Yann climbed up the scaffold to where Yvan, Atian, Vidal, Neils, Niyazi, and Rien stood looking out over the countryside.

  Yann hardly needed to climb the scaffold to see what was going on out there. The chaos covered the whole sky now—or it would have if a curtain of invisible magic didn’t hold it off.

  The magical front kept sweeping toward Tenby and then moving off. The wall of chaos behind that front blocked out any view of the countryside beyond.

  Countless Layers revolved out there. They formed a vortex, but the invisible barrier held the whole spiraling mass of destruction at a distance from the town.

  The men on the wall could snatch glimpses of landscapes in the confusion, but none lasted more than a few seconds before they evaporated.

  Eliska climbed up and took her place with the men. “Jesus!” she breathed. “It’s so much worse now than it was just a few hours ago!”

  “Why do you think it’s holding off?” Atian asked.

  “If whatever the Voyant wants is in this town, that could explain why he doesn’t just level it outright,” Rien suggested.

  “That didn’t stop him from leveling Middleborough,” Yvan pointed out. “He never hesitated to attack us before.”

  “At least no Darklings are coming for us this time,” Atian remarked. “That would be the worst.”

  Yann checked the Tenby men standing around. None of them seemed to hear Rien mention the Voyant wanting something.

  How long would it take the Tenby locals to figure out that the Voyant Mendicat was after the Black Watch for something he needed? Yann could well imagine how that would go.

  Before anyone could say or decide anything, Vidal exploded out of position and lunged for the wall.

  “Get away from them!” he roared. “Leave them alone! Get back, you bastards! I’ll kill you!”

  He crashed into Neils and Niyazi standing on the other side of the group. Vidal would have barreled straight through them.

  Yann had half a second to realize Vidal was heading straight for the edge of the wall—the edge facing out into the countryside.

  If he jumped over that wall, nothing would stop him from running…..anywhere.

  Vidal plunged through the group before anyone realized what was happening. Neils and Niyazi both stumbled out of his path as he blasted between them…and then they realized where he was going.

  Both men dove in from either side and grabbed him at the last second before he leapt over the wall. “No, Vidal!” Neils yelled.

  Vidal didn’t hear him. “GET AWAY FROM THEM!! LEAVE THEM ALONE!! YOU BASTARDS!!”

  Yann, his father, and Rien all dove in to help restrain Vidal—and then everyone saw what he was raving about.

  A single-file line of figures snaked through the chaos beyond the veil. Four of them looked bigger than the others.

  Those four fired magical blasts from what looked like staffs. They bombarded armored Darklings thundering out of the Layers to surround the party.

  Those four magic-users crowded the rest of their party toward the center. Everyone else in the group looked much smaller. Some were less than half the size.

  “My God!” Yvan husked. “They’re children!”

  “Let me go!!” Vidal roared. “Let me go! I have to help them!”

  Neils and Niyazi grappled him away from the edge with an almighty effort. “You are NOT going out there!” Niyazi yelled in Vidal’s ear. “You’ll die out there!”

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  “Let me go!” Vidal raised his voice and bellowed into the hurricane. “You bastards! Leave them alone!”

  Yvan sprang forward, grabbed Vidal by the collar, and hauled him away from the edge. “Quiet down! You aren’t going anywhere.”

  Vidal exploded the other way, tore out of Neils’s and Niyazi’s grip, and spun around in a circle. He drew his battle axe before anyone could get near him.

  He swiped it at thin air, stumbled, and fell off the scaffold. He crashed down onto the pavement below, scrambled to his feet, and went back to attacking Darklings that weren’t there.

  “Restrain him and get him back to the house!” Yvan snapped. “Surround him and disarm him. You help us, Eliska.”

  Yvan herded everyone down the stairs to the ground. Yann became aware of the men on the wall watching Vidal lose his mind right here in public.

  Neils, Niyazi, Rien, Yvan, Yann, and Eliska all descended and formed a ring around Vidal. He kept chopping his axe in circles to drive them away, but he didn’t see them. He didn’t see anything.

  He gasped from the effort of fighting the invisible Darklings off. He swung his axe with such force that he nearly knocked himself off his feet.

  Yann took his place behind Vidal. Niyazi drew his axe and Yvan drew his sword.

  Yann planned to rush Vidal as soon as the others engaged him and occupied his weapon. Then Yann could grab Vidal and tackle him to the ground the way Yann tackled that old woman in her house.

  He pivoted into position and caught his father’s eye. Yvan nodded and everyone braced themselves for the fight.

  Yann spotted Anríq striding through town toward them. He would be able to subdue Vidal if no one else could.

  Right then, Vidal gave another vicious chop with his axe and really did knock himself over. His legs twisted around each other and he toppled sideways.

  Yann rushed him. The rest of the Watch pounced, pinned him down, and Niyazi stomped on Vidal’s axe to slam it down on the ground.

  Eliska dove into the mix, and quick as lightning, she lashed a length of rope around his wrists and ankles. She trussed him up like a pig so he couldn’t move.

  He burst into another insane fit of furious raving, but he didn’t yell any words this time. He blurted out a string of nonsense syllables.

  The Watchmen peeled themselves off him just as Anríq pulled up to join them. Vidal lay on his side on the ground with his arms behind his back and his feet pulled behind him.

  He craned his head and shoulders off the ground ejecting a steady stream of gibberish. His eyes darted from face to face with a pleading expression like he really needed to convince them all of something important.

  The Watchmen stood back and stared down at him while they caught their breath. “Is he speaking another language?” Yann asked.

  “It’s no language I’ve ever heard.” Eliska turned to Anríq. “Have you ever heard it before? Do you know what he’s saying?”

  Anríq shook his head.

  Yvan cast a flinty look around and noticed all the Tenby defenders staring. None of them seemed to be looking out at the landscape.

  “Get him back to the house,” Yvan ordered. “We’ll deal with him there.”

  Anríq moved in to help Rien, Neils, and Niyazi carry Vidal back to the house. Anríq took one of his arms. The others carrying Vidal by his other limbs.

  He didn’t make it easy for them. He kept trying to twist around and bombard them with whatever he was trying to tell them. He didn’t stop all the way to the house.

  Yvan, Yann, and Eliska followed.

  The men set Vidal down on the living floor and left him there.

  Yvan shut the door to muffle the noise. “Now what the hell are we supposed to do with him?” Rien demanded. “We can’t stand a post and babysit him all day and night.”

  “I’ll keep an eye on him,” Eliska offered. “I’m not doing anything else.”

  Yvan passed his hand across his eyes and heaved a shaky sigh. “This is the last thing we need right now.”

  “Did you hear him out there?” Neils half-whispered. “He was yelling for the Darklings to get away from them. All the rest of you said for the Darklings to get away from you. He’s the first one to tell them to get away from someone else.”

  “He didn’t yell at invisible Darklings, either,” Niyazi pointed out. “We all saw those Darklings attacking the….”

  He broke off as the reality sank in again. That group out there in the Coil….The four magic-users had been trying to defend a bunch of children.

  Yvan pointed at Neils. “Go back out to the wall and see if they’re still out there.”

  Neils vanished. That left everyone to stand around in silence listening to Vidal raving.

  He kept trying to twist himself in circles so he could see everyone in the circle. He appealed to each person one after another, including Anríq and Eliska. Vidal didn’t pay any one person any more attention than the others.

  Neils came back before anyone worked up the nerve to say anything. “They’re gone—or at least we can’t see them anymore. The Layers are thicker closer to the ground, so we wouldn’t be able to see those people or any Darklings if they were there.”

  Yvan sighed. “The rest of you get back out to your posts. We’re already one man down.” He turned to Eliska. “You don’t mind staying?”

  “Not at all. I’ll do what I can for him.”

  Yvan only nodded.

  “I could stay, too, Father,” Yann offered.

  “No, we need you on the wall. We’re already shorthanded enough.” Yvan looked around and saw Anríq standing there. “You come, too, young one. We need your axe up there.”

  The group filed out of the house one after the other. Eliska stayed behind.

  “Are you gonna be okay?” Yann asked on his way out.

  She nodded up at him…and then she smiled. A light came on in her eyes—a light he hadn’t seen there before. He couldn’t remember seeing it even before she took Barsali’s Darkness.

  Anríq waited for Yann to catch up. He didn’t want to leave her alone with Vidal. Yann couldn’t make up his mind which of them he was more worried about.

  End of Chapter 35.

  ? 2024 by Theo Mann

  I post new chapters of The Corrupted Coil series on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday PST.

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