Taboo Online

The central terrace shook as a section of dead wood punched upward near the Queen.

"Pull her left," Lauren said inside Luke’s mind. "Now."

Luke obeyed without asking why. He grabbed Aelira’s arm with his good hand and dragged her aside just before a blackened spike tore through the terrace where she had been standing.

Its surface crumbled as soon as it reached the open air, releasing a cloud of brown dust. Aelira twisted and cut through the spike with her living blade, but more dead roots were already pressing against the underside of the platform.

"The decay wielder reached the junction," Luke said.

Aelira placed one hand against the terrace. Her expression tightened as she felt the damage spreading below.

"If she destroys the rising road, the seventh ring will have no route inward."

"Can you stop her from here?" Rhea asked.

"I can slow her down."

Silver roots descended from the central spine and entered the lower network. Wherever they met the spreading decay, green light pushed back against the brown rot.

The effort pulled Aelira’s shoulders forward, but the corruption continued moving. It slipped around each reinforced channel and entered the weaker branches surrounding them.

Lauren searched beneath the terrace and found the decay wielder moving barefoot through the lower roots. Brown veins spread from her hands as her thin body slipped between the branches.

She was no longer attacking the seventh anchor.

She was climbing toward Aelira.

"Move away from the center," Luke warned.

The Queen remained in place. "If I release the junction, both roads collapse."

"She knows that."

"So do I."

The southern bridge shook as the hammer wielder struck its edge. The impact sent a wave through the root and forced Rhea’s panels backward.

Dorian stepped into the gap and caught the first corrupted elf with his black hook. He dragged it inside his oath circle, where bronze light traveled toward the brand running along its spine.

Behind the giant, the leader pressed his palm against the bridge. Black marks sank into the wood beneath Dorian’s feet, and Lauren immediately showed Luke the section collapsing around him.

"Dorian, shields," Luke shouted. "Move the line."

Dorian stepped onto the nearer of Rhea’s two blue panels without hesitation. His oath circle followed him and widened across both shields, leaving the corrupted section of bridge outside its edge.

A moment later, the wood where he had been standing turned black and split apart.

Rhea drove both panels forward before the leader could recover. Their edges struck the first row of corrupted elves and knocked them back into the narrow approach.

"Kellan, armor seam," she ordered.

"Already looking."

A thin bolt passed between the panels and struck the broken opening in the hammer wielder’s chest plate. The giant jerked one shoulder back, but the vibrations surrounding him absorbed most of the current.

He lifted the hammer again, and Rhea angled her panels to redirect the strike.

This time, the leader reached out and touched the weapon before it fell.

Black brands crawled across the hammerhead.

"Luke, they changed it," Lauren warned. "Rhea can’t catch that strike."

"Don’t block it!" he shouted.

Rhea split the panels apart, carrying Dorian to the left while the second shield moved right. The hammer struck the bridge between them.

Sound and corruption tore through the wood. The southern approach twisted sideways, throwing corrupted elves into the smoke and forcing the elite trio back toward stable ground.

The blast traveled beneath the central terrace as well. Aelira staggered when the sealed junction buckled under her feet, and the old passage finally split open.

The sixth-ring road descended from above while the route from the seventh pushed through the lower roots. They struck one another beneath the central platform with a violent crack. Silver bark split along both edges before fresh roots lashed across the gap and pulled the two roads into one steep, uneven bridge.

Elves began crossing immediately. The first group from the seventh ring appeared below, with rootkeepers guiding wounded defenders up the incline while children clung to their clothing. Above them, survivors from the western districts moved down from the sixth ring toward the same junction.

"They’re through," Luke said.

"The first group is through," Aelira corrected, keeping both hands pressed against the platform. "Watch the last."

The decay wielder attacked from below. A dead root tore through the terrace beside Aelira’s leg, and although she cut it apart, a second spike emerged from the other side at the same moment the leader’s brands wrapped around her ankle.

Aelira tried to turn away, but the corrupted root held her foot in place.

Luke lunged for her, but he could not reach her in time.

The spike entered beneath Aelira’s ribs and burst through the back of her damaged armor. Her breath broke into a wet gasp as blood spread beneath the cracked plates at her side, and the living blade slipped from her hand.

She remained upright for another second with the dead root buried through her body. Then dark veins began crawling beneath her skin.

Luke reached her as the spike started to crumble. He caught the Queen with his good arm and lowered her onto the terrace before the remaining wood could tear the wound wider.

"Aelira!"

Her eyes remained open, but they no longer focused on him.

The junction beneath them trembled. Without her control, the two evacuation roads began pulling apart, and rootkeepers shouted from below as cracks raced through the crossing.

Lauren sent Luke a vision of both roads breaking.

"The roads," Aelira whispered.

Even with a hole through her side, she was still looking past Luke toward the people crossing below.

He turned toward Rhea. "Panels beneath both sides. Dorian, spread your oath across them. Kellan, cut anything pulling from above."

They moved before he finished.

Rhea sent one panel beneath the road from the sixth ring and wedged the other under the route rising from the seventh. The damaged shields braced the separating wood and slowed its movement.

Dorian stepped off the panel and planted himself at the center of the junction, close enough to stand between both damaged shields. He widened his oath circle until its bronze edge covered the panels and the survivors crossing above.

"No suffering soul will pass this line while I remain standing."

Bronze light reinforced the panels as Kellan fired at the branded chains hanging above the junction. His controlled bolts cut through them before they could pull the roads farther apart.

The evacuation continued, but the makeshift bridge shook beneath every group that crossed.

Iris ran toward Aelira with the lifelines connected to Rhea, Dorian, and Kellan stretching behind her. She knelt beside the Queen and pressed both hands around the wound.

"I need a lifeline free. Now."

"Take mine," Rhea said.

"You’re holding both roads."

"The panels can hold the roads a little longer. Aelira can’t."

"Take it before she dies," Kellan added.

Iris closed one hand. The golden bands around Rhea’s chest and arm loosened and withdrew into the anchor floating beside her.

Pain tightened Rhea’s face immediately. Fresh blood seeped through the cracked plate on her upper arm, but she remained standing beside the junction.

Iris sent the freed anchor across the terrace. It opened beside Aelira, releasing new threads that wrapped around the Queen’s ribs and tightened over the wound.

Aelira’s breathing steadied for a single second before the anchor flashed black.

Iris recoiled. "The corruption reached the lifeline."