Dire Destiny of Ours (38 page)

Elyssa rubbed her hands together. "I can't wait to see the look on that bitch's face."

"Let's go home and compile a list of insults. I want to be prepared for this."

She giggled and wrapped her arms around my neck. "You really know how to show a girl a good time."

The next morning, we met Underborn at El Dorado. My mother was already there with the assassin, inspecting the Alabaster Arch. She gave me and Elyssa warm hugs.

Underborn didn't give us hugs, opting instead to nod briefly in our general direction. "I can see why you've chosen El Dorado, Mr. Slade. Should Daelissa discover which Alabaster Arch we've used to take control from the Grand Nexus, she might think twice before attacking here."

"Actually, I'm hoping she'll attack us here." I outlined my plan to force a fight we might win.

"She won't bite," Underborn said without hesitation. "If there's anything stronger than Daelissa's ego, it's her sense of self-preservation. You might anger her, but unless she feels confident of victory, she won't attack."

"I'd have to agree." Mom quirked her lips into a sad frown. "I've seen Daelissa so angry she was literally foaming at the mouth. Somehow, she bottled up that rage and saved it for later. I don't think you can goad her into such a risky attack."

"But, Justin and I stayed up late making a list of insults," Elyssa said. "We came up with some pretty funny ones."

"I had it all planned out." I blew out a breath of disgust. "It all started with calling her a miserable, vomitous mass, and ended with telling her to stick her head in doo-doo."

Underborn blinked a couple of times. "You obviously put some serious thought into this, Mr. Slade. I fear you'll have to come up with something better."

"I'm not giving up on the idea." I turned to the Alabaster Arch. "What have you found out so far about taking control from the nexus? We have less than a day before her troops reach the gateway."

"It has proven considerably more difficult than I thought." Underborn withdrew the three Chalons. Each sphere was small, white, and etched with tiny lines. "We've tried individually aligning the orbs with Seraphina, and then affixing them to the arch, but the Grand Nexus resists our attempts to remove it as the primary arch."

"I can sense our Chalons overpowering the nexus, but just when they're about to take control, the nexus take the arches offline and resets." Mom threw up her hands. "I don't know what else we can do."

"I know just who to call." I sent a text to Adam Nosti.
Need help hacking an Alabaster Arch at El Dorado.

He responded a moment later.
I can be there in an hour. Helping Shelton with your magic doors.

"Magic doors?"

I flinched and saw Underborn standing behind me. "Snoop much?"

He didn't seem the least bit embarrassed. "Do these doors have something to do with the map and key?"

"They're making giant doors that can fold into compact form for easy transport."

"Interesting." He narrowed his eyes. "That would solve a great many logistics problems should your unconventional idea work."

"Exactly." I put away my phone. "Now if only we had an army of battle golems to transport with them."

"Given the lack of time before our next conflict, I don't believe constructing more battle golems is the answer." Underborn idly rolled the Chalons between his fingers like a street magician manipulating marbles. "You've made ample use of flying carpets, but have you considered rocket sticks and flying brooms? They're much faster."

"Flying carpets are more stable," Elyssa said. "Arcanes find it easier to cast from them."

"Perhaps, but what about Seraphim?" Underborn gave us a sly smile.

"Flying brooms?" I'd never even considered such a thing. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. "Are they hard to fly?"

Underborn waggled his hand in a so-so gesture. "The learning curve is a little steep, but it just so happens that you have a resident flying broom expert."

I knew the answer immediately. Underborn seemed intent on making me wait for the answer so I decided to ruin his fun. I folded my arms. "I'm totally over your dramatic pauses. You're talking about Bella."

Disappointment flickered across the assassin's face. "Indeed. Your friend Bella used to be in one of the underground boomstick leagues here."

"Boomstick?" My forehead pinched. "Isn't that a shotgun?"

"It's Arcane slang for highly modified broomsticks and rocket sticks, especially those used in racing," Elyssa said. "The Templars bust racers who decided to take their sport into nom cities."

"Sweet!" It seemed there was always something cool I hadn't known about the Overworld. I'd seen flying brooms around campus during my first days at Science Academy and Arcane University. Heck, I'd even seen frat boys riding flying vacuum cleaners, mops, and those rolling floor sweepers used in restaurants. I'd never considered them viable for combat operations, especially the one Bella wanted to pack for our trip to Seraphina. I took out my phone and called Bella. I didn't waste time explaining what I wanted when she answered. "Are you a boomstick expert?"

She paused as if the question caught her off guard. "Dare I ask why you want to know?"

"Underborn suggested flying brooms might be more effective for our Seraphim combat operations than flying carpets," I said. "What do you think?"

She made a squealing noise. "I think it's a wonderful idea. We'll need modified broomsticks. Do you know where we can get them?"

I turned to Underborn. "Where can we get boomsticks?"

He took out his arcphone and tapped on it. "I have an excellent contact in the underground league who can supply them. Give me a few moments and I'll make the arrangements."

I put the phone back to my ear. "I'll let you know once we have them."

"This will be fun, Justin." Bella sounded super-excited. "I can't wait."

I wanted to feel optimistic about this venture, but a part of me decided I was desperately grasping at straws, or more specifically, straw brooms. The other Seraphim and I might be more mobile, but would we be any match for the archangels? More importantly, would we have time to train with them?

Underborn's contact came through, but he wouldn't deal with Templars, so I had to leave Elyssa behind. Shelton, Bella, and I took a flying carpet down into Queens Gate. The meeting place didn't show up on the map, so we used directions given to us by Underborn. After twisting through countless alleys, we finally arrived at a dead end.

"Son of a monkey's ass," Shelton said as he regarded the red brick walls on three sides. "I'll bet Underborn is having a good laugh."

"Did we miss a turn?" Bella waved her wand around the alley, casting revelation spells intended to highlight illusions. Her spells fizzled on the walls and failed to find anything.

I looked at my notes and recounted the trip in my head. Despite the complex instructions, I felt positive we hadn't missed any steps. I examined the last few sentences.

Turn right into Blind Wizard's Alley.

Take a bow.

When I'd first read the last sentence, I thought it was telling us to pat ourselves on the back for getting here. Now I felt certain it was literally telling us to nod our heads. I lowered the carpet to the cobblestone road, looked at one of the walls, and bowed.

With a loud grating noise, the red brick wall at the end of the alley slid down into the ground, revealing a dark passage.

"Thank heavens," Bella said. "I think Harry was about to lose his temper."

Shelton grumbled something about kicking mysterious assassins in the rear end and walked into the dark passage. He vanished from sight the instant he stepped inside. Narrowing my eyes, I peered into the pitch black, but Shelton was nowhere to be seen. I stepped through after him. The second I crossed the threshold, I stood inside a large well-lit garage instead of a pitch-black tunnel.

Bella bumped into me. "How interesting. It would seem this place doesn't hide behind illusion. It uses some kind of pocket dimension magic."

"Underborn set it up for me," said a young Asian man as he came around the corner. He sported thick black hair and wore tight-fitting black jeans and a light-blue T-shirt with a yellow lightning bolt on the front. "I'm Rai."

Shelton snorted. "You sure as hell don't look like an underground racer to me."

Rai shrugged. "What did you expect? A nom grease monkey?"

"I sure expected more after traipsing all over the blasted city looking for this place." Shelton scowled like a hungry man who'd just dropped his last jelly-filled donut into the gutter.

I glanced around the garage. One side held racks upon racks of brooms. Stainless steel pedestals resembling the kind of stands used to repair bikes held broomsticks in various states of construction. A large bin in the back contained what looked like straw and next to it were stacked bins of wooden rods, each one labeled by the type of wood. Some of the other containers held exotic-looking materials I didn't recognize.

I walked to the proprietor and held out a hand. "Nice to meet you, Rai. I'm Justin."

He grinned and gripped my hand firmly. "It's an honor to meet you. You look a lot younger than I'd imagined."

"I moisturize daily." Not wanting to waste time on idle conversation, I waved a hand toward all the brooms in the back. "Are those the boomsticks?"

Rai rubbed his hands together as if I'd just asked him his favorite question. "Yes, they are. Each one of them handcrafted by me or one of my skilled apprentices."

"You look awfully young to have apprentices," Shelton said.

Rai arched his eyebrows. "You look awfully young to be so grumpy."

"You'll have to forgive Harry," Bella said sweetly. "He doesn't know much about the sport." She ran a finger along one of the brooms clamped into a broom stand. "I see you're using Bavarian straw and wood in your construction. Do you prefer it over Italian?"

Rai's eyes brightened. "Now that is a debate I could go on and on about." He cast a sideways glance at me. "I don't think Justin wants to wait that long, though."

"I used to be a boomstick racer back in the day," Bella said. "It looks like things haven't changed much since then."

"A lot has changed if you're talking about gadgets," Rai said. "But if you want pure power and speed, you'll still find the same old arguments about wood quality, the kind of straw used, and the best aerodynamic design."

"How much more aerodynamic could a broom be?" I asked, examining the slender rod of wood.

"Magic doesn't completely free us from physics," Rai said. "That's why all the novelty crap like flying mops and vacuum cleaners handle like pregnant pigs saddled with bathtubs." He looked proudly at the racked brooms. "Nothing handles quite the same as a hand-crafted broom."

"How hard are they to fly?" I asked.

Rai glanced at me. "Ever flown one before?"

I shook my head. "Flying carpets only."

"These things will run circles around even the fastest flying carpets." He winked. "Why do you think the Templars have so much trouble catching us?"

I was glad Elyssa wasn't around to argue the point. "We need as many brooms as you can spare."

"What exactly do you plan to do with them?" Rai actually looked a little worried, like a father dropping off his kid for the first day of kindergarten.

"We're up against flying Seraphim," Shelton said. "Maybe even goliaths."

The proprietor's eyes grew wide. "I've heard rumors, but it's still hard to imagine these Seraphim actually exist, much less fly."

I put a hand on his shoulder and looked him directly in the eye. "We absolutely need these brooms and the training to go along with them. We can pay you whatever you want."

"I have fifty-eight completed brooms. I usually sell them for around three thousand or more, depending on the mods." He looked up as if performing some quick calculations in his head. "I'd be willing to let them go for a hundred thousand tinsel."

Shelton whistled. "What the hell are these things made, of, gold?"