We hit the stone with enough velocity to go skidding several yards. A pair of her lifeless victims drew our trip up short before that, and I allowed the sharp halt to carry me forward. I landed with a knee on each of her biceps, pinning her arms down as I raised a dagger.
Unseen force smacked me in the chest, nearly unseating me, then the dagger tore free from my hand. I tried for my other dagger, then tucked and rolled as my extended senses screamed a warning. Something whooshed through the space I’d just occupied, and I felt the arrival of a second vast telepathic mind even before I rolled back to my feet and saw Five thudding to a landing in the courtyard.
Almost absentmindedly, the raknoth plucked a hunk of stone debris from a fallen statue and hurled it with deadly speed into the retreating crowd. I flinched, too far and too slow to do a thing as the projectile stone cut down two people. Five turned back to me, mirroring Seven’s smug grin as she hopped back to her own feet. Like Seven, Five’s eyes were devoid of raknoth fire. And that’s when I knew for certain.
They were deliberately playing human, hiding their obvious raknoth features for Alpha knew what purpose. I hardly had time to wonder about it right then. Not with Five and Seven facing me down, arms crossed, favoring me with those unsettling smiles as if inviting me to do something about their wanton slaughter.
“Do you think they’ll pull it off?” Five asked, his gaze shifting to something over my shoulder.
“Oh, I think something’s coming off, one way or another,” Seven replied.
Warily, I shot a glance back toward the gallows stage, where Garrett and Siren had freed Four and Eight from their bindings and were currently kneeling in a tight huddle with their fellow Seekers, all four of their heads bowed in concentration. Our skimmer sat waiting out front of the stage, but I saw no sign of Johnny. To the sides of the gallows, the few Sanctum Guard and enforcers still standing—and they were shockingly few—paid the Seekers no mind, instead watching me and the two raknoth from the divider line, weapons at the ready. Maybe they’d swallowed the fact that we were on their side at the moment.
Or maybe they were just too frightened to draw any of our demonic attentions.
The Legion transports forcing their way through the onlooking air traffic and the golden ranks of fresh Sanctum Guard emerging from the White Tower beyond the High Cleric’s ruined dais suggested it hardly mattered. I had no idea what the raknoth were trying to accomplish here, but whatever their aims, we had about a minute before we were drowning in soldiers.
So I turned back to the raknoth, preparing to push my system into overload.
There were too many forces converging. Too much congestion between the air traffic and the mass flood of the tens of thousands still trying to flee the courtyard through insufficient channels. I didn’t see how any of us were getting out of there at that point. And if this was my last shot at killing these reeker bastards, I wasn’t going to take it lightly.
I swept Five’s and Seven’s legs with a hard telekinetic kick and charged, letting the energy roar into me, remembering what it’d felt like in Humility banking to outrun a transport on foot. The raknoth didn’t fall flat from my sweep, both catching themselves and springing back to readiness. But I was flying across the gap faster than they’d expected. Faster than humanly possible, my crackling body informed me.
I flung my dagger at Seven, shifting my trajectory toward her, then yanked to a halt and spun to drive the hardsteel toe of my boot straight into the side of Five’s temple when he lunged forward to seize the opening. Amped as I was on channeled energy, it felt like kicking a permacrete wall. But I’d kicked through my target, and it showed.
Five hit the stone like a sofsteel brick, and I wasted no time in telekinetically ripping back the dagger he’d stolen and whirling on Seven. Who was nearly on top of me. She jerked clear of my rising stab and caught the blade on her cheek rather than through the bottom of her jaw as I’d intended. Then she swung her inhumanly strong fist straight for my head.
I dipped to the outside too quickly and staggered off balance, then something smacked down on my back, and I crumpled to my knees. The stone around me shattered like an invisible transport had just crashed down. It wasn’t until a dark tendril of smoke wafted up from my chest, carrying a sharp burning smell that I registered what’d happened. Another attempt at a telekinetic smackdown—one that’d apparently pushed enough energy through my crusher runes to ignite my tunic. But there wasn’t time to gape.
I rolled from my little circle of unbroken stone a second before Seven slammed down and rectified it’s smooth surface. Stumbling to my feet, I spun just in time to catch Five’s incoming rush. I caught him by one wrist, then dropped my center of gravity and rotated into a hip throw—which, in hindsight, wasn’t the wisest move against a raknoth.
Fusing telekinesis with my own strength might’ve let me manhandle the beast for a moment, but it seemed a minor miracle my hip and shoulder were still in their sockets when Five finished his ride and smacked down in front of me, belly up. I saved the prayers for later, drove a pair of vicious stomps down on his head, yanking his arm for leverage, then darted clear as Seven came rushing in.
I twisted clear of one blow. Ducked another. Stumbled as subdued telekinetic forces slapped at me this way and that. Launched into an off-kilter corkscrew to dodge a speeding hunk of stone.
For a few seconds, I moved with a sure-footed grace that would’ve made Carlisle proud. When the pair finally succeeded at corralling me back between them, I gathered my strength to leap clear—and fell without warning, the ground beneath my rear foot inexplicably opening up to swallow my leg whole.
Seven sprang forward with a lunging punch, victorious snarl firmly in place. There was no dodging it. Not with my leg trapped.
So I opened my body to the energy completely, and caught her fist in my open palm.
It felt like catching a sledgehammer from a pulse cannon while my insides played conduit to the city power grid. Something broke. I couldn’t have said what. I let the pain in, feeding it straight to that whimpering part of my brain that begged me to stop. Seven’s eyes, already saucer-wide, flickered crimson for the first time. I fed on that too, telling my body to hold on just one more moment.
Then I gathered everything and ripped her down to her knees, face to face with me. I drove my dagger straight for her left eye as it lit in full with red raknoth fire. She caught the blade straight through her palm then, with a garbled shriek, caught my wrist with her other hand, fighting against my enhanced strength, squeezing tighter and tighter. Bones cracked. I screamed and abandoned the physical effort, throwing myself fully into driving the blade with telekinesis.
I was dimly aware of Five rushing in from behind, of his ground trap constricting on my leg like an organic trash compactor. I took it all and pushed harder, screaming straight into Seven’s face even as she roared in mine.
Five’s shadow fell over us. I felt him closing, felt the end kissing at my back.
Then a spray of black ichor spattered the stone beside me, and Five let out a strangled shriek, staggering past us. I pushed harder. No room to break focus and look. My vision darkening. Someone shouting behind me. Dark shapes rushing past. A raknoth roar ahead.
I pushed the dagger harder. Seven fought right back, her flesh beginning to ripple with green, her eyes positively blazing now. She dropped her unpierced hand from the blade and reached for my throat. I tried to take advantage of the opening, to drive the blade home before it was too late. But I had nothing left. Nothing but dull resignation as her sprouting claws came for my life’s blood. Less than nothing.
I remember thinking that at least I’d never have to push my body that hard again.
Then a pulse rifle muzzle touched the side of Seven’s head and coughed three times, spewing the stone to the left with dark, gooey hunks of raknoth matter. I stared at the gory mess, uncomprehending, as Seven’s eyes dimmed and she crumpled in front of me, her fanged jaw agape and lifeless. Somewhere in the d
istance, there was a terrible raknoth roar. But I couldn’t bring myself to care. My vision was swooning, my thoughts jumbled and disoriented. Somewhere in the depths, my nerves were only just beginning to send word of how badly I’d gropped up.
And then there was Johnny, dropped to one knee in front of me, pulse rifle slung to his side. He was saying something. Something I couldn’t seem to register until he took my face in both hands and gave me a shake.
“—e’ve gotta get your leg out of there. Come on, broto, help me out here.”
I tried to wrap my muddled head around his words. It wasn’t easy, but the pain at least cut through some of the shock when he scooted beside me and pulled my broken arm over his shoulders.
“Scud,” he growled, spinning around and instead wrapping my torso in a bear hug from the front. “Come on, Fly Boy,” he said, starting to heave. “You can pass out after we get the scud out of here.”
Passing out sure did sound nice right then.
“You… you killed a reeker, Johnny,” I mumbled.
Alpha, why did it feel like I’d been chewing permacrete dust?
“And that’s…” he grunted, heaving with each word, “… exactly… the story… we’re sticking to!” With one last mighty pull, my leg tore free of its underground prison. Johnny fell on his ass, pulling me along with him. “After we get the scud out of here,” he added, panting as he patted my chest. “Thanks for the help there, by the way. Not like you weigh two hundred gropping pounds with all this gear.”
“Sorry,” I said. Or tried to. The words died as I took in the descending Legion transports above and the squads of Sanctum Guard spilling down from the White Tower to help wall us into the now mostly-empty courtyard. Twisting around, I saw our skimmer landing nearby—right where Garrett was duking it out with Five.
Judging from the cuts and tears on his face and clothes, it wasn’t going well. Four and Eight were there too, though neither looked steady on their feet after whatever they’d been through. Four hurled a gout of flame at Five, buying a moment’s distraction in which Eight closed the gap and drove a hard front kick into the raknoth’s chest. Both the ex-Seeker’s looked on the verge of collapse from the effort, but at least I didn’t see explosive collars at their throats any more.
At least something had worked.
But even that victory turned to ash when the Legion transports began touching down around the courtyard. A lot of them.
“How the scud are we getting out of here?” I whispered.
“That is a question,” Johnny said quietly, clearly not even sure where to point his pulse rifle. It was the look on his face, though, that told me we were well and truly gropped.
Apparently having arrived at a similar conclusion, Five smacked the ex-Seekers away with one of those radial telekinetic shockwaves, then shot for the nearest rooftop in a mighty leap. Or tried to, at least.
Twenty feet up, the raknoth yanked to a midair halt like he was tethered. And so he was, I realized. Tethered by Garrett, who stood with his clenched hands outstretched toward Five as if he’d physically caught onto the raknoth and was preparing to rip him back down to the courtyard.
But Five didn’t fall.
Garrett held on, trembling with the effort, as Siren hopped out of the skimmer and hurried toward him, probably thinking to lend her own strength. Then the first gunfire cracked through the courtyard, and Siren jerked and fell, clutching at her shoulder.
“Alexia!” Garrett cried, falling to a knee and casting a hand out just in time to deflect a hail of incoming slugs.
Above, Five broke free from Garrett’s invisible hold and rocketed skyward in what must’ve been pure telekinetic flight, up through the wildly scattering sea of skimmers and over the northern building line, disappearing from sight in seconds flat.
“Any chance you can do that too?” Johnny asked.
I can hardly lift my own head right now, I might’ve said, had I been able to conjure even that much energy or willpower. But I was fried—my body shutting down, my wrists screaming in pain with every tiny movement. If there’d been some hope at that point, any inkling of a feasible escape plan, I’d like to think I would’ve found it in me to rise above it and find my feet again. But there was no hope, watching Garrett and the others clamber to protect themselves and form a barrier around Siren, watching the Legion open controlled fire on our skimmer, grounding it for good.
We’d made a mistake coming here.
Beside me, Johnny was already setting his pulse rifle down and raising his hands in surrender. They were all around us, slowly approaching from the courtyard perimeter. Johnny shifted, deliberately positioning himself so that the nearest legionnaires would at least have to shoot through him and his peacefully raised hands to hit me.
Futile as it was, the gesture put an aching in my chest. Because I doubted they’d hesitate to gun down either of us, peaceful surrender or not. I was fully expecting they were about to when the closest two legionnaires gave a pair of sharp jerks and dropped to the stone, clutching at their necks, where they’d been hit by…
Stunner bolts?
Stunner bolts from whom? my tired mind asked.
Right before the thumpers detonated.
At first, I thought I might’ve taken a softsteel slug to the brain stem, and that I was merely experiencing some kind of sensory system overload in my final moment. The detonations were that unexpected. And that synchronized.
The entire courtyard pulsed with one massive boom that jarred my body from toes to teeth and left my brain feeling like a warm bowl of fabricator sludge. Then there were more noises. More thumps and booms, and the sounds of large ship engines. Beside me, Johnny was muttering a stream of what could’ve been prayers or curses. I tried to pull the hazy swirl of smoke and stone and blurry shapes back into focus, and my senses begrudgingly began to respond.
Around the courtyard, dozens of legionnaires were down—some sprawled and clearly incapacitated, others hunkered by their transports for cover, or looking exactly like I felt. Thumped. Disoriented. And—
I followed the rising aim of their rifles to where more Legion transports were descending.
Descending, I realized, with hatches wide open, and with dozens more legionnaires raining mayhem down on their brothers and sisters in arms. They kept a steady stream of stunner fire pouring down, others hurling thumper after thumper to keep the ground squads from regrouping. From the surrounding rooftops, I heard the thunder cracks of heavy sniper fire, and I watched in disbelief as shooters rapidly and methodically cored one enemy transport engine after another.
Maybe it was a testament to the depth of my despair, or simply the level of abuse to which I’d just pushed my mind and body, but it was only then, watching Johnny pounce to his feet, waving and shouting at the nearest descending transport, that it dawned on me these might in fact be friendly arrivals. Ahead, the transport swooping down to cover Garrett and the others from the soldiers who’d been firing on them seemed to confirm that notion. Especially when the transport’s ordo appeared at the top of the boarding ramp, waving furiously for the ex-Seekers to climb aboard.
It was Ordo Carter. Dillard’s second in command.
“Go!” Johnny was shouting at them, his rifle back in hand now. “Go!”
He whirled to me, dropping down to grab me in a bear hug, preparing to lift again. “C’mon, broto. We’re not done yet.”
No, I realized, looking up at the companion transport coming for us. We weren’t.
This time, I didn’t struggle to find the will. It was already there, stemming from that tiny blip of hope. I got my feet under me and stood with a little help from Johnny. On the closest side of the courtyard, some of the hunkered legionnaires took notice, and wasted no time in taking aim, too.
Channeling sounded about as appealing at that moment as flaying my own skin, but it didn’t matter. I reached down and found the will to catch the incoming fire anyway. I kept the barrier intact behind us as we turned for the landing transp
ort. I held on, knowing that this was not the end, that our allies had not forsaken us.
The transport yawed around, offering us admission to the rear boarding ramp as it set down.
And there, at the top of the ramp in all her indomitable glory, was Freya Glenbark, dressed in full battle garb for the first time I’d ever seen, flanked by Ordo Dillard and big, burly Edwards.
I could’ve laughed. I could’ve cried. Could’ve fallen to the ground and melted into a sniveling oblivion, content in the knowledge that there was still someone on this planet who believed in us.
Instead, I just held on to Johnny and ran for our salvation.
26
Unexpected Places
“I thought you were on the run.”
They weren’t the first words I meant to say to Glenbark once we were safely clear of the White Tower courtyard and the Hounds’ medic, Calvin, had given me and Johnny the not dying right this moment once-over. There were about a thousand and one better options. Thank you, for instance. Or maybe even, I’m so happy to see you I could just die.
But as I sat drinking in her commanding presence and the oh-so-welcome knowledge that we weren’t going to die in that Alpha-damned courtyard, trying all the while not to wince as Calvin splinted my wrists, I thought you were on the run was just the first thing that popped out.
“He means thank you,” Johnny said, giving my head an affectionate pat as if to say I wasn’t of any right mind to speak. He probably wasn’t wrong. “And I’ll second that,” he added. “Right along with a praise Alpha’s merciful ass you showed up when you did, sir.”
Glenbark rested her head back against the seat, looking tired and like she wasn’t quite sure whether to smile or frown. “You’re quite welcome,” she finally said. “Both of you. Though I’m not sure I’d call any part of Alpha merciful these days. As for my fugitive status,” she added, looking at me, “I imagine that depends on who you ask at the moment. Personally, I have no intention of running from any of this. Call me old fashioned, but I swore an oath to protect this planet, and I will not allow bent rules and corrupt cowards to bar my way.”
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