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“Blasphemy,” Xara’s voice boomed throughout the chamber. “You would defile this house of the gods?”
“You’ve done a fine job of that yourself,” Liam remarked.
Liam and the crew began inching toward the exit, but the Disciples wouldn’t budge. Xara stepped forward and released a bellow that shook the chamber. His long pointed teeth an afterthought as his muscles bulged under his cloak. Liam could see his body growing, filling out his robes until he no longer looked like a Disciple of Re at all, but some monstrous thing, an embodiment of the frightening creatures carved into the stone of the temple.
“What did I say about pissing off the Disciples?” Nix asked Liam over the din.
The Disciples advanced, pouncing with the ferocity of so many predators. Nix shot first, a burst of energy cascading out of the tip of his weapon, scorching a hole clean through one of the Disciples. Liam and the rest of the crew fired their weapons and disabled three more. Xara’s two remaining brothers were on them, slashing Nix across his forearm as he blocked their attacks. Liam’s weapon wasn’t fully charged but he let a bolt go at the nearest Disciple. The Ansaran fell to the ground in convulsions, a circle of charred cloth melted into his flesh.
Nix took the remaining Disciple to the ground, grappling with him as Ju-Long tried to pry him away. Saturn turned her weapon to Xara, the ball of energy at its tip swirling intensely. Xara’s pale eyes stared back at her, saliva dripping from his open mouth. His hands curled into fists and his forearms split the once loose-hanging cloth. Liam heard a sickening crack and turned his gaze to Nix, who’d just finished his fight with the Disciple, the Ansaran’s neck twisted at a horrible angle.
Xara’s face was nearly unrecognizable. His purple veins pulsed under his translucent skin, blood pumping furiously. When the last Disciple was taken out he let out a piercing scream. Saturn loosed her bolt of energy, hitting Xara square in the chest. His cloak was immediately charred and he stepped back to keep his balance. Though his skin was burned he was otherwise unfazed.
“What the hell?” Saturn said to herself, readying another charge.
More Disciples had heard Xara’s screams and entered from the far side of the chamber. When they saw what was happening they started toward them with surprising speed.
“Run!” Nix yelled.
They took off down the winding black corridor, lit only by the tips of their weapons, blue light swirling against the walls like a glut of jellyfish. Liam heard terrible noises behind him but he didn’t dare turn around for fear of losing momentum. There were crashes along the passage to his rear. Liam imagined Xara’s huge frame barreling down the corridor after them. For a moment he wondered if all Ansarans were monsters under lanky facades or if Xara was somehow different than the others. It didn’t matter. They needed to get back to the ship and get the hell off that moon.
Liam took up the rear, firing a shot backwards down the long hallway, which was promptly met with a scream and the sound of stumbling bodies. Liam didn’t wait for the weapon to charge completely. Instead, he just let a bolt go as soon as it was the size of his fist. Enough to stun a normal Ansaran.
Up ahead Liam caught sight of the courtyard. Nix was ahead of him struggling to put his mask back on before going outside. When he finally got the straps pulled tight he let out a large gust of air. Liam checked his own mask with his off hand, ensuring it was still secured in place.
The hallway funneled out into the collection of carved figures, the sun hanging over their heads along with the giant planet Garuda, so large in the sky above. Nix fired his weapon ahead of them, taking out a Disciple hiding among the ruins. Liam hadn’t even seen him, but the Disciple had been in the perfect position to ambush.
They passed through the courtyard quickly, reaching the far end just as more Disciples, led by Xara, breached the corridor, pouring into the dilapidated ruins. Xara loosed a terrible roar that reverberated through the statues of unknown creatures, causing some of them to crumble around Liam and the crew. Liam avoided a shard of stone and shot a blast of energy behind him without looking. A high-pitched yelp told him that he’d hit his mark.
Liam sprinted past the entrance to the temple and through the many monolithic pillars lining the path before him. Saturn loosed a bolt of energy behind her, the shot missing and hitting a column. The bolt cracked the base of the pillar and it slowly began to tilt until all Liam could do was watch as it fell, obstructing the path behind them. Xara and three more Disciples leapt over the fallen stone post with ease. Fortunately, Xara’s larger frame slowed him down and he was losing ground on the crew.
Liam was running out of breath. On the mine he’d never had to run and he’d lost a lot of his stamina. Now he was wishing he’d joined Saturn for laps around the mine. She ran alongside him, her mouth closed, breathing silently through her nose. Even with the sun bearing down overhead she hadn’t broken a sweat. Ju-Long on the other hand looked far more winded than Liam. He’d spent most of his time lifting weights at the mine. Since coming through the wormhole Liam had spotted him lifting crates to stay in shape, which was hardly helpful in that situation.
Nix jammed his hand inside the pocket of hi cloak and pulled out a flat circular object with a brushed metallic look to it. With his weapon hand he pressed a button in the center and the image of a rotating eye was projected out several centimeters. The image was golden, as though it belonged to another Dinari.
“I need a pickup,” Nix said with labored breath, voice tinny through his mask. “Bring it in hot.”
“What are you...talking to?” Liam managed to say in between strides.
Nix looked back over his shoulder, his eyes betraying a smile. He continued to surprise Liam. Everyone had their secrets. Some more than most. Being one of the latter, Liam could guess there was far more to the scrappy Dinari than he knew.
Before Nix could answer, the deafening sound of their ship’s engines filled the thin air around them. Liam’s eyes traveled up the ridge in front of him to the white searchlights scanning the ground around him. Liam chanced a glance over his shoulder. Xara’s Disciples were twenty meters behind them and Xara was not much farther back.
Nix spoke into the circular object once more, but Liam’s ears must have deceived him. He thought Nix had said ‘fire.’
Out of the sky, a thousand blue pellets of light rained down behind them, cutting through the three Disciples and eating holes into the black soil around them. Xara stopped in his tracks, releasing a howl that resounded against the jagged rocks around them. Liam and the crew stopped, their ship descending in front of them, dwarfing their presence among the rocks and creating a shadow only broken by the dual searchlights.
Xara’s translucent skin bubbled with the flow of his blood, which rushed to his head until he was blue in the face. He was breathing the limited air of the moon, undeterred by the low oxygen levels. Liam wondered if he’d needed the mask before at all. Could the Disciples have adapted to the barren environment?
The ship’s copper gun barrel was spinning slowly, winding down after its barrage. Small puffs of smoke floated up from the tip as the metal sizzled. Xara took one look at the weapon and his stance eased up. He stood up straight and retracted his teeth back to their normal length. His deep voice had no trouble reaching Liam and the crew. “I should have expected as much, rake.”
Nix holstered his energy weapon and adjusted his breathing mask, making it easier for him to speak. “It’s always a pleasure Xara. Until we meet again, then.”
“Pray we do not,” Xara replied with a sadistic tone.
Behind him, Liam heard the ship’s landing gear touch down and the ramp lower, cutting into the dark soil as it did. Saturn returned her weapon to its holster and started off toward the ship. Nix turned his back to Xara and raised the hood of his cloak as though disrespecting the Disciple by turning his back to him. The rough brown cloth quivered softly in the breeze. Liam took one more look at Xara before turning and following the crew
up the ramp. Ju-Long hovered for a moment at the bottom of the incline.
“We made another enemy today,” Ju-Long said to Liam through his antiquated mask.
“It looks like this part of the galaxy is no different than ours.”
Ju-Long nodded and made his way up the ramp to the cargo hold. Liam took one last look at Xara, so stoic among the dark dust cloud rising from the bullet holes in the ground. His long purple tongue slimed its way through the gaps of his pointed teeth. His face had returned to its normal translucent state, but his eyes were angrier than ever. They hadn’t seen the last of Xara, Liam was sure of it.
The Corsair Uprising #1: The Azure Key Page 26