The Veil (67 page)

“Bastards!” Zero roared. “That’s the only bloody hand I have left.”

They Lawbringers fired a ream of shots towards us. A few more hit me in the arm, sinking only a few centimeters into my hardened flesh. I leaned over and used my teeth to pull them out as our pursuers kept firing. A moment later I heard Grediya gasp as a bullet connected. As soon as the Lawbringers had exhausted their ammo, they knelt down on the Cable Runner and reloaded.  A moment later they were aiming to fire again.

Bang!

A shower of sparks ignited the gloomy tunnel as Zero’s bullet hit a sweet spot in the mechanism that secured the Lawbringer’s carriage to the rail. The shot severed whatever connection the two had, and the Cable Runner screamed to a halt on the tracks. 

Soon we had left it in our wake.

When we drew close to the station at the other end of Concavious, I swung off the Cable Runner onto the platform, rolling to absorb the impact. As soon as the carriage stopped, I wrenched the door open and with the help of the other mercenaries, pulled my limping friends down onto the platform. I offered to help Grediya, who had a hand clutched around her waist, but she raised a hand and climbed down herself, wincing as she hit the floor. Before Zero jumped from the Cable Runner, he turned towards the Coachman.

“Sorry, Erin,” he said.

“For wh-”

Zero pistol-whipped the Elf. The Lawbringer’s head lolled forward onto his chest and he slumped down in his seat.

“Go!” shouted the mercenary. 

Everyone rushed over to the elevator. As we stood on it, a voice came from speakers above our head. 

Warning. A severe storm is currently active outside of Concavious. It is inadvisable to attempt to leave. Please return to the city.

“Come on you piece of crap!” shouted Zero, stamping his foot down on the elevator.

The Lawbringers of Concavious cannot accept responsibility
for injury or death that might result from leaving the city during a storm. You have been warned. Thank you and have a nice day.

A moment later, the platform started to rise upwards. I stared through the cavern, expecting to see more Cable Runners carrying Lawbringers. Every fibre in my muscles tensed, ready for a battle. It was only when the station disappeared from view, replaced by the gloom of the Pandemonian ocean, that I allowed myself to breathe. 

The creaking and groaning of the elevator was far louder and more aggressive than it had been on the way down. I couldn’t see anything through the glass but plumes of bubbles and cloudy water that thrashed around the elevator shaft, totally obscuring the view.

This storm is bad.

The power was still coursing through my veins and I had to calm myself down so that I didn’t use too much of it, in case I needed it again soon. When I switched off, I didn’t notice so much of a shift.
It’s getting less and less prominent each time…I’m evolving.
To begin with I had been like a machine, my thoughts minimal and acting on an instinct that felt a million years in evolution away. Now I was becoming more conscious and aware, as if the power were becoming less of a separate state of mind, and more a part of me.
What happens if one day I can’t switch it off? Will I be able to cope, or will I be drained until there are no reserves, like a defunct battery?

It took a hard pat to the arm before I realised that Zero was talking to me.

“Sorry, what did you say?” I asked.

“Zoned out there a bit did ya? Trust you to miss one of the only compliments I’ve ever given. I
said
I guess rumours do have value after all. About the Sorrowslayer at least.”

“Yeah I guess.”

“Cheer up kid, we’re out.” He glanced upwards and added, “Of here at least.”

My mind had wandered yet again, this time to the fact that Pandemonians had known who we were and had tried to kidnap us.
How did they know? Was it as simple as working it out from my first name…or did someone tell them?
I looked around at Delagio, Danny and Hollie, who were slumped against the sides of the elevator and the knotting feeling I’d felt the moment I’d stepped into Pandemonia returned with a vengeance.
Every time I think that I’m being paranoid, something happens. I think I have to accept that one of them really might be a traitor.

“We’re almost there,” announced Grediya, as she injected her abdomen wound with one of the vials from her pouch, gritting her teeth together as the substance entered her system.

”This is going to be tough, people,” said Zero. “The guys will have prepared the fleet as much as they can, but even the tail of this storm looks like a bitch.” He jerked a thumb at the raging water beyond the glass to reinforce his point. “Everyone needs to be on their best form.” He glanced at the other Guardians. “Are you lot okay to fight now?”

All three made sounds of agreement.

“Good, because we’re gonna need ya.”

“Thank you for saving us,” I said to Zero as we neared the apex of the shaft.

“Thank us when we’re all still alive.”

The elevator broke towards the surface and I felt the sheets of rain thrashing down towards me.

Zero reloaded Princess and then spun the barrel, setting it with a flick of the wrist. He looked at me and gave a wink.

“Here we go!”

41

Scarlett

We waited among the ruins of the Lightshuttle carriage whilst Lightwarden Udan performed a ritual for his fallen comrade – which involved reciting a prayer as he poured water from his canister into the lake that had become her gravesite. He explained it would help her journey through the Last Light and into the Garden of Serenity. I was uncertain as to how I felt about her death. Lightwarden Elissa had tried to kill me, but at the eleventh hour had sacrificed herself to save everyone,
including
me.
I can’t outright condemn her actions.
I had done terrible things in my past that I couldn’t purely blame on being a newborn Vampire. Rather those actions had been the result of the fury I had felt about what I had been forced to endure and the misery of my situation.
I have no idea of the things Elissa went through in her life, of the losses she faced that could have pushed her to her snapping point. I hope she rests in peace.

When the Lightwarden had finished, we picked our supplies from the wreckage and organised ourselves. Once we were all ready to go, I pulled out my Biomote and switched to the map of Pandemonia that the Fenodarian technicians had added. I checked our current location against where the Forest of Elemental light was highlighted.

“Shit.”

“What is it?” asked Iralia, wiping a layer of dust from her goggles and then readjusting them on her face.

“We came off the track over two hundred miles from where we needed to depart the shuttle. If that wasn’t bad enough, this lake is
wide.
” I gestured out in front of us. “And we’ve got no choice but to go around it.”

“At least we’re alive,” said Sophia. She turned to Lightwarden Udan. “What Lightwarden Elissa did was very brave.”

The Elf looked away and said nothing.

The only positive thing in the whole situation was that the new area of the Darklands we had crashed in wasn’t quite as pitch black. It was a thinner type of darkness, one that fought against the royal blue glow that blanketed the sky in the far distance – a light that was powerful enough to penetrate where other light simply couldn’t.
That has to be the Forest of Elemental Light,
I thought.

I flicked over to the countdown timer that had also been added to our Biomotes and stared down at the light-starved screen.

5d: 15h: 21m: 03s

“There’s nothing more we can do here,” I said, returning the Biomote to my jacket pocket and swinging myself onto Picera’s back. “We need to get moving.”

There were quiet murmurs of agreements from the Guardians, who were obviously still shell-shocked from the experience. Lightwarden Udan cracked the reins of his Unicorn and galloped ahead of us. The Vengeful followed behind him on their horses, joined by Sophia, Aran and Iralia. Soon only Mikey and I remained, and I could feel palpable tension between us. He was unnaturally quiet, staring at me with an expression I couldn’t place.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he muttered and galloped away, leaving me on my own.

*

It took us over two hours to navigate our way around the dark lake until we located the remainder of the Lightshuttle track. It was a mess of metal, with large chunks missing and entire sections lying in heaps on the ground, rusted and covered in patches of purple, pulsing moss. We used it as a guide as best we could, travelling underneath its hulking framework when it was clear enough to manage and galloping parallel when it wasn’t.

Mikey refused to even acknowledge me as we made our journey across the tail end of the Darklands. He just kept his head fixed forward, staring into the distance and holding his Unicorn’s reins tight in his hands. Dread filled my stomach like stone.

He knows what I was going to do.

All I wanted to do was speak to him, to explain why I had made that decision to sacrifice myself before Lightwarden Elissa had offered to take my place. I wanted him to understand that as acting Huntmaster, I had to do whatever was in my power to keep my Guardians safe – to keep
him
safe – even if that meant giving my own life. But he clearly wasn’t interested in having a conversation, so I had no choice but to compartmentalize how I felt until he was ready to talk.   I was upset, but I was also angry, both at Mikey for his immaturity, but also at myself for not considering the ramifications of my impulsive decision. There had been a point not long before Mikey had turned that I had resolved to push him away so that he could be safe from my world. It hadn’t made a single difference; he had still been thrust into the painful immortal existence of Vampirism. So instead I had made the selfish decision to stay with him and love him the way I wanted to, so that I could finally have a life beyond death.
And now I’ve made a third decision that could cost us our relationship.

We kept travelling until the Unicorns and horses started to tire, stopping when we reached an expanse of barren and fractured flatland that bore a striking resemblance to salt plains. The area was far too exposed in every direction for my liking, but we didn’t have much of a choice. If we kept pushing our Equidae companions, we were going to kill them with exhaustion.

“Half an hour,” I announced, slipping off Picera’s back and unloading supplies to feed her and the other mares with. “Drink, eat and rest, but no fires.” I threw two canisters of water to Sophia. “Give these to the Vengeful.” She nodded and carried them over to the waiting boys and girls, who were strapping feedbags to the muzzles of their horses. 

Everyone busied themselves with the care of their mounts and feeding themselves – everyone except for Mikey, who had sat down by himself away from the group, staring out into the distance. The shadows of the Darklands were slowly being chased away by the strengthening glow from beyond, giving the whole area a beautiful twilight appearance.
If he wasn’t so angry with me, we could be sitting together looking at that horizon.

I gave a heavy sigh and then fed and watered Picera, stroking her side as she ate. When she was finished, I took a few sips of blood from my provisions and then walked away from the group myself, turning slowly on the spot and checking for any signs of danger. I retrieved the Biomote and vocal-linked Alex.

“Come in Alex, its Scarlett.” There was the familiar crackle of static.

No answer.

“Alex its Scarlett, can you hear me?” I said again, feeling unease grow in my gut.

Still no answer.

I changed to Delagio’s Biomote and heard nothing but static on his vocal-link too. The same thing happened when I tried Danny and Hollie.
Maybe it’s this area…maybe I can’t get signal.
I looked around at the flat expanse and couldn’t help but doubt myself.
You couldn’t get much less interference if you tried.
To check, I vocal-linked Iralia, and a second later her voice poured through the receiver.

“Darling, I know that we’re all tired, but I’m standing thirty feet away from you. Come over.”

“Sorry,” I said back into the unit. “That was an accident.”

“Okay, well if you get bored call me again. I love a gossip.”

I lowered the Biomote and swallowed hard, feeling my unease grow.

Maybe it’s their area. Maybe they can’t receive links.
The thought didn’t do much to ease my concern. Highwarden Caria had made the power of the new technology pretty clear.
Why aren’t they answering? God, I hope they’re okay.
I glanced over at the silhouette of Mikey staring out into the distance.
I can’t tell him…not yet.
I stared down at the Biomote for a while longer, willing one of them to call me back and trying not to think the worst. 

No call came.

At the same time I put the Biomote back into my uniform I heard Mikey cry out.

“What the hell is that?”

I spun around to see a bright ball of light arcing slowly upwards against the blue backdrop, leaving a grey trail behind it. The object reached the apex of its flight and then curved back down before releasing a brilliant glow of white light that ignited the sky like a flash of lightening. A second later a deafening boom shuddered out across the flatlands.

“That was Umbra weaponry,” said Lightwarden Udan.

“It appears to be coming from the direction necessary for mission progression,” observed Aran. As soon as she had finished speaking, a dozen more of the propelled explosives were fired into the sky, landing with a series of devastating explosions that made the ground shudder. The attacks were replied to by streaking beams of red light that screamed across the horizon, hitting their targets with thundering echoes.

“Everybody mount up. We need to get going!” I ordered. We all quickly gathered up our supplies and loaded them to our rides, which were stamping their hooves and shaking their heads in alarm. 

“Which way do you want to go?” asked Sophia.

“We have no choice but to head in the same direction,” I answered, as I swung onto Picera’s back.

“Are you mad?” said Mikey, pointing towards the horizon. “You want us to head towards that? Are you going to sacrifice everyone this time, rather than just yourself?”

I chose to ignore the spiteful barb to his comment. “We don’t have a choice. I’ve looked at the map – this area of land isn’t as wide as you think and that way is the
only
way to where we need to go.

“So what do we do then?” asked Iralia.

“We head closer and see what we’re dealing with, and then get around it the best we can.” I turned to Mikey. “Give your Protector the signal to follow and let’s go!” Before he could say anything in protest, I signalled my Gargoyle to follow and galloped.

Soon we were all tearing along the flatlands, heading right towards the unknown danger.

*

For the first time I got to see the horror of the Ageless War in its true form. As we followed Death’s Backbone along the dusty plains, the sounds of explosions and the rattle of gunfire grew louder until they evolved into the unmistakable melody of a warzone. Shapes took form in the distance – tanks as tall as four story houses that stalked on numerous legs towards the enemy like mechanical spiders, and vehicles the size of warships that rolled on impossibly large wheels firing Ion beams from an almost countless number of mounted guns.

I couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing. Everyone who had taken the oath of Guardian knew about the Ageless War. It was impossible not to learn about the endless struggle that took place on an unprecedented scale across an unknowable amount of years, evolving as both species did to become more ferocious and devastating, stopping only short of mass destruction. However, what could never be explained in record books or verbal accounts was the sheer size
and aggression, what that war actually looked like up close.

This is devastation on a scale none of us have ever witnessed, unfolding right before our eyes.

The beast of war shuddered and screamed as the Luminar and Umbra forces advanced on each other, unleashing every single weapon in their arsenal. The force of their impact was so intense, it made the ground shudder underneath us, even as we stood over ten miles away.

“Jesus Christ!” shouted Mikey as we continued to thunder towards the battle. “Heading towards this is suicide!”

I stared down at the Biomote, clutched in my white knuckles. “There’s no other way! We need to head northeast and try and get behind the Umbra. That’s our only shot!”

“This seems like a really bad idea!” yelled Iralia over the cacophony of noise.

It’s beginning to feel like one. But what can I do?
“We can’t go back or we’ll never make it to the colosseum in time! It’s this or failure! Do you want to give up?”

“No way!”

“Hell no!”

“Absolutely not!”

“That course of action would be inadvisable.”

I nodded. “Good, then follow me!” I steered Picera away from the group, heading in the adjusted direction and praying that it would give us a wide enough berth that the distracted Umbra wouldn’t notice us.
With that sort of weaponry, we would be reduced to smears in seconds.

The armies continued to clash with the force of gods as the others caught up with me, the hooves of our Unicorns and horses sending up clouds of dust as we thundered forward as a single unit. The closer we drew to the battling classes, the louder and more overwhelming the sounds became, and I could tell that it was taking all of Picera’s courage not to bolt in the opposite direction.

We kept galloping as fast as we could until the front lines of the two armies were adjacent to us. In the distance ahead I could see the rising shadows of sheer cliff that prevented us from going much further. I continued to steer Picera around in an arc, the shouts of my orders lost in the roaring battle. We had no choice but to draw even closer, putting ourselves dangerously close to the fray.  The heart of the battle was taking place less than half a mile away from us.

There was a screaming sound overhead and I jerked my head up to see a formation of sleek Umbra jets fly overhead and unleash a carpet of bombs that exploded with such force, the resulting shockwave almost ripped me off Picera’s back.
Don’t lose resolve, just keep going.
I kept pushing harder, lowering myself down and cracking the reins as hard as I could, checking over my shoulder to make sure the others were okay.