No Other Route

**Alert! Make sure you've read the updated Chapter 42 before moving on.**

The dimness of the computer room rang with Fitzdorf's interjection, drawing Cita back to the present.

*Now don't do anything rash,* Mr. Smith cautioned. He edged away from Aki and Cita.

"What do you mean an army?" Baron Dorf demanded.

**Rash,** Aki scoffed. He rose to stand shoulder to shoulder with Cita.

"The men — outnumber our guards twofold! And surrounding them … a swarm of the Infected!" Fitzdorf shouted.

The soothing fire had reached Cita's ankles like a tide rising.

"Cita, what are you doing?" Rashida whispered. She placed a hand on his shoulder and jerked it back. "Ouch!"

"Don't. Touch. Me."

"Cita. Don't do this." Ash's gag was around his neck again, and he leaned forward against the guards' grip.

"What?" Baron Dorf glanced from Cita to Ash before turning back to Fitzdorf. "Be quiet. I have to deal with this first."

The dim room glowed around Cita. The flames reached his stomach and fought to grow higher.

"Please, Cita. You don't have to. You can make a different choice. You can make a difference." Ash flinched as one of the guards smacked his head, but didn't take his eyes off Cita.

"Difference?" Cita echoed. The flames ebbed.

"Such a willful cock," Baron Dorf's eyes glittered as he looked at Ash. "I think it's time to cull the lineage again."

A quick stride carried him to Ash. The short dagger barely glinted before sinking into the teen's stomach with a sickening, moist sound.

A muffled scream rang out, and Kody lunged toward his brother. The guards yanked him away, dragging him across the room as Ash folded over, collapsing to the ground when freed from his guards' limp hands. Rashida's hands were pressed tight to her lips, but she made no move to step forward.

Baron Dorf spun toward Cita, stepping clear of the growing crimson pool.

"Now, be quiet while I deal with this. I'd rather not reduce my breeding stock further today." He slashed a warning look at Kody.

Cita's breath came short.

'No. Not again.' Ash's image was overlaid by another crumpled, too-still body.

*See.* Mr. Smith relaxed against the wall. *Be a good boy and mind your elders.*

"I'm not a boy!"

**I'm not a boy!**

Aki and Cita shouted in unison. Fire leapt. They were enveloped in the red and blue flames they craved.

Rashida fell back with a scream.

The guards shouted. Some, including Fitzdorf, ran, freeing Kody who slumped to the cold marble floor. Almost as if he were the one who was stabbed, he crawled toward Ash's fire-ringed body. Rashida stumbled to his side, dragging him to his feet.

"Ash," he sobbed.

"We can't help him now," Rashida said. "Run!"

"No!" Baron Dorf snarled. "You can't do this."

The choking smell of burning plastic filled the dark room. 'It's just like the last time.' Red-orange eyes sought the boy on the floor, meeting the chocolate eyes again. 'Except I'm not high as a kite. I'm not, right?'

The room wavered as flames scorched the ancient electronics and fresh blood.

"James! Ash!" Aki and Cita howled. They laughed, spinning and shooting flames.

"Stop it!" Baron Dorf shouted. "You're destroying everything I've worked for! Extinguish these flames now, before it's too late."

"It was always too late." Aki and Cita stopped spinning.

The last guards broke and ran with flames licking at their heels.

Baron Dorf retreated slowly as Cita stalked closer.

"No. You can't do this," he repeated weakly.

"All your talk of lineage. Breeding. That's what you meant with the Peacefallows," Aki and Cita said. "Creating — recreating — the flame summoners. That makes you … the right hand of God."

"There is no God!" Baron Dorf argued. "No gods, no magic — it's all technology! And it will be mine!"

"Nothing will be yours. And all your lineage will pay for what your ancestors did." With a mocking laugh, Aki and Cita turned their flames fully on the lordling. The scream joined the chorus that rang through their head.

*Akicita. Please. You don't want to go down this route.*

Mr. Smith's voice was different enough to catch their attention. They turned to look at the fading shadow.

*If you take this route, I can't help you anymore.*

"Don't you see?" Akicita asked. "There is no other route."

Red-orange eyes focused on the shadow-hidden face.

Mr. Smith took a step back.

"After what you did?"

A jagged crack shot across the shadowed features.

"I killed you."

Red, snapping flames peeked through the crack.

"Killed you well and truly dead."

The flames spread in a fury, consuming the ghost of Mr. Smith.

"There's never been another route."

Like ashes, swept up in a gale, Mr. Smith was no more.

Red-gold eyes sought the crumpled figure on the floor. In the flickering flames, chocolate eyes almost seemed to blink.

'But it's a lie.'

Turning away, Akicita strode toward the metal door that concealed the stairs.

The stairwell echoed with panicked screams. Guards and servants fled down the stairs, attempting to stay ahead of the flames.

Akicita stalked down the stairs. He stopped at each fire door, yanking it open and sending flames crawling through the fortress of his enemies.

"29," he crooned.

"22"

"13 — one of my favorites!"

"Ground floor. All ashore that's going ashore," Akicita laughed.

A small contingent of guards, led by Fitzdorf, waited outside the ornate wooden doors. They gripped their swords in trembling hands.

Akicita paused.

"You took my arrows. You took my daggers. You took my bow." He smiled at them.

They looked at each other and then back at the flame summoner.

"So?" Fitzdorf challenged. He raised his sword.

"If you give them back, maybe I will spare you. For now."

"But we don't have them!" Fitzdorf protested. "They're back up there!" He waved at the burning tower. "Where is my father?!"

"Your father?" Akicita rolled the word across his tongue. "Your father. Fitz." Akicita laughed. "And you wanted to replace his heir."

"Charge!" Fitzdorf shouted. He led his men forward.

In a blink, Akicita flicked his thoughts inward. He stood on where the brown flesh met grassy turf. Spiders swarmed, still guarding their cocoons. Nocturne raised his head and nickered.

Akicita strode toward the cocoons, scattering spiders left and right. He hesitated at the first. It was thickly wrapped with hundreds of layers of silk. Next to it, the cocoon was slimmer. Akicita quickly counted; ten cocoons matched the first and another ten matched the second.

With a flaming knife, he sliced the thinner silk layers. Red-orange eyes observed the wraiths that poured free.

Five men in armor shambled to their feet. Their fiery hands clasped sword hilts. Two sallow-faced men stood behind them, clad in threadbare tunics. Another man smoothed his richly embroidered robes over his rounded belly. A woman stood next to him. Her plump fingers clutched the hand of a curly-haired young boy.

Their dead eyes tracked Akicita.

"Well, come on then." He spared a final glance for the thickly wrapped cocoons before turning away.

Fitzdorf and his guards hesitated as the flame wraiths surrounded Akicita.

"John?" one called, frowning at one of Akicita's flaming guards. "No. You're posted at Southwallow. It can't be you."

"Southwallow," Akicita echoed. The word tasted like ashes in his mouth. "That explains it. I couldn't think of where I would have … collected these."

"What did you do to Southwallow?" Fitzdorf challenged.

"I? I merely finished what your half-brother started. But you didn't have the balls to challenge him, did you? You're just the ox, doing the heavy work here while the bull plays in the field."

Fitzdorf screamed in rage.

The wraiths, flowing like a wave, descended on them.

A lick of flame arched across the street behind the guards, closing them in.

Fitzdorf tried to engage first one wraith then another.

They dodged around him. The little boy silently laughed and pulled grotesque faces at him before darting away to latch onto a guard's knee. Flames crawled up the guard's leg as he fell screaming to the ground.

"You … you monster!" Fitzdorf turned back to Akicita.

Akicita allowed Fitzdorf to close. He met the descending blade with a rod of blue fire. Sparks flew, and the blade sheared off, shedding drops of molten metal. He shoved Fitzdorf's hands clear and grabbed his throat.

Leaning close he whispered.

"Your father is dead. And when I am done your father's father's father will be dead, too. Don't wait up."

He shoved the trembling man away.

Fitzdorf fell and stared up at Akicita's back.

"You can't do this! I won't allow you to!" Fitzdorf shouted.

Akicita stopped. He turned. "Oh? And what are you going to do about it?"

"I … I ... I …" Fitzdorf stuttered inarticulately. He looked around at the new cohort of flame wraiths standing over their burning corpses.

"That's what I thought. You know, in every movie I watched, the good guy left the bad guy alive. And the bad guy came back and hurt the good guy. Or his family." Akicita's lips twisted bitterly. "Now, I don't have any family. Not anymore. But … better safe than sorry."

Flames leapt up and devoured Fitzdorf before he could scream.

"Well, that takes care of that." Akicita looked at his wraiths. "You're too conspicuous like that."

They condensed to floating orbs and trailed after him as he walked down the street, following the trolley rails.

At each intersection, he sent flames shooting down the side streets. At each building or tower, he shot flames from the base to the top. Some things caught fire. Some did not. He didn't linger.

The gates were shut.

Akicita cocked his head to the side. He didn't see an obvious way to get through. The triple-guards Baron Dorf had ordered were nowhere in sight. A cacophony of shouts and animalistic shrieks rang from the far side.

Akicita climbed the ladder next to the gate. At the peak of the wall, he looked out on bedlam.

In the light of the setting sun, man and beast fought man and beast. Akicita smiled as a flickering darkness whispered within his brain.

'Yes … my toys against her toys. That should take her down a notch.'

Akicita frowned. Above the slaughter, a distant figure streaked toward the walls. It flew against the flow of battle, dark dragon-like wings silhouetted against the dying sun.

'No matter,' the darkness said. 'You have repaid your bargain. Come. I will send you home.'

Akicita stretched out a hand and Nocturne answered. Akicita swung astride and the stallion reared, screaming, on the rampart.

They leapt to the ground, landing with a concussive wave of flames. The fire spread through the armies, devouring everything it touched.

Akicita's laughter rang across the field of the dying and the dead.

Nocturne sprang forward, racing into the night.

Fiery orbs rose from the flames and ashes and streamed after the stallion like a comet's tail.