being. He surrendered to it and sprinted toward the man standing under the strider. At nearly the same instant the man ran towards Orin. He removed a blade from a scabbard under the long coat that he wore. Orin pulled his own blade.
They took to the air as they approached one another. Their ignited blades struck one another as they passed and Orin struck the other man's face with a quick jab. They both soft landed and turned to face one another with blades on guard.
The other man staggered a moment from the hit, as he landed. He touched his face with his hand and looked at the blood when he pulled his hand away. The cloning facility burned behind him.
'So, what I was told was true!' shouted Orin. 'You murderer! You're a traitor to your family and your people!'
The man did not answer the charge. He raised his blade and leapt again at Orin, who stood his ground. The man came down with a powerful blow and Orin matched his blade. They exchanged several quick blows, then Orin was knocked backward by a kinetic blow from the other man. He flipped over and recovered himself quickly; bringing his blade to bear.
'So Kale, I see you have been training. You rejected your people, but not their ways?'
'I was rejected by my father and my people!' said Kale angrily, and he blasted at Orin again with his mind, but the mental attack was countered and nullified.
'You betrayed your father the King! And for what? So that you could join up with the enslavers of our planet?!'
'No! For revenge. What loyalty did I owe to him when he dishonored me, his only son, before our people?!'
'Not your people anymore. And not his only son,' said Orin sarcastically.
Kale struck again and again but Orin did not let his blade through. Suddenly he sensed someone else and quickly evaded another blade in flight. He launched himself up and away and came down to find two more Barudii surrounding him with Kale.
'So you led away other traitors as well?'
Kale and the other two Barudii rebels closed in on him simultaneously with blades drawn and ignited. Orin pulled a kemstick from under his cloak and ignited it. He did not wait for them to strike, but took the fight to them.
He struck at one of the two Barudii, while simultaneously attacking the other man with his kinesis.
The first defended himself with his blade while the man under Orin's mental attack failed to perceive his own weakness. Orin caused a massive firing of pain neurons throughout the man's body, especially in his hands and arms.
He buckled under the mental attack and threw his sword away as though it were on fire. Orin immediately sent his kemstick spinning behind his body at the newly vulnerable target. It caught the man directly in the chest. He seized and fell to the ground dead, as the kemstick fell away.
Orin diverted between his two remaining opponents, striking and countering as each came at him. He tried a mental attack on the other unnamed Barudii, but found him protecting himself kinetically. Kale moved in again as Orin defended a strike from the other. He tried to mentally pull the kemstick from the ground, but Kale intercepted it in flight and cut through the handle of the weapon, destroying it.
Orin wondered in passing thought if he would lose this confrontation. The other Barudii man was not nearly as skilled, but having to deal with both at the same time was tipping the scales out of his favor. Suddenly explosions began to erupt on the air field around them.
They each looked to the direction of the attack to see the army of General Grod beginning to move toward their position. Large war machines were firing volleys from some distance away at the ships on the huge landing platform, apparently in an attempt to destroy those preparing for lift off.
Orin used the distraction to strike again at Kale, who skillfully intercepted his strike but did not anticipate the leg sweep that Orin caught him off guard with; sending him backwards to the ground. The other Barudii renegade took advantage of Orin's move against Kale to strike at Orin from behind. As Orin turned to counter the strike, something flashed behind the man and a blade shot through his chest.
Orin looked toward the point of origin to find Tiet and Wynn emerging from the magnetic rail safety wall and running hard toward them. He was glad to see them, but for a quick moment the tragedy of Tiet seeing Kale and vice versa flashed in his mind. He turned to strike at Kale again who was still on the ground trying to get up.
He locked eyes with the younger man in that instant, and then Kale glanced behind Orin to the blade that had been hurled into his comrade. Orin did not have time to discern what had caught Kale's attention. The Barudii blade catapulted away from the fallen man's body under Kale's mental control and pierced Orin from behind. He lurched in shock and pain; his eyes still locked on Kale's face. He could hear Tiet shouting from some distance away.
Kale looked at the young man approaching with an older man following close behind. He was dressed in the same Barudii cloak as Orin. Kale stood over Orin's fallen body and extracted the blade from his back.
He knew the weapon very well. It was the blade of his father the King. He crouched down near Orin's body, which lay on his side bleeding profusely from the uncauterized wound. 'This is Father's blade, Orin,' he whispered in his ear. 'Where did that person get it?' And then insight seemed to light upon his mind and it was seen in his expression.
He knelt close to Orin's ear, who was now gasping for his breath as his life poured out. 'Is that my brother, Orin?' But he did not wait for an answer from the dying man.
The Horva were still reigning down a heavy volley of fire upon the platform; threatening to destroy his stolen ship and Orin's companions were closing in as well. He decided he could not afford another confrontation right now and ignited his father's blade long enough to drive it into the pavement next to Orin.
There it remained; imbedded halfway up the blade length as he extinguished it. He took another stolen stare at Tiet as he approached; then turned to run for his ship before it was destroyed by the approaching war machines.
Kale managed to reach his ship as another not far away on the platform was struck by a powerful blast from the Horva. He got to the cockpit and retracted the ramp as the engines powered up for lift off. He could see his brother reaching Orin's body and he wondered if the boy even knew that he had an older brother. The thought that his own younger brother might have no knowledge of him, bolstered the resentment and fury he had carried so long against Orin and his father.
The child had been so very young when the old incident had occurred, but Kale remembered him. He had supposed that all of the family, including little Tiet, had perished in the great battle that had reportedly completely wiped out the Barudii as a people. It was obvious that the report had been premature.
Kale had seen his father's body upon the battlefield after the battle was over and remembered his crown, but the King's blade had been missing. Now he knew why. He pushed the memories back in his mind and brought the engines to power. The old Barudii strider lifted off the platform and tore upward through the sky toward open space.
ORIN was very close to death when Tiet came upon him. He knelt in his mentor's blood to try to help him, but it was nearly over. Orin tried to speak as he coughed up more blood. 'Who was that person? Who did this? Tell me so that I can avenge you!' said Tiet frantically.
Orin's voice was weak. He could only manage one word before his life ceased. 'K…a…l…e…'
He was gone. And the pain of losing him on top of the loss of Dorian was only delayed momentarily by the bewildering last word he had given in answer to Tiet's question.
Wynn was beside him as Orin died. His own reaction to the name was one of realization rather than bewilderment. But there wasn't time now for any hesitation. The Horva were on the move toward their position.
'Tiet, we must go!' urged Wynn.
Tiet seemed not to even hear him. Wynn pulled him to his feet against his will and urged him away from their fallen comrade. He went along, knowing he must, and paused only a moment to ignite his father's blade and free it from the ground.
Wynn urged him on as they ran toward the cloning facility. He wanted to be sure that the equipment Grod
