Rune Seeker - Book 3: Chapter 87: To War

“At this pace, I estimate we’ll reach the tower just after the storm wall does,” Left said from where he stood beside the rest of the party on the speeding Disc of Passage.

“How is that possible?” Hiral asked, staring at the unbelievably close storm wall. “Shouldn’t we have more than another hour before it reaches the island?”

“I suspect the storm is slowing as it gets closer to the Grandfather’s power, but that it moved incredibly fast while further out,” Left said. “We assumed it would be a consistent speed… We were wrong.”

“Which means the storm will crawl across the island before it finally reaches the middle,” Right said. “And we’ll be getting wet again.”

“Damnit. This is my fault,” Hiral said. “Shouldn’t have taken the time to talk to my father.”

“No,” Ilrolik said. The old woman stood at the center of the disc, her hands on the control panel, but her voice easily carried over to reach them. “We needed time to regain our energy after our imprisonment. One way or another, we were going to be delayed.”

“Still, if we could’ve reached Fitch first…”

“But we didn’t,” Seena interrupted, her hand squeezing his arm. “Nothing we can go back and change now.”

“The Growers are taking the worst of it, though,” Hiral said. “If the storm is at Fallen Reach, that means it’s already covered most of the Grower islands.” His chest ached at the thought of it. If only he’d moved faster…

“The storm was always going to reach our islands, Hiral. We knew that from the moment we saw the timer notification. Grandmother moved everybody to the Grandfather’s island, since it’s the closest to the middle of Fallen Reach. My people are safe—for now.”

“But the islands? Your homes…”

“Can be rebuilt, as long as the people are alive. Yes, it’s going to be a lot of work, but I’m kind of hoping we’ll have some help, if you know what I mean.” Seena elbowed him gently and sent a wink his way as she spoke.

“You know I’ll be there,” Hiral said.

“And you won’t be alone,” Ilrolik’s voice carried over again. “Despite… previous opinions on the topic, we won’t forget who came to us when we needed it the most. Even if you two sisters are the exception to your people, everybody here owes you a debt.

“And we pay up.”

“Thank you,” Seeyela said, her eyes going to the almost one hundred towering Shapers on the Disc of Passage.

All the strongest B- and C-Rank Shapers from the prison had climbed on Ilrolik’s disc to race towards the Fallen’s tower. The prison’s remaining Shapers followed distantly on a pair of Platforms of Movement, but they had no chance of keeping up. By the time they reached the tower, Hiral hoped everything would already be taken care of.

And… it probably would be—one way or another. If his party and all the Shapers with them weren’t enough to stop Fitch, well, that was the end of it.

“This storm wall,” Ilrolik said, pulling Hiral’s attention back out of his own head. “How strong is it? It looks much fiercer this close.”

Hiral squinted at the sheer wall of black-gray, lightning flashing within as thunder echoed across the fields of Fallen Reach. Even at this distance, he could just barely make out the Fallen’s tower vanishing within the rushing wall of wind and rain. A shimmering blue dome sat next to it—Probably a Dome of Force to protect the Shapers—and then it was gone too, swallowed by the storm.

“The disc should be able to protect us from the worst of the wind and rain,” Hiral said. “But expect to be in for a rough ride.”

“We’re built for rough,” Loan said, standing just behind Hiral.

“And I can make sure we don’t go flying even if it gets a bit bumpy,” Hiral added, starting to thread energy into his Rune of Attraction.

“Any idea how many Shapers are going to be waiting with Fitch?” Seeyela said. “A dozen?”

Loan shook his head. “Fitch is the man with the spear?”

“The Spear of Clouds,” Hiral clarified, his mind distracted by finding every set of feet on the disc. And by the look on Loan’s face—along with how every other Shaper head snapped in his direction—he realized he hadn’t shared that fact yet. “Uh… yeah, the realSpear of Clouds. He has it. We need to take it back to the Grower islands to push away the storm.”

“We can’t give the spear to the Nomads,” a voice predictably said.

“It’s our heritage!”

“A weapon of that power could…”

“Enough!” Ilrolik interrupted. “This Fitch took the Spear of Clouds from one of the Grower islands?”

“He did,” Hiral said. “It’s what kept the storm away all these years. When he took it… well, you can see the result.” He pointed at the storm wall dominating the horizon in front of them.

“Then we’ll return it where it belongs,” Ilrolik said. “No. This is not open for discussion. This is but a small part of the debt we owe.”

The voices on the disc quieted, and while some of the Shapers surely weren’t thrilled about the proclamation, they’d heed it. For now. Is this going to be a problem later? All the more reason we need to get our two peoples working together.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” Hiral said quietly.

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“They would’ve found out eventually,” Seena replied just for his ears. “Better now than when we’re in the middle of it with Fitch.”

“Back to my question,” Seeyela prompted Loan, and the big man shook his head.

“The true Spear of Clouds?” Loan asked Hiral, not quite ready to let it go.

“Yeah,” Hiral said. “You’ll help make sure we get it back where it’s supposed to be, right?”

“Of course,” Loan said. “Though I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to see it for myself.”

“It is pretty impressive,” Hiral agreed.

“Hey!” Seeyela said, walking over and gently punching Loan in the chiseled abdomen. “More important questions here. How many Shapers?”

“My apologies,” Loan said politely to Seeyela. “A dozen would be a vast understatement, if the numbers are anything like the last crowd I saw with the man.” As Loan spoke, he looked around at the other Shapers on the disc. “We may still be outnumbered.”

“But they’re all C-Rank?” Seeyela asked hopefully, and Loan immediately shook his head.

“Unfortunately not,” he said to Seena and Seeyela. “Far too many of our B-Rankers sided with the rebels, though there are two less, thanks you to two.”

“Four less,” Hiral clarified. “Vule and Velina won’t be there.”

Loan’s eyebrow went up. “You met Vule? And…” Then his laughter boomed across the Disc of Passage. “Oh, I wish I could’ve seen his face when you of all people defeated him.”

“You didn’t have to say it quite that way,” Hiral grumbled, but then he cracked a sly smile as well. “It was pretty funny, though.”

“Do I need to separate you two so we can stay on track here?” Seeyela asked. “The rebel Shapers—can we take them?”

“Definitely,” a new voice said. Gauto’s voice. “They may outnumber us, but they took hostages because they knew they couldn’t win in a straight fight.”

“Gauto!? What are you doing here?” Hiral asked.

“You sent your dad away but completely forgot about me, so where else was I supposed to go?” Gauto asked defensively.

“Uh…” Hiral hesitated. Okay, maybe, yeah, he had forgotten about Gauto. “Anywhere but to the frontline between a bunch of fighting Shapers?”

“When else am I going to get to see something like this?” Gauto asked. “This is the first time in our entire history we’ve had Shapers trying to kill each other. Think of the data I can get on tattoo usage and relative power. I just wish I had more notepads. And eyes. More eyes would really help.”

“After you die, I could graft some additional eyes on to you,” Li’l Ur said. “A few extra sets of arms, if it would help.”

“It would!” Gauto said. Then he stopped. “Wait, I’d have to die first?”

“Just ignore him,” Hiral said. “And, Gauto, be careful. We won’t be able to watch out for you.”

“What will you be doing when the time comes?” Loan asked.

“Dealing with Fitch,” Seena said. “He… was… our friend, and now he’s our responsibility.”

“As strong as I know you are,” Hiral added, “I think we have the best chance against him. His abilities aren’t like anything you’ve ever gone up against. Keep the other Shapers off us, and we’ll take care of him.”

“Understood,” Loan said, the top sashes of the ceremonial robes slipping off his shoulders to hang by the tight belt around his waist.

Across his wide chest, his Meridian Lines and tattoos glowed even more fiercely against the darkness overtaking Fallen Reach for the first time in thousands of years. Behind him, the other Shapers likewise bared their chests, and solar energy began flowing through their bodies.

To his eyes—familiar with Cycling—the energy on the Disc of Passage practically glowed as it swirled like a whirlpool.

“Hiral, time for you to do your sticky thing,” Seena said.

He glanced around to spot the storm wall growing and growing in his field of vision. They’d breach it within thirty seconds. “I’m going to make it so your feet don’t leave the Disc of Passage,” he said loudly. “The rest is up to you.” With that, he pictured the hundreds of feet in his mind and channeled solar energy into his Rune of Attraction. Unsurprisingly, he felt his own feet adhere to the stone beneath him, and multiple heads glanced down.

“Brace!” Ilrolik shouted, just in time for the disc to speed into the oncoming storm.

All at once, everything went from a sunny sky to pitch black. Wind howled around them like a thing possessed. Rain lashed the disc’s barrier so hard the energy vibrated like it was being assaulted. Thunder boomed while lightning passed so close Hiral’s hair would’ve stood on end if he had any.

Under the passengers, the disc itself suddenly dropped and then shot into the air, caught on the wind looking to hurl it right back out of the storm. A hard jerk to the right, and then it snapped back down to the left, so far and fast the edge caught the ground. Earth and stone spit skyward, bouncing off the shield as the disc carved a furrow before it once again twisted into the air, up and down so fast Hiral recalled the weightlessness from his Rune of Gravity. Part of his imagination had Yanily whoopingat the ride.

Damn, he missed his friend.

“Hooooold!” Ilrolik shouted again, her hands gripping the control pedestal while energy spun around her. Another jerk right—the constant changes of direction would’ve thrown everybody from their feet if Hiral hadn’t practically nailed them down—but then the disc seemed to settle.

Just in time for lightning to strike the disc’s shields, one blast after another. Two, four, six, ten bolts slammed into the dome from all sides, as though the Shapers onboard had somehow offended the storm itself. Even then, the charged bolts didn’t let up, striking so hard and fast it was almost as if they were back under the sun.

“Will it hold?” Seena asked, her phoenix-like sheath burning to life across her body.

“With Ilrolik at the helm, yes,” Hiral replied.

“We should almost be through the worst of it,” Left added, and not a second later, the churning mass of clouds and rain lessened to something more akin to a normal storm.

Still, rain fell in discernible sheets, reducing visibility to practically zero, and lightning continued to flash overhead. Better there than directly at us.

“Hiral, do you see any of the Enemy?” Seena asked.

“Shit,” Hiral cursed. “Did you explain the squids to them?”

Her face paled. “No. Didn’t think we’d have to deal with the storm.”

“Enemy?” Loan asked. “Something other than Fitch and the Shapers, by the look on your face.”

“Left, take that side, see if you can spot anything,” Hiral said, releasing his hold of Attraction on everybody as he began to scan the sky. “Seena, you get to explain.”

“The Enemy are giant squids that fly through the rain,” Seena said. “They can be miles long, and they’re the real reason being on the surface is so dangerous. There’s a whole lot more to it, but that’s the important stuff.”

“And they’re invisible,” Seeyela added. “That’s pretty important too.”

“Oh, and they can shoot beams of energy, force, and… other stuff,” Seena said.

“Seems like there are a lot of important things you left out of your first description,” Loan said flatly. “Are they powerful?”

“Very,” Seena said. “Our best hope is none of them are here yet.”

“We need to get the spear down to the Grandfather as soon as possible,” Hiral said. “No sign of them yet.”

“I see the tower, though,” Left said from his side. “And by the way the crystal at the top is glowing, I’d say something’s happening.”

“Something we need to stop,” Hiral said.