Vengeance (7 page)

“And
where is that, exactly?”  I cross my arms over my chest.
 I fight to keep the wince from my face as another round of
blasts rock the palace.  I don’t know how much more this
unforgiving stone structure can handle.  It is being barraged
from all directions.

Where
are our soldiers?  Why have they not begun a counter attack?
 And what of my people?  Has the town been ransacked as
well, or is the attack focused solely on the palace?

There are countless
men, women and children in the city nearby.  My heart goes to
them, breaking for the pain they must be suffering.  I can feel
my anger beginning to simmer in electrical waves along my arms, feel
my power begin to well up in my chest.

Bastien grabs me by
the arms, pulling me close.  I don’t know how he manages
to hold on despite the fact that I am obviously shocking him
repeatedly, but he doesn’t let go.  “Kyan told me
that you knew something bad was coming.  If I’m not
mistaken I would say this pretty much proves you right.  Do you
really want to stand around out here and debate logistics or would
you rather me get you to safety so you can command your men?”

Darn his logic!

“I can fight,”
I protest, refusing to let him win.

He nods with a
surety that makes me pause.   “I know you can, but
now is not the time.  You are far too valuable for me to let you
run headlong into battle like you used to.”

“How did
you--”

“Not now,
Illyria.”  He seizes my hand once more and forces me to
keep pace with him.  I look back over my shoulder, fighting to
see through the unraveling strands of my braid.  Eamon is back
there somewhere.  He will be looking for me.  Will he know
where to find me?  

I
glance over at Bastien, realizing the intensity of his grip has
increased to painful levels.  
Can
I trust this man with my life?  Kyan assured me that I can, but
how much do I really know about him?  Dreams are hardly enough
evidence to judge a man’s character by.

“Where are you
taking me?”

Bastien grips my
hand tighter.  “To Aloysius’ personal bunker.”

The walls crack all
around us as we run, burrowing deeper into the darkened halls of the
palace.  From somewhere behind us I can hear the pounding of
feet echoing among the intermittent blasts.  I do not know if
these are our soldiers or if our enemy has breached the palace walls.

I feel blind not
knowing who our enemy is.  On Earth I had only one enemy.  Here,
among the stars, there are countless inhabited planets that could
seek to claim us.  

“How much
further?” I shout.

My feet stutter
across the floor, spilling me against Bastien as the hall behind us
explodes.  The last of the candlelight flickers out, plunging us
into complete darkness.  I can hear the hall collapsing, sealing
us in.  Although I know there is plenty of oxygen in the hall I
imagine the strain on my lungs.

“Another
minute,” he grunts.  His hands flounder along my arm in
search of my shoulders.  He pushes gently, helping me to right
myself so that I am not pinning him against the wall, which at any
moment could come tumbling down as well.  “Well, a minute
if we could actually see something,” he mutters.

I can hear him
swearing under his breath about not bringing a laser gun with him.  I
smirk and hold out my arm, allowing my eyes to close only for a
moment before brilliant light flares to life.  When I open my
eyes I can see Bastien’s widened gaze reflected in the light.
 “Well, that’s new.”

I grin as his gaze
shifts to take in the visible blue-white vines of electricity weaving
around my arm.  The intensity of it forces him to shield his
eyes.  “It comes in handy from time to time.”

“I
bet.”  He reaches out to seize my hand once more but
thinks better of it and just motions for me to follow him.  Shadows
retreat before us as we sprint ahead, winding down hallways and
bursting through closed doors before rushing down empty stairwells.
 I never realized the palace went underground.  I suppose I
should have assumed that Aloysius would require a safe room in case
of attack, but I guess I always thought that he placed too high a
confidence in the skills of the slaves he kept at his side at all
times.  Aloysius was a cocky man.  His pride was ultimately
his undoing.

“Down here!”

I throw myself
through a narrow doorway and cry out as I reach the edge of the path.
 My arms pinwheel and my breath catches in my throat as the
feeling of absolute nothingness rises up to meet me.

Bastien cries out as
he latches onto my arm and pulls me back from the drop off.  The
scent of burning flesh stings my nose as I watch him convulse, his
eyes rolling back in his head.  

“Bastien!”
 I grasp his hands, uncurling his fingers and thrust him off me.
 He bounces against the wall and sinks to the floor.  His
feet twitch and his lower lip droops to the right a bit.  “You
fool!  You could have killed yourself!”

The white hot glow
curling around my arm spirals down to collect in my palm.  The
white-blue energy shifts into a golden warmth as I press my hand to
his chest, letting my healing powers sink into him.  Bastien’s
eyes widen and he sucks in a great breath.  He splutters as his
chest releases and he is able to breath normally again.

“I realize
it’s in the job description to protect me at all costs but some
actions are just plain idiotic.”

“Noted.”
 His throaty chuckle ends in wracking coughs.  I loop my
arm under his, dousing the light and thrusting us into complete
darkness once more.  “Kyan forgot to mention that little
drop off when he gave me directions to this place.”

His
anger over this small detail does not go unnoticed as I ease him back
against the wall.  Once I am sure he is able to stand on his own
two feet again, I reignite my powers.  I turn and look about me,
sure that this trap was designed with the sole purpose of surprising
any attackers once the power grid went off line.  “Aloysius
may have been prideful but he was no fool.”

Bastien expels a
couple more shaky breaths before pushing off the wall.  He runs
his hands through his hair and I notice that they tremble.  “Are
you still hurt?”

He shakes his head,
squinting as he turns to look ahead of us.  The passage is
narrow and dark.  “I am well enough.  There is no
time.  We must reach the bunker.”

I
long to reach out and draw him back to insist that there is time to
heal him completely, but I don’t.  I know that he is
right.  I need to get to safety so that I can discover what the
status of my people is.

Bastien starts at a
slow jog, his eyes peeled for any more sudden drop offs or traps left
behind for us.  I keep pace with him, holding my arm aloft to
light the way.  Less than a minute later we approach a towering
set of silver double doors.  There is no knob or latch to be
seen.  The doors appear to open only from the inside.

His brow furrows as
he glides his fingers over the edging of the door, searching for a
hidden control panel.  The sounds of explosions overhead are
muffled but still frequent enough to know that the attack is hardly
over.  

I
must get inside,
I
think, closing my eyes.  I envision the door like Kyan has
taught me to do.  I can see the seamless surface without dent or
scratch.  I move deeper, through the door mechanisms, mentally
prodding everything in hopes it will release.  Just as I’m
about to withdraw I catch sight of a small wire that runs to the
right of the door and straight into the stone.  

I open my eyes and
press my finger against the invisible button.  I grin as the
door slides open with a hiss of musty air.  

“I’m
not even going to ask how you did that.”  Bastien places
his hand on my lower back and ushers me inside.  The lights
overhead flicker to life as we enter, as if they are set on a motion
detector.  A wall of monitors flicker to life, and I am drawn
forward while Bastien seals us inside.

Nearly a dozen
twenty-inch screens give me a bird’s eye view of the palace, or
at least what is left of it.  The entire western wing has
collapsed.  The eastern wing is well on its way.  The
ceiling of the great hall has collapsed.  Rubble dust hanging in
the air makes it hard to see in some of the areas.  Four of the
cameras are down, black and lifeless.  Through the video feed I
can hear screams and cries of pain but I can only make out a hazy
shape here and there.

I
frantically search the monitors until I find a camera perched just
past my room.  Grabbing the controls, I turn the camera and
search the hall.  There is a great amount of damage here.  I
can see a few people lying motionless on the floor but I can’t
tell if any of them are Eamon.  My hands begin to tremble as I
pan the camera further and see that the door to our room is open.

“He got out,”
Bastien says just behind me.  I jump, surprised by his nearness.

“Yes, but how
far did he get?  The entire front of the palace is gone!”

A hand rests upon my
shoulder, squeezing to give comfort.  I know that I should tell
him this is inappropriate behavior, even with the dire circumstances
before us, but I can’t bring myself to tell him to step back.
 I draw strength from his presence.  

“Look there!”
 Bastien lifts his hand to point to a camera still intact with a
live feed to the palace grounds.  I can see black clad figures
rushing along the streets toward the front gate but they are cut off
by the smoke and flames that light the distant sky.  

Tears curl down my
cheeks.  “Calahorra,” I whisper.

“There is
nothing you could have done.”

I spin and face him,
my anger spiking as I stare at my bodyguard.  “I could
have stopped this.  My people are being slaughtered while I sit
here and watch helplessly.”

Bastien
raises both hands and place them on my shoulders.  His gaze is
intense, demanding.  “Look at the screen and tell me what
you see.”

“I see my city
burning.”

“No,” he
shakes his head, drawing my gaze back.  “You see fires
that have been set alight just on this side of the palace gates meant
to look as if the city burns.  It is a ruse.”

“A
ruse for what purpose?”  I glance toward the monitors once
more, and this time I can see the tiny details that I missed on first
glance.  The forest tree line has been set alight, blazing with
an intensity that would singe a man at a close proximity.  I
watch the smoke rise with the winds and carry over the city, though
the only glow of fire that can be seen beyond is what bounces from
the walls of the homes.  I breathe out a sigh of relief.

“Whoever it is
that is attacking us knows that you are here.  That you have
returned early.  They also know that a great number of our
soldiers are housed in Calahorra…”

He trails off but I
don’t need him to finish that thought.  We have been cut
off from our soldiers.  There won’t be any help getting
through until the blaze is put out.  I sink down onto a chair
and blow out a great breath.

“They must
know that I can control the weather,” I whisper.  “They
know I could easily douse the flames with rain if I were out there.”

Bastien nods and
sinks down before me.  He places his hands on the armrests on
either side of me.  “They know far more about you than
they should, Illyria.  That is why you must stay here.”

“And do what?
 Nothing?  You seem to know me well enough to know that is
not an option.”

He nods, gritting
his teeth.  I can tell just how aware of that fact he is.  “Kyan
told me that this bunker is impenetrable.  This is the only
place on this planet that you can be truly safe.”

“Safe?”
I snort and roll my eyes, casting my gaze down.

I notice how swiftly
Bastien’s hands tense around the chair arms.  “Do
you care so little about your life that you would throw it all away?”

“No.”  I
look up at him and am rocked by the depth of pain that I see buried
within his sapphire eyes.  They are dark and disturbingly
intense as he stares me down.  “I do not have a death
wish, but my family is out there.  How can you ask me to sit
here and wait for their deaths when I could help them?”

His adam’s
apple bobs.  “Because I know that if this enemy gets their
hands on you they can unleash a power that could destroy everything.”

“How do you
know that?”  A tremor attacks my voice, making it crack.

I
can feel his need to look away, to run and hide.  It is the same
feeling I discovered only a short while ago when I reached out to him
on the ledge.  
He
is terrified,
I
realize but even as this thought captures me I know that he does not
fear me but instead fears for me.

I lean forward.
 “How do you know so much about me when we have never
met?” I press.

His lower lip begins
to tremble and the chair creaks under the pressure of his grip.  His
mouth parts to speak but an explosion outside this room sends him
sprawling to the floor.  I cry out as I am thrust back into the
table, the hard metal edge slamming into my stomach.  

“What was
that?” I gasp, pushing back into my seat.  Bastien is
already rising, his hands flying across the monitor controls in
search of an exterior camera.  In my peripheral vision I spy the
glow of red lasers beginning to fill the palace grounds.  Somewhere,
somehow our soldiers broke through the fires.  Will they arrive
soon enough?

“Oh no.”
 Bastien’s entire body seems to lock down as I turn to
look at the large monitor before him.  I cry out, my hands
covering my mouth as I feel cold dread wash over me.

Four giants stand on
the other side of the door, so tall they are forced to stoop in the
low hanging hall.  Their skin ripples with color, shimmering
with scales of reds, oranges and yellows.  Their eyes are
slitted and their noses absent apart from two thin slits.  Their
faces are elongated more than a human’s and their mouths appear
to be filled with needle-like fangs.