Tara The Great [Nuworld 2] (33 page)

“Darius?” Tara wondered if he realized what he had just done. Did he want control

over her communication that much? She placed her hand in front of him, palm up.

“That’s my comm.”

“Of course.” His distraction disappeared and he focused on her.

She could tell he was processing something in his mind. He had the look of a

conqueror, an intense passion for control accenting the lines under his eyes and on

either side of his mouth. His dark gray eyes were almost black.

He handed her the device and pointed to the parked converted bikes. “Are those

gliders ready to go?”

“They haven’t been tested, but they’re as ready as they’re going to be,” Jolee spoke

up.

Tara half expected Darius to give her a reprimand for speaking out of turn. Instead,

he turned and acknowledged her statement with a nod.

Feeling rather satisfied that he appeared to approve of her choice in a first assistant,

Tara flipped on her comm as she wrapped it around her ear. “Fartha, organize one

hundred soldiers. We’re heading out.”

Darius took Tara’s arm and walked toward her trailer. He spoke into his comm,

replaced around his ear.

She wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw him also signal Jolee with his eyes to

follow.

Either way, Jolee looked at Tara for confirmation.

Good. Jolee respected Darius as a leader, but her loyalties were to Tara. Tara

gestured with her head for Jolee to follow, and the stout woman fell in behind them.

“Torgo,” Darius spoke as they walked. “Link with Fartha and line up an army of

one hundred warriors. The gliders are ready, they are. Have them report to the Runner

site immediately.”

“Are we sending out half Gothman and half Runners?” Tara asked as they

approached her trailer.

“Is that all right with you?” Darius asked.

“I think so.” She couldn’t think of any reason why it mattered. All their warriors

would be used before this war was over, she feared. “And us?”

“We go.”

Patha surprised her by greeting them as they entered the trailer. She hadn’t noticed

his bike parked outside. He leaned over Tara’s landlink at her kitchen table and

straightened as they entered. His face showed his concern, but Tara noticed something

else. Was it the smell of battle?

Patha had looked almost defeated back at the house. Tara was nervous enough to

know that she now had rank, but seeing her papa look beaten had terrified her. Now

she saw the fire back in his eyes, but Patha still looked tired.

“So it’s time for battle.” He reached out to them, and they each pressed a hand into

his. “May Crator guide both of you. We’ll be triumphant today.”

“The Neurians have arrived, they have.” Darius offered the information to the older

man.

“I see that. It looks like a fairly large Lunian army as well.” The thrill of battle

increased on Patha’s face. “You can outdo their numbers with the Neurians, but don’t

have faith in their warrior skills. Rely solely on our warriors, and you shall be

triumphant in battle.”

“They’ll be able to help us in other ways. With their technological skills,” Tara

pointed out.

“True,” Patha said. “Use their abilities well. They’ll be an asset.”

He’d come to give them moral support and to see them off, Tara realized as her

Papa squeezed her hand. Tara suddenly felt very proud of him. Everything she had in

life, Patha had given her. She was in his arms before she realized it, and the rest of the

room stood silently as she embraced and hugged the old man.

Patha walked alongside Tara and Darius, and she noted his proud gait, one of a

seasoned warrior who had earned the respect of every warrior in the field.

“Your troops are ready,” Geeves said to Darius when the trio approached.

“Landlinks have been tested on all gliders.” Farn wore the insignia showing his

rank on his Runner jacket.

Tara acknowledged that she outranked him only due to being Patha’s heir.

“You realize we haven’t had time to test the gliders.”

“Yes.” Tara nodded and surveyed the field, where row after row of warriors sat on

gliders waiting for their orders. “The reports show they are as ready as they will ever

be.”

“We have fought under worse circumstances and been triumphant,” Farn said.

Tara returned her attention to him. “And we will be triumphant today.” Tara

smiled at the older man.

Farn nodded.

Darius lowered the mouthpiece of his comm, adjusting it in front of his lips.

“Prepare troops for departure,” he commanded.

Tara adjusted her comm and issued the same order. She mounted her glider,

quickly noting the new instruments added to her panel. Darius’ glider stood next to

hers, and she met his gaze after watching him finger his new controls.

“Ready, Tara-girl?” he asked quietly, and the corner of his mouth turned up in a

roguish grin that caused her gut to tighten.

“Damn straight, I’m ready.” She grinned at him and felt the rush of adrenaline

swoop through her as she started her glider.

They’d meet the Neurians and destroy the Lunian soldiers before the Lunians

reached Gothman.

Chapter Seventeen

The Lunians looked like a dark swarm of flies hovering just above the ground when

Tara first noticed them. Tingles ran throughout her body as she realized what she was

seeing. A mixture of excitement, nervousness, and anxiety coursed through her at the

thought of battle. She’d fought in many engagements, usually for lower stakes, and had

experienced similar sensations.

The fight awaiting her now was for a cause like none other. The fight was for the

right to choose when life would occur and how. It was for the basic right to which all

people of Nuworld were entitled, and she would see they continued to have it.

Tara glanced at her new control panel once again to familiarize herself with it.

Torgo had decided, after reviewing glider schematics they’d obtained from the

Neurian transmission, that Runner and Gothman vehicles should be slightly different.

Schematics didn’t show any weaponry. Torgo had welded an Eliminator under the

front headlight. An additional screen indicated when the deadly weapon locked onto its

target. He’d also had the domes coated with the same basic substance used in Runner

clothing to make them bulletproof.

Although several of Patha’s advisors argued that it would make the gliders slower,

two shields had been installed on either side of the bike, underneath the dome, to

protect the warriors’ legs as they flew. Torgo insisted the gliders were for attack

purposes, and therefore needed to provide defense for their warriors to do the job.

Tara remembered seeing something close to pride cross Darius’ face as he explained

to her the features Torgo had added.

She felt comfortable riding the glider and was impressed by how smoothly it

maneuvered. The translucent dome surrounding her upper body minimized noise. She

could see around her easily since she didn’t need to wear eye protection. Neither did

the wind deter her. She could turn and talk to Darius on her comm and see him plainly

flying next to her.

These gliders were an incredible invention, and as long as they didn’t fly into each

other during combat, Tara knew her warriors would eliminate their enemy easily.

* * * * *

The Neurians appeared to the south shortly after the Lunians became visible.

Tara’s stomach flip-flopped as she watched the two races hover like dark clouds,

moving toward inevitable collision. The Neurians approached at a greater speed. When

they had first been spotted, they seemed to be a hovering cloud, but they quickly

materialized into individual gliders flying in unison.

She reflected that while Gothman and Runners had improved the glider by making

it a deadly weapon, the Neurians had turned it into a faster, more technologically

advanced machine.

“Your Neurians have arrived, I’d say.” Darius’ baritone tickled her ear.

She glanced sideways at him, then looked beyond him toward the dark cloud. “My

Neurians?”

“You invited them, didn’t you?” His face was close enough to see his disapproving

scowl, but she thought she also saw a glint in his eyes. Pride might have prevented him

from asking help from a man who had done him wrong by taking his claim, but he’d

wanted the Neurians there, too.

She smiled. “They’re probably listening to you.”

Within less than five minutes, the dark cloud to the south started to take shape.

Individual gliders became distinguishable. All of them were painted midnight blue.

Each glider displayed a silver-painted symbol on its side from an alphabet she didn’t

know, but recognized as Neurian. Within minutes she saw they also had larger

consoles. And, instead of handlebars, a small wheel extended from a column in the

middle of the console. No wonder…the Neurians drove automobiles, not motorcycles,

Tara thought.

Darius slowed their army and they hovered above ground for the first time.

Looking down, Tara could see the tops of the tree branches and rejoiced she didn’t

fear heights. As the Neurians continued to approach and the dark cloud to the east

grew increasingly larger, Tara gasped. Gowsky was flying toward them.

Try as she could, she wasn’t able to move her eyes away from him. In her

peripheral vision, she saw Darius watching Gowsky—or Dorn, as he’d asked her to call

him.

She worked to suppress her confused emotions before they enveloped her. But they

raced through her body with minds of their own. She felt recognizable fear. Racing

toward her was the man who had succeeded in imprisoning her for six cycles. Due to

his actions, the Test of Wills came to pass. She was also fearful because Gowsky, due to

his race’s technology, knew more about the Runners than they knew about him. No

other race, let alone one man, had ever accomplished such feats.

Tara experienced awe, too. Awe for all the same reasons she felt fear. And awe

because his race had brought the knowledge of Crator to her. She’d seen the dog-