by Raine Thomas
In his place came two more enemies…influenced male Alametrians. Kyr brought forth the training she had received from Ty and Gren and honed her concentration to anticipate their moves.
The first of the two rushed her with a sword, swinging violently. She dodged the attack, sending him whirling off-balance. She moved so she could see him and keep her eyes on the second Mynder, who was wisely assessing her before he advanced. Behind her, the noise of fighting sounded so close that the hair on the back of her neck stood on end.
The second Mynder feinted with his de’llum, but she anticipated the move. Rather than flinching away, she took the offensive, bringing her right blade up and forcing him to block it with his weapon. Her left blade aimed for his midsection. He shoved away from her into a back shoulder roll, effectively evading the strike.
She barely turned in time to block another sword thrust from the first Mynder. It took both of her blades and all of her strength to halt the blow. The clash sent pain radiating through both of her arms. If the Oro blades hadn’t been tempered with a special composite blend of liquid illuvite and reyanite, they would have melted beneath the de’llum’s innate heat.
Just as she thought her arms might give out, the Mynder was yanked away from her. She watched as Ty ignored her opponent’s sword and simply swung with his fist. The Mynder’s face cracked from the pressure of the blow. He went down hard with an incoherent groan.
Kyr intercepted the second attacker before he could try and take advantage of Ty’s turned back. Rushing towards him, she dipped low and brought her blades up towards his midsection. As she expected, he swung his de’llum down to deflect her. Sparks flew as their weapons clashed. He shoved her away, sending her off-balance.
She regained her footing only to find Ty ramming the grip of his de’llum into the Mynder’s jaw. He collapsed to join his companion on the ground. Both males likely had broken bones in their faces, but they would live.
Kyr met Ty’s gaze. She watched his eyes shift. Her memory flashed to their training in the Dark Lands when Scarlyt’s blade pressed against her throat.
Next time, assume your opponent has additional backup.
Reacting on instinct, she reversed her hold on her blades and thrust them both behind her. She felt the shock of contact. Heard the sharp inhalation of breath.
Ty pulled her forward. Looking over her shoulder, she watched a V’larian fall. Blood seeped out from between his fingers where he clutched at his abdomen. The dagger he held fell uselessly to the ground.
There wasn’t time to regret or rejoice. The skirmish had only lasted a couple of minutes. Fighting continued to rage around them. Kyr’s eyes and throat burned from the smoke coating the air.
They battled their way closer to Vycor’s location, disabling rather than killing those who tried to stop them as much as possible. Every time a cry of pain hit the air, Kyr felt it like a blow. She saw people she had met at the palace fall, and felt immeasurably guilty that she couldn’t stop to help them. Many of their people lay on the ground, dead or severely injured. She stepped around severed limbs, slid in blood and viscera, witnessed grown males sobbing.
It was more than her heart could handle, but she had to bear it. The fate of the planet depended on her.
When projectile weapon fire started raining down on the hillside, it made things ten times worse. Eyes turned to the sky as blasts lit the air. People shoved each other in their haste to escape the explosive impacts, but there was nowhere to go. As the volatile weapons touched down, bodies blew in multiple directions, becoming grotesque weapons themselves.
Ty and Kyr worked their way to the edge of the clearing. The trees offered them some protection from the blasts, but they had a few close calls. Ty suffered deep gouges on the side of his face from tree splinters that burst right beside him. Thankfully, his eye was spared.
Kyr wasn’t without a few marks of her own. She’d been struck multiple times in the face and head, grazed in the arm by a laser, and sliced in the thigh by a de’llum. Her armor kept her from getting seriously damaged, but she was sure her body would be almost entirely black and blue whenever she removed her armor.
Within the trees, the Shelvaks made themselves known. They slid out of the shadows with their begothias, using the fighting knowledge that Ty had imparted on them back on Shelvak to disable their enemies. Kyr watched multiple Mynders and V’larians charge towards her or Ty only to find themselves abruptly halted by long, dark arms that seemed to come from nowhere. A number of enemies did avoid the Shelvaks, though, and Kyr’s arms were starting to feel like rubber from defending herself. Visibility grew increasingly worse as the fires engulfed the trees.
At long last, they neared the central point of the battle. A gap within the trees on the far side of the hill had offered clearance for a few Alametrian land vessels to take up position. Bodies writhed in the darkness around the vessels. Light from de’llums and several brushfires cast the area into sinister shadows, serving as the perfect backdrop for the horrible bleakness of battle.
Kyr and Ty both spotted Vycor at the same time. He sat at the helm of one of the vessels, safely behind an enforced viewing shield.
It took a moment for Kyr to really register that he was sitting in the protection of the ship, allowing others—her people—to fight for him.
Renewed fury rose within her as death screams resounded around the clearing. In that moment, her sole focus became getting through that viewing shield and ripping out Vycor’s rotting heart.
She followed Ty’s lead as he headed through the trees to the other side of the clearing closest to Vycor’s vessel. A number of Shelvaks joined them from the shadows. Kyr sensed that they read their intent and wholeheartedly approved.
They got to work breaking through the defensive line around Vycor’s vessel. A nearly equal number of V’larians and influenced Alametrians stood against them. The Shelvaks accepted injury by the light of the fires and de’llums in order to stand with Kyr and Ty. Just the sight of their poisonous begothias was enough to have some of their opponents turning and fleeing. Kyr saw Vycor’s outrage over that, which fueled her even more.
Finally, they got the break they needed. A breach appeared in front of the ladder leading to the top hatch of Vycor’s vessel. It was several feet off the ground and ran along the side of the vessel’s curved exterior. Ty jumped up onto the ladder, then turned to give her a hand up.
As it had earlier, Ty’s gaze flickered over her shoulder. Kyr reacted instinctively, leaping to the side. She felt something pierce the back of her armor, but it did no more than leave a scratch along her shoulders. She swept out her foot as she fell, knocking her opponent to the ground.
A female’s scream reached Kyr’s ears as she scissored instantly back to her feet. She turned to see Shaya being lifted from the ground by several Shelvaks. Shaya’s screams amplified when she realized who had grabbed her.
Kyr glanced at Ty. Without her having to say a word, he nodded and turned to climb the ladder.
She would deal with Shaya, and he would finally deal with Vycor.
Chapter 48
Even though Kyr had more than proven that she could protect herself, Ty sent her a quiet warning to be careful as he started up the ladder.
I will, she assured him. I love you.
I love you, too.
From there, his thoughts turned to Vycor. At the end of this ladder was the male who had made his and Kyr’s lives miserable since their return to Alametria. He had plotted and planned against them. He had seduced Shaya into giving him some of the Dem-Shyr’s abilities. He had spied on them. He had pushed Kyr into situations she was untrained to handle. He had hurt her and lied to their people about it.
He had forced Ty to kill her.
So Vycor’s painful death was at the front of his mind when a spray of laser fire blazed into the vessel all around him halfway up the ladder. The projectiles punched into the side of the ship, hitting and disabling critical engine parts. Vycor must not have cared
about the state of his vessel if he was ordering his forces to fire on him.
Pain in his side and calf told him he’d been hit, but not critically. Another volley of fire, though, and he doubted he’d be so lucky.
It wasn’t luck, came Sem’s thought. We saved your sorry ass.
He glanced behind him and saw Sem, Owyn, J’ael, and a host of Mynders disarming Vycor’s followers at the edge of the clearing. He was flooded with relief when he saw his family alive and well.
And you’ll never let me hear the end of it, he sent back, catching Sem’s eye.
What are cousins for? Now go kill that piece of shit.
Ty didn’t need to be told twice. He cleared his mind of the seething hatred that had propelled him carelessly up the ladder and nearly gotten him killed. His senses opened instead to everything happening around him. He funneled perspectives from Kyr, Sem, and all of the Mynders fighting on their side. It gave him a nearly three hundred and sixty degree view of the battlefield.
Why had Vycor remained in the vessel? He was a coward, yes…but he had pigeonholed himself.
The Advisor won’t be able to take off as planned, came an anxious thought from one of Vycor’s Mynders. Ty picked it up since his heightened senses were fully open.
Vycor had planned for this, he realized. The Advisor had wanted to draw him to this spot for this confrontation. He wanted to watch Ty and Kyr die with his own eyes, and if the worst happened and they reached him, he planned to take off once Ty climbed onto the vessel so he could kill him that way. Now that the vessel was disabled and that couldn’t happen, Ty was sure that Vycor had something else underhanded and deceitful up his sleeve.
There was nothing to be done but let it play out, he decided. He’d just have to be smart about it and anticipate trickery.
With that thought in mind, he eased his head over the edge of the vessel leading up to the top hatch. Nothing awaited him. Still, he finished the climb with a healthy dose of caution, his de’llum at the ready. He didn’t make a sound as he examined the lock on the hatch. After a moment of consideration, he sliced through the lock with his de’llum.
Grabbing the edge of the hatch, he yanked it open, then threw himself to the side. A volley of fire from a projectile weapon flew from the opening.
“Any time you get near that opening, I’ll fire,” Vycor shouted. “I’ve got enough weaponry in here to light up the night sky.”
Ty snorted. “No wonder you were passed over for the right to protect the Ascendant,” he called out. “You’re a complete idiot.”
A growl and more laser fire issued from the opening as Ty leaned over the side of the ship and caught Sem’s attention. Bring me something on fire. The bigger, the better.
Sem’s eyebrow lifted, but he shrugged and went to do as Ty said. Ty met him a minute later on the ladder.
“Can I watch?” Sem asked as he carefully handed over the flaming shrub he had dug up.
“Sure…from over there where Kyr is detaining Shaya. There’s still a battle going on, in case you missed it.”
“You’re no fun.”
Sem jumped back down and went to help Kyr. Ty hustled up the ladder, trying not to fry himself. He didn’t even bother to slow down and wait for a gap in the laser blasts. He just walked over to the opening and dumped the flaming shrub inside.
This time, Vycor yelped and cursed. The string of obscenities brought a dark smile to Ty’s face. He made sure to convey it all to Sem, Gren, and Kyr. Sem’s hoot of laughter carried across the clearing.
“I’ve got enough of those to light up the night sky,” Ty said loud enough for Vycor to hear.
Smoke poured out of the vessel’s opening. Ty correctly guessed that the next stream of weapon fire preceded Vycor himself. He waited behind a section of the left engine to shield himself from the laser blasts. The moment he had a clear shot, he struck with his de’llum. The weapon’s barrel sheared in half.
He barely had time to recover from his strike to meet a blow from Vycor’s own de’llum. The Advisor was coughing, but his strength was true. The contact sang through Ty’s arm. He welcomed it.
Their de’llums clashed again and again. They battled in silence, the time for words long gone. They each knew where they stood. They both sought to kill each other.
The difference was, Ty had more to fight for than Vycor ever would.
Their battle ranged across the top of the vessel, over the smoking opening, and along an uneven landscape that had them both stumbling and fighting to recover ground. Every other sight and sound ceased to exist.
Which was why a blast to the side of the vessel had them both losing their footing and falling.
Ty was trained enough to extinguish his weapon the moment he lost his balance. He didn’t need to take off one of his own appendages. The ground rushed up to meet him. His feet hit first, sending him into a diving roll to alleviate some of the compression. The pain didn’t even register. He was back on his feet in an instant, his weapon ready.
When he turned to face Vycor, however, Ty saw him staggering away at a rapid clip, heading right for his allies. The bastard was trying to escape.
Oh, hell no.
Cold fury fueled Ty forward. He didn’t even pause when the V’larians and Mynders surged in a protective cocoon around Vycor. He stormed right at them.
“Move,” he commanded.
Everyone around the vessel dispersed, giving him a wide berth. The power coursing through him resembled what Kyr had described when she ordered the Mynders in the hangar to stop. It was beyond anything he’d experienced before, yet felt perfectly natural.
“Throw down your weapons.”
The soft thuds of weapons hitting the ground filled the sudden silence. Vycor stumbled to a halt as he realized that everyone he thought would protect him was backing away from him, leaving a path for Ty to reach him. He barely had time to lift his weapon in time to block the strike Ty aimed at his heart.
The battle continued, this time on level ground. In the back of his mind, Ty realized that all other fighting in the area had stopped, not only because he had demanded it, but because people wanted to see how this fight ended. It was as if the entire planet held its breath.
But there was no doubt how this would end. Ty was younger, faster, and better trained than the Advisor. Within minutes, he saw his opening and took it. Vycor screamed as Ty’s de’llum seared through the base of his weapon, taking half of his hand with it.
As Ty went in for the kill, he saw Vycor pull something from his belt. It flashed with an ominous light. His mind registered explosive.
“Get down!” he shouted.
He barely evaded Vycor’s hand as the Advisor tried to secure the device to him. It fell to the ground.
Ty launched himself away from the weapon, pushing people as far from it as possible. Vycor dove in the other direction, using anyone who happened to be closer to the weapon as a shield.
A wave of heat, air, and debris propelled Ty headlong into a tree as the roar of the explosion shook the ground. His weapon flew from his grip, disappearing into the forest. His vision grayed as pain ratcheted through him.
Stay with me, Ty!
Kyr’s thought mirrored the one he had sent her when she nearly lost consciousness on their trip back from Shelvak. He latched onto it like a beacon. His eyes slowly parted. He tried to move, but couldn’t.
His senses aided him where his body failed.
Kyr was running towards him. On the other side of the huge, steaming hole in the clearing, Vycor grabbed a loose weapon from the ground. When he activated it, Ty realized it was a Shelvak’s begothia.
Stay away! he ordered Kyr. The weapon could harm her and kill their babies.
“You have underestimated me for the last time, TaeDane,” Vycor spat as he approached with the begothia.
He swung the weapon at Ty’s head. Ty rolled out of the way, no longer as immobile as he led Vycor to believe. As he regained his feet, he grabbed Vycor’s wrist and twisted it
violently enough that the snap of bone reached his ears. Ty realized that it mirrored the dream…the one that Kyr had influenced.
Even as Vycor shrieked from that injury, Ty rammed the begothia deeply into his groin.
They stumbled apart, breathing heavily. Ty wiped the blood pouring from his nose and smiled, watching Vycor’s face go deathly white.
“I told you that you were an idiot,” Ty said. “Of the two of us, I’m the one immune to Shelvak poison.”
Chapter 49
Kyr had obeyed Ty’s command to stand back because she shared his fear for their babies. The moment he pushed away from Vycor and tossed the begothia aside, however, she hurried forward. She heard Ty’s words as she reached his side.
Vycor had no response. He was too busy dropping to the ground, his hands between his legs. His mouth was open in a voiceless scream.
Kyr remembered the pain from her own begothia injuries. She remembered feeling like acid was bubbling under her skin and invading her veins. She remembered how Ty had opened up her injuries with his de’llum to release some of the poison so she didn’t die.
No one stepped forward to help Vycor. Her gaze lifted to the surrounding crowd. She noticed that nearly everyone was still on the ground from when Ty had ordered them there.
Picking up her observation, Ty also looked around. She felt his surprise as he realized his abilities had impacted everyone even though he hadn’t intended it. They obviously both had some learning to do as their abilities developed.
“I release you,” Ty said loudly.
Nothing happened. Kyr took his hand and opened her senses. She focused on wanting her people to be free of any influence. Ty nodded in understanding. They both put the power of their abilities behind the thought. Gradually, the bodies on the ground began to rise. As some of them made an effort to help Vycor, others held them back.