The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera

by Michael Robertson

  “These tunnels remind me of home.”

  Sparks looked up at him but didn’t respond.

  “We used to have smuggling caves on Danu. They hadn’t been used for centuries, so the government turned them into a tourist attraction. We went to see them on a school trip. They scared the life out of me as a boy; I believed all kinds of monsters lived in them.”

  The sound of more soldiers stamped toward them. Seb stopped himself short of cuffing Sparks and hissed, “Hide.”

  Like the others, the soldiers passed without batting an eye. They spoke when spoken to and followed orders.

  Once they’d moved on, Seb tapped Sparks on the side of her head and she pulled his cloak open again.

  “Turn right,” Sparks said.

  Seb hadn’t seen it until she’d given him the direction, but when he looked right, he saw a tunnel branch off from the main one and headed for it. Every step took more effort than the last and he breathed heavily as he plodded forward, his legs slowly turning to lead.

  When they came to a door, Sparks burst from Seb’s robes. “This is it.”

  Exercising caution where she hadn’t, Seb looked both up and down the corridor to make sure they were alone. It seemed clear.

  Although Sparks had her watch ready, when she pushed the door handle down in front of her, it swung open. A half smile lifted her face. “Wow, I wonder why they haven’t locked it.”

  “Maybe they feel confident in their ability to stop intruders?” Seb said.

  “I hope that’s it and it’s not a trap. We’ll have an easy ride if that’s the case.”

  Even though Sparks had hopped off his feet, Seb still felt both the impressions of her heels and the fatigue in his muscles. “Easy for who?”

  But Sparks didn’t answer and Seb followed her into the room.

  Much like the room on The Black Hole, the space they entered had been stacked with confiscated items. Crates leaned against the walls and stood from ground to ceiling in the middle of the space too. A small pathway had been left unobscured to allow access to everything. “How the hell will we find your stuff in here?”

  A press of her watch and a low-pitched whistle sounded out. Sparks followed the noise and Seb followed Sparks. She pressed her watch again and something made the same noise. He followed her again.

  One more press and Sparks came to the shortest stack of crates in the room. Her bag rested on top of it and both Gurt’s blasters and SA’s knives sat beneath it.

  Seb quickly removed his heavy robe. Where he’d been sweating beneath the thick cape, he now shivered. “I’m glad it’s cold in here”—he looked down at the robe—“I was boiling up beneath that bloody thing.”

  Hunched down by her bag and rummaging through it, Sparks pulled out her mini-computer then hooked it up to her watch with a cable.

  Just holding SA’s knives set Seb’s heart aflutter. Although he’d been around her when she’d used them, it didn’t seem appropriate to ask to look at them. They seemed too personal. But now, with the beautifully carved ivory handles and the filigreed blades in his possession, he could properly take them in.

  “Come on,” Sparks said.

  As Seb slipped Gurt’s and SA’s harnesses on, he felt the collective weight of both the blasters and the knives and rolled his shoulders to try to find some comfort.

  After Sparks passed Seb his robe, she darted across the room. When she came back with a crimson robe of her own, Seb heaved a relieved sigh. The weight of the weapons would be much easier to bear now he didn’t have to carry her too.

  With both of them loaded up and ready to go, Seb paused for a moment, the smell of leather coming from the two harnesses. “I can’t help but feel like we’re being set up.”

  Sparks shrugged. “We can’t deal with what we don’t know. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.” She lifted her small computer up. “I’ve transferred all the data over to this. It’ll be easier to follow it now, so we should get through here quicker. We can’t worry about anything other than the now. I know you have a bad feeling, but I think we might just do this.”

  And with that, Sparks led the way out of the small storeroom.

  Chapter 49

  Sparks seemed to have energy to burn as she streaked off ahead of Seb. Although if he’d been carried from the hangar like she had, he’d probably have the same zest for moving on too. Weighed down with SA’s and Gurt’s weapons, he lagged behind, but at least the stark lighting in the hallway allowed him to keep focused on his little friend up in front.

  Without missing a beat, Sparks took a sharp left turn and Seb listened to the echo of her light steps as she disappeared down what sounded like a stairway.

  When Seb stopped at the top of the steep stairs and looked down to see Sparks disappear into the dungeon-like darkness below, he nearly didn’t follow her.

  Before Sparks vanished from view, she looked back up at him, her face hidden in the hood’s shadow. “Come on,” she said and turned the glowing screen of her small computer for Seb to see—not that he could. “They’re down here.”

  “Think of SA,” Seb muttered to himself before he shook his head and followed Sparks.

  Two soldiers stood in front of a large wooden door at the bottom of the stairs. Both of them lifted their chests and raised their blasters.

  Before they could speak, Sparks said, “We’ve been sent down to check on the prisoners.”

  “Why?” one of the soldiers replied in a gruff voice as he stepped toward them.

  “Since the power cut, Mother wants us to check everywhere.”

  “But other than the lights, there’s nothing reliant on power down here.”

  “Do you want to tell her that?”

  The shadowed face of the foot soldier stared at Sparks for a moment before he stood aside and unlocked the heavy door for them.

  Sparks walked through and Seb followed on her heels with his head raised. Even if he didn’t feel confident, he needed to project it.

  The stench damn near knocked Seb over. Worse than the streets in the slums, worse even than the sewers they’d gone through to get into the elevated city, it reeked of both human waste and a rich funk of rotting flesh.

  Seb gagged several times and his mouth dried from the heat in the room. A sharp look from Sparks and he finally managed to pull himself together.

  The same lights that ran along the corridor’s ceilings ran along the dungeon’s ceiling. Although they had far fewer in the dungeon. As a result, many parts of the cave were sunk in deep shadow. Unfortunately, some of the dungeon remained all too visible.

  In the centre of the room—lit up as if beneath an interrogator’s spotlight—a wooden structure the size of a bed had a small female strapped to it. About the same size and shape of a human child, she had scaly green skin. On closer inspection, Seb recognised the device as a rack. The small child looked like she should have been smaller. Her tiny form stretched beyond a point it should be able to. Dead from the process, her mouth hung open and her lifeless eyes stared at nothing.

  In front of the rack sat a large wooden chair. The slumped form of an older female sat strapped to it. She had the same scaly green skin of the stretched girl. Seb would have also taken her to be dead were it not for the gentle rocking motion as she sobbed in near silence.

  Sick to his stomach, Seb walked over to her and undid the straps on the female’s arms and feet. So what if the soldiers looked in? They couldn’t leave her like that.

  Once he’d freed her—the female smelling as bad as the dungeon itself—she simply remained in the chair. A fogged glaze sat in her eyes as if she’d lost her mind. Seb stared at her face for a few more seconds and saw the familial resemblance. She was the mother of the dead girl for sure. “Damn,” he whispered, his hushed tones rippling away from him.

  Seb didn’t have time to do more than he’d done, so he spun around and took the room in. Although dark in there, his eyes adjusted to the poor light and he saw various torture devices dotted aro
und him. Rather than getting used to the funk of the place, it seemed to get worse as he looked at the tools designed to cause pain. Each one had been stained with the blood of many victims. Rusty, dirty, and sharp, they’d all been created with agony in mind. They’d kill beings through either spearing them, stretching them, or hanging them. Half of them still had the broken forms of dead victims on them, and whilst some of the remains looked fresh, some were rotted beyond recognition.

  Short and sharp breaths ran through Seb and the room seemed to get hotter. When he looked into the corner, he saw something boiling there. It added to both the heat and the stench in the room, but he didn’t want to investigate it.

  Along one wall ran a line of cage doors. Bodies shuffled inside, and when one of the creatures within stepped forward, Seb gasped. Sparks looked up from her mini-computer and he nodded in the direction of the cages. “The child soldiers. Sparks, look.”

  Sparks looked across the dungeon at the cages full of young males. Still unable to see her face, Seb read her mood from her utter stillness. What could she say to that? If they released the boys before they found Gurt and SA, the commotion it would undoubtedly cause could mean they’d never get their friends back.

  A long finger protruded from Sparks’ robe and she pointed away to another corner of the dungeon. “Over there. Gurt and SA are over there.”

  With the map in her hands, Sparks led the way again. Seb followed, watching the caged boys for a little longer before he focused ahead. When he caught up with Sparks, he found her in an empty cage. She stared down at her screen. “The map says they should be here. They should be locked in this cage.”

  Seb looked back out into the central area of the dungeon and his heart sank. “Uh, Sparks,” he said as he pointed into the darkness.

  Sparks came to Seb’s side and heaved a weary sigh. “Oh no.”

  Silhouetted in the dark, Seb looked at the limp and hanging forms. One large brute of a creature, the other, a slim and slender female. He shook his head as the strength in his legs ebbed away. With a hand on the wall, the surface hot and damp to the touch as if the stone sweated, Seb said, “I can’t believe we didn’t get to them in time.”

  Chapter 50

  “We have to cut them down,” Seb said as he walked toward the forms. His voice warbled when he spoke again. “I can’t believe we didn’t get here in time.”

  The two limp bodies each had a hood over their face. They’d clearly been put on before they’d hanged them because the rope bunched the fabric around their necks.

  Seb removed one of SA’s knives from her harness. He got to Gurt first. It would be easier to see him dead than it would SA. His hands shook as he sliced into the Mandulu’s hood.

  The second the brown sack fell open, Seb let out a relieved sigh. “It’s not him, Sparks.” A look at the bloated face, the weight of the creature’s body pulling against the tight noose around its neck, and he laughed as he stared into the brute’s bulging eyes. “He’s too pretty to be Gurt.”

  “Even when I’m missing, you’re rude about me.”

  Seb spun around to see the large form of Gurt emerge from the shadows. The blue bioluminescent glow of SA’s eyes stepped out of the darkness with him and Seb’s heart skipped.

  Before he’d thought about it, Seb rushed over and held both of SA’s hands as he stared into her brilliant glare. He wanted to hug her, but he refrained. “Oh my. Are you okay?”

  Instead of her often blank expression, the slightest hint of a smile played on SA’s lips before she nodded.

  “I’m fine, by the way,” Gurt said.

  The brief flash of happiness returned to impassivity on SA’s serene face, and she dragged a man forward from the dark.

  With long dirty hair and a scraggly beard, he walked with a limp. Seb stared at the mess of a man. “George Camoron?” After a few seconds, he looked at both Gurt and SA. “Why’s he still gagged? And why are his hands still tied together?”

  SA shoved the man forward and Seb removed his gag, screwing his nose up at his dirty stench.

  “My god, why have you taken so long to get to me? Do you know how long I’ve been down here? Do you know who I am?”

  Before he could say anything else, Seb pulled the gag back across the man’s mouth. Because he still had his hands tied behind his back, the plummy excuse of a being couldn’t do anything about it. Seb nodded at both Gurt and SA. “Okay, I understand now.”

  Despite silencing the man, Seb dragged him forward into the little light they had down in the dungeon. Almost unrecognisable from his picture, his hair had grown long, his skin had turned a few shades darker because of dirt and sweat, and he’d lost a lot of weight. Dressed in what looked to be the suit he’d probably arrived in several years ago, the black fabric that remained of it hung from him in scraps. His crusty trousers seemed to be stained with his own waste and blood.

  Just to touch the man made Seb want to wash, but they had to get him out of there. As he turned Camoron around, dread sank through Seb’s form. The back of his clothes had been ripped to shreds. The white fabric of his shirt had been stained with old yellow blood, and angry white scars were raked down his back as if he’d been mauled. “My god,” Seb said, “what have they done to you?”

  The lights in the dungeon suddenly grew so bright Seb couldn’t see. Regardless of his temporary blindness, he heard the voice of the soldier with crystal clarity. “Nothing compared to what we’re going to do to you.”

  Chapter 51

  It took a few seconds for Seb to recover his vision from the glare, but when he did, he saw the two soldiers they’d persuaded to let them into the dungeon and a whole host more behind them. The narrow doorway only allowed a few through at a time. The hallway on the other side appeared to be crammed with red cloaks too. An image of the hangar they’d been in earlier and the sheer number of soldiers in there ran through his mind. It wouldn’t be easy to get free.

  Seb pulled George Camoron behind him, and although he should have focused on their enemy, he couldn’t help looking around the dungeon now the lights had been turned up. The child on the rack looked more horrendous, her shoulders and hips fully dislocated. The kid’s mother remained slumped in her seat, as inconsolable as before.

  The prisons with the boy soldiers in them were huge. A few hundred adolescents were packed into each one, maybe more. Thousands of boys in total, they all stared from the cages at the commotion outside.

  The soldier that had spoken seemed confident the five wouldn’t get out. Instead of fighting them straight away, he walked over to a girl who’d been tied to the wall. No more than seven years old, the small creature had the familiar pasty tinge common with Solsans’ residents. The lack of sunlight turned everyone pale. She had long red hair, two horns poking through it, and a large protruding bottom jaw full of jagged teeth.

  Delirious with the suffering she’d endured, she seemed oblivious to the soldier, who walked over to her and pointed at where her right arm should be, now just a bloody, cauterised stump. The soldier smiled. “This is what we do to thieves. She stole a cabbage from the ground.”

  Although her blue eyes rolled in her head, the girl managed to rouse herself, looked at the soldier, and spoke with slurred words. “It had been thrown away. It was rotten.”

  The soldier spun on her and screamed in her face, “You stole it!”

  The boys in the cages recoiled at his loud accusation amplified by the acoustics of the cave. Conditioned to fear their masters, the violent outburst clearly triggered something in them.

  The soldier then lifted her other hand. The tips of her fingers had been shaved away and they glistened with blood. “We’re taking the other arm now.” He laughed. “An inch at a time.”

  The girl’s head dropped and she slumped against the restraints holding her up. She didn’t look like she’d make it to the end of her other arm.

  Seb might not have been able to see the soldier’s face, but he could hear the smile in his words. “If this is what
we do to common thieves, imagine what we’ll do to you lot.”

  The edges of Seb’s vision blurred. When his world slipped into slow motion, he discarded his crimson robe. He then undid the harnesses with both Gurt’s blasters and SA’s knives on them and tossed them to the pair. He shoved George Camoron even farther away. The fool stumbled and fell over.

  Before the soldier could draw his blaster, Gurt slipped one of his own free and pulled off two shots, dropping the soldier and his mate.

  More of them rushed forward as a red tide. The bottleneck slowed them down and gave SA the chance to cross the dingy room toward the boiling pot in the corner.

  With everything slowed down, Seb saw the body—or at least what remained of the body—sat in the pot. Green skin that looked duller than it should be, the process of boiling it clearly leeched the colour from the now pale flesh. The black metal cauldron sat on a bed of hot coals.

  One swift kick and SA launched the pot and many of the coals at the door. The scalding water smothered the first few soldiers, who screamed at the contact, and several of the coals burned into their cloaks.

  With the plastic smell of burning robes in the air, Seb looked at the remains of the green creature as it lay flopped on the ground, almost unrecognisable as anything once living.

  The soldiers at the door screamed louder as they continued to burn. Gurt looked at both Seb and Sparks and then said, “What are you two wearing?”

  Seb looked down at the tan-coloured monstrosity.

  “There’s so many pouches,” Gurt said, “it looks like it would take you twenty minutes to find your keys.”

  “They all wear this kind of crap out there,” Seb said. “It helped us move through the city without standing out.”

  Gurt raised an eyebrow at Seb. “I’ll be honest, I’m a little bit embarrassed to be seen with you looking like that, but we can’t do anything about it now, can we? I suppose we’d best get out of this crappy dungeon and away from here.”