The Veil (32 page)

“Quiet!” snapped Aegis. “I am not interested in your deceitful reasoning.” He swept an accusatory finger at us all in turn. “What I know for a fact is that
you
all arrived, and brought nothing but trouble with you. Someone killed all my men guarding the ascension dock and the Needle
and
jammed our signals, leaving us a sitting target for the Umbra attack. There is no question that it was a premeditated plan, and I am confident it was one or more of you who acted it out. I cannot prove who, so every Guardian here will pay the price!” He turned to his Lightwardens. “Arrest them all and take them to the White Keep for interrogation. We shall weed out the traitor.”

I snapped.

Moving from the bench in a flash, I snatched a shocked Lightwarden’s gunpike and hit him hard enough with it that he corkscrewed to the floor. I swept the weapon around my body with pinpoint accuracy, knocking four more weapons from unprepared hands. Scarlett reacted in an instant, snatching them up and throwing the spares to the others, who aimed them right back at the wardens.

I seized Aegis’ throat and – despite our height difference – hoisted him right off his feet, storming across the room and slamming him against the window so hard it made the reinforced glass crack.

“Listen to me you dickhead
,”
I spat through gritted teeth, staring through narrowed eyes. “People I care about – people I
love
– were taken from me and I have no clue where they are now, or even if they are still alive!” Aegis’s faced flushed blue as the Elf blood ran to his cheeks. His fingers scrambled to prize my hand away, but it was coiled around his throat like a boa constrictor. “Gabriella and I tried to see things from your point of view when we found out what happens here. We even kept your dark little secret when we could have easily burned you with the Elders. We opened your damn archives for you! We helped defend the city when your enemy attacked it; my friends were taken
trying to keep
your
citizens safe! And now you have the fucking arrogance to come in here and accuse us of
treason
?” I gripped his throat tighter and his eyes bulged. “I am trying to think of a reason why I shouldn’t throw you out this goddamn window!”

Aegis gasped and spittle flecked onto his lips. I slid him higher up the glass and watched as the cracks slowly started to spread around him. He coiled his legs backwards and stamped them into my stomach – the attack barely registered. I slammed his body against the window again and the glass fractured with an ear-splitting crash, raining down onto the street far below. The harsh breeze tugged at the tattered remains of my uniform t-shirt and Aegis’s cape, whipping it over the dangerous threshold. Only my hand was keeping the Highwarden from a four-hundred-foot drop onto Pandemonian stone.

“Alex, enough!” shouted Scarlett. “You’ve made your point.”

I glared at Aegis for a moment longer and then stepped back into the room, throwing him to the floor. He clutched at his throat, and a series of gasping wheezes escaped his trembling lips as he struggled to gulp down air, the angry purple echo of my hand lingering on his pale skin.

“You have two choices,” I barked down at him. “You can help us find where our friends were taken and give us the support to find them, and in return we’ll leave your precious city for good. Or we go back to Earth, and return with the full force of the Alliance to help us instead, but not before we’ve told our leader exactly what you do behind closed doors.” I crouched down until I was level with Aegis. “Up to you, Highwarden.”

Aegis tried to reply, but it took a while for his throat to work. When he did his voice was hoarse and scratchy. “You can’t,” he croaked.

“Can’t what?”

“You can’t return through the Veil.”

“This piece of kit says otherwise buddy,” said Delagio, swinging the gunpike around to the Highwarden.

“No, you don’t understand.” Aegis raised a placating hand from his position on the floor. “The attack on Fenodara last night was one of many. Hades’ forces have been moving all over Pandemonia in a way that we’ve never witnessed before.” He swallowed, his eyes glistening with emotion. “Early this morning, we learned that the Umbra have converged around every section of the Veil they have control of and are marching towards those they don’t – including the section here. Their endgame has begun, Guardians.” He removed a display unit from his side and handed it to me. “Here, this message from the Warren was delivered through the Veil a few hours ago.”

I took the unit and stared down at it.

Highwarden Aegis Caria,

The Sages of the Alliance called an emergency meeting in the early hours of this morning. For the protection of Earth it was decided by majority vote that until further notice, every section of the Veil will be sealed from our side. I was able to secure a two-minute period eleven days from today – August 17
th
at 12:00 noon Earth time – in which time the Chapter Hill section of the Veil will be re-opened by myself, but this will be purely to give my Guardians an opportunity to return home. This will not occur again.

Highwarden Caria, I apologise that the HASEA has chosen to protect only Earth during this troubling development. To my Guardians of Orion, please forgive me – the decision was beyond my control. I pray I see you all again.

To every Luminar in Pandemonia, my prayers go with you.

Sage Faru

I stared disbelievingly down at the display unit clutched in my trembling hand. No…” I breathed.

Aegis’ face broke into a sneer. “Yes. Your precious Alliance has abandoned you.” He pulled himself up and rubbed a hand across his throat, glaring at me. “For now, you are stuck in this world, just like us.”

*

Ten Lightwardens stood guard outside the homestead pod as I stormed about, snatching up my things and stuffing them into my holdall. Aegis Caria and Orion had hit a stalemate in the Convalescence Centre; there was no way that the Highwarden would agree to help us find the others after I’d humiliated him, and we couldn’t return through the Veil to gather reinforcements any time soon. But at the same time, it was apparent to everyone in the hospital ward – including Aegis – that we had suffered too and weren’t actually to blame for the attack...which seemed to be the only reason he hadn’t brought an entire army with him to arrest us. It was also clear that in my current mood, any more threats of arrest and torture weren’t going to get him anywhere except six feet below ground. So he had demanded a third solution.

Have Iralia released and leave the city until Sage Faru’s extraction date. 

Only once the Highwarden’s lackeys had escorted us all from the city limits would we be given back our weapons and then left to fend for ourselves in the wilds of Pandemonia.
He thinks he’s handing out a death sentence…but he doesn’t realise the lengths a Chosen will go to stay alive and save those they care about. I will tear this whole damn world apart to find Gabriella and the others.

As I grabbed my still-damp jacket – that had been returned to me by the Convalescence Centre – from the bed, my hand felt something hard inside it. Frowning, I unzipped the inside pocket and pulled the object. It was a grimy Hasea emblem, the embossed metal already rusting from exposure to the harsh Pandemonian waters. The remains of skin still clung to the back of it, now resembling little flakes of peach-coloured tracing paper. It held it between my trembling fingers and panic bloomed in my chest as I remembered.

I found this after the battle on Atlantis Outpost after the battle with Yeth’s elite army. The Skinshifter Highwarden was impersonating a Chosen before he shed his skin.
I swallowed away a hard lump that had formed in my throat.
No one ever found his body after I defeated him. What if he survived that day and managed to turn back into one of us? 
I closed my eyes as a wave of dread flooded through me.
What if Aegis is actually right about one of us being a traitor and causing the attack? What if I unknowingly brought a Trojan horse into Troy?
The thought was so horrifying that it made me feel physically sick.
No, there has to be another explanation.
The dull glow of my marking caught my eye and I stared down at my arm.
What if….
I shook my head, silencing the thought.
No, it wasn’t me. I’m in control now. There haven’t been any more moments I can’t account for.

Think Alex.
I slumped down onto the bed and stared down at the little shield. It was as light as a feather, but the weight of its implications were immeasurable. My heart hammered in my chest as I tried to work things out.
Lets be logical about this. What is more likely…. that a city full of a million or so citizens had some traitors in it who orchestrated an attack, which coincided with countless others, or Yeth survived Atlantis, somehow swam back to shore, re-impersonated a Chosen, has come through the Veil disguised as one of my friends, and was responsible for the attack?
I squeezed my hand against the little shield until its edges started to bend.
Occam’s Razor again – it makes much more sense to be someone here…after all, it happened a similar way during the attack on Scholaris.
I rubbed the back of my hands across my bleary eyes as the disturbing thoughts rattled around in my brain.
Damn it, I wish I’d remembered this before I attacked Aegis. I could have just let him arrest and interrogate us. If one of us really is someone else, he might have uncovered the truth.
Plus even if as much as I hated to admit it, I knew that we were screwed without Aegis’ support.
We have no idea where we’re going, or how to get there. I’m looking for a damn needle in a haystack while blindfolded.

I let out a roar of frustration and threw the emblem so hard into the floor; it imbedded itself right into the floorboard. I stood up, my chest heaving and eyes closed as I tried to desperately think what to do…how and if I could make peace with Aegis. Out of nowhere, a strained voice was joined by a sudden burst of harsh feedback.

“Alexander Eden.”

My eyes snapped open and stared down at my Biomote on the bed. The screen was illuminated and a vocal-link had been established. I snatched up the unit and my heart skipped a beat as I saw the name on the screen.

Gabriella!

I pressed the receive button on the side, my heart hammering and throat dry. “Ella, oh my god, I’ve been so worried! Are you okay?”

“Sadly this is not her,” said a cold female voice that was the vocal equivalent of sandpaper.

My blood turned to ice in my veins. “Who is this?”

“Surely you have not already forgotten me? You certainly made me the centre of your focus when you chased me and my Quiet Ones across the city last night.”

I squeezed the Biomote tighter. “You’re that flame knight.”

“Indeed. Although the term is actually Scorched Knight if we are going by proper titles, as much as I find the title somewhat offensive. Still, names can carry such reputation, can’t they Sorrowslayer? Indeed it was that reputation that drew us to Fenodara in the first place. We came for the first prize, but decided to leave with the second.”

My stomach tightened.
It was my fault. The whole reason they attacked this city was to get to me? They knew….Someone
told
them.

“What have you done with my friends?” I demanded. “If Gabriella is dead I am going to rip you into pieces.”

The woman made a sticky sound with her throat that was an abortion of a laugh. “Please, I would think that the boy who bested The Sorrow would be above such petty threats of violence. The truth is that you should be thanking me. I didn’t kill your precious little Lifekin. In fact I
saved
her from death by cutting out the poisoned bullets.”

A wave of relief rushed over me and I could feel tears pricking at the corners of my eyes. “She’s alive?”

“Yes.”

“And the others?”

“All of those we took are alive and well.” There was a pause and then another sickening chuckle. “Okay not
well,
but they are alive at least. However, they have joined me in a
very
dangerous place. How long they survive here… well, that is up to them.”

“I am going to find them,” I hissed down the Biomote receiver.

“That is exactly what I want, Alexander Eden. I want you to come and find them. I want you to come and find
me.”

“If you’ve heard of me, then you know what will happen when I do,” I spat through gritted teeth. “You’re going to beg for a quick death.”

The Scorched Knight gave a bored sigh. “I must say I was hoping for more than such childish petulance. After I watched you dive right off the edge of the Luminar city, I saw a glimmer of the legend. And that excited me.” She gave a nauseating moan, as if she were aroused. “But this…this is all very pathetic. I will concede that anyone in this world beyond a single celled organism now knows of the Sorrowslayer and his deeds against The Sorrow and Highwarden Yeth.” She gave a slow series of deliberate claps. “I will commend you for the former – The Sorrow was a force that unnerved even me. However, the latter does not impress me one iota. Yeth always had a reputation for his hotheadedness and willingness to take big risks, probably something genetic in his nasty Skinshifter blood. The dance he did with you was a dangerous one that was never going to end on a good note.” She made a tutting noise. “I never quite understood why Hades felt the need to employ such an uncontrollable beast as one of his Highguards.”