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Chapter 9

Malaki was more or less conscious, lying slumped against a rock wall. He had managed to limp along by himself, although when accelerated it was as fast as a normal person could run. Ciara stood next to him, beneath the spotlight of the waiting shuttlecraft. Marines who carried antitank rifles and rockets surrounded them. That was the kind of firepower it would take to bring down Ynok if he decided to follow.

"What are those?" Malaki whispered, lost in a dreamy half-awake state. He limply raised one finger to point at the hot streaks of flame shooting down from the sky. Each impact sounded like a thunderclap.

"Torpedoes. They're bombarding Ynok's ship from orbit."

Malaki nodded and rested his head. "What about Ynok?"

Ciara shook her head. "He's probably dead."

"No," Malaki grunted, "He's not. He's too fast and too smart to die like that."

"Ma'am?" one of the chem-suited marines asked, pointing to the basket the shuttle had lowered for them.

"We left our own shuttle outside of Kanyte's camp," she instructed as Malaki climbed in, "And Kanyte left some communications equipment in his temple. Have them both destroyed."

The man nodded and saluted as Malaki helped her in.

Ciara could not remember ever appreciating a hot shower as much as she did that night. She was exhausted and although the nanomachines had done their work well her wounds still ached. At least she hadn't lost much blood? not like last time. Her hand slid down her thigh, finding the white stripe of scar tissue that crossed them both just beneath her rear. Just thinking about it made her legs hurt.

The other amazing thing was how dirty the water at her feet was. She could only imagine what the brief trip had done to her. The thought of slowly deteriorating into a being like Grakkus was not a pleasant one.

Grakkus? just saying the name struck her with regret.

Who was it that had told her every prisoner of Septik deserved their punishment? Major Grev? The lieutenant? She could barely even remember. But she knew with certainty that whoever had said it was wrong.

"Malaki?" she asked, pulling a bathrobe around her, "Have we jumped into hyperspace?"

"No," he replied from the next room.

Ciara's brow creased. They should have been back to Korrus a long time ago. What was taking them so long? "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Malaki answered, "I can feel it."

That was weird. Malaki never said things like that. She cracked the door open to see him sitting on a cot and staring at the bulkhead. Not doing anything? just staring. He looked shell-shocked. Of course, she knew Malaki wasn't just staring off into space. He was searching inwards, reviewing and assembling data that threatened to overflow his mind. The little gears in his head were spinning at top speed.

"What's wrong? You're taking up full-blown Tar-Thul meditation?"

"You have no idea," he replied plainly.

A sudden pang of fear shot through her chest. This was strange. Not just weird-strange, but so out of place and character that it scared her. "Malaki? Are you alright?"

The minotaur slowly shook his head, before leaning forward and resting his face in his hands. "When I was down there, Ynok did something to me. He threw open the gates to my unconscious mind?" Again, he shook his head. "Not just my mind? Everyone's mind. At once. The collective knowledge and memory of humanity."

Ciara approached cautiously, as though he might suddenly strike her. "Malaki? What's going on?"

"He showed me our history. I saw hyperspace? I saw Psion, exactly how you described it? He explained things to me, Ciara. I came to an understanding there."

The girl did not say a word. She couldn't. What was she supposed to say to someone ranting this way?

"You're not completely invisible when you raise your cloak," Malaki explained, "Ynok catches whispers of you. Jable saw your ripples. You hide the matter and you try to hide your soul-flame, but it isn't enough. The PPF shield? your KSA? the energy you channel into your sword? You have to learn to see spirit and hide it, Ciara."

"What are you talking about?" she spat out.

Malaki closed his eyes and lay back on the bed. "Do you know what morphic resonance is? No, of course you wouldn't? that's another lie of the Diktat." The minotaur took a deep breath, trying to find the right words before he continued. "We're all connected by psychic threads? not just us here in the present but those in the past as well. They leave us echoes of their memories that get tucked away in the back of our minds. When Ynok captured me, he made me see these memories."

"There was a monk named Ke'Laot," he explained, "He showed me the reality of things. Psychic energy is infused in everything. We always use it. It's hidden, though? tucked away within matter. The matrices let us see these things, allow us to channel it and let is pass through us?"

For a moment Malaki stopped and smiled. "Isn't that the lesson of this whole mess? It's better to go around and through than against?"

Ciara still didn't understand, but she was starting to see.

"Anyway, that's what hyperspace is? Our dimension is more matter than spirit but hyperspace is more spirit than matter. When a person understands that spirit and matter are entwined and inseparable he will act to alter them both at the same time. A person who can do this is the most powerful kind of psyker? Far more powerful than one who only tries to alter matter, as we are taught to do."

"And that," he continued, "Is what the Source is hiding from us. The Diktat teaches us to control matter and recognize soul-flames. We must do so much more in the spirit realm. The Tar-Thul monks knew how to see the spirit and the matter as one."

"The Source?"

"Is a liar, Ciara! He knows that the less we know the stronger he becomes! Ignorance has always been the greatest weapon a leader can possess! When we are ignorant of the true nature of things we cannot challenge what he tells us. It has happened a thousand times before and it will happen again."

This was too much for her to handle? Malaki was asking her to suddenly throw away everything she used to know with certainty after fifteen seconds of explanation. "Malaki? I?"

"I know," he whispered, "I know? It's too much for you, isn't it? It was too much for me, too. I was in that dream-world with Ke'Laot for nearly an hour. He explained everything to me. He showed me things that left me speechless. He taught me how to see spirit and matter as one."

"You were-"

"Hallucinating? Dreaming? No? I was remembering. That's the strange thing about it. Every time he told me something, it wasn't like I was hearing it for the first time. It felt natural? it felt right? I could almost finish his sentences for him. It was more like he was reminding me of something that I already knew. Do you have that feeling right now?"

"Sort of?"

"That's alright, Ciara? I was stunned at first, too. I still am. It's an incredible feeling when someone helps you understand something like this."

"What are you going to do now?"

Malaki was silent for a long time. A long, long time. He just sat there and stared at the wall while Ciara stood and waited. Part of her wished she had never even opened her mouth in the first place. Could it all be true? Or was he making it all up? Or was he simply mistaken? And, just as importantly, what was she going to do about it? Follow him on whatever path he took next? How could she turn away from him?

That was a new thought: the idea that she was somehow bound to him. Their fates were entwined, she knew? she couldn't leave him if she wanted to.

"I don't know," Malaki finally answered.

Ciara slid next to him, putting one small arm across his back. She rested her head on his shoulder, feeling a slight tremor of uncertainty travel through his spine. That was a bit of a shock as well. It was disconcerting to feel the fear within Malaki's powerful form. He put one arm around the girl and brought her against his chest where they embraced. He couldn't be making this up, Ciara thought as her cheek pressed up against his, you didn't need to be psychic to feel how scared and broken he was.

While Ciara still had her doubts, Malaki's entire world had come crashing down on him. He needed her to be there for him one more time, to lend him her strength just as he had helped her back at the space station? a moment that seemed like it had happened an eternity ago.

"Here," he said, reaching across the table for their matrices. He pressed it against his face, taking comfort in the return of his powers. Ciara took her own and pressed it against her forehead before a shockwave shot through her spine.

"Oh my god?" she whispered, her small mouth hanging open in total shock. It was incredible? Malaki's whole soul was open to her. He let her see everything that he had seen. She saw his whole life in a blinding barrage of images? sounds? sensations? She saw his last partner die, trapped on a warship as it incinerated in a planet's atmosphere. Together they reviewed everything they had ever done together, as well as
those things he had done alone. She saw every hope and fear he had? everything he had discovered and every conclusion he had arrived at. She saw everything he had learned with Ke'Laot, tapping every instant of memory that was locked away within him.

And within that corner of his mind she knew what he had tried to explain. She saw the Tar-Thul monks being thrown into battle. She saw their order destroyed and their noble thoughts blended with lies from eras that had come before. She saw the Source impose his new idea of what reality must be. It was at the same time breathtaking in its magnitude and terrifying in its implications.

And what does it all mean, she asked?

A single thought struck her: We must never find Psion.

That idea chilled her to the core.

No! Malaki thought/shouted. No man must ever set foot on Psion! You have seen what man does with his power. You have seen the Source enslave an entire universe with Ideas and Belief. What will he do when he has all the power he desires?

Use it for evil?

You've seen what Ynok managed to do with a large piece of obsidian. What will the Source do when he possesses a whole planet full of it?
It was true. She had seen what the power of faith had done. It had transformed the face of Epaenetus. It had given rise to the Knights, who were truly the assassins of the Diktat. It had placed absolute power in the hands of men like Jable and Kanyte, men who were only kept in check by men of greater power than themselves. And Grakkus? Faith alone had transformed a murderer and rapist into a righteous war machine. It was only through fate that he was even on her side.

No man must ever find Psion, Malaki repeated. No disaster in human history will ever equal it. Mankind does not deserve to possess that power, least of all the clergy. We have proven ourselves unworthy.

"I understand?" she whispered, a tear in her voice.

The chime of the ship's comm shattered their tender moment.

"Malaki," the minotaur introduced himself.

"This is Captain Ket-Kal," a disembodied voice explained, "I need both of you on the bridge right away."

Ciara sighed and rose to her feet. Malaki followed, angry for more than one reason. But this was serious, he knew. Captains didn't entertain visitors for no reason.

"What is it?" Malaki asked as the door opened automatically in front of him, and instantly froze in his tracks. Ciara tried to peek over his shoulder before finally pushing around his side. She froze as well.

"Ynok."

The lupine stood before them on the screen, the crumpled bodies of marines scattered around his feet. He had apparently arranged them so that as many were visible on-camera as possible. Most of them looked dead, lying in pools of sticky blood, but he had also take time to tie several of them together at the back of the room.

"To be perfectly honest, Ms. De'Kar," Ynok said, "I would not have told them to destroy Kanyte's equipment. I've got six men alive here, including a particularly heroic ranger." He held up Grakkus for them to see.

His already twisted face looked even more worn and broken than it used to. Caked blood was smeared across his mouth and the stump that used to be his right arm was blackened and burned, cauterized by fire.

"Drop the bombs!" Grakkus shouted into the camera, lacking all of his usual eloquence, "Nuke him from orbit!"

"Prepare a missile," the captain ordered.

"No!" Ciara shouted.

Ynok grinned. "I'll be waiting." And with that, the screen went blank.

"Do you seriously think you stand a chance?" Ket-Kal asked, "They say a single Knight is worth a hundred normal men. How true is that? Five men seems a small price to pay to destroy a rogue Knight strong enough to defeat you both."

Ciara noticed that he did not count Grakkus. "The rangers fought an enemy they knew they couldn't beat just to give us a chance. They deserve our help. Especially Grakkus."

The captain looked to the blank screen for a moment, before turning his gaze to Malaki. "It's your choice."

Ynok dragged the wounded Grakkus through the dirt, throwing him down on the ground in front of Kanyte's fort, right next to the five captured marines. He preferred to fight outdoors. The farther away he stayed from the pair, the better. And besides, the girl would be easier to detect when she moved through the haze and soft, muddy ground. The only thing he didn't like about fighting outdoors was how bad the air tasted. It was like breathing chalk.

Grakkus was more tired than he had ever been in his five years of imprisonment on this planet. But he was not afraid. He had fought the good fight and paid for his sins. Death would be a welcome release. All he had to do was wait?

"They won't come," he told Ynok, "They'll just plant an atom bomb right here on top of us. We won't feel a thing. My soul is prepared. What about yours?"

Ynok shook his lupine head. "They will come. In fact, they're already here."

"How do you know?"

"The air," he explained, "Look at it. Less haze, condensation? look there, it's snowing."

Snow? Grakkus thought as he looked around. Indeed, there were white flakes drifting through the green fog. He had almost forgotten what it looked like. In all his years here it had never once snowed on the planet Septik.

"That's Malaki's sign? He draws the heat out of the air." And with that thought, Ynok picked up Malaki's longsword and strode across the fort's courtyard to face the entrance. It only took a moment for the minotaur to materialize out of the fog.

As he approached, Yonk's confident grin slowly turned into a frown. This was not right? The minotaur was unarmed but unafraid? every bit as confident as Ynok. His soul-flame burned twice as bright as before, and reams of blue cloth were now draped over his skin-tight KCS.

"What's this?" Ynok shouted, trying to sound amused, "A Tar-Thul monk, are you?"

Malaki didn't say a thing, but simply stopped four meters away from Ynok. The pair stared at each other for a moment before Ynok noticed a ripple in the fog to Malaki's right. The minotaur's sword left his hand and closed the distance in a heartbeat, sailing straight into the girl and? no?

It stopped an inch away from Malaki's outstretched palm and hung there, suspended in mid-air. Ynok's face grew grim as he attacked again, forcing it onwards with another blast of psionic force. Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Malaki closed his eyes and took in everything Ynok gave him. Every ounce of psychic energy flowed straight through the blade and up his arm. The hot ball of trapped power in his chest only grew as Ynok fed him more and more, fighting for control of the blade even though Malaki wasn't even resisting.

At last Ynok stopped, and relinquished his control on the weapon. His canine muzzle was contorted into a vicious snarl, betraying his frustration.

The minotaur grinned, and siphoned away a tiny whisper of power. The blade spun around, allowing him to take it by the hilt. For a moment Malaki chopped at the air in front of him, reattuning himself to his weapon.

"Your biggest mistake, Ynok, was showing me the truth."

The fallen Knight replied only with the whisper of his sword escaping its scabbard.

"Fair enough," Malaki nodded. Ciara moved away from his side, forcing Ynok to turn to follow her. He had to split his attention between the two as the circled him like a pair of hungry wolves ready to strike at any moment. Fate, Ynok had come to realize, had an appetite for irony.

"Well?" he shouted at the girl, "Come on!"

Malaki threw up one hand and produced a ball of heat lightning. Ynok blurred as he moved away, watching the ground turn to glass inches behind him. Ciara moved with him, forcing the Knight to throw up a psychic wall to keep her back. That left his back exposed to Malaki, an opening the minotaur did not hesitate to exploit.

Their swords met with an ear-splitting peal and the crackle of electricity. Lightning arced between them as they skidded across each other for an instant before the two lunged forward again, blades clashing a second time. For a moment the two broke away and circled each other before Malaki leapt forward, driving Ynok back beneath a barrage of furious blows.

The lupine retreated, stepping back in a feint. Ynok made a swipe at Malaki's muzzle, a blow which the minotaur quickly turned aside. Malaki let his backwards-bending legs collapse beneath him, taking a swipe at Ynok's ankle, but found himself fighting Ynok's shield once more. It only impeded him for an instant before he shifted his perception and slid straight through it, absorbing the power the Knight tried to use against him.

Once more Ynok found himself scrambling to retreat from the minotaur, shocked at the feeling of his barrier being not battered down, but rather melting away and collapsing into the other Knight's body. Hot plasma burst from Malaki's palm, sending Ynok rolling across the muddy ground. It took him a moment to rise, his cape burned away and his KCS smoldering.

Just as his head came up, Malaki's sword came down to meet it. There was a sharp crack of lightning, a ringing peal, and the lupine staggered back. Blood gushed from the side of his head, squirting from between his fingertips.

Neither of the two pursued Ynok as he stumbled away, eventually dropping to his knees. After a long moment he removed his hand to reveal the gash Malaki had put in the left side of his head. Beneath the sticky blood was stripe of black across his bone? lattice obsidian mbedded in his skull.

Malaki shook his head, but Ynok only squatted there on his knees, stunned. He looked at the blood that coated his hand and then back to Malaki, his face wrought with disbelief.

In one final burst of power, he hurled his katana at the minotaur. Malaki's blade deflected it with little more than a quick flick of the wrist as Ciara launched herself forward. The tip of her sword rumbled like thunder; a tiny sonic boom as it entered Ynok's neck, shattered his diamond-hard vertebrae, and passed out the other side. His lupine head slung blood across the ground as it spun through the air and landed two full meters away. The body followed it several seconds later. There was a long silence as the girl stared at the corpse. Ciara's sword let out a muffled double-thump as it slipped from her hand and into the mud. It was done. Her heart felt torn between revulsion and satisfaction. Behind her the bound soldiers held their breath.

What was wrong? Grakkus wondered. Rather than tasting the exhilaration of victory, the Knights' shoulders hung as though weighed down by
some far greater burden.

"Is it over?" Ciara asked.

Malaki turned away and simply shook his head. "Poydeev kaparo."

Psion awaits.