“Very well,” Tanik said.
“Wha...” Trista’s voice trailed off. “What did you...”
Yuri gave a low growl and walked by Gatticus. “You!” He said, jabbing a finger at Tanik. “You did something to us.”
Tanik spread his hands and smiled. “My apologies. Old habits. I won’t do that again. Promise,” he said, and held up a hand as if he were about to swear an oath.
“Much better,” Gatticus said. “Now we can begin.”
“Begin what?” Trista demanded.
Gatticus started for the exit, but Tanik stopped him—physically stopped him—with an upraised hand. It was like running into a wall. Gatticus shook his head, dazed by the sudden impact with the invisible barrier. “Do you want my help or not?” he demanded.
“One more thing,” Tanik said, looking as though he’s just been struck by an epiphany. He began waving his hands through the air, and a shimmering sphere of light appeared. The center of it quickly cleared, revealing a rooftop amidst a crowded city of skyscrapers, all silhouetted against fading purple skies. The streets below were crowded with all different species of aliens, and what looked like a long, orderly line of Cygnians. “Darius has dropped his guard, which gives us a brief window of opportunity to reach him.”
“Why would you want to do that?” Gatticus replied. “If he is as dangerous as you say—”
“Because it’s the only way for you to see for yourselves what the Revenants are like. Don’t worry, we’re not going to confront him. Not yet. Now quickly, follow me.”
“What... what is that?” Gatticus asked, pointing to what had to be a hallucination. Are androids even capable of hallucinations? he wondered.
“It’s a wormhole,” Tanik replied, and then he walked straight through. A moment later he appeared walking on the rooftop on the other side.
Gatticus hesitated, trading glances with Trista and Yuri.
“I’ll stay here,” Yuri said. “In case it’s a trap.” Trista frowned at him. “We can’t all go,” Yuri explained.
She gave in with a nod. “Fine. Come on, Gatticus.”
“Can I stay, too?” Buddy asked in a quavering voice.
“Whatever happened to, Tograns are loyal companions? Remember that?”
“Loyal, yes. I didn’t say anything about being blind and stupid.”
Gatticus smiled at their exchange as he stepped through the shimmering sphere of light.
Chapter 27
“What’s going on down there?” Trista asked as she peered over the low wall around the rooftop. “Why are all those Cygnians just standing around like that? They’re unusually passive.”
“Because the Revenants are controlling them. That’s not all. Look—” Tanik pointed to a podium where a one-armed man stood in front of a particular Cygnian. This one was trying to attack, but it seemed to be restrained by unseen bonds.
“Behold!” the one-armed man said in an amplified voice. “This Ghoul is immune to our influence. He thought he could use that immunity to kill me. What should his punishment be?”
The crowd below began murmuring amongst themselves.
“I say we should repay his violence in kind. He removed my left arm, so we will remove the left arms of every Cygnian in this courtyard! Revenants! Draw your swords!”
A shriek of metal answered that command, and strangely glowing blades appeared on either side of the Cygnians. Two lines of soldiers stepped toward the Cygnians, but even with the threat of mutilation bearing down on them, none of the aliens made any kind of move to defend themselves.
“Why are they just standing there?” Trista asked.
“They’ve all been turned into mindless slaves,” Tanik replied.
“Ready weapons!” the one-armed man ordered.
The soldiers raised their glowing swords, poised to strike. They were all now standing on the left side of the Cygnians.
“Cut off their arms!”
The swords fell in unison, and so did the monstrous aliens, all of them slumping to the left as they suddenly lost both their left arms. None of the Cygnians screamed or cried out in pain. Trista’s lips twisted into a grimace. As much as she hated the Cygnians, it made her sick to her stomach to watch them all be mutilated before her eyes. Her eyes flicked over the group of aliens struggling to pick themselves up out of the dust. Some of them were much smaller than the average, and Trista realized that they were just children.
“This is Revenant justice at work,” Tanik whispered.
“Stop it!” a young girl screamed. Trista’s eyes were drawn to a small figure darting across the street to reach the one-armed man.
“Who’s that?” Gatticus asked.
“That is Darius’s daughter, Cassandra.”
Trista watched her climb the podium to confront the one-armed man. That had to be the girl’s father, Darius. Cassandra launched into a heated argument with him. Trista couldn’t make out any of what they were saying to each other.
Darius endured her tirade for just a few seconds before gesturing offhandedly at her. With that gesture, she flew off the podium at high speed, as if she’d just been hit by a charging bull, and disappeared from sight.
Trista looked to Tanik in shock. “He did that?”
Tanik nodded. “To his own daughter. Imagine how he’ll treat everyone else in the galaxy.”
Darius returned his attention to the one Cygnian who had yet to have his arms removed—the one in front of him that was restrained by unseen means.
Darius flourished his sword and walked around the Cygnian, slicing off arms and legs at random. The alien screamed with a shrill, thundering noise that set Trista’s teeth on edge.
Darius returned to his starting point to face the Cygnian hovering before him. Now the creature had just one leg and one arm left out of six.
“Now beg for my forgiveness!” Darius bellowed.
The Cygnian screeched something unintelligible at him, and Darius’s sword flashed out once more, taking off the Cygnian’s head in a burst of glowing embers. The body collapsed to the ground, suddenly released from the invisible vice that held it.
“Let the festivities continue!” Darius said.
The crowds cheered, and a shimmering portal appeared at the end of the line of crippled Cygnians—a wormhole just like the one Trista had traveled through to follow Tanik and Gatticus. She glanced behind her to see that the portal leading back to Yuri’s flagship was gone.
“All right, you’ve proved your point about the Revenants,” Trista said. “Take us back.”
Tanik slowly shook his head. “I can’t.”
“What do you mean you can’t?” Buddy asked before Trista could.
“As long as that portal down there is open, I can’t open one of my own,” Tanik explained. “But don’t worry, Tarsus is the perfect place for us to develop our virus.”
“You trapped us here?” Trista demanded.
“Not intentionally.” Tanik spread his hands in a shrug. “But I knew it was a possibility. I didn’t know how long our window of opportunity would last, and you needed to come here and see this. There will be a chance for us to leave later, after Darius and his fleet have moved on.”
“And how long is that going to take?” Trista demanded.
“Hopefully not long,” Tanik replied. “I trust you’re both satisfied that the Revenants need to be stopped.”
Trista looked to Gatticus. His jaw was set, and his eyes hard. “I am,” he confirmed.
Trista was also convinced, but she wasn’t sure if they should trust Tanik. He reeked of hidden agendas.
“Trista?” Tanik prompted.
She wasn’t in the mood to play coy. “What about you?” she asked.
Tanik smiled thinly at her. “What do you mean?”
“Let’s say it works. We make this virus for you, and it neutralizes the powers of the Revenants. That will make you the only one with any unusual abilities. That leaves you in the perfect position to take control of the Union yourself.”
Tanik’s smile broadened. “You don’t trust me.”
“Nope,” Trista replied.
“That’s okay. We’ll get there in time. As to your concerns, once Darius has been defeated, and the threat of the Revenants dealt with, you have my permission to infect me, too.”
“And I suppose we’re just going to have to take your word for it,” Trista said.
“I’m afraid so, yes.”
Trista frowned and crossed her arms. “That’s—”
“Fine,” Gatticus cut her off. “We need each other’s help. Trust will grow in time.”
“My sentiments exactly,” Tanik replied. “Now let’s go find a place to get started.”
Chapter 28
Cassandra awoke with a start. Purple sky and white streaks of cloud swam into focus, followed by illuminated lines of air traffic. Her head pounded with a fierce thumping, as if something was trapped inside her skull and trying to bludgeon its way out.
“Cass! You’re okay!” Dyara’s face appeared, blotting out the sky. “I was just about to call for a medic.”
“What happened?” Cassandra pushed herself up onto her elbows to take in her surroundings. Her dad was standing on a podium some thirty feet away, giving what was probably meant to be a rousing speech about the future of the empire.
Dyara hesitated, her eyebrows pinching together. “You don’t remember?”
“I remember arguing with my Dad, and then... nothing.”
Dyara grimaced. “He threw you into a brick wall, Cass.”
“What?” Cassandra blinked in shock. “By accident?”
“I don’t think so. He didn’t even come to check on you afterward. I’m sorry, Cass.”
“You’re lying,” Cassandra said, flinging sudden tears away from the corners of her eyes.
“You were right.” Dyara rubbed her back like the mother she’d never really had. “It’s not him. It’s the Sprites. Don’t take it personally. I don’t even think he’s aware of what he’s doing.”
Cassandra couldn’t talk past the knot in her throat. Her head was pounding, her throat hurt, her chest ached, her back felt like one giant bruise, and to top it all off, her dad no longer cared if she lived or died. Just a minute ago he’d almost killed her himself.
The one person she’d always been able to count on, who’d always been there for her no matter what, was now a monster. Cassandra couldn’t take it. She broke down in tears, sobbing violently.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Dyara pulled her into a hug and held her, kissing the top of her head. Somehow that just made it worse. It should have been her dad holding her and kissing her head, doing his best to make her world right again. But this time he was the thing that was wrong with it.
“We have to do something, Dya,” Cassandra mumbled between sobs. “We can’t leave him like this!”
“Shhh. It’s okay.”
Cassandra pushed her away, suddenly angry. “It’s not okay!”
Dyara winced. “You’re right, it isn’t.”
“I went to see if he was okay, and he told me to leave him alone!”
“I’m sorry, Cass. I know how this must hurt.”
“Did your father ever throw you away like a bag of garbage?”
“No,” Dyara admitted.
“Then you don’t know what it’s like.”
“Maybe not, but I can imagine. We’re going to fix this, Cass. We’re going to do everything we can to fix it.”
“Fix what?” a gruff voice demanded.
Cassandra felt the blood drain into her feet with the sound of her father’s voice. She turned to see him glaring down at her and Dyara with a deep frown wrinkling his brow, as if she was the one who’d done something wrong. Blood fell in fat drops from his open arm socket to the ground, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“Your arm,” Dyara said quickly, standing up to take a look at it.
It was a gruesome wound, with ragged bloody flesh around a hollow white socket of bone and cartilage. His green eyes were ablaze with anger and pain, and he was visibly swaying on his feet.
“Why are you crying?” he demanded.
The lump in Cassandra’s throat returned, and fresh tears streaked down her cheeks.
“Stop it,” he demanded.
“You need to see a medic,” Dyara urged, and grabbed his other arm to get his attention.
Darius pulled away sharply. “I’m fine.”
Dyara scowled at him. “Well, your daughter’s not!” she snapped. “You threw her into a wall!”
“She looks fine to me.”
“Are you insane?” Dyara demanded.
“She needs to learn respect,” Darius replied. “She interrupted me in front of my soldiers, yelling at me and scolding me as if I’m the child and she’s the parent.”
She’d been yelling at him because he’d just had his arm ripped off and he’d been more interested in getting revenge than getting his injuries seen to. Cassandra couldn’t take it anymore. She got up and stormed away.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he called after her.
“Away from you!” she screamed, and with that she broke into a run, sobbing as she went.
“Cassandra, wait!” Dyara called after her, but she just ran faster, drawing on the ZPF to hide her presence from detection. She dived through the dispersing crowd and down the nearest street. Buildings blurred by her as she ran, and Tarsians stole curious glances at her as she went. Cassandra could sense Dyara trying to follow her, but she wanted to be alone. Her father had been all she’d ever had, and now he’d turned into a monster that she didn’t even recognize anymore.
Time seemed to race and crawl at the same time. Night fell with a sudden plunge into jagged shadows and glowing neon lights. Shady-looking pedestrians seemed to melt out of the walls of adjacent buildings.
After an indeterminate period of time had passed, Cassandra stopped running. It was then that she realized she was alone on a dark, and seemingly abandoned street. Run-down buildings rose to all sides of her, and the street ended in a shadowy alcove up ahead.
“Are you lost?” a voice asked from somewhere behind her.
That voice was familiar.
Cassandra spun around to see a man in a dark cloak standing behind her, blocking the only way out. Only his eyes were visible—yellow-green eyes, glowing faintly in the dark. A red neon sign portraying a woman in a suggestive pose flickered on and off beside him, illuminating his silhouette with a crimson glow, but not his face, which remained shadowed by the hood of his cloak.
“Imagine meeting you here,” the voice went on. Now Cassandra was certain she recognized it.
“Tanik?” she whispered, taking a guess at who it must be.
The hood came down, and Tanik’s bald head gleamed red in the light of that flickering sign. “Hello, Cassandra.”
She began backing away slowly and reaching for her sword. She drew it with a metallic shriek and aimed it at his chest.
“Stay away from me!” She summoned a shield and a pale white light pooled in the alley around her.
Tanik made no move to follow her. “I’m not the enemy, Cass,” he said, holding up his hands.
“Yes, you are!” she screamed. “You lied to me, and you used me to blackmail my father!”
“I saved your life,” Tanik replied, finally taking a step toward her. “And I kept you away from him for a good reason. You’ve seen what he’s become. He just threw you against a wall. He could have killed you.”
That comment sliced straight through to Cassandra’s heart. She felt her throat closing up again, and fresh tears leaked from her eyes, making them ache.
Tanik took a long step toward her. “You’ve seen what he’s become. But he’s your father, so you want to believe that he’s the good guy.”
“You held a knife to my throat!”
Tanik accepted that with a nod. “Yes. We were in a delicate situation. I had to use whatever feelings Darius had left for you in order to save my wife a
nd what was left of her people, the Keth.”
“You manipulated us into starting a war with the Cygnians,” Cassandra insisted, reaching desperately for some other reason not to trust Tanik. Her world felt like it had turned on its side, and everything she’d ever known and trusted was now sliding off into an uncertain abyss.
“If that’s true, then why did he go on to finish that war?” Tanik asked, taking yet another step toward her.
“Stay where you are!” Cassandra shouted, but her voice sounded small and frightened to her ears.
Tanik held up his hands in surrender. “Okay, you win. I’ll leave you alone.” He turned and started walking away, leaving her feeling more frightened than ever. A cold, fetid breeze blew through the alley, and a loud bang sounded, followed by low growls and wet, tearing sounds. Cassandra’s eyes darted about, trying to find the source of the noises. Remembering to use her awareness, she reached out and found five luminous presences down at the end of the street, hunched over something—tearing into it with their hands and teeth.
Cassandra shivered and looked away, back to Tanik’s retreating form. His words echoed through her head, his arguments starting to make sense. What if her dad really was the bad guy? After all, he was the one who had gone to Ouroboros to attack Tanik, not the other way around. Even after more than two months had passed, Tanik and the Keth still hadn’t tried to get revenge for that attack. And now Tanik had found her, but rather than try to capture her and use her to threaten her father again, Tanik had only tried to reason with her.
A sudden scrabbling of feet sounded from the end of the alley, followed by ragged panting sounds, drawing near—
She stole one glance behind her and then ran at top speed to catch up with Tanik. “Something’s coming!” she breathed, and grabbed his arm in a fierce grip.
Tanik turned around and thrust a hand toward the darkness. A violent gust of wind whipped down the alley and unseen creatures screeched in protest, their claws skittering as they fled.
“You’re safe now,” Tanik assured her, as those sounds retreated into the distance.
Cassandra peered into the darkness for a few seconds longer before sheathing her sword.
Broken Worlds_Book 3_Civil War Page 14