After devouring the final bird, she turned north, heading for the Bay Bridge. She made a pass over the length of the bridge. When the humans had fled the island, they had left their vehicles jammed bumper to bumper across the entire length of the bridge. Itzpapalotl saw only a handful of elves present. So, most of the cowardly elves, their women and children, have already fled … pity. She banked and came back, this time breathing fire along the entire length of the bridge, setting all the old vehicles on fire and killing any elf that remained. Those vehicles would burn for hours, maybe days. No one else would use that bridge to escape.
She turned south, heading for Imperial Beach.
The elven army had thought itself safe in the ruins, but they were very much mistaken. Black death was coming for them.
Chapter 18
The queen's palace burned.
Angie watched as the revelation spread through the elven army, and wails of anguish rose into the night. Prince Kilyn had reluctantly agreed to pull back from Imperial Beach after all, and the elves marched out of the ruins and toward the line of trenches built across the Silver Strand. Hundreds of elven warriors were clustered at the northern edge of the ruins, staring in wide-eyed disbelief at the fire to the north … their home.
Angie stood beside Tec, watching the night sky glowing red. "It's the dragon, isn't it? Itzpapalotl?"
Tec's face tightened with worry, and he grabbed Angie's arm, pulling her along with him as he broke into a trot. "We have to hurry. If she catches us in the open..."
The elven army had fortified the southern end of the Silver Strand, a kilometer of open scrubland that had once been a naval training base and was now interlocking rows of sandbag-protected trenches. The tightly packed ruins of Imperial Beach came to the edge of the cleared land, separated only by roads running east to west. The remains of the old Silver Strand Boulevard, a four-lane highway, ran along the eastern edge of the defensive positions north toward Coronado Island.
"Get down!" Tec yelled, pulling Angie to the ground with him.
The air shrieked with the passage of something huge overhead, followed by the roaring of fire. Heat beat upon her as a gout of bright-orange fire swept past, burning a score of elven warriors who had been following them. Angie held her breath, her heart pounding with terror, as a huge black dragon swept past, still breathing fire.
Tec hauled her to her feet and pushed her forward once more toward the trenches and what little safety they might provide. The inferno behind them pushed at them, with even the air hurting her lungs. But then they were at the nearest trench, and Tec hauled her into it with him. There were other elves here. The trench was packed with them, each staring with horror as the dragon burned Imperial Beach. Angie peered over the lip of the trench, watching the dragon breathe fire in a seemingly never-ending torrent. Thick black smoke darkened the night sky.
"My God," she whispered in wonder. "If the army was still there…"
The elves shot at the dragon, but the gunfire accomplished nothing. The dragon banked, swept over the ruins of Imperial Beach once more, and breathed more fire. The heat was staggering, like staring into the depths of hell. No more of the elves made it out of the ruins, and soon the only living creature was the dragon as it swept through the smoke over the city.
"How do you fight something like that?" Angie asked.
Prince Kilyn and a handful of his officers joined them, having made their way along the interlocking trench line. Soot darkened the elven prince's features. He knelt beside Tec and Angie, his face somber. "If not for you, we’d all have been caught in that inferno."
Tec squeezed the prince's shoulder. "Nothing you could have done. No one can fight a monster like that."
"I had no idea," the elf said, horror in his voice as the dragon soared over the burning ruins of Imperial Beach, breathing more fire. "No idea."
"How many warriors do you have?" Tec asked.
"Less than five hundred," the prince said, his voice filled with guilt and pain. "Enough to hold ... for now. But if that beast comes against us here in the trenches..."
"We're not safe here," an adviser, a grizzled warrior with a scar on her chin, said.
"I think it's leaving," Angie said. She pointed at the dragon, now rising into the sky, its wings beating as it gained altitude and flew south. In moments, it was gone from sight, leaving only the burning ruins of Imperial Beach in its wake.
"Damn that horror," the prince said.
"That’s why men called them the Twin Deaths," Tec said morosely. He rubbed his eyes and sighed wearily. "What do we know?"
"It hit the palace first," the prince said. "And then the bridge."
"The bridge?" Angie asked in surprise. "Why the bridge?"
"To cut off our retreat," Tec answered. "Is your mother..."
The prince shook his head. "The palace had been mostly abandoned. Neither Mother nor my sister was there. I don't know if they were on the bridge, but I pray not."
"I'm sure they're safe," Angie said, trying to will confidence she didn’t feel into her voice.
Prince Kilyn nodded, his expression grim. He put his back to the trench and the inferno that had been Imperial Beach. "Because of you, we still hold the strand, our main defensive position. And with the ruins burning, there's no way the Aztalan army will be able to come at us, not for hours yet, not until the fires burn out."
One of the elven officers pointed to the north, where the island burned. "My prince, with the bridge burning, how will we pull the army back?"
"When the fire subsides and the bridge cools, we'll be able to cross. As much of a disaster as this appears, the dragon’s fire stops the enemy as well."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Tec said. "Itzpapalotl is crafty."
"We're safe for now," the prince insisted.
Angie turned and looked north, where the fires glowed red in the night sky. She prayed the prince was right.
The prince was wrong.
When the attack began, Angie was asleep, curled up against the wooden boards of the trench. Her first warning that something was wrong was the screams of the dying. She bolted upright, her mind racing, to see Tec standing beside her, peering out of the trench. All along the trench line, elves were crying out in alarm as the defenders struggled to understand what was happening. She peered over the sandbags atop the trench to see dozens of dark forms burst out of the smoke from the still-smoldering, still-too-hot Imperial Beach. Each of the shapes, pale and thin, sped impossibly fast at the trench, leaping the last distance to throw themselves among the defenders. Gunshots rang out, followed by the screams of dying elves.
"Vampires!" Tec yelled, holding a machete he had found among the supplies in the trench. "We're under attack!"
She staggered back, drawing Nightfall. These Fey had to be Aernyx's Night Kin, an entire clan of enemy vampires. Her fingers brushed the rose talisman around her neck. Where was Aernyx?
Vicious hand-to-hand fighting broke out along the trench as the vampires attacked, having used the smoke to mask their approach. Pale forms sprinted across the open ground, some coming straight for her and Tec. She cast Shockwave, and her spell hammered into them, battering several back, but others leaped through the air and landed in the trench on either side of her and Tec. Tec roared in fury and swung at the closest vampire with his machete. He hit the vampire with so much force that his wide blade cut right through its neck, severing the head. As the vampire fell back, its body turned to ash.
Angie put her back to Tec's as more vampires came at them. The vampire attacking her, a young woman with long blond hair, clawed at her face with long, sharp nails. The Shade King protected her with a shield, and a shower of red sparks fell. Angie, unable to hack with Nightfall, did the best she could, using the thin, quick weapon to cut at the vampire. The vampire screamed in fury, her eyes wild, and Angie rammed the point of Nightfall through her mouth, hoping to sever her spinal column. Her attack didn't kill the vampire, but it did force her back, away from Angie's blade.
Elves fought and died all around them, but the elves—like all Fey—understood how to fight vampires and discarded their firearms to use sword and knife. Another vampire, a thin man, joined the one fighting Angie, both preparing to come at her together. Only the tight confines of the trench stopped them from swarming her and Tec. She knew Tec fought for his own life but couldn’t risk taking her attention away to look. Her shoulders ached, and sweat stung her eyes, but she focused on breathing, on fighting. She considered casting Shockwave again but feared she might deplete her mana, and then the Shade King wouldn’t be able to shield her.
A horn blew, a long series of notes. She heard movement behind the trench line and heard Prince Kilyn’s voice yelling orders. The two vampires she fought hesitated, their eyes darting away from Angie. A moment later, the air cracked with the release of bowstrings, and arrows hammered into the hearts of both vampires. They fell into ash. Prince Kilyn and a dozen elves, all armed with longbows, stood behind the trench. The elves kept releasing arrows down into the trench, hitting vampires in the chest with unerring accuracy.
Tec drew back, breathing heavily and nodding in thanks to the elven prince. "Sometimes the old ways are the best."
"Hurry!" Prince Kilyn motioned for them to climb out of the trench. "I've ordered the retreat." Blood trailed down the side of his face and neck as he fit another arrow to his longbow.
Tec linked his fingers together, forming a cup for Angie’s foot and then hoisting her up and over the lip of the trench. He paused only long enough to sling a pair of assault rifles and a bandolier of ammunition over his back.
The elves with the longbows kept up a steady stream of arrows, killing as many vampires as they could. Angie eyed their quivers, doubting they had enough arrows. In Fresno, Ephix had hundreds of vampires, her children. Aernyx likely had as many.
The vampires must have realized the elves were pulling back, because at least a score of them burst out of the trenches and rushed the elves. The elves released arrows into them, killing most, but at this close range, some shafts missed, and three vampires kept coming. Angie took a chance and cast Shockwave, knocking all three vampires to the ground, where the elves shot them. Her spell had been weaker this time. She was running low on mana again, but to feed the Shade King, she’d need to touch a vampire—and she didn’t want to take a chance like that.
"Let's go," Tec yelled, pulling her along with him.
Prince Kilyn and his escort covered their retreat north. All along the trench line, those elves who could fled the vampire assault, running north along the Silver Strand for safety. But there was no true safety now. With the bridge burning, they were trapped.
Angie ran alongside Tec, who handed her one of the assault rifles. "What do we do?" she asked, her chest heaving. Behind her, she could only make out shapes in the darkness. Some of those shadows must be escaping elves, but others were vampires.
"We stay alive."
The screams of dying elves followed them as they ran north.
Chapter 19
Angie and the others retreated north along the Silver Strand, keeping the eastern shoreline and the bay on their right. They picked up other stragglers as they moved, and their numbers grew. The rout hadn't been as complete as Angie had feared. Night fighting was always confusing and almost always worse than it seemed. Those elves who joined them carried both longbow and rifle, with swords belted to their waists. They kept a careful eye on their rear as they moved, but to Angie’s relief, the vampires didn’t come after them.
After about twenty minutes, Prince Kilyn called a halt to reorganize his troops. His warriors fanned out, providing a defensive perimeter. Behind them, Imperial Beach smoked, but the fires consumed the heavily forested Coronado Island to the north, turning the night sky red. One of the elves handed Angie a canteen, and she drank deeply, her throat parched. She glanced at her watch and saw it was just past four a.m.
"Are you hurt?" Tec asked her.
She shook her head. "Just tired. Why did they let us go?"
"Don't know. Maybe they didn't have the numbers to chase us."
Or maybe they know we don't have anywhere else to go. She stared out over the bay at the glow of the burning Bay Bridge.
There were now just over a hundred and fifty elves present, barely a third of the number that had pulled back to the trench line. Many of the elves were wounded, but none too badly; those who had been badly injured hadn’t gotten away.
Prince Kilyn stood alone, his face grim. Tec and Angie joined him. "This is a disaster," he said, his voice weary. "I've lost the main defensive area with barely a fight. We were supposed to hold that line for days."
"No plan of battle survives contact with the enemy," Tec said.
The prince shook his head. "Vampires," he said bitterly. "Now Fey kill Fey. Stars above and below, what has it come to?"
"You're hurt," Angie said, seeing the blood that soaked his trouser leg.
"I'll live. More than I can say for others, elves who trusted me."
"Not your fault," Tec said. "There must have been a hundred vampires attacking all along the trench line, maybe more. No one could have held against that."
"Tell that to those who died this night. I'm afraid I am a poor war leader."
"Not true," Tec said. "You made the right call and saved as many as you could. You and your longbows saved us. Everyone loses a battle, but you need to keep fighting. This isn't over."
Angie slid closer. "Let me look at your wound," she said in a firm tone.
The prince sighed but nodded. He removed his thick leather pants, exposing a gash in his leg that he didn’t remember getting. The cut was long and ugly but mostly shallow, and she managed to stop the worst of the bleeding with a homemade tourniquet. As she worked, more stragglers joined them, swelling their number to almost two hundred. The elves reported to their prince, stating that they had been the last to escape the trenches and that there would be no more survivors.
"What now?" Tec asked the prince.
Prince Kilyn looked to his exhausted warriors and then the burning island to the north and the bay. The forest burned, but the fires were mostly concentrated along its western side. "We move north along the eastern shoreline, where the fire has yet to reach. My mother won't abandon us."
"Are there boats?" Angie asked.
He shook his head. "The only boats were at the palace, and that..."
Even from here, they could see the inferno that had been the queen's palace.
"The rocs?" Tec asked.
The prince's shoulders slumped. "Perhaps they escaped the dragon, but I just don't know. Our enemy was far more powerful than we expected … than I expected. I’m sorry."
"Well, we can't stay here," Tec said. "Even if the vampires don't come again, when the smoke clears, the Aztalan army will come."
One of the warriors hurried over. He bowed to the prince, his hand across his armored chest, his face blackened with ash, and then pointed to the north. "My prince, someone comes."
Angie peered into the darkness. The Silver Strand, the ten-kilometer-long isthmus that led to Coronado Island, extended into the night with water on either side. The fires gave an eerie, otherworldly appearance to the island but also highlighted the shapes of a party moving down the road, dozens of figures. The elves handled their weapons nervously, watching the shapes moving closer. Moments later, the shapes materialized into elven warriors. Relief coursed through Angie. The elves, at least thirty of them, moved forward.
And leading them was Queen Elenaril Cloudborn.
Chapter 20
Prince Kilyn embraced his mother. The queen, momentarily taken aback by the display of emotion, hesitated but then embraced her son. "Well met, my son," she said softly. Her gaze took in the other elves and rested briefly on Angie's face. She nodded in greeting. "You've saved more than I had hoped for. Well done."
"I've lost the defensive line, Mother."
"We've survived an attack by the Obsidian Butterfly her
self. Be thankful any of us still draw breath."
"What of my sister, Mother?"
"Safe. She leads our people north to Sanwa City. Marshal has offered our people safe passage to the Fresno Enclave, and Ephix will send help."
The prince looked to the thirty elven warriors with the queen. "Is this all that remains?"
"Take heart, my son. The others escaped across the bridge before the dragon's arrival. Everything we've lost can be rebuilt, but we must escape ourselves."
"What now, Your Majesty?" Angie asked.
"We continue northeast along the shoreline of the bay. Ephix Lamia reports she can help us, but we’ll need to reach the old Ferry Landing on the northern shore of the island."
Before she could ask any more questions, the elves began moving once more.
They followed the Silver Strand north. The trek was miserable, and no matter which way the wind blew, acrid smoke stung their eyes and assailed their throats. Angie remained with Tec and the queen in the center of the elven formation, where they were protected by close to three hundred warriors. Angie expected the vampires to come after them at any moment, but so far, they had not pressed their attack. The Silver Strand’s western bank, exposed to the ocean, was barren and sandy, but the eastern bank and bay were better protected and had been built up decades earlier with man-made cays and urban development, all long since abandoned. Angie kept looking for old boats tied to the wharves, but in the darkness, she saw nothing but the dark bay waters. Out here, exposed in the open, if the dragon came back, it would burn them all with a single pass.
The Awakened World Boxed Set Page 73
