“Voss!” Ilya’s cry grounded me.

  It brought me back from my despondent state. It jolted me back into motion. I couldn’t just stand here disoriented. I needed to move. To fight. And to kill these creatures attacking us.

  Thankfully, I was not fighting sentient beings but beasts. Noting my hurt state, the animals had turned their attention to the more prominent threat. Otherwise, they would have understood the danger a Truechild represented and finished me off first. That gave me a chance.

  I watched the centipedes twitch their antennae and turn away from me. I let my knees hit the cobbled stones and looked behind me. The beast behind me looked at me. One side of its head turned slightly toward me. The three eyes on the side of its face looked at me hungrily. For a moment I held my breath. It then turned away and started collecting the acid in its gullet.

  The carriage-sized centipedes in front of me made a belching sound and shot globs of mucous-like acid toward the punishers. They used their artifacts and dodged. The centipedes weren’t done and moved toward my people to get better angles of attack. I took that time to collect mana in my sword. From the corner of my eye, I kept an eye on the beast behind me. I waited.

  The creature behind me shot a gob of acid at Ilya. The acid made her stop and use her wind to push it away. Happy with the result, the awful beast turned back to me. I could see its thoughts in its greedy eyes. I was larger and more mana dense than all of the prey here. And it wanted to consume as much of me as possible before it had to share my meat with its friends.

  The centipede looked at me with saliva and acid running down its chin. It lifted its head and prepared to strike. Its legs dug into the ground. I didn’t move. I needed my strike to be perfect.

  The centipede lunged down with an open mouth. I shot into action. I turned and thrust my sword in a smooth motion. My sword point hit the tough carapace and stopped. For a fraction of a second I stood there. Then the cold point of my sword cracked the bug’s defenses. My blade dug into the centipede’s throat. Mana rushed out of me. And I jumped back before the creature could pin me down.

  The creature convulsed and thrashed. Its spear-like legs scrambled as it curled into itself. Its spear-point legs almost dug into mine. I scrambled back, slipped on my own blood, and fell on my rear. I tried to scramble up and fell back to one knee.

  I looked down at myself. The acid had eaten into my skin. Through the muscles and tendons, I could see my ribs. The sight almost made me shut down. I fought against it. I couldn’t collapse. This was just the beginning of the fight. I felt eyes glaring down at me and turned to look at the other creatures. Noticing the distress of their kind, the other centipedes, all three of them, glared at me with six-eyed heads. They straightened their antennae and made guttural noises in their throats. They collected acid in their throats and decided to finish me off.

  I covered my ribs with a hand and pulsed mana into my wound. The freezing cold left my palm and froze my wound closed. It helped chill the burning sensation but stopped abruptly. I looked at my palm. The black veins on my marble skin looked washed out and gray. I was almost out of mana. This was bad. I needed mana to fight. My thoughts raced. I didn’t even have a weapon. I cupped my palm and started to create a spike of ice. It would take all the mana I had, but I needed to finish this fight.

  Suddenly, with a pop of displaced air, Grek appeared next to me. He gave me a disapproving glance and threw a ball of metal at one of the bugs. A jolt of white lightning erupted out of the ball. It cracked into one of the centipede’s open mouths. Two more punishers appeared behind me and threw their payloads at the beasts. One unleashed a gout of fire. The third one shot a stream of boiling water into the creature’s head.

  It stopped the attacking beasts in their tracks. Then with a whoosh of air, Ilya flew down. She landed next to me. With a knife-like chop, she slashed her hand downward. A curved blade of wind shot down. It made a teeth-chattering, loud screeching sound and cut into the curling centipede. The sound made my ears hurt and shot a mist of clear blood into the air. When the dust and gore settled, the centipede was sliced into four parts.

  I tried to get up.

  Ilya growled, “You stupid fool!”

  Before I could respond and tell her of the looming threat, she picked me up by the back of my collar and threw me. A loud gust of wind carried me through the air. I sighed as I flew and angled my body. With a pained grunt, I landed on my shoulder and rolled to a stop, at the feet of a scarred, pock-skinned woman.

  I looked at the woman with pain-hazed eyes.

  “What?” the woman blinked.

  Her confusion didn’t last long. It turned into a gleeful smile. She waved to call one of her companions and pointed at me.

  “Baz, look,” the woman whispered to her friend.

  A man came into view and looked down at me. His lips turned up into a vicious smile. “Well. Look at this. We didn’t even have to ambush them.”

  They both looked down at me with stony, snake-like gazes. Even though I was ready for the cold gazes of the damned, this close to them, a ripple of fear invaded my soul’s shield and tried to worm its way in. I didn’t fight it. My hands shook and my eyes widened in terror.

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  The two damned looked down at me with growing smiles.

  The man, Baz, looked at the woman. “Esni, get the captain. Let’s grab him and get him out of here.”

  “Baz, are you sure? The senator wanted the woman,” Esni asked.

  Baz scowled. “That man will get what we give him. Now don’t argue. Get the others.”

  Esni ran off to collect the others, and Baz reached down into the leather bag tied to his back and took out two pairs of mana shackles. Their silver metal glistened as he threw them at me.

  “Put these on, Truechild,” Baz ordered.

  My hands shook as I reached for the shackles. And I hesitated.

  Baz leaned down and growled, “Do you want us to kill the others?” He pointed at Ilya, the punishers, and the soldiers locked in combat. “Look, they are fighting for their lives. You think they will be able to survive a stab in the back at this moment?”

  I licked my lips and shook my head.

  Baz leaned down closer to me and pointed at the shackles. “Then put these on.”

  I didn’t fight the damned. I complied by fastening the mana shackles to my ankles and wrists.

  Baz nodded and looked at the returning people. “We got a Truechild. Pick him up and let’s get out of here.”

  The people dressed up as hunters looked down at me and, one by one, reached down, grabbing my limbs. In a moment, six people hoisted me up and started trundling toward the tree line. I didn’t fight them. I needed time to heal. I let the leftover mana in my body go to work and seal my wounds.

  A punisher running past stopped and looked at us. He pointed at Baz and asked, “Hey. You. What are you doing?”

  The woman turned to the man with panicked eyes. “He is a Truechild and he is hurt. We need to save him. We are getting out of the way to heal him. Quick, help us.”

  The punisher looked at me with widening eyes. He rushed to me while drawing a vial of healing potion from his belt pouch. “Your highness. Drink…”

  The woman kicked the punisher in the back of the head. The punisher staggered and fell to his knees. Another hard kick had him toppling face down on the ground. The woman drew out a dagger to stab the man’s neck.

  Baz stopped her by grabbing her arm. In a harsh whisper, he said, “Stop. Not here. They will see the blood.”

  Esni looked at her friend with hungry eyes and, with gritted teeth, said, “I want to feed.”

  The damned man grinned. “We will. Soon. But first, let’s take this one to the senator.”

  A guard made a discontented noise.

  Esni turned to glare at her and in a harsh whisper asked, “What is your problem, woman?”

  “You are my problem, damned. You have no discipline,” the woman replied with a frown.

  Baz put himself between Esni and the woman. “Captain Aaski, let’s not fight amongst ourselves right now. The senator wanted a Truechild. Let’s deliver this one to him. And then, if you want, we can settle our differences.”

  “The senator wanted Ilya Truechild. Not this newborn,” Captain Aaski responded.

  Baz chuckled. “That would have cost lives. Yours and ours. You know that, don’t you?”

  Aaski frowned and asked, “And what if he doesn’t like this one?”

  Baz licked his lips. “Then we will feast.”

  Aaski grimaced and motioned her people to keep dragging me into the forest. Esni periodically stopped and motioned back to where we had come from. She drove more and more beasts toward Ilya and the others.

  That was the problem with Ilya, Grek, and the punishers. They were so used to their emotions and their thoughts that they didn’t sense the waves of mental magic. This vile magic was the same one that I had sensed earlier when I had asked Ilya if this was normal. She hadn’t understood. Now it was driving the beasts in the forest mad and driving them to attack the invaders in their territory.

  I just had to hope that my mana stones would protect their minds long enough for them to fight off all the creatures. Meanwhile, I understood the true nature of the threat. And this was the real battle I had been anticipating. But now, I was stuck in a dilemma.

  Initially, I had expected the damned to carry me to a nest. That is why I had been acting weak, subservient, and compliant. Meanwhile, I was wondering: how many damned would there be? Could I take them all on with mana shackles? But there were these normal living people here. And the damned were working with them. Taking me to see a senator of the empire. I considered whether to act or not.

  I decided to stay quiet and let the people carry me deeper and deeper into the trees. Finally, my captors stopped, and Baz took out a square crystal.

  “Esni, check the boy’s shackles,” Baz ordered.

  My captors dropped me to the ground, and Esni approached me, a drawn arrow in her hand. She held it like a dagger in her right hand. The damned woman put her foot on my throat and looked down at me.

  “Show me your wrists,” Esni ordered.

  I wordlessly lifted my hands. Esni tinkered with the shackles and moved on to my feet.

  Esni knelt down. She pressed her arrow to my groin. I squirmed. I couldn’t help it. I had never felt so violated in my life. Its cold point dug through my trousers and into my privates.

  Esni chuckled. “Don’t move, big boy. I don’t want to chop off something important. But if you do fight, I will.”

  I clenched my teeth and dropped my head to the ground.

  While the woman checked the shackles on my ankles, I looked at my mana-shackled wrists. I could feel the cold metal dispersing the mana all around me. They didn’t let mana enter into my body. And I knew if I tried to use my mana, they would suck all of it and send it elsewhere. I had never felt so disconnected from both the mana in my body and the world around me.

  Esni moved back to look me in the eyes. She was close enough that I could smell her breath. She licked my cheek and giggled. “Oh, don’t give me that look, Truechild.”

  I stayed quiet.

  Esni scowled. “Very well then. Don’t talk.”

  “How about a little taste?” Esni lifted the arrowhead that had drawn my blood and licked it.

  She shivered in pleasure. “Oh my… You taste good.”

  I grimaced.

  “If you survive the senator’s interrogation, you will learn to love me. Satisfy all my wishes. Even the ones that disgust you.”

  “Back away from him, damned.” Captain Aaski stepped next to my prone body.

  Esni looked at the captain with gritted teeth. They both locked eyes and glared at each other. Finally, Esni lifted herself from atop me with a dismissive snort.

  Aaski looked down at me with a frown. “Don’t think this means I will save you, emperor’s pawn. I just want to deliver you to the senator.”

  “We are ready,” Baz’s gravelly smoker’s voice announced.

  Aaski looked at her people and nodded toward me. “Grab him and hold him.”

  Baz, Esni, and the others moved closer to me. The square crystal in Baz’s hands lifted up into the air and began rotating left and then rolled right twice. It flashed. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, we were in a different place.