I spun on my heels, pulling Mandy behind me, as I saw a glint of quicksilver shimmer in the hall.
“Show yourselves!” I yelled. My coat flared at the raising of my voice. The firelight created warped orange patterns on the surface of the ceiling and roof and bounced off the shimmering translucent figures hiding in plain sight.
Their cover blown, the figures dropped their camouflage, revealing a pair of blonde elves, wearing red and black regalia. They held an elven sabre and a curved dagger each. The spitting image of elf assassins.
“Skulking in the middle of the night is very unbecoming of an elf,” I chided. “And very dishonourable for a member of the War Court.”
The jab didn’t seem to phase them. Their faces remained impassive.
“You are unarmed, human. And surrounded.”
Senegal growled, his eyes glowing gold, as another pair of assassins emerged from nothingness in front of the party. Ari spun to face them. I sensed a morbid curiosity tinged with fear from my aunt.
I sighed. “Do you really want to fight us?”
The assassin, who had spoken before, took a step forward, levelling his sword at me.
“Do not resist and we will not harm you.”
That’s not what Ari had told us.
“Ari!” another elf blurted out, and then spoke anxiously in elvish.
Ari replied, and then raised her head up. “They are not our enemies.”
The lead elf clicked his tongue, irritably. “Then you are a traitor. This is your final chance. Surrender.”
Perhaps it was the stress of the past age. Perhaps it was the repressed violence that I had not been able to find an outlet for. But perhaps, it was just a sad nervous twitch. But I laughed.
The assassins took a step backward, as I looked up at them. They held their weapons at the ready. I could see it in their stances that they didn’t plan to let us surrender.
“You’re wrong about one thing…” I said with a chuckle, as Treth manifested next to me. “I’m never unarmed.”
Ithalen appeared in my hands in a flash, as I slashed out towards the lead assassin. Flames burst from behind me like jets, stunning the other assassins just as Senegal tackled one and Ari skewered the other.
Surprised, the assassin barely managed to lift his off-hand dagger to deflect my blow. I pulled Ithalen back, as I followed through with a kick. I heard a crunch as he toppled. My sword made its way towards his throat, before I stopped.
He wasn’t undead.
In that moment of hesitation, he rolled, slashing at me with his dagger. My coat responded furiously, letting out a jet of flames. He screamed as the fire singed his eyes. Before he could recover, I slashed at his throat. He fell still.
I turned to face off against the other assassins, but Senegal had already crushed the windpipe of one and Ari had the blood of two elves on her sword. Her face was dark. Emotionless. I didn’t know what these elves had been to her, but that was something she would have to deal with later.
“I…I thought we were friends,” Mandy stammered, looking close to collapsing as she examined the bloodied face of one of the elves.
“We have…to keep going,” I panted. Athena! I was out of shape.
Ari wiped the blood off her sword with her already red tunic. She didn’t sheathe the blade. Senegal’s eyes were a solid, fiery gold. I was surprised he hadn’t gone full wolf yet.
We sprinted the rest of the way, no more reason to remain inconspicuous. The palace remained silent, until a shot boomed through the halls!
My blood went cold.
“Brett!” I cried out, shooting past the group towards my room. No more shots were fired. No, it couldn’t be…
I burst through the door, practically breaking its hinges.
An elf lay dead, blood pooling around a hole in his head. Brett stood a few metres away, holding a pistol. Thank Allandrea for insisting we keep our weapons!
“I…it was self-defence!” Brett stammered, paling as Ari entered the room.
“We know,” I said.
“What’s going on?”
“The War Court is attempting a coup. We need to get the others…and leave.”
Brett nodded, immediately retrieving his stuff. A flak jacket and ammunition. I collected Voidshot, buckling its holster and ammo pouch onto my belt.
“What’s the plan?” Brett asked, as I checked the room for our other belongings. Didn’t find any. We’d packed light. Well, we lost most of our stuff in the plane crash.
“Assassins will be teeming throughout the palace,” Ari said. “We need to find your friends and then get out of here…”
“What about the queen?” I asked.
Ari looked away. Ashamed. I felt an acidity rising in my gut. It couldn’t be. Not Allandrea…
“My priority is keeping you all safe,” she said, earnestly.
Brett gave me a thumbs up. His armour was on and his weapons loaded.
I drew my seax in my off hand while holding Ithalen in my right. It was good to be dual wielding again.
“Archives first!” I announced and took the lead.
As we re-entered the hallway, a wall of sound hit us. Like a bubble bursting, the eerie silence suddenly ceased. The sounds of violence replaced it. Gunshots rang out in the distance, punctuated by the clattering of steel and quicksilver.
If the War Court was turning on the Earth and Star Court…I didn’t want to think about the violence. The look of discomfort and shame on Ari’s face revealed that she felt the same.
“Ari, do you know how to get to the archives?” I asked. I hadn’t been there much.
“I do,” Mandy answered, taking point alongside me and leading us through the winding halls.
As the sounds of battle heightened, I suddenly stopped, pulling Mandy behind me. A doorway opened up into one of the palace’s garden atriums. I glanced around the corner. Two War Courtiers, their backs turned, were exiting the garden out the other side. A motley group of Earth and Star Courtiers lay bloodied among the flowers. They held daggers and spell scrolls, now tossed onto the floor. I waited for the War Courtiers to be properly gone before crossing past the doorway.
Mandy gasped, quietly at the sight. She probably didn’t have anything in her notes about this.
It took agonisingly long to get to the archives. The sounds of the coup ebbed and flowed. Sometimes, there was silence for minutes at a time. Then a loud bang, shouting and screams. This had been such a happy, beautiful place before. But now…
I felt a pain in my eye. Candace’s eye. A flash of an image passed my vision. A black clad elf. And red…seeping from a wound on a thigh.
Candace’s thigh!
“They’re in danger!” I exclaimed and started running. The others tried to keep pace, but they hadn’t seen what I’d seen. My sister was in danger!
The archive’s double doors were wide open. Paper was strewn all around outside, fluttering as a breeze carried through the hall.
I tore into the room and was immediately struck by the scene. Black and red clad elves surrounded a bloodied Candace, blood seeping from a knife wound in her thigh. She feverishly incanted a shielding spell, as Pranish lay unconscious behind her.
An elf slashed at the shield and his sword rebounded, but Candace tensed at the blow. She couldn’t handle much more of this.
I charged towards the assassins. One turned just at the last second. Too late. His blood hit the magical shield, ricocheting onto a cluster of damaged scrolls.
Another elf recovered from the surprise and let loose a crackle of electrical energy from his open hand. I ducked, just in time, but still felt my hair stand on end at the electricity resonating through the air. From a crouch, I shot up, using the force to drive Ithalen through the elf’s heart. He sputtered, and the lightning developing in his hand ceased.
Gunshots rang out from behind me. I turned, as Senegal and Ari charged into the room, cutting down two more assassins. Brett faced the other way, firing at assailants pressing clo
ser into the room. He backed away from them, darting behind the wall as a wave of energy burst towards him. Mandy slammed the doors shut as he entered.
“The doors are protected by enchantment, but it won’t last forever,” she explained.
Brett reloaded his pistol and turned to the room, looking for enemies. Ari drew her sword from the corpse of the last assailant.
Candace, her face pale, dropped the shield. She swayed and fell into my arms. Treth caught Ithalen as I dropped it. I hoped he wasn’t upset becoming a glorified squire. But my main concern was my friend. Her closed eyes slowly flickered open.
“Pranish…see if he’s okay…”
From what I could see, Pranish had just been knocked out. There was no blood. Candace on the other hand…
“Lie still…” I whispered.
“Remember to channel the vitality after closing the wound…” Candace muttered, her voice growing quieter even as she lectured me. Her eyes closed.
There was a lot of blood on the floor. And she had used so much magic, in a place which made her sick.
But I couldn’t let her die.
I wouldn’t.
I laid her down on the ground as Senegal and Ari investigated Pranish for wounds. Mandy and Brett both held the door, as muffled hammering could be heard on the other side.
“Help me, Treth,” I pleaded, as he knelt down on the other side of my sister. I held his one hand, while my other hand grasped the hilt of the knife in Candace’s thigh.
“We aren’t done yet, Candace…” I whispered, and then broke into an incantation. As gold wreathed around me, the hammering rose in volume. Brett pushed his shoulder into the door, even as Mandy struggled against the force from the other side.
Then all that became a blur.
I felt Candace’s essence. And felt the wrongness. The steel in her flesh. It had to come out. I held my breath…and pulled. Candace squeaked at the pain, but Treth held the wound closed. And, as his hand left her thigh, the hole was gone. I pictured that golden light of vitality and pushed it into Candace. Like pouring a waterfall into a glass.
She woke up with a gasp.
“That’s how you get burnout!” she scolded.
“Needed to make sure you were okay,” I said, helping her up.
A loud bang echoed from the door.
“They’ve got a ram!” Brett yelled.
Senegal had lifted Pranish onto his back. Ari stood, ready to fight. But I didn’t fancy making a last stand surrounded by shredded paper and no cover.
“Is there any other way out?” I asked.
“There’s the path to the Star Chamber,” Mandy offered, grunting in between blows from the ram.
“Then we’re headed there!”
“No!” Ari protested. We turned to face her. “We…we can’t. That’s where they sent the Karim’dai to…to execute the queen.”
“Kareem die?” I asked.
“Karim’dai,” Mandy corrected, her face pale. “The elites of the War Court.”
“We can’t fight them,” Ari said, simultaneously awe-struck and fearful. “They use…dark magic.”
“The weyline is darkening, Kat,” Candace said, in a mixture of relief and horror. “The violence is tipping it over the edge.”
Brett was shoved from the door, just before charging back towards it.
“Well, we aren’t leaving through this door…” Brett grunted, through gritted teeth.
“We need to find the alpha,” Senegal added.
“I’m sorry, Sen…but we can’t fight them. The alpha…she’s probably…”
“No,” Senegal said, with complete certainty. “She’s alive.”
“Ari,” I added, glancing at the door. “We have no other choice. And besides, I’ve fought, like, two gods and won. I think I can handle some assassins.”
Ari looked to be on the verge of arguing, just as a hole opened up in the door, the tip of a rifle aimed right through it. Brett kicked it out of the way, awarding us precious seconds to dodge out of the way before it opened fire.
“Out the back! Now!” I yelled over the gunfire.
Brett darted towards us, as we zigzagged between the shelves, bullets rending up precious documents right behind us.
“Mandy! We don’t have time…” I yelled, as she stopped to grab some pages from nearby bookshelves.
“But…”
The door burst open, sounding like thunder.
I pulled her with me, as bullets and the magical pelt of energy blasts hit all around us.
“Through there!” Mandy yelled over the cacophony, pointing towards a door emblazoned with the image of an oak and star field.
Brett stopped behind cover to open fire, covering our retreat as Mandy opened the door. One by one, we shot through the door. I waited for Brett, before pulling him through so he couldn’t try being a hero.
The fresh night air smelled like the dryad wood and fire. My coat enflamed, to make up for the new chill in the air.
Brett turned to close the door behind us, just as a magical force ripped it off its hinges.
“Run!” I ordered, and we all broke into a sprint across a flower covered field, up towards a roofed bridge, spiralling up towards a domed tower.
Bullets flew towards us as we ran. I didn’t risk turning around to see how many enemies were arrayed against us. A fire-blast pelted into the far wall, as I heard Candace incanting, redirecting the enemy’s magic. But her panting was interrupting her incantations.
The field was too open. And the bridge was only slightly more covered. We’d be hit. Inevitably. But we couldn’t fight them all…
I skidded to a halt as I realised that Candace was no longer running with us.
I turned to face a shimmering wall of magic, emanating from Candace’s hands. Bullets and magic ricocheted off the force field and elf swordsmen hacked at its base.
“Run!” Candace cried out, in between spell-words.
There were so many enemies. Too many. I couldn’t just leave her here. But if she didn’t keep up the shield…
I noticed the shimmer too late. All I could do was shout.
“Candace!”
The elf assassin, his form shimmering as he exited his magical camouflage, lunged at my sister with his sword, just as she dropped her head. He followed through, kneeing her in the face. The shield dropped.
Before I could think, I was charging towards her. But she was too far away. And the elves were surging towards us.
This couldn’t be it. Not now. Not like this…
From the darkness, a blur emerged, pummelling the assassin through the air and into some other elves.
Trudie, in a form between wolf and woman, picked up Candace in her arms. Before any mage or warrior could touch her, she had already leapt through the air, landing next to me with a thud.
Her eyes glowed a splendid gold, as she cradled Candace like a sleeping child.
“Thank you…” I whispered.
“I’m not going to let her die, Kat. We can change,” she said, earnestly. “We just need to try.”
“I’m glad you see that now,” I said, glancing at the elf horde approaching. “But now isn’t really the time.”
A bullet hit Trudie in the shoulder and she didn’t even seem to notice, as she started running to the bridge entrance. Unfortunately, the rest of us didn’t have that sort of resilience.
But no more bullets came, as a shockwave knocked even me to the floor.
I glanced up towards the elves, who lay strewn across a now shattered field. Standing among them was Kyong, in his tiger-print gi.
“So, we back on the job, boss?” He grinned, jogging towards us as some of the elves started to recover.
“Kyong! Rifts, I’m glad to see you.”
“Likewise. Some elves tried to kill me and the doc who was helping me. What’s going on?”
“A coup. Long story. Can you cover us?”
He faced the recovered elves and their reinforcements. With a swift movement and ges
ticulation, the bullets fired at him suddenly stopped in mid-air, then shot back into their firers.
“Remind me never to pick a fight with you.”
“You carry demanzite. I’m pretty easy to take down if you throw some of that powder on me,” he explained, backing away while maintaining his martial arts dance.
“Good thing these elves don’t have any!”
With Kyong’s cover, we backed up into the bridge. Trudie and Senegal held tightly onto their charges. I thought to wake them up with magic but waking someone up from a concussion without the right spell could cause more damage.
Realising that they were doing more harm to themselves than us, the elves ceased their shooting. Some tried to charge us, but Brett put them down easily.
It was a tense climb up the walkway to the Star Chamber. Leaf-like, silver filigree reflected the starlight and distant fires. A beautiful ornament in a growing sea of blood.
Did the War Court really think this was the best course of action? Even if they won, there would not be much left to defend from Anzac.
New Sintar was dead, I realised. Even if Anzac called off the attack…they couldn’t recover from this.
I looked towards my aunt, who clutched her satchel full of precious documents close to her chest. She realised this too. Her home…was dead.
As we turned another corner up the walkway, our pursuers halted. But, rather than provide relief, I felt something much more ominous.
“We’re here,” Ari announced, gulping.
The twin doors to the star chamber were filigreed with quicksilver constellations embedded into the already silver doors. It shone splendidly. Almost blindingly as light fell on it and illuminated the depictions of the stars.
“Are there any other ways out from here?” I asked.
Ari nodded. “There’s an exit from the other side…”
From her tone, she believed that to be the least of our problems.
I turned back down the walkway. Nobody was following us. I took a deep breath and took my place at the front of the group, ready to open the door.
Perhaps, these karim’dai were something I couldn’t beat, but after what Allandrea had done for me, I had to try.
I pushed the doors open, straining under their weight, but was filled with a renewed vigour as I saw a figure, unharmed, on the other side.
The Silver Star (Kat Drummond Book 11) Page 26
