“I know how they plan to get Lord Jazin out,” he growled out in a low, confident voice. “This is what we must do to help them.”
Chapter 11
Star pushed the bag ahead of her. She could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. It was faint but it was a light. She had moved through the pipe a little faster than she expected as it was bigger than they originally thought it would be. She lifted her face to the steady breeze that was flowing through the aqueduct, trying to gauge the speed of it. The crossing was going to be difficult enough with the limited visibility. The last thing she needed was a big gust of wind trying to blow her off. She had done some outdoor aerial work but not much. She hadn’t told the others that though.
When she reached the end, she pulled herself into a sitting position and stared out at the huge fortress. Inside was the man she loved more than life itself. The slight breeze played with the strands of long, blond hair that had pulled loose from her braid and dried the sweat on her face, cooling her heated skin. Her eyes moved over the complex. High walls surrounded it on three sides where it blended into the mountain. It was beautiful in a medieval sort of way. The walls were almost black and were slick, as if each block of stone had been fitted perfectly together and hand polished. Three high turrets adorned the walls with interconnecting walkways between them. Star could see the movement of warriors in the towers and on the walls. Large and small mounted cannons lined the walls. Her eyes moved to the tall tower in the center. Just below the top, she could see an opening where a cannon was mounted. Her eyes roamed that building carefully, looking for potential threats. She counted two warriors in the tower. She slid on a pair of the goggles Armet had given her. Adjusting the focus, she observed the men for several long minutes. They never looked up thankfully. She let her gaze move up to where the wire connected to the tall central tower. It may have been placed as a ground wire so if the tower was struck by lightning it would travel through the wire into the mountain instead of damaging the tower. It was connected about five meters above the open center where the warriors stood. The roof curved but there were hand and foot holds near where the wire was secured so maintenance could be done on it.
Star let her eyes focus in on the opening where the warriors were again. She would have to take them out. She couldn’t trust to use the small, knock-out powder bombs that Madas made her. The area was too open and the breeze would be blowing it away from them. She would need to kill them; quickly and silently. The door she needed to access was inside where they were standing. Her heart twisted at the idea of taking another life but she would do whatever she had to do to rescue Jazin. It wasn’t like she hadn’t killed before, she reminded herself silently as she pulled the goggles from her head and stuffed them into the backpack. She looked down from where she was sitting. She would have to climb down less than a meter to a narrow metal platform surrounding the cable she would be crossing. The diameter of the cable was actually a little thicker than what she was used to balancing on so she felt confident the crossing wouldn’t be too difficult. Her eyes rose to the sky. She would start out in another ten minutes. In the meantime, she would organize her pack so she would have everything she needed handy.
“I’m coming for you Jazin,” Star murmured softly into the twilight. “If you can feel me, I’m coming for you.”
*.*.*
Jazin’s head jerked up. He had fallen into a light sleep thanks in part to the utter exhaustion in his body and to the pain patches that still helped to relieve some of his discomfort. His eyes searched the darkness of his cell. He had heard Star’s voice. He could swear he could almost feel her warm breath against his skin. She was close. His eyes closed tightly as he fought against the fear that rose inside him like lava inside a volcano that could no longer contain it.
He had been left blissfully alone for the past few hours since Jarmen had left to see if he could pick up any signs of communication or get a feel for when Tai Tek was expected to return. A shudder rocked Jazin’s body. He hoped the councilman hadn’t returned. He was hanging onto life by a thread. He had only had the small amount of water and nutrients that Jarmen had brought him. Between the lack of food and water and blood loss from the torture his body had endured, he was extremely weak. Fear engulfed him at the thought of what would happen to Star if Tai Tek got his hands on her.
“Please, if you are listening,” Jazin whispered quietly into the cold darkness surrounding him. “Please, keep her safe.”
Before he had met Star, it had been years since he thought of the Gods that had liberated their world. Zephren, the God of War, his two sons and three daughters had come to their world thousands of years ago. The ancient scripts tell of a time when the people of Kassis had been almost extinct. Their world taken over by a cruel race of aliens who wanted to strip their world of everything that lived. Zephren, his two sons and three daughters arrived on the night the twin moons of Kassis aligned with one another to form one moon. It was said to only happen once every two thousand years. The skies turned a dark purple from the fierce storm that raged in the heavens. Out of the storm, six great ships appeared in the skies over the last remaining cities of Kassis, each commanded by one of the Great Gods and the Goddesses. The battle that followed was fierce but by the end, the people of Kassis were free. His family was supposed to be descended from one of the Goddesses. The goddess was said to have fallen in love with the commander of the forces protecting the city where his home was located while her sisters were said to have fallen in love with his cousins. It is said that is how the different clans had formed in an effort to make their world stronger. In fact if he remembered the lessons he received when he was a boy, the garden located in the center of the Four Houses of Kassis is where his forefather and the Goddess were said to have sworn their love and the Royal Houses of Kassis were built for their children. He was named after that great warrior from long ago.