Bastial Explosion (The Rhythm of Rivalry: Book 3) (19 page)

Marie grumbled as she thought of what to do. Going to the kitchen, she said, “Don’t move.” She fetched a rag and handed it to Zoke. “Wipe off your feet outside, then shut the door behind you.”

There were no floors to the huts of his old encampment, just dirt. It seemed easier that way than worrying about keeping a wooden floor clean all the time, but Zoke wasn’t about to complain.

As he wiped off his feet, he noticed Sawdar and the two men were still walking toward him.
Are they visiting Marie’s house also?
They were too far to tell.

When he finished brushing the dirt from his feet, Zoke went inside.
If they’re coming to speak to Marie, they can knock on the door when they get here.
Zoke closed the door after him as instructed.

“Sit and get comfortable,” Marie said, pulling plates from the nearby cupboard. “I hope you don’t mind that lunch will be light. It’s not good to eat so much before going back to training.” She looked over her shoulder at Zoke. “Well, at least that’s the case for Humans.”

“Our stomachs work the same way,” Zoke said.

“I hate to bring up subjects that upset you, but I’m afraid we must know more about these eppil plants. If we managed to destroy all of them, would Doe and Haemon lose their ability with magic?”

Zoke pushed back against the burning anger swelling up from his stomach. “I don’t know.”

There was a knock at the door.

“It’s probably Sawdar and two others,” Zoke informed her. “I saw them walking this way.”

“Sawdar?” Marie rubbed her lip as she thought. “Oh, the warrior you spat on in Redfield.”

Her hand brushed the wand on her belt. Zoke wondered if she even knew she’d done it.

Zoke stood as Marie passed him, deliberating offering to open the door because he was closer. Instead, he remained silent and watched from behind her.

Marie opened it. “Hello, I’m with someone but—”

Sawdar lunged forward. Marie screamed, using her hands in a feeble attempt to swat him away. The old woman fell backward and hit the wooden floor hard. The handle of a knife protruded from her chest.

“I’m sorry,” Sawdar muttered, kneeling down to remove the knife from her flailing body.

He’s gone mad!
Zoke started toward Marie, unsure how to help her. But then he noticed Sawdar was now coming toward him with the knife extended, Marie’s blood oozing down its blade.

“Marie?” Zoke shouted. “Marie?”

She was making a choking sound.

Zoke cursed Sawdar in Kreppen and drew his wooden sword—the only weapon he had with him. “Move, so I can get Marie the help she needs.”

“She’s going to die, and so are you.”

The two other men Zoke had seen with Sawdar now came through the door. Each of them was wielding a sword—a real sword.

The first one stopped over Marie to drive his weapon down into her body. She uttered a faint cry of pain as the metal blade pierced her. Then she was silent.

The second man stepped over her lifeless body, the three of them now facing Zoke.

If he hadn’t fought with the warriors, Zoke might’ve believed he could win this battle—his wooden sword against their two steel swords and Sawdar’s dagger. But he knew how skilled they were in numbers. His only chance of living was to run.

As he glanced for another exit besides the door behind his attackers, he suddenly realized what this really was. “You’re traitors. You deserve to die for this.”

“You’re the traitor,” Sawdar retorted, slowly moving closer to Zoke with the two other men now on either side of him. “I was told you were divulging secrets of Doe and Haemon.”

Zoke slashed his wooden sword in their direction to keep them back. He found the window then. It was behind him and already open. He just needed to turn and get himself through it—only, it wasn’t an easy fit.
My shoulders might be too wide.
And he knew the moment he showed his enemies his back, he was dead.

Zoke backed behind the round kitchen table, swinging his wooden sword whenever one of the Humans came too close.

“Hurry,” Sawdar said. “He needs to die now, so we have time to leave.”

The two men with real swords split, going in opposite directions around the table. Zoke chose a direction—left—and prodded his attacker in the stomach. Then he turned and slashed at the man coming behind him. It was a lucky strike, connecting with the Human’s wrist as he was lunging toward Zoke.

The man blurted a word Zoke didn’t recognize and dropped his weapon. Zoke kicked him in the face as he knelt to retrieve it, the sharp claws on Zoke’s foot cutting him open. Before Zoke could grab the sword for himself, Sawdar had jumped on the table and begun to swipe his dagger at Zoke’s neck.

Ducking, Zoke got under the table and threw it as hard as he could. He heard Sawdar grunt as he smacked against the floor.

The man Zoke had prodded in the stomach had come around behind him. Zoke sidestepped an overhead swing and wrapped his toes around the other man’s fallen sword. With a quick flick of his ankle, Zoke swiped at the three of them indiscriminately, using his wooden sword to fend them off as well.

He brought the metal sword from his foot to his free hand and ran for the door, jumping over Marie’s sprawled body with a silent curse that he hadn’t saved her.

Just outside, Zoke turned and swung his wooden sword at the men chasing him. One jumped back, but the other was too slow. Zoke took him off his feet with a hard blow to his chest. Sawdar came out last, and Zoke threw the wooden sword at him. It clunked against his knee, causing the Human to grunt and lose his balance.

Only one man was still standing for the moment, his face bloody from being kicked earlier. Zoke knew he had to take advantage of this opportunity. He rushed at the Human, who blocked Zoke’s first two attacks but not his third, which resulted in a deep cut along the man’s stomach.

Zoke ran before he had to face the two men getting up. He was faster than the Humans, and soon they’d given up, turning south instead.

He found himself running toward the dining hall to the east, only realizing why a few steps later. Someone needed to know about the traitors, because there could be more of them. He had to find the Humans who’d come with him to the Slugari colony. They were the only ones he knew he could trust.

But the dining hall was smoking, half the building ablaze. Looking around him, he noticed many more buildings were on fire as well.

The traitors are everywhere, and they’re burning down the Academy.

Zoke continued running toward the dining hall, believing it was the most likely place to find his comrades.

Students were flooding out, some slamming into Zoke’s shoulders as he tried to maneuver his way in.

“Effie? Reela? Alex?” he shouted. “Steffen?”

A thick layer of smoke was pushing against the roof. Flames licked the walls, reaching in through crevices.
The fire was set from outside.
He didn’t know how much longer the walls would hold.

Zoke spotted some students on the opposite corner. He recognized Reela right away. She was fighting off two others. One of them was a mage desperately trying to lift her wand as she screamed in pain, the other was a warrior—holding his head while on his knees, trying to retrieve the sword near him.

Reela spotted Zoke and ran toward him, but the warrior grabbed her leg as she passed by, causing her to trip. The mage stood upright and aimed her wand at Reela, but the psychic flipped onto her back and held her palms out at them. They both screamed and dropped to the floor once more.

Others didn’t seem to notice, some nearly colliding with Zoke on their way out of the burning building. There was a scream. Zoke turned quickly as he ran toward Reela to find an older Human, who must’ve been an instructor, getting cut, her wand slipping from her hand and hitting the ground as her knees buckled. A male attacker took her life with another swing.

How many are there?

Zoke could hear Reela panting desperately by the time he was close. With their two enemies disabled from painful psyche, Zoke took off the man’s head first, then the woman’s. Reela seemed as if she was about to pass out, staggering forward. She fell, but Zoke got his hands underneath her first.

He threw her over his shoulder and glanced toward the warrior who’d killed the female instructor. He was gone. There was no one else in the dining hall…no one alive, at least.

Outside, Zoke put Reela on her feet so he could face her. She looked to be uninjured, just exhausted.

“Where are the others?” Zoke asked.

“I…don’t know,” Reela sputtered between heavy breaths.

More buildings were on fire by then. Black smoke scattered across the sky with a gust of wind. Reela turned to hide her face as it passed over them. Zoke tasted ash as he did the same.

“We have to find the others,” Zoke said, looking in every direction for more attackers.

He spotted Alex already running toward them from Warrior’s Field.

“Is she hurt?” Alex shouted.

“I’m fine.” Reela had been doubled over, but she stood up straight then.

“I don’t understand,” Alex said, glancing around at the screaming students and burning buildings.

“They’re spies,” Reela said.

“Spies?”

“From Tenred.” Reela glimpsed the dining hall behind her. “They tried to kill me. I’m sure there are others who’ve been targeted as well.”

“They killed Marie Fyremore, tried to kill me too,” Zoke said.

“She’s dead?” Alex yelled.

“No…” Reela’s knees shook as she grabbed onto Zoke’s shoulder for balance.

Both of them had gone white.

Worry flooded into Alex’s expression as color came back. “Effie!” he shouted. “We have to find her and Steffen.”

“Shouldn’t we check the house?” Zoke asked.

“Let’s go.” Alex already had begun to run, Zoke and Reela soon catching up.

On their way there, they passed by several groups of students arguing, Humans claiming that others were spies. Reela stopped in front of three warriors who seemed ready to stab each other with their swords.

“Stop!” Reela shouted. “I’m a psychic. I’ll tell you who’s lying.” She pointed at one. “Are you a spy?”

“I’m no spy.”

“He tells the truth. What about you?” She pointed at the next.

“I’m not a spy.”

“He’s being honest, too. And you?” She looked at the last man.

“I’m no spy, either.”

“None of you are spies,” Reela told them, her tone urgent. “So stop fighting with each other and help the people who need it.”

“How do we know you’re telling the truth and that you aren’t a spy?” One of them pointed his weapon at her. “You’re with the Krepp. He’s probably a spy as well.”

“He’s right!” Another man lifted his sword at Reela.

“Why would I stop to help if I was a spy?” Reela retorted. “Think about it.” She raised her palms defensively. Alex and Zoke stepped in front of her.

“None of us are spies,” Alex grumbled, his teeth clenched. “Now let us go.”

Reela still had her hands out, but she’d fallen silent.

The three men nodded, each lowering his weapon.

“Come on,” one of them said, running toward another group of warriors who seemed ready to fight.

When their student house was in view, Zoke spotted a man holding his wand against its back wall, fire spewing out.

“Stop!” Zoke yelled.

The man turned and ran, leaving a charred mark, but the wall wasn’t yet ablaze. Zoke didn’t get a good look at the traitor and decided not to waste time chasing after him.

The three of them burst through the door and began shouting for Effie and Steffen. In just a few breaths it was clear neither was home.

“We need to find them,” Alex said. “Reela, you keep looking around the student houses here. I’ll go back north to look around the faculty housing. Zoke, continue south until you reach the wall, then head east. Everyone meet back here when you’re done.”

“I think I should stay with Reela,” Zoke said. “She was attacked earlier.”

“I’ll be fine.” She gestured with a dagger she must’ve grabbed from within the house. “I’ve got this now.”

“Good, stay safe.” Alex was off.

Zoke ran south as instructed. Being on the west side of campus, there was nothing but student houses around. Most were empty, and he’d only seen one that was on fire.

The spies must be targeting specific Humans and buildings.

Running at near full speed and shouting Effie and Steffen’s names, Zoke soon caught the attention of a young man and woman who were embracing each other just outside a student house. At the sight of Zoke, they ran the opposite way.

He came across another man and woman. The man started shouting at Zoke. “Why are you running? Have you been a spy this whole time?”

“No. I’m looking for Effie and Steffen, have you seen them?” Zoke had heard that many within the Academy had learned the names of the Humans who’d gone to the Slugari colony.