Dark Ember

by R. D. Vallier

  Plus, I wanted Delano to triumph. I wanted Mr. Military to look like an ass before the youngest and completely unqualified darkling. I wanted James to not only eat crow, but choke on it.

  Shadows slithered off Delano's body as Kager and Alys crept toward us.

  "Front guards are dead," Kager whispered.

  "Already?" Even using silencers and subsonic ammo, I usually heard something with a rifle shot, like an angry stapler biting documents. But I'd heard nothing. Maybe we were too far out. Or maybe they killed without bullets.

  Kager nodded. "Let's go."

  We hurried to the consulate's entryway. The posted guard lay sprawled inside, darkness staining his chest. Kager propped his corpse against a low, ornamental tree, giving the illusion he stood if you didn't look too close.

  Delano helped me assemble APEs and tripwires along the river stone paths, the roses, and the trickling mermaid fountains. He rubbed his temple.

  "Are you okay?" I whispered.

  He nodded, squinting. "Headache."

  Rose and lilac scented the air. Ornamental lanterns lit the garden, creating a soothing, ethereal ambiance. It's a facade. I closed my eyes as I attached the last wire, remembering the lies and terror which crouched within the Realm's gleam.

  We all signaled we were ready. Delano and I raced outside the wall and across the street. Cham had insisted on nitroglycerin, but as soon as his back turned, Orin forced aluminum powder explosives on me instead. No way will I let you blow yourself up with nitro, he had said. I wondered if it was a worthy risk, however. Orin's plan was safer, but relied on three different stable explosives to trigger the next. Cham's nitro might explode if bumped too hard, but Orin's mixture might not detonate at all.

  The explosives I'd set for the outside diversion would ignite a daisy-chain of charges the moment two wires touched, closing the electrical circuit to the battery. I snatched Post-it notes from my pocket, reread Orin's instructions for the thousandth time, then tacked a clothespin to a tree through its spring. I tied the clothespin open with twine across the grips, and wrapped the two wire leads around each side of the jaws. I wedged a four-inch piece of paper into the twine, then clicked my lighter. Delano rubbed his temples, his eyelids squeezed tight and twitching.

  "What's wrong?" I asked, the flame flickering beneath the paper.

  "It's just territory chatter," he said. My worry flared when he added: "Don't worry."

  The paper browned. "Is it another darkling?" My heart pounded. "Is it James? Did he follow—?"

  "No!" Delano said. "It's maintenance requests. It can wait. This can't."

  I bit my lip, then nodded and lit the paper. We had seconds until the fire hit the twine and snapped the clothespin jaws together, completing the electrical circuit and detonating the explosives.

  If I assembled it correctly.

  If Orin's explosives caught.

  Delano and I bolted inside the walls and darted a quick left, sticking to the shrubbery. Kager and the girl ducked in the hedges near the gate. Please work! Please work! Please! Please!

  Behind us, a ripping, zipper-like explosion boomed.

  Yes!

  Guards and a sniffer soon fled down the pathway from our left, heading toward the front gate to our right, oblivious to our position. "There's an outside attack," the sniffer growled, then disappeared behind a hedgerow. BLAM! I bottled a shriek as a triggered APE rocketed feces-painted nails and marbles into flesh. Men wailed. The muted Chik! Chik! Chik! of faerie warfare barely sounded over my ringing ears. When silence followed, it screamed.

  My heart pounded in my throat. Did Kager and Alys kill the guards? Or are they the ones who fell?

  Delano and I fled before the dust settled. The log mansion came into view, the Sierra Nevada reflecting in the enormous mirrored windows as if its innards were its own dark wilderness. Memories swarmed me, of being betrayed, of waking to miner wings, of Orin being played against me. Normally, these memories brought crippling bitterness, but now I felt fueled with rage. I was my own APE, ready to trigger.

  Gunfire chiked near the gates. An APE exploded. Delano and I booby-trapped the paths, then hurried up the mansion's front steps to sweep the consulate and make sure the elites had trapped themselves in their bunker. Delano vanished in shadow, then opened the door for me from the inside.

  The floor's pastel sitting pillows had been replaced with ones in jewel tones, and the throw rugs were gone to showcase glossy floorboards. The rear door with its vineyard carvings was closed, and no fire burned in the center wood stove. We headed through the right doorway to a red partition wall, then left to the bunker's stairwell. Frantic knocking echoed downstairs.

  "You can't do this to me!" Raina screamed as we descended, Delano in the lead. "Let me in you snakes!"

  We approached a concrete landing with a vault-like door. A single bare lightbulb shone overhead. A security camera peered down at Raina pounding her fists against locked steel.

  The temperature plummeted. Raina gasped and swung around, her pupils huge. I felt a wave of nausea as the floor's frost steamed. Delano slugged her cheek. She cried out; the ceiling snowed. I sprung, rammed my knee into Raina's gut, drove my elbow into her kidney as she collapsed. Delano pivoted, tackled, and strangled her. Raina spluttered and bucked, pinned against the floor. Delano snarled, pulling back his head as she clawed at his eyes. I snatched her wrists, wrestled her flailing arms.

  Frost thickened on the walls, glittered in the bulb's dim light. The camera's motor hummed as its view adjusted. Raina's gasps silenced. Her eyes bulged as Delano's fingers squeezed. Crystals shellacked her flesh. Her pink lip gloss froze and flaked.

  "Pain and fear isn't so funny now, is it?" Delano snarled. Spit streamed out Raina's slack lips. The security camera buzzed as its unblinking eye zoomed in. "This is for what you did to Miriam, to Lydia, to Weldon, to Ori—."

  My veins surged as if a magical force magnetized the iron in my blood. My hair stood on end. The territory energies swooped up, then crashed. Delano cried out and collapsed sideways into me, breaking my hold on Raina. "Umph!" He clenched his head as if slammed with the world's worst migraine, pinning me against the wall.

  Raina spluttered and gasped; weakly clambered free from Delano's writhing body. She blundered for the stairs, her hand waving as if blind.

  I squirmed out from beneath Delano's deadweight, swiped Raina's ankle on the first step. Her chin slammed the banister, her arm pinwheeling. I threw myself onto her back, snatching her hair and slamming her onto the staircase. I rammed her forehead against the step. She shrieked and slapped, twisting beneath me, waxy finger-shaped frostbite marking her throat.

  Delano wailed behind us. I wrestled Raina, my hands desperate to finish what Delano started. Blood rushed from her lacerated forehead. Her breaths deepened; her eyes cleared as her strength and blows improved. She grinned maliciously, then the frosted walls burst into steam. I yelped, squeezing my eyes shut. She wedged her knee between our chests and heaved. Her shoe's buckle scraped my cheek as I tumbled downstairs. I heard scrabbling, then feet pounding away. The steam dissipated. I opened my eyes. The camera buzzed and turned.

  Raina was gone. Delano was curled tightly in the corner. The air seemed to absorb him, his body's edges leaking into the shadows like paint spiraling off a brush into water.

  "What's wrong?" I asked, panting.

  "Fire!" he gasped, his face twisting. "It needs me to—urrrgh!—start one. Now!"

  I glanced up the stairwell, my heart racing. We sat at the bottom like fish in a barrel. Enemies might exit the door beside us if the watchers decided we were vulnerable. Delano clenched his stomach, yelping. Blood dripped from his nose. Outside, an APE exploded. Shadows pummeled Delano and he screamed against the concrete.

  "You gotta go, Del!"

  "Come with me," he gasped.

  "I can't! Orin will think we failed! It'll send everything awry!" Delano looked panicked, and I felt a rush of gratitude I hadn't listened to Orin. If I'd taken the da
rkshine beforehand, the Earth's demands would've compromised us both. "I'll be fine. Orin will arrive soon. Go."

  Delano's teeth gritted. His sinuses bled. "Meet me where I first taught you current-reg when you can." He then vanished in a shadowy helix. The camera panned left and right, adjusted its zoom as if assessing my aloneness.

  I sprinted up the stairs, fists up, expecting an ambush. Raina's blood marked the steps, the banister, the landing. But only the red wall awaited me upstairs, the foyer empty, a few drops of blood on the front door's jamb. I decided sweeping the rest of the consulate alone was too dangerous, and hurried down the outside steps to the garden wall where we had planned to meet the others. Chick-a-dee-dee-dees squabbled from the trees. Storm clouds collected in the distance, flashing lightning.

  I hid between two shrubs on my stomach, spying down both pathways, feeling as if I abandoned Delano. But I'd promised Orin I'd meet them here. I'd promised. Except, I promised to help Delano's territory, too.

  A sentry sped so close to where I crouched in the bushes I spotted the tarnish on his boot's eyelets. Moments later, my brain pinged. A spyder crawled from the mulch. I gasped and crushed it with my fist. Several more scurried from the stones. I grabbed a can of Raid from my backpack and sprayed until I gagged. I stayed low, holding my breath, terrified everyone else was dead, and the sniffer and guards would return.

  The night heaved, as if choking on a chunk of meat. Lightning snapped impatiently in the distance. My heart hammered as the energies whorled. Something was wrong, and Delano faced it alone.

  Del's handled his territory alone for decades, I reasoned, talking my legs out of fleeing to find him. He can handle this.

  Silhouettes emerged on the gateway path a minute later, their legs lifting to avoid tripwires. A mud dauber buzzed my ear. I relaxed and stood. Thus far, everything went as planned.

  Okay, except for the darkling. And Raina escaping. And the fire. And the territory's hissy fit. But Delano wasn't needed, and he'd initially refused to help, anyway. Raina was a disappointment, but more important leaders remained. Cham and the hostages were who mattered in this operation. They were the faces needed to trigger a revolt.

  Cham's eyes were wide and sweeping as he beetled toward me. He appeared twice his size in his rucksack, military helmet, and assault vest loaded with magazines, two handguns, binoculars, a night monocular, radio, bowie knife, tourniquet, and gas mask. Three flash-bangs hung off his belt, along with another knife and pistol. Fabric ties closed his BDU pant pockets, which bulged with, I assumed, bullets or protein bars or medical supplies, and God knew what was in his multiple drop-leg pouches or the stuffed dump-pouch hanging off his side. His spit-shined combat boots sparkled in the moonglow, the treads thick and tall. The sniffer and Weeper trailed behind him, wrists bound in wire, and nooses around their throats, leashed like the hound at the sniffer's side.

  Orin escorted them in worn Converse shoes, a fresh patch of duct tape on the toe. A handgun's grip peeked from his front jeans pocket; spare magazines peeked from the others. He shouldered a daypack, and an AK dangled from a neck strap over a vintage I'm a Pepper T-shirt.

  A mud dauber cloud dispersed onto the grounds. "Where's Delano?" Cham demanded, panting hard.

  "He needed to start a forest fire."

  "What? Now?" Cham shouted.

  The sniffer shook his head, chuckling. "Fucking darklings."

  "We set the devices," I said, "but Raina escaped."

  "Raina's loose on grounds?" Cham said. "Did you sweep the consulate?"

  "Just to the bunker, but—"

  "The rest is unknown?" Cham snapped. "You can't manage a simple—?"

  "Brinda fell!" squawked Cham's radio. "The Realm—"

  Explosions erupted from the gateway. Orin snatched the radio. Another explosion. "Tanny! Status!"

  No answer.

  Orin leapt off the path, aiming his rifle back down the trail they came from. "Our damn funnel broke. Get inside, now! I'll hold the line."

  Cham blanched. His wide eyes swept the grounds. "How long until they—?" Chik! Blood sprayed from his face. His gear rattled as his body struck the path.

  "Shit!"

  Orin pulled me behind the low garden wall, snatching Cham's rifle and shoving it against my chest. Border sentries fired. Chik! Chik! Chik! Orin popped around the wall's side, returning several precise shots. I peeked over the top and squeezed the trigger, realizing, once upon a time, our advancing targets might've been Orin's friends, bunkmates, people with whom he'd shared food, stories, dreams. The hostages ducked farther down the wall. Rounds struck the stones, spraying chips. The hound snarled and yanked her tether. "Ease, Jeanie!" the sniffer demanded. Stray bullets jolted Cham's corpse. With the hostages' movements in the dark, Orin and I probably seemed like a larger armed force.

  Shots fired, lower pitched than the others and delayed between rounds. The night stilled.

  "Got it!" the radio squawked. "Leak sealed!"

  I glowered at the chunky, red rivulet gushing out of Cham's helmet. A stupid, twenty-cent bullet screwed us, ruining the chance to reverse the darkling dilemma, and destroying the platform the faeries needed to free themselves. A stupid, twenty-cent bullet in Cham's stupid, worthless face which was supposed to rally the Realm workers on camera. My blood-pressure rose. The woods rang with chick-a-dee-dee-dees. I almost shot Cham myself for failing his one purpose. The purpose. That realization should've sickened and shamed me, but produced numbness. I didn't care about his death. Survival instincts activated and only useful survivors mattered. Maybe I'd grow a heart later.

  "The rebel leader is out, the darkling is out." Orin released a puff of breath. "Fan-frigging-tastic. We got nothing!"

  "We got you," the sniffer said.

  "Me?" Orin's eyes widened. "I'm a supporter, not a leader! I-I like being support!"

  "I like blow jobs and protein shakes, but that won't save us," the sniffer snarked.

  "The people won't listen! I'm a nobody!"

  "Executing an elite or two on-air will gain their respect," the sniffer said. "Then state you're the new rebel leader and give the speech."

  "But—"

  "You have a better idea?" the sniffer snapped.

  Orin's shoulders dropped like a man's last coin sinking down a wishing well.

  "I'll help," Weeper said. Dry lightning ripped the distant sky. Thunder followed. "I'll run guard."

  "Me too," the sniffer said.

  I tensed. If they helped, we'd return to equal numbers plus a hound from where we started. Both men were highly trained, one an esteemed killer.

  Of course, that was only beneficial if not turned on us.

  Orin studied the hostages, unsure. Chik! Chik! Chik! Everyone ducked behind the wall. The atmospheric pressure dropped and my bones buzzed. My ears popped as heat shimmered around Orin's body like a mirage. White light burned around his hands and—

  "Don't deplete yourself here!" the sniffer said. I flinched as a bullet ricocheted off the garden wall, fragments embedding in a nearby tree. "We need to invade a bunker, without a darkling and with Raina nearby!"

  The light and heat faded. Orin grimaced as his AK returned fire around the side of the wall until silence responded.

  "What do we lose helping you?" Weeper glanced nervously over the wall. "We're dead if caught, and you can't do this alone."

  An APE exploded along the entry path, emphasizing our ticking clock. "Okay! Okay!" Orin ordered me to release the prisoners while he held the line. I freed Weeper first. He snagged my rifle and aimed it down the pathway across from Orin. Together, they eliminated a sentry hunkered down in the shrubbery.

  The sniffer's bronze eyes riveted onto mine. My breathing thinned. "Don't try anything stupid," I said, untwisting the wire binding his wrists.

  The sniffer smiled his devil's claw. "Never."

  Wire fell. What ensued happened rapidly.

  The sniffer slammed me to the ground, deftly swiped the pistol from Orin's pocket, turned and f
ired. I shrieked. Weeper flew backward, his rifle's aimed bullet barely missing Orin's head. Weeper writhed on the ground. One bloodied hand clenched his chest, the other clawed for the rifle's grip. The sniffer fired and he stilled.

  "Anyone intending to actually fight would've checked how many bullets remained in the magazine or taken additional ammo," the sniffer said, tossing the handgun to Orin. He nabbed the rifle from Weeper's corpse, then looted a knife and magazines from Cham's vest. "The sneak didn't, meaning his intentions required only a few rounds."

  Orin and I gaped at Weeper. The sniffer snapped a fresh magazine into the rifle. "Ready to start a revolution?"

  Orin squared his chin and stuffed the handgun into his pocket. "Or die trying." He headed toward the consulate, then stopped. His eyes narrowed on the sniffer. "So … what's your name, anyway?"

  "Lyell."

  Orin nodded and the three of us started up the consulate's ripple-edged steps, the hound at her master's side.

  "No! Leave," Orin barked at me. "Fly north. That's safest."

  "But you need my help!"

  "Delano needs yours," Orin said. "I can't do this if I'm worried about protecting you."

  "Then don't protect me! I can—"

  "Reality doesn't work like that, Miriam!"

  "You're an untrained liability," Lyell agreed. "We need to move fast."

  "I can replace Delano! Show unity!"

  Lyell chuckled. "You're not a darkling. The people will believe you're wielding dark magic to trick them."

  My stomach sunk. "You did your part," Orin said. "It's better if you're gone. So please go!"

  Tears pricked my eyes. It wasn't his words which made me nod, but his desperate expression and militaristic tone, as if disobeying meant life or death.

  A blast erupted from the gates.

  "Scram!" Lyell snarled.

  Orin hugged me and slipped something into my pocket. "I know what I'm doing. Be safe."

  I nodded, refusing to say good-bye, even though it felt as if we stood on a train platform, a one-way ticket in his hand.

  Explosions reverberated as I darted north. I stole a jerrycan of gasoline from an open shed, then flew toward the dry lightning snapping in the distance.