takes refuge in the crowd, holding her hand around the wound to staunch the bleeding.

Mason lands a blow, just as my brother is inches away from the hilt. He knees him in the chin, sending my brother sprawling over the floor, groaning.

Mason picks up the hilt and throws it my way. I caught it and looked at the designs Laira had engraved on it while we waited for decahedrons to be ready. Lilies in bloom, their petals stretching over the hilt, and the accents of colour Laira added make them look almost surreal.

" The most beautiful flowers are the deadliest," She said as she scrawled with her chisel into the metal.

As expected my brother calls for Shay, and they both vanish in a ball of light.

" Coward," Mason huffs, as he weighs the blade in his hand and reaches to pick up the other one off the floor. It runs in the family by the looks of it.

The others have stepped in to help dress Marie's wound while Laira, squeezes through the crowd and walks up to Mason.

"How long have we been here for?" Laira looks at me for answers, but I can't give her any.

Madon checks his watch," Almost two weeks," Right around the time I left.

I have a feeling that this is my windy friend's handiwork. They wouldn't have stood a chance against him, I barely survived myself.

" How do we get out of here?" Laira asks looking at me for answers.

" Hmm...I don't know?!" I say a little flustered.

" Well, you made these god-awful contraptions. You're the expert. How do we break them?" I say to Laira, who puffs her cheeks and stares at the floor.

" Keep in mind that we are pressed for time," I add as she raises her head to look at me.

" You're not going to like it," She says cryptically and looks at the people around the room.

" Try me," I say and she takes a step forward to poke the barrier, it zaps her, making her recoil. She sticks her finger in her mouth to suck on it and soothe the burn.

" You'll have to drain them. And by the looks of it, it's not very touchy-feely," I want to laugh at her choice of words but I can't muster the strength when I'll have to get my brains fried by absorbing a few hundred amperes per minute.

" Huddle up," I say as I raise my hands and hover close to the barrier," Like penguins," I add and Laira chuckles. It is one of her favourite jokes when she wants to cuddle.

Slowly they huddle in the centre of the room while I psych myself up.

I don't have much time to waste, and this couldn't be more handy. I'm drained in all senses of the word, and this is a godsend.

At first the current circulating through my body is bearable, but as the flow increases I feel my body heating, and the temperature rises to almost a hundred degrees. It's too much at once, and I see Mason struggle as well, as he tries to take what I can't.

By the time the power cells are drained, smoke is coming out of my body, little wisps floating around shrouding me in a dense foggy mist. I collapse to the floor, and in the next heartbeat I hear a second thud, it rings more violently and ominously than the one I made.

Panting, I raise my head, my vision foggy and unfocused, but through the haze I find him lying on the floor while Enid slaps him in an attempt to wake him.

" Go," I croak, and they all begin to move like a stampede of wild animals led by Heath and Jacqueline, who know the way better than I ever will.