33: THE FATE OF THE CROSSQUEEN

1K 32 169
                                    


PHOTO above

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

PHOTO above ... HYANTHA



"Wait up, damn it!"

Brad chased after Kyrri down the trail and into the next cave as Saroh and Clint and Jimmy followed right behind. The silence all around them now was heavy and thick, but the cave was not as hot as the one left behind. There was no flowing lava in it, just an intense darkness pierced by the wavering portable light beams.

Brad caught up and he grabbed Kyrri by the shoulder and pulled him to a halt. "C'mon buddy, take it easy. We have to be careful in here. Remember?"

Saroh joined them, his light aimed at Kyrri's face, and they could see the fear in their friend's eyes.

"All right, damn it," the Andromedan boy muttered angrily. Nevertheless, he stepped forward and dragged Brad along, but at a more sensible pace.

"What are the two reasons the soldiers would be chanting?" Brad demanded, light beans flashing ahead now that the others were all behind them.

"There are certain tributes we recite to government and military persons during drill and parades back home on Magnatar," Kyrri explained. "But it wouldn't normally be done on a mission like this ... marching in formation ... especially in a place like these caves."

"And what's the other?" Clint asked from behind, an urgency to his voice because the chanting was now getting louder as they were moving farther into the cave.

Kyrri's voice was tense and shaky. "The only time they'd chant on a mission such as this one is when ... when ... a new leader takes over in charge of the troops. He or she is hailed in a tribute by all the soldiers. It ... it is required because it helps our collective minds acclimate to the change and direct our allegiance to the new leader in charge."

"Well, they're obviously not marching in a parade on Magnatar," Saroh said. "So it must mean that Egron and Hyantha have met and clashed ... and that one of them is ... dead?"

"Yes!" Kyrri was growing more and more agitated as they hurried on. "We must get close enough to understand them. It will be in the words. One of them must now be gone and ... and ... the other now in charge of everything."

"And if it's Egron," Brad shuddered, remembering the big unpleasant reptilian, "we're all totally fucked."

"Right, because he'll keep Malvaggia in the box as his personal slave of destruction," Saroh growled.

"To rape the Earth," Jimmy added, "for his own intergalactic benefit. Which would undoubtedly result in the destruction of the human race."

Caruso gruffed out from behind, "Me an' Rondin. We get 'em both an' strangle 'em fuckin' dead!"

To which Rondin added an emphatic grunt.

Yank asked, "So then Egron would become the General in charge of the intergalactic mission? Fully able to do what he wanted?"

LOST ISLAND | bxb adventureWhere stories live. Discover now