“You shall have my strength, dear Princess.”
#
This was old forest. The trees grew high and thick together, blotting out the sunlight. The underbrush was thin, but the murky shadows cast by the layers of leafy canopy meant that Jarlus still couldn’t see very far ahead.
He looked down as he crept along, seeking some sign of human passage in the moist soil. Rain might have washed away footprints, but there were other signs …
A hundred paces further on, the Xai Ashaon found what he was looking for. The trunk of a towering stinking fruit tree had an odd wound, a deep gash in the bark that no animal could have made. It was a blade cut, most likely someone hacking with a knife or sword.
Nearby, on the ground, he discovered a bunch of rotting fern leaves which had been neatly and cleanly severed from another plant.
Someone had passed through here, idly slashing with a blade as they went.
But how long ago?
He went on for a few hundred yards more. His Xa Ashaon subordinates were long lost from his sight, off on their own paths, when he found the cloth.
It was a piece of cheap linen, like that used to wrap food. He bent down to examine it. There were still a few crumbs of bread clinging to the cloth, though swarming brown ants were doing their best to devour the morsels.
So. Not long ago at all, then.
Suddenly, he heard a series of five loud whistles, like the call of a bird—but it was a signal, one of his men. Judging from the direction, it would be Noen.
The man had found something, then. Not an immediate threat, but something of interest …
Jarlus listened as the five note “bird song” came again. He followed it to its source, about five hundred yards up the slope to his left, then down into a muddy valley. He scurried along now, still bent but moving quickly through the trees.
Noen was crouched in the brush near what seemed to be an opening in the forest; Jarlus could see sunlight glowing through the gap in the trees. Coming in on his knees, he crawled to where Noen was hidden.
They were looking out at a small clearing, one he’d missed seeing from the air, most likely obscured by the contours of the terrain. His body went rigid when he caught the gleam of blue-black crystal in the sunlight. But Noen hadn’t been alarmed, and the man would have signaled differently had there been enemy troops …
Sliding down beside Noen, Jarlus surveyed the scene. The clearing, about twenty paces across, was filled with stumps and trampled brush, indicating that it had recently been hacked out of the forest. In the center of it sat a twisting structure of dark crystal, rising to twice a man’s height.
Around the perimeter of the clearing were three large blue-black crystal statues, rising about the same height as the crystal structure.
They stood like grotesque parodies of the forms of men, with tiny horse-like heads and massive arms spread as if defying anyone to approach the structure they guarded.
Had these things been put here by the Baek Tayon? Or had they been hidden in the forest for eons, only to be uncovered by Lanaya and her troops?
No matter.
He had seen enough. It wasn’t proof that they’d found the main Baek Tayon stronghold, but it was a good bet.
If they ventured further on, towards where the Princess and Ralley had “felt” the explosion, they would surely risk discovery.
As far Jarlus was concerned, this was enough. They’d fly back to Serath, and he’d get the da’ta se to safety—and then, in a few days, they’d return with as big an attack force as Damerya could muster.
In a rare moment of piety, he silently thanked the gods for the ease of their discovery, and waited for Sabokis to catch up with them. Just a few minutes, and they’d be heading back, taking the Princess home …
#
The da’ta se grasped the sensing rod, trying to feel aon disturbances around them.
Only Taxamia, as a trained aon technician, fully understood the significance of the things that they sensed; but Ralley was quickly learning through his link to her, and he perceived everything.
Unearthly sounds trilled inside his skull and pinpoint lights danced behind his eyes, formations of them stretching outward to infinity.
There was a faint flickering and a whispering hiss all around them. Taxamia had explained that this was a manifestation of the aon interference that covered this part of the jungle. Only by working together might they penetrate the cloaking “mist” and sense any aon machines that the Baek Tayon were using.
For several minutes they sat perfectly still. Ralley stared into her eyes and watched the spectral lights flicker in his mind, perfectly calm, barely aware of where he was.
Then Taxamia dropped her end of the sensing rod.
Instantly, he was jerked back into the real world and became himself again. The smell of the jungle hit him like a moist wave, dank and potent—like lying face down in a compost heap. He was covered with sweat and tiny insects swarmed about, nipping at his skin, and his head throbbed.
“No good,” Taxamia said. “I wonder … Perhaps the aon cells of the flyer are creating additional interference. We might want to get out of the flyer and try again?”
“Jarlus said to stay put,” Ralley reminded her.
“We don’t need to go far,” she said. “Just to the edge of the clearing.”
He nodded. “It’s certainly worth a try.”
The pilot was hesitant to let them leave the craft, and he looked on with wide-eyed anxiety as Taxamia explained her reasoning.
He’s terrified of what Jarlus might think, Ralley thought.
Finally, it was agreed that they could leave the flyer and go to the clearing’s edge— but only if they were accompanied by one of the Xa Ashaon guards.
Without a wooden ramp, they had to clamber over the side of the flyer, using the rungs on the hull as footholds. The guard met them on the ground and escorted them to a flat, rocky area near the line of the trees, where they once again prepared for the ritual, each holding an end of the sensing rod.
When he touched the device, Ralley once more felt the rushing fire of their joined state, seeing and hearing the aon vibrations. He didn’t notice anything different this time. The hiss of interference was still there, and the flickering …
Taxamia moved slowly along the edge of the trees, and he moved with her. They had gone about ten feet when, suddenly, a cascade of lightning washed over his mind, and the rod in his hand seemed electrified, so that it was painful to grip.
“Something’s here,” Taxamia said. “Right here, where we stand.”
Ralley looked down. They stood in a soft patch of earth, the gnarled roots of trees curling around their feet.
Without a word, they knelt, set down the rod, and began to dig with their hands.
Their guard watched, perplexed, as the da’ta se attacked the moist soil. In their fiery state, their great strength enabled them to proceed rapidly.
Throwing aside clumps of earth and tugging away a tree root, Ralley saw something that glinted blue-black.
Brushing away the soil, he saw that it was smoothly curved, as if they had unearthed the top of a large sphere. He touched it and felt it tingle under his fingertips.
Taxamia had the sensing rod now. She took Ralley’s wrist and guided his hand so that it covered hers on one end of the device. Then, she touched the other end of the rod to the surface of the sphere.
There was a jolt. Ralley felt like he was falling, his perceptions jerked forward.
And then, he was seeing all around, viewing the entire clearing … and more.
He could hear their own heartbeats and those of the guards, could see the grit in the paint on a flyer’s hull and the pores of the skin in his own face. He was looking down at himself and all around, like a disembodied observer …
Distantly, he could hear Jarlus and the Xa Ashaon scouts stalking through the trees, and he sensed the delicate vibrations of their footsteps.
Taxamia fell back with a y
ell, and Ralley’s perceptions were jerked back inside his own head. He was numb and trembling to a degree that might have embarrassed him were there not more pressing concerns.
“Eyes and ears!” he gasped. “They can watch us through that sphere?”
Taxamia only nodded, gasping for breath.
As they helped each other to their feet, the Princess turned to their guard.
“I think they know we’re here,” she said.
The guard shouted “Yae!” and raised his arm to the pilot, then grabbed Taxamia’s hand and pulled her towards the flyer, motioning for Ralley to follow.
They froze when they heard the whistling sound of ambia fire deep in the trees. It came from the direction that Jarlus’s scout party had taken.
Then there was an echoing cry of rage, almost like an animal’s scream.
“It’s Jarlus!” Taxamia exclaimed. “They’re under attack!”
-28-
Jarlus was caught in a nightmare.
A moment earlier, his man Sabokis had signaled, whistling a birdsong from the other side of the clearing. Impatient and wanting to get back to the flyers, Jarlus had waved to him, indicating that it was safe to cross the clearing.
But then, as Sabokis sprinted out of the trees, something had moved.
The statue on that far side of the clearing sprang into life. The narrow little head turned towards Sabokis, and then the thing was moving, heavy legs pounding the ground in an echoing drumbeat. The thing thudded towards Sabokis and raised one massive crystalline arm.
“DOWN!” Jarlus shouted—but it was too late.
The statue’s arm whipped forward, smashing into Sabokis’s chest with a crunch and sending him flying across the clearing, where he landed in a crumpled heap.
Jarlus was already moving back into the trees, but Noen was transfixed by the scene, watching as the statue turned in their direction, its narrow, eyeless head scrutinizing them.
Jarlus tugged at the man’s shirt, shouting “Come!”—but Noen didn’t respond. The Xai Ashaon was too small to be able to tug the larger man away …
Another “statue” directly in front of them raised one thick leg, its knee bending without a visible joint.
Jarlus rolled back into the brush as its broad foot came down on Noen’s head with a sound like a piece of fruit being pulped.
And then Jarlus ran.
Weaving through the trees, plunging headlong through the brush, he tried to put distance between himself and the statue-weapons. He didn’t try to reach the flyers to the south, but instead ran east, where the ground sloped down; he couldn’t risk leading the enemy back to the da’ta se.
He heard a rustling, and looked up to the thick canopy of the trees. There was a crashing sound, and then a shower of leaves and twigs rained down.
An instant later, the blue-black shape of one of the statue-things plunged through the foliage. It hit the ground with a boom, landing on its feet, its arms raised like a grappler’s, ready to pounce.
In the brilliant beam of sunlight created by its descent through the trees, its dark crystal skin glistened like the shell of an exotic insect.
Jarlus raised his rifle and fired. The stream of ambia hit the thing’s chest and splashed out, flickering over the crystal—but doing no apparent damage.
Backing up, he fired at its legs—with the same result.
Jarlus let out a roar, an animal sound which would carry through the forest and which his men back at the flyers would instantly recognize.
They have to take off, he thought. Gods, let them get clear.
The statue-weapon ran towards him, arms raised to crush. It was fast, but heavy, it would have built up momentum …
Jarlus sprinted to the side as the thing smashed into the trees where he’d been standing a moment before, breaking them to splinters. It would take the heavy thing a few seconds to recover, and perhaps he could use that time to—
Suddenly, the other two statues came crashing into view, crunching through the trees a hundred paces up the slope from him.
One of their heads turned towards Jarlus, and a stream of ambia shot forth from the horse-like “mouth” of it, sending a tree just to his right crashing down as its heavy trunk was vaporized.
Then, both of the things stopped charging. Squatting on their massive legs, they leapt upward, lofted by some aon force that carried them up through the leafy canopy of the trees.
They would come down on him any second, unless—
Jarlus threw himself down the slope, seeking any place to hide.
There was a thick clump of miniature palms nearby. Taking a deep breath, he scurried for the scant cover they offered, throwing himself down just as the behemoths crashed to earth behind him.
#
A moment after they heard the sounds of Jarlus’s plight, Ralley caught sight of two dark shapes swooping low down over the trees, heading for the clearing.
“Baek Tayon!” he shouted. The enemy craft were heading straight for their parked flyers.
Their Xa Ashaon guard tried to pull the Princess back towards the transport flyer, but she easily jerked free of his grasp, the power of the fiery state upon her.
Ralley too felt the strength of the da’ta se flowing hotly over him as the force of their link took hold. He followed Taxamia as she dove into the trees, plunging through the underbrush.
A few seconds later the shrill, deafening whistle of an ambia explosion split the air. Still running, Ralley looked back through the trees and saw blinding pulses of white light flashing across the clearing, accompanied by more explosive shrieks. Debris rained down through the trees, and he covered his face with his arm …
Taxamia pulled him down. “They hit one of the transport flyers,” Taxamia explained. “The flyers were close together, and it may have caused a chain reaction.”
Ralley didn’t see anything moving in that direction. There were fragments of wood and iron and glass in the brush nearby …
Perhaps all of the craft had exploded? What about the Xa Ashaon guards?
Ralley glimpsed only a single bloody swath of blue cloth hanging from a tree nearby. If some of the guards survived, they weren’t in sight. There wasn’t time to think about it …
“Come on!” he shouted, and this time he lead the way, tugging the Princess’s hand, pulling her along deeper into the trees where they might stay hidden.
But one of the enemy pilots had noticed their flight.
Ambia bolts pierced the leafy canopy overhead, blowing open a gap in the forest roof and searing gouges out of the moist ground below.
Through the newly-made hole in the canopy, Ralley could see an axe-head shaped crystal flyer hovering close above …
#
Brace Aubren looked down from the seat of his Axehead flyer, grinning as he studied the hole he’d just blasted through the forest greenery.
Two people were down there, running away like rats fleeing a burning field.
One of them was a brown-skinned girl …
Familiar? Yes!
He knew her! It was his mistress’s sister, Taxamia, the one who’d been imprisoned in the ring-like device in the red stone fortress.
Her companion was a pale man with long red hair …
Ralley Quenn?
Ha! Yes, it had to be him!
Clerk and Princess, scurrying through the jungle together … Well, that was an interesting development.
Would his glorious mistress want them as prisoners?
Aubren longed to present her with a great gift, something to prove his worth.
But he couldn’t just land his flyer and capture them himself … Could he? He had orders to stay airborne and harass the enemy, and although he had a hand-gun onboard, it might be tricky.
But if I had a little help …
After all, even wolves hunt in packs.
And she would appreciate his audacity, he was certain. Orders or no orders.
With a sigh of anticipation, Aubren reached forward to the flye
r’s control panel. He felt the painful tingle of the crystals under his palm as he activated a special function of the craft: the ambia flare.
Whistling white light cascaded upward in a wide cone above his craft. With any luck, one of the Armor units would see the signal …
#
Ralley glanced back as they ran on, jumping over roots and dodging through the trees. Another ambia bolt blasted through the foliage in their wake, launched by the enemy flyer.
Suddenly, a blinding fountain of ambia spewed up from the top of that craft, shining over the trees, brighter than even the sun above. It lasted only a moment …
Taxamia had also noticed this oddity. “It’s a signal,” she said. “He’s asking for reinforcements.”
Signal or no, the enemy flyer was still chasing them.
In their fiery state, the da’ta se were both very fast … But the flyer easily kept pace with them, shooting the ground and trees behind them as if herding them on.
Then, Ralley heard something crashing through the trees in front of them. The sound of splintering wood came closer, and the ground vibrated under their feet with a thunderous rhythm:
BOOM-BOOM. BOOM-BOOM. BOOM-BOOM-BOOM.
He wasn’t sure what it might be … a low-flying craft? But the thudding was like the steps of some huge animal?
“Ralley!” Taxamia shouted. “Watch ou—“
Suddenly, a giant lunged out of the trees, a sculpted monstrosity twice the height of a man, with a narrow head and an armored, blue-black hide.
It rushed forward, and one of its massive arms swept out to grab at the Princess, snatching her up like a toy.
“NO!!!!” Ralley shouted.
Skidding to a halt in the brush, the armored creature turned and regarded him with its narrow, eyeless head.
But Ralley was more concerned about Taxamia. The crystal-skinned giant held her in one massive hand, three squared fingers wrapped claw-like around her midsection. She struggled and kicked, but the thing clutched her tight.
Ralley grabbed her legs, trying to tug her free—but it was as if she was bound in steel.
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