Borderlands Read Online Free PDF Page B

something to save them.
    I call up that familiar tingle, and I paint it across my limbs. I’m not here , I tell the magic. Just empty earth. Empty air. My body fades. I feel the illusion settle. For a few seconds, at least, I am invisible.
    And in those seconds, I charge.
    I hit the gunman first. My illusion crumbles at the moment of impact, but it’s too late for him to react. He falls beneath my weight and we roll, a jumble of limbs and grunts. I hear another struggle behind me – a cry, a whoomph , a smash of bodies. Next thing I know, my fingers are against the gunman’s eyes. I press down with a gasp, pushing his head back into the earth. If he tries to rise, he’ll risk me crushing his eyeballs.
    Lukas rushes up beside me, fumbling with his alchemy charms. He selects a tiny silver knot and presses it against the hunter’s throat. Ropes spring from the silver, as cold and coiled as the charm itself. They writhe around the man’s body like snakes.
    I jump back, disorientated. For a wild moment, I’m convinced the other hunter’s reptiles are crawling across my skin. I scramble back into a pile of dead leaves, adrenaline shooting through my body. In my panic, I can’t help but check my arms for bite marks. It takes me a good three seconds to realise the ropes aren’t snakes – and more importantly, that my friends are still in danger.
    By the time I spin back around, it’s over. Both hunters cower under tangled silver ropes. Some of the Reptile man’s snakes are pinned against his body, hissing wildly as they attempt to escape the silver threads. My friends stand a safe distance away, Maisy still brandishing her matchbox.
    Lukas stumbles towards me. ‘I meant an illusion to distract them! Not to go charging in there and –’
    â€˜Well, it worked, didn’t it?’
    Lukas runs a hand through his dark curls. I open my mouth to reassure him, but Clementine cuts me off.
    â€˜What do we do now?’ she says. ‘We can’t just leave them here.’
    I glance down at the hunters, bound and helpless in the leaves. ‘Why not? Sharr and the others are way up on that ledge. If we leave these two tied up, Sharr might not find them for hours. We could get a good distance away in that time.’
    Teddy looks between the hunters, a strange expression on his face. ‘Radnor would say to kill them.’
    That freezes us all. My mouth closes, and I forget what I was about to say. I don’t know what I’m more shocked by – Teddy’s suggestion, or his mention of Radnor. In the time since our crew’s old leader died, we’ve mostly avoided his name. Now the memory of his death comes back, hot and painful. Blood in the river. A body tumbling over a waterfall . . .
    â€˜We’re not murderers,’ Lukas says.
    â€˜We blew up the airbase,’ Teddy says. ‘Some of the hunters must have died there.’
    â€˜That was different,’ Lukas says. ‘We had to destroy the Curiefer stash to stop a war from starting. This would just be murder.’
    Teddy hesitates, then nods. ‘Good. Didn’t fancy doing it, but I figured someone should point out the option.’
    â€˜We’re leaving them tied up, then?’ Maisy says.
    â€˜Yeah, I reckon so.’
    We fall silent, each alone with our own thoughts. My brain seems determined to blend memories of Radnor’s death with the airbase exploding, and suddenly my skin feels as cold as the rain.
    I take a deep breath. ‘If we follow the Knife that way, we’ll get back to where we want to be.’ I point in the opposite direction to the Valley. ‘Back towards the west.’
    Clementine opens her mouth, ready to argue, but Maisy gives her a surreptitious little kick. I see the realisation dawn in Clementine’s eyes.
    â€˜Oh yes,’ she says. ‘What a good idea.’
    We steal the hunters’ packs: two bags