Blaze (The High-Born Epic) (57 page)

             
He grabbed Aireon and he heard her shriek as he poured everything he had into his air-burn.  He heard thunder and fire flashed.  Then, concrete, steel, and brick tumbled all around him.  When he realized what was going on, he heard Aireon screaming frantically, and he was so dizzy that he fell.  Aireon tumbled out of his grasp, and he saw fire on her back and legs.  He reached for it, and pulled it off her as he fell to his all fours, sword tumbling from his grasp.

             
The noise had stopped, but he could still hear it some distance from him, and it was getting closer.  He looked up.  He had made it to the edge of the blast wave, and had apparently materialized in the outer wall of a burning building.  The flames on his arms were dousing and rousing, and he picked up his sword as he crawled to Aireon, and grabbed her by her armor. Then, he drug her deeper into the burning building.  He nestled her in a corner, behind some debris.  She had lost consciousness, and he could see a trail of blood behind her. 

             
He did not even want to look at her burns.

             
The dizziness was not as severe as it had been a moment ago, but the pounding in his head along with the ringing in his ears had replaced it.  He lay down by Gabby, and noticed that her eyes were closed, and she was not moving.  He tried to pull on the air and air-burn, but couldn’t get a good grip as his headache overwhelmed him.  He turned to his side and vomited.

             
And the noise was getting louder.

             
He staggered to his feet, using his sword to help him rise. 
At least we made a death worthy of remembrance
, he thought.  Then he summoned what remained of his fire.  It weakly rolled over him as what was left of the roof tore away to reveal the outlines of three cloaked A.I. Drones, and their horrible racket.  He lashed out at the nearest one, and it wavered as it came into sight, but it did not fall.  Blaze could feel his senses slipping into blackness as he struck out at the thing again.  He was pretty sure that he saw it explode as he went to his knees. 

             
He heard something clatter next to him, and he realized it was his sword.

             
His senses were so contorted now that he swore he could hear the noise with his nose, and he picked up the scent of ash with his fingertips.  Something rocketed by him, and he felt concrete or maybe it was steel hit him in the chest, or was it his leg.  He looked through his ear as another rail spike passed just above him.

             
He saw a mother standing at her stove stirring a pot of turnips... A little sister peeking around the corner of the kitchen...   A little girl smiling in her new dress...  A little boy poking out his chest as he gave his hero a new pair of overalls... A smiling young woman whose hair was full of white and purple flowers dipping her head as she leaned in for her first kiss... Another young woman professing her love at the moment before her impending death... A little boy in a burlap helmet holding up a stick...

             
“They can’t never win, ‘cause they ain’t good... And don’t you never forget that.” 

             
He could have sworn that he just heard an explosion, or maybe it was two now.

             
His tongue saw something glitter, and his finger saw an explosion where one of the last two A.I. Drones had been.  The other one turned, and he thought it blew up too, but he couldn’t be sure, because dust and ash were all over his fingertips, getting in the way.  His eyes heard what sounded like a sledgehammer repeatedly hitting tin, and he thought he felt tremors going through the ground. 

             
The remains of the wall in front of him collapsed, and he was sure he was dead now because what he saw was too incredible to believe.

             
A large, bald, black man was pummeling a hover tank with his bare hands, and shouting a terrific battle cry.  The tank’s cloak had already failed, and it rocked furiously with each blow.  The man was as large as an elite High-Born, and he wore armor similar to their ground troops, but not their visor.  He squatted, grabbing the underside of the tank, and half-jumped as he lifted.  The tank rolled onto its top as it cluttered to a stop, and he glanced around in several directions as if looking for something...

             
...His eyes met Harold’s and he smiled...

             
...Then he went out of Harold’s sight into the sky...               

             
...And the ground rumbled...

             
Harold looked up to see the mysterious black man standing in front of him.  He grabbed Harold and said something, but Harold could not understand anything he was saying.  The stranger stepped back, turned around and looked toward the sky as he stuck his finger in his own ear.  He looked like he was talking, but Harold still could not understand him.  It was not that he could not hear the words, it was just that they were jumbled.

             
The man turned back around and shook Harold, who could do nothing but offer him an idiotic smile in return.  The newcomer just shook his head, and stood back up.  Harold looked beyond him, and saw that two other tanks had been destroyed.  One was upside down and the other looked like it had somehow impaled itself on a large section of glittering, dark-colored rock.

             
Harold noticed that he was looking at the buildings around them, and he turned to Harold and Gabby and squatted as if lifting something.  Harold watched in amazement as a large wall of dark rock rose from the ground just in front of him toward the blasted-out area.  Imbued within the rock were hundreds if not thousands of tiny, shimmering crystals.  Chunks of the glittering rock began flying everywhere, and loud pops crashed as High-Born rail spikes began slamming into the other side of the new wall.

             
He did not know how, but the man was suddenly standing in front of him and Gabby, behind the wall that had just appeared.  Harold’s senses were beginning to return to normal and he looked at him more closely.  His skin was similar to the rocks that had just risen and it nearly glinted as it seemed to have tiny crystals imbedded within it.  The man’s back was to Harold, and his broad shoulders were thick and dense, and his arms and legs carried an unnatural amount of threatening muscle. 

             
But the most important thing Harold noticed was that he had placed himself in between him and Gabby and the High-Born that were trying to take their lives.

             
The stranger stretched his palms toward the ground, and Harold thought he had lost his mind, but the earth around him seemed to momentarily liquefy.  Harold watched in amazement as sharp, sparkling rocks began leaping from the ground into his hands.  About 500 yards away, Harold saw multiple shimmers of cloaked gunships appearing just above the crest of the wall. 

             
The man drew back his hand, and slung a rock. 

             
The air rippled from around the soaring crystal and a massive pop sounded as it seemed to make a trail of glitter in the air.  A fireball appeared in the distance and a gunship rattled into sight, but more gunships were taking its place.  Harold heard a tremendous series of pops as he threw his crystal-like rocks, one after the other, with much more speed and force than was naturally possible.

             
They covered the distance in less than a second and rock after glimmering rock came to his hands, and gunship after gunship lurched out of control or crashed as he slung them at an incredible rate.  Harold saw a few rail spikes hit him, and felt the backlash of their impact shockwaves.  Six gunships were now disabled or retreating, and he turned to Harold. 

             
The stranger’s armor had been pierced, but his skin had not been.

             
He placed his finger in his own ear, and Harold noticed that he was touching something that looked like the thing that Colonel Foxx had always had in his ear that he used to talk to his soldiers.  Harold’s hearing was still confused, and it sounded like he was a long distance away, but he heard him.

             
“I say again, this is Stone.  I don’t know how y’all do it, but they’re where I am.  Find me and you’ll find them.  They’re alive, but they’re both hurt.  We’re surrounded and we won’t last long, so hurry up.”

             
Harold thought he heard a voice coming from the thing in Stone’s ear, but he could not understand what it said.

             
Stone made the lifting motion again, and Harold felt the ground shake.  There was now a glittering rock-barrier behind him as well.

             
“Can you talk?” Stone asked.

             
Harold nodded, and said, “I’m better now, but I still can’t think clearly.”

             
“Well, Fire, you and Wind just hold on for a little longer.  The Earth has got your back,” then Stone gave a wide smile, and as he turned to scan the area for enemies, he said, “Help is on the way.”

             
Harold’s eyesight had improved, and he noticed that despite his physique, Stone’s face betrayed that he was only about Harold’s age.  Stone began pacing around, a fierce and nearly-mad grin on his face, the look of a man absolutely sure about his destiny.  A sharp, glittering rock leaped into his hand, and he slung it at something out of Harold’s field of vision as a rail spike streaked by them.  A loud bang sounded in the direction of Stone’s toss.  Another rail spike flew and struck the barrier now in front of Harold.  Then, Stone shouted as he raised his foot, and a monstrous boom sounded as he stomped the ground.  Harold saw a wave of earth ripple out of his sight, and he heard another loud pop.  Stone turned and looked back at the sky as an explosion sounded in the direction he had been facing.

             
As Stone began pacing again, glancing around for another High-Born to fight, Harold looked at Gabby.  He did not want to look at her burns, but he did notice that her leg was still bleeding badly.  He tore off one of her sleeves and wrapped it around the wound, and tied it as best as he could.  He had quite a bit of difficulty as his arms and hands still felt numb.

             
Then it was as if another sun suddenly appeared above him, and Harold looked up.  The sky actually seemed to rapidly change colors for a few seconds, and the bright light quickly faded into a small point that was hovering so high it could barely be seen.  As the sky settled into an orangish color, several smaller lights broke off from the small point and they all began racing toward the ground.  Not only were the flashing orbs moving so fast that they could hardly be seen, but they were also flying in erratic patterns around the rail spikes being shot at them.  The flashing points quickly made it to just above the building tops and spread their strange light throughout the city as they zoomed around.  Stone turned to Harold and smiled, and though he was still having trouble hearing, words were not needed to understand Stone’s gesture.

             
Harold looked across the city.

             
Dozens, if not hundreds of gunships were suddenly coming into view, and many hover tanks as well.  Whatever the light was that had just hit the battlefield, it was causing the cloaks of the High-Born military to abruptly fail.  All of the machinery were now only slightly transparent, and had a strange rainbow-like sheen to them, but they were far from being totally invisible. Now, Harold realized how defeated he had truly been.

             
There were still easily several hundred High-Born war machines.

             
His hearing was still lacking, but he felt a thump and knew that a rail cannon had been fired.  An ashy shockwave whipped around him and he saw Stone stagger backwards.  Harold could not believe he was still there.  Stone caught his balance, but his shredded armor hung in jagged pieces from his massive frame, and Harold could see that a huge red welt now covered his chest and it reminded him of when he had been hit hard by one of Cooper’s sticks.  As Stone turned, his eyes took on a greenish glow and a fierce scowl covered his face. 

             
He raised his foot and stomped the ground with a powerful shout.  A wave of earth rippled toward the tank, and a jagged, sparkling rock formation popped out of the ground and impaled the tank, causing its main gun to point up.  Then, it exploded.  Stone smiled at Harold and pointed toward the east.

             
Harold looked skyward, and could see several dark points on the horizon.  He looked more closely, and quickly realized that they were not figments of his imagination.  It was a group of metallic objects, and they had a strange rainbow-like sheen to them.  He was not sure, but they looked like fighter jets.  Harold noticed that the entire High-Born force had begun maneuvering to point their weapons to the sky.  He turned back to the horizon and squinted. 
They are fighter jets!
he thought.  As best as he could tell, there were only about six or seven of them, but they were moving faster than anything he had ever seen. 

             
Their shapes were becoming apparent, and they were not like any of the war planes that he had been allowed to see in the High-Born history books and the Vista.  But, something in the orangish sky beyond them caught his attention...