A few minutes later they came to the gate. They hunkered down low, taking inventory of the Guards on duty.
They’re the lucky ones, she thought as she looked down on three men casually leaning against the wall, sharing a smoke and a laugh. Because they had been left behind, there was a good chance they were not among the best fighters.
Getting her attention, Parker raised a hand and counted to three with his fingers. He pushed himself over the wall, and she followed suit. Parker landed on one man, and with a quick blast of his spear took out another. Spinning, he cracked the first across the temple, knocking him out.
Hannah wasn’t quite as dexterous as her friend. She glanced off the Guard’s shoulder and hit the ground with a thud.
“What the—” the Guard stammered, stepping back.
“Greetings from the rebellion!” she said as she pulled her knife and drove it into his belly. His eyes grew wide as she dragged it up toward his chin.
“Always such a show,” Parker said
She shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a drama queen.”
Parker laughed, then pointed to the solid oak beam holding the door shut. “Any chance you could help me with that, Your Highness?”
Hannah rolled her eyes as they flashed red. She twisted both her hands upward, and using her magic and Parker’s strength, they managed to remove the beam.
“Thanks for doing the heavy lifting,” Parker said as he stretched his back. “I think I tore a muscle.”
“No problem,” she said. “Now, if you’re done complaining, maybe you should send the signal before more Guards arrive?”
“You are a cruel taskmaster,” he said as he pushed open the large door. He stuck his head outside the gate and waved his glowing spear. He saw a brief flash in the distance and knew that Karl and the others had seen it.
“They’ll be here within five minutes,” he said, turning back to Hannah.
But she was gone.
****
As she trotted down the eerily empty streets Hannah felt bad about leaving Parker, but only a little. She had a score to settle, and it was her fight, not his. But there was more. Adrien had murdered nearly all the people she loved. The chance of Parker falling to the madman was too much for her to bear.
She ran across the Academy lawn, trying to keep her breath quiet. The moon was full and her eyes ranged about, looking for moving shadows cast by its light. At the base of the stairs leading to the massive structure, a figure stood waiting for her. She slowed to a stop and raised her hands, prepared for a fight, until she was close enough to recognize him.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she whispered.
The old man smiled. “You didn’t think I was going to let you do this by yourself, did you?”
Ezekiel looked stronger than he had in the tower, but was still not his normal self. She flicked her eyes toward the doors, wondering if she might be able to pull some trick on the trickiest man alive.
“Don’t even think about it.” He smiled.
“Shit. Get out of my damn head.”
He planted his staff, leaning on it out of necessity. “We started this together. We will end it together. I have just as much desire for justice as you do.”
She pursed her lips and nodded. “Deal, but I get to strike the finishing blow.”
They took the stairs two at a time. The corridors were empty; it was as if another apocalypse had taken everyone. Coming to a tee in the hall, they turned right and made for the stairwell that would take them to Adrien’s tower.
“Any last words of wisdom?” she said in a hush.
“Stay alive.”
“Um, thanks, Zeke.”
He glanced over as the magitech lights in the stairway flickered. Stopping, he grabbed her arm. “Listen, you’re the best student I've ever had, but so was he once. When we fought before, I’m not sure if I could have beaten him. And I don’t truly know what he is capable of. Be careful. Watch for anything out of the ordinary. Whatever else that douche nugget is, he’s a survivor.”
She nodded, happy for a moment that the old man had learned something from her as well. “Trust me, I have no desire to see him escape from here alive, especially if it means I’m dead. I’ll be careful.”
At the top of the steps, they turned left and followed the hall down to the only room on the top floor of the Academy’s tower—Adrien’s office. The door was open as if hospitality was offered to them. Hannah wondered if he knew they were coming, and then she realized that the question was stupid. Of course he did.
Ezekiel went in first, poised for attack or defense.
The sprawling windows overlooking Arcadia were open. The tapestries flapped in the wind and parchment fluttered across the floor. Ezekiel nodded to a door across the room that opened to another flight of steps.
“The roof,” Ezekiel mouthed, pointing with his staff toward the steps.
He made her way over and Hannah walked in his shadow. She wanted to go first. To see him first. But she knew that the old magician would never allow it. He, too, had lost people by the Chancellor’s hand. Adrien had killed her family, but he had killed Ezekiel’s city, and with it, all the hopes that the magician had for a peaceful place in a world gone completely mad.
She followed him up; the damned stairs seemed to take forever. Finally they emerged on a roof big enough to hold her entire house from the Boulevard and half of another one.
“Ah, Ezekiel, you’ve come to me,” Adrien’s voice called from across the roof. “And you’ve brought my replacement.”
Adrien laughed as Hannah and Ezekiel stood side by side. His purple robes gleamed in the light of the full moon, and they whipped around him in the wind.
“Purple is the color of royalty, Adrien. It looks like shit on you,” Ezekiel spat.
Adrien smoothed the fabric with his hands. “Oh, you’re wrong. I am royalty. I am the only royalty Irth has ever known.” He took a step forward. “You may peddle tales of the Matriarch and Patriarch, but I hold the true power here. You are the past. I am the future!”
Ezekiel’s breathing was calm, but Hannah could see his nostrils flaring. “Give it up, Adrien. It’s over. Come with us peacefully, and we will take you in.”
They both knew that Adrien would never comply, but Ezekiel was gracious. Once Adrien denied the offer for mercy, however, the old man would have every right to wipe him off the face of Irth.
The wizard laughed. “That’s cute. Still holding onto religious superstition and naive political ideals. It’s a wonder you’re still alive today, but we will take care of that.”
Storm clouds began circling above and Adrien raised his hands upward. Lightning rained down out of nowhere. Hannah swiped her arm up, arcing a purple shield into existence. The bolts crashed around them and she felt tingles run through her.
Ezekiel turned wide eyes on the magician.
Adrien nodded. “Now, now. You think there are no druids who understand pragmatism? I learned a few tricks from the druids who practice outside the Dark Forest.” A smile formed on his blood-red lips. “And there is more where that came from.”
“Enough!” Hannah screamed as she twisted her arms and sent a constant stream of fire at the magician.
He raised his hands, palms out toward her attack, and responded with a stream of ice. The elements met in mid-air, crashing against one another and leaving a pool on the roof of the tower.
She knew it was a draw, so she dropped the fire and faced her foe.
Adrien made a tsking sound. “You can do better, young lady. Most of my half-assed magicians in the academy can do that!”
Hannah stepped back toward Ezekiel, and Adrien delighted in her retreat. She glanced at him, and then her eyes cut to Adrien’s feet. “I’ve met your students, and they’re shit magicians.”
Grabbing Ezekiel’s staff with her left hand, she raised it toward the sky. Her eyes blazed red as a single bolt of lightning struck the rod. It was a move she had seen Ezekiel do on the day they f
irst met. She pointed the rod downward, pulling the lighting with it, directing a stream of pure electricity at the pool of water Adrien still stood in, her eyes still burning red. “Fry, you motherfucker.”
Her bolt hit the water and spread around him. She smiled, watching his body convulse as it hit the water with a splash.
She stared at the motionless body, then began to weep. Ezekiel wrapped his arm around her. All the emotional energy of the last eight months came out as tears of rage turned to tears of joy.
Tears of justice.
The old man’s mouth turned up at the edges. “You did it.”
Biting her lip to keep control, she replied, “We did it.”
Laughter echoed behind them. “Fools. You’ve done nothing!”
They spun and found Adrien standing where he had just laid as if dead. His purple robes whipped in the cruel night air. With his left hand, he reached across his body and grabbed a fistful of the fabric. He tore the robe and exposed his body, clad in beautiful armor. The metal pulsed with the blue light of magitech. In his right hand spun the brightest ball of energy she had ever seen a magician wield.
“Like I said, I am the future.” As he launched the sphere of power at Hannah, her eyes opened wide.
“No!” Ezekiel shouted, and just before impact, he threw his body between her and the missile.
She shielded her eyes as light burst in every direction. Once it cleared, she crumpled down at her fallen master’s side.
“Ezekiel,” Hannah whispered in his ear. She listened for breath and felt for a pulse.
Nothing.
Gone.
Just like Will.
She gently placed his head on the smooth stone rooftop.
“Now that I have officially taken them all from you, darling,” Adrien scoffed, “it is time to finish this tedious game of ours.”
Her heart pounded in her head, its rhythm increasing by the second. She tried to focus, but the rage was too great. It spread through her body, and she could feel the power building in her. It threatened to consume her, but she didn’t let it go. Every particle of her being cried out to finish the man who had ruined her life.
Slowly, she crawled to her feet. A scream like that of a demon roared from her mouth, as if the power inside had taken over. Without even a twist of the wrist, she aimed her open palm at Adrien, and pure red energy erupted from it.
He held up a hand to block it but it powered through his shield, crashing against his shoulder.
He staggered backward as she took another step forward. Her eyes were bright enough to light the night. He launched a spear of ice toward her, but she swatted it aside like it was fly. She raised her other hand and fired again. This blast took Adrien in the side, sending him spinning.
He pushed himself to his feet, coughing blood.
“You bitch!” he screamed. “Don’t you know who I am? Don’t you know what I can do?”
She looked at him like he was a rabid dog. “You are nothing and no one. And you can die.”
With a shout of rage, he raised both of his hands and sent forth a stream of blue light. Hannah raised her hand and a blast powerful enough to level mountains left her arm.
For an instant, she saw the look of horror on his face as her energy dwarfed his own, swallowing it whole.
“Oh, shit,” he whispered as her power ripped him to pieces, sending what remained of his body over the tower roof into the night.
The light faded from Hannah’s eyes, and she gasped, taking in air. She fell to her knees, afraid she was going to pass out. That was a power like she had never felt before.
She turned toward her teacher and crawled to his side. Tears fell from her cheeks into his grey hair and beard.
She swept his body into her arms and rocked him. “Oh, Ezekiel…”
“Ezekiel? You’ve never called me that before.” Hannah jumped when the voice broke through their embrace.
She scurried away from the body, afraid that some curse had taken over his form.
Propping himself up on an elbow, the old man looked at her.
“You’re…you’re…alive?”
“We can’t say as much for the Chancellor, now can we?” He gave her a slight nod. “Remind me never to cross you. That was some scary shit. The girl from the Boulevard might know no bounds.”
“But how—”
He raised a hand and she stopped. Groaning, he sat up, shaking the dust from his robe. “That night your brother died, I felt a power in you greater than I had ever seen. I needed to see it used, needed to know what you could do. I figured this was the easiest way to find out. Remember our meditations, Hannah? A simple trick can unlock the greatest door.”
The joy of his survival turned to anger at his deception. She gritted her teeth as the power continued to course through her.
Holding up both hands, Ezekiel said, “Now, now. Breathe. Calm yourself before you split me in two.”
“I have a mind to,” she spat as she stood over him.
His eyes softened. “He would have beaten us, child. You and me both. I did the only thing I could. I’m a teacher, first and foremost. Not a fighter. So I did what I could to teach you, and you did the rest.”
Hannah walked over and stared into the darkness of the night. A group of Guards and nobles had gathered at the base of the tower. Someone pointed up at her, and without a word they turned and ran in every direction.
A smile spread on her face.
It was finished.
“That was for you, Will.” And for once she prayed, thanking the Matriarch for helping her find justice.
Epilogue
“I thought I had lost you,” Parker said, taking Hannah’s hand in his own.
After defeating Adrien on the roof and taking time to chew out Ezekiel’s ass for playing possum while she did the real work, she had been ushered off to a room in her old residence hall to get some sleep.
The new power had taken its toll, and she remained unconscious for nearly two days, undisturbed by anything in Irth. It was the sound of music and laughter that finally drew her from the bed and into the quad, where the people of Arcadia, no longer divided by class or quarter, celebrated their victory. The Battle for Arcadia was finally over.
Most of the battle had been won by Adrien’s death. As the news spread throughout the city, most of those loyal to him fled in fear for their lives. A few, half-foolish and half-bold, tried to hold their ground, but the axes of the rearick and the weapons of the factory men made short work of them.
And once the city was secure, the eating, drinking, and dancing began.
Hannah, still worn out from the fight, rested her head on Parker’s shoulder. “Going to take more than one wizard to keep me away from you, douche nugget.”
“Is that right?” He raised his eyebrow and laid a gentle kiss on her forehead as he smoothed her hair.
Sal thumped his big scaly tail on the ground as he pressed between them, pushing the young man aside. She laughed and gave the dragon a hug.
The three of them sat like that in the corner of the room, watching the revelry around them.
Karl swaggered over, ale spilling over the edge of his oversized goblet. “Scheisse! Get a room,” he slurred, dropping himself into a chair across from them.
Hannah smiled at her friend. “Sal is perfectly happy sleeping down here, you grumpy shit.”
He raised his glass to her and drank his unspoken toast.
One by one the rest of the team joined them, and Ezekiel hobbled over at last.
Laurel sat close to Gregory, both leaning back against the wall by the fire. Hannah snuck him a wink and a secret thumbs-up. He smiled awkwardly and pushed back his kinky black hair.
Ezekiel pulled out his pipe, prepared it, and began to smoke, his eyes watching the rings. Finally, he raised his own glass. “To Arcadia and to the Matriarch!”
They repeated it after him and took generous drinks.
“Aye, and I’ll drink to the old Bastard as well,” K
arl snorted as he finished his cup.
“And to Hannah,” Gregory said, and they all followed suit.
Amelia cleared her throat. “So, we’ve waited long enough. Who is going to tell us the full story?” Her eyes cut from Ezekiel to Hannah. “We’ve been waiting to hear it for days.”
Hannah pointed to Ezekiel. “He is. I was incapacitated for most of it and lied to through the rest.”
Ezekiel tilted his head at her. “It would be an honor.”
He started his story, but Hadley interrupted. “No images, Master Wizard?”
“Not for this one. It is hard enough to relive with words.”
Ezekiel told the story slowly, skipping a few pieces but exaggerating all the parts that deserved embellishment. His audience was enthralled by the story and his ability to craft a tale.
“How much of that is shite?” Karl asked as he poured another round.
Shifting in his seat, Ezekiel answered the rearick. “Every story holds an ounce of truth.”
“And a ton of bullshit,” the rearick quipped. They all laughed along with him.
“There is another story,” Ezekiel continued. “One that has not yet been told in full.”
Hannah propped her feet on Sal’s back and eased deeper into the couch. She couldn’t imagine much that Ezekiel hadn’t told her in all their many hours together.
“I’ve never told any of you,” he pointed at Hannah, “even her, why I actually returned to Arcadia.”
Hannah raised her eyebrows. She had always assumed that Ezekiel had returned to bring justice back to the streets, to build the city he had always dreamed of.
“In truth, I didn’t come back to save Arcadia. Hell, I hardly knew the shape it was in. In fact, I returned to ask Adrien for assistance in a mission more important than the one we have just completed.”
What the hell?” Hannah blurted.
“It’s true. But thankfully I have found companions who, all together at least, are far stronger than anything Adrien may have offered even if he hadn’t become a shitbrained madman.”
He paused, both for a drink and to build tension.
Revolution - C M Raymond & L E Barbant Page 24