Allied

A train whistled. Noa and the Agents rushed between more trees toward it. They emerged in an open-air station full of wooden benches also torn up from gun battles. They scanned. A gap in the ground showed train tracks leading from a tunnel under them to a tunnel ahead. The train whistled again, louder now, and its light flooded over the tracks.

There’s something coming over us, Ziare thought. Fast.

Everyone looked up. Everyone went into stance.

None other than Shieva sailed down from the sky toward them. She appeared frantic, though no signs of damage lay about her. Rebel helicopters appeared on her tail, their gun turrets swinging and spraying. She wheeled from side to side to avoid the fire. Abruptly she rounded on the helicopters, thrust out her palms, and blasted them with two massive, spiraling pockets of wind. The aircrafts burst to pieces and ribboned, flaming, into the night. More helicopters quickly followed. Shieva pulled to a halt and flew back to confront them.

The train appeared. It didn’t stop at the station but kept going at full speed. Noa and the Agents hopped onto it and landed in stooping positions. The train disappeared into the tunnel. The sound of distant battles faded and its rumbling continued in isolation.

Lights flashed by. Ziare showed everyone the garbage-cluttered interiors of the cars underneath them. They were alone for the moment. The high, wide tunnel offered them enough room to remain stooping. They shook when the train shook and bumped when it bumped.

It’s time, Noa thought. She rounded on Elf and the rest of the Agents. Describe your abilities. All of them.

For battling Shieva? Raffikke? Elf asked.

Both, of course.

The Agents eyed Elf as she fell into contemplation.

We don’t have time, Noa urged her.

Elf glanced at Rail and Ex. A comment lingered in her gaze but she didn’t speak it. Ex rolled his eyes.

Hey. We already know you guys keep secrets, he thought. Just cut to the chase.

We understand that you did it for your team, Rail added. They are precious to you. My Platoon does the same to protect the secrets of my ability. I doubt there is a single Squad or Platoon who doesn’t for their leader.

Elf nodded. She rounded on Noa. Noa put away her curious expression. In short order Elf was giving away all of her Squad’s secrets.

She was Elf, the leader: the only emblazon summoner of her kind and a skilled tactician. Lair was the team mage: a wind-caster of lethal repute. Ziare was a telepath, the team scout, a skilled infiltrator—and, of course, the host of the team’s telepathy speak. Ghost was a fighter: the front-line offense and a surprise backup mage.

When she was done with her Squad Rail tried to speak up, but Elf kept going. Rail raised an eyebrow at her. Ex leaned around Rail and did the same when Elf started on him.

Rail was a techno-mage: a superior jack-of-trades, gadget warfare master, and shadow walker with the help of eight subordinates. Ex was a guardian: he had unparalleled endurance, keen, bestial instincts, and highly honed battle senses and experience. She finished with Delta, the cleric: back-line support and counsel.

The train took a swerve and they all held on tight until it was heading straight again.

That’s enough, Noa said mentally. Keep your animosity to yourselves.

Elf was receiving some peculiar stares, though she ignored them.

Shieva is Lair on a vastly superior level, Noa stated matter-of-factly. Raffikke is Ziare on the same. Together they can and will track us down—and defeat us. That is, unless we can work together. Are you prepared to do as I say?

Everyone brought their knuckles together and bowed into them. Noa began giving instructions for the trap.


The train exited the tunnel and emerged on a bridge high over the sea. It was rushing away from Central Isle toward an island in the northwest. Stars winked at it from above.

As it emerged Raffikke and the army of six bandaged warriors leaped down from the roof of the tunnel onto the train. They landed behind Noa and the Agents; Queen and guard turned to them and made stances. No one was surprised to see her.

Raffikke examined their formation. Rail and Ex stood at the front with Delta and Noa immediately behind them. Elf Squad stood behind them facing the forward direction of the train. Delta’s bag was no longer shouldered; he held it under his arm, as well as a shotgun across his chest. Rail, standing tall, clutched two strange devices in each hand. They resembled dual batons but had barrel openings and gun triggers. Her pinkie hugged each trigger. Meanwhile Ex steadied his two-handed sword in one hand and a handgun of his own in the other. Raffikke peered at the Agents facing away for a long moment.

“Have at you!” Noa barked.

Raffikke snapped to her senses. She made a motion over her shoulder and her warriors lunged at Noa’s group.

Ex dashed and cleaved at them. They dodged over and under him. Rail strutted forward, shooting one of the warriors out of the air without looking. The warrior latched onto the side of the train and jumped back on. All six halted between Rail and Ex, swaying lithely. Rail went into stance. They lunged at her. She danced, her punches and gunfire simultaneous. The warriors toppled off the train repeatedly but always returned for more.

Elf Squad watched over their shoulders, Lair holding two fingers up. Raffikke saw them.

Ch-chk. Ex cocked his gun and fired a salvo at Raffikke. She raised her cloak to shield herself; his bullets glanced off it as if off steel. She strode forward until she was in front of him. He dropped his gun, collected his sword in both hands, swiped. Raffikke parried the blade with her forearm, causing blue-fire sparks to fly. She followed up with three brutal palm strokes. He recoiled and his sword flew into the sea.

She kicked him to the steel surface. He slid until his head hung between two cars. She leaped airborne, over him, Rail, and the warriors, toward Noa and Delta. As if it had been there all along, she then pulled a gigantic silver bow from her back. She took aim and tugged the string without placing anything on it.

Now! Noa thought.

The Agents moved as one. Elf threw out a portal ahead of her. Lair swiveled and blasted the gap between her car and Rail’s; one massive, ear-ripping boom went off. Ex punched the other side of Rail’s car. Raffike looked around in perplexion with each action, still tugging at the string.

The car with Noa and the Agents vanished into the portal. The car linked ahead of it broke off and kept going, leaving empty space underneath Raffikke. At the same time, Rail’s car sank at the back and jumped at the front, breaking off from Noa and the Agents’ all while slowing down from the wind blast. The other end of Elf’s portal materialized over its front. Noa and the Agents’ car shot out of it, aiming directly for Raffikke.

Raffikke swiveled around to aim at them. She released the string; a slice of wind bulleted forward. Elf had already tugged the portal on the ground up in front of the group. Everyone ducked and the wind bullet flew into the portal, out the still-angled train Rail and the warriors were fighting on, and over their heads at Raffikke. Noa grinned at the dark woman’s appalled expression. Now a train and an arrow were shooting toward her.

Noa brought up her arms before the wind arrow made it past her. Elf Squad didn’t see the arrow hit her barrier. They only felt when it burst and the force of it pressed them into the train as it was pushed away.

What beautiful fools, Noa thought.

All Noa’s targets fell. The train, the Agents, Raffikke—everyone. Noa flipped onto a cloud to slow her descent, then peered down at the chaos with a satisfied grin tugging at the corners of her lips. Behind one angry Raffikke gazing up at her, the train plummeted, crashed onto the tracks, and everything broke into massive, beautiful, misshapen pieces. The sounds of twisting steel and shattering boulders rent the nighttime air.

A large black submarine jumped out of the water under the bridge. It settled atop the waves and its canopy flipped back, turning it into a boat. It began surfing toward Ex and Rail.

BOOM!!

The train exploded; flames pillared; the bridge launched in all directions. Raffikke found a bed from the force of the blast and aimed again at Noa, fired. Noa scowled and reflected the wind arrow back at her. Raffikke fired a second one, which penetrated the first—

The boat caught Ex. Rail. Delta. Sped off toward Elf Squad crashing up ahead—

Noa swerved out of the way in the nick of time, but in doing so, fell off her cloud. Raffikke fired repeatedly. Noa rolled from makeshift cloud to makeshift cloud out of the way of each. Raffikke stopped firing and swiveled to the mountain of fire when she felt herself once again falling. Noa landed on a cloud and kicked off toward her, white mist tailing her—

—“Get on! Get ooon!”—

Raffikke glanced over her shoulder at Noa. She made a pose, causing her Godden-marked cape to first fan out behind her, then expand to several times its original size, taking on the shape of wings. Her descent slowed; from Noa’s perspective, she seemed to be floating toward her. She separated the two ends of the bow so they were scimitars in her hands. Wife met wife, fist met steel—

—Ziare hoisted Ghost, the final Agent, aboard. The ship shot through the rain of fire toward Noa and Raffikke—

Noa rammed her heel into the back of Raffikke’s head. The woman wheeled downward, into the still-blooming explosion, while Noa recoiled slightly from the force of the blow. She smiled triumphantly, then fell backwards onto another cloud bed, spread her arms wide. She gazed at the stars while the carnage roiled below.

She glanced in the direction of Purgia. Glanced down at the sea. Sat up on her elbow when she saw all the odd-shaped boats speeding around the bridge toward her. Sat up fully when she saw the rebel helicopters incoming from the city’s shores.

“Noaaa!” a voice cried out.

Noa looked down and found the boat that had collected the Agents underneath her, the Agents lying on their backs on the deck, panting heavily. The voice belonged to the ship’s captain, a feminine figure wearing a goggle cap over a large puff of brown hair.

“Please! Jump on!”

“Ugh,” Noa said to herself.

She looked at the other boats and saw them wheeling around to head back to intercept the helicopters. Then she looked at the helicopters to see why, and panic had her. Ahead of the rebels flew Shieva, her clothes in cinders, her determination set. Noa’s senses brought her back to the destroyed bridge. The smoke cleared enough to show the silhouette of seven dark figures standing on the ocean, one with a bow pointed her way.

Noa turned from Shieva to Raffikke to the boat beneath her, her conflictions brewing. Finally she fell through the cloud toward the boat, filtered through a second cloud, and landed on deck amid the very Agents she just betrayed.

The lid flew over the deck of the boat. It dove under the water as the sounds of rebels clashing with Clandestined clashing with the other boats ignited.