by J D Astra
“Yin, they’re innocent!” I pleaded.
His brow smoothed and fear entered his eyes. He ran to the wall of screens and pulled close a microphone. “Attention students, this is Yin of Long River. If you’re able, come to the Headmistress’s room.”
Yin cut the feed and turned to me. “And you? Are you innocent?”
“I—” Pain slashed through my thoughts as the Secret Pact took effect. Even considering telling him the truth crippled me. I dropped to one knee and looked to Yin. There was nothing I could say to reveal our intent. “I came to help you, to help everyone. I am innocent. But I’ve done things—” I looked to the dead men on either side of the room—“things I’m not proud of.”
A group of Moon Shadow students rushed to the door.
“Yin?” Roku asked, then gasped as he saw Woong-ji at the center of the room, controlling Ena in a sphere of colorful power. “Grandmaster!”
“She’s corrupt!” Yin said, silencing the crowd before they went on the offensive. “We all know it. She’s been acting strange for months since Yamamotto-sama—Dokun—convinced her to add the monitors to our rooms, all the machina, and ban our fourth-level spell training. He’s seeped into our school and destroyed our sacred ways. He’s been controlling her, and we can’t allow him to take the next step, because it will be our doom.”
The students in the doorway murmured and nodded. Yin untied the spell-amplified knots that held my fellow students captive.
“What do we do?” a tall girl asked.
“You’ll do nothing, simpering welp!” Ena screamed and the students cowered. I felt her ry munje even through Woong-ji’s control and a jang-ryzo around my mind.
“We need to bring the Bastions outside, unbind them, and revive them from whatever this monster has cast so they can escape,” Yin said, unaffected by Ena’s command.
“Jiyong, run!” Woong-ji screamed.
The bubble around Ena burst in a brilliant shower of sparks, and Woong-ji skidded backwards. Purple and red munje twisted through the room from under Ena’s dress, reaching for the students, Bastions and Moon Shadows alike.
She cackled. “You’re not going anywhere.”
Woong-ji rocketed from the floor in an explosion of zo and smashed into Ena. They went through the wall of her private study and tumbled out into the frosty brush behind the school.
“Hurry!” Yin shouted, and the other students snapped from their trance.
I secured my friends in the Enjiho’s grasp and charged out into the cold afternoon, away from the screams and explosions of pure power. Woong-ji had faked her frailty before when Ena hit her, lulling all of us into a false sense of her strength.
Hana shivered in my arms, and I looked down. Her eyes were open and her gaze pinned on me. “She told me you were dead. She showed me things,” she trembled. I sunk to the ground and held her close.
I looked about at the Moon Shadow students as they shared information, crowding around the side of the pagoda to get a view of the fight. I brought the Enjiho to me and set Yuri and Cho against my back. The bots’ systems were already taxed, and their energy levels low. We couldn’t escape like this.
I wracked my brain, desperate for a solution in the desolation. Shin-soo and Sung-ki were still missing, and they hadn’t made the rendezvous behind the noodle shop—but I couldn’t think they were dead. They would make their way on their own, and we had to, too.
Yin knelt beside me. “What do you need?”
“Clothes and shoes for these three. Any potions on hand for endurance or revival...” But that wouldn’t be enough.
Yin rallied Long River and a few others, then gave the orders. The fighting behind the pagoda escalated, sending shards of rock and dirt flying high into the air. Yin twirled in a wide circle, blue en shielding us from the debris.
“You have no reason to believe me, no reason to help us,” I whispered.
Yin placed a hand on my shoulder. “You could’ve killed Aki—Ko-nah—many times. He poisoned your school, betrayed your trust, and sold you out to Dokun. You had every right to hate him, to want to hill him, but you didn’t. You gave him another chance.”
The noise of combat faded as I looked at Yin. “How did you know about that?”
He smirked. “Ko-nah’s third-level spells are no match for my fourth. I heard everything the night after you fought the shūspekta, and have discovered quite a bit more on my own.”
Another blast of dirt and splintered tree branches flew. The Moon Shadow students clustered together, shielding themselves from damage as they watched.
Yin blocked the shrapnel for us. “We need to get you away from here. Do you have transport out of Kokyu?”
I nodded. “But it requires a several-day hike through the mountains.”
The students Yin had sent off returned with potions and clothes. I pulled the loose-fitting pants over Hana’s legs and tugged on the long-sleeve turtleneck to accompany it, then tied them both in place with a thick sash.
I opened Hana’s mouth and poured the energy potion down her throat. It would take a few moments, but she would be strong enough to run. Around me, many of the other Bastions were sitting up, rubbing their eyes like groggy children.
But some of them didn’t rouse.
My throat constricted as I watched the Moon Shadow students shake my classmates, begging for them to sit up and open their eyes. They pulled on them, fed them potions, shook their shoulders, but nothing worked. Their slack mouths didn’t pull breath.
A rumbling overhead sent my mind into overdrive.
We were out of time.
I reached into my inner pocket and pulled the second of four vials Sung-ki had left me. I drank back the potion with a desperate gulp, the roar drawing nearer every second. Power blazed through my veins and swelled in my core. I twisted the bands for uw and double ma, then let the energy flow through them.
I breathed through the heat in my chest. “Yin, the others don’t know anything, but Yuri will be able to lead you on the right path through the hills... I fear she’s too weak to get them all the way there. They need to get to the bay on the north end of Kokyu territory. Our transport waits for us there. Take the living Bastions, please. It’s my last favor.”
“And you?” he asked.
Eight Enjiho with red stripes and a three gold stars flew over the tree line, landing with a ground trembling thud. My heart hammered as I looked on this new fleet of machina.
“I’m going to fight.”
Chapter 39
THE ENJIHO CIRCLED up, arms raised.
Dokun’s voice boomed from all of the bots. “Surrender yourselves and no one will get hurt.”
I transferred Hana to Yin’s waiting arms, but she protested. “No, I’m staying.”
“You can’t fight like this,” I whispered, tucking a stray strand of black hair behind her ear.
She inhaled deeply, and the air around her flexed with power. “I’m not leaving you.”
My throat tightened, threatening to suffocate me, but I accepted her choice. I palmed her one of my two remaining potions and helped her to stand. We faced the armed and ready Enjiho, and I stepped in front of Hana, concealing her potion drinking.
“We’re leaving,” I said.
“You’re coming with me,” Dokun replied. One of the Enjiho stepped forward, hand turned upward in an offering. His tone shifted to something soft and kind as he went on. “I can keep you safe.”
“What about from yourself? I’ve seen what you’ve done. I watched you murder Ko-nah.”
Yin inhaled sharply beside me, then took a step back.
The advancing Enjiho stopped. “Is the loss of one life not worth the peace and prosperity of millions?”
“But you haven’t just taken one life, have you?” I snarled back.
The energy from the potion was nearly used up and my stores full enough to take control of at least two more of his elite Enjiho.
“Jiyong, you’re simply too young to understand what I�
�m trying to do, but it is for the good of this world. If you come with me, I promise not to harm the others.”
“You’re lying.”
Another explosion rang out from behind the school followed by the sound of whining wood. I used the distraction, rushing forward with my two nearly empty bots. The elite Enjiho reacted all at once, launching a powerful spray from their raised arms.
Hana darted in front of me with a flourish of blue en. She captured the liquid and thrust it back at the Enjiho. The liquid slapped against them harmlessly and faded into purple mist that blew away on the wind.
My two bots collided with the enemies on either end of the semicircle. I ripped and pulled on the armor, reaching my smaller hands between the gaps to crush the operating wires. Their arms went dead, and I moved on to the next bots—but I was too slow.
Four of Dokun’s Enjiho converged on my two, holding them by the arms and ripping the limbs from their sockets. I abandoned my armless bots, then released the stored munje from my reservoir. Two enemies came for me, and I let them. I touched both, sending gold-red munje into their systems.
‘Take one,’ I thought, and relinquished control of the second bot—keeping only one for myself. Mae responded in an instant, turning her Enjiho on the spot and rocketing into the fray. I turned, taking a defensive fighting stance against the three advancing enemies. Mae boosted across the clearing and slammed into one of the bots, taking it into the trees.
“Yin, go,” I barked the order.
“But we can win,” he protested.
I could sense the presence of Dokun’s reinforcements through the striped bot I’d taken under my command. “More are on the way.”
Yin’s hand fell on my shoulder. “Fight well, Jiyong.”
I watched from the rear camera of my bot as Yin helped Yuri and Cho to their feet, then rallied the rest of the living students. They charged off through the trees, heading northeast.
One of the broken-armed Enjiho activated its rockets in pursuit. Hana punched the ground with bright blue en, lifting chunks of dirt. She thrust her hands up and forward, using the dirt to crush the pursuing bot to the ground. The second armless bot gave chase, and Hana took off after it.
The two enemy Enjiho remaining closed in.
The speaker on the lead Enjiho popped to life with Dokun’s voice. “It doesn’t have to be this way, Jiyong. If you understood what I was doing, I know you’d be on my side.”
The rumbling of reinforcements filled the yard, and three more Enjiho dropped at the edge of the tree line. The bot under Mae’s control returned to my side, clutching two dismembered bot arms like weapons. Five on two—that wasn’t great odds.
With a massive roar, a truck summited the hill to Moon Shadow and plowed through the Enjiho in the back. The three bots flew into the air with a sickening metal crunch, all of their parts bent at strange angles. The truck kept coming, hardly slowing down from the impact. The two remaining enemies boosted into the air, escaping a similar fate as the others.
The truck came to a stop before us, and Shin-soo whooped with joy from the open window of the driver’s seat. “Get in, loser, we’re getting out of here.”
“Sung-ki!” I looked through the truck, trying to find the instructor. Silver Dragonflies filled half the seats, blocking my view inside.
Sung-ki poked his head out the door. “Where is everyone?”
“Yuri is leading them on foot. Woong-ji needs help!” I pointed behind to the crumbing pagoda. Thick beams of wood splintered and collapsed in on themselves, and the school tipped sideways. It stopped short of crushing the battling titans, but only just.
Sung-ki dashed past me, shaking vials lodged between his fingers. “Leave!”
The enemy Enjiho hovered just overhead, their bodies turned toward the forest where Yin and the others had escaped. They sped off that way, and my stomach dropped. Hana wasn’t back from chasing the half-disabled Enjiho, and if these two intercepted her, it would be too much.
I looked to Shin-soo, panicked. “The other Bastions are in trouble. Get the Silver Dragonflies to safety!”
“I drove all the way up here and you don’t want a ride?” Shin-soo asked.
I hopped on the back of my Enjiho, gripping it under the armor. “I’ve got one.”
I wrapped my legs under its primary arms, then locked its secondary arms under my knees—like a piggyback ride I’d given to Minjee a hundred times. I breathed deep and activated the boosters. My sweaty hands threatened to slip from the armor, but I used a bit of zo to hold tight as we rocketed above the trees.
‘Mae, how long will it take Shin-soo to get to the road north? Will Yin and the others intersect their path?’ I asked. The wind whistling past my ears made it hard to think, and the fear in my limbs kept my mind occupied with not falling to a slow and painful death.
“If Yin and the others stay at their current trajectory and make good time—four kilometers an hour—they’ll cross paths on the highway north in about ten kilometers.” She replied.
I envied her level head, then squeezed my legs tighter against the sides of the Enjiho. The enemy turned, diving into the trees.
“I see her,” Mae said, dropping into the canopy.
I followed behind, my Enjiho dodging tree trunks and boulders as we half ran, half boosted through the forest.
Hana was sprinting over the rocks, leaving zo-infused contrails in her wake. The enemy bots were nearly to her, with fists raised and primed. With my Enjiho’s camera, I could see the energy flowing through their arms as they powered up an electric device.
“Hana, drop!” I projected my voice through the speakers on the bot to reach her.
Hana skidded to a stop and slipped between two boulders just as the enemy launched a tasing wire. The pins stuck into the trunk of a tree, discharging sparks of blue and white. The second bot slowed and scooped low behind the other, yanking Hana from her hideout.
My heart slammed against my chest. “Hana!”
The Enjiho rocketed into the air, taking her with them. I tried to boost my Enjiho, to follow them, but stopped as the Hana in the enemy’s grasp shimmered with purple, then dissolved into a rotted log. I cut my booster and stopped in front of the rocks Hana had slipped between. She smiled at me from under a pile of dead leaves. That smile erased all fear from my mind for a blink, and I beamed back.
“You’re a genius,” I said. I reached for her with my long, primary arms.
“Too much weight; give her to me,” Mae said through the speaker on the Enjiho she piloted. I did as she asked, and we took off through the trees at a lumbering sprint, trying to conserve the last remaining fuel in their systems.
“Dokun is going to be so angry... when he finds out he kidnapped a tree!” Hana said between jostling jumps.
I laughed. “Furious!”
A boom shook the earth and blasted the trees with gale-force winds. We took refuge behind a hill and Hana conjured a thin, blue shield of en. The gust ripped through the forest, bending trees to the breaking point. When the wind settled, a massive gray cloud hung in the air over the crumbling Moon Shadow pagoda.
“Master,” I whispered. “I have to go back for them. Get Hana to the others and ditch the bot in the other direction.”
“But Jiyong, they said to leave,” Mae protested.
I activated the boosters and took off through the trees. I could refuel the Enjiho with my own ma if I needed to; I still had a potion left for it.
“Jiyong, turn back!” Mae blared in my head. “You have the secondary device, all the data. If you get captured, they’ll have died for nothing!”
They weren’t dead. Woong-ji couldn’t be dead.
“Jiyong, don’t be stupid,” Mae yelled.
Movement in the sky far to the south caught my eyes, and I used the Enjiho to zoom in on the objects. At least five train cars full of Enjiho were on their way to Moon Shadow. I couldn’t fight that many, not even with all the potion I had. Even if I made it there in time, I couldn’t car
ry Woong-ji or Sung-ki—we’d be too heavy to outrun the enemy. The Enjiho would chase us through the forest, and we’d lead them to our fleeing classmates.
I glared at the lingering gray cloud, hating myself for the depth of my betrayal, then turned away.
“You’re doing the right thing,” Mae whispered.
Anger warmed my cheeks and blurred my vision. But she was right. This was the only way.
Chapter 40
IT HADN’T TAKEN US long to catch Yin and the others, then run another false trail northwest as if we were making a loop around the school. We couldn’t risk keeping the Enjiho with us and somehow being tracked by them, so I sent them west.
Mae’s calculations were correct, and we crossed paths with Shin-soo three hours after running the last false trail. The Silver Dragonflies covered the truck in an impenetrable glimmer, shielding us from sight. We drove until the vehicle ran dry. It didn’t run on munje, but some acidic-smelling liquid that burned to the touch.
We rolled the truck into the trees and cast an extra glimmer, then went on our way. Cho worked his magic to hide ourselves through the days’ trek. Trains flew overhead infrequently, but the farther north we walked, the farther away they flew. They didn’t know where to search for us.
On the third night, bruised and near exhaustion, we made it to the bay. We crouched at the edge of the trees, looking out across the moonlit beach. Hana and Yuri worked the complex signaling spell, shooting a beam of ry light through the water in a pocket of air, and in minutes the reply signal glimmered on the surface of the water a kilometer out. Hiro was waiting for us.
After a quick discussion, the students—while pushed to their absolute limits—were ready to give one last effort to reach safety. Yuri guided the others through the air-trapping spell that would let us breathe long enough to reach the depth of the submarine, Valeria.
I didn’t remember much of the swim, only the crushing darkness below and Hana’s soft silver glimmer beside me. When Hiro opened the hatch, I collapsed to the floor and must’ve blacked out.