Jodi licked her lips and went charging into the darkness with Frostpaw a split second behind her. They returned a moment later, their muzzles stained with goblin blood. Gabriel patted Jodi’s head approvingly and strangely, she liked it.
The group moved into position in a shallow ravine south of the army encampment outside the castle. Gabriel took two fighters with him and ordered the rest to stay and wait for his return. As he began walking, Jodi trotted up behind him. Gabriel turned to stare at her. “No,” he said quietly. “Wait here, Jodi.”
Jodi shook her head, flopping her ears back and forth. And then she shifted. Gabriel shuddered visibly as she almost instantly became a young woman again. “I wish you’d quit doing that in front of me,” he said. “Or at least give me some warning.”
“I would, but I don’t think you’d understand,” Jodi said with a sly smile.
Gabriel ignored her joke. “You need to stay here,” he said. “It won’t be safe going with me.”
Jodi planted her feet firmly apart. “I can do this, Gabriel. And don’t pretend you don’t need me.”
He took a deep breath. “All right, but stay close and follow my lead.” He glanced at Frostpaw. “And leave your… brother here.”
Jodi glanced at Frostpaw. “Done,” she said.
At that moment, they heard a shout in the distance. Jodi glanced to the north and saw a fireball hurtling through the sky. It slammed into the north wall of the castle with a loud crash. Chaos washed over the encampment like a tsunami. The commanders emerged from their tents, shouting for an explanation and screaming for their troops to get armed. The soldiers scurried back and forth through the encampment, gathering up their weapons and then racing towards the north side of the castle.
Among them, Jodi saw nearly every kind of shadowcreature she’d ever heard of, and then some. For the most part, human shadowfriends and grimlocks seemed to be in charge. Other less intelligent races simply followed orders. Among them, she saw minotaurs wielding great war axes, giants with spiked clubs made from tree trunks, and hundreds of goblins wearing steel plate armor and carrying swords and spears. Wyvern and varsifur circled overhead, shrieking.
Another fireball hurled out of the sky and smashed into the troops gathering outside the castle, and then several loud explosions lit up the horizon. A roar went up among the soldiers and they broke into a run, furiously charging at their unseen enemies.
“That’s our sign,” Gabriel whispered. “Come on.”
He led Jodi and the two troll warriors up to the rear of the encampment. They made it easily to the cover of the tents. Jodi had to admit Gabriel’s plan was working nicely. The Shadow had never expected an attack, least of all in its home territory. The army was in a shambles. If the trolls had more fighters, Jodi thought they just might have been able to defeat the Shadowlords in one surprise attack. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the situation. They were hopelessly outnumbered and the attack was really just a distraction for… Jodi paused mid-thought. She’d never even heard the rest of the plan.
“Where are we going?” she whispered. “What are we doing here?”
Gabriel grinned. He pointed up in the sky over the encampment. Jodi looked up and saw a dozen giant dirigible airships floating there. They were tethered to the ground by thick ropes. Gabriel put a finger to his lips, warning her to be quiet. Then he stepped around the corner and reached out. He danced back as an ogre slumped to the ground.
Jodi looked horrified. She’d never seen one of the creatures before. They were human-like in build, but otherwise completely different. The creature’s skin was green and covered with thick fish-like scales and its face was hideous and misshapen, with one eye larger than the other. Its nose was flat like it had been smashed with a two-by-four. “Is he dead?” she whispered.
“No,” Gabriel said. “I don’t kill them unless I have to. Most of these creatures are slaves. They only fight for the Shadow to protect their homes and families.”
“That’s horrible,” Jodi said.
“I know.” Gabriel slipped across the walkway to the next tent and motioned for the others to follow. They walked along the edge of the camp for a dozen yards until they came to one of the huge ropes that held the airships in place. “What now?” said Jodi.
Gabriel smiled. “We climb.”
Jodi glanced at the thick rope dangling down from the sky. “Seriously?”
“You said you could do it,” Gabriel said.
Jodi licked her lips nervously. “You didn’t say it was this!”
“Humans,” one of the trolls said. He pushed past her and grabbed onto the rope. “Wait here. Do not move!”
With that, he lifted himself in the air and then swung his feet up, grabbing the rope with his toes. He climbed that way; hand over hand, one quick step after another, as if he were simply crawling up a flight of stairs. The troll flitted up towards the airship and vanished under its dark looming shadow. A few seconds later, a rope ladder came dangling down next to them. Jodi looked at Gabriel and he was smiling from ear to ear.
“You knew he could do that, didn’t you?” she said. “You were just messing with me.”
Gabriel laughed quietly. “Of course.”
She rolled her eyes and grabbed the ladder. “You’re a jerk.”
Gabriel turned his attention to the second troll. “Keep an eye on her,” he said. “I’ll be right back.” He slipped into the shadows between the tents.
“Where’s he going?” Jodi said.
The troll shrugged and pointed into the air. “Go up,” he said impatiently. Jodi took a deep breath and began climbing.
Chapter 39
Halfway to the airship, Jodi made the mistake of looking down. From her vantage, she could see across the entire encampment and even over the castle walls, and beyond. She heard shouting coming from below and followed the voice to a goblin on the north end of the camp. He was pointing right at her. He began running, screaming something in his shrill language. Half a dozen more appeared behind him.
“Move!” came a voice from below. Jodi glanced down to see the second troll flying up the rope ladder behind her. At the same moment, the airship began to rise.
Jodi clutched the ladder desperately, fear surging up inside of her as they lurched into the sky. “What happened?” she yelled.
“I cut the ropes!” the troll shouted. “Go, go!”
Jodi panicked. The ground beneath her was sliding further and further away, and she was afraid to let go of the rope ladder to reach for the next rung. “I can’t,” she said desperately. “I can’t.”
The troll came up beneath her. She glanced at him over her shoulder, saw his penetrating stare, and shivered. He smiled. “You not afraid,” he said encouragingly. “You wolf.”
Jodi took a deep breath. “Yeah,” she said nervously. “I’m a wolf.”
The troll shook his head. “No, you WOLF!” he said loudly. And then he gave her a sharp slap on the leg.
“Hey!” Jodi shouted. The wolf inside of her let out a low growl. She felt an instinctive urge to attack him, to fight back. Instantly, her fears melted away. Jodi grabbed the next rail and took a step up. Then she did it again. Below her, the troll let out a cheer. She smiled.
Getting up over the side of the ship wasn’t easy, but Jodi had help. Then, when she finally made it onto the deck and glanced over the edge, she saw that the Black Palace was just a small fiery spot in the darkness below. Off the bow of the ship, she saw another airship rising through the air. It appeared to be unmanned. She glanced to the side and saw another, and then another. Suddenly, she realized what Gabriel had been doing. He had cut all of the airships free so the shadowfriends couldn’t pursue them. But where had he gone?
“Gabriel!” she said. “We left without him!”
The trolls were too distracted trying to fly the airship to bother with her. One of them stood at a control panel with a steering wheel fussing with a complex array of switches and levers while the other ran back and forth ad
justing the sails. Jodi ran nervously back and forth, her eyes scanning the other ships for any sign of Gabriel.
Jodi didn’t notice at first that they had begun to turn. It wasn’t until she saw the other ships rising overhead that she realized the trolls were guiding the ship somewhere specific. She went to the portside rail and stood there, watching the ships disappear overhead and the castle shrinking in the distance.
The trolls somehow managed to bring the ship down in altitude, to within several yards of the ground. The dry, cracked earth flew beneath them as they swept across the landscape. Then, eventually, the ship slowed and finally came to a halt. Up ahead, the rest of the trolls appeared, dragging the wagon and the massive clockwork machine across the plains as fast as their legs could carry them. Gabriel was not with them.
As they landed, the trolls busied themselves tying the ship down and moving their load aboard the ship. Frostpaw was there, and as soon as he found an opening, he jumped up onto the deck and rushed over to Jodi’s side.
It’s good to see you, little sister.
Jodi threw her arms around him. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said.
She did her best to stay out of the way while the trolls loaded the machine onto the ship. They used ropes and a series of pulleys to hoist the thing up over the deck. They were just moving it in place when Jodi heard shouting in the distance and realized that the entire Shadow army was bearing down on them. “Shadowfriends!” she called out, pointing.
The others followed her gaze, scanning the onslaught of dark shapes moving against the horizon. “Kashwak!” one of the trolls called out. “Hurry, we must take flight!”
“What?” Jodi said. “You can’t leave without Gabriel!”
The troll looked her up and down. He didn’t respond, but instead rushed to help the others. They’d gotten the machine aboard but the trolls were struggling to get the wagon onto the ship. Jodi watched them for a moment and then nervously stared at the massive force bearing down on the ship. Then, to her surprise, Gabriel appeared out of the darkness.
He was running at top speed, faster than otherwise would have seemed possible, but Jodi knew Gabriel was no ordinary kid. He tore across the plain, puffs of dust rising from his heels as he raced towards the ship. “Hurry!” Jodi called out to him. “They’re right behind you!”
A few breathless moments passed, and then Gabriel reached the ship. “Forget the wagon! Forget it! We have to move, now!” he shouted. He caught one of the rope ladders and swung himself over the railing. He pulled a large leather bag from the folds of his cloak and set it gently on the floor. Jodi hadn’t even noticed he’d been carrying it until that moment. She picked it up for a closer look.
An eerie chill went down her spine as she touched the bag. She recoiled, dropping it to the floor. A clinking sound came from the inside, like two glasses touching. As it hit the floor, the bag opened and a statue came rolling out. Jodi stared at it, shocked. Gabriel bent over and swept it up, placing it carefully in the bag. As he did, Jodi caught a glimpse of the second.
“Those are the statues the shadowfriends stole!” she said.
He stared at her. “Yes, they are. Please don’t break them. You have no idea how bad it will be to break them.”
They stared at each other for a moment, and then Gabriel turned his attention back to the trolls. At his command, they had abandoned the wagon and clambered aboard. The one who’d been piloting the ship ran to the controls and activated the furnace. Flames shot up overhead, filling the balloon with bursts of hot air. Slowly, the ship began to rise. Jodi glanced back towards the army of shadowcreatures and felt a sinking feeling in her gut.
“We’re not moving fast enough,” she said. No sooner had she spoken, than a spear appeared out of nowhere and slammed into the ship, just inches from where Jodi was standing. She blinked, and shot Gabriel a worried look.
“Get down!” Gabriel shouted. “Everyone down!”
Jodi dropped to the deck and pressed her back up to the outside wall. All around her, the rest of the trolls did the same thing. Frostpaw lay down at her side. Jodi braved a glance over the edge and saw the horde of shadowcreatures bearing down on the airship. She scanned the deck, trying to get a fix on Gabriel.
Up there, Frostpaw said in her head. Up the tree.
“Tree?” Jodi mumbled. She glanced up and realized that Frostpaw was talking about the mast. Halfway up, she saw a dark figure crawling towards the furnace. “What is he doing?” she said in a whisper.
A nearby troll heard her question. “Too slow,” he said. “Need more fire.” He had a concerned look on his face as they watched Gabriel whizzing up the mast. He moved deftly back and forth as he climbed, slipping from perch to rope to handhold, all the while twisting and leaping to avoid the incoming arrows. The shadowfriends knew what he was trying to do, and they were doing everything they could to stop him. The ship was high enough in the air that they could no longer reach it from the ground, but they could still bring it down.
A heavy spear whooshed out of the darkness and impaled the mast next to him. Gabriel leapt in the air, placing both feet on the heavy shaft, and used it as a bounding board to launch himself higher. In one great leap, he covered the rest of the distance to the furnace. Arrows thudded into the wood and clanged harmlessly against the metal furnace. One of the arrows grazed Gabriel’s shoulder and Jodi let out a squeal.
“He’s gone insane,” she said. “Gabriel’s literally gone insane.”
Gabriel opened the door of the massive furnace, reached into his cloak, and withdrew some sort of small pouch. Jodi couldn’t tell what it was, but he threw the entire package into the furnace and then slammed the door shut. Immediately a roar of flames shot up out of the furnace, reaching up into the balloon overhead. Jodi felt a surge as the airship got an instant lift in altitude. All across the deck, the trolls stood up and began to cheer.
Gabriel smiled and casually made his way back down. “I thought that might come in handy,” he said as he reached the floor. Jodi was there waiting for him.
“What was it that you threw into the fire?” she said.
“Oh, just something the trolls taught me. It’s a mixture of sulfur and pitch and certain plants… they use it in small amounts to start campfires. In larger quantities, it’s almost like C-4. It’s highly explosive, but stable unless it gets hot.”
Jodi nodded, listening. “Gabriel, just how long have you known about the trolls?”
Gabriel licked his lips, looking into the distance. “Let’s talk about that later,” he said. Jodi started to say something, but he was already gone. Gabriel joined the trolls and went to work adjusting the sails and securing the clockwork machine down to its perch on the deck.
Jodi was left to her own devices. She couldn’t be of any help because she had no idea where they were going or how an airship worked, and she only half-trusted Gabriel anyway. The fact that he had stolen the machine bothered her. If he’d just let Reeves destroy the thing, then this would have all been over. Instead, they were going on some insane quest through the Shadow world, flying around on a stolen dirigible, being hunted by an entire army of shadowcreatures. The whole thing was insane.
He cares about you, Frostpaw’s voice said in her head.
Jodi settled down on the deck and stroked his fur. He has a strange way of showing it.
Frostpaw licked his jowls and laid his head down across her thighs. He gazed up at her, his ice blue eyes full of intelligence. Why are you so angry with him? Is it because of Ridgerunner?
Jodi shivered at the sound of that name. The memory of what Gabriel had done sent ice racing through her veins. How am I supposed to feel? He killed our brother. Don’t you understand that?
He only did what he must, Frostpaw said.
No, he could have done something else. We could have carried him to the village, and they could have helped him.
There was no helping him, little sister. Your friend didn’t kill Ridgerunner, the goblins did. Your
friend eased his suffering and sent him on his way to the Great Forest.
Maybe, Jodi thought, but it was still a cold and ruthless thing to do.
Cold? said Frostpaw. Did you not see how it hurt your friend to do this?
Jodi frowned. That thought hadn’t even occurred to her. Ridgerunner’s death had been so painful for her, so traumatic, that Jodi hadn’t even considered what Gabriel might have felt like. After all, Gabriel didn’t know Ridgerunner the way she had. But even so, did she really believe Gabriel had wanted to harm her brother? Was it possible that he had been acting out of pity, as Frostpaw had said?
She watched Gabriel as he worked side by side with the trolls, making plans he wouldn’t share with her, talking to them about things she wasn’t allowed to know. Maybe part of her problem was that she felt so locked out; so excluded. But was that really Gabriel’s fault? After all, Jodi hadn’t been very cooperative. And the truth was, she wasn’t even sure she wanted to know what Gabriel was up to. The things he was doing… no, better not to dwell on them at all.
The only thing Jodi knew for sure was that Gabriel had changed. He was no longer the kid she used to hang out with. But had he ever really been that kid? Jodi couldn’t deny that there had always been something different about Gabriel. It came from the fact that he’d been abducted by shadowfriends. They had tortured him and manipulated him, and even brainwashed him. And then there was the fact that he had Shadow DNA inside of him. That was the government’s doing, and though they didn’t realize it at the time, his parents.
No wonder the poor kid’s so different, she thought. Think of all the weight on his shoulders. Think of all that’s been done to him. How could he ever trust anyone after all that?
Exhaustion got the better of her at some point, and Jodi fell asleep. She woke hours later in a dark room, lying on a small cot. She could tell by the movement that she was still on the airship. She sat upright and realized that Frostpaw was curled up in a ball on the floor next to her. Already? his voice said in her head.
Shadow Rising (Shadow Born Trilogy Book 2) Page 21