I glanced down. Clouds still sailed below me. I was reading the czar. Damn his soulless heart! He had landed by the silver mine.
I imaged another red ball. In desperation I threw all my energy into it, forcing the ball to grow into a whirlwind. When I thought my head would split, when I felt my brain cells burn from the heat, I threw the ball with everything I had and attached a message: Burn, you bastard!
I felt his scream, but there was no satisfaction as I squeezed my head and moaned. Nails of pain pounded into my temples. Spirit, can I kill him with a tel-link?
It's possible. Your power is growing.
Would I die too from throwing that kind of tel force?
That is a distinct possibility, Spirit sent. I felt fear and knew it wasn't my own. I warned you, Czar, you won't leave this planet alive.
As long as it takes out the czar before he reaches Lisa and Willa. Willa, I thought miserably, and realized that I loved her.
I felt fear and knew it wasn't my own. I warned you, Czar, you won't leave this planet alive.
Then warn your daughter, for she will accompany me to the flames!
Below, the silver mine.
I rubbed my eyes and blinked through blurred vision as the headache intensified. Was there a limit to my use and abuse of my tel skills?
The Kubraens had rolled the boulders out of the mine and opened the entrance again after Briertrush collapsed it with my stingler.
My vision would not clear as I banked and landed. Flashes of red lightning sliced through my head. But I felt no fear of dying, just an intense hatred of the ravager and a reckless determination to stop him with my life, if need be, before he killed Lisa and Willa. There was murder in my heart. I felt Spirit recoil. What's your problem? I sent as I taxied behind a hillock to hide the manta. I knew the czar's craft had missiles. You're ready to kill a whole community! I sent to Spirit as I jumped down and ran toward the cave entrance with my stingler drawn.
But not with the vehemence of your predatory race.
What the hell's the difference? Get out of my head now, Spirit. I have to concentrate and you can't help me anyway. I tried to ignore the vise-like pain. I'm coming! I sent to the czar. Are you packed for a quick trip to hell?
With you by my side, he sent.
Whatever it takes!
The whine of a manta. I turned and saw it beneath the shade of trees. The czar was still inside! He rotated the craft to aim his missiles at me!
I threw myself behind a boulder as he fired. Chips of rock flew around me. The blast did nothing for my headache. I smelled burning grass and branches. That's one more, crotefucker, I sent. Counting the missiles he'd fired over my head in the tunnel, he'd have three more left. I took out my link. “Willa!”
“We're still in the hovar, Jules. I'm trying not to hit the walls, but there's a stream on the floor and the hovar's wheels keep sliding.
“Do your best, Willa, but don't scrape the walls. They're organic. I'm right outside.”
The czar was taxiing. He was no longer after me. He wanted to destroy my manta. Then he could head for the launch pad unchallenged. Or so his thought. He still didn't believe me or Spirit about Spirit's intentions to kill him if he tried to flee. His greed, his lust for power and fame, as Paul Hawkes had accurately defined the czar's character, were blinding him to anything short of lifting off with the crystals.
I aimed through a blur of trees and bushes and swept his manta's front wheels with a continuous blast from my stingler. The vehicle crashed to its belly and threw sparks as it plowed into a tree and went over on its side. He wouldn't destroy my manta now. He'd need it to get to the launch pad. I aimed at the pilot's door and hoped the crotefucker would open it and try to make a run for my craft. But he knew better.
I moved around the boulder as he took a shot at me with his stingler. The flash went wide!
How's your vision, cabrón? I sent. Not seeing so good? Try this! I took a shaky breath and began to image another hot coil of intense tel.
I heard his manta scrape ground and ventured a look past the boulder, then ducked back. Oh, shit! He was swinging the crippled craft around by a wing to aim his missiles at the boulder I hid behind. If he fired all three at once, and I knew he would, the boulder could explode into rock shrapnel.
I was surrounded by bare ground. No place to run! I took a quick breath and imaged that coil of hot tel. My head was splitting. Flashes of red light blocked my vision. I felt myself fall. My God, I can't do it! I heard his manta whine to life as he prepared to fire the missiles.
Daddy! Lisa sent. I'll help you.
Lisa, baby, stay with Willa. Was Spirit getting ready to destroy us all? I felt tears slide down my face as I pictured Lisa's innocent features, surrounded by blonde curls. The earth beneath me suddenly shifted. I heard the czar yell. Is that you, Spirit? I sent. Don't kill us. I'm doing everything I can.
Your child has learned her lessons well, Terran. Now she practices them. Pray that she knows the full power she possesses.
The whoosh of missiles overhead. They blasted the crowns of tall trees and set them afire. Cracked branches spun like fiery batons and started grass fires.
I ventured a glance over the boulder. Through hazy vision I saw the czar's manta, nose up, jutting out from a crack in the ground. The earth shook again and the nose sank beneath the surface. Lisa. Thank you, baby.
You're welcome, Daddy.
“Hijo de puta!” I heard the czar shout. He was calling me a son of a bitch as he crawled up to the surface and threw himself behind a tree stump.
Well, I'd live up to the name.
I couldn't get a clear shot at him as he crawled out of the hole and ran behind trees, heading for my manta. I couldn't get a clear shot at anything with my hazy vision. I hoped he couldn't either as I got to my feet and followed him, using whatever cover I could see. But he had too much of a lead and I was too blind.
I stopped behind a tree and held my head as I imaged that red coil that could be my shroud. I coughed on smoke as the fire spread and smoke lifted.
With my hands pressed against my temples so my brains wouldn't dribble out through my ears, I forced the tornado in my mind to feed on my life energy. To grow. I dug my fingernails into tree bark and gritted my teeth as hot arrows of pain seared through my head. The air was cool but sweat dripped down my cheeks. My heart raced as I pictured brain cells blinking out. The tree smelled sweet from the sap that clung beneath my fingernails. I leaned my head against the trunk.
This might well be my last attempt to stop him. “Eat this, cabrón!” I screamed and flung the tel ball at him. A rending within my head!
I cried out and fell.
As I lay there, squinting up at a circle of sky with misty edges, I felt his agony. Was it enough to stop him? I couldn't tell. Spirit, did I stop him?
You have brought the ravager to his knees, but he has life force yet and continues forward.
To my manta?
To your manta for a transfer of my blood crystals before he leaves the planet. I am sorry, Terran, but I have no choice now.
You are weak, spirit, the czar sent. If you had power, you would have stopped me by now.
“Goddamn him!” I rolled and got to my knees. Where was my weapon? There! The feel of cold metal beneath my hand. I grasped the stingler, took a few deep breaths and lurched to my feet.
Grass fires spread as I reeled toward the crack in the earth and his sunken manta.
Roots caught at my jacket as I slid down and stood up on the manta's hull. I had a clear shot from here when he approached for his crystals.
Only he didn't. I saw him using whatever cover he could find as he ran toward the cave.
“Willa!” I called into my link. “He's on his way to the cave. Get as far back as you can.”
“Put me down, Willa!” I heard Lisa cry. “I want to stay here and help Daddy.”
Get in the hovar, Lisa, I sent. The dragon is coming! I heard the hovar start up. The headache was easing and my vision was cle
aring. I saw the czar run toward the cave entrance. Oh, no you don't! I sent as I stood on the manta's sunken nose and fired. I felt his pain as he grabbed his left arm and swore, but he continued to the cave. ”He's coming!” I yelled into the link and lifted myself to the surface. He was already in the cave when I ran at an angle to the entrance. I heard the snap of a beam weapon.
Spirit groaned inside my head. ”He hit the hovar!” Willa screamed. “We're out of control.”
“Jesus and Vishnu!”
I ran to the entrance and threw myself down and rolled as I went through. A hot beam flashed over my head. I raised the stingler but couldn't fire. The hovar was upside down against a quivering glowing wall. Lisa and Willa crawled out from under the light craft. The czar's silhouetted figure was in front of them, using them for cover.
Don't fire in here! Spirit sent. I cannot allow a firefight within my being. I am already wounded and bleeding.
I lowered my weapon.
“I have no such compunctions,” the czar shouted and waved his stingler at Lisa and Willa. “And that is why I will win this little contest.”
“Because you're not a man!” I called in an attempt to goad him into facing me outside. “A man would meet me outside one on one.”
He laughed harshly. “Mano a mano? When I already have your daughter?”
Spirit! I sent frantically.
“Only you,” the czar shouted, “can save your daughter and her friend” He gestured with his stingler. “Drop your weapon and walk slowly outside. Do not think to run!”
“All right!” I dropped the stingler. My heart beat like a bird wanting to break free and fly away from this unbearable reality.
“And if you try to use your tel power on me again,” he continued, “I will kill one of them. I will even let you choose which one will die.”
“No! I'm going.” I put up my hands and turned toward the entrance. My head was clearing. My vision too. I squinted in the sunlight. Had I increased my power with that agonizing send? My tel might well be the only thing left between killing him or having all of us killed.
“And don't look back!” he ordered. “You two,” I heard him say, “follow him.”
I came out of the cave like Orpheus coming up from Hades with Eurydice behind him. If I turned, my daughter or Willa, like Eurydice, might well end up in hell. ”What do you want from us?” I called back, as though I didn't know.
“To load my crystals into your manta, stupido, since you crippled my arm!”
“And then?” I walked toward the sunken manta.
Daddy, Lisa sent. I'll help you.
”No, Lisa, don't!” I lifted mental shields to stop her from sending. I paused at the edge of the moldy crack in the earth. Clods of fresh soil clung to roots that jutted through the slit. The earth smelled bitter, like a newly opened grave.
I turned my head slowly so as not to arouse the czar's wrath and saw Lisa and Willa walking toward me with the czar behind them.
“Lisa,” I said as she approached, “just stay quiet, baby.”
“Daddy, I – “
“Listen to me! Do exactly what the dragon tells you to do.” I exchanged anxious glances with Willa.
The czar's face was contorted with pain. He held his burned arm as he nudged Willa to the edge of the ditch with his stingler. “That's good advice for you, too,” he told me. “Shut up and turn around!”
I was afraid we was going to clobber with the rod end of his stingler, but he kicked my knee from behind and I fell onto the manta's hull. Fresh dirt clung to my jacket and pants. I stood up and inspected the craft. “The doors are buried,” I told him.
“Move away from the window!” he ordered.
I did.
He shattered the glass with the stingler set on cold beam, then spun the ring to hot and motioned for me to go through the broken window.
Jagged edges tore my jacket as I dragged myself inside the upright craft. I glanced around quickly.
No weapons. Dammit!
“That's right,” the czar called as he read my thought. “You think I would leave a stingler for you?”
“No.” I lowered myself to the back and stared at a pile of shimmering pink crystals. Empty sacks lay beside them.
“Are you waiting for an invitation?” the czar shouted.
I loaded four crystals into a sack.
“You.” I saw the czar push Willa toward the edge. “Get in the hole and throw the bags up here by my feet.” I heard him moan. “You son of a puta bitch!” he called down to me and held his burned arm. “If I didn't need your two good arms to load the crystals, I would burn one off and let you see how it feels.”
Willa slid down to the hull and climbed through the broken window. “Oh, Jules,” she whispered.
”I'm sorry I got you into this.” I handed her the heavy sack.
She took it and shook her head. “I got myself into this when I joined RECOIL.” She looked up.
“Now what are you waiting for?” the czar shouted. “Bring me the sack!”
She climbed back out through the window and lifted the sack up to the ground.
“You're a RECOIL soldier?” I asked her when she crawled back in through the window.
”More a messenger.”
I tried to smile. “What is it they say? 'Don't kill the messenger'?”
She tried to smile too. “Or her friends.”
How could I save them? My stingler was on the floor of the cave near the entrance. I didn't dare contact Spirit, not that he could help anyway. I filled another sack and handed it to her.
We were doomed, and Laurel was doomed. I suddenly felt weary. I had done all that I could, and still I had failed.
The pile of crystals dwindled. Sand in an hourglass, I thought. When the crystals were all on the surface, our time would run out. He would never let us live.
I glanced up at my daughter. My Lisa. I had failed her too. This manta would probably be our tomb. “Althea, I'm sorry,” I whispered.
Finally, the floor was empty. I took Willa's hand and we waited.
“Climb out of there,” the czar ordered.
I helped Willa out and followed, up onto green grass and blue sky. I snapped off a blade of grass and chewed the bitter juice as I put an arm around Lisa and kissed her head. Willa was on Lisa's other side.
The ground fire had burned out, or Spirit had stopped it. The smell of burning wood was pleasant, like a BBQ. Branches still crackled and smoked. Somewhere, a flock of birds chirped from unburned trees.
“Walk,” the czar said. “Or run if you like.”
I gestured toward the sacks. “Don't you want me to load them into my manta?”
“I can manage that, cabrón,” he said and grimaced, “even with one good arm. But thank you for the offer.”
Willa's eyes were glazed with tears but her head was high. I picked up Lisa and held her tightly as we walked. “Look, baby,” I whispered, “look at the birds! They're flying to their roosts for the night.”
“What's a roost, Daddy?”
I glanced at Willa. “It's a place where birds finally rest after a long day.”
How far would he let us get?
An instinct close to survival, but involving the entire species, kicked in and goaded me to act. Your ancestors didn't make it down from the trees by lying on the jungle floor and giving up!
The czar had warned me not to use my tel powers again on him. But he was far away from his mega-dream system in the crashed manta and he couldn't hold a crystal, and his weapon, in one good hand.
What the hell was I waiting for?
Spirit? Why don't you tell him what's going to happen if he tries to make it off-planet with the crystals?
He is not concerned with the death of Laurel.
No. But he's pretty damned concerned with his own miserable life.
I have probed his mind in an attempt to help you and your people on Tres Cruash. He does not believe that I can harm him.
I hear you, son of puta
,the czar sent. Have you made your peace with the devil, who spawned you?
I turned and shuddered as I watched him lift the stingler and aim at me, and Lisa, in my arms.
Wait. Czar. Just one more moment to make my peace with God.
He paused, then nodded and lowered the stingler. “One minute. To save your rotten soul.”
He was receiving, all right, loud and clear!
I put Lisa down and lowered my head. I stood between her and the czar as I clasped my hands as though in prayer. I imaged the red coil rising, like the burning spears of a naked sun, and tacked on an image: A flaming brand lashed out and seared through the burn on his arm. I forced the image to hold the brand there. Scorched flesh curled and smoked. Blackened bone cracked. He screamed and dropped the stingler, but I was too far away to reach it before he did.
Willa scooped up Lisa and ran behind a boulder.
“You bastard!” the czar screamed and staggered toward his weapon. “This is my reward for showing you mercy.”
I closed my eyes and focused inward. The coil rose with a power I'd never tapped before. A tornado roiled up behind my eyes, twisting and growing with my own energy. I heard a sound within me like an approaching freight train. My head burned. My eyes beat as though fists were striking them. I gritted my teeth and moaned as I intensified the image.
“Daddy! Run,” I heard Lisa shout.
The czar fumbled in his attempt to pick up the stingler, but I watched his hand close on it.
I threw the power. A storm of electrical impulses that seared like lightning bolts.
His head jerked back and he screamed. I watched him slump to his knees, the stingler in one loose hand. They say lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place. This lightning did. I yelled to endure the blazing pain behind my eyes. If it killed me this time, so be it. Perhaps Lisa and Willa, and Laurel too, would live.
I gathered my forces the way a general gathers his troops for battle as the czar staggered toward the boulder where Lisa and Willa hid.
“I will let you witness the death of your only child before I send you after her.”
A storm rose behind my eyes. I imaged roiling black clouds. Thunder drummed in heavy beats. Lightning pierced the ground with flaming spears. Within my mind, whole forests flamed as I mentally grasped a force I didn't know I had.
Halcyon Nights (Star Sojourner Book 2) Page 23
