The Radiant War

Chapter 27a

     “Go!” called one of the guards. “Get out of here!” The man then fell as another guard shot him. The Guard Captain, whose loyalty to the King was apparently stronger than his love of his country. Some of the other guards apparently felt the same way because a battle was breaking out between them, guard against guard, and then the Radiant was among them, tearing the rebel guards apart. Soon the battle would be over and the pursuit would begin again.

     Determined not to waste the chance they'd been given, the Brigadier and the Princess began running towards the wall again, Darniss still following them. “We should head for the gate,” panted the Princess. “The guards might be on our side.”

     “And they might not.”

     “What have we got to lose?”

      She had a point, the Brigadier realised, and so they angled towards the nearest gate, whose guards were already aware of them and had emerged from their guardpost to stare at them, their weapons in their hands. The Brigadier dropped his sword as he ran and held up his hands to make himself look less threatening. There would be no fighting here, he knew. The guards had guns, the fugitives didn’t. Either the guards would join with them, or they would capture or kill them as they approached. Though he hated it, the Princess’s fate was now out of his hands.

     He became aware of a strong wind tugging at his clothes from behind. The Radiant was pursuing them again. He saw the guards ahead also bracing themselves against the strengthening gale and hoped they came to the same realisation that the ones behind had. They must have been suspecting it for months, he thought. The idea that the Radiants could control the weather was long established in folklore. The idea that the drought was a purely natural phenomenon, must have taken the King and his ministry of propaganda a long time to establish, but now the guards could feel the truth billowing out their clothing and streaming through their hair, so obviously conjured up by the Radiant that no-one could deny it any more. So much for the Radiants having superior intellects, thought the Brigadier. They'd made a serious mistake revealing this ability so publicly, unless they were so confident of victory that they just didn't care any more.

     As they drew close, the guards aimed their guns at them and shouted words they couldn’t hear but whose meaning was clear. The Brigadier, still holding the Princess’s hand tightly, slowed to a stop and forced her to stop as well. “We are not your enemies!” he shouted, hoping the wind would blow his words to their ears. “That is your enemy!” He pointed back at the Radiant, now almost close enough to curse them. “That is your enemy! Helberion is working on a weapon against them! King Leothan will share it with you if you give us back to him!”

     “He speaks the truth!” added the Princess, her voice breaking as she shouted. Princesses didn't shout. She had never spoken at this volume before. “We will help you fight the Radiants! We will help you drive them away so that the rains will return! Your country will bloom again! We will help you!”

     The guards were arguing among themselves, the Brigadier saw. The continuation of an argument they'd had many times before, by the look of it. The Guard Captain was shouting at the others angrily. One of his men pointed his gun at his head and shot him. The man then gestured for the Brigadier and the two women to come forward, while the other guards began shooting. The Brigadier tensed up, expecting to feel bullets tearing into his body, but they were aiming past them, at the Radiant. He reached out, grabbed the Princess’s hand again and pulled her on, towards the gate.

     The piping of the Radiant was growing louder behind them, but the creature was being hit by a tremendous number of bullets, many of which were punching holes in its buoyancy sacks, releasing hydrogen. The creature would be finding it harder to remain airborne. They were willing to sacrifice themselves if it benefited their race, he knew, but their secret was out now. Too many people had seen the Radiant using a wind it had conjured up itself to propel itself around the palace grounds. Members of the Royal family enjoying the morning sun. Gardeners and other servants going about their duties. Even members of the public watching the whole thing through the railings. Catching the three fugitives had become irrelevant, and so the Radiant rose into the sky and the wind changed direction, blowing it away from the fusillade.