Tara The Great [Nuworld 2] (35 page)

The faces of the Lunians showed their determination. She noted the pale eyes of the

rider she slammed into. Eyes that looked desperate. Challenged. Focused. Guided by

madness. They watched her and her glider carefully, trying to immobilize her and not

hurt her. She could easily guess the Lunian orders and it chilled her blood. Bring her

back alive!

Tara slowly came to the realization she was trapped. Captured.

She wouldn’t go down without a fight. And with the knowledge they wanted her

unharmed, she viewed herself at an advantage. Even if she were outnumbered, she had

no problem harming them.

“Darius, I need help!” She spoke into her comm and, at the same time, gunned her

glider into the one blocking her way.

The man fell to the side, capsizing his glider.

While accelerating, albeit not to any great distance, she lifted the dome of her glider

and jumped free. Two of the Lunians collided, and she rolled to safety. Pulling out her

Eliminator with one hand and holding the laser in the other, she fired first at the two

collided Lunians with the larger weapon.

The explosion caused the other oncoming gliders to dart to either side. Jumping to

her feet, she used her laser to eliminate another Lunian approaching her. Much to her

delight, she discovered their domes were not bulletproof. The dome shattered and she

heard the screams of the woman inside as the laser beam penetrated her chest.

Turning quickly, Tara aimed at the next glider coming toward her. There were too

many of them. She needed help. “Darius, where are you?” she shouted into the still-

open line of her comm.

“I see you. I’ll be right there, I will.”

How did he keep his voice so calm?

A strong arm wrapped around her chest. She elbowed her would-be assailant in the

face and fell, tumbling to the ground. Scrambling, she just avoided another Lunian bike,

which likewise, struggled to not run over her.

As she got to her feet, a little slower this time, three gliders pulled around her. One

of the domes was down, and a long, thin black weapon pointed straight at her head.

“It is done,” she heard the woman speak into her large microphone which wrapped

completely around her head.

The woman obviously received instructions through the headgear she wore because

her facial expression changed. She looked worried, nervous as she lowered her weapon,

now aiming at Tara’s chest. She bit her lip and Tara guessed she’d never shot another

person before.

One woman’s disadvantage was another woman’s advantage.

As the Lunian female hesitated, Tara didn’t bat an eye. She swung her arm and

knocked the weapon out of the woman’s hand. At that same moment, she felt

something pierce her back.

Tara collapsed to the ground.

 
Chapter Eighteen

Darius heard Tara cry through his comm. He redirected twenty Gothman to attack

and kill Tara’s Lunian aggressors. His heart raced in his throat as he struggled to move

with any speed across the littered field. Glider after glider obstructed his path. His

lasers shot through their unprotected domes like a knife cuts butter. He left a bloody

trail behind him and had no desire to keep track of the dead.

Now they seemed to be coming out of the ground, from the air, appearing

everywhere at once. Without hesitation, he pulled out his Eliminator and attacked.

Tara, as well as Patha, had advised not to use the weapon on targets at close range. He

needed a large explosion, however, for a quick escape. The speed of the glider would

save him.

Darius fired. Body parts blinded him, staining his dome with red and black mini-

bombs. He accelerated, driving through the path he’d created. Fire and smoke obscured

the field ahead. Still he rode the machine underneath him as fast as it could move.

Just as quickly as he’d accelerated, he forced his glider to a stop, unable to see. He

raised his dome and slapped off the slippery droppings that fell on him as the clear

cover slid away.

“Tara?” He’d lost sight of her and tried to get a response from the comm.

No answer.

“Tara?!” He yelled into his mouthpiece.

Nothing.

Not twenty yards in front of him, Darius caught sight of a handful of Lunian gliders

riding east, away from the battle site, at an incredibly high speed. One of the Lunians

had a black-clothed body thrown over the front of their glider. The rider flew with his

dome down, and Darius noticed long legs with black boots bouncing up and down to

the vibration of the glider as it raced away from the battle scene. Off the other side hung

the head of the person, long, light brown hair blowing wildly in the wind.

“Tara!” Darius screamed.

The kidnappers vanished from his view.

Darius wouldn’t tolerate the thought of Tara taken from him again. The woman

was his, and he would kill to keep her with him. He couldn’t survive without her.

He panicked. Although only briefly, it was long enough to make him realize the

Gothman and Runners believed in and followed her visions. They needed her in order

to win this battle. He couldn’t let her get out of sight.

Darius yelled orders with more harshness than most of his warriors had ever heard

from him. Immediately, a handful of Gothman and Runners broke free from the

fighting and flew across the field in hot pursuit of Tara. He contacted Torgo, Jolee, then

reluctantly, Patha.

Once in flight, he left the battle behind and headed toward the mountain range. His

troops ahead informed him the Lunian kidnappers were firing on them. They returned

fire and eliminated two but hesitated in aiming at the other three for fear of hitting Tara.

Darius realized that the Lunians probably anticipated he would follow Tara. He’d

risk that, though. He was no prisoner, at least not at the moment, and he would do

everything in his power to remain free.

From behind, Darius noticed gliders approaching him, gaining speed.

Now what!

Darius lowered his dome, making a mental note that he’d have rear weapons

installed on these things, and shot at the pursuing gliders with his laser.

“I know you want me dead, Darius,” came the familiar singsong accent through his

comm device. “I always figured you’d make more of a show out of it than idly taking

me out with your laser.”

Darius turned his head to catch a glance at Gowsky grinning at him, his white teeth

shining in his dark-skinned face. The man might be infuriating, but he was not Darius’

enemy. At least, not at the moment. Darius stood down, more annoyed with Gowsky’s

good guy role than if the man were acting like a prick. Probably doing it intentionally.

He closed his dome and pushed his glider even harder to catch up with his

warriors. The sun grazed the horizon, and the eastern mountains receded behind them.

Darius finally managed to catch up with his group, and they all proceeded across a

forested terrain.

“I daresay they disappeared just minutes ago,” said one of Darius’ men, who flew

alongside him. “We tracked them as they flew down among the trees, we did, but then

they just vanished off our landlinks.”

“We’re going down,” he announced. “They couldn’t disappear into thin air.” He

was beyond annoyed with this spontaneous mission.

Darius and the small group flew to the end of the forest, then backtracked. No luck.

It was as if the Lunians simply no longer existed.

On top of losing Tara and her captors, Darius realized they would have to land and

set up camp. Whether Gowsky and his Neurian troops liked it or not, they would be

hunting for their supper this evening. Darius didn’t know how much experience the

Neurians had at roughing it during war, but at the moment he didn’t care.

“What are your plans?” Gowsky walked over to Darius after they’d landed in a

clearing among the woods.

Darius had no clue what their plans were. He wanted to say, to find Tara, I’d be

thinking! But, instead, he pulled the flat Runner-style console from his glider and took a

good look around them.

“Find out who among these men is best at hunting and send them out for supper,

you will.” He didn’t look up as he spoke. The last thing he’d accept right now was Dorn

Gowsky telling him he wouldn’t take his orders. No one asked the man to come along.

Darius didn’t want the man anywhere around him. But he was here, and he would

follow orders like everybody else.

Gowsky seemed to be aware of Darius’ feelings because he walked over to the

soldiers, apparently doing as Darius had asked.

Darius was glad of that, and he turned his attention to establishing a link with

Gothman. It was to no avail. Even though Torgo had boosted communications,

apparently the result of his efforts couldn’t reach this far east of the mountain range.

They were out of range.

A couple of Runners, one man and one woman, started a fire, and several Neurians

created torches to keep any curious animals, as well as insects, away from the campsite.

The Gothman used axes to chop a fallen tree, and one of them rolled a thick log over

toward Darius and offered it as a chair.

“Best there is to offer, m’lord.” The Gothman grinned a toothless smile. “I daresay

those Neurians had to go and cut a log for that pretty-boy Gowsky,” he continued,

under his breath.

Hopefully they left a few splinters. Darius snorted, and the Gothman apparently

interpreted that as approval to the comment just made.

Darius sat on his makeshift chair and pounded his keyboard until he could no

longer stand Gowsky’s curious stare. The men and women around him readied the

camp for the evening, but the pretty boy, as his warrior had called Gowsky, seemed

content to sit next to Darius and seemingly occupy himself doing nothing.

“We’ve lost communications with Gothman, we have. I daresay our resources are

limited, but somehow we need to find a camp that is underground, yes.”

Gowsky turned and spoke to one of his soldiers, a woman a little too pretty to be

lodging with his Gothman, Darius feared.

Darius watched her walk across their camp and noticed several of his men watched