by Cheree Alsop
He fumbled in the pocket where he had put the key. The body of a huge man with ten tentacles hit the edge of the dais next to them and burst, spraying them with blood and bile. An arm fell through the air and landed next to Ludlow.
“I can’t,” he said with apology and panic in his gaze. He took off running.
“Liora!” Brandis called.
He vaulted over the podium and landed next to her. Pulling the knife from his sheath, he fought to break the handcuff lock.
The whirl of Ketulans droned louder. A glance up showed that the ceiling was masked by their metal bodies. Liora shook her head.
“Brandis, get everyone out that you can.”
He shook his head with a defiant expression. “I’m not going to leave you here to get picked apart at their leisure!”
“You know me better than that,” Liora said. “I’m going to destroy them, but I can’t have anyone nearby. Clear out the Council members and I’ll be their only target.”
“That’s what I’m trying to avoid!” her brother protested.
Liora grabbed his hand. Her chain rattled.
“Brandis, listen to me.” She held his gaze, pushing the order as much as requesting it aloud. “Anyone who stays here will die. Get the warriors and clear the Council members out.”
His attempt to deny her failed in the face of her command. Brandis nodded.
“Fine, but when they’re out, I’m coming back for you.”
“I’m counting on it,” she replied.
She followed his progress through the room. The warriors, which she hadn’t noticed before, had been seated in the far back corner nearest the floor. They rose as soon as Brandis reached them. Though they didn’t have weapons, their attack on the Ketulans was violent and thorough.
Liora watched Korgutan rip the arm off one of the machines and stab its power cell with its own claw. He tossed the claw to another of the warriors and removed a second from the fallen Ketulan. Soon, warriors and Council members alike wielded makeshift weapons as they worked their way to the doors. Those men and women above who had survived the Ketulan attacks barred the doors behind them so the Ketulans couldn’t escape.
“We were wrong.”
Liora felt the loss in the woman’s words. She saw the silver-haired woman crouched beneath her podium, her gaze on the bloodshed above.
“You were right,” she continued as if she knew Liora listened. “You weren’t our greatest threat.”
“Ignorance is always the biggest threat,” Liora replied. “Ignorance and the belief that we are the foremost predator in the Macrocosm.”
A Ketulan swept low. Liora ducked beneath the bar. The machine hit it in an effort to reach her. Liora grabbed its claw before it could draw back and jerked down, using the bar as leverage to break the claw from the arm.
In the same motion, Liora rose from the other side of the bar and slammed the Ketulan with her elbow, knocking it to the ground. She crouched and drove the claw into the power cell. The Ketulan vibrated, then stilled. She looked up to see three Ketulans bearing down on the woman.
“Over here!” Liora shouted. “Come get me!”
The Ketulans didn’t appear to notice.
Liora picked up the Ketulan at her feet and spun within the confines of her handcuffs, flinging the body across the room. It hit one of the other Ketulans and fell to the ground. That got their attention.
All three Ketulans raced toward Liora. She looked around quickly, but there was nothing within reach that she could implement as a weapon.
Liora made use of the bar for leverage. She swung beneath it and focused her momentum to drive her foot into the first Ketulan. It slammed into the second, jarring them both. Liora took advantage of their distraction to focus on the third.
It swiped at Liora’s head. She dodged to the side, but the chain halted her movement. The Ketulan clipped her cheek with its blade. She felt blood well up from the shallow wound. Liora grabbed onto the bar and kicked. The roundhouse connected with the side of the Ketulan, sending it into its companions.
“Ludow!”
Liora glanced over to see the silver-haired woman cowering from the advance of six more Ketulans.
“Over here!” Liora shouted.
The woman met her gaze. Liora motioned.
Though leaving her shelter meant facing the attacks of the Ketulans, the woman did as Liora directed. She left the podium and dodged several bodies while the Ketulans, intent on her death, followed at her heels. The sounds of their grating and humming rose. Liora feared she wouldn’t make it in time.
Liora put her hand to the floor, angling her other arm around the bar to give her enough clearance to do so. She didn’t care if she had the Council’s approval or not. A glance up showed that the majority of the Council members had left the hall. The cloud of Ketulans that bore down on her and the other woman told of their certain demise. She hoped Brandis had gotten to safety. She would only have one chance.
“To me!” Liora called.
The woman dove onto the dais, her arms and legs streaming blood from the Ketulans’ attacks. Liora crouched over her with one cuffed hand on the ground.
“You can count this as the third time I violate your treaty,” she said.
“Screw the treaty,” the woman replied.
Liora grinned and pulled.
The energy took longer to reach her with the building between her and the planet’s surface. The claws of the Ketulans bit deep into the rents down her back. Liora sucked in a cry of pain, then it tore from her lips. The energy from the planet reached her, flowing up her arms and massing in her chest. A Ketulan shoved a claw beneath her right shoulder blade. Liora’s cry turned into a savage yell. She shoved the energy upward with all of her might.
Her handcuffs melted away and the Ketulans above her exploded in an arc. At Liora’s second push, the arc moved higher, searing through the majority of the Ketulans in the great hall. Liora rose with the arc above her head. She directed it at Ketulans in every alcove and on every stand. They rained down, metal body parts falling toward the floor only to be consumed by the energy Liora held above her head. She waited until the last Ketulan was destroyed before she let the energy vanish.
When Liora dropped her arms, it felt like the weight of the small planet weighed them down. She fell to her knees next to the woman, her gaze still searching the area above them for signs that any of the Ketulans had survived.
Liora glanced at the silver-haired woman. She lay bleeding on the dais, her silver eyes wide as she stared around at the bodies and blood that littered the floor. The woman met Liora’s gaze and her body started to shake.
The fact that someone else needed her tore Liora from the shock of what had happened. She was grateful for something else to focus on.
“Let’s get you some help,” Liora said.
She ducked under the woman’s arm and helped her to her feet. Slowly, carefully, they stepped over the bodies of Council members and Ketulans. Blood made the floor slick so that they had to hold onto each other for support. Liora was grateful when they made it to the door and left the great room behind.
“Where should I take you?”
The woman’s silver eyes stared blankly at her for a moment, then she shook her head and her gaze focused.
“To my quarters. Down the hall to the end.”
The moans of wounded people, hysterical screaming, and others who tried to sort through the chaos met them at the next hallway. A glance to the right showed that the path was filled with members of the Council. They were too preoccupied with their own injuries to notice Liora and the woman go past.
The silver-haired woman was shaking so badly she could barely walk. Liora was grateful when they made it to the end of the hallway. The woman had enough presence of mind to put her hand to the door. It slid open and both women stumbled into the room.
Liora grabbed a blanket from the closest couch and put it around the woman’s shoulder. Her pale skin streamed with small cuts and gas
hes from the Ketulans. Liora could tell by the woman’s distant gaze that she was about to go into full-blown shock.
“Do you have a medic?” Liora asked. The woman didn’t respond. With her adrenaline fading rapidly, Liora didn’t have the strength to remain standing any longer. She dropped to her knees in front of the woman and repeated the question, her words slurring slightly, “Do you have a medic?”
The woman focused on Liora with some effort. She gave a shallow nod and said, “Susa.”
As if on command, the door on the other side of the chamber flew open. Ludow and a man as wide as he was tall hurried through. When Ludow saw Liora kneeling in front of the woman, rage twisted his features.
“That was your fault, heathen!” he shouted. “You brought them here!”
Liora didn’t have the strength left to protest. The thought of the effort it would take to rise back to her feet to defend herself was exhausting enough. Her chin fell forward to her chest as the purple-skinned man continued to vent.
“You endangered everyone on the Council!” he shouted as he charged across the room. “Because of you, many are dead!”
He hit Liora with the strength of a raging Calypsan. She landed on her battered back on the white carpet. The pain stole her breath. She opened her eyes just enough to see Ludow’s thick fist barreling toward her face.
“Stop.”
Liora had no idea how the woman’s soft voice could halt an attack of such wrath, yet the beefy purple hand stopped millimeters from her jaw.
“She saved my life.”
Liora’s gaze shifted to the silver-haired woman. The medic, Susa, was busy checking the woman’s wounds to assess which he should work on first. It was clear by his tightly clenched jaw that he had not been prepared to find her in such a condition.
The woman’s eyes didn’t leave Liora’s face.
“Help her up.”
Liora wanted to say that she would rather keep lying on the soft carpet, but Ludow grabbed her arm and yanked her roughly to her feet. Liora’s knees gave out and she sank back down, her back hunched so that her elbows rested on her knees and her head on the backs of her bloody arms. She knew the position should hurt with her wounds, but instead she felt only exhaustion as the remainder of her strength seeped from her limbs.
“She’s sliced to ribbons!”
The horror in the woman’s voice made Liora want to hide her mangled carcass, but she couldn’t move.
“Susa, help her before she dies in my chambers. Whatever care you would give to me, give to her.”
“Your Grace, you are bleeding and—”
The woman spoke the first harsh words Liora had heard depart her lips. “Her life is worth more than a few scars on my skin. Help her or I’ll turn you out to the mercy of the Ketulans.”
“She has another medic.” Ludow spoke with a hint of shame that echoed in the cavern of Liora’s thoughts.
“Who?” the woman demanded.
“Rist; he’s a Creetian.”
“Get him,” the woman replied. “The more help she has, the better.”
Liora settled into a numb haze that cradled her until it was broken by the sound of her brother’s voice.
“Where is she?”
“Do not approach Her Grace,” Ludow commanded.
“Liora’s my sister!” Brandis shouted.
“Let him pass,” the woman’s soft voice replied.
Hands touched Liora’s shoulders. She wondered when she had been helped to her stomach. The cloth that had been spread across her back was lifted.
“It’s so much worse.” Rist’s tone was one of sorrow.
“You knew about this?” Brandis demanded.
“Her back was sliced before, but nothing like this,” Rist replied.
Liora opened her eyes just enough to see his webbed fingers open and close with helplessness as though he didn’t know where to start.
She let out an accepting breath. Pain was inevitable. It hadn’t killed her before, as much as she would have welcomed it. She would choose to endure it again.
“Start from the outside and work your way in.”
Brandis crouched next to Liora. “I-I’m not sure what to do. There’s so much blood.” His voice broke when he said, “Liora, you saved everyone in there.”
“After endangering them in the first place,” Ludow replied.
“General Ludow, you are relieved of your duties.”
Silence fell across the room at the sound of the woman’s voice.
“B-but Your Grace. You need protection. I can’t leave you alone with this…this…miscreant. What if—”
“General, now.”
The counterbalance of her soft words made his sound abnormally loud as his argument died away. A moment later, Liora heard the slow drag of his feet to the door. It closed behind him to leave the atmosphere in the room a bit lighter.
“Susa, Rist, do whatever Liora needs. My quarters are yours to use. Please make her as comfortable as possible.” The woman paused. There was a question in her voice. It lingered in the air.
Liora realized at that moment how truly bad her wounds were. The woman wasn’t sure if she could survive them. The hands that worked quickly on her back were merely placing bandages instead of stitching the huge shreds of skin.
“I’m not sure what to do.” Brandis’ words were filled with heartbreak. “She came for me.”
“You said she is strong.” The lilting voice matched Rist’s accent. Liora pictured Malie standing beside her brother in the white chamber.
She could let go. Brandis had someone. Live together or die together. Tariq had promised her he wouldn’t leave her, yet he had. The pain in her heart matched the throbbing ache of her back. It made it hard to breathe, and she debated whether she should just give in to the promise of sweet release.
Die, little Damaclan. Just let go. Run away. Leave this Macrocosm to those who know what to do with it.
Liora’s heart stuttered and her breath caught. She pushed, daring to use what little strength she had.
Who are you?
Laughter filled her mind. It was dark and she felt tainted for feeling it.
You’re so busy fighting mere insects that you don’t know who the real enemy is. Go to sleep, Liora, darling. Let go of the pain. Forget about love and loss, put away memory and what you thought was joy. Clear the way for me, for with you gone there is no one else to bar the way.
An image flashed in her mind. It showed planets being blasted apart, galaxies filled with exploding stars. The screams of trillions filled her thoughts with deafening terror.
Give in, Liora. You’ve been through too much. Follow your love to the beyond. Let the Macrocosm fend for itself. Let go, weary warrior. Give up.
The voice was filled with sarcastic tenderness. The words taunted her, mocking her weakness, knowing how close she was to slipping away.
I won’t, she replied.
The humor in the voice deepened and carried with it a challenge.
You think you can survive this? I’ve seen less than this take far stronger warriors than you. Your mother, for example.
That caught Liora’s attention.
You know nothing about my mother, she shot back.
Did your Damaclan mother tell you about your abilities? Did she warn you about the consequences of unbalancing the Cosmos? Liora, dear, your birth caused far more than Obruo’s justified hatred. You made a rift, a stone dropped in a pond, a beam, rocks on one end and the other in the air. The balance must be attained.
I don’t have that impact on the Macrocosm, Liora said. The conversation was taking its toll. She could feel her thoughts blurring. It took a great effort to concentrate on what was said.
Tell yourself that, innocent girl. Give up now and fade away in naive belief if it makes things easier on you.
He was mocking her again. He was egging her on, making her use her precious strength.
Liora was done with games.
I will find you, she vowe
d. I will find you and I will stop you.
His laughter filled her mind again. I will be waiting.
Chapter 17
A hand brushed her cheek. Liora turned toward the palm and kissed it. The scars and calluses were as familiar to her as the knives she wore. She opened her eyes and smiled up at Tariq.
“Shouldn’t you be tending to someone in the medical wing?” she teased.
He smiled down at her, his black hair hanging around his face, highlighting his light blue eyes.
“Don’t you have people to kill and battles to win?”
Liora nodded. “Always.”
Tariq chuckled and pulled her into his arms. She settled against his chest. It was her favorite place. She could hear his heart beat beneath her ear and his fingers traced soft patterns along her arm.
“Liora, they’re counting on you.”
“Who?” she asked.
The voice in the back of Liora’s mind whispered words she didn’t want to hear.
“All of them,” Tariq said. His lips brushed her hair when he spoke.
A suspicion rose in Liora’s mind no matter how hard she tried to push it away. She wanted to be right where she was, comfortable, happy, away from pain.
That thought caught her. Why did pain matter so much?
“Why do they need me?” she asked, keeping her tone light.
“Because you are you,” Tariq replied. “And that is important.”
Something about his tone brought tears to Liora’s eyes. There was a sadness there, a finality. She didn’t want to hear it.
“It’s not important,” she replied. “Nothing is except being with you.”
Tariq let out a breath that tickled her cheek. “That is the least important of all.”
Liora shook her head.
Tariq rolled gently out from under her and rose on one elbow to gaze down at her.
“Liora, look at me.”
She closed her eyes tight. A tear leaked free and slid down her cheek.
“If I don’t, can we just stay here and pretend that everything is alright?”
Tariq leaned down and kissed her cheek. He followed the tear track, erasing it with kisses softer than the wings of a Venus whisp.
“It’s time, Liora.”