Free NovaForge by Scott Toney Page B

and that it was safe to talk.
    “Vrax, what does Riad need? Where are he and the others?” she asked as it returned to her cell.
    It stared at her, silent. “Coordinate and instruct reboot requested,” it spoke. The lights in its eyes went dark briefly and then clicked back on. “Riad bot coordinates reset. Orders… woman and boy to follow Vrax to main throne. Cyborg Riad urgently in need.”
    …click, click, click, click, click, click… The bot suddenly scurried out of her cell and back down the wall of other cells.
    “We need to follow it if we are to find the others,” Julieth spoke to Bayne. “Leap onto my back as I fly out,” she instructed him.
    “Ready,” his voice came from above.
    Julieth leaned out of the cell, slowly expanding her cramped wings into open air. She pulsed them once, her feet leaving the cell’s floor just before Bayne landed on her back. She temporarily lost control of her flight, being pulled downward by the thrust of his weight, but quickly beat her wings again and again, steadying herself in the air of the red-lit darkness.
    “There it is,” Bayne said while sitting on her back.
    She couldn’t see his outstretched arm, but registered the direction his voice went and looked there, watching Vrax’s silver shell quickly moving away from them on the edge of the cavern floor below. Julieth swooped upward; hugging the cavern roof where she hoped the darkness there would protect them from enemy eyes. They passed several companies of beast-led slaves below, but none glanced upward as they moved.
    Vrax suddenly veered into a completely dark tunnel, a minute glowing light on its head the only thing Julieth could see. Then, in the distance, light opened up before her. Is that sunlight? she wondered. A massive temple rose from the cavern’s base. She quickly dipped, diving from the roof of the cavern to a shadowed spot on its floor. Her feet barely made a sound as she landed. She and Bayne both flattened their bodies against the wall behind them, watching as Vrax scurried into the sunlit space and then disappeared in a crevice along the temple’s bottom.
    “Can you control your fear?” Julieth asked Bayne in a whisper. “It sounds as if your ability has no effect on these creatures. If it manifests, then they will recapture us and we will probably die.”
    “I can try, but what can we do?” the boy said with a steady voice.
    If he cannot control his emotions, she thought, then we are doomed. “I do not know,” she said. “My bow and arrows are gone, and we do not have Riad’s weapons.”
    “Shh…” Bayne’s voice caressed her ears. There, striding around the base of the temple, was a man. He held a large sword, almost the length of his body, sunlight shimmering off its blade and refracting through the darkness. He wore no shirt and his body was tone and strong.
    He is no slave, Julieth thought. As the man walked from the sunlight and into a shadowed area his body changed, covering in hair and taking on the snout of the beasts, then morphing into human form again while re-entering a shaft of sunlight. So the beasts are men. She clasped a hand on Bayne’s wrist, assuring him that all was well, trying to keep the boy from releasing energy and destroying their chances. Are they all like this? The darkness allows them to maintain their forms, and the sunlight exposes their flesh. This is why they are below Olan and not in its streets. But are they Olan’s people or an invading force?
    Julieth held her breath as the soldier turned, peering out into the tunnel’s darkness. He did not move for a long moment, and then began his pacing walk once more. Have we been seen? she wondered. Is it only a matter of time? Regardless, our opportunity is now. We will need weapons if we are going to escape. My chance will be when he is in human form. “Bayne,” she spoke softly, cupping her hands near his ear. “I must do something. Kneel down and cover your ears. Do not watch me. I will