Stolen Destiny

by Jamie Davis

  Mr. Gunderson stepped into the room alone.

  “Where’s Artos?” Winnie said.

  “Mr. Merrilyn has left the facility on some pressing errands. But I am at your disposal for the remainder of the day. I believe we are going to the old Beth Steel Mill. Is that correct?”

  “Yes,” Winnie said, glancing at Victor.

  “Then please, follow me.”

  They followed the butler, or whatever he was, to Artos’s underground garage. Then they drove through the city in silence. Entire blocks were fully blacked out and the fine, orange dust had settled over the world like freshly fallen snow.

  But closer to the steel mill, the city’s moldered nature finally changed. Bright green growth and patches of flowers started a few blocks from the mill. Patches of purple and red glowed from open cracks in the road, and all along the winding drive up into the mill’s parking lot, or at least what was left of it.

  “Well that’s new,” Victor said, getting out of the limo.

  Winnie took in the changes. Buildings were covered in fresh green ivy and other vines. The pavement was now an open grassy meadow and the mill itself almost looked like a massive mound of earth covered with fresh grass, vines, and wildflowers. It was almost a wonderland.

  “I hope we can find the entrance,” Winnie whispered.

  “It’s still there,” Victor said, pointing. “See? The opening that looks like a cave mouth covered with vines?”

  “I can’t tell if this place is beautiful or creepy,” Winnie said.

  “It’s both.” Victor took a step toward the entrance. “Shall we?”

  Winnie nodded and followed, picking her way along the shattered pavement jutting up from where plants had pushed it through the earth.

  They reached the opening—the steel door leading inside the mill.

  Winnie turned around to check on the limo and saw it still parked on the grass, with Mr. Gunderson inside waiting for their return.

  She nodded at Victor. He opened the door and they both went inside.

  The interior was as different as the outside.

  There was still evidence that this was a place built by men, but it was barely an echo. Most of the short journey into the mill’s heart wound through earthen tunnels with patches of glowing fungus lining the walls and lighting their way.

  The passages smelled of fresh earth and wildflowers. The rare sections of concrete and steel felt like a hand at her throat by comparison.

  Winnie and Victor arrived at the crater, but the catwalk was no longer there.

  Instead, they found a broad open bowl of grass and small cliffs of rock surrounding the crater. A gentle slope led down from where they emerged into the building’s beating heart.

  Winnie looked to a clear, moonlit sky full of stars.

  Moonlight shone down on the grass, lighting their way to the crater’s center.

  Bouncing lights illuminated the grass. Occasionally one of those flitting lights would venture close enough to Winnie that she could see the tiny figure with whirring butterfly wings inside the ball of light.

  This place now belonged to the Fae.

  “Do you need me by the pool?” Victor asked.

  “Yes,” Winnie said. “The lady may have instructions for us both.”

  They walked a bit farther. One of the fairy lights bobbed over until a tiny figure only a few inches tall fluttered in front of them.

  “Hi Victor, Hi Winnie,” Seelie said. “I am so glad you came back to visit.”

  “Hello, Seelie,” Victor said. “We have a mission of urgency. Do you think the Lady will see us?”

  Seelie turned in midair and pointed to the pool. “She told us to expect visitors. I suspect she is waiting for you now.”

  Seeing Seelie was like a blade in her flesh.

  She’d lost so much that night, during her first confrontation with Kane.

  And Seelie was the worst reminder.

  But the fairy didn’t seem bothered by Winnie’s demeanor. She laughed and waved goodbye as Winnie and Victor continued on towards the pool.

  The surface shifted with every step. The pool widened and trees appeared on the shores to either side. A thick mist hid the distant shores.

  By the time they arrived at the Lake’s grassy edge, they were among the Fae. Winnie stared into the mist and watched a figure emerge, walking across the water towards them: Brigid, the Lady of the Lake and leader of the Fae.

  Her smile was filled with sorrow, and never reached her eyes.

  “Welcome Guinevere, bearer of Excalibur,” she said, nodding at Winnie before turning to Victor. “Greetings to you as well, son of Lancelot. You have done well guarding your queen.”

  “Thank you, my Lady,” Victor said, with an awkward half bow.

  “You were expecting us, Brigid,” Winnie said, rather than asked.

  “There are changes in your world, child. I knew you would come seeking counsel, hoping we can lend you aid.”

  “Can you give us what we seek?”

  “It is not a question of what you seek,” Brigid said. “So much as what you need.”

  “I have to know what this sword can do. What I can do. People are dying. The world is dying. You have to help us.”

  Brigid gave her another sad smile.

  Winnie felt only fury. “Don’t pity me, Brigid. Tell me what I have to do to save my friends.” She reached behind her back, drew Excalibur, and held the sword before her. “Please. Tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”

  Brigid eyed her forever, saying nothing. Then she spoke with a voice like the breeze. “My child, I know you seek the power of that sword. But the power is something you cannot completely comprehend through words alone. It is something I must show you. Come, enter the mist and you can see for yourself.”

  The mist surrounded Winnie.

  And then she tumbled forward, into a different time and place as the world fell into darkness around her.

  CHAPTER 32

  Elaine ducked as a ball of flaming energy blasted past her, launched by the latest of the magical creatures who’d been able to bore through the shrinking barrier surrounding the rebel fort.

  A bolt of white-hot magic flew from her fingers to the creature.

  The scaly figure froze as it lumbered towards her, outlined in a bright halo of light that illuminated the night all around it.

  Then the creature collapsed into a pile of dust.

  Elaine ran towards the gap, shouting at Dusters to plug it, and stem the surge of creatures while techs repaired the force field. No time to pause, or consider that much of the magic she was now casting should have been impossible.

  Fiona had showed her the light energy weapon when one of the beasts made it all the way to the main steps during an earlier breach. Elaine and the twins had been standing outside the entrance when the snarling creature charged. She put herself between the monster and the children, but Fiona stepped around her and used magic to burn the creature out of existence.

  Elaine had helped to fight off every subsequent attack ever since.

  Rebel soldiers rushed in to fill the gap, some firing weapons, others using magic to shove the charging beasts back.

  And finally … they did it.

  The assault had ended.

  The gap had been repaired, and not a moment too soon.

  Stopping them would have been impossible if they had managed to worm their way inside. But for now they were safe. A few scattered gunshots rang in the distance—Dusters finishing off the few remaining creatures still roaming the grounds. But mostly, things were finally quiet.

  Elaine ran toward the gap, exhausted, but her arthritis was only a memory.

  Her body continued to heal itself with every moment she worked with the twins. Her mind, body, and magic were all stronger than they’d been in years.

  Good thing considering what was still coming.

  Elaine found Bullock and Maria among a cluster of recovering rebels.

  “They’re getting through
the barrier more often,’ Maria said. “Is there any way to reinforce the shield?”

  Elaine shook her head. “Tris has every chanter who can lend power to the shield taking shifts with the techs. The only way to make it stronger again is to shrink the size.”

  “We do that and we’d have to pull everyone off the wall. Take defensive positions within the buildings themselves.” Maria paused, surveying their remaining forces. “Let me talk with Garraldi. It might be our only chance. I don’t know how many more of those attacks we can hold off. Bullock, you stay here in case they break through again.”

  Maria jogged off in search of her chanter counterpart.

  The big man nodded and continued his vigilant watch.

  Elaine placed a hand on Bullock’s arm, then turned to help the menders.

  While tending to the gash on one middling boy’s leg, he looked up at her, his face twisted in pain.

  “You’re Winnie’s mom, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, I am Elaine. What’s your name?”

  “Zach. Where is she? We haven’t seen her for hours.”

  “She’ll be back soon, Zach,” Elaine assured him. “She went to get help. It won’t be long.”

  She finished wrapping the bandage around his legs, stemming the flow of blood from the wound. Then with a final smile, she stood and looked around.

  The moon was lower in the sky; it was near dawn.

  Winnie had been gone for hours now.

  Maria was back, this time with Garraldi. They pulled her aside, away from the Dusters.

  “We’re going to pull back to the buildings, shrink the shield,” Maria said. “That should allow us to strengthen it significantly.”

  “It will buy us more time until Winnie gets back,” Garraldi added.

  “I’ll tell Tris to get ready,” Elaine said. “You two can pull Dusters off the line.”

  “Ten minutes,” Maria said. “That will give us time to get the wounded to safety in case there’s a breach during the retreat. If that happens, we’ll have to leave the fallen behind and we can’t do that.”

  “Agreed,” Elaine said.

  Elaine practically ran to tell Tris about the change in plans.

  Explosions boomed overhead as Kane’s shells fell atop the shield.

  “I don’t know what you’re doing out there, Winnie,” Elaine whispered to no one, “but we could use your help.”

  CHAPTER 33

  The darkness cleared from Winnie’s eyes and she found herself standing inside a great forest looking out over a broad plain of rolling hills. Great smoking craters stood among the blackened grass—a battlefield, littered with the corpses of creatures like those Kane had sent to kill her, amid the bodies and parts of bodies of men and women who’d fought them.

  At first Winnie wondered if this was a look at Fort Brick. Then she spotted one of the nearest bodies—the torso of a man in some sort of leather shirt with scales of dark metal sewn into it. The battlefield was ancient.

  Winnie left the woods and walked among the destruction.

  She squeezed Excalibur’s grip, the leather hilt creaking beneath her fingers. She examined one of the scaly creatures lying nearby in the grass. A broken lance or spear shaft stuck from its side and pinned the thing to the ground.

  “These beasts have been fought by men before.”

  Winnie spun around, startled by the voice.

  Brigid looked different from before. No longer in shimmering white, now she was clad in armor like the dead scattered around her. She held a spear topped by a pointed, leaf-shaped bronze tip. She had a short sword belted at her waist and a round shield in one hand.

  “You’ve fought them before, too, haven’t you?”

  “Yes,” Brigid nodded, bouncing her bronze helmet, topped by a crest of red-dyed horse hair. “In this place, I was known as Artemis. My brethren and I have struggled against creatures such as these many times over the millennia.”

  Winnie prodded the creature with her foot. A massive thing, covered in scales and clumps of coarse fur. The talons on its front paws were as long as her foot. “What are they? Where do they come from?”

  “Creatures from other worlds defeated by a being called the Fell,” Brigid said as they walked. “We have struggled for a long time against the Fell, both of us wrestling for control of this world. But it was different here. The minds of men were suited to magic, allowing both sides to enlist men in search of power. That helped us stop the Fell, but it also held the Fell’s interest in this world. Usually, when it was repelled by a stronger force, the Fell would attempt to conquer another place. But the minds of men intrigued it, so the Fell decided to stay and fight for control of this world.”

  “And Kane is drawing his power from the Fell now. He summoned these monsters from other worlds to fight us, because he wants all the power for himself.”

  “Correct,” Brigid said. “Kane has sold his soul to the Fell. We felt its presence during the continental fall, but there was no leader to claim its cause. Now the Fell has an avatar on earth.”

  Winnie stayed silent, walking beside the goddess, stepping over and around the bodies of men, horses, and Fell beasts as she did.

  The battle she and her friends were engaged in now was a continuation of this battle and dozens like it. She glanced at the goddess, wanting to ask something, but not sure if she should dare.

  “Yes?” Brigid said.

  “You said Kane was the Fell’s avatar on earth. Does that make me … ”

  “Avatar of the Fae?” Brigid finished. “Yes. We must fight through surrogates like you and Kane. If we were to confront the Fell directly, it would destroy the world and leave the winner without a prize.”

  Winnie didn’t like earth being a prize in some sort of divine conflict. It made her feel small and insignificant. Would another avatar, centuries from now, walk across the Fort Brick battlefield, engaged in this same conversation?

  She had to make sure that this was the final showdown between Fell and Fae.

  “How do I end it? How do I stop this cycle of battles and suffering?”

  “You win,” Brigid said, stopping on a rocky outcrop jutting up from the battlefield.

  “I don’t just mean the battle right now with Kane and his followers. I want to stop the Fell and end the cycle for good.”

  “That would take much, much more power than we’ve ever unleashed into the world,” Brigid cautioned. “You’re asking us to put a great deal of trust in you. That kind of power could surely destroy Kane and the Fell, but it could very well take the world with it.”

  “What’s the alternative? You and the Fell will keep fighting forever otherwise, with neither side winning, on and on until the end of time.” Winnie wave around at the battlefield. “Look at all these bodies. Fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters—they all deserve better than to have their futures burned by a conflict between gods.”

  Winnie waited while the goddess looked out over the battlefield, saying nothing. Then she finally turned back to Winnie.

  “Before I give what you ask, Guinevere, you must know the origin of that which you seek.”

  Brigid took Winnie by the hand.

  Again she fell forward as a dark mist closed around her.

  CHAPTER 34

  Garraldi threw the snarling creature on its back, leveled his pistol at its head, and emptied the clip. The beast ceased its thrashing.

  Elaine’s plan seemed to be working, but a swelling number of the fearsome beasts were still punching into the now-brittle shield. Despite the smaller size, the endless onslaught caused enormous strain against the magical barrier.

  It was practically a miracle that the thing was still holding at all. Tris and her techs definitely deserved a round or ten when this was all done.

  But so did everyone.

  “Sergeant,” Garraldi called out to a nearby Duster.

  “Yes, sir?” The woman asked, wiping sweat from her brow.

  “Keep pulling back slowly. Don’t rush it. Stay
inside the retreating barrier and for God’s sake, make sure you get any wounded back to the aid station hospital basement.”

  “Yes, sir. We’ll hold out. Should we still pull back to Building Two?”

  “Correct. What’s left of your company will take position once the barrier stops moving. Barricade the doors and first floor windows as best you can then position your best shots in the second-floor windows to pick off any of these things that break through.”

  “If we barricade the doors and windows, how will you get back inside?”

  Garraldi glanced at the chaos then turned back to the recruit. “If I don’t join you before the shield reaches the building perimeter, I’ll get there through the basement tunnels. I need to check on my counterparts, see if the other building defenses are ready.”

  The sergeant snapped a rough salute then turned to organize the Dusters in this section of the shrinking perimeter.

  A flurry of gunfire erupted behind Garraldi—another breach that he couldn’t worry about right now. He had to find Maria and the others. Make sure everyone had enough reinforcements to hold their buildings.

  The battle was deafening. Between the howls and snarling from the hordes of creatures surrounding the besieged fort, and the ever present barrage of artillery, Garraldi could barely hear himself think.

  Some of the troops were so rattled from the constant assault that he’d sent a few to rear positions where they could prepare the defenses early.

  He’d been through a lot in his life, but nothing like this.

  He checked his watch. Winnie and Victor had only been gone a few hours.

  They had to buy them more time.

  A pair of stretcher bearers trotted by, a wounded soldier carried between them. “Have you seen Captain DeSantos or Elaine Durham?” Garraldi called out.

  Without stopping, one of the men gestured toward the main building.

  “Onside the main lobby, organizing the first floor barricade.”