Russell gave an exasperated sigh. “Where do I start? Nobody can stop her. She won’t be here tomorrow, or the day after, but she’s coming this way, and Merriston is a big city. If they don’t get people moving now, it’s going to be pandemonium.”
“Tell your story,” Skye said. “I swear to help share it. How did you see all this and get away? I thought nobody got away?”
Russell chuckled through his nose. “It wasn’t by any skill of mine. One of those Enforcers helped me. The guys in black. The horde was coming. My unit retreated too slowly. We were overrun while trying to help stragglers.”
“How did the Enforcer help you?” Skye asked.
“He turned me to stone,” Russell said. “I became a statue of myself. He told me to wait. Like I had a choice! I stayed conscious. I could see and hear. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Didn’t need to. They were all around me. I watched some of the guys in my unit get taken.”
“How did you see if you were a statue?” Cole asked.
“Ask the Enforcer,” Russell said. “I’m no enchanter. It was a changing, not an illusion. I couldn’t move a bit, but I could still see.”
“You saw men taken?” Skye asked.
“Morgassa isn’t alone,” Russell said. “She travels with all the people she has claimed and with her army of figments.”
“Living seemings?” Skye verified.
“More like blank seemings,” Russell said. “She controls them. They look like people, but kind of blurry, without features. You can see through them a little. They don’t seem to hurry, but they’re fast. They kind of glide. When they reach people, they merge with them, and Morgassa takes control.”
“Her figments merge with people?” Skye asked.
“You’d have to see it to fully get it,” Russell said. “The people she has taken run ahead. They fight anyone who resists. They’re stronger than they should be. They hold people down. Then the figments swoop in and take them over. The same people who were running away start helping her, like they’ve completely lost their minds. They get changed. Each person who gets taken swells her ranks.”
“How many figments?” Cole asked, unsure if he was supposed to be part of the conversation, but unable to help himself.
“A vast horde,” Russell said. “As many as she wants. You can see her making more like it’s nothing. She waves an arm, and twenty spring into being. She waves her other arm, and thirty more appear. She’s already claimed thousands of people. All of them drones. Changelings. There are always more figments. She’s going to control every corner of Elloweer. It won’t take long. She won’t even break a sweat.”
“They didn’t bother you?” Skye asked.
“Not at all,” Russell said. “Her horde flowed around me like I was a rock in a river. They never gave me a second look. They took everybody else. The town was left empty. It was like nobody had ever lived there. Nobody peeked out the windows once the trouble cleared. No one came creeping up from the cellar. The town of Pillocks was dead. A graveyard without bodies. The bodies all left with her.”
“Then what happened?” Skye asked.
“Time passed,” Russell said. “I didn’t get tired standing there. Didn’t get thirsty. I couldn’t move my head or my eyes. But I saw. I heard. I worried I would stay like that forever.”
“How’d you change back?” Cole asked.
“Another Enforcer came. Different guy. I don’t think the one who changed me to stone escaped. The new Enforcer changed me back to normal.”
“Did he tell you anything?” Skye prompted.
“He asked what I had seen. I told him. He gave me a horse. He told me Morgassa and the horde were heading toward Glinburg. He told me to ride southeast to Ambrage and warn them. I did what he said. I warned them. I told them about Morgassa and the people she controls, and the figments. They sent me on to Westridge to warn the garrison there. I talked to a champion and the alderman. That’s when everyone turned on me. They arrested me. They were scared I’d cause a panic. I told them Elloweer needed a panic. Her horde will just keep growing.”
“It sounds terrible,” Skye said.
“Sister, you have no idea. I can’t do it justice. I’ve never had any use for the resistance. Bunch of wackos still fighting a war that ended decades ago. But it was the resistance who freed me on the way to Blackmont Castle. As a prisoner, I’d repeated my story to some of the higher-ups in the legion and the city governments. How was I thanked? They sent me to Blackmont. They wanted to shut me up. I don’t care what your politics are—Elloweer needs to be warned. There’s no time to plot and scheme. There’s no time to weigh alternatives. All we can do now is try to limit the damage. The people of Elloweer need to get out of the way. If the resistance will spread that message, then they’re the real champions of Elloweer.”
“We’re setting plans in motion,” Sultan said.
“You need more than plans,” Russell stressed. “You guys are called the Unseen? It’s time to be seen. You need riders going back the way I came, telling everyone to leave everything that might slow them down and run. For so many it’s already too late.”
“We’ve already begun,” Sultan said.
“What about you?” Skye asked Russell. “What are you going to do?”
He pressed his fists against his temples. “You mean once my rescuers are satisfied that I’ve told enough people my story? Once they let me, I’m gone. I’m thankful they freed me. I’d hate to be stuck in Blackmont with Morgassa on her way. But I’ve paid them back. I told what I know. I’m handing over the problem to them. I’m now a fugitive. But I’m not alone. We’re all fugitives.”
“Welcome to the club,” Jace said.
“He means the whole kingdom,” Skye said. “Everyone is a fugitive now.”
Russell winked. “Most just don’t know it yet. I’ll be running scared, but not from the champions or the aldermen or the legion. I just want a seeming that makes me unrecognizable, and then I’m leaving Elloweer for good. Anybody with an ounce of sense will do the same. To stand against Morgassa is to join her. Avoidance is the only defense. She wants Elloweer? Let her have it! Elloweer is over. There’s only one champion who matters now. Her followers repeat her name like a mindless prayer. Morgassa.”