Born of Legend (100 page)

Cursing him, Jullien took Zarina and handed her to her mother, then pushed his father toward the queen's bedroom. “To the tadara's chamber!”

He pulled his armor-plated jacket off and wrapped it around Kiara's shoulders before he gently and carefully tucked his niece against his chest with his cyber-arm. It was stronger and would protect her from a blast.

As they headed for the door, he saw the woobie on the floor, under Zarina's basinet by the window where it must have fallen out when they picked her up.

Using his telekinesis, Jullien held his hand out and snatched it from the floor at the same time League assassins came in through the windows next to it.

Kiara screamed again.

“Run!” he shouted, tucking the blanket around Zarina and using his body to shield her and her mother from the assassins. As they hurried toward his mother's bedroom, he opened fire on their pursuers.

With Zarina still in his custody, he sent Kiara ahead, then ran to divert the League soldiers away from her to buy her enough time to get to safety. He turned and skidded in the hallway on his knees with the baby tucked against his shoulder. Right now, he sincerely missed Ushara. She'd be fighting with him and reloading. Not falling apart and screaming until his ears bled from the shrill sound of her useless hysteria.

Or stopping continuously to check and see where they were.

Why did Kiara keep stopping?

He jerked a grenade from his belt and tossed it, then grabbed Kiara's elbow as he caught up to her and pulled her into the bedroom, where Thrāix waited at the door to finally offer some cover fire.

“Is everyone in?” Jullien passed the baby to his brother-in-law.

“Waiting on you,” Thrāix said irritably. He took Kiara and the baby to the closet. “C'mon!”

After they left, Jullien hung back a moment to lock and block the door against their enemies.

As he stepped away from the door, it blew open, sending shrapnel all over him. Because he'd given his jacket to Kiara, he had nothing to protect him from it. Pain racked his entire body, while he stumbled for the closet at the same time more missiles fell closer to the palace. Glass shattered and rained down from the windows. The ground shook, knocking him from his feet.

Jullien hit the floor hard, and then it and the entire palace began to literally disintegrate around him. His ears buzzed.

Fight, damn it, you worthless piece of shit! Get up and run!

Just before him, within a few steps, he could see the door to the basement hell his grandmother's guards used to drag him to against his will. Hear her cruel laughter echoing as she promised him he'd regret whatever he'd done to earn his stay there.

But his body wasn't listening as he crawled over falling rubble and burning debris toward safety.

Then he heard it.

Utter destruction as a League squadron broke through their armada and unleashed a massive bombing run on his mother's race. The entire building blew apart around him and on him.

Everything turned black.

 

C
HAPTER
38

His ears ringing from the last explosion, which had knocked everyone to the ground and sent pieces of the metal ceiling crashing down around them, Thrāix handed the squalling baby to her terrified mother, then stepped back to do a head count to make sure no one was trapped by the scattered debris of the partially collapsed tunnel he'd just run down.

The number of folks crammed into the decrepit, musty room stunned him. Damn, there were a lot more here than they'd planned on. This wasn't just Kiara and her kids. It looked like half the royal families of all the Nine Worlds.

What the hell did you get us into, Jules?

The tadara was in a corner with the Triosan emperor and two other noble Andarion females he didn't recognize. All four looked a bit put out to be here, but weren't saying much. Doing her best to soothe her unsettled brood, Kiara was on the floor with her six kids, all of whom were crying or complaining, especially the eldest daughter, who sat with the two oldest boys. And the rest of the men and women, and kids, were in a similar state, asking a multitude of questions he didn't care to answer.

Their only casualty appeared to be Shahara's mecha bodyguard who'd saved her and her son by pushing them out of the way when the tunnel had collapsed a moment ago. While they'd escaped without injuries, the walls had fallen on top of the mecha, crushing his android body and reducing him to worthless scrap.

As they continued to whine about their situation, Thrāix blocked their thoughts and their strident voices and cries.

His mission had been to preserve Jullien's sister-in-law and her children. Now it was to get them all out of here, alive and intact.

Davel coughed and wheezed as more debris fell from the ceiling. But so far, true to Jullien's prediction, the room they were in was holding and not collapsing. It was amazingly sound given what had just struck the palace.

“Lot more of us than we planned for, eh?” Davel brushed the dust from his Tavali flightsuit.

“Yeah.”

Davel wiped at the smear on his chin. “We're going to have to commandeer at least one more ship for an evac. There's no way we'll all fit on what we brought.”

“Yes, Dav,” Thrāix said, his tone weighted with sarcasm. “I'm aware of that. I
can
count. We were taught basic math on Trisa, too.”

Dimitri sneered at the large group. “Who the hell are all these bodies, anyway? Push to shove, do we have to save them?”

Davel shrugged at his brother's question. “Where's Dagger? This was all his brilliant planning … which is why it no doubt went to Tophet.”

A cold chill went down Thrāix's spine as he realized that the only ones missing were from
their
group.

Jullien, Axl, and Gallatin.

He tapped his earlink. “Dagger? Life check. Where are you?”

Static answered him.

He met Davel's scared gaze as his own stomach cramped with sudden fear. “Dagger?” he tried again. “Piss me off, Andarion. C'mon, buddy. You better fucking answer me. I mean it! You drag my fat ass from my wife, you better not die—or I'll kill you.”

Davel took up the irrational panic. “Talk to me, my brothers. Where are you? Don't you thin the paltry number of males in our family. I need every one of us at the table on temple day. Don't you dare leave us alone with your widows and our sisters!”

After an agonizing delay, Axl finally answered with heavy breathing that sounded like he was carrying an impossible weight. “Dagger's been hit. Bad.”

Davel froze. “Did he say Dagger was hit?”

Thrāix nodded.

“Bad,” Dimitri added as he headed for the collapsed tunnel to see if he could render aid. He started moving larger pieces aside to clear the path.

“No!” Davel glared at Thrāix, who went to help Dimitri. “Dagger ain't hit.” Davel frantically shoved debris aside. “Dagger can't be hit. Dagger, don't you go down on us.”

Thrāix decided to ignore those words, which Jullien would definitely have groaned aloud over if he were alert enough to hear them.

Suddenly, Axl and Gallatin stumbled through the remains, dragging Jullien's bleeding, inert body between them. They, too, were soaked in his blood.

“No, no, no!” Davel breathed as he and Dimitri moved forward to take Jullien from their shoulders and help lay him down on the floor. Dimitri stepped back immediately to allow Thrāix to tend him.

Davel stayed next to his side, complaining. “Damn it, Jules! Don't you dare die! Don't you make me make that call! Mom and Paka will kill me! They like you better, boy.”

Ignoring him, Thrāix did his best to examine the bleeding wounds. “What the hell happened? Where's his flak jacket?”

“He gave it to me.”

Thrāix cursed at Kiara's soft voice. “'Course he did. Damn it, Jullien! You're such an asshole!” He rolled him to his side to see the blaster wounds on his back, where someone had shot him, and the horrifying amount of damage he'd taken from the explosion that had shredded the skin there.

He let out a fierce groan of agonized pain. “My name isn't
Damn-It-Jullien,
you know? I'm really tired of everyone calling me that all the time.”

Grateful to the gods, Thrāix released an irritated laugh as he heard Jullien's pain-filled, surly voice. “No, but it should have been. And Asshole should be your surname. You sure that's not what Anatole means in Andarion? They almost sound the same.”

“Ha. Ha.” Jullien unstrapped the blast helmet from his head.

Thrāix helped him remove it. Blood leaked from his ear and nose. “I think you broke your head, Andarion. Probably got brain damage.”

“Like anyone could ever tell the difference.” Jullien wiped at the blood.

Thrāix held his hand out for Jullien to take so that he could use his powers to heal him.

But Jullien hesitated. “Not too much. I'm too weak to carry your gargantuan ass. You fall down, I'm leaving you behind. Just get rid of the pain, and I'll manage till we get to base.”

“You sure?”

He nodded. “We can't afford for both of us to pass out. One of us has to have some form of brain activity. And at present, the gods know that's definitely
not
me.”

“All right. Hang on.”

Jullien took a deep breath and braced himself for the unholy hell of Thrāix healing some of his blast wounds.

He hissed as soon as it began.
Son of a bitch, it hurt!
But after a few seconds, it loosened enough to where he could at least breathe without wanting to die.

Completely.

Thrāix was a little paler as he helped him sit up. However, the moment he was upright, two blast shots flew so close to his face that he felt the burn of them on his skin.

“What the hell?”

Axl, Davel, Dimitri, and Gallatin drew their blasters and pinned them on Shahara, Darling, Kelsei, and Tylie, who had their weapons drawn and aimed for Jullien's head. The six Andarion guards with them also drew weapons.

“Who shot at me?” Jullien demanded.

“The redhead.” Davel switched his blaster from stun to kill with his thumb. “Want us to finish her?”

“No!” Jullien wiped at the blood on his cheek that Shahara had drawn. Pissed off, he glared at her. Then looked at his parents, who just stood there while ten of their party held weapons aimed to kill him.

Not a single word of protest.

Their son who had just saved them all from annihilation.

Why was he even surprised?

Thrāix shook his head with a sad sigh. “I'm so sorry for you, little brother.”

Yeah, so was he. He'd spent his whole life having to explain away his family and why they didn't give a shit about him. Honestly, he was tired of it.

Darling glared at Jullien. “You weaselly bastard! What are you planning to do? Hand us over to Eriadne?”

“Sure,” Jullien said, his voice carrying the full weight of his disgust and sarcasm. “'Cause given the hatred and Thrill-Kill warrant and grudge she has on me, she's
so
concerned about the lot of
you.
” He passed a droll stare to Thrāix. “Take them to temple?”

“Sell it, little brother. Let's make Mama Samari proud.”

They threw their hands out and used their powers to disarm all ten of them at once—and plant them on their asses.

Jullien turned toward his true family—the ones who actually loved and supported him. “Put it away. We have actual enemies we need to worry about, and right now, we have to figure out if we still have a way home.” He clapped Davel on the shoulder, then hugged Axl, Dimitri, and Gallatin. “Thank you for digging me out and not leaving me behind.”

Axl raked him with a disbelieving stare. “And face my sister without you? What kind of stupid do you think I am?”

Gallatin snorted. “You've heard her threaten me. Multiple times. Shara scares the snot out of me. Her last words were that I better not return without you. Pretty sure she meant it.”

Thrāix narrowed his gaze on Darling as the emperor pushed himself to his feet. “You better be damn glad Trajen isn't here. Hermione's son or not, your brains would have been splintered the instant you took aim in his brother's direction. I suggest you keep a respectful distance and remember that. In this room, we value
his
life and loyalty. Not yours.”

Darling curled his lip. “Then you're an idiot. Have you any idea what kind of snake you've put at your back?”

“You know nothing of our brother. None of you do. So if you don't mind, sit down, shut up, and let us regroup.” Thrāix moved to stand by Jullien. “Is there a way out of here?”

“Yes, but I don't know if we can make it. I'm pretty sure the whole palace just came down on top of me. We need some eyes on the surface and a line out while we can to let our family know we're alive.” Grimacing as pain cut through his entire body again, Jullien took a deep breath. He glanced around their decayed quarters. “The warden used to have an office down here, where he had communications and a monitor. We might be able to use that.”

“Where?”

“This way.” As Jullien headed for it, his mother and father finally stepped forward to address him.

Biting her lip, Cairistiona stared at him as if he were a stranger she was meeting for the first time.

Then again, that was exactly what he was.

“It really is you after all these years, isn't it?” The fact she had to ask that …

He gave her a flat, emotionless stare, then lifted it to meet his father's contemptuous gaze, which still judged him as inadequate and lacking.

There was a time he'd have agreed with his father that he was less than whole. Lacking in a family that loved him. Lacking in decency and intelligence. A heartless bastard who held a blackened soul filled only with resentment and hatred.