The Shifter Part 23

"She'll be dead if the Luminary's guards get through. Help us!"

Bang!

The door shook. Kione went pale and raced for the closest empty cot.

"That wasn't a fist or a foot," Aylin said, pressing against the door.

Sword hilts? One of the small statuettes from an alcove? "They couldn't have found a battering ram so fast."

Kione heaved a cot into place. "Doesn't matter what it is, it'll break through."

We kept dragging cots and piling them in front of the door. Danello showed us how to interlock them to make it stronger. It wouldn't keep the cots from skidding along the floor when the door broke open, but they wouldn't be easy to shove aside.

Bang!

A spidery crack branched out above the latch.

Danello glanced around. "Is there anything heavier in here?"

"Some cabinets, but I don't think we can move those."

Tali ran up to me, her cheeks flushed pink. "I need more pynvium." She handed me the used chunks. They seemed so small, the room so large. I counted twenty-one heads in the dim lamplight. If they all held the same amount of pain as Tali had, I'd have to empty every pynvium chunk we had at least twice for each apprentice. Could we hold the guards off that long?

Kione wedged in a cot and looked hopefully at Tali. "Did you see Lanelle?"

"No, but I'll look for her and heal her next."

"She's last," I said without thinking. Fresh guilt hit me, along with everyone's shocked stares. "Heal the worst off first. Lanelle just got her pain, but the others are close to death. They don't have as much time. We have to heal them enough to get them mobile, then move on to the next."

More guards. .h.i.t the door, and a sprinkling of dust showered down on us. Kione laughed nervously. "A lot of good getting them moving will do. They'll just die on their feet."

"Better than being slaughtered in your bed," Danello called as Kione raced back to look for Lanelle.

I grabbed the handful of pynvium. "Stand back." I didn't know if the pain would go through the door, but the guards might be close enough to get a sting or two. I threw the pynvium, concentrating on dandelions in the wind.

Whoomp. Whoomp, whoomp, whoomp.

Startled cries from the other side, then thuds and frightened swearing. Hope fluttered in my chest. Maybe we could could pull this off. pull this off.

"Aylin," I called as the empty pynvium clattered against the door and bounced down through the bed frames.

"Already going for them," she said, rus.h.i.+ng past me. She s.n.a.t.c.hed up the chunks and ran back to the apprentices.

As Tali and Aylin brought the chunks back, I flashed them against the door. A few more yelps from the other side, but it looked like they'd learned to stay away for now. Soon other voices floated to me over the yelps and occasional tentative bang; apprentice voices, pained, scared, and angry.

"Help me, please. I need more."

"Elder Mancov made me heal. I didn't want to heal."

"Get us out of here!"

I will, I promise. We had more pain now, so maybe I could flash us past the guards and out of the League. Once we got everyone moving, we could heal and flash on the way.

"Here," Tali said, handing me another handful of pynvium. "We're going to need to do this a lot. There are a few that might only need one or two handfuls to be able to walk, but more need five or six."

"Maybe we should start giving one to everyone and reduce the pain all at once?"

"Not yet. I have a few still in too much pain for that."

"Okay, do what you think is best." She'd know with a touch who needed it most. I focused on emptying the pynvium instead. I threw the chunks at the door again.

"Lanelle's not here!"

Instead of the low whoomp whoomp, the pynvium fell harmlessly to the floor around the barricade. Danello looked at me in surprise, then let go of the cots to gather them back up.

"You can do this," he said, smiling as if I needed encouragement.

Lanelle wasn't here? She couldn't be dead-she didn't get that much pain.

"Nya?"

I took the pynvium and nodded. Another throw, another handful of pynvium filled with pain. But instead of the p.r.i.c.kling sting, all I felt was shame.

What if the Luminary had made an example example out of her because of me? out of her because of me?

The handful hit the floor, unflashed.

Danello gathered it again, this time more than surprise on his face. "Nya, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Images of Lanelle crawling along the floor filled my mind. Stay away from me! Stay away from me! she'd cried. Saints, I'd been so angry. But the Luminary would be a lot angrier. Maybe even angry enough to kill. It could have been her body people saw being carried to the morgue. she'd cried. Saints, I'd been so angry. But the Luminary would be a lot angrier. Maybe even angry enough to kill. It could have been her body people saw being carried to the morgue.

"We need pynvium over here," Aylin shouted. "Hurry up!"

I held out my hand. "Just give me the chunks."

"What's going on?" Danello asked warily. The pynvium fell like accusations into my palm.

The fight wouldn't stay out of my mind. The anger, the hatred that had washed over me as pain flashed over its victims. I concentrated on Papa and the dandelions and threw.

Whoomp.

"Get those to Tali."

Kione came over, twitching as if torn between leaving to hunt for Lanelle and staying where it was safe. "She was here before-I know she was. I saw her."

"Maybe they healed her."

"Then she'd be here, right? This was her post. She was taking care of them." He shook his head and pointed to the cots. "No, Vinnot and the Luminary were standing right there, and neither cared about her at all. If they'd wanted to heal her, they would have done it before I got there."

"Kione," I said, exasperated, "I don't know what happened to her."

He pouted and stalked over to the cots.

Aylin dashed up and handed me another handful of chunks. "We have four up and walking now." She said. "Their stories break your heart, but they're going to be okay."

"Good. How many more are close to death?"

"Just one."

I threw the pynvium at the door again. It flashed before it ever hit, leaving faint white speckles on the wood.

"Kione's pretty upset," she whispered, glancing over at him. He sat on one of the empty cots, head in his hands. "I think he actually wants to go look for her."

"If we get out of here, he can go look all he wants."

"That won't end well." Aylin took the empty chunks and dashed away.

Danello stayed quiet until Aylin was gone. "You think they killed her, don't you?" he asked from behind me, where it was safe from the flas.h.i.+ng.

"I don't know. Maybe not. She helped them, so why kill her?" The white speckles stayed in the wood, not blowing away like the dust had.

"But did she help willingly?" He paused, and I fought the urge to turn around and check his expression. "From what Tali told us, a lot of people agreed to help because they had to."

"She knew what she was doing."

"Are you sure?"

I wasn't, but I wasn't going to say that.

Danello sighed. "You're acting strange. I know we don't know each other that well yet, but that just doesn't seem like you."

Didn't feel like me either. I was no better than Zertanik, trading one life for another.

Aylin arrived with another handful of pynvium. I flashed it, and she was off again.

"I don't know," he said. "You seem so different today, is all. You've been through a lot, and you might not be thinking clearly. I guess I'm just a little worried."

"What you should be worried about are those guards-" I stopped and stared at the door. "When did the banging stop?"

"What? I don't know." He crept forward and pressed his ear against the door, near the white speckles. It had to be my eyes playing tricks, but for a moment I thought the door bent out when he touched it.

"Do you hear anything?"

"No. Think they're unconscious? You've been flas.h.i.+ng the door pretty hard."

More people for me to feel guilty over. But this was war, wasn't it? If they got inside, they'd kill us and the apprentices. I was just defending myself. Me s.h.i.+fting pain wasn't any different from Danello using his rapier.

It sure felt felt different though. I'd never wanted to be a weapon. All I'd wanted was to save Tali. I threw the pynvium again. different though. I'd never wanted to be a weapon. All I'd wanted was to save Tali. I threw the pynvium again.

Whoomp.

No clattering, no thumps, no plinks of metals falling to the stone floor. I stared, shocked at the fine mist blowing back at me, and the soft hiss of coa.r.s.e sand falling to the floor.

Saints and sinners! The pynvium chunks had disintegrated!

TWENTY.

Had my anger poisoned the pynvium?

"What did you do?" Tali whispered, clutching my arm.

"Nothing. I did it the same way as before."

"But it's gone gone, Nya."

Not completely, but the sand wouldn't help us. Nothing would help us now.

Fearful twitters raced through the half-healed apprentices. "Gone?"

"There's no more pynvium?"

"Not again!"

Quiet sobs came next. I wanted to curl up on the floor and cry with them.

"I've never seen it do that before," Tali said.

"I don't know what happened." I couldn't have destroyed it. The Saints couldn't be that unfair. What good was a monster who s.h.i.+fted and destroyed the one thing that could help those she hurt?

I waved a hand at Aylin. "Bring me the rest. Maybe I tried to do too much at once."

She collected them off the floor and handed them over. I took them and threw one chunk against the door. It flashed like always. One of the apprentices even clapped, but the others hushed her.

"See? It worked! I don't know what happened before."

I threw a second. It flashed and turned to sand. Gasps and groans rippled through the room.

"I don't-it just-" I stared open-mouthed at the door. The pynvium was gone, but the white speckles now covered a band a foot high across the middle of the door.

I threw the rest, one chunk after another. All but two crumbled.

"Maybe pynvium can hold only so much pain?" said Danello. "Just like people?"