The Veil (47 page)

The knot in my stomach twisted again. “Any of ours?”

“No. Vengeful.”

“I’m really sorry to hear that.”

“Thanks. Two of their deaths could have been avoided …but there’s no point going into it now. How are you?”

“Not so good either. We ran into a Hydra Queen.”

“Did you just say a
Hydra?
As in the mythological beast with nine heads?”

I gave a humourless chuckle. “That’s the one. Just our luck, right?”

“Jesus, Alex. I don’t know how to respond…. I didn’t even know they
existed.
Please tell me everyone is okay.”

“All of our guys are. A bit banged up but otherwise okay. But we lost over half the Lightwardens and the Vengeful. Captain Garrett is understandably upset.”

“I can imagine.”

“But that’s not the only thing. We got a visit from Cetus.”

“The
god
Cetus? What did it want?” 

I was about to tell her exactly what had happened, but something stopped me.
One of us could still be an imposter. For now I need to keep this to myself.
“I wish I knew,’ I said. “It chased off the Hydra, but just when I was about to kill the thing, so I don’t know if it was helping us, or the Hydra. It was all pretty weird.”

“I thought when you met Lafelei, it told you that the Elementals weren’t going to interfere with events. It said that they wanted to stay impartial.”

“That’s what it said. I don’t know, maybe that wasn’t a unanimous decision. All I know is that Cetus turned up and scared the Hydra away. Oh, and all of the Luminar stopped fighting so that they could pray to it. Definitely one of those
what the hell
moments.”

There was some rustling and then Mikey’s voice came pouring through the receiver, which made me smile all over again. “You took on a Hydra? As in like those ten headed things from mythology?”

“Nine heads,” corrected Scarlett.

“Who cares how many heads it has. You took on a Hydra?”

“Yeah.”

“Bro, that is sick!

My smile faded. “Well yeah except for the fact that it killed a lot of the crew.”

“Oh right. Sorry Alex, that was a dick comment.”

“No, it’s fine. I’m just glad to hear your voice. Are you okay?

“Yours too, bro. I’m okay. Things got a little bit crazy over here. One of the Lightwardens is a proper dickhead. Oh and I got my hand burned a bit but–” 

“A bit?”

“More than a bit actually,” Scarlett added. “But don’t worry Alex, he’s okay now.”

“Tell me what happened.”

“A Bloodseeker was on fire and lunged at me. Mikey stopped it, but hurt himself in the process.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger.
I absolutely hate this.

“Bro, honestly I’m fine. I can look after myself,” Mikey assured me.

I nodded even though I knew neither of them could see me. “I know you can, Mikey.”

“Then stop kicking off,” he said in a jokey tone.

I gave a chuckle that was half sob. “Sorry.”

“Listen Alex, we’d better go,” said Scarlett. “It’s been a long first day and we need to rest so we can plan the next part of the journey with fresh heads.”

“Of course, us too. It was good talking to you both. Say hi to the others for me, and please…stay safe.”

“Same goes to you and the team. And listen, we always knew this was going to be dangerous, but we’re Guardians. Our whole life revolves around danger. We are
going
to do this, Alex. We’re going to get them back, and then wipe that bastard Hades and his little minions from Pandemonia.”

Her words breathed resolve back into my exhausted body. “Yes we are.”

“Good. Speak soon,” said Scarlett.

“Bye, bro,” added Mikey.

“Bye.”

The Biomote crackled and then fell silent. I stayed still for a moment, staring at an invisible spot on the wall and trying to rouse myself.

How long have I been out?

The Fenodaraian technicians had updated our Biomotes with software that converted Pandemonian time to ours, so we could keep track of how long we had been traveling for. I flicked to the time conversion screen and checked.
Six am.. Just over two hours and I’m almost back to normal energy. Not a bad recovery time. It’s getting faster.

At my request the techs had also included a descending timer onto our Biomotes, which showed how long we had left until Lilith carried out her sickening promise. I changed options and stared at the screen. The numbers ticked away as if it was a countdown to the end of the world.
Which it might as well be.
 

6d: 05h: 26m: 31s

I kept looking at the time; each second that dropped away felt like a punch to the gut.

26s

25s

24s

Don’t do this to yourself. We’re making good time.

I took a deep breath and then set the Biomote down on the side-table. All I wanted to do was to lie down and go back to sleep, to rest up until my supernatural batteries had been recharged all the way back to a hundred percent, but I’orin was still reeling from a vicious battle, and there was no doubt that it would need repairing. So I stretched, popping the joints in my arms and back and then climbed out of the bunk, my damp t-shirt clinging to my skin with the sweat of my dream.
Or vision…. I still don’t know what that actually was.

I slid the wall panel back, revealing the fitted wardrobe and pulled out a towel, wrapping it around my waist. Padding out of the room, I walked down a network of corridors, passing bloodied and battle-worn Lightwardens heading in the opposite direction – who gave weary nods – and found the bathrooms. The communal Luminar showers were almost identical to communal human showers – a large tiled wet room with a central drain, surrounded by a series of protruding plates that released water, piped off to panels that required a palm touch to activate, and dials to change the temperature.

I stripped off the towel and hung it on a run of hooks near the entrance, walking to the nearest showerhead with the anticipation of a hot shower. I pressed my bloodstained hand against the panel, leaving a smeared imprint of  Hydra blood on the smooth surface and waited as the water poured down from above. I leaned forward and pressed my head against the cool tiles, my muscles throbbing from the fallout of the battle. It felt good just do something normal and mundane for a change, something that any seventeen-year-old could be doing.
A seventeen-year-old who isn’t part of a once secret organisation designed to save the world from supernatural threats. One who didn’t have go through a portal to another world – a place so dangerous that many of its own inhabitants had performed a mass exodus to escape – in order to find his missing father. A seventeen-year-old who didn’t exploit his friends’ loyalty at the request of his leader and bring them to a world no one wanted to go to, which had now resulted in three of them being taken.

I stared down at the tiles beneath my bare feet, watching as the blood and grime slipped from my body and mixed together, pouring away towards the drain in the centre. I ran my palms through my tangled hair, which smelled of gunpowder and putrid seawater. 

A normal seventeen-year-old who isn’t probably going to die trying to save them.

When I returned to my cabin, I drained a bottle of water from the drinks cabinet and chewed my way through several slices of some dried meat I’d been given for my supplies. Once I was satiated, I changed into my uniform, which I’d peeled off and strewn over the floor in my exhaustion before falling into bed. I scooped the Biomote off the table and tucked it into the pocket of my jacket – which was still covered with the dried gore of the battle.
Kind of defeats the purpose of a shower…still it gave me the extra energy I would have gained sleeping.
When I was ready, I tracked my way back through the belly of I’orin and up the stairs that lead outside. When I emerged on the other side of the door, I saw that the sky above was dishwater grey and a drizzle of light rain was pattering down onto the deck.  

The clean-up operation was in full swing. Several Vengeful had activated large, snake-like hoses connected to sleek generators, and were vacuuming up the water the Hydra had spewed at us, before dumping it over the side of the ship – creating a hell of a racket in the process. A collection of Lightwardens were pushing mops across the areas the Vengeful cleared, clearing away the streaks of blue Luminar blood and shards of stone that the dead Hydra Spawn had become. Others were heaving upturned containers back the right way up, and checking over the contents inside.

Delagio, Danny and Hollie were picking up the larger remnants of the mini Hydras, hurling them over the sides of the ship, where they fell for some time before making huge splashes in the water below.

“Hey,” I said, jogging over.

“Sleeping Beauty awakens!” announced Danny. “How are you feeling, mate?”

I gave a default smile. “Yeah not too bad. Quite rested.”

“Good,” said Delagio, dumping half a dozen Hydra heads into my arms. “You can take over for a bit. Ah’ve been at this for over two hours. My arms are
killin’
me.”

“So taking on the Hydra Queen isn’t enough,” I chuckled, as I threw the heads over the side of the ship. “Now I’ve got to help clean up too? That hardly seems fair.”

“You took her on but you didn’t take her
out
did ya?” he said slapping me arm playfully. “That Cetus dude arrived and the queen shook you off her like a quarter out of a piggy bank.”

“That was weird,” said Hollie, throwing a set of stone wings over the side of I’orin. “I mean that thing is supposed to be a Pandemonian god right?”

“The Hasea Handbook says they’re the closest thing that Pandemonia has to gods, yeah,” said Danny, kneeling down and scooping up some more Hydra debris, before passing it over to Hollie. “Living gods anyway. The Dragons were seen as gods too, but they’re gone now.”

“Yeah. So,” continued Hollie, “this living god just comes down like some real life deus ex machina and scares away the Hydra Queens just as Alex is about to finish it off, and then every single Pandemonian on board starts praying. Forgetting the praying bit, which was super odd but understandable, why did Cetus bother to protect her? Surely there’s plenty of other Hydra Queens out there in this messed up world. There’s only one Sorrowslayer.” She tossed over some more remains and then pointed at me. “By all accounts, you’re the one the Elementals are interested in. The one who can actually make some positive changes to the situation.”

Cetus was doing more than just protecting the Hydra, it was warning me of what could happen if I tried to kill it. Even what could happen if I was successful…almost like two alternate paths that I could have chosen, each that would would have resulted in my death. But then why is Cetus even interacting with us after what Lafelei said about the Elementals not getting involved?

“I don’t know,” I admitted.
I really don’t.
“The words of the Elementals are so damn cryptic, who knows what they’re thinking?”

“Ah don’t think there’s many Hydra Queens left,” said Delagio, sitting down and resting his back against the side of the ship. He pulled a handful of marbles out of his pouch and let them hover above his palm. New wounds had opened over his healing ones from the battle of Fenodara – including a large gash above his right eyebrow, which trailed dried blood around the edge of his eye socket and down the side of his cheek. He started expertly weaving the marbles around his fingers as he spoke. “In fact that might well have been the last one. That’s why they ain’t exactly front and centre in the Handbooks. They don’t make themselves known that often.”

“How do you know so much about them, Del? You were pretty clued up in the battle,” I said.

He squinted up at me through the rain. “I told you man, I’ve read up on them.”

“But you just said that they aren’t in the Hasea Handbooks,” I pressed.

He frowned. “Yeah, but that don’t mean that ain’t in
any
books.” He shrugged. “I like to read.”

I could see he was starting to get irritated. “So you think that Cetus was trying to protect the Hydra?” I asked, changing the direction of the conversation back to what the general consensus seemed to be.

“Beats me. Certainly seemed that way though didn’t it?”

“So a super rare Hydra Queen made itself known to us…is that a coincidence?” I asked.

Danny picked up the last few bits of Hydra remains from the area and then we all moved out of the way so that the Lightwardens could mop up. “Maybe it’s the magnet thing,” he said when we settled against the side of the ship further up.

I raised an eyebrow. “Magnet?”

“Yeah, well that’s what I call it anyway.”

We all stared at him, so he pushed away from the side of the boat and stood in front of us to explain. “Chosen are like magnets to Pandemonians,” he said. “We attract them because we’re innately designed to fight against each other, right? It’s what our evolved souls were designed to do, to protect Earth.”