Ki Book One (13 page)

“
I’m sure they are. I’m...
sorry.”

“
I really don’t think you are,” she
challenged him, “remember, I said I’m skilled at reading emotion. I
know when someone is lying to me.”

That shut him up. Instead of pushing her
further, he cleared his throat and tried to concentrate on their
trek instead.

He led her to the river, waited for her to
drink as much as she needed, and looked away as she washed her
feet. They were very red and swollen.

Once she was finished, they headed for the
nearest cave mouth.

They reached it just as the sun began to dip
below Paladin Mountain above them.

As they entered the large and daunting cave
mouth, a chill raced down his spine. It was not just at the
prospect of the dark cavity before them; he swore he heard a
hissing, humming sound from behind.

Far off, it appeared to be drifting along
with the wind from the east, back in the direction of the town.

Turning with the scanner held tightly in his
hand, he waved it in the direction of the sound.

Nothing appeared on the screen, but that
did not quell his nerves. “We should hurry up.” Nodding to the
entrance, he all but pushed Ki through.

Though this cave mouth was large, after
several steps they were deep within its dark shadow.

He’d been caving occasionally, and every
time he’d taken the right equipment. Ropes, harnesses, and powerful
head-mounted torches.

This time all he had was a scanner, a
futuristic gun, and a hobbling priestess.

Staying at the back as he pushed Ki in front
of him, one hand on her shoulder to encourage her pace, he waved
the scanner behind them.

With every step the device’s range reduced;
those blue outlines darting over the screen became less complicated
as they visualized a shorter range until all that was displayed was
several meters in every direction.

It was only then that he let out the tight
breath trapped in his chest.

“
I think we’ll be safe from their scanners
now,” he wiped at the sweat over his brow, drying it before it
could chill. The cave system was always cold.

The low temperatures, however, would not be
their primary concern.

The further they went, the less the light
from the entrance would reach them. Though his gun and scanner let
off a faint glow, navigating by them alone would mean painfully
slow and treacherous progress.

As if to prove his point, Ki tripped sharply
to the side with a gasp. Though she righted herself, she was lucky
not to have cracked her knee on the jagged rocks below.

“
This might not work,” he cursed. “We just
don’t have enough light. If only I’d managed to keep that lamp from
last night....”

“
Just turn up the setting on the gun. I
used to watch the soldiers in my compound. There should be some
kind of pressure pad just above the barrel. It sets the power
rating... I think. Anyway, the higher it is, the more the barrel
will glow.”

Pulling the gun’s strap off his shoulder, he
turned the weapon up, careful to point the muzzle away from Ki as
he explored it.

“
It’s just above the barrel,” she repeated,
leaning close to him to point it out.

The slight blue glow from it played against
her fingers, lighting up those delicate tattoos on each of her
fingertips. It also shone up against her throat, emphasizing the
line of her neck.

Momentarily distracted, he let her work.
After seconds she found the pad she was talking about and pressed
it down. The gun gave the slightest kick in his hand and he almost
dropped it from his surprise.

“
It’s okay. I’m pretty sure it’s fine,” she
said.

Twisting the gun away from her, he sought
out the pad and pressed it himself. It was uniquely sensitive. He’d
never touched a mechanism like it. Just a light press up towards
the top of the gun and it would kick slightly as the power setting
hummed up, the glow from the barrel brightening measurably. At the
top setting it sent out so much light that he could easily see the
cavern around him for at least three or four meters. If he pressed
towards the base of the gun, the setting dropped, the gun’s glow
going so low he could hardly see his own hands as he clutched
it.

“
How long will this thing last at full
illumination? Several hours? Minutes?” he returned the gun to the
power level that offered the best visibility and shifted closer to
Ki, nodding at her.

“
I don’t think they run out... inside is a
fragment of a levitation crystal. That’s why it’s so
light.”

“
Fragment? How large?” he couldn’t contain
his sudden enthusiasm. At the thought he’d lost another of those
strange devices last night, he’d been ready to condemn himself.
They would hold the secret to what those soldiers were and where
they came from.

“
Nothing more than dust really. The
crystals are very powerful. It takes one the size of my palm to
lift a scout vessel. It takes one the size of a man to lift a
city.”

His features screwed up in
disbelief
. “A
city?”

“
I know you think I’ve made this all up and
the Zeneethians aren’t real. But I know where I’ve been...”
trailing off, she took an audible swallow, “I remember where they
took me.”

A city
... in the sky.

“
Why wouldn’t we have seen them? The
Zeneethians with their floating cities, why wouldn’t we have
spotted then with our telescopes?”

She shrugged her
shoulders
. “They move
the cities. They hardly ever keep them over land. Though I can’t be
certain, I think they are nearly all over the massive southern
ocean.”

“
Why wouldn’t a vessel have noticed
them?”

“
They can control the weather around them.
They can also land them back into the ocean... though I never saw
that actually happen, I only overheard the scientists talking about
it. They can even take them higher,” she tipped her head up,
reaching a little above her.

“
How high? You don’t mean to space, do you?
Because that’s preposterous. They wouldn’t have any atmosphere. The
ionizing radiation would soon kill everyone if they didn’t run out
of air first or float off to have the vacuum of space pop them like
a blood-filled balloon.”

She receded at his colorful description,
turning her nose down
.
“I don’t have all the answers. I can’t say for sure why no one has
ever seen one of those floating cities from the ground. I just know
what I saw. I also know that those legends must have come from
somewhere. Maybe long ago they could not shield their cities from
view, but as Tarkan and Ashkan technology has developed, so has the
Zeneethians. Maybe they are always several steps ahead of
us.”

What she was saying sounded plausible, if
you could ignore every law of physics in the natural universe, that
was. Gravity could not be locally turned off. Neither could a city
move into space.

“
I know this is hard to believe. But look
at what you are holding,” she gestured at the scanner in his hand.
“Can you explain that? It is decades beyond any technology we
have.”

He snorted
. “Decades? Try centuries. This device can
calculate and measure like a human brain, but over impossible
distances. It possesses visualization capacities that I can’t
describe....”

“
Is it so hard to believe that a race that
possesses devices like these could float a city?”

Frustrated, he frowned
deeper
. “That’s not the
same thing. The power involved would be astronomical.”

“
Yesterday you floated into the air with
nothing more than a crystal. Have you forgotten that?”

About to reply, he stopped. She had a
point.

“
I don’t understand how it all works...”
she sighed carefully, “all I know is I don’t want to go back.” She
turned and began to head further into the cave, anchoring her hands
on the large rocks around her and moving over the rough terrain as
best she could.

Her statement was poignant, and it still
rang in him long after she’d walked away.

He couldn’t imagine what she’d been through.
Probably because he argued with every fact she shared.

Drawing into a long and pensive silence,
they headed deep into the cave. Their trek should take no more than
two days. They would have to find water, and he was confident they
would. As for food, they would have to do without. It was not
ideal, but considering what they were up against it was the best he
could hope for.

Moving side by side where they could,
sharing the illumination of the glowing gun barrel, they clambered
over the stones. Their shadows were cast long over the uneven walls
and ceiling, distorted and elongated, they gave the cave a dark
ominous feeling.

Though perhaps it was not the shadows that
set his teeth on edge, igniting his nerves. It was the prospect of
what would happen when they reached the other side.

How would he get Ki to the city? When he was
there, then what? Would he swan into the Royal Academy, take apart
this gun, and easily glean its secrets? No doubt it would take a
large, dedicated team decades to understand it, let alone reverse
engineer one.

Worse than that, what would he do with Ki?
If he took her to the authorities, those futuristic soldiers would
appear hours later. Though it was just a theory, he assumed they
were capable of monitoring all forms of radio communication,
possibly even telephony. If a message was sent anywhere, using any
technology more sophisticated than a carrier pigeon, those soldiers
would find out about it. So it was imperative that he kept Ki a
secret.

A Tarkan woman... by showing her around
the capital city and into the Academy, he’d be committing an act of
treason. Had that really dawned on him yet? Could he live with
that? Technically betray his own people for her?

As he thought deeply, battling with his
conscience, he noticed Ki slow down to glance at him. She had that
same look of concentration puckering her brow and smoothing out her
pink lips.

Was she reading his emotions? At least she
couldn’t read his actual thoughts. No doubt she would ditch him if
she found out he was still undecided about what he’d do with her
once they reached the city.

Trying to control his expression, he
continued to press on. Try as he might, he could not control his
thoughts though. His mind ran over every possibility, entertaining
each strategy he could take. In truth, he liked none of them, but
when he reached the capital, he would do something.

If he reached the capital.

Chapter Eight

It was hard going. Her feet throbbed. Every
step sent shooting pain up her ankles and high into her legs. She
desperately wanted to stop, rest, and find a cool pool to soak her
swollen and hot heels and toes in. She did not say a word about it
though. She doubted he would notice even if she did; he’d spent
hours with his face twisted up in deep thought.

Battling his demons. She’d seen men with
expressions like that before. She recognized how heavy and
thoughtless his movements where. His body walked while his mind was
elsewhere. All too often he stumbled, only to curse, right himself
and continue on with more alertness. But his attention would slip
and that tight frown would return.

She tried not to watch him, but often she
couldn’t help it. She would find some excuse to glance his way,
whether it was to check her feet, to tuck her hair behind her ear,
or to pause to catch her breath.

Though she was terribly hungry and a
pounding headache was marching through her forehead, his obvious
emotional turmoil was enough to distract her from all that. She
couldn’t help but feel he was thinking about her. More to the
point, what he would do with her once they reached the other side
of this cave system.

Though he’d promised he would help her
through this, she understood it was likely an empty offer. She’d
watched him carefully whenever he’d spoken of the war and his
hatred of her people – memories and feelings like that do not ebb
easily. They would be deeply rooted within his identity. He would
see himself as a warrior who had fought against the Tarkan threat,
who had kept their evil at bay.

A few days with her could not change that,
no matter how hard she prayed for it.

Their trust would have to be a tentative one
for now. If either of them lived long enough, maybe one day, given
time, it would become more.

As she thought, she brushed her hands up and
down her arms, warming the skin. It was frigid cold in this cave
system. Though she was thankful that her feet weren’t bare anymore,
she would have cherished having her long and thick sleeves
back.

A few times he’d offered her his shirt, but
of course she’d declined. Not only would it leave his torso exposed
to this fell chill, it would be entirely inappropriate.

After several hours of solid walking, she
began to trip more and more. The pain from her feet had warped into
an insidious, numb feeling that crawled up her legs, sabotaging her
balance. Trying to be more careful, she secured herself with one
hand on the cave wall whenever she could. It was not enough though,
and soon she slipped down hard, slamming her right thigh into a
jagged rock below.

Jackson had wandered a step or two ahead,
but he snapped around immediately, trying to catch her. It was too
late though.