Dire Destiny of Ours (47 page)

In a hollow voice, I gave the command. "Retreat."

We flew high and raced toward the outer edges of El Dorado where the bulk of our army still waited. The camouflage screen was gone, revealing Fjoeruss's megaliths and tripods. I saw no sign of the sphinx. Since the Flarks had already infiltrated our ranks, Thomas had probably decided it was no longer worth maintaining the illusion.

Brightling infantry hurled spears of light and shouted curses at us as we flew over them, but we were out of range of their spells. I took us back to the Templar command platform, parked my broom, and hopped off.

"Good work," Thomas said.

I shook my head. "Not good enough."

Elyssa rushed over and hugged me. "I was so worried."

I squeezed her hands. "I'm fine, babe." I turned back to Thomas. "What now?"

"We stand and fight." He cast a grim look toward the horizon.

The enemy forces had resumed their march with the goliaths in a triangular formation in front of them. They no longer marched down the clearing where the troops were, remaining at a safe distance so if they fell, they wouldn't kill their own people. The great crackling of massive trees echoed. The thuds of their footsteps vibrated the air like miniature earthquakes.

Thomas checked the screen of his arctablet. "Once we engage, I'd like the Skywraiths to bomb and harass enemy forces."

"We'll be ready." I looked at Elyssa. "I guess this is it."

Elyssa's hands tightened on mine. "We'll make it through this."

Thomas looked at his daughter. "Templar, please resume your post."

She stiffened and backed away. "Yes, sir."

Thomas pulled me to the other side of the platform. "I have a failsafe should this battle not go our way."

"A failsafe?"

He nodded. "Two malaether crucibles Jeremiah left in his vault."

My jaw went slack with surprise. "I didn't realize we had any more of them."

"Neither did I until our people found them." He glanced at Elyssa, but she was busily tapping away on an arctablet. "If worse comes to worst, I will take a malaether crucible on a camouflaged flying carpet straight at Daelissa. If I'm lucky, I'll reach her and detonate it."

I gave him a startled look. "I can't let you do that."

"You will take my daughter away from here and keep her safe." Thomas's hand tightened like a vice on my shoulder. "Understood?"

"No." I narrowed my eyes. "If it comes down to that, I'll take a crucible to Daelissa. The brooms are much faster than the flying carpets."

"Unacceptable."

"I will not let you kill yourself." Thomas squared his shoulders as if readying for a fight.

I crossed my arms and stared him down. "Who's in command here?"

"You are," he said in a stony voice.

"Correct." I chose my next words carefully. "I'm one of the best flyers. I could probably get close enough to Daelissa to deliver the explosive. I also have the best chance of surviving the blast. After all, I shielded myself and others from a malaether blast during the defense of the Australian Templar compound."

Thomas's shoulders loosened a little. "That might be true, but it's still a suicide mission."

I put an arm on his shoulder and managed a smile. "It's not suicide if I survive." I glanced over my shoulder at Elyssa and back to him. "Believe me, I want to survive this, but if it comes down to surviving or stopping Daelissa, I will do what I must to save Eden."

"You seem to have fully grasped the meaning of duty, Mr. Slade." He didn't look entirely happy about it. "I hold no illusions about this battle. This is everything we have against everything she has." The low rumbling march of the goliaths drew his attention. "Unfortunately, Daelissa has a great deal more."

The enemy was close.
Time to fight.
I caught Elyssa looking at me with worried eyes and blew her a kiss. It wasn't much, but it was enough for now. She knew I loved her to infinity and beyond, and I knew she felt the same way. There was nothing more to be said. All that remained was victory or death.

"We'll see this through, Commander." I hopped back on my broom and flew back into formation. Trumpets sounded and our front lines met the enemy forces.

I threw up a hand. "Skywraiths, attack!"

We flew toward the front line. Deadly beams streaked back and forth between the two armies. Blue Cloaks and revived Darklings on flying carpets engaged archangels. The Darkling infantry, now supercharged by feeding on humans, channeled gouts of Murk at the encroaching Brightlings. In response, the Brightlings fired back focused beams of destruction through their swords.

Our front lines buckled under the assault. I swooped low and shouted in Cyrinthian, "Remember, you can dual channel! Use everything you have!"

One of the Darklings shielded himself with Murk and fired a beam of white energy from his right hand. He caught a surprised Brightling in the face. Other Darklings followed the example and unleashed Brilliance against their adversaries. Shocked Brightlings staggered backward. Their armor had been designed to neutralize Murk, not Brilliance.

I took the Skywraiths toward the flying vampires. Ivy knocked several from midair with precise blasts as the creatures came for us. I punched a hole through the wings of two more, sending them to their deaths.

"Don't let them swarm us," I said. "They're slower than us, so stay just away from them and keep firing."

We strafed back and forth, knocking vampires from the sky. They shrieked with impotent rage, unable to fly fast enough to catch us. I glanced down and saw our front lines pushing back the enemy. Small holes opened up in the ground beneath Brightlings, sending the surprised soldiers plummeting into the darkness. Even the Templar lines were doing well against the Brightlings. The weapon improvements had obviously made a difference. One could never underestimate the power of duct tape.

A low humming noise signaled that our advances would soon be at an end. The goliaths were in range of our troops.

Fjoeruss's monstrous creations responded. Sometime during the battle, the megaliths had moved far out to the left flank while the tripods had done the same on the right. The sphinx was still nowhere to be seen.

The gem arrays on the megaliths blasted chunks from one of the enemy units. Their focused fire reduced the goliath to rubble within seconds. They turned their fire on the next target, but the enemy units responded. Torsos swiveling, they aimed crystal shards toward this new threat. The goliaths unleashed everything at the first of Fjoeruss's megaliths. It buckled under the assault but fired back. The lower torso of the closest goliath shattered. Unable to maintain its balance, it crashed into the jungle.

The concentrated fire from the goliaths pierced the basalt megalith. Its spark exploded in a dark cloud. The other megalith ignored its inert companion and pressed the attack. The gems on its cylindrical head blazed with energy. When they fired, the beams converged, forming a solid gray beam, which struck the leg of the next goliath. The stone froze in place, but the marching goliath kept moving forward. Its leg broke free. Massive arms flailing for balance, the goliath thundered to earth.

Before the megalith could open fire again, three goliaths discharged everything on it. Fjoeruss's creation cracked apart. The gems fired as the golem toppled backward, casting a gray beam up into the sky. I watched in horror as it enveloped Joss and sliced through the flock of flying vampires. Frozen figures plummeted toward the ground.

"No!" Otaleon cried out. He dove for his friend and caught him with strands of Murk. Another Skywraith assisted him, and the two pulled the statue-like body up to them.

"Get him back behind our lines!" I shouted as the surviving vampires surged toward us, eyes filled with fury.

"Is he dead?" Otaleon asked.

"I don't know." Chances were, he was simply frozen for a time and would revive. "Take him to Fjoeruss."

I signaled our formation to fly further out for another pass at the vampires. Below us, Fjoeruss's tripods opened fire on the enemy's left flank. A cutting beam sliced the leg from one goliath. It tumbled to the ground, breaking apart and crushing the jungle around it. Daelissa was down to six of the monstrous things.

A flash of white caught my peripheral vision. I looked left and saw Arturo leading a large group of archangels toward us. We couldn't possibly take them and the vampires at the same time. With the megaliths destroyed, the goliaths turned their focus on the tripods. A very dangerous idea took hold of me. I touched my comm pendant. "Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, with me. Everyone else, continue your attacks on the vampires."

Less than half of the remaining Skywraiths broke off from us. The less-skilled pilots had taken heavy casualties. There were only seventeen of us remaining from the first four groups, not including Joss and Otaleon who were effectively out of the battle for the near future. Bella and the bombers were too far away to assist. I counted perhaps thirty-five archangels on an intercept course.

I spoke into the comm pendant. "We're going to fly into the crossfire between the goliaths and the tripods. If you don't think you can cut it, break off now."

Ivy looked with wide eyes at the brilliant lightshow ahead. Sizzling beams of destruction large enough to incinerate elephants crisscrossed the sky as the massive golems tried to destroy each other. She looked at me, eyes full of excitement. "This will be so much fun!"

Mom groaned and Nightliss gasped.

Lanaeia raised an eyebrow. "Alysea, your child has an interesting perspective on life."

"I have never been so frightened in my life," Nightliss said. "This is not fun at all!"

Ivy's face screwed up with confusion. "Grownups just don't understand, do they, bro?"

I snorted. "It's called a sense of self-preservation, sis." I winked at her. "Maybe you'll develop one someday." Despite my light-hearted response, I felt deathly afraid for her and the others. This felt like a no-win scenario and I was all out of cheat codes to win the day.

The archangels adjusted course to come at us from behind the goliath closest to them. We dove beneath a flurry of fire from a goliath as it battled the second tripod. A gray beam from the latter froze the leg of the goliath seconds before a large sphere of Brilliance shattered it. The goliath's massive arm swung out for balance causing a gust of wind to scatter our formation. I spun out of control, desperately pulling left to counter the spin. I recovered, dizzy and disoriented. Someone cried out. I looked back and saw tons of stone falling toward me, massive arms swinging in a downward arc to crush me.

I twisted the throttle to full speed. The instant acceleration dislodged my feet from the stirrups and nearly threw me off. I held on for dear life, feet and body flapping in the breeze. I heard a tremendous roar and saw a shadow displace the meager sunlight that penetrated the dense clouds. A shout of pure fear escaped my throat. I glanced back and saw that I wouldn't make it. There was no way I'd clear the falling goliath in time and with my feet off the stirrups, I couldn't steer or roll to the side.

Something streaked toward me from the left. At the last second, I saw Flava, teeth bared, her face tight with absolute concentration.

"No!" she screamed long and loud. She pulled left at the last second, ramming me in the side. I careened out of harm's way.

The falling goliath's body roared earthward only feet away to my left. A blast of wind knocked me into a spinning roll and I lost sight of Flava. Everything became a gray blur. I felt myself diving to earth, completely out of control. Something wrapped around me. Despite my daze, I realized it was a strand of Murk. I slowed and came to rest atop blasted, barren earth, the broom hovering a few yards away.

"Justin, get back on your broom!" Ivy released the Murk strands she'd used to rescue me. "Hurry, they're almost here!"

I pushed up, stumbled forward, my senses scrambled. Broken limbs from downed trees, broken rock, and clumps of dirt did their best to trip me. I saw a broken broom near mine and heard moaning.

Flava lay nearby, arms and legs twisted. Blood welled from cuts in her skin. I ran over to her. "Lie still, I'll get you to safety."

She sucked in a harsh breath. "No. Go. You must fight."

I knelt down and inspected her wounds. There were too many to count. "You saved me," I said.

Flava managed a weak smile. "You are so strong. So courageous. All I admire in a person." She coughed up blood. "It is…honor to die for—" another cough racked her body.