Icarus Read online

  It didn’t make sense and Jake hoped that the entire country hadn’t been destroyed in the blink of an eye by one of those creatures. It was certainly possible if it was anything like the one Jake and the group had fought just a month earlier.

  The forest thinned out, and soon Jake and company were on a cliff overlooking a lush green field. Floating before them was a mass of land, moving slightly up and down. It too was green and lush above the soil, with trees and buildings visible. Jake had seen pictures before, but seeing it in real life was truly amazing. He shook off all of his earlier concerns, as such a magnificent landscape couldn’t be destroyed too easily. He took a step down the path, careful not to trip over the tumbling rocks his feet dislodged. As they walked, Dante asked some obvious questions that Jake had also asked before he researched the place.

  “How are we supposed to get up there?”

  “Apparently there’s a rope dangling from the bottom. We’ve gotta climb it,” Jake replied. From behind, there was slight shifting and when he looked over his shoulder he saw that Sara had her arms positioned awkwardly, as if her stride had momentarily paused. He didn’t think much of it and so continued onward.

  After a few minutes they were in the field, the area cast in shadows on account of the hovering landmass soaring above them. Jake looked around and noticed the area was empty. Little information was known about the inner workings of the flying city, but Jake figured they had to have some form of immigration or customs policies. The lack of guards or soldiers at the base probably indicated that they’d be waiting at the top once they’d climbed the rope. With that in mind, Jake had to make sure he’d be up before Dante.

  About halfway across the shadowy field a length of rope swayed in the spring breeze. Jake picked up his pace to a power walk, eager to get to it before Dante, and placed a hand on the braided fibers. He gave it a solid tug and was pleased to find it to be of firm material. If it really just dangled all day every day it must have been exposed to the elements year-round, and could well deteriorate. It was good to know the thing wouldn’t snap while he was climbing. Jake gripped the rope and almost started to climb, but then turned to his comrades as he considered something.

  “Do you all know how to climb a rope?”

  Elizabeth nodded and Dante said, “Yeah, we used to climb one in the gym, although it snapped one day.” To the side of Dante, Sara averted her eyes, which he thought was odd. She’d done training in the academy just like Jake, so he knew she possessed the skill. She must have known what he was thinking, as she spoke up, shaking her head.

  “It’s not that, it’s just… since I was in that state for so long my muscles aren’t what they used to be. I managed to get them up to a competent level, but I doubt I could climb that whole length.”

  Jake pulled back and cursed himself silently. He should have considered the possibility. Now he had to think of a way to get Sara up there, but that would be difficult as there didn’t seem to be any other way. Perhaps he could climb and see if they had an alternative method once at the top, surely they had members of their society with disabilities who—

  As Jake was thinking through the options, Dante spoke up, “I can just carry you on my back.” He crouched down and leaned forward, then motioned with his head that she should hop on. Sara stood flat-footed and eyed him warily.

  “I wouldn’t if I were you. I doubt he has the stamina,” Elizabeth said.

  “I resent that,” Dante retorted, and it seemed like they’d get into a shouting match if Jake didn’t intervene quickly so he added his two coins.

  “Dante’s probably in the best shape out of all of us. If anyone can do it, he can.”

  Elizabeth looked back at Jake, wide-eyed, probably because her only anti-Dante ally had just turned traitor. Still, she must have seen Jake’s point as she turned her head and scoffed. “I suppose that he’s good at brute strength, but that’s about it.”

  Dante knelt back down and motioned for Sara to hop on. She took a hesitant step forward. “Okay, just don’t drop me.”

  “Only if you nag me,” he said. She bent down and wrapped her arms around his neck, and when he stood up she hooked her legs around his waist. He smiled. “Damn, I thought your fat ass would be heavier.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Sara shouted, then beat Dante over the head with hammered fists. Jake laughed, and figured that if he was going to insult her, he should have at least made sure she wasn’t attached to him. When the two’s bickering subsided, Jake grabbed hold of the rope and started to shimmy up.

  From behind he heard Dante grunt and Sara pester him, and Jake had to agree with her. She was saying that since he was the most likely to fall, they should go last. Dante mumbled something about wanting to get things over with, and started to climb, being insulted by Elizabeth under him. Jake ignored him and focused on climbing and not looking down, since he’d soon be well into the air.

  When Jake was about halfway up the rope, and his arms began to feel just the slightest burn of fatigue, he could no longer ignore the persistent grunts and angry whispers coming from beneath him that had played out the whole climb up. He took a tentative look down to see Dante with Sara clinging to him, his face contorted into a mix of anger and exhaustion. When he saw that Jake finally bothered to look at him, his eye narrowed like a predator ready to strike. “Will you hurry the fuck up?” he snapped.

  Jake grimaced, then continued to climb the rope, careful not to fall off. The wind blew them from side to side, so of course he needed to be careful in order to keep pace. Not everybody could be as reckless and crazy as Dante, after all. Still, the orange-haired boy didn’t care, and tried to force his way up and past Jake, even though it wasn’t technically possible. He rammed the top of his head against Jake’s boots, which caused him to shake and nearly lose his grip on the rope.

  “Calm down,” he shouted at the boy, “I won’t survive a fall from this height.”

  “Knock it off, you idiot,” Elizabeth yelled from below.

  Sara didn’t say anything and just cowered, helplessly stuck to the angry and irrational boy’s back.

  “This shit is heavy, hurry the fuck up!” he yelled then rammed Jake’s boots once again. He swayed to the side, and the whole rope moved with him. If Dante wanted him to climb faster, this certainly wasn’t the method. From underneath, the unmistakable sound of a sword being unsheathed echoed through the air, and Jake looked down to see Elizabeth pointing hers up at Dante, waving it at him.

  “Knock it off or I’ll—” but before she could continue Dante grabbed the rapier by the blade, the knuckles of his other hand white where he gripped the rope. If she pulled back she would have severed his fingers, but she had at least some kindness – and sense – so she let go when he pulled. He flipped it in the air and grabbed the handle, then gave Jake the most devilish grin.

  “Dante, don’t—”

  But a sharp pain exploded in Jake’s buttock, and he hopped up the rope at a greater speed. “Hurry the fuck up, bedhead!” Dante shouted, and continued to keep pace, stabbing Jake in the ass each time the boy hoisted himself up. As he cried out in pain and hurried to climb faster, Jake took fearful note that the boy was consistently stabbing him, which meant that he had to be climbing the damn thing one handed as fast as Jake, with a girl on his back!

  Jake was in such a frantic fit to be away from Dante’s torment that he only briefly registered that the area in front of him was dark and smelled like soil. He climbed inside the landmass now, the rope leading up into darkness. He would have stopped to appreciate it, but Dante jabbed him in the ass again and up he went.

  It could have been a few minutes or even an hour, as time seemed to slow due to Jake’s torture, but soon a faint light shined into his eyes. It almost hurt when he first squinted at it, but he quickly climbed onward, eager to be free from the torment that was a pissed-off Dante armed with a sword.

  He reached the top and hauled himself out of the shaft and lay on the dirt, then rolled
onto the grass, panting and heaving with his back pressed against the ground. To his side, he heard Dante calmly climb out and let Sara down, who fearfully thanked him, then plopped to a seat in the grass as if he wasn’t just in the biggest hurry of his life. He heard a faint reverberating sound as Elizabeth’s sword hit some sort of solid object, but Jake was too exhausted to stare at anything but the clouds that drifted overhead, which seemed closer than usual.

  Next, there was the stamping of boots. “Give me that,” Elizabeth yelled, and grasped her sword quickly. Jake turned his head to see her inspecting it for damage, then sheath it, glaring at Dante the whole time the blade was sliding inside. There seemed to be a stone wall that they were surrounded by, although it wasn’t large, only going up to Elizabeth’s waist. He looked around for immigration, customs, or a guard, but there was no one. Jake sat up, ran his hand through his hair and sighed. Then his finger shot out, pointing at Dante.

  “You almost fucking killed me!”

  “Your ass shoulda— oof!” his head jerked forward as Sara’s palm made contact with the back of his head, and he rolled his arms to avoiding falling head first through the hole they’d just climbed out of. When he caught his balance he sighed, then turned an angry glare at Sara. “What the hell was that for?”

  “You almost killed me too!”

  “Wha— oof!” he curled inward and gaped down at his stomach, where Elizabeth had firmly planted her knee. He tried to shrug it off and act brave, but his knotted face and shaking body betrayed him. He fell to his knees, grasping at his injury. Jake almost felt bad for him, as he knew better than anybody how bad her knees could hurt.

  “If you fell off you’d have taken me with you, so that’s payback.”

  “Sneak attack!” he wheezed as he fell to his side. Satisfied that his almost-death had been avenged, Jake switched his attention from the boy and took in the luscious surroundings. Around him was just about a normal-looking village of wooden cottages in an area populated with lush tall trees. They were at the center of a thoroughfare that branched to either side of them, and, not wanting to attract more attention than they already were, Jake hoisted a leg over the stone wall, then hopped over, landing on a fine gravel pathway on the other side. He turned to his comrades and Elizabeth and Sara climbed over, followed by a grumbling Dante.

  “Where do you think the government office is? I mean, assuming there is one,” Elizabeth asked, looking around at the surrounding path and homes. Jake followed her lead and tried to scan for any sort of grandiose building but saw none. He figured they could find someone to ask, but as he looked around he realized that he couldn’t see a single person.

  “Don’t you think it’s a bit odd that there aren’t any people anywhere? It’s almost nighttime,” Sara said.

  “There could be some kind of special custom in this nation, or maybe a gathering – we know next to nothing about this place after all,” Elizabeth said.

  “Like standin’ around solves shit,” Dante said, and stormed off along the gravel path. “Let’s just find someone and ask for directions,” he barked over his shoulder. Jake moved quicker so that he was walking parallel to the orange-haired boy, who stared off into the distance as if extremely irritated.

  “Listen Dante, this isn’t the Republic. These guys might not be so appreciative if you act like, y’know, you,” Jake said.

  He stopped and Jake had to stumble not to fall as he tried to match the boy. He quickly jerked his head toward Jake, his eyes blazing. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

  “He means,” Elizabeth interrupted, coming between the two of them, “that you can’t go around attacking people and blowing things up. This country exists without the assistance of any other nation, so they won’t be giving us special treatment just because we’re representatives of the Republic,” Elizabeth slid her hand to the hilt of her sword. “If you cause trouble and upset these people we may have an entire nation to contend with, and if it comes to that, I’ll chop off your head as an apology.”

  He glared at the hand resting on the hilt of her sword, then pulled back, as if he was about to say something confrontational, but just before he bellowed his first insult his eyes flickered to something just behind Jake and all the fight seemed to leave his body. Jake almost turned to catch his eye, but the soft voice from behind him confirmed who it was he’d spotted.

  “Dante, just try to behave for me,” Sara said. “We won’t be able to fight the Malice if we get kicked out.”

  He turned in the direction of the path. “Fine, I’ll try. But only cos I’m curious about what a shit dragon looks like and because—” he began, but his eyes rested on Sara and glimmered. He swept an arm at her and started walking. “Forget it, it’s just cos I want to know what the shit dragon looks like, all right?”

  Jake exchanged a weary glance with Elizabeth as the boy strutted out of earshot, Sara at his heels and trying to ensure that he would indeed remain calm. He shrugged. “With him, this is probably the best we can expect.”

  “Whatever,” she said, stepping forward, “that boy doesn’t know how to carry himself around others. If he talks to the lord of this land the way I’ve seen him speak to others, it could be disastrous for us.”

  “I’m aware,” Jake said, walking beside her, “he’s too used to being pampered by the Republic, but he needs to learn how to behave sooner or later.”

  “Is that what you think it is?” she mumbled, looking off at something in the distance. Jake didn’t understand what she meant, so he asked her.

  “The root of his behavior, you think it’s due to him living a pampered life?”

  “Well, given what I know yeah. I’ve only known him for about half a year, but he’s always off doing something crazy and he never gets in any trouble for it. Back in Niflheim he actually attacked Führer Bellator once and nothing came of it.”

  “Strange, my theory is quite the opposite. I think he’s someone who has never gotten his way, so he assumes that everyone’s out to get him. That’s why he faces the world with such a combative and aggressive mindset,” she said, her eyes locked on the back of the boy as he waved his arms around in front of Sara. His silhouette was dark against the sun, and Jake had to squint to even make it out. He wondered if her theory was correct.

  “Now that you mention it… that does make a lot of sense. The people from his village didn’t seem to like him very much.”

  Elizabeth continued to look at the boy, then her eyes narrowed into slits. “Although that doesn’t justify his behavior. Regardless of his circumstances, he can’t go around attacking people. That way of acting, the senseless violence,” she winced, then nearly whispered, “it’s disgusting.”

  Chapter 3

  Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun!

  Dante lowered his clenched fist then took a step from the door and placed his hands on his hips, glaring at it as if he could will it open. After about one whole second, which was pretty patient for Dante, he removed one hand from his hip and raised it back up, but Elizabeth seized his wrist. He looked at her and she shook her head. He tensed his face, shrugged, then jammed his hands into his pockets. They waited for a few more seconds, and when he was sure he didn’t hear any rustling within the home, Jake set out for the next house. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dante remove a balled fist from his pocket.

  “There’s nobody there, Dante,” Sara said.

  “They’d have certainly heard you if they were,” Elizabeth finished, her arms folded across her chest. She took a large step off the porch, clearing three steps in one go, and strode past Jake, who followed beside her. “Do you think there’s some kind of festival or something going on?” he asked.

  “I think not. If there were, surely we’d have heard some kind of commotion by now. Or seen people heading for it or coming back…”

  “You don’t think—” Jake began, but Elizabeth shook her head.

  “We haven’t seen a single one of those creatures since we arrive
d. If they eliminated everyone, they’d be roaming around free.”

  “Well then where are all the— oh God, what’s Dante doing!?” Elizabeth turned to catch Jake’s eye, and both of them looked on, shocked. Dante was struggling to climb over a picket fence that surrounded the backyard, only avoiding the act of criminal trespass because Sara was pulling on his jacket. Jake and Elizabeth quickly ran to him and helped Sara heave him back, all three of them falling firmly onto their bottoms when the boy finally gave way. He sprung up before any of them could shake themselves off and leapt over the fence.

  “Dammit,” Jake spat, and quickly hurled himself over. On the other side Dante charged forward. His destination: a man swinging lazily in a hammock. Jake sprinted with all his might to catch up to the boy, then tackled him from behind. Dante quickly turned and tried to fight Jake off, but by the time he was in a position to do some real damage Sara and Elizabeth arrived and backed Jake up. The girls both placed a knee over each of his arms while Jake weighed down his hips. Even if he was Dante, their combined weight should keep him restrained.

  Trying his best to do some damage control, Jake looked up, rubbing the back of his head and forcing a grin. “Sorry about that sir, our friend’s got some mental health issues. I hope you won’t think too poorly of the intrusion.”

  “It’s nooooo problemo duuuuuude,” the man said without opening his eyes, swaying between the two trees. Jake was caught a little off guard by his calm demeanor. He had just witnessed what was essentially a violent citizen’s arrest on his property, but he didn’t seem fazed at all. Hell, it didn’t seem like he cared whether they stayed or left. Underneath Jake, Dante stopped resisting, likely having the same reaction to the man as Jake. Jake exchanged glances with Sara and Elizabeth, both of whom nodded their affirmation, and the three of them stood up. Dante followed, wiping some grass stains off his shirt. “You coulda got the door, y’know,” he mumbled.