Ashley bounded up the bleacher steps and stooped next to Bonnie. “I’m getting confused thoughts from our men and the dragons. They are considering striking immediately because of the lower-than-expected number of soldiers. Three dragons could probably win a battle easily. The soldiers have been warned to guard their minds, but a few are leaking superficial thoughts. They have a secret defense. No details except that it would be a disaster for us to attack. Thomas verified the warning.”
“The soldiers are wearing fireproof uniforms,” Bonnie said. “Could that be it?”
Ashley shook her head. “Something more sinister, at least that’s what Thomas indicated.”
“Where did the dragons go? We have to warn them.”
“Behind the equipment room rubble, under the roof that got torn away.”
Bonnie spread out her wings, but Ashley caught her arm. “Wait! I’m picking up Adam’s thoughts. He’s begging for a distraction.”
“Adam?” Bonnie looked at the plane Adam had boarded. It sat beyond the gathered forces, the hatch open. “Why is he still in the plane? I thought he would’ve tried to infiltrate the soldiers.”
“He doesn’t want to leave. He’s …” Ashley licked her lips, her eyes sparkling with tears. “He’s crying. I mean, really crying.”
“I’ll handle the distraction. You go tell the dragons and the men what you know.”
“On my way.” Ashley dashed down the bleacher steps.
Bonnie leaped up and raised Excalibur. The beam shot out and rocketed into the sky. “Hey, Arramos! Look up here!”
CHAPTER 12
A PORTAL JUMP
At the parking lot, every head turned toward Bonnie. Arramos laughed, his voice audible now that the engines had silenced. “Bonnie Silver, I should have known that you would make your way here.” His red eyes flashed, easily visible though he stood at least a hundred feet away. “How is your song? I’m sure after all you have seen, you have been singing praises to God for how well he has been protecting his created beings.”
Though the words pierced deeply, Bonnie kept her face slack. Leave it to Arramos to strike at the heart and try to raise doubts. “I didn’t know you were so concerned about my singing. Would you like to hear a song now?”
“Spare me the annoyance.” Arramos scanned the sky again. “I recognize your stealth. What are you planning? Where are the dragons I saw earlier?”
“You tell me your plan, and I’ll tell you mine.” While Arramos laughed at her reply, she kept a furtive eye on the first airplane. Adam stepped out, carrying a small child in his arms. He helped another drop down to the pavement in complete silence, then another.
Bonnie hid a tight swallow. So that was the defense! Child hostages!
“I will play along with your rhetorical game and speak as the fools do.” Arramos stamped a rear claw on the pavement. “I asked you first.”
“Very well.” She trained her stare on Arramos. How could she make enough of a scene to allow Adam time to get away with the children? “I’m planning this!” She leaped into the air and beat her wings furiously to hover in place. She aimed Excalibur’s beam at Arramos and swept it across him. Sparks erupted from his scales, but the beam did no damage. Without hesitating, she slashed the beam into the soldiers. Their uniforms absorbed the energy and glowed red.
Bonnie doused the beam, landed on top of the chain-link fence, and flapped her wings to maintain balance. Taking in deep breaths, she stared at the soldiers. Helmets shielded their faces and kept their eyes hidden from sight. Had the world’s corruption turned them into mindless automatons?
Arramos’s brow bent double. He scanned the area once more until his gaze came across Adam racing away with at least ten children chasing after him.
“Stop them!” Arramos roared.
Someone shouted, “Now!” Walter, Elam, and Billy charged into the parking lot. Makaidos zoomed into the soldiers. He thrashed with his wings and slung bodies with his tail. Thigocia and Roxil followed and blasted fire. The soldiers’ uniforms deflected the flames, but the fiery splashes held them back.
Arramos bellowed, “Kill the children!” then joined the fray.
Her grip tight on Excalibur, Bonnie leaped from her perch and zoomed toward the closest airplane, one of the recent arrivals. A soldier broke away from the battle and rushed at its open door, a handgun raised.
Bonnie flew over him, snatched his gun, and shoved him down. His chin struck the base of the door, making a sickening crack, and he crumpled to the pavement. She zoomed into the airplane and spun toward the battle. She extended the gun out the door with one hand and pointed Excalibur with the other. In the midst of swirling flames and smoke, fists flew, scaly wings and tails whipped back and forth, and gunshots fired.
“Who are you?” someone asked, the voice barely audible over the plane’s engines.
Bonnie swiveled her head. A little boy no more than six years old sat against the opposite wall, his hands and feet tied and a gag pulled down to his chin. Several other children about the same age sat around the perimeter, all gagged. Some leaned back against the cargo wall, apparently asleep or unconscious, while the rest stared at her with wide eyes. The odor of urine hung in the air, sharp and stinging.
She forced a smile and a gentle tone. “I’m Bonnie. I’m here to protect you.”
“You’re the dragon woman.” His face took on a pleading expression. “Are you going to take us home?”
“I’m going to try …” She swallowed down a sob. “With all my might.”
He smiled, though the effort looked painful. “I think your wings are awesome.”
“Thanks, I—”
“Bonnie!” Walter broke away from the chaos and leaped into the plane. “Get back to the portal and protect the others. Arramos sent some men that way.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Fly this bird out of here.” He reached for a door handle over his head. “The dragons are keeping them busy. Billy’s taxiing another plane, and Gabriel’s heading for a third. Adam cleared the kids from a fourth.”
“What about the fifth?”
“God will have to take care of that one.” His foot knocked over a tubular canister. Handwritten letters on the metal surface spelled out Dragon Gas.
“Walter! Look!”
“I see it.” He gave her a nudge. “No time to worry about it. Just go.”
Bonnie leaped out and shot straight up. As she ascended, she counted the planes. The first one, which arrived well before the others, sat motionless, presumably empty because of Adam’s efforts. Two others rolled toward the highway. Walter’s began taxiing. The fifth one sat on a section of the lot well away from the battle, its door open but too far away to see what lay inside. More children? Probably.
Now a hundred feet in the air, she looked down at the football field. Five armed soldiers stalked around the corner of the bleachers. Bonnie glanced at the fifth plane, then at the portal where Marilyn, Ashley, and the others stood exposed without protection.
Bonnie bit her lip hard. Which way to go? The plane or the field? Walter’s words replayed in her mind. God will have to take care of that one. Without looking again at the plane, she beat her wings and flew toward the portal, gripping both Excalibur and the handgun.
As she drew close, the soldiers ran onto the field. Sapphira hurled a fireball with each hand, but the men sidestepped them, stopped within fifty feet, and raised rifles to their shoulders. “Surrender!” the lead man called. “Or we’ll pick you off one by one until you do!”
Bonnie landed next to Sapphira in a flurry and shouted, “Come around me! Now!” She tossed the gun to Ashley and raised Excalibur. The beam shot out. She waved it furiously, begging for the shield to take shape. Catherine rolled Carl into the shield’s range, while Marilyn and Carly guided Thomas and Mariel into the fold, Thomas carrying the plant.
One of the soldiers fired. The bullet slammed into Thomas’s back. He slumped a
nd fell on his face, and the plant toppled from his grasp.
“You pigs!” Ashley shot at the soldiers again and again. One dropped, then a second and a third. The shield formed, deflecting another of Ashley’s shots as well as a hail of bullets fired by the remaining two soldiers.
Ashley shoved the gun into Marilyn’s hand, tipped the plant upright, and knelt next to Thomas. “I’ll see what I can do!”
While Bonnie kept the shield in place, she looked toward the parking lot, blocked from view by the bleachers. Out there, Billy and his men, along with the dragons, were the children’s only hope. Although Arramos was powerful, he couldn’t stand against three dragons, could he? And what did that canister mean? At least Walter took it with him, but were there more? Would the attackers deploy the gas? Probably not while Arramos was there.
The two remaining soldiers kept their rifles aimed, but they stood in uneasy postures, as if unsure about what to do next. Their indecisiveness reflected Gabriel’s assumption that they lacked training.
“He’s alive,” Ashley shouted as she pressed on Thomas’s back with the palm of her hand, “but he’s hemorrhaging badly. He won’t last long.”
Bonnie kept the beam swirling above. “What can we do?”
“A healing blast from Excalibur!” Ashley sat on the ground and grabbed Thomas’s hand. “Help me get him into my arms!”
“I’ll need to take one of the gems out,” Bonnie said as she fingered a rubellite in the hilt. “The beam is too powerful on Earth with all of them in place.”
Catherine and Carly pulled Thomas onto Ashley’s lap. She wrapped her arms around him tightly. “Now lower the shield for just a second and shoot the beam through the ground at me! Sapphira and Mrs. B will cover us.”
Marilyn held the gun at her thigh. “I’m ready.”
“So am I.” Sapphira stood with a fireball swirling in each hand. “At least I can distract them for a second.”
Bonnie shut off the beam and lowered Excalibur. The shield collapsed. Sapphira threw her fireballs. Marilyn fired at the soldiers. One man dropped. The other yelped and limped away.
Ashley threw a pocketknife toward Bonnie. “Let’s do it!”
Bonnie caught the knife, opened the blade, and pried a rubellite from the hilt. After stowing the knife and gem in her pocket, she pointed the blade at the ground and again summoned the beam. It slammed into the grass. Flashes lit up the blades in a lightning-fast path to Ashley. The grass vanished, leaving a streak of dirt.
The energy rocketed into her. Her fists clenched. Light radiated from her body, and beams shot out of her eyes. She turned the twin beams toward Thomas. The energy stabbed into his shoulders and streamed down his back. Her teeth chattering, Ashley called out, “Just … a few … more seconds!”
An explosion rocked the ground. Bonnie fell to her bottom and dropped Excalibur. The beam wavered, disintegrating more grass in a zigzag path before it shut off.
Bonnie leaped up and grabbed the sword. A second explosion shook the field, followed by a third. She sucked in a breath. Had a helicopter fired missiles at the three dragons? Or maybe the escaping airplanes? She glanced at the sky. Plumes of smoke rose into the air, but at this angle it was impossible to tell what happened on the ground.
Turning her gaze back to the others, Bonnie called out, “Is everyone all right? Does Thomas need more healing?”
“I’ll check him.” Mariel pulled Thomas away, laid him on his stomach, and lifted his shirt. “He’s still unconscious, but the bleeding’s stopped. He probably just needs time to restore his blood supply.”
Ashley rose to her knees and shook her head slowly. “I feel … terrible.”
Marilyn laid a hand on Ashley’s forehead. “She’s red hot!”
“I’m all right. I’m all right.” Ashley pushed her hand away. “It’s been worse.”
“No. You need to cool down. You know that.”
Sapphira jumped to the portal plane and waved her arms over her head. “I’ll see if it will open now. We can get Ashley into the ice storm.” Within seconds, a cyclone of flames formed around her hands.
“How does it look?” Bonnie asked.
Sapphira narrowed her eyes. “I see a blazing fire and two dragons—Karrick and Grackle. No sign of Mardon.”
“Maybe Karrick helped Mardon build the fire, and Mardon took off.”
“I think I can open it.” Sapphira gestured with her head. “Everyone stand next to me. I’m going to get you all out of here.”
Bonnie slid Excalibur behind her belt, grabbed Ashley, and scooted her close to Sapphira. Marilyn, Carly, and Mariel dragged Thomas within range while Catherine pushed Carl and his wheelchair into the formation, the plant now in Carl’s lap. Bonnie eyed their position. Was the wheelchair close enough? Sapphira would have to decide.
Sapphira began lowering the flames in a cylindrical curtain until it descended to head level. Helicopter blades whipped somewhere close. A Cobra rose from behind the bleachers, all but one of its missiles missing. Arramos flew up from the parking lot, sailed erratically over the bleachers, and landed at the edge of the field. He coughed and hacked as he struggled to keep his balance. “Surrender!” he called with a gravelly voice. “Or I will order my helicopters to open fire.”
A second helicopter joined the first, and the two hovered side by side. The new arrival carried a full complement of missiles under its wings.
“Sapphira!” Bonnie hissed. “Is it open?”
“Yes. Just now.”
“Then let’s go!”
Sapphira lowered the flames, but the fiery wall dropped between her and the Foleys. She raised it again to sweep it farther out, but could she do it in time?
Arramos shouted from beyond the crackling curtain, “Fire!”
* * *
Billy stopped the plane on the highway just before a bridge overpass. Without enough knowledge to fly this bird, taxiing it for a few miles had been his only option. Fortunately, Makaidos, Thigocia, and Roxil battled furiously to keep the helicopters from giving chase, but how long could they last?
He rose from the pilot’s seat and limped back into the rear compartment. Twenty children sitting on benches stared at him, most with sleepy eyes. The gags and ropes that had bound them earlier lay on the floor at their feet. Since they had no toilets or cleaning supplies available, the place reeked of urine.
Billy put on the biggest smile his pain would allow. “You’ll be safe here. They’re not chasing us.”
A girl wearing a pink backpack raised her hand. “Do you have anything to eat? I’m hungry.”
“Me, too.” A boy said while several others nodded.
Billy scanned the compartment. A foot locker sat against the wall opposite the side hatch. He knelt and opened the lid. Inside lay water bottles and MREs in foil pouches. He turned to the girl. “Can you pass these around?”
She nodded.
“What’s your name, sweetheart?”
“Jillian.”
“That’s a pretty name.” Billy gathered a few pouches into his arms. “How old are you?”
She leaned closer, her hungry eyes locked on the pouches. “Five and a half.”
“Then you’re old enough to be our waitress.” He transferred the pouches to her arms, picked up another, and tore off the top. “Pass them around and show everyone how to open them. One pouch and one bottle for each. All right?”
“Sure!”
While Jillian handed out the supplies, Billy grabbed a bottle of water, opened the plane’s hatch, and stepped out onto the highway. In the distance to the rear, two more planes drew closer, one descending in flight and the other rolling well back. Soon, the first one landed and stopped a hundred or so feet away. In a flash, Walter hopped out and ran toward Billy.
When he arrived, Billy nodded at his plane. “I thought Adam had cleared out that one.”
“He did, but he couldn’t find a safe place to put the kids. So I commandeered it
and picked him and the kids up. He was kind of in a panic, because one of the girls was dead. The other kids say a soldier got sick of hearing her cry, so he just shot her in the head.”
Nausea churned in Billy’s stomach. “Shot her for crying?”
“Yeah. Disgusting. Pure evil. One of the other kids said the girl was autistic. Poor kid probably couldn’t help it.”
Billy swallowed erupting bile. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
“I know what you mean. When Adam told me, I almost hurled my guts.” Walter rolled a hand into a fist. “We have to fight back. Strike hard.”
“We’ll fight back but with what?” Billy picked up his water bottle and drank the entire contents to wash down the bile. When he finished, he swiped a sleeve across his lips. “Got any weapons or ammo in your plane?”
“Clean as a whistle except for a canister of anti-dragon gas, but we don’t have a way to deploy it. Adam’s still combing the interior while keeping the kids calm, but I don’t think he’ll find anything.”
“Maybe we can grab a rifle or two in the parking lot. Some of them got thrown pretty far.”
When the trailing plane stopped behind Walter’s, the door popped open. Gabriel flew out, zoomed toward Billy and Walter, and landed on the run. With bruises on his face and rips in his jeans and shirt, he looked pretty banged up. “What’s going on?”
“Just resting a minute,” Billy said. “But we need to check on the plane that’s still in the lot. The kids in there are probably bound and gagged.”
“Walter can fly us back, but who’ll stay with these kids?”
“Adam, probably.” Billy looked down the highway to the east. Nothing in sight but the city skyline and dark clouds forming over the buildings. “Where’s Elam and the other plane?”
Walter squinted in the same direction. “I showed him how to taxi, but he had some trouble. He ended up going the other way, but I think he escaped.”
“We’ll have to find him and make sure his kids have food and water.”