“Wait!” Jules cried. It felt wrong. The magic Ranul was wielding wasn’t good. There was a reason the Beykn hadn’t survived. Regnig’s notes suggested these spells should be buried and never uncovered again.
“You cannot stop me,” Ranul said. She lifted her shirt to reveal tattoos etched over her entire body. “I am protected, young one.”
Jules had to be cautious. “We have a deal. You agree to our terms?”
“You’re in no position for negotiating with me.” Ranul clutched the crystal like it was her firstborn, stroking it with tenderness. “Sarlun, you’ll remain. Make sure no one attempts to use this stone. No one, do you understand?”
Sarlun flinched. “I won’t fail you,” but his voice betrayed his words.
“I will return. Wait for me,” she ordered, and readjusted the section of crystal. It began to glow, and Jules didn’t wait. Her powers might not work against the protective spells, but there was nothing saying she couldn’t make the trip through the partial portal with Ranul. She sped so quickly across the room, it looked like she transported to Ranul’s side. The woman’s eyes went wide just as the light enveloped both of them.
“What are you…”
They were gone.
“… doing?” Ranul’s words sounded hollow in the new place.
Jules inhaled, finding the air thin. A gentle breeze carried cool sulfur-laced air, and she glanced at the opposing crescent moons. Both were blood red. Soft pale clouds decorated the sky, rippling like bedsheets on a clothesline.
Ranul squared off against Jules. She hadn’t expected company at Gasade. “That was a mistake.”
“Hear me out.” Jules appraised her. The Brack woman was clearly angry, but Jules needed to comprehend what her plan was. “I can help you. I already understand the runes. I’ve studied them.”
“You?” Ranul laughed. “There are no records of the Beykn.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I have a book.” Jules crouched in the sand and drew a fire symbol. For the first time, it worked, burning brightly at her feet.
Ranul jumped back in surprise. “Gasade is as fertile as I hoped.”
And it made sense. “You need this planet to cast the spells.” That was why Jules and Natalia couldn’t conjure them on Outpost.
“Yes.” Ranul had the casting device around her neck on a string, and she pulled it over her bald head. “It’s filled with this very sand.” She shook the pen-shaped wand, and Jules heard the shaking beads of sand. “We visited long ago, gathered samples. My grandmother created these wands, but unfortunately, the entire planet has a rune of memory loss. We departed, and could never find our way back. All we had were a handful of spells and the sand.”
Ranul was in a talkative mood, maybe sensing Jules’ willingness to assist her. She had to keep the ruse up. The flames licked out, indicating the spells were only temporary. Some weren’t, like the compulsion spell that had been placed on Sarlun’s father.
“How did you know the crystal would bring you to Gasade?” Jules was genuinely intrigued. Was there an actual Shandra nearby? There was no mention of Gasade in the Crystal Map’s files, but many were unaccounted for.
“It’s been my life’s work. Even at Traro, I had dozens doing my bidding. They discovered a man that claimed to have visited Gasade. He traveled through a crystal he bought from an antiquities collector,” Ranul said.
“This collector didn’t happen to be named Fontem, did he?” Jules wouldn’t be surprised.
“How would you know that?”
“I’ve met him. You could say we’re friends.” Jules chuckled.
“He’s been dead for centuries. That’s impossible.”
That wasn’t actually true. He’d been captured by the Collector, and stored on the wraith’s ship with Ableen and the others. Jules was baffled by the synchronicities she’d been faced with in her short life. She pulled a drawing from her pocket. It was the one Jaessa had brought from Adrol in her Pod.
“This was on the girl your people chased out of her home planet two decades ago,” Jules said.
“That’s...you.” Ranul snatched the paper, staring at it, then at Jules. “How old are you?”
“Nineteen,” Jules said.
“I’ve seen this before, but you were just born when it was brought to my attention.”
Jules had no clue how Ranul would have viewed this drawing. “We were destined to meet. Fontem had a hand in this. For some reason, you and I were intended to come to Gasade together.” Jules only aimed to make a show of it, but she found herself believing her own words. “I’m a Deity. There are things we can do if we team up.”
“There is no such thing as a Deity. They are stories.”
“I met the other three. Nice entities. If you don’t mind terrifying giants.” Jules smiled at Ranul.
“Maybe there is something we can do,” Ranul said. “Let’s walk. The witch’s temple is close.”
Temple? Jules scanned the horizon, finding a dark, ominous building next to a lake. The clouds darkened, blotting out one of the moons, and the cold wind grew stronger, like a storm was brewing.
The sand was deep, and her footsteps felt weighted. She floated a foot over the ground, and when Ranul seemed like she was struggling, Jules extended a platform of air under the Brack woman. She grunted her thanks, and they flew toward the destination.
“What spell are you using?” Ranul asked.
“That’s not how this works,” Jules replied.
Nothing seemed alive here. The ground consisted of gray sand. A scattering of trees rose from the rough earth, but they were bereft of leaves. The branches stretched high, their bare points resembling witches’ claws.
Jules spotted a black lizard observing them from the top of a rock, its tongue flicking in and out of dark lips. Jules didn’t like the look of this place. Everything about it was unsettling, even if she couldn’t put a finger on why. The air was almost electric.
The temple was larger than she’d thought, with three wooden sentries, each complete with an intricately-created iron lightning rod. They were shaped into runes, and as the clouds thickened, the air crackled with potential energy. Jules saw the first flash of lightning as she lowered them to the courtyard before the entrance, and it struck the central iron rune, illuminating the symbol. The huge double doors to the temple opened.
“I guess they’ve been expecting us,” Ranul said. She went in, but Jules sensed her trepidation. Her bluster was gone, and she seemed to shrink as she tentatively climbed the ten wooden steps to the doorway. Jules noticed the markings carved into the walls. She touched the exterior and sensed the latent power gathered within this entire area. Gasade was an entire fertile planet, and this was just a single structure. How many more places like this were hidden on the world? She knew next to nothing about the people that occupied this land.
Instead of asking, she trailed after Ranul, entering the building. Stairs rose to a second level from either side of the room, and Ranul stepped to the middle of the open foyer and slowly spun in a circle. “This is it. We can learn so much. Now that we have the portal, we can come and go as we please. Discover all their secrets. No one will be able to stop us.”
“Us?” Jules asked, hoping she didn’t mean the two of them.
“My people have been searching for Gasade for centuries.”
Jules swallowed. “That’s why you were at Adrol, isn’t it?”
“We tracked Fontem’s movements, and found that he’d visited them ages ago,” Ranul said.
“So you invaded?” Jules asked.
“Don’t fret. We left soon after. Once we realized the girl was bringing this drawing to Udoon, we set the plan in motion.” Ranul held out the picture she’d taken from Jules and let it fall to the floor.
“Adrol is intact?”
“More or less. The Brack have no need for a pretentious planet like that. Gasade was our goal.”
Jules should have felt more relief that Jaessa’s home wasn’t destroyed,
but she had a pit the size of a grapefruit in her stomach. They’d known Jaessa was coming all along. Ranul had predicted the Alliance would send a warship, and orchestrated Peters to bring her treasure. The portal crystal. But there were things she couldn’t have anticipated, like the fact that they had wormhole technology. She saw holes in the mystery.
“How did you know?” Jules whispered.
“Know what?” Ranul was preoccupied, eagerly searching the room.
“About the warship. Or that Jaessa was coming to Udoon.”
Ranul grinned at her. “There’s a being. He helped me.”
A being? “Who?”
“Creature from Newei.”
Jules froze. “How did he help you?”
“Ovalax told me everything. Showed me how to destroy the portals. And it all started with getting you to Ebos.” Ranul smiled.
Jules had to warn her father. Ovalax was trapped inside him, and he probably thought he was being fed information to help them. It was the opposite. Ovalax was using her Papa.
“Why would you want to do that?” Jules’ voice shook.
“When I’ve unlocked the secrets of Gasade, I will be unstoppable. You of all people should understand what it’s like. You have power, but it doesn’t satisfy you. There is hunger within both of us. Would you be able to stop being you?” Ranul asked her.
Jules had tried living without her powers, but it was like half of her was missing. “I wouldn’t know how,” she admitted.
“This is it.” Ranul opened the final doorway, the hinges creaking with an unsettling squeak. “It’s time.”
Jules heard more thunder outside, followed by heavy rain falling on the derelict roof above. Water began to seep through dozens of cracks. Her gaze tracked the path as it pooled directly in the center of the foyer.
“Hurry.” Ranul used her digital wand, casting a light spell, and a glow circled the woman, giving them enough to see by. The steps creaked under their weight, and Ranul brushed aside cobwebs. A tiny creature scurried by Jules’ feet, and she did her best to ignore the alien rodents.
They reached the bottom, and Ranul cackled a laugh. “Finally. I’ve dreamed of this moment since Ovalax showed me the potential of it.”
Jules beheld the symbol on the floor, and the shackles hanging from the ceiling, and had a sinking feeling. She was about to retreat, when the air turned denser. She exhaled, seeing her breath mist out in front of her face. The sphere had failed. Her powers were there, but she couldn’t utilize them.
“What have you done to me?” Jules managed to croak out.
Ranul smirked. “Do you think the Beykn weren’t aware of the Deities? They were worried you’d sabotage their casting, and prepared accordingly.”
And Jules saw the marking on the floor for what it was: a spell to cut her flow off. She tried to run past it, but another rune glowed to life from above the doorway. She hit an invisible shield. Jules slowly spun around, finding Ranul there holding her knife.
“Don’t you want a bigger part in history than just being that girl who destroyed a bunch of Arnap? The Alliance will one day be forgotten, Jules Parker. Your father, nothing but a distant memory. But this…” Ranul pulled down her vest enough to show Jules another tattoo. “Will last for all eternity.”
Jules glanced past her at the hanging shackles. “What do you intend to do?”
“Ovalax told me there was only one chance to prevent a cataclysmic event. I must finish marking my body. And to do that, I need the proper ink.” She prowled to the chains, rattling them gently.
Jules swallowed again. “What kind of ink?” She regretted asking the second she did.
Ranul grabbed her arm, dragging her farther into the room. “The blood of a Deity.”
Twenty-Two
“This way!” Mary was the first to see the hovering platform, and we raced for it, trying to avoid the ceaseless blasts from the drop troopers. They were relentless in their pursuit.
Once all four of us were on the mechanic’s device, it began rising into the air. We turned our attention to the soldiers below, shooting at them. My pulse pistol hit the intended target a few times, and we watched as a dozen or so were injured from our assault.
A secondary group trailed after the troopers, and I grabbed my scope, staying low to avoid blasts from the ground. My view settled on the Brack coming for us. They were in regular clothing, surrounding three people. I zoomed, seeing the grainy outlines of Suma, Elex, and who I thought was the girl from the Udoon ship. But no Jules.
The lift ushered us into the hangar, and Magnus was there, hauling us deeper into the room. Nat came and hugged Mary, pulling Hugo in.
“What the hell happened?” I asked Magnus.
“That witch killed the warship. She set a spell on most of the crew, knocking them out, and floated Outpost down here.” Magnus barked orders at a man near the storage lockers. It was Sergeant Raron from the Institute.
“What are you doing about it?” Mary demanded.
“Crew’s starting to wake up. Raron is arming them. We’re going to fight these Brack troopers, and then we’ll finish with the witch,” Magnus said.
I glanced at Nat. “And my daughter?”
Natalia sheepishly looked at her feet. “Ranul took her.”
“Where?”
“She wanted some crystal. Jules said she had it in her quarters,” Magnus told them.
I was already on the move when Mary’s call stopped me. “Dean, Suma needs our help.”
“Right.” I lingered at the doorway. “First things first. Stop these Brack troopers, and then deal with Ranul.” I searched the hangar. “Where’s Sarlun?”
“With them. He’s under duress, Dean. It’s obvious he doesn’t want to be working for Ranul,” Nat advised us.
“Okay. I’ll take that into account. But if anything happens to Jules…” I left the thought unsaid.
“Dad, they’re almost here!” Hugo stared at the damaged hull before pointing at the incoming Brack.
“Then we fight.” I moved aside while more of the crew funneled into the hangar. They were all armed, their expressions grim. One of the men paused and rubbed his brow. Some of them had sustained injuries when they were knocked out by her spell.
A dozen troopers rose from ground level, using jet packs I hadn’t noticed when they were chasing us. They lifted high, arcing across the sky toward the hangar’s opening.
“Back!” Magnus shouted. He had two snub-nosed blasters, one in each hand, and fired them at a pair of drop troopers. They landed with a thud, springing into a shooting position, and Malir rolled a grenade across the floor. Two breaths later, it tore through the floor, sending them out of the hangar. More of the troopers entered, and all fifty defenders held them at bay.
My vision swam, and I struggled to stay focused. Ovalax was trying to tell me something. I hid behind cargo bins, hand pressing to my face. In the vision, Jules stood over Ranul in her quarters. Sarlun was crying, and I saw they were happy tears. Did this mean Jules had won? And it was gone, replaced with the epic battle going on in Outpost’s hangar.
Hugo and Malir worked together to send five of the troopers into a waiting trap. Raron used a pulse concussion to penetrate their armor and end the threats. I saw one of their visors flash a rune and go dark.
Across the room, another trooper was sneaking up on Mary, and she didn’t see it. “Mary!” I shouted, my voice unheard among the terrible symphony of the struggle. I fired at the trooper as I ran, screaming at the top of my lungs. I hit it in the chest twice, and barreled into the much larger soldier before he pulled the trigger. I rolled to my feet, kicking its giant weapon aside. Mary was there, eyes wide as she pulled her pulse rifle’s trigger three times. The trooper collapsed.
We watched as the last few soldiers were taken care of. Over a hundred crew members had joined the fight, some of them using mechanic tools to help. A scattering of our people were mixed among the deceased Brack, and I felt a wave of nausea at their loss.
“There’s more,” Magnus muttered from the hangar’s exit.
I went to his side, finding Suma and the others being escorted to the warship.
“What do we do?” Natalia asked.
“You let me see my daughter.” We all turned to see Sarlun standing there. One hand held a piece of a crystal, the other a gun. His left eye twitched when he looked at me.
He stalked through the room, and we parted a path for him, unsure how to react.
“Sarlun. Where’s my daughter?” I asked when he passed me.
“Jules is gone, Dean. Ranul took her.”
“Gone?” I confronted him, but Sarlun kept walking.
“This took them to Gasade.” He held up the crystal shard.
“Then give it to me. Let me go,” I plead.
Sarlun shook his head. “I am not allowed to permit this.”
“Then I won’t provide a choice,” I told him forcefully.
Sarlun’s eyes watered. I could tell he wanted to tell me something, but wasn’t able.
He reached the end of the hangar, and stared out to the ground below. The Brack escorts had paused with their captives, probably waiting for word from their leader, Ranul.
Sarlun turned to face me.
____________
Sarlun had so many things to tell Dean Parker, only he couldn’t. He tried to move his lips, but it only made the tattoo on his back burn fiercely. Tears formed in his eyes, and he blinked rapidly, sending them scattering over his cheeks. Suma was below. He needed Dean to finish this, to save his daughter. Their only chance was to give him the crystal so he could travel to Gasade. But that was impossible.
Sarlun tried to drop it, but his fingers wouldn’t obey the internal order. He attempted to step out of the hangar so he could plunge to his death, but his legs didn’t move.
There had to be a way. Dean was the Recaster. He would figure this out. Wouldn’t he?
“Sarlun, give me the crystal.” Dean’s voice was a low growl.
“I cannot.”
“How long have you been working for her?” Mary asked softly.
“Since my father died. It was passed to me.”
The Colony (The Survivors Book Seventeen) Page 21
