The Oracle's Prophecy

by Alex Leopold

  “How big was this city?” She asked, staggered at the size of it all.

  “Millions upon millions of people once lived here.” Ellis told her. “Now it’s mostly uninhabited.”

  He pointed a finger at a cluster of sky-scrapping monstrosities in the center. “The Skymen live in those buildings in the middle. That’s my city.”

  “Up there?” Cooper gulped. Each building had to be several hundred feet above the ground.

  “That's where the dragon cells are. That's where I’m guessing the Directory will be holding my men.”

  “There are so many fires.” Cooper whispered.

  Hundreds of lights were appearing on every floor of the giant monoliths, ascending up like rungs on a ladder into the heavens.

  Around each fire there’d be Directory men. Hundreds of fires meant hundreds of Directory soldiers, and there was only seven of them. The reality of what she’d forced them to do finally set in and she had to fight her body from shrinking under the pressure of it.

  “If you ask me nicely enough I'll give you the private tour.” Ellis continued with an easy smile missing the change in her.

  “Quiet your words and your minds.” Malthus ordered in a low whisper. “Snoopers are sweeping.”

  Across the bridge, they flew single file with Ellis at the head of the column. Using Cooper's tuning, he’d taught his dragon how to respond to his quiet commands or to the subtle touches he made with the leather strap around its neck. Now entering the northern part of the old city, he used this skill to drive the dragons through the streets, keeping them so low to the ground that they flew between the buildings.

  It was dangerous flying, especially in the darkness. Down many of the streets they'd find their way blocked by collapsed buildings, reduced to piles of rubble. Without Ellis they would've flown into one of them. Yet, he'd been right when he'd told them he could find his way even with his eyes closed. He anticipated every single obstacle, and with a single word and a kick of his heels, he had his dragon flying around each with ease.

  Then his colossal dropped to the ground and Ellis was quickly dismounting.

  “The draculats will be out patrolling.” He said when they were all on the ground. “We need to get out of sight before they come this way.”

  “Where’s the tunnel?” Cooper asked.

  Ellis pointed to a narrow river that flowed into the entrance of a collapsed archway and then disappeared out of sight.

  “This used to be part of a railway system that ran right into the heart of the city, but it flooded long-ago.” He said as he made a torch and lit it. “Now, it’s an underground river.”

  “You used this tunnel during your escape?” Acadia asked.

  “Yes, I tied up the boats tied about a hundred feet inside. We’ll have to swim to them.”

  “Water’s freezing.” Mayat objected.

  “Smell’s in there, too.” Redtail added with a trace of reluctance.

  Acadia gave them both an incredulous look. “Would you like me to ask Ellis if there’s another secret tunnel we can use? One that’s more in keeping with your delicate natures?”

  “It was just an observation.” Redtail whimpered as Mayat reluctantly dipped her toe into the water.

  “You better get in there quick, mutt. Or you’ll be observing me throwing you in.”

  The grizzly and houndsman entered the river with a gasp.

  As the rest of her company entered the waterway, Cooper reached up and placed a hand on Spitfire’s beak-like snout.

  “Thank you, my friend.” She said aloud, while tuning it into his mind.

  “Your work is done. Time to go home.” She added.

  He replied with something that in her head sounded a little like good luck, a little like stay alive. Then he, and the other dragons, returned to the air with a beat of their wings, and disappeared back from where they'd come. The night was immediately lonelier in their absence.

  “Don’t let me fail them.” She quietly whispered to the darkness, hoping her father was listening.

  Guide me, she asked him from inside her head. Protect me. Help me make the right choices. Then without another word she waded into the water and quietly followed the others into the tunnel.

  83

  They found the boats where Ellis had left them during his escape, and began to follow the river deeper into the cavern. With much of the tunnel collapsed, they were forced to navigate through tight spaces with walls of jagged stone and rusted metal that were slick with putrid smelling green algae - you could almost hear it sliding down the walls.

  There were other things slinking around in the shadows, too. Creatures that preferred the life of the dark to that of the light. Nothing more than rats, lizards and insects said Mayat whose eyes were trained for the night. Nothing to fear, she added. Riley wanted to be reassured by this, but she didn't like their scratching, it made her skin crawl.

  The river forked often, so many times it almost felt like they were going in circles. They could do nothing more than follow it, and hope that Ellis hadn't forgotten the way forward as no one could remember the way back.

  Thankfully, the Skyman didn't give them cause to doubt him. Even in the dungeons of his city he remained his usual cavalier self, and his eyes twinkled every time he revealed a hidden gate or secret passage.

  “We're through.” He announced after two hours.

  Instead of nothing but blackness, a feint light appeared at the end of the tunnel.

  As they drew closer, the sound of running water grew louder till it was almost deafening and the boats began to move quickly through choppy water. Ellis had warned them of the waterfall at the end of their journey and they quickly paddled to a concrete shore before they were driven over.

  The moment the hull of her boat scraped the landing’s hard surface, Mayat nimbly leapt out and raced to the tunnel’s entrance to investigate what was on the other side. Her steps were light and quick. After only a half-dozen you could no longer hear her at all.

  “Where are we?” Riley asked.

  The light from her torch illuminated a rusted sign that announced their arrival at a place once known as 'Grand Central'.

  “The last stop.” Ellis replied. “The middle of the city is above our heads.”

  “We should check your secret weapons armory before we go on.” Malthus suggested. “This plan of ours isn’t going to work if the Skymen have nothing to fight with once they’re freed.”

  Ellis agreed and waved them over to a heavily rusted lost civilization machine sitting slumped against a platform and slowly sinking into the mud. It was a train’s engine. Pulling a hidden lever, he slid a door open and revealed that much of the engine had been removed to make way for a secret compartment.

  “Everything you need to start a war.” Ellis announced as he shone a light into the space and revealed rows of rifles, swords and bows.

  “Or end one.” Riley murmured almost to herself.

  “What made your father hide all these weapons here?” Acadia asked as he quickly examined some of the rifles.

  “You get enough threats of attack from the Directory, you start to plan for all eventualities.” Ellis responded.

  Acadia grunted his agreement.

  “Well, these weapons haven’t been tampered with.” He said as he put a rifle back. “Which means none of your people gave up this armory’s location.”

  “That’s something, I guess.” Redtail offered.

  “How’s it look out there, Whiskers?” Acadia asked. He must’ve smelled her, Riley guessed. The moment he said her name, she stepped into the light.

  “The building is empty.” She said. “All the fires are on the top floors of the buildings. No one is down here.”

  “It's safer above ground right now.” Ellis confirmed. “The place is crawling with predators during the night.”

  “What about the draculats?” Malthus asked.

  “I didn’t see any, they must be in another part of the city.”

&n
bsp; “So what now?’ Acadia asked.

  “Douse your torches and follow me.” Ellis threw his in the mud and lead them to the end of the tunnel.

  What Riley saw next, took her breath away. They entered a massive cavernous expanse built of smooth white stone and covered by a curved roof that stood over a hundred feet tall. It resembled a temple, she thought, and through three massive arched windows at either end of the concourse, thick shards of moonlight poured in. It was beyond anything her imagination could've dreamt of.

  At one end of the concourse were a flight of steps. Ellis followed them up and led them out into the night.

  “Up there is the City in the Clouds.” He said pointing to the buildings that loomed over them from every side.

  “Over two dozen towers, connected together by hundreds of rope bridges. Each one them is home to both Skymen and their dragons.”

  “Okay, so which one do we start with?” Asked Acadia.

  Ellis pointed to one of the nearest monoliths, which stood just across a thin strip of marsh land in front of them.

  “That was once known as the Helmsley building.” He said. “Our best pilots have apartments on the top three floors. We built massive cells on the floors below to hold their dragons. They could just as easily be used for men.”

  From where they stood they could make out the glow of electric lights from the top floor.

  “You think that’s where the Directory will be holding your people?” Malthus asked.

  Ellis nodded. “If we can free those pilots, they’ll be able to help us take back the city.”

  “How do we get up there?” Cooper asked.

  Ellis traced his finger across the sky till it was pointing to the tower above his head.

  “You can’t see it in the dark, but there's an old rope bridge connecting the two buildings together. If we can climb to it before dawn, we can cross the bridge in the morning’s mist to the Helmsley building, and be in the cage room before anyone spots us.”

  “Why not just climb the Helmsley building itself?" Acadia asked.

  Ellis shook his head. “The stairwells and open shafts are well fortified. We made it to be impenetrable. I'm sure the Directory has it well guarded, too.”

  “So what's so special about the building above us? Why isn't that one guarded?” Cooper grunted.

  “A fire gutted it fifty years ago and it's on the verge of collapsing.” Ellis told her. He slapped Acadia on the back good-naturedly. “Only a fool would go inside it right now. And only a mad man would climb it.”

  84

  “Stick with me, we'll have some fun.” Acadia mimicked a woman's voice as he raised a hand above his head and in the darkness felt for another strong purchase to pull himself up by. “That's what your mother said to me the first time we met.”

  Cooper heard something snap and in the moonlight she saw the outline of the grizzly's body slip down the wall before he regained his grip.

  “Women!”He puffed heavily.

  The word came out as a curse and his voice shook a little from the thought that he'd almost plunged to his death.

  “Promise me you'll never trust them, Riley.”

  “I would, except I am one.” Cooper heard her sister reply from nearby.

  “No wonder we're in this mess then.” The ursinian grunted back. Cooper wasn't sure if he was trying to be funny, or actually meant it.

  “Hurry up, you’re falling behind.” An impatient Mayat hissed from somewhere above. “You need to move faster, it's going to be light soon.”

  “Move faster, she says.” Acadia grumbled to himself as he began to climb again. “Doesn’t she know bears weren’t made for climbing.”

  “Only the fat ones aren’t.” She replied.

  Acadia gave Cooper a dry look as Mayat scaled up the side of the building with cat-like agility.

  “Don’t look at me.” She responded. “I’m not the one who thought it would be a good idea to fall in love with a Sekhem.”

  Cooper continued upwards, too. Blindly sliding her hand up the wall and feeling for something that would hold her weight before pulling herself up. They'd reached a part of the building that the fire had reduced to nothing more than a skeletal frame; just a patchwork of rusted steel and rubble, draped in a generation of moss and lichen.

  When they'd started the climb, Ellis had taken them to a stairwell that they'd followed up with ease. But in some places the stairwell had been blocked, and in others, it had crumbled away entirely. That was when things had become difficult.

  “Snoopers!” Malthus hissed, sensing that the Directory's snooper hive had shifted its gaze and was once again peering into their part of the city.

  Cooper paused her climb and forced all thoughts from her head. She looked over at the telepath in their company. Malthus was using his own abilities to block the mind-readers from getting through. He'd succeeded so far, but all it took was one mistake and alarm bells would start ringing out.

  As they waited the wind picked up again. Soon after, the building began to shake as the air whipped through it. The first time it had happened, she'd thought the whole structure would come crashing down on their heads. It had happened a handful of times since, and though she’d become used to the strong vibrations running down the walls, she still had to close her eyes and bite her lip. Especially, when she felt something heavy drop from above and crash on the floor below.

  “It’s over, they've moved on.” Malthus whispered when the wind died down. Without another word, they returned to their quiet ascent.

  An hour later, as the dawn light approached, Cooper thought she heard the wind pick up again. Yet, when she glanced through a tear in the exterior, she saw dark shadows streak by.

  “What’s that?” Redtail whispered.

  “Draculats.” Mayat responded. “They’re returning.”

  One of the winged men hovered outside their building long enough for Cooper to get a good look at him. He had grey skin and an elongated body. When the rising light caught his thin leather wings, they turned almost translucent.

  “I suppose I owe you an apology.’ Malthus said to Ellis when the draculat had flown away.

  He hadn't forgotten that only a day ago, he'd said there was no evidence of the winged-men being on the east coast.

  “You've kept the snoopers from finding us.” Ellis replied. “I'd say we're even.”

  After the draculats disappeared into their roost, the air was still but for a moment, then it came alive with the sounds of morning.

  It was as if every creature that called these sky towers home instinctively knew that the terrors of the night had passed and for another day they were free from danger.

  “I'm getting too old for this.” A graveled voice, not unlike Acadia’s, said from Cooper's shoulder. She turned to find the macaw had returned.

  “What did you see, my little spy?” Cooper asked with a smile of relief as she stroked Goose's head.

  “You have a pretty face, lady. Give me a snack.” He replied with a gaping grin.

  “I hope he's got something more useful than that.” Acadia huffed.

  He did. Through the tuning, Cooper could peer into his memories and see where he’d been.

  “Goose found your men in the dragon cages, and they're alive!" She exclaimed with quiet excitement.

  “How many?” Ellis demanded.

  “A hundred, I think.”

  “What else?”

  “He found more in other dragon cells across the city.” She continued.

  “Where are they holding the children?”

  “I think I found them.” She began, then trailed off as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. When she realized what it was, she couldn’t hide her surprise.

  “Oh, no.”

  “Oh, no, what?” Acadia asked.

  “I think they have a gateway.” She said almost catching her breath as images of the copper-plated portal machine filled her head.

  “You’re kidding me?” A disbelieving
Acadia asked.

  “It's in a nearby tower, that’s built of blue steel.” Cooper replied pointing west.

  “We house our electricity generation plant there.” Ellis acknowledged.

  “That’s where the Directory has the mothers working. The children are kept in cells on the lower floors.”

  “Is the gateway working, or under construction?” Acadia asked.

  “I can’t tell.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because, believe it or not, there’s only so much a parrot’s memory can tell you.”

  “Oh, I love surprises.” The macaw said with wonder, almost mimicking Cooper's voice.

  “No, I don't think this is good news, Goose.” Redtail pointed out.

  “We can't let the Directory open a portal with the gateway. If they do they could deliver more men into the battle in an instant.” Mayat said. “Especially Myrmidons.”

  “So that's our plan then.” Acadia huffed. “We free the sky-people, stop the gateway, and take the city.”

  “Sounds easy. When do we start?” Redtail asked with mock excitement.

  “Right now.” Ellis replied, and pointed above his head. “The bridge is just above us. And the morning's mist has arrived.”

  The dense cloud had penetrated into their building too and made all the surfaces slick with condensation. Cooper was forced to climb through it slowly as her hands kept slipping from their purchase. Then Mayat pulled her up the final level and she saw the narrow footbridge.

  It was made of woven vines and rope, with wooden slats spaced about a foot apart. It looked to be in perilous decline from years of neglect, and Cooper had the impression it could fall away at any moment.

  “Just don't look down, I guess.” Redtail suggested.

  “Right.” Cooper replied.

  “Looking forward’s not much better either.” Riley added.

  Cooper could see why. In the morning's mist, the bridge simply disappeared into what looked to be an ethereal soup. It didn’t look like they were going to cross from one tower to another, but from this world to the one that existed just beyond it.