Ven: Part 2

Ch. 20 You chose

We arrive back in the room we left from. Only Vick sits at the table, his hands ghost white clenched around a cup.

"Where is everyone?" I look around uneasily. "Did they leave already!?"

"Getting ready." He says quietly.

"Well stop them, something is about to go down, we need to call them back!" I make for the door.

"They aren't getting ready to leave." He says slowly.

"Then what for?" I demand.

He nods at the window.

I run over and stare out. Suspended in the air are two large shards of some kind of crystal. They show Marney is being led up to a gallows by the man in the whale mask. A young man with dark skin and indiscernible features is waiting at the top already, rope hanging loosely from his neck.

The window shakes, lightning crackles and arcs through the glass.

I spin around and make for the door.

"Ven stop." Vick barks.

"Why!" I shout, glaring at him.

"Think for a second before you storm off to get into a fight!" The cup in his hands shatters in his grip and his chair crashes loudly to the floor behind him as he leaps to his feet. "You have people out there waiting for a signal! If you go now they'll be lost with no leader! And don't you dare say they have me!" He snaps. "Take responsibility, send us to war with you! Show us you're with us as we are with you!"

My jaw clenches, my breath quickens, my heart pounds, my stomach turns.

It feels like I'm going to die.

"Fine," I say through my teeth.

"Good, now go!" He grabs my elbow and frog marches me out the room and out into the street.

People are running around wildly. No one has any idea what to do.

"Every..." I catch myself and clear my throat. "Everyone! Now hear this! The time for waiting is over! Anyone strong enough to fight band up and find a house to drive! Don't fight the man in the whale mask, leave him to me! If you find yourself fighting Mel make sure you have a healer with you and well protected! No one is to fight alone! Let's all come back in one piece!"

A resounding cry echoes through the crowd amassed before me.

"Let's do this!" I shout.

By the time everyone is organised, five houses filled with Caravan Palace and Turncoat members are speeding through the fields of crops to the part of the country filled with mud brown houses.

I'm sitting atop a house, a rough chain made of roof tiles shifts frantically in the wind. I close my eyes and focus, the charge in the air connects over and over giving me a full view of everything around me. I extend it further, making more and more connections until I find them. Marney has a noose hanging loosely around her neck, the young man next to her does as well. His face is bruised and swollen all over, splits have already scabbed over and begun healing. Marney's mouth moves. I can kind of hear what she's saying through the charge in the air.

"Jacob! Grow something, get us out of this!" She cries desperately.

I refocus on the young man.

Under all the bruising, swelling, and cuts.

It's him.

My eyes fly open, I jump down off the roof and swing on the window frame into the house.

"Vick! Step on it! That's Jacob up there with her!" I shout.