Arkadian Skies

  Hawk and his men surged into the corridor. Alisa lost sight of the Starseers, except for glimpses between armored men. One of those glimpses made her gasp in surprise.

  “Yumi,” she blurted, though Yumi was still inside the computer room. Alisa was positive she had seen her sister, Young-hee.

  Before she could puzzle through what was happening, the first attack came. Even though Alisa was behind the men, an invisible force hit her just as it hit them. The wave of power swept her from her feet and hurtled her down the hallway. She smashed against the wet, icy wall, her back striking hard. Pain pummeled her entire body and her breath whooshed out. For a second, as she slid down the wall to the floor, her stunned lungs refused to work. She couldn’t inhale, and panic gripped her.

  Men’s war cries mingled with the squeals of blazer fire, and the thumps of staffs striking armor convinced Alisa there wasn’t time to panic. She found her wobbly legs and finally managed to inhale, her back smarting as she did so. Somehow, Yumi had ended up in the hallway, and she had also fallen. From her knees, she stared at the battle. Had she seen Young-hee too?

  The soldiers had all regained their feet, but they struggled to reach the Starseers. Leonidas stood at the forefront, firing with one hand and fiddling with something else in his other. Alejandro remained in the computer room, but Abelardus strode out. Ostberg leaped out behind him, waving his staff and yelling. If his and Abelardus’s presence surprised the resident Starseers, they did not show it. They didn’t show anything. Even as they attacked, their faces were masks, their eyes dull.

  Alisa grabbed Yumi, pulling her to her feet as Leonidas threw the object he had been fiddling with—a fluidwrap. It arched high toward the ceiling. He must be trying to get around invisible Starseer barriers.

  The fluidwrap reached the ceiling and unfurled, its energy net dropping onto the heads of two robed men who hadn’t thought to extend their shields above them. It hardly mattered. There were many more Starseers, and they were pushing the soldiers back, past the door to the computer room, perhaps past escape.

  Alisa gripped her stun gun, but she couldn’t get a clear shot. Even if there had been a chance, would it prove more effective against their shields than blazer fire and brute force? She doubted it. But she hadn’t forgotten the Starseer who had run around the corner as she came out. Had that been the leader? Tymoteusz? If they could take him out, could they stop this?

  “Young-hee,” Yumi yelled over the clamor of staffs ringing against armored chests and shoulders. “Tell everyone to stop fighting. We’re on your side.”

  Alisa couldn’t see the faces of the Starseers, but they did not stop fighting at Yumi’s call, not a bit.

  “Don’t kill them,” Abelardus shouted, glancing at Yumi. “Those are our people.”

  “Killing them isn’t the problem,” someone—Hawk?—snarled. An instant later, he was thrown upward so hard that his helmet cracked the ice block ceiling when he hit.

  One of the armored soldiers dropped to the deck, his legs writhing as he grasped at his throat. Leonidas threw something else, this time bouncing it off a wall, again trying to get around the Starseer shields. It didn’t work. It bounced back, and smoke flowed out of the end, the grayish-green haze filling the corridor. At least it was not something more inimical than a smoke grenade.

  “Young-hee,” Yumi tried again. “It’s Yumi. We’re here to help!”

  Beck, who had been pushed to the back of the fight and couldn’t reach any of the Starseers, was the only one to look at her.

  “I think they’re being controlled by those headbands somehow,” Abelardus shouted. “I can’t get through to any of them. They’re not themselves at all. They’re—” Just like the soldiers, Abelardus was hurled away, tumbling over the helmets of two of Hawk’s soldiers.

  He caught himself, deftly maneuvering in the air to land on his feet. He snarled, perhaps forgetting his own warning, and thrust his staff out. A soldier stumbled, but the Starseers in the front took the brunt of the attack, several falling back into their comrades. For a moment, shields faltered, and the soldiers were able to advance. One of the armored men sprang into the Starseers, firing.

  “No,” Yumi cried.

  It did not matter. The soldier’s blazer was torn from his hands, and a staff swept in faster than should have been possible and with more power than made sense. It knocked his armored legs out from underneath him, and he went down. When more soldiers tried to reach him to help, they found the way once again barred. But Leonidas managed to grab one of the Starseers before the group shield returned. He snatched at the headband, ripping it free.

  Alisa stood on tiptoes, trying to see better. Would that work? Return the man to normal?

  All that happened was that the Starseer’s back arched in pain, and he screamed like a man under the knife in a torture chamber. Beads of dark red blood dribbled from tiny punctures that had been hidden by the disk. Tiny hooks attached to bloody wires dangled from the inside of that disk. The man crumpled, still screaming, grasping at his forehead. Convulsions wracked his body. The other Starseers scurried back, and the soldiers paused, too, staring, gaping. Then the man lay still.

  Alisa swallowed. Dead?

  “No,” Yumi whispered, her voice barely audible over the din. She muttered something else that Alisa could not hear and groped at the air with her fingers, as if trying to grasp something. Or remember something.

  “We have to find a way to subdue them without killing them,” Leonidas said, his voice steady as always, but Alisa thought she caught a horrified note in there.

  “You got any ideas, Adler?” Hawk demanded.

  Another invisible wall of energy rolled down the corridor, striking the soldiers and also knocking Alisa and Yumi down again.

  Alisa snarled and jumped back up. She was absolutely useless in this battle. She needed to find a way to help. If brainwashing devices were responsible for this, maybe the man who had run had the key to turning them off. Someone had to try and catch up with him.

  Yumi only rose to her knees, staring in distress down the corridor.

  “Beck,” Alisa yelled, waving. “Come help us. We’re going after the leader.” She pulled Yumi to her feet. Taking her might not be the best idea, but she would only be hurt and possibly in the way if she stayed here.

  Beck did not hesitate, racing straight toward them. None of the Alliance soldiers glanced back—they probably hadn’t even heard—but Leonidas did look back, anguish flashing across his face.

  “Stay, Alisa,” he called. “I’ll go. I’ll—”

  One of the soldiers was hurled into him with enough force to knock them both into the wall. A Starseer stepped forward, his staff raised. Leonidas punched out, but his fist stopped inches from the man’s face. Abelardus was the one to throw another attack that pushed their enemies back again. The effort was already showing in his reddened face, with sweat streaming from his brow. How long could he fight against so many people who had all the same powers he had?

  “Stay and help them, Leonidas,” Alisa called, hoping he would hear her over the chaos. “We’ll be careful.”

  “Which way?” Beck pointed to the T-shaped intersection.

  “Right,” Alisa said, pushing past him to lead.

  Beck chased after her, but Yumi lingered in the intersection. She had pulled out her netdisc and was alternating between looking at it and at the fight—or maybe at her sister and her people. Alisa had no idea what she was looking up with sys-net access down, but she didn’t yell back to urge her to follow. If Yumi thought she could do something to nullify those control devices, let her.

  “Just you and me, Beck,” Alisa said, running in the direction the figure had fled. Unfortunately, numerous doors opened to either side of their new hallway, and they soon came to another intersection.

  “Always happy to do things with you, Captain, but Leonidas will kill me if I get you killed.”

  “Since I’m not a grammarian, I won’t point out the dissonance in that
sentence.” Alisa stopped in the intersection, frowning left and right. There was also a straight-ahead option that would drop them into an unlit stairwell.

  “Appreciate that, Captain.” Beck stuck close, his blazer rifle in hand. “Which way?”

  “I wish I knew.” Alisa looked at the floor—they had been racing along a soggy carpet runner down the center of the melting hallway. “There,” she said, spotting what might have been a heel print along the way ahead. It wasn’t exactly like tracking someone through mud, but when Alisa checked behind them, she could definitely see their boot prints in the wet carpet.

  “Down to a dark basement?” Beck asked. “Creepy.”

  Alisa ran ahead without responding, even if she agreed with the sentiment. The only part of the basement she had seen during her last visit had been that dungeon where the Starseers had thrown her and Leonidas.

  Wishing she had someone along with Starseer senses, she raced down the stairs as quickly as she dared. She did not want to charge around a corner and into the arms of their enemy, but thanks to the fight, their prey had a two-minute head start.

  Alisa and Beck entered a dark corridor, and she dug out her multitool, flicking on the flashlight. As they continued forward, the beam playing on the slick walls, she listened, trying to hear voices or footsteps. But the battle was still audible behind them, the shouts louder than anything else.

  Alisa made the mistake of stepping on the ice block floor instead of the carpet runner, and her foot flew out from under her. She almost ended up on her butt on the ground. Growling, she steadied herself with a hand to the wall, wet ice slicking her palm. Beck kept going, and she followed, glad to let him lead in case someone with a weapon jumped out of one of the closets, wine cellars, or food storage rooms they were passing.

  As they turned a corner, a muggy, sulfuric draft wafted toward them. Light came from ahead, and Alisa picked up her pace to draw even with Beck. Would they come up in the courtyard? What if the Starseer she’d spotted was circling around, trying to reach the Nomad?

  Alisa dug out her comm unit. “Mica?”

  Another staircase came into view, this one leading up.

  “You all right?” she added.

  “I’m fine,” Mica said. “But we should get out of here. Soon.”

  “Tired of the view?” Alisa panted, her legs starting to burn as she and Beck charged up the stairs.

  They came out in another corridor. This one did not have a carpet runner. Alisa had no way to know if the Starseer had come this way. Frustrated, she chose a direction at random, the one that seemed brighter, and forced herself to walk, the slick floor treacherous.

  “That thing you sent me a picture of?” Mica said. “I’m guessing it’s a bomb.”

  “A bomb?” Alisa cursed. “Why would someone blow up the computer system? Couldn’t that crash the entire temple?”

  “I think you just answered your own question.”

  “I thought the chasadski wanted to take the temple into space, to have it for some evildoer secret base among the stars.”

  They came to another intersection, one that looked familiar. Alisa turned toward an open door at the end.

  “What made you think that?” Mica asked.

  “It seemed like something an evil mastermind would do. A flying base among the stars. Who wouldn’t want that?”

  “You’ve been reading too many comic books. Listen, I can’t tell if that bomb has a countdown or a remote detonator. Not from the picture.”

  “Could you tell if you looked at it?” Alisa asked.

  “Probably, but I don’t want to go on a field trip.”

  As Alisa and Beck approached the door, she glimpsed the side of the gray ship outside—that was the landing area. With a start, she realized they were likely on the right trail, after all. If the chasadski had planted a bomb, wouldn’t they hightail it out of here now?

  She raised her stun gun as she peered around the corner. Beck must have been thinking the same thing as she, because he lunged past her, his blazer rifle at the ready.

  An invisible force slammed into them.

  Alisa flew backward into the corridor, landing on her back and skidding across the ice. Beck clanked down beside her, his armored shoulder nearly crushing hers.

  Though her entire body hurt, fear drummed through Alisa’s veins, giving her the strength to push aside the pain. She lifted her head—and her stunner.

  A black-robed figure stood at the end of the passage, the ship now visible behind him, hovering a foot above the landing pad. The man had tangled gray hair that looked like it never saw a brush, an equally unkempt bushy beard, and hard, unfriendly eyes that bore into Alisa. He pointed a staff at her and Beck—the staff. Alisa recognized the familiar orb on the end, glowing more brightly than it ever had for her. It was almost hypnotic, and she had a hard time wrenching her gaze from it.

  A pressure built in her chest, as if someone was squeezing her heart.

  “Beck,” she blurted and fired the stun gun. “Get up!”

  Beck did not move, and the Starseer’s only reaction was to tilt his head and squint at her. The stun blast didn’t seem to strike him or any kind of shield he had erected. It was as if it had simply dissipated in the air. The pressure in her chest tightened, and her heart fluttered against her ribs. Tears pricked at her eyes. She didn’t want to die here, not when she hadn’t yet gotten a chance to find her daughter, to tell her that she loved her, that she never should have left home.

  Alisa tried to get up, to do something, to at least die on her feet.

  You are my brother’s daughter, a voice spoke into her mind. His voice.

  Apparently, she responded silently, clutching her hand to her chest. She couldn’t have spoken aloud if she tried.

  You have no power.

  No kidding.

  But you have a daughter. And she has power. Interesting.

  No, she thought, terrified. He must be plucking the information out of her mind. The last thing she wanted was for him to know about Jelena and want to use her for his own purposes.

  A soft chuckle sounded in her mind.

  Alisa couldn’t get to her feet. Numbness was creeping through her body, and her heart seemed to flop about in her chest. Surely, it would give out any second.

  Any chance I can talk you into not crushing my organs? She hated to negotiate with this creep, but what choice did she have? She wanted to live, damn it. Don’t Starseers have rules against killing relatives? Give up your dark ways, and I’ll invite you to Arrival Day Dinner with the family.

  I can see your fate. It is negligible.

  And yet, I’d like to live and enjoy my negligence.

  “Tym," someone shouted from the ship. “You coming?”

  The man—Tymoteusz—considered Alisa for a long moment, then rested the butt of the staff on the ground. I suppose my brother would be vexed with me if I killed you.

  The pressure disappeared from Alisa’s chest, and she gasped in a deep breath.

  Assuming you make it out of here in time, tell him he owes me a favor. He tapped the staff’s orb to his temple in a semblance of a salute. I’ll expect it to be repaid.

  Tymoteusz turned, his robe flapping about his legs as he strode to his ship. He leaped several feet up to an open hatch.

  Alisa groped for the stun gun, as if it would do something, but paused when she smacked against Beck’s armored shoulder. He was flat on his back, not moving.

  “Beck?” She shook him, a different kind of fear spreading through her. “Are you alive?”

  What if Tymoteusz had only spared her and had killed him?

  “Beck!”

  A noisy gasp sounded, and he lurched into a sitting position. He grabbed his chest, just as she had done.

  The roar of an engine echoed down the hallway. Alisa found the stun gun and staggered to her feet. She tried to run for the doorway, but it was more of a lurching stumble.

  As she reached it, the heat of thrusters washed over her, the sti
nk of burning fuel mingling with the omnipresent sulfur odor. The gray ship lifted into the air right in front of her, the hatch now closed. She was tempted to fire at the hull, but the stun charge would be useless against a ship. Besides, she wasn’t sure it was appropriate to try to shoot down someone who could have killed her and hadn’t.

  Beck came up beside her and fired, less concerned about appropriateness. He raked the ship with blazer bolts as it rose away from the landing pad. A few blasts scorched the hull, but then its shields came on, and the bolts bounced back. Beck cursed as one struck the wall above their heads. Shards of slushy ice pelted them.

  “Did you hear me?” Mica spoke over Alisa’s comm, sounding like it wasn’t the first time she had asked. “It would be better if we just left the bomb. We—a ship just took off.”

  “I know.” Alisa stared at the craft as it flew toward the mouth of the volcano, the smoke soon hiding it from sight.

  Beck lowered his rifle. “Damn.”

  “Yeah,” Alisa said, not having anything more useful to say.

  Chapter 18

  Alisa and Beck raced out into the courtyard, the Nomad coming into view, the cargo hatch still open. Mica was pacing by her explosives at the top of the ramp. She lifted a hand when she spotted them. At least the Starseer ship hadn’t fired at the Nomad or done anything to it as it flew away. There was no sign of Leonidas or any of the other soldiers.

  Alisa tried to comm him. From the courtyard, she could not hear the battle, but that did not mean it wasn’t still raging.

  “Leonidas?”

  The channel opened. The sound of curses and blazers firing preceded his voice, so much so that she imagined that he was lying on the ground unconscious, and that she was simply hearing the battle going on around him. But no, he had to have consciously answered the comm.

  “Here,” Leonidas said tersely.

  “Tym and his buddies got away with the ship,” Alisa said. “Mica says there’s a bomb in that computer room and that we need to get out of here.”

  Alisa glanced toward the sky. How long did they have before the bomb went off?