Betrayal

"I won the Peleus Race three years in a row," she answered proudly. "I raised Charom myself, and a finer horse could not be found in all of Aqualaria."

"Good," Fred smiled. "And I hope you're just as capable in training soldiers. The Duke wants a militia ready before winter sets in."

"So Dred wasn't dissuaded from his idea of a new Walants army, huh?" Para-Astra said disappointedly. Fred shook his head, "You know how he feels. If the situation gets any worse, if the people revolt... The two hundred Aqualarian soldiers stationed here might require some help, and we both know that Aqualaria simply doesn't have the resources to send us anything more."

"True," Para-Astra agreed, "but it still worries me."

Suddenly a pop was heard and a stablehand cried out from the front of the stable. Fred and Para-Astra turned and saw a cloud of green-white smoke billowing out toward them. The stablehand lay on the ground, as still as death.

Seeker, still operating the avatar unit that was a duplicate of the amazonian oracle woman, waited a few moments and then entered the stable. The sleeping gas was still thick in the air, and the AI adjusted his optical sensors to see through the haze. Stablehands were littered on the floor and all the stalls were filled with drowsing horses. He stepped down the main aisle of the barn and looked to the right and the left. Nowhere could he find the sleeping bodies of Fred or Astra. His electro-mechanical ears suddenly picked up the sound of a bump and a sharp breath and Seeker jerked his eyes upward. At the far end of the stables, on the second floor hayloft, Fred and Astra stood at the edge of the hay door. Their faces were covered with their shirts. Before Seeker could take another step they both took hold of the pulley rope and slid down to safety.

"The Oracle!" Para-Astra cried in shock. "She was standing in the midst of that devil smoke and it didn't do a thing to her! And her eyes...they were like fire!" "I saw her too," Fred responded, "and that was no devil smoke. It was sleep gas. A weapon of the Alliance. And I'll eat my sword if that oracle was anything other than an Alliance avatar." "One of their golems?" Para-Astra asked with revulsion. "That's right; a puppet man. Who knows where the real oracle is," Fred answered. "Or if she's still alive," Para-Astra added.

Seeker's voice then called out to them and he appeared from around the corner of the stables. "I do not wish to harm you."

"And pigs can fly, you lying bastard!" Para-Astra shot back. By now a patrol had come upon the scene. Para-Astra spotted them and yelled out, "Fire upon that witch!"

1. The two amazon guards unslung their bows and two steel tipped arrows flew toward the advancing cyborg.

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree