War for Orion: Ghosts from the Past (33 page)

"I was just about to..."

"Anlon what's going on!" Kanti broke
Camillus' grasp and grabbed him.

"What are you talking about?" he asked,
confused at why she was sobbing.

"Camillus hasn't told me anything yet!"

Camillus walked forward. "Giustino tried to
take Kanti for the Deimos Brotherhood."

"What? Giustino worked for the Deimos
Brotherhood?" Anlon cocked his head. "Why would they want to take
her?"

"She's the Princess," Camillus put a hand on
her shoulder. "The Queen didn't find her on Demeter, but she got a
name from the man she sent there. She contacted me to search the
name for her, but I already knew exactly where to find her so I
went to retrieve her myself."

"What?" Kanti lifted her head from his
chest.

"You are the Princess of Orion," Camillus
repeated. "It appears that Giustino works for the Deimos
Brotherhood and that I retrieved you just in time."

She looked to Anlon. "What is he talking
about?"

Anlon shrugged. "I'm not sure. I just got a
clue for the Queen that would help her find her hidden daughter.
Adira hasn't contacted me since I gave her the clue."

"I'm sure I would know if I was the Queen's
daughter!"
"Not exactly, the Queen wanted to hide you and didn't want anyone
to know, including you. She didn't trust her husband, along with
others, so she had Armino hide you twenty years ago. Anlon just
recently recovered a clue to where Armino sent you for hiding,"
Camillus filled her in.

"What clue? I still don't understand why you
believe I'm the Queen's daughter!"
"All I recovered was a note that said something about the Queen's
most prized possession being on Demeter with the Waldmunt's."

Kanti's eyes immediately widened at the name.
"I lived with the Waldmunt's for twenty years. They are the family
I left behind on Demeter to come here."

"You are the Queen's daughter," Camillus
repeated. "It is your job to protect Kanti now, Anlon. I will help
you too, but now that the Deimos Brotherhood knows who she is, she
isn't safe," Camillus told him. "We need to get her to the Queen,
but in the mean time we have to keep her out of the Deimos
Brotherhood's hands. More assassins will be after her once Kirill
realizes Giustino has failed."

"How do you know about all of this?" Anlon
asked. "I know Adira contacted you to search for Kanti, but you
know a lot of stuff that 's going on with my mission."

Camillus' skin rippled a black color and his
image changed to look exactly like Queen Adira. "I'm a very special
humanoid," he said in the Queen's voice. "She made me to serve her
and anyone who she trusts. It is now my job to assist you in your
mission and ensure that Kanti stays alive and out of the Deimos
Brotherhood's hands."

"Anlon, now is not a good time to be
contacting me."

"I have your daughter with me right now!"
Anlon almost shouted. "She's right next to me and the Deimos
Brotherhood has already tried to take her!"

"Impossible!" Adira exclaimed. "I didn't..."
She looked around her room.

"What is it?" Anlon sensed something was
wrong.

"Nothing. How did you find her without me
telling you anything? And what exactly happened?"
"
I
didn't find her. Camillus did."

"I knew I could count on him to find her," A
smile beamed on her face. "Where did he find her and why did he
bring her to you instead of me?"

"She was the police officer working on my
family's murder case! Camillus works at the station, as you
probably know, and went to get her. That's when things went totally
haywire."

"What do you mean? How did the Deimos
Brotherhood even come close to capturing her?"

"The police chief, Giustino who was also
working on my case, turned out to be working for the Deimos
Brotherhood and tried to take her from Camillus. There was a
confrontation and Camillus killed him before bringing Kanti to my
house."

Adira was in complete shock, she had thought
Giustino was clean and had trusted him with sensitive material. If
the Deimos Brotherhood was able to turn races against her that she
thought were trustworthy, Kanti was definitely not safe on Hera.
There was only one way her daughter would be safe - out of her
reach once again.

"Camillus was right to bring her to you," she
told Anlon. "Keep her safe for me Anlon. Do
not
bring her to
Hera. She's to stay away from me. The enemy has infiltrated too
deep for her to be safe. I no longer know who I can trust and who I
can't trust."

"Where am I supposed to take her?" Anlon
asked. "I'm leaving Gaea soon to go to Erebos."

"Wherever you go Anlon," Adira bit her lip.
"If neither I, nor the enemy, know where you are, then nobody will
be able to find Kanti. You, and those you choose to be with you,
will be the few that know where the Princess actually is. It's the
only way to truly ensure her safety."

"They will surely hunt me down when they find
out she's with me," Anlon pointed out. "I can't hide from these
races. They're trained to track anybody."

"They will try to find you," Adira nodded.
"Take Camillus with you, he will prove to be very helpful. Moran
will also surely send at least one race with you, so you should be
safe, even if the Deimos Brotherhood is relentlessly hunting you
down. It won't be easy, but she's safest if with you."

Anlon was speechless, he had planned on
brining Kanti, but now that she was the Princess he was seriously
questioning the decision. How could he put the heir to the Throne
in danger, even if the Queen did authorize it? The scope of things
had completely changed in a few seconds. It wasn't possible to
bring Kanti anywhere he went, especially a moon of criminals.

"She will be fine with you," Adira said, as
if she were reading his mind. "I trust you Anlon, if she's safe
with anyone, it's you. There will be others with you to help you on
this mission. You are not in this alone," she encouraged him. "The
only way to ensure her safety is to locate the Deimos Brotherhood
before they are able to find you."

"What are you going to do while we track down
the Deimos Brotherhood?"

"I will tell the Council that she has been
found and that she is safe," she smiled. "Whoever is leaking
information can then go tell Kirill that his attempt failed. Let
him know that his men have failed him,
yet
again."

"Is that smart? I mean, you could make
something else up like that she's hidden on another planet so they
go on a false hunt."

Adira laughed. "It will only be a matter of
time before he figures out that that's a lie. I want to let him
know that I'm aware of this traitor and he will not win this fight
against me. It'll cast enough doubt in his mind in order for us to
succeed."

"It could also upset him and make him think
irrationally," Anlon warned, trying to change her mind.

"Think irrationally and upset him?" she
chuckled. "That's exactly what I'm counting on. He has already set
out to kill me, that much we know, it is just a matter of when he
chooses to strike next. Hopefully me doing this will make him
careless so I can get to him first."

"If you lied, it could give you more
time."

She shook her head. "Get off Gaea as fast as
you can Anlon. Orion is counting on you to save it from this
monster."

After the Queen hung up her comlink, he
immediately gave Moran a call. The time to get his ship was now.
There was no more waiting around since the Deimos Brotherhood would
be at his doorstep if he waited any longer. If the Queen was right,
the leader was probably being contacted now about Giustino's
failure and he wasn't about to be around when the next assassin
arrived to kill him and take Kanti.

"What's up Anlon?" Moran answered, laying
back on his recliner.

"We need to go get my ship now!"

Moran straightened up in his chair. "Why the
sudden urge to leave, you haven't even finished training yet."

"Kanti is the Queen's daughter!" he shouted.
"We have to get off of Gaea now!"

"Whoa, slow down kid," He tried to calm
Anlon. "What are you talking about? Kanti is the Queen's
daughter?"

"The clue, it led right back to Kanti and the
Deimos Brotherhood has already attempted to capture her," Anlon
quickly answered. "Giustino worked for them, but she escaped with
Camillus' help, who turned out to be working for the Queen. I just
called Adira and she said to get out quick and to keep Kanti with
me wherever I go."

"She doesn't want her daughter delivered to
her? Isn't Hera safer than traveling with you to Erebos?"

"No," Anlon shook his head. "She said that
it's too dangerous on Hera right now because she doesn't know who's
working for the Deimos Brotherhood. Too much information has been
leaked for her to bring her daughter there."

"And it won't be any more dangerous on your
mission?"

"I tried to tell her, but she said Kanti
has
to stay with me. I wasn't given a choice. I was ordered
to keep her at my side."

"Get packed and get over here quick kid,
we're going to Hermes."

Anlon hung up the comlink and looked to Kanti
and Camillus. "It's time to get packed, we're leaving for Hermes
now."

Donnchadh laid on the hard concrete floor of
his cell, no longer able to feel the aches and pains. His body had
endured countless hours of torturing since seeing the Queen, though
he couldn't be sure how much or how long it had been going on. The
darkness was playing tricks on his mind and he could feel himself
starting to go insane.
He knew Adira wanted to kill
him, but he couldn't figure out why she just do it. After
attempting to take her life and having taken her closest friends',
she had more than enough reason to take his life in return. Maybe
sending Jahdiel to the Black Hole really had haunted her.

Foolishly, he had bought in to all of the
lies Kirill fed him over the years, never thinking that he was
being manipulated for a greater cause. Kirill saved him, or so
that's what he had been led to believe since he had been captured.
After hearing Kirill's real plan of a pure Galaxy from Adira, he
hated himself for being so easy to fool and had no doubt Orion was
about to pay the ultimate price.

Jahdiel and Merikh looked at each other,
laughing in joy when the spinning finally came to an end. The Warp
Reversal had worked, now they just had to determine if they had
actually made it to Orion and not some other far away Galaxy.
Merikh ordered his crew to pull up holomaps of the new Galaxy and
display them on the cockpit window for Jahdiel to closely examine.
Mapping beacons were sent out to scout the area and a map quickly
popped up in front of her.

"Did we make it to Orion?" Merikh asked her,
unsure if they had made it to the right place from the map because
he had never seen Orion personally.

"We made it to Orion. I never thought I'd see
it again after I was outcast, but I'm back in Orion!" She grabbed
Merikh's frail arms and smile in joy.

"We wouldn't have been able to make it
without your help, so you're a big reason we made it back.
Determination is something you don't lack. But what are you going
to do with that determination now that you're back? Are you going
to live in secret, or make your presence known?" Merikh grinned
coldly.

She looked out of the giant cockpit window
and thought. "I'm not really sure what I want to do, to be quite
honest with you."

Merikh changed the subject. "You were right.
The Queen decided to be peaceful. We haven't been shot down
yet."

"She hasn't come to see us yet. She doesn't
even know we've arrived."

"And what do you want to do when she finds
out we've come to her Galaxy?"

"What do you mean?"

"Let's make our presence known to Orion. We
won't give her a chance for peace, we will strike as soon as she
shows up."