Zabb quirked an amused eyebrow at the tall human, but there was no answering smile from Meadows. Apparently he did not find Tisianne’s little fidgets as entertaining as Zabb did.
She led him to the family laboratories, and opening the door to the cells, she yanked out a Vayawand soldier.
“Look at this,” she ordered, displaying the man with the air of a person presenting a prize fish.
“He’s… ah, quite… something.”
“Don’t you see? It means Jay is still alive and at large.” She caught herself with an annoyed frown. “Of course, you don’t care about that -”
“You’re quite right there -”
“But at least I can begin to breathe again, and if nothing else you have a source for intelligence.”
Zabb again eyed the frightened soldier. “One could have wished for a somewhat more highly placed officer.”
“Gee,” said Meadows. “We’ll let Jay know the next time he checks in. This is a real drag, but I think you better, like, up the timetable for evacuating the kids. Blaise is going to be bringing the fight to us next.”
“You’re probably right,” Zabb said.
“Well, do something!” Tis demanded.
And before he could inquire as to just what she had in mind, there was a soft pop, and a pulse rifle appeared in the cell and went clattering to the floor.
Chapter Thirty-Five
It was a cocktail party from hell. They were aboard an elaborately decorated ship that had obligingly given them a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view. It was like sitting on a chair balanced on a plate in the blue black stratosphere. Kelly, already queasy from the sights and smells of his first battle, was not handling this too well. His head flared pain in time to the beating of his heart.
Blaise lounged in a thronelike chair with the notables of House Vayawand fluttering about him. Tarhiji servants drifted about with trays of food and drink.
Why are they doing this? Why are they listening to him? Nothing’s changed, thought Kelly. They’re still the cannon fodder, only now they get to die in much larger numbers. There’s going to be nothing left of Takis when Blaise is finished.
Durg entered and, crossing to Blaise, bent in low and whispered something. A smile broke across the too-full lips. Blaise stood.
“Ladies and gentlemen. Every great victory should be celebrated with fireworks. I give you” – he gestured toward the sleek curving side of the elevator visible out the left side of the ship – “Raiyis Blaise’s patented fireworks!”
The circular tube of the elevator seemed to be trying to hula. Then, under the stresses of gravitational pull and orbital spin, it snapped. Capsules spilled like seeds from a pollinating dandelion. The upper section made a bid for orbital stability. The lower section continued to shatter under the force of the collapse. Each piece and the capsules flared like sparklers as they burned up in the atmosphere.
It created a lovely light display for half the inhabitants of Takis, but a deadly skyfall for the inhabitants of Ban. Because several thousand feet of this thing wasn’t going to burn up. It was going to collapse like a cut sequoia, crushing everything in its path.
Kelly rose and snatched a glass from a passing servant. “Here’s to Raiyis Blaise’s patented genocide!”
Durg hit him in the mouth.
And the party was very definitely over.
Everybody had gotten very excited when the troops pulled out of the center of Ban. Terrified citizens came creeping out of hidey-holes, and most of the conversations Jay overheard seemed to focus, with desperate self-delusion, on the fact that this had clearly been an aberration. Blaise was a friend and champion of the Tarhiji, he would never send his soldiers against the ordinary folk of Jeban. This had to be an action by some Most Born general. Raiyis Blaise must have discovered his general’s over-zealousness, so the withdrawal was no doubt due to Blaise…
“We can try the elevator now,” Hastet said as they crept from their refuge in the basement of a burned-out building.
“Hasti, forget the goddamn elevator. Blaise did not pull his troops out as an act of kindness. He’s up to -”
But what Blaise might be planning was lost as a sound of terrifying and earsplitting magnitude rolled across the city. Jay had heard metal being stressed. This was metal screaming in denial.
They stared at the elevator, gleaming like an ice column, and as they watched, it began to collapse, falling straight down as if compressed by a great hand. Jay flung an arm around Hastet and threw them both to the ground. Illyana let out a squeak of protest as she was crushed against Hastet’s chest. Then all sound ended as a sound beyond hearing assaulted the ears. The ground heaved and bucked, ripping Jay’s arms loose from Hastet. Dirt pattered down on him. Then the shock wave hit, sending Jay rolling across the street like a windblown leaf.
For a long moment it seemed as if the planet itself was shocked into silence, or perhaps it was only a trick as abused ears tried to cope with the cessation of sound. Then the screams and moans and cries for help began.
“Monster. Monster. Monster,” Hastet murmured monotonously as Jay limped to her and hauled her to her feet.
Miraculously she had managed to hang onto Illyana. The baby was screaming her terror. Blood trickled from Hastet’s nose and matted in the hair at her temples. Jay felt the same warm flow against his skin. He wiped it away, blood smearing in the dirt on his face. On Hastet’s face tears left bright runnels in the dirt and blood.
People began running toward the great square… or what had once been the square. All the buildings within a mile radius were leveled, bricks and marble strewn like shattered rose petals after a killing wind.
Other people ducked their heads and slipped away, headed for the city’s edge. Jay and Hastet joined them.
They had been fencing when the whole of House Ilkazam went into a telepathic frenzy. Holostages sprang to life, and a servant brought a portable to the gymnasium.
The elevator fell.
Mark took three steps backward; then his rubbery knees gave out, and he collapsed on the gym floor. Bat’tam bowed his head and stroked the length of his sword like a man quieting a frightened dog.
Tisianne ripped off her mask and flung her sword end over end. It buried its point in the floor and remained upright, swaying slightly. Her face was slick with sweat beading in her brows, stinging the eyes. She licked her upper lip and tasted salt. It made a nasty combination with the rage and fear that roiled in her gut.
Tis started for the door, calling back over her shoulder, “They’ll need food, medical supplies -”
“There’s an army in Ban,” Bat’tam interrupted. “An unfriendly one.”
“I don’t care!” Tis replied.
Mark lurched to his feet. “What is with you? You can’t go there!”
Bat’tam looked at her shrewdly, then said, “You sent your child, the human, and his woman to an elevator. Alaak is in Vayawand hands. Now Ban.”
“Two out of the three, yes, very astute,” Tis said. “And given my luck, the odds are very good that -” Anxiety locked down on her vocal cords, and the words died.
They had hitched a ride with about twenty other refugees in a produce skimmer in from the country. The driver hadn’t been able to unload in Ban, so Jay and Hastet were perched on top of a load of pungent Takisian vegetables. There wasn’t a hell of a lot of conversation – the Takisians all seemed stunned by events – and for once Illyana was mercifully silent. Probably because she had a bottle stuffed in that tiny rosebud mouth.
The countryside was pretty. Jeban lay on the equator, and while it wasn’t what Jay would call tropical, they had left the winter snows of Ilkazam behind. There didn’t seem to be anyplace on Takis without mountains, but these were lower and softer with more gradual slopes covered by a low, thick grass/moss combination. Critters grazed on the hillsides or ruminated beneath squat bonsailike trees.