The Light Thief

by David Webb

However, she did not feel air rush by her like she expected. Instead, she heard the officers laugh behind her as if she hadn’t moved an inch. She opened her eyes to find out that this was indeed the case.

  Aniya was suspended in mid-air, floating just to the side of the walkway. After a moment, an invisible force pushed her roughly, and she landed back on the walkway, the rock floor scraping her face as she rolled.

  The officers picked her back up and continued forward, still chuckling.

  One of them said, “We installed that a long time ago. Many people decided they would prefer death over servitude.” He stopped laughing. “I can’t say I blame them.”

  They continued down the long pathway, heading directly for the largest of the glowing pillars. As they neared, Aniya got a better look at the source of the green light.

  Rather than a seamless wash of light, each of the pillars hosted thousands of individual lights, clumped together tightly and covering the surface in a conglomerate of green light.

  Each light came from an outward-facing tank, each tank housing a luminous green liquid and a dark form floating inside.

  Aniya gasped.

  Naked men floated in the tanks, wires protruding from various points on their bodies and long tubes attached to their mouths.

  She stared in horror as the bodies in the tanks took one synchronized breath of air from the tubes. The green color of the liquid grew richer, and the wires from their bodies pulsed red.

  The pillar grew brighter and then dimmed rapidly, and a pulse of green energy descended from the top of the cavern, shooting down into infinity. A few seconds later, she saw a bright yellow light respond from the depths, flashing once and then vanishing. A vibration shook the chamber, and then everything went still.

  “Welcome, Aniya.”

  Aniya turned around and saw the black wall of the cavern come alive, revealing a massive screen.

  The Chancellor looked back at her, grinning broadly.

  “By now, you must have surmised the true nature of your servitude.”

  Aniya remained silent, her shock rendering her speechless. As the Chancellor continued, the officers led her down another pathway to the left, toward another, smaller pillar.

  “Centuries ago, we found a way to harness the strongest and most pure form of energy: the Homo sapiens. Humans, we found, were the ultimate solution to the energy problem, one person offering more energy in a minute than our most valuable resource in its natural lifetime. As it turns out, you, our beloved citizens, are the true Lightbringers. Of course, it takes a toll on the body, as you may have seen from your brother, but we are now able to keep a host alive much longer than it could by itself. You’ll outlive everyone you’ve ever known, so you might say we’re doing you a favor.”

  “Gee, thanks,” Aniya said, finally able to form words again.

  They reached the next pillar, and the officers guided her halfway around, stopping at an empty tank.

  “You will be reunited with your brother, in a way. This was his pod, and it will now be yours. It normally takes our engineers weeks to calibrate a pod to a specific individual, but since you and . . . what was his name again?”

  “William!” she shouted.

  “Ah yes, William. You share much of the same DNA, so you should be a compatible host without much consequence. Or at least we hope.”

  Already dreading the answer, she asked, “Where is he?”

  “I honestly don’t know, and I truly don’t care. Last I heard, we gave him to our Operative for questioning. He could still be alive, but I’m sure you’ve noticed that our Operative is not the most merciful individual.”

  Aniya’s head dropped.

  One of the officers accessed a computer terminal by the pod and pulled out a keyboard.

  “Name?”

  Aniya glared at the man.

  “Annelise Lyons,” the Chancellor said from the screen. As Aniya looked up at the wall, he smirked. “Forgive me. Aniya Lyons. The least we can do for the poor girl is call her by her preferred name.”

  The officer pecked at the keyboard and placed it back under the computer as the tank in front of her came to life. The glass barrier descended and disappeared into the floor as machinery behind the tank buzzed and lit up with green lights.

  “Place her inside.”

  The second officer stripped her naked, taking the crystal and pocketing it after a quick examination. He then escorted Aniya onto the platform as a long tube dropped down from above. The officer placed the end of the tube over her mouth, fastening it with a strap behind her head.

  “Enjoy your bath,” he said, stepping off the platform.

  The other officer pressed a button near the terminal, and the computer receded into the wall as the glass wall began to rise again.

  Holes appeared at the bottom of the tank, and liquid gushed upward, submerging her body slowly.

  The Chancellor spoke one last time. “Good night, my dear.” Then the screen went dark again.

  Aniya felt the warm liquid race up her body. In seconds, her body was completely engulfed in the thick, green solution.

  A sharp sensation shot through her arm, and she looked down to see a red wire now embedded in her right wrist.

  She looked around to see dozens of wires appear around her, each one lunging toward her body and sticking themselves into her skin.

  As each wire pricked her, the pain was soon replaced with a numbing sensation as her body began to fall asleep slowly, one body part at a time.

  The wires reached her head and began to jab at her. Her ear, her chin, her cheek . . .

  Aniya’s eyes fluttered closed, and she succumbed to the black.

  Part IV

  Lightbringer

  43

  It had been a week since Salvador’s daughter had disappeared with Roland.

  When he had learned of their departure the next day, Salvador of course sent a team of scouts to retrieve them. If Roland was determined to seal his fate at the hands of the Lightbringers, that was his prerogative. But Tamisra belonged in Refuge.

  The scouts had come back after two days, reporting that the tunnels were empty. The blockage at the end of the tunnel hadn’t even been disturbed.

  Either they found another way through or they were taken long before they reached the Hub.

  Whatever happened, all Salvador could do was wait. He wasn’t about to send his men into the most dangerous sector in the Web on the chance that something went wrong. He had to keep telling himself that he made the right choice, that to do so would be sending innocent men to their death with no promise of Tamisra’s return.

  Though the guilt of potentially losing his daughter to the Lightbringers crushed him, Salvador knew he wasn’t the one to blame. He cursed Roland for getting his daughter involved in a fight he had sworn off decades ago. He cursed himself for not doing enough to stop the madness in the first place when William had first come stumbling into the tunnels.

  And then there was Kendall.

  Kendall and his “plan.”

  Forget where he came from. Sure, they had resources, not to mention all the time in the world. But the plan was absurd, not to mention impossible.

  Salvador wanted nothing to do with it. Not anymore. A long time ago, he had seen an opportunity to rid the Web of the Lightbringers, and so he agreed to become their symbol, the Scourge. But anything beyond that was something he had never been fully comfortable with. Even if it did work, he could never condone it.

  And yet, he had sent a child to die.

  Maybe this was his karmic punishment.

  Blood for blood.

  Whatever the cost, Salvador would have been happy to pay it years ago when he had no family, when Refuge lay in disarray. Now, for the first time since the executions, he truly regretted everything.

  The knock on his door went unheard as he buried his face in his hands.

  “Sir?”

  Salvador looked up, not bothering to speak. Corrin stood in his doorway, holding a met
al device in his hand.

  “We captured one of them,”

  He stood up, blood flowing to his fists.

  “We caught a Silver.”

  Barely containing the rage that consumed the guilt inside, burning it to a crisp, Salvador uttered one word. “Where?”

  “The Hub tunnel, sir. He’s down in the war room now, blindfolded, gagged, in a sack, the whole deal.”

  Salvador stepped toward the door, but Corrin didn’t move out his way. Instead, he held out the device.

  “He was carrying this.”

  It was a tablet, a mobile video player. Not found with your typical Silver supplies.

  Salvador took the tablet and pressed the play button.

  “Would you like some privacy, sir?”

  Salvador didn’t respond. Instead, he staggered backward and let himself fall to his bed.

  On the tablet, he saw his daughter hanging upside down by her toes in a dark room.

  A flash of light.

  His daughter screamed in pain as her body convulsed and her hair shot outward.

  The room went dark again.

  “No.”

  Another flash.

  Another scream.

  Salvador watched it three more times, knowing that the video was only a few seconds long and would continue to replay itself, but he was unable to look away.

  Finally, he threw the tablet against the wall and screamed in rage.

  “Sir?”

  Corrin still stood in the doorway.

  His scream had died out into a whimper, and Salvador, defeated, looked up again.

  “Are we going to go get her?”

  For the first time in decades, the Scourge had nothing to say. In the war, it was his job to speak for the resistance. He would inspire the rebels with rousing speeches, publish anti-Lightbringer propaganda, even hijack the sky ceiling and make Web-wide announcements to rally thousands to his side.

  But now, his enemy owned him, and he truly had no words.

  “We’re ready, sir. We can fight if you give the command.” Corrin stepped inside slowly. “We love your daughter and will die if it means bringing her back. And Aniya . . . you know I would do anything.”

  Salvador shook his head. “You would die for the chance to save them? Because that is what you can expect. You will all of you die. This is an obvious trap, one they would not lay for me if they were not ready.” With considerable effort, he held back a tear. “Tamisra is surely dead already. They do not need her anymore, now that they have attempted to use her as bait. And Aniya? They have taken her for a much darker purpose. That is all we are to them, you see? Tools waiting to be used. Led to the slaughterhouse so they will have meat. Hung on strings for their entertainment. Plugged into the wall so we can be their light. Que será, será.”

  He rocked back and forth. The device was dark, lying shattered on the floor, but he could still see his daughter’s body, hear her screams.

  “They don’t know how strong we are,” Corrin said finally. “There will be a price, but we will gladly pay it. We knew what we were signing up for when we started this all those years ago. Those younger have agreed to the same risks because they believe in what you once believed in. A world without the puppet masters.”

  Salvador looked up. “You would not be so ready if you knew the true cost.”

  “It doesn’t matter. If we have a chance to be free, then we will pay that cost. And if your daughter is truly dead, then don’t let it be in vain. She believed in you. It’s time you believe in yourself again.” Corrin motioned to the window. “There are people out there that need you back. Not only in Refuge, but a whole world.”

  “I do not remember casting that tablet aside,” Salvador said, pointing at the destroyed device. “I know only the feeling of coming to as my screams died. That was the remnant of the Scourge, not the man who sits before you now. The Scourge is dead.”

  “That guy was a jerk anyway,” Corrin said, grinning. “The Scourge was vicious, insane, a necessary evil. What we need now is a leader to make sense of the battle before us and tell us that we can win, even if we can’t. We need a father who is willing to move mountains, fight impossible odds, even give his own life to save his daughter. We need Salvador.”

  After a long pause, Salvador nodded. “I think I can do that.”

  With those words, his exhausted limbs began to stir, his fingers twitching. He got up, opened his dresser, and pulled out a massive golden sword. He could barely hold the weapon up, but the strain it put on his arms felt good.

  “I think I can do that,” he said again, turning the blade over and examining the steel.

  He turned around.

  “I think,” he said, a spark in his eyes, “it is time for war.”

  44

  Aniya’s eyes flew open as a surge of energy jolted her from head to toe. She grabbed at her throat as air was forced through the tube strapped to her head, cramming her lungs with oxygen. She squirmed as the wires in her body roughly pulled themselves out of her skin, tugging at her naked body in dozens of places.

  Then, the green liquid drained from the tank with a loud hiss. As Aniya’s feet touched the ground, and she stood on her own, she had to grip the sides of the tank to keep her balance.

  After a moment, the glass barrier sank into the floor.

  Aniya removed the tube from her head and carefully stepped outside on unsteady feet as her head spun.

  The cavern was empty, save for the tens of thousands of men imprisoned in similar pods.

  She looked down and noticed a neatly folded robe on the ground, with a piece of paper resting on top. After looking around again to make sure she was alone, she ignored the robe and picked up the paper.

  “Take the elevator back up. Fourth room on the right.”

  Aniya studied the handwriting. It didn’t look familiar, crushing her hopes that Nicholas had found a way to escape death. She turned the paper over, but dropped it when she heard footsteps echoing across the cavern.

  Grabbing the robe, she quickly dressed and stepped into the space between two neighboring tanks, wincing as her stiff muscles complained.

  “Thank you for your patience,” she heard a man say, echoing along the rock walls. “I know you’ve been curious as to what kind of work you’d be doing, but we had to wait until your blood sample was processed by our scientists.”

  “Please, I just want to go home.” Another male voice piped up, this one much younger.

  “Sorry, kid.” Another man spoke up. “You drew the short straw, so you get to serve the Web from the Hub.”

  The footsteps grew louder, as did the boy’s protests.

  Aniya grew nervous. Thanks to the cavern walls reverberating all sound, she realized there was no way to determine the newcomers’ position. She stuck her head out from between the pods slowly but saw nothing.

  “Are those . . . people?” The boy’s voice turned to panic.

  No one responded, and Aniya could hear the boy begin to cry.

  “Told you.”

  Motion appeared out of the corner of her eye, and she pushed herself farther back into the pillar, her ragged breath racing.

  “Don’t worry, kid. It’ll be over soon. It’s just like sleeping, I’m told. A long nap. Just one you don’t wake up from.”

  The voices were close.

  Two men and a boy walked by the pod she had just left, passing directly in front of her. They didn’t seem to care that the pod was empty, nor did they notice the piece of paper on the ground beside them.

  “Step inside, please.”

  Aniya frowned in confusion. She hadn’t seen any other empty pods nearby.

  A latch and a quiet hissing sound emanated from Aniya’s right, then a loud, rapid whoosh that quickly diminished.

  Then nothing.

  Aniya carefully stepped out from between the pods and nearly collapsed. The adrenaline that kept her moving was beginning to wear off, giving way to exhaustion. After taking a moment, she looked aroun
d but didn’t see any sign of the group. She backtracked around the pillar to the walkway, walking as quickly as her shaking legs would allow.

  She almost got back to the mouth of the cavern when she stopped in horror, realizing that the paper that had been left for her was still sitting on the ground where she dropped it.

  The officer must have been distracted by their captive, but when they returned alone, they would surely see the paper next to her empty pod. Worse still, the instructions on the paper may have seemed vague to her, but they might not be as indecipherable to the officers.

  Aniya spun around and ran back to her pillar, pushing the limits of her exhausted body. Her vision began to grow cloudy, and she shook her head, fighting just to stay awake.

  She reached her pillar and froze.

  The whooshing sound resonated throughout the cavern again, and she identified its source: on the side of the pillar was an elevator that allowed access to the seemingly infinite number of pods.

  And the elevator had nearly finished its ascent.

  Aniya ducked back between two different pods, still on the opposite side of the pillar from her own pod. She held her breath as she hoped the officers would come back around the circular pillar the other way, inadvertently avoiding the paper on the ground.

  She heard the elevator open on the other side of the pillar, then footsteps beginning again. Of course, thanks to the echoes of the chamber, they could have been walking either way.

  “You owe me dinner tonight. Told you that kid was a crier.”

  “Can’t believe I let you sucker me into that. Like he was going to fight back. Whatever. He only—”

  The footsteps abruptly halted, as did Aniya’s heart.

  “Did you see this?”

  Aniya closed her eyes and cursed her luck.

  “Do you know if this pod is down for maintenance?”

  “I don’t know, but this note means that something is up. We need to let the boss know immediately.”

  “You do it. I don’t feel like winding up in one of those green baths myself.”

  “Seriously? You’re afraid of the suits? You’re lucky that kid wasn’t a fighter because he probably would have taken you out.”