“Aphano?” Makram blinked as if he were coming out of a trance. “Aphano, is that you?”
“Yes! It’s me! What have these imperialists done to you? Did they poison you somehow?” Aphano rushed forward to embrace the young man in front of him.
Makram held open his arms, but as the Brother Superior moved closer, Makram swung his blade around, and sank it deep into Aphano’s gut. Makram whispered into the Aphian’s ear, as he shoved the blade even deeper. “Your problem is that you only see what you want to see.” Jerking his blade back, Makram planted his boot on Aphano’s chest. He shoved off, making the monk’s body fall backwards over the inner railing. Aphano tumbled down until his broken body lay shattered on the first floor landing.
“Makram?” Cherish’s mouth was gaping open. She couldn’t believe what she had just seen.
Karl was still showering her in blows. Makram flicked a few drops of blood off of the tip of his blade. He charged towards the two of them. Cherish was just able to get her second blade out in time to block Makram’s sweeping strike. With both of them charging at her, she found herself losing ground quickly. She needed a second to resituate herself. If things kept going this way, she was going to find herself backed into a wall. Thinking quickly, Cherish sliced through Makram’s infintium blade with her lasana attachment. He snarled, and grabbed a blaster from the holster Karl was wearing. Cherish recognized it as the one Karl had back on Relisse. She barely had enough time to throw herself out of the way before Makram shot a high-powered blast at her.
The gun punched a hole in the wall behind where she had just been standing. Makram looked at Karl, and jerked his head for Karl to back off. A sadistic smile spread across both of their faces. Cherish backed away from Makram as he slowly walked towards her. She stumbled on a few loose chunks of stone. Makram was twirling the blaster around his finger. He seemed to be relishing these drawn out moments leading up to her death. Cherish noticed that the blaster had a light on the side that was currently yellow. The light slowly filled up a small charging screen on the side of the barrel.
She braced herself against the hole in the wall. She glanced behind her. The roof of one of the monastery’s outer wings was positioned about a story below. Her eyes flicked back to Makram, and stared at him. “What are you doing? Makram, why are you doing this?”
“Didn’t you know? Not everything is as it appears.” He stopped spinning the blaster. The barrel of the gun was pointed directly at her. The charging screen was almost completely green now.
Cherish felt an ache in her chest. He had spent weeks pretending to care about her, pretending to be her husband. Every touch, every word, had been so convincing. At times she had even let herself believe that maybe he did care for her. Cherish had dared to hope that he did—that someone had finally cared for her, augmentations and all. Now, she knew that it was all a lie. It seemed that Makram was a better actor than they had ever known. Batumah had warned her, but she could have never imagined that this was what her dream was referring to. She had been utterly blindsided.
The blaster was fully charged now. Before Makram could pull the trigger, Cherish threw herself backwards into the air. A pulse from the gun sent ripples to the night sky where her body had been only a second before. She landed on the rooftiles the same time that Makram cursed her for moving. From what she had seen, the gun was powerful, but it needed time to recharge between each blast. At the most, she had a few seconds before Makram would be able to fire again. She needed to use the time to her advantage as much as possible.
The fall to the roof had increased whatever internal damage she had already endured. Her depth perception was off. She tried to run along the roof where the tiles seemed the sturdiest. Every time she put a foot down, the tiles seemed to be another six inches further down than she anticipated. Running gave her the sense of perpetually missing the last step on a staircase.
Something thudded behind her. Cherish turned to glance over her shoulder. It seemed that Makram wasn’t satisfied to just wait until the blaster was recharged. He was chasing her down along the rooftop. Cherish tried to run faster, but Makram was gaining on her. Her augmentations had been part of her for so long, she had taken them for granted. Now that she was experiencing glitches she realized how much she depended on her upgrades to maintain the upper hand in fights.
“You can run, Cherish, but we both know you aren’t operating at full capacity!” Makram taunted her from behind. How many more seconds did she have before the gun was fully charged? “You haven’t been working right since Theo brought you back, have you?”
Cherish had run out of rooftop. There was nowhere else for her to go. Her feet teetered on the edge. Below was the cloud-covered edge of the mountain. She couldn’t see the ground below. Somehow, she found that to be comforting. She wouldn’t have to see the ground rushing up to meet her if she fell. Slowly, she turned back to face Makram. Putting on a brave face, she turned back to Makram. He knew that she was having problems with her internal system. “How do you know that?”
“I know you, Cherish. I know how you think. I know how you feel about me.” Makram took a few more steps. He knew he had the advantage. “You may be part machine, but you’re still a woman. You have the same needs as any woman does. That’s why it was so easy for me to get under your skin.”
“Why would you do this to us?” Cherish felt tears beginning to well up. There was nothing she could do to stop it.
“Now, why would I tell my reasons to a dead cyborg?” He spat the last word at her like an insult, and aimed the gun at her one more time. “There’s no Theo here to save you this time.”
She took a deep breath. If she was going to die, this time she was going to take her destiny into her own hands. Cherish closed her eyes, and slowly allowed herself to fall backwards off of the roof. The clouds below swallowed her up.
Seven
Cherish felt the air whooshing past her. It was an odd feeling, knowing that she was going to die. The moisture of the clouds dampened her skin and sent goosebumps along her body. The roar of the wind in her ears seemed to sound like engines. Would she feel anything when she hit the rocky mountainside at terminal velocity, before her natural and digital nervous systems were smashed? She prayed not.
Cherish felt something soft under her. She wasn’t falling anymore. Opening her eyes, Cherish found herself in a small craft. The top hatch was open. She had fallen through the opening, and landed on an air suspended cushion in the belly of the craft. She looked around, trying to understand what had happened.
“It’s about time you joined us.” Irane turned around from the pilot’s seat and flashed her a smile.
“Irane!” Cherish couldn’t believe her eyes. “How did you know to catch me?”
“Let’s just say I had a hunch.”
“What about Theo and Cierra?” She looked around the ship. There were two other Carbonari members that she didn’t know on the craft with them. They had been at a completely different monastery than the one her team had infiltrated. Irane must have been busy while they were locked up.
Irane pulled the ship around sharply and climbed at a steep angle. “We’re headed to get them now.”
Through the front windshield, the Kinyah monastery appeared from the mist. It was mostly rubble now. Bodies, both imperial and Yasta, painted the grounds red. Cherish sucked in her breath. It was hard to look at the place they had once felt some affection for pounded into oblivion. The sick feeling in her stomach was only a fraction of what Theo and Cierra must have felt when Relisse was destroyed.
On the courtyard balcony, she spotted Cierra and Theo battling some imperial soldiers. They were each smeared with blood, but she couldn’t tell if any of it was theirs. “There they are!” She pointed towards the balcony.
Theo beat back a soldier that had decided to try his luck with a sword. Cierra raised her blade and deflected a blast that was coming from a soldier near the fountain in the courtyard below. Irane guided the ship closer to the balco
ny. He positioned the opening so they could easily drop into the top of the ship. Jumping up, Cherish hoisted herself over the lip of the opening, and flagged them down. Cierra spotted the ship before Theo did. She nodded her head towards the balcony. Relief seemed to wash over both of them. He motioned for her to go first.
Cierra leapt over the railing of the balcony, landing safely on the air cushion the same way that Cherish had. She quickly rolled off of the landing area, so that Theo could follow her, but he didn’t make the same leap that she had. Cierra jumped onto the ship’s roof to see what was keeping him. What she saw made her blood run cold. Theo was leaning over the railing, but he wasn’t alone. Karl had his blade pressed to Theo’s throat.
She tried to scream and made to leap back to the balcony, but before she could, Irane yelled out an order. “Don’t let her leave!” The two other Carbonari members from the other drop team hauled themselves out of a hatch above the cockpit and held her back. “Cierra, get back in here!”
“No! You have to let me help him!” Cierra fought with all her strength, but she was still weak and exhausted. The other two were at full strength and easily held her back.
Cherish was now also on the roof. “Irane, we can’t just leave him here! Not when we’re so close to saving him!” She had learned the hard way that good teammates—good friends—were hard to come by. She had no intention of leaving a good man behind.
“Get back in! Theo will be fine.” Irane’s voice had more authority than Cherish had ever heard him use before. Her body obeyed, even though her mind was screaming at her that she needed to help her friend.
“How can you possibly know he’ll be fine?” Cierra was still fighting with all of the power she could muster to escape their grasp.
Overhead, they were able to see someone attack Karl from behind. Jaedo had flung himself at the imposter and wrapped two of his long arms around Karl’s throat. His other two arms pried Karl’s thick limbs away from Theo’s neck. They could see Karl’s face turning red as Jaedo cut off the air to his windpipe. Instead of focusing on Theo, the imposter had to focus on getting the Josti off him before he passed out.
Makram had now climbed back up to Karl’s location. He charged at Theo with his sword in a high guard position. With a booming clash of metal, Theo defended himself, but was knocked off balance. He tumbled over the railing, tumbling, before landing on the air cushion. The two other Carbonari members released Cierra. She rushed over to him. The ship slowly backed away from the balcony. The spectacle of Karl and Hojae’s fight became much smaller, as the Carbonari team was now able to take in the full extent of the bloodshed and destruction.
“Everybody get inside now!” Irane ordered, poking his head up through the forward hatch. The stunned team wasted no time obeying him.
Irane flipped a switch to close the top hatch. They tried to see what had happened to Jaedo, but they were too far away to see anything now, as Irane accelerated hard away from the mountain.
“What in the name of Batumah?” gasped Cierra. A golden light shone into the small craft’s cabin, coming from the very mountain they had just left.
Cherish pointed to a position in the far distance. “Look! It’s happening over there, too. That’s another monastery.”
A pulsating beam of golden energy, coming down from the sky, swept the Kinyah monastery, and other locations on the horizon. The shattered building exploded wherever the beam touched it.
“It’s a battleship in orbit,” said Cierra. There was silence in the cabin, as the stunned team took in the destruction.
A beeping from the ship’s communication system interrupted the quiet shock of the passengers. Irane pushed a button to allow the message to come through. Hubard’s voice was a welcome sound over the speakers. “Irane? Did you manage to get them out of there?”
“I have Cherish, Cierra, Theo, and two members from another drop team on board. That’s all I could save.”
“Well, thank Batumah, for that at least.” Hubard paused for a second. “The council has sent us some new information. I’m sure you all have questions. The only thing we can confirm at this time is that Karl was an imperial operative this whole time.”
“Imperial?” Theo shook his head in confusion.
“Yes.” Hubard continued with his message. It sounded like he hadn’t slept in days either. “He tried to pass himself off as a Yasta monk so he could do evil in their name and spark a resistance in the outer rim populations. Seeing as we tried to kill off the Yasta leaders, he was unfortunately very convincing in his role. The only thing that held him back in the Yasta ranks was that he couldn’t manifest a gift. I suppose Batumah showed great wisdom there. Since he was so successful as just an ordinary man, who knows what he would have been able to accomplish with a Yasta gift at his disposal.”
Irane mused thoughtfully at that statement. “I don’t know if I would call anyone who almost brought about the destruction of a religion ‘ordinary.’”
“Be that as it may,” Hubard let out a sigh, “we were lucky enough to have a little bit of warning to try to get out as many of our operatives as possible. The people lost on this mission will be a big blow to our cause. It’s bad enough we have to rebuild our bases, but now we have lost quite a lot of our trained forces, too.”
The words fell heavily on Theo. He was the one that had suggested the mission. He had persuaded Philo it was the right decision, and look where it had gotten them. The many deaths weighed heavily upon him. He hung his head, and rested it in his hands. How was he going to live with himself after this? Theo felt in his bones that Batumah had made a mistake in giving him the ability to heal others. Who would bless someone who had caused so many deaths with the ability to heal people? It seemed like some sort of sick, cosmic joke.
Cierra’s voice was a heated whisper beside him. “Was he the one?”
“What was that?” Hubard blared over the speaker again. “Did someone say something? I couldn’t hear.”
She spoke up louder. Her lips were tight, and her fists were clenched in her lap. “Was Karl the one behind Relisse?”
Hubard didn’t sound pleased about having to relay the information, but he did so anyway. “Yes. He was. He knew about the origins of the sample that he was supposed to get for us when we thought he was just a smuggler. He gave the order to have the planetoid destroyed in order to reveal the rest of the mineral.”
Cierra’s anger flamed inside of her. “What are we supposed to do now? Does the council want us to go back and kill Karl?”
The speaker crackled a little, but they could still make out Hubard’s response clearly. “For now, they want you to meet up with me. The council wants to regroup and process this new information before any rash plans are carried out. They don’t want what happened tonight to happen again. Right now, your orders are to meet up with me. Is that clear?”
“Yes.” Irane punched in the correct coordinates on the panel in front of him. The ship began to turn and accelerate until it was on the correct path. “I’m flying there now.”
“Good, I’ll let them know.”
“Oh, Hubard?”
“Yes?”
“Make sure there’s plenty of food ready when we get there. We’re going to need it.”
“I’ll make sure the arrangements are taken care of. We’ll keep an eye out for you. Fly safe. Let us know if you get into any trouble on the way. We don’t have many resources right now, but if we can help, we will.” Hubard clicked off the comm system.
The crew flew in silence. All of them were taking in the information they had just been given. Karl was working for the emperor the whole time? Theo’s head was spinning. If he had eaten anything, he was certain that he would have already thrown up. So far, everything came back to Karl. The Yasta weren’t even involved with the terrible deeds that had turned the Carbonari against them.
Nothing was as it had seemed. Theo glanced around the ship. After everything he had been through, he found it hard to trust anyone completely. How
were they supposed to get rid of the cancer that was eating away at the Carbonari if they didn’t even know who the real enemy was? The only thing that he put any stock in at that moment was that he wanted to kill Karl more than ever. The first chance he got he was going to put a blade through the imposter, heal him, and then kill him again. As many times as it took to feel like the scales of good and evil had been balanced. Theo’s certainty about his future, forged when he’d cheated death on the way up the mountain, was rapidly evaporating.
Prophecy
The Relissarium Wars Space Opera Series, Book 8
One
“Hold on!” Irane struggled to land, as the ship was battered by shrill, freezing winds. Ice pelted the exterior of the small craft, with the few remaining members of the Strike Force Retaliation team onboard.
Cierra tried to stand up, only to be tossed around by the turbulence. “Are you sure you can land this thing? Maybe you should let me fly!”
“No backseat driving. I’ve heard stories about missions where you were driving. Hubard said it was like being bounced around in a blender.”
“He what!” She started to move towards the pilot seat.
Irane pressed a button to close off the cockpit from the passenger area. His voice came over the intercom. “This is your pilot speaking. Please remain seated until the craft has come to a stop.”
Cierra screeched in agitation. She hated not having some control over what was happening. She had more experience flying than Irane did. With Makram out of the picture, she was the next in line for command. Another gust of wind rocked them. Cierra was knocked off of her feet. She landed roughly on top of Theo’s legs. Her initial response was to snap at him, but looking at his face made the words die in her throat.
He had been silent most of the trip. The massacre at the monastery had affected him even more than it had the others. Theo’s eyes were darkened. His troubled thoughts showed through on his face. Each bump from the tumultuous ride went unchecked. He allowed his body to be smacked around as if he welcomed the pain. In truth he felt as though he deserved it. Theo made no attempt to try to heal the bruises that were already faintly present on his arms and legs.
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