by Andrew Gates
“Something has transpired,” a guard noted.
“It does not take a genius to observe this,” Veznek said, annoyed by the idiotic comment. “Obviously something has transpired.”
“I shall investigate, your Majesty,” the moronic guard replied, setting his spear down.
The guard extended his legs and reached as high as he could until he touched the ceiling. He felt around for the hatch that opened to the elevator shaft. Once he found it, he pushed the hatch open, revealing the tight, narrow tunnel.
The guard grabbed hold of the sides and pulled himself up through the hole. He climbed out and stood on top of the elevator. His footsteps made clanking noises above. He looked around for a few moments, before facing down through the hole.
“The elevator shaft appears intact. Something must have knocked out the power.”
“How can we proceed without power?” another guard asked.
“We can’t,” Veznek replied. “Elevators don’t work without power.”
“Which story have we reached?”
“12,” another guard answered. “That was the last number displayed before we lost power.”
“The 12th story is not too high. We have made it most of the way,” the guard atop the elevator added, obviously listening to the conversation.
“Well, we can’t do anything from in here,” said Veznek, looking around. “We’re trapped in a box.”
“He’s right,” another guard added. “We need to get out of the elevator. Start with the Under Chieftain.”
“I’ve got you,” the guard atop the elevator said. He reached into the hole and held his arms down as far as he could.
Veznek stepped forward and grabbed hold. The guard pulled him up. The others pushed him from below. Before he knew it, Veznek was out of the hole and atop the elevator with the dim-witted guard.
“Welcome, Under Chieftain,” he said. The guard forced a smile.
“Stow the casual tone,” he replied.
The elevator shaft was dark, but the Under Chieftain was able to make out the nearby details from the elevator’s dim emergency lights. Long thick beams crisscrossed around the shaft like a skeleton for the building. They looked sturdy.
Boom!
Veznek glanced up as the explosive sound of shattered glass and smashed metal echoed from above. Before he knew it, a flaming ball of debris, almost as wide as the shaft itself, tore through the wall about 50 stories up. It angled from left to right across the shaft, cutting a hole. Sunlight filled the cavern, forcing Veznek to shield his eyes for a moment.
Then everything fell.
The elevator dropped down instantly and accelerated in freefall. Not even the friction from the walls seemed to slow it down.
Veznek was terrified, but he dared not panic. He let go of his scepter and jumped off the falling car, toward the beams. For a moment, he worried that he would overshoot his target and land in the next shaft over. But alas, he managed to grab hold of a horizontal beam. He grasped it tightly.
His inept guard fell down with the elevator. Within a few seconds, Veznek heard a loud boom as it collided with the floor, followed by an eruption of dust. He coughed as the dust entered his lungs.
The stranded hierarch turned his head upward. The flaming ball seemed to have cut all the way across to the right side of the shaft. It was nowhere in sight. Veznek sighed. For now, he was safe.
“Honor guards,” Veznek chuckled to himself. “Their title is folly.”
Now that sunlight gleamed from above, it was much easier to see inside the shaft. Veznek searched for a floor number, anything to indicate how high he was. After a few seconds, he found the number 10 written on a closed doorway against the far wall.
I fell two full floors, he realized.
Veznek looked down as the dust settled. The bottom did not seem so far away now, especially with the tall elevator adding an extra few kotans. It was too far for him to jump, but not too far to climb.
He took a few seconds to prepare. Then he started down, climbing one rung at a time. Veznek was careful to keep his footing. After surviving for this long, the last thing he wanted to do was fall and kill himself.
The process was slow, but effective. Each grip seemed easier and easier. As he came lower to the floor, he felt more and more comfortable. Finally, he reached the point where he was low enough. He simply let go of the beam and fell. He landed atop the smashed elevator car, relieved to finally stand on something solid.
Veznek peered inside the elevator. The guards were all dead, nothing now but corpses. He sighed and studied the area. To his relief, his sacred scepter fell into the adjacent shaft, only a few kotans away.
The Under Chieftain climbed down from the elevator and made his way to the scepter. He lifted it up. It felt just like he knew. The object remained intact, as good as ever.
“My, my, you are resilient,” he noted, speaking to the object in his grasp.
The sole survivor searched around for the closest doorway out of here. It did not take long for him to find it. He approached a thick sliding door and slipped his claws inside. Veznek tried pulling the doors apart as hard as he could, but they would not budge. He pulled and pulled until his arms gave out. He stepped back, huffing and puffing. Veznek was no soldier. He had not encountered any need for athleticism since he was a child. If only I had a power suit like the Kreeds, he thought.
Resorting to a different strategy, the Under Chieftain banged on the doorway.
Bang, bang, bang!
“Hello!” he shouted. He did not even know if anyone was there to hear it.
Veznek heard scurrying on the other side of the door. He stopped striking the metal and took a step back again.
“Hello!” a female voice replied. It was muffled, but audible.
The doors started moving ever so slightly.
“I am here!” Veznek responded.
The doors moved apart now. A female soldier stood at the center. Her arms were outstretched, one door in each claw. She was garbed in regular black armor, similar to the uniform his brother had died in. Two other soldiers stood on either side, assisting her by pulling the doors open.
Upon realizing who he was, the three soldiers stopped and bowed. The female in the center removed her helmet. The other two were not so polite.
“You may rise,” the Under Chieftain said.
“Your Majesty, I was aware of your presence here, but I did not expect to see you in such conditions,” the soldier greeted as she rose. Her expression seemed a mix of surprised and embarrassed.
“And to what conditions do you refer?”
“I speak of you being here, trapped in the elevator shaft,” she said.
“We heard the elevator crash,” the soldier to the left added. He stood up as he spoke, still not bothering to remove his helmet.
“So you thought I perished with the others?” the Under Chieftain asked. He eyed them up.
The soldiers were silent for a moment. But then the female nodded.
“We knew nothing for certain, sir.”
“Well I am more formidable than you may think,” Veznek said. He walked through the doorway, pushing past the three soldiers. “Who can tell me where we are?” he asked, looking around.
“We are in the basement of the building. This is as low as we can get,” the female answered.
The lights seemed to be working fine here. Veznek guessed this section of the building ran off a separate power grid.
A brown doorway stood at the opposite side of this small and stuffy room. The walls were grey and bland. It smelled damp. Veznek even saw a dead rat lying in one of the corners.
“My, my, and I thought the elevator shaft was dirty.”
“Mind the mess, your Majesty. We’re safe here,” one of the male guards retorted.
“Is that so?” Veznek asked, turning to face him.
The guard stopped in place.
“I thought I was supposed to be safe in that elevator,” he said, motioning to the
open doorway leading to the shaft.
“General Kal Ri’Khor awaits on the other side of this door,” the female said, pointing to the brown door on the other side of the room, “along with a garrison.”
A garrison. Finally they provide me with some real protection.
“Good. Take me to her,” Veznek ordered.
The three soldiers all nodded and made their way across the room. The female proceeded through the door first, followed by Veznek, followed by the two male guards. Sure enough, the door opened to a much larger room. Makeshift work tables had been erected, filling this space from left to right. Busy Kholvari were hard at work, tapping away on their monitors.
General Kal Ri’Khor spotted the Under Chieftain right away. She was an older Kholvari, but still moved with the speed and vigor of someone half her age. Her face showed signs of relief as she looked upon Veznek.
“Under Chieftain Kho Veznek, I am pleased to see you alive and well,” she expressed nearly the second she made eye contact. She walked his way.
“And I am glad to see you, General Kal Ri’Khor. What news do you bring of the Supreme Chieftess?”
Ri’Khor wasted no time.
“She is safe. The Supreme Chieftess arrived shortly before you did.”
“Is she here?” Veznek asked, looking around the room.
“She is near,” Ri’Khor answered in vague words, “but do not worry. You have a garrison to protect you, along with several kotans of metal above your head.”
Veznek was not so sure that was a relieving thought. Metal could not protect him from the falling debris only minutes ago.
“I need to see the Supreme Chieftess,” Veznek explained. “This was an evolved-one attack. I am sure of it. I need to know how she plans to respond.”
“As far as I am aware, she has given no order to reverse her stance on the evolved-ones,” Ri’Khor said.
“But does she know that the evolved-ones are responsible for this attack?” he inquired.
Ri’Khor simply shook her head.
“I know not of such things.”
“How can I find her?” Veznek asked, getting back to his original question.
“Kho Kozakh has ordered us to keep you separate for the time being.”
Somehow Veznek was not surprised.
“Kho Kozakh is not a hierarch. He has no authority to make such orders. I am in charge,” Veznek debated.
“He is not a hierarch, no, but Kal Khtallia is and she has chosen to follow the wisdom of her guard,” the general explained. She sighed, as if disappointed. “I apologize, your Majesty, but she outranks you. I am afraid I cannot comply with your order.”
Veznek wiped his face and paused for a moment. He felt the scepter in his grasp. It seemed it gave him no power anymore.
“If I may, your Majesty, I recommend you move deeper into the building’s sublevel,” she said, interrupting his thoughts. “Kho Okhallte can escort you.”
A muscular soldier stepped forward, as if waiting for the right cue. He stood as motionless as a rock.
“Very well,” Veznek said, giving in. “It seems I have no power anyways.”
Ri’Khor could have debated with him, but chose not to say a word. She knew when to stay quiet.
The soldier called Kho Okhallte motioned for them to get moving. The reluctant Under Chieftain complied. He dared not challenge them right now. There were more important things to worry about anyway.
Veznek followed the muscular guard for several minutes through a series of underground passages and tunnels. The deeper they went, the worse the smell. But that did not stop him from pressing onward.
All the while, Veznek thought about the ramifications that would come from this monumental attack. Everything has changed now, he thought. The Chiefdom will demand revenge. The people will not support a passive ruler any longer.
Evolved-one sympathy in the Chiefdom had already fallen drastically following the acts of Kytali and Opkelah on Vigilant Behemoth. The public did not seem eager to trust the evolved-ones knowing that their Kholvari supporters were terrorists. Yet a powerful minority remained who continued to trust the mysterious creatures, chief among them being the Supreme Chieftess herself.
Now, after the destruction of their largest city, Veznek could not imagine that anyone in the Chiefdom would still show support for the evolved-ones.
Veznek smiled. He had already done so much to implement Kytali and Opkelah‘s attempted rescue of Soh Saratti before the eyes of the Supreme Chieftess and the Kreeds. All the two desperate traitors needed was a bit of money, the kind of money only a hierarch could offer. It was no surprise that they agreed to take the fall. Everyone had a price. Framing them worked perfectly. No one in the Chiefdom suspected his involvement.
Public support for the Supreme Chieftess’s pro-evolved-one stance dropped significantly after that, just as he hoped.
Now, it seemed, he did not need to do a thing. The evolved-ones were establishing themselves as the enemy all on their own.
At this rate, if Khtallia did not reverse her stance, she must have been mad.
I want to thank all the fans of the series, whether you’ve been there with Iris from the beginning, or whether Cassidy is your first foray into this world. It’s great to have such a passionate community that cares about these characters. Know that the journey continues with more books in the series!
If you enjoyed reading Cassidy, a review on Amazon.com or Goodreads.com would be greatly appreciated.
For more, follow The Color of Water and Sky on social media:
Facebook: @thecolorofwaterandsky
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Andrew Gates was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware. He now resides in northern Virginia, but frequently revisits his hometown.
Andrew has enjoyed writing since high school but did not start writing seriously until college. He enjoys writing anything from short stories to full-length novels. His favorite book is The Lord of the Rings.
When he is not writing, Andrew is also an avid runner. He works for a local Virginia-based running company and participates in a variety of races from 5Ks to Marathons.
He hopes to one day share his love of running with his future dog, yet to be named.
