"Get some rest," Flava told her people. "It has been a long night, and our road to redemption has only begun."
The thought of sleep brought a wide yawn with it, though the scary thought of the skyway vanishing beneath us made it hard to sleep.
Elyssa squeezed my hand three times.
I love you.
I squeezed back.
"Does the rocket stick still work?" she asked.
I removed it from its sheath and looked it over. It still smelled of fried electronics, but when I twisted it on, it whirred faintly and hovered in place. "Wow, I guess they build these things to take a beating."
"I'm sure Shelton gave us the best," Elyssa said as I folded it back into a slender rod and put it back.
"Wish we still had yours," I said. "If a crystoid is blocking the Alabaster Arch, I may have to fly to the skylet."
"I was thinking the same thing." She frowned. "What if it's not a crystoid, but something else?"
"What else could it be?" I said.
"Remember when Serena blocked the Alabaster Arches by keeping a portal open to Seraphina with one close to the Brightling Empire?" she said. "That locked up the whole network."
"Yeah, but my mom was able to sense it." I shrugged. "This time she said the alignment seemed right, but it refused to open."
Elyssa tapped a finger to her chin. "What about the trick with the Mega Chalon?"
The Chalon was a small orb, the key to attuning the arches to different realms. Adam Nosti, one of Shelton's magic hacker buddies had managed to bind three Chalons into one big one and overpower Serena's control.
"Adam already tried that and it didn't work," I said. "Didn't you get the memo?"
She snorted. "I must have missed that briefing."
"I doubt it. We just had so much information thrown at us before this mission, you probably forgot."
Elyssa bit her lower lip. "I don't like the idea of you flying up there alone. You need help disabling a crystoid, especially if it's as huge as the one in Tarissa."
"We'll figure out something," I said. "Put on your thinking cap, Templar."
She punched me lightly on the shoulder. "It's always on."
I hoped we could come up with something, or this would be a long trip for nothing.
Chapter 9
I remembered something from my first trip on a skyway and a mischievous impulse took over.
Show me the ground,
I thought in Cyrinthian. The clouds beneath us vanished.
Elyssa shouted in surprise, startling awake some of the snoozing Darklings as the window beneath us displayed a thousand-foot drop to a great plain of red grass below.
I stood on the seemingly thin air and chuckled. "Cool right?"
She punched me hard in the thigh. "Real funny, mister."
I dropped back into the cloud chair and enjoyed a good laugh. "Sorry, couldn't resist."
Crossing her arms, Elyssa summoned a scowl and focused her glare on me. "You know I'm going to get you back for this, right?"
I pecked a kiss on her nose. "Looking forward to it."
Mountains climbed on either side of us as we entered the Ooskai Valley where Nightliss, Daelissa, and their parents were forced to move during the Great Exile. Demanding equal representation on the Trivectus, the Darklings had risen up against the ruling Brightlings. Things hadn't worked out so well, and most of them had been banished from Zbura, across the oceans to the furthest land from the Brightling nations—Pjurna.
I couldn't help but think of the parallels to our world, how the British had once used Australia as a prison. Then again, Seraphim history far preceded much of Eden's. It certainly hadn't made them any better than humans, though.
"So beautiful," Elyssa said, now enjoying the window beneath us. A sparkling green river wound through a forest of aquamarine trees. A roar echoed through the forest. Golden doves exploded like glitter from cover and burst into the air, pursued by something long, black, and scaly.
A gasp burst from my mouth as a flying black reptile streaked in pursuit, snatched a dozen birds in its maw, then dove into the river and vanished. "W-was that a dragon?" I said.
Elyssa's violet eyes were huge. "What else could it be?"
I wanted to ask Flava, but she and the others were asleep. "I saw a huge flying dragon the first time I was here."
"Where?"
"It was actually on a live-action holographic map of the Great Barrier Vortex Cephus showed me." I stared intently at the river but didn't see any signs of the creature.
"Do people still live down there?" Elyssa asked.
I pointed to the mountains in the distance where buildings clung to the cliff. "Nightliss told me this is like the suburbs for Tarissa."
"How do they get to the city if this skyway is restricted?" Elyssa asked.
"There are other skyways near the mountains." I shielded my eyes and found a long stone arch several miles ahead. "I think that's the last relay for the skyway system out here."
"That must be a two hundred-foot drop for us." Elyssa's gaze wandered back and forth. "How are we supposed to get down if the skyway ends there?"
"It'll probably work like the skyways in Tarissa." I flattened my hands and moved them horizontally. "When you're travelling on a skyway and you need to get off somewhere, you visualize where you need to go and"—I veered one hand from the other and simulated a smooth descent—"a cloudlet forms and takes you to the building or ground."
"Wow, talk about the perfect mass transit system." Elyssa glanced back at Flava. "I'm going to wake her up just in case."
Flava blinked awake at a gentle nudge and stood. "We are at the last relay." She shook Nailan. "Wake the others."
"At once." He walked back along the skyway shaking the others with his foot.
"What happens if it ends here?" I asked Flava.
"Walking is not an option," she replied.
I held up a finger and waggled it. "One does not simply walk into Kdosh."
Elyssa grimaced. "How are we supposed to get there?"
Flava looked west. "To reach Kdosh, we need the aid of the Mzodi—the sky fishers."
"Couldn't I just fly the rocket stick to the skylet?" I asked.
Flava shook her head. "The aether vortex would swallow you whole."
We were a few hundred yards away from and above the massive stone arch bridging the valley. Zooming my vision, I spotted the pedestal with the gray gem in it—presumably the relay. "When will we know—"
A vibration in the skyway answered my question before I could finish it and the cloudy road ahead dissolved into mist.
"The last relay is unstable," Flava said. She clenched her teeth and narrowed her eyes as if concentrating. "I cannot make the skyway stop."
"Can we run back?" I asked.
Her eyes lit. "Everyone run back the other way!"
My simple-minded idea actually worked, but not as well as I'd hoped. The Imperial Skyway was built for speed, and even at a sprint, we were like pugs on a giant treadmill. I drew in aether and was ecstatic to find it in ample supply.
"Who can fly?" I asked.
"We are all practiced with wings," Flava said. "But we cannot soar like Cephus's fliers."
"You don't need to fly," I said. "Just glide to the arch."
"I can't do it!" a young seraph said. "I can only channel one wing!"
I flicked out the rocket stick and turned it on. "Get on the seat. Push the stick down gently to descend, pull up to climb, and lean to the sides to turn." I made sure the stabilizing gyro for novice fliers was on.
The seraph took it and leapt on. "Thank you, Destroyer!"
The steady sprint was starting to take a toll on the others. "Channel your wings and glide!"
Sweat poured down Flava's face. She held up a fist. "Remember your training!" Ultraviolet wings blazed to life at her back and the backs of the others.
A seraph stumbled and flipped off the end, his cries fading as he vanished into the forest far below.
"Jova!" someone shouted.
A sera screamed and lost her footing. I grabbed her wrist at the last second. Her body bounced along the skyway as it tried to tear her from my grasp. I channeled a burst of Murk into her. "Grow your wings!"
She flailed with her other hand, trying to catch her balance. "I cannot!"
"Do it!" I roared. I sent another surge of Murk into her.
Wings burst from her back, slicing holes through the cloth armor eliciting a shriek of pain. The sera's sweaty hand slipped from mine and she tumbled away, screaming.
"Eoriss!" Flava cried.
The sera tumbled through open air, an ultraviolet meteor streaking to earth.
"Spread your wings!" I roared in my full demonic voice.
At the last minute, her wings unfurled and the air caught her. She skidded onto the wide arch and rolled to a stop.
I would have breathed in relief, but I was starting to pant already.
Elyssa didn't look tired, but even she was sweating. "Should I flap my arms to get down?"
I managed a smile. "No, I got you."
One by one the other Darklings spread their wings and spiraled down to the arch below. I sucked in aether and imagined wings on my back. It was like trying to pee at a public urinal while a crowd watched me from behind. I suddenly knew how Eoriss felt.
Sucking in aether like a vacuum cleaner, I imagined wings springing from my back. I felt an itch on my shoulder blades and focused on the itch. I had to activate the magical muscles in my back. "Just like wiggling my ears," I muttered. Unfortunately, I'd never been great at that. Even the great Barnaby Farnsworth, a fourth-grade prodigy who could wiggle his nose and ears at the same time had been unable to teach me those valuable skills.
My left foot slipped off the end of the skyway. I flopped on my belly and the skyway threw me off like a treadmill on the highest setting. Elyssa shrieked and tumbled into the air an instant later.
Wings, now!
The itch on my shoulder blades flared into knifing agony as pinions of pure energy erupted from my back. Blazing white furled to my right, and ultraviolet to my left. I pumped a fist in the air. "Booyah!"
"Celebrate later, Justin!" Elyssa shouted.
I reached out a hand for Elyssa. She was inches too far away but the stony arch was far too close for comfort. I only had seconds before we both splatted. I spread my wings and slowed enough for Elyssa to catch me. I wrapped my arms around her waist and flared my wings.
The wind caught them and Elyssa suddenly felt five times her weight as gravity tried to rip her away from me.
The air exploded from Elyssa with a big, "Oof!"
We hadn't smashed into the arch, but we had another problem. I was way off course and too low. I saw Flava waving frantically from the arch, but there was no way we'd reach it. Instead, we were headed for the forest below.
"Find the cliff trail!" Flava shouted. "We will wait for you!"
She vanished from view as my last desperate attempt to reach the stone bridge failed and we flew beneath it.
Elyssa gripped my wrists. "The trees, Justin, the trees!"
I flapped my wings, trying to gain altitude, but smacked into one of the aquamarine trees I'd admired from above. Elyssa grunted and grabbed a branch. I tumbled backward, my wings slicing through the branches like butter. Using my demon-like reflexes, I grabbed a limb and hung on until I could get my bearings.
Red grass and glowing flowers carpeted the forest floor below. I looked up and saw Elyssa gracefully navigating the patch of sliced branches toward me, swinging and leaping like Lady Tarzan herself, so I shimmied down the rest of the trunk to the ground. The forest whirred with insect life. A huge silver owl stared at us from its perch in another tall tree, and something rustled through the bushes to my left.
Elyssa landed next to me and immediately focused on what was most important. "Ooh, is that a glowing flower?" She held out a finger toward something that looked like a combination between a sunflower and a lightbulb.
I grabbed her arm and jerked it back. "Haven't you ever seen alien movies? That's how people die!"
"From glowing flowers?" She quirked her lips in regret, but backed off. "Well, I suppose it could be poisonous." Her eyes lit again. "Wow, look at that owl!"
"Ever notice how the animals here look similar to the ones in Eden?" I said. "I don't think that's a coincidence."
"I'm certain there's some cross-pollination of species," Elyssa said in a lecturing tone. She knelt to inspect a small blue lizard. "That's odd."
"What is?" I asked.
"It has something on its back."
I picked up a twig and poked the reptile. Wings spread from its back and blurred into motion like a hummingbird. Hissing angrily, the lizard glared at us and flicked out its tongue before flying away.
"That wasn't very nice," Elyssa said.
"Yeah, I don't appreciate being hissed at."
She rolled her eyes. "I mean poking it with a twig."
"What if its skin was poisonous?" I said. "I didn't want to touch it with a finger."
Elyssa groaned. "I'll bring biohazard suits next time we explore a strange new world."
"Ha, ha." I jabbed a finger to the left of the tree we'd descended. "The cliff is that way. Let's go."
"Uh, no it's not." Elyssa motioned straight past the tree. "It's that way."
I looked up and spotted the rocky face through the tree canopy. "Guess I got turned around when I fell."
She grinned. "Yea, you get turned around a lot."
I stuck out my tongue. "Whatevs."
"Don't stick out your tongue." Elyssa feigned a concerned look. "You might poke something poisonous."
I swiped a hand at her but she giggled and dodged it.
We juked around a clump of giant mushrooms and followed a trail of red grass between the trees. A bright yellow fox leapt atop a stump and watched us curiously. It mewled like a wounded cat then vanished into the foliage.
"So that's what the fox says."
Elyssa clasped her hands together. "How adorable."
I wasn't so sure the wildlife was trustworthy. "Don't try to pet anything. It might bite you."
"Someone's paranoid today."