"I don't want to get involved," he said with a grunt.
"Seriously? Tough," I snapped. "Now is not the time. Hang out in my pocket, or risk a hunter snatching you up." He grumbled but complied. I felt a brief glimmer of pleasant surprise. Now he listens. What a joke.
I ran as fast as I could through the central chamber. In a few short minutes, I managed to gather my group and take them back to the Hive. It was a mixed team—anyone I could find, especially those familiar with redbills and the Immortal Plane. Everyone was armed. I noted guns, knives, and vampire gauntlets. The latter had been affectionately nicknamed by Sike, who wanted to highlight the beauty of leeching energy from the rulers inspired by their very own technology. Hopefully, these weapons would be enough. I had no gauntlet of my own, only the bracer holding Lanzon's stone strapped to my forearm. The metal and leather straps encased my skin with comforting weight.
My group ran for the free redbills. Colin hopped on one with Laini. Roxy joined Kane on another.
"Can you see in this light?" I called out to Colin, knowing that his shooting would be a strong asset if he could manage with the lighting. He gave me a thumbs-up. Laini urged the bird upward to hover above the scrambling crowd.
"We'll stick to protecting the Hive," Lily said, gripping her gun. Good. She, Hank, and Sylas were armed with assault rifles. Thankfully, even the medics had combat experience in the Bureau. I nodded, but my stomach sank like a rock.
I set the worry aside as a gem blast slammed into the wall beside me. The jaspeths buzzed angrily. Their bodies still blocked most of the shots, but I had a feeling they wouldn’t last much longer.
Bravi, Neo, and a handful of Hive vampires had divided themselves among four redbills. The birds let out low, agitated croaks, but they complied when the vampires approached. Good thing we weren’t putting the unexperienced humans on them right now.
"Lyra," Dorian shouted across the chaos. Somehow, he had found Drigar. "Let's go."
I didn't see Arlonne or the other Coalition members, but we couldn't wait for them. The white noses of two skimmers broke through the wall of furious jaspeths before being enveloped by the swarm again.
I ran to Dorian, my pulse racing as we fell into the familiar rhythm of battle. After our distance in the last few days, it was strange but welcome to suddenly behave as if nothing had happened. I jumped up onto Drigar, and as the huge redbill flapped his mighty wings, the telltale anger coursed through me.
Immediately, I was flooded with a fear that I would lose control like I had before. And this time, the stakes were far higher. I didn’t want a repeat of last time; I had to stay calm and ready. My one advantage was that now I was armed with knowledge, and knowledge was power. Now that I knew what to look out for, I could avoid my previous mistakes. So, despite the burning rage coursing through my body, I dug deep beneath the darkness and found my usual rationality.
It was like a gear finally clicked into place. The fog in my head dissipated, my focus sharpened, and I surged with energy. I was ready.
"Send reinforcements as they become available," Dorian bellowed to Lily's group. He leaned forward on Drigar, and the redbill shot forward. The world turned to a dizzying blur of dark shadows mixed with the white lichen glowing like stars in the sky.
"Hold on," I whispered to Gate Maker, still in my pocket. He was in for a wild ride.
"Worry about yourself, human," he fired back. Amazing how such a small body could carry such a moody voice.
Dorian glanced at me over his shoulder with a scowl. "I didn’t realize Gate Maker was riding around with you," he said. "Or I would have kept him out of this. Maybe he can make himself useful, though."
Gate Maker offered zero response to that. How convenient.
Drigar slowed as we approached the jaspeth huddle. He dove into the swarm and hovered at the outskirts, the others following behind us. This clash would be harder than fighting out in the open soul-light. My eyes struggled to make out details in the combination of light from the glowing lichen, the swirling lights of the jaspeths, the skimmers bobbing with their own lighting systems, and the bright, bubbling lake below. The good news was that I managed to make out what was happening. The bad news? Ten skimmers faced the wall of angry monster insects. Each had a pilot at the helm, all makers or wildlings, and a hunter standing behind them.
A churning sound like low-pitched chainsaws filled the air. An acrid scent overwhelmed me. I clapped my hand over my nose and mouth. Echen once told me that these creatures communicated using musk to indicate danger or safety, differentiating friend from foe. Right now, the jaspeths were furious. Fortunately, our team was covered in their friendly pheromones, so they would spare us in their assault on the intruders.
The nearest hunter fired her gauntlet in our direction while her pilot repositioned himself behind the skimmer's onboard gun. My heart squeezed as the blast struck a jaspeth’s head and sent it careening into the water. I hadn't seen the jaspeths up close before. They were about half the size of a redbill, shaped like giant wasps with electric-blue striping down their sides. The stripes flickered like a poorly rendered 3D image, making my eyes skip. Shockingly long, sharp stingers glinted in the soft light. I swept my gaze over the glowing water below, where a dozen or so jaspeth corpses had already fallen.
Enraged at his comrade's death, another jaspeth charged. The skimmer dodged, and the jaspeth returned to the relative safety of his ranks. The flying beasts were unable to take out the skimmers, although their speed was evenly matched. With our pheromone advantage, our group closed in on the skimmers without trouble from the jaspeths.
I pressed my nails into my palms, feeling waves of anger wash over me as we approached the hunters. Just seeing a ruler was enough to eat me alive inside. We were lucky that the skimmers had no revenants with them, but a long-distance battle could prove difficult, since we were mostly armed with knives and gauntlets that needed to be charged by stripping away spells before they could fire. As I looked for an opening to attack, a chilling voice rang out over the hovering skimmers.
"Incoming! Fire at will." The voice sounded familiar, and while I couldn't place it, I shuddered instinctively. Whoever spoke, their words magically amplified to fill the cave. I knew only a handful of rulers could do that…
"No," Gate Maker growled. “Not him.”
I opened my mouth to ask him who it was, but Dorian suddenly moved.
"Hold on," he snapped. Drigar dropped to avoid a blast from the closest skimmer.
A female hunter grinned wildly as Drigar darted frantically through the air. A barrage of shots pulsed from the skimmers. Dorian urged Drigar to the right. I glanced over my shoulder to see that Kane and Roxy had gone left, their redbill barreling out of the way of another skimmer’s blasts. The hunters had used their weapons to herd us apart, effectively splitting our group in two.
Dorian growled as the same hunter fired her gauntlet again, the burning beam just missing Dorian's head. He swore. Drigar careened close to the wall. Someone behind me screamed. Our group was still intact, but the skimmers grew more aggressive with their shots. Their impressive firepower made it difficult to get close, but we had to if we wanted to charge our vampire gauntlets.
Dorian scowled as his eyes scanned the skimmers, which scrambled to avoid a sudden rush by the jaspeths. It gave us a few precious seconds to consider our situation. What would we do if an aerial battle proved impossible?
"Don't let the leeches get close!" That voice again. It seemed to come from all directions. I scanned the ceiling, looking for a skimmer hiding somewhere above. A chill sank into my bones as I processed the sound. Leeches. Don’t let the leeches…
I knew that voice. "It can’t be."
Dorian turned to shoot me a questioning look.
"Dorian,” I yelled, “it's Sempre."
"Impossible," Dorian said, his voice harsh from surprise.
"How is he alive?" I demanded. My head pulsed with sudden pain as my fury tripled. "Didn't Gate Maker drop him in
to the earth?"
A sudden buzz sounded next to me. Gate Maker seethed beside my ear. "Better. I tore him limb from limb."
None of us had been prepared for this.
Dorian, not turning to address Gate Maker, called back, "Want to help us out with a repeat performance?"
"I don't have the strength," Gate Maker admitted. "And if I showed my face, they'd do anything to recapture me.”
Dorian grunted irritably. "Then don't distract us while we fight."
I craned to listen for Sempre's voice while Gate Maker grumbled and retreated back to my pocket.
"You will fail, leeches," Sempre shouted below us. “But you can serve a greater purpose, if you surrender!”
We spotted his skimmer dipping low, beneath the densest part of the jaspeth swarm. Dorian pulled my arms around his waist. I held tight as Drigar dove toward the lake. The glowing surface burned in my vision as Drigar pulled up at the last moment to fly parallel to the water. He let out a triumphant battle cry.
"There," Dorian said, pointing. Drigar banked to follow his gesture. "That cavern."
A figure in dark clothes on the skimmer in front of us made a panicked movement as Drigar raced toward the vehicle. The skimmer jerked backward until it bumped against the back of a sizeable recess in the wall. The craft scraped against stone, producing a high-pitched screech that sent a shudder through me. We had cornered him and his pilot. Up close, I finally got a good look.
The ruler looked like Sempre… but wrong. His body was misshapen under his plain black garments and simple armor, as if the universe had forgotten the general shape of a ruler when it crafted him. My eyes tried to focus, but Drigar swerved to avoid a gem blast. From afar, I spotted Sempre's bald head without a trace of his old hair. He no longer carried a gem in his forehead, either. His face was twisted, the muscles contorted bizarrely. Something about its contours made my teeth grind together, like the reaction to nails on a chalkboard.
Sempre smashed a fist into his pilot's head. "Engage the redbill," he demanded. The maker flew forward from the force of his blow but still managed to maneuver the skimmer's controls. Sempre's wild eyes found me, and he howled with victory. "You disgusting creatures!"
His voice was only partly his, his previous elegant tones reduced to raspy grunts. It was offkey, so unlike the practiced elegance that Sempre had once possessed.
"I knew I'd find you here," Sempre gloated wildly. "Thieves! Meddlers! Where is Inkarri? Where is Prisoner One?"
He made a fist, and it spasmed wildly. His body betrayed him with every single movement. I half expected that if I tugged the string of his cloak, he would unravel like a cheap rag doll.
Met with silence, he seethed. "You'll pay for what you've taken from me."
We would pay?
This time, he was mine.
Chapter Twenty-Two
A shadow fell over me. I ducked, nearly colliding with the back of Dorian’s skull. A jaspeth’s blasted-off leg dropped mere inches from my back.
“Careful,” Dorian grunted. He faced Sempre, who was still screeching about our abuses against him.
I didn’t bother to respond. My eyes flew to the flurry of gem blasts overhead. Somewhere on the opposite side of the cave, Roxy screamed. A gem blast exploded against the wall above us, raining chips of stone and dirt. Someone dropped from a redbill’s back. Not Roxy. I couldn’t tell who’d been hit.
Drinn and his Coalition partner, a wiry vampire named Gol, flew straight toward a skimmer. My breath caught as I spotted the elongated stone knives in their hands. The vampires moved with practiced ease, since Reshi had given the warriors fake knives to practice with weeks before. They caught the gem blasts with the stone, and to my utter satisfaction, the stone emitted a soft glow, greedily soaking up the energy. The hunter on the skimmer cried out in frustration as Drinn’s redbill narrowly missed colliding with the craft. Gol steadied the redbill as Drinn launched himself at the skimmer’s occupants. He raised his vampire gauntlet.
Yes! The gauntlet ate a close-range shot from the hunter, who let out an even more enraged cry. Hunter frustration was a beautiful sound.
“—leeches, infuriating waste of my time.” Sempre flapped his lips, his mouth jerking oddly as he raged.
Dorian let out a rumbling growl of annoyance. “Can you shut him up?” He lacked a vampire gauntlet, and even if he had one, it wouldn’t be charged.
I straightened, aiming my pistol. “I’ll try.” I fired a clean shot, the recoil sending a delicious sense of satisfaction through me that fed my sour anger. The feeling was short-lived; the shot hit Sempre’s armor and ricocheted harmlessly with a pulse of greenish energy.
We would have to get close enough to use Lanzon’s stone. After that, his armor would be no match for Reshi’s knives. As if sensing my thought, Dorian prodded Drigar forward. The redbill attempted to charge from the side, but the pilot whipped out of the alcove. He fired as they fled, forcing Drigar to dodge. Another jaspeth body fell and splashed into the glowing waters.
Fine. If Sempre wanted to run away, I would adapt. Dorian urged Drigar on as I steadied another shot at the skimmer. This time, my eyes fell on the pilot, who wore lighter armor than Sempre. As I aimed, my muscles fell into place with power and precision. The vampire blood gave me a focus like no other. It had only been a week, yet my body easily adapted to the effects. My anxieties fled, replaced by an almost primitive fighting instinct. This was it. I was finally a match for the Immortal Plane. My body moved how I wanted it to now.
“Behind us,” Gate Maker rumbled, his voice strangely loud from his small form.
I whipped around. A hunter curled her lip, baring teeth as her skimmer approached.
“Go right,” I yelled to Dorian. The hunter fired just as Drigar swerved aside. I whipped a stone knife from my belt, the motion more fluid and efficient than usual. As the glowing energy flew toward me, I lifted my knife. On impact, the stone sliced down the middle, sizzling and glowing as it partially absorbed the blast. The rest of the light faded from the air. Reshi is an absolute genius. More shots followed, but I sliced through them again and again.
Around me, more vampires had managed to find ways to charge their own weapons. A stout Coalition vampire raised his gauntlet and released a barrage of golden blasts at the closest hunter. The ruler cried out as the force pushed his body over the edge of the skimmer, and he plummeted into the lake.
Another hunter managed to strongarm a tall female vampire off him and slam a knife into her stomach. The vampire woman gasped, then snarled and sliced open the hunter’s throat with her own knife. Blood covered them both as they slid off the skimmer, tumbling together into the illuminated water below. Every moment we held the hunters off came at a cost.
Sempre let out a wail of anger as a skimmer went down somewhere in the distance, damaged by a vampire gauntlet. That’s right, Sempre, we’re using your own magic to destroy you.
Two skimmers that had lost their hunters rushed to regroup with him. They stuck together like a band of misfits, unwilling to push forward. Sempre threw his arm back, gesturing to his remaining troops to fall back about thirty feet. I narrowed my eyes, trying to figure out his intention.
The sound of angry buzzing started to fade. I looked around frantically to see the jaspeths returning to their hive. Dorian growled beneath his breath. It was smart. Sempre had retreated just enough to get the insects to stop instinctively defending their home.
Despite taking down several hunters, our numbers had dwindled as well. Dorian and I had Drigar. Two other Coalition vampires sat atop their own redbills, along with Laini and Colin on another bill. My blood turned cold with dread. What had happened to make Roxy scream earlier? Where was she? The remaining four skimmers faced us, somehow looking more intimidating than before.
Sempre sliced his arm through the air, a bizarrely mechanical movement. The skimmers unleashed a barrage of heavy shots and pushed forward. The redbills scattered, unable to get past their fire. The jaspeths buzzed at
the entrance of their hive with little interest in the battle anymore. My heart fell when I saw how their numbers had thinned. Where the hell are our reinforcements? At this rate, the skimmers would make it to the Hive if they kept making us run for our lives.
Sempre’s lumpy form stumbled as his skimmer abruptly slowed to avoid falling debris.
“Now,” Dorian cried. Drigar pulled ahead of Sempre’s skimmer and whirled to face the craft. “Block the spells!”
My pulse staggered wildly when I tightened my hand around the knife handle. I felt all-powerful with my steady hand on the blade. Movement caught my eye, making me stiffen. A jaspeth buzzed over our heads, coming from the direction of the Hive. It was larger than the other jaspeths, and its exoskeleton was made from a brassy metal. In the black saddle on its back sat Arlonne and Reshi. The jaspeth flew steadily, but its movements were mechanically precise. Was this Reshi’s secret, infamous invention? Their jaspeth emanated a soft, steady buzz, flying around Sempre and the group of hunters, herding them together with impossible speed.
Sempre’s pilot fired the on-board gun, but the jaspeth was faster—its clacking mandibles opened to reveal a stomach-turning mouth. Shiny, black points glinted within. Now we would see what Reshi had been working on all this time.
Darts from this mechanical jaspeth peppered the hunters. Each contact produced a brief green glow followed by sparks. They’d neutralized the warded armor! Excellent news, since it meant that we could get closer to the hunters.
Arlonne waved her prosthetic arm. “Go!”
We didn’t need to be told twice.
As the hunters cried out in fear, frenzied adrenaline rushed through me. The sound of charging energy blasts hummed through the air. Every skimmer fired all their artillery at the enormous jaspeth. Their blasts struck the machine, which shook from the impact… but remained upright. Their shots only seemed to shimmer and dissolve into a greenish forcefield. On top of everything else, Reshi had warded the machine, and the skimmers had just reinforced it.
Darklight 5: Darktide Page 18