Lord Abraxas raised a dark eyebrow. “We speak the truth, and you have my word you will not be harmed.”
Acielon could not afford to believe them. “Unlike the Azurans, Archons keep secrets and have their own agenda. You cannot be trusted.”
“We are warning you, Brother Acielon. Do not thwart our will.” The chilling voice held a steely edge. It only confirmed the Archons’ desperation. They would do anything to prevent him from leaving, even if it meant killing him.
“Is that a threat?” Acielon hid his fears and smiled. “Why are you not here in person? Either you cannot reach us through the shield the crystal provides... or you are afraid of us.”
Lord Abraxas huffed. “Archons do not fear anyone.”
“Then you are helpless against the Sacred Crystal.” Regaining his confidence, Acielon crossed his arms on his bare chest. “I refuse to return it.”
“I’ve never seen you so defiant and determined. I like it.” Fianna smiled at him, holding her pendant. “You really stole this relic?”
“Not this tiny piece... the consecrated chunk of rock on display in the temple.” Acielon chuckled. “The device through which the Archons focus the Azurans’ collective mental strength.”
Fianna’s eyes rounded. “You are a thief of the highest order?”
“Such sacrilegious deed cannot be tolerated.” The chief Archon’s voice boomed throughout the ship. “Return it, or suffer the consequences.”
“What can you do to me?” Acielon cast a quick glance at Fianna then faced Lord Abraxas again. “I am of a mind to leave this planet with the woman I love, and it seems you cannot do anything about it.”
Fianna’s mouth opened. “You love me?”
Acielon smiled. “Of course, I do.”
Lord Abraxas stared at the two of them in turn then focused upon Acielon. “By questioning our authority, you demonstrated the strength of your free will. We cannot tolerate defiance!”
“Everyone should have free will. Your control over the Azurans goes against the intent of the Formless One.” Acielon hoped the resolve in his voice would convince the Archons of his righteousness.
“Only the Archons know the will of the Formless One!”
Acielon raised his brow. “So you say.”
“Blasphemy!” The chief Archon seemed in great distress. Could Archons get unwell? Could they die from shock? “There is no place for such notions on this planet. If your rebellious ideas spread to the population, they will endanger the work we are performing here. This could tip the balance of good and evil in the entire universe.”
“Are you saying my desire for free will is evil?” Acielon stared back, unmoving.
“Brother Acielon...” Lord Abraxas took a few shallow breaths. “In view of your recent actions, I officially declare you a pariah. We banish you from this planet to grow old and die in the hell of deceit, cruelty and corruption that is most of the universe. You may never return to Azura... under penalty of death.”
"You would let me go? How can I trust you when you want me dead?" Acielon swallowed hard. He could not fathom the concept of death. He kept his jaw clenched and stared back at the chief Archon without fear. “So be it! I shall leave.”
“But first, you must return the Sacred Crystal.” The great Archon’s voice shook somewhat.
“No.” Acielon managed to keep his voice steady. “And I shall someday return to free my Azuran brothers from your tyranny.”
The shock on the Archons’ faces surprised Acielon. As if no one ever challenged their authority before.
“Then you give us no other choice, Brother Acielon.” Lord Abraxas closed his eyes. His commanding voice reverberated throughout the ship and beyond. “Destroy this ship. Kill them both!”
“Triblets!” Fianna slammed the encased console.
The Archons’ images wavered then vanished. Outside, the Avenging Angels blew their infernal shofars. The ship started shaking again. Then they threw more fire bolts that flared pink and blue against the turquoise shield.
Acielon turned to Fianna. “Let me start the engines.”
She looked pale. She nodded and handed him the pendant. He snatched it then held the pendant in cupped hands and focused upon it. The takeoff engines ignited, vibrating the ship even more.
“The engines take time to warm up.” Fianna’s voice barely reached through his trance.
“Not with the crystal powering them.”
The ship lifted slowly. It pitched and rolled like a boat on an angry sea. Fianna grabbed the console for balance. Sheba dug her claws into the gel matt covering the deck. Acielon rose above the floor, to keep his focus on guiding the ship.
Outside, through the expanse of clear titanium panes, the legion of Avenging Angels surrounding the ship blew their shofars louder. Each blast sent the vessel rolling and pitching at a steeper angle, closer to the mountain. Would it crash against the mountainside?
The Archons were determined to kill them. Acielon had never experienced such intense negativity. As he struggled to guide the ship and maintain the shields, he wondered whether they would survive the slaughter.
Chapter Eleven
As the battle raged, the rainstorm quieted and the first lights of dawn dissipated the night. Acielon wondered how long the blue crystal shield would hold. The deck vibrated under the infernal sound of the Avenging Angels’ shofars. Although the craft hovered through the power of the crystal, the legion’s repeated assaults prevented it from gaining altitude.
The ship pitched and rolled. Acielon deployed his wings and floated above the deck. Fianna looked pale, strapped in her chair. He hoped he could protect her.
Outside the clear pane, an angel with blue skin aimed a flaming scimitar at the ship. Another angel, blond and slim, raised a spear, while a dark-skinned angel held up a small orb. Lightning surged from all their weapons at once.
“Incoming!” Fianna’s face tensed. She gripped the arms of her seat. “Don’t just stand there. Grab on to something!”
Acielon remained upright in mid air, wings stretched upward. He did not need an anchor.
Sheba, ensconced between two large gel cubes, turned her coat black and covered her eyes with large paws. “Sheba not like dancing ship.”
Multiple strikes exploded against the blue shield in a rainbow of colors and shoved the ship sideways, dangerously close to the mountain.
Acielon kept his balance with a flap of his wings.
Through the clear pane, as the ship rolled, Acielon saw the other ship in the clearing explode into a fiery cloud. The conflagration shoved the Silver Angel closer to the mountain side.
“There goes the Monalisa!” Fianna slammed her fist on her gel-encased console. “Triblets! I could use a few well placed torpedoes, right now.”
Acielon also wanted to retaliate... a strange notion, wanting to strike against other angels.
Fianna narrowed her eyes upon him. “Can’t you do something? Why not use your abilities to stop them?”
“Now that I have free will, maybe. But I have no flaming sword, no shofar, no weapon of any kind.” Yet, the proximity of the Sacred Crystal made him feel powerful, as if a tremendous force rushed through his body.
“Can’t you smite them with your mind? Or throw something at them?”
“Perhaps, but there is nothing out there to throw.” He still hesitated. Striking his brethren seemed sacrilegious. “I am only one against many.”
“Here.” Fianna held out her medallion. “Can you use this?”
He waved away the crystal pendant. “I have something much stronger.”
Her green eyes rounded. “Stronger?”
“The Sacred Crystal embedded in the bulkhead.”
“The one you stole from the Temple?”
Acielon nodded and coerced his brain into thinking in destructive ways. “Let me try something.”
He closed his eyes and connected his mind to the Sacred Crystal. For some reason, it seemed to want to protect him and Fianna. Acielon visua
lized bolts of lightning surging from the ship’s shields and striking out in all directions at once.
The sudden explosion shattered his hearing. An expanding wave of light and muffled sounds struck all around the ship, hitting and shoving the Avenging Angels in its wake. Acielon reeled from the power it released.
“Sheba not like noise.”
Fianna laughed. “It’s working! Whatever you are doing, keep doing it.”
Through the clear pane, the Avenging Angels fumbled, in total disarray. Some dropped their weapons, others fell toward the ground, wings flapping at odd angles. More flew up and away, an expression of utter shock freezing their faces.
Acielon could scarcely believe he had dared strike back. May the Formless One forgive him. The tired state of the Azurans worked in his favor.
Fianna whistled. “Look at that! They are disbanding!”
“Sheba not like whistling.”
“Let us get out of here before they recover.” Acielon focused on the ship. In his mind it soared straight up toward the upper atmosphere. Soon it crossed the planetary shield unharmed, then surged into free space. As light as a bubble, it floated in the cold, silent darkness of space. So did he. He flapped his wings and willed his feet to adhere to the deck despite the lack of gravity.
“You did it!” The triumph in Fianna’s voice warmed him.
On the dark command bridge, only the glow of the gel encasing the electronics provided light. The loose straps of a harness floated around an empty seat. Through the clear forward pane, an infinity of stars blinked at him.
An uplifting wave of joy rose inside his chest. “So, this is what freedom feels like.”
Fianna unbuckled her belt and floated toward him. She bumped and hugged him hard and laid her head in the crook of his shoulder. “Thank you. You saved us.”
They rolled together in mid air. Acielon stabilized them with his wings. The contact of her body against his promised all kinds of delightful pleasures. He laced his arms around her waist, kissed her short blond hair. “It all happened thanks to you. Everything changed for me the day I met you.”
Sheba floated out of her hiding space then grabbed the top of a tall gel casing with her back claws. She managed to anchor herself awkwardly upon it, licking her front paws. Her black fur returned to its normal tan color.
“Dancing ship make Sheba sick. Throw up good rabbit. Eat it again. Still good.”
Fianna laughed in his embrace, and her laugh resonated through his body.
“Glad you are okay, big girl.”
Acielon flapped his wings to stabilize their drifting. He reveled in the feel of Fianna’s body against his. He never wanted this moment to end.
He had finally done the impossible. He had rebelled against the Archons. He had left Azura’s influence, and reached to the world beyond. What would become of him now? Was he still a powerful Azuran? Lord Abraxas believed he would grow weak and old as soon as he reached another star system.
Acielon needed to remain strong and righteous to protect Fianna. She seemed so frail in his arms. He had saved her from the Avenging Angels, but how would he fare in the outside world, without his abilities?
He hoped his deliberate striking at his own kind did not mark his descent into rampant evil. Having never dealt with malice, he might fall easy prey to its seduction.
* * *
Fianna gently pushed herself away from Acielon and floated toward the command console. She already missed his reassuring contact. “Let’s see if the engines of this fancy yacht are still functional. We need to restore gravity.”
She inspected the clear gel encasing the command console. The bottom corners detached easily. She braced her feet against her seat and pulled it off. Once freed, the flexible cast floated away. She did the same for all the viewers but did not touch the power boxes. Then she took a deep breath, crossed her fingers, and flipped the power switch. “Here goes nothing.”
She could sense Acielon’s gaze upon her, watching her every move. Tingles scurried across her entire body. Hell, she missed his contact.
She glanced up and forced a smile. “It might take some time to reboot the entire ship.”
Bright, indirect light flooded the deck. Freshly scrubbed air blew from the vents. The viewers lit up with scrolling data. Fianna grabbed the console as she dropped heavily to the deck. So did the gel casings. Acielon flapped his wings and landed gracefully. Sheba braced on four paws as she hit the deck, then sat again and resumed her washing routine.
Fianna cleared her voice. “Computer, you have been asleep for days. I am a licensed law enforcer and your new captain. Tarkan was an escaped convict and has been arrested. His ownership privileges have been revoked.”
“I must verify the new captain’s identity,” the synthetic female voice announced clearly. “Please place both hands on the command console.”
Fianna splayed her fingers, allowing the computer to scan her hands. Red laser lights ran back and forth around them. More lights swept her entire body.
“Got it?”
“Aye, aye, captain.” The computer chimed. “What happened to your hand burn?”
“Healed.” She glanced at Acielon and couldn't help a grateful smile.
“Verified ID records, Fianna Grosvenor, law enforcement bounty hunter first class, born on Byzantium-5. DNA, fingerprints, and face recognition confirmed. Retinal scan with enhanced implant confirmed. Voice recognition routine successfully imprinted.” An electronic beep punctuated the end of the task.
“Now, erase Tarkan’s information and access codes from the security scans... all of them... even for the most insignificant subroutines.” This was how hackers could invade protected systems.
“Deleting... deleting... deletion complete.” Another chime confirmed the end of the task.
“Now, run diagnostics.” She needed to insure the ship was fully functional.
“Commencing diagnostics now.”
The ship purred like a sated kitten. Screens all around the command deck came to life with images of various parts of the empty ship. The luxurious living quarters, the gel-encased crates in the cargo hold, the fully stocked armory with its gel-encased blasters, the infirmary, guest quarters, crew quarters, security room, the galley.
The last viewer displayed the brig, where Tarkan sat, strapped on his cell bunk, his back against the bulkhead. On screen, Tarkan glanced up, unbuckled his safety harness and rose from his bed, gingerly testing his bandaged leg, injured by the night-crawler.
“About time!” He flashed a sarcastic smile as he stared straight into the camera. “So, Monalisa. You figured out how to escape the planet’s gravitational pull and restore the electronics. Not bad for a second rate trollop... or did you have help from your personal winged monkey?”
“Shut up, Tarkan!” Fianna tapped the key to mute the communication.
Acielon frowned at her. “Winged monkey?”
Triblets! She didn’t want to explain discrimination to such a wonderful man. “I’m sorry you had to hear that.” She cringed at the malice in the words. “That’s what Tarkan and his Dragons call your kind.”
“Really?” Acielon stared at the viewer displaying Tarkan. “Is my kind unpopular among other species?”
“Not at all.” To demonstrate her point, Fianna dug out of her pants pockets the angel statuette she’d snatched from the Rapscallion before the crash. She set the magnetic base to the top of the command console and it stuck. “Here. May the Guardian Angels of the universe protect us!”
Acielon squinted at the winged statuette. “What is the meaning of this ritual?”
“Just an old custom among space travelers.” Fianna smiled, wondering whether Acielon would be flattered or annoyed. “Space is a dangerous place. It’s reassuring to think some powerful angel is looking out for you out there.”
Acielon cast her a puzzled glance. “How strange that it looks like an Azuran, and Azurans help the Archons maintain the balance of good and evil in the universe.”
“You mean the prisoner?”
“Exactly.” Fianna regained her confidence. Nothing like being at the helm of a good ship. “Computer, set course for Byzantium-5.”
“Course set, Captain.”
“Punch it.”
The Silver Angel purred as the warp engines charged then shot among the stars. Soon, Fianna would fulfill her promise to her brother. He would walk again.
* * *
Acielon followed Fianna’s gaze to the viewer displaying the brig. Tarkan had returned to his bunk. How could she ever have loved that man? And could she love him still?
Acielon shook his head to dispel the troubling thought. “Our prisoner does not look upset at all, only bored.”
“Or he is planning his escape.” Fianna bit her lips. Who did she worry about?
“How could he possibly escape?” Acielon forced a chuckle. “He is locked in a cell, and we are in space.”
“I don’t trust him.” Fianna’s gaze wandered back to the monitor. “I want to make sure he remains in captivity.”
Acielon resented her admiration for the man’s evil intelligence. “Why would you think him capable of escaping?”
“Because that’s what he does best.” She bit her lips again. “Besides, that’s what I would do in his place. And most of what I know, I learned from him.”
A lover and a mentor, no less. “You could never be in his place. He is a horrible person.”
“So was I, once.” Her gaze shifted to the clear pane. “Maybe not as bad as Tarkan, but I broke many laws. I did things I’m not proud of.”
“Because you loved him?” A malaise gripped Acielon’s gut. His entire body tensed. “Are you still interested in this wicked man?”
“Interested?” Fianna scoffed. “No. Not anymore... even back then, I broke the law for him in order to survive and take care of my brother, who was too young to fend for himself.”
Angel Mine Page 13
