of people, both warrior and civilian, from among the Castillian and Vorn races. Tiet followed the casement carrying Kale's body as the Horva warriors carried it from the shuttle toward the main port building.
The crowd clapped and cheered for their young king as he passed through them on the walkway. He tried to be as cheerful as possible; waving several times to the people who had come to see him home, but the pain of losing his brother after so short a time of knowing him ate at him.
He was reminded of his other loved ones who had died around him in so short a time. He never doubted the purposes of God in all things, but it seemed so senseless to him.
When he entered the main port building, Mirah was there to meet him.
'I thought we had lost you,' said Mirah.
Wynn was relieved to see him safe. Tiet would grieve for Kale, but he would certainly bounce back, in time.
They remained in the south gate only minutes longer before going on to the medical complex where he could get treatment for any lingering effects of the neurotoxin he had been subjected to, and receive dressings for his wounds.
When they arrived he followed Mirah on into the treatment bay. He seemed to be bruised all over. Mirah noticed fresh blood trickling down his arm, the same that had been previously broken and repaired. She cut away the sleeve of his uniform to examine it.
Mirah wasn't exactly sure what to say as she tried to concentrate on her medical duties. She liked Tiet, but they had never been anything more than friends. She had wondered if they might ever be more. He had lost some of the brashness he possessed when he had rescued her from the Vorn prison back on Castai's twin across the Rift. Now he was quiet and kind and very respectful of her as a professional.
Mirah remembered that he had promised her they would sit down and talk soon. As she dressed his wounds, she decided she was going to hold him to that.
RESNIOR watched the alarm on the transgate with frustration.
'Where did Merin go? He's been gone for hours and he's the only one trained on the shutdown procedures for the transgate until Orikel comes on tonight.'
'I think the General had him running some errand to the incinerator,' said one of the other techs in the control room. 'But that was hours ago.'
'Well someone needs to take care of shutting that thing down and I'm not messing around with it. I'm going to see if I can find him.'
Resnior got up from his station, headed out of the control room and found the lift to take him down to the incinerator.
When he came down the main corridor he could see the main debris port was open. There was a metal container on the floor next to the port, but no Merin. He walked over to the container, which was open and laying on its side. On the ground was some sort of liquid residue. Resnior bent down to examine it. He noticed that there was also blood mingled with it.
When he stood and turned to return to the lift, Merin was standing there almost on top of him. Resnoir only had a moment before Merin caught his head with his hands and quickly turned it hard to snap his neck. The body fell to the ground dead.
Merin tapped the switch to open it with his elbow and pushed the body inside. He picked up the metal container from the floor that he had carried the symbyte tissue down in and threw the empty casing inside with Resnior's body.
After shutting the chamber door again he switched the incinerator on and turned to leave. He reached down on his abdomen and began to close the uniform shirt he wore. Underneath it, fluid from the symbyte tissue began to bleed through the cloth. He covered it up with his vestment and walked to the lift, letting the doors close behind him.
A Horva wasn't a hospitable body for Lucin to inhabit. Another would have to be found before the man's natural defenses could respond. Fortunately this planet had many to offer.
XV
DATE: The Year 9042 (Planet Castai-Rex)
THERE was a steady wind blowing across the plains that night that caused Wynn to stoke up the fire that burned inside the custom pit within his living room. The whole space was very open and he liked it that way. The whole back wall was capable of opening up onto the courtyard beyond where he liked to train and teach his personal students.
Many of the soldiers in the Castillian army had decided to extend their training into the Barudii warrior arts, well beyond the normal military regimen. The war had been over for fifteen years now and the military had been on stand down since two years after the last of the Baruk were disposed of. The soldiers reported for regular training but were otherwise free to conduct their own personal lives.
An increasing number of the soldiers had become interested in knowing more about the concepts and tactics used by the Barudii of long ago and had began to come to Wynn for the training. He had been reluctant at first, but as his duties lightened with the end of the war and more people turned to him for additional training, he had decided to begin his own formal program. It brought him a nice income and provided him another means of keeping his own skills up while contributing to the overall well-being of the people.
Wynn sat at his desk near the screened wall leading to the courtyard, which was bathed in moonlight. He liked the feel of nature and tried to keep his home as free from overt technology as was convenient. He wrote upon paper to complete the idea as he formed his lessons to give to his students. Only one of them possessed Barudii psychokinetic abilities, but still they were mastering the ancient fighting techniques that predated the kinesis.
The fire flickered with the wind as he continued his writings in preparation for tomorrow's class with his students. He began to sense something around the edges of his consciousness, and the feeling that something or someone was approaching. He stopped his writing but did not move otherwise. His eyes closed as he tried to fix his mind on what was nearby. Then he had it; a brutish form of the Horva was within the confines of his perimeter wall around the courtyard.
This dangerous form of Horva had managed somehow to survive in the wilds of the planet and only rarely did they venture into populated areas when their food shortages ran low. It appeared one was hunting for food on his property now and likely he was the intended meal.
Wynn stood looking out into the courtyard and with his mind he cut the lights around him, leaving only the firelight flickering behind him. His eyes quickly began to adapt to the moonlight beyond in the courtyard. He could not see anything moving yet with his eyes, but his mind was focusing in on a life form; definitely one of the feral Horva.
His blade leapt off of a wall mount across the room into his outstretched hand as he opened the courtyard access door mentally. Wynn moved quickly and silently into the courtyard toward the figure hiding in the foliage beyond. Suddenly he sensed the creature coming down fast on him from behind. He whirled with his blade, igniting it in mid-swing. He sliced the air behind him but there was no attacker. He searched quickly with his mind but could not sense anyone else at all now.
Wynn was completely perplexed. He had been quite sure of his senses and now he was out here cutting air in the dark like a fool. Suddenly he sensed something again, but it was a different form. He could clearly sense a bathosphore coming up behind him. He whirled again, expecting to find it there, but again there was nothing.
'What's going on here?' he muttered.
Then he heard something approaching, rolling across the ground. He looked to see a wooden ball twice the size of his fist rolling toward him. Simultaneously there were six others coming from directions all round him. He could sense that they were nothing more than wood and yet they were under some control. He realized what was going on just as the balls leapt off the ground to attack him.
He brought his blade to bear as he dodged several of the fast moving objects that began to swirl about him.
