Chapter 27 #2
"Thank you, my lord. I'm doing my best," Reyne replied with a forced, even tone.
Mordrick narrowed his steel eyes, inspecting him. "Yes, well, the rebellion will be gone soon, and you will finally be able to take your rightful place."
''A position I look forward to.” The lie tasted acrid on his tongue.
Mordrick climbed the dais, swept his mantle aside and sat upon his elaborate throne with casual ease. He flicked a wrist in dismissal. "Return to the rebels. I will be in touch with more orders soon.”
Reyne offered a stiff bow and then departed the room as quickly as he could manage without running. Hatred suffocated him. It wasn’t until he was away from the fortress that he was able to breathe freely again.
When he returned to the catacombs, he was welcomed back with open arms and told by a very optimistic Odin that the metal implant they had been working on was finally complete and that they would be testing it soon.
Unable to speak for fear of puking on Odin’s boots, Reyne remained mute. What could he say? That he may have unknowingly destroyed any chance they had to successfully infiltrate the fortress.
He felt the creep of bile and fled.
The next day, his heart sank when Odin informed him that Reece had bravely volunteered to test the implant. Not Reece. No. No. No. Reyne could not bear the thought of his death. He wasn't sure when, or how it happened, but he loved Reece like the brother he never had.
"You can't let Reece go," Reyne pleaded. "Reece is too important to lose. Let someone else do it.” Reyne knew that Mordrick would be ready for them, and that whoever walked through that entrance door, with an implant forgery, was doomed to die.
“Let me wear the implant instead,” Reyne insisted, a knot of panic tightening in his chest.
"I appreciate your dedication," Odin told him with a solid clap on his back, "but Reece has already been fitted with the replica. In fact, he left earlier to avoid suspicion.”
Reyne attempted to argue, but Odin dismissed his valid concerns, saying. “Our chemist assured us that the forgery was a perfect duplicate. Reece should have no problem fooling the detection scan."
Without knowing what else to do, Reyne arranged to have an anonymous note delivered to Odin, warning him their plan was going to fail.
Reyne watched from the shadows as Odin scanned the note, discarded it like a piece of useless trash, and continued to prepare to leave. Odin was so confident of their success, it left Reyne with little choice but to give up until he devised another plan.
The following day Odin, Reyne and a handful of soldiers made the long journey to Mombassa. Reyne prayed they would arrive before Reece attempted to enter the fortress, but they were too late—Reece had already departed.
All they could do was remain in hiding, hoping for word of his success. None came. A day later a terrible silence descended on them when a townsperson was overheard speaking about a body that had been dumped just outside the shield matrix, near the Ramachii entrance.
No one questioned whether it was Reece or not—they all just knew.
In a rage, Odin lashed out, fighting anyone who tried to stop him from leaving the safety of their hiding place. “He needs to be buried,” Odin demanded while being restrained for his own good.
Swallowing his own anguish, Reyne calmed Odin down by volunteering to go himself.
Odin quit fighting, only to drop to his knees and break down into tears.
Reyne departed Mombassa with a sickness that tortured his soul and ripped his insides apart.
As he approached the check-in, he saw a discarded body lying in the sand, two huge sand vultures pecking at exposed flesh.
Stumbling towards the vile creatures, he scared them away.
With a tortured moan, he dropped over Reece’s body while his agony echoed across the sea of endless dunes.
At that moment, he realized it should have been him, not Reece—lying dead in the sand. For Reyne truly deserved such a fate. He removed his heavy cloak and wrapped it around Reece’s bloody body.
He half-carried, half-dragged Reece’s body back to Mombassa, his only goal to give Odin the chance to say goodbye to his beloved brother and to give Reece the proper burial he deserved.
Things were quiet while everyone grieved, each in their own way.
Several months later, Odin gathered the rebels and announced they would be attacking a massive water convoy that would be carrying twenty-five hundred gallons of water.
If successful, this would be the rebellion’s greatest victory.
Every rebel who was able to fight was gathered and plans were laid. Once a strategy of attack was formed, the rebels set out. They hid on either side of a road that led through a winding ravine, lying in wait behind giant boulders.
The tension was palpable. The rebels exchanged wary glances, hands resting on weapons, as they waited for the perfect moment to strike and claim their prize.
Reyne decided that after this victory, he would confess everything and tell Odin the truth about himself. Odin would kill him, he was sure, but Reyne no longer cared. All he knew was the guilt was driving him to madness, and death would be preferable to the hell his life had become.
Just as the huge convoy came to view, Remmy approached Reyne. He told Reyne he had orders for him and explained they needed to be out of earshot before he could begin.
Reyne wanted to tell the other spy to go to hell, but he was curious. If he knew Mordrick's plans, he could provide Odin with the intel.
Leaving his hiding spot, he allowed Remmy to lead him away from the rest of the rebels.
As they walked away, Reyne felt a sense of foreboding that raised the hairs on his neck. Something didn’t feel right, and when he heard the first sounds of bloodshed, he knew the rebellion had just walked into a very elaborate trap.
Reyne clenched his teeth and allowed Remmy to guide him from the ambush, while so many brave men and women were slaughtered behind him.
Had Reyne known what Mordrick had planned, he could have stopped it.
He would have stopped it.
Now, he could do nothing other than listen to the pitiful screams of the rebellion's ultimate demise.
Reyne reluctantly returned to the fortress, but his abrupt departure from the fray had been observed, and he had been followed by the one person who managed to escape Mordrick’s deadly trap. It wouldn't be till days later that Reyne would find out that Odin Masters had survived the ambush.
Dressed in full military regalia, Reyne stood before Mordrick while he ranted about Odin's unexpected escape from his perfect trap.
“I don't know how that wily bastard managed to escape my trap, but I want him found.
Do you hear me Reyne? I. Want. Him. Found!
And I want him brought to me alive, is that understood? "
Reyne ground his molars and offered a stiff half-bow after he agreed to personally deliver Odin to Mordrick. Only Reyne had no intention of doing so. Oh, he still planned to find Odin. And when he did he would confess everything—not that anything he could say would make things right.
It took several days to pick up his trail, but Reyne tracked Odin to the Cairnes spaceport, to a transport ship that was scheduled to rendezvous with the penal ship Rhygarion Three. All the prisoners faced life sentences.
''Halt,” Reyne shouted at the ship's burly captain.
The man spun to him, took one look at his Taleari uniform, and hurried to his side without hesitation. "Yes, sir, what can I do for you?”
"I need to see the manifest of the prisoners.''
"Of course.”
While the captain searched for the list, Reyne's attention was drawn towards a robed man with an odd gait—his features shadowed beneath his deep cowl while being led to the transport vessel. Reyne stepped forward, only to freeze when the man turned just enough to reveal his face.
Odin Masters was staring at Reyne with such loathing and contempt, Reyne knew that nothing he could ever say, or do would change Odin's belief in him.
Reyne had betrayed him.
Reyne remained still as Odin was roughly pushed by one of the guards and herded up the ramp and into the belly of the transport ship.
For the longest time, Reyne did nothing but stare at the vessel until Odin was no longer visible in the line.
He finally turned away. "You're free to go," Reyne told the captain without even glancing at the forgotten manifest in his hand.
Reyne took a deep breath and began the arduous journey back to the ebony fortress, despising himself more and more with every step.
Days later, he found himself standing before Mordrick again. “Where’s Odin?”
''I tracked him to a transport ship carrying a load of convicts that was headed to the penal ship Rhygarion Three. When I arrived, the ship was in the process of departing. I attempted to delay it, but I was minutes too late. I have no way of confirming whether Odin was aboard or not."
Mordrick's steel grey eyes narrowed on Reyne. "Are you telling me you have failed me?" He asked, his voice a low growl laced with disbelief and restrained anger.
Reyne braced himself. "Yes. I'm afraid that I have.”
Mordrick turned his back on Reyne with an explosive curse. "Magnius, you know the punishment for failure, make sure that it is administered swiftly.” Without so much as a backwards glance, Mordrick stormed out of the throne room.
Magnius cleared his throat. “Guards, you heard your lord, chain him and take him to the chamber of the white sand where he is to remain for no less than ten hours."
"Ten hours?'' Reyne bellowed as heavy iron shackles were forced onto his wrists and ankles. "Mordrick can't be serious, I'm his nephew.”
“'I assure you,” Magnius informed him with a sneer, "he is most serious.”