The Veil Read online

  Delagio pushed his own hands and feet through the holes, wrapping the material tightly in his palms.

  “What’s about to happen?” I breathed, scrambling with Danny and Hollie to weave myself into the netting.

  Del peered around the corner and then ducked back, pressing his head against the container and closing his eyes. “That bitch is about to go all fire hose on our ass.”

  A second later I heard the splash as the two heads rose out of the water. There was a crackle and Captain Garrat’s voice poured though the speakers. “Everyone get behind cover or inside the ship, now!”

  But it was too late.

  There was a furious rushing sound like an approaching tsunami and then a jet of dark water the circumference of a Boeing engine tore past us, smashing into the nearby wall so hard it almost tore right through. The furious Hydra Queen fired more devastating streams of water down onto the deck of I’orin. The Lightwardens who hadn’t listened to our warnings tumbled past in contorted balls of fractured limbs, gurgling and screaming as they were punched over the side of the warship or slammed into the walls hard enough that their bones were reduced to gravel. The container behind us groaned as it was hit by one of the jets and the netting securing it to the deck started to ping loose.

  Crap, crap.

  The water levels rose around us, coming up to our ankles and then our shins, as the unrelenting Hydra Queen kept blasting the ship with water. More of the container’s fixings snapped, and the unit slid forward a few feet, bulging against the net and pushing us with it.

  “We could do with über Alex right about now!” shouted Delagio, his forehead damp with a mixture of water and sweat.

  “I’m still weak from the battle on the city!”

  He gestured at the rising water. “I get that bud, but look around you! You don’t switch in, we all clock out!”

  He’s right. I have to do something. If I don’t we’re all dead and Gabriella, Grey and then Troy are as good as dead too.

  I stared down at my blade dripping with water as dark as ink, and I forced my breathing to slow and tried to clear my mind, thinking of what was at stake as I willed the other part of me to rise to the surface.

  I switched.

  Delagio looked at me and then nodded. “There he is.”

  “Stay here,” I commanded.

  Jumping to my feet, I burst from behind the container and started to sprint the length of the deck towards the Hydra Queen. Everything around me ground into slow motion – the panicked faces of the Lightwardens who leaned out from cover, firing whatever they could at the colossal beast; the unreadable expressions of the Vengeful who were clustered behind cover in tight groups, waiting for their next command; the deep water splashing up around my boots as I carved through it as though it didn’t exist; the nine unimaginably powerful streams of pure water spewing from the nine maws of the nightmarish creature. Everything slowed until it froze entirely, becoming a snapshot suspended in time, whilst I slipped through the image like a spectre.

  I weaved past the jets of water and hopped onto the side of the ship, sprinting forward with my sword hand trailing behind and my teeth gritted together in determination. The Hydra Queen towered over me – a living, breathing skyscraper. I waited until I was right in front of the claw clutching I’orin’s bow and then jumped up as high as I could, raising Crimson above my head. I thrust the blade down and it sank deep into her forearm. The momentum of my jump made me slam into her scales, which were formed from countless overlapping plates that resembled polished black shields.

  I’d thought that the Hydra Queen would have barely registered Crimson. In my mind it would be like a pin going into an elephant. So I was surprised when my perception of time rebalanced itself – as it always did after the initial switch – and the creature had reared backwards, releasing piercing sounds from her nine mouths that could only have been screams.

  A giant claw with three fingers missing bore down on me. I pressed my feet against the Hydra’s arm and jumped, stabbing the blade out again and coming to rest fifty feet higher up. The seismic aftermath of the queen swatting her own arm was powerful enough that I almost lost my grip on Crimson. Steadying myself, I continued to vault up the massive creature – alternating between jumping and stabbing out with Crimson. All the while I avoided the frantic, thundering slaps that the screaming Hydra Queen threw in my direction.

  Faster.

  I sped up, darting up the Hydra like a jumping flea. As I landed just below the crook of her elbow, I felt a cold shadow roll over me and realised that the Hydra had anticipated my movement, swatting above instead of below. Turning my head, I saw a huge scaled palm rushing towards me like a moving wall. I coiled my legs and sprang outwards, ripping my blade free and raising it high above my head. I sailed through the air and felt the gut-pull as gravity took hold of me. I arched downwards and thrust out with Crimson, stabbing it into the wrist of the Hydra’s moving arm. Before she could react, I swung myself over the edge of her limb, running along the horizontal edge of her forearm, towards the inside elbow.

  Gritting my teeth, I started to jump again, over and over, changing my position and occasionally dropping back down so the Hydra didn’t know where to attack. With each stab came a hideous screech. I had shifted my thoughts of Crimson from an insignificant pin to the toxic stinger of a wasp – which could bring immense pain to something a thousand times its size.

  Eventually I reached the Hydra’s broad shoulder, where a shelf of muscle connected to the expanded base of her multiple necks. The Hydra’s heads were all curled up like cramped fingers, as she desperately tried to locate me. Clearly Crimson’s blade has much more of an impact on her than my bodyweight does.

  A moment later I turned to see a set of huge yellow eyes glaring at me.

  The other heads started to curl back in, joining the head that had spotted me. The Hydra opened her collective jaws and nine holes of absolute darkness loomed in front of me, fronted by the tree-sized fangs and the waterfall of venom that spilled from them.

  I sprinted outwards towards her damaged wing. A serpentine hood flared outwards on the Hydra’s centremost head and she let out an almighty hiss – the rush of foul smelling breath so powerful, it almost knocked me off my feet. I sensed her head’s attack before they actually moved, and I dived over the side of her shoulder, stabbing Crimson into her flesh and riding it diagonally down her back like a zip line. I felt the heavy shudder as nine fangs missed me and thudded into the Hydra’s own flesh. Clearly not immune to her own venom, she was momentarily stunned, and I took the moment to gain some respite. Far below, I could see the Hydra’s impossibly long tail thrashing around in the waves. This is harder than it should be. I’m not back to full strength yet. I need to speed things up before I run out of energy entirely.

  I took a few more deep breaths and then started climbing up her back again. I waited until I was right at the joint of her wings and then stabbed the blade in, tearing away chunks of her flesh. My plan had been to cut off the Hydra’s wings and kill her with blood loss – remembering the Wendigo that had tumbled from the Alliance plane with me all those months ago, which had killed itself by tearing off its own wings. But as soon as I started to hack at the Hydra’s wings, I realised that it was never going to work.

  The joint muscle is as thick as a car. It would take me all night to cut through that…and that’s not even counting the bone.

  The Hydra started to recover and I knew I didn’t have time to procrastinate. I need to find a vulnerable part. The heads won’t work and the wings are out of the question. The hands will be too difficult. That leaves–

  I snapped my head up. The internal organs.

  Climbing upwards, I launched myself over the edge of the Hydra Queen’s shoulder and onto the Hydra’s wounded chest. I somersaulted and then stabbed out, coming to a sliding stop a few yards above one of the yawning holes that had been punctured into her torso by the Ion cannons. I glanced back down at I’orin, hoping none of the
canons were still leveled at the creature. But no one was looking my way. Everyone on the deck had abandoned their cover and were walking to the port side of the ship, staring out into the ocean. The Hydra Spawn were no longer attacking either – they just swirled above the deck. I glanced in the direction they were facing and with my enhanced vision saw a great mound of some colossal creature protruding from the water in the distance.

  What the hell?

  I couldn’t let the new arrival distract me from my task. I focused back on the Hydra Queen, dropping down and preparing to force my way inside through one of the cannon holes that had bored in her chest. A piercing sound emanated from the distant creature. It overpowered my mind, and then suddenly I was watching a vision of my intended plan unfolding in front of me.

  I tore inside the creature, working my way through her body, which looked more like an insect’s nest than the inside of an animal – with honeycomb shaped walls containing Hydra Spawn, protected with a sheath of opaque membrane. I carved and sliced my way up until I reached the hollow chamber that housed the Hydra Queen’s giant beating heart. As I carved the organ away from its tree-trunk sized ventricles, an acidic substance was released, which coated me from head to toe. It was so toxic that even in my altered state, I couldn’t stop my skin from peeling from my bones, and then the bones themselves dissolving into a paste.

  I watched myself die.

  My mind twitched as I was shown an alternate vision.

  The Hydra Queen collapsed back into the water, dead by a grenade I had set off next to her heart, rather than cut with Crimson. Then the scene switched to I’orin being escorted across the sea by a navel fleet. Moments later the ships were attacked by squadrons of Skyjets. Time surged forward again and I was being unloaded from an Umbra Skyship by rough hands. I tried to fight my captors off but for some reason my body wouldn’t respond. Time lurched forward and I was kneeling in front of Lilith inside what looked like twisted nightmare version of a church. She clutched a flaming sword in her hand, which she had just used to carve my friends into unrecognisable pieces whilst she made me watch. She used the same blade to dismember me, and I was powerless to stop her. I screamed and begged for her to kill me, and she finally obliged with a flashing strike of her sword. I felt my head roll off my shoulders and then everything faded to black.

  Again I watched myself die.

  The visions faded and then I was back to myself, clinging to the Hydra Queen and trembling from the after-effect of the bizarre visions.

  I lowered Crimson. I get the feeling something really doesn’t want me to attack this creature.

  A moment later the same noise pierced the night once again – this time with enough power to steal almost all of my remaining energy. The Hydra Queen gave a submissive whimper and then reared backwards, the resulting tremor enough to shake my grip loose.

  I fell from the Hydra Queen and hit the deck hard enough that despite still being in my super state, my arm shattered and several of my ribs cracked. Groaning, I rolled over to the side and spat a mouthful of blood onto the deck. I felt I’orin slip backwards and when I opened my eyes I saw that the Hydra Queen had released the ship from her wing grip. The colossal creature’s eyes were wide with what could only have been fear, and I watched in stunned silence as she turned and dove away. The last thing I saw was the flick of her tail, before it dipped over the waves. A moment later her spawn dove after her, hitting the sea like giant darts.

  It’s over….

  “What the hell just happened?” I said, dragging myself to my feet. No one answered me. I got my answer when I turned and saw that all of the Lightwardens and Vengeful were bowed to one knee, their fists placed across their hearts and heads bowed in deep reverence. They were chanting something under their breaths.

  I limped my way over to the port side of I’orin. As soon as I did, a stream of golden water jetted upwards from where I had seen the dark mound, and I saw an impossibly large fin flick out of the waves and then nothing but the horizon. The creature gave a final departing sound that resonated with such a high-pitch frequency that made everyone – including me – go quite literally weak at the knees. I sank down to the deck and tried to catch my breath as the energy left me.

  Delagio, Hollie and Danny had been standing nearby. They noticed me for the first time and ran over, concern filling their faces.

  “Alex, you okay bud?” said Delagio.

  “I’ll live. But I don’t get it…I was about to kill her and then…” I thought about the weird visions.

  “Then what?”

  “I-I don’t really know.”

  “I don’t think the new arrival wanted you to kill her, mate,” said Danny.

  I frowned. “What new arrival?”

  Delagio pointed a thumb at where the Lightwardens were still praying and chanting. “That’s a pretty big clue right there, bud. What would make trained Luminar soldiers – who worship a water god – drop to their knees and pray in the middle of a battle?”

  My mouth fell open as it dawned on my tired brain what we had all just witnessed – a force more powerful than both combined, forcing the battle to end by showing me what my spontaneous choices could have lead to. Showing me how both paths – either sooner or later – would have lead to death if the omniscient being hadn’t intervened.

  “Cetus.”

  27

  Gabriella

  It took me less than five minutes to pick the chains.

  I didn’t allow hope to enter my mind until the moment all the binds were off me and I had felt my way through the darkness towards the flickering glow of the torch in the passage beyond. I knelt down to pick the lock of the adamantine bars that kept me prisoner. As soon as I heard the familiar click, I slid the pick agonizingly back into my cheek to prepare for the high likelihood of getting caught. When I turned the latch and felt it release, my breath snagged in my chest. Trying to keep calm and focused, I crept forward – keeping low – and inched the bars open.

  I carefully checked each direction. Empty. Go.

  My muscles were still at the mercy of the fading fever, and my legs ached as I hunkered down and briskly tiptoed to a flaming torch fixed to an arched column. I rose up and broke it free of its fixings, holding it at arms length and using it to help light the gloomy passage. I turned to the left to see that the massive catacomb-like prison kept going for an eternity, vanishing into the darkness.

  Just how many people have they got down here?

  I moved to the right, leaning in at every cell and counting my steps. I’d remembered what Physicker Agorias had said about just escaping myself. Screw that. I’m not leaving my friends behind.

  “Troy? Grey?” I hissed into the silence as I passed by each cell. Figures inside started to stir, grimy faces shielding their eyes from the glare of the torch. Once their sight had adjusted and they realised what was happening, they pleaded for me to help them, their voices getting louder and more hysterical.

  Merda!

  I blinked away tears as I sped up, rushing away from the cacophony of desperate voices that begged for freedom. Pure guilt filled me up as I moved past the remaining cells without stopping to check who was inside. I couldn’t bear to leave Troy and Grey behind, but now I understood the Physiker’s words. If I try and rescue others right now, all I’m going to do is get myself recaptured or killed. Plus I couldn’t just free anyone…I couldn’t even be sure they would be on my side. Being locked away for a long time can do awful things to someone’s mind.

  But that didn’t mean for one second that I was just going to abandon Grey and Troy, or any of the other poor souls who had found themselves in the godforsaken prison. I’m going to find my way back to Alex, and then we are going to come back and raze this whole fucking place to the ground, killing every guard in here...just like I promised. The thought was so powerful and full of anger that I had to force myself to calm down. Focus. You’re no good to anyone if you don’t get out of here.

  I half-ran to the spiral stai
rcase, doing my best to keep my footsteps light. My heart was pounding against my ribcage as I made my way up the stone steps. When I reached the top, I rested the torch against the wall and knelt down, using its flickering light to see the keyhole. As I worked the pick through the lock, feeling it push the tumblers into position I heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps approaching from the other side.

  Damn!

  I grabbed the torch and rushed past the door to a small space between its hinges and the adjacent wall, pressing myself flat against the stone. Sweat poured from my forehead as I held my breath and tried to block as much of the light from the torch as I could. I heard the footsteps draw closer and then the click of the lock being opened. The door swung open towards me and I saw the side profile of a Pitguard, as he appeared a few feet away. I kept my breath held, waiting for him to turn and spot me, my knuckles white as they clutched the torch. But he turned away, his cloak sweeping out behind him as he descended the steps, holding his own flaming torch and muttering something under his breath. I waited until the door had almost closed and then jammed my fingers into the gap, swinging it back open and slipping through, before closing it gently behind me.

  Once again I found myself in the small bridge with the exposed edges that led to the water trap, where my evil captors had almost drowned me to death.

  And right ahead of me was another Pitguard.

  He was facing away, his hand pressed to his ear, talking in Th’ail on some kind of communication system. “Yes, Adraxal is doing the sweep of the Eastern Quadrant now. All quiet, just waiting on collection orders.”

  He nodded a few times and then lowered his hand away from his ear and started walking towards the door in front of him. The soldier part of me kicked in and before I knew what I was doing, I was sprinting towards the guard. He heard my footsteps just as I leapt into the air, turning as I landed on his shoulders and clamped my knees either side of his neck. With a scream, I thrust the flaming torch into his face and held it there. He tried to grab at his face, but I battered his hands away and grabbed his throat with my other hand, strangling his cries.