Having travelled for three days straight, with little to no rest, Xavier, Ai-Ling and Kaley finally arrive at the foot of the mountains.
Kaley had been falling in and out of consciousness, with the poison gaining strength in her body, against the Mythridatium. By the third day, she had been mostly unconscious, being carried in a makeshift swag, constructed from Xavier’s sleeping bag, between Ai-Ling and Xavier’s shoulders.
Night has fallen, and the moon is a sliver of silver against the pitch-black sky. The stars dance above the snowcaps of the mountain range, as Ai-Ling watches, sitting with her arms hugging her knees close to her chest. The warm blue glow of the heating cylinder sits before her. Xavier sits, cross-legged, watching Kaley’s ragged breaths. He looks up to the night sky and prays – prays that she holds on at least one more night until they can find the help she needs to heal.
‘We will save her,’ Ai-Ling whispers, her voice carried on the slight breeze.
Xavier nods, his nose stud gleaming with the blue-light of their artificial campfire. He’s not so sure that they will save her.
But he can only hope.
◆◆◆
Holding his fists high, Justin creeps forward, and looks around the corner of the sewer tunnel. Following close behind, are Maude, Ari, Delta and Hani. Justin turns to the mages, before gesturing silently to Maude and Delta to cross to the opposite side on the tunnel. Maude leaps across the sewage water, with some effort, having lost much of her athletic frame after months of no training and lack of proper food. Hani pushes her palms down towards the ground, and like a feather, floats on air, gracefully, to the other side.
Maude peeks around the corner, and glimpses a shadow moving up ahead. She turns to Justin across the way, and they exchange a nod, before they confront the mystery foe up ahead. As they move out of the shadows, they are instead confronted by a sight they were least expecting.
◆◆◆
Unable to sleep, for fear of missing Kaley’s last breath, Xavier is exhausted when the sun finally rises above the distant horizon. Ai-Ling returns to their campsite, two small rodent-like creatures in each hand. Scouring the low-lying rock formation at the base of The City of Secret’s neighbouring mountain range, she had come across a nest of the creatures. Using her earth-manipulating power, she was able to trap the two fattest, and hence slowest, of the family in a quicksand she created out of the dense granite stone they had been sleeping on.
As she turned the charred remains of the two creatures over above the blue-flame of their artificial fire, Kaley begins to stir. Xavier rushes forwards to her, cradling her head in his hands. Her brow is damp, causing her blonde fringe to stick, matted. He pulls a water bubble from his belt, cracking the top and placing it to her lips.
‘Drink,’ he says softly.
Kaley takes a few sips, before she opens her eyes.
Xavier stares back into the piercing blue, his soul constantly getting lost in the endless ocean.
‘How long have I been out?’ she asks.
‘A couple days,’ Xavier explains, helping her to sit up, as she takes a further sip from the water bubble.
Ai-Ling approaches, handing her a small piece of the charred meat.
Kaley takes the meat with a small smile, before asking, ‘how long until we get to The City?’
‘We are just on the outskirts,’ Xavier says, looking into the distance. ‘If we head off soon, we should make it into the walls by midday.’
‘There is a surrounding moat,’ Ai-Ling explains. ‘And a tiny gate that gains us entry into the eastern side of The City.’
Kaley notices Xavier’s frown as Ai-Ling conveys their plan for entry into The City.
‘He does not think you will be able to cope with being underwater for a prolonged period of time,’ Ai-Ling says.
‘Shouldn’t that be for me to decide,’ Kaley says, defiantly.
‘You’re still very weak-,’ Xavier starts to protest.
Kaley cuts him off, ‘I can do it.’
Xavier frowns but does not say anything more, as he eats the remainder of his breakfast.
◆◆◆
Maude and Justin turn the corner and to their surprise are a group of gloomy runaways. Most are soaking wet, River standing away from the core of the group, looking slightly sheepish, for casting the sewer water out onto them in his surprise. As the rest of the group approach the forlorn people, Guy emerges from the crowd with a small woman, to approach Maude and Justin.
‘What’s going on?’ Justin asks, perplexed.
‘Jade?’ Maude recognizes the small stout woman standing slightly behind Guy.
Her face no longer carries its usual plumpness or rosy glow. Her brown curly hair hangs dry and limp. Her eyes are dark and dejected. She gives Maude a small smile.
‘What are you doing down here?’ Maude asks, concern marring her features as she approaches the doleful woman.
‘We sought refuge here,’ Jade starts, glancing behind her at the other woeful souls.
‘But The Underground-,’ Justin begins to ask.
Jade glances down to the ground, unable to meet Justin’s eyes. ‘Didn’t you hear? It’s been destroyed.’
‘When?’
‘Weeks ago,’ Jade says, her voice grabbing in her throat.
‘That’s not possible,’ Maude shakes her head. She looks to Guy. ‘Guy, you’ve been communicating with The Colonel for the last few weeks. I mean you even spoke to him merely hours ago. Didn’t you?’
Before anyone could contemplate what was happening, Guy pulls his daggers from his belt, wielding them in both his hands.
‘You bastard,’ Justin seethes, as he reflexively goes for his bow and arrows only to realise they were taken from him at The Chancellor’s laboratory.
‘You betrayed us?’ Maude’s face is so white it’s almost glowing in the dark of the sewers.
‘How long have you been playing us?’ Justin asks, his voice barely audible.
‘For as long as I have been a part of The Underground movement,’ Guy shrugs his shoulders.
‘You bastard!’ Maude lunges forwards, striking her left fist against the right side of his head. Guy hardly budges.
Instead he throws down his weapons. ‘I guess we should make this a fair fight.’
‘It’s one against seven, mate,’ Justin says, sizing him up. ‘Those odds aren’t great for you.’
‘I beg to differ,’ Guy smiles, mischievously.
Suddenly, his fists are glowing balls of fire, casting his shadow in long waves across the sewer walls.
‘You – you destroyed The Underground. You murdered The Colonel!’ Jade cries, as she cowers beneath the fireballs that were once Guy’s hands.
Guy clicks his tongue, ‘that was my twin brother, Inferno. And you may call me by my real name - Pyro.’
Chapter FORTY-ONE
‘You’re one of The Fire Twins,’ Ari gasps, mouth aghast.
‘Indeed I am. And my plan was to get all of you mages together so that we might find ourselves at The Chancellor’s disposal.’
‘And so you put on this elaborate ruse,’ Maude spits. ‘Pretended to be our friend and ally. For what?’
‘For the greater good, of course. We mages, were born of the earth for the greater good of the human race.’
Hani, Malik, Delta and River, square up against the fire-mage, flanking Ari in pairs on either side. The water of the sewer tunnel starts to bubble and churn, as it responds to the water-mage siblings’ fury.
‘Don’t you see?’ Pyro continues, a crazed look in his eyes. ‘Why else were we given these gifts? If not for the Earth wanting us to fight back. To create more like us. Super humans and beasts – our DNA has been extracted and used for the greater good. You two have also been contributing the greater good.’
He nods towards Justin and Maude who have now taken their fighting stance, as they slowly back towards the stowaways who cower in the corner, moving Jade behind them.
‘I tried to get you all t
ogether without too much collateral damage,’ Pyro purrs. ‘I mean the last thing we need is loss of human life. Well, except for those Elites who thought they could rule over us with their gold-encrusted fists. No – I believe in a world were those who have potential to contribute to a greater good should survive. And thrive.
‘It is our turn to rule. We will rule over those cockroaches who have barely contributed anything to society. Elite, Sub-Elite, commoner – it doesn’t matter. And those who have served the greater good – well, they will be allowed to live in our new world.’
‘You, were the one communicating with Julie, when Ari was captured,’ Justin suddenly realises.
Pyro laughs, ‘indeed. But she did not know it was I. No, she thought she was communicating with someone close to her twisted uncle. Little did she know I was relaying the information about the other mages that he had back to The Chancellor.
‘And so it all played out even better than we could have predicted. Arielle is kidnapped and we are sent on a rescue mission, heading to The Founding Family’s Palace to rescue not only Arielle but to obtain the earth-, water- and wind-mages too. At the same time, you and Maude are groveling to that weasel, Rex, whom my brother had convinced to give you up for one million bullion, the greedy little man he is. And he did – the two of you made perfect DNA donors to the cause.
‘It was quite the shame to lose that one earth-mage, though. The silly girl killed herself. Two are always better than one. But in the end, we managed to escape with the others. And my brother was conducting an elaborate ruse of his own.
‘He convinced the male water-mage that he was being clever - that he had us duped.’
River’s pale face somehow becomes even paler as the blood drains at these word’s, realising he was the one who was being played, back at Chvostek’s laboratory.
Pyro chuckles, ‘that is right. He was the one who allowed you access to the library – where you could find the newspaper from the Old World – and to the mortuary where you would steal those guards’ eyes and uniforms. He also allowed you access to your girlfriend. So you two could meet and concoct a plan for escape.’
Pyro’s smile broadens even more, touching his droopy eyes.
Fury coursing through her veins, Maude looks down at her mangled hand. This had all been part of some elaborate plan – their escape was just causing them to be caught even tighter in The Chancellor’s net. Her hand – part of her weapon as a sharpshooter – she destroyed it for no reason at all.
‘Yes, we wanted you all to escape,’ Pyro chuckles, as he watches Maude’s anger rise to boiling point. ‘We scared you into crossing that Swamp with the missile launch on Rostenburg. The creature in the swamp was also a product of Dr Hadrad’s creation – a diversion plot so that I could get you all down here where we will be taken to The City of Secrets, to meet our future Ruler and to get that Xavier out of the way. He started to suspect that I wasn’t who I claimed to be. And, no, there was no attack ordered on the village above – it was just my way of getting you all down here.’
Maude lets out a high pitched sound, a cross between a scream and a snarl as she lunges for the man standing smugly before them.
‘You bastard!’ She bellows, before he grabs her right wrist in his fireball hand.
She screams in agony, as he burns through her flesh.
Ari looks on in anger, fury and rage coursing through her body. Starting in her chest and flowing into her arms and legs, her fingers and toes. Her eyes glaze over as she watches the Fire Twin bring Maude to her knees.
‘Enough!’ Justin yells, as he runs to Maude’s aid. ‘What is it you want from us?’
‘As I said,’ Pyro says, nonchalantly, releasing his grip on Maude’s charred wrist. ‘Getting you all down here was the plan. Where we could bury you under the rubble and extract your power for ourselves.’
‘You’re insane,’ Malik whistles.
‘Am I though? Your earth-mage girlfriend isn’t here to manipulate the earth. So maybe I am a genius.’
‘And my sister?’ Ari spits out, the fury almost bubbling over now.
Pyro shrugs, ‘collateral damage really. I mean she was a means to an end. Poisoning her was a great way to get that weak assassin and the earth-mage out of the picture.’
At these words, learning that her sister’s fears had once again come true, that she would be used and cast aside like trash, causes a fuse to snap in Ari’s brain.
Shadows cross her eyes, and the dark power residing within her explodes forwards, engulfing the sewers in a shadowy tornado. The force flings Justin and Maude backwards, flattening them against the cold, damp ground. The escapees for The Underground, cover their faces, and huddle even tighter together against the furor of Ari’s power. Delta, Malik, River and Hani cast themselves and The Underground citizens in a force-field of aerosolised sewer water combining their air and water manipulating powers to protect them against the incredible force.
Pyro loses his footing slightly, before he casts his whole form in flame.
‘You cannot defeat me,’ he shouts. ‘I am the phoenix – it is my duty to cleanse the earth of the likes of you and rebirth a Super Human race from your ashes.’
Ari looks deeper inside herself and launches waves and waves of the power she never knew she housed. It spills forwards, pushing the fire twin further and further back. He punches his fists together and launches a stream of flame towards Ari, causing her knees to slightly buckle and her the energy flowing to falter. She regains her composure before forcing the energy forwards, like dark webs spurting forth, encircling her prey.
Pyro casts further fireballs her way and at the mages behind her. They meet their mark. Ari is caught in a plume of smoke. She coughs, as she falls to her knees, and suddenly the dark tornado ceases to exist. There is a scratching sound in the distance, which grows louder now the sound of the whirling tornado has died out. The Fire Twin walks forwards, standing over the exhausted healer.
‘As I said,’ he taunts. ‘You are no match for me. You will all meet your fate – the extractors are here. You will all meet your fate. You will be remembered for the greater good.’
Ari turns her head towards the scraping sound, growing louder and louder. Shadows flicker on the walls of the sewer.
Pyro now looks to The Underground’s survivors, ‘as for all of you. You are not welcome in the New World. Cockroaches. Parasites. You will be taken to the internment camps where you will all eventually be destroyed.’
Too exhausted to move, depleted of all her energy, Ari struggles to stand and face her foe. Justin shuffles over to her and flanks her right side. The water- and air-mages stand by her other side.
‘We will not go down without a fight,’ Ari says, indignantly.
Pyro smiles smugly. ‘As you wish.’
Chapter FORTY-TWO
Having trekked for hours from the north side of the mountain ranges to the eastern wall of The City of Secrets, Xavier, Ai-Ling and Kaley take a much needed rest in the shadows on the looming mountains.
They each take a swig from their water bubbles and Kaley takes the last few drops of the Mythrandium. Xavier watches with concern as he notices the welts from the creature’s tentacles extending further up her neck and into her scalp.
The poison was spreading.
They were running out of time.
He stands and re-adjusts his supplies on his belt, before addressing Kaley, ‘are you sure you can handle the moat?’
Brow furrowing at frustration of hearing this same question the last few hours, Kaley lets out an exasperated sigh. She stands and does not answer, instead walking in the direction of their entry point of the moat, Xavier and Ai-Ling hurrying to catch up to her.
Surprised there were no cameras when they arrive at the wall, Ai-Ling points out to the other two the location of the gate that should gain them entry into The City.
‘It’s currently high-tide,’ she explains, but the gate is just ahead of us here.’
‘How do you k
now about this gate?’ Kaley asks, curious.
‘My sister-,’ Ai-Ling’s voice catches briefly. ‘My sister and I often came here on behalf of Eli after his siblings died. The Founding Family lived here for a long while before Eli’s parents died of their genetic curse. Then the siblings moved to The Palace. So we would come here on behalf of Eli whenever he was summoned on government matters.’
‘You two were trusted with government information?’ Xavier asks, incredulous.
Ai-Ling ties her long sheet of black hair back, before answering, ‘well, we were forced into submission to The Founding Family with mind altering techniques. It was not like we really had a choice. Slowly, I studied the map of The City we were given, and committed it to memory. In case, my sister and I ever did escape their clutches.’
Ai-Ling smiles a sad smile, ‘I guess I wasn’t as much under their control after all. Not like Mei, anyway.’
‘Can you swim?’ Kaley asks Xavier with a cheeky smile.
‘Well, yeah-,’ he starts to say before Kaley playfully pushes him backwards.
Xavier falls into the icey-cold water of the moat, head-bobbing as he comes up for air, spluttering. He gives Kaley a chastising glance before laughing. Ai-Ling and Kaley jump in after him and then the three of them dive down, deep into the murky water.
◆◆◆
Kaley starts to feel the fatigue taking over her body as they dive deeper and deeper, searching for the tiny gate that will give them entry into The City. Her lungs burn. Her throat starts to close up, almost forcing her to take in a deep breath. She calms herself, as her mind starts to panic – it’s taking too long. There is no gate. She was going to drown down here.
Suddenly there is a tug on her wrist. She looks down to find Xavier pulling her forward. Ai-Ling had found the gate. It was tiny, indeed. She and Ai-Ling would certainly fit through. But Xavier? His shoulders may be too broad.
Elite Nation: Book One Page 19