Rise of the Sons

by JD MITCHELL

  Leigh selected the hallway that led to their rooms. It was Ali’s favorite part of their nightly walk; it made her feel like she was in one of Poe’s gothic stories.

  She was transported as she passed under the dim lights of silver chandeliers. Ivory columns flanked the long hallway which depicted intricate engravings of fairies, creatures, and romantic interludes. A blood colored rug stretched over the marble floor and her eyes flew to the ceiling. They passed beneath a mural of the history of the Tuatha de Danann. It was her favorite characteristic of the palace. The painting stretched across the ceiling from one end to the other. Aengus explained the mural was a living artifact, updating itself in real time. The past few days, the furthest end of the hallway portrayed gold clad soldiers trying to break through a glass wall. Tonight was the same, the Tuatha de Danann soldiers were still trapped behind an unbreakable barrier.

  “Do you think Red witnessed something awful?” Ali asked diverting her attention from the ceiling.

  “Yes,” Leigh said. He opened the oak door leading to the room where they slept.

  She followed him inside, sitting on the edge of a chair near Leigh’s couch.

  “I wonder if he saw someone die,” Ali speculated thinking about the Fae who was killed.

  “Probably,” Leigh said sitting on his couch and yawning. He blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes.

  Ali wished he’d entertain her questions. Stray thoughts ran rampant through her mind, but no one would give her answers. Disappointed, she stood and made her way toward her bedroom door. “Talk in the morning?”

  “Sure.” Leigh slipped off his shoes and kicked his feet onto the couch.

  A light voice came from the doorway. “May the young one sleep here?”

  Looking over her shoulder, Ali saw an orange Fae woman. Her lean frame was draped in a dress the color of sunshine. She hovered over Sawyer like a protective bee.

  Sawyer wore a fluffy bathrobe, looking like an abandoned puppy. He stared wide-eyed as he entered the large room. His gaze fell on Ali and he immediately averted his eyes.

  Leigh sat up. “Yeah.” He looked around to one of the many empty couches and pointed to the nearest one. “How’s there?”

  Sawyer looked to the Fae woman and nodded. He shuffled to the couch as the woman fetched a blanket.

  “Kind of like camping, right?” Leigh asked.

  Climbing onto the couch, Sawyer curled into a ball as the Fae woman covered him with a quilt.

  Leigh caught Ali’s eye. She gave half a shrug. Sawyer might need time to himself. There was nothing either of them would say to make Sawyer miss his father any less.

  “I’ll turn out the lights, but I’m here if you wake up,” Leigh said.

  The top of Sawyer’s head bobbed in agreement.

  Deciding the night was a wrap, Ali left the room and collapsed into her own couch kicking off her shoes. Sleep tugged at her eyelids. Training had been long today, and she was feeling the effects. Her shoulders were tender and one of her calf muscles twitched. She laid perfectly still hoping her leg wouldn’t cramp as she drifted to sleep under a warm quilt.

  A nudge on her shoulder woke her. One minute she was attacking a clay man, and the next she was staring at Jessica. The light from the exterior room silhouetted Jessica’s frame as her face came into focus.

  “Ali,” Jessica whispered. She prodded Ali’s shoulder again. “You awake?”

  “No,” Ali groaned.

  “You need to wake up,” Jessica said.

  Her head throbbed. She blinked; her eyelids were heavy. It couldn’t be morning yet; the room was too dark, and her body was sluggish. “What time is it?”

  “One in the morning,” Jessica said.

  That can’t be good. She brushed the sleep from her eyes and sat upright. “What happened?”

  “Nothing yet,” Jessica said standing over her. “Come on, Leigh and Red are waiting.”

  Through the doorway, she saw Leigh putting his shoes on. He moved as slow as Ali, so this wasn’t an emergency.

  “Where are we going?” Ali asked pushing aside her blanket. She reached for her own shoes at the foot of the couch.

  “The north library.”

  “There’s more than one library?” Ali asked. She slipped on her tennis shoes.

  “Three actually. The north, the east, and the main library,” Jessica said. “The north library has computers in it.”

  The comment gave her pause; the grogginess was clearing, and her brain was formulating proper questions now. “Why do we need a computer?”

  Jessica looked to the doorway, then dropped her voice. “To be clear, I don’t agree with this. They overruled me.”

  Yawning, Ali shrugged. Jessica never agreed with any course of action. “What now?”

  Jessica’s lips twisted into a frown. “Aengus is blowing up a tunnel.”

  “What!”

  Jessica gestured for Ali to keep her voice down, pointing to the adjacent room. “I don’t want to wake Sawyer.”

  Ali protested. “You can’t say something like-”

  “Shh,” Jessica said interrupting her. “Wait until we leave.”

  She doubted Sawyer was sleeping through the light and noise, but sure enough, he was out cold when she passed him en route to the hallway.

  The moment the door closed behind them Ali let the questions fly. “Aengus is blowing up a tunnel?”

  Leigh spun on Red. “What’s she talking about?”

  Red frowned at Jessica, but she crossed her arms and said nothing.

  “I’ll explain on the way,” Red grumbled as he strode toward a dark hallway.

  Dim lights along the walls flickered to life as they passed, extinguishing themselves in their wake. Ali hoped Red knew where he was going because she couldn’t see beyond fifteen feet in front of her. The walls in this part of the castle were a boring beige, with an occasional painting to break up the monotony. If she bothered to look, Ali might have discerned what the paintings depicted, but her sole focus was on Red.

  “Keep to yourselves once we get to the library. I had to convince Aengus to include the both of you,” Red said.

  “Can you get to the part where you explain why we’re blowing up a tunnel?” Leigh asked.

  Red hesitated as two hallways intersected. He looked down the left hallway, then walked right. “Remember that tunnel you saw on the newscast?” Red asked. “If we destroy it, we might sever the tie that allowed the Sons to return.”

  Ali felt her face flush. Had she caused this? She was the one who remembered the newscast about the tunnels.

  “Are you sure that’ll work?” Leigh asked. “Nika didn’t mention destroying tunnels as an option.”

  “It’s taking too long to find descendants,” Red stated. “The Sons are killing us faster than we can find them.”

  Ali shuttered as a new reality took root. If it hadn’t been for Leigh and Red, she’d be dead. It’s possible she would have survived the kelpie, but not the gancanagh. She would’ve slipped into insanity and croaked.

  “If this works, it’s a temporary solution,” Jessica said disrupting Ali’s dark thoughts. “Once the tunnel is repaired, the Sons will return.”

  “Time equals lives,” Red countered.

  Jessica sighed. “I’m not against you in theory, but it’s an act of terrorism.”

  “Aengus is taking precautions,” Red said choosing a hallway to the left as more lights flicked to life. This hallway was narrow and undecorated, reminding Ali of a secret passageway. “Besides, it won’t be long before the Sons spill into human towns and cities.”

  Torn, Ali debated the options. She wanted to side with her sister, but she agreed with Red. If it worked, they could buy time to prepare.

  “I’m not trying to argue,” Jessica muttered. “But I’m asking that we take more than a few hours to think this over.”

  Red stopped walking and spun to face Jessica, his hard eyes drilling into her. “We’re dying. The Sons don’t discriminate b
etween old or young. They’d cut Ali down in front of you without hesitating.”

  Jessica shifted her weight from one foot to the other. It was obvious Red struck a nerve by the way her forehead puckered. They were about to fight again.

  “If it means saving lives, then Aengus should do it,” Ali blurted.

  Red’s sharp gaze stayed on Jessica, neither of them glancing at her.

  Ali held her breath. “What other choice do we have?”

  Jessica’s gaze softened, then she frowned at Red. “I stand by what I told you. I disagree, but the four of us are in this together.”

  Red inhaled sharply, then resumed the trek down the hallway. Ali assumed the invitation was still open and was quick to follow.

  Leigh was at Red’s side in a few strides. “So, is Aengus dropping a bomb over the tunnel?”

  “It’s a little more involved than that,” Red said. He pushed a polished black door open and walked into a small two-story library.

  A gold chandelier lit the room. It hung from a green ceiling with painted gold stars, and maroon crown molding. White marble walls gave way to inset bookshelves on either side of the room. Ornate black wrought iron lined the narrow second-floor balconies and fed into matching spiral black staircases on either side. The room was reminiscent of a grand office from the 1800s, except for the dozen monitors’ setup in the middle of the room. Six Fae were stationed at computers, each flipping buttons, watching screens, or talking into microphones. Aengus stood to the side, pointing at an image on a monitor and talking in a hushed voice while a faint humming similar to a buzzing beehive filled the room.

  A huge display hung on the back wall and was split into four sections. The screens showed dimly lit tunnels, the intermittent overhead lights illuminating metal tracks along the bottom. On the top right monitor Ali saw the source of the buzzing–the red taillight of a motorcycle. The screen gently bounced, and she noticed another red dot further in the distance. She looked between the monitors. Each held a different number of red lights and one had none. It dawned on her that the images were from helmet cams, and the motorcyclists raced along the center of a train tunnel.

  “What are they doing?” Ali whispered to Red.

  Red surveyed the room, then ushered them toward a back corner.

  “They’re dropping charges in the center of the tunnel. Once armed, they have four minutes to get out.”

  “Isn’t that tunnel twenty-one miles long?” Ali asked remembering the newscasters report. “Four minutes doesn’t seem like enough time to travel ten and a half miles.”

  Red pointed to the large monitor. “If you haven’t noticed, those bikes are fast.”

  Ali studied the screen as the motorcycles passed under a light. Large vertical discs spun under slim gray bike frames. Without thick rubber tires, the motorcycles looked futuristic. The drivers were tucked behind oval windshields, nearly lying flat on their stomachs as they maneuvered though the tunnel.

  “What kind of motorcycles are those?” Leigh asked.

  “Electric bikes,” Red said. “They can travel over 200 mph.”

  Leigh’s face lit up. “Are you serious? That’s freaking fast.”

  On screen, the blur of track became easier to see under the lights. The intervals between light and darkness grew longer as the bikes slowed.

  “Aren’t they worried about an oncoming train?” Ali asked, searching for the telltale headlight.

  “Aengus cooked up technical difficulties about two hours ago,” Red said. “They recalled the trains to either side. Our people entered under the guise of technicians.”

  “Our people?” Ali asked thinking of her rainbow skinned friends who weren’t inconspicuous. “You mean the Fae?”

  Red winked. “They’re wearing make-up. No one knows the difference.”

  “What are the Fae supposedly doing in the tunnel?” Leigh asked.

  “Aengus rigged the cameras to show electrical arcing,” Red said as though his explanation made sense to her.

  Ali looked to Jessica for clarification, but Jessica held her hands up.

  “What does that mean?” Ali asked.

  Red pointed toward two monitors across the room. One of them showed sparks flying off a metal rail, the other was the same image showing no activity.

  “The sparks are a fake. Aengus manipulated the image to show a problem with the equipment that delivers the electricity to the third rail. It powers the trains.” He gestured toward the screen with no activity. “That’s real.”

  “Aengus faked an electrical issue?” Ali asked. She wondered how dangerous electrical arcing was.

  On the main screen, the bikes slowed to a stop, and the drivers dismounted. Their silhouettes barely discernable from their surroundings. The buzzing faded to a hum as the bikes idled. Ali watched as the bikers ran to various points of the tunnel, dropping dark squares into place. She glanced at the screens on the right-hand side. The fake sparks grew bigger, more frequent, and violent. On the monitor that showed real time, the silhouettes of the drivers placing the squares moved swiftly from one spot to the next.

  “What are those?” Ali asked pointing at the screen.

  “The charges,” Red said. “Those boxes will create enough of an explosion to punch a hole in the tunnel.”

  It wasn’t long before the drivers mounted the bikes, pulled a U-turn and sped through the tunnel again. Ali believed they were going faster than before, but it could have been her own anxiety. A blue timer was on the main screen now, counting down the remaining minutes.

  “I still don’t understand why they only have four minutes,” Ali said.

  “The quicker we blow the tunnel, the more feasible the accident story becomes,” Red said. He pointed to the monitors in the left corner of the room. A truck entered the tunnel, bouncing along as it carried tools and workers. “The humans will see the technicians heading toward the issue, then fleeing. Our people will exit the same time as the fake images.”

  Ali nodded, impressed. For only having a few hours, Aengus cobbled together a decent plan.

  “The tunnel team has passed the red zone sir,” the nearest Fae said to Aengus.

  “What’s the red zone?” Leigh asked.

  “The distance the motorcyclists needed to cover to be clear of the blast damage,” Red said. “They’re yellow now, and soon they’ll enter green.”

  “How do the Fae know what the extent of the damage will be?” Ali asked.

  Red pursed his lips. “Educated guess.”

  Ali remembered Jessica’s insistence on time for specifics. This was likely one of her points of contention. Maybe Ali gave Aengus more credit than she should.

  “One minute to green zone,” a familiar female voice said over the speaker.

  “Is that Leanan?” Ali asked looking around the room for her silky red hair.

  Red smirked. “Who’d you think was the team lead?”

  Until now, Ali assumed this plan was the brainchild of Aengus and Red. However, Leanan was a woman of action. Of course, she led the charge. The word cautious wasn’t in her vocabulary.

  On the back wall, the monitors suddenly displayed the section of track with the charges. The screens were dark, and the shadows seemed to move. She looked closer. A silhouette took shape, crouching to inspect a charge. Ali watched in horror, concerned they left a Fae behind. The silhouette picked up the charge and turned it over in their fingers.

  “What’s that Fae doing?” Ali asked Red, pointing to the shadow.

  Red leaned closer and cocked his head to the side. “No one should be there.”

  The silhouette stepped closer to the light.

  It was a man.

  He wore dark pants and a white dress shirt. His gray hair was tied into a short ponytail, a strand of which fell into dark calculating eyes.

  Ali’s heart stopped. Is that…?

  “Aengus!” Red shouted as he pointed toward the monitor where the man flipped switches on the device.

  All eyes fell to the
screen.

  Quick to act, Aengus tapped his headset and yelled into the microphone. “Blow the charges!”

  Leanan’s impatience cut through the speakers. “We’re still yellow.”

  “Dother is in the tunnel!” He studied Dother, who stood looking perplexed. Aengus then glanced at the nearest Fae and tapped his headset again. “Leanan, forget the primary charges. We’ll blow the back-up charges from here.”

  Jessica looked askance at Red. “What’s he talking about? What back-up charges?”

  Red held up a finger, moving closer to the screens.

  “Roger,” Leanan said, her voice firm. “Top speed boys, it’s time for a quick exit.”

  Aengus looked at the nearest Fae, his voice firm. “Do it.”

  Removing his headset, Aengus set it on a nearby table. He faced Red, remorse seeping into his voice. “I wanted to try it your way, but we can’t take the chance. Dother is right there.”

  Red’s wild eyes flew to the main monitor.

  Dother still held the charge in his hand but seemed disinterested now. He stepped back into the shadows, heading toward the next explosive. Ali lost his movement as darkness swallowed his frame.

  A brilliant white light filled screen on the wall, obscuring the view of the tunnel. Then, just as quickly, the screen flipped to static.

  Ali’s breath caught in her throat.

  Across the room, various monitors were swiftly swallowed by a fireball, then darkness.

  “Sir, we have detonation,” a Fae said. “We have breached the tunnel.”

  Aengus exhaled slowly through his nose. “Thank you.”

  “How much of the tunnel did you destroy?” Red asked thunderstruck.

  “Enough,” Aengus said.

  “I thought we were using small charges.” Jessica’s eyes shifted between the monitors. “This doesn’t resemble an accident.”

  “They built the tunnels to withstand a lot of pressure and damage.” Aengus crossed his arms tightly over his chest. “I had Leanan lay back-up charges if the primaries didn’t work.”

  Ali realized Aengus lied to Jessica and Red by omission. She didn’t understand what decisions they made, but Aengus certainly made further judgments without consulting anyone.

  When no one spoke, Aengus shook his head. “We just ensured Dother can’t harm us anymore.”