Rebellion

by CM Raymond

  The shackles hummed as Alexandra snapped one bracelet on Hannah’s wrist and the other on an iron bar, before standing up and stepping back. She rolled her neck, cracking vertebrae in the process. “Doyle told me you should be terminated, but I imagine it’s only because they over-estimated your power.” She laughed. “Said you were going to be as strong as the Matriarch, but it seems that day will never come. I figure I’ll be well rewarded when I bring you in alive. Maybe Adrien will let me wear your skin as a replacement for my ruined suit.”

  Hannah yanked at the cuffs, but she knew the reality of the situation. They had been designed for people like her… uncertified magicians. Unlawfuls. Her struggle was in vain. No magic would open them.

  The fire below had spread, and another explosion filled the air. The once cool air now was stifling and they were both covered in sweat. Tilting her head up toward Alexandra, she shouted, “You will never stop the rebellion, you’re too late. Ezekiel is ending it all as we speak.”

  “Ezekiel?” Alexandra laughed. “Oh, honey, how sweet you are. You think Adrien doesn’t know about your little plan? He knows all. Sees all. Conquers all. That old son of a bitch of yours is strong, but he’s outmatched and outnumbered in Arcadia. And he’s probably already dead.”

  Panic coursed through Hannah’s mind and spread throughout her body. What if she was right? What if they had already failed? It would mean more of her loved ones killed by the bastard’s hands.

  ****

  As the Capitol Guard fired, Amelia cast a shield, which blocked their attack. They blasted into it repeatedly, each burst straining the power in Amelia’s spell. Ezekiel knew she couldn’t hold it forever, so he decided to focus on offense.

  “Now!” he shouted.

  She dropped the shield as he extended both arms and whipped them in the direction of the advancing men. The long, oak dining room table complied to his magical demands and launched across the room, bowling through six guards with ease.

  Continuing his spin, the wizard dropped to a knee and shoved his right hand, palm out, toward his old student. A blue ray of power slammed Adrien in the chest, driving his body back into the wall. He hit with a crash and dropped to the stone floor.

  Amelia continued battling with the remaining guards, while Ezekiel focused on the real target.

  Adrien crawled to his feet and rubbed the back of his neck. “Not bad, for an old man. If you had a little more power, you might have actually caused some damage!” He reached both hands toward the sky and pulled downward. “Let me show you how it’s done.”

  Turning his hands out, he launched a similar ray, only his was broader and a consistent stream.

  Ezekiel raised his staff parallel to the ground, and Adrien’s power crashed against it. It cascaded around Ezekiel, like a wave crashing against a rock. The two strained against each other. Maintaining his focus, Ezekiel took a step forward, and then another, closing the gap between them.

  Both of their faces were tight in constant concentration, neither yielding to the other.

  Three feet from contact, Ezekiel stepped to the side, letting the full force of Adrien’s magic rush past him. As Adrien stumbled forward, Ezekiel snapped the butt end of his staff forward, cracking the Chancellor across the jaw.

  “I should have done that years ago,” he growled as Adrien’s head snapped back. With eyes burning red, he raised his staff over his head. Its round end transformed into a lance’s point. “Goodbye, Adrien.”

  Before he could drop the finishing blow, a blast struck him in the back, forcing Ezekiel to a knee.

  Turning, he stared down one of Adrien’s magic users. His hands were glowing green and he was grinning like a fool.

  Ezekiel rolled his eyes, then threw his staff. It skewered the guard through the stomach, pinning his dying body to the wall.

  “Zeke, watch out!” Amelia yelled. She was wrestling a magitech rifle out of the hands of a guard.

  Ezekiel was too slow to block the power coming from Adrien’s hands. It blasted him across the room, and he crashed to the floor at her feet.

  “No!” Amelia yelled. Her hands turned to fire and she ripped the rifle in half before punching through the Guard’s chest. She ran and dropped to the ground next to Ezekiel.

  The old man groaned. “That hurt like a mother.”

  They both looked up as Adrien walked toward them. His hands were two glowing orbs of pure power.

  As Amelia raised her hands, to offer whatever defense she could, an explosion ripped through the night sky. All three turned to look through the floor to ceiling windows. They could see the fire raging in the distance.

  “No, no, no!” Adrien screamed. He closed his eyes before vanishing in a flash and a pillar of thick black smoke.

  “What just happened?” Amelia asked.

  Ezekiel only smiled and nodded toward the blaze. “That’s his factory burning. Hannah must have disobeyed me and rushed off to save Gregory.” He grunted. “Good for her.”

  As Amelia helped Ezekiel to his feet, another magitech blast ripped past them. A half dozen guards came streaming into the room.

  “Go, help Hannah,” Amelia yelled as she raised another shield.

  Ezekiel looked at the Dean. Her power was tremendous, but he could tell that she was just as tired as he was. There was no way she could fight off this many people on her own.

  He turned, adding his power to her shield. “Hannah’s on her own now. I must trust that she’s strong enough to take care of herself. Now, let’s say you and I finish our date by ripping these fools to shreds.”

  ****

  Parker looked around the street. Disciples lay dead and dying everywhere, while bloody women and children cheered and hugged one another. It was a sight he would remember for the rest of his days.

  But it wouldn’t last long.

  They turned to look up the street. A contingent of Guards, armored and carrying spears and rifles and swords, marched down the Boulevard. At the front was the Prophet.

  “Quick!” Parker yelled. “Barricade the streets.”

  His small army jumped to action, throwing furniture out of their houses and overturning horse carts, making whatever barrier they could. It wasn’t much, but it would have to do.

  Parker looked at the thirty well-armed men, then he looked back to his army. They were outnumbered and outgunned. He thought of Karl’s warning against sending in an army to a battle it couldn’t win. He wouldn’t see his people turned into cannon fodder.

  “Listen,” he shouted. “You have shown tremendous bravery. But this is a fight we can’t win. I’ll hold them off as best I can, but you must go. Get far away from here.”

  “Bullshit,” a young woman cried. She couldn’t have been much older than fifteen. “I’m staying right here. It’s what Hannah would do.”

  “But you’ll die,” Parker argued, waving his spear. “You’ll all die. They’re not dicking around. That’s the Capitol Guard out there, not some dipshit Disciples.”

  “Hunters, Guards, Disciples, they’re all the same,” the girl yelled. “They’re coming to take what’s ours. And I’m not gonna let them. Besides, if the Founder has returned, if Hannah really does fight for us, then the gods are on our side. So, I say we fight like they are.”

  The women all nodded their heads. For once in his life, Parker was speechless.

  “Parker!” Jedidiah’s voice rung out over the Boulevard. Parker took a breath and turned to face him. He had no idea how it would end, but he knew he was going to go down fighting.

  He looked over at Hadley. “You’re still here?”

  Hadley rolled his eyes. “I told you, the mystics go on pilgrimages to experience new things. And I guarantee, when I get back to the Heights, this will make a story like none other. Parker the Bold and his merry band of badass bitches.”

  “Catchy title,” Parker said. “But I wouldn’t let them hear you say that.”

  Hadley shook his head. “I’m not an idiot, numbnuts. Now, go lead your rebell
ion.”

  “Parker!” the Prophet called again.

  Parker smiled as he yelled back. “Keep your clothes on, Jed.” He climbed on top of a broken bed frame and scrambled to the top of their makeshift barricade. He decided that if these were his last words, he’d at least put some flare into it.

  “Who dares set foot on my street?” he shouted. “You have to pay a toll if you want to act like a douche on the Boulevard. I’ll tell you what. If you can shove your head up your own ass, we’ll call it even.”

  The Prophet was not amused. “You have until the count of three to throw down your weapons and come out peacefully. This is a decree from Adrien, which is a decree from the gods themselves.”

  “Tell you what,” Parker said. “Why don’t the two of us duke it out, man-to-man? And we’ll see which one the gods have blessed.”

  “One!” Jed shouted.

  “Coward,” Parker shouted back.

  “Two!”

  Parker stuck his spear under his arm and raised both middle fingers at Old Jed and his Guards. “I’ve got your two right here!”

  “Three!”

  Parker grabbed his spear and leapt from the barricade. “Shit, shit, shit, take cover!” he screamed.

  “Fire!”

  Parker and his army knelt with their hands over their heads, ready for the magitech to blast through their tiny barricade. The rifles went off—their sound rang through the street—but the impact never came.

  Everyone looked at one another confused. Hadley crawled from his spot on the ground and peered up over the furniture. “Parker,” he yelled down. “You’re gonna want to see this.”

  Parker climbed up to join his partner on the wall and looked as the Capitol Guard fought against a sea of starved and dirty men wearing broken magitech cuffs.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Hannah focused on her rage and let it grow. Alexandra leaned over her, her laughter only fueling Hannah’s passion.

  “You’re still struggling? What a dumbass. Look at where you are!” she hissed.

  Alexandra shoved a hand in Hannah’s face and tilted her head backward. Face smashed into the floor, Hannah could just see a blue light glowing out of the corner of her eye. It was coming from the hole in the deck, which was protected by another metal railing—like the one she was cuffed to.

  “We’re right above this ship’s magitech core. That hole right behind you is where we load the crystals. Together, Adrien and I will fly to the corners of Irth, conquering anyone as foolish as you who tries to stand in our way. Hell, I bet Adrien will want to strap you to the core. You have enough juice inside that freakish body of yours to fly Adrien’s ship to the fucking moon and back.”

  The rage inside of Hannah threatened to tear her apart, but she couldn’t waste the energy. She still needed it. While one arm was chained to the metal railing, her other arm was still free. Reaching out, she grabbed onto the metal surrounding the cavity and let the rage pass through her. The metal began to sizzle and crack.

  “You’ll never win,” Hannah said.

  Alexandra leaned down close, face nearly touching face. “And what, little girl, are you going to do about it?”

  Hannah smiled. “This.”

  Hannah wrapped her free arm around Alexandra’s body and kicked with all the strength remaining in her legs. Alexandra’s eyes widened as the two women toppled over backward, through the weakened railing and into the hole in the roof of the ship.

  Alexandra screamed as she fell, her body falling directly into the core of Adrien’s airship.

  Hannah also fell. Her right side screamed as the magitech shackles caught her, halting her descent. She swung over the core like a side of beef hanging in the market. Looking down she watched Alexandra twitch and squirm as the power of a hundred magicians ravaged her body.

  The heat was overwhelming. The sound of explosions, one after another, sounded out across the factory outside of the ship.

  Just going to hang here and be burned alive, she thought.

  A tiny smile crept on her lips—it was over. She would die, but at least the ship would be destroyed in the process.

  “Hannah,” a voice screamed from above.

  Tilting her head, she saw Gregory in his torn clothes, edging out toward her. “Hang on!”

  He reached down for her.

  He grunted. “Come on fatass,” he yelled with a smile.

  She reached up and grabbed his hand, and he leaned back, pulling her back to the top of the ship.

  “Holy shit!” he yelled staring into the core. “Look at her burn. If she was even remotely human, the sight of that would make me sick.”

  “Gregory,” Hannah said. “What’s happening?”

  “The whole place is going up in flames,” he shouted. “We’ve gotta get out of here.”

  “Can’t,” Hannah said. “I’m a little tied up.” Hannah rattled the magitech shackles still chaining her to the ship. “You’ve gotta get out of here. Save yourself. These are designed to resist magic. There’s no way you’d break them, I used up all my juice.”

  “That’s why there are engineers—you magicians can’t do everything,” Gregory said with a wink as he pulled a small tool out of his pocket. “Lifted this from one of the guards on the way in. They didn’t think to check me.”

  Inserting the device into a narrow slot, her shackles snapped open. Hannah rubbed her wrist and nodded. “Not bad.”

  Gregory half carried Hannah as the two stumbled across the ship toward the staircase, which led to the factory floor. The inferno raged around them.

  “We’ve gotta warn the others,” Gregory shouted. “This place is gonna blow.”

  “What?” Hannah asked.

  “It’s like when you overheated the magitech core in my dad’s safe. Times a million. Once the fire reaches the core of the ship, we’re all toast.”

  “Head to the Boulevard,” Hannah said. “That’s where we’ll find the others!”

  As they pushed through the large double doors, the cold, winter air hit Hannah in the face, giving her an ounce of new life. As they ran for their lives, she glanced back over her shoulder at Adrien’s machine.

  We’ve won, she thought as the flames danced around it.

  A blinding flash of light and a pillar of smoke erupted near the airship’s cockpit just before they headed off into the night.

  ****

  Fists and swords and curses of every kind filled the streets as the men and women of the Boulevard fought to defend their homes. They had the numbers, and while they didn’t have the weapons, their conviction more than made up for it. Parker pushed through the crowd, knowing they could kill every last soldier, but that their victory wouldn’t be complete unless one man bit the dust.

  Parker was searching for the Prophet.

  His spear swinging in every direction, Parker dropped a Guard who challenged his path. He could feel sweat or blood or the mixture of the two drip down his brow, but it didn’t stop him. A singular vision drove his legs through the melee—the image of Jedidiah dead in the streets of the city he had worked so hard to corrupt.