Savior of the Damned

Eldren didn’t have time to waste, so he rushed down the hall. It was more crowded than normal, with people fleeing toward the ’dock, and a part of him wished he could grab Phae and escape with the others. But Phae was in an unwinnable situation. A request from Aurelius was bad news. Temple was the only force that stood a chance against the necromancer, but even Temple could only do so much against him. The cities that had a Temple were usually spared, but the Temple fleets that protected the non-Temple areas had more limited choices. Rumors on why Aurelius was trying to kill every living person had borne no fruit. In the two centuries since he had come into power, nation after nation had crumbled under his onslaught.

He careened around a hall corner and almost collided with a teenage mother holding a screaming baby. Her eyes were wide and glossy with fear, and she said nothing as she ran past. Eldren’s heart raced, thinking of the destruction he had escaped with Phaedra and Demeter when he wasn’t much younger than her. Haven had fallen all those years ago; Sanctuary didn’t stand a chance.

He was almost to the armory when he got intercepted. “We need you to fix the radio,” the man said. Eldren couldn’t put a name to the face, but the lapel pin he wore, an orange rose with a red rose underneath, said he was a council member.

“I’m sorry, I’m in a hurry.”

The councilman’s mouth pressed into a thin line. “We need the radio working. Just change out the crystal. It got damaged.”

How had the crystal gotten damaged? Wasn’t there another engineer on staff to fix it? But they needed the radio, too. Looking around, Eldren’s shoulders sagged. “I’ll do it.”

The councilman guided him down to the Communications room. The radio at the back was a monster if Eldren ever saw one. Most took up part of a table at the most, but this one was an entire bank of blinking lights and gears, all worked in brass. He could see that a quarter of it was dead; the lights on it didn’t even glow red. He groaned. This was going to take time he didn’t have. “I really need you to get someone else to help. I’m not the only engineer here,” Eldren snapped, even as he started moving things around to take off the front panel.

“It won’t take long,” the councilman said, matching Eldren’s irritated tone. “We want to get out too, you know. But we need this radio to call in other nearby ’ships.”

Eldren shook his head and started the laborious process of changing the crystal. It wasn’t a simple task and depending on what went wrong, it could cost too much time. But what choice did he have?

“What happened to it?” Eldren asked as he got the cover off and started disabling the protections to get to the crystal.

“Does it matter?” The councilman was snappy, foot tapping an uneven rhythm on the floor.

Eldren bit his tongue against something more colorful. “It might. If it’s a problem with the machine itself, and not just an issue with the crystal, I don’t have time to fix it. You’ll have to use the backup.”

“Whatever. Just do it.”

Lavorna. He was councilman Lavorna. Eldren glanced at the man as he worked. He was short, with unremarkable features and hair that had gone steel colored early in life. He looked out the door to the room as if he was waiting for someone, before turning back to Eldren. “Well?”

Eldren peeked at the crystal, noting the spiderweb cracks on it. “It broke all right.” He frowned as he worked it out, careful not to cut himself on the sharp edges. What happened? There’s no reason it should have broken. “You got the other one?”

“Here.” He pulled a new one out of his robes and passed it over. Eldren inspected it to make sure it wouldn’t crack, heart sinking when he realized it wouldn’t matter. Working as fast as he dared, he reseated the crystal, hooked up the wired, and checked the tubes. Eldren then hit the reset and flicked a switch, holding his breath as it hummed to life.

“Finally,” Lavorna said as the bank lit up, all bright green and ready to radio out to wherever Lavorna needed.

“Just let me put the panel back on.”

“No need.” Lavorna all but pushed Eldren out of the room. “Best be on your way,” he said, and shut the door.

Eldren shook his head and jogged off towards the armory. Phae would have come and gone by now, he was sure. He swore again as he fought the crowd, who were going in the opposite direction he was heading.

Finally, he reached the door he was looking for. Opening it, someone thrust equipment into his hands. “Here,” a gruff woman said, pressing a cutlass, bandolier, and a shield bracelet at him. “You’re late.”

“Sorry,” he said, strapping everything on. Taking the spell cannon, a handheld version of the bigger ones on both air and sea faring vessels, he popped a cartridge in and slipped it into the spot it lived. The spell cannons had dark wooden handles and brass fixtures, an alternative to the guns that fired shots. Based on shotguns, it would swing open to load one of the precious spell cartridges into, much faster than the black powder pistols many others carried. The cartridge held alchemical components that would explode on contact. A heavy weight settled in his chest as his hand lingered on the grip. He knew the cartridges would be useless against Aurelius and his nightmarish lieutenants, the Resurrected. He had seen their power firsthand as a kid. They would work fine against any other undead, but the undead were less of a problem than the overpowered Resurrected; they were the ones who controlled the undead on behalf of Aurelius.

“Just buy enough time to get Phaedra and Demeter out through the tunnels,” she said. “Don’t save the day.”

“I don’t have a death wish.” Making sure he fastened everything correctly, he spun around and raced to the front gates, hoping Phae and Demeter had waited.

***

As Eldren exited Temple’s walls and headed toward the main Sanctuary gates, he saw the massive flying fortress hovering just outside. It was jet black, powered by the same magic that let the airships fly. The fortress was big enough to house an entire city from looking at it this close, and haphazardly built. It belonged to Aurelius, and was a strange glossy collection of spires, walls, and walkways that caused his stomach to drop. Aurelius would usually send one or two men at a time on one of his own ’ships, not bring his entire battlement. Ignoring the implications, Eldren broke into a run and raced out the gates.

Eldren ignored his sweaty palms as he saw Phae facing off against one of Aurelius’s lieutenants. Dressed in all black, Eldren screamed as the Resurrected raised his hands and called lightning down on Phae. Relief flooded through him when he saw Phae bring up her own shield, bubbling against the strike that would have killed anyone unlucky enough to be hit by it. His relief was gone in moments when he didn’t see Demeter anywhere, though. It was just Phae, standing off against a man dressed in black armor.

Eldren drew his cutlass as he came to a stop on Phae’s right-hand side. She barely glanced at him. “We have to go,” he said as more lightning arced toward them, dissipating on the shields.

“He has Demeter!”

Eldren tightened his grip on his sword as a ’ship landed just behind the Resurrected Phae was standing off against. “We have to go, now!” Shots fired from the cannons on the ’ships, the roar deafening him. The cannonballs slammed into the wall surrounding Temple, causing the ground to shake. As hoped, the walls held, supported by heavy duty magic designed to withstand assault. It wouldn’t last, however.

A second ’ship landed as Phae fiddled with her hand cannon. Eldren stepped up behind her and readied his shield as The Magus, the lieutenant that they were facing, arced more lightning toward them. She dropped her own bubble and held a hand up. “Impede!” She barked, the word making the Magus stumble. He shook it off as Eldren shielded them both.

“Phae, we can’t win this.” He sheathed his weapon and took her arm, feeling the tension running through her body. He didn’t have to see her face to know she was crying.

“Let me shoot this bastard and we can make a break for it.”

“On three.” He gritted his teeth and braced himself.

“Three.”

Eldren dropped the shield and Phae fired, to no effect. The Magus didn’t even raise a shield so much as absorb the hit like it was nothing. Eldren stepped away and shielded himself. Phae did the same before turning around to dash through the gates.

The guards that were supposed to be there were gone. They must have been killed when Demeter was. He went to one gate while Phae took the other, and they got them both closed. “It’s not going to hold.”

“I know,” Phae said, swiping a hand across her eyes. A volley from the cannons hit the walls, making them shudder.

“We have to go.” His voice was gentle but firm.

An explosion sounded, causing part of the wall to crack and bow. Phaedra jumped as Eldren did, both of them booking it to just inside Temple doors.

There were stragglers here, people that should have evacuated already. Eldren got separated from Phae as they scrambled to find cover, a sea of people between them as they surged towards the safety of Temple, deep inside Sanctuary. His palms were slick with sweat as he looked around. Over to one side, he could see her huddled with some priests and civilians, who were praying just inside the arches inside Temple itself. Why were so many people here still?

“Help us,” begged an old man with what looked like his grandkids as bombs thundered against Sanctuary walls.

“Why didn’t you take a tunnel?” Eldren asked, trying to block out the sounds from just behind him.

“I tried; they were turning people away.”

A lump formed in Eldren’s throat. Glancing over at Phaedra again, he saw her huddled against the wall at her back, face pale as another bomb went off. Looking back at the man, he decided. “Come with me. I know where one is that you can escape through.”

The man gathered up the surrounding people. Eldren took off, leading them through hallways that should have been emptier than they were. People huddled against the walls, praying to the dead gods for mercy that wasn’t coming. Eldren tried to convince a few to follow him, but fear paralyzed them, white showing all around their eyes.

Looking back to make sure he still had the group of people following him, he pushed through the crowd. As they approached the doorway hidden here, there were fewer people, but no one was moving towards the exits.

A shoulder broke the lock on the door he was looking for. They used the room for storage, but at the back was a secret that only a few at Temple knew about. “This way,” he said, unlocking the hidden door. “Follow the marks on the walls,” he said. “There is gear stashed near the door; take what you need.”

The man ushered everyone through before him. “Aren’t you coming?”

Throat tight, Eldren shook his head. “I have to get more people out,” he said.

The man nodded and stepped through, so Eldren closed the door.

Eldren made a mad dash back to the entrance as a loud boom sounded, followed by what sounded like the wall giving away. He drew up short as he saw the undead pouring through the holes in the now breeched inner wall of Temple. Where were the rest of the defenses? Looking around, he didn’t see Phae anywhere, so he took off for the armory. He knew at the back was where the defense mechanisms were. He couldn’t save the people here, but maybe he could save a few that were deeper inside Temple.

This time Eldren was moving with the crowd. He stopped to help up a woman that had gotten knocked down in the crush of people but didn’t stick around long enough to make sure she was okay.

Taking a different hallway than most of the crowd, Eldren ran into the armory, where Phae wasn’t. No one was here, in fact. A few of the weapon crates were opened already, but there weren’t many things taken as there should have been. Where were the guards? The militia? Eldren glanced at the doorway and ran out. He needed to get to the defense room.