Out of Hiding (Part 2)

"People of Greengate." The words oozed into my ears like honey. Gross. I stuck a finger into my ear like I could dig the woman's voice out. "You already know that your Council is gone, your armies have broken, and your most powerful warriors have abandoned you. The flying castle is ours. Xyrus, Blackbend, Etistin, Vildorial, Zestier…all of Sapin, Elenoir, and Darv are ours. But do not despair, for we do not come as pillagers.”

She gave the crowd a practiced pause, letting this sink in.

When she spoke again her voice had softened into a warm, welcoming tone. “We come here not for conquest, but as saviors. You know of the asuras, the beings you've long worshiped as deities. You've been told they watch over you, but this is a lie. The asuras abandoned you, they abandoned us all…except for one. One such being does care for you, and it is by the will of our High Sovereign, a true asura, that Alacrya has won this war. We had to win, so we could show you this truth."

The retainer paused again, as if she'd expected the outburst of muttering that followed her words.

I met Varay's eye, eager to shut the Alacryan woman up, but she gave me a tiny shake of her head. Teeth grinding, I turned back to the retainer, waiting to see what other lies would spill from her red lips.

"My name is Lyra Dreide. I have come here to extend to you the good will of the High Sovereign, to express that it is time to move past our conflict and extend to each other the hands of friendship."

"Is it with 'friendship' that you torture students in Xyrus?"

A hush fell over the crowd as everyone looked around for whoever had spoken. A small pocket of terrified people were pushing away from a blond young man, leaving him isolated and abandoned under the retainer's steady gaze.

The speaker seemed less confident now that the retainer's focus had fallen on him, but he forged ahead anyway. "Is it with friendship that you tear our families apart, making anyone who challenges you, who stands up to the horrible things you do, vanish in the night?"

Lyra Dreide's gaze swept back over the silent crowd, her expression soft. "There will always be those that refuse the peace we offer, but for the good of all, agents of chaos and disruption must be dealt with firmly."

The ground shook as a pillar of earth lifted up beneath the young man's feet, carrying him into the air and causing a panic. The crowd scrambled to get even farther away.

"I take no pleasure in this violence," the retainer continued, "but peace may be maintained only through the careful application of force. Watch, everyone, and remember this man's fate."

I met Varay's eye again and widened my own as if to say, "Can Mica knock this snake-tongued loony off her pedestal now?" The human Lance gave me a sharp nod before launching into the air, placing herself between the retainer's outstretched hand and the blond farm boy.

The scene froze.

Terrified villagers stared up at Varay with expressions of confusion and shock. Lyra Dreide's pouting, painted lips turned down in a deep frown. The ring of soldiers activated their runes as they stepped forward with weapons drawn.

"Every word you speak is heavy with untruth," Varay said coldly. "You are a liar, and a murderer. I am Varay Aurae, and I won't let you hurt another Dicathian."

Lyra Dreide smoothed out her uniform and stood very straight. "Varay Aurae, code name Zero. You and your associates—Mica Earthborn, Ohmwrecker; Aya Grephin, Phantasm; and Bairon Wykes, Thunderlord—are fugitives sought by the High Sovereign. I will allow you exactly one chance to turn yourself in peacefully."

I let out a happy laugh before flying up a few feet off the ground. "Well, Liar Dried-up"—I snorted at my own off-the-cuff mispronunciation of her name—"we charge you with being incredibly dumb!"

She scowled at me before quickly scanning the crowd until she found Aya as well. "Three of the famed Lances all together in one place. It's my lucky day, I guess."

"It's really not," I replied cheerily.

The retainer stumbled to one knee and her guards were jerked off their feet to slam against the column she stood on as it became its own source of gravity. A cylindrical shield of ice at least a foot thick condensed around the column and the Alacryans, separating them from the crowd, and then a creeping fog spread from the ground under their feet, climbing up the soldiers' legs and torsos.

Screams and the crackling of spells echoed out of the frozen tube as the Alacryans attempted to counter our attacks, but their spells only rebounded back on them, and the soldiers quickly turned on each other as Aya's illusions seeped into their minds. The whole town seemed to hold its breath as it watched the carnage that unfolded, but it was short-lived. In moments, the soldiers were all dead.

On top of the pillar, Lyra Dreide stood slowly back to her feet. I released the gravity spell and tried to push through her control of the stone column and turn it to sand, but she held the structure against me.

The twin pillar, where she'd detained the young man who'd spoken out against her, crumbled instead, sending him plummeting down into the jagged remnants. I thought he'd be impaled in the rubble, but Aya snagged him by the back of his tunic at the last moment.

The cylinder of ice exploded outward with a deafening crash, sending razor-sharp shards into the crowd. Varay yelled as she forced the projectiles to burst apart into a flurry of harmless slush, but not before several villagers tumbled to the ground with shouts of pain.

Too much opportunity for collateral damage. "Run, you lumps of coal!" I shouted, encouraging the crowd to clear out.

A shimmering blue globe appeared around the retainer as Varay focused on another spell. The air inside grew so cold that the moisture began to condense and flutter down as big snowflakes, but steam was rising from the retainer's skin.

"She's countering our spells!" I shouted, reaching down and driving my hand into the ground. A huge stone mace formed in my fist. Despite the weapon being half again my height, manipulation of the gravity around it made it feel light as a feather.

I waited until the surface of the frozen bubble popped before launching myself at the retainer, my giant mace arcing through the air. Before it reached her, however, some sort of vibration pulled my weapon apart, leaving me holding nothing but a handful of sand.

So I punched her with that instead.

Her head rocked back as my fist made contact with her nose, but her leg was sweeping toward my knee at the same time. I made myself heavy enough that my feet cracked the column, and when her kick landed it just bounced off again.

I gave her what I considered my most frustrating smirk just before the pillar beneath me crumbled, sending me plunging toward the ground like a catapult stone due to my weight. Along with a thousand pounds of rock, I crashed into the remains of the Alacryan soldiers, crushing them to red pulp.

"Ew," I groaned as I pulled a chunk of something wet from my hair.