War for Orion: Ghosts from the Past (19 page)

"You try to move and I'll shoot you with the
shock convulser again," he warned.

Donnchadh couldn't move even if he wanted to,
his body was curled up into a fetal position and it felt like he
was being electrocuted. Two of the guards came over and cuffed his
hands and feet. They stood him up and dragged him out into the
hallway with the kitchen staff who had surrendered without a
fight.

"Two races escaped through a tunnel," He
heard one of the guards say into a comlink. "Yes," he turned. "Go
out to the secret exit immediately, don't let them get off of
Hera."

Donnchadh heard footsteps approaching him
from down the hallway. They were moving quickly and by the time he
looked up, they had stopped and two people were standing right in
front of him.

"You sicken me Donnchadh," The Queen spat.
"You betrayed Armino and I to join a brotherhood of thugs and
criminals, then you kill his family, and attempt to kill me in my
own home."

Donnchadh didn't respond because he was too
busy staring at the boy standing by her side. "Anlon told me you
were here with your friends," The Queen informed him. "Looks like
you've failed your new boss twice, whoever he is. If it weren't for
Anlon, I would most likely be dead. Looks like your mistakes have
finally caught up to you Donnchadh," She turned to one of the
guards. "Take him to the dungeons."

The guards picked up Donnchadh and dragged
him down the hallway to the dungeons. Donnchadh glared at Anlon the
whole way down with his fists clenched and his insides raging with
fury.

Ulisse ran down the tunnels closely behind
Sanguinarius. Neither one of them planned on getting caught and
exerted all of their effort to getting out of the tunnels and off
of Hera alive.

"Were you paying attention to how we got
here?" He shouted to Sanguinarius.

"Yes!" He shouted back. "All we did was go
straight after that first right!"

They continued down the tunnel and found the
exit that led to the library. Luckily, there was still nobody in
the library and they both quickly ran down the tunnel to the
library, not bothering to seal off the tunnel behind them.

"Over there!" Ulisse pointed.

They both jumped down into the dirt passage,
skipping the ladder, and covering the entrance they had come
through. Both began racing down the tunnel and reached the end in
less than half the time it had taken when they had arrived. They
climbed out of the tunnel and looked out of the cottage windows to
see if there were any guards waiting for them.

"Are we good to go?" Sanguinarius asked.

Ulisse nodded his head and opened the door.
"I see them coming to us, but they won't reach us in time if we get
out now."

Sanguinarius ran to the ship and up the ramp.
He jumped into the pilot seat and waited for Ulisse to sit down
next to him before lifting the ship off of the ground.

"They'll never see us leave," Sanguinarius
grinned.

"What about Donnchadh?" Ulisse asked.

"He got caught," he replied, maneuvering the
ship. "We can't wait for him or try to rescue him or we risk the
chance of getting caught ourselves. I don't know about you, but I
don't want to get caught by the Queen's guard."

"Do we tell Kirill about the failure now?"
Ulisse asked.

"No," Sanguinarius shook his head. "I'd
rather tell him when we get back. I don't want him waiting in the
bay already angry at us."

Things hadn't gone as planned at all, but
Kirill had been warned of this. Kirill had been warned of the boy,
but still, he insisted everything would be fine. The contact had
worked in the Palace long enough to know better, but following
Kirill's orders was the only option. The contact picked up a
comlink and called Kirill.

"Is it done?" he asked.

The contact's head shook. "No. They tried and
failed quite miserably."

"What happened?" Kirill shouted, slamming his
hands on his desk. "What went wrong?"

"The boy, Anlon," The contact replied. "He
saw your men and warned the Queen before she could receive the
poison."

"Why did you let this happen?" Kirill fumed.
"You said you would take care of the boy!"

The contact had already been prepared for
Kirill to take the blame off of himself, so the contact had already
come up with something that would place all of the blame on
Kirill's men.

"Your men were careless. They let themselves
be seen by the boy. How am I supposed to prevent that Kirill? The
carelessness of your men is the reason this mission was a failure,
it had nothing to do with me."

"Donnchadh!" Kirill clenched his fists. "I'll
have his head when he gets back! I told him how important this
mission was!"

"That may be a problem Kirill, but you will
most likely get your wish in the end."

"What do you mean it will be a problem?"

"Donnchadh was captured, though the other two
were lucky enough to escape. Donnchadh will die at the hands of the
Queen, I can assure you that."

Kirill shouted curses and cut off the
comlink. The contact smiled and silently chuckled, loving to be
correct. Maybe next time Kirill would listen and not blow off
suggestions from someone with experience in things such as this.
Only time would tell, and right now, other things needed attending
because other plans still needed to fall into place.

Adira stood in front of Anlon in her personal
chamber with the curtains pulled closed. She had heard that the
other races had evaded capture of her guards, but she didn't want
to take the chance that they were still lurking on Palace grounds.
Anlon had been brought in her chambers for more than just thanking
him, there was something she needed him to do now.

"Thank you again for saving my life
Anlon."

He just smiled. "I think it was pure
coincidence, and luck, that I was able to save your life. I was
lucky to survive that attack at my house and I was only able to
save your life because you brought me here after that. If you
hadn't have brought me here, you'd probably be dead right now."

"There is no question that I'd be dead right
now if you hadn't have come. Whoever was behind this definitely
wasn't expecting you to be here. I still can't help but think that
there is someone on the inside helping the Deimos Brotherhood.
There's no other way they could've gotten so close to me within my
own home."

"Who do you think is behind it all? I mean,
who on the inside do you think is helping them?"

"It has to be someone on my Council," She
told him. "With how much the Deimos Brotherhood seems to know,
those are the only possible suspects. If not one of them, it's
someone whose being given inside information, which is all the same
if you ask me."

"Your own Council ?" He asked stunned.
"They're supposed to be your most trusted advisers."

"They're supposed to be my most trusted," she
shrugged. "But after recent events, and some past events that I've
kept silent, I have no doubt that it is one of them."

"But why work with the Deimos Brotherhood?"
Anlon shook his head. "What would anyone get from helping them?
They're an organization of terrorists and assassins. There can't be
any benefit helping them with anything."

"Maybe, whoever it is, made a deal with them
to take my spot on the Throne," she said.

"You don't sound very convinced," he
sensed.

"I'm not. No one on the Council would take my
spot if I died, not without force anyway. That's why I can't narrow
it down to any one member. Not one of them has anything to gain
from my death that I can see."

"Maybe the leader of the Deimos Brotherhood
has an idea who will take your spot," he suggested. "They could've
teamed up with yet another race who could claim right to the
Throne."

"If I knew who the leader was, I could
probably make a list of individuals they would want in my spot.
Without knowing who the leader is though, I can't figure out who
would gain the most from my death."

"You're forgetting something," Anlon
grinned.

"Donnchadh."

"Exactly," Anlon nodded. "He knows who the
leader is, and probably who is leaking information too."

"I don't know," Adira hesitated. "I don't
think we'll get much of anything out of him. He killed your family
and then tried to kill me. He won't want to help us."

"Do you think they're linked?" Anlon
asked.

"Your family's murder and my attempted
assassination?"

"Yes. They happened so close together. Could
it really be a coincidence in how close they took place?"

She pondered a moment. "I think they might
just be linked. You know about Donnchadh and who he was before the
monster he is now. He must've come up with taking out Armino
because he knew I'd never die as long as Armino was alive."

"So my Dad really was your best man?"

She nodded. "Undoubtedly, and that's why they
must've had him taken out. They knew it would leave my vulnerable,
or so they believed."

"Why kill my whole family though? It doesn't
make sense to kill them all," Anlon asked.

"I'm not sure, but letting you survive was
their first and most fatal mistake," She hugged him. "You may just
save Orion."

"Save Orion?"

"They want me dead to take my spot on the
Throne. Whoever
wants
my spot, wants
power.
If
they're willing to kill for that power, it can't be good for Orion
or any of its races."

"They're not going to stop until you're
dead."

"They won't," she agreed. "But I know that
and I'll warn my guards. They don't know about my two weapons
though, so I'll be at an advantage."

"Two weapons?" Anlon asked confused.

"Yes," she smiled. "You and my daughter."

"Where is she?" Anlon asked. "I found some
papers in my dad's study, but there was no location on any of
them."

"I have a clue. Problem is, I can't go get it
after what has just happened today. The Palace is the only place
I'll be even a little bit safe at the moment."

"So you need me to find her?"

"I do Anlon," she answered. "I should've
asked you when we first talked, but I didn't know if I could trust
you or not. After you burst into the room and saved my life, I knew
immediately you would protect me with your life, just as your
father did his whole life."
Anlon blushed. "I understand why you didn't tell me. I haven't told
many people the truth about what happened the night my family was
killed. How could you possibly trust me with a secret like
yours?"

"I should've trusted you," Adira replied.
"You're Armino's son and you watched your family get slaughtered
because
I
allowed the wrong people access to the
database."

"It's not your fault. We don't know if it's
someone you even allowed to have access to the database. Someone
could've broken in and gotten the information. I know it's possible
because someone told me they were able to get in undetected to
search for people."

"Someone broke in and Giustino didn't
know?"

"Sort of. You can't tell Giustino though, she
was only trying to find her family."

She looked at him worried. "You can't be sure
Anlon! Maybe that's who revealed where your father was!"

"It wasn't," Anlon said, with no shred of
doubt in his voice. "She wouldn't do something like that."

"Are you sure? This could be the race that
we're looking for."

"I am confident that she revealed
nothing
to
anyone
. She's the only friend I have now
and I trust her with my life," Anlon replied.

Adira hugged him. "You have me now too,
Anlon. You're not alone in this anymore. We're going to stop
whoever is behind all of this together."

"So you won't tell Giustino?" Anlon
asked.