Out the corner of his eye, Eric saw a shape move past the portico columns, then in one swift motion he saw Felden fly in between two of them, swinging his wings back to fit while bringing his feet forward and aiming for Norla’s stomach.
She reacted too late, forty kilos of aven plus gear barreling into her and knocking her from her feet. The stunner she held went clattering across the floor. The fuzziness subsided, Eric began to stand. Someone else was in the room now, too—Selva. She shoved a gaggle of Dulane’s guards down and stunned them, while across the room Norla staggered to her feet only for Felden to slug her across the jaw.
“I thought your people were above that!” She spat blood.
“Not when you really deserve it.” He hit her again.
She touched a jewel on her bracelet, and another stun effect hit Eric. A spherical device of some sort left her hand, Selva ran to it and did something to neutralize it while Norla made good her escape.
Eric resumed his feet and stunned the last of the guards. In the courtyard the Rogue’s Galley had landed, Sir Wotoc approached with Professor Temerin, Cobb, Captain Prex, and his first mate. Now it was just them, and Caesar.
“Stop!” Brother Kasey shouted. “Has not enough blood been spilled? Your palace has fallen; your own government is in rebellion! You can end this, if you just call for peace!”
“Never!” Dulane thundered. “This world is mine, as long as I draw breath I shall never—”
An arrowhead-tipped bolt zinged out and thudded into his chest, followed by another. Across the room, Prex threw down the two crossbows he held, took a third from his first mate, and shot again.
Sputtering up blood, Caesar Dulane stumbled to the floor. Brother Kasey went to approach, Dulane shouted and held up a hand to stop him, coughing up blood as he tried to speak. Then he slumped back, and expired.
“You didn’t have to do that!” Temerin shouted.
“On the contrary.” Prex looked to the dead tyrant’s corpse. “He would’ve done the same to us given half the chance.”
Kasey knelt beside Dulane, muttering a prayer. “He died a pointless death, as did so many of his victims.”
“It is done,” Ezhiri said.
“Not yet.” Eric glanced to the door through which Norla had escaped. “Still got one more scumbag left.”
“Let’s go.” Cobb drew his stunner.
The door led to a hallway and then outside, to a stone bridge crossing between the Palace and Parthenon-style temple atop the adjacent hill. Norla stood at the far end, as if watching to see whether it would be Caesar Dulane or the starmen who emerged after her. She ran beside the temple, to another door, and dove through.
Eric reached it and pulled the handle. “It’s locked!”
Selva stepped forward and kicked it in two amid a shower of splinters. “Was locked.”
Going through, Eric followed her down a flight of stone-hewn steps. These were tunnels under the temple, illuminated not by lanterns or candles but by lighting stripes glowing overhead. Tapestries adorned the walls.
“This is a sacred space,” Ezhiri said.
From further down came a clash and clang of pots or jars falling to the floor. Eric ran for the source, ducking into a room which turned out to be another geodesic dome. Probably where the Keepers would mastermind the whole planet, he thought, and left through a second door.
On the left the hall opened to a small rock-walled room, perhaps Norla’s private study. Pottery shards and mugs lay on the floor, a candlestick stopped rolling. She’d just been here.
“Up the stairs!” Cobb shouted. Eric followed, seeing Norla’s shadow retreat up another set. Looking up, he saw her face, then she banged a door shut and dropped a bar across on the other side.
“Shit!” He reached it.
“Push!” Cobb threw himself at the door.
Thump. It rattled, and not from their impacts.
“Too late.” Felden looked through the barred window.
Thump. Thump.
On the door’s other side was the wide-open interior of the temple, a fire crackling in a huge bronze brazier and columns surrounding the smooth marble floor. Norla, standing in the middle with a knapsack over her shoulder, turned back to grin.
Behind her, a Tyrannosaurus rex ascended the outside stairs.
Norla gloated, her words not registering as Eric and the others pointed and shouted. There was nothing they could do.
The dinosaur’s three-toed feet reached the marble floor, it passed through the entryway and stared down at Norla with eyes fixed. She turned around and blinked.
Her scream rent the air.
