The dark that poured up out of the broken wall didn't behave like shadow at all. It moved against the wind rather than with it, spreading low across the compound yard and swallowing torchlight the way water swallowed a dropped stone. Every soldier still standing on the slope, Branajaya's and Rama's alike, took an involuntary step back from the sight of it.
"Everyone off this hill," Branajaya shouted, all pretense of command gone ragged with real fear now. "Down the east slope, away from the compound, now."
Pramono was already moving the children in that direction, herding them with Ki Branggah's help into a stumbling run along the rocky ground, and Rama caught Niken's arm as she passed, checking her eyes for any last trace of the borrowed voice. She looked back at him with nothing but a frightened twelve year old's own terror, whatever had spoken through her apparently withdrawn now that its point had been made.
