Chapter 42: Chapter 42

ISABELLE

As they crept along the corridor toward the southern end of the building, Izzy hoped they would not encounter any more men.

Even she could hear the boots in the stairwells, and knew they were coming. The thought of what would happen with only four handguns to protect them made her palms sweat.

“Storage room,” Iry whispered, pointing to an incomprehensible squiggle on a door.

She looked down at the heavy steel frame of the door. ~How will we get through?~ “Can you pick the lock, Iry?”

“It’s a mag-lock, nothing to pick,” Iry replied.

“Maybe I can force it,” Mikhlas said.

“No, there’s a quieter way,” Iry said. She moved her chin far forward and stretched her neck a couple of times. ~What’s she doing?~

Iry leaned forward close to the door and opened her mouth. Like a spitting cobra, a thin stream of fluid arced out of her mouth, tracing a line along the edge of the door.

“Step back,” Mikhlas said, shielding her with his arms.

With a quick flick of her claws against the metal, Izzy saw a spark ignite the fluid and a bright-green flame burst to life.

With a dull ringing sound, the door popped open, and Iry quickly moved inside, using her sleeve to dampen the flames.

“Quickly, inside,” Iry said, motioning to them.

Izzy moved in, one hand on Lucas’s shoulder. The interior was dark and full of broad shelves that held a variety of large boxes, stacked to the roof.

Once everyone was inside, Izzy turned to the small green woman. “What was that?”

“Heat expansion. I used the flames to distort the metal of the door out of the frame.”

“No, I mean, what made the flames?”

“Oh, Night Seer venom is very potent. Excuse me, there is still some left,” Iry spat onto her hand in a ladylike fashion and clicked her claws again to make a spark.

On her palm burned a tiny green flame, and Izzy stared at it in the darkness. It whispered at her, something she couldn’t quite hear.

“Isabelle?” Mikhlas’s voice echoed across to her as she stood transfixed like a bug flying into a zapper.

“Mom!”

“What?”

“Help us look for some rope or something to get down to the ground,” James said. “Are you okay?”

“Isabelle, what is wrong?”

She pointed at the little green flame still burning on Iry’s palm.

“The fire is trying to talk to me,” she said, knowing how crazy that sounded.

Mikhlas looked back and forth between the fire in Iry’s palm her face, a hint of confusion before it cleared.

“Isabelle, it must be Infernia. She’s trying to reach you. Try to summon Infernia. She can help us,” Mikhlas said.

“I don’t know how to do that,” Izzy said, a small bubble of panic building inside her.

“Close your eyes. Picture the flame in your mind. Think of the flame, and summon Infernia with your will. The fire of Infernia rests within all living things. Command her to come to you with your thoughts,” Mikhlas said.

Izzy did as he said, and felt a low heat begin to build inside her. It started in her chest and worked its way out into her body.

She heard a soft sound like licking flames and opened her eyes to see both Mikhlas and Iry on one knee with their fists on their chests.

Beside them, almost to the ceiling, a long slender green flame twisted and writhed like a living thing lighting the room. She stepped back a few feet and grabbed her boys out of the way.

“Do not fear, Chosen One,” said a voice like the dry crackle of flames. “You cannot burn from me.”

“Who is that?” Izzy asked, worried for her boys, but still attracted by the sound of the voice.

“I am the Sentinel Infernia. You summoned me,” the voice said. The twisting column of green fire began to move and take shape. It belled out into the shape of a woman, green flames spilling from her body before being absorbed back into her like the churning surface of the sun. The fiery woman took a step toward her and Izzy stepped back, pushing the boys behind her.

“If you want my help, you must trust me,” the fiery figure said.

“I don’t understand what is happening,” Izzy said.

“Enough delay. Let me help you, Chosen One.”

She looked at Infernia again, and as she was about to speak, the flame split off and came shooting toward her. It went into her mouth, her nose, her ears, and her eyes.

Izzy stumbled back in panic and fell to the ground. The green flame poured into her, but instead of feeling a white-hot burning pain, she felt an energizing feeling run through her like bubbles of champagne fizzing up a glass.

“MOM!” James shouted.

A few seconds passed, and the fire went out. The room returned to its previous dim state. Izzy blinked a few times and looked around. She could see everything in the large room.

Mikhlas held James, who stood staring toward her. She saw the smile on Mikhlas’s face, a shining blue glow in his eyes. She stood up and brushed off her jeans.

“Mom, are you okay?” James asked.

“Yeah honey. I feel…kind of invincible, actually,” Izzy said.

“Isabelle, Infernia is with you now. You can harness her power. Think about what you want,” Mikhlas said.

Izzy took a deep breath and held out her hand. A small orange flame burst into life on her palm. She smiled at the sight, and two very shocked gasps made her smile wider.

She looked at the flame again and it formed into a tiny boy and danced upon her hand. Mikhlas smiled and nodded.

“That is so cool,” Lucas said, coming up to her with the light shining in his eyes. “It looks like me.”

Lucas looked at his older brother. “Told you I was the favorite.”

Izzy rolled her eyes, and a second, taller boy joined the first, pushing him down and sitting on him.

James just grinned at her.

“How is this possible?” Izzy asked, wide-eyed.

“Infernia is the Sentinel of Fire. She is a living consciousness made of flame, and now she is inside you, giving you her power to control it,” Mikhlas explained as he looked at the two figures on her hand.

“I can feel her…inside me. Moving, trying to settle. It’s amazing,” Izzy said. She felt ~pumped~. Ready for a fight.

“Be careful. Infernia has a very short temper and even less patience. You need to keep her at bay when you feel her get angry.”

“Why?” Izzy asked.

“Because she has power equal to a supergiant star. She can destroy this planet in seconds, including all of us. Without the other Sentinels inside you, she will not be easy to control,” Mikhlas said, more serious now.

“The others? What do you mean inside me?” Izzy asked.

“Now is not the time to explain it. We must leave,” Mikhlas turned and began using the light on her palm to look at the shelves.

“I said ~tell me~!” Izzy said, her voice changing and an anger building up inside her.

Mikhlas turned and looked directly at her. “My darling Queen Isabelle, you need to keep Infernia calm.”

“Whoa, Mom, take it easy,” James said.

“What is it?” she asked him.

“Your eyes. I can see a flame burning inside them,” James said.

Izzy pulled in a deep breath and focused. She felt Infernia calm inside her, and the anger subsided.

“Infernia feels your emotions and amplifies them a thousand-fold. If you cannot control her, she will need to leave, or she will kill everyone in this solar system. Infernia is a force of creation.

“In her suns, the dust of life begins, but she is also a force of destruction,” Mikhlas said gently when she felt a bit calmer.

“I can feel her. Her anger. It’s like a rage that sparks from nothing,” Izzy said.

“Yes. That is the Sentinel of fire. That is why, under normal circumstances, all the Sentinels would be inside you now. Balancing each other out. On her own, Infernia is a dangerous force,” Mikhlas explained.

“So why don’t we just walk out of here? If she’s so dangerous, these soldiers aren’t really a threat, are they? We don’t really need to find a rope to get to the ground floor and then walk through a river of shit, do we?”

“If Infernia feels threatened, she will destroy the entire base, perhaps the planet, including us. Trust me, she would rather choose a new Chosen One than allow herself to be killed.”

Izzy felt the fire boil up into her eyes again. Mikhlas took a step back and dropped his gaze. “Forgive me,” he muttered.

“What…Garia…,” Izzy mumbled to herself.

Mikhlas looked up at her again. “What is it?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I thought I heard Infernia say something.” She frowned at him.

“Yes. She can speak to you, but it’s not always easy to understand her. What did you hear?” he asked.

“She said Garia. In the forest.”

Mikhlas smiled wide. “I believe I was wrong. The Sentinels like you more than I thought.”

“What do you mean?”

“Infernia is telling us that her sister is waiting in the forest. For the Sentinels to reveal themselves like this, before the ascension ceremony, is unheard of. They are rarely seen anywhere in the Realm.

“For them to come to your aid like this before you are crowned means that you are very important to them.”

“I’m not so sure that’s a good thing. I mean, these are supernatural beings of great power. I’m just a human woman. What can I do that is so important to them?”

“I do not know. But I’m sure we will find out soon,” he said, and took a step closer to her.

“Isabelle, you are so much more incredible than you let yourself believe. You were born to lead,” he finished, and gently touched her cheek.

She felt the warmth of his hand and closed her eyes. She liked this feeling. She turned her face into his palm and smiled.

“Forgive me, Captain. It’s time to go,” Iry said, climbing off the wall.

“What is it?” he asked, dropping his hand.

“Through the window, I saw a large group of men, coming this way, from the trees, at least a hundred. We will not be able to fight them all ourselves. They are heading to the nearest stairwell,” Iry said.

“Damn, and we haven’t even found anything to climb down with,” Mikhlas said.

“I found some cable in the back corner. Looks like network cable or something,” James said.

“Where are we?” Izzy asked. Mikhlas and Iry both had the same confused look in their eyes.

“As in what’s on the other side of these walls? If we can’t go back the way we came, and we can’t use the stairwells, then we go sideways,” she said.

“How?” It was James who asked. Izzy raised her hand, palm up to them, and a small flame flickered on it.

“Infernia has the power of a sun, yes? Does that not mean her flame can cut a hole in the walls?” she asked, and Mikhlas and Iry both smiled wide.

“Iry, where are we?” Mikhlas asked.

“We are close to the east corner of the building. When I looked out the window, I could see a drainpipe from the roof leading down. We can follow the roof drains to the storm drain in the road below.”

“James, show Iry where you saw that cable. We’ll tie it off against these shelves and rappel down the wall,” Mikhlas came over to her, frowning at the shelving.

“What are you thinking?”

“We need some way to slow our descent. Iry can climb down if she has to, but the rest of us need something to hold onto other than just a cable.”

Mikhlas lifted up one of the empty shelves nearby and took out the support bar, handing it to her. “Think you can cut this in quarters and poke holes down the length of it?”

Izzy grinned. “Only one way to find out.”

Mikhlas nodded, leaving her with the solid bar in her hand. She tucked the gun into her belt and cleared her throat. “Okay, Infernia. Help us out here,” she whispered.

She closed her eyes and pictured what she wanted to see. The burn began to rise in her chest, and she felt the celestial being inside her move.

She opened her eyes and saw bright pinpricks of light bloom at regular intervals down the metal. ~Nice one.~

She concentrated on the holes, making them finger-width, and then scored lines of fire across the bar to break it into pieces. As she finished, Mikhlas returned, loops of yellow cable over his shoulder.

“Perfect,” he said. He pulled an end out of the cable and grabbed one of the segments of metal bar, threading the cable through it like a shoelace before repeating it with all the others.

“What’s that for, Mikhlas?” Lucas asked.

“The friction slows us down,” he said. “I’m going to use some more cable to tie each of us to one of these using this last hole. It will go around your belt.

“As you go down, you need to hold this piece of metal close to you, like this. The more level the bar, the more friction and the slower you will go. Clear?”

“I get it,” Lucas said.

Mikhlas turned to her. “Now we need a hole in the wall close to the floor, as quietly as you can.”

Izzy nodded and focused on the wall. A small ring of fire glowed, and as it grew, so did Izzy’s smile. On the other side, she saw trees in the distance under a moonlit sky. Mikhlas came up to her and looked through the hole.

“Creative,” he mumbled under his breath.

When the hole was big enough for Iry to climb through, she quickly scurried outside, using her claws. As the hole got larger, Izzy’s head was beginning to hurt, but Infernia was still very much awake in her.

Izzy released a little of the control she was using to keep Infernia’s power at bay and the hole began to expand more quickly. When it was big enough for them to all climb through, Mikhlas gently touched her arm.

“That’s enough, Isabelle. You don’t want to weaken the building,” he said, and Izzy couldn’t control the look she gave him. She felt Infernia starting to take control, and she didn’t like it.

She pushed Infernia down again and felt the flame in her eyes ease. Mikhlas gave her a quick smile and a nod, waving the boys over and showing them how to wrap the cable around themselves.

~We’re going to be okay. We can do this.~

Without warning, the door to the storage room blew in, acrid smoke filling the air. Mikhlas had his gun out in an instant, firing toward the door, and she raced for her boys.

A sudden forceful knock to her side sent her sliding across the floor and in horror, she felt her legs slip out the hole she’d just made.

Hands scrabbling with nothing to grab, she couldn’t slow herself down and heard James’s scream as she tumbled out of the hole. She turned through the air, seeing the ground rush at her.

She screamed, holding her arms out in front of her as if to push the very ground away and felt the fire inside her stir. It flashed into existence, and flame exploded from her palms, striking the ground.

Amazingly, she felt herself slow through the air as the flames continued their ceaseless barrage.

She hit the ground, hard enough to hurt and land on her butt, her flames winking out as she looked up at the sound of more gunfire and yells.

The fear for her boys and Mikhlas threatened to choke her, and she felt a terrible rage building within her.

Smoke poured from the hole, and she saw the bright-orange cable fall out, a second before Mikhlas dove from the hole, James on his back, and Lucas tucked under one arm like a football.

As she saw bullets flying around them, the rage within her drew to a crescendo as time itself slowed, and her thoughts moved like liquid flame.

~Okay, Infernia, I’m going to let you out to play, but please don’t kill everyone. And don’t hurt my family~, she thought, picturing her boys, Mikhlas, and Iry in her head.

She felt, rather than heard, Infernia agree, and Izzy let go.