Fae (26 page)

I stood up, still blind
from the darkness. I embraced its emptiness and felt my way along
the wall. I didn't know where I was going, but it didn't matter. I
just needed to move, to walk away.

The wall cradled my hand.
It hissed out its breath at me and I devoured its fresh air. I
imagined my skin glowing with its light, my dead eyes sparkling.
What would people see when they looked at me? I hoped they saw who
I really was. A girl with purpose, uncaring, unflinching. A girl
who gave up on sacrifices and feelings. A girl who finally embraced
who she was always meant to be.

The Destructor.

Chapter Thirteen

War

The walls hissed through
the utter silence. It was like the whole ship had emptied and I was
alone. It reminded me a lot of
Sho'ful
. The way my footsteps echoed
and the heavy silence almost became a noise in itself. After a
while, I started to wonder if I'd lost my hearing, too, and that
the hissing I thought had to be the walls was just the static of my
deaf ears.

But then I heard
something. I didn't know what it was, but I turned my head toward
the sound. A thumping, like footsteps still far away, but moving
closer. I waited as I sensed them coming toward me. Either Cailen's
people or mine. I'd find out soon.

"Ella!" Lachlan's voice
echoed off the walls. "Where's Galen?"

"He's dead."

The footsteps pounded
toward me and then they stopped. Lachlan grabbed me by the
shoulders and squared me in front of him. He didn't know I couldn't
see.

"How? Did you see who did
it?"

"Cailen." I wondered if he
noticed how dead my voice was, how nonchalant.

Lachlan cursed. "All
right. Well, we need to get to The Core."

I let him lead me. We had
to have been close because within just a few seconds, Lachlan had
us turn and then we stopped. The Core sat as silent as the rest of
the ship.

"What happened to
everyone?" I said.

"Most transported onto The
Aurora. Galen was supposed to defend this section of the
ship."

"I guess he didn't do a
very good job."

Lachlan let go of my arm
and walked away. I heard him pull something across the
floor.

"What are you
doing?"

"I'm trying to send a
message to another ship to send help. We've lost too many sections.
We need to get them back."

"So Cailen's
winning?"

Lachlan grunted. "Not
yet."

The air hummed and rippled
and I knew people had transported. I pulled the drilium into my
veins and a dozen or so lighted bodies popped into my
vision.

Some of them ran off
without a word, but three stayed. Those that stayed nodded their
heads at me. Lachlan handed them something and then they were
off.

"Backup?" I
guessed.

He nodded. "What now, oh
leader?"

I shook my head, not even
a little bit surprised. "Send the rest of the Fae'ri onto Soltak.
You and I will join them." I rubbed my eyes in an attempt to clear
away at least some of the molecules. Of course it didn't work. "I
can't see in this place."

He waved his hand above a
black panel, then grabbed my arm again and released his bright,
green wings. "Let's go."

The chaos of red that
greeted us on what I guessed were the fields outside Co'ladesh
nearly knocked the breath right out of me. Dewy air clung to my
clothes and the back of my neck. Drums roared and beams of energy
ripped through bodies. The air shivered behind me and the
battlefield grew instantly silent. I pushed my vision back and what
I saw rivaled even the first image. Solid blocks of light went on
forever. The Fae'ri.

There was a slight pause
in a collective held-in breath and then the Fae'ri
moved.

Waves of green rose to the
air behind me, red to the far right and left, and blue to the
front. So they'd divided based on ability and surrounded the
Mosandarians, Soltakians, and Mamood. How efficient. The waves
crashed down and devoured those on the outer edges of the enemy
lines. The Fae'ri moved in ranks a few steps forward and did it all
over again.

Screams erupted in front
of me and those with energy weapons fired on us, probably both
Soltakians and Mamood. It was then that I became painfully aware of
how naked I was. I had no cloak, no protection. Nothing but a
scaly, metal dress Lachlan had said was gold.

The drumming started up
again, this time more frantic, more chilling. I looked over at
Lachlan as chaos played out around us. He nodded his head and let
go of my arm.

I dodged as invisible—but
very loud—energy rippled past my head. Great. I couldn't see the
energy from Mosandarian weapons. Well, I just needed to be faster.
I ran forward, driving molecules away from me as I went. Warm, wet
stuff smacked my face and exposed arms and legs. Behind me, I
formed the green lights and created a solid wall of water. I had a
basic idea of how sound waves worked. I made the wall thicker, just
in case.

Hoards of red bodies moved
out of the way as a black hulk landed on the ground. Moments later
metal creaked and groaned and finally thudded, shaking the ground
beneath me. Little balls of red energy scurried out of the black
monstrosity and swarmed outward in all directions. A chill of
familiarity went over me. For the first time since transporting, I
tested the air. It had a different flavor than daytime air. Night.
And so I knew those scurrying balls of energy were
Shakai.

They'd brought Shakai from
Talia.

I tried to ignore the
clenching fear in my chest. It was hard to forget the last time I'd
seen these little terrors. Phantom pain tickled at my arms and
tongue. Forget expanding the molecules. I joined the red lights and
drove the flames toward the swarm of insects. The air popped with
crisping flesh. Smoke filled my nose and I gagged. Probably a bad
idea. So I sent a funnel of blue lights toward the flames to at
least get the smoke away from me. I didn't really care about anyone
else.

Pain seared my arm. I
yelled and instinctively grasped the hot and bubbling flesh. A beam
sliced past my head, just missing me. To the side, just ahead of my
wall of water, some lighted form faced me with a black weapon in
his hand. Another beam shot out from the barrel. It came racing for
me. Quick as I could think, I ordered it back at the person's head.
The beam rounded up and sliced through his body, right between his
black eyes. The lighted form dropped to the ground to join a score
of others who'd fallen before him.

Something black hovered
above my head. A red sheet of energy shot out from its front and
swept the field, targeting the Fae'ri. Whole ranks of my people
fell, dead.

Fury scorched through me.
"Get it down!" I screamed at them above the roar of the drums, the
thunder of the vessel above me, and the wails of the dying. Two
lighted forms who heard my command lifted their gazes to the sky.
Blue lights rushed to obey their commands. A third Fae'ri joined
them. Green lights joined the two blue walls, growing, throbbing,
high in the sky. As quick as lightning the two blue walls collided
with each other right above the ship. Thunder ripped through the
air and a thick spike of lightning tore through the
hull.

The black hulk tipped and
rolled, losing altitude. A rush of lighted forms stampeded past
me—some of them still shooting—and I realized with a clench of my
stomach that the ship was going to crash right on top of
me.

I turned and ran, but I
knew I couldn't make it. The ship was too big. I pushed my legs out
farther, leaping over bodies and pushing people out of my way. I'd
never felt so strong, so energized, but it wasn't enough. I knew
what I needed to do. So I closed my eyes and released my wings,
picturing the wall of forest I'd seen beyond the plains of
Co'ladesh before I became blind.

I felt, rather than saw,
the air ripple and the scene change. When I opened my eyes, I was
still running but I could tell by the way everything had quieted
that I wasn't in the field anymore. A green pillar loomed feet in
front of me. Too late, I realized it was a tree. I smacked into it
face first and fell to the ground. Blood, warm and wet, poured down
my mouth. Pain ripped through my head and I knew I'd broken my
nose. My wings were still out and if I didn't readjust it fast, it
would heal crooked.

I took a moment to brace
myself, clinging to the cool grass under my body. And then I
grasped my nose and twisted. The bone popped and sent searing pain
up my skull, and then the pain was gone and the blood
dried.

Suddenly, the ground shook
and I twisted onto my stomach to see the battle scene. Red lights
licked the field and shot high up into the air. Little forms of
light ran to and fro. The air shimmered ahead of me. The lighted
form stood there for a moment, then ran to me. I got to my knees
just as he fell to the ground next to me.

"Are you okay?" It was
Lachlan. My heart leaped in my chest. I never thought I would be so
relieved to know he was alive.

I nodded. I couldn't speak
yet. My ears still rang and I was pretty sure anything I did say
would be way too loud.

He sighed and dropped his
head to his chest. "I saw you transport. Dammit am I glad you
did."

I chuckled. "Yeah, me
too."

He laughed out loud and
wrapped his arms around me. We sat like that, clinging to each
other, for several minutes. Finally, he pulled away and sat back on
his heels.

"It's pretty crazy out
there." He shook his head. "It's kind of my first battle. Not what
I expected."

"Yeah, I hadn't thought
I'd be blind my first time out."

"You're doing great,
though." He chuckled again. "I wish you could see their faces when
they see you coming. I've never seen anyone wearing rags look quite
as much like a warrior goddess as you do."

Heat rushed to my cheeks.
"Thanks."

We let silence settle over
us again. The nighttime creatures sang behind our backs, going
about their daily routine, completely unaware or unconcerned about
what was going on just outside their home.

A massive blue funnel
formed in the center of the field and ripped side to side. A black
stalagmite-shaped form toppled to its side then shot out at least a
hundred yards into more stalagmite towers. The wall of protection
the Soltakians had constructed crumpled to the ground and the
screaming rose in pitch. So Cailen hadn't gotten everyone out. Some
of Soltak's citizens still remained.

I stood up. There was
something fundamentally different between fighting soldiers and
massacring civilians. And then, with my heart dropping into my
stomach, I remembered something worse than the Fae'ri soldiers. The
Shakai.

"I need to help them," I
said to Lachlan so he wouldn't worry. And then I transported, right
into the middle of hell.

People ran around
screaming with their hands in the air. Some of them were much
shorter than they should have been. Red lights danced from the
ground up everywhere I looked and Shakai carpeted everything.
Swarms of the insects crawled over everyone they could
reach.

One of the bugs bit my
ankle. Instinctively, I expanded the lights and blew it up. This
gave me an idea. I focused on a swarm to the left of me. I could
tell by how thickly they carpeted the mound on the ground that they
were eating someone. If I could just tell their bodies apart from
the person under them, I could...

Their bodies popped,
exploding in showers of black flesh and shimmering lights. All
around me, I picked out their little, shaking forms and expanded
the molecules in their bodies.

Pop, pop, pop!

People rushed behind me,
cowering behind walls, as thousands of Shakai scurried toward us. I
really hoped all the innocent citizens were behind me, but I
couldn't wait any longer. Exploding one at a time took way too
long. We'd be overrun in seconds if I didn't do something extreme.
So I commanded
all
the molecules ahead of me to fly outward. The explosive burst
shook the ground. Flesh rained down on us, plunking against the
buildings and street.

Silence filled the night
and then the citizens behind me cheered. Some came up to hug me and
wipe their tears on my tunic. I peeled their arms off me and backed
away.

"You better run," I said.
"Go to the mountains." I started to walk away, but stopped and said
over my shoulder, "I'm not going to stop my people from overrunning
this city." I flapped my wings, which were still exposed, and
transported back to the battlefield outside the destroyed city of
Co'ladesh.

Chapter Fourteen

Cailen’s Secret

The Mamood had left by the
time I transported back to my people and the Soltakians and
Mosandarians had stopped firing. The Firestarters had already
started burning the legions of dead bodies to ash. What remained of
our enemy sat hunched together on the ground with their heads
drooped.