But Lessa had an idea.

  “So we take a regular plasma rifle,” Lessa said, “and we modify it with a quick fix. I’m going to have to make the muzzle wider, and we’ll have to cool it, but in theory, I can turn it into a repeating rifle without you having to pull back the bolt every single time.”

  Jace raised his eyebrows. “How does that work— Actually, you know what, I don’t need to know the details. But you think you can do it?”

  “I think with the extra recoil of your hyperspace Aes, I should be able to manage it. We’ll have to make some finicky modifications, of course. And, oh, if you get me one of those old rifles the ranch has to look at…”

  As it turned out, Mrs. Calder’s grandfather fought in the first world war, and they still had his old rifle, which the Calders let Jace and Lessa inspect (without any ammunition in it).

  “Are you sure a rifle is the best choice?” Jace asked. “I mean…I’ve never been the best at shooting.”

  But Mrs. Calder had interjected and pointed out that they could help him practice, and Lessa insisted it would be better if both of them had a ranged option.

  They continued the design for a few days until Jace had a comfortable all-wood prototype that he could rest on his shoulder. Apparently, the barrel would want to lift if he fired it in fully automatic mode, but since Jace wasn’t going to be doing much sharpshooting, LeeKay helped design a hip nest.

  Simply, he could tuck the rifle’s butt into a thick belt at his hip and shoot while walking. With the amount of times Jace had run through hallways, fighting Alliance soldiers, he could see the use.

  “So, where does the Halcyon spear come in?” Jace asked. “What bonus does it provide?”

  “I’m still working on integrating it, but…” Lessa chewed her lip and tucked the pencil behind her ear. Then, she ran over to the Gull and removed the spear from the storage compartment. “The thing is, this spear seems to have an incredibly close connection with the Split.”

  She handed it to Jace. Staring at it, he flipped it up, and held it how he thought a spear should’ve been held.

  “Stab something with it.”

  “Why now?”

  “You’re stronger than when we last experimented. You might be able to get it to resonate more, to feed that energy into it, and trigger its purpose.”

  Jace narrowed his eyebrows, then approached a hay bale. Pushing a touch of Aes into the spear, he rammed it forward into the bale.

  The area around the impact point…dissolved. It was similar to how his own body had disintegrated when he first arrived on Lyvarion, but some of the hay turned into gold dust and floated away in the wind.

  In the end, it’d created about a fist-sized hole in the hay bale.

  “Okay, I sorta see it now,” he said. “So each shot of the rifle could do that, if we could harness the spear’s power? It…literally destroys matter at a fundamental level?”

  “Exactly,” she replied. She took the spear back and tapped the midsection. “The Luminians crafted it to resonate with the Split, deconstructing their own constructions, but it has the side effect of deconstructing most things under the Split’s…range of effect.”

  “So basically everything.”

  “Basically.” She held the spear closer again, so Jace could see through the translucent resin that formed its main shaft. “This. Take a look. Remember: the spear’s main function is from a card inside. We put that card into your rifle, then we activate the effect.”

  “But we still have to break the resin shell and get the card out.”

  “And that is the really hard part,” Lessa said. “And the thing that we’re going to need to go exploring to accomplish.”

  16

  A MINOR DETOUR

  That evening, Jace returned to the farmhouse and asked, “What do you guys have for maps? Or know about the outer world?”

  “Not much,” Mr. Calder replied. “We’ve explored about a hundred miles to the east, and not much has changed up until you reach the nearest rift. There isn’t a crossing for a few miles—but we’ve been helping build one. It’s slow work.”

  “But there have been rumours,” Wyatt added. “Down south, there’s a Sentinel.”

  “Sentinel?” Jace asked. He’d read about those, but how did anyone here know about it?

  “We don’t know if that’s what it’s actually called, but those who’ve escaped it all call it the same thing. Something just twinges in their mind. It’s a monster that emerged out of nothing. Roving around the wilds, slowly devouring settlements and explorers. But hey, maybe the army killed it.”

  Jace nodded, then glanced at Lessa. “That could be a good source of Aes.”

  Holding one of her books open, she tapped the page. “That tracks. And yeah, the name ‘Sentinel’ is…correct, it’d seem. They appear on Headstream worlds during the whole integration process. It seems to be a by-product and not something the Split creates consciously, but they’re quite deadly, and if the world hasn’t created enough Wielders—or Champions—then they’re in deep trouble.”

  “That’s just not fair,” Jace muttered. “The process for Earth has massively accelerated, hasn’t it?”

  “It would seem so,” Lessa replied. “The good news is that killing them will award you lots of Aes.”

  “What about the spear?”

  “I should be able to use their cores to create a cracking array. That ‘resin’ stuff covering the spear? It’s forged Aes of an incredibly high quality. If we’re going to crack it open, either we need it to fulfill its purpose of destroying the wall—which would be a terrible idea—or four cores from Deity Making monsters.”

  “And the Sentinels are at the deity-making stage.”

  “Right…” Jace grimaced. “Well, then I doubt the military has touched them. They may have tried, but there won’t be much they can do. We’ll have to see how we stack up.”

  For good measure, he triggered [Questforger] while focussing on the concept of the Sentinel. The tracking needle still appeared, and the Split registered a target to the south. It pointed downward slightly to account for the curve of the Earth, but its existence was a good sign.

  “We’ll go for the closest one, then,” Jace said. “And then we’ll pick off the others as quickly as we can.”

  “If you can,” Wyatt said. “Don’t get yourself killed.”

  “I have to,” Jace said. “Either I die here, or we die in a matter of weeks—when the Wall falls.”

  “Question for you,” Lessa said. “We could just drop the spear off in the middle of space, couldn’t we?”

  “We…” Jace sighed. “I guess. But we’re assuming that the Hand wouldn’t just track its spiritual signature—or get strong enough to do so. We’re just kicking the can down the road, and eventually, someone would find it. Today, tomorrow, a century from now.” He sighed. “We have to find a way to use the spear against the Hand and bring him down.”

  “What if we took the Outcast and evacuated everyone? Use our next jump and escape to someplace else, some place out of the Split’s reach—and the Enemy.”

  “Well, a few problems, right? We don’t know how long it would be until the Split tried to Integrate whatever galaxy we ended up on. But how could we even make the jump if the Split hasn’t put out a Splitroute there? This is basically the end of the line, right? We can’t make hyperspace jumps without the Split.”

  “True,” Lessa said. “Alright, alternatives exhausted. Let’s fire up the Gull and go hunting for a Sentinel.”

  “Are you not going to stay for dinner?” Mrs. Calder asked.

  “We’re on a bit of a tight schedule,” Jace said. “Sorry about that. But would you have us back if we need a place to hide again?”

  “I—why, yes, of course!” Mrs. Calder exclaimed.

  “Just don’t bring the military with you,” Wyatt said.

  “Or any other unnatural beasts,” Mr. Calder added.

  “Got it,” Jace said.

  He and Lessa ran out to the Gull and pulled the tarp off it. They didn’t have much time—the sun was setting, and darklings would be there to heckle them soon. They climbed in, set LeeKay loose in the mechanical compartments, and fired up the thrusters.

  A minute later, they were off, racing only a kilometer or two above the ground. Jace hoped it’d mess with anyone’s radar, but he didn’t really know if that was a myth or not. He didn’t fly as fast as possible, because he didn’t want to attract too much attention, and it was late in the day, so he didn’t want to risk missing the Sentinel as the sun set.

  They flew south through the night, and Jace used [Questforger] to check on their progress. Sometimes, the technique card got confused and pointed in a completely opposite direction (sometimes straight down), which he was pretty sure meant it had locked onto a different Sentinel somewhere else on earth.

  In the morning, though, new dots sprang up on the radar ahead of them. At first, he worried they were military planes, but they were moving too quickly, and the Gull’s scanners registered them as red. He’d only calibrated the sensors to detect Alliance ships as enemies, and other craft wouldn’t appear that way.

  “It’s about time,” he said. “I think we’re taking a detour.”

  “Alliance ships?” Lessa asked.

  “Yeah. Hold on.”

  “Don’t forget to get me a rifle.”

  “Pardon?”

  “Well, we’ll need something to make the base of your new weapon out of, won’t we?” Lessa asked. “And there’s only one place to get yourself a plasma rifle here. I assume. You guys haven’t come up with plasma rifles, have you? Or, do you want to try to build something from scratch?”

  Jace chuckled. “Not at all. I’ll try to keep some Alliance ships intact and see if they have anything worth taking.”

  He circled around, swerving the Gull to the side. There was a chance they’d picked up on him, but they were moving too fast to change course quickly. They flew through a building storm, then arced back over what had probably once been the Utah or Wyoming countryside, until the Alliance starships appeared ahead of them.

  For good measure, he activated the shields, then launched the Gull forward.

  First, the Alliance starships appeared as a clump of magenta lights in the sky as they raced over a deep rift in the ground. As he got closer, angling to intercept them, he picked out three dropships and an escort of starfighters—and in the distance, a couple fighter jets from Earth racing to intercept.

  “Ugh,” Jace muttered. “Jets are going to be a problem.” He’d just have to shoot the Alliance ships down before Earth’s planes could get in the way. They probably belonged to the US, and ultimately, the pilots inside were allies. Pretty much anyone from Earth had to be a friend at this point, and maybe he could score some brownie points if he was seen helping them out.

  He linked with the Gull’s systems and fed hyperspace Aes to the wingtip plasma cannons, then fired off a burst. The bolts surged forward, piercing through an Alliance starfighter’s shields with ease.

  Jace felt like he’d done this a hundred times before. The Gull raced around the small squadron, outmaneuvering them and refusing to slow down, even as the Alliance starfighters cut their speed to try to react to him.

  Yes, technically he had a truce with the Outcast, but if they’d sent a squadron out here, he wasn’t taking any chances on them. It was probably a rogue group anyway, and the last thing he needed was Alliance soldiers and Wielders trying to hunt him down, too, and just causing problems for Earth.

  When he blasted the last starfighter out of the sky, the fighter jets were drawing close. Jace fired a pair of shots to intercept the missiles they shot at him, then turned to focus on the Alliance dropships. They were descending, likely trying to deploy soldiers, so he let them—until they got closer to the ground.

  He fired a salvo, piercing their shields and damaging their thrusters, turning them into gliders. One smashed into the side of the rift wall, and the other scraped along the top of the rift, digging a trench through the wild grasses and a broken up old road.

  Jace landed the Gull beside them and threw open the canopy, then jumped out and ran over to the dropship’s side, drawing his Whistling Blade. The dropship’s doors hissed open, and a squad of soldiers leaked out, coated entirely in silver armour. They were all mortals, save for a single Soul-Circle Opening Wielder.

  “Hey, guys,” Jace said. “You wouldn’t happen to be on my side, would you?”

  Most of them tilted their heads. He wasn’t sure if they even spoke English. It seemed like most of the crew had been Koedor-Terginians. But the Wielder said, “Traitor!”

  “Well, I was never on your side,” Jace said. “But I’ll take that to mean you’re against us.”

  “We did have a truce,” Lessa added. She had remained in the cockpit, but she pointed her rifle at the soldiers.

  “The Hand will kill us all because of this!” the Wielder snapped. “You’ve violated his mission and corrupted our captain!” He rushed forward, but Lessa blasted him in the side of the head, and his body went skidding to the side.

  “Anyone want to surrender?” Jace asked.

  A few of the soldiers dropped their rifles. One kept his raised, and he pointed it right at Jace’s head. His finger quivered, and after a few seconds, he fired a shot. Jace leaned to the side to avoid it.

  Then he snatched the rifle out of the man’s hands and said, “I’ll take that. Now, we’ve got a job to do, and I’m sure most of you don’t want to even be here. Get back on your dropship and go back to the Outcast. Scram. You don’t have a Wielder telling you what to do. Unless you count me. And yes, I’m telling you what to do…”

  He sighed, but the remaining soldiers listened. They ran back inside the dropship, and a moment later, it took off.

  Jace turned back to Lessa and held out one of the Alliance’s surrendered weapons to her. “I got the rifle.”

  17

  WELCOME HOME, CHAMPION

  With that mild distraction out of the way, Jace and Lessa rushed back to the Gull—and just in time to take cover in the safety of its shields. The fighter jets fired a pair of missiles, but both exploded harmlessly on the Gull’s shields. There was only a slight burst of warmth that seeped through, but even that was minimal.

  Jace hopped into the cockpit and said, “Any chance you can adjust our transmitter to find a way to talk with them?”

  “I have no idea how your guys’ transmitters even work. I don’t think that’s going to work. Unless you can explain exactly how it works and what…I dunno, frequency? Whatever it is your transmitter channels use to patch us in.”

  “Yeah I don’t know how it works,” Jace replied. “Sorry.”

  “I can’t help, then.”

  “Right, I guess we’re outrunning them. Think we can get into the storm and lose them there?”

  “Yeah. Since when has that ever not worked?”

  Jace laughed. “I would say that sounds like sarcasm, but…”

  “But it really has worked every single time we’ve done it,” she agreed.

  They pulled the cockpit shut, took off, then raced toward a storm bubbling up on the horizon. It was a wall of cloud with a swirling, churning brink that was rushing toward them at an unprecedented speed. Lightning with a faintly violet hue crackled on the edge, and it probably had something to do with plasma.

  Better yet, [Questforger]’s tracking needle was pointing at the storm. Directly at it. Jace got the sense that whatever they were looking for, it was inside that storm.

  “Be on the lookout,” he said. “I think we’re getting close to the Sentinel.”

  They flew straight toward the storm, and the fighter jets broke off the chase, turning around to hunt the Alliance dropship instead. Whatever sort of lightning this was, it couldn’t be good for a regular fighter jet.

  As soon as the wind hit, the Gull began shuddering violently, trying to wrench itself out of Jace’s control, but he held on and surged the repellers, keeping them stable against the buffeting wind. Lightning crackled above, and a bolt glanced off the Gull’s shields.

  “That looks like it has a faint plasma aspect,” Lessa breathed.

  “Any idea what aspects the Sentinels are?”

  “Not really. There were a bunch of options it listed. But it shouldn’t matter when I make the cracking array.”

  “Got it!”

  By now, Jace couldn’t see anything. The clouds were thick, and even the bolts of lightning didn’t help. They just left streaks in his vision as he tried to figure out where they were going.

  To make sure he didn’t crash into anything, he reached out with his senses, feeling for targets. With the help of [Questforger], his senses extended much farther than they would otherwise, but he focussed on only what he deemed the most important.

  It only took a few minutes before an immense pressure weighed down on him, feeling like it was pressing through his senses and striking at the front of his brain. A migraine, but worse, and originating from something right in front of them. Something on the ground, in the eye of the storm.

  “Do you feel that?” he asked.

  “Not yet, but I’m sure we’ll feel it when we’re closer!” Lessa called.

  It turned out that ‘right in front of them’ to Jace’s senses was farther away than he thought. His senses were working with a much larger scale. But he fired the Gull’s thrusters harder, and they shot through the storm faster. The raindrops hit the viewscreen like gunshots, and the entire ship shook.

  Until it stopped. They passed through the wall of the storm and entered the eye. Walls of mist rose on all sides, creating an enormous arena of gray clouds swirling over a beaten, flooded land. Trees were on their sides, like a giant had swept his hand across a carpet and made the threads all lie down flat, and everything was wet. There were new lakes and ponds teeming with wildlife, and everything crackled with residual plasma lightning. Jace could practically smell the dryer-lint aroma of burnt ozone through the cockpit glass.