Amber reached the spot we had just left Arnold, only moments before way before me. It was now blocked by multiple people shouting and raising weapons to attack something they themselves were blocking from view. Amber dropped all the channeling weapons on the ground, except for a small dagger, and proceeded to run into the tussle of bodies that were fighting.
I hung back and waited and prepared myself to call on some friends from down below, although I wasn't sure if I could spare the energy that it would cost me.
I watched as one body, of a soldier from our side, got flung high into the air. He landed with a thud on the grass just inches from where I stood.
Not good! Not good!
Even a wind type had the ability to throw someone high and this far like that, even with the best channeling weapon money could buy, and I had a feeling Amber didn't do this. Whatever that was a monster. A lot like a monster, Arnold was.
Then the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck began to rise when the air around me began to get a little bit of a charge to it. The tip of my tongue had begun to tingle when giant bolts of lightning began to rain down from the sky and onto the group of people fighting an unseen enemy.
When the lighting touched down, it was like watching a bunch of puppets getting their strings all cut at once. All the people just dropped to the ground while I watched, my mouth hanging open in awe. When the lighting finally dissipated and a cloud of smoke and steam began to rise up from the ground. But before the smoke and steam came up and the lighting faded, I swear I could see a couple of foreboding shapes in the form of Arnold's dolls, but instead of three, I swear I could see at least a dozen.
"Amber!?" I called out after a couple of silent seconds, worried when I didn't see her through the steam rising from the spots the bolts had touched down. The smell of burnt hair and singed flesh was heavy in the air, and it made me slightly queasy. I couldn't imagine how I would be able to tell Henry that I had gotten his sister killed!
"I'm fine, but we need to get the hell out of here," Amber's disembodied voice floated through the steam, filling me with relief. I squinted my eyes and tried to find her. But still, couldn't see anything. Finally, I picked out a shape coming towards me.
"Why!? What happened?" I asked, worried that things were a lot worse than I was perceiving them as being.
I finally could see Amber, and I noticed that something was tucked under her arms. It was Arnold, and he had a very sour expression on his usually blank slate of a face. Behind them, at least a dozen and a half clay dolls followed closely behind them and stopped to stand mere inches away from where we stood.
Amber opened her mouth to answer my question, but Arnold beat her to it, "They attacked me for no reason. They just wanted to fight my guys I made. So I told my soldiers to kill them all!" he said, and even though his face had expression in it, his voice still did not.
"No, there was a reason," Amber said, her voice low and full of worry, while she set Arnold back down on the ground. "They're attacking because they're terrified of the other elements besides the common four. I haven't been here at camp much. I've been mostly behind enemy lines this entire year, but what I did gauge from the times I came back to give my reports was that there was a lot of apprehension about the other elementals. Although I think your dad squashed any action that might have come out of that unease..."
"And he's not here anymore, to stop them from coming after us," I said slowly, and Amber shook her head sadly.
"Especially after we close the portal and there's no urgent need for us anymore," Santana said out of nowhere, and I looked up to her coming towards me across the grass with her sister, Savanah, who looked like she had just rolled out of bed. In her arms, Santana held Lilly, who also looked drowsy. Seeing my baby sister in Santana's arms both startled and confused me at the same time.
"What are you doing with my sister, and where's my mom?" I hadn't seen her since I had told her to wait while I put the dead back to rest, although I hadn't told her that was what I was doing.
"I just got finished with your mom," Santana replied.
"What do you mean, just finished with my mom!?"
"Erasing Lilly from her memories."
"What? Why?" I asked, my heart sinking into the pit of my stomach.
"That's what you were doing to that pretty girl!?" Santana's sister said. I shifted my eyes to see that Savannah was staring at her sister, her brown eyes widened in disgust. She looked very awake now.
I shifted my eyes back to Santana, and she raised her chin defiantly without answering her sister's question, "Your dad told me to do it in case Greta got her hands on you, and those portals in the veil turned into more than just a tear between worlds, but also a tear into the land of the dead. If this happened, part of his plan was to wipe Lilly from your mom's mind to make things easier, and guess what, there's a tear in the veil now. Unfortunately, though, your sister does not have a lot of power just like mine, so we're very lucky that you came back in one piece."
"And when did he tell you to do this!?" I growled and dropped the channeling weapons and lunged for my sister. I managed to yank the little curly blonde girl away from Santana. Lilly started screaming and crying immediately, and I pressed her tightly to my chest.
"You forgot that you were gone an entire year!" Santana said and brushed the hair that had been flung in her face during our brief struggle for my sister. The look on her face was one of regret.
"My father would have never had you do something like erasing my sister from my mom's mind!? Do you have any idea how wrong it feels to have your mind messed with!?"
" I do, and I'm sorry, but how well did you know your dad?" Santana asked.
"Well enough that he wouldn't do something like that to my mom! He loved her!"
"Then I knew him better than you do," Santana replied, "He was mine and Arnold's teacher for a year, and trust me. I got to know the dude pretty well and he was not the most the kindest person ever," she shuttered like she was recalling an unpleasant memory, " He tied me to a dragon and made me fly around on its back for an entire day to get over my fear of dragons. He's that sadistic type that thinks the ends justify the means."
"Well, you aren't using my little sister as your means to an end, whatever you're planning, and you are going to go and erase her from my mom's mind right now or-"
"Violet," Santana said, her voice growing soft and her expression softened as well, "your sister won't be hurt," she said, and I felt a wave of calm wash over me. "She's going to be safer than she is now after this is all over."
"Why though!?" I asked, now exasperated. Everyone was being so cryptic, like usual, and it was making me frustrated.
"I'll answer all your questions when we get back because I have to stay here and maintain the peace, at least until we figure out a better solution. But if what you said is true about the monsters over on my side of the portal, all of you have to go now and go fast. You just have to trust that your father knew what he was doing. He's super old and wise, so I'm for one, am not arguing with anything he said to do."
I closed my eyes, preparing myself for what was about to roll off my tongue, "Okay," I said, and held out Lilly towards her.
Santana nodded her head and accepted the still crying little girl into her arms, "Good, I was able to keep the people over here from attacking and killing us all, but I'm having trouble. It was much better when I was in the castle. Plenty of height to cast my thought web, but I can keep them calm for a little while longer."
Before we go, "Arnold," said suddenly, and we looked down at him. He pointed at me, "Let me give you some energy bugs. Your life force is low," he held out a closed fist to me.
I scrunched up my nose. I wasn't sure what energy bugs were, but anything with the word bug in sounded like something I didn't want any part of.
"I'll think I'll-" I began. I didn't get to finish what I was saying before Arnold opened his hand and a thousand tiny glowing bugs exploded from his open palm and flew directly into my mouth and down my throat.
I gagged and stumbled back and almost fell directly onto my back when I tripped over the channeling weapons that were scattered around on the ground. The feeling was disgusting, but at the same time, I felt my body filling with the strength that it had been lacking.
After the clawing sensation had disappeared, Arnold spoke up again, "I shared my power with you, so now share with me the power with me. I'll trade you," Arnold said in that same creepy monotone voice. And all at once, there were the bugs that had crawled up my throat now felt they were reversing their journey, and an invisible force seemed to pry my mouth wide open.
I watched helplessly while black smoke poured out of my mouth, before separating into small, separated tendrils, like the tentacles of some aquatic beast. The black tendrils spiraled towards the clay dolls, which opened their mouths wide and sucked in the black smoke.
Then all of a sudden, the sensation of bugs crawling out of my throat disappeared, and so did the black smoke. And I brought my hand up to my throat, before bending over and throwing up.
"Wow, I wasn't expecting that to be that cool," I heard Arnold say, and I raised my head and glared at him, "Your element looks like black smoke, awesome."
"What did you just do!?" I growled.
"What Neeva taught me to do," Arnold replied, "But I was supposed to do it with other element users to power up my dolls. But I need your powers to fight the zombies."
"Give me my element back," I replied, rubbing my now sore throat. I felt a strange emptiness in my chest.
"I just temporarily borrowed some of your powers. I'll give it back when I'm done doing cool stuff with it, like fighting zombies," Arnold said and pointed to the channeling weapons, "We need these, right?" Arnold asked, pointing to the ground where the channeling weapons lay scattered. Not waiting for my answer, he pointed to them, and I watched while his clay dolls walked over and picked them off the ground until each of them held them in their hand.
I looked around at the other faces standing around me. Their expressions remain stoic, except Savannah, who looked beyond freaked out.
"Isn't someone going to do something!?" I asked, my body trembling slightly, "Arnold has the power of death now? Isn't anyone else concerned about this besides me!?"
"Violet, you're acting like we can do anything about it," Amber replied. Her eyes focused on Arnold, who was being lifted onto the shoulders of his now many clay soldiers.
"Great," I grumbled and grabbed a channeling weapon in the shape of a spear and held it tightly in my hand, "Is everyone ready to go?" I asked.
Nobody said a word, so I took that as a yes.
"Come back here as soon as you are finished," Santana said, We need that portal sealed as soon as possible, and we need you for that.
"Okay," I said, and suddenly my body was rushing towards the portal without my permission.