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  Sorrow nodded.

  “Thank you, Judge.”

  He nodded curtly, but she knew this change in plan was for her sake. She was happy knowing Jury would be safe, no matter the outcome of their crazy scheme and she knew that despite his confidence that all would be well, Judge had tried to force Ib to stay with Jury – securing his findailes safety. But the creature had resolutely refused.

  As Judgment exited the craft, he walked straight to Raphael and nodded. The birdman would fly the resistance leader to join his troops, hidden in the secret shafts close by the portals, ready to attack, and then return for Sorrow.

  They would storm the gates, their laser fire the signal to start phase two of the plan, aimed at creating yet another diversion while the aircraft left. Micah was already underground near the portals waiting with the resistance, ready to strike.

  As Sorrow waited, tense, nervous lest they be discovered and everything go to shit, she looked through the cockpit window at Etienne’s serious expression.

  The evening before he had argued himself hoarse over Sorrow’s intention to be at the portals with Judgement and Micah when they opened. She would fight with the resistance until the nuclear-armed aircraft arrived to airlift them to safety. The aircraft would drop she and Micah off near the entrance to his world before it shot into orbit and released the bomb. If anything went wrong with this plan, she and her lover would drop down into the underground shaft beneath the portals and run to the mountains, where Micah was confident he could find a way to his world.

  But Etienne did not want her on the ground fighting at all.

  “No,” Sorrow had shaken her head at his insistence she join him on the spacecraft. “I have to be on the ground, visible. The Fist knows the resistance has humans and others with them, they must know by now. If I was not there, they would suspect a ruse. It is obvious I would try to take over the portals and either blow them or jump through. My presence, Judge’s, Raphael’s and even Micah’s will impress upon them that the entire resistance is in one spot – exactly what we need them to think while the nuclear team pulls off the real heist. Etienne, you should be happy I’m not with the nuclear team - stealing the bombs and getting them set to explode is going to be the hardest part of the raid – a part you are playing a big role in. Battling Gharials is the easy gig.”

  “Ma cherie,” he groaned, running his hands through his hair, “you promise me you will stay safe. Promise me when we hover above those portals you run up the first ramp we drop as soon as you see us. Promise me,” he shook his head at her soft laughter, “that you will not do anything stupid.”

  “She can’t promise that,” Micah said as he approached them where they argued softly in the shadows. “You know her better than that by now. “But so do I, and I can promise we will be running up the gangway the moment we see your ship – period.”

  “You have to keep a promise too, Etienne,” she smiled at him and punched his arm softly, “promise that after you drop Micah and I off, and leave this planet, that you assure my mum I am happy – let her know she will be a grandma shortly. Tell her I love her,” she whispered the last words, all laughter dissipated.

  “And you need to promise me,” she said, her eyes now soft as she turned and wrapped her arms around her lover, “that you will keep your head down and stay at the back of the troops until I get there, no heroics.”

  “This is your fight, Earth woman,” he laughed, “I’m simply there to observe my fiancé’s prowess in battle – and I can best do that by staying alive. Although I can’t say I’m looking forward to seeing you potentially get hurt – you know what your favourite cadets would say about this whole plan.”

  “Shit on shit,” they said together, bursting out laughing as they linked arms and headed to her small partitioned room, to snuggle and wrap around each other, and whisper plans for their future.

  Just thinking about their night together made her feel warm, and smile, taking some of the edge of the seriousness of their situation now as she waited for the battle to begin.

  Hearing her name called, she looked across to Raphael where he had landed softly, arms out, wings gently flapping.

  “First lasers have fired,” he said, “ready?”

  She nodded and stepped into his arms.

  14

  The noise was deafening, the swirling dust blinding, as the aircraft hovered above the battlefield and lowered its platform for Sorrow and the rest of the resistance to escape, lasers and soup guns firing all around them, diminishing their numbers by the second.

  Sorrow gritted her teeth and fought on.

  Gharial shot ferociously from all angles, spurred on by Tefnut, and taking no heed of the humans and others who poured in through the gates from other worlds. They died in their hundreds in the crossfire, some attacking all around them blindly in panic and desperation.

  “Keep moving,” Micah shouted from behind Sorrow as they both hacked at Gharial all around them and tried to lurch roughly forward.

  Sorrow nodded as they fought their way towards the platform where Etienne and his men battled the Gharial who tried to swarm up and take over the aircraft. Every second they waited for their comrades on the battlefield put their entire plan in jeopardy.

  “I think we are nearly there,” Sorrow shouted back, “but I can’t see clearly,” she coughed, her voice coming out as a mere croak as she choked on the dust and dirt whipping all around them and hacked out at the enemy.

  Concentrating on one Gharial at a time, she fought to clear a path for them, but their sheer numbers had dramatically slowed down the resistance ability to get to the area where the spacecraft hovered. And the time delay had impacted on Sorrow more than she thought, as the lack of oxygen began to impact upon her reaction-time and stamina.

  Spinning once again to ensure her lover was behind her, she looked back to see him at least ten metres away, fighting to reach her but blocked by the crowd of humans surging out of a nearby portal.

  Turning back to help, she started towards him, her head whipping to the right as she thought she heard her name shouted. Eyes squinting, she stared into the distance and shook her head when she saw Khalili exit a nearby portal at a run and head towards her, frantically pointing to her left.

  Spinning, she saw Anhur, head and shoulders above the Gharial, steadfastly making his way towards her also, face intent. Between her and the god she had once called husband, were half a dozen Gharial, and Micah, but Khalili was gaining swiftly. Sorrow gasped when she realised Micah would be caught between the two, and that Khalili would think he too was an enemy.

  Despite her fear of Anhur, despite every atom of her body urging her to run in the opposite direction, she ignored the approaching Earthborn and threw herself towards Micah, intent on shielding him. She reached him just as Anhur came within striking distance of her, and Khalili fired, narrowly missing the god.

  “Sorrow, I have come for you, and for my mother. Do not resist me,” Anhur shouted as Sorrow grabbed Micah’s hand and tried to pull him behind her, to shield him with her body.

  She didn’t have time to answer as Khalili dove over the heads of the surrounding Gharial and rammed straight into Anhur.

  Sorrow lost sight of them as she and Micah were once again surrounded by Gharial and the fighting escalated viciously for what seemed like an hour but could only have been twenty to thirty minutes.

  Finally, the gangplank in proximity, her strength all but gone, she saw Khalili out of the corner of her eye as he roared in anger seeing Anhur sprint away towards the Finger.

  Seeing he was going to follow, she screamed a warning.

  “Khalili, no, this whole planet is going to blow – follow me,” she pointed to the aircraft, still hovering just a few hundred yards away, waiting for her.

  She saw his indecision turn to intent as he focused his eyes on someone behind her.

  “He’s with me,” she screamed, seeing the Sin hacking his way towards her, his weapon raised, attention firmly on Micah. He
nodded and grunted as he was tackled from behind by a Gharial.

  It seemed to Sorrow an interminable distance they had to cross to get to the safety of the ship as she, Micah, and Khalili battled and pressed forward.

  “You said you ate him,” she shouted to Khalili, in between kicks, punches and sword thrusts,

  “Long story,” Khalili shouted, punching a Gharial in the face and throwing himself towards two more.

  “Sorrow, you need to run,” Micah shouted as he fought.

  She nodded and surged forward, gasping in pain as she was struck hard by a Gharial sword, the blade cutting deep across one shoulder. Reeling from the blow, she fell back against her lover, the force of the blow, her weight and their exhaustion tumbling them to the ground, her atop him.

  “You are hurt,” he shouted, his hand pressing her shoulder to try and stem the blood. She nodded, looking into his eyes.

  “I’ll be OK,” she said, trying to pull away, not understanding as his grip tightened painfully and he groaned, his eyes turning wide, as he turned to liquid in her arms.

  Sorrow screamed and looked up incredulous at Tefnut standing above her, grinning maniacally as he turned his weapon from where Micah had lain, to her, but she made no move to defend herself. Instead looking away from him and back down in horror as the water that was once her pregnant fiancé and her babies, leached into the hot desert sands.

  She lay silent and still, not breathing, her mind screaming in denial at what she had just witnessed as the air was knocked out of her and the god landed on top of her, rent in half by a laser shot from the spacecraft. The weight of his corpse pushed her body and face into the wet sand where she lay, unmoving as his blood pumped out all over her and leached into the sand, just as Micah had.

  She turned her head to the side, pressing her face into the damp sand, her tear-filled eyes meeting the god’s now unseeing orbs.

  “You won,” she whispered, “you won.”

  “To all intents and purposes, this is a planet completely underwater.”

  “How on earth could he raise an army there then?” Raphael asked.

  “I don’t like to swim,” Khalili said brusquely, nibbling on Tefnut’s head and spitting out a bit of ear gristle, the rest of the god’s torso at his feet.

  “I don’t either,” Judge said, his voice deep, eyes still on the controls, “hence this spaceship. It can go underwater or in the air. Either way, it can serve as our home and our base if need be – we need to stock up on supplies, and this is the nearest planet.”

  “I don’t want to live underwater in this,” Raphael shuddered, “when we get there drop me off in the sky, and I’ll sort myself out.

  “We stay together,” Judge said brusquely, “but as soon as we fuel up and stock up, we must journey to the land of the skinless, to return their women and the children – and to kill any Gharial we find there.”

  Sorrow heard nothing. It was all white noise to her as she sat cradled on Etienne’s lap. She had said nothing since Ib dragged her aboard by the scruff of the neck, her face as white as a sheet, eyes dark with pain.

  Etienne had dressed her wounds as Judge dropped the bomb and nuked the surface of Galapo, and they had flown straight up to space to join the other two aircraft. About fifty men had made it on board, but many of the resistance had been left behind, unable to reach the craft in time. Many hundreds more had died in the battle before the gates. The lucky ones had fled through portals to unknown planets.

  “A mon coeur, tell me what is wrong, please, you are worrying me,” Etienne whispered now, into her hair. “You are safe if that is why you shiver, you have here four men, well of sorts,” he quipped, “who would gladly lay their lives at your feet – your own private army to accompany you on your next crazy quest. And Micah I am sure is safe; I did not see his body; we flew over the site several times. I feel sure you were simply separated in the battle – we can return to him - we can do so any time you ask once the initial burst of radiation has passed and the aircraft can once again enter the Galapo atmosphere. He is smart; he would have dropped down the underground escape shafts, I am sure of it. We will return; it will be a few years at most, I promise.”

  “If you talk of the thing she was with,” Khalili looked up from his snack, “it is dead.”

  “Oh, mon ange, I am so sorry,” Etienne sighed, pulling her tighter into him.

  Sorrow pushed her face into his shoulder and gripped his shirt with white fists. The shudders would not stop, her teeth chattered uncontrollably, her hearts felt as though they had both stopped in grief.

  Her mind said the same thing over and over, the words her mouth could not yet form; ‘He is gone; my future, my love, my children, all gone.’

  “I need Mum,” she whispered. “I want my mum.”

  “There will be no time for that,” Judgement said, his voice deep with worry, “if I am not mistaken, that is a Gharial starship heading directly towards us, and it doesn’t look friendly.”

  He spun to the telecommunication screen.

  “Determination, Tribulation, get your ships down to the planet, cloak and hide until you hear from me.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  Spinning back to the room, he caught Raphael’s eye.

  “Tell the men below that we are in for a fight.”

  Raphael nodded and left at a run, just as the Gharial ship opened a communication channel, and a red leader’s face came into view.

  “What is your mission?” he asked, his eyes scanning each of those present and coming to rest upon Khalili. “Is that my lord Tefnut?”

  Judge groaned and looked across to where the Sin continued to nibble on the god’s head.

  “That would be him,” he drawled, turning back to face the man on the screen.

  “Prepare to be boarded.”

  “You know,” Khalili said, frowning at the approaching ship, “a planet full of water is starting to sound not so bad after all.”

  Etienne gently unwrapped Sorrow’s arms from around his neck and lowered her to the seat before turning and firing into Tefnut’s corpse, liquifying him instantly.

  “What did you do that for?” Khalili bellowed.

  “Because,” Etienne said quietly, walking to stand beside Judge and stare towards the planet in the distance, “things are about to get ugly, and I wouldn’t like to risk that psychopath being regenerated. Not to mention the fact that your track record of disposing of gods isn’t that great if Anhur’s return is anything to go by.”

  “Good call,” Judge said as the ship shuddered, the Gharial ship’s docking mechanism locking onto its side.

  “Cunt,” Khalili spat, rising and strapping on his weapons.

  “Be that as it may,” Etienne smirked, heading out towards the docking bay and drawing his guns, “I am a cunt on your side.”

  “You better hope our enemies are made of meat,” Khalili snorted, following him out, “or you will be on the menu, and I don’t care which side I eat first.”

  Etienne laughed.

  Judge watched as the second two aircraft carrying the children and the bulk of the resistance entered the planet’s orbit safely, as commanded, before turning to Sorrow.

  The sound of gunfire and shouting already echoed through the craft as he kissed her gently on the top of the head and vaulted out the door.

  DEAR READERS,

  The story continues in Sorrow’s Revenge.

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  Helen Allan

  Table of Contents

  SORROW’S FALL

  Books by Helen Allan

  When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.

  PREFACE

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  Dear Readers,