Page 25 of Under the Iron Sky

Sunlight slashed across her vision, nearly blinding after so long spent in the dark.

The skies were so blue. Soraya had run this mission before, but the sight of the three suns burning far, far in the distance never failed to take her breath away.

She couldn’t feel their warmth through the thick glass canopy but seeing them was like something out of a dream. She’d never appreciated how beautiful they were before.

This was what her people were made for. To live among the suns. To bask in their warm, golden beauty.

This was their life. Their power source. And the Dar’rak were keeping them from it.

The Sunrunners wasted no time. With the switch of a few controls, the large rusting bulbs they carried on the back of their crafts began to rattle and the lotus-like outer petals peeled away to reveal a reflective glass center.

All fighter jets were fitted with sunpanels along the wings, and try as Soraya might, she couldn’t help the smile tugging at her lips as she watched the power gauge steadily fill. It was a shame Twiigs wasn’t here. He’d have gotten a real kick out of watching it climb like that. She made a promise to herself to bring him next time.

A little while later, Soraya found herself glancing south, to where somewhere far below, the Tower in the middle of Lumirel was being charged with whatever magic it needed to sustain it for another few months. She wasn’t sure how they were restrung—and Ma’varea had been reluctant to disclose what exactly was required to get the Towers fully operational again but from the slight tremor that wracked his shoulders when she’d asked, she didn’t imagine it was a pleasant process.

A light beeped on her dash with an invitation from Theron to open a private communication line between their jets.

“I don’t like this,” came his voice the minute she accepted. “It’s too quiet.”

“I know.” Soraya’s reply held more bite than she’d intended.

“Ramapheal’s put extra patrols in the sky every time the Towers have been restrung. We’ve been up here for almost fifteen minutes. Someone should have found us by now.”

He was right; this did feel too easy.

Soraya scrambled for a possible reason. “There’s been less dragon sightings lately. Maybe they don’t have enough to cover as much ground as they usually do, and we just surfaced where they don’t have any patrols.” Unlikely, but maybe …

“They have plenty of fairies, though.”

True. They weren’t as strong flyers as the dragons, but a sizable swarm could easily overwhelm them. So why hadn’t Ramapheal sent any? He wouldn’t just let them get Light like this. He had to have something up his sleeve—but what?

Soraya pondered this for the next fifteen minutes, her eyes flitting between her dashboard of scanners or studying the clouds for sailing wings.

None came.

With one minute to spare, the Sunrunners closed the bulbs, soaking up every last drop of precious Light they could, and the group began their descent, resurfacing mere seconds before that near undetectable red sheen zipped across the clouds, the only indicator that the Towers were once again working and the Iron Sky was back in place.

They’d tried to keep the perimeter small while they’d been above, but they’d broken the clouds a little higher in the mountains than Soraya had expected.

Flying low to avoid detection, they wove between the tops of the once golden mountains, rotting mining equipment, and buildings.

Just like the rest of Vordell, the mining colony that dwelled here was once a thriving civilization. It’d made a hell of a base too in the early years of the war. Lots of reserves and equipment and caves to store their weapons in, and the cable cars that were suspended on thick golden chains made getting from the top of the mountain to the bottom a breeze.

They’d just flown past a large glass dome built atop one of the larger mountains, a great hall for dinners and balls once upon a time, when the scanners on Soraya’s dash screamed.

It was already too late.

One moment her screen was beeping and flashing red, the same alarm echoing through the speakers of every other craft in the air behind her, then a wall of black scales shot up from below.

And as Lyra’s blood-curdling scream rang through the speakers, as her jet was snatched up by a pair of giant reptilian jaws, Soraya finally understood why the skies were empty today. Why this mission had been so easy. Why Ramapheal hadn’t bothered to send Dar’raks or fairies or any of the other monsters he commanded to stop them.

Because he’d sent his biggest monster instead.

He’d sent his Demon.

8

“And then what should we do?” Soraya asked the commander sitting on the other side of the desk.