Even while dying, the hunter didn’t become visible. I glared down at the blood spreading over the hunter’s torso. It was only when the liquid covered his stomach that I could even make out his midsection. A gust of wind sent a spray of loose, foul-smelling pollen from the trees up over him. I made out the outline of a massive hunter splayed over a terrifying spider beast, crushed under the weight of its own rider.
“Blood and pollen are making them visible,” I yelled. My cry was lost in the chaos as swords struck gauntlets and battle cries rose in the air.
Sen stared at me as I took a step away from the hunter while he spent his last few moments gasping for air. My body was covered in blood and bruises. Her wide eyes said everything. Maybe now she’ll tell the other arbiters how things are down here in the lower planes. When I looked around me in my brief reprieve, the sight of fighting filled my vision. Dorian expertly dodged something I couldn’t see, but it looked like he was dealing with two opponents. Bravi was near him, striking the space around her with sharp slices. The vampires were having an easier time with hearing the warriors in the grass and sensing their darkness. She cried out in victory as her hooked cord strangled the power out of an escaped mount, judging from the way the cord wrapped around a bulky figure. The makers, wildlings, and vampires had better senses than I did.
“I can try to work my own spells on these creatures to make them visible, or I can give you directions,” Sen told me, “but not both.” For a moment, she looked as if she might reach out to grab me urgently. Clearly, the battle had broken through some of her detachment. She waved a hand over the body of the fallen hunter beside me, magically revealing him and the beast beneath him. Their colors, dark and covered in blood, made the battle feel realer. I looked but found no gem blasters or other long-range weapons on them.
I weighed my options. We needed to make the hunters visible, but if Sen stopped giving me directions, I would get killed. There had to be a way to have both. I touched the necklace around my throat. It might exhaust me to use it, but it would be worth it if our team were able to see the hunters.
“I’ll figure something out,” I told her, gripping my knife.
Bravi snarled several yards away from me. She had an angry new cut over her eyebrow, but luckily the sword had missed her actual eye.
“We need pairs,” she shouted to our group. “Fight back to back. Makers and wildlings, grab a vampire. The hunters are sending their mounts from one side while they attack from the other.” Her cord came back into her crossbow with a satisfying click.
“I have bad news,” Sen said and stared at the forest’s edge. “I see that there are more… I believe we’re surrounded.” Frustration and adrenaline filled me. We’d held our own so far, but facing another wave might overwhelm us completely.
“Fantastic.” I spat blood onto the ground. I’d bitten the hell out of my cheek during that last tussle. I scanned the trees where the hunters hid. “Sen, I’d like you to keep giving me directions. Don’t bother with your spells. I’ve got an idea.” If I could reveal the hunters before they attacked, then our job promised to be easier. I raised my gaze to the treetops, finding them bright with yellow pollen. That was my best bet.
“Sen. How much will a gust of wind cost me?” I asked urgently, tapping my necklace.
She blinked. “I’m not sure what the constraints of your human body are in this plane’s conditions.”
“Will I pass out?” I was far from our strongest fighter, but maybe I could bring an advantage to the battle. She shook her head. “Great. I’m going to kick up the pollen before the next wave arrives. Let’s coat these guys in something visible.”
In the distance, a redbill cried out. Gem blasts filled the air back on the other side of the battle. My heart thumped hard inside my chest. I narrowed my eyes, readying myself.
“A dozen more,” Sen warned me. “Bigger and angrier than the last.”
I concentrated, just as I had in the Higher Plane. At first, a tiny electric shock surged through my neck. I flinched, but nothing followed except a strange rush of cool air. My skin prickled with goosebumps. It’s working! All that training had paid off. A wave of exhaustion passed through me as the wind whipped up around us. It was an unnatural sensation, the pressure of the moving air heavy on my skin. I waved my hand in the air, summoning the wind toward me with a smooth movement. It was easier to attach the intention of my magic with a movement. I hoped my hand would guide the breeze well.
Bravi stopped in her tracks. Her eyes had been on me as I maneuvered a gentle gust of wind into the oncoming hunters. I couldn’t fight the victorious grin that splayed across my face when my wind caught the disturbed pollen and it rose up as a giant, bright yellow cloud. It coated our oncoming enemies perfectly.
I gripped two knives in my hands, preparing myself for the onslaught. Our teammates rushed around to touch their vampire gauntlets to the fallen hunters to quickly absorb energy. Gauntlets glowed with power. Now that we could see them, the energy could be readily used. A maker fired as he charged forward with a vampire. The vampire, a female with a shaved head, caught the hunter easily with her grappling hook and yanked him off the spider.
Metal clashed against metal. Cannon blasts thundered in the background. I rushed forward to meet a hunter head-on, using the dust-covered head of his anachrin as a springboard onto the creature’s back. It wailed painfully and trembled, jerking us violently to the left. The hunter and I tumbled off the beast. I managed to smack my bracer against his sword and then sank a knife into his neck.
Meanwhile, Sen calmly walked across the field, since I no longer needed her directions. She worked her magic, unmasking all the fallen hunters with a calm air. Bravi shot her an incredulous look but shrugged and kept on smashing her fist into the face of a hunter.
One of the mechanical jaspeths was down, but the other flitted toward me. I spotted Levonia, the wounded maker, sitting nearby on the wall. Her face had paled considerably. She’d been struck worse than we’d thought.
“Can you take her to safety?” I called to the wildling. “Get her to the medics and come right back.” He nodded and helped the large maker onto the back of his machine. They dashed over the wall. I turned to see another oncoming hunter, who’d lost his mount somewhere. I braced for an attack, but a gauntlet blast slammed into his side, causing him to stumble. Dorian cast me a wicked grin, exhilarated despite his bruises and cuts. He lifted his gauntlet to show me he’d grabbed one somewhere along the way.
I surveyed the field. Eight hunters and nine mounts remained. One hunter surveyed us from afar, close to the tree line. Her pollen-covered braid fluttered in the breeze. Were there more? She looked as if she were waiting for something.
I squinted, but then Bravi clicked something in her ear. It was the same action I made to use Bureau comms. They must have fashioned their own devices, taking inspiration from Bureau technology.
“Reshi, I need more makers,” Bravi said. “Can you spare a few?”
Reshi’s voice responded, loud enough for me to hear. “You sent me back one injured. I’ll trade two, but come back and help us at the entrance as soon as you can.”
Eight hunters to go. I huffed. The fighting had already taken a toll on my body. I’d managed to take down a few hunters and make the others visible, but my breath came oddly strained. Sen continued uncloaking the bodies.
A hunter came for me, but Dorian at my side made the work easier. We fell into a dance. Our steps seemed to predict each other’s gestures. He went right; I went left. My movements caused my muscles to sing with pain, but I pushed past it.
I dodged behind Dorian as he released another blast and waited for the perfect moment as the hunter attempted to attack. Again, I went for the legs. This time, I used another gust of wind to send the spider mount off balance. My power both exhausted and enthralled me. Dorian ended the other hunter with two more blasts.
Two makers arrived with fully charged gauntlets, helping Bravi’s forces take down the res
t of the hunters. No more came out of the forest, I noted with relief. When the final hunter fell, her tell-tale braid landing limply in the dirt, we heaved sighs of relief.
“The entrance,” Bravi muttered as she caught her breath. Her sliced eye looked puffy and furious, but she could still see. She pressed the device in her ear. “Reshi, we’re headed back.”
“Hurry.” Reshi’s urgency made us break into a run. “They’ve just brought four more shrieking decays, and those awful tachni mounts. We need to clip some wings.” Her voice cut off as a cannon fired, no doubt from her own defense system.
I struggled to keep up with the others as we poured back through the secret entrance. I felt like I’d just run a marathon where the finish line ended with punches instead of high-fives from the awaiting crowd. This was so different from the comfortable stasis of the Higher Plane.
Sen caught my eye. “You can see that we spoke honestly when we warned you about using universal energy in the Immortal Plane. It may get easier with use, but perhaps it is fortunate that we rushed to join this fight,” she said, as if considering the idea in a new light. “It gave you the opportunity to test the effects in a low-stakes scenario.” Of course Sen would consider the opportunity for research to be the bright side of this battle.
It hurts like hell. I’d rarely felt such exhaustion, except maybe during our early, half-starved days of hiding from the Bureau. Those events seemed like they’d happened eons ago.
A few more skimmers had crashed into the courtyard since we’d left it. Fallen allies, a few dead but most thankfully only wounded, struggled to help one another. Two bodies of shrieking decays overwhelmed the field with the stink of rot. I covered my nose and watched as medics, marked by bright pink patches on their ratty vests, tended the wounded. A tent for the injured was being raised. Two makers waved their hands around the area, likely adding some type of ward to the top of the makeshift structure. Part of the barracks looked damaged, but it could have been much worse.
Still, the battle was on. A swarm of redbills hounded the last two skimmers in the air. One of the bat creatures screamed as Reshi’s defense system fired a gem blast into him. The watchtower added another cannon blast, effectively downing the beast. It careened to the ground with a ghostly, pained scream. I grimaced with sympathy as it struck the ground at a horrific angle. I hated hurting these animals, but it was either them or my allies.
Reshi’s defense system suddenly blinked out. She cursed, slapping the side of one of the columns. As she did, a remaining hulking beast on the ground let out a snarl. It was something akin to an ash wraith, except it appeared to be icy where the ash wraith was fiery. It pawed the ground with blue hooves and released a shriek from its sharp beak. The cry was accompanied by a terrible, frosty wind that blew down the middle of the camp. One of the medics attempted to pick up a wounded wilding in front of the gate. The medic gave a cry as he was caught in the blast, freezing partially to the ground as the icy breath passed over him.
We needed to get to the pair before the wraith had a chance to finish them off. I pumped my arms as I ran flat out, but the earth trembled again. I nearly careened into Sen.
The air rippled with power. A portal opened up just beside the charging wraith. Rainbow light poured from it. A hulking beast the size of a one-story building emerged from the portal and smashed into the wraith, ending its life with a snap of its bones.
The lumbering red beast grinned at our group.
Ruk’s lavender eyes glittered, making me smile in return. It was all I could manage as I gasped for air. Ruk dropped the wraith from one hand, and in one of his other several arms, he cradled a slumbering Aurora. The portal blinked out of existence as the field fell silent. Everyone stared at Ruk in a mixture of horror and shock.
“Miss me?” he asked, with his unmistakable sharp-toothed smile.
7
Lyra
I ran before I knew what I was doing. All that I saw was red and lavender. It was all I needed.
“I’m glad to see you keep your promises in the end,” I teased, grinning up at Ruk. His form was something akin to the ape-like humanoid figure he had in the sanitarium, but much larger. All around us was the smoldering wreckage of the battle, smoke drifting away to join the clouds. He regarded me with an amused but alert eye, then his body shrank to a more reasonable size. Still, he seemed a semi-giant to me, and he was able to cradle Aurora comfortably. My gaze landed on her, taking in her fragile but stable state. I was happy to see her outside of a glass stasis tank. Dorian joined me at my elbow, and I could tell exactly where his eyes were trained.
“You’ve healed her,” Dorian muttered, impressed.
“I’ve done what I could, but she’ll need a place to rest. We’ll have to see if what I did worked after she wakes up,” Ruk explained.
Ruk gently eased Aurora to the ground, but he didn’t release her. Her wide aquatic eyes fluttered open in a daze. She would need lots of rest. The battlefield was an unfortunate welcome for her, but she didn’t seem to register anything around her. Her eyes closed. I studied her. She was brighter in the Immortal Plane. I’d once thought her scales duller than they were in Ruk’s memories, but they shone with new health. Her limbs were longer, as if Ruk had to stretch her too fully all over to give her the legs she’d always wanted.
She was covered with a glimmer of gold dust, some remnant of magic left over from the Higher Plane. I heard someone inhale with surprise. Atop Aurora’s head, sloped like most aquatic wildlings, were a pair of feline ears. Her legs were long, catlike, and yet bipedal from the looks of it. A gem rested where her belly button would have been, above her old fish tail. It was the same shade of lavender as Ruk’s eyes.
Bravi cleared her throat loudly behind Dorian and me.
“I need answers, and I need them now. Who is this giant red monster, and why are you happy to see him?” I turned, broken from my spell of admiring the fully healed Aurora, to Bravi’s surly scowl. Reshi peered down at us, sitting on the ledge of the barrier wall. All around us, the Coalition stared.
Oh, we have a lot of catching up to do.
From behind Bravi’s back, Sen gave me a look of warning. Right. We couldn’t tell them exactly what had happened. Dorian gestured to Ruk, and I was more than happy to let him figure out what to say.
“He’s a friend,” he explained. “An ally, I promise. He’s going to help us.”
Bravi sucked air through her teeth. “I knew that the moment you trotted up to him.” She jerked her thumb in Sen’s direction. “But there’s a lot of explanation I need. I did like the heads-up about invisible troops, though.” Fair.
“He’s the Gate Maker. He and another ally came to help,” I said. Bravi stared, eyeing them both as Sen strode over to stand beside Ruk. From her perspective, I could see clearly how unusual this all looked.
Bravi was right to be skeptical, but there were still the wounded around. A group of vampires rushed over to help the frozen medic and the wounded wildling. I gestured to the camp.
“I can explain after we get everything settled,” I promised. Bravi scanned the field. Part of the camp’s wall had been destroyed. From here, we could see the tent where the medics were taking the wounded. She nodded in agreement after a beat.
“A full explanation,” she demanded. “I also want to pull in the others. Let’s get the rest of the generals into our war room so you only have to say it once. I’ll give you a tour of the place while we wait for them.” Her leadership was clear as she shouted orders. The able-bodied fighters scattered in a rush to follow her orders. She spoke into her comm, telling all generals to gather in the war room in an hour, unless they were doing necessary sweeps.
We got to work. With the enemies gone, the camp came to life. Lanterns sparked to illuminate the once-dim camp. I could see it clearly for the first time, and it was… astounding. The darkness had hidden much of the camp, a smart move to hide it from the hunters, but it was packed with people. I recognized the clear shapes of humans
in the distance, and my pulse raced. I’d spent so much time with supernatural beings that I’d nearly forgotten to expect how connected the Mortal and Immortal Planes were at this point.
Reshi walked up to join us. We gave her a happy greeting. She looked well, though tired. My hopes soared upon seeing the spark of action in her face. She gestured proudly with multiple hands to the entrance.
“It’s not usually smoldering,” Reshi said with a dry smirk. “It’s good to have you back. We’ve made some improvements.”
Bravi abruptly pressed her comm, listening intently. “Understood.” She turned her attention back to our tour as we stood at the entrance. “Arlonne’s out scouting with Charrek to make sure there are no more of your invisible attackers out there.”
Reshi caught my curious eye as I admired the comm. “Do you like them?” she asked, and turned her head to the side, showing off a much glitzier version of a comm piece than I was used to. “I’ve been very busy. Of course, my version only works over short distances, and we don’t have many.”
“I see that,” I said with an awed laugh. “You’ve really done some amazing work. Your defense system looked incredible.”
She glanced over at Bravi, who listened to another report from the comm device.
“Arlonne’s doing one last sweep, but she says everything seems clear,” Bravi reported.
“It is,” Sen confirmed.
Bravi gave her an annoyed but restrained glance. “Look, usually I need to clear any new creatures coming into camp, but since they’re with you guys, it’s different. They don’t need to go through processing now…”
Processing? Things had gotten a lot more structured since we’d left. I glanced around the entrance of the camp, seeing a human run by in Bureau-issued fatigues. He met the medic and another injured vampire. They hurried past us. Well, maybe they don’t need our help rounding up the wounded. I felt a bit superfluous, but it was a sight to behold. The Coalition camp unfurled like ants coming out of a hill to show their true numbers. My heart leapt into my throat. There were two people I hadn’t seen, though…
Darklight 7: Darkfall Page 6
