A few more feet, and he would be safe! Theo dug deep inside of himself for the rest of his strength. A cloud moved away from the face of the moon. In the dim light, he caught a glimpse of stained metal. There it was! He pushed himself onwards. Panting and coughing, he opened the hatch of the ship and dove inside. Theo flipped on the switches, as quickly as his shaking fingers would allow. The beams of light were getting closer.
The engine sputtered, refusing to catch. Theo slammed his palm down on the instrument panel. “Come on, come on, come on!” A roaring purr flared to life in the belly of the ship. With a deep sigh of relief, Theo slammed the throttle wide open. The craft leapt into the sky. Blasts of plasma singed the air on either side of his escape vehicle, but the imperial guards were too late. Before they could find a more powerful weapon, Theo was already leaving the atmosphere.
A sharp pain shot through him. Theo looked down. Blood was flowing freely from a gash in his leg. One of the guards must have managed to hit him while he was running away from the military base. Adrenaline had masked the pain at first, but now it was eating away at him. He couldn’t tell if it was the pain or the loss of blood that was making his vision go dark around the edges. Theo tried to heal himself, but he didn’t have enough energy. The darkness was growing, blotting out the ship’s controls. In his last moments of consciousness, Theo managed to punch in the base’s coordinates into the autopilot. The darkness claimed him.
Through a haze, Theo could hear a female voice over him. “Theo? Theo! Why isn’t he healing? Someone, go get Seneca!”
He tried to open his eyes, but only managed to open them a crack. He was being carried. Hands gripped his arms and legs. Lights passed overhead. The smell of antiseptic stung his nose. Through the darkness he could hear clinking of metal and fast talking. Something pressed against the wound on his leg. The pain was excruciating. He screamed, and his back arched upwards. Eyes open, Theo flailed about on an operating table. His arms thrashed against the people trying to hold him down. Kicking wildly, he tried to escape the searing pain in his leg.
Seneca yelled to Irane and Fabois. “Hold him down! He’s going into shock if I can’t get this artery repaired! Jaedo, get over here and help keep him still!”
Theo vaguely heard Cierra crying out. “You’re hurting him!”
The doctor was still fighting to work against Theo’s thrashing. “Cherish, get her out of here! I can’t concentrate.”
“Hurry!” Hubard glanced at the monitors that were displaying Theo’s vitals. “His heart’s going into v-fib!”
Seneca whirled around and grabbed the charge paddles from one of the nearby instrument trays. “Get back!”
There was a flurry of movement. The next thing Theo felt was a zap that made his teeth vibrate. He managed to take a deep breath. The monitors fell back to a normal rhythm. Seneca went back to work trying to patch up the gash. Once again, the pain overwhelmed him, and he fell into the abyss of unconsciousness.
The next time Theo came to, he was back in his room in the base. Cierra was curled up in a chair beside his bed. He could see her lips moving silently in prayer. Moving himself into a better position, Theo winced. As soon as he stirred, she sat straight up.
Cierra’s eyes were red and puffy from crying. “You’re awake!” She moved in to hug him, but at the last minute slugged his shoulder with her fist. “What the hell happened to you? What were you thinking? Why didn’t you heal yourself?” She punched him harder after each question.
“Ow! Ow!” Theo tried to pull away from her. “Some imperial soldiers landed a lucky shot when I was leaving the base. It was nothing.”
“Nothing?” Cierra pulled back the blanket from over his leg. “Seneca had to patch you up! You almost bled to death, Theo.” She looked at the wound that was still pink and irritated. Even as she watched, the skin knitted itself back together, as if nothing had ever happened.
Theo twisted his mouth into a cocky smile. “I don’t see anything.”
“Ugh!” Cierra threw her arms up in the air. She turned to storm out of the room.
Theo swung his feet over the edge of the bed and grabbed her elbow. “Cierra, wait.”
“What, Theo? What do you want me to wait for? For you to come back dead one day?”
He held her in place, so she couldn’t escape the confrontation. “You knew how dangerous this was going to be. We all did. You can’t expect me to just sit by and do nothing.”
Cierra tried to contain her fear, but it leaked out in her voice. “Things are different now.”
“Why? Because I’m Hulaki?”
“Because I,” she started to say something, but caught herself. “I just don’t want to lose anyone else, okay?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Alright? I’ll try to be more careful.”
Cierra crossed her arms over her chest. “That’s not all you’re going to do.”
“Oh?” Theo chuckled. The determination in her eyes made him smile. He couldn’t help it.
“You’re going to practice your healing.”
Theo felt his heart sink a little in his chest. “Oh.”
She poked his shoulder hard with her finger. “What happened today is not happening again. Do you understand me, Theo?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Cierra seemed to relax a little more after he agreed. “What happened with that, anyway? Why didn’t you just heal yourself?”
Theo shrugged. “I guess I was just too low on energy. That plus the amount of blood I lost must have been too much of a strain on my body.”
“Well, that’s not going to happen again. I’m going to drill you until you can heal yourself in your sleep. Got it?”
He let out a sarcastic sigh. “Can’t wait.”
Two
Theo rubbed his sternum. “Ouch! Is that really necessary?” Idagia had warmed enough to melt through most of the ice. He noticed from his unique perspective, on the ground, under Cierra’s boot, that a few green sprigs were sprouting from the soil.
Moving her foot from his chest, Cierra brushed a stray strand of hair from her face. “I told you I was going drill you.”
“Well, yeah, but I thought you’d at least let me sleep in some.”
Jaedo exited the base and walked over to them. He stretched all four of his arms in the crisp morning air. “Ah! There you two are. I’m surprised you would court each other out in the open. We Josti tend to keep that private.”
“Courting?” Theo scoffed. “She’s trying to seriously hurt me!”
Jaedo nodded. “Yes, like I said: courting. The female wishes her partner to prove his physical prowess in order to keep her affections.”
Cierra laughed. “Come on, Theo. Prove your physical prowess.”
Dusting himself off, Theo stood up. “That’s not funny. Jaedo is going to think you’re serious.”
The Josti tilted his head to the side. “Courting is very serious.”
“Jaedo,” Cierra shook her head teasingly, “we aren’t courting. We’re training, to help Theo practice healing.”
Understanding fell over Jaedo’s face. “Oh, well why didn’t you say so?” In one fluid movement, the Josti unsheathed a lasana blade that Hubard had given him. He drove the sword through Theo so quickly that neither of the other two had a chance to react.
Cierra screamed and rushed forward. “Theo, are you okay?” She turned on Jaedo. “Why did you do that?”
Jaedo wiped the blood off of his blade. “You said you were practicing his healing. He can’t practice if he isn’t injured.”
A drop of blood formed at the corner of Theo’s mouth, and trickled down. “I thought we were going to start with something smaller. Like a papercut.” He tried to laugh, but it turned into a wet cough as blood filled his lungs.
Cierra placed both of her hands over the wound to try and stop the bleeding. “Shut up, and focus. Heal yourself.”
Struggling to picture his anatomy in his head, Theo slowly felt the fibers of his organs k
nit back together. Fresh blood stopped pumping over Cierra’s fingers. He let out a sigh of relief as his insides set themselves back into the proper places. The effort was taxing, but he did it. He flashed Cierra a victorious smile.
“There.” Theo sat up, still smiling smugly. “Satisfied now?”
Her lips were a thin, angry line. “You were still too slow.”
Theo huffed at her. “Too slow? You don’t have the same gift as me. How do you expect to know how fast or slow I can heal myself?”
“Actually,” Jaedo checked to make sure he had gotten all of the blood off of the blade, “you are rather slow. I have the same body manipulation gift as you do. When you were down in the dungeons, the Brothers Superior taught the rest of us with this gift to anticipate an incoming blade. If you can see your enemy’s blade, you can manipulate your body out of its path. Then, even if you do get cut, the damage will be less. It cuts down on healing time.” He handed the hilt of his blade to Cierra. “Allow me to demonstrate.”
Cierra took the sword, and drove the blade towards Jaedo’s middle section. Theo watched as the Josti’s stomach seemed to spread just an instant before the blade would have made contact with his skin. A hole opened up, which allowed for the blade to pass through him without actually cutting his skin or his internal organs. Cierra pulled the blade back out. It was clean. No blood stained the sword. Theo watched in awe. He had never even thought about morphing his body out of the way. His tactic so far had been to take the hit and heal after. Jaedo’s way seemed far less painful, and less draining. It seemed to take less energy to change the body’s shape than it did to heal a severe wound.
Theo’s mouth opened in amazement. “How long did it take you to learn that?”
The Josti shrugged his shoulders. “It was either learn or be stabbed. I picked it up rather quickly.”
Theo remembered the tactics the monks training him had used. They had cut off his fingers, preferring for him to learn by necessity rather than through gentle lessons. He had been able to grow them back, but the experience was mentally scarring. There was no telling how many times they had stabbed Jaedo before he had mastered the technique he had just demonstrated. The Yasta may have been strict and severe when it came to training those with gifts, but they sure were effective.
Wiping the dried blood from the corner of his mouth, Theo faced Jaedo with renewed determination. “Teach me.”
Jaedo held out his hand, and waited for Cierra to hand his lasana blade back. She passed it to him, and stepped back quickly. She was satisfied being an observer for now. Jaedo twirled the blade through the air as he spoke. “You know how to heal your anatomy. That is the basic technique of body manipulation. Actually morphing your body into a new shape takes concentration. Human anatomy and Josti anatomy differ, but I think I can walk you through the basics. We are all Batumah’s creatures. His light flowed into us to give us life. Those who are gifted with body manipulation can—to some degree—influence the way his light is channeled. You have to think of your body as flowing light instead of as something solid. When you hold up your hand to block out the sun, the light does not stop existing. It simply continues on its path around your hand. It’s similar to water flowing around a boulder. The water does not stop; it merely adapts.”
Theo nodded. “Adapt. Got it.”
The Josti lunged forward with the sword. Theo managed to flinch, but his body didn’t move to allow the blade to pass through. Instead, he felt his insides rip apart again. Biting back a scream, he focused on healing himself. Before the wound was even thoroughly healed, Jaedo came at him again. This time, Theo felt his muscles quiver, but he was still too slow. Blood stained his shirt and dripped down his leg. He gritted his teeth. It was clear that Jaedo wasn’t going to give him time to heal and adapt at the same time. Feeling his body beginning to drain, Theo abandoned healing. He was focused only on Jaedo’s blade. Mentally, he watched the sword coming at him. Anticipating the stab, Theo envisioned a hole inside of his body where the lasana was aimed. Jaedo’s sword passed through Theo.
The Josti smiled at Theo. Overwhelmed with excitement at his new skill, it took Theo by surprise when he found himself falling towards the ground. The previous stab wounds were still bleeding freely. He struggled to focus. In his mind, he knitted himself back together, just as everything went black.
Cierra knelt down beside him. “Are you okay? You look pale.”
Theo pushed himself up on his elbows. He couldn’t tell how long he’d been out cold. “I think that’s enough for today. I need to eat. Healing takes a lot out of me.”
Reaching out one hand to help Theo to his feet, Jaedo clapped him on the back. “You did well. Most novices have to be stabbed hundreds of times before they manage to avoid the blade.”
Theo raised an eyebrow. “That was doing well? It didn’t feel like it.”
The Josti cleaned off his blade and tucked it back into its sheath. “If it was easy, it would not be a gift worth having.”
“Come on.” Cierra jerked her head towards the base. “Let’s eat. You’ll feel better then.”
Theo took a step and stumbled. “It seems that quick movements are a little difficult right now.” He draped one arm over Cierra’s shoulders. A smug smile toyed at the edge of his lips. “I might need some help walking back to the base.”
Her eyes widened with mock sympathy. “Oh, you poor thing.” She moved to the side and faced the Josti. “Jaedo, can you help Theo inside?”
Jaedo gave a firm nod. “Of course!”
It took Theo a second to realize what was about to happen. “Wait. What?” He looked quickly back and forth between Cierra and the large Josti that was swiftly moving towards him.
Picking Theo up like a small child, Jaedo scooped him up in his arms. “Do not worry. I will get you back inside. Your frailty will not tarnish my thoughts of you.”
“Frailty?” Theo glared at Jaedo. “Put me down. I can walk.” He glanced over Jaedo’s shoulder to see Cierra snickering and laughing silently.
She placed her hands over her heart, and pretended to be worried about him. “Don’t push yourself for me, Theo. You said yourself that you needed help getting back inside.”
Theo narrowed his eyes at her. He would have to think of something to get her back for this. Being carried around by a Josti was not what he had in mind when he started his day. It was clear that being Hulaki hadn’t changed her opinion of him. At all. She still saw him as Theo, the farmer turned rebel. Maybe that was part of what drew him to her. In the back of his mind, he saw the image of Mari kneeling on the palace steps in the future. It tainted the playfulness he felt when he and Cierra teased one another. He hadn’t told anyone about the possibility of Mari still being alive. He knew that as soon as he told them, the closeness he had come to enjoy with Cierra would be gone. Selfish as it was, he wasn’t ready to give that up just yet.
Three
Tearing into a heap of unrecognizable food, Theo wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. He had stopped asking what they were eating. Seneca had reassured them that the food contained all the vitamins and proteins their bodies needed. Theo just wished it contained something that tasted good. Currently, he was making his way through a pile of something that tasted like water buffalo hide. He chewed quickly, keeping as much of the food off of his tongue as possible.
“Well?” Cierra sipped some water. One of her eyebrows was raised curiously.
Theo swallowed another leathery mouthful. “Well, what?”
“Are you going to tell us how your scouting mission went, or not?”
He nodded and dropped his fork. “The base is almost identical to the one you all invaded a few weeks ago. I memorized those plans before I went in, just in case. The only differences I saw was that there were some labs deeper underground, and…”
Cierra looked at him expectantly. “And what?”
Pushing his food around on his plate, Theo furrowed his brow. “And there’s something else, too. They have holding
cells down the same shaft that leads to the labs. I don’t know if they have any prisoners there, but I know they exist. I can’t imagine Makram or Karl letting those go to waste.”
Sighing, Cierra nodded. “Neither can I. If they have them, I’m sure they’re using them.”
Jaedo tapped one long, green finger on the edge of the table. “How do they get down the shaft? Do they have to climb stairs?”
“No.” Theo remembered watching the guards changing shifts. “They have some special transport pods that go up and down the shaft.”
Cierra chuckled dryly. “Well, at least that will make our mission a little faster. If we can take a pod down the shaft, it’ll make life much easier.”
Thinking out loud, Theo glanced at Jaedo. “Do you think you could show me how to hide my lasana with my body? It’d probably be best if we didn’t reveal all our cards right off the bat. We can take some infintium blades with us on the outside. Having a lasana as backup would be a good plan. I’ve already been locked up in a dungeon once. If it happens again, I want to be prepared.”
Jaedo nodded. “I can show you once you finish eating.”
With one final look at the lump of whatever was on his plate, Theo pushed his food aside. “I’m done.”
Cierra followed them to the docking bay. Strapping her equipment to her body, she watched as Jaedo expanded his form over his lasana blade. If you didn’t know him, you’d just think that he was an extra plump Josti. Theo struggled to get the proportions right. He looked like a child’s toy that had all of its stuffing squeezed down to one end. Eventually, he was able to cover his sword convincingly enough.
Hubard was painting the outer hull of the ship with some sort of coating. He glanced up as Cierra walked over to him. “Are you three almost ready? I dropped off Cherish, Makka, and Fabois on Mithuna. Irane is helping Seneca in the lab. After I get this done, I’ll be ready to take you to your drop point.”
The Relissarium Wars Omnibus Page 48