Blaze (The High-Born Epic) (33 page)

Chapter 28

             
Harold and Gabby appeared on the landing pad, and they both looked around.

             
“How many people can you take at the time,” Gabby asked.  “And how far can you go when you do that air-burn thing?”

             
“I shouldn’t have any trouble getting two or three people at the time from here to the woodline,” he said and pointed at the surrounding trees about 500 yards away.  “I would be afraid to try any more than that at that distance.”

             
“If we could find a gunship or something,” she said.  “We could put some of them in it and I could take them into the wilderness.”

             
“You can fly one of those things?” Harold asked.

             
“How do you think I got here?” she replied.

             
“I didn’t know,” he said.

             
“I can’t fly it perfectly,” she admitted.  “But I can do very good when I use my powers.”

             
“I’ll start taking them to the woods as soon as they get up here,” Harold said.

             
“I’ll stand guard while you get them there,” she replied.  “If I have to I can protect them with my air-shield.”

             
“Air-shield?” he asked.

             
“I can make the air around me hard,” she said.  “It’s difficult to explain, and I have to say that, until you hit me, nothing had ever broken through.”

             
“I’m glad I made such an impression,” he grinned.

             
“Don’t flatter yourself, hottie,” she smiled.  “You didn’t get all the way through.”

             
“I broke your helmet,” he said.

             
“You have no idea how hard that thing was to come by,” she said.  “I’m still mad at you about that.  It was a helmet from the Old World, and I could actually wear it, unlike the buckets that these High-Born put on their heads.  I think it was made for Low-Born.”

             
They continued looking around as they heard the elevator nearing the top.

             
“I’m going to go ahead and get started,” Harold said.  “There’s close to 700 kids down there.”

             
“I know,” she sighed.  “I have absolutely no idea what we’re going to with them.”

             
“The lake was in that direction,” Harold pointed to the southwest.  “We’ll have to get them there before we can do anything else.”

             
“Agreed,” she said.

             
“When they get up here,” he said.  “Get them to the trees as fast as you can.  I’ll take a couple of the older ones first, and then I’ll get the smallest ones while you bring the others.”

             
She nodded and watched Harold flash out of sight.  He quickly reappeared with Deanna and Christie.  He glanced at the treeline and disappeared again.  After a few seconds, he reappeared, and jumped down into the elevator which was just about twelve feet from the top.  He quickly found two of the little ones and was gone.  By the time he returned, Gabby was already making the children jog towards the woods.

             
As the children ran, many of them shot glances back behind them.  Gabby was there motioning them on, keeping them herded as best as she could.  The knight began banging in and out of sight, snatching running children here and there like a hungry hawk.  After about ten quick trips, he could almost sense something was wrong.  As he put down a little boy and girl about Maggie’s age, he turned just in time to see a pair of High-Born missiles coming from behind Gabby and the running children.  Just beyond them, he could see the ripples of about four or five High-Born gunships from above the treeline.  He didn’t know what he was going to do, but flames covered the knight as he thundered towards the danger.

             
He expected to be pulverized by missiles when he appeared, but instead he found Aireon standing defiantly with her outstretched hands pointing at the missiles.  He looked back at them, and saw that their direction had changed.  Their contrails were headed back towards the outline of the cloaked gunships. 

             
He looked back at Aireon and her hands seemed to dance to some unheard music. 

             
He could see that the gunships were beginning to maneuver to get away from the missiles, but Aireon shouted and snatched her hands.  The missiles moved faster and both exploded as something that looked like sparks shot out of the gunships.  However, the missiles’ ensuing explosion was close enough to send both gunships lurching out of control. 

             
Then, three more gunships opened up with their rail cannons.

             
Aireon stepped toward the gunships, and lowered her head while flinging her palms forward and a strange shimmer appeared in the air in front of her.  The knight watched in amazement as rail spikes ricocheted in every direction from the odd ripple in the air.  Then, he saw six more missiles flying towards them.

             
“Take them out,” Aireon shouted as she grunted with effort.

             
Flames crackled and popped in the knight’s palms and he stepped forward.  Two, billowing clouds of raging fire joined into one and roared towards the missiles.  They detonated nearly simultaneously and pieces of shrapnel struck Aireon’s air-shield as a wall of fire surged towards them.  It moved so fast that the knight reacted with pure instinct, but he pulled on the fire, and then pushed on it.

             
The flames swirled around and leaped back towards the gunships.  He focused on the fire, and formed it into a narrow cylinder of incinerating power that struck another gunship, and cut through it as easily as his sword could cut cloth.  The rail spikes were still slamming into her air-shield, and he could see that she was under significant strain.

             
“Save one of the gunships,” she shouted.  “Destroy the other one.”

             
As the knight drew his sword, flames rolled down it, and he blinked out of sight.  He appeared in the cockpit of one of the gunships, and began hacking and slashing through the High-Born pilots who did not even have a chance to defend themselves.  He quickly air-burned to the other one, and slew the co-pilot.  Then, he put his sword up the throat of a shocked High-Born pilot.

             
“Stop shooting,” he said.

             
The knight saw the rail spikes flying from beneath him suddenly stop.  He looked beyond Aireon, and could see that she had saved the children from death, because they were in the direct path of the High-Born barrage.  Most of them were still running toward the woodline.

             
“Fly us to them, and land,” the knight half-growled at the High-Born.  The pilot nodded and pushed on the control stick.  The gunship began moving towards Aireon and the children.  As they flew towards them, she motioned for the children to continue running towards the woods.  After a few moments, it touched down just a few steps from her.  He looked beyond her and could see the first of the running children begin to enter the forest. 

             
When the forest had swallowed last of them, Aireon turned and walked towards the cockpit.  She glared at the pilot as her blonde hair danced around, and soon she stepped into the vehicle.

             
“Show me how to disable the tracking device,” she said to the pilot.

             
He regarded her from underneath his tinted visor and nodded.  She sat in the co-pilot’s seat while the knight held his sword toward the High-Born.  He began pressing symbols on the glowing green control panel in front of him while she watched.  He went through several screens of information and text before he finally stopped.

             
“Here it is,” he said.

             
With a few quick touches, she backed herself out of the screens to the original screen.  Then she went forward through all of the screens that he did, and she disabled the gunship’s tracking device. 

             
As she asked the pilot questions, the knight walked outside.

             
He looked around, muscles and flames tense and ready for battle.  Even though nothing caught his immediate attention, he could not shake the feeling that this fight was not over.  While he watched for the threat of attack, he listened to Aireon question the pilot about various controls and the gunship’s cloaking system.  As they talked, he found it hard to believe that at the same time the day before, he had been a mere farm boy.  And now he was the flaming terror of all High-Born.  He knew they would be coming for him soon, but that was fine.

             
He wanted them to come.

             
He glared at the building.  The fires were beginning to subside now, and it was mostly just smoke billowing from it.  He wondered how many children over the years had passed through its walls.  He wondered how many had become slaves of various kinds because of it.  He wondered how many had been experimented upon because of that building.

             
Thunder rumbled and the knight appeared near the flames on the western side of the building.  He reached for the flames and they began increasing in intensity.  He flicked his hand to one side and a flurry of flames leaped from the blaze and a dozen more fires sprung to life.  He air-burned into the center of the building and called to his flames.

             
He flung out his hands and snaking jets of fire shot down the hallways.  He spun around and spirals of flames twisted around causing more fires to erupt here and there.  He disappeared again and reappeared several stories below where he had just been.  He brought up both arms and opened his palms.  Fires exploded all around him and he began air-burning from one part of the building to the next.  In but a few minutes, the entire building was ablaze, and the water and foam spewing forth from the walls and ceilings did little to slow the onslaught of The Blazing Knight.

             
After just a few minutes, he flashed back into existence beside the gunship.  Gabby walked out of the gunship and looked at him and then back to the building.  She turned back to him and nodded.  The building was a raging inferno that was beginning to collapse.

             
“No more children’s prison, huh?” she smiled.

             
“Nope,” the knight said as a section of the building fell.  “Not anymore.”

             
“I’ve just about figured out how to pilot this thing,” Gabby said and walked inside of the gunship.  “Let’s start getting the children onto it, and I’ll start taking loads of them to the lake you’re talking about.”

             
“I’ll stay and guard the children here,” he said as she pushed on the control stick.

             
“Will you please do something with the trash?” she motioned with her head towards the High-Born pilot.

             
Harold stepped to him and they both vanished in a flash.

             
Gabby was landing the gunship near the treeline when Harold reappeared.  Deanna and Christie walked out of the woods with several dozen of the smaller children in a line in between them.  Harold motioned towards the door and turned back towards the flaming building.  As the children hurriedly entered the gunship, he scanned the area for threats.

             
“Take the kids deeper into the forest,” Gabby said.  “I’ll be back for y’all pretty soon.”

             
After a couple of minutes, the gunship became invisible and lifted off the ground.  Soon, it was gone and Harold walked to just inside of the woods.  There were children loitering around all over. 

             
He took a deep breath.

             
“Everyone get into lines,” he shouted and pointed deeper into the woods.  “We’ve got to start walking that way!”

             
As the children ran about, he began organizing them into lines.  Just as the lines were nearly finished, he heard something.  He looked towards the flaming building and pushed fire into his ears as he took up a position behind the nearest tree.  With fire in his eyes, he peered across the open area and above the tree tops.  His enhanced hearing picked up the most insignificant of sounds: the breathing of the children, the popping of the flames burning down the compound, a far off bird call.  Little escaped his senses.  But he could hear something that bothered him.