Part of his mind was on Kryslie, and her ability to sense them. It had been useful until the intruders had realised she was doing it. Then, it had made her a more important target than she had been, though she seemed unaware of that danger. He had needed to move her to safety, and from the way she was beginning to become angry, he knew it was also important to reduce her power. It was as well she had not resisted his gentle grip, or her power would have blasted his force shield, and himself. That showed she still had control, and after her power reduced, her anger should as well. Still, he was unsettled. How would she be when all the alien intruders were found and disempowered?
The search continued, but the estate covered a very wide area. Trying to find an area of distortion – a shielded man – was not easy. It began getting dark.
Tymos woke in a room that was part of the infirmary. He found that Jonko and Keleb were with him in the room. Both were looking out of a window.
“What can you see?” Tymos asked, and they both turned.
“Just the lights on the guard’s dark vision goggles. We can follow where they are moving about. It is too dark now to see anything else,” Jonko told him.
“We saw two really brilliant flashes,” Keleb added. He saw Tymos shudder.
“The intruders have power, like we do. They are not Tymoreans, and it is in a perverted form. The Governors must neutralise it.”
“Kill them?” Jonko asked calmly.
“No – they are still alive. At least the ones we saw,” Tymos told them.
“We?” Keleb queried. “Where is Krys?”
Tymos tried to reach his sister’s mind. He sensed at first a calm oasis and then a flicker of response, recognition of him, and then a flare of annoyance at being lulled into a trance. Aloud he said, neutrally, “She is helping to find the last of the intruders. Why are you two here?”
“Governor Xyron wants to be sure we have no ill affects from whatever they clouted us with,” Keleb said wryly. “We never saw it coming.”
Tymos recalled the early events. “I couldn’t move, and I saw the guards, Lexina and Denlic falling down.”
“Jon and I didn’t fall or turn statue. We saw you go blank, and the others falling and then something hit us and knocked us out. I don’t think we were out for long. The others had roused, and Stenn got really angry when he realised you both were gone and he went running off. I didn’t see you go.”
Jonko remarked, “He didn’t get very far, because we had summoned help. One of his uncles dragged him back. Stenn came here to get checked over, and then I assume he went back to his room.”
Keleb saw Tymos was trying to make sense of it all. “Apparently, they used some kind of local area force field. The medics think it targets the nervous system, and a low setting stops you moving, while a higher setting causes paralysis and you fall unconscious. When the field goes off the effect stops. Don’t know why it didn’t affect both of you that way.”
Tymos turned the question back at him. “Why didn’t it affect you two then?”
“All we can figure out,” Jonko said thoughtfully. “Is it might be because we are more human than Tymorean.”
“So you think the weapon targets Tymoreans?” Tymos considered. It was possible, he and Krys were also of mixed breeding.
“Either that or somehow it is related to the strength of the power,” Keleb proposed.
“Perhaps,” Tymos said, with his mind full of details he had subconsciously noted about the intruders.
“The intruders have power, so they would also have to be shielded against that weapon.” In his mind, Tymos sensed Kryslie pick up on that idea, and try to think of a way to make the intruders turn their shields off. He got off the bed and went to join his friends at the window.
“What the…?” Keleb exclaimed.
Six separate small explosions – visible by the flaming gases – occurred in quick succession within the area of their view. The last one caused a flare of light from skyward.
Kryslie shared the view of the explosions, and the information gave her an idea. Now, the minds of the intruders were no longer blank – they were intent on escaping during the confusion and while some force shield was down. They had planted explosions to breach the defences and to provide distractions. She sent out a thought of the explosions igniting fire around the remaining intruders, and sent the memory of intense pain, like they were actually burning. Then she sent the idea that they needed to drop and roll to put the flames out, or to turn off the force shield that the fire was burning on.
Thoughts of panic and fear returned to her. All but one mind, that of the leader. His mind was full of rage as he heard his men screaming. He knew it was a mind trick, because one of the men was right next to him. It seemed he knew Kryslie was behind it, and sent a burst of intense anger and hatred at her. Then he had to run as Tymorean palace guards were converging on his mindless subordinate.
Cursing his men for being fools, the leader ran through the breached fence, pushing past a group of mutants, to get to the opening to the path through the caverns.
Kryslie concentrated on her father and sent him a warning, “The caverns. Down to the bottom.” She didn’t fully understand the thought she had received, since she had no knowledge of the caverns or even that the estate was situated on a mesa.
As the number of conscious intruders decreased, Kryslie became increasingly aware of the buzzing in her mind. She ignored it as she tried to find the mind of the leader. He was escaping, but she wanted him disempowered, wanted him caught. She breathed in, wanting more energy, more power, to try to blast through his mind shields. It wasn’t as easy as it had been in the garden – she reached harder. The lights in the lab dimmed, but Kryslie was oblivious. She could see as well in the dimness.
The guard watching her reported to Tymoros.
Kryslie concentrated on the sense of the leader of the intruders. His mind was shielded, but not well enough. Anger and rage leaked from his mind. Anger at the loss of his team, anger that she and Tymos had not been taken, had not been killed. He was desperate to escape, to come back later to kill her, and Tymos and their baby brother.
The buzzing in her mind increased, her mood began to echo the intruder’s mind. She was angry that the leader was escaping; she wanted to go after him, stop him. Her hand reached for where her transmitter usually sat on her belt. It wasn’t there. She remembered that the intruders that had taken them, had removed them and tossed them away. She was no longer content to sit in safety, and she stalked towards the door. Five paces and she ran into an invisible wall of force – and cursed. She tried to force her way through it, failed and reached for more energy. The lights went out.
Tymoros sensed the change in Kryslie’s manner, and sensed the dangerous trend of anger, and the desire to kill.
He transmitted immediately to Xyron’s laboratory, outside of the circular wall of force. His daughter was not aware of him. She was still trying to force her way out of the enclosed space.
He watched her, for he could see clearly, even in the dark. She was determined, as she had been when she reached out and controlled the minds of six intruders from within the lab. She had wielded a remarkable degree of power, so astutely and yet it was still only a glimpse of her full potential.
Now, without the outlet to use the power, it was simply building up with in her. She had not been trained to handle that level of power yet.
The Tymorean Trust Book 1 - Power Rising Page 25
