I touched his neck and zapped him, rendering him unconscious. He keeled forward.

“He fainted,” I cried. I knelt next to him, rolled him over, and fanned his face.

“Move away from him,” his friend ordered, keeping the guard between us.

I backed up as the soldier checked his pulse.

“Come on, Trey, it’s just a little blood,” he said.

Relief eased my racing heart a fraction—he didn’t know about my full abilities.

“Do you want me to check and make sure it’s not something else?” I asked. “I felt a cut on Trey’s arm, it could be infected.” I dangled one of the common worries for foot soldiers—infection which could lead to gangrene.

“Uh...”

I returned to Trey’s side. Lifting his right arm, I tugged his sleeve down, but it was awkward. “Here, hold his arm.” I thrust it at the other man.

Instinctively, he grabbed it. Big mistake. I covered his hand with mine and zapped him, pushing the full strength of my power into his body.

He cried out and hunched forward against the pain, exposing the back of his neck. One quick touch and he collapsed over Trey.

Yes! I ripped off the bloody rags and changed into a clean undershirt. Then I stripped the second man’s shirt off and donned it. The long sleeves hid the bite-shaped wounds. I kept my pants as they resembled the ones worn by the king’s troops, but I rifled through the guards’ pockets and helped myself to a few other items, including a sword.

Slinging my pack over my shoulder, I paused for a moment as a wave of pain radiated. I hoped the Skeleton King suffered greatly before he died from the plague. When the sharp pain eased back into a steady throb, I peeked through the flaps of the tent. The sun’s final rays painted the sky with yellows and oranges. I debated waiting until full dark to make my escape, but the camp appeared to be deserted.

Glancing at the woods to the north, I figured Belen, the monkeys, and Flea had all escaped by now. But I worried about Kerrick. He had used much of his energy during the attempt to rescue me, and that first guard mentioned someone collapsing after being escorted to another tent. I scanned the encampment again, this time seeking signs of a guarded tent before realizing that if Kerrick was awake, he’d have slipped pass his guards by now, and if he wasn’t, then why would they assign men to watch an unconscious man when they were under attack?

Now or never. I strode from the tent and moved through the camp as if I belonged there. Peeking inside every tent I encountered, I discovered they all were empty except for messy blankets and scattered personal items.