Shattered Soul

by Angela Verdenius

  “She’s a Reeka,” Vane muttered. “What else do you expect?”

  Ignoring him, Abra studied Ceri as she looked up at him. “The pain?”

  “Gone. Almost.” There was still a twinge here and there.

  “We need to stop at the nearest planet and get you checked out.”

  “I’m fine.” She struggled to sit up. “Look. Fine.”

  “Right,” Abra said dryly.

  He stood and she almost fell backwards, only to thump against his shins. Ricna and Vane grabbed her arms and Abra caught her around the waist. She felt his chest against her back, his breath on her cheek, and then with one word they dragged her upright.

  She nearly fell forwards and only Abra bracing himself to take her weight stopped her toppling over. He pulled her back against him.

  “Yeah,” Abra said. “You’re just fine.”

  The cabin whirled in front of her eyes and she blinked, trying to bring it all into focus again. It took a full thirty seconds before everything finally stood still in her vision and she found herself looking down into Vane’s wary face. If she said ‘boo’ the young hunter would probably crap his pants or shoot her. Or both.

  Ricna was eyeing her assessingly.

  “Come on.” Abra looped her arm around his shoulders and led her towards the cabin doorway. “You need to rest.”

  “No, I don’t.” She stopped.

  He tugged and she nearly fell again. After one expressionless look at her, he started forward again.

  Fine, she was a bit wobbly but she didn’t think sleep was going to make that any better.

  As they left the cabin she heard Ricna and Vane start talking. Nat was watching with a raised brow from the dining cabin, a cup of hot una in his hand from which he sipped. He certainly didn’t look concerned about her welfare.

  As they drew level, Ceri reached out, plucked the mug from his hand and tipped it to her lips. The warm liquid slid down her throat and helped steady her still quaking insides.

  “You’re welcome,” Nat said sardonically as she handed it back to him.

  “Don’t get pissy,” she returned. “I only took a few sips.”

  Shaking his head, he looked at Abra. “Need a hand?”

  Abra shook his head.

  As they continued down the corridor, Ceri glanced down at him. The harsh etchings of his face had a couple of deep lines to testify to his hard life. He wasn’t handling her gently but was manoeuvring her with a decided firmness. It was oddly reassuring.

  “This position is becoming quite the norm,” she finally said.

  He grunted.

  “You care so much,” she continued as they neared the cabin.Ain.

  Why she felt the need to prod him was beyond her. Maybe it was because she didn’t want to dwell too much on what was troubling her right now. Or maybe it was because being helped by a bounty hunter was almost abhorrent to her nature.

  Pardoned she might be but the outlaw was still in her.

  And so was fear. Fear for Rani.

  Abra swung into the cabin taking her with him but instead of dropping her onto the bunk he sat her down in the chair at the table and left the cabin with a terse “Stay put.”

  Pressing her trembling palms flat on the table, Ceri tried to will them still. Thoughts crowded into her head but she didn’t want to sort through them until she was sure to be alone for a while. Her heart fastened at just the memory of the pain and the strong, intense feeling she had that Rani was out there somewhere.

  Abra returned less than a minute later with two steaming cups of hot una on a small tray and a small medipack. It was almost a welcome diversion while she steadied her nerves.

  “Oh, come on,” she protested when he took out a handtronic with an attachment. “I don’t need that.”

  Ignoring her, he pressed the end of the little round attachment to her temple and recorded the readings on the handtronic. He moved it from temple to temple and she sighed.

  “Stay still,” he ordered.

  While he took the readings, her thoughts drifted unbidden to what had happened. Pain. Rani. She’d definitely felt Rani, heard her. Sensed her. And that meant her sister was alive somewhere, alive and in anguish.

  The cold metal tip pressed between the beginning of the valley between her breasts and she jerked back in surprise, her thoughts scattering.

  “Taking a heart reading,” Abra said at her glare. “Hold still.”

  Not once did his fingers brush against her skin but she felt the warmth from his body, and the faint scent of his plain soap filtered into her nose when he leaned closer to read the handtronic.

  “Put it away.” Unsettled, she pushed the handtronic away and reached for one of the mugs of hot drink. “I’m going to live.”

  Keying in some command into the handtronic, Abra dropped it into the medipack and surprised her by sitting down in the other chair diagonally across from her at the little table.

  Broodingly he looked at her while sipping his drink, his gaze raking over her face. The silence lengthened between them while he leaned back comfortably in the chair and continued to sip.

  Ceri eyed him back over the rim of the mug, not bothering to hide the faint tremor in her hands. Luckily he’d not filled the mug as full as his own, or she’d be burning her fingers.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” she finally said. “I’m alive, so you don’t need to fret about how you’re going to tell Reya that I’ve kicked the bucket.”

  “And isn’t that the kicker?” he replied. “You’re alive when you should be dead. Twice now.”

  “Miracles do happen.”

  “To angels, maybe. You? No.”

  “Your faith in my badness is heart-warming.”

  “You should be dead from being frozen,” Abra said bluntly. “And there’s no way you should be up and moving after your heart nearly stopped like that.ot bvere that.

  “Vane injected me with—”

  “Regardless, it was a last-try thing at the best. You shouldn’t have survived.”

  “Someone up there likes me.”

  “Someone with dubious power has, or is, screwing with you.” That dark-eyed gaze remained locked on her “Talk to me.”

  Ceri could swear his gaze was seeking further than a man had a right to. “What do you want to chat about? The weather?”

  “What happened in the control cabin?”

  “You mean you missed most of it?”

  “I didn’t miss a thing. I heard Reya yelling from the viscomm and came to see you on the floor screaming your guts out.”

  She’d been screaming? Ceri didn’t remember much about that.

  “White as a sheet,” Abra continued in that same steady tone. “Almost out of your mind with pain. I poured three times as much pain killer into you as I would a normal person.”

  “Are you saying I’m not normal?”

  A flicker of impatience showed in his eyes. “Don’t mess with me, Ceri. I know what I saw, I know what happened, and I know you should be lying half, if not completely dead, on a bunk instead of sitting across from me spouting crap because you’re scared.”

  Slamming the mug down onto the table, Ceri stood up and leaned across the table until her face was a hair breadth from Abra’s. She bit out each word. “I. Fear. Nothing.”

  He didn’t look impressed. “You fear for your sister.”

  Ceri glared at him. “I don’t fear pain.”

  “You fear for your sister.”

  “How do you know - ”

  “You called out her name.” He took a leisurely sip of una. “Screamed her name while writhing on that floor.

  “So?” Straightening, she started to pace away from the table only to curse at the wobble in her knees. Taking a deep breath, she trod more carefully. “You know I’m worried about her. I believe she’s alive.”

  “So tell me who The Darknen is.”

  “The Darknen?” A memory slipped through Ceri’s head and she shivered suddenly.

  A dar
k shape, dim, blurred, but there nonetheless.

  Darknen...

  The Darknen comes...

  “The Darknen,” Abra repeated.

  “I don’t know.” When she saw the hardening of his eyes, she added with more force, “I really don’t know.”

  “You said the name of it.”

  Rubbing the side of her face, Ceri forced herself to think. “I thought I saw...”

  He raised his brows.

  “A dark shape in the corner of the control cabin.”

  “There was no one there.”

  “So now I’m going nuts?”

  Abra shrugged.

  Ceri glared at him. “Be careful I don’t go mad and shoot you in your sleep, hunter.”

  “That’s the least of my worries.” Abra set his cup down and folded his arms across his nen acrosschest.

  Pacing over to the space shield, Ceri was thankful to find her legs no longer trembling. Rolling her shoulders to ease the tension, she gazed out at the darkness spattered with bright lights. “She’s out there somewhere.”

  “A minute speck in a universe that goes on for infinity.”

  “You’re such a bloody ray of sunshine, Abra.”

  “Just stating the obvious.”

  Rani was out there somewhere. She could feel her as though a tiny strand linked them. Concentrating, she tried to focus on the feeling. The pain and rage were gone and in their place was emptiness. No, not emptiness, and not acceptance. Closing her eyes, she sought to try and identify what she was feeling. Ah, the rage was still there, but was it her own inner frustration at not knowing where to start?

  Turning, she leaned back against the wall and met Abra’s gaze. “Where do I start?”

  Abra didn’t bother to pretend not to know what she was talking about. “You’re to wait for Reya.”

  “You’ve spoken to her.”

  “Got my orders.”

  “So you’re going to lock me in my cabin to ensure I don’t run?”

  For the first time there was a hint of humour on the hunter’s face. “I said I had my orders from her. Doesn’t mean I’ll take them.”

  “What are you saying? That you’ll let me go?”

  “I’ve had orders from Sabra, too.”

  “Sabra?”

  “Security for the IPS. She wants to talk to you.”

  Ceri tensed. “Study me, you mean.”

  “You are an enigma.”

  “I’m not an experiment to be fooled with.”

  “Only an idiot would fool with you, Ceri.”

  Now that was so heart-warming. “So? Are you letting me go?”

  “You don’t have a bounty on your head.”

  The tension eased a little. “So you’ll not stop me from leaving.”

  “Unless there’s a bounty on your head, I have no intention of wrestling you all the way to your home or leader.”

  Ceri grinned a little. “It would be a hard wrestling match.”

  “And not worth the end result. I’ve no doubt we’d all end up with bruises.”

  No doubt at all. “So tell me where we are now in comparison to where you found me.”

  “You were in a cave on the outskirts of the Outlaw Sector. We’re almost a week from there now.”

  “A week. What planet?”

  “Ylan. In the desert.”

  “I need to go back.”

  “There was nothing in that cave except you. We searched around but there was no sign of anything. Your sister was taken, obviously in a space ship.”

  “I need to ask some questions.”

  Abra stood up. “We’re landing soon. I want a proper medic to check you out. We’ll see from there what happens.”

  He left the cabin and Ceri gazed out the space shield once again. Rani. Hold on. I’m coming.

  ~ * ~

  The Darknen

  The Darknen’s rich robes swept the floor in a swishing sound as he paced to the windows and looked out at the moonlit night. In the distance came the howl of things not of the upper surface. The surface of the ground below trembled as something shifted.

  He’d felt it, another disturbance, and he didn’t like it. Other forces were interfering, making things shattered whole, and he didn’t need the nuisance of it all. And that’s what it was, a nuisance.

  Turning from the window, he strode through the room and down the wide stairs to the next level. In a corner of the huge chamber he entered was a single stand and upon it stood a crystal arc.

  Laying one hand upon the crystal, he watched as the darkness roiled.

  “Yes, my pretty,” he murmured. “It will soon be time to bring you forth. I found you, caged you, and I shall release you once more to walk amongst the enemy. Only this time you will be controlled where the other fa

  iled. You are my secret weapon. You are Death walking.”

  Red lightening streaked through the fog.

  The Darknen chuckled. Beneath his hand, within the protected confines of the crystal, he felt the rage and frustration surge and beat upon the crystal. “Soon, my Destroyer, soon.”

  Chapter 4

  Inner Sanctum of the Outlaw Sector

  Overlord’s Fortress

  Her soul pieces hid, shattered and shivering, shrieking with pain at being torn apart, seeking to hide from the ghastly orange smoke that curled and clawed through her. Each time it hooked a savage claw through a piece of her soul, she managed to tear away.

  She wanted to die, but she’d take the mystic with her. She saw the orange smoke, saw it spiralling from him. Evil reaching out and seeking to control her. She fought it even as she screamed in panic.

  The flame flared but she didn’t care. It would burn her, sear the flesh from her bones, and that was all right. She would welcome it. Her spirit would finally be free and she could fly to safety.

  But when she leaped into that fire, reaching for the dark mystic beyond, instead of the flames licking at her skin she’d felt something else. Cool as water, fresh as snow. It surrounded her, a white light that pushed the shadows away and subdued the orange smoke inside her. She felt it try to draw away and hide, pulling back, spiralling from her body, slipping back through her organs, bone, flesh and skin, screeching from the light and back into the shadows beyond and into the hellish body of the dark mystic.

  The white light was so safe, filling her with peace, and she could only gaze in bewilderment as she suddenly found herself on one knee on the floor before the fire. No heat, no hatred, no fear, no rage. Just peace. Closing her eyes, she felt the shivering pieces of her soul stir and peek out from the hiding places of her bo. Sdy.

  People were beyond the light, but all she knew was a soothing sensation as something touched lightly upon her head, and she felt as though she were boneless.

  Something was flowing through her, a gentle touch that called to her, a harmonious singing that called to her shattered soul, and the little pieces cried out and yearned. Soft coaxing, another presence inside her, seeking and searching, calling forth the tiny crying pieces with tenderness.

  All the little pieces gathered into a gentle hand, a soft glow on a white palm. Suddenly the light pulsed, grew bright, a swirl of violet and pink, and then there was the sound of water tinkling in a fountain, a peaceful breeze that blew yet didn’t disturb anything.

  Rani lifted her head and looked up at the woman standing before her. Her gown was midnight blue, her hair as white as snow, her skin as clear as running water. Her eyes were as dark as space, and within them glittered millions of stars, both falling and rising, both steady and flickering.

  She reached out her hand and Rani unquestioningly placed her palm in hers. The woman raised her from her kneeling position.

  ::Where am I?:: Rani whispered, looking down at her. ::Have I died?::

  ::No, child. Your time is not over.:: The woman stretched out her arm. ::What do you see before you?::

  Rani looked around. ::A fountain. Flowers. A kind of white fog, yet it’s not wet. But I don’t want to lea
ve. It is peaceful here.::

  ::You see the white fog but that is because you are not dead. If you had died, you wouldn’t be here, either.::

  ::I’d be in Hell?::

  ::No.:: The woman smiled again.

  Rani just wanted to sink against her, sink into her warmth and peace, feel the stroke of a kind hand on her hair. A soothing touch a child would seek from her mother.

  The woman lifted her hand and the cool touch on Rani’s cheek was comforting. ::Child, you were meant for the light. You fought long and hard, and you had the right to fair judgment. But that has been taken from you. Your spirit has been torn from the spirit world for which you were meant and the demonic hand has ensured you cannot return.::

  ::Then I am damned?::

  ::Walk with me.:: The woman twined her arm through Rani’s and led her towards the fountain. ::You are not damned, but you cannot walk in the light. There is a chore for you and it will lie heavy on your heart, but nevertheless it is now your burden to carry.::

  Rani pressed closer to the warmth of the woman, feeling the peace seep into her.

  ::Darkness is everywhere, and there are warriors who fight the darkness. You have been chosen, however unfairly, however wrongly, to be one of those who fight in that darkness.:: The woman sat on the edge of the fountain and drew Rani down with her.

  ::I don’t want to fight.:: Rani looked at her. “I want to stay here. I want to rest.::

  ::This place is not for the souls of the mortals.:: The woman took her hand. ::There is a higher place for the souls of mortals. But that door is closed to you now, too.::

  ::I don’t understand.::

  ::Your role is important now. There is a fine balance betweonialance en right and wrong, darkness and light. Darkness rules itself, just as light does. Darkness uses warriors, and those warriors will fight for their lords, the wielders of the darkness. You have been chosen by the darkness to fight for it.::

  ::Against the light? I won’t do it.::

  ::No. You fight for a dark lord against another powerful dark lord. Your path is now set and there is no escaping it.:: She patted Rani’s hand.

  Rani felt a hollowness inside her. ::Then I am alone in this?::