The Forgotten City (40 page)

“Watch everyone you love die!” she heard Lecivion’s voice roar from where he sped beside them on his dragon.

“Stop!” Silho screamed back at him. She held up a hand, trying to use her light-form skills on him.

He just laughed and said, “I told you, Oren, you’d regret betraying me.”

“And I told you. I’m – not – Oren,” Silho replied and her voice roared louder than his. Diega saw her stand up on the dragon’s back and completely let go of her grip, somehow staying there. She lifted both hands toward Lecivion and Diega saw, through the thin fabric of Silho’s dress, the dragon on her back starting to glow green. It burned brighter as their struggle intensified. She heard Lecivion scream out, “You’re not strong enough!”

“Wrong again!” Silho yelled back.

Diega felt her strength return to her as Lecivion filtered all his power into holding Silho off. She heard him gasp, saw his eyes widen in shock and then he exploded into ash, as she drained all of his lifeforce into her hands, and breathed it out as a huge blast of fire. His ashes blew away in the wind and the two dragons separated paths. As their firebird sped them over the plains, far above the Arequium Mors, Silho collapsed and Copernicus caught her with one hand, dragging her close to stop her from falling. After a moment she recovered and lifted her head. Diega saw the burns around her face rapidly healing. Their eyes met and Diega mouthed, “Nicely done.” It was the first encouragement she’d ever given her and it came easily. She’d saved them all.

Diega heard Shawe grunt in pain from behind her and looked back to see the lion had sunk his claws into Shawe’s leg and was trying to drag itself up on him as the firebird flew faster, over more plains and mountains. From this height and at this speed it felt as though nothing would ever be able to catch them.

All of a sudden the firebird was losing altitude, dropping from the sky even though it seemed to be still flying straight, as though the air itself was being sucked downward. They were freefalling. Diega realized the whole world was sinking just like the castle and they were being dragged downward into the realm of the Indemeus X.

She could see Copernicus thinking fast, but what could he do? Her mind turned to the baby strapped to her chest. She and the others had all had the chance to live, but he’d just been born. It wasn’t fair. Bitter anger burned in her chest – there was no good force in the universe watching out for them or anyone else. They were completely alone. Maybe it was better that it was all ending now.

She heard Silho gasp and looked up, expecting to see her fear, but Silho’s eyes were blazing with a white light that burned brighter and brighter until it consumed them all.

N
o sooner had he whispered the words
This is not working
than it began to work. There came a sound like fabric ripping and a flare of light with a heat blast so fierce it made Eli feel like his face was melting off. Flintlock seized the bolted-down bench they were hiding under and wrenched it up, tipping it over in front of them. The group sheltered behind it as fire exploded out into midair, rushing forward and then dragging back with a ferocity that almost swept Diamond away. Jude just managed to grab her and they all huddled against each other, clinging to the bench until the pressure lessened. Eli peered over the top of their shelter to see a form appear in the light – it almost looked like … but couldn’t possibly be …

“A dragon!” Jude shouted beside him, confirming his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him.

“It’s them!” Eli yelled, spotting the commander sitting on the creature’s back.

He leaped up and went to run, but Ismail grabbed him back and slammed him to the ground. A blackness had opened all around the dragon and was trying to swallow it whole. It screeched and beat its gigantic wings, trying to escape.

“We have to do something!” Eli yelled.

“Drag it free!” Diamond cried out, pointing to a length of chain close by that Eli used to hoist engines. Flintlock grabbed hold and threw the chain with impressive accuracy, closing a loop around the dragon’s tail. She heaved back with her enormous strength, but it wasn’t enough to counter the force that was dragging them down. Jude grabbed the chain to help her. Ismail rubbed his hands together, creating zaps of electricity, then held them up, magnetically drawing the chain toward them. Luther flared as well, using Cos magics to move the earth, shifting the dragon inch by inch away from the void. They worked together, their combined strength finally dragging it clear. A cyclonic rush of smoke-choked air that for a moment took the shape of a man with outstretched arms and no eyes battered the dragon violently, before the white light cut off and the eyeless form was dragged backward into the earth. The void closed and the exhausted dragon slumped down into the crater in the hangar floor.

Eli and the others raced for the edge. Jude jumped down first, SevenM and Penman beside him. He caught Diega as she rolled off the dragon’s back. Her legs buckled and she struggled for a moment to stand, but then found her feet, clutching something against her chest. Next Christy Shawe hit down, wrestling with a huge lion. Beside him the commander and Silho climbed to the ground. Eli literally didn’t know what to do first – he ran in circles for a few moments and then launched himself at his friends, screaming with joy. The commander caught him just as Diamond rushed over with a hose to spray the dragon, trying to revive it. The creature started to drink slowly. Diamond flew down to its head, putting the hose directly into its mouth, while Flintlock jumped in to help Shawe contain the struggling lion. Shawe looked like Flintlock’s paler, less masculine cousin.

Diega grabbed hold of the bundle strapped to her chest and lifted out a tiny baby. Eli stared in shock, but Diamond squealed, “It’s a baby!” She dropped the hose and flew over, trying to take it.

Diega whipped the baby away, demanding, “Who are you?”

“Hi, I’m Diamond and I love babies,” the imp-breed girl said rapidly, making it sound like a group therapy confession. “He’s severely dehydrated, he needs immediate care.”

“Trust me, she’s brilliant,” Eli reassured Diega, who gave a reluctant nod. Diamond helped her climb out of the crater and they took the baby over to the stretchers so Diamond could check it.

Eli turned his attention to Silho, who appeared to be the most weakened out of all of them. The commander was holding her up, with Jude on the other side of her. She was covered in dried blood and her eyes looked extremely pale. Eli noticed Ismail standing back in the shadows of one wall, staring at Silho.

“Silho!” Eli hugged her, then rushed to explain, “You’re a portal. The writing on the paper from your father’s house was the access enchant.”

She processed this information for a moment, then looked up at Copernicus, her eyes misting over. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly against him. Jude took a step back.

Another massive bomb blast shook the hangar, bringing dirt down on their heads. Everyone ducked as another hit and another straight after.

“We have to change kitty back,” Shawe yelled above the noise, “so he can call off his cats!”

Eli was confused for a second, then noticed that the struggling lion was casting the shadow of a man across the wall behind him.
Caesar …

“Once he’s turned, nothing can change him back except time,” the commander said.

“I know something.” Diega called out from the benches. She ran over and jumped down beside the lion. With Shawe and Flintlock holding him down, she grabbed an object from Caesar’s belt, which had tightened around one of the beast’s legs. It was a blade.

Diega spoke beside the lion’s ear, “My father gave me this. He was the wisest man I ever knew.”

The great lion roared, blinked, then comprehension flooded his golden eyes and he morphed back to a naked man. Shawe threw him a towel from one of Eli’s workbenches.

An ebomb struck nearby and the lights and open holo-screens of Eli’s computer system wavered under the shock. Eli’s internal security held, but it was fast overloading.

“Quick, speak to the city before the system crashes,” Eli said to Caesar, who blinked in confusion, but then rapidly regained his senses.

Eli flew up out of the crater and hacked into the city-wide projection system. He focused the camera on Caesar, from the waist up, and a hologram opened beside him – the image that everyone in Scorpia would be seeing.

“Okay – go,” Eli said.

Caesar swallowed, composing himself, then spoke, “Crook’d Town Pride, your boss is returned. Cease bombing – immediately!”

Another explosion trembled the hangar, another immediately followed, with a third on its back. They were falling like rain.

“The Androts,” Copernicus said.

“He’s not going to be able to control them,” Shawe said.

Jude spoke up. “But I can.” He walked in front of the camera beside Caesar. Cleared his throat and took over.

“City of Scorpia, I am Isaiah U, your rightful king. I am Ar Antarian – and I am machine-breed.” He paused to show the numbers on his neck. “My father was Miron U, my brother was Kry 939993, and I am claiming my right to the throne. Under my rule, there will be equality in this city. Those of you who wish to live by gangster law may do so, and those who wish to live under my law may do so also. The city will be divided proportionately. Androts, all machine-breeds, you will be free to live as you wish – as citizens – as equals.” He glanced at Caesar. “The Gangster King, Caesar K-Ruz, has agreed to open all the Androt prison camps and release everyone.”

Caesar’s eyes darkened, but he had no choice but to nod in agreement. If he refused now the Androt bombs would continue and destroy them all.

Jude finished his speech and they waited. And what they heard was silence – stillness.

T
he star glowed, a lowlight inside the meridian sphere. Diega had formed the new constellation by hand, using white fire and the old Fen magics, and now it was ready to be freed into the sky. Named for her sister, it would be a window from the afterworld through which Ariana could look down on those she loved still on Aquais. That was the Fen belief.

Diega kneeled down beside the meridian sphere and opened a second, smaller box she’d taken from Eli’s hangar. She lifted out Ariana’s bracelet and dropped it into the sphere, where it hung suspended in the center of the star. Diega whispered the words and the meridian morphed away. Ariana’s star shot upward through the sky and took its place in the shimmering legion above.

Diega closed her eyes and let the starslight shimmer along her bloodline marks. She’d spent many weeks going over and through her conversation with Shawe and had come to a resolution in her mind. Ariana’s death had not been her fault, and though the guilt still remained, she had to try to let it go. This was the start. She whispered a final goodbye to her sister.

Diega stood up and looked out over the city from the Greenway breakwall. It had seemed like an appropriate place to come for the release. Baby Alejan snuggled closer to her in his sling, a little thumb in his mouth. She stroked a hand over his silky hair. Never in her life had she imagined herself mothering anything. She’d never even wanted children, but this little boy had, in one cry, crashed down all her defenses.

Diega had thought at first that Silho would take him, since he was of her own race, but Silho had been struggling to recover both physically and mentally, barely even able to care for herself, let alone a baby who needed constant attention. Eli had begged Diega to adopt him herself, and said he would help raise him, but she’d thrown the idea aside – her lifestyle was too busy and dangerous and she felt as though she knew nothing about caring for a child. It wasn’t for lack of feeling; it was because she wanted to do what would be best for him.

She’d taken him to the recently set up facility near the center of the city that was taking in all the war orphans. She’d stood in the corridor of the building, looking into a room packed full of kids eating their dinner on rows of benches. The people running it were clearly flat out. Maybe they were good people, maybe they weren’t – there was no way to know. But one thing was for sure – there were way too many children and way too few carers. Diega had a vision of the baby crying in the dark of night – reaching shaky arms up for someone who would never come – and she’d left the place still holding him. Shawe had been standing outside. He’d been going with her to see Copernicus, and was waiting impatiently as always.

Feeling overwhelmed, she’d spoken the truth to him. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to leave him here.”

Shawe echoed Eli’s words: “So, keep him.”

“You really think I’m mother material?” she said incredulously.

He looked her up and down and demanded, “Why not? Nothing wrong with you.”

Coming from Shawe, it was high praise and it was exactly what she desperately wanted to hear – though hadn’t admitted it to herself. Eli only ever saw the best in her, but Shawe knew the worst and still thought she could care for the child. She could have literally kissed him. Instead she looked down at the baby, allowing herself to really look into his eyes. He wasn’t hers, he wasn’t Fen, but she already loved him.

“Alejan,” she whispered, naming him.

“Alien?” Shawe repeated, loud and rough, missing all the nuance and beauty of the name.

“Alejan!” Diega repeated. “It means
angel
in my language.”

“Angel? Alien? For trutt’s sake, give the boy a proper name! Call him Rob or Liam or Michael or Conan or Neal, even …”

“His name is Alejan,” Diega insisted.

“Okay, why don’t you just tie a sign around his neck that says
punch me now
. He’s never going to be able to get the girls with a name like Alien.”

“Somehow you managed it with a name like Christy! Isn’t that a girl’s name?” Diega shot back.

Shawe’s chest puffed out and he said, “There isn’t a single name in this city tougher than Christy! In fact – call him Christy Shawe Junior! That’s it, I don’t care – I’m calling him Christy Junior, no matter what you call him.”

He’d stomped away, and she hadn’t seen him since.

Diega looked out over the city. It had been massively damaged, almost half its buildings gone, whole levels flattened and crashed down on one other. But in the last few weeks, the rebuilding had begun. An entire quarter of the city had gone to the gangsters to rule as they pleased. The other three quarters of the people had voted to have Jude as their king, and he’d already proven a skillful leader. He’d re-established a military presence, and brought all the necessary amenities back online. He’d converted the palace into a place of refuge and learning and opened Sirenseron’s gardens to all, breaking down the lofty barriers that had separated his father, and all the Ar Antarian kings before him, from the people. Caesar had remained true to his word and freed the Androts and machine-breeds, and Jude had granted them all citizenship and equal standing. And even though the prejudice and anger remained, it was a step forward. It was hope when before there had been none.

Diega looked up into the dark sky and felt her heart sinking. She could see the planets Bandos and Eumaios glowing large above the city, but Praterius had completely vanished as though it never was. Dragged down by the Indemeus X, as Tickleback had said, into a nightmare in-between place of neither life nor death. Diega’s mind paused on images of the dragonfly and beetle girl, on Sesame and the drones, the Vidris Slimer, and sadness weighed her down. She clutched Alejan tightly against her.

Eli had set up all kinds of monitoring devices to warn if they were being targeted by the X. As Tickleback had said, only outsiders to a planet could see the telltale darkness, but so far it appeared Aquais wasn’t under threat – although they really still had no idea who they were dealing with, or how to stop him. The influence of the Mors still niggled at Diega’s mind and no one spoke the truth they all felt – they were living on borrowed time.

The trackers had been given a new Headquarters and Copernicus had made some comments about maybe even expanding the team. Since returning to Scorpia, Diega’s feelings for Copernicus had shifted. When she saw him and Silho together now, it still bothered her, but it didn’t hurt anymore, and she could only assume it was because she was trying to change herself.

She sensed movement behind her and turned to see Christy Shawe appear from the shadows.

“Your boss asked me to check on you, said you’d turned off your com,” he said, walking toward her.

“Yes – five seconds to myself is way too much to ask for,” Diega snapped.

Christy snorted. “You know what he’s like – has to control everything or his underpants get all in a bunch.”

That made her smile. Nobody talked down to Copernicus like Shawe did.

The gangster leaned in close to Alejan’s face and said, “Hello, Christy Junior. Hurry up and grow already so we can get away from your mother here and get up to no good – hit the bars, the pubs, and a few other places I’ll teach you about later.”

Diega turned Alejan away with a mix of annoyance and strange warmth. No one else had yet referred to her as Alejan’s mother. She looked up at Shawe and saw a powerful man with fiery green eyes, who never stopped, never gave in, never gave up – and he was looking right at her. She felt a strong surge of desire.

This was going to be a problem.