Heir of Shandara (Book 4) (21 page)

Sarah regained her feet and charged. She spun, and the heel of her foot shot out like a coiled viper, tagging Rordan’s chin. The force of the blow twisted his body to the side. Sarah swept out with her other foot, and Rordan’s head smacked the floor. Sarah was on him instantly with a knife pressed to his throat.

“Back!” she shouted.
 

The Elitesmen came to a halt. The Zekaran infiltrator studied her as if deciding whether to shoot or not. She didn’t like it. She knew the Elitesmen wouldn’t take the chance. Not with her knife at Rordan’s throat, but the infiltrator had no such issues.

Rordan coughed and opened his eyes. He looked up at her and chuckled. “Sweet sister,” Rordan said.

Sarah pulled him up, keeping him in front of her, and cursed. If she killed Rordan now, they would attack.

“It’s your move, Sarah. Kill me, if you dare.”

Sarah stepped to the side, dragging Rordan with her. A trickle of blood ran down Rordan’s throat. Her eyes darted around for a way to escape, but all she saw were Elitesmen closing in around her. She backed away, and the Elitesmen cautiously moved forward.
 

The infiltrator stood rooted in place. Its head swiveled back and forth from Sarah to the others. With a mechanical whirl, the infiltrator leaped back and bounded toward the wall. The wood shattered, giving way to the infiltrator’s armor.

“You fool, Rordan. You don’t know what you’ve unleashed in the city,” Sarah hissed, and flung her brother forward, allowing her knife to bite farther into his neck, but she knew it wouldn’t be enough to kill him.

Rordan stumbled into the pack of Elitesmen, and Sarah leaped up through the giant hole in the ceiling. She was out of the warehouse, and Elitesmen attack orbs burst through the ceiling, following her track. Sarah raced forward in the direction the infiltrator was heading. She felt the comms device buzz to life on her wrist and knew that help would soon be coming.
 

C
HAPTER
18

FLAME

Aaron had spent the remainder of the day and most of the night reviewing the defenses in place for the city. With Gavril’s Hythariam military experience and Prince Cyrus’s knowledge of Rexel, it appeared they were in good shape. Their plans were brilliant, as were the people involved in prepping the city for attack. Aaron hated it. He felt like he was being cornered and there was no freedom to move. It was stifling, and he’d said as much to the others.
 

Gavril had talked him out of using his special forces to attack since they couldn’t get reliable eyes on target. But being blind to the enemy’s movements was too much a disadvantage, so he arranged for a few airships to make wide sweeps of the area north of Rexel. He had intended to be on board one of the airships, which led both Gavril and Cyrus to come down on him about the need to delegate. Even Verona’s advice echoed their arguments. There was simply too much for any one person to do. Accepting the truth didn’t mean that he didn’t want to be on an airship looking for the Zekara or in a Hythariam flyer, for that matter.
 

His unit of elite special forces had swelled to over a hundred and fifty men and women. A drop in the bucket when compared with the FNA. They were volunteers from all corners of the world. There were former Elitesmen and members of the Safanarion Order along with Hythariam. There were also highly skilled soldiers from Rexel and Shandara. The De’anjard were missing, and that had been a tough call to make. Aaron could feel the waves of anger coming from Braden through the comms device. There were a few moments where Aaron thought that Braden would disobey and bring the De’anjard anyway. As much as Aaron would have preferred to have his friend fight at his side, he needed Braden to protect Shandara. Midnight had come and gone before Aaron slipped into a fitful slumber. If the same stale reports came in regarding the Zekara’s progress, then he planned to take his men and do a bit of scouting on his own. He told his men to get what sleep they could, and he tried to do the same.
 

Later on, something nudged his shoulder.

“Human, the Zekara are here,” Thraw whispered.

Aaron was instantly awake. Thraw’s eyes bordered on the ferocity of a wild animal. The points of his teeth reflected the small amount of light from his partially opened mouth.

Aaron sat up. “How do you know?”

Thraw cocked his head to the side. “I can smell them—”

An alarm blared into the early morning hours. Aaron sprang to his feet and grabbed the rune-carved staff. As the rest of them came awake, Bayen caught his eye. He was on his feet only seconds after Aaron.

Verona was up as well and gave a few orders to the men nearest them. Word quickly spread.

They were a short way from the command center in the FNA encampment outside the city walls. Aaron and Verona were first to arrive. The command center was already a buzz of activity.

“Where are they?” Aaron asked.

The holo display came to life, showing a massive force only a few miles from the city. The Zekaran numbers were in the thousands. They had arrived in vehicles Aaron had never seen before. Aaron recognized the massive mobile command unit that cut a path through the forest. The rest of the Zekaran forces were obscured by the forest.

“Why would they stop at the forest line?” Aaron asked.

“It seems as if they are waiting for something, my friend,” Verona answered.

What could they be waiting for?
Aaron glanced at the tech who operated the display. “Show us the surrounding area. Start with east of the city.”

The holo display zoomed back and panned around, but there was nothing.

“Gavril, are there any reports of the Forsaken?” Aaron asked.

“Not as far as we can tell,” Gavril answered through comms.

“I don’t like it. Why show yourselves and not attack?” Aaron said, his hardened gaze peering into the display as if it could give him some kind of insight that they didn’t have before. “Inform the airship captains to report anything strange. Are the drones out?”

“The drones don’t report anything,” Gavril said.

“Do we have drones where we know the Zekara are currently at?” Aaron asked.

The Hythariam’s fingers flashed through the holo interface, and he gasped. “Yes, we do, but they don’t report anything either.”

“Recall the drones if you can,” Aaron said to the tech. “Gavril, we can’t trust our sensors. The Zekara have compromised our equipment. They’ve blinded us. We can only act on firsthand accounts. Spread the word. I’m heading out to have a look.”

They left the command center.

“Could this be a ruse?” Verona asked.

Aaron shook his head. “No, they’re here.”

They returned to the others, and Tanneth confirmed what Aaron had suspected. The Zekara had somehow infiltrated their systems. False reports were coming in all over. They were working on it.

“Whatever they do is going to be too late. One place we can be sure they’re not going to attack is where they want us looking. At least not yet,” Aaron said.

“How can you be sure?” Verona asked.

Aaron shrugged his shoulders. “It’s a hunch. Misdirection.”

There was a faint screech from far away. Aaron tilted his head to the side, straining to hear the sound again. Frowning, he drew in the energy, and his senses immediately sharpened. Aaron closed his eyes and knelt to the ground. The runes on his staff glowed faintly. Aaron placed his hand on the ground. He sent tendrils of energy out away from him. He could sense the faint cadence of an army of stomps through the ground. Aaron pushed farther along the line of energy to somewhere between where they were and where the Zekara appeared to be. The cadence grew more intense, as if many beasts were pawing at the ground. For a moment, Aaron thought he was just sensing the people in the city because there were so many of them. Aaron surged to his feet, brought up the comms device interface, and searched for the person he needed to speak to.

“Admiral Morgan, are you there?” Aaron asked.

“Aye, lad, we’re here. Approaching the Zekaran line just beyond the main gates,” Admiral Morgan answered.

“I need you to send a few ships in our direction fast. Fire on anything along the forest line,” Aaron said.

Aaron heard Morgan bark his orders and imagined the sailors on the decks of the
Raven
rushing to obey the admiral.

“It’s being done. Good hunting, your Grace,” Morgan said.

“Thank you, and Morgan,” Aaron said.

“Yes, your Grace.”

“Tell your men to show them what we’re worth.”

Admiral Morgan gave a hearty laugh. “Will do.”

Aaron opened a comms channel to the command center.
 

“Gavril, order the attack. Don’t wait to engage. I think the Forsaken are massing southeast of their position,” Aaron said.

Before Gavril could reply, the sky erupted into bright flashes of light. The Zekara were firing on them. The attack had begun.

“Travel crystals out,” Aaron said, and the order was passed down the line. This was what they trained for. Within a minute, they had joined ranks and could travel wherever Aaron ordered.

An explosion sent a flaming plume billowing into the sky. Aaron drew his swords and the bladesong sparked inside him. He engaged the travel crystal, taking them to a secondary gate away from the main gate. The sky lit up as Hythariam weaponry was unleashed into the Zekaran line. Zekaran plasma cannons were chewing through Rexel’s walls. Airships with their engines fully engaged zoomed across the sky, dropping their payloads. Halcylon was smart and had his forces concentrate their fire on select targets, destroying one airship before moving on to the next one. Aaron heard the flyer-class SPTs rocketing through the sky, being chased by a multitude of combat drones.

The sun was rising, but it was still dark near the forest. Aaron’s force was a mixture of light and heavily armed soldiers and former Elitesmen. Tanneth had his Hythariam powered armor on, with the helmet engaged. He peered into the darkened forest across the way and confirmed what Aaron already knew. The Forsaken were there. Aaron didn’t know how Halcylon controlled them, but he did know if he unleashed the bladesong he would draw them to him.

Blinding lights suddenly came on from the forest line, catching them all in the open.

“Move!” Aaron shouted.

A barrage of plasma bolts fired at them. Former Elitesmen sent attack orbs racing back at the attackers. A screeching fireball blazed past them, slamming into the city walls. An explosion knocked Aaron and the others forward, and pieces of the city wall rained down around them. Ringing roared in Aaron’s ears but slowly faded, and he scrambled back to his feet. Behind him was a massive hole in the city wall. Aaron helped Verona to his feet.

“Stand fast. They’re coming!” Bayen shouted.

Aaron spun around, and a sea of shadows poured forth from the forest. The Forsaken bounded forth, using their clawed hands to propel them forward. Their mouths were gaping maws with elongated teeth. Nothing human remained of those who had been infected. Aaron raced forward, bringing his swords to bear. Notes from the bladesong trickled from the passing wind. A streak of white traveling next to him marked Bayen with his bladed staff. A volley of crystal-tipped arrows streaked by and blew the Forsaken back. Aaron growled, moving at blinding speeds, and met the frenzied attack of the Forsaken with his own fury. The Falcons cut through them, but still they came like moths to a flame. The Forsaken snapped and clawed their way to him despite his soldiers closing in. A few Forsaken broke off to attack the others, giving in to their thirst for human blood. The ground soon became littered with the twitching limbs of the Forsaken. Only hacking them to pieces seemed to slow them down. Hacking and flame, which kept them from rising again.

Aaron’s sword bit into the nearest Forsaken, and its black blood hissed from the wound. He had seen the same before with the other Forsaken. Perhaps to fuel their frenzied attacks, the infected blood needed to be pumped at an equally rapid pace. It would explain the quickness with which the Ryakul virus spread through its victims.

Aaron leaped forward over the diminishing line of the Forsaken, and they followed him like the turn of the tide. His soldiers attacked them from behind, quickly dispatching the remaining Forsaken. Aaron crested the tree line, expecting to face the Zekaran soldiers, but the area was empty. He returned to Verona and the others. Some of their number had fallen to the Forsaken who hadn’t killed their victims. A simple bite or scratch, and then they’d moved on. Within minutes, effects of the Ryakul virus were prominent in the victims. Death was the only release. Some had tried severing the infected limbs of their comrades, but the virus was too quick. It was like nothing Aaron had ever seen before. A nightmare come to life.