The Haunted Way (Champions of the Crystal Book 5)

Chapter 8.5

"We're on course," Scotty said, nudging the pod's thrusters a bit. "Are you sure you want to start with Ricar's beacon? I don't like that they're so spread out. And he's likely to be in the worst of it."

"The worst of it is where we have to go," Mara said through gritted teeth.

"Is it bad?"

"The dissonance is becoming more pronounced as we near the planet," she said. "I am expending increasing energy to keep it cancelled out."

"You just do that, and I'll take care of the rest," Scotty promised. "Hang on. At this speed we might skip off the outer atmosphere a little, but I don't want to risk being spotted by any of those nasty looking battle cruisers. Ugly as ever. You'd think they'd have grown a design sense in the last century."

"I cannot spare the energy to make conversation, Scotty," Mara bit out.

"Right. Sorry." Scotty adjusted his grip on a holding strap as the pod lurched sharply. "Here we go."

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Danask kept her eye on the positioning beacon in her helmet readout as she ran, noting that she was no longer having to work to keep up with Sabrina, whose longer legs had initially given her the advantage. She was tiring, Danask knew. They could not run all the way back to the capsule, and Bendei, bringing up the rear, could only hold off so many pursuers. They had to find cover. Danask pulled up a topographical map and tried to figure out which direction was most promising.

It took her a few strides to notice that Sabrina had tripped and fallen. As Danask turned to help her, Sabrina sobbed, "No! No!"

"What is it? Are you hurt?" Danask knelt beside her. "My lady, are you hurt?"

"Get away from her!" a voice snarled, and a rough hand knocked Danask aside.

"Who—" Danask yelped in shock, before realization set in. She brought up her stunner and was knocked flat by a burst of energy. Bendei drew his stunner on the run, but before he could take aim, the Emperor flung him back with another burst.

"Let them be!" Sabrina cried. "They are only helping me!"

"Why did you run?" the Emperor demanded, pulling her to her feet and shaking her. "You told me you would stay!"

"Not with them! Not to help you do this horrible thing!"

"I am only trying to ensure our survival!"

"You will only doom us! Like the last time!"

"Don't be—" he broke off as a whooshing sound came from overhead. A moment later, the ground under their feet shook with a tremendous impact, sending a cloud of dirt into the air in the direction Sabrina had come from. The Emperor staggered and clutched at his head.

"What is it?" Sabrina cried, alarmed.

"Nothing. I am fine. We must go and make sure Malvarak is not hurt."

"No! I won't go back!" She turned to run, but he caught her arm. Her momentum spun her to one side, and she fell. A sharp impact against her hip reminded her of the blaster she had taken from the guard at the house, and she drew it.

"You won't," he said grimly.

She blinked back tears. "I can't," she agreed. "I can't stop you. But I can stop it for me." She turned the blaster on herself.

The Emperor reached out a hand, but nothing happened. Frowning in consternation, he said, "Stop this. You are only bluffing and wasting time."

"I am not bluffing," she said. Her finger tightened on the trigger.

The Emperor lunged forward and tackled her, struggling for a grip on the weapon. The muddy ground hindered them both, but Sabrina managed to keep her hold, kicking out strongly to keep him from pinning her.

"Stop this! Stop it! I don't understand!" he cried.

"You never did!" she retorted. "You never wanted to, because it meant you would have to feel guilty!"

"I want to now!" he pleaded. "Stop this! Give me the weapon and explain it to me. Please! You can't—you can't leave me alone. You promised!"

That struck a chord, and she hesitated, just long enough for him to twist the blaster from her grip. He staggered to his feet, and they stared at each other, trying to catch their breaths.

"Malvarak is using you," Sabrina said at last. "He has his own agenda. It's his fault you are this way, and he thinks he can use me to force you to go along, if he can't trick you into doing it. He told me so. He told me if I didn't help, he would kill me and blame it on others. And then you would kill innocents in revenge. He said he would frame Mara for it."

"Who—oh. Your friend." His tone made it clear he considered her delusional.

"Why won't you give me a chance?"

"Kesta—"

"I am not Kesta! And I can prove it this time."

"How?"

"A little ways off is someone who knows me. She stayed with a wounded soldier who came here to rescue us. She will tell you who I really am, and what is really happening."

He sighed. "All right. We will go and see this person, if she exists. And then we will go and see what happened to our allies."

Sabrina snorted, but she got to her feet and nodded.

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"Clear!" Scotty called, sweeping the room with his blaster. Then he added, "We've got people down."

"Let me see," Mara said. "I cannot spare much energy, but maybe I can help." She knelt beside Ricar. "His back is broken. His suit is holding him immobile—we should put him into stasis as soon as possible." She moved across the room to Amoret. "She has a skull fracture and some bleeding in her brain."

"Can you help her?"

Mara carefully removed Amoret's helmet and placed her hands on her head. Closing her eyes, she concentrated for a few minutes. "There. I do not know if she will regain consciousness, however; she may require surgery."

"Well, let's seal this place up—" Scotty began, but broke off when Amoret sucked in a deep breath and blinked.

"Whasshappnin," Amoret moaned.

"Hey there," Scotty said. "Don't worry. We're going to fix you up as soon as we round up everybody else."

Amoret winced. "Others...after Dr. Grayson. Sabrina. Going south. Ricar?"

"Alive," Scotty said. "Look. You just rest here, okay?"

"There were so many of them," Amoret sighed, closing her eyes again.

"Scotty," Mara said softly. "I have to go. Stay here with them. See if you can find the Pharon crystal. It's nearby; I can feel it."

"Right," Scotty said. "Good luck."

She patted his shoulder with a grim smile and stood up. Scotty looked after her as she left, then checked his helmet readout. "Guess we scared everybody else off," he said to Amoret's unconscious form. "Well. What direction feels twitchiest?"

He paced the perimeter of the room, trying to feel variations in the dissonance he was experiencing. When that failed, he cast a reluctant glance at his wounded comrades and headed upstairs. A methodical search of the second level produced nothing, and he went back to check on Amoret and Ricar again before going up to the third. An open window with climbing gear still attached showed him how at least one of them had gotten into the building.

"I can't believe their security was this lax," he muttered to himself, getting an uneasy feeling. "Something else is going on...."

"Quite right," said a familiar voice behind him.

Scotty turned around to find Malvarak in the doorway, smiling. He sighed, "Oh, crap."