_Depression
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Chapter 22-- “Death’s Theme Song”
Two thousand, thirty-six men and women arrived in Florida by means of eight hundred airplane tickets, seven hundred train tickets, five double-decker tour buses, and a small fleet of personal watercraft. Robina herself rode in the passenger seat of an electric-blue Chevy Camaro, Sarah at the wheel following the line of tour buses that housed a small portion of Aethon’s Royal Army. As those on the planes landed in different Floridian airports, and those on the trains not far from the state’s border, the active princess felt herself growing restless. ‘Forty-five miles,’ she told herself, much more anxious than she appeared. ‘Forty-four…’
Aria, Lance, and Inyro left the sewers late in the night, reeking of the musk and waste they had waited in for twenty hours. “The army is probably gathering somewhere to the West of here,” Aria said, sitting against the wheel of her Mustang with a sigh. “That’s where the majority of the soldiers will enter. I expect a platoon to come around here, though, before the rest of the army attacks.”
“Why would anyone come back here? It would take an hour to march to the battle above ground, I can’t even imagine how long it would take in that maze.” Inyro shook his head, staring at the manhole cover. “And what about Ryan and Kristen?”
“Don’t underestimate my sister,” Lance said, smiling. “She’s a natural fighter, the best in our tribe. Your father taught her, you know.”
Inyro raised an eyebrow. “My father was a fighter?”
Lance laughed and brushed some of his rust-brown hair from his forehead, revealing a small scar. “I was one of the thirty-man group that was sent to kill him, after he killed my father. He incapacitated six of us before we even saw him, and killed another twelve before we took him down. He wasn’t a fighter, he was an assassin, and my sister is his protégé.”
“My dad gave you that scar?”
“No, he gave me the one on my back. I was the first one he attacked, and according to the medics, the only one he hadn’t struck to kill.”
Inyro nodded, and gazing at the ground asked, “Do you… ever regret ordering his death?”
“Yeah,” Lance said. “For two reasons. First, if I hadn’t ordered it, Sky would’ve become the new leader of the tribe. I wouldn’t have had to send my sister into hiding.”
“And the second?”
“I always admired Sky. He never did anything without knowing all of the consequences, and nothing he did was foolish. I should have known he had a good reason for doing what he did.” He smiled at Aria. “If he hadn’t done it, this beautiful young lady wouldn’t be here.”
Aria blushed lightly, turning her head to avoid Lance’s soft, gray eyes. “Listen, you two, the army should be here soon. Let’s eat something quick, so we have enough energy to fight.”
“Did you bring my blades?” Lance asked, walking to the trunk as Aria disabled the car alarm.
The redhead nodded. “I packed a few guns, too,” she said. “Cronois arms their men with police-issue handguns and semi-automatic battle rifles, so we’ll have to be careful. I know we can dodge a sword, but bullets…”
Inyro opened a duffel bag and pulled out seven guns. “Should we bring the others for Ryan and Kristen?” he asked, rifling through the bag for ammunition cartridges.
Aria nodded. “Take out the holsters, too. I’ll hold the extra guns.”
_+__
The Avon Bombing Facility stood desolate, despite the tension below. The underground castle, with its many dark, narrow hallways and labyrinthine construction, provided a strong homefield advantage for the Cronois army, an advantage they desperately needed. With only thirteen hundred men, the Coronated Regime prepared to defend its home. Soldiers were positioned in the shadows of the complex series of tunnels to ambush any unsuspecting Aethonian fighters. The large, domed rooms that connected the endless hallways would be key to the conflict, as both armies were well aware, and were fortified accordingly. The large obelisks in the rooms were flanked by three feet wide walls of stone, four feet high and angled to create a bowl of protection for the defending army.
More of the stone barriers were placed strategically throughout the domed rooms, giving the Coronated Regime another significant advantage for the fighting. Both armies would be heavily armed with both blades and guns, and the set-up of the rooms and halls guaranteed that both types of weapon would be effective and deadly. The fighting would be chaotic, and close-quarters combat would dominate the battle.
The non-combat residents of Cronois were evacuated to a small town above ground, where they would remain until the end of the fighting. The empty rooms were turned into infirmaries and weapons storehouses by the army, and were well stocked for the battle to come.
_+__
Aria lowered herself down the ladder, into the stale and repugnant sewer, as thirty soldiers already below clicked on flashlights. On the slimy stone walkway, she pulled a handgun from her shirt and handed it to the nearest soldier, saying, “Hold this for a second.” She saw the young man stare at the weapon as he held it in his open palm, and she rolled her eyes. “Men.”
The redhead opened the duffel bag at her feet and lifted a red leather jacket, on the back of which was sown a pair of sheaths. Aria reached back into the bag and pulled out two long daggers, identical save for the design of the hilt. One hilt had a panther’s head, jaw open, engraved in the gold, where the other had a tiger’s head. She slipped the blades into the sheaths on the jacket and carefully slid her arms into the sleeves. Buttoning only the bottom half of the vibrant red jacket, she snatched her gun from the soldier and held it loosely in her right hand.
“Damn,” Inyro said, standing behind the scarlet-haired girl. “Nice blades.”
Lance laughed, clipping a pair of curved blades onto the wrists of his own, black leather jacket. “I’m not sure whether to be scared or stunned.”
“Let’s go,” Aria said, ignoring the werewolves. She led the group of soldiers down the walkway, going slowly so none of the men behind her would slip on the stone. She turned the corner and quickened her pace, running by the time her feet touched the interior of the castle. She holstered her gun as she ran, drawing her blades silently from their sheaths and rushing into the back of a small group of eight patrol guards.
The deadly steel of her daggers slipped across the necks of the back pair and drove through the backs of the next pair, blood flowing from all four wounds as she drew her gun from its holster. The shouts of surprise from the guards were drowned out by four swift gunshots, the bangs echoing through the hallways as the four targets fell to the ground, wounded or dead. Withdrawing her bloody daggers from the backs of the motionless guards, Aria grinned and took off down the hallway to her right.
Lance turned to Inyro, his eyebrows raised. “Did you know she could do that?” When the other werewolf shook his head, he said, “Is the Goddess of Lights supposed to be able to do that?”
“I guess so,” Inyro said. “Makes you want to stay on her good side, huh?”
“Yeah, no kidding.” The two werewolves exchanged grins, rushing up to the Goddess of Lights’ side. “So, Aria, are you looking for Ryan, Kristen, or the princess? Or just other people to kill?”
Aria laughed lightly, stopping in one of the fortified obelisk rooms. “How about all of the above?” she said, ducking behind a stone wall as a group of ten Cronois soldiers opened fire in her direction. She glanced over to Inyro, hiding behind the wall nearest her, and cocked her gun. ‘Two left in this cartridge,’ she thought to herself.
At the first pause in fire, Aria stepped into sight. She ducked away as the Cronois soldiers shot in her direction, and slid a full ammo cartridge in the direction of the enemy soldiers. A bright orange fireball formed in the palm of her hand, and she gazed at it silently for a moment, watching the flames leap into the air. Taking a deep breath, she spun and threw the fireball at the ground, smiling as it struck the ammo cartridge. The bullets exploded inside their casing, frightening the three soldiers behind the nearest two walls.
Inyro shot at the Cronois soldiers as they revealed themselves, catching one man in his right temple. The other two recovered from the shock of Aria’s distraction and dropped back behind their stone cover, their fellow soldiers forcing Inyro down with gunfire. He turned to Aria, grinning from his first kill and mouthing, “Nice move.”
“Get all of them next time,” the redhead responded, wiping the giddy smile from the werewolf’s face. She turned to her other side, where a pair of Aethonian soldiers had found cover behind the stone barrier adjacent to her. “I need cover fire,” she whispered, pointing to three spots along the opposite end of the room.
Eying her point of advance, a stone barrier angled toward the central obelisk that would make her an easy target for the Cronois soldiers, she signaled her readiness to the soldiers. The young men jumped up, armed with semi-automatic battle rifles, and sent a spray of bullets at the places Aria had pointed out. The redhead lunged in the direction of the next wall, aiming her gun at the Cronois soldier, sitting against a wall, in her sight.
Aria fired her handgun, the bullet drilling into the enemy’s neck, and she spun to her right to peer around the other end of her new position. The enemy soldiers shot at her, forcing the redhead to hide, and she exhaled deeply as she considered her options. ‘Eight left,’ she said to herself. ‘Three to my right, five on my left. I can’t stay here much longer, the five on my left have too much of an advantage.’
Lance ducked into the shadows of the hallway as he and seventeen others fought back a group of reinforcement soldiers heading toward Aria. In the darkness, he changed into a werewolf and unclipped his blades from the wrist cuffs of his jacket. Silently he watched the conflict unfold in the obelisk room, noting the positions of the enemy soldiers. He saw a pair of Cronois guards advance to the central barriers, and grinned darkly, shifting his grip on the curved blades so they pointed toward him.
The werewolf charged into the dome, dodging past the first row of barriers and leaping powerfully over the second, landing in a roll to keep himself low. The momentum of his roll brought him up against the barrier, and he crouched low to catch his breath before flipping over the wall, slicing out with his deadly blades. The two Cronois soldiers fell quickly, deep gashes on their shoulders and necks creating a swiftly growing puddle of blood beneath their collapsed bodies.
Lance rushed behind the nearest wall to avoid being shot, dropping his daggers at his feet as he drew his two handguns. Without hesitation, the werewolf threw himself around the edge of the barrier, opening fire on the guard huddling low to the ground. As the remaining four soldiers opened fire in his direction, he rolled back to the other side of the barrier, catching a breath and drawing himself into a crouch. He watched the tops of the walls behind which the enemy waited, clipping his daggers back onto his sleeves, and cocked his guns. The Aethonian soldiers stormed the room with a hail of gunfire, keeping the Cronois guards in their positions as they advanced through the rows of barriers.
“Took you long enough,” Lance said, relieved, as he rose to his feet. He and eight fellow soldiers walked calmly to where the Cronois soldiers sat, arms on their heads. Grinning in victory, the werewolf bent down and grabbed the enemies’ guns from their feet. “Check them for concealed weapons,” he ordered, “and let them go. I don’t keep prisoners.”
Lance motioned for the other nine Aethonian soldiers to follow him, and he led them toward Aria’s front in a brisk walk. Handing two of the four sub-machine guns to the soldiers next to him, he holstered his handguns and checked the clips of the two other enemy guns. Satisfied, he turned around to the following soldiers and said, “We’re going to rush the room, guys, three at a time. One man left, one man right, one man straight up. Keep the enemy down, and duck down when you run out of bullets. Ten seconds for each group, got it?”
Lance waited for each soldier to nod, and he smiled. He gave a formal salute, turned, and ran into the dark hallway, the nine other soldiers following him silently. His heart pounding as the brightly lit obelisk room grew near, he let out a hearty battlecry and charged through the threshold, the enemy soldiers ducking behind their respective barriers as he opened fire. When the enemy guns ran out of ammo he dropped them, drawing his handguns and leaping over the central barriers as the first trio of soldiers entered the room with their own roars.
Aria and Inyro joined Lance as he dropped the empty cartridges from his guns, advancing to the next row of barriers as the second trio ran into the room, guns blazing. The first trio reloaded quickly and charged to the back of the room, taking down two soldiers before being incapacitated themselves. As the third trio entered the room, Aria and the two werewolves ran forward in a crouch, reaching the last four Cronois soldiers. Bullets exploded on the sides of the half-foot thick stone, two enemy soldiers firing at the group as they prepared to make a final run.
The gunfire stopped for a short moment, sending up an eerie half-silence in the room, only the sharp breaths of four frightened Cronois men audible in the dome. Aria ejected an empty ammunitions cartridge from her handgun, and the sound of the metal container hitting the stone floor shattered the quiet, sparking both sides into action. The thirteen Aethonian soldiers in the room charged forward, rushing around the perimeter and into the waiting gunfire of the Cronois guards.
Lance and Inyro shot at the two Cronois soldiers behind the outer walls, incapacitating them as Aria lobbed a pair of fireballs over the rear-central barrier to smoke out the final two enemies. The two guards tossed their weapons away quickly, throwing their hands in the air as the Aethonian soldiers came into sight. Aria and the werewolves stood and joined their fellow soldiers, the scarlet-haired girl taking charge of the group. “Let these men go, they are no threat,” she said, smiling in victory. As the defeated enemies ran from the room, she continued, “Twelve of you stay here, and hold this room. The rest of you, reload and move out. We must find the princess.”
“And my sister,” Lance said. “And Ryan. They are in here somewhere.”
The soldiers saluted smartly, taking their positions either with the group remaining to keep the room or with Aria’s party. The latter group left at a brisk pace, jogging down the dark hallway and into an unfortified dome, where they stopped. “There are two hallways,” Aria said slowly, examining both with interest. She pointed to the dusty stone floor of the left hallway. “No one’s gone down there for a long while, at the very least. We’ll go right.”
The group headed quickly into the hall, most of the armored soldiers breathing heavily behind the lead three. Aria drew her blades, Lance at her side doing the same as the next dome became clear, unfortified as the last had been. Again the group stopped inside, the redhead turning to check each of the three hallways. “They’ve all been used recently,” she said, dismayed. “The left one not as much, but the two on the right have been-“
“Aria!” Kristen’s voice rang out through the dome.
“Sis!” Lance shouted back, spinning quickly to try and spot the girl. “Where are you?”
As if in response to the werewolf’s question, a bright orange fireball flew into the domed room from the far right hall, landing and disappearing at Inyro’s feet. “Down here!” Ryan called, illuminating the dark hallway with a second fireball.
Aria rushed into the dimly lit hallway with the werewolves at her side. She slowed to a stop at the cell, smiling wide at Ryan. Turning to the lock, she frowned, trying to decide the fastest way to break through. “Kid, hold those flames over the lock,” Lance said, stepping forward and spinning the blade in his right hand. He waited for a minute, the orange flames crackling over the thick aluminum neck, and motioned for Ryan to stop. He brought his curved blade down on the lock with force, cutting a half-inch into the neck and another third of an inch with his second blade. “There,” he grunted, his third slash severing the steel completely.
Ryan had the door open before the heavy lock touched the stone floor, rushing wordlessly past Aria and Lance as they tried to greet him. Kristen stepped out calmly and hugged her brother, watching her cellmate run and sighing lightly. “We’d better follow him. He’s heading to Breeze, I bet.”
Aria spun around and chased Ryan, calling for the soldiers to follow him as he passed them. Her heart began to pound as she easily ran past the startled soldiers, drawing even with Ryan as he broke the threshold of the hallway, and she dragged him behind the beautifully decorated obelisk as enemy gunfire sprayed the wall of the dome. “Stay down!” she yelled over the echoing bangs of the Cronois soldiers’ guns.
The scarlet-haired girl formed fireballs in her hands and threw them in front of the obelisk at multiple points, creating a thick, dark smoke barrier between the enemy shooters and her. Breathing evenly, she focused her magic into her arms, setting her skin ablaze for a moment. The glowing orange flames crawled across her palm, the crackling fire licking eagerly at the air as Aria drew the whole of it to the tips of her fingers.
Two identical pillars of flames grew up toward the high ceiling of the domed room as Aria exerted herself, the tops of the columns bursting with hungry flames. The mage gave a powerful roar, throwing herself through the barrier of smoke, and aimed the fire at the guarded hallway. Loud, terrible screams pierced the cloudy air as the Cronois soldiers fell to the ground, the spouts of flames ripping through their ranks, charring all they touched.
Ryan rushed from the safety of the obelisk, charging toward the hallway leading to the prince’s room. “Princess!” he shouted, pushing past enemy soldiers nursing burns. “Breeze!”
A single, female soldier stepped out from the prince’s room, pointing her long-barreled pistol at Ryan calmly, pulling back the hammer as he stopped dead. Her face was blank, her hand unshaking, and she spoke in a dull, emotionless voice. “Name.”
“Ryan,” the boy said, anxious to go inside.
“Are you not a prisoner?”
Ryan paused, but nodded, breathing heavily and sweating. “Please,” he said, “I need to go inside.”
“My orders are not to kill you. My orders are not to stop you from entering. My orders are to protect my Queen.”
“I won’t hurt anyone!” Ryan shouted, stepping over a moaning enemy soldier and pushing past the door. His eyes focused immediately on Breeze, sitting on the bed with her hands holding her torn clothing across her body. Without hesitating, he strode to the bed and pulled his shirt over his head, offering it to the princess.
Breeze took the shirt, despite its damp and smelly state, and smiled at the boy. Slowly, she slid to the edge of the bed where Ryan waited, and dropped his shirt to the floor as she threw her arms around him. “Ryan,” she said, her voice soft, “you came.”
“My princess, I would cross the world for you.”
The queen cleared her throat, standing in the doorway, and smiled at Ryan as the twenty-odd soldiers in the room closed ranks around the bed. “I cannot let you leave,” she said simply. “That girl is my son’s fiancee, despite what he may do to her.”
Ryan returned Breeze’s hug, tears forming in his eyes. “I have found my princess,” he said slowly, his voice shaking in a mix of anger and joy. “I will not leave her to be beaten and bruised.” The boy inhaled deeply, the room suddenly growing cold, and as he exhaled a small puff of steam blew into the air. “The other soldiers in the army would kill even royalty for her safety. But I can’t do that. Not even to the one who hurt my princess so.” Ice crystals began to form on the gold decorations in the room, and the soldiers in the room began to shiver.
Breeze pressed herself against Ryan, fending off the growing cold with the boy’s body heat, and shook lightly in her state of undress. “Ryan,” she whispered, “I’m so cold.”
Ryan lifted the princess into his arms as the room continued to chill. He turned to the Queen and glared, watching as her lips turned blue, and stepped forward. “Let me pass,” he said as flames sprung up beneath his feet, crawling up his legs quickly. “My princess is cold in here.”
The red and orange flames licked the air as they drew up his back, crackling eagerly and engulfing his clothes. Breeze shifted slightly in the boy’s arms, the magic warming her without burning her, and laid her chin on his shoulder. Outside of the room, Ryan set the princess on her feet and turned to the single guard beyond the doorway, the one he had passed when he had entered the room. “Give my princess your clothes,” he ordered. “And hurry, she’s cold.”
“Thank you,” Breeze said, quietly, as the scared girl stripped. Ryan glanced back to the prince’s room, which had warmed significantly since he had left, and caught the eye of a frightened Prince Henry. The Cronois prince spun away from him quickly, rushing out of his line of sight. “Ryan?” the princess called from behind him, laying a hand on his arm.
Ryan turned back to the girl as she slid her feet into the soldier’s shoes, smiling. “Are you still cold, princess?” he asked.
“No,” she said, smiling. “We need to go.”
The flames that had covered Ryan’s body disappeared suddenly, and the boy gasped in pain as he stumbled backward. Blood fell from a small hole in his right shoulder, and as he crumpled to the ground, the wound widened. Aria cried out in surprise and ran toward the boy as a second bullet struck him in his side. She turned and flung a fireball into the dark hallway where the gunshots had come from, momentarily illuminating Lance as he, gun still pointed at Ryan, fired a third shot, the bullet grazing the boy’s neck. “No!” the scarlet-haired girl cried, summoning a bolt of electricity and shooting it at the werewolf wildly.
Lance spun and disappeared into the darkness as the mage’s attack struck the stone wall near his head, sending dust and rock fragments into the air. In an instant he was gone, his lupine speed and knowledge of the Cronois passageways allowing him to easily escape.
Breeze and Aria dropped to Ryan’s side, both crying as they shook him for signs of life. When the boy coughed, the princess stood and dragged him to his feet, and Aria took him into her arms. The girls ran through the hallways briskly, Inyro and Kristen catching them and following closely as they raced toward the exit. “Get a medic!” Breeze shouted, the authority in her voice unmistakable. “I want the best medics we have!”
“Mistress Breeze, there is no medic in Aethon or Cronois who can heal such wounds,” Kristen said gravely, her powerful gait keeping her even with the agile princess.
“Then who can?”
Inyro pulled up between the two. “A hospital,” he said simply. “They have the best chance.”
Soldiers of the Royal Army rushed into enemy passageways, overwhelming the Cronois forces, as aboveground Aria and Breeze rushed to the nearest Mustang GT. Roars of the charging Aethonian soldiers filled the corridors of the underground castle as the Mustang’s powerful engine roared to life, the scarlet-haired girl behind the wheel gunning the engine forcefully. Gunfire and screams of dying soldiers melded with battlecries and the stomping of army boots to produce the rhythm of a deadly song, while the cries of Princess Breeze and Ryan’s pained moans provided a grim melody. Choruses of “Aethon!” and “Cronois!” echoed throughout the underground labyrinth; Breeze pounded the seat above the boy’s head, tears running down her face as she screamed “Ryan! Don’t die, Ryan! Don’t die;” alone with the citizens of Aethon in the forest castle, Gaia began to cry, the stinging pain of a knife in her leg causing her to call out in her sleep, “Help! Help,” her voice muffled by a pillow pressed against her face; back in the Mustang GT, the rhythm and melody and lyrics of a deathly theme ran through Ryan’s head, and he let a single sob escape his lips before slipping into unconsciousness.
----- Part One – END
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