Alyssa climbed the light scaffolding to drape the stole over Uri’s body and place his pack at his side. She returned to the ground and faced them again.
“Uri told me once that he had no regrets in this life. If there are any on this field tonight, it’s only that we will miss the rumble of his laughter, his big hand on our shoulders to steady us, and the sight of children trailing him through the camp.” She raised her hands. “Good speed, my friend.”
Furcho started to rise but settled again when Will’s clear baritone rang out. Alyssa had forgotten Will, the botanist, and Uri, the herbalist, had become friends during long debates over medicines versus natural remedies. After a moment’s hesitation, a chorus of children’s joyful voices joined Will’s. Adults choked back tears as the youngsters warbled the “good-night song” Uri sang almost daily with them. The stars call me, so say good night until tomorrow when the sun and I see you again.
Parents led the little ones away, singing the last good nights, and Nicole helped Furcho to his feet. Alyssa went to stand by Jael as Diego and Bero took up their post at one end of the pyre and Furcho and Azar at the other. Nicole stood behind Furcho, carefully releasing the sling on his arm.
“Warriors.” At Second’s command, the army snapped to attention and saluted.
Furcho slowly raised both his hands, fireballs forming while Azar filled his lungs. When the dragon horse exhaled, Furcho’s fire shot from his hands to join in one furious column of flame. Only after the pyre caught did Diego and Bero join in and take over. Nicole wrapped an arm around Furcho when he extinguished his flame and lowered his hands. Azar knelt and she helped him mount, climbing up behind to steady him when Azar stood and headed back to the Advocates’ quarters.
“Warriors, dismissed.”
Alyssa watched them go, barely registering Second’s last command or the dragon horses launching into the night around her. She did feel the familiar press of Jael’s body against her back.
“Will they be okay?”
Alyssa looked up, smiling at the concern in her mate’s eyes. Jael valued each member of The Guard in different ways. She’d confided once that Furcho was a very old soul and she valued him most for his wise counsel. “They’ll be fine,” she said. “But their poor child, I’m afraid, might have to live with being named Uri.”
Jael almost smiled. “That’s not so bad.”
“It is if you’re a girl.”
❖
Tan tugged the cowl of her rain slicker to conceal more of her face and cursed her bad luck. A steady drizzle had cleared the streets of Matamoros except for the occasional person dashing from building to building or from building to transport. The empty streets made it difficult for her to move about unnoticed by anyone watching from a window. It also meant that Kyle was indoors with the other believers.
Tan hadn’t seen Kyle yet, but her Matamoros connections said the high-rise college dormitory that the believers had conscripted to house the single females and children was where she was staying. The dorm had a flat roof and was taller than most of the immediately adjacent buildings, so she’d waited until dark and landed Phyrrhos quietly behind the solar panels. She was counting on the curious bond Kyle seemed to have with Phyrrhos’ unborn foal to draw her to the rooftop.
It was risky, but time was running out. Tan’s patience was growing thin.
Phyrrhos grunted and the skin of her huge belly rippled with another shift of the foal. It was big and seemed especially restless tonight. The moon would be completely full tomorrow, and Tan expected the foal would deliver then. If not, then Phyrrhos just might burst. She’d never seen such an accelerated gestation. It’d barely been two weeks. The rapid growth was taking a toll on Phyrrhos, too. She’d been eating voraciously, especially fire rocks when they’d been back at the camp. But today, she’d eaten little—not even her favorite molasses-coated oats. Phyrrhos needed to be some place safe and quiet, not on a roof surrounded by The Natural Order believers.
Tan silently paced the roof. She frowned and massaged her back. Stars, it’d been hurting all day. But her sore back and Phyrrhos weren’t the only things bothering her. She needed to be somewhere alone, just her and Kyle, where they could talk and love and heal. For the first time in all her existence, she thought maybe she could. She was tired of collateral losses like Uri or a young Ari’s hand or—in her case—a young girl’s innocence still damaged after many lifetimes. Kyle seemed to understand. Kyle felt like the anchor Tan could hold on to in order to quiet the storm inside.
A loud click and scrape broke through the noise in her head, and she hid behind an air duct. The stairwell door opened slowly, and a dark figure cautiously emerged. Tan smiled, then flicked a tiny fireball past the nose of the person. Kyle ducked behind the stairwell housing.
“Tan?”
Kyle’s low voice played through Tan like the touch of sure fingers on harp strings. She circled silently around the staircase housing to approach from behind. Kyle stood with her back pressed against the housing, looking where Tan had been when she tossed the fireball. Tan mentally shook her head. Kyle would never make much of a warrior. She was too easy to fool. Tan had edged within inches, braced herself for Kyle’s overreaction, and started to speak when a flick of Kyle’s fingers lit a small flame that was a little too close to Tan’s crotch for comfort. She jerked back. Kyle extinguished the flame, a grin spreading across her handsome features as she slowly turned to face Tan.
“You were getting so close, I thought you might need more light to see better.”
“Punk of a sparkler.” Tan’s smile stole the sting from her insult.
Kyle wrapped her hand around Tan’s neck and drew her close. “That’s Lieutenant Blaze to you, Captain.” Her lips were soft but her tongue demanding. Tan pressed her against the stairwell housing. Kyle’s warmth felt good against the nagging ache in her belly.
“Sun and stars, I missed you.” Kyle’s hips moved against Tan’s, but Tan stepped back. Phyrrhos was flashing mental pictures in her head, fast and jumbled. Pain stabbed through her side. Something was wrong.
“We don’t have time.” She started around the stairwell housing at a run, tossing the next words over her shoulder. “Something’s wrong with Phyrrhos.”
Kyle was right behind her when the heavy stairwell door swung open and slammed into her. She skidded on her back across the dark roof several meters and lay still as five believer guards emerged from the open doorway, repeating weapons firing.
“Kyle!”
Phyrrhos screamed and spewed a column of fire that ignited one gunman into a human torch. Tan’s fireballs sentenced two more to the same fate. Kyle stirred. Bullets sang through the night air around them.
“Kyle, you need to get up.” Tan’s shout competed with the staccato rat-a-tat of the weapons.
Another gunman, tall and muscular, emerged from the doorway, followed by an unarmed man and woman. The woman ran to Kyle, but Tan’s focus narrowed to the unarmed man. Cyrus. He was leaner but definitely the same crazed lunatic she’d seen strut atop the train the first time the dragon-horse army confronted him. She recognized the last gunman as one of the bodyguards the network had said set sail with Cyrus.
Phyrrhos screamed, and Tan’s bond with her dragon horse blossomed with pain and fury. A graze, but a bullet had nearly found its mark. They had dared to injure her pregnant bonded. Red-hot anger blotted out any ability, any desire to reason. She raised her hands, palms out to form a nearly transparent shield of white-hot fire in front of her and Phyrrhos and pushed it toward the men. She would send them all to their next life together. Molten droplets of metal plunked onto the rooftop as most of the bullets melted. One fragment that made its way through sizzled into Tan’s thigh.
Then blue arrows of flame shot into her vision, sending the men’s weapons flying through the air and across the roof one by one. Each glowed red hot when it slid to a stop, melting into a fused hunk of metal. Tan withdrew her wall of flame.
The weapons gone, ther
e was no sound but the whip of the flames from Tan’s still-burning hands. The remaining believers, Cyrus, and his bodyguard stood motionless and unarmed. Kyle swayed unsteadily several meters away. Tan was relieved to see her standing but not happy about the familiar way the strange, attractive woman wrapped her arm around Kyle’s waist. The excruciating pain was back in her side. Or was it her back? Enough. Jael would have to forgive her one more break in protocol. This was for Ari, for Uri, and for all those who had suffered or died because of this madman.
She raised her hands and held them to form an arc of flame over her head. “Cyrus, you have been pronounced guilty by the First Warrior of violating the directives of The Collective to hoard for your own cause at the cost of life and health to your fellow humans. You also were found guilty of heresy and conspiracy to spread heresy. As Guard for The Collective, I am here to carry out your sentence of death so you may make restitution in your next life.”
Tan was aware of the woman clinging to Kyle’s back speaking urgently into Kyle’s ear as Tan pronounced sentence. She’d have to think about that later. She lowered her hands in front of her.
“No!”
The other men, including the now-unarmed bodyguard, flung themselves to the ground as Tan’s arc of flame shot out like a heat-seeking missile toward Cyrus. Before it could reach him, a blaze of blue met and blocked Tan’s death fire. She faltered. It could only be Kyle. Why?
The men hesitated for a split second, then scrambled for the doorway and disappeared down the stairwell.
She turned on Kyle and screamed, “They’re getting away.”
“Tan, stop. Drop your flame.”
Phyrrhos screamed and pain tore at Tan. She gritted her teeth against it. Phyrrhos’ connection hurt, but the jagged blade that ripped at her was the realization that Kyle was standing against her. What a fool she’d been. Tan poured her agony into her flame, but Kyle’s fire was strong. When had she become so powerful? She could no longer match Kyle’s strength and abruptly dropped her flame. She only hoped Kyle would be merciful enough to take Phyrrhos, too, so that her bonded wouldn’t suffer the insanity of a broken bond when Tan became ashes. But Kyle’s flame stopped just as suddenly. Blood trickled from a cut at Kyle’s temple and from her nose. She faltered and slumped against the other woman.
“Go,” the woman said to Tan. “I’ll take care of her. You need to leave now before the men return with more guns. Your dragon horse is in labor.”
Tan stared wordlessly as they disappeared into the dark stairwell and the heavy door clicked shut behind them.
Chapter Nineteen
“Jael? What’s wrong?” Alyssa’s hands on her back felt cold through the cloth of her T-shirt, and she knew it was because her own body was overheating. Dung. Had she lost control of everything now? She consciously turned down her body heat that had risen with the sullen and fragmented report from Tan.
“Tan is convinced Kyle has betrayed us.”
Also, Phyrrhos had foaled last night, stranding Tan in Matamoros for now with Cyrus moving on to Killeen. She needed to go herself or send someone to Tan, but they were several days away and waiting for dusk to descend on the Brasília warehouse held by The Natural Order. Even if they’d been closer, she couldn’t spare any of The Guard. She was shorthanded on the battlefield already. Furcho still wasn’t fit for duty, but he’d insisted on guarding the train where Nicole would triage and treat less-critical patients and animals for transport back to the mountain camp.
“I don’t believe it.” Alyssa circled around to face her. “You don’t either.”
“Kyle opened her thoughts fully to me, and I found no deceit.”
“I’ve felt nothing but sincerity from her.” Alyssa frowned, wrapping her arms around Jael. “There has to be an explanation. Tan predicted betrayal from the beginning. Maybe she can’t see past her expectations.”
“She said she had Cyrus a millisecond away from his next life, and Kyle blocked her flame.”
Alyssa pushed back from Jael to look up at her. “Wait. Start from the beginning. Exactly what happened?”
“That’s all I got out of her. Phyrrhos was also in labor while all this was going on, and Tan barely got back to the barn before she foaled. She was too exhausted for an interrogation.”
Soft surprise flickered across Alyssa’s face. “I guess I thought the two of you were close enough that she’d let you review her memory rather than have her report what happened.”
Jael shook her head. “Tan’s very guarded about her memories, and I won’t violate her privacy. It’s impossible to know which memory you’re unlocking until you review it. Almost everybody has some they’d rather not share. I think Tan has many.”
Alyssa didn’t push for more, but Jael could feel her concern for Tan. “Did the foaling go well?”
“A healthy filly.” Jael laughed. “Monstrously big, according to Tan, but I think that’s because she apparently shared labor pains with Phyrrhos.” She smiled down at Alyssa. “Makes me glad I bonded with a stallion.”
Alyssa slapped her on the belly. “Don’t look so smug, stud.”
Jael hugged Alyssa to her and closed her eyes. She wanted to remember every detail of Alyssa’s clean soft scent, the silky feel of her fiery-red hair, the press of Alyssa’s breasts against her ribs, and, most of all, the beat of Alyssa’s heart in perfect sync with her own. Doing so soothed the battle jitters despite her growing feeling of portent. Alyssa stiffened, and Jael knew her empathic lover had sensed her concerns.
“Jael?” Fear tinged Alyssa’s voice. “Honey?”
This war felt like a roller coaster screaming out of control down a steep incline before it would hopefully turn upward. She felt like a sperm pushing to get through to fertilize the egg and seed a new life. Was this about her or was it about The Collective? She’d evolved to value the needs of the many over the needs of one. Maybe the needs of the whole, however, were met only when each piece was individually whole.
Jael pressed her lips to Alyssa’s in a brief kiss. “Don’t be afraid. The bit of fear and worry I carry into battle will keep me alert and safe.” She took Alyssa’s hand and placed it over the steady throb in her chest. “Trust this, my empath. This heart has waited many lifetimes for the one that matches it.” She laid her hand on Alyssa’s chest. “I cannot fathom that fate would finally bring these together, only to part them. Everything will be as it should be. We are stronger together.”
❖
All units in position.
Jael glanced across the rooftops to where Second, astride Titan, raised her hand and closed it into a fist to echo her mental report. She held Second’s gaze, her thoughts too tangled to express. But then Second was her cousin, her clone. She was the calm to Jael’s storm. She understood what Jael could only intuit.
Second lowered her fist and thumped it firmly against her left shoulder.
I’m always at your back, Jael.
Jael’s nod was almost imperceptible.
It’s why I’ve never faltered.
She returned her attention to the warehouse. The streets were eerily empty. Most of the day workers would have gone home, but a smaller second-shift crew should have been moving about, loading and unloading transports. The huge doors to the cavernous building should have been open and the lights on in the office.
The normally thriving restaurants and shops several blocks away—visible from her rooftop perch—were quiet. Their attack was expected. She activated the amplifier on her wrist IC.
“I am Jael, First Warrior of The Guard. The Collective Council has ordered the arrest of Cyrus the Prophet, his second known as Simon, and any believers who stand with them for delaying and denying the proper distribution of supplies to the general population. Cyrus the Prophet and Simon also are charged with heresy against The Collective. Come forth for judgment or we will come in and retrieve you.”
Six panels on the rooftop of the warehouse slid back, and dark, unmanned weapons rose up to lock in place. Each repeat
ing gun was flanked on both sides by an array of small missiles. Several dragon horses screamed at the perceived threat, and the guns swiveled in their direction.
The standoff seemed to take a deep breath before chaos was unleashed.
The guns sprayed deadly lead that forced the front line of dragon horses and warriors to put up a wall of flame to shield the rest. Others darted high above and flung white-hot spheres of fire to melt the delicate working of the weapons and silence them. In response, the missile arrays jerked upward and fired. Five found their mark, blowing warriors and their steeds into bits and wounding any flying nearby.
Diego flipped the amplifier on his IC and shouted orders. “They’re heat-seeking. Wait until they’re close, and then throw your hottest fireball skyward. They’ll chase the heat.”
When the next missile fired at a young recruit, a seasoned warrior flew in its path with her fireball at the ready. The missile zeroed in on her, and she waited until it was only three meters away before she flung the fireball skyward. The missile followed and exploded when it caught up with the flame. Cheers went up among her unit, and, when another launched, a young daredevil in another unit imitated her performance. Then a third. The fourth wasn’t quick enough and the missile found its mark. Another warrior passed instantly to the next life, the blast blowing the warrior next to him off his steed and to his death while wounding three more too seriously to continue fighting.
The moon rose in a sky filled with swooping dragon horses. But more believers poured from adjacent warehouses and fired automatic weapons at the warriors. Angry, pain-filled screams of warriors and dragon horses filled the air. They were outnumbered at least three to one. Several large bodies dropped from the air. The gunmen jumped back, then cheered as fatally wounded warriors and dragon horses writhed and combusted into blazing pyres.
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