Virtue of War

by L O Addison

  Beck pulled a medical kit out of his pack and knelt beside Marin, although Kaylin didn’t know what he was planning on doing with it. Simple bandages weren’t going to be able to help Marin, not when she was losing that much blood.

  “Get her shirt off,” Beck commanded Lio. “I need to be able to see her wounds better.”

  Adrien shifted uncomfortably, glancing down the tunnel. “We don’t have time for this,” he said, his voice quiet and cold.

  “We’re not just leaving her,” Beck snapped.

  “You are,” Marin said. Her voice trembled, but she held Lio’s gaze defiantly as she spoke. “You need to go. Now. That explosion is going to draw the attention of every guard in these tunnels.”

  Lio froze, his eyes wide with horror. He opened his mouth, as if to argue. But then he simply drew his pendant from under his shirt, cradling it carefully in his hands.

  Marin’s eyes grew wider, and she shook her head frantically, blurting something in their native language. She reached out, as if to snatch the pendant away from Lio, but he dodged out of her reach and pressed his thumb against the metal casing of the pendant, sliding open the small cavity.

  Silence swallowed the room, so deep and hollow it seemed to thicken the air. Kaylin could feel her heart pounding in her chest and her breaths rushing out of her lungs and through the respirator. But there was no noise. Then the humming began, a low, keening noise that seemed louder than before. Stronger. Almost like the force of the pendant had been amplified.

  Numbness filled her, along with the knowledge that this was wrong. There was no dread weighing down her chest, no fear icing her veins. Just the pure, logical surety that Lio was doing something terribly wrong by opening the pendant again.

  Every detail of her surroundings seemed impossibly clear—the anger and pain on Marin’s face, the fear and exhaustion on Lio’s, the blood and gashes and dirt covering all her companions. But then the gashes began to disappear. She watched numbly as the large wound on Marin’s side slowly disappeared, her flesh simply knitting itself back together. It happened in the span of four heartbeats, but it somehow seemed like an eternity as the hum deepened and the numbness blanketed Kaylin’s mind.

  And then it was over. The hum cut off and the numbness fled, leaving Kaylin hunched over and gasping for air. She looked up and found Lio with his hand still thrust toward Marin, the pendant clutched tightly in his grip. He was trembling, his skin paler than Kaylin had ever seen it, and his arm trembling with exhaustion.

  Kaylin looked down at Red, and a wave of relief swept over her as she saw that his injuries had been healed, too. His flesh had knitted back together almost perfectly, leaving only a few raised scars to mark the areas where his scales had been flayed open. Red chirped in confusion and nudged at his front leg with his snout, clearly baffled by the sudden lack of pain.

  Kaylin reached out to rest a comforting hand on his head, but she froze as she got a look at her own arm. All her cuts and bruises had been simply wiped away. But the pendant had left something inside her, a faint tingling that had enveloped her limbs. It reminded her of the buzz of alcohol, except it was cold and almost painful, and it twisted her gut with a sense of wrongness.

  A chill ran down her spine as she looked over at the pendant clutched in Lio’s hand. It had saved them, but she didn’t feel anything except dread as she stared at it. The thing was unnatural. Dangerous. The raw knowledge of that fact blanketed her mind, and without the hum of the pendant to numb her mind, she felt fear begin to trickle through her veins.

  Marin ran her shaking hands over her side, feeling the healed skin there. Kaylin waited for the bodyguard to express relief, but instead, fear and anger twisted her expression. She snarled something at Lio, her anger managing to twist the smooth Rhuramenti language into a barbed whip. Lio recoiled, but he didn’t try fending off her words, and just hung his head as she berated him. He carefully tucked the pendant back under his shirt, his fingers still trembling.

  He turned to face the rest of them. “I'm sorry,” he whispered, his voice shaky. “I had to use it. There was no other choice.”

  Kaylin swallowed hard. She didn't understand why Lio was apologizing, and she didn't even understand her own aversion to the device. But there was no time to demand an explanation.

  “We need to keep moving,” Beck said, speaking the words right as Kaylin thought them. He glanced over at Marin. “Can you walk?”

  She nodded and rose shakily to her feet. Lio reached out to help her, but she shoved his hand away, snapping something in their language.

  “What the hell was that thing?” Adrien whispered, staring at Lio with wide, horrified eyes.

  “That is not for you to know,” Marin snapped, her voice sharp.

  Adrien hesitated, as if he might argue. But the bodyguard’s fierce glare seemed to assure him that he wasn’t going to get any more information out of the aliens, so he nodded tersely. But then he said, “At least tell me what the hell those creatures were.”

  “Cave beetles from the planet Yukin-Ra,” Lio said. His voice was quiet, but it sounded steadier, and he stood up straight. “I’ve never seen one in person, but they fit all the descriptions I’ve heard. Bioluminescent cave dwellers that hunt in packs. They’re considered a pest on their home planet.”

  “What are they doing here?” Kaylin demanded.

  Lio pursed his lips. “There have been rumors that the Ascendancy has established a base on Yukin-Ra.”

  Beck cursed and rubbed at his neck. “Then it sounds like the ships that’ve been spotted around here are definitely Ascendancy crafts.”

  Lio nodded grimly. “They probably stowed away in one of their cargo holds.”

  “And that means there could be other things down here,” Kaylin said, struggling to keep fear out of her tone.

  “We need to keep moving,” Beck said.

  “Wait,” Kaylin said, fishing in her supply belt. She pulled out a small silver chip and held it up. “I think I spotted a security camera down the hall.”

  Beck nodded toward the chip. “That’s the hacking device?”

  She smirked. “This is it.”

  Using the chip was her favorite part of the infiltration plan they’d concocted. It was the same hacking chip Goodfellow had given her to break into the Resistance base, and Kaylin assumed it’d be just as effective on the Wardens’ security system.

  It was karma at its finest—using Goodfellow’s own technology to cripple his allies.

  “Let’s go get it set up,” Adrien said, glancing down at his map as he gestured for Kaylin to follow him down the hallway.

  Kaylin stood from where she was crouched, struggling to shake off the last of the strange numbness in her limbs. She took a deep breath, trying to push her fear out of her mind as she glanced toward Lio’s pendant. Feeling its strange power again just filled her with an even stronger urge to succeed at their mission. All she could hope was that they’d get the pendant and the Virtue off the planet before it spread any more of its strange poison in her home world.

  30

  Lio

  Lio's heart thundered in his chest as he followed after Adrien. Even though they were in a dark, barren tunnel, he couldn't remember his senses ever feeling this overstimulated. Every crack in the ground, every footstep that fell, every subtle change in the air—his mind absorbed all of it, making reality seem too real.

  The hypersensitivity was a side effect of using the Fragment, but it seemed far worse than it’d been the first time he activated the pendant. He walked at Marin's side, keeping an arm firmly wrapped around her shoulders. Her face was pale with exhaustion, but with all her wounds healed, her breathing had returned to normal. A scowl pursed her lips, and with his senses on overdrive, Lio could make out every disapproving wrinkle in her forehead, every taut muscle in her face and neck. She was barely holding back her anger, and Lio knew he deserved every bit of it.

  But it had been worth it. He didn’t even question that. If he hadn’t used t
he Fragment to heal Marin, he would have lost her. Illegally using the pendant had been a betrayal of the Council and his mission, but it would have been nothing compared to the betrayal of allowing his best friend and mentor to die.

  He’d tried explaining that to Marin, but it’d done nothing to stop her anger. Her faithfulness to the Council ran deeper than her will to live, and the fact that Lio had used the Fragment on her behalf had only made her more upset.

  Lio knew he should be just as upset and worried. Activating the Fragment twice within a matter of days was reckless at best, and deadly at worst. But he couldn’t bring himself to feel any regret. A strange numbness was still blocking out most of his emotions, and something deep inside of him pressed at his mind, filling him with the urge to open the Fragment and release its power again.

  He knew exactly what it was: the beginnings of the addiction he’d been warned about his entire life, the same addiction that always ended in death, no matter who used the Fragment. His stomach twisted at the thought, and he had a sudden urge to yank off the silver chain and throw it away. But the impulse hardly lasted for a second before he was hit with a stronger, more desperate urge to keep the pendant safe.

  He reached up to touch the chain, running his thumb along its smooth links. Marin eyed him warily.

  "Don't worry," he said quietly. "I won't use it again. I swear it."

  “You already swore that once,” Marin snapped. “And you broke your oath.”

  “I mean it this time. I swear to you, I do.”

  "Don't swear to me," she replied, her voice low and worried. "Swear to the Council. Swear to your people. Swear to those who will be most hurt if you dare to keep linking your mind to that power."

  Lio gritted his teeth, wanting to argue with her, to object to the suggestion that he'd ever do anything to hurt his people. But then he realized he already had. He'd opened the Fragment twice, both times inviting disaster.

  Lio turned and looked her straight in the eye. "I swear on everything that matters to me in this universe. I won't abuse the power of the Fragment."

  Marin considered this a moment, and then she gave a small nod of satisfaction. “Good. Now let’s keep moving."

  He nodded and looked forward again. They were at least a mile away from the tunnel with the cave beetles, and with each step they took, Lio’s confidence grew. Adrien had led them through at least a dozen traps in the past half hour—Scatherian forcefields, mines, electrified doorways, and other various, creative ways of killing intruders. But, true to his word, Adrien knew perfectly well how to guide them safely through the traps. He'd led them back into another section of the catacombs, but this one had proven to be quiet and mostly unguarded.

  “How much further until we reach the base?” Lio asked.

  Adrien’s jaw worked back and forth as he mentally calculated his answer. "About a mile, I think," he said. "But that's if we take the south tunnel. If we take the southeast tunnel, it's more like a mile and half.”

  "What's the difference between the two?” Beck asked.

  "The south has more guards,” Adrien said. “But the southeast has more traps."

  Beck nodded. "So which is safer?"

  Adrien frowned as he considered this. "Normally, I'd say the southeast," he said. "Traps are more predictable than guards. But with those cave monster things..." He glanced over his shoulder, shuddering slightly at the thought of the cave beetles they'd left behind. "I don't know what else might be running around these tunnels. But I'm betting the tunnels with guards have been cleared of any monsters, so it might actually be safer that way."

  "The south tunnel sounds like the best option," Lio said. The human guards would be dangerous, but likely not as dangerous as another pack of the cave beetles, or whatever else might be lurking in these tunnels.

  Beck and Kaylin both turned to him with a look of surprise, and Lio realized it probably wasn't his place to be making tactical decisions. But Marin just nodded slightly in agreement.

  Beck cleared his throat and said, "I agree."

  "Same," Kaylin said.

  They turned to Matteo, waiting to hear his opinions. His shoulders stiffened as he felt all of their gazes land on him. Clearly, he wasn't used to anyone asking his opinion on matters.

  But then he quietly cleared his throat and said, "Only advanced soldiers are used as guards for the inner tunnels. All of them are adults, and a lot of them are mercenaries. They'll do anything the Wardens order them to do, no matter how horrible."

  Beck raised his eyebrows. "Are you saying you don't think we can take them?" he asked, a challenging note rising in his voice.

  Matteo met the lieutenant's eyes, his lips pursed into a grim expression. "I'm saying don't hesitate to kill them on sight.”

  Lio's gut twisted at the thought—no matter how twisted a person might be, he still didn't think he could end a life. But Beck nodded grimly and turned back to Adrien.

  "South tunnel it is."

  Adrien hurried forward, picking up his pace. The others followed after him, but Kaylin dropped back slightly, her lizard at her side.

  "Are you all right?" she asked Marin.

  Marin blinked in surprise, clearly as stunned as Lio was to hear a caring question from the thief. But Marin gave a stiff nod in answer. "My wounds are all fully healed. I’m merely tired.”

  Kaylin nodded. Then she took a deep breath and said, "I... I'm wondering if either of you might know what Red is."

  The lizard chirped at the sound of his name and looked up at Kaylin. She absent-mindedly reached down to stroke his head, and the creature leaned into her touch.

  Lio shook his head. "I couldn't tell you. I’d thought you were right when you said he was a vater lizard, and that he was just larger than most of his species. But now… I don’t think that could be right."

  Kaylin nodded in agreement. "Vater lizards don't breathe fire."

  "No," Marin said. "But dragons do."

  Kaylin shot her an incredulous look. "I thought dragons were just part of human myths."

  Marin shook her head. "Earth hasn't always been isolated. Aliens have come here before, and I wouldn't be surprised if they brought some of their home species with them."

  Kaylin looked down at Red. "So... dragons are a thing on other planets?”

  Marin nodded. "They’re not called ‘dragons,’ of course, but they definitely exist on a variety of planets. There's one species in particular that comes to mind. They're from the planet Ceslian, which is also home to a civilization that has traveled to Earth in the past. Most of the ‘animals’ on Ceslian are actually robots with artificial intelligence, and the flesh-and-blood animals have adapted in strange ways to survive.”

  Kaylin cocked her head. “Like how?”

  “The dragons there spit an acid that lights on fire when it’s exposed to oxygen. It’s the best way to destroy any robot or machine that threatens them.” Marin glanced down at Red. “And they've also adapted over the years to be extremely sensitive to electrical pulses."

  Kaylin’s forehead crinkled as she considered this. “Pulses from what?”

  "Practically anything,” Marin said. “From robots, computers, the muscles of animals." She looked back up at Kaylin. "And, in people they know very well, they become so acutely attuned to the pulses in their bodies, they can even sense the electrical activity in their brains."

  Kaylin frowned for a moment as she tried to absorb this. Then her eyes suddenly widened, and she gaped down at Red. "Holy shit," she murmured. "He can read my mind, can't he?”

  Red looked up at her and chirped, knocking his head affectionately against her hip. She stared down at him in disbelief and hesitantly reached down to stroke the scales on the top of his head.

  Marin nodded. “They can sense the general thoughts and feelings of their owners. I don’t think they understand language in the way we do—words mean nothing to them. But they can comprehend basic concepts.”

  Kaylin shook her head in amazement. "So that's how
he figured out how to save Beck and me from the wrecked ship," she said quietly. "And how he sometimes seems to know things he shouldn't be able to figure out on his own."

  "It would certainly explain things," Marin said with a nod.

  Kaylin paused for a moment and stared down at Red with an intent expression, resting her hand on top of his head. Red looked up at her with an adoring gaze. After a moment, the creature gave a quiet trill of content and rubbed his cheek affectionately against her waist.

  Lio wasn't quite sure what Kaylin had communicated to the animal, but it made the resentment in his chest lighten just slightly. As much as he wanted to be disgusted by the thief, he couldn't bring himself to hate her. She wasn't as heartless as he’d first thought.

  Beck cleared his throat and glanced back at them, and Lio realized the lieutenant had been listening to them the entire time. Of course. Despite his appearance of nonchalance, Beck never seemed to let his guard down for even a moment.

  "Kaylin, if you can communicate with Red, can you please tell him to cool it with the fire breathing? At least until we get out of the tunnels?" He gestured to the cramped walls surrounding them. “We're going to end up getting flambéed the next time he does that.”

  Kaylin’s brow crinkled as she stared down at Red intently, apparently relaying the message. Lio had no idea if the dragon could understand it, but he hoped Red could. Beck was right—the tunnels were deadly enough without having to fight a fire.

  Adrien jerked to a sudden halt. Lio opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, but Marin clapped her hand over his mouth, silencing him. Then he heard them—voices. They were extremely faint, just the barest murmur echoing through the tunnels from far ahead. But it was enough to send them scrambling backwards, searching for cover.

  Adrien led them toward the entrance of a room a few meters away, and Lio struggled to keep pace with the boy's swift jog as he followed Adrien into a tiny burial room. Shelves lined the walls, filled with bones and skulls and ancient embalming vases. Already, Lio was growing numb to the presence of the macabre decorations. They may have been surrounded by dead bodies, but there were far more concerning things at hand.