by May Sage
When the door slid open, Kai undid the safety and shot without hesitation. Good thing, too; the intruders had come armed, no doubt intending to catch him by surprise. That’s how he would have died, Nalini guessed.
One male fell, the second raised his weapon; she didn’t give him the time to shoot, tightening her fist and twisting it, breaking his neck. A neat trick she couldn’t do often; it took focus and her hold had to last for several seconds, which rendered that skill useless in an actual fight, when things moved so fast. Now that the ten official enforcers dressed in black and red had noticed her, she didn’t have that luxury.
Fortunately, Kai’s shots were lethal. The enforcers had noticed as much; they took cover on either side of the door, shooting blindly into the room.
Kai waved their way leisurely, and an energy wall erected, protecting them from the blasts. He hadn’t just changed physically; he was more powerful now.
Much more powerful.
Part of her wanted to take a careful step back. She wasn’t familiar with the feeling of finding herself in the company of someone whose mind was as strong as hers.
What if he became her enemy? What then? Could she defend herself from him? Possibly, now. But she’d spent twelve years learning just how she could control and manipulate the energy around her, training, one energy blast after the next in that cage. Other ways, too. Kai started to explore it three years ago. In another few years, he might surpass her. Have the ability to crush her.
“I can’t hold that forever, and they’ll soon realize their technique is useless. You have to get out of here.”
He was thinking of her safety. He wasn’t a threat to her. Not now. Possibly not ever. Her one action that day, years ago, might have earned his loyalty—something he didn’t bestow easily.
This was guesswork. With most, Nalini would have simply scanned their mind and intentions. With him, she couldn’t. He kept her out completely, and effortlessly.
“I can’t.” That wasn’t quite true; now that the immediate danger had passed, she felt like, if she let go, calmed down, and concentrated on getting back to her body, she could. But there was just one problem with that. “They’ve seen me. If they report my presence, I’m dead. I need to….”
Those two nasty words wouldn’t cross her lips. Kill them. End a life. She’d done it a moment ago, but stopping to think of it made her nauseous.
Still, there was no other choice. Her looks were too unusual; if they talked to anyone of importance of a young girl with eyes of a different color, a bald head, and beige clothing that would befit a monk, she’d be identified immediately. Enlil would have her chamber gassed in the middle of the night, killing her in her sleep.
Not needing her to elaborate, Kai nodded before launching out of the room. She followed.
When he discarded his blaster, she wondered why for a second; then he pulled two strange weapons—rounded disk knives—out of the back of his coat and slashed through arms and throats at the speed of a tornado.
She got it. He fought with the precision of an artist and the ferocity of a wild beast; blasters probably slowed him down. Nalini stared openmouthed until she felt one of the enforcer’s intention. A blaster, aimed at Kai’s back. She moved instinctively.
It was the first time she actually fought, really physically fought, against an adversary who’d destroy her if he could. Until then, she’d simply trained by herself, or sparred with fighting masters who treated her like a porcelain doll.
She realized just how weak her little arms were. Just how hard a kick to the stomach felt. But still, she held her own against simple Teneran law enforcers. Her power helped. She kicked one male in the head and took his baton as he fell forward; using the metal weapon, she bashed through bones with speed and purpose. Her muscles might be puny, but backed up by her mind’s compulsion, her blows were deadly.
The entire fight didn’t last more than four minutes; then Nalini and Kai stood—him unscratched, her, winded and a little bruised, but fine.
He seemed impressed. “Not bad, little lady.”
She huffed a nervous laugh, all the while looking around the corridor’s ceiling. It didn’t look like there was a camera.
“I could say the same.” He’d taken out seven of the guys, leaving her just three.
“First time I had someone guarding my back,” he confessed, bending down to retrieve his blaster. “Could get used to it.”
“Let’s try not to do this again, instead,” Nalini replied, rolling her eyes. “Ever.”
“Why are we doing this? Why are you here?” So much for not being the type to ask questions. Apparently, he was just the type of guy who saved them for when he wasn’t about to die. She frowned.
“Not sure.” She shrugged to emphasize her ignorance and innocence in the matter. “I guess the cosmos doesn’t want me to let you die, or something.”
He looked at her for a long time, his dark gaze intense. Finally, he inclined his head, accepting that response.
“I owe you, either way. Again.”
“We’ll keep a tab. You can repay me with interest.”
Kai smiled. “Cute.”
She rolled her eyes.
“You’ve grown up,” he remarked, sizing her up. “How old are you now?”
“Twelve.”
He nodded. “And you’re still a prisoner. You’re not really here; I can’t smell or feel your presence.”
Nalini nodded.
“I’ll really get you out, someday.”
“Unlikely.”
He frowned.
“I need to go.”
But his intense dark eyes kept her in place, scrutinizing her in a way that made her feel strange, more self-conscious than she was with dozens of drones constantly set on her.
“Right,” he sounded reluctant. “Until next time then.”
She bobbed her head before letting go of the link she was holding on to. She felt light, lighter than air.
“Wait,” Kai called out. “What’s your name?”
She could have answered, but Nalini chose to say something else before she disappeared.
“Wear a mask. Your face is on record.”
That seemed more important than anything else.
When she felt the presence again, the day after, and the day after that, she knew exactly who she was linked to. She felt it when he got hurt and, once or twice, pushed some of her own energy through their bond to allow him to heal faster.
Nalini might have gone insane within the five following years if it hadn’t been for that bond.
Then, that day she’d seen so long ago finally came.
Ten
Peace
Now alone, Kai remained immobile and confused for a beat, before he forced himself into moving. He had a mission. Now that he’d been compromised, he needed to get down there and break the kids out before it was too late.
There was no time for subtlety. He was alone, without backup; Kai made his way through the Teneran palace, slicing through or incapacitating anyone who crossed his path armed with a blaster.
He’d never been quite so confident, not even questioning whether he was going to survive this. There were hundreds of enemies, all alerted to his presence, all heading toward him, and he just walked through, destroying them one by one.
No need to wonder why: the little lady had done this. Changed something fundamental in him again.
The kid was a seer. The visions he’d seen through her eyes had made that clear. She’d appeared because he’d been about to die, and she’d only left because he was safe now. With that knowledge in mind, he felt invincible. It was as though she was right there, behind him, watching over him.
Kai unfolded another layer of his power, so suddenly it was almost painful. He moved instinctively, avoiding shots before they were even fired. Every day for over a year, he’d become a little stronger, pushing his abilities one step further at a time, tentatively testing his limits. Finally, he understood. There were no limits. That po
wer didn’t belong to him, wasn’t born inside him. He simply borrowed it from the universe around him, the energy binding and linking all things. The infinity. He could channel the girl from three worlds away simply because they were part of the same universe.
The moment he accepted this truth, every single soul awake in the city of Rumaul, homestead of Tenera, fell unconscious.
Kai’s soul aged a decade in a few milliseconds, suddenly taking in the weight of such knowledge, an understanding of the universe only the most ancients of the Wise shared with him.
Them and a little girl on Vratis.
Finding his footing, he ran down to the arena. The uncommon sight before his eyes had him raising a brow.
He activated the comm device at his wrist. “Going to need some help down here,” he told his command shuttle.
“Copy that. Division coming through.”
His men arrived just as startled as he’d been at first, finding hundreds of soldiers still unconscious. The children were also in their cells, now wide open.
“Wait, so what did you call us for?” Lawer mused.
Kai shrugged, a rare cocky smile on his lips.
“Can’t carry them all by myself.”
His men watched him with expressions ranging from awe to fear. He ignored it.
“Wait,” said Hart.
The twenty-year-old, well-bred male didn’t mind getting his hands dirty, helping out in fights when he was needed, but his real strength lay between his ears. He – and his twin sister – were smart. Their parents were politicians, and they’d taught them to think, use their brains when everyone else just did the obvious thing.
When Hart spoke, they all listened.
“We don’t actually need to get the kids out.”
Kai lifted a questioning brow.
“Everyone is out for the count, right? Every single soldier in the place.”
He nodded slowly.
“So how about we get them in cells? The droids and war machines can be reprogrammed. And we can stay here.”
The idea had merit. Kai pondered it seriously. Their fleet almost never touched ground, as they were in danger as soon as they arrived in any known system. They fueled up, stocked up on resources, and went back out in space. It would be nice to have a base of sorts.
In fact, if they took Tenera, they could stay there. Just defend it, and let it be known that it was a safe haven for those wielding magic.
“Right.”
They did just that.
It had been an idealistic dream, an illusion that didn’t last.
Magic users came in numbers—men and women, children of all ages. Evris with no magic came too, simply enticed by the idea of a world Enlil didn’t control. Many souls, on every world, seemed to have waited for this time, hoping that it would come someday.
Kai was humbled and encouraged when he saw that they numbered in the thousands. Tens of thousands.
They were attacked by the warlord’s fleet within weeks.
Ian Krane laughed. “I told you it wasn’t going to be that easy.”
True, the old grouch, always the naysayer, had warned him not to get too comfortable. Still, Rumaul had been built to withstand a siege, giving them an advantage: while the enemy fleet could attack in space, it couldn’t blow up the city. They erected an energy shield no weapon could pierce from the outside, before jumping into every single available fighter. Kai allowed every boy and girl of age to defend their new home if they so wished, and ensured that his best soldiers remained behind, to take care of those who were too young to fight yet.
“I can help!” Wench yelled stubbornly when he was denied the chance to jump into a fighter.
The boy was fourteen, and already a good pilot, but he was still too inexperienced for battle. Too young to kill.
Kai sighed, recalling the existence of a twelve-year-old with strange eyes, who simply had to click her finer to kill grown males. So, perhaps it was a poor excuse. Age had little to do with anything in war. But Wench wasn’t ready, and Kai wouldn’t have his blood on his hands.
“You can help,” Kai nodded, knowing what kind of person he’d been at fourteen. Already self-sufficient and old enough to do just about everything himself. Wench had never been put in a situation where he had to be 100 percent in charge of his own fate, like Kai had in his youth, but they certainly weren’t coddling him like mother hens. He’d be just as useful as any other pair of hands. His mind raced, and finally, Kai knew just what to do with him. “Go down to mechanics. Make sure the damn shield stays in place. Whatever it takes, boy.”
There were a dozen men down in the control room, tending to that shield, but now that he’d been given a purpose that didn’t require him staying planted on his butt and twiddling his thumbs, Wench nodded and went on his way.
Kai got to the Lotus.
That’s when the fight was over, really.
That ship. That beautiful, beautiful ship.
Kai’s flying had always been responsive, instinctive, and the Lotus’s system was built to anticipate his next intention before he’d finished a maneuver. Moves that would have been entirely impossible in any ship half its size, were seamless.
Kai spun at high speed, shooting to take out the two main canons of the Lordship, their enemy’s main command ship, one after the other.
“Leader to all light fighters,” Kai called, “stay with me on this one. I need all fire on their command platform.”
“Their shield is still up,” one of his fighters pointed out. “No way can we pierce that with our—”
Well, simple requests, simple answers. “I’ll take the shield out. Over.”
Kai got the Lotus to scan the Lordship’s configuration. It might be a custom design, but it had been based on a larger scale TX-999; he’d studied that model to decide whether it was worth stealing a while back. Their controls were all safely tucked underneath the main body of the ship, protected between the now-disabled canons.
Kai shot at the platform repetitively. When that failed, he lifted his hand and concentrated, straining hard. This wasn’t like knocking out a weak-minded Evris or blasting a door. Magic was simply another word for manipulating energy without the assistance of any technology—using just his mind. And the shield he went against was made of energy.
He needed help. The instant he realized that, he knew who to ask.
A little lady.
Her eyes flashed through his mind. He felt her watching him, assessing the situation. Almost immediately, an excess of power blasted through, so strong and sudden, he felt faint.
Kai yelled in pain and drops of blood dripped from his nose. Before his eyes, the brightly lit command ship with purple propulsors went dark, then lit back up with dim, dull lighting. Kai’s control panel showed practically no energy coming from the Lordship now. Fuck. The force he’d released hadn’t just taken out the Lordship’s shields he’d targeted; it completely disabled every single one of its systems, like an EMP, putting it straight into emergency mode.
Kai sank back in his chair. Exhausted. Spent.
He wasn’t quite that invincible, apparently.
“Leader?” Evi called, concern evident in her intonation.
A psychic with a seriously good aim, she was one of the most valuable members of his group. She’d felt his faltering, no doubt. How he hated showing weakness.
“Shields are down. All fire on the platform,” he ordered.
“Got it, over.”
His fighters took care of the rest, firing on different parts of the command ship until it blew up. Hundreds of parts of Lordship hovered aimlessly in space, while others entered the atmosphere, and fell at high speed on the surface of Tenera. The cities were spared thanks to their shields – a few villages suffered. Kai had help dispatched to them almost immediately.
Now leaderless, the rest of the warlord’s fleet fled back to their masters. They ran to their master, reporting impossibilities Enlil couldn’t quite comprehend.
Kai only jus
t managed to drag himself to his bed in the Zonian before collapsing. A light sleeper, generally alerted by the slightest sound, he passed out and stayed unconscious for hours, helpless.
Well, not quite. There was one wolf at his feet, four in front of his door, growling at anyone who dared get too close while their alpha was vulnerable.
When he awoke the next day, Kai left the Zonian to find most of his people assembled in the hangar, waiting front of the ship, understandably concerned.
“What now?” was the question on everyone’s lips. And there was only one response, really.
For a blissful few weeks, he’d genuinely believed Hart’s idea might have worked out, that they could simply claim this planet, or another world, as theirs, and live peacefully.
He would have another mission, a dangerous one. A raid at the heart of Vratis, to retrieve one of the warlord’s most treasured possessions. The child. He owed her too much to leave her to her fate; beside, he’d made a promise, and he intended to keep it. But the future he’d envisioned had been peaceful, otherwise.
Now he saw it had simply been a fleeting dream.
“Now, we tend to our wounded and get ready. Tomorrow, we’ll take the rest of this system. Then, the next world, and another one after that, until this sector is ours.”
The only way they would have peace was war.
Eleven
A Dance
It wasn’t the first time they’d held a feast celebrating their victory, but this time, it was a grand thing. Never had they possessed this: the resources of an entire world. Still feeling weaker than he cared to admit, exhausted, Kai would have greatly preferred not to attend it, but his absence would have been noted.
The weather was kind, and no hall was grand enough to host their nation, so the feast was held in the streets.
The drums played a beat that reverberated through the entire city of Rumaul, intoxicating, thrilling. His people laughed, drank, fucked right there outside, barely bothering to hide in the shadows.
