Something from the corner of his eye made him turn away from the base in the distance. Pollus flared his nostrils in fury. “You! What are you doing here?”
Ten
Theo and Hojae had torn their way through the palace compound to the fleet hangar. Taking out a group of guards, they easily slipped into a ship. Theo readied the engines. “Do you know how to open the hangar?”
Hojae shook his head, looking at the myriad of buttons and switches. “Not a clue.”
Theo raised his eyebrows. “Well, better hope we just get lucky then.” He began pressing different buttons. One of the first buttons shot an intense, blue flame out of the back of the craft. The fire ignited a guard that had been trying to approach them, unseen. His scream made Theo glance at the monitors. “Well, I guess that’s not the right one.”
Hojae flipped a few switches. The hatch on the hangar stuttered open. “Wait! That’s it.”
“Good job!” Theo nodded to him, and secured his harness. “You might want to buckle up. I don’t know what it’s going to be like once we get out there.”
“Can you still make yourself invisible?”
Theo paused for a moment. He looked down at his hands. His body faded out of sight. Looking back up at Hojae, he spread his cloaking gift over the ship before they left the hangar. “Good idea.”
The Josti shifted in the copilot seat. “I have them occasionally.”
Leaving behind the huge palace ship, Theo flew their ship after the escape pod. “There you are!” He spotted the ship darting off towards Relisse.
Suddenly, a plasma blast seemed to shoot out of nothing behind the escape pod. Hojae squinted into the space. Another blast shot out of the empty space. “Looks like we aren’t the only ones with Yasta gifts following the emperor.”
Theo watched with a sickening feeling in his stomach. The rear of the small craft started to smoke. It spiraled down towards the decimated planet below. The pilot tried to right the ship, but there was no preventing the crash that was coming. Theo tightened his hands on the shifters, and dove more steeply. Hojae braced himself against the side of the cockpit. They saw the imperial ship crash into Relisse. Then, a few moments later, the fighter that had been following the pod appeared near the wreckage.
With the cloaking gone, Theo could see it was a Yasta fighter ship. A shock of red hair left behind the ship. Cherish. Theo would know that hair anywhere. His own ship was still too high up, but he was closing the gap fast. He watched as Cherish walked over to the wreckage, carefully. Before she could even assess the interior, something blasted her backwards! Theo saw her body arch through the air, landing heavily against a boulder.
Someone was still alive in that wreckage. Theo grabbed a set of lasana blades from the weapons rack behind his pilot seat. “Hojae, I need you to take over flying this thing.”
“What?” Hojae watched incredulously as Theo opened the hatch and dove out of the ship, hundreds of feet from the surface. Warning lights blared in brilliant, red flashes. The monitor showed that the ship’s internal atmosphere had been compromised. Hojae quickly slipped into the pilot’s chair. The ship resealed the open hatch, trying to stabilize itself.
Wind rushed past Theo’s face. He funneled light matter into the blades in his hands. The light stretched from one blade to the other. It formed a sort of hang gliding fan that slowed his fall to a controlled speed. Using the slight currents of the planet’s atmosphere, Theo guided himself to the ground.
Several feet above the ground, he stopped funneling light matter to his blades. The glider ceased to exist, dropping him immediately to the planet’s surface. Theo took confident strides towards the wreckage. His blades were held at the ready. A figure emerged from a hole in the hull of the escape pod.
Pollus spotted Theo. “You! What are you doing here?” Without giving him time to answer, Pollus held up his arms. The spirals embroidered on his sleeve lit up with a violent orange color. The emperor shot out bursts of energy at Theo. “Do you think you’re the only one with something extra up their sleeves, boy?”
Theo easily dodged the blasts. Furious, Pollus triggered the blue lights along his uniform that he had used before the battle in the arena had gone underway. He shot forward at an inhuman speed towards Theo.
Creating a shield of dark matter, Theo wielded one lasana blade while letting his shield absorb the strange energy that Pollus seemed to be able to fire at will. The strikes were quick and fluid. The more Theo tried to land a hit, the more he was convinced that Pollus was almost his equal in combat. The emperor seemed to almost be able to anticipate what Theo was going to do, even before the thought occurred to Theo.
A sudden scream from Cherish distracted Theo from the fight. Theo could see that her eyes were spaced out, as if she were seeing something that wasn’t really there. By the time Theo had realized that whatever was upsetting her was a vision, it was too late. Pollus was quick to use the moment to his advantage. The emperor grabbed a short-handled battle scythe that was concealed somewhere on his body. In one quick motion, he slashed the upper portion of Theo’s arm, all the way down to the bone.
Groaning in pain, Theo quickly leapt away. Looking down at his arm, he could tell there was something different about the wound. It wasn’t just a cut. Something about the scythe turned the flesh necrotic. The dead skin was starting to spread along his arm in both directions. At first it turned green, and then slowly black. His eyes watered and his body shook. The pain was like having his limb dipped in acid until all of the nerve endings finally died off. Afraid to touch the wound, Theo funneled light matter into his arm. The spiritual swirls of white and purple seemed to supercharge his healing and reinforce his skin. The pain was starting to fade as his body healed from the damage. He let out a shuddering breath of relief.
The pain had kept him from paying attention. A sudden scurry of movement from both made Theo wince and look up. The emperor was caught in mid-strike. The scythe would have made another deep cut along Theo’s back if Cherish hadn’t moved to intercept it. Her arm was shifted into a lasana, keeping the scythe from biting into his flesh again.
Cherish’s face was beaded with sweat. “Theo, Cierra is dying in the wreck. You need to go to her!” Theo’s face paled at the words. He immediately ran as fast as he could to the crash site.
Pollus kept his eyes locked on Cherish. “Dying? The girl is as good as dead, boy. You’re wasting your time. Are you going to leave this cyborg here to fight your battle for you? Huh? Answer me, boy!”
Cherish pinched her lips tight. “He knows what’s important. You, Aphilranius, have a much longer feud with me, even if you don’t realize it yet.”
“How dare you call me that!” The emperor began fighting in a fury.
Cherish held her own. “How dare I call you that? How dare you send one of your sons to have me augmented! I was a child! There was nothing wrong with me and yet you still had Karl convince my parents that it was for the best. Do you have any idea how many surgeries I had to endure?”
Pollus shook his head, as if she were speaking nonsense. “Why would I bother with a child?” Then something seemed to register in his eyes. “You were the girl with the prophecies in her dreams.”
“Yes!” Cherish yelled at him. Years of pain fueled her. “You had them turn me into a cyborg, and even that hasn’t stopped me. You’ve stopped nothing! I can still see the future, Aphilranius, and yours is very short.”
The emperor studied her face, waiting for the right moment to swing back into action. “You have a few screws loose.”
He shoved off, away from her. They clashed in mid air again. Cherish’s augmentations allowed her to keep up with Pollus’s ever shifting movements. Blow after blow seemed to wear down on her more than it did him. It took Cherish a moment to realize why the fight was harder on her than Pollus. She had been going off limited oxygen for too long. Pollus was still breathing easily. As much as she wanted to keep fighting, her strength was dwindling.
Suddenly, anoth
er pair of blades entered the fight. Cherish looked down in confusion. “Hojae?” She reared back for a second, unsure of which side he was on. The last time she had seen him alive was before Makram had killed him.
The Josti berated the emperor. He held a breathing apparatus in his mouth. It was clear he was focused on attacking the emperor. Cherish decided to use him as an ally, at least for the time being. If his allegiance switched in the fight, or if he started attacking her too, she would just have to adapt.
Cherish’s relief was short lived. Hojae cried out as the emperor landed a cut on his arm. The Josti pulled out of the fray to try and heal himself. Cherish saw a gloating smile flicker over Pollus’ face. Taking advantage of the moment, she charged him.
Her attack wasn’t as surprising as she thought. Pollus whirled around at the last moment, and buried his battle scythe two-thirds through her body. As he speared her, he shot both of them higher into the air. “It seems your prophecies aren’t as reliable as you thought, girl.” The blade stopped, getting hung inside her mechanisms. Pollus stopped soaring upwards, hovering several stories above the ground. The malevolent smile on his lips faltered. Pollus placed a foot on her shoulder, shoving her off his scythe.
Cherish took advantage of the moment. “We’ll see about that.” She sliced her lasana blade through his leg, just below the knee. The emperor screamed in pain. He watched as Cherish fell backwards, still clutching his chopped-off leg close to her body. Her hair fluttered like red streamers in the wind. Grinning, she waved the leg at him. The light in her eyes dimmed. Her lifeless body landed on the barren wasteland below. A smile still rested on her lips.
Eleven
Theo yelled through the wreckage. “Cierra!” Rushing over to the hole in the ship, he saw her limp, crumpled body, and a moment later, the metal bar protruding from her abdomen. “No…”
He couldn’t breathe. Theo stepped inside, and lifted her up. Blood oozed out of her, but much too slowly. Her heart had already stopped trying to pump anything through her veins. Her body was colder than it should have been.
Theo held her tightly to him. He poured light matter into her, willing her to live with everything he had. “I can’t lose you, too. I just can’t. I’d give it all up, every bit of it, just to have you. Do you hear me? You can’t leave me now. I never…I never go to tell you…” Theo cradled her head against his chest as he whispered the words that he had been too afraid to say before. “I love you.”
Cierra gasped in his arms. The light matter wove her body back together, healing her from the inside out. The metal spike was expelled, and clattered to the floor. She looked around in shock. “Theo?” Her hands wound into his hair. “Theo!”
His lips trembled. “You came back. You came back to me.” He clutched her closer to him.
Wiping away the tears that were streaming down Theo’s cheeks, Cierra stared for a moment at his lips. She seemed to hesitate, but only for a second. In a rush of emotions, she pressed her lips to his. The kiss made Theo’s heart race. He held her tighter. He had imagined many times what it would feel like to kiss her, to have her close to him. The real thing was so much better. It was more intense that he could have ever imagined. She may have been kissing his lips, but Theo felt it in his soul. It was as if a thousand fireworks were sparkling within the light matter that flowed through him now. Nothing else could compare.
A scream interrupted them. Cierra pulled away in concern. “What was that?”
“I don’t know.” Theo cradled Cierra in his arms, lifting her as he stood up. Now that she was back, he didn’t want to put her down again. He stepped out of the crashed escape pod.
Cierra gasped. “Theo!” She pointed to where Hojae was still valiantly trying to battle the emperor.
Theo felt her shake as she saw Pollus. He picked up on her anger, and it coursed through his veins. “You’re safe. I won’t let him hurt you. I promise.” She nodded, but didn’t trust her voice to answer with anything more than that. Cierra clung to him, and Theo felt the primal need to protect her, to protect everyone that Pollus had ever even thought about hurting.
Theo carried Cierra to the fighter that Cherish had piloted. He never took his eyes off Pollus. The emperor was missing a leg. It made his movements unbalanced, and slower than before. He was obviously in pain, but unwilling to give up the battle for something as small as a missing limb. Theo silently hoped that the pain would never stop. Nothing was too bad for him.
Opening the fighter, Theo was a little surprised to see a wounded Yasta warrior inside. It made sense though. Cherish hadn’t had the gift of invisibility. She would have needed someone who could cloak her. “Were you with Cherish?”
The Aphaian nodded. “Close the door. You’ll let all of the oxygen out. You may not need it, but she and I do.” Arden pointed to Cierra.
Theo placed Cierra gently down in one of the seats. It pained him to have to let go of her. Theo looked at the wires stretched from the front of the ship to where the wounded warrior was propped up in the back of the ship. “What are you doing?”
Arden held up a set of headphones. “I’ve been listening to the comms. It’s not going well. Even with the better weapons, we just don’t have the numbers to compete with the imperials.”
Theo stood up. “Don’t worry about that.”
Cierra grabbed his hand. The sweet touch caught him off guard, and made his heart skip a beat. She looked up at him with worry in her green eyes. “What are you going to do?”
Theo gave her hand a squeeze. “I need to put an end to this, once and for all.”
Cierra nodded, as her eyes narrowed. “Do it for me, every woman he ever abused, and every man he killed.”
“That’s exactly what I’m planning.”
Leaving the ship, he made sure to close the door quickly to seal in as much of the oxygen left in the fighter as possible. The only way he was going to end the war was to take Pollus out of the equation. Most of his followers were only kept in line by fear. Take away the man who tormented them, and the organization would crumble. Without the head, the snake would die.
Pollus was still fighting with as much fury as he could muster. The blood loss was making him lightheaded, but that didn’t stop him from slicing Hojae in the arm and the leg in quick succession. “You were weak when you were born and you’re still weak now! That’s why you were a slave. Do you honestly think you can kill me? You’re nothing!” He swung his scythe again, but missed.
Theo yelled to distract the emperor. “Hey!” Hojae saw the balls of light forming in Theo’s hands, and quickly backed away. The Josti was limping. The flesh around the cuts was turning a necrotic shade of greenish black. Hojae’s healing gift wasn’t enough to reverse the damage. Theo made sure that the Josti was out of range before he prepared to throw the dark matter bombs that were pulsing in his palms.
Pollus was sweating now. His skin was pale. He focused on Theo. “Back again? Done boohooing over that incubator of yours? Pity about the baby.”
Theo stopped in his tracks. “Baby?”
Pollus cackled. “Oh, you didn’t know, did you, boy? Your dead wife was carrying Karl’s spawn, but that other little thing you were sweet on? Well, her baby was all mine.”
Theo shook with rage. Was that why Cierra had trembled at the sight of the emperor? “Shut up.”
Pollus’s eyes gleamed with pleasure at how much his words were angering Theo. “What? You don’t want to know the juicy details? And I do mean juicy. She was nice and young, wasn’t she? Tell me, did you even get to taste that little piece of fruit?” Pollus howled with laughter. “You didn’t, did you? Well, I don’t do it myself, but some men don’t mind having a little fun if the fruit is already…expired.”
Theo pulled his hands back and threw the pulsing balls of dark matter at the emperor. “I said, shut up!”
The first blow knocked Pollus out of the air. He was flung fifty feet away from where he had been hovering only moments before. He skidded across the ground. The second
blow knocked him backwards. His head bounced off the hard, black surface. Theo charged at the mangled man before him. He pinned Pollus down. Theo pounded his fists into Pollus’s face with inhuman fury and intensity, so fast his arm was a blur. The combination of the pummeling and dark matter mangled the emperor’s face quickly.
Hojae ran over, and grabbed Theo’s arm. “He’s dead! He’s dead, Theo. You can stop now. You can stop!”
Theo reared back, almost hitting Hojae before he realized what he was doing. Theo blinked at the Josti. The rage dissipated some. Hojae clapped him on the shoulder, reassuringly. Overhead, a ship slowly descended. Theo looked up, shielding his eyes. He recognized it as the ship that he had put Cierra on.
The ship hovered a few feet off the ground. The hatch opened. Hubard poked his head out. “We need to go! The imperials have destroyed almost all the Yasta ships.”
Hojae yelled up to him. “The emperor is dead!”
Hubard looked at the Josti, a little uncertainly, but the fact that Theo was seemingly unconcerned by the former traitor’s presence seemed to reassure him a little. “I’m not sure that’s going to matter right now. The imperials are still so busy following orders even that may not be enough to deter them from finishing the fight. The last we saw of the fleet, they were headed directly for Relisse. They’re coming.”
Theo stood up. He knew Hubard too well to think the scientist was completely out of ideas. “What do you have in mind?”
Hubard shifted uncertainly. “It’s not much of a plan. It’s more like an end game.” He pulled out a glass sphere, clutched carefully in a pair of tongs. The sphere barely held a few specks of white, swirling matter. “They were gathering it deep in the mine. There’s not much. It takes much longer than that mine has been around to get much of a supply of dark matter, but with this stuff, a little seems to go a long way. The only problem is, someone’ll have to stay here with it.”
The Relissarium Wars Omnibus Page 68