Retribution, p.6
Retribution, page 6
CHAPTER TEN
ELLIE
Where was he? Why did Zach run off like that?
Zach, Cor, and I had known each other for quite some time. Then when Cor and I started dating, he felt uneasy around us. He became distant, and although we did a lot together, he didn’t seem to enjoy it as much as he had before then. I never asked him about it as I was young and stupid and wasn’t sure what was going on. Also, perhaps, I was more thinking about Cor and our life together. I wanted Zach there too, of course, but I dreamed of marriage and having a family with Cor. I should have asked though, but even if he was sometimes distant, he never lashed out like this.
Then again, after everything we had gone through, it was probably a mistake to kiss Cor. I had missed him. And part of me still dreamed of the future we were supposed to have.
That future was taken away from us. I shouldn’t keep wishing for it. I needed to move on. I needed to help save the world.
Just like the world tried to help us in our time of need.
It didn’t. No one helped us. They watched as our world was destroyed. They threw us in the mud, didn’t help any refugees. They treated us like garbage. Why should we help them? Why shouldn’t we let them destroy each other? Then whoever is left of the Kausians can inherit the world.
If there were many of us left, that was.
I wasn’t even sure how many Kausians were left. I had run into a couple of them over the years. They were afraid—hiding in the shadows and praying that no one would notice them. Although we tended to keep to the shadows when Kaus was still standing, it was a bit different now. Now we knew there was no home to go back to.
Letting a long breath out, I knew I couldn’t just let this slide. Innocent people would be caught in the middle, not to mention the person we needed to stop was the person who destroyed my kind. Whether I truly wanted to help others or if it was because I wanted to make him pay, I wasn’t sure.
As I turned down the next hallway, I saw a group of men surrounding someone. I quickly backed up around the corner so they wouldn’t notice me. I knew better than to get into a fight here, especially when there was no easy way to leave this zone. I debated if I should turn and pretend I hadn’t seen anything. I knew it wasn’t Zach as I would have seen a flash of his red hair. But was I certain of that?
On the other hand, how many times had I gotten roped into the middle of other people’s affairs simply because I decided to step in to save the day? Sometimes I was just in the vicinity and people decided to take me down with them. No, I should just walk away and keep searching for Zach.
But it wouldn’t hurt to get a peek of what was going on. A group of four guards had a bag over someone’s head. Did someone break in? If they were breaking in, they definitely had chosen the wrong set of clothes as what they were wearing wasn’t good for sneaking around in. The person was wearing a light aquamarine robe that was long and ornate. Then it hit me. I knew that clothing.
It was Gabe.
Why would his own people capture him like that? The people surrounding him were definitely guards as they were wearing the same uniform as the ones at the front had been. Whether they stole them or were actually guards, I had no idea. Either way, it was apparent they were with Byron.
We were in trouble.
How did he find us? How did he already know where we were headed? Did he send out an alert the moment we left to everyone? Or had he known we were headed this way?
Or had the guards been alerted a long time ago to kidnap Gabe if he ever went home?
That was the constant fear that Gabe lived with. That was why he’d run away. Although different circumstances, I understood what he went through. We were constantly targeted wherever we went.
But first thing was first, I had to get Gabe out of this. I had to figure out how to take them out and get him to safety.
I cursed under my breath. This wasn’t going to be easy—not with so many guards and the fact I did not have my gun on me. Granted, I had three knives, which would give me some advantage, but it wasn’t as easy to stop someone with a knife as it was with a gun. What I needed was Cor or Zach to back me up, but I had neither at the moment.
Where could they be?
I didn’t know this palace that well, so going to find them and then trying to figure out where these men were taking Gabe wouldn’t be the best plan. Biting my lip, I knew what I needed to do—I had to follow these men, figure out where they were going to take Gabe, then go get some backup. If I charged in now, a lot of problems could arise. We all needed to come up with a plan.
Staying as far behind the guards as I could without losing sight of them, I ventured down the corridor, careful to be quiet and unseen. They kept checking behind their backs, which made me have to hop quickly between places to hide. Luckily there were quite a few large vases on this level, along with some statues and whatnot. Thank goodness rich people like this loved to decorate.
They made their way to one of the side stairwells and led Gabe down the stairs. I couldn’t imagine that was easy being blindfolded. I quietly followed them down. The sound of their steps echoed in the stairwell, so as long as I could hear them, I knew they were going down the stairs.
The tricky part was following them without them hearing me.
I only went down a couple of steps before I realized it would be best if I hiked up my robe. The shoes Gabe had given me had a soft sole, luckily, so I didn’t make a sound as I stepped. I was careful to watch how fast I was going so that I didn’t come up on them but also didn’t want to lag so far behind that I didn’t know which exact floor they got off at.
We passed floor after floor, and I did my best to keep from breathing heavily. It had been a while since I climbed a steep hill and even longer since I used this many stairs. My legs were going to hurt tomorrow.
I eventually heard the sound of their steps and Gabe’s struggles stop. I quickened my pace and checked the third and second floor to find that they weren’t there. Hurrying to the first floor, I found them guiding Gabe down the hall. I hid behind a statue and watched as they opened a door and entered.
So that was where they were going to keep him.
Now the question was who in the world orchestrated all this? Had it been Byron, or did Gabe have more big enemies than he thought? I had to hope it was Byron for the sake of all this staying a bit more simple.
I waited a little bit to see if there would be anyone leaving. No one left the room, so I had to assume they were tying him up. The fact this was the ground level would be helpful in remembering where he was as I went and searched for Zach and Cor.
As I headed back to the stairwell, I caught sight of a few of the guests who were coming in for the banquet. There was a woman who had braided her hair in shapes that disobeyed the laws of physics. I couldn’t imagine how much hair spray and gel was in her hair. With her was a man with short hair with a matching dark gray robe. Both the robes also had birds depicted on them.
I could only imagine what beautiful things I would see tonight.
But that was not what I needed to focus on at that moment. I needed to help Gabe and figure out why his own people had abducted him.
And whether we needed to get out of there as fast as we could.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ZACH
I wasn’t acting like a child, and I knew it.
That was always his insult to me. I just enjoyed keeping a childlike innocence, not to mention I loved to stay excited about things instead of so-called acting like an adult and not having joy in life.
But in this case, that wasn’t what he meant. He was saying I was acting like a kid because I had run off. I didn’t want to stay with him any longer. He was pissing me off, and I was afraid I would do something rash.
I just couldn’t stand by and watch Ellie go through having her heart broken again. It took weeks, months even, for her to have any resemblance to living normally, if one could even call it that. I knew we had found out the truth—how Cor had been tricked—but that didn’t mean I was going to stand by and watch him play with her heart all over again.
It would have been different if he didn’t have another partner. But now he had Gabe, so there was no reason to be doing what he was doing. No, he was just playing a game. He didn’t understand love. I doubted after everything he ever could.
Not when he had so much guilt on his conscience.
But I still shouldn’t have acted so rashly. I knew it also had to do with some jealousy I had felt since I was a kid. While I didn’t want a relationship like they did, I also didn’t want to be excluded or forgotten by them. I always felt that they were going to go on with their lives and leave me behind. Then I would be alone. Just like I had been before Ellie came along.
Kind of like what Gabe went through as a kid.
So I understood why he was hanging on to Cor, just like Ellie, and like how I was with Ellie. None of us wanted to lose each other after everything we had been through. We were all each other’s lifeline, so to speak, and after this was over, I feared the connections would change.
Problem was, would it be for the better or for the worse?
Granted, we had to survive all this first, which was easier said than done. But we would find a way to live—we always would. Whether it would mean we would win this war was another story.
I turned around another metal corridor and found I had no idea where I was. At least it was quite a beautiful hallway on this level. The marble was a blue color with lots of large orange vases and white statues. I glanced at one of the plaques of the statues and discovered it was of some politician back in the day. I wondered what sort of things he saw and did and whether he was a good person or not.
If I knew anything about politicians, probably not.
Bringing my attention back to the present, I ventured down the hallway some more. I didn’t remember these colored walls on the level that Gabe was at, so I figured he wouldn’t be here.
Heading up another level, I found that the walls were darker. I sort of remembered this dark of walls and figured this had to be it, although I didn’t know where his room was. I sighed. I should have stayed with Cor, but I was too mad at him still. And because I figured he was pretty mad at me as well. No one likes to be called out on their toxic behavior—I knew I sure didn’t. But he really needed to be as he was making a big mistake.
There was no way this was going to end well for any of them. I just didn’t want to see Ellie cry again, but I had a feeling she would. And I would be there for her, just like I always was.
Stepping up to one of the glass walls, I stared out at the water. This place was really quite beautiful, as were all its people. I couldn’t believe that it was all built underwater. It knew it had been hundreds of years since it was built, but its grandeur still astonished me. I wasn’t good at comparing sizes and knew it was much smaller than other zone’s capitals, but it was at least a quarter of the size of the human capital, which was saying a lot. There were sections that were being updated and other parts that were being expanded. If I remembered correctly, there was an underwater mine a few miles away that had a lot of this metal, of which they used here and sold up on Mu for different materials and such. Glass, of course, was made from all the sand.
I assumed that the Sirians imported some types of food, this marble, and material for different types of clothing. I wondered how much had changed when they started communicating with Mu again. I knew that at a time they had lived on the oceans but found a way to stay down here for long periods of time. It was interesting how cultures could change like that.
Until one culture was completely shunned and then destroyed because of lies.
I watched as purple and yellow fish swam close to the glass. I tapped at the glass, and the fish swam closer to where my finger was. I moved it back and forth and the fish followed it, which made me smile a bit.
The fish were more abundant here than birds on land. There were so many different types of creatures underwater, and they all fascinated me. There were small ones and large ones, and the best part about it all was that since I was behind the glass, the large ones couldn’t get me. I couldn’t say the same about bears in the wild. There was never any glass between us and the bears, unfortunately.
As I stared out into the ocean, I heard a voice behind me. “Zach, where in tarnation have you been?”
I turned and gave Ellie an innocent grin. “I’m sorry. I ran off and then I got lost. But at least you found me.”
She folded her arms in front of her. “Seriously? Do you have any sense of direction?”
“None whatsoever.”
She sighed. “Have you seen Cor? We have a bit of a problem.”
I frowned a little. “Yeah, we had an argument, and then went our separate ways.”
“Seriously? Are the two of you daft? We’re in a place that doesn’t like Kausians, and you split up? Why are men such idiots?”
I gave her a shrug. “Because we are. Haven’t you learned anything over the past few years?”
Ellie rolled her eyes. “Anyway, to the important topic. Gabe has been kidnapped, and we need to either find Cor and get our weapons or just go get our weapons and save him.”
My eyes widened. “Wait, what? Kidnapped?”
She nodded. “Yup, saw it all myself—and saw where they took him. Hopefully they are those villains who reveal everything to the captor thinking they could never escape so we know exactly what is going on.”
“Hopefully. That always helps. It’s usually about a seventy-five percent chance they do that.”
“Right. Let’s get back to our room, hope Cor is there, but either way, we need to grab some weapons in order to help Gabe.”
I followed Ellie as she turned down the hallway. She turned two corners, and I realized how close I really was. Was it an improvement that I was getting closer to where I needed to go, or was it still bad that I couldn’t find my way back when I was this nearby? Either way, it was definitely something I needed to work on and stop relying on Ellie.
Ellie opened the door and found that the room was quiet. There was no sign of Cor, which didn’t surprise me. He probably went somewhere to be all angsty like he normally did.
“Damn it, Cor, where are you?” Ellie cursed under her breath.
I followed her to our room, and she pulled out our guns that we had brought with us and some of the tranks we purchased before we got on the ship down here.
“We’ll need our guns for sure. I want to be in and out quickly without anyone noticing or coming as backup…”
“How do you think we can do this without being noticed?” I asked as I grabbed my gun Lucky Susan.
Ellie quickly changed into her old clothes. “Well, first we need to get into clothes with more mobility, and then we’ll have to make our way through the air ducts.”
I sighed. Why did it always have to be air ducts?
CHAPTER TWELVE
GABE
Why did I keep finding myself in these predicaments? Seriously, it was getting annoying.
Who was even after me here? I would get a look at them once we arrived to wherever they were taking me—then I would know. Or at least I would see who actually grabbed me. And then, from there, I could figure out what was going on.
I had no idea how I was going to get out of this one. The others didn’t know when I would be back, nor did they know anything about this place to find me. It wasn’t as if they could ask around and get any info, as they were not from this place and no one knew them or trusted them. No, I was royally screwed.
We turned to the stairwell, and the men led me down the stairs. I tried to shove them and make them lose their footing in hopes they would let me go, but that only led to me almost falling. The guards were kind enough to stop me from doing that. I tried to be as loud as I could without completely screaming as I knew that would just lead to them beating me. I didn’t want that. But if someone overheard some thrashing around, perhaps then they would come and help me. Maybe.
I was just glad they didn’t abduct my sister as well. It was clear they only wanted me. If they wanted her, they would have grabbed us both at the same time. Whoever it was didn’t want to harm her, so it was definitely not an attack against the country—just an attack against me.
At least my family would be all right. I hoped.
I wondered if they were going to go after Cor and the others. If that were the case, and they were able to escape or take down their attackers, then they would come for me. I hoped that was indeed true and someone knew where I had gone. Otherwise, this was going to be a long day.
It didn’t seem like they wanted me dead, which was a good thing. They could have killed me already and dumped my body somewhere. Or perhaps someone specific wanted to do the honors. One couldn’t rule that out.
Like my uncle.
We were now on the first floor. Since this place was my home, I could tell where these men were taking me. If I wasn’t mistaken, we were nearing the guard’s break room. That didn’t bode well for wanting them to help us take down Byron—especially since he was probably the one who was behind this. Apparently he had all the military under his control.
I should have known it was a mistake coming here. I’d just thought I could count on my mother.
We took another turn, and yeah, we were definitely in the guard’s break room. The men slammed me down into a chair and then tied my body to the chair. I didn’t resist as I knew there was no point—they outnumbered me and I wasn’t exactly the best at fighting with my fists. I made a mental note to work on that.
The hood came off, and I found half a dozen guards in the room, glaring at me. Their eyes were all dark, and they watched me intently as if I were supposed to do something magnificent.
I smiled a little as I spotted one of the guards who was at the front gate. “And here I thought you didn’t recognize me. Turns out you just didn’t want to let on the fact that you did know me and were ordered to abduct me. Let me guess. Byron?”
