Drowned by Fire (Tales of a Dying Star Book 4)

by David Kristoph

  The camera panned up to the sky, stopping when it reached Latea. The Chain was visibly detached, and had already drifted a good distance away in the sky. Enough to be obvious, at least.

  "The Children of Saria have been rewarded for their faith. We have been proven true by She who gives all life. But for those who require further proof: we will soon take the Emperor's palace, and when we do we will pull his offspring from his bed and butcher him like a lamb for all to see. The world, the Empire, will know of his falseness!"

  Suddenly the Emperor bolted upright next to Pavani, his eyes cloudy and unseeing. "Lies! How does one blaspheme so easily in my presence? Julian. Julian. I want that man detained. You must silence him. If he continues..."

  Several of the students looked over at the commotion. Pavani pushed the Emperor back down. He put up a feeble resistance but eventually relented, his strength exhausted by the moment of effort. Jorda leaned close and spoke soothing words in his ear while smoothing out his brittle hair. The gesture held none of the usual affection--Jorda's eyes remained closed, and tears began dripping down her cheeks.

  On the screen the man continued. "Do not resist us, people of Luccar. Tomorrow at dawn, when our Mother rises to the east, all who wish to be spared must walk into the streets and give Her your prayers. Surrender to us, declare your life and love to Saria, and you will not be harmed."

  The screen went black.

  Now that the broadcast was over Pavani could hear the reactions in the room. The teenage students stared with wide eyes. The younger ones wept openly, looking around confused. None of them understood.

  Instructor Karrana wore a hollow look. She shook herself back to focus and began moving through the room, kneeling to speak comforting words to each of the students. The other instructor stood by the door, staring out into the street. He held the rifle by his side, as if he might drop it at any moment.

  "Nothing has changed," Pavani quietly told the Flameguards.

  "Everything has changed," Jorda said. "Don't you see? If the Children reach the palace and discover there is no heir, everything will fall apart. And not just in Luccar--across Melis, throughout the Empire."

  Rob kept his eyes on the Emperor, but he nodded in agreement.

  "It's crucial that we reach somewhere we can broadcast," Jorda continued. "The people need to see Him, to know he's alive."

  "If they see him in this condition," Pavani said, "it will do more harm than good."

  "They wouldn't even recognize him," Rob said. "Nobody here has."

  "Then what do we do?" Jorda asked. She crossed her arms, clearly frustrated.

  Pavani looked at her former God, wheezing and whimpering in his slumber. Everything seemed futile. If they kept him alive and the city fell it wouldn't matter. If they showed proof of his survival it would dishearten the populace. If they activated the tracker in his arm they were more likely to be assailed by foe than friend.

  If I do nothing then at least I could get some sleep. The temptation was strong.

  She looked around the room at the students. Most of them were already sleeping where they lay, too exhausted to mourn the news of their dead God. Karrana knelt at one boy with curly black hair, insisting he eat some food. Thol had left the door and was fiddling with the computer screen on the wall. He found the power cord behind it, pulling it free. He was trying to find a way to charge the batteries of his rifle.

  These people didn't care if the Emperor was dead. Or at least, they weren't letting it destroy them. They still had hope, still had a purpose. Was it strong Melisao instinct that pushed them to survive? Or the thought of the Emperor being reborn within his son at the palace? Would they still have that instinct once they learned there was no heir, that his soul would not dot a new star in the sky?

  Pavani was afraid to learn of the answer. One day they will know that His Luminance rests forever, she thought, but I will not allow that to assist in their defeat today.

  Eyes forward.

  "The people need to know He lives," she told the Flameguards, "but they cannot see him in his current state. We must reach the palace, where he can be invigorated and dressed in proper robes, before allowing him to address the people." She took a deep breath. "And our best chance of reaching the palace alive is with this group. We will travel with them, and pray to the stars that we bring them no additional danger."

  "And if the palace falls before we reach it?" Jorda asked.

  "Then we will gather the supplies we need there, clothing and medicine, and lead His Luminance somewhere else. Once we have those, any location in the city we can broadcast from will do. It is better than doing nothing."

  Rob nodded. Jorda looked unhappy, but eventually agreed.

  "Karrana is leading the students away soon," Pavani said, the tone of leadership renewed in her voice. "Some sleep will help us all before we leave."

  The Flameguards chose to stay with them, curling up on either side of the Emperor. Rob laid down between Him and Pavani. She felt satisfied at deciding on a plan and preparing to execute it. There was comfort in certainty.

  She watched the two guards drift to sleep. They were strangely childlike: slender and small--especially next to Pavani's monstrous height--with blank, androgynous faces. They remained faithful in their duty despite their God's impending doom. They'd known no other duty since they were old enough to walk.

  Pavani almost envied them. The Emperor was only a man to her now, and a pitiful one at that, for whom countless better men had died. What God could create all the stars and planets in the universe, an infinity of splendor in all directions, and yet allow his earthly body to become so pathetic? The faith that had once been so strong, that had burned within her like a star, was now a hollow ache.

  But the ache was surrounded with the armor of duty, and the certainty of action. My own beliefs matter not, she thought, so long as His life inspires others. Eyes forward.

  A door opened across the room with a crash. Two men burst inside, sending laserfire streaking through the air. Everyone began screaming.

  Part III: The Children

  Chapter 14

  Katy watched Onero stand atop a platform in the middle of the square, arms spread wide, addressing the army of Children below him. "Saria, oh Mother of worlds, giver of life. We once again renounce the false god of flesh and bone that haunts this city. We raise our voices to your praise!"

  "We raise our voices to your praise."

  She repeated the words along with everyone else, a cacophony of prayer that echoed off the buildings in the square of the old city, and the towering levee wall to their left. The men and women all around her stared at Onero with fervency, a religious lust that knew no doubt. Onero had a way with words, a way of speaking that made you think he was talking directly to you.

  Katy glanced to the east, where the Wall blocked their view of the horizon. This wasn't a proper dawn prayer because they couldn't see Mother Saria directly, so Onero had to estimate the time in other ways.

  Besides, Katy thought, the Dawn isn't what we're coordinating with this time.

  Onero remained unworried, but Katy had her doubts. The sudden change by the Emperor, the hastily-reconfigured plans, the problems on the Ancillary power station. There were a lot of moving parts to the plan. A lot of things that could go wrong.

  Onero struck out his hand, pointing upward. "Saria, bathe them in your judgment! Drown them with your fire!"

  "Drown them with your fire," they all intoned.

  Katy held her breath.

  That was it. The final signal before it should happen. Everyone craned their necks, lifting their eyes to Latea, the planet's geostationary moon hanging in the sky like a lantern. It was already illuminated with sunlight, a crescent in the dark twilight sky. The Chain descended from it, faint lights glowing along its length.

  A few Children in the crowd gasped.

  A silent line of blue was suddenly there, connecting Latea to some unseen object far to the west. It was thin like a strand of spid
er's silk, almost invisible unless you were expecting it. But of course they all were. The beam was ordinary, routine, the means of transferring power from a solar power station to the planet Melis. That wasn't what they waited for.

  The explosion was.

  It only lasted a moment, the barest pinprick of yellow against white. It was enough. To the right the lights along the Chain flickered and went out, confirming it.

  "Her will is known! Look at how she speaks!"

  "She speaks! She speaks!"

  "The false god has been cast down by Saria's fire! Our Mother is all there is, and all there ever will be. It is time to go forth as her servants. As her Children!"

  The army roared.

  Katy exhaled. Thank the Mother. It was only one piece of the plan, but it was the first one, the most important. Everything else could fail; so long as the Chain was cut this day would remain a success.

  Onero jumped from his platform and strode through the crowd, nodding and smiling as the assembled soldiers clapped him on the back. They knew the attack would begin soon. Katy pushed through the crowd to follow Onero down an alley, into the warehouse that had housed their operations. It had been a fishing factory once, when the outer city thrived and the river teemed with life. Now it was decrepit and abandoned, half its wall missing, letting in the grey morning twilight.

  A lone table stood near the broken wall, a computer recessed into its surface. Spider stood there, waiting, with another grunt named Rolf. "Any word?" Onero asked as he approached.

  The eight thin braids of hair that gave Spider his name swirled as he shook his head. Rolf sneered.

  "We should have heard by now," Katy said, joining them.

  "You are impatient," Onero said. "Have faith, Katy."

  "I have faith in our Mother, not in the plans of men. I've seen the best plans fail and the worst succeed, and everything in between."

  Onero was bald and thin, with spindly arms and a hooked nose that made him look like a perched bird. He cocked an eyebrow. "And Charlie? Do you not expect him to succeed? You have no one to blame but yourself if he fails."

  Ahh, Charlie. The steadfast boy had been in Katy's thoughts often in the past day. He was so eager to join them. He'd proven his willingness to sacrifice himself for their cause, completing the other tasks set before him. Had he succeeded aboard the Olitau, his only task that truly mattered?

  "I did my best," was all she said.

  "Your best may as well be your worst if it wasn't good enough. Regardless, it doesn't matter. Charlie was only one of many. The most important part was the Chain's destruction. Even if we do not capture the Olitau, even if the Emperor somehow escapes unharmed, at the very least the Empire's ability to reach space is crippled. The Exodus will be halted. They cannot leave our dear Mother's embrace."

  Katy gazed through the hole in the wall at the quickly brightening sky. "I think he succeeded. I hope he did."

  Onero said, "Don't tell me you grew soft on him. He was a steadfast."

  Spider snorted.

  "No," Katy said, "I just hope we did more than destroy the Chain."

  "We'll know soon enough."

  They stood around the table, silent. For all his talk of patience Onero glanced at his wrist computer every few seconds, anxious of the time. The table screen showed a clock, but he liked to rely on the wrist-mounted device usually reserved for steadfasts. It makes him softer, Katy reflected. The travels of our Mother across the sky tell the time. There's no need for such devices. The logical part of her brain knew she was jealous, but just then she didn't care to acknowledge it.

  Ten minutes passed without receiving the signal to abort.

  Onero sighed, with concern or relief or some other emotion Katy couldn't discern. "To the Wall."

  Spider handed her a bandolier of grenades. She fastened it over her shoulder and across her chest, its weight heavy and dangerous.

  They led the army of Children east toward the false horizon that stood above the ground. The Wall still blocked Saria, but her glow was clear now, the brilliant shades of orange and purple streaking across the sky like paint. They weren't a true army, not in the organized, disciplined sense; every fifth Child held a rifle, and the rest made due with smaller arms and even hand-to-hand weapons fashioned from tools. They did not march in formation; they were a flood of bodies in the street, pouring forth, eager to scourge the Empire of its film-like sin. But Onero insisted on calling them an army, insisted they needed the classification to bind them together.

  Although the individuals were lightly armed, they did possess heavy lasers. Four of them rolled along with the crowd, wide and heavy, the thick laser barrels pointing above the Children's heads. They were ancient things by Melisao standards, built to be stationary. Onero's engineers connected transportable power to them and mounted wheels on the side, giving them mobility. There was no engine; it would consume too much power that could otherwise be fired at their enemies. And so half a dozen men pushed each one, leaning into its chassis, legs slow and steady with effort.

  This was it. The result of years of planning, countless hours spent gathering and stealing. Katy had faith--how could one not, when their Mother burned so fiercely in the sky?--but just then their force did not seem enough.

  "Is this all?" Katy asked Onero. They walked near the front of the group. "You said we would have support."

  "It's coming," Onero said. "Everything is precisely timed, my father assured."

  "Where is your father?" she blurted. "All this planning, all this direction, and the great Akonai is nowhere to be seen."

  She immediately knew it was the wrong thing to say. Onero's face hardened, and he stared fire at Katy as they walked. "My father has done more than you or I or anyone else. He gathered electroid armies on Praetar. He single-handedly captured the Ancillary power station, realigning the transfer laser to destroy the Chain. Pirate moons circling Ouranos in the outer system fell before his cunning. This is not an attack on the city of Luccar, girl. This is the retaking of all Saria's domain. This is a revolution. My father has orchestrated it all, and you doubt him?"

  She said nothing.

  "When Melis burns, and the false god is confirmed dead, and the Praetari are free to worship our Mother again, you will not dare question my father's devotion."

  The words hung in the air as they walked.

  "I am sorry," Katy finally said. "I did not mean to insult. I just yearn to see him."

  "You will see him when this is all over," Onero said, "if we still live. We can all travel to Praetar once the planet is free. He plans to personally oversee the liberation."

  Katy considered that as they walked.

  They were halfway to the Wall when the murmur of voices rose in alarm and hands pointed to the sky. Above them, near the towering image of the Chain, a cloud of black specks was materializing. "Here comes some of that support now," Onero said with a sneer.

  It took several more heartbeats before Katy recognized the specks as spacecraft, falling back to Melis. Riverhawks? From Latea?

  As they grew Katy realized there were two separate clusters of aircraft, one chasing the other. The group giving chase spat beams of green as they followed, closing the distance on the first group. They disappeared behind the towering shape of the Wall in the inner city.

  Onero raised his voice. "We are not alone, Children! Saria has given us strength on land and in sky!"

  The army cheered as they resumed their march.

  The ships soon reappeared over the Wall, circling high overhead and breaking into smaller groups to spin and fight. Ships went up in bursts of fire before falling into the outer city, the delayed sound of explosion reaching Katy moments later. She could not tell who was who, although the turrets on top of the Wall seemed to know who to target, spraying the air with laser fire.

  Eventually a cluster of aircraft turned west, their engines screaming as they accelerated to retreat over the levee. The remaining aircraft stayed on patrol, circling in the sky. The ones r
etreating are ours, right? Isn't it bad they're leaving?

  Onero cursed, confirming it. He watched the retreating ships with uneasy eyes.

  That did not deter the army though. They continued cheering, some shooting their rifles at the remaining ships, though they couldn't possibly harm them from so far away. "Fuck the Emperor!" Rolf shouted. More took up the cry.

  Spider grumbled under his breath. He gave Onero a pointed look and tapped the side of his rifle where the energy indicator was located.

  "It won't hurt anything if they fire a few shots in the air," Onero said absently. "It will give them confidence. Let the steadfasts know we come."

  You don't sound very confident yourself, Katy thought. Not only was their support fleeing, but the Wall now had its own air support. They were an army of poorly trained, poorly armed civilians, marching toward what was essentially a fortress.

  We need to call off the attack, she thought. Whatever Akonai's grand plan might have been, getting slaughtered at the base of the Wall would accomplish nothing.

  "Onero..." she began, but the leader had raised his hand to call everyone to a stop. He squinted to the west, the way they'd come. Katy followed his gaze but most of what she saw was the blocky shape of the river levee.

  She could see the shapes of the retreating aircraft too. No, not retreating. They were growing larger, returning. And there were far more than before. She tried counting them but lost track after thirty.

  The Empire's ships quickly retreated, leaving the air above the Wall clear. Would they not put up a fight?

  Onero smiled, turning to resume the march. "One of our bases between here and Kozare. We've been collecting ships for months."

  The battlements atop the Wall engaged the approaching ships, but the Children's swarm flew too high, out of easy reach. They circled like buzzards. Some of the larger aircraft--Seahawks, Katy thought--returned fire, but it was lazy, half hearted.

  "We have all the time in the world," Onero explained when she asked. "The Wall defenders are outnumbered and outgunned. No, what we want is the steadfast ships to return and fight. Our ships are waiting, delaying, hoping the Emperor's heir will send his ships back out to try and stop us. But he'll only do that if there's a chance."