Rise of the Resistance (War for Orion Trilogy Book Two) (45 page)

“It's Kirill,” Donnchadh said. “He's going
to try to send an assassin to kill her.”

“Damn Kirill!” Pyrrhus swore. “He’s going to
bring an end to Orion helping the crodillians. The man has no idea
what he’s doing to this galaxy.”

“There’s tension between the crodillians and
Kirill,” Leilah said. “Kirill wants different things. He’s sending
an assassin to take care of more than just Kanti, he’s sending one
for Merikh.”

“Aren't the Crodillians helping him?”
Pyrrhus asked. “Why would he kill their leader in the middle of a
war?”

“They disagree on many things. They don't
see eye to eye anymore, but I can't see which one comes out on top
yet. That part hasn't been revealed to me. I can feel the tensions
and anger, but I don't know what the final result is.”

“That's good,” Pyrrhus nodded to himself.
“If they’re fighting from within, then they'll be distracted, which
gives us a better chance of defeating them.”

“And you have yet more tensions from within
the crodillian command chain,” she revealed. “You’ll benefit
greatly from a woman named Jahdiel.”

“She’s one of their top Commanders!” Pyrrhus
exclaimed. “She ordered the burning of Demeter! That woman is one
of the reasons we’re even fighting this war right now.”

“She’s not the same as when she arrived. Her
heart has changed after speaking with the Queen. She’s willing to
sacrifice her life so the rebellion may succeed.”

“How? What’s she going to do?”

“What she does, will be up to you. I won’t
tell you that you have to do anything, but the opportunity to
accept her help
will
arrive. Know that her heart is pure,
but it’s up to you what you do with her,” Leilah bit her lip.
“There’s one more thing I’ve seen that you also knew was going to
happen, but I thought I’d tell you anyway.”

“They've killed Adira?”

“Not yet,” she shook her head. “But, yes,
they will soon. Make sure your rebels stay focused to their cause,
don't let her death change what they're fighting for. I’ve seen her
die, and it pains me even now as I tell you. What they're going to
do is horrible. It's heartless, but these are monsters we're
fighting, not our own.”

“Is there anything else you need to tell
me?”

Leilah shook her head. “No, not right now.
Right now, Donnchadh and I need to wait at the house you’ve
provided us with. He’ll have a visitor soon, and he needs to be
there to greet that visitor.”

Donnchadh looked to her with a look of
surprise. She put his hand on his to calm him.

“We’ll wait for you to come back,” Pyrrhus
put his hand on her shoulder with a big smile. “The rebels greatly
thank you for your help. I didn't think you'd actually help us, but
I think I'm about to find out just how wrong I was. If this is a
sign of things to come, everyone’s mind will be blown by your
gift.”

Leilah smiled and the sun shone off her
radiant skin, making it glow and her red her glisten. She turned
around and walked down the steps back towards the house. Donnchadh
followed by her side, unable to take his eyes off of her. She
didn’t blame him, she knew she was different. Her whole life she’d
felt it, but no one could see or understand so she’d kept it to
herself. Now she knew her entire purpose in life. It’s why she’d
been granted these special powers. The reason she was born was to
stop the crodillians from destroying Orion.

Kirill stood in his room with Ulisse and
Abdul in front of him. They’d seen the Princess' message, but they
didn't know about his meeting with Merikh yet, which is why he’d
called them here. It was time for him to admit to his mistakes and
move on with his plans.

“Merikh isn't happy about the Princess'
message.”

“I wouldn't think he would be,” Abdul said.
“You told him you’d be able to stop this with the Deimos
Brotherhood. I can’t imagine him being pleased when he saw the
message.”

“There was no way I could stop this!” Kirill
raged. “They were planning this before I even allied myself with
that creature.”

Ulisse and Abdul both traded looks, not
escaping the notice of Kirill. He’d let his anger slip and
continued more calmly this time. “I knew all along it'd be
impossible. I was using him to take over Orion. He has the power to
do it, but I never
actually
expected there to be a
rebellion, especially not an announced one.”

“But you were wrong,” Abdul said. “I told
you not to side with the crodillians, now you're stuck with them,
for better or for worse. There’s no switching sides or admitting
mistakes to the resistance. They’ll kill you either way because
you’re seen as a traitor.”

“I’m
not
stuck with Merikh. I have
assassins on my side to help make sure of that,” Kirill pointed to
Ulisse.

Ulisse backed up. “Whoa, I don't want to be
on the crodillians' bad side. I'm living with them right now and
I'd rather not upset them. I like living, and I don’t know about
you, but I don’t want to end up like the rebels.”

“Merikh must die now,” Kirill furrowed his
eyes. “I’ve waited too long and now I’m suffering for that. He’s
going to kill
everything
in Orion. We have to stop that. I
need
something
to rule.”

“I strongly advise against this Kirill.
You’re right, you have waited too long, and now is too late to kill
Merikh. He'll be expecting a desperate move like this.”

“They're going to kill Adira!” Kirill
revealed. “They're going to do it publicly for all of Orion to see.
Do you know how the rest of Orion will look at me if they find out
that I let Merikh live after killing her?”

“Why not just leave here?” Ulisse asked.
“Join the rebellion. I'm sure they'll forgive you if you leave
before anything happens.”

“No! I won’t join the rebels. I’ve come too
far to take that step back.”

“It may be your best option,” Abdul agreed.
“Get the entire Deimos Brotherhood out of here before it's too
late. The resistance would happily take them in.”

“My best option is to kill Kanti and Merikh,
then nothing will keep me from ruling Orion!”

“You're going to
kill
Kanti?” Ulisse
asked. “She's leading the rebellion that may very well get rid of
the crodillians.”

“She’s brought all of this trouble down on
me. If she hadn't made that speech, we wouldn't be talking about
any of this right now.”

“We would’ve eventually. I told you to kill
Merikh days ago,” Abdul shook his head.

“Everything will be fine,” Kirill assured
them. “My assassins are going to kill Merikh and I’ll send Ulisse
to take care of Kanti.”

“The crodillians will know you had Merikh
killed,” Abdul said.

“And what are they going to do about it?” He
asked. “They’ll be too busy slaughtering rebels to care about what
happened to their leader.”

“It’s up to you. I’m done trying to convince
you what to do,” Abdul put his hands in the air.

“I’m glad to hear it. I was getting tired of
your whining,” Kirill crossed his arms. “Ulisse can make a poison
for the Princess. Nothing that points directly back to me.”

Ulisse looked between the two of them. “I
can do it. I mean, make the poison anyway. I don't know how I'm
supposed to get it to her.”

“You’ll find a way to do it,” Kirill waved
his hand with a flick of the wrist. “Just make the poison and
deliver it to her any way possible. Once that's done, she's good as
dead and we’ll be one step closer to our ultimate goal.”

“Things won't go this smoothly,” Abdul
warned. “I believe you’ve waited too long to act. I’m trying to
sway your decision, I’m just telling you what I think.”

“We’ll just have to wait and find out then,
won't we Abdul?”

Kanti and Anlon got out of the cruiser and
followed Nimesha and Falcone to
Drakos Mavros
. They’d all
been in the house talking when Nimesha all of a sudden brought up
that she needed to get to Hera. It’d been totally out of the blue,
but it was obvious she’d been waiting for the right time to tell
them. Everything was planned out - from how she was going to get
there and to how she was going to kill Kirill.

It’d been a surprise to Kanti and Anlon that
Kirill had sided with the crodillians, but neither had bothered to
ask how exactly she’d found out. They assumed one of the rebel
bases had revealed the information and then Pyrrhus had asked her
to do what she did best. They both knew about his plan of a pure
galaxy and he probably thought the crodillians were his best bet at
achieving that.

Nimesha was determined to get there and
eliminate him. She swore that he was more dangerous than the
crodillians, and they all believed it. It was her who’d worked for
him firsthand, so she knew exactly how powerful and manipulating he
really was. Everything he’d ever taught her was now going to come
around and bite him. She’d only failed on assignment her entire
time in the Brotherhood, and that failure had brought her here.

Anlon had offered her
Drakos Mavros
as long as she promised to bring it back and Falcone had
volunteered to go along. She’d resisted at first, but Falcone was
persistent, saying he had to make up for doubting her loyalties
when they first met. When all was said and done, she’d revealed he
was the only pilot that was ever on her mind.

“I'll miss you two,” Falcone winked. “Make
sure to behave yourselves while Nimesha and I are out hunting down
bad guys.”

Kanti chuckled and wrapped her arms around
him, stuffing her face into his feathers so the others couldn't see
her tears. When she let go, she sniffled, trying to hide her
emotions. Falcone reached his hand out to Anlon and he grabbed
it.

“Take care of the Princess, got it?” He
shook his hand. “Don't let anything happen to her while we're
gone.”

“I won't,” Anlon smiled. “She'll be safe
here with me.”

Kanti walked over to Nimesha and hugged her.
She wrapped her grey and black furry arms around Kanti and looked
at her with her golden eyes.

“I'm sorry I tried to kill you,” Nimesha
smiled.

“I know you are,” she hugged harder.
“Promise to come back?”

“Promise,” she said. “I wouldn't leave you
guys after making it this far. We’re almost finished and I can’t
wait to see what’s in store for us.” Anlon came over and hugged
her. “And thank you for giving me a chance, Anlon. You could've
killed me back on Erebos, so thank you.”

“You're welcome,” he let go. “Now you two
hurry up and come back. We'll be waiting for you.”

Falcone and Nimesha walked up the ramp of
Drakos Mavros
. The ramp hissed up and the engines roared to
life as Kanti and Anlon moved away from the ship. The nose pointed
towards the sky, and the dragon shaped ship sped off to Hera. Anlon
looked to Kanti and hugged her, seeing a familiar ship that
Drakos Mavros
had been covering just seconds ago. He knew
that ship. He’d seen it when Camillus found the races that killed
his family.”

“Donnchadh is here,” Anlon whispered.

Kanti let go of him. “What are you talking
about?”

He turned her to face the ship behind her.
She gasped at the sight and turned to Anlon with worry on her
face.

“Just because the ship is here, doesn't mean
he is.”

“We need to tell Pyrrhus. If Kirill is
helping the crodillians, he could've sent one of his men here to
derail the rebellion. That ship could mean only one assassin.
Donnchadh.”

Anlon pulled out his comlink and called
Pyrrhus. It didn't take long for him to answer and it sounded like
a few of the Council members were speaking in the background.

“Yes, Anlon?”

“Donnchadh is here,” he said. “His ship,
Cerberus,
is at the spaceport.”

The other end was silent a moment, except
for the voices in the background. “I know he’s here. I allowed him
to stay after meeting with him and his crew.”

“Do you know who he works for and what he
did to my family?” Anlon shouted. “He's going to destroy our
rebellion!”

Kanti put her hand on his shoulder to calm
him down. She knew he wasn't thinking straight and she didn't blame
him. This was the malak responsible for killing his family and he’d
tried to move on from it. He accepted it’d happened and let
Donnchadh face fair trial, but now he was here in the heart of the
rebellion.

“He's here to help,” Pyrrhus tried to calm
him down in a soothing tone. “He’s brought others with him that are
assisting us with the rebellion.”

“Where is he?” Anlon asked.

“He's in one of the houses about a block
from the Capitol building. It's the only glass one on the entire
street. You can’t miss it.”

Anlon hung up the comlink and ran to the
cruiser. Kanti quickly caught up to him and got in next to him.

“Don't act brash, Anlon. If Pyrrhus let him
stay here, there’s a reason why.”