Shadow Run

by Michael Miller

  “There.” I pointed to a small door directly opposite us across the yawning space.

  My sister narrowed her eyes. “If we can make it that far without being seen. And how can you be sure she went that way?”

  “There are four ways out of here. We’re in one, and the other two are crawling with guards. What choice do we have?” I unsheathed one of my Disruption Blades from my back. “We can’t cross the hangar with this many people in here, or someone will report us. On my signal, take twenty paces in a straight line as fast as you can. And you might want to remove your heels.”

  Solara looked annoyed. “I was just dancing in them, brother dear; I can manage a run. What’s your plan? What signal?”

  “You’ll see.” I slipped out into the open.

  I wasn’t being dramatic. I had to make my exit at that moment, because a palace security guard had just walked by. He’d obviously been assigned a perimeter patrol because his commanding officer wanted to look as if he was accomplishing things, even though no one had any idea what to do.

  Normally I would have helped bring order to the situation; instead, I was about to do the opposite. I put that unsettling thought out of my head as I shadowed the guard, walking in perfect, silent pace with him. No one paid attention to the motion already in their periphery, and the guard was unsuspecting. I rotated my blade and raised it high, point down. Blue light flowed down the white band of energy in the middle at the flip of the switch.

  As I stepped over a power coupling strung across the floor, I drove the point of my blade into it with all my strength. Electricity arced out from my sword into the air, sparks trailing behind.

  The entire hangar went dark. The old electrical system couldn’t handle the load on the circuit, and somewhere a breaker had blown. I’d guessed something like this would happen, but I didn’t have time to congratulate myself on being right. I tapped the hilt of my Disruption Blade to snuff its light.

  I turned on the spot and ran at a measured pace through the blackness, counting my steps. If I’d calculated wrong, Solara and I would be separated or, worse, I might run into the wrong person and risk discovery. But my hand connected with what was unmistakably her shoulder, and I gave a silent sigh of relief.

  Holding tight to each other, we ran pell-mell through the cavernous darkness. Helmet lights and plasma torches flared to life, giving their owners some measure of sight. But if we were spotted, we were just another bit of indistinct movement along with everyone else.

  The next minute, we tumbled into the room on the other side of the hangar.

  Solara shook her head, gasping. “I lost one of my favorite shoes.”

  “Sacrifice noted, Sol.” I instinctively called her by the childhood nickname I hadn’t used in years. But then I realized something. “If the security finds your shoe, won’t they know you were down here?”

  Solara looked unconcerned. “They can know I was here, just not why. I’ll imply that I was using this abandoned place for more clandestine affairs.”

  That was good enough for me. I looked around. “I think this is the way to a control room. Look”—I pointed—“there’s an old lift.” I jumped onto the platform that was mounted on a single pole—technology that belonged in a museum rather than in the Dracorte citadel. “Come on.”

  Solara climbed on with me, after pulling off her other shoe and tossing it over her shoulder. I kicked the pedal that activated the lift and, with a hiss, it propelled us upward. The room we arrived in was covered in dust, and strange buttons and levers punctuated the consoles along the walls.

  I started to smile as my eyes found an exit, but it died on my lips. “Did you hear that?”

  “Hear what?” Solara asked.

  It had been faint, but I knew without a doubt that I’d heard it. There it was again.

  A moan…Qole.

  Fear and relief clawed at me so strongly that our next dash through the hallways became a frantic blur. Qole was alive. She was likely hurt by the sounds of it, but alive.

  We finally found her curled up at the corner of a hallway, eyes closed. Her skin was ashen, and there were bruises and blood on her arms and legs. Cuffs, I thought grimly. Her hair was wild and disheveled, as though she had just survived a windstorm, and her dress was in such tatters that it could barely have been considered decent. In any other circumstances, I would have had a hard time not staring like an idiot, but right now I couldn’t take my eyes off her for a vastly different reason. All I felt was a deep, burning rage.

  Solara sighed nearby. She’d managed to keep up with me in her bare feet. “Shame. That was an exquisite dress.”

  Qole shuddered. My chest constricted, my rage vanishing in an instant. I dropped to my knees beside her and scooped her into my arms without thinking. Her skin was cold to the touch, and I fumbled for the pulse in her wrist. It was weak and erratic.

  The words were out of my mouth before I could contain them. “Qole, I’m here. I’m with you. Are you hurt? What happened?”

  I didn’t expect her to be able to answer, but her voice came, hoarse and cracking. “It…burned them. I…broke apart.”

  That was hardly reassuring. It didn’t matter; I just had to get her out of here. “Can you move? Can you stand?”

  “I talked to…I talked. I could see.”

  “She’s not making sense.” I glanced up at Solara in despair. As far as I could tell, Qole was physically whole, but she didn’t sound or feel right. It was like she was crumbling from the inside out, and I was deathly afraid that moving would finish her off in some way I couldn’t understand. I could only imagine that drawing Shadow had caused this, but the last time she’d done so, she had remained coherent after she’d blacked out. A cold thought settled into my mind: Both of her parents had gone insane and died. Maybe the same was happening to her.

  “Forgot…I need to…” Qole groaned and shivered. I clutched her closer to me, trying to will away her cold and pain, feeling utterly helpless.

  “Well, she’s not going to get very far like this.” Solara seemed unaffected by her predicament, but at least she was being practical. “Did you have a plan for what to do when you found her?”

  I brushed away a few strands of hair from Qole’s face. “I was going to get her to her ship so she could get as far away from here as possible.” And from me.

  Solara gave her a critical once-over. “I don’t think she’s in any condition to walk, much less pilot a ship. And if you comm anyone to come get her, palace security will hear all of it.”

  As if on cue, the comm in my ear beeped. My wrist feed couldn’t identify who it was.

  I opened the channel hesitantly. “Um, yes?”

  The voice in my ear was loud, worried, and very welcome. “Before you let me know this isn’t safe, I’ve been running phishing attacks all night on the contacts I stole from your wrist feed. I’m all over the comms now, but anyone watching will just think it’s your idiot friends calling you.”

  “Telu!” I said, relief flooding me. “You’re exactly who—”

  She cut me off. “What the blasted hell is going on? Basra has been gone all night, and now we’ve got soldiers outside the ship, and I just had the weirdest free fall of a thing with Qole that—”

  I winced at the volume. “Telu, there’s no time. Are you sure this line is encrypted? All the palace encryption protocols have backdoors.”

  “I know, genius, that’s why I made my own.”

  “But you can’t use a third-party encryption algorithm on the palace comms…,” I started, confused.

  “You can if you keep the signature the same,” Telu snapped. “Look, are you in a hurry or do you want to conference about your crappy security?”

  I hesitated, collecting myself. “Right, listen. I can’t explain now, but we need to get Qole off-planet immediately. Everyone will try to stop you, and you can’t let them. Do you hear me? She’s in a bad way. If Arjan can fly the ship, I’ll give you a location where you can meet us. If Basra doesn’t make
it back in time, I’ll look out for him. He’ll be fine, but Qole won’t be.”

  “Nev, Arjan isn’t on the ship.”

  Her words hit me like a kick to the stomach. “What?”

  “He hasn’t come back since he left with you and Qole! Should I be worried? I thought he was with you. Basra is the one I don’t—”

  “Can you fly the ship?” I cut her off, my tone ruthless, my face going still. It had to be this way. Qole might never forgive me for leaving her brother behind right now, but this was my only chance to get her out of here. Father had evidently lied to Solara about where he was, so I would have to find Arjan after Qole was safe.

  Telu’s brusque voice turned hesitant. “Um…damn…yeah, I can fly, probably, with the autopilot system and a little creativity, but only in a pinch.”

  “This is a pinch, Telu, the absolute worst.”

  “What about Arjan?”

  “I can’t carry Qole and look for him at the same time. I’ll have to come back for him later. Just meet us at the Atrium, on the north side of the citadel. You can’t miss it. You’ll have to punch a hole in the roof, but it’s glass and you can set the entire ship down.” I paused, trying wrap my mind around the things I was saying. This was my home, my family, and I was trying to plan a special op against them. What did that make me? A traitor? Never mind that I was trying to uphold the values we supposedly stood for. “And Telu? Don’t take off until I comm you. You’re going to have a small window of opportunity before the Air Guard tries to bring you down.”

  “Don’t bother. I can get a fix on your comm every time you click the channel open. Just hit it every once in a while and I’ll see where you are.”

  “Understood. Keep an eye out, and we’ll see you soon. Be careful.”

  “Just get her out. And then you’d better get Arjan out too.” Telu’s voice was as much encouragement as warning, and the line went dead.

  I gathered Qole into my arms. “All right, Qole, listen. I failed you, I know that.” I was failing her even worse by leaving her brother behind for the moment, but I couldn’t think about that, not right now. “And I know you’re hurt and tired. But I’m going to carry you until you can walk. Just promise me you’re not going to let this beat you. You are going to pilot the Kaitan again. You and your crew are going home.”

  Her eyes were shut, and she didn’t respond, but her breathing grew steadier. I hadn’t known my own eyes were wet until I looked up at Solara. My sister was watching me with her head cocked, a curious expression on her face, as if she’d never quite seen me before.

  I blinked and stood with Qole in my arms. “Keep an eye out for anyone behind us.” I took a deep breath. “Let’s get the captain to her ship.”

  —

  We wound our way through corridors I had not frequented since childhood, abandoned and dimly lit with an ever-present, wan white light. A palace such as the Dracorte citadel required a vast infrastructure to support life within it, too vast for the security cams to cover at all times. As children, both Solara and I had learned just how to avoid detection. We stuck to maintenance routes and corridors that connected storage areas to kitchens and kitchens to servants’ quarters.

  Twice we almost stumbled into patrols searching for Qole, and both times I carefully deposited her with Solara and then went ahead to direct them to different parts of the palace. After the second time, my comm beeped.

  “Um, Nev, I’m monitoring the situation, and all the guards have just been ordered to detain you on sight. One of them reported seeing you, and the order came down soon after that. Guess you’re supposedly drunk and out of your mind on drugs or some such.”

  “Acknowledged, Telu, thank you. Just be ready to pick Qole up.” If I hadn’t been distracted, I would have been impressed, for the second time that day, by the degree to which Telu had been able to infiltrate the palace network.

  “Check…and, uh, Basra just showed up in the cargo hold in a dress. This sounds crazy, but I think he snuck on board without anyone noticing. I’ll get an update and get back to you.” She closed the line.

  At least Basra was back, but I’d honestly had bigger things to worry about…and still did.

  I glanced at Solara, breathing heavily, my legs unsteady from the strain. Lifting Qole in a dance had been effortless—carrying her nearly limp form across the length of the citadel was another matter entirely. “We don’t have much farther to go.”

  Solara had a thoughtful look in her eyes. “No, I suppose not. Let’s hope that no one is waiting for us there.”

  Footsteps echoed in the hallways behind us, along with the unmistakable sound of comms stuttering and people barking orders.

  I swore breathlessly. “They must be doubling back to try to find me. Come on, we have to run.”

  Solara grabbed my arm and gave me a pitying look. “Nev, you’re not going to be able to outrun them while carrying her. I’ll stay and distract them. It will buy you enough time to make it there.”

  I shook my head. “Solara, no one knows you’re part of my madness. I can take Father’s wrath, but there’s no need for you to—” I stopped as she put a finger over my lips.

  “Shhh, brother mine. A few palace guards are child’s play. I’ll tell them I just saw you—in a different direction—and then I came to get them. Get your poor captain to her ship.”

  I nodded. “Thank you, Solara.”

  She laughed, an incongruous sound in the moment. “I’ll make you pay, don’t worry.” Then she was gone.

  I didn’t pause to hear how she stopped them; I picked up my pace.

  My muscles were screaming with fatigue, and my lungs felt ready to burst. No matter how light the person, no matter how you went about it, carrying a body for a prolonged period was simply an untenable position. Misery washed over me in waves, adding to my burden. Evidently the game was up: Father knew I was working against him, and soon everyone else would as well. And not only did I have to get Qole out, I then had to do everything in my power to get Arjan back to her. There would be severe consequences. My life was about to drastically change.

  But I had to make a stand. They had to see how wrong their actions were. My family couldn’t be so blind. Even Solara had proved she wasn’t, and I couldn’t bring myself to believe everyone else I had trusted would be hell-bent on ruining the life of the woman I…

  It was right there, in that dim service corridor, in the dead hours of the morning, that I finally admitted it. I was too exhausted to carry any pretenses with myself any longer. Qole was more than a responsibility, and if she was just a friend, well…hers was the most profound friendship I had ever experienced, and I wanted it to be something even deeper. Something more.

  And now I would have to send her away. Not only that, I was sending her without her brother, because there was absolutely no way, once the Kaitan was off with Qole, that they’d be able to come back to get Arjan. There was only the tiniest of chances I’d be able to get him out myself. Would she ever forgive me?

  I pushed it out of my mind. Just get her there, Nev. One foot. Another foot. That’s all it takes.

  That was when I heard other footsteps ahead of me. I froze. Solara must not have succeeded in fooling everyone, because this was the last place I had expected to see another search party.

  My comm beeped at almost exactly the same moment, but Telu would have to wait.

  Seven guards, all of them armed, rounded the corner and stared at me. I stared back at them.

  And then I bobbed my head. “I’ll be right with you, but could you wait for a moment while I duck into this door here?”

  They blinked at me in confusion, and I took the opportunity to do just that.

  It was an empty banquet room, one that had been used to host parties just off the Atrium before it had fallen out of vogue. Rather than use the Disruption Blade, I locked the door with a swipe of my finger over the biometric scanner. They could override it, but it would take them a few minutes to get in touch with the right people.


  I looked around wildly, perhaps with the hope that I would spot some sort of plan.

  Qole opened her eyes. They were groggy, but they were open. In spite of everything, relief surged through me.

  “Nev…where are we?”

  “In a bad spot. Hold on.” I set her as gently and quickly as possible on the floor. I touched my comm. “Telu.”

  “Why aren’t you there yet and why haven’t you answered?” Telu nearly shouted. “Basra is freaking out and says that Arjan is in serious trouble—”

  “Listen, Telu,” I interrupted, taking a ragged breath. “I don’t think I’m going to make it. Qole is in a room not far from the Atrium, and we’re trapped. I can draw them off. I’ll give her my comm so you can send Eton for her, and I’ll make sure that—”

  The door exploded into the room, reminding me that one didn’t always need an override to gain an entrance.

  Guards began to pour in, some armed with photon rifles, some with stun batons. They formed a semicircle around me, weapons brandished.

  “I’ll call you back,” I told Telu. “I have a party.” I clicked the comm off and straightened to my full height.

  “My prince,” one of them began. “You are not yourself. Please come with us for your own safety and protection. The Alaxan is dangerous—she has murdered several guards.”

  What am I supposed to do? I screamed at myself. Fight them? There were too many to knock out. Kill them, then? My own men?

  They hadn’t asked a question, so I didn’t give a response. I didn’t have an answer for myself either. All I knew was that they weren’t going to take Qole. Maybe, just maybe, I could keep them busy long enough for her to come to her senses and escape on her own. I settled into a defensive position and reached for my Disruption Blades.

  As soon as they recognized my stance, the guards broke formation and ran at me, electricity crackling up and down their batons.

  That was the precise moment the wall opposite the door exploded.