Heir of Shandara (Book 4) (25 page)

Aaron searched the ground for the travel crystal and found it shattered to pieces. It was his last one. He scanned the skyline and saw smoke rising in the distance. He brought up the comms device, but it wouldn’t respond. It wasn’t dead because he saw the tiny glow of power inside, but the screen was still blank. Aaron glanced at the smoke. It was the middle of the afternoon. If the travel crystal worked properly, he should only be a few miles from where he was supposed to meet the others. He hoped they escaped the destruction of the city. The rune-carved staff must have been destroyed in the blast. Hopefully the explosion took out a good chunk of the Zekara. Maybe even Halcylon as well. Thoughts of the Zekaran general made him think of Bayen. He had stopped Aaron from killing Halcylon. Why would he do that?
You’ll kill us all,
Bayen had said. He hoped Bayen made it out of there. Bayen had fought at his side only to betray him at the last instant. Aaron didn’t know what to make of it. He wanted answers, and he hoped the mysterious young man was still alive to give them. Aaron started walking, preferring to go at a normal pace so he could collect his thoughts. Rexel lost. People dying or being turned into the Forsaken. The day’s events were the stuff of nightmares. He felt the weight of all those deaths of the people he failed to protect. Aaron pushed his scattering thoughts to the side of his mind while his body went into the rhythmic pace of traversing the land around him. He needed to focus on solutions, not the problems. In his mind, he started making mental lists, breaking down the destruction of Rexel, trying to glean what they could have done differently. Halcylon had masterfully played his hand. Even though they had sacrificed the city in hopes of weakening the enemy, the sting of defeat was a bitter pill to swallow.
 

Halcylon counted on their dependence on Hythariam technology. He had used it against them. They needed to find a way to turn the tables.
 

Aaron’s thoughts turned to the Eldarin. The Forsaken had responded to the fallen Eldarin. It was something he hadn’t considered. He knew that the Forsaken would throw themselves at him, but with the Eldarin it was something different. The Forsaken by themselves were perhaps a step or two beyond mindless aggression.
 

At least Rexel’s sacrifice had done one thing: The rising number of Forsaken had been halted for the moment. Aaron silently cursed Bayen for keeping him from taking Halcylon’s life. If they couldn’t stop the Zekara the next time they met, then all of Safanar would pay the price.
 

C
HAPTER
19

CAPTURE

Sarah’s footsteps pounded along the flat rooftops of the warehouse district near the river. The Zekaran infiltrator was barreling along the street below her. She pulled in the energy and closed the distance between them. Over the years, she had found that few could match her speed, and Beck, the rogue Elite Master who trained her, had said speed was something you were born with. You either had it, or you didn’t, and Sarah had it in abundance. The only one to match her was Aaron, whom she enjoyed testing whenever the chance presented itself. Here and now, her speed was an asset to her and a source of frustration to Rordan and the Elitesmen who chased her. She collected the energy into an orb in her hand and sent it streaking ahead. The orb slammed into the back of the infiltrator, but its armor shrugged off the blow.

Sarah leaped down to the street and closed in on the infiltrator. She heard the mechanical whirl of its powered armor. Another of her attack orbs demolished the ground at the infiltrator’s feet, causing it to stumble. Sarah pounced on it, kicking the infiltrator into the building. The infiltrator stumbled and fell, then quickly regained its feet and charged ahead. Sarah heard her brother call out from behind her. She wasn’t sure of the range of his attack, but she knew she must be beyond it because he hadn’t attacked her as he had done in the warehouse. A faint ache in her chest pressed in on her lungs. She was tiring. So quickly? How could that be? Then she remembered. Roselyn had warned her that her pregnancy would leave her feeling tired. Gritting her teeth, Sarah pushed onward. The infiltrator was heading to a more populated district to spread the virus. Where were Isaac and the others? They should be here by now. The stone archway separating the districts was just up ahead. She caught up to the infiltrator, and it immediately shot a few plasma bolts at her. Sarah yelled out for the gates to be closed, but as the guards ahead moved to carry out her orders, the infiltrator killed them with its cursed plasma pistol. The denizens of the district passing the archway ran out of the way. The infiltrator burst through the archway into the crowded district beyond.
 

Sarah grabbed a sword off a dead guard. As she went through the archway, she found the Zekaran infiltrator leveling its pistol in her direction. She slid down by its legs, lashing out with her sword as she passed. Sarah quickly got to her feet, spun around, and slammed her sword down upon the infiltrator’s armored hand. She kicked the plasma pistol away.

The infiltrator grabbed for Sarah, but she deftly leaped back. She shouted for the people in the streets to get back. The infiltrator spun around as it scanned the area. Sarah didn’t give it any more time before she attacked. She had to keep it busy. The others were coming, but so was her brother. Dark-clad Elitesmen came through the archway, but Sarah focused on the infiltrator. The infiltrator kept trying to maneuver her into Rordan and the others, but Sarah wouldn’t oblige it. The Elitesmen closing in faltered. Sarah risked a glance up and saw Free Nations Army soldiers crest the top of the buildings surrounding them all. They fired their weapons on the Elitesmen, scattering them. Rordan darted from the ring of Elitesmen and dove for her. Sarah sidestepped out of the way and snatched at the chain around his neck. She yanked the amulet as hard as she could, snapping the chain. Rordan stumbled toward the infiltrator. Hythariam soldiers with the FNA surrounded the Zekaran infiltrator, lashing out with their blades at different armored parts. Sparks burst from the infiltrator’s powered armor, and it sank to its knees. The infiltrator raised its arm, and a panel opened. Yellow gas shot toward Rordan and Sarah. An Elitesman leaped forward, trying to pull her brother from the path, but instead was pulled in by Rordan’s flailing. The breath caught in Sarah’s chest, and she stumbled backward, desperate to get away. The yellow substance billowed against an invisible wall. Sarah glanced up and saw Isaac standing there with an outstretched hand, his face a mask of concentration. Sarah and the other humans backed away, allowing the Hythariam to move in and finish off the infiltrator.
 

Sarah kept waiting for the infiltrator to self-destruct, but all it did was collapse. Rordan and the other Elitesmen were writhing on the ground. The yellow substance dissipated from within the confines of Isaac’s shield. A Hythariam soldier motioned for Isaac to release the shield so the others could get close to Rordan and the Elitesmen. They restrained Rordan first, with bands that held his arms and feet tightly together. As they turned over an Elitesman, Sarah gasped as she saw his face. The other man exposed to the Ryakul virus was Darven, Mactar’s apprentice. It all clicked into place. Darven was the experienced leader that guided Rordan.
 

The Hythariam finished restraining Darven. She stepped closer to Rordan, who was straining against his bonds, with his head shaking violently. He kept growling, and Sarah lifted her sword. Rordan deserved death for all the people he murdered.

“Your Grace, we need to get them back to Hathenwood. Roselyn needs live specimens in order to find a cure,” the Hythariam soldier said.

Sarah stared at the Hythariam for a moment and then back down at Rordan, inching closer. She wanted to kill him. They could take Darven back with them to find a cure. As the seconds dripped by, the virus took a firm hold of her brother.

“Your Grace, please. We must get them into the capsule and move them, or it will be too late.”

At last, Sarah nodded, and the Hythariam looked relieved.

“Soldier,” Sarah said.

“Baylor, your Grace.”

“We have travel crystals,” Sarah said.

Baylor shook his head. “We don’t want to risk it. We brought a keystone accelerator to open a portal for us. We’ll signal ahead so they can prepare.”

The Hythariam loaded Rordan and Darven into separate capsules that hissed shut. After a few moments, all movement ceased from within them.

Isaac approached her. “Are you all right, my Lady?”

Sarah surveyed the area and took a deep breath. “It was a close thing, Isaac. The infiltrator was trying to reach a more crowded area to release the virus. How were they able to take it down before it destroyed itself?”

“We only found out that they could do it moments before we reached you. I was contacted through that comms device, and Baylor told us not to engage the infiltrator. He and his people would handle it. I’m glad they were here,” Isaac said.

“Make sure our people know how to take those things down. We can’t afford even one of those things loose in the city,” Sarah said.

The FNA soldiers activated the keystone accelerator, and a portal sheared open. The FNA soldiers went through, and Sarah followed. Isaac didn’t even question her but simply followed her lead. It was as it should be. Rordan had taken so many lives in his attempt to draw her out, and she didn’t want to let him out of her sight.
 

C
HAPTER
20

THEORY

Halcylon rose from the ground. The Nanites worked to repair the wound in his stomach. Twice now that human, Aaron Jace, had held him by the throat. The first time on Hytharia, he’d known the human would attack. He’d goaded Aaron into it. He should have killed the human then and been done with it.
 

What he hadn’t counted on was the human’s restraint. The human had some intelligence, Halcylon admitted, but his enemy suffered no such restraint today. He had been a soldier for hundreds of years. Defeated the mighty to become leader of his race. Survived years of bloody conflict where so many others had perished. Halcylon glanced down at the fibered layers of his armor that stitched itself back together. The human’s sword should not have been able to pierce his armor, yet his newly healed wound contradicted what had been fact before. His irritation was compounded by the fact that if it weren’t for the other human’s interference, his life would be over. Halcylon pressed his lips together in thought. The human in the white armor. Bayen is what Aaron had called him. Halcylon’s wounds had already begun to heal when the explosion leveled most of the city. This Bayen had dragged him beyond the blast and for a moment looked as if he too would try to take Halcylon’s life. Instead, the young human left him and disappeared. Halcylon returned to the mobile command center. His soldiers saluted him as he passed, a hungry gleam to their eyes. They had performed flawlessly. The victory over the humans was nearly perfect except for the bomb. He hadn’t accounted for anything like that in his plans. Halcylon entered his quarters and gave the command for his armor to remove itself. He wanted a full diagnostic run on the armor and the combat AI. He needed to understand how he was beaten in order to assure victory at the next confrontation.

Halcylon headed through the narrow corridors to the operations center.

“Situation report,” Halcylon ordered as he entered.

Chinta, his second in command, saluted him. “The explosion leveled most of the city. Most of our troops were still in the outer recesses and suffered some bumps and bruises. Those closer to the blast weren’t so lucky.”

“What about the infected? Do we have any prisoners?” Halcylon asked.