53

I was in a hurry relative to the others though, so I took a few shortcuts and pulled the power from a different source. It was easier to do once Kent and Kevin finished the building of their spells and just let me maintain them. I focused and mentally viewed myself reaching deep into the ground and putting my hands in the ley line that ran through this area, and pulled a thread from the line to me. This shortcut could kill if not carefully handled. The thread from the line would continually feed me magick, allowing me to build up a store rapidly for use. The downside was it would keep feeding into me whether I wanted it to or not, and if I didn't cut the link after a certain point, the link would grow too strong to cut and feed so much into me that I'd burn up like paper in a flame from trying to hold too much magick.
I kept the chant up to bleed some magick off and to prime the echo for the power I was going to feed into it. The magick kept increasing its flow and the power started to raise the hairs on my arms and neck, and it skittered along my arm like a live electric current. I looked out at the echo of the bridge and started feeding the power into it. The slight yellowish vapor that made the echo began to solidify, turning an opaque grey-white as the power rebuilt the bridge bit by bit, and soon the first section extended beyond where I sat out into the strait. The filling-in and solidifying accelerated and continued as I poured more power into the echo, and in minutes, the bridge solidified up to the barrier.
The bridge continued to settle and become more solid as the power kept pouring in, and I could feel the link thicken and strengthen as I pulled from the line. I wanted to finish soon as I was now bleeding a slight amount of power into me from the spell, and that signaled I was at the limit of my ability to channel the power. From now on I'd be absorbing more power as the link strengthened. The bridge built quickly past the barrier, but it was another ten minutes before I could feel the end step back to land from the sea. I'd finished the echo, now I had to finish the opening.
The power was becoming more than a trickle, and I started to push my will around the link to choke it off, and I began to feel the first stirrings of panic as it resisted me closing it off. I was at a point where there were two choices to be had. One, I could forget about keeping the barrier open and focus on choking the link. If I did that the barrier would close on the echo and destroy it, and we'd be back to square one, but Anolyn would know what we were up to. Two, I could use the power to finish the locking the opening, and then fight the link. If Kevin and Kent were still in the spell with me, they would be able to sense the problem and maybe help a small extent, but in truth it would be me against the link, and every moment pushed the odds closer to me burning to a crisp.
Call it stubbornness, I went with plane two. The power surged into the opening Kevin had crafted and reinforced the opening. I felt Kevin break his link and leave the spell to me, and I felt the whole barrier try to snap down on my opening. I aimed the wild torrent of power into the barrier and it solidified and held, now I could work on saving me. I cut the power and the two spells remained rock-steady, ready to use. I tried to choke off the power, and could barely slow the flow down. I could feel the electric itching increase to painful levels and I tried to scream, but the power held me rigid, like being electrocuted.
Cobb stepped in front of me and was murmuring something. He pulled his sword and looked at me, then raised it to strike. There was no way I could dodge, or even use some of this massive power to protect myself, I'd gotten caught in the current and was being pulled apart from the inside out. My hands felt molten as the ley line swallowed them and built larger and began filling me up in earnest. Cobb was shouting now and I felt dim vibrations through the ground. He looked up and back at me, stepped to the side and lowered himself to one knee, then thrust right through my hands.
The cold pain of the silver blade cutting through my hands was minor to the blast of power that the line burst with when Cobb cut it with the sword. My hands and arms blistered from the heated backlash and my whole body was shocked violently rigid as the power blew out from me. I don't remember passing out.