Alchemist (34 page)

But his route was
cut off by Lyle, who came leaping over a rooftop and into the empty
street before him.

Edward frantically
looked about for an escape. Taking a running leap, he propelled
himself into the air and over the Alchemist. As he did, a shower of
silver darts rained up at him. Flexing his body at unnatural
angles, he managed to avoid all of the deadly blades.

Suddenly the world
was wheeling around him. Pain exploded through his back as he hit
the road. Lyle had leapt and grabbed him while he had been
distracted, but the midair struggle had caused the Alchemist to
land poorly. Lyle grabbed Edward by the leg. But a flick of the
Phantom’s hand sent him flying across the cobbles by a blast of icy
wind.

Gliding
unnaturally to his feet, Edward made ready for the next attack.
Lyle jumped to his feet and armed his blades. The Phantom twitched,
sensing the approach of others from different positions.
Outnumbered, he shut his eyes for a moment.

Opening them, he
caught the flash of the general’s blade as it whirled toward him.
He ducked underneath, carefully stepping behind the Alchemist. He
flicked his wrist forward, releasing another blast of air.
Anticipating the move, Lyle dropped to the floor. Spinning on the
ground, he took the Phantom’s feet out from under him. Edward
caught himself mid-fall and with a blast of wind from both hands,
flipped backward through the air like a black dagger. A safe
distance away, he landed gracefully on his feet – now with four of
them in the street before him.

He readied himself
for their next bought. He felt the ground shake beneath his feet.
With a devious smirk, he took off. Lyle and Connor gave chase but
were forced to retreat when a Monoglyph came crashing through the
buildings ahead of them, cutting off their route to the Phantom.
Grumbling, the Monoglyph stormed toward them.

“Shit! Shit!
Shit!” Connor shouted as he turned tail and ran. Rounding the next
building into an alleyway, he narrowly avoided being crushed by
falling masonry as the giant took a swipe. Falling to the floor, he
stumbled back. The Monoglyph continued on its path, clearly more
interested in chasing Lyle than in him.

Slightly further
on the giant lost sight of the general. He has disappeared behind a
building, but on arrival was nowhere to be seen down the long,
linear, alley. But death lurked silently from the spire behind.
Lyle, now fully evolved, hid behind the tower, watching his target
carefully. Crawling silently across the facets of the ancient
spire, he positioned himself and leapt.

The two monsters
fell to the floor, rattling the earth as they struck it with their
incredible weight. The two grappled, entangled in a deadly scrap of
giants. Battle cries rang through the streets and masonry crashed
to the ground in all directions as the two Alchemists slugged it
out. Hearing all the commotion, two other primeval Alchemists under
the influence of Edward appeared on the scene. They were sneaking
up on the general from behind for a surprise attack when they were
struck from above by a shower of flaming projectiles.

A searing blue
flame caught one by the foot, causing the first one to rear its
head and bark angrily at its airborne assailant. Looping back
round, Connor flung another wave of searing blue flames, this time
catching it on the head and body in several places. The primeval
flinched and backed away a short distance before shrieking again in
protest, but the onslaught kept coming. It’s companion, having been
caught by one too many flaming spikes, yelped and fled. The first
called to it, but it kept running. Now on its own, it lost its
confidence and retreated.

With one paw on
the Monoglyph’s head and one on its shoulder, Lyle pulled the
plates apart to expose the soft flesh on its neck. Plunging fangs
deep into a vital artery, he disposed of the renegade Alchemist,
rivers of dark blood spurting everywhere. It twitched for a few
moments before growing still. Lifting his blood stained maul, Lyle
darted his head this way and that. Connor waved to him from on
high, gesturing in the direction Edward had fled. Growling, Lyle
broke into a chase.

A pair of large
hands pulled the Prime Minister upright. The battered man had
trouble seeing his would-be hero for the sun at his back.

“Are you alright,
sir?” Rufus enquired, concern etched across his alien face.

For a minute the
dishevelled minister stared at him. “I know you...”

“Yes, we’ve met
once before, many years ago. But I’m afraid now is not the most
convenient time to talk about it.” He said hastily, helping the man
to his feet. Moving around his back, he removed his bonds.

The Prime Minister
grimaced, rubbing his aching wrists. “Thank you.”

“We must get out
of here before we are seen. Is there anywhere safe we can go?”

The man shook his
head. “He destroyed the emergency shelter in the parliament, that’s
how he got me.”

“What about the
other ministers? Where are they?”

He turned pale.
“He killed most of them and their apprentices. I fear the only ones
still alive are those who weren’t working today.”

“Let us hope they
are okay, but in the meantime we must get down from here.” He
insisted, hurrying the man along. The Prime Minister did not have
to be told twice.

Edward glanced
over his shoulder. He had dropped to a quick pace, making his way
down deserted back alleys. As he looked back round, he came face to
face with a wall of water. The mini tsunami carried him back down
the way he had came, before smashing him into a building.

He picked himself
up in time to deflect the next wave with a blast of air, steering
it to crash over a block of flats to his right. He looked about as
water rained down about him. “Why don’t you come out where I can
see you Faye?”

The raindrops
froze in midair. Suddenly they rushed inward, forming a solid ball
around him. He spun around and around before the ball froze,
sealing him in. A body of water reared up, shaping itself into
Faye. Terry emerged from her hiding spot, somersaulting down from a
nearby rooftop.

“Nice move.” She
said, catching up. “Can you keep him like that while we get him to
Rufus?”

“We’re not
waiting for Rufus we need to finish this,
now
.”

Terry was
affronted. “We talked about this.” She said, lowering her voice.
“If you destroy his body, he’ll only escape again.”

“We’ll keep him
frozen then.”

“For how long? You
can’t keep him frozen forever. That body he’s in will still die and
he’ll just escape again. We need to get him to Rufus.” With that
said, she started to walk away.

Faye did not
follow. “I told you, I’m not taking him to Rufus. He failed to kill
him last time. How do we know he’ll get it right now?”

An explosion
nearby caused them both to flinch. “We don’t have time for this!
Rufus has a plan! It will work! Now let’s go!”

“I’m
not
taking him. He killed my
boyfriend, I should get to do with him as I see fit.”

Frustrated, Terry
stormed back toward the water elemental and jabbed a finger at her.
“This isn’t the time for you to go off on one. We’re in the middle
of a warzone!”

“Then let me do
what I want and I will make sure he suffers!”

“He’ll kill you
before you get a chance or escape before you get a chance! Now pull
yourself together, we have a plan to stick too!” Having the final
word, she turned away. The last thing Terry saw was the floor
tumbling toward her.

Standing over the
fallen Alchemist, Faye tossed the ice-wrapped stone aside. Grabbing
her feet, she dragged her into the relative safety of a nearby,
narrow alleyway. Hiding her poorly behind some wooden crates, she
returned to her frozen prisoner.

******

“Fallo!” shouted
Lyle as he arrived at the city gates, skipping the formalities. The
King turned at his name, alarm falling across his face as he saw
his brother and Rufus carrying his unconscious daughter; Connor
running not far behind. The lieutenant he was speaking to bowed and
withdrew, though no-one paid any heed.

Fallo sprinted to
them, his movements unhindered by his thick, heavy, armour. Lyle
and Rufus lowered her to the ground. “What happened?” Fallo
demanded, lifting Terry’s head into his lap. His hand fell across
the wet, bloodied hair at the back of her head.

“I tried to heal
her, but the damage is too great. Her skull isn’t fractured but
it’s dented in the way.” Lyle said, crouching down beside her. “I
couldn’t risk going in there, I’m sorry. I’ve never dealt with head
injuries before.”

“I see brother.”
Fallo replied coolly, carefully examining his daughter’s head.
“Have you seen any of her probes or the flesh trying to heal?”

“No.”

Fallo pulled her
head higher into his lap, turning it so he could see the wound more
clearly. One of his tentacles pushed free from under his plates and
twisted toward her – hissing in alarm at the sight of the injury.
Its jaws clamped shut and its head mutated into thousands of wiry
tendrils. The silvery wires crawled under her hair, covering the
wound in a mesh of pewter. Fallo shut his eyes as he held her head
in place.

Rufus stared on in
silent awe. He had researched the Alchemist race intimately, but he
had never seen nor heard tell of what he was witnessing now. He
knew of their inexhaustible regenerative abilities, but he had
always believed they met their limit when it came to repairing
something as fragile and complicated as the mind. Clearly there
were some secrets that the ancient race kept to them alone.

The minutes seemed
to drag by like an eternity. After what seemed liked hours Terry
had failed to show any movement and Rufus began to doubt that she
would pull through.

Then suddenly,
like a switch being flipped, her eyelids shot open and she
screamed, lurching forward. It took Fallo all his strength to hold
her down; lest she inadvertently rip the delicate tendrils that
still held her mind. The surge passed and she came to rest in his
arms, her breathing ragged. Her gaze locked with his, her icy
pupils welling with relief. Then she said something in their native
tongue, to which Fallo smiled and replied.

After a few
minutes the silvery tendrils began to withdraw; one of Fallo’s
familiar probes taking over the repair. The device took a glance at
the wound and digging its spindly legs into her scalp, began to
stimulate the cells into regeneration. Satisfied she was fully
healed, it withdrew, disappearing beneath Fallo’s armour, like his
tentacle.

Terry sat up,
gripping her dad tightly as he cuddled her. She shut her eyes and
wept, speaking again in their ancient language. Fallo replied in
kin. Then the King lifted his gaze, his eyes burning as they met
Lyle, Rufus and Connor. “How did this happen?”

It was Lyle who
spoke. “We found her in a backstreet behind some crates.”

“I know a wound
when I see a blunt object to the head when I see one. Who did
this?”

Lyle shook his
head. “I don’t know.”

Fallo looked at
his daughter, and he asked her in words unfamiliar.

Terry hesitated,
rubbing her eyes. The back of her head continued to throb with a
dull pain and her eyes hurt. Finally, she shook her head and
grimaced.

Fallo slowly
stood, helping his daughter to her feet. He looked at the other
three, his anger palpable. “This is exactly along the lines of what
I feared would happen if I let you do things your own way. You may
have defeated Edward before and that is commendable but this time
the price has been far too high.” He looked around them all. “I’ll
finish this.”

“Fallo...” said
Connor.

The King
turned to face him, his eyes ablaze at his impotence. “Don’t
you
dare
boy...”

Connor held his
gaze and was about to speak but Lyle gripped his arm and shook his
head.

Terry slowly
turned her head, her vision dark. She ignored the exchange and
lifted her head skyward, as if searching for something.

Her uncle noticed.
“Terry?” The others looked at her.

Her eyes moved
between them. “What?” She asked, bluntly.

“Are you ok?” Lyle
asked.

She straightened,
offended by the question. “I’m fine, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Nothing...just...you seemed distracted.”

Her eyes blazed.
“I’m not distracted. I have Edward’s scent.” She looked at her
father. “Or at least the body he is masquerading in.”

Fallo rose to his
full height of six foot three. Even in his Alchemist form he
exhumed a dangerous, yet graceful air that commanded authority. He
was as intimidating as he was regal and as deadly as he was
beautiful.

And what Lyle
noticed about Terry escaped the others. For the first time she
stood with the same air as her father. The changes in her posture
were subtle and would have went unnoticed to most, but for someone
who had seen her grow up from a child, the difference was as clear
as a fresh water river after the spring melt.

The seasoned
general suddenly felt a stirring deep within him and he too rose to
his full posture; something he was only consciously aware of having
observed his niece. Under normal circumstances he would have done
it without thought, but her reaction had made him notice his own
this time.

Fallo’s icy eyes
passed between his brother and daughter. “We do it my way.” He
said. The King expected a protest from her but what Terry said next
surprised everyone. “We hunt.” It was a statement, not a
question.

A flash of
affection darted across Fallo’s face then vanished. But the
fleeting expression was not lost on Terry and her eyes betrayed her
love for him.