"Aurora!" he yelled. He couldn't stop himself. The rage in him just boiled and exploded. He ran into the crowd shoving people left and right. Some fell right away; some fell into others and knocked them down too.
"Aurora!" he yelled again.
A noise seemed to be gathering from beneath them, from within the ground itself. It shook and knocked him and a few others off their feet. The rings of fire surrounding Aurora dispersed, blowing aside as if something exploded. The red flames faded without dropping any burning embers. Aurora was left hanging now wrapped in silver chains. Her arms were bound against her sides and she couldn't move a muscle.
Evander pushed himself to his feet and ran. A sankt held out their arm, not bothering to see it was Evander and not one of the people. Her gaze was on Aurora, her face tilted to watch and then she raised her own stick and drew another burning circle.
"We're not doing that again," he said and slammed her with his shoulder, knocking her to the ground. But her flaming circle finished and floated up with the others. This time the circles formed one next to the other to create a larger circle around Aurora.
Below her he saw some of the sankts hurrying to draw something with their blue ink again. This time it was in the grass below her, but he wouldn't have whatever they were doing. He grabbed the back of the nearest sankt and threw him to the ground and then leaped for the one next to him.
"Stop! She's not a demon!" he yelled, but they weren't listening. Evander gave a quick look at Gharet who was still hanging just by his wrists. He'd not moved from the position even with all the magic swirling around him.
He looked away with a grimace and ground his teeth. It hadn't been right what the sankts did. Gharet wouldn't be the same after, if he was still alive.
Every white robe he saw he grabbed a handful of the thick material and threw them. Some simply fell to the side, some he picked up and threw over his head. A roar left his mouth as he shouted a wordless cry at those around him.
His outburst distracted them enough that the remaining sankts who were still on their feet froze to look at him.
His chest rose and fell and for a split second he took in everything, no one moving, everyone staring at him. And then as if in one unison they rose their sticks, but Evander was ready for them.
He had spotted a ladder on his right and darted out from the center of the area between the two towers and grabbed the first rung he stretched for. He threw himself up and easily he lifted his body to the top where the ladder ended. He saw one of the chains was ended in a hook. A spark of luck was on his side.
He grabbed the side of the chains linked across to Aurora and with all the strength he possessed he kicked the chain with his feet as hard as he could. The hook wedged in the rock began to buckle, ripping through the mortar and suddenly it was loosened and the chain flew. Evander flew with it, swinging like a wild swamp man on a vine in the forest.
It swung past Aurora but he wasn't thinking about that. He was pulling himself up to where she was wrapped with the silver metal.
He grabbed the one he was dangling from and tried looping it through to undo the one knot, but the metal link wouldn't budge.
He grunted as he pulled again. He turned his body hanging partway in the open air nearly three stories high from the ground to try and pull the chain apart, but the links were hard and thick and were stuck fast. After all, they had been created by magic from the one god.
"Sathoro help me, please! I am not a devoted follower but I have lived by your guiding from the moment I was born! Please, give me the strength to save her!" he yelled. He grabbed the chains and pulled, his muscles bulging.
YOU ARE READING
Shadows of Iraedes | NanoWrimo 2021
RomanceAurora Bailey has had a hard life, and the horizon is only looking harder. She's finally had enough of her abusive partner and decides to leave him, but finds she can't when he keeps pulling her back, sometimes even physically. After many attempts t...
