The clearing between us and the bunker appears to be vacant, but looks can be deceiving. I take a calming breath and attempt to lower my heart rate. The last thing I need is Vikesh to use it against me.
But he wouldn’t want to do that. It’s not in his nature to end a foe so easily. No, he will want to make a public show of defeating me and he will want my friends to have a front row seat.
“Let’s go.” Silently, we dart across the clearing. Wailing cries suddenly rise from the other end of the base, tearing through the calm like a chainsaw gone rogue. I can feel Carleon hesitate beside me so I grab him by the arm and force him to keep moving.
“We can’t help them.” I know Eamon is alive, for the moment, but what about Toren or Kyan? I haven’t heard anything from them since the battle began.
An explosion from behind slams us to the ground. A scream lodges in my throat as I cover my head with my hands, feeling the fibers of my jacket begin to melt against the thin layer of my shirt. The intensity of the heat filters slowly away and I look up through a mess of tangled hair.
The forest all around the base has erupted into blue fire. The abnormal flames lick at the bark, scorching the barren branches. Like a hundred tiny flamethrowers, streams of fire shoot out from miniature cannons that have risen along the rooftops. Rebel and alien soldiers alike run amuck as they fling themselves into the mud to extinguish the flames that eat away at their uniforms.
“They’re killing their own men!” Carleon looks green as he watches the charred figures flail about in the distance.
“It’s war,” I say simply as I tug him on, knowing there is nothing we can do to help them. Carleon raises his hand to shield himself from the heat and I’m stuck again by how young he looks. Even though he physically appears a year or two younger than I am, he has already lived more years on Calisted than I have here on Earth. Time passes differently there. The beauty of youth is not stolen away quite so swiftly. “Drakon is our mission. If we go to help those men, then he might slip away in all of the chaos and their deaths will be for nothing.”
I can see how hard it is for Carleon to turn away, but he does so without a single protest. We all knew the risk in coming here. Death was inevitable, but I would have liked to have kept it to a minimum. Apparently Drakon isn’t playing by the same rules with his own men.
Movement from across the clearing catches the corner of my eye almost a second too late. “Watch out!” I shove Carleon back to the ground as the large oil tank explodes in front of us. The fumes burn my eyes and the blistering heat singes the hairs on the back of my arms. I choke on the thick smoke rolling through the clearing.
My lungs burn on the acrid scent that boils around us. Everywhere I look, orange and blue dances with deadly intent. I close my eyes and press my hand out to the side, using a gust of wind to expel the flames nearest us. My nostrils flare as I halt the movement of my lungs until the worst of the fumes passes by. I notice the black soot that clings to my hand as I pat Carleon on the back. “You good?”
“No,” he grunts as he rolls to his side, clutching his chest. His face is a coated with a similar tarlike substance. His eyes gleam whiter than usual in the dark. “I think I landed on my spleen.”
“At least you’re alive.”
“What happened?” he asks, rolling up to his knees. He clutches his side, his chest rising and falling in a rapid tempo.
“Vikesh,” I whisper.
“How can you tell?” He turns and freezes when he follows my gaze. I can see the shadowy outline of a man approaching from the south, his form unclear, rippling with translucidity. His gait is slow, unconcerned. He knows I will not run. If I do, everyone will die.
“Illyria.” His taunting voice carries on the breeze, deep and filled with mockery. I brush sweat from my brow and clench my fists at my side. I breathe a tiny sigh of relief as the blissfully chilled night air begins to seep back into the yard, combatting the blistering heat all around.
I can see Carleon from the corner of my eye. He looks paler than before, although I hadn’t thought it possible. His Adam’s apple bobs as he widens his stance beside me. I motion for him to be silent. He nods and shifts his weight to the side, unsettling the thin crust of newly heated dirt about his boot.
“Don’t—” My cry cuts off as a terrible rumbling rises from the earth. The ground writhes like an angry snake and a deep crevice appears before us.
“Jump!” I toss myself to the side as the ground under my feet disappears into a sinkhole. I land on the edge, teetering precariously.
Carleon cries out as his chest slams into the crumbling edge. He frantically digs his fingers into the shifting dirt, but there is nothing to cling to. “I can’t get a hold!”