The Scourge of Gods

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

A swarm of gnats whizzed around Inarhi's head, somehow evading her swinging hand like a united mind. Gnats weren't even supposed to exist in such a place, but based on her studies, Eligos modeled the spirit world after everything on earth. It included humid rainforests, as well as the shades of living inhabitants.

Vibrant fauna surrounded Inarhi on all sides, from delicate orchids to giant star-shaped monstrosities with traps of green fangs. Water dripped from vines, pooling along the ground from the last rain, and just beyond the canopy of trees howling with primates, she could see an even larger tree. It towered hundreds of feet over the rainforest.

That's where the portal was.

"This place is repulsive," Imelda muttered, jerking her finger up to zap a black cloud of gnats to dust. She glanced at Gwyn. "Can't you cool the air, somehow? There's water everywhere, damn it!"

"I cannot regulate the temperature to such a precise degree," said Gwyn. "The only other adepts who can do that are in the other groups." She shrugged. "The best I can do is give you frostbite."

"What's everyone grumbling about?" asked Luna.

Inarhi gave her bodyguard a quizzical look. "The weather."

"What? It's not that bad."

"Easy for you to say. You were born in a place like this."

Imelda stopped. She raised an arm to halt their advance and swept her gaze through the trees, her lips making a thin, bloodless line across her face. "Sisters, be on your guard," she said. "Multiple spirits have entered the perimeter of my warning web. It seems we've been tracked."

Wordlessly, the witches flared their energy nexuses, bathing the wet ground in a shimmering white light. Patterns crossed the dirt and over the gnarled roots of the trees around them.

"What kind of plan is this?" asked Inarhi, more angry than scared. "We're separated from the main group, and now we're being pursued. Did no one account for the mercenaries actually being able to track us?"

"Oh, hush up," said Imelda, scowling. "Lillias is off protecting a weaker portion of our force, so you're my charge now. So since you're my charge, I'm ordering you to keep quiet until we resolve this." She sniffed. "Besides, If I can't defeat a couple of little magi then I have no business calling myself a witch."

"We should have stuck together."

"That isn't your business."

"Luna's safety, and my safety, is my business!" said Inarhi.

"Princess, you're one word away from me—"

Thick vines burst from the canopy of trees.

They wrenched five witches into the air by their slender necks. Imelda spun around. She whipped out her hand and a branch of lightning slashed through the vines, freeing the women before they were consumed by the mantle of leaves above. They fell into the dirt, gasping for breath.

A knobbly wooden figure detached itself from a tree beside Inarhi and lunged toward Imelda, but the witch brought her arm around in an arc and blasted the creature to oblivion. Only a scattering of charred wood remained, its ends singed with flickering orange.

"What was that?" asked Luna, knuckles white as she gripped her staff.

"It's a tree spirit," said Inarhi, "demonic in origin, and a lower-class entity." Such a creature could only control the vegetation immediately surrounding it, based on its size and level of power.

The same demonic spirits crept through the forest, backs hunched from the bloom of sharp wooden prongs weighing down their arms. The black pits in their twisted heads twinkled. The demons untangled the vines from the trees again, but this time the Imigi were ready.