Chapter 35
I used the rope left on me to tie the Director’s hands and feet before I sat down at the console and studied the boards. It took me the length of time that the others needed to subdue the guards and climb up to figure out which controls worked the Gate mechanism. Once I was sure, I engaged the sequence and opened the massive vault doors crushing hundreds of Blackfin’s forces in the process yet it did not deter them. Thousands milled forward and descended the huge ramp into the city. I knew that many would get lost but others would find their way towards the citizens, raping and killing those that they found.
I stood and stood back as Blackfin entered the room, his face aglow in triumph. He kicked the Director, ordered me to pick him up and find a way out. Telling me I could feed, he pointed to the one still left with some life in him. “That one, Reuven. I release you from the geas for that one.”
I shook my head although I dearly wanted to believe him but even through his spell on Connacher’s collar, I could feel the magic threatening my sanity. “I can’t, Master,” I whispered. “The collar---.”
He touched it and drew his hand back quickly. “It is powerful, this spell. Reinforced by Lyr Averon’s behind it. You will not starve to death. Drink and I promise I will protect you from the effects.” He spelled the dying man and I could no longer smell his blood. I bent my head to his open wound and sucked the last bit of blood from his body. It tasted flat and unappetizing, the essence of what was human in it had been turned yet it filled me with strength and energy sitting in my stomach like a lead weight. Yet, it still did not trigger nausea or pain. Blackfin wiped off my mouth and told me to find our way out.
“The quickest way is through an Observation Tower,” I said and took them there. The others followed, their weapons drawn and covered in blood. I fairly flew even with Ricbom on my shoulder and had to wait for them to catch up. We bypassed screaming citizens who ignored us until we were close to the tower’s entrance and there we encountered the security Techs. They did not hesitate upon seeing us; our technical coveralls were not as good a disguise as I thought for each one of the guards recognized my face.
Immediately, they fired on us but the wizard erected a shield of magic that caused their high-powered laser wands to deflect. Of course, the shield didn’t allow us to fire back. After a near disastrous try on the part of Sergeant Amarice they stopped, looking at Blackfin. I recognized one of them.
“Cabor. I have the Director. Let us pass or I will drain him here in front of you.”
The med-tech stepped forward, no expression of surprise or fear on his face. No disappointment or regret. “Tobias. What are you doing?”
“What my master wills. Step aside or die. Or he dies.”
“You opened the Gates,” he returned.
“Yes,” I replied calmly.
“Why? We saved your life and protected you.”
“I am not that same being you rescued, Cabor. I am a slave to this master and to another. I have no will and no life left of my own. What he orders, I must obey.”
His eyes tracked the ebony collar on my neck. “A neural conditioner!”
“Tobias,” Blackfin said. “Kill him. Kill them all.”
I dropped the Director at my feet. “Master, I cannot kill him, he is not alive.”
“Destroy him, then,” screamed the wizard and threatened me with a taste of the collar. I burned and nearly fell to my feet sensing more than seeing Arianell moving towards me. Blackfin kicked me forward out of the enchanted circle, alone against four of the guards who immediately moved in on me. Wands struck me on the back, head and neck yet did no damage. Each hit pulsed and the collar flared–almost as if it were absorbing the energies directed at me.
I rose to my feet and something strange and terrifying happened. My body became light as air and I was hovering ten feet above the guard techs and looking down at them. I roared and the noise sent vibrations throughout the complex. Glass shattered; cracks appeared in concrete floors and down the walls like curved bolts of lightning.
The techs froze in their places as my sonic blast burned out the delicate microprocessors of their circuitry. Only Cabor still moved, albeit slowly. I pushed him out of the way with one blow and sent him sprawling onto the concrete floor.
The locked doors of the tower fell before my mere touch and I landed dreamily on my feet in front of the controls. In a matter of only moments, I had the concrete pillars rising to the glacier’s surface where it exploded out of the ice as a whale breached the waters. I didn’t bother to use the stairs but blasted a hole in the bottom large enough for a tank to enter. We come up on the far side of the ice field–away from the gates and the fighting but that did not upset the wizard. He sent a message globe to the guard holding the birds. When he arrived with the birds and met us, we mounted and flew back to the main encampment where Blackfin set the Klese up to guard me. He left to coordinate the mop-up and took the still unconscious Ricbom with him.