Rise: Paths (Future Worlds Book 2)

by Brian Guthrie

  Suyef didn't wait long. He jumped up and attacked the Questioner, staff spinning to strike first at the head, then the feet. Colvinra whipped his staff up, then spun a tip down to catch both strikes. Suyef persisted, his staff darting around in a blur, Colvinra's spinning as quickly on the defensive. The crack of each strike echoed in the arena and the silence caught my attention. I glanced up at the prisoners to find them pressed to the glass, mesmerized by the fight. I looked back down to see Suyef back-flip over Colvinra's swipe to his legs. He landed and drove his staff down at his opponent, who brought his up in both hands to catch the staff. The resulting crack resounded off the glass walls, and a groan rolled down from the prisoners. Colvinra shoved against the Nomad, driving him backward and separating. The two men came to a halt, five paces between them, staffs at the ready. Neither was winded or sweating.

  "This could take a while," Mortac muttered. At my arched eyebrow, he said, "Colvinra won't stop this until he's won, and Suyef is as much a match for him in a staff fight as he's seen in a long time."

  "I thought you said a Questioner was more than a match for a Nomad?" Donovan asked, never taking his eyes from the combatants.

  "The Questioner hasn't started fighting yet," Mortac answered. "Only the Seeker has."

  Donovan frowned at him and shook his head. "You make no sense, Warden."

  "Just keep watching." Mortac nodded at the arena floor.

  Suyef and Colvinra resumed their fight. Staffs spun, striking here and there, kicks and punches in between. The two were clearly a match in staffs, and both ignored Quentin, who remained where he'd been the whole time. What could he be thinking? I wondered. Why wasn't he helping Suyef? I noticed him watching the stands and followed his gaze.

  "You see their strategy," Mortac said, his voice barely audible as the audience above began to grow loud.

  I frowned at the warden. "He's watching the other Seekers?"

  Mortac nodded. "You think their placement is an accident? On all sides of the arena floor?" I shook my head and Mortac smiled. "Always a thinker."

  I ignored the comment but the feeling returned, the itch of discomfort along my spine at this man's air of familiarity. I focused on Quentin to distract myself.

  "Seems like a waste to me," Donovan muttered. "Go get the Questioner. Knock him out of the fight."

  "You think they'll let that happen?" Mortac asked. My brother nodded. "You're more a fool than you look."

  Donovan glared at the warden. "You talk a lot for someone just sitting here."

  Mortac shrugged. "Words are easy," he said, laughing. "And this isn't my fight."

  Donovan sniffed at the warden and went back to watching the trio in the arena. Suyef had been forced back against the wall by the Questioner, but neither seemed to have the advantage. Indeed, in the next instant, the Nomad caught a strike by Colvinra's staff, pivoted, and flung the Questioner to the side. He rolled and came up facing Suyef, now with his back to the wall. Neither looked even remotely tired. Quentin remained on watch for the other Seekers to do something. He didn't have to wait long.

  As Colvinra launched another series of attacks, he waved at one of the Seekers opposite from me. He vaulted over the railing and landed on the far side of the arena floor, facing Quentin. Suyef barked something and Quentin launched himself, not at the new Seeker, but at Colvinra. This tactic caught the pair of Seekers off guard as Suyef and his companion brought both of their staffs to bear on the Questioner. Colvinra spun, his staff a blur deflecting the assault from both sides. The new Seeker wasted only a moment before leaping after Quentin. Suyef launched himself into a roll, coming up before the new Seeker and cracking him across the chest with his staff. The Nomad turned, bringing his attack back to bear on Colvinra as Quentin, who'd held the Questioner's attention as Suyef struck the other Seeker, lunged forward to strike a blow at the new Seeker's head. The man ducked, but Quentin was ready. As his staff shot past the man's head, he spun into a sweeping kick. The Seeker tumbled to the ground as Quentin finished his attack with a crack of his staff to the fallen man's head and returned to fight with Colvinra.

  At that moment, the other three Seekers vaulted the wall and landed on the arena floor. Donovan jumped to his feet, calling out to warn Quentin and Suyef, but he needn't have bothered. Even as the new attackers landed, the pair had shifted around, placing Colvinra between them and the new attackers, the arena wall at their back.

  "Nice strategy," Mortac stated. When I glanced at him, he continued, "Now only three of them at a time can attack." When I opened my mouth to ask how this was an advantage, he said "The fourth must either commit and compel one of the others to shift, or stay back."

  "They're still outnumbered," I muttered.

  "But they have weapons," he said, nodding at the staffs. "Among the Seekers, only Colvinra has one."

  "It's not fair," Donovan yelled, shaking a fist at the Seekers. "Cowards!"

  "Battle is never fair," Mortac whispered to my brother, who didn't hear. "Ever."

  Suyef and Quentin held their own, the pair fending off attacks from Colvinra and two of the Seekers. Their staffs made it difficult for the Seekers to press their numbers, and even as Quentin and Suyef appeared to be flagging, so was Colvinra. The Questioner dodged a strike from Suyef and then Quentin as the pair spun back and forth, keeping the other two Seekers at bay. Colvinra lunged toward Quentin's legs, but he shifted away, spinning his staff to deflect the strike and turning to block a kick from his other attacker. Suyef knocked his other Seeker to the ground and vaulted toward the Questioner's back, screaming. Colvinra, his back exposed, dropped and rolled to his left, away from the fray and toward the fourth Seeker. He came to his feet and ordered the other Seeker to attack. As that Seeker moved in, Suyef and Quentin each struck a blow at Quentin's remaining attacker, knocking him to the ground. He fell there, motionless; Suyef shifted away toward his previously fallen foe, who was now on his feet, and Quentin turned to face the last Seeker.

  "And now the odds are relatively even," Mortac stated.

  "You said a Questioner breaks a tie," Donovan reminded him.

  Mortac nodded. "Usually, it does," he said, eyeing Colvinra as he fell back from the fight. Overhead, the prisoners were in a frenzy, pounding the glass and screaming. "Our Questioner seems to be holding back a little."

  "Why would he do that?" I asked, my eyes moving around the arena watching the prisoners. "And why are they getting so frantic?"

  "There's no love for Seekers among that lot, I assure you," Mortac replied, waving a dismissive hand at the lot of them. "Had you been paying more attention to them, you'd have noticed they only got really worked up when the first Seeker fell, and that second one going down for good sent them over the edge." He pointed at Colvinra. "No, he's up to something, and I'm not sure what."

  I tried to pull my eyes back down to the fight, but something about the prisoners bothered me. Something with how they were frantically pounding against the walls. Like a prisoner trying to get through the bars and away from something.

  At that moment, a shadow shifted overhead, darting across the heads of the prisoners. I turned to follow it and felt my heart freeze.

  Dragons.

  #

  My heart raced as the Seeker shifted away from me. To my right lay the prone figure of the Seeker we'd managed to knock out. Suyef remained at my left. Beyond him, one Seeker stood, favoring a leg. Before us, the third Seeker stood at the ready, having just escaped a strike from my staff. Colvinra remained behind him, watching us, his staff in hand. Overhead, the prisoners were nearly rioting, pounding against the walls. When the last Seeker had fallen, the noise had grown thunderous and part of me wondered if the glass would hold.

  I shook my head and focused on the Seeker before me. I gripped the staff and again whispered a silent thanks to Suyef and his blasted lessons. With his help, this fight hadn't gone nearly as badly as it might have. Having the weapons gave us an advantage, and it still baffled me why Colvinra had fled with his ins
tead of giving it to one of his Seekers. Still, two down, and only three to go. Our chances looked pretty good at that point.

  Then the shadow fell over the arena. At first, I ignored it, thinking it a possible distraction. When the Seeker looked up and began to retreat, that was my clue something was wrong. I craned my head around but saw nothing.

  "Quentin," Suyef hissed, pointing his staff the opposite direction.

  I spun and saw something just disappear from sight beyond the top of the arena. Enough had been visible to fill me with dread.

  "Dragons," I yelled, to be heard over the crowd, glancing at the Seekers, who'd fallen back and left their fallen behind. "We're exposed out here."

  Suyef nodded. "Colvinra, we need to get out of here," the Nomad bellowed over to the Questioner.

  The man didn't answer, just stared up at the sky, a hungry look on his face.

  "That man is obsessed with those beasts," Suyef said, grabbing my shoulder and pulling me along. "Let's go."

  As we stepped forward, something in the air behind us changed. The wind picked up, howling past us. I turned to find the arena disappearing into the ground as an alert sounded from the outpost to the west. All around us, the protective shelter the arena walls had offered us vanished, the concentric rows of glass prisons folding away as we'd seen before, pushing the prisoners out into the open. With the walls gone, the sight beyond came into full view, and I stopped dead in my tracks.

  Overhead soared nearly a hundred dragons, each one in varying shades of dark red. They ranged in size and length, with grotesque horn-like structures jutting from the tops of their skulls and protruding from their spines as they reached along the beasts' backs. Some had massive wings, spreading as wide as two or three of the smaller ones. All were enormous compared to us.

  And every one bore down on the unprotected mass of terrified people fleeing toward the outpost.

  "Quentin!" Suyef yelled. "The Questioner!"

  I spun around, eyes scanning for the Colvinra. With his silvery robes, he stood out among the rags the panicking prisoners wore. Colvinra looked to be making his way through the fleeing mass, not toward the outpost, but toward where Mortac's guards were fending off crowds of prisoners trying to attack the warden. Huddled beyond the man, I could just make out Micaela clinging to her brother.

  "Come on!" I yelled, and we charged after the Questioner.

  #

  When the alert sounded, Mortac's men jumped up around us. The warden cursed and barked orders to them.

  "Form a circle! Keep them away from us!" he yelled.

  I looked around in bewilderment as the arena began to vanish. As with the prison, the walls folded away and shifted down into the ground. In a few seconds, where an arena had once stood, we found ourselves standing in the open desert, the shell's edge in the distance, the towering outpost behind. All around, the mass of prisoners, now loose, began fleeing for the safety of the structure.

  "Keep tight!" a guard bellowed, the men forming a shield around us as the prisoners fled the dragons.

  I tried to look up to the beasts and saw too many to count. The color stood out: all red, the color of blood. It sent a chill down my spine. We began to move, so I grabbed Donovan's arm and pulled him along.

  The prisoners ignored us for the most part, more worried about fleeing the threat circling overhead. Still, when the outpost failed to let them in, they'd no doubt turn on us. Mortac seemed to have the same idea. He directed his circle of guards to move, not toward the outpost, but north, around the side of the structure. With the panicking prisoners clamoring against the one entrance on this side, there was no way we could get in. As we cut across the flow of bodies, a few raiders came into view here and there, defending themselves. They never stood a chance alone or in pairs like that. A few prisoners flung themselves at the phalanx of men encircling us, but those that did fell to the ground, unconscious, stunned by the pulse guns Mortac's men carried. I tried to get a glimpse of Quentin and Suyef but only saw the flowing cloak of some Seeker moving through the crowd after us.

  Overhead, the dragons bellowed as one, an earsplitting cry that sent the prisoners into an apoplectic frenzy. Those nearest the wall were soon crushed as men and women alike climbed atop those nearest the wall, trying to reach its apex. As the echoes of the dragons' cries fell around us, they struck, diving down into the mass of bodies nearest the wall. Entire swaths of people vanished. The beasts soared high into the sky, their prizes clenched tightly in their claws.

  "Keep moving!" Mortac yelled, his head constantly turning to look behind us. "Keep moving!"

  I followed his gaze and felt a new chill tickle my spine. Colvinra, eyes on me, was coming through the chaos. I turned to pick up my pace, and the bodies began to fall from the sky.

  Chapter 19 - Taken

  I tried in vain to keep Micaela and Donovan in my sight, and watched in horror as the dragons began bombing the chaotic mass of people with the bodies of those they'd grabbed. Wave after wave they came, swooping down to scoop up as many of the prisoners as they could and flying high over the chaos to drop their prizes to the ground. It was impossible to tell where they were dropping them, but I could guess.

  "Suyef!" I called to the Nomad, who was using his staff to keep the panicking prisoners at bay. "The dragons!"

  He looked in the direction we'd last seen Micaela and her brother. He nodded and swung his staff in a sweeping arc before him. The prisoners fell away, and we pushed forward, trying to get through the throng. A body fell near me, landing on two of the prisoners. I turned away to avoid seeing the carnage.

  "Ghastly beasts!" Suyef yelled, waving a fist at a dragon as it flew by.

  "Don't they just take prisoners?" I asked, shifting closer to the Nomad as we dodged another falling body.

  "Green ones do," he said, looking up at the red monsters flying over us. "Red ones, I don't know." He knocked aside a prisoner that had launched himself at us. "If this tells you anything, then, no."

  I swung my staff, striking the leg of another prisoner as he tried to flank Suyef. "Where's Colvinra?"

  Suyef pointed off to his left, toward the outpost. I dodged over another fallen prisoner and risked a glance. The Questioner was bogged down, his two remaining Seekers and he fending off even more prisoners.

  "They're all fleeing right at him," I yelled, jumping to Suyef's aid as a big, burly prisoner tried to pick up a smaller one and throw him at the Nomad.

  Suyef twisted under the screaming prisoner as he flew through the air, striking at the knee of the burly man. A strike across the head from me, and he fell with a crash between us.

  "Move!" Suyef yelled.

  We bolted through a gap in the crowd and heard a scream behind us. I glanced over my shoulder to see a dragon swooping past, grabbing the fallen burly man and another fleeing prisoner and taking to the sky. As I watched the dragon fly away, my eyes caught sight of the Questioner. A dragon had flown right past him, clearing away a large swath, the remaining prisoners scattering to get away. He now had a clear path to Mortac's circle of guards.

  "Suyef!" I cried out, charging toward the Questioner and his Seekers, hoping the Nomad was close behind.

  #

  Mortac's men were falling around us now. Fending off disorganized, panicky prisoners was one thing; the dragon onslaught from above, they could do nothing about. As the bodies fell all around us, one by one his men fell with them. I shielded my eyes from it, clinging to my brother as we fled. We couldn't help but see the bodies fall to the ground, exploding with the force of the impact, and hear the terrified screams of the prisoners suddenly cut off as they landed.

  Mortac had taken to helping his men now. As prisoners would break through the line, he'd level his own sidearm at them and pulse them into unconsciousness. He spun about us, shooting in all directions as needed. A shot here or there, and a prisoner would fall. Try as he might, the warden could only do so much to help his beleaguered guards. More and more came. We had no choice. Donovan and
I took up weapons from some of the fallen guards and helped fend the prisoners off. I had to keep reminding myself it was only air we were shooting at them. Well, air moving with enough force to blast them backwards a short distance and usually knock them unconscious. Still, it made me feel bad. I saw no other choice. The crazed men and women had no way of telling us apart from anyone else: between the dragons above and the guards and Seekers below, the crowd had descended into a boiling mob of anger and fear.

  Another guard fell to the ground near me. I moved to cover him and check his injury. My father had taught me only the rough basics of injury and treatment, but the man had fallen trying to protect us. Something needed to be done for him. He lay unconscious and no obvious injury stood out. I had to leave him be. Looking up, no one was coming at me for the moment. To my left, Donovan had his pulse gun trained on an approaching man. Mortac, seeing my brother's hesitation, leveled his gun over Donovan's shoulder and downed him.

  "Pity is only going to get you killed out here," the warden hissed, whirling to take down a man charging from the other direction.

  Donovan moved up to stand next to the guards and began firing at anyone that moved near. I turned my gaze back to the carnage around us and tried again to catch sight of Quentin. The sight that greeted me scared me to the core.

  Colvinra had broken free of the crowd, a dragon sweeping by and scaring most of them away. He made his way toward us, his two remaining Seekers following behind. I cried out to Mortac, pointing at the approaching Questioner. He downed another charging prisoner and spun around to face the new threat.

  At that moment, Quentin and Suyef broke into sight, charging down the Questioner and his men. Their attack emboldened some of the prisoners, who took advantage of the distraction to swarm over Colvinra's Seekers. The Questioner spun around to fend off Suyef's attack, as Quentin helped the prisoners dispatch a Seeker before turning to help the Nomad.