Carnelians (49 page)

That’s it,
Dehya thought.
We need to evacuate the amphitheatre. Now!

Stop!
A new, unexpected thought burst into Kelric’s mind.
Don’t touch the bomb! It’ll explode if you remove it. If ESComm realizes you know it’s there, they’ll detonate it.

Del?
Kelric asked.
Good gods, how did you get into this mental link?

That girl—she’s Althor’s daughter, isn’t she?
Del asked.

How the blazes did you find that out?

From your minds, now! 
Del’s mind jumped into an accelerated mode where their thoughts went like sparks of light.
I saw Althor in the Kyle. His forgery. It was my way of seeing his link to this. It’s her! The girl. That Comtrace forgery is too clumsy; ESComm KNEW we would find it. Its only purpose was to make us doubt the real Comtrace long enough to weaken our security so they could get the bomb through. They knew even that might not work, so the bomb is rigged to blow if you disturb it. The moment you take it out of her neck, it will explode.

Qahot, hold!
Kelric thought.
Can you verify that?

The bomb’s nano-mesh is encrypted
,
sir,
Qahot answered.
We’re trying to crack it.

Del’s thought came again.
Kelric, if you leave it in her neck, it will go off as soon as you’re close enough that her mind picks up your brain waves. That’s what it’s for, to kill you and whoever is with you.

Kelric looked at Barthol, and the general met his gaze with an icy Highton stare. In an almost imperceptible motion, Barthol touched a panel on his gauntlet. In that instant, his intention flared with such power, it broke past Kelric’s barriers and flooded his mind. He was giving an order to detonate the bomb.

Kelric shouted into the mental link.
Qahot, get it out of her NOW!

With enhanced speed, Qahot flipped out the tiny sphere—

An explosion thundered through the building.

XXVIII: The Fist of Eube

XXVIII
The Fist of Eube

Aliana had only a second to hear the huge, thundering thought in her mind, as the man shouted,
Qahot, get it out of her NOW!
The major flicked the point of her blade into Aliana’s neck, then threw them both to the ground, Qahot shielding Aliana with her own body.

The world exploded.

Aliana gasped as the ground heaved, flinging her through the air. Her mental tie to the Skolian man snapped off as if someone had slashed it with a blade. She landed on a hard surface and chunks of debris rained down, pummeling her body. People were shouting, alarms screamed, and dust filled the air. She heaved in a breath, then choked as her throat clogged.

Scrambling to her feet, she looked around wildly. It was chaos. The Razers and the five ESComm agents from the exchange were thrown haphazardly against the closed doors of the lift. One of the Razers was struggling to his feet, but everyone else lay still. Qahot was nearby, her body twisted.

“No!” Aliana stumbled through the swirling dust and dropped next to Qahot. The major had suffered because she protected Aliana, leaving herself exposed. Aliana laid her hands against Qahot’s neck and gave a relieved cry when she realized the officer was still breathing.

“Red!” she called. “Where are you?” In her mind, she shouted,
Red! Answer, please!

People in uniforms were climbing through the debris. Someone called out, “We’ve got at least two people alive over here.” Someone else shouted, “They’re evacuating the amphitheatre.”

Aliana looked up and saw a ragged hole blown in the ceiling, not above her, but to her left. All the swirling dust hazed her view of the hole, but she glimpsed enough to see that the ceiling here, for the lobby, was the floor of the amphitheatre above them.

One of the rescuers suddenly spasmed, then cried out and crumpled to the ground. Rainbow lights rippled over his body. With a start, Aliana realized that veils of light surrounded the area where the prisoner exchange had taken place, extending from the ground up through the ceiling, adding their translucent colors to the swirling dust.

“Stay back from the lights!” someone called. “Those are cyberlock fields, set to kill.”

Psiber what? Aliana froze, afraid to move.

“Zina?” a voice said at her side.

With a choked sob, she swung around. It was Red. She threw her arms around him, holding him close.

His voice came out muffled against her hair. “Am glad to see you, too. But Zina, you crack my spine.”

“Oh!” With a shaky laugh, she released her hold. “Sorry.”

Aliana.
The familiar voice of the Skolian man rumbled in her mind like an anchor in the midst of a storm.
Are you still with us?

Relief poured over her.
I’m in the lobby. It blew up! It’s terrible. No one can get to us. A locked psiber is killing them.

Cyberlock,
the man told her.
They were installed by both royal parties to protect them in the case of an attack. You’re on the inside of the field. As long as you don’t try to cross the curtains of light, you’ll be fine.

Is Emperor Jaibriol all right?
He was supposed to be a god, and gods couldn’t die, but she didn’t believe it. What she did believe was that he was different from other Hightons, truly great, and if any of them should live, it was him.
Are you all right? Major Qahot and her Jagernauts are hurt. They need help.

We’re fine up here,
he said.
The safety precautions worked. We’re sending people down to help your group.

Look,
Red said, pointing to the ceiling.
Is him, I think.

She peered where he indicated. A man was kneeling at the edge of the jagged hole in the ceiling. She couldn’t see him clearly, other than his huge silhouette in the harsh light from amphitheatre above and behind him.

Is that you kneeling at the hole?
she asked.

Yes,
he thought.
Can you come here?

She glanced at Red, and he nodded. Taking his hand, she thought,
I think so.

They picked their way over the shattered fountain. The buckled floor made it hard to walk, and the air smelled like graves and electrical discharges. The blast had centered where the bomblet hit the ground; what had been a row of indoor trees was now a crater with billows of dust.

To reach the hole in the ceiling, they climbed up slanting marble columns that had been shoved away from the vertical, their surfaces cracked and jagged. At the top, they were almost close enough to touch the man. Dust grimed his hair and face.

“Here.” He extended his large hand. “Come up, both of you. The amphitheatre is intact, and its supports were built to withstand worse than this.”

Aliana wasn’t sure how he knew so much about the building, but it made sense that this meeting place would be well built. She wanted Red safe, so she pushed him forward. “You go.”

Red grasped the man’s hand and the Skolian heaved upward, easily lifting as Red scrambled up next to him. While Red stepped back from the edge, the man reached for Aliana, and with his help, she climbed up. Alarms were still blaring, more distant now. People were calling somewhere, but no one seemed nearby except this man.

Red was staring around at the amphitheatre. It was mostly open air; it didn’t have much to collapse other than the seats ringing the area. They looked all right except for a few rows that had cracked and buckled. The evacuation was almost done, with a few people still leaving. No one had come close to this place, the middle of the amphitheatre floor.

As Aliana stepped back from the hole, the Skolian man stood up. He was
huge.
She had never seen someone so big.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“My name is Kelric.”

His kind voice reassured her. “What are we going to do?”

“You need to stay with me.” He motioned at a group of people across the amphitheatre, gathered near a pile of rubble that looked like a broken disk. “We don’t have much time.”

As they headed across the amphitheatre, Aliana asked, “Is this place going to collapse?” Parts of the building were crumbling, causing minor showers of broken composite.

“Not the walls.” Kelric motioned upward, where large robot arms were docked at balconies. “But the blast may have damaged some of those.”

They soon reached the group—and Aliana gave a choked cry. She didn’t see everyone, only the man and woman with glittering black hair. She dropped to her knees, hit with a relief so intense, it hurt. Red knelt beside her, his head bowed.

The emperor spoke, his voice still resonant, but also ragged. “Both of you, rise.”

As she stood up, she became aware of the other people. It was two groups, each facing the other. On one side, she saw the emperor, the empress, General Iquar, Lord Corbal Xir, and the four Razers—including Tide! On her side, she saw Kelric, four Jagernauts,—

And a woman with gold hair, gold eyes, and gold skin. Metallic gold.

The world seemed to stop for Aliana. Only the two of them were there, her and this golden being in some reality where no explosions could interfere. The woman stared at Aliana, her eyes filling with moisture. A voice came clearly in Aliana’s mind, like the rising of a sun, full of warmth and the grief of loved ones lost.

You look so much like him,
the woman thought.
So much like Althor.

Who . . . who are you? 
Tears welled in Aliana’s eyes.
You look like me.

“We have to leave,” a harsh voice said in Highton. “This amphitheatre isn’t safe.”

Aliana’s thoughts jerked unceremoniously back to reality. She knew that ugly voice. She hated it. That was General Iquar speaking to the emperor.

“You did this,” she said to the general, her voice low and furious. “You tried to blow me up!”

General Iquar gave her a bored look. “Is this child insane or just a fool?”

“I’m not crazy.” Aliana looked around at the rest of them. “He did it.”

Before anyone could respond, a rumbling started above them. With a start, she looked up. A gigantic bronzed arm with a fisted hand was vibrating at its dock against one wall.

“We should move,” Kelric said.

As they retreated across the floor, which was covered with dust and grit, Corbal Xir said, “We can’t go far. The cyberlock fields tuned to Emperor Jaibriol and Pharaoh Dyhianna are both set on fatal, and we’re inside of them.”

Kelric glanced at one of the Jagernauts. “Turn off the lock.”

The Jagernaut worked at his gauntlet, making lights flash and noises beep. After a moment, he said, “We can’t, sir. It’s not working.”

Major Qahot?
Kelric’s thoughts hummed past Aliana’s mind.
Can you read me?

A man answered, sounding very young.
Commander Skolia, this is Lieutenant Kelpner. The rest of the team is injured.

Then you’re in charge, Kelpner. Get these damn cyberlocks off.

We’re working on it, sir. Their mesh-systems are jammed. It’s a side effect from the clumsy tampering with Comtrace. It won’t process their release codes.

One of the Razers was reading a screen on his gauntlet comm as he spoke to Barthol Iquar. “General, the cyberlock frequencies are jammed, some sort of mesh interference.”

A Jagernaut said, “Imperator Skolia, you, the Pharaoh, and Councilor Roca can go through the Skolian field. But if you cross the Emperor Jaibriol’s field, it will kill you.”

Tide spoke in his deep voice. “The same is true for Emperor Jaibriol and Empress Tarquine. They can pass through their field, but not yours.”

Kelric scowled at Barthol. “Damn it, Iquar, your clumsy Kyle meddling could get all of us killed.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” the general said coldly.

Above them, the growl of engines was growing louder as the bronzed robot arm with the fisted hand swung slowly above the amphitheatre. Ahead of them, the cyberlock field rippled in a curtain of rainbows. Two Razers and two Jagernauts reached the field at the same time. They turned around, looking upward, and everyone halted to follow their gaze. Above them, the fisted hand also stopped and hung suspended, high in the air.

“Our motion seems to draw it,” Empress Tarquine said. “When we stop, it does, too.”

Lieutenant Kelpner, check with my brother Del about the Comtrace forgery,
Kelric thought.
He may know how it’s interfering with the cyberlocks.

A new thought came into Aliana’s mind from another man, an incredible voice, so distinctive she would have recognized it anywhere. It was the Ruby prince who had sung “Carnelians Finale.”

Panquai and I think we can untangle it here,
Del said.
We need to clear out the seaweed around the ruins.

I’m not sure what you mean by seaweed or ruins,
Kelric answered.
But if you can help deactivate the locks, then yes, do it.

The mental chatter was giving Aliana vertigo. They were calling Kelric “sir,” and he was giving orders, even to a prince. He was, she realized, probably captain of the pharaoh’s bodyguard. The Eubians were drawing away from the Skolians, separating themselves while their Razers worked at their gauntlets. The bronzed fist hung motionless, far above them.

Kelpner, can’t security fix that robot arm?
Kelric asked.
What’s wrong with it?

It was damaged in the explosion,
Kelpner answered.
It’s keyed to the emperor’s cyberlock, so that when the arm carries him through the amphitheatre, his field always surrounds it. But apparently its coding is corrupted, so it’s following everyone within the field.

Actually, it stopped,
Kelric thought.

Eubian Security is trying to link to the nanobots in its structure so they can direct its repair remotely. Maybe it’s working.