In the Shadow of the Rings by Frank Kennedy (grave mercy .txt) 📕

ed before stepping off the boats.

Quick and clean. If Kai was ambitious, they might redirect the boats before Shin Wain and his team arrived.

“Al in,” Ryl en whispered, the go-order indicating every target was accounted for.

“Take them soft,” Kai responded, giving the order to use Goodboys instead of the high-powered blast rifles. With their targets clustered and defenseless, they were easy marks. The suppressors on the Goodboys were perfect for silent executions.

Ryllen advanced one step and saw an inconsistency. How did he miss it the first time?

The immo shirts were black. Yes. But something was off. They weren’t fabric. No wrinkles, no bends.

Metal.

Armor. They’re wearing armor.

How did he miss it?

Ryllen hesitated, perhaps no more than a second, but his paralysis lasted long enough.

“I …” He shouted, too late.

The couriers and their twelve passengers rose as one to reveal night-vision bands and long guns.

Modified blast rifles.

They opened fire.

The cavern shouted in a blaze of chaos and malevolence as flash pegs hit their targets with brutal efficiency.

Ryllen saw two of his brothers fal in the same instant a flash peg bore a hole through his gut. A second tiny missile shattered his left collarbone and exploded inside his chest.

He fired the Goodboy without aim, his mind awash in the shock of the incomprehensible. Ryllen staggered to the edge of the rock face.

He was feather light. Al he needed were wings.

Was this how his victims felt in the instant before Ryllen delivered the fatal peg? Was it better to go out this way – sudden, violent,

deserved – than to suffer the long, slow misery of natural death?

Two more flash pegs caught him beneath the ribs.

Before his eyes closed, Ryllen saw the rocks beneath rise up.

Silence.

Neither whisper nor heartbeat.

Equilibrium.

And yet, something cal ing him back.

No. Someone.

And then, excruciating pain. He was helpless and anguished.

“Fire is an appealing idea.”

The voice was male; calm and deliberate enough to be his father.

“But no. Their faces need to be seen. Natural poses.”

Nearby footsteps. A different voice. Female.

“Direct to the IntraNex, sir?”

“No. Leave it to the Constabulary. If they haven’t released bytes after two days, we wil .”

Pain was stil horrific, his body wracked by convulsions. But now, his eyes opened. He saw feet nearby. Spotlights flashing. His skul was cracked, but Ryllen looked up. His night-vision band stil worked.

The face was familiar. Mustachioed, elegant man. The target.

Shin Wain.

You did this.

Ryllen’s anger surged, though he could not feel his limbs.

Kai?

Shin Wain pivoted and looked down with surprise. He focused a pen-sized spotlight, which blinded Ryllen.

“Oh, dear. A live one.”

He turned to the woman and asked for a gun then swung around and aimed.

“I admire your goals,” he said, “but you’ve gone about it al wrong.

The Lagos is changing, and you misguided bastards are in the way.

Goodbye.”

Ryllen saw a flash. A hot bolt dril ed a hole in his skul .

Silence.

Neither whisper nor heartbeat.

Equilibrium.

Equilibrium.

The dark without stars.

…

…

The next time Ryl en woke, he heard nothing but ocean waves pounding against the rocks. He hurt al over, but this time he felt his limbs. His night-vision band stil functioned.

He lifted his head and pushed off against a slick surface. He looked down and saw a puddle. The right side of his skul was wet, so he ran his hands through his braids. This was not water. This was … No. Wait. They wore armor and they …

Al of it returned in a spontaneous flashback, including the pain every time a flash peg exploded inside him.

It was a setup. We walked into a trap. We … Kai?

He stammered to his feet and scanned the cavern. The swift boats were gone.

Ryllen knew what he’d find. He saw the first bodies in seconds.

He made his way around the perimeter, stopping for fits of dizziness.

Ryllen didn’t want to see. Better to run while he had the chance.

But there was only one way out, and he remembered who was stationed closest to the exit.

He found Kai limp against a limestone facing, his body shattered by a barrage of flash pegs, his blood savagely painted on the rock like poor graffiti. Kai stared into the abyss, his green hair covering half his face, matted in blood.

What to say? What to do? What to feel? Ryllen didn’t want to leave him like this, but what choice did he have?

“I’m sorry, Kai. I wasn’t fast enough. I’m sorry.”

Ryllen kissed the man who brought him into Green Sun with the promise of a renewed sense of purpose. “The way without judgment,” Kai cal ed it. Ryllen remembered their last conversation on the beach at Barrio Island.

“You were right, Kai. A man has to stand for something.”

He stumbled into the night. The botanical gardens were as quiet as when they arrived, although Ryllen had no concept of time’s passage. The scenery was familiar, yet somehow different. Alien.

Askew.

Enough pieces of his memory returned to guide Ryllen to his rifter, which remained hidden beneath the bul abast tree. He jumped inside and grabbed the steering arms. This was the side where Kai sat.

Ryllen threw off his night-vision band and looked at his hands. Now his jacket. His shirt. His pants.

Blood. My blood.

He hadn’t given himself the chance to think of the impossible until now. The flash pegs tore his body apart, dug into his brain.

They kil ed me.

The sobs arrived in uncontrollable waves.

For Kai.