Something out in the arboretum exploded. White light spiked toward the heavens, briefly turning night to day before the brightness faded. J.T. blinked against sudden blindness, swearing and pushing to his feet. “What the–”
“They were out there,” Thordin said a second before he sprinted for the bridge.
Who was–oh. Oh. Oh shit. “Sif, can you handle her?”
“I’ll have to,” she retorted, then pointed toward the bridge. “Go, Jameson. Someone’s got to bail the lot of them out of trouble and it seems to me that mayhaps you’re the best equipped right now.”
“If one of the others–”
“I’ll tell them where you’ve gone and decide from there. Now hurry before that lunkhead gets himself killed.”
Well, now I know who the brains of that operation was way back when. J.T. sucked in a sharp breath and ducked after Thordin, running as fast as he dared toward the head of the bridge. Thordin was halfway across the bridge and still running by the time J.T. hit the span.
“Thordin, slow down, dammit!”
“No time!” he yelled back, glancing back over his shoulder toward J.T. “Whatever just happened, it wasn’t good!”
It’s never good when something explodes like that. Story of our freaking lives. J.T. sighed and barely stopped himself from swearing again as he picked up the pace, realizing that running off without his medical kit was probably not the smartest decision he’d made lately. I’m going to need that if this is bad and I’m not going to have it. Idiot.
A dozen yards beyond the end of the bridge, Thordin stopped dead in his tracks and swore heartily in what J.T. guessed must have been some old Nordic dialect.
“What is it?”
“Go back to the ruins,” Marin croaked. She and Thom leaned against each other. She clutched something bundled in her coat in her arms and she was shivering even as Thom struggled to stay upright, pale in the predawn light. “Seamus and Leinth might need your help getting back.”
“Fuck that,” J.T. said, moving to tuck himself under Thom’s arm and taking his weight off of her–she didn’t seem much steadier than her husband and her lips were already blue from what he could tell in the dim. “What just happened?”
“I’m still trying to figure it out myself,” Thom said, wavering and out of breath. J.T. winced. Had his friend somehow popped another rib?
“Just keep moving,” Marin said, clutching her bundle to her chest. “We have to hurry. We have to get back.”
“Marin–”
“Don’t ask.”
She kept walking. Thom swallowed hard, straightening slightly as if to follow her, then groaned and sagged against J.T.’s shoulder. J.T grimaced and glanced over his shoulder toward Thordin.
“Can you handle Seamus and Leinth?”
“If I have to,” Thordin said. “Go.”
“Right,” J.T. said, barely suppressing a sigh. “Going.” He glanced askance at his friend. Thom sighed.
“I don’t know,” Thom whispered. “I really don’t know.”
J.T. stared into the darkness, toward the bridge and the fading sound of Marin’s footsteps. “Why the hell do I keep thinking that things just went from bad to worse?”
“Because I think they did,” Thom said. “I think that maybe they just did.”
O.O
*whimpers in sympathy with Thom*