by Josi Russell
Traxoram sighed, a grim, self-satisfied sound. “Ah, well. Now that we have you both here, perhaps answers will be more forthcoming. You will tell me how you made it so far into the city.”
The weight of the shackles eased slightly. Ethan drew in a breath and raised his head enough to take in the scene around him, but he said nothing.
Traxoram walked closer. “Perhaps you’ve been conversing with our cousins?” He sneered. “How are they? Have they told you all about our inferiority? Did they mention how far beyond us they’d evolved and how weak and pathetic we are compared to them?”
“Actually—” Ethan began.
“Did they also recount to you the horrors of the day we, with all our inferiority, forced them from their fortified city? Did they tell you how many of them we destroyed on the day we bested them with our might and intelligence?” Traxoram laughed. It was obvious he felt no threat from the true Alorans. Here, surrounded by so many of the Others, with their coldness and cruelty, Ethan began to believe the creature was right to feel that way. What could the ethereal energy beings do against such powerful, armored monsters?
“I’ve received reports that our cousins are being done away with as we speak, which indicates that we shall soon be able to refocus on our work. So we are back at the beginning, with you and your mate.” Traxoram gestured to Kaia. “Wonderful. Though I’ve been reading your writings, and I have discovered that you are a fortunate creature indeed.”
Ethan’s heart stopped.
“You have another . . .” Traxoram waved a claw and a screen appeared. Aria, still sleeping, shone on the screen.
Ethan looked away.
“This one is yours, too, isn’t she? Which explains your emotional outburst at the auction.”
Ethan clenched his jaw and remained silent. He longed to look at Aria, to assure himself that she was still alright, but he didn’t dare. He had no idea how much control he actually had of his power, and with Kaia in her weakened state and the hundreds of Others surrounding them, another energy surge was likely to hurt her and unlikely to injure enough of the Others to do any good. But the chance to take out Traxoram was tempting.
Painfully, Ethan turned his head slightly to glance at Kaia. She was still shackled, but her piteous cries had ceased, and she turned her head to meet his gaze almost as if she knew he was looking at her. He heard her voice in his head almost instantly.
“Ethan.”
Ethan blinked in recognition and then looked away from her at Traxoram and the creatures standing behind him. He knew he couldn’t answer her. Not yet. The ruler was still gazing at the picture of Aria on the screen, seemingly unaware of Kaia’s communication. Still, the Others could be listening without revealing their understanding. The ability could give the humans an advantage, but if they took it for granted, it could also be their downfall.
Traxoram turned from the screen. “Ethan Bryant, your tricks on auction day were very upsetting to us. After our many kindnesses to you, you should not have treated us so shabbily.” Traxoram moved closer. “However, you are young, and you seem to have acquired some new abilities, which perhaps you do not know how to control. We have had many disappointments in our experiments, and we did not expect this course of tests to be any different. We now know better. You apparently gained, for some time at least, the ability to control energy. Tell me, is this power still with you?” The shackles eased again, as if Traxoram was trying to be friendly.
“I don’t know,” Ethan said. One part of him hoped that they’d let him try it, but he knew better.
The shackles bit into him with force. “Don’t lie to us, Ethan Bryant. Two guards were found at the Fourth Entrance. They had been neutralized by an energy pulse, much like several of my guards were many eons ago when our cousins tried to reenter the city. However, this time there was also a crude hole in the outer wall, one forged by some sort of primitive cutting tool.”
Suddenly a force hovered over Kaia. It drew from her pocket, as if by magnetism, the attenuated laser.
“Ahh, yes. Like this.” Traxoram gestured and the tool clattered to the floor. “Such primitive technology, but effective. Also very traceable. The hole indicated that perhaps you, rather than our cousins, were behind the breach.” Traxoram chuckled. “Your limited minds are somewhat creative. But the tool is of little consequence when compared with the power you used to disable my guards.” He turned back to Ethan. “Now, I would like to know if you are still able to perform this act of energy control. Remember, you are only alive because of the slim possibility that you can provide me with information about my testing. I have no use for you if you have no information. Can you still do it?”
Ethan gritted his teeth. “Only when I’m very angry.” He growled.
Traxoram seemed pleased. “Very good. Perhaps there is not such a difference between our two species after all.” Traxoram moved to Kaia. “It’s a pity, though. This one seems largely unchanged.” He prodded her with a claw. “Any new powers, young female?”
“None,” Kaia said aloud, her voice weak but defiant. “Except my ability to avoid tearing your heart out. Get your claws off me.”
Ethan drew in a breath in surprise.
Traxoram prodded her again. “None but the ability to interpret what I am saying to you.”
Kaia’s eyes widened and she glanced quickly over at Ethan.
“You can understand me, can’t you?” Traxoram said, placing his claw under her chin and forcing her to look into his face.
“Yes,” she said boldly.
“And I can understand you. Both of you have much improved linguistic abilities. This could be encouraging, or it could be simply a fluke. More extensive testing must be done with a more diverse experimental population.” He turned, still holding Kaia’s chin, and looked at the screen. “Perhaps, we will begin with another human female. Perhaps with that one.”
Ethan bit his lip. Somehow he had managed to put both of them in danger.
Suddenly, shouting echoed through the room, and Ethan heard the big doors swinging open behind him. The crowd pressed forward and several Statehouse Guards came clattering in. “Ruler, our cousins are in the statehouse as we speak.”
A look of surprise and rage crossed Traxoram’s features. He threw Kaia to the ground in disgust, and Ethan heard her crash against the stone floor. Traxoram struck out with a huge claw at the messenger, slashing across his chest. The same dark flash they’d seen in the courtyard sprung from the slice in the creature’s armor and he crumpled, hitting the ground just inches from Ethan.
Traxoram turned his anger back to his prisoners. “You have allowed our enemies entrance into the city.”
The shackles pressed Ethan down until he was prone on the clear, cold floor. It was if Traxoram were stepping on his back, crushing him.
“You should not have involved them. You and your females could have lived here in luxury as our special guests. In moments we’ll be at war with our enemies again, and before they come I will kill you myself. When we’ve vanquished them once more, we will learn what we can from your corpse.”
Ethan struggled to breathe. He felt his consciousness slipping away as the weight on his back increased. Around him, he heard the sounds of conflict. He dimly registered that the room was beginning to fill with shining Alorans; an intense battle was taking place. He felt two sharp pops in his chest and realized that his ribs were breaking. As a circle of darkness began to twist around the outer edges of his vision, he registered the sight of Aria on the screen and heard, simultaneously, an agonized cry from Kaia somewhere behind him. At least, he thought, they would be his last thoughts.
But something else entered his thoughts, eased its way in around the blackness. It was another presence. Sybillan was nearby, and his mind was merging with Ethan’s. Ethan felt the Aloran’s quiet confidence, felt his deep empathy for his lesser cousins. When these emotions mingled with Ethan’s own fear and loathing of the creatures, Ethan found himself confused. How could Sybillan not h
ate them as he did?
Another consciousness was also creeping its way into his. It was full of dark hatred and disgust. He recognized it as Traxoram’s mind, and the intensity of it made him convulse. He pushed it away as best he could while concentrating on the tranquil light of Sybillan in his mind. The crushing weight on his body gradually began to ease as Traxoram’s attention was divided.
Sybillan drew closer.
As Ethan’s breath came again, his senses began to return with more clarity. He heard Traxoram growling, low and menacing, and began to make out words.
“You’ve come again, my cousin. But this time, you will not be allowed to leave.”
And Sybillan, in a musical voice, responded from somewhere behind Ethan. “Traxoram, your time is over. You must not fight against the natural course of things any longer.”
The shackles had eased considerably, and Ethan scrambled to his knees. His stomach dropped as he realized that Kaia lay unmoving on the cold floor. He searched for her in his mind, but felt nothing of her consciousness. He tried to move toward her. Not having her there left him more afraid than he’d anticipated.
He fixed his eyes on her, willing her to get up. She lay small and vulnerable in the shadow of the huge beasts around her. Suddenly, Ethan recognized Nakthre breaking away from the crowd and moving toward Kaia’s still form.
“No!” he shouted. “Get away from her!”
Nakthre glanced at him and then reached down to poke her with a claw. He looked deliberately at Ethan and did it again.
In the midst of the battle around him, Ethan focused only on Nakthre. He felt his anger rising, felt a surge of energy building, but as it crested Nakthre sneered and twisted his head sideways, his eyes still locked with Ethan’s. Ethan felt pain rip through him, beginning at his chest, where the heat of the energy surge turned back inside him and raced through his arms and legs and face. Nakthre laughed as Ethan’s body convulsed from the power of the surge.
Dimly, Ethan registered Kaia’s form on the floor beside Nakthre. She was moving, or, more appropriately, being moved. She slid as if being pushed across the smooth floor.
No, not pushed, Ethan realized from inside his pain. Dragged. She was being slowly dragged across the floor toward an open side door by a small shelled being. Tesuu.
Ethan almost smiled as the pain began to ebb. He tried to build another energy surge, but nothing but relief welled inside him.
As Kaia disappeared through the doorway, Nakthre was set upon by two Alorans, and Sybillan’s voice turned Ethan back to the faceoff between the two rulers.
“I’m sorry for what I must do,” Sybillan said soothingly to Traxoram.
Ethan wondered briefly why Sybillan was speaking rather than thinking to Traxoram. The thought was fleeting, though, as another intense emotion swept over Ethan. Traxoram was enraged, and the intensity of his anger nearly forced Ethan back to the floor. He managed to stay on his knees, and with great effort he turned to take in rest of the scene around him.
Sybillan approached from his left about a hundred yards away. Traxoram’s attention was fixed on his approaching cousin, and he had come closer to Ethan. Ethan could almost touch him, could hear the scraping of his armor plates as the creature towered above him.
Around the great hall, similar scenes were playing out. Alorans faced the Others, approaching them slowly but with confidence. The Others stood their ground, all bent forward as if ready to spring upon the intruders, though Ethan doubted that physical combat would have much effect on the bright beings.
Suddenly, though, he realized that he was wrong. Across the hall, one pair of opponents was grappling. He saw one of the Others spring upon the Aloran and grasp its neck with the larger of the two claws. The claw lit up in a dazzling crystalline display of light. The beast’s whole exoskeleton began to glow. Ethan realized with horror that the Aloran’s energy was being sucked out of it.
Traxoram noticed, too, and Ethan felt the creature laugh. “Our latest modification works!” Traxoram thought. He flexed his big claw in anticipation.
Ethan glanced at Sybillan, whose empathy for his cousin had grown. He was sorrowing already over what he saw as the impending, unavoidable death of the monster. He was focused on it, seemingly oblivious to all that was happening around him.
Behind him, the Alorans were falling. The Others who’d defeated them glowed like coals in the crowd as they drank in the energy of their cousins.
Ethan tried to warn Sybillan. “Don’t let him touch you!” he thought frantically as Sybillan advanced. “They’ve developed a way to capture your life force!”
But Sybillan was transfixed on Traxoram. He continued forward. His sorrow was all-consuming, all-encompassing. Ethan realized that this was true of all the Alorans. Their empathy was killing them. As each focused on his or her potential victim, they were unable to process what was happening around them.
Traxoram noticed it, too. Some of his fear dispersed, and his confidence and his disgust for the Alorans grew. “They are truly the weaker strain,” he thought. “Today they will be eliminated, as is proper. We will continue to rule here and will soon rule all that lies beyond!”
As his anticipation for the victory increased, Traxoram’s grip on Ethan grew weaker. Ethan tried again to warn Sybillan, but the Aloran simply continued the stream of sorrowful and comforting words directed at Traxoram and continued to move towards the ruler.
Ethan felt Traxoram’s growing desire for killing as Sybillan drew closer. The beast had almost forgotten Ethan’s presence completely in his desire to destroy his cousin.
Suddenly, Ethan’s eyes fell upon the laser razor next to Traxoram’s feet. It was close enough that if he leaned he could reach it. He leaned toward it slowly. Traxoram didn’t seem to notice. Ethan’s fingers closed around the cold metal. He eased back into his kneeling position and focused his attention on it. What had Kaia said? The two dials adjusted for the density and chemical composition of the material. He thought of the wall they had last cut. Guessing, he assumed it was less dense than Traxoram’s armor. He spun the density dial toward the right. The chemical composition was impossible to guess, but he remembered that the armor was somehow organic, that the Others had made it an actual part of them. He remembered the setting for hair cutting and spun the dial back to that.
Pointing the tool at the dead messenger in front of him, and keeping an eye on Traxoram, he carefully flipped the switch. The light hovered on the dead creature, but nothing seemed to happen. Moving slowly, Ethan spun the dials slowly, noting the effect on the creature. He began to see a small plume of smoke where the light hit the exoskeleton, and a surge of hope shot through him.
Sybillan was still advancing, only ten yards away now. Ethan had to hurry.
Just as Sybillan reached the corpse, Ethan’s experimentation paid off. The beam of light split the armor of the dead creature, leaving a wide, clean slice. Ethan simultaneously felt Traxoram’s overwhelming bloodlust and saw him raising his claw, extending it toward the approaching Aloran. Sybillan’s mind sang a slow, sad song, replaying his regret over and over. He, too, leaned toward his cousin, as if they were drawn together by an unseen force.
An instant before Ethan anticipated it, Traxoram leapt forward. His claw lit up. Sybillan’s thoughts stopped abruptly, and Ethan knew there was no time to spare.
He was on his feet instantly, forcing back the remainder of the shackling force. He scrambled onto the chest of the dead monster and stood, raising his head to shoulder-level with Traxoram. Ethan pointed his weapon at the huge claw that held Sybillan. As he flipped the switch, the beam shot out and caught Traxoram’s arm just below the shoulder. The air filled with a short burst of darkness. Traxoram screamed and whirled, pulling Sybillan with him like a rag doll. The ruler lashed out with his other, smaller claw towards Ethan.
Just as it hit him, Ethan moved the razor across it and heard Traxoram’s scream as the severed claw dropped to the ground. Ethan fell backwards off the body of the mess
enger. The razor flew from his hand.
He hit the floor hard and lost his breath, but he struggled back to his feet and fought back toward Traxoram. The creature was screaming in pain and anger but still clutched his hapless cousin with great intensity.
As Ethan ran, he scooped up the razor and hit the switch, pointing it toward the back of Traxoram’s head. Instead of the usual silent beam of light, however, the tool emitted a high-pitched sound and then went cold in Ethan’s hand. His steps stalled, and he flipped the switch several times to no avail. He felt Sybillan’s consciousness slipping and Traxoram’s power growing. There was no time.
He threw himself at the creature, catching Traxoram around the waist and tearing at the edges of his plates of armor. The sharp edges sliced Ethan’s hands, and he pulled them back just as Traxoram knocked him down with the stump of his smaller arm. Again Ethan hit the floor. This time, though, he landed on the sharp edge of Traxoram’s severed claw. He felt his flesh tear around it and rolled off in pain and surprise.
The scene he’d witnessed in the courtyard hours ago sprang to his mind. Suddenly, he knew the only chance he had at penetrating Traxoram’s armor. He grasped the blunt end of the severed claw and leapt to his feet, the pain in his back and hands forgotten. He moved in dangerously close to Traxoram. Raising the claw, he brought it down with all his strength on the joint above the claw in which Sybillan was trapped. The force of the blow knocked Ethan backward, and he saw Sybillan drift away, hovering cloudlike, as Ethan heard the anguished, enraged cries of Traxoram.
Ethan staggered again to his feet and saw Traxoram reeling in pain and fright. The ruler turned on Ethan, staggering toward him with his useless, truncated arms raised. Ethan felt the crushing weight of the shackles begin to overtake him. Traxoram was having to expend much more effort to apply the shackles this time, and it was taking longer, but Ethan felt the power behind it and knew that in seconds he would be immobilized. With one last, long cry, he rushed toward the monster, the claw raised, and plunged it toward Traxoram’s chest. As the point of the claw plunged through the armor, Traxoram fell forward, impaling himself still further. A cloud of the dark, shimmering light enveloped Ethan as he used his last strength to throw himself sideways, out of the path of the falling creature.