“It makes sense. It is Sophia’s royal seat,” Harland said. “If he executes her there, the city will fall without opposing him. And with it, the Alliance will follow.”
“We need to rescue the hostages before trying to blow up the Bestial,” Sam added.
The original plan had become more complicated due to the need to rescue the hostages beforehand. It meant one thing, and Fionn wasn’t happy with that. The more time they spent aboard the dreadnought, the more drained they would be, even if he had taught them how to control how much energy to use. It was too risky for his taste, despite the fact that back during the war, his team used to do exactly that, with mixed results. Gaby stared at him with a knowing look and took the decision out of his hands.
“Listen. I know what you are thinking. I’m not keen to split up, not on that ship. But there is no other option. Sam and you rescue the hostages, Alex and I will deal with the core.”
“What about Byron?” Alex asked.
“He is mine. Once the hostages are off that ship with Sam, I will go and have a nice chat with him,” Fionn replied, tightening his grip on Black Fang.
“Even then, if we are too close to the city, the explosion might hit it and kill thousands, including us,” Sid objected. “That defeats the whole purpose of this whole stupid plan.”
“You just worry about being ready to pick us up when we call you,” Alex said. “Also, I wonder… Sam, if the city is a giant magick circle, could you use it to create a magick shield to deflect the explosion, if needed? Like the one you used to deflect the bullets?”
“I guess. I have never cast a spell that big.” Sam bit her lip nervously. “You’d better not play with the explosives.”
“Relax, I have been known to be extremely careful with those things.” Alex smiled at Sam.
“Yeah right,” Sid interjected. “Tell that to my poor kitchen.”
“That doesn’t count. At all.”
“Save that for later,” Gaby told them. “We need to go. Can we catch up with them?”
“Not if we stay here talking,” Sid replied, heading back to the Figaro. “Don’t worry. This is a good chance to show you why my ship is the fastest on the entire planet.”
In the loading bay, Harland stood behind, shuffling his feet, mumbling. Fionn let the others go into the cockpit before turning back to Harland.
“I know that look.”
“I owe you an apology,” Harland replied, looking down.
“For what?” Fionn was feeling befuddled.
“For taking you out of retirement and into this mess.”
“Nah, don’t worry.” Fionn patted Harland’s shoulder. “Sooner or later this mess would have found its way to my door. At least now we are still in time to do something about it. Besides, retirement is for old people.”
“How old are you again?”
“Ha. I do need you to do something for me though, regardless of how this ends.”
“Anything. I owe you as much.”
“Promise me that you will take care of Sam, of all of them,” Fionn said.
“I assure you, nothing will happen to your daughter while I’m on watch, nor to the others. You have my word,” Harland replied, extending his hand.
“That’s enough for me. See you on the other side, my friend.” Fionn shook hands with him. The silence between them was clear. Fionn knew he might not survive the duel against Byron.
Well, I wanted a life full of adventures.
Chapter 17
Inside the Beast
“Reports across the country talk about the devastation left by the giant creature… Bzzz, people from the city of Irisdown call it the Cloud of Death… Bzzz, withered animals and crops left in its wake… Bzzz, the Ministers say that we need to keep calm, but they are not seeing what we are seeing. Where are the emergency services? The government is losing control. Things are getting hectic down here!”
All the radio stations were talking about the same thing: a giant flying beast that left destruction in its path. No one knew where it was headed, but for those aboard the Figaro, the answer was clear.
“I could use some music right now,” Sid turned off the radio. Flying at full speed, they were closing in on the Bestial, which was few a kilometers outside Saint Lucy. They could make out its terrifying form even from afar. It was bigger and uglier than expected.
“Me too,” Alex said. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”
“Sorry, my datapad is damaged, only video, no sound, so I can’t put on my playlist,” Harland told him apologetically. Silence fell upon them.
A sweet voice broke it with a song that was not that sweet, and yet was inspiring. Gaby was standing next to Sid’s chair, keeping her eyes on the Bestial. She didn’t notice that she sang aloud. When she finished, everybody was silent, until Sam broke the silence.
“That was awesome, Gaby!” Sam exclaimed, surprised. “Is it yours?”
“Yes, just came to my mind, just those lines,” Gaby explained, blushing.
“After this, you need to finish it,” Fionn told her, placing his hand on her shoulder.
“First things first, ok?” Gaby said.
“Hey, you need to see this,” Harland interrupted, activating the video feed appearing on his datapad. Just as Fionn has predicted, the Bestial’s onboard cameras were transmitting the events on its deck. The hostages were led to the deck of the ship. “Sid, turn on the radio again. I have the feeling that this will be on every channel.”
“Of all the execution methods available, I would have never guessed walking the plank as Byron’s choice,” Alex said.
“Let’s approach it as silently as possible,” Fionn said.
Flying above the clouds to keep a certain degree of cover during the last hours of the night, the sun rising in front it, the Figaro kept tabs on the Bestial and the transmission from a prudent distance.
Byron commenced his speech, his voice filling the airwaves, booming through the cockpit speakers.
“This is the dawn of a new reign. One of stronger rulers, one that puts the non-human species under a tight grip, as it should be. Your Queen has failed you, imposing a weak alliance with those that should be under our heel. But I won’t fail. I will make you stronger!”
“Nice speech,” Gaby muttered under her breath.
“Told you. I fought with that asshole long enough to know his taste for melodrama. He will wait until he is almost near the city limits to execute her,” Fionn replied, feeling sick. He had never realized the extent of Byron’s bigotry towards the freefolk, towards his people. He wondered if the bad press they got during the war had been Byron’s underhanded work. Hard to tell, but the current message was the same: He wanted a fight and Fionn would give him one. This was going to end today, one way or another.
“I guess my students will live a little bit longer, for a better show,” Sam said grimly.
“We will rescue them,” Fionn assured her with a hand on her shoulder. “Time to go. Sid, drop Sam and me there, on that skylight. It’s the closest section to the hostages. After we rescue them, you will pick them up. I will keep Byron distracted long enough for you to drop Gaby and Alex so they can deal with the core.”
“It will be tight,” Gaby said. “The time window for all of that will be really small, assuming the Bestial doesn’t notice us before.”
“I have enacted plans with less margin for error,” Fionn replied.
“Did they work?” Alex asked.
“Let’s move,” Fionn replied, evading the answer, which was an answer in itself.
The four of them arrived at the cargo bay, grabbing the leather straps of the cargo nets to keep their balance.
“Be careful, please,” Gaby told Fionn, giving him a kiss on the left cheek. Alex groaned while Sam looked embarrassed.
“I promise I will be fine. I’ve be
en at this longer than you, you know? This is not my first rodeo.” Fionn smiled.
“I know, but I still had to say it. You have fallen from the horse before,” Gaby told him, trying to keep back tears.
“Avoid being turned into a brochette a third time,” Alex said jokingly, earning a double slap from Gaby and Sam.
“Let’s go.” Fionn glanced at Alex. He was not amused by the comment.
The cargo bay hatch opened and strong winds entered, almost blowing them down. Sid had positioned the Figaro above the dreadnought’s skylight to allow Fionn and Sam to rappel down.
“How are we gonna open it, Dad?”
“Alex?” Fionn yelled.
“My pleasure.” Alex walked to the edge of the hatch, keeping his eyes on the skylight. He was sweating. “Although… I really don’t like heights.”
Alex aimed and shot an energy charged arrow, which broke the skylight glass. The Bestial barely noticed.
Fionn and Sam quickly rappelled down from the Figaro, entering the Bestial through the broken skylight. Once inside, they saw the Figaro speed away and into a cloud, disappearing from sight. The inside of the Bestial was darkened by miasma and shadows; only the light from the broken skylight gave them any inkling of how the place looked. They moved into a corridor, with a faint red light illuminating it. Fionn, consciously avoiding the use of the Gift, blinked several times until he could see properly in the dim environment. Sam was starting to cast a light spell, but Fionn stopped her.
“Save energy, don’t feed the beast.”
“Ok, Dad,” Sam replied. Coyly she added, “I know the situation is dire and all but, is it bad that a part of me feels all giddy about sharing an adventure with you?”
Fionn was perplexed at the comment, not knowing how to properly reply. “I guess. This is not the way I pictured the whole ‘bring your kid to work day.’”
“Your jokes really suck, Dad.” Sam rolled her eyes. “Even worse than Alex’s.”
The air was humid and had a strong scent of iron and copper. The air tasted of blood. As they walked through the corridor, their eyes adjusted to the dim light, giving them a better view of the surroundings. Fionn wished they hadn’t. He tried to contain the warm liquid coming up through his mouth. Sam felt dizzy and her head throbbed. The internal structure of the ship was a mix of metal and raw, pulsating flesh, with electrical arcs jumping and running across the surfaces.
But those weren’t the only components of the structure. A faint moaning, barely a whisper subdued by the noise coming from the machinery, could be heard. Fionn got closer to inspect its source and his stomach churned. He breathed the moist air deeply, trying to regain a semblance of composure. It took him a few seconds to look back at the source of the moaning: a skinned man, still alive, melded with the raw flesh of the Bestial. And he wasn’t the only one. Peppered all over the place, there were different bodies, in different states of melding, the skin decomposing and dripping with the black ichor that was the Bestial’s blood. Sometimes it was a full body, trapped in a rictus of pain, other times just eyeballs or an earlobe or a hand clawing at the air, trying to grasp for something that would help it to get out of a living nightmare. All to no avail.
“Don’t make a bad joke about the decoration, please,” Sam pleaded, barely containing the disgust in her voice and the tears in her eyes.
Usually, Fionn would quip about the ironic fate of the followers of the cult. But not this time. It wasn’t a laughing matter. He embraced Sam to reassure her.
“Now you know why I didn’t want you to come with me on my cases,” Fionn said to Sam. “Regardless of why they chose to follow Byron, no one deserves this. The best we can do for them now is to finish this quickly.”
Fionn then pointed at a metal door to their right. “If I recall the blueprints Alex showed us, behind that door there is a stair that will take us to the upper deck.”
Sam shuffled her feet, “There is something wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
“This is too easy, Dad. We are being lured into a trap.” Sam looked at him. Her eyes were teary. She was biting her lip, much like he did.
“Oh, I’m pretty sure it is.” Fionn smiled at his daughter and shrugged his shoulders. “But this is where the fun begins. Be ready, munchkin.”
Fionn opened the door. They climbed up the stairs quickly and soon found themselves under a medium-sized crystal canopy. It was large enough to hold a few motorized vehicles. Fionn and Sam stopped right in the middle of the room. From the shadows, dozens of troopers appeared, armed with batons, axes, swords, cleavers and a couple of rifles. The troopers surrounded them.
“A welcome party disguised as a trap! I looooove welcome parties!” Sam exclaimed, her voice dripped with sarcasm and she rolled her eyes in annoyance.
Fionn unsheathed Black Fang, while Sam grabbed a small piece of white carved wood from a holster inside her jacket. With a flourish, energy ran through it, making it grow into a full quarterstaff. It was almost as tall as she was, divided into three sections of finely carved white wood, intersected with two sections made of crystals. Fionn recognized it. It was Izia’s quarterstaff, one of her few remaining belongings, which he thought had been lost.
“You had it all this time!” Fionn said. He examined the staff, which he hadn’t seen in years.
“Harland found it among his father’s collection. He thought we deserved to have it. I just forgot to tell you,” Sam replied, sticking her tongue out playfully. Even with three generations separating them, Sam shared some mannerisms with her great-grandmother. “I will return it when we finish.”
“Keep it. I’m sure she would be proud,” Fionn smiled. “Are you ready, kiddo?”
“Always,” Sam said, while smiling back to her father. She readied her staff in a defensive position, back to back with her dad.
“Let’s give them a show then.”
The air filled with tension so thick that Black Fang would have trouble cutting it. Fionn breathed and smiled the smile of a wolf, licking his lips, expectant. There was a reason you never sent a group of soldiers to attack a single, capable target in a limited space like this. No matter how much larger the force is, not all its members can occupy the same place, and the tighter it is, the more restricted their movements.
Three troopers initiated the attack with a guttural, barely human yell. Fionn tensed his muscles and jumped forwards, sword held high, cutting down while hitting them with sheer strength in the landing. No blood was spilled; instead the same black ichor that dripped from the walls flowed from their broken bodies.
“Man, that’s really disgusting,” Fionn said, before pressing his attack. He parried a blow from another trooper’s baton and pushed back. He moved swiftly, cutting down a path for him and Sam to move through towards the exit. Sam followed him, hitting troopers with her staff, breaking helmets and probably, Fionn judged from the sound, a few skulls as well.
They got closer to the exit and were surrounded once more. This time, Sam swung her staff, knocking down a few troopers, to give space to her dad.
“We need to hurry, Sam, we have spent enough time here.”
Fionn and Sam coordinated their attacks, low and high, to hit and cut as many troopers as they could. Sam pushed several backward while Fionn ducked to avoid a swing of an axe at his head. The axe got stuck in a metal column and the owner was trying to pry it free. Fionn broke his knee with a punch, and rose to hit the trooper in the chin with the heel of his right hand. Fionn ran in a circle, cutting off the legs of many troopers and then cutting the arm off the one trying to take Sam’s head. She in turn jumped and kicked a few heads, her staff spinning and bludgeoning three more. The fight was messy and bodies fell all over the place. Fionn and Sam moved towards the exit. He was clearing the path, while she was keeping the following troopers at bay. She hit two troopers on their ankles, making them fall and hit the har
d steel ramp of the exit. They made a sickening cracking noise.
Only the leader of the troopers remained in front of them. He unsheathed a long sword and started trading blows with Fionn, who barely moved, using only his ankles and waist to parry all the blows until the trooper hyperextended his swing, leaving himself open for a lightning strike aimed at his neck. The head remained in place. Fionn then delivered a round kick to the head, making it fall to the floor while the body dropped slowly to the floor.
“I thought that was a movie trick.” Sam was surprised.
“Me too,” Fionn smiled. They finally reached the open deck and the bow of the ship, where Byron was finishing his speech in front of the floating cameras he had all over the place. The Queen had her hands tied behind her back. She was dressed in combat gear and looking at her brother with a mix of anger and disappointment, without a sign of fear in her steely eyes. She may have been old, even older by regular human standards, but still had the same fearlessness that she had had as a teenager.
“…now, you will see one of your leaders fall, as all of them do when they are weak for ruling. My dear little sister, your reign is a mistake, a blunder by our weak father that I will correct. That crown should have been mine. Your city will fall as well, as proof of my power. People of the Alliance, kneel before me and your demise will be swift and mostly painless. Dare to challenge me and I will crush you under my heel.”
“Dear brother,” the Queen raised her voice to be heard over the wind. “You were and have always been an idiot. Father was right in disowning you.” The Queen spit in Byron’s face. “No one will kneel before you. You will be stopped.”
“Silly little girl. Heroes don’t exist anymore. I killed them, remember?” Byron gloated, while he grabbed the Queen by the neck, lifting her.
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