The Journey (Sanshlian Series Book 2)

by Dani Hoots

  Lance usually liked it when I came early, then he got to spend more time with me. It was no joke, he actually told me that once. I didn’t respond. Although between him, my brother, and Will, I could tolerate spending time with David. However, I still didn't like it. I would never tell him that, it would crush his little heart. So him telling me I should leave only brought up more suspicion. Something was going on that I wasn’t meant to see.

  “You want me to leave? Why?” I questioned, keeping my eyes on his averted gaze. My brother had to be contemplating doing something I found disagreeable. That’s always when Lance would give me this sort of dismissive shrug-off. Unfortunately, my brother did many things I didn’t agree with and I was surprised I hadn’t shot him in the heart yet, though that was mainly because I had two people always stopping me from doing so.

  “Myra, please, just go,” Lance repeated, his tone low.

  I shoved him out of my way, easily might I add since this was David we were talking about, and took a look at the screen. A bunch of men were being gathered together in legions, training, being given orders for an attack—an attack that did not need to happen, one that would lead inevitably to killing innocent lives. Because, if I knew my history right, which I did, the planet that they were going to attack hadn’t yet made any treaty with the Pandronan Empire. In fact, it wouldn’t happen for another two years. This attack had no clear motive whatsoever, only to instill fear into the citizenry of Ttkas for the Second Republic’s benefit.

  “I’m going to kill him,” I stated as a matter of fact. No anger in my voice, which always made people around me fear the words even more.

  Lance grabbed my arm. “Arcadia, don’t make me stop you again.”

  I glared at him for calling me by my old name in front of the workers that surrounded us, not that they would notice. They acted like they didn’t notice our fight, knowing not to get involved with superior officers, which was a smart move on their part. Minions should know their place, I was glad at least these officers knew that.

  “I won’t hurt him, I just need to talk to him about his idiotic tactics.” I grinned innocently. “That’s all. I mean, someone has to do it, since the two of you just serve him blindly, right?”

  He eyed me carefully, sighing as he let go of my wrist. He always gave in, though I wasn’t sure if it was because he trusted me or because if I really wanted to do something to my brother, he wouldn’t be able to stop me. No one would be able to stop me if I wanted him dead. Though the reason I have kept him alive was beyond me. I spun on my heel and departed towards his majesty’s throne room.

  CHAPTER 2

  As I walked down the corridors towards where I knew my brother was seated, I tried to slow down my rapidly-beating heart through deep breathing exercises. It worked, sort of. My mind was still full of anger, that my brother would stoop so low as to hurt innocent people just because he thought he was right. He wanted to defeat the Empire before they rose, but by doing this he was no better than any Emperors to come. He was making the Second Republic into an Empire.

  And yet everyone around him followed him blindly. It was pathetic, sickening really. No wonder the Second Republic was doomed to fail. They had no sense of democracy, and no sense of unity. They didn’t really know what they were fighting for if they went along with my brother’s tactic so willingly.

  I really shouldn’t care, it wasn’t any of my business, but after being treated like a criminal for killing people whom I was ordered to kill, it made me pissed. He was no better than I was, probably worse. I had been under orders, trying to stop those who brought danger to the Empire I served. He was just killing others out of fear of the future, a future that may not even happen. Pulling out the roots before the plant even grew. It was a good tactic, yes, but was it really moral?

  So, even with his fear nestled in his head, my brother got the position he always dreamed of, not just some simple general like David, Will, and I all were. Rik was the Chancellor of the Second Republic, Wesley Atkins, or what I liked to call Emperor. He did whatever he wanted instead of following the true meaning of democracy. And yet everyone seemed okay with it, the representatives, the senators. Ironic really, him becoming the monster he swore to destroy. Funny thing was, Neil would have never stooped as low as Wesley just did.

  Well, maybe. He did use me to find Sanshli so he could try and resurrect Nygard.

  It was a long walk through the Capitol Building. It felt weird, unnatural, but I held my head up high as I usually did. I didn’t sulk, I didn’t let me eyes turn away from my ultimate goal. That never changed about me and I would never let it. It was my strength, not letting others put me down, nor step on me. I was stronger than them and I made sure they knew that.

  I had to block out the whispers of the walls around me. I could feel everything that was going on in the building and it was overwhelming at times like these. If I was emotional, which wasn’t often, then the intuition and the connection I had to the material around me grew. It was like the madder I got, the more I was able to use my powers. I didn’t like this, especially since I fought and solved problems better with a level head. But this power of the Illusionists, it was something completely different, something I didn’t have complete control over as of yet. The only thing I could really do at the moment was trust my intuition and let the walls speak to me, as if they were living thing. It came in handy in evading my brother or even Will for that matter. And to find Lance (David) when I needed to hide behind him. For some reason, he always stood up for me, even though he knew I was guilty of whatever it was I was being harassed about.

  I shoved the doors open to his office, making as big of an entrance as I could. I wanted my brother to see my fury, to see how pissed I was at him for what he was about to do, for him to think twice before committing such an immoral act. The doors swung open, slamming into the wall. I hoped they left holes where the elegant doorknobs hit the wall, or at least chipped something. If I could only be so lucky.

  Two senators sat in the chairs, meeting with Wes the magnificent, which is what I sarcastically called him since that was how he was treated and how I was pretty sure he saw himself being. From what I recalled, the two senators were Tobor and Valmar of the Niot system. I didn’t care one wit about them. For some reason, many of the senators backed him in the attacks he made towards what he said were Imperial-friendly planets. He may be able to get them to believe his lies but I knew the truth. I knew he was corrupt, scared, and a weakling. Only weak people attacked planets that contained innocent people. I would know, I had seen it all happen before.

  Wesley’s eyes widened as he saw the fury that filled me. He didn’t’t expect me to find out so soon I guessed. He should have known better, I was the Emperor’s Shadow after all. That position came with a lot of work and a lot of learning how to stay one step ahead of the enemy, and right now I felt that my brother was the enemy more than Nygard truly was.

  “I have a bone to pick with you, Wes.” I would have yelled but years of training by Neil, the Emperor I once served, made me hold my composure in front of guests. Damn my background and damn him for teaching me to be proper. So many times have I wanted to kill his guests, but he would stop me and scold me for being so childish. It wasn’t my fault that they were all idiots.

  Wesley turned to the senators. “I think we should pick up our meeting later. Please, let my staff know if there is anything you need. I will call upon you later this evening.”

  The senators nodded and left but not without staring at me on their way out. They probably had every reason to, as a general I didn’t have the authority to demand the presence of the Chancellor like this. A reaction like the one I had was suspicious, but they had no right to ask. That’s what I loved about the position I was in, I didn’t have to worry about questions. I didn’t give them a glance but kept my cold glare fixed on Wesley, my brother. I had a feeling that he feared what I would do the moment the doors closed, and he was right, I wanted to beat the living daylights out
of him, to teach him a lesson for once. But I wouldn’t, because not only would that not be proper, but I was pretty sure I would be shot a few times, stabbed even, and then left outside for the birds to pick at my flesh. That was if I was lucky.

  The doors shut behind me.

  Wes was the first to talk, shuffling papers as if he didn’t fear me standing there this whole time. I could see right through it though. “Looks like Lance did a horrible job at keeping secrets from you. I should have figured as much.”

  I gritted my teeth. “Or maybe he knew it was wrong and was letting me know the truth so I could stop it.”

  “No, I think it has to do with the way he feels about you.” Wes tried to see what reaction I would have from his comment, but I didn’t give him the pleasure. I learned how to hide my emotions a long time ago.

  “And yet you let him make a fool out of himself by ordering him to watch me. You know he tries so hard for me to notice him. And you stand by and make fun of him. Not to mention you let him do your dirty work. If you want to deal with me, you should do it yourself.”

  He shrugged. “Who else would watch you? Me? Alan? I don’t want to deal with you and Alan always threatens to kill you after a second of being near you.”

  He had that right. Will, who was now Alan, certainly made it clear that he wanted my head on a silver platter every time I saw him. It didn’t bother me, though, he really couldn’t take me down even if he tried. I hadn’t met a person who could, although Tom came close. Unfortunately, Tom always had one weakness I could exploit. One kiss on his lips and he would forget about any fight that was going on. It was sad but something I had no problem in using against him. Where in the universe he was at this moment, I had no idea. I presumed he would have been thrown back in time just like the four of us, but none of us had run across him or anyone else that had been in the cave. By my calculations, Tom, Laura, Pete, and Neil should be somewhere during this time. And Jack.

  “I guess that is true.”

  “So.” He tapped his finger together. “I believe this conversation is at a close.”

  I pounded my fist on the table. “Damn it, Wes! I am not done talking to you about this! Don’t think just because you hold the title of Chancellor that I will treat you like one. You are no Chancellor, you are just a pathetic boy who can’t stand not having his way!”

  He glared at me, trying to threaten me with his eyes. It wouldn’t work, I wasn’t that easily deterred. I had been threatened way too many times in my life to ever take them seriously. Mostly because ninety-nine percent of the time they were empty threats. The other one percent, well, there was a reason my fast healing abilities came in handy.

  Wes grabbed some papers and straightened them out. “The deed has been done, there is no going back.”

  I shook my head. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, after everything that had happened. After all that we went through to find Sanshli, he responds by making more destruction for innocent families across the galaxy. Innocent families just like ours once was. “I should just kill you, brother, the galaxy would be a better place. Or, at least, I know I will be damn happier.”

  He smiled, as if he enjoyed me telling him I wanted him dead, though I did say it more often than not. “And what’s stopping you? Because you keep saying you want to kill me but you never seem to act on it. It’s interesting, really.”

  “I promised Lance I wouldn’t. Besides, Father would come back to haunt me if I did such a thing,” I paused. “Although I think he might agree with me if I did. I think he would want to see you dead as well, if you weren’t his son.”

  Laughing, Wesley stood up and came out from around his desk. He stood tall, I supposed it came with the position. He had short curly brown hair now and his eyes were just a different shade of green than they were before we were thrown into the past. He stepped up to me, looking down at me as if I was just some little girl. I glared at him, not letting him have the superior feeling he always wanted.

  He whispered, “As if all the lives you have taken over the years hasn’t left you drowning in blood as well.”

  I smiled, knowing he would bring up my past once again. It was where the conversation always went, where he thought my weak point was, a means he could use to elevate himself and cast me out as a demon. “All of mine had a reason to die, one way or another. What you are doing is pure genocide.”

  “It’s not genocide when Ttkas will become the leading army for the Empire,” he explained as if that was all he needed to start a full-on massacre. He was wrong, even I could see that. I doubt even Nygard would do such a thing.

  “But that hasn’t happened yet! You are killing innocent lives!” I exclaimed.

  He stepped closer, our faces inches apart. “If I stop the war from happening, then I will be saving lives, don’t you see that?”

  I shook my head. “No, I just see a mad man that is corrupt with power. Nothing more, nothing less.”

  He stepped away, looking out the window down at the city of Valle. He was silent for a moment, as if gathering his thoughts. He knew I was right, had to know I was right. There was no logic in the things he was doing, there was no logic in any of this.

  “I’m sorry you feel that way, but you know I’m right,” he said. “If I destroy all of the defenses on Ttkas before the Empire can use them, I will stop the war from escalating like it did. We wouldn’t have to worry and we could just pluck the rest of the Empire like the weed that it is.”

  I looked at him in disgust. My brother had turned heartless after Amanda had been killed on Ttkas. I figured he would warm back up, realize that in order to defeat Nygard, in order to bring back Amanda and the life he wanted, he had to do this fairly. But he never did. Now he wanted to erase Ttkas completely off the map. I wondered if it had anything to do with Amanda being killed there, as that was where Tom, one of the generals I served Neil with, had shot her. He shouldn’t be going after the planet but after Tom himself. I’m sure he was around somewhere in this time. We weren’t exactly sure since everyone changed bodies. But Tom was the one who killed Amanda, just to get to me. I felt a little guilty but she knew what she was getting herself into. She knew the risks. And so did Rik.

  “You shouldn’t’t let revenge rule you,” I stated. “It will only bring you pain and suffering.”

  “You haven’t lost someone close to you Myra, you don’t know what it’s like.”

  He kept saying those words, but he didn’t know how wrong he truly was. I had lost our Father, and not only that, I had been thrown into the Kamps after his death, a place where I practically had to kill other kids like myself to survive. Even after all that, I never got the revenge I wanted, always stopped in some way by Neil. Not only that, but I had lost Jack the moment we were sent into the past.

  And I still hadn’t found him.

  “We don’t know where Neil and the rest of the Imperials are. For all we know, they will go about a different tactic. You can’t destroy Ttkas when you know the other side has different players too.” I tried to reason with him but I knew it was no use. Revenge had clouded his judgment and he wouldn’t come back from it. I didn’t know why I kept trying, but here I found myself again. Arguing with a brick wall, a very dense brick wall with no way of breaching his sanity. That was if the grief hadn’t exterminated every last bit that made him rational.

  “We know exactly where they are, they are on Anosira,” he said.

  “But neither of you have made a real move against each other so we can’t know for certain,” I commented. None of us knew the truth of where they were, we had only assumed. I had been waiting for some clear message from someone, but nothing at this point. Either they were being quiet, waiting for me, or they had no more use for me. It felt strange, as I was a tad disappointed that Neil wouldn’t come for me, to either help him or torture me for betraying him. Either way I felt unwanted, cast out of the life I once knew.

  “Are you curious so you can go back to them, or are you curious because you wan
t to know if Jack is with them?”

  I raised my eyebrow. “Why do you think I would go running back to them?”

  He shrugged. “It’s just something you would do. You are the Emperor’s pet after all.”

  “Was is a better word. I am no longer the Emperor’s Shadow. He made that perfectly clear on Sanshli. He was just using me, knowing who I truly was before I even knew.” Which was strange, really. He had been waiting all that time for the prophecy to be fulfilled, for my Sanshlian heritage to be awoken so he could revive Nygard, who all his family once served.

  “We will see about that,” he commented as he placed his hand on the table. “Now, what are we going to do with you?”

  I narrowed my eyes. “What do you mean?”

  “You don’t really think I will let you cruise around when you keep threatening to stop me from attacking Ttkas, now do you? Lance will watch you until everything is executed, just like old times.”

  “You don’t trust your own sister?” I asked.

  “Ha! I have never trusted you. Not after finding out you had sold yourself to the Empire.”

  “You always bring the Empire up in our conversations, you really do fear them, don’t you? You are afraid you won’t win this and everything will be for nothing.” I watched him carefully, noting that never met my eyes when we spoke like this. “That Amanda’s death will be for nothing.”

  “Just shut up, Arcadia.” He never used my new name. He could never bring himself to realize I was a Sanshlian. That I was never his sister. “You have no idea what pain I have gone through.”

  “No, you are right, I have no idea what it’s like to have my life ripped out from underneath me, undergo years of torture, and then to be called a monster by the entire galaxy.”

  We held each other’s gaze silently when suddenly the door opened and Lance stepped in. He looked a little worried, probably thinking he would find me with my hands at Wesley’s throat. He should know better by now that I had stopped trying to actually kill him. Someone always came in and ruined the fun. Usually Alan.