Tardoq and Belrisa crashed through the wall Gate. Both were bloodied, but Tardoq had suffered the worst of the damage. Belrisa took the room at a glance, her eyes narrowing in anger before she kicked Tardoq in the chest, knocking him into the wall. He swung his sword but she caught the weapon against her hammer and twisted, driving the blade against Tardoq’s own throat. Also trapped against the wall, Tardoq growled, his muscles bulging as he tried to push Belrisa away. But the sword inched closer to his jugular.
“Stop!” Mind shouted.
“You would spare this dakorian’s life?” Belrisa snarled. “Do you have any idea how many humans he has killed?”
She used her chin to point at one of her companions, and the man shouted at the vid screen. It glowed to life, filling the wall, but instead of displaying battles in the Bone Crucible, it showed Tardoq.
He stood over a pair of dead human slaves, growling at other humans cowered in the corner of the room. He pointed his hammer to one and they fled, all except a woman, who tried to reach the two bodies.
“You are all the same,” Tardoq sneered, and swung his hammer.
Mind grimaced and turned away, but the image shifted to another scene, where Tardoq killed a man because he would not leave his child. Another image. Another death. The images filled the room, spilling rage in Mind’s gut.
“Enough!” he snarled.
“I know his kind,” Belrisa roared. “Because I was his kind. He will kill any who oppose the Empire. He would kill me and you, every slave and dakorian that defied him.”
“No.”
Tardoq’s voice was broken, drawing all eyes to him. He stared at the screen, his features twisted in the agony of regret. Shocked by the expression, Belrisa retreated, but Tardoq crumpled on the wall. Every wound he’d endured did not compare to what the vid showed. Actual tears formed in his eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his eyes settling on Mind. “For everything that I have done.”
“Tardoq,” Ero said softly. “That’s not you anymore.”
“But it was,” Tardoq spoke with sudden vehemence, and his sword fell from his fingers. “What you see is a fraction of the blood on my hands.”
Mind shook his head. “And yet I trust you, just as Queen Rynda does.”
He grimaced and looked away, and Belrisa shook her head. “Who is this queen you speak of?”
“A member of a race called rock trolls,” Ero said.
“She has the highest caliber of anyone I have ever met,” Tardoq said.
Belrisa made a motion and the vid ended. In the ensuing silence, Belrisa shifted to regard Mind, who suddenly realized he still held the other dakorians pinned against the wall. He swept his hands wide and the lethal shards turned aside from their lethal positions and swirled to him. They merged together, binding into a spear in his hand.
“You speak the truth,” Belrisa marveled. “Magic exists?”
“It does,” Ero said.
Her eyes flicked to him. “Then Lumineia is real?”
“It is,” he replied.
Belrisa released a long breath. To Mind’s surprise, she reached down and offered her hand to Tardoq. He stared at her and shook his head.
“I am not worthy.”
“Neither am I.”
Her soft response conveyed a wealth of pain, a reminder that she too, had killed in the name of the Empire. Tardoq regarded her for a long moment and then accepted her hand. She pulled him to his feet.
“Belrisa?” one of the dakorians asked, rubbing his throat, where a shard of glass had cut a shallow line.
“Prepare our departure,” she said, jerking her head at the wall gate. “Someone will have heard the conflict. They will come to investigate.”
The four dakorians nodded in unison, and departed through the wall Gate. On the other side, Mind spotted them erecting a portable Gate. The two humans remained, and Belrisa pointed to them.
“This is Merana and Drogil, descendants of a woman named Quin, the woman that taught me what it meant to be a protector. She had more dignity than any royal.”
“I learned on Lumineia,” Tardoq said. “We called them slaves, but the more time I spent with them, the more I learned their caliber.”
“I am sorry,” Belrisa said, and then grimaced. “For ages I have lived in caution, and it seems that caution has made me blind against true allies.”
“The guards have been summoned,” the human said, cocking his head to the side as if he were listening. “We must hasten.”
She nodded and pointed to the wall Gate. “If you wish to speak further, we should go. House Torn’Ent likes to punish guests that damage rooms by putting them into the Crucible.”
Mind and Ero exchanged a look, and then followed her from the room. They passed through the wall Gate and into the room beyond. It too had been destroyed by the duel between Belrisa and Tardoq, the walls scorched, the furniture broken and scattered. One balcony had broken, and wind whistled into the interior. A small Gate had been erected in the corner of the room, and the dakorians activated it. One by one they departed, and just as Mind stepped to the Gate a crash echoed in their own quarters. Mind looked back to see several dakorians rushing the room. They caught sight of the wall gate and sprinted to it, but Belrisa tossed a small pulsing object to the Gate. It detonated against the wall, destroying the wall Gate. Belrisa activated another small pulsing sphere and dropped it at their feet. Then she stepped through the Gate. Mind didn’t need to be invited, and stepped into the unknown.
The opposite side proved to be lower in the same structure. Mind looked out the window and upward, where he spotted their previous quarters. Both their and Belrisa’s chambers were in ruins, smoke billowing as guards searched the interior, attempting to find the occupants. Mind grunted in approval. Belrisa had planned her escape with care before setting foot into the room, and her tactical mind was one to be admired.
Belrisa motioned to her soldiers who were setting up a new Gate. “It won’t take them long to figure out where we went. By then, we’ll have departed from this world. You have until then to tell me of Lumineia, and why you think I would help.”
Chapter 25: Rebirth
