Shadows of the Lost City

Chapter Four: The Rising Threat

Darius Voss attacked at sunset.

His forces emerged from the wasteland in armored crawlers reinforced with the bones of mutated leviathans. Pulse cannons fired against the protective dome while Umbra-born creatures moved through the barrier as though it were mist.

The council ordered citizens into shelters.

Few obeyed.

Elara stood on a platform overlooking the Low Ring and watched workers drag barricades into the streets. Scavengers armed themselves with knives and salvaged rifles. Engineers converted maintenance drones into explosives.

For generations, the upper council had treated them as disposable.

Now the survival of Eryndor depended upon them.

Kaelen addressed the district captains over the communication network.

"Voss expects the city's factions to defend themselves separately. We will not. The Wardens will hold the western avenue. The Iron Guild will reinforce the power stations. Low Ring volunteers will evacuate the children through the eastern tunnels."

A woman in a stained mechanic's coat folded her arms. "And you expect us to trust the council?"

"No," Elara said. "Trust the fact that Voss will kill us all."

Faces turned toward her.

She climbed onto the barricade, the artifact pulsing in her hand.

"The council lied about the Aegis. They lied about the danger beneath this city, and they will answer for it. But first we survive."

A cannon blast struck the dome.

Cracks of blue light spread across the sky.

"We were taught that Eryndor protects us because we are special," Elara continued. "It doesn't. Eryndor survives because people like us repair its conduits, grow its food, guard its walls, and risk the wastes for its supplies. This city belongs to everyone who keeps it alive."

Someone raised a rifle.

Others followed.

By nightfall, the streets had become a battlefield.

Voss's raiders broke through the western gate. Their armor bore the emblem of a burning crown. Umbra-born creatures ran ahead of them, climbing walls and dragging defenders into the shadows.

Elara fought beside Kaelen.

They moved with an ease that felt older than memory. He guarded her body; she guarded his soul. Whenever the darkness within him threatened to take control, her touch called him back.

At the Hall of Waters, three raiders cornered them beneath a shattered bridge.

Kaelen killed the first. Elara flung the second into a canal with a lash of shadow. The third fired at her from the bridge.

Kaelen stepped into the shot.

The pulse round tore through his chest.

He fell into Elara's arms.

"No."

His sword clattered to the ground.

She pressed both hands against the wound, but blood flowed between her fingers. His unnaturally slow heartbeat grew weaker.

"Stay with me."

"Take the seal to the Aegis," he gasped. "Voss wants the prisoner. You have to reach it first."

"I am not leaving you."

"Elara."

"No."

She kissed him.

It was not tender. It was grief, fury, and eighteen stolen years compressed into one desperate act. For an instant, Kaelen went still. Then his hand rose to the back of her neck and he kissed her as though he had been waiting his entire life to do so.

Perhaps he had.

The artifact flared between them.

Violet light poured through Kaelen's wound. Torn flesh closed beneath Elara's palms, leaving an intricate black mark over his heart.

He inhaled sharply.

Elara drew back. "What did I do?"

"Bound us."

"Is that bad?"

"Ask me when the city isn't ending."

They reached the central tower as the council attempted to evacuate.

Maelor waited beside the private transport, flanked by guards and attendants carrying cases of food, medicine, and power cells.

Elara blocked his path.

"Leaving?"

"We are preserving the continuity of government."

"That is an impressive phrase for running away."

Maelor's guards raised their weapons. Kaelen drew his sword.

The chancellor regarded him with disgust. "You would betray your oath for her?"

"My oath was to protect Eryndor. Not you."

The tower shook.

Voss appeared at the far end of the plaza.

He was taller than Elara expected, dressed in red armor with cables running from his spine to a mechanical gauntlet. Half his face was scarred by radiation. In his hand he carried a staff tipped with a shard of darkness.

Raiders poured into the plaza behind him.

"Elara Vey," Voss called. "Heir of shadow."

"People keep giving me titles I didn't ask for."

Voss smiled. "Your mother was equally tiresome."

Elara's blood went cold. "You knew her?"

"I helped the council kill her."

Kaelen lunged.

Voss struck his staff against the ground. A shock wave threw Kaelen through a glass partition.

The raiders attacked.

The plaza erupted in gunfire. Council guards returned fire from behind stone columns while Elara ran toward Kaelen. Before she reached him, Maelor seized her and pressed a blade to her throat.

"Order the seal to open the Aegis," he said.

"You and Voss are working together."

"We were. His ambition made the arrangement unstable."

Voss laughed. "Maelor promised me power in exchange for eliminating the lower districts. He believed Eryndor could survive only by reducing its population."

Elara looked at the chancellor. "You invited him here."

"The Aegis is failing. We do not have resources for everyone."

"You could have told us."

"And allowed panic to destroy what remained?"

Maelor tightened his grip.

Kaelen rose behind him, face transformed by rage. Shadows covered half his body.

Maelor whispered a command.

Kaelen collapsed.

The Aegis mark on his chest burned red.

"You bound him," Maelor said, "but the council still controls him."

Elara felt Kaelen's pain through their new connection. Beneath it lay a door inside her own mind.

She opened it.

Darkness exploded across the plaza.

Every lamp shattered. Shadows seized Maelor and lifted him from the ground. His knife fell harmlessly away.

Elara's power poured through Kaelen. His bindings broke with a sound like chains snapping.

He stood.

His eyes had become entirely black.

Voss's smile vanished.

Kaelen moved faster than sight. He crossed the plaza and struck Voss hard enough to fracture his armor. Raiders opened fire, but darkness formed a shield around him.

Elara raised the artifact.

The shadows obeyed.

She could feel every hidden place in Eryndor: every tunnel, every sealed room, every secret chamber. The city had been built from the power of her father's kind. It recognized her blood.

So did the prisoner.

A voice filled her mind.

Come to me.

The ground split open.

From the depths rose a column of blue fire.

The Aegis was breaking.