A giant sphere floated in the center.
At sight of it Simone and I both gasped.
The sphere consumed almost all the free space the chamber and balcony had to offer it. It’s surface moved like water covered in thick black oil, reflecting and absorbing the light shining from the chamber’s inner wall.
I stared at it in awe and fascination.
Simone trembled slightly at my side.
Celica said, “This is The Vault. It’s an Artifact, and it’s not the only one of its kind.”
I glanced at her. “There are more? Where?”
She half shrugged. “There is a handful here in Pharos, buried deep under the habitats of the other Islands.” She chuckled. “There’s one buried under Arcala Academy, just like this one here under Galatea. I know of two others somewhere out in the Hurakan Nebula.” She waved a hand at the sphere. “But this one—this one had the Black Camellia inside it, and that’s why I had to come here.”
I had trouble believing her, but she didn’t appear to be lying.
I cleared my throat and asked, “What—what kind of Artifact is it?”
“As its name implies, it’s a storage vault. The space inside is many times larger than the exterior we perceive.”
I gave the black sphere another look. “So what’s inside it?”
Celica beckoned me closer. I was reluctant because was Simone standing beside me.
I gave her a quick look. “Simone, stay here.”
“What?” She gave me a fearful look.
“Wait for me here.”
It was clear she didn’t want me to go. I felt my heart surge at the sight of her concern for me.
“I’ll be fine,” I assured her.
Celica spoke quickly. “Hurry Caelum. We’re running out of time.”
I pulled my hand free of Simone’s, and then stepped to the balcony’s guardrail. I stood a couple of feet away from Celica.
“What now?” I asked.
Celica studied me for a heartbeat. “Caelum. No matter what you may think. No matter what people tell you, believe in my words. Never doubt them, no matter what happens from this point onwards.”
I wasn’t sure I could do that, but I gave her a subtle nod nonetheless, and she looked faintly relieved.
She stepped back a half dozen steps away from me. The black mist that heralded the manifestation of a Fragment surrounded her. But it was no Fragment that enveloped her body within the mist. I watched Celica float up into the air some seven or eight feet, before what I could only describe as an armor plated skeleton solidified around her body. It didn’t fully enclose her, but rather, Celica appeared to be growing out of it. This was because her legs were encased in angular armor all the way up to her thighs, and that armor connected to the armor shod legs of the skeletal biped. However, the rest of her body was free.
The armored skeleton had black vanes extending from its back like flat wedge-shaped wings.
At its flanks hung two half skirts comprising a number of sharp, angular vanes that glowed with a red light.
I noticed other armored areas also glowed red, while her legs and the wing-vanes on her back glowed a bright blue.
So this was the Black Camellia.
This was a Warlord.
I could almost feel the power it exuded as though the air around it trembled in fear and awe.
Even I shivered in fascination.
Melanie’s Valkyrie Maiden might have been strong, yet it didn’t compare to the Warlord that stood before me.
However, Celica gave me little time to admire the powerful Artifact. She stepped up to me, or rather the Warlord stepped up to me on feet that resembled flat, angular panels. I felt the balcony tremble with each step.
The Warlord picked me up in giant, clawed hands, and I was raised to eye level with Celica.
“Caelum, I believe in you.”
I struggled against its grip but it was futile. “What—what are you doing?”
“Never forget that.”
“Celica—!”
“I love you little brother.”
With those words she tossed me into the oily black sphere known as the Vault.
#
(Celica)
Simone Alucard screamed and ran to the edge of the balcony.
In fact, she climbed onto the railing and prepared to jump into the Vault after Caelum.
The extent of the girl’s reaction took me a little by surprise.
Was I wrong in my thinking? No, I had to believe the Seeress’s words, because so much depended on this girl’s feelings.
Her purity was his salvation and her undoing.
My heart tightened in memory of the young woman’s words.
Simone Alucard Raynar.
She was the splitting image of her ancestress.
And my brother?
He was so much like him that I felt unbearable despair upon seeing the records Crimson Crescent had stolen from the Raynar Pride.
It was ancient footage from the War of Supremacy.
It was all that remained after the eight Prides decided to destroy the recordings at the conclusion of the war.
Then the Prides chose to rewrite history.
I reached out with the Black Camellia and held Simone back with its left arm.
“Simone, you cannot follow him. Remember what I said? Something outside must have a connection to what’s inside or else it cannot be retrieved.”
Simone’s face was beyond distraught.
I stared at her, and accepted that my thinking was indeed wrong.
And I felt sorrow well up inside me – sorrow for Simone Alucard.
Please, dear gods, let things be different for them this time – let them have the ending they deserve.
Simone fought back her tears. “Why? Why do all this?”
“To right a wrong,” I said to her. “And to give Caelum what he needs most…the means to do so.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You will. You’re going to have to be strong, for his sake and for yours. You’re going to have to stand up to your family, your Pride and all other Aventis.” I looked deep into her eyes. “Can you do that, Simone Alucard? Can you do that for him?”
Her stare was anguished, but I watched her resolve push it aside.
“Yes. For him, I can do that.”
My throat grew a little tighter, though it was already hard to swallow.
Simone straightened. “What do I need to do?”
“Stand back,” I told her, and then I reached out with the Camellia’s left hand and tore away a three foot section of the guardrail. “Stand there, and put your arm into the Vault.”
Simone gave the gap and the Vault an anxious look, but her hesitation was only for a heartbeat.
She stepped into the gap, her left hand holding onto the remains of the guardrail for support.
Slowly, nervously she reached out for the Vault with her right hand.
“Simone, your feelings must be pure. There can be no fear or doubt in your heart.”
She stopped and stared at me for a long moment.
I saw the change in her emotions play out across her face.
Facing the Vault, she took a deep calming breath.
In one swift motion she plunged her arm up to her elbow into the black sphere.
I whispered hoarsely, “Call out to him, Simone. Let your feelings guide him back to you.”
Abruptly, I heard a message through the Artifact Link between the Khan-skin and my companions. It was a thought-stream from a comrade aboard the Induran hovering above the academy.
I looked up at the chamber ceiling.
*What is it Anton?
*Mistress—we have a problem. A big problem.
I felt a pang of worry. *Explain.
*It’s the Avenir Pride’s Warlord, the Avienda. It’s here.
I felt my stomach sink and my chest grow cold.
They found a pilot for it. They found a Familiar compatible with that Seer-K
han Warlord.
So the rumors of another surviving descendant from the original twelve bloodlines were in fact true.
How many other descendants were there?
How many of the twelve had survived through the past two hundred years?
No, I had to question bigger than that.
How many of the dozens of bloodlines that fought during the war had survived?
I glanced in the direction of the exit.
*I’m on my way out. I’ll be there in a few minutes. Get our people out of the academy. Do it now!
I looked down at Simone.
The girl’s eyes were closed. Her face was the picture of serenity as she poured her feelings into the Vault.
I turned away, and walked the Black Camellia out of the Vault’s chamber. I crossed the half-domed antechamber and arrived at the tunnel’s entrance. Because the Warlord stood some eighteen feet tall, I had to crouch down to keep the Camellia’s highest mounted wing-vanes from scraping the tunnel ceiling. After walking awkwardly fifty feet down the tunnel I came to a stop.
There was no need for me to turn and look back at the girl I had left behind. I could see her perfectly well using the Black Camellia’s senses.
Alucard hardly swayed as she stood with her eyes closed and her arm immersed into the Vault.
I leave him to you, Simone Alucard. Take care of my little brother.
Concentrating my will over the Black Camellia, I felt its five wing-vanes fan out behind me. I crouched even further, and a moment later the Warlord floated off the ground. Pressure built up behind it, and a heartbeat later the Camellia rocketed forward down the tunnel.
In seconds I arrived at a scene of carnage – the site of the explosion I’d sensed many, many minutes ago.
Armored personnel carriers lay in ruins. Armor-skin clad soldiers lay dead amongst them.
The flames that once burned strongly had died down.
I looked around at the burnt tunnel walls and ceiling, noting the structural damage. A great deal of permacrete had broken away and lay in ruin atop the vehicles and dead soldiers.
Using the Black Camellia’s senses, I searched for Melanie Cardwell, but I found no sign of the girl.
Her Artifact had been linked to Sunaj, who was the hacker responsible for breaking down the seals on Galatea Academy’s network. But he was also her guide, as Melanie led Caelum and Simone to the Vault. Though she was linked to him, Melanie was not linked to the rest of us. As a result, I had no idea where she was and had relied on Sunaj to recount her progress through the underground tunnels.
But since the explosion, all contact with her had been lost.
I’d feared the worst, expecting to find nothing but pieces of her and her Valkyrie Maiden, but as the Camellia swept its senses over the surroundings, the Warlord found no trace of her.
Melanie had vanished.
*Sunaj, it’s Celica. I can’t find Melanie. What happened to her?
There was a moment of quiet on the Link between his Fragment and my Khan-skin.
*Lady Celica…I’m sorry. The Link’s been disrupted. I don’t know where she is anymore.
I swallowed down my frustration.
I sent a thought-stream his way.
*The explosion wouldn’t have broken the Link, unless the Valkyrie Armor was severely damaged.
I searched about a little more, using the Camellia’s senses to penetrate the smaller tunnels the Warlord sensed above me. But I found no trace of the girl.
Had she escaped on her own?
Or had she been captured and ferried away?
With the Black Camellia floating a foot above the tunnel floor, I looked at the dead soldiers lying around me.
If she was taken, then whoever took her chose to leave everyone else behind.
I looked up the tunnel in the direction away from the Vault chamber.
I had come in via another tunnel, but I knew from past experience that this main tunnel began at an underground staging area. It was an underground base of sorts, large enough for a full company of soldiers and vehicles.
Was Melanie there?
If she had been captured, was she taken to the staging area?
Damn it. That girl had been a hard find – a precious find. To lose her now was a severe blow.
I bit my lower lip, frustration gnawing at my thoughts.
Anton’s thought-stream invaded the Link.
*Mistress, hurry. With the Avienda nearby we can’t pick up our people.
I grit my teeth together and considered my options.
I could fly up the tunnel and through the staging area, and then to the habitat above. Or I escape via the same side tunnel I’d used on my way in. However, that would take considerably longer.
Much longer.
I made my choice.
*Anton, I’m going to exit via the base at the entrance to the tunnel. It’s going to get messy. See you soon.
*Mistress!
*Relax, I’ll be fine.
Gathering up the Camellia’s power, I accelerated to near supersonic speed in a matter of seconds.
The force of my passage pushed a wall of air ahead of me.
I continued to accelerate up the tunnel.
Urgency lent me its wings and the Camellia broke the sound barrier a moment later.
The exit loomed fast up ahead.
I sailed through it, and had to pull up sharply or crash into the small army of Enforcement Division vehicles camped around the tunnel’s entrance.
The staging area resembled an underground base with many levels accessible through an open, central atrium. Enormous freight platforms ascended and descended along the walls of the atrium, transporting men, machinery and munitions between levels. A number of those elevators travelled in wide, open shafts that led up to the habitat and the non-subterranean part of the base. Dozens upon dozens of soldiers, technicians and mechanics covered the open space between parked personnel carriers and assorted military vehicles.
I didn’t know if the soldiers had been expecting me, but I gave them no opportunity to recover and react to my sudden entrance. The wall of air I’d pushed ahead of me had left the soldiers and vehicles near the tunnel entrance tumbling like leaves in a strong breeze.
I fired a few shots into their midst, not really taking aim, yet scoring a hit each time.
A few more well placed shots around the underground base ignited a munitions dump, and the explosion scattered men and machines even further, generating more confusion and disarray.
Despite not having piloted the Camellia for nineteen odd months, she still responded the way I remembered her.
Fast, agile, and incredibly powerful.
My Awareness felt immense, expanding hundreds of feet in radius around the Black Camellia.
I left the Enforcer base in a confused shambles, and quickly pivoted while treading air.
Then I aimed the Warlord up and flew into an elevator shaft that afforded me access to the habitat above.
As I soared upwards, there was no need to blow a hole in the ceiling because the shaft had no ceiling. Instead, the elevator platform doubled as a section of the floor for the portion of the base that was built above ground. With the platform some distance below me the floor was open, so I was able to fly up into the base unimpeded. A quick scan of the surroundings revealed the non-subterranean element was still disguised as a warehouse in an outlying district of Habitat One. I flew low through its wide open interior, ignoring the fleeing men and women. The massive doors stood ahead, and a quick shot from the Camellia’s quantum reaction cannons burned away an opening large enough for the Warlord to fly through.
Once in clear air, I flew upwards and away from the warehouse district below me.
In the distance, some five kilometers away, I could see Induran hovering above Galatea Academy.
I flew toward the starship, while willing the Camellia to locate the other Warlord.
There—off to my right and at the edge of the enormous habitat.
/> Pacing impatiently on the rooftop of an Aztec style building.
An armored skeleton with a body of young girl growing out from it, and six wing-vanes extending from its back.
A Seer-Khan Warlord.
A type that was stronger than the Black Camellia.
I watched it leap into the air, and fly at near super-sonic speed toward the starship.
I clenched my jaw against the uncertainty of success.
Could I beat her? How experienced was she with that Warlord? How much talent did she possess?
I tried to work up a plan as I flew toward Induran, and certain conflict with the Seer-Khan.
Chapter 24 – Family.
(Caprice)
For a long minute, nothing happened.
The giant of a man stood facing us across the open space of the atrium.
Rina and I stood in stance, watching and waiting for him to make a move.
Even after a minute, the gun-blade in Rina’s arms held steady without any additional means of support. I had to hand it to the girl – she was displaying nerves of steel.
But it was getting neither party anywhere.
Then I realized the most obvious of truths.
The Crimson Crescent giant wasn’t here to fight us.
He was here to delay us. To hold us back and stall us. To deter us from making another move.
*Rina, keep your weapon up.
*Yes, I know. He won’t move unless we do.
*How are your arms holding up?
*No problem at all.
I sighed inwardly in relief.
But I could hear the students around us muttering and whispering in fear and confusion.
“What are they doing?”
“They’re just standing there.”
“What is this, a Mohican stand-off?”
“Mexican—a Mexican stand-off.”
“I wish they would do something. I wish they would leave.”
I risked a glance over my right shoulder.
The southern courtyard lay beyond the cafeteria wall. What if I made the first move and baited the giant outside?
But I had to ask myself, did I really want to face him?
I had no idea what kind of Fragment or Artifact he used. I had no idea his strengths and weaknesses. And I had little combat experience.
Pride x Familiar Page 42
