Sinister Seraphim of Mine (Overworld Chronicles Book 8) (43 page)

"Man, I just got everything moved here!" Acworth grumbled as he and Natalie headed down the cellar stairs to the omniarch.

A group of Templars bearing large boxes exited the war room and followed the couple. I looked inside the war room. It was bare of everything except the long table and chairs. Thomas's people had cleared it out in record time. Cinder would be happy we'd managed to save his documents.

Cutsauce was running around like mad, yapping at all the commotion. I snatched him up and looked him in his little yellow eyes. "Go downstairs and go through the portal like a good hell hound, okay?"

He growled and ruffed. I set him down. He looked up at me, tilted his little head and gave a querulous bark.

I motioned him toward the door to the cellar stairs. "I said go!"

He whimpered but scampered down the stairs without further comment.

Mom and Ivy emerged from their rooms with packed bags. Mom gave me a hug. "I'm so sorry we have to leave this place, son."

"Are we really gonna let them take it?" Ivy looked completely confused. "We should stay and fight!"

"We don't have enough people to fight an army," I told her. "I can promise you that next time we will."

"I had to leave all my stuffed animals," she said in a pouting voice.

Mom picked up her bag. "We're headed to the portal."

"We'll be down in a minute," I said.

After they were gone, Elyssa and I ran around the house looking in the rooms to be sure nobody else was left behind before running downstairs. The area around the omniarch was literally packed with people filing out.

We dodged around the crowd and went into the corridor where all the null cubes were stored. "What are we going to do with these?" I asked Thomas.

"Commander Salazar will open two more portals to aid in the evacuation." He tapped a message into his arcphone and looked back up. "We should be able to salvage most of the husk cubes."

Nightliss exited the gauntlet room where we were keeping Phoebe. She looked exhausted. "I removed the mind traps," she told Thomas. "You can take her through the portal now."

Two portals shimmered into being, one at each end of the long row of null cubes. Templars sprinted through the gateways and began tossing cubes down a chain of people.

"Thank you, Nightliss." A hint of emotion sounded in Thomas's voice. His back stiffened and he cleared his throat as he went into the room and returned a moment later pushing the restraint table with his daughter on it. He took it through one of the new portals back to La Casona.

The evacuation through our omniarch was going much slower. Zagg, MacLean, and his gang had done a wonderful job recruiting from the university and Queens Gate. Since the Obsidian Arch in the Queens Gate way station was controlled by Cyphanis Rax, there was no other way out of the pocket dimension and hundreds of people were trying to fit through a bottleneck.

"Some of you head to the other portals," I shouted over the hubbub. The husks were important, but since two people could fit side-by-side through a portal, we needed to make use of every spare inch we had.

I walked up and down the hallway trying to help keep some order in the chaos. I spotted Kassus carrying a null cube. He seemed to be helping the Templars. I assumed Jeremiah must have convinced the man to help, probably through threats and coercion.

A group of frat boys got into a scuffle with a rival fraternity as someone apparently tried to cut in line. MacLean's voice roared over the shouting. "You blithering idiots! You're here to fight evil, not each other."

Zagg was standing next to me. "I told him not to recruit from Greek Row." He shook his head. "I think MacLean was more interested in the sororities than the fraternities, but most of Greek Row is deserted."

"Because of the holiday?" I asked.

He nodded. "Apparently they threw a huge nom-themed New Year's bash, but these losers"—he waved a hand at the frat boys—"were trapped in Queens Gate when Cyphanis shut down the Obsidian Arch."

"Just our luck," I said.

MacLean wasn't having much success in his efforts to keep the rowdy group moving in an orderly fashion, so I motioned to a nearby Templar. "Will you knock a few of them out and carry them through?"

"At once." He aimed a wrist. Darts flew, and several frat boys slumped to the ground.

A familiar face appeared as the crowd thinned. It was the guy who'd been half-naked on the flying broom the other day. His eyes went wide with recognition when he saw me. "Dude!"

"Him too," I told the Templar.

The soldier didn't waste a second, and broom boy went down with a grunt. The Templar gathered a small group, threw the unconscious revelers over their shoulders, and ran them through the portal.

I brushed my hands together and turned to Elyssa.

She shook her head. "Was it really necessary to knock out the last guy?"

I never had a chance to answer. The sound of an explosion echoed from somewhere deep within the Burrows. A nearby group of Templars broke from their evacuation duties to investigate, but Elyssa stopped them. "Continue the evacuating the null cubes. Justin and I will take a look."

The squad leader saluted and ordered his people back to duty.

Elyssa and I ran down the hallway and into the Burrows, a maze of corridors filled with ancient dungeons once used by the Arcane Council. We made our way to a central hub where a tunnel led up to Arcane University. The tunnel was filled in with rubble. The scent of burnt ozone touched my nose.

"They knew about the Burrows." I said. "They're trying to block us in."

"They must not know about the portals." Elyssa put an ear to the blocked tunnel as if listening for something. "Those idiots could have flanked us. Now they've given us a single bottleneck to defend."

I stared at the wall of debris. "It's a good thing we kidnapped their master strategist."

We raced back to the corridor outside the omniarch room. Nearly everyone was through. Mom said a few words to Jeremiah before turning and entering the portal. Elyssa and I ran to where we'd left our duffel bags. She grabbed hers and headed through the portal.

I paused just outside the portal next to Jeremiah. "Why are you still here?"

"I'm going to seal the hidden door in the cellar," he said. "Perhaps they won't discover this room with the arch."

I glanced through the portal and saw Elyssa giving me a hurry-up wave with her hand. "We don't have time." The words were barely out of my mouth when the portal winked off. Jeremiah and I looked at each other and back to the inactive omniarch.

I tried reopening it. I sensed the portal trying to open, but it never appeared. I looked down the hall. Four Templars with null cubes in their arms were looking at the blank spaces where the portals used to be.

"She must have learned how to use the statues," Jeremiah said, his voice filled with dread certainty.

"This is just great." I glanced up the stairs. "The Burrows are sealed off. Are there any other secret ways out?"

He shook his head. "I'm afraid this
was
the secret way out."

My phone was still dead. "Let me see your phone," I told Jeremiah.

He shook his head. "It hasn't worked since the explosion at Kobol."

"What about that gold ASE of yours?"

"It's only good for communication with Underborn, I'm afraid."

I threw up my hands. "He has the Key of Juranthemon. He could open a doorway from his place to here and let us through."

Jeremiah's lips pressed together. "Being in that man's debt is a very serious matter. Are you certain—"

"We have an army about to march down our throats. I'm completely and utterly certain. Call him."

He took the ASE from his pocket and flicked it into the air. It hovered, projecting the image of an old rotary phone ringing. It rang about ten times, but Underborn never answered. Jeremiah plucked the ASE from the air. "Either he's away, or he doesn't wish to answer."

"Do you think he knows about Daelissa's army in Queens Gate?" I asked.

Jeremiah shook his head. "The point is moot. We cannot rely on him for rescue."

I had to contact Elyssa somehow, but it seemed calling was out of the question. "We've got to go right now. Maybe we can make a run for the university if we go out the back." I motioned to the Templars. "Drop what you're doing. Crap is about to get real."

The four men left the cubes where they were and followed me as I led our group up the cellar stairs. We ran through the kitchen, out of the back door, and onto the well-manicured lawn bordered on all sides by a forest. A gurgling noise reached my ears a split second before a group of Nazdal plunged through the trees at us. I panicked and blasted the first one with enough Brilliance to vaporize half its body. The Templars drew steel and sliced another Nazdal to ribbons. Jeremiah threw up a shield to protect our right side. The flanking Nazdal smacked into it like tree frogs on a windshield.

"Back inside!" I called. The minute we were all in, I engaged the magic locks. The house was reinforced to protect it against magic. It had once withstood a pounding by summoned demons. I didn't for a minute expect it to last against an army.

"What are your names?" I asked the Templars.

The one closest to me, a short stocky man pointed a thumb at himself and then pointed out the others. "Crump, Brogna, Hsu, and Atkinson." Each of the men nodded as their names were spoken.

"I need to activate the house defenses," Jeremiah said. He looked at Crump. "Go to the war room. Halfway down the right wall you will find a small hole. Press my wand inside the hole and twist it three times clockwise."

"What then, sir?" the man asked when Jeremiah didn't continue.

Jeremiah turned back to him. "No further action will be required on your part except to return my wand." He pointed to Brogna and Atkinson as Crump ran to perform his duty. "Run upstairs all the way to the attic. You will see French doors to a balcony. Go through those doors and climb to the top of the roof. Go to any of the gargoyles and wait until its eyes begin to glow. Pull the lever next to them."

"Yes, sir." The two men left.

Jeremiah turned to Hsu. "Could you fetch me a glass of water? I'm parched."

The Templar didn't seem to mind being picked as the water boy and left to do his assigned duty.

"Follow me, Mr. Slade." The old Arcane headed down the hallway and into a utility closet. A glowing crystal ball hovered above what looked like a brass pedestal with a bird bath on top. Since the house was powered by aether, this was the magical equivalent of an electrical circuit breaker.

Jeremiah reached for the top of the pedestal. I cringed, expecting him to be electrocuted, but apparently, aether power didn't work that way. He twisted the cupped part and backed away. The floor slid back, revealing a long brass shaft disappearing down a deep wide hole. Jeremiah stepped onto a rusty metal staircase which led down into the abyss. The structure groaned and the first step snapped off the structure. "Apparently no one thought to cast a preservation spell on this." He peered into the darkness. "There are three switches near the bottom that must be toggled up."

I had a feeling this was where I came in. "Give me some light so I can see where I need to go."

He didn't seem the least bit surprised at my volunteering. With the aid of his staff, he dropped a glowing ball of light down the shaft. When it settled above a rusty metal platform about fifty feet below, I decided there was only one way to get down and back up without plummeting down the shaft.

I looked up from the hole. "Where's the bottom of this thing? Can we use it to escape?"

"I'm afraid not." He dropped the light farther down until I could barely make out a rocky floor far below where the brass shaft entered the earth. "The hole only goes deep enough to allow the conductor to interface with a ley line far below."

Another dead end.

We had no more time to waste with my questions. I shifted into demon form. Muscles rippled along my arms, legs, and torso. A tail pushed against my Templar armor so the material grew to accommodate the new appendage. Horns sprouted from my forehead and sharp black claws pushed out my fingernails and toenails. Flexing a hand, I watched as my skin turned from peach to a medium shade of blue. My inner demon surged for complete control of my mind, but I'd done this enough times to keep that part of me from turning me into a mindless killing machine, and slammed the door to his cage.

Without another word, I drove my claws into the stone and made like a squirrel down the long shaft. Within minutes, I reached the levers Jeremiah had mentioned. Keeping myself anchored with my clawed feet and one hand, I reached out the other hand and pulled each of the levers down so their metal shafts clicked into a receptacle. The third one resisted. I nearly broke it as I tried to force it down.

"Careful!" Jeremiah called from the top. "It must make full contact."

My rumbling growl was the only answer I gave him. Using a dainty touch—not something usually associated with demons—I used a free claw to scrape off a lump of corroded metal and pressed the final lever into place.

A loud hum reverberated through the hole and a surge of jagged energy coursed up the metal shaft. I clambered up the stone wall and shifted back to my normal form as the humming noise grew louder and louder.

Hsu stood next to Jeremiah. The Arcane took a generous gulp of water and handed it back to the man. "We may not escape with our lives, but we will be sure to take as many of the enemy with us as possible."

Crump returned with Jeremiah's wand. "I did as you ordered, sir."

"Excellent." Jeremiah waved his wand at the crystal globe. The holographic image of the house roof appeared. I spotted Brogna and Atkinson fighting off a group of Nazdal.

"We've got to help them!" I ran for the stairs without waiting. Elyssa and I had been to the balcony more times than I could count so it only took me a minute to reach it. I ran outside and up the steep pitch of the roof. A Nazdal crawled over the peak. Clinking chains hung from his neck and back. His face and claws were covered in blood. He saw me and lunged. A group of his comrades appeared just behind him.