“Whatever friendship you thought we had was gone the moment your goon, Cassiel, put a knife to my wife’s throat,” I replied, gritting my teeth. “You’ve done nothing but harm, and you have zero compassion, even for your own creations.”
“Compassion is unnecessary,” Ta’Zan returned, then stopped at the top of the stairs and took a deep breath. He seemed to enjoy being outside. Or maybe he was doing this to mock me, to remind me that it was only thanks to him that I was capable of being outside like this. “Love. Compassion. Empathy. All fictional and useless. I have no need for such trivial emotions in my world. And neither do my children.”
“You wouldn’t understand love, anyway,” I said, looking around at the vast jungle framing the colosseum for miles. Beyond the layer of green was the turquoise ocean, sprinkled with more islands, each with a colosseum of its own—as beautiful as I remembered it from my last outing. Such a shame that it was home to all this vileness. “You lacked it from the very beginning.”
Ta’Zan frowned. “What do you mean?”
“A mother. You never had one, did you?” I asked, and Ta’Zan shook his head. “A mother would’ve taught you all about love and empathy. You wouldn’t have considered them useless, then.”
“My father, my creator, taught me everything I needed to know,” Ta’Zan replied. “His lessons pushed me forward to become the leader I am today. I doubt love would’ve made a difference when I was clearly destined for greatness.”
We started walking along the edge of the colosseum, passing several guards as we headed toward the south side. The wind brushed through the trees and caressed my face. For a moment, I forgot Ta’Zan was even there, until he decided to talk some more.
“Derek, my army of Arch-Perfects is almost complete,” he said. “Our ships will be fully functional by the next full moon. The Perfects are currently mining for serium to power them. I’ve managed to combine your designs with my magi-tech. The end result will impress you.”
“I guarantee you it won’t,” I answered. “Nothing created for death and destruction could possibly impress me. Its beauty and ingenuity are immediately canceled out by its purpose. But you wouldn’t be able to understand that because you’re too wrapped up in your delusions of grandeur.”
“Once we take flight, we’ll start with our galaxy. There are other inhabited planets in Meahiri. I’ll take them, one by one, until it’s all… Perfect.”
“It’s like you’re not even listening to what I’m saying,” I murmured, shaking my head in dismay. My arms and legs felt a little weak, and my skin tingled. This was different from my last exposure. Not worse or better but… different. “What’s in the pill you gave me?”
Ta’Zan raised an eyebrow at me. “Nothing I didn’t use before. Why?”
“Just curious. You never gave me the recipe to begin with. I could get used to all this sunshine.”
“Stay with me willingly, and you will,” Ta’Zan replied, smiling.
I scoffed. “You’re a piece of work, you know that? What do you want from me, exactly? What possible reason could you have to keep me around? Do you need my approval for something? Do you want me as a pet? What is it?”
Ta’Zan stilled, his eyes wide as he stared at me. “Can’t I simply enjoy your company, Derek? I told you before, you and I are very much alike, whether you want to admit it or not.”
“You never want anything if it doesn’t serve your agenda, and you’re nothing like me, Ta’Zan. I have a family. I understand love. I foster peace, not war under the false pretense of peace. You and I are diametrically opposed, in every single aspect of life,” I said.
Heavy silence settled between us. Minutes went by as I wondered what his endgame was. The whole “pleasure of my company” excuse was a load of crap. Ta’Zan wanted something from me, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to give it to him. He’d threatened to kill my wife. He’d had Cassiel murder one of my people in front of me. His sins were unforgivable, and there was nothing he had that could warrant some kind of compromise on my part.
At this point, I just wanted to get the hell out of here and get back in the diamond dome. Our bilocation spell was waiting, and I had no intention of staying behind while everyone else fled the colosseum. I wanted to put some distance between Ta’Zan and me, so I could plan an effective attack and obliterate him, once and for all. For the time being, I was vulnerable. The collar around my neck was already warm, picking up on my brainwaves.
“I did have a mother, in a way,” Ta’Zan said, his voice barely audible.
“Huh?”
“A surrogate mother. I came out of a real womb, not an artificial pouch, like my Perfects,” Ta’Zan replied. “I never met her. My creator didn’t tell me anything about her. I would’ve liked to meet her, to be honest,” he added, then looked at me. “Is that what you want to hear from me, Derek? Something to make me seem a little more like you?”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, as if emptying my lungs of everything, to start over. Movement somewhere below caught my eye as we walked. Leaves rustled. Tree crowns trembled. A puff of ashes burst out from one.
A Faulty poked his head out. Then a couple more. They vanished back under, as several Perfects came after them. More puffs of ashes followed. Only then did I realize that I’d yet to breathe back in. Something was happening outside by the southwest entrance, and I knew it had to do with our mission.
I moved and turned around to face Ta’Zan in order to block his view of the southwest sector. I narrowed my eyes at him, while my brain practically burned itself out as I thought of a way to distract him, to get him inside and myself back in the diamond dome. Time was running out.
“Your surrogate mother is alive,” I said.
That worked. Ta’Zan went blank. His jaw dropped, and his eyes nearly popped out of their orbits. “What are you talking about, Derek?” he croaked.
“She’s in the diamond dome. She’s one of us,” I replied.
He blinked several times. His eyes, one blue and one green, were hazy, making him seem lost. I’d hit him right in the gut with this one, and I had to admit: it felt good. I had to play whatever card I had against him. I wasn’t sure what that would mean for Bogdana, but this was the most inconspicuous way to get Ta’Zan away from the edge and inside the colosseum. The scuffle happening below had to be part of the Faulties’ role in Rose and Ben’s plan—a distraction to get as many Perfects as possible busy over here, with apparent intruders, while Araquiel and the others made their way through the different levels and planted their explosives.
I’d almost forgotten about this stage, worried more about those ships and Arch-Perfects that Ta’Zan had mentioned. Based on what I’d seen in the sky the night before, the full moon was only a couple of days away. That alone had been enough to throw me into a frenzy.
We couldn’t mess up now.
“You’re lying,” Ta’Zan breathed, clearly unable to process this information.
“I’ll introduce you,” I retorted.
Oh, it had definitely worked. I now had to make sure things didn’t get out of hand back in the diamond dome. We couldn’t have Ta’Zan lingering down there for long. Things were already on the move out here.
I just couldn’t help but worry, as I wondered what impact this revelation would have on Bogdana.
Elonora
“How long will Ta’Zan keep Derek up there?” I asked, nervously staring at the double doors, praying he would walk through them any minute now.
Corrine, Ibrahim, Kailani, and Lumi took their positions at the cardinal points, with their backs pointing east, west, north, and south, respectively. Hunter and Dmitri had drawn the required symbols with pieces of chalk they’d managed to hide in their inner pockets, guided by Lumi. The rest of us made sure to spread out and obscure the view from above.
We couldn’t have Perfects peeking in and noticing lines and symbols drawn on the diamond floor, after all. Rose and Nevis were with me in the middle. Vivienne, Xavier, Sofia, Lucas, Marion, and Avril had joined us, while Cameron, Liana, Aiden, Grandma Claudia, Grandpa Yuri, and Varga surrounded us. Draven, Serena, Heron, and his wards, along with Taeral, Bijarki, and the others, formed the outer circle.
“I don’t know, but I hope it’s not too long,” Sofia replied. She breathed a heavy sigh. “We need him back here. I think our witches and warlock are ready.”
