Cierra considered trying to shove him off the stairs, but his grip was too solid. If Makram fell, he would end up taking her over with him. If she died in an accident like that, there was no guarantee that the emperor wouldn’t take it out on Bealize, Gita, and the other women who were looking after her. Instead, she continued trying to provoke him. “Since I’m pregnant with your father’s child, I suppose that makes me your stepmother in a way. How does that make you feel? How can you be loyal to a man who would do such horrible things?”
Makram stopped outside of the boxed seating at the top of the staircase. “Don’t confuse patience with loyalty.” He opened the roughly, and glared as he waited for her to enter.
In the box, another ornately dressed young woman bowed her head. She only glanced up for a second when Cierra walked past her. There were two, low-to-the-ground stools on either side of a richly carved golden throne. The other woman was seated on one of them. Looking at the girl uncertainly, Cierra sat down on the other stool. Below them, she could see the round arena floor. The tiered stands were completely packed with onlookers.
Cierra leaned over to talk to her. “I’m Cierra. What’s your name?”
The girl’s eyes widened in fear. She seemed terrified that Cierra was talking to her. She quickly looked down at her hands. Cierra noticed that they were white, from clutching them so tightly together. Tiny crescent moons were indented in her hands where her nails had dug into her own skin. Not wanting to scare the poor girl anymore, Cierra turned back to the front. She shifted her attention to the area below. She could see the emperor in the arena. He was facing another door. From the shadows, she could see a shackled figure emerging. Her heart stopped. It was Theo.
Eight
Theo kept his eyes locked on the emperor. Pollus started to walk towards him. The guards on either side of Theo tightened their grips on him, to keep him in check. A sadistic smile darkened the emperor’s face. He looked more demonic than human in the strange bio-lighting than Theo had realized before. His eye sockets were deep and sunken, making him look skeletal.
Pollus exuded the air of a man who was about to savor the taste of victory. “You know, I’m not a bad man, Theo. In fact, some would say that I’m actually very generous. That’s why I’m going to do you a favor.”
The look in his eyes made Theo uneasy. Whatever the emperor had in mind, he doubted that it would be anything that Theo would classify as a favor. “Don’t put yourself out on my account.”
The emperor looked Theo up and down. “Going from the amount of blood on you, it seems like you were finally able to spend some quality time with your wife. It’s too bad that she wasn’t alive to enjoy it. Don’t worry, though. You’ll be joining her soon enough. It will be a reunion that everyone will witness.”
Pollus pulled something out of his pocket. It was a metallic box. For the first time, Theo noticed that the emperor was wearing gloves. Opening the lid on the box, Pollus pulled out a glass sphere. The swirling, white matter inside was streaked with pulsing purple veins. The two guards held Theo in place. He tried to struggle free, but it was no use. Pollus gripped Theo’s jaw in his free hand, and shoved the sphere of dark matter inside. He pinched Theo’s nose closed, and kept gloved hand over Theo’s mouth, until the younger man swallowed the orb.
Theo tried to rip free. A muffled scream came out of his mouth, filtered by the emperor’s glove. His whole body shook with pain. The burning in his stomach made Theo’s eyes water. He could feel the orb burning its way through his stomach lining, eating away at the delicate tissue of his organs.
Putting the metal box back in his pocket, Pollus moved his face closer to Theo’s. He still had his hand clamped down on Theo’s mouth. Pollus whispered menacingly so that only his captive and the guards could hear. “Theo, you are to be executed for your crimes against the empire. May you forever be a warning to those who wish to defy me.” Pollus grabbed Theo by the hair. “Unchain him.” The guards undid the cuffs and released him. The emperor placed a boot in the center of Theo’s back and kicked him forcefully into the center of the arena.
The roaring cheers of the crowd switched to a deafening boo. Theo was sprawled across the ground. He pulled his arms and legs up to his stomach in a fetal position. The dark matter searing his insides was almost too much to bear. The edges of his vision were fading to black. He desperately tried to heal himself, just to stay alive, but he knew that sooner or later, his strength would give out.
Pollus walked smugly into the center of the arena. The crowd grew silent. Only faint whispers could be heard. “Great citizens, your emperor has something special in store for you today!” The crowd cheered in excitement. “Apparently, there are some among our galaxy that doubt our power! They seek to tear us apart, but do you know what I say to that? I say that anything they would do to by subjects, to my vast empire, I will revisit on them tenfold! Any attack on my people is an attack on me. And any attack on me will be dealt with through swift and decisive action!”
The crowed rallied around the emperor’s speech. Theo was too focused on the searing pain inside to listen to the words. He couldn’t even find the strength to pray for help. The burning was intense and blinding.
The emperor gestured upwards. Hundreds of faces followed his gaze. Overhead, a large planet was looming above the flying palace. “Our strength is unparalleled! When we come together, none will stand in our way! Behold, your salvation!”
Theo struggled, and somehow managed to roll onto his back. He gazed upwards. Outside of the dome, Theo could see the planet overhead beginning to break up. The planet wasn’t a planet at all. Instead, it was an amalgamation of thousands of tiny ships. The emperor had called together all off the ships at his disposal. The sheer number of ships added to the hopelessness in Theo’s heart and soul. His head lolled to the side. Something made him look into the stands.
Near the top of the tiered seating, in an embellished, boxed off area, was a figure that Theo initially thought was an angel. At first, he thought that the pain was making him see things, giving him comfort through hallucinations, but then he realized that what he saw wasn’t a trick of his mind. Cierra had been dressed in an elaborate gown. Her face was painted, and her hair was piled on top of her head. Even from so far away, he could feel her eyes on him. Her typically brave face was pinched with shock and horror. For a brief moment, the rest of the arena faded out his mind. The only thing that existed was Cierra.
Seeing her renewed his strength. Enduring the pain just to survive for himself was almost too much to bear. The thought of giving up and letting the dark matter finish him off had crossed his mind with every excruciating second. Theo knew that if he died, Cierra would be left to fend for herself. He had already lost Mari for the second time. He wasn’t about to lose Cierra, too. Determination hardened in his stomach.
Pollus raised his voice over the awes of the crowd, as the ships continued to fan out overhead. “We are going to squash the rebellion that threatens our peace and safety! To get us off on the right foot, I have orchestrated a fight to the death between Theo Jaiteoux, one of the rebellion’s leaders, and our very own prince Karl. May this fight be a testament to our imperial might!”
Right on cue, Karl entered the arena. Cheers from men and swooning screams from women erupted. Karl lifted two lasana blades into the air in response. The blades had a slight shimmer to them, as if a cobweb was woven around them. The blades almost seemed to shine with a light of their own.
Theo winced as two infintium blades were tossed lazily onto the dirt beside him by a servant. The swords he was given were dulled with age, and hadn’t been sharpened in years. Digging deep within himself, Theo grabbed the hilts of the swords. He pointed his eyes at Karl. Theo clenched his jaw. He struggled to plant his knees on the ground, and push himself up to his feet. If the dark matter inside of him was going to kill him eventually anyway, he might as well take out as many of his enemies as possible. Karl was at the top of that list.
Nine
/> Cierra saw Theo struggling to his feet. She could tell by the way he was moving that something was terribly wrong. She wanted to leave the stands and run down to him, but she knew that the dress she was in would make fighting nearly impossible. Getting in the way would only make Theo even less focused than he already was. Not to mention, the punishment for her actions would be visited on the other victims in the harem. She turned her head away, unable to watch him claw himself up from the dirt.
From the corner of her eye, she saw something move. A young girl was carrying a tray of small finger foods and wine down the aisle next to the emperor’s box. Cierra realized that the seating to the immediate right and left of the box was for the princes. She squinted at the girl. She looked familiar, but Cierra couldn’t quite figure out why.
Suddenly, the girl’s golden locks and the shape of her face clicked in Cierra’s memory. It was the little girl she had seen playing, when Dr. Brax had been trying to inject her with the fertility drug. Cierra watched as the princes eyed the girl hungrily. Unable to stomach their gazes, Cierra motioned for the little girl to come to her.
At first, she was hesitant. Her eyes were downcast, as if she were trying to make herself as small as possible. She hovered outside of the emperor’s box, afraid to enter. “Yes, my lady? Did you need me for something?”
Cierra nodded, and tried to offer her a reassuring smile. “Come here, little one. I was hoping I could try some of the food you have.”
Tentatively, the girl stepped into the box. She held out her tray for Cierra to pick and choose from the bite size portions of Castor’s delicacies. “Some of the princes ate all of the meats, but I can go get more if you would like.”
Cierra waited until the girl was close enough to hear her whisper, before she spoke again. “What’s your name?”
The girl looked a little startled that Cierra was asking her that, but she answered anyway. Her volume matched what Cierra had used. “Korrine.”
“Well, Korrine, you don’t have to be afraid. My name is Cierra. I met your mother.”
The little girl’s eyes lit up with hope. “You’ve seen her? Is she okay? They won’t let me visit her, and they stopped letting me use the comms to talk to my dad.”
The mention of the girl’s father made Cierra’s heart break. No one had told her that he had died. Cierra struggled to maintain her composure. “Yes, I’ve seen her. She’s doing well. She misses you very much.”
One of the rowdy princes in the stands to the left of the emperor’s box called out over the roar of the crow. “Girl! Over here!”
Korrine turned to him. For a moment, it appeared that she was torn between wanting to talk more about her mother, and going back to her duties before she was punished. “I-I have to go.”
The crowd shouted out a mixture of boos and cheers. Cierra glanced down at the arena. Theo had managed to get to his feet, finally. Karl was swirling his blades overhead, taunting him. Cierra bit her bottom lip. She turned back to the little girl again, but before she could stop her from leaving the box, the other woman seated by Cierra quickly shook her shoulder. Cierra followed the woman’s eyes.
Below, the emperor’s suit was glowing along his shoulders and down the sides of his legs. Cierra watched as he began to levitate. She had never seen that kind of technology before. His uniform had been crafted to look like any other royal suit, but when activated, it had the power to lift Pollus off of the ground. The emperor was flying straight towards them. The other concubine pleaded with her eyes for Cierra to sit back in place with her hands folded in her lap. Not wanting to cause her any grief, Cierra obliged.
Pollus zoomed across the distance between the arena, and landed heavily between the women. “Ah, Cierra and Lima, my two newest wives. You should both feel blessed to be here with me. It is an honor that most of the women in the palace would kill for. Some of them have.”
A bitter taste filled Cierra’s mouth. “Let’s get one thing straight. I am not, nor will I ever be, your wife.”
Pollus narrowed his eyes at her. “You can fight it all you want, but you are living in my palace, carrying my child, and under the galactic nuptial clause, you most certainly are my wife. If you don’t keep that tongue of yours from waving about so much, maybe I’ll just cut it out of your head. Removing someone’s tongue does wonders for an attitude problem. Doesn’t it, Lima?”
Lima averted her eyes in shame. For the first time, Cierra realized that the other woman hadn’t been simply refusing to talk. She no longer had the ability to. Cierra’s face couldn’t hide the disgust she felt at the way the emperor treated the women in his empire. It made her sick to think of how many strong women had fallen to disgrace because of him. The palace was no place to raise a child. Cierra’s eyes searched the nearby aisles until she saw Korrine serving the princes again. She promised herself that one way or another, she would find a way to get Korrine and her mother out of the palace, and away from the emperor.
Pollus propped his feet up, so that one foot was in Cierra’s lap, and the other was in Lima’s. He folded his hands across his stomach. “Don’t keep me waiting.”
Cierra watched in disgust as Lima pulled the emperor’s boot off and started massaging his foot. She glanced at Cierra nervously, and tilted her head to indicate that Cierra should do the same. Wrinkling her nose, Cierra managed to yank off the emperor’s shoe. She almost gagged when the smell of hot sweat billowed out around her face. Lint from his socks clung between his toes and around his calloused heels. Pollus’s toenails were yellowed with age, and thick from many nailbed injuries over the years. His face may have had the appearance of a man that was still virile, and not yet past his prime, but his feet told another story. The thought struck Cierra that maybe Pollus wasn’t in as good of shape as he appeared to be. If that was true, then maybe she could find a way to kill him, after all. She began thinking up possible scenarios in which she could end him. The plotting helped keep her mind off of the fact that she was massaging one of his clammy feet with her fingers.
Overhead, through the dome, Cierra could see the planet-like clump of ships had thinned out until it resembled more of a cloud than a solid object. They were rapidly approaching it. The floating city flew through the heart of the assembled imperial destroyers. Each of those ships would easily hold a thousand fighters. Pulling out ahead of the fleet, the palace ship paused. A ripple spread across the space in front of them, opening a vast wormhole. It was large enough to accommodate the entire fleet. The empire was going to war, and Batumah help anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire.
Ten
The ship surged through subspace, sending Theo reeling. Staying on his feet was hard enough with the sphere of dark matter dissolving him slowly from the inside out. With the added turbulence of wormhole travel, Theo had to focus more on balancing than on healing the open wound in his gut.
Overhead, the wormhole shimmered in morphing rainbow colors. The audience was mesmerized by the natural light show of subspace. The arena was cast in shifting colors, causing a ripple of shadows and illumination. With the audience distracted, Karl charged at Theo. Despite his girth, Karl managed to remain on his feet. He only stumbled a few times as the ship lurched through the wormhole.
Theo kept his eyes on Karl and his blades. One strike from the lasana blades and Theo’s infintium swords would be finished. He struggled to find a balance between keeping on his feet and healing the damage inside of him. He was so distracted that he almost didn’t move out of the way fast enough when Karl lunged again. The sizzle of the blade as it passed by Theo’s face made him look closer. Veins of dark matter stretched through the blade. If going up against a lasana blade wasn’t bad enough, they were now making them with dark matter enhancements. Theo shook his head, trying to keep his wits about him. He channeled as much of his remaining strength and focus as he could.
The crowd was starting to pay attention to the fight instead of the shifting colors overhead. Theo was doing his best to stay out of K
arl’s reach. The ship rocked wildly again, as the subspace battered them around. Typically, Theo was locked into a harness during wormhole travel. He hadn’t needed to keep his footing under those conditions before. He fell to one knee, but quickly tried to hoist himself back up. With his attention momentarily placed on trying to stand, Theo didn’t see the sweep of Karl’s blade.
Theo’s hand rolled free from his arm. Dirt stuck to the bloody wrist, forming a gritty clot. Theo’s screams mixed with the crowd’s cheers. Karl scooped up the chopped off hand, and began to make a victory lap around the edge of the arena. He held the hand up so that the audience could lean down and high-five the disembodied appendage. Cheers and squeals of excitement egged him on.
Theo writhed on the dirt in the arena. He clutched his bloody stump with his other hand. Sweat ran down his forehead. He struggled to force himself to grow a new hand. Unfortunately, when he focused his gift on his hand, the dark matter inside had full reign and ravaged him. Theo convulsed on the ground. Bloody foam bubbled around the edges of his mouth. His eyes rolled back in their sockets.
Some part of him must have sensed that the end was near. His body reacted out of instinct, encasing the dark matter inside of him in a hardened shell of cells. The defense mechanism let him take a moment to recover. He could feel the cells encasing the sphere regenerate as quickly as they were being burned away. His body was taking care of it automatically. Without having to focus on dealing with the dark matter, Theo was able to heal his arm.
As a new hand appeared, the crowd let out a shocked and excited gasp. Karl noticed the attention shifting away from him. He turned to see Theo on his feet again. Some of the strain seemed to have relaxed from Theo’s face. The excitement of a real challenge smile spread across Karl’s face. He knew that the true fight was about to begin. Karl tossed the limp hand away, and brought his blades up to a fighting stance.
The Relissarium Wars Omnibus Page 62