”Laryn, it’s growing,” Kenna said, pointing at the cliff.

  Someone else had noticed the explosion, and shouts rang out from atop the pass.

  Laryn shook the fog from his mind. After the overwhelming evanescence of the void, everything else was pain.

  “Are you okay?” Adi asked inside his mind.

  “Thank you,” he groaned. “I’m good. I think that triggered something.”

  He helped Kenna to her feet. She’d suffered a few scrapes and bruises, but seemed okay.

  “You could have warned me,” she grumbled, but then they were both staring at the rapidly growing voidbloom, sprouting from the rubble blocking the tunnel.

  For a moment, the voidheart ring was clearly visible at the tip of the bloom, then a hard calyx wrapped around it.

  “I have to get the ring back,” Laryn said, taking a half step forward. “Wait, no. This is good. This is what we wanted. It’s time for the claim stakes. Let’s help it spread toward the pass.”

  They activated the claimstakes in a line, anchoring them as close to the center of the tiles as they could. The stakes pulsed and flashed in the night, sucking essence out of Fort Envin.

  It swirled in the air, and large leaves of the voidbloom billowed, reaching out into the escaping essence. The leaves captured the essence, and the bloom swelled, flexing and stretching to grab more essence from the air.

  “We’re feeding it!” Laryn exclaimed. “It’s growing stronger!”

  The commotion atop the pass had grown as soldiers saw the pulsing light of claimstakes and began hurrying to fight the foe.

  Void spread, and as the first claimstake burned out, the tile turned neutral. It was immediately claimed by void, and blight crept over it. Tendrils and stalks sprouted from the bloom, reaching out to capture more essence being spewed into the air by claim stakes.

  Laryn hammered the final claim stake into the ground, not far from the Townshold road. He dusted his hands and admired his handiwork.

  “We should have made a few more,” he said. “I’m not sure this is going to be enough.”

  “We don’t have much time,” Kenna said, pointing to the soldiers scrambling down from the pass.”

  “It needs to be stronger. We need it to grow a voidlord. It’s probably feeding off of the essence of the voidbloom that’s trapped in the cave. I’m sure there are voidlings trapped in there. If we could only open it and clear the rubble out of the way…”

  “Come on, Laryn,” Kenna said, grabbing his arm. “It either worked or it didn’t. At this point there’s not much more we can do!”

  Laryn shook loose and scrambled up the loose scree pile again. Void tentacles snapped at him, as the burgeoning plant took root. It wanted his essence.

  Batting away the probing vines, Laryn moved closer. Maybe just one more elemental bomb…

  He felt the influence of the void. Nearly ten, still. It had accumulated a lot of essence, and claiming new tiles had barely drained it. A good sign for his trap. Adding more tiles didn’t dilute average influence much.

  The bloom lashed at him. It was too dangerous. He wasn’t an insane void cultist, and he wouldn’t feed himself to the bloom to help it grow.

  Time for his next trick.

  He activated his time rewind.

  Giving up 72 tiles in exchange for 72 seconds, he flipped backwards through time.

  Every tile sacrificed released essence from the kingdom, but he’d already claimed enough tiles to bring his kingdom influence down to 1, so Vallor only lost 72 essence.

  He also had to break a ring, giving up a point in magic.

  Time reversed to the point where he was just about to strike his claim stake into a tile. Everything slipped backwards in time, undoing the last minute and twelve seconds.

  Except for the tiles claimed by the void. They remained void claimed.

  Laryn stopped himself from thrusting his claimstake down into the newly voidclaimed tile.

  Kenna cursed and yelped. “Rewind?” she called out.

  “Yes,” Laryn said. They took the six claim stakes and hammered them down into six more tiles.

  The soldiers, now back at the top of the pass, started their scramble down the hill again.

  Laryn and Kenna helped the void claim six more tiles.

  He reset time again. They claimed six more tiles.

  He reset time again. They claimed six more tiles.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Each time, the soldiers charging down the hill drew near, and each time, Laryn’s reset sent them back up to the top of the hill.

  With each new set of tiles, the void consumed more essence, growing stronger.

  “That’s enough,” Laryn said, after they’d claimed 24 tiles. Kenna seemed disoriented and confused, but she’d managed to put the claim stakes down as he’d instructed her. The solders coming down the hill drew near.

  Laryn didn’t want to keep sacrificing tiles and essence; besides, the void had already started claiming Fort Envin tiles, spreading across the Townshold road.

  He pulled Kenna back across the infected tiles.

  They slipped back into the woods as the final claim stake finished draining essence from the Fort Envin tile, and the void claimed it.

  Soldiers shouted to one another, astonished by what they saw.

  “That was so confusing,” Kenna said. “One moment you were about to stick that claimstake in the ground, and the next all those tiles were claimed and you were running toward the road.”

  “I’m sorry,” Laryn said. “The void resists the time reset. It keeps the tiles it claimed. That’s why we were able to help it grow and expand so fast, by using the reset ability.”

  Kenna wiped her brow, and stones rumbled. The void had grown large enough that its roots had spread into the tunnel. Boulders with their essence sucked out of them crumbled, and trapped voidlings began spewing out of the cave, looking for food.

  Laryn and Kenna slipped away, as soldiers screamed in the night.

  “Are you sure that will work?” Kenna asked.

  “They’ll fight it. It’ll cause a problem for them. And I’m fairly certain that Zaremba won’t want to venture this way when she finds out about it.”

  They made it back to their camp before sunrise.

  As they moved past the sentries, they received a few confused glances, but none of the goblins moved to stop them. The humans were guests here, and could do as they pleased.

  Their tent was near to Zaremba’s tent, if it could be called that. The princess had a large, multi-chambered structure made of canvas and poles, more of a mansion than a tent.

  As they passed nearby, Laryn felt something.

  “Wait,” he whispered, and Kenna stopped behind him.

  “What is it?”

  “I felt something magical.” He pointed toward Zaremba’s tent. “She doesn’t have any mages with her does she?”

  “I think they were all cut off from core power by whoever took over in Grekhol after Grimby died,” Kenna said.

  “I’ve never had such a high magic affinity level before,” Laryn said. “Maybe it’s nothing. But doesn’t she normally have guards all around the tent?”

  They edged quietly closer to the place, and Laryn reached out with his magical senses. He no longer detected whatever it was that had disturbed him.

  “Oh well,” he said. “Better get back to our tent. We’re going to have a lot of negotiating to do tomorrow.”

  “Wait.” Kenna pointed to the tent.

  A large slit hung open in the fabric. Someone had cut their way in.

  “Horel’s balls,” Laryn spat, and he ran for the opening. “Raise the alarm,” he called back to Kenna. “Watch my back!”

  Laryn burst into the dark chamber beyond the tent and found himself in a room of chests. The ceiling was low, and he had to hunch to avoid it. He hurried past the chests and into the next chamber, a small room with a table and chairs. A half dozen of Zaremba’s entourage lay dead here, female goblins.

  They appeared to have been playing some kind of card game around the table. Whoever had come in through the slit in the tent had moved quickly and quietly. Each of the goblins slumped over the table where they’d been sitting, throats cut.

  Blood spread across the wood, soaking into cards and dripping into puddles at the floor.

  In what part of the tent was Zaremba’s bed chamber? Laryn had no idea. Was it standard? Would the assassins know exactly where to go? He may already be too late.

  He ran further into the tent, past more dead bodies and dark shapes in poorly lit chambers.

  Then his magical sense tingled again. The next room glowed with soft lantern light. He burst into a room where a dozen goblin guards lay dead on the ground.

  The last guard gurgled and fell over as Laryn entered. The flap to the chamber beyond slipped shut.

  Without hesitation, Laryn dashed through the flap. He collided with someone just on the other side. The room was dark, and he couldn’t see his assailants.

  “Assassins!” he screamed. “Assassins!”