Defender of the Empire 2: Facades (13 page)

              I blinked at him, wondering if that had been a question or just an observation. And how was I to answer it if it had been a question? I was saved from answering by Talis. He gestured sharply that someone was coming. Without a word we went back up into the trees.

              For a few tense moments, we waited. One minute there was no one there. The next there was a group led by a man wearing long dark hair with even darker tips. Ace chuckled, and dropped down from the tree.

Chapter 15 – The Feral Cats

              Rylynn

“Mykio! It is good to see you, my friend,” Ace greeted the man leading the group of arrivals. With a start, I realized I recognized him. He was Ace’s second, the L’uf boy who had been lost until Ace had taken him under his wing.

              “Ace!” Mykio said, accepting Ace’s hug. Pulling back he continued, “we got worried when you did not come in.”

              “Yeah, well you can thank the ses-KGor for that inconvenience. They shot us down.” Ace turned to look up at us. “Are you guys going to say ‘hello’ or what?”

              I gestured for the Telmicks to go first. Talis’ brows rose as he looked pointedly away from me and toward the ground. I took that as a hint that there was no way he was going to let me slip away now. Curse the man for being a mind reader—not that I let my disappointment show. Instead, I shrugged and slipped out of the tree. Talis and Kifen followed close behind.

              I felt like a prisoner again.

              Ace gestured me forward. I met Mykio’s amber gaze. The L’uf raise a brow. “I see the prodigal sister returns,” Mykio commented.

              I glared at both Mykio and Ace. “What?!” I asked with an impatient gesture. “Why do you
both
say that? Don’t you dare say that you miss me, because we all know I drove the lot of you nuts when you even noticed I was around,” I snarled. The assumption that I had done something horrible to them was getting old fast.

              Mykio flashed a grin at me. “You always said the funniest things.” He turned back to Ace as I gaped at him. “I heard that a shuttle had been shot down. Those who did it have paid,” he said cryptically.

Ace nodded and clapped him on the shoulder. “Let’s go, then. I know there are more hunting us.”

Mykio snorted. “There are more
everywhere
. They are like a plague of fleas.” Glancing at Talis and Kifen he added, “I mean the ses-KGor and their followers.”

Talis raised a brow at him, causing the tattoos on his face to bend into new shapes. “That is an apt description for the ses-KGor. I wouldn’t think you were including us in the mix.”

Mykio nodded. “I just wanted to be sure you understood my words.” Before long I was swept along with the group as they headed back the way they’d come. I looked at the men and women who had come with Mykio, and realized that I didn’t recognize any of them.
Can’t be too surprised, I suppose,
I thought. Lenti was going through hard times. A lot could change in a month, especially with current life expectancies, and desperation. A few new faces shouldn’t surprise me.

“Anyone want to tell me where we are going?” I asked.

Without looking back at me Ace answered,“Sage’tehti.”

“The gang actually moved to a Prime City?” I asked in surprise. The gangs were stubborn, almost to a fault when it came to territory. It was a sign of weakness to leave one’s holdings. I knew things had been bad before, but it seemed things had gotten much worse.

I got a noncommittal shrug from both Ace and Mykio. Narrowing my eyes, I turned toward the woman beside me. She was older than the rest, with gray in her thinning hair and strained crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes. “Do you have anything to eat?” I asked her. Without saying a word, she reached into her bag and pulled out a packet of vending machine chips. It was even unopened. I accepted it before she could think to put it away.

The chips were like gold to me in that moment. I savored the crisp taste of civilization, then folded the bag into a neat little square before turning to look hopefully at my walking companion. She shrugged and I realized that nothing more would be coming from her. It was then that I realized that Talis, Kifen, and Ace were each eating their own bag of chips. Looking at the other five member of Mykio’s group I wondered why the hell they hadn’t brought more food. By all appearances, they had come looking for Ace. Wouldn’t they have had the foresight to bring more food?
Or was even the prime city out of food?
That thought quelled my hunger, and I looked back at the woman beside me, “Thank you for the chips.” I said.

“Welcome,” She rasped out, with a shrug, but I could see that my words meant something to her.

Night was falling by the time we left the trees. The vast crop fields of Preh’heti spread out before us. Of course, the fields were torn up, the crops trampled and rotting uselessly on the ground. Beyond the fields was the city wall. Besides scorch marks and pockmarks, the walls were intact. It was the city beyond that I knew was a ruin. That had been a month ago—how bad was it now?

On the far side of Preh’heti, was Sage’tehti. “So are we going through home sweet home or around?” I asked.

“We are too exposed out here,” Ace said. “The quicker we get to where we are going, the better off we will be.”

“So, we are going through,” I sighed.

Mykio patted my shoulder and grinned at me, his amber eyes dancing. “It will be like the good old times,” he said. If he’d actually had a tail, I would not have been surprised to see it wag.

I rubbed the back of my neck. “Yeah, except you know all the routes now,” I smiled. “Though now, you couldn’t get away with saying you weren’t cheating.”

The dog snorted. “Oh come now, surely the Fleet taught you something useful while you were away.”

I smiled sweetly at him. “Kicking your ass should be easier now.”

Mykio’s amber eyes gleamed. Before he could accept my challenge Ace cut in. “Okay kids. You can catch up on old times
after
we get to Sage’tehti.”

“Now would be a good time to get moving,” Talis recommended, and we moved forward in a ground-eating jog. The setting sun stretched the tree shadows out before us. We were almost halfway across the fields before we escaped the forest’s shadows. Not that it was easy to tell, as by then the sun had completely disappeared.

Talis took the lead when we got closer to the wall. The gray giant disappeared into the darkness. When we caught up to him we found a Telmick sentry dead at his feet. “Very nice,” Mykio said, then looked down the wall. “This one’s mine,” he growled before disappearing like smoke.

Ace and the rest of us followed at a more sedate pace. I shivered when I fancied I heard a choking sound over the wind rustling in the fields. Mykio was a mean one with a garrote. Sure enough, we came upon him and his very dead Telmick sentry. I may not have been able to see him well, but I could tell by his limp posture that he was gone. Mykio was also searching his pockets for anything interesting.

Ace turned to the rest of us. “Most of you know the drill. We go in, and run like hell. If we need to, we’ll split up. You know where we are going.”

“I don’t,” I said, crossing my arms.

“That’s okay, you will be with us,” Ace said with smile, and gestured at Mykio, Talis, and Kifen.

I rolled my eyes. “Wonderful.”

And thus I found myself running like a crazy flitting shadow through the city that had once been my home. Being away from its harshness had dulled my memory. Now that I was back… I felt like someone kept kicking me in the gut. Thankfully, we weren’t going to be going near the place where my aunt had once resided. That would have been beyond words. I didn’t want to see it. Keeping it out of sight and mind made my life just that much easier. Cowardly, yes. But no one else had to know.

Running through her streets, even at night, made me feel like I was running through a cemetery. Preh’heti was dead and empty, or so it seemed. The only things I could see were cockroaches and the Telmicks who had crushed this city.

Excited shouts of hunters followed us as we ran. Red flashes splashed around us, and I had a déjà vu moment. Why were Telmicks always shooting at me? But this time I wasn’t running alone. The group who had come with Mykio peeled away, and the blasts petered down.

Kifen turned and fired behind us, and the shots stopped. I had never seen Kifen look so satisfied. It was kind of scary.

We slowed down from our breakneck run, but we didn’t stop. A still target was a hell of a lot easier to hit than a moving one. So, on and on we went. At times we would have to climb the crumbling buildings to continue forward. Sometimes, we cautiously cut through the buildings. The streets became narrower the farther in we got. Choked with debris, they made perfect places for ambushes, but if you knew what you were doing, they didn’t take long to cross.

“Got them!” Was the only warning we got before diving for cover. Chromatic blades cut right into the wall behind where we had been.

“You have horrible aim!” Talis called to our attackers.

“Squeaks the cornered mouse!” was the answering jeer.

I crawled away from the mouth of the connecting street. Around the corner was another alleyway. I crawled back and quickly snatched one of the chromatic knives. Looking up at Talis, I mouthed, “Keep them talking.” I then turned to Mykio. “Let’s flank them.”

“I love the way you think,” Mykio hummed happily. “Let’s go.” Just before I followed him around the corner, I noted the relieved looks on the Telmick’s faces. They thought I wanted to escape. And while that was still in the cards, I was in too deep. I was curious to know
why
Ace had gone through so much trouble to get me back here, and how he had come to have my Aunt’s letter.

Stealthily, we snuck down the alleyway adjacent to where the two Telmicks stood. They had moved into the alleyway toward where Talis and Kifen were calling them all sorts of things. Mykio and I followed them. This was usually a stupid move, but we had numbers on our side—
and a L’uf with a garrote,
I thought, with a glance at my companion. The thin wire was already stretched between his hands.

We paused a moment behind our targets. Mykio then jumped onto the back of his Telmick, the garrote around his prey’s throat keeping him off the ground. The Telmick gurgled and reached toward his throat in desperation. The giant also stepped toward the wall in an attempt to crush Mykio. Mykio growled but I didn’t see what else happened, as I was preoccupied with my target. As he turned to see what was going on with his buddy, I slashed his hamstrings with the chromatic knife glowing white. Slashing through meat and skin with a white blade was like cutting through melted butter.

My Telmick screamed as his legs went out from under him. Now that he was at my level, I had no problem stabbing him in the back. The white knife was long enough to reach the doomed Telmick’s heart. His spine couldn’t stop the blade from reaching its target. The Telmick was dead before he finished hitting the ground.

“My, you’ve become vicious,” Mykio commented, pushing his dead Telmick away from him.

“I told you that I’d learned some things.”

“Give me the knife,” Talis ordered, as he and the other two joined us.

Glancing ruefully at Mykio, I handed Talis the knife, hilt first. “I don’t think he trusts me.”

“You just have the habit of making my life difficult,
elarken,
” Talis explained, using that strange word again.

“But I just helped you,” I pointed out, as he sheathed my confiscated knife. At least I still had my other one.

“Aye,
elarken,
” he said patiently.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

Talis shook his head and gestured that we continue on our way. I almost explained to him that an unknown insult just didn’t work. But then I bit my tongue, and figured that was his problem. I didn’t need to worry about it.

And on we went yet again. I don’t remember how many skirmishes we participated in as we traversed Preh’heti. I started to think of our group as a bunch of feral cats going through the neighborhood—always fighting and moving on. But at long last, we made it out the other wall. It was early morning now, and my body was telling me all about its aches and pains and hunger pangs. I could only imagine how Talis was feeling, with that leg of his now black from all the bruising. Except for a slight limp, I almost couldn’t tell that it was hurting him.

“You need medical attention,” I told him as we were allowed into Sage’tehti.

“And I will get it once we arrive.”

“And where is that?” I asked.

“Here in the city,” Ace told me helpfully.

“Why does this have to be a teeth pulling session? Why can’t you just
tell
me?” I grumbled.

Ace grinned. “Because it’s fun to watch you squirm.” He laughed when I glared at him. “Don’t worry, Ry, we’ll be there soon.”

I grumbled some more, but didn’t ask again. What was the point? Instead, I turned my attention to the city about me. It was crowded, but better made than Preh’heti. The buildings were much taller than any in Preh’heti before the raids. And it was one of these buildings we were approaching.

‘ROSEMARY APARTMENTS’ was scrawled above its doors, and I could tell instantly that this was one of the better establishments. Glancing at Ace, I wondered how the Street Wolves had managed this. I kept my silence, though. I would find out soon enough.