by John Corwin
Insidious Insurrection
Overworld Chronicles Book Fourteen
John Corwin
Contents
Books by John Corwin
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
About the Author
Books by John Corwin
Copyright © 2017 by John Corwin.
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The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
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Books by John Corwin
THE OVERWORLD CHRONICLES
Sweet Blood of Mine
Dark Light of Mine
Fallen Angel of Mine
Dread Nemesis of Mine
Twisted Sister of Mine
Dearest Mother of Mine
Infernal Father of Mine
Sinister Seraphim of Mine
Wicked War of Mine
Dire Destiny of Ours
Aetherial Annihilation
Baleful Betrayal
Ominous Odyssey
Insidious Insurrection
OVERWORLD UNDERGROUND
Possessed By You
Demonicus
OVERWORLD ARCANUM
Conrad Edison and the Living Curse
Conrad Edison and the Anchored World
Conrad Edison and the Broken Relic
Conrad Edison and the Infernal Design
STAND ALONE NOVELS
Mars Rising
No Darker Fate
The Next Thing I Knew
Outsourced
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HEAVEN IS HELL
Civil war tears apart the Darkling nation. The Eden army is too small, too battered to overcome the warring Darkling factions. Even more insidious, Justin discovers that Victus built a small army of demon golems created from parts of Nightliss's soul—and these dolems may soon control the Darkling legions.
The only army large enough to overcome the threat is controlled by Kaelissa, but she has her own designs on ruling Seraphina. But Justin has an idea that might just win the war and give him control over the Brightling Empire. It's time for one last desperate gambit.
It's time for an insurrection.
Chapter 1
The ambush struck in the middle of the Northern Pass.
We thought we were ready for it. We were wrong.
Elite Daskar in their shiny black armor launched from concealment on the cliffs and swarmed the Falcheen. Illaena shouted commands, and her first mate, Tahlee, roared them to the rest of the crew. The weaponized gems on the sides of the flying ship pulsed as magic surged through them. Light beams speared toward the attackers, blasting too few from the sky before they reached the ship.
Only weeks ago, we'd battled Kaelissa in Atlantis. Since leaving there, we'd fought two dragons that had come through rifts between Seraphina and Draxadis. I'd hoped that we could reunite with Thomas Borathen and the rest of the Eden forces without another engagement, but the renegade leader of the northern legion apparently had other plans.
"Holy mother of assburgers, Justin!" Shelton shouted. "I thought you said Kohval's entire legion went south to Tarissa!"
I channeled an orb of Brilliance around my right fist and blasted a Daskar from the sky before he could land on the deck. "Well, at least Kohval didn't completely abandon the borders."
He whirled his staff and unleashed a fireball toward another attacker, but it glanced off the enemy armor. "Is that your way of looking at the bright side?"
I didn't have a chance to answer.
A squadron of Daskar hovered off the port bow, their full-faced helmets staring at us with dead, black eyes. Aether gems in the palms of their armored gloves glowed ultraviolet an instant before beams of malevolent energy lanced toward us.
I threw up a flat shield and willed the surface to become reflective. The magic bounced back, narrowly missing the attackers. I altered the angle up a touch and grinned with satisfaction when the ultraviolet beams smacked right back into the Daskar before they ceased fire.
They dropped out of the sky like burning flies, vanishing beneath the Falcheen.
"That's so wrong." Shelton held his staff in front of him. "It's like grabbing someone's wrist and making them punch themselves."
I spotted Elyssa aft, leaping back and forth, firing the magical bow given to her by the people of Atlantis. Jagged lightning bolts cut through enemy armor and sent Daskar spinning out of control. The few who made it past her light show were greeted by her short sai swords.
Adam Nosti stood behind her, casting oil spells on the feet of enemies, causing them to stumble and fall, making them easy prey for Elyssa and the Mzodi.
The Daskar gave up trying to get past me and made a concerted effort to land on the bridge next to Illaena and Tahlee. I sprinted aft, firing beams of ultraviolet from my left hand and brilliant white from my right, knocking Daskar over the side of the ship on my way.
During my time in Atlantis, the humans there had allowed me to feed my Seraphim side on their essence. For reasons unknown, it amped my angel magic exponentially. It was the reason Daelissa had been so powerful, and it was the reason these Daskar didn't stand a chance against me.
If only Illaena allowed her crew to do it too. So far, the Mzodi crew held their own, but if they'd fed on human soul essence, this battle would have been a rout.
A Daskar swooped in at Elyssa's back as she fought off two other attackers. I blurred in and smacked one out of the air with a Murk-enhanced fist. Someone screamed. I glanced port as Daskar pulled two navigators from their posts and threw them overboard. Six navigators powered and guided the levitation foils on the ship—three on each side.
If we'd lost one navigator from each side, the Falcheen might have limped along. Losing two on one side was like having a front tire blow out on a car. Th
e sky ship lurched hard to the left. The hull slammed into the cliff wall. The impact threw around everyone on deck like rag dolls. Only the other navigators, buckled into position, managed to stay in place.
I tethered myself in place with strands of Murk and grabbed Elyssa. "I got you, babe!"
She gritted her teeth and plunged her sword through the narrow seams in an attacker's black armor. The Daskar stiffened and let out a feminine shriek. Elyssa reared back her foot and booted her over the railing. The Falcheen smashed into the cliff again, hurling Daskar and Mzodi crew alike across the deck.
"Can you take one of the navigation spots?" Elyssa shouted over the roar of grating rock and the cry of battle.
I nodded. "You got my back?"
She slapped my ass. "Always."
Another impact hurled a Mzodi soldier toward the railing. I caught her with a strand of Murk and pulled her back to safety. She waved gratefully and channeled her own ultraviolet tether.
Tahlee shouted something at me, but I couldn't make it out. There were too many bodies fighting between me and her. I strapped myself into the stool in front of the crystal control rod at the first station on the port side. I gripped the rod and channeled into it. Pulled right on the rod to steer the ship away from the cliff face. Nothing happened. I poured more magic into the rod. It should have fed the levitation foil on the lower hull and given me more control. I felt no resistance, no connection.
Elyssa finished off another attacker and turned to me. "What's wrong?"
"I think the levitation foil is toast!" I released the strap and got up. The ship's railing ground against the cliff face in a shower of sparks, dislodging rocks and stone that crashed down where I'd been sitting. Ignoring the danger, I ran to the next control rod and tested it with the same result. The collision with the cliff had damaged the levitation foils.
This was worse than a flat tire. If the Falcheen was a jumbo jet, we'd just lost two engines.
I was about to relay the dire news to Elyssa when the front end of the ship sank about fifteen degrees. Rocks, gravel, and dead bodies slid down the decline. Elyssa and I leapt over obstacles and worked our way aft toward the savage melee between crew and Daskar.
I reached Illaena. "Are we going to crash?"
Eyes tight with apprehension, the captain of the Falcheen nodded. "Our only hope is to control the descent."
"Son of a bitch!" Shelton roared as a gout of ultraviolet light nearly took off his wide-brimmed hat. He retaliated with a shackles spell. A flaming bolo wrapped around the offending Daskar, immobilizing the soldier and smashing him into the cliff.
"Finally got one!" he shouted. "These assholes can take everything I dish out." Another enemy dove toward him. He flicked the screen on his arcphone and a honeycombed shield sprang up around him. The Daskar fired. One hexagonal section of the shield blinked out. The shield rotated to absorb another hit and another.
"Damn, you got your geodesic shield working?" Adam called out as he dodged another attacker.
Shelton gave the thumbs-up just as his shield sparked, flickered and died. "What the hell?"
Adam spun his staff like a propeller and thrust it toward another group of Daskar. Dark clouds enveloped their heads. They veered crazily through the air, some smacking into the cliff and others crashing into the ship.
"Dammit, I thought this spell would work!" Shelton fiddled with his arcphone, but couldn't get the barrier back into place.
"I don't know if you'll need it," Adam said grimly and pointed up.
The remaining Daskar leapt into the air and hovered far above us, their black visors watching the doomed ship drift toward the ground far below.
"Bastards." Shelton opened a slot on his staff and checked a chunk of black rock inside. "At least this new aetherite amplifier works. Almost makes me feel useful."
"Is that the stuff we found in Voltis?" Elyssa asked.
"Yeah, it's super-concentrated aether." Adam checked a similar rock inside his staff. "I was able to modify our staffs by connecting the aetherite to the magic generators. You might say this is the first field test."
The Falcheen creaked and groaned as it listed side-to-side.
Shelton's face paled. "Man, I think I'm gonna be sick."
My stomach flip-flopped as the ship bounced on a pocket of turbulence. I swallowed uneasily and steadied myself. "Two of the levitation foils are out on the port side. I don't think there's anything we can do to keep the ship in the air."
"Crash landing?" Adam said.
I nodded. "Crash landing."
Shelton pressed his wide-brimmed hat against his head as a gust of wind threatened to dislodge it. "How in the hell are we supposed to walk the rest of the way to Tarissa?"
"What makes you think the Daskar will give us a chance to walk?" Elyssa looked up at the enemy soldiers where they paced the crippled sky ship. "Depending on how hard we land, they're going to swoop in and kill us before we can defend ourselves."
Shelton sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Dammit, woman! You're really putting a damper on my day."
"You mean a dhampyr?" Adam said with a grin.
We groaned.
The Falcheen fell in slow motion, but even an impact of twenty miles per hour would be enough to break bones and send people flying. Most of the Mzodi could channel wings and glide safely to the ground, but they weren't nearly as maneuverable as the Daskar in the air and would be easy targets.
My heart thudded against my ribs like it wanted to sprout wings of its own and fly away. "We're gonna be fish in a barrel if we don't do something."
"If you channel wings, I will ride on your back like a baby," Shelton said.
Adam grinned. "Man, you're desperate, aren't you?"
Shelton stuck out his chin defiantly. "I ain't too proud to admit I can't fly."
I thought back to our harrowing journey through the Voltis Maelstrom to Atlantis. We'd faced situations worse than this. There was one thing that could save us. I interrupted a heated discussion between Illaena and Tahlee. "Can we use the emergency wings?"
Tahlee pointed to the cliff face about twenty feet from the side of the ship. "How are we supposed to engage the wings without ripping them off?"
I tried to remember how long the wings were, but only remembered they were huge. "How much space do you need?"
"Too much." Illaena shook her head. "Forty yards at minimum."
"Christ," Shelton muttered. "Can't we steer the ship away?"
"The navigators are barely holding it off the cliff face as it is," Tahlee said. "If we try to pull any harder to starboard, we risk losing control."
I ran through half a dozen options in my head. Could I fire a Murk web to the other side and pull us over? The opposite canyon wall looked a little over a hundred yards away. Fully charged, I'd be hard pressed to channel enough power to fire a shot that far. Even with everyone on board helping, we'd lose a battle of tug of war with the ship, especially since it was still moving forward and downward at the same time.
"We need a kinetic blast." Adam pushed nonexistent glasses up on the bridge of his nose and made the universal gesture of throwing a fireball with his hands. "The levitation foils allow us to glide on the air like a ship on water, but with considerably less friction. That means if we could slam a solid blast of Murk against the cliff wall, it might propel us out and away."
"Sort of like using a pole to push us off shore," Shelton said.
Adam nodded. "Exactly. The problem is, we need a really big pole."
"I don't think I can channel that much raw power," I told him. "We're talking about moving a big-ass ship forty yards to starboard."
Adam steadied himself as the ship lurched and pointed toward the huge gem mounted on the front of the ship. "We might be able to use the portal gem."
The portal gem was something we'd stolen from Kaelissa after driving her out of Atlantis. It allowed a Seraphim to focus a beam of magic on the aether storm surrounding Voltis and create a portal through it.
"It won't work," Shelton said. "The gem is attenuated for specific magic."
"Not if I remove the Chalon." Adam staggered across the shuddering deck to the large brass frame holding the gem. He lifted a lever to unlock the cogs and rotated it ninety degrees to port, directly at the cliff wall. Another rod held a small obsidian orb just in front of the gem. The orb was a Chalon, a master key used to open portals between realms.
"You sure it isn't going to blow up in my face?" I said.
Adam looked up and tapped a finger on his chin. He nodded and focused on me. "About ninety percent sure."
"Wonderful," Elyssa said. "Just remember, if Justin blows up, we're all gonna blow up."
I stepped around corpses, trying not to look at the sightless eyes of the dead. There were more Daskar than Mzodi, but I'd gotten to know the crew of the Falcheen during our odyssey into the unknown. Seeing familiar faces made an already heavy burden even heavier. I shoved aside a Daskar corpse so I could line myself up with the focusing gem.
Adam stood next to me, aiming his hands toward the gem as if lining up the shot. "Yeah, that looks about right."
Elyssa looked over the railing. "Better do it fast. We're running out of air."
I planted my feet, balled my fists, and reached for the invisible aether flowing all around me. My senses closed around Murk, the cold, ultraviolet power of creation and channeled it into my body. My left arm and fist felt as if I'd plunged it into a snowbank, energy surging along the limb and gathering in a sphere.
I held my arm above my head and shouted, "By the power of Greyskull!"
Adam pumped his fist. "Feel the power, baby!"
The power massed until I could hold it no longer. I aimed at the gem and focused all my willpower on one giant blast. "I have the power!"
Elyssa face-palmed.
Murk lanced into the focusing gem. The facets sparkled, chiming like shattering ice crystals. A gout of Murk exploded from the other side of the gem. It crashed against the cliff wall. The ship shuddered and bounced away. Rubble exploded from the rock wall and tumbled out of sight only feet away.