The Last Winter (The Circle War Book 2) Page 6

  Amara looked back to the ministers with renewed interest. “He is part of them?” she asked.

  “Only the parts that were necessary—His skill in battle. His knowledge of war. I was able to retrieve these from his lifeless shell and use them in my design for the Ministers. Each of them carries the best of his knowledge without the shackles of his humanity.”

  “How many are there?” Amara asked directly.

  “Only these three, for now. I have withdrawn all of my existing forces and housed them at my lab on Pyr. The new army will be fewer in number, but far greater in strength.”

  “And when will the rest be ready?”

  “I am gathering the materials I need as we speak. The rest of the Ministers should be ready before Paralos and Meryn initiate their attack.”

  Michael thought for sure that Amara would ask for them sooner, but instead she simply nodded at the news. She stood in front of the female minister and looked her up and down. “You are an impressive creation,” she said to her.

  “Thank you, my Lady,” the minister answered.

  “Do you have a name?”

  “I am Polaris.”

  “And what purpose shall you serve, Polaris?”

  “Whatever purpose you would have of me.”

  Amara smiled.

  “They are ready for war,” said Galan.

  “And war they shall have, but first I have another task for them.”

  She led them out onto the open balcony, away from the light of the half-built bedroom. The stars were wildly brilliant, even during the day. A streaking meteor cut a red trail across the cloudy arms of the Milky Way.

  Talus was the last to join the group. He eyed the robotic newcomers coldly, as he treated everything else. For once, Michael agreed with him. There was something unnerving about seeing a machine that was so close to being human. Almost as though she heard his thoughts, Polaris gave him a humorless half-smile.

  Amara spoke with her back to them as she looked out over her city. “Paralos looms close. I can feel it. With Meryn gone, he has kept her army hidden, biding his time. The time of waiting is at an end. Whatever plans he had for me in the beginning, Meryn was not included. Of that I am certain. Now that she is gone and he has had time to incorporate his new arsenal, his attack will not be long in coming. We have much to do to prepare.”

  “Let him come,” Michael said. “I’m ready for his army.”

  Talus gave a short laugh.

  And don’t think I can’t find a way to take you out with them, Michael thought.

  It wasn’t until he noticed Amara’s silver eyes turn on him that he remembered to guard his thoughts. She was always listening.

  “You forget yourself. These people cannot be allowed to witness what you are capable of, any more than they can see Talus for what he is. Both of you will remain here at the castle. Talus will keep you from harm in the unlikely event that the enemy makes it to our walls.”

  Michael’s face flushed with heat. Even the robots seemed to be laughing at him.

  Amara drilled the screw deeper by letting the moment linger before continuing. “We need to marshal our coming followers and guide them to their new home quickly.”

  “How do you know they will come?” Galan asked.

  “Because they won’t be able to help themselves. They are tired, cold, and dying in a dying world. I am offering to heal them. They will come.”

  “So we’re gonna feed them, give them new houses, and then what?” Michael asked. “Use them as a shield?”

  Galan’s red pupils narrowed. He looked down at the growing city below and gave a slow nod, as though he realized that that was exactly what they were for.

  “We are giving them aid, as promised,” Amara replied. “When Paralos arrives, I want him to witness the compassion of Pyra’s wisdom. If he must fight us, let him first choose to be the aggressor toward those he claims to protect.”

  An unwelcome flash of guilt cinched Michael’s stomach as he pictured what lay ahead for the survivors.

  Amara took his hand. Her touch brought a familiar wave of electricity that easily replaced his worries.

  “Send the ministers out to guide the people safely to our borders,” she said to Galan. “They will come first from the east, by sea.”

  “Yes, my Lady,” he answered.

  She addressed the ministers next. “Be vigilant on your journey. Paralos and his champions will return. If you find them, make sure they do not live to reach this city.”

  Polaris bowed. “We will leave at once.”

  “Pyra’s grace guide you.”

  Michael watched them go. “So this is what being a champion is? Sitting in a tower while everyone else fights your battles?”

  Amara surprised him with a smile. “You are learning what it takes to be a leader. Fight those that are worthy of you and leave the rest to the ones who have pledged to you their service. Dillon will come. Wait for him. If he can make it this far, then he is truly a foe worthy enough for you to destroy.”

  Galan moved toward the open synapse.

  “Wait,” Amara said.

  “My Lady?”

  “There is one more item to attend to.”

  “Of course.”

  The smile on Amara’s face dissolved. She revived it for Michael one last time before facing Galan. “It is time for the Circle to meet and decide Meryn’s fate. They have had far too long to deliberate. Send out word to Anemolie. She will contact the others.”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Let them know,” Amara added, “that Paralos’s game is at an end. I will suffer no further delays. The Circle will pass judgment now whether Meryn is there to defend herself or not.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Nights in between raids were hot and cold, dry and rainy, short and long, noisy and silent. They were all of those things because those nights were never spent on the same planet twice in a row. Paralos, in all his eternal paranoia, operated under the assumption that Amara’s spies were combing the universe looking for them, and anything beyond a few hours on a planet was asking to be found. August and his army of Orphii moved from one Earth-like planet to another in a constant effort to stay a step ahead of the enemy. He made the mistake once of telling Paralos he was surprised to see so many planets like Earth. “That’s because humans on Earth choose not to look beyond the blue of their sky,” Paralos said. “They are one drop in a glass of water, which is itself only an atom in an ocean of worlds. They are no more unique than a sunset.”

  Typical Paralos response. Equal parts knowledge and asshole.

  To help stay away from Amara’s spies, the planets they visited were never inhabited—not by humans anyway. During their jaunts around the KOA campgrounds of the universe, August and Bear had fought and killed a number of strange beasts to outfit themselves with some basic gear—clothes to wear when they weren’t armored up, skins for their tents. Their bedrolls were made from the fur of an animal they had encountered while trudging through waist-deep snow on a small icy world. To August, it looked like a furry walking catfish, but to Bear it looked like the makings of a sleeping bag. August left the skinning and the curing to the big guy. He’d done his part with his swords.

  No tent was necessary this night. The sky was clear and the air was hot, heavy with humidity. He scratched at his beard. Unlike Bear, who kept himself looking something like he used to on Earth using knife blades to trim his beard and hair (which he’d cut short to fit inside his new mask), August had chosen to let himself go for a while. His curly hair was shaggy and almost down to his shoulders. He’d never really grown a decent beard before, and now he knew why. The bastard itched like crazy, especially on humid nights.

  I hereby dub this world Scratchybeard. Let it henceforth be so.

  On the other side of the trampled-down section of dirt where they’d made camp, Bear snored. The Horsemen were nowhere to be found, as usual, preferring instead to sleep where no one could see them. He suspected they never actually sl
ept at the same time. Being quadruplets, they probably had some supernatural power to transfer one sibling’s sleep amongst the group. Efficient.

  Earlier, the Horsemen had drawn a picture in the sand after he and Bear returned from the night’s hunting to show that Paralos was gone and that he’d be back after the sun went down. Then they showed off the dinner that was already cooking. Bear tossed the small animal he’d caught for dinner into the weeds and walked off. August, always the middleman, shrugged his shoulders at them and accepted the hind leg of…something. It tasted decent, when he could find some actual meat.

  He laid back on his bedroll to watch the Orphii floating overhead. Sometimes, if it was quiet enough, he could hear the chiming sound they made when they were in their unbound form. All together, they looked like an aurora borealis, albeit one that took up the entire night sky. On most nights, the rhythmic chiming would send him straight into a coma. Tonight, though, his mind was too busy to think about sleep.

  When Paralos came back, he meant to make his argument for going back to Earth. The order of his presentation, he thought, was important. First he would point out the obvious: Galan was onto them now, so continuing the factory attacks was out of the question. They’d destroyed enough to make a serious dent in Galan’s army without using too many of the Orphii in the process. With the other side weakened, shouldn’t they attack?

  Don’t pose it as a question. Tell him. We should attack.

  He knew exactly where they should go when they made their return to Earth (Washington), exactly who they should see first (the military), and exactly how they should defend themselves (coordinated worldwide military effort). What better place to make a stand than the one place they knew better than anyone else?

  Overhead, the Orphii started to move. They spread out in a circle, creating a rift in the sky directly overhead.

  Here we go.

  Paralos came shooting down through the opening in a blur of light. The sound of his arrival was enough to stir Bear from his sleep. The god materialized a few feet off the ground at the edge of camp. He hovered in place, the outline of his humanoid shape barely visible behind a wash of light. His eyes scanned the prairie spreading out from the hill.

  “You were lucky you were not seen,” he said.

  August stood up and cracked his back. The wind cooled some of the sweat on his bare skin. “Yeah, well, the rabbit hole you called a bunker wasn’t exactly big enough to fit everyone.”

  “I would think your safety would be more valuable than your comfort.”

  August made a show of looking out across the sea of endless dirt. “Looks pretty safe to me, boss man.”

  Bear walked to his side, slipping on a thin shirt made of animal hide.

  “So, I see the two of you have managed to recover from your resounding victory,” Paralos said.

  “I feel great,” August replied, sidestepping his sarcasm. “How about you, Bear?”

  “Yep.”

  “You’re great, too?”

  “I am.”

  “High five….”

  “Enough,” Paralos bellowed. “We have no time for your games. The Circle is ready to meet.”

  Bear and August traded a glance. It was going to be one of those talks. August turned to go look for the Horsemen. They were already standing behind him.

  Of course.

  “Amara has sent word,” Paralos said. “She is ready to convene the Circle to take up the matter of Meryn’s judgment. I have stalled for as long as I can. The order to carry out her execution could be given immediately.”

  He said the words as if they had no weight, as if the woman who had given August and Bear their powers was nothing more than a common criminal.

  “You have to do something,” Bear said. “You have to help her.”

  “I have helped her,” Paralos answered. “She knew I could not keep them at bay forever.”

  “So that’s it? You’re just going to give up? She could die.”

  “What would you have me do? What plan have you come up with that I have not already considered?”

  August and Bear were silent. Bear looked like he was already standing at her funeral.

  “I will plead her case, but what you don’t understand is that her fate has nothing to do with guilt or innocence, and everything to do with politics. Any vote to save Meryn will be seen by Amara as choosing a side in the war. To ask for another god’s support is to ask them to risk their life. I have no easy task ahead of me.”

  And with a winning personality like yours, she’s got nothing to worry about. He wanted to punch the old god in his arrogant face. At least Meryn was a survivor. She’d proven that much. All he could do was hope she could keep on surviving until Paralos played whatever ace he claimed to have in the hole.

  “The trial is not our immediate concern,” Paralos said. “We should concentrate on the events that come after.”

  August saw his opening. “Listen, about that.”

  “Save your words, August.”

  “You don’t even know—,” he began, but of course the man knew. He could see into their minds where thoughts were nothing more than electric writing on the walls of their brains. “I’m right on this. We should go back.”

  “And you will, but not yet.”

  Oddly enough, the answer was better than he’d hoped. Not yet trumped Not ever any day of the week. Just the thought of seeing Earth again was enough to make him forgive whatever harebrained mission they were about to be thrown into.

  “I will explain the specifics later. Gather your things. You leave tonight.”

  He and Bear walked back to start packing their things. The Horsemen retreated into the nearby brush. August shed his clothes and slipped into his armor again. He checked his swords. The blades hummed as he slid them out of their sheaths.

  The Horsemen came back through the reeds dressed in their own new armor—a gift from Paralos after the battle on Earth. The suits were bulkier than August’s and a deep black compared to his dark blue. The segmented pieces covering their arms and midsection were made of a material that felt ceramic to the touch. The only thing they’d kept from home were the matte black face shields that made it impossible to tell them apart.

  The brothers shrugged their long black dusters over their gear. Once everyone was armored up, August led them back to reconvene in front of Paralos. In the distance, the bound Orphii were already walking through a synapse. One of them was the Mountain that August had fought beside on Earth. His single diamond eye watched over his squad of Orphii as they marched toward a new world.

  August slung the bag containing his bedroll and clothes over his shoulder. “Where’s ours?”

  Paralos lifted his hand to create a synapse a few feet from the camp. The air around the edges hummed with energy. Then, to August’s surprise, he created another beside it.

  “Are we choosing our own adventure this time?”

  Paralos nodded to the doorway on the right. “You will be going to Vontanu, to fight alongside my champion, Aeris. She is waiting for you on the other side.”

  August couldn’t believe his ears. They were actually going to meet one of Paralos’ champions. “Okay, so what’s on Vontanu?” he asked.

  “A battle long in the making. Vontanu is one of the Sisters—three planets whose orbits align closely. Their nations are currently at war. You are going there to help decide their fate.”

  “Sounds fun,” August said. “No pressure or anything.”

  “Bear and the brothers will be going to a different world.”

  It took a second for the words to sink in. When they did, August looked over at Bear, who was already looking back.

  “This is all part of the plan,” Paralos said, anticipating their questions. “We will attack on two fronts. Bear and the brothers will form one arm of our offensive. You and Aeris will form the other.”

  “I thought I was going to help settle a fight.”

  “At first, yes. Once you’ve helped Aeris, she w
ill travel with you to Earth.”

  It felt like he was being pulled in opposite directions. On the one hand, he hadn’t been in a fight without Bear or the Horsemen at his side since the war began. He already felt a sense of loss. On the other, he was going home, and wasn’t that what he wanted all along?

  “Bear should get to go back home, too,” August said.

  “He and the brothers have other business to attend to first.”

  “What sort of business?” Bear asked.

  “My business.”

  Sparks of red light fired through Paralos’s body. He edged back, giving them room to pass through the synapses. “We do not have time to stand here and debate. You must move quickly.”

  August didn’t know what to say. They stood there for a moment, cemented in place by a shared knowledge that a reunion wasn’t guaranteed. Even the Horsemen hesitated. They looked between August and Paralos like they were waiting for someone to tell them it was all a joke.

  “We should go,” Bear said in a defeated tone, giving only a quick glance to the brothers. He walked over to August and put a hand on his shoulder. “Take care of yourself out there.”

  “Yeah, you too.” It felt like he should’ve said something more, but instead he took a step back. He gave a nod to the Horsemen.

  The brothers followed behind Bear slowly. Each looked back to August before they slipped through the membrane.

  As soon as they were through, Paralos closed the synapse. The second one stood tall beside him. It showed a deep black sky on the other side.

  “Come,” he said. “Aeris is waiting.”

  August gripped the strap of his pack, but still found it hard to move. What’s the matter with you? It’s not like you haven’t fought on your own before. Still, it felt different this time. Maybe it was because his group was just ripped apart with no warning. It didn’t feel right.

  “August…”

  “I’m coming.”

  ■ ■ ■

  A wave of vertigo followed him through the synapse. When he found his footing on the other side, he took in the poisonous-looking landscape and immediately triggered his mask. “Jesus. What happened to this place?”