Taboo Online

A violent tremor ran through the platform.

New cracks spread across Rhea’s blue panels beneath the two roads. Dorian stood between them inside his oath circle, while Kellan fired narrow bolts at the branded chains gathering above the crossing.

Survivors still descended from the sixth ring and climbed from the seventh. The crowds had thinned, but neither route was empty.

Rhea glanced back toward Iris. Since losing the lifeline, blood had spread beneath the cracked plate on her arm.

"Tell me the Queen can hold those roads again."

Aelira pulled away from the Thornmender and pressed both hands against the terrace. Golden light flickered around her fingers, but the roads did not respond.

She tried again. A weak pulse entered the silver wood and steadied the junction for a moment before the weight of the evacuees began forcing the routes apart.

Her next breath came shorter.

Luke noticed. "Lifeblade cleared the decay, but it didn’t give your mana back."

"No."

"Then stop trying to control the whole junction."

Aelira turned toward him. "You have possessed a healing skill for several minutes, and now you intend to instruct me in the use of the Heartroot?"

Luke pointed beyond her. "Rhea’s panels are carrying the roads, and Dorian is reinforcing them. You don’t need to move every root yourself. Keep the living wood from pulling away and let them hold the rest."

"That still requires control."

"Less than trying to do everything alone."

Aelira studied him for a moment. "You are becoming remarkably comfortable telling me what to do."

Lauren rested one hand on Luke’s shoulder. "He has become very fond of giving queens orders."

"He has also become very fond of surviving them," Aelira replied.

Luke looked between them. "Are the two of you going to keep discussing me while the city falls apart?"

Lauren and Aelira answered at the same time.

"Yes."

An impact shook the southern approach.

The hammer wielder had reached another stable section of root. His enormous weapon dragged behind him, gathering vibrations from every collapsing road and breaking branch. Several steps back, the masked woman threaded fresh lines through the corrupted elves crowding the bridge.

At the rear, the leader kept one marked hand against the living wood and watched Luke.

"A blade that heals," he called. "Powerforge keeps finding new ways to become irritating."

Luke tried to rise. His legs shook beneath him, forcing Lauren to catch his arm and pull it over her shoulders.

The leader’s smile widened. "Use it again."

Luke said nothing.

"Go on. Heal the Queen a second time. Show us how useful that new skill really is."

Lifeblade’s window still hovered at the edge of Luke’s vision. The skill remained listed, but he had no mana and barely enough stamina to stay upright. He would collapse before he managed to form another blade.

Luke did not need to explain. The leader could see the condition he was in.

"Kill him first."

The masked woman drew one thread slowly between her fingers. "Aw. I was starting to enjoy the Oracle’s pet."

"He is expendable," the leader said. "The Queen and Oracle are not."

Lauren straightened beneath Luke’s arm despite the weakness in her legs. "You aren’t taking any of us."

"I preferred you inside the tree," the masked woman said. "You talked less."

Luke forced his legs to hold. He had no spear, no mana, and little strength left, but Lauren stood beside him rather than behind him.

He adjusted his arm across her shoulders. "You’ll have to find someone else to volunteer."

Rhea lifted one blood-covered hand. Her panels shifted beneath the evacuation routes and angled their damaged edges toward the southern bridge without abandoning the roots they supported.

"You can argue about ownership after you get through us."

The hammer wielder laughed. "Your shields are holding up the road."

Rhea glanced down at the cracked panels beneath the evacuees. "I know where they are."

"You can’t move them."

"Then I’ll stop you without moving them."

The giant raised his weapon.

Dorian tightened both hands around the black hook. "Rhea, if the panels shift, the roads separate."

"I heard him the first time."

Kellan pressed one hand against his injured thigh while lightning gathered around the other. "Then we ruin his swing before she has to choose."

Iris remained beside Aelira, maintaining the lifelines attached to the Queen, Dorian, and Kellan. She looked at the trembling light around Kellan’s leg.

"You have one controlled attack left. After that, I don’t think the lifeline will keep the muscle together."

Kellan glanced down at his thigh. "One attack is enough."

"You said that before the last one."

"And I was eventually right."

"Your definition of right needs medical attention."

Rhea kept her attention on the approaching giant. "Save it. Kellan waits for Lauren’s mark."

He nodded and held the charge. Earlier in the Forge, Kellan would have rushed before anyone finished giving the order. Now he waited with lightning gathered around his arm while Lauren searched for the opening.

The leader’s brands spread toward the hammerhead.

Aelira felt the corruption entering the bridge and closed her eyes. Her first instinct was to seize control of the entire junction again, but she stopped before wasting the little mana she had recovered.

Instead, she followed the pressure beneath Rhea’s panels and touched only the roots pulling away from them.

The silver wood tightened around both shields.

Rhea shifted her weight and tested the roads. "That’s enough. Keep it exactly there."

Aelira opened her eyes. "Do not mistake cooperation for obedience."

Rhea’s mouth twitched. "I wouldn’t dare."

The hammer wielder stepped forward as Lauren’s blindfold flashed. Pain struck behind her eyes, but she held Oracle’s Glimpse open long enough to follow the attack.

The branded hammer would strike the left side of the junction. Rhea would leave her panels beneath the roads, and Dorian would try to absorb the impact through his oath. The force would pass through both defenses and shatter the shields beneath the evacuees.

Another possibility showed Kellan firing through the opening in the giant’s chest armor. The hammer wielder turned at the last moment and took the lightning against an intact plate.

Lauren stopped searching through complete outcomes and focused on the movement that created the opening.

She lifted one hand toward Kellan. "Not the chest. Watch his right elbow and wait for the shoulder to drop."

Kellan adjusted his aim but kept the lightning contained.

The hammer wielder raised the weapon higher.

Lauren held her breath until his shoulder moved.

"Now."