Balance (The Neumarian Chronicles) (29 page)

Chapter Thirty-
Four

I went
numb, frozen, unable to breathe as Bendar’s head rolled to a stop in front of me. My aunt had murdered my childhood friend, my surrogate father, the same way she’d murdered my mother. The only difference, there was no blood. The lightening whip had cauterized as it severed.

The young girl
curled her fingers in Mandesa’s cape as the three of us stared at Bendar’s lifeless, open eyes. I tried to crawl to his side. But Mods refused to move off me. Reaching out, I grasped Bendar’s small hands and kissed his palm. “I’m so sorry. You’ll always be remembered and loved.”

Ryder
pulled me up, his arms clutching me to him then shaking me. “Semara, snap out of it. Let’s go. Move it.”

Mod
s crouched, Tinker at his back. They passed me my weapons then together, they blasted advancing soldiers.

Sand
pounded us. Squinting, I looked up. Ships. The ones from my dreams. Hundreds of them blackened the sky. Assassins rappelled down. Hunters jumped from open hatches.

“Go
! Go! Go!” Marty shouted.

I shoved
Ryder back away from me. “No. I can end this now.” I faced Mandesa’s tiny clone with her raised hands glowing turquoise. But her gift couldn’t overpower my anguished rage.

M
y implant crackled, echoing in my head.
Time to fight. Rebels promise wasteland to you
, I mentally broadcasted, willing it to reach the spiderats and sermechtapedes. The beasts of the Wasteland didn’t respond.

“Need to go, now.” Ryder tugged me. “He’s gone. There’s nothing I can do.”

Ryder shot another stream of energy at Mandesa. The little girl blocked him. I worried Dred couldn’t match the power in her tiny fingers.

Mod, Tinker, Marty, and Dirt continued to keep
Mandesa’s soldiers back from us.

Ridgecroft recovered a fallen soldier’s weapon and fired at Father.

Father dropped and rolled. “Your lies to Bendar killed my wife. This is for Lanena.” In the blink of an eye, Ridgecroft crumpled to the ground. Holding his head, he screamed until his eyes glazed over and his body went limp. Father turned and glared at me. “Move!”

Ryder and Raeth shook their heads, and I knew Father
had released the block on their memories. It was time for war.

Fight
.
Freedom
, slithered into my brain from the wasteland creatures.
Who?

Airships
and men in metal
, I
answered. The stinging transmission burrowed from the implant into my brainstem. Words seared like acid burning through me as I struggled to ensure the creatures understood.

Wit
h a manic laugh, Mandesa swung her whip.

“Now!” I screamed, lifting my hands over my head.
Four soldiers provided cover.

With unceasing waves of attacks,
Ryder guaranteed the little girl used her gift. Too young to focus on an individual as Dred could, her gift also sucked the energy from Mandesa’s whip. What was left, hit an assassin that had managed to reach the main street.

Fire, bullets, screams
—the noise of people dying and fighting filled the street.

M
andesa retreated to the council building with the little girl in tow. Father charged after them both.

I raced for the platform. Above me, t
he smallest ship at the front of the V-formation, fired. Bodies catapulted in the air, crashing to the ground in all directions.

Ryder
faced three soldiers. They fell as one, their eyes sightless and faces ashen. “We need air support.”

“Not yet.
The wasteland creatures won’t know the difference.” I stared at the ships.
Now
.
Front ship
,
I ordered, sending them what I was seeing.

The
lead ship fired, hitting one Neumarian fighter. Ryder rushed to him. Placing his hands on the man’s chest, he sent waves of energy into the fallen warrior. Energy he’d gotten from Mandesa’s troops.

Click, click
. Clickety-click
.

I screamed into the streets, “
All civilians, stay in your houses.” Most immediately complied, racing into the nearest building to hide. Those still outside froze and looked up. Giant worm-like beasts—with thousands of mechanical legs, jagged, crushing pincers, and dark eyes—advanced on Mandesa’s armada. One clutched the little ship that had fired from the sky in its pincers. It arched its head and tilted the ship into its open, waiting maw.

“Stay close,” I hissed. “They shouldn’t attack anyone with me.”

While terror struck Mandesa’s guards frozen, the assassins and hunters seemed unfazed and continued advancing. One assassin jumped onto the weakened platform, splitting it down the middle. Yet the assassin remained upright, halting at the edge. It aimed the weapon on its shoulder at a house and fired. Screaming, people fell, engulfed in flames, to the street below.

From her position in the building where we’d left her, Mags tossed fire bombs.

As Ryder finished with two other wounded civilians, an assassin turned its weapon on him.

I focused on the target, sending a picture and order to my wasteland comrades.
O
n platform, west side. Metal shelled man. Eat all metal shelled men
.

I heard
shrill, excited squeals over the blasts and destruction. The platform imploded as long, hairy legs with spear-like talon scraped against the metal poles. The sound sent shivers through me as I remembered my own encounter with these creatures. Swallowing hard, I directed another sermechtapede to take out the second ship, while tracking the battle between the spiderat and assassin on the stage.

For a minute, I was unsure who would win. Then a
long appendage shot out, arched to the right, and speared the assassin through the chest. Its talon jutted through the other side, blood dripping from its tip.

I felt no
remorse for the human part that remained in the metallic suit. He was beyond our help, death his only release from the horror his life had become.

“
M-Mandesa escaped. Th-this won’t end if she’s alive.”

Father
?
Can you hear me
?

No answer.

A hunter caught hold of Dirt, its snarling and gnashing teeth ripping flesh from his shoulder. His screams pierced my ears.

Mod
s and Tinker fired at the creature, drilling it full of holes. Yet, it still managed to drag Dirt into the alley.

“Go!
” I signaled them to follow. “Ryder, help them.”

The advancing a
ssassins halted, studied the scene, then followed them into the alleyways. I knew they’d rip the innocent from their homes and slaughter them mercilessly. Killing was their mission. They wouldn’t stop until everyone but Mandesa and her cadre were dead. Not even her soldiers were safe from them.

Turning, I
lifted my gun into the air and fired one shot to signal the second wave of the fighters.

Raeth
thrust her arms up with palms glowing like the sun. A wave of sand crested over the remaining ships, crashing them before the greedy, hungry creatures.
Ships down. Eat
. I directed them.

Raeth s
hot me a grin. While I was relieved that half of Mandesa’s armada had been grounded by her attack, she’d also almost started a war between us and the Wasteland creatures.

Armed with everything from kitchen knives to makeshift guns, m
en and women stormed from their homes and onto the streets. The ones reaching the downed soldiers first took their blasters. An old man hobbled out of a butcher shop, a massive knife in each hand. I almost yelled at them all to get back inside and hide. They were no match for Mandesa’s army or the creatures, but I knew they wouldn’t listen. Payback for their years of oppression was foremost in their minds.

“There
’s the queen,” someone yelled.

“No!” I hollered. “It’s a diversion. She isn’t here!”

Semara I’m here.

Father
?

Yes, something’s been jamming us
.
Dred’s taken care of it, though. Is he cleared to approach?

Tell him
east side, avoid north.

Affirmative
.

Need help
. Queen escaped.

Not surprised. She’s like a cockroach
.

I’ll have to correct Mags when I see her, I thought.

The clanging of an assassin drew my attention to an alley. It leapt, his large glass eyes scanning the crowd. It fixed on me and the gun on his arm rose.

I melted it
until it was nothing but dripping, molten slag. Still he continued forward, so I fused his feet to a metal sewage grate.

Top of
two-story building. Mandesa’s arming some kind of weapon at you
, Father said.

I’m kinda busy right now
.

With his good hand, t
he assassin yanked his right leg to free it, ripping it apart and leaving a bloodied stump still attached to the grate. Grabbing a light pole, he bent it under the other leg and tried to lever it free. Try as he might, it didn’t work.

I step
ped back. Driven by a hunger for killing like I’d never seen, I knew nothing would stop that assassin. Drawing energy from the metal feet he’d left behind, I turned it on him. His metal shell became a molten coffin, sealing the creature inside.

As his screeches died, I realized I’d melted all the assassins within a few meters
of me. That left us Mandesa’s soldiers as the immediate threat, which outnumbered us ten to one. Their weapons might seem superior, but not against Neumarians. With our gifts focused, we could take them down before they’d even aimed and without harm to any innocents.

Where’s Penton?
I asked my father.
What about the gas?

He’s on his way.
Got delayed by a hunter
.

Raeth shot a soldier then turned to me. “Is he okay?
”

“
Yes.”

Using Father as a bridge to all our troops, Penton ordered,
Put on your masks.
Queen’s about to release the weapon for us
.
I exchanged her mist bombs with my sleep agent.

I
spotted Marty. “Tell your men to put on their masks!” I shouted as I jerked mine free of my belt and slipped it over my face.