Ominous Odyssey (Overworld Chronicles Book 13) (3 page)

"It might be worthwhile to find out more." Thomas pulled out the holographic map.

"You want us to infiltrate their basecamp?" I said.

He nodded. "Any information on this Voltis could be vital, and we need it before tomorrow."

Elyssa pounded a fist on her chest in the Templar salute. "Yes, sir."

A smile flickered on her father's face before he saluted her back. "Well met, Templar."

I held up my hands. "Whoa, now. How in the world are we supposed to slip through enemy lines? There are hundreds of Brightlings soldiers guarding that beachhead."

Thomas shook his head. "Actually, the number of troops based there have been decreasing steadily over the past week, according to Kohval." He flicked the holographic map away and replaced it with a video recorded with the ubiquitous magic gems the Seraphim used for everything. In the video, dozens of soldiers at a time boarded cloudlets that rose into the air and floated away to the north.

"It seems as though the Brightlings are moving troops north to Guinesea and then due east to the continent of Ijolica." Thomas flicked back to the map and indicated the continent that in our realm would be called Africa. In Seraphina, the body of land was probably half the size of the one in Eden since the lower half had fallen into the ocean.

"They must be pretty confident that we'll accept the non-aggression pact." Elyssa traced a finger on the map. "Why would they go to Ijolica?"

"Kohval's spies haven't discovered the reason." Thomas stared at the map. "I would ask his spies about Voltis, but I don't trust them any more than I trust him."

"It's really sad to find out that the people you thought would help preserve Pjurna are just a bunch of jackasses." I sighed. "Well, if anyone could plan an infiltration, it'd be you two."

Just the thought of trying to plan the operation myself gave me a headache.

I ended up sitting around while father and daughter bonded over shop talk—namely how best to sneak into an enemy encampment without getting our heads chopped off. My girlfriend was essentially a ninja, which made her father the ninja leader. Elyssa had taught me a lot, but I couldn't hope to learn in months what she'd trained for since learning to walk.

We went over the plan until I started to go cross-eyed from boredom. There was nothing overly complicated about it, but Templars don't like leaving anything to chance. We wouldn't start until after dark, so that left us some time to kill. It was a good thing, because I was starving.

"I don't feel welcome here," I informed Elyssa as we walked outside in the warmer valley air.

Darkling soldiers cast suspicious glances and angry glares our way as we strolled through the training grounds. One of them spat, "Zhuka!" as she walked past with a group of other soldiers, and they burst into laughter.

My face burned with anger and heat blossomed in my clenched fists. Elyssa grabbed my arm. "Don't let them get to you."

"They just called us zhukas!" I growled.

Elyssa's eyes looked up as if trying to recall something. "I don't know that word."

Having spent more time in Seraphina than she had, I knew all too well what it meant. "They're these cute little animals that look like golden foxes."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"A zhuka is the female," I continued. "Essentially, it's the Cyrinthian version of bitch."

"Assholes!" Elyssa bared her teeth and still managed to look beautiful while doing it.

I stopped her and ran my hand over her smooth fair cheek. "Don't let them get to you, babe."

She pressed her hand to mine. "You know, maybe we should concentrate on finding a way home and let the Seraphim sort out their own issues."

A part of me would have liked nothing better, but the other part was too stubborn to let go. "I promised Flava and Nightliss I'd see this through."

"How?" she asked. "We don't have the support of either remaining legion, we still have to rebuild the capital city and rehabilitate hundreds of citizens Cephus mutated into fighters. On top of that, our own forces are still recovering from the war and the shock of being trapped in another realm."

"We'll build a new army."

She put her hands on her hips. "How long do you think that'll take? A year? Ten?"

"As long as it takes." I'd spent nearly every waking moment thinking about how to fight the Brightlings, but I hadn't realized we'd get so much resistance from the very people we were trying to help. "I'm just worried that Kohval might do something stupid."

A phalanx of soldiers ran right into us, bouncing us between bodies and leaving us stunned and grabbing each other for balance after they jogged past, laughing.

My inner demon rattled the bars to its cage and demanded release. I almost let it. "Would it be bad if I roughed them up a little?"

Elyssa's face turned crimson. "Idiots! Can't they see we're here to help?"

"I think Kohval made it pretty clear we're unwanted outsiders." I pounded a fist into my palm. "None of these soldiers fought Cephus. None of them saw the sacrifices we made for Pjurna. If only they knew."

"Let's get out of here," Elyssa said. She took my hand and we hastily left the military zone and entered the village that had grown larger over the centuries as the soldiers of the Victrix Legion realized this valley would be their permanent home. Organically curved and twisted buildings were in the minority in this military town, rectangles and domes dominating the landscape instead.

A small blue dome was our home away from home away from home. We went inside and freshened up, then went back out for dinner.

Seraphim didn't kill animals for meat and relied on a diverse array of fruits and vegetables to supply their nutritional needs. As such, their restaurants didn't offer a stunning variety of meals, if you could even call the eating establishments restaurants. There were no wait staff, no chefs—just you, an array of edibles, and a preparation alcove.

"Glurk and panari, or panari and glurk?" Elyssa mused as she looked over the food lining the crystal shelves. "Or how about quinto-marinated cruna?"

I sighed. "I'm getting sick to death of glurk. I'm gonna try something new." I grabbed a white vegetable labeled
bruk
, and an ear of
chlub
because it looked exactly like corn. I chucked it in a small black crystal box—an angel microwave oven—and charged the gem on the side with aether.

A moment later, the box opened and the steaming entrée emerged, bruk neatly sliced, its insides moist and fleshy like chicken. Elyssa took the same items and relied on me to charge the gem to the prep box while she grabbed utensils.

The seating area was crowded with military types mingling with civilians and children, but we managed to find seats near the back.

"You have funny eyes," a little girl said in Cyrinthian as she stared at Elyssa. "They look like Murk."

Elyssa seemed uncertain how to respond. "Uh, thanks."

The mother grabbed her child by the arm and whispered angrily at her.

I exchanged an eye roll with Elyssa and dug into my food.

"Tastes like chicken," Elyssa commented as she ate a slice of bruk.

I chewed the bruk and agreed with her assessment. It was a nice change from glurk, but like everything here, something was off. "I want pizza and a hamburger."

"Then I guess we'd better find a way to get home." Elyssa's wary eyes studied the crowd. "We're getting a lot of looks."

"That's nothing new," I muttered. I finished off my meal and we left, strolled back down the pedestrium in the deepening dusk. "I hope Adam and Shelton are making progress."

"Somehow, I think decrypting the data gems Cephus and his researchers left behind is going to be a monumental task." Elyssa stopped at the seamless outer wall of our lodgings and waited for me to charge the gem. "I feel so helpless here. I can't even open a door without you."

I sent a spark of Murk into the gem and the outer wall misted away into an opening so we could enter. I took a step forward into the dark house and my senses tingled. Elyssa threw up her arms defensively and blocked a blow from an unseen assailant.

We tried to back up but a dozen masked people swarmed from hiding and surrounded us. Before I could come up with a witty comment, the soft whizz of projectiles caught my attention. I ducked and weaved, narrowly avoiding small crystal burrs.

One smacked an attacker in the face mask and they went down like a sack of wet dog poo. Elyssa reached over her shoulders for the sai swords she wasn't wearing. I tried to stop, drop, and roll my way past the burrs, but one of them stung my neck. The last thing I saw was Elyssa falling to the ground next to me, lips peeled back in anger, but her eyes slowly filling with hopelessness as the knockout agent dragged us into unconsciousness.

I jerked awake, a brilliant moon lighting a small glade in the forest as if it were daylight. Looking down, I quickly realized I was bound to a tree by a sheet of ultraviolet energy that hugged my body like shrink wrap all the way up to the shoulders. Elyssa was bound similarly against a tree to my left. Before me stood a dozen masked people. I felt certain they weren't Brightlings sent by Arturo to kill me, because I'd already be dead. Infiltrating a heavily guarded military town would also be nigh impossible for such a large group.

One of the masked people spoke, her gender evident from the sound of her voice. "You will accept the peace offer from Arturo or you and your mate will die, Slade."

I flicked on my demon vision so I could view the magical spectrum and saw golden halos surrounding each of the dozen Seraphim. More than half were female. Four of them were channeling the magic restraining me and Elyssa. I planned to say no, but first I let them know that I knew what was up. "Kohval sent you."

"We will release you and hold your mortal," the woman said. "When you do as we ask, she will be spared and released."

I gauged my audience. "Tell me, do you want a unified Seraphina with equal rights for all? By agreeing to a cease-fire, you'll be giving that up." They looked at each other—comical really, since they all wore facemasks and couldn't see expressions. As my query rippled through them, I took the opportunity to draw in aether.

Before I'd journeyed up here to meet with Kohval, I'd fed my demon and Seraphim side from the humans we'd brought with us. What these Seraphim likely didn't know was that human soul essence amplifies Seraphim magic. How or why, and if it would be enough to defeat a dozen Darklings, I didn't know. The only certain thing was that I wasn't leaving Elyssa alone with a bunch of hooligans.

I imagined a thin layer of Murk rising from the pores of my skin, slipping the energy beneath the enemy bonds.

"You will agree to peace," the sera—a female Seraphim—repeated stubbornly. "Sign the treaty and leave us forever."

I showed her my teeth. "How about you let us go right now, and I won't subject you to an ass beating?" The term didn't translate well into Cyrinthian, and several of our kidnappers looked at their backsides, probably wondering why I'd focus on their bottoms.

"You will not beat our asses," she replied. "You will submit."

"No," I said, and amped my power draw. "I won't." With that final declaration, I sent a burst of energy from my skin and against the barrier. Two Darklings cried out and stumbled backwards as I overpowered them. Before anyone could react, I knelt and fired off two fist-sized blasts of Murk at the pair holding Elyssa's bonds. She slumped to the ground, still unconscious.

I didn't have time to pause, so I rolled right to avoid return fire and dove right into the middle of our captors. As predicted, none of them dared fire magic or their sleeping burrs while they might hit their comrades. I relied on fisticuffs instead of magic, delivering a crushing uppercut to the closest masked menace, spinning and driving a foot into the solar plexus of someone charging from behind.

A sweep of my foot took down two attackers. I punished them with blows to the head to keep them down then focused a double-fisted blow to the chest of a third. Someone gripped my neck from behind. I flipped them over my shoulder and conked them on the noggin. There were still too many for me to take out, so I took the low road and grabbed the sera who'd threatened me.

Wrapping my arm around her neck, I dragged us out of the fray and channeled a thin spike of blazing white Brilliance, holding it near her temple. "Stop fighting or I'll kill her," I growled.

The conscious attackers backed off, hands up.

"Take him, you fools!" the feisty sera ordered. "Let me die if you must!"

"Nah, ah, ah." I jerked her back another foot as the others slowly came at me. "If you even try, I'll use deadly force on all of you." I nodded at their unconscious friends. "So far, I've been merciful."

The sera elbowed me hard. My breath oofed out and I nearly lost my grip on her, but I'd endured worse. Resisting the urge to punch her, I bound her in strands of sticky Murk and dropped her on the ground. My right hand heated as I forged a blazing sword of Brilliance. The cold of creation enveloped my left arm, forming a thick shield.

"Fight me and die. Surrender and live." I bared my teeth. "Your choice, zhukas."

"Fight him!" the sera screamed, bucking and writhing against her bonds. "He is our only chance to end this war!"

Thankfully, her friends didn't want to tangle and lowered their hands.

"Masks off," I ordered. "Take them off your sleeping friends as well."

They hesitantly removed the hoods, revealing the faces of strangers I only recognized because they'd nearly run us over on the way out of the military base. I released the sword and knelt to tug off the mask of the sera. Black hair spilled out and I nearly lost my crap when I saw her face.

I staggered upright and shook my head. It wasn't the first time since coming to Seraphina that I thought I'd seen a ghost. I'd met Nightliss's mother, Kaelissa, who resembled both her daughters, but favored Daelissa in more ways than one. This sera bore a striking resemblance to Nightliss, her dark hair, olive skin, right down to the perky nose. But she was taller and stouter than my late friend.