by Travis Hall
All three sprinted out of the room. The man on the floor scrunched his face, closing his eyes from the obvious pain, while Milly continued to stare at him. Allora just stood at her mother’s side with her hand firmly pressing on the blood-soaked rag covering her wound.
“How could you betray your own people?” Milly asked. Her voice was strong and authoritative. The man laughed and smiled painfully. “You think this is funny?’
“No,” he responded, taking short, quick breaths. “What I think is funny is that you actually believe you have a chance to stop him.” He turned his face toward Milly, glaring back at her. “I didn’t betray my people. You betrayed yours.” The comment pushed Milly back slightly.
“I sacrificed plenty during that time,” Milly said, becoming defensive. “I had to take care of my family.”
“And you would do anything for them, right?” the man said. Milly hesitated and then nodded. “Well, while our cities were falling, my family was captured, and the only way that the king would spare them was if I went undercover for the Titans.” Milly sat back as Tanner, Katie, and Dax returned from their tasks. “My wife and daughter have been in a Titanis prison for six years.”
“Their freedom for my daughter’s life, huh?” Milly said, grabbing the ripped strips of white T-shirt. The man’s silence answered her question. She wrapped the cloth around his thigh and pulled the strip into a knot, yanking at the ends tightly. The man screamed and jerked forward. “Who is your handler?”
With pained, tear-filled eyes, the man said, “Hades.”
Milly’s eyes widened, and she again grabbed the man’s neck and pulled him upward.
“Who is he? What is his true identity?” Milly asked as there was a banging from the front door.
“Shangri-La Security. Open up!”
Allora grabbed the handle and twisted, pulling the front door open. Captain Theus rushed in with four security guards. Another security transport pulled up, followed by an ambulance transport. The entire area filled with security guards, clothed in full battle suits, their side arms drawn.
“Milly, put him down,” Captain Theus said, holstering his pistol and slowly moving forward into the marble foyer.
“He’s a spy for Hades,” Milly said, firmly holding onto the lieutenant’s neck.
“I don’t know who he is,” Lieutenant Mylar said, barely able to get the words out. “I never met him in pers—”
“Milly, you know the drill,” Captain Theus said, inching closer. He knew that Milly could kill the man with a flick of her wrist. “We will get the information. You have to trust me.”
Milly gave the lieutenant one more squeeze and then tossed him toward the front door. He coughed as the other security guards pulled him to his feet.
“Please, you’ve got to save my family!” Lieutenant Mylar said frantically as they pulled him toward the security transport. The security guards closed the transport door while he continued to plead for his family.
Milly filled the captain in on what had happened while the emergency medical services tended to Allora.
“We’ll need to get her to the hospital and close these wounds,” the medical technician said.
“Milly, I need you here for further debriefing,” Captain Theus said.
“Don’t worry, Ms. S,” Katie said as they helped Allora into the medical transport. “We’ll go with her.”
“I’ll be there in a little bit, Allora,” Milly said as Tanner, Dax, and Katie entered the medical transport.
The door closed. Allora watched her mother through the glass port window from her seated position on the gurney. Flashes of her nightmare popped into her mind, along with the unsympathetic interrogation that Milly had performed. An image of her mother stabbing the lieutenant made her flinch. The medical attendant placed a single dot of liquid on Allora’s arm, which seeped into the skin and instantaneously made her body numb. The transport lifted off as her nightmarish flashes persisted.
After a minute in flight, the transport eased onto the landing pad, and Allora’s gurney floated into the hospital. The doctor stitched up her cuts with contracting glue, and the pain medication subsided. She was talking with her friends about what had happened when the room suddenly shook violently. The concussion knocked Allora off her bed, and the others dropped to the floor. The building’s windows shattered, and a plume of fire billowed from the base of the hospital.
The security guard rushed in. “Are you all right?” They nodded and got to their feet. “I need you to stay here while I go find out what just happened.”
The security guard left, and Allora got out of the bed. She grabbed her clothes off the chair and glared at the boys, who stood still with confused expressions. Allora leaned forward and twirled her finger in a circle, which further confused the boys.
“Turn around,” Allora said, rolling her eyes.
The boys did as instructed, and Allora quickly put on her clothes.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Katie asked, watching Allora’s eyes dart around with thought.
“Don’t you see?” Allora said, putting on her shirt. “We were never the intended target. At least not the primary one. We were the diversion.”
“Huh?” Dax said.
“Hades was never after us,” Allora said, peeking out into the hallway. “He’s after the cyclops, and we need to find him. He’s got to be here.”
Seeing the rush of hospital personnel sprinting along the corridor, Allora asked one of them where the intensive care unit was and then launched herself down the hallway toward her objective. Tanner, Dax, and Katie followed close behind, weaving through the rush of frantic people, warlocks, gnomes, and elves.
“Don’t you think that we should have some sort of game plan before we get there?” Tanner asked as they got to the stairwell.
“Here is our game plan,” Dax said, jumping down and swinging the door to the thirty-fifth floor open. “My fist, their faces.”
“Very strategic, bro,” Katie said, rolling her eyes. “You’re going to make a great commander one day.”
“All I know is that cyclops has something that we need to find the location of the scroll, and we need to get it before Hades does,” Allora said, reaching the end of the hall.
“How do you know?” Tanner asked.
“He’s the only one who my uncle spoke with about the cube before he died. He’s got to have it.”
As they turned the corner, Allora tripped on something just as a red light shot at her. She rolled along the linoleum and crashed into the wall. In the middle of the hallway were the bodies of three security guards and a doctor. Allora pulled her hand up to examine the slippery red substance layered on the floor. Her hands were covered in blood.
The hallway lights flickered, illuminating a familiar-looking dark figure with pointed ears, gray skin, and beady yellow eyes. Katie pulled Allora up, and they followed the boys, who were sprinting. Two red hadron bursts shot through the hallway as Tanner and Dax closed in. One of the bursts clipped Dax and knocked him sideways into the wall, while Tanner shot a blue burst at the fleeing drow elf. The blue light missed but hit an empty gurney that exploded from the wall, crashing into the elf. Tanner saw his opening and leapt onto the creature. The impact forced the elf’s head into the ground, knocking him unconscious.
Katie helped her brother up as he shook his head and held his blackened shoulder. Allora slowed to a stop, kneeling down next to Tanner, who had the elf pinned to the floor. She searched the creature’s pockets. The elf started to regain consciousness, moaning slightly. In the creature’s satchel was the jade cube that he had stolen from the cyclops. It was about the size of a large marble, with carved lines, making it look like a Rubik’s cube. Tanner and Allora were staring at the thing when a red glow came from the elf’s hands. Tanner was shot backward, and Allora received a kick to the stomach. The jade cube flew back down the hallway, sliding along the slick linoleum. The elf sprung up and sprinted after it. Katie dove along the ground, grabbi
ng the cube as the elf was closing in. Dax hurled his unhurt shoulder into the advancing elf and clipped his side. They crashed into the wall and slid along the ground.
Katie threw the cube toward Allora as her brother and the elf crashed into her. The elf regained his footing, kicked Katie, threw Dax into the wall, and then ran after the flying cube. Allora dove for it, fumbled it, and then caught it with both hands before it hit the ground. The drow elf was sprinting quickly, pulling a red hadron burst to his side. Allora had a split second to make a decision. Remembering her training, she pulled in the hadrons that were circulating in the room, created a bubble of force underneath herself, and pushed the energy down, which shot her body into the ceiling just as the elf shot his red burst forward.
The elf ran underneath Allora as the red burst destroyed the window at the end of the hallway. The drow elf was going too fast and slid out of the opening. There was a high-pitched squeal, a thud, and then silence. Allora wiggled on the ground, trying to catch her breath after slamming back down onto the hard floor. Tanner was getting to his feet, and Dax was helping his sister.
Allora quickly got to her feet and ran down the hall to the cyclop’s room. The oversized man with one eye was convulsing when Allora ran into the room. She scanned the area, searching for the cause of the creature’s seizure.
On the side of the bed were three tubes of liquid that fed into straps that looked to be going straight into his body. One of the tubes had an odd-looking black swirl. She pulled at the contraption, but it wouldn’t budge. She searched frantically for something to break the glass, but there was nothing. In her desperation, she pulled back her hand and shot a hadron burst at the swirling, blackening glass case, which shattered. The restraints released, and the cyclops stopped convulsing. His rigid muscles stopped flexing, and he eased back into the bed.
Cy turned his head toward Allora and opened his eye. Allora put her hand up, cupping her gasp as she watched the whites of his eye turn black. He looked at the jade cube clutched to her chest. He pointed his enormous finger toward the back of her left hand that held on tightly to the cube and said, “Find it before he does.”
Cy’s arm fell limp, and his breath let go. She put her chin to her chest and sank down, staring at the small green cube held within her blood-covered hands.
chapter
TWENTY-THREE
Hades
Milly was yelling down the hall, followed by a contingent of security forces, each barking orders to the hospital staff members who were trying to save the severely hurt victims of the bombing at the base of the building. Once in the room, Milly checked her daughter for wounds. She then saw the blackened eyes of her friend, who was lying motionless in the bed. She stepped over and slowly dropped Cyclops’s eyelid down. Then, she grabbed his large hand and laid it gently against his side, pausing with her palm on his chest.
Milly knelt down, grabbed Allora’s cheeks, looked into her eyes, and said, “Allora, snap out of it. We have to get out of here right now.”
Allora shook her head and blinked rapidly. Milly then took her hand and pulled her to her feet. They ran through the darkened halls, guided by the emergency lights. The air was slightly smoky as the fires below were being put out. The distant sounds of sirens grew louder as they stepped onto the landing pad. A transport ship was waiting. Almas popped out of the back, motioning them to hurry. As they ran across the concrete turf, the ground beneath them shook, and a large fireball billowed from the building next to them. The building shuttered, knocking everyone to the ground.
It was a full attack from the inside. Somehow the enemy had gotten into Shangri-La and had smuggled explosives in as well. Allora pushed off the ground, helped up by Katie, who was moving her jaw in an attempt to get the sound back in her ears. On the other side of the city, another explosion was triggered. Panic set in as a few of the security forces pulled rods from their backs, sparked them, unrolled the skippers, and dropped over the side of the landing pad. Milly pushed the girls forward as Almas was swinging his arms even more frantically. Dax & Tanner followed behind them.
Captain Theus helped while barking orders into his intercom.
“Milly, you’ve got to get them out of here,” he said as they ran up the ramp and into the transport. “I have no idea how these Titans got in, but they are taking out key components of our internal security apparatus. I’ve got to go.” He then addressed Almas, who was giving instructions to the pilot. “We are in complete shutdown, so I need you to take them to the conveyance room and lock it down.”
Captain Theus sparked his skipper and took off toward the fight. Almas shut the back ramp, and they took off, descending toward the acropolis at the center of the city. Allora stared out at the orange glow of the burning city. From the streets below, there was a firefight going on, and she wondered whether Jakar and Kali were safe. Another explosion shook the interior of the transport as they descended to the platform on the room of the acropolis. Once inside the secret corridor toward the conveyance room, the sounds of battle dissipated.
Allora looked to her left, where Katie was staring down at her feet. There was an inner struggle playing out in the refracted depths of Katie’s eyes. Allora grabbed her hand, squeezing slightly, and knocking the blonde from her self-induced trance. No words were necessary for what they both could feel emanating from within. Katie smiled and squeezed back.
Just as they entered the conveyance room, a light exploded against Milly’s back, dropping her to the ground. As Allora tried to make sense of their surroundings, the guards who were escorting them started firing their pistols. She tried to fight back but was suddenly consumed in balloon glue.
Almas took out a blade and stabbed the two security guards in the back, dropping them to the floor. From the other entrances, shadowy figures wearing masks entered the room, as all of them dropped to the floor. Allora’s vision blurred, and then she passed out, still trying to comprehend what she had just witnessed.
In her mind, she found herself in a bright fog, standing on a green field. Out of the fog came a voice. “Do not give up, and do not give in.” Her vision came to focus on her uncle kneeling next to her while she looked out onto a soccer field. The memory was vivid, like jumping into the outer realm. It was as if the memory orb was intensifying this particular memory.
“But, Uncle Ben, they just scored, and we only have thirty seconds left in the game,” she could feel herself saying, fully immersed in a distant memory.
“Well, then we should go tell the other team that we forfeit.”
“No,” Allora answered.
“Why not? It sounds to me like you’ve already given up.”
She could feel the defiant attitude that she had felt at the age of ten. Allora took the kickoff, passed it up the field, quickly moved past a defender, and got ready for a cross pass from her teammate. She stopped the ball, wound up, and kicked it. The soccer ball ricocheted off the goal post, time expired, and her team lost. It was one of the first times in her life that she felt like she had let everyone down. The sullen looks on her teammates’ and her coach’s faces further exacerbated the feelings of disappointment and guilt. The only one who was smiling on the sideline was her uncle.
“Why are you smiling?” she asked, stuffing her shin guards into a duffel bag.
“You gave it everything you had,” he said, placing his hand on her shoulder. “I’m proud of you.”
“What are you talking about?” Allora said angrily. “I singlehandedly lost us the game. I’m done with soccer.”
Allora stormed off toward the car, unconvinced of her uncle’s argument. She threw her bag into the trunk and slumped down into the passenger seat. Uncle Ben slowly walked over and got into the driver’s seat. He put the key into the ignition and then paused, staring straight ahead. He then turned his head.
“Allora, I’ve got to go away for a little while.”
“Another one of your expeditions?” she asked, unaware that this would be the last time that she would se
e her uncle alive.
“Something like that,” he said. “I want you to promise me something.”
“Sure, whatever.”
“I need you to promise me that when it gets difficult, to the point where you think that surviving it may be impossible, that you’ll never give up—that you’ll always fight until that last second no matter what.”
“Seriously, Uncle Ben? Can’t you save your speeches for another—”
“Just promise me!” Ben exclaimed. His demeanor was serious and forceful. She nodded, unsure of what he meant. He gently placed his right hand on her head and smiled.
The fog rolled in, and the image of her uncle faded.
As her eyes focused again, she awoke to a familiar face that made her grind her teeth.
“Hello, Allora,” Barmanu said, grinning victoriously.
She tried to swing her fist into the hairy, arrogant face, but her hands were secured behind a steel chair, which was held to the ground by cement glue. She couldn’t see the contraption that held her to the chair, but she could feel the glue substance. She fought again, jerking herself forward, rattling the metal chair and forcing Barmanu to take a step back. To her left and right, Katie, Tanner, Dax, and Milly sat in similar chairs, slowly waking from their forced slumber.