by Nina D'Aleo
“But your brother’s still alive,” Diega said numbly. “You saved him.”
“Okay. How about this – my father liked my brother more as well. I know how it feels to never once be good enough or do anything right – to be knocked around and put down all the time. Growing up all I ever heard was you’re stupid, you’re useless, you’re weak, you’re a girl, you’re an embarrassment, you’re not my son … And when the United Regiment shot him up, I could have run out and dragged him to cover, but I didn’t, because I honestly wanted him dead. And I don’t feel a scrap of guilt.”
Diega turned her head to look at him – she saw sadness deep in his eyes, but his Tehron shone out of him like a sky full of green stars.
“I don’t care at all,” he repeated. “You look forward – you don’t look back. Do you understand? Diega – you never look back!” He shouted the last words and shook the bars.
A thin cry rose from the bin and Shawe’s eyes widened.
“What is that?”
The sound drilled into Diega’s mind.
“The baby!” she said. Instantly, she morphed the bars of the cage and Shawe burst out. He ran to her, but she gestured to the bin.
“No – get the baby first!”
She ripped out the tubing in her arms and stomach as Shawe lifted the squirming infant out of the bin. His weak cry rose to a shriek.
“No, no, kid, kid, listen – no crying, shhh, shut it – seriously …” Shawe tried to rock the baby, patting at it awkwardly.
Diega sat up and slid off the table, hitting the ground hard. Her face and legs were numb. She dragged herself to her weapon belt as Shawe put the squealing newborn against his chest and started singing a soft Galley tune. The tiny boy quieted, closing a little hand around one of Shawe’s fingers. The gangster’s skin looked so scarred and worn in comparison.
Diega grabbed the narc-gone off her belt and sprayed it into her face, canceling the effects of the drugs in her system. She stood and clipped the belt around her, then Shawe handed her the baby. He had the Omarian bloodline marks of the firebird dragon.
“Something’s going down,” the gangster said, nodding to the door.
“Then let’s go,” Diega replied, using a towel to bind the baby to her chest. The feeling of wanting to give up lingered faintly, whispering in her ears, weakening her limbs, but she forced herself to move. She could feel the baby’s heart beating against hers. If she gave up now, he would die with her, and that was unacceptable. That thought kept her moving – one step at a time.
Shawe went to the door and paused beside it. He peered out, checking one way and then the other, then gestured to Diega. She followed him out of the room and into a long corridor. It felt distinctly wrong to be heading into battle with a baby in her hands instead of an electrifier, but there wasn’t much she could do about that. The Omarians had taken her blade, the only weapon she’d had left.
“Do you have a spare blade?” she asked Shawe as they jogged toward the end of the hall.
He reached down and snatched something out of his ankle holster, handing it back to her. She turned the rusty-looking relic over in one hand, keeping the other on the baby’s back.
“What am I going to do with this?” she asked. “Give someone tetanus?”
Shawe snorted. “Shows how much you know! That blade is ancient Serpian and has more bite to it than anything you’ve ever held in your hand. If your boss saw it, he’d probably faint on the spot – it’s that prime.”
“Sure,” Diega muttered.
The heat ahead of them intensified, rippling the air, and Diega’s steps hesitated.
“I can’t,” she said, holding up her hand to shield her face, unable to even lift her eyes.
“Harden up, princess!” Shawe barked. “Follow me and keep moving!”
She gritted her teeth and pressed forward behind him, his bulk providing some cover. They ran all the way to where the corridor widened out into an open cavern. The path led them to a bridge crossing over the top of a lava river that ran through the middle of the castle. As they moved across it, lava spat up at them and Diega tried to shield the baby’s head.
Just as they reached the other side, Shawe stopped suddenly. A narrow path had been cut into the black rock ahead of them. It looked barely big enough for the gangster to fit through.
“Brace. It’s about to get a whole lot hotter,” Shawe said.
“That’s not possible,” Diega replied – she already felt so close to fainting.
“Just keep moving. You don’t want me carrying you again, do you?” he said.
Diega clamped her teeth together and started chanting in her mind keep moving, keep moving, keep moving …
Shawe pressed into the hole. His hand brushed against the rock and sizzled on contact. He cursed and pulled his arms in close, trying to keep from touching again.
“The baby. He can’t take this,” Diega gasped, unable to breathe in the scorching heat.
Shawe glanced back. “He’s napping!” he grunted. “He’s Omarian.”
Diega hunched down to check the baby and saw Shawe was right. The infant was sleeping soundly, his little mouth making quick drinking movements.
“He must be hungry,” she murmured.
“Let’s just keep him alive for now, then worry about food once we get off this rock,” Shawe said. “Heads up – there’s a step here.” He started to move upward, but then stopped. “Get ahead of me!” he ordered, dragging Diega and the baby past him up the stairs.
“Why? Do you want to use me as a shield?” Diega muttered.
Shawe shushed her and gestured behind them to where a shadow was stalking over the wall. Shawe gripped his blade ready.
“It’s me, you gadfly.” They heard Caesar’s voice and then he stepped around the corner. He had a bleeding wound in his chest and burns on his neck.
Shawe snorted. “Trust you to show up when all the work is done.”
Caesar gave him a cold stare and said, “Sounds like it’s just beginning.” He pointed up the stairs.
“Yeah and look who sensed it first – me,” Shawe gloated.
“Really?” Caesar narrowed his eyes in a feline smile.
Diega caught movement behind them and whipped around. Copernicus was standing on the stairs just above them, beside a doorway cut through the rock. He gestured for them to follow and started running upward. Diega immediately headed after him, hearing Caesar say behind her,
“But don’t sweat it, Shawe, you’re still second.”
“At least I’m not third,” Shawe grunted, his boots thudding on the steps.
“I was further away,” Caesar insisted.
“You have all the excuses in the world, don’t you, kitty?”
Diega sighed, blocking their arguing out and concentrating on keeping her legs moving in the heat. The steps seemed to go on forever, winding them high up and through the heart of the castle, until Diega heard the shouts and blasts of fire that Shawe and the others had picked up on. The stairs flattened out into a tunnel with a circle of light at the end.
Copernicus slowed his pace and, keeping as close to the wall as possible without touching it, edged down toward the light. He stopped just inside the shade and Diega pressed in beside him. They peered out to a flat rooftop where the Omarian Prince, Lecivion, and a group of his soldiers had Silho cornered. She stood on a ledge wearing a tattered, bloodstained dress, clutching the Solace and breathing blue fire on any Omarian who tried to get close enough to lock her into light-form. She was driving them back, the heat of her flames too much for even the fire wielders to take. Above them, giant shadows circled in the burned sky. Lecivion suddenly lunged in and grabbed Silho. She tried to stab him with her blade, but he put his hand up, trapping her in light-form. He dragged her off the ledge and threw her to the ground.
Instantly, Copernicus sprang forward, out of the tunnel and into a sprint. Shawe and Caesar barged past Diega, as she tried to follow, and bolted after him. She cursed and saw Copernic
us casting an Illusionist enchant, creating many copies of himself and the gangsters to distract the Omarians from focusing their attacks.
Diega started to run out, but heard the baby make a small sound and hesitated. She sensed movement behind her and sidestepped just as an Omarian soldier tried to stab her with the bone blade coming out of his wrist. She felt it brush against her side and spun around, slashing downward with the blade Shawe had given her. Immediately she realized the blade was no ordinary metal – it made her movement much faster and the blow much harder – slicing through the Omarian’s bone as though it was barely air. He yelled and tried to trap her in light-form but she stabbed the blade into his chest and her entire arm broke through it with the enhanced force of the weapon. He dropped down dead and she stared in shock at the rusted blade in her blood-covered hand before a shout seized her attention. She gripped the baby and turned.
The real Copernicus had grabbed Lecivion by the shoulder, trying to drag him away from Silho, but the Omarian prince threw fire at him, forcing him back. Lecivion caught Copernicus in his light-form, draining him fast. Silho was struggling up off the ground, trying to help him, as the other Omarians rushed in at her. Multiple images of Shawe were intercepting them, while the real Shawe smashed them back one after another. Everything was happening too fast.
Caesar struck Lecivion from the side, tackling him before he could finish Copernicus. The two men rolled across the roof, grappling for a moment before Lecivion caught him. He tried to drain him, but Caesar yelled and Diega saw his body stretch bigger and change – exploding out into the form of a huge lion. The great beast released a roar and threw the Omarian prince off him, sending him flying across the rooftop. Diega saw Silho and Copernicus stagger to each other and fall into each other’s arms.
The light from the red sun suddenly dipped low, casting them into an unnatural twilight and Diega felt a strange crushing sensation all over her body. The remaining Omarian soldiers immediately stopped fighting, looking around with terror twisting their faces.
“Look! They’re here!” one of the soldiers screamed, pointing over the edge of the roof and down to the plains surrounding the castle. The others hesitated, then broke ranks to look.
Diega did the same, holding the baby close and moving to the ledge to peer over. On the plains below, the air was hissing and distorting like disturbed holograms, and figures were materializing – monstrous creatures, towering shadows wearing dead faces as masks. Diega heard the dragonfly Tickleback’s voice in her mind. The first signs of the apocalypse are a darkening of the light that only outsiders can see. After this – the Mors come.
She watched as hordes of Omarian soldiers ran out from the Castle gates far below. They attacked the Mors, trapping the first line of them in light-form and draining them in seconds. The Mors didn’t even put up a fight. For a moment Diega had the thought that maybe they weren’t as bad as they looked, but then she sensed a buzzing in the air and the Omarian soldiers all turned on each other while the Mors watched on.
Lecivion, who was standing on the ledge on the other side of the terrace, saw his army decimate itself. He screamed in fury, shouting orders to his men still on the rooftop to go down there and attack, but Diega could see by the looks on their faces that he’d lost them. The Lion-Caesar roared, pacing the rooftop, but no one was even looking at him now that a much larger threat had arrived. The soldiers started backing away, preparing to flee, and Lecivion sent a fireball at them, incinerating all those it hit. Diega pressed back against the ledge; even from that distance the heat was unbearable. She turned her face away and caught sight of the Mors below starting to move out among the dead Omarian soldiers. It looked as though they were cutting off their faces.
“Diega!” Copernicus crashed in beside her, Silho and Shawe behind him. Diega nodded at Silho. There wasn’t any time for any more of a reunion. The castle had started to shake.
“What the hell?” Shawe said, staring around them.
“This world is ending,” Diega said. “We have to get out of here now!”
“You don’t say! Anyone have any ideas? Because I have trutt-all at this point in time,” Shawe replied.
“The Ory-5!” the commander said. “Diega, do you still have it?”
“I have it!” she said, feeling a jolt of excitement. She dropped her blade to the ground and grabbed at her sock, digging the coin out of the secret pocket.
She held it up and Copernicus said, “Morph it, now!”
She called the word Xpel and threw the coin into the air. It stretched, morphing back into the transflyer. Seeing it spread out and re-form in front of them gave her a surge of hope that they were actually going to get out of this alive. A massive shadow fell over them and they felt a wild rush of wind, so strong it pinned them to the ground, as a gigantic firebird dragon landed on the rooftop, crushing the Ory flat with one foot. Diega and the others stared up at the astonishing creature with shining dark green scales and a long row of spikes stretching from its neck all the way down its tail.
Lecivion stepped out from the side of the firebird’s leg.
“You didn’t think I’d just let you leave again,” he said, his voice hard and emotionless, eyes locked onto Silho.
Diega glanced over at her. “Again?”
“He’s crazy. He thinks I’m my mother,” Silho said, gripping the Solace, and staring back at Lecivion with loathing.
“You’re not going anywhere,” he replied.
Shawe gave a derisive snort and Copernicus said darkly, “I’ll assure you she is, and you can try to stop us and get left behind to die with your planet, or you can give us a portal and we’ll take you with us.”
The shaking of the castle had stepped up. It was now quaking so much that they were struggling to stay standing and Diega thought she felt it starting to sink.
Lecivion gave a cold bark of laughter. “You must think I’m extremely stupid. I’ll give you a portal so that you can take me with you? I’ve been to over four thousand realms in our universe and I haven’t as yet needed any help.” He set his burning stare back on Silho. “Now, Oren, come here … or else.”
He spoke a word in Omarian to his dragon and it leaned down, its massive face looming over them, burning breath escaping through its teeth, each of them bigger than Diega’s whole body. She held the baby tightly against her.
“What now?” Shawe grunted.
“Over,” Copernicus uttered and Diega understood immediately: they were going over the ledge. Copernicus could walk up flat surfaces and walls, and he could also run down them. He tried to grasp Shawe’s arm, but the gangster, who hadn’t yet worked out what “over” meant, pulled away.
“Over,” Diega said to him through gritted teeth, moving her eyes to indicate the ledge. Shawe cursed, finally getting it. He linked up with Copernicus on one side and Diega on the other. Copernicus held Silho around the waist.
“You’ve got five seconds to decide,” Lecivion called out.
The four of them started preparing to leap up and over.
“What about K-Ruz?” Shawe muttered. They could still see the lion roaming on the other side of the rooftop.
“He’s on his own,” Copernicus whispered back. “We can’t do anything for him in that state.”
“No. I trutting hate the gadfly, but it can’t be said that we ran away holding hands and left him to rot.”
“Who will know?” Diega demanded.
“I will!” Shawe said.
He broke away from the group, running toward Caesar. The firebird tried to stomp him, but he swerved just in time. Diega felt her heart skip a beat.
While the beast and Lecivion were momentarily distracted, Copernicus tightened his grip on Silho and dragged Diega and the baby close. He jumped up onto the ledge and straight over. He started to run down the outer wall of the pitching castle, with Diega and Silho clutching onto his back, their legs dangling beneath them.
With Lecivion above them and the Arequium Mors below, there seemed n
o way for them to now escape this dying land. Diega just hoped that Copernicus had a plan. She heard a screech and looked up to see the firebird, with Lecivion riding on its back, preparing to drop down after them. Another dragon scream sounded nearby and Diega caught sight of a smaller firebird speeding their way, and, at that point, she felt it wasn’t a matter of if they were going to get killed, it was only a matter of who would do it.
In the time it took her to abandon all hope, the smaller, faster dragon had reached them, but instead of snapping them up or burning them alive, it just brushed past them. Copernicus seized onto its back, dragging himself and Silho and Diega up to its spikes. Diega was lying awkwardly half across him, on her side, trying not to crush the baby. Copernicus wrapped one arm around a spike, then helped her and Silho to also find a grip. Diega clutched the long spine as hard as she could, the wind rushing past them, a hundred times the speed it had when they’d been riding the Neridori. The dragon raced around the black castle with the bigger firebird and Lecivion in pursuit. The turrets and towers had started to collapse and their dragon swerved suddenly to avoid an avalanche of rock. It brought them up and around to the side opposite where they had started from.
“Shawe!” Diega heard Copernicus yell out and blinked through watering eyes to see the gangster having what looked like a fist fight with the lion. He avoided a swipe from Caesar’s claws and punched him in the face, knocking him over onto his side.
