Fireflight

Chapter Twenty One

Night had fallen and the prisoners sat dejectedly on the ground, entrapped by the forcefield. The half a dozen guards were huddled around a portable heater. Most of them were asleep, leaving just one man to guard the prisoners at a time. Moxxie stared dejectedly at the corpse of his friend hanging from the pike and sighed, holding back tears. 

He had been looking at Brenden's corpse for hours now, hoping that somehow he would move and come back alive. Through tired eyes and inky darkness he thought he saw Brenden's fingers twitch. Moxxie shook his head and rubbed his eyes. He was tired and stressed, and his brain was no doubt playing tricks on him. He looked back up at Brenden's body and studied it closely. Again he though he saw movement. He gazed intently at the body. There, movement! Moxxie could have sworn he saw fingers twitch. 

"Millie! Millie!" he whispered to his wife, who'd been dozing off against his shoulder. 

"What! Something happen?" she jumped startled. 

"Shh, look." Moxxie whispered pointing at Brenden. 

"What about it?" she asked, wondering why her husband would wake her up to show her the dead body one of her coworkers. 

"Do you see movement?" Moxxie asked. 

"No, Moxxie you're tired, just get some sleep-" Millie stopped abruptly and leaned forward. She could have sworn Brenden's fingers had curled into a loose fist. 

"Did he just move?" she asked stunned. 

"That's what I though!" Moxxie whispered back excitedly. 

Millie turned and began quietly rousing the others. "Guys, wake up!" 

Slowly the rest of the group began to stir. They were tired both physically and emotionally, and none of them took lightly to being woken up. 

"Damn it all Millie. What the hell is going on!" Blitzo asked angrily. 

"Look at Brenden!" she whispered in an excited tone. 

"What about him, he..." Blitzo trailed off. 

He along with the others looked on in shock as Brenden began to move. First it was a slow movement of the fingers, then a shifting of the arm. Slowly the imp began to lift his head, breathing in shallow, ragged breaths. His gaze met theirs and he slowly put a finger to his lips, letting out a ghostly "Shh...". Then slowly and painfully, he reached back with both hands and grabbed ahold of the pike. With a barely audible grunt, Brenden pushed until he felt the spikes begin to slide out of him. It was slow and excruciatingly painful. After thirty seconds, with each second feeling like a minute to him, Brenden dropped heavily onto the ground. 

"Brenden!" Loona whispered fiercely. She quickly looked over her shoulder to see if the guard had noticed the commotion, but he sitting half asleep in a low camping stool. 

The marksmen gave his friends a weak thumbs up before crawling at a snails pace over to the guard who was half asleep. After a short while of painful crawling Brenden rose slowly to he knees. A soft, painful wheeze escaped his lips, causing the guard to stir in his sleep. Brenden reached for his knife and slid it silently out of its sheathe. Then with expert skill he threw an arm around the dozing soldier's face and plunged his knife into the side of his throat. They dying soldier made very little noise and the imp set his limp body down gently to avoid any unnecessary noise. Moving on he proceeded to slowly crawl to each of the guards, silently and swiftly plunging his dagger into them. 

From there Brenden made his way back to the first soldier and searched his body until he found what he wanted. A small control device hooked onto the hip was his key to freeing his friends. There were only two buttons, and the imp pressed the bottom one. The force field dissipated, allowing for its occupants to escape. Brenden's friends rushed to him, with Moxxie and Millie catching him as he swayed precariously. 

"Shit, Brenden you okay?" Blitzo asked him, his voice full of worry. 

Brenden shook his head. "Ugh... not well." he coughed. 

"Don't worry Brenden, we're going to get you out of here." Moxxie assured him. 

"How?" Loona asked. 

"They didn't strip us." Stolas said suddenly. "We still have all of our stuff. My cell phone should be... here!" he crowed triumphantly. "I'll call home and have someone open a portal here for us." 

"They might intercept the call." Lord Kirin warned. 

"I'm willing to take that risk. If all goes well, we'll be out of here before they can do anything." Stolas said, reaching for his phone. He made the call, simply asking for the portal to be opened at their location. Seconds later it appeared, with the captain of the guard standing on the other side. 

"Come on now, let's get you all back home!" he said, waving them in. 

One by one the group hopped back through the portal, with Millie and Moxxie carrying Brenden back through after. Once everyone was through it closed, leaving them in the safety of the Goetia estate. 

"Your majesties, I have grave news for you." the captain began to say. 

"What is it?" Stolas asked wearily. 

"The enemy has punched a large hole through our defenses up north and has an entire army marching straight for us." 

"Blast it! I assume you've prepared to the best of your abilities?" the prince asked. 

"Yes milord. Most of the civilian population is being evacuated and we've stocked up on everything we possibly could. Word was also sent to the Silver Legion. They've promised to send an army of their own to help us out here. We just need to hold out for a while." The captain explained. 

"Very well then, I will see to things once I've rested. Make sure to accommodate for our guests and have medical aid brought out to that one." Stolas said, waving a hand at the others. 

The captain nodded and rushed off to do as he was told, leaving the tired band of demons to themselves. 

"Look's like things are only heating up." Blitzo said taking a step towards the prince. 

"They always are." Stolas replied.