The Phoenix Mandate (The Light Thief Book 2), page 1
Contents
FREE BOOK!
I. Shadow and Stranger
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
II. Intervention
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
III. Level I
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
IV. Clash
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
V. The Director
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Epilogue
Thank You
A Simple Favor
Pre-order Lightbringer!
GET A FREE BOOK AND THE CHANCE TO BE THE FIRST TO READ THE THIRD BOOK,
LIGHTBRINGER
I would like nothing more than the opportunity to get to know you! I do this using a newsletter that includes details on new releases, special offers, and other miscellaneous news relating to the Light Thief series.
And if you sign up to the mailing list using the link in the back, I’ll send you The Saboteur, a book that expands the Light Thief universe, for FREE. See the back of this book for more information.
I promise not to fill your inbox with spam or share your contact information with anyone, ever.
jdavidwebb.com
Youtube
The Phoenix Mandate
The Light Thief, Book 2
David Webb
This book is dedicated to the Robertson family.
Some of my favorite people in the world—you showed me what a family should look like.
I love you all.
It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.
Aristotle
Part I
Shadow and Stranger
1
The ground shuddered as an explosion sounded throughout Ravelta.
Aniya Lyons shook her head, attempting to focus. The battle raged on before her, lit only by muzzle flashes and torchlight.
It was strange to see her old enemies, the Silver Guard, fight side-by-side with the rebels from Refuge. The only thing that gave her solace was the green, four-fingered hand that glowed on her allies’ body armor.
Because wearing the same silver armor, taking cover behind a shelter before them, was an army of Silver Guard still loyal to the Chancellor. However, their armor was clean, untouched by the glowworm juice. Their helmets offered no light, as the first thing the rebels had done upon entering Ravelta was detonate an electromagnetic pulse bomb.
And then there was Refuge’s army. They wore brown moleskin armor, which was surprisingly just as effective as the Silvers’ metal armor. After the demise of Refuge’s leader, Salvador the Scourge, during the battle in the Hub, this army was led by Corrin, the second-in-command to the legendary warlord.
In front of the rebels’ combined forces was a line of metal barriers, a defensive blockade that Corrin had engineered to defend against the Lightbringers for as long as possible. They didn’t have to completely wipe out the enemy. They just had to stall long enough to find the Chancellor and capture him. If the disgraced leader of the Lightbringers was in Ravelta, his capture would solidify the rebels’ victory and signal the end of the Lightbringers.
As the battle continued, Aniya stood on the edge of the sector, watching the firefight as she resisted the voice inside that softly beckoned her.
“Aniya.”
There it was again. Her heart rate quickened as her temperature spiked, and Aniya held her breath and closed her eyes until the whisper vanished into the recesses of her mind.
It was better that she separate herself from the fight. She hadn’t been able to concentrate on anything for the last several weeks, not since the incident underneath the Citadel that culminated in the destruction of the Lightbringers’ reactor and the end of the electricity that powered the underground civilization of the Web.
Besides, her mission here required no fighting. All she had to do was wait.
As the battle raged, she looked past the warring factions to the city of Ravelta.
The innocent civilians were surely locked in their homes, not aware that the savages trying to invade their sector were rebelling against the evil government that had held their friends, brothers, and sons hostage, enslaving them in a torturous machine.
Aniya may have destroyed that machine, and the rebels may have won the battle of the Hub, but the war for the Web had only begun. The Lightbringer leader, the Chancellor, was hiding somewhere in the underground world, still commanding an army that ruled the sectors.
It would be hard to convince the people of each sector that the mission of the rebels was a noble one, a mission that would free them from tyranny. Aniya had seen the cruelty of the Lightbringers firsthand, but in most sectors, things were as normal as they could possibly be. People were somewhat happy.
How could they ever be expected to believe that the government that gave them power and stability was only able to do so because they had found a way to suck energy from humans, using them to generate electricity?
If any of them could see the horrors that Aniya had witnessed beneath the Citadel, if any of them could see the tens of thousands of men imprisoned in tanks, spending their lives in a black nothingness, they would all of them turn against the Lightbringers in an instant.
But Kendall said that this was a secret that they would have to hold on to until the Web was ready to hear it.
Kendall.
Aniya shuddered. The man that had helped them destroy the Lightbringers seemed to have the purest of motivations. But her twin brother, Roland, had put enough doubt in her mind to make her second-guess Kendall’s every move.
An explosion rang out near her, too close for comfort, and the ground shook again, this time enough that she lost her balance, toppling to the dirt and rock below, jarring her shoulder.
“You okay?”
Aniya looked up to see Tamisra, who carried a stalagmite spear in one hand and a gun in the other. She was breathing heavily, and with each exhale, blood dripped from the tip of her spear. Putting her weapons away, she helped Aniya to her feet.
“Yeah, I guess.” Aniya steadied herself and looked down at her own gun, which had not been fired yet. The bulky metal weapon felt unnatural in her hands. She had held one once before, deep in the cavern below the Hub. She didn’t know whether it was a fear for her life or the adrenaline of the moment that kept her from really thinking about it then, but she had used the weapon without a second thought. Now, she felt as if the gun simply didn’t belong.
Tamisra gave her spear a sharp jerk, and more blood splattered to the ground. “You ready? It’s almost time.”
Aniya nodded. “Why didn’t you hang back with me? You’re wasting energy.”
“And miss out on all the fun?” Tamisra flashed a grin as her eyes sparkled. “I wouldn’t dream of it. I just wish Roland was here with us. Where is your brother, anyway?”
“He had a mission of his own,” Aniya said, thinking of her brother, whom she had last seen leaving Refuge with Nicholas.
She grinned slightly as she thought of Nicholas, her childhood friend. After years of avoiding the issue, she had finally come to peace with his feelings for her. What surprised her more was she found herself feeling the same way.
“What are you smiling about?”
Aniya shook her head. “Nothing.” She looked down at the ground and realized that the green crystal hanging around her neck had slipped out of her body armor, now dangling free. Aniya quickly tucked the trinket back inside her shirt as her smile vanished.
A smiling, dirty face flashed through her mind. Kira. The girl that had given Aniya shelter when she was utterly alone. A selfless friend that eventually gave her life while trying to help Aniya.
Kira’s necklace was a painful reminder of her death, and it hung around Aniya’s neck as an albatross, but she couldn’t bring herself to remove it.
She shook the thought away and
Tamisra’s smile was quite different from Aniya’s. It was a wide grin that revealed her teeth. Combined with her narrowed, twinkling eyes, it was an unsettling sight.
“Ravelta’s the closest sector to the Hub and probably where the Chancellor is hiding after he escaped the Citadel. I’m about to get my hands on the man who tortured me and got my father killed. What’s not to smile about?”
“Ladies, we’re in position.”
Another voice joined them as a figure approached from the direction of the battlefield, placing a gun in a holster at his side. He was a native of Refuge, though he was armored in the same silver armor as the Lightbringers.
“Yes, sir, Lieutenant Haskill, sir.” Tamisra gave a lopsided salute as she stuck out her tongue.
The lieutenant shook his head as he smiled. “Save the sirs for General Corrin. Besides, you’re Salvador’s daughter. I should be calling you sir.”
“Sir,” Tamisra said, rubbing her chin as she looked up as if deep in thought. “I like the sound of that. What do you think, Aniya?”
“I think we need to get moving,” Aniya said. “The Chancellor’s had plenty of time to escape.”
Tamisra shrugged. “It’s not like he has anywhere to go. The tunnel we’re standing in front of and the train station are the only two exits, and we have scouts at the trainyard. If he’s here, we’ll get him. Trust me, no one wants to find him more than I do.”
She had a point. The exiled leader of the Web had kidnapped and tortured Tamisra. Of course, he had kidnapped and tortured tens of thousands of people over the years, squeezing the literal life out of them so that the Web could have power, but at least they were at peace now that the reactor was destroyed, putting the prisoners out of their eternal misery. Tamisra, however, still had scars from her horrific experience with the Lightbringers, and Aniya knew she would hold that grudge until the person responsible answered for it.
“Then let’s get moving.” Lieutenant Haskill grabbed his radio and pressed a button on the side. “Malcolm, Xander, get your squads and head into the sector. It’s time for phase two. You go left, we go right.”
A sharp voice came over the radio. “Negative. We’re going right. We’re closer to that side.”
“That’s not the plan, Malcolm.” Haskill narrowed his eyes.
“Don’t care. Over and out.”
Tamisra groaned. “Does he have to come along?”
“He’s one of our best fighters,” Lieutenant Haskill said as he put the radio away.
“So shouldn’t he stay here and, you know, fight?”
Aniya smirked. “What, you don’t want your ex-boyfriend to come with us?”
“He volunteered, Tamisra.” The lieutenant shrugged. “I’m not going to turn the general’s son away. Besides, if the Chancellor is here, you can bet he’ll be heavily guarded. Fighters would come in handy.” He turned back to the army behind him and shouted, “Archers, light it up!”
An orange glow appeared behind Aniya, and she turned to see a hundred flaming arrows fly through the air, landing among the enemy and lighting a few of their barriers ablaze.
“That’ll give them something to think about. Less chance they’ll spot us.” Haskill pointed toward the wall of the sector. “Let’s move out.”
The group set out along the barrier of Ravelta, quietly skirting the bottom of the skydome and bypassing the battle entirely. The massive shelter the Lightbringers hid behind stretched hundreds of feet wide, but it didn’t reach the edge of the sector.
As they moved away from the battle, the small group stepped into utter darkness. They eventually made their way to downtown Ravelta, where the housing district and the marketplace met.
“All right, let’s go,” the lieutenant said. “Meet back here in three hours unless Corrin signals the retreat. Split up and scan.”
Without a word, Aniya and Tamisra paired off and began their sweep of the sector. They traveled primarily by alleys and side roads, and Aniya found herself grateful that they hadn’t tried to clear Ravelta as a group. She knew she was much faster than the rest of them, and if they slowed her down, she would only get frustrated.
Tamisra was different. It seemed that she had a limitless amount of energy, even though it was only a few weeks after her capture and torture. She was recovering quickly, not that it surprised Aniya that much.
Her ability to keep up proved to be invaluable. Ravelta was one of the Web’s largest sectors, as its location next to the Hub made it an ideal region for residential and industrial purposes. The circular Ravelta was around ten miles in diameter, making the chore of sweeping the entire sector a daunting task.
On top of the sheer size of Ravelta, the lack of light made the rebels’ job even harder. Not a single torch was lit throughout the sector. Not even any candles in the windows of the houses, which made sense given that the civilians would be hiding in their homes from the vicious savages they knew lived in the caves.
A green light caught Aniya’s eyes, and she quickly glanced up at Tamisra. It didn’t seem like the girl had noticed the soft, green glow emanating from Aniya’s body.
In fact, few people had said anything about the light that seemed to cover her skin. Nicholas and Roland had both noticed, but other than that, no one had commented on the anomaly. Maybe it was because they weren’t looking that closely, but more likely because the luminescence was negligible. It certainly wasn’t enough to light their path.
Of course, Aniya knew that it was capable of so much more than mere light. The incident beneath the Citadel was just weeks past, but it seemed like a lifetime ago. Though it was remarkable enough that she would never forget it. The same light that tingled over her body now was the same otherworldly power that blew up the reactor, saved the lives of Nicholas and Roland, and protected them from the meltdown that destroyed the Hub.
Surely it could light their way now if it grew strong enough, but it was too dangerous in an unfamiliar sector. Besides, Aniya couldn’t have controlled it even if she wanted to. It seemed that the light had a mind of its own. Aniya could only hope that it didn’t choose to come to life at the wrong moment.
Several minutes later, they stopped again when Aniya spotted a soft, orange glow coming from a building in the distance.
“What do you suppose that is?” Aniya asked Tamisra.
“Depends. Could be the Chancellor. Could be bait.”
“Do you want to wait for the others?”
Tamisra shook her head. “If it’s a trap, I doubt a few more men would make a difference against an army. Might as well scope it out. We’ll just be careful.”
They neared the building, slowing their approach as they got closer. It was the town hall, standing five stories tall, high above the rest of the nearby buildings. The glow came from a room on the top floor, flickering in a way that was obviously candlelight.
“Ready?”
Aniya nodded.
They entered the town hall slowly, their guns raised in preparation. The front door was unlocked, and the building appeared to be empty. Aniya and Tamisra took their time and slowly made their way through the building before finally reaching the top floor.
