CHAPTER 13

  We backed away from the roof’s edge and turned towards the central spire. We figured that was where Igi-igi was leading them.

  "All teams will converge at the destination. Current objective: maintain distance and silence." Hakashi said to us as he translated the meaning of his hand signals. Each Firebrand and Bartholomew acknowledged with a quick gesture of their own.

  We dropped to lower roofs and began pursuit across Paradize's sprawling slums. Crossing between the buildings only required a running leap because they were so tightly packed.

  This is insane, Fern said as we cleared a gap. We're chasing them to execution, can we really do nothing?

  I shook my head. I don’t know what can be done… I wish we were stronger. Hakashi wouldn’t let them all die, right? There must be something, I hoped.

  Mel's team kept pace to our left, she landed each jump with predatory athleticism, while Silas moved swiftly using a personal grappling hook that was silenced. He flung himself forward and landed with grace. Jessa kept up, and despite her role as a medic, she was still trained like the rest of us.

  A guard emerged from a roof access door ahead. It looked like he was doing a routine patrol. His eyes widened, though, when he saw us sprinting towards him. Before the guard could raise his crossbow, Hakashi's blade had already opened his throat.

  “Stay alert,” Hakashi said ushering us forward and leaving the body behind.

  "The other leaders," I whispered keeping pace with the Firebrand. “Do you need to let them know?”

  “Them? They can take care of themselves. Every one of them is more competent than I am.” He gestured at the Hyper running ahead of Mel. "Hyper’s got the best eyes and blade work among the Firebrands."

  As if proving his claim, Hyper flicked a dagger forty feet ahead of him, finding itself inside a second guard. Before the body could fall over completely, Hyper ran up and pulled the blade free from the his skull.

  After a short mile run, we reached the enormous central spire. Up close, it was less a tower than so much a mountain. Dark stone climbed through the metal ceiling like the Pillar's spine—ancient support for the tiers above the slums. Hakashi pulled us off to the side, where we were to wait for the other squads to join us once the army had gone inside.

  When I looked up at the spire and into the windows, what I saw stopped me cold.

  “Shit,” I drew on Chimera sight and honed my sight. "The windows..."

  In every window, a blindfolded child no older than eight or nine years old stood like watchful dolls.

  “Servents of Igi-igi?” Hakashi wondered looking up at the windows.

  Those poor kids, Fern whispered.

  I looked away and saw the procession below start to file into the ground entrance of the spire.

  The nurse who healed you, Fern said, guiding my eyes down to see the nurse who had put the painful serum on me not even 24 hours ago. The hands that had saved me now hung bruised in Starbringer’s golden restraints.

  I looked across the road and saw Jessa crouched behind Hyper. Her eyes were fixed on the nurse who had instructed her. I could see the anger and fear shaking Jessa.

  After a few minutes, the army disappeared through massive iron doors, and their footsteps echoed into silence against the ancient stone.

  I heard footsteps hit the ground behind us.

  “Blazemen Bartholomew and squad reporting,” Bartholomew's gruff voice called as he was the first of the four teams to join us. "Hakashi. You arrived first. What is that thing?"

  The other Firebrands and their Forgemen arrived then, and we all exchanged looks. It was no time for relaxed greetings.

  "Forgemen, explain what you witnessed." Hakashi's tone was clipped.

  "Igi-igi," Raine said quickly. “That’s its name. He’s one of five beings. Supposedly immortal demigods. The people here call them the Siblings. Each one rules a different tier of this… megacity. This place, called Paradize."

  “Paradize?” Hyper said quietly.

  "He has these power-piercing red spikes. They aim for vital spots and kill almost instantly. He also spawns eyes on the ground," I added. “They seemed to react to eye contact. If you look down, they shoot out spikes of their own, killing instantly."

  "Never look down when he's near," Nanda said. “That’s what we learned.”

  "Explains the screaming earlier," Heda said.

  “It was a massacre," I said. "Hundreds dead. Punishment for some group of rebels attacking his carriage."

  Srilick's tongue flickered nervously. “Rebelsss, demigodsss. What doesss your brother have to do with thisss?”

  My throat constricted. "I don't know. But Noah's not in control. The twin-soul Starbringer is.”

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  "There." Silas pointed at a set of windows thirty yards away. “That entry point is close enough for us.”

  Hakashi looked and nodded. We followed him over, and he leapt first. I was next and when I hopped into the lit hallway, I froze as a blindfolded child passed by. The child kept walking, unseeing and unhearing. After it walked out of sight, I waved the rest of everyone in.

  We followed the hallway until it opened into a vast chamber with a massive base below, and a coiling ramp that went up hundreds of feet above us. Chandeliers lit the room, which stretched on ropes that hung from a ceiling I could hardly see. We stood on the fourth level of the coiling grand ramp and peered over the railing, looking down. On the ground floor, a single table set for two sat in the center. Fifty armed guards stood around the exterior of the room and remained still at attention. Igi-igi led Starbringer to the table like a gracious host.

  The Cinders, however, were not treated as such. Starbringer arranged them in a perfect semicircle, 30 across and ten rows deep. He raised his hands, and suddenly all the chains rattled and clinked, anchoring to iron floor rings with magic. The cinders all grunted or gasped in pain at the forceful submissive position.

  My stomach turned.

  I need to be stronger! I cursed.

  Igi-igi’s colorful clothing caught the light like oil. His pale face remained covered by the Gothic blind mask, giving him the appearance of some cosmic horror.

  "Brother," Igi-igi said, voice clicking like broken clockwork. "How long since you graced us with your presence?"

  "Too long, Igi." The voice using Noah's mouth was wrong—too old, too refined. "Though your hospitality remains... impressive."

  Brother? Why does he keep saying brother? Fern wondered.

  Sweat swept across my skin. And behind me, the squads all shifted nervously. Mel's fingers gouged into the wooden railing, Silas adjusted his mechanical arm, and muttered calculations to himself.

  "Tell me," Igi-igi continued, "what name do you wear in that stolen flesh?"

  Noah's face smiled wrong—too wide, and his eyes gleamed too gold, too inhuman. "The boy called himself Noah. I called myself Starbringer.”

  “You translated your name to the common tongue? Why?”

  “The people below are simple ones, but they do have a lot of books. I didn’t want to risk revealing my true self before I made it back.”

  “I see, and the body’s original soul, have you tamed it? Did you take it for your own, like you said?” Igi-igi asked.

  Starbringer walked up to the table and cut himself a piece of meat. “It was a long process, brother. His soul was strong, especially for a thirteen-year-old. He fought for years, but when I had broken him down enough, that’s when I created the portal and contacted the rest of you and our other Siblings. Since I’ve been back, I had to keep fighting him. Until one day, I won.” Starbringer laughed. “He’s gone now, yes. I consumed him after thirty days of battle with him. We fell into a deep sleep after that one poisoned me. Luckily, it provided me the best chance to quell and kill his soul.” He pointed to Spiderbane and laughed. “Thank’s for giving me a chance for a round two!”

  Golden light glowed brightly from his eyes as he laughed.

  “So, do you want us to call you Starbringer now, big brother?” Igi-igi asked.

  “Hah! Absolutely not. You will call me by my true name, Astrifer, the First Son.”

  Igi-igi clapped his long hands together. “Is it now time?”

  Astrifer turned towards Igi-igi and nodded. “Time for us to claim what's our birthright.”

  My breathing went shallow.

  Noah's soul is gone? My mind could only focus on that one thing.

  Erik, stay calm, remember, Fern whispered.

  My heartbeat slammed against my ribs.

  Breathe, I told myself.

  “Astrifer,” Igi-igi savored the name. “Our eldest, our leader. So would you say the twin-soul experiment worked?"

  "Better than planned." Astrifer ran Noah's fingers through his hair, casual with stolen flesh. "The mortals named me Magelord in record time. Their magic was child's play, but the perks that it came with were indispensable to my growth. But, we need to act soon. That is why I have brought them.” He gestured towards the 300 bound Cinders.

  Beside me, Sora pulled Rinka close. “Stay close to me. I don’t have a good feeling.”

  "The Guardians are dead," Astrifer continued. "The Void-bloods did exactly as planned, playing into that little ‘prophecy’ just perfectly. Time to speed up our growth.”

  “But brother,” Igi-igi's mask tilted ninety degrees like an owl. “What about the other twin-soul. The green-haired one."

  I felt my friends’ eyes fall on me.

  "He followed me through the portal," Astrifer said, irritation bleeding through his voice.

  “Is it wise to let him live?” Igi-igi's voice echoed off the stone. “Was he supposed to be a twin-soul too?”

  “I don’t know if that was intended or not. You know, Father, he never fully explains things. But the boy if far too weak to threaten us.” Astrifer’s hands clenched with suppressed rage.

  "His name?"

  "Erik."

  Around me, my friends shifted in their feet. I knew I would have questions thrown my way later.

  "If he learns Breath techniques brother…” Igi-igi started. "He could interfere."

  “He will die before that happens.” Astrifer said. Then he stepped towards Igi-igi and stuck a finger in his chest. “That’s why you won’t let him leave the First Tier right?”

  Igi-igi nodded slowly.

  “Good, now, lets start this off, the food takes a little while for it to be ready.” Astrifer turned to the chained Cinders. “Shall we feast?”

  Raine's composure cracked completely, and she turned around, hissing her concern at Hakashi. “This is bad, Firebrand! They will die. What do we do? Please give us a plan! There’s no protocol for this, there’s no extraction decided on. What is the plan?”

  “I-uh, we need to…” Hakashi looked around at us and back down to the floor below.

  Nanda whispered prayers in Veclan. I heard Tevin mumble something under his breath.

  “Do we go in? We could take them by surprise right?!” Mel said standing up.

  Hyper reached out and grabbed her shoulder. “Sit back down you. We need to be careful. One wrong step…”

  Hakashi gripped his hair with both hands. "Shut up, everyone shut up, let me think—"

  But the thinking time had ended.

  "You know what I love about mortals?” Astrifer raised his hand, and golden energy coalesced in his palms. The chains around the Expedition Army’s wrists tightened and the Cinders began to cry out in pain. "They're so easily broken."

  "Shall I feast, brother?" Igi-igi asked.

  "By all means." Astrifer’s smile stretched wide. "Eat well."

  The floor shuddered like a still pools surface disturbed by a single bubble.

  Then holes began opening—dozens, hundreds—each revealing an eye. The eyes blinked in sequence, and created ripples of movement across the floor like a living thing breathing.

  "Don't look down!" Raine hissed across the scout teams.

  The first scream came from a young Cinder down below. She had glanced down reflexively as the floor shifted. A red spike had punched through her chest, and was slowly lifting her off her feet. She howled in pain until her voice died with her. She hung there for a moment, and tickles of her blood ran down the spike, before it retracted and she crumpled onto the floor.

  Spikes erupted everywhere at once. Some Cinders squeezed their eyes shut, but Igi-igi waved his hand, and a spike from his hand shot out, sending them to their death. The spikes found the Cinders in anyway possible. Through legs, through stomachs, through throats, anywhere they could be pierced, Igi-igi saw it happen.

  The nurse tried to help a younger Cinder beside her. She reached out despite her chains, and the movement made her fall over. The nurse opened her eyes just an instant, but that was all the eyes needed. An eye on the floor met her gaze and a red spike shot out killing her swiftly.

  Blood pooled across the floor, running between the eyes like tears.

  And through it all, Astrifer and Igi-igi stood, watching with glee as death grew around them.