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While Rayen stewed over being told she couldn’t help with the ward, Callan had called in every available power source. He didn’t see the point in trying to trick the TecKnati again since they needed to capture Thylan to find out the identity of the traitor.
She believed she could power up the ward and not kill anyone, but from the looks on the faces surrounding her, no one else held that opinion. It was worth another shot at trying to convince them. “This is a ward,” she began, “and I’m a power source. How difficult can it be?”
Kenja explained, “Your power is not MystiK so it may not merge with the current ward, or you could force too much power into it and blow up the village.”
“She might blow up the ward, but not the village,” Kaz offered, and Rayen wasn’t sure if that was in her defense or not.
“It’s too much risk to her,” Callan said with the power of his authority that would normally end all debate and prevent anyone else from arguing.
Anyone but her. “I think I’ll know if it’s too much for me.”
Callan, Kenja, and Kaz were grouped on one side of her. Gabby and Jaxxson stood on the other side. Zilya sort of stood with Callan, but in truth she hung back, staring a hole in Callan’s back.
Unwilling to bend, Callan shook his head. “We try it again without you.”
Zilya argued, “We’re draining our power when we’ll need it later.”
Rayen was in shock. Had Zilya spoken up to support something she wanted to do? That surprise lasted only long enough to note the sneer she sent Rayen’s way. No, Zilya just wanted to conserve her power for herself and would willingly sacrifice Rayen.
They stood twenty feet inside the ward. Rayen could tell there were weak spots when they’d passed through an opening the last time. The energy usually buzzed across her skin, but now it felt more like the brush of friction.
Before she could mount a new argument, Gabby said to Jaxxson, “We have to tell them.”
Jaxxson nodded.
Rayen had noticed something odd about the two of them when they walked up but couldn’t put her finger on it. Gabby always had a glow about her when she was with Jaxxson. For some reason, it was more pronounced than ever now.
Callan had caught Gabby’s comment. “What do you have to tell us?”
Jaxxson put a proprietary arm around Gabby then announced, “Gabby and I have bonded. We are far more powerful now as a team.”
Zilya gasped.
Kenja’s eyebrows dropped low over her confused gaze. Kaz was neutral and Callan sliced a look at Rayen that said we could have done that.
Gabby’s tentative gaze skittered around until it landed on Rayen. She smiled back but worried what that would mean for Gabby since there was no way for her and Jaxxson to end up together.
Kaz said, “Then let’s get busy and try it with Gabby and Jaxxson.”
Callan turned toward the ward, and everyone followed him, including Rayen. He shook his head at her. She backed up to watch, feeling useless for all the power she possessed.
The rest of them spread out six feet apart and raised their hands.
Jaxxson began the chant, then Gabby picked up his rhythm. Blue-green light radiated from the two of them and even Zilya’s eyes widened with awe.
Callan jumped in as the chant repeated, followed by Kaz’s bold voice and Zilya’s murmuring.
Surprised, Rayen could see the spread of power and the spots that were getting stronger, especially where the streak of power originated with Jaxxson and Gabby.
But after five minutes, Kaz and Callan had sweat pouring down their backs, Zilya was trembling, and Gabby looked pale. Kenja and Jaxxson were gritting their teeth. Jaxxson took one look at Gabby and told Callan, “We have to stop.”
Kenja shouted, “No. The ward is getting stronger.”
Jaxxson turned to her. “We’re pulling off in thirty seconds.”
“We can’t finish in thirty seconds,” Kaz argued in a strained voice.
The heck with this. Rayen walked over and touched Callan’s shoulders. He tensed and said, “What are you doing?”
She answered him by tapping on his mind. When he opened to her, she said, We can do this with my power. I just need to find it without being upset and having my power run out of control.
He surprised her by sweeping into her mind and telling her, Follow me.
She let go mentally of everything except focusing on him as he dove inside and found the red glow of her energy. As soon as she saw it, she drew the energy up and pushed it into Callan. His shoulders rolled with the surge of additional energy, and he took the power as fast as she could feed it.
Colors swirled and blurred, spinning into a vision as beautiful as it was chaotic. Rayen kept drawing from her core. It felt as if she had a bottomless supply of energy.
Then the flow slowed until she couldn’t push it anymore.
What was wrong?
A noise pierced her mental sanctity. Voices shouting.
Oh, no. Had she destroyed the ward?
She opened her eyes and stared at the back of Callan’s head. He said, “Are you going to release me?”
Her fingers were digging into his shoulders. She snatched them back. “Did I hurt you?”
Callan turned, rubbing his shoulder, but grinning. “No.”
“You did it, Rayen,” Gabby exclaimed and hugged her.
She looked up and the wall radiated energy so powerful it glowed. “I didn’t blow it up.”
Kaz laughed. “No, you would have blown up Callan first as the conduit.”
Her skin chilled. She hadn’t considered that.
Callan gave Kaz a censuring look. “I was never in danger.”
Jaxxson said, “I’m being called to the healing hut.” He thanked Rayen for her help and took Gabby’s hand.
Zilya swiped at perspiration that ran along her neck. “You could have done that to begin with and saved the rest of us from wasting our time.”
“Protecting your people is wasting time?” Kenja asked.
Speaking through a clenched jaw, Zilya said, “Don’t twist my words, Kenja. I’m only saying that she’s of no real use to this village. We should have had her power the ward on her own. She clearly has enough energy.”
Callan’s face turned darker with every word Zilya spewed. “You should be thanking her.”
Etoi came storming up. “I will take Zilya’s place for anything else today. She is too important to use in labor such as this.”
Rayen cocked her head in question. Yes, Etoi was Zilya’s shadow, but Etoi didn’t have Zilya’s power for things like the ward or she’d have been out here helping. Was Etoi trying to keep Zilya from using her power to shore up MystiK defenses?
Could Etoi be the traitor?
“Thank you,” Zilya told Etoi. “I’m going to find a place to cool off and rest. We need pik-pik thread woven. You and I’ll do that today.”
Zilya basically dismissed herself from anything else and walked off.
Kenja murmured, “She is lucky she was not born Uberon.”
Callan scrubbed a hand over his face. “I don’t care as long as she stays out of my way. We’ve got to figure out Thylan’s next move.”
Neelah came from the direction of the prisoner hut. Callan and Kenja tensed, probably both thinking the first thought that came to Rayen.
Had she gone to see the prisoners? Was she the traitor? Tony had warned Rayen about her from their first visit to the Sphere. She was angry and bitter, not that he’d blamed her, since she was trapped here, but such a person could easily betray others to save her own skin. Rayen just recalled everything Tony had told her and needed to share it with Callan, but not out in the open.
Callan asked, “What is it, Neelah?”
“One of the prisoners is begging to be released from the binding.”
Kenja said, “Why should we care?”
“He claims he will share something he knows if we will free him.”
Callan and Kenja took off like arrows shot from a tightly strung bow. Rayen followed with Kaz right behind her. On the way, she tapped on Callan’s mind. He was quick to ask, What?
I didn’t want to say this out loud, because I don’t want to falsely accuse anyone, but Tony told me after our first trip here that Neelah visited him when he was locked in the prison hut. She made the comment that she didn’t care if he was TecKnati and, in fact, hoped he was because she was looking for a way out of here. She said she’d do anything to go home.
Thanks for telling me.
But that doesn’t mean she’s guilty, Callan.
I know. I won’t accuse anyone without solid evidence.
When they reached the hut, Callan opened it and they all entered.
Before Kenja and Callan started in on this guy, Rayen had a question for the scout. “How is the traitor in this village communicating with Thylan?”
“Messages are left outside the village in the same spot every time. I can show you the spot, but I’ve never seen the traitor.”
She nodded and stepped back.
Kenja looked down her nose at the prisoner who was still standing and warned him, “We do not have to negotiate with you.”
“I know. Please don’t do that biting, itching thing again. I’m offering this in good faith.”
“TecKnati do not understand good faith,” she tossed right back at him. “You have broken our treaty and killed our children.”
The knot at his throat pumped up and down with a hard swallow. “That’s SEOH, not all of us. I didn’t sign on to do this. I’ve tried to hide the whole time here, because I don’t agree with what SEOH is doing, but to go against him is to die. I know you don’t believe this, but not all TecKnati are bad. We have families just like you and many of us want to live in peace.”
Callan crossed his arms. “Your leader is trying to commit genocide against our race.”
“I realize that, but no one back home knows it. There’s a board of twelve members that he answers to on everything he does. My father works in communications, and I heard him tell my mother that he thought there was something odd about the Komaen Sphere project, but SEOH delivers Sphere reports on a regular basis to the board members who oversee all TecKnati developments.”
“Are you trying to tell me that SEOH is keeping this secret from all of the TecKnati?”
The scout nodded.
Callan studied the scout. “Why are you willing to tell us this now?”
“I thought all the scouts would have been sent home by now because the BIRG Con is tonight. But Thylan hasn’t even come to see what happened to us.” The scout indicated himself and the guy on the ground who was sniffling and crying. “He said once he completes both parts of his plan we’ll go home. But I think he’s lying about that, too. I’ll tell you anything you want to know, but please let me go. I’ve never hurt anyone.” His attention was squarely on Callan when he said, “I wasn’t allowed to get close to you when you were locked up or I’d have helped you escape. I didn’t have enough rank to be inside the main building. I’ve been sleeping outside the entire time.”
Rayen believed him, but she wasn’t sure if Callan or Kenja did. Kaz had a wary expression on his face that made her think he battled internally for a fair decision.
Callan and Kenja exchanged a long look then Kenja nodded. Callan ordered the scout, “Tell us everything you know, and we’ll release you once we can confirm what you share.”
The hunched body on the floor begged, “Do it, Allen.”
Allen, the one standing, looked as if his life had been spared. He didn’t need the prodding. “Thylan was supposed to take possession of the computer she brought.” He angled his head in Rayen’s direction. “And send it to headquarters. SEOH intends to reverse engineer it first then destroy the computer before the BIRG Con. Thylan was only supposed to test the laser at twenty percent level. When it barely worked on the two boys you came to rescue, Thylan turned it up eighty percent on you.”
Callan grunted but continued standing with his arms crossed.
“Thylan sent a report back about how much power it had required and that he didn’t have the computer yet. SEOH sent more scouts and an order that no one could go home until Thylan captured Rayen and delivered the computer to SEOH. Thylan has always been weird, but he’s acting scary strange.”
Rayen could only wonder what Allen thought was weird compared to what she’d witnessed.
Callan shifted his stance, his hands clutching his arms tightly. “What’s Thylan’s plan?”
“He’s having the laser field dismantled, then rewiring it into a machine he’s going to use like a weapon to destroy the ward around this village.”
Rayen looked to Callan. “Can he do that?”
Before Callan could answer, Allen interjected, “The laser field was designed in layers so that if one level of power didn’t work, they could keep increasing to the next level at another layer. There are three levels. When he maxed out the power, it was only the one layer. Combining all of them would be ...” Allen hung his head, thinking. When he lifted his chin, horror blanketed his gaze. “I don’t know, but my guess is apocalyptic power. He has no idea if it will break the ward, blow up this village or maybe even blow up the entire Sphere. He’s nuts.”
Now she understood Allen’s motivation. He wanted to be anywhere except in this village when Thylan unleashed his weapon. Something he said niggled at the back of Rayen’s mind. “Why do you think Thylan is lying to you about taking you home?”
“Because of him executing the first step in his plan today. Some of the TecKnati scouts arrived in the transenders with MystiKs, which means they must travel back in the same transender, or the molecules in their bodies will rearrange and explode upon arrival. Thylan’s destroying all the transender sites before moonset except the one he arrived in.”
