Vontaura

by James C. Dunn

  As the macabre deepened, they turned a corner at whose end stood a man. Justus and Vortan stopped and another figure appeared to the rear. Both wore silver masks. The same men that had battered their way into Jules Ditton’s place. It gave Justus a small sense of optimism. Moments passed, and then Vortan lifted his sleeve to present his mark of the Moon and Triangle. The masked man nodded and so Justus did the same, revealing his own mark.

  It seemed only yesterday that he’d received the tattoo from Avéne Ketrass, back on the great black-rock moon.

  The masked man stared down, not even his eyes visible. Then he stepped back and opened the grand door. At once a well of singing stringed instruments hit him. The silent corridor petered out and an enormous hall took its place. Swarms of dark and red-caped men and women stood upon a night-black marble floor.

  ‘Is he here?’ Justus asked.

  ‘He will be.’ Vortan took a sparkling glass from a passing maître d'.

  ‘For how long?’

  ‘Never for long.’

  The ceiling disappeared high above, and at the end of the great hall a line of one-hundred dark steps rose to an empty summit. The two walked and talked. Vortan drank. Justus refrained.

  The other members of the Order of the Allied Moon represented the political and social elite of the Seven Rivers. Malizar had bought, earned, and terrorized his way into power. These guests, all bearing the Moon and Triangle of the Order, were so very sure of themselves, though not wholly undisturbed at the might and portentousness of their master.

  Suddenly the lights dimmed, leaving only the black mariner’s sconces lining the hall. A voice spoke, cold and captivating. Justus recognised it immediately.

  The silver-masked man stood still at the top of the dark steps raised his arms. His upper body was encased in black and silver plates, rising through a high, pointed collar. Marrak Malizar removed his mask. He looked old – and yet, beyond the fading exterior there was thrown a power; an evil; a malicious animosity.

  ‘You all know who I am,’ Lord Malizar said. ‘Now too will the world. Each of you has sworn an oath. To this Order. To its cause. And to me.’

  As one, every single body in the hall descended to their knees. Justus dropped down, not taking his eyes off Malizar.

  ‘Thank you all,’ he said. ‘As we begin, I bring news from the far Systems. Our allies, the mighty Dishan, have won their victory. The Systemal Alignment is no more.’

  Murmuring broke out among the mass of kneeling followers. Justus gasped. He knew that there was war, but surely the Alignment couldn’t have fallen so easily.

  Malizar breathed out and silence fell. ‘The great bulwark that was the Golden Army of Titan has been broken.’

  No. Anna.

  ‘But the news does not end there.’ He descended the steps towards them. ‘For a great victory long fought for has at the last been won.’

  Silence.

  ‘Peter Marx is dead.’

  Justus gasped louder than before and those knelt nearby shot him reeling glares. His mind spun. The black and red bodies around him blurred into a haze of deathly shade.

  ‘And with his death our time has arrived. None there will now be who may stand in our way. This Order of the Allied Moon will set out and prepare to take the Von’s place as Vontaura.’

  ‘VONTAURA!’ the room spoke as one.

  The kneeling bodies stood once more as Malizar drifted back up the marble steps. ‘I leave you all with Edgar Mokrikov, who will take you through to dinner.’

  The room seemed so much lighter, the air easier to breathe, as the Dark Lord reached the pinnacle and left through a door at the back. A man stepped from the shadows at the top and quickly descended the steps. A middle-aged man, thin and weary.

  ‘Edgar Mokrikov?’ Vortan gasped.

  ‘I know who he is!’ Justus said. ‘Prime Minister of Rotavar?’

  ‘But what is he doing here?’

  ‘This way, if you will,’ Mokrikov said, head bowed down, and the red-clad guests moved through into the next room after the shuffling Rotavarian.

  Justus and Vortan moved along with the crowd, edging slowly to the back of the group. Vortan opened the door they had entered through and together they slipped away, fortunate not to come across any silver masks on their way through the daunting corridors.

  ‘You remember the path?’ Justus said.

  Vortan sped up. ‘Yes. This way.’

  They reached another large door, which Justus pushed open with ease. ‘This is the security hub?’

  ‘It’s the only way we can find out where captives are held.’ Vortan moved across to the nearest panel and screen. ‘We have a similar system up on Luna.’

  ‘We need the plans of his holding areas as quick as we can,’ Justus said. He moved to follow, closing the door behind him. He crossed the room after his step-father, when a hand seized his wrist, pulling him backward.

  Two men appeared out of nowhere. The closest clenched his wrist hard, revealed a comm device, and leaned into it.

  Justus swung out both legs and brought the guard slamming to the ground. He took hold of his hair and forced his head back down into the marble. Pushing up from the ground Justus flew at the second guard, and he swung up with a single cuff. Justus then watched with wonder as the punch connected with the man’s face, not only snapping his jaw with a jarring clack but launching him across the room and into the wall.

  ‘Wow,’ Vortan said. ‘I knew you were strong, but I didn’t know you could throw a punch like that.’

  Justus took three deep breaths and steadied himself. ‘Neither did I.’ He gathered himself. ‘Come on. We don’t have much time.’

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  NOAH NUVEEN KNELT beside Dimal and leaned over her shoulder while she peered through a set of brass binoculars.

  ‘What can you see?’

  ‘Not much,’ she said. ‘It’s too dark.’

  ‘Any security?’

  ‘Only in and around the towers. Not in the woods. I’d be worried if they was.’

  ‘Were,’ he corrected.

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘Never mind.’

  Noah sat back on the ground beneath the screen of bushes, giving them plenty of cover. It was the first time he had been here, upon the hill overlooking Malizar’s estate. Dimal, however, had been twice before, both to scout out the area and set up equipment in preparation for tonight. As usual Aíron was left back at the manor. It was too dangerous for the young girl, and neither Justus nor Dimal would allow her the gamble.

  According to Von Vortan the base of the Allied Moon’s operations was beneath the long rectangular building on the south side of the estate, overlooked by the large tower currently looming over them. There they would find Raj and Shree. And so there is where they would go.

  Noah shifted uncomfortably and she waved at him to keep still. He was too nervous. He needed to pee every five minutes. It was her fault. She had wanted to get here early, and Justus had agreed. Noah was forced to admit that it made sense. After all, theirs’ was the simple charge: get in, find the two captives, and get out. It was the Captain’s task which carried the most danger.

  ‘So we’re okay?’ Dimal asked him, turning and handing him the binoculars. ‘No hard feelings about the whole me-not-trusting-you thing?’

  ‘No hard feelings.’ He raised them to his eyes and peered up to the nearby tower.

  ‘So what actually happened to your family?’

  ‘I’m sure there’s another time and place,’ he said, eyes closed, pretending to look through the device.

  ‘Yeah. Yeah you’re right. Sorry.’

  He sighed, dropped the binoculars. ‘All right, fine. I did not do what you think I did.’

  ‘You don’t have to if you don’t want.’

  ‘No, no, you’ve got me thinking about it now. I may as well.’ He sighed again. ‘It started, well . . . two generations back my family, the “reputable Nuveens of Mar-Andra,” split in two. The resultant lines were
at loggerheads. They spent years upsetting each others’ businesses, social standing etcetera etcetera. And then things went up a level. One evening I returned home from my post at the infirmary to find my family . . . dead. My mother, father, sisters.’

  ‘Must have been awful.’ She placed her hand on his.

  ‘It was worse. The rival line, they . . . those bastards planted evidence which suggested that I was responsible. It was obviously them. Obvious to me, but not the authorities. I had no option but to run. I had friends at Mar-Andra’s port. They got me out. I hated myself for running. I spent two years in hiding, living off what savings I had off world. Then one day I bumped into Justus and the rest is, well, history.’

  ‘Noah,’ she said. ‘I can honestly say I’ve never felt closer to you than I do right now.’

  ‘Yes, Adra. Just don’t try and kiss me or anything.’

  She grinned. ‘You got it.’

  In minutes Justus’ signal came through Dimal’s comm. It was time.

  Noah followed Dimal along the path she’d prescribed for them, spitting spiny thistles as she pulled him down the hill to the estate’s back buildings. Every few seconds she would stop and drag him down, before hastening forwards again. As they passed the tower to their right Dimal pushed him to the mud and dropped down herself.

  From the other side of the bushes came a deep cough and muttering voices. Two armed guards marched slowly past. Dimal lifted the blaster from her belt. Noah held his breath as moments passed and the guards moved on. It was much too dangerous; but he would swear that the adrenaline pumping through his veins actually felt rather good.

  ‘Where are we going?’ he mouthed.

  Dimal pointed to the back of the building nearby and he nodded his understanding. They moved off again and in reaching the building stopped, up against the wall. A heavy metal door stood grand to their right. Dimal sighed. ‘This is where we could really have done with Raj. He could have got us within in a heartbeat, and we wouldn’t have needed anyone on the inside.’

  Noah placed a hand on her shoulder. ‘Don’t worry. We’ll get Raj back and he’ll be there the next time. Justus can take care of himself.’

  Dimal smiled weakly and looked to her blaster. ‘Two seconds.’

  ‘Until what?’

  Click.

  The door swung open.

  Dimal winked and took Noah’s hand, and pulled him into the long, dark corridor within. She held her wrist comm up to her mouth. ‘We’re in.’

  Dimal dragged Noah down the pitch-black corridor, feeling her way along the wall. She lifted her wrist comm again. ‘Justus, you there?’

  —I’m here, came his response.

  ‘Did you hear me? We’re in.’

  The door slammed shut back along the corridor.

  —Don’t worry about that. I have it under control, Dim.

  ‘I hope you do.’

  —Listen to me now. You need to take the second left and then your first right, he said. I’m clearing you a path through.

  ‘Right-o,’ Dimal said. ‘Everything okay up there, darling?’

  —Up here? Err . . . sure.

  ‘I don’t believe you. Where next?’

  —Down the stairs to the very bottom. And believe what you want. Just focus on your part, and I’ll mine.

  Dimal tutted. The two descended a tall flight of stairs, slowly and cautiously, to the bottom, several floors below. ‘Vortan’s positive the holding cells are down here?’ she asked.

  —I never once said positive, Vortan said through the comm.

  —But you’re fairly certain, Justus said.

  —Fairly. I promised nothing.

  —For your sake they had better be alive.

  —I really am not the man you think I am, replied the Von.

  —You’re right there.

  —I am not part of this group.

  —Could’ve fooled me.

  ‘Handbags away, you two!’

  —Sorry. Look, Vortan’s going to find us some plans. We’ll make our way down to you. We’ll . . . oh, no.

  ‘Justus, what is it?’

  —Blast!

  ‘What’s wrong?’

  —We’re compromised up here. I’m going to try and get down to you. But if you find the others, you’re going to get out, just as we planned.

  ‘Justus—’

  —That’s an order. As—

  ‘Yeah, I know, Captain.’

  The comm died. Dimal stood shocked in the middle of the darkened stairway. The only light shone faintly from four floors up.

  ‘Come on.’ Noah pulled her along. ‘You heard what he said. We need to go. Come on.’

  Reluctantly, she moved down the stairway, her blaster in her hand and the torch in Noah’s. At the bottom stood a sturdy-looking door, slightly ajar as Justus said it would be. They pushed the door open and stared in shock at the sight which awaited them.

  They stood frozen atop a flight of steps overlooking an enormous room, drenched in a faint light and echoing distant screams and howls like a pack of tormented hounds. Dimal shivered as the medic beside her aimed the light across the room, revealing dozens of metal containers, each only a few metres squared and with absolutely no way of seeing inside.

  Noah gulped. ‘Are those . . .’

  ‘Cages,’ she said. ‘Yeah.’

  They looked to each other. ‘You think Shree and Raj are . . . you know,’ he said, ‘inside one of them?’

  ‘Only one way to find out.’ She triggering her weapon and took the torch from him. Down and onto the lower level, the cries and screams coming from the containers broke her heart. These were actual people. Not animals. What was more, the grand scale of this operation, the sheer cruelty combined, sent tremors to her very core.

  Hurry up, Justus, and get down here.

  Moving along the rows of metal containers Dimal hadn’t a clue how to find Raj and Shree. According to Vortan, this is where they’d be brought, and he was right about the cells. But with no markers other than a series of numbers distinguishing between containers there was no way of telling which one they could be in.

  ‘Raj!’ she yelled. ‘Raj! Shree!’

  ‘Quiet!’ Noah said, following behind. ‘The last thing we want is to go getting caught and end up in one of these ourselves.’

  ‘Okay, genius. What do you suggest?’

  ‘Hang on,’ he said. ‘Let me think.’ He wandered past each container, checking out the series of numbers printed on the top left corners of the cubes. She followed, wary. ‘It’s a pointer code,’ he said, ‘ascending in order the farther we go. This way.’

  They turned several corners, back and forth, until they emerged half way down the room. ‘Now,’ he said, ‘it follows that Shree and Raj, having been brought here only a few days ago, would be placed somewhere around the outer limit of the room. See, the numbers are increasing down here.’

  ‘We don’t know for sure,’ Dimal said, chasing him as he rushed down the row, a burning hope now flowing through her.

  Since she’d confronted him about his past it was as though another man had taken his place; and he was nothing like the Noah she had known for the past year.

  ‘Dimal!’

  ‘What is it?’ she said, pursuing him around another corner. There she found him knelt down, holding something in his hand. He looked up at her with tears in his eyes. ‘Noah, what’s that?’ She aimed the torch down. He held up a small feather, dark purple in the trembling light. ‘Is that . . .’

  ‘One of Shree’s.’

  At once he stood and began slamming his fists onto the hard cage nearby. Shouts and banging were returned from inside.

  ‘Stand back!’ She took aim and opened fire on the solid hinges of the cage, several times, until there was no metal left to hold the door closed. Noah sprang forwards and prized the door off. She shone the torch within and a man staggered out. He collapsed onto the ground, bloodied and bruised.

  Noah checked his pulse and stood. ‘He’s alive.’r />
  Dimal looked back inside. The container was empty. ‘Leave him.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I said leave him.’ She moved across and fired furiously at another container, and the next, and then the cages on the other side. Each time they were disappointed, finding an empty cube, a dead body, or somebody that was not Raj or Shree. It seemed there was no chance of finding them, until they happened upon another random cage. She fired, peeling the metal away and allowing the door to fall forward. Noah shone the torch within to reveal a large form, curled up in a ball. There was no guessing who it was.

  Noah burst into tears and climbed in. ‘Jayashri,’ he said. ‘Shree, it’s me. Wake up, it’s Noah.’

  Please, Dimal thought. Please be okay.

  Ping! The ringing clamour of gunfire echoed through her ears. She threw herself down and looked up to see several men stood at the top of the stairway, each holding a flashing rifle. And blocking the only way out. Another ping! paved the way for the deafening rattle of rifle fire.

  Reflexes kicked in instantly and she fired from the ground at the group of guards. Noah joined Shree in the cage. Dimal crawled into the small cube after Noah and continued to fire at the approaching attack force.

  Beside her, Shree began to stir, and upon seeing Noah reached out to hold him close. Noah sobbed uncontrollably.

  ‘Ask her does she know where Raj is!’ Dimal said, and Noah relayed the question. Exhausted, Shree pointed to the container across from hers, and at once Dimal stopped firing upon the men and took out the container’s hinges. ‘Go now!’

  She climbed out, firing at the men – now only five containers away – and opened the cage door. Noah appeared at her side with the torch and they both bounded inside. Dimal fell to her knees, dropped her blaster, and clutched her sweat-covered face. A whimpering cry escaped her dry mouth and Noah fell to the floor. The smell of burned flesh joined a thin corpse, black as ash. Dimal threw up beside her.

  ‘They’re coming!’ he said. ‘We have to move!’

  ‘Raj,’ she said. It was him. ‘No.’

  ‘Adra!’

  She looked to Noah, weeping and unable to hear anything but the unbearable cries all about them.

  ‘Adra, do something!’

  Dimal looked down and picked up her weapon, yanking the torch from him. She pulled out her comm device and typed in several numbers. There was no point. They were dead.