Veiled (8 page)

They took us out of the
city, but there was no time to go all the way out of the planet, so
we landed on a skyscraper that was partially destroyed.

“
Thank you,” Celeste said
after she was hugged by all with the exception of Richard, whom she
warned off with a stern look.

“
Two down, one more to
go,” Russell sounded invigorated. “Who’s ready to go back down with
me?”

“
I’ll go!” Celeste said
firmly.

“
No, I don’t think so,”
Russell put his hand out, blocking her way. “You have
almost…”

“
I’m fine! Don’t tell me
what to do! I need to go down. Max…needs me.”

“
Any of us can get him
just as well,” Alex said.

“
No! You can’t. You don’t
understand! It has to be me.”

We all stared at her—all, I
should say, with the exception of Richard who sheepishly looked to
a spot on the broken down wall.

“
Why?” Nancy and I asked
at once.

Celeste started pacing and
moving her fingers nervously. Then she explained in a low voice, so
as to not be overheard by Richard—who was presently slinking away
from us.

Celeste talked so fast, it
was hard to keep up with her. But from what I could surmise,
Richard had turned out to be a total disappointment to Celeste. Big
surprise!

She said that she would
fill us in on the details of that adventure at another time, but
for the time being all we needed to know was that Max had
sacrificed himself for her.

I was startled by this. It
reminded me of Agatha’s proposal right before the guys burst into
the scene and broke up the torturing party.

“
You mean to say that he
willingly joined the rebels to let you go free?” I asked, and
Celeste nodded solemnly.

“
But as you just found out
it was all a lie, because they didn’t let me go, and they wanted to
get you to do the same for me! Oh, if you guys hadn’t come when you
did…” Celeste looked at me with a pained look in her
eyes.

“
Listen, I am very
interested in the whole story, but if Max has agreed to join the
rebellion, then the aura that is going out must be his.” Valerie
looked grave and anxious.

Celeste’s eyes grew big and
shocked as she looked from face to face.

“
How could you know that
his aura is going out?” she asked.

“
Tess can see auras,” Alex
said proudly.

“
Since when?” Celeste
asked.

“
Since we came here,” I
answered and Valerie gestured anxiously for us to get on with
it.

“
Look we need a plan,
unless it’s too late,” Valerie said.

Celeste looked appalled.
“It’s not!”

“
Then I suggest we do what
we just did, and get those spirits off of him,” Russell
decreed.

“
No, it won’t work twice,”
Celeste said. “Look, he volunteered to join them to save me. He
will not leave unless I get him out.”

“
But, Celeste, you just
came out of there and barely at that,” Dorian pointed
out.

She ignored him and
continued. “I just need a way to get right next to him.”

“
Impossible. They know we
are coming back and they are waiting for us.” Valerie came forward
and stood tall and magnificent looking. She always did when she
foretold.

“
How do you know?” Russell
said with a wry smile.

Valerie rolled her
eyes.

“
OK, so they know we are
coming. Does anyone know where this ambush is to happen and how?”
Russell looked around at the group sarcastically, knowing that only
Dorian or Valerie could answer that question.

No answer.

“
OK, then I say we go with
all we’ve got,” Russell finished.

“
That’s what they are
hoping we do,” Valerie said in a low voice.

“
I don’t hear any other
ideas, so…” Russell was interrupted by Henry’s voice over the
caller.

“
Not now Henry, we have a
serious problem here,” Russell answered irritably.

“
Wait!” Dorian came
forward with a weird look on his face. “Henry has the
answer.”

* * * * *

Chapter 6

We all looked at Dorian
like he had just lost his mind.

“
Henry, we are on Ishtar
on a sky scraper that is half...” Dorian was not even finished
speaking when Henry and Estelle popped out of thin air, right in
front of us. He had something attached to his arm, it was hidden by
his robes, but he had to pull them back to disable whatever it
was.

“
I always have the
answer,” Henry said smugly. “Just don’t ask where I got it or how.”
He beamed.

Dorian came to his side,
nodded politely to Estelle, then turned to Henry. “Do you have
something that can create a huge, loud, bright
distraction?”

Henry looked at Dorian,
surprised. “As a matter of fact I do. How…”

“
Never mind, use it when
we tell you to,” Dorian said with a firm voice. “I’ve seen it,” he
said to Russell with confidence.

“
Good…Now, this is how I
propose we go down.” Russell explained his plan for the formation
we were to assume, placing Celeste in a safe position until we got
to the surface, then it would be up to her to get Max to willingly
leave the rebellion. He looked around then stopped
abruptly.

“
Where is Richard?”
Russell asked.

We all looked around, but
he was nowhere to be seen. Celeste let out a short cynical laugh,
and rolled her eyes. But at this point we had no time to worry
about him anymore. He had been saved once, and we could only assume
that he had left the planet.

Before we headed back down
I checked for Max’s aura. Its glow was barely visible now. I hoped
it wasn’t too late.

I led the way in the
formation that Russell had placed us in, with Alex on one side of
me and Russell on the other. Once we touched down on the street, we
moved forward with speed, knowing that we could be ambushed at any
moment.

From somewhere behind me I
heard someone shout out an order, and then hundreds of shady forms
encircled us. They were all around us and above us.

“
Steady…steady…” Russell
said in a low voice that only we could hear. “Let them come. Don’t
break formation.”

The sneering, laughing
spirits were slowly converging on us. Some growled like wild
beasts, while others made taunting remarks.

I looked over at Celeste
who was positioned in the middle, her aura seemed to be emitting
short bursts of bright light and dim light. Her face, however,
looked determined.

“
Henry! Now!” Russell
ordered and Henry, with an unusually cheerful look in his face,
unstopped the top of an egg shaped device and threw it up in the
air where the majority of the rebel spirits were. As soon as the
device was level with their faces, it let out the loudest sound I
had ever heard accompanied by an explosion of light that blinded
all who were looking at it.

We had no time to enjoy the
outcome of Henry’s fireworks, but we could hear the startled
spirits, screaming, scurrying, and flying in all directions. I
could also hear Alex’s and Russell’s low chuckles as I led them
straight to Max.

Conveniently he had been
left all alone, but he didn’t look good at all. He sat huddled in
one crevice of a broken down structure. He didn’t look up at us
when we spoke to him, he just sat there catatonic.

Celeste made her way
forward and we set a perimeter around them for
protection.

“
We don’t have much time,”
Valerie warned through gritted teeth.

Celeste knelt down in front
of Max and slid her fingers under his chin. She slowly lifted his
head up, and looked tenderly into his haggard face. He looked
different…ashen and beaten.

“
What have they been
telling you?” she said sadly.

He looked at her, not sure
of what he was seeing and if he could trust his own
eyes.

“
I came to take you with
me,” Celeste said tenderly.

Still no
response.

She leaned over and
whispered something in his ear. Then she put her face right in
front of his and smiled.

“
Not real,” Max said, his
voice sounding strained.

“
Trust me.” Celeste stood
up and extended her arm toward him. Her hand was slightly turned
down toward him. She glowed so brightly, no intermittent bursts of
darkness, just pure radiant light emanated from her—she looked like
an angel.

Max blinked as if he too
could see the light coming from her and took that gentle hand in
front of him. She helped him up; he bent down over the hand and
kissed it. Celeste wrapped her other arm around him. He still
kissed the other hand and now looked encircled by light. They rose
up, straight up, still holding each other.

“
NOT SO FAST!” an angry
voice said from behind. We turned almost simultaneously and were
face to face with the enraged form of the Second One.

His aura looked like
nothing I have ever seen before. It wasn’t irradiating anything,
but rather sucking in. As he stood there seething, he seemed to
summon the strength of other spirits, and as they gave themselves
to him, he grew in stature.

“
Give your wills to me!”
he demanded as he stretched his arm toward us, his outstretched
fingers beckoned the brightness of our auras to him.

I was worried for Celeste
and Max and discreetly looked up to make sure that they had left,
and was glad to see two little spots of light safely rising out of
this miserable place.

The rest of us still shone,
but I could see how our auras struggled against the pull of the
Second One. By now his form towered over us and his followers were
literally throwing themselves into him, every one of them added to
the mass. But he didn’t keep his form for long, his face looked
disfigured and points began to protrude first from his chin, then
his cheeks, then his head. Pretty soon his face didn’t look human
at all, it looked like a dragon’s head and his body started to take
that form as well.

All the while, he heaved
and roared and stared at us with a sneer.

“
Give me your will, and
together we will become something better.”

“
No, thank you,” Valerie
said in a strangled whisper.

Instinctively we huddled
even closer together, and we were now a tight little bundle. I
could actually see how hard we were trying to hold on to whatever
made us shine. The light itself looked like it was struggling
between his pull and our own efforts. I could feel our fear, but I
could feel our determination and our stubborn unwillingness to be
part of the dragon.

The dragon smiled broadly
now as the last few spirits threw themselves into the mass and
finished forming the dragon’s tail. He now was the size of a
building and looked down on us with hungry red eyes.

“
We are Legion!” the
dragon snarled. “We are of one mind and one will.” Then he laughed
thunderously. His voice was the unified sound of all the spirits
that formed it.

We were also of one mind,
as we clustered together out of the dragon’s way, and were trying
to figure out a way out.

“
We have to leave!” Dorian
warned.

“
He will catch us!” Henry
cried with a shaky voice.

“
I will not be eaten by
that thing!” Valerie said.

“
Me either!” Russell,
Alex, and Dane all declared almost at once.

“
Then I suggest we fly!”
Dorian yelled as the dragon’s head started coming down on
us.

“
No, this way!” Alex
shouted, and he led us not away from the dragon but toward
it.

Still clasping hands we
followed Alex’s lead, as we flew right past the dragon’s head. The
dragon swished its tail and broke us up. Dorian, Katie, Henry, and
Estelle were on one side of the dragon and the rest of us were on
the other.

We were disoriented for a
moment, but then Alex started shouting instructions to Dorian.
After some maneuvering we managed to get away from the fast moving
tail and reunited.

“
We act as one! You will
be Legion!” the dragon yelled.

By now the pull was even
stronger, and even our strong wills were starting to
wane.

“
Our auras don’t look
good. We have to get out now!” I said.

Alex looked at me, his face
looking pale. He nodded once and, closing his eyes, pulled us
straight up.

“
Grab Henry!” I shouted as
I looked back and saw that he was leaning in toward the
dragon.

Russell let go of Nancy’s
hand and flew down toward Henry. He grabbed his arm and pulled him
up to the rest of us.

The dragon’s wings were now
flapping and we barely missed them as we flew straight
up.