Rise of the Resistance (War for Orion Trilogy Book Two) (40 page)

“She said that without their help the
crodillians slaughter us. Hermes and Gaea quickly fall and
reinforcements arrive here to wipe us out,” he said dismally.

“That's impossible, there's no way she could
know that.”

“I think she does. There's something about
her, though I can't exactly say what it is. She
can
see
things and knows that they're readying to strike Ares, and that's
all that matters. We need her help if we want to win.”

“I guess we'll find out soon whether she can
help us as much as she claims,” Nimesha replied. “You know, Anlon
won't like this, right?”

“They're here to help with the rebellion,
why wouldn't he?”

“Donnchadh.”

Pyrrhus was quiet. “I forgot about that.
Find a way to keep it from him for now. We don't need him going out
on some act of vengeance in the middle of our rebellion, especially
if his new friends can help us.”

“You know he'll eventually find out, no
matter how hard you try to keep it from him.”

“We need Kanti to make her speech without
any distractions. She and Anlon are close, so if he's troubled, it
could affect her speech,” he crossed his arms and let out a breath.
“We also don't need him destroying our relationship with Leilah if
she can help the way she claims. If she’s close to Donnchadh, we
need to keep him alive.”

Nimesha nodded and bit her lip. “I won't
keep it from him if he asks, but I won't mention anything to him
either. I’m sure we can keep the two away from each other long
enough for Kanti to make her speech.”

“Thank you. That’s all that I ask.”

She cleared her throat. “I also think I may
be able to help with the Kirill problem. If he's sided with the
crodillians, he’s the more dangerous of the two enemies, especially
if the Deimos Brotherhood is by his side.”

“Why do you think he's more dangerous?”

“He wouldn't join Merikh unless he thought
he stood a good chance of getting rid of him at any given moment.
This man calculates every move he makes. He’s always two steps
ahead of everyone. How do you think no one has ever caught
him?”

“Go on,” he motioned.

“The time will be soon. His goal when I was
working for him was to take over Orion. He wanted to kill the Queen
and rule in her spot. Now, he’s closer to that than ever, and he's
using the crodillians to suppress Orion. Once the crodillians
launch the attack on Ares after we rebel, I believe he’ll kill
Merikh. I'm not sure what he'll do after that, but I believe he’ll
slowly carry out his plan of mass genocide,”

“And what do you want to do about it?”

“Let me go to Hera and kill Kirill.”

“You want to go to Hera? It's overrun by
crodillians! How will you even get close to Kirill?”

“I've been doing it my whole life,” she
crossed her arms and winked. “Now are you going to okay this, or do
I have to sneak off on my own?”

“You can go,” he waved his hands. “But I
don't see how killing him will help with our fight against the
crodillians.”

“Because you'll only be fighting one enemy.
And trust me when I say this, the crodillians are the enemy that
you'd rather be fighting. Kirill is smarter than he appears and
when he has his eyes set on something, it's hard to stop him from
getting it. He’s unpredictable and that makes him the more
dangerous of the two.”

“Then I hope you can stop him,” Pyrrhus
said. “But don't get mad when I say that I don't think you'll even
get close to him. Hera is going to be impossible to get on right
now. The planet will literally be on lockdown and crawling with the
enemy.”

“It doesn't bother me. I've been told my
whole life my assignments are impossible, and when have I not
killed one of my targets?”

The smile disappeared from Pyrrhus' face and
she knew it was because she’d killed some of his own men. She
turned around and left the room without another word. Kirill
teaming with Merikh had been unexpected, but she knew it was a
deadly combination of foes, with Kirill being the deadlier of the
two. She would need to get to Hera quickly, before the crodillians
were faced with mass rebellions, and she knew just the pilot who
could get her there safely.

Anlon sat next to Kanti on the couch in the
living room with a pile of food in his lap. He put his hand on
Kanti's leg and looked to her.

“You have to make you speech soon.”

“I know I do,” she nodded. “Pyrrhus wants me
to prepare one, but I don't know how I can. I’m not sure how I can
knowingly lead thousands to their deaths.”

“Not all of them will die,” Anlon reassured
her. “Sure, there will be a lot of deaths, but that's just part of
the rebellion. Even if we don’t rebel, they’ll eventually die at
the hands of the enemy.”

“Isn't it my job as Princess to make sure
that my races don't die?”

“That's what you're doing,” he answered. “By
having them rebel, you're saving them all.”

“I don't feel right sending so many off to
sure deaths, at least not lying to them about it. How am I supposed
to tell them everything will be okay? This won't be a quick and
easy war with a few casualties. This will be weeks long. Even if we
do get through this, how will they look at me when it’s over after
knowing I lied to them?”

“Then don't tell them everything will be
okay. Tell them what it’ll actually be like, let them know that
there's a lot of death ahead of them. They’ll still fight by your
side.”

“That's not what the leaders will want. They
want me to rally them and make them blind to what’s truly lying
ahead of them. Telling them the truth could discourage some of
them, maybe all of them.”

“But the leaders aren’t the Princess,
they're not the one making the speech. They won't have to live with
the weight of all of those deaths on their shoulders. Tell the
rebels the truth and they’ll rally behind you even more. None will
turn from a fight now. Each of them will pick up their arms and
fight to the death. It’s up to you to lead them.”

“Do you really think they'll fight as hard
if I reveal the complete and whole truth? Even being on the inside,
it looks dire.”

Anlon nodded. “They'll know you're also one
of them, that you face the same dangers, that you're not immune to
death. Let them know
everything
. Tell them there’s only a
slight chance we win, but let them also know the reality of loss or
not fighting at all. Don't hold anything back from them, it's not
what your mother would do. She’d tell them the whole truth, as ugly
and bleak as it may seem.”

“You know that the leaders and the Council
won't approve.”

“You're the Princess,” he shrugged. “The
only ones that really need to approve are the ones fighting for
you. If you tell the rebels the truth, they'll fight even harder
for you. This is their home, the truth may be bleak, but it’s still
the truth. They’ll respect a Princess who tells them the truth much
more than one who doesn't”

“I love you, Anlon,” she hugged him. “I
wouldn't be able to do any of this without you. If it weren’t for
you, I’d most likely be dead.”

Anlon hugged her back. “I love you too.”

“We'll win this war. We’ll get our galaxy
back.”

“I know. How could we not with a leader like
you? You’ll give the rebels hope and courage they didn't even know
they had. We may be outnumbered, but we have a leader who loves her
galaxy as much as her mother. In the end, that’s all that
matters.”

Jahdiel snuck down to the dungeons to see if
the Queen was locked up in her cell. The stench of dead bodies had
gotten worse and she didn't know how they Queen could ever get used
to it. Bugs were crawling all over the floor and they squished
beneath her feet as she walked down the gory dungeons.

“Adira,” she whispered. “It's Jahdiel.”

The Queen appeared from the shadows, beaten
and malnourished. Merikh had stopped feeding her real food, and had
started giving her scraps and leftovers from his soldiers’ meals.
Jahdiel could tell she wasn't eating any of it, no longer caring if
she lived or died. Her face was scabbed from being hit and multiple
new wounds popped up on her body every day. Adira was his slave and
he treated her as such.

“Why are you here?” She asked. “You
shouldn't be seeing me, not now. Merikh is furious with you. He
told all of the crodillians if one of them kills you, he won't do
anything.”

“I know. I knew what would happen as soon as
I killed that pilot.”

“Why would you do it?”

“I'm done with it all. I won't help this
monster anymore. I was wrong to help him after you outcast me, and
now all that’s happening is my doing. Everything you’re going
through, your races are going through, is because of my
actions.”

“It’s just as much my fault as it is yours,”
Adira took her hand. “I shouldn't have outcast you without a trial.
I should've waited, you can't blame yourself for helping them. If
you hadn't helped them, you'd be dead right now. You did what you
had to do to survive. You can’t punish yourself for that.”

“But I brought them back here. I helped them
do all of this.
I
wanted this as much as they did.”

“But you don't anymore. We’ve all made
mistakes, and all of this is my fault, not yours. This all started
with my decision.”

“I can't sit around and watch as they
destroy Orion anymore,” she said. “I made sure that Ares wasn't
touched until last, like you told me. Why did you want Ares to be
taken over last though?”

“That’s where the rebellion will begin. The
rebels have forces stronger than I've led Merikh to believe. There
was a General who wasn't fond of my original plan, and convinced me
to send ships to Ares, just in case things turned out bad. He
contacted me before abandoning his ship and told me where he was
headed.”

“Then I must survive long enough to lead the
strike against Ares,” Jahdiel replied. “There has to be some way
that I can help the rebels.”

“The crodillians will kill you if you try to
help them, Jahdiel. You need to get out of here, get far away and
hide. Help the rebellion if you can, but not from within the ranks
of the crodillians.”

“They’re already going to kill me, there’s
no hiding from them. I’ve brought this upon Orion, whether you want
to believe so or not, and I’ll do everything I can to make sure
that Merikh fails.”

Adira lifted her head up by the chin and
looked her in the eyes. “Be careful then. Don't let them know
you're up to anything and protect yourself at all costs. Merikh
wants you dead, and so does every other crodillian you'll be
leading. They’ll hate you, despise you, and will do anything to see
you fail.”

“I’ll do everything in my power to make sure
it’s Merikh who fails,” she turned to leave the dungeons. “I’ll
assist your rebellion as much as possible, and I truly hope they
can pull through. Merikh's forces are much stronger than any of the
rebels have previously seen. Once they rebel, they’ll see the full
force of Merikh's powers. He won’t hold back any longer.”

“The rebels will prevail. They’ll win this
war,” the Queen smiled.

Jahdiel walked down the dungeons and back to
her room. She didn't see any crodillians roaming the halls, but she
kept her hand on her pistol the entire way, just in case. She
wasn't going to let any of the crodillians kill her before she got
to Ares, at least not before she wounded Merikh. He couldn't be
allowed to conquer Orion, and she would make sure he didn't, even
if the cost was her own life.

Ezio walked through the rubble streets,
making sure to stay out of sight of any crodillians. He’d left
Xiphos a few hours ago and had almost run into several convoys of
them in that short amount of time. More units had been set up since
the last time he’d left the base and he knew they were prepping for
resistance.