The Poet Heroic (The Kota Series) Read online

  The door slammed shut behind him, and Vale jumped. He turned and saw the girl grimace from the sound, but she appeared unconcerned and sucked on her drink before walking ahead of him to sit on a bench.

  “Who are you and why did you bring me here?”

  She smiled. “I’m Tat. No worries. We’re here to rescue you.”

  “Who-”

  The door opened again, and Vale spun to see Guown enter with Nocturna. A dark-skinned guy and a blond guy entered next, and this last arrival closed the door and locked it. Then the whole group moved to stand around him.

  Vale felt uncomfortable, but he faced his old teacher. “Guown? What-”

  “Good to see you’re okay.” Guown reached gently for Vale’s head and tilted it to look at the tattoo. He made a face. “Ouch. That sore?”

  “Yeah.” Vale sighed. He felt like crying. He’d felt like crying all day. “Thank you for coming after me. And thank you.” He looked at the two guys, knowing now they’d purposefully led the angry locals off his trail.

  The dark-skinned teen shook Vale’s hand. “It was a pleasure. Lost ‘em three streets over. Name’s Evant, by the way.” His voice carried a pleasant Euro accent.

  Vale smiled, liking Evant immediately.

  He’s not staring, thought Vale. When was the last time I met anyone who didn’t stare?

  The other guy, however, didn’t look pleased. “I’m Dynk,” was all he said. Up close, he was tall and muscular with cropped, blond hair and kind of an ugly face.

  “Thank you,” Vale said again.

  “We don’t have all day,” said Nocturna to Guown.

  The big man nodded and faced Vale. “I know your life’s turned upside-down, lad, but come with me and we might find a way to make it all worth it. Your brother has to be stopped. I respect you for trying your way, but you know now it’ll never work. If you still want to change the world, now you’ll have to do it from outside the Dominion. Come with us.”

  Dynk muttered something.

  Vale looked around at the group but didn’t let himself inspect their thoughts. He was quite sure most of them didn’t like him. Dynk was obvious. Evant he wasn’t sure. Nocturna still looked like she thought he was a spoiled idiot. Tat seemed nice, but…

  “Beathabane?” Guown squeezed his shoulder. “We have to go, lad. I’m sorry, but decide now if-”

  “Okay. I’ll come with you.” The words were out before Vale realized he’d made up his mind. But he felt right about it immediately.

  Guown slapped Vale on the arm. “Good. Good.” He looked at Evant. “Let’s get to the truck. Babbitt?”

  They all grew silent, and Vale was about to ask what was up when Guown touched his ear and said, “Copy. We’ll be there in five.”

  The whole group took this cue and returned to the door.

  Vale nervously stepped beside Nocturna. “Babbitt?”

  “He’s our tech expert. He’s monitoring Dominion movements from our truck.” She forced a smile. “Hi, by the way.”

  Dynk rolled his eyes. “Flirt with the tyrant twin later, Nocturna. Let’s go.” He pushed past them to the door.

  Nocturna’s eyes narrowed at the back of Dynk’s head, but she didn’t say anything and followed after her group, Vale in tow.

  What am I getting myself into? he thought.

  A few hours later, he walked with Guown on a tour of their hideout. They were in a suburb of Madrid, for Guown explained that most rebels had to stay close to the metropolises in order to stay within range of supplies. Their hideout was in the sublevel of a luxury vehicle dealership, the owner of which had rebel sympathies.

  “We divided the basement so there’s a private section for the girls,” Guown was saying as he walked down the hall made of scrap metal. He tapped a sliding door, which was painted pink to make things clear.

  Vale looked across the wide, makeshift hall and saw a blue door of matching scrap metal on the other side. “Boys’ quarters?” he asked.

  “Yes.” Guown’s deep voice echoed off the metal, and his boots tapped on the concrete floor.

  The sublevel was basically a big, empty basement divided into sections by salvaged junk.

  But it is big, thought Vale. It’s impressive that they’ve managed to cobble together. …And it’s admirable how many kids they’ve saved.

  He’d learned that Guown’s former partner – dead now – had gathered about twenty ex-Dominion Youth and hidden them here. Some, like Tat, had pure genes and so had been kicked out of the Youth program when their instructors found them lacking any mutate-genetic abilities. Some, like Evant, had defected during their final stages of training because they’d refused to advance in the Dominion system. Others, like Nocturna, had been rescued when they’d wanted out but couldn’t escape otherwise. Dynk had been badly injured during an assignment and left for dead in the field. That had changed his loyalties somewhat.

  “And here’s what little tech we’ve acquired,” said Guown.

  They entered a kind of cubicle room made of standing shelves and wrapped wires. Electronic devices Vale didn’t recognize covered the shelves, and various lights and beeping sounds drew his attention this way and that. On the far wall hung ten screens with video surveillance or newsfeeds shining light into the room.

  Babbitt, whom Vale had met earlier, turned from his seat under the screens. He removed his gigantic goggles – the use for which Vale had yet to hear – and blinked at Guown. “Oh, hey. Nothing new to report, boss.”

  Guown grunted acknowledgement and told Vale, “We’ve been monitoring leads from Dominion informants. I know this is hard to hear, but your brother really is planning to make the Dominion a worse tyranny than ever before. We’re working on ways to stop him.”

  Vale read one of the rebel’s hacked newsfeeds. “New Dominion DRK lab to open in Berlin.”

  Oh, Cruelthor, he thought. What are you doing?

  He looked at Guown. “What do you think I can do? I thought you wanted me to overthrow my brother, but that’s not going to happen now.” He pointed at his itching tattoo.

  “That was more Nocturna’s idea. But now, I think you can help us in other ways.”

  “Like what?”

  Guown looked back at him with a sympathetic frown. “We’ll talk about that later. You need rest. And I’m guessing something to eat?”

  Exhausted, Vale nodded. Then one of the videos onscreen caught his eye. It was surveillance of Copenhagen. In fact, it showed the exterior of the very mansion Vale had grown up in.

  “What-”

  “Shit.” Guown stepped to deactivate that screen. He looked back at Vale. “You weren’t supposed to see that.”

  “Why are you watching our old house?” Then he saw a flash of Guown’s mind. “You think my mom and sister might go there?”

  Guown held up a hand. “Don’t get too excited. There hasn’t been any sign of them. I just thought it might be a good idea to keep an eye out for them. I know it’s important to you.”

  “Hell, yes, it’s important!” Vale yelled in tired frustration. “We should go there now and-”

  “It’s too dangerous, lad. I can’t let you go off and-”

  “Let me? Let me?” Vale demanded. He felt his pulse quicken. “Am I your prisoner now?”

  “No, I never meant-”

  “Or am I your prize now? Is that it? You want to show me off so people join your rebel group?”

  Guown paused and wiped his face with a hand. “You’re tired. You have every right to be punchy. We’ll talk in the morning. Just promise me you’ll get some rest and not do anything stupid until we talk, okay?”

  Vale crossed his arms and tried to make himself calm down.

  I’m freaking out and acting like a brat, he thought. I’ve lost everything. I’m… I’m so tired.

  He nodded at Guown and turned to walk back to the boys’ section of the hideout.

  I have nothing, he thought. I’m exiled. Branded. Forced to live in hiding with rebels. Maybe I can find
a way to do some good in this world, but… But my mother and little sister are out there somewhere. They’re all I have left, really. And if Mom is hiding from the Dominion even now that Dad’s dead, that must mean she knows the truth about Cruelthor. We can’t let Cruelthor get my sister – she needs to be free so she can grow up good, knowing the truth about everything. If I can find Mom…

  He crossed paths with a rebel teen and looked down to avoid the usual stare.

  Okay, the world is a mess, he thought. I might be able to work with Guown to make some things right. But I have to find my family first.

  Making up his mind, Vale turned into the boys’ quarters for some quick sleep.

  5

  Copenhagen

  The train slid into the station, and Vale adjusted his coat’s hood to better shadow his face. The passengers around him jostled as they pressed to the opening doors, and Vale kept his head down as he joined in the mass exodus.

  The smells of the city met him first – wet pavement, cold pedestrians, the fish market up the street, and the faint bite of salty sea. He breathed in with a smile and walked with the crowd out the gate of the train station.

  This was as close to a sense of home as he’d felt in a long time.

  Exhaled clouds shot out from his mouth like dragon’s breath as he jogged and watched the cobblestones of his path. He didn’t dare make eye contact with anyone, and he avoided the shopping district in favor of the less populated sidewalk that ran to the shoreline. His eyes ached to look around his childhood home, but he continued with his head down. The sidewalk led into the residential district, and soon it reached the shore and ran along the concrete seawall.

  Finally, Vale stopped and looked inland. There stood an open, snow-dusted park, flanked on either side by rows of tightly packed houses.

  His hood secure, he dared now to look around. The houses in this neighborhood displayed beautiful feats of architecture. The sidewalk Vale had taken from the train station stretched back up into town, and everything there looked much like he remembered. Trimmed trees marked off every twenty meters of sidewalk. Light snow covered the tops of the densely packed shops. Pedestrians strolled casually, and some climbed into luxury vehicles parked on the rail system running through the streets. On the far side of the city, skyscrapers rose with glass windows that sparkled sunlight back onto the smaller buildings below. The Dominion MediTech building was the most impressive of all.

  Vale knew his history. Copenhagen had once held the world’s leading medical research companies. When the Euro Civil War had erupted in the wake of the DRK outbreak, many nations’ top scientists had fled here to work on a cure. War and infection had struck even here, but the original Olander had found the DRK treatment in these very MediTech facilities. Copenhagen had, therefore, become the sole hope for the rest of the planet. Nations had flooded the city with whatever resources the original Olander required, and Copenhagen then became the first city restored from the war’s devastation. The Dominion leaders had, therefore, always held a soft spot for Copenhagen, and it was their trophy on the Mainland-Euro.

  The Dominion likes trophies, thought Vale. Was that what my mother was to my father? He brought her here from the Kota clan in the north. She was like the lovely princess of some fairy tale – at least that’s how I always saw her. I think that’s what Dad expected her to be too. …I can’t really blame her for leaving him.

  Continuing down the sidewalk, Vale knew with every step he took that this was a bad idea. But he couldn’t help it.

  If I couldn’t find Mom on the Continent, he thought, maybe that’s because she came here. I just need to find some clue.

  As he rounded a bend, the Dominion mansion came into view. This too, looked as it had in his childhood. He’d been born here. He’d first had Guown as a teacher here. He’d spent happy days with his mother, brother, and even his father here. It wasn’t until they’d left Copenhagen that everything fell apart.

  As he neared the impressive, sprawling building of stone and glass, however, Vale sensed danger. A moment later, a Dominion patrol vehicle swung up the street and sped straight toward him. An alarm went off from the security gate of the mansion itself, and a soldier stepped from the security station and started running at him too. Then three more soldiers burst through the main doors of the mansion.

  Vale turned and ran. He sped up a side street but heard the patrol vehicle following. The cold air burned his throat as he ran on and on through the snowy streets. He knew these streets well, but…

  I have nowhere to go, he realized.

  Crossing into the shopping district, he nearly ran into a woman carrying groceries. He didn’t wait to see her shocked face before he sprinted down the sidewalk. There were too many people, however. All eyes that met his widened in recognition, and a few people started shouting and pointing. He crossed the street in front of a speeding luxury cruiser, and the sensors detected him just in time to slam the brakes. He glanced inside to see the surprise of the passengers, but he slid around the cruiser and hopped onto the far sidewalk to continue his flight.

  A man here cut him off and shoved Vale against a parked car. “Hey!” the man yelled, presumably to catch the attention of any patrols nearby. “Beathabane is right here! He’s right here!”

  Before the man could react, Vale’s adrenaline gave him the strength to push the man away. The man lost his balance and fell into an outdoor café chair, and Vale turned to continue his run up the street.

  “Stop right there!” a mechanical patrol machine ordered from somewhere behind.

  Shit, thought Vale. Those things are fast and can fly! It’ll track me and alert more soldiers of my location!

  He looked back in his run and saw the flying machine speeding after him over the excited crowds on the sideway.

  Wait, he realized as he looked down at his bandaged hand. Scanners can’t detect me now that they cut the ID tag out. Ha – I don’t have access to my accounts, fine! At least I’m not trackable! If I can get out of this thing’s sights…

  Suddenly, before he could formulate a plan, an arm reached out from a doorway, grabbed the front of his coat, and yanked him inside. The momentum shift nearly made him slam into the door, but he was pulled into the building and steadied on his feet. The door closed, and the man in the shadows let him go. Then someone activated a light stick.

  Vale squinted against the sudden burst of light. He stood in some kind of clothing store. Curtains were pulled over the windows. The green glow of the light stick illuminated a group dressed in civilian clothes, but Vale sensed their thoughts and recognized them immediately.

  “Boy, what were you thinking?” Guown barked at him. He loosened a scarf around his neck before taking off gloves and slapping them down on a table of shirts. “Of all the places to hide, you picked your old house?”

  Vale knew it had been stupid. He didn’t appreciate being made to feel a fool in front of so many peers staring at him, though.

  Nocturna frowned at Vale but looked up at Guown. “Go easy on him. We never would’ve found him if he didn’t come here.”

  Guown was having none of it. “I taught you brats myself – did you learn nothing? I swear…”

  “Thank the gods he’s okay,” Guown was thinking. “I’d hug the lad, but…”

  Dynk was positioned beside a curtained window, peeking out. “Shit, incoming!”

  Before any of them could move, gunfire shot out the glass window. Everyone ducked for cover. Tat screamed, and Dynk fired back with a weapon he’d pulled from his coat. Nocturna crouched with Vale behind a shelf of pants, and cloth flew through the air as shots sprayed into the store.

  “Head for the back exit!” Evant was yelling from behind them somewhere.

  More gunshots echoed around the store as Guown and Dynk continued to fire from positions on either side of the room. Then the door exploded inward as soldiers broke it down with some weapon Vale couldn’t see. Guown fired back, and a drone soldier fell dead in the doorway, clogging i
t momentarily from others behind.

  “Noc, get him out of here!” Guown knelt behind an upturned table and fired at the soldiers taking cover around the exterior of the doorway.

  Nocturna grabbed Vale by the arm and pulled him to crouch-walk back farther into the store. “Keep down!” she yelled.

  Vale hurried after her and looked back to see Dynk and Guown firing and standing to run toward the same back exit.

  “We have to get to-” Guown was cut off as a spray of bullets tore apart the table beside him.

  Vale watched like it was happening in slow motion. The shots’ trajectory cut across Guown’s path and finally caught the big man as he ran. Guown’s whole body lurched to the side, and sprays of blood shot from his chest. He slumped into a shelf and looked right at Vale. Then one last bullet connected with his chest.

  “No!” Vale screamed.

  But they’d reached the back exit, and Nocturna pulled him to the door just as Dynk slid across the floor to avoid more gunfire. Together they scrambled out the door into an alleyway. Vale tried to wrestle off Nocturna and run back inside, and that’s when Dynk hit him in the head with the butt of his gun.

  Everything went black, and Vale slumped into Dynk’s arms.

  6

  Melonia

  When he woke, he didn’t even ask if Guown was dead. The tears in her eyes and the tears on her cheeks told him.

  “Where are we now?” he asked instead. He sat up on the cot and looked around.

  The bedroom was old, but functional. Nocturna sat on a chair by his cot. Partially open blinds clacked against the window frame as a breeze blew in from the night.

  “Does it matter?” she finally answered with a sigh.

  He watched as she wiped her face with the back of her sleeve. She looked tired and sad, which he’d expected.

  “It’s my fault.”

  “Yes.”

  He winced. He’d expected her to be a little gentler.