Echoes Of A Gloried Past (Book 2) (39 page)

There has to be a way,
his mind raced, trying to find an answer.

Like a beacon he called through the bladesong, a thought sparked into his mind. 

It couldn’t be?
Aaron glanced at the barrier.

He gently held Sarah to his chest. At any moment, the Nanites would take over and Sarah would become the Drake, continuing the cruel cycle that had killed the Alenzar’seth for trying to protect their home. 

He called the bladesong in his mind, drawing upon the power that held the barrier in check. The barrier and the portal to Hytharia were bound together and one couldn’t exist without the other. He couldn’t force the Nanites from her system or she would die, nor could he command them to shut down, but he could give them what they wanted.

Aaron pressed his lips upon Sarah’s, kissing her, and opened himself up. He aligned his lifebeat to hers and called to the Nanites, which were already working frantically to carry out their grisly task of assimilation. 

Don’t give up, Sarah,
he thought as he fed his energy into her. As if sensing his thoughts, he felt her resist the Nanites with renewed vigor and opened herself up to him. His energy merged with hers until either source was indistinguishable from the other, but Aaron knew. His connection to Sarah was like a symphony opening up in his head with each instrument playing a chord of his lifebeat. The Nanites paused in their work, seeing a whole new entity open before them and they rushed to assimilate. As they raced into Aaron, he closed them off from Sarah. To the Nanites, it would appear as if parts of Sarah went dark, like a lost limb, and were no longer accessible. As they left Sarah and came into Aaron, she became stronger, her body beginning to recover. 

Aaron felt his own strength draining, as the last of the Nanites entered into his system, and he closed his connection to Sarah off entirely. He pulled his lips away from hers and collapsed to his knees.

“What have you done?” Sarah cried, grabbing him with both her hands. Her eyes shown with that brilliant shade of blue, like liquid lightning, and the shade of her creamy skin began to return to its proper color. 

She was saved.

“The only thing I could do, my love,” Aaron whispered, and doubled over. 

Sarah cried out his name.

Aaron shook his head to clear it. The Nanites were like tiny pinpricks invading his field of vision. Then he rose up through sheer force of will and swept her up in his arms.

“
There's no time
,” Sarah whispered into his ear, repeating it over and over. 

With each gentle breath of her words caressing his ears, he felt his heart shatter to pieces, and reform because she was saved. That was all that mattered to him, as he held her tightly in his arms. 

“We’ve loved a lifetime's worth, and I wouldn’t change it for the world,” he whispered.

He released her and stood up, his body responded stiffly as the Nanites invaded his brainstem, vying for control. He stumbled closer to the portal that separated the worlds of Safanar from Hytharia, unbuckling his sword belt. He reached into his shirt and removed the medallion, letting both fall to the ground. 

“What are you doing!” Verona cried, finally catching up to them. He held a travel crystal in his hand. Colind and Braden were on either side of him.

Aaron was mere inches from the barrier’s threshold and turned back to look at Sarah one final time, leaning heavily upon the rune-carved staff. 

Tears were streaming down both their faces, and their breaths came in gasps, with Sarah’s getting stronger while his grew weaker.

“
What I must do
,”
Aaron said. “Goodbye, my friend.”

 His vision began to take on a yellowish hue as the Nanites gained more control over him. Pain, like hot lightning, lanced through his limbs. He lifted the staff and the runes glowed faintly to his touch. He slammed it into the ground, which gave way enough for the staff to stand on its own and bonded it to Shandara as the barrier had been. 

Aaron released the bladesong in his mind, revealing to the Nanites that they were in a new host. There was an immediate spike in activity as per the protocols Aaron had surmised they must take. For the briefest of moments he regained full control of himself while the Nanites reset. He gripped the cylinder in his pocket. It was the keystone accelerator that allowed him to come to Safanar.

There is no other way,
he told himself and looked at his friend … his brother in everything but blood.

“Take care of them, Verona,” Aaron said, and looked back at Sarah as she struggled to her feet.

“Remember me,” he said and brought his hands up to the barrier, severing the tethers that kept it in place. With one final look back at the others and a world he had grown to love, he fell back through the portal to the echoes of his friend’s denial, and Sarah crying out his name in his wake. 

Aaron slammed into the rocky ground that bit into his skin. Sparks rained down on him and he stumbled away. He turned to see the portal shimmering in the air between two metallic columns, with bolts of electricity running along them. Thick cables connected the columns to large pylons that gave off an azure glow. 

The portal flashed and more sparks rocketed from the top of the columns. Aaron dove to the ground, covering his head, as the columns exploded, plunging the area into darkness. The smoggy air burned his lungs and Aaron looked around him feeling the Nanites crawling inside his skin, gaining their bearings. After a few moments, the yellowish hue retreated from his vision as the Nanites began to shut down. He struggled to his feet, and his eyes burned, tearing up, and he couldn’t stop coughing. The air was hot upon his skin. He wrinkled his nose in a futile attempt to block the stench of the thin air around him.

Aaron fell to his knees, gasping for a breath of air that would not come. Stars like tiny pinpoints of streaking light began to close in on his vision. He fumbled through his pocket, grasping the keystone accelerator. The ground shook with the stomp of many footsteps surrounding him. He forced his eyes to open, blinking rapidly. Despite his blearily eyed vision, he could see that he was surrounded by dark figures, each holding some type of rifle leveled at him in their armored hands. 

Aaron could hear shouting in a harsh language he didn’t understand. He pulled out the keystone accelerator, desperate to open the way back to Safanar. Rough hands pulled him to his feet, knocking the keystone accelerator from his grasp. An armored fist slammed into his stomach, expelling the remaining air from his lungs. Another figure stepped closer, leveling his weapon at Aaron’s head. They studied his face and seemed confused by the way his glowing yellow eyes faded to his normal brown color with hints of gold at the edges. 

With the Nanites completely shut down, their primary programming complete, Aaron felt his strength begin to return. He was thankful that the Nanites didn’t have any self-destruct mechanism built in upon completion of their prime directive. Something the Hythariam military had overlooked, apparently. They had expected the Drake to return. The ground shook violently underneath him, distracting his captors. Aaron seized the moment and twisted free of the men holding him, sending them sprawling. He squatted down, preparing to jump toward the keystone accelerator, when he heard the snap hiss of a rifle being fired. A net of light collapsed around him, pinning his arms to his sides, and Aaron fell to the ground, helpless before the Hythariam.

One of them spoke in that same language that he couldn’t understand, as another came to him, slamming a clear mask over his face. The leader spoke again, and he understood one word … Halcylon. They were going to take him to the dreaded Hythariam General that Iranus warned him about. The one who wanted to conquer Safanar, but had been thwarted by his ancestor, Daverim. Unable to hold his breath any longer, Aaron sucked in some air through the mask and became light-headed. With his consciousness beginning to wane, he felt himself being dragged across the rugged landscape upon a planet that was supposed to have been destroyed years ago, but appeared to be in its final death throws before oblivion.

Epilogue

"No, Aaron!" Colind screamed.

Verona was helping Sarah to her feet. She clung to him, crying out Aaron's name. 

"We have to get to him, Verona," Sarah cried, struggling to step forward, but Verona held her back and looked at Colind.

Colind nodded and waved over the others from the Flyer. 

"Please, my Lady," Verona said to Sarah. "Wait here," he said, and left her with Roslyn.

"Quickly now," Colind shouted.

They charged forward, and a shrieking sound came from the portal, as if something were pressing against it from the other side, and then it disappeared. 

All became silent, as they skidded to a halt where the portal had been a moment before. The darkened land around them seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, as the area around them grew brighter in the sunlight.

"Can we open a portal back to Hytharia?" Verona asked, breaking the silence.

Gavril shook his head grimly.

"Is there no other way?" Verona pressed. "Colind?"

Colind's mouth was hanging open. "I … I don't know."

"We have to get him back," Sarah said, leaning upon Roselyn for support.

Verona immediately came to her side, "We will, my Lady."

"He was right there," Sarah cried. "We have to get him back," she said again, collapsing, only to be caught by Verona. Braden came up and lifted Sarah's unconscious form into his thick arms .

Gavril blinked away his shock, "We don't have the equipment here."

Verona shared a look with Colind and the others.

"We need to return to Hathenwood," Colind said.

Verona's gaze drew toward the rune-carved staff. The vibrant glow of the runes faded to a whisper of what they once were. He leaned down, retrieving Aaron's swords and medallion, but as he came before the staff he paused for a moment and glanced at Colind. 

Colind focused on the staff. “Let’s leave it for now. There are bonds of energy tethering it to the ground. It might be Aaron’s link.”

“To where?” Verona asked.

“To Safanar,” Colind said.

“Right then,” Verona said. “Sarik, I want you and Tanneth to stay here standing guard until we return.” The others gathered around him and with a nod to Colind, the group disappeared.

***

Iranus stood in a room with his eyes locked upon the main display of the command center. From here, they could oversee Hathenwood, but also receive communications from the various satellites they had in orbit around the planet. He currently had all the satellites not blocked by the planet locked on their deep-space satellite, which tracked the object that Aaron had cleverly surmised existed.

“Confirmed, Sir.” The tech said. “Repeat, confirmed; the object has changed course.”

Iranus grimly studied the main display as it mirrored the tech’s console, giving voice to a fear that all the Hythariam at Hathenwood had hoped to escape. They tracked the trajectory of the incoming object, and it was indeed from their home world. The object had just changed course, denoting some type of intelligence guiding the craft.

“Acknowledged,” Iranus answered.

He had hoped the boy had been wrong, but it was confirmed. Hytharia was catching up to them all and time was running out.

The End

Of

Book Two of The Safanarion Order

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

As with any big project, the author is only the tip of the iceberg in taking a huge pile of words and transforming them into something worth reading.

First I have to thank my editor, Jason, thank you for all the feedback and words of encouragement. Commas are now my friend.

Next up is my family, you’ve all been the cornerstone to my foundation. To my children, who with silent demanding, dared me to be better than I thought could be.

Then there are my “beta readers,” Milosz, Phillip, and Tim who despite their busy lives, helped put the final touches on the book and provide an excellent sanity check for the story as a whole. Thank you so much for you time and support.

Thank you Donna for creating such a wonderful book cover.

Finally, never last or least, my wife. Thank you for your love and support and help in making this story what it is today. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ken Lozito has been reading Epic Fantasy and Science Fiction nonstop since the age of eleven. After devouring most of Piers Anthony's work at the time he moved onto authors Robert Jordan, Melanie Rawn, Terry Goodkind, David Weber, and more recently Brandon Sanderson to name a few. He was bit by the writing bug at an early age when he realized he kept focusing his search for particular types of stories that held elements he liked. Then decided to put all the elements into his own story.

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