Elpis

by Aaron McGowan

  And I have one more piece than him, Terico thought. He knew this wouldn’t spell an instant victory, and knew better than to become over-confident. Delkol certainly had a plan in mind, and Terico had to make sure to not fall for it.

  “One more minute,” Lanek said, his rapt attention on the nearer of the two enemy airships.

  “I have it,” Suran said, staring wide-eyed at the same ship. She adjusted one of the levers ever so slightly, and Terico could hear the clanking of a shifting cannon at the front of the airship. From here it wasn’t possible to see the tilt or direction of the cannons, but Terico assumed Suran had a good, intuitive handle for it, and her mind’s connection with the ship’s Nexi stones would act as a guide for her as well.

  With her mind, she used a Nexi to fire one of the cannons, launching a great red Nexi stone for the nearest Brotherhood ship. Terico watched the large glowing stone tumble through the air, rushing straight for the back half of the dirigible.

  A swarm of dirt rushed out of one of the enemy ship’s cannons, quickly forming into a massive wall of earth that curved a good distance in front of the back half of the balloon. The red Nexi exploded into a great ball of fire, blasting apart the hardened earth floating in front of the dirigible. The detonation blew apart the shield, but had no effect of the airship itself.

  “A brilliant shot,” Lanek said. “But they have an equally competent Nexi user in their midst.”

  “I’ll break through their defenses,” Suran said, already working with a second lever.

  The Brotherhood ship shot a series of dark blue Nexi stones, then set them off about a dozen meters from The Finest Hour. At the same time, Suran released a tan Nexi, which she caused to form a protective barrier in front of the airship. With a limited amount of dirt at her disposal, she had to direct portions of the the dirt to just the right spots in order to block the four blasts of water. The end result was a formation of strained, hardened earth that twisted and turned sharply in several directions. As the earth was shot, the water and dirt broke apart and plummeted toward the ground.

  The second Brotherhood ship continued onward in the meantime, slipping toward The Finest Hour while Suran was busy defending against the first ship. The moment she had the opportunity though, she turned to a lever to control the cannon on the starboard side of the airship.

  “Keep an eye on them both,” Lanek said.

  Suran responded by firing a tan Nexi at the second enemy ship, which continued approaching from the side. Terico thought it risky to use up a tan Nexi for an attack, considering its important role for the airship’s defense—but he decided to trust Suran’s judgement for now. The large tan stone transformed into a long stone spike, flying straight for the dirigible. Terico doubted it would pop like a balloon, but the damage the stalactite would cause could bring it down, he imagined.

  The enemy ship fired a couple light blue Nexi toward the spike, detonating them a few meters in front of it. The spike was going to freeze and shatter into small harmless pieces, Terico realized.

  Just before it crashed into the bursting ice Nexi, the giant earth spike exploded into a massive ball of dust. Apparently there was a red Nexi stone lodged in the tan Nexi cannon, and Suran detonated it just before the spike of earth was destroyed. Terico watched as a thick smoke screen enveloped the area between The Finest Hour and the enemy airship, as well as most of the enemy airship itself. Now her plan was a bit more clear—her goal was to create as much dust as she could, as close to the nearer of the two Brotherhood ships as possible.

  “Now, Lanek!” Suran cried.

  “Already going,” Lanek said, pulling on a rope with one hand while adjusting a lever with the other.

  The airship took a sharp, sudden dive to the right, and Terico fell to the ground hard. He managed to grab onto one of the thick legs of Suran’s chair, which was grafted to the metal floor.

  “Oh, and hang on,” Lanek added as an afterthought.

  “Thanks for the warning,” Terico said.

  “Always be on your toes,” Lanek replied.

  Terico pulled himself up and saw the first Brotherhood ship firing several red Nexi, hoping to keep The Finest Hour from slipping behind the thick, lingering smoke screen. Suran quickly fired a couple green Nexi from the front of the ship. As soon as they were in the air, she caused their vines to spread out in all directions and intertwine with one another. In seconds a thick, expansive wall of sprawling vines appeared. The red Nexi crashed against it, blowing it apart and burning the vines to ash. Lanek guided the airship behind the smoke screen before the first enemy ship could attack again.

  The moment it stabilized, Lanek forced the airship to speed toward the second enemy ship, which was still making its way through the cloud of dust. Terico held on to the back of Suran’s chair, anxiously watching for the second airship to appear. Lanek drove The Finest Hour onward and turned it hard to port.

  The Brotherhood ship emerged from the dust, its side facing toward The Finest Hour. Lanek had guided his airship upward a ways, however, leaving the enemy ship vulnerable and blind about a dozen meters below.

  “Fire!” Lanek yelled.

  As he gave the order, Suran quickly adjusted the two forward cannons and fired a couple red Nexi at the giant blimp below. She and Terico peered out the window to watch the two fire stones crash into the dirigible. Suran caused the fire to spread quickly, sending the entire blimp bursting into flames. Lanek piloted The Finest Hour back a ways, trying to keep the remaining dust and the ensuing thick black smoke between his airship and the remaining Brotherhood ship.

  “Nice!” Terico said. “That was brilliant, Suran.”

  Suran smiled but was quick to return to her seat. “There’s still another one to deal with.”

  “Three, actually,” Lanek said. “We don’t know how Terico’s ragtag team of misfits is holding up.”

  The airship jerked to the right slightly, and a terrible clanging noise erupted from the hallway.

  “Terico!” an echoing voice screamed.

  Terico ran to the hallway and found masked members of the Brotherhood entering the back of the airship. They had apparently used vines to reach the ship, and then forced a large opening in the floor via orange Nexi.

  “Boarding party,” Terico said. “Four—no, five of them.”

  “Go with him, Suran,” Lanek said. “I’m in position to fire once the smoke clears. I can pilot and defend at the same time.”

  Suran got up and joined Terico, who unsheathed his sword and charged down the hall.

  “Use the Nexi that Rilv gave us,” Lanek called back to Suran. “And don’t die! Tell Terico I’ll kill him if he lets you get hurt!”

  The way Lanek said it made it sound like a joke, but Terico felt pretty sure Lanek would make good on that promise in such an event. Terico wasn’t going to let any of the Brotherhood near Suran if he could help it though, regardless.

  He and Suran rushed into the back room of the airship and found the five Brotherhood members, each of them dressed in white clothes and silver armor. Their white masks each bore the symbol of the inverted black cross over the right eye, but only one mask had the additional smile painted from ear to ear.

  “Terico!” the boy yelled. He tilted his head a bit and tossed an orange Nexi in the air a couple times. “And isn’t this a pleasant surprise... It looks like Suran is still alive and well.”

  “Terico...” Suran said in a hushed voice. “Is that... Turan?”

  The boy clenched his orange Nexi tight. “Turan is no more! Turan died, but has been reborn as Lynx!”

  “He was captured by the Brotherhood,” Terico said. “Augurc has brainwashed him. If we can capture him without killing him, I might be able to find a way to save him.”

  “Your orders, Lynx,” said one of the masked fighters.

  “Kill Suran, the girl!” Turan replied. “I will pin Terico down and make him watch! And then... I’ll break every little bone in his body!”

  Areo held tight to K
itoh’s back while Borely held on to Areo. The sailor wouldn’t stop screaming, and it was difficult to tell if it was out of fear or enjoyment. Flying through the air on the back of a dragon was exhilarating, but Areo had to keep focus on the two airships slipping away in the distance. One of them was turning so its cannons would face toward the approaching dragon.

  “Watch for Nexi fire!” Areo yelled.

  Kitoh didn’t respond, perhaps afraid to speak in this form. The boy flapped his long, leathery wings to bring himself higher, where it would be more difficult for the airships to fire at him.

  “Hang on,” Areo called back to Borely. “And quit screaming.”

  Borely laughed. “I had always hoped to die in a glorious way. Can’t think of anything more spectacular than this!”

  “Don’t die, you idiot,” Areo yelled. She squinted toward the nearest airship, the sky annoyingly bright and the winds only making things worse. The blasts of several cannons boomed through the air.

  Kitoh turned to the left, avoiding a large red Nexi stone. It exploded above him, forcing him to dive downward. Two more red Nexi stone approached, detonating in front of him. Areo gripped Kitoh’s back tighter, but for a second it felt like Borely was losing his grip. He managed to keep hold though, even as Kitoh flailed to the right of the bursting fire. The dragon rushed forward to avoid a fourth stone, then corkscrewed to the left to keep away from the burst of flames erupting from a fifth and sixth red Nexi.

  “Hurry and drop us off at the farther airship,” Areo told Kitoh. “We’ll fight them off from within, while you handle this ship.” She wanted Kitoh to be able to return to the elves’ airship in case the boy couldn’t maintain his dragon form for much longer, so she didn’t want to force him to chase the enemy ship getting further and further away. She also needed to make sure the Brotherhood didn’t reach the castle, guessing they had some special means of breaking past the castle’s defenses.

  Kitoh rushed for the second airship, pushing his wings harder with every stroke. The first airship launched a series of dark blue Nexi at Kitoh, and once the second airship was in range, it also began firing ice Nexi. The Brotherhood’s tactic was readily apparent—Kitoh was struggling to fly through the frozen air.

  Areo felt her whole body grow cold as more of the dark blue Nexi burst apart mere meters away. With each detonation, the Nexi released torrents of frozen air and water in all directions. Kitoh struggled to push through, and for a moment he had trouble getting his wings to flap properly. The dragon fell several meters, scaring the breath right out of Areo and Borely.

  Fortunately Kitoh managed to keep himself together and continue flying. He flapped as vigorously as he could, working his way above the pockets of frozen air released by the light blue Nexi stones. Areo couldn’t stop shivering, and neither could Borely, who she worried would lose his grip around her stomach.

  One ice Nexi rushed by just a few centimeters to Areo’s left, and she nearly flung herself to the right in reaction. Instead she held on tight, and counted herself lucky that the stone wasn’t set off when it was right next to them. Otherwise they would have all been frozen, leaving them to plummet to the earth helplessly.

  Kitoh pushed above the range of the Nexi cannons, then soared toward the second Brotherhood airship. Once near enough, the dragon dived down toward it, pulling up just as he reached the bottom of the ship. Kitoh positioned himself so he was directly underneath the ship. He flew along at the same speed as the airship, and turned his head back to Areo, as if waiting to hear what to do next.

  “We’ll break in,” Areo said. She considered having Kitoh breathe fire at the ship from here, but she wanted him to save his energy for the ship he would have to face alone.

  Careful to keep hold of Kitoh’s back with one hand, Areo took a green Nexi stone from her pouch and aimed it for the side of the ship.

  It didn’t look like there were any ways in from below, so she and Borely would just have to break in from the side. If the sailor could break through the massive doorway to the Vursa council room, he could break through a door to the airship too.

  She caused several thick vines of her Nexi to wrap around a railing, then reminded Borely to hang on tight again. “Be ready to fight the moment we break in.”

  “No problem,” Borely said.

  Once the vines were secure, Areo let go of Kitoh’s back and leaped off. She gripped her Nexi stone tight with both hands and caused the Nexi to reabsorb its vines. With the vines clung tight to the siding of the airship, Areo was propelled through the air and pulled up toward the railing. Borely was a heavy weight to carry, but he managed to keep a firm grip on Areo. Once at the railing, Areo grabbed on to the side of the ship and pulled herself up to a set of steps leading to one of several metal doorways. She glanced back down once more to see Kitoh heading back to the other airship, flying low to make it difficult for the Brotherhood ships to shoot him down.

  Once on the steps, Borely let go and walked up to the doorway. He looked flustered, but Areo didn’t comment on it. She brushed off her waist and hips, a little upset Borely had to hold on to her so tight for as long as he had.

  “You better not hold back,” Borely said, raising a fist toward the doorway. “I hate having to count on you, but you’ll have to watch my back.”

  Areo glanced away. “Watch your own back. I won’t slow you down.”

  Borely turned back to the door and charged his fist with orange Nexi energy. He landed a solid punch, sending the entire door flying into the entry room. Areo charged in after Borely, rushing straight for the nearest Brotherhood member she caught sight of. A masked man turned around and started to yell something. Areo clawed apart his throat and ran on to the next nearest Brotherhood fighter, leaving the first to drop dead behind her.

  At the same time, Borely ran for a Brotherhood fighter knocked to the ground by the metal door Borely had punched in. Areo glimpsed Borely punching the masked man just as he was getting up. Borely shattered the man’s mask and knocked him out cold.

  Areo saw the room was very long, running for tens of meters forward and backward. There were long rectangular windows and several small tables covered with the controls used to operate the ship’s cannons. There were six Brotherhood members left to deal with, Areo quickly counted. These were competent fighters, and Areo no longer had the advantage of surprise on her side.

  Borely was closer to the next nearest Brotherhood fighter. He dodged a burst of fire released by the masked man, then slammed a Nexi-powered punch into the man’s chest. The man flew back, straight through one of the large windows. Borely immediately turned to the next Brotherhood fighter.

  Vines grasped the sides of the broken window, and the masked man Borely had punched leaped back into the room. He had his fire Nexi raised toward Borely, who was turned away from him.

  “Watch it, Borely!” Areo yelled.

  She rushed for him and pushed him away from the enemy’s blast of fire. The flames nearly caught on to her, but she jumped back in time to avoid the attack. In one swift motion, she spun in place and leaped for the enemy. The man ran to her and raised his red Nexi. She sliced the man’s hand clean off before he could activate the Nexi stone. Still stepping toward the man, Areo finished the motion by plunging her free claws into his heart.

  By the time she turned around, a long-haired Brotherhood member had released a stream of swamp material, while a short Brotherhood fighter ran toward Areo with two daggers raised. Areo ran aside of the brown Nexi substance and charged for the fighter armed with daggers. In one glimpse, Areo realized one dagger had a purple Nexi attached to its hilt, while the other had a yellow Nexi.

  Areo slipped out her tan Nexi and released a burst of dirt at the fighter. Closing her eyes, Areo leaped into the cloud of dust and listened for the assailant’s exact movements. With two footsteps to go by, Areo lunged for the fighter, listening for the swipe or thrust of a dagger. The Brotherhood member swung a dagger—the one with the purple Nexi, which created a spherical sho
ckwave to clear away the dust. The blast of energy disturbed Areo’s swipe toward the fighter’s neck, and she ended up clawing at the assailant’s mask.

  The mask flung off of the fighter, revealing the face of a woman—she had short black hair and large, piercing green eyes. Areo continued her attack, slashing again for the woman’s neck. The Brotherhood member activated the yellow Nexi of her other dagger, and Areo’s claws slammed against the yellow glow that enveloped the woman’s body. Areo stepped back to avoid the swipe of the woman’s other dagger.

  At the same time Areo heard an object collide with the ground just behind her. She leaped back as hard as she could, jumping over what turned out to be a brown Nexi stone—the one used by the Brotherhood member from before. The stone blew apart, releasing a deluge of swamp substance. The second Brotherhood member guided most of it toward Areo, who quickly released a burst of dirt from her tan Nexi. She coated the swamp material beneath her feet and hardened the dirt, allowing herself to run back from the thick, dark waves.

  The woman with daggers ran around the rushing swamp, much faster than Areo had expected. At the same time, Areo heard footsteps coming from the side. She glanced and found a third Brotherhood fighter avoiding a blast of water fired by Borely, then sprinting on toward Areo. A tall masked bald man—an elf, Areo noted from the pointed ears. He wielded a long metal staff.

  While Borely beat down the man controlling the swamp, Areo caused a large arm of earth to erupt from the dirt she left atop the swamp. She turned back to the woman with the dagger, who swung a wave of purple energy at Areo. While dodging the attack and going by the sound of the man’s footsteps, Areo caused the dirt arm to grab the man’s leg. The woman continued toward Areo, who readied her claws for the kill.

  A blast of water slammed into Areo’s back, flinging her straight for the woman with daggers. The elf apparently had a water Nexi embedded in the end of his staff, Areo realized. She crashed against the woman, who shoved a dagger toward Areo’s heart. Areo slipped her claws into the the woman’s hand at the last moment, forcing the assailant to drop the dagger. The two crashed against the far wall, the enemy’s head bashed hard against the thick dull metal.