Spirit of Empire 4: Sky Knights

by Lawrence White

  Two people stood in front of the line-up: one a tall, spare, black-haired woman; the other a tall, muscular, blond-headed man. In front of them, a creature he could only describe as an insect about four feet long with brown shriveled skin, multiple legs, two long antennae, and sharp mandibles stood or lay on the floor. Because of its short legs, it was not readily apparent whether it was standing or lying. Bulbous eyes stuck out from its head, and its forward hands feverishly preened the whiskers covering its head.

  Galborae let out a long breath and felt his body deflating along with his mind. He had managed to keep his wits about him through everything that had happened to him aboard the ship, but this final item had him teetering on the edge. He sensed Limam’s anxiety and her need to come to him, and he sent her the most calming thoughts he could conjure, though he knew it was a feeble attempt. His hand moved of its own accord to the hilt of his sword, but he deliberately pulled the hand back. These creatures, regardless of how they looked, had saved his life.

  Everyone gave Galborae time to deal with his feelings, then the leader cat sauntered over to him and sat, the silence in the room deep enough that its claws clicked against the deck with each step. It stared at him silently like cats do so well. The cat resembled Limam in some ways, but this creature made Limam, a vicious predator when necessary, look like a family pet. Much larger than Limam, it had tufted ears and tail and four hands instead of paws. Yellow eyes glared at Galborae from above a muzzle much longer than Limam’s, the hairless skin on its face colored red and black and orange. This creature literally reeked of savagery.

  “I greet you as one warrior to another,” the cat said. “Welcome to our home. I am called Borg.”

  When the cat spoke, Galborae’s mouth opened in amazement. He had trouble finding his voice and looked to Washburn for guidance.

  “He and his brothers are known as Great Cats,” Washburn explained. “They are possibly the most lethal warriors ever, but their purpose is not to wage war, it is to protect. They have killed a number of demons on your world.”

  Galborae suddenly found his voice. “You fight demons? You are lethal, indeed. Are there more of you?”

  “There are, but not nearby and not in the numbers you need. The demons are our ancient enemies. You, too, killed a demon, something we will not forget. I’m sorry this has happened to you and your people.”

  Galborae bowed in response, but it was only a slight bow. He was not willing to place himself in an indefensible position before this ferocious-looking creature yet despite knowing it had come to his rescue. “I would ask that you kill more of them.”

  “We will, but not today or tomorrow. Already, we have traveled far from your home. When you return, it will be with a great army.”

  Galborae acknowledged the cat’s words, but his eyes kept straying to the dragon, a creature of myth among his people.

  Borg noticed. When he held out a hand to introduce the dragon, Galborae looked closer at the hand. Similar to his own, just larger and clawed, it was truly a hand with an opposing thumb, and the cat had four of them. Real hands tipped the scales, making the cat a more formidable opponent than he had first thought. Here was a warrior who could not only be savage but could use weapons. He sucked in a breath. “You truly are not a beast,” he said.

  Borg’s lips lifted in a smile, causing Galborae to take an unconscious step backward. “But I can be when I choose,” he said. “Come, meet my captain.”

  He led Galborae closer to the group, but Galborae stopped short when the dragon’s head swung down to his own level, purple eyes that matched his scales focused fully on him. Galborae had eyes mostly for its snout lined with formidable teeth and tipped with enormous nostrils.

  “Sir Galborae, let me introduce Stven, captain of this great ship,” Borg growled. “He comes from one of the most ancient and revered people in our Empire and is probably smarter than all of us.”

  The dragon stepped forward, forcing Galborae to make a decision. He chose to hold his ground.

  “Welcome aboard, Sir Galborae,” Stven said. “I regret the presence of demons on your world. You have a hard fight ahead of you, and after that it gets even more difficult.”

  Galborae’s brow furrowed. “How so?” he asked.

  “Your people do not even comprehend the fullness of their own world, and now they have to deal with us, strangers from the stars. Our presence will change them just as it is changing you.”

  “Just kill the demons. We’ll deal with the rest later.”

  Stven nodded, his whole neck rippling as lights reflected off his scales. “We will kill the demons. As important, we will teach you and your people how to kill them.” He swung his head toward the giant insect. “May I introduce M’Sada, our pilot? He, too, is a great warrior. In fact, it was he who taught us how to kill the demons.”

  The insect rose to it’s full height, which was not very high, his multifaceted eyes reflecting the light and his upper hands busily preening his whiskers. The preening suddenly stopped and he spoke. “Greetings, Sir Galborae,” he said, “and welcome aboard our great ship. You have no need to fear me—humans are not my preferred food.”

  Galborae had thought he could not be further surprised, but the creature had actually spoken to him. “You speak, and you have hands?” he blurted out in amazement.

  “I do, ten of them, the better for fighting, eh?” M’Sada clicked his mandibles together, his way of laughing, though Galborae completely missed that little nuance. “As strange as I might seem to you—and I am not offended in the least that you consider me strange—there are others among our Empire who are even stranger. We’ll do our best to limit your exposure. You’ve seen enough already. We know it has not been easy.”

  “I have seen much, but I cannot put my hands around it yet.”

  “I believe you. Your adjustment to us is going much better than we thought it would. Be proud of yourself, sir. May I introduce our leaders?” He turned his head to the two humans standing right behind himself. “Meet Lady Krys and Sir Tarn, Knights of the Realm. They are truly great ones among our people.”

  Galborae bowed, this time more deeply. “You must have been the ones who decided to stay and help me. Thank you.”

  Lady Krys spoke, her eyes moving to him but not in the normal way. He suddenly realized she could not see him, that she was blind. He wondered how a blind person could be a great one, but he understood that he had a lot to learn about these strangers. This was but a tiny piece of the whole.

  “Among our people, such a decision is not really a choice,” Lady Krys said. “We regret the need for our presence, but we will never abandon you. That’s our way. We’re taking you to another world where you will meet more warriors. There, you will train with them to kill the demons. When you are ready, you will lead them back to your world.”

  Galborae looked around the room and wondered if the warriors would be like the ones here. He considered for a while, deciding that he could probably fight beside them despite their strangeness.

  “I will do my part, M’Lady.”

  She cocked her head to the side. “And what exactly will your part be? You are a warrior, but what your people really need is someone to explain us to them, someone to lead them through the changes that are coming. Are you that person?”

  Galborae lifted an eyebrow and said thoughtfully, “Before you came, my kingdom was the only world I knew. I have seen with my own eyes that there are many kingdoms. They do not know me, and I do not know them.”

  “But once you learn how to kill the demons, these other kingdoms will listen to you if only to learn how to fight beside you.”

  He nodded his agreement. “That much is true.”

  “You should know about the civilization we’re bringing you to. Will you please take a seat while I explain?”

  Sir Tarn pulled a hard chair over to him, judging it would be the easiest for him with his wounds. The rest of the people either left on other duties or scattered around the room and ma
de themselves comfortable.

  “Our Empire is ruled by a Queen,” Lady Krys began. Galborae raised his eyebrows, but she could not see him so she did not know, nor would she have cared. “She is one of the Chosen, a small group of women from one blood line. The Chosen are born with certain Traits found nowhere else in our Empire, chief among those Traits the ability to see into the mind of every known creature.”

  “They reads minds?” Galborae asked with a frown, not certain how he felt about that.

  “No, not exactly, but they have the ability to determine the Truth of a person. It is mainly because of that trait that the Chosen have been called to rule, a rule which has lasted for many, many generations. Our Empire has benefited from their creatively in resolving the most complex disputes.”

  Krys paused, knowing that what she was about to say was not Galborae’s problem, but Empire resources would have a bearing on how quickly the gleason problem was resolved on Tranxte.

  “We are in the midst of a vast rebellion,” she said. “Rebels banded together with another civilization from outside our borders and have essentially taken over our Empire. This other civilization, we call them the Chessori, wields a horrible mind weapon that completely incapacitates every creature within our Empire. Because of that mind weapon we have been unable to fight back against the rebels despite an almost unlimited supply of soldiers and ships and weapons.”

  Galborae looked at Washburn. The dark man had intimated that he fought battles on many fronts. This must be what he meant.

  Krys continued. “Just as your people are at the mercy of the demons, we were completely at the mercy of these Chessori until discovering another civilization from outside our Empire. We call them an emerging civilization, just as we call your world of Tranxte emerging. We classify civilizations as emerging when they do not have the ability to travel between worlds. We have a complete hands-off policy toward such worlds because we do not want to sway their development.”

  She took a deep breath, then said, “Out of all the worlds known to us, this particular emerging civilization is immune to the Chessori mind weapon. They are the only ones who are immune. Think about what that means.”

  Galborae frowned as he considered, but he did not have the knowledge to take her words to the next level. She gave him that knowledge.

  “They are not advanced enough to build ships and weapons, but they don’t have to know how to build them or even how they work—they only have to know how to use them, and we have trained them. They’re flying our ships, they’re using our weapons to fight with those ships, and they’ve sent soldiers to clear the Chessori from some of our command centers. Finally, we’re fighting back.”

  Her eyes lifted and looked toward him. “We can do the same for you. We can teach you to fight demons with our weapons.”

  “You expect me to captain one of these great ships?” Galborae asked in astonishment.

  “No. We have plenty of our own people to do that, but we do not have enough soldiers to fight the demons across your whole world. We can, however, supply you with weapons and teach you how to use those weapons.”

  Galborae considered, then said, “I have not seen your weapons, but I’m willing to try.”

  She nodded. “At the outset of our rebellion, every single Chosen except one was killed. The sole remaining Chosen is our Queen now. She rules with the aid of a few Knights of the Realm like Tarn and myself. You can see that I’m blind. I wasn’t always blind. The Chessori mind weapon incapacitates people by causing unbelievable pain, but for me it physically wounds. It is what caused my blindness.”

  “You have personally fought your enemies?”

  Her lips thinned. “No. I’m from the Empire and am powerless against the mind weapon. However, my crew and I have fought gleasons, your demons. We understand what you’re up against.”

  Galborae rubbed his chin. “I can’t say I do,” he eventually said.”

  Krys nodded. “All of us have a long fight ahead of us. Mine is against the rebels while yours is against the demons, and I must confess to you that resources are a problem. We’ll provide help, but most of our resources are committed to fighting our rebellion. In addition to fighting the rebels, we believe the Chessori have found the home of this other emerging civilization which has partnered with us. Protecting that world is our highest priority since without them we cannot fight back at all. Can you see how protecting that world is even crucial to Tranxte?”

  Galborae considered what she meant. He nodded, then remembered she could not see him. “I do, M’Lady. My world needs them to survive so that you can survive to help us.”

  She nodded. “So now you have some idea of what we’re bringing you into. We have very serious problems of our own, but despite those problems, we will do whatever we can to rid your world of the demons.”

  “The demons are not your fault.”

  “True, but I have accepted this obligation in the name of our Queen, of our Empire. We will not abandon you in your time of need.”

  Galborae stood up, then with some difficulty went to a knee. “Thank you, M’Lady. I know nothing about your weapons, but I know we will not survive against these creatures with swords and arrows.”

  “I cannot promise your survival even with our weapons. The demons, we call them gleasons, are truly the stuff of nightmares. The fight will be horrible.”

  Washburn went to Galborae’s side and helped him back to his feet. Krys looked toward him and said, “We have prepared a meal. Will you join us?”

  “I will, but my meld grows anxious. She should meet you.”

  “We’re a little concerned about that. Will you be able to control her?”

  “She will sense my feelings, but that might not be enough. Her kind tends to be protective.”

  Washburn led Galborae back to his room where they gathered up Limam. Galborae did his best to calm her and send his feelings about the others to her, but in truth his feelings had not solidified. The people were easy, but bridging the gap to Great Cats, dragons, and insects would take time. He said as much to Washburn.

  Washburn did not hesitate. “I had the same issues when I first met them. Now I just think of them as regular people, even the ones who don’t look like us. I hope you can bridge that divide some day.”

  “When you first met them? You haven’t known them your whole life?”

  Washburn stopped with a hand on Galborae’s arm. “In a lot of ways I’m just like you. Remember Lady Krys’ story about the other emerging world? I’m from there.”

  Galborae blinked as he took in this new piece of information. “You fight her enemies?” he asked.

  “I do,” Washburn said, nodding. “I do not feel the mind weapon except as a slight buzzing in my head. I was an elite soldier on my home world. When I came here, the Great Cats trained me to be a Protector, almost a super soldier. My sole purpose now is to protect the two Knights on this ship. Have we told you what it means to be a Knight?”

  “I’m a knight. It means you lead soldiers.”

  “Our Knights lead more than just soldiers. There are an enormous number of civilizations within the Empire, but only one Queen and only a couple of handfuls of Knights to rule them. An Imperial Senate represents the people and makes the laws. The Queen, her Knights, and her military forces uphold those laws, but there are so many worlds and so few Knights that she has empowered her Knights to speak for her. Their words are her command on all worlds of the Empire. The words of a Knight literally bind the Queen.”

  Galborae thought about speaking words that would bind his own king and shook his head. Such a thing would never happen. “The insect said they were Great Ones,” he said. “I’m beginning to see what he meant.”

  Washburn nodded. “The sole purpose of everyone on this ship is to protect those two Knights. Your world, Tranxte, is fortunate to have them on your side.”

  Galborae did his best to convey that sense to Limam as they continued toward the meeting room. When they reached the door, Wa
shburn entered first and stepped to the side. His hand was not on his weapon, but so fast were his reflexes that it did not need to be. If the cat lost control, he would do his best to stun her, not kill her.

  Galborae entered with a hand resting lightly on Limam’s neck and his thoughts focused completely on her. He took two steps into the room and stopped, ordering Limam to lay on the deck.

  Limam did not obey. With one foot lifted and her ears pointed forward, every one of her senses were at full peak. She registered each person in the room and sniffed the air, then she stared at Borg, the Great Cat who was sitting at attention in front of Lady Krys and Sir Tarn.

  Borg’s eyes narrowed and his head reached out toward Limam as he returned the look, then he said in amazement, “I sense her. So do my brothers. She senses us as well.”

  Limam shook off Galborae’s hand and padded deliberately across the room, her attention shifting between Borg and the other Great Cats. Absolute silence reigned, and most held their breaths waiting to see what would happen.

  Limam stopped directly in front of Borg and stared up at him, both cats taking the measure of the other as Borg looked down on her from his sitting position while she remained standing. Galborae felt himself locked out of her thoughts, something he had felt only rarely and then only when Limam was on the attack. His hopes plummeted, but he held to one critical shred of evidence—her back had not arched.

  Limam broke eye contact with Borg, then she padded to his side and joined him, sitting with her eyes taking in the whole room with her ears pitched forward.

  Borg’s gaze went to Galborae, then to Washburn. “She protects,” he said. His amber eyes brightened for a moment, then he turned his head to Limam and growled low in his throat.

  She tossed her head and returned the growl with a soft snarl, then stood up. Borg also stood and padded over to the other Great Cats, passing before them. Limam followed, looking each of them in the eye as she passed. When Borg continued toward Stven, the dragon, Limam did not hesitate, though she had opened her thoughts to him again and he sensed her unease. He also sensed her trust in Borg. The two of them passed before each member of the crew with Limam making eye contact with each, then Borg returned to Galborae’s side.