The Last Winter (The Circle War Book 2)

by Matt King

  Alrighty.

  The solemirs settled in behind the army at the top of the hill. Their engines throttled down to a steady idle. Everything seemed to be in place. The only person missing was the Revenent.

  “Where’s Aeris?” he asked.

  Dondannarin looked over her shoulder. “Here she comes now.”

  The rows of soldiers parted as Aeris made her way down the center of the army. As she got closer, he could see the gold band shimmering around the base of her hair, which was loosely pulled back from her head. He recognized her armor right away. Brown metal vines wove around her torso and legs, mirroring the braided look of the chiron tree. Between the gaps in the vines was a shiny blue undercoat. The mixture of brown and blue matched the image of her father he’d seen in her room.

  Aeris acknowledged the crowd with a simple nod and then stepped forward to take her place in front of the army between Dondannarin and Colliere. She stopped once she was alone, a few feet past everyone else. She looked straight ahead, never taking her eyes off the naked expanse in front of her. In the distance, C’thora and Garoult inched toward each other. The sky darkened. Movements stilled. Even the wind seemed to disappear as the army settled into silence.

  “Why isn’t she armed?” he whispered, looking out at Aeris, who stood facing the coming darkness with her empty hands held out at her side.

  “Do not worry about her,” Dondannarin replied. “Aeris is always armed.”

  As the approaching Departes blackened the sky, a milky haze like steam rising off water formed around Aeris’s hands. It swirled around her fingers, licking wisps up her arms. She looked like she held white fire in her palms.

  A tremble started beneath his feet. It grew in strength as the shadow moved across the gathered Vontani until cracks opened along the dry surface of the earth. August steeled himself against the tremors as best he could. Garoult filled the sky, painted in darkness surrounded by a halo of light. As the eclipse formed, wind shears powerful enough to push him off his feet ripped through the army.

  “Ready yourself!” Dondannarin shouted over the howling gale. She took the chakrams from her back and gripped the handles tight. The rest of the army drew their weapons along with the matriarchs.

  A sliver of light formed off to the left of the group. It moved along with the giant planet as the shadow caused by the aligned worlds fell all around it. The portal slowly began to form, revealing itself a foot at a time along the length of the gathered army, accompanied by a low rumbling like a train approaching. The larger the doorway got, the more the wind whipped around them. He could feel the warmth of the glow on his face despite the hurricane winds.

  Finally, the light reached its full width, and with it came an instant, eerie calm.

  The Vontani crouched in a battle stance as one.

  August hit the button to close his mask.

  Here we go.

  Like a cannon shot, a wave of stampeding umari broke through the face of the portal. Each of them was the size of a car, with four wide legs and a hide of red reptilian skin. A pack of them headed straight toward Aeris. Wide crests topped their heads, narrowing to a hooked beak at the end of their noses. When they saw the Vontani, they bellowed a low and raspy screech.

  The fire swirling around Aeris’s hands gelled into a solid white flame. She shot out her hands, releasing a pair of wide beams that slammed into the umari, cutting through their hides, leaving four burned bodies strewn in front of the portal.

  She turned and faced her army. “Now!” she cried.

  The forward ranks of the Vontani released a volley of chakrams. The bladed disks zoomed past August’s head. Those that hit the crests of the umari bounced off harmlessly, but the rest buried themselves in the hides, hobbling some and cutting off the feet of others. Once the first wave was out, the army rushed forward. August drew his blades to join them. Aeris was already in the thick of the fight, shooting dead anything that got close and sending out waves of white fire to tackle groups of umari closing in on the rushing Vontani.

  “There!” Dondannarin shouted. She flung her chakrams at a large bull running toward August’s back, but the animal turned its head at the sound of her voice and deflected the shot with its crest. It charged toward her. August ran up to it and slid past with his sword extended, cutting off one of its feet. The animal fell on its side. He finished it off with two swipes at its throat.

  No sooner had he put the beast down than another umari sent him crashing to the ground with a hit like a battering ram. Its beak snapped at his feet. He barely moved his foot in time to save it from being eaten.

  Dondannarin grabbed a chakram from the ground and looped it over the umari’s beak. She pulled back until the edge of her blades started to slice through its jaw. When it reared its head back in pain, August speared it through the underside of its neck. The umari fell dead beside him.

  “Teamwork. Yay,” he said through a pant. He yanked his sword free. It was covered in a sticky clear goo.

  “Do not get that on you,” Dondannarin replied. “Umari blood will eat through your skin.”

  “Okay. Good tip.”

  She climbed on top of the umari to take stock of the battlefield while he wiped the blood on the dead animal’s hide. “We must hurry,” she said.

  He didn’t like the sound of her voice. “What’s the matter?”

  “The Departes is closing. We have to get the solemirs through, now.”

  “Already?” When he looked down the length of the portal, he could see the edge creeping closer. Shit.

  Aeris must have noticed the same thing. She finished off the umari she was fighting and then ran back to help with the final pack. She yelled something to the women nearby and they cocked their chakrams, ready to throw. A ribbon of white fire shot from her hands across the front of the group. The Vontani threw their weapons through the heart of it, and when they came out the other side, the charged chakrams tore through the remaining umari, crests and all. Not a single animal stood.

  “Solemirs!” Aeris shouted over the dying battle.

  Colliere took a squad of Vontani with her and headed back to lead the solemirs down the embankment.

  With the umari gone and the matriarchs reforming their armies, Aeris motioned for everyone to head for the portal. She came to Dondannarin and August last.

  “Do you know what you are to do?” she asked him. A white mist steamed from her eyes.

  “Yeah,” he answered. “I’ll know it when I see it, right?”

  “Yes. The Silence will deaden your senses. You have to fight through it.”

  “I will.”

  “Once we’re on the other side, I will create a distraction. This is when you have to move. And do not stop. No matter what happens to us, you do not stop. Do you understand?”

  He nodded.

  “Then we go through.”

  He joined the ends of his sword together to form his staff as they ran to the head of the army waiting by the portal. The doorway was already nearly halfway closed.

  Aeris wasted no time with speeches. Once she was sure everyone was ready, she charged through the rippling wall with August and the matriarchs at her heels, and her army chanting a song of Vontani victory behind her.

  As soon as August broke the plane, his eardrums swelled with disorienting pressure like he’d been thrust into the depths of an ocean. He tried to keep pace with the others, but every movement cost him precious concentration. He wasn’t sure of where he was or where he was going. All around him, Aeris and the rest of the matriarchs gathered their families into circular formations using hand signals. It was a frantic scene deadened by silence.

  Suddenly, bursts of streaking red flashes shot out of the darkness. Everywhere he looked, hulking Garoult soldiers rumbled beneath the cover of shadows. An explosion lit the sky, and he saw something that looked like a gorilla headed for the circle of Vontani only a few feet away. It moved on all fours, with long arms in front and thick legs powering it beneath. A cannon swiveled
on the thing’s shoulder. Black armor covered the length of its arms, torso, and thighs. It wore a domed helmet with a section carved out of the bottom for its wide jaws. Three dark eyes arranged in a pyramid focused on the women beside August.

  The beast raised its arms to strike with a scream that sounded like it was a hundred miles away. August took his staff and decapitated the Garoult with a sweeping cut. The Vontani standing in front of him didn’t even turn around until the creature fell at her feet.

  They can’t hear anything.

  Behind the group, the solemirs were just starting to come through the portal. Only a few had made it so far and the doorway was nearly closed.

  “They’re not going to make it!” he shouted to Aeris, but the words disintegrated almost as soon as they left his lips.

  More gunfire streaked around him. The shots found their mark on the edge of Aeris’s circle, dropping two of the Vontani before they ever saw it coming. One grasped at her leg, which was burned from the shot. The other didn’t move at all.

  Aeris looked around to see the two fallen soldiers at her feet. The fire in her hands swirled like a cyclone. She turned toward the gunfire and unleashed a shockwave of white energy. The wave lit the Garoult in a burst of light before ripping them in half. They fell with cannon fire scattering harmlessly into the air.

  For a moment, the fight seemed to pause.

  That must be my cue.

  His exit was cut short when another explosion lit the air behind him. Turning back to the Departes, he saw a section of solemirs on fire. Only a sliver of the portal remained. Another train of solemirs tried to squeeze through before it shut. He could still see half of the vehicle on the other side when the edge of the light cut through the hull. Sparks flew, followed by a mushrooming cloud of flames shooting from the top as the car was sliced in two, leaving half of its train on the other side. The solemir tipped on its side, its end consumed by fire, and crashed into the earth.

  August started to run back to help. A hand grabbed his arm.

  Go, Aeris motioned. She yelled the word too, but he could only hear a faint whisper of her shouting.

  He pointed to the solemir.

  She shook her head and pushed him back. Her eyes spoke for her. Now, or we all die.

  He scanned the battlefield. Even with their heads on a swivel, the Vontani were struggling to cope with the onslaught. Cannon fire peppered them from both sides, while the Garoult hidden in trees bludgeoned anyone trying to escape the crossfire. They were sitting ducks.

  No matter what happens to us. He repeated Aeris’s words in his head.

  Turning away, he sheathed his swords and forced himself to run off into the darkness to find the Silence, even though every bone in his body was telling him to stay.

  Aeris’s shockwave left a wide path of bodies to guide him. The landscape was lush, full of tall trees and thick bushes that reminded him of a South American jungle, complete with crippling humidity. He was fine inside his suit, but the air he breathed through his mask was thick enough to clog the holes in his vents.

  He ducked into a thicket of grass as a group of Garoult went trudging past. He could barely hear the fighting anymore. Every explosion or shout sounded like a distant echo. Unsure how much noise his footsteps were making, he waited until he couldn’t see anything else moving in the shadows before pressing on.

  It didn’t take him long to find the concentration of Garoult forces, and with it the Silence. There were hundreds of them gathered in a crowd around the shores of a wide ocean. In the distance, he could just make out the shapes of a trio of ships waiting offshore. One of them—the middle one—was twice the size of the others. Where the other two looked like lighted domes floating on the water, the larger boat was a fortress riding on two wide pontoons. Red lights dotted its hull.

  That’s gotta be the Phaelix. The bastard came to watch.

  More important than the Phaelix’s ship, though, was the silver tower guarded by the Garoult troops, floating on a circular raft about a hundred yards off the beach. A network of crisscrossing support wires attached it to the float, ending about two-thirds of the way up. The last few feet looked too slick to climb. I’ll worry about that later. At the top of the tower, an ovoid crown of glowing orange disks rotated along a band around its center. He could actually see the air warping around the edges of the band as it broadcast its deafening signal.

  Out of nowhere, something sharp rocked the side of his helmet, sending him tumbling into the weeds. He shook out the cobwebs just in time to dodge the fist of a Garoult soldier crashing down toward his head. The cannon perched on its shoulder swiveled to aim. August freed one of his swords and sliced it off before it could fire, dropping the hunk of metal to the jungle floor.

  With its weapon gone, the Garoult came crashing toward August, slow but powerful. The alien’s studded gauntlet slammed into August’s rib cage. Dizzy from the pain, August managed to keep hold of his blade despite the feeling of splintered bones digging into his lungs. He whipped the sword across and cut through the Garoult’s tree trunk of an arm. The Garoult reared back, screaming loud enough to penetrate the pressure of the Silence. Its three eyes stared in disbelief at the bloody hand lying at its feet. August stabbed his sword straight through the plate armor on its chest. He held it there as the soldier wobbled on its feet, clinging stubbornly to life even as its body seized from the wound. In its last breath, a splash of thick blood gurgled up from its throat.

  The sword was still buried in the Garoult’s chest when a group of soldiers came storming through the reeds. They stopped when they saw August, nostrils flaring beneath their pyramid of eyes. August pulled his sword free, letting the dead Garoult fall between them.

  There was a pause after the body hit the ground. August held himself in place, unsure whether he should take on the whole group or run for his life. He slowly brought the ends of his swords together to form his staff under the watchful eyes of the Garoult. As soon as the handles clicked in place, the glowing ends of a dozen shoulder cannons took aim at his head.

  Running it is.

  He took off through the jungle with a storm of cannon fire chasing him through the trees. The beach was only a hundred yards away. By the time he got there, his back felt like a pincushion for Garoult lasers. One of the shots struck him in the leg. He shook it off and pushed himself faster, hoping to make it to the water before they hit something really important. A quick look over his shoulder showed even more Garoult joining the first group. Their back legs acted like springs, vaulting them over the same loose sand that tugged at his feet.

  He made it to the water and dove deep, only dimly aware of the chilling cold rushing over his suit’s skin. The Silence appeared as a faint orange light in the distance. He swam as fast as he could, but the run had left him breathless, and he was forced to surface for air after only a few seconds. When he looked back to shore, he saw a group of Garoult piling onto a metal disk. It carried them over the water on a cushion of air, moving a hell of a lot faster than he could doggie paddle. Two more took off right after it.

  He dove down again, then angled off to the left, hoping the Garoult would go right. Something sharp lodged in his armor. It sent a shock through him that deadened his muscles and put his arm to sleep instantly. Needles of metal flew past him on both sides, leaving trails of bubbles in their wake. He could make out the warped image of the Garoult disk gliding by overhead. They circled around the Silence’s platform, which was only a few yards out of his reach now. He’d have to hurry once he got out. And figure out a plan to get up there. Don’t forget that part.

  As soon as he got close, he swam headlong into a hard current that created a wall around the edges of the platform. He could hear the dull hum of machinery overhead. Looking around, none of the Garoult disks were within shooting distance, so he broke the surface and quickly tried to find something to pull himself up. The edge of the platform hovered above the water, just out of his reach.

  You gotta be kidding me!<
br />
  He launched himself out of the ocean, trying to get closer. His fingers only skirted the bottom of the jets keeping the platform in the air. Just as he was about to try again, a thick hand yanked him out of the sea and threw him onto the deck of a hoverdisk. The Silence’s platform sat just past its bow, only a few frustrating inches from where a Garoult soldier was now trying to crush his head beneath the bottom of its foot. August wedged his hands beneath the scaly toes wrapping around his mask and pushed with everything he had. The soldier went barreling backward into another Garoult, who held a thick cylinder on its shoulder with a dozen needles protruding from the end. Two more had weapons just like it.

  August grabbed both of his swords from their sheaths before anyone else had a chance to sit on him. One of the Garoult lunged, and he took off its arm with one swing, then its head with another. A hard forearm clubbed his ribs, nearly sending him back into the water. He recovered in time to form his staff and swing it like a helicopter blade, killing two soldiers at once.

  At last, he had time to move. He broke down his staff, sheathed one of the blades, and leapt onto the floating platform where the Silence’s orange lights flashed like a strobe light overhead. The pressure in his ears was overwhelming. It felt like he was a hundred feet under water and sinking deeper with each step. As soon as he started to climb the latticework of structural wires, the rest of the Garoult hoverdisks emptied their soldiers onto the platform.

  With red cannon fire and metal needles zooming past his head, he tried to outpace the Garoult chasing him up the wires. A volley of needles skipped harmlessly off his armor, but not before their electric shock nearly made him lose his grip. He swung clumsily at a Garoult grabbing for his feet. The soldier dodged it easily, but the blade carried through to cut the wire, and it snapped back with enough force to tear a jagged rip down the front of its chest. The soldier fell away, cascading down through those beneath it and knocking most of them off the wires.

  August took advantage of the free time to make up some ground, and he soon found himself at the top of the support wires with nowhere to go. A slick metal surface stood between him and the Silence spinning overhead.