Chapter Fifty

Escape to the Crossing Zone

ELSA

Another shot of ice sent more Blue Wolves tumbling backwards into the ranks behind them while their comrades fired their muskets again. Elsa dove low once more the way she'd done the first hundred times, lead balls thoking into the stone wall, failing to penetrate the embrasure.

This was getting old really quickly. The Blue Wolves just kept coming. Line after line after line and they never stopped in spite of how many spun away after a blast of fire or ice hit them.

The cannons had done their damage, spitting eight and nine pound balls into the air, arcing wildly and smashing against the tower. As Elsa had feared, the ancient construction of Swynvort Tower hadn't been built to withstand modern artillery strikes such as the one that they were receiving now.

Thankfully though, Maui had taken care of most of the guns, destroying them with nothing but his sheer strength. He still worked relentlessly in human form, swinging his fish hook and smashing his way through everything in his path. The big guns were battered and Blue Wolves were sent pinwheeling away as they tried to deal with the behemoth of a near-indestructible demigod. However, every now and then, a double loaded canister shot from the few remaining artillery guns managed to put him out of action for a bit.

In truth, no matter how many Blue Wolves the trio dealt with, there were always more. And the fact was, they were getting closer and closer to success with each attempt and each wave that came on.

"This is madness." Deirdre hissed for what might have been the tenth time since they'd started defending the tower. "We won't last much longer."

"I know." Elsa said, blasting another wave of ice at the relentless Blue Wolves, who fired their muskets at erratic intervals at the two girls. In retrospect, she fully understood how absurd the idea was, having only three sorcerers to defend the tower against a small army.

It'd taken her a while to get used to using her powers again too. Almost two weeks of being cut off from her magic had felt strangely alien, and now that they were back, Elsa almost felt like her powers belonged to someone else. But within a few minutes of drawing deep from her wells of sorcery, the ice flowed naturally again like she hadn't missed a beat.

But Deirdre was right. They couldn't hold on any longer. Soon the Blue Wolves would be directly on top of them, storming through the entrance and pouring into the tower. They just had to hope that they'd bought enough time for Tracy to evacuate all the sorcerers.

Eyes flicking to the bottom of the hill, Elsa made out the figure of Maui, who took one last swing at a large clot of Blue Wolves with his fish hook, and then bounded into the air. Shapeshifting back into the form of a tiny locust, he flew over the Blue Wolves' heads and back through a loophole in the wall.

Maui shape-shifted back into human form. "We need to fall back." He reported, looking worn out. Sweat mingled with black powder stained his bald head, and his face and body were covered in it too. He smelled heavily of smoke. "We can't hold our position any longer. They'll be in here any moment now. We need to retreat."

"About damn time." Deirdre hissed, unleashing one more fiery wave of heat at the Blue Wolves, holding them back from advancing for fear of being skewered alive. She whirled away from her embrasure as musket fire rang out all around her, pinging off the wall. "Let's move!"

"Alright." Elsa said, pulling herself away from the embrasure with relief. Halfway down the empty corridor, the trio were met with two familiar figures dressed in dark grey.

The Witch Hunters. Both Hansel and Gretel were coming towards them fast. Elsa let out an internal groan. Things were about to get more complicated. She broke into a defensive position, hands outstretched in front of her. "Stay where you are!"

"Woah! Chill, woman!" Hansel screeched to a halt and held out his hands in front of him. "We're not here to hunt you. Not this time!"

"It's true." Gretel said, making eye contact with Elsa. "Trust me. We worked with Prometheus to take down the other bounty hunters and assassins. He sent us to find you."

Bounty hunters and assassins? Elsa blinked. "You're going to have to explain."

"There's no time," Deirdre snapped, dropping into a fighting stance. "It's one of their traps."

"Wait." Maui put a meaty hand out to stop her.

"More were sent here to destroy your League." Gretel explained. "Our client hired bounty hunters and assassins to take you and your friends out."

"Client? Who? The Crimson Order?" Elsa asked sharply.

"I guess everyone knows about the Crimson Order then." Hansel shrugged.

"Yes." Gretel went on. "Prometheus hired us on the spot to help him."

"And why should we trust you?" Deidre spat. "You were the ones who turned us in."

"Water under the bridge, honey." Hansel said nonchalantly.

Deirdre stepped closer, eyes narrowed. "Call me honey again, and I'll fry your skin to a crisp."

"Whew, feisty. I like that in a girl." Hansel chuckled fearlessly.

"Shut up." Gretel said. "Look, believe us or not, you're running out of time. Prometheus is dealing with the last few assassins and told us to rendezvous with you to tell you he's almost done."

Elsa shook her head. Truthfully, she was beginning to lose track of what was going on. So many things going on at the same time, they were all giving her a great big headache. So many questions. "We'll sort this out later. We need to get out of here now."

"Good." Gretel said, and turned on her heels, starting back the way she and Hansel had come.

Elsa exchanged wary glances with Deirdre and Maui, the latter raising a trademark eyebrow. Later, she mouthed as they followed after the Witch Hunters. She overtook them and led the small group back down the corridor towards the training hall

Returning to the training hall, the sight that met her was a relief. The hall was almost empty, except for a few short lines of sorcerers still shuffling forward towards the Crossing Points. Three portals of purple mist were still being held open by Tracy, who looked absolutely spent. They'd almost made it.

"Hurry!" Elsa motioned for the others to follow her down the stairs, and upon reaching the ground floor, they ran across the hall towards Tracy.

"All…almost through." Tracy said through gritted teeth, arms stretched left and right to keep the three Crossing Points open. Face pale, sweat poured down her face and she looked like she was about to collapse at any moment. Her arms and legs were trembling from the sorcerous exertion, and her knees wobbled.

"Where the hell is Janus?" Deirdre turned to Hansel.

"Janus?" Hansel blinked. "Oh. He said he was almost done. Should be here any moment."

"Tell him to bloody hurry up," Tracy groaned. "Don't know how much longer…I can…" she trailed off, eyes closing for a moment. The Crossing Points' energy began to waver and fade.

"No, no, no," Elsa gripped her by the shoulders. "Stay with me. You're almost done. Just stay awake. Focus. Please. Just a little while longer."

Tracy opened her eyes a fraction, muscles twitching in exhaustion. The Crossing Points flickered back to full power, and the last few sorcerers in all three lines crossed through.

"That's it." Maui said. "They're through. Now for Janus."

Where was he? Elsa suddenly felt a surge of panic. What if he didn't make it? Those three assassins…what if-

Her thoughts were thankfully broken by an interruption. As if he'd been summoned, a zip-line arrow was fired from the third level, the arrow hitting the ground and embedding itself deep. Janus and Venetia zipped down, hooked onto the cable only by the bow in Janus' hand.

Elsa's heart relaxed considerably when she saw Janus again. He's alive.

The landing was messy, as Janus tumbled to the ground, nursing a bloodied leg shot through by a rifle wound. Venetia managed to land on her feet, and tried to help Janus to his feet.

Elsa rushed to his side, propping him up. The anxiety returned. "Your leg!"

"Later." Janus grunted as he stood up with the two women's help. "Is everyone through?"

"Yeah," Maui said. "Come on. The Blue Wolves are right behind us."

From afar, Elsa could make out the distant sound of clattering boots and shouted commands. The Blue Wolves had broken through and were almost on top of the Warriors.

"Let's go!" Deirdre shouted, gesturing frantically at the Crossing Points. She was the first to leap through the portal.

Venetia and Elsa helped a badly wounded Janus through a Crossing Point next, followed by Maui who hauled Tracy along with him. The portals shut behind them, leaving the Blue Wolves behind in Swynvort.

Helping Janus sit down, Elsa looked around. It was dark, lit only by a faint purple glow from the horizon, leaving everyone in relative darkness and shadows. The sorcerers were either sitting down, walking about, or huddled together as if they were in a concentration camp of some sort. Elsa could sense that the general atmosphere was one of fear and uncertainty, and she couldn't exactly blame them.

On the bright side, the Crossing Point was filled with sorcerers, though nowhere near as cramped as Swynvort had been. This plane of existence stretched as far as the eye could see, and possibly further still. The Warriors had been here many times as a midpoint to a different location, but had never really used the Crossing Zone for anything else. And now, eight hundred sorcerers were being housed in the Crossing Zone, drifting through time and space without a connection to the real world.

"Finally." Tracy muttered under her breath as her body went limp and slipped out of Maui's grip.

"Tracy!" Maui caught her and lowered her to the ground of the Crossing Zone.

"Exhaustion," Elsa said, hand on Janus' back to prop him up, with Venetia on his other side. "We have to get Holli! She can help both of them."

"I'll find her." Deirdre went into the endless crowd of sorcerers in search for the girl.

Before long, Deirdre brought back Holli, who looked tired from her role of marshalling the sorcerers for the evacuation. Apparently there had also been some injuries here and there due to the general panic, and Holli had been going around to heal those.

"You guys made it." Holli said cathartically, then glanced anxiously over at both Tracy and Janus. "Let me take a look at that." She stooped down before Janus first, who had a hand over his wounded leg. Gently removing his hand, she examined the wound.

"Lead ball shot right through." Holli gritted her teeth. "Let me see what I can do." She hovered her hands over the wound and very slowly placed them on the wound. Janus flinched slightly. Muttering a spell beneath her breath, she repeated it over and over again, the red stains around the wound seeming to dry up gradually. When she removed her hands, the wound was all closed up, leaving only an ugly scar and dried blood.

"It'll heal completely within a day or two. Maybe less." Holli stood up. "But try to stay out of action for now."

"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks." Janus closed his eyes.

Holli then shuffled over to Tracy, who had by now completely lost consciousness. The former sea witch's head was slumped over Maui's meaty palm, the rest of her body slack and still on the ground. She was sweating profusely, and looked incredibly ill.

"Cold sweat, shallow breathing." Holli put a hand on Tracy forehead, eliciting no response from her. The young witch doctor looked over at Elsa. "What happened to her?"

"Exhaustion." Elsa said, Janus' head in her lap. "Holding the Crossing Points open for too long strained her sorcery and her body."

"She needs to rest and recover on her own," Holli looked pensive. "But I think I can expedite the process a little." She placed a hand on Tracy's forehead again, and held her limp hand in the other. "Zuruthmren iltaxet." She muttered, translucent strips of energy materialising from the air around her and seeping into Tracy's skin.

After a few seconds, Holli stood up, looking tired. "I gave her a little of my life force to act as a metabolising factor. She'll be back to normal soon."

"Thank you." Elsa reached out and took Holli's hand gratefully. "You should rest too."

Holli shook her head. "There's still a lot more of them needing medical help. A whole line of refugees. I gotta get back. I'll find you guys again later."

Elsa watched as she slipped off again into the crowd and her petite frame disappeared from sight.

"They'll both be alright." Maui said, resting Tracy's head slowly on the ground. "They just need time."

"Which gives us time to figure out what to do next." Deirdre said. "Swynvort is compromised and we're still fugitives." She jabbed her finger at the sea of sorcerers. "And then there's the rest of them. Where are we going to go now?"

"I…I don't know." This was the first time in a while that Elsa really had no clue what to do next. She'd always had some rough idea of what they could do next should things go south, but in all the madness and chaos, her only goal had been to evacuate Swynvort as fast as possible. However, she couldn't see a way forward now, and was left to confront the looming question: where do we go from here?

"We sure as hell can't stay in the Crossing Zone." Maui said.

"Then where?" Venetia demanded. It was clear enough to anyone who paid attention that the former thief wasn't a fan of the dark, spaceless realm.

In all the commotion, she'd almost forgotten that the Witch Hunters were still with them. Hansel cleared his throat.

"This is all sad and all, but we're gonna get paid, right?"

Elsa looked at him questioningly. "Excuse me?"

"Your boyfriend told us Queen Anna would pay for our services. The job ain't free, y'know." Hansel looked agitated. "He said that your sister would pay well if we switched sides to join you. You guys better deliver on that, or-"

Gretel nudged him sharply. "Not now."

Resting Janus' body against the ground, Elsa levered herself to her feet. The beginning of an idea had sprouted in her mind, though still sketchy. Her allies' eyes turned to her and once again, she felt the weight of the world on her shoulders.

She took a deep breath. "There's nowhere else for us to run. No matter where we go, they'll hunt us."

Deirdre gave her a quizzical look. "What are you saying?"

"We can't run anymore. The hunt is over." With bated breath, Elsa watched as the eyes of the others grew wide. "We go straight to the Coalition. All of us."