by D P Rowell
Cameron sighed, “So, lemme get this straight. Us five kids are gonna break into this marina and—woah!”
“Ahh!”
“Watch it!”
Cameron swerved between a few pedestrians along the sidewalk.
“Sorry!” Cameron said. “I never got my license, alright?”
“Whatever,” Ace said, “Just get us to the marina. And, to answer your question, yes. Us five kids are gonna break into this marina, steal Grandpa’s ship back, and bust our dad and Sebastian out of prison in Breen.”
Cameron glanced over to Ace (who preferred his older brother’s eyes remain on the road). First, his eyes showed disbelief, then, slowly, a smile stretched across his face. “Well,” Cameron said. “Us Halders stick together, don’t we?”
Ace smiled back at Cameron, then turned behind to face Juneg. “How do we get to the marina?”
The jag’s shoulders pinched her neck and face as she squeezed between Trilo and the side of the hovercraft. “Well, technically, it directly ahead. But—” She wiggled around to try and get more comfortable. It didn’t work, “Only, there only one way to exit city wall.”
“Not exactly,” Easley said. “There’s a tunnel between Dorneg and the Marina. It’s for overseas trading. The cargo has to get in somehow.”
“Oh, He right,” Juneg said. “But there no road access.”
Ace turned around and faced the street, where hovercrafts and cargo crafts frantically moved out of the way of the police chase. He turned to Cameron, who’s face revealed a lack of confidence in his ability to drive. Ace’s chest caved, he swallowed, and ran his fingers through his hair.
“Cameron,” Ace said, “do whatever you gotta do.”
“Yeah,” Trilo said from behind, “we’re all gonna die.”
Cameron ignored the fae and kicked the hovercraft into full gear. The steel and brick buildings flew by them at blinding speeds. Cameron pulled back on the chrome steering wheel and increased altitude. Ace looked to the mirror and found several police cars trailing just behind them. He looked up through the sunroof and found several more hovering over them. All their fate rest on Cameron’s ability to get them to the marina. Maybe Trilo had a point.
Cameron pulled further, and they climbed even higher. Ace’s stomach rose to his throat and he clenched the handle for dear life.
“I thought you were afraid of flying,” Ace said.
Cameron kept his eyes determined and focused in front of him. “Terrified.” Ace’s older brother leaned the craft downward, so they could see a good bit of the city. “There it is!” Cameron yelled. He pointed off to the right. In the wall surrounding the city, only a mile or so ahead, sat a gaping hole from where workers manually pushed cargo through as they sat on hover transporters.
“Well,” Cameron said, “Here goes nothing.”
Ace closed his eyes as Cameron took the craft for a straight nose dive. All three of the passengers screamed as the hovercraft flew downward. Unable to take the suspense, Ace opened his eyes to find them approaching the darkened tunnel. Cameron swerved the craft, so they flew sideways, between the wall of the tunnel and the cargo being escorted through it. A high pitched scraping sounded off and Ace grit his teeth. The hovercraft bumped slightly against the wall, then bounced off and smacked against one of the steel, cargo crates just before they reached the end of the tunnel. Everything spun out of control and nothing but a gray, dizzying blur was seen outside the windows. Ace forced his lunch back down his throat.
All else happened too quickly for him to comprehend. Loud clanging sounds followed for several moments until they smacked against the dark sand of Dorneg’s beach. Everything went still. Only the sound of everyone’s breathing filled the air. The hovercraft lay face first in the dirt, so nothing could be seen around them.
“Is everyone okay?” Ace said.
To Ace’s relief, everyone responded positively. But they had no time to recover. Cameron seemed to know this as well. For only a moment later, he hit the button to his left and released the passenger door. It opened to the dull, gray sky over Dorneg’s beach, as the hovercraft lay on its front-left corner. Ace climbed out, turned around, and reached his hand in. Other than a few bumps and scratches, all the passengers were escorted out of the hovercraft unharmed. The sound of police sirens covered the air in a rattling ambiance.
Ace looked all around them. The minuscule beach existed just past the Northwoods and Dorneg’s city wall. From his right, tens of workers escorting cargo at the city wall had stopped what they were doing and began rushing to the crash site. Ace assumed, to help. Ace turned to his left, where the marina revealed tens of ships, both pulling ashore, and setting sail. Good thing for him, the very ship he sought stood out the most. Its dark wood, heavy white sails, and ancient appearance could be spotted anywhere. Amid the chrome and steel ships hovering above the water sat Grandpa’s old ship, tied to the dock. Ace stepped closer to find a few people transferring small crates from the ship. One of them caught his eye right away. She stopped carrying a crate, set it down, and glared at him with fierce purple eyes. Ace clenched his fist at her. The chaser who accompanied the drake in the Northwoods. The fae witch herself.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Battle at the Marina
The four companions stood side-by-side, facing Grandpa’s ship and awaiting the police crafts. The workers by the city wall hurried to get the cargo free of the tunnel so the police could make it through.
“Okay . . .” Cameron said. “What now?”
Ace grabbed his AMB and turned to his brother. “Prepare for the worst.”
Cameron smiled, he rushed to the hovercraft and dug inside. Soon, he came out with an AMRs and an AMB. He took Ace’s hand blaster and gave him a rifle. “Borundi figured we’d need them more than they would.”
Ace smirked.
Cameron handed Easley and Juneg hand blasters as well. He then pulled from his pocket glowing orange spheres: anti-magic grenades.
“Hey!” Said a voice, Ace turned to find a group of city workers rushing to their side. “You four, stop what you’re—”
Cameron threw one of the grenades at the group of people. They stopped and stared at it on the ground for a stunned moment, then turned to run, but the grenade exploded to an orange cloud around them. The anti-magic only paralyzed one female human in the crowd. Two others stopped by her side to help her and the rest scurried away. Once the female turned black and smoky, the others ran the other way as well.
Cameron turned to Juneg and Easley. “You guys hold off the police and anyone else coming after us. Distract them and pull them away if you can. Ace and I will get to Grandpa’s ship.”
The jag and drake nodded. Ace turned back to the k to find several chasers, led by the fae witch, sprinting after them from Grandpa's ship.
“Cameron,” Ace said, “let’s go.”
Ace and his brother lunged towards the ship.
“What are you looking for on the ship?” Cameron said.
“No idea,” Ace said.
“. . . Awesome.”
Cameron fired his first shot, landing perfectly on a female drake. The anti-magic enveloped her, and her diguise broke a part as the orange glow swallowed her up. An idea struck Ace after seeing this.
The chasers are the witches influencing the city! It came together perfectly. The massive beasts surrounding the city were caused by the Fae Queen’s spell. If a group of witches could claim to dedicate themselves to taking down those very beasts, it would make the perfect cover.
Ace aimed his rifle and fired it at a male jag rushing towards him. The anti-magic hit him in the chest, but the size of the jag contested the anti-magic and he kept rushing. Ace fired again. Then, once more, until the jag fell to the ground. The anti-magic wrapped him up, but the jag didn’t turn black. Just a deceived civilian not belonging to the council. Before Ace had the time to consider it, all the sea traders and city workers had begun fleeing their ships to help fight against them, outnumber
ing them several to one.
Ace turned at the sound of a loud swishing through the air to find a dark orb of magic rushing at him. He ducked it just in time and fell to the sandy ground. He looked up to find the fae witch marching towards him, conjuring the orbs and throwing them their direction. Her eyes dark as night.
Resorting to magic, Ace thought. We’re onto something.
He jumped to his feet, grabbed a grenade from Cameron’s person and threw it at the chasers. The fae witch darted away. The grenade burst, and an orange cloud covered the sand. Ace shoved Cameron around the other side to the redwoods on the edge of the beach. They squatted behind a clump of shrubs as the orange cloud dissipated and the chasers emerged visible again.
Ace and Cameron peered over the bushes. The chasers wiped the orange dust from their eyes and held their weapons before them, looking all around. The fae witch had hidden herself from the blast and looked up when the dust settled. She glared at Ace, then at the anti-magic dust on the sand between him and her. She snarled, then did something strange. She dashed next to the ship, covering herself in the shadow it casted, and just as she entered its shadow she disappeared. Where had she gone?
“Cameron,” Ace whispered. “I’m gonna need a distraction. All I have to do is get on Grandpa’s ship unnoticed. When I get on the ship, you can find Juneg and Easley and get outta here. I’ll be fine once I get my elyr back.”
Cameron shook his head. “I really don’t like this idea, Ace. We shouldn’t keep splitting up.”
Ace put his hand on Cameron’s shoulder. “Trust me.”
Cameron glanced at Ace with undecided eyes, then nodded hesitantly. He ducked and crept through the redwoods, preparing the distraction. Ace kept glancing over the bushes until he heard Cameron yell and start firing his AMR. All the chasers ran after Cameron, while Ace bolted from the redwoods to the ks.
The cool wind bit his nose and ears as he sprinted. He ran to the stairs, then across the k. Before he knew it, he’d hopped on the deck of Grandpa Marty’s ship to find someone kneeling on the deck before him he didn’t expect to see. He first thought his eyes may have been playing tricks on him, but after a few passing moments, he knew it to be true.
“Damion!” Ace said.
The middle-aged crew member had the same leathery skin Ace remembered, now draped in darkness. Had the witch had a spell on him? He went to go help Damion but stopped when he saw something else. She leapt onto the deck, appearing from the shadow cast by one of the ledges. She used the shadows to reappear in the same way she’d used them to disappear. The witch’s black smoke wrapped around Damion in a corkscrew shape and gripped his neck. She glanced at the boy with a villainous twinkle in her eyes.
“Drop your weapon,” She hissed. “Or I’ll ssend a magic so feircce through him, it will take his life.”
“Okay, okay,” Ace said, slowly lowering his AMR to the ground. “Just calm down.”
“Kick it to me.”
He kicked it and it slid across the deck to her feet.
“Now,” she tilted her head toward him, making the circles under her eyes darker and wickeder. “Thiss endss.” She made a squeezing motion with her hand, and Damion stretched his neck and gasped for air, gripping his throat for breath.
“Stop it! Stop!” Ace shouted, stepping forward.
She lowered her hand and Damion fell to the ground coughing.
“My, my,” the fae witch said. “The council will be well pleassed with thiss. Not only do I have Marty Halder’ss sship, I now have his grandsson: the Elyrian. Here’ss how thiss will work. You will turn yoursself over to me, and I won’t kill your friend here.”
Ace looked at Damion. The crewman had just received the breath back in his lungs, and his eyes sagged at the boy, look up from all fours. He slowly shook his head. Ace translated it as: Don’t listen to her.
Ace sighed. After a million thoughts passed through his head, none of them gave him an idea to escape this without hurting Damion, and he couldn’t risk it. He slowly lifted his hands in surrender and had just opened his mouth to say something when Damion leapt from the ground.
“Ace of Spades! Magic can’t destroy it! It’s the Ace of—”
“Quiet, you!” The witch said. She sent a wave of black smoke over him, dropping him to the deck. His veins turned black, and the darkness crawled over his body like spiderwebs.
“Damion!” Ace shouted. The crew member hit the ground, looking at Ace for a moment like eternity, then his eyes shut. “Damion, no!” Ace leapt at the witch with rage in his eyes. As his feet left the ground, he realized what a grave mistake he’d made. For his weapon lay on the deck, and he still hadn’t found his elyr yet. This allowed the witch to grip him with magic mid-air and throw him to the other side of the ship. His back smacked against the railing and he fell to the deck. His adrenaline numbed the throbbing in his body, but the witch still had a grip of magic paralysis on him. She stepped closer to him, conversing in thought.
How many times do we have to tell you not to defy uss?
How could you? Ace thought back, reeling with fury. The faes were chosen to bear the Light. How could you give up such a gift for evil?
I’ll tell you what’ss evil, human. The fae said with a still, cold face. She stepped close to him and leaned in. What’ss evil is granting uss ssuch a gift, then not giving uss the capacity to experiencce it with. Sure, we love. Sure, we feel a gentle breeze on a warm summer’s day, but it’ss all illussory. We cannot love the way humanss, drakess, and jagss do: with conssequencce. For each fae iss bound by the law Emery gave to uss. Why should it be that the racess of Yutara can indulge in cultural merriment that we can’t? The faess must live a certain way, as the Breen Elderss have taught uss, and though our heartss yearn for ssomething bigger. Ssomething greater. We are physsically not allowed. For it will destroy uss. Flesh can withsstand the chance to fall into darkness, why sshould it be the faess cannot?
Ace gritted his teeth as the spell grew more powerful with each word she spoke in his head. At first he didn’t understand what the fae was saying, but he soon remembered King Vinan telling him, in the Tree Kingdom, how faes were spiritual beings, and they couldn’t survive in the seventh realm because there’s no Light. He remembered the Tree King telling him some faes became witches and parcels in exchange for bodies of flesh, to experience the world in the same way the other races do.
Each has their own gift, fae. Ace said in thought. And it was a strange thing, for the thoughts passing through his head seemed to come from another source, rather than his own mind. He couldn’t tell if he was thinking these things, or if the thoughts were somehow planted there by someone else. Being human also means we can’t practice the elyr. I am the only exception, and it comes with a great cost. Ace thought of the Peppercorns. Love with consequence means pain. Deep, pressing pain I try to escape each day and night. Responsibility means the opportunity to fail. Failure means feeling inadequate. And for every moment men have spent indulging in such opportunities, he has spent two more envying those who love without consequence.
As the image of the Peppercorns flashed through his mind, the witch stepped back and released her spell from him. Her expression went from evil to awe, as, Ace could see, she felt the very same pain he felt toward the Peppercorns. Was it her first time experiencing such a thing?
An orange sun struck the fae in the back, she fell to the ground as the anti-magic wrapped around her. The spell broke, and Ace took control of his body once again. Borundi stood behind the witch, AMR in hand.
“What brings all you to this old ship?” Borundi said.
Ace ignored the jag and rushed to Damion. Though he had no idea how the jag pirate got to the ship, he had no time for questions. Damion lay on the deck with his eyes closed. Ace kneeled by his side and shook him, gripping his collard shirt.
“Damion! Damion wake up!”
The crewman’s eyes flickered a moment and barely opened. Ace looked up at the sound of thumps against the deck. The fa
e witch had rolled to the edge and fell off into the ocean. Borundi went after her, but Ace said, “No! Let her go, she’s bound by anti-magic now and the ship is more important.” So, he listened to him.
Damion mumbled something incomprehensible. Ace looked at him and noticed his expression changed. He reached up to touch the boy’s face, his hands shaking. “T—t—th—the Ace of Sp—sp—”
“The Ace of Spades, right,” Ace said. “You said that. What does it mean?”
Damion swallowed and smacked his dry tongue. He grimaced in pain. His following words came without struggle. “Go to the meeting room, under your grandfather’s old desk. Place your palm on the bottom and pull.” All the strength Damion had gathered to say what he said must have been all the strength he had left, for after he said it, he fell limp and his face turned bright white.
“Damion! Damion, no!”
Police sirens sounded on the beach below them and the plasma fire grew louder. Ace suppressed his grief and stood to his feet. Borundi had been standing next to him, hovering over the now deceased crewman.
“How did you get here?” Ace said.
“I took road,” the jag pirate said. “There no time to chat. I don’t know why you’re here, but your brother told me you needed to find something. I cover you. Go!”
Ace nodded. “Juneg, Easley, Trilo and my brother are all down there. Can you help keep them safe?”
Borundi agreed and rushed off the deck to help join the fight. Ace bolted down across the cannon deck toward the hallway. Plasma fire zipped through the sky and shot the main mast. Splinters fell and littered on the deck. Ace crouched and covered his head. He burst through the Officer’s Meeting Room door so hard, he fell to the ground.
Grandpa’s desk. He remembered Damion’s words. On the bottom and pull . . . Bottom of what? He brushed his hand across Grandpa’s desk and looked at the floor. He grabbed the desk’s legs and pulled them. The wood scraped the wood, but nothing else happened. He huffed with anger and smacked the ground. He frantically felt all around the desk until he reached Grandpa’s old seat. The main drawer came into sight, and he reached his hand under it. He placed his palm at the bottom and yanked it back. At this, a secret compartment under the main drawer extended, and a letter lay inside. The front read: To Ace, from Damion.
