A World To Lose

by Frances Ellen

  To do something…

  What was Nathan doing?

  Matu had taken the side of a Disciple’s head and smashed it against the wall to his left. His Band glowed a fierce bronze and his magic sizzled through his veins as he then picked up the Disciple to throw him as hard as he could against the others coming up behind him. The dead Disciple brought down two more; one of whom lost his balance and dropped from the trail to the depths of the Canyon below.

  In the few seconds that the manoeuvre bought Matu, he turned around and even had the time to marvel at what he saw.

  Nathan was making a staircase. Making one. His magic should’ve been quite drained at this point, but he was pulling out all the stops without hesitation. Great, thick, small and long vines were interlacing right at Nathan’s feet, and were weaving their way upwards. They were appearing out of thin air as much as they were protruding from the rock wall. Every now and again a vine would come loose from a part of the wall that wasn’t stable, but slowly and surely, the makeshift vine bridge head was getting longer, and climbing up towards the next part of the trail a hundred and fifty feet above them.

  It was going slower than Matu had hoped, though. Nathan had only managed thirty feet so far. The unstable cliff wall wasn’t making it easy for his brother. The seven hikers were looking nervously back and forth between Nathan and his staircase, and Matu and the Disciples.

  Matu turned around and faced the next Disciple. This one was smarter. He was keeping his distance and avoiding Matu’s lethal hands. With a sword in each hand, this Disciple managed to drive Matu back a foot, and then another; he buckled on his unstable knee. Matu reached for the slim sword at his side, but it wasn’t enough to keep this Disciple at bay. He was driving Matu further back and towards a part of the trail that was wide enough for two Disciples to come up next to each other. There, Matu found himself only a few feet away from the backpack he’d thrown behind him.

  When a second Disciple started to come up beside the first, Matu decided to go for the element of surprise, and attack. He blocked one swinging sword with his slim sword and avoided the other one by crashing against the Disciple’s chest. Matu then placed both hands on the Disciple’s left shoulder and arm and pulled to his own right, sending the Disciple flying off the edge of the trail. But it hadn’t stopped the second Disciple from getting past him. Matu ran up behind the Disciple, swearing loudly in Swahili as pain shot from his knee through his entire leg. This Disciple might have been fast, but, luckily, he was also uncertain. He looked back over his shoulder to check where Matu was, just before he came into the humans’ range. The moment he did, Matu was upon him. He grabbed the Disciple by the shoulders and threw him off the trail as well.

  When Matu turned around, the other Disciples had managed to gain more than a few feet. And they were now standing on quite a wide platform. If Matu were to engage now, he would get attacked from all angles. Even worse, one of the Disciples at the front was holding the backpack. Matu knew there was no way he was getting that back now.

  Matu dared a glance behind him to see how Nathan was doing. His staircase wasn’t even halfway up the cliff yet.

  “Nathan!” Matu yelled, jumping back further down the trail to keep the Disciples from coming too close to the humans or to Nathan. While Matu knew Nathan couldn’t do anything to help him at that moment, Matu hoped his brother understood that he wouldn’t be able to hold all these Disciples for much longer. Especially now that he had to face four Disciples at the same time.

  “I hear ya!” Nathan called back.

  Matu jumped down onto the edge of the larger platform, making sure he landed with most of his weight on his good knee. Where he was standing, they wouldn’t be able to get to the humans without having to closely pass him. Matu tried to count the Disciples as they filed onto the platform, swords and daggers and other weapons out. There were too many. Too many to keep away from Nathan before he finished that damn staircase.

  The Disciple at the front grinned maliciously and threw the backpack over the edge of the trail. Matu forced himself not to react, but he couldn’t help dreading what it meant that Sophie’s blood was now lost to him. His left shoulder was already bleeding, and he was about to face multiple Disciples at the same time, without knowing how quickly he could be healed. Instead of going all out in this fight to give Nathan all the time he needed, Matu now had to be more careful.

  The Disciples broke into movement. Three of them headed for Matu at the same time, with the others close at their backs. Matu lifted his slim sword in front of him, and just then a blue light appeared in the middle of the platform.

  Matu had expected to see Sky.

  But it was Lian. Right in the centre, surrounded by a wall three Disciples thick, was Lian. He looked just as surprised as the Disciples did. Clearly, he hadn’t expected to be landing right in the middle of a small army.

  The surprise of Lian’s appearance had given Matu an advantage. He himself had recovered quicker, and he managed to take out four Disciples just because they had stopped to stare at Lian and where he had appeared out of thin air.

  Matu advanced onto the next group of Disciples who had now turned away from the sight of the Aster appearing right in their midst. Matu cut the throat of the first one with his knuckle knife before throwing him right off the trail, and blocked the incoming blow of the second with his slim sword, only to punch this one so hard in the face that his skull fractured underneath his knuckles.

  In the brief moment of free space Matu had created for himself, he dared to look at Lian. His brother was flying through the group of Disciples faster than humanly possible. Matu didn’t understand how Lian was still harnessing Sky’s magic after the initial shimmer, but he didn’t question it. Matu also didn’t, however, miss the blood dripping onto the ground wherever Lian went. And it was getting worse.

  Lian managed to use Sky’s magic again and sped his way across the platform towards Matu. Once his brother came alongside him, Matu was able to see what was causing Lian to bleed the way he was. There was a deep gash from his breastbone, diagonally down to his hip. And there was a cut down his face that was gushing blood, too. Lian’s skin had gone grey and his lips were turning blue. His Band was glowing bright silver as his magic of Analgesia was active, masking the pain from his wounds.

  “You’re dying,” Matu said starkly. He pushed the panic he felt as far down as possible, knowing that he no longer had access to Sophie’s blood. Only Lian could still fight with wounds like that. But without Sophie’s magic, not for much longer.

  Lian didn’t answer him. The two of them fought shoulder to shoulder, driving back any Disciple coming their way. They were standing on a higher part of the trail, and they could see more Disciples coming onto the platform and yet more coming up from the trail below.

  “Matu!” Nathan called from behind them. Matu dared to look over his shoulder. The staircase was past halfway done now, but nowhere near the top. But Nathan had got all the hikers onto it. Nathan himself was standing on the second step of his vine staircase.

  “Where’s the backpack?” Lian panted.

  “I lost it.” Matu caught a flash of alarm cross Lian’s face.

  “Matu!” Nathan called from behind them again.

  “Go,” Lian panted.

  Matu cast a glance at his brother. “You need to come, too.”

  Lian had to come with them. He couldn’t shimmer up to the top to get Sophie’s blood himself. Sophie’s magic could only heal others. Lian needed another Aster there to heal him, and neither Nathan nor Matu could leave right now.

  “I won’t make it that far. I need to find Sophie,” Lian rasped through struggling breaths. And still he fought. Matu marvelled at his brother. Lian knew he was dying, and yet he would hold these Disciples back for Matu to get out.

  “Go,” Lian pushed again.

  Matu didn’t defy him a second time. He shuffled back slowly with Lian at his side, until they reached a part of the trail that was only the width
of a single person. At that point Matu turned around and ran up the last part of the trail. He didn’t look back. Matu scrambled up higher and higher until he reached the bottom of Nathan’s staircase. All the hikers were now at the very top of the staircase, and Nathan was in the middle. Without hesitating, Matu jumped up the first few steps.

  “Higher!” Nathan commanded.

  Matu climbed up further until he was standing right below Nathan. His brother’s Band was still glowing, and the vines at the bottom of the staircase were starting to unfurl.

  “Lian!” Matu shouted.

  It was all the signal Lian needed. Even from this distance, Matu could see Lian push back one Disciple to give himself enough time to reach for a dagger at his side. Lian brought the bloodied dagger to his lips, and a second later a blue flash appeared, and Lian had vanished.

  Chapter 18

  Matu turned his attention back to the bottom of the staircase. With agonising slowness, the vines at the bottom of the stairway were disappearing. They were hanging above the Canyon with nothing securing them to the cliff face other than the vines that Nathan had created. And yet the stairs felt steady and secure beneath their feet.

  With Lian gone, the Disciples were now running unhindered up the trail and towards where the path had crumbled away. When they saw the bottom of the staircase disappearing before their eyes, they slowed to a chaotic stop, and glared angrily up at the escapees in frustration. When Nathan was sure that none of the Disciples dared to bridge the growing gap, he turned around and focused his magic on the top of the staircase. The vines there started growing again; not just from the staircase and the cliff walls but at the same time also reaching down from the platform above them.

  The sight was absolutely surreal. These kinds of vines didn’t exist anywhere near here, and Nathan was just summoning them out of thin air.

  “Why didn’t he come?” Nathan asked as the staircase grew longer and closer to the platform above them.

  “He needed Sophie.”

  Nathan’s eyes went over Matu’s shoulders and chest, registering the deep cut in his shoulder and that the backpack containing Sophie’s blood was missing. “We have more of Sophie’s blood back in the cabin,” he said. He was holding his hands out in front of him; Nathan was like a conductor, arranging his magic to respond in just the way he needed it to, to have the vines curl and tighten in just the right places to hold all of their weight.

  Matu stared over the edge at the Canyon floor. “There wasn’t time. I needed his help to hold back the Disciples. Shimmering to Sophie was his best option.”

  Nathan didn’t respond.

  One of the humans screamed. Matu immediately looked up to where Nathan’s staircase was getting so close to the platform now that the vines had started to touch and knot together. A figure had just turned the corner and was standing at the edge of the platform. Matu immediately registered the mountain boots, the khaki shorts and the simple t-shirt.

  It was David Hughes. Two more people stood behind him: Wesley and Jason.

  “Don’t worry!” Matu called to the humans up at the top of the staircase. “They’re friends.”

  Finally, the top of the staircase met securely with the platform above. Nathan dropped his hands, but his Band kept glowing. Matu assumed it was so that Nathan could make sure that the staircase would hold until they were all off.

  David moved aside so that the hikers could step off the green staircase and onto the solid platform of the trail. Nathan stepped off next, and Matu followed him. Only then did the Band on Nathan’s wrist stop glowing.

  Matu looked back, expecting the staircase to vanish or fall down to the Canyon floor, but it held steady.

  Jason and Wesley weren’t the only ones with David. Behind them, there were at least another five Affinites. Matu turned to David with a question in his eyes. They weren’t anywhere near the top of the Canyon yet; nowhere near where Matu had told David to meet them.

  David only shrugged. “Thought you might need some back-up further down.”

  “You didn’t exactly choose the easiest trail,” Matu said.

  “It was the fastest,” David pointed out. “We’ve got the humans from here, boys. I assume you need to get back down there.”

  Matu turned around and looked down. Where the path had ended below them, at least another twenty Disciples stood staring at them. However they were going to get back down there again, this trail was no longer an option.

  “We need to find another way down,” Matu muttered.

  “We’ll find one. Oh, and we thought you might need this, too.” David motioned to his eldest son, Jason, who brought forward one of Jackson’s two weapons bags. The Asters had left both of them in the truck on their way to the trail. Behind Jason, the extra Affinites David had assembled were helping the humans further up the trail.

  Jason dropped the weapons bag at their feet. Nathan knelt and started working through the bag.

  Then Nathan swore under his breath. Matu was so surprised that he turned to see what had caused emotion to break through Nathan’s previously clinical demeanour. “What is it?” he asked.

  Nathan pulled out his hand, revealing a small vile of blood. On the sticker on the side was the image of an angel’s wing. Sky’s blood. Which meant they could use Sky’s magic. The veil was gone now; they could shimmer back down without a problem.

  “How is that a bad thing? We can shimmer down now.”

  Nathan looked at Matu, something unreadable on his face. “Sophie’s blood is in here, too.”

  Matu closed his eyes and tipped his head to the sky. They could’ve saved Lian. If they had known David had been so close with a bag that contained Sophie’s blood, Lian could’ve stayed with them and been healed instantly.

  “Are we assuming he found Sophie?” Nathan asked.

  Matu opened his eyes again and looked at the two vials of blood; their access to Sophie and Sky’s magic. “No. Never. Give me Sky’s blood.”

  Nathan handed him the vial with the angel’s wing on the side. Matu opened it and took a small sip. “Excipie magica celeritatis,” he said.

  A band just like Sky’s appeared next to his own. Matu held out his hand to Nathan, who took it. In his other hand, Nathan held the vial with Sophie’s blood. Matu closed his eyes and focused on Sky’s magic. He forced it to search for its original owner; to shimmer him and Nathan to Sky. Matu felt the blue magic of Sky’s shimmer soar through his body, ready to envelop them both. But then it starting ebbing away again, until nothing remained except for a slight pull on Matu’s legs; just a small tug, wanting to guide him.

  “What’s going on?” Nathan asked.

  “Something’s not letting me shimmer to Sky,” Matu muttered.

  “But the veil is down,” Nathan said.

  “It must be something else,” Matu replied, staring down into the Canyon. With the veil gone he could see the Disciple camp below. He couldn’t see the entrance to the Underworld, but he could see a huge number of Disciples running backwards and forwards at the bottom of the Angel Trail.

  Nathan swore under his breath.

  Whatever was stopping Matu from shimmering to Sky would be blocking Lian, too. He was down there somewhere, running while he was dying. And Matu and Nathan had no way of contacting him to tell him they were safe and free from Disciples. Otherwise Lian could use Sky’s blood to shimmer back to them…

  Lian was in the Underworld, all alone… trying to find his sister who could be anywhere by now.

  While holding Sophie under his arm and half-carrying her, Sky used his speed or his shimmer to move faster through the corridors. Only a few Disciples were on their tail; many others had gone off to warn the guards outside of the possible break-out of the humans. Sky just hoped that Nathan and Matu had made it far enough along that they’d managed to get the humans through the veil and to the other side.

  But he couldn’t worry about that now. Sky was too busy outrunning the Disciples behind him long enough so that he had the
time to use Sophie’s blood to heal her leg. For now he could only shimmer to further along in the corridor. He had never been in the North American Underworld before, and if he shimmered into the unknown, who knows where he might end up.

  Despite the arrow deep in her leg, Sophie moved faster than Sky had expected. She grunted each time she had to put weight on her right leg, but she wasn’t moaning or complaining. Sky had tried to keep her from having to put any weight on that leg at all, but Sophie had scolded him for trying to spare her pain instead of getting them somewhere safer as fast as possible.

  She had refused to take the arrow out. It was better to keep it in and keep the blood loss to a minimum. Sky wondered if all this movement was any better, but he knew better than to question her. He just kept his eyes on the corridors ahead. He shimmered them as far as he could see in the space lit by lanterns. Sky saw a corner coming up, and shimmered them right to the end, before stumbling round to the right. He shimmered forward again, and found himself at a T-junction. There was no way of knowing which direction to take. Sky chose left without stopping to weigh his options.

  He didn’t have time to think.

  This was what he was good at: instinct and reaction. He would get Sophie some place safe where he could heal her with her blood, and then they would find their way back out again to help Matu and Nathan. Sky assumed Lian had reached them by now, and was helping to get the humans up the trail. Sky hoped they didn’t have too many Disciples to worry about outside, but he wasn’t so sure they’d be that lucky.