"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." – Martin Luther King Jr.
Chapter 20
"Who do you think met them? Meliorn? The Seelie Queen? Someone else?" Isabelle asked agitatedly, fidgeting, curling and uncurling her whip with nervous energy. "Do you think they're okay?"
"Calm down Izzy, or I'll tell Jace and let him tease you mercilessly for the rest of our lives," Alec threatened. "There's nothing we can do about what's going on now, we just have to wait patiently until night falls and Magnus opens a Portal."
They were gathered with the rest of the Shadowhunter forces in Alicante, in Angel Square. They anticipated that the Fair Folk would attack from through the north gate, and possibly several other points. The purpose of gathering in Angel Square was to conceal the Nephilim forces from view until it was time for them to enact their plan. They would move as one to the outskirts of the city where Magnus would create a Portal, intended to transport the Shadowhunters out into Idris, on the other side of the faerie forces, and lure them out into Brocelind Plain, towards Clary, Jace, Jon and Luke.
"Why aren't you with the archers who are stationed on lookout?" Aline asked Alec.
"Dad wanted Isabelle and me to stay together, and they had enough archers for show," Alec supplied.
"Aline!" a girl exclaimed, approaching them. She was pale and petite, with white-gold hair that fell in ringlets. It was tucked back to reveal slightly pointed ears. Her green-blue eyes topped off a set of features that combined made her quite beautiful.
"Helen!" Aline exclaimed, a little startled, but also apparently pleased.
"Ahh," Isabelle said quietly to Alec, as Helen and Aline hugged and chattered quickly. "That makes sense, she must be Helen Blackthorn, I was wondering about the pointed ears."
"Pointed ears?" Alec queried softly.
"Yes, she and her older brother are part faerie, their mother was a faerie I think. This must be difficult for them, they're half faerie after all," Isabelle explained.
"I remember now," Alec said quickly, looking Helen over. "They're from the Los Angeles Institute, aren't they?"
"We are," Helen said, hearing Alec. "You must be Alec and Isabelle Lightwood, the Inquisitor's children."
"I see our fame precedes us," Alec said dryly, more than use to it. "Is your whole Institute here?"
"Yes, all our forces from the region arrived very late last night," Helen assented. "The rest of my siblings are here, but they're with the other children in the Accords Hall, they're too young to fight."
"Even Mark?" Aline asked curiously.
"No, Mark is just at the Armory, getting weapons, he eventually convinced Dad to let him fight," Helen answered. "Any idea how long until things get underway here?"
"Shouldn't be too much longer," Isabelle supplied. "We're marshalled here until night falls and the faeries storm the city, as we think they will."
"And Jace Herondale and the Morgensterns are out there, meeting with someone from the faeries, as a part of this whole strategy," Helen surmised in a low, thoughtful voice.
"Yes," Isabelle said, fidgeting again. "I wish we were with them!"
Many miles away, on the edge of Brocelind Plain, bordering BrocelindForest were Clary, Jace, Jonathan and Luke, facing the Seelie Queen. No weapons were drawn, but all were poised and ready to spring into action if need be.
"I think it would be best if we were completely up front with one another," Luke began. "It is clear that you have an interest in Clary and Jace for obvious reasons, as well as Jonathan, but I would like you hear from you your specific plans, regarding them."
"I see there will be no beating around the bush, Lucian Graymark," the Seelie Queen said coolly, a calculated grin on her delicately menacing features. "I do not see what information you require from me, however. The information I shared with young Clarissa and Jace was obviously the truth, as you know we fae cannot lie."
"But you can omit things," Luke countered. "Tell me, is there anything more you want with the children, other than their Angel blood talents, and as revenge for what you think Valentine Morgenstern cost you?"
"I don't think it's wise to take that tone with me," the Seelie Queen said, her eyes narrowing.
"And I don't think that you avoiding my questions is a wise approach," Luke retorted firmly.
"Well, we appear to be at a stalemate then," the Queen said eventually. "Actually, no, I don't believe that is the case. You didn't think I would come here without out reinforcements? The forest is filled with my backup, and if you don't cooperate I will end this by force."
Clary looked in concern at Jace, whose hand gripped the hilt of a seraph blade tightly. They were ready to fight if necessary, but if at all possible they needed to wait at least another 5 minutes, until night had fallen, for they could not expect the help to arrive via the Portal Magnus was to make until then.
"Luke, we just ask her what she's wants," Clary interjected suddenly. "We're prepared to go with her, if that's what she wants, and if that's what will spare the most lives."
"Clarissa, so self sacrificing," the Seelie Queen taunted smoothly. "I'm surprised that Jace has agreed to that, though then again, it is obvious he would do anything you asked him."
"When you love someone, you don't have a choice. Love takes your choices away," Clary told the Seelie Queen. "But I suppose you wouldn't understand anything about that, you don't know what it is to love, or you wouldn't ask this of any of us."
"Clary," Luke said warningly, concerned at Clary's involvement, especially as she seemed to have decided to attempt to provoke the Seelie Queen.
"No, I prefer this, I'd rather see the child show some spirit, than just giving in," the Seelie Queen said. "I want you join me, and you will join with me, but I don't want some insipid little girl."
"What do you want with me," Jonathan interjected unexpectedly. "You have never answered that, and I want to know. You want revenge, but how exactly do you plan to execute that?"
"I haven't decided yet, young Jonathan," she answered, apparently honestly. "That is part of the fun."
"My Queen," Jace said, eventually deciding it was time he joined the word games. "Would you consider taking only me, and sparing Clary and Jonathan? I am an orphan, I have no family. I can be of most use to you and cause you the least trouble. Let the others return to their family."
"A noble offer," the Seelie Queen replied. Her alarmingly cruel facial expression would have been lost to them as the last little bit of sunlight left the sky, if not for the Night Vision runes they were Marked with. "But it will not do. You will all come with me, and now. I have had enough of this."
Each of the Shadowhunters drew a weapon, with Luke and Jace naming their seraph blades, and Jonathan and Clary unsheathing Phaesphoros and Heosphoros respectively.
"Stand down, you have no hope of combating my forces," the Seelie Queen warned.
"Be careful, you may have underestimated us," Jace countered, a little tauntingly.
"You may be powerful, but you cannot fight a hundred warriors at once, little Nephilim," the Seelie Queen replied.
"That may be true," Jace admitted, apparently a little defeated by this point. "I guess we only have one option."
Jace sheathed his seraph blade, then mounted his horse quickly, kicked his heels into its sides, the other three following suit, and their horses all moved into a gallop, as they began to race across the flat of Brocelind Plain.
"I was supposed to decide when we left!" Luke hollered as they rode.
"The element of surprise is the most important thing," Jace retorted wickedly.
Behind them, the faeries followed on foot, apparently slightly delayed by the swiftness of the departure of the Nephilim. The Seelie Queen had not joined the pursuit, and remained behind, with a dedicated guard. The four Shadowhunters were pursued by a mixture of Fair Folk and werewolves, their superhuman speed allowing them to follow at almost the same speed as the galloping horses. They were not quite as fast, but they would not tire as quickly, so it was important that the Shadowhunters were able to get far enough along Brocelind Plain so that they could join forces with the others that were coming through the Portal from Alicante before their mounts were spent.
Clary rode determinedly under the now dark sky, lit by a spattering of stars. Heosphoros bumped a little on her hip, and the slightly cooler air of the late summer evening moved around her lightly, though she hardly noticed it. Jonathan was on one side of her, Jace the other, with Luke in the rear, making an arrow formation. There was no way to guarantee that everything would fall into place, but it just had to. Magnus would send through their reinforcements at the right time, to the right place, and they would reach them at the right time before their horses tired, and there would be enough of them to face whatever forces the Fair Folk had assembled. Too much had gone into it for it to fail, there was too much at stake for mistakes.
They rode hard for a good half an hour and it was then that Clary realised that she could see something in the distance, the runes she was Marked with allowing her to see far into the night. Magnus must have already Portalled their forces through, and ahead of time. That could only mean that Alicante needed to be defended without delay.
Clary looked over at Jace and shouted, "Can you see that?"
"Yes," Jace said grimly, his eyes focused on the scene that they were growing ever closer to.
Clary then glanced over her shoulder, finding that the faeries that were in pursuit of them were a mere hundred yards behind. If, as she suspected, the Alicante forces were fighting a large number of faeries and their Allies, they would be hard pressed to cope with the additional faeries pursing Clary and her companions. She began to think quickly, trying to come up with something that could help give them a much needed edge.
About five hundred yards from the Alicante forces Clary suddenly had an idea. She had a longer look over her shoulder to check how far behind the faeries were, and they were still a hundred or so yards behind.
Clary then turned to Luke and shouted, "Keep riding, okay? Just trust me!"
Luke didn't have time to protest because Clary pulled her horse up sharply and jumped to the ground, her stele already in her hand. She began draw what looked like an Opening rune, drawing quickly, but pouring all of her energy into the rune, willing it to do what she wanted it to.
Luke and Jonathan had kept riding, but were looking over their shoulders in concern. Jace however had stopped only fifty yards from where Clary had dropped to the ground, and watched as he drew, with the faeries drawing closer to her at an alarmingly fast pace. He drew a seraph blade, ready to rush in and defend her if necessary, but waited, trusting that she had a plan that would work. He watched her draw the rune, wondering her purpose in an Open rune was.
Then she stopped short of completing it, and he had no idea what she was doing at all. It was no rune he had ever seen before. Then the ground started to shake beneath his feet, and he watched as Clary jumped to her feet and began to run towards him, her feet flying.
"Run, Jace!" Clary shouted, noticing in dismay that he hadn't gone on with Luke and Jonathan. "Run!"
Jace unwillingly turned and ran, only because Clary was gaining quickly on him, and because the ground was shaking even more, a crack forming where Clary had drawn the unknown rune.
Jace ran at half pace, hoping Clary would catch up with him, which she did in a matter of seconds.
"What was that?" he shouted, the ground shaking and cracking further still.
"We'll see!" Clary shouted.
The ground beneath their feet then sunk a good twenty feet down. Jace moved quickly, jumping straight up to the ground in front of them, but Clary stopped short, momentarily stunned.
"Clary, jump, grab a foothold in the dirt," Jace yelled. "Now!"
Clary jumped, almost reaching the ground above, clawing into the earth to keep the height she'd gained. Jace reached down, grabbed her arms and pulled her up.
"Come on," he said. "We've got to run, as fast as you've ever run, the earth is exploding, there's a great canyon forming, it won't surprise me if we see the Earth's crust soon."
They ran, faster than any human ever could, and faster than any other Nephilim, for their runes, combined with their extra Angel blood, enabled them to run very, very fast. They could feel the earth shaking, but it wasn't falling away beneath their feet. Loud explosions and rumblings sounded only a little way behind them, and dirt fell like rain on them as they ran.
They headed for Jonathan and Luke, who were stopped a couple of hundred yards in the distance, a little way off from the battle that was being waged between the Alicante forces and those of the faeries. Jonathan and Luke weren't running, but watching the carnage unfold, which told Clary and Jace that all they had to reach them to be on safe ground.
They reached an awed and concerned looking Luke and Jonathan quickly.
"What the hell was that?" Luke demanded.
"Where are our horses?" Clary asked suddenly, overlooking Luke's question.
"How about a little perspective, Clary?" Jonathan pointed out sharply. "What did you just do, besides almost get yourself killed?"
"I tried out a rune I created," Clary told them casually. "I was hoping to create a diversion."
"It was a hell of a diversion," Jon said with a whistle.
"So, it worked?" Clary asked, as she and Jace turned to survey the scene they had run from.
"I'd say so," Jace said with a grin. "Have fun explaining the new landform in the middle of Brocelind Plain to the Clave. Though it will probably double as a mass faerie grave now and be some sort of landmark."
"They're dead?" Clary asked, her brow furrowed.
"I'd say so," Luke answered. "A lot of them at least, a lot of them fell down into the cracks, down into the Earth's surface. There won't be many not dead or injured and probably won't come to fight us, but will return to the Seelie Queen to tell her what happened."
"Great," Clary said weakly, swaying a little where she stood.
"Clary!" Jonathan said in alarm.
"She's exhausted herself again," Jace said quickly, grabbing his stele. "She's needs a Healing rune and a Strength rune, now. She's going to have to fight and soon, there's no way around it."
Jace quickly applied the needed runes, watching Clary's face closely as some colour came back into the cheeks that had been so white.
"Clary, you are to stay with Jon and Jace, they will take care of you," Luke instructed. "I have to join the battle now, but I want you three to stay out of it. Only fight to defend yourselves. It looks like we should have a much better change of dealing with the rest of the faerie forces, thanks to you Clary."
Blue and green light erupted nearby, drawing all of their eyes.
"What?" Luke began.
"Magnus," Clary, Jace and Jon all guessed, grinning.
Luke nodded and ran off into the night, into the battle, to find Robert or Jia, or even Jocelyn.
"Jace, be honest, how are things looking?" Clary asked anxiously. "I can't tell."
"Our forces are definitely stronger, and we have Magnus, and the other warlocks he brought with him," Jace assessed. "Victory should be ours, and by dawn, if we're going to defeat them."
"We'll see," Clary said succinctly. "We shall see."
AN: I'm finally back! I'm so sorry about the wait :( I went away for a week intending on writing heaps and trying to finish this off, but interest seems to have been dropping, so my enthusiasm and motivation have been waning accordingly, and a BIG case of writer's block hit me hard. So I ended up spending my week hanging out with my grandparents and watching House. But I'm back, so thanks for your patience and I hope people are still at least a bit interested :)
Please review, this chapter was 'the big one', so to speak, and it really, really took me a long time to figure out how to go about it, and I'd love to know what you think :)