We emerged from the short tunnel. The trees gave away nothing in the distance, but Sen hummed with interest.
“Clever work on their magic,” she muttered, almost complimentary. Even in the dark, I made out the annoyed glares that Bravi and another wildling shot toward our arbiter babysitter. “Oh, they’re coming.”
Gem blasts flew through the air like a sudden storm. A mechanical jaspeth veered to the side. They had come over the wall, too large to fit through the secret door. An invisible force had swiped at one of them and caught the wildling pilot, who yelled in pain. Blood flew through the air. I fell back for a moment as the jaspeths fired in retaliation.
“They’re strong and invisible, apparently.”
“On your right, six inches above eye level.” Sen’s voice was like a ghostly whisper in my ear. I didn’t hesitate, just stabbed where she’d directed, burying my blade with sick satisfaction in the invisible neck of a hunter. The blood… the blood was visible. It sprayed over me as I yanked my hand back. Sen’s warning came just in time. “He’s not dead!”
I jumped back. Long gone was the comforting but weird embrace of stasis. Here, it was all pain and struggle. The vampires around me worked easily. Their senses were electric. The sound of blades sliced through the air. Why no lasers from the hunters? Unless they’d planned to slink into the camp and assassinate us after the fighting started winding down and the Coalition thought they were mostly safe?
“Uppercut punch, like you’re aiming for Un’s proxy. He’s wiped off the blood in the grass.” He was barely visible in my eyes now, like a moving, shadowy smudge of paint.
I bit back a resigned scoff as I did as Sen said. I brought my fist up, and it connected hard with the hunter’s chin. Pain surged through my arm at the contact. I leapt back as Sen called for one of the jaspeths. A stream of blasted energy knocked into my invisible opponent, earning a pained scream from him. I heard the satisfying thump of a heavy body as it tumbled down.
I looked around. Bravi was already bleeding from her face, the wound running dark with her shadowy blood. Her fangs extended fully in the dim light. Kono huffed, nursing a wound. His vest was shredded to tatters. I looked around, a feeling of sudden hopelessness crashing over me.
“Well, I definitely appreciate your news now,” Bravi muttered next to me. “My only question is, how can we make these monsters visible?”
6
Lyra
Months spent in the Higher Plane had done something to me. There, I learned to wield power. There, Dorian and I were more equal in terms of our senses. There, I whipped up tornadoes and threw my well-trained muscles behind them.
Here, I was thrown back into disarray.
Our enemies retreated for a moment. The grass stirred. I strained to hear the sounds of skittering feet. My pulse threatened to overtake my hearing as blood rushed to my face. Bravi swiped blood from her face and sweat from her brow. A maker from our group nursed an injured arm.
“Fall back, Levonia,” Bravi commanded. The maker, three heads taller than me with a broad, wickedly handsome face, nodded. Bravi stuck to the outer wall but lifted her vampire gauntlet to deliver long-range attacks. For a brief second, I surveyed Bravi’s group. The new Team Grayson had certainly changed, but Bravi ordered each and all of them around in a Bryce-like manner. She must’ve spent the last three months training them.
Too long.
Dorian placed his hand over a shallow cut on his chest and snarled as the trees swayed in the wind. He met my gaze squarely and gave a sharp nod. This would be a challenge. We had gotten used to fighting in the Higher Plane, but we were back to the Immortal Plane’s rules. The addition of invisible technology made it harder to use Reshi’s technology.
“Approaching,” Sen shouted.
A maker on the right cried, “This wave has mounts with them. Anachrin.”
Bravi roared. “Spider beasts,” she said when she caught my confused frown. “I hope you’re good with eight legs and teeth.” Great. I’d just gotten away from Un’s spider-dog, and now the Immortal Plane was throwing them at me. Maybe the universe was trying to tell me something. At least the training in the Higher Plane would come in handy.
“On your left, Lyra. The beast approaches, a hunter on top.” Though she stood next to me, Sen’s voice boomed across the field, as if she wasn’t used to the way acoustics worked in the Immortal Plane. For a brief moment, I listened for the sound of clicking legs, remembering how Un’s proxy had found us when we tried to rescue Aurora. I wished Bravi had an extra crossbow, because Ruk had taught me to go for the legs with beasts like that.
The wind shifted suddenly as the invisible enemies approached. I lunged forward and dove to the ground, slicing the heavy air beside me. A beast cried in my ear. I heard the crunch of cartilage as bony legs gave way beneath my blade. The anachrin luckily had flimsier parts than the bat-like mount. The spider slumped to the side, but not before I heard the sure thud of a hunter’s feet dismounting.
“To your—”
But Sen was too late. I grunted as a blade made contact with the front of my stomach. It only caught the surface of my skin, but I hadn’t seen my own blood in some time. I threw myself backward, but not before landing my bracer on something hard. Metal clinked, and then the blade appeared in the real world, the cloaking magic falling away. It fell to the ground as I hurriedly retreated.
“Their swords are magicked,” I yelled, before the hunter could land the next blow. “And apparently very heavy.”
The hunter and I came to blows. My invisible enemy had abandoned his sword, but he was better with his hands. His punches were monstrously powerful when I dodged them and worse when they hit. Sen whispered urgent directions to me. I swallowed my brief blip of wounded pride at my sudden dependency. Irrikus had played dirty with this troop. There was no honor in a fight like this. He’s got nothing good in him left.
The hunter managed to push me back, but he tripped over something I couldn’t see. It was with great satisfaction that I remembered his own mount’s body. The wounded spidery beast gave a cry as the heavy hunter landed on it, likely ending the beast’s pain. My bracer felt warm. Lanzon’s stone had evidently warmed up after hitting enough of the hunter’s armor. I didn’t wait for him to struggle back up before I slammed one of Reshi’s knives into what I suspected was his belly. His armor, unmagicked, I sliced through easily, but I still couldn’t see it. Did it have to be dropped off his body to turn visible? Perhaps my stone’s magic had some limitations. The stench of hunter blood filled my nostrils. At least I could see it.
Even while dying, the hunter didn’t become visible. I glared down at the blood spreading over the hunter’s torso. It was only when the liquid covered his stomach that I could even make out his midsection. A gust of wind sent a spray of loose, foul-smelling pollen from the trees up over him. I made out the outline of a massive hunter splayed over a terrifying spider beast, crushed under the weight of its own rider.
“Blood and pollen are making them visible,” I yelled. My cry was lost in the chaos as swords struck gauntlets and battle cries rose in the air.
Sen stared at me as I took a step away from the hunter while he spent his last few moments gasping for air. My body was covered in blood and bruises. Her wide eyes said everything. Maybe now she’ll tell the other arbiters how things are down here in the lower planes. When I looked around me in my brief reprieve, the sight of fighting filled my vision. Dorian expertly dodged something I couldn’t see, but it looked like he was dealing with two opponents. Bravi was near him, striking the space around her with sharp slices. The vampires were having an easier time with hearing the warriors in the grass and sensing their darkness. She cried out in victory as her hooked cord strangled the power out of an escaped mount, judging from the way the cord wrapped around a bulky figure. The makers, wildlings, and vampires had better senses than I did.