Shadow Hunters

by Christie Golden

  He felt a gentle mirth in his head and mentally scowled. It was tiring having every thought of hunger, irritation, weakness, lust, or boredom being read. For a moment he wondered, if this “mission” of Zamara’s was successful and he indeed survived long enough to be a preserver, if all these thoughts would be available to every future preserver who cared to read them. It was an alarming concept and he quickly pushed it out of his mind.

  “Please continue, Ladranix. What happened after the gate was shut down?”

  The protoss leader inclined his head. “We scattered when the gate closed. Even the most rigorously trained among us knew a dreadful sense of abandonment when we realized that we had been left behind. Although we understood the reasoning—we few were the sacrifice to keep the others alive—it still hit hard. Most of the templar fell while distracting the zerg as the others fled.”

  “Wait—what’s a templar?” Rosemary was confused.

  Ladranix turned to her and gazed at her for a long moment. This was a private conversation between them, so Jake had no idea what was being said. But in a few seconds Rosemary nodded. “I see. A caste system. Seems a little—I don’t know—intolerant for a society in which all are supposedly equal.”

  Jake realized that Ladranix was giving R. M. only the basics. The protoss was respecting her boundaries, conveying only words in his thoughts, not feelings.

  “It’s not as intolerant as it might sound, Rosemary,” Jake piped up. “Protoss aren’t quite like us. As I told you, before the Khala, they were separated into tribes. Each tribe had a definite proclivity, a—a strength, a feel to it. When the protoss turned to the Khala, the tribes fit pretty easily into three separate categories. But no one caste is better than the others.”

  Zamara sent an affirmative. The caste system was originally created to better utilize the abilities of the whole, yes. To take our different strengths and use them to unite us rather than divide us. And for a thousand years it stayed thus. But even among the protoss, even in a place where we are so tightly bound to one another in an intimacy you are just beginning to glimpse, there are those who aspire to better only themselves. We are not angels or gods, Jake. We are just beings like yourself.

  … Hardly.

  Zamara chuckled.

  “The templar are the warriors,” Ladranix explained. “Our job is to protect our people, defend them, give our lives for them if necessary. We are trained from earliest youth to harness fear, to make it work for us. For of course, we do feel it. All thinking, feeling beings do. But protecting the Conclave and their wisdom, and the khalai and their skills and talents—that is what we do. And on those long, dark days, that is what we did.

  “More than the few of us you see here were stranded on Aiur that day. There were thousands. Hundreds of thousands. I am proud to say that the majority of those who died were templar, fighting to the death to save the others. The drawback is that now, while we face death every day still, most of those who are left alive are khalai. There are few trained warriors to defend them now.”

  “No judicators?” Jake asked.

  “Not here, not among the Shel’na Kryhas.”

  The term was apparently untranslatable, for Jake saw his confused expression mirrored on Rosemary’s face. Ladranix chuckled and sent an image: stoic, resolute, weathering what will come.

  “Those Who Endure,” Jake said quietly. Ladranix nodded.

  “Yes. The words are but the crudest comprehension of what we are, but they will have to do.”

  Rosemary snorted.

  “Those first few days, it was simple, pure survival. Protoss fled, alone, in pairs, or in small family groups. They found shelter if they could, and died if they could not. Much of the rain forests had been destroyed, as were our once-beautiful cities. I fully expected death to find all of us shortly, for I did not understand what had happened to the zerg. It is a blessing that the zerg never regained the unified intensity they had while under the Overmind’s control. Even so, they slay us when they find us, and they obviously felt it was necessary to investigate your ship when you were about to land. But whereas they were once single-minded of purpose to hunt us down and slaughter us, now that has changed. Perhaps they are merely waiting for us to feel a certain sense of safety before they decide upon our extinction.

  “Whatever the zerg’s plans—if there is indeed anything so complex as to be called such—it has given us time. Time to find each other again. Time to return to our poor, blasted cities and do what we can to make them homes. Time to find weapons with which to fight these abominable creatures, and to craft new weapons. I would not go so far as to say the Shel’na Kryhas are creating a new society here on the remnants of our world, but we are doing what we can. And now, we have a preserver among us. We are grateful to you for bringing her to us.”

  “I am no savior, Ladranix,” and Jake saw Rosemary’s china blue eyes widen slightly as she felt Zamara’s mind touch hers. “I cannot stay to help you overlong. I have a mission of dire importance to the survival of our people.”

  “You are still wiser than any of us, for you have the memories of all who have gone before.” Ladranix’s mental words were tinted with awe. “We are grateful for anything you can do for us.”

  Something was bothering Jake, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. There was something that was being left unsaid, unshared.

  “I cannot help until I know all,” said Zamara. She, too, had been sensing something amiss.

  Protoss didn’t breathe, at least not the way humans did, but Jake got the distinct impression of a heavy sigh as Ladranix spoke.

  “We are the Shel’na Kryhas. We are Those Who Endure. We have gravitated back to what remains of our best and most noble creations, our cities. We have stayed true to the protoss ideals. We understand why we were left, and feel confident that when it is once again safe for our brethren to return to Aiur to retrieve us, they will. We rely as much if not more upon the Khala as ever, and the bond that unites us all. Not … all of those who were left behind that day feel the way we do.”

  Ladranix hesitated. “May I … show this? The telling … it is a hard thing to convey with just words.”

  “I do not think that is best,” said Zamara, unexpectedly. Jake focused his thoughts toward her.

  Zamara, why not? It’s exactly what you have been doing to me with the memories of Temlaa and Vetraas this whole time!

  Yes, she replied, keeping her thoughts for his mind alone. And I am giving you that which I believe you need to understand in order for me to carry out my mission. Nothing more and nothing less. Words are easier for your brain to manage. I see no point in taxing you or, indeed, Rosemary further than is absolutely necessary from that perspective.

  The headache was coming back, no doubt due to Jake’s sudden surge of exasperation. Look, you picked me, I didn’t sign up for this. And I think that all things considered I’ve been a damn good sport about it all.

  You have indeed, Jacob. Better than I dared hope the first time my mind met yours.

  And whether I like it or not I’m going to be the next preserver. So I’d better get used to having my mind stretched in this way, hadn’t I?

  When she did not reply, Jake took it as a yes and said, “If it’s all right with Rosemary, I’d be okay with your showing us.” He glanced over at his traveling companion. She looked wary, but finally nodded.

  “Yeah, you can do it if you have to. But no prying into my thoughts. I hate that.”

  Ladranix inclined his head. Almost immediately Jake felt a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature and everything to do with the protoss he beheld in his mind’s eye. They did not look any different from the ones he now sat with in the physical reality. But … they felt different.

  They shared the same worry, the same fear, the same anger as the Shel’na Kryhas. However, instead of gathering strength from adversity they had almost … embraced it. Emanating from them was something akin to a mental stench, something ancient and primitive, and
Jake’s heart suddenly lurched as he realized it was dreadfully familiar.

  Suddenly he was again that ancient protoss, watching as the xel’naga abandoned them. Up it went, the home that flew, bearing the Ihan-rii, the Great Teachers, the Makers, the Guardians away, away, forever away. Dozens of lithe, purple-blue-gray shapes sprang into the air in futile pursuit, clinging to starkly beautiful crystals that had edges sharp as shikmas. The home that flew continued to ascend, its inhabitants unmoved by the begging and pleading of those they forsook. Hands now slicked with blood lost their grip and the panicked beings fell to the earth, fell too far to survive, striking the ground with a thudding sound that was drowned out by the overwhelming noise of the departing vessel and the excruciating mental din that threatened to tear Jake’s head apart, just as the pain in his heart threatened to rip his mind apart.

  No, no, they mustn’t go, they were everything, everything—

  Overcome with despair, Jake fell to the ground as well, thrashing, his dark blue skin mottled and heated with blinding, smothering fear and fury. What would they do? How could they go on? Alone, alone, so alone—

  “Hey, you okay there, Prof?” Rosemary asked. Jake blinked, coming back to the present, back to Jacob Jefferson Ramsey and not that long-ago, terrified pro-toss whose sense of abandonment would know no ease. He was shaking and gasping, and when Ladranix handed him a gourd filled with the metallic, warm water he gulped it down thirstily.

  “You all felt that, I know you did,” Jake managed, his throat still somehow dry despite the water he had just drunk. “It’s like a—a racial memory.” He hesitated, then said softly, “A racial wound.”

  Ladranix nodded. “Only a fraction of our people are born preservers, but they are merely the ultimate expression of something latent in our people. The abandonment of the protoss by the xel’naga is deeply ingrained in our psyches. That dark day when the gate was closed and we realized we were stranded—were alone—was a powerful echo of the day when we were forsaken so many eons in the past. For some, it was too traumatic an event from which to recover.”

  Again the “other” protoss came into Jake’s mind. He steeled himself for the emotions pouring off them and this time it wasn’t as overwhelming. He sensed a darkness, a wildness about them. It was as if the blow of abandonment had struck both groups of pro-toss hard, metaphorically knocking them down, but only one had risen. These others were ruled by anger and fear, not calm and enlightenment. He sensed a name—Tal’darim, “the Forged”—but did not understand why the name resonated, not yet. Just as Jake recognized the Shel’na Kryhas as being spiritual brethren to the likes of Adun and Vetraas and Temlaa and Savassan, he realized that these pro-toss had been so traumatized that they had reached back in time for a mind-set that would permit them to continue to exist. Instead of faith in the advancements that the race had made, they were returning to the primal, angry, powerful beings from which they had evolved.

  “The schism happened slowly, but it came to a head in one angry night. There was no fighting, but there was … much rage. Their leader, Felanis, had been acting strangely for some time. He and I had never been close, but we had been united in our need for survival. He turned to a dear friend of mine, a fellow templar, Alzadar. We had trained together, stood together in many a battle, but no longer. My old friend began shutting me and others out. Turning inward, becoming solitary, sharing thoughts only for the most basic necessities. Felanis was the one he turned to now. Finally Felanis called us fools and idealists, and struck off for the wilds, Alzadar and others at his side. We tried to pursue, to stop them—it was madness, certain death, to venture forth from the cities—but Alzadar and the others insisted on going with him. We are a free people. We live and die by the choices we made. We could not force them to stay. And so the protoss on Aiur were a divided people from that moment forward.”

  “But Felanis, Alzadar, and the rest of the Forged—they’re still alive?” Rosemary asked. Ladranix turned his glowing, pale blue eyes to hers.

  “They are. They found an unexpected sanctuary. There are cave systems beneath the surface. Some of them are vast. Many are still unexplored. It is there that the Tal’darim find shelter, coming up only to take nourishment from the starlight. Faint though that light is, it is enough to keep them alive.”

  Rosemary and Jake exchanged glances. He was starting to get a bad feeling about this. “By any chance … do the Tal’darim live near the area where our ship was planning to land?”

  Ladranix moved his head and arms in a way that Jake recognized as surprise with a hint of confusion. “They do indeed.”

  Despite his curiosity, Ladranix was as good as his word. He had not read Jake’s or Rosemary’s thoughts, and it was clear now to Jake that Zamara had kept her own thoughts on this matter well hidden.

  Rosemary threw up her own hands in exasperation. “Well, isn’t this just great! The one place in this whole blasted planet we need to get to and half the protoss are going to fight us to get there!”

  Zamara sighed in Jake’s mind. She was a preserver. Her knowledge was for her people, but it was nonetheless not knowledge that was intended to be commonplace. Jake did not doubt that had the situation been different, Zamara would have felt no need to share it even with Ladranix and the other Shel’na Kryhas. But Rosemary had summed up the situation accurately, if bluntly. They would require aid to penetrate the chambers to obtain what they had come here for, and the protoss, even though they honored their preservers, would insist on knowing before lending assistance in attacking their own, if it came down to it.

  Thoughts, Zamara’s and Jake’s, intertwined, interconnected now, flowed gently into Ladranix’s mind. His pale blue eyes widened as Zamara showed him the barest fragment of what Jake—a terran, an alien, not even a protoss—had seen in rich and powerful detail.

  “We … did not know,” Ladranix managed. He was stunned. “All this time … such treasures sat beneath the surface.”

  “Treasures, true, and dangers as well,” Zamara said. “We are protoss. We might be the children of the xel’naga, but we are not them, and their treasures would not be our treasures. So the Conclave ruled long ago, after a brief initial investigation of the caverns.”

  “But now, what was hidden away … what was dark … has come to light,” Ladranix said. “First the dark templar, an ancient and shameful secret, have reappeared in our lives. And now this. Can you reveal yet more to us, Zamara? Can you tell us why you must find this technology and take it to our brethren?”

  Jake had yet to master the fine art of censoring his thoughts, and what escaped was: Good luck with that. He sensed astonishment, affront, and humor in rapid succession from the protoss, and blushed.

  “In due time, it will have to be shared,” Zamara said. “But first … we must do what we came here to do. And that will mean somehow entering the chambers beneath the earth where the Tal’darim live. In the meantime, we will join with you and help you as we are able.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  VALERIAN LOWERED THE SWORD, FOR THE FIRST time ever voluntarily pausing during his training. He realized he could not bring his attention to focus on the stance, the whirling of the blade, could not drop into his body. The thought concerned him. Or maybe, he mused with a hint of humor as he respectfully put away the sword and reached for a towel to wipe his face, I’m learning what it means to actually be in command.

  His father, God knew, certainly had distractions. Valerian had played enough chess and drunk enough port with the man to know that. But Arcturus had never possessed anything like Valerian had with his swordwork—something in which he could wholly lose himself and that belonged to him and no one else; in which all that mattered was being fully in the moment and striving for his personal best. Now, Valerian was starting to understand why. It was damned difficult to balance the two.

  He’d been almost giddy at first, when he realized exactly where Jake and Rosemary had been heading. They were going to Aiur. He would follow. It had seemed simple
enough in that first moment, but reality had soon set in.

  Whittier had haltingly informed his employer that he was very, very sorry, sir, very sorry indeed, but there were no appropriate ships in that sector that Valerian could commandeer for this purpose. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, the Gray Tiger was in that area, but she was hardly fit for action anymore, was she? Well, yes, there are several Dominion vessels, but His Excellency was utilizing those, and it was Whittier’s understanding that the Heir Apparent had no desire to attract his father’s attention any more than was absolutely necessary. Was Whittier misinlformed as to this delicate issue? No? Well then, it would take some time to get any vessels at—how many did Valerian require? Oh my, that would take a bit of doing….

  Valerian growled in the back of his throat at the recollection of the conversation. The delay was excruciatingly frustrating. Every hour that ticked by meant Jake and the protoss in his head were that much closer to escaping. Still, Valerian was not about to sacrifice Jake to his father’s whim by misplaying his hand. This had to be done correctly, or all would fall to disaster. He did not need a handful of vessels, he needed as close to a fleet as he could manage. Who knew what kind of state Aiur was in? The last information he had been able to obtain had indicated that the planet was crawling with zerg.

  Valerian would not make the mistake his father had of underestimating Kerrigan. While he did not understand quite how the former ghost managed her abominable troops, he was not about to assume that once Jake landed on the planet, Kerrigan would be unaware of so unique a presence. And even if she was foolish enough to not recognize the opportunity, well … Jake devoured by zerg was as bad as Jake captured by Kerrigan or Jake tortured to death by Arcturus.

  It was a delicate mission, one requiring care … and one that needed to have started days ago.

  Valerian grit his teeth and again drew the sword from the scabbard.

  Arcturus might not be able to balance running an empire with perfecting the Stance of the Stalking Panther. But Valerian was not his father. He would surpass his father as the sun surpassed the moon. And he would begin now.