The Drellic Saga: Books One, Two and Three

by Mike Marlinski

Chapter Three

  Just a few hours before sunrise on the following day, Syll was abruptly awakened by shrill cries coming from Drellic’s nursery.

  “Asha, could you get that?!” Syll called from the master bedroom.

  She received no reply from her maid, as Drellic’s wailing continued to echo throughout the house. Syll scoffed with frustration and tossed her quilt to her side. She then jumped to her feet and angrily marched down the hallway and into the nursery, where she found Asha gently cradling Drellic against her chest. The infant’s ear piercing screams had been reduced to a series of quiet whimpers, as Syll noticed Asha staring at the large rectangular flat screen monitor on the wall, with a mortified expression.

  Syll turned her attention to the monitor, to see that the local press and royal enforcers had gathered on the front steps of Delendra Tower. It was an emergency broadcast from the government that was being displayed across the two worlds. “What’s happened, Asha?” Syll asked; her voice cracking with a worried tone. Asha remained silent and fixated on the screen, while slowly rocking Drellic back and forth.

  Syll looked on, as Drellic drifted back to sleep. She was trying her best not to upset her baby any further, but from within the safe haven of her mind, she was screaming at the top of her lungs.

  The last time she had seen her husband, he was taking a shuttle to Delendra to stand before the Emperor. She couldn’t help but assume that something terrible had happened to him.

  “He is dead,” she heard Asha whisper, as her gaze still had yet to leave the chaotic images of eager news reporters, angry enforcers and baffled bystanders.

  Syll’s body quivered with fear. Her jaw dropped and her heart sank.

  “What did you say?” she asked Asha. “Did you just say that my husband…”

  “No,” Asha quickly answered, before Syll could finish her question. “The Emperor, my lady. Covlar is dead. The insurgency attacked the tower. They beat the Emperor to death, then sent him through the gate to Siren.”

  Asha then hesitated before going on to say, “There is still no word on Master Morn.”

  “Master Morn is just fine,” came a man’s voice from behind them.

  Startled, Syll quickly whirled around to see her husband standing in the doorway, seemingly unscathed. She ran to him and wrapped her arms around him, tighter than she ever had before.

  “You were gone so long!” Syll cried out as she brushed her tears from her eyes. “I couldn’t help but think the worst.”

  “I know,” Morn replied, sternly. “But I’m here now and everything’s going to be fine; for us any way.”

  He then entered the room and approached Asha, while reaching for Drellic.

  “Right now, all I want to do is count my blessings and be with my family, if you don’t mind,” Morn subtly ordered.

  Asha then dutifully handed the child over to his father and slowly backed out of the room; all the while giving Morn a very suspicious glare.

  Syll joined Morn at his side, as he cradled his son. She noticed right away that there was something odd about the way Morn was acting. Syll had become accustomed to seeing a consistent look of irritation on Morn’s face, throughout all the years they had been married. But seeing him there holding his baby son, with a look of genuine emotional attachment seemed out of place to her. Even so, Syll refused to allow herself to complain about his change in attitude.

  “So, how did you do it?” Syll eagerly asked, as Drellic was then fully awake, beginning to squirm and whimper again.

  “Do what?” Morn asked.

  “How did you escape? Tell me. I must know. You don’t have a scratch on you,” Syll replied.

  Morn briefly ignored her question and turned his attention to the news report, which was still being displayed on the monitor beside them. He watched as the crowd that had gathered on the steps of the tower cleared a path, in order to allow an entourage of royal guards to pass by.

  The guards headed out into the street and were met by a long silver hovercraft. The shimmering cylindrical craft backed up to the foot of the tower steps. Two long streams of fuel exhaust abruptly shot upwards; one on either side of the stern of the ship.

  Seconds later, a circular steel door panel opened outwards from the center of the ship’s stern, in the form of a spiral.

  The guards, wearing the typical black military uniforms worn on both worlds, then stood at attention on either side of the hovercraft’s open stern. Approaching them from midway up the staircase, was the current Prime Minister of Siren, who had passed through the gate to offer his condolences, after Covlar’s body had been found on his planet.

  Siren’s Prime Minister was trailing behind a long white casket, which contained the Emperor’s remains. The casket was carried by six royal pallbearers; three on each side, who were wearing long, dark blue ceremonial cloaks.

  The Prime Minister followed the casket with an entourage of his own, until it was loaded onto the hovercraft and sealed inside. Morn continued to watch until the hovercraft was shown speeding away from the tower into the downtown Faul area.

  “Off!” he grunted, before returning his gaze to Syll, as the monitor shut down.

  Morn then took a deep breath and said, “I never even made it inside. I was trapped in a parking garage the entire time it was happening. Once the insurgents left, I made it back to the tower. I was detained and questioned for several hours. That’s all I know.”

  Syll stared deeply into Morn’s eyes, unsure of whether or not to address her immediate suspicions, or to simply let it go for the time being. She decided to choose the latter, but not without some reserve.

  The three of them just remained silently thankful to be together for the next few minutes. Asha was then called back into the nursery to lull Drellic back to sleep, while Morn and Syll retired for the evening in the master bedroom.

  Two hours later, the sun rose from behind the long white curtains to the right of their bed. Syll had been fast asleep since returning to her nook beneath the sheets, while Morn had been lying awake the entire time. He stared intently at the ceiling, while deep in thought over what had really transpired hours before at the tower.

  Morn allowed his mind to drift backward in time to the moment he first entered the tower’s security level. Upon seeing the dozens of dead militants at his feet, his fear was almost immediately snuffed out by the realization of the incredible opportunity that had been presented to him.

  He remembered navigating through the narrow halls, leading to the tower’s surveillance system, while trying not to trip over the piles of heavy boots, tattered clothing and bloodied body parts that were in his path.

  After accidently stepping on the bloody disfigured face of a young female enforcer, he looked down and noticed that there were no weapons amongst the plethora of casualties. It was then obvious to him that the insurgency had been behind the attack; taking whatever weapons and ammunition were left behind as a result of their highly efficient mass killings.

  Morn believed that they were most likely awaiting Covlar’s return from Siren earlier that day, and that he was their primary target. He knew that the firefight that had ensued on the lower levels upon the insurgents’ entry into the building, must’ve been enough to drive them away before reaching him. It was that unprecedented and baffling chain of events that gave Morn all the time he needed to essentially get away with murder.

  Morn then finally reached the surveillance system. It was a tall black computer console, which contained a large spherical crystal core; the top of which was visible on the topside of the console. By entering the exact time of Covlar’s death, and the room code for the Gate Chamber, the crystal core ceased its holographic projection of the various corridors and rooms in the tower in present time.

  After a few seconds of calculation, Morn was faced with a bright and vivid image of himself; beating Covlar to death. He then watched himself force Lurge to take his own life moments later, by uttering the failsafe phrase that ha
d saved him from execution.

  As he continued to stare lifelessly at the bedroom ceiling, his wife continuing to sleep soundly beside him, Morn remembered taking a few steps back from the surveillance console and raising the energy weapon he had stolen from Lurge; aiming it at the exposed top of the crystal core. He was familiar with the technology, but was uncertain of what kind of a chemical reaction would take place upon rupturing the crystal shell.

  With only his wife and newborn son in mind, Morn used the last of the weapon’s charge, to destroy the only piece of technology capable of projecting the three dimensional imagery that could incriminate him. The blast produced a light shockwave that forced him onto his back and into the pile of bodies behind him.

  Morn then frantically thrashed around and broke free of the dismembered arms and legs that were smothering him. Once back on his feet, he ran back to the security level entryway and rode a light capsule all the way down to the foyer. Unfortunately, he landed on the ground level just in time to hear the sound of emergency alarms coming from the dozens of enforcer vehicles, surrounding the base of the tower.

  At the time, Morn was covered in the blood of the dead security officers and had no logical explanation as to why he was left alive. He also knew that the wormhole levitating a mile over his head had surely reopened, allowing for militants from Siren to cross over to Tyrran. With law enforcement closing in on him from above and below, Morn could only think of a one suitable hiding place for himself. He could only pray that the insurgency hadn’t had the exact same thought.

  Morn then used a secret entrance below a sliding floor panel in Delendra’s foyer, to enter an underground security bunker that only Covlar and his royal staff had access to. It was used as a safe house for government officials, in the event of such an attack. Not even the Faul City general police or enforcers knew of its existence, giving him even more of a fighting chance for escape.

  After carefully sliding the floor panel back to its original position, Morn found that he was alone in the cramped, dark square room. The air was damp and a foul musty smell was clawing at him from every corner of the chamber. He used the light from the laser guiding system on his weapon to illuminate his surroundings.

  To his dismay, the light revealed a network of cobwebs and several giant spider-like creatures, making themselves at home on the moist walls and ceiling around him. It must’ve been well over one hundred degrees Fahrenheit in the bunker and it was also clear that no one had utilized it for decades.

  Morn was then startled by one of the hairy ten legged creatures that had leapt onto his right arm and was slowly climbing towards his face. But the thunderous footsteps of the stampeding enforcers could be heard coming from just inches over his head, and he dared not make a sound for the sake of his freedom.

  It was then that he heard a loud commotion, concerning the discovery of Covlar’s body. A series of loud whooshing sounds could then be heard coming from the center of the foyer, indicating that the Faul City police were being whisked away to the top of the tower via the light capsule transit system. They were undoubtedly leaving Delendra’s base, in order to coordinate with officers from Siren, who were in possession of Covlar’s remains.

  A few more hours of silence were enough to sway Morn’s judgment away from the idea of spending one second longer in the dark with a nest of giant spiders.

  Still lying awake in his bed, then watching the sunlight grow brighter from his balcony, Morn remembered being satisfied that he was alone in the foyer, and quietly moving into a secret tunnel, while aggressively brushing the spiders away.

  Morn then quietly and cautiously exited the bunker and used a small square pocket pager to activate his vehicle, which was being stored in a nearby parking garage. He used a particular feature on his pager that ordered his shuttle to arrive at his exact location, once alerted, but to avoid passing into the view of the enforcer vehicles surrounding the tower base.

  After crawling through the long narrow tunnel which was only two feet high, and burrowing through thick layers of dust, cobwebs and spiders for several minutes, Morn found himself beneath the parking garage just a few hundred feet from his vehicle.

  He then arrived at a manhole cover and pressed his ear against it. All he could hear were the sounds of the enforcer vehicles parked back at the tower. Having no other option, he slid the manhole cover to the side and exposed himself to the surface.

  He then slowly stuck his head out from beneath the garage’s concrete floor and saw several vehicles in the vicinity, but no people at all.

  After climbing out of the hole, covering it and shaking off the last of the spiders, Morn saw that every last person in the area had gathered around the tower to figure out what had happened.

  Seeing that as a perfect opportunity for his escape, he paged his vehicle and jumped in the side hatchway once it arrived beside him, heading away from the crowd by taking the back way out of the parking structure.

  After sifting through that final memory, Morn breathed a heavy sigh of relief and slowly climbed out of bed. Syll was awakened by his movements and turned to face him as he stood over her.

  “What are you thinking?” she asked him, in a groggy voice.

  Morn then stood with his back to Syll while staring through the curtains, at the rising sun.

  “I’m thinking of the future, my love,” he replied in a detached tone. “I’m just wondering what happens now.”