Vampires Don't Sparkle by Fox Chris

Author:Fox, Chris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-10-29T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 36- Into the Storm

Blair guided the ship higher, keeping the prow aimed at the floating city as he circled Olympus. He could feel the wind along the hull, the hot breath of the approaching storm. It was getting closer, though he guessed they still had an hour or two before it arrived.

“Head for that platform,” Hades’s voice sounded muffled and distant. “Go in slowly. You’ll feel waves of energy washing over the ship. You need to match the slipsail’s modulation perfectly. Your beast can guide you.”

He is correct, Ka-Dun. Allow me, and I will guide us.

Blair relaxed his control, allowing the beast to surge through his mind. He studied what it did, feeling the strange pulses of energy from Olympus. They crackled blue as the slipsail entered, buffeting the ship far more than the wind.

He began to panic as the waves grew rougher, but the beast took action before Blair had to. The slipsail emitted a series of counter waves, a split second before the temporal field. Each wave grew closer to the pulse, until they were in perfect sync.

“Well done, Ka-Dun. Well done,” Hades said. Blair felt a hand on his shoulder, though it was far more muted than the senses coming from the slipsail. “Guide us to that dock, the white stone platform. We can set down there.”

Blair did as asked, feeling a strain as he forced the slipsail the last few feet through the field. There was a sudden lurch, then they were free. He gazed in wonder around him, though gaze might not have been quite the right word. He sensed Olympus from the slipsail’s perspective.

The city was perhaps a mile across, stretched across gentle, rolling hills. There were dozens of buildings, all shaped from the same white marble they’d glimpsed from below. Wide gardens stretched between them, or what had once been gardens. They were withered and brown, the skeletal branches of stunted olive trees dotting patches of barren soil.

Some of the buildings looked like they’d been through a war. Scorch marks dotted their sides, and a few were now rubble. Most of those that were not still had damage, ranging from a single singed hole to entire missing walls.

“What happened here?” Blair asked, guiding the slipsail into a landing. It hovered a foot or two above the platform, bobbing gently up and down. He released the vessel, returning to his own senses.

“War,” Hades said, sadly. He wept openly, and Blair wanted to look away. “I can imagine what happened. For the first years all was well, but once the conduit was cut the flow of time grew much closer to that below. Years became decades, and my brethren’s strength failed them. They likely drained their batteries and artifacts dry, siphoning strength to stay alive.

“When that failed them,” Hades said, voice cracking. He paused, mouth working for several moments before could continue. “They turned on the last source of available strength: each other. The weakest probably died first, but in the end time claimed them all.

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