by Sam Ryan
Max would have to talk her theory over with Madilyn when she got the chance. Until then she would have to keep it to herself while they waited.
Madilyn glared at Max out of the corner of her eye as she leaned back in her chair, muttering some kind of sailor’s chant under her breath. She could not make out the words, but she knew it had something to do with bringing them luck or good fortune.
Sailors were always a superstitious lot. It made sense. Weather was their number one concern, being the difference between life and death at times. No amount of training could save a ship from a bad enough storm. But weather was also something they had no control over. So they tried to exert some kind of control over it by believing in jinxes and other superstitions.
It was all nonsense of course. Madilyn believed strongly in forging her own fate and doing everything in her own power to make things happen. Her efforts were better spent preparing for a storm than trying to make it never happen.
The train came to a slow stop as it pulled into the station. Letting out a loud hiss as steamed shot out the sides.
“Alright,” Madilyn said, rising to her feet. She reached up and grabbed her armor that was still stuffed in its bag. She seriously considered putting the suit on. If they were going to fight it would prove useful. But the idea was for them not to draw attention and an armored woman would do just that. “Tara and I will go up and exit that way. Sophia and Max you go the other way. We’ll meet up in the town center.”
“You got it, Knighty.” Tara smiled, jumping to her feet and grabbing her bag from the overhead compartment.
Madilyn ignored her as she opened the door and casually stepped out into the hall. Flatting her back against the wall as she glanced down both directions. There were several people leaving their compartments but she did not see any soldiers. Not yet at least.
Signaling to the others that it was clear, she started making her way down the train cart towards the exit. Tara was a few steps behind her, a light bounce in her step as she walked. Her face was expressionless, yet somehow the smugness was still there.
Stepping off the train, Madilyn scanned the nearly deserted station around them. She spotted Sophia and Max stepping off the train at the other end of the cart. Madilyn met eyes with Sophia for a moment as the two of them exchanged reassuring nods before continuing on. The lack of people making it hard for them to blend in with the crowd.
Madilyn lifted her pack over her shoulder and headed off towards the stations exit. She gave a quick glance behind her making sure that Tara was sticking close.
“Just you and me now, Knighty,” Tara said, moving up beside her.
“I know what you are doing,” Madilyn stated, keeping her gaze straight ahead.
“Well that makes one of us at least.” Tara smirked.
“You’re calling me Knighty to annoy me.” Madilyn glared over at the woman. “It won’t work. I’ve had to put up with far crueler and creative insults from far more bitter people than you.”
“No.” Tara dragged out the word playfully. “I call you Knighty because it’s fun. If it annoys you, that’s just a bonus.”
“Hold up one moment,” a voice called out. Madilyn turned and saw three soldiers approaching them. Their rifles were slung over their shoulders and they did not seem to be making any kind of aggressive move towards them. But all of them had lightning bolt patches on their shoulders.
Even here? She thought to herself. Had they expected them to get off at this station? But how could they unless they knew they were on the train in the first place?
“Yes?” Madilyn stopped to meet the approaching soldiers.
“Sorry for the inconviance, but can we see your ticket and identification papers?” the soldier asked, holding out his gloved hand.
“Sure thing,” Madilyn said, digging into her pocket with her free hand. She glanced over and saw Tara doing the same thing. “Here is my ticket,” she said, handing the paper to the soldier. “And if you give me a second I will get my identification papers.”
The soldier took both their tickets and started looking them over as Madilyn pretended to search for the papers she did not have.
“This says your destination was Glanum,” the soldier said, looking down at the ticket. “Why did you-“
Before he had finished, Madilyn twisted her hips, swinging her suit of armor into the side of the soldier’s face. He let out a cry of surprise and pain as he dropped to the ground. The other two soldiers immediately took a step back, putting distance between them as they spun their rifles off their shoulders and leveled them at Tara and Madilyn.
Tara had already started moving, even before Madilyn had attacked, brushing past the first soldier. Leaping into the air, she rammed both her knees into the chest of the second soldier. Madilyn crouched down, ducking the third soldier’s rifle and drew her blade in a single motion. Lunging forward, drawing energy from the air around her and focusing it into the edge of her blade, she sliced at the backs of his hands.
The metal bracers that protected from such attacks were no defense against her Knight’s Technique and the blade sliced through the metal with minimal effort.
The soldier cried out in pain, dropping his rifle as he clutched at his sliced up hand. Tara spun her body, kicking up her leg and nailing the soldier in the face with the back of her boot. Blood squirted out from his nose, his eyes rolling into the back of his head as he fell backwards, hitting the ground with a heavy thud.
“Nice work, Knighty,” Tara said, giving Madilyn a thumbs up in approval.
“Let’s go,” Madilyn said, sheathing her saber. After retrieving her armor, Madilyn took off through the station exit and into the city. Tara only a few steps behind her.
It took less than a minute before warning whistles started sounding behind them.
The chase was on.
The two women darted down the alleyways of the buildings doing their best to stay off the streets. The main roads likely being one of the first things they would block off to try and confine them. After making sure the city was successfully cordoned off that was.
Tara, at least, seemed to be enjoying herself. She had on a playful grin as they ran between the buildings. Madilyn had been impressed seeing her moves back at the station. She was obviously not Sophia when it came to fighting. But then she was starting to suspect that Sophia was not as defenseless as she had been initially letting on.
“We need to find cover,” Madilyn said, skidding to a stop at an inter-section, trying to determine where to go next. “Before they start using airships to follow us.”
“To late,” Tara said, slapping Madilyn’s shoulder with the back of her hand and pointing towards the sky.
Madilyn counted four Trevelian Galleys overhead. Two of them were directly in front of them while the other two were further off to the side. They were moving themselves into position so they could surround them. Once that happened, they would drop troops just like they had in New Dentin, and have them completely surrounded. At least they did not have to worry about them firing their artillery at them while they were inside the city, like they had done to their horses at the test site. Or Madilyn hoped they would not do such a thing inside one of their own cites. But this response showed they were willing to go to great lengths to kill them.
“Let’s go,” Madilyn said, darting off in the opposite direction.
“Any clue where we are headed?” Tara asked, matching pace.
“Nope,” Madilyn said. Her lungs were starting to burn from all the running. She prided herself on being in good physical shape, but she was trained for short burst and fighting endurance. Not long distance sprinting.
“Look out!” Tara called out, grabbing Madilyn by the back of her collar and yanking her back, forcing her to come to a stop.
At the end of the alley they had been running down were half a dozen soldiers rounding the corner. The soldiers began rushing towards them, weapons at the ready.
“Hold!” one of them called out.
>
Madilyn did not give a response as she turned and darted down an adjacent alleyway, Tara following at her heels. The soldiers open fired but it was already too late, the two of them had already rounded the corner to safety.
“You can’t keep this up much longer,” Tara stated.
“Oh, but you can?” Madilyn snapped. She was in no mood for Tara’s jabs.
“Longer than you,” she assured. She reached out and grabbed Madilyn’s collar again, yanking her down another alley.
Madilyn did not protest, obediently following her. Half way down the alley, Tara skidded to a stop.
“You know anything about sewer systems?” she asked, crouching down she grabbed a large metal grate and lifted it off the ground. Sliding it against the pavement to the side, revealing a dark, smelly hole.
“Not personally,” Madilyn said. She turned her head away as the stench reached her nose.
“Well you’re about to,” Tara smiled. She reached out and grabbed Madilyn’s bag of armor and promptly dropped it down the hole.
Madilyn gave her an angry look but did not complain and instead to climb down the metal ladder.
“There they are!” a brutish voice called out.
Madilyn peered over the edge of the manhole and saw the soldiers charging down the alley towards them.
Tara reached over and started moving the metal grate back into place, being mindful of Madilyn’s head that was still partially sticking out.
“What are you doing?” Madilyn asked, ducking her head down to avoid getting bonked on the head with it.
“If you die here, Sophia will nag me about it for the next thousand years,” Tara grumbled, the sound of the grate grinding against pavement nearly drowning out her words. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Just find Sophia and get to the ruins of Albion. I’m counting on you.”
With those final words, the hole was covered once more and Madilyn found herself alone in complete darkness. She reluctantly continued down ladder until she reached the bottom. Her boots splashed as she hopped into the ankle deep water, refusing to think what else it might be. She found her armor not far from her and flung it over her shoulder, doing her best to ignore its new fragrance.
Madilyn gave one last look up the ladder. She could hear muffled shouts from above but could not make anything out. There was nothing Madilyn could do for Tara now. It had been her choice to stay behind and going back up there would only invalidate her sacrifice. If Tara surrendered peacefully, they would likely only arrest her. Not that Madilyn thought Tara capable of doing anything peacefully.
But Madilyn had no time to dwell on what the fate of Tara may be. She needed to move. It would not be long before the soldiers came down after her.
Looking both ways, Madilyn picked the direction she thought would take her near the town center and headed off. She turned at the first intersection she came to then turned again. After a few more random turns she started making her way towards the town center once again.
When she guessed she was nearing what she hoped was the center of the town, she found another ladder that would lead her to the surface. Haphazardly, Madilyn began climbing the access ladder, still holding her armor with one hand. Her saber banging against her thigh with every rung she climbed. The constant readjusting of her grip on the ladder slowed her progress but she eventually reached the top all the same.
As slowly as she could and with more than a little effort, she lifted the grate up so she could poke her head up and peek a view of the street. As soon as the grate was slightly raised it suddenly lifted away. Madilyn almost lost her grip on the ladder as she turned to see who was above her.
“See,” she heard Sophia say. “Sewers.”
Madilyn looked up to see Sophia and Max standing above her. They did not look nearly as tired or worn out as Madilyn did. She guessed they had not run into the same problems that Madilyn and Tara had.
“Oh that’s foul,” Max said, grabbing her nose and looking away.
With a smile, Sophia reached down and grabbed Madilyn’s armor, setting it down beside her. Max did not let go of her nose as she reached down with her other hand and gave Madilyn a helping hand out of the hole. Sophia tapped the bag with the head of her cane and the crystal orb glowed slightly.
“Where’s Tara?” Sophia asked, handing the bag back to Madilyn.
“Stayed behind to buy me time to escape,” Madilyn said, taking her bag back. Her regret for Tara was overshadowed by the sweet fragrance that now emitted from her bag.
“That doesn’t sound like Tara.” Sophia frowned, touching Madilyn’s shoulder with her cane, the light shining once again.
“She said if she let me die, you would nag her about it for the next thousand years,” Madilyn stated, pulling on her sleeves and noticing the same fragrance now coming from her clothes.
“That sounds like Tara.” Sophia nodded, placing her cane down in front of her and leaning against it.
“Sophia, I’m sorry,” Madilyn said. “If there was anything I could have done-”
“It’s alright.” Sophia raised her hand, cutting her off. “Tara will be fine. She can take care of herself. Right now we need to focus on getting our-selves out of here.”
Sophia did not seem the least bit worried and that in turn worried Madilyn. Did she not realize how severe the situation was for Tara? If they were after Tara and Sophia like they thought then they would likely kill Tara. After they had tortured her for information about Sophia and the others. A process that would last days, if not weeks, maybe even months.
“We gave them the slip for now,” Sophia said, using her foot to effortlessly push the sewer grate back in place. “But we are not out of this yet.”
“How did you know where I’d be?” Madilyn asked. It was more than a little odd that they were waiting for her like that.
“Sophia used her magic to track you,” Max stated, gesturing her thumb at Sophia’s cane.
Sophia gave Madilyn a smile as she saluted her with the cane.
“Can you use that to find Tara?” Madilyn asked.
“No,” she shook her head. “Tara takes great pains not to be tracked by magic like mine.”
Madilyn frowned, wondering why she would be so worried about people tracking her with magic.
“She has a lot of enemies.” Sophia shrugged, noticing Madilyn’s sour expression.
“That I believe.” Madilyn nodded.
“Are we going to try and go rescue her?” Max asked, not sounding very enthused about the idea.
“At some point maybe. If she needs us to.” Sophia shrugged. “But we should focus right now on saving ourselves.”
“Agreed,” Madilyn said, if not a bit surprised at her seeming indifference. This was her supposed to be her sister after all. More than sisters if Tara’s not so subtle advances on Sophia were to be taken seriously. “We should find a place where we can lie low for a while. But first we need to get off these streets.” She looked around at the back street that they were standing in. With all the commotion and gunfire, it looked like many of the residence had fled the streets and taken refuge inside. Making them even more expose.
“Should we start barging into random buildings hoping to find someone to take us in?” Max asked sarcastically.
“You there!” a voice called out.
“I was only joking,” Max cursed, ducking down as she spun around. Her hand reaching for the pistol hiding under her coat.
Sophia and Madilyn also turned, Madilyn’s hand reaching for her saber.
Already part way down the alley was a giant of a man wearing only trousers and a simple vest showing off his tattooed arms and burly hairy chest.
“Stay right there,” the man scoffed, pointing threateningly at them.
“Why should we?” Madilyn shot back, feeling rather childish with her retort.
She began drawing her saber when she felt Sophia’s hand reach out and grab her elbow. Madilyn looked over, wondering why Sophia had stopped her. Sophia poin
ted up with her finger above them. Madilyn followed where she was pointing and saw the open windows on the second and third floors of the buildings they were in between. There was nothing odd about them with the exception of an occasional glimmer of light that flashed from inside.
“Balls.” Madilyn sighed, lowering her hand back to her side.
“What’s going on?” Max asked, looking up trying to find what they were seeing.
“We’re surrounded,” Madilyn stated. “I count at least seven rifles trained on us right now.”
“Really?” Max gasped, looking around with more fervor but still unable to spot anything.
“You gals aren’t as dumb as you look.” The big man smiled smugly, coming to a stop a few feet in front of them. “Now I’m going to guess that it’s ‘cause of you three that this city is in such an uproar.”
“You can count to three,” Madilyn said. “Well that’s higher than your friends, I imagine.”
“Real funny,” he sneered. “You see, Boulder don’t like trouble of your sort.” He jabbed an accusatory finger at Madilyn. “Your sort of trouble brings attention to things we want to go unnoticed.”
“There’s an easy solution to that,” Madilyn stated, not backing down from his sneer.
“Yeah?” he sneered. “And what’s that?”
“Don’t do anything wrong and you can never get caught.” Madilyn beamed him a smug smile.
His sneer turned into scowl and he raised a hand ready to back hand Madilyn. “You little b-”
“Skyler!” an older voice called out.
The voice froze the hand mid swing. He turned, looking at the old man walking up behind him. He was well into his fifties, that or his life had not been kind to him. His hair that was pure white and the wrinkles on his face were deep but he carried himself well as he walked.
“Commander Yates,” the big guy whispered, dropping his head and stepping back.
Commander? Madilyn thought. Was this guy Trevelian military? Unlikely given the company he was keeping and the old man’s lack of a uniform. Though he was wearing far more than the big guy was. He had on long trousers that perfectly covered his boots and a black vest that he wore over a deep blood red shirt.
