Birthright-The Technomage Archive (23 page)

“
How far is it?” Saryn asked. She Conjured her own eyes into magnifiers, but could not see what Ceril was talking about. “I can't see it. I see the forest, though, and the trees do look different from the ones out here. They’re hopefully not going to kill us.”

“
Hopefully,” Ceril said and pointed at the tower. “I’d guess the tower is maybe two days' walk from here.” Swinton and Harlo groaned at the same time. Ceril continued, “I know. But that's better than having nothing to go on.” His voice became stern. “We're going that way.”

Saryn's squinted at him. “Yes, sir,” she said.

The words had barely left her mouth when a high-pitched shriek came from overhead. Ceril, Chuckie, and Swinton immediately dropped to one knee, remembering Bryt's lessons. The soldier mentor had taught them that their biological first reaction—fight or flight—was wrong, that their first reaction should always be
calculate
. So, the three trained soldiers instinctively dropped below the level of the grasses and began to try and locate the source of the sound. Saryn and Harlo, while having been taught basic combat tactics, had never gone through Bryt’s soldier regimens. Their reactions weren’t as ingrained as their teammates. They hunched over slightly and whipped their heads around in search of the source of the loud noise.

“
Get
down!
” Chuckie yelled.

“
What?” Harlo answered. “What is that?”

“
Down!
” Ceril said, reinforcing Chuckie’s command. Harlo and Saryn complied. It was an ungraceful descent, but it probably saved their lives. Above them, just higher than the level of the plains grasses, a dark blur flew past where Saryn and Harlo had just stood. They all felt the rush of wind as it passed so closely overhead.

“
What is that, boss?” Harlo asked shakily.

“
No idea, Harlo,” Ceril said. “We all okay?”

The team responded in the affirmative just as another shriek sounded above them and the attacker came flying by again.

Ceril pulled the Conjuration from his eyes, blinked his vision into focus, and said, “Swinton, you're with me. We're going to check this thing out. Chuckie, if that thing comes back by, I want you to knock it out of the air. Do anything you can, got it?”

“
Yes, sir,” Swinton said. He reached into his pack and pulled out the small handgun he had stowed in there. Chuckie followed suit, only his gun was a bit larger and had been carried on his back. Ceril summoned his Flameblade, and it started to glow. The other four members of his team, despite the situation, stopped momentarily and gawked at the purple and green glowing sword their leader held.

Ceril marveled for a moment and so did his team.

“
That's a mighty fine purple sword you got there,” Swinton said.

“
Ain't it just?” Chuckie threw in. “Matches the place real good, too. You been here before, boss?”

“
Can't say that I have,” said Ceril. “It is a little odd, though, huh?”

“
A little past odd, if you ask me,” said Chuckie. “This whole place is that damned purple—the sky, the ground, the dirt, the trees—and here your little sword matches it perfectly. Even that green twinge looks like the lightning. You sure we came here on accident?”

“
Well, I sure didn't plan on getting stranded here.”

“
And yet,” Chuckie said, “here we are.”

Ceril nodded. “That we are, and it appears we're under attack. Can we discuss this later?”

Another shriek.

This time, as the flying beast came around, Ceril and Swinton peeked their heads above the grass. What they saw was amazing. Ceril had read a lot of books and articles on religion in his time at Ennd's, and if he didn’t know it was impossible, then he would have said that he and his team were being assaulted by some kind of angel.

The creature was longer than most men were tall. Ceril thought that it probably stood seven to nine feet when upright, and, other than the wings, could pass for human in the right situation. It wore rags as clothes, and long purple-black hair fluttered down its back. Also from its back, coming through the rags, were large black-purple wings. They were not feathered; instead, they were either scaled or made of metal, as they reflected the sunlight with each wingbeat.

“
Ceril!” Swinton said. “It’s got Flameblades!” Sure enough, the angel was holding a Flameblade in each hand. They both glowed purple, a dark rich hue that matched its skin, hair, and wings.

“
What the hell?” Ceril said. “It does.”

“
I want one,” Swinton said.

“
Well, here might be your chance,” Ceril told him. “Let’s get this thing out of the air, right?”

“
Yeah, right.” Swinton aimed his sidearm at the flying creature and pulled the trigger. His shots went wide as his target twisted in midair and flew back toward him, its Flameblades glowing brighter.

Despite all the power and finesse Ceril had gained from training with his Flameblade, its reach was no different from any other melee weapon. He had to be close to his opponent for it to be of any real use, so Ceril stood impotently as Swinton continued to fire, and miss.

“
What do you think you're doing?” Harlo roared. “Why are you shooting at it?”

“
It tried to kill us, Harlo!” Ceril yelled.

She countered, “What if it's intelligent?”

“
So what if it is?” Chuckie said. He aimed his gun at the angel flying toward Swinton and fired. His gun wasn’t a slug-thrower; it fired bursts of highly concentrated energy. Generally, those bursts did more damage than chunks of metal, and they were much more easily controlled. The angel crossed its swords in front of its face. Although Chuckie hadn’t aimed at the creature’s face, the energy bolts veered midair upward toward the center of the flaming X created by the swords. The Flameblades’ auras glowed brighter as the shots were absorbed. “I think we may be screwed here, boss. That thing—AAAAHH!”

Whatever he was going to say was interrupted when two purple hands clamped down on Chuckie's shoulders and lifted him off the ground.

Saryn yelled, “There’s more than one! They’ve got Chuckie!”

Ceril dropped his sword, and it immediately disappeared. He wrapped his arms around Chuckie's legs just in time to join him in the air.

The others watched it all happen, and Swinton aimed his sidearm at the angel that held Chuckie and Ceril.

“
Don't shoot!” Chuckie yelled at the ground. “Don’t shoot!”

Swinton lowered his gun slightly.

Up in the air, Ceril shouted to Chuckie, “Are you okay?”

Chuckie said, “I can't get it off me. It won't let go. I'm going to shoot it before we get too high.” He put his hand on his gun and turned it upward. “I ain’t gonna miss from this angle, and it can’t block me with its swords this time. If it wants to try, it has to let us go.”

“
No!” Ceril said. “No, we’re already too high.”

Chuckie looked down. “Yeah. Yeah. So what's the plan, then?”

“
Not die, first and foremost. That means not shooting at whatever is keeping us in the air.”

“
Okay,” Chuckie said, lowering his gun. “What then? Because we're moving pretty damn fast and far away from those three.” He pointed down at the rest of their team. Ceril looked back and saw Swinton leading them through the high grass and mud, but they were moving too slowly to catch up with their flying kidnapper.

“
Look out!” Ceril screamed down, but they didn’t hear him, and he grimaced as he watched the other angel grab Saryn and take her into the air. Swinton and Harlo dropped to the ground immediately, but by then Saryn was gone. Her kidnapper soon caught up with Chuckie and Ceril’s and flew along beside them.

“
You okay?” Ceril asked Saryn.

“
Yeah,” she said. “Thing’s got a grip, doesn't he?”

“
He does,” Chuckie affirmed.

“
So what now?” Saryn asked.

Ceril held tightly to Chuckie's legs. He wasn’t technically being held, so he could potentially let go and escape to rendezvous with Harlo and Swinton. He looked down, and they had climbed even higher into the air. “Chuckie, how are your legs?”

“
Have to say they’ve been better, boss.”

“
Sorry,” Ceril said, and he meant it. Sorry, yes, but not sorry enough to risk breaking half the bones in his body as he fell.

“
You got a plan?” asked Saryn.

Ceril looked in the direction in which they were being flown. “Well, we're heading back to the mountains. I figure once there's ground close enough beneath me, I'll drop.”

“
About time,” Chuckie said.

Ceril ignored him and continued. “Do you have a gun?”

Saryn shook her head.

“
A weapon of any kind?”

Another negative.

“
Okay, then,” Ceril said, “Chuckie will take his and shoot both of the angels out of the air, yours first and then his.”

“
Angels?” Chuckie asked. “They're angels? What kind of angels kidnap people like this?”

“
Who knows?” Ceril said. “We can figure out a name for them later. Anyway, are you good with the plan, Chuckie? I drop, you shoot Saryn’s angel, then yours?”

“
Yeah. Sure am.”

“
Are you?” he asked Saryn.

She said, “Chuckie, just make sure there’s ground close beneath me, okay?”

“
You got it.”

The rest of their flight was spent in silence that was eventually broken by gunshots.

***

Swinton and Harlo ran as hard as they could, but they weren't fast enough to keep up with the flyers. Between the muddy ground and the tall grass, they stumbled along and were barely able to keep Ceril and the others in view as their captors flew them toward the mountains. Swinton and Harlo kept running, though. And despite not technically having any soldier training, Harlo had been a health nut most of her life, which let her keep up with Swinton fairly easily.

By the time the pair heard the gunshots, the mountains were towering in front of them. They both stopped in their tracks at the sound.

Harlo said, “Well, that can mean one of two things. They're either okay and working their way back to us. Or they’re not, and we have to keep going after them. I prefer the first scenario, but either way, I think we should head that direction. At least meet them in the middle.”

“
Yeah,” Swinton said, “that sounds good. It’s probably going to be night soon, and we really shouldn't be out in the open after dark. At least we know the mountains have places we can hide and sleep. We should keep going.”

“
Let’s just hope they don’t miss us on their way back through while we’re hiding and sleeping.”

“
Can’t think like that, doc. Let’s go.”

By nightfall, they had heard no more gunshots, which was a good thing, but they had also not seen their teammates, which was bad. They had not been accosted by flying kidnappers anymore, either, so Harlo considered them to be ahead for the moment.

It wasn’t hard for them to find a decently covered spot where they could sleep for the night. When they stopped and decided to camp, Swinton looked at Harlo and said, “We'll find them tomorrow.”

She mumbled a vague response.
If they're not dead already
, she thought
.

“
It's probably not safe to have a fire tonight,” he told her.

“
You're right. There's no telling what would find us in the dark if those things could find us during the day.”

“
Well,” Swinton offered, “we
were
in the middle of a purple field. We kind of stuck out.”

“
That we did,” Harlo said. She didn't feel like much conversation, but it seemed like he did.

“
Where do you think they are?” Swinton asked. He tried not to shiver as he put his back to one of the outcropping's walls.

“
Somewhere above us, that way” she said and pointed. “I'm pretty sure they're alive. They have to be. Roman and the others wouldn't have sent us somewhere so dangerous that we'd have been killed on our first day there. I mean, I know I've heard the Rites are tough, but that's a little insane.”

“
I don’t think they really knew that much about this place,” Swinton said. “All they told me was that our Rites were about to begin and that Ceril was in charge.”

“
Which makes me think they knew where they were sending us, Swinton,” she said, a little annoyed. “How could they send us out to be tested if they weren’t sure about the test?”

“
Maybe,” he conceded. “But still. The way the portal went out like it did. And this attack? And no panel to reopen the portal? I have a bad feeling about this.”

Harlo did, too, but she didn't want to say it. That might make it real. “I get that, Swinton. I do. But right now, we're just going on conjecture, and that's not good for anyone. We’ll drive ourselves crazy with a night full of what-ifs. The best thing we can do right now is get whatever sleep we can and head in the direction we think they’re in when we wake up.”

“
Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, you're right.”

I certainly hope I am, at least,
she thought. “Good night, Swinton,” she said.

They both pulled their folded, foil blankets from their satchels and cowered beneath them, unsure of what to expect from the alien night.

Chapter sixteen

“
Can I help you, sir?” asked a cheerful young lady. She sat behind a crescent-shaped desk immediately inside the front entrance of Ennd's Academy, as she manipulated data on a hologram that floated just in front of her. She did not stop as she spoke.

Damien looked around him. He was alone, so she had to be speaking to him. He had hoped to avoid entanglements entirely, and he had not been aware that a school would have a receptionist in the foyer. It almost felt like a business rather than an educational facility. He thought back to his time at the school, trying to remember just how things had worked, but he stopped when he realized more than a few years had passed. Traditions had likely changed since then.