Chapter 30 #2
Her gaze strayed to the wound on his abdomen, sadness stealing over her for a brief moment. This wasn’t what she’d wanted. Another sibling dead at her hands. Even if the code of honor she lived by wouldn’t have had it any other way.
“Ryan’s plan would see us enslaved all over again.”
“What does that mean? What plan?” Kira asked, shaking Mars slightly when he didn’t answer.
He was fading fast, death creeping over him in slow increments shown by the white leaching into his hair, climbing toward his scalp as his pallor faded and his skin took on the pasty grayness that heralded the end.
“The eight aren’t done yet. You’ll see.”
Mars’s breath rattled from his lungs in one last, final exhale.
“Who are the eight?” Kira demanded.
It was no use. Mars was gone.
“Damn it!”
As angry as Kira was, she made sure to be gentle as she moved Mars’s head from her lap and set it on the ground. Whatever he’d become, he’d once been her brother. That meant something. To her. If not to him.
“Are you alright?” Roderick asked as Kira rose.
“No, but that’s not what matters right now.”
Grief and anger could wait.
“We have to find Jin and the rest of the children,” Kira said, coldly determined.
She had a mission to finish. Once that was done, she could figure out who these eight were and what they were hoping to accomplish by all this.
Kira helped Roderick up, ignoring his grimace of pain and the way blood was beginning to seep around the synth armor’s seal. It seemed his fall had left him more wounded than before.
They hobbled forward. Another half hour passing in which Roderick grew increasingly fatigued. Kira wasn’t doing so great herself. The wound Mars had given her throbbed in a way that she suspected meant his little bone dagger had done more damage than she’d thought.
Her ankle wasn’t doing so great either. Each step sending a lance of sharp pain up and down her leg.
If they didn’t find Jin soon, she might actually have to consider stashing Roderick somewhere safe-ish and come back for him once she’d taken care of business.
Sounds coming from up ahead cut through Kira’s calculation. She stopped, Roderick picking up on her tension a second later.
There it was again.
“Is that Jin and the children?” Roderick whispered.
Kira checked the scorpion. Its tail stood erect behind it and its claws opened and closed in excitement.
“Maybe,” Kira said.
Roderick pulled his arm from her shoulder and leaned against the resin wall. Up ahead, the voices turned frantic. Their anger and desperation infecting Kira and Roderick.
“Go,” Roderick ordered. “Don’t wait for me.”
Kira hesitated for a single moment before deciding to listen. “Stay out of sight until I return.”
She ghosted out of the room on silent feet, gliding in the direction of the commotion. It wasn’t long until she found herself in one of the cells the Tsavitee used to keep their prey alive. They always did like their food still bleeding and screaming as they devoured it.
The pirates failed to notice Kira slipping in behind them, their attention focused on subduing three small children.
“Stop fighting us, you brats,” a pirate at the back of the pack growled. “You’re just making things worse for yourself.”
His companion had one of the children by the arm and was attempting to drag them out from under the cot. The child was resisting. The other two holding fast to their friend’s other arm.
Maggie lay face down, obviously dead, her body obstructing the rest of the pirates. Arly was unconscious in the corner, a Tuann standing over her. One of the rebels, Kira assumed, finding his lack of synth armor reassuring. It meant he was probably a civilian.
Movement in the top right corner of the room attracted her attention. A spawn clung to the ceiling, its mouth open as it prepared to fire the laser hidden inside.
At the sight of her, it paused, its mouth closing slightly.
Kira bent to place the scorpion on the ground. Patting its head, she straightened.
“For God’s sake, how hard is it to corral a bunch of children,” the leader swore.
“You’d be surprised.” Kira slipped up to stand behind him. “Children are quite flexible. Makes them hard to keep hold of.”
The leader whirled to face her. Kira swayed backward, avoiding the elbow he aimed at her face.
“Did I say that out loud?” Kira touched her lips in mock dismay, enjoying the sight of their fear. “Oops.”
A murmur ran through the group as they stared at her hair.
“Phoenix” was whispered by more than one.
Alarm showed on the Tuann’s face as he realized that his underlings were about two seconds from a full retreat. “Remember our deal. She’s crippled. Easy pickings.”
His words bolstered the humans’ confidence.
“You mean this?” Kira held up the wrist with the cuff. “Yeah, I don’t need my soul’s breath to deal with people like you.”
She dropped her hand.
Laser fire lanced through the room from the top right corner. Arly lunged up with a dagger in hand. The Tuann died before he knew what hit him, taken out by the twin attacks.
“Are these the flauga who did that to the enclave?” Arly snarled, coming to her feet.
The humans that remained reacted like chickens before a fox. Bunching up and clucking in fear.
“They sure are.” Kira smiled wide at the humans. “Like I said before, I don’t need fancy powers to deal with shit like you.”
She was more than enough.
The scorpion struck, immobilizing one human.
Kira tore out the throat of the pirate’s leader mid scream, enjoying the gurgling sound as he died. She prowled forward as she, Arly, and Jin’s spawn picked the humans off one after another. Until the only things left living were them and the three children.
“Not bad for someone with no ki,” Kira drawled, admiring her handiwork for a second before glancing at Arly. “How did you let yourself get taken?”
Arly tossed aside her makeshift weapon, bending to riffle through the Tuann’s clothes. “I figured it was the fastest and easiest way to find Caius.”
Look at that—she and Jin had the same idea.
Not finding a weapon on the Tuann, Arly tsked and shoved his body away. “Getting knocked out for several hours wasn’t part of the plan though. I don’t know what that red head hit me with but it carried quite the punch.”
“Flame was part of this?” Kira asked.
What were the chances the man Kira encountered in Cat Three was one and the same as the one Arly had met? Red wasn’t the most common hair color among humans but it wasn’t a rarity either.
“Is that his name?” Arly asked.
“Probably not, but it’s what I call him.”
Arly grunted. “I don’t know what he was called. Just that he moved different compared to the others and seemed to know his way around the hotel. There was a hidden entrance in my room.”
Kira tried to look surprised.
“Anyway, what are you doing here?” Arly asked.
“You and Jin had a similar thought.”
“The child was taken too?” Arly’s face showed alarm as she looked around the cell. “Where is he? Is he alright?”
“We’re getting to that.” Kira moved over to crouch in front of the cot the children were hiding under. “Hello, there. My name’s Kira. What’s yours?”
Jin
Jin squatted in the middle of the passageway, wrapping his arms around his knees as he stared morosely at the ground.
Pirates these days. No pride in their craft.
He’d been wandering this honeycomb for an eternity and not encountered a single one.
Where was the professionalism? The respect? The least they could have done was post a couple of sentries. The lack of situational awareness was concerning. Kira was going to eat them alive when she finally got here.
At the sound of feet tramping through the next chamber over, Jin perked up.
Finally. He’d been waiting forever.
When the pirates rounded the corner, they paused at the sight of Jin standing in the middle of the room.
He fluttered his eyelashes at them.
Look—an innocent, defenseless child. Alone in the big, bad ol’ honeycomb. Whatever shall you do with him?
Jin hoped they took him to their leader. That was a reasonable expectation, wasn’t it?
“Who let you out of your cell?” one of the pirates demanded in human standard.
Jin put on a confused expression, pretending not to understand.
The pirate’s buddy nudged the other. “He’s a wizard. He probably only speaks their language.”
“What should we do with him?” someone asked in a low voice.
“Take him with us,” the person in charge said. “There isn’t time to take him back to the cell. We’re already late to rendezvous with the powers that be.”
Oh, goody. Jin was going to get his way after all.
Kira – The Cells
There was a soft exclamation from behind Kira as she focused on making herself seem as non-threatening as possible. A difficult task with all the ripping of throats she’d just done.
“What did you do? And how?” Roderick demanded, limping into the room with an expression of disbelief as he took in the half dozen or so bodies around her.
“What kind of question is that?” Kira shot back.
He’d been there for the fight she had with Mars. Compared to that, this was nothing.
Roderick blinked at Arly’s presence, looking her up and down with a suspicious frown. “I thought the inquisitors crippled your ki.”
“They did.” Kira smiled at the three peering out from under the cot. “But you don’t need soul’s breath to take a life. You just need to know where to stab.”
And she was an expert at that.
Though being a touch not right in the head and willing to take crazy risks also helped.
“Don’t be afraid,” Kira told the children. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
“We know. He already told us,” the biggest, a boy around Ziva’s age, said.
“Are you talking about a boy? Brown skin? Pretty golden eyes?” Kira held her hand up beside her. “About this big.”
The smallest, a girl around a toddler’s age, fastened sage green eyes on Kira. “Youse latse.”
Kira blinked. “What was that, sweetie?”
“Yoush latesh,” the child lisped.
“She said you’re late,” the older girl announced.
“He told you to say that, didn’t he?”