by John Corwin
I wanted desperately to go back for Shelton and Bella, but the enemy forces were almost on top of us. I had a choice to make. Should I go after my friends, or should I go to the aid of the Templars in the Three Sisters way station? More explosions rocked the jungle in the direction Shelton had fled. Please forgive me. I had to help the Templars and hope Shelton could escape.
"In the name of the Divinity, I, Primarion Arturo, commander of the First Battalion of the Seraphim Empire, will end you!" The blue seraph dove toward us, sword extended.
"In the name of me, Justin Slade, commander of the butt monkey legions," I shouted, "tell Daelissa she can shove it up her fat ass!"
"Yes, into her stinky bottom!" Nightliss said and launched a volley of ultraviolet spheres at Arturo.
The seraph barrel-rolled out of the way. His eyes widened as if suddenly recognizing someone. "How is this possible? You look identical to the Divinity!"
Nightliss didn't have a chance to answer because in that instant we made it into the cave. I saw Arturo pull out of his dive and swoop after us. He pursued us into the dimly lit tunnel only a short distance before coming to a halt. He obviously didn't want to risk chasing us before his army arrived.
I immediately withdrew my arcphone, Nookli, from my pocket and called Shelton. No answer. Ice-cold dread filled my heart. Had I lost two more friends? A surge of anger and grief tore a shout from my throat. I spun the carpet around and angled back toward the cave mouth.
"Justin, what are you doing?" Nightliss sounded scared.
Emotion choked me. "Shelton. Bella." What had I been thinking? Why hadn't I gone to help them instead of people I didn't even know? Because they're your responsibility.
"You can't save everyone, Justin." Nightliss pressed her head into my back and sniffled.
It wasn't the first time someone had told me that and it wouldn't be the last. Even if I were at full strength, it was too late to race after Shelton and Bella without plowing through an army. "We need to close off this tunnel." The corridor was carved through solid rock and spanned about thirty feet across.
"Even together it would take us too long to collapse it," Nightliss said. "Perhaps the Templars have explosives."
"It's the only way we'll have a chance of defending this place." I whipped the carpet back down the slope and urged it to full speed. We were about two-thirds of the way down when I spotted a group of black-armored figures racing up the tunnel.
"Halt!" the leader of the squad called out.
"I'm Justin Slade." I leaned over to reveal Nightliss. "I have the Clarion with me."
The lead Templar gazed at her. He saluted. "I apologize for a less than cordial reception, but we've lost contact with our people up top." His voice had a heavy Australian accent to it.
I didn't have time to mince words. "They're dead."
"Dead?" a young female shouted. "But Kurt was up there."
The leader looked back at her and turned back to me. "Are you certain?"
"There's an army of Seraphim about to march into this way station." I jabbed a thumb over my shoulder. "We think Daelissa got fresh reinforcements from Seraphina. If you thought the ones we fought at the Grand Nexus were bad, these look even tougher."
"Oh god, not Kurt," the female said. Tears poured down her face and she slumped to her knees. "He just asked me to marry him."
My heart knotted with sorrow. We've all lost loved ones in this damned war.
"He just told me last night that we never know what day will be our last." She broke into fresh sobs. "And now he's gone."
"Get on your feet, soldier. You're a Templar, not a child." The Templar leader looked mildly embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Clarion. She's a new recruit."
Nightliss leapt from the carpet and helped the woman to her feet. "There is no shame in sorrow. I have shed many a tear over this war and there will be many more to come." She wiped a tear from the woman's face. "You must draw upon your love and strength to fight for his memory. He would want you to survive."
The woman sniffed. "I will do my best, Clarion. Thank you."
I thought of Shelton and Bella again and felt like crying. Now definitely wasn't the time. Just as I'd done many times before, I had to dig deep and push forward. "Do you have anything we can use to seal off this tunnel before the Seraphim reach us?"
"We have emergency protocols in place." The leader motioned at the tunnel. "This entire section is enchanted to implode if need be."
"Then by all means, let's clear this area and do that," I said. "We don't have a lot of time."
As if in answer to my commands, the sounds of hundreds of marching feet echoed down the tunnel.
"Templars, retreat!" the leader shouted.
Nightliss released the weeping female and hopped back on the carpet. Our group took off at top speed down the tunnel. We reached a red line painted on the floor. The Templar leader went to the closest wall and seemed to reach his arm through solid rock. A portion of the wall vanished as he turned off an illusion hiding a wooden panel with five runes carved into it in a circular pattern. At the center of the pattern was the outline of a hand.
He traced each rune with his finger, choosing the next one in no particular order I could detect, and pressed his hand against the outline. "Templar Nelson hereby confirms this order," he said. The runes flashed red. Nelson looked at us. "We should clear out of here."
White light shone from around the bend in the tunnel behind us. Seraphim soldiers appeared, their swords held at the ready. There was a scant fifty yards between them and us.
"How long until—" I hadn't finished my sentence when the rock walls and ceiling on the other side of the red line began to crumble. Rubble showered down along what I estimated to be a thirty-yard span of tunnel. I backed away as boulders and earth began to fill in the tunnel with a tremendous roar.
"This is only the first section," Nelson said. "We have another section we can collapse twenty meters from here."
"Let's go," I shouted over the rumble.
We ran back to another red line.
"This will collapse it all the way back to the other line," Nelson explained as he traced the runes. "Unless they have some heavy earth moving equipment, they won't be making it through anytime soon."
"What about omniarch portals?" I asked.
He shook his head. "We're using portal-blocking statues here."
"Which means we can't escape via omniarch without disabling a portal blocker." I ran through all the alternatives at our disposal. Shelton had warned Thomas about the new army. We could still keep a token force of Templars here to maintain the portal blockade, but what if the Seraphim broke through the collapsed tunnel sections?
"Sir, we're prepared to stay here as long as necessary, but I'm not sure there's much we can do against a force of Seraphim." Nelson looked back at his squad as he jogged alongside my carpet. "We have only thirty more soldiers back in the way station."
"Daelissa must have used the Obsidian Arch near Sydney to transport her army," Nightliss said. "I hope the Australian compound wasn't also attacked."
"Doubtful," I said. "It looks like she just wanted the Alabaster Arch. I also doubt she used the Obsidian Arch near Sydney. A Seraphim army marching across the countryside would've been noticed and reported on the news. I'd bet they used omniarches."
"Either way, they're here," Nelson said. "How should we handle it, sir?"
It felt strange having this older man call me sir, but his tone of voice sounded as though he trusted my decisions. "Set up a perimeter of ASEs to keep watch on the tunnel, the control room, and the way station." By this time, we'd reached the main way station. Looming in the middle of the large cavern stood an Obsidian Arch. It looked large enough to admit a jumbo jet without wings.
A small statue of an obsidian obelisk sat on the floor between the arch columns. Two statues with an asterisk design stood guard against omniarch portals within the way station. Each portal-blocking statue had an effective spherical radius of about three hun
dred yards. We headed toward a large door in the back wall and entered the control room. It looked virtually identical to the control room at the other way stations, complete with the world map, modulus, rows of numbered arches, and a niche with omniarches. The big difference was the large Alabaster Arch, obsidian with veins of alabaster running through it, sitting in front of the numbered arches.
A statue shaped like an angel sat on the floor beneath the Alabaster Arch to prevent any portals between it and Seraphina from opening. Other statue designs could block portals from different realms, and each one required a musical sequence to toggle them on and off.
Nelson met with all of his Templars and ordered them to distribute a network of ASEs—all-seeing eyes—to record and transmit video back to our primary headquarters beneath Queens Gate. Each of the small, marble-shaped devices could hover in the air and keep discreet watch.
I stared at the arches in the room and pondered how I could best handle this. If we sent away all the Templars, there would nobody here to reactivate the portal-blockers. We could keep a token force here, but it seemed like a waste of manpower given this new Seraphim threat.
Once Nelson was finished giving orders, I motioned him over. "Nightliss and I have to go through the Alabaster Arch to Seraphina. If things go well, we'll be back in less than a week."
He nodded. "We'll hold the line for you, sir."
I almost shook my head to tell him no, but it suddenly occurred to me that this mission was far more than one of mercy. This new Seraphim army looked far stronger and more disciplined than the previous one. They have flying angels, for crying out loud. Even if all our revived cupids were ready to fight, that wouldn't be nearly enough. We needed an army with a chance of countering them.
In short, we needed the Darkling nation to help us.
If things were to go well with my request to get help for Elyssa, I planned to broach the subject of an alliance. Now I had to make that my primary mission. I had to put my obligations to this realm, Eden, above my personal desires.
My heart ached as images of Elyssa, Shelton, and Bella flashed through my head. Life would hardly be worth living without them, but just because I felt that way didn't mean I could condemn everyone else to slavery beneath Seraphim rulers.
I nodded. "Contact Thomas Borathen and inform him of the situation. Tell him we need to hold this way station at all costs. Hopefully, I can bring back a Darkling army with me."
Nelson's eyes flashed with hope. "Godspeed, sir. We won't let a single one of those bastards in here unless they walk over our dead bodies."
I placed an arm on his shoulder and looked him in the eye. "I won't let you down." I hoped I could live up to that promise. I walked over to the Alabaster Arch, picked up the portal blocker and gave it to Nelson. "Disable this and turn it back on after we're through. Deactivate it again in two days and each day after for one hour in the morning, and one hour in the evening." I checked my arcphone, Nookli for the time. Overworld timekeeping didn't account for time zones like the noms did. "Do it at ten hundred and eighteen hundred hours."
He took out an arcphone and tapped in the information. "Anything else, sir?"
I took one last look around the room and shook my head. My heart felt unbearably heavy. Nookli chimed. I looked at my arcphone and saw a text message.
Justin, did you make it? We got away and portaled back to Queens Gate.
The message was from Shelton. I threw up a fist and whooped. "They made it!" I turned to Nightliss, hugged her, and spun her around. "Shelton and Bella are alive!"
Tears formed in her eyes. She buried her face on my shoulder and sobbed with what I knew had to be relief. I set her down and wiped at the tears forming in my eyes. "Nelson, please deactivate the portal blocker."
I tapped out a quick text to Shelton. I knew the universe wouldn't let a jackass like you die. Nightliss and I are fine. We're about to take a portal to Seraphina. Be safe. Truthfully, I knew I could open an omniarch portal from here and have them here in a jiffy, but having almost lost them I wasn't about to risk it on this journey. I sent the text.
"Are we ready, then?" Nightliss asked, her green eyes bloodshot from crying.
"We're ready." We stepped into the silver circle around the Alabaster Arch. I knelt and willed the circle to close. The static rush of aether filled the air. There were no controls to the arch. I simply concentrated on it and willed it to activate. I could almost sense another world an instant before the air within the arch columns began to flicker between ultraviolet, gray, and white. A klaxon bellowed as the energy within the arch built with a loud hum. The smell of ozone filled my nostrils. With an electrical crackle, a gateway split the air vertically before blinking open horizontally to reveal a blue sky and a wide plain covered in reddish grass.
I turned to Nelson. He and the other Templars flashed a synchronized salute. I gave them a thumbs up and stepped through the portal with Nightliss.
Hello, Seraphina.
Chapter 3
Aside from red grass and blue-tinged trees, Seraphina didn't look a lot different from Eden. I willed the Alabaster Arch to deactivate. It blinked off behind me. A warm breeze rustled the tall grass surrounding the obsidian slab upon which the arch sat. I looked around for other arches but saw none. Either the builders hadn't constructed Obsidian Arches and omniarches here, or if they had, they were elsewhere. It was strange enough seeing an Alabaster Arch aboveground.
"We're on a skylet." Nightliss pointed to a bank of clouds drifting just past the end of the plain.
I walked through the grass toward the clouds. Before reaching the end of the grass, my foot found open air. I shouted. Nightliss grabbed my arm and jerked me back. Heart pounding, I took a closer look at the grass and realized it grew out from the sides of the cliff, giving the illusion I had several more feet before the edge. I dropped to my knees and looked over the precipice.
A clearing in the clouds revealed a huge water vortex swirling in a green ocean far below. The cliff face angled backward beneath us and vanished into mist.
"I don't see where the cliff enters the water."
A smile graced Nightliss's lips. "As I said, a skylet." She drew in a deep breath. "Oh, how I've missed you, Seraphina." She looked at me. "Until this moment, I didn't realize how much that was true."
I was too busy trying to understand her first statement. "Are you saying this chunk of rock is floating in the air?"
She nodded and pointed at the vortex. "There is a tremendous updraft of aether beneath us. Sometimes it creates these whirlpools, while other times it merely makes the sea appear as if it's boiling."
I looked back at the arch. It must require a great deal of aether to power. In Eden, the arches usually sat above ley lines, magical power conduits, which provided them with ample energy. Apparently, the aether vortex beneath us was the provider of aether to this arch. It might also explain why there were no other kinds of arches here.
Another very important question occurred to me. "How in the dickens are we supposed to get down from here?"
Nightliss looked around. Her eyes lit on something and she motioned me to follow her. A waist-high stone pedestal with a gray gem the size of my palm on top of it sat near the cliff edge. "This is the skyway. I hope it works." She held a finger toward the gem and zapped it with a burst of Murk. The gem glowed. As if someone had unrolled misty gray carpet, a cloudbank formed a path into the sky.
I felt my stomach lurch at the thought of stepping onto clouds with nothing but thin air between me and a vast, sucking maw in the ocean thousands of feet below. Nightliss tested the skyway with a foot. She grunted with satisfaction and rested her full weight on the clouds.
"It appears to be working." She stepped onto it all the way.
Butt cheeks clenched tight enough to crush a soda can, I gripped a handful of the red grass like a tether and gingerly placed a foot onto the cloudbank. It felt as solid as the ground beneath me. "How long does the charge in the skyway last?"
"Onc
e activated, it cannot turn off while it has passengers," Nightliss said. "It gathers aether from the air around it for power."
"Could someone turn it off at the other end?" I imagined a cartoon version of me running in midair before plummeting a thousand feet to my doom.
She shook her head. "We can only turn it on, not off from the gems."
I just hoped there wasn't a roadrunner waiting to pull the plug the minute I stepped onto it. My other leg didn't want to join the first on the cloud. I tried to move it, but my stomach knotted. I wasn't particularly scared of heights, but looking down at such a distance while having to rely on otherworldly magic would probably make anyone think twice.
Elyssa needs me!
Just a single thought of her was enough to vanquish my hesitation, though my butt refused to unclench. I stepped onto the skyway. Several seconds passed. I didn't plunge to my death, but we didn't move either. "What now?"
"You simply will it to take you to a destination." She looked ahead. "I believe this will take us to the capitol city of Tarissa.
Take us to Tarissa! I thought without hesitation.
Like the moving pathways at Science Academy, we commenced moving forward, even though the cloud path itself didn't seem to move at all. The breeze in my face accelerated into a stiff gust, which grew into a howling gale.
"You must have given it a very urgent command," Nightliss yelled above the noise. "I suggest you turn on the wind buffer."
Wind buffer on.
Nothing changed. I looked at her. "Um, how?"
She laughed. "I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you. You must think the words in Cyrinthian, or visualize your intent."
I'd learned to speak some Cyrinthian during my early days of Arcane tutelage. In other words, I was about as fluent as a toddler. Mommy. Daddy. Poo-poo! I took out Nookli and opened a translator program I'd installed long ago. It quickly provided me with the words I needed. I transmitted them with my mighty brainwaves and the ghostlike cries of the wind abruptly vanished.
"Much better," Nightliss said. "It is important you learn as much as possible before we arrive."