Pride x Familiar (55 page)

I stared at it in awe and fascination.

Simone trembled slightly at my side.

Celica said, “This is The Vault. It’s an
Artifact, and it’s
not
the only one of its kind.”

I glanced at her. “There are more? Where?”

She half shrugged. “There is a handful here in
Pharos, buried deep under the habitats of the other Islands.” She
chuckled. “There’s one buried under Arcala Academy, just like this
one here under Galatea. I know of two others somewhere out in the
Hurakan Nebula.” She waved a hand at the sphere. “But this one—this
one had the Black Camellia inside it, and that’s why I had to come
here.”

I had trouble believing her, but she didn’t
appear to be lying.

I cleared my throat and asked, “What—what kind
of Artifact is it?”

“As its name implies, it’s a storage vault. The
space inside is many times larger than the exterior we
perceive.”

I gave the black sphere another look. “So what’s
inside it?”

Celica beckoned me closer. I was reluctant
because was Simone standing beside me.

I gave her a quick look. “Simone, stay
here.”

“What?” She gave me a fearful look.

“Wait for me here.”

It was clear she didn’t want me to go. I felt my
heart surge at the sight of her concern for me.

“I’ll be fine,” I assured her.

Celica spoke quickly. “Hurry Caelum. We’re
running out of time.”

I pulled my hand free of Simone’s, and then
stepped to the balcony’s guardrail. I stood a couple of feet away
from Celica.

“What now?” I asked.

Celica studied me for a heartbeat. “Caelum. No
matter what you may think. No matter what people tell you, believe
in my words. Never doubt them, no matter what happens from this
point onwards.”

I wasn’t sure I could do that, but I gave her a
subtle nod nonetheless, and she looked faintly relieved.

She stepped back a half dozen steps away from
me. The black mist that heralded the manifestation of a Fragment
surrounded her. But it was no Fragment that enveloped her body
within the mist. I watched Celica float up into the air some seven
or eight feet, before what I could only describe as an armor plated
skeleton solidified around her body. It didn’t fully enclose her,
but rather, Celica appeared to be growing out of it. This was
because her legs were encased in angular armor all the way up to
her thighs, and that armor connected to the armor shod legs of the
skeletal biped. However, the rest of her body was free.

The armored skeleton had black vanes extending
from its back like flat wedge-shaped wings.

At its flanks hung two half skirts comprising a
number of sharp, angular vanes that glowed with a red light.

I noticed other armored areas also glowed red,
while her legs and the wing-vanes on her back glowed a bright
blue.

So this was the Black Camellia.

This was a Warlord.

I could almost feel the power it exuded as
though the air around it trembled in fear and awe.

Even I shivered in fascination.

Melanie’s Valkyrie Maiden might have been
strong, yet it didn’t compare to the Warlord that stood before
me.

However, Celica gave me little time to admire
the powerful Artifact. She stepped up to me, or rather the Warlord
stepped up to me on feet that resembled flat, angular panels. I
felt the balcony tremble with each step.

The Warlord picked me up in giant, clawed hands,
and I was raised to eye level with Celica.

“Caelum, I believe in you.”

I struggled against its grip but it was futile.
“What—what are you doing?”

“Never forget that.”

“Celica—!”

“I love you little brother.”

With those words she tossed me into the oily
black sphere known as the Vault.

#

(Celica)

Simone Alucard screamed and ran to the edge of
the balcony.

In fact, she climbed onto the railing and
prepared to jump into the Vault after Caelum.

The extent of the girl’s reaction took me a
little by surprise.

Was I wrong in my thinking? No, I had to believe
the Seeress’s words, because so much depended on this girl’s
feelings.

Her purity was his salvation and her
undoing.

My heart tightened in memory of the young
woman’s words.

Simone Alucard Raynar.

She was the splitting image of her
ancestress.

And my brother?

He was so much like
him
that I felt
unbearable despair upon seeing the records Crimson Crescent had
stolen from the Raynar Pride.

It was ancient footage from the War of
Supremacy.

It was all that remained after the eight Prides
decided to destroy the recordings at the conclusion of the war.

Then the Prides chose to rewrite history.

I reached out with the Black Camellia and held
Simone back with its left arm.

“Simone, you cannot follow him. Remember what I
said? Something outside must have a connection to what’s inside or
else it cannot be retrieved.”

Simone’s face was beyond distraught.

I stared at her, and accepted that my thinking
was indeed wrong.

And I felt sorrow well up inside me – sorrow for
Simone Alucard.

Please, dear gods, let things be different for
them this time – let them have the ending they deserve.

Simone fought back her tears. “Why? Why do all
this?”

“To right a wrong,” I said to her. “And to give
Caelum what he needs most…the means to do so.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You will. You’re going to have to be strong,
for his sake and for yours. You’re going to have to stand up to
your family, your Pride and all other Aventis.” I looked deep into
her eyes. “Can you do that, Simone Alucard? Can you do that for
him?”

Her stare was anguished, but I watched her
resolve push it aside.

“Yes. For him, I can do that.”

My throat grew a little tighter, though it was
already hard to swallow.

Simone straightened. “What do I need to do?”

“Stand back,” I told her, and then I reached out
with the Camellia’s left hand and tore away a three foot section of
the guardrail. “Stand there, and put your arm into the Vault.”

Simone gave the gap and the Vault an anxious
look, but her hesitation was only for a heartbeat.

She stepped into the gap, her left hand holding
onto the remains of the guardrail for support.

Slowly, nervously she reached out for the Vault
with her right hand.

“Simone, your feelings must be pure. There can
be no fear or doubt in your heart.”

She stopped and stared at me for a long
moment.

I saw the change in her emotions play out across
her face.

Facing the Vault, she took a deep calming
breath.

In one swift motion she plunged her arm up to
her elbow into the black sphere.

I whispered hoarsely, “Call out to him, Simone.
Let your feelings guide him back to you.”

Abruptly, I heard a message through the Artifact
Link between the Khan-skin and my companions. It was a
thought-stream from a comrade aboard the
Induran
hovering
above the academy.

I looked up at the chamber ceiling.

*
What is it Anton?

*
Mistress—we have a problem. A big
problem.

I felt a pang of worry. *
Explain
.

*
It’s the Avenir Pride’s Warlord, the
Avienda. It’s here.

I felt my stomach sink and my chest grow
cold.

They found a pilot for it. They found a Familiar
compatible with that Seer-Khan Warlord.

So the rumors of another surviving descendant
from the original twelve bloodlines were in fact true.

How many other descendants were there?

How many of the twelve had survived through the
past two hundred years?

No, I had to question bigger than that.

How many of the dozens of bloodlines that fought
during the war had survived?

I glanced in the direction of the exit.

*
I’m on my way out. I’ll be there in a few
minutes. Get our people out of the academy. Do it now!

I looked down at Simone.

The girl’s eyes were closed. Her face was the
picture of serenity as she poured her feelings into the Vault.

I turned away, and walked the Black Camellia out
of the Vault’s chamber. I crossed the half-domed antechamber and
arrived at the tunnel’s entrance. Because the Warlord stood some
eighteen feet tall, I had to crouch down to keep the Camellia’s
highest mounted wing-vanes from scraping the tunnel ceiling. After
walking awkwardly fifty feet down the tunnel I came to a stop.

There was no need for me to turn and look back
at the girl I had left behind. I could see her perfectly well using
the Black Camellia’s senses.

Alucard hardly swayed as she stood with her eyes
closed and her arm immersed into the Vault.

I leave him to you, Simone Alucard. Take care of
my little brother.

Concentrating my will over the Black Camellia, I
felt its five wing-vanes fan out behind me. I crouched even
further, and a moment later the Warlord floated off the ground.
Pressure built up behind it, and a heartbeat later the Camellia
rocketed forward down the tunnel.

In seconds I arrived at a scene of carnage – the
site of the explosion I’d sensed many, many minutes ago.

Armored personnel carriers lay in ruins.
Armor-skin clad soldiers lay dead amongst them.

The flames that once burned strongly had died
down.

I looked around at the burnt tunnel walls and
ceiling, noting the structural damage. A great deal of permacrete
had broken away and lay in ruin atop the vehicles and dead
soldiers.

Using the Black Camellia’s senses, I searched
for Melanie Cardwell, but I found no sign of the girl.

Her Artifact had been linked to Sunaj, who was
the hacker responsible for breaking down the seals on Galatea
Academy’s network. But he was also her guide, as Melanie led Caelum
and Simone to the Vault. Though she was linked to him, Melanie was
not linked to the rest of us. As a result, I had no idea where she
was and had relied on Sunaj to recount her progress through the
underground tunnels.

But since the explosion, all contact with her
had been lost.

I’d feared the worst, expecting to find nothing
but pieces of her and her Valkyrie Maiden, but as the Camellia
swept its senses over the surroundings, the Warlord found no trace
of her.

Melanie had vanished.

*
Sunaj, it’s Celica. I can’t find Melanie.
What happened to her?

There was a moment of quiet on the Link between
his Fragment and my Khan-skin.

*
Lady Celica…I’m sorry. The Link’s been
disrupted. I don’t know where she is anymore.

I swallowed down my frustration.

I sent a thought-stream his way.

*The explosion wouldn’t have broken the
Link, unless the Valkyrie Armor was severely damaged.

I searched about a little more, using the
Camellia’s senses to penetrate the smaller tunnels the Warlord
sensed above me. But I found no trace of the girl.

Had she escaped on her own?

Or had she been captured and ferried away?

With the Black Camellia floating a foot above
the tunnel floor, I looked at the dead soldiers lying around
me.

If she was taken, then whoever took her chose to
leave everyone else behind.

I looked up the tunnel in the direction away
from the Vault chamber.

I had come in via another tunnel, but I knew
from past experience that this main tunnel began at an underground
staging area. It was an underground base of sorts, large enough for
a full company of soldiers and vehicles.

Was Melanie there?

If she had been captured, was she taken to the
staging area?

Damn it. That girl had been a hard find – a
precious find. To lose her now was a severe blow.

I bit my lower lip, frustration gnawing at my
thoughts.

Anton’s thought-stream invaded the Link.

*
Mistress, hurry. With the Avienda nearby we
can’t pick up our people.

I grit my teeth together and considered my
options.

I could fly up the tunnel and through the
staging area, and then to the habitat above. Or I escape via the
same side tunnel I’d used on my way in. However, that would take
considerably longer.

Much longer.

I made my choice.

*
Anton, I’m going to exit via the base at the
entrance to the tunnel. It’s going to get messy. See you
soon.

*
Mistress!

*
Relax, I’ll be fine.

Gathering up the Camellia’s power, I accelerated
to near supersonic speed in a matter of seconds.

The force of my passage pushed a wall of air
ahead of me.

I continued to accelerate up the tunnel.

Urgency lent me its wings and the Camellia broke
the sound barrier a moment later.

The exit loomed fast up ahead.

I sailed through it, and had to pull up sharply
or crash into the small army of Enforcement Division vehicles
camped around the tunnel’s entrance.

The staging area resembled an underground base
with many levels accessible through an open, central atrium.
Enormous freight platforms ascended and descended along the walls
of the atrium, transporting men, machinery and munitions between
levels. A number of those elevators travelled in wide, open shafts
that led up to the habitat and the non-subterranean part of the
base. Dozens upon dozens of soldiers, technicians and mechanics
covered the open space between parked personnel carriers and
assorted military vehicles.

I didn’t know if the soldiers had been expecting
me, but I gave them no opportunity to recover and react to my
sudden entrance. The wall of air I’d pushed ahead of me had left
the soldiers and vehicles near the tunnel entrance tumbling like
leaves in a strong breeze.