Children of Chaos

Chapter 26

"What's happening?" I ask, as we whip past confused Tybaran pedestrians.

"Your disguise dropped for Ankar when you spoke in English. We've got to leave the city."

"Can't we make it back to Castle Liliar?" I ask.

"And lead them right to the headquarters?" Janab retorts.

"Stop them!" Ankar shouts from behind us. "She's a human!" Fearful and disgusted faces turn in clarity to me as I run by, and I know my disguise is completely gone.

Three Tybarans in United Force uniforms run in front of us at the end of the street, pointing and shouting. Janab makes a sharp left and sprints around the corner of a shop, and I skid and nearly trip in the streets to keep up.

"How will we get out of the city?" I ask when I catch up. Janab stops at a crossroads between buildings as two more Deyjenese guards appear to our left, and the three Tybaran guards we left behind find their way across from us. Janab eyes the empty lane to our right, but two Tybarans sprint over, trapping us completely.

Janab takes a step closer, and all of them raise taser-like weapons to us. Janab steps back, and the group stands in silence, not backing down. The faint rumbling of the train sounds from above us, and Janab glances up towards the sky. I look with him, and see one of the high-riding light rails speeding towards us.

"Think you can make a dust devil, storm cloud?" Janab asks me under his breath.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I ask.

"Just make sure it's strong enough to lift us in the air. I'll make a diversion while you work." Janab's drexa starts to twitch as he looks back to the Tybarans across from us, and the Forces guards call out in warning. I crouch and place my hands to the dusty ground, and think of a time back on Earth where I got caught in a dust devil.

I was walking home from school back when I was still living with my grandmother in San Francisco. I saw a bunch of brittle pink flower petals skirting across the street, and I ran ahead of it, standing in its path. I felt a thrill of excitement as it washed over me, and some of the petals got caught in my hair.

I open my eyes to the feeling of wind caressing my face, the same thrill overcoming me. A haze of violet dust swirls around us and I watch as it rises dozens of feet above us, but not strong enough to lift us.

"Is that all you got, storm cloud?" Janab calls over his shoulder. One of the Tybaran's shout, and I barely have time to react as he shoots his weapon at me. A bright laser hits my left hand, and I cry out in agony as shocks of electricity tickle my fingers, until they go numb, one by one. The Tybaran calls out mockingly, and a surge of anger flares up in my chest. I glare at the Tybaran and raise my hands to attack, but Janab calls my attention away.

"The pain will get worse the more you use your power once you've been shot. We have to leave." He barely dodges another shot from a Deyjenese officer, and another one hits the end of his drexa.

"That's it," Janab growls, and his drexa fly out around him. A circle of fire suddenly surrounds us, and I cry out from the heat. Intense smoke covers us from all sides of the intersection almost immediately. Janab grabs my hand and yanks me forward. Coughing uncontrollably, I stumble after him, hearing confused shouts around us as Tybarans back away.

Janab shoves me through the fire without allowing me to protest, but I barely feel it, and we don't catch fire. He leads me to another intersection, this one even further into the city, in a completely dead section of run down buildings.

"You're a fire power?" I ask through my coughing.

"We have to leave now," Janab says, looking behind us. "I shouldn't do this. But we have to."