Defender of the Empire 2: Facades Page 5
When he was bored with science, he would turn to politics. It was an entertaining pastime. All creatures had things they needed, and things they wanted. The more sentient, the more complex, yet still simple. There were a set number of emotions that guided them: lust, hunger, fear, and the need to be in control. To Betrayer, politics were just an elaborate game of chess. In times of stagnant peace, all he had to do was nudge the right people using the right impetus, and things would explode beautifully. It never mattered how many people died. They were all bugs to him, anyway. Useful bugs, in that they amused him and provided him with a constant source of energy, but still bugs. He could never truly lose, especially now that those who had once been his people provided a lovely smokescreen for him. The universe feared them, but had no clue of the puppet master. They didn’t think to fear him. He erased himself from public history, and the Spectrals and their Shades couldn’t interfere with something they did not know about.
He was a black hole puppet master, and smug as the cat who stole the cream over it.
Betrayer made his way through his private station in the cloaking clouds of Iceron. Eventually he reached the room containing his Pets. Those who had been near the door fled in a scramble, trying desperately not to be noticed. Only one, sitting at a small card table, didn’t move. She was a human with a slender frame that one could almost call frail. Her light chestnut hair had grown long since he brought her here and now hung over her slim shoulder in a loose pony tail. She wore a simple green gown today. He liked it. “Greetings of the day to you, Lady Sylvia Foréss Sinclair,” he said, coming closer to her. The rest of his Pets sheltered against the wall if they were curious and brave. The rest were more than likely tucked away in their little rooms. Sylvia didn’t meet Betrayer’s gaze. A shame, she had the most beautiful moss green eyes. “I’m surprised that you kept that name, since it tied you to me,” he continued. It was a fact that interested him, especially considering she was the one who had left him.
“Not you. The man I loved,” she replied softly, meeting his gaze. She was calm, but he could see something else lurking in her eyes. Some shade of it was always there, and it kept him interested—kept him wanting to know what it was.
“You mean the man who never existed? That man?” he asked cruelly.
That something spasmed in her eyes as she muttered, “What do you want?” Seemingly unable to look at him any longer, she turned away. He noted her fists clenching on the table before she could hide them in the folds of her gown. Betrayer grinned as her silent reaction gave her away. He had touched the right spot. She could pretend all she wanted, but the truth was, there was nothing of the man she had thought he was. He had never, in all his years, ever been that man.
It was past time she figured that out.
That man hadn’t been fun, either. Too predictable. The only redeemable part of the whole experience was getting the beauty before him under his thumb. He smiled, and Sylvia shrank satisfyingly into her seat. “What I want is to hear the screams that are coming. To watch things tremble. They have been static for too long,” he answered her.
“What are you going to do?” she asked in growing horror.
Betrayer grinned at her. “Use your imagination, Sylvia. You have a nice one. In fact,” he said taking a step closer to her, “I want to know what it is you See.”
“No…” Sylvia moaned as she threw herself out of her chair. In an undignified scramble, she backed away from him, her pleading hand begging him to stay away. The other hand pressed over her heart. “Please no…” she begged. Betrayer just followed her until she backed into the wall, and then he just kept coming. Tears glittered in those pleading moss green eyes. Too bad for her, he had no mercy. He caught her head in his hands and focused on his gifts. She cried out, but there was nothing she could do to stop him. She had let him in willingly before, and had not retracted the invitation. The fact that she didn’t know how mattered very little to him. The energy built, and he found where her ability stemmed from with the ease of long practice. Without too much effort he pulled her gift foreword, till they could both See what it had to offer. Sylvia resisted, but it was paltry at best.
Sylvia’s marvelous gift surrounded him. The room vanished and was replaced by an earthen tunnel. It looked like a great drill had cut through the rock, the heat of friction dulling the rough edges. Betrayer frowned slightly.
“You know this place,” Sylvia stated. She stood next to him, her hand in his. Though it looked voluntary, it wasn’t. She had no control. No choice. Betrayer was in control, and she was his guide.
“Of course I know it,” he said in a perfectly calm tone. Sylvia glanced at him as if waiting to know more. Betrayer’s brow rose. “Curious, are we?” Her response was an interesting mix of self-conscious fidgeting and interest, which was intriguing since she hated the real him. The explanation of the tunnel would obviously paint her a better picture of the man he really was. He gestured grandly about the tunnel and said, “I built this place, Sylvia. It was where I decided to imprison the rest of my greedy kind.” Sylvia paled, and he smiled before leading her toward that prison.
A humming sound filled the air. A thrumming that vibrated through the stone around them. Sylvia’s hand shook in his. She even stepped closer to him. Guess the old saying is right, he mused as he continued walking, ‘A known enemy is preferred to an unknown one’.
“What is that?” Sylvia eventually gathered enough courage to ask.
Betrayer tilted his head as if to listen before replying. “A hearty mix of enraged ranting and helpless screams.” He shrugged. “It happens when organisms are stuck and starving. They should be grateful that they can’t die in their current prison… of course that could be the problem,” he added thoughtfully. “Guess that is the downside of a prison designed not to allow any escape...”
“Why…?” she asked. Betrayer raised an eyebrow at her. “Why did you build such a prison?”
“A better question would be, why wouldn’t I?” he asked in return. Betrayer didn’t elaborate after that. For one reason, he did not feel the need. Another would be that they had arrived at the heart of the prison. Sylvia’s steps faltered before coming to a halt. Betrayer grinned in pride.
Suspended over a pool filled with an oily silver substance was a many-faceted crystal sphere. It wasn’t any one color. Instead, it was much like the rainbow sheen of oil on moving water. The colors pulsed in time with the thrumming that echoed in the room. One could almost make out the words… snatches of focusing phrases… pleas… threats. All of it was one big garbled mess of despair. As nice as it was to have all of his old colleagues in a bottle, they were getting annoying, which was why he tended not to come here often… though he did have plans. He turned to Sylvia. “Why are we here?” he asked. “Why are you Seeing this place?”
For a moment Sylvia looked like she was trying not to say. Trying to end the dream before he could see its point. But as he had said earlier, she was only the guide. He was the one in charge. It didn’t matter in the end if she told him or not, as a large bear-like man moved into the room. Betrayer blinked, recognizing the man as none other than the disgraced Admiral Knight. The man knelt before the sphere. He did not appear to notice the watching couple. They were not really there, just watching like a hologram repeating an event.
The man’s eyes were black. Betrayer shook his head slightly. So one or two weaker ones did avoid the net, he thought with a sigh. The weaker the original gift of the Soul Shadow, the weaker they were in this new form. They were more limited in their movements and depended heavily on possession. It wasn’t just a food source for them, it was the only way they could exist without fading.
All well. It looked like this one was going to make his life easier by opening the prison. Puppet Knight pulled out a black stone blade with intricate formations coming off its hilt, and Betrayer’s eyes gleamed. So that was where his beloved creation had gotten to. How wonderful. And, unless Sylvia’s Seeing had messed with his senses, the
re was a powerful mythic Spectral trapped within the Lous-eci’dalb’s grasp. That, and a slew of other Spectrals. Just as Knight was regaining his feet, a chromatic Telmick throwing knife pierced the man’s leg just above the knee. Since it had been charged to white, it had cut right through any armor and bone as if it didn’t even exist. Only the hilt calling a halt to things kept the knife from continuing on its trajectory.
Knight hissed with the pain and lost his footing. But, he had been too well-trained to lose the knife. The big man turned to a young girl who had run into the room. She was small, with dark hair that hung just short of touching her shoulders. The clothing on her frame was obviously too large and just as obviously hard-used. Filth clung to it, and her skin. But none of her attire could hide the spirit in her gray eyes… Betrayer recognized her. And so did Sylvia, apparently, if her gasp was anything to go by.
Rylynn Sinclair entered the room with another chromatic knife in her hand. Its blade shifted from orange to yellow to white rapidly as she glared at Knight. Betrayer knew her as the colony girl who had joined the Admiral’s Challenge. At the time, he had been trying to spread doubt about a Spectral Shade who thought to masquerade as a trainee. Betrayer went about it by possessing, from a distance, a lad named Michel Serra. All he knew about the colony girl was that she was on speaking terms with the Shade.
Rylynn shouted something at Knight, probably a warning, based on her tone. Betrayer turned to Sylvia. “Any chance we can hear what is said?”
Sylvia shrugged. “It hasn’t happened yet, therefore you cannot hear. You can only See the basics.”
Rylynn didn’t hesitate when Knight disregarded her. She threw the second knife. This time it went through his spine and pierced his heart. Knight went down, and the Lous-eci’dalb skittered away to teeter on the edge of the pool of oily silver liquid. Eyes wide, Rylynn rushed toward it. She snatched up the blade before it could touch the pool. Betrayer’s eyes narrowed. The substance was not exposed to a vacuum. It wouldn’t destroy the stone blade, but he could understand the girl’s concern. She would have no hope of finding it if it fell in. That pool was several thousand feet deep and thicker than water. And that was all before it met the lock.
The girl didn’t just want the blade to be lost for a really long time—she wanted it destroyed. This was made clear as she slammed it down at an awkward angle on the lip of the pool. It took a few tries, but the Lous-eci’dalb finally shattered into pieces, letting the trapped Spectrals swarmed the room in a chaotic, yet free dance. The most powerful Spectral curled about the girl, and it was in that moment that Betrayer fully understood who she was.
Betrayer turned to Sylvia. “I see now what you were keeping from me that day,” he said in a soft tone. Sylvia’s eyes went wide. Betrayer yanked the two of them back to their real selves. His hands were still cradling Sylvia’s head. Her hands were on his wrists and her moss green eyes were staring at him in despair. It was obvious Sylvia knew what Rylynn was to him. There was only one person in the Empire who could disrupt his plans and that was the Defender, his sworn enemy. It was ironic that he had been sitting next to her that day before the Admiral’s Challenge started.
He could have snuffed the little Defender out then if he had only known… and his little wife had kept that knowledge from him. Not only that, she had lied to him. She had said that day when he had come for her that she lived with her niece until the poor girl died in an accident. He had been so distracted, apparently, when he was possessing Michel that he hadn’t made the connection between Sylvia and Rylynn’s last names. He smiled at Sylvia before kissing her breathless. Sylvia blinked in a daze when he released her lips. He laughed and said, “So the Defender and I are going to play a little game, eh? I love a good challenge.” With that, he let go of her head and turned on his heel.
“Stop! What are you going to do?!” Sylvia cried after him. The lass even went so far as to follow him to the door. He ignored her sobbed questions. There was a reason, after all, why they were sobbed. She already knew what he was going to do. And the most horrible thing for her was that she could do nothing to stop him.
The door to his Pet’s chambers slammed shut in her face.
***
Imperial System
Spectral Empire
Adrian Knight fumed. His entire life’s work, the work he had continued since his brother’s untimely death, was now ruined. The day of the Movement had been so close he could taste it. So, the young prince had been rescued. But, there was still a chance to take him, since his family allowed him to remain at the Academy. The problem was, evidence had been found against him that forced him to run in order to continue his work. But he needed a new name, as his first one was now a curse.
How humiliating was it that he had been stripped of his title based on evidence that supported the witness of a thirteen cycle old girl? A thirteen cycle old that he had been so sure had been under his thumb.
It wasn’t the loss of his title that angered him. After all, he didn’t have to go to those horribly dull soirees anymore. No, it was the fact that the Movement no longer had its greatest asset anymore. All of their plans were set back years, if not cancelled. All because of Rylynn.
He had thought all of his hate was reserved for Spectrals and their Shades. He was wrong. He hated Rylynn. Don’t worry Samuel, Adrian thought to his deceased brother, the Movement will not fail. I will not let it. She will pay for her crimes, he vowed.
Suddenly, Balen collapsed. The thin man had been standing near the small kitchenette in the Movement safe house they were using. Now, he was crumpled on the ground like a puppet whose strings had been savagely cut. Adrian stood to help, when a black mist rose from Balen’s flesh. As the last tendrils drifted free, the body began to… well, there really was only one word for it: disintegrate. At an alarming rate. Adrian stared in horror as his loyal friend went through the whole process of decomposition in a matter of seconds, instead of years. All that was left was pile of dust, a few brittle bones, and a lingering odor that threatened even Adrian’s well trained stomach.
“Don’t be sad, old friend,” a female voice whispered consolingly. Adrian dragged his eyes from his rotted friend to the black mist that obscured the wall on the other side of it. “I am the one who has been your loyal friend all this time,” the impossible voice continued. “The mask just fell off.” The mist lifted slightly before sagging again, like it had shrugged. It drifted closer as it continued, “The problem is, now I need a new mask. One that will hold together for some time. You are a strong man, Adrian.” It paused contemplatively before continuing. “Determined. I always wondered what it would be like to live in your skin…” The black mist shivered slightly. “And now that you no longer hold your place of power…”
Adrian backed away from the oncoming cloud. He needed to find the door and get the hell out of there.
The female voice chuckled. “Come now, Adrian. What are friends for, if not to lend a hand… a foot… or a body?” Blackness became all Adrian could see as the mist shrouded him. He couldn’t see to escape. He couldn’t run. He could no longer feel anything. “Mhmm. You are so strong. I knew you would be,” Balenna, as he now knew the voice to be called, murmured to him in a seductive tone. “We are going to do so much good together, you and I,” she promised, before Adrian lost all sense of self.
Chapter 6 – Personal Mysteries
Near Lenti-Solum System
Spectral Empire
Rylynn
Finally, the Hail Mary was off. I was beyond grateful. That fence I had been sitting on while we waited had been getting increasingly uncomfortable. Now, I was finally on the other side and happy about it. Who wouldn’t be, considering what the other side was? I was back on the ship that had saved and changed my life so much. And she was healthy again.
Ironically enough, our destination was back where I had started. It seemed that suddenly everything in my life was focusing on my home world. First, there had been my ever-present need to return at some po
int, but with help. Then, Ace had come a-calling with the message that things were about to get even worse. And then he gave me a letter my aunt had written a while ago saying that ‘the heart of the problem was Lenti’ and that I needed to talk to Jack Fairhand, a person I had never heard about before. But what was the ‘problem’ my aunt referred to? She had, of course, written the letter before she died, and that was a day before the Telmicks had arrived. To compound everything, I had a dangerous enemy that would kill me just because I existed. Heartwarming, isn’t it? But what ended up sending me back to Lenti were orders from the emperor to go and see what could be done against the Telmick threat, which was great because I no longer had to figure out how to get there.
Now, all I had to do was complete my ship duties and figure out the various riddles of my life in my free time. Not that I have a lot of that. Sadly, I think I had more free time with the gang between raids, which was crazy considering it was a good thing to look like you were always busy. It was even better when you were truly busy, because then you were useful. Then you would have a chance of survival that was better than anything outside the gang.
Luckily I had an hour before a briefing with the superior officers. I and my companions were nowhere near being superior officers, but Admiral Wingstar decided to include us. I figured it was for training purposes, as well as the simple fact that I was the most familiar with Lenti. I knew I would be asked to tell them what I knew, which was a couple months out of date unless I used what Ace had told me. Only problem with that was, how would I explain my visit with him when the only person I had told was Marius? I had been so stunned by seeing Ace, and the fact that he had left so calmly, and receiving the letter, that I had forgotten he had made it both in and out of the Academy. There was also the disturbing fact that I didn’t know if he actually did leave.