The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera

by Michael Robertson

  As they made progress, the shadow of a huge mountain peak rose in front of them to their left. Reyes could see the bottom spread out beneath it. It looked to stretch wide, maybe even impassable.

  The effort of the walk helped Reyes warm up, and she sweated beneath her thick winter suit. A glance behind and she saw SA looked to be loosening up too. Bruke, on the other hand, appeared to be getting worse. His bright green scales had turned pallid, and his eyes rolled every few seconds as if he might pass out at any moment.

  When Reyes turned back around to check their way, she stopped dead. The extra few metres had made all the difference for her sight. The ground dropped on their right, and the mountain spread so wide on their left it left them with a ledge to cross that was no more than a metre wide.

  Both Bruke and SA moved to Reyes’ shoulder and peered down.

  “Is there another way?” Bruke said, his words rattling with his perpetual shivering.

  A tap against the screen turned their map three-dimensional. Instead of replying to him, Reyes simply showed him the image, confirming the reality of what lay ahead.

  “Damn it.”

  “Look,” Reyes said, “this isn’t going to be easy to get past, but we can do it.” She pointed at the ledge that ran along the mountainside. “Sure, it’s narrow, but not so narrow that we can’t walk along it.”

  At that moment, a strong gust of wind crashed into the three of them. All of them stumbled from its force.

  Bruke sniffed against his running nose and pointed down at the drop. “A gust of wind like that while we’re trying to cross and we’re done for.”

  A look at SA, Reyes got her approval with a nod and said, “We’d best not slip then, eh?” And with that, she turned back towards the path and set off again. The longer they stood around talking about it, the less likely they were to take action.

  When Reyes reached the start of the ledge, the mountain shielded the snowfall enough for her to see across to the other side. “We only have to walk for about twenty metres before it gets safer.” Again, she chose not to wait for a response, stepping onto the path while looking down to watch her step.

  After just a few metres, another hard gust of wind crashed into them. Reyes pressed herself against the rocky mountainside. She looked back to see the others had done the same.

  Once it had passed, she nodded at Bruke, who nodded back. You okay? she asked SA.

  Yep. Let’s keep going.

  About halfway across, adrenaline running a destabilising wobble through her legs, Reyes turned back to the other two. “We’ve gone past the halfway point. We’re doing well.”

  Exposed on the ledge, the wind deafened Reyes as it billowed in her ears. Had Bruke tried to speak to her, she wouldn’t have heard it. So when the shriek exploded through her mind, she jumped. Instinct took over and she pressed herself against the rocky wall again.

  Reyes looked back at the other two and gasped to see Bruke holding onto SA. With nothing to anchor himself to, he stood on the tiny ledge, his right arm at full stretch, his grip the only thing keeping SA alive.

  SA’s lithe body swung in the wind, her legs kicking as she tried to find something more solid than the air beneath her. Despite her squirming, Bruke appeared to hold her with ease, slowly lifting her back onto the ledge. When he put her down behind him again, Reyes saw SA’s eyes glow as she looked at him. She then pressed her hands together as if in prayer and bowed at him. Once a monk …

  Are you okay? Reyes asked her.

  I’m not sure.

  Are you able to move on again?

  Yes! Let’s get out of here now.

  When she stepped off the pathway on the other side of the mountain, Reyes fell forward, her knees sinking into the powdery snow. The other two stepped off beside her. She jumped up and hugged them both.

  Although Bruke looked awful, he clearly still had the strength in him if he needed it. As she looked into his glazed eyes, the weather’s effects seemingly dragging him under, she said, “You were amazing just then.”

  Bruke nodded. He didn’t look like he had much else in him.

  The full force of the weather rocked Reyes again before she pointed where they needed to go. “I reckon we’re past the worst of it. Come on, let’s keep moving.”

  With such limited visibility, it took them to walk about another fifteen metres before Reyes saw them. Two mountain peaks. This time they had to walk through them rather than around them. It had to be better than the ledge they’d just walked along.

  While pointing at the valley between the two mountains, Reyes said, “We just need to get over that ridge and we’re there.” The sooner they got Bruke in the warmth, the better.

  Before she could set off again, Reyes heard SA’s voice in her mind. Wait.

  Reyes watched SA bend down and dig into the ground by her feet. I think I just stood on something. I think there’s something buried here.

  Another look into Bruke’s tired eyes, Reyes’ heart sank to have to say it. “SA’s found something. I’m sorry, but we need to check it out before we move on.”

  Such a violent shake running through him now, Bruke clearly fought to speak. “Why? What will it tell us?”

  But SA came through to them before she could answer him. What was the name of the ship we were following?

  “The Quartz. Why?”

  As SA pulled some more snow away to reveal part of a buried ship, Reyes read the name and gasped. “It crashed?”

  Both Reyes and Bruke moved closer to SA, watching her as she revealed more of the dented metal vessel.

  It seemed to take him a great effort, but Bruke forced his stuttered words out. “Do y-you th-th-think anyone s-survived?”

  All the while, SA continued to pull the snow away. Down on her knees, she threw clumps of it behind her.

  Hard to see in the blizzard, Reyes squinted as she watched on. It looked like the edge of the front windscreen. When the hole was large enough, she jumped down next to her friend and helped her dig.

  Reyes gasped as she uncovered more of the ship’s front. The glass might have been cracked, but not so cracked they couldn’t see inside. It looked like the chin of a creature. The shadow of Bruke loomed over her as he looked in too.

  A large chunk of snow then came away with Reyes’ next pull, and Bruke jumped backwards, yelling out with the shock of it. Even with the fierce winds, his voice took flight in the mountains.

  A dead creature stared through the ship’s windscreen at them, its mouth open wide as if it had frozen mid-shriek. Its eyes were bulbous, showing a snapshot of its terror when it had died. Before Reyes could speak, she heard it. Something other than the wind. It started in the distance. High up in one of the mountains.

  Although she couldn’t see much, when she located the source of the sound, she saw all she needed to. More than the white sheet of falling snow in front of them. It looked like smoke in how it kicked up from the ground. Quickened breaths, the heat of her body steamed her mask up as she grabbed SA and pointed. Bruke’s cry must have started it. She finally got the word out as a desperate shriek. “Avalanche!”

  Chapter 27

  Seb felt an itch inside his nostrils, the urge to sneeze gathering momentum within him. He scrunched his face up and wriggled his nose as if he could stop it. As his vision blurred, he pulled in a deep breath to try to snuff it out. It didn’t work. “Achoo!”

  Not only did he let out a loud screech when he sneezed, but the action ran a violent snap through his legs. It sent Sparks crashing into the glass ceiling head first with a loud tonk! He also nudged Owsk, who temporarily lost control of the Piscents, throwing Sparks down again as she tried to get up.

  Still kneeling on the floor, Sparks raised her small computer at Seb, who showed her his palms by way of defending himself. “It was an accident. I can’t help when I sneeze.”

  “Maybe I should accidentally shock your balls.” Sparks rubbed the top of her head before checking her long palm for blood.

  Not
only had Sparks laid into him, but Seb could feel Owsk glaring at him too. When he turned to face the angry troll, he said, “What? You think I did it on purpose as well?”

  “It wouldn’t surprise me,” Owsk said. “You don’t seem like someone who has an ego that can cope with being put in its place as efficiently as Sparks just did it. Nobody puts Seb Zodo in the corner.”

  “You think I did it because I wanted attention?”

  “I don’t not think that.”

  Although Seb opened his mouth to reply, Sparks cut him off by pointing at the dark wall of water in front of them. She looked down to double-check her computer before looking back up again. “That’s it. That’s where we need to go.”

  At least it took the attention from him. Although Seb would have rather had the other two laying into him than deal with what he now saw in front of them. He’d taken the darkness outside the sub to be due to the depth of their dive. But when Owsk turned the front of the Piscents in the direction indicated by Sparks, he saw the small opening in what he now realised was a vast wall. It stretched in every direction farther than he could see. “Uh, I’m not so sure about this.”

  Gritted teeth and a deep frown, Owsk said, “It doesn’t matter if you’re sure or not. I thought we’d already established that? On this sub, you don’t count for much.” He then glared at him. “Now, before I go in there, I need to know you’ve had enough attention on you. It’s going to be dangerous going through those tunnels. The last thing we need is your drama.”

  Heat flushed Seb’s cheeks and he wanted to shove Sparks from his lap when she climbed on again. Instead, he looked at the wall in front of them and chewed the inside of his mouth to bite back his reply.

  “Well?” Owsk said. “Have you?”

  “I didn’t sneeze on purpose.”

  “Have you?”

  “Yes!”

  And with that, Owsk headed straight for the tunnel.

  Surrounded by porous rock on every side, the tunnel’s width gave them about a metre’s space all around. Seb had thought their surroundings were dark before, but now they’d gone inky black. He saw no extra light when he looked up. The pathetic beam on the front of the sub did little to help their sight.

  As if highlighting Seb’s worry, Owsk only saw the turn he needed to take at the last minute and suddenly threw the ship to the right. He caught the left side of the Piscents on a wall, sending a grinding crunch through the vessel.

  Seb looked at the part of the sub that had taken the blow, searching for a leak, his pulse quickening. As his chest tightened and a hot flush ran through him, he said, “I bet the Shadow Order sub would have lit the way better. I bet it would be able to take more whacks than this piece of tin too.”

  Owsk threw the sub to the left this time. Were he not clearly locked in scowling concentration, he would have probably replied to Seb. Probably would have told him to shut up again.

  Another sharp turn, Seb’s pulse ran completely beyond his control. No matter how many breaths he pulled in, he couldn’t get enough air into his lungs, and he still couldn’t see any kind of useful distance ahead. “How the hell are we going to get through here with that pathetic light?”

  “Finally!” Owsk said. “You’re looking for solutions rather than moaning. Sparks, any ideas?”

  Because she sat on his lap, Seb could see the screen on Sparks’ computer. It still had a three-dimensional map on it detailing the tunnels they were moving through. Her attention firmly on it, she said, “I can direct you if you’ll let me?”

  “Do we have any other choice?” Owsk said.

  “Not unless that beam gets any stronger.”

  “Like that’s going to happen,” Seb said.

  Owsk tutted at him before replying to Sparks. “Okay, tell me where to go and when. Try to give me as much warning as possible for each turn, yeah?” Suddenly Owsk dropped down, diving with the tunnel.

  “Left!” Sparks said a few seconds later, and Seb’s heart jumped at Owsk’s next sudden turn. He tried to stay calm as he looked around them, the rock rushing past on every side. The tunnels had been hollowed out by something. Maybe some kind of sea worm. Hopefully it had abandoned its creation a long time ago.

  “Down!”

  Owsk forced the sub down through a hole in the ground.

  “Right!”

  A little bit too late, Owsk caught the back of the Piscents on a rock. The vessel shook as if it would lose control. Seb winced to see the wall come close to them again, but Owsk rescued it at the last second.

  While holding onto the seat’s armrests, Seb watched the granite troll. A worse pilot would have killed them all by now.

  When they’d levelled out again, Seb looked up at the rocky ceiling. “Is this tunnel getting tighter, or is it just me?”

  “Right!” Sparks yelled.

  Again, Owsk threw the Piscents in the direction Sparks instructed him to.

  Because Owsk turned a little too early, they drifted close to the right wall. Seb gasped and pulled away from it as if him moving his body would make any kind of difference.

  “Up!”

  This time the bottom of the sub scraped against the tunnel’s floor, the rock grinding against the metal body as if trying to chew through it.

  “We’re going to die down here.”

  “Shut up, Seb,” Owsk said.

  “Left!”

  A few more close scrapes as Sparks and Owsk seemed to find their rhythm. They were getting the hang of it, Sparks telling Owsk slightly earlier each time, and Owsk reacting without delay.

  When they burst out of the other side—the slightly lighter darkness of deep water in front of them—Seb laughed. He turned back to look at the wall behind them. “Wow! Well done, you two.” He spun back around and stared into the void ahead. “Who thought I’d be pleased to be here?”

  Then Seb peered over Sparks’ shoulder again at her screen. He saw it filled with blinking red lights. “Wait a minute; is that thing broken, or am I reading it wrong? From what I can see, the beings we’re looking for are close by.”

  “It’s neither, Seb. They are clo—”

  Before Sparks could say anything else, the sea lit up in front of them. What had been a wall of darkness turned into a dazzling wall of bright light.

  While shielding his stinging eyes, Seb said, “They were waiting for us?”

  “It looks that way,” Sparks said, her attention fixed ahead. “They clearly knew we were coming.”

  Chapter 28

  The rumble sounded distant enough that they’d have time to get to safety. A swirling roar too high above them to be an issue. As long as they got through the pass, they’d be fine. But on second glance, maybe Reyes had gotten it wrong. The white cloud swelled as it rushed towards them, eating up the distance quicker than she’d first realised. It looked like a monster had risen from the ground. Some kind of mythical elemental beast. It would stop for nothing.

  Reyes looked at the pass between the two mountains ahead of them. A good fifty-metre run through deep snow. What was she thinking? They had no chance of making it. To their left stood the taller mountain, which the avalanche currently raced down. Other than the snowy peak, she saw a wall of black rock no taller than four metres. It would be useless as a shelter.

  The narrow ledge they’d just crossed was their only option. Reyes pointed at where they’d just come from. “We need to go back that way.”

  “Are you mad?” Bruke said. “We’ll get flung from that ledge in seconds.”

  As Reyes opened her mouth to ask him if he had a better idea, Bruke charged at her.

  SA stood between them. On his way past, Bruke picked her up, again making her look weightless like he’d done when he stopped her from falling from the narrow ledge.

  The stampeding lizard charged at Reyes and she froze. The avalanche came down the mountain above them. When Bruke gathered her up like he’d done with SA, it damn near drove the wind from her body.

  Under Bruke’s other arm, Reyes
lay horizontally and looked at SA opposite her. Despite their current predicament, SA returned the same measured calm she always had in her bioluminescent gaze. Almost as if she’d given over to whatever would happen to them next. She trusted Bruke’s plan, even though she didn’t know what it was yet.

  Locked in Bruke’s constrictor’s grip, Reyes hadn’t quite reached SA’s level of acceptance. She looked at the avalanche again. It hurt her throat to shout over the swelling sound around them. “We won’t make the pass, Bruke. It’ll hit us before we get there.”

  But Bruke didn’t reply.

  Then Reyes saw where they were heading. Bruke ran straight at the avalanche. Straight at the small wall of exposed mountainside between them and it. She twisted and shook, but he held her too tight for it to make a difference. “SA!” she shouted at the woman opposite her. “We need to do something. The fever has sent him crazy. That small wall won’t protect us.”

  No response from Bruke, and no response from SA. SA, we need to get out of this. Bruke’s lost his mind.

  Where will we go?

  The question stumped Reyes. Snow hit her in the face. It fell in thick sheets from the black clouds rushing down the mountain from the avalanche and Bruke kicking it up from the ground.

  Reyes craned her neck to view the avalanche again. What had looked like ethereal mist in the distance had now turned into a rushing tsunami of thick snow. It galloped towards them, the back of it fighting to overtake the front. Such weight and force, it would rip their limbs clean from their bodies when it hit—and it would hit—yet Bruke continued to charge straight at it.

  When Reyes studied the wall they were heading for, she suddenly saw what Bruke must have seen. It lifted her spirit just a little. They had a chance. Another look at the avalanche, she shouted, “I see where you’re going now. Good work, Bruke. Keep it up.”

  The closer Bruke got to the wall, the deeper the snow became. Every step sank him to his knee, and he swayed from side to side as he pulled one foot free and then the other. But he still pushed on, making progress as the rumble of their approaching executioner both shook the ground and swirled around the mountains as a thunderous roar.