Marco tightened his lips, trying to shove aside the fear. Thousands of corpses burned below. He couldn't bear the thought of Addy among them. He took a deep breath, aimed the Marilyn's cannons at another ravager, waited for the ship to open its claws, and fired into its fiery mouth. The ravager tore apart, spilling eggs—the ship was pregnant—onto the city. With every breath, another ship crashed down, ravagers and soulships alike.
"Captain!" Lailani cried. She laughed. "I—"
Fire roared.
A ravager flew toward them.
Somebody screamed.
Claws grabbed the Marilyn, ripping into the hull.
"Emery, damn it!" Ben-Ari cried.
Cursing, he spun the gun turret, aiming the cannon. The ravager was crushing their ship in its massive metal claws. A claw tore into the hull. Marco fired. Again. Again. Pulse after pulse of energy flew out, pounding the ravager. Finally the living ship released them, and they began to rise again, sputtering, only for another ravager to grab them.
The gun turret shattered open.
A claw ripped out the cannon.
Marco found himself staring into the jaws of a ravager.
Fire gathered, bathing him with heat, swirling like a cauldron of molten metal, ready to fill the gun turret.
Marco wanted to leap deeper into the ship. Instead, he raised his assault rifle, switched it to automatic, and emptied a magazine into the ravager's maw of flame.
He leaped out of the gunner's station as the ravager exploded.
The Marilyn rocked, dipped, rose again, and tilted. Smoke rose. Flames gripped the ship.
"The cannon's toast!" Marco cried.
"We're going down!" Kemi shouted, gripping the controls.
"I saw her!" Lailani said. "Marco, I—"
They slammed into the jagged top of a broken skyscraper.
They skidded higher, then plunged down.
They all screamed.
"Kemi!" Ben-Ari cried.
"I'm trying!" she said, gripping the joystick. "We've got only one engine left and a wing is broken, and—" She grimaced. "I'm bringing us down! Hold onto something!"
The battle raged around them as they shot downward. Ravagers and soulships were flying everywhere. Fire and light pounded the city below, killing both humans and marauders.
Kemi aimed the ship toward a highway.
Screaming, she tugged the stick back with both hands, desperate to raise the ship's nose.
Spilling fire and smoke, the Marilyn slammed onto the highway.
Marco thudded against a wall and reached out blindly. Strapped into her seat, Ben-Ari grabbed his hand. He clung to her.
The Marilyn screeched along the road, tearing into the asphalt, slamming into marauders on the way. Finally they veered off the road, hit a building, and lay still.
For a moment, they all sat in silence, breathing heavily.
"Kemi," Lailani finally said, "you suck at landing."
"It's not my fault I always have to land after being crushed by ravagers or a black hole," the pilot said.
Marco rose to his feet, legs shaking. "Kemi, whatever ship you fly on needs to come supplied with extra underwear."
She rolled her eyes. "Usually my passengers are potty trained."
The door to the bridge tore open.
A marauder sneered.
They all opened fire, killing the beast.
"All right, soldiers," Ben-Ari said. "We have a war to fight. And it's out there on the streets. If you're well enough to joke around, you're well enough to fight. Follow me."
They were four. Ben-Ari, their leader. Kemi, their pilot. Marco and Lailani, gunner and navigator. Friends. A family. Together, guns raised, they stepped out of the crashed Marilyn and onto the highway.
Soulships were landing around them. Hatches opened, and the yurei emerged. Normally, they were meek creatures, hiding in shadows, as dainty as mist. But in war, the yurei were terrifying. Their jaws extended halfway down their chests, lined with fangs. Their claws lashed. They carried crystal amulets that blasted out rays of light, and the beams seared through marauders. The yurei swept through the city like ghosts, casting their light, tearing into the enemy. From each soulship, these astral warriors emerged.
"God damn," Lailani muttered. "These ghosts are badasses."
The marauders were screeching, dying, but fighting back. One marauder grabbed a yurei and tore her open, scattering glowing white blood. Another leaped through a beam of light, losing three legs to the ray, but the marauder still landed on a yurei and bit deep. While soulships and ravagers battled above, the war raged on the streets, marauders and yurei fighting for every city block.
And humans were fighting too.
Marines ran in exoframes, firing their guns.
Tanks rolled down the roads, cannons blasting.
Infantry battled along the highways.
And there, standing atop a tank, she stood.
A tall woman, the wind blowing her short blond hair. A woman with a rifle in one hand, a banner in the other.
Marco stared at her, his breath catching.
Across the distance, she stared back.
Their eyes met.
Her eyes widened and she leaped off the tank. She stood on the road, staring.
Marco took a step closer to her.
She tilted her head, eyes narrowing.
Marco took another step.
She ran a few steps, froze, stared at him again, hesitating.
"Marco?" she whispered.
No. Marco didn't recognize her. It couldn't be her. She was different. Rawboned. Covered with blood and burns. Her hair was too short, her cheeks too gaunt. Her eyes were different. Haunted eyes. Hurt eyes. Eyes that had seen too much.
"Poet," she whispered, tears drawing white lines down her cheeks.
It was her.
Tears filled his own eyes.
Marco ran.
She ran toward him down the highway.
As the battle flared around them, she leaped into his arms, and he wrapped her in an embrace, squeezing her, and they wept together.
"Addy," he whispered, chest shaking with sobs. "Addy. Addy."
She touched his cheek. "I knew you'd come. You silly poet. You're late." She squeezed him in a crushing hug, not even letting him breathe. "I'm never letting you go again."
The others reached them. Kemi wrapped her arms around them. Ben-Ari followed, smiling through her tears. Lailani hopped onto them, clinging like a monkey, laughing and crying. Above and around them, the lights flared, the war continued, but here, for this moment, they were together again. Here for a moment the world was good.
"Now come on!" Addy finally said, pulling herself free. She took a shuddering breath. "Lord Malphas took over our library, Poet. Let's end this. Let's go home."
* * * * *
The city lay in ruins.
Kemi couldn't curb her tears.
My house is gone. Are my parents dead?
Her mechanical hand crackled. Electricity shocked her, making her jump. Kemi looked at her prosthetic.
It gave another crackle, and electricity raced across it. Kemi winced.
After Malphas had bitten off her hand—God, it had been nearly three years now—Kemi had replaced it with a weaponized prosthetic. Its battery had enough power to fire ten thousand bolts of pure energy, each strong enough to knock out a dinosaur.
And now the hand was thrumming, ready to burst.
Kemi had damaged it during her first crash, plunging through the black hole. Since then, its parts had jiggled, making her nervous. She couldn't even remove the damn thing, not with it connected to her nerves, to her skin, to her bones. It was a part of her.
A part that could kill her.
And now, in this second crash, she had damaged it further.
Now the disk on her palm, which could once blast out her energy bolts, hung loose. Now the parts inside jangled with every movement, including the battery.
One wrong move, Kemi thought,
and it'll blast enough energy to light up my bones like a neon skeleton.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out the bandage she kept there. They had taught her in the army to always keep a bandage in her pocket. Gingerly, she wrapped it around her mechanical hand.
"We just got to win this war, then find a mechanic to fix you, hand," she said. "Don't blow me up before that, okay? Please don't blow up."
Around her, her friends were firing their assault rifles. The marauders still swarmed across the streets, battling humans and yurei.
Lailani raced up and grabbed Kemi—thankfully, by the good hand.
"Come on, Kemi!" she said. "We're heading to the library."
Kemi nodded. The library. The place where she had spent so much of her youth. She nodded and ran with the others, her broken hand chinking with every step.
Hold on, my hand, she thought. And if you're alive, hold on, my parents. Soon this will be over. Soon I'll be with you again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
For the first time in years, Marco went home.
He walked down Yonge Street, the road he had traveled countless times in his childhood and youth. He walked with his friends at his side. With Addy. With Kemi. With Lailani. With Ben-Ari. He walked toward his old library. He walked toward the beginning and the end.
Here my story began, he thought. Here let my war end.
The road lay in ruins, the old cafes and shops destroyed. The library was gone now too; he had seen it demolished before the marauders had even attacked. A new structure rose above the library's ruins. Marco shuddered to see it.
"A marauder hive," he said, pausing on the road.
Standing at his side, Addy hefted her assault rifle. "Ugly, ain't it?"
They stared at it together. Jagged metal shards, blocks of stone, and tarry black material—foul paste the marauders spewed—spiraled upward, forming a dark tower. Sticky webs, the strands as thick as ropes, draped across the structure, holding it together. It looked almost like a pile of rubble, not an actual dwelling.
Kemi stepped up beside him. Cradling her damaged prosthetic hand, she stared at the jagged tower. "That's what the overrun prison looked like, the one Captain Ben-Ari and I found. The marauders coated it with rocks and strands and that sticky black tar. This is a marauder dwelling all right." She cringed. "It looks just like the hive where Ben-Ari and I first saw Lord Malphas. Where he bit off my hand."
"He's not biting off any more of us," Marco said.
"Fuck no." Addy slammed a fresh magazine into her assault rifle, yanked back on the cocking handle, and spat. "It's time to squash some spiders." She placed a hand on Marco's shoulder. "Poet, old boy, let's go take our home back."
Ben-Ari and Lailani joined them, both loading their own rifles.
"Together again." Lailani spat into her palm, then held it out. "Like in the good old times. Siblings-in-arms."
"The Dragons Platoon," Ben-Ari said, taking Lailani's hand, and her voice softened. "Like in the good old days. We beat the scum emperor. We can beat Malphas too."
They all clasped their hands together. They looked at one another, silent, determined. Weapons held before them, they advanced toward the dark tower.
Behind them, the marauders and yurei were still fighting. Above, the ravagers and soulships still battled. But ahead, the street was empty. Only two marauders leaped toward the Dragons, quickly slain with bullets to the eyes. Without further resistance, they reached the hive.
Addy held out her arm. "Wait," she said. "What if it's a trap? Shouldn't we bomb the place from the air?"
"And then we'd never know if Malphas was killed," Ben-Ari said. "Even if we find a corpse under the wreckage, it would be too mangled to recognize." Her eyes flared with uncharacteristic rage. "I want to see the bastard. To recognize the monster who bit off Kemi's hand. Who landed me in prison. Who ruined the world. I want to stare into his eyes before I riddle them with bullets. Malphas told me once that we would meet again." She bared her teeth. "He was right."
Marco stared at his captain. It was rare to see her get angry. He wondered if the anger impaired her judgment, if perhaps Addy was right. He too, however, could see the wisdom of meeting their enemy face to face.
"A clean corpse of Malphas could be displayed to his forces," Marco said. "It would perhaps dissuade the marauders from further aggression. Maybe we can even capture Malphas alive, put him on trial, and—"
"No," Ben-Ari said. "We kill the bastard."
Marco nodded. "All right. We kill him."
He took another step toward the hive, but Ben-Ari reached out and stopped him.
"Emery," the captain said, "I've met Malphas before. You haven't. He's not like other marauders. He's larger, for one, twice the size of a normal marauder. But he's also smarter. I saw the intelligence in his eyes. I never forgot it. Cruel, vicious intelligence. Be careful in there. Whatever he might say to you, ignore it. The instant we see him, we shoot him." She looked at the others. "Is that clear?"
They all nodded.
A tall crack gaped open before them, allowing passage into the hive. Ben-Ari made to enter first, but Marco placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Ma'am," he said, "allow me. This is my home. If this is a trap . . . I should be the one to spring it."
She nodded. "I'll be right behind you." She smiled wryly. "Maybe not right behind you. In case of that trap." She gave him the smallest, yet the warmest of smiles Marco had ever seen.
At that brief moment, he loved his captain as much as he had ever loved anyone.
The words of Eldest returned to him.
One to die.
He tightened his lips, swallowing the terror.
Then let it be me.
He stepped into the hive.
A tunnel stretched ahead, its walls formed of marauder webs, tar, and stone. Marco took a few steps forward. He lit his flashlight. It felt like walking into the womb of a giant beast. Human corpses hung on the walls, some little more than skeletons, their skulls sawed open. They stank so badly Marco struggled not to gag.
He looked over his shoulder, reporting what he saw to the others. They entered the tunnel with him, lighting their own flashlights.
They walked deeper down the tunnel, passing by more corpses that hung on the walls. Some were the corpses of children. Some of babies. Some of the bodies were fresh and showed signs of torture. Some had been flayed.
Marco's revulsion grew. Many believed—himself included—that the war against the scum had been unnecessary, that Admiral Bryan's aggression had extended that war for too long. But there could be no doubt here. The marauders weren't merely mindless predators like the scum. The marauders were evil, and they delighted in it.
Marco took another few steps down the tunnel, then paused.
He sucked in air.
Weeping came from ahead. Human weeping.
A scream rose.
"Please, master!" rose a voice ahead. "No more! Please."
Marco narrowed his eyes.
His legs trembled.
He couldn't breathe.
He knew that voice. Impossible. Impossible!
The scream rose again, and Marco ran down the tunnel.
He burst into a large, hollow enclave where the library had once stood. The old bookshelves were gone. Marauder webs filled the place now, clinging to metal and stone towers. Shadows swirled like mist, and a hot stench assailed Marco's nostrils. Deep, inhuman laughter echoed.
He took another step forward, moving his flashlight back and forth.
Somebody sobbed.
Something creaked.
Shadows stirred.
Drops splashed onto Marco's hand. Blood.
Marco flicked his flashlight up, and his heart seemed to stop in this chest.
He inhaled sharply and pointed his gun.
Ben-Ari, Kemi, Addy, and Lailani—they ran up toward him, pointed their flashlights upwards too, and they gasped and cursed.
Addy aimed her gun.
"
Wait!" Marco said. "He'll kill them. Oh God, he'll kill them."
Lord Malphas, the largest marauder Marco had ever seen, hung above like a rancid chandelier of black limbs, claws, and fangs, so large that if he dropped down, he would cover the five soldiers below.
Each of his six legs pinned down another prisoner, claws pointed at their hearts.
The prisoners were all human, all bound in webs, and all bleeding. Their skin was torn, their faces bruised, their bodies bleeding.
"Marco!" a prisoner cried out, and yes. He knew that voice. And his tears fell.
Impossible. It couldn't be her. She had died on Haven! He had seen her house burnt to ashes!
But it was her.
"Anisha," he whispered.
Another prisoner called his name. Then another. He had not recognized them at first, not in these shadows, not with blood and dirt covering them. But he recognized them now. Women he had known in Haven. Women he had loved, had hurt. Women he had thought were gone.
All but the last prisoner. The sixth prisoner.
The sixth prisoner was a man. Gray-haired. Middle-aged.
And Marco wept.
"Father," he said.
Addy's face turned red. Her hands trembled around her rifle.
"You fucking liar!" she shouted up. "Malphas, you fucking piece of shit liar! Carl Emery is dead! He's dead, you idiot!" She laughed hysterically, tears on her cheeks. "Heart attack. What is that, a fucking puppet?"
The massive horned marauder laughed—a grumbling voice like rolling thunder.
"Hello, Addy." The creature's voice was boulders rolling, bones cracking, blood dripping. "Hello, Lailani." Malphas opened his jaws in a lurid grin. "Hello again, Einav and Kemi." Finally his eyes turned toward Marco. "Hello, Marco. I have been waiting for you all. For a very long time."
The alien etched his claws along Father's chest.
Blood dripped.
"Father!" Marco shouted, trembling, unable to breathe. "It's impossible. Impossible!" Ben-Ari tried to calm him, but he ignored her, shouting. "You lie, Malphas! My father died three years ago!"
Father looked down at him from the web above. He was so thin, so ashen. "Son . . ."
Earth Valor (Earthrise Book 6) Page 22