Alliance of Serpents (2 page)

"I also ordered you not to take any
prisoners," Kindel muttered. Not that it was a loss to have the
leader of the Kyrosen in custody. He looked back at Truce, then at
the
Refuge.
There was a great deal of risk in trusting
anything Truce said. He'd shown no proof for any of his claims,
giving Kindel every reason to believe that it was all a bluff. But
if, by some chance, this alleged weapon did exist, then leaving in
anyone else's hands could prove to be disastrous. It couldn't hurt
to look into the matter; it would give Kindel legitimate reason to
put a close eye on Aldoric's activities and an even closer eye on
Truce and the Kyrosen. After all, if the weapon was truly in
Aldoric's hands . . . "I shall consider your proposal, Sartan. For
now, you will be confined to a prison cell until I can decide what
to do with you." He glanced at Scimitar and Kalibur. "Escort him to
a cell, and see that his injuries are properly treated."

They responded in unison. "As you wish, my
Lord."

Truce kept his head turned and his eyes on
Kindel until the door closed behind the three. Thorus looked back
at the
Refuge
and shook his head. "What are you up to,
brother?"

*******

Sartan had to restrain his laughter as
Scimitar and Kalibur led him to the lift.
The arrogance! To
think for a moment that the Kyrosen would even consider bowing to
his will!
It was enough to make him want to dance like a giddy
young boy. If Kindel fell for this, then the two biggest threats to
the Kyrosen could eliminate themselves, Arus and the implant would
be back in his hands, and the ships of the Armada would be there
for the taking.
Only a fool trusts his enemy, Thorus. Treaties
are but words, contracts simply paper. Neither can stop the sword,
and all are inferior compared to the power of the Kyrosen.
Despite himself, he chuckled softly.

*******

Arus could still hear Kitreena screaming when
he awoke, a sound that turned into a dull ringing in his ears as
consciousness swept over him. He felt odd, as though he wasn't
fully alive and yet not at all dead. Words couldn't describe the
sensation, but he was sure it had to do with the implant.
Is it
broken?
The seemingly endless chatter of incoherent thoughts
that had streamed through his brain were now silent, leaving him
alone in his own head with nothing to listen to but his rhythmic
breaths and that bloody ringing.
Did Kitreena damage it
somehow?
The last he remembered, she had transformed into some
sort of . . .
thing
—that was the only word he could use to
describe it—and those glowing eyes of purple had been fixed on him.
Everything after that seemed like nothing more than random images
from dreams, including one where Kitreena was unconscious, falling
from the ceiling of the Throne Room.
Had that really happened?
Was any of it real? Where am I? What's going on?
He
unconsciously rubbed his eye with his right hand before opening it,
but when he did he blinked. And again. And again.

His body was responding to his own
instructions.

He could feel the smile spreading across his
face as he lifted his right hand above him and examined it, flexing
and turning it with the will of his own mind. There was no maroon
tint to his vision, no sensor readings or energy gauges. The world
was in color, though it suddenly seemed a bit smaller, and he could
move his body once more.
The implant is no longer in control!
I'm free!
He tried to move the mechanical arm, but there was no
response. It didn't feel numb; it was as if the thing didn't even
exist. Using his human hand, he began to push himself upright.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a soft,
deep voice said. An unseen hand on his left side pushed him back
down. Even the slightest movement made his head swim, and he
complied with the command. "Not unless you want to fall under
Truce's control again."

The cushioned bed beneath him
did
feel
good, he had to admit. A thin white sheet had been pulled to his
waist, covering almost half of his artificial limb. The room was an
infirmary of some kind, with assorted machines and terminals lining
the walls beneath glass cabinets filled with various medications.
Everything from the counters to the bedposts to the floor to the
cabinets seemed to be made of steel, or a steel-like material. It
was hard to see through his impaired vision, but he could make out
enough of it to get a sense of his surroundings.

"Your vision will clear in time."

It took a moment for Arus to realize that the
world hadn't gotten smaller. He was only seeing through his human
eye. The implant had apparently been deactivated, along with his
cybernetic arm. "Where am I?" Having his own voice speak the words
he
 was thinking almost startled him.

"Onboard the
Refuge
," the voice
responded. Arus rolled his head to the left as far as he could, and
a man of pale-blue skin came into view, seated in a cushioned chair
just beside the bed. He was like no one Arus had ever seen,
shrouded by a dark cloak with hair of pure white that spilled well
below his shoulders. His face seemed gentle despite his dark eyes,
and the smile on his face, though small, spoke only of kindness.
"You are safe from the Kyrosen for now, as is Asteria."

"The Kyrosen?"

The man laughed softly. "You know them as the
Vermilion Mages."

The words registered slowly, as though
everything that was happening to him was being processed a
half-second late. "The
Refuge
, you said? What is that?"

For a moment, the stranger eyed him, as
though weighing some unapparent danger in his mind. Finally, he
said, "It is a starship."

"A
what
?" Arus' voice rose to nearly a
shout.

"Relax," the man said, rising from his chair.
His height alone was enough to make Arus tremble. "There will be
time for explanations later. For now, I must go check on Kitreena.
Don't mess with those connectors running into your implant. Doc
Nori will be in to examine you shortly."

Arus tried to comprehend it all, but there
was too much he didn't understand. He barely managed to shout out
"Wait!" before the door had closed completely. "Who are you?"

The man looked halfway back. "I am Damien.
There is no need to be afraid, I assure you. We are friends." With
that, the door slid closed.

Friend or not, the man was a frightening
sight. Arus ran his fingers along the implant until he came to a
series of wires running from the device and into a machine beside
the bed.
What if he wants to use the implant to make me his
slave just like the Mages did?
For a moment, he contemplated
pulling the wires loose.
Then again . . . what if they
are
 somehow keeping the implant from controlling me? I
don't know what to do.
In any other situation, he would've
asked Master Eaisan for advice, but . . . "Master Eaisan," he
murmured as the reality of his memories hit him. "I murdered Master
Eaisan!"

The flood of tears that followed could've
filled the ocean twice. "I didn't mean to do it!" he sobbed aloud.
"I tried so hard to resist!" Though he only had one eye to shed
tears, he more than made up for it with the number that fell,
soaking his pillow for what seemed like hours. "Father, I'm so
sorry! Master Eaisan, please forgive me!" Every memory he had of
his former master flashed in his mind, from the most intense
training sessions to each and every telling of
The Blade of
Kaleo
. He'd been just as much of a father to Arus as Dayne had
been, and he'd been slain by Dayne's own sword, the blade Arus'
father had told him to use to defend the helpless and protect the
innocent. And Arus knew, no matter what the future brought, no
matter what he accomplished, no matter how many people he helped or
how many battles he won, nothing would atone for the sins he'd
committed or the damage he'd done. Nothing would bring Eaisan back,
and nothing would change the fact that it had been Arus who'd
killed him.

"Now, now," another voice began beside him,
"you mustn't cry like that!" Arus wiped his eye and looked up to
see an elderly man with a billowing white beard standing over him.
"You should be happy, for today you shall have your life back!"

"Who are you?" Arus whimpered, trying to
force back the endless flow of sobs.

The pudgy old man drew himself up in regal
fashion, smoothing his white coat as he did. "Doctor Antigones Nori
at your service!" He smiled like a proud grandfather. "I've
specialized in many fields throughout the course of my career, from
internal medicine to biomechanics, cybernetics and . . ."

The old man rambled on about his various
certifications—most of which Arus had never even heard of—before
heading to the terminals on the far wall. He was lively for his
age, Arus thought, full of energy and clearly happy to serve anyone
he could. It was certainly a refreshing change from the Vermilion
Mages, but then, just about anything would be. "Where are we?" he
asked when the doctor's babbling finally wound down. "The man who
was here—someone named Damien—said we're on a starship, but I don't
know what that means."

The doctor peered at him quizzically. "Ah,
yes!" he said, snapping his fingers. "Damien told me that your
people were unfamiliar with the ways of the universe. Let me see
here . . ." He trailed off on another string of incoherent ramble
as he dug through some of the drawers beneath the cabinets. "Ah,
here we are!" A long, rolled up piece of paper came out and was
promptly unfurled across Arus' bed. It was mostly black, dotted
with thousands of tiny white specks across its entire span. After
donning a pair of round eyeglasses, the doctor cleared his throat.
"The universe. You've looked up at the stars at night before, I'm
sure?" Arus nodded. "Well, this is a graph of those stars." He
pointed to a tiny cluster of dots near the left side of the
diagram. "Terranias is here. We are currently orbiting Terranias,"
he made a circular motion with his finger, "like this."

Arus' jaw dropped open. "You mean we're in
outer space?"

"Precisely!" Nori nodded with a smile.

"You mean, you're not from my planet? You and
Damien are aliens?" Another realization hit him. "And
Kitreena,
too?"

The doctor bellowed with laughter. "My boy,
I'm just as human as you are. My ancestors came from Terranias many
years ago, fearing that the planet was about to be destroyed. I
grew up," he pointed to a dot near the upper left corner of the
map, "right here. Tynest, it was called. Oh, what a marvelous world
it was. And still is, I suppose. Haven't been back there in a long
time, oh no."

"And Damien and Kitreena?"

"Well now, Damien is as alien as they come!
He was born on the planet Zo'rhan, a cold planet near the Lycosite
Quasar," he said, pointing to a group of dots near the bottom of
the graph. "Kitreena is from a planet called Lavinia. The people
there were once human, you see, but an unknown element in the
atmosphere of the planet changed their genetic structures over
time. Now, they are what most people refer to as Morphers, but she
is still basically human."

Images of her transformation—and those
terrifying eyes—flashed in his mind again. "I don't know that I'd
call her that."

"Nonsense!" Nori laughed again. "I understand
you witnessed her first transformation, eh? Well, do not be afraid.
If what Damien says is true, she may have the potential to be the
strongest Morpher in centuries!" He rolled up the map and returned
it to the cabinet drawer.

The thought brought Arus no comfort. She had
little control over her anger, whether it be in human form or
otherwise, and he wasn't sure he wanted to be around the next time
she blew her top. Still, she
was
beautiful. A part of him
would be willing to take the risk just to be near her, but the rest
of him knew that it was foolish.
She's not interested in you,
you love-struck fool. She'll tear your throat out just as quickly
as she'd tear out Truce's.
"Is she going to be all right?"

Doctor Nori was working at the terminal
beside his bed. "Hmm?" He looked up. "Oh, yes, she'll be quite all
right. Smitten with her, are ya?"

Arus' eye bulged. "What? No! Why would you
think that?"

Another chuckle from the old man. "I do
apologize, but it just came across the terminal screen here. You
see, we're plugged into the implant at the moment, so any thoughts
your mind processes are sent to this terminal. You were thinking
she was beautiful but deadly. Can't say I disagree with you there!"
He laughed again.

The idea of having someone read his mind was
unsettling, at best. Moving his thoughts away from Kitreena, he
decided it was time to ask the question he'd been avoiding for fear
of the answer. "Can you remove the implant?"

For once, the doctor didn't laugh. His face
became somber, which pretty much told Arus the answer without the
words. "I'm sorry, but it is permanently embedded within your
brain. The two have a symbiotic relationship; they need each other
to survive. Removing one would effectively kill the other."

Arus sighed and wiped another tear away. "So
I'm stuck like this forever?"

Nori held up his hand as he studied readings
of the terminal. The fact that Arus even knew what he was looking
at bothered him; his time as Truce's slave had introduced him to
computer terminals and their many uses. "I wouldn't go that far,"
the doctor said. "I may not be able to remove it, but with a bit of
study, I may be able to minimize it."

"That won't help me," Arus muttered. "We're
taught that machines are evil, and they are forbidden where I come
from. If I try to go home like this, I'll either be killed, cast
out, or thrown into the dungeons of Castle Asteria."