Slavers of Antar
By
DocPaul
***************************************************************
Chapter
Nineteen: Prodigy
Michael
punched the door of the anteroom off the main chamber hard. The Antarians and
their brethren of the system were discussing what to say, what to ask of them in
private. All the locked doors were becoming a prison he could not abide.
“Maria—”
“That’s
not it, Michael. It’s not the Granilith.”
Michael
knelt at her chair lowering his voice, “Are you certain?”
“As
much as I can be.” Maria lounged back in the chair exhausted from the effort
the audience had taken upon her. “I am bound to its very matrix. It breathes
in my every breath. I can feel the power of it. This is very close, but it
doesn’t draw.”
“Doesn’t
draw?” Michael scratched his brow in confusion, uncertain he quite understood.
“You mean it doesn’t draw you?”
“Yes.”
Maria leaned forward to rest her head on her husband’s, whispering so those
who could hear, wouldn’t. “My genetics are part of the matrix, added to the
Granilith through generations. I can feel its power like a low level hum in my
body, along my spine—behind my eyes.”
“And
you aren’t feeling this now?”
“No.
I recognize it, but there’s no connection to me. This is not the Granilith we
cast into oblivion. That is truly gone.”
“Then
how?”
Maria
was too tired to imagine beyond what was apparent. “Khivar. He had it in his
hands for over ten years. He must have reverse engineered it. Obviously he was
incapable of creating the power grid, since he had no idea about the keys, the
Immaculates. His Granilith produces power, but it must be fed power to work. The
drain has to be devastating.”
Michael
rocked on his heels. “The energy shield that cloaks this solar system, and
cloaks their ships—”
“Has
to be much the same technology that the Zephyr used in her shields, as
does Shiva. They haven’t mastered the full shift, but they must shift
in partial phase making them practically invisible as they reside just out of
phase.”
“They
had to have unlocked some of the mysteries of the Granilith to find a way to
create their own.”
“No.”
Maria closed her eyes for a moment. “No, Michael. They couldn’t complete it,
because it was too advanced for their understanding. How bitter it must have
been to know that two children from an Ancient world—more primitive than
theirs—created something that was beyond their control or ability to
understand.”
“They
phase shift,” Michael repeated. He lifted Maria’s head and forced her to
concentrate, to look him in the eyes. “Maria, you said they phase shift, but
only partially. How would it affect a body to remain trapped in partial phase,
to move from one to another, but never belonging completely in one?”
“Interstitial
flux. Their very molecules would begin to—” Maria frowned staring at Michael
her mouth slowly opening. “No! It is impossible! It is suicide!”
“How
many generations, Maria? How long could they survive like that?”
Maria
stared down at her hands, clenching them, and then unclenching. “Not even a
generation. I can only shift comfortably six times before I begin experiencing
phase variance, and my body is evolutionarily designed to withstand the process.
For them, to live in a state of continual phase shifting, they would
disintegrate slowly, lose molecular cohesion, and other physical and mental
decelerations. I couldn’t even name them all.”
“The
deceleration had to begin from the time they completed their Granilith. Khivar
had it for over ten years, and these guys, in the last
“Mass
insanity.”
“Thought
so. Lord Thoth is a lunatic, feeling his own demise from the moment of his
existence, and he has nothing but hate for his predecessors.”
“Their
Granilith must power the generator of the cloaking field.” Maria stood
tiredly, stretching her back to relieve the stress. “That would take
channeling stations to masque an entire solar system. Defunct and underpowered
as their Granilith may be, it still represents an immense power—one that the Shiva
may not be able to beat.”
“We
blew the Granilith,” Michael pointed out, his eyes dark and deadly. “We blow
it again?”.
“We
can’t. This machine they built—it’s an anomaly, perhaps flawed in many of
its operating systems. If we were to blow it, it may rip apart this very space,
or implode inward taking everything in its path.”
“We
can’t leave them with it.”
“No.”
Maria knew he was right. “No we can’t. The power necessary to take it out is
beyond us. We have no connection to it, so it must be destroyed by Shiva and
her weapons.”
“Shiva—Destroyer
of Worlds.” Michael rubbed his face. Their home—their ship facing a
power almost as great as the original Granilith.
Maria
paced a few feet away from him, her hands clasped in front of her. “These are
the times that try, my love. It is now. The bark to the tree, the hunter in the
wind, and call back the dogs of war.” She turned to look at Michael. “Ours
is not to say—we have no play in this fight. It must be fought in the very
root of humanity. One man. The One. He who leads.”
“Max.”
“He
will take down this house, or he will die in its stead. There has always been
only one outcome along the Path. Our time here is limited, and our thread in
this story completed. We give way to Destiny, and when the smoke clears—it
will be done.”
“My
twin—this is where I belong.”
“Is
it?” Maria’s eyes met those of her mate’s, and Michael closed his eyes,
and shook his head. She knew too much, damn her, and said too little. “Then we
play our part. I can feel Max like a tide washing in. He’ll be here soon.”
“I
feel him too. We have to act now.”
“Are
you strong enough?”
“I
will have to be. Time has all but gone.”
The
door to the chamber opened and a guard bid them to return inside. Michael stood
tall, and held out his arm as Maria joined him, her hand resting on his arm as
he escorted her back to the negotiations.
The
group stood.
Before
they could speak, Michael interrupted. “Our time is short. If you desire
council of us, then we must first see our people. We wish to see those you took,
and the young Empath, Liam.”
“The
Empath?”
Maria
nodded, “He is my nephew, adopted.”
Thoth
stared at the two, regal in personage, and nodded to his guard to grant them
their request. They had been uncompromising in the past, and he needed more from
them then they would want to give. Michael and Maria were taken to Liam first.
***
“Maria!”
Liam bounced off his bed to hug Maria hard, and then Michael. “I knew you
would come—that my father would come.”
“He
isn’t here yet, Liam, but you’re right, he is coming.”
Michael
sat Liam down. “Julia said you were planting seeds of sedition in the minds of
the guards. Can you still do that?”
“Julia?
Is she okay? I …”
“Liam,
concentrate. Can you control the guards?”
Liam
bit his lower lip and shook his head no. “Not many at a time, and only in a
passing wave. I haven’t the strength to hold them.”
“It
would take a more powerful Empath, Michael.” Maria glanced at the young lad.
It was doubtful he had the power needed, but at the same time, amazing that he
was capable of something his world feared—the very thing he had been accused
of.
Michael
seemed to consider it. “Can you help him, Princess?”
“No.
My powers don’t extend to mind control and empathy. It would take a true born
Empath with considerable power.” She cupped Liam’s young face, happy to see
him alive. “Kyle—it would take Kyle. He has evolved into the strongest of
his kind. Through pain and despair, war and grief, he has continued when all
others such as he would have faltered. He—he alone could do this.”
“Liam,
can you access your father at this distance?”
“I—I
don’t know. I never tried. It would be difficult. I can feel him, but I think
it is him reaching for me, and not the other way around. Maybe with help?”
Maria
stared at Michael. “He would need a link, a conduit. If not another Empath,
then at the very least someone Kyle has a connection to.”
“Kyle
has a connection to you, Princess.”
“True,
we have a kinship, but I doubt that I can hold an interface without singularity
of concentration.”
“There
is a woman,” said Liam softly.
“What
do you mean, Liam?”
“Who
is this woman?” Michael asked.
“I
don’t know. A doctor—one taken from one of the attacked colonies. She—Liz
called her Tess, but she wasn’t called by that name. Her name is Ava. I
felt—when I linked to her mind, I felt my father. He was strong, almost as if
he was part of her.”
Michael
glanced at Maria when she gasped.
Maria
shook her head to forestall Michael’s questions, unsure that she had an answer
to give him. “Can you read me, Liam? Hear my thoughts?”
“No.
I’ve never been able to read you, Princess.”
“Then
Michael?”
“Sure.
He’s easy. But my dad forbade it. He said whatever I could learn from the
Commander would only get me in trouble.”
Michael
cuffed the boy. “Young pup.” Liam laughed ducking away.
“When
we leave, you hold onto Michael, follow his lead. He will send you instructions,
but you must hold the link. Through him, you will know what’s happening and
when to act. We will give you a conduit to your father—this woman.” Maria
frowned at the young face. Were they asking too much from one so young? “Liam,
can you hold multiple links? One with Michael, and one with this Ava, and
control the guards at the same time?”
“I
will try,” Liam promised.
Maria
held his hand. There was no shame in not being able to do what they asked.
“The word, when it comes, can you stand?”
“Aye,
my Princess. For you, the Commander, and my Captain, I will stand.”
Michael
clapped Liam on the arm. “Good man, you do your father proud.” The door
opened as the guard came to take them to the others. “Pack up, soldier. It is
time to go home.”
Liam
stood tall as the door shut, and he closed his eyes holding Michael in his mind,
reaching for his father for strength. He moved to the protected walls, moving
his hands and mind along it to find a weak area, a place that he could reach
through at greater ease.
***
Liz
turned as the door opened, hiding the instrument in her hand that she was using
to redirect sensor logs, so she could tell what was happening in the Palace
complex of Antar. Standing, a smile moved over her face as Michael and Maria
entered the large cathedral area that was their prison.
“Princess!”
Liz called.
Michael
and Maria stood at the top of the stairs leading down into the room, their eyes
moving over the crowd of prisoners captured by the Antarians. The group looked
upon them, and to the guards’ confusion, the room hushed and all its
inhabitants knelt before the two.
“Aw,
crud. I hate it when this happens,” said Maria under her breath. If she had
half a sense about her, she would’ve removed or hidden the Anterraan emblem of
Royalty. Michael moved down the stairs holding Maria’s hand, helping her to
make sure she didn’t trip or fall.
“Rise,
all of you! Now. This is not the time to bow to any man.” Michael motioned for
them all to come closer. He noticed Liz and Julia. Smiling, he nodded to them.
“I’m glad to see you both. My life would not be my own if I had to deal with
Jonesy and Sean by returning without you.”
“Jonesy?”
Liz came closer, moving through the crowd of people. “Is he okay?”
“Except
for missing you,” Maria assured her friend.
Liz
laughed as tears filled her eyes. “I was afraid to hope. As they took me, I
saw him fall.”
Maria
squeezed Liz hand in comfort, their eyes meeting, and Liz laughed, hugging Maria
tightly. Maria looked over to Julia, who nodded.
“Princess,
you are well?”
“Better.”
It was good to be in a fellowship of their friends. “Julia, did you find
her—the one you seek?”
“She
has already moved beyond me. She is dead. I was too late by mere days.” Maria
hugged Julia in comfort before releasing her. Maria’s eyes moved beyond Julia
to another. A young woman with golden hair of curls, and the bluest eyes—eyes
she knew. Tess.
Julia
noticed her glance, and pulled Ava forward. “This is Ava. She was taken before
we came.”
Maria
moved away from Liz and advanced towards Ava as the people parted to let her
pass, their whispers following her. Anterraans were always a source of wonder,
and the last remaining one even more so.
“I
am Maria.”
“Princess.”
Maria
stared into eyes that she knew, but knew her not. “You look like Tess.”
“Liz
called me Tess when we met. I am not she.”
“I
know.” Maria shook her head. “The resemblance is uncanny, but there was a
darkness in Tess, an anger that would not bleed away. It walked with her all the
remaining days of her life. I do not see the silhouette of death on you, but I
do see an outline to your aura, one that is familiar to me. Is there a voice
that you hear?”
Ava
startled at the question. She had heard that Anterraans were unusual in their
ability to see into a person. “He comforts me when I am alone, gives me
strength to continue.”
“Can
you feel him now?”
Ava
blushed, but nodded. “Yes. He is always with me. Most of the time, only a
heartbeat in my chest.”
“Good.
You will need him—we all need him.” Maria looked to her husband nodding to
him.
He
circled, and the crowds moved from him giving him room. “It is time for you to
return to your worlds, to leave this place. It is diseased by generations of
death and doom. There is no light here, and you do not belong.” Michael moved
among them. “The strong must help the weak. The journey will not be long, but
the wait may be so. Bring only yourselves and any water or provisions you might
have.”
“Michael,
when?” Julia asked.
“Prepare
yourselves. We will come back for you.” Michael looked at the girl who
reminded him of Tess. “Liam is reaching for his father, and he needs your help
to make a contact with Kyle. Can you touch the man in your head?”
“Kyle?
His father?” Ava was confused, but nodded none the less. “I can feel Liam,
as before when he entered my mind. I will try.”
“Then
gather your strength,” Michael ordered. “You will need it.”
“You
should feel Liam like a rush inside, and then it will reverse as Kyle finds his
son. They will join in you, so you must concentrate at all cost, closing out all
others but the two.” Maria stared into the confused blue eyes. “Can you do
this, Ava?”
“How
will my man—Kyle, how will he know what to do?”
Maria
grasped her hand. “He will feel Liam in you, and once he connects with Liam he
will know what we need.”
“Then
I will do as you ask. I can already feel Liam. He is talking in my head.”
“Good,
then find the man in your dreams—pull him to you so he might find his son.”
Michael
held out his hand. “Maria, it’s time. I can feel Max. Shiva is
exiting a jump corridor. We have little time.” Maria joined him, and they
ascended the stairs to go through the doors and return to Thoth.
The
fox was to the briar, and the hounds were to the hunt. Feel the quick, feel the
dread.
***
Michael
and Maria reentered the room, their eyes immediately going to the group of
individuals from the Antarian solar system. Maria’s eyes found those of the
woman called Helena, sister to Zan.
“Does
it ever bother you that we can feel everyone as we do? It was not always this
strong,” Maria asked as she too could feel Max and the others. Kyle was like a
voice behind her eyes. Once, there was a time that she had been alone in another
time, hidden there. Now, she was never alone—always there was Michael.
Michael’s
hand tightened on Maria’s. “Sometimes, but in truth, I’ve always felt my
own kinsmen like a low buzz in the back on my neck. It is as if my senses have
tuned, and I can clearly break the individual waves into specific bands, when
once they were a jumble, like static.”
“You
found clarity.”
Michael
glanced at his mate. “I found you. You are my focus.”
“Did
you find your people well?” Thoth asked interrupting them as they came closer.
“Yes.
They are prisoners, but they appear well.” Michael offered Maria a chair.
Their journey had yet to begin. She would need to conserve her strength. “Our
time is short, so perhaps you tell us what you desire of us?”
“A
seed is impossible. We know that.” Thoth confessed. “I had thought that
perhaps the Princess had in her genetics the ability to stabilize ours, but we
seem to be too many generations too late.”
“And
mine?”
“Yours
too is too far evolved beyond the anomaly we need to recombine,” Thoth stated,
his voice resigned.
“Then
there is nothing we can do for you, we will take ourselves home.”
“No.”
Thoth stood. “That is not possible. Already your ship, the Shiva has
entered the last legion of space to our doors. We will need something to
negotiate with.”
“We
do not negotiate with terrorist, murderers and thugs,” said Michael, his back
straight and firm. “My twin comes, and he will remove you from existence
before he makes a deal.”
“We
hold a Granilith. Your ship is in peril should they break into our shielded
region.”
“You
hold a poor replica of a Granilith. What you have built is not the true machine.
Even you can’t know the extent of its power—the extent of its abuse. How do
you know that using it as defense will not condemn yourselves? This is only a
poor copy, but its potential for destruction is unknown. It could be
catastrophic.”
Thoth
frowned glancing at the quiet serene Maria, and then to Michael. “How do you
know? How do you know that it is not of the same power?”
Michael
sneered at the man. “Even I, a man from a warrior race, who does not have what
you would consider advanced technology can look at the poor devised knock-off
and see it is nothing more than misdirected power. Even I can build a Granilith—it
is child’s play.”
“Michael,”
Maria admonished. It was true. Michael knew, as did she, how the Granilith was
built. It was such a simple thing, that it was more amazing that it never had
been thought of before. A child could understand it, if they only put away
complexity, and broke it down to nature’s simplest levels. Children saw things
in the simplest of ways, black and white. Michael knew the secrets of the
Granilith, and like she, he also knew that never again must something this
powerful be built. That was true knowledge—knowing when to leave the power of
the Gods to those who had no use for it.
The
room stood. The apparent disbelief and shock was evident not only on their
faces, but in their body language. More than that, there was the dawning fear
that what Michael said was true.
“Fix
it! Fix it or build us another—a real Granilith, and we will leave your people
alone!” Thoth ordered. All his hopes, all his fears were apparent in his face.
A man facing his own mortality, and the Granilith was capable of restoring him
in a form.
“No.”
Thoth
took a weapon from one of his guards and pointed it at Maria. “I will kill the
Princess, and then I will kill all the hostages.”
Michael’s
hand moved without thought as a power welled up from deep within, the sleeping
lion roaring. Thoth’s weapon fell from his hand crashing to the ground. “You
threaten me?!”
The
others in the room stood in dismay at the evolving redness of anger on
Michael’s face, and the walls of the room seemed to shake. Civilization was a
very fine veneer, and when shaken to the core, true nature emerged. Michael’s
true nature was daunting.
“You
think you hold us?” Michael reached a hand to Maria helping her to stand. “I
would’ve shown mercy for the care you gave my wife, but it is too late for
that.”
“Guards!”
Michael
nodded his head as if speaking to someone, and he said aloud, “Now, Liam.”
The
guards in the room faltered. Their hands became unsteady as a flash of confusion
moved across them. Their weapons moved to train on Thoth and his party. Zan,
Helena, and the others slowly stood as all the guards rallied to stand behind
Michael and Maria, their weapon now turned against their masters.
“Did
you think you could hold us? You, who are like children?” Michael’s voice
rose in anger. “You had time—numerous lifetimes to reverse a mistake, to
learn and build—to create. Instead, you built your lives on lies and deceit,
the pain and suffering of others. Not even your technology is your own! You
built yourself up on others’ genius, and made none of your own. You fail
because you cheated, used technology you could not understand.”
“Nothing
comes without work, without sacrifice,” said Maria softly. Her hand clung to
Michael’s arm, her body too tired to go on. She was tired in spirit, as her
eyes swept over those who were perhaps closest to her own people. They once had
a spiraling destiny together, one interwoven a thousand strands strong, and the
Antarians cut the thread when Khivar destroyed her people into shadow. The seeds
of Earth were now scattered far and wide, and they had evolved along their own
paths independent of the Ancients, and beyond the Antarians.
“This
is revenge?” Zan asked.
“This
is justice,” Maria corrected him.
“Princess,
can you not find mercy and help for a race of people, a dying solar system?”
“Your
solar system died so long ago, and you are but the dreams of it refusing to
settle.” Maria’s eyes filled with tears, the journey had been too long.
“My people, had they known what you face—your extinction, they would’ve
done all they could to restore you. That time has passed. They are but a fell
voice in time, hardly heard now.”
The
room became hushed, as she, the last of the direct line of Ancients disengaged
from her husband, and the guards in the room dropped their weapons to kneel at
her feet.
“You
wanted a progenitor seed, but the seeds of Earth have left you in their wake.
They marched on with time while you slumbered. There is nothing here, but death.
It is gone beyond my powers to prevent. Those who could’ve helped you were
enslaved and conquered—destroyed. You sealed your own doom as you lived in
unstable space. The very gift of stealth and invisibility that your Granilith
gave you sped you to your death.”
“What
do you mean?” Zan came forward, his hand reaching for his sister.
“Unstable?”
“The
Granilith, the power you tried to harness is one that shifts between
realities—through space and time in winks. You have trapped your worlds
between partial realities in a space that is dissolving the cellular makeup of
your bodies. You can no longer clone, because all integrity is lost in partial
shift. You have no anchor to bring you home.”
“Princess,”
Maria
wandered over the woman’s beautiful face, and an immense sadness overwhelmed.
She was looking into the eyes of a woman who was closer to her own kind than any
other, but there was nothing left to do.
“I’m
sorry,” said Maria in a faint whisper. “I am so very sorry, but my part in
this is done. You’ve awakened the tiger. He comes. It is his job to cleanse
his universe from a creeping disease—a virus that is you. I have no place
here.” Maria’s hands fell to her side helplessly.
The
Antarians and their descendants had gone so far beyond redemption, as they
pillaged and pushed a universe of people into despair, with years of war and
tyranny under Khivar, and cruel murdering slavers. They could beg for mercy, but
the executioner was already sent, and their sentence was read—it was death.
“Commander!”
Thoth stood his full length. “There can be no surrender. We are a warrior
people. We will fight to all our ruin. To the ruin of us all!”
Michael
pulled his devastated wife to him, his hands moving to her face tilting it for
him to see. Closing his eyes, he rested his head to hers for a moment. They were
finished. Their part in the story was at an end. Now it was time for others to
finish what started so many generations ago in a galaxy so far away.
“I
know.” Michael finally understood. The Path was so clear. It was always
destined to come to this. It was why he, Sean and Max had evolved beyond their
own world. The warriors of Attila were meeting the warriors of Antar. Both
worlds once on a parallel path, but one world chose life, and the other death.
It saddened him to realize that had his world not chose a different path, they
would have been like Antar—facing doom. It was why he, an unbound warrior was
destined to mate with the remaining Ancient, and why Max was part of the One.
Max held the blood of Kings in his veins, and it was his fight to the end—his
and his mate’s.
Michael
blinked as Alex stood across the room, his hands clasped before him. He nodded
sadly to Michael. The disturbance in the path he had seen so many years ago, was
Michael. It had always been Michael and his bond to Max. The circle was closing.
“Parallel
lines are destined to meet,” he said softly.
“Yes,”
Maria confirmed with a sob. She stared at Alex for a moment, her head bowing to
him as Alex stepped between the here and the thither, and he was gone.
Michael
took Maria’s hand in his firmly. “Princess, it is time to leave.”
“Leave?”
Thoth’s voice raised in outrage at the temerity of the Commander to assume he
could leave at his own whim.
Maria
nodded, and with her hand in Michael’s, a distortion field opened in the wall,
one that opened into the holding room of the prisoners. Michael and Maria turned
to look one last time at the people of the Antarian solar system. This would be
the last time, since all opportunities were spent.
“Winks,”
said Thoth in wonder. “They traveled in winks.” Never did he imagine that
the Princess and her mate had that ability—the ability of the Ancients. Never
once were they truly his prisoners, and in his arrogance, he hadn’t realized
that fact until this moment.
“Princess!”
Maria
started to cry and in one last touch, her fingers brushed the woman’s cheek
before she and Michael stepped through to the other side.
***
“Commander!”
The prisoners surrounded Michael and Maria as they came through the corridor,
the opening closing behind them. The guards in the room dropped their weapons
and fled.
“Michael,
Liam,” said Maria wearily. “I must get him.”
“Can
you open more than one?”
“No.
I am tiring. Can you do it alone?”
Michael
wasn’t sure. Always Maria was with him when he went through the door. It was
uncertain if he had gained the power to shift alone. He looked at the prisoners.
“Come quickly. There are two more steps to freedom, the next will be a tight
fit.” Michael held Maria’s hands. “I can hold this one if you can step
through and open the other.”
“I’ll
try. To where?”
“The
planes, on the red desert sea where the Zephyr was lost. Her residual
signature will be the first thing the Shiva finds, and they will look for
us there first.”
“Michael,
it will be hot.”
“They
will come,” Michael promised. They needed to be as far from the city as
possible. As far from Thoth as they could get. The city would be in ruin, and
once Shiva engaged in war, they would need to take the prisoners to
freedom far from the destruction of these worlds.
Maria
breathed deeply as her hand reached for his. Their arms mated as the tattoos of
two mating animals touched and the far wall distorted into a corridor leading to
Liam. Michael picked up a weapon dropped by the guards, and nodded to a few
other men to do the same.
Their
hands held as Maria pulled away to go through, her hand reluctant to release him
as they pulled away to fingertips.
“It’s
all right. I will be right behind you,” he said kissing her quickly and
pushing her towards the distortion.
Maria
walked through and the prisoners followed, the strong helping the weak. “We
leave no one behind!” she heard Michael say as she stepped into Liam’s
prison.
Liam
stood apart to the far side of the room. Sweat was beaded on his face as he
faced Maria as she came through. The strain was apparent in the lines of his
young body.
“Liam,
release!”
The
young boy collapsed in exhaustion as Maria quickly caught him, but she too was
weak. Ava came up behind her, having followed her through, and she took
most of the young boy’s weight to her own small body.
Liam
stared at her for a moment, and then his hand reached out and stroked over her
face.
Ava
smiled as she put his arm around her shoulder, supporting him so Maria could
regain her feet. “It’s okay, baby. Time to go home to your father.”
Julia
and Liz came through, and went
immediately to Maria who was leaning against the wall as the room filled to
capacity.
“Maria,
we have to go. No more can fit, and Michael can’t hold it open too long.”
Julia frowned at the paleness of Maria’s face, her eyes concerned at her
pallor.
“Maria,”
Liz took Maria’s hand, and she stood taller, the station once hers of an
Immaculate. “Princess, all my strength.”
Swallowing,
Maria concentrated and reached out her hand. “Liz, go. Lead the way. I will
hold until Michael comes.”
“He
wouldn’t want you to wait.”
“I
can’t—not without him. Go. All of you. We will follow.”
They
glanced back at Maria before stepping through to freedom. Weakened, she held
herself up against a wall as the final prisoners trickled through. The corridor
closed without Michael, and Maria shook her head as she held the other way clear
for the final ones to walk through.
One
man stopped and held out his hand to Maria, the last to remain. “Princess?
Please, come with us.”
“Go.
We will follow.” He seemed uncertain, but something in Maria’s eyes
convinced him that insisting she came through without Michael wasn’t something
she wouldn’t or couldn’t do. “Go. Please.”
Maria
collapsed to the floor as the last man left and her strength faltered. Her head
was pounding and the color of the walls appeared to be bleeding. The skin of her
hands seemed transparent, and for a moment, she couldn’t tell if she was
breathing.
Suddenly
another distortion broke into the wall, and Michael emerged. Stepping quickly,
his long stride took him to his fallen wife. “I told you to go.”
“I
told you I would not leave you behind,” she said stubbornly.
Michael
gathered his collapsed wife into his arms standing. The door to the prison
opened and he turned to stare at Thoth. Without a blink, a new corridor opened,
and with one last look at Thoth, Michael carried Maria
through to daylight.