Fairy War

Chapter 19

"There are people down there," Crystal said as we quickly tied to take stock of the situation. "We have to get them out!"

"I'm afraid it's not that simple," Herian said grimly. "Even if we could get into that room unnoticed, we're far outnumbered; they'd simply slaughter the hostages while we were trying to fight through his screen of Wraiths and Fenrir."

"Sir," the SWAT leader said as he ran into the room, "the Commissioner... one of those creatures killed him, but before he died he managed to say he wanted Ressik to take command." He glanced at him. "I assume we're storming the room as soon as we can?"

"No, commander," Ressik replied. "That would be a bad idea at the best of times; against the creatures in that room your men would be dead before they could even fire off two shots."

"Then what are we going to do?" I asked. "We're not helping those people in there by standing around here talking."

"You're right, Clint," Ressik answered, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Commander Mendes, I suggest you use your men to form a perimeter around the building. No one else must be allowed in or out until it's been cleared; I don't want either more enemy forces or civilians complicating matters for us."

"I think we should go down there," Crystal said suddenly.

"I hate to admit it, Ressik, but she has a point," Herian said, nodding grimly. "We'll just have to hope we all make it out of that room alive."

We wound our way through the eerily empty corridors, past closed doors from which barely audible noises emerged, and beyond the still forms of now ex-UN staff, my friends and I having to look away from them in order to avoid becoming distressed. Even Selina, her father, and Kizzy were visibly upset at the carnage around them.

When we finally reached the doors to the central chamber we found they were locked, but the lock was no match for a quick piece of spellcasting from Herian, forcing the doors to bang wide open.

As we stepped inside and caught sight of the scale of the challenge before us, we let out a collective gasp; we were standing at the top row where the delegates would have been sitting on any ordinary working day, and the further down the rows of seats we looked, the more hostile creatures we saw, until our gazes got to the centre of the chamber where we could see several terrified hostages huddled together. The thing that caught my attention most, however, was Feth'rael himself; he'd lowered his hood, revealing a remarkably gaunt but still recognisably fairy visage, his sunken red eyes scanning the room from his perch.

Our element of surprise didn't last long, with some of the creatures closest to us starting to move in our direction, until a strange sound emanating from Feth'rael seemed to stop them suddenly.

"Leave them be, my children," he said as he stood up, his six foot plus height allowing him to tower over the vast majority of his troops. "I do believe they are here to negotiate their surrender."

"We're here to do no such thing!" Terry shouted. "We're here to rescue the hostages and put an end to your plans."

"How quaint," Feth'rael said, letting out a dismissive laugh. "Look around you, 'President'. You're outnumbered, outgunned... not to mention the fact there's a bomb in here that I could trigger with a single thought." He laughed again. "You are in no position to threaten me."

"Then what exactly are you suggesting?" Herian asked, putting a hand up to stop those of us who were armed from reacting violently. "You obviously want something from us, otherwise you'd have just killed us outright the first chance you got."