Haelo Rising, page 13
Sleep, Lo, he thought, so quietly I barely heard it. Go back to Griffin, and sleep.
10
Ill At Ease
Griffin and I awoke at four in the morning to Zeta murmuring tightly in her Latin/Atlantian pidgin language. I shook off my restless dreams and made my way to where she was conversing with Hank. They looked deep in conversation.
What’s wrong? Neo asked.
I’ll tell you what’s wrong. The second-in-command of the Krypteia has lost his mind.
Colonel Stravins? Vernado thought. What do you mean?
Zeta mumbled something unintelligible.
He’s gone, Griffin said, interpreting her foreign language. Then he turned his thoughts to me alone. Did you know about this?
I had my suspicions, yes. Dagger Stravins was not usually one to do things without thinking them all the way through. But last night, I’d had a feeling he was going to go solo. His rash decisions were going to get him hurt.
One by one, we turned on our flashlights as we waited for the prince to speak.
Zeta, he finally said. Do you have cause to suspect Colonel Stravins is incapable of carrying out his duties?
Zeta blanched, then just as quickly, her cheeks flamed red. She put her shoulders back, locked her hands behind her back, and raised her chin to attention. Your Highness, Colonel Stravins is the finest kryptes I’ve ever known.
That is not what I asked.
While Zeta took a moment to gather herself, Hank came to respectful attention alongside her. Your Highnesses, he thought. I believe Dagger Stravins to be the most capable soldier in the Krypteia. If you suspect him currently incapable of performing his duties, I suggest you consult with him.
But he is not here. This thought came from President Specter. Where is he?
Griffin didn’t wait for a response. Is this the first time something like this has happened?
Lieutenant Zeta Andúe and Captain Hank Abrams responded in clean unison, their eyes focused on the wall behind Griffin’s head. Yes, Your Highness.
I felt their lies. Their auras sizzled with them.
I closed my eyes and relaxed, first immersing myself into Zeta’s aura. Her emotions were a chaotic battle of loyalties: to her commander and to her prince. I wasn’t as tied to her, so I didn’t see clear scenes, but the brief flashes and murky snippets I did see were enough to understand both her pride and her frustration at this new, darker Dagger. I understood the vague impressions of the recent four weeks during their Alpha Unit mission when he broke protocol and put himself or others in danger. It had always worked out, and he’d captured enemies and accomplished victories that the others had thought almost impossible. And some of it he’d done single-handedly—like a fool. She was in awe . . . and she was worried.
And she’d just lied to her future emperor about it.
Hank’s aura was harder to read. There was loyalty there. And he was nervous. But I couldn’t tell his exact reasons for being nervous, whether over Dagger’s lack of fear or over Griffin’s current reaction. Either way, his aura betrayed his lie. He did not think that this was the first time Dagger had gone off the rails.
Your Highness, Hank thought, just as President Specter was about to speak. Dagger knows the palace and the city well. He also knows Massáude better than we do. I’ve never witnessed his instincts fail.
He’s an asset, Zeta added. We would be wise to trust him.
Dagger had a unique set of experiences. His youth among his tribal people in the South African coastal waters, his early teen years growing up in the palace as cousin to Galana Cora and young Prince Griffin, his time captaining the special ops team, and his time serving as my bodyguard had given him an unmatched set of skills and knowledge base. Not to mention what he’d learned while Karchardeus and Massáude had held him hostage those few terrible weeks.
Honestly, I trusted his instincts explicitly.
But the more fully I understood Dagger’s background, the farther away from him I felt. Who was this man, really? I put my hand on Griffin’s arm.
Vernado? Griffin asked, wanting his bodyguard’s opinion.
Sergeant Vernado Ven came to attention as well. My job is to protect you, Your Highness. My opinion on Colonel Stravins is irrelevant.
I want to hear it anyway, Griffin thought, agitated.
Vernado clenched his jaw, then in Greek he thought, I agree with Captain Abrams and Lieutenant Andúe. Colonel Stravins is a hero.
I’m not a hero.
We all jumped and turned to the man himself hovering in the tunnel outside the alcove.
But I appreciate the trust, Sergeant Ven. Dagger came closer, nodding to his Alpha Unit teammates. Hank, Zeta. They nodded back. Your Highnesses—he bowed slightly—and President.
Griffin stayed notably silent.
Dagger straightened and faced the group. I have news. Jade LaReym and his crew are safe. I just spoke with him on the satellite phone.
Two of the weights lifted from my shoulders. First: my father was okay! And second: phones didn’t work underwater, which meant Dagger hadn’t gone crazy-rogue storming the palace after all. He’d only left the island to make a sat-comm phone call. Jade is preparing to meet us. Dagger looked to where Griffin, Neo, Specter and I were now grouped together. We just need to get outside the island walls.
Farther away from our people? Griffin asked. From my mother?
Colonel Dagger Stravins nodded in his very colonel-y way and shouted an order to Griffin’s guard, who had already started packing up. Vernado, you and Hank take up the rear.
Neo stretched into his backpack. About time. This cave sucks.
You scared of the dark, Neo? Zeta thought. Her innocent tone and expression actually made her words snarkier.
Far from defensive, Neo looked pleased. Yeah, he thought. But you could make me feel better. Zeta rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath.
We assembled together, packs strapped behind us, and waited for Dagger to lead the way. Where are we going, Dagger? Griffin asked. He hovered at an angle from Dagger, aggressive yet uncertain. I could feel his growing distrust squirming beneath the rest of his chaotic emotions.
Dagger checked the point of the knife in his hand for sharpness, then slid the deadly blade into a sheath on the strap of his pack. To the open sea. We’ll signal Jade’s Beilstein crew. You, Galana Haelo, Neo, and President Specter will stay with them while the rest of us go back for Cora and the rest of Massáude’s captives.
Griffin looked irked, but he didn’t speak out against the logic in Dagger’s plan. I was more than irked. I was angry. There are only four of you, I thought. You need more help.
And you think you would be the one best suited for that help? Dagger’s tone made me angrier. It was as if he could have mocked me if the thought warranted it, but my suggestion wasn’t even worth the effort of mockery.
Screw you, Dagger, I thought, instantly alarmed at my outburst. He ignored me and pressed forward through the tunnel.
Your Highness, came a deep, private thought from Hank. You’ve worked hard to become the asset that you are. Protect Griffin, Specter, and Neo. It makes sense.
I didn’t want to agree, but I wasn’t going to win this argument anyway. Right, I thought back to him. Hank squeezed my shoulder once and then gestured me to precede him. I gripped my pack’s straps and kicked off the tunnel’s stone floor into formation.
We weaved through the ancient lava tube tunnels like slow platelets in a web of blood vessels. In the dark, I could only vaguely recall the way to the exit, but Dagger seemed to know exactly where he was going.
After a half hour, he pulled up short, causing Neo to bump into him. He held his arm up and put a finger to his lips as if to say no thinking public thoughts. We all pressed our backs into the stone walls and waited while Dagger leaned around a corner. The tunnel beyond was lit dimly, as if we were getting closer to the outlet to the outer sea. After a brief glance, Dagger quickly came back.
What do you see? President Specter thought to us. Hank and Zeta looked equally curious, though their thoughts were probably being voiced to Dagger alone.
Forçadores, Dagger thought. Two of them. They can’t sense us through this stone, but they’re just around the bend. Zeta?
Without further ado, Zeta pulled two knives from the straps of her pack and proceeded forward.
Aren’t you going to help her? Griffin asked.
It was Hank who responded. They’ll be dead before they even understand who she is.
Sure enough, Zeta came back a minute later, unscathed. Sir. She looked to Dagger. You need to see this.
Carefully, we left our secluded tunnel and turned left into the lightened one. We swam through the ever-lightening lava tube to where, twenty yards ahead, the two Forçadores lay sunken on the floor. But Zeta didn’t stop there. None of us did.
Ten yards beyond the dead Enforcers, where the old coral-covered exit used to be, the cave walls were no longer the smooth lava rock of the ancient tunnels. We floated through the jarringly blunt edges of a ravaged tunnel that eventually gave way to a gaping hole open to the sea. It looked like a wound in the island’s stone. Subtle ocean currents caused grit from the edges to swirl and wash away. This was new. Something had ripped this exit from the island wide open. Recently. And though it was still dark outside, and we were deep enough that even dawn wouldn’t shed much light on our location, there was still enough filtered starlight for our candeon eyesight to see the gashes left behind by the indiscriminate spears of an army.
How did this happen? Hank thought, running a hand on the freshly cracked stone.
And then I knew. I remembered.
My mind flashed with images from childhood: Neo’s small arms wrapped around my little sister Tilly and me as our cave hideout was ripped apart, the sound of which was indescribable.
Neo and I stared at each other, wide-eyed, both recognizing this handiwork. He ground his jaw while I worked to calm my racing heart. It was Massáude, I thought to Dagger. This happened ten years ago.
Dagger’s gaze shot to me. What do you mean?
I ran my hand along the stone in imitation of Hank. When Massáude attacked my parents, our rock cave ripped apart. Just like this.
Explosives?
I don’t think so. I closed my eyes, trying to remember. It was like, an earthquake or something. The stone just ripped apart.
Dagger studied the cragged walls anew. The technology that would require. . . .
Then, like we were both thinking the same thing, our mouths dropped open in fear. If Massáude had figured out how to move rock on this scale, what could he do to the city of Pankyra? In unison, we both turned our attention back the way we’d come.
In a flash of speed, Dagger was outside the island’s aura-blocking walls. Vernado! He yelled.
Yes, sir?
Dagger pointed to where Neo, Griffin, Specter and I were clustered. Take them to the humans. Jade’s Beilstein crew is still up there. I can feel them.
Yes, sir.
They’ve got a chopper, but you’ll have to get their attention somehow. They’ll pull you from the water.
Then suddenly Dagger ducked back into the cave and ordered us to fall back. Forçadores, he thought.
We can’t leave this way, Griffin thought.
Dagger’s aura flared with frustration. Yes, you can. Hank, Zeta, come with me.
The three Alpha soldiers left the gaping hole in the island and powered a current so fast, the Forçadores didn’t seem to register their approach. Neo and I peeked around the corner, watching as Dagger snapped the neck of one, and Hank and Zeta double-teamed the other in a brutal fight. It was over quickly, currents and bubbles hiding much of the violence. Though the snapping of bone and the Enforcer’s yelp of tremendous pain couldn’t be hidden.
Dagger killed efficiently. No hesitation. No regret.
It was terrifying.
Hank came back to the tunnel and gestured us forward. President Specter hesitated, forcing Vernado to pull him out.
Near the ocean’s surface, Dagger stopped us. He surfaced alone and pulled the satellite phone from his pack. We could hear his voice over the wind and waves of the sea. When he came back down, he informed us that Jade’s crew was coming to pull all of us from the sea.
All of us? I asked. Even you?
Dagger nodded. Jade has Basileus Alcaeus on the sat-comm. We need to regroup.
My clenched fists relaxed in relief.
We waited.
And when the lights of my father’s helicopter flashed above and a rope dropped to the sea, we surfaced, gasping breath into lungs that hadn’t filled with air in hours. One by one, they pulled us from the tossing waves into the safety of the Blackhawk.
The deafening whir of the helicopter blades lulled me into a trance. Neo sat on one side of me, Griffin across, all of us wrapped up in towels. Oddly, I felt closer to Griffin than Neo. It was like my brother had already left. Griffin, with his tuxedo shirt plastered to his lean chest, kept looking me over protectively, resting his hand on my knee. My long tresses hung wildly and my raspberry lace reception dress was soggy and tattered—but my marriage was intact. And judging by the connection I felt between our auras, it was growing stronger.
I reached out and took Griffin’s hand, giving him an encouraging squeeze. He closed his eyes and held on. And I knew. Deep in my soul, my aura found a teammate.
“There,” Jade yelled from his seat at the Blackhawk’s controls. We looked out the window, searching for whatever it was Jade was trying to point out. Eventually I noticed a yacht, dark in the water.
“Welcome to the Red Hibiscus.”
11
Friendsgiving
We disembarked in a single file with the four kryptes on high alert. This yacht was a gamble for them. Unknown territory. In fact, the Red Hibiscus was the territory of candeon hunters.
The Beilsteins looked equally as excited for us to be there. I sent a silent prayer up to the heavens that nobody touched each other; we didn’t have time for our own mini-war on deck. Jade told his crew to back down. Dagger, notably, did not reciprocate the order. Jade ushered us below deck to a large gathering area with a table in the center.
“You’re safe here,” Jade promised. “As long as you promise the same.”
“I trust you,” Dagger said, then glanced suspiciously at Jade’s second, David Cameron.
“You can trust my team as well. The rest of them will stay above deck. David stays with me.”
Griffin held his hand out to my father. “We meet again, Jade. I wish it were under better circumstances.”
“Likewise,” Jade said, though his tone didn’t inspire trust. He shook Griffin’s hand with the force of an angry father-in-law.
Griffin, trying not to wince, quickly shook David Cameron’s hand as well. President Specter introduced himself to Jade and David; so did Vernado and Zeta. Hank had met them both before and gave them a cursory head nod. Neo moved to stand by Jade on the other side of the table; I stayed by Griffin’s side. “Lauryn? Is she safe?” I asked my father.
He nodded. “Yes. But it was stupid of her to be there in the first place. That island is no place for humans.”
“Where is she?”
“On her way to Italy. The spitfire wanted to stay and help find you. I had to threaten her to get her on the ferry and to get her to promise to keep her mouth shut. Don’t worry—the ferry’s captain is a friend of mine. But you’ll want to call her before she launches an international manhunt.”
I exhaled. “Thank you.”
He bristled, uncomfortable with my gratitude. Gesturing to the table, he said to the group, “Have a seat.” We took our seats like two opposing teams. David Cameron and the three kryptes stood against opposite walls while my father and Neo, and then Dagger, Griffin, and I sat around the table. Jade pointed to a dark screen on the wall. “As I told Dagger, we had your king on the live link earlier today, but the connection was bad. We’re working on getting it back up.”
“You mean your emperor, His Majesty Basileus Alcaeus Alexander Paramonos of the Candeon Empire?” Hank said, his considerable height adding weight to his reminder of just who my father was speaking of.
“Yeah. Sure.”
“Dad,” I said, embarrassed.
“What?”
“You know where the Basileus is?” Dagger didn’t waste time on protocol.
“Your general took him to a safe house somewhere in Corinth.”
“Who is with him?”
“His young daughter, a couple of bodyguards, and that pretentious hole Ben Ames.”
Dagger raised his eyebrows. “So you’ve met the Foreign and Human Relations advisor?”
“My entire team is made up of humans. Who else would be my contact with your palace?”
My first impression of Advisor Ben Ames had been similar to my father’s. His Southern drawl was still pretty vivid in my mind. He’d been the advisor who had seemed the least worried about Massáude when we had convened a war council before the battle in Atlantis.
“What did Alcaeus say?” Specter asked.
“Not much. He asked a few questions but then the line cut.”
“We’re live,” called a man in a headset through the open door of a back room filled with mounted monitors and radars. Zeta wasted no time in letting herself in to observe the technology specs of the Red Hibiscus. Moments later, a large screen against the wall in the gathering area came to life.
Alcaeus, General Stratos, and Ben Ames were seated at a table, and we could see First Team commander Captain Stephens and Princess Penelope’s bodyguard in the background. Alcaeus looked just as haggard as we probably were, what with his cuffs unbuttoned and his hair disheveled; there was even a smear of blood on his bent collar. Zeta moved back into the room and we adjusted our seats so we were all facing the screen and the camera.
“Father,” Griffin sighed. Alcaeus looked just as relieved, though briefly. “What is the plan?” Griffin asked, not wasting any time.
