Chapter 31 - A Dead City
Kryslie needed three trips to transmit the remaining twelve mutants to Kyr. On the first arrival, she identified the City’s Mayor dressed in hastily donned finery. The twelve armed guards were eyeing the mutants.
She stood tall and spoke immediately to the elderly mayor. “Thank you for your welcome. These are friends and allies of mine. I leave these four in your protection while I return for the next four.”
The Mayor was speechless when she returned for the final time. He seemed to want to ask if the mutants were likely to turn savage. Hoppa and his brethren simply stood back away from the city folk and made no move.
“Esteemed Mayor,” Kryslie spoke to him in her most respectful tone. “I must apologise for not being able to stay long. Can you give me a quick report of the status of your town?”
The man responded as she had hoped, giving her the report without all the traditional courtesies first.
“The shields are protecting us, and keeping the air in the city relatively calm. The relays from the outer towns are giving readings of hurricane winds, and high dust content in the air. We have had aircraft trying to break the shields, but they stopped several hours ago. I believe they went off to the west. Since then we have heard two flights flying over and heading towards Keta and Dira.”
“How is the morale of your citizens?” Kryslie asked.
“We are all frightened. Why did the Peace Corps men have to leave? What if those evil creatures you saw in Vega are here too?”
“If they are here, you would know it by now,” Kryslie told him soberly. “Those that were seen in Vega slipped in when the shield was raised to let me in. They were terminated on my orders. The Ciriot are the true enemy in this war. They tricked the Aeronites into attacking us, and they are now showing their contempt for Tymoreans and Aeronites alike.”
“We have had many instances of sabotage and vandalism in the city,” the mayor remarked. “Are these acts of these Ciriot?”
“No, I believe there will be Aeronite infiltrators in your city. They will be trying to bring down the shields in the mistaken belief that those who are trying to get in are their allies. You must ensure the shields stay up. You have received information on how to identify Aeronites, and should you apprehend any of them, I wish you to keep them prisoner. In Vega, those who surrendered to me have promised to abide by the city laws and help repair the damage their kind are doing. I promised them that if I were able, I would see them back to their base-ships. My offer stands for any who give themselves up to you. If they find the offer hard to believe, perhaps speaking to those in Vega will convince them.”
“We have little contact with the other cities, the signals are often full of interference,” the Mayor said, fearfully. “When will this war be over?”
“We are doing all we can,” Kryslie said, speaking on behalf of the Governors. “Do as you have been instructed. Stay within the city and try to hunt out the misguided ones. Further instructions will be forthcoming as necessary. But I must go on, and I will bring word of your city to my elders.”
The elderly mayor took the hint. He demanded to know if the beam was ready.
Kryslie heard the confirmation that the beam was activated, and set to take her to Ecla. She also heard the concern that there was no vocal confirmation from the distant city.
Her sense of danger was suddenly extreme.
When she brought the first four mutants to Ecla, she materialised in an area full of stone and wood rubble. The cause was obvious; a huge hole had been blasted in the roof of the beam-in room and through it, she could hear the roaring of the hurricane strength winds passing over the city. At first, she thought that the wind had lifted the roof, but then she saw the scorch marks around the edges of the hole. Looking up, she saw that the sky looked orange and on the floor under the hole was a faint layer of orange dust.
She listened with senses other than hearing, and the mental silence of the city alarmed her.
“Hoppa, I don’t like this. When those at Kyr activated the beam to here, someone should have come to greet me…and there should have been guards in here. Stay here while I bring the others in, and then we will see what has happened.”
She had instinctively looked for the glowing trails and the room was bright with them. The Ciriot had been there - had come in through one of the tunnels, or had left that way. She read the glyph - Ruhr.
“We watch. Ready to kill enemies,” Hoppa promised.
“I don’t need to tell you to protect innocents?” Kryslie reminded him.
He merely nodded. “Know difference now.”
When she returned the third time, there had still been no contact with the locals.
Kryslie directed, “We will stay together in case we meet Ciriot. They have been in this room, but I think they have gone.”
She led the way through to the main part of the council building, and found the reason for the mental silence. Bodies lay scattered through the rooms, killed by weapons of various kinds. No one had been spared; even the small child of a councillor lay dead. She felt her anger rising, and heard the growls of the mutants. She kept moving past the still forms and went to look outside.
Hoppa had glanced through the windows, checking for signs of the enemy; he moved to block her from the door. “Go first, I will. Air is orange. Poison perhaps.”
Kryslie nodded, accepting the warning, but went around him to open the door. As he had said, the scene outside was tinged with orange, as if the air was full of reddish dust. Along the deserted roadway, trees were bent and broken, and the wind was blowing debris along the street. Her senses warned her of the danger. The wind outside was hurricane force, and even the mutants would have a hard job to walk against it.
“You stay inside,” Hoppa insisted. “This poison harm us not. Adapt we do to ignore it. We scout outside. You keep look inside. Shield up, not down. Leave Thomas and Dupal with you.”
Kryslie did not let on that she knew Hoppa had lied. He did not know for sure that the poison would not harm him. It was his choice and the choice of his fellows to risk themselves to find the truth she needed. Her one glimpse outside had told her that the Ciriot had been in Ecla in force, and she did not have time to hunt out any that remained. However, there were things she had to do.
“You are right, Hoppa, but do not stay out long. I do not like this place.”
Kryslie returned to the beam- in chamber and used the communicator to call ahead to Ruhr. In her mind was the knowledge that Ruhr was over a hundred and fifty miles away. How long would it take them to get there if they were using one of the Aeronite rocket capsules?
How long ago did they leave?
It seemed to take too long for them to answer and her mind was picturing scenes like those that she had seen here. While she waited, she called mentally to her brother, gave him the picture of Ecla.
“The city feels dead. There is too much silence, and the air outside is full of a reddish poison. The Ciriot have been here but I think they have gone again. The streets and the entrance to the Ruhr tunnel are bright with Ciriot trails. The weather is at its full ferocity so the shields must be fully down. I cannot contact Ruhr, but it may be that there is too much atmospheric interference.”
In her mind, she heard Tymos telling her, “Seal all the tunnels. Reslic will try to contact the three cities that are accessible from there and give them instructions. Father says to look for the shield controls in the mayor’s office. If you can reactivate them, you should do so. Then get here. You can still transmit along the tunnels even if they are sealed.”
Kryslie began to run, not sure of her sudden urgency. It had started when Tymos had said to get there, to Dira. She didn’t wait to see if the two mutants followed her, but went to where she expected the mayor’s office to be. She knew when she found it for the body on the floor was dressed in the mayor’s formal robes. Kryslie briefly checked the body. It was cold and stiff. The wall that had hidden the shield controls had been blasted out of the way – whoever had done it had been in a hurry. The touch screen was smashed, and the unit yanked out from the wall so it hung from wires.
“Go and check through the building,” she told her companions. “Let me know what you find.”
Kryslie thought of how the shields were controlled, and the knowledge she needed was instantly in her mind. The control panel was simply a relay point to split the power to the different layers of shielding. As it was now, no power was going to any of the shields. To make all the shields go back up, all she needed to do was join the two wires to each other. She found the tools she needed in a nearby cupboard that had not been opened. She joined the single thick wire to the six finer ones. The sounds of the wind decreased.
The mutants returned. “Big hole at back. All dead inside. Place a mess.”
They followed her back to the beam-in chamber, and stood watching while she checked the controls for the beam generator. The controls and the device had not been touched.
Kryslie thought aloud. “It was an Aeronite that brought the shields down and they wanted to use the tunnels. Kellex would know of them from Jordan. The Ciriot, if they learnt of it, might want the technology. Though it would do them no good.”
Whatever the reason, it meant that the controls she needed now, would work. Though she had never known before now that the tunnels could be sealed, she now knew how to do it. First, she adjusted the direction for beaming to Tyra, and activated the seal tunnel sub-program. A very loud ‘thunk’ and a puff of air were indications that the solid metal door had fallen into place. The metal wall was some distance down the tunnel, at about the position of the city’s outer walls and the shields.
She repeated the procedure for the tunnel to Basiq, before setting the machine to Ruhr.
Why she decided to enter the Ruhr tunnel and walk along it a short way was a matter of instinct. After the first few yards, only a faint glow continued. At the place where the metal wall would fall, the trail stopped. In reaching that point, Kryslie had seen enough evidence that a rocket capsule had passed through this tunnel. The smell of burnt fuel, the ashy feel to the wall, and small rocks knocked from to the ground. The Ciriot did not have the anti collision fields working. She hoped the Ciriot in the capsule were addled by the time they reached Ruhr.
As she ran back along the tunnel, Kryslie thought about how they had got the capsule there. Had they some of their own, or was the one they used stolen from the Aeronites in Amik? Obviously, the hole in the roof was how they had inserted it in the chamber. That meant they hadn’t travelled in it from Amik. There were at least six cities to travel via between Amik and Ecla. If they had come that way, they would have stopped at each point along the way.
When she returned to the chamber, she saw more clearly that the rubble had been cleared to give a capsule a clear path to the tunnel. Studying the pushed aside stones, a glint of gold and a faint reddish blue gleam caught her eye. She had not yet adjusted them back to normal after needing to see in the dark.
The two mutants helped her to move the larger pieces of rubble, to enable her to reach what she had seen. As soon as her fingers had pried it from its resting place, she knew it was her father’s ring. The gold circle held the odd stone she had first seen on the night Llaimos was born. That felt like an age ago.
“Tym?” Kryslie called with her mind. Her brother had mentioned that their father was in the Temple. When she felt his response, she thought at him, “Ask father where he lost his ring.”
“What does that matter, Krys. Get back here!” Her twin sounded edgy and agitated.
“Ask him!” she insisted. She began to share the desperation she had felt in her twin’s mental tone, but she also felt the answer to her question was vitally important.
“In Amik. The Ciriot stripped him of everything,” Tymos told her impatiently. “Why?”
“I found it. Here in Ecla.”
“Krys, just get here, please.”
Her mind asked, “Why was the ring here, loose.”
Another mental voice reached her. Her father.
“The boy may have found it…taken it.”
“Pyr?” Kryslie had seen the picture image in her father’s mind. “You saw him?”
“He helped me…then went after you.”
“Guardians protect him! Father, I didn’t see him. I have to find him.”
“It was his choice,” Tymoros sent to her. Yet, his grief was again raw and anguished.
“Father, he is a child. He could have had no idea…”
“He had seen the Ciriot…”
“Father, if they have him, we can’t leave him with them. He is your son, even if he is estranged. If his power rises, I do not want the Ciriot using him. I am going to Ruhr.”
“Kryslie!” Tymoros thought strongly, trying to stop her.
She knew her decision was right. Her father had betrayed that Pyr was indeed coming into his power. He was in conflict between wanting his lost son to be alive and safe, and the greater needs of all the people of his world.
Without further delay, she sealed the tunnel to Ruhr, and then returned to the door leading to the street.
“Hoppa! Return now!” she yelled. With the city again sheltered from the wind, she was heard.
In minutes, she saw the mutants running back. Their gait, normally ungainly, was made more so by the need to skirt or leap over debris. When they re-entered the building, she saw that their trews and tunics were coated in the orange dust. They all stayed back from her to avoid rubbing the dust on her.
“Some here not dead,” Hoppa told her. “Shot at we were.”
Kryslie quickly counted heads. They had all come back.
“Good shots, were not.” Hoppa assured her.
Kryslie made an instant decision. “I’m going to Ruhr. I think some of the Ciriot have gone there. Even though I have sealed the tunnels, I can still transmit. I was unable to warn Ruhr, but the President is going to keep trying for me.”
“Dangerous. Only one of you,” Hoppa told her.
“The one of me is dangerous to them,” Kryslie reminded him. “But I need you and the others to stay here to look for and help any survivors. There should be stores of food somewhere.”
“Fight creatures all at once, you can’t,” Hoppa argued.
“I will if I have to, and I won’t be an easy target.” Kryslie told him. “But I can only take four at a time, and I won’t have time for three trips. With luck, I won’t be fighting alone.”
The mutants seemed to look at each other, as if thinking mind to mind. If they were, Kryslie could not hear them. Hoppa stepped forward with Thomas and Dupal.
One of the others spoke up. “Now shields up, dust settles. Stays down. We stay. Build pyre for dead, look for life.”
“Plan is good,” Kryslie acknowledged. She could see problems, but there was an answer. She took the gold ring from her finger. It was etched with the sigils of the Governors. She no longer needed it to confirm her place on Tymorea.
“I do not know your name,” Kryslie admitted to the speaker.
“Joseth, tribe of Gorlas.”
“Take this ring, Joseth. Should anyone question your right to be here, show them that. This is a time when all Tymoreans need to work together, and I applaud your offer to help those who would scorn you.”
“Promised we did to earn your help,” Joseth reminded her.
“You have, and if you know of a way to contact your kin – all the mutant tribes…tell them there is a place for them here. I too will try to send word.”
Joseth and the others all bowed to her – she had just done them great honour.
Hoppa, Thomas and Dupal, also seemed to stand straighter and followed her back to the beam-in chamber with renewed intent. She reset the beam and warned. “I hope to get to Ruhr before the Ciriot. It will be close. We might walk into a fight.”
Her companions followed her example and drew weapons, a mixture of types taken indiscriminately from Aeronites, Ciriot and dead Tymoreans.
“We ready,” Hoppa announced.
The stone lined beam-in chamber in Ruhr was full of armed figures when Kryslie and her companions materialised on the tiled circle. Around her were local guards, and commoners in the uniform of the Peace Corps. Weapons were half raised, as if they feared she was an enemy out to trick them. Her red hair seemed to reassure them. They glanced from her to the tunnel in alarm.
“Have you sealed the tunnels?” Kryslie demanded as soon as she materialised. Blank looks were her answer. She could hear a roaring noise coming from the tunnel, and feel a breeze from air being pushed out of the tunnel.
“The Ciriot are coming in a rocket propelled capsule,” she told them as she went to the control panel for the beam generator. She had to push people from her way, and activated subprograms that the locals had no idea existed.
“His Excellency warned us,” a man tried to explain. His words died when he heard a thump and the floor of the room shook. “What was that?”
The roaring noise was still getting louder.
“Damn,” Kryslie cursed. “It didn’t stop them! They come now!”
The silver grey capsule erupted into the room, scraping the tiled floor as the last of its momentum was used up. It had no viewing ports, so the Ciriot might not be expecting resistance, but even so, they would be armed and armoured.
Energy beams lanced out from the weapons of the defenders as soon as a crack appeared in the metal of the capsule. The Ciriot leapt out, battle ready and returning fire. They killed half the defenders before the rest crowded closely behind the shields of the Peace Corpsmen. The mutants dived low, and leapt up at the Ciriot, using knives as they had before, to good effect. But more Ciriot emerged from a second capsule, and fired at the mutants, as they rose to attack again.
Kryslie saw them die, but was too far away to help them. She was hampered by the other fighters who wanted to protect her. She moved to the edge of the chamber, using her power to be less noticeable. She took aim with her own weapons, and fired as soon as she had clear shots at the vulnerable places in the Ciriot armour. She didn’t remain in the same place for long, these Ciriot fired back when the realised where the shots came from. Ciriot dropped, injured, but still firing at the defenders. Her efforts turned the advantage in favour of the defenders, and the few Ciriot still standing backed towards the capsules.
Kryslie became the focus of four weapons, but the beams didn’t touch her. The Ciriot, angered by her success in harming their group, forgot for a moment about the other defenders. Shots came form those who did not have Kryslie in the way. The creatures did not intend to give up. One holstered his weapons and reached for her, arrogantly certain that he was stronger than the small red headed female. She gripped him in turn and pulled him off balance. As he fell, she had her knife out and into the side of his throat. While the last three were trying to reach her too, the defenders copied her example and used their knives.
Silence fell in the room, as the defenders took stock. Kryslie eyed each of the fallen Ciriot; they were not all dead. She saw one raising a disintegrator, and surprised every one by leaping over fallen bodies, and thrusting her knife in his throat.
Aware of the gaze of the remaining defenders, she rose and faced them. “Make sure each of these creatures is dead. As representative of the Governor’s of Tymorea, I have judged them guilty of crimes against the people of this world.”
The town guards stayed back, stunned and seeming ill at ease. Two of the Corpsmen, moved to obey her commands. A shout of warning made her turn. Stepping out of the first capsule was one of the purple armoured Ciriot, and he dangled an unconscious red headed child as a shield in front of him.
None of the locals dared to move, they were frozen in place by the threat to the child, who had to be of Royal blood, and the weapon aimed at Kryslie.
The creature clicked a sentence in his own language. The translation device emitted the unacceptable demand of, “Surrender this city and all of its treasures, or this child dies.” The child was Pyr.
Kryslie turned slowly, as if unworried. She faced him and spoke, “How much do you value your life, Ciriot. You are not immortal. You have seen how easily my companions killed yours.”
The creature gave his answer as an indiscriminate shot at the defenders trying to shelter behind the shields of the corpsmen. He hit the elbow of a guardsman that was protruding from behind the shield. The man screamed, and fainted from the pain, and seeing part of his arm disappear.
It turned the weapon on Kryslie, and fired. When she was unmoved, and unharmed by the close range disintegrator beam, it began to back away. It kept the child as a shield, and that told Kryslie that it was not as confident of its safety as it wanted her to think.
Kryslie fired at its feet, below where the boy’s body protected it. It jerked its shield down, and Kryslie was ready. She fired at the side of its neck, aiming so perfectly that she did not touch Pyr. It wasn’t a fatal shot, but the Ciriot dropped what it perceived to be a useless ploy, and moved to draw another weapon. He was fast, but Kryslie was faster. She leapt at him, knocked him down and drove her knife in his throat. She watched without expression as the light died from its eyes.
Only then, did she rise and go to check on Pyr. She felt his neck for a pulse, and was relieved to feel it throbbing strongly. She turned to look at the shocked defenders.
“Are they all dead?”
The corpsmen nodded, grimly, but they were all looking ill. Kryslie entered the first capsule to ensure there were no more surprises in there. Then she went to check the second capsule. That too was empty.
The guardsmen were carefully lifting their dead into a neat row by one wall. Kryslie went to Hoppa, and freed his body from under a dead Ciriot. She did the same for Thomas, and Dupal, and only then did the Corpsmen find the courage to challenge her.
“Your Highness, you should not be doing that.”
Kryslie glared at the man. “I don’t notice any of you giving respect to these who fought with me, to defend this city.”
“But your Highness, they are mutants!”
“Yes, they were brave and fearless. Loyal Tymoreans even as you all are. They have served me well, and faithfully. I insist that the people of this town grant them full honour.”
“As you wish, your Highness,” the man bowed in acknowledgement. “We have summoned a medic for the injured. Is the boy alive?”
“Yes, and he will do well enough for now. I will take him with me when I proceed onto Asal.”
“You cannot leave…”
“I will, because I must. So listen well. The tunnel to Ecla is sealed at both ends. I do not know if any more of these creatures were caught between. You must still be vigilant. You were lucky here. Most of the people in Ecla are dead.”
She heard the indrawn breaths as she said, “I did not get there in time. You need to be particularly alert for any of the dark eyed ones. They will be trying to bring down the shields. I believe that was what happened in Ecla, and the Ciriot took the opportunity to come there in force. These creatures are a race of warlike pirates and made an alliance with the dark eyed ones. Only now, they are showing their true intent. They have betrayed their allies.”
“We have several dark eyed ones in custody,” a corpsman reported. “What should we do with them?”
“Keep them confined, and look out for more. They are misguided and as much victims as we Tymoreans are.”
She ignored the comments of disagreement, and went to pick up Pyr, She carried him to the beam controller and freed one hand to reset the coordinates.
“Your highness,” a guardsman ventured to question her. “We have had little contact with our superiors. When can we get more help here, to defend us?”
Kryslie settled Pyr on her shoulder and spoke quietly, “The other Peace Corpsmen, and the fleet warriors, must go where the need is most extreme. Here in Ruhr, you have been lucky. Many cities were taken over by the dark eyed ones, and are vulnerable to the attentions of the Ciriot. If you continue to be vigilant, and follow the instructions given to the town leaders by the Governors, you will be safe.”
With that, Kryslie walked into the beam terminus and transmitted to Asal.
Her reports grew more frequent, but she spent time in each city – hearing reports and reassuring the city leaders that they had not been abandoned.
In the altar room of the Temple, Kryslie’s reports gave a terrible picture of destruction. The Governor’s maintained a calm demeanour, but Stenn could see the strain on his father’s face and Tymos knew the growing toll of dead haunted his father.
The long periods between reports, added to Tymos’s twitchiness. He was controlling it for his brother’s sake, but it was getting harder and harder to restrain the power surging in Llaimos and to resist the urge to be doing something more than merely waiting.
Stenn watched his friend, and knew the Governors were watching him too. They seemed to be placing a great deal of trust in Tymos, and he wondered what Tymos was destined to do.
Then suddenly, Kryslie was amongst them. Deep silence replaced the sound of her voice in the air of the room. Everyone saw that she carried the limp body of a redheaded child.
Chapter 32 - Nemesis Unleashed
Tymoros moved quickly, taking the burden from Kry