The Gang of Legend by Robert J Crane

Author:Robert J Crane [Crane, Robert J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ostiagard Press
Published: 2018-12-17T22:00:00+00:00

15

“You failed me, Mira Brand,” said Tyran Burnton. “I sought you out, invited you along to a quest that, may I remind you, I had no need to invite you on—and you failed me, at the very first hurdle.”

We were in the medical bay. Wembley was gone now. Manny wasn’t yet awake—there hadn’t been much change in him, said Fiennes, although he’d hooked my brother up to a drip and a monitor that displayed his slow but steady heartbeat, as well as … some other vital sign. Fiennes explained it, but it sounded all a bit mumbo-jumbo, like a weird ‘life-force’ kind of thing. Whatever it was, it at the very least looked steady, cycling up and down in a sedate sine wave on the screen. So that was good.

Burnton had been stabbed through the palm. Luckily, the blade had sailed through a gap between bones, which was fortunate—he possessed a fair range of motion still, although he winced as he flexed. He’d been rather stoic about the whole thing, despite the pain as Fiennes bandaged him up—he grunted breaths, gritting his teeth.

Now he’d shooed Fiennes away—and spoken to us for the first time, properly that was; we’d had a short interaction when he clambered awkwardly back down the Apex and instructed us to return to the Velocity. Those were the only words he’d had for us though. Likewise, the ant people received nothing from him—he pursed his lips at their cries of praise, and passed through the gateway to the Velocity’s deck in silence.

He looked at me expectantly.

“Well? Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Well, go on then.”

“First of all—” I counted this off with a finger “—you didn’t seek me. You thought about seeking me, and the Antecessors gave you a quick window to come find me—very likely because Preston Borrick is apparently on this quest, and for the purposes of their entertainment, it was important to get you to me and this whole thing moving just as quickly as was possible. So: you didn’t lift a finger to find me.”

“I destroyed the metal beast preparing to assault you,” said Tyran hotly.

“Yes, you did. And I thank you for that. But that’s outside of the realm of what you said.

“Second—” another finger “—I am not your lackey. I don’t jump when you clap. It’s you who wants to go on this quest, you who’s after the latest carrot-on-a-stick the Antecessors are dangling. I’ve made my view perfectly clear—as have they. The trinkets are pointless, and I ascribe no value to them. I’m here simply because I will need to be when it comes to the final prize, the Phoenix Flames.

“And third—lives are important—real lives. Preston blew the dam. He endangered the lives of countless people in that world. If we—” I pointed between the rest of us “—hadn’t acted, countless of those people might have died.”

“They would have been fine,” said Tyran coldly.

“Carson pulled out over two dozen cars, and I don’t know how many houses the floodwaters had torn out of the hillside.

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