In Her Name: The Last War (128 page)

As the sound of the gong faded, the warrior turned away to face the arenas, and a bone-chilling roar from thousands of warriors, unseen beyond the trees, filled the air.

CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX

Ku’ar-Markekh stood upon the
Kalai-Il
, her eyes fixed upon the unusual human female who held much promise as a challenge to Ku’ar-Marekh’s skills. She had decided to face the human animal with only sword and claw, for this would bring the Empress the greatest glory, and would also give Ku’ar-Marekh a chance for an honorable death. 

But she would save her own combat until her most junior warriors had blooded themselves against other humans. Those of Her Children who had not yet had a chance to fight one of the animals had been cast first in the lottery of the Challenge. Once they had fought, Ku’ar-Marekh would take to the arena against the female warrior and perhaps some of her companions. Anything less would be no contest at all.

Turning away from the human who stared back at her from inside the holding pen, Ku’ar-Markh faced into the rising sun as the last echoes of the gong faded.

The warriors roared, their excitement over the coming combats pulsing through the Bloodsong.

She gave them a moment to express their anticipation, for Challenges such as this were rare in the Empire outside times of war. The battles fought here would be to the death, and every warrior wanted her chance to fight for the honor of the Empress.

At last raising her arms, Ku’ar-Marekh commanded them to silence. Thousands of warriors knelt as one, crashing their armored left fists over their right breasts. 

The litany the priestess spoke was older than the Empire itself. Its words were simple and brief, the core of every warrior’s heart.

“As it has been,” she began as the human prisoners were brought forth, four of them to the entrance of each of the five arenas where the first challengers already waited, “and so shall it always be, let the Challenge begin.”

“In Her Name,” the warriors echoed solemnly, “let it be so.”

A single human was forced into each arena. They were shown a table that held a variety of edged weapons, and the waiting challenger was honor-bound to choose a similar weapon. They only had a single turn of the small hour-glass that Ku’ar-Marekh’s new First, Esah-Kuran, held to decide upon a weapon. 

Two chose swords, two refused to decide, and one tried to flee the arena. The one who tried to run was cut down by a
shrekka
. 

This prompted the two humans who had not chosen weapons to do so. 

Ku’ar-Marekh nodded in approval. They could die like meat animals, or they could fight for their honor. Should a human survive, they would be allowed to rest until the other humans had taken a turn in the arena. Then the survivors again would have to fight. 

All would eventually die, unless The One came forth. But Ku’ar-Marekh did not believe that would happen here. 

Nor, in her cold heart, did she care.

Another human was brought forward to take the dishonored one’s place. This one, seeing its companions in the other arenas, made the choice of honor and chose a sword.

Stepping down from the
Kalai-Il
, Ku’ar-Marekh took the place that tradition demanded atop the dais at the center of the middle of the five arenas. 

Looking out upon her warriors and their reluctant human challengers, she bellowed, “Begin!”

* * *

After Valentina and the others had been taken, Mills had taken the risk of running across the fields to beat the group of warriors carrying the women and children. 

As he neared the woods, he could hear the pitiful moans and cries of the human prisoners, and his nose was overpowered with the stench of human waste. He forced himself to slow down as he entered the treeline, moving slowly to remain silent. 

When he came within sight of the camp, he unslung the sniper rifle and took a closer look. He saw what must have been thousands of people milling around inside an enclosure bounded by a very crude wooden fence. Outside of that stood a cordon of warriors. 

As he watched them, he noted that they never turned around to look back into the woods. Their attention was entirely fixed on their prisoners, thinking there was nothing to fear behind them.

"You've got that a bit wrong, dearies." During the run from the barn, Mills had been thinking of different plans he could set into action to help free the prisoners, depending on what he found.

Looking at the camp, he settled on one of those options. A little explosive diversion that he would light off when the time was right.

He had eight grenades, which could be set to detonate a variety of ways, including by remote. He had used them against the Kreelans before during the fighting he’d seen after the original Saint Petersburg operation, and the aliens had never interfered with the detonation signals like they did with other tech like the comm and data links.

Leaving the sniper rifle behind a tree, he crept forward to the trees nearest the Kreelan guards. Moving parallel to what he took to be the rear of the conpound's fence, he set seven grenades at roughly equal intervals, keeping a single grenade in reserve. He didn’t expect they would kill many of the warriors, but it would give them a nasty surprise.

He placed the last grenade and was making his way back to where he’d left the sniper rifle when he heard a commotion at the far side of the camp near the entry gates. 

Taking out his binoculars, he watched as warriors brought in Valentina and the others, setting them down under one of the newly built shelters. His stomach knotted up at the sight of their limp bodies carried in the aliens’ arms, but he told himself that they must still be alive. 

Forcing himself to stop lingering and watching for movement from the women and children, he focused on finding a spot in the woods that gave him a good view into the camp, but that wasn’t right on top of the Kreelans. 

It wasn’t easy, but at last he found a small knoll a couple hundred meters from the camp that had a narrow but clear view through the compound up to the gates. He could see the shelter that Valentina and the others were in, and watched tensely through the scope on the sniper rifle the crowd that had gathered around the newcomers. He saw a rustle of movement among the people around the shelter, then saw Steph’s face briefly through the mass of bobbing heads.

Then the crowd seemed to flinch back, with some of those closest to the women and children actually falling backward. Mills couldn’t help but chuckle as he saw Valentina leap to her feet, her hands raised, ready for a fight. 

“That’s my girl.” He felt like a spring steel band had just been removed from around his chest, such was his relief that she was alive. 

He saw the two of them talking to a black man for quite some time, then Steph became agitated and was shouting something at the people clustered around them. 

He could only wonder what was going on, but he felt another wave of relief as he saw the children awaken, and smiled when he caught a glimpse of Allison.

Then the gates opened and a group of warriors came in, seizing a bunch of people who were unlucky enough to be in easy reach. The unlucky prisoners were frog-marched out the gates, which closed behind them, disappearing along the trail that led toward the big stone structure and the arenas.

“Hell,” Mills whispered.
This is what must have happened at the end on Keran
, he thought. The survivors of the initial slaughter were used as unwilling opponents in the arenas. And when the last had been killed...

Shoving that thought aside, he checked his chronometer. A little less than six hours were left until the fleet jumped in. There wasn’t much time. He needed to let Valentina and Steph know he was here, but had no idea how to do it. 

Watching through the scope, he saw them return to the shelter from where they had run to the fence. He had a much clearer view now, because almost everyone else in the camp had moved toward the back of the enclosure, closer to him. Valentina was talking to the black man, and Steph leaned down and picked up her helmet. He saw her detach something that looked like a set of eyeglasses and put them on. Then she went to stand a bit behind Valentina, and Allison came up to hold her hand.

She put her vidcam gear back on
, Mills realized. 

An idea was forming at the back of his brain, but it didn’t gel until he pulled his eye away from the big rifle’s scope. One of the controls on the tiny panel was for a laser designator that was normally used to provide the exact range to the target. It could also be used to direct guided rounds fired from the rifle or larger weapons from another platform. Unfortunately, it was one of the technologies that the Kreelans frequently nulled out in battle through whatever mysterious means they used.

Mills turned it on, and in the scope an indicator lit up. He put the crosshairs on the head of one of the warriors guarding the camp pulled the trigger back just enough to activate the laser. 

The display read 187 meters. The laser was working.

The only trick was that it was completely invisible to the unaided eye. 

But Steph’s eyes weren’t unaided. She was looking at the world through the artificially enhanced view of her vidcam display.

* * *

“Good God.” Steph looked toward the commotion coming from the Kreelans gathered around the arenas. She couldn’t see anything, for the complex was masked by trees and the buildings on this side of the town square, but she could hear them. Her flesh crawled at the roar of what must be thousands of alien voices.

She felt a small hand take hold of hers, squeezing it tightly. Allison. Her eyes were wide and her face stricken with fear. She had been strong, incredibly strong for someone her age, but she was smart enough to know what awaited them down the dirt path that led from the gates. And she knew that her special relationship with the warrior leader wouldn’t spare her.

“Don’t worry, honey.” Steph had to raise her voice to be heard above the din. Her vidcam was running now, and she planned to just leave it on to record whatever was to come. She would never get the chance to edit it or be able to tell the story of the people here, but with a little luck perhaps the Marines who landed would eventually find it. 

She thought of Ichiro and wished more than anything that she could speak to him one last time, just to tell him how much she still loved him. She bit her tongue to take her mind away from the tears she felt welling up in her eyes. “We’ll be all right.” She squeezed Allison’s hand. “I promise.”

Allison nodded in jerky movements, and her face twitched in an attempt at a smile, but that was all. She accepted Steph’s words for what they were, a comforting lie.

Looking up again as the sound of the alien voices peaked, movement on Valentina’s back caught her eye. She was standing just ahead of Steph, and at first Steph thought it was some sort of insect. 

Then she realized it couldn’t be. It was a small, bright green dot, and it pulsed rhythmically as it moved up and down Valentina’s spine. 

“What the...” She flipped up the tiny visor that projected an enhanced view of the scene she was recording. 

The mysterious dot vanished.

Flipping the vidcam visor back down, the dot reappeared. Now, instead of moving up and down Valentina’s spine, the dot was moving slowly from one of her buttocks to the other, pulsing on and off, on and off.

“Oh, my God.” Turning around, she looked across the mass of people crushed into the back of the compound, trying to avoid being the next ones to be taken to the arenas. 

At first she saw nothing, and then there it was. A bright flash, aimed at her now, coming from somewhere in the woods. “Mills?” Then, realizing that whoever it was couldn’t hear her, she said his name again, over-emphasizing the movement of her lips and tongue.

Two flashes.

“You’re alive?”

Again, two flashes.

“Blink once.”

One flash.

“Valentina!” Steph said, a surge of joy and adrenaline shooting through her system as she stepped backward and reached for the other woman, not wanting to lose sight of the spot in the forest where Mills was hiding. “Valentina!”

“What is it?” Valentina was beside her. 

“You’re not going to believe this,” Steph snatched off her vidcam and carefully placed it on Valentina’s head, “but Mills is alive!” 

She stepped behind Valentina and gently turned her head toward the spot in the woods. Steph didn’t want to draw unwanted attention from the warriors who were still working in a frenzy throughout the camp by simply pointing.

“Steph, you know as well as I do that he’s gone.” Valentina’s voice was wooden with pent-up grief, but she was enough of a realist to know that Mills was dead. She thought Steph had gone off the deep end, even as Steph’s hands guided her to look toward the woods. “He couldn’t have...”

She stopped, her mouth hanging open as she stood still, staring. 

“Do you see it?”

“Yes.” A smile lit up Valentina’s face as she watched the merrily blinking light coming from the woods. “Oh, God, yes! He must be using the laser designator on my rifle!”

“What is it?” Jackson was looking in the direction that the two women were looking, but couldn’t see anything.

“Our team leader.” Steph leaned over to speak closer to his ear over the tumult from the arenas. “We were sure he was dead, but he’s alive!”

“Thank God.” Valentina began to play a game of twenty questions with Mills, who could only answer “yes” or “no.” 

* * *

Mills gritted his teeth in frustration, wishing that they had a better way of communicating, that he could tell Valentina what he needed to say. He had once heard of an ancient communications code, Morse, he thought it was, that would have worked well for this situation, but neither he nor Valentina knew it. So he had to be content with Valentina mouthing questions in hopes that he could lip-read what she was saying, then he would answer yes or no, two pulses of the laser or one.

Valentina immediately realized that he wasn’t there just to let them know he was alive, but that he had a plan to help get them out. After what had seemed like forever, but had only taken about five minutes, she had figured out what he had in mind.