Shadowborn Page 33

  Jaina stood from her chair and brushed off her robes.

  “I understand this is a lot to take in,” she said. “Remember—we had the best of intentions for our experiments. Our whole race, freed from reliance on demon blood. Some suffered and died due to those experiments, true, but they died for a noble cause.”

  Liam touched his shaved head with his fingers, tracing the lines of tattoos he knew by heart. Er’el Iseph had repeated words of repentance and salvation during the tattooing process. Cleansing his soul from the sins he’d developed on Weshern, he’d claimed. Elevating his mind to become more than a lowly Seraph and a father, but instead a true knight of Center. A blade for the angels. Teaching him to revere the Speaker above all, to put his wisdom above family, friends, and country. You were chosen, Iseph had claimed. Your name whispered by the angels themselves to join the holy ranks.

  “Marius … the Speaker swore the angels spoke my name and spared my life,” he said. “None of what you say denies that. I survived. My wife survived. Two of thousands, and now our children … our children bear blood blessed by the elements.”

  “I would hardly call it blessed,” Jaina said, frowning at him. “It is still demonic essence that empowers them.”

  “You would deny the Speaker’s interpretation of events?”

  The woman looked exasperated.

  “I would state the mere facts, knight. I don’t need fanciful retellings to cloud my understanding of this world. Your son is not blessed from the heavens. No divine intervention spared his life. The flaming swords your daughter wields are mere tricks used by manipulating fire in a way other Seraphs never thought to attempt. Just like their parents, they’re nothing but statistical aberrations, freaks of nature that will never be replicated in our lifetimes. To be quite blunt, they’re lucky to even exist.”

  Freaks of nature, thought Liam. Statistical aberrations.

  Liam lunged, his left hand closing about Jaina’s neck and slamming her against the painting of the hanged man. His right gauntlet jammed into her stomach just below her rib cage, pinning her body to the wall. All his vision turned to red. All his emotions raged within his veins.

  “I am not a freak,” he hissed into her ear. “My children are not aberrations. We’re not failed experiments. We’re human beings, you fucking monster.”

  “Human mixed with demon,” Jaina said with great effort, her face turning pale. “Which side controls you now?”

  The blade sprang from his golden gauntlet, piercing straight through to the heart.

  “The father,” he told the dying woman.

  She tried to scream. His fist tightened, choking out the last futile gasps. Blood dripped across his golden gauntlet. Tears trickled down his face. He pulled the blade free as her body stiffened and let her collapse to the floor. His rage washed away, replaced with a growing panic. He stared at the blood-soaked blade as if it were a traitor.

  “What have I done?” he whispered.

  Killing a member of the Erelim was one of the greatest sins possible against heaven’s design. Only slaying the Speaker was worse. At his feet lay the body. Her blood marked his clothes. There would be an exhaustive investigation; could he hide his guilt under such questioning?

  No, he knew he could not. Liam had just ordered his own death sentence.

  You gave in to your anger, a soft, mocking voice assured him in his mind. Accept it. Own it. Perhaps confession will grant you mercy when you hover above Hell’s fire.

  Perhaps. Perhaps not. Liam could not concentrate on it now, not with the body collapsed before him. He had to get out. He had to think. Liam used Jaina’s robe to clean his sword and gauntlet, then hurried to the door and flung it open. He had to buy time. Had to get away for a moment.

  No distance is great enough, that mocking voice insisted. You know that, Liam. Hiding only compounds your guilt.

  Liam ran down the empty hall anyway, painfully aware of the blood that stained his pristine white uniform. He was halfway down the stairs when he heard the first of many horns.

  Have they discovered her body already?

  It was nonsense, panic speaking instead of logic. He knew what that signal meant. The angelic knights were being called into battle. Liam stepped onto the lower floor to see knights and servants rushing toward the armories. They paid him little attention despite his halfhearted attempts. Something was wrong. Even when the combined might of Elern, Candren, and Sothren had invaded, the people of Heavenstone had reacted calmly to the threat. What could possibly disturb so many so? He saw knights scrambling half-dressed, others shouting at theotechs for extra elemental prisms.

  Determined to get an answer, Liam grabbed a half-dressed knight by the shoulder.

  “Do the Seraphim attack again?” he asked.

  “I wish,” the knight said. “It’s not the islands. It’s … it’s demons. They’re swarming all four minor islands.”

  Liam’s dread grew. So this was it then? L’adim’s great invasion? They’d battled a taste of it when the fireborn fell, but now after all of Marius’s warnings, the true war had arrived.

  “What is our task?” Liam asked. “Where shall we fight them?”

  “Weshern’s the only one who sought peace when the others attacked, so it sounds like we’ll be going to Weshern’s aid first.”

  The aid of my children, Liam thought, new purpose flooding into him. The salvation of their home.

  “To battle then,” he said, saluting his fellow knight, hoping to inspire away his fear. “To a noble cause, and a nobler death.”

  CHAPTER

  29

  Kael and Clara landed at the edge of Weshern, joining Bree and the dozens of Seraphim peering down. Not thirty minutes ago the first warning had sounded, resulting in the mad scramble that had brought the Weshern Seraphim out to defend.

  “What do you see?” Kael asked his sister. She crouched before him on one knee, squinting at the clouds below.

  “Not much,” Bree said as she stood. “They’re too close to the Beam. We won’t know what we face until we fly over.”

  “We know exactly what we face,” Clara said. “The shadowborn’s army. This is it. Can’t you feel it?”

  Kael did feel it, a tangible power hovering in the air. Not that anyone wanted to voice that belief. Everyone prepared as if this were just another battle. They spoke as if Center’s knights were the ones flying up toward the Beam to engage. An army of demons? Creatures of ancient stories with power similar to the fireborn that had rampaged across Weshern’s surface in one hellish night?

  No, Kael felt no surprise in seeing so many of his fellow Seraphim lost in shock and denial. If not for his time standing in the presence of the lightborn, he might have joined them. Their entire flight from the holy mansion to the island’s edge had shown chaos below, shops closing up, windows and doors boarded shut, and hundreds fleeing toward Weshern’s center. The initial reports had only been of demons rising from the ocean and climbing the Beam toward Weshern’s surface, but as more scouts arrived, detailing similar assaults on Sothren, Candren, and Elern, the panic had grown. This was it, the large-scale, coordinated attack Kael had warned them about, and hardly anyone believed. The nightmare was coming true.

  “If this is his main assault, then consider it a blessing,” Bree said, flexing her right gauntlet as if it itched to fire. “We can end L’adim’s threat here and now.”

  “Nice of you to remain optimistic,” Kael muttered.

  “Someone has to, so I guess it’s my turn.”

  Olivia lifted into the air from the center of the group, signaling for attention. She didn’t get it. Everyone was too lost in their own arguments, their own thoughts, so she had to whistle multiple times to finally gather all eyes her way.

  “There will be no formations for this battle,” Olivia shouted. “We fly as one unified force. The demons are climbing toward our home, Seraphim! Our people are scared, our cities in danger of ruin. Those monsters must not set foot on our blessed lands, do you
hear me? Weshern is ours. Bleed and die for it.”

  The new commander turned around and dropped over the side of the island. The remaining Seraphim of Weshern followed, one long swarm diving over the edge. Kael’s chest beat with excitement and nervousness. Olivia was right. A victory here would be immense. A loss, however, meant everything.

  Bree led their way, Kael and Clara trailing after as the trio formed the tail end of Weshern’s attack force. They pushed through the clouds, their wings solely for control, their speed coming from gravity’s pull. Kael shifted the shield on his shoulder so it was before him. Whatever surprise awaited when they broke through the clouds, he’d be ready for it. The sky darkened. Their direction shifted inward, a swarm of silver wings entering the shadow of Weshern. In its shade they saw the demons’ ascent.

  Nine iceborn climbed a blue-white pillar built from the frozen Fount surrounding the Beam. Their size stole Kael’s breath away. They dwarfed the fireborn giant they’d battled in Elan Village. They made mockeries of Center’s war machines and cannons. Six hands clawed into the wide spray of water, each finger bigger than Kael’s entire body. Their heads were the size of houses, their brow crowned with frosted horns, their hair made of long icicles larger than any waterfall. The Fount shimmered and froze at their touch, hardening into one more piece of the growing tower. They saw the approach of Weshern’s defenders and opened their mouths in unison. Their words roared throughout the land, louder than the Beam, louder than the cracking ice of the Fount.

  “THE AGE OF MAN ENDS. COME DIE.”

  Stoneborn giants followed, a third the size of the iceborn but far greater in number. They bore no crowns or hair, but their hands and feet were long, curved hooks like ice axes and crampons that allowed them to climb the iceborn’s pillar. Swirling all around them, clinging to both stone and ice, were the stormborn and fireborn. They remained the slender little creatures Kael recognized, flitting rapidly about as they waited for their bridge to be complete. Already they reached halfway up the Beam, and it seemed the iceborns’ pace increased the closer they neared the top.

  Stay back, Bree signaled, relaying the order all the way from Olivia at the front. Strike from distance.

  Their commander wished to test the defensive abilities of the giants, a wise enough decision. Kael turned the knob to activate his focal prism. He wasn’t sure how useful his ice might be against fellow iceborn, but the giants would feel his sting. Besides, they didn’t need to kill the brutes to protect Weshern. Sending them crashing back down to the ocean waters would be enough to buy precious time.

  Olivia shifted their path so they gently curled toward the nearest iceborn. The creature continued climbing, each one of its six arms pulling it higher. Ice flowed out from it, extending its tower out at an angle from the Fount. Others were joining it, Kael saw. They didn’t need to just follow the Beam, but also extend away from it so they might reach Weshern’s edge and then the surface. Under no circumstances could that happen.

  On mark, Bree signaled. Kael looked to Clara beside him. She caught his gaze and gave him a wink.

  Give them hell, she mouthed.

  Their prey paused as the Seraphim closed into range. Two of its arms ripped chunks of ice free from the frozen Fount and flung them through the air. Others nearby did the same, their throws lobbed higher, precisely timed so they’d cross paths with the Seraphim during their projectile’s descent. The Weshern Seraphim split, half curving left, the other half right. The first few boulders ripped through the heart of their formation, clipping two unlucky Seraphs and shattering their wings. Olivia guided their swarm back together, more boulders falling harmlessly to either side. The iceborn giant now in range, the commander let loose with her lightning. The single hit was unimpressive compared to the target’s size, but then the rest unleashed their elements.

  Stone lances smashed the creature’s sides, pounding cracks into its hard body. Fire bathed the weakening form, punctuated by lightning. Kael joined in with the rest of the ice wielders in forming a wall jutting out directly above the giant’s head to block its path. The demon roared, deep and pained. Two arms smashed at the ice above, two others throwing chunks in wild, desperate sprays. The barrage continued, breaking it, tearing it apart. The giant fell in pieces to the frozen ocean below. Kael pumped a fist, their swarm of Seraphim immediately speeding toward the next massive eternal-born.

  The iceborn giants rushed closer together, merged onto a grand platform built by their combined power. The waters of the Fount splashed weakly nearby, what little that continued to flow up the hollowed center of the frozen tower. Olivia circled it from afar. Kael kept his shield at ready. The next defensive barrage could be devastating with so many gathered together. The eight giants stood perfectly still, a chilling image. Kael knew the lightborn could speak to each other with only a thought, and he wondered if the other eternal-born bore similar powers. The giants then broke apart, whatever plan of theirs officially decided. The stoneborn soon followed, remaining evenly spaced apart with arms raised and boulders ready to throw. No matter where Olivia led their attack, at least one of the stoneborn would be ready. As for the iceborn, they began forming a bridge jutting up and out from the platform, the sides of it curling to form a sort of tunnel. Now walking instead of climbing, their progress came at a frighteningly rapid pace. Only two worked the front, the others constantly reinforcing the bridge as well as watching for attacks.

  Olivia led them lower to the base of the frozen tower instead of heading them off. Stormborn swarmed it, climbing up to Weshern. Nothing a second barrage couldn’t fix. Ice and flame wreathed the tower, scattering the demons. Olivia landed upon the tower, jamming the sword in her left hand into it like a pick. Fire and lightning blasted the ice in an attempt to break the structure at its root.

  By the time the barrage ended they’d cut maybe a foot into the structure’s wall. Kael realized why it had taken so long for the iceborn to climb their way up the Fount. They’d layered and braced the bottom in anticipation of just such an attack, its thickness at least fifty feet. Olivia leapt off, the Seraphim following. She continued the barrage against the base, this time from afar. Stormborn scattered, lurking at the outside edge of the concentrated fire. Watching. Waiting.

  When the Seraphim settled to a hover with their firepower most heavily concentrated, the stormborn leapt off the ice. They crossed the air like little bolts of lightning, their speed breathtaking. Kael blinked once at the brightness and then the stormborn were among them, clawing at whatever they could get their hands on. One had the misfortune to grab hold of Kael’s shield, its hands sizzling into mist as the light flared. Another died with its head lopped off by Bree’s sword as it scratched its claws into her wings. Clara flitted about, striking down the falling stormborn with her ice. Dozens of the stormborn fell to the ocean, either unable to take hold or still clinging to a dead Seraph in their grasp, their eyes burned away, their mouths leaking smoke.

  Four Seraphs died in total, and many others hovered away injured. Olivia quickly ordered the retreat. Stormborn gathered in the center of the crater Weshern’s army had chipped away, chittering and laughing in mockery of their attempts. All the while, the iceborn giants above steadily advanced toward Weshern’s edge.

  A double blast of lightning skyward signaled for them to gather about their commander.

  “The iceborn are the key,” she shouted. “We can’t stop the swarm, and we can’t break the base. We have to stop the ice’s spread. It’s our only hope.” She glared at the stormborn. “Break apart into smaller formations. We’re more vulnerable together than we are apart. Fly strong, fly fast. There is no retreating from this battle. Fight until you fall like soldiers. That is my last order.”

  Dread spread throughout them, and Kael felt it strong in his heart. He glanced to Bree and Clara, unspoken communication bringing them into a triangle formation.

  Olivia rushed back to the sprawling bridge, which reached for Weshern’s edge like the long strand of a spider�
��s web. Weshern’s forces followed, this time much more spread out. Bree shifted their path toward a length of bridge least defended. Fire bathed her swords. Light shimmered across Kael’s shield. Two stone giants waited for them, hands clapping together as if eager for their approach. Bree picked the nearest, her body gently bobbed up and down so her path would be harder to predict.

  The stoneborn curled their boulder-fists close to their chests and slammed them together. Their own bodies cracked. They flung their hands, the pieces exploding outward in a massive spray of stone shards. The three refused to pull back. Live or die, they were going to fight. They avoided the first two such attacks, their wings shimmering as they increased the throttle to close the final gap. The stoneborn defended again, this time hastily, without much time to aim.

  Bree corkscrewed through the shards, momentum growing, giving strength to her slashes. She curled sharper inward, her swords exploding with fire as they ripped across the stoneborn’s pale right eye. It roared and fell back, green blood showering the air. Kael and Clara jammed heavy lances of ice into Bree’s newly opened wound, puncturing the eye and digging deep into whatever lay beyond. The stoneborn slid off the side of the bridge, body tumbling for the ocean.

  Momentum carried the three beyond the bridge. They curled about for another pass, giving Kael time to assess the battle. With the Seraphim spread so far apart they were better able to pressure all points of the ice tunnel. The problem was the fewer numbers made it that much harder to damage the gigantic iceborn. They couldn’t break the ice faster than the giants repaired it, especially now that it was close enough to the island’s underside that the iceborn could build long veins of supports to keep their bridge aloft. The lesser demons crawled through the tunnel, safe from harm. Foot by foot, the bridge tunnel reached for Weshern’s edge, the stoneborn defending it with barrages of thin, sharp javelins. Bree pulled their little squad away and slowed to a hover, allowing the other two to catch up.