by Nyssa Renay
“I don’t have time to explain right now. Just give me the status report!”
Phlogis’s face reddened in anger like my father’s when he was on the edge of screaming at me. “It’s the same as it has been for the last three hours,” he spat through gritted teeth. “Those damn conts still have control of the building. And now, they’ve barricaded themselves on the rooftop. Nothing we’ve tried has worked to reach them!”
“We need to get that fire skyfork working again,” Machoji argued.
“How? They’ve practically destroyed the entire building. I’m surprised the skyfork hasn’t collapsed on us by now.”
I looked up, finally taking in the metal structure looming over us. The massive wire frame was like a tall metal cactus with four branches reaching for the sky. I felt small, almost insignificant, compared to such a colossal creation.
“That’s probably what he’s working on right now,” Machoji added, rubbing his chin in thought. “I need to find a way to get them inside before—”
“Before what?” Phlogis snapped. “They shouldn’t even be here! Oh, wait…” he trailed off, looking directly at me. “You think you can get to Vantaru by using his nephew. Do you honestly think you’ll be able to reason with him?”
“No.” Machoji let out a heavy sigh. “I intend to send Vigil in as a distraction, so I can kill him myself.”
“He’s going to kill the kid. You know that, right?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re okay with that?” He stared at me.
“Yes, sir. I am,” I stated, trying my best to steady my shaky voice. “If that’s what it takes to save Telshakra. I’ll do it.”
“Ein save me.” The blood drained from Phlogis’s face as his expression became one of shock and disbelief. “You two are out of your damn minds. There’s no way I’m going to allow you to take him or any other potential into that shit storm…especially one of mine,” he said, gesturing to Abellie.
“There’s no other way.” Machoji said bluntly. “Vantaru knows how the system was designed. Lexani made him the project manager during the construction, and he can easily bypass my safeguards and cripple the skyfork from the inside. If I can get to Vantaru before he takes down the fork, the girls can help me reactivate the shield.”
“How the hell do you expect them to do that?”
“Using the Curabitor,” Machoji admitted sheepishly. “It’s in the back of my truck.”
“Are you insane?” Phlogis’s eyes went wide. “Do you know the havoc that thing could cause if it fell into enemy hands? How did you even get it?”
“Incoming!” a shepherd called out from behind a nearby barricade.
“Behind the barrier, now! Move!” Phlogis shouted, and we all darted behind the toppled vehicle.
I huddled with Eeliyah and Abellie, praying to Ein to keep us safe. But as we sat there, bracing for the impact from another volley of acid, everything was unexpectedly quiet. I thought the attack might have been a false alarm until people appeared from behind their barriers, all gaping up at the same sight. I cautiously peeked around the side of our barrier and was astonished at what I saw.
In the very middle of battlefield, Shepherd Graldo stood alone with his hands raised high in the air. Above him, every ball of acid that had been hurtled toward us was now frozen in place, somehow suspended in air. Across the way, I saw the traitorous shepherds slowly emerge from behind their own fortified barriers to marvel at the event taking place before them, just as we had.
Without warning, Graldo twisted his hand, sending the balls of acid hurling back toward their castors, immediately dissolving their bodies upon impact.
“Look at ‘em,” Graldo scoffed. “Walked right out in the open. Deserve to die…fer bein’ stupid.” He shook his head dismissively.
A few enemy stragglers who’d been hiding inside the building darted out onto the roof to cast large, jagged stones toward Shepherd Graldo. As the projectiles reached their marks, they simply ricocheted off his body like flimsy balls of crumpled paper.
Graldo lifted his hand slowly, and I watched in awe as each of his new assailants levitated above the roof, screaming in agony through clamped jaws, unable to speak or cast any spells to defend themselves. With a slight downward thrust of his hand, Graldo sent the traitors rapidly crashing onto the battlefield, their bodies nearly liquefying on impact.
Graldo scrunched up his face. “Ya know, I’m getting real tired of cleaning up yer messes,” he grumbled at Shepherd Machoji.
“I know,” he replied, embarrassed and defeated as he motioned for me and the twins to follow him back to his vehicle. “Let’s go.”
The four of us quickly hopped inside, and Shepherd Machoji sped across the battlefield to what was left of the fire skyfork building.
-58-
“If we’re lucky…” Machoji said quietly as he carefully unloaded the Curabitor from the back of the cart, “…any leftover conts—including Vantaru—will head to the rooftop to try to maintain control of the building.”
We followed him through a gaping hole in the front of the building toward a partially destroyed set of stairs near the back of the main floor. We moved as quietly as possible, hoping Machoji’s theory was right. Even though I knew Abellie’s fire-based spells might have a slight chance to hold off an enemy shepherd, Eeliyah and I weren’t blessed with same level of offensive capabilities at our disposal, which set me incredibly on edge, full of anxiety.
When we reached the very top of the stairwell, Machoji whispered, “Wait here.” He slowly opened the tall door in front of him and disappeared through it, leaving the three of us to wait anxiously for his return.
When he was out of earshot, Abellie turned toward us, a manic smile across her face. “Have you ever seen anyone do what Shepherd Graldo just did outside?” Abellie marveled, trying to contain her excitement to a quiet whisper.
Eeliyah and I shook our heads.
“It was incredible,” Abellie added. “I hope I’m that good someday.”
Something about what Graldo had done seemed extraordinary and didn’t compare with anything I’d ever seen a shepherd do. “I doubt it,” I replied, quickly realizing the comment would not be received as I’d intended.
“Thanks, Vigil. You don’t have to be a dick about it,” Abellie snapped, offended.
“No, I didn’t mean you personally,” I argued. “I meant it just seems that Shepherd Graldo is considerably more experienced than everyone else. I worked for him in the mines for a long time, and there’s something…unnatural about him.”
“That, I agree with. I think he’s crazy,” Eeliyah grumbled, letting out an uneasy sigh as she stared at the door, impatiently waiting for Machoji to return.
“Yeah, he is,” I chuckled. “But in a good way. All I’m saying is that our shepherds had been fighting for hours, and Graldo did what he did in only a few seconds.”
“But how—” Eeliyah was interrupted as Machoji poked his head through the doorway.
“Keep it down,” he whisper-growled. “I could hear you halfway down the corridor.”
“Sorry, sir,” we apologized.
“We’ve got a clear path to the relay room. Let’s move,” he ordered, beckoning us to follow.
Our steps echoed down the long hallway, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t walk any quieter. I expected to be ambushed at any moment. Luckily, we’d made it to our destination with ease, yet I couldn’t help but feel a nagging sense of paranoia—as if my uncle would spring upon us at any moment.
“Okay, this is where it gets difficult,” Machoji warned as we walked across a scaffold that led down to a large open area of the building, like the dorms. When we reached the floor, he grouped us near a massive opening in the wall, where a bright reddish glow emanated from somewhere deep below in the shaft before us. “Abellie, I’m sure you’ve been feeling its powerful effects by now.”
Abellie nodded feverishly. “I feel so a
live,” she grinned. “It’s like I could take on the world.”
“Exactly.” Machoji smiled back. “There are several tons of raw fire-based crystals packed together at the bottom of the shaft.”
“What do I have to do?” Abellie urged, ready to tackle anything.
“I need you to act as a conduit by drawing the energy from the crystals and redirect it into those receptors.” Machoji pointed up to what looked like a spiral staircase of blackbrass mirrors, reaching the inner base of the skyfork.
“Seems easy enough,” Abellie nodded, shifting back and forth on her feet, scratching at her arms and neck.
“Are you ok?” Eeliyah asked her sister.
“That’s Kindell’s unfiltered power building up inside her,” Machoji explained gravely.
“It’s making me nauseous,” Eeliyah commented.
“Me, too,” I agreed.
“Shepherds were never meant to handle this much power all at once, let alone a potential.”
Thick burns snaked over the exposed skin of Abellie’s arms, neck, and face in vein-like patterns.
“It’s killing her!” Eeliyah said, panicked. “Make it stop.”
“I can’t, Eeliyah, but I’m hoping you can…using the Curabitor,” Machoji urged, placing the machine on the floor between them. “If the bond between the two of you is as strong as I think it is, the Curabitor will assist Abellie in funneling the energy while helping you continuously heal your sister’s injuries before the energy incinerates her body.”
Without hesitation, Eeliyah grabbed Abellie by the wrists, closed her eyes, and muttered under her breath. The scorch marks on Abellie’s skin began to disappear as an aura of red mist flowed out of Abellie’s body and drifted upward like smoke toward the blackbrass mirrors overhead.
I watched, astonished, as the Curabitor rose off the floor, levitating between the twins. The dark blue light slowly seeped from the shiny black gemstones on both ends of the machine. A chill ran down my spine, and Linna’s dying screams filled my mind. I felt the phantom pain of the electric serpent’s hungry mouth latching onto my chest and digging its claws into my body. The girls were so consumed with the task at hand that neither of them flinched when the Curabitor latched on. I admired their courage and hoped to be as brave when it was my turn to step up.
The twins chanted quietly in Wraith, and although they were each speaking different words, within a few moments, their chanting began to meld into a single rhythmic pattern. A bright red mist vivified and swirled around Abellie. The raw Kindell energy ripped through her body, tearing apart her flesh as it flowed through her. Eeliyah was enveloped by her own vivid green cloud of energy that danced around her before flowing into Abellie’s body, replenishing her sister’s flesh as fast as it was burned away. It was horrifying and beautiful at the same time.
Machoji sighed with relief. “It’s working,” he said, darting over to the massive wall of video screens and rapidly hitting several switches. “Vigil, grab me a few long pieces of metal.”
I searched the debris on the floor that remained from the enemy’s devastating attack on the building. I spotted a small pile of broken tie rods and concrete that had been ripped from the floor above us.
“What about these?” I asked, displaying my find.
“They’ll do.”
I rushed to his side, handing him the few steel rods.
“Toracha c’avella,” Machoji called out. A large metal panel before him tore away and slid across the floor, exposing the inner workings of the machine. “The shield around Telshakra is working again, but I need to create a temporary transfer system and successfully fuse the Curabitor into that mechanism to make the connection self-sustainable until I can fully rebuild the system.”
I just stared at him, clueless at what he was saying, but then I realized he was talking more to himself than to me.
“The girls can’t stay like that forever,” he said and gathered the pieces of metal. He held them at a downward angle, placing the bottom of the rods against the side of a large cogwheel. “C’est avellisto,” he barked, fusing the rods to the cog and creating a lever.
“What can I do to help?” I asked.
Machoji pointed at the makeshift lever. “When I give you the signal, pull that all the way down to the floor.”
I nodded. “Yes, sir.”
Machoji darted to the other side of the room near the open shaft of reddish energy. He closed his eyes and spread his arms, lifting his hands high above his head. I heard him chanting, but couldn’t understand anything he said; he wasn’t speaking Wraith.
Slowly, several pieces of metal and stone that were scattered across the floor around us levitated and gravitated toward an open space in the shaft near the ceiling. The stones fused together in various shapes while the metal twisted and bent into strange formations. I watched in awe as the yards upon yards of wiring slithered out from behind the panels of video screens and crawled up the wall like spreading vines.
When the wires reached the shaft, they wove themselves throughout Machoji’s new metal construction like a complex spider web. Bit by bit, the puzzle pieces of stone braced the new structure to the inner walls of the energy shaft.
When the creation fully solidified, I saw a defined opening in the framework that matched the exact shape of the Curabitor. The ethereal machine started its ascent toward the opening, but quickly slammed back down on the floor as two large balls of greenish-orange energy barreled at Shepherd Machoji from somewhere behind me.
Machoji managed to deflect the first ball, but bore the full force of the second, which sent him hurtling across the room. I watched in horror as his heavily-burned body slammed against the far wall and collapsed onto the floor in a motionless heap.
When I turned around, I felt a stabbing pain as a jagged piece of metal pierced my stomach. I fell to my knees in agony. As I looked up, my uncle approached, leering sadistically at me.
-59-
The warm blood trickled over my fingers as the shock to my system took hold, making me nauseous and dizzy from the rapid blood loss. I tried to slow the bleeding with a healing spell Eeliyah had taught us in class earlier in the year, but was backhanded across my face, stopping me mid cast.
“No, no, no, Vigil,” Vantaru taunted. “I’m going to make sure you bleed out slowly and feel as much pain as possible, you little shit.”
“Go to hell, you sadistic fu—” I cursed, but was interrupted by another swift backhand to the face.
“That’s not a proper way to talk to your uncle, now is it?”
I glared up at him, wincing with pain, and loathing his very existence. I couldn’t believe we’d come from the same bloodline. I looked over to see if Shepherd Machoji had gotten back up, but he was still lying unconscious. One of the treacherous conts who had managed to make it off the rooftop alive watched over him.
“Oh, don’t worry about him,” Vantaru mocked, noticing my hopeful gaze as I searched for help. “He’ll live…unfortunately. Our lord has decreed that he’s to be kept alive to face justice for his blasphemous actions against our cause.”
“Cause?” I spat as the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. “What cause? Shepherd Machoji said you all are nothing but self-serving traitors.”
“Oh, did he, now?” Vantaru scoffed. “He’s the last person who should be judging anyone. You have no idea what’s really going on. These people don’t care what happens to any of you. I mean, look what your supposed mentor has done to your little girlfriends over there.”
I turned my head and saw the Curabitor dormant on the floor while Eeliyah and Abellie sprawled on their backs and writhed in pain. Eeliyah clutched her head as Abellie’s skin burned again in the thick vein-like marks snaking over her body. I knew it wouldn’t be long before Abellie would be overcome without her sister’s help.
“Please let them go.” I pleaded. “I’ll do anything you want. Just let the girls go. I’m begging you.”
&
nbsp; “Why would I do that?” he replied sarcastically, sneering. “In a few years, they’d just be sent off to die in the war like the rest of you. Besides, it’d be such a tragedy to let a pretty young thing like that go to waste. No…I think a better idea is to take my sweet Eeliyah back with me and let the other one die right in front of you. I’m sure the two of us will have lots of fun, don’t you think?”
I saw red. I fought through my pain and lunged at him, only to be knocked to the ground as his fist crashed into the side of my face. The blood poured from my nose down my chin. I was sure he’d broken it.
“Actually, you did me a huge favor,” he sneered. “If it wasn’t for you, I would’ve never been reassigned and set free from this shithole. So, thank you for that.”
“Oh, cut the shit!” I growled, struggling to get to my feet. “Don’t blame me because they kicked you out. You did that to yourself. If you weren’t such a drunken prick all the time, you’d probably still be at the academy.”
“But I’m not, and look how that turned out for you.”
Suddenly, there was a bright lightning flash as I received yet another crack of his fist. I collapsed onto the floor once more, only this time, the jagged metal spike bit deeper into my stomach. I moaned in torment, inching closer to death.
“Get up!” he growled.
I tried to get up to face him, but quickly stumbled backward onto the floor, dangerously close to falling over the edge and down into the shaft.
“I said get up, you little shit!”
“You win,” I said, defeated. “You got what you wanted. Just go and leave me alone. Let me die in piece.”
He moved toward me. “You think you’re going to die peacefully? You think some Necra shepherd will swoop in and help send your soul to Ein after you die?” Vantaru chortled as he leaned down and grabbed my arm, yanking me onto my weakened knees. I felt his warm, putrid breath against the side of my face as I hunched over in agony. “No, my naïve little nephew,” he snarled in my ear. “You have no idea what horrors are waiting for you after you die. We will bring your body back with us and use it to fight against our enemies, while bit by bit, your soul will be slowly torn apart and harvested, helping us bring victory to our most benevolent leader.”
