Why had I ever thought we could catch the raknoth unprepared? I should’ve let Carlisle bust me out when I’d had the chance. Too late now.
“We have to get these people out of here,” I sent, eyeing the fifteen foot drop to the first plateau then hesitating when I realized Barbara and her cameraman were still frozen in place.
Above, Carlisle gathered Johnny and Elise and jumped through the opening. “Agreed,” he sent as he settled them to a smooth landing on the tier below, he and Elise in light battle garb, Johnny positively teeming with guns and spare feeders. “Where are the raknoth?”
I couldn’t find Al’Kundesha in the crowd. I was half-surprised he hadn’t come flying up, red eyes blazing, to tear my head off. Above, the High Cleric was watching me like he was contemplating pouncing from his dais to do just that.
For now, though, they seemed dedicated to this game of theirs—to the extent that the High Cleric said nothing as his Sanctum Guard opened fire on the swarming hybrids, adding man-made thunder to the screams below.
I was about to relay the information to Carlisle when a hybrid launched itself from the crowd to the first tier. Johnny was a second too slow on the draw to keep it from catching one of Barbara’s crewmen and sinking its teeth into his throat. Another came for us, leaping from the plateau below straight for us.
Or straight for Barbara, rather.
I caught it with telekinesis and hurled it into the nearest wall—a little too vehemently, judging by the wave of lightheadedness that followed.
Were the raknoth trying to cut out any potential broadcasts before they joined the fray? The hybrid that smashed a camera on the plateau below before Johnny gunned it down made me think yes.
“Come on,” I called to Barbara and the cameraman beside her. “Stay close to me.”
They numbly shuffled close enough for me to float us all down to the first tier, both of them too shocked to ask questions.
Elise met me with a quick, tight hug and a pack of energy cells. “Just for future reference,” she whispered, “if you ever go dying on me, I’m gonna kick your ass.”
Johnny shot down another hybrid before turning and handing me one of his three rifles. “Yeah. Whatever she said. Me too.”
I numbly accepted the extra feeders Johnny handed me and jammed them into the netting on my pack, too stunned for words by the chaos below. The chaos I’d caused.
Friendly Legion soldiers were rappelling down on both sides of the Great Hall now, dropping thumpers into the thicker clusters of hybrids below. Muffled booms woofed through the hall, joined in short order by more gunfire, those higher on the lines covering those lower as they touched down. Soon enough, we had a couple dozen friendly soldiers on the ground, and twice that still on their way down.
But the hybrids kept coming.
“The raknoth?” Carlisle reminded me, squeezing my shoulder in gentle greeting.
“The High Cleric. He’s one of them.”
If anyone found that hard to believe, they kept it quiet.
“I’m not sure where the others are,” I added, turning to glance back at the fourth tier, “but we need to, oh…”
The ripple of Carlisle’s surprise beside me told me he saw it too. Zar’Faenor had joined the High Cleric up on the ledge of his dais, along with a grim-faced Smirks and a dark-haired woman I’d never seen.
A pair of detonations snapped me back to where some of the legionnaires had blown openings in the duraglass walls on either side of the hall wide enough to make room for the transports to awkwardly cram their tail ends in and start evacuating civilians. James and Phineas rappelled down to join us along with several more legionnaires. Phineas had a fresh pair of prosthetic limbs and had somehow managed to outdress even Johnny for the part of walking arsenal.
Together, we all started for the main floor. All but Carlisle, I realized, pausing.
“These people need us, Carlisle.”
He snapped out of his trance, adjusted his cloaking pendant, and, with one long last look at the thing that had taken his old mentor’s body, came to join me in running after the others. “He reached out to test me. He’s strong. Stronger than the others.”
“I know.” I hesitated. “Are you going to—”
“I will do what I must,” he sent, that frightening gleam creeping back into his eyes. “I will not leave Cassius to suffer under that creature’s rule.”
There wasn’t time to get into it.
We split from Barbara and the rest of the legionnaires streaming down the side stairs to go collect Johnny, James, and Phineas, who’d been covering their descent from the edge of the plateau. I slung my weapon and grabbed Elise around the waist. Carlisle was already doing the same with James and Phineas.
I reached my other arm out to Johnny. “Hop on, buddy.”
“So now Johnny gets some love,” he said, wrapping an arm over my shoulder and allowing me to wrap mine around his ridiculously armed waist. “Where’s my kiss, big boy?”
Together, the six of us dropped to the main floor, Carlisle and I pumping our telekinetic brakes. Chaotic as it had been from above, it was worse in the thick of it. Bodies littered the ground. The dark stone floor was already slick with blood in places. My stomach twisted at the sight. But I unslung my rifle and moved into the mess alongside my people.
The fighting came in hectic bursts. The legionnaires were working to drive the civilians to the evac points and open up clear lines of fire down the center of the hall, but there were still far too many innocents trapped in the open—many wounded, some catatonic, others just trying to help. We shot conservatively, sticking close to our Legion support and leaving several of the closer hybrids to Carlisle’s daggers and Elise’s staff.
Or spear, I saw. She’d upgraded.
I nabbed a knife from Johnny and did what I could to help, but I was so battered and bruised that I was mostly better off with rifle and telekinesis.
We moved through the rampaging horde like a well-oiled machine, but their numbers seemed never ending. Bodies were accumulating far too quickly.
Elise yanked a hybrid off a young boy and cracked its skull so hard I was almost surprised her spear haft didn’t shatter. The same probably couldn’t be said for the hybrid’s skull, but she followed up with a quick underjaw thrust for good measure before helping the boy to his feet.
Carlisle and I broke off to take down a trio of the creatures moving in on a trembling huddle of four. As terrified of us as the wild-eyed survivors clearly were, they didn’t argue when Carlisle pulled one of the young men smoothly to his feet and told the rest of them to follow us to the evac line.
The hall was strewn with the dead now. Humans and hybrids alike. Thick pools of blood congealing on the stone—the hybrids apparently too frenzied with the thrill of the chase to focus on feeding.
By the time we got Barbara and the rest of the civilians over to the line at the side of the hall, I felt dead inside. I’d lost count of how many hybrids I’d taken down, and how many more had nearly gotten the drop on me. I was on the verge of collapse. Phineas was all but carrying James, who’d taken a hybrid bite and was quickly sliding into paralysis, to the nearest transport. At a glance, we’d lost at least a quarter of the legionnaires who’d dropped in from above, and of the couple dozen Sanctum Guard and the legionnaires who’d originally been here for my execution, only a few remained.
At least they were on our side.
They might not fully understand what was happening, but no one here, civilian or otherwise, could believe that I or Carlisle or any of the other so-called rebels fighting to keep the hybrids off the evac lines had had anything to do with bringing the ferocious beasts here today.
Which must’ve been why the raknoth decided it was time to make their move.
It started with the low rumbling of stone on stone—the door at the base of the plateaus opening. I’d nearly forgotten about the hybrid minds I’d felt beneath the gallows earlier—at least another thirty or forty of them. A fresh w
ave of hungry roars drew my attention to where another horde of hybrids was erupting into the hall from the direction of the antechamber mag lifts.
I breathed a curse.
“What’re we gonna do?” one of the men was stammering further down the line.
In his defense, it was a great question. But also utterly unhelpful. The panic was contagious.
“We’re screwed, man,” another said. “We’re screwed!”
“Cut the chatter and stow the frillies, soldiers!” someone else roared in a tone that sent a jolt of recognition through me. “We have civilians to protect here and exactly zero time for your sad bullscud. You will hold the line. Understood?”
I joined the soldiers in shooting a dumbfounded look down the line, though my reason was different than theirs.
“Yes, sir!” the men barked, snapping to the ready.
“Docere Mathis?” I said.
He leaned back from the line long enough to shoot me a dark scowl. “That goes for you too, silver spoon. Eyes on the prize.”
Just like I was still a tyro and the rest of it had never happened. I couldn’t quite decide in that moment whether Mathis was a wonderful person or a terrible one. Either way, he was right. Had been right from the start.
I’d tried to fill the boots I wasn’t ready to fill. Tried to outmaneuver the raknoth just like my dad. I’d failed just like my dad. And now people were dying for it.
I was going to have to face that fact if I made it out of this alive. But for now, I’d be damned if I was going to let another person pay for my mistakes. So I stammered “Yes, sir,” and turned back to the line.
Elise arched an eyebrow at me. Johnny just shook his head, muttered something about gropping doceres, and opened fire on the approaching hybrids. I took aim and did the same, as did our allies on the line and across the hall.
Hybrids dropped in swaths.
More came.
I slapped my last feeder home just as a second horde poured out from the direction of the lifts. By the time my weapon clicked empty, a thick wave was closing on us. I dropped the rifle, used telekinesis to take out two more hybrids from afar with my knife, and was stepping forward with Elise to meet the rest when my extended senses trilled in alarm at some rapid shift ahead of us.
Someone was channeling.
No sooner had I registered the fact than the wave of hybrids organically parted as if controlled by a single mind, leaving an opening before us. In the blink of an eye, it was filled with a column of fire, lancing straight for us.
I didn’t have time to think. I threw my hands up, fumbling to channel off the heat and pump it elsewhere. Before I could, the flames crashed short of us against some invisible barrier and instead splashed to the sides, straight into the parted walls of hybrids.
Even from a distance, the heat was unpleasant, but it was nothing compared to what the hybrids experienced. Green hides seared charcoal black, coaxing agonized screeches.
Beside me, Carlisle lowered his hand, and I almost joined the legionnaires in their victorious cheers. But I knew what was coming.
When the flames and charred hybrid smoke dissipated, Smirks and his female companion were striding towards us, Zar’Faenor stalking behind them.
The woman was tall and slender, and every inch of her looked mean. She almost could have been Elise’s decade-older evil twin, and judging from the utterly frosty glare she skewered Carlisle with, I was guessing she’d been the one to conjure the column of fire.
Frosty the Seeker, then.
I was about to call open fire when the sharp report of Johnny’s rifle beat me to it.
The shot was true. Or would have been, had the slug not snapped to a midair halt a foot from Frosty’s chest. She gave the slug an indignant glance, then her hands struck out in Johnny’s direction like twin vipers. I hit her with a telekinetic blast before she could attack. Gunfire erupted on either side of us. Hybrids roared.
Scud got messy fast.
Legionnaires fired on Smirks and Frosty, but the Seekers were ready, deflecting shots wildly off into the stone walls, or their own hybrids. Behind them, Zar’Faenor sprang at Carlisle with unnerving speed, eyes bursting to a crimson blaze. I hesitated, torn between Zar’Faenor and the Seekers. Then Frosty hit two legionnaires with a lance of flames, and the decision was made.
I charged forward, Elise at my side. Johnny and Phineas fell in on our flanks, Johnny down to his sidearms and Phineas, apparently having depleted his considerable armory, beating down hybrids with the butt of his rifle and the hard composite of his prosthetic fist.
Smirks’ eyes locked onto mine, his expression grim. Frosty focused on Elise. I didn’t want to know what was going on behind those cold, violent eyes. I didn’t love our odds against two Seekers in the middle of this unholy scudstorm, either—especially not beaten and energy depleted as I was. But they had to be stopped. Preferably before the other raknoth joined us.
Frosty licked her lips as we closed, a tiny flame flickering over her hand. Smirks glanced toward Carlisle and Zar’Faenor, uncertain. I was about to hurl my knife at him when a flash of crimson above kicked my reflexes into action. I shoved Elise right and rolled left—just as Al’Kundesha and the High Cleric smashed down side by side, cracking the stone we’d vacated.
Phineas didn’t miss a beat. He hit the red-eyed High Cleric with a punch that probably would have broken every bone in a non-prosthetic hand. The High Cleric stumbled backward with a growl. Al’Kundesha moved to retaliate and caught two of Johnny’s slugs in the forehead before Carlisle swept in to bowl the raknoth over with telekinesis, Zar’Faenor hot on his heels.
Then I spotted Frosty charging at Elise, who was still pulling herself to her feet after my impromptu shove. I tore forward, forgetting about everything else, only to skid to a halt as Smirks cut me off.
“Wait!” he snapped, hands outstretched.
I’d already let my knife fly, driving it straight for his chest with telekinesis. Something in his voice made me waver, though. Bastard that he was, maybe I even had reservations about running him through.
Either way, the hesitation cost me. The knife jerked to a halt in midair as he caught on with his own telekinesis. I viciously cursed myself for hesitating, painfully aware of the flash of flames from Elise and Frosty’s direction.
Then Smirks’ gaze darted over my shoulder, his eyes widening, just as my senses screamed a warning on my left flank.
I dipped right and felt the rush of wind from the strike that probably would’ve knocked my head off. Zar’Faenor. He kept coming, sure and swift. I kicked his planted knee to little effect. Lifted him a few inches with telekinesis to keep his feet off the ground as I backpedaled.
Alpha he was heavy. My head was spinning with the effort.
Then he responded with telekinesis of his own and drove me to my knees with the inexorable weight of a skimmer landing on my shoulders. I lost my grip. He thudded to the dark, bloody stone and stalked toward me with finality, holding me firm in his telekinetic snare.
My mind went oddly blank, watching his murderous approach.
Then I noticed Smirks standing there, my knife in hand, his gaze darting back and forth between us, calculating. A flutter of hope. I didn’t trust it. Not until Smirks darted in and jammed my knife into the back of Zar’Faenor’s neck with a snarl.
It was a stupid plan. But, then again, I’m pretty sure Smirks was only just then realizing the full extent of what he was up against. Too late.
The knife jerked to a halt against Zar’Faenor’s hide, and the raknoth turned almost casually to backhand Smirks twenty feet through the air before turning back to me, ready to finish it. I reached out to call for Carlisle.
An aggravated shriek split the chaotic hall before I could—the High Cleric’s, I realized. Carlisle had the raknoth pinned facedown and was working a dagger laboriously at the back of his skull while Phineas, Johnny, and a few legionnaires harassed Al’Kundesha.
With a frustrated growl, Zar’Faenor
leapt to the aid of his distressed underling.
With his telekinetic ocean lifted from my shoulders, I staggered to my feet and whirled for Elise. My stomach plunged at the sight of Frosty hauling her dazed form up by her badly scorched armor skin, cocking a fist to strike.
At the last second, though, Elise snapped to and headbutted the Seeker right in the nose. Frosty stumbled back with a curse, blood already gushing down into her snarling mouth. Elise kicked her spear up to her hand and swung for the Seeker’s head. Frosty struck out her hands, cold fury in her eyes, and blasted Elise backward just before her spear haft connected.
I caught Elise with telekinesis and was setting her down when Frosty drew a small gun from her tunic and leveled it at Elise with a feral grin. “Dodge this one, bitch.”
I threw my mind at the gun, intending to rip it from Frosty’s hand. Once I turned the barrel away from Elise, though, I decided to instead pour energy into the propellant in the bottom round of the gun’s feeder.
The gun exploded in Frosty’s hand.
Not a large explosion, but enough to leave her right hand in shambles. Before she could do more than cradle her wounded appendage in shock, Elise closed the distance and dealt her a brutal blow to the head.
A scrap of tension bled out of me as Frosty hit the stone floor. One more Seeker down, though I still wasn’t sure why Smirks had decided to—
“Hal!” Elise cried, wide eyes directed over my shoulder.
I tried to move, but an inhumanly strong forearm caught me and pulled me tight by the throat just before something plunged into my shoulder. Razor-sharp pain ripped through me. I cried out, thrashing against the iron grip as it pulled me closer.
“Come now,” Al’Kundesha growled by my ear. “I did warn you not to struggle.”
44
Equivalent Exchange
Two things occurred to me through the wave of fire ripping through my shoulder.
Firstly, judging by the position of Al’Kundesha’s hand on my right shoulder, it wasn’t some weapon he’d driven into my upper back, but his own clawed thumb. It was almost as disturbing as it was painful. Almost.
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