Heir of Shandara (Book 4) (33 page)

Ronin had sent a message. It seemed the Forsaken were becoming more of a problem. Halcylon gestured to the others, and they set off to where the Forsaken had gathered. Outside the walls, the temperature was much cooler, and they didn’t require armor to protect them. Ronin and his science team stood dozens of yards from the clustering forms of the Forsaken. There weren’t as many as he would have liked since most had been destroyed in the explosion.

Ronin saw them and walked over.

“What is your team doing just standing around?” Halcylon asked.

“We can’t get close enough to finish our examination of the Dragon hybrid. I did some preliminary analysis and returned with my team. By then, the Forsaken had gathered around it and wouldn’t budge,” Ronin complained.

“Why didn’t your escort make a path for you?”

“They tried,” Ronin said, and gestured to four bodies off to the side. “At first, it appeared as if they were going to get through, but then something changed. The Forsaken turned and attacked. Only when we retreated did they stop. Also, the soldiers were reporting some sort of interference with their armor.”

Halcylon looked at the dark shapes clustering around the Dragon hybrid. They were all in the final stages of infection and barely looked human anymore. Their skin had blackened to form a toughened hide that stretched over the elongated bones. A thick yellow drool gathered around their mouths. He brought up the comms device and engaged the signal used to control the Forsaken. Many of them shifted on their feet, and their heads jerked from side to side. After a few more seconds, Halcylon turned up the frequency, and the Forsaken’s agitation grew. The Dragon hybrid shot to its feet and turned its massive head toward him. Eyes full of hate peered through him as if the beast knew he was the source of the disturbance. The soldiers around him readied their weapons. Halcylon stopped the signal, and after a few moments the Forsaken settled down to their former catatonic state.

The Dragon hybrid stood poised, its muscles straining against an unseen force.

“It’s fighting the infection,” Ronin said, sounding amazed.

The Dragon shook its head and let out an ear-piercing roar. Halcylon ducked his head down at the sound with the others doing the same. The Dragon spun around and slammed a great clawed fist into the ground, leaving a small crater.

Halcylon gestured to the others to back away, and they slowly retreated. “This isn’t good. We’re losing control. Perhaps we should take out the hybrid?”

Ronin’s mouth hung open in shock. “And lose such a magnificent specimen? It won’t do if they all turn on us.”

“We need to move out soon. Our power supply issues are becoming critical,” Halcylon said, and studied Ronin’s reaction. His chief science officer simply nodded. There was a traitor in their midst. He could feel it. Who else could have unleashed the maul-cat? He needed Ronin to manage the Forsaken. If he failed in that task, then he was no longer useful and would be dealt with accordingly.

“I’ve run the numbers. We can’t make it to Shandara and fight a battle there,” Ronin said.

Halcylon smirked. “It amuses me that you think we’re going to march all the way there. We have a keystone accelerator of our own that is able to open a portal big enough for us to march through easy enough.”

Ronin pursed his thin lips together in thought. “How did you reconfigure them? The calculations involved—”

“Weren’t your concern. We’ll open up a portal in the heart of their precious city and lay waste to it.”

The comms device chimed, and Halcylon opened the line.

“Sir,” Chinta said, “I have an update on the deployment of infiltrators. The two we sent to Khamearra have gone offline without delivering the payload. Same for the one other sent to a smaller kingdom. More reports of the same in other places. It seems that our enemy has devised a way to take them out and prevent the self-destruct.”

“Which was supposed to be impossible,” Ronin said.

Halcylon ignored the jibe. “Recall them at once. I’ll be back at the command center in a few minutes.”

Halcylon cut the line and turned to one of the nearby soldiers. “I want a battalion of troops brought here. Keep your distance. When it’s time for us to move out, if that thing interferes then kill it.”

Halcylon stormed off. They needed to strike soon, while they still had the advantage. Defeating the infiltrators was expected. However, incapacitating them without them delivering their payloads shouldn’t have been possible. Not even his own people knew how it could be done. So how did a group of what was essentially non-military personnel figure it out? He felt his emotions churning within him and knew that rash decisions never panned out. He was anxious to meet the human again on the battlefield. He would see them all begging for mercy before he was done.

He called for Ronin to walk at his side as they made their way back to the command center.

“The hybrid. When do you think it will succumb to the infection?” Halcylon asked.

“It’s tough to say. We’ve never encountered a species that was able to resist it this long, but I would say any time now. I’ve reviewed some of the drone’s feeds, and the hybrid attacked Aaron. Perhaps if we put the two together, both problems will take care of themselves,” Ronin said.

Halcylon had similar thoughts and cursed himself for a coward at the same time. “Perhaps,” Halcylon said.

“We have other means to distribute the virus if you still wish to pursue that path,” Ronin said.

“As a backup. We have enough infected at the moment. Once Shandara falls, I think we’ll find the rest will fall with minimal effort. It’s time to use the rest of our arsenal on them,” Halcylon said.

Ronin didn’t reply, and Halcylon kept a watchful eye on the science officer. He was capable of ruthless pragmatism just like the rest of his senior staff, but at times Halcylon suspected that Ronin’s heart wasn’t in it. Ronin just wanted to experiment and be left to his own devices. It just happened to be that Ronin’s devices were extremely useful.
 

C
HAPTER
26

TRUCE

The old man knelt amid the wreckage in the bowels of the base. Q34B Alpha Base was their last hope. The bronze holo displays had long since gone dark, their individual power sources depleted. The only indication of power was from the dimly pulsating crystals within the chamber. His eyes were shut, but he was focused upon maintaining the barrier that kept hordes of infected life forms at bay. The Ryakul virus held the world by the throat. With the failure of the holo displays, he had lost all semblance of time. All his focus went toward the barrier and keeping it strong. He just needed to hold on longer, or all hope would be lost. For a moment, he opened his eyes and shifted his attention to the energy bands that connected to the keystone accelerator. Only a few pylons remained. When they were gone, the connection would be severed forever.
 

Hurry, Bayen,
he urged, knowing that the path his son had to walk would be the hardest for him to accept. At the same moment, the beings that had been Eldarin pressed their attack, driving the barrier back.

***

Aaron woke to the comms device buzzing from his wrist. The sun had only just risen, and he heard Verona stir next to him. They had passed out from exhaustion the night before.

“Bayen is awake,” Tanneth said, his voice coming through comms. “I’ve been working with Sam through the night, and there is a lot more in there than we originally thought. This could give us a decisive advantage over the Zekara.”
 

Aaron wiped the sleep from his eyes and was a bit envious of the fact that the Nanites reduced the amount of time needed for sleep in Hythariam. They still needed rest, but they could put it off for a while if they needed to.

“We’ll be right there,” Aaron said. He rolled his shoulders and stretched his neck. He had needed the rest, and his mind was clearer for it.

“I needed that,” Verona said, stifling a yawn. “I swear I feel as if I slept for a week upon the feather mattresses that Vaughn is always going on about.”

Aaron helped his friend to his feet. “No offense, but if I were on a feather mattress, I would much rather have Sarah at my side than you.”

Verona grinned.

Aaron felt better too and wondered if the energy left in the white tree had somehow seeped into them while they slept. The comms device chimed again, and this time it was Sarah. Verona went on ahead, giving Aaron some privacy.

“My Queen,” Aaron greeted.

“Good morning,” Sarah said, and Aaron heard her smiling though he couldn’t see her face. “You sound better,” she said.

“I feel better. We camped out in the grove,” Aaron said.

“Couldn’t make it back to the palace?”

Aaron frowned. The palace was his, which was what everyone else more or less implied, but it wasn’t home. Not yet at least. He had been taken through the palace and seen his mother’s rooms. A small part of him still clung to his ties to Earth and had trouble imagining his mother growing up here. He had no such issues with his grandfather. Perhaps it was because he had seen his ghost when he first came to Shandara.

“I hate the comms device,” Sarah said.

“So do I sometimes, but it’s safer for you in Hathenwood,” Aaron said.

“We’ll get to that in a moment. I do have news. I assume that Gavril filled you in last night on the progress we’ve made with the cure,” Sarah said.

“Yeah, he mentioned it. He said you had two people who were exposed to the virus. How do we know if it really works?”

“The virus is in full remission on one of them,” Sarah said.

“And the other?”

“He was too far gone,” Sarah said.

Something in her voice piqued his interest. “What is it?”

“The person that we were able to cure is Darven,” Sarah said.

Aaron’s teeth clamped down for a moment, and his eyes bored into the comms device. “Mactar’s apprentice?”

“Yes,” Sarah answered softly.

Aaron glanced to the north where he knew Hathenwood would be.
Darven!
The former Elitesman had been among those who had attacked his family on Earth. It was Darven’s knife that had taken his mother’s life. His hand locked around the hilt of his sword. Their paths crossed briefly at Shandara, but with battling the Drake, Darven was able to get away. The old anger rose up in him. Darven deserved death, but Aaron had seen so much of it lately that part of him was sickened at the thought. If he blazed a path to Hathenwood to take Darven’s life, nothing would change. Halcylon would still be poised to attack, and those who had died would still be dead.

“Talk to me,” Sarah said.

“I appreciate you telling me,” Aaron said.

“I had thought to keep it from you, but I don’t want there to be any more secrets between us.”

A pang of regret seeped into Aaron’s stomach because he hadn’t told her about Bayen. “I want him dead, but I’m so tired of the killing. If it weren’t for this war, I’d be perfectly happy to hang my swords up and never use them again.”

“I know what you mean. I have an idea that I think you will approve,” Sarah said.

“What is it?”

“Death doesn’t have to be the only answer, though I agree in this case it would be well deserved. Let Darven stand trial after all this is done,” Sarah said.

Aaron was silent for a moment, allowing his mind to come to grips with Sarah’s suggestion. He took a firm hold of the voice inside him that cried out for vengeance. He would lead by example and trust in the rule of law to see justice done.

“Okay. Hold Darven, and he will be tried like anyone else,” Aaron said.

“If he tries to escape, the guards will kill him, but I don’t think he’ll try. He was exposed to the virus, and though he was cured, he seems to be a bit less of himself than before. Roselyn explained that the cure works to prevent the virus, so we’ll be coming to Shandara to distribute it shortly,” Sarah said.

“Please stay in Hathenwood. I need to know that you’re safe,” Aaron pleaded.

“
I
need to know
you’re
safe, which is why I will be at your side,” Sarah replied.

“What about—”

“Don’t you dare! You and everyone else thinks I should stay where it’s safe because I’m pregnant. I won’t do it. Not while you and everyone else will be fighting around me,” Sarah said.