Ominous Odyssey (Overworld Chronicles Book 13) (6 page)

"I have extensive training at subterfuge." Issana walked down the stairs toward the pedestal as casually as if she were in her own living room. "This building is exclusively for royalty and military leaders, which is why this war room is so small."

"Are you saying the Brightling leadership lives here?" I asked.

Issana pointed up. "The living quarters are on the third level. The top level is reserved for royalty and the vault."

Elyssa looked skeptical. "So Ambassador Arturo is on the third floor?"

"Why in the hell would they have so few guards here?" I said.

"Because there is nothing of import on this floor," Issana said. "The third and fourth floors each have a dozen soldiers guarding them. They very rarely change their routine which makes it a simple matter to sneak past."

Elyssa pursed her lips and nodded, obviously impressed. "Let's take a look at those gems." She took out her arcphone and began recording a video that we could show Thomas later.

Issana placed the first one on the pedestal. A series of Cyrinthian symbols filled the air. She quickly flicked her fingers, connecting several symbols together to spell the word
Power.

The symbols vanished, replaced by Arturo. He sat in a room with an ornate crystal sculpture of Daelissa behind him, and nothing else. "Legiaros Pagos, I will arrive in two days. By that time, I expect you to have moved out the first two-thirds of your troops to Cabala. I understand your concerns, but a temporary peace is for the best until we have procured what we need to defeat any who stand in our way. We have been commanded into Voltis, and there we will go." The video went blank.

Elyssa bit her lower lip. "I don't like the sound of that at all."

"This is not the first communication concerning Voltis," Issana said. "Two weeks ago, another Legiaros sent a gem to Pagos and asked why they were being sent to invade Voltis."

"Do you have that gem?" Elyssa asked.

Issana shook her head. "They destroy the information every week. That is why I must come here on a regular schedule."

"Let's look at the next one," I said.

Issana put it on the pedestal and used the same password as last time.

"They don't ever change the passcode?" I asked.

"I suppose it is easier to remember," Issana said. "People grow lax and lazy when they believe they have nothing to fear."

A holograph of Arturo once again played. "The Empress is pleased, Legiaros Pagos. Soon, nothing in this realm or the next will stop us."

"I get the feeling Arturo is gonna stab us in the back once they get whatever it is they want from Voltis." I heard footsteps and we dashed back up to the niche to hide until a patrol of four guards sauntered past without a worry in the world.

"What is Voltis?" Elyssa asked.

Issana squinted as if deep in thought. "I asked Neemah, but he said it was nothing I need worry about."

"We need to have a talk with Neemah when we get back," Elyssa said.

"That's impossible." Issana rolled the blue gems around in her palm. "Neemah disappeared after my last report."

"Probably because Cephus got his ass kicked," I muttered. "We need to get out of here. Issana, can you put those gems back in place?"

"Of course." She headed back out to the corridor and went back to the levitation alcove. "I will return shortly."

The wait felt like eternity, but she reappeared in the alcove about ten minutes later and we made our way back out to the perimeter barracks where she'd left her uniform. From there we continued stealthily back to the cliff.

The trip back was uneventful, thanks to the secret passage.

"Does anyone else know about this passage?" I asked when we arrived back at our guest quarters in Kohvalla.

Issana shook her head. "I do not know. There is another one in the Northwestern Pass as well."

Now that her secrets were out, she seemed a lot more mellow, though not entirely likeable. I wondered if removing Cephus's programming from her head might make her more like her mother.

"Now that Neemah is gone, you should be able to leave this place." I held her gaze. "We have a friend named Flava who could use your help."

"I thought you weren't working for Cephus."

"We're not, but since he's dead, you might as well help us." I shrugged. "I mean, unless you see a point to sneaking into the Brightling camp when it sounds like they're abandoning the place."

Issana's forehead pinched into a V. "I think you're right. I could probably help in some other way until the Brightlings return."

I smiled. "Exactly. Take the skyway into Tarissa tomorrow. You'll find Flava in the Ministry of Healing."

Issana held out a hand palm down, fingers splayed. "Take care, Justin Slade."

I returned the gesture. "Take care, Issana."

She turned to Elyssa and repeated the farewell, then channeled her wings and flew away.

"I hope we can trust Issana." Elyssa squeezed my hand. "For all we know, Cephus has more sleeper agents in the village."

"I hope so too." One thing was certain—neither of us would be sleeping soundly tonight.

Chapter 5

We met Thomas in the war room at the base headquarters the next morning. I closed the doorway so no one could intrude on our meeting.

"How'd it go?" Thomas asked.

By the time we finished our story about our kidnapping by Issana, and later, her help procuring the intel we needed, even the stony-faced commander looked a bit confused.

"You think she was brainwashed by Cephus and used to spy on Victrix Legion and the Brightling camp?" Thomas folded his arms and pressed his lips together. "Something tells me that is only part of Issana's story. For one thing, how did Cephus manage to locate the one child of Nightliss in all of Pjurna?"

"There are tons of holes in her story," Elyssa said, "but I think we need to put that aside and consider Voltis and find out why Arturo believes it'll give the Brightlings the edge they need to conquer the world."

He nodded. "Agreed. There's no certainty that this sera is even related to Nightliss. It could be an idea Cephus implanted in her brain for some unknown reason."

I shuddered. "Twisted. Pross held Nightliss captive long enough to probe her mind. Maybe that's how they found out about Issana."

Elyssa checked the time. "Arturo will be arriving at the rendezvous in two hours. What should Justin tell him?"

Thomas switched gears. "Tell him that we must forge a document that is agreeable to both sides. I want to slow the process so we can keep him busy here while we find out more about this Voltis."

"Do you think he'll go for that?" I asked.

"Doubtful, but it's worth a try." Thomas activated his arcphone to display a holographic map and zoomed out to show the continents of Azoris and Sazoris, similar to their geographical counterparts in Eden, North and South America. In this realm, they were both continents and nations, all part of the Brightling Empire, and the land masses were noticeably smaller. Where Florida jutted far south in Eden, it was only a nub here, maybe reaching only as far as Jacksonville. A mountain range occupied the approximate area where the Florida Keys islands dotted the ocean in our home realm.

The capitol city, Zbura, sat atop Mount Hein in this mountain range—an odd location given that it wasn't actually connected to any of the major land masses it ruled. Then again, there were billions of humans on Eden, and only thousands of Darklings and Brightlings total in all of Seraphina. Most of the land was uninhabited, and if the population hadn't grown much in thousands of years, I doubted it would change much over the next thousand.

Longevity tended to have an inverse effect on procreation.

Thomas scrolled to the western coast of Azoris where it appeared most of California and Baja had fallen into the ocean, leaving behind another mountain range and an inhospitable zone marked with aether vortexes. There were no fifty states, just territories and cities. One of the names stuck out to me—Cabala.

"That's where Arturo is moving the troops," I said.

Thomas highlighted the coastline red. "Pjurnan spies have also reported Brightling troops massing there."

Elyssa scrunched her forehead. "But there's nothing to the west but a thousand miles of ocean."

"Precisely." Thomas touched the map legend and dotted blue lines crisscrossed the blue expanse. "These are the trade routes used by the Mzodi, the sky fishers." He touched another part of the legend, and blue ship icons dotted the western coasts of Azoris and Sazoris. "These are their trading ports."

I examined the trading lanes and noticed they veered wide of a large area in the center of the ocean with no markings. "What's there?" I jabbed a finger in the blank space.

"That is the question," Thomas said. "I questioned the Mzodi about the ocean, but they say no one braves the turbulent vortexes at the center of the Castigean Ocean."

But it gets more interesting," Thomas said. "The Mzodi sent me an older map." He switched to another overlay and a new label appeared in the blank space.
Voltis.

"This makes even less sense than before." I scratched my head. "Voltis is in the middle of the ocean. I don't see anything there but water."

Elyssa made a thoughtful sound. "That's roughly where the Hawaiian Islands are in Eden."

I strained my brain to equate Voltis with an English word, but the closest connection I made was the word "eye". I'd been through the Great Barrier Vortex with the sky fishers and it had been enough to scare me witless and beat me senseless. I couldn't imagine how violent the vortexes must be if even the Mzodi wouldn't venture there to harvest gems.

Thomas touched another part of the legend and black dots appeared at the fringes of the red zones around the Great Barrier Vortex off the eastern coast of Pjurna, and all along the trade routes where they intersected the Piscan Vortex off the western coast of Azoris. "These are dragon incursions as mapped by the Mzodi."

I counted at least a hundred. "In his message to Legiaros Pagos, Arturo said that once they had what they wanted, they wouldn't fear anything in this realm or the next. I wonder if they plan to recruit dragons to their cause."

"He looked awfully confident." Elyssa's nose wrinkled. "I can't imagine having to fight dragons."

"Cephus's experiments with the crimson arch likely caused the breaches between Seraphina and Draxadis." Thomas drew a circle around the areas where dragons had been spotted. The highest concentration seemed a few hundred miles south of Voltis. "The Mzodi probably only encountered a tiny percentage of dragons that were drawn through and trapped in Seraphina."

"In other words, that area of the ocean could be swarming with dragons." Elyssa stared at the map. "With dragons added to their legions, the Brightlings would be unstoppable."

It sounded scary and awesome, but something else nagged at me. "How could Cephus's arch experiments have caused a breach way out there?" I traced the route from Tarissa to the middle of the X. "That's over five thousand miles away."

"It's possible during his early experimentation he launched a crystoid into Draxadis by accident." Thomas shrugged. "Shelton and Adam found records indicating there were over eighty test launches before Cephus unleashed the one that destroyed the Tarissan Legion."

"How certain are you that dragons are the threat?" Elyssa asked.

"Thirty percent," Thomas replied. "Justin can move the needle to a hundred if he asks the right questions today."

"Talk about putting me on the spot." I crossed my arms and tried to look confident. "Do I ask Arturo directly or try for subtlety?"

Elyssa laughed. "Babe, you wouldn't know subtle if it bit you in the ass."

"Yeah, but I can try." I stroked my chin in an attempt to look thoughtful. "The dragons we encountered on Cora's ship, the
Evadora
, attacked us immediately. I'm curious how Arturo plans to bargain with creatures like that."

"No telling, but I doubt it'll be as easy as he thinks," Thomas said. "They likely want a non-aggression pact with us so they can fight and tame the dragons with worrying about an attack from the rear."

"There's no way we could get our army out there to fight them," Elyssa said. "Even if we did, the Brightling legions would squash us."

Thomas nodded. "Perhaps we should send our own emissaries instead."

I snapped my fingers. "We ally ourselves with the dragons before Arturo does."

"It's our only hope." Thomas removed the overlay with the current markings and replaced it with another that he, Elyssa, and the other Templar commanders had been working on—Operation Dark Day, the invasion of Zbura.

Pjurna was halfway around the world from Azoris, and Zbura was on the eastern coast of the enemy nation. Located approximately where Sydney, Australia sat in Eden, Tarissa seemed impossibly far from the enemy capitol. We'd have to ferry our troops all the way across the Castigean Ocean and through the Great Barrier Vortex, cross the island chains connecting Azoris and Sazoris, and then hook north to reach the destination.

On top of that, we didn't have the full backing of the Mzodi who took no sides in the quarrels between the Darkling and Brightling nations. They refused to give us passage on their flying ships if it was not for neutral purposes.

Since there were no skyways connecting Pjurna to the other continents, that left only travel via cloudlets. What might take a day in a flying Mzodi ship would take nearly three times as long on a slow-moving cloudlet.

"Why are we looking at the invasion plans?" Elyssa said. "I thought we didn't have the resources to pull it off without the Mzodi."

"If we recruited dragons, we'd have everything we need to succeed in such an invasion." Thomas sounded awfully confident, which usually meant he was right. "If we beat the Brightlings to Voltis and secure an alliance first, a united Seraphina might be just around the corner."

"The alternative is Arturo secures his secret weapon—dragons, dinosaurs, whatever he's after—sweeps in and controls Pjurna within months." Elyssa turned her worried gaze on me. "We've got no choice but to beat him to Voltis."