Chapter 42

Chapter

Forty-Two

" T he ward is down," Selene announces softly, her eyes shifting across the sky.

99 quickly guides me by the elbow away from the growing flames and toward the others. "Why is it down?"

"Crixa is dead. The ward is gone with her," I explain slowly, the reality of both of those truths taking hold of me.

99 keeps his side pressed to mine, but I can sense a pull from him as he anxiously waits to gather all the information before he begins shouting orders to the Viathans that are still standing at the ready.

"We need to place another one," I say to Selene, hoping she knows how.

The ward Crixa maintained was in place long before I knew her.

"From what I know, they have to be performed in the main temple. I have seen one ritual, but that was many years ago. I do not know if the same prayer books for such a thing are still kept there."

"So we move to the main temple. Calliape will take Leema to the Viathan ship." 99 jumps into action.

"No." Leema's hand grasps mine. "I am not separating from Ferren. We stay together."

"If you do not want to be in a sky ship, I can take you to the safe house," Calliape offers.

"Thank you, but I am not leaving my sister."

"Are you sure?" I whisper only for Leema's ears.

She nods and gives me a flat smile.

"I have a book that may help as well," Calliape cuts in. "I have not looked at them all, but there is a chapter on warding spells."

Selene opens her mouth to say something, likely an overbearing objection to Calliape's suggestion, but 99 cuts her off. "Good, go to the safe house to gather that and August. We will meet you in the main temple," he says.

The bell tower begins its warning toll, the smoke from the temple's fire finally noticed by others. Soon, this entire area will be surrounded by people trying to extinguish it.

"We should go," I announce, then look to Calliape. "I will see you soon."

With a single nod, she disappears.

But then another sound rises over the burning temple and echoing chime of the bell tower.

A deafening bass wails, making its presence known.

I did not know Leema was still holding my hand until the rumbling sound makes her whole body jump, and she pulls away from our joined palms to cover her head and belly as the noise roars on a long, continuous note.

99 is moving us before I even look at him, ushering me and my sister under the roofed portion of the courtyard.

He bellows incomprehensible orders to the other Viathans, gesturing wildly to them over the deep, booming howl in the sky.

They crisscross around us into formation, guns drawn, some speaking into the comms on their forearms.

A shadow moves above, higher than the fiery temple steeples. It blots out the clouds as it cuts through, the flames casting an angry reflection on the underside of its surface.

It's as large as the Viathan fleet ship but the sound is different, as if it's welling up and gathering all of the energy around it to a single point.

99's body is over mine, pinning me roughly to the ground as he screams into his forearms above my head.

When I turn to the side, I see Selene and another commander hovering over my sister, protecting and covering her as much as she will let them.

She finally lies on the ground on her side, when Selene yells for the commander to get back.

Leema looks at me with such terror and confusion that bile rises in my throat, getting stuck from the pressure of 99 against me.

I reach for her, wanting to feel her hand in mine again, but before I do, the sound cuts out, and her gasp is all I hear before the entire sky is lit up as if it were day.

It's a strange version of dawn with unnatural light, the hue the same as the greenhouse enclosure for the Frithian flower, cold and blurring.

I see it then, the underbelly of a giant First Son sky ship.

99 grabs my outreached hand, tucking it tightly into my side and pressing down into me, bracing for whatever happens next.

I can hear him whispering to me, but then my ears pop and the light that fills the space concentrates into a single circle.

It shoots out from the ship, a brilliant white with tiny, frizzy hairs dancing around the middle beam, lightning dancing wildly on the concentrated center.

The impact is an explosion of stone and glass.

The streak was pointed on the far side of the Estate, where the Viathan ship rests.

"Move, move, move!" 99 yells as he hoists me up from our spot.

We are rushed into the Estate, Viathans at our front and sides, sheltering me, my sister, and Selene in an armored shield.

99 stops in the first solid doorway, spinning to face me with heaving shoulders.

"How did they arrive so fast?" I pant.

"That ship was likely already here, cloaked and waiting until the conjunction. When it sensed the ward was gone . . ."

"Sir, it is clear ahead," a commander says, interrupting us.

"Radio Lord General to deploy the fleet toward the main temple!" He looks back down at me. "Is there another way to put the ward back up?"

"I don't know," I say.

This is my doing. I should have known that killing Crixa would have an effect on Cosima that would ripple outward, growing and endangering everyone. She said that Cosima would fall if I did not heal her.

"Look at me, Ferren. This is a First Son attack. We are prepared for it, but we need to get those wards up, alright?"

I nod, shaking myself out of thoughts that will not serve me right now. We need to get to the temple to place the ward again, to keep them from taking the entire Estate.

First Son soldiers are here for the stones kept in that very temple. I wish Leema had gone with Calliape, but I am not sure where it would be safest for her.

"That is not the fastest way to the temple. Tell your commanders to follow me," I order, pointing in another direction.

99 nods and squeezes my shoulder. "You will lead the way from the middle, Priestess."

The moment we all take off in the correct direction, another explosion rings out into the Estate, shaking the stone building like an indignant conjunction tremor.

I ask Leema if she is ok, but she only nods, struggling to keep pace with her rounded belly and billowing dress.

Selene gathers up the skirt for her and runs along beside. "We will need an elder to help put the wards back in place!"

I glance over at her. "You would be an elder priestess, Selene. You will have to do the ritual unless Calliape's spell book has another way. The rest are likely fighting."

"I will do it," she says definitively.

I instruct 99 which direction is best as we move through the Estate, the sounds growing more threatening as we get closer to the temple. The halls are empty, as every Estate and Viathan guard previously stationed here is moving to the epicenter of the conflict.

As we enter the heart of the Estate, rushing down the last corridor in this wing, a giant, dark figure steps into our way at the end, blocking our path.

The person is at least seven feet tall, completely black and made of shadow.

The commanders in the front drop to one knee and unleash their weapons while we tuck ourselves into any cover provided by the fancy furniture within the corridor.

All but Selene. She stands with the other commanders, raising her arm and sending a powerful gust of wind to pair with the barrage of gunfire.

The shadow figure dissipates into thin air as if he were never full and opaque in front of us.

There is no time to ask what that thing was, if it was human at all. But I know for certain I have seen one just like it before . . . on Frith.

I can feel 99 confirm the same thought through our tether.

Another bright light comes in from the stained-glass windows around us, like a strange sun illuminating. The sound of the Estate being struck comes after it, a crushing, shaking explosion.

"There is no other way," I say, pointing in the direction that leads to the grand hall where most of the chaos echoes from.

The closer we come to breaching the corridor, the more my stomach twists.

The two commanders in front turn back, signaling to 99 an updated status of the path across the balcony ahead.

"Listen for me." He nudges our tether.

He stalks to the front of our group, leaving the commanders around us shuffling tighter around Selene and Leema.

"It will be ok. I promise," I say to Leema, but she looks so terrified, shut down and barely speaking.

We are ushered forward as if we are a single organism moving in unison. The commanders around us follow the subtle instructions from their 99th Commander.

The sounds of the grand hall in an all-out frenzy blend together in a deafening buzz.

Light streaks across the last archway in the hall we slowly travel down, 99 and two others moving with careful precision, leading us at the front.

The moment 99 steps out of our safe hallway and into the brighter torch light of the grand hall's open-air balcony, he raises his weapon.

The two guards on either side of him emit a stream of light from their guns as they move into position farther down to the next set of pillars.

They press their backs against the carved stone, waiting for the deadly reply to their presence to subside.

Chunks of the stone behind 99's back chip off as the First Son's weapons are unleashed at him.

I watch the almost synchronized back and forth of both sides trying to catch the other off guard.

99 pauses and aims down into the open space below like he will never tire.

"There are priestesses down there," Selene says to me.

I can hear them too, screaming to each other, to the Viathans they fight next to, and the sounds of them succumbing to First Son's weapons.

99 calls more Viathans from our group to help in their effort to clear the way, thinning our layer of protection.

It does nothing, the barrage of both sides continuing. My heart pounds into my left breast so hard that the sound of gunfire in my ears fluctuates from muffled to crisp and all-consuming with each beat.

He calls two more guards over, gesturing with his hand when it is clear, then a flat palm for someone to wait.

"Ferren, come now!" he says into the tether, making me jump.

I run toward him as they all open fire onto the story below, covering my movement. I keep going forward until I almost crash into 99's body positioned behind a thick stone pillar.

He lowers his weapon and tucks me in closer, pressing my back against the stone. There is not enough room to stand side by side, so he stacks us, determined to cover me.

"We cannot safely move! The platform by that large painting—" he says.

"Yes." I know which one he is speaking of without looking.

"They are condensed there! Priestesses and an injured Viathan are behind the left stairwell!" he yells over more incoming fire.

He looks down at me, sending me something through the tether that I cannot pinpoint, an emotion or warmth without a name.

I nod, knowing what I have to do and how I can help.

99 spins me, pushing my front against the stone and pinning me in a cage of armor with his pelvis and thighs. "Do not hold back, Priestess."

The sound of his gun clicking then whirling to life makes me lean away. He does the same in the opposite direction around the pillar, peeking out and letting fire rain down.

What I see when I look down shocks me. The entire grand hall is ripped apart with holes. Furniture has been moved and tapestries ripped from the walls.

Dark figures litter the floor, bodies of the fallen enemy eliciting no emotion from me until I see the priestesses scattered among them.

"Ferren!" 99's booming voice cuts over the chaos. He doesn't have to say anymore. I know exactly what he wants.

I lean out farther, stabilized and protected by 99. I scan the lower level and see where they are focusing the majority of their efforts.

Weapons alone cannot cover all of the enemies present or perhaps even touch the shadow figures I can only faintly see, hiding and waiting for their chance to get closer.

I lift my hands and muster all the rage still present in the deep well within me.

An orb of bright green refuses to be held back, stinging my fingertips and urging me to let go. I push it outward, hurling it down into a group of First Son's soldiers.

The sound of impact shakes beneath us, a green explosion with streaks of Viathan light accompanying it to its destination.

When the debris settles, and my light flickers out from the spot I sent my energy to, the platform is gone, as if the barricade where the enemy held an advantage was never there at all.

I notice the Viathan guard and priestess by the giant stone stairwell, hiding and waiting for clearance to run to safety. Her arm is badly twisted, and both of them hold his bloody side where he has been hit.

I twist farther out from the pillar, trying to get a better view. If they come out from their hiding space, they will die at the hands of the few First Son soldiers still littered in hidden spots below, waiting to pick off those who remain, willing to fight until they perish.

"Stay behind!" 99 says when he feels me move, angling myself out from the protection of cover.

"I can help!" I shout, determination taking over. I cannot stand by and let another attack on the Estate end with people dying when I could have used my gifts to save them.

I wiggle out of the safety of the stone pillar and 99 as he tells me once more to stay put, and the enemy spots me immediately and unleashes all that they have in my direction.

I send out a shield so large, the entire space lights up, casting a wall of impenetrable protection in front of the stairwell.

Viathans from another corridor rush out into the grand hall and collect the injured, while I feel the pricking sensation on my palms of unrelenting weapons firing against my light.

"Move them across the balcony, Commander! I can hold it and now is their best chance." I turn slightly to make sure 99 heard me.

He curses but does not hesitate to wave the rest of our party across the open balcony walkway, gesturing for them to cross behind the safety of my shield.

I can feel the sweat on my brow, exhausted from holding my light at its full strength for so long.

They cross with their escorts still surrounding them, Leema ducking a little, sinking into herself instinctively as the sound of more fire explodes with the promise of more targets in sight.

"Move!" 99 calls out.

He pulls my shoulder, turning me to follow him. I step slowly backwards with his guidance until we are out of the crossfire and fully into the next hallway.

I dissolve my light with a frustrated snarl that I could not send the last of it into the enemy in one last fatal orb.

99 turns me by my shoulder to look in my eyes. "I do not expect blind Viathan obedience from you, but do not scare me like that again," he scolds in his 99th Commander voice and ushers us deeper until we meet the others in the next corridor.

"I'm sorry." I stop and take a gasping breath at the perfectly intact altar of First Mother, the flowers I put here days ago starting to wilt.

"Do not be, but you must tell me when you are doing something like that. We work together." He grips my jaw as I nod.

"I will."

"Good, now lead us to the temple, Priestess."