Bruke nodded, walked out of the pit, and guided the first of the pit’s spectators through to safety.
All the while, Seb listened to the shots of blaster fire and the pounding of the soldiers’ assault on the front door of the pit. It wouldn’t be long before they busted through. They just had to hope the door would hold for long enough.
Chapter 37
It seemed to take forever for the line of beings to file out of the hole Sparks had made. The banging continued on the door from where the Crimson soldiers did their best to beat it down, but it had held for the entire time. Somehow.
After Seb watched the last spectator file through the hole, he looked at Sparks. She seemed much calmer than she had, the threat of fire now completely gone. Where there had been smoking wood around the improvised exit, there now remained only a charred outline.
“That looks like the end of them,” Seb said. “Wait here for a moment. I need to talk to SA and Gurt.”
As Seb ran around the walkway back to the front door of the arena, he heard the crash of splintering wood. The door must have finally caved in.
The sound of battle flooded into the space and Seb sped up. Blaster fire pulsed and knives squelched. Maybe the soldiers were fighting back and maybe not. SA and Gurt were more than capable of making that level of sound on their own.
When Seb rounded the corner to see his friends in full swing, he watched it for a second, mesmerised by their synchronicity. A beautiful and bloody ballet, they dropped soldier after soldier when they came through the now shattered entranceway.
“Good work,” Seb shouted at them. “Keep it up.”
“For how long?” Gurt called over his shoulder.
“I need another five minutes at the most.”
“Be as quick as you can!” the Mandulu shouted back, and then he dropped three soldiers in quick succession.
When Seb got back to Sparks, he breathed more heavily for his quick jog around the other side of the pit. He dipped a nod at her. “We have five minutes.”
“For what?” Sparks said.
But Seb didn’t respond. Instead, he stepped through the hole she’d cut in the wall and looked at the gathered crowd on the other side. Bruke had done a good job getting all the spectators clear of the wooden structure.
A quick nod at his green-skinned friend and Seb dropped his backpack on the ground. After he’d ripped the zip free, he pulled out the plastic container with the flammable pebbles in it, took a handful, and passed them to Sparks.
Sparks stared down at the pile in her large palm and said, “What are these?”
Seb ignored her question. “We need to lay these like breadcrumbs around the outside of the arena. No more than a few inches between each one, okay? You go one way and I’ll go the other. Only go as far as you can without being seen by the soldiers. We can’t have them knowing we’ve made another way out.”
The look on Sparks’ bespectacled face suggested she wanted more information, but the urgency of their situation seemed to stop her asking. When Seb ran one way with the open pot, she ran the other.
One pebble every few inches, Seb dropped them as quickly as he could, his hands shaking as he listened to the battle moving further inside the fighting pit. Had he asked too much of Gurt and SA?
But he couldn’t think about it. The quicker he set up the pebbles, the better it would be for all of them.
The farther Seb ventured around the pit, the louder the blaster fire called out. Much farther and he’d bump into the soldiers. For a second, he listened to the battle, doing his best to assess his friends’ situation.
Soldiers called out as they fell and blaster fire continued unrelenting. SA and Gurt were doing just fine.
Seb’s stomach tensed when he got back to the hole in the arena and looked into Sparks’ purple eyes. He couldn’t put it off any longer. “These pebbles are highly flammable.” He watched her jaw drop. “Explosively flammable, in fact.”
“What?” she said.
“I’m going back in there to get the other two. Once we’re clear of this place, I need you to light it up with your watch.”
“You want me to start a fire?”
“We need to, Sparks. I appreciate what I’m asking you, but you’ll be on the outside of the flames, not trapped by them.”
A scowl and tight lips met Seb’s request.
“This will save everyone’s life.”
Sparks didn’t say anything.
“It’ll be fine. Trust me.”
Still nothing.
Seb patted his small friend on her shoulder and ducked back into the pit. She would come good when he needed her to.
The smell inside the arena dealt Seb a physical blow and he snapped his head back at the shock of it. Cauterised flesh and the rich reek of spilled blood. It hung as heavy as humidity, and he had to breathe through his mouth to keep going.
The sounds of Gurt’s blasters ran faster than ever, each shot so close to the one before it they sounded almost like a continuous tone. It sounded like him and SA were being stretched to their limits.
When Seb rounded the corner, he found his friends had lost some ground to the soldiers. More of the crimson robes had slipped into the place and they looked to be slowly gaining the advantage.
One of the larger soldiers blocked the entire door frame and in the few seconds he’d witnessed, Seb saw it take at least thirty shots from Gurt without slowing down.
“Follow me,” Seb shouted at his friends.
They didn’t need asking twice.
SA came first, Gurt holding back the onslaught because he had the range with his blasters to do so. Once she’d gotten clear, he followed after them.
Seb fought for breath as he ran, exhausted from what they’d had to do so far, but he kept up his pace, spurred on by the sounds of the soldiers on their heels.
Before they reached their exit, Seb skidded to a halt to see some of the soldiers had come around the other way. A wall of them blocked the walkway. As one, they raised their blasters at them.
Chapter 38
As soon as the first Crimson soldier’s blaster glowed red, Seb’s world slipped into slow motion. He ran forward, avoiding every shot and drawing the fire with him.
A blaster shot came from behind Seb and flew over his left shoulder. It ran so close to his face, he felt the heat of it against his cheek and smelled his own singed hair. It sank into the hood of the lead soldier and dropped it. Several more shots followed after it in rapid succession. They flew through the air like lightning, even through his slowed-down perspective of things.
Fortunately the soldiers hadn’t reached the hole they’d made, so when Seb got there first, he continued to attract the fire and let SA slip out behind him.
Seb tried to let Gurt through next, but the large Mandulu shoved him so hard, he shot from the hole, stumbled, and landed on his knees against the dark and rocky ground outside. A sharp sting lit up his kneecaps, but he pushed through it as he stood up again.
Gurt followed through after Seb and sent blasts flooding back into the space. It seemed to hold the soldiers back.
“Now, Sparks!” Seb shouted.
But Sparks didn’t move. Her pale face had turned paler and he could see a shake running through her small frame.
Gurt continued to keep the soldiers pinned in with his fire, but he wouldn’t be able to hold them for long.
“Sparks!” Seb called again.
When she still didn’t move, Seb ran to her and put an arm around her shoulders. “You can do this. I’ll protect you, I promise.”
It seemed to be what she needed to hear. Sparks ran forward and sent a small blue bolt from her watch. It hit one of the white pebbles.
Flames instantly rose from the ground. It didn’t look like much to start with, so Seb shouted to the others, “Get back!”
Although the other three looked at Seb like he’d lost his mind, they all backed away with him.
By the time they’d got about twenty metres clea
r and close to the spectators Bruke had rescued, the fire had spread both ways across all the pebbles. The flames were only half a metre tall at best and the soldiers had gathered at the hole, ready to step out.
Gurt sent more blaster shots to keep the soldiers pinned in and said, “I’m not confident in your plan, Seb.”
Before Seb could respond, a deep whoosh sounded out. A gust of warm air pulled them toward the pit and then shoved them backwards as the wax pebbles exploded as one.
Seb thrust his arms out to the sides to keep his balance and noticed many of the beings with them fall over from the force of the explosion. The bright glow blinded him and he raised his guard as a shower of splinters flew from the arena.
The blast turned the bottom of the pit to dust and the rest of it fell to the ground like a controlled explosion. The entire structure dropped on top of all the soldiers inside it.
It took just seconds for the cylindrical building to turn into a bonfire. The flames ate through the wreck and rushed up into the night’s sky, lighting the slum up.
“Wow!” Gurt finally said, still on his arse from where the explosion had knocked him down. “I should trust you a little bit more, eh?”
Chapter 39
When the dust and smoke had settled, Seb couldn’t see a single soldier nearby. They must have all gone down with the pit. Even if they hadn’t all made it in, none of them would have survived being close to the entrance.
The crowd who’d left the arena gathered nearby, most of them watching on with shocked expressions, many of them still sitting on the cold ground from being knocked down.
“This is what the Countess uses to drop on the slums from the ships.” Seb pulled one of the wax pebbles from his pocket and threw it back at the large burning structure. It glowed magnesium white for a second before making a loud bang.
“This is what she’s killed your families with for years.”
The crowd watched on in silence. What could they say to that?
The heat from the burning pit spread, raising sweat on Seb’s brow and turning the air hot around him. He itched beneath his filthy flight suit and stepped a few paces back.
Seb addressed the crowd again. “If the Countess didn’t know we were coming before, she certainly does now. We’re going into the elevated city in an hour. Meet me at the entrance to the sewers then. And bring torches. It’s dark where we’re going.”
Chapter 40
“So what are we going to do now, hotshot?” Gurt said.
When Seb looked at the large Mandulu, the hostility he’d aimed at him in the past didn’t seem present. “I thought you said you trusted me now?”
A shake of his head, his large mouth pursed tight, and Gurt said, “No, I don’t think I did.”
Seb took it in the good humour he thought Gurt intended and turned his attention to the sheer face of the elevated city in front of them.
As Gurt’s words vanished, near silence surrounded them again, despite the considerably large crowd behind them.
At first Seb looked up the huge craggy wall at the elevated city on top. It always seemed like an impossibly high climb from their current position. The sheer height of it served to remind the slum dwellers they didn’t belong up there. Regardless of their aspirations, they’d never be one of the elite.
Then Seb returned his attention to the darkness of the sewers inside the black rock. Despite it being on their level, the shadowed crevice seemed even more intimidating than the high climb. Even on a planet that never saw daylight, the void they’d have to step into took the darkness beyond anything he’d seen before. It seemed to feast on any shimmer of light that dared enter.
As thoughts of the strange creatures swimming through the waters occupied Seb’s mind, his heart rate sped up. Deep breaths did little for him at that moment. Every hard exhale formed as white mist in front of his face. What if he led half of the slum into the sewers and they never made it to the city above? But he couldn’t think like that. If they fell, he’d fall with them. He couldn’t promise them any more.
A look behind at the crowd of beings and Seb couldn’t see how far it stretched. From where he stood, it looked like every being who could fight had turned up. Every bit of space not occupied by a hut had a creature standing in it. The bodies were packed in so tight, the creak and crash of falling dwellings popped through the air at random intervals from where the paths couldn’t contain the press of bodies.
Many of the slum dwellers had torches and crude weapons. Batons, metal bars, Seb even saw some blasters.
After a look at his friends, Sparks nodding for him to do something, Seb walked over to the nearest hut. He shoved it with his foot and most of it shook apart from one wall.
Once Seb had climbed up on the sturdy wall, he saw the slum much better. The crowd stretched further back than he could have imagined and it glowed with the naked flames of what looked like hundreds of torches.
Despite the size of the crowd, the near silence overwhelmed Seb. An occasional collapsing hut. A cough here and there. But other than that, they all watched him, waiting for his instructions.
Seb cleared his throat. The beings in the fighting pit had already heard it, but he needed to say it again. Ten times the amount of creatures were now gathered around, if not more. They needed to hear it from his mouth.
“This is it!” Seb’s eyes wandered over the crowd to the burning fighting pit in the distance. It sat on the horizon as a huge bonfire and filled the air with the smell of smoke.
“This is your time to take your planet back. This is your chance to reclaim your lives. The Countess has crushed you for too long. This is the time to make her pay.”
The previously static crowd shifted and swayed, clearly roused by Seb’s words.
“Today we march on her palace and we won’t leave until it’s rubble.”
Some of the crowd made noises of approval and many nodded their heads. The almost paralysing tension in Seb’s body eased a little as he got into the swing of it.
“I’ve seen what she’s done to you all, and I’ve heard it’s happened for years. Today we come together as one and we overthrow her rule. Today is the day where everything changes.” Seb raised his voice and punched his fist in the air. “Today is ours!”
The crowd cheered.
“We don’t want to kill the foot soldiers, but if they’re stupid enough to stand in our way, then we will. I believe most of them aren’t the creatures you remember them to be. What they once were has been beaten out of them because of the Countess’ brainwashing. Today, we’ll make sure she can’t do it to anyone else.”
The crowd cheered again.
“After today none of you will live in fear. You’ll be able to live as a democratic state. You’ll set the rules, not her. Now who’s with me?”
The crowd erupted.
“We’re going to make Solsans a planet to be proud of. We’re going to overwhelm that bitch and make sure she can’t oppress anyone ever again.”
The crowd screamed, waved their weapons in the air, and swayed their torches from side to side.
Before Seb could say anything else, a whoosh of engines raced through the sky above them. He looked up to see the Crimson fleet. Amongst them were the ships the Countess had pretended belonged to their enemies.
“See?” Seb shouted as he pointed at the sky. “All of the ships are hers. She wanted you to fear an outside threat so she could pretend to protect you. But she’s the one that’s been bombing you all along.”
In hindsight, Seb should have seen it coming. They’d made a statement by burning down the arena, so of course the Countess would strike back. When the hatch on the bottom of the lead ship opened, a cold rush gripped him.
Seb’s world slowed down as he watched on and nausea clamped his stomach tight as a slow bomb fell from the ship.
Chapter 41
Explosion after explosion lit up the slums, shaking the ground with every bomb’s landing. The vibrations ran through the wall Seb stood on, th
reatening to level it.
The army Seb had gathered remained safe. They stood too close to the elevated city for the Countess to bomb them. But that didn’t help any of the creatures who’d stayed back because they couldn’t fight. Many children would be in the burning dwellings.
After the last bomb had fallen and the ships had withdrawn, silence swept across the slum. But it only lasted a second, driven away by a torturous and distraught wail. Children and adults alike, many of the beings in the slums cried as they burned.
Flames rose up from every building behind the army and stretched so high into the sky they hid the previously burning fighting pit.
A look down at the others and Seb saw Sparks. She seemed on edge, her face pale, her eyes wide. She chewed her bottom lip and bounced on the spot as she edged towards the dark entrance to the sewers. The flames wouldn’t get to them, but she didn’t seem to trust that.
Seb looked over the frantic crowd and shouted to be heard above the sounds of pain and the pop and crackle of fire. “The Countess is doing this to stop us. She fears us.”
Many of the crowd looked back at the flames.
“I promise you one thing, the bombing will only stop when the Countess falls,” Seb said. “She will do this to you for as long as she lives.”
They knew that. Seb could see it in the faces that looked at him. Although, many of them had loved ones suffering in the flames.
They’d have to do this with a smaller army. Seb said, “Anyone who needs to go back, do it now. Your loved ones are more important. The rest of us will move forward.”
The crowd shuffled and moved as some remained and others left.
It took a few minutes to see the extent of the exodus. About half the group remained.
As Seb looked at the specks of fire from the torches of those rushing back to help their loved ones in need, a lump rose in his throat. So many innocent people had died at the Countess’ hands already. She’d pay for every life she’d taken.
The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera Page 48
