Destiny Series Boxed Set

by Bronwyn Leroux

  Han looked back over his shoulder. “This is what we live for. Especially when there’s a battle in the offering.”

  “Explain.”

  “We have smaller wingspans than the Gaptors, and not those spindly fingers they call wings. Who do you think gets the worst of it when there’s wind?”

  The glee in Han’s voice had Jaden chuckling. “Alright. But you, Taz, and Pallaton need to keep things tight. I can’t lose any of you. Make sure you quit if things get too hairy out there.”

  Han shot him a look that told Jaden his comment was insulting. Their gliders would not back down if their voyagers were in trouble. Sighing, Jaden rubbed his glider along the soft fur just behind his neck. “Have it your way. But please, be careful!”

  “You too,” was all Han said as he descended for Jaden’s dismount.

  Jaden flailed as the wind blew him off course from his intended drop point. He hit the ground. Thankfully, this was a nice, open area, or everyone would’ve been dodging trees as they landed. Wading though the snow, Jaden made his way to the others. They were arranging the supplies so they could carry everything and still defend themselves.

  Jaden rearranged his own supplies, then glanced around. “Anyone missing?”

  Visibility was deteriorating by the second, and Jaden could barely see past the first few lines of riders. When no one reported their accountability buddy missing, Jaden hoped they had everyone. “Let’s go, then. Remember, be as quiet as you can. Tread carefully. We don’t want any snow running down the mountain to alert them to our arrival.”

  With that, he began the short climb to the crest of the mountain. He blinked in surprise when Markov and Stovan flanked him, and Vicken hugged his side.

  Markov must’ve sensed his surprise. “We can’t have you going down. We need a commander.”

  Jaden didn’t know what to say. While he appreciated the gesture, he didn’t want them front and center in harm’s way.

  As if reading his mind, Stovan said, “We’re fine where we are. Stop worrying about us. Make sure we get the win today with as few losses as possible.”

  Allowing a curt nod, Jaden focused on getting the team in place without detection. Not that this would be as impossible as he’d thought. The wind howling around them was both a blessing and a curse.

  The decreased visibility from the windswept snow meant the Gaptors would have more trouble seeing them coming. It also meant that Jaden couldn’t keep track of the team. He would have to trust the beacons Sven had given the riders would lead them to their assigned positions. And that none of them would walk into trouble they couldn’t handle.

  Fighting the wind, Jaden put one step in front of the other, one eye on his own beacon and the other on the surrounding woods. Musical tinkling snagged his attention. Icicles clung to the trees, clinking together as they embraced the wind in a death dance.

  “Watch out for flying ice!” Jaden barely got the warning out before the first icy projectile launched itself and speared past his head. With a loud crack, a second icicle broke free. Jaden wasn’t fast enough, and it nicked his ear as it sped past. He raised a hand to touch the spot, noticing a third icicle aiming for Markov. Pushing Markov to the ground, he saw an entire batch of icicles shoot themselves from a tree right in front of them.

  “Down! On the ground!” Jaden yelled into his comm. Stealth be damned. He could barely hear his own voice over the wind. No way the Gaptors could hear either.

  The deadly barrage sailed over his head, then disappeared in the swirling snow. He heard a few curses. “Everyone okay?”

  “Just a few scrapes,” someone answered.

  “Keep low,” Jaden ordered. “We don’t have that much further to go before we would’ve been on our stomachs, anyway. And stay alert! Just because they can’t come at you sideways, there’s nothing to say they won’t fall on top of you.”

  Although the likelihood of that happening with this wind is minimal. Nevertheless, he had needed to say it. With the wind lashing snow against their goggles and ice shards cleaving the air overhead, they crept forward. The group diverged to the various locations Sven had chosen for optimal placement according to his drone footage.

  Jaden crawled onward with his honor guard. They were much closer to their position than he’d realized. Luckily, the Gaptors hadn’t heard him shouting. He couldn’t make another mistake like that.

  Holding back a sigh, Jaden slipped into position and glanced at his watch. Despite the disruptions, they had made excellent time. He and the others waited until the appointed hour. With the wind and snow and poor visibility, would their plan work?

  As if on cue, he heard faint twittering. Their gliders had arrived. Jaden strained to hear what the Gaptors were doing. He knew they were within thirty feet of where the outlying Gaptors had been sleeping when Sven captured the drone images. If I can hear the gliders, surely the Gaptors can too? Are they gone? Are we too late?

  Sudden shrieks made Jaden jump. The shrill calls put his worries to rest. The Gaptors are still here, alright. And pretty riled up about the gliders overhead if their raucous calls are anything to go by. Jaden rolled onto his back to observe the sky. He didn’t have to wait long.

  Massive black shapes rose upward, their bulks displacing the snowflakes. Was it just a trick of his eyes, or were they also dimming the light the snow threw off? It was as if the very blackness of the evil they represented sucked away all light.

  But there was no time to ponder the phenomenon. Jaden rose, a phantom in the swirling snow and raised the gun. Its grip resembled a remote control while its barrel flared to a wide mouth, a duplicate of the weapon Sven used on them the first time they had met. The weapon that brought their gliders down. The one Sven had modified to make the cannons now protecting his valley.

  Jaden’s timer vibrated against his arm. He prayed their gliders were out of range, sticking to the plan. Hitting the command on the remote, Jaden felt the pulse leave the weapon, then heard the slight popping as the pulse spread into the neighboring air. Sven had briefed them on using the ray gun, so Jaden knew to ensure he locked the remote in position before putting it down.

  “Heads up,” Jaden commanded. “They’re about to come down.”

  No sooner had he said it than the first Gaptor hit the ground a few feet from him. Drawing his DD, Jaden charged the beast and sliced its head off. The Gaptor disintegrated with the usual spectacular show, but he didn’t have to close his eyes or wish he could block his ears. Sven’s light and sound blockers were amazing!

  Without stopping. Jaden dived under a nearby tree, waiting for the next Gaptor to crash down. When it did, he didn’t have to lift a finger. The boom rocking the ground and light flashing around the Gaptor confirmed it died on impact. Before Jaden could draw breath, Gaptors began raining down so thick and fast, keeping up with killing the incapacitated monsters was difficult.

  Evading the icicles still firing from every direction and darting under trees between killing blows, Jaden was soon covered in the putrid gore that passed for Gaptor blood. The more time that passed without him spotting a single glider, the more relieved Jaden was. Their gliders had escaped the ray gun’s initial blast and were staying clear of its radius. Which was life for them considering they had been so much higher than the Gaptors, and if the Gaptors were dying from the drop, their gliders would’ve too.

  Jaden decapitated another Gaptor. He glanced up when light flashed far above. Distance and the roar of the wind whipping the snow into a blizzard around them diminished the thunderous sound of a Gaptor’s demise.

  It must’ve escaped the pulse, only to fly upward into the waiting gliders. More lights flashed and pops sounded through the snow swirling blue into the night sky. Han would be ecstatic about getting some action.

  Jaden glanced to his left, hearing the thud of another Gaptor smashing to the ground. Knee-deep in carnage, he hurried over, his speed making him reckless. As he angled toward the neck, he didn’t see the stinger swinging around. A dull thump
behind him made him jump. He whirled and found Vicken standing over the dismembered stinger, his DD still glowing.

  “Don’t just stand there. Kill it! Its stinger would’ve spiked your head if I hadn’t been here.”

  “Thanks for the save.” Jaden didn’t have time for more words or to soak in the fact that he’d almost died. Only time to admonish himself to be more careful. With a swing that began at his side and took his arm in a full circle, he chopped the Gaptor’s head off.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Jaden surveyed the slaughter. Eradicating the Gaptors had taken less than twenty minutes. They’d only lost one glider. Two riders had sustained serious cuts from flying ice. Other than that, the rest of the injuries were minor.

  Jaden glanced at his arm, oozing blood through the bandage he’d tightened around it. It was a superficial gash, but it hurt more than the depth warranted. The graze on his ear still stung, and he could feel countless other scratches through the freezing holes in his smart suit where icicles had nicked him. All things considered, nothing drastic. Not as drastic as a stinger through the head.

  Dismissing the disturbing thought, Jaden stomped toward the frozen lake where the others were gathered. They parted for him as he made his way to the front of the group.

  “Care to do the honors?” Atu asked.

  Sven had already cut a precise hole in the ice, as they had instructed him to while the rest of them were killing the downed Gaptors. There was no sign of him now. “Where’s Sven?”

  Atu chuckled. “Where do you think?”

  Figuring that out didn’t take a genius. “With that strange thing we saw when we scouted this place?”

  “Yeah, where else? Now, how about getting those medallions out?”

  “One more question. Where’s Vicken?”

  “He and Markov are setting charges to blow this place sky high. Now can we get the chest?”

  Jaden grinned. It was very unlike Atu to either be so chatty or impatient. “Maybe we should find the key first,” he teased.

  Atu’s face twisted into a snarl, then switched to a grin. “Okay, you’ve had your fun. If you don’t start pulling on that rope, I will.” So saying, he leaned down and picked it up.

  Jaden watched, horrified, as Atu jerked and shuddered, then went stiff before crumpling into a heap. “Atu!” Jaden was at his side in an instant, feeling for a pulse. It was there, but erratic. Where’s Kayla when I need her? I don’t know anyone else who’s a medic. Maybe . . .

  Atu sat up so suddenly Jaden backed away. His friend coughed and then rubbed a hand over his chest. “Ow!”

  Jaden leaned in again and studied Atu’s face. “Are you okay? What happened?”

  Still rubbing his chest, Atu glanced back at the rope. “It had some kind of charge. I think my suit took the brunt of it.”

  “You sure you’re okay though?”

  “Yeah,” Atu said, holding out a hand. “Help me up.”

  Jaden did, noticing Atu was a little unsteady on his feet. A whiff of one of his potions took care of it.

  “My suit’s toast,” Atu moaned.

  Jaden could see tiny burn scars along parts of the suit where the suit’s material had melted. He whistled. “Just as well you didn’t pick that rope up without a suit on.”

  “Yeah, that wouldn’t have been fun. Do you think I killed the charge or whatever was in the rope?”

  “Let’s find out.” Jaden pulled out his knife and threw it at the rope. Nothing. No spark. No flash. No dancing knife. “Okay, trying something else,” he muttered as he pulled up his compass on his PAL, then swiped it away again when he remembered it worked on satellites and not a magnetometer sensor. “Last way I know of.” He bent his hand so that the back of his palm faced the rope.

  “Jaden, don’t!”

  The hint of panic in Atu’s voice was almost comical. “Trust me, this is the safest way to touch it. If there’s a current, it’ll contract my muscles and pull my hand away. Unlike you, where your hand was around the rope. When the current contracted your muscles, it closed your hand further and prolonged the contact.”

  With Atu still looking like he didn’t trust the science, Jaden touched the rope. Nothing. He held it there for more than a minute in case the wretched thing worked with a pulse instead of a straight current. But whatever charge the rope had carried was gone.

  “Alright, let’s try that again.” Jaden picked up the rope and pulled. All he did was give himself rope burn as the chest resisted and the rope slid through his fingers. “Care to give me a hand?”

  Hesitantly. Atu grabbed the rope. Together, they pulled. With the same result.

  “That chest is heavier than it looked,” Atu puffed, looking at his hands. “We need a few more people.”

  They need more than a few, and it felt like a tug-of-war dragging the chest from the lake. For every two inches they gained, they lost one before finding their grip on the rope again. By the time the chest finally broke the surface, they were sweaty and irritable.

  But the sight of it cast jubilation through the ranks, giving them the strength to hoist it free of the water. Once it was on the ice, it skated back toward them, but came to an abrupt stop when it hit the area where the ice and frozen ground met.

  “One last pull to get it all the way onto the ground,” Jaden called. “One, two, three!”

  They all tugged—and ended up on their rear ends. Offering no resistance, the chest shot up the bank, into the air, and thunked down next to Jaden. Gingerly, he put a hand out before retracting it. He glanced around. “Iri?”

  “I’m here,” she said from somewhere behind him.

  “Any reason you can see for me to not touch this chest?” Jaden didn’t want to repeat Atu’s mistake of touching before testing. And the way the chest had resisted coming out of the water was plain unnatural.

  Iri moved closer and studied the chest from several angles. “Nothing I can see. Go ahead.”

  Despite this, Jaden used the back of his hand again. Nothing happened and Jaden sighed, relieved. He touched the handle where the rope met the box, intending to detach it. At the slightest nudge, the chest moved. Jaden blinked. “Iri?”

  “Still nothing. I think it moved because you touched it.”

  Jaden poked at the chest with a finger. It slid along the ground as if it were no heavier than a feather. “How come we needed all these people to pull it out of the water, but now it moves like it has no weight?”

  Iri shrugged. “I can’t answer that. Is it important?”

  “No, I suppose not.”

  “Let’s be thankful it will be easy to get back to Sven’s and move on,” Atu commented. “I don’t fancy sticking around. Something just feels wrong about this place.”

  Iri nodded. “Yes, it’s as though those dead Gaptors tainted the air in this area.”

  It was all she needed to say to get Jaden moving. “Right, let’s go. Everyone back to their gliders. Vicken? Sven?”

  “Here,” Vicken answered. “I’ve set the charges. As soon as we’re clear, we can blow the place.”

  “Sven?” After a second, Jaden repeated it, more stridently. “Sven!”

  “Yes, oh, sorry. I didn’t register you were calling. Yes, I’m here.”

  “Have you figured out how to transport that thing?”

  “I believe I’ve secured it for travel,” Sven mumbled. “Or as near as I can be to being sure.”

  “We’re out of time, so it will have to suffice. I don’t want to be here if Slurpy sends more Gaptors through. We don’t know if he can tell his beasties are dead, but there’s no point in waiting around to find out.”

  “I’ll meet you at the pick-up point,” Sven replied before falling silent again.

  “No more tinkering.” When there was a problem to solve, Sven could get caught up in his head.

  “No, I’m already on my way.” Sven’s heavy breathing confirming it.

  “Mount up!” Jaden called, and the assembled riders filtered back to the pi
ck-up point.

  Minutes later, their group was circling the area. With everyone off the ground, it was time.

  “Blow it,” Jaden told Vicken.

  “Let’s put some space between us and the blast. The detonator’s range allows for that.”

  At Jaden’s nod, Han took the lead, and the rest of the gliders followed, rising to crest the mountain. They were almost at the very top when the explosion behind them rocked the air. A thunderous crash followed, and a large swathe of snow separated from the underlying pack.

  The avalanche built in speed and size, rushing down the mountain and snapping trees like twigs. Seconds later, it spilled over the ruptured remains of the Gaptor nest and then onto the ice of the lake. It continued running all the way to the other side and piled up against the far mountain.

  “Well, that went better than we thought it would!” Jaden crowed. “If Slurpy sends someone to investigate, they’ll spend weeks digging through that snow to find anything. With luck, he’ll think the avalanche took the camp out.”

  Vicken grinned. “You think that was luck?”

  Jaden rolled his eyes. Clearly, Vicken’s skills had delivered precisely what he’d planned. “Excellent execution.”

  Vicken laughed and then spurred his glider on. “Time to get back, open the chest, and figure out that comm system.”

  By the time they got back, though, everyone was exhausted. It had been almost thirty-four hours since Jaden had last slept. They had eschewed stops on the way home in favor of getting home sooner. Now, back in a secure location, all anyone could think about was sleep. Stashing the chest and device in a bunker Jaden hadn’t known Sven possessed, but that didn’t surprise him to learn about, they all found the nearest the sleeping spots and crashed.

  There was plenty of anticipation the next morning as Sven deposited the chest on the center table in the mess hall. When Jaden told him they couldn’t recover a key, Sven had only laughed.

  “You don’t think I have something for that?”

  Jaden was on the verge of telling him the chest might not be all it seemed based on their experiences, but he stopped himself. He would sound insane. If he’d known what would happen, he needn’t have worried.