She cracked her black whip in the cold winter air. Memories of torture sent a chill across Parker’s spine.
Parker held his spear out, its metal tip glowing with power. “Thought you were dead,” he said. “I’m glad I get a chance to do it myself.”
Her eyes turned black as she tossed a quick bolt of energy at him. Parker dodged and grinned. “It’s going to be a little harder to cause me pain now that you don’t have my hands locked in cuffs.”
She laughed in gravelly tones. “Oh, darling, it will make it all the more fun.” Her eyes cut to Hannah. “But I see this time you brought your friend. I like a good threesome.” She cracked her whip in Hannah’s direction, stopping just short of her face.
Spinning her hands across her chest, Hannah formed a ball of fire. “Sorry. I’m the jealous type.”
Stepping forward on her right foot, she launched the fireball at Alexandra, who dove out of the way. It crashed behind her and danced on the deck of the mighty ship.
Before the woman could regain her footing, Parker was on her. Swinging the spear, he cracked her across the face. She followed the course of his weapon and rolled to her feet, blood dripping from her misshapen nose.
“Not bad,” she croaked as she snapped her whip. It wrapped around Parker’s spear and, with a pull, she sent his weapon spinning across the deck. Raising a finger, she knocked him back with a short blast of energy. “But it will never compare to real magic.”
“You bitch!” Hannah screamed, running at her and grappling her around the waist. Her power was waning, and she knew she had to reserve as much as possible for the grand finale. Landing on top of Alexandra, she delivered blow after blow to the woman’s face, her fists a fine substitute for magic.
But Alexandra just took it, doing nothing to protect herself. In fact, she just kept cackling, her mad laughs getting louder with every strike. Then, she reached up and held Hannah by the ribs.
Her eyes turned black and power like lightning ran through Hannah’s body, jolting her off Alexandra.
“Stay!” She crawled to her feet and looked at Hannah twitching on the deck. “I’ll be back to deal with you in just a second. But I want you to see this. All right, dear?”
Alexandra rose and pulled a long dagger from her belt. She paced across the deck to where Parker lay motionless, his eyes closed.
Standing over him, she raised the dagger high.
Hannah reached out with her mind. Coming at you! She shouted inside her friend’s mind.
With a flick of her wrist, Hannah pulled Parker’s spear across the deck. His eyes snapped open as he grabbed the weapon, sharp end up. As if working together, Alexandra dropped her body toward him, knife out, just as Parker drove the spear through her gut.
Alexandra slumped down, holding the spear in both hands. She coughed, blood spraying in his face. Her face turned ashen, and she let out one last laugh.
Then her face went blank.
“Thank you,” she whispered as she slowly fell dead on the deck of the warship.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Hannah dashed to Parker and pulled him to his feet. Glancing down at Alexandra’s body, she quipped, “Guess you gave her the shaft.”
Shaking his head, Parker replied, “Bad, Hannah. So, so bad. Spear me the humor.” He winked. “Let’s get in there.” He nodded toward the door leading to the interior of the ship, but Hannah was already on the way.
It was quiet inside, which made Hannah even more nervous. All that surrounded them was the gentle hum of magitech lights lining the narrow hall. They drew just enough power to keep it from being pitch black below. Adrien wanted to save the stored juice for flight and destruction.
Hannah snuck down the hall as quietly as she could. Her heart thumped wildly in her chest as she neared the front of the ship, and for a moment, she feared its beating would give her away.
Just feet ahead was the door to the cockpit. She glanced over her shoulder and Parker gave her a nod, his spear at the ready.
With a scream, she took two steps and kicked in the middle of the door. It responded with a crash, and Hannah flew into the small space, ready to avenge her brother’s death.
“What the hell?” she screamed as she looked in the face of Elon, Gregory’s dad and Chief Engineer. “Where is he?”
Elon raised his hands, and fear danced in his eyes. “It’s...it’s just me.”
Hannah grabbed the man by the shirt and pushed him up against the control panel. The whole ship lurched in the air.
“Where. Is. He?” She put a note of rage into every syllable.
“He’s…he’s at the Academy.”
“Sonofabitch!” Hannah shouted as she cracked the engineer across the face with a closed fist, knocking the man to the ground.
Parker pushed in behind her and looked down at the unconscious man. “Think you could’ve gotten him to land this thing first?”
She shrugged. “How hard could it be?”
Sitting at the controls, she reached out to Hadley. Going to need a little help up here.
How many are there? Hadley quickly blurted into her mind. Ezekiel is wasted from the shield. There’s no way for us to get up there.
She laughed. Not that kind of help, Had. We already took out the baddies, but I have no freaking clue how to land this thing. Go get Gregory.
I’m with him now, Hadley responded.
For more than ten minutes, Hadley played the go-between, passing messages between Gregory and Hannah. The young engineer wasn’t familiar with the controls in the airship, but through trial and error and many jarring lurches, they figured out how to move the thing. Hannah pushed on the lever between her legs, which dropped the nose of the ship.
At first she went too far, and Parker stumbled to the front of the control room. Then, pulling up just enough, she depressed a lever with her left foot and they started moving toward the ground.
“I’m flying, Parker!”
He jumped into the copilot’s seat and strapped himself in. “That’s exactly what I’m worried about.” They continued to pick of speed as the ground got closer and closer. “Hannah!” he screamed.
Pull up on the lever, Hannah. Pull up! Hadley yelled.
She did, but intuitively, she pressed down with both feet for leverage, which only made the airship accelerate.
“Hang on!” she yelled.
The bow of the ship turned up at the last second, driving the stern into the ground. Taking her foot off the accelerator, she turned a knob and the engine shut down, dropping the craft with a thud.
She looked over to see Parker with his eyes closed, gripping the arms of his chair as if he were trying to rip them off.
“See,” she said. “No problem.”
“You almost killed me,” he shouted.
“Sure. But think about how many times I’ve saved you!”
They laughed as they exited the craft and found their friends.
****
Adrien swirled the dark liquor in his glass as he watched his dream descend. Finishing the drink, he waited for a moment in hopes that Elon had tried some clever maneuver and simply dropped below the tree line before decimating the tower and its inhabitants with the power of the magitech guns.
It didn’t rise again.
The ship was lost, and Adrien knew it full well.
Walking over to his desk, he sat and pulled out a sheet of the finest parchment. He placed it on the surface and turned it so the edge was perfectly parallel with the desk’s edge.
He got up and poured another drink, then returned to his position and stared at the blank page. The words he needed to write had been practiced for years, but now necessity bred hesitation, and he realized that all his rehearsals were for naught.
After another half-tumbler of booze, his head swam just enough to face the words he thought were impossible. He placed the tip of his pen on the parchment and wrote.
My Dearest T,
I never thought the day would come when I would need to
write this, but it is here…
Slowly, he crafted the impossible letter. Once done, he waved the page to encourage the ink to dry. Folding it in half, he slid it into an oversized envelope. He stopped again and stared at it, considering tossing it into the fire, but instead he reached into his breast pocket and withdrew the tiny key which opened his bottom desk drawer.
He smiled, looking at the amulet which had sat in that drawer for decades. Picking it up, he laid it out on the desk and inspected its exquisite craftsmanship. Once he had looked his fill, he scooped it up and gently slid it into the envelope, which he folded, primed, and sealed by pressing the seal of Arcadia into the wax.
Another pull on his liquor and Adrien made his way to the door. He opened it, to Doyle’s surprise. The assistant was used to his name being shouted from the other side.
“Sir?” he asked, brows raised.
Adrien handed the envelope to Doyle. “You know what this is, right?”
Doyle took a huge breath, then nodded.
“Good. Deliver it and do not fail.”
“It will get there,” Doyle said before turning to leave. “But what will you do?”
“I will stay here and finish this.”
Adrien returned to his office, closing the door behind him. He prayed to no one in particular that the letter would not be necessary, but at this point he couldn’t risk it.
Pulling open the closet door, a sneer crossed his face. The magitech waiting for him there was not quite as powerful as the airship, but it would serve him just as well. It was time for him to meet his former master.
****
Hannah laid her hands on Sal as she had when he was still just an oversized newt. “Easy boy,” she said as he shifted under her touch.
The dragon had taken a shot while trying to defend his master. Now Hannah’s eyes glowed red and she repaid him in turn. The last time she had used her magic on the creature, it was to give him wings. This time it was to heal them.
As she focused, his scales grew back over the blackened wound. Rolling back his chin, Sal let out a growl at the initial sting, but then gave Hannah’s hand a quick lick after she finished before curling up beside the fire.
“There you go, little ass. Back to doing what you do best.” She smiled as Sal’s breathing steadied into a rumbling snore.
She stood and looked around the great hall, now transformed into an infirmary. Hannah had taken care of the simplest bumps, bruises, and burns while Ezekiel healed the worst of the injuries.
Meanwhile, Laurel, who was not great at healing by druid standards, took the ones somewhere in between, making each of her patients laugh with her wit and antics.
Maddie and Eleanor moved through the room, cleaning wounds and handing out mugs of Arcadian ale. There were bodies outside the tower, but more of the rebels had lived than anyone would ever have expected, and the joy of victory overwhelmed the sorrow for those who sacrificed themselves for the revolution.
Julianne and her two mystics were also helping however they could. With white eyes and a light touch, they eased the passing of those who were beyond healing.
A figure sitting alone across the room, caught Hannah’s eye. She paced over to Gregory, who had a full plate of food in front of him. He wasn’t eating.
“You mind?” she asked, motioning to the chair.
“Sure,” he said without looking up.
She reached over, grabbed a potato from the edge of his plate, and popped it into her mouth. They’d been eating the damned things for all three meals a day, but that night the spud tasted good. “Helluva job today, Gregory.”
“How do you figure?” he said, looking up. “I failed.”
She tilted her head. “Did you?”
“Yes. It was my job to reel that thing in, bring it down.”
“Yeah, you really suck ass at all this engineering stuff,” she retorted with a wink.
He laughed in response. “I kind of hate you, you know that?”
“Most do.” She reached her hand across the table and grabbed his arm. “You know that if you hadn’t speared that thing it would’ve been flying all over raining death on us, right?”
Gregory nodded.
“You anchored the damn thing, which severely limited the damage it could do. It wasn’t quite a failure. Without you in the fight, I couldn’t have done it.” Hannah gave his arm a squeeze.
He smiled. “You still could have.”
“I know. I am one badass bitch, but I had to try to make you feel better.”
A scene across the room caused Gregory to look up and then jump to his feet. Marcus led Elon, who was conscious but bound by magitech cuffs, into the great hall. They stepped through the crowd and up to their table.
“What should I do with this one?” Marcus asked.
Hannah’s eyes cut to Gregory, but he saw only his father.
Elon looked at his son, eyes pleading for mercy.
Without a word to Hannah, Gregory said, “Lock him up downstairs. Lock him up tight. We will decide what to do with him later.”
“Son…” Elon muttered.
Gregory stared him in the eyes. “My father is dead. You are nothing more than a prisoner of war,” he told him, and then left the great hall.
****
Once all the injured were attended to and settled, Hannah and her friends met in the back parlor that was used as Maddie’s classroom.
Setting a fire to blaze in the hearth, Ezekiel lit his pipe and drew on it, humming the old Arcadian anthem to himself.
The man had rested, but his face still looked drawn and grey. His shield had impressed even Hannah, not to mention that it had saved them all from the power of Adrien’s airship.
They all sat except for Karl, who still wore crusted blood on his face, most of it not his own. Hannah nodded across the room at him and patted the empty seat next to her.
Waving a hand, he gave her a grin. “Scheisse, lass. If I let this bag of bones sit, ya likely won’t get me arse up ever again.”
She smiled back. “You kicked some serious ass out there, rearick.”
“Aye. That’s what we do.”
Ezekiel pulled a jug out from behind the couch and uncorked it. “A gift from the Heights. This was brewed by Selah, the old Master himself, and was brought to us by Ida for this occasion.” He walked the room, filling each of their empty glasses.
Then, raising his own, he gave a toast. “You all came here from different places and different classes. Even different species.” He smiled at Sal, who opened one eye and then went back to sleep. “But you overcame all of your differences to win a battle today.”
“A big-ass battle,” Hannah said.
“A big-ass battle. To Arcadia!” Ezekiel cried, and the room responded in kind before drinking the mystics’ finest.
They quaffed deeply, reveling in the intoxicating drink and the glory of victory until Hannah broke the silence. “I hate to be a buzzkill, but we need to finish this now.”
“Darling,” Hadley grinned, “I’d prefer to finish my drink first, if you don’t mind.”
She ignored him. “We won a fight, but the bully is still in the streets. We haven’t really won until we rest in Arcadia. She is ours, but she still has some big-ass walls. If Adrien is smart, and he is, he’ll simply let us freeze to death out here, rebuild his forces, and strike when we are weak.”
Parker laughed, looking around the room. “I think we look pretty damn weak right now.”
“Yes,” Amelia interjected, “but we took out an enormous swath of his army and commandeered his tech today. They’re also at their weakest. But if they are given time to recuperate and hire mercenaries, their forces will be able to hold the wall.”
“She’s right,” Ezekiel said. “Adrien’s men are scattered, unprepared, and demoralized.”
Hannah stood. “If we move now, we can take them by surprise and end this.”
“Aye.” Karl snorted. “We could just take that ship and fly it right up the Chancell
or’s arse.”
Gregory shook his head. “Wish we could.” He nodded at Hannah. “But little Ms. Pilot over there didn’t quite make an elegant landing. I can fix it, I think, but not anytime soon.”
“Then how?” the rearick asked. “I’m all for charging the gates, but even now we’d lose people by the score.”
Parker stood next to Hannah. “We can sneak in and slip over the roof just like we did before. They know we’re hurt. No way they’d expect it.”
“Oh?” Hadley asked.
Karl shook his head. “Aye. Cause it’s the most batshit-crazy plan I’ve ever heard.” All eyes were on him. As the most experienced warrior in the room, they trusted him. He nodded. “Hell, it’s crazy enough to work.”
Ezekiel stood. “I agree. Those people out there fought and died to keep Arcadia safe. I say we honor that by giving them their home back. Parker, Karl, and Amelia: choose only the best of the best from your teams. The rest of you, get what you need. We leave in an hour.”
Hannah’s eyes caught her mentor’s. They were thinking the same thing: Adrien must die, and he must die tonight.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The rusty grappling hook clanged as it found purchase on the city side of the wall. Hannah held her breath and looked at Parker.
“Chill out. Karl’s right. The very last thing they’re expecting is that we’ll come at them tonight. What could possibly go wrong?”
Hannah grinned. “Don’t say that. Don’t ever freaking say that.”
He laughed. “Just like the old days, huh, Hannah? Me and you screwing around with Arcadia?”
“This is nothing like the old days. Remember that. Please.”
“You’re right. Now you can take out a dozen Guards with your magic.” He gave her a grin. “But hopefully we can do this without all that. Let’s go.”
They kept low as they crept along the top of the Arcadian wall toward the gate. Hannah held her breath, listening for any sounds, but the city was dead. Only hours after the battle, she’d be surprised if the survivors on Adrien’s side of the line had even finished washing the blood off.
Revolution - C M Raymond & L E Barbant Page 23