“I must obey,” Tuger replied, following him.
“You don’t have a command. You don’t even know for sure they want us,” Tordan argued.
He paused for a nanosecond. “I know they want you because you don’t want to go back.”
Tordan had been inching away from him between each grapple, toward Aielle and the other side of the lava flow.
This time, the rock ledge crumbled, and he barely caught himself. He was almost there…he could feel it.
“No one wants to go back. Not even you.”
Tuger paused for a moment. “Desires do not matter. Only orders. You’re not going to leave. Even if I have to die, too.”
Is this how much the chip controls us? That we’re willing to die for their orders — and we don’t even know why?
He took another step back, and Tuger jumped over the missing ledge and lunged at him. He backed away again but his foot slipped.
Tordan heard Aielle cry out from behind him, but the sound was distant to the blood rushing in his ears.
Tuger landed, grabbing on to Tordan and breaking off the entire ledge beneath them.
They fell as if in slow motion toward the waiting lava below, and he twisted his body toward the shore where he knew the golden-haired elf stood watching. He couldn’t imagine the look on her face as she watched him fall, wished he could spare her the pain.
Have to see her green eyes one last time…
To be continued…
DID YOU ENJOY Tordan 1.0?
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A preview of Episode 2, Tordan 2.0, follows the About the Author page.
About the Author
Immortal Angel is always writing. Her specialty? Stories in weekly episodes that drop readers into a new world and keep them hanging on until the very end.
Growing up on sci-fi, fantasy, and romance; she can’t help but weave these elements into her stories. Which, luckily for her readers, results in a whole lot of hot human men, supernatural males, and some very sexy aliens.
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Preview of Tordan 2.0
“What?!” The general’s roar bounced off the rock walls of the underground command center, echoing back for several seconds. The tapping of his claws stopped, and there was a high-pitched scraping sound as he raked them along the sides of the chair. He rose, his slitted eyes searching the monitors for some sign of the princess and the rogue Cyborg who had helped her to escape.
Tordan. Together, they might actually pose a danger to him. If he finds out who he really is…
“General Slash.”
The sound of his name from the monitor behind him sent a shiver down his spine. He closed his eyes for a moment. Control. Then he opened them and slowly turned toward the monitor, bowing as he did so. “Yes, Your Greatness.”
“Do you have the location of my crystal?”
“No, sir, the elves wouldn’t break, and my other spies have failed so far. They have hidden the crystal somewhere that our scanners cannot penetrate. Unfortunately, that is quite a bit of these mountains, and several other places on the planet. But I have teams searching everywhere.”
The king bared his fangs and hissed into the monitor.
Slash could see death staring him in the face. The general didn’t react due to long practice, but inside, he was cowering in terror. If I were in that room, I would already be dead.
“Need I remind you that we need that crystal to power our weapons, General? As well as our ships. How can I build an empire when my own generals fail me?” The king slammed his clawed fist against the side of the visiscreen, sending cracks across the lens of the camera so his face fractured on the monitor. “We didn’t drop the red dust for fear of contaminating the crystals on Aurora with its concentration. But you’ve had long enough. If you don’t have the crystal in three days, I’m going to drop the red dust anyway, and take my chances.” His slitted eyes narrowed. “Perhaps I’ll throw some white powder in, as well. A final gift for your pathetic performance.”
The general couldn’t stop himself from baring his fangs visibly in terror. The red dust was a poison to all other humanoid races they had ever discovered. It would kill every living humanoid on the planet, except the Ardaks. But the white powder was a poison to their own race, and those afflicted usually died slowly, painfully, over the timespan of a solar revolution.
“Contact me when you have good news.” The king got so close to the camera that the only thing visible was one cracked eye. “And, General, it had better be in the next seventy-two hours.”
The visiscreen went dark.
Rage suffused him, and he turned to the two commanders in front of him.
Striker and Fang trembled, afraid of his wrath. They had been with him since he’d first taken command…been among the first to volunteer when he’d been chosen for this assignment. They had started this invasion together, with ten thousand soldiers.
There were only twenty-two Ardaks left. Now there would be only twenty. It was a great loss, but their failure couldn’t go unpunished. Failure is death. Or exile — which would be worse than death on this pathetic, backward planet.
His two commanders were so well trained; he hadn’t even needed to tell them to get on their knees.
“Commander Striker! Commander Fang! Do you have anything useful for me?” He stalked across the command center until he stood behind them.
“Yes,” Commander Striker replied. “In my interrogation of the Cyborg escape, one of the Cyborgs claimed that Tordan knows where the crystal is — or at least he knew where it was before he lost his memories to the chip.”
The general roared in displeasure. “How do we know that’s the truth?”
The commander bowed his head. “We don’t, sir. But in his escape, Tordan pushed another Cyborg off one of the cliffs inside the mountain. The fall broke nearly every bone in his body, and that Cyborg seemed to regain his memories in the process. He has a deep hatred for Tordan now, which is why he spoke.”
General Slash ground his teeth in frustrated rage. All this time, it wasn’t her. It was the Cyborg that had the knowledge. And I’m the one who stole his memories with that chip. The knowledge was bitter, his rage all consuming.
“And you?” he questioned Fang, who swallowed, having no information to tell.
His roar trembled the air as he jumped Commander Fang, tearing through his throat with his fangs, slicing his stomach open with his lethal claws. In five seconds, the commander was dead, blood still gushing from his throat, his entrails sliding out onto the floor.
A vision hit the general then, of his own head falling to the floor, his blood leaching onto the stone. Then it shifted to all of them choking on the white powder as it filled the air above his base. His rage intensified.
He growled at Commander Striker. “I have lost two commanders in two days! Don’t make me lose another. You heard the king. Find those two fugitives! Search everywhere. Send teams through the tunnels, down the rivers, search the skies if you have to. And send in Ouirer! He’s just been promoted.” He saw Striker blanch. Good.
Ouirer was named for the yowls of his enemies as he slit their throats from behind. Ouirer might be crazy, but his insanity is probably just what we need to bring this mission to a close. Or we’re all going to die. “I need him to ready the army. If you don’t find the crystal, we will march on Renwyn in two solar rotations. We will tear down those shields or die trying. Better than…”
He didn’t
even want to finish the sentence aloud.
The king leaving us here to rot. Or dropping the white powder, then leaving us.
Commander Striker raised his chin, then gave a swift salute. He grabbed the legs of the former Commander Fang and dragged him from the room. A trail of blood and entrails smudged behind him as he exited, leaving the general with a sick sense of déjà vu. And a terrible sense of foreboding.
He sat back in his throne-like chair, his claws tapping their familiar pattern.
There’s no way one elven princess and her new Cyborg pet are going to defeat me.
When I catch them, I will watch as the life is crushed from their eyes.
As if to mock him, the red lights in the room faded, then came back on. It had been for only a second, but General Slash knew exactly what it meant.
Time is running out.
I’m falling.
This is it. This is how I die.
Tordan’s life flashed before his eyes. He still couldn’t remember much, but he caught brief flashes of his childhood, the Ardak invasion, and her.
Aielle.
The beautiful elf who freed him from the chip.
As he turned toward her, Tordan’s outstretched fingers caught the tiny lip of rock that was left where he’d been standing and he clung to it, stopping his fall. His gaze met her wide green eyes. She does care for me.
But then Tuger, the Cyborg who had jumped across the ledge and caused this madness, tried to grab on to Tordan’s legs to stop himself from falling. Tordan kicked him away and he fell directly into the center of the lava flow.
The man’s screams were harsh and loud as he hit the lava with a wail, which was abruptly cut off.
Tordan could feel the searing heat of the lava beneath him, strong enough to burn his feet through his boots.
“Hold on!” came a cry from over his shoulder.
He glanced at the shore and found her standing there, her arms outstretched toward him, her long golden hair falling forward in front of her as she lay on the shore and reached for him. Even if he could have reached her, there was no way he would take her hand. I’m too heavy, and she’s still weak from imprisonment. We’d both fall in.
So he didn’t reach for her. Instead, he began to inch along the ledge to the shore, his feet barely above the lava flow. His fingers were slick with sweat, both from the heat and anxiety. The heat was excruciating, the edge of the ledge crumbling beneath his fingers every time he tried to move. One of his hands slipped and he looked down, seeing the man’s frozen expression of agony as it was slowly swallowed by the lava.
“Don’t look down,” her voice urged from far away. “Focus on my voice.”
It quelled the doubts in his head and he kept inching along, nearly slipping several times, finding handholds and footholds where he could.
When he finally swung up onto the shore, her arms wrapped around him. “You made it.” Her voice was thready and her grasp was weak, but he could see the relief on her face. He hesitated a moment, then wrapped his arms around her. A frisson of energy went through him as her body pressed against his.
“Fools!” the Cyborg with the ladder called, reminding him there were still two of them on the other side.
He stepped in front of her protectively, shielding her with his body. His heart pounded as he surveyed the others, assessing whether they would try to cross the lava flow. But it was obvious they were stuck on the other side, now that the ledge was missing.
She’s safe. For now.
“You know you’ll never really escape,” the other Cyborg shouted, frustration lacing the words. “The general is going to bring this mountain down around you!”
I used to think that. But for some reason my heart feels hope. Real hope for the first time in so long.
It pained him to look at the other Cyborgs and know they were nothing more than slaves to a chip in their neck, its commands dictated by an alien race of overgrown cats.
As I was. Until her.
“You’re only following commands, like I did for so long,” he called out to them. “But you can break free of it, as I did.” He was distantly aware that he was shaking with anger and pain. How long has it been since I felt so much? Since I valued my life? And theirs?
Living under control of the chip — it wasn’t life. It was a waking death.
The two Cyborgs lingered for a few minutes while he watched, obviously searching for another means of crossing the flow. He knew they were talking to each other on a frequency he could no longer hear. But they won’t find another way across. There isn’t one. At least not on this side of the mountain.
How do I know that?
The Cyborgs came to stand opposite him on the other side of the lava flow. The tallest spoke, his deep voice echoing off the high cavern walls. “We will find a way to reach you.”
He nodded, understanding their dilemma. “Because if you return without me, you’re all dead. I understand, my brothers.”
For a long time, no one spoke. Instead, their gazes said everything. They had muted emotions, but their expressions still conveyed anger, hatred, and pain. Before the Ardaks, they had probably been friends, living peacefully in the mountains.
Now they were enemies, soldiers in a war they hadn’t started, and wouldn’t have cared about if they’d been in their right minds. But regardless, the next time they met, it would likely end in death.
At last, the Cyborgs picked up their equipment, as well as Tuger’s, then turned and marched into the dark tunnel leading back toward the prison.
The blood that had been pumping through Tordan’s body at a rapid pace slowed. As his adrenaline faded, his focus shifted back to her. And the muted pain in his feet. He cursed inwardly. The heat from the lava must have burned them, and the chip was now controlling the level of pain.
“Are you all right?” she asked from behind him.
He took a deep breath. “Yes.”
A second later, she was in front of him, her green eyes searching his face.
He was taken once again with her beauty, her long golden hair, slightly pointed ears and slim, lithe build. But even more, it was her eyes. Their green depths held such sorrow, and such strength.
Finally, she nodded. “How much farther is it to the hiding place you spoke of?”
He squared his shoulders. “Not far — I believe it’s close. Very close. And if my flashes of memory are correct, we can hide there safely for a time.”
Her gaze met his again, and he was stunned by the electricity he felt. What is that? Does she feel it, too?
His gaze slid back inadvertently to where the other Cyborg had disappeared into the lava. I don’t know if I ever believed in a higher power. But I know I haven’t for the past three years. Yet now, even though they’re after us, the fact that we’ve made it this far…I almost do.
Turning his back on the lava, he led her into the first tunnel. After a few steps he paused, holding out his arms. “Shall I carry you again?” He wanted to feel her against him once more.
Aielle shook her head. “I want to walk.” She swayed on her feet as she pulled away.
“I’m sorry, little elf, but I can’t let you.” He swung her up into his arms, ignoring her protests. In that moment he felt the energy, and another rush of something he’d thought long dead within him. Protectiveness. And attraction. But was her heart beating so quickly because of exhaustion? Or because she felt what he was experiencing?
Just because you wish it, doesn’t make it so.
As if to prove his point, she struggled weakly. “You can’t. I’m fine.”
He held her tighter. “Your gait is unsteady. That and the darkness make the risk of a fall too great. Just rest. We’ll be there soon.”
After long moments, the tension seemed to melt from her body. “Thank you,” she murmured, her words slurring slightly.
He relaxed. Carrying her is the right decision. Her earlier bravado was good, but now she was obviously at the end of her strength. This is what I
had admired before. Her bravery. Her strength of will. She was worth risking everything to save.
But yet it’s something more, the voice in the back of his mind reminded him. He tried to ignore the feel of her in his arms as he picked up his pace, moving along at a lope, trying not to jostle her too much.
“Tordan?” her voice was just a whisper.
“Yes?”
“I had heard that the mountain people have incredible strength, but your Cyborg chip must make you almost impossibly strong.”
He thought about that for a moment. “Not the chip. The will to live.”
She was quiet for a long time. Finally, she nodded. “I want to live, too.”
“And you will. I’ll protect you.” At his words, he felt a shiver run through her. She’s afraid to turn to someone else for protection. He knew it because he felt the same. But soon she’ll learn she doesn’t have to be afraid with me.
Tordan’s shoulders sagged with relief when he arrived at the hidden section of the caves. The pain in his feet was stronger now, and the back of his mind was burning with urgency. Must rest.
But how do we enter? He seemed to remember a lever. Walking to the right, he began reaching behind each of the boulders. He found the lever and pulled it. One of the boulders slid back to reveal an opening.
He entered and closed the door behind him quickly using a matching lever. Yet, another door stood before him. He found a second lever that opened a door to an adjacent cave, this one much larger. Several wide, flat boulders were spaced along one side. On the other, sealed baskets of all shapes and sizes stretched out, covered with a fine layer of dust.
He set Aielle down gently on one of the large, flat boulders, and she didn’t stir.
A memory flashed. A sleeping pallet. He’d used it more times than he could count.
As his eyes briefly scanned the cave, Tordan felt a staggering sense of loss. So few memories returned. Almost everything before he’d become a Cyborg was still hidden by the haze in his mind.
Tordan 1.0: Episode 1: Cyborg Warriors Page 5
