“Not a very likable man, is he?” a deep voice asked.
I spun around to see Sir Uram standing behind me, and I wondered how long he’d been there. He must have heard Olav yell at me, and then he would have seen me glowering at the closed door.
My anger was replaced with shame since the man had caught me sulking like a child. He was barefoot and wearing a cream-colored shirt reaching down to his knees. Although unarmed, he was still considerably larger than me, and I wondered whether he blamed the Stalwart’s crew for his imprisonment here. If he did, then he might want vengeance. The Ecomese official had been foolish to lock Olav and me in here with the Dax.
“You seem a little . . . displeased to see me?” Sir Uram offered. “I was somewhat surprised to learn you and the knight were joining us in here. What did you do to earn imprisonment?”
I’d been honest with this foreign man before, but there was a difference between honesty and over sharing. The mission on Tachion had taught me not to trust the knights of other kingdoms, so I kept my mouth shut. He might gather the reason why we were here, and I might even tell him, but I preferred waiting until I knew a little more about the man and his intentions. After all, he was aware of the Grendel portals on this Ark, and his duty to the Dax Kingdom would require him to report them.
“No answer? Well, would you like something to eat? There’s a manual kitchen in here, and I’m cooking some Dax specialties,” Sir Uram said as he turned down the corridor after motioning for me to follow.
Whatever was cooking inside the kitchen was still making my stomach growl. I doubted the man would poison the food, so I followed him.
I took a left at the end of the corridor and entered a rectangular kitchen with five plates framed by cutlery laid out on a table. Sir Uram whistled a tune as he bent and removed a large baking dish from the steaming oven, and the smell from earlier almost overwhelmed me.
“Almost ready,” he said without turning to face me. “Take a seat, Squire Lyons.”
My mouth salivated in anticipation of the taste of the aromatic hot food, and I sat at the table. Sir Uram laid the baking dish in front of me, and I watched him cut a thick slice of pie. He then slid the piece onto my plate, and I inhaled through my nose.
“Dig in,” Sir Uram said as he sat in front of me.
I took a bite from the steaming quiche and groaned in wonder. There was saltiness from something similar to feta cheese, a dash of vinegary taste from what looked like sun-dried tomatoes, and a hint of heat from a meat resembling salami. Sprinkled throughout was a peculiar spice that enhanced the taste of the rest of the dish and left a tingle on my tongue.
The dish was a culinary delight for my taste buds. Even without the last few days of Ecomese gruel, the food on the Stalwart hadn’t been much better since our cook had been killed during the pirate attack.
While I wolfed down the first slice and started on a second, the two surviving Dax initiates entered the room. Upon seeing me, they scowled before moving the table’s chairs so they were sitting as far as possible from me.
Sir Uram spoke to the two men in their language, and the other men shot me sideways glances. They ate in quick silence until their plates were clean. The Star Spear exchanged words with them again, and the two initiates stood and left the room.
“They are struggling to come to terms with the deaths of their comrades,” Sir Uram said as he downed a mug of coffee. “I’m finding it difficult myself. It’s been some time since I’ve lost any brethren in battle. Fifteen years I’ve been on Ecoma, and the only time I’ve fought was in the sims on our orbiting embassy.”
“I find that surprising,” I said. “You dispatched the Grendels with ease.”
“As did you, Squire Lyons. It is a pity we could not have fought better. The initiates who died were troublesome, but they had decent hearts. They wanted to serve our kingdom, but they got on the wrong side of the wrong people, so they were sent here.”
“I’m sorry they had to give their lives,” I said.
“There’s no need for you to apologize. Wasn’t like you opened the portal and brought the Grendels here.”
I shifted uncomfortably and tried not to display my thoughts on my face. I hadn’t opened the portal, but I had upgraded it. If it wasn’t for me, those initiates might have survived.
Sir Uram narrowed his eyes at me as though he was trying to read my thoughts. “Fancy watching a few Caledonian Space Knight tournaments?”
I exhaled after his question, relieved he hadn’t guessed I was somewhat responsible for the deaths of his comrades. “Sure,” I replied.
“I figure this residence was built for Prime Minister Treyin whenever she got nostalgic for the RTF,” Sir Uram said as I followed him into a theater in the next room.
“Really? How do you explain the armed door then?”
The man shrugged. “Maybe they locked a Caledonian up here once upon a time?”
That sounded more likely, and I wondered who would have been kept within such a lavish prison. It was more like an apartment than a brig.
I sat beside Sir Uram in front of the giant screen while he opened the menu to a folder titled “Melanie C’s Favorite Games.”
“Who do you suppose ‘Melanie C’ is?” the Star Spear asked me.
I was too busy reading the file names inside the folder to answer him, and I grinned when I saw one I recognized. “That’s the tournament between Raphael the shield knight and Tristan the berserker!” I said as I pointed at a file on the bottom right of the screen. “It was broadcast a little under five years ago, but it’s been voted the best duel in a century.”
“Then I suppose that’s the one we’ll watch,” Sir Uram said.
For countless hours, we watched dozens of matches. The Star Spear admired the Caledonian fighting spirit, and I found myself explaining the various players and their particular skills. While the fights were grandiose and breathtaking, the Runetech equipment was specifically designed to be non-lethal and showy. The more glowing gear and flashy maneuvers, the better.
We took a break when my eyes were hurting from staring at the screen for so long, and Sir Uram cooked another pie. I ate until I was ready to burst and slid my empty plate away from me.
“Thanks, Sir Uram,” I said. “I can’t possibly eat another bite!”
“You’re welcome. It’s good to talk with--” He stopped and stared past me.
I turned to see Olav standing in the doorway. He marched over to the table, grabbed the baking dish with the half-eaten pie inside, and then exited the room.
Sir Uram cocked his head at me. “So, you going to tell me what landed you and the knight inside this place with us Dax?”
“We weren’t meant to be in here with you,” I said. I was getting along well with the man, and we’d bonded while watching the tournaments, so I figured I could at least tell him why the berserker and I were here. “Olav doesn’t like me very much, and Captain Cross suggested we sort out our differences.”
“I saw the way he glared at you,” Sir Uram said. “Looks to me like he wants to kill you.”
“Yeah,” I said with a sigh.
“Why?”
I considered what the Star Spear could do with the information if I answered him truthfully. It wasn’t crucial to our mission, and he might even be able to offer some advice.
“I betrayed the crew,” I said. “Captain Cross has forgiven me, as have most of the others. Yet Olav still holds a grudge against me.”
“I would probably feel the same way if one of my initiates betrayed me. Traitors are among the worst scum in the universe. Yet I do not think you are truly a traitor, and I also trust your captain’s judgment. What reasons did you have for your betrayal?”
“I thought the crew was guilty of insurrection. I wanted to serve Queen Catrina by providing evidence of such.” I almost felt like I was sitting in front of a therapist, but I didn’t really care. Getting this all off my chest was alleviating a lot of the troubles in my mind.
“But you learned otherwise?” Sir Uram asked.
I nodded. “I found out the crew serve the queen, but it was too late to prevent something bad from happening.”
“You explained all this to the berserker?”
“I’ve tried. He doesn’t want to listen.”
“Maybe he will, in time. Or maybe you need to prove yourself.” Sir Uram reached behind him and grabbed a bottle of wine. “Now, how about we drown our sorrows a little?” He flicked off the cork with his thumb and handed the bottle to me before grabbing another for himself.
I took a long swig and wiped my mouth with my sleeve.
“I have a question for you, Squire Lyons,” the Star Spear said.
“Go on,” I said with a little trepidation.
“What did your Academy schooling teach you about Grendels?”
“They come through the portals, we kill them, then we get the loot.” It sounded a little crude when summarized, but there was no other good way to phrase it. “My Academy training focused less on the whys and hows and more on the killing and looting,” I said with a laugh.
Sir Uram took a long gulp from his wine that stained his lips purple. “Were you always interested in becoming a Space Knight?”
“Yeah, but it wasn’t always a possibility.” I paused and considered telling the Star Spear about my dad and the tuition payment he’d left behind. I hadn’t talked to anyone about Dad, and I preferred to keep it that way. “If not a Space Knight, then I would have become an enchanter.”
“A noble profession,” Sir Uram said. “My son became an arcane engineer. That’s what we Dax call enchanters. We have many things in common with the Triumvirate Kingdoms, although we call them by different names. You have Runetech while we have Dax Seals.” He put down his wine bottle and stared at me. “Hey . . . mind if I ask you another question?”
“Sure.”
“Why is it the Grendels have weapons like they do? With rune effects and all manner of strange skills and damage modifiers. Does it not strike you as peculiar?”
“It’s just the way it is,” I said with a shrug. “Do you Dax also question why the gods exist?”
“Ha! I am surprised a member of a scientifically advanced group like the Triumvirate Kingdoms has such a dogmatic answer. It’s that way ‘just because’? Hasn’t anyone questioned why?”
“Not to my knowledge,” I said.
“They probably have,” Sir Uram said. “But I bet they were punished for asking, so no one knows about them. I’m sure you’ve played VR games before. Surely you see the similarities between those and the Grendels.”
“I do. But I always assumed the games were based upon the Grendels.”
“What if it were the other way around?”
“Huh?” I hadn’t ever considered what Sir Uram was proposing, and it all sounded a little foolish to me. I didn’t want to tell him that, so I sipped from my bottle.
“I don’t know for certain. I’m only hypothesizing. Anyway, did you have a chance to play the Ecomese virtual reality games?”
“They were great fun. I only recently discovered it’s a training simulation for the warsuits they use to fight Grendels.” The wine was already getting to my head, and I realized I probably said something I shouldn’t have.
“That makes sense,” Sir Uram said as he rubbed the runic tattoos on his scalp. “I always thought it was kinda funny they played so many virtual games. You know, we Dax thought there were no more portal instances on Ecoma, which is why we never attempted to reconquer it. Too much trouble for too little gain.”
“Now that you know, what do you intend to do?” I figured I might be able to get Sir Uram and the initiates out of here if he promised to keep the information a secret. We were being candid with one another, so I trusted what he would say.
“I’ll break out of this prison and report back to base,” he said matter-of-factly.
The man’s answer shocked me, and I tried to control my tone. “You lived here for fifteen years; surely you don’t feel some affinity for the Ecomese people?”
“None at all,” Sir Uram said. “We’re responsible for creating the humans here. They owe their very existence to the Dax. Now, how about another flagon of wine!” The Star Spear grinned at me as he grabbed another bottle.
“You would really provide information which would lead to the enslavement of an entire planet?” I asked, and my tongue felt a little drunk.
Sir Uram stared into my eyes. “Wouldn’t you do the same for your kingdom?”
I could see the man was devoted to his kingdom, so I knew my attempt to sway the man was useless. Somehow, he would send information to his base. Then the Dax would come to Ecoma.
Sir Uram grabbed the empty plates and slipped them into a dishwasher. “I better check on the initiates. They’re probably up to no good.”
I watched the Star Spear leave the kitchen and walk to the end of the corridor. When he turned left, I waited a few more minutes and then sprinted to my room.
Olav wasn’t there, but the baking dish was on the mattress furthest from the door. I was about to leave and search elsewhere for the knight when something else on his bed caught my eye. I moved closer and saw that it was a holo album. I figured it would be filled with skin holos of beautiful augmented women, but curiosity got the better of me.
After I took it in my hands and turned it on, an image of a beautiful woman materialized. But she wasn’t naked. She wore an RTF Space Knight’s uniform and carried a muted smile on her full lips.
I wondered whether I’d stumbled on a holo of Olav’s daughter, but she didn’t look anything like him. Her hair was jet black, and her facial features were delicate. Perhaps his wife?
I scrolled sideways, and a holo of a much younger Captain Cross appeared. His hair was short and cropped around his ears, his beard wasn’t speckled with grey, and there were fewer wrinkles beneath his eyes. White teeth sparkled as he grinned, and his right arm hugged the same female knight in the previous holo. Except she was much younger and wearing the RTF Academy uniform.
Captain Cross looked like a proud father, so I assumed this woman was his daughter. But why did Olav have a holo album of her?
“I knew you would come in here and look through my stuff!”
I spun to see Olav charging toward me, and he grabbed me by the throat before I could protect myself. Pressure squeezed around my neck, and I dropped the holo album so I could try to peel back the berserker’s fingers.
“You planning on reporting back to Edmund Barnes? Tell him all about poor Olav’s obsession with a dead woman?” the berserker roared.
I gasped for air as his grip tightened, and then I saw Sir Uram and the two Dax initiates rush past the doorway. I waved my right arm so Olav would turn around, but he was too intent on killing me to notice.
Suddenly, there was a deafening slam, and I guessed the door leading outside our residence had shut.
Olav released me, and I dropped to my knees. My vision whirled as oxygen rushed into my lungs, but I couldn’t stand.
“That’ll be the crew,” Olav said. “They probably thought they didn’t stand a chance against the Grendels without me.” He entered the corridor while I forced myself to stand and followed him.
I still couldn’t speak, and I tried in vain to tell him the Dax had just left through the door. All that came out from my mouth were hoarse gasps.
The berserker peered through the peephole, and he stepped back in surprise. “Huh? What the hell are the Dax doing on the other side of this door.”
“They escaped somehow,” I croaked, but my mind was spinning. How had they gotten out?
“Why the fuck didn’t you say something?”
“I was trying to, but you were too busy choking me.”
Chapter 16
“How did the Dax get the door open?” Olav asked as he inspected the locking mechanisms.
“They must have opened it from the other side,” I said. “They’ve been on this planet for a while, so
they probably have someone working for them.”
I could hardly believe a native would sign their kin over to the kingdom that had enslaved their ancestors, but people had done worse. They would probably receive a large payment as a reward, at least if Sir Uram made good on his word, which I imagined he would be.
“We need to find them,” I said. “Sir Uram will send word of the active portals on this planet. Then--”
“Then the Ecomese will be enslaved,” Olav finished for me, and his teeth clenched in anger. “Sounds like we might have to disobey the captain’s orders, Lyons. Normally I wouldn’t do anything without his approval, but we’re talking the enslavement of thousands of innocent lives if the Dax come here in force. We gotta make sure word doesn’t leave this Ark.”
“Yes, sir,” I said. Even though he hated me, I couldn’t help appreciating his honorable nature.
“I’m going to drink blood from that Star Spear’s skull!” the berserker roared, punched the door, and then sighed in defeat. “Except this place is locked up tighter than a Parthagian warlord’s safe.”
Even an ion-cannon would have difficulty getting through the door, but I could teleport with a simple mental command. Whether Olav liked it or not, he would need me to get out of here.
“I can help,” I said. “Sir Uram doesn’t know about my teleportation abilities, so he won’t expect us to leave here. We will have the element of surprise.”
The berserker turned from the doorway to glower at me. “Then what are you waiting for?”
I couldn’t risk using my ability without knowing the layout of my destination, but there were a few places on the Den Ark I could teleport to without worry because I knew them well. The squire lodgings, the city, and the power plant were the clearest in my mind.
But there was one other place.
“I think Sir Uram is most likely to head for the docks,” I said. “He’ll want to leave the Ark immediately before the enforcers discover that he sprung out of here.”
Space Knight Book 2 Page 25
