“Let’s go!”
I cracked the reins and Isiodore vaulted between the Valoons and then onto the side. He started to gallop through the streets, weaving between the fighting hordes. I held my blade tightly in my hand, my muscles tense and prepared. Up ahead, a group of three Bloodseekers were bearing down on a curled up Lightwarden, stabbing the life out of him as he screamed in agony. I leaned forward and guided Isiodore right towards them. One looked up at me as I approached.
“Guardian!” he shouted and fired a gun at me. I jerked my head to the side and the bullet whined past my ear. Whirling my sword around, I sunk the blade deep into his sternum. With a growl I yanked my arm to the side, ripping through his ribcage and forcing my blade out the other side. He spun around on the spot and fell into his comrades, knocking them to the ground. I hit Isiodore’s hide and then jumped down, landing on the pile and driving my blade through their skulls. Without stopping, I kept running until I was parallel with Isiodore and then swung myself onto his back again. I glanced over my shoulder, half-expecting the Lightwarden to get up, but he didn’t move. It’s too late for him. I leant down and cracked the reins again, forcing Isiodore to gallop harder.
I slashed and carved my way through the bloody, flaming streets of Fenodara, saving as many Lightwardens and innocents as I could, but with my main focus on getting to the others as quickly as possible. I ran parallel to the path we had travelled down the waterway until I saw that it split off further ahead, heading under a tall building and barring our way forward. At the end, a number of Fenodarian citizens were on their knees, pleading with a Devil, who had a gun aimed down at them. Two had been executed already, their bodies slumped down on the ground and thick blood pooling onto the streets. He had the gun pointed down at a young Elf and his mother was next to him weeping and begging. It was the Egradia – the citizen who had gotten into trouble with the Lightwardens at dinner.
“Please, spare my child. Kill me instead,” begged Egradia.
“Where are they?!” the Devil roared, ignoring her request.
“I don’t know,” she half-screamed in desperation. “If I knew I would tell you! Please I’m begging you, don’t kill him. He is my child.” The boy was crying, his shoulders shaking with fear.
I grit my teeth together and cracked the reins. Isiodore’s muscles seemed to go more ridged, gaining power. He lowered his head like a bull – horn pointing outwards – and charged towards the Devil.
“Get out the way! I shouted as we bore down on them. The citizens looked up and their eyes went wide as they saw us. The Devil snapped around at the same time Egradia grabbed her child and threw herself into the water. The Umbra barely had time to raise his gun-wielding arm before Isiodore’s horn stabbed right into his chest. His tipped back his goat-like head and roared, black blood spilling between his teeth. Isiodore kept the momentum and vaulted, carrying us all right over the wide channel of water and landing with a skidding motion on the other side. His legs buckled and he careered forward, the horn driving even further into the Devil as we hit the ground. I arched down and stabbed the blade down as hard as I could into the centre of the devil’s face, ripping the blade out with a spray of black blood. Isiodore shook his head and sent the skewered body away from us. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Egradia and her child being pulled out of the water by the rest of the group. Once she was out they all scrambled through a door and into a nearby building, hopefully to safety.
I turned my attention back to Isiodore. His front legs were folded downwards and we were leaning at an odd angle. “Come on, boy,” I said, patting his neck. He tried to stand and faltered, falling back down again. Panic filled me up. Has he broken a leg? I didn’t know a massive deal about Unicorns, but for horses, I knew that was practically a death sentence.
“Come on boy, please be okay.”
I got my answer when he shook his head and whinnied, as if psyching himself up, and stood up once more. He took a few tentative steps forward, stamping his front hooves down on the ground and testing his legs. Then, before I could do anything else, he broke into a gallop again.
We kept surging through the streets, as the 360-degree carnage continued around us. A few random bullets were fired at us as the invaders realised I was a Guardian, but like in the sea beyond the city, the opposing forces were too busy dealing with each other to pay us much attention. I guided Isiodore towards the nearest Railport station, only to see that it had been reduced to a broken pile of rubble much like Scholaris. Overhead, a large chunk of the Lightrail had been blown apart and a few sections of the shuttle were dangling over the edge like a crooked finger. The rest of it had fallen to the ground hundreds of feet below and was now a steaming mass of burning and bubbling metal. Isiodore rushed around it and I hid my face in the crook of my elbow as the thick smoke billowed around us, praying that the shuttle had been evacuated before it had taken a nosedive.
My Biomote crackled to life again, and I heard Gabriella’s frenzied voice, clearer now I was closer, but still under the influence of something that was distorting what was normally a crystalline connection. “Alex…hurry please, they’re almost through. We won’t be able to hold them off!”
“I’m coming!” I called back into the Biomote and forced Isiodore to gallop as fast as he possibly could. I tried to stay in the right direction, but there were so many offshoots and directions in the unfamiliar city that I was struggling to maintain my bearings.
Ahead of me, I saw a Yokai with a blade raised over his head, as an unarmed Lightwarden did his best to get away. Through pure instinct I dove off Isiodore’s back and connected hard with the Umbra in a rugby tackle that sent him flying off his feet and sliding along the ground. The Luminar snatched up his scattered gunstaff and discharged two iron rounds into the Yokai’s head. I put my fingers in my mouth and whistled sharply; Isiodore ground to a halt and then returned around to collect me.
“Thank you, Guardian,” said the Luminar, helping me to my feet.
“Where is the Atrius from here?” I asked.
The Lightwarden aimed down the fire-covered street. “That way. Keep going until you see the sign for Railport ten and then take your right. You’ll see it.”
“Thanks,” I said and swung myself onto Isiodore’s back. I cracked the reins and a moment later I was charging down the street, praying I wasn’t too late.
17
Gabriella
The floor shuddered underneath our feet as Hades’ ground forces used every weapon at their disposal to break open the thick doors to the Atrius. Every shuddering impact caused fresh cries from the fifty Fenodarian citizens huddled nearby. Me, eight of my Guardians and the Lightwardens from the Reaper Archives – plus a handful more – were all positioned around the uppermost floor of the building, armed and preparing to defend the innocent from the inevitable onslaught of the two-hundred-plus Umbra trying to break down the doors.
They were bad odds.
I clutched the Blood Brothers tight in my coiled hands, breathing steadily and trying to control the fear that was surging through me. Before Alex, I would head into battle with the sole defensive strategy of keeping my teammates alive, having no real concern about coming out the other side myself. But now I had a reason to live, someone to come back to once the blood had been spilled. The thought of dying alone without him terrified me. And right now there were hundreds of Umbra outside the Atrius walls, doing everything they could to gain entry. There were far more than we could hope to deal with, even if we fought harder than we ever had in our lives. We needed a miracle.
We needed Alex.
Please hurry.
“Highwarden Caria, I said, Do you copy?” Vendal shouted into his coms bracelet. “Dammit, I still can’t get hold of anyone,” he cursed as he marched around the room.
“They must have jammed our communication systems somehow,” said Sabrien as she and Obeden heaved one of the tables onto its side and pushed it against the staircase to create a makeshift barrier. “How else ca
n you explain the lack of the Needle?”
“Either that or everyone is dead,” said Hendahl in a despondent tone.
“How little faith you have in our kind,” barked Sabrien, casting him a dirty glare over her shoulder.
“I have faith, but I am also a realist,” he said, sitting down on a chair and leaning against his upright gunstaff. “This is the biggest attack we have ever faced in the entire history of this city. Without the Needle, we’re finished.” He sighed and took off his helmet, dropping it to the table next to him and sweeping a gloved hand through his unkempt silver hair. “It is only a matter of time.”
His blunt words earned more moans from the already terrified families we had picked up as we’d fled through the city, having been attacked the moment we re-entered Fenodara. Pure luck had led us towards the rest of Orion, who were fighting on the streets along with the other Lightwardens, trying to repel the invasion. They had joined us and we had fought our way through the city, losing several wardens and innocents along the way. We had reached Atrius and sealed the doors shut. It had seemed like a good idea at the time – somewhere to hole up whilst we gathered our thoughts and waited for backup. But then everyone had stopped responding to our communications and a small army of Umbra had converged on our position.
The sanctuary had become our prison.
“Hendahl, hold your tongue,” said Vendal.
“Why? Why should I not say what I want before I die? I have served this damn city for over eighty years, and it has given me nothing in return but pain and misery!” He swiped his hand against a goblet on the table and it clattered against the wall, sending dark wine splashing up the walls. “Now we are going to die here like caged animals to that Umbra filth.”
He kept ranting until Troy marched over, his giant hammer balanced over one of his broad shoulders. “How about you shut the hell up, or I put this through your skull and do the job for them?” He crouched down right in front of the warden, cutting into his personal space and staring right into his face.
“Ag’rah khul,” growled Hendahl. Despite the harsh Luminar expletive, Troy’s words appeared to have the desired effect, because the Lightwarden cast his gaze to the floor and fell silent. Troy nodded and then re-joined Danny and Hollie, who were standing together, weapons raised and ready to attack anything that came their way.
BOOM!
The whole building shook as something much more powerful than rifles slammed against the doors. The resulting shockwave was enough to send cracks running up the walls and bring several chunks of the ceiling sculpture thudding down onto the table.
“What the hell is happening out there?” I asked Sophia.
The Witch was parallel to the wall, peering through a small hole that had once been an air grate. The rest of the windows had been sealed with shutters, made from the same adamantine as the doors – and the sole reason the Umbra hadn’t already stormed the Atrius.
“I’m not sure, hold on.”
She had a barbed whip coiled in one hand, which she attached back to her belt, before pushing her arm through the narrow vent and giving a short, sharp whistle. A second later she pulled her hand back through the space, holding a blackbird. She lifted her hand to her ear and Midnight let out a series of chirps and twitters. To anyone else, he produced nothing but the sounds of the animal he was impersonating, but to his beloved companion, his words were as clear as ours.
“Midnight says that more forces have joined them, and that a large airborne ship just dropped in a massive walking tank before it was taken out. We just felt one of its cannon shells.”
“A Greatstalker,” groaned Hendahl. “That just cut our slim chances of survival in half.”
Midnight said something else and Sophia swallowed, casting her vivid blue and green eyes up to mine. “He also says that judging by the extensive structural damage that only one blast did, we don’t have long before they’re in.”
I shut my eyes against the fear for a moment and nodded. Alex won’t get here in time. The feeling was enough to make me want to break down right there on the spot, but I forced it away. There’s only one thing left to do now. Take as many of them with us as we can and hope I’m still alive long enough afterwards to say goodbye.
I snapped my eyes open.
“Scarlett and Mikey, unseal that window and on my command fire whatever you can down at the Umbra. We need to try and thin them out if we’re going to have a hope of surviving this.” The three nodded and picked up an array of firearms that had been stored in a large floor recess covered by a carpet and un-lockable only by Lightwarden keys. Apparently nearly every building in the city had a similar unit somewhere within it. I had to give the Lightwardens credit – they had contingencies. Soon afterwards, the Guardians had the shutter open and high-powered sniper-rifles balanced on the window ledge.
“Danny and Hollie, I want you to join with four other Lightwardens and line yourselves against the stairs on the lower level. They will have no choice but to bottleneck when they come up the stairs.” I glanced at Lightwarden Vendal. “As long as that’s okay with you.”
He gave a weak smile. “I’m only one rank up from a regular warden. You’re a Huntmaster. I am happy for you to take the lead.”
“What about us, boss?” asked Delagio, gesturing at himself, Troy and Grey.
I took a deep breath. “This is a hard thing to ask, but I need you to join me on the ground floor and be the first line of defence.” I swallowed. “Will you do it?”
Delagio tipped his Stetson. “Hell yeah.”
Grey smiled, “If it wasn’t for you guys, I’d still be a depressed doctor with a cheating wife. I’m more than prepared to fight and die by your side.”
Troy patted the head of his huge hammer against his palm. “Point me in the direction and I’ll swing.”
“I’ll come with you too,” said Lightwarden Vendal, retrieving his gunstaff from its angled position against the wall.
“You don’t have to do that, Vendal,” I said. “You can stay up here with the other wardens if you want.”
He shook his head. “Fenodara is my city…my home. I could not call myself a Lightwarden if I did not join you in trying to keep those misguided souls at bay.” He turned to Sabrien. “You are in charge of the wardens up here now.”
“I won’t let you down.”
“I know you won’t.”
Vendal walked over to where Lightwarden Hendahl was sitting and hunkered down, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You spoke the truth, my friend. You have served this city well and it has cost you dearly, as it has many of us. And I know that right now you are afraid…you have every right to be.” He pointed at the open window. “Right now there is a small Umbra army waiting to come and claim your life. You have made it no secret that you despise them, and who can blame you? It was the Umbra who killed your lifemate and child. So tell me then, when you pass through the Last Light into the Gardens of Serenity to be reunited with your kin, will you tell them how you gave up and waited for your inevitable death, or how you carved through as many as you could, defending the helpless innocents of this city, as you always have?”
Hendhal looked up at Vendal, his eyes glistening with tears. He reached out and took his helmet, pressing it down over his head and then stood up, clutching his pike gun in one hand.
Vendal smiled and clapped a hand on his comrade’s shoulder. “Stay here with the citizens and defend them with your life. If anyone who else passes up those stairs, you send them to their afterlives, okay?”
He nodded. “I will, Lightwarden Vendal.”
I turned to each of Orion in turn and held their gaze. I could tell that many of them were terrified – normally there was a way out, an avenue that we could travel down that would save us, or backup waiting around the corner. But our only, slim chance was too far away.
“Some of you have fought by my side by side on countless missions, some of you have only just joined us. Either way, it’s been an honour, Guardians,” I sai
d, my throat tight with emotion. “Everyone to your positions.”
Delagio, Grey, Danny, Troy and the four Lightwardens followed me as I vaulted over the upturned table, heading down the stairs where we all split off into our assigned areas. I took up position with Delagio at the main entrance, whilst Grey and Troy covered the secondary doors. We all raised our weapons and waited.
BOOM!
Another powerful round hit my door and it started to buckle inwards from the strain, the thick adamantine hinges pulling at the walls despite their adamantine linings. The shockwave sent me down onto one knee. Standing back upright, I raised my gun once again, balancing it over the hand that carried one of my Blood Brothers.
“Top level, fire!” I shouted.
Above us I could hear the crack of precision shots being taken as Scarlett and Mikey unleashed the best they had down onto the hordes outside. I heard the sounds of bodies hitting the ground and shouted orders as others scattered from the powerful bullets.
BOOM!
One of the double doors started to peel backwards as the hinges broke free from the wall it was attached to. Through the narrow crack I could see the night sky, illuminated by the glow of a thousand fires. A chandelier fell from the ceiling and clattered right next to my foot. I didn’t even flinch. I was singular in my focus.
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