Chapter 14 #2
Big hands curved over her shoulders, and he tipped her face up. “Perhaps, and I know that is how you see it, but to us, they are our Gods, Aurina. They used their superior knowledge to create us, to do what was best for us.”
“You should decide what is best for you, not someone else.”
“My ancestors weren’t capable of that. They were barely a step above the animals we’ve battled in the Wilds.
” He pointed to the screen where an image of the primitive race glowed.
The huge man-like creature was roaring, its skin almost like scales.
“The First Warriors helped us become more than beasts.”
“Maybe.” She looked around this lab. Maybe the people who’d crashed here were good men. But if they hadn’t been, and they’d messed with things they didn’t fully understand, it could have been very different.
Shouts echoed from outside. They glanced at each other, Kavon drawing his sword. Together, they rushed back out into the main cavern.
The warriors were gathered together in the center of the cave, swords drawn.
Close by was a huge, swirling cloud of silver.
“It came off the walls,” Colm yelled at them.
Nanami. But now knowing the origin of the nanami, she wondered if this was the same version that lived in Kavon’s blood.
Or something else.
The cloud began to coalesce. She watched it flowing and swirling…into the eerie shape of a giant warrior.
“You are not welcome here.” Its voice sounded like the booming voice of a hundred warriors. “Leave. Or die.”
Kavon stared at the warrior that was not a man. His mind steadied as he took it all in—it was a foot taller than him, broader, and as the nanami forming it shook and moved, he could see it wasn’t solid.
It lifted its arms, its giant hands forming large fists. “Leave,” it boomed again.
Darroch shot forward, yelling as he swung his sword. His blade moved through the nanami warrior. The creature parted, then reformed. Then it swung out with its fist, and slammed it into Darroch’s middle. The warrior flew backward and slammed into the rock wall.
Colm and Kian flanked Kavon, gripping their swords. Aurina was tense, her gaze on the enemy.
“Stay back,” Kavon warned her. “I will test it. Look for weaknesses.”
He strode forward, raising his sword high.
He slammed his sword against the nanami warrior’s sword arm. They traded blows, and Kavon trusted his nanami, letting them guide his moves. He spun and ducked, his strikes faster than ever before.
But his opponent matched him move for move.
It would tire him out, while it didn’t appear to tire at all.
“Colm.”
He saw his friend enter the fight with a war cry.
“Trust your nanami.” Kavon whirled. “They know how to fight this creature.”
His warriors waded in, and they worked together to attack the nanami warrior. But for all their brilliant moves and attacks, it had no effect on the fighter.
A huge blow sent Kavon staggering backward. Then he saw Aurina leap into the air.
“No!”
He watched her land on the nanami warrior’s back. She held something in her hand, but he couldn’t make out what. Then, with a giant shrug, the warrior threw her off.
She smacked into the wall and fell to the floor. Kavon saw her try to get up, raising her head. He saw blood at the edge of her mouth.
An icy rage filled him. He turned, ready to launch at the warrior.
“Kavon!”
Her voice made him turn his head. She was standing, as wobbly as a newborn hargon foal. She held her scanner device in her hand.
“I scanned it. You need to get an electrical pulse running through it. That’ll disrupt what’s holding the nanami together.”
Electrical pulse. Kavon instantly thought of lightning, but there were no storms here. There was only one other way he knew to generate the power.
He stepped forward and called on his nanami.
He’d heard of warriors in the legends doing this, but he’d never succeeded when he’d tried in the past. His nanami had always helped him, worked with him, but now he truly needed them.
He looked at Aurina and remembered her lessons.
He’d remember to ask his nanami nicely. He closed his eyes and directed his thoughts to his nanami.
He needed them now to save his woman and his men.
He felt a prickle of energy over his skin. It grew, and he heard the others gasp.
Kavon lifted his sword and pointed it toward the giant warrior. “Now.” Please.
The flow of energy ripped from him and down his sword. Like lightning, it flew and hit the giant warrior.
Nothing seemed to happen. The warrior took a menacing step toward them.
Power still pouring through him, Kavon decided to send the others out. He would stay and keep the nanami warrior busy so the rest could escape.
But then the warrior started to sag, like he was melting. The nanami forming him flowed to the floor, like a huge splash of water.
All that was left was a pool of glimmering silver.
It had worked. Kavon felt the glow on his skin dim. He spun, and saw Aurina running at him. She launched herself into his arms, and he caught her close. Safe.
“Thank you,” he murmured into her hair. “Your advice saved us.”
“No, I’m pretty sure it was your badass warrior powers. I didn’t know you could do that.”
“I never have before.”
She smacked her lips to his, then pulled back, her gaze running over his face. Then she lowered her head and came back for a slower kiss.
“Kavon,” Colm called out, his voice awed. “Look.”
They turned and saw a portion of the wall sliding open.
Kavon set Aurina on her feet. He grabbed her hand and walked toward the opening.
Inside was as dark as the darkest night in the Wilds.
“Wands,” he called out, but before his warriors could comply, lights clicked on in the room.
His chest constricted.
It was filled with treasure.
Aurina gasped and stepped inside. “Oh, my God, look at this stuff.” She wandered closer to a gold-framed painting. Then she passed a shelf and reached out, her hand hovering over a row of books.
Kavon took it all in. There were weapons. So many of them, all hanging on the smooth rock walls—bows, staffs, guns, daggers, and swords.
“This was all the valuable treasures they’d brought with them from Earth.
” She turned. “Art, weapons, books…oh, look.” She held up a small box filled with gems of all colors and sizes.
“Everything that was important to them.” She looked at Kavon.
“This obviously has a lot of historical value, and is worth an immeasurable fortune.”
He nodded, then his gaze drifted down to the shadowed end of the small vault.
He saw the glimmer of some sort of stand.
His heart started to beat heavily. He walked toward it.
Another light clicked on, his breath caught in his chest.
Durendal.
The sword lay on a stand and its long, elegant blade gleamed in the light. It had a simple hilt, fitting for a warrior’s weapon.
The sword of his ancestors. So perhaps his ancestors weren’t quite what he’d believed them to be his entire life, but…they were still the honorable men who’d helped his world evolve. This sword was a symbol of them and their beliefs.
Aurina picked up some pages sitting beside the sword. “This is the history of the sword. One of the survivors purchased the sword at auction on Earth. It was old even then, and he paid a lot of e-creds for it.”
“He didn’t win it in battle?” Darroch asked.
She smiled. “No. It hadn’t been used in battle for a very, very long time. It’s an artifact.” She shuffled the pages.
Kavon could see they were coated in some shiny substance that had obviously preserved them.
“Durendal was said to have belonged to Hector of Troy—” she looked at them “—he was a great warrior—before passing to a knight of another great warrior king called Charlemagne, a knight named Roland. The blade was forged by a legendary master blacksmith, Wayland the Smith, supposedly with the blood of saints, and was said to have the sharpest blade in the world.”
“It is a weapon used by warriors of the past and revered by warriors of the future,” Kavon stopped directly in front of the stand. He slid his hand around the hilt, his pulse racing, then he lifted the sword.
It wasn’t as heavy as he’d imagined, but he felt a sense of history from it.
When he turned, Aurina was there, holding out a cloth. Together they wrapped it securely.
He pressed a hand over hers. “Thank you. I will present this to our king in my father’s name.”
“All warlords and warriors in the land will know your name, Kavon,” Colm said. “This will only add to the legend of the Mal Dor name.”
“And the rest of the treasures?” she asked.
“I will send scholars back to pack them securely and transport them to the estate.”
She nodded. “A great idea.”
He exhaled loudly. “Now, I would like to head out of this forsaken place and be back in the fresh air.” His men rumbled their agreement. He leaned close to Aurina, his mouth to her ear. “And I very much want you laid out on my bed, waiting for my tongue and cock.”
Her cheeks went a little pink. “Well, let’s get out of here, then.”