Whisper and his friends were awake and calm, along with the few dozen others who’d willingly come with us. The rest of the Hermessi children, Gennen included, were out cold. Chances were they wouldn’t wake until we got back into The Shade—there, we’d need to secure them with Devil’s Weed and charmed cuffs and everything else we could think of. They’d been indoctrinated into supporting Brendel, but I was certain we could find a way to talk them out of that nonsense.
“How are you all feeling?” I asked Whisper and his group.
They exchanged weary glances, trying their best to just smile and retain a sense of positivity. “We’re tired,” Whisper replied. “But thankful to be out of that wretched place. How did you find us?”
“A lot of hard work went into this operation,” Derek said. “We have allies among the rebel Hermessi. One of them made it close enough to learn of your location.”
“Oh, I think he means Ramin. Remember him?” Basti, one of the female Hermessi children, replied as she looked at Whisper. “Ledar screwed him over. Pretty sure you were awake for that one.”
Whisper nodded, holding back a smile. “Yeah, I remember. Glad to hear the poor fella made it out to tell you where we were.”
“How is Sherus?” Mona asked Corrine and Ibrahim, who’d already flanked the fae king, carefully holding him up and checking his vitals.
Corrine gave us a sad look. “He’s alive, but barely.”
The amber glow was still present, covering his entire body. Poor Sherus was still under the Hermessi’s influence, but at least he was out of Brendel’s reach for now. “Someone should reach out to Taeral and let him know,” Derek said, staring at Sherus with genuine concern.
“As soon as they can, they will,” Kiev replied. “Chances are they’re still waist-deep in Thieron trouble back on the Fire Star, but I’ll send word to Nuriya. She can tell Taeral once she can reach him again.”
“In the meantime, we need to vamoose!” Claudia exclaimed, pointing at the invisible ship. Kafei whispered a spell that revealed the vessel in all its mid-sized glory, and the Hermessi children gasped and moved away, unable to take their eyes off it.
“Yeah, the Fire Hermessi won’t be far behind,” Ibrahim said, frowning as he gazed into the green distance.
There wasn’t much to see with all the trees, but none of us wanted to wait and find out what happened when you stole something from Brendel. Kiev lifted Gennen off the ground and threw him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, while Derek activated the shuttle hatch.
We began loading up the unconscious Hermessi children first. The jinn and the witches teleported them inside the shuttle, strapping them into their smaller seats and slapping cuffs on their wrists and ankles, each of them charmed with powerful swamp witch magic to prevent them from using their abilities in case they woke up before we reached The Shade. The cuffs had been embedded with crystals similar to those we’d used on the sanctuary fae.
Sherus was ceremoniously carried inside, as well, and laid on a square, soft surface. Unwilling to compromise or risk anything, Mona covered the fae king’s hands with charmed crystal covers, of which there were plenty aboard the shuttle in case we needed them.
Whisper, Basti, and their friends watched it all unfold, their mouths slightly open in awe. I moved to their side, smiling softly. “I take it you’re impressed?” I joked, but they all nodded energetically in response, making me laugh.
“Mundi, where I come from, is pretty cool and organized, but we don’t have stuff like this,” Whisper said, pointing at the shuttle.
“We had to be well equipped and organized in order to help you,” I said. “Personally, I’m just glad you’re not all team Brendel yet.”
Basti shook her head, frowning. “No way. That fire lady is crazy. I’d never allow her to destroy my world, or any other world, for that matter. We might not have done the best work with our planets, but we try hard enough. We love, we live, we laugh… Who’s she to decide it’s time to pull the plug and wipe us out of existence, huh?”
Corrine giggled, returning from the ship. “Truer words were never spoken.”
“Come on, get on board, everyone,” Derek said, glancing up at the sky.
Flashes continued to streak across it, Ramin and his rebels giving the guardian Hermessi a good run-around out there. It was up to us to do the rest, and, for better or worse, the first half of the mission was basically done, with zero casualties.
I didn’t want to get ahead of myself, but I had to admit… we’d done all right, given our relatively limited intel and powers, as opposed to the Hermessi we’d just basically shafted. But the worst was yet to come, and we all knew it.
Watching Whisper, Basti, and the others go up into the shuttle, Derek and I understood that our greatest challenge was underway. We were far enough from the temple for the grounded Fire Hermessi to have trouble finding us, but the ones in the sky, waging their war against Ramin and his rebels…
Oh, they were dying to get a piece of us, and they were bound to notice us now. Surely, the temple Hermessi had already raised the alarm. My only hope was that we’d be fast and cunning enough to evade them. Otherwise, we risked total annihilation before we even left this solar system.
Derek
With only minutes remaining before one or more of the Hermessi would eventually come upon us, we boarded the ship and locked the access bridge, along with its hatch, and quickly strapped ourselves in. Kafei had already drawn the interplanetary travel pentagram outside, fitting it with the herbs and minerals required, a sample from The Shade included.
I took Sofia’s hand in mine, squeezing gently, as Kafei began her chant. Soon enough, light would surround us, making it more difficult for the Hermessi to take us down—though not impossible. Swamp witch magic wasn’t immune to the elementals, and its resistance to their attacks was limited. Depending on how much rage they came at us with, our survival odds varied. Therefore, the sooner we got out of here, the better.
Corrine and Ibrahim flanked Kafei just in case she might need additional energy to protect us from an attack. There was no extra power required to steer the spell bubble, since its destination had been set and sampled, thus allowing us to focus our efforts on defending the shuttle and its precious cargo.
“I don’t think they’ll destroy us per se, if they do manage to breach the spell bubble,” Sofia murmured to me. “They don’t want to kill the children.”
“True, but they will have no trouble taking the shuttle apart and picking us off, one by one,” I replied, keeping my voice down. My gaze wandered across the shuttle’s main area.
Our crew was mostly on one side, seated and strapped down safely, their backpacks and pulverizer weapons handy. The Hermessi children occupied the smaller seats in the right longitudinal section of the shuttle, strapped in but also heavily sedated, their hands and feet secured with magical devices to stop them from using their abilities. The conscious ones were considered friendly and didn’t need restraints, but they did look frightened.
Who could hold it against them, after everything they’d been through?
Whisper eyed Basti nervously. In turn, she gave him a confused frown. “What’s wrong?” she mouthed, as if not wanting anyone else to hear.
He shrugged, but didn’t answer, instead moving his gaze to Sofia and me. I’d seen the way he’d looked at the other members of our crew. The witches had certainly impressed him, but there was a cold tone in his eyes whenever he focused on us. As if he’d recognized our leadership position.
“Oh, you better hurry up, Kafei,” Corrine muttered, her eyes popping wide. A literal inferno was about to unfold outside.
We could see the Hermessi stumbling through the clearing. The shuttle’s windshield was wide enough to give us a full and frightening view as the fiery figures hurtled toward us. Light wrapped our vessel in a perfect sphere, just as the Hermessi rammed into it.
I heard Basti gasp. Turning my head to see her for a moment, I noticed she’d covered her mouth, horror draining the blush from her sharp cheeks. Whisper, on the other hand, didn’t seem all that terrified, as opposed to the other Hermessi children.
“We’re taking off now,” Kafei announced.
Awful thuds and moans emerged from outside; the Fire Hermessi were relentless in their pursuit. They formed massive blazing towers that attempted to surround the spell bubble, the flames engorging as we were lifted from the ground.
It got so intense that all I could see was the thick curtain of fire as it tightened around us. My heart jumped in my throat, as the possibility of failure increased in probability. Not that I’d ever been the most optimistic among my peers, but I’d done this mission with the intention of surviving it—and succeeding, on top of that. Screwing up had not been an option, yet the hotter the fire burned around our shuttle, and the higher the temperature got inside, the more I started to wonder whether I’d gotten ahead of myself.
Claudia played with the ship climate features on one of the control panels, but she couldn’t get the temperature down. Giving me a concerned look, she wiped the sweat from her brow. “I think the interplanetary spell won’t stop us from getting roasted inside this ship,” she said.
“Corrine, Ibrahim, I need you,” Kafei managed, her hands glowing white as she placed them on the glass controls. “I have to push back on what the Fire Hermessi are doing.”
Corrine and Ibrahim didn’t hesitate, touching her shoulders and lighting up from the inside as she drew power from them and whispered a series of defensive spells. Whisper, Basti, and the others frowned at us, understandably concerned for their wellbeing in these circumstances.
Sofia gave them a reassuring smile, but it didn’t seem to do much.
“We’re still gaining altitude,” Kiev said, checking the computerized screen above the windshield. “They’re not having much luck in keeping us down.”
“That won’t matter if we reach our cooking temperature before we exit Yahwen’s atmosphere,” Kafei groaned, her entire being shimmering white as she struggled against the Hermessi’s devastating fire.
If it felt like this inside the shuttle and the interplanetary spell, I could only imagine the devastation these elemental flames could cause if they caught us outside our protective layers. Chills pricked my skin as I noticed the steely expression on Whisper’s face.
“There’s something off about him,” I whispered, drawing Sofia’s attention.
“What do you mean?” she asked, following my gaze.
