Dark Planet Pt. 04

"Everyone?" Even I could hear the plea in my voice. Our entire force meant to bring down a planetary empire had been lost because of Perikos? Because of me?

"Perhaps not everyone," I heard Shadow's melody and it was kinder, more human perhaps, than I'd ever heard it. He also sounded weary, utterly fatigued. "It was my impression that others fled as we did but we have no army and no camp. There can be no coup."

My ears were ringing now. "Does that mean that there's basically an entire planet worth of you against us?"

"Yes, and what's more, Kragosi mercenaries have been hired by the King to apprehend us. To aid in the search. They may use lethal force, so long as they don't use light." Perikos' song sounded hollow.

"So, a whole planet, plus alien mercs whose entire economy is devoted to capture, imprisonment and torture?" Fleeing the system for some nice, subtropical, far-flung Union colony was starting the sound better and better.

Perikos and Shadow were both quiet for a moment. "So, do we go into hiding then?" I asked, mostly just to break the silence.

"No," Shadow answered, his voice taking on the familiar coldness and disdain. "We have one chance and only one. If we can locate the Capital and challenge the King to fight within the full hearing of his Court and Judges and win, we may legally overthrow."

"I thought that's what we were trying to do before," I said.

"Rebel armies are illegal but infinitely safer than trying to locate a moving Capital and get close enough to challenge the King without being killed, particularly when the entire planet is after you. And of course there is always a chance Leader will be killed illegally even if he does win," said Shadow.

I looked up at the sky again and saw still more lights streaking across the sky. "The Kragosi are already here. Not nearby, but here. They must have left Kragosa not long after we did."

"Leader. I await your decision." Though from Shadow's tone, only one answer was worth hearing.

Perikos turned his full attention on me then and I felt a tendril on my shoulder. "Jayn?"

If Shadow thought Perikos was off his rocker for asking an alien that had never heard of the conflict until a month ago and hadn't cared until now, he didn't say so and I was grateful.

"I would think it was obvious," I said, staring down at the soft red fungus-mottled earth. "You have to do it. You're the best hope, the last leader they've got. You have to do everything you can to save them."

"And you will come with me?" I had rarely heard Perikos sound more vulnerable, more frightened.

I couldn't stop myself from snorting with laughter. Giddy, wholly inappropriate, undeniable laughter. "Nah, I thought I'd move out to the sunny side of the planet and start up a mushroom farm. Where the hell else would I go? Of course I'm going with you!"

"We are not likely to survive," said Shadow and I could tell he was a pessimist after my own heart. Or maybe he was hoping to talk me out of coming.

"I've been unlikely to survive since I set foot in Kragosa. Bring it on. It beats the hell out of finding a particularly dark whole to crawl into and waiting to be discovered."

Perikos wound himself around my left wrist, bracelet and all while a tendril traced a thin line down the length of my cheek. "I love you, Jayn."