Defender of the Empire 2: Facades

by Catherine Beery

  I was going to mention the issue to Ace when I met Talis’ gaze. The look was much like those I was used to getting, though this time it held a measure of disappointment. What was he disappointed about? I wondered. He had access to a ranged weapon and his hands. “Don’t worry, Cadet. They won’t find us like that, though they have numbers on their side,” Talis said after the last of the lights vanished. Puzzled by his words, I soon realized he had seen the look I had given the cuffs and thought I was cowering. I didn’t bother to correct him. The more hopeless he thought me, the greater chance I had that I would get an opportunity to escape. Though I did wonder how he would react if he was in my shoes—not that he’d fit, but you get the idea. Talis gestured for us to continue on. Glancing at me he said, “But even if we are captured,” his tone colored by his understandable bias made me almost want to smile, “you will still not have to worry long.”

  My almost-smile turned into a frown. “And how do you figure that?”

  “They will give you a quick death once they have you, both of you humans,” he said, including Ace. Hey, I’m not singled out, I thought incredulously.

  “And how is that supposed to make me worry less, exactly? Seems hardly fair. We die and you two get to live.”

  “Only until they can complete Fervarieshta.”

  My frown deepened. What did that mean?

  Seeing my look, Ace explained, “It’s a Telmick ceremony. From what I understand, it means, literally, ‘verifying the end of a rival’. They capture the rival. They wait until sunset, preparing the prisoner for death. Notice is sent far and wide that ‘his song will soon end’. All nearby clans must send a witness. Then at sunset, when all witnesses are present, the rival is forced to fight every warrior of the clan who captured him in their preferred style. They wear him down till the sun disappears and they remove his head.”

  My brows rose, but before I could ask how Ace learned this, Kifen added, “And if it is not done right, no one will believe them. In their minds we would still be alive. Lost, perhaps, but alive.”

  Hearing Kifen making it personal, I realized that he was starting to believe that would happen soon, despite issues of pride. I glowered at their backs. I was not okay with being collateral damage. And I was wary of a little thing called ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’. “Then we best not let them catch us,” I replied. Turning to Ace I said, “Why don’t we climb?” I glanced up at the branches thick with concealing leaves. “Ace, can I have my hands back?” I saw Kifen glance up at the trees and shake his head. “Why not?” I asked, “it’s perfectly reasonable. We will be off the ground and have the higher ground advantage. At least until the forest ends.”

  Kifen shook his head again. “You are crazy. ses-Ky do not climb trees like scaredy, puny huta,” he protested. Unfortunately for him, I had no idea what an ‘oota’ was.

  I shrugged. “Well, I don’t want to die, and I doubt you want to be on the ceremonial side of your ceremony thing. And it isn’t like you guys can’t climb. I saw you climb back on Nem.” I turned back to Ace. “Can we get rid of these things now?”

  Ace glanced at Talis. Talis’ gaze flicked between the three of us and the trees before he sighed. “The little elarken has a good plan. Ses-Ky are not pridefully stupid,” he continued when Kifen started to protest. He then turned his yellow eyes on me. “If you make one wrong move—”

  “I know, I know,” I interrupted. “You will shoot me out of the tree or something. Got it.” I offered Ace my cuffed wrists. Ace raised a brow at me as he released the cuffs using his controller. I shrugged before asking, “What does ‘elarken’ mean? Do you know?” Ace shook his head.

  We found a climbable tree and slipped into is shelter, one at a time. Talis went first, then myself, then Ace, and Kifen brought up the rear. Thankfully, the tree branches were thick and could hold us as we started moving on our makeshift road. A few minutes later I was the receiver of thankful glances. A quieter band of Telmicks scoured the ground near where we had conversed earlier. The forest didn’t give them away as much as the others, probably because all the animals had already fled. And suddenly the hunting Telmick’s ploy made sense. I met my companions looks with raised brows that said ‘now, aren’t you glad you listened to me?’

  After the smaller band disappeared, we moved as carefully as we could over the branch road. We did not make good time. We were too alert for any movement below, and the forest’s silence only amplified whatever noise we made now. That, and we had to be careful not to have the branches move in such a way to betray us. Luckily, we didn’t have a deadline that I knew of. Glancing back at Ace every once in a while, I could see that the extra time was worrying him.

  Night fell quickly in the forest, even in the canopy. I couldn’t see now, and neither could Ace. The Telmicks were slightly better off, but we were in a situation that demanded all of us being able to see what was going on. We had to stop. Sleeping in a tree was not the most comfortable thing I have ever done, but at least I had it better than Talis or Kifen. I made sure to keep my amusement over their barely-voiced grumbles to myself. It would not be good for them to see that. Not good for my health, especially.

  I woke from a shallow doze to sounds that didn’t make sense at first. I flinched at the thudding sounds below us. Strange cries and shout of horror that were cut off too soon filled the air. Reaching out and down with one arm, grasping the branch with the other, I carefully moved some of the leaves. Peering down, I still couldn’t see anything, just blackness. Giving up the effort with a shiver, I glanced at my companions. Kifen and Talis were listening with obvious concern, if their hands on their weapons were any indication. Ace was frowning and tensely watching the branches about us.

  Needless to say we didn’t sleep after that.

  Chapter 12 – Seer’s Dreams

  Iceron System

  Spectral Empire

  Sylvia

  Sylvia walked in a place as dark as Betrayer’s soul. A sense told her that she was closed in, except before and behind her. Her feet were bare on cold, rough stone. Reaching out to either side, she could feel similar cold hardness as both palms pressed flat against it. Looking up revealed no stars in the distance. Either this place was one without such things, or she was inside.

  Testing the ground before her, she began to walk forward. Eventually, she realized that she could make out a dim sheen on the stone beside her. Steadily the light grew stronger. Her eyes followed the light up and up and up to a ceiling lost in shadow. The sight of the narrow chasm she was in terrified her. Looking away from the intimidating sight, she focused on the light. Where was it coming from? It was soft, and grew brighter as she walked toward it, but it did not hurt her eyes.

  She rounded a corner, and surprise brought her up short. Two Spectrals were before her. A golden-eyed black panther, sheened in starlight, sniffed at the ground. A lapis lazuli raven with beady eyes pecked at the dirt before taking wing. Neither saw her as she drew closer. Sylvia walked with them. It did not take long to know that they were searching for something and she knew that something was her niece, Rylynn. That was when she realized that she was dreaming. Although the narrow way they were trapped in may be just something her mind constructed, the Spectrals searching for Rylynn was real.

  A shiver ran up her back, chilling her to the bone. Sylvia gasped and saw her breath before her. Something is wrong, she thought. Whirling to look behind, she could see a nightmare lumbering toward them. Similar to a lizard in appearance, it still somehow managed to look wrong. The light that bathed the walls and floor all about the Spectrals stopped short of the creature. It paused and a long, ropy tongue flicked out of its mouth. Its head turned ponderously toward the Spectrals. It tasted the air again and began to lumber toward them. The air got colder. Shivering, Sylvia looked to the Spectrals and realized they were oblivious to the creature stalking them. Even a Raven, who was supposed to See was blind to it. What was this place? Sylvia shook her head, before screaming a warning. They couldn’t see her, b
ut maybe they could hear her.

  Suddenly everything faded away and she was streaming back to herself. Along the way, she saw a silvery-blue wolf meet her gaze.

  Gasping, Sylvia sat up. Eyes wide, she stared about her small room. No one was there, which was good because her mind was still trying to make sense of the scene change. Unable to stand being still a moment longer, she got up and shrugged on her robe. There would be no walk around the halls while Betrayer was gone. All the doors were locked. She made do by pacing in front of her bed.

  “And that is the problem, isn’t it?” she said softly. Betrayer was gone because he was going after Rylynn. She who had protected Rylynn for most of the girl’s life was now helpless to warn her of the threat heading her way. “I have to do something. If I don’t I’ll go crazy,” she continued to herself. Halting the useless pacing, Sylvia hugged herself. “And when did I start talking to myself?” Of course, she didn’t have an answer for that. Shaking her head, she glanced at the floor panels about her room. “At least that is something I can do.” It was an idea that had sat for a long time on the drawing board gathering dust. She hadn’t had the opportunity to put it to work until now.

  Energized by the prospect of focusing on something, she knelt beside her bed and reached under the mattress. All the way at the center was the broken diamlass shard she had managed to slip into her pocket several weeks ago. Diamlass was a glass as hard as diamonds, but like diamonds it would only break under another diamlass… or a nanite-hardened warrior from Swava who had underestimated Betrayer’s power.

  As one of the latest Pets added, he had had a lot of fight in him. Being stronger and harder to wound, thanks to his nanites, he figured he could take out an unarmed man without any problem. He must have thought that the rest of the Pets were either too cowardly or weak to attempt it. Sylvia had started to warn the man against his foolhardy mission, but he had brushed past her to intercept Betrayer at the door to the Pet chambers.

  Betrayer had hardly glanced at the man before doing something that sent the man flying at high speed through a diamlass room divider. Neither fared well. In the flurry of chaos after Betrayer left without a word, Sylvia had grabbed one of the shards. She knew it would come in handy. As for the Swavan, well, he didn’t make it. The nanite shell around him was the only thing keeping him in one piece.

  Now, Sylvia would honor the man’s sacrifice and try to escape. She wedged the thin shard between two floor panels. She knew that there was a nice sized subspace between the decks; at least that was what she had gathered from the sounds she heard when she tapped on the floor.

  She prayed as she worked. Prayed for freedom. Prayed for her niece and the Spectrals in harm’s way. And she prayed for the Empire as a whole. Dark times, like that lumbering creature in her dream, were coming ever closer.

  ***

  Luna paced the void between stars in the constant search of a Shade. She needed a corporeal partner. Danger was growing around them, and she could do nothing without a partner. There was only a little Luna could do to aid the Shades she knew. But any real good would be with her own. And to be perfectly honest, she was lonely. She missed her last Shade, Nico Cassidy. She ached for him, but there was nothing she could do for him like this. She also missed Rylynn. The girl charmed her greatly. But Rylynn belonged with Kylesst, who had suffered far longer than Luna. He was still suffering.

  Suddenly, a cry reached her, as impossible as that was in the cold of space. Luna looked up. The scream was a Seer’s cry. A real-time vision had taken place, and Spectrals were in danger. Luna knew this for truth, though the scream didn’t actually specify who should ‘watch out’.

  More useful was the fact that it had come from Lenti. Wasting not another moment, Luna sped toward the distant colony world, praying that she would be in time.

  Chapter 13 – Animal Instincts

  Colony Lenti

  Jumping in and out of hyperspace, Luna soon found herself zipping toward the blue and brown sphere of Lenti. As she pulled herself up short, the starlit wolf Spectral pushed her senses outward. Faintly, she could feel the familiar presences of Zara and Raj. She could also feel something else. Something… something that was not right. A shiver raked through her fur. It had been a long time since she’d come anywhere near Colony Lenti. Now she was remembering why. It had always felt wrong—it dulled her senses.

  Luna drifted closer to the planet and noticed that as her unease grew, her senses dulled even more. She struggled to zero in on where she could feel her fellow Spectral, Luna dove. The atmosphere parted before her as she streaked down. She leveled out near the ground, and flashed through the trees.

  RAJ! ZARA! BEHIND YOU! Luna howled as she neared them. FLEE THE SURFACE! They immediately rose above the trees—just in time, too.

  BY THE DIVINE! Zara gasped when they paused to look back. The tree near where they had been was dying, its leaves shriveling. At its root was a pool of darkness. Luna felt as if it was somehow looking up at them, strategizing how it would now reach them.

  COME, WE MUST GO, Luna said, leading the other two back up into the darkness of space.

  I HATE IT HERE, Raj muttered. I FEEL BLIND AND USELESS. Zara nodded in agreement.

  I DON’T LIKE IT EITHER. I ALWAYS THOUGHT EVERYONE IGNORED IT BECAUSE OF ITS DULLING EFFECT. BUT YOU WERE NOT JUST NEAR THE PLANET, YOU WERE ON THE SURFACE. Luna tilted her head in curiosity, WHY?

  RYLYNN WAS KIDNAPPED FROM THE HAIL MARY. ZARA AND I TRACED HER SCENT TO THE SURFACE, BUT NOW WE CAN’T FIND IT, Raj explained.

  Zara shook her feline head, looking at the planet below. I CANNOT BEGIN TO TELL YOU HOW EMBARRASSING THAT IS.

  Luna’s tail wagged in amusement as she cast out her senses. Soon, her tail wagged harder. I’LL HELP YOU, she said before descending back toward the surface again, but not at the breakneck pace of before. Zara and Raj followed, casting out their senses but not picking up what Luna so evidently had.

  THE FIRST HUMAN TO SEE YOU WAS RIGHT, YOU DO HAVE A WOLF’S KEEN SENSES, Raj observed. NOT THAT YOUR SENSES ARE ANY LESS, ZARA, he added.

  The panther snorted before telling Marius, over her bond, the latest developments. Raj did the same; they had Luna’s senses and knew that Rylynn was definitely on Lenti.

  ***

  Jason stared at the console before him. He and the other communication specialists were trying to untie the knotted web of the ghost signal. More accurately, since the signal had covered its tracks, they were searching for where it had missed a spot. It was long and tedious work. Jason thought it about as difficult as trying to find the eye of the needle in the hay stack. That said, they needed to try to find its source. If they could find the source, perhaps they would have a lead to where Rylynn had been taken.

  It was work meant for those whose concentration resembled a fine tooth comb. Jason was starting to think he didn’t have that. Even though this was to help find his friend, he couldn’t focus. The winged serpent that shared his body would not leave him alone. It kept trying to take over, convinced it could fight off the danger that it felt threatening them and theirs.

  No! Jason thought at it, wrestling with it. She isn’t on the ship.

  Danger! There iss Danger. Musst fight. Musst defend, the creature insisted.

  Jason hid his face in his hands, massaging his aching temples. And what, exactly, would we fight? he thought at his other self. There is nothing here to fight, he pointed out. Grumbling, the creature settled back down, but neither party was satisfied.

  “Take a break, Crewman Winter,” Lieutenant Rael said, laying a hand on his shoulder.

  Jason startled, horrified that she had caught him not doing anything. “I’m sorry! I just…” How did someone explain that they were literally arguing with themselves without sounding crazy?

  She smiled at him. “We are all tired, Winter. Go and rest your eyes for a while. We are all more useful when alert,” she said, dismissing him. Jason thought about protesting but decided that she was right. He needed to do som
ething else. Something more active… he just didn’t know what.

  Walking briskly to the mess hall did little to sate his need for action. But the silver lining was that Marius and Westley were already there. Jason made his way to them and sat down with a disgruntled sigh. “We need to do something.”

  “You mean other than what we are already doing?” Marius asked.

  Westley grunted. “You mean nothing?”

  “It feels like we are doing nothing. If it had been one of us instead of Rylynn, she would have already found a way to bring us back,” Jason pointed out. “Lord knows that’s why I’m here now.”

  “But she knew where you were, or were going to be. We don’t know where she is, or even where to start looking,” Westley said with frustrated anger. Jason knew exactly how he felt. He glanced between the older boys, before looking down at his hands. Wait, did you see that? the serpent asked. Frowning, Jason looked back up at Marius. There had been—something in Marius’s expression.

  He knows something, the winged serpent announced.

  Marius noticed Jason regarding him with an intensity that caused the boy’s eyes to whirl. The serpent was close to the surface. It must have caught some betraying sign, revealing that he had an idea about where Rylynn was. But Marius couldn’t tell either of them what Zara had recently told him. Besides, Lenti was a big place. They still didn’t know exactly where Rylynn was, or where to even start looking on the planet’s surface.