by Matt King
“You are hiding something, Tamaril,” she said. “The last person who kept something from me ended up on the other side of this war. I would advise against such practice.”
“A necessity at the moment, I’m afraid,” he replied. He stood and bowed. “I’m sorry, but I must go.”
“Go?” she asked. “I have not yet told you where I want you to be.”
“I know where I’m needed.”
“I am sure you do. But to make sure your army and your champions are protected, I want you to take Talus with you.”
He seemed unprepared for her order, something she couldn’t help but take delight in. “Talus? That’s not necessary.”
“I do not remember asking you whether that was the case. You will take Talus with you. I insist.”
Tamaril responded with a silent nod. He shoved his way past the Pyrian worker on his way out the door, knocking him down. Tamaril stopped to help him up, holding onto his arm until he was steadied. He left without looking back.
“I do not trust him,” Anemolie said. Her light brown skin was flushed. “We know nothing about his armies, or his champions.”
“Tamaril is no fool,” Amara said, her eyes still locked on the door. “I trust he understands which way the prevailing wind blows.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
August switched to infrared vision while he navigated the dark hallways of the lower ship levels. Cerenus kept most of the lights off while they orbited to keep the energy signatures down in case one of Galan’s Legion came snooping around. Without the constant drone of the engines, the halls were silent. The rest of the Alliance were still down on Garoult finishing the party. August had come back to enjoy some peace and quiet while he could. It wasn’t often he had the ship to himself.
At the end of the walkway, he passed through the door to Central Control, a spherical room in the bowels of the ship where the on-board guidance system and flight systems lived.
It was also Ion’s home.
August stepped onto the circular catwalk overlooking the room. Fluid-filled cavities lined the curved walls from floor to ceiling, giving him a window into the guts of the ship’s controls. The insides showed a thick blue gel with bursts of light running through it like lightning bolts branching in slow motion. According to Cerenus, the entire room was one computer, but it looked nothing like the computers he remembered. The system was based on brain cells, or something. August had never paid much attention when Cerenus tried to explain it. Computer systems were about as interesting as a lecture on dirt. He liked the walls because they were hypnotic to watch. The distraction was sometimes the only thing that made him feel better.
He climbed down a ladder to the floor of the chamber. The feet of his armor made a sharp clink when he stepped on the grates. Ahead of him, Ion’s capsule hung in the air, connected to the floor and ceiling by a pillar of circuitry. August knocked on the metal shell.
“Land shark.”
Ion’s housing peeled away from the center, revealing Soraste’s champion inside. To August’s mechanical eyes, Ion appeared to have an aura surrounding his spherical body. The yellow corona made him look like a sun. Not for the first time, August wondered why anyone would design a robotic champion that was a perfect ball. Seemed like a weird way to go about killing people. Not that it mattered since Ion had yet to fight anyway.
August switched off his infrared vision, removing the blue cast of the room. He stood in Ion’s white glow.
“How’s it going, buddy? Navigation systems aren’t being too bitchy, I hope.”
Ion answered by temporarily changing the clouds of swirling light covering his shell to an emerald shade of green. It was as close as he usually got to talking. Green meant good. As for the rest of the colors, August only knew that white meant Ion was too busy to waste time talking.
A box vent stuck up from the floor near Ion’s chamber. August sat on it and let out a heavy sigh. “We missed you down there—again. Don’t worry, though. We’re all okay.”
Ion hummed as he hovered in place.
“It’s nuts, isn’t it? Me coming to see you, I mean. No offense, but I’ve had better conversations with the Horsemen.” He leaned forward. “You know, you did talk to me once back when I first started coming down here. I wasn’t making that up. Remember? I asked you what my first act as team leader should be and you said ‘Lead them.’ I’ll have you know the others think I’m crazy now, and you continue to let them.”
He waited for a reply while the constant hum of machinery filled the space between them. Apparently, superballs didn’t respond to guilt trips.
“Whatever. Like I said, the fight went okay. Paralos wasn’t expecting us and he lost a good chunk of his snake force. Oh, and you’ll be happy to know your fancy little pager worked. Colliere says thank you—or at least she doesn’t have any plans to kill you, which in Vontani means thanks.”
As he sat in another vain hope of a reply, he wondered if this was what it was like to visit a shrink—engaging in a silent standoff until you felt an overwhelming urge to confess everything you hate about yourself.
It only took a few seconds for his thoughts to boil over.
“I took on Gemini,” he said. “Alone.”
A single band of blue light streaked across Ion’s face.
“I know, I know. It was stupid. I wasn’t expecting him to be there and then when I saw him, something just clicked. I don’t know what it is about that guy. Maybe it’s the fact that he killed billions of people I was supposed to protect. I bet that has something to do with it. And seriously what else was I supposed to do? Leave so he could fry the whole planet? I can’t do that anymore. We have to stand up him. We have to stand up to Galan’s Legion when they find our hiding places instead of turning tail. I don’t want to run away anymore. All we ever do is run away.”
He shook his head. “Anyway, you’re probably wondering how Aeris felt about that little stunt with Gemini. Not a fan, if you can believe it. Not a fan at all. She thinks I’m too reckless.”
His stare fell to the floor. He forced his pseudo eyelids to stay shut longer than normal. “Sometimes I wonder if she’s right.”
“Is it really a question?”
August looked up at the catwalk to see Aeris leaning against the rail near the opening. Bear walked in behind her.
“Party over already?” August asked.
“Hardly,” Bear said. “I don’t think they’re going to stop anytime soon.” He looked around at the massive computer. “I can see why you keep coming in here. It’s cozy.”
“Ion and I were just talking.”
Bear and Aeris traded a look.
“Spare me, okay? He talks. He’s just a little shy.”
A figure bathed in white emerged from the floor behind Ion. August reached for his swords. He relaxed when he saw it was only Cerenus phasing through the ship’s hull like he was rising out of the water.
“I’m thinking about putting a bell around your neck,” August said.
“I’ve had stranger things tied to me.” Cerenus tipped his hand to Aeris and Bear. “Is he pretending to talk to Ion again?”
Everyone but August snickered.
“I don’t like you. I don’t like any of you.”
“Probably because we talk back,” Cerenus said. Once he was fully phased, he stood beside Ion and tapped his metal housing. “Trust me, if our spherical friend could talk, I’d know it.”
August crossed his arms. “I trust you about as far as I can throw a moon. Did you do what we talked about?”
“Of course.” Cerenus looked up at Aeris with a smile. “Your people will be safe.”
“How so?” she asked. “We are not staying here, are we?”
“No,” August said. He braced himself for the wrath of Aeris he’d been avoiding. “And neither are they.”
Aeris stood tall, her stare switching between August and Cerenus. “You are moving them.”
“Just temporarily.”
“There is not
hing temporary about moving a race of people, August.”
“They will live a better life,” Cerenus said. “At least a life with fewer wars happening around them. I’ll make sure of it.”
“That brings little comfort in a universe filling up with war. Where will they go?”
“Val’Aria. A thriving open world full of things for them to hunt and kill and conquer. Currently unoccupied, save for me.”
“Save for you?”
“He means the half of himself that’s still a god,” August said. He’d halfway prepared for Aeris’s response, but there wasn’t enough preparation in the world to keep him from shrinking under the weight of her piercing stare. “I thought it would be best if they were under his protection for a while. He can make sure they’re safe.”
“At any point, did either of you think to ask me what I thought of your plans?”
“I did, believe it or not,” Cerenus answered. “But our wise and benevolent ruler here thought better of it.”
She glared down at him. “August?”
“I didn’t know how you’d react.” He hoped Vontani senses couldn’t tell when he was lying.
“You knew exactly how I would react. Do not lie to me.”
Shit. “Okay, but I wasn’t sure if you would go for the idea of moving them on such short notice, and we don’t have time for them to pack up their houses. They need to leave now. Paralos won’t stop trying to punish you. This is the only way I could keep them safe.”
“You’ll forgive me if I don’t trust you with the concept of what it means to be safe.”
“Then trust me,” Cerenus said.
August and Aeris glanced to him.
“August is right; they won’t be harmed as long as they’re with me. You have my word.”
She already had mine, August wanted to say.
Aeris spoke up before he could. “You should have asked me first. Both of you.” She flared her nostrils as she paused to take a breath. “However, it is a good plan.” Her face tensed as though it took physical strain to admit it.
“Now that that’s settled, I assume we all remember our other problems?” Bear said. “It won’t be too much longer before Galan’s Legion finds us.”
Aeris looked to the center of the room. “Ion has given no warning.”
“They’re coming,” August said. “They always do.”
Over his shoulder, Ion hummed from his hold. August knew what came next and the thought made his stomach sink. He would ask Ion to chart a course to the nearest safe zone, away from the Legion’s reach, usually in a vast sea of dead space where even August’s enhanced vision couldn’t pick up anything but black. Once again, they would be on the run.
The thought tasted bitter.
“Will you be asking your chatty friend here to do the honors or should I?” Cerenus asked.
Ion seemed to hum louder, or maybe August just thought he did. He put his hand on the retracted hull and stared into Ion’s metal surface. Beneath the bright glow, bands of things that looked like clouds flowed across his face as though his metal skin moved. It had switched to a shade of blue when Ion spoke to him the first time.
Lead them.
August lost himself in the flowing waves. Running wasn’t a strategy. It was only delaying the inevitable. Sticking around to be overwhelmed by the Ministers wasn’t exactly an enticing thought either. But what if it’s not the Ministers we take the fight to? What if we’re not on the run, but on the hunt?
“Well?” Cerenus said.
When August looked up, Cerenus wore his usual near-grin. Aeris and Bear looked on from above, waiting.
“We’re not running,” August said. He tapped Ion’s housing and stepped away to address his Alliance. “Not this time.”
“You’d rather we get blown to pieces?” Bear asked.
Cerenus raised his hand. “Let the record show I vote against that.”
“We’re not getting blown to pieces,” August said. “But we’re also not sticking around here.”
“So where do you propose we go?” Aeris asked.
“We go after them.”
The rest of the Alliance shared a suspicious glance.
Aeris spoke first. “After the Legion, you mean? You want us to take on the Ministers and their armada?”
“No. Not yet, anyway. Hear me out.” With everyone staring at him, the room suddenly felt smaller. “The only way to win this war is to take out the other champions, right? So how are we supposed to do that if we’re constantly on the run?”
“We’re constantly on the run because we don’t have the firepower to stand against them,” Aeris said.
“Against the Legion, maybe. But what about the rest?”
Bear took hold of the guard rails next to Aeris. “You mean Talus.”
“Talus, yes. Then there’s Tamaril, assuming he’s in the fight now too. He’ll have champions. Anemolie has them.”
“You forget Gemini,” Aeris replied.
“He’s too dangerous,” August said, turning his head up to her. “You were right. We’ll figure something else out for him.”
“And how do we go about finding the rest of these guys?” Bear asked. “We don’t know where they are.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Cerenus said.
Everyone, including August, stopped to listen.
Cerenus flashed a smile. “I’ve still got a few friends around the universe, believe it or not. Some of them tell me interesting things from time to time. In fact, one of them heard something recently about Anemolie’s Tria.”
Bear scowled. “What is a Tria?”
“I’m afraid I only know what Anemolie has told me in the past,” Cerenus said. “They are led by Mordric. He commissioned two genetically engineered daughters, Ellia and Tiale, to fight alongside him. The younger one, Tiale, is a bit of a wild card, Anemolie says. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was scared of her. They’re known as the Tria, and they command a force called the Orsix.”
“See?” August said. “A family of maniacs. They sound like a good target already.”
“We don’t know what this Orsix is yet,” Aeris answered.
“No one does,” Cerenus said. “Anemolie keeps its inner workings to herself and Amara, and Amara hates that it even exists, so I’m guessing it goes against her Pyra-inspired ideals.”
“It’s not like it’s magic,” August said.
“Most unexplained things are deemed magic, are they not? It’s why many call us gods instead of humans—a practice I endorse, by the way. I’m not one to think of the Orsix as magic, but I won’t pretend to understand it either. The stories I hear…”
“What about them?” Aeris asked.
“Well, let’s just say I would need to see it to believe it.”
She pressed on. “Why would a god be scared of Mordric’s spawn wielding this power?”
“I don’t know, my dear. And that is what scares me.”
August stepped into the middle. “Without leads on anyone else, this is the best shot we have. And look, we’re talking about a guy and his two daughters here. I know I’ve had a tendency to underestimate people in the past, but look around this room. Aeris, I’ve seen you mow down fifty men with a single blast. Bear, you’re stronger than anyone we’ve faced yet, by far. The Horsemen have never been beaten in a fight. Cerenus, you’re basically still a god, and I…well I’ve been known to win a few scraps.”
“What’s your point?” Bear asked.
“My point is that we’re a team, right? If we fight as a team against a single set of champions, I like our chances a whole lot better than if those champions have time to prepare and gather an army around them. There’s nothing in the stupid God Club rule book that says we can’t take the fight to them, so what’s stopping us?”
Aeris paced down the catwalk.
“What’s the matter?” August asked.
“I do not like it.”
“Do you have a better plan?”
“You know I
do,” she said, turning to face him. “We have armies we can use. Powerful armies.”
August shook his head. “No. Absolutely not.”
“August, how long do you intend to let this boycott go on?”
“Forever. We don’t need the gods.”
“She’s right,” Bear said. “Think how much better your plan is if we show up with three or four Orphii mountains on our side.”
“That’s just more lives we put in danger that didn’t ask to be a part of this war. I won’t do it, Bear. Every time the gods get involved, people die. Innocent people. People that don’t know this war exists, let alone want to be a part of it.”
“We can keep the fight contained.”
“Like we kept it contained on Earth?”
Bear sighed. He looked to Aeris, defeated.
“I’m not getting more people killed so we have a better chance of surviving. We signed up for this. We can fight the fight ourselves.”
“Cerenus, tell him we’re right,” Aeris said.
“I hate to say this, my dear, but his isn’t the worst plan I’ve ever heard.”
“Thank you,” August said.
Aeris’ eyes bore into the godclone. “You aren’t serious.”
“Usually, no. However, August has a point. If we go after individual champions, we should be able to catch them off guard, and the Orphii are not exactly easy to hide. With the eight of us combined…”
“Nine,” August said, tapping Ion’s hull.
“With the eight of us combined,” Cerenus continued, “we have as good a chance of any to win this war. No one else has to get hurt.”
“We can hit them before they know we’re coming,” August said. “The more time we give them to prepare, the harder it’s going to be to kill them.”
“So your mind is made up then?” Aeris asked, but it was hardly a question. He could tell by the look in her eyes that her fight was over for now, but not abandoned.
“We go after the Tria first. Cerenus can let Ion know where they’re hiding out. Once they’re dead, Amara’s group will try to close ranks. We don’t let them. As soon as one god’s champions fall, we head straight for the next one.”
“We await your orders then,” Aeris said before leaving the room. Her footsteps thundered down the hall. Bear gave August a sheepish nod before following her.