“I guess we’ll see where this takes us,” said Cole, pushing the door wide open.
They walked in silence until they came to another room. Instead of a burial sarcophagus, they found a pool of ink-black water. Cole held his torch high above his head as he scanned the room. He lashed out and kicked a rock into the water.
“Now what, Alan?” asked Kobak.
“We can go back, or we can see where this water leads to,” he replied.
Kobak took a step back and began to shake. “I can’t swim.”
“Well, I can.” Cole gave the torch to Kobak and dipped his hand in the water. It was cold to the touch, but he could feel a current moving below the surface. Cole sat down and yanked off his boots.
“What are you doing?” asked Kobak.
“I’m going to see where this leads.”
Kobak began to panic. “What if you don’t come back? Then what will I do?”
“Slow down.” Cole placed his hands on the prince’s shoulders and looked into his eyes. “I know you’re scared, but it’s hard to understand you when you speak so fast.”
The young prince took a breath to calm himself and repeated his question.
Cole pointed back down the tunnel. “If I don’t return. Go back the way we came and try to get out of the city when night falls.”
“I don’t want to be on my own.”
“Kobak, I know you’re scared. I promise I’ll come back for you. Okay?”
The young prince nodded and wished Cole luck.
Cole slipped into the pool and felt the cold water against his skin. He took in several deep breaths to fill his lungs with oxygen. With a wink, Cole dove out of sight.
Kobak held the burning torch so tight that his knuckles turned white. He counted the minutes Cole had been gone in his head. When he hit two minutes, a feeling of dread filled his heart. Kobak leaned over the edge of the pool and shone his light over the black water.
“Please come back, Alan. I don’t want to be left alone down here,” said Kobak to his reflection in the water. He began to pace back and forth, glancing every couple of seconds at the pool, praying that Cole would appear.
Images of creatures with razor-sharp teeth lurking in the shadows waiting to devour him tugged at Kobak’s young mind. His heart began to race. Kobak looked back toward the room with the stone casket in it and turned to run when Cole finally breached the water, startling him.
Cole took a deep breath and hauled himself up onto the rocky ground.
Kobak dropped to his knees and threw his arms around Cole’s neck. “Praise the Lord that you’re alive.”
Cole chuckled and patted Kobak on the shoulder. “You guys really need to learn to trust in each other more often than your religion.”
“I thought you had drowned!”
“Not today.”
“Is there a passage below the pyramid that leads to the outside?”
“There sure is and don’t worry about drowning. There are plenty of air pockets along the route.”
Kobak canted his head.
Cole smiled. “I guess I just butchered your language again? Just drop the torch and get in the water with me. Everything will be all right.”
Kobak looked at the water and hesitated.
“Trust me,” said Cole, holding out his hand.
Kobak took Cole’s hand, slid into the pool, and held onto Cole’s neck so tight that it made it hard for him to breathe.
“Here, grab hold of my belt,” said Cole, taking one of Kobak’s hands and wrapping it around his belt. “Now take a really deep breath and hold it.”
Kobak inhaled, filling his lungs with precious oxygen.
Cole dropped below the surface and swam into the darkness, dragging the prince with him. Every few seconds, he would raise his right hand until he could feel air and surfaced, allowing Kobak to catch his breath. Because Kobak’s weight slowed him down, it took close to five minutes before they came up inside a dimly lit cave. A shaft of sunlight came through a tangle of bushes at the far end of the cavern.
Cole helped Kobak out of the water and rubbed the young prince’s smooth head. “See, I told you we’d make it.”
Kobak raised his hands in the air. “Praise—”
Cole stopped him cold. “A simple thank you would be good enough,” said Cole in English.
Kobak got the point and pointed a hand toward heaven. “God . . . do you believe in God, Alan?”
“Whose god are you talking about?” asked Cole switching back to Kurgan.
“The Lord Kurgan, of course.”
“Son, there are probably millions, if not billions, of different species spread throughout the universe, and each one of them probably has a god they pray to, so I tend not to think much about religion. I said it before: people need to learn to trust and respect other people and then there just might be a little less strife in our lives.”
Kobak nodded as Cole spoke, but Cole doubted the heir understood more than a handful of his words.
“Come on, let’s get moving and see if we can find our friends,” said Cole.
Chapter 22
Chaos reigned at the lake’s edge. Panicked Kurgans rushed to board any boat they could find. Many dragged their personal possessions and livestock with them. It didn’t take long for the overloaded craft to begin to sink or capsize, spilling their terrified occupants into the water. Many Kurgans drowned within sight of the shore, pushed under the water by their fellow citizens who fought to keep their own heads above the waves. Adding to the misery were two hoverbikes taking turns doing strafing runs on any of the crowded boats that managed to make it out to the lake.
Sheridan crouched beside a rain barrel and looked around for something they could use to flee the city. An overturned canoe bobbed in the waves only a few meters from the shore.
“Follow me,” said Sheridan to his companions, sprinting for the boat. He grabbed the canoe and flipped it over.
“I’ve got a couple of paddles,” said Tarina, plucking them from the water.
“I’ll sit up front,” said Sheridan, holding the boat steady so his friends could climb inside. “Tarina can sit in the back and Katin in the middle.”
“Give me your rifle,” said Katin to Sheridan.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but do you even know how to use it?” he asked.
“Major, my whole life has been designed around protecting my brother. Trust me when I say that I’m more than proficient with any weapon in the Kurgan Armed Forces.”
“Give it to her,” said Tarina. “We’re going to be too busy paddling for our lives to fire the damn thing.”
“Here you go,” said Sheridan, passing Katin his rifle. He hauled himself inside the canoe and picked up his paddle. “Tarina, let’s stay close to shore in case those Chosen recce troops decide to take an interest in what we’re doing.”
With that, they dug their paddles into the water and hauled back. The canoe started off slowly but picked up speed with each stroke. It wasn’t long before they were pulling away from the bedlam at the water’s edge.
“I hate to say it, but I think our luck has just run out,” said Katin, pointing up at a hoverbike closing in on them.
“Down,” yelled Sheridan as the bike rider opened fire. A burst of rounds struck the water in front of the canoe, splashing Sheridan. The bike flew over the top of the boat and banked over in the sky.
“He’s going to come around again,” said Katin, bringing up the rifle to her shoulder.
Sheridan and Tarina kept as low as they could in the canoe while Katin took aim at the Chosen soldier. Like a hawk hunting its prey, the bike dove at the boat. When the bike was almost on them, Katin fired a single shot. Struck in the chest, the soldier dropped his pistol. A second later, he leaned over and tumbled from his bike into the lake. His hoverbike kept going for another hundred meters before its nose dipped down and crashed into the water.
Sheridan raised his head slightly. The second bike rider must have seen his
partner’s demise as he brought his hoverbike over and flew above the water toward their canoe, firing as he came. Katin never flinched while bullets buzzed around her head. Still as a statue, she waited until the last possible second to fire her rifle. The Chosen soldier, hit in the head, remained on his bike until it flew into the jungle, hit a tall palm tree, and exploded.
“My God, that was unbelievable shooting,” said Tarina, sitting up.
Sheridan looked into Katin’s eyes and didn’t see any hint of emotion. If killing the two men bothered her, she hid it well. “I’m an idiot,” said Sheridan. “You’re a Kizari, aren’t you?”
Katin nodded. “You are very astute, Major. Like my mother before me, I was raised to be a royal assassin.”
Tarina’s eyes widened. “You’re an assassin?”
“The Empire is a patriarchy as it has been since the first Lord Kurgan proclaimed himself emperor. But that hasn’t stopped the women of the royal bloodline from guarding their family’s heirs. By day, I was schooled by the brightest minds in the empire and at night, I was taught how to fight and kill in the shadows.”
“Damn,” said Tarina. “You are full of surprises. Why didn’t you kill the men who attacked you back in the city?”
“I could have, but that would have prematurely exposed my secret,” replied Katin. “I saw you two and trusted you to come to my aid.”
Sheridan picked up his paddle. “We can talk later. General Kordus’ soldiers are going to wonder what happened to their two hoverbikes and vector one of their drones in our direction.”
“That looks like a good spot to go ashore,” said Tarina, indicating at a grove of trees with her paddle.
Sheridan nodded. Together they paddled as fast as they could for the trees. The instant the bottom of the canoe touched the rocky shore, Sheridan jumped out and helped haul the boat out of the lake He drew his pistol and offered it to Katin. “Trade you.”
“If you wish, Major, I can operate anything in our arsenal,” said Katin, switching weapons.
“Now what do we do?” asked Tarina.
Sheridan looked over at the horizon. A blood-red sun dipped below the trees. “It won’t be long before it’s dark. If we’re going to find Alan and Kobak, we need to link up with the other survivors from the city who fled into the jungle and hope that someone has seen them.”
“Michael, I doubt many of the people are going to be very welcoming to us after what just happened,” said Tarina.
“She’s right,” said Katin. “You two will have to keep out of sight while I do the looking around.”
“Okay, agreed,” said Sheridan. “Tarina and I will hold back in the shadows while you try to locate our missing people.”
“Not that I want to add to our problems,” said Tarina. “But isn’t the jungle filled with things that like to eat people like us?”
“I know this is going to sound ghoulish but they’ll soon be coming down to the lake to drink and the lake is packed with something for them to eat,” said Sheridan. “We should be okay, for now.”
“I agree with the Major; besides, we have to find my brother,” said Katin. With that, she pulled her hood up, stepped onto a game trail leading deeper into the jungle, and began to walk. Sheridan and Tarina gave her some space before following her. All three vanished from sight just as a drone maneuvered in the sky over their beached canoe, transmitting the image back to Kordus’ command post.
Chapter 23
With a smug look on his face, Kordus strolled onto the town square and looked around. All around him Chosen soldiers battered down the doors of every building they came across. The terrified inhabitants were forced from their homes at gunpoint and made to kneel on the ground with their hands on their heads while groups of soldiers searched their dwellings. Any Kurgan who resisted died by firing squad right in front of their family.
A captain bowed and handed Kordus a tablet. On it was an update from Colonel Keel detailing how most of the city had been searched, but so far, they hadn’t been able to find either sibling among the dead or the survivors. Kordus gnashed his teeth together and threw the tablet to the ground, shattering it in two. He reached for his communicator and switched it on.
“Fetch Colonel Keel,” demanded Kordus.
“Keel, speaking.”
“Colonel, you should have deployed one of your companies in a cut-off position and forced the fleeing natives back into their city. Because of your incompetence, we will have to go into the jungle at night to try to find the traitors.”
“Yes, sir, I apologize for my error.”
“Don’t apologize. Find them!”
“It will be done, sir.”
Kordus turned off his device and stashed it into a pouch on his belt.
“Sir, sir,” cried out a Chosen sergeant.
“What is it?” replied Kordus.
The sergeant ran over and bowed. In his hands were the siblings’ discarded clothes.
Kordus yanked the garments from the soldier’s hands and looked down at them. “So, you’ve hidden yourselves among these natives,” said Kordus to himself. “So be it. These people will pay for helping you. Sergeant, I want this city burned to the ground. Pass the word that anything that can burn will be set alight. Anyone who tries to stop you is to pay with their lives. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” said the sergeant before running off to pass the order.
Kordus brought up Katin’s robe to his nostrils and inhaled. Her scent made him smile. “Maybe I’ll play with you a while before I have you killed.”
“General, please come here,” shouted a lieutenant, standing next to one of the arena’s exits.
“You had better have found something useful,” warned Kordus as he walked toward the young officer.
“Sir, my men found this when they searched the basement of the arena,” said the lieutenant, stepping aside to reveal Wendy Sullivan’s blood-and-dirt-encrusted body.
Kordus’ eyes lit up. “Is she alive?”
“Yes, sir. My Chosen medic already checked her out. Aside from a broken wrist and a couple of fractured ribs, the Terran female is all right. She must have been knocked unconscious during one of our missile strikes on the arena.”
“Have your men found any other Terrans?”
“No, sir.”
“Have them comb through every piece or wreckage. There were four of them. If we can find where the other three went, we might be able to find Prince Kobak.”
The junior officer bowed. “I will see to it personally.”
“Before you go. Do you have any skilled trackers in your platoon?”
“Yes, sir. I have three men who are accomplished hunters back on their homeworlds.”
“Cut them loose. I want them to find where these Terrans went and report their location back to me. I want to finish this job and be on my way back home with word of their demise as soon as possible.”
“I will dispatch the trackers immediately, General.”
“Good,” responded Kordus with a dismissive wave of his hand. When he was alone, Kordus knelt on one knee and brushed the dirt off Wendy’s face. “As for you, Terran, I have plans for you. I hope you scream loudly.”
Chapter 24
Cole slashed and hacked at the gnarled undergrowth, trying to cut a hole wide enough for Kobak and him to crawl through without getting stuck. At his side, the young prince pulled at the cut roots, tossing them aside.
“Hard work, isn’t it?” said Cole, wiping the dirt and sweat away from his eyes.
“Right about now, I’d do anything to get us out of this cavern,” replied Kobak. He lifted an arm and pointed at the sky. “The sun’s going down, and I don’t want to be in here when it gets dark.”
Cole looked around the cave and saw it growing darker by the second. A shiver ran down his back. “You may have a point there.”
“Alan, once we get out of here, then what?”
Cole found with each exchange, his grasp of the Kurgan language came back to h
im. “We’ll make our way through the jungle, avoiding any trails and paths, until we find our friends.”
Kobak heard the word ‘friends’ and looked away. “What if they didn’t all make it?”
“We’ll worry about that when the time comes; until then, I have faith that they’re still alive.”
“Alan, I forgot to tell you that not all of your people made it out of the arena.”
Cole’s guts tightened. “Who didn’t make it?”
“The woman with red hair.”
A sharp pain shot through Cole’s heart as if it had been pierced by a white-hot knife. “What happened?”
Kobak shook his head. “Speak Kurgan.”
Cole cursed and repeated the question in Kurgan.
“There was an explosion. When the dust settled, we couldn’t see her anymore. She must have fallen through a hole into the lower floor of the arena.”
“So, you never saw her body?”
Kobak shook his head. “No.”
“Then she might still be alive.”
“I don’t know. The dark-skinned woman seemed to think that she’d be all right.”
“Well, until I’m told otherwise, I’m going to think the same way as Tarina.”
“Why would you do that? Surely, she died in the blast.”
“Son, I know her. Wendy is a remarkable woman. If anyone could have survived that explosion, it was her.” Cole lightly punched Kobak on the arm. “Less talk, more work.”
Kobak wrapped his hands around an old root and pulled at it with all his might. The twig snapped, sending the prince tumbling back into the dark.
“You okay?” asked Cole.
Silence greeted his query. A split second later a raspy voice called out, “Help!”
Cole spun around. His heart leaped into his throat when he saw a giant snake the size of an anaconda coiling itself around Kobak’s body. Cole threw himself at the snake. He grabbed the serpent’s neck just below its head and hauled back with his dagger. The powerful snake twisted itself free and constricted itself tighter around Kobak’s hapless body.
Crimson Fire (The Kurgan War Book 8) Page 11
