Chapter 22 - Attack
“You are not concentrating,” Jarro Reslic told Kryslie, when he had scored on her for the second time in as many minutes. “Is your mind on some commoner you met at the ball perhaps?”
The absurd suggestion coupled with the painful shin where Jarro’s practice blade had swatted her, took her mind off the prickly feeling on her back. She tried to concentrate, but Jarro neatly disarmed her.
“Five minutes of push ups,” Jarro told her, and then turned his attention to Denlic.
“What is it?” Tymos demanded when Kryslie had finished the five minutes. “You’ve been distracted all morning.”
She shrugged. “Jarro might not be far wrong. I feel like I did at the ball – like being watched.”
After a moment of consideration, Tymos walked over to Jarro and waited for his attention.
“Sir?” he asked respectfully.
Jarro disengaged from Denlic and turned to deal with the interruption. “Prince Tymos?”
“Sir, both Kryslie and I feel like we are being watched.”
Jarro glanced around at the four guards and two attendants, all big solid and very alert men and murmured without disrespect, “You are.”
“Sir, I mean by someone who shouldn’t be around,” Tymos clarified.
Jarro made a hand gesture and two guards approached. He spoke to them, not betraying by his tone that he did not completely believe the warning. He told the guards to call for reinforcements and do a sweep of the area.
Before the two guards went off, Tymos spoke briefly. “The intruder at the ball was shielded.”
The guards took the warning seriously and dropped special glasses down over their eyes. Jarro suddenly became more alert. The guards went off at a trot and two replacements materialised a short distance away.
Tymos noticed that the six men guarding his group of fellow students were now alternatively looking outward and watching the children.
“What is it?” Stenn asked Tymos when his friend moved back to the huddle of students.
“Not sure,” Tymos admitted. “I think there is an intruder around.”
“Jonko,” Jarro called. “The rest of you pair up and use the staves for practice.”
Deliberately, Tymos and Kryslie split up. Stenn nodded to Tymos, and Kryslie paired with Keleb, leaving Lexina with Denlic. All of them were now edgily alert.
The suggestion of movement in the clump of trees nearest the group caused two guards to go to investigate. From the opposite direction, five mutants suddenly raced into view. On seeing the students and guards, they stopped their headlong dash. When the guards raised their weapons, the mutants turned abruptly and ran back into the cover of the nearest trees.
Moments after the guards reported the sighting, the monitors of all seven students emitted the imminent danger buzz. All students reacted immediately, but no transmitter was activated.
In the microsecond after the alert, when two guards were racing towards them, Kryslie saw Stenn, Lexina, Denlic and the three guards in their view, dropping staves and falling to the ground. Her own limbs seemed frozen. She sensed Tymos’s awareness of the same problem. Then Keleb moved into her line of view, looking around. He had his hand to his monitor, sending an emergency alert. He could not see the vaguely glowing figure that came up to him and knocked him unconscious. Kryslie had tried to call a warning, but she could not speak or move.
The two racing guards arrived, one grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder. She glimpsed another taking her brother. She suddenly realised that she and Tymos were the targets of the raid. She wasn’t immediately alarmed - the guards were removing them from danger. However, when the guards did not transmit them to safety as soon as they were clear of the others, and when it became clear they were heading away from the palaces, Kryslie felt Tymos’s sudden alarm and like drawing in a deep breath, she echoed Tymos in drawing in energy.
Suddenly, they were both able to move, to struggle and they broke free of their captors. They fell to the ground and sprang to their feet, unhurt by their fall and ready to use the unarmed defensive tactics that they knew well.
The two guards came at them, and Tymos and Kryslie each saw that the uniforms were subtly wrong and the eyes of both these guards where dark, without any white showing.
Instantly, they both reached for their transmitters, intending to get away and not caring if these intruders felt the backlash. Yet their hands felt neither transmitter nor monitor. As they wondered how the intruders had known to remove them, they needed to defend themselves from the moves meant to disable them. If the intruders had expected helpless children, they found otherwise.
Tymos noticed a glow and warned his sister, “Glow behind you,” and turned to kick out at a similar glow behind him.
The new intruders had the advantage of almost perfect invisibility, and were highly skilled, but Tymos and Kryslie managed to get in several solid blows on their attackers before they were grabbed and lifted off their feet. Neither could find something to brace themselves against to break free, but the attackers could not afford to let go.
Three intruders, one visible in guard uniform and two that were merely glowing shapes, held Tymos. Two shielded intruders had Kryslie as the second fake guard was keeping watch for real guards.
Kryslie heard, “Retreat,” and felt her self wrenched as her captors began to run. She saw flashes from weapons as invisible intruders held a rearguard. Suddenly her captors stopped, and Kryslie felt something pressed against her neck and coolness spread from that point. The sensation was familiar; it was like the sedative Alexon had given her. She knew she must not sleep, and once again drew in power and thought of it burning the drug from her. She felt herself dropped as her captors were jolted by the power she had summoned. It overwhelmed their force shields and stunned them.
She was still on the verge of blacking out, when a black clad figure materialised in front of her.
Tymos struggled fiercely; none of the intruders could come close enough to inject him with a hypo-sprayed sedative.
“Prince Tymos!” a sharp voice distracted him. It had the same intensity of authority as President Reslic.
For an instant, Tymos stopped struggling, looked at the visor-covered face, but then felt Kryslie’s mental cry of warning, “No!” He renewed his struggles, as Kryslie launched herself at one of the intruders who was holding him. She sprang onto the man’s back and knocked him to the ground, winded.
The black clad figure stared at Tymos, and used his mind as a weapon. “Prince Tymos, you will yield, NOW!”
Once again, Tymos stopped struggling, and it was long enough for the man in black to press his device against Tymos’s arm.
“No!” Kryslie screamed mentally, and she saw the man flinch. “No, Tymos, no!”
She renewed her attack and disabled another of her brother’s captors. She heard the man give orders to control ‘the girl’. Tymos slumped unconscious, and for a moment, Kryslie was vulnerable. She felt as if part of her was paralysed. She forced her mind free of her brother’s mind, but three of the intruders had grabbed her. Two more were lifting her brother and running.
The man in black lifted his visor and approached the still struggling Kryslie. He took her face in a fierce grip and looked at her – his eyes mere inches away. She felt his mind pressing on hers, and she knew why Tymos had stopped resisting. He had likened this battle of wills to his resistance to Governor Xyron. Then he had been in the wrong, now resistance was imperative. She knew this one was the leader.
“Sir, we have to leave,” a voice shouted.
Kryslie felt the man understand the warning, sensed his decision to kill her and was aware of him moving hand to reach for a weapon. She was too stubborn to let this intruder have his way, and so she did what the man had done to Tymos, except she targeted the three men holding and running with her.
She directed a very strong command to the three men holding her. “Drop the woman!” They did, believing the command had come from their leader. She sprang up as soon as she touched the ground, grabbed the nearest intruder and swung him around as the black clad intruder fired his weapon. Her living shield gave a high-pitched shriek and fell. Kryslie grabbed the body with two hands and found she had the strength to swing the body around. He seemed to have no more weight than a wooden stave.
While leader dodged the body, Kryslie took off after her brother. As she ran, she felt the leader sending messages to others to split and retreat. She decided to try to influence the leader, and try to convince him that what he was doing was wrong or failing that to muddle his mind. She felt she was having an effect until the man brought up an image of a tungsten steel fence. Then she had no warning of his next attack.
She felt a wash of heat on her back, but ignored it. Numbness replaced the heat, and she almost tripped. She forced herself to continue, because she was the only one close enough to help Tymos. She felt herself weakening, and drew more energy from somewhere, but it wasn’t enough, she was slowing, verging on blacking out.
The ones carrying Tymos were almost at the rear gate, and Kryslie saw the guards standing like statues that were staring at the approaching intruders, caught in the act of raising their weapons.
Desperation forced Kryslie to reach for something more from within herself. “Release him!” Kryslie demanded in her most authoritarian voice. They did, but immediately spun around to face her. That was a mistake, for now that their minds were on her they were vulnerable.
“Stop! Weapons down!” Kryslie sent then, “Now or you will be on punishment detail for a month.”
Hard on her thought came another from the leader, “No you fools kill the girl, and kill the boy! Do it now!”
The men tried, but found they couldn’t move. The leader tried, but found he couldn’t reach for his weapon.
He could move, but not take up a weapon.
Kryslie went to stand over her fallen brother, and as she took her defiant stance. She felt an inferno of anger in her mind from the leader of the intruders. “I will kill you for this. I will make you wish you had never been born.”
Another blast of heat surrounded her, as another of the intruders raced towards the gate, saw the situation and acted. The leader broke free of her control and came at her just as two mutants raced towards the gates, he saw then the arrival of a dozen armoured and force shielded Tymorean guards. He turned to run, disappearing into a distortion of air as he reactivated his stealth suit.
More and more of the palace guards were appearing. Some took charge of the three intruders that Kryslie was keeping immobile and six others surrounded her and Tymos.
“The leader was just here,” Kryslie told the guards. “He shielded and ran off.”
The Governors received the warning about the escape of mutants, and immediately sent the signal for the children to retreat. Word of an intrusion into the nursery caused instant action, but the intruders had fled not expecting mere women to be such fierce fighters. Palace guards took over from the two slightly injured women defenders.
Tymoros went to assure himself that his youngest son was safe. Llaimos had been with Tanya in the sunny room on the third floor of his palace. He assigned two of his brothers and two cousins to guard Llaimos. All were powerful men and experienced fighters.
He had rejoined Reslic and Xyron when a signal came from Keleb’s monitor. The Governors knew there was more trouble.
“Tymos and Kryslie no longer have their monitors,” Xyron repeated the report he had received.
Reslic was listening to reports, and issuing orders. He was aware that power was being used to fight against the intruders that were shielded, and the ones who had overcome guards and taken their uniforms. He used that sense of power to guide the guards. When the guards confirmed the location of Tymos and Kryslie, he and Xyron transmitted there. Both were shielded.
They saw Kryslie standing guard over the prone form of her brother, hands glowing intensely purple. Her expression was fierce, and she was staring at fixedly off to one side.
The guards in a protective circle around both children. Reslic had ordered them to take Tymos and Kryslie to safety, but now needed no instruments to judge why they had not. Kryslie’s power, though currently quiescent, was at a very high level. Any attempt to touch her, might have overcome the protective force shields of the guards. Xyron did not need to touch Tymos as he used a diagnostic scanner to examine him. He spoke softly into the headset.
“He is not badly injured. I think his power is healing him. He should wake up soon.”
Reslic seemed to ignore Kryslie for the moment, as he considered the now visible intruders being held by guards.
“Xyron, confirm my suspicions about these beings.”
The three men, one wearing the stolen guard uniform, all began to struggle – sure they were about to be killed.
Xyron moved to the one in guard uniform, and did not recognise him. Then he saw the whiteless eyes, and felt the uncontrolled energy in the man. He directed his diagnostic scanner at each of the men in turn, and nodded grimly at Reslic.
Kryslie wondered what Reslic had meant – what suspicions about the intruders. She studied the captured intruders and considered the leader who had fled. He had reminded her of Reslic, with his attitude of expecting obedience. She knew from looking at their eyes, that they were not from the estate – but they did not have the feel of commoners to her mind senses.
Tymos stirred at her feet, and she looked down. His mind told hers, “They have power.”
“Yes,” Kryslie thought in agreement. That was why they had felt like a prickling on her skin – power, but not like her own.
“Help me up,” Tymos asked, and Kryslie leaned down and offered her hand. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickling her, and she shivered and turned around to see where the threat was.
Reslic was drawing the jewelled sword from the sheath at his back. She stared at the faintly glowing blade.
Tymoros materialised behind Xyron and Reslic, and then turned to stand blocking Kryslie’s view of Reslic.
She tried to move to keep watching, but her father moved slightly and said, “Stay still.”
“Are they Tymorean?” she asked.
“No,” was the terse answer.
“They have power. I felt it. How can that be?”
“We will find out,” Tymoros promised. His voice was controlled. Behind him, a brilliant flash of light caused prominent shadows for a moment, and Kryslie felt her eyes watering from the intensity of the glare.
She also felt a null spot in her awareness of the people around her.
“Is he dead?” Kryslie asked bluntly. She met her father’s gaze and held it.
“No. He had power, but in a mutated form. It is our duty to remove it. The man will live, and we will question him.”
Tymoros’s tone was uncompromising, and his face showed no trace of pity.
“These three men are mere soldiers. They had to obey orders. You need to find the leader. He is the one who chose to attack us,” Kryslie stated.
“Are you questioning our judgement?” Tymoros asked with no trace of leniency.
Kryslie considered what she had sensed from the various intruders. The men were alive, but disempowered. “No. I am saying the leader is the most dangerous one. His power is strongest, and he desires us.”
“You and Tymos should take yourselves back to your apartments,” Tymoros directed.
Tymos felt his sister resisting the idea and he straightened his posture. A second brilliant flash occurred behind Tymoros. He decided to add his support to Kryslie. “Father, you do not need to protect us. We must learn our duty to this world.”
Kryslie straightened her posture to echo her twin’s stance. She could hear Reslic asking questions of the third captive, and could see the first two slumped on the ground.
The prisoner was staying resolutely mute, refusing to answer the questions put to him. Kryslie tried to sense his mind, but it seemed like her mind touch triggered a tirade. He began shouting his defiance, “You demon spawned dictators, I will be damned if I would submit to you. You are murderers, torturers, slavers…” His curses grew viler, but Reslic was unmoved.
Tymoros studied his children, and moved aside as Reslic drew the sword for the third time. He watched his children as Reslic moved the sword so that the edge of the blade touched the man’s neck. The man fell silent and was trying to flinch away, aware that death was imminent. He had courage and met Reslic’s gaze with a snarl.
Reslic moved the sword so that the flat of the blade rested against the man’s cheek and once again, there was a blinding flash. The man stood transfixed by agony for a moment, and then crumpled to the ground.
Kryslie wished intensely that the leader of the intruders had been the one just disempowered. Tymos watched Reslic. The President stood still for a long moment, staring at the ground. Then he sheathed the sword and issued orders to the guards. “Take these to shielded rooms in the isolation building. Have medics tend them.”
When he turned around, his expression was so totally controlled, that neither Tymos nor Kryslie could sense his mood.
“Tell me what you know,” Reslic demanded, he had his full attention on Kryslie.
Almost defiantly, for she felt that his lack of emotion meant he was angry with her. She told him everything she has seen or sensed from when she had told Tymos of her feeling of being watched. She ended with, “I can still feel them. There are more still nearby.”
“Yes,” Reslic agreed, and he turned his attention to Tymos. “Have you anything to add?”
“No, Sir,” Tymos said with careful politeness. “Kryslie has covered everything.”
Reslic considered them. “You both did well defending yourselves. Let us deal with the remaining intruders. Go back to your apartments.”
“I can help you find them,” Kryslie insisted. She resented being sent away. She wanted to see that black clad leader disempowered.
“No,” Tymoros denied. “They want you dead or captive. I will not allow you to risk yourselves.” He spoke into his headpiece and summoned two attendants.
Kryslie still felt the other minds, of the ones like those just disempowered. She sensed one approaching, confident that he was unseen. She spun to face the direction of the intruder’s approach and felt his alarm that she was now facing him.
“There is one there,” Kryslie stated, pointing. Two guards fired a force weapon in the indicated direction. A glowing outline appeared briefly, of a figure about to fire a weapon. Another palace guard followed up by tossing something at the figure. It exploded with a subdued ‘phut’ and the figure became visible and dropped to the ground.
Kryslie and Tymos immediately felt a surge of rage, and instinctively joined hands. The leader of the intruders was not far away, and he was urging his men to, “kill them all.”
Some force was held them rigid and then energy like molten lava surrounded them.
“That damn force field,” Tymos swore.
“He’s getting away,” Kryslie cursed. “Damn him.” Only then did she start to be aware of the heat on her skin.
“You can’t kill us that way!” Kryslie thought angrily. She drew on more power and tried to move. She couldn’t do much, but turned to look at where the Governor’s were. Her eyes saw the glowing nimbus around Tymoros, and his expression of despair. Her mind heard, “Go before the effect of the force field wears off. The Governors and the guards are shielded. The little freaks have to be too or they couldn’t survive the disruptor. Go, you fools.”
Kryslie, tried to move – to go after the leader. She felt Tymos trying to make the same effort, but his mind was on the verge of blacking out. Kryslie felt her own legs becoming weak and shaky. Then they collapsed.