Page 15 of Alora: The Portal (Alora 2)

“Oh no

, I can’t just let it…” Alora raised her hand to her mouth, her horrified eyes matched by Wesley’s. One moment, Morvaen was watching Alora to see what she would do. The next moment, a man appeared beside them on the roof. He yelled, losing his balance, and Kaevin lunged to steady him.

“Sorry, Raemeon. Are you injured?” Kaevin waited for him to gain his balance before releasing his arm.

He gave his head a shake, obviously shocked by the sudden transport. “No, I’m unharmed. What happened?”

“There was a wendt coming right at you. You couldn’t see it, but…” Alora put her hand to her mouth. “I’m sorry if I startled you, but I couldn’t just leave you there and let that wendt…”

Raemeon’s eyes opened wide. “No, please don’t apologize, Bearer. You have my sincere gratitude. I’m grateful you didn’t allow the wendt to reach me. I thought I heard one, but I never saw it.”

“And yet we can’t bring every warrior up to this roof, Alora. The wendt will simply fly up here, and we have no swords with which to defend ourselves.” Morvaen fought the desire to pace, knowing he’d most likely tumble off the roof.

“It’s circling back around,” said Wesley, sighting down his arrow. “Why didn’t that wendt attack the Water Clan warrior just now?”

“Those who bear the bondmark are protected from the wendts.” Morvaen forestalled Wesley’s next question. “During the last battle, the Water Clansmen had their bondmarks masked somehow. Evidently the masking also removed their protection, a fortunate thing for us at the time.”

“Wesley, he’s coming back. Can you shoot him?”

Morvaen strained his eyes and spotted the arrow shaft wobbling in the air, growing larger as it approached the small knot of warriors battling in the street below.

“I’m going to try, but I have to wait until it’s pretty close. And then there’s a danger I could hit someone because it’s flying so low. I wish it would fly over the top of us.” Wesley sighted down his arrow.

“Let me try something.” Alora stared toward the approaching arrow shaft. “Just a little bit closer.”

“Alora, I can’t shoot it at all if it gets any— Wait! Where did it go?”

“I transported it somewhere, but it will probably come right back. I never did learn how to send something beyond my vision. If I can’t see the place I’m transporting to, it would have to be a place I can picture really well.”

“Look, Alora! There’s another one, way up above us. Let me see if I can shoot it.” Wesley pointed toward the huge full moon overhead.

Morvaen still couldn’t see what Wesley was aiming for, but he watched the arrow fly in a graceful arc and fall to the ground, its path obviously unaltered by impact with a target.

Wesley shouted a word Morvaen had never heard. “I missed him. He’s too far away to shoot without my compound bow.”

“Look, the first one is coming back.” Alora pointed with one hand, covering her mouth with the other. “I knew I couldn’t get rid of him. Over there—he’s flying over on that building.”

“If only our other archers were able to see them,” said Jireo. “We need several archers working together with longbows.”

“I could send Wesley close to that wendt over there,” Alora suggested. “Maybe we could go to that other rooftop.”

“No, the arrows have iron heads, so we’d lose them in transport,” said Jireo.

“I can transport the wendts away once they get close enough for me to see them clearly,” Alora explained, “but I can’t send them very far. I could send them to a place I know really well. Like… I could send them to the healing house.”

“Don’t do that!” Morvaen hurried to object.

“I wouldn’t actually do that. I was just giving an example.”

“Perhaps if you continued to transport the wendts to the edge of your vision, we might have time to determine another solution.” Kaevin’s voice was encouraging, but Alora appeared unconvinced.

“There’s got to be something else I can do.”

More screeches and screams interrupted them again, and all eyes turned toward the sounds.

“I don’t see them. I think the noise came from the other side of that building,” said Wesley, still standing with his bow at the ready.

Morvaen’s mind was spinning. “Perhaps a shaman could remove the masking over the creatures. Between our long swords and our archers, my warriors could kill them if they were visible.”