Insidious Insurrection (Overworld Chronicles Book 14) Page 29

  Arturo feinted with the light sword. His leg swept Shelton's feet out from underneath him and the Arcane slammed on his back. Shelton rolled away an instant before the sword plunged into the ground where his chest had been. With his other hand, Shelton produced his wand and flicked it at Arturo's feet.

  Yellow energy crackled into the archangel's boot. Arturo cried out and jerked off his boot, scratching furiously at the skin.

  "That sneaky bastard." Adam grinned wide. "He used an itch spell."

  Arturo lashed out with a burst of Brilliance. It rammed into Shelton's shoulder, leaving a black mark on his shirt and flipping him sideways. Shelton smacked into the ground. He tried to push himself up, but his arms gave out.

  "No!" Bella cried. "Harry, watch out!"

  Arturo blurred toward the downed man, light sword raised high. Shelton rolled over onto his rump and touched his arcphone. Black mist sprayed into the air inches above the ground. The archangel slashed his sword down at Shelton just as his feet touched the mist and lost all traction.

  "What a jackass!" Adam said with pride. "He used that joke spell on me a week ago! Nearly dislocated my shoulder."

  Arturo flailed his arms. Shelton rolled out of the way at the last instant and the archangel crashed headfirst into the invisible arena shield.

  Shelton climbed to his knees. Blood trickled from both nostrils. His arms shook with fatigue. Just one hit from a supernaturally strong being was enough to break bones and end mortal lives. Shelton was an Arcane, but he wasn't supernaturally strong.

  "Get up, papi." Bella's eyes widened with fear. "Harry, move your culo!"

  Shelton blinked rapidly and wobbled. Arturo had already gained his feet. He walked carefully, his one bare foot and boot still slick from the oil slick spell. Shelton groaned and gained his feet, tottering in place as the archangel came up behind him, sword raised for the killing blow.

  Chapter 35

  Gasps sounded all around me. Kaelissa bared her teeth in delighted ferocity. Bella screamed for Shelton to turn around. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

  Shelton gripped his still-glowing staff for support and tapped his wand to his forehead. He flinched, as if an electrical current had snapped into his brain. His eyes flicked open wide, alert, and focused. He threw up his staff at the last instant and caught the death blow. His staff pulsated brighter and brighter as Arturo pressed down, slowly driving the Arcane to his knees.

  "Why is his staff glowing?" I said.

  "The shield spell is on his staff." Adam snapped his fingers. "I know how he solved the energy problem."

  Arturo forced Shelton to one knee, but somehow, the Arcane held his ground. Arturo's light sword turned from bright white to a sickly yellow. My supernatural sight honed in on something very telling: a trickle of sweat forming on Arturo's brow.

  "How is he doing it?" Bella asked in awe.

  Shelton shouted something vaguely familiar. Something I'd heard Kanaan, the Magitsu master, use during exercises. He rolled to the side and Arturo's sword sizzled into the ground. Shelton rose to his feet, staff whirling, eyes sharp and devoid of emotion even as blood poured down his face from multiple wounds.

  Arturo raised his sword. "How are you still alive, Arcane?"

  Shelton flashed him a grisly smile. "Because I'm a survivor, you son of a bitch." He slammed the staff into the ground. The geodesic shield around the staff exploded toward the archangel with brilliant ferocity. The crowd cried out. Kaelissa shrieked.

  It was like the world's brightest flash bulb. I squeezed my eyelids shut and felt a wave of heat pass over me. Heard the arena shield humming like an insect zapper as it tried to absorb everything at once.

  When I opened my eyes, Shelton stood on unsteady feet above a bloody and blackened Arturo. He held the crackling tip of his staff to the archangel's throat and bared crimson stained teeth. "Yield or die."

  "Kill him!" Bella shouted. "You must kill him!"

  "No, he doesn't have to," Alysea said. "The rules allow claiming victory if the opponent yields, though he has the right to kill him if he wishes."

  "This is a foolish risk," Bella said. "What if Arturo recovers?"

  "It's a smart move," Michael said. "Arturo is the only one honorable enough to accept the results."

  Arturo held up a badly burnt hand. "I yield, Arcane. You are the victor."

  "No!" Kaelissa shrieked and leapt from her dais, fists blazing with energy. "I will not accept this!" She leveled her fists at Shelton and fired.

  The arena shield absorbed her attack. While the other soldiers and archangels looked around in confusion, Arturo pushed to his knees and held out a finger. "Restrain the former empress and release our new ruler."

  The archangels moved on Kaelissa, but a contingent of city guards surrounded her protectively.

  "Do you really think the people will betray me?" Kaelissa said. "No one can take my rightful power. If you dare come after me, I will plunge this realm into civil war!"

  An archangel freed my mother. She rubbed her wrists and nodded at the rest of us. "Free my comrades."

  "Yes, my liege," he said.

  Alysea leapt high over the crowd and landed in front of the guards surrounding Kaelissa. She flung out her hands, weaving Murk and Brilliance into a stream of Stasis. The cloud rolled over the guards and cut off Kaelissa's shouts in mid-shriek as it froze them and her in place. Alysea waved a hand and the cloud dissipated, leaving behind gray statues.

  Murmurs and shouts of awe rose around us.

  "She controls all the elements!" A sera said. "Only the first were able to do that."

  "The ancient Seaa herself has come back to rule," a seraph shouted. "The golden age will return!"

  Alysea pointed at Kaelissa's frozen form. "Restrain her and arrest these guards."

  The archangels moved at once to follow her orders. Many of the city guard who'd looked uncertain before snapped to order in her presence. Most of them had probably never seen a Seraphim dual channel Murk and Brilliance, much less weave Stasis.

  "That's my momma," I said proudly.

  The arena shield flickered off and we pushed our way through the crowd, never stopping until we reached the hero of the day.

  Harry Shelton wobbled on his feet and collapsed into Bella's arms. Archangels rushed in to aid Arturo. The singed archangel looked in even worse shape than my friend.

  Arturo managed a scowl at Shelton. "I underestimated you, Arcane."

  Shelton groaned. "Yup."

  Alysea grabbed the short seraph who'd been in the throne room earlier. "What is your name?"

  He dropped to his knees and bowed. "Absidiah, my liege."

  "I need a healer this instant." Alysea's eyes narrowed. "You are a Darkling."

  "Yes, my liege." He bowed deeper. "I live to serve. I will bring the healers at once." Absidiah got up and ran toward the compound.

  "Man, you look rough," Adam said to Shelton.

  "Who me?" Shelton tried to smile, but the blood loss seemed to be affecting him. "I'm prime, man."

  "I saw what you did there," Adam said. "How did you modify the geodesic shield to absorb energy?"

  "That black aetherite you put in the phone and my staff," Shelton said. "It can soak up some serious energy. Arturo's attacks gave me what I needed."

  "Why didn't you use it sooner?" I asked.

  Shelton blinked and took a moment to answer. "Wasn't entirely sure it would work." He broke into a coughing fit and spat up blood. "I think my ribs punctured a lung."

  "Harry, why didn't you say so?" Bella made him lie down flat. "You foolish man." Tears dripped down her nose and onto Shelton's cheeks. "My brave husband."

  "I love you, woman." And Shelton passed out.

  The healers raced into the square moments later. One attended Arturo, while the other patched up Shelton.

  I spotted Alysea talking to a soldier in the armor of a city guard captain and with the archangels in Arturo's own squad. Guards led Kaelissa and Djola away while anoth
er squad raced away on another errand.

  Alysea channeled blazing wings and did something she rarely did, levitating above the crowd, her blond hair billowing in the wind. The dull roar went silent as the new Brightling empress addressed her subjects.

  "The ancient Seraphim knew that weak leaders would weaken the nation. In their wisdom, they allowed others to challenge leaders and assert legitimate rule through the Challenge of Ascension." Alysea paused to let that sink in, then hammered her point in one more time. "I am Empress Alysea, your ruler and protector. Do you hear me?"

  A great roar rose from the crowd.

  "All hail the ancient Seaa!" some cried.

  A chant rose from the back. "Golden Ruler! Golden Ruler!"

  "Damn, she's magnificent," David said with awe. "I'm a lucky guy."

  Elyssa gripped my arm. "She really is golden."

  I could hardly believe what was happening. "I'm in a royal family. I'm right up there with the Queen of England. The York of Shire. Prince Humperdinck!"

  Elyssa groaned.

  Shortly after Alysea's speech, dozens of Kaelissa's closest advisors and guards were arrested. However, there was one person missing that gave me great concern—Fakor.

  Elyssa tried to reach the Falcheen, but communications were spotty using her pendant and we had no way to contact the Uorion to relay messages.

  "They must be out of range," she said.

  "It's a moot point right now," I said. "We have to find Fakor, especially if he's connected to the dragon incursions."

  "The guards are questioning Djola, but she isn't talking." Elyssa bit her lower lip. "Let's assume Fakor is using an arch to open the rifts. It would have to be on the coast near the Voltis fractures, right?"

  "I don't think it's an arch," I said. "It takes something a lot bigger to make those rifts."

  "Regardless, we need to start looking." Elyssa looked west. "For all we know, he's opening a portal right now."

  I headed toward the citadel and found Adam outside talking to Cinder.

  "Justin, it is good to see you were not executed," Cinder said. "Once I discovered you were captured, I began to work on a rescue plan."

  "I'm glad you didn't have to use it." I patted him on the back. "I don't think you stood much of a chance against so many soldiers."

  "I must admit, the situation looked hopeless." He shrugged robotically. "As Shelton would say, you pulled a magic trick out of your ass."

  I snorted. "Exactly, except it was Shelton who did it this time." Steering the conversation back to more serious matters, I brought up Fakor. "Any idea how Fakor is connected to the dragon incursions?"

  "We were just discussing it," Adam said. "We suspect he's using a portal gem similar to the one we used to get in and out of Atlantis."

  "If he is indeed using Voltis fractures to power such a gem, then there are few places he could be." Cinder projected the map of the glowing lines radiating out from Voltis. He zoomed in to a small group of islands. "I suspect Fakor's device is somewhere around here."

  Gongs sounded to the east. Soldiers raced through the citadel courtyard and lined up in formation. I stopped one of them. "What's going on?"

  "An army approaches from the eastern skyway," he said. "The Darkling legions are here!"

  My mouth dropped open. "What the hell? Aerianas doesn't stand a chance against—"

  Gongs rang in the west. I climbed up a guard tower for a clear view of the horizon. Far out to sea, a thin scar formed against the sky as a new rift began to form. Cabala was about to get squeezed between the Darkling legions and an army of dragons.

  Chapter 36

  We had a numbers advantage, but the carnage from a clash with dragons and the Darklings would drown Cabala in blood.

  I scrambled down from the guard tower. "We need a flying carpet, stat!"

  "I am already prepared." Cinder unfolded two high-speed carpets from the satchel on his side. "I was going to use them in my rescue plan."

  Adam bumped his arcphone against mine. "I updated your maps with the islands Cinder showed you. If Fakor is using a portal gem, it'll need some time to power up before it can open the rift all the way."

  "We'll start north," I said. "You start south."

  "Got it." Adam climbed on a carpet behind Cinder. "If my estimates are correct, we have less than twenty minutes before the rift opens."

  "That's not much time to stop it," I said. "Speaking of which, how would we stop it?"

  Adam shrugged. "I won't know until I see it."

  I nodded grimly. "Let's get to it then."

  We zipped over the city, over hundreds of soldiers rushing toward the sea wall. Archangels soared out of the citadel, splitting off in two directions to face the dual threat. Elyssa directed the carpet northwest while I used Cinder's map and called out directions. It took us five minutes to reach the first island, a small hunk of rock coated in red algae, but nothing resembling a portal gem.

  Elyssa veered further out to sea toward a larger island, but a quick survey of the sandy shores revealed nothing.

  "This is taking too long." Elyssa stared at the silver split crossing the sky. "If only we could trace it somehow."

  I smacked my forehead. "Of course!" I switched to demon view and scanned the horizon. Mist and bright clouds of aether made it difficult to see it at first, but I spotted a wide beam of energy feeding the forming rift.

  "There!" I pointed west. "That's got to be it."

  "I don't see an island," Elyssa said.

  I checked the map and saw she was right. "Maybe there's a floating platform."

  She jetted toward it without another word and tapped her pendant. "Adam, head due west. We've spotted something."

  "On it," Adam replied.

  Time ticked past mercilessly as the rift grew wider and wider. Small dragons filtered through the crack, their hisses and screeches audible even over the crash of ocean waves. I spotted a small island of brilliant pink crystal rising into the air, a massive gem floating on a vortex of aether. The gem spun faster and faster, churning the aether into the widening rift.

  A tiny figure stood on a narrow column of rock rising from the ocean. He stood before a black obelisk linked to the rift gem by a stream of aether.

  "Fakor," I growled.

  Elyssa drew her light bow and aimed for the shelf of rock where our target stood. The susurrus of wings drew our attention above. Dozens of tiny dragons dove at us. These were even smaller than the ones from the other attack, but hundreds of razor sharp teeth and jets of flame still hurt.

  I flung a wall of Murk at them and the small reptiles bounced with meaty thunks off the barrier. Elyssa weaved through a cloud of multicolored dragons while I mowed another flock down with Brilliance. We reached the rock column and leapt off the carpet. Fakor spun at the sound of our arrival and backed away.

  He tried to run. I snared his foot with a lasso of Murk and reeled him in. Fakor rolled onto his back and shot a feeble spark of Murk at me, but he looked too exhausted to fight back, probably from controlling his rift apparatus.

  "How do you turn it off?" I gripped him by his robe and jerked him off the ground. "Tell me now!"

  "I'll tell you!" Fakor cried. "Just don't kill me" He opened his mouth to speak. His eyes fluttered and his head lolled to the side. Fakor stiffened, gasped, and went limp as a wet noodle. He blinked, looked up at me. A slow grin spread across his face. "We meet again, grandson."

  "Baal, you son of a bitch!" I nearly flung Fakor over the cliff, but held out hope the demon overlord might have a heart and tell me how to turn off this infernal apparatus. "Why are you doing this?"

  "It's simple, really." He looked at my hands where they gripped his robes and raised a disdainful eyebrow.

  I released him. "Tell me how to disable the rift generator."

  "That would be unnecessarily cruel, child." Baal brushed off his shirt as if I'd dirtied it. "You see, the dragons are running out of room in their realm." He waved an arm at the widening rift overhead. "Th
ey must expand or die. Seraphina has plenty of room for them to stretch their wings."

  "So, you formed an alliance with them."

  "Precisely." Baal watched a flock of small dragons flitting overhead. "In exchange for access to Seraphina, the dragons will submit themselves to my rule."

  "I'm sure that's exactly what will happen." I wondered why the dragons weren't attacking us and realized something was holding them at bay. "What's to stop them from turning on you? They're just dumb animals."

  "The bulk of dragons are indeed nothing but animals, acting on instinct." Baal looked toward the rift where a huge dark form hovered on the other side. "The ancient dragons are something else altogether."

  "What's to stop the dragons from overpopulating Seraphina?" I said. "Is your deal with the ancient dragons really strong enough to keep them from warring with the Seraphim?"

  "Absolutely." Baal waved a hand toward the ocean. "There are barely enough Seraphim to populate even a corner of Azoris. Plenty of room for dragons."

  "Plenty of room to gather an army," Elyssa said. "An army to conquer all realms."

  "And save them," Baal said. "Once Xanomiel makes his move, I will command legions that can stop him and put him back in the Abyss."

  In other words, Baal would never willingly shut down the rift apparatus. Guttural roars echoed from the other side of the rift. Massive forms waited patiently on the other side, even as their smaller brethren slipped through the widening crack. If they made it in, they'd crush our forces.

  I switched to demon vision and observed the beam of energy running from the obelisk to the gem. My mind pieced together how the object operated. Channeling into the obelisk controlled the rift gem. Once the gem began to spin, it pulled magical energy from the Voltis fracture on the ocean floor, drawing up the aether and focusing it into the rift. The obelisk acted like a control console. Unfortunately, I didn't know any of the commands. I didn't know how to stop it.