Ken moved in a heartbeat, and Rusty gasped in surprise and pain as the shorter boy grabbed Rusty’s ear and pulled Rusty down to his level. “No you absolutely aren’t!” Ken said. “You are not going alone because that’s just plain dumb!”

  “Not— I mean I’m going FIRST, not by MYSELF! Just let me go and clear them out!” Rusty pleaded, pushing against Ken’s shoulder, trying to get loose without getting his ear ripped off.

  Alice put her hands on her hips and leaned forward. “You ain’t gonna do nothing ‘cept get killed if you do that! We don’t know how many elves they got! We don’t know what kind of magic they got set up! You ain’t the white knight here Rusty, this ain’t the stories! You go chagrin’ in stupid, you gon’ get dead! And then where are we gonna be?”

  “Rusty…” the Lion chimed in. “You cannot let them handle you like this. Not in front of the satyr.”

  “What am I supposed to do, stab them?” Rusty asked.

  And for a horrifying second, the Lion considered it. He could tell that thing in his skull was considering it.

  “Just tell Ken he’s right. Because he is,” Roz consoled. “You ARE being stupid.”

  “I’m sorry,” Rusty said. “You’re right. Let go, okay? I won’t… I won’t go in alone.”

  Ken slowly let go of his ear, squinting at him. Rusty straightened up and rubbed it, heard the patter of swift movement through the trees. Beth tensed, but Ran put her hand on his sister’s arm. “Tis only our coterie,” she said. “Elves would not enunciate sonic disturbances. We would already be deceased.”

  That didn’t seem to ease Beth’s mind.

  Rusty straightened up, and composed himself while he considered. Peering over the barrier, he saw the horned silhouettes of satyrs moving in, watching outward as they closed around Rusty and the kids. One had a fresh wound on her arm, and she was wrapping it with a bandage as she moved. Another was carrying a male satyr, who was choking and pawing at an arrow in his chest. Rusty stared in horror as the satyr carrying his friend stopped him from pulling the arrow out two, three times.

  “Shi— shoot!” Ken said, and crawled over the gravel barricade, before running over. “Put him down, I’ll heal him. Get ready to take the arrow out when I wave, okay?”

  What do I do if I can’t go in alone? Rusty thought to the Lion. What should I do, here?

  “Troublesome,” the Lion said. “You have not my experience with this situation. It has been long since I have not been able to take care of matters myself, through speed and might and magic. Let me think.”

  “Well you’ve got about ten seconds,” Rusty said, seeing the satyr patrol leader… Rinthas Delran? Yes, that was the name. Perfect memory was good for this sort of thing. Rinthas was heading his way, looking somber.

  Rusty had been worried that Rinthas would ask him for orders, but the satyr did no such thing. Instead, he delivered bad news.

  “They came upon us from behind. We only saw it in time because they went through the grach, first. Our surviving allies have scattered, and I cannot blame them.”

  “This is good,” the Lion said. “The grach will be noisy, getting back to the river. If we push ahead now and our stealth is sufficient, then we may be able to use them as a distraction and reach the tree before the elves realize their mistake.”

  You’d leave them to die? Rusty thought.

  “Yes,” the Lion said. “If there are not enough elves to pursue the grach, then they will safely return to the fort. If there are enough elves to pursue the grach, then we will only see more satyrs dead or wounded saving them, and the mission shall fail. The elves will bear word into the portal and bring reinforcements that we cannot repel if we give them time.”

  Rusty realized that Rinthas was looking at him. Waiting. It had only been a second, but still, Rusty had to keep pretending the Lion was in charge. And the Lion was rarely indecisive.

  “We go on,” he said, in his best Lion tones. “Straight to the tree. Pull in tight, be as sneaky as we can.”

  “Stealth over speed,” the satyr nodded. “I do not think the circle can be maintained if we do that. It is too visible.”

  “I’m low anyways,” Beth said. “I don’t… I think it could stop one more arrow. I’m sorry.”

  “Oh honey you did fine,” Alice hugged her. “Been thinkin’ anyway. Let me take it from here. No circles, but I got something might could work.”

  Beth hugged back.

  Rusty felt relief. He couldn’t take it if Beth cried now. This was too much, and his stomach was roiling with anxiety as it was, the morning’s not-oatmeal churning in his guts. He looked over to Ken, saw him leading the now-healed satyr back to rest against a tree.

  “Let’s go then,” Rusty said through a dry mouth.

  The remaining satyrs who didn’t have recently-healed lungs pulled in around them, and led the way. Alice did something, probably with her new Obstacle rune, and Rusty hoped it was minor enough magic that no watchers could assense it through the thick canopy.

  The way was quiet, though they ran into a big problem soon enough.

  They couldn’t find the tree.

  Rusty had watched the memories from the dead elf multiple times, replaying them in his mind with his total recall. It should be around here, they were definitely in the right neighborhood, but…

  “It’s magic,” Ken whispered. “They’re using something to hide it. But if we assense when we’re so close, they’ll see us, sure as shooting.”

  This made up Rusty’s mind. “Okay. Now I’m going to scout ahead. No, don’t look at me like that. You guys will be right here, and I’m not going that far. I’ll get to a good spot, activate my superspeed so they don’t murder me, and look for magic. That’ll draw them off, keep them from looking at you. Then you all can move in and get them when they come after me.”

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Alice gnawed her lip, shared a worried look with Ken. Beth shook her head, curls bouncing.

  But it was Ran who spoke up. “I will assay forth accompanying your personage. You shall require notice sent to Rinthas Delran, to notify yonder coterie of the timing of your stratagem. In that part, I acquiesce.”

  It took a second for Rusty to untangle the words. Without eidetic memory he was pretty sure he wouldn’t have gotten more than the bare gist of it. But he saw that Ran’s suggestion seemed to mollify Ken, and he really couldn’t afford arguments right now, so he nodded and gestured off in what he hoped was the most likely direction to the tree.

  They were pretty far out into the woods, when Ran laid a hand on his shoulder. Rusty froze, looked around. Was she warning him of something?

  Then she leaned in, and he felt her hair tickle his neck, as she whispered into his ear. “You are not the Lion.”

  “Oh shoot! The jig’s up!” Roz said, speaking up for the first time.

  “This is troublesome,” the Lion said. “Now you must make a choi—”

  “Somehow you have remained yourself, Rusty, and stolen that iniquitous bastard’s power. Good for you! Just try not to reveal your poltroonery before the elders.” Ran said, giving his shoulder a squeeze. “They do not care that monstrous ninnyhammer counted us as expendable. Fie upon his patoot!” Ran gave his shoulder a squeeze, and backed up. “For the record, I merely ascertained it worth declaring so there is no confusion afterthought.”

  The Lion fell silent, jaw hanging open.

  Roz laughed. “Wow! They don’t love you as much as you thought they did, huh?”

  “After all I have done…” The Lion paced back and forth, the faces that made up its body frowning.

  “Later,” Rusty whispered. He looked back to Ran, gave her a nod. Then he looked around the small clearing they’d come to.

  There were two of them now, so this was going to be expensive, but there was no way he was giving himself the protection of super speed without sharing.

  Granted self and one ally speed boost!

  Committed Chakra: 38 of 204

  Cost: 40

  Remaining free Chakra: 124

  And then, in the second the spell took hold, Rusty assensed the forest before him.

  He saw it immediately, saw that it was all around them, a vast construct of glowing purple traceries that threaded through the ground and traced through the foliage. It wound up the trees— not all of them, but enough that they cast a flickering halo on the few spots of sky visible through the canopy.

  “Oh wow,” Rusty breathed, and turned to Ran…

  …just in time to see something like a cross between a spear and a tree root stabbing up out of the ground, aiming straight for the back of her head.

  “Ran! Move!” Rusty pointed right and took his own advice.

  The speed spell was all that saved her, as she bolted, hooves thudding on the ground and the air resisting and heating the two children as they fled.

  “It’s a wose!” Ran shouted as they dodged another rising tendril. “This is why there are no elves guarding it! The tree itself is guardian enough!”

  Rusty could see it now, through the trees. High up on one of the larger trees, the bark had been stripped and cut in layers, cut so that it resembled a feminine face.

  Rusty stared at the sight a second too long, and that almost cost him. The Wose was fast, elf fast, and vines dropped from the canopy above to lash down at them. Fortunately he was mostly looking up already and saw it coming, grabbing Ran’s hand and diving to the side. They picked up running again, circling around the tree as the face seemed to flicker and shift in the green sunlight.

  As they went, Ran grabbed one of her charms and Rusty saw her lips moving. He caught a few words, but she was speaking too quietly and the rushing of the wind filled his ears. They couldn’t stop, the Wose seemed to have full control of the purple parts of the forest around them. And no matter where they ran, the thing always had a vein of roots hidden underground to strike upwards, or a snaggle of vines somewhere above to lash downwards.

  It was a literally thorny predicament. They couldn’t stay within sight of the thing without getting attacked, and Rusty knew he needed sight to work any real magic upon the thing. But if they left its area, they wouldn’t be able to see it, given the thickness of the jungle. And Ran had notified the others, so now they’d be using assensing to cut through the Wose’s weird misdirection magic.

  I have to stay here and keep distracting it, and trust them to get by without me, Rusty decided.

  And then Ran fell.

  It hadn’t even been a low-lashing vine, they were watching out for those. They’d just been moving across a wide creek, and she’d put a hoof wrong on some mossy stones.

  In microseconds, as she struggled to stand in the slow-motion spray of water and the uncertain footing of the creek, Rusty saw tendrils rip out of the ground and stab toward her, so many thorny roots…

  “NO!” Rusty said, and squeezed his eyes shut, casting a desperate spell.

  “Cut them up with holes!”

  Create holes in 7 Adult Wood Wose tendrils

  Committed Chakra: 38 of 204

  Cost: 21

  WARNING: Magical resistance! Cost to bypass 62!

  Bypass Y/N?

  “Sixty-two!” Roz squeaked. “Jesus! Rusty, are you sure—”

  Rusty was already thinking yes.

  Magical resistance bypassed!

  Remaining free Chakra: 41

  Rusty staggered and sat down, hard, as he felt something like an enormous belch, only it was from his whole body except from his mouth. The chakra left him, crackling through the air with an almost audible sound, and as Ran ducked and covered her face, the stabbing tendrils snapped one after another, large holes riddling the woodsy roots.

  They missed, mostly. Ran cried out as one that was only barely off course slashed her bare shoulder, spraying droplets of blood that slowed as they got a foot from her speed-boosted body.

  “You are through its magical resistance!” The Lion bellowed. “Quickly! Kill the wose with a spell!”

  But Rusty couldn’t think about that. He was already moving, helping Ran up and out of the moss-covered rocks even as the next wave of tendrils ripped up and lashed out.

  She was limping now, one of her fetlocks slick with blood where one must have got her foot under the water. There was no time for a spell, not if he wanted Ran to survive.

  As he thought that, the Lion flickered, and appeared directly before him, gazing into his eyes.

  There was no time for a spell. Unless he dropped Ran and used her as the distraction.

  He thought about it as he went. God help him, he thought about it.

  Then he shoved it out of his head and focused on keeping them alive. They couldn’t dodge roots forever, he knew this. So he headed back for where the others should be, found them already gone, and kept running to the edge of the purple mess. The tendrils grew far and fewer apart…

  …and then he was out, turning to look back, panting hard as he watched the tendrils withdraw. The Wose’s face was out of view; there was nothing to be done. He waited and watched, hoping against hope.

  And then he sighed, as familiar silhouettes burst out of the trees to the right. A few tendrils ripped out of the ground in surprise, but too late, far too late. Rusty smiled as the last few satyrs and kids hurried up to him.

  Then the smile faded. The satyrs were there, no losses as far as he could tell. Ken was there too. Beth was there. But Alice was gone.

  Rusty swallowed, and let the speed fade, dreading the question he knew he had to ask.

  Ken must have seen the look in his eyes, because he cut Rusty off. “She’s alive!” he said. “She went through. She was the only one we could get through. She’s in our world. She made it home.”

  Rusty knew he should feel happy about that.

  But as his eyes strayed back to his exhausted little sister, all he could think about was the missed opportunity to save her.