Page 20 of Gates of Rapture (The Guardians of Ascension #6)
Choosing the courageous path,
Even while trapped in fear,
Honors the Creator.
— Collected Proverbs, Beatrice of Fourth
CHAPTER 6
As Grace stood in the middle of the event grounds, she swore the very air among the small group took on a tactile quality that could actually be touched.
Leto took command.
He whipped his phone from the deep pocket of his kilt and punched a couple of times. “Hey, Diallo, sorry to intrude, there’s a problem and we need you. Can you fold to the landing platforms? We’ll meet you there.” He nodded as though Diallo could see him. “Good.”
He then changed phones, whipping his warrior phone from the top slit in his flight battle kilt.
He called Jeannie and issued the order to get Endelle to the colony immediately.
“To my position.” He then contacted the colony’s Militia Warrior HQ.
He authorized Madame Endelle’s fold, then added, “I want all the Pacific Northwest warriors on alert. Let the Section Leaders know. We’ll be assembling teams at the landing platforms ASAP. ”
Grace held her power steady, uncertain what she was doing, but she went with her instincts. Something big was happening, something dangerous, that much she could sense. The problem was, her head was really starting to hurt. She took deep breaths.
She fixed her gaze on Marguerite and continued to hold her palms up. Thorne turned to Marguerite. “Are you ready to do this?”
She nodded, then closed her eyes. A second later her body jerked, but Thorne kept her steady so that she didn’t fall. Her eyes moved rapidly beneath her eyelids, back and forth, as though she was reading something. Her body jerked again and her hand went to her stomach as she opened her eyes.
She looked at Grace then at Thorne. “We have maybe ten minutes, but I don’t know where this is.
It’s an attack on one of the hidden colonies.
The top of the mossy-mist dome just like this one”—she pointed up—“looked as though it had been burned off and was still burning. Death vampires, maybe two hundred of them, were flying into the colony from all directions.”
Leto nodded. “Okay,” he said quietly. He held his warrior phone and issued orders.
Grace glanced in the direction of the landing platforms. It was amazing to watch all the Militia Warriors, dozens of them, start gathering in squadrons, off to the left of the platforms as though by long habit. Leto’s drilling, no doubt.
Leto addressed the group. “I’m sounding the alarm.” He spoke into the phone; the next moment a series of tones hit the air in groups of three. The colonists and the foreign contestants all stopped what they were doing. The contest grounds fell completely silent.
To Grace’s complete shock, everyone began moving in prearranged directions away from the grounds. Within seconds, only Militia Warriors remained, and all of them were assembling with amazing speed by the landing platforms.
“Leto,” Jean-Pierre murmured. “You have worked miracles here.”
Leto nodded, but he set his gaze on Thorne.
Thorne was the man in charge, the one who was building Endelle’s army and working with dozens of Militia Warrior Section Leaders to formulate battle plans.
He said, “It’s clear we’re looking at trouble with a hidden colony here on Mortal Earth, so I’m deferring to Leto on this.
He’s set up the global defense system for this dimension. ”
Leto glanced toward the landing platforms. “My men know what to do. What we need is the location of the attack.”
A moment later, Endelle folded right next to Thorne, adjusting a strange necklace of pinecones and butterflies.
She twisted her neck and gave the necklace one more turn.
“Just got the call from Jeannie that we have some deep shit going on here.” She caught sight of Grace.
“And why does our latest obsidian flame look like a goddam glowing Smurf?”
A few nervous barks of laughter followed.
Grace couldn’t help herself. She laughed as well, then sobered instantly. Dear Creator, her head really hurt.
“We’ve got trouble.” Leto said. He glanced at Marguerite then back. “Future streams just told us one of the colonies will be under attack in a few minutes.”
“Which colony?”
“We don’t know.”
Endelle turned to Thorne, “Well, you’re obsidian flame. Can’t you find out?” She planted her hands on her hips, which drew Grace’s gaze back to the pinecone-butterfly necklace, then to the bees that appeared to be buzzing around Endelle’s calves and knees.
Grace was convinced that no one was as absurd as the ruler of Second Earth. She might even have laughed at the strange outfit, but her obsidian power set up a new wave and her head really started to pound. She winced.
Then she understood. “I think I can find the colony. I remember now that when Leto was in trouble in Moscow, my obsidian flame power led me to him through my split-self apparition. I believe I can do it again here. Marguerite, why don’t you show me what you saw in the future streams, and we’ll see what happens. ”
“Okay.”
Grace crossed to Marguerite and put her hands on her face. “Show me,” she said quietly.
The vision flew through her mind swiftly and seemed to resonate with her obsidian power.
The next moment she was flying through space in that same split-self, her ghost-like apparition, the one she’d used to bring Leto out of Moscow Two.
She could sense that she was heading south, as in South America.
When she arrived at the vision’s destination, she looked around.
She could see both the limited farmland and the nearby barren hills.
She saw a small town, maybe ten or twenty thousand people.
Not far, and to the east of a dry riverbed, lay the colony, all secure and locked down with Diallo’s mossy-mist creation protecting the location.
However, as she turned in every direction, she could see death vampires on each horizon all headed toward the colony.
She dipped her apparition-self toward the lights of the town and found the name on a couple of storefronts: Nazca.
She knew this place. The entire world was fascinated with the famous lines that an ancient culture had drawn in the sand, which could still be viewed, all these hundreds of years later, from high in the air.
A spider and a hummingbird were the most famous designs.
Satisfied, she thought the thought and her apparition-self began flying back to the Seattle Colony. When she reconnected with herself, it took a moment to adjust. She opened her eyes and found everyone staring at her with wide eyes. Leto had shifted to support her, holding her by the waist.
She blinked a couple of times. “I’m sure that must have seemed strange but I have the location.
Nazca, Peru.” At the same moment, however, her headache tore through her skull.
She dropped to her knees, clutching the sides of her head.
She felt Leto’s strong hands on her shoulders and as if at a distance she could hear his voice, but she couldn’t respond.
Tears streamed down her face. “Grace, I’m here. What’s wrong?”
Marguerite said, “She has to get that sheath sliced, Leto. It’s her power. It’s trying to break through. Better do it soon.”
“Understood.”
***
Leto couldn’t just leave Grace in so much pain, but he had his teams to lead. He stood up and looked at Endelle. “I need to get my warriors down to Peru now. Can you help Grace?”
Endelle smiled. “Leave her to me, Warrior. Get your men to Nazca.” When Endelle drew her phone into her hand and a moment later started barking orders at Alison, telling her to get her ass down to the Seattle Colony, Leto knew he could trust the situation.
He turned and headed to the landing platform. He wasn’t surprised that Thorne, Jean-Pierre, and Arthur followed him. Diallo was waiting for him and Leto filled him in.
Diallo frowned. “The Nazca Colony only has a population of four hundred and you say several hundred death vampires will be attacking?”
“Yes.”
“It would be a slaughter.”
“Not if we can help it. I’m sending the squadrons now.” He glanced at the top of the ramp. Gideon stood there awaiting orders. Leto placed a call to the colony’s Militia HQ and folding coordinates were laid in within seconds.
Leto met Gideon’s gaze and let the orders fly. “To Nazca. Now.”
The squads began to fold in brisk succession, eight at a time. Within one minute a hundred warriors had folded to Peru, and the second hundred began folding equally as fast.
Leto nodded to Diallo. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that Alison was already with Grace.
He turned and ran up the ramp with what he now thought of as his own squad. Once he reached the top, he, Thorne, Jean-Pierre, and Arthur folded to Nazca. Gideon would remain behind to keep the warriors en route to the battle zone until at least a thousand Militia Warriors were doing battle.
Once Leto touched down, and thanks to long training, he moved swiftly away from the landing site, mounted his wings, folded his sword into his hand, and took to the night skies.
Out in the desert, the moon lit up the skies like a beacon. It was so bright that the ground seemed to be covered in snow.
His warriors, male and female, battled death vampires all over the sky, but it was to the colony that Leto headed. He knew that any colonists attacked by death vampires would die within seconds. No mercy would be shown.
He pulled his wings in tight, dipped and corrected to miss battling squadrons. He aimed for the now visible world of the colony. There was a main street and low simple buildings made of stone blocks, carved out of the land.
He could hear screams coming from houses and alleys between.
Once he reached the ground, however, he retracted his wings and entered the first house he came to.
There was a lot of blood and too many bodies.
He raced through and found a death vampire in the back room with a teen ascender, drinking her down, raping her.