The Forgotten City (39 page)

“Brace. It’s about to get a whole lot hotter,” Shawe said.

“That’s not possible,” Diega replied – she already felt so close to fainting.

“Just keep moving. You don’t want me carrying you again, do you?” he said.

Diega clamped her teeth together and started chanting in her mind
keep moving, keep moving, keep moving …

Shawe pressed into the hole. His hand brushed against the rock and sizzled on contact. He cursed and pulled his arms in close, trying to keep from touching again.

“The baby. He can’t take this,” Diega gasped, unable to breathe in the scorching heat.

Shawe glanced back. “He’s napping!” he grunted. “He’s Omarian.”

Diega hunched down to check the baby and saw Shawe was right. The infant was sleeping soundly, his little mouth making quick drinking movements.

“He must be hungry,” she murmured.

“Let’s just keep him alive for now, then worry about food once we get off this rock,” Shawe said. “Heads up – there’s a step here.” He started to move upward, but then stopped. “Get ahead of me!” he ordered, dragging Diega and the baby past him up the stairs.

“Why? Do you want to use me as a shield?” Diega muttered.

Shawe shushed her and gestured behind them to where a shadow was stalking over the wall. Shawe gripped his blade ready.

“It’s me, you gadfly.” They heard Caesar’s voice and then he stepped around the corner. He had a bleeding wound in his chest and burns on his neck.

Shawe snorted. “Trust you to show up when all the work is done.”

Caesar gave him a cold stare and said, “Sounds like it’s just beginning.” He pointed up the stairs.

“Yeah and look who sensed it first – me,” Shawe gloated.

“Really?” Caesar narrowed his eyes in a feline smile.

Diega caught movement behind them and whipped around. Copernicus was standing on the stairs just above them, beside a doorway cut through the rock. He gestured for them to follow and started running upward. Diega immediately headed after him, hearing Caesar say behind her,

“But don’t sweat it, Shawe, you’re still second.”

“At least I’m not third,” Shawe grunted, his boots thudding on the steps.

“I was further away,” Caesar insisted.

“You have all the excuses in the world, don’t you, kitty?”

Diega sighed, blocking their arguing out and concentrating on keeping her legs moving in the heat. The steps seemed to go on forever, winding them high up and through the heart of the castle, until Diega heard the shouts and blasts of fire that Shawe and the others had picked up on. The stairs flattened out into a tunnel with a circle of light at the end.

Copernicus slowed his pace and, keeping as close to the wall as possible without touching it, edged down toward the light. He stopped just inside the shade and Diega pressed in beside him. They peered out to a flat rooftop where the Omarian Prince, Lecivion, and a group of his soldiers had Silho cornered. She stood on a ledge wearing a tattered, bloodstained dress, clutching the Solace and breathing blue fire on any Omarian who tried to get close enough to lock her into light-form. She was driving them back, the heat of her flames too much for even the fire wielders to take. Above them, giant shadows circled in the burned sky. Lecivion suddenly lunged in and grabbed Silho. She tried to stab him with her blade, but he put his hand up, trapping her in light-form. He dragged her off the ledge and threw her to the ground.

Instantly, Copernicus sprang forward, out of the tunnel and into a sprint. Shawe and Caesar barged past Diega, as she tried to follow, and bolted after him. She cursed and saw Copernicus casting an Illusionist enchant, creating many copies of himself and the gangsters to distract the Omarians from focusing their attacks.

Diega started to run out, but heard the baby make a small sound and hesitated. She sensed movement behind her and sidestepped just as an Omarian soldier tried to stab her with the bone blade coming out of his wrist. She felt it brush against her side and spun around, slashing downward with the blade Shawe had given her. Immediately she realized the blade was no ordinary metal – it made her movement much faster and the blow much harder – slicing through the Omarian’s bone as though it was barely air. He yelled and tried to trap her in light-form but she stabbed the blade into his chest and her entire arm broke through it with the enhanced force of the weapon. He dropped down dead and she stared in shock at the rusted blade in her blood-covered hand before a shout seized her attention. She gripped the baby and turned.

The real Copernicus had grabbed Lecivion by the shoulder, trying to drag him away from Silho, but the Omarian prince threw fire at him, forcing him back. Lecivion caught Copernicus in his light-form, draining him fast. Silho was struggling up off the ground, trying to help him, as the other Omarians rushed in at her. Multiple images of Shawe were intercepting them, while the real Shawe smashed them back one after another. Everything was happening too fast.

Caesar struck Lecivion from the side, tackling him before he could finish Copernicus. The two men rolled across the roof, grappling for a moment before Lecivion caught him. He tried to drain him, but Caesar yelled and Diega saw his body stretch bigger and change – exploding out into the form of a huge lion. The great beast released a roar and threw the Omarian prince off him, sending him flying across the rooftop. Diega saw Silho and Copernicus stagger to each other and fall into each other’s arms.

The light from the red sun suddenly dipped low, casting them into an unnatural twilight and Diega felt a strange crushing sensation all over her body. The remaining Omarian soldiers immediately stopped fighting, looking around with terror twisting their faces.

“Look! They’re here!” one of the soldiers screamed, pointing over the edge of the roof and down to the plains surrounding the castle. The others hesitated, then broke ranks to look.

Diega did the same, holding the baby close and moving to the ledge to peer over. On the plains below, the air was hissing and distorting like disturbed holograms, and figures were materializing – monstrous creatures, towering shadows wearing dead faces as masks. Diega heard the dragonfly Tickleback’s voice in her mind.
The first signs of the apocalypse are a darkening of the light that only outsiders can see. After this – the Mors come
.

She watched as hordes of Omarian soldiers ran out from the Castle gates far below. They attacked the Mors, trapping the first line of them in light-form and draining them in seconds. The Mors didn’t even put up a fight. For a moment Diega had the thought that maybe they weren’t as bad as they looked, but then she sensed a buzzing in the air and the Omarian soldiers all turned on each other while the Mors watched on.

Lecivion, who was standing on the ledge on the other side of the terrace, saw his army decimate itself. He screamed in fury, shouting orders to his men still on the rooftop to go down there and attack, but Diega could see by the looks on their faces that he’d lost them. The Lion-Caesar roared, pacing the rooftop, but no one was even looking at him now that a much larger threat had arrived. The soldiers started backing away, preparing to flee, and Lecivion sent a fireball at them, incinerating all those it hit. Diega pressed back against the ledge; even from that distance the heat was unbearable. She turned her face away and caught sight of the Mors below starting to move out among the dead Omarian soldiers. It looked as though they were cutting off their faces.

“Diega!” Copernicus crashed in beside her, Silho and Shawe behind him. Diega nodded at Silho. There wasn’t any time for any more of a reunion. The castle had started to shake.

“What the hell?” Shawe said, staring around them.

“This world is ending,” Diega said. “We have to get out of here now!”

“You don’t say! Anyone have any ideas? Because I have trutt-all at this point in time,” Shawe replied.

“The
Ory-5
!” the commander said. “Diega, do you still have it?”

“I have it!” she said, feeling a jolt of excitement. She dropped her blade to the ground and grabbed at her sock, digging the coin out of the secret pocket.

She held it up and Copernicus said, “Morph it, now!”

She called the word
Xpel
and threw the coin into the air. It stretched, morphing back into the transflyer. Seeing it spread out and re-form in front of them gave her a surge of hope that they were actually going to get out of this alive. A massive shadow fell over them and they felt a wild rush of wind, so strong it pinned them to the ground, as a gigantic firebird dragon landed on the rooftop, crushing the
Ory
flat with one foot. Diega and the others stared up at the astonishing creature with shining dark green scales and a long row of spikes stretching from its neck all the way down its tail.

Lecivion stepped out from the side of the firebird’s leg.

“You didn’t think I’d just let you leave again,” he said, his voice hard and emotionless, eyes locked onto Silho.

Diega glanced over at her. “Again?”

“He’s crazy. He thinks I’m my mother,” Silho said, gripping the Solace, and staring back at Lecivion with loathing.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he replied.

Shawe gave a derisive snort and Copernicus said darkly, “I’ll assure you she is, and you can try to stop us and get left behind to die with your planet, or you can give us a portal and we’ll take you with us.”

The shaking of the castle had stepped up. It was now quaking so much that they were struggling to stay standing and Diega thought she felt it starting to sink.

Lecivion gave a cold bark of laughter. “You must think I’m extremely stupid. I’ll give you a portal so that you can take me with you? I’ve been to over four thousand realms in our universe and I haven’t as yet needed any help.” He set his burning stare back on Silho. “Now, Oren, come here … or else.”

He spoke a word in Omarian to his dragon and it leaned down, its massive face looming over them, burning breath escaping through its teeth, each of them bigger than Diega’s whole body. She held the baby tightly against her.

“What now?” Shawe grunted.

“Over,” Copernicus uttered and Diega understood immediately: they were going over the ledge. Copernicus could walk up flat surfaces and walls, and he could also run down them. He tried to grasp Shawe’s arm, but the gangster, who hadn’t yet worked out what “over” meant, pulled away.

“
Over
,” Diega said to him through gritted teeth, moving her eyes to indicate the ledge. Shawe cursed, finally getting it. He linked up with Copernicus on one side and Diega on the other. Copernicus held Silho around the waist.

“You’ve got five seconds to decide,” Lecivion called out.

The four of them started preparing to leap up and over.

“What about K-Ruz?” Shawe muttered. They could still see the lion roaming on the other side of the rooftop.

“He’s on his own,” Copernicus whispered back. “We can’t do anything for him in that state.”

“No. I trutting hate the gadfly, but it can’t be said that we ran away holding hands and left him to rot.”

“Who will know?” Diega demanded.

“I will!” Shawe said.

He broke away from the group, running toward Caesar. The firebird tried to stomp him, but he swerved just in time. Diega felt her heart skip a beat.

While the beast and Lecivion were momentarily distracted, Copernicus tightened his grip on Silho and dragged Diega and the baby close. He jumped up onto the ledge and straight over. He started to run down the outer wall of the pitching castle, with Diega and Silho clutching onto his back, their legs dangling beneath them.

With Lecivion above them and the Arequium Mors below, there seemed no way for them to now escape this dying land. Diega just hoped that Copernicus had a plan. She heard a screech and looked up to see the firebird, with Lecivion riding on its back, preparing to drop down after them. Another dragon scream sounded nearby and Diega caught sight of a smaller firebird speeding their way, and, at that point, she felt it wasn’t a matter of
if
they were going to get killed, it was only a matter of
who
would do it.

In the time it took her to abandon all hope, the smaller, faster dragon had reached them, but instead of snapping them up or burning them alive, it just brushed past them. Copernicus seized onto its back, dragging himself and Silho and Diega up to its spikes. Diega was lying awkwardly half across him, on her side, trying not to crush the baby. Copernicus wrapped one arm around a spike, then helped her and Silho to also find a grip. Diega clutched the long spine as hard as she could, the wind rushing past them, a hundred times the speed it had when they’d been riding the Neridori. The dragon raced around the black castle with the bigger firebird and Lecivion in pursuit. The turrets and towers had started to collapse and their dragon swerved suddenly to avoid an avalanche of rock. It brought them up and around to the side opposite where they had started from.

“Shawe!” Diega heard Copernicus yell out and blinked through watering eyes to see the gangster having what looked like a fist fight with the lion. He avoided a swipe from Caesar’s claws and punched him in the face, knocking him over onto his side.

“Shawe – jump!” Copernicus yelled out again as the dragon swooped down toward the rooftop where he stood.

Shawe saw his opportunity. With his massive strength, he heaved up the knocked-out lion and threw him over his shoulder. He ran toward the edge and, as the dragon hurtled past, he took a flying leap. Copernicus tried to grab him, but missed, Shawe ricocheting off the firebird’s neck and spinning in the air. Diega gasped, seeing him falling. There was a blur of golden fur as the lion suddenly regained consciousness and managed to sink its claws into the dragon’s side with Shawe hanging onto his back. Caesar snarled, his mane blowing wildly in the wind as Shawe climbed him and managed to get a handhold on a spike near to Diega. He turned to give her a cocky grin, but they were all shunted savagely as Lecivion and his dragon rammed into their firebird. Diega lost her grip and almost fell. Shawe grabbed her with his legs and helped her scramble back up. He pushed her and the baby between two of the spikes and she straddled the dragon holding on with her legs as well as her arms. She could see the baby had started to cry again, but the roar of the wind drowned out his small voice. Diega heard a droning sound and suddenly felt all the strength leave her as Lecivion caught her, Copernicus, Shawe and Caesar in light-form, his skill powerful enough to drain them all at once. She could feel herself losing her grip and couldn’t do anything about it.