“I didn’t think there would
be
battles here,” she said.
“Shortsighted. You should have expected the worst.”
“As any good pessimist would?”
“Precisely.”
Alisa turned back toward the doorway and almost ran into Alejandro’s back. Tomich had stepped inside—she could just see his sleeve as he fired at someone. Or something. Now Alejandro stood in the doorway.
She reached for him, intending to pull him back. Since he did not carry weapons, she assumed he simply wanted a good look at the dais and sarcophagus. That could wait until later.
But he slipped inside before she could grab him. What was that fool doing?
“Masters and Diaz are down,” someone reported grimly.
Down? Did that mean injured? Or dead?
“They know to target the seams in our armor,” another soldier said, “and whatever they’re firing is as powerful as a pissed sun god. Do
not
get hit.”
Alisa paused as the gravity of the situation pressed down upon her. How many people could be killed here trying to get something she cared nothing about?
Nothing at all? Are you sure?
Abelardus?
she asked. What was he doing in her head when he was in the middle of the battle? At least, she assumed he was in the middle of the battle.
I’m getting the staff. Be prepared to pilot us out of here.
In what? The shuttle is the only thing nearby. And it already
has
pilots.
You’re a better pilot. I prefer you.
Uh, thanks, but that’s not what I was—
An explosion went off near the door, interrupting her concentration. Smoke billowed out, and Alisa stumbled back. She need not worry about breathing it inside of her suit, but her instincts said to get away from it.
An armored soldier flew backward through the door, just missing her as he landed on his back. Half of his chest had been blown open, his armor peeled away.
“Blessing of the Suns Trinity,” Alisa whispered, the words coming out in a shocked stutter.
Join us in here
, Abelardus urged.
We may not have much time.
You better be helping them
, she snarled back in her mind.
He did not respond. Another explosion sounded, this time from the direction of the dais.
Alejandro had disappeared inside. Alisa crept to the doorway, batting aside the smoke. Her instincts said to stay outside, but if Abelardus was about to do something stupid—or if he wasn’t using his powers to help as much as he should—someone had to crack him on the back of his helmet.
Smoke filled the entire chamber, with occasional crimson slashes of blazer fire streaking through the area. Alisa glimpsed the back of a spacesuit near the wall ahead, someone moving along it. Alejandro?
Feeling like a fool, she crouched low and hurried along the wall after him. If she could get to the sarcophagus, she could hide behind it—and hope the robots did not notice her.
As she reached the corner, weapons fire ricocheted off the wall ahead of her. One of those black robots strode out of the smoke, its staff pointed like a gun. She was on the verge of sprinting back for the door but realized it was aiming at the person in front of her, not her.
“Alejandro, look out,” she called.
He turned toward the robot and lifted his hands. As if
that
would do anything.
“Duck,” she shouted.
He started to, but the robot fired. Alisa ran forward, as if there was time to pull him out of the way. She knew there wasn’t.
But the projectile that flew from its staff diverted oddly and bounced off the wall next to Alejandro. The robot itself flew backward before it could fire again, disappearing into the smoke.
I protect my allies
, Abelardus said firmly in her mind.
Come here. To the dais.
Her feet obeyed before her mind decided if that was a good idea. Alisa snarled, certain Abelardus was influencing her again. Had it even been her idea to come in here and check on Alejandro? She thought about digging in her heels and doing her best to race back to the doorway, but reluctantly admitted she might be safest beside Abelardus and behind the sarcophagus. She assumed—
hoped
—the robot soldiers wouldn’t fire at the very thing they had been left here for centuries to guard.
As the shape of it grew distinguishable through the smoke ahead, Alisa peered into the chamber, trying to glimpse Leonidas’s red armor. Another explosion went off. One of the black robots flew toward her and smashed into the wall several feet above her head. She dove toward the dais, fearing it would crash down atop her. She wasn’t wrong. It clunked to the floor scant inches behind her. Its head was gone, but its arm twitched as it tried to lift the staff still held in its grasp.
Imagining it targeting her, she sprinted the last few meters to the sarcophagus. She forgot about the raised dais and the toe of her boot slammed into it. The impact sent her sprawling, and she tumbled against the sarcophagus itself. Her fingers curled about the top, and she caught herself, managing to keep from cracking her helmet against the side. She hauled her body upright and found herself staring into an open coffin, the decaying remains of Alcyone, or whoever had been buried there, staring at her.
Alisa tightened her grip on the rim, barely keeping from screaming. The last thing she wanted to do was call everyone’s attention to her.
“Just a dead person,” she whispered. “Just a dead person.”
A dead person whose skeletal hand looked like it had been pried open. Alisa did not see the staff. Had Abelardus already taken it? Several other items were in the sarcophagus, including dusty armor that looked like something an Old Earth knight would have worn. If these were truly the remains of Alcyone, she had been buried as a warrior.
A keening went up from different points in the room, the noise hurting her ears.
“What happened?” a soldier asked over the comm.
“I don’t know, but keep shooting,” Tomich said. “They’re not moving now.”
They know we have the staff
, Abelardus said into her mind.
We have to get out of here.
A hand gripped her from behind, and Alisa jumped.
It’s me,
Abelardus said, pulling her behind the sarcophagus.
Is that supposed to make me less alarmed?
He tugged her toward the wall behind the dais. The eerie keening continued, raising in pitch and growing in intensity. She did not want to take her gaze from the smoke, in the hope that Leonidas would stride out of it to join them. Only when they had gone several steps and when the smoke had started to swallow the sarcophagus did Alisa realize that the wall she had expected was not
there
.
From the doorway, the wall behind the dais had appeared solid, but Abelardus was pulling her into a tunnel. Alejandro walked beside him, holding the staff, one different from the one Abelardus bore. Alisa, seeing it for the first time, gaped at it. The long ebony weapon was similar to the one Lady Naidoo had carried, but in addition to having illuminated runes, a golden sphere on the top glowed softly, lighting the windowless passage they had entered. It looked like a smaller version of the orb that had brought them here.
Alejandro met her eyes, a triumphant smile stretching across his face. Abelardus looked triumphant too.
Alisa planted her feet. “Where are you taking me, and why didn’t you call the rest of our people back here too?”
Alejandro leaned close, trying to hear her, but the keening noise was following them, still growing louder. Alisa had the uneasy impression of something about to overload and explode.
That’s my guess too,
Abelardus said, not needing to hear her words to understand her.
They may be enacting a last-ditch effort to save the staff. We have to get out of here now.
And the others?
Alisa jammed her fists against her hips.
I don’t need them to fly the ship.
What ship?
Alisa looked into the darkness behind Alejandro. Did Abelardus know where this tunnel led? Had he known all along?
There’s a centuries-old ship back there, yes.
Why can’t
you
fly it?
I’ve only flown Starseer Darts—they respond to mental commands and are intuitive. This looks as intuitive as a rock. But you fly that freighter. I’m sure you can fly this.
Fly
it? You actually expect something that old to start?
We’ll find out if it can
, he said, pulling her again.
Alisa leaned back.
We’re not leaving without the others.
They can go back in the Alliance shuttle.
You’d send Leonidas back with them? They want him for questioning.
Or interrogation. She shuddered.
Darn.
Abelardus gave up on pulling her and lunged in, trying to wrap his arm around her waist.
She jammed her knee into his chest. She wished she could have put it in his face, but the helmet precluded that. It didn’t matter. The blow did not hurt him, and he succeeded in lifting her. She kicked him in the groin, but his spacesuit offered too much padding. He probably did not even feel it.
“Damn it.” Alisa turned her muted comm back on. “Leonidas, behind the dais. There’s a tunnel—”
Stop!
Abelardus growled in her mind.
She did not want to stop, but her tongue obeyed him instead of her. She hissed in frustration.
Are you trying to give them the staff?
Abelardus demanded.
Yes!
she roared with her mind since she couldn’t speak.
You think I want the empire to get it? Or the Starseers? If it has to be dragged out of hiding, I want it in the hands of people who can’t
use
it.
In truth, she had no idea if the Alliance could use it. What if anyone could wield it? Or what if they found an Alliance-friendly Starseer to use it on their behalf? She gritted her teeth. Even if that happened, it would be better than whatever the empire would do with it.
I’m not flying you anywhere without Leonidas, Beck, Yumi, and Mica.
By the gods’ grace, you’re frustrating
, Abelardus said.
Are they coming?
He paused, then replied,
I told them to join us.
“Hurry,” Alejandro shouted, tapping Abelardus’s shoulder. The word was barely audible over the keening. “If that continues to escalate, it’ll rupture our eardrums.”
“Eardrums aren’t our primary worry here,” Abelardus replied. “Trust me.”
The smoke stirred behind them, and he set Alisa down.
She tensed, half-expecting the soldiers to burst into the hidden passage, firing blindly as they went. But Beck led the way, his spacesuit smoldering and charred but intact. Yumi and Mica followed him, Yumi waving the staff from the other chamber.
“Do we still need this?” she yelled.
“Yes,” Alisa replied at the same time as Abelardus barked, “No.”
“Yes,” Alisa said again, waving for them to follow. “Abelardus, where’s Leonidas?” she added as the others charged past.
Beck shone his headlamp into the passage ahead, and she glimpsed another chamber. Another hangar bay?
Your noble cyborg is carrying wounded Alliance soldiers out of the dais room before those robots blow themselves up.
“But he’ll end up stuck with them,” Alisa blurted.
His punishment for being noble. Come on. I will carry you if you don’t come.
The smoke stirred again, and Alisa paused, hoping it was Leonidas. But a soldier in a spacesuit was running into the tunnel toward them.
“Marchenko,” Tomich yelled. “You’ll never see your ship again if you take that staff.”
Abelardus flung out his own staff, and Tomich was hurled backward so far that he disappeared into the smoke again.
“Damn you, Abelardus,” Alisa snarled.
He grabbed her from behind, this time not giving her any leverage with which to kick him. He hoisted her from her feet and sprinted away from Tomich and the Alliance soldiers. Away from Leonidas.
Chapter
20
Abelardus did not set Alisa down until he could plant her in front of a small spaceship that she vaguely recognized from museum pictures. It reminded her of the first biplanes that had been invented back on Earth. It certainly wasn’t much larger than one. Would it fit all of her people?
“Get in,” Abelardus ordered. “Fire it up.”
She would have stubbornly refused to fly, but that keening was growing louder and louder. If those robots blew up, who knew how much of the station would be destroyed? The tiny bay they were in wasn’t much wider than the secret passage they had run down, and there weren’t any other ships.
Alisa groped around, looking for a button to raise the canopy. Abelardus waved his staff, and it popped up.
She started to climb in, but realized the only way into the tiny passenger area in the back was through the cockpit. “Everybody in,” she ordered, waving for Mica, Yumi, Beck, and Alejandro to climb in before she did.
They scrambled in with impressive speed. Alejandro almost clunked her on the head with the staff, and she bitterly imagined them trying to find a way off the station when their only pilot was unconscious.
Abelardus threw himself into the co-pilot’s seat, somehow finding a spot for his staff. Alisa clambered into the main seat. She did not delay in finding the engine switch and familiarizing herself with the control panel, but she couldn’t help but look back down the passageway, hoping Leonidas would catch up to them. But if he was helping other people out, he would end up on that Alliance shuttle. Assuming the Alliance soldiers even made it out in time. They still had to spacewalk back to their craft.
“Damn you, Abelardus,” she whispered, not expecting him to hear her. That keening was so loud now that nobody could have been heard over it, even bellowing.