Chapter Forty-Eight: Plan Z

Chapter Forty-Eight: Plan Z

Tiana’s decision to keep me company on today’s march likely saved her life.

I was more thankful for her presence than I could put into words, though from the look in her eyes I caught every so often something told me she knew it. It wasn't enough to snap me out of whatever pit I felt like I was sinking into, but that wasn't her intention. She kept me talking. Thinking. Helped keep my mind from spiraling down whatever rabbit hole was trying to suck me down.

Rhallani shot me a glance every so often, but the looks were more worried than angry. I kept trying to think of what to say that might help her understand why I'd reacted the way I had, but it was difficult to do without straying far too close to topics that would weigh me down too much to be useful if something happened. I knew she would want to know what was bothering me, just as Serena and Noelle would, but in order to have that conversation I needed to figure it out myself, and by the time noon rolled around I was no closer.

It started with a tremor. A shake I barely felt through the soles of my boots. Then a stronger one. I saw a couple of the other caravan guards exchanging glances, and I knew they'd felt it too. Then, almost in unison, every horse pulling a wagon grew skittish. The caravan came to a stop when the two lead horses started freaking out and Korey had to jump down—Pierce shadowing him so closely I'd have known something was up if I wasn't already on edge—to calm them.

Then another tremor started. It began to grow stronger, and then [Horde Slayer]'s stats slammed into me.

I didn't stop to think. I conjured a tendril on me and each of my girls, then I threw myself in front of Tiana. She yelped when my chest slammed into her, one arm wrapping around her shoulder and the other conjuring a sword.

Then the ground a few feet away exploded.

Whatever it was moved almost too fast for me to make out. It had a long, gray body about the size of a dog with leathery skin stretched tight over what looked like armor plates made of bone. I saw no eyes, but its mouth was open while it flew right towards where Tiana had been standing a moment ago. It had four massive teeth up front that I instantly knew were more than strong enough to snap bone, maybe even steel, with hundreds of smaller teeth in rows behind them. It's jaws snapped shut with a jarring clack just before it twisted, already readjusting in midair.

I pushed Tiana behind me and struck, but my blade bounced off the bony plates without even breaking the skin. Both of our tendrils shot out, but Tiana's met the same unrelenting armor built into the creature. Mine found a spot behind its shoulder where there was a gap, and dark purple blood spurted out.

The thing shrieked, then curved in midair. It twisted away from us, then slammed into the ground and burrowed into the dirt like it was water and vanished. Shouts along the caravan told me that the one that had attacked us wasn't alone. Everyone seemed to be dealing with one or two. Pierce had thrown one to the ground and was stomping on it, Lana was clutching her shoulder while Yen stood over her with a shield in one hand and a mace in the other, already slamming a second one out of the way. Flames billowed from Rastra's palms to give them space, thankfully pointed away from the wagons.

I snuck a glance behind to see Zoey fighting off two more with her greatsword while Reese peppered them with arrows. They both burrowed into the ground and she whirled around, ripping the carriage door open and yanking Vivian out before pushing her up onto the roof.

Another rumble and I spun to catch the same creature. Its jaws snapped shut over my sword, snapping the steel like it was a toothpick, and I had to slam my tendril into its side to knock it away. But, once again, it wasn't aiming for me. It was after Tiana. Why that was, I didn't have enough information to be certain of. What I was certain of, was that I needed to make sure the rest of my household was safe.

"Stay close," I commanded Tiana.

She nodded once and I ran towards where I'd last seen Rhallani. Serena and Noelle I trusted enough to handle themselves, but Rhallani still hadn't gotten any offensive or defensive skills, and without formal training she'd be in the most danger if one of these things tried to go after her.

When I found her, she'd hopped up on top of our wagon. My tendril was whipping around her angrily while Serena, Noelle, and the golem faced off against more of the little monsters. Several of them stood on short, thick legs while they tried to get to the wagon, but they found no opening. Serena's skill to aide her in hitting weakpoints already had a dozen of them bleeding, the dark purple blood standing out against the pale gray skin. Then, as I watched, one of them launched at Noelle.

Spectral ravens dove to slow it before she stepped into the attack. She swung her axe, and when it made contact a lion's head the same color as her ravens erupted from the blade and sent the thing sprawling. She was on it a moment later, sinking her axe into a gap between plates around its neck, and the thing went still.

Her armor was up, but I didn't take the time to admire it. It was the same spectral material as her guardians, and its shape was of a lighter steel armor with fur lining the pieces. They covered most of her, leaving her upper back unobstructed, but weren't as large or thick as plate armor might be. That was about all I saw before I turned towards the poor golem.

It fought valiantly, but the creatures were already swarming it. Six of them were latched on, their powerful teeth ripping chunks out of the stone and steel wherever they found purchase. I ran towards it, but before I could get there one ripped the golems arm off and threw it aside. It had barely touched the ground before two of the monsters were on it, fighting between themselves to rip the arm to pieces. Another crunch sounded and the golem fell to one knee, its leg bent at an angle. It never stopped fighting, and it never stopped trying to put distance between itself and the wagon.

Rhallani was shouting something, but I was already moving towards the golem. I conjured more tendrils and a warhammer, then started trying to knock the beasts off what was left of the golem that had done so much to protect us. They were ripping it apart, so as soon as I cleared enough of them away I slapped a hand onto the golem and banished it to my storage.

I was expecting the beasts to then turn on me, but the moment the golem was gone they all turned and disappeared into the dirt. No sooner had they all vanished than I felt a sharp spike of fear come from behind me. Even without looking, something about the way it felt in my gut told me that Rhallani was the source. Then an ear-splitting shriek pierced my eardrums.

My stomach plummeted. I was already sprinting back towards the wagon, wrapping my tendrils around my legs to give me a boost on top of the sharp spike in Agility from [Predator's Pursuit], and hurled myself towards where one of the creatures had managed to scale the side of the wagon and sink its jaws into Rhallani's forearm.

She fell back, off the wagon, and hit the ground hard with the thing on top of her. The scream cut off, which made every muscle in my body clench. The color seemed to fade away from the world and my vision blurred at the edges. Time slipped away, and then I was standing over Rhallani. I felt a dull stabbing in my chest when, without even stopping to think, I used Soul Essence to conjure up five tendrils. Two on me and one each for Rhallani, Tiana, and Serena.

Like I was watching it happen from outside my body, Rhallani's tendril hurled the creature away with a force that was far beyond what my normal tendrils were capable of. Noelle was on it in an instant, her tendril latching out and wrapping around the things neck, giving her an opening to strike it over and over until she'd shattered one of the plates at its shoulder.

Then I was there. My tendrils skewered the thing, somehow finding a way deep into its body, then they yanked apart. The beast was ripped in half, purple blood flying, and its parts landed a good twenty feet from one another. Its front half twitched and writhed a moment before going still, but I was already running for Rhallani with Serena on my heels.

I scooped her up to check the damage, but thankfully her scream had only been cut short because the fall had knocked the wind from her lungs. Her breath came in short, guttural gasps while she tried to refill them while she cradled her mangled arm to her chest. The creature had snapped its jaws shut over the control bracer she never went without, and the resilient, magical metal it was made from was probably the only reason she still had a hand. It was dented and crushed, and under it her forearm was torn and twisted, the bones visible in more than one spot.

Before I could even call for Serena her hands were in my vision, wrapping around Rhallani's arm on either side of the injury. I touched the bracer, banishing it to my storage so it wouldn't restrict the healing. My ears were ringing with rage so badly it took a moment for me to realize that Rhallani was trying to say something, her wide, tear-filled eyes locked on mine.

"E-e-etherwyrms,' she gasped, "blind, b-but can sen-sense magic." She groaned through clenched teeth, pointedly keeping her eyes trained on the sky and away from her arm. "They-they eat mana, they're drawn to it. Artifacts. Mages. O-other than that they're—" she cut off with a groan of pain, "stupid, really stupid."

I nodded, then I was moving again. "Stay with her!" I commanded whoever was behind me, not checking to see if they were listening.

Magic. Mana. That's why they were after mages. I'd covered Tiana, and Yen was shielding Rastra and Lana. Serena was still more fighter than mage, but she was quick enough and smart enough to take care of herself, plus she had Noelle to back her up. I already knew Vaze and Jezal had storage that would suppress the magic of their goods and materials, so I wasn't worried about that. Our wagon was now the most protected thanks to the collection of fighters around it, so they didn't need me as well. I had to think of where else they'd be attacking.

Vivian.

My feet were already carrying me towards the back of the caravan before my brain had even made the connection. These etherwyrms ate magic, and she was wrapped in the stuff. I expected to feel the pull of fear at any moment from her, a peppy noble that had likely never been in a life or death situation like this, but it never came. Not even when I rounded the last of the wagons towards her carriage and saw Zoey and Reese holding off nearly a dozen of the etherwyrms.

Then the ground rumbled again, harder this time. I stumbled, then felt my Primal surge. Alone the etherwyrms wouldn't have been strong enough to trigger [Giant Killer], which meant there was something else here. The rumbling stopped, then a single sharp tremor shook the earth underneath me. The ground under the carriage cracked and both Reese and Vivian had to grip the roof to keep from tumbling off.

Fire crystals. There was a box filled to the brim with magic built into the floor of the carriage, and something had taken notice. I didn't so much as break stride, using my tendrils to push off the ground. I hit the front of the carriage and scampered up it. Vivian's eyes widened when she saw me, but I still didn't feel a trickle of fear come from her. Reese, on the other hand, was pulsing with the low, steady fear of someone who was aware they were in a bad situation but had the training to work through that fear.

I scooped an arm around them both, throwing them over my shoulders, and used my tendrils to hurl myself clear of the carriage. Only then did I feel the smallest pulse of fear from Vivian, but it was gone just as fast. I hit the ground hard but kept my feet, taking a few steps before reaching out for both of my passengers with a tendril each. I felt over their bodies as respectfully as I could manage when faced with certain peril, searching for magic.

Reese was simple. Twenty arrowheads that radiated magic in one of the two quivers on her back, an enchanted dagger sitting across the back of her waist, and an enchanted set of bracers. I used my tendril to scoop them all up, ignoring the angered cry that came from her when I did. I used my empowered tendril to toss her away from me, giving her more than enough hang time to orient herself in the air and land nimbly on her feet. Then I tried to do the same to Vivian.

Fucking Vivian.

At first I was relegated to stripping her to her smallclothes and dealing with the fallout after. Better to be embarrassed than chewed on by monsters with teeth that can cut through steel. But a quick pass over with a tendril and I realized that wasn't going to be an option. Everything she was was magical.

Everything.

Her tunic, her boots, her pants, the belt that held her pants up, the studs in her ear, the piercings in...other places that I was trying very hard to pretend I hadn't noticed, and even her underwear. Rhallani was going to be incredibly jealous. But, more than that, when a tendril brushed against the skin of her neck that had been revealed as her—you guessed it, magical—scarf went flying, she had magic roiling beneath her skin. The angry, hard to control kind that I'm sure smelled like a fucking buffet to the etherwyrms.

She writhed in my grip, yelling something, but my brain filtered it out. I was already sprinting towards Zoey. If Reese had been equipped, then she would be too. She saw me coming, her look of surprise turning into one of anger when she saw her charge flailing on my shoulder, but I didn't even give her a chance to ask.

Eventually [Horde Slayer]'s effects vanished. The fighting didn't last much longer, and I took a moment to look over my status.

[Health: 123/210]

[Mana: 61/140]

[Soul Essence: 51/100]

Shit. If me running off to go solo wasn't bad enough to put me in the dog house, then me undoing pretty much all the recovery we'd managed so far would. Suddenly, the weight that seemed to sit on my shoulders felt that much heavier. A small part of me wished I'd pass out from my injuries just so I wouldn't have to have the conversation I knew was coming, but no such luck.

I'd barely had the thought before I heard heavy footfalls coming closer. I could feel a set of my armor growing close, and something about her gait told me it was Serena that was practically storming towards me.

"What was that?" she demanded.

I didn't answer. I didn't have an answer. Not one that wouldn't make her angrier, at least. All I did was force my eyes open, my eyelids feeling like sandpaper against them, and look at her. A film of wetness covered her eyes, her brow was furrowed, her fists were clenched, and the skin around her slightly downturned mouth was tight. She was not happy with me.

Whatever she saw in my eyes seemed to take a little of the wind from her sails, but not much. "Why are you so determined to throw yourself into the most danger every time we get into a fight?"

I was sure I'd like the answer to that question even less than she would, so I elected to ask a question of my own. "How is Rhallani?"

Her jaw set. "Rhallani's fine. It'll be a few days before her arm is healed, and she's more than a little perturbed by what happened, but she'll be okay. She's as angry as I am that you ran off again, all by yourself." Then, quiet enough that only I could hear her, she said, "without us. Why, Zaren? Do you not trust us to fight by your side? Are you so determined to protect us that you forget we can protect you, too?"

I couldn't hold her gaze. My eyes fell, and when I saw Tiana walk up to put a hand on Serena's shoulder with a concerned Noelle in tow, I turned to fix my gaze on the ground in front of me. My ribs ached, and where the wyrm had chewed on me throbbed painfully. It felt like an eternity before I found my voice, and when I spoke it was rough and scratchy.

"Plan Z."

There was a beat of silence. "What?" Tiana asked.

I sighed, which quickly proved to me a mistake when pain shot through me. I didn't so much as flinch from it, so I doubted any of them noticed. "Plan Z. Bennet invented it, though Sandrel came up with the name." I waited for their response when I realized what I said did very little to actually explain what I was babbling on about. "When shit hit the fan, we always fell back on plan Z."

I heard them moving and Serena dropped to her knee in front of me. She grabbed my hand and a skill coursed through where we were touching. A different skill than her [Healing Embrace], but I felt my health ticking up regardless. A hand gently touched my shoulder, slipping across to the nape of my neck to sink into the hair there. I knew it was Tiana's, especially when Noelle's hands wrapped around one of my own.

"What's plan Z, Zaren?" Tiana asked softly from behind me.

Already, I regretted bringing it up. "When things went sideways and it looked like we were going to lose, I was to find the biggest, meanest motherfucker on the field and cause chaos. Draw as much attention as I could. Do as much damage as I could. Cause chaos. Lure the worst of the threat away from our troops and survive until the others could come up with something to turn the tide and win the fight. Pretty sure Bennet was just joking when he first mentioned it because he thought the idea was funny, but when we almost died a few times and plan Z helped us survive each time we finally adopted it as a strategy."

"Rolar hated it," I continued, "but at the end of the day I was just too damned hard to kill. Being the bait never bothered me much since I was just glad to feel useful for once, but we used that strategy time and time again right up until the war was over. Either they focused on me and the others were able to move and plan, or they tried to ignore me and go after our people, which gave me nice juicy targets to rip apart. It was the default for so long, that when it popped out of the ground I just..." I trailed off with a shrug, not really sure where the sentence was going and far too tired to try and figure it out.

Serena turned her glossy emerald eyes up to mine with. "You aren't in a war anymore, Zaren."

My gut twisted. "No? You sure about that?" When she frowned, I pulled my hand from her grasp. Noelle's, too. A brief hurt flickered across Serena's expression, but I just pushed myself to my feet, ignoring the way the world pitched for a moment when I did. Tiana's arm fell from my shoulder and I missed their touch desperately, but I just turned and walked towards what I'd seen earlier.

I gave the beast's head a swift kick right where I'd seen the worn and scraped armor on either side of its neck. "Look there, tell me what you see." My tone came out angrier than I meant, which surprised me. I hadn't even realized I was angry until that moment.

Serena's frown just deepened, but Tiana crouched down to look closer. "It's weathered. Scraped away, almost as if—"

"A collar sat there," I said. "Look around at the others, and you'll find the same. I've never heard of these things, which means I doubt they're native. Someone collared them, brought them here, and let them loose."

Tiana stood slowly. "Why would someone do that?"

"Why would someone lure blightwolves so far north?" I countered. "Why would someone hatch a Valax queen and broker a deal with her to make sure she remains unnoticed long enough to become a real threat? They're causing chaos. Strife. Killing innocents until the capital is forced to send forces north, away from whatever I'm sure they've got brewing in the south or let things up here fester until they're too out of control to rein in."

Tiana paled, and Serena was looking back and forth between the wyrm and I. "You think someone else is doing what you did? Sending all this north as misdirection?"

That was exactly what I thought, but it wasn't what had me so angry. Not by a long shot. This was a standard tactic that we'd adopted to fit my unique skillset of simply refusing to die. No, I was angry about something else. Something I couldn't put into words.

But Tiana could. "You think Allura is using you in the same way, don't you?" she asked, her voice painfully quiet. I didn't answer, but that in of itself was more than enough. "You're wondering if she didn't bring you back to cause so much chaos that your enemy is forced to waste resources on taking you out while she works against them somewhere else."

That was exactly what I thought. Once upon a time, I wouldn't have had any issue with that. But if that was the case, then today Rhallani had gotten caught in the crossfire. We were working on a much larger scale than back in the day, and if I was the bait then that meant everyone around me was in danger. Could I afford to keep them nearby if I was going to be constantly stumbling from one deadly fight to the next? I knew caring for them put a target on their back, but this was a whole different level.

But all I could do was shake my head. "There's no way to know for certain, so there's no point worrying," I lied. I was sure I'd spend the next few nights thinking myself in circles about just that. I turned from them towards where Vivian and her guards were conversing quietly out of earshot, and a part of me wondered if I'd said something I shouldn't have and she might have overheard it. The rest of me was simply too tired to care right now.

Dimly, while I walked towards them, I was aware I hadn't mentioned my newly dismal Soul Essence pool, but from the weight of their stares on my back I selfishly decided I'd keep it to myself for a little longer. I had no desire to sit through the tongue lashing I no doubt deserved just yet. Instead I made my way to Vivian's group hiding my limp knowing full well that Serena would be looking for any kind of injury and not wanting to worry her any more than I already was.

"Sorry, I didn't really have a chance to explain," I said, returning their items to them.

Zoey didn't work very hard to hide her glare, but Reese took her equipment back gracefully. "Lady Vivian told us what happened. Clever. You owe me some arrowheads, though," she said, the amusement in her eyes telling me she wasn't serious.

But I nodded all the same. "Send me the bill, I'll compensate you for it." Then, to Vivian, "sorry about manhandling you back there."

It was hard to tell since she was still flushed from the whole situation, but I thought she might have blushed. "Oh, not at all. You certainly saved my life, and I'm hardly going to be upset for that! Now I really hope you take me up on my offer later."

I inclined my head, ignoring the raised brows from her companions. "Seems the least I can do. Let's head back before the others start to worry."

I started first and the others fell into step beside me. Tiana wrapped her arm around one of mine and Noelle took my other hand in her own, but Serena walked with stiff shoulders ahead of us.

Was I shamelessly using Vivian's presence to keep them from asking the questions I knew were burning at them? Yes. Yes I was. Did I feel guilty about that? Abso-fucking-lutely. Toss it up on the pile of all the other shitty feelings I've got rolling around inside me today. What's one more, right? I was sure I'd have a very fun conversation when we all laid down to sleep tonight, but maybe I'd be able to put some of these frantic thoughts bouncing around in my skull into a light that actually made sense.

Wouldn't that be nice.