Chapter Six: Black Masks

The night air was clear, well lit by the bright star filled sky. The cool air of it blew on Cress's face as he finished checking his gear. The passing of wind as the dark-painted drop ship glided through it felt nice on his skin. He pulled tight the straps on his gloves, the black tactical gear snuggly fitting to his body as he glanced out the window to the stars. The moon on this planet was much larger looking than the one he remembered from earth, clearly dominating the sky, but not drowning out the endless stars just to its sides. He’d looked at the stars all his life, more often than not from the cockpit of a star fighter, but it was a different feeling to be looking up at them from this world.
He took a breath of the fresh night air before he pulled himself back from where he’d been leaning out of the side door of the drop-ship cabin and sat back down. It was quiet as the passing of air, an impressive feat considering the noise that even the Defender craft made in flight. He didn’t know all the science of stealth, but he knew enough to think it impressive as the ship soundlessly glided through the night air.
He checked the ammunition he carried, lifting the magazine to look over the dart rounds inside it. Each was filled and in place, ready to be used. He slid the magazine back in its place on the assault rifle, the weapon clicking as it locked in place. The Spire was in sight now, enormous and glowing softly on the horizon. It would be the first time Cress saw it up close, he wondered how big it would really be.
Only a few moments later, they were making their approach. Cress could see the spire growing closer and closer as the silent craft flew up to its side. He looked to the other two men who would be on his squad, their names were Christopher and Isaac, both from the Wolf Corps like Captain Grant leading Alpha. They would be landing on the other side of the palace at the same time he and the rest of Bravo did. Cress took one last look at them, giving them a smile before he pulled on his mask and visor. Christopher smiled right back, Isaac’s face didn’t change before they both pulled their masks on as well.
Cress turned back to the side door of the drop craft, opening it up and tossing out his repelling line. They were going in.

~
December once again found herself dashing through the palace, though it was empty of guards and really any people at all. Something was coming from behind her, a great walking suit of dark armor. She didn’t scream, because she wasn’t afraid. She couldn’t be; she’d already had this dream. It would be only a moment before the prince came to her rescue. She came to the dead end she knew inevitably was coming and came to a stop, turning quickly around to face the black armored hulk. It stopped before her, its red eyes glowing from inside the helmet as it appraised her. She backed up a little, waiting for the prince to appear and save her as he always did in her dreams, but this time he seemed to be really taking his time.
The hulk began to advance on her, his steps loud and heavy enough to shake floor. December backed up slowly, keeping her eyes up on the giant as he began to fully corner her. She began to feel her faith that the prince would come begin to fade, the giant towering over her enough to immerse her in its shadow. Without meaning to, December began shaking, imagining what she was about to experience and suddenly hoping she would just wake up but knew she wouldn’t as the giant reached for her.
Suddenly, with a glimmer of light, the prince came, walking from behind the Giant and turning to face it. The Giant stopped its reaching and turned its attention on the blonde prince, making December let a breath of relief. She knew he would come.
The Prince stood standing with the giant, as though somehow communicating with it. December watched in suspense as the two figures faced one another.
They stayed where they were, neither one of them making a move for a painfully long time, December’s fear slowly returning to her; like black tar in her stomach, slowly spreading about and absorbing any of her surety. She gulped audibly, it being the only sound in the otherwise silent room.
Then at once, the prince smiled, looking to December and then back to the giant. The Giant slowly lifted a hand, holding a dimly glowing ball, and wordlessly handed it to the prince. Cast accepted the ball and then turned away, sparing one smiling glance to the princess before he turned his back on her, distracted by the gift he’d received.
December couldn’t believe her eyes, her mouth dropping in shock at what had happened. Cast, her prince, paid off by the very monster he faced. The hulk then turned from the prince and back to her, the red eyes being the only indication of its smile. December felt her stomach drop, her breath catch. The monster again reached out for her, the great metal clad hand coming around her and wrapping its fingers around her waist. She screamed, but no sound issued from her throat, she struggled, but the fingers were like steel and wouldn’t move.
She turned back to the prince, watching him not look up, watching him play with the small glowing ball in his hands without noticing her, or perhaps not even caring. Help me! She tried to scream, but still couldn’t make a sound.
She was about to resign herself to whatever fate the hulk had in mind for her when there came a shout from her side, the first sound to break the silence. Her eyes shot to the side to see a dark-haired man dashing toward them, a man she had only seen in her imagination. Sword in hand, the hero from her book rushed to her rescue. He leapt up with his sword and swung it downward from above his head, cutting into the arm of the hulk. The hulk released her immediately, she falling to her feet beneath it. The Hero moved to her, taking her shoulder and looking at her with concern mirrored in his signature silver eyes.
“Are you alright, December?” he asked her, his voice soft and carrying a warm tone.
She could only nod, watching his sliver eyes as though transfixed. He spared her a reassuring smile before he turned back to face the Hulk.
She watched until she began to hear foot falls all around her, their presence foreign to her dream. She heard a voice and suddenly the dream began to fall from around her. She was waking up.

December’s eye came open, she looking to her side at the balcony where she could see the shape of two men crouching there, holding oddly shaped objects in their hands. They were spaced apart from a rope that dangled over her balcony, a third figure sliding down the rope with a zipping sound. Her eyes widened at their dress, unable to place it to anything she’d ever seen. One of the men looked to her, raising a hand as he perceived her and pointing toward her. She felt her breath catch, she knew they saw her awake. All three of the men moved silent as death toward her. She tried to scream but couldn’t breathe for fear. As they came closer she saw more of their ware. They were like demons with no faces, their heads having only black shape of what should be facial features, their eyes covered by a polished metal bar. They were clad entirely in black striped clothes, padded and armored and carrying several odd objects strapped to their bodies. It was unlike anything December had ever seen.
“Keep quiet.” Ordered one in a harsh whisper, surprising her that it could speak in a way she could understand, lifting the metal rectangular object it carried to point it at her. She wasn’t sure what the object was, but she felt like he was threatening her with it. Her eyes were wide with fear as she looked about at each of the three figures.
“W-Who are you?” she managed after a moment, her voice tiny. “What are you?”
There was a pause and then one of the three men stepped forward, lowering his weapon. “She’s terrified.” He spoke softly, his voice more gentle than the other ones. “Lower your rifle Isaac.” He commanded. The first one that spoke looked at the forward one as it spoke and hesitantly lowered his weapon.
December’s eyes were riveted on the forward stranger as he walked toward her until they were just close enough to reach out and touch one another. He set down his weapon on the bed near her waist where she sat up watching him and he lifted a hand to his face, slowly taking a hold of the black of his face and lifting it to her surprise, pulling it off his head revealing a human one beneath. Her eyes widened at what she saw, the black of his face was simply a mask. The man before her was fair featured and youthful, his hair dark and spilling just over his eyes . . .
December started at the sight of it.
…His silver eyes.
“What is your name?” he asked her softly, his voice warm with a smile.
She held his eyes in surprise, unable to tell how she was feeling, not certain if she could even speak further. “De . . .” she stared, then took a steadying breath “December.” She answered honestly.
The young man before her smiled. “I’m happy to meet you, December, I’m Cress.”
The two other men shifted uncomfortably, looking about the room while Cress spoke to her, but she didn’t pay them any attention compared to the one speaking to her. “What are you… Cress?”
Cress kept his smile. “I’m sorry to have woke you. You see, I am from Finelle. I am a Defender.” He answered her, then went on. “You see, some of our loved ones were taken from us a short time ago, we’re here to rescue them.”
The nearest of the other two men looked quickly back to Cress, and although she couldn’t see his face, she could recognize disapproval instantly, being very familiar with it herself. Cress didn’t pay the other man any attention though. “December, do you know where my friends are? I want to help them.”
Something inside December shouted out in protest, fear again surging through her. They were Fells! Inside the castle! She should scream, she should fight them and die trying to clean them from within the walls. She shouldn’t do a thing to help them; she should just be quiet …
Yet … for some reason she could not explain, she wanted to help them, she wanted to help Cress. He was there, almost directly from her dream, and his eyes . . .
“I don’t know.” She admitted softly, looking away momentarily before looking up to him. “But they’re here, I saw them and…” Once again, her mind protested, shouting at her that she needed to stop, that she was betraying her own people by saying anything further, but for some reason she went ahead anyway. “I don’t know where they are, but there’s a door, hidden at the top of the library, a black door…” she trailed off. “That’s where Gareth goes.” She finished, not able to say anymore. She suddenly felt as though she’d committed a crime, as though she’d betrayed everything she believed was right and all at once and so easily.
Cress smiled reassuringly to her. “Thank you.” He said softly.
She looked up to him as he reached up and brushed her hair back over her ear. His touch was surprisingly gentle, feeling welcome on her face.
“I am in your debt.” He said finally.
December stared at him, feeling her eyes suddenly grow heavy, her body relaxing totally. What’s happening…? She wondered idly, but found that she couldn’t bring herself to think about it much. She fell back onto her pillow, falling quickly asleep as though drugged.

~~

Cress smiled as he slowly leaned down to her sleeping figure and removed the tiny sleep inducing patch from next to her ear where he’d placed it to put her back at rest. Isaac moved back over to him and spoke in a harsh whisper. “Sir, you could have jeopardized the mission. What were you thinking?”
Cress just smiled and started to put his mask back on. “Perhaps, but she was just a scared girl. Besides, if her information is good then she may have just saved the mission.” He said, sliding the black balaclava back over his face. He clicked on his visor, making his vision light up with night-vision arrays, switchable to thermal imaging for tricky visibility. With the dark no longer making a problem for his vision, he looked back to Isaac and Christopher and signaled for them to follow directly behind.
Moving to the girl’s door leading outside, Cress paused and reached down to the bottom, feeding a camera on a long flexible rod underneath the door crevice, checking the hallway outside. He noted two guards on either side of the hallway, both looking very bored as they stood at half-attention. Cress signaled with his fingers to silently alert both his other squad members of the guard’s positions. He stood before the door as Isaac leaned on the wall beside it, Christopher lining up behind Cress.
Cress checked to be sure that the dart rounds were loaded before he pulled a sound suppressor from his tactical belt and attached it to the muzzle of his assault rifle. He checked back to see Christopher doing likewise before he nodded to Isaac. Isaac pulled the knob and pushed the door open, Cress moving out into the hallway and in a fluid motion lifting the rifle to fire the potent tranquilizer at the unsuspecting guard, Christopher moving behind him and firing in the opposite direction at the second guard.
With hardly a sound, both guards fell down, sleep overwhelming them right away. The three men moved silent as a whisper to the bodies, moving quickly to pick them both up and drag them back into the girl’s room and out of sight. They closed the door after disposing of the sleeping bodies and continued to move onward through the palace, hugging the walls as they went and keeping quiet.
They soon came to a wide open room, being on the second level of it on a large balcony that overlooked an enormous ballroom. The balcony was wide and furnished as though it were a sort of lounge. At the door on the other end of the balcony there walked another guard, glancing the other way as they entered. Quickly, the three men ducked behind the lounge furniture and out of sight, Cress glancing over to see the Guard slowly making his way across the room. There doubtlessly would be more guards beneath the balcony in the ballroom, but most of the balcony would be out of sight for them so it shouldn’t be a problem for them to bring down the incoming guard, so long as it was quiet.
Cress knelt poised and waited, slowly moving his rifle to attach to the magnet on his back and out of his way as the guard came closer. He visualized his movements before the guard slowly rounded the corner of the sofa Cress hid behind. Cress rose as the guard moved around, the guard’s eyes widening with the black-clad intruder suddenly so close to him. Cress thrust his hand flat like a blade to the guard’s throat, silencing him from shouting before he followed through, raising a knee to the guard’s stomach to double him over. The surprised man crumpled with little resistance raised, his surprise overwhelming him as Cress knocked him to the ground. Cress turned to place a knee on the guard’s back, pinning him down as Cress stuck another sleeping patch to a bit of the guard’s exposed skin. He held him down as his awkward struggles came to an end under the drug’s influence.
Cress let a breath of relief and got off of the guard, pulling him quickly by the feet to hide him beneath the sofa, a cloth overhang covering the body entirely. Cress looked back to the other two men, Chris glancing over the sofa alertly while Isaac watched Cress work, the mask hiding his expression. Cress just nodded to them and signaled for them to move on.
Cress was making note of the structure of the Palace as they went, trying to memorize their route. He was in no mood to get lost in a hostile castle. The moved through the hallways going upward as they searched for the library the girl had described. They brought down three more guards in their search, silently and hiding them in similar fashion as they had before until they found the room which was undoubtedly the library. Cress was the first to enter, looking up in wonder at the expansiveness of the room. It held a very high celling, rising at least 80 feet above them with shelves upon shelves of books rising up with them. There were several overhanging walkways along the shelves, all of them made of what appeared to be polished marble. Most remarkably was the no-doubt enchanted book cases that seemed to float about the library, making it appear to be in constant lazy movement. Cress took his eyes off the magical book cases and looked back to the doorway, signaling both his men to move in. They found cover and he took his radio, calling to Captain Grant.
“Bravo lead to Alpha lead. What’s your twenty?” he spoke softly into his comlink.
There was a moment of quiet before Captain Grant’s voice answered the request. “We’re inside in what appears to be a conservatory. One guard down, and silence maintained.”
Cress imagined what they were seeing for a moment, comparing it to the sight of the library. “Acknowledged. We’re in a library following a possible lead. Six guards downed, silence maintained. Will radio with further updates. Bravo out.”
Cress looked back to Chris and Isaac and nodded to them both. They nodded in turn and together they each moved to their feet and started to make their way stealthily through the library. Up several flights of spiral stairs and through the bookshelves they went, continually ascending until they came to the final hallway, a short alcove leading several feet from the library until it came to a large decorative crest at the end of the hallway. Cress came to it and looked back to Chris and Isaac before he turned around, not thinking anymore of it. Chris stopped him however.
“Sir, wait.” He requested, pointing to the crest. “The girl said the door was hidden, and this is the top of the library; a hallway leading to nothing? I doubt it.” He explained softly.
Cress watched him while he spoke, then looked to the crest and nodded. “Point taken.” He agreed. He felt silly taking the advice as he was supposed to be in the lead, but Chris had a temperament about him that made it easier. They turned back to the crest and began a brief search, Isaac watching the hallway behind them as they worked. It was Chris who found the switch hidden behind the crest, pulling it into place to make the trick door slide open.
Cress looked down the hallway it led to, noting the dramatic increase in the darkness. “Night vision on.” He commanded softly. “Both of you stay tight on me, we’re going in.”