Defender of the Empire 2: Facades Read online

  “Come on, I know what we need,” Marius said, standing up.

  “What do you mean?” Jason asked.

  “We need to work off some energy and the training room is the perfect place,” Marius called back over his shoulder. Jason and Westley traded glances before hurrying after him. Jason was almost skipping. A good workout was the next best thing to actively hunting for Rylynn. Either would burn off some of his edginess, but the workout wouldn’t kill the anxiety until Rylynn was safe. But he chose to not let that swamp his good mood. He was about to do something to distract himself from the situation.

  Anticipation of a good fight nipped at their heels the entire way to the padded room just off the main gym. At first they thought it was empty, until movement drew their attention. Admiral Wingstar was at one of the benches near the wall, gathering his things together. He was putting his day uniform back on when they noticed him. His back was toward them and they saw the lines of a horrible old scar, before the shirt came on.

  The admiral glanced over his shoulder and the three of them came to attention. He zipped up his bag and said, “I figured you three would come here eventually. Come on in,” he added. As they entered, he turned to face them. For a moment he seemed to study them. Jason tried to guess at the admiral’s thoughts, but the man’s expression gave little away. After the moment passed, the admiral nodded to himself. “I understand why you came here, but this will not help you. Especially you, Jason,” he said meeting Jason’s gaze.

  He knows who you are, the winged serpent observed.

  Jason blinked at the implications, then wanted to hit his head against a wall. Well, duh, he knows! Braeden Wingstar is an admiral now and I wouldn’t be surprised if father told him to keep an eye on me. Jason was pondering what he thought of that, when the serpent dragged him out of his musing in time to hear what else the admiral was saying.

  “But I know somewhere that will,” Admiral Wingstar said, meeting each of their gazes.

  “Where is that, Sir?” Westley asked.

  “Planet side. Get what you need and meet me in hanger-1 in half an hour,” Admiral Wingstar replied.

  Hunting! the serpent rejoiced, harmonizing with Jason’s own elation at finally doing something other than staring at a screen for hours on end.

  Chapter 14 – Fear of Water

  Rylynn

  As soon as it was light enough to see, we checked the ground below us for what signs might have been left from last night. What had happened? What we found... wasn’t pretty. The smell alone was quite bad. I’m not sure how we didn’t smell it from above, but the cloying scent was thick on the ground. The tree bark had score marks, and the ground was churned up. Dark pools had settled in the troughs. They were not quite dry. Talis crouched by one and dipped his fingers in. He sniffed it after rubbing it between his fingers.

  “Telmick,” he said grimly standing up.

  I glanced about the scene. How many Telmicks had there been? How many had survived whatever had attacked them? And what had attacked them? I noticed Ace poking at something caught in the branches of one of the smaller plants. I went over to peer at it as well. It was a dark clump of—“is that fur?” I asked.

  “I’d say so,” Ace agreed. He looked searchingly around the scene before saying, “I think we should get back up in the trees and leave this place. Something might come to investigate the smell.”

  Agreeing with his assessment, we ascended again. It was slow going. Our path was determined by searching for branches big enough to support Talis and Kifen. There were many of those in this old forest, but nature had seen to it that they were not all conveniently placed. Despite that, we pushed on. Slow, but sure—I think. We traveled in an easterly direction for the most part, though there were many bends to the south or north to try to find a branch path.

  Thankfully, some of our detours proved to be fruitful. And I do mean that literally. Pausing in our awkward trek we picked some wild cheeries. From stories Aunt Sylvie had told me, cheeries were similar to old earth cherries, but were a little bigger and unmistakably purple. I don’t know what cherries taste like, but cheeries are delicious, with a lightly sweet taste. They also have tiny seeds that are fun to spit. Yes, I did get my cheeks full of the things and peppered everything below with them. Ace saw what I was doing, and we started to see who could spit the things the farthest. Stupid game, I know, but it was something other than just carefully picking our way through the branches. The Telmicks didn’t join in. I think they were a little concerned by what we were doing.

  “Just making sure more cheery trees grow,” I explained at one point. I don’t think they believed that was the only reason I was doing it.

  Night fell shortly after the cheery tree pit stop. Once again, we were forced to stop. Instead of sleeping, we just dozed, but not well. Would we hear another fight? Would we be included in that fight? The questions made it very hard to nod off. Only sheer exhaustion closed my eyes.

  Nothing happened that night that I know of. No one reported anything in the morning, but it was agreed that we stay in the trees. The ses-KGor and their lackeys were still out there, and we did not want to be caught in a trap.

  Several days passed like this—walking on and on. Finding sustenance from fruit trees we came upon, or small animals Kifen managed to catch. How a small critter missed seeing a large gray giant in the trees, I don’t know. But we had meat a couple of times, and Kifen got to practice with his chromatic knives. The nights were worse. We had to stop and listen to the sounds around us and wonder if that scrabbling sound was just a harmless critter or something hunting us. Sleeping, or attempting to sleep, had its own dilemmas. First was trying to find a secure enough position that might keep you from rolling to our deaths. The second was finding one that was comfortable enough to get some rest. I made a discovery. Trees, no matter how hard I try to delude myself into thinking otherwise, are not comfortable.

  “This would be quicker on the ground,” Kifen groused at yet another detour.

  “You are welcome to try your luck down there,” I said before I could stop myself. I blamed the humidity that had been growing over the last few hours. It seems heat and the lack of any decent sleep makes me not a nice person. “Just don’t complain to me when you run into whatever did that group of Telmicks in,” I added before jumping to the next tree. Being the shortest of the group, of course I missed my target. Yelping, I clung to the first thing I could—in this case, another branch eight feet below the one I wanted. Leaves and little broken branches showered down around me.

  I held still and waited for my wind to come back. My ears also strained for any hint that my miscalculation had drawn attention to our group. After a moment, I looked up from the bark of the branch I was clinging to and came face to face with a tiny furry bear-like critter. The tail made the critter twice the length of my hand. Glancing about, I realized that there were many of them. All were staring at me as if trying to figure out if I was dangerous or not. Who knew—maybe they were pondering if I would be good to eat. I stayed perfectly still, my mind scrambling to figure out how to get out of this situation without upsetting my unexpected company.

  They scattered away from me when Ace laughed from above. “I thought you were trying to convince Kifen’alusa that the ground was not where he wanted to be?”

  “Oh, you know, I was just trying to show him, through example, how dangerous going down could be,” I said, convincing my clinging body that it was okay to move into a crouch. My fuzzy friends were long gone now.

  “Dangerous? Against mini-bears? You have your work cut out for you, Ry,” Ace said as I climbed back up to where they were.

  “Mini-bears?” I asked and Ace laughed again.

  “Okay, that’s what my dad always calls four-legged animals smaller than a cat. Really that was a group of marmosets you dropped in on. They are not dangerous.”

  “Let’s go,” Talis directed. I let Ace go next as I tried to see if any of the little marmosets were hiding nearby.
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  “See, one wouldn’t fall if they were on the ground,” Kifen informed me dryly.

  I raised an eyebrow at him. “I don’t know, Kifen, I know some who could find a way to fall a lot if they were down there.”

  “Kifen?” he asked, blinking at me.

  I paused in climbing after the others and looked back at him in confusion. “Yeah, that’s your name isn’t it?”

  Kifen shook his head. “I haven’t been just ‘Kifen’ since I was a child. I am a warrior now.”

  I raised my hands in a placating gesture. “I didn’t mean to offend. Is that why you use that really long name? It denotes your place in society?” I didn’t tell him one of my original reasons for calling him by the first part of his name, because that had been my secret disrespect toward my captors.

  Kifen nodded. “‘Alusa’ means ‘warrior’ in your tongue. ‘Talklen’ literally means ‘spear point’. It is the title of a clan leader.”

  “Oh, sorry,” I said, turning away. I made a mental note to try to remember the titles. I really didn’t need them offended by me at this juncture, not when I needed their help to survive. A little over a month ago, I had been convinced that Telmicks were all the same: brutish, with the simple mindset to destroy. My class on the Prime Worlds had made me revise my thinking just a little. A tiny part of the Telmick population, the merchants, were the civilized ones. The other clans were still murdering brutes. But now, Kifen was painting a more complex picture for me. I wasn’t sure what to do about it.

  Half an hour later, I came to realize that perhaps I should have stayed in the lower branches, because we were now forced to go lower. The branches had thinned dangerously, or were no longer present. Our selection had dwindled to one or two paths. Below us, I could see the land was a massive swamp.

  “Well, this explains that stench,” Ace muttered. I nodded in agreement. A little after my drop-in with the marmosets, we had started smelling an earthy, compost scent. Now it was stronger. A few of the trees, including the one we were currently in, looked like they were dying. Their leaves had withered or were long gone. It made me wonder what had killed them. The tree we were in was huge—did something in the water kill it? Or did it have too much water? I couldn’t figure it out.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw some fuzzy things bounding in the lower branches of a tree, across the rivulet we were traveling above. “Look, they’re playing,” I said. My three companions glanced at me, then over at the chattering furballs with tails. We watched the little critters for a long moment. I think we were just glad to have something other than bark, leaves, and each other to look at.

  Suddenly one of the little critters missed a branch, as I did earlier, and fell into the water below. I gasped, and I wasn’t the only one. All play stopped across the river as the little one’s family chittered down at it in panic. But nothing they did could compare to the panicked shrills the little guy in the water made. He splashed frantically, grasping for the nearest root poking out of the water.

  A moment later the distressed family group fled. The one in the water cried out in despair, and I couldn’t stand it a moment longer. I made my way to a slighter branch over the water. “Ry! What are you doing?” Ace asked incredulously, putting a hand on my shoulder.

  “I have to do something,” I explained, but before I could jump into the water, Talis snapped that it was too late.

  I couldn’t understand why he said that. The little critter was still struggling valiantly, but his fur was getting heavier all the time. I did understand a moment later, though. Something reminiscent to an earth alligator, but bigger and with four eyes, rose out of the water. Its two teeth-lined jaws came up around the terrorized little marmoset. I blinked, and the monster and the marmoset were gone. Only a ripple on the water’s surface betrayed what had happened.

  Kifen laughed nervously. “I guess that’s a hint not to disturb the water.”

  Before any of us could react to his observation, something large hit the tree. For the second time that day I found myself clinging to a tree branch. “We need to move,” I said as I scrambled back up. “NOW!” I shouted when I saw the four eyed reptile look up at us from below. It opened its mouth in anticipation of a more substantial meal, and lunged at the tree. The sucker was big enough to topple the dying tree.

  With a groan and a gargantuan splash, the tree fell into the swamp below. I clung to the trunk until the water pried me loose. For several seconds I was caught in the swirling murky world of the creature. The water stung my eyes, but I did catch a glimpse of a massive shape coming toward us. I threw myself away from it. Huge claws the size of my arm raked the water near me. The force of the water pushed me even farther under.

  “I don’t think I need to tell you this, but you need to breathe and soon,” M. Kit said.

  Thanks. Trying, I thought caustically at her. Can you do anything?

  “Heal wounds. I could make it so you could stay under longer, however, it will slow you down. And somehow I don’t think you want that right now.”

  So helpful. Got any ideas where air might be found? Quite frankly, I had no clue. Everything now looked the same.

  “Follow the bubbles. Or just float up,” my ever helpful Medi-comp suggested. Since the bubbles were going every which way, I settled for floating up, though I can tell you my lungs were not pleased with this decision. Once I noticed things were getting lighter in the murk, I kicked toward that light.

  Sound assaulted my ears as I broke the surface; a chaotic mix of shouts, blasters firing, splashing, and a low growl. Standing upright, with the water up to their waists, the Telmicks were slashing chromatic swords at any bit of the creature they could reach. The monster’s face was a maze of horrible slashes. But instead of intimidating it, they only seemed to be pissing it off more. White blasts raining down on it from above drew my attention. Ace, the bugger, had somehow managed to get off the doomed tree into one of its healthier neighbor’s branches.

  Suddenly the creature ducked under the water. “Rylynn! It’s turning toward you! Get out of there!” Ace shouted.

  Shit! I thought, heeding his advice. Oh please don’t let me be like that poor little marmoset, I prayed as I made for Ace’s tree.

  “Shrat! Talklen!” Kifen shouted. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Talis’ shocked expression as he disappeared under the water. At the same moment I noticed a large branch hanging precariously over the creature, who was turning to finish off the Telmick he had managed to knock down.

  “Ace! Shoot that branch down!” I shouted, pointing. Ace saw what I meant and fired. The rotting wood burned away and the anchorless branch plummeted down. It struck the creature on the head, causing it to pause in its pursuit with a growl and a snap at the wood. Talis came up for air just as Kifen reached him. The trained warrior still had his sword. Lucky him—I only had the throwing knife Marius had given me, a pathetic threat to a creature who snapped in annoyance at a hundred or so pound branch landing on its head. Its four orange eyes focused on me, and I had an unpleasant feeling that it knew about the concept of revenge.

  I lunged for the tree with everything I had. I could smell death on the creature’s warm breath as it neared me. My fingers grasped rough bark and I moved to try to get around the side of the tree, putting its wood between me and the monster’s teeth. Of course, this caused me to turn and see that I had absolutely no hope of moving fast enough to escape. And that is when a miracle happened.

  A brilliant and blinding light appeared between me and the monster. I shied away from its intensity. The monster snarled and ducked under the water. RUN! Luna’s voice sounded in my head. Not giving myself a moment to wonder how Luna was here, I climbed the tree’s roots up to the first layer of branches.

  “Run!” I shouted at the staring Telmicks and Ace.

  THIS WAY, a beautiful blue-feathered raven Spectral called to me. I didn’t hesitate. I followed where he led. The light he was giving off bathed the forest, and I could tell by my companions’ expres
sions that they could see him. For some reason, I didn’t think that was possible.

  SEEING DOES NOT MEAN THEY CAN HEAR US, a familiar, wry voice said. I glanced beside me and saw Marius’ starlit black panther Spectral. She was also bright enough to light the woods.

  The raven lead us grounded beings to solid ground, with Luna and Zara flanking us. We moved fast, faster than I thought we could, given the attack on Talis. But Talis moved as if getting his feet swept out from under him wasn’t a painful experience. He was either a wonderful actor or so hardened as to not feel pain, or both. His gray legs were mottled with large dark splotches and oozing scratches.

  I don’t know how long we ran between our glowing escorts, but eventually the three Spectrals faded away. Panting, I slowed to a stop and my companions followed my example. Seeking the support of a nearby tree, I tried to remember how to breathe.

  A pair of booted feet entered my field of vision. Looking up, I met Ace’s blue eyes. “Those were Spectrals,” he said.

  I blinked at him, wondering if that had been a question or just an observation. And how was I to answer it if it had been a question? I was saved from answering by Talis. He gestured sharply that someone was coming. Without a word we went back up into the trees.

  For a few tense moments, we waited. One minute there was no one there. The next there was a group led by a man wearing long dark hair with even darker tips. Ace chuckled, and dropped down from the tree.

  Chapter 15 – The Feral Cats

  Rylynn

  “Mykio! It is good to see you, my friend,” Ace greeted the man leading the group of arrivals. With a start, I realized I recognized him. He was Ace’s second, the L’uf boy who had been lost until Ace had taken him under his wing.

  “Ace!” Mykio said, accepting Ace’s hug. Pulling back he continued, “we got worried when you did not come in.”