Broken Worlds- The Complete Series

by Jasper T. Scott

  He projected his awareness beyond the door, Darius found that the way was clear. Encouraged, he carefully opened the door. The remains of the beam dragged and bumped along the floor as the door swept them out of the way. He winced again at the noise.

  A dark and windowless corridor lay before him. A good sign. The Marines hadn’t bothered to illuminate this part of the castle, which meant that no one was using it—not yet anyway.

  Darius sheathed his sword and bent to pick up the severed pieces of the wooden beam. He carried them outside and carefully laid them behind the stone landing. He went back inside and eased the door shut behind him, hoping the wind wouldn’t blow it open.

  The corridor was so dark that it was hard to see. Darius blinked his eyes a few times, giving them a moment to adjust to the light. There was a faint glow coming from the end of the corridor. He crept toward it, using his awareness to make sure no one down here with him. But the nearest people were on the level above, probably gathered around the fireplace in the entrance hall.

  As he traveled down the corridor, Darius glanced through the open doors. They were storage rooms, filled with dusty wooden chests and empty shelves. He vaguely remembered this part of the castle from the game of hide and seek he’d played with the other Acolytes. At the end of the corridor, Darius saw another door. It was cracked open and letting in a bright wedge of light from a circular stairwell. He heard voices and footsteps approaching, and hid behind the door.

  “I thought I felt something...” Cassandra said.

  “Like what?” Dyara asked.

  “I don’t know. Something.”

  Darius held his breath, and plastered himself to the wall behind the door.

  “I think it was through here...” Cassandra said.

  The footsteps stopped, and the door groaned as someone pushed it open. It swung toward Darius’s face and he winced, willing the door to stop before it hit him and bounced off...

  It stopped within an inch of his nose.

  “There’s nothing through there, just empty storage rooms,” Dyara said.

  “Maybe a Seeker found its way in? We should take a look to be sure,” Cassandra replied.

  Darius eased his sidearm out of his holster and flicked it to stun. A few more footsteps sounded, and then—

  “Dyara, Cassandra! A word, if you please. It’s urgent.”

  Tanik’s voice.

  “Coming,” Dyara said. “Let’s go,” she added in a hushed voice.

  “But—oh, fine,” Cassandra relented.

  Darius heard their footsteps retreating up the stairs and let out a shuddering breath. He checked the luminous silhouettes around him to make sure no one else was nearby before darting around the corner to hide in one of the storage rooms. Somehow Cassandra had sensed him down here.

  The question was, had Nova also felt something? Or was it just Cassandra?

  Regardless, Darius realized that there was some good news. For whatever reason, Nova hadn’t evacuated everyone from Ouroboros. She was bringing down supplies instead. Whatever her reason, it meant he had some time on his side. The bad news was that the Revenants were here, so even if he killed Nova to get rid of her influence, it wouldn’t be good enough anymore. The other Revenants in the castle were almost certainly under the Augur’s influence, and they would remain that way until the Augur died. Still, if Tanik, the Marines, and the other Acolytes were freed to think for themselves, maybe they could escape Ouroboros.

  Darius swayed on his feet and almost fell over from dehydration. He had to get to the kitchen, or at least to the nearest restroom so he could find water.

  Making sure to keep his presence hidden, Darius opened his mind further to locate and track everyone inside the castle. Bright and shining silhouettes appeared through the walls, floor, and ceiling. There had to be at least fifty people—Revenant reinforcements. Nova definitely had everyone under her influence if she’d managed to bring in reinforcements without a fight. Darius cringed at the thought of trying to keep track of so many people, but he was going to pass out if he didn’t get something to drink soon.

  Keeping an eye on the larger and closer silhouettes, Darius made sure that none of them were going up or down the stairs.

  They weren’t. The way was clear—at least for now. Darius crept out of the storage room, around the corner, and out the door. Remembering that he was on the level below the entrance hall, he went down, heading for the armory. A string of lights lit the way.

  Thanks to the game of hide and seek he’d played with the other Acolytes, Darius knew that there was a restroom with communal showers a few floors down, just above the armory.

  Darius hurried down the steps as quickly as he dared. He passed two landings before walking through the door on the third. His eyes fell on a tray sink and the dripping faucets above it. He ran to the nearest one and opened the valve with a shaking hand. Leaning over, he let the water run into his open mouth. It was the sweetest thing he’d tasted in his entire life. He drank until almost blacking out for lack of oxygen, then straightened and stood leaning on the sink, gasping for air. In that moment booted feet came clomping down the stairs. Darius shut off the faucet and ducked into the nearest shower stall.

  Using his awareness, Darius counted seven luminous silhouettes walking down the stairs. He held his breath as they passed his level and entered the armory below. Their presences shined brightly through the floor. Darius let out a shaky breath. That was close.

  They’d probably gone down to the armory for more training. That meant soon they’d be coming up here to refill their canteens.

  Darius wiped drops of water from his mouth and leaned against the side of the shower stall. He had to find somewhere to hide. He thought about the storage rooms where he’d come in, but Cassandra had expressed an interest in searching them. The lowermost level with the well might work, but he had no way of knowing if it was still abandoned, and he’d have to sneak by the open door of the Armory to get there.

  No, the safest thing would be to find a hiding place somewhere outside. Darius crept out of the bathroom and back up the stairs to the corridor where he’d come in. He hurried down to the end and slipped out through the door.

  He headed down, planning to hide somewhere along the steps. But what if someone finds the door I sliced open? If they did, it might lead them outside to search the stairs he’d climbed.

  Darius slowed to a stop just as he reached the cliff ledge that ran below the landing pads. He remembered hiding there to listen in on Blake’s conversation with one of the Marines. It wouldn’t work as a long-term hiding spot, but the ledge ran all the way around the front of the castle to the other side. He couldn’t sense anyone guarding that side of the castle. Maybe he could find a place to hide there. It was on the opposite side from the door where he’d broken in, which was an added bonus.

  Darius checked the landing pads and the walkways leading to them.

  No one up there. Good.

  The nearest people were higher up, guarding the front of the castle. Darius crawled on all fours along the ledge. He knocked the occasional loose rock or pebble free, sending it plummeting a thousand feet to the trees below. The noise of his knees and scabbard dragging against the rocks was like thunder to his ears, but he doubted anyone could hear him from the front steps of the castle.

  He reached the last landing pad and saw the side of the castle soaring up three stories from his ledge. There was a row of windows on the third level that Darius suspected to be the sleeping quarters above the entrance hall.

  Checking to make sure no one had a line of sight on him, Darius crawled around the side of the castle for a better look. He spied scraps of curtain fluttering in the last two windows, and his mind flashed back to the tattered curtains in Tanik’s and Nova’s room.

  Darius’s pulse began to race. He couldn’t believe his luck! He’d found their room from the outside. If he could just find some way to climb up there, he’d be in a perfect position to ambush Nova after she went
to bed. Darius studied the wall of the castle, looking for a way to climb it, but there were no ledges or handholds that he could see, only the sills below the windows, and they were at least twenty feet up.

  Despair gripped him. If he couldn’t climb through Nova’s window, he’d have to wait until everyone was asleep and then somehow sneak past the night watch. That might be doable, but then he’d still have to find a way through the locked door to Nova’s room. There was no way he’d be able to break through that door without waking her or Tanik up. He had to find a way to climb up to those windows.

  Darius looked around once more. The side of the mountain behind the castle rose up within six feet of one of the windows. The slope looked climbable, but he’d have to jump to reach the window sill. There was a ledge just above the level of the windows. Maybe he could jump from there.

  Darius hurried over to the base of the cliff and studied it for handholds. Finding the first one, he started up the cliff. It was actually relatively easy going. There were a few points along the way where he had to dangle by his hands to reach the next handhold, but he eventually made it to the ledge he’d spotted.

  Pulling himself up, Darius perched there with his knees drawn up to his chest. From up here he saw that the gap between the cliff and the window was more than six feet; it was at least nine. Darius’s heart sank. There was no way he’d be able to jump that far. Not without a running start, and there was barely enough space on the ledge to stand or sit, let alone run.

  Darius considered his dilemma, wishing there were some way to float or fly across the gap. That thought triggered a memory. He recalled watching Tanik appear to float down from the airlock of the Osprey as if he weighed no more than a feather. He’d also seen Tanik move things telekinetically....

  But Tanik wasn’t the only one who’d done that. Darius had done something similar himself, without even realizing it. Right after they’d arrived on Ouroboros.

  Darius concentrated on taking deep, calming breaths, and shut his eyes to focus better. Awareness, Concealment, and Shielding all worked through some form of mental visualization. Perhaps the same would be true for this? Darius tried visualizing himself floating above the ledge.

  At first nothing happened, but then he felt something shift. The hard pressure of the ground beneath his feet and rear disappeared with a subtle tug of upward motion. Darius cracked his eyes open to find himself hovering several inches above the cliff. He grinned, elated by his discovery—

  And then fell back down with a jarring thud. He pitched forward, losing his balance on the cliff and fell headfirst toward the ground below.

  Darius stifled a scream and shut his eyes, imagining himself caught up in a powerful updraft that held him floating above the ground on a cushion of air.

  He hit the ground with a stinging crunch of gravel, spat out a mouthful of pebbles, and blinked his eyes open. That fall should have broken his neck. Something he’d done had worked. Maybe it explained how he’d survived a 100-story fall. He had a whole new set of reflexes.

  Darius pushed off the ground and stood staring up at the windows. Floating in midair didn’t seem like an easy thing to accomplish, but if he could slow a fall, he could probably augment a jump.

  Darius bent his legs and leapt for the window sill, imagining and visualizing his success in reaching it even as he did so.

  To his amazement, he flew straight up to the window. His hands found the ledge and he clung there. It took a moment for the full weight of gravity to return, and once it did, he almost lost his grip.

  Darius hung there, panting and straining to hold on. His arms and hands were still weak from climbing the cliff. Before he climbed through, he opened his mind, checking to make sure no one was in the room or coming up to investigate. If someone had sensed something from his use of the ZPF, they might be on their way....

  But they were all elsewhere. No one was nearby. Reassured, Darius pulled himself through the window and climbed over the nightstand into Tanik and Nova’s room. He cast about, looking for a hiding place. A large bed sat between the windows, two wardrobes lay along the far wall, and a wooden chest was at the foot of the bed.

  Darius went to the wardrobes and checked both. The first one had fresh jumpsuits hanging inside, along with towels, soap, and other supplies piled on the bottom. The second wardrobe was empty, and more than big enough for Darius to hide in. He sat inside the wardrobe and pulled the doors shut, sealing out the light. He heard his breath reverberating inside the small, dark space and worked to slow his breathing. Darius hoped Nova or Tanik wouldn’t forget which wardrobe they were using and accidentally look inside the wrong one.

  As his breathing slowed, he turned his mind to keeping his presence hidden. He’d been using concealment ever since he’d fallen from the cliff. During training, Tanik had explained that as long as the intention to stay hidden was fixed in the back of his mind, he would be hard to detect, but now Darius put a conscious effort into the ability. He imagined himself as a tiny speck, dark and invisible. While doing that, he used awareness to gaze through the wardrobe doors and the walls of the castle. Dozens of people milled about on the lower levels. Darius kept expecting one of them to turn and head up toward him, but that never happened. Somehow he hadn’t alerted anyone to his presence.

  Some of the tension left his body. He’d done it. Now all he had to do was wait. What weapon would he use when the time came? He groped in the darkness for the butt of his sidearm, and then for the hilt of his sword, reassuring himself that they were both still there. Either weapon should work if he had the element of surprise.

  Darius’s legs began cramping and he stretched them as best he could in the confined space. How much longer would he have to wait here? He checked the time via his ESC. It was 1615 IST. He recalled that the last time he’d planned to go sneaking around the castle in the middle of the night, he and Dyara had set their alarms for 2100 IST. That left about five hours—five hours of waiting inside this closet with his muscles cramping. Just then his stomach rumbled. The Seeker meat was long gone after climbing two thousand feet of steps.

  Darius grimaced. This was not going to be easy. He laid his head back against the side of the wardrobe, willing himself to sleep to pass the time. Exhaustion from the climb washed over him like a wave. Darkness swirled inside the wardrobe, the only light a thin bar on the back of the wardrobe spilling through the gap between the doors. Darius shut his eyes and waited for sleep to come. It wasn’t long before he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. Despite not having dreams, he did experience something: a feeling of utter despair, of being trapped, and confined, unable to move or speak, of being forced to do unspeakable things that left him feeling empty and alone, as if he had become the very darkness that enveloped him. Death lurked in that darkness.

  Darius awoke with a start, his heart pounding, and panic buzzing in his veins. He was still in his dream, trapped in the dark, unable to move. Despair curled in his gut. He felt an urgent need to run, to escape, to throw himself out the window, and plummet to his death just to make it all stop. He almost burst out of the wardrobe in that moment, but calm rational thought trickled back before he could. Just as well. His ears picked up the sound of muffled voices in the room beyond. The gap between the doors was dark. He checked the time via his extra sensory chip. Somehow he’d slept until 2100. 2105, to be exact. The muffled voices sounded like they belonged to Tanik and Nova. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but they sounded sleepy.

  Darius waited in the dark, biding his time. Minutes passed and their voices grew quiet, but still he waited. His legs and feet were cramping, his bladder bursting, and his back spasming, but he ignored it all. If he revealed himself too soon, Nova would kill him, and this time she’d make sure he was dead.

  Darius kept an eye on the time, waiting for fully half an hour to pass. Time dragged at an agonizing pace—literally. Finally, the clock hit 2150. Good enough, he decided.

  Darius pushed the wardrobe doors open and clim
bed out into the room. Starlight streamed in through the windows. After enduring the utter darkness inside the wooden box, it was more than enough to see by. Darius identified two people lying on the bed under the covers, each of them curling away from the other with a large gap in between. Not the spooning type, I guess. That made sense, considering that Nova wasn’t actually Tanik’s wife, Samara.

  Darius identified Nova by the pool of long dark hair splayed around her pillow. This was it. He crept over to her side of the bed and wrapped his hand around the butt of his pistol. Drawing the weapon, he flicked it from stun to burst and aimed it at her head...

  And hesitated with his finger on the trigger. Plotting to kill Nova was one thing. Doing it, like this, in cold blood, was another.

  The lapse in his resolve only lasted for a second. Nova had left him for dead and all but possessed his daughter. She had to die. His finger tightened on the trigger—

  But Nova’s eyes flashed open and he flew backward through the air. He hit the nearest wall and smacked his skull against the stones before sliding to the floor. Nova appeared to float out of bed, bright and shining in the light of the ZPF. She stalked toward him, wearing nothing but her underwear, and Tanik belatedly rose from the bed, asking, “What’s going on?”

  “Your prodigy, Darius, is alive, darling,” Nova said.

  “He is?” Tanik asked, sounding confused.

  “Yes, he thought he could kill me in my sleep, but don’t worry, he won’t be alive for much longer.” Nova held out a hand to the second wardrobe and it flew open. There came a screech of sharpened steel, and the dark flash of a blade. Nova’s sword slapped into her hand and immediately began glowing as her shield enveloped it.

  Darius jumped to his feet, drew his sword, and summoned his own shield just as Nova’s blade came flashing toward his neck.

  Their swords met with a clank and a sizzling roar of energy. Nova pushed him back against the wall and laughed in his face. Darius saw a flicker of movement and his eyes darted aside to see Tanik rising from the bed, his gaze found them, but his eyes were blank and staring.