My warriors do the same, helping one human, then another. Keeping them moving forward. Every time I glance back, the Invaders are closing in, but slowly. We’re climbing one of the last and biggest dunes before we’ll see the City. The sight of it will reinvigorate the humans.
The crowd stops at the top of the dune. No one moves. Even my warriors have come to a stop.
“What is this?” I yell, doubling my speed.
When I crest the dune, my hearts stop.
The land before the dome is a flat run from this dune right up to it. Now there isn’t an open space between the dune and the dome. Invaders fill the space, surrounding the dome, stretching as far as I can see.
It looks like thousands of them. I look over my shoulder and our pursuers are about to catch us.
“Prepare!” I yell, drawing my lochaber and turning to face the threat.
I look at Anna and see the horror on her face.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I don’t think I can keep my promise.”
10
Ladon
The pain in my chest hasn’t stopped since I left her. I continue ignoring it the best I can. I’m doing what must be done to save them. It would be easier if she’d agree to leave with me, let all these others fend for themselves.
“I don’t know anything about cryogenics,” Addison says.
“What is that?” Visidion asks.
“Keeping people in a frozen state, but alive,” she says. “That’s what it sounds like they’ve done.”
“There must be a way to wake them up,” I say. “If they are Zmaj, we need them. We need more warriors.”
“There were rumors of this place,” Visidion says. “Before. It was a place of great evil.”
“Evil or not, we can use it,” I say.
Calista should be here. My arms ache to hold her.
“Look, I don’t know about evil and all that,” Luke, one of the humans says. “I do know we don’t know anything about that place. That makes it dangerous. We already had a sickness come out of there. What else we willing to risk for this? What’s the upside?”
“The upside is we win,” I snap.
“What is it you think we’re winning?” Luke says.
He doesn’t back down, but the color on his face pales at my outburst. I struggle against the surge of red swelling through my thoughts. The bijass wants to crush these people who would dare stand against me. The other half a dozen human males mutter and shift but no one speak out. Visidion watches with cool, calculating eyes.
“Ladon,” Sverre says, shaking his head. “These are our allies. There is no reason to be angry.”
“None of you understand!” I yell, slamming my fist into the open palm of my hand. “This is real. We are in danger, gathered here in one place. It’s terrible strategy.”
“What strategy?” Shidan asks. “This isn’t a strategy. We’re living.”
“Exactly,” I say. Anger pulses in time with my hearts. Thrumming through my veins, violent, discordant music keeping me on edge. “None of you are seeing the danger we are in. I will not fail to protect my family. I will do whatever it takes.”
Even if that means kidnapping them and forcing them to go away with me.
Everyone watches me but no one argues further. Luke clears his throat then shrugs.
“All right,” Luke says. “So what are we going to try to accomplish, then?”
“If the stories are true,” Visidion says. “This bunker was for cutting-edge research.”
“It was,” Archion says, speaking for the first time.
“What does the Order know?” I ask, narrowing my eyes.
Archion’s face is as blank as the empty sands.
“Experiments that were done there were terrible,” he says. “The virus—”
He stops, cutting himself short.
“The virus, what? What is it you know?” I ask, moving into his space, raising my tail between my wings.
He squares his shoulders, meeting my advance, but overall he remains calm.
“It may have been one of their experiments,” he says.
“Why didn’t you say so?” Rick, another of the human males, asks.
“Because I don’t know,” Archion says, not taking his eyes off mine. “It is a guess, at best.”
“You knew,” I hiss through clenched teeth.
“No,” he says, not backing down.
The bijass swells, surging against my control, assaulting rationality. There is whispering in my head. He is not to be trusted. I should destroy him for withholding this information. Visidion places a hand on my shoulder. He doesn’t try to force me back or move me, but it draws my attention to him.
“I am myself,” Visidion says the words soft, a gentle reminder.
“I’m not Tribe,” I say.
“No,” Visidion agrees. “But you are a warrior.”
I want him to fight me. I want someone to fight. A target. Something I can hit or punch. Something I can make obey, but none of these males are giving it to me. Lacking something to resist, the bijass recedes, leaving my muscles trembling.
“If we wear suits, we could go in and look around, at least,” Mischa, a small human male, offers. “What can it hurt?”
“I saw the missiles,” Shidan says. “But are they working? Do we know how to launch them?”
Suspicious, I look at Archion. “Can you?”
Archion frowns and hesitates before answering. “Probably.”
“Then it’s settled,” I say. “We are going to the bunker. We will explore and find all the data we can.”
“I don’t want Addison to come along,” Visidion says. “Melchior is not here to go along. It is not right to put his mate—”
“I can damn well speak for myself,” Addison says.
“I understand, but—” Visidion says, turning to her.
“But nothing. What I do or don’t do isn’t up to Melchior.”
“He should have some say,” Visidion says.
I watch the other Zmaj as they shift uncomfortably with this conversation. None of them disagree, but they don’t want to speak up against Addison, knowing that she will tell their mates. I’m already in trouble with Calista, and I agree too.
“No,” I say.
“Excuse me?” Addison asks, whirling on me.
“No,” I say. “You will not go.”
“And who is it you suddenly have an iota of a chance at understanding these cryogenic machines?” she asks. Her eyes are cold daggers piercing into me but I’m not backing down.
“The missiles are the goal,” I say. “As everyone keeps reminding me, we’re not under invasion right now.”
“Then why are you in such a rush?” Addison asks.
The question is the same one on everybody’s mind. Their eyes bore into me, and the bijass rises in answer once more.
“They’re in the sky!” I yell. “Waiting. Ready to pounce. Look at us,” I motion my arm around the room. “We’ve all gathered together like we’re ready to be picked off. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when!”