Before he could launch another attack on me or Kafei, Whisper was suddenly flanked by two jinn. One tapped him on the side of his neck with the hypodermic needle ring, and Whisper’s eyes rolled into his head. He collapsed, unconscious.
Mona allowed the shield to dissipate and turned around to slap me over the shoulder. “What did I tell you about dealing with Fire elementals, in particular, huh?” she snarled.
I gave her a sheepish half-smile, knowing I’d let the urgency of Whisper’s offense get the better of me. “Let the witches or the jinn engage them, since I’m vulnerable to fire, as a vampire.”
“That’s right! So maybe remember this next time, when I might not be around to save your ass,” Mona shot back. Her anger was endearing. It came from a good place. Fortunately, I’d spent lifetimes surrounding myself with kind and loyal friends. Mona was definitely one of them.
Sofia reached us and briefly hugged Mona before rushing farther across the shuttle to get to Whisper. The jinn had already cuffed him and strapped him back down. Basti was shocked, unable to speak, and scared out of her mind as I approached her.
“I swear, I had no idea he’d do that,” she managed.
The shuttle trembled as the interplanetary spell broke through the atmosphere and left Yahwen altogether. We’d barely made it out of there, but we could already feel the temperature dropping inside, as we were no longer compressed between crippling layers of Hermessi fire.
“Why did he do that?” I asked Basti. “I thought he was on our side.”
Basti teared up, as if realizing something she’d maybe considered before, but hadn’t taken seriously until this particular incident. “I’m sorry… I think… I think he’d already decided to join Brendel by the time you got to us. We were talking about it just before you showed up.”
“She’s right,” Sofia said, looking at me. “We heard him, remember? He did contemplate giving in to Brendel. Maybe he’d already done that, and he was grooming Basti and the others in the group to join him.”
The other female fae in that initial cluster sighed deeply, shaking her head in dismay. “The fool. He should’ve known better than to come after you. It didn’t take a scientist to realize you’re all seasoned and skilled enough to neutralize a Hermessi child. I mean, we’re not even half as powerful as our parents. At best, we’re capable fae hybrids.”
“He was likely quick to understand that opposing us from the very beginning would get him stung like the others,” I said. “He waited until he was inside to make his move, only… he severely underestimated us.”
Claudia chuckled from her seat. “Not even the first time that’s happened to us.”
“That’s true,” Yuri added, crinkling his nose. “So it’s off to the galleys with Whisper, too, huh?”
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to get through to him once we reach The Shade and have you all accommodated properly,” Sofia replied, looking at Basti.
“I need everybody to get back to their seats,” Corrine announced, her eyes on the windshield screen. Her expression didn’t inspire much confidence. I hated feeling like this, with the universe so… out of my control. Helpless, even.
Outside the spell bubble, the guardian Hermessi that surrounded Yahwen caught us in their crosshairs. They were joined by the Fire elementals that had stopped us on the ground. Ramin and his rebels were still around, dodging and teasing some of the hostile Hermessi, but they were no longer the center of attention.
All eyes were on us, as our spell bubble darted farther away from Yahwen.
“Needless to say, we’re in a heap of trouble,” Corrine added.
And then some, I thought. I’d hoped Ramin and his handful of rebels would keep the others busy long enough for us to get out of the solar system. But there were too few of them, and too many of the ritual supporters. The alarms had been rung, and the guardians off-planet had known we’d be coming up.
Had Gennen kept his mouth shut in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened. Now, we had extremely unpleasant consequences to deal with. Our survival and the success of our mission depended on our ability to overcome them.
“Whatever you need to speed us up and get us the heck out of here, Kafei, just say so,” I said, my voice uneasy. “It’s about to get rough.”
Sofia
Buckled back in our seats, all Derek and I could do was let Kafei power up the spell with everything she could, in order to stop the guardian Hermessi from crashing into us and putting a premature end to our extraction mission.
The thought of not making it back to The Shade terrified me.
Kafei drew energy from Corrine and Ibrahim, as the Fire Hermessi we’d left back on Yahwen were the first to reach us. Out here, they didn’t seem to have the same elemental dexterity as on the ground, since they didn’t surround us with fire. Instead, they rammed into the spell bubble, repeatedly, causing our shuttle to rock back and forth in its suspended state.
Kafei cried out in pain, and Mona and a few other witches joined Ibrahim and Corrine. They touched Kafei’s back, allowing her to draw more energy and focus it into strengthening the interplanetary bubble spell. Much to my partial relief, I could see us staying on course. We had a trajectory and a destination, thus making it more difficult for the Hermessi to throw us off.
However, it wasn’t impossible.
Some of the guardian Hermessi joined in, battering the spell bubble with everything they had. Elements of Fire, Water, Air, and Earth from multiple worlds in the In-Between and the Supernatural Dimension had teamed up to fight us, to stop us from delivering a most crippling blow to Brendel. Without the Hermessi children, she had nothing to use against rebels like those currently assisting Ramin.
But what about the others she’d already swayed into her service like that? Were they here? Were they okay with stopping us from taking their children to relative safety?
The universe unraveled ahead, black and filled with countless stars and swirling solar systems. The silence was almost deafening, occasionally interrupted by the spell bubble’s agonizing moans as the Hermessi guardians continued their attacks.
“The serium batteries aren’t fully depleted,” Kiev said, his gaze fixed on the glowing blue tanks. “There’s enough in them to make a difference.”
Mona, Derek, Claudia, Yuri, and I watched as Kiev got out of his seat and proceeded to pull the battery wires from beneath the control panel.
“This is going to hurt, but I need you to touch these ends, directly,” he said to Kafei, holding up a handful of rubber-covered cables that, until recently, had connected the serium batteries to the pilot panel in front of her.
She stared at him in disbelief. “Are you serious?”
“You need all the raw power you can get, and the pilot panel is like a filter. It’s thinning all this blue juice out,” he replied.
“Health and safety concerns were key to this!” Ibrahim hissed, scowling at him. “Do you realize what it’ll do to her if she touches the wires directly?!”
“It’ll burn through my skin, my flesh…” Kafei mumbled.
“It’s the only way you’ll get the energy burst you need to push us farther out of the Hermessi’s reach in a matter of seconds,” Kiev insisted. “Drawing from witches and warlocks and jinn is too slow, because you’re not a full swamp witch and don’t have Lumi’s ability to pull much power at once. Trust me, I’ve seen that swamp witch in action. I know what you’ll be capable of once you ascend. Until then, however, you’re limited, and I don’t see the Word stepping in to help us. If the Hermessi keep piling up on us, we will not make it out of here alive.”
Kafei thought about it for a moment, as the hard truth sank in. Kiev had a point, as much as any of us hated to admit it. Kafei was still young and inexperienced, compared to her deceased sister, Nethissis, Kailani… not to mention Lumi. The Bajang was an apprentice, and thus restrained by the rules of her position. Her magic was good, but not strong enough to pull us through with so many Hermessi focused on us.
We’d taken her on assuming we wouldn’t have to deal with all of them like this. But the worst-case scenario had already caught up with us, and drastic measures were required.
“Um… What are they doing?” Corrine asked, staring somewhere outside.
I leaned out to get a better look and found myself stunned by what we were all suddenly witnessing. The guardian Hermessi were relentless in their pursuit, but the ones we’d seen standing back at the sight of us had now turned against their colleagues, joining Ramin and the other rebels in a group attack.
The two dozen hostiles that had surrounded our spell bubble were… virtually outnumbered.
My earlier assessments had come true, I realized, as Hermessi who’d been forced into servitude to Brendel for the sole purpose of protecting their children no longer had a reason to support her. We had their kids, and we were taking them away.
“They finally realized what’s really going on,” I said. “The Hermessi whose children Brendel stole… they all opposed her before. We are saving their children, so—”
“They’re helping us,” Kiev said, equally astonished.
Fire, Earth, Water, and Air crashed into the remaining ritual supporters. Fireballs mingled and tore at one another, causing streaks of bright orange, green, blue, and white to stretch across our field of vision. The elements turned on their own, if only to give us a better chance at escaping.
My heart swelled as I recognized Ramin and his earlier rebels joining in, viciously attacking the very Fire Hermessi that had tried to keep us grounded in the first place. It was truly an extraordinary spectacle—while it was chilling and of cosmic proportions, I couldn’t stop myself from admiring its inadvertent beauty.
The Hermessi’s war was a feast for our eyes, like fireworks exploding in the black void of outer space. This was our last shot to return to The Shade in one piece.
Kafei knew it. Bracing herself for the surge of serium energy going directly through her, she gripped the cables in Kiev’s hand and resumed her spell chants. Her hands burned blue, and she cried out from the searing pain, but she didn’t give up.
She held on and completed the chants, as the ranks of rebel Hermessi grew outside against the ritual supporters. I saw the serium batteries die out as all the energy was transferred into Kafei’s body. She glowed as she pulled her hand back, dropping the dead cables. All the power had nestled inside her.
“Hold on!” she croaked, and slapped both hands against the pilot panels in front of her.
The energy surge flowed through the shuttle, sending sparks flying from different parts of the ship. It spread outward, causing everything to turn white for a split second. Every piece of the shuttle, every cog and grate, every wire and metallic plate, every single damn atom burst brightly as the power exploded farther out and supercharged the interplanetary spell bubble.
For a brief moment, we were all surrounded by a sea of luminescent white, before it vanished, and the spell bubble gained a speed well beyond supersonic. Time and space warped around us, the Hermessi’s skirmish turning and twisting like color drops stirred into a glass of black water.
Seconds passed. I felt my entire being disintegrate, as if pieces of me were falling apart, somehow. It was just the effect of a solid object going through hyperspace with unprecedented velocity. Stars shot past us—thin white lines that vanished before we could even acknowledge their existence.
Slowing down seemed to take forever, as not a single member of our crew dared to say anything. We were all paralyzed. I wondered if we were even breathing at this point.
Hours passed, as far as I could tell, before the universe around us regained its better-known form. We flew past planets and unfamiliar solar systems. We saw galaxies expanding in spirals of sparkling blue, pink, and yellow, with giant stars in the middle—like directors of this extraordinary space ballet. Silence reigned supreme as the spell bubble hummed softly.
“Is… Is it over?” Basti asked, her voice raspy. She’d been gripping the armrests with such strength that her knuckles had turned white.
“I think so,” Kafei replied, wobbling. Corrine, Ibrahim, Mona, and the other witches around her kept her up, flanking her on all sides and holding her close as she regained her strength with a dozen tonic vials.
“You did it,” Kiev said from the floor.
I hadn’t even seen him fall, but, given the sudden speed of our interplanetary spell bubble, I was surprised to see him in one piece. He could’ve easily gotten himself thrown around like a rag doll. My seat straps had been digging into my flesh through the leather suit, but I was thankful I’d had them on.
“How are you still alive?” Mona asked him, both eyebrows raised.
“I’m not sure. I blacked out,” Kiev replied. “I’m not even sure what happened…”
“Kafei practically wormholed us out of there,” Mona said. “I was so focused on her, I didn’t even see you fly backward.”
Kiev chuckled. “Don’t feel guilty. It all happened too fast.”
“But we made it,” Basti interjected, staring at me.
This time, I was more confident in my smile. “We made it. You’ll be kept safe until we stop the ritual, I promise.”
She almost melted in her chair, her lips stretching into a satisfied grin. She tilted her head back, enjoying the soft hold of the headrest, and stretched her legs. “Thank you,” she mumbled before succumbing to a deep sleep.
The other Hermessi children were also exhausted, barely holding on to consciousness, but they could rest easy now. The hardest part was over, and we were headed back to The Shade. While Derek sent word back to GASP about the success of our mission, I gazed out through the shuttle’s windshield, hoping that Ramin had already taken his increased rebel ranks out of that planet system altogether.
We had much work to do, and we needed every rebel we could get on our side. In the meantime, our universal fate continued to rest in the hands of Taeral and his crew. It was time to speak to Nuriya and find out if she’d heard from them.
Our contribution, while minimal in the grand scheme of things, was worthless if Taeral didn’t emerge with a completed Thieron for Death. Looking at Basti again, now fast asleep and safe, I basked in a sweet sense of relief. Minimal or not, it was worth it.
Taeral
Time did not forgive. Whether slowed down or sped up, it continued its linear flow, sooner or later. It did not wait. It did not stop. And it certainly did not care about what went on in the outside world as we struggled to make sense of the Soul Crusher’s puzzle. The urgency was ours and ours alone to feel. The agony, the frustration, and the simmering anger bubbling beneath the surface… it all belonged to us. We had to deal with it. We had to overcome it.
Time had nothing to do with it.
We’d stopped in the umpteenth room with an arrow painted on its floor. I’d yet to touch it with Eirexis, knowing it would yield the same result as before. Nothing changed. The wall it pointed at would pull back with a few clicks. It would slide aside and reveal yet another hexagonal room. This maze went on forever.
“So, what could we possibly try differently?” Varga asked, no longer hiding his doubts.
Dismay had settled over us. Hopelessness threatened to dull our minds into inaction. And inaction meant death—for ourselves, either physical or spiritual; for our worlds, our families and friends; and for the many undiscovered planets out there that were dealing with this Hermessi nightmare without fully understanding what it entailed or why it was being carried out in the first place.
“The arrow is no longer an option. Let’s start there,” Amelia said, holding on to the little thread of hope that still lingered in a few of us.
She toured the room, checking every wall, every joint and corner. Her study offered no new insights, though. Suddenly feeling that inkling of hope slipping through her fingers, Amelia put her back against the wall and slid down, settling on the cold floor. “I’ve got nothing,” she admitted, tearing up.
R
aphael joined her, crossing his legs and putting an arm around her shoulders. He pulled her close and kissed her forehead, closing his eyes in the process. Riza sighed and sat with them, swiftly accompanied by Herakles, who took Amelia’s hand in his, squeezing softly.
“It’s not over yet,” he said.
Soon enough, Lumi, Nethissis, Eva, Varga, and Eira had also taken their places around Amelia, each of them comforting her whichever way they knew best. Amelia was the first to come apart at the seams, and none of our crew seemed able to bear watching that. No one wanted to see her suffering like this. It was one thing to endure physical exhaustion and gaping wounds, and another completely to succumb to hopelessness, to unravel and unwillingly hurl toward utter despair. It wasn’t in our nature to give in, and we couldn’t let any of our friends surrender, either.
“There’s something we’re missing here,” Lumi said after a while. “Something we’re taking as normal and expected, but it isn’t. Not really. It’s staring us right in the face. We just need to see it.”
“Ironically, it’s when we know it’s there that we don’t see it,” Nethissis replied. “The more we look for it, the better it hides.”
Amelia sobbed quietly, surrounded by Raphael and her friends. I stood on the outside, not because I didn’t want to comfort her as well—I did, with all my heart. But I had to stay focused, to dig through the patterns and the apparent nothingness that we’d stumbled into, in order to find a way out. My father was Brendel’s prisoner, and he was also under the Hermessi’s influence. We were cut off from the rest of the world, and my mother was probably climbing the walls, unable to reach me. The Hermessi were still racing to push us into the apocalypse and to wipe us all off the map.
Those I cared for most beyond these wretched walls were grieving and scared out of their minds, struggling to fight against the current as the stream of hazards continued to swell and drag them all down with it. We’d managed to get Eirexis. Zetos was within our reach. We’d made it farther than anyone else before us. Why give up now, when we were so damn close?
A Shade of Vampire 75: A Blade of Thieron Page 21