by Alex Leopold
“What's on the other side?” Acadia asked Ellis.
“Apartments. Probably used by the Directory now.”
“Malthus, what do you sense?”
He closed his eyes to concentrate and faced the palm of his hand in the direction he wanted to focus on.
“I detect a few dozen guards on the other side of the bridge; many are sleeping. Easy work for our Sekhem to deal with.”
He raised his arm. “There are more men patrolling the roof, but they can’t see through the mist below them. We won’t be spotted.”
“Can you sway any of the guards to leave their posts?” Ellis asked.
Malthus declined. “I don’t want to push my abilities in case any snoopers are listening in.”
Acadia agreed.
“It’s time to go. Whiskers and I will go first. Clear the way.” He decided. “Malthus, you join us. We could benefit from your psychic abilities.”
He then turned to Cooper and her sister.
“You two are at the back. If Mayat and I get into trouble, you make a break for it and do your best to get out of the city. Agreed?”
We won't leave you, an emphatic Cooper was going to argue. Thankfully, her sister spoke first and said what Acadia needed to hear.
“We’ll do what you ask. Be safe.” Riley said simply.
Acadia turned to Mayat and Malthus.
“Okay, let’s get on with this.” He grunted. “I'm getting cold.”
85
As she made her way along the footbridge, Riley longed to feel the comfort of a weapon in her fist. A pistol. A sword. Something. Anything! But the bridge’s wooden slats were slick with morning dew and, close to its center, the expansion swayed dangerously. So, she needed both hands to grip the vines and stop herself from falling.
They must be about three-hundred feet above the ground, she guessed. A long enough drop for her to know she was going to die before she actually did. That got her heart racing, and she had to pause for a second to take a deep breath.
Relax, her on-edge mind ordered her even as she felt the adrenalin in her body surge. You're all nervous energy.
That’s because very soon she was going to have to kill. Though she’d killed before in Harvardtown, it had been under different circumstances. They’d entered that city hoping to make it through without detection. When the battle had started she’d simply reacted, had fought to stay alive
Today was different. Today, they’d come to pick a fight. Today, they’d come to kill.
I can’t hesitate when the battle begins, she thought. I must be prepared to pull the trigger, to run the sword through. Yet, as much as she tried to convince herself she’d be able to do just that, there remained a doubt.
She took another step forward and found herself walking into a memory. In it she was transported back into the gateway chamber in Harvardtown. The shell was surrounded in blinding light and the portal was about to open to Hellanta.
“I’ll be by your side when the fighting starts.” She heard her father tell her. “I won’t let you fail.”
“All right, we’re almost on the other side.” Ellis was whispering to them both as they continued along the sky walkway.
“Across this bridge we’re going to enter the dragon-rider’s apartments. If your Sekhem has done her job then the coast will be all clear. I’m going to lead us down four flights of steps and straight into the cages. Shouldn’t be more than a handful of guards down there so we’ll be able to free my men without firing a single shot.
Ellis nodded to himself with satisfaction. “This is going better than I thought.”
A sudden strong gust of wind blew between the buildings. Riley had to plant her feet and grip the vines or be blown off the swaying bridge. When the wind died, the mist had all but disappeared, and Riley found herself looking up at twenty Directory sentries standing guard on a cupola-capped roof.
“Not good.” Muttered Ellis.
One guard happened to be looking right at them and Ellis squeamishly gave him a wave.
“Intruders!” The guard shouted.
Ellis shot him with his pistol. The shot echoed off the buildings around them and jolted the other sentries to their feet. They trained their rifles down at the bridge. Riley saw the muzzles flash and heard the bullets zip passed her head.
“Turn back!” Acadia yelled
He’d made it to the other side of the bridge with Mayat and Malthus. They were about to enter the building when they heard the shots from the Directory guards. The grizzly tried to turn back, but the sound of rifle fire hadn’t just alerted the sentries to their presence, it had woken the men sleeping in the apartments, too.
Suddenly, the three of them were facing a pack of grey uniforms who were ready to attack.
“Go! Now!” The ursinian barked before he was caught in a fight with three guards.
Redtail looked reluctant, but then did what he was told and began backing up.
“What are you doing?” Cooper object.
“Keeping my promise.” He replied.
“We can’t leave them!” Cooper said to Riley.
“If we stay on the bridge we’re going to be like fish in a barrel.” She replied.
Another volley of bullets zipped past. Some of the bullets tore into the wooden slats at her feet. They’d been lucky not to be hit yet, but that wouldn’t last forever.
“The cages are four floors down.” Ellis said. “If we severe the bridge right here we’ll swing down into them.”
Riley could barely believe her ears. Ellis’ suggestion was so crazy she practically laughed at its insanity. Then she saw Cooper grow the spark in her hand and point it at her feet.
“You can’t be serious?” She objected.
“We’ll cut the rope on three.” Cooper ordered as she wrapped her free hand around a knot of vines.
There was no time to argue, the soldiers on the roof were about to fire again. So despite every objection in her body, Riley grabbed a vine with her fist. When Cooper told her to, she shot the spark at one of the ropes.
The bridge came apart in an instant. And her body dropped.
86
Riley fell with her heart in her throat, too shocked to even scream. Then the bridge caught, and she saw the building racing toward her.
“Switch!” She shouted and clamped her eyes shut.
On the other side of the teleport her body rolled along a dusty floor, bouncing like a rock tossed off a mountain. She only stopped when she collided with the bars of a cell wall.
“That hurt.” She groaned as she tried to sit up. If her fighting-staff holstered along her spine hadn’t been there to take the impact, she might have broken her back.
“Who are you?” An older man called out. She heard the clink of chains as two men approached and helped her to her feet.
“Riley.” She said.
One of the men was her father’s age, with a wild-peppered beard. The other had a more boyish face, couldn’t have been much older than her.
“Where am I?” She asked.
The older man held up the thick metal chains that bound his wrists. “Nowhere good, I’m afraid.”
I’m in the dragon cages, she realized after her eyes adjusted to the light and she saw a caged wall in front of her. Then, as she continued to take in her surroundings, she spotted eight Directory guards on the other side of the cell.
They had their weapons pointed at her.
“Watch out!” The young-man forced her to duck as they fired.
When she was on her belly, she felt someone yank her shotgun from its holster on her hip. Then rapid gunshots rang out from beside her.
“A little New York hospitality for you, gentlemen.” The older man chuckled as he quickly pumped the shotgun.
With each shell that exploded from the gun, a guard fell to the floor until there were only two left. These two men fled into the stairwell and slid a steel door shut behind them.
“They’ll be back.” The older man said as he hand
ed Riley back her weapon. “You said your name was Riley, right?”
Riley nodded.
He grabbed her hand. “You can call me Hudson, and the less ugly one is Exeter, my son.”
The young-man gave her a bashful smile.
“Maybe you can tell us what you’re doing here?”
“She’s part of your rescue party, Uncle Hudson.” Ellis called out. He was running towards them with Cooper and Redtail in tow.
Hudson had chains binding his wrists and ankles, but when he saw Ellis, he bounded across the room to wrap his nephew in a fierce bear-hug.
As the men embraced, Riley noticed more prisoners emerge from the shadows, and, further in the background, massive shapes began to rise from the floor – dragons. Everyone was whispering to one another, and Riley didn’t have to guess at what they were saying: the son of the Manhattan had returned.
“I like the new look.” Ellis teased his uncle, gesturing to the unruly grey beard that hid his face. “It gives you that un-distinguished look.”
“Still better looking than you, I’ll wager.” The old man replied without missing a beat. “Now tell me how many men did you bring?”
“There are seven of us.” Ellis responded and his ivory white smile did not break. “Eight, if you count a talking parrot.”
The old man’s face fell. “You were supposed to bring an army.”
“The resistance is gone, Uncle.” Ellis told him. “This is the best I could do.”
When he finished speaking, bells began ringing out across the city.
“The Directory know we’re here.” Redtail gulped.
“We don’t have a lot of time.” Ellis motioned for the rest of the prisoners to draw near.
“I know it’s been no picnic while I’ve been away, and I know you were hoping to be rescued by a larger army. Unfortunately, there are no armies left to come to our aid. So I’m going to need you to fight your own way out of this. Can you do that for me?”
They looked terrible, Riley noted. Nothing but gaunt bodies in filthy rags. Yet, they all agreed without reservation.
“I hope you brought weapons?” Hudson told him.
“The Grand Central stockpile is undisturbed.” Ellis replied. “We need to get these riders down there as soon as possible. Then Exeter will lead the first squad to the power plant to protect the children. The rest of us will work on freeing everyone else in the city.”
Everyone in the group nodded. Ellis sought out a woman with wild-red hair who’d come forward to stand with them. “Madison, are my dragons ready to fly?”
“They’re going to have to be, I suppose.” She replied, but sounded unconvinced. “But none of us are are going anywhere until we get out of these damn chains.”
“Right, the keys.” Ellis said clicking his fingers. “Where are they?”
Madison pointed at the guard’s room on the other side of the cell wall. A chain of keys hung on a loop by the steel door. As they looked at them, the steel door was slid open by a crack, and a cannon ball with a lit fuse rolled into the cell room.
Get the keys before it’s too late, the guiding voice in Riley’s head shouted. This time she did not hesitate. Switching into the guards room, she grabbed the keys, and stepped back through the teleport as the bomb exploded.
“You’re either very brave, or very stupid.” Exeter complimented her as he once again helped her off the floor.
“A little of both, I think.” Cooper replied for her. She’d grabbed the keychain from Riley’s tightly held grip, and began unlocking chains.
The moment after the explosion, a swarm of Directory guards spilled onto the floor, and the sound of heavy rifle fire was already deafening.
“Get the pilots into the air!” Ellis shouted as he, Redtail and a few others used the few weapons they had to keep the Directory guards pushed back.
As chains fell to the floor, riders eagerly leapt onto their dragons, and when the outside gates to the skies were pulled back the colossals roared with excitement.
“Malthus says they're trapped on their floor.” Riley told Cooper as she helped her sister onto one of the winged beasts.
In front of them, Exeter was already leading a pack of five riders into the air.
“I got his tap, too.” Cooper said. “Ellis and I will get them.”
A female dragon-rider near building’s edge shouted something that caught Riley’s attention. When she asked the woman to repeat herself, she heard something that made her heart stop.
“The Myrmidon is coming!” The dragon-rider cried out.
“What?”
“There!”
Riley followed where the woman was pointing and saw a man in a dark cloak levitating himself across the city toward them.
“You have Myrmidons in the city?” Ellis asked his uncle through gritted teeth.
“Just one. The men call him, Control.”
“Varick.” Riley whispered.
As she watched him race towards them with his sword already drawn, she was taken back to the steps of the library in Harvardtown. The speed with which he’d overpowered everyone in her company had been frightening.
It would be no different here, she thought.
“Riley, stay close to me.” Cooper commanded.
“It's me he wants.” She replied. “I can draw him away.”
“No! Don't!” Cooper shouted, and tried to reach down from her dragon to grab her.
“Live free, or fight on.” She told her sister as she stepped back from her.
Then she disappeared into a switch.
87
There seemed to be a never ending supply of Directory guards to have to fight and the three of them had been driven back into a small room in the corner of the building with nowhere left to go but brilliant blue sky.
“How are you doing, crink?” Acadia smarted, after another wave of bullets drilled into the over-turned wooden desk that was now their only source of protection. “Do I need to remind you this is one of those occasions when you might want to hurry.”
Malthus ignored him and continued to concentrate on tapping his message to Riley and Cooper who he could sense were now down in the dragon cages four floors below.
“What’s the problem, grizzly bear?” A cool Mayat asked the ursinian after breaking cover to shoot an arrow at a guard. “Frightened?”
“Frightened? Me?” He responded with incredulous offense.
“I ain’t afraid.” He countered after another volley of bullets hammered into the thick wood at their backs. “Can't you see, I have these fools right where I want them?”
Malthus tapped all of this to Cooper and Riley, and the two girls saw it play out in their mind’s eye as they freed the city’s dragons and their riders. Most of all he tapped his deep desire to be saved from the two idiots beside him who seemed to be strangely excited about the prospect of dying in a grand battle.
“Malthus says they’re trapped on their floor.” Riley told her as Cooper scrambled up onto a dragon.
“Ellis and I will get them.” She replied as he climbed on a colossal in front of her.
Then the Myrmidon appeared and as soon as Cooper heard who it was, she knew what Riley would do.
“Live free, or fight on.” She’d said, purposefully stepping out of her sister’s reach. Then Cooper watched as the blue capsule surrounded her and Riley vanished.
“No!” She screamed and made to jump off her dragon, but Redtail forced her to stay where she was.
“We have to help the others first.” He told her. “If you go after Riley now, then Acadia, Mayat, and Malthus are dead.”
He was right. She hated him for it, but he was right.
“The Myrmidon is leaving!” The female dragon-rider said and Cooper saw Control change the direction of his flight. Then he too disappeared into a switch.
Riley’s plan had worked, Cooper thought with dread. The Directory’s most lethal killer was coming after her.
“Cooper, we have to go.” Ellis urged as
the other dragons and their pilots began to exit into the sky.
“You fly, Miss Cooper. Goose and I will find Riley.” Redtail told her, and the parrot on his shoulder nodded his agreement.
Cooper continued to do nothing but stare at the spot Riley had just left. Would this be the last place she’d see Riley alive, she wondered? Then she told Ellis to go and both dragons leapt into the air
Cooper felt the sudden rush of wind in her ears as they dove toward the ground. Then Ellis tugged the reins of his dragon, and both colossals spread their wings and rose back into the sky, spiraling around the building as they climbed.
“Tell them we’re coming.” Ellis called over his shoulder.
She already had.
“Great, because the guards know we have nothing left to throw at them but insults.” Malthus tapped back.
They turned a corner and Cooper saw the broken footbridge dangling from its moorings.
“Tell them to jump out of the building and we’ll catch them.” Ellis told her.
“Is he crazy?” Acadia asked when Malthus repeated this.
“Cooper says, the Skymen practice doing it all the time.” Malthus shrugged.
“Well, if we stay here, we’re dead.” Mayat replied grabbing Acadia’s hand and leading them toward the window at a sprint.
Three bodies flung themselves out of the tower. Both dragons adjusted their flight slightly so they were directly underneath them. Then Cooper’s beast made a lunging motion that almost threw her off its back.
When she checked under its wing, she saw Acadia caught in its talons. Mayat and Malthus had been caught by Ellis’ dragon.
They found the roof of a nearby building to drop them.
“I once knew a pair of crinks as crazy as you.” A breathless Acadia admired on unsteady feet. “Looks like you're cut from the same cloth.”
She gave him a tired but grateful smile.
“The bravado can wait.” The always critical Mayat interrupted.
