All was metal, blood, smoke.
She fell off the airborne motorcycle and slammed into the mud.
A second later, the motorcycle landed on her leg, and she screamed.
She lay in the dirt, gazing up in a daze. She was hurt. Maybe badly. Her leg was twisted, and she could still barely breathe. She was bleeding. She wasn't sure from where. The battle still raged around her, marauders and humans dying every second. The world burned. Her vision grew hazy.
We should never have come here. She tried to push off the motorcycle pinning her down, could not. We should never have gone into space. Never have awoken the terrors that lurk there. She trembled. I'm so afraid. Marco, I miss you, and I'm so afraid.
Deep laughter sounded.
Claws scraped forth.
A shadow loomed, and she saw him there. On his back, Stooge and the three girls were dead.
Orcus licked his jaws, advancing toward her on six clawed legs.
"Now you are mine, Addy Linden."
She struggled, trying to push off the motorcycle. She yowled. She was stuck, her leg pinned beneath the heap of metal. The marauder stepped closer, grinning, and loomed above her. His saliva dripped onto her, sizzling hot, burning her. She screamed.
"So fair . . ." Orcus caressed her cheek with a claw. "You will make a fine mate . . . Once your brain is removed, that is." His jaws widened. "You took one of my eyes. You made me lose my beloved twin. You will pay for your sins, child of Eve. How you will scream!"
Addy stared up into those three black eyes. She saw her reflection in them. She barely recognized herself. Where was the girl she had been, happy, laughing, full of life? She was a wretch. Eyes sunken. Covered in filth and blood. A broken soul. Already dead.
And she thought of Marco, of fighting with him in the tunnels.
She thought of Corporal Diaz, the man who had taught her strength.
She thought of Captain Ben-Ari, the woman who had taught her courage.
"I am a Dragon," she whispered. "I am a soldier. I am a woman." She reached toward the handlebars of the motorcycle pinning her down. "I. Am. Human."
She pressed down on the throttle.
The wheel spun, ripping into her leg, tearing the skin.
The motorcycle roared forward, skidded off her, and crashed into Orcus.
The marauder squealed and fell back, and the motorcycle flew aside. The marauder sneered, three of his teeth shattered. The motorcycle's handlebar had taken another eye; it had snapped off, was still embedded into the socket.
Addy stood up. Her leg was bent, bleeding, a ruin. She stood nonetheless. She raised her assault rifle and loaded another magazine.
She stared into the creature's two remaining eyes.
Orcus screeched and leaped toward her.
Addy fired.
Bullets rang out, hitting another eye, and Orcus slammed into her. They fell together. He clawed madly, ripping at her, shredding her armor. She howled, her blood spilling. They rolled in the mud, and he snapped his jaws, several teeth missing.
"Addy, you will be mine! You will scream for me!"
Out of bullets, out of grenades, she grabbed the hilt of her sword.
She drew her ivory blade—his tooth. The tooth she had taken from him in his starship.
She stared into his last eye.
That eye widened, and at the end, it was full of fear.
With a hoarse cry, Addy thrust the severed tooth, driving it into Orcus's eye and deep into his skull.
The marauder fell, legs twitching.
Raspy words emerged from his jaws. "My beloved . . . my twin . . . I am sorry."
Orcus's head tilted sideways. The creature moved no more.
Addy tied a belt around her thigh, choking off the blood loss. She limped through the devastation, dragging her bad leg. All around her, they lay dead. Hundreds of humans. Hundreds of marauders. The last few claws swung. The last few bullets fired.
The last marauders fell dead.
Across the slaughterhouse they stood. A hundred human rebels, maybe less.
And hesitantly, moving closer, naked and bald—thousands of freed prisoners.
They gathered around Addy. Beaten, brutalized, their bodies pale, their shaved scalps bleeding. They reached out to her, tears in their eyes. Some knelt and raised the guns of fallen warriors. Others tore out the teeth from marauders and raised them as swords. Prisoners and rebels, they all stepped toward Addy. Their eyes shone.
Steve ran toward her. Blood and dirt covered him. He meant to scoop her into his arms, but he paused and paled.
"Your leg . . . Addy, are you all right?"
She looked into his eyes. "They cannot kill me. I am the Snow Dragon. I am human."
A rebel nearby, a young man with eager eyes, raised his gun overhead. "Addy Linden! The Snow Dragon!"
Another rebel raised her rifle. "The Snow Dragon!"
One by one, the others raised their weapons, and soon thousands of hands rose together. Some with guns. Others holding only rocks. Many hands empty. But all eyes gazed upon her. And all voices cried out for her.
"The Snow Dragon! The Snow Dragon!"
Her leg hurt, was fading to numbness. But she climbed onto the tank, and she stood above the crowd. Thousands of them, encircling her, spreading all across the devastated slaughterhouse. And through a hole in the wall, Addy could see it in the distance.
The ruins of Toronto.
The webs draped across the skyscrapers. Plumes of smoke rose.
She stared toward the distance, toward her old home. And she knew he was there. Gazing toward her. Waiting for her.
Lord Malphas.
We will meet soon, Addy thought. But not today.
She looked back at the crowd, and she raised her marauder tooth overhead.
"The enemy took our land!" she cried. "They took our children. They took the lives of so many. Today we say: No more!"
They shouted together. "No more!"
"We are the Human Resistance!" Addy said. "We will rise! We will cast off the enemy! Join me. Join me now. Join me here. Join me in rebellion, and together, we will fight them everywhere, and we will be free! For Earth!"
They chanted all around her, a sea of humanity, of courage, of nobility that no enemy could crush. Their voices rolled across the land, and Addy knew that in the distant city, he could hear.
"For Earth! For Earth!"
Addy chanted with them, tears on her cheeks, her weapon held high.
"For Earth!"
The story continues in Earth Valor (Earthrise, Book 6).
Click here to read the next book in the series:
DanielArenson.com/EarthValor
AFTERWORD
Thank you for reading Earth Shadows. I hope you enjoyed the novel.
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Thank you again, dear reader, and I hope we meet again between the pages of another book.
Daniel
NOVELS BY DANIEL ARENSON
EARTHRISE
Earth Alone
Earth Lost
Earth Rising
Earth Fire
Earth Shadows
Earth Valor
Earth Reborn
Earth Honor
Earth Eternal
THE MOTH SAGA
Moth
Empires of Moth
Secrets of Moth
Daughter of Moth
Shadows of Moth
Legacy of
Moth
REQUIEM
Dawn of Dragons Requiem's Song
Requiem's Hope
Requiem's Prayer
The Complete Trilogy
Song of Dragons Blood of Requiem
Tears of Requiem
Light of Requiem
The Complete Trilogy
Dragonlore A Dawn of Dragonfire
A Day of Dragon Blood
A Night of Dragon Wings
The Complete Trilogy
The Dragon War A Legacy of Light
A Birthright of Blood
A Memory of Fire
The Complete Trilogy
Requiem for Dragons Dragons Lost
Dragons Reborn
Dragons Rising
The Complete Trilogy
Flame of Requiem Forged in Dragonfire
Crown of Dragonfire
Pillars of Dragonfire
The Complete Trilogy
ALIEN HUNTERS
Alien Hunters
Alien Sky
Alien Shadows
OTHER WORLDS
Eye of the Wizard
Wand of the Witch
Firefly Island
The Gods of Dream
Flaming Dove
KEEP IN TOUCH
www.DanielArenson.com
[email protected]
Facebook.com/DanielArenson
Twitter.com/DanielArenson
Earth Shadows (Earthrise Book 5) Page 30
