All Light Will Fall (24 page)

“I trust you shall.” He looked to his legion. “To the
beaches. We will depart momentarily,” he ordered.

From a distance, the whisper of the sea drifted through the
trees. And beyond that very wood line was the Meridian fleet.

Bright blue banners danced across the convoy of allied
ships. The massive stone vessels drifted low over the beach. A green energy
powered the triangular forms of rock, holding them still against the ocean
breeze.

I spotted a familiar face among the crowd. Zurel hurried
through and around the many regiments, giving orders for their grand departure.

Suddenly there was someone beside me. I turned a little to
face him. Luna brushed passed me, signaling for me to follow him.

We continued our stroll to the shoreline. The white pebbled
sand shifted beneath our feet. Luna and I steadily approached the ships. Their
enormous shadows towered over us, shading the entire span of the beach.

“Lower passageway!” a voice shouted.

The bridge was lowered. I watched the thin squares of gold
fold down and forward, step-by-step until they reached the waves of the sea.

“After you,” Luna insisted.

I followed the gilded pathway, any hint of hesitation
abandoned among that crystal white shore. Luna was behind me. I could sense his
uneasiness, his struggle to understand me, and the mystery of how I came to be
here beside him on this beautiful eve of battle.

On the deck there was chaos, the natives quickly preparing
the ship for battle. Objects were rolled and thrown from one side of the ship
to the other. Banners were hoisted and weapons assembled. I scanned the craft
of the ship. It had quite the clever design. A row of cannons lined the bow of
the craft, shelter holes built low beneath the guns. Rotating shields ran
through the entire main deck, evenly spread and easily assessable.

“Are we prepared to take our leave?”

I faced the central balcony. A glimmer of sun blinded Uway
from my sight. Above him, the ship’s red-headed pilot swung down from the
foremast, landing with an acrobatic tumble before the staircase. “
Ay
,
Aieti
,”
he said, giving the captain a cheeky salute.

Uway sailed down the granite steps like a monarch. He placed
a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Have Zurel give order to the
valdor
.”

“I shall do so with haste,
Aieti
,” the boy answered.

Uway turned and began toward the controls of the ship, and
as it moved for takeoff, I noticed a thin fog in the air, steadily surrounding
us in a cloak of darkness. I felt the ship move suddenly and then we were off.
We flew far into the south, the world around us, gray and silent.

“A fair sky turns to cloud so suddenly... truly the work of
the dark,” one said.

An eerie croaking echoed through the mist. All was
soundless, and it was a disturbing silence, a sinister spirit possessing the
air. A beam of light suddenly lit the sky. The mass of energy descended with
haste, crashing into the vessel on our right. Large parcels of stone shot from
the explosion, blasting their way across the main deck.

“Kiyona!” Uway ordered.

“
Ay
,
Aieti
!” the red-head replied. He gripped
the navigator handles, steering us out of range as the wrecked aircraft drifted
off course.

The enemy resumed attack, the black fleet of airships
shadowing above us.

“Kiyona, hold us down. We shall meet them,” Uway said.

“At your word!” Kiyona shouted. An airy current passed over
the ship, weighing my body down against the deck. Then slowly and gently, the
ship began to sway, rotating angle by angle until the bottom end of the vessel
stood straight to the sun. The world had reversed. The skyline was a spread of
white ocean waves. We ascended, the apex of the ship shielding us from a hail
of fire.

A chaos of color pulsed through the sky. Rocks whizzed and
shattered among ally and enemy ships alike. The Meridians used the fissured
rock to their advantage, battling among the broken passageways.

“On my command, Kiyona,” Uway instructed.

We continued upward. The ship’s right side scaled along the
obsidian craft. I smashed into the side railing as the two vessels steadily
aligned. Deck to deck, the ship veered to the right and steered directly over
the enemy.

“Release!” Uway demanded.

We fell, dodging a furious blitz of fire the entire one
hundred feet down. I landed with a rugged roll across the upper deck and
hurriedly staggered to a stand. Two natives charged from my left and right,
their swords cutting the air with a trained accuracy. I blocked the dual attack
and countered the one on my right before they could strike again.

Uway was there on the deck as well, sawing down his
adversaries like a flurry of wind. His blade was a tireless spear, a collector
of blood and glory. It took the lives of many, a soulless grave rising beneath
his steps.

The battle continued as if the world had fallen beneath us.
Nothing mattered but that forthcoming shine of victorious light. Native fought
native. Brother slew brother. It was a ruthless slaughter. Unyielding.
Unending. Blood and rock and steel strewn across the battlefield. Explosion
after explosion, cry after cry trembled the oceans below. War would never die.

“Incoming!”

The shriek echoed high and low, drawing my gaze to the west.
I hadn’t the time to steady myself as the ebony craft purposefully crashed into
its own allied ship. The impact launched me several feet backward where I spun
and slid against the angled flooring. The ground continued to tip upward,
throwing me into a downward spin.

I caught the ridge of the ship, clinging helplessly over the
open air.

“I have come by my will... and for your flesh, brother.”

The voice was so sinister, so dark and haunting that I had
to look up. But I saw nothing, only the hard curves of Uway and his enemy
standing still atop the ridge.

“You have appeared in vain then,” I heard Uway say. “From
your contempt, you will discover nothing but the aching of truth, a truth you
that will guide down the aisles of death.”

“If it is truly so brother, I shall conquer death and prove
that
Allya Saihara
belongs to me! My divinity has been robbed... and if
you shall not return it, then I shall reclaim what is mine, by your blood and
by the lives of your people!”

The figure vanished, clashing into Uway with such a speed
that he was but a wisp of air. Their movements were beyond my ability of
seeing. I saw only light. My eyes held fast to those flashes of silver. Iron
struck iron, the mighty ripples of energy exploding wherever their weapons
crossed. With each collision, another fraction of the ship splintered in half.
I held tight to its bottom end, realizing the approaching terror rising beneath
me.

I braced myself as a third ship bombarded its way from down
under. The ground lifted, rocking the lower angle of the ship. I was hurled
across the deck and skidded uncontrollably to its opposite side. I fought on my
way down, an enemy on my right side and an enemy on my left. We skidded to a
halt near the edge of the ship.

As the armies warred, a white light stretched above us, its
blazing rays shooting across the battlefield. “
Di tes fihesel
!”

There was no time to heed the warning. The ally ship from
above crashed head first against the deck. The enemy ship groaned, its undersides
cracking under pressure.

“
Aieti
!”

I turned south towards the cry. It was Zurel, trapped among
a cave of rubble. Uway hurried to his aid. The enemy
valdor
had
vanished, possibly over the rim of the ship. Uway quickly sheathed his sword,
stretching forth his hands. By the power of his mind, the rock began to move,
levitating inch-by-inch at his command.

Then I saw him, the dark figure who had challenged Uway from
before. He flew forward, the blade of his sword axing through the
valdor
shielding the Levíí. His victims withered to their knees. A sickly burst of
silver crystallized over their wounds where the sword had sliced the seams of
their bodies.

I moved to the right, blocking an incoming attack. That same
deathly sword as before rose high into the mist. I threw myself across the way.
The assault was blocked, but not the one that followed. My body spun and
intercepted the blade. It pierced through the body before me and into my
shoulder.

The
valdor
pressed against my chest, gripped the
sword’s edge, and pulled the violet tip from my flesh. A cold face of beauty
glared over the warrior’s shoulder. I gasped. It was everywhere on his face;
death on his lips, death below the eyes, caressing his jaw and kissing his
skin.

I was ruthlessly shoved aside. The forced space gave Uway
room to attack. The ground shifted again, turning, slipping and sliding
downward until our bodies gave way to the pull.

The one I named “Death” released himself into the air,
returning to his ship with a nimble landing. Those who remained, clung to the
wreckage as he sailed off into the mist.

“
Aieti
!” Zurel called. “The vessel will not last!” A
rumble signified the early eruption, the explosion thrusting us forward.

I twisted and whirled around the crumbing rock. And up in
the sky I saw something shocking, and beautiful, and falling fast towards me.
Uway moved swiftly through the air, using the surrounding rock as leverage to
launch himself forward. He caught me, and together we fell.

A massive block of stone lay before us. Uway severed the
rock in half with a single swipe of his sword. And high above us, a hand of
light blinded the entire width of the sky. We fell for only a second through
the realm of white. The river came quick. We hit the water, and the push of the
current threw us apart.

I found my way to the bank. The beat of the water had washed
me ashore. I stammered to a stand, scanning the endless canyon. The land
possessed a solitary emptiness, the whistling waves and the soft crow of nature
the only hints of life among the rocks. All was silent otherwise. There was not
a sound atop the high ridge. The battle, it seemed, had ended.

I spotted Uway down the riverside, ringing the water from
his dressings. I approached him with care, sensing his frustration. “Uway,” I
whispered.

He faced me, enraged.

“What is it?” he hissed.

“That Meridian you faced..?”

Uway gaze narrowed. “What of him?”

“Who was he?”

I didn’t know why I had asked, but I found that I wanted to
know, especially after taking that blade for him.

“Do not meddle in matters that are none of your concern,” he
said.

I blinked. He was so near I could see the fine shapes of his
markings again. “Very well then,” I uttered. He relented, easing the tension
from his face.

His eyes glided downward. I blushed and crossed my arms over
my chest. He yanked my arm outward, agitating my wound.

“Why did you intervene?”

He pressed his fingers into the swollen flesh.

“If my brother were not solely engrossed with ending my
life, he would have slain you instantly.”

“He’s your brother?”

“Answer me,” Uway ordered.

I flinched when he ripped away the hindering patch of cloth.
“The
umbarra
would’ve killed you.” I said simply.

“And what value does my life hold to you?” he asked.

He didn’t give me time to answer, as he forcibly lead me to
the river. We kneeled in the bed of pebbles, and I relaxed as Uway brought the
water to the heat of the wound. Then he dipped his hand into the muddy riverbed
and used the clay to clog the open skin.

“Will it get infected?” I asked.

“It is unlikely. Your kind tend to heal rather quickly.”

When he finished dressing the wound, he helped me to a
stand.

“My brother Adais has settled two days beyond this valley.
My armies are sure to travel in the same direction. Can you manage the
journey?”

“Yes,” I assured, “I can manage.”

Night cradled the planet. Uway and I rested in the heart of the
forest among the glow of the trees. As the light dimmed around us, I watched in
a blank state of fascination as he blew fire into his palms and lit the flames
upon the woodland floor. The fire circled around us. It was a cool and gentle
fire, a fire of light, but of a light that did not burn.

I rested against one of the trees, watching him. “Why did
you put them around us?” I asked.

Uway shrugged out of his damp cloak then hung it across a
branch to dry. “Creatures hunt in the night. The fire will ward them off.” He
peeled off several more layers of clothing until a cream colored undergarment
was the only apparel clinging to his ivory landscape of muscle. I saw the
twinkle of the relic against the pale of his chest. It mesmerized me.

Uway sat across from me. My eyes followed the radiant scales
across his forehead, down the curve of his neck, then beyond his forearm to his
rounded knuckles.

“What are those markings?” I asked.

Uway raised his hands. He opened and closed his palms as if
he were fascinated by them, as if he were seeing them for the very first time.
“The signs of my birth, my prophesized future one might say.”

“Birth signs?” I questioned.

“The future of all the Meridian are foretold when they are
born. The power of any marking remains dormant until the calling stirs it.”

“What happens once it stirs?”

“Miraculous things,” Uway answered, “miracles.”

“And what if it isn’t, what happens then?”

“Eternal emptiness and wandering till death.”

Eternal emptiness, wandering till death, were these not the
true tortures of the soul? I imagined them to be, for what was life without
purpose? A chill crept over my skin, lapping at the blue flames.