Simon sucked in a greedy breath that felt like fire to his lungs. He stared up at the armored knight standing over him. The Templar’s armor was so shiny while in Engaged mode—with the NanoDyne technology devoting so much of its energy to hardening the shields—that Simon could see his own features in the smooth faceplate.
“Simon?” The amplified voice sounded strange in Simon’s ears for just a moment. It also sounded surprised.
It took Simon only a moment to place the voice. He was helped by the fact that the armor couldn’t disguise the womanly curves of his savior.
“Giselle?” Simon said, surprised as well.
The Templar offered her hand. Simon took the hand and allowed her to help him get to his feet. He’d known Giselle Fletcher since they’d been children. She was his age and they’d been reared in the same Underground complex.
“Yes,” Giselle replied. For a moment she allowed her faceplate to “ghost,” turn translucent enough to permit him to see her features. She was a beautiful redhead with freckles sprinkled across the bridge of her nose and her cheeks. Her gray eyes were warm, but they looked more tired than Simon could ever recall. “Hadn’t fancied on meeting you out here, love.”
“It doesn’t seem like the place to be.” Simon’s heart leaped and he took strength in Giselle’s presence. Looking beyond her, he spotted five other Templar battling Darkspawn with blades as well as sidearms.
A demon lifted its weapon and fired. Giselle blocked the deadly purple beam with her shield. The beam lit up the image of the tall cross with a hippogriff wound round it. Although Simon couldn’t see the image, he knew it would be there. He’d watched Giselle make her shield down in the Templar forge.
The energy beam reflected up and away, cutting through trees and dropping branches down.
“Talk later,” Giselle said. “Fight now. Take my Grenadier.” She hefted the huge Templar sword she carried as she turned to follow her opponent’s movements. “Try not to get yourself killed.”
Simon ignored Giselle’s disparaging remark. They’d always been competitive, always pushing each other to the next level.
He lifted the Grenadier from her hip and readied it. The Grenadier was solid and heavy, an ugly weapon packed with killing power. It fired grenades filled with Greek Fire, the alchemical liquid created centuries ago. Only this version had been upgraded by the latest in Templar technology.
Despite the desperate nature of the situation, Simon smiled grimly. It felt good to have a Templar weapon in his hands. He armed the weapon and stepped into Giselle’s shadow the way they’d been trained to do when one of them was wounded or had their armor trashed. While Giselle blocked the purple beams, Simon took aim and fired.
The grenades whumped from the Grenadier’s stubby throat and struck their targets with deafening results. The Darkspawn went to pieces, torn apart by the high-explosive rounds that set them on fire.
“At least you haven’t lost your touch, love,” Giselle commented dryly, as if they were back in the practice arenas their parents had arranged.
Simon took pride in that. Even though he was unarmored and so very vulnerable on the battlefield, he could still kill his enemies. That was what he was trained to do. He searched the area for Leah and found her ensconced behind two large Templar. She looked terrified but moved to stay clear of the attacks.
“Who’s the bird?” Giselle asked.
“A friend.” That was all anyone needed to know at the moment.
“Well, come on then. Let’s see if we can save that ship out there.” Giselle strode forward, moving superhumanly fast in her armor. Everything was amplified in the suit: strength, speed, and awareness.
Simon went forward with her, staying behind and slightly to the right so she could offer some protection and he had a fairly clear field of fire. He had to run hard to keep up.
The Templar charged through the night. They carried their swords, preferring them over the sidearms because they’d been trained more for close-up fighting if it came to that in the Underground. And the swords were the most powerful weapon in their arsenal.
A Darkspawn trooper, one of the elite warriors in that class of demon, hurled itself from the darkness and caught Giselle by surprise. Simon knew it had to be cloaked or else the armor’s infrared sensors would have picked it up.
The trooper smashed into Giselle and drove her back with a horrendous clang. She left her feet and nearly fell on top of Simon, who had to duck out of the way. That was the only thing that saved his life.
A rocket screamed seemingly out of nowhere and struck the ground where he’d been standing. The wave of concussive force knocked Simon over and peppered him with rocks and dirt.
Rolling to his knees, temporarily deaf, he yanked his coat up over his mouth and nose to filter out all the swirling debris. If the snow hadn’t fallen and the ground hadn’t been muddy, dust would have filled the air.
“In the trees!” Giselle shouted as she flipped to her feet and brought her sword up. The Darkspawn was almost on top of her, lifting a huge mallet that looked like it had once belonged to a Templar. The troopers were known to use the weapons of their enemies.
Moving again, knowing he’d heard Giselle only because the suit amplified her voice, Simon skidded on his knees, hooking his toes to slow himself. He raised the Grenadier in both hands and took aim at the figure high in the trees, tracking the purple blasts back to their source.
When he had the crosshairs centered over the Darkspawn sniper, Simon squeezed the trigger. The Grenadier shivered in his grip and three grenades whumped to the top of the tree, impacting the demon as it tried to escape.
The
