by Kyle Prue
“For now, it’s all about waiting for the right time. Stockpile weapons. Spread the word. Disrupt the empire when you can. Small isolated attacks keep the empire off balance and stretches their resources.” He couldn’t keep the grin off his face. He had them. “Just remember: we were beaten, but we have not been defeated. When you see us revolting in the streets, I hope you will join us. Goodnight gentlemen.” He stepped down off his chair and the bar began to buzz with conversation. He was almost out the door when a voice stopped him.
“So, I’ve been searching for you for months and all I had to do was give up and go to a bar? You have truly impeccable timing, Neil.”
Neil closed his eyes. Even after two long months of absence, that silvery voice was just as familiar as it had always been. And tonight, it sounded furious. He pivoted on his heel and faced Bianca. “It’s been awhile,” he said lamely. Her ivory hair was unchanged, but her eyes had an intensity he’d never seen before.
“We need to have a conversation,” she said. Her eyes didn’t leave his.
Neil took a deep breath. “Yeah, I know.”
He reached for a chair to pull up to her table, but she shook her head and stood. “Not here.” She wouldn’t stop looking at him. He knew he must look terrible. His clothes were ragged and he was thin and unshaven. But all she said was, “Follow me.”
He followed her out of the bar, pausing to throw several coins on the counter before he left. “Make sure everyone gets some food and another round.” The bartender nodded and Neil followed Bianca out into the dark night. They walked in tense silence. “Are you going to kill me?” he asked, trying to sound like he was joking but genuinely afraid to hear the answer.
She stopped and looked at him for a few seconds. “I haven’t decided yet,” she admitted, but she didn’t look quite so dangerous anymore and resumed her quick strides down the street. Exhaling with relief, Neil followed her through the dark streets.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
BIANCA’S APARTMENT
NEIL VAPROS
“This is where you live?” Neil asked as he followed Bianca into the small but nice-looking apartment. They were on the third floor of a building in the working district. He had no idea how she was able to afford something in this part of the city.
“We are not going to discuss my living arrangements,” Bianca said shortly as she took a seat on her couch. Neil sat beside her. “We are here to talk about why I shouldn’t kill you.”
Neil shifted in his seat. “I’m sorry about everything that happened over these past months. I don’t know what else to say.”
Bianca nearly growled. “You don’t know what to say?”
“That’s not what I meant,” he backtracked. “Listen, you have to have some sort of idea of why I—”
“Abandoned me?” she offered. “Left me an emotional wreck as I wondered whether or not you were alive?”
“I was just going to say left, but that works too,” he said sheepishly and brushed the hair out of his eyes. It had gotten longer since they had been on the run. “The situation’s been complicated.”
“Complicated? The situation’s been complicated? I have been worried sick, not knowing if you were dead or alive, and you say it was complicated? No note, no nothing? You just vanish without a trace and that’s your answer?” Her voice was hard, but tears burned her eyes. She took a breath and stared down at her hands as she said softly, “You were my best friend, Neil. How could you just disappear like that?”
Neil swallowed and bit back emotion as he took a finger and used it to lift her chin. She looked at him with those sad, grey eyes. “Bianca, I watched my sister die and practically my entire family was arrested and thrown into a dungeon. You’ve been my best friend since I was six. I don’t know what I would do if I lost you, too. Look, I only have three people left in this world that I care about: Rhys, Jennifer, and you. I can’t lose you too. I didn’t want to put you in danger. Anyone who knows or cares about me is in jeopardy. I couldn’t risk leading them to you. I thought when all of this was over I could come find you then.”
“You couldn’t have sent a note?”
“I couldn’t risk it. You had to have seen the ‘most wanted’ signs and at least known I was alive and that they were hunting for me.”
She nodded reluctantly. “I hoped and I heard rumors.” She looked at Neil for a long moment and then squeezed his hand. “What about Victoria? You saw it happen?”
Neil winced. He still felt the pang of Victoria’s death like a knife through his heart, but he tried to maintain his composure and said slowly, “The emperor’s servant, Saewulf, killed her in cold blood.”
Bianca’s expression softened. “I’m sorry.”
He said, “Don’t be. Sorry doesn’t bring people back.”
“Saewulf.” Bianca turned the name over on her tongue. “He’s the psychic everyone’s talking about. The one who can torture you without touching you, the emperor’s new favorite.”
“Sounds like him. He’s the most terrifying human being I have ever met.”
“How’s Jennifer?” Bianca asked with trepidation.
Neil felt a sharp pain in his heart. “She doesn’t think we notice, but we do. She’s broken. She tries to hide it though.” That was a very subtle way of saying it. Jennifer wasn’t just broken. She spent nearly every night alone and sobbing.
Bianca closed her eyes. “What have you been doing for all this time?”
“As much as we can without going against the empire directly. We raid the homes of city council members who approved laws against the families. We stockpile weapons. We’ve been working with the Brotherhood of the Slums, but now we’re starting our own group down in the poor district. We take out Imperial Guards. We go to bars at night and try to get people fired up. In the beginning, we eliminated arms dealers but the emperor has the Celerius’s assets; he doesn’t need them.”
“What about the other families?”
Neil said, “I don’t know much about them, actually. I guess Lilly Celerius is living with some guards and a servant. She took out a military outpost, but that’s all I’ve heard. The two Taurlum are still alive. Darius tried to free his family, but he failed. He’s a complete drunkard. I don’t know how he’s been avoiding capture if he’s spending all his time in a stupor.”
Bianca opened her eyes widely and stared at him. “You’re all idiots,” she said bluntly. “You have the same goal as the other families, and you haven’t thought to ask them to team up with you yet?”
“Of course we’ve thought of it,” he said, mildly offended. “We’ve spent endless hours arguing the pros and cons. But we always come to the same conclusion. There’s no way it would work. The scars of this feud are too deep. We’d kill each other before we ever got to the emperor.”
Bianca pressed on. “You can’t disregard them. You’re the only ones who have any advantage over the emperor and his guards—your powers. You have to reach out to them, or the whole thing is hopeless.”
"Part of me knows that,” he said reluctantly, “but the other part of me is having trouble accepting that my enemies since birth could help me save my family.”
Bianca countered, “The old legend says your families have to protect Altryon—together. This could be what the prophecy was talking about! You have a duty.”
“Maybe,” he mused quietly. Neil leaned forward, placing his hands on his knees. “I’m going to have to go. Rhys and Jennifer will be worried. Life as a fugitive keeps everyone a bit on edge.” He took her hand and squeezed it. “Are we good?”
She smiled a little and stood up. “Do I get a hug?” she asked. “I’ve missed your stupid face, Vapros.”
He leaned in and hugged her tightly; he felt a sudden rush of emotion as they embraced. It had been far too long since he had experienced a sincere moment. He almost felt a sense of peace with his arms wrapped around Bianca’s signature black leather armor. It, too, had changed slightly since he saw her last. It was trimmed with some k
ind of fur. “What’s with the fur?” he asked.
As they separated, she glanced down as if she had forgotten. Her eyes lit up. “I’ve been planning a trip,” she said excitedly.
Neil raised a questioning eyebrow. “What kind of trip?”
“The kind no one in all of Altryon believes is possible.”
“Oh great, you’re being cryptic,” he said with an eye roll. “I see. I’ll play along.” He cleared his throat. “What kind of impossible trip, Bianca?”
She laughed, but still didn’t give him a straight answer. “I met someone in the slums who said he was from somewhere very interesting.”
“And where did he say he was from, exactly?”
“Oh, nowhere.” She was drawing this out on purpose. “Just . . . beyond the wall.”
Neil leaned in slightly and dropped the act. “Tell me more.” In spite of the revolution he was trying to start, he’d never quite forgotten the plans he and Rhys had made to escape it all on that fateful night.
“Well,” she said, shaking out her ivory hair, “he told me what’s on the other side of the wall.”
Neil could hardly contain himself. “Well? Desert and dead earth or?”
She smiled. “Cities—villages—civilization.”
Neil exhaled. “Impossible.”
She said, “Neil, we have been so sheltered. Everything we think we know is a lie. Altryon is just one city. There are villages outside the barrier. Some of them are at war with us—most of them, actually. The emperor isn’t just defending us from savages; he’s fighting a war with several villages full of other civilized people that are being enslaved by the empire. The emperor has been lying about what really goes on out there so that the people in Altryon won’t join the so-called savages in their revolution. So that they won’t feel bad about the oppression that’s happening out there, and so that they’ll keep obeying his orders. We think it’s a wasteland of savages but it’s actually not.”
Neil’s world began to spin. He let himself sink into the couch. “Who was this guy? How do you know he’s telling the truth?”
She remained standing and began to pace excitedly. “He found a way to sneak through the wall. He has proof. He showed me documents that represented five different villages. Five! And all of them are outside the wall.”
Neil raked his hand through his hair. “How the hell did you get this guy to tell you all of this?”
She paused. “Well,” she admitted carefully, “I might have done some interrogating.”
“Why am I not surprised?”
“I really wanted to know!” she said defensively. “He let something slip about life outside the wall and I couldn’t let him stop there.”
“Do you realize how incredible this is?” Neil said. “I’ve been trying to start this revolution for months, but there’s already a war against Altryon! And there are several villages involved! If we could join them, if we could make it past the barrier somehow, we sure as hell can’t stay inside the wall much longer without getting caught….” he trailed off, lost in thought.
Bianca was getting excited. “We could bring the other families,” she suggested, and Neil groaned. “I know you don’t want to, but it’s our best bet. You need them. They’re strong. We already know at least one of them is stronger than you,” she finished with a wink, and Neil knew she was remembering the time she’d saved him in the markets.
“I’ll admit I’ve been thinking about it for awhile now. I just don’t know if they’ll go for it.” Bianca batted her eyes and waited. She always knew exactly how to wear him down.
“They might not want to end the feud,” he said stubbornly.
“Is that any excuse not to try?” she persisted. “Getting through the wall would really help if we had a Taurlum’s strength. They’re probably tired of being hunted too.”
Neil rubbed his eyes and tried to focus. “Okay, you could be right. And speaking of Darius Taurlum, I guess I’ll try and track him down first. He’s the one who needs the most help.”
“When will you go?”
“There’s no time like the present. I have some underground sources that may be able to help.. How much time do we have before you plan to leave?”
“Not a lot. I was planning to leave in five days. It’s the day before the Emperor’s ridiculous new curfew goes into effect. It will be too difficult to travel at night after that.”
He stared at her for a moment. “What if you had left and I didn’t know where you had gone.” His stomach dropped at the thought.
“Unlike you, I had planned to leave a few clues that only you would have understood.”
Neil‘s eyes widened in surprise. “Really? Ok, you can tell me about that later,” he said as he ran his fingers through his hair. “For now, give me details. Everything I need to know.”
She quickly explained and he listened intently. When she finished he smiled. “I think we can make this work. But I’ve got to leave now. We don’t exactly have a ton of time. Any idea how I can contact you? I can’t risk coming back here. It’s too dangerous for you.”
Bianca’s eyebrows furrowed. “Leave a letter with Bill the Bartender at the Poor Chap’s Tavern.”
“We can trust Bill?” Neil asked.
“He’s always looked out for me,” she replied.
“Okay, perfect. It’ll take me some time to find the other fugitives. I’ll leave you a message that afternoon if I can get the others to help us escape,” Neil said. He turned to leave in a hurry but stopped. He turned back to Bianca and wrapped her in a tight hug. “Thanks.”
She smiled. “You’re welcome. Now go try and end your stupid feud.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
THE FALLEN GOD’S PUB
DARIUS TAURLUM
Darius staggered into the bar and hobbled over to the bartender. “Hello,” he slurred. “A glass of ale, please, Mr...” He trailed off as he tried to remember the bartender’s name.
The bartender continued to wipe off the counter. “You’ve got about seven tabs you need to pay first.”
Darius smiled sheepishly. “Why don’t we try for a record?”
The bartender pulled a glass from the sink and wiped it down before placing it on a shelf behind him.. “You set the record two tabs ago. You can’t drink here. Either you pay or you get out.”
Darius grumbled a string of creative curses under his breath and hobbled into the street. He looked around, remembering simpler times when he was allowed to show off his impeccable strength to all the civilians. It had been a long time since he had been able to cause unbelievable amounts of property damage. He hummed a few off-key bars of his favorite Taurlum drinking song. He wasn’t worried about being recognized. He hadn’t showered in about a month and his usual blonde locks had become matted and dark with filth. He wore a brown, filthy cloak that he kept pulled down over his forehead. His usual upright posture had been abandoned for a heavy slouch and his body had thinned from months of eating sparsely.
A small commotion was happening at a nearby stand. Unwilling to be left out, Darius half-ran, half-stumbled across the street to join the crowd. A vendor was attacking someone who had tried to steal from him. Darius raised his fist in the air. “Let me take care of this!” he shouted.
The shopkeeper glared at Darius. “Go home, drunk,” he said. “Let me handle my own problems.”
Completely undeterred, Darius plucked the crook out of the vendor’s grasp with one hand and hurled him into the wall. He beamed at the crowd, ready to be praised. He was greeted instead by uneasy silence as the people in the crowd started to back away from him. Through his intoxicated haze, Darius realized that using his power had probably not been his wisest option. No, he thought moodily as he turned to sulk off into an alley, the wisest option would have been to sit quietly in the bar and drink another ale. Why didn't I do that? Because you can’t pay for it. He sank to the ground and rested his cheek against the pavement. Oh, how his head ached.
“Well, you’ve certainl
y handled your change in circumstance well,” the voice came from the entrance to the alley.
Darius didn’t lift his head. “If you’re here to kill me, do it before I sober up.”
“I knew it was bad,” the voice said, coming closer, “but I had no idea you were this bad.”
Darius rolled over until his face was pressed completely against the ground. “Do I know you?” he growled, voice muffled by the street.
“Is that comfortable?” the voice asked sympathetically.
“No,” Darius replied.
“Well, I’m not surprised that you don’t remember me.” Darius wondered idly if he were already dead and this voice his conscience. “After all, the last time I saw you, you were kicking me through your window.”
Darius picked his head up and finally met the eyes of the young man standing over him. It slowly dawned on him that he was looking at another fugitive. A Vapros, he knew, but he couldn’t think of the name. “What do you want, boy?”
The Vapros gave him a smile that was barely more than a grimace. “Neil,” he said. “I’m Neil. And I need your help.”
Darius moaned. “I don’t help people, and especially not a Vapros.”
“There’s a revolution coming, Darius, and I want to know if you’ll be a part of it. Someone has got to save your family.”
Darius sat up angrily. “Listen,” he growled, swaying a little, “my family can’t be saved. I can’t do it. I tried already. I’m the only hope for the Taurlum name now. I have to have as many children as I can. All the girls will be my wives!” He began to laugh. “And then I can have my own, new family. And drink until my steel heart stops beating!”
Neil sat on the ground next to him. “You’re legacy phasing?”
“Call it what you want.”
“That’s unfortunate,” he said. “My father went through a legacy phase once. He just wanted to protect his family line. He needed more kids, and it didn’t matter where they came from. Your family and mine, they aren’t so different.”